A SERMON Preached at St. Olave Southwark, September the 8th, 1700. Occasioned by the Recantation of Dr. Joh. Spire, lately a Quaker; Which said Recantation is added at the end.  
By JOHN HASLEWOOD, D. D. Rector of St. Olave Southwark.  
Published at the Request of the Persons concerned, and several others of that Parish.  
LONDON, Printed for Abel Roper at the Black Boy in Fleetstreet over against St. Dunstans-Church, 1700.   

TO THE READER.  
IT is not a trifling desire of appearing in Print (to which possibly I have as great an averseness as any one can conclude from what he shall here read, I ought to have) that hath prevailed upon me to publish this following Discourse, which labours under a double disadvantage of being composed in haste, and upon a Text chosen for me, by him at whose Request it was Preached, but a sincere endeavour to inform some mistaken honest People of the dangerousness of those Principles, which are here laid open, that they may leave them; and to establish others who have already left them; to both which purposes, some who heard it, have been so favourable as to think it may be useful. But whether it will or no, I must leave to your judgements. However such as it is, I offer it up to you, hoping that if it fall short of other People's expectations, it may reach my own design, which was to be as helpful as I could to any that should need such assistance. And if by that means I can contribute in the least to the advancement of God's Glory, it is no matter for my own.   
Isaiah 55.3. 
Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your Soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.  
THis Chapter is made up of Precepts and Promises, for in it God not only makes his will known, and declares after what manner he will have Men to address themselves to him; but encourageth them to Obedience by the assurance of a Reward, which though in the Letter it be carnal, yet in its true meaning is spiritual; for though God promiseth his People, that upon the forsaking of Idols, he would bring them out of Babylon, and make them as successful as they had been unfortunate; that there should be such a change in the face of their Affairs, as should affect even Nature herself, and make an alteration in her; for in the two last Verses it is said, Ye shall go out with joy, and be lead forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands, instead of the thorn shall come up the firr-tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle-tree. Notwithstanding these expressions, which relish only of temporal satisfactions, we are to conceive that such Blessings are signified by them, as are too high to stoop to sense; and a Redemption from Babylonian Bondage did intimate a much more glorious deliverance from the captivity of Sin, and the power of Hell. So by the Waters in the first Verse, we are to understand the Grace of God, and the thirsty are those who have a lively sense of the want of it, and an eager desire of a supply; who have all the violent cravings after God and Goodness, which that appetite is wont to produce towards its proper object; and when they that have no Money are called upon to buy and eat, the meaning is that they who could not gain this good of themselves, might have it gratis; for it would be no chargeable thing to them to learn true Doctrine, which is oftentimes compared to Meat and Drink, because it feeds and nourisheth the Soul; so Jer. 15.16. Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; and Prov. 9.5. Come eat of my bread, saith Wisdom, and drink of the Wine, which I have mingled; and in my Text God inculcates the same thing, which he had urged in the first Verse, and exhorts poor Sinners to embrace Christ by a true and lively Faith, together with those unspeakable precious Benefits which are tendered in him; and for the exciting them to a diligent attention and careful obedience to his heavenly Instruction, he promiseth to make with them an everlasting Covenant, not like that which he had made with the Jews, which was to endure for a while, and then be abrogated, but such an one as should outlast time itself, even the sure mercies of David, i.e. that Mercy which God had promised to David, that he would give him a Son, who should Reign over his Church and People for ever; which Promise was to be fully completed in Christ, who, though he were crucified, yet should he be raised again, never to die any more; for of his Life and Dorninion there should be no end; and for this Exposition I have St. Paul's Authority, who quotes this very Passage for a Proof of Christ's Resurrection, at Acts 13.34. And as concerning that be raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David. And if Christ, who is the Head of the Body, the Church, be the firstborn from the dead; we also, who are his Members, if we walk in newness of life, shall rise after him to a glorious and immutable State. But every Man in his own order, Christ the first-fruits, and after they that are Christ at his coming. The Words thus explained contain in them these two parts.  

1. A Precept, or if you please you may call it a gracious Invitation to Mercy, Incline your ear, and come unto me.  
2. An Encouragement to observe the Precept, or to accept of the Invitation, in these words, and your Soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David, i. e. Those who served God faithfully, should be made partakers of a joyful Resurrection. And,   
1. Of the Precept, or Invitation, Come unto me, and here there will be nothing else needful then to inquire how we are to come to God, which we must do two ways.  

1. By Faith.  
2. By Repentance.   
1. We must come to God by Faith, i. e. We must believe all those Truths which he hath revealed in Scripture, more especially that grant fundamental point of belief which is a Crucified Saviour. And this was that Article upon which St. Paul rested, as he told the Church of Corinth, I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified; and upon this Confession did our Saviour build his Church, viz. upon St. Peter's Creed, which was no more than this, We are sure that thou art Christ, the Son of the living God. And for the sake of this Article, were the four Gospels given us. For all these things are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And if the Evangelists be found to be false Witnesses, it will be as impossible to support the veracity and credit of the other Writers of the New Testament, as it is to keep up a Superstructure, after the Foundation is taken away. And the Scripture not only bears Testimony to the Article itself, but to all them that acknowledge it. For every Spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh, is of God, saith St. John; and whosoever confesseth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God, 1 John, 4.2, 15. And then, as for them, who set their faces against him, who is declared to be the power and wisdom of God, and tell us only of a Christ within; we may very well allow them to have the Spirit, but it is only that of lying. But I would demand of these Men, whether or no the Christ within was crucified, dead and buried at Jerusalem, and risen again the third day? Whether he was afterwards seen by hundreds of People, and did eat with the Apostles, and convinced them that what they saw was a real Body by showing them his Hands and Feet? All which are expressly affirmed of our Saviour; and therefore nothing but an infinite clemency could make him still endure such contradiction of Sinners against himself. And yet it is the most common practise imaginable of Quakers to contemn and revile all those who speak to them of the coming of that just one, of whom the Jews were the betrayers and the murderers, Acts, 7.52. Nay some of them have been so prodigiously audacious, as to bespatter him with such foul and contemptuous expressions, as I am afraid to utter, and cannot think of, without extreme horror and amazement. 
* What I here allude to, may be seen in the Snake in the Grass, Vol. 1. Pag. 78. The Author of which Book 1 know to be a Person of too great sincerity, to affirm any thing positively, which he is not sure of. But if he hath accused them wrongfully, it is somewhat strange that they should not call him to account for it: I suppose their fondness of him is no inducement to conceal such a failing.  And then wherewithal shall they be cleansed, who thus despise that Blood, which alone can purify them from their Sins? What Laver will be sufficient to wash away this deep stain of Infidelity? But Lord! Though they thus blaspheme the Name of thy Dear Son, grant that we may earnestly beg, and effectually obtain the Benefits of his Passion, and turn that Curse of the Jews upon themselves into a Blessing upon us, and let his Blood be upon us, and our Children, for our good. But can Faith alone save us? Will it be enough to fix our eye upon God? No my Text requireth us to Incline our ear to him, to fulfil his holy Will and Commandments, or with a truly humble and contrite Heart to implore his Mercy for our manifold Sins and Trangsressions. We must therefore in the next place come to him by Repentance.  
2. And this, I suppose all, but Quakers, will grant to be necessary to Salvation, that every one must either lead a good life, or repent of a bad one. But with them indeed it is a toil as insignificant as tedious; there being no need of their contrition, who cannot offend; for why should they afflict their Souls, who are arrived to a sinless Perfection? Which is an happiness that these mortified and humble Creatures lay claim to: And therefore a great Preacher among them, represents a Quaker, as meeker than Moses, stronger than Samson, wiser than Solomon, and more patiented than Job. Nay farther, harmless and innocent as Christ himself. 
(a) W. Shewen's Treatise concerning Thoughts and Imaginations, P. 25.  Whatever instances there may be of humane infirmities, it is beneath a Quaker to increase the number; for he boasts of as great a security from Sin, as the Psalmist promised himself from bodily evilds: Tho' a thousand should fall beside him, and ten thousand at his right hand, yet should not wickedness. come nigh him; for amidst all the Spoils of Sin and Corruption he is resolved to remain untouched, and in this sense to be free among the dead. I grant indeed that Scripture seems to favour this Principle, and to allow of a state of unsinning Obedience, when it affirms some to be so innocent, as to need no Repentance; but I conceive the meaning of that place to be no more than this, that though they are within the state of Grace, and so need not Repentance, as it is a conversion of the whole, yet they do need contrition for their single acts of Sin; for how else could the Holy Spirit say, That in many things we offend all? And why did our Saviour in that absolute form of Prayer, which he hath appointed, bid us pray to Our Father which is in Heaven, to forgive us our trespasses? And let any one but consult the frailty of his own Nature, and he will find the Diseases of his Soul to be at the least as numerous as those of his Body; that betwixt his strayings and backslidings the burden of his Sins must needs be intolerable. And then what way is there for him to obtain any ease, but by casting that weight of his Sins from him? By sweeping and garnishing his Soul, not that those evil Spirits, which had been ejected, might return again, or that other more unclean ones might be admitted in their stead; but that the Holy Dove, which loves not dark Houses, might make his abode with him, when he was become a Child of Light. And to this consideration of our own weakness, add we that other no less weighty one of the subtlety and watchfulness of our Enemy; who hath been long practised in the arts of treachery and insinuation, and knows too well when, and how to seize upon our affections with the least difficulty and greatest success. Now if we live thus in perpetual dangers, both within and without, how is it possible for us to be sure that we shall always escape them? that we shall neither wilfully betray ourselves, nor fall into our Enemy's hand unawares? That we shall neither run, nor be lead into captivity? He therefore that thinks himself above Repentance, needs it most of all; and that very Pride of heart calls for plenty of Tears and Ashes, for the deepest sighing, and the humblest prostration. I conclude then, that since in God's sight no Man living can be justified, the most righteous Person must necessarily stand in need of Pardon; and the way for him to obtain it, is to plead guilty, that so he may avert that Wrath which he had deserved, and regain that Mercy which he had forfeited. And this brings me to my next Head, viz. The encouragement that God hath given to all People to incline their ear, and come unto him, that he will give them the sure Mercies of David, make them partakers of a joyful Resurrection.  
2. But if this be the certain reward of true Faith and Repentance, how then say the Quakers, that there is no Resurrection? And yet a Ringleader among them hath no less proudly then ignorantly given out, That if the complete happiness of the Soul rests in a reunion to a carnal Body, for such it is sown, then must we never cry out upon the Turks Alcoran; for such a Heaven and the joys of it suit admirably well with such a Resurrection. 
(b) Penn's Reason against Railing, Pag. 138.  But this is evidently neither more nor less than to set up a piece of foppery of his own, that he may have the pleasure and credit of beating it down; for certainly never any Christian affirmed, that the Body should be raised to a life of sensuality, that revelling and junketting were the joys of Heaven. But this all that pretend to any love and honour for the Gospel, have unanimously agreed upon, that at the Resurrection the Body shall be the same as to its substance, but very different as to its qualities; it is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. But it is unconceivable by this profound Logician, how a thing should be the same, and yet notwithstanding that be changed; as if there were any the least absurdity in saying, that a Man might be the same and not the same in divers respects; may he not be changed from weak to strong, from proud to humble, from sickly to healthful, and yet be still the same Person? When the Jews saw the Man, out of whom the Devils were cast, sitting at Jesus Feet, clothed, and in his right mind, they made no doubt, notwithstanding this wonderful change that had been wrought in him, but that he was the same Man that was possessed before. I have not insisted so long upon this Objection, for any strength that I perceived in it, but for the sake of the Article itself, which is the powerfullest motive to a good life, as all People must own, that will not take upon them to be wiser than God: So that to deny the Resurrection, is to cut the very Sinews of Piety, and cast a worse shade than that of Death upon the Primitive Martyrs; who, doubtless would never have endured their sharp afflictions with that unimitable courage and constancy; if it had not been for the joy that was set before them, nor born those marks of the Lord Jesus in their Bodies, if they had not looked upon the scars of their stripes and hurts, as so many signs that they belonged to Christ, and that in due time he would seize upon them as his own peculiar. So the Author to the Hebrews saith expressly, that some were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better Resurrection. But nothing but the certainty that this Article hath been denied, could make one think it possible that it should, since it is so directly repugnant to several Passages in Scripture, particularly to the second Verse of the Twelfth Chapter of Daniel, Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt; and so likewise to that Passage in St. John's Gospel, Chap. 5. The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth, they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation. Now certainly when the Prophet speaks of them that sleep in the dust of the Earth, and the Evangelist of them that are in the Graves, neither of them thought of the Souls being in that condition; and therefore if any thing be waked out of sleep, or come forth of the Grave, it must be the Body; which is so clear, that I defy these Sectaries with all their little shifts, and base arts of corrupting Scripture, to evade the force of these Texts, and use them as they have done several others, i. e. make them vanish into the Clouds and thick darkness of unintelligible allegories. Whosoever he be that professeth any reverence for the Scripture, and yet doubts of the Resurrection, all that I would desire of him is to peruse the Fifteenth Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians, with seriousness and impartiality, and then let him speak his mind. It is most certain at Christ's second Advent, when he shall judge the World in righteousness, and minister true judgement unto all People, there will be a reunion of Soul and Body; and then fiery indignation shall be poured out upon the Adversaries, but Mercy and Lovingkindness upon all those that have kept the commandments of God, and the Faith of Jesus, Rev. 14.12. St. John tells us, that he heard a voice from Heaven, saying, writ from henceforth, blessed are the dead, which die in the Lord, for they rest from their labours; are unmolested with the impertinence and malice, the folly and hypocrisy, the rage and perfidiousness of busy, false, and vexatious Mortals; but this is by far the least part of their felicity; for after a short sleep in their Graves, they shall awake up to Glory, and always have such a transcendently delightful object in their view, as shall never suffer them to shut their Eyes against it; be as the Angels in Heaven, not only ready to execute God's Commands, but enjoying them too. But as for the unbelieving and impenitent Wretch, I have no glad tidings to tell him; for all his false hopes were built upon the Sands. And he, who would have been the rock of his Salvation, shall then put on only the deafness and hardness of the rock; not be moved to the least pity by the most hideous and dismal out-cries; but for ever remain inflexible to all complaints and entreaties. We are told indeed in Scripture, that God justifieth the Ungodly; but that Passage must be understood, in sensu diviso, of such as were Ungodly, and not of such as continue in ill-doing; for God cannot declare him to be just and righteous, who is unjust and unrighteous, without impeaching his own Justice and Righteousness. It is as certain that grievous Sinners, without amendment of life, shall never be received into God's favour, as it is that by their reformation and renewing of their minds, they shall be adopted into the family of his beloved Children. Would God punish the imputation of Sin so severely in his innocent and beloved Son, in whom he was well pleased, and will he pardon the unrepented Iniquities of a stubborn Enemy? If he would not spare him that was in his Bosom, but pour out his most precious Blood, doubtless he will not spare the refractory after such a dreadful and amazing Execution. Eternal Life is the gift of God, not to be purchased as a due reward of the most holy Conversation: But Death is the proper Wages of Sin, that which of right belongs to it, and without Repentance shall be fully paid. So that to imagine that God retains an affection to one that will not part with his Iniquity and his Ruin, is to lay to his charge an unjust Sentence, and, as a necessary consequent thereto, an undue Execution of it. Let us not therefore please ourselves with the vain delusions of being God's special Favourites, when our hearts are not right towards him; for doubtless only those that live to him here, shall live with him hereafter. Give me leave to make some Application of what hath been delivered to the present occasion, and I shall conclude.  
I do not pretend to have given you here a Catalogue of all the false Doctrines of Quakers, which are as much too numerous to be recited, as they are too foul to be owned. What I have concerned myself with, have been only such as have come in my way, and could not fairly be avoided. And those I look upon as sufficient to vindicate their prudence and honesty, who have forsaken them and their Errors, and have come out from among them, that they might not be partakers of their Sins. And I hope that those who have thus deliberately chosen to walk together with us, in the House of God as Friends, will never bring any scandal upon our Profession, whilst they own it, nor upon themselves by forsaking it; will never hearken to any Sophistry, that either the Tempter himself, or any of his Agents shall make use of for the seducing them back again, to those Principles and Practices, which they have so wisely and so solemnly renounced. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, then after they have known it, to turn from the holy Commandment delivered unto them. For a relapse, as it is more dangerous; so, when it may be prevented it is more culpable too, than the first beginning of a disease. But I am persuaded better things of them that hear me now, and things that accompany Salvation, though I thus speak. And to the end that you and they may be rooted and grounded in the true faith of our Church, I shall briefly show you her temper, i. e. draw some of the great lines, by which she may be known; for I have neither time, nor ability to represent her at large, and give you a full view of all her excellencies. In the first place then, She Accounts no Doctrine necessary to Salvation, but what is either expressly founded upon, or by direct consequence deduced from Scripture, which is the Pillar and ground of Truth, to which, with all the Saints that are, and have been, upon earth, and such as excel in Virtue, she pays a most profound Veneration; and takes it, as David did, for a Lantern to her feet, and a light unto her Path. So very different is her treatment of it from that of Quakers, who vilify it as a thing of nought, and therefore in a style as peculiar to them as their behaviour, dishonour it with the contemptuous Names of, Dust, Death, and Serpent's Meat, 
(C) G. Fox's News out of the North Pa. 14.  And it is plain they are not conversant in it; For than would they cease to talk and act so foolishly and so wickedly as they do. It being one of the great excellencies of sacred Writ, to give wisdom und understanding unto the simple. She doth indeed insist upon the two Sacraments, of Baptism, and the Lords Supper. And very good reason she hath for so doing, because they are of Divine Institution. The former was established by our Saviour, when he gave his Disciples a Commission to go and baptise all Nations in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. And when he hath enacted it as a law, That all his followers shall be received into his Church by that laver of Regeneration, can any one forbidden them Water that they should not be baptised? And as for that other Sacrament of the Lords Supper, certainly it must be a strange Spirit of opposition that possesseth them who gainsay it, for can there be any thing more endearing than our Lords appointing that perpetual feast, except it be the love that made him do so? Is his precious Bloodshedding become so vile in our Eyes, that we cannot bear the remembrance of it? And yet neither the benefit nor the sacredness of the Institution, could restrain a Blasphemous Quaker from this unsufferably vile Reflection upon it, Their Communion Bread and Wine, is the Table of Devils, and Cup of Devils, 
(D) G. Foxe's News out of the North, Pa. 14.  And yet some of the inferiors of this wicked Crew, have paid Divine Honours to this vile Wretch, and W. Pen hath since vindicated them: 
(D) W Pen. Judas and the Jews Pa. 44.  Surely St. Paul took it for granted, that his Corinthians neither would, nor should abstain from it, when he only directed them how to prepare themselves for it, Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that Cup, 1. Cor. 11.28. And if this be not a standing Duty, never to be let fall, certainly the Apostle would not have recommended it to us by such an engaging account as he hath given us, at V 26. of the  Chapter, as often as ye eat this Bread, and drink this Cup, ye do show, or show ye, the Lords Death till he come, till the end of all things, when the whole World shall be dissolved, and this beautiful Frame of the Universe be first reduced to Ashes, and then to nothing.  
Nor is She more intent upon purity of Doctrine, than that of Life; and therefore requires Holiness in all her Professors; so that if any of them are wicked Livers, they are not so by her Indulgence, but their own depraved inclinations. Their ungodliness therefore can be no just imputation to her, the strictness of whose rules is a sufficient proof of her love of Virtue, and hatred of Vice. I own indeed that she requireth a conformity to a few innocent Ceremonies; not that she looketh upon them as absolutely necessary, but only as fit to be observed for the sake of good Order, Decency, and Edification; which is the sole cause of her enjoining them. And to lay them aside, would be of more mischievous consequence than some of their oppugners apprehend, or perhaps would consent to, if they did; for they seem to me to have the same kind of usefulness that leaves have, which if they be not too numerous, are both an Ornament to the Tree, and a Fence to the Fruit. And now that I may not be suspected to have any By-end in what I have delivered, as if I had not spoken the very Thoughts of my Heart, I do with all imaginable Sincerity make this Wish, may my Portion in the next World be with those that are true Members of the Church of England, who walk worthy of that their Profession; may I have the Reward which God in his Mercy, for his dear Son's Sake, shall bestow upon them, whose Faith and Practice are agreeable to her Doctrines and Rules. What now remains, but that we present our humble Supplications at the Throne of Grace, in behalf of this good-natured, this Orthodox, and Uncorrupt Church; that God would continue to be her Guide and Defence; that he would keep and strengthen in the true Faith and Holiness of Life, all the Members of her Communion, and daily add to her such as shall by his Blessing save both themselves and others: Which God of his infinite mercy grant for Jesus Christ's sake, to whom be rendered as is most due, all Honour, Glory, Praise, Might, Majesty and Dominion, both now and for evermore. Amen.  
FINIS.   

Dr. John Spire's ORATION, AT THE Parish-Church of St. OLAVE-SOUTHWARK.  
September the 8th. 1700.  
It is probable it may seem somewhat strange to many for me to appear after this manner in this Place; but let it not be accounted either presumption or rudeness in me so to do, for my undertaking is justifiable in the sight of God and all good Men.  
FOrasmuch as upon the Occasion of my being here the first time, which was on Trinity-Sunday, the 26th. Day of May, 1700. and that caused a disturbance in this Place, and for the prevention of the like again, as well as many, and various false Reports that have been spread up and down, and that I have frequently met with all for so doing. I think it very proper to signify something of the Reason of my coming hither, and also to give you a short account of my Life down to this Day.  
I doubt not but many will be ask, why such a Man and his Family or Friends come to Church, who have so many Years been Dissenters from her; to which Question I shall return one general answer by acquainting you as followeth.  
I was born of Honest Christian Parents in the County of Berks, and about 40 Years since Baptised according to the usage of the Established Church of England, and Educated therein till I was about 13 Years of Age, at which time my Parents Joined with the People called Quakers; and afterwards I was instructed in their way, in which I continued about 26 Years, and in the Year 1694, when through the good Providence of Almighty God, I began to have some small glances of the Christian Religion, from which, with many others, I had so many Years swerved: upon this Discovery I published a small thing in print, to vindicate myself and my Friends, many of which are here present, from some erroneous Tenets held by the Quakers, for which I received many and great Abuses from them, and was excommunicated (or disowned) under the Hands of 24, from being of their Communion.  
And in the Year 1696, finding by many of their Books and Preachments, that they slighted the Humanity of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ: I did in that Year print a small Piece, asserting the Humanity of Christ from Scripture Testimony, for which jalso suffered many Reproaches, and have it now under a Quaker Preacher's Hand, bearing date the 27 of June 1696 what affronts I then received, who after his long Scribble, thus violently utters himself against me. He tells me, the Lord will confound me, that God will destroy me; he calls me a Ravening Wolf, and bids me call in my Book that asserts the Humanity of Christ, and says withal, that the Lord requires it of me.  
In the Year 1698 it pleased God Almighty to let me see that those two great Ordinances of Christ, Baptism, and the Lord's Supper are thankfully to be received by all sincere Christians till his coming again at the last and great Day.  
And I do hereby freely acknowledge my former Error, in denying the Benefit and Necessity of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, as well as in slighting the use of the Holy Scriptures, as also in Denying that great and fundamental Article of the Resurrection of the Dead, all which with many others of my Friends and Relations, I have been taught by the Principle Leaders, and Teachers of the aforesaid People; and do own I was so far seduced as to help to teach and encourage others in these abominable Errors, which sin I trust the Lord of his Mercy hath pardoned because I did it Ignorantly.  
I do also hereby freely declare, that I own for Substance the Doctrine of the 39 Articles of the Church of England, and desire that I may live and die in that Faith, into which I was baptised. What I have further to add is, that you and I may persevere in the Way and Worship of the true God, and that we may be exemplary one to the other, and Patterns of Humility, as becomes the Christian Religion, that when Days and time shall be no more to us in this World, we may have our Dwelling and Habitation Eternally in the Heavens with the Lord Jesus Christ, To whom with the Father and Holy Ghost, be all Honour and Glory, now and for ever. Amen.  
John Spire, Junior.