A70554:144
Early piety, exemplified in the life and death of Mr. Nathanael Mather, who ...…
Early piety, exemplified in the life and death of Mr. Nathanael Mather, who ... 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.
London: printed by J. Astwood for John Dunton, 1689
THE LIFE and DEATH OF Mr. NATHANAEL MATHER. › Part 3: III. His DEATH.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
He was Dejected, yet not Despairing; and he discovered a wonderfully Gracious, when he had not a Joyful Frame. He was all made up of Longings and Breathings after all the fullness of God, when he could not or would not pretend unto any Confidence of his Acceptance with the Lord.
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 Longings and Breathings after all the fulness 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 ⟨p. 58⟩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 loth 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 Young-Man, 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 depart in Peace: And in the Morning after, he said, I have now been with Jesus Christ! which, from such a little Speaker as he, ⟨p. 59⟩we could not have his Explication of.