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O ſpare a little, that I may recover ſtrength,” &c.
There is a great difference between a desire to die, and death itſelf. It is an eaſy thing to desire to die, but it is a very great busineſs to meet with death, and to look it in thə face when it cometh. We think death (ere it come near us) to be but children’s play; but when we meet with it, it maketh us change our thoughts ; for it it a great business to die.
Queſt. 2. Is it lawful for a Chriſtian to desire to live, when he is ſummoned to die?
Anſw. In ſome caſes it is lawful for a Chriſtian to desire to live, even when he is ſummoned to die; which is clear from the practice of David, Pſalm xxxix. 13. where he prayeth, that the Lord would ſpare him a little. It alſo clear from the practice of good Hezekiah. Iſa xxxviii 3. when he was commanded to ſet his houſe in order, for he ſhould die, and not live, he crieth out. “Remember now, O Lord, how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight : and Hezekian wept fore:’ or as the words are in the original, “He wept with great weeping.” But, to guard this, take theſe two cautions.
