N00213:198
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.
The eye that mocketh at his Father, and despiseth to obey his Mother, the Ravens of the Valley shall pick it out, and the young Eagles shall eat it. Intimating that such Children are like to come unto miserable and shameful deaths at last. Again, lying is a sin, which Childhood and Youth is for the most part deeply guilty of, Psal.58.3. They go astray as soon •s they be born speaking Lies. How natural is it for Children to commit a fault, and then to excuse it by telling a Lye? Art thou a lying Child? then the Devil is thy Father, and except thou repent of this sin, and beware of it for the time to come, when once thy Soul is out of thy body, it must be cast into that Lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second Death, Joh.8.44. Rev▪21.8. So for breaches of the seventh Commandment, they are Youthful Lusts. Wherefore Solomon •aith, that he looked out at the window of his house, and discerned amongst the Youths a young man void of understanding, and he was going to an whore house like an Ox to the slaughter, or a fool to the correction of the Stocks, not knowing that it is for his life, nor considering that her house is the way to Hell, going down to the chambers of Death, Prov. 7.7,&c. Young men whose natures are not changed by the regenerating grace of the Spirit of God, do usually live in some unclean lust or other. Either Fo•ication, or self-pollution, or in secret wanton pranks of darkness. You young men whose Consciences accuse you of guilt before the Lord in respect of these evils, I charge you in the Name of God, ⟨p. 110⟩that you humble your selves deeply in his sight for past transgressions, and sin no more, as ever you desire to escape eternal Damnation. Though these cursed Lusts may be as dear to you as life and limbs, yet better to pluck out thy right eye, to cut off thy right hand, then that thy whole body▪ should be cast into Hell fire, where▪ the worm dieth not, and where the fire never shall be quenched.