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
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
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
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
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
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
many Sins against such a good God as the Lord is III. What Mercies I had received for which I desire to bless the Lords Name 1. He hath given me to be born of Godly Parents 2. I have always had the means of Grace lengthen'd out unto me 3. The Lord hath graciously pleased to give me some answers of Prayer 1. As to the lengthning out of my Health 2. As to the Increase of my Library What shall I render to the Lord for all his loving kindness towards me I resolved to Dedicate my self wholly to God and his Service And he did accordingly This Year did not roll about before he had in a manner very solemn entred in to Covenant with God. This weighty and awful thing was not rashly done by him or in a sudden Flash and Pang of Devotion He Thought he Read he Wrote and he Prayed not a little before this Glorious Transaction between God and him and upon Mature Deliberation he judged it most adviseable for him to make his Covenant with God as Explicit as Writing and Signing could render it that so it might leave the more Impression upon his Heart and Life and be an Evidence likewise which in Temptation or Desertion he might have recourse unto Wherefore he set apart a Time for I think secret Fasting and Prayer before the Lord and then behold how this Young Man counting it high time for him to be bound out unto some Service took a course for it He subscribed an holy Covenant of which this was the Matter this the Form. The Covenrnt between God and my Soul renewed confirmed and signed Nov. 22. 1683. Whereas not only the Commands of God who hath often called upon me by his Word Preached to give up my self both Body and Soul to be at his Disposal which calls by the publick Ministry were enough to engage me unto this but also the Christian Religion which I profess and my Baptism in which I took the Lord to be my God and promised to Renounce the World the Flesh and the Devil and to dedicate my self unto the Service Work and Will of God do bind me hereunto In that God is such a God as deserves this yea infinitely more than this at my hands my Creator the Fountain of my Being my Preserver my Benefactor my Lord my Soveraign my Judge He in whose Hands my Life my Breath and all my concerns are He that doth protect me from all Dangers and supply me in all wants support me under all Burdens and direct me in all streights He alone that can make me happy or miserable He alone that can save me or damn me He alone that can give inward Peace and Joy that is my Friend my God In that Self-Dedication is the Creatures Advancement these First-fruits if in Sincerity putting upon me a Gloriousness and Excellency In that Felicity hereafter depends upon my dedicating of my self unto God now In that this is the highest piecâ— of Gratitude I am capable of expressing unto God and I know no better way to Obey the Will of God than first to give up my self unto him And whereas the Mercies which the Lord hath been pleased graciously to bestow upon me are so many that even bare Morality doth shew me that I can never enough requite one that hath done so much for me except by giving up my self wholly to him 1669 Whereas God hath given me a Godly Father and Mother 1674 In that when I was like to dye being twice sick of a Feaver God was pleased to bless means for my Recovery and lengthen out the Thread of my Life 1675 Whereas when I by an Accident fell down and had like to have been deprived of the use of my Tongue God was in his good Providence graciously pleased to give me the use of it 1678 Whereas when I was sick of the Small-Pox God was pleased to bless means for my Recovery Whereas then I made Promises unto God that if he would give me my Health I would endeavour to become a New Creature and he hath done so for these five Years And whereas God hath of late been bestowing many and wonderful mercies upon me What can I do less than give up my self wholly to him Which now I do And O Lord God I beseech thee to accept of thy Poor Prodigal now prostrating of himself before thee I confess O Lord I have fallen from thee by my Iniquity and am by nature a Son of Hell but of thy Infinite Grace thou hast promised Mercy to me in Christ if I will but turn unto thee with all my Heart Therefore upon the Call of thy Gospel I come in and from the bottom of my Heart I renounce all thy Enemies with whom I confess I have wickedly sided against thee firmly Covenanting with thee not to alloâ— my self in any known Sin but coâ—scientiously to use all means which â— know thou hast prescribed for the uâ—ter destruction of all my Corruptions And whereas I have inordinately I out my Affections upon the World here resign my Heart unto thee thâ—â— made it humbly Protesting before tâ—â— Glorious Majesty that it is the finâ— Resolution of my Heart and that I 〈◊〉 unfeignedly desire Grace from thee thâ—â— when thou shalt call me thereunto â— may put in practice my Resolution through thine Assistance to forsake 〈◊〉 that is dear unto me in the World râ—ther than to turn from thee to tâ—â— ways of sin and that I will watch againâ— all it's Temptations whether of Prosperty or Adversity lest they should witâ—draw my Heart from thee beseechiâ—â— thee to help me I renounce all my own Righteousnesâ— and acknowledge that of my self I aâ— helpless and undone and without Rigâ—teousness And whereas of thy bottomless Mercy thou hast offer'd to accept of 〈◊〉 and to be reconciled to me and 〈◊〉 be my God through Christ if I woulâ— accept of thee I do this day avouch thee to be the Lord my God. I do here take the Lord Jehovah Father Son and Holy Ghost for my portion and chief Good and do give up my self Body and Soul for thy Servant promising to endeavour to serve thee in Righteousness and Holiness I do here also on the bended knees of my Soul accept of the Lord Jesus Christ as the only and living Way by which sinners may have access to thee and do here joyn my self in a Marriage-Covenant with him O Lord Jesus I come to thee hungry poor miserable blind and naked and a most loathsome Creature a condemned Malefactor Who am I that I should be Married unto the King of Glory I do accept of thee for my Head and Husband and embrace thee in all thy Offices I renounce my own Worthiness and do choose thee the Lord my Righteousness I do renounce my own Wisdom and do take thine for my Guide I take thy Will for my Will and thy Word for my Law. I do here willingly put my Neck under thy Yoke I do subscribe to all thy
Laws as Holy Just and Good and do promise to take them as the Rule of my Thoughts Words aâ— Actions but because I am subject 〈◊〉 many failings through frailty I do heâ— protest here before thee that unalloâ—ed miscarriages contrary to the constaâ—bent of my Heart shall not disanâ—â— this everlasting Covenant Nathanael Matheâ— It may justly be taken for granted thâ— such a work as this would have an inflâ—ence into his Conversation afterwards and so it had producing in him a Conveâ—sation which became the Gospel of Christ Hâ— kept waiting upon God not only in tâ—â— Family but also under the Ministry of tâ—â— that were near a-Kinn unto him namely his Father and his Brother whereby thâ— Grace thus begun in him was not a liâ—tle cherished and promoted And untâ— all known sins he now kept saying asâ— find once in Short-hand written by him To my Lusts I have had Communion with you all thâ—â— while but I dare not have so any longer Wherefore I renounce all Communion with yâ—â— any more I will cleave to the God that made mâ— But a Year or two after this it was witâ— him as I have observed it is too commonly with such as are Converted betimes unto God. An unhappy gradual Apostacy carried him aside from those degrees of seriousness and intenseness in divine things which he had been used unto 'T is possible an entanglement in a Familiarity with some that were no better than they should be did abate of the good savour which had been upon him and decoy him by insensible steps to some vanities tho' not to any scandalous immoralities that were disadvantageous to him For divers Months he seemed somewhat yet not totally much less finally forsaken of that Wisdom and Vertue which he had before been an example of but the good Spirit of God will not let go his Interest in a Soul of which he hath taken a saving hold This Young Man soon entertained just resentments of his own declensions and it was impossible for the most Badger-tooth'd malice in the World to aggravate any of his Errors half so much as he did himself in his own Repentance for them In the Year 1685. God visited him with sore Terrors and Horrors in his wounded Soul the anguish whereof he thought intolerable yet he made not his condition known to any Body all the while He could say My complaint is not to man but he made it unto the Lord This poor man cryed and the Lord heard and delivered him out of his distresses He arrived in time unto some settlement and renewal of his Peace with God He confessed and bewailed his own sins before the Lord and declared his detestation of them and applyed himself unto the Lord Jesus Christ for Salvation from them all Good terms being thus establish't between the Almighty Lord and this Immortal Soul he maintained I think a constant and an even Walk with God until he dyed I find now that Language in his MSS Let me be as active a Servant of Christ as I was of Satan heretofore For more than the three last years of his Life he lived at a strange rate for Holiness and Gravity and retired Devotions He read Mr. Scudders Christians daily walk and Dr. Owen of Spiritual Mindedness and had a restless raging Agony in his Mind untiâ— the Methods of Religion advised by thosâ— worthy Men were Exemplified in his own Behaviour 'T is a note in one oâ— his Diaries O my great unprofitableness under thâ— means of Grace I have cause to bless God for ever for the Writings of that never enough to be admired and loved by me Dr. Reynolds and for the Light I have received thereby concerning the sinfulness of Sin as also that excellent Book of him whom I shall always honour Dr. Owen of Spiritual-mindedness and Mr. Scudders Christians daily Walk by which three Books I have profited more than by any other S. Scripturis exceptis in the World. He was at first surprized at the measure of Spiritual-mindedness without which that great Saint Dr. Owen apprehends the Life and Peace of Souls to labour under prejudice and he thought a Mind swallowed up in such Heavenly Frames and Works as were needful thereunto almost wholly to be despair'd of until as himself a few hours before he dyed said unto me he deem'd he saw an Instance of such a Walk with God not very far from the place of his abode To which purpose his reserv'd Papers have a large Discourse of which this is in the Conclusion There might be a greater Progress in Religion than is commonly thought for What have I Examples for but to imitate them Abraham is fam'd for believing so strongly when he had no Example before him Let me try and see whether I having such opportunities may not arrive to as high a pitch in Christianity as any that I have known He then in the strength and thrô the Love of God set himself into a vvay of strict secret laborious Devotion vvhereby thô none but God and He fill'd the Theatre vvhich he acted upon he vvould be in the Fear of the Lord all the day long He withdrew from the delight of this World and gave himself up to an assiduous Contemplation of God and Christ and a sedulous endeavour after utmost conformity unto him Thus 〈◊〉 kept abounding in the Work of the Lord until three Years of wonderful Holiness had ripened him for eternal Happiness My Account of him will be an unfinished Piece unless all the ensuing stroke go to make it up These things he was Exemplary for First He was one that walked by RVLE He was very Studious to learn the waâ— of conversing with God in every Duty and there vvas a Rule which he attended still unto In his private Papers I find a wiâ—â— Collection of Rules by which he goverâ—ed himself in the several Duties of Chrâ—stianity and in all the Seasons and Stations of his Life He consulted the best Authors for Instruction in the Affairs of practical Religion and not into Paper only but into Action to be transcribed what he most approved in all which The Will of God was the bright Pole-Star by which he steer'd his Course The Reader shall enjoy and O that he would follow two of this Young Man's Directories One of them was this I. O that I might lead a spiritual Life Wherefore let me regulate my Life by the Word of God and by such Scriptures as these 1. For regulating my Thoughts Jer. 4. 14. Isa 55. 7. Mal. 3. 17. Psal 104. 34. Phil. 4. 8. Prov. 23. 26. Deut. 15. 9. Eccles 10. 20. Prov. 24. 9. Mat. 9. 4. Zech. 8. 17. 2. For regulating my Affections Col. 3. 2 5. Gal. 5. 24. For my Delight Psal 1. 2. Psal 37. 5. For my Joy Phil. 4. 4. Psal 43. 4. My Desire Isa 26. 8 9. Ezek. 7. 16. My Love Mat. 22. 37. Psal 119. 97. My Hatred Psal 97. 10. My Fear Luk. 12. 4 5. My Hope Psal 39. 7.
him the dismal Consequences of this ungodly Walk Consider O Man the danger of all the wild lewd Courses that vain Persons do Walk and Run into First There is a Curse which thou dost Walk under Hear the loud Voice of God in Lev. 26. 23 24. If you will not be Reformed but will walk contrary to me then will I also walk contrary to you All the Imipety all the Unrighteousness of thy Walk is contrary to God. The Curse of God therefore inflicts a Damage and a Mischief upon thee in all his Dispensations that horrible Curse accompanies thee like thy Garment like thy very Shadow in all thy ways Moreover Secondly There is an Hell which thou dost Walk unto Methinks that Speech of God is all Thunder in Eccl. 11. 9. O Young man walk in the wayes of thine Heart but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into Judgment This even this is the warning of the most High God unto every Unreclaimed Sinner Well if that be thy Walk take it but know thou that the End of such a Walk is Death and Shame and Ruine for Evermore Know thou that the Wrath the Fiery Wrath of God comes upon the Children of disobedience for such a Walk as thine Now Consider of this all you that forget God. The Psalmist could say as in Psal 119. 59. I thought on my ways and turned Ah! Lord That wandring Souls may thus think and Turn Poor Soul Thou art out of the way O Stop O Turn come back from that hideous Walk which leads down to the Congregation of the Dead Come back into the Walk that thrô the Narrow way leads to Life world without end Hark! Thy God calls after thee Return Return O Soul. VSE II. And a good Advice is hence therefore given to every Man. O Walk with God! What would not we gladly be as Enoch was 'T is said of him by Moses He walked with God. When Paul comes to Paraphrase upon it he so expresses it in Heb. 11. 5. He pleased God O 't is pleasing to God when he sees Men Walking with him The Lord hath shewed thee O Man the thing that is good and what is it It is Walk humbly with thy God. 'T is noted of Enoch That God took him Men in their last Wills usually bequeath their Souls to God But many a Man may do well to examine Will he take it will he take it Except we are Walking with God while we Live we shall not be taken by God when we Die. 'T is only the Walker with God who can expire with that Confidence in Psal 49. 15. He will receive me Let us Walk with God and at our Dissolution we shall be Taken by him up to the matchless and endless Glories that are above He will send his Angels our Guardians now and our Champians then to take us unto the Rivers of Pleasures at Gods right Hand for evermore Dost thou Walk with God Behold that is it that thy Walk tends unto Soul God and thou shalt never part Yea let us Walk with God and we shall be taken by him if the Destruction of the World should now come upon it There will a Day come when swift Lightnings and hot Thunderbolts will consume this lower World God knows when this direful horrid Conflagration shall begin But whenever it is all that Walk with God shall becaught up to meet the Lord He will take you into the Clouds from the reach of the Sulphureous Flames Enoch foretold the coming of this Fiery Day They that are like Enoch shall even like Enoch with a Translation escape the Terrors of it O let us Walk as the People that believed these awful things RULE I. Let us Tread in the Steps of the Lord Jesus Christ and we shall then walk with God Part of his Errand into the World was to set us an Example of such a Walk Now we are told in 1 John 2. 6. We ought so to walk even as he walked O look upon the walk of him that kept close to God without one wry Step one wrong Step for above thirty Years together in the World. What a sort of a Walk was His We read in Act. 10. 38. He went about doing good He walked in all manner of Piety and Charity He Walked in a perpetual endeavour to please and serve His Father Sic oculus sic ille manus sic ora ferebat That was his Walk and it is said in 1 Pet. 1. 21. He has left us an Example that we should follow his Steps Of late Years among the Mahometans even among the Barbarous Turks themselves there are sprung up a vast Sect of Men who are called The good Followers of the Messiah These hold that Christ is God and that he is the Redeemer of the World and they are of such Repute that it is an Applause among them You are the Follower of the Messiah What shall be said of us then if we are not the Followers of our Blessed Jesus Verily the Men of Arabia and Anatolia will condemn us in the Judgment of the Lord. RULE II. Let us Walk with Good men and we do it with God himself If our Conscience be not fearfully stupified it will tell us What sort of men have most of God among them We are with God when we Walk with such as Walk after the Lord. Let us Walk with good Men in their Principles It was wise Counsel in Prov. 2. 12. 20. To deliver thee from the man that speaks froward things walk in the way of good men There may happen a Controversie in some Article of Religion which perhaps thou hast neither Time nor Skill to settle thy own Mind about Observe now which way the generality of sober serious praying People go What gratifies good men is most likely to be the Truth of God Dost thou see which way the loose vile carnal sort of Men go Then Come not into their secret O my Soul. Let us Walk with good Men in their practices too Look upon their Mortification upon their Devotion upon their Zeal and be able to say as in 2 Cor. 12. 18. Walked not we in the same Spirit Walked nor we in the same Steps There has been a famous Tribe of Scholars in the World known by the Name of Walkers 'T is the Name that all Christians may lay claim unto they are Walkers O be of their Society say truly I am a Companion of them that fear God. RULE III. Let us Eat well that we may Walk well 'T is written of Elijah in 1 Kings 19. 8. He did eat and drink and went in the strength of that meat eighty Miles unto the Mount of God. Would you engage in a Walk with God Let me then say as the Angel to the Prophet Arise and Eat for the walk is too great for thee A twofold eating are we to be urg'd unto Let us by a Contemplative Eating chew upon the Word of God. Never do any Men Walk with God
because of my foolishness But we shall not always be complaining so God will take us from all our Corruptions God will take us from all our Disorders God will take us from the reach of so much as one vain Thought for evermore I may speak after Moses in Deut. 12. 8. Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day though ye are not as yet come to the rest which the Lord your God giveth you When the Walls of this Clay Tabernacle are batter'd down all the Leprosie which now cleaves unto us will be done away We shall shortly take an eternal farewel of every Lust and say Be gone thou vile thing be gone I will never see thee more Indeed it was the cursed Womb of sin from vvhich Death at first came into the World. But O the Mystery of Divine Wisdom The Daughter destroys the Mother and by Death shall sin go out of the World again Secondly God will take the Believer from the state of a Mourner here There are many and mighty Temptations which now cause us to vex as Rebeckah did at her Annoyances in Gen. 27. 46. I am weary of my life Yea but vvhen thy life is expired they shall never weary thee any more God will take us from all seducing Temptations and remove all Evil Counsellors from our presence for ever The fiery Darts of the Devil shall not reach us and wound us as heretofore We shall not be put upon saying Get thee behind me Satan for Satan shall be far enough below us The time will come when we shall march as Conquerors thorough these Territories of the Prince of the Power of the Air and at the utmost Borders thereof we shall give such a triumphant Shout Adieu foul Fiend adieu The Son of David will never let me come into thy devouring Jaws again We shall go likewise from the Intanglements of the World. The things of this World we shall turn our backs upon as upon poor Trifles poor Nothings and miserable Comforters and vve shall say To the Fire I leave you all The Men of this World vve shall be no more flattered or terrified vvithal but laugh at all the Favour and all the Fury of those poor Worms and say as our Saviour to the Jews Whither I go you cannot come God will take us from all afflicting Temptations too As for our Spirits we shall not weep as we do now under our Doubts and our Fears nor any more say God counteth me for his Enemy As for our Bodies we shall drop them and all the Ails and all the Pains of them as Elijah did his Mantle of old As for our Names we shall be gone from the scourge of the Tongue there shall be no Shimei to curse us in the New-Jerusalem which we go unto No Losses no Crosses will then affect us nor Cain's Club of Persecution ever lay a blow upon us any more Thirdly God will take the Believer from the state of a Waiter here It is the Voice of all good Men in 2 Cor. 5. 2. We groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from Heaven Our last groans will put a period unto those groans God will take us from our Faith and from our Hope it shall be turned into Sight and Love and Joy World without end We shall e're long leave looking for the Rest which remaineth for the People of God Leave looking for that City whose Builder and Maker is God Leave looking the Crown of Life the Crown that fadeth not away We shall have what we have been looking for and we shall be taken from our humble prayerful careful Expectations of it We shall no more be panting after the Promise and saying O when will it come unto me All the sure Mercies of the Covenant will say unto us We are come we are come we are now thine for evermore PROP. II. They that Walk with God shall be taken by God unto a glorious Estate in Heaven too We shall be taken by God when we are taken by Death But unto what shall we be taken A New Sight will chiefly constitute the New State vvhich God will take us to In short we shall be taken to a Full Refreshing Transforming sight of God in Christ among the Righteous for ever I shall give but a touch at these things we do but stammer and stumble vvhen we attempt a Description of them Indeed I know not vvhether I had best offer at any Description of this glorious Estate or instead thereof only say as he said unto Nathanael once Go and see Yet however this little Cluster of Notions we may carry with us to the heavenly Countrey from vvhence they were brought unto us First God will take the Believer unto a state wherein he shall be immediately beholding of himself in Christ Jesus We shall come into the Presence of our Lord and behold our Joseph our Jesus in all his glory There shall then be fulfilled that part of our Lord's Intercession in Joh. 17. 24. Let them be with me where I am that they may behold my glory God will take us where we shall see the Countenance and hear the Conference too of that Man in vvhom dwells the fulness of the Godhead bodily God will take us into the Embraces of him vvho has loved us and washed us away from our sins in his own blood And when we see him we shall see God in him I suppose that he is the large Golden Vessel full of God from which the heavenly Visions of God are to be derived for evermore Our Felicity shall be that in Mat. 5. 8. They shall see God. God will take us vvhere we shall be made sensible of his Attributes and Perfections in a measure that we are not us'd unto God will take us vvhere we shall not so much in any Creature as in the Mediator see him that is Invisible Secondly God will take the Believer unto a State wherein he shall be wonderfully Conformed to Himself and Christ Jesus The Children of God have His Nature His Image now upon them they shall hereafter arrive to the fulness of it and be filled with all the fulness of God The Psalmist could say in Psal 17. 15. I shall be satisfied when I awake with the likeness of God. God will take us vvhere our Knowledge will be enlarged like the sands on the Sea-shore Where our Vertue shall be compleated into an Heart after God's own Heart God will take us vvhere the Sun of Righteousness will replenish us with bright Beams of Light and Love until we be like him for we shall see him as he is Thirdly God will take the Believer into a State wherein he shall enjoy the best Society of most Righteous Ones We shall be able to speak after the manner of the Apostle in Heb. 12. 22. I am come to an innumerable company of Angels and to the general Assembly of the first-born The Angels they are our Guardians now
more important thing Remember the Glorious Faculties and Endowments of thy soul Remember what a price what a vast price the Lord Jesus counted not too much for thy soul Remember how desirous the Angels are to assist how desirous the Devils are to destroy that soul of thine Remember these things when thy Enemies are bartering for thy soul When our Lord was betrayed for a little Money He said in Zech. 11. 13. A goodly price was I valued at of them Remember that as the voice of thy Soul when thou art under Temptation to evil things When thy Tempters would have thee sell thy soul for a song When they would have thee pawn thy Soul for a Cup or an Oath or a Penny or indeed for the best thing in this World now Remember that Expostulation of thy own soul Am I worth no more than so A goodly price am I valued at Thirdly Remember the Word and thou wilt Remember the Lord The Word of God Written the Word of God Preached is vouchsafed unto us Remember that and be able to say after the Psamist in Psal 119. 16. I will not forget thy Word Let our Memories be full of Truth and they will be full of God. Our Memories are a costly curious Cabinet it is pity that there should be only vile rags and shreds laid up therein We can Remember too well old songs and old wrongs Our Memories are too like the Walls of the House which Ezekiel saw in Ezek. 8. 10. whereon the Forms of creeping things and abominable Beasts and cursed Idols were pourtray'd all round about For these things we may say as one said unto his Friend that offer'd to teach him the Art of Memory Sir said he If you would teach me the Art of Forgetfulness I should be more pleased with it But for the things of God there our Memories should serve us there our Memories do fail us wonderfully I have read of a young Man whom all the pains in the World would not make to Remember the letters of the Alphabet Such lamentable forgetfulness in the Sacred and Solemn things of another World are young people too subject unto It is Recorded of Joseph in Gen. 41. 51. that he called his First-born Son Menasseh or Forgetfulness Such O such a Name young Persons may often put on their own Souls when the Word of God is brought unto them their Souls are so many Menasseh's O how forgetful are they when God has been speaking to them Our Lord said unto his Disciples in John 15. 20. Remember the word that I said unto you Every time you read a Chapter or hear a Sermon then Remember that the Lord says Remember this The Apostle so speaketh in Heb. 2. 1. The things which we have heard we should not let them slip 'T is an allusion to a Leaky Vessel Young People the Great God is pouring his Commandments and Promises and Threatnings into your Souls every day O do not suffer them to leak away Retain in your own Souls the sense and use of the things that you hear from God the Lord It is said in Rev. 3. 3. Remember how thou hast received and heard When thou hast received and heard a message from the God of Heaven give thy Soul now that charge Remember this O my Soul Remember it Fourthly Remember Eternity and thou wilt Remember Him that inhabiteth Eternity It is said in Eccles 11. 8. Let a man Remember the days of darkness for they shall be many Thus would I say Let a young man remember the dayes of Eternity for they shall be endless The Psalmist has that Expression in Psal 77. 5. I have considered the years of Ancient Times There are who so render it I have considered the years of Eternity O Remember that Eternity which every hour brings thee a Step nearer to than thou wast before Remember that Eternity wherein thou shalt enjoy inexpressible Happiness or endure intolerable Misery World without end A Person of Quality having spent some Time in unlawful Games at Night could not sleep giving this Answer to one that required the Reason of it Yesterday I cast my Eye occasionally on a Book wherein I saw that Word ETERNITY and that word has broke my Heart within me O that thing Eternity Eternity the Remembrance of it will Awe thy Heart if it will not break thy Heart within thee Remember that thou art going to an Estate of Weal or of Woe and that thou shalt remain in that Estate fixed like a Rock for infinitely more than a thousand Million of Ages RULE II. Let us Abandon that which would hinder us to remember God. There are some fatal things that are called in Job 13. 26. The Iniquities of youth And in Jer. 31. 19. Tbe Reproach of youth An Entanglement in those will spoil a Remembrance of God. To all young Persons now is that Call of Heaven in 2 Tim. 2. 22. Flee youthful Lusts To particularize 1. Abandon the Sin of Ill Company-keeping that you remember your Creator Be able to say with him in Psal 26. 4. I have not sat with vain persons Many an hopeful young man has been ruined by falling into the Society of the Profane Never was there a more bloody Murderer of Souls than that Society The very Heathen could observe and the Apostle Paul quotes the Speech of an Heathen Poet for it That evil Communications corrupt good manners Now they are Evil Companions with whom those evil Communications are Young man dost thou see others that will Drink and Game and Swear and Scoff I would call upon thee as Moses upon them in Num. 16. 26. Depart from the Tents of these wicked men lest ye be consumed in all their sins Do not so much as begin a needless familiarity with Wicked men Don't Walk with the ungodly lest you come to stand with the sinners and at last sit with the scornful Remember that bad Companions will cause you to sin with them The Jews in Babylon grew very cold in the matter of Building the House of God. Why so Their dwelling among the lewd and wild Babylonians procur'd this indifferency I have thought how came Corah a Levite to hook in Dathan and Abiram and the Reubenites into a Conspiracy with him I find that the Levites of Kohath and the Reubenites pitched their Tents near together on the South-side of the Tabernacle So they infected one another Remember that bad Companions will cause you to dye with them too I pray how came Ahaziah to meet with his Death before his Time It was by visiting a debauched bigotted Idolater the infamous Jehoram When you fall into a Knot of Impious Men you are like the Man Travelling to Jericho who fell among Thieves that stripped him and wounded him and departed leaving him half-dead Some Persons going out of the World have comfortably pleaded that with God Lord let me not be with wicked men for ever for I never cared to be with them here Sad is the Case of
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