N00213:136
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.
Answ. As I have been meditating an Answer to this Enquiry, I could not but call to mind that Scripture which some of the chief of the Fathers (at least wise those two, †whom I have more Reason then any one in the world to think of) have upon the like solemn occasion, improved many years since, I mean that Scripture, Hag. 2. 4. Yet now be strong O Zerubbabel saith the Lord, and be strong O Joshua, and be strong all ye People of the Land. If Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the People of the Land, if Magistrates, Ministers, and People all do what duty requireth, the feared. Apostasy, together with the unavoidable calamity coming therewith, may be prevented, however in great measure and for a long time.
- †My Father Cotton & My Father Mather.
1. Let me apply my Speech unto Zerubbabels, h. e. Rulers in the Common-Wealth. Honoured and much esteemed, the welfare or ill fare of the present, yea, and following Generation doth much depend upon you, Magistrates are in the Scripture compared to Corner stones, because where there is a Common-Wealth erected, the safety of the whole building (under God) depends much upon them. Hence are they also termed Foundations, Psal. 11. 3. If the foundations be destroyed what can the righteous do? If David had perished, Foundations had been destroyed, and the good People of the Land would have dearly felt the loss of him. And when in Sauls time there were corrupt Judges and Magistrates, it is therefore said, that the Foundations of the Earth were out of Course, Psal. 82. 5. And the Prophet Micah speaking to the Rulers in the Common-wealth of Israel saith, hear ye Foundations of the Earth, Mic. 6. 2