Early Piety Exemplified, Title page 1 – To the reader 2
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 Iohn Dunton at the Black Raven in the Poultrey, 1689.
To the READER.
OF all Reading, Hiſtory hath in it a moſt taking Delight, and no Hiſtory more delightfull 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 out-done by Green years, may gird up their loyns, 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 Errours 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 entred 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 p…formed this Covenant, in Faſting, in Prayer, in Watchings, in Self-Examination, in Meditation, in Thanksgiving, in Walking with God in all, is fully witneſſed in what follows, which ſhews 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 ſtedfaſt in his Covenant. For having once given up himſelf to God, He kept the ways of the Lord, and did not wickedly depart 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 dyed ſo ſoon. We are not ſent into the World meerly 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 (tho 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 In…acy 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 joyn 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 judgment 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 bin 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 write 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 gain'd no more by him: And yet muſt acknowledge, that the little underſtanding which God has given me in the Hebrew or Greek Tongues, was by that my Brother as the inſtrument: So that I have cauſe whilſt I ſhall live, to honour his Memory. His Death makes me remember the Poets words, foreign.
I cannot but know, that if I ſhould not fear and ſerve the God of my Brothers, and of my Fathers, and of my Grand-Fathers, the neareſt Relations I ever had in the World, will be Witneſſes againſt me at the laſt day. The Lord give us a joyful meeting in the day of Christ.
London, February, 5th. 1689. Samuel Mather.