Christian ethics -- Fiction; Christian fiction; Conduct of life -- Fiction
Wise. Why {166a} there was not any other alteration in him, than what
was made by his disease upon his body: sickness, you know, will alter
the body, also pains and stitches will make men groan; but for his
mind he had no alteration there. His mind was the same, his heart was
the same. He was the self-same Mr. Badman still: not onely in Name but
Conditions, and that to the very day of his death: yea, so far as could
be gathered to the very moment in which he died.
Atten. Pray how was he in his death? was Death strong upon him? or did
he dye with ease, quietly?
Wise. As quietly as a {166b} Lamb. There seemed not to be in it, to
standers by, so much as a strong struggle of Nature: and as for his
Mind, it seemed to be wholly at quiet. But pray why do you ask me this
question?
Atten. Not for mine own sake, but for others. For there is such {166c}
an opinion as this among the ignorant: That if a man dies, as they call
it, like a Lamb, that is, quietly, and without that consternation of
mind that others shew in their death, they conclude, and that beyond
all doubt, that such an one is gone to Heaven, and is certainly escaped
the wrath to come.
Wise. There is no Judgment to be made by a quiet death, of the Eternal
state of him that so dieth. Suppose one man should die quietly, another
should die suddenly, and a third should die under great consternation
of spirit; no man can Judge of their eternall condition by the manner
of any of these kinds of deaths. He that dies quietly, suddenly, or
under consternation of spirit, may goe to Heaven, or may goe to Hell;
no man can tell whether a man goes, by any such manner of death. The
{167a} Judgment therefore that we make of the eternall condition of a
man must be gathered from another consideration: To wit, Did the man
die in his sins? did he die in unbelief? did he die before he was born
again? then he is gone to the Devil and hell, though he died never so
quietly. Again, Was the man a good man? had he faith and holiness?
was he a lover and a Worshipper of God by Christ, according to his
Word? Then he is gone to God and Heaven, how suddenly, or in what
consternation of mind soever he died: But Mr. Badman was naught, his
life was evil, his wayes were evil; evil to his end: he therefore went
to Hell and to the Devil, how quietly soever he died.
Indeed there is, in some cases, a Judgment to be made of a mans eternal
condition by the manner of the death he dieth. {167b} As suppose now
a man should murder himself, or live a wicked life, and after that
die in utter despair; these men without doubt do both of them goe to
Hell. And here I will take an occasion to speak of two of Mr. Badmans
Brethren, (for you know I told you before that he had Brethren,) and of
the manner of their death. One of them killed himself, and the other
after a wicked life died in utter despair. Now I should not be afraid
to conclude of both these, that they went by, and through their death
to hell.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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