SIR, THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT To the Editor of the Evangelical Magazine. Some Months ago, you were pleased to insert a short Account of a worthy Ancestor of mine. I have lately met with a larger Account of him; to which is annexed, his Last Will and Testament, which I have transcribed and sent to you: it is in his own words. If you will be so good as to admit it in a corner of your Magazine, you will oblige your affectionate Friend, Palace Street, Pimlico. J. DUNCAN. I ANDREW DUNCAN, a sinful wight, Christ's unworthy minister in his glorious gospel, being sickly and weak, worn with years and heaviness of heart in the pilgrimage, and being now weary of this loathsome prison and body of death, because of sin, and having received sundry advertisements and summonses of my Master to flit off this uncouth country, the region of death, home to my native land, I am now sitting upon the prison-door threshold ready to obey; waiting until the messenger be sent to convey me home to that glorious place, even the Heavenly Jerusalem, that I may enter into possession of my heritage, even that glorious kingdom of eternity which Christ came down from Heaven to secure for ine,-and then went up to prepare and possess it in my name, as my attorney, until it pleased his Majesty to take me thither, that I may, in my own person, possess it with him. I set down this declaration of my latter Will concerning these things which God hath lent me, in this manner following: 1st, As touching myself, body and soul. My soul I leave to Christ Jesus, who gave it, and when it was lost, redeemed it, that he may send, his holy angels to transport it to the bosom of Abraham; there to enjoy all happiness and contentment. As to this frail body, I commend it to the grave; there to sleep and rest as a sweet bed, until the day of refreshment; when it shall be reunited to the soul, and shall be set down at the table with the holy patriarchs, prophets, and aposties; yea, shall be placed on the throne with Christ, and get the, crown of glory on my head. As for the children whom God hath given me (for which I thank his Majesty) I leave them to his providence, to be be governed and cared for by hin; beseeching him to be the tutor, curature, and agent in all their ways; yea, and a Father; and that he would lead them, by his gracious Spirit, through this evil world, that they be profitable instruments, both in the kirk and commonwealth, to set out his glory; beseeching them, on the other part (as they would have God's blessing and mine on all their affairs) to set him before their eyes, and to walk in his ways, Hiving peaceably in his fear, in all bumility and meekness, with all those they would have to do with, holding their course to Heaven, and comforting themselves with the rious and fair-to-look-on heritage which Christ hath consigned to them, and to all that love him. Under God, I leave Mr. John Duncan, my eldest son, to be tutor to my youngest daughter, Bessie Duncan, his youngest sister; to take care of her, and to see that all Busns go right, touching her person and gear *. My exccutors I leave my three sons, Mr John, William, and David Duncan, to do my turn after me, and to put in practice my directions; requesting them to be good and comfortable to their sisters, but chiefly to the two that are at home, as they would have God's blessing and mine. As concerning my temporal goods, the baggage and stuff of the earth,-as I have gotten them in the world of God's liberal hand, so I leave them behind me in the world; giving most humble and hearty thanks unto my Heavenly Father for so long and comfortable a loan of the same. Now farewell sinful world,and all that is in thee! Farewell, dear Wife, blessed partner of all my weals and woes, many years, in my dreary pilgrimage! Farewell, dear children, now no longer mine; for I have in faith, turned you all over to the unerring care of Him that gave you to me, in hopes of meeting you in my prepared habitation above. Farewell Sabbaths, pulpit, and pulpit-work; my delight, my joy, my soul's comfoit! Farewell church, and all spiritual friends, till I meet you at my home in glory! Yours, in my dear Master, ALEX. DUNCAN. Samuel Rutherford, 1 Witnesses, this 14th day of April, Robert Cummingham, 5 1026. His dear relations and brethren in the ministry and persecution for Christ's sake. * Goods. ON ON HOPE. HOP OPE is the grand stimulus to all the actions and pursuits of men of every description. The Man of the World, in the prosecution of all his schemes, hopes to gain by them, or he would not engage therein. The Man of Pleasure hopes to gratify his sensual appetites, or tre would not follow Pleasure. In short, men engage in nothing without a hope that they shall, one day or other, reap some benefit from their pursuits. -- Hope comprizes three ideas, Desire, Expectation, and Patience. That we cannot be said to hope for any thing, unless we have some desire for it, is self-evident: nor can we hope for any object without some expectation to possess it. Hence we say, when disappointed, we have lost our hope. Neither can we hope for any thing without patience *. If we enjoy an object, we cannot be said to hope for it, because we already possess it. We cannot suppose, that as soon as we desire or expect any thing, we shall possess it immediaiely; but we must wait paticutly for it, before hope be turned into enjoyment. All the objects that men of the world fix their hopes upon, will finally disappoint them; because they are in themselves unsatisfying. The sordid worldling, in the schemes he has laid, seldom attains the object of his wishes; and if he does, he does not find the happiness he proposed to himself in the possession of it. The lover and pursuer of pleasure is likewise disappointed and unsatisfied: there is a something in all his sweets that leaves behind a bitter. But the hope of a true Christian is a soul-satisfying hope; it inspires the possessor of it with holy desires, cheering expectations, and submissive patience. The object of a Christian's hope is Jesus Christ; through and by him he hopes for a public acquittance at the bar of God, and to enjoy a perfect state of felicity hereafter. The nature of a Christian's hope is lively and durable; it lives in death; it introduces into his soul, as its inseparable companion, a fortitude becoming the character he sustains under all the trials of life; it animates him with a vigour and cheerfulness of mind under every affliction; and enables him to be still pressing forward in his course, • Rom. viii. 25. notwith notwithstanding every difficulty, till at last he gains the summit of all his hopes and wishes, in sitting down with Christ in that kingdom which is incorruptible, undefited, and that fadeth not away. STIA. ON SLEEPING IN TIME OF WORSHIP. DEAR SIR, To the Editor. I THINK I recollect reading in your Magazine, some ob servations on the various troubles of God's ministers; and, among the rest, instancing that of their hearers sleeping in the house of God during divine worship. This is certainly a very great grief to their minds; nor can I help suspecting, that many, who are notoriously culpable in this view, are ready to think this is, at most, only a human infirmity, and by no means so sinful in the sight of God as it certainly is. I am led to this train of thought, by observing, that some such persons are very sharp in reproving sin in others, as if they thought themselves very cir cumspect in their walk, when a great part of their time in the house of God is shamefully slumbered away, Sabbath after Sabbath; though, perhaps, in other respects, their conduct may be ornamental to their profession. sent, Allowance, undoubtedly, should be made, in some cases, for bodily disease; but let it be remembered, where the practice is indulged, that it is at least an undesigned insult to the Majesty of Heaven, to the elect angels preto the minister whom they attend, and to the wakeful part of the congregation. It is also a ground of triumph to those wicked spirits who are figuratively compared to the fowls of the air, and who are watching to steal the good seed that may be sown; and, strange to think, as if the sermon operated as a composing-draught ! I have often observed, the moment the discourse has been ended, the sleepers have awoke, and become all attention. If you, Sir, should see the propriety of inserting these hints, perhaps, it may please the God of all grace so to affect the minds of some drowsy hearers, that they may consider and amend their ways. PHILOLOGUS. T THE PEELED BOUGH. To the Editor of the Evangelical Magazine. SIR, My Fruitful Bough has passed under more than an autumnal change since my last communication. "The summer is over and gone;" and my once flourishing Bough is lamenting, "I am made white, I am peeled, I have no fruit, or blossom, or bud, or bark,” yet Wooburn, Bucks. UNCONSUMED. HE hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig-tree; he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white *." This is a figurative representation of the afflicted state of the Jewish church; and inay serve to exemplify the experience of tried Christians. The engrafted brand became a fruitful bough; but now it bewails its peeled condition. There are seasons when believers have an affecting sense of their own emptiness, poverty, and inability. It is needful that they should feel that they are nothing, have nothing, deserve nothing, and that they can do nothing, but only as they are in, and aided by the Lord Jesus Christ. These feelings endear the Saviour to them. Some of the most advanced in grace have been sadly peeled and left bare, according to their own account of themselves. It is truly an affliction to a sincere mind to feel its fruitless state. One of the holy prophets, when he heard the songs and high praises of others, "Glory to the righteous," himself exclaimed, "My leanness, my leanness!" Another laments, "Wo is me, for I am as when they have gathered the summer-fruits, as the grape-gleanings of the vintage. There is no cluster to eat. My soul desired the first ripe fruit +." But, alas! it fails. "When I would do good, evil is present; and when I expect comfort, it is afar off. O wretched man that I am!" is often the ery of those who are taught the truth as it is in Jesus. -Seek, expect, and find all you want in the fulness of him who filleth all in all. Self-dependence is a great prevention to a flourishing condition. The withdrawn branch cannot receive the sap from the root; the communications cease, comforts decline, graces wither and decay. An independent branch will be only fit for fuel §-Indulgence of sin will hinder our * Joel i. 7. † Micah vii. 1. ↑ Rom.vii. 21, 22. § John xv.6. 4 B advance |