Very terrible and sorrowful are the Presages which many Learned, Holy, Thinking Men have had about the State which they have suspected New-England as running apace into. One of our Seers hath long since in public writings told us, The Gospel, I fear, is going, the Lord Jesus is departing from these Coasts. Another of our Watchmen foretold it a great while ago unto us, That God would punish the wantonness of this people, with a sad loss, and want, of Able Men. And a third of our Shepherds, did not stick to tell us many years ago, I am verily afraid such a dismal night is towards us ⟨p. 90⟩and such sore Afflictions, that the Lord will fill the hearts of all that shall be saved in those days with such Anguish of Spirit, as never more in the worst days of our Eore-fathers. These and many more such as these, have been the dark thoughts which our Fathers have had concerning our condition; and our Hearts are wonderfully hard, if we tremble not at the late and large steps of Providence towards the fulfilment of such Predictions upon us. But among all the deadly Symptoms which threaten us with a speedy Ruin, there is none more ghastly, than the ignorance, the wildness, the lewdness found in so great a part of the Rising Generation. Multitudes of our Children are very much Un-Catechised, as to the principles, and sadly Unnurtured and Ungoverned as to the practices of Christianity. Our Children are miserably both neglected and indulged; tho' too much be made of them, in gratifying of their unruly wills, nevertheless too little is made of them in providing for their immortal souls; and, some of you have no• the Knowledge of God; I speak this to the shame of your ungodly Tutors. It was the last and worst of all the Egyptian plagues, That a Child was dead in every house. But may it not now be reckoned among the New-English Ones, that in so many Houses all the Children are dead in trespasses and sins, & have their Eyes closed and muffled by a most unhappy Ignorance. 'Tis This that of all our ⟨p. 91⟩dismal Omens looks blackest upon us; and it should awaken the vigorous endeavour of every sensible Christian to prevent that woeful Degeneracy in which There will arise another Generation that know not the Lord; and by which the God of our Fathers will be so provoked at us as to say with the expense of all his Arrows upon us; What shall I do unto thee? What shall I do unto thee?
VEry terrible and sorrowful are the Presages which many Learned, Holy, Thinking Men have had about the State which they have suspected New-England as running apace into. One of our Seers hath long since in publick writings told us, The Gospel, I fear, is going, the Lord Jesus is departing from these Coasts. Another of our Watchmen foretold it a great while ago unto us, That God would punish the wantonness of this people, with a sad loss, and want, of Able Men. And a third of our Shepherds, did not stick to tell us many years ago, I am verily afraid such a dismal night is towards us ⟨p. 90⟩and such sore Afflictions, that the Lord will fill the hearts of all that shall be saved in those days with such Anguish of Spirit, as never more in the worst days of our Eore-fathers. These and many more such as these, have been the dark thoughts which our Fathers have had concerning our condition; and our Hearts are wonderfully hard, if we tremble not at the late and large steps of Providence towards the fulfilment of such Predictions upon us. But among all the deadly Symptoms which threaten us with a speedy Ruine, there is none more ghastly, than the ignorance, the wildness, the lewdness found in so great a part of the Rising Generation. Multitudes of our Children are very much Un-Catechised, as to the principles, and sadly Unnurtured and Ungoverned as to the practices of Christianity. Our Children are miserably both neglected and indulged; tho' too much be made of them, in gratifying of their unruly wills, nevertheless too little is made of them in providing for their immortal souls; and, some of you have no• the Knowledge of God; I speak this to the shame of your ungodly Tutors. It was the last and worst of all the Egyptian plagues, That a Child was dead in every house. But may it not now be reckoned among the New-English Ones, that in so many Houses all the Children are dead in trespasses and sins, & have their Eyes closed and muffled by a most unhappy Ignorance. 'Tis This that of all our ⟨p. 91⟩dismal Omens looks blackest upon us; and it should awaken the vigorous endeavour of every sensible Christian to prevent that woful Degeneracy in which There will arise another Generation that know not the Lord; and by which the God of our Fathers will be so provoked at us as to say with the expence of all his Arrows upon us; What shall I do unto thee? What shall I do unto thee?
