Heb. 10. 31. It is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the living God. What what shall now be done by us in short let us be Walking with God and we shall be taken by God. Say now every Soul as in Mic. 4. 5. We will walk in the Name of our God for ever and ever Elijah was taken as he was walking Let us Walk thus and God will take us Be sure God will take us if we take Him. Let us take him as our Lord take him as our End take him as our exceeding great Reward Thus take Him in our Walk and He will take us from our Walk to our Crown VSE II. Consolation Let it be our Joy that when we are not we shall be taken by the Lord. Behold a Cordial here against three sorts of Exercises First Against all the Troubles of this Life We are apt to be discouraged at the Difficulties of this Evil World But the Voice of our God unto us is that in Luke 21. 28. Lift up your Heads for your Redemption draweth nigh E're long you shall not be and then your Afflictions too they shall not be God will take you from them all And what says Paul's Calculation in Rom. 8. 18. For I reckon he speaks like an Arithmetician or an Accomptant that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory which shall be Revealed When two English Protestants one that was Blind another that was Lame were leading to be Burned they so cheared one another Well fare we we shall need our Crutches and our Guides no more after this Thus let us in all our Trials think When I am beyond the Stars I never shall be under the Clouds any more Have you any Sorrows hard to bear Are you afflicted in your Friends Hast thou like David a Son that makes thee say My life is spent with Grief Hast thou like Jephtah a Daughter that makes thee say Alas thou hast brought me very low thou art one of them that trouble me Hast thou Job's or Abigail's Yoke upon thee O think I shall shortly be gone from the Light and Sense of such things as these Are you afflicted in your Names Are you like Elijah counted a Troubler of Israel or like Jeremiah a Man of Contention or like Paul a Pestilent Fellow and a mover of Sedition O think I shall meet with none of these Reproaches where I am going Are you afflicted in your Bodies or your Estates Are you like Timothy cruciated with often Infirmities Or like Naomi going out full and coming home empty of Temporal Goods O think I shall quickly be where a Spital or an Alms-house tbere never was any occasion for Are there any snares that you are too often trepan'd into O think of the Time when all this Earth shall be to you as an Invisible point think The Dy'd and see how they Covenanted and Walked and Lived with the Lord. Methinks these do now call unto us as in Luk. 23. 28. Weep not for me but weep for your selves Does Jacob say Joseph is not Does Rachel say My Children are not Why has God taken them they beloâ—â—ed unto Him. 'T is said in Joh. 11. 〈◊〉 Jesus wept over Lazarus One of the Ancients affirms it was not because he was Dead but because he was about to be made Alive again I do not justifie the Gloss but I am sure our departed Ones as it were call unto us from the lofty Battlements of Heaven We would not be with you again for all the World. Let us then rise and wash and change our Apparel and say I will go to them they shall not return unto me THE DUTY AND INTEREST OF YOUTH OR The Thought of an Elder on the Death of a Younger Brother Uttered Octob. 28. 1688. Eccl. XII 1. Remember Now thy Creator in the dayes of thy Youth THE great Emperor Augustus making an Oration to his mutinous Army began it with that surprizing Expression Audite senem Juvenes quem Juvenem senes audierunt when I was a young Man old Men counted me worthy to speak unto them now I am an old Man methinks young Men should not refuse to mind what I say Truly such might the Speech of our Solomon be by way of Preface to the Text now read unto us surely this old Preacher deserves the attention of every young Person among us all It is a Passage uttered by this matchless and inspired Prince in Prov. 22. 20. Have not I written to thee excellent things It is by some rendred so Have not I three times written for thee He hath indeed so we have three Books composed by that Royal and Renowned Pen one of which wears the Title of Ecclesiastes because that such was the Author of it We are told of some in 2 Chron. 11. 17. They walked in the way of David and of Solomon What way is that It was the way of David that he sinn'd he fell he dishonoured God exceedingly but he soon Repented and recovered and then by writing the fifty first Psalm he gave an Evidence of his doing so This was the way of Solomon too he departed from God with a wonderful Apostacy but being reclaimed and reduced from his Wanderings he now Publishes a Testimony of it unto all the World. This Book is a sacred and solemn Treatise concerning the chief good of Man It contains the Holy and Humble Retractations of a famous Monarch who had sought where he could not find the satisfaction of an Immortal Soul he had got up to the top of all sublunary Felicity and from thence beholding poor Men toil and sweat unreasonably to get up the rocky ragged Hill after him with a loud Voice he now calls unto them all You are mistaken there is nothing but Vanity and Vexation here Upon this the wise Man assures us all That in the Acquaintance and the Enjoyment of God alone is all our Happiness and in the inculcation of it Young Men are particularly apply'd unto We have a Dehortation given to them in the conclusion of the former Chapter and an Exhortation in the beginning of this In the former is a sharp Sarcasm but a grave Counsel in the latter Two things make up the Exhortation First A Duty enjoyned Remember thy Creator in the Hebrew 't is Thy Creators which notes a plurality of Persons in the adorable Godhead Secondly A Season advised In the dayes of thy Youth It intimates not that Persons past their Youth are exempted from this Command but that Persons in their Youth are peculiarly engaged herein wherefore the Doctrine before us is Doctrine It is the Duty of All Men and peculiarly of Young Men to Remember their Creator so as to acknowledge Him. Prop. I. The Blessed God who is Father and Son and Spirit is the Creator of Men Unto Man about God it may be said He is thy Creators Indeed in God there are more Persons than one In the New Testament that Mystery of a
safe Time for us to adjourn our Piety unto The Young Man allots upon Old-Age as that which he may very seasonably grow sober in But Young Man what if thou should'st never arrive to Old-Age at all That is the Hap of multitudes multitudes every day The Sons of Job were all of them Young Men but they died suddenly seven of them at once We have that Warning often repeated unto us in Job 21. 23. One dyeth in his full strength Young Persons of both Sexes are liable to the Stroke of Death We read in Luke about the Funeral of a Young Man the Son of a Widdow We read in the same Evangelist about a young Woman which lay a dying when she was but about Twelve years of Age. The Arrest of Death likewise falls upon young Persons of all Estates The Son of Jeroboam was a Gracious Youth but he dyes The Sons of Eli were Vicious Youths and they dye too So does the young man Absalom after his Brother Amnon As young as thou art and as lively and as lusty too 't is possible thou may'st like Eutichus fall down dead before the Congregation be dismissed Hast thou a lewd Dream of an Old-Age to reserve all Virtue for Alas there are more die before Twenty than after Sixty Years of Age. A Child once being observed to become a very prayerful and pensive Child gave that Account of it I was in the Burying-place t'other day and there I saw a Grave shorter than my self Let the youngest of us all go to such a place and see whether there be not Graves of our Dimensions there And what if now thy Death find thee before thy Peace be made with God What if thy Death find thee a poor Unconverted Unregenerate Creature before the Lord It may be written on thy doleful Grave It had been good for that Person that he had never been Born. Infinitely more than a thousand Ages of Woes and Plagues must be the Portion of such a miserable Soul. Fourthly The young Man has many Conveniencies to excite and assist his Remembrance of the Lord. There seems to be a sort of Correspondence between Youth and Grace Youth seems mightily adapted and agreeable to the Exercise of that lovely thing A quick Wit is one Prerogative of the young Man Well how can he lay it out better than by doing like that young Man in Psal 119. 9. Taking heed unto the Word of God The Young man has a Tenacious Memory What can he do better with it than fill it with Divine Treasures Warm Affections are stirring in the young man where should he set them but upon the things which are above The Spirits of young men are mettlesome why should they not be fervent serving the Lord The Bodies of young men are vigorous why should they not be a living Sacrifice unto God There is a brave Courage in Youth how can it better show it self than by overcoming the Wicked One Youth is a merry Age let it then rejoyce in the Lord. O nothing is more comely or natural than that young Men should remember God. Prop. IV. All the three Persons in God are to be distinctly considered by us when we remember him Not only our Creator but also our Creators is to be remembred First We are to remember God the Father Him we are to remember under that consideration in Eph. 1. 3. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Remember Him as the Fountain from whence all does proceed and to which all must Return Remember Him as the first cause and so the last end of all things Remember Him as the Father of thy Lord and go to Him for a Fathers Blessing in His Name O remember Him and let the outery of thy Soul be Let this Father be my Father for evermore Secondly We are to remember God the Son Him we are to remember under that Consideration in Act. 5. 31. A Prince and a Saviour to give Repentance unto Israel and Remission of sins Remember Him as the Saviour in whom all fulness dwells Remember Him as the Jesus who delivers from Wrath to come Remember Him as a Redeemer able to save unto the uttermost and go to Him for that Salvation entreat Him to be thy Prophet and thy Priest and thy King for ever Thirdly We are to Remember God the Spirit Him we are to Remember under that Consideration in Psal 143. 10. The good Spirit that leads into the land of Vprightness Remember Him as the Quickner of them that were dead in Trespnsses and Sins Remember Him as the Comforter of all that mourn Remember Him as the Inhabitant of the Contrite and the Humble Heart and seek to be led by Him World without end Thus are we to Remember our Creator in the dayes of our Youth VSE I. Let them that have not Remembred their Creator in the days of their Youth now in the days of their Age be ashamed of it and afflicted for it There are two sorts of Aged People to be now treated with There are some that are Converted unto God but late They squandered away most of all their Youth before they turned their feet unto the Testimonies of the Lord. It becomes these Persons now as they Remember their God so likewise to Remember their Sin You make that your daily Prayer in Psal 25. 7. Remember not against me the sins of my youth Be assured that God's dealing with you will in many regards be quite contrary to your dealing with your Sins If you love them he will hate you If you slay them he will save you If you would have God not Remember them O then do you remember them your selves 'T is said in 1 Cor. 11. 3. If we would judge our selves we should not be judged of the Lord. Well then every one of you like Pharaoh's Butler now say I remember my faults this day O Remember all the lying all the idleness all the profuseness and profaneness of thy Youth When Paul was a young Man he had an hand in Abusing and Murdering an Eminent Minister of God but he Remembred it with sorrow all his dayes O! said he many Years after When the Blood of Stephen was shed I was consenting to it Come now and sit down in the Dust this day before the Lord come and lament it and bewail it that you so long lay out from God and that you so long did the things for which the Wrath of God comes upon the Children of Disobedience Be able to say My Soul has this in remembrance and is humbled in me But perhaps there are some of you that never yet were Converted unto God at all As they said in Jer. 8. 20. The Harvest is past the Summer is ended and we are not saved thus may too many confess Our youth is past and we are not Renewed Surely 't is Time 't is high Time for you to Remember your God yet at last before you go hence and be no more Let this encourage you That
no more by him And yet must acknowledge that the little understanding which God has given me in the Hebrew or Greek Tongues was by that my Brother as the instrument So that I have cause whilst I shall live to honour his Memory His Death makes me remember the Poets words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I cannot but know that if I should not fear and serve the God of my Brothers and of my Fathers and of my Grand-Fathers the nearest Relations I ever had in the World will be Witnesses against me at the last day The Lord give us a joyful meeting in the day of Christ. London February 5 th 1689. Samuel Mather THE INTRODUCTION MY Reader will quickly discern what it is that I attempt the doing of and I suppose he will then see no occasion of enquiring Why. The Apology's wherewith Writers usually fill the Prefaces of their Books Do come of Evil either the Vanity of the Composers is discovered or the Candour of the Perusers questioned in them That I Write the Life of a Christian cannot be faulted by any one who Considers That the Lives of Pious Men have been justly esteemed among the most useful Histories which the Church of God Enjoyes or that the best Pens in the World have been employ'd in thus helping the Just unto Eternal Memory Our Lord will have as mean a thing as one Act of Devotion and Charity in a poor Woman to be mentioned wherever His Gospel comes That I write the Life of a Brother will not be reckoned absurd by them who understand what Patterns I have both Ancient and Modern for my doing so James Janeway among the rest has had our Thanks for what an Account he has given of his Brother John. Indeed if I should not thus Raise up for my departed Brother a Name in Israel I were not worthy to Wear a Shoo or to have a Face unspit upon My Natural Relation to him doth oblige me to bestow an Epitaph upon his Grave that the Survivers may not forget whose Dust they tread upon But I am by that which Ambrose calls a Greater and Better Fraternity concerned to Embalm the Memory of One who maintained such a Walk with God as he did until God took him to Himself It has been observed That they who Live in Heaven while they are on Earth often Live on Earth after they are in Heaven It were lawful for me to desire and Study such a thing on the behalf of my Brother whose Early Piety is at once my own Shame and Joy But I pursue an higher End than this designing rather to procure Followers than to bespeak Admirers of this good Example That this is my Main Scope in what I am now doing of I declare sincerely and very solemnly And hence I have not here made an Oration in his Praise but given barely a Narrative of his Life and this mostly by Transcribing of his own Memorials in all affecting the plain style of a Just Historian I do therefore Address this Exemplary Life unto the young People of New-England and especially unto those of North-Boston who are the Lambs that I have Received a peculiar Charge from the Lord Jesus about the Feeding of To you do I present this Mirrour wherein you may see the Exercises of a Virtuous Youth not only prescribed but also practised before your Eyes You shall see as what should be done so what may be done by a Young Person in order to Everlasting Felicity see him and hear him as One come from the Dead saying Do as I have done The Father of him whom I describe has Laboured exceedingly for the Conversion of the Rising Generation in New-England and his CALL to them has been Printed and Reprinted here among us Thô the News of a Sons Death must needs be afflictive to him when he shall have the Report of it arriving to him in the other England yet I make no doubt but his Parental Griefs will be not a little Mitigated when he shall hehold that Son thus Renewing his CALL by speaking after he is Dead This Young Man did pray much for you while he was Alive that you might be truly Converted unto God he does preach now to you from the Grave or rather from the Sky that you would Remember your Creator in the dayes of your Youth I wish that he may to use Chrysostoms Phrase become a Brother to you by Faith as he is to me by Blood And I extend this my wish with a most Affectionate Application to the Young Gentlemen who belong to the Colledge which he was a Member of As you have had in his Father a Rector whose Generous and Expensive Cares have not been for your disadvantage so you have in his Diligence and his Devotion a Copy which is not altogether unworthy of your Imitation I am setting before you the Exercises and Accomplishments of a Scholar whose chief Study it was to be Wise unto Salvation a Scholar who Laboured while he was Learning all other things not to be Ignorant of Him Whom to know is Life Eternal I am not without Hope that some of you will now resolve as Jerom did when he had read the Life of Hilarion shutting up the Book and saying Well here shall be the Champion whom I will follow When you come to Dye you will certainly commend such a Life as his god grant that none of you may then have cause to sigh Qualis Artifex pereo Or to complain Surgunt Indocti rapiunt Coelum Nos cum nostris Doctrinis mergimur in Infernum That Great Man Hugo Grotius near his End professed That he would gladly give all his Learning and Honour for the Integrity of a poor Man in his Neighbourhood that spent Eights Hours of his Time iâ— Prayer Eight in Labour and Eight in Sleep and other Necessaries and unto some that applauded his Marvellous Industry he said Ah Vitam perdidi operose nihi Agendo But unto some that asked the beâ—â— Counsel which a Man of his Attainment could give he said Be serious 'T is with this Counsel that I humbly offer you the ensuing History Advertisements THere is just now publisht a Treatise entituled Reformed Religion or Right Christianity described in its Excellent and Usefulness in the Whole Life of Man. Written by 〈◊〉 Barker Minister of the Gospel Price bound 1 â— There will in a few days be publisht A new Martyrology 〈◊〉 the Bloody Assizes now exactly methodized in one Volume comprehending a compleat History of the Lives Sufferings anâ— Deaths of all those Excellent Persons who fell in the West 〈◊〉 elsewhere from 1678. to 1689. with the Pictures of several 〈◊〉 the Chief of them in Copper-plates To which is added 〈◊〉 Life and Death of George Lord Jefferys Both sold 〈◊〉 John Dunton at the Raven in the Poultrey THE LIFE and DEATH OF Mr. NATHANAEL MATHER I Write the Life and Death of a Young Man whose Ornament will awaken in the Reader an Enquiry like that which
Looks made the Treasure in him wholly unsuspected by Strangers to him yet they that were intimately Acquainted with him can attest unto the Veracity of him that giveth this Description and there are no mean Persons who will profess with Admiration That they could scarce encounter him in any Theme of Discourse which he was not very notably acquainted with But the Bark is now split in which all these Riches were stowed A Spanish wrack hath not more Silver than the Grave of such a Young Man hath Learning buried in it Indeed these things Mortâ— Erunt perhaps they dyed with him Buâ— there is a more Immortal thing to be observed in him and that is II. His PIETY Tho' a fine Carriage was the least thing that ever he affected yet a Good Nature made him dear to those that were familiar with him He was always very obliging and officious and more ready to do than others could be to ask a good turn at his hands But he was above all happy by being Early in pure Religion The Common Effects of such a Piouâ— Education as the Family in which he lived afforded unto him were seen even in his Childhood and secret Prayer became very betimes one of his Infant Exercises He does in his MSs. particularly take notice of a Scripture Copy set for him when he learned to Write as a thing that had much Efficacy on him but when he was Twelve or more Years old more powerful Convictions did the Spirit of God set home upon him than he had been used unto some Records therefore I find in his Papers with this Clause in the Head of the Account Rejoyce O my Soul for the Lord has dealt bountifully with thee Now it was that he allowed his Pen to write these among other Expressions of his Trouble about his Estate Feb. 19. 1682. What shall I do What shall I do to be sav'd Without a Christ I am undone undone undone for Evermore O Lord let me have Christ tho' I lye in the Mire for ever O for a Christ O for a Christ a Christ Lord Give me a Christ or I dye It was now another of his Registred Meditations I have been in a Great Hesitancy whether I should choose Jesus Christ for my Prophet Priest and King with all his Inconveniencies to take up my Cross and follow him Wherefore I do now take him as mine my whole Christ and my only Christ and I am resolved to seek him All that I have shall be at his Service and all my Members and all my Powers shall endeavour his Glory And yet again there were these Considerations in his Mind Had I not better seek the Lord Christ while I have a Time of Prosperity and Peace while he offers himself to me saying Come unto me and I will save thee and lay all thy Burdens upon me and I will sustain thee Than in Affliction to cry and not be heard when he stretcheth forth his Hand and says Believe on me and thou shalt be saved and now to Day he offers himself shall I refuse and say Lord To Morrow No surely And these pathetical Groans then likewise got a Room in his Papers O that I had a Christ O that I had Him who is the Delight of my Soul Then O then I should be perfectly Blessed and want no food that would make me so This is a Copy of the Passages then Recorded in this Young Believers Diary Thus did he now Labour to affect his own Soul with his own State and leave things no more at peradventures between God and him He read many savoury Books about Faith and Repentance and Conversion and he Transcribed many Notes therefrom not resting satisfied within himself until he had some experience of a true Regeneration Among other workings of his Heart at this Age his Papers have such things as these Reasons for my speedy closing with Jesus Christ First It 's the Command of Jesus Christ that I should come unto him Secondly Jesus Christ Invites me also in Matt. 11. 28. Come unto me Thirdly He hath laid me under many Obligations to turn unto him in that he hath recovered me from Sickness so often and now given me a curious Study Fourthly In that I have vow'd unto the Lord if he would do so and so for me I would make a solemn Covenant with him and endeavour to serve him And again elsewhere O that God would help me to seek Him while I am Young O that he would give unto me His Grace However I will lay my self down at his Feet If he Save me I shall be happy for ever if he Damn me I must Justifie him O thou Son of God have mercy on me I know not what to say but I will take thee at thy Word Thou sayst Come unto me my Soul answers Lord at thy Command I will come He thus continued following hard after God enjoying and answering many striveings of his Holy Spirit until he was about Fourteen Years Old. In this time he did not a little acquaint himself with profitable Godliness being frequent and fervent in his Prayers to God upon all occasions and careful not only to hear Sermons but also to consider after them what Improvement he should make of what he heard Not only his Prayers but his Praises too now took notice of even the smallest Affairs before him I know not whether you can see any thing Childish I am sure I see something serious in a passage or two that I shall fetch out of his Diary written when he was about Thirteen years old On March 13. he wrote This day I received of my Father that famous Work The Biblia Polyglotta for which I desire to praise the Name of God Again on June 29 he wrote This day my Brother gave me Schindlers Lexicon a Book for which I had not only longed much but also prayed unto God Blessed be the Lords Name for it The Thoughts of Death also now found a Lodging in his Heart and he Rebuked himself because he had been so much without them Tho' at this Age for the most part Persons think of any thing every thing more than of their dying day And his writings discovered him to be pecâ—liarly affected with that Ancient History or Apologue of him who after a dissolute and ungodly Youth going to repent in Age heard that Voice from Heaven to him Des illi Furfurem cui dedisti Farinam The Devil had thy Flower and thou shalt not bring thy Bran to me Self-Examination was also become one of his Employments and once particularly in one of his Diaries he does thus express himself April 8. 1683. This Morning I was much cast down with the sense of my Vileness I Examin'd I. What Sins I had that were not Mortified 1. My sin of Pride 2. My sin of Vnthankfulness 3. My not improving the means of Grace as I ought to do II. What Graces I find need of 1. Converting and Regenerating Grace 2. Humiliation for my
Seventeenth of Jeremiah and the Ninth He was Dejected yet not Despairing and he discôvered a wonderfully Gracious when he had not a Joyful Frame He was all made up of Longings and Breathings after all the fulness of God when he could not or would not pretend unto any Confidence of his Acceptance with the Lord. In the time of his Health he had not been without the comfortable Perswasions for which he follow'd hard after God. In one place I find him saying on such a day I had Fears lest I did not love the Blessed God but yet I was sure I desired to keep his Commandments Another time so For Three quarters of an Hour I pleaded earnestly for assurance of the Love of God unto me and I said As many as received Christ Jesus to them he gave power to become the Sons of God And I did receive Jesus Christ as the Free Gift of God and received him to save me on his own Terms I chose him to be my Priest and Prophet and King. Now I begg'd of him that he would manifest his Acceptance of me and give me the Spirit of Adoption I had then I hope some Assurance But when Sickness came he was loth to own a clear Title to the Rest of God Yet before he died he suffered some sober Intimations of his hopes to fall from him There was a good Man in this Land whose last words yet were It had been good for me that I had never been born The words of this humble Self-loathing Young-Man were of another strain In the last Night that we had him with us he would have his Watcher to read The Song of Simeon unto him Now lettest thou thy Servant depart in Peace And in the Morning after he said I have now been with Jesus Christ which from such a little Speaker as he we could not have his Explication of In one of his last Minutes a faithful Minister said unto him Find you not Comfort in the Lord Jesus Christ To which he made only this discreet and humble Answer I Endeavour to do those things which will issue in Comfort and then he quickly surrendred up his Redeemed and Renewed Soul unto him who had loved him and washed away his sins in his own blood Thus he went away to the heavenly Society where he is beholding the Face of God in Righteousness and solacing himself in the Company not only of his blessed Grandfathers and Vncles and all the Spirits of the Just but of the amiable Jesus himself which is by far the best of all His Tears are all dried up his Fears vanished away and his Hopes more than answered in Joys unspeakable and full of glory His Elder Brother having thus written of him now satisfies himself in the Duty therein done to God and Man and would keep waiting for his own Change until Thy Free Grace O my God shall give unto the most miserable Sinner in the World an admission into Emanuel 's Land. Cotton Mather Finished Octob. 29. 1688. One that had an Acquaintance with him did him the Justice of weeping over his Grave such an Epitaph as this INclosed in this sable Chest The Host once of an heavenly Guest Here lyes Vpright Nathanael True Off-spring of God's Israel Him Dead how term we from his Birth Who liv'd in Heaven whilst on Earth His Head had Learnings Magazine His Heart the Altar whence Divine Whole Hecatombs which Love had fir'd Of high Praise and warm Pray'r aspir'd His Life the Decalogue unfolded A Meat-off'ring his Speech well moulded His rare Devotion such now seen A sign of Ninety at Nineteen Years but in Bloom Grace at full growth Angels you Know and Think his Worth. Thus Time Youth's Glass Turn'd e're 't was Run And Ages too before begun Rest glorious Dust and let thy perfum'd Name Sound in the Trumpets of Immortal Fame For thô Times Teeth Mausolaean Monuments deface They 'll never gnaw thy Name which with the Stars has place Pos uit R. Hale FINIS SEVERAL SERMONS CONCERNING WALKING WITH GOD AND THAT In the Dayes of Youth PREACHED At Boston in New-England By Cotton Mather Pastor of a Church there 1 King. 18. 12. But I thy Servant fear the Lord from my Youth 1 Chron. 34. 3. While he was yet young he began to seek after the God of David his Father LONDON Printed by J. Astwood for I. Dunton at the Black Raven in the Poultrey over against the Compter 1689. THE WALK OF HOLY and HAPPY MEN. GEN. V. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Enoch walked with God. BEhold in these words the Picture of a great and a good Man which indeed like a well-made Picture looks upon yea more than so speaks unto us all nor is it a common Picture for this also that the Walk as well as the Face of the Person is represented in it This Chapter contains a Catalogue of those Antediluvian Patriarchs in whom the Church of God and the Line of Christ was continued from Adam to Noah The ancient Heathens expressed their broken Traditions of our Noah in rude Notions of one Janus a Man a god and I know not what with two Faces on him because Noah had the Prospect of two World◠before him We may all share with Noah in this Priviledge the Affairs of the Old World as well as of the New do arrive to our Notice in this Chapter particularly we have a Muster of renowned Men that lived before the Flood Indeed about the most of them there is little recorded besides their Age and their End. Ecclesiastical History relates that a Person of Quality accidentally coming into a Meeting-house where the Minister was reading the fifth Chapter of Genesis those words recurring so often in it And he Dyed And he Dyed they struck to they stuck in the Heart of him and caused him that was a mortal to become a very serious Man God grant that another clause in the Chapter may have this day as good an effect upon us all One of the Worthies in this Roll Enoch by Name can have no Report made of his Death but instead thereof we find a twofold Remark made upon him First We have the Character of Enoch 'T is once and again said of him He walked with God a peculiar sanctity-he seems therein to be set forth as an Instance of Secondly We have the Blessedness of Enoch 't is said He was not for God took him A Translation is intended by that Phrase as it is by the Apostle elsewhere explained It seems that this notable Preacher of Truth and Witness for God at last withdrew from the sight of Men They asked they wondred what was become of him and probably they sought in all corners for him 'till they understood that the Angels of God had carried him away Not only the spirit but the body too of this excellent man has now been among the Angels in Heaven for some hundreds above four thousand Years But it is now time to Observe Doct. To walk
like them that can say Meditation is sweet unto me 'T is said of Isaac He walked in the Fields to Meditate And indeed He walked with God when he was alone at that Imployment We should after a Sermon retire to Ruminate thereupon We should in an Evening reflect upon God's Mercy to us and our Carriage to him in the day foregoing We should often single out some Text or some Truth to Exercise our Thoughts upon This will strengthen us for our Walk Again Let us by a Sacramental Eating Feed upon the Bread of God. It is dreadful to see what multitudes do turn their backs upon the Table of the Lord. Alas that ever Men should break the Laws of God yea and the Vows of God as they do by this Omission Art not thou Baptized and now Old enough to be Confirmed Then as often as thou withdrawest from the Supper of the Lord he sets that mark upon thee There goes a Covenant-breaker out of Doors Answer to this Hast thou a sincere desire to Walk with God or no If thou hast not how darest thou sleep in that horrible Perilous Vnregeneracy If thou hast then come hither Come lamenting all thy Infirmities Let thy weakness quicken thee and not hinder O come for thy Food so thou shalt Walk and not faint yea Run and not be weary RULE IV. Let us be with God that we may Walk with Him. Be alwayes on God's side against Sins side All other siding may be culpable but this is Necessary this is Praise-worthy Indeed Sin that calls like Jehu in 2. King. 9. 32. Who is on my side who This is the outcry of Superstition and Profanity Who is on my side who But let me oppose that of Moses hereunto in Exod. 32. 26. Who is on the Lords side Even so Who is on the side of Godliness and Honesty Who is on the side of Holiness and Sobriety Who will bear a Testimony to all the Truths and all the Wayes of the Lord Let us all be on that side and Walk accordingly RULE V. Let us remember that we are Walking and it will be with God. Keep up the frame of Mortals and the frame of Strangers in the World. O Remember as Joshua in Josh 23. 14. I am going the way of all the Earth Remember thou art a Traveller The Psalmist says in Psal 39. 12. I am a Sojourner with God. The way to be with God is to remember I am a Sojourner O Remember this I am walking on the Borders of Eternity every day I am walking apace towards an eternal home This will make our Walk more amiable than that of the three things which go well or than that of the four things which are comely in their going THE GOOD END OF A GOOD WALK GEN. V. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And he was not for God took him THe Walk of Holy and Happy Men has been the Subject of our Discourse Behold the End of that Walk now offering it self unto consideration with us The Psalmist hath said unto us in Psal 37. 37. Mark the perfect and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace In the blessed Enoch we may see such an End of such a Man. Two little Clauses comprize the Account which Moses has given of it and the double Estate of this Great Saint is therein referred unto First It is said He was not This points at that Estate which he passed from You may conceive what he was in regard of his Condition and Employment here But now he was not that Sufferer he was not that Preacher any more Secondly It is said God took him This points at that Estate which he passed into Good took him to Himself God took him unto all that Light and Life and Heaven which the Angels themselves had before the Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ All that we have hitherto been told seems to be no more than what befalls every godly Man. But no less an Interpreter than the Spirit of God himself by the Apostle Paul has illustrated this Text with a more surprizing Interpretation of it Consult Heb. 11. 5. and we have this Paraphrase hereupon Here it is said He was not There 't is said He was not Found It seems that this Famous Prophet suddenly â—â—sappeared from the view of the World All Mankind with Wonder sought and ask'd and look'd after Enoch as they did after Elijah at another time but they could not find him Why What vvas become of him Here 't is said God took him There 't is said God had translated him that he should not see Death This was a very marvellous Providence He had born a zealous Witness for the Worship and the Truths and the ways of God against a wicked World. God vvould make them see that he own'd the Testimony and the Conversation of this vvorthy Man. Hence though Abel was murdered for his Piety Enoch shall be translated for his He was immediately fetched and changed into the Circumstances of the Glorified Thus he became as Tertullian says of him A Candidate of Eternity The Doctrine which we are hence allowed an Application of is DOCT. To be taken by God from a Mortal Estate on Earth to a Glorious Estate in Heaven is the Priveledge of them that Walk with him PROP. I. They that Walk with God shall be Taken by God from their Mortal Estate on Earth The Scholars of the Colledge at Bethel said once unto Elijah in 2 King. 2. 3. Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head to day And he said Yea I know it In like manner it may be said unto the Body of the Christian Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy Master thy Spirit from thy Head into another state one day Every Believer may reply Yes I know that it will be so Our Estate in this World is an Estate of Tryal God is here Trying and Framing and Shaping of us in order to everlasting Happiness or Misery And it is an Estate of Trouble too Our Fall from God is the occasion of the many Distresses that belong unto it This Mortal Estate of ours the Lord will one day take us from One day but on what day shall this Deliverance be Truly at our last day at the Day of our Death at the day that we are most ready to tremble at On that Day the Lord will deliver us from the hand of all our enemies and from the hand of sin First God will take the Believer from the state of a Sinner here The dolorous Anguishes of the best Men alive are like those of the Apostle in Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Soul I will tell thee what shall do it The Death of this Body shall That that will do the deed The Believer is now lamenting My iniquities are more than the hairs of my head he is now lamenting My wounds stink and are corrupt
it is not too late as yet for you so to do The Lord said in Jer. 3. 1. Though thou hast play'd the Harlot with many Lovers yet return unto me Even so thô thou hast committed many sins thô thou hast been sinning many years yet return unto me saith the Lord. There was in this very Land one that had lived a carnal stupid ignorant Person for about an hundred years and yet became a serious Christian before he dyed Unto the Oldest Enemy of God among us all I this day proclaim the mercy of the Lord O let this break thy heart and cause thee to come and say I will do Iniquity no more But let this also Terrifie you it will be too late for you e're long It is said in Psal 6. 5. In Death there is no Remembrance of thee Thy Death thy Death is just ready to seize upon thee and there is no work no wisdom in the Grave whither thou art going Then thy cry will be like that of Despairing Ones All too late All too late God prevent such a miscarriage of thy never-dying Soul. VSE II. Let us that are in our Youth Now Remember our Creator in it There are a multitude of young Persons to vvhom the Word of God may reach this day Now the Almighty God make this Word of his Quick and powerful and sharper than a two-edged Sword within their Souls Hear O Young People Hear that your Souls may live It is reported of Jotham in Judg. 9. 7. He stood in the top of the Mount and he lift up his voice and cryed and said Hearken unto me that God may hearken unto you Thus would I do thus would I speak this day Here I stand in the Name of God that made you all I would lift up my voice and cry and say O Remember your Creator now in the dayes of your youth If you will not hear this Call of God now God will not hear your cry to Him another Day God will be deaf to the Words of thy Roaring in the dayes of thy Age and of thy Death and of thy Wrath if thou art now deaf to the Words of his Counsel The Counsel and it is wholsome Counsel of our God now unto us is Remember me betimes In order thereunto these things are to be done Rule I. Let us Remember that which will help us to Remember God. First Remember thy Death and thou wilt Remember thy God. A Remembrance of Death will produce in a Man a serious and godly frame of Spirit One that was Remarkable for his Devotions gave that Reason of it O I must Dye I must Dye If a Young Man would awfully realize unto himself that thing I must dye it would highly promote an Acquaintance between God and him And young Man it is not too soon for thee to have the Apprehensions of it There was a young Man in this Land that left behind him in Writing Meditations to promote Preparation for Death O that every young man would be no Stranger to such prudent Meditations Let every young Person Remember this I shall dye very certainly As Job could say in Ch. 30. 23. I know that thou wilt bring me to Death So let the young Person say I know that I must e're long look the King of Terrors in the Face and I know that e're long I shall go thither whence I shall not return Often look upon that Scripture in Heb. 9. 27. It is appointed unto all Men once to dye Often look upon that Scripture in Psal 89. 48. What man is he that liveth and shall not see Death And let these warnings make a deep Impression upon thy Mind There was a Prince who gave a Pension unto a Person that he might once a day come and say unto him Remember that thou art a Mortal Man Do that office unto thy self every Day Look upon Death as the way of all the Earth And Remember I must go that Way Look upon Death as the End of all men and Remember I shall have that End. Remember there is no discharge in that War. Let every young Person also Remember this I shall dye very speedily While we are young we strangely promise our selves to live long Do not harbour that mistake but rectifie it by that Premoniton in Jam. 4. 14. What is your life It is even a Vapour that appeareth for a little time and vanisheth away Rectifie it by that Premonition in 1 Chron. 28. 15. Our dayes on the Earth are as a shadow and there is none abiding What are the poor Seventy years that the Life of Man is now contracted into Remember they are winged things they fly away with a marvellous Velocity We are truly told of them in Job 9. 25. that they are swifter than a Post yea more than so swifter than a Ship yea more than that swifter than an Eagle hast'ning to the Prey Besides Remember 't is possible that half of those years may be all that thou shalt ever see it hath been well said That an old Man has Death before his Face but a young Man has Death behind his Back Perhaps Death may strike thee down before him that is old enough to be thy Father Remember that there are Skulls of all sizes in Golgotha Secondly Remember thy Soul and thou wilt Remember thy God Thou hast a never-dying Soul within thee a Spiritual and an Immortal Substance able to discern and argue and affect with a wonderful Apprehension How frequently and fearfully do young Persons forget that they are Owners of such a Jewel Let every young Person Remember this The state of my Soul is miserable Remember the guilt and filth which thy Soul by it's becoming a constituent Essential part in one of Adams Children soon was defil'd withal Remember what a dreadful Anger and Vengeance of God thy Soul by thy sin is expos'd unto Remember that Character of thy Soul in Gen. 6. 5. Every imagination of the thoughts of the heart is only evil continually Remember that condition of thy Soul in Eph. 2. 12. Without Christ a stranger from the Convenant of promise having no hope and without God in the World. Remember what thou hast been doing unto thy Soul ever since thy Birth It is said in Prov. 8. 36. He that sinneth wrongeth his own Soul. O Remember what Wrongs what Wounds thy own Soul has had from thy own hand and Remember what an ever-gnawing Worm what an ever-burning Fire is now ready to seize upon that poor Soul of thine Thou art mindful of thy Body of thy Estate of thy Credit and mindful of almost every Creature which thou art concerned in Thy Soul now begs of thee O Remember me Let every young Person likewise Remember this The worth of my Soul is invaluable A Great Man was well advised once every day to remember that Sentence of our Lord in Matt. 16. 26. What is a man profited if he gain the whole World and lose his own soul Thou canst not Remember a
the Atchievments of David produced concerning him Whose Son is this Youth To Anticipate that Enquiry Nathanael Mather had for his Grand-Fathers Two of New-England's Fathers the Famous Richard Mather and the not less Famous John Cotton whose Names have been in the Church of God as an Ointment powred forth and whose Lives bear no little Figure in the Ecclesiastical Histories of our English Israel His 〈◊〉 being yet living it 's too soon to giâ—â— them their Character yet I may ventuâ—â— to say It 's no disgrace unto him in the Opinion of Men that love Learning and Virtue that he was the Son of Increasâ— Mather the well known Teacher of a Church in Boston and Rector of Harward Colledge in New-England What Gregory Nazianzen judged not improper 〈◊〉 be said about his yet surviving Father in his Funeral Oration upon his Deceaâ—â—ed Brother I may without any culpaâ—â—â— Adulation on this occasion say of him He is another Aaron or Moses in the 〈◊〉 of his God. Our Nathanael was born on July 6 1669. which I find him Recording 〈◊〉 his Diary when he was fourteen Yearâ— Old with such an humble Reflection therâ—â—upon How little have I improved this timâ— to the Honour of God as I should have 〈◊〉 He wanted not the Cares of his Father to bestow a good Education on him which God blessed for the Restraining him from the lewd and wild Courses by which 〈◊〉 many Children are betimes resigned 〈◊〉 to the possession of the Devil and 〈◊〉 the Furnishing him with the Accomplishments as give an Ornament of Grace 〈◊〉 the Head of Youth He did Live where he might Learn and under the continual Prayers and Pains of some that looked after him he became an Instance of unusual Industry and no Common Piety so that when he dyed which was Octob. 17th 1688. he was become in less than twenty years An Old Man without Gray hairs upon him To those two Heads with a sorrowful Addition of a Third I shall consine my account of this Young Man in which the Picture to be now drawn has nothing but the Truth and at least so much of Life in it as to look upon every Reader yea speak unto him saying Go and do likewise I. His INDUSTY He was an hard Student and quickly became a good Scholar From his very Childhood his Book was perhaps as dear to him as his Play and hence he grew particularly acquainted with Church-History at a rate not usual in those that were above thrice as Old as He. But when he came to somewhat more of Youth his Tutor who now writes was forced often to Chide him to his Recreations but never that I remember for them To be Bookish was natural unto him and to be plodding easie and pleasant rather than the contrary Indeed he afforded not so much a Pattern as a Caution to young Students for it may be truly written on his Grave Study kill'd Him. The marks and works of a Studious Mind were to be discerned in him even as he walked in the Streets and his Candle would burn after Midnight until as his own Phrase for it was He thought his bones would all fall asunder This was among the passages once noted in his Diary 10 M. 26 D. three quarters of an hour after 12 at Night After the many wearisom hours days months nay years that I have spent it humane Literature and after my many toilsom Studies in those Hours when the General silence of every House in Town proclaimed it high time for me to put a stop unto my workinâ— Mind and urged me to afford some Reâ— unto my Eyes which have been almoâ—â— put out by my Intenseness on my Studies after these I say and when 〈◊〉 am ready to do it Oh how unwilling am I to do it considering How littâ—â— I have served God in the day While he thus devoured Books it came to pass that Books devoured him His weak Body would not bear the Toils and Hours which he used himself unto and his Neglect of Moderate Exercise joyned with his Excess of Immoderate Lucubration soon destroyed the Digestion which his Blood should have had in the last Elaboration of it by that time sixteen Winters had snow'd upon him he began to be Distempered with many Pains and Ailes especially in some of his Joynts which at last were the Gates of Death unto him not without such very afflictive touches of Melancholy too as made him sometimes to Write himself Deodatus Melancholicus This was his way of living shall I say or of Dying And the success of this Diligence was according to the Temper of it Great When he was but Twelve Years Old he was admitted into the Colledge by strict Examiners And many Months after this passed not before he had accurately gone over all the Old Testament in Hebrew as well as the New in Greek besides his going through all the Liberal Sciences before many other designers for Philosophy do so much as begin to look into them He Commenced Batchelour of Arts at the Age of Sixteen and in the Act entertained the Auditory with an Hebrew Oration which gave a good Account of the Academical Affairs among the ancient Jews Indeed the Hebrew Language was become so Familiar with him as if to use the Expression which one had in an Ingenious Elegy upon his Death he had apprehended it should quickly become the only Language which he should have ocasion for His Second Degree after seven years being in the Colledge he took just before Death gave him a Third which last was a promotion infinitely beyond either of the former He then maintained for his Position Datur Vacuum and by his Discourse upon it as well as by other Memorials and Experiments left behind him in Manuscripts he gave a specimen of his Intimate Acquaintance with the Corpuscularian and only right Philosophy By this time he had informed himself like another Mirandula and was admirably capable of arguing about almost every Subject that fell within the Concernments of a Learned Man. Not only Philosophy but also Divinity did he now own a Body of The Difficulties of the Mathematicks he had particularly overcome and the abstruse parts both of Arithmetick and Astronomy were grasped in his Knowledge His Early Almanack and Calculations do something but the MSS. Adversaria left behind him in his Closet much more speak such attainments in him His Cronology was exact unto a wonder and the State of Learning with the Names and Works of Learned Men in the World this American Wilderness hath few that understand as well as he Besides all this for the vast Field of Theology both Didactick and Polemick it is hardly Credible how little of it his Travel had left unknown Rabbinick learning he had likewise no small measure of and the Questions referring unto the Scriptures which Phylology is conversant about came under a very Critical Notice with him Indeed he was a Person but of few words and his Words with his