Heartwork, Assurance & National Judgement - John Welwood (1649-79) Sermon 1 Peter 4:18 18 And if the righteous is scarcely saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear? King James Version (KJV) 18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? ▶️SUBSCRIBE: https://www.youtube.com/user/stack45ny ▶️After subscribing, click on NOTIFICATION BELL to be notified of new uploads. ▶️SUPPORT CHANNEL: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=RB72ANM8DJL2S&lc=US&item_name=stack45ny¤cy_code=USD&bn=PP%2dDonationsBF%3abtn_donateCC_LG%2egif%3aNonHosted ▶️Follow me on no-censorship GAB: https://gab.ai/RichNY ▶️Follow me on https://www.minds.com/RichNY ▶️Battle for God and His Truth: http://battleforgodstruth.tumblr.com/ ▶️My WordPress blog: https://sermonsandsongsdotorg.com/ Mr. John Welwood, born about the year 1649, was son to Mr. James Welwood, sometime minister at Tindergirth (and brother to Mr. Andrew Welwood and James Welwood doctor of medicine at London). After he had gone through the ordinary courses of learning he entered on the ministry, and afterwards preached in many places, but we do not hear that he was ever settled minister in any parish, it being then a time when all who intended any honesty or faithfulness in testifying against the sins and defections of the times, were thrust out of the church and prosecuted with the greatest extremity. It is said, that he preached some five or six sermons in the parish where his father was minister, which were blessed with more discernible effects of good amongst that people than all the diligent painfulness his father had exercised in the time he was minister of that parish. When drawing near his end, in conversation with some friends, he used frequently to communicate his own exercise and experience, with the assurance he had obtained of his interest in Christ, he said, "I have no more doubt of my interest in Christ, than if I were in heaven already." And at another time he said, "Although I have been for some weeks without sensible comforting presence, yet I have not the least doubt of my interest in Christ. I have oftentimes endeavoured to pick a hole in my interest, but cannot get it done." That morning ere he died, when he observed the light of the day, he said, "Now eternal light, and no more night and darkness to me." -- And that night he exchanged a weakly body, a wicked world, and a weary life, for an immortal crown of glory, in that heavenly inheritance which is prepared and reserved for such as him. The night after his exit his corpse was removed from John Barclay's house into a private room, belonging to one Janet Hutton (till his friends might consult about his funeral) that so he might not be put to trouble for concealing him. It was quickly spread abroad that an intercommuned preacher was dead in town, upon which the magistrates ordered a messenger to go and arrest the corpse. They lay there that night, and the next day a considerable number of his friends in Fife, in good order, came to town in order to his burial, but the magistrates would not suffer him to be interred at Perth, but ordered the town militia to be raised, and imprisoned John Bryce, box-master or treasurer to the guildry, for returning to give out the militia's arms. However the magistrates gave his friends leave to carry his corpse out of town, and bury them without their precincts, where they pleased. But any of the town's people, who were observed to accompany the funeral were imprisoned. After they were gone out of town, his friends sent two men before them to Drone, four miles from Perth, to prepare a grave in that church-yard. The men went to Mr. Pitcairn, the minister there (one of the old resolutioners), and desired the keys of the church-yard that they might dig a grave for the corpse of Mr. Welwood, but he refused to give them. They went over the church-yard-dyke and digged a grave, and there the corpse was interred. There appears to be only one of his sermons in print (said to be preached in Bogles-hole in Clydesdale), upon 1 Peter iv.18. And if the righteous scarcely be saved, &c. -- There are also some of his religious letters, written to his godly friends and acquaintances, yet extant in manuscript. But we are not to expect to meet with any thing considerable of the writings of Mr. John Welwood[162], or the succeeding worthies; and no wonder, seeing that in such a broken state of the church, they were still upon their watch, haunted and hurried from place to place, without the least time or conveniency for writing; yea, and oftentimes what little fragments they had collected, fell into the hand of false friends and enemies, and were by them either destroyed or lost.