N00318:36
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.
6. The Children of wicked men fall under heavy curses and Threatenings; Therefore they are godly mens Children unto whom peculiar Encouragements to seek the Lord do appertain; As for wicked transgressors, they are cursed not only in their persons, but in their Posterity, even cursed in the fruit of their body, Deut. 28.15. The house (i. e. the Children) of the wicked shall be overthrown. Prov. 14.11. The seed of evil doers shall never be renowned, prepare slaughter for his Children for the iniquity of his Fathers, Isai. 14.20, 21. It is true, that if a Child do unfeignedly repent and turn to God, though his parents should have been never so wicked, God will accept of him; The repenting son shall not be damned merely for his Father's iniquity, Ezek. 18.14. But it is more rare for such Children ever to repent; and if they do not repent, they shall be punished for their Fathers and Mother's sins as well as for their own, because they justify them by doing like them. How many Examples are there Recorded in the Scripture of God's punishing Children with their Parents and because of their Sin? So Achan's Children, and Dathan's and Abiram's; yea, Millions of Children that were drowned ⟨p. 18⟩and damned with their cursed parents in Noah's Flood; and when Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed, not only the parents but the Children perished, and now suffer together the vengeance of eternal fire; and was not an express Charge given Concerning the little ones of the Amalekites, Midianites &c. that they should be destroyed with their Fathers? Thus doth the Lord recompense the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their Children.
6. The Children of wicked men fall under heavy curses and Threatnings; Therefore they are godly mens Children unto whom peculiar Encouragements to seek the Lord do appertain; As for wicked transgressors, they are cursed not only in their persons, but in their Posterity, even cursed in the fruit of their body,