A70554:233
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
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.
Behold a Cordial here, against three sorts of Exercises.
First, Against all the Troubles of this Life.
We are apt to be discouraged at the Difficulties of this Evil World: But the Voice of our God unto us, is that, in Luke 21. 28. Lift up your Heads, for your Redemption draweth nigh. Ere long you shall not be; and then your Afflictions too, they shall not be: God will take you from them all. And what says Paul's Calculation, in Rom. 8. 18. For I reckon (he speaks like an Arithmetician, or an Accountant) that the sufferings of this present time, are not worthy to be compared with the Glory which shall be Revealed. When two English Protestants, one that was Blind, another that was Lame, were leading to be Burned, they so cheered one another, Well fare we, we shall need our Crutches and our Guides no ⟨p. 43⟩more after this. Thus let us in all our Trials think, When I am beyond the Stars, I never shall be under the Clouds any more. Have you any Sorrows hard to bear? Are you afflicted in your Friends? Hast thou like David, a Son that makes thee say, My life is spent with Grief? Hast thou like Jephthah, a Daughter that makes thee say, Alas! thou hast brought me very low, thou art one of them that trouble me? Hast thou Job's or Abigail's Yoke upon thee? O think, I shall shortly be gone from the Light and Sense of such things as these. Are you afflicted in your Names? Are you like Elijah, counted a Troubler of Israel? or like Jeremiah, a Man of Contention; or like Paul, a Pestilent Fellow, and a mover of Sedition? O think, I shall meet with none of these Reproaches where I am going? Are you afflicted in your Bodies, or your Estates? Are you like Timothy, cruciated with often Infirmities? Or like Naomi, going out full, and coming home empty of Temporal Goods? O think, I shall quickly be where a Spital or an Alms-house, there never was any occasion for. Are there any snares that you are too often trepanned into? O think of the Time when all this Earth shall be to you as an Invisible point; think, The […]