N00569:26
Early religion. Urged in a sermon. the duties, wherein, and the reasons wherefore, young…
Early religion. Urged in a sermon. the duties, wherein, and the reasons wherefore, young people should become religious. Whereto are added, the extracts of several papers, written by several persons, who are dying in their youth, left behind them those admonitions for the young survivors; with brief memoirs relating to the exemplary lives of some such, that have gone from hence to their everlasting rest. / By Cotton Mather. ; [Two lines of Scripture text]Early religion. Urged in a sermon. the duties, wherein, and the reasons wherefore, young people should become religious. Whereto are added, the extracts of several papers, written by several persons, who are dying in their youth, left behind them those admonitions for the young survivers; with brief memoirs relating to the exemplary lives of some such, that have gone from hence to their everlasting rest. / By Cotton Mather. ; [Two lines of Scripture text]
Boston: printed by B.H. i.e for Michael Perry, 1694
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 I.
There is a woeful Uncleanness with which the Way of All People, and especially of young People, too often is contaminated. Our way is the course of our Actions; the course of our Thoughts, our Words, our Deeds. That this Way in young People, should be unclean, is not so great a matter of Wonder, as it is of Sorrow; for the Heart of young People is Unclean. The youngest of us all, have cause to say, as in Psal. 51.2, 5. Oh cleanse me from my sin, for I was shapen in Iniquity. But we may rather ask, what is that Uncleanness, which usually cleaves to our way? Now, to that I Reply shortly, SIN is that Uncleanness! The most vile Thing in the World, is not so odious unto Us, as all SIN is unto our God, who is Of Purer Eyes than to behold that Evil. Those Oracles of God, which never miscalled any thing, do still represent, every Transgression of His Law, as the vilest Filthiness. 'Tis possible, Young People, that when you do some Sinful Thing, they seem Comely or Pleasant things unto you; But I pray, Remember, They are all the most Filthy Things imaginable. ⟨p. 8⟩Rash Youths, you touch what is infinitely worse then the foulest Pitch, when you meddle with them. Now there is a double Uncleanness whereto our Ways are liable; there is the Sin of Uncleanness, and there is the Uncleanness of Sin.
There is a woful Uncleanness with which the VVay of All People, and especially of young People, too often is contaminated. Our way is the course of our Actions; the course of our Thoughts, our Words, our Deeds. That this VVay in young People, should be unclean, is not so great a matter of Wonder, as it is of Sorrow; for the Heart of young People is Unclean. The youngest of us all, have cause to say, as in Psal. 51.2, 5. Oh cleanse me from my sin, for I was shapen in Iniquity. But we may rather ask, what is that Uncleanness, which usually cleaves to our way? Now, to that I Reply shortly, SIN is that Uncleanness! The most vile Thing in the World, is not so odious unto Us, as all SIN is unto our God, who is Of Purer Eyes than to behold that Evil. Those Oracles of God, which never miscall'd any thing, do still represent, every Transgression of His Law, as the vilest Filthiness. 'Tis possible, Young People, that when you do some Sinful Thing, they seem Comely or Pleasant things unto you; But I pray, Remember, They are all the most Filthy Things imaginable.