N00196:36
Pray for the rising generation, or A sermon wherein godly parents are encouraged, to…
Pray for the rising generation, or A sermon wherein godly parents are encouraged, to pray and believe for their children, preached the third day of the fifth month, 1678. which day was set apart by the Second Church in Boston in New-England, humbly to seek unto God by fasting and prayer, for a spirit of converting grace, to be poured out upon the children and rising generation in New-England. / By Increase Mather, teacher of that church. ; [Seven lines of quotations]
printed by Samuel Green, 1678
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.
Reas. 2. Because the Children of Gods people do many of them ⟨p. 12⟩belong to Election, As it is expressed in the Context, Jeshurun whom I have chosen; That Election of God is mentioned as the ground of this promise in the Text. The Elect of God are the proper Subjects of this promise: The Lord in the Covenant of Grace hath not only promised that whoever doth truly believe and repent shall be saved, but as to the Elect, there is a promise of the first Grace, even that converting grace shall be poured on them, they shall be made to repent and believe. A new heart shall be given to the house of Israel, h. e. the Elect, typified by the house of Israel, Gal. 6.16. Now God hath seen good to cast the line of Election so, as that it doth (though not wholly, and only, yet) for the most part, run through the loins of godly Parents. There are, it is true, Elect Children, who are not born of Elect Parents, but there are few (if any) Elect Parents without Elect Children▪ Sometimes all the Children belong to Election, as we see in the many Sons of Jacob, However some of them, that the Lord remembers, and establisheth his Covenant with. The Scripture doth frequently hint this Truth, that Elect Children are for the most part cast upon Elect Parents, see Psal 103.17. Isai. 59 20▪ & 65.22, 23. 2 Tim. 1.5, 2 John 1. And observation doth confirm it;1 For we see that the Elect of God are not in all Nations alike, but in some the Lord gathers his Elect to himself from Generation to Generation. And there are some […] that the Lord hath chosen above others, and therefore poureth his spirit upon the off-spring in such Families successively. But of this I have spoken more largely elsewhere, and therefore shall not insist further upon it now.
Reas. 2. Because the Children of Gods people do many of them ⟨p. 12⟩