“When she saw that she was not regarded, she fetched 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 spoke to those that were rude, and told them the danger of dying before they had grace in their hearts.  She told them also, that death might be nearer than they were aware of; and bid them look, when they went through the churchyard again, if there were 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:  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 die, 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 bade 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 a check to their vice, and they might remember and turn to God.

“Then they all went down but her darling, to wit, the child that she had most love for, because it followed her ways.  So she addressed herself to that:  ‘Come to me,’ said she, ’my sweet child, thou art the child of my joy; I have lived to see thee a servant of God; thou shalt have eternal life.  I, my sweetheart, shall go before, and thou shalt follow after, if thou shalt hold the beginning of thy confidence steadfast to the end.  When I am gone, do thou still remember my words.  Love thy Bible, follow my ministers, deny ungodliness still, and if troublesome times shall come, set a higher price upon Christ, his word and ways, and the testimony of a good conscience, than upon all the world besides; carry it kindly and dutifully to thy father, but chose none of his ways.

“’I would have thee also, my dear child, to love thy brothers and sisters, but learn none of their naughty tricks; ’Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.’  Thou hast grace; they have none.  Do thou therefore beautify the way of salvation before their eyes, by a godly life and conversation conformable to the revealed will of God, that thy brothers and sisters may see and be the more pleased with the good ways of the Lord.’

“Thus she talked to her children and gave them counsel; and after she had talked to this a little longer, she kissed it and bid it go down.

“Well, in short, her time drew on, and the day that she must die.  So she died with a soul full of grace, a heart full of comfort, and by her death ended a life of trouble.”