EARLY PIETY, EXEMPLIFIED IN THE Life and Death OF Mr. Nathanael Mather, WHO Having become at the Age of Nineteen, an Instance of more than Common Learning and Virtue, Changed Earth for Heaven, Oct. 17. 1688. Whereto are added, Some Discourses on the true Nature, the great Reward, and the best Season of such A WALK WITH GOD as he left a Pattern of.  
The Second Edition. With a Prefatory Epistle by Mr. Matthew Mead.  
LONDON, Printed by J. Astwood for john Dunton at the Black Raven in the Poultry, 1689.   

To the READER.  
OF all Reading, History hath in it a most taking Delight, and no History more delightful than the Lives of good Men, it being not only pleasant, but profitable; and so while other Pleasures become a Bait to Vice, this becomes a Motive to Virtue. It may be said of such Lives as that Excellent Mr. Herbert said of Verses, 
A Life may find him who a Sermon flies,  
And turn delight into a Sacrifice.   
Thou hast here a rare History of a Youth, that may be of great use and advantage both to Old and Young: That the Aged seeing themselves outdone by Green years, may gird up their loins, and mend their pace for Heaven; and that Young ones may be so wrought into the love of Religion, as it is Exemplified in this holy Person, as to endeavour with all diligence to write after his excellent Copy.  
It is a great Work to die, and to die well is a greater; and no Work calls for greater diligence than this, because the Errors of the first work can never be corrected in a second. One great reason why this duty is seldom well done, is because we grudge Time to do it in, and leave it to be done at once. It is never like to be well done, unless it be always doing; and therefore we should, in Conformity to that great Apostle, die daily.  
This was the practice of this young Disciple, who among all his other Learning (wherein for his time he excelled most) had in Nineteen years so perfectly learned this Lesson, that the wise God saw it fit he should take out.  
About Fourteen years old he did dedicate himself wholly to God and his Service, and entered into a Solemn Covenant with God to that purpose: which as he did not begin rashly, and without great deliberation; so he did not transact it slightly, but with great sense and seriousness: The Matter and Form of which Covenant you have in this ensuing Narrative, signed with his own Hand, according to that word of the Prophet, (Isa. 44. 5.) One shall say, I am the Lords, and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob, and another shall subscribe with his hand to the Lord. And with what care and Conscience he platformed this Covenant, in Fasting, in Prayer, in Watch, in Self-Examination, in Meditation, in Thanksgiving, in Walking with God in all, is fully witnessed in what follows, which shows that he was a true Nathanael, an Israelite indeed in whom was no guile. Not like those Israelites which the Prophet reproveth, for that they flattered God with their Mouth,— lied to him with their tongues, their hearts not being right with him, nor steadfast in his Covenant. For having once given up himself to God, He kept the ways of the Lord, and did not wickedly departed from his God.  
When his worthy Father (my dear Friend) was pleased to send this Narrative to me, I confess I could not read it without great Reflection and Shame: Thought I, God will not gather his Fruit till it is ripe, and therefore I live so long; nor will he let it hang till it is rotten, therefore Nathanael died so soon. We are not sent into the World merely to fill up a Number of years, but to fill up our Measures of Grace, and whenever that is done, our time is done, and we have lived to Maturity, and so did this Youth, and therefore came to his Grave in a full Age (though at N●●●teen) like as a Shock of Corn comes in in his season.  
The following History is written by his own Brother, (a worthy Minister) the fittest of any for such a Province, the nearness of Relation occasioning that Intimacy which others could not easily have. In what he hath done herein, he hath deserved highly of all who love Goodness and Virtue, having used great Faithfulness, and great Modesty: Great Faithfulness, and that both to the Dead and to the Living; To the dead, in raising up the Name of such a Brother; and to the living, in giving us a Narration of his Life, without an Oration in his Praise; which indeed was altogether needless, when it was so fairly written by himself, for his own works praise him in the Gates. And he hath used great Modesty, in speaking for the most part out of the Journal of the Deceased, so that it is the dead who speak● while the living writes. And since his End is more to provoke to Imitation than to bespeak Admiration, How greatly doth it concern them into whose hands this Narrative shall happily fall, to join earnest Prayer and diligent Endeavour together in following this great Example, otherwise he that gave it, and he that writes it, will both rise up in judgement against an unteachable Generation.  
Matthew Mead. London, June 17. 1689.   

To the READER.  
IT is not for me to say much of the Person who is the Subject of the ensuing History, for that I am his younger Brother. I have read a Letter (dated October 25. 1688.) written to his and my ever honoured Father, wherein are these Expressions.  
Never could Parent have cause of more comfort in a Child, than you have in that Son of yours. I have seen his private Papers, and in them such an Instance of a Walk with God, as few ancient Ministers perhaps have Experience of, especially for the three last years of his Life, I find that he maintained a course of wonderful Devotion, Supplication and Meditation every day; that solemn Humiliations and Thanksgivings in secret, were no strangers to his Practice, that he would be often thinking with himself, What shal● I do for God? And in a word, that Dr. Owen's Book about Spiritual-Mindedness, has been in a very rare manner transcribed into his Conversation.  
He has been for his years a great Scholar, but a better Christian. The Life of the famous young Janeway, I think, has not more of Holiness illustrious in it, than that of your dear Nathanael's.  
I writ these things, because I judge you have no greater Joy. Some Eminent Ministers here, have maintained a pleasant, intimate, familiar Conversation with him, and the Character which they gave of him, is very Extraordinary. Thus that Letter.  
I have likewise heard my Father say, that he was more grieved for the loss which the Church of God has sustained in the death of that my Brother, than for his own loss thereby.  
When I parted from him not a year ago, I hoped that would not have been my Ultimum Vale; but I now lament my unhappiness, in that I gained 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 Poet's 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 Grandfather's, 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 Apologies 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 Writ 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 Enjoys; or that the best Pens in the World have been employed 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 writ 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 , 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 Mirror, 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. Tho' 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 behold 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 days 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 College 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 Die, you will certainly commend such a Life as his; god grant that none of you may then have cause to sigh, Qualis Artifex pereo! Or to complain, Surgunt Indocti & rapiunt Coelum; Nos cum nostris Doctrinis mergimur in Infernum. That Great Man Hugo Grotius near his End professed, That he would gladly give all his Learning and Honour for the Integrity of a poor Man in his Neighbourhood, that spent Eights Hours of his Time i● Prayer, Eight in Labour, and Eight in Sleep and other Necessaries; and unto some that applauded his Marvellous Industry he said, Ah, Vitam perdidi operose nihi Agendo! But unto some that asked, the be●● Counsel which a Man of his Attainment could give, he said, Be serious. 'Tis with this Counsel that I humbly offer you the ensuing History.   

Advertisements.  
THere is just now published a Treatise entitled, Reformed Religion, or Right Christianity described, in its Excellent and Usefulness in the Whole Life of Man. Written by 〈◊〉 Barker Minister of the Gospel. Price bound 1 ●.  
There will in a few days be published A new Martyrology, 〈◊〉 the Bloody Assizes, now exactly methodised in one Volume, comprehending a complete History of the Lives, Sufferings an● Deaths of all those Excellent Persons who fell in the West 〈◊〉 elsewhere, from 1678. to 1689. with the Pictures of several 〈◊〉 the Chief of them in Copper-plates. To which is added, 〈◊〉 Life and Death of George Lord Jefferys.— Both sold 〈◊〉 John Dunton at the Raven in the Poultry.   

THE LIFE and DEATH OF Mr. NATHANAEL MATHER.  
I Writ the Life and Death of a Young Man, whose Ornament will awaken in the Reader, an Enquiry like that which the Achievements of David, produced concerning him, Whose Son is this Youth?  
To Anticipate that Enquiry:  
Nathanael Mather had for his Grandfather's 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 poured forth, and whose Lives bear no little Figure in the Ecclesiastical Histories of our English Israel. His 〈◊〉 being yet living, it's too▪ soon, to gi●● them their Character; yet I may ventu●● to say, It's no disgrace unto him in the Opinion of Men that love Learning and Virtue, that he was the Son of Increas● Mather, the well known Teacher of a Church in Boston, and Rector of Harward College in New-England. What Gregory Nazianzen judged not improper 〈◊〉 be said about his yet surviving Father in his Funeral Oration upon his Deceased Brother, I may without any culpa●●● Adulation on this occasion, say of him He is another Aaron or Moses in the 〈◊〉 of his God.  
Our Nathanael was born on July 6▪ 1669. which I find him Recording 〈◊〉 his Diary, when he was fourteen Year● Old, with such an humble Reflection ther●●upon, How little have I improved this tim● to the Honour of God as I should have 〈◊〉 He wanted not the Cares of his Father to bestow a good Education on him, which God blessed for the Restraining him from the lewd and wild Courses by which 〈◊〉 many Children are betimes resigned 〈◊〉 to the possession of the Devil, and 〈◊〉 the Furnishing him with the Accomplishments as give an Ornament of Grace 〈◊〉 the Head of Youth. He did Live where he might Learn, and under the continual Prayers and Pains, of some that looked after him, he became an Instance of unusual Industry, and no Common Piety; so that when he died, which was Octob. 17th. 1688. he was become in less than twenty years, An Old Man without Grey hairs upon him.  
To those two Heads, with a sorrowful Addition of a Third, I shall confine 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 INDUSTRY.  
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 Herald 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 easy 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 killed 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 wearisome hours, days▪ months, nay, years, that I have spent it humane Literature; and after my many toilsome 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 working Mind, and urged me to afford some Re● unto my Eyes, which have been almo●● put out by my Intenseness on my Studies; after these, I say, and when 〈◊〉 am ready to do it: Oh how unwilling am I to do it, considering; How litt●● I have served God in the day! 
While he thus devoured Books, it came to pass that Books devoured him. His weak Body would not bear the Toils, and Hours, which he used himself unto; and his Neglect of Moderate Exercise, joined 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 snowed upon him, he began to be Distempered, with many Pains and Ails, especially in some of his Joints, 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 College, by strict Examiner's: 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 Bachelor 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 occasion for. His Second Degree after seven years being in the College, 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 Mathematics he had particularly overcome, and the abstruse parts both of Arithmetic and Astronomy, were grasped in his Knowledge.  
His Early Almanac, 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 Didactic and Polemic, 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 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, Mort● Erunt; perhaps they died with him: Bu● 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 Pious 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, Rejoice 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 saved? Without a Christ I am undone, undone, undone for Evermore! O Lord, let me have Christ, tho' I lie in the Mire for ever! O for a Christ! O for a Christ! a Christ! Lord, Give me a Christ or I die!   
It was now another of his Registered 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 vowed 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 myself down at his Feet. If he Save me, I shall be happy for ever; if he Damn me, I must Justify 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 sayest, 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 peculiarly 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 Examined,  
I. What Sins I had that were not Mortified: 1. My sin of Pride. 2. My sin of Unthankfulness. 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 lengthened out unto me. 3. The Lord hath graciously pleased to give me some answers of Prayer. 1. As to the lengthening 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 myself wholly to God and his Service.   
And he did accordingly.  
This Year did not roll about, before he had in a manner very solemn entered 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, Nou. 22. 1683.  
Whereas not only the Commands of God, [who hath often called upon me, by his Word Preached, to give up myself, both Body and Soul, to be at his Disposal, which calls by the public 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 myself 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 Sovereign, 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 straits; 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 myself unto God now.  
In that this is the highest piec● 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 show me that I can never enough requite one that hath done so much for me, except by giving up myself wholly to him.  

[1669] Whereas God hath given me a Godly Father and Mother.  
[1674] In that when I was like to die, being twice sick of a Fever, 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 Smallpox, God was pleased to bless means for my Recovery.  
Whereas, than 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 myself 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 allo● myself in any known Sin, but conscientiously to use all means which ● know thou hast prescribed, for the u●ter destruction of all my Corruptions.  
And whereas I have inordinately I out my Affections upon the World, here resign my Heart unto thee th●● made it; humbly Protesting before t●● Glorious Majesty, that it is the fin● Resolution of my Heart (and that I 〈◊〉 unfeignedly desire Grace from thee, th●● when thou shalt call me thereunto, ● may put in practice my Resolution through thine Assistance, to forsake 〈◊〉 that is dear unto me in the World, r●ther than to turn from thee to t●● ways of sin; and that I will watch against all its Temptations, whether of Prosperty or Adversity, lest they should withdraw my Heart from thee, beseeching thee to help me.  
I renounce all my own Righteousness and acknowledge that of myself I a● helpless and undone, and without Righteousness.  
And whereas, of thy bottomless Mercy, thou hast offered to accept of 〈◊〉 and to be reconciled to me, and 〈◊〉 be my God, through Christ, if I woul● 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 myself 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 join myself 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, a● Actions; but because I am subject 〈◊〉 many failings, through frailty; I do he● protest, here before thee, that unallo●ed miscarriages, contrary to the consta●bent of my Heart, shall not disan●● this everlasting Covenant.  
Nathanael Mathe●   
It may justly be taken for granted, th● such a work as this, would have an influence into his Conversation afterwards and so it had, producing in him, a Conversation which became the Gospel of Christ. H● kept waiting upon God, not only in t●● Family, but also under the Ministry of t●● that were near akinn unto him; namely his Father and his Brother, whereby th● Grace thus begun in him was not a little cherished and promoted: And unt● all known sins he now kept saying, as● find once in Shorthand written by him.  

To my Lusts.  
I have had Communion with you all th●● while, but I dare not have so any longer Wherefore I renounce all Communion with y●● any more; I will cleave to the God that made m●   
But a Year or two after this, it was wit● him, as I have observed it is too commonly with such as are Converted betimes unto God. An unhappy gradual Apostasy carried him aside from those degrees of seriousness and intenseness in divine things, which he had been used unto: 'Tis 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 Virtue 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-toothed 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 cried 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 applied himself unto the Lord Jesus Christ for Salvation from them all. Good terms being thus established between the Almighty Lord and this Immortal Soul, he maintained, I think, a constant and an even Walk with God, until he died. 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 unti● the Methods of Religion advised by thos● worthy Men, were Exemplified in his own Behaviour. 'Tis a note in one o● his Diaries,  O my great unprofitableness under th● 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. Scriptures exceptis) in the World. 
He was at first surprised, 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 despaired of; until (as himself a few hours before he died said unto me) he deemed he saw an Instance of such a Walk with God, not very far from the place of his abode: To which purpose his reserved 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 famed 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 through the Love of God set himself into a way of strict, secret, laborious Devotion whereby though none but God and He filled the Theatre, which he acted upon, he would 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 RULE He was very Studious to learn the wa● of conversing with God in every Duty and there was a Rule which he attended still unto.  
In his private Papers, I find a wi●● Collection of Rules, by which he governed himself in the several Duties of Chr●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 Polestar by which he steered 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. My Trust, Psal. 62. 8. Isa. 26. 4.  
3. For regulating my Speech, Eph. 4. 29. Col. 4. 6. Deut. 6. 6, 7. Psal. 119. 46. Psal. 71. 8, 24. Prov. 31. 26.  
4. For regulating my Work, Tit. 3. 8. 2 Tim. 2. 12. 1 Tim. 5. 10. Titus 2. 14. Mat. 5. 47. 1 Tim. 6. 8. Rev. 3. 2. Rom. 13. 12. Act. 26. 20.  
Another of them was formed into an● Hymn, the singing of which might produce fresher and stronger Efforts of Sou● towards the thing that is good.  
It shall be here inserted.  

Lord, what shall I return unto  
Him from whom all thy mercies flow?   

(I.) To me to live, it Christ shall be  
For all I do I'll do for Thee.   

(II.) My Question shall be oft beside,  
How thou may'st most be Glorified?   

(III.) I will not any Creature Love,  
But in the love of Thee above.   

(IV.) Thy Will I will embrace for mi●●  
And every management of thine  
Shall please me. (V.) A Conformity  
To Thee shall be my Aim and Eye.   

(VI) Ejaculations shall ascend  
Not seldom from me. (VII.) I'll attend  
Occasional Reflections, and  
Turn all to Gold that comes to hand.   

(VIII.) And in particular among  
My Cares, I'll try to make my Tongue  
A Tree of Life, by speaking all  
As be accountable who shall.   

(IX.) But last, nay first of all, I will  
Thy Son my Surety make, and still  
Implore him, that he would me bless  
With strength as well as Righteousness.   
Besides these Rules which concerned his whole Walk, he Treasured up many more, that referred to this and that step in it; and it was the predominant care and watch of his Heart, not to tread awry: Thus one might see a skilful Christian in him. And as he was desirous to live by Precept, so he was to live by Promise too.  
He fell into a particular consideration, how to improve the Promises of God in all the Occasions of life; which is indeed one of the most sanctifying Exercises in the World.  
It was a Proposal which I find he mad unto himself.  
Let me salute these Promises once a day.  
1. For supplying the wants of th● day, Phil. 4. 19  
2. For Growth in Grace, Hos. 14. 5▪  
3. For subduing my sins, Mic. 7. 19▪  
4. For success in my undertake Psal. 1. 3.  
5. For turning all the Events of th● day for good, Rom. 8. 28.  
6. For Audience of my Prayers, Job▪ 14. 13, 14.  
7. For strength to manage all th● work of the day, Zech. 10. 12.  
8. For direction in difficulty, Psal 32. 8.  
9 For Life Eternal, Luke 12. 31. Job▪ 3. 16.  
Besides these two, Mat. 11. 28. an● Isa. 44. 3.  
Certainly that Man must quickly gro● another Enoch, who does thus Walk wi●● God.  
Secondly, He was one that lived 〈◊〉 PRAYER. He was oft and long in th● Mount with God: It was his Custom every day to enter into his Closet, and sh●● his door, and pray to his Father in secret. And I guess from some of his Writings, that he did thus no less than thrice a day, when he met with no Obstruction in it: Nor did he Slubber over his Prayers with hasty Amputations, but wrestle in them for a good part of an hour together.  
It was a most refreshing Communion with God, which his Devotions brought him sometimes unto. Thus in one of his Diaries.  

Dec. 10.  
I prayed earnestly unto God, 
In the Margin he wrote, Remember this.  earnestly Petitioning that Jesus Christ might be my complete Redeemer. There was immediately something that did as it were persuade me it should be so.   

Again, Aug. 19  
My Thoughts were some little while busied about the condescension of Christ in taking of humane Nature on him; but for the most part in Ejaculations, and Acts of Faith on a crucified (ah! sweet Word) Jesus. I saw I gained not much by those: Wherefore I addressed myself to solemn Prayer, and ha● some Assurance in it.   

Once more, Aug. 20.  
I was much affected in Prayer, an● exercised (I hope) many Acts of Faith and Love, and Delight in God. I sev●●ral times was breaking off, but I was ● it were constrained to go on in the Du● with much enlargement. Lord, ans●● me for the sake of Christ.   
Thus under the Figtree did our Lor● Jesus often behold this Nathanael; yea unto Prayer he became so habituated, th●● while others can Sleep in Prayer, he some times would pray in sleep. He records 〈◊〉 among his Experiences, that upon assault of imagined Temptations, when he has bee● asleep, he has quickly been at Prayer; an● so caused the Phantasms to leave annoy●ing of him.  
And Extraordinary prayer was also wit● him not altogether extraordinary. Th●● he were a Bottle that seemed incapabl● of holding it, yet this Wine agreed wit● him very well. As Young as he was, 〈◊〉 knew the Mystery of a Soul fattening 〈◊〉 fasting, and thriving by hungering and thirsting after Righteousness. He was very inquisitive after the right way to manage a Day of Fasting and Prayer, and he would sometimes keep such a day. On such a day it was his Custom to make a very particular and penitent Confession of all the Sins that he could perceive himself guilty of; and renew his Covenant with the Holy One of Israel; to this End, he had by him in writing a large Catalogue of things forbidden and required in the Commandments of God, which was the Glass in which he then viewed his ways; and having found what achan's might procure trouble to him, he then fell to stoning of them. One may shape some conjecture at his Humiliations, by the Indignations with which he spoke, and wrote of the Vanities which his Childhood had. I came into the World (saith he in one of the Papers penned by him on a day of secret Fasting and Prayer, October the 17th 1685.) without the Image of the Holy God on my Soul; my Understanding, my Will, my Affections, and my whole Soul were altogether depraved, and wounded. When very Young I went astray from God, and my Mind was altogether taken with vanities and follies; such as the remembrance of them doth greatly abase my Soul within me. Of the manifold Sins which then I was guilty of, none so sticks upon me, as that being very young, I was whitling on the Sabbath-day; and for fear of being seen, I did it behind the door. A great Reproach of God A Specimen of that Atheism that I brought into the World with me!  
This was more than the more meager and feeble sort of Christians, though much older than he, are used to do. But paulo majora! There was a Sublimer way of drawing near to God, which he was not willing to leave unattempted. He understood that secret days of Thanksgiving had not been unpractised by some whom he designed to imitate; and therefore he would make some Essays for such an Intimate Fruition of God, and generous Devotion to him, as would fill such days as these.  
Hence this I find among the Records of his Soul:—  Resolved, To set apart every two Months, a Day for solemn Examination and Meditation, to humble myself; and every two Months to keep a Day of private Thanksgiving. 
But though his Prayers were chief in, yet they were not confined to his Closet. There were divers Private Praying Meetings of younger People in North-Boston, which he visited as often as he could; and one of those might peculiarly be called His. Yea, it was his desire, though with as little aim to be seen of men as could be, to support all such opportunities of Good among them, that were of the same age with him.  
Wherefore I find this among the Notes in his Diary:  
Quest. What shall I do for God?  
Ans. It was suggested to me, to get some of my Acquaintance to spend some while every Friday night in Prayer, for the Success of the Work of Grace in New-England, especially in Boston, on the Souls of the Rising Generation.  
Let me propound this to some serious devout young Persons.  
Thus was his Prayer as it were his Breath, and thus he was always fetching of it, untll at last it expired in Praise, Praise for evermore.  
Thirdly, He was one that Thought much of his GOD, and his END. There was a sort of Heaven form in the just Soul of this Youngman, by the Thoughts that were continually sparkling there. He had an unpacifiable Dissatisfaction at himself until good Thoughts were lodged in him, and vain ones were forced to gnash their teeth, and melt away: Nothing would content him, but the bringing of his Thoughts into a Subjection to the Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore he chewed much on the excellent Sermon of Mr. Charnock, about Thoughts; which he wrote out not only with his hand, but in his heart, and made it the very Mould of his gracious Mind. There are none, but very Renewed Souls, that are at great pains in a course of Meditation on the things of God. Yet this Youngman, like another Isaac, was grown very expert at it, and frequent in it. It was his manner in the Morning to meditate very seriously and fixedly upon some Truth, or some Text, for a good part of an hour together. He had collected a good variety of Subjects and Scriptures to handle in thus communing with himself, and went over more than a little Divinity in this transcendent Exercise. Sometimes, when thus he separated himself to intermeddle with all wisdom, I find him committing his Thoughts, or some breviate of them, unto the durable custody of his Papers; from which Memoirs I will produce but an Instance or two of many.  

August 16. 1685.  
Med. about, The reason I have to love God; because of what he has been to me, and what he is in himself. And I thought, Is not God the Best Good? Surely then he is worthy to be my Last End. Has he not been showing many Mercies to me? and what! shall I not resign up myself to Live unto God, because of his goodness to me? Much affected with the thoughts of these things: And, I hope, I closed with the Motion.   

Again, October 1.  
Meditated on that; If a Man does intent to be truly Religious, he must expect nothing but to save his Soul?  
But how can this be true?  
Must I lose my Body altogether?  
Must I be willing that the Union between my Body and Soul should for evermore be loosed?  
Must I be willing to be for ever without a Body? No, no.  
All that the Lord requires of me, is, to have my Body for a few days or years (a few I say, for they cannot be many,) to be wholly at the service of my Soul, and to be willing that the Union between those two Mates, than should be dissolved; the Soul first taking its progress into everlasting Bliss; the Body being laid in the Dust, to rise at the Resurrection, accompanying the Soul into its eternal Felicity.  
My present Notion of this thing is this:  
This Dissolution of the Union between the Soul and Body, is but a Dismission of the Spirit into its happiness, after a wearisome conflict here. And as long as it shall be best for me to be here, here I shall continue. Infinite Wisdom is to be the Orderer of this; and it will be a grievous and shameful reflection thereupon, for me to say, It will be better for me to live, than to die, at such a time when I am called thereunto.  
With my Body I must expect to lose all the pleasant Enjoyments of this World, Liberty, Library, Study, and Relations. But yet neither shall I lose these. As for my Liberty, by True Religion, and by Dying for it too, when need requires, I shall gain the only Liberty, even from the body of sin.  
As for my Library, if I die for Christ, or in the Lord, I shall have no need of it. My Understanding shall be enough enlarged, and I shall not need to turn over Books for Learning. As for my Study (my Paradise) I shall have a better, a larger, and a more complete than this.  
As for my Relations, those of them that are truly pious, I shall only go before them; and if there should be any of them not pious, the longer I should stay with them here (if they continue impenitent) it would but make my Grief more intolerable, to think when I leave them, that I shall have no hopes to see them again for ever.  
But this is not all neither.—  
My Body must be used as the Souls Instrument; and here all that strength and ●ase which I have, must be used for the Soul: And truly there is reason enough for it, that so there may be eternal happiness for both together.  
In Marriage, the Husband and Wife should have the same design. Would it not be inhuman, for the one to have a design which tends to the ruin of the other? Just so my Soul and Body should have the same design; and the Body being the more vile of the two, should be subordinate to the Soul. And it is a necessary disjunction, either the Body, the strength, and ease, and members of it, must be used for the good, or for the hurt of the Soul; there is no medium here.  
Let me then herein make my Body useful to my Soul, in accomplishing all the good-designs of it, which it is capable of being interested in.  
Nor is there any thing else worth speaking of that must be foregone, except health, and the momentaneousness of all bodily Torments, will make them very tolerable.  
My Resolutions be, That I will not expect, by devoting myself unto the Fear of God, to gain any thing as to my Body in this World.  
That through the Grace of Christ, I will use the strength, ease, health of my Body, yea my whole Body, in Subordination to my Soul, in the Service of the Lord Jesus.   
With such Meditations as these, he kept mellowing of his own Soul, and preparing it for the state wherein Faith is turned into Sight.  
But there was yet a more delightful and surprising way of Thinking, after which he did aspire. He considered, that the whole Creation was full of God; and that there was not a Leaf of Grass in the Field, which might not make an Observer to be sensible of the Lord. He apprehended that the idle Minutes of our Lives were many more than a short liver should allow: That the very Filings of Gold, and of Time, were exceeding precious; and, that there were little fragments of hours intervening between our more stated businesses, wherein Thoughts of God might be no less pleasant than frequent with us.  
The Elegant and Excellent Meditations of Sir William Waller, had particularly affected him unto a commendable Emulation of them; and hence he did attempt to make even the more common and more trivial occurrents of humane Life, the occasions of Great Thoughts within him. He would with the Chemistry of Occasional Reflections, Distil sublime Spirits from earthly Bodies; and from the view of mean things, fill his nobly employed Mind with Lessons and Prayers, which only the Father of Spirits was a Witness to.  
Some of these his Occasional Reflections I find in his private Papers; and one or two, for a taste, I will bespeak the Reader's acceptance of.  

Jan. 8. A. M.  
Being about to rise, I felt the cold in a manner extraordinary; which inclined me to seek more warmth in my Bed before I risen; but so extreme was the cold, that this was not feasible: Wherefore I resolved to dress myself without any more ado; and so going to the Fire in my , I soon became warm enough.  
Turn this, O my Soul, into an useful Meditation. There is a necessity of my rising out of my Bed, the Bed of Security which I am under the power of, and to live unto Christ, and to walk in the Light.  
In order hereunto, I must put on my poor Soul the Garments which are to be had from the Lord Jesus. To awaken me out of my sleep, and my security, I am to set before me the Sun, the Gospel of the Sun of righteousness doth enlighten my Mind, and tell me, that I was before muffled up in darkness; and that if I continued therein, I should starve and perish. I am also taught, That when Men are convinced of their miserable condition, they will rather endeavour to Ease, and comfort and cherish themselves by something in themselves, than put on the spiritual Garments which the Lord Jesus Christ has provided for them. An Evil to be by me avoided.   

Again, another time.  
Upon Water taken from the Fire, I saw a lukewarmness quickly seize; like the frame of Spirit, which many Pretenders to Religion have after a glorious and affectionate Profession of it. Of this sort were some among the Laodiceans of old; which is exceedingly displeasing to the Lord Jesus Christ: Whence it is that he saith, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Let me endeavour to beware of this hateful and odious frame of Spirit; and let the contrary thereto be my desire, my endeavour.   

Once more.  
Among some Gentlemen that were sitting in a Room illuminated with a Candle, one beginning to read unto us, there was another Candle brought unto him, for his assistance in it. Which afforded me such a Meditation as this:  
That those who are to be Teachers of others, have need of as much light again as ordinary Christians have. They, if any, need a double Portion of the Gifts that are in other Men; and the helps of Knowledge that other Persons have, they much more should be furnished withal.  
It was not because they had better Eyes than him whose Office it was to Read, that they needed but one Candle, when he had two provided for him; but the Work incumbent on him, and expected from him was the occasion of it.   
But I design little more than a Confirmation with an Illustration of my History, for which, a touch or two upon every Article will serve. I am now to add, That this Young Man had a Principal regard unto the Scriptures for the Subjects of his Meditations, and he was very expensive of his Thoughts on the Book of God. He was daily digging in the sacred Mines, and with delight he fetched thence Riches better than those of both the India's; and he could say, O how I love thy Law! it is my Meditation every day!  
Even in the time of his mortal Sickness, he was very angry at himself if he had not heard a Portion of the Bible read unto him from day to day.  
Once when he was near his End, a good part of a day having passed before he had enjoyed his Meal of Scripture; he said unto his Sister with some impatience, Alas! what an ungodly life do I lead! pray come and read my Bible to me; and read me the forty ninth Psalm. Indeed he read the Scripture not cursorily, but very deliberately, and considerately; and as an effect of his doing so, he could give such an account of the Difficulties in it, as the most not only of Christians, but of Divines too, would judge an Attainment extraordinary. Not long before he died, he had read over all the large and great Annotations on the Bible, lately published by Mr. Pool, and some other Nonconformist Ministers; but having dispatched those two noble Folios, he said unto one that was intimate with him, Thus have I read the Bible, but I have now learned a better way! And that way was this. He would oblige himself in reading to fetch a Note and a Prayer out of every Verse in all the Bible; to dwell upon every verse until it had afforded at least one Observation, and one Ejaculation to him.  
He imagined that an incredible deal both of Truth and Grace, would in this way make its impression upon his Mind, (besides what Exercise of Wit it must have called for) and so most certainly it would have done; but before he had made much Progress in it, the Chariots of God fetched him away to that place in which a Jesus is a Bible to the there perfect Spirits of the Righteous.  
Such a thinking Person was he; and yet after so many kind of Thoughts in the day, he could not rest a Night quietly, unless he composed himself for sleeping by thinking a little more.  
He knew that no better a Man than one of the Moral Heathens propounded a Nocturnal Self-Examination, as a part and cause of no little Wisdom, and that much more a sober Christian should endeavour to maintain a good understanding of himself, by such Nightly Recollections. Wherefore before the Slumbers of the Evening, this Young Man would put three General Questions to himself, with divers particular ones that were subordinate thereunto. The Questions were,  


Question 1.  
What has God's Mercy to me been this day?  
Here he considered what favours God had newly smiled upon his inward, or his outward man withal.   

Question 2.  
What has my Carriage to God been this day?  
Here he considered what frames, and words and works, and what snares and sins he had newly been concerned with.   

Question 3.  
If I die this night, is my Immortal Spirit safe?  
Of this he judged by his Closure wit● God, as his best good, and last end, and wit● Christ as his Prophet, and his Priest, an● his King, and by his Resolution always to be a Witness for the Lord, and an En●my to every Sin: Tho' sometimes he would with a more large and long Attention Examine his own Hopes of Eternal Happiness, for which purpose he had in writing by him, his Bundles of Marks and Signs, which testify a Man to be born o● God. When he had thought on these things, he was able to lay himself down 〈◊〉 peace and sleep; but this was a way to keep a Soul Awake.    
I begin to suspect that my Readers patience is almost expired; and therefore I shall cause the Remainder of this Narrative to omit where it cannot contract, what yet is well worthy to be the matter of it.  
Fourthly, He was one that mortified and conquered the SINS which were a Vexation to him. There were some Sins which gave to this Young Man a more violent, and outrageous disturbance that he could without much passion bear● These did he contrive and conflict much in his Oppositions to, and gave not over till he had a certain Prospect of a Victory.  
Of all the things which ever troubled him, I know not whether any were more grievous than the Blasphemous Injections which like fiery venomous darts inflamed sometimes his very Soul within him.  
It may be some Testimony of Sincerity, when Persons are not a little afflicted for, as well as assaulted with, Blasphemous Imaginations about God; which rise within us in contradiction to all that Reverence of him, which we know not how to lay aside.  
This Person on his Deathbed complained to me, that Horrenda de Deo, Horrible Conceptions of God, buzzing about his mind, had been one of the bitterest of all his Trials: and I find his private Papers making sad Lamentations over the miseries of this annoyance. You shall read how he did encounter these Fiends, as one that was no Stranger to the Wars of the Lord.  
Once in his Diary, he says;  

Troubled exceedingly with Blasphemons Suggestions, my Soul bleeds at the thoughts of them.  
O that Christ would deliver me from them! they make my Life unpleasant. I do believe that Satan never struggled so hard to keep any one from Christ, as he has done to keep me!  
From hence I learn, 1. My great Enmity to, 2. My great need of, the Lord Jesus Christ.   

At another time:  
Troubled with Blasphemous Thoughts, I learn from hence,  
1. Seeing these would have me to entertain a low Esteem of Christ and God,  
I will endeavour to have a more high and eminent Esteem of God and Christ.  
2. Seeing these do so perplex me continually,  
I learn, that I am unable of myself to raise good Thoughts, much less to perform Good Acts of Obedience. I would be deeply humbled, that my Soul should be thus defiled.  
Seeing, I have often so much Experience and stir of Enmity in my Soul to God, I would be excited thereby more hearty to cleave unto him.   

Once more,  
I hope I have now got strength over my Blasphemous Thoughts, after this manner.  
1. Humbling myself under a sense of my own vileness and wretchedness.  
2. Praying earnestly for the removal of the Enmity that is in my Soul to the things of God; especially as to this matter.   
Thus discreetly did he manage the Shield of Faith against those barbed Arrows of Hell: Nor did his other Corruptions escape the Offensive, as well as the Defensive Weapons of his Soul.  
Under the most furious of their Assaults, I find this to be one of his honourable Retreats.  
For the Relief of my Soul under the Power of Corruption; Let me by Faith apply these Scriptures.  
First, Rom. 6. 14.  
Secondly, Ezck. 36. 26.  
Thirdly, Mic. 7. 19  
Fourthly, Zech. 13. 1.  
Besides Zech. 9 12. Mat. 16. 18. John 12. 31. and Rom. 16. 20. and these Considerations:  
First, Christ is a complete Redeemer, Heb. 7. 25. 1 John 1. 7. Heb. 9 14.  
Secondly, God's Infinite Power is engaged on my behalf, if I be in Covenant with him.  
Thirdly, God will perfect Holiness where he hath begun it.  
In such Engagements as these against his Invisible Adversaries he continued, until he is now a Conqueror, and more than a Conqueror.  
Fifthly, He was one that wisely prepared for the CHANGES that were before him. It is a Remark in one of his Papers: I think it convenient for me to observe the Temptations, I am, ●or shall be obnoxious to, and get suitable Remedies against them.  
He seemed indeed to have a strange Presage of what he was to meet withal, and O how he laid in that he might not be unprovided for it! A prudence rarely seen among the Children of Men, whose Misery is great upon them because they know not their Time.  
There were especially two Calamities which he had a fore-boding of, Dismal Pain, and Early Death. As for his Pain, he was it seems to undergo exquisite Anguishes, for many Months before his Dissolution; but before ever it came upon him, how strangely did he fortify himself against it! He said in his Diary some Years before he left the World,  

Sept. 2.  
I had not in the morning time enough for solemn Meditation: Great deadness and dulness was in my Heart, as to Spiritual Thoughts afterwards; the Reason was, because I did not perform my solemn Meditation as I should.  
I had now apprehensions that I must undergo sore Trials, and Conflicts, and great Afflictions.  
Wherefore it did highly become me to get as great a measure of Grace, as the opportunities which I enjoy may afford, and therefore I purpose to be more serious in my Meditations, not omitting other Duties therewithal.  
I see my Resolutions must every day be renewed, as to great diligence in my serving God.  
And since I must expect great Afflictions, I must make it my daily work by solemn Meditation to go over the whole Body of Christianity, and particularly to have daily Thoughts on the Condescension of Jesus Christ: I must also endeavour to get a large measure of sanctified knowledge; wherefore,  
First, There is need of Earnest Prayer; and  
Secondly, Of very holy walking.  
Thirdly, Of entertaining the Truth with greatest Affection; and  
Fourthly, Looking on it as it is in Jesus; and  
Fifthly, Solemn Meditation; and  
Sixthly, Much Reading; and  
Seventhly, Living upon the Truths which I know, and Thankfulness for the Knowledge which I have already.   

And at another time there was this written in his Diary.  
This Morning I meditated about a part of Self-denial; Namely, the denial of Bodily Health, and of ease from Torment.  
My Resolution was, that it was better to part herewithal, than to sin. I hope there is a thorough purpose in my Heart to perform accordingly, when I shall be called thereunto.  
I do feel the stir of self in myself this day: It would fain be in the Throne of God within me; but I am resolved Christ shall be my King.   
And as he thus put on the whole Armour of God, that he might be able to stand when he should be tried, so he found the benefit of it when he came into the Field. Few in the World ever bore such Dolours with such a silent and a quiet and composed Temper as he. Some that were intimate with him, would say, He was one of an Iron Patience, and they had rarely if ever seen such a patiented Patient. But his Death he seemed all along most careful to be ready for.  

In his Papers.  
Meditations on the four last things, was a Title mentioning a Subject of his most solicitous Contemplations. Above three Years before his Translation, his Diary hath such a Note as this.  
Speaking to Day something concerning my Commencement, 
In the Margin he wrote, Deceived.  I was strangely surprised, and had many Thoughts, yea Persuasions, That I should not live. He then—.  
Rest. What may be the Import hereof I cannot tell; yet I gather thus much: That it is incumbent on me without further delay, to make my Calling and Election sure.   
He hath also left behind him, some Meditations, tending to the Exercise of Repentance, and Faith, and Preparation for Death, as he hath himself entitled them; but the Reader by this time will easily pardon my forbearing the Communication of them.  
Indeed, Preparation for Death, in one word, contains the substance of what he had been doing divers years before the King of Terrors took his Clay House away.  
And as he was desirous to prepare for what Passive Obedience he might be put upon, so he was loath to have his Heart not well ordered or furnished, when active Obedience might be called for at his hands. Tho he never lived to preach any other than some private Sermons, yet he was not unthoughtful of the Time when public ones might be expected from him. It may not be unuseful for me to insert one of his Meditations here; it runs in such terms as these.  

¶ Whether I should be a Minister?  
I considered all Objections which Persons might make against it, and answered them every one. But one Objection startled me more than the rest, to wit, Personal unfitness, from my Hebetude, or want of Invention. To which I answered, with minding that Promise in Exod. 3. 12. Certainly I will be with thee. And the beginning of ver. 18. They shall hearken to thy voice. And where God finds work, there he will give strength. I likewise considered 1 Chron. 28. 10, 20. and Mat. 28. 19, 20. and Josh. 1. 9 and Judg. 6. 12, 14.  
And then I thought with myself, That as for living in a remote part of the Country, I should be willing thereunto, if so I might do Service for God, and bring Glory to his Name. And whilst I was musing on these things, I was melted into a frame, that I thought heretofore I should never be in, namely, humble Submission to the good Pleasure of God, however he should dispose of me. I knew, that though I were Reproached for what meanness I should this way be exposed unto, there is an Answer in Rom. 1. 16. and in Mark 8. 38. and in Psal. 31. 19 and in Prov. 16. 7. and in Pfal. 37. 5, 6. So were the Apostles, 1 Cor. 4. 3, 9 If I serve Christ, God will honour me, Joh. 12. 26.   
Every one must own, that however such things as these, in an old Man, may be below our Admiration; yet in a young Man, that outlived not the Years which the Nodes of the Moon take to dispatch a Revolution, they deserve a Memory among them that may be Edified by such Exemplary Practices. Indeed, he was himself Extremely unsensible of the least worth or shine adorning of him; and in his whole Deportment he discovered a modest, an humble, and a deserved mein; which might be reckoned to bear little proportion with his other Accomplishments, were it not that the more gracious Men are, the more humble they always are; and they are the Fullest and Richest Ears of Corn, which most hang down towards the Ground. But while he in a sort wronged himself, to escape the bane and blame of Pride; it is a piece of pure Justice in the Survivers, to Embalm the Name of a Person thus desirable, since he is gone thither where he has no Chaff to take fire at the sparks of our Praises.  Sic oculos, sic ille manus, sic ora ferebat? 
Such a young Man as this it is that the Church of God is now deprived of! What a Blessing might his Living have proved unto the World! But as the Long-lived▪ Patriarches, before the Flood, have still that Clause introduced of them, And he lied; which Clause awakened and Converted a Person of Quality, who came in occasionally while the Minister was reading the Fifth Chapter of Genesis to the Congregation; so must I now say of the Short-lived Person, whom we have been paying out last Respect unto, He lived thus long in a little time, And he died.  
Before I break off, I must relate,   

III. His DEATH.  
Too soon and too sad a thing for me to mention without Sighing, Ah my Brother, in my Lamentation over it. He had contracted an universal Ill Habit of Body; which was attended with a particular generation of Ill Humours, where the Os Ileon and Os Sacrum join; from whence it fell into his Thigh, until there was a very large collection of it there.  
There was an Incision, with mature Advice made into the Tumour, about a Month before his Expiration, which gave good hopes of his Recovery into a capacity of serving the Church of God; but the Circulation, which was now given unto the putrid Juices which his Blood, through his continual and sedentary Studies, had been annoyed withal, soon enkinded a Fever, which burned asunder the thread of this pious Life.  
One might suppose, that such a Walk with God as the Reader has newly had Portrayed before him, should End in Raptures, and Ecstasies of Assurance; but I am to tell him, That this young Person had them not. And there wanted not Reason for it. For his Natural Distemper disposed him to what is contrary to Joy; but his Deep Humility had a greater share in the Jealousies and Suspicions which he would still cherish of himself. He was indeed so afraid of being an Hypocrite, that he would scarce allow himself to be called a Christian, and he did not care so much as to tell any of his own Experiences, no, nor his Inclinations, unless to one or two Divines, who kindly refreshed him with their daily Visits; and with them too he would uphold his Discourse only in Latin, if any one else were by.  
Never did I see more Caution against Hypocrisy, than what was in him; and a certain Self-abhorrence accompanying of it, caused to proceed from him no Expressions, but those of an Abased Soul. When his Brother having recited the Terms of the Gospel to him, with a design to obtain from him a Renewal of his Explicit Consent thereunto, asked him, Whether he did not judge himself Sincere in that Consent? He only replied, I should think so, if it were not for the 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 Long and Breathe after all the fullness 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 Persuasions for which he followed 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 begged 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 loath 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 Youngman, 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 departed 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 surrendered 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 Uncles, 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.  

Enclosed in this sable Chest,  
The Host once of an heavenly Guest  
Here lies: Upright Nathanael,  
True Offspring of God's Israel.  
Him Dead, how term we, from his Birth,  
Who lived in Heaven whilst on Earth?  
His Head had Learning's Magazine,  
His Heart the Altar, whence Divine  
Whole Hecatombs, which Love had fired,  
Of high Praise, and warm Prayer aspired:  
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, Turned  'twas Run,  
And Ages too, before begun.   

Rest, glorious Dust, and let thy perfumed Name  
Sound in the Trumpets of Immortal Fame.  
For though Times Teeth Mausolaean Monuments deface,  
They'll never gnaw thy Name which with the Stars has place.   
Pos' vit, R. Hale   
FINIS.   

SEVERAL SERMONS CONCERNING WALKING WITH GOD, AND THAT In the Days 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 Poultry, 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 Patriarches, 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 Privilege; 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 Meetinghouse, where the Minister was reading the fifth Chapter of Genesis, those words recurring so often in it, And he Died! And he Died! 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: 'Tis 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; 'tis 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 wondered, 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 with God is the singular Commendation of Holy and Happy Men.  

Prop. I.  
To Walk with God is the Commendation and Attainment of some that live 〈◊〉 Earth: Here and there a Person is to be met withal, whose Privilege it is to walk with God. It is to be enquired, What is it to walk with God? What is that rare, mysterious, laborious thing? in short, we then Walk with God, when we maintain Communion with God in all the motions of our Lives. Every Man has a Walk in the World. The Life of Man is the Walk of Man. It may be said unto each Man, as in Eccles. 9 10. Man, Thou art going. A Walk is a progressive continued thing, made up of many steps: Thus a Life; 'tis made up of many thoughts, many words, many deeds. A Man is with God, when he sees God, and owns God: Then therefore does a Man Walk with God, when he lives in multiplied Acts of Respect and Homage unto the Lord. It is the Command in 1 Pet. 1. 15. Be ye holy in all manner of Conversation; it may be rendered, Be Holy in every turn: While we Walk, we Turn every day, now to one Object, now to another: Well, when we are with God in every Turn, than we Walk with God. A Walk with God is in short, that godly, that sober, that righteous Life which the Word of God adviseth us unto. It was the speech of the Psalmist, in Psal. 26. 11. I will walk in mine Integrity; and in Psal. 86. 11. I will walk in thy Truth; and in Psal. 116. 9 I will walk before the Lord: All this is to Walk with God. We read in 2 Cor. 5. 7. of a Walk by Faith▪ and in Rom. 8. 1. of a Walk after the Spirit; and in Gal. 6. 16. of a Walk according to Rule; this is a Walk with God. Two things are comprised in it.  
First, In a Walk with God there is an uninterrupted performing of Worship to God. We should be often with God in the Exercises of his Natural and Instituted Worship. There are certain Mountains of Devotion, of which we should say as Peter in the Mount, It is good to be here! and we should be ever now and then Conversing with the Almighty there; this 'tis to Walk with Him! There is the Duty of Praying to God, our Lives are to be filled with it: We should (may I so say) Walk upon our Knees. To Talk much with God is to Walk much with him. The Walker with God may say with Paul in 2 Tim. 1. 3. I serve God, and without ceasing I have my prayers Night and Day. There is again the Duty of Hearing from God, our Lives are to be filled with it. To Sat before God is to Walk with him. We should often Go up to the House of the Lord; that is, to take a Walk in his blessed Company. The Walker with God will upon every occasion say, as the Psalmist in Psal. 85. 58. I will hear what God the Lord will speak. There is likewise the Duty of Thinking on God, that is a Walking with him. We should not for any long while together have God out of our Mind, than he will not be out of our Walk. The Walker with God may say as David in Psal. 139. 17, 18. How precious are thy thoughts unto me, O God when I awake, I am still with thee. In a word, all the appointments of God, wherein he vouchsafes to us a Fellowship with Himself, our Walk it should be, that is, our Course and our Trade to be therein waiting upon the Lord.  
Secondly, In a Walk with God there is a continual Acting of Grace on God. A Walk with God lies in a sense of God always upon the Soul. We should be able to say as he in Psal. 16. 8. I have set the Lord always before me; so shall we Walk with the Lord. We are to Walk always under the Awe; and under the Eye of the great God. As now, the Walker with God will always be sensible of God as his last End. It was because Asaph did Walk with God, that he said in Psal. 73. 25. Whom have I but God? The Walker will always be sensible of God as his best good: It was because Jeremiah did Walk with God, that he said in Lam. 3. 24. The Lord is my portion, saith my Soul, I will hope in him. The Walker with God will always be sensible of God, as his only Helper. When a Man walks with God, he is perpetually saying as the Psalmist in Psal. 121. 2. My help cometh from the Lord, which made Heaven and Earth: His Ejaculations therefore particularly are innumerable: And the Walker with God cannot but be sensible of God as his omniscient and omnipresent Judge. It will be an apprehension always running in the Soul of such a Man, which we have in Psal. 139. 7. Whither shall I flee from the presence of the Lord? In a Walk with God a Man has evermore his Heart within him, admiring and adoring the God of Heaven on such accounts as these: These Notions of God, these Visions of God accompany such a Man every where, and influence all his Walk: Thus does he Acknowledge God in all his ways. 'Tis said in Prov. 23. 17. Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long; even so maintain thou a sense of the Lord all the day long: This 'tis to Walk with Him.   

Prop. II.  
They are both Holy and Happy Men that thus Walk with God: This is the Prerogative of them that have God with them in all their Walk.  
1. The Walker with God is a very Holy Man: What is true Holiness? Many mistakes have there been about that glorious thing: A Man may be Orthodox in his Persuasions, and yet not be Holy: A Man may be very Austere and Severe in his Practices, and yet not be Holy: You may say of a Man, That he has a Righteousness equal to that of the Scribes and Pharisees, and yet the Man may be a stranger to true Holiness after all. O but when once it can be said of a Man, He walks with God then, than Holiness is to be seen upon him.  
To Walk with God, is to Walk like God. Now the more like to God any Man is or does, the more Holiness there is in such a Man. 'Tis the Attribute of God in Exod. 15. 11. O Lord, Thou art glorious in Holiness: and in Heb. 1. 13. Thou canst not look upon Iniquity. The Nature of Holiness lies in a Dedication unto God: A thing Dedicated unto God, by the Disposal of another, has a Relative Holiness belonging thereunto. A Man Dedicated unto God by his own hearty Resignation and Consecration of himself unto the Lord, such an one hath in him a real Holiness. Well, the Walker with God is an Enoch: Enoch is in English as much as to say, A Dedicated Man: The Man that is with God, is also for God, and him alone: This is Holiness in the Exaltation of it. The Holy Dr. Usher being desired to write about Sanctification, with Tears lamenting the defect of it in himself, gave this Description of it,— It is for a Man to be in the offering up of his Soul continually, in the flames of Love, as a whole burnt-offering to God in Jesus Christ: Now in a Walk with God, a Man is every day doing so. In fine, When Moses had been with God in the Mount, we read in Exod. 34. 35. It made his Face to shine. A Man whose whole Walk is with God, must needs derive much Grace from God, a shine, a glory, a lustre of Holiness will be seen upon such a Man.  
2. The Walker with God is also a very Happy Man: The Psalmist hath well determined where Happiness is to be found, in Psal. 73. 28. It is good for me to draw near to God: By the same Reason we may every one say, It is good for me to walk with God.  
Happiness properly lies in the Conjunction of a Thing with such a good as the Appetites and Faculties of that thing are suited unto. Well, Walking with God cannot be without an having of God: God and Man do mutually possess each other in this blessed thing. Now the Soul is in conjunction with such a good as answers all the boundless Cravings of it. The Soul of Man hath placed in it by the Hand of God, a restless raging desire after an Infinite and an Eternal good: Until it find this, it pines, it frets, it is all on a light fire, like the Hart panting after the water-brooks: When it has got this, it is then at ease, and with a wonderful delight it cries out, This is all my Salvation, and all my Desire. Behold then the Happiness of a Walk with God; it hath no less than that vast thing Satisfaction in it. All Men are seeking after satisfaction every day; O but who finds this Pearl of great price? Where is it? The voluptuous Epicure, he thinks with Belshazzar, It is to be found in Cups and sensual Relishes: The Covetous Muckworm he thinks with Achan golden Wedges will rive into the bowels of it: The Ambitious Hector he thinks with Haman, An high Chair of state will help a man to reach unto it: And the contemplative Scholar he imagines That it is folded up in the leaves of his Books, which he knows no end of looking into: These are all deceived. In the mean time the Walker with God says, I have found it. Enoch has it. For,  
First, A Walk with God brings a Man to the enjoyment of an Infinite good. The Man has God with him now, and one God is enough to supply all our Wants, to relieve all our Woes: It is said in Phil. 4. 19 God shall supply all your Need. When an Immortal Soul has tried all the Objects in the World, it yet gapeth and gaspeth after more, it still cries, Give, Give, after all: But there is enough in one God, enough to feed and fill that Soul, whose Desire is enlarged like Heaven itself. There is Infinite Truth in God, there is Infinite Good in God; he is the God of all Consolation. The Jews have a Fable of their Manna, that whatever a Man had a mind to taste, the Manna still had the taste of that thing: This is to be affirmed of our God; there is in God all that we can ask or think, yea, and infinitely more. He that walks with God, walks with him that saith as in Gen. 17. 1. I am the Alsufficient God, walk before me.  
Secondly, A Walk with God brings a Man to the Enjoyment of an Eternal good. The Man has now the Portion of the Righteous; And what an one is that? We are told in Psal. 37. 18. Their Inheritance shall be for ever. A virtuous young Man among the Primitive Christians, when there was Music and Feasting in his Father's House, retired from it, with such Thoughts as these, Here are delicate things, but they are short-lived things, they will be at an end anon; I will therefore go to my God, who is the good part can never be taken away. Truly whatever Creatures we should content ourselves in the Presence of, all those Creatures are like the Moon in the Increase; they shine for a few Hours perhaps, but they go down and all is dark before the Morning. The Soul of Man is an Eternal thing, it shall stand like a Rock in the Sea of Eternity: The things of this World shall perish, but thou, O Soul, shalt endure; they shall wax old like a Garment, but thy years have no end, O thou neverdying Soul. A Soul must have a more enduring substance than any thing here below, for the refreshment of it, otherwise it is most wretchedly provided for; it will starve, and languish, and perish for evermore. Now he that Walks with God meets with that; all other things that we Walk withal, will take their leave of us: But God, our God hath said, as in Heb. 13. 5. I will never leave thee nor for sake thee.  
So Happy is the Man that Walks with God. The excellent Minister of Nola, when the Barbarians plundered him of all he had in the World, he lifted up his Eyes to Heaven, and said, Domine, ne excrucier ob Aurum & Argentum, tu es mihi omnia; Lord, I have All in Thee, so that I am still Happy enough, though I have no Gold and Silver left unto me: This is the Blessedness of the Man that walketh with the Lord; his God and his Happiness is with him, though the World be laid all in Ashes before his Eyes.   

USE I.  
A Great Rebuke hence falls upon ungodly Men: The Apostle could say, in Phil. 3. 18. Many walk, of whom I tell you weeping. Truly our Hearts are Flints, that we do not with Tears from our Eyes reflect on the Walk of the most of Men. Do they Walk with God? No: They have a Walk most opposite thereunto. Their Walk is that in Eph. 2. 2. They Walk according to the course of this World, according to the Prince of the Power of the Air. Their Walk is that in 2 Thes. 3. 11. They walk disorderly. Alas! How common is it for men to leave the Blessed God, and Walk with the World, yea with the Devil too instead of him? We read of some in Dan. 4. 37. that Walk in Pride. We read of some in Jer. 23. 14. that Walk in Lie. We read of some in 1 Pet. 4. 3. that walk in Lasciviousness: Do these Walk with God? 'Tis declared of some, in Jer. 13. 10. that they walk in the Imaginations of their own Hearts. Are there not many of those Walkers now before the Lord: Conscience, do thine Office: Go and find out the Person that seldom Prays in his Family, and more seldom in his Closet: Find out the Person that has not God in all his Thoughts: Find out the Person that can indulge himself in those abominable things which the Soul of the Lord hates: O tell that Man, that he doth not Walk with God, and set before 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 Leu. 26. 23, 24. If you will not be Reform, 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 ways of thine Heart, but know thou, that for all these things, God will bring thee into Judgement. 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 Ruin 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 wand'ring 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 through the Narrow way leads to Life world without end. Hark! Thy God calls after thee: Return, Return, O Soul.   

USE 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? 'Tis 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 'tis pleasing to God, when he sees Men Walking with him. The Lord hath showed thee, O Man! the thing that is good; and what is it? It is, Walk humbly with thy God. 'Tis 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. 'Tis 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 Champions 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 Judgement of the Lord.   

RULE II.  
Let us Walk with Good men, and we do it with God himself. If our Conscience be not fearfully stupefied, 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 Controversy 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 lose, 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: 'Tis 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. 'Tis 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 urged unto: Let us by a Contemplative Eating chew upon the Word of God. Never do any Men Walk with God, like them that can say, Meditation is sweet unto me. 'Tis said of Isaac, He walked in the Fields to Meditate: And indeed, He walked with God, when he was alone at that Employment.  
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 Baptised, 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 unregeneracy? 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 IU.  
Let us be with God, that we may Walk with Him. Be always on God's side against Sins side: All other siding may be culpable, but this is Necessary, this is Praiseworthy: 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 Lord's 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 Ways 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 itself 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 comprise 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 surprising Interpretation of it. Consult Heb. 11. 5. and we have this Paraphrase hereupon: Here it is said, He was not: There 'tis said, He was not Found. It seems that this Famous Prophet suddenly disappeared from the view of the World: All Mankind with Wonder sought, and asked, and looked after Enoch, as they did after Elijah at another time; but they could not find him. Why? What was become of him? Here 'tis said, God took him: There 'tis 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 would make them see that he owned the Testimony, and the Conversation of this worthy 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 Privilege 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 College 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 Trial; 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, 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 battered down, all the Leprosy which now cleaves unto us, will be done away. We shall shortly take an eternal farewell 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 which 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 when 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 through 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 Entanglements of the World. The things of this World, we shall turn our backs upon, as upon poor Trifles, poor Nothings, and miserable Comforters; and we shall say, To the Fire I leave you all. The Men of this World, we shall be no more flattered or terrified withal; but laugh at all the Favour and all the Fury of those poor Worms, and say, as our Saviour to the Jews, Wither 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 clothed 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'er 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 chief constitute the New State which 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 when we attempt a Description of them. Indeed, I know not whether 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 Country, from whence 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 whom dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. God will take us into the Embraces of him who 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, where we shall be made sensible of his Attributes and Perfections, in a measure that we are not used unto. God will take us, where 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 fullness of it, and be filled with all the fullness 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 where our Knowledge will be enlarged like the sands on the Seashore: Where our Virtue shall be completed into an Heart after God's own Heart: God will take us, where 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 firstborn. The Angels they are our Guardians now: God will take us, where they shall be our intimate Companions. We shall move and live among those morning Stars: The Firstborn, they are our Familiars here; we covet their being so, notwithstanding all the Folly and Error, and Ill humour that is often in them: God will take us, where we shall associate ourselves with all that ever feared God, and not one breach of Charity, shall ever disturb our Conversation there.  
Fourthly, The State which God will take the Believers into the Comforts of, will be an Eternal State. God will take us to an House; but what a one? We read in 2 Cor. 5. 1. It will be an eternal House. God will take us to a Glory: But of what sort is it? We read in 1 Pet. 5. 10. It is an eternal glory. God will take us to an Inheritance; But how long shall it last? We read in Heb. 9 15. It is an Eternal Inheritance. Truly it is a Life Eternal which our God will take us to. We shall be in it as many Millions of Ages as there are Drops in the Ocean, or Atoms in the Universe; yet Believer thou shalt say, My Heaven will infinitely outlast as many Ages more:   

Prop. III.  
There is a variety of Dispensation used by God in his thus taking of them that Walk with him.  
The Lords taking of Men is, in general by his changing of them, it is by making that they shall not be: Not an Annihilation, but a vast Alteration happens to Believers; when it shall be said of them, They are not! And then they are taken by the Lord: And in particular it is managed three such ways as these.  
First, It is by Dying; when we Dye, than we are not. The Dying Man may say, as in Psal. 39 13. I go hence, I am no more. The Dead Man is not a Man in such a place, he is not a Man of such a Thought, he is not acting upon such Objects as he was before. When a Man is ready to Die, we perceive it by Changing, as we call it, of the Man; much more, when a Man is dead he is a changed Man. Then it is that we are taken by the Lord: Thus it is said, in Isa. 57 1. The Righteous is taken away. The Spirit is then taken to all the Delights and Pleasures that a separate Soul can feed upon.  
Secondly, It is by Rising. When we Rise at the last day, than we are not; we are not such feeble wretched things as we are this day. The Resurrection will bring a marvellous Change on the Subjects of it: It is the Speech of Job, in Ch. 14. 14. If a man die, shall he live again? He seems to refute what he did recite just before as the Opinion of too many Men, and say now, Yes, that he shall find. And hence it is added, I will wait all the Days of my appointed time until my Change come. What Change is that? I will not exclude or oppose the common sense of it; yet I would humbly suggest, why may it not be the Change which the next Words refer unto? Thou shalt call and I will answer thee; thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine Hands. At the Resurrection it will be so; God will then have a Desire to see our once Curious, but now Rotten Body, set in order again, he shall then call, Arise, ye Dead, where are you? Arise! And we shall start out of the Dust, as it were, answering, Lord! I come! This the Departed Soul is to keep waiting for. It seems more than a Moment, it may seem a long while to the Soul till this be accomplished: Then it is also that we are taken by the Lord: with some respect unto this our Lord said unto his Disciples, in Joh. 14. 3. I will come again, and take you unto myself: The Body is then also taken, to be an Incorruptible, a Spiritual, and a Powerful Instrument of the Soul in all the motions of it.  
Thirdly, There is another Taking that some have Experience of, and that is by Translation. There are some Persons, in whom the Union between their spirits and their bodies never is dissolved; by the Ministry of Angels they are both in spirit and in body too made capable of a present entrance into the Kingdom of God, and so those winged Messengers of Heaven carry them away, without any more ado. This was the Prerogative of Enoch before the Law, and of Elijah under it: I believe this would have been the Case of all Men, if Adam had not sinned when he did; and there are many thousands of Pious People with whom it will yet be so. At the second Coming of our Lord, there will be multitudes of Christians in the World; what will become of them, when the Fire of God shall be flaming and raging as far as Noah's Flood did extend of old? How shall they get out of the way of that horrible Fire that shall consume and carry all before   

be? Hear David's Answer to that Question, in 1 Chron. 28. 15. Our days on Earth are as a Shadow, and there is none abiding: Let James answer it, in Jam. 4. 14. What is your Life? it is even a Vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and vanishes away: Let Jo● answer it, in Job. 9 25. My days are swifter than a Post; they are passed away as the swift Ships; as an Eagle that hastens to the Prey. Our Age is now contracted into Seventy Years, and how few reach to Seventy, in comparison of them that never see Twenty of them! Besides, a big part of our few days are already past and gone with many of us: How many may sadly sit and sigh and say this day, I have been here but a little while, yet I cannot now be so long more, as I have already been!  
Consider, 2. If God then take us not, who will? I have read of a profane Monster who on one side of his Sword had the Picture of Christ, on the other side the Picture of the Devil; with this Motto under it, Si tu non vis, iste rogitat: If He won't Take me, here's One that will. Horrid Creature! But that Frenzy is almost equalled among us, by those that wish the Devil to take them every day: Alas! that, that will be the horrible Destruction of them that shall not be taken by the Lord. It is a fearful Curse upon the wicked Man, in Psal. 109. 6. Let Satan stand at his right hand: Thus, O thus it will be. When the Soul of a wicked Man is going away, a Devil, a Dragon stands by his Bedside, and will take, and hold, and wound that miserable Soul. Yea, there is a more astonishing Vengeance to come upon such a Man. If a Man be not taken by the saving Hands, he will be taken by the damning Hands of God himself. The Hands of the Great and Terrible God, will for ever take those that fall thereinto; and smite them and slay them with immediate Impressions of his Fiery Wrath. But what says the Apostle, in Heb. 10. 31. It is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the living God.  
What, what shall now be done by us? in short; let us be Walking with God, and we shall be taken by God. Say now, every Soul, as in Mic. 4. 5. We will walk in the Name of our God for ever and ever. Elijah was taken as he was walking: Let us Walk thus, and God will take us: Be sure God will take us, if we take Him. Let us take him as our Lord; take him as our End; take him as our exceeding great Reward. Thus take Him in our Walk, and He will take us from our Walk to our Crown.   

USE II. Consolation.  
Let it be our Joy, that when we are not, we shall be taken by the Lord.  
Behold a Cordial here, against three sorts of Exercises.  
First, Against all the Troubles of this Life.  
We are apt to be discouraged at the Difficulties of this Evil World: But the Voice of our God unto us, is that, in Luke 21. 28. Lift up your Heads, for your Redemption draweth nigh.  long you shall not be; and then your Afflictions too, they shall not be: God will take you from them all. And what says Paul's Calculation, in Rom. 8. 18. For I reckon (he speaks like an Arithmetician, or an Accountant) that the sufferings of this present time, are not worthy to be compared with the Glory which shall be Revealed. When two English Protestants, one that was Blind, another that was Lame, were leading to be Burned, they so cheered one another, Well far we, we shall need our Crutches and our Guides no more after this. Thus let us in all our Trials think, When I am beyond the Stars, I never shall be under the Clouds any more. Have you any Sorrows hard to bear? Are you afflicted in your Friends? Hast thou like David, a Son that makes thee say, My life is spent with Grief? Hast thou like Jephtah, a Daughter that makes thee say, Alas! thou hast brought me very low, thou art one of them that trouble me? Hast thou Job's or Abigail's Yoke upon thee? O think, I shall shortly be gone from the Light and Sense of such things as these. Are you afflicted in your Names? Are you like Elijah, counted a Troubler of Israel? or like Jeremiah, a Man of Contention; or like Paul, a Pestilent Fellow, and a mover of Sedition? O think, I shall meet with none of these Reproaches where I am going? Are you afflicted in your Bodies, or your Estates? Are you like Timothy, cruciated with often Infirmities? Or like Naomi, going out full, and coming home empty of Temporal Goods? O think, I shall quickly be where a Spital or an Alms-house, tbere never was any occasion for. Are there any snares that you are too often trepan'd into? O think of the Time when all this Earth shall be to you as an Invisible point; think, The Died; and see how they Covenanted, and Walked and Lived with the Lord. Methinks these do now call unto us, as in Luk. 23. 28. Weep not for me, but weep for yourselves: Does Jacob say, Joseph is not? Does Rachel say, My Children are not? Why, has God taken them? they belo●●ed unto Him. 'Tis said, in Joh. 11. 〈◊〉. Jesus wept over Lazarus: One of the Ancients affirms, it was not because he was Dead, but because he was about to be made Alive again. I do not justify the Gloss; but I am sure our departed Ones, as it were call unto us, from the lofty Battlements of Heaven, We would not be with you again for all the World.  
Let us then rise, and wash and change our Apparel, and say, I will go to them, they shall not return unto me.     

THE DUTY AND INTEREST OF YOUTH: OR, The Thought of an Elder, on the Death of a Younger Brother. Uttered Octob. 28. 1688.  Eccl. XII. 1. Remember Now thy Creator in the days of thy Youth. 
THE great Emperor, Augustus, making an Oration to his mutinous Army, began it with that surprising Expression, Audite senem, Juvenes quem Juvenem senes audierunt; when I was a young Man, old Men counted me worthy to speak unto them; now I am an old Man, methinks young Men should not refuse to mind what I say: Truly, such might the Speech of our Solomon be, by way of Preface to the Text now read unto us; surely this old Preacher deserves the attention of every young Person among us all. It is a Passage uttered by this matchless and inspired Prince, in Prov. 22. 20. Have not I written to thee excellent things? It is by some rendered so, Have not I three times written for thee? He hath indeed so; we have three Books composed by that Royal and Renowned Pen; one of which wears the Title of Ecclesiastes, because that such was the Author of it. We are told of some in 2 Chron. 11. 17. They walked in the way of David and of Solomon: What way is that? It was the way of David, that he sinned, he fell, he dishonoured God exceedingly, but he soon Repent and recovered, and then by writing the fifty first Psalm he gave an Evidence of his doing so. This was the way of Solomon too; he departed from God with a wonderful Apostasy, but being reclaimed and reduced from his Wander, he now Publishes a Testimony of it unto all the World.  
This Book is a sacred and solemn Treatise, concerning the chief good of Man: It contains the Holy and Humble Retractations of a famous Monarch, who had sought where he could not find the satisfaction of an Immortal Soul; he had got up to the top of all sublunary Felicity, and from thence beholding poor Men toil and sweat unreasonably to get up the rocky ragged Hill after him, with a loud Voice he now calls unto them all, You are mistaken, there is nothing but Vanity and Vexation here: Upon this the wise Man assures us all, That in the Acquaintance and the Enjoyment of God alone is all our Happiness; and in the inculcation of it, Young Men are particularly applied unto: We have a Dehortation given to them in the conclusion of the former Chapter, and an Exhortation in the beginning of this: In the former is a sharp Sarcasm, but a grave Counsel in the latter. Two things make up the Exhortation.  
First, A Duty enjoined, Remember thy Creator; in the Hebrew 'tis Thy Creators, which notes a plurality of Persons in the adorable Godhead.  
Secondly, A Season advised, In the days of thy Youth: It intimates not that Persons past their Youth are exempted from this Command, but that Persons in their Youth are peculiarly engaged herein; wherefore the Doctrine before us, is,  

Doctrine. It is the Duty of All Men, and peculiarly of Young Men, to Remember their Creator, so as to acknowledge Him.  

Prop. I.  
The Blessed God, who is Father, and Son, and Spirit, is the Creator of Men: Unto Man about God it may be said, He is thy Creators. Indeed in God there are more Persons than one. In the New Testament that Mystery of a Trinity is more particularly insisted on. Athanasius of old would say unto them that had any Doubt about the Trinity, Go to Jordan, and you may see what you seek. On the Banks of Jordan, at the Baptism of our Saviour, in Matth. 3. 16, 17. we have a Glorious Representation of it. But in the Old Testament too, the Mystery of a Trinity is not concealed from the Church of God; the History of the Creation alone may be enough to give a mention of it: We find God the Creator, we find a Creating Word, and we find a Creating Spirit there distinctly spoken of. The very first Clause in the Bible is, In the Beginning God Created: The Name, God, is in the plural Number, but the Verb, Created, is in the singular; which intimates, that though there be but one God, yet there is more than one Person in Him. The like Intimation is given to us, in Gen. 1. 26. Where God said, Let us make Man in our Image. It is impious to suppose that the Angels are consulted or invited for the making of Man; 'tis expressly said, God made him: Nor in any Case would the Most High speak to Instrumentul Causes in the fi●st Person plural so. The fond and blind Jews are put unto wretched shifts, when they would banish their Notice of a Trinity from Scriptures thus plain and clear. Now this great God, who is thus Three in One, is the Creator of the World. The most High God who is the Possessor, is also the Creator of Heaven and Earth. It is true, that in some sort the Work of Creation belongs most properly to the Father, but the Son and the Spirit also are not excluded from a glorious concurrence in it: Unto him is every Man to ascribe his own Creation and Original: We are thus called upon in Psal. 100 3. Know ye that the Lord he is God, it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves. That style, my Maker, that is the style in which all Men that were not far worse than Devils have ever spoken of the Lord.   

Prop. II.  
It is the Duty of All Men to Remember their Creator: It is a just matter of Enquiry here, What it is to Remember God?  
The Answer in short is this, To Remember God is to Acknowledge God. Or, Take Solomon's own Explanation of it, in our Context here: It is to fear God, and keep his Commandments. There is both Understanding and Affection employed in this Remembrance: To Remember God is to Remember all the Respect which we own unto him, and to Render all that we Remember. The Phrase of Scripture is to be Interpreted by such comprehensive Rules as this. It is the Character of wicked Men, to forget God. 'Tis said in Psal. 9 17. The wicked shall be turned into Hell, and all the Nations that forget God. So then, to Remember God, this is the Character of Godly Men: To be sensible of God, that, that is to Remember him. There is a twofold Remembering of a thing: There is a keeping of it in our minds, and there is a calling of it to our minds: This Remembrance we are to acknowledge God withal. In short, we may observe that Solomon much imitated his Father, both in the matter and the manner of his Preaching to the World; particularly, what Solomon here says to us, is but an Expression of the same that his Father said to him, in 1 Chron. 28. 9 My Son, know thou the God of thy Father, and serve him. In this manner we are to Remember God.  
First, We should Remember God by our knowing of him: We are to Remember, That God is, and, That he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him. We are to Remember, that there is a God who is Infinite in his Power, his Wisdom, his Justice, and his Goodness, and that his Kingdom ruleth over all. It is said in Jer. 51. 50. Remember the Lord afar off: Part of the meaning is, Know the Lord. Strictly, 'tis impossible for a Man to Remember what he does not Understand. We should know God in his sufficience, and Know God in his efficience; we should know God as represented in his Words, in his Works, and above all, in the Lord Jesus Christ. It was of old counted a needful Counsel, Know thyself; it is no less important and pertinent, Know thy God: This Knowledge, it hath Life Eternal in it.  
Secondly, We should Remember God by our Thinking on him. The Psalmist could say in Psal. 63. 6. I Remember thee upon my Bed, and Meditate on thee in the Night-watches. We should have a Remembrance of, with a Meditation on the Holy God; awful and serious Thoughts of God should come into our Hearts often in a day: We should often be Thinking of God as our Judge, and we should Remember with ourselves, I am now under the flaming Eye of God, and I shall one day stand before the Judgment-seat of God. We should often be Thinking of God as our End, and we should Remember with ourselves, God has form me for himself, I should show forth his praise. We should often be Thinking of God as our Good, and we should Remember with ourselves▪ The Lord is my portion, and I have a goodly heritage. Briefly, what the Lord is in himself, the same is he to be in our daily Thoughts of him.  
Thirdly, We should Remember God by Turning to him: It is a Prophecy in Psal. 22. 27. All the Ends of the World shall Remember, and turn unto the Lord. We should have a Remembrance of God, that shall produce Repentance for sin: The Psalmist has communicated this Experience of his unto us, I Remembered God, I was troubled: O thus we should Remember God, and be troubled for our forsaking of him; be troubled for our provoking of him; and when we are troubled for, we should also be turned from all our evil ways. We are to Remember God, so as to choose him, and to take him for our God, and sincerely say, Lord! What have I any more to do with Idols? sincerely say, I will be now for the Lord, and not for another.  
Fourthly, We should Remember God by Living for him. It is the Profession of that good man in Psal. 119. 55. I have remembered thy Name, and have kept thy Law: There should an Obedience accompany that Remembrance which we have of God. The Prophet could say, I Remembered the Lord, and my Prayer came unto thee: Thus we should be able to say, I Remembered the Lord, and I sought his Face: Be able to say, I Remembered the Lord, and I heard his Word: Be able to say, I Remembered the Lord, and with my whole care I pleased the Lord. An Honouring of the Lord, is the best Remembering of Him.  
Fifthly, We should Remember God by Trusting in him. It was an Holy Triumph, in Psal. 20. 7. Some trust in Chariots, and some in Horses, but we will remember the Name of the Lord our God. A Remembrance of God should be with a Reliance on him. That Believer could say, 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 obliged 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 fit 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.  
'Tis 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 Remembered? 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 Days 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 Remembering 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 shouldst waste all thy very Marrow and Spirit upon thy cursed Idols, but bring unto God a few Torn crazy Howl, 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 Disingenuous?  
Secondly, Old-Age is not an easy Time for us to defer the Remembering 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 darkened? Wilt thou not lay hold on Eternal Life, until thy Hands are shaking with a Palsy? 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 easy 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 cried and rend 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 dwelled in a Man from his Childhood unto Old-Age, O 'tis not easily driven away: It is said, in Heb. 3. 12. Exhort one another to day, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Deceitful Sin, tells the Young Man, To morrow, to morrow will be soon enough to leave thy evil ways: 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 itself 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 thyself? 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 shouldst 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 Widow: 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 dies. The Sons of Eli were Vicious Youths, and they die too: So does the young man, Absalon, after his Brother Amnon. As young as thou art, and as lively and as lusty too; 'tis 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 Buryingplace t'other day, and there I saw a Grave shorter than myself. 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 itself, than by overcoming the Wicked One? Youth is a merry Age; let it then rejoice in the Lord. O nothing is more comely, or natural, than that young Men should remember God.   

Prop. IU.  
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 remembered.  
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 Father's 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 fullness 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 Uprightness. Remember Him as the Quickener 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 days of our Youth.   

USE I.  
Let them that have not Remembered 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 yourselves: 'Tis said in 1 Cor. 11. 3. If we would judge ourselves, 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 Remembered it with sorrow all his days: 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 'tis Time, 'tis high Time for you to Remember your, God, yet at last, before you go hence and be no more: Let this encourage you, That it is not too late as yet for you so to do. The Lord said in Jer. 3. 1. Though thou hast played the Harlot with many Lovers, yet return unto me: Even so, though thou hast committed many sins; though thou hast been sinning many years; yet return unto me, saith the Lord. There was in this very Land, one that had lived a carnal, stupid, ignorant Person for about an hundred years, and yet became a serious Christian before he died. Unto the Oldest Enemy of God among us all, I this day proclaim the mercy of the Lord: O let this break thy heart, and cause thee to come and say, I will do Iniquity no more.  
But let this also Terrify you, it will be too late for you e'er long: It is said in Psal. 6. 5. In Death there is no Remembrance of thee. Thy Death, thy Death is just ready to seize upon thee, and there is no work, no wisdom in the Grave, whither thou art going. Then thy cry, will be like that of Despairing Ones, All too late! All too late! God prevent such a miscarriage of thy neverdying Soul.   

USE II.  
Let us that are in our Youth, Now Remember our Creator in it.  
There are a multitude of young Persons, to whom the Word of God may reach this day. Now the Almighty God make this Word of his, Quick and powerful, and sharper than a two-edged Sword within their Souls! Hear, O Young People; Hear that your Souls may live: It is reported of Jotham, in Judg. 9 7. He stood in the top of the Mount, and he lift up his voice and cried, and said, Harken unto me, that God may hearken unto you. Thus would I do, thus would I speak this day. Here I stand in the Name of God that made you all: I would lift up my voice, and cry, and say, O Remember your Creator now, in the days of your youth. If you will not hear this Call of God now, God will not hear your cry to Him another Day. God will be deaf to the Words of thy Roaring, in the days of thy Age, and of thy Death, and of thy Wrath, if thou art now deaf to the Words of his Counsel. The Counsel (and it is wholesome Counsel) of our God now unto us, is, Remember me betimes: In order thereunto, these things are to be done.   

Rule I.  
Let us Remember that which will help us to Remember God.  
First, Remember thy Death, and thou wilt Remember thy God. A Remembrance of Death will produce in a Man a serious and godly frame of Spirit. One that was Remarkable for his Devotions, gave that Reason of it, O I must Die! I must Die! If a Young Man would awfully realize unto himself that thing, I must die! it would highly promote an Acquaintance between God and him: And young Man, it is not too soon for thee to have the Apprehensions of it. There was a young Man in this Land, that left behind him in Writing, Meditations to promote Preparation for Death. O that every young man would be no Stranger to such prudent Meditations!  
Let every young Person Remember this: I shall die very certainly: As Job could say, in Ch. 30. 23. I know that thou wilt bring me to Death: So let the young Person say, I know that I must e'er long look the King of Terrors in the Face; and I know that e'er long I shall go thither, whence I shall not return. Often look upon that Scripture, in Heb. 9 27. It is appointed unto all Men once to die. Often look upon that Scripture, in Psal. 89. 48. What man is he that liveth, and shall not see Death? And let these warnings make a deep Impression upon thy Mind. There was a Prince who gave a Pension unto a Person, that he might once a day come and say unto him, Remember that thou art a Mortal Man: Do that office unto thyself every Day. Look upon Death as the way of all the Earth; And Remember, I must go that Way: Look upon Death as the End of all men; and Remember, I shall have that End. Remember, there is no discharge in that War.  
Let every young Person also Remember this, I shall die very speedily. While we are young, we strangely promise ourselves to live long. Do not harbour that mistake; but rectify it by that Premoniton, in Jam. 4. 14. What is your life? It is even a Vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and vanisheth away: Rectify it by that Premonition, in 1 Chron. 28. 15. Our days on the Earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding. What are the poor Seventy years, that the Life of Man is now contracted into! Remember, they are winged things, they fly away, with a marvellous Velocity. We are truly told of them, in Job 9 25. that they are swifter than a Post; yea, more than so, swifter than a Ship; yea, more than that, swifter than an Eagle hastening to the Prey. Besides, Remember, 'tis possible, that half of those years may be all that thou shalt ever see; it hath been well said, That an old Man has Death before his Face; but a young Man has Death behind his Back: Perhaps, Death may strike thee down before him that is old enough to be thy Father. Remember that there are Skulls of all sizes in Golgotha.  
Secondly, Remember thy Soul, and thou wilt Remember thy God: Thou hast a neverdying Soul within thee; a Spiritual and an Immortal Substance, able to discern, and argue, and affect with a wonderful Apprehension. How frequently and fearfully do young Persons forget that they are Owners of such a Jewel.  
Let every young Person Remember this, The state of my Soul is miserable. Remember the guilt and filth, which thy Soul, by its becoming a constituent Essential part in one of Adam's Children, soon was defiled withal. Remember what a dreadful Anger and Vengeance of God, thy Soul by thy sin is exposed unto. Remember that Character of thy Soul, in Gen. 6. 5. Every imagination of the thoughts of the heart, is only evil continually. Remember that condition of thy Soul, in Eph. 2. 12. Without Christ, a stranger from the Convenant of promise, having no hope, and without God in the World. Remember what thou hast been doing unto thy Soul, ever since thy Birth: It is said in Prov. 8. 36. He that sinneth wrongeth his own Soul. O Remember what Wrongs, what Wounds, thy own Soul has had from thy own hand; and Remember what an ever-gnawing Worm, what an ever-burning Fire, is now ready to seize upon that poor Soul of thine: Thou art mindful of thy Body, of thy Estate, of thy Credit, and mindful of almost every Creature which thou art concerned in. Thy Soul now begs of thee, O Remember me!  
Let every young Person likewise Remember this, The worth of my Soul is invaluable. A Great Man was well advised once every day, to remember that Sentence of our Lord, in Matt. 16. 26. What is a man profited, if he gain the whole World, and lose his own soul? Thou canst not Remember a 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 Tempter's 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 portrayed all round about. For these things we may say, as one said unto his Friend, that offered 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 Firstborn 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 Menassehs, 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: 'Tis an allusion to a Leaky Vessel. Young People, the Great God is pouring his Commandments, and Promises, and Threaten 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 days 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 the 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 particularise,  
(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, procured 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 Southside of the Tabernacle. So they infected one another: Remember, that bad Companions will cause you to die with them too. I pray how came Ahaziah to meet with his Death before his Time? It was by visiting a debauched bigoted Idolater, the infamous Jehoram. When you fall into a Knot of Impious Men, you are like the Man Travelling to Jericho, who fell among Thiefs that stripped him, and wounded him, and departed leaving him halfdead. 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 Deathbed 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 yourselves 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 men's 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 Days, 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, 'tis 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 mere achan's of the Land they live in.  
Finally, There are many other sins of Youth, especially that sin of Uncleanness, 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 maintained a course of daily supplication, and besides often had his extraordinary Days 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 followed 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 itself 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 Father's 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 than 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 IU.  
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 publicly 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 enjoined 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 Judgement in a Christless unregenerate estate if you dare! I will testify against you, I say again, I will testify 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 Ways▪ 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 harkened 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 Harken thereunto.  
Thus are we to Remember God: And, O who among you are more than almost persuaded 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 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 Thunderbolts avenge thy doing so.   

CONSIDER. II.  
'Tis 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 virtuous 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 than 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 Ea●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 joseph's, and the samuel's, 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 Newborn then? It seldom is. Our Text says, Remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth; It may be rendered, 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 strive of the Lord, thou dost as it were smother them and banish them; 'tis to be feared 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.