THE TESTIMONY OF JOHN GILL ON HIS DEATH BED

John Gill was a man mightily used of God in his day, 1697 - 1771, to stem the tide of unitarianism among Baptists and to expose Arminianism's loathsome heresy. He served as pastor of one congregation for fifty-one years. During that time the congregation was large, and his duties were very demanding. He faithfully executed his regular pastoral duties of preaching and teaching. He published numerous sermons and tracts. And he wrote and published a thorough Body of Divinity (Theology) and a nine volume commentary on the entire Bible, which continue to rank among the very best works of their kind. (In my opinion, they are the best). In all, he published over 10,000 pages of theological material in his lifetime, without the assistance of a regular secretary, writing with a quill pen! C.H. Spurgeon, Gill's most famous successor in the pastorate, wrote of Gill, "He was always at work. It is difficult to say when he slept." This man, who had done so much and labored so diligently for the gospel of Christ and the interest of his kingdom, never foolishly entertained the thought that he had any hope before God, except through the righteousness and blood of Christ, his all-sufficient Substitute.

Just before he died, this faithful servant of God wrote a letter to his nephew, containing this testimony - "I depend wholly and alone upon the free, sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love of God, the firm and everlasting covenant of grace, and my interest in the persons of the sacred Trinity, for my whole salvation; and not upon any righteousness of my own; nor anything in me, or done by me under the influences of the Holy Spirit; not upon any services of mine, which I have been assisted to perform for the good of the church do I depend, but upon my interest in the persons of the Trinity; the free-grace of God, and the blessings of grace streaming to me through the blood and righteousness of Christ, as the ground of my hope. These are no new things to me, but what I have been long acquainted with; what I can live and die by. I apprehend that I shall not be long here, but this you may tell to any of my friends.” To one of his friends, standing by his bed, Gill said, "I have nothing to make me uneasy." Then he quoted one verse of a hymn, written by Isaac Watts, in honor of that Redeemer whom he loved, trusted, and served -

He raised me from the deeps of sin, -

The gates of gaping hell;

And fixed my standing more secure

Than 'twas before I fell.