N00196:52
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.
2. Parents, be exemplary. Walk before God in your Houses with a perfect heart. Let us be careful in our Families, to walk so that our Children may see by our examples how they ought to walk and to please God, that if they will but be and do like unto their Parents, they shall certainly be blessed for ever. There are many of the Elect of God, that the special means of their conversion hath been the holy example of their Parents. Many a chosen Vessel, that when he hath beheld his Fathers love to Christ, and faithfulness to the interest of God, Zeal, Patience, Holiness, that hath been a special means of Conviction and Conversion. You know what Elijah said to Elisha, when he desired that he might have (h. e. comparatively to what the rest of the Sons of the Prophets had) a double portion of Elijah Spirit, He said,1 Thou hast asked an hard thing, nevertheless if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee, but if not, it shall not be so, 2 Kin. 2.10. Even so if your Children see you holy and faithful to the interest of God, and of Jesus Christ, and every way exemplary doubt not of it, but in Gods time, they shall receive of your spirit. ⟨p. 20⟩As on the other hand there is nothing more fatally destructive and ruining to the Souls of Children then a bad example in Parents, especially if they be such as pretend to Religion: when Ham did but one time see his Father in drink, it brought a fearful curse upon him, and upon his Posterity to this day. There are great complain•s (and too great cause) concerning the Rising Generation in New-England; whereas the fault is very much in Parents, in that they are no more exemplary: Your Children take notice of your Pride, your Sensuality, your Worldliness, your unmortified passions, and that doth woefully scandalize, and harden them against the blessed ways of Christ. O be careful to walk so as that your Children may not see their Fathers nakedness.
2. Parents, be exemplary. Walk before God in your Houses with a perfect heart. Let us be careful in our Families, to walk so that our Children may see by our examples how they ought to walk and to please God, that if they will but be and do like unto their Parents, they shall certainly be blessed for ever. There are many of the Elect of God, that the special means of their conversion hath been the holy example of their Parents. Many a chosen Vessel, that when he hath beheld his Fathers love to Christ, and faithfulness to the interest of God, Zeal, Patience, Holiness, that hath been a special means of Conviction and Conversion. You know what Elijah said to Elisha, when he desired that he might have (h. e. comparatively to what the rest of the Sons of the Prophets had) a double portion of Elijah Spirit, He said,