A70554:219
Early piety, exemplified in the life and death of Mr. Nathanael Mather, who ...…
Early piety, exemplified in the life and death of Mr. Nathanael Mather, who ... changed earth for heaven, Oct. 17. 1688 whereto are added some discourses on the true nature, the great reward, and the best season of such a walk with God as he left a pattern of.
London: printed by J. Astwood for John Dunton, 1689
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.
Prop. III.
There is a variety of Dispensation used by God in his thus taking of them that Walk with him.
The Lords taking of Men is, in general by his changing of them, it is by making that they shall not be: Not an Annihilation, but a vast Alteration happens to Believers; when it shall be said of them, They are not! And then they are taken by the Lord: And in particular it is managed three such ways as these.
First, It is by Dying; when we Dye, then we are not. The Dying Man may say, as in Psal. 39. 13. I go hence, I am no more. The Dead Man is not a Man in such a place, he is not a Man of such a Thought, he is not acting upon such Objects as he was before. When a Man is ready to Dye, we perceive it by Changing, as we call it, of the Man; much more, when a Man is dead he is a changed Man. Then it is that we are taken by the Lord: Thus it is said, in Isa. 57. 1. The Righteous is taken away. The Spirit is then taken to all the Delights and Pleasures that a separate Soul can feed upon.