N00213:116
A call from heaven to the present and succeeding generations or A discourse wherein…A call from heaven to the present and succeeding generations or A discourse wherin…
A call from heaven to the present and succeeding generations or A discourse wherein is showed, I. That the children of godly parents are under special advantages and encouragements to seek the Lord. : II. The exceeding danger of apostasy, especially as to those that are the children and posterity of such as have been eminent for God in their generation. : III. That young men ought to remember God their creator. / By Increase Mather, teacher of a church in Boston in New-England. ; [Nine lines of quotations]A call from heaven to the present and succeeding generations or A discourse wherin is shewed, I. That the children of godly parents are under special advantages and encouragements to seek the Lord. : II. The exceeding danger of apostasie, especially as to those that are the children and posterity of such as have been eminent for God in their generation. : III. That young men ought to remember God their creator. / By Increase Mather, teacher of a church in Boston in New-England. ; [Nine lines of quotations]
Boston: printed by John Foster, 1679
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. 1. Because the Transgressions of such Children as the Doctrine speaks of are peculiar provocations; if the Children of David sin their iniquity is attended with special aggravations. They sin against greater light, and love, and grace, then may be said of any persons in the world besides; They this rebel against the Light do at last provoke the Lord utterly to reject them. Hence it is that refusing Instruction, is mentioned as the grand procuring cause of this Rejection, Jer. 6. 8. Be instructed O Jerusalem lest my Soul depart from thee, & thou become desolate. Now thus it is when the Children of Godly Parents forsake the Lord, as Solomon doth acknowledge, how diligent and faithful his blessed Father had been in instructing of him, Prov. 4. 3, 4. I was my Fathers Son, he taught me also, and said unto me keep my Commandments and live. And sins against grace, and peculiar mercy do without Repentance ⟨p. 52⟩end in Everlasting Rejection, Amos 3. 2. You only have I known, therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities. Who ever escape (saith the Lord) to be sure you shall not, because you sin against greater grace and favour then any others in the World ever did. For these causes the Lord threatened Eli that he would cut off his Arm, and the Arm of his Fathers house, inasmuch as he had sinned against peculiar mercies and favours. Especially, sins against tenders of Gospel grace provoke the Lord to cast men off, Math. 23. 37, 38. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered you, as an Hen her Chickens under her wings but ye would not, and now your house is left unto you desolate. And this is sadly true concerning the Children of godly Parents, they sin against special favours from the Lord, the means of grace is vouchsafed to them, they have many blessed strivings of the holy Spirit with them, which others have not, therefore if they forsake the Lord no wonder if he cast them off for-ever.
Reas. 1. Because the Transgressions of such Children as the Doctrine speaks of are peculiar provocations; if the Children of David sin their iniquity is attended with special aggravations. They sin against greater light, and love, and grace, then may be said of any persons in the world besides; They this rebel against the Light do at last provoke the Lord utterly to reject them. Hence it is that refusing Instruction, is mentioned as the grand procuring cause of this Rejection,