John Hirst (1736-1815) is the subject of the 5th essay in The British Particular Baptists, Volume 5, now available. Get your copy today!

It was said to him [John Hirst], “If religion be a delusion, it is to you a very happy delusion.” He answered with some force, "I am not deluded, I know that my Redeemer liveth...My hope is not built upon anything I have done, but on the Rock of Ages, on the foundation God has laid in Zion, against which the gates of hell cannot prevail...Do not say anything good about me after I have gone, but ascribe all good to the free grace of God...how I long to be gone that I may praise Him, and lay my crown at His feet crying, worthy is the Lamb.”