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
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
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
thus calls Bring me the first of thy Age and Bring me the first of thy strength How darest thou then carry it unto the Devil instead of him This Command is yet more express where the Lord calls for a present Repentance a present Obedience from us saith he not in Jer. 25. 5. Turn ye now every one from his evil way saith he not in Psal 95. 7. O that ye would hear his Voice to day saith he not in Psal 147. 12. Both young Men and Maidens old Men and Children O Praise the Lord Young Man do not venture to slight the Command of that God who can speak thee into Hell for slighting it Do not offend and provoke that God who can with hot Thunder-bolts avenge thy doing so CONSIDER II. 'T is for your own Interest and Benefit now to Remember God. It is impossible to reckon up all the Advantages of Early Religion Indeed Godliness is profitable for all things but Early Godliness that that is it which brings most profit unto the Owners of it It is truly said in Lam. 3. 27. It is good for a man that he bear the Yoke in his Youth Young Man Remember God and it will please Him. It was very pleasing unto God when Abel brought the Firstlings of his Flock unto Him The Lord said in Jer. 2. 2. I Remember the kindness of thy Youth If we Remember God in our Youth God will Remember the seriousness of our Youth the savouriness of our Youth and the kindness of our Youth a great while afterwards It was the Speech of God in Hos 11. 1. When Israel was a child I loved him When Persons are in their Childhood vertuous and gracious and such as Remember Him such persons are loved exceedingly by Him that loveth the Righteous When little Children were brought unto the Lord Jesus He blessed them What will the Lord then do for them that Remember to come themselves unto Him He will bless them for they please him exceedingly Remember God and it will also save thee O what a matchless Promise is there set before thee in Prov. 8. 17. They that seek me early shall find me Thou shalt find Christ and find God and find the Pearl of great price by the Eaâ—ly seeking thereof Whoever does miss of mercy from God yet unto the Young Person the Lord saith in 1 Chron. 28. 9. If thou seek him he shall be found of thee This is a certain way to find Grace to find Glory to find every good thing seek early for it Indeed they are not only centain Finders but also glorious Finders Eminent and Transcendent Finders that are Early Seekers of the Lord they are the Josephs and the Samuels and the Davids of the World. CONSIDER III. Remember God Now or there is Danger that you never will at all As he said in Joh. 3. 4. How can a Man be born when he is old so How can a Man be New-born then It seldom is Our Text says Remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth It may be rendred In the days of thy Choice You now make your Choice If you choose God in your Youth Well but if you now choose Lust and Sin a thousand to one but God will confirm that Choice the Lord may say Let him that is filthy be filthy still and Let him that is wicked he wicked for evermore Besides the Mortality there is also an Obduration which thou art in danger of It is a direful Menace of God in Gen. 6. 3. My Spirit shall not always strive If thou dost now resist the strivings of the Lord thou dost as it were smother them and banish them 't is to be fear'd that they will take an Eternal Farewell of thy forsaken Soul. Dost not thou Tremble at this O thou Heart of Adamant If this horrible thing should be the Portion of thy Soul Down Down Down thou goest into the Pitt among them that cannot hope for the Truth of God. God prevent so great an Evil God make every young Person among us a Josiah that While he is yet young shall seek the Lord. God make every young Person among us an Abijah that while young shall have in him some good thing toward the Lord. God enable every young Person to say as Obadiah did I fear the Lord from my Youth Now unto thee O God I bend my knees with my Prayers that thy Converting Grace may produce multitudes of such tender Grapes in this Vineyard of the Lord. FINIS
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
O my God my Soul is cast down within me therefore will I remember thee Are there Distresses on us that cause Dejections in us We should then Remember that God who can do what he will then Remember that God who has bid us hope in him And when we Remember him we should still joyfully say My help is in the Name of the Lord. Finally Such a Remembrance of God as will procure an Interest in God such a Remembrance of God as will maintain a Communion with God This is the Remembrance that we are to endeavour for Prop. III. To Remember their Creator is a thing that Young Men are very particularly oblig'd unto Indeed Young Men are apt to reckon this the most improper and unpleasant Address that can be made unto them Do thou Remember thy Creator They judge it fitter only for elder Men to hear of such a serious thing But the Voice of God is even to Thee and Thee O Young Man Do thou Remember me There are two Arguments here set before us evincing this to be a most reasonable thing Argument 1. 'T is thy Creator certainly The Young Man be he never so young has cause to Remember him It was but a rational Proposal in Psal 95. 6. O come let us worship and bow down let us kneel before the Lord our Maker If God be thy Maker it becomes thee to be his Servant Thou art wholly beholden to God for all the Powers of thy Spirit for all the Members of thy Body Whom shouldest thou then first use them for but the Lord alone It was a sharp Rebuke to Belshazzar in Dan. 5. 22. The God in whose hands thy breath is him thou hast not glorified Even so thy Breath and Being is from the Lord and shall it be said of thee Him thou hast not Remembred this were a very vile thing indeed It is a similitude used if I mistake not by some of the Ancients If any Man could be so ingenious as to make an Engine able to think or speak he might justly expect the first work of that Engine should be to acknowledge the maker of it Thus Young Man it was but lately that thou camost out of the Hands of God the first rational Action of such an one surely should be a Religious Action It cannot be too soon for thee to Remember him in whom thy living and thy moving and thy very being is Argument 2. The Evil Dayes are coming of which thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them Old-Age is not a Time for the Service of God to be begun in or to be delayed unto Youth Youth is the only Time. First Old-Age is not a proper Time for us to defer the Remembring of God unto It is an unworthy thing to deal with the God of Heaven so It is an absurd as well as a wicked thing The Lord complained of this in Mal. 1. 13. Ye brought that which was torn and the lame and the sick thus ye brought an Offering should I accept this of your hands saith the Lord In like sort Young Man is it suitable that the Devil should have the Prime of thy Strength And that God should be put off with a few lame and sick Devotions after all Is it suitable that thou should'st wast all thy very Marrow and Spirit upon thy cursed Idols but bring unto God a few Torn crazy Howlings at the last Should I accept this of your hands saith the Lord There is a Story of one who did attempt to Repent in Old-Age after a Dissolute and ungodly Youth but heard such a Voice from Heaven as that Des illi Furfurem cui dedisti Farinam The Devil had thy Flower and dost thou think to bring thy Bran to me In thy Youth wilt thou continue a Traitor and a Rebel against the God of Heaven And wilt thou imagine to be received and protected by him in the Age when perhaps thou hast none else to go unto When thou art scarce able to sin at thy usual rate shall that be the only Time for thee to leave it off Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth was there ever any thing so Disingenious Secondly Old-Age is not an easie Time for us to defer the Remembring of God unto Young Man wilt thou not look unto the Lord that thou may'st be saved Until thine Eyes are almost out Until those that look out of the Windows be darkned Wilt thou not lay hold on Eternal Life until thy Hands are shaking with a Palsie until the Keepers of the House do tremble Wilt thou not Run the Race that is set before thee until thy Feet call for a Staff until the strong men do bow themselves Alas these things will not be easie then Know that thy Sin will then be stronger If it be hard for thee to part with a Lust now what will it be then An old Tree and an old Lust are not easily pulled up by the Roots It is said in Jer. 13. 23. Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may you also do good that are accustomed to do evil An old Custom and an old Disease are not easily cured We read of a Devil dispossessed with a wonderful Difficulty in Mark 9. 25 26. The Spirit cry'd and rent him sore and he was as one Dead What was the cause of those terrible convulsions We are told the foul Spirit had been in that Person of a Child An unclean Spirit a drunken Spirit a profane Spirit that has dwelt in a Man from his Childhood unto Old-Age O 't is not easily driven away It is said in Heb. 3. 12. Exhort one another to day lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin Deceitful Sin tells the Young Man To morrow to morrow will be soon enough to leave thy evil wayes But the Heart grows harder and harder still To morrow than it was to day Know likewise that thy strength will then be smaller The Philosopher truly called Old-Age the Winter of life We commonly say of Old-Age It is it self a Disease and attended with a thousand more Then it is that Pallor in Ore sedet Macies in Corpore toto A pale a lean and a feeble State of Body comes upon us and then also the Mind grows more heavy and listless It is as much as the Old Man can well do to encounter the manifold Infirmities of his Age And wilt thou never obey the Lord until thou canst not enjoy thy self When David said unto Old Barzillai Come thou over with me The Old Man answering in 2 Sam. 19. 34. How long have I to live can I discern between good and evil Can I taste what I eat or drink No let Chimham go Thus our David our Jesus when he says to an Old Man Come over to me the reply may be Alas I have but a little while to live the Force of all my senses is abated let the Young man go over to the Lord. Thirdly Old-Age is no
them who cannot plead so O that every young Man would remember that saying in Prov. 1. 10. My Son if sinners entice thee consent thou not walk not thou in the way of them and remember that saying in Prov. 13. 20. He that walketh with the wise shall be wise but a Companion of fools shall be destroyed What shall I say more In fine Remember young Man that on thy Death-bed thou wilt gnash thy Teeth at the sight of such Companions thy groan will then be O gather not my soul with sinners and one of them in thy Chamber would then be thy Torment there Well then save your selves from this untoward Generation 2. Abandon the Sin of Sabbath-breaking that you may Remember your Creator It is the Command of God in Exod. 20. 8. Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy Men are like to Remember God himself if they remember this day of the Lord as they ought to do If you look through the World you shall see that Mens Religion is as their Sabbath is The Sabbath is the Engine by which by the Bible true Remembrance of God is kept alive It is the Description which the Lord gives of all good Men in Isa 56. 4. They that keep my Sabbaths and choose the things that please me Young Men this is the Day to which all other days may say Thou art worth Ten thousand of us Of this Day it shall evermore be said O thou Day that is highly favoured the Lord is with thee blessed art thou among the Dayes and cursed is he that despises thee Young Persons are apt on this day to be vain in their Thoughts and Words and Idle in their whole Behaviour But labour thou to spend this Day as a Market-day for thy Soul spend it in Holy Duties and in those things that may prove both a Cause and a Sign of thy Rest among the People of God for ever Do according to that in Isa 58. 13. Call the Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord and honourable Do not abuse this high Day of God as the Prophet said unto Gehazi Is this a Time to receive Money so let me say Is this a time to be making of Bargains or to be ordering of Journeys Much more Is this a time for Rioting and Drunkenness for Chambering and Wantonness or for such things as are never seasonable No 't is not such a Time To the young People that make it such a Time I would say as in Neh. 13. 18. You bring Wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath Such Persons are the meer Achans of the Land they live in Finally There are many other sins of Youth especially that sin of Vncleanness which we must avoid and forsake if we would Remember God Let no Young Man allow himself in those cursed things RULE III. Let us Remember the virtuous Example of them that have been good betimes especially the Holy Pattern of the Holy Jesus It is said in Heb. 13. 7. Remember them whose Faith is to be followed So it may be urged Remember them whose Youth is to be followed If we remember them we shall remember God. There have been young Persons that have had the Grace of Forty at the Age of Twenty in them Sometimes a young Man has given up himself to God by a Covenant never to be forgotten A young Man has maintain'd a course of daily supplication and besides often had his extraordinary Dayes of Prayer and Praise a young Man has upheld a course of daily Meditation and besides accustomed himself to read the Scripture with such Attention as to fetch a Note and a Wish out of every Verse before him such an one I have lately follow'd unto the Grave Many more such Instances of Early Piety perhaps a Young Man here and there may afford unto us O now Go thou and do likewise But above all the Lord Jesus Christ calls for our Imitation It is said of Him in Psal 110. 3. Thou hast the Dew of thy Youth In his Youth it self a Dew of Grace was to be seen upon him in his Youth he fulfilled the whole will of God in his Youth he was always about his Fathers business He now says to Young Men what he says to All Men in Joh. 13. 15. I have given you an Example that you should do as I have done O then study Christ Jesus observe Christ Jesus follow Christ Jesus ask What was the Behaviour of Christ Jesus in his Youth and Be as he was in the World. RULE IV. Let us remember the profitable Instruction of them that wish well unto us There is a twofold Instruction which young Persons among us are made partakers of There is Pastoral Instruction and there is Parental Instruction under which you sit Regard this Instruction lest you mourn at last and say How have I hated Instruction and not obeyed the voice of my Teachers You enjoy Pastoral Instrnction O despise it not You have with Sermon after Sermon been publickly and solemnly called upon to Remember God. Besides this I have personally treated with some scores of you about your Eternal Welfare and I hope I may live to visit every one of you for this end earnestly and urgently beseeching of you to be Reconciled unto God. It was of old enjoyned in Deut. 31. 12. Gather the People together Men and Women and Children that they may hear and learn and fear the Lord Behold the Children as well as the Adult have been advised here to Remember the Lord. What is now the effect of it I will for once wax bold with you and say as Dying Bolton said unto his Children Children let any of you meet me at the day of Judgment in a Christless unregenerate estate if you dare I will testifie against you I say again I will testifie against you before the Lord Jesus if you do You enjoy Paternal Instruction too O refuse it not Does not thy Father or thy Master or thy Mother charge thee to Remember God Did they never charge thee to read the Word and seek the Face of God and to make Conscience of thy Wayes Then My Son hear the Instruction of thy Father and forsake not the Law of thy Mother What befell the Sons of Eli those Sons of Belial in 1 Sam. 2. 25. They hearkened not to the Voice of their Father because the Lord would slay them Art thou a young Person counselled by a good Parent to Remember the Lord The Lord will slay thee yea The Lord will Damn thee if thou dost not Hearken thereunto Thus are we to Remember God And O who among you are more than almost perswaded hereunto Let a few Considerations more add weight unto those that have also bespoke it of you CONSIDER I. The God of Heaven has Commanded you to Remember him you have this Command in a shadow under the Law of old It was required in Exod. 22. 29. Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of the ripe fruits unto me The Lord
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