Christian ethics -- Fiction; Christian fiction; Conduct of life -- Fiction
Wise. When she drew near her end, she called for her husband, and when
he was come to her, she told him, {150b} That now he and she must
part, and said she, God knows, and thou shalt know, that I have been a
loving, faithful Wife unto thee; my prayers have been many for thee;
and as for all the abuses that I have received at thy hand, those I
freely and heartily forgive, and still shall pray for thy conversion,
even as long as I breathe in this world. But husband, I am going
thither, where no bad man shall come, and if thou dost not convert,
thou wilt never see me more with comfort; let not my plain words offend
thee: I am thy dying wife, and of my faithfulness to thee, would leave
this Exhortation with thee: Break off thy sins, fly to God for mercy
while mercies gate stands open; remember, that the day is coming, when
thou, though now lusty and well, must lye at the gates of death, as I
do: And what wilt thou then do, if thou shalt be found with a naked
soul, to meet with the Cherubims with their flaming swords? yea, what
wilt thou then do, if Death and Hell shall come to visit thee, and thou
in thy sins, and under the Curse of the Law?
Atten. This was honest and plain: but what said Mr. Badman to her?
Wise. He did what he could to divert her talk, {151a} by throwing in
other things; he also shewed some kind of pity to her now, and would
ask her, What she would have? and with various kind of words put her
out of her talk; for when she see that she was not regarded, she fetcht
a deep sigh, and lay still. So he went down, and then she called for
her Children, and began to talk to them. And first she spake to those
that were rude, {151b} and told them the danger of dying before they
had grace in their hearts. She told them also, that Death might be
nearer them than they were aware of; and bid them look, when they went
through the Church-yard again, if there was not little graves there.
And, ah children, said she, will it not be dreadful to you, if we only
shall meet at the day of Judgment, and then part again, and never see
each other more? And with that she wept, the Children (also) wept; so
she held on her discourse: Children, said she, I am going from you, I
am going to Jesus Christ, and with him there is neither sorrow, nor
sighing, nor pain, nor tears, nor death. {151c} Thither would I have
you go also, but I can neither carry you, nor fetch you thither; but if
you shall turn from your sins to God, and shall beg mercy at his hands
by Jesus Christ, you shall follow me, and shall, when you dye, come to
the place where I am going, that blessed place of Rest: and then we
shall be for ever together, beholding the face of our Redeemer, to our
mutual and eternal joy. So she bid them remember the words of a dying
mother when she was cold in her grave, and themselves were hot in their
sins, if perhaps her words might put check to their vice, and that they
might remember and turn to God.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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