N00569:81
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.
Quest. IV. There are OTHER SORRY TRIFLING THINGS; Do you while off Those Things, as you do Religion? What if your Betters, bid you be sure to meet them, at such a time and place? You do not make Them stay for you. But the Glorious Lord Jesus Christ has Ordered you to meet Him in His Ordinances; He has an Hundred Times in a Year, for this many a year, been here Looking for you; And still you make Him Stay! What if your Neighbours request a Courtesy from you? You then say not unto them, Go away, and come to morrow! But your own Souls are begging of you, that you would afford some Relief unto them; And yet you Regard them not! It has been said, The Kings Business requires Hast: But Religion, that is the Business of that, Blessed and only Potentate, who is the King of Kings; and Lord of Lords: And I pray, Why no more Hast about That Business? Nay, Young People, I have a worse Complaint still to make of you; You have not put so much Disrespect upon the Devil himself, as you have done upon the Eternal God! We read of the Tempted Young man, in Prov. 7.22. He goeth straightway. Truly, when the Devil has been Beckoning unto thee, Young man, to follow him in those ⟨p. 51⟩Youthful Villainies, which were the undoing of thy Soul, Straightway thou hast followed this Devil, Straightway thou hast Thrown away thy own Soul. There, the Young People, Sponte sua properant; Labor est inhibere volantes. But the God of Glory has been urging of thee, unto that Religion, which would infallibly bring thee unto Eternal Glory; and He must after all say, I would have Purged thee, and thou wouldest not be Purged. Mourn, O my Soul, mourn when thou seest what a Wonderful and an Horrible Thing is done by the Young People in our Land!
Quest. IV. There are OTHER SORRY TRIFLING THINGS; Do you while off Those Things, as you do Religion? What if your Betters, bid you be sure to meet them, at such a time and place? You do not make Them stay for you. But the Glorious Lord Jesus Christ has Ordered you to meet Him in His Ordinances; He has an Hundred Times in a Year, for this many a year, been here Looking for you; And still you make Him Stay! What if your Neighbours request a Courtesy from you? You then say not unto them, Go away, and come to morrow! But your own Souls are begging of you, that you would afford some Relief unto them; And yet you Regard them not! It has been said, The Kings Business requires Hast: But Religion, that is the Business of that, Blessed and only Potentate, who is the King of Kings; and Lord of Lords: And I pray, Why no more Hast about That Business? Nay, Young People, I have a worse Complaint still to make of you; You have not put so much Disrespect upon the Devil himself, as you have done upon the Eternal God! We read of the Tempted Young man, in