Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

while and talked with his companions that had waited HIS LAST upon him thither; and he said, This River, WORDS. has been a terror to many; yea, the thoughts of it also have often frighted me; but now methinks I stand easy, my foot is fixed upon that on which the feet of the priests that bare the Ark of the Covenant stood, while Israel went over this Jordan. The waters indeed are to the palate bitter, and to the stomach cold; yet the thoughts of what I am going to, and of the conduct that waits for me on the other side, doth lie as a glowing coal at my heart. I see myself now at the end of my journey; my toilsome days are ended. I am going to see that Head that was crowned with thorns, and that face that was spit upon, for me. I have formerly lived by hearsay and faith; but now I go where I shall live by sight, and shall be with Him in whose company I delight myself. I have loved to hear my Lord spoken of; and wherever I have seen the print of his shoe in the earth, there I have coveted to set my foot too. His name has been to me as a civet-box; yea, sweeter than all perfumes. His voice to me has been most sweet, and his countenance I have more desired than they that have most desired the light of the sun. His words I did use to gather for my food, and for antidotes against my faintings. He has held me, and hath kept me from mine iniquities; yea, my steps hath he strengthened in his way. Now, while he was thus in discourse, his countenance changed; his strong man bowed under him; and after he had said, "Take me, for I come unto thee," he ceased to be seen of them.

9 Josh. iii. 17.

[merged small][merged small][graphic]
[ocr errors]

But glorious it was to see how the open region was filled with horses and chariots, with trumpeters and pipers, with singers and players upon stringed instruments, to welcome the Pilgrims as they went up, and followed one another in at the Beautiful Gate of the City!

As for Christiana's children, the four boys that Christiana brought with her, with their wives and children, I did not stay where I was till they were gone over. Also, since I came away, I heard one say that they were yet alive, and so would be, for the increase of the Church in that place where they were, for a time. Should it be my lot to go that way again, I give those that desire it an account of what I here am silent about. Meantime I bid my reader

may

PRINTED BY

WILLIAM NICOL, CLEVELAND-ROW, ST. JAMES'S.

ADIEU.

[graphic]
« ForrigeFortsett »