Parentator. Memoirs of remarkables in the life and the death of the ever-memorable Dr.…

§. 11. And now, Mr. Mathers Agency for his Country in the Court of England is drawing towards its Period, it will be time to enquire, whether his being so Plunged into a Conversation with Great Men, and with all Sorts of Men, and his Overwhelming Solicitude about Civil Interests [In Ordine ad Spiritualia; For. The Care of the Churches, was what lay at the Bottom of all!] did not Interrupt those Interviews with Heaven, which he had formerly been used unto; and Incommode that course of Real, Vital, Watchful PIETY, which he had formerly Maintained? Far from it• But above all, that Breath of PIETY, his Old strokes of Incessant PRAYER, was kept in its Unintermitted Respirations with him.

§. 11. And now, Mr. Mathers Agency for his Country in the Court of England is drawing towards its Period, it will be time to enquire, whether his being so Plunged into a Conversation with Great Men, and with all Sorts of Men, and his Overwhelming Sollicitude about Civil Interests [In Ordine ad Spiritualia; For. The Care of the Churches, was what lay at the Bottom of all!] did not Interrupt those Interviews with Heaven, which he had formerly been used unto; and Incommode that course of Real, Vital, Watchful PIETY, which he had formerly Maintained? Far from it• But above all, that Breath of PIETY, his Old strokes of Incessant PRAYER, was kept in its Unintermitted Respirations with him.

It is a little Observable That though Homer, by first Introducing the Gods as having the same Vicious Characters, and Actions with miserable Mortals, Proved one of the Greatest Apostles the Devil ever had in the World; yet the Testimonies born to many Points of Morality in his Famous and Wondrous Epic Poem, are numberless. But there is nothing more worthy of Observation in the Iliad, than This; That he will Recommend Prayer to Heaven as a most necessary Preface unto all Important Enterprises: and he never Speaks of any Prayer, but he brings ⟨p. 146⟩in a Gracious Answer to it. I have seen the Quill of an High-flyer Scoffing at Homer for this as making his Hero's to be of the same Religion with the Dissenters in our Nation. And yet, what has Homer done, but Justified the Wisdom in the Maxims of our Holy REDEEMER, with a Confession from that Natural Conscience, which such Scoffers of the Last Days have Silenced? Let them Scoff on, if they Please; while I go on to relate, That I find Mr Mather still in his Good old way, of Setting apart whole Days for Secret Supplications to the Glorious GOD; Especially, when Critical Hours for our Affairs were coming on. In these Days, I find him sometimes, under those Afflations from Heaven, which assured him, That be should Return to New England, with Good Tidings for the People there. When he saw his Designs Crossed, and his Labours Lost, in his pursuit of the Old Charter, it greatly Perplexed him to see what looked unto him, as if his Prayer and Faith were Baffled. But GOD was Graciously doing better than he Imagined, for him, and for his People, whom the Old Charter, (as it was) would not have near so well Accommodated (as things go) as what is now Obtained for them. Nor was he without his whole Days for Secret Thanksgivings, when GOD had Remarkably smiled upon him. And he would sometimes (after a well-known Pattern in the Bible,) prevail with his Friends to meet, and Fast and Pray, when he was to go in unto the King: Or when our Affairs had any dark Obstructions upon them. Yea, such was the Sanctity and Purity of his