Early Piety

THE INTRODUCTION.

MY Reader will quickly discern what it is that I attempt the doing of; and I suppose he will then see no occasion of enquiring Why. The Apology's wherewith Writers usually fill the Prefaces of their Books, Do come of Evil; either the Vanity of the Composers is discovered, or the Candour of the Perusers questioned in them. That I Write the Life of a Christian, cannot be faulted by any one who Considers, That the Lives of Pious Men have been justly esteemed among the most useful Histories which the Church of God Enjoyes; or that the best Pens in the World have been employ'd in thus helping the Just unto Eternal Memory. Our Lord will have as mean a thing as one Act of Devotion and Charity, in a poor Woman, to be mentioned wherever His Gospel comes. That I write the Life of a Brother, will not be reckoned absurd by them who understand what Patterns I have, both Ancient and Modern, for my doing so. James Janeway among the rest has had our Thanks for what an Account he has given of his Brother John. Indeed; if I should not thus Raise up for my departed Brother a Name in Israel, I were not worthy to Wear a Shoo, or to have a Face unspit upon. My Natural Relation to him doth oblige me to bestow an Epitaph upon his Grave; that the Survivers may not forget whose Dust they tread upon: But I am by (that which Ambrose calls) a Greater and Better Fraternity, concerned to Embalm the Memory of One, who maintained such a Walk with God, as he did until God took him to Himself. It has been observed, That they who Live in Heaven while they are on Earth, often Live on Earth after they are in Heaven. It were lawful for me to desire and Study such a thing on the behalf of my Brother, whose Early Piety is at once my own Shame and Joy: But I pursue an higher End than this, designing rather to procure Followers, than to bespeak Admirers of this good Example: That this is my Main Scope, in what I am now doing of, I declare sincerely and very solemnly. And hence I have not here made an Oration in his Praise, but given barely a Narrative of his Life, and this mostly by Transcribing of his own Memorials, in all affecting the plain style of a Just Historian.

I do therefore Address this Exemplary Life unto the young People of New-England, and especially unto those of North-Boston, who are the Lambs that I have Received a peculiar Charge from the Lord Jesus about the Feeding of. To you do I present this Mirrour, wherein you may see the Exercises of a Virtuous Youth, not only prescribed, but also practised before your Eyes: You shall see, as what should be done, so what may be done by a Young Person, in order to Everlasting Felicity; see him and hear him as One come from the Dead, saying, Do as I have done. The Father of him whom I describe has Laboured exceedingly for the Conversion of the Rising Generation in New-England; and his CALL to them has been Printed and Reprinted here among us. Thô the News of a Sons Death must needs be afflictive to him, when he shall have the Report of it arriving to him in the other England, yet I make no doubt, but his Parental Griefs will be not a little Mitigated, when he shall hehold that Son thus Renewing his CALL by speaking after he is Dead. This Young Man did pray much for you, while he was Alive, that you might be truly Converted unto God; he does preach now to you, from the Grave, or rather from the Sky, that you would Remember your Creator in the dayes of your Youth. I wish that he may (to use Chrysostoms Phrase) become a Brother to you by Faith, as he is to me by Blood: And I extend this my wish with a most Affectionate Application to the Young Gentlemen, who belong to the Colledge which he was a Member of. As you have had in his Father a Rector, whose Generous and Expensive Cares have not been for your disadvantage; so you have in his Diligence and his Devotion, a Copy which is not altogether unworthy of your Imitation: I am setting before you the Exercises and Accomplishments of a Scholar, whose chief Study it was, to be Wise unto Salvation; a Scholar, who Laboured while he was Learning all other things, not to be Ignorant of Him, Whom to know is Life Eternal. I am not without Hope, that some of you will now resolve as Jerom did when he had read the Life of Hilarion, shutting up the Book and saying, Well, here shall be the Champion whom I will follow: When you come to Dye, you will certainly commend such a Life as his; god grant that none of you may then have cause to sigh, Qualis Artifex pereo! Or to complain, Surgunt Indocti & rapiunt Coelum; Nos cum nostris Doctrinis mergimur in Infernum. That Great Man Hugo Grotius near his End professed, That he would gladly give all his Learning and Honour for the Integrity of a poor Man in his Neighbourhood, that spent Eights Hours of his Time 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.

p. 1THE 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?