“He was the only man that I ever knew that had an unstained integrity.  He was a lively and faithful minister of Christ and a worthy Christian, such as none who were acquaint with him could say any other but this, that he was a beloved Jedidiah of the Lord.  I never knew a man more richly endowed with grace, more equal in his temper, more equal in his spiritual frame, and more equal in walk and conversation.  When I speak of him as a man—­none more lovely in features, none more prudent, none more brave and heroic in spirit; and yet none more meek, none more humane and condescending.  He was every way so rational, as well as religious, that there was reason to think that the powers of his reason were as much strengthened and sanctified as any man’s I ever heard of.  When I speak of him as a Christian—­none more meek, and yet none more prudently bold against those who were bold to sin—­none more frequent and fervent in religions duties, such as prayer, converse, meditation, self-examination, preaching, prefacing, lecturing, baptizing, and catechising; none more methodical in teaching and instructing, accompanied with a sweet, charming eloquence, in holding forth Christ, as the only remedy for lost sinners; none more hated of the world, and yet none more strengthened and upheld by the everlasting arms of Jehovah, to be steadfast, and abound in the way of the Lord, to the death; wherefore he might be justly called “Antipas,” Christ’s faithful martyr.  And as I lived then to know him to be so of a truth, so, by the good hand of God, I yet live, thirty-six years after him, to testify that no man upon just grounds had any thing to lay to his charge.  When all the critical and straitening circumstances of that period are well considered, save that he was liable to natural and sinful infirmities, as all men are when in this life, and yet he was as little guilty in this way as any I ever knew or heard of, he was the liveliest and most engaging preacher to close with Christ, of any I ever heard.  His converse was pious, prudent, and meek; his reasoning and debating was the same, carrying almost with it full evidence of the truth of what he asserted.  And for steadfastness in the way of the Lord, few came his length.  He learned the truth and counted the cost, and so sealed it with his blood.  Of all men that ever I knew, I would be in the least danger of committing a hyperbole when speaking in his commendation.  And yet I speak not this to praise men, but for the glory and honour of God in Christ, who makes men to differ so much from others, and in some periods of the Church more than others.”