N00196:43
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.
Consider 2. That Prayer is a notable means to obtain this mercy; Prayer opens the Windows of Heaven: Elijah p•ayed that it might rain, and Heaven gave showers; Prayer brings down the showers of blessing in a proper literal sense: but especially these spiritual showers, which the Text speaketh of, wherein the Lord promiseth to shower down his spirit upon our poor Children. Assuredly, if there be Prayers, and Tears before the Lord on this account, they will come pouring down again in showers of grace at last. I have read of an eminent Minister of Christ, that having prayed fervently with some Christian Friends, they in the next room felt strange Elapses of the spirit upon the heart, so as that one said, O […], that can knock down the spirit of God into all […]? who knoweth but that we may pray down the spirit of God into the souls of our Children, Luke 11.9. Knock and it shall be opened to you, ask, and it shall be given you. What shall then be given? even the holy spirit to them that a•k him, verse 13. O then let us knock hard at Heaven gates this day: certainly such requests, are welcome to heaven, yea to God in Heaven: he hath showed how acceptable such requests are to him by gracious Answers: Christ said unto his Disciples, Behold I send the promise of the Father, me••ing the spirit of promise, unto y•u, but tarry ye in the City Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high, ⟨p. 15⟩Luk. 24.49. And what were they to do at Jerusalem in the mean time? No question but (as some have noted) they were much in Fasting and Prayer that this promise of the Father might come upon them. And not long after there was a most gracious and glorious effusion of the spirit. And of later times, God hath been entreated to send down his Spirit abundantly for the conversion of souls. Not fifty years ago, in a place in Scotland, a great number of praying Christians met together,1 when a Sermon was to be Preached the next day, and they spent the night afore in Prayer, that the Lord would own the word then to be spoken, for the Conversion of souls, and Behold! the Lord went forth with his word, so as that near upon five hundred Souls were wrought upon, and converted by that one Sermon.