Early piety, exemplified in the life and death of Mr. Nathanael Mather, who ...…

THE great Emperor, Augustus, making an Oration to his mutinous Army, began it with that surprising Expression, Audite senem, Juvenes quem Juvenem senes ⟨p. 48⟩audierunt; when I was a young Man, old Men counted me worthy to speak unto them; now I am an old Man, methinks young Men should not refuse to mind what I say: Truly, such might the Speech of our Solomon be, by way of Preface to the Text now read unto us; surely this old Preacher deserves the attention of every young Person among us all. It is a Passage uttered by this matchless and inspired Prince, in Prov. 22. 20. Have not I written to thee excellent things? It is by some rendered so, Have not I three times written for thee? He hath indeed so; we have three Books composed by that Royal and Renowned Pen; one of which wears the Title of Ecclesiastes, because that such was the Author of it. We are told of some in 2 Chron. 11. 17. They walked in the way of David and of Solomon: What way is that? It was the way of David, that he sinned, he fell, he dishonoured God exceedingly, but he soon Repented and recovered, and then by writing the fifty first Psalm he gave an Evidence of his doing so. This was the way of Solomon too; he departed from God with a wonderful Apostasy, but being reclaimed and reduced from his Wanderings, he now Publishes ⟨p. 49⟩a Testimony of it unto all the World.

THE great Emperor, Augustus, making an Oration to his mutinous Army, began it with that surprizing Expression, Audite senem, Juvenes quem Juvenem senes ⟨p. 48⟩audierunt; when I was a young Man, old Men counted me worthy to speak unto them; now I am an old Man, methinks young Men should not refuse to mind what I say: Truly, such might the Speech of our Solomon be, by way of Preface to the Text now read unto us; surely this old Preacher deserves the attention of every young Person among us all. It is a Passage uttered by this matchless and inspired Prince, in Prov. 22. 20