N00683:55
A good man making a good end. The life and death, of the Reverend…
A good man making a good end. The life and death, of the Reverend Mr. John Baily [i.e., Bailey], comprised and expressed in a sermon, on the day of his funeral. Thursday. 16.d. 10.m. 1697. / By Cotton Mather. ; [Two line epigram in Latin]
printed by B. Green for Michael Perry, 1698
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
From a Child he did know the Holy Scriptures, yea, From a Child he was wise unto Salvation. In his very Childhood, he discovered the Fear of God, upon his young Heart; and Prayer to God was one of his Early Exercises.
There was one very Remarkable Effect of it. His Father, was a man of a very Licentious Conversation; a Gamester, a Dancer, a very Lewd Company-keeper. The Mother of this Elect Vessel, one day took him, while he was yet a Child, and calling the Family together, made him to Pray with them. His Father coming to understand, at what a rate, the Child had prayed with his Family, it smote the Soul of him, with a great Conviction, and proved the Beginning of his Conversion unto God. God lest not off working on his Heart, until ⟨p. 35⟩he proved one of the most Eminent Christians in all that Neighbourhood. So he Lived; so he Dyed; A man of more than ordinary Piety. And it was his manner sometimes to Retire unto those very places, of his former Lewdnesses, where, having this his Little Son in his Company, he would pour out Floods of Tears, in Repenting Prayers before the Lord.
There was one very Remarkable Effect of it. His Father, was a man of a very Licentious Conversation; a Gamester, a Dancer, a very Lewd Company-keeper. The Mother of this Elect Vessel, one day took him, while he was yet a Child, and calling the Family together, made him to Pray with them. His Father coming to unde•stand, at what a rate, the Child had pray'd with his Family, it smote the Soul of him, with a great Conviction, and prov'd the Beginning of his Conversion unto God. God lest not off working on his Heart, until ⟨p. 35⟩he proved one of the most Eminent Christians in all that Neighbourhood. So he Lived; so he Dyed; A man of more than ordinary Piety. And it was his manner sometimes to Retire unto those very places, of his former Lewdnesses, where, having this his Little Son in his Company, he would pour out Floods of Tears, in Repenting Prayers before the Lord.