N00213:54
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.
1. Usually it is some evil in such parents (though otherwise godly) which the Lord doth punish in their Children, Either they are not so diligent in teaching and instructing them as they ought to be; If we must judge all those parents ungodly whose children are miserably instructed, I am certain that many amongst us, who have a name to live, and would be thought to have the root of the matter in them, will be found amongst the ungodly. Or Parents are sinfully indulgent towards their children; so was Eli; indeed he instructed them, told them of the evil of those ways they walked in, and exhorted them to reform, but he corrected and restrained them not; Isaac was too indulgent towards his profane Esau; so was David towards Absalom, that afterwards proved a Rebel, rising up in arms against his own Father; and he did sinfully indulge Adonijah; the Scripture taketh notice of it, that his Father had not displeased him at any time in saying why hast thou done so? 1 King. 1. 6. No wonder he came to such an unhappy end, for usually such children are first or last a shame to the Father that begat them, and bitterness to the mother that bare them. Or it may be parents do not pray and believe for their Children as they ought to do: God in this case sometimes saith unto parents, according to your faith be it done unto you. If you pray much, and ⟨p. 18⟩believe much for your children, you shall obtain much mercy from the Lord for them. Psal. 33. last.
1. Vsually it is some evill in such parents (though otherwise godly) which the Lord doth punish in their Children, Either they are not so diligent in teaching and instructing them as they ought to be; If we must judge all those parents ungodly whose children are miserably instructed, I am certain that many amongst us, who have a name to live, and would be thought to have the root of the matter in them, will be found amongst the ungodly. Or Parents are sinfully indulgent towards their children; so was Eli; indeed he instructed them, told them of the evil of those wayes they walked in, and exhorted them to reform, but he corrected and restrained them not; Isaac was too indulgent towards his profane Esau; so was David towards Absolom, that afterwards proved a Rebel, rising up in arms against his own Father; and he did sinfully indulge Adonijah; the Scripture taketh notice of it, that his Father had not displeased him at any time in saying why hast thou done so?