A65309:187
Religion our true interest, or, Practical notes upon the third chapter of Malachi the…Religion our true interest, or, Practical notes upon the third chapter of Malachy the…
Religion our true interest, or, Practical notes upon the third chapter of Malachi the sixteen, seventeen and eighteen verses : seasonable for the times / by Thomas Watson ...Religion our true interest, or, Practical notes upon the third chapter of Malachy the sixteen, seventeen and eighteen verses : seasonable for the times / by Thomas Watson ...
London: printed by J. Astwood for Tho. Parkhurst, 1682
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.
2. A Child of God may so far Fear death, as it makes him dye to the World. The Fear of death would sound a retreat and call us off from Vanity. What is the world? we must leave it shortly, and all we can purchase is a burying-place†
3. A Child of God may so far Fear death, as this Fear fits him more for death. Jacob feared his brother ⟨p. 68⟩Esau's coming against him, and he prepared to meet him, he addressed himself to Prayer, Gen. 32.7, 24. So when we Fear deaths coming and we prepare to meet it, we set our Soul in order. This is a Good Fear of death.
But this Fear of death in the Godly must be mixed with hope. The nature of death to a Believer is quite changed: death is in it self a curse, but God hath turned this Curse into a Blessing. To a Child of God death is not a destruction but a deliverance. When the Mantle of his flesh drops off, he ascends in a fiery chariot to Heaven.