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

USE I.

ƲSE I.

Let them that have not Remembered their Creator in the days of their Youth, now in the days of their Age be ashamed of it, and afflicted for it.

Let them that have not Remembred their Creator in the days of their Youth, now in the days of their Age be ashamed of it, and afflicted for it.

There are two sorts of Aged People to be now treated with: There are some that are Converted unto God but late: They squandered away most of all their Youth, before they turned their feet unto the Testimonies of the Lord. It becomes these Persons now, as they Remember their God, so likewise to Remember their Sin: You make that your daily Prayer, in Psal. 25. 7. Remember not against me the sins of my youth. Be assured that God's dealing with you will in many regards be quite contrary to your dealing with your Sins. If you love them, he will hate you: If you slay them, he will save you: If you would have God ⟨p. 67⟩not Remember them, O then do you remember them your selves: 'Tis said in 1 Cor. 11. 3. If we would judge our selves, we should not be judged of the Lord. Well then, every one of you, like Pharaoh's Butler, now say, I remember my faults this day. O Remember all the lying, all the idleness; all the profuseness and profaneness of thy Youth. When Paul was a young Man, he had an hand in Abusing and Murdering an Eminent Minister of God, but he Remembered it with sorrow all his days: O! said he many Years after; When the Blood of Stephen was shed, I was consenting to it. Come now and sit down in the Dust this day before the Lord; come, and lament it, and bewail it, that you so long lay out from God, and that you so long did the things, for which the Wrath of God comes upon the Children of Disobedience. Be able to say, My Soul has this in remembrance, and is humbled in me. But perhaps there are some of you that never yet were Converted unto God at all: As they said in