N00526:6
Unum necessarium awakenings for the unregenerate. Or, The nature and necessity of regeneration. Handled…
Unum necessarium awakenings for the unregenerate. Or, The nature and necessity of regeneration. Handled in a discourse designed for the service of any that may be thereby assisted in the grand concern of conversion unto God; but especially the rising generation. : With an addition of some other sermons relating to that important subject. / By Cotton Mather. ; [Five lines from Ezekiel]
Boston printed: printed by B.H. i.e for Duncan Campbell, 1693
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.
Introduction.
There are Three most undoing Mischiefs, which Threaten my Country with Grievous Confusions, yea, there are Four Evils that have a dire Aspect upon us, boding of something like Barbarism, and Extinction, unless the plentiful Effusions of the Good Spirit from on High, relieve the Inconveniences of our Wilderness. The first is, The Neglect and Contempt of a well-formed Education, appearing in a backwardness to Encourage Schools of Learning; and a Disposition unto a way of Living so scattered, as that it may be called, A Running wild into the Woods. The second is, The slothful, careless, quarrelsome Delay of Destitute Churches, to furnish themselves with Officers appointed by the Lord Jesus Christ, for their Edification; by which Omission, Plantations quickly become full, either of, Sinners pining away in their Iniquities, or of, Christians plagued with Leanness sent into their Soul. The Third is, the Crime of Ingratitude unto Public Servants; and ⟨image ?⟩the making of Censure, Slander and Hatred, the Common P•• of such as with most In•• olate Integrity, seek the Common Good: which Unthankfulness, will at last make our Times Perilous, because it will render us Friendless and Helpless. But the Fourth, and worst of all, is the lamentable want of REGENERATION in the Rising Generation. The God of Heaven is with no less Terrible than Evident Blows, from Heaven, Rebuking of that Generation; but alas, how few of them do seriously consider on the Condition of their own Souls! How few of them do suitably Re••ect on the End for which God at first Made them, or for which He now Smites them! How few of them do become experimentally Acquainted with that Faith, and Repentance, and Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord! It is indeed a matter of Exceeding Joy, that there are, so many of our Young Ones, that have their Faces Zion ward; but it is of all Grie the mot bitter and pungent, that there are, No more. The obtaining of a Cure for this wretchedness would be to Redress all the rest, and it would contribute more than any One Thing whatever, to, All Things Going Well. Now there are Two Things, for which I take the Boldness, to Publish my Wishes, in order thereunto.