N00318:80
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.
1. Chron. 28.9. But if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.
AS there is a peculiar Excellency in all the Books of Scripture, becoming the Majesty of their Author; so it is in special manner true with respect unto this Sacred Book of Chronicles: which is [a]not the same with those Chronicles we sometimes read of in the King's, those being civil Records, but these wholly of a divine Inspiration, containing the History of no less than three Thousand & five Hundred years; even from the first man Adam unto the Jews Return from the Babylonish Captivity, and many years after that also. The Hebrews suppose it (or at least some part of it) to be the last Book of Scripture that was written, and therefore they are wont to place it last in their Bibles, as the concluding Book of the Old Testament. The Greeks entitle it [ton paraleipomenon] Because diverse things most worthy of eternal Commemoration are related in these books, which ⟨p. 52⟩are no where else to be found. So in this Chapter we have Davids Solemn Dying Exhortation: words which deserve to be recorded, and yet are no where else seen (at least wise not in that ample mann••) but in this Chapter. And it was in a very solemn Assembly that these words were spoken, indeed in a General Assembly, when all the Lords people both as to Civil and Ecclesiastical order were come together for the Establishment of another Ruler amongst them; accordingly David doth here direct his Exhortation, first to the representatives of the people, ver. 1. And David assembled all the Princes of Israel, the Princes of the Tribes, and the Captains of the Companies unto themselves &c. Hence they are said to be all Israel, ver. 8. in the sight of all Israel h. e. the Heads and Representatives of all Israel, and therefore are said to be the Congregation of the Lord. Often in Scripture by the Congregation, the Heads and Rulers of the Congregations are meant. Now the Exhortation unto them is that they would keep and seek all the Commandments of the Lord, h. e. that they would observe what they did know, and seek to know more of the mind of God. The motive whereby he urgeth this is, because the Lord had promised the good Land to them; but it was upon that condition of their keeping his Commandments, therefore it did highly concern them to be careful in that matter.