N00593:67
Help for distressed parents. Or, Counsels & comforts for godly parents afflicted with ungodly…
Help for distressed parents. Or, Counsels & comforts for godly parents afflicted with ungodly children; and warnings unto children to beware of all those evil courses, which would be afflictive unto their parents. / By Cotton Mather. ; [Two lines of quotation in Latin]
Boston: printed by John Allen for Vavasour Harris, 1695
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Help for Distressed Parents. Offered, at the LECTURE in Boston, 14.… › Case 2: The Second CASE.
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.
What may be said, for the Engaging of CHILDREN, to avoid those Courses of Ungodliness, which will be Afflictive unto their Godly Parents?
Wherefore now, Come, ye Children, Hearken to me, and I will Teach you the Fear of the Lord. You are to be Exhorted, Oh, that you would be Persuaded, seriously to Beware of Afflicting your Parents, by any Ungodly Principles, or Practices whatsoever. You know very well, Doubtless They have told you, what Ungodliness of yours, it is, that will Afflict them. Will you then penitently say, Father, If I have Sinned against Heaven, and in your Sight, I hope, through the Help of Heaven, it shall be so no more! ⟨p. 44⟩To prevail with you, That it may be so.
Wherefore now, Come, ye Children, Hearken to me, and I will Teach you the Fear of the Lord. You are to be Exhorted, Oh, that you would be Perswaded, seriously to Beware of Afflicting your Parents, by any Ungodly Principles, or Practices whatsoever. You know very well, Doubtless They have told you, what Ungodliness of yours, it is, that will Afflict them. Will you then penitently say, Father, If I have Sinned against Heaven, and in your Sight, I hope, through the Help of Heaven, it shall be so no more! ⟨p. 44⟩To prevail with you, That it may be so.
Consider, Firstly, How Importunate, How Ungainsayable, the Demands of your Afflicted Parents are, that you would Abandon all the Courses of Ungodliness! Have not your Parents, with most Lively Exhortations called upon you? Yea, you have been your Fathers Children, Tender and Beloved in the Sight of your Mother; They have also Taught you, and said unto you, Oh! Get Wisdom, Get Understanding, Forget it not, it is the principal Thing. But, think now, ye Ungodly Children, think, what moving Things these Demands of your Parents are.