Early Piety Exemplified, Publishers advertisement
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THere is juſt now publiſht a Treatiſe entituled, Reformed Religion, or Right Chriſtianity deſcribed, in its Excellent and Uſefulneſs in the Whole Life of Man. Written by … Barker Miniſter of the Goſpel. Price bound 1 ….
There will in a few days be publiſht A new Martyrology, … the Bloody Aſſizes, now exactly methodized in one Volume, comprehending a compleat Hiſtory of the Lives, Sufferings an… Deaths of all thoſe Excellent Perſons who fell in the Weſt … elſewhere, from 1678. to 1689. with the Pictures of ſeveral … the Chief of them in Copper-plates. To which is added, … Life and Death of George Lord Jefferys.—Both ſold … John Dunton at the Raven in the Poultrey.
THE LIFE and DEATH OF Mr. NATHANAEL MATHER.
I Write the Life and Death of a Young Man, whoſe Ornament will awaken in the Reader, an Enquiry like that which the Atchievments of David, produced concerning him, Whoſe Son is this Youth?
To Anticipate that Enquiry:
Nathanael Mather had for his Grand-Fathers Two of New-England's Fathers, the Famous Richard Mather, and the not leſs Famous John Cotton; whoſe Names have been in the Church of God, as an Ointment powred forth, and whoſe Lives bear no little Figure in the Eccleſiaſtical Histories of our Engliſh Iſrael. His … being yet living, it's too▪ ſoon, to gi… them their Character; yet I may ventu… to ſay, It's no diſgrace unto him in the Opinion of Men that love Learning and Virtue, that he was the Son of Increaſ… Mather, the well known Teacher of a Church in Boſton, and Rector of Harward Colledge in New-England. What Gregory Nazianzen judged not improper … be ſaid about his yet ſurviving Father in his Funeral Oration upon his Decea… ed Brother, I may without any culpa… Adulation on this occaſion, ſay of him He is another Aaron or Moſes in the … of his God.
Our Nathanael was born on July 6▪ 1669. which I find him Recording … his Diary, when he was fourteen Year… Old, with ſuch an humble Reflection ther…upon, How little have I improved this tim… to the Honour of God as I ſhould have … He wanted not the Cares of his Father to beſtow a good Education on him, which God bleſſed for the Reſtraining him from the lewd and wild Courſes by which … many Children are betimes reſigned … to the poſſeſſion of the Devil, and … the Furniſhing him with the Accompliſhments as give an Ornament of Grace … the Head of Youth. He did Live where he might Learn, and under the continual Prayers and Pains, of ſome that looked after him, he became an Inſtance of unuſual Induſtry, and no Common Piety; ſo that when he dyed, which was Octob. 17th. 1688. he was become in leſs than twenty years, An Old Man without Gray hairs upon him.
To thoſe two Heads, with a ſorrowful Addition of a Third, I ſhall conſine my account of this Young Man; in which the Picture to be now drawn, has nothing but the Truth, and at leaſt ſo much of Life in it, as to look upon every Reader, yea ſpeak unto him, ſaying, Go and do likewiſe.