N00213:60
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.
2. Parents should be careful what opinions they embrace. For oftentimes the poison of a corrupt opinion in the Father proveth baneful to the Child; As Naamans Leprosy went down from Generation to Generation, so the plague of spiritual Leprosy in the Head, is sometimes propagated from the Father to the Son.
3. Parents should be careful of their conversation; because their Children are apt to follow their Example, especially in that which is evil. As it's noted of Ahaziah, that he walked in the way of his Father and of his Mother, 1 King. 22. 52. And of those superstitious persons, 2 King. 17, 41. They served their graven Images, both their Children, and their Children's Children; as did their Fathers, so do they, to this day. If the Father follow superstitious or profane practices, it is most likely that the Children will do so too; Therefore you that are Parents, in the sear of God look to it, that you do not scandalize your Children by an evil Example; If your Children see you in drink sometimes, will not they be drunkards too? If they hear you swear, will not they swear also? if they see you careless in the observation of the Sabbath, will not they likewise be guilty of Sabbath-breaking? And if they see you live in the neglect of holy duties, no prayer in the Family, how shall they be seekers of God? It will be a wonder if such Children do not prove Atheists, that are brought up in Families, where they never see any prayer, or acknowledgement of God. O think with your selves, if you that are Parents should any of you perish, and your miserable Children follow you to bell, how will they curse you there? If thy Children perish through thy evil Example, they will follow thee up and down in the ever burning Lake, crying out, [f]Woe to us, that ever we were born of such Parents! ⟨p. 22⟩