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Swallowed Up in God

Precious in the sight of the Lord
is the death of his saints.

—Psalm 116:15

Thomas Goodwin went home in 1679. Of his final moments, his son wrote:

In all the violence of [his fever], he discoursed with that strength and assurance of Christ’s love, with that holy admiration of free grace, with that joy in believing, and such thanksgivings and praises, as he extremely moved and affected all that heard him. . . . He rejoiced in the thoughts that he was dying, and going to have a full and uninterrupted communion with God. “I am going,” said he, “to the three Persons, with whom I have had communion: they have taken me; I did not take them. . . . I could not have imagined I should ever have had such a measure of faith in this hour. . . . Christ cannot love me better than he doth; I think I cannot love him better than I do; I am swallowed up in God. . . .” With this assurance of faith, and fullness of joy, his soul left this world. (Works, 2:lxxiv–lxxv).
—Meet the Puritans (Reformation Heritage Books, 2006), 273.