N00425:255
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.
Would you be informed then, what you may do for your poor Children? Do you ask, as Manoah of old, How shall we order the child, and what shall we do unto him? There are four things by which you may save the Souls of your little Children; yea, there are five things to be observed, that God may be a Father to them.
The first thing necessary for your poor Children, is, your Authority. 'Twas said in Lev. 19. 3. Ye shall fear every man, his Mother and his Father; the Mother is first mentioned, because that she commonly first loses her Authority. Look to it, that you keep up a Fear of you, in the hearts of your Children, and make them […] to ⟨p. 119⟩Refuse any fit thing that you shall Enjoin upon them.
The first thing necessary for your poor Children, is, your Authority. 'Twas said in Lev. 19. 3. Ye shall fear every man, his Mother and his Father; the Mother is first mentioned, because that she commonly first loses her Authority. Look to it, that you keep up a Fear of you, in the hearts of your Children, and make them 〈…〉 to ⟨p. 119⟩Refuse any fit thing that you shall Enjoyn upon them.
Another thing necessary, is, your Instruction. 'Twas the Report of the Wise-man, in Prov. 4. 3, 4. I was my Fathers Son, he taught me also; and without this he had never proved so wise a man. Let your Children be most frequently, seriously, exactly Catechised; and let your Admonitions teach them, how they should think, how pray, and how live, before the Lord.