N00425:141
Addresses to old men, and young men, and little children. In three discourses ...…
Addresses to old men, and young men, and little children. In three discourses ... To which may be added, a short scriptural catechism, accommodated unto their capacities. / By Cotton Mather.
Boston: printed by R. Pierce for Nicholas Buttolph, 1690
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.
Proposition III.
Religious young men have the honour to be victorious ⟨p. 60⟩over the Devil; some and such young men have the honour that unto them it may be said, Ye have overcome the Wicked One.
First, That Religious young men are victorious over the devil, is evident from the instances of the victory. To instance a little,
First, Religious young men there are who overcome the devil, in respect of the general and natural Estates which they are escaped from. What in the condition of them that continue in their unregenerate Estate? Alas, 'tis that of Band-slaves, and Captives to the devil. It may be said of unrenewed Sinners, as in a 2 pet. 2. 19. They are overcome and brought into Bondage; and it may be said of them, as in 2 Tim. 2. 26. They are taken Captive, (and as it were carried away alive) by the Devil at his will. The devil has conquered all unrenewed Sinners, and he does horribly lead them, act them, rule over them; he is a sort of a Prince and a God unto them. But when a Sinner in Converted, he is brought out of this miserable state; he is, according to that in