N00318:265
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.
2. Parents be Exemplary. Walk before God in your houses with a perfect heart. Let us be careful in our Families to walk so that our Children may see by our Examples how they ⟨p. 192⟩ought to walk and please God: that if they will but be and do like to their Parents they shall certainly be blessed for ever. There are many of the Elect of God, that the special means of their Conversion hath been the holy example of their Parents. Many a Chosen vessel, that when he hath beheld his Fathers love to Christ, and Faithfulness to the Interest of God; Zeal, Patience, Holiness, that hath been a special means of Conviction and Conversion. You know what Elijah said to Elisha *when he desired that he might have (h. e. comparatively to what the rest of the sons of the Prophets had) a double portion of Elijah's Spirit, he said, Thou hast asked an hard thing, nevertheless if thou see me when I am taken from thee it shall be so unto thee, but if not, it shall not be so 2. King. 2.10. Even so if your children see you holy & faithful to the interest of God, and Jesus Christ, and every way exemplary, doubt not of it, but in Gods time, they shall receive of your Spirit. As on the other hand, there is nothing more fatally destructive and ruining to the souls of Children than a bad example in Parents especially if they be such as pretend to Religion: When Ham did but one time see his Father in drink, it brought a fearful Curse upon him, and upon his Posterity to this day. There are great ⟨p. 193⟩Complaints (and to great Cause) concerning the rising generation in New-England; whereas the fault is very much in Parents, in that they are no more exemplary: your children take notice of your Pride, Sensuality, worldliness, your unmortified Passions, & that doth woefully scandalize, and harden them against the blessed ways of Christ. O be careful to walk so, as that your children may not see their fathers nakedness.
2. Parents be Exemplary. Walk before God in your houses with a perfect heart. Let us be careful in our Families to walk so that our Children may see by our Examples how they ⟨p. 192⟩