A50162:177
Small offers towards the service of the tabernacle in the wilderness four discourses accommodated…
Small offers towards the service of the tabernacle in the wilderness four discourses accommodated unto the designs of practical godliness : preached partly at Boston, partly at Charleston / by Cotton Mather ; published by a gentleman lately restored from threatening sickness as a humble essay to serve the interest of religion, in gratitude unto God for his recovery.
Boston: printed by R. Pierce, 1689
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.
Are there any Back-sliding Souls, in our Families? Instruct them suitably, by setting before them the Displeasure of God at such as drawback, and His extreme Wrath on them whose ⟨p. 55⟩Goodness is as the Morning cloud and the early dew; and say, Remember whence thou art fallen, repent, and do thy first works. Thus are we to suit the the case of those whom we give Instruction to.
Thirdly. We are to Instruct our Families very Diligently. Tis a thing that we are to labour in. Twas enjoined in Deut 6. 7. The words which I command thee, thou shalt teach them Diligently unto thy Children. It calls for our Hearts and our Pains. When we set about it, we should think with our selves, We know not how short our Opportunities may be; we know not whether we shall ever speak more to those whom we now direct our selves unto. In this as well as in other such Cases, we should hear the voice of our own Uncertainty & Mortality; tis that in Eccles. 9. 10. Do with thy might what thy hand finds to do, for there is no work, nor wisdom in the grave whither thou art going. Tis the Work of the Lord, about which we are, when we are, Instructing our Families, tis not to be done slothfully; we find in Jer. 28. 10. cursed is the man, who doth it so; tis to be done heartily; we find in 2. Chron. 31. 21. that is the way to prosper in it. O let us be as Diligent in Instructing of our young people, as the Emissaries of Hell are in Seducing of them.
Thirdly. We are to Instruct our Families very Diligently. Tis a thing that we are to labour in. Twas enjoind in Deut 6. 7. The words which I command thee, thou shalt teach them Diligently unto thy Children. It calls for our Hearts and our Pains. When we set about it, we should think with our selves, We know not how short our Opportunities may be; we know not whether we shall ever speak more to those whom we now direct our selves unto. In this as well as in other such Cases, we should hear the voice of our own Vncertainty & Mortality; tis that in