The Godly Man's Picture

8. Walking with God will make death sweet: It was Augustus his wish, that he might have an [Greek or Hebrew], a quiet easy death, without much pain. If any thing make our Pillow easy at death, it will be this, that we have walked with God in our Generation: Do we think walking with God can do us any hurt? Did we ever hear any cry out upon their Death-bed, that they have been too holy, that they have prayed too much, or walked with God too much? No, that which hath cut them to the heart, hath been this, that they have walked no more closely with God; they have wrung their hands, and torn their hair, to think that they have been so bewitched with the pleasures of the World: Close walking with God, will make our Enemy (Death) to be at peace with us. King Ahasuerus, when he could not sleep, called for the Book of Records, and read in it, Esther 6. 1. So when the violence of sickness causeth sleep to depart from our eyes, and we can call for Conscience (that Book of Records) and find written in it, such a day we humbled our souls by fasting, such a day our hearts melted in prayer; such a day we had sweet communion with God; what a reviving will this be? How may we look death in the face with comfort, and say, Lord, now ⟨p. 261⟩take us up to thee in Heaven, where we have so often been by affection, let us now be by fruition.

8. Walking with God will make death sweet: It was Augustus his wish, that he might have an 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, a quiet easie death, without much pain. If any thing make our Pillow easie at death, it will be this, that we have walked with God in our Generation: Do we think walking with God can do us any hurt? Did we ever hear any cry out upon their Death-bed, that they have been too holy, that they have prayed too much, or walked with God too much? No, that which hath cut them to the heart, hath been this, that they have walked no more closely with God; they have wrung their hands, and torn their hair, to think that they have been so bewitched with the pleasures of the World: Close walking with God, will make our Enemy (Death) to be at peace with us. King Ahashuerus, when he could not sleep, called for the Book of Records, and read in it, Esther 6. 1. So when the violence of sickness causeth sleep to depart from our eyes, and we can call for Conscience (that Book of Records) and find written in it, such a day we humbled our souls by fasting, such a day our hearts melted in prayer; such a day we had sweet communion with God; what a reviving will this be? How may we look death in the face with comfort, and say, Lord, now