N00526:67
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.
AWAKENINGS FOR THE UNREGENERATE. › Proposition 2: The Second PROPOSITION.
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.
Fourthly, You can CONSIDER; and Oh that you would! It is said, in Ezek. 18.28. Because he Considers, and he Turns, he shall surely Live. It seems that Consideration is the frequent Introduction of Regeneration: A Prodigal will be likely to Come unto a Right Mind, if once he begin to Bethink himself. We have been told of a wicked young man, who being obliged by his Dying Father, to spend a quarter of an Hour every Day, only in Considering, even on any thing, what he pleased; at length he began to Consider, what might be the Cause of his Fathers giving him such a Charge: This filled him with serious ⟨p. 48⟩Thoughts, and his Considerations were so blest, as to issue in his being brought home to God. O that you would make this Experiment! Can you not ever now and then, […] from […] Nones, […] and Enchantments of the World, and Consider with your selves, What is the present, and what is like to be the future condition of my Soul? 'Tis no Extraordinary Difficulty, that is now Imposed upon you; I may urge, My Neighbour, If I had asked you to do some great thing for the Conversion and Salvation of your Soul; would you not have done it? A SOUL, certainly 'tis well worth all that can be done for it. How much more when you are only asked, that you would a little CONSIDER the things of your Everlasting Peace? I say then, CONSIDER; and hope, none of you will Reply, That an Eternal Kingdom, is not worth our taking so much pains, as that of a little Consideration for it.
Fourthly, You can CONSIDER; and Oh that you would! It is said, in Ezek. 18.28. Because he Considers, and he Turns, he shall surely Live. It seems that Consideration is the frequent Introduction of Regeneration: A Prodigal will be likely to Come unto a Right Mind, if once he begin to Bethink himself. We have been told of a wicked young man, who being obliged by his Dying Father, to spend a quarter of an Hour every Day, only in Considering, even on any thing, what he pleased; at length he began to Consider, what might be the Cause of his Fathers giving him such a Charge: This fill'd him with serious ⟨p. 48⟩Thoughts, and his Considerations were so blest, as to issue in his being brought home to God. O that you would make this Experiment! Can you not ever now and then, from Nones, and Enchantments of the World, and Consider with your selves, What is the present, and what is like to be the future condition of my Soul? 'Tis no Extraordinary Difficulty, that is now Imposed upon you; I may urge, My Neighbour, If I had asked you to do some great thing for the Conversion and Salvation of your Soul; would you not have done it? A SOUL, certainly 'tis well worth all that can be done for it. How much more when you are only ask'd, that you would a little CONSIDER the things of your Everlasting Peace? I say then, CONSIDER; and hope, none of you will Reply, That an Eternal Kingdom, is not worth our taking so much pains, as that of a little Consideration for it.