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. Though 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 ⟨image 7⟩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 Jerome did when he had read the Life of Hilarion, shutting up the Book and saying, Well, here shall ⟨image 8⟩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.
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 ⟨image 7⟩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 ⟨image 8⟩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.
