N00318:195
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 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 N. England.A call from heaven, to the present and succeeding generations or A discourse wherein 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 N. England.
Boston: printed by R.P. i.e for I. Brunning i.e, 1685
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
By way of Direction.
1. Beware of those sins especially which they that are in their Childhood and Youth are most subject unto, and apt to be carried away from God by. 2. Tim. 2.22. Flee youthful lusts, h. e. those sins which Youth is mostly exposed unto. It is infinite mercy to be kept pure from the corruptions of Youth. If ever you should find grace to repent of the sins of Youth, & so obtain the pardon of them, yet they will be bitterness & shame to you all your days. Those vanities of Youth which now thou art so foolish as to delight in, it may be they will be a trouble to thee forty years hence, shouldst ⟨p. 151⟩thou live so long. Doth not Job complain, saying, Thou makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth, Chapt. 13.26. And did not holy David pray as in Psal. 25.7. Remember not the sins of my youth. And doth not converted Ephraim make an humble confession concerning the sins of his youth, Jer. 31.19. I was ashamed, yea even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth. So it is that the remembrance of the sins and vanities of youth, are matter of reproach and shame a long time after: yea the very thought of them doth fill the soul that is truly converted, with an holy confusion of face. Beware then of the the sins of youth. To instance in some particulars: Pride is a sin that young ones are very much under the power of: hence we see that young people are strangely addicted to vanity in Apparel: Proud Fashions they must and will follow, there's no persuading them to the contrary: but beware of that sin. So for stubbornness and Disobedience to Superiors, it is an evil that Youth is very subject unto. You that are servants, young men and Maids that are here before the Lord, have you not been guilty of stubborn, disobedient carriages towards your Masters? though God in his Word tells you that you ought to be obedient to them with fear and trembling,