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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	lusty_a	young_a	youth_n	44	3	8.0310	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70554	Early piety, exemplified in the life and death of Mr. Nathanael Mather, who ... changed earth for heaven, Oct. 17. 1688 whereto are added some discourses on the true nature, the great reward, and the best season of such a walk with God as he left a pattern of.	Mather, Cotton, 1663-1728.; Mather, Samuel, 1651-1728.	1689 (1689)	Wing M1097A; ESTC R20873	63,808	161

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

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 belo●●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

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 i● 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 be●● 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 ● 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 an● 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

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 gi●● them their Character yet I may ventu●● to say It 's no disgrace unto him in the Opinion of Men that love Learning and Virtue that he was the Son of Increas● 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 Decea●●ed Brother I may without any culpa●●● 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 Year● Old with such an humble Reflection ther●●upon How little have I improved this tim● 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 workin● Mind and urged me to afford some Re● unto my Eyes which have been almo●● 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 litt●● 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