N00254:73
Practical truths tending to promote the power of godliness
Practical truths tending to promote the power of godliness: wherein several important duties, are urged, and the evil of divers common sins, is evinced; delivered in sundry sermons. / By Increase Mather, teacher of a church at Boston in New-England. ; [Ten lines of Scripture texts]
printed by Samuel Green upon assignment of Samuel Sewall, 1682
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. Thou art guilty of Atheism. Prayerless Creatures are no better then Atheists. At leastwise thou art a practical Atheist. Thou livest as if thou hadst no Soul to save; and as if there were no God to serve. If thou believest indeed that there is a God then why dost thou not pray unto him? Psal. 10 4. The wicked will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts. All his thoughts, all his wishes are O hat there were no God. There is not a prayerless creature in the World, but he wisheth there were no God. And he saith plainly and practically; the Lord shall not be his God. By living in the neglect of Prayer thou hast rejected the Lord, and said, He shall be no God over thee. And wilt thou persist in this neglect? Then hear thy Doom and tremble at it, Psal 9.[…] The wicked shall be turned into Hell, and all the Nations that forget God. They that forget Prayer forget God, and therefore being amongst the wicked, they must be turned down into Hall.
2. Thou art guilty of Atheism•. Prayerless Creatures are no better then Atheists. At leastwise thou art a practical Atheist. Thou livest as if thou hadst no Soul to save; and as if there were no God to serve. If thou believest indeed that there is a God then why dost thou not pray unto him? Psal. 10 4. The wicked will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts. All his thoughts, all his wishes are O hat there were no God. There is not a prayerless creature in the World, but he wisheth there were no God. And he saith plainly and practically; the Lord shall not be his God. By living in the neglect of Prayer thou hast rejected the Lord, and said, He shall be no God over thee. And wilt thou persist in this neglect? Then hear thy Doom and tremble at it, Psal 9.〈…〉 The wicked shall be turned into Hell, and all the Nations that forget God. They that forget Prayer forget God, and therefore being amongst the wicked, they must be turned down into Hall.