A50162:209
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.
Wherefore
Consider, first, the Needfulness of it.
Christians, Instruct your Families, for I may say, This is the Will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. And as Gods Will, so their State ⟨p. 63⟩calleth for it. O look upon the Ignorance of your Families. May it not be said of them as in Psal. 14. 2. The Lord looked on the Children— to see if there were any that did understand; they are all gone aside. Instruct them; lest they be destroyed for lack of knowledge. Look upon the Corruption of your Families. May it not be said of them, as in Eccles. 5. 3. The hearts of the Children is full of Evil. Instruct them, lest they be the Children of Belial, to consume your eyes and grieve your hearts.
In a Word, Instruct your Families or else the Blood of their Souls will be required at your hands. It was complained of old, in