Mr. Jenkins' Dying Thoughts, Who departed this Life on Monday the 19th of this Instant January, in the Prison of Newgate.  
Ministers, in regard they undertake a Public Employment for Christ, must receive a Call from him that so they may perform their Work to their own Comfort, and the Benefit of others. For although it be a great shame if those, who are the Ministers and Prophets of the Lord, are not of the number of his People; yet it is a gross Error to think that all the Lord's People are Ministers and Prophets: Their being the Lord's People, makes them fit to hear, but not to preach; fit Sheep, but not fit Shepherds. For, although they have the fitness of Gifts, yet they are not fit to teach, unless they have a sufficient Call by way of Office and Ministry; and when they have that, he will not fail to preserve and defend them in the Discharge of their Ministerial Work. For Safety evermore accompanies Duty; and if the mercy of God be over all his Works, than it is in a more peculiar manner over all his Workers. Men are never so much in Danger, as when they leave his Work, and their Enemies, when they do them the greatest Hurt, remove them far above the reach of Hurt; So that although the Servants of Christ be sick, persecuted, scorned and imprisoned, yet they shall never be unsafe: For though they may lose their Heads, not one Hair of their Heads shall perish, and God will reward them with such a recompense, as will infinitely weigh down all their Work, and all their Woes. For although he suffer them to be exposed in this life to many Difficulties and Dangers, yet he will not fail to bring them safe to Eternal Happiness, where they shall neither offend, nor be offended, and where there shall be neither sin in their Souls, nor a sinner in their Society; When Satan shall have no longer any power to solicit, nor they any Inclination to sin, but all their sufferings shall be turned into Triumphs. Oh blessed Condition! To have rest on every side, fullness of Grace, and Perfection of Peace! To be for ever freed from all Tears, and be safely lodged in the Bosom, and locked up in the Embraces, of God to Eternity! To be in our Haven, our Centure, ous Father's House! Oh, my Soul, 'tis a Heaven to hope it! What will it then be to have it!  
Great is the heinousness of sin, since it can provoke a God of much Mercy to express much severity. That drop of Gall must needs be bitter that can embitter a whole Sea of honey, how offensive must sin then be that can provoke a God, to whose Ocean of pity the Sea is but a drop! God doth not Afflict us willingly: He gives Honey naturally, but stings only when he is provoked by us. So that every Sufferer Coins his own Calamities, & there is no Arrow of Judgement falls down upon us, but what was first (in sinning) shot upwards by us; no shower of miseries sent down upon us, but what was First caused by the ascent of the vapours of our sin; Nor any Print of Calamity made on us, but sin is the Print that makes it. What a folly is it then for us in our suffering to be impatient against God, and yet patiented with our sin, or to be angry with the Medicine, and yet in love with the disease. Let us justify God therefore in all our sufferings, and condemn ourselves.  
It should be the Christians chiefest care to obtain from God the choicest mercies. Worldly men are indeed easily put off with the meanest, because their Inquiry is only who will show them any good. But O Christian! let nothing please or satisfy thee, but the light of God's Countenance and do thou so receive from God here, as that thou mayst be received to God hereafter; desire not Gifts, but Mercies from God, not Pebbles but Pearls, and always labour for that which God never bestows but in Love. Luther, when he had a Rich present sent him, professed with a holy boldness to God, that such things should not serve his turn, and do thou always desire the favour of God rather than outward Felicity. O desire from God that thy Portion may not be in this Life, but that what thou injoyest here, may be a Pledge of better things hereafter.  
Those, who have the God of Mercy, for theirs, should not be dismayed with any Misery, how severe and bitter soever it be. Blessed are those Tears which so Merciful a Hand wipes off, and happy are those Twigs that are guided by so indulgent a Father, whose severest ways are Mercy and Truth, to those that are in Covenant with him. If he smile 'tis in Mercy, and if he smite 'tis in Mercy. He wounds not to kill, but to cure us, and the wounds of Mercy are better than the embraces of Anger. Wrath in Prosperity is dreadful, but Mercy makes the deepest Adversity comfortable: For God never afflicts us for his own pleasure, but our profit, and he will never take away his loving kindness from us. Mercy makes the Sufferings of God's People to be but notions. It would do one good to be in troubles, and enjoy God in them, to be sick, and lie in his bosom. For God gives his People a thousand mercies in every trouble, and for every trouble, so that the holy Soul shall meet with no Wilderness but what shall end in Canaan; shall have no Water, but what shall be turned into Wine; nor Lion's Carcase, but what shall become a Hive of Honey, and produce a swarm of mercies.  
It's True, indeed, Afflictions are oftentimes their Lot and Portion in this World, and even the Holy Patriarch, who had the Name of Israel as a Mark of a Particular Favour from God, had a life altogether made up of Sorrows: Affliction was his Daily Bread, and his constant Diet-drink; Esau threatens to kill him; Laban, to whom he flies for refuge, is churlish and deceitful; his eldest Son proved incestuous; His only Daughter was ravished; two of his sons were Murthere rs; and his best beloved Child was given over for murdered: So that his day's, by his own Computation and Confession, were very few and evil. And his Posterity had Afflictions left them for a Legacy: Egypt, the Wilderness, Canaan, Babylon, etc. were the Stages of Israel's Tragedies. And the Spiritual Israel have been in all the Parts and Ages of the World a distressed and an afflicted Number, as appears by that Book of Martyrs, which we find epitomised in the Eleventh of the Hebrews. Affliction is always God's Touchstone, whereby he tries our Obedience; His Furnace to separate between the Metal, and the Dross, and purge away the Remainder of their Corruption.  
The Consideration therefore of Christ's coming to Judgement may be to those, who are sufferers for his Name and Interest; Matter of great Comfort and Consolation: Since they will be then cleared from all undue Imputations, and discharged from all their Scandals. Moses, when he was charged with Ambition, and taking too much upon him, comforted himself with the thoughts of the Morrow (Num. 16.) To morrow (saith he) shall the Lord show who are his; So when the Councils of the Heart shall be manifest, every one shall have praise of God; (1 Cor. 4. 4.) when a Christian is called a dissembler and Hypocrite, Schismatic, or the like, he may reply, at the Great day the Lord shall show whether it be so or no. All Slanders and Defamations shall then for ever fall off from the Saints, as Drops of Water do from an Oiled Post, and the Weight of their Glory shall weigh down all their light disgraces; In all the Wants and Losses of the Faithful for Christ in this Life, how great will be their Consolation, since great shall be their Reward in Heaven? Many may be losers for Christ, but none shall be losers by Christ; For th' Day of Judgement shall be the Day for the Restitution of all their Comforts. God takes away nothing from us, but what he first gave to us, and what again he will restore: Nay he will restore a thousand-fold more than ever we lost for him. The Thoughts of this great Day should relieve us against the Length of our Troubles, and the slowness of our Deliverance: For although God asks Day for the rewarding of his Children, yet the greatness of the Recompense, which he will bestow upon them on that great Day, shall infinitely more than countervail, and compensate, for the Length of their waiting. In all Obscurity and Contempt, how may the Saints rejoice to consider, that at the great Day, they shall appear with Christ in Glory, and shine, as the Sun, in the Kingdom of their Father? Then every one shall have their due Place allotted to him, though now there be nothing but Disorder and confusion. The Thoughts of this great Day may comfort the Saints in respect of their greatest Distances: For although in this World they are often far one from another, both as to Places, Opinions, and Affections, yet than they shall all meet and dwell together in the unity of the Faith of the Son of God. It may comfort them also against the Cruelties and Unkindnesses of wicked Men: For although it be the Lot of the Saints to live, and their Duty to be patiented amongst them, in this Vale of Misery, yet they shall then be eternally freed from their Company, never to be troubled with sin, or sinners, or sorrows more. For the Day of Judgement shall be a Day of Redemption (Eph. 4. 30.) Of Refreshment, (Acts 3. 9)  
Finally the Thoughts of this Day should support us during our Absence from Christ, since we shall then meet with our Redeemer, our Spouse and our Head.   

LONDON, Printed for Edward Goldwin. 1685.