N00657:51
A discourse concerning the uncertainty of the times of men, and the necessity of…
A discourse concerning the uncertainty of the times of men, and the necessity of being prepared for sudden changes & death. Delivered in a sermon preached at Cambridge in New England. Decemb. 6. 1696. On occasion of the sudden death of two scholars belonging to Harvard College. / By Increase Mather, president of that college. ; [Two lines from I Samuel]A discourse concerning the uncertainty of the times of men, and the necessity of being prepared for sudden changes & death. Delivered in a sermon preached at Cambridge in New England. Decemb. 6. 1696. On occasion of the sudden death of two scholars belonging to Harvard Colledge. / By Increase Mather, praesident of that colledge. ; [Two lines from I Samuel]
printed by B. Green for Samuel Phillips, 1697
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.
2. Live as you will wish you had lived when Time shall be no longer with you. I have read of a King that sent to a Minister, desiring that he would tell him how he must live, that so he might be sure to be a good and an happy man: Sir, (said he) Liv• ⟨p. 34⟩as you […] you had lived the last time that you were Sick, and thought […] should die, and then you will certainly be a good and an happy man. They that would die well, must live well. Be always serving and glorifying God in Jesus Christ, & then if an• body tells you of Death, you may smile at it, and say, If Death comes it shall be welcome, when ever the Lord pleases to send it.
2. Live as you will wish you had lived when Time shall be no longer with you. I have read of a King that sent to a Minister, desiring that he would tell him how he must live, that so he might be sure to be a good and an happy man: Sir, (said he) Liv• ⟨p. 34⟩as you 〈…〉 you had lived the last time that you were Sick, and thought 〈…〉 should dy, and then you will certainly be a good and an happy man. They that would dy well, must live well. Be alwayes serving and glorifying God in Jesus Christ, & then if an• body tells you of Death, you may smile at it, and say, If Death comes it shall be welcome, when ever the Lord pleases to send it.
And now as I have spoken these things to all this Assembly, so let me apply them in a special manner to you the Scholars of this College, who are here present before the Lord. I am concerned in my Spirit for you. All of you are my Children: And do you think that I can see my Children Drowned, and not be troubled for it? God has come among you this last week, & lessened two of your number by a sad & awful Providence. Do you think these two were greater Sinners than any amongst you. No, no, they were boh of them hopeful youths. One of them (young Eyres) was an only Son, and a desirable dutiful Son, of a sweet amiable Temper, beloved by every body. He was observed to read the Scriptures constantly every day with great Alacrity. A sign that there was some good thing in him towards the God of Israel. As for the other (Maxwell) the Rebuke of Heaven in taking him away is the more solemn, in that his pious Relations sent him from far: to be Educated in this Nursery,