A39682:367
A Saint Indeed
A saint indeed: or The great work of a Christian, opened and pressed; from Prov. 4. 23 Being a seasonable and proper expedient for the recovery of the much decayed power of godliness, among the professors of these times. By John Flavell M. of the Gospel.
London: printed by W.R., 1668
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Case 12. How the people of God in times of sickness may get their hearts loose from all earthly engagements, and persuade them into a willingness to dye.
Case 12. How the people of God in times of sickness may get their hearts loose from all earthly ingagements, and perswade them into a willingness to dye.
And there are seven arguments which I shall urge upon the people of God at such a time as this to make them cheerfully entertain the messengers of death, and dye as well as live like Saints; and the first is this.
1. Argu. First the harmlessness of death to the people of God. T•ough it keep its dart, it hath lost its sting: a Saint (to ⟨p. 173⟩allude to that, Isai. 11. 8.) May play upon the hole of this asp, and put his hand into the Cockatrices den. Death is the Cockatrice, or Asp; the grave is his hole or den: a Saint need not fear to put his hand boldly into it: it hath left and lost its sting in the sides of Christ; 1 Cor. 15. 55. O death! where is thy sting? why art thou afraid? O Saint! that this sickness may be thy death, as long as thou knowest that the death of Christ is the death of death? indeed, if thou didst dye in thy sins as Joh. 8. 21. If death as a King did reign over thee, Rom. 5. 14. if it could •eed upon thee, as the Lyon doth upon the prey he hath taken, as