N00569:83
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.
Question VI. You delay to set about Religion; But HOW LONG do you design to Delay? I pray, What is it, that you stay for? Alas, my Young Folks will not present themselves unto the Lord, until they become as Blind and as Lame, as those Jebusite Idols, which were Hated by the Soul of the David. But Let me debate this Point a little with you. You will be Religious, when Old Age comes to tread Hard upon you. Will you so? That is, you will do no Good things till you come to your Evil Days! You will never Look unto the Lord Jesus Christ, until your Eyes cannot see without Glasses! You will never Hear the Voice of God, until your Ears become as Deaf as a Beetle! You will never Walk in the Path of Life, until your Feet cannot carry you without a Staff! And is this all the Offering that you'll have to bring unto an Infinitely Glorious God? Let me Plead with you, as the Prophet with his People did; Sacrilegious Youth, Offer such a thing now unto thy Governor; Will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy Person? saith the Lord of Hosts. Well, But you will be Religious, when Sickness has laid you on a Bed, whence you may suspect that you may not come off Alive. And Why Then? That is, When Legions ⟨p. 54⟩of Devils Commissioned by a Neglected and Offended God are about you, throwing the Chains of Eternal Darkness, over you, you'll then think of escaping from them▪ You will then first fall to Serving of God, which cannot be done without Fervour of Spirit, when all the Spirits you have left you will not be enough to Grapple with the pains of your Bodies! Then, when like Israel in Bondage, you will be able to hearken unto nothing for Anguish of Spirit, you will, it seems, never Hearken until Then! Yea, Art thou not fearfully Distracted, Silly Youth, to do nothing for thy Soul, until, the Time, when, for ought thou now knowest, thou shalt be so Distracted, as that, not one Coherent Thought can come into thy mind! But I'll suppose, that God may Allow you such a long Space to Repent as you allot upon. I am nevertheless to tell you, That a Late Repentance, is very seldom a True Repentance. We have a Daily Demonstration of this, in those Multitudes of Wretches, who while they lye, as they think, a Dying, do bitterly bewail all their Devilism, and yet recovering, they play the Devil, as much as ever they did before! We have the Report of such a Repentance, in those Terms, Psal. 78.34.36.