N00569:77
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.
Again, 'Tis Objected sometimes. 'Tis very Difficult for to be Religious— 'Tis True; But will not the Wages abundantly make amends for all the Difficulty? You Run, but it is for a Prize; You Fight, but it is for a Crown; You are to Work hard; yea, but it is your Salvation, which you are all this while working out. Besides, we say, To the w•lling all things are Easy. Make a Trial! And Let Me Undergo all your Indignation, if upon the Trial, you don't find your Devotions more facile and more pleasant Things, than those Drudgeries of the Devil, whereby you are daily Damning of your own Souls. Young People, ⟨p. 45⟩'Tis a most lamentable Paradox; That many of you are at more pains to procure for your Souls a Lodging among the Dragons, of the Pit below, than you are to make sure of your Everlasting Weal; Yea, That half the pains which many of you take in the Debauching and the Destroying of your Souls, better placed, were enough to •ay Hold on Eternal Life. It is said of some, They Weary themselves to commit Iniquity. Even so, Deal Honestly, Young Man, and say; Have you not been more Weary in many of your Wanderings from God, than ever God required you to be in the severest Mortifications of Holy Living? Let our Young people then say no more of That!
Again, 'Tis Objected sometimes. 'Tis very Difficult for to be Religious— 'Tis True; But will not the Wages abundantly make amends for all the Difficulty? You Run, but it is for a Prize; You Fight, but it is for a Crown; You are to Work hard; yea, but it is your Salvation, which you are all this while working out. Besides, we say, To the w•lling all things are Easy. Make a Tryal! And Let Me Undergo all your Indignation, if upon the Trial, you don't find your Devotions more facil and more pleasant Things, than those Drudgeries of the Devil, whereby you are daily Damning of your own Souls. Young People, ⟨p. 45⟩'Tis a most lamentable Paradox; That many of you are at more pains to procure for your Souls a Lodging among the Dragons, of the Pit below, than you are to make sure of your Everlasting Weal; Yea, That half the pains which many of you take in the Debauching and the Destroying of your Souls, better placed, were enough to •ay Hold on Eternal Life. It is said of some, They Weary themselves to commit Iniquity. Even so, Deal Honestly, Young Man, and say; Have you not been more VVeary in many of your VVandrings from God, than ever God required you to be in the severest Mortifications of Holy Living? Let our Young people then say no more of That!