N00196:7
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.
To the Reader,
Eminent Blessings do not use to be poured down upon the World, except the Church of God be first stirred up to pray for them. The Lord who is styled [Greek or Hebrew] the Hearer of Prayer, delights to give mercy in this way▪ And it was never known since the World began, that the Spirit of Prayer was awakened in the hearts of those that can cry Abba Father but some great and blessed effect, did in due time follow▪ He said not to the seed of Jacob seek ye me in vain. O that God would bow the heart of New-England, even of all his Saints in these Churches, as one man, to cry mightily to Heaven, that his Spirit may be poured on the now risen (a multitude of sinful men that are risen up in their Fathers stead) and upon the after rising Generation. The Lords People have need of something to comfort them, in this day, when there are so many doleful symptoms of approaching wrath and ruin. Now if God say unto his praying ones amongst us, seek ye my face for the rising Generation, and their hearts answer again, Lord thy face we will seek for them, that will be no small encouragement unto Faith, that the blessed design of our Fathers (now with Christ beholding his glory) who transported themselves into this vast, and then wast Wilderness, in sp•cial with respect unto Posterity, that so they might leave a seed that shall serve him, and be accounted to the Lord for a generation, will not be wholly frustrate When did any People by Fasting and Prayer, ask the Holy Spirit of the Father, for themselves and theirs, and yet received no answer? shall we be the first that God ever denied?
EMinent Blessings do not use to be poured down upon the World, except the Church of God be first stirred up to pray for them. The Lord who is styled 〈non-Latin alphabet〉 the Hearer of Prayer, delights to give mercy in this way▪ And it was never known since the World began, that the Spirit of Prayer was awakened in the hearts of those that can cry Abba Father but some great and blessed effect, did in due time follow He said not to the seed of Jacob seek ye me in vain. O that God would bow the heart of New-England, even of all his Saints in these Churches, as one man, to cry mightily to Heaven, that his Spirit may be poured on the now risen (a multitude of sinful men that are risen up in their Fathers stead) and upon the after rising Generation. The Lords People have need of something to comfot them, in this day, when there are so many doleful symptoms of approaching wrath and ruine. Now if God say unto his praying ones amongst us, seek ye my face for the rising Generation, and their hearts answer again, Lord thy face we will seek for them, that will be no small encouragement unto Faith, that the blessed design of our Fathers (now with Christ beholding his glory) who transported themselves into this vast, and then wast Wilderness, in spcial with respect unto Posterity, that so they might leave a seed that shall serve him, and be accounted to the Lord for a generation, will not be wholly frustrate When did any People by Fasting and Prayer, ask the Holy Spirit of the Father, for themselves and theirs, and yet received no answer? shall we be the first that God ever denied?