A50162:382
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.
But what mean you, O ye inconsiderate Youths, to delay the Remembering of your Creator so? In the Language of the young Prophet, whom God sent unto the Jews of old, let me say, thus saith the Lord, Consider your ways.
But what mean you, O ye inconsiderate Youths, to delay the Remembring of your Creator so? In the Language of the young Prophet, whom God sent unto the Iews of old, let me say, thus saith the Lord, Consider your waies.
Consider the Uncertainty of your Life which you have to be praising of God withal. As young as you are, you may die before the most aged person here. It hath been truly noted, That The old man has Death before his face, but the young man has Death behind his back. The stroke of Death may sooner lay you in the Dust, than some whose Heads old Time hath snowed upon. O look, and see, and let thy heart shake at the Apprehension of it. Thy Death stands, just behind ⟨p. 126⟩thee there with an Horrible Pole-Axe ready lifted up, saying as the Prince of old, Shall I smite them? shall I smite them? If the great God utter the word, Smite, smite, thou art gone beyond all Recovery. The Blessed God hath newly caused me to look into the Coffins of two very near and sweet Relations, neither of which had ever seen Twenty Winters in the World; and with a strong hand He then said unto me, Go, Go tell the young people of Boston, and Charlestown, that this is that which they are all expos`d unto. Behold I am now come in Bitterness and in the heat of my spirit, I am come to Warn you of it, That You may die before you are aware of such a dismal Change at hand. O do not procrastinate the praises and the Virtues which the God of Heaven Expects from you; put not off until, Tomorrow; For tis the admonition to be now set before you, in Prov. 2. 7. B•ast not thy self of Tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.
Consider the Vncertainty of your Life which you have to be praising of God withal. As young as you are, you may dy before the most aged person here. It hath been truly noted, That The old man has Death before his face, but the young man has Death behind his back. The stroak of Death may sooner lay you in the Dust, than some whose Heads old Time hath snow'd upon. O look, and see, and let thy heart shake at the Apprehension of it. Thy Death stands, just behin