N00597:38
Solemn advice to young men, not to walk in the ways of their heart,…Solemn advice to young men, not to walk in the wayes of their heart,…
Solemn advice to young men, not to walk in the ways of their heart, and in the sight of their eyes; but to remember the Day of Judgment. / By Increase Mather, president of Harvard College in Cambridge, & preacher of the Gospel at Boston, in New-England. ; [Five lines of Scripture texts]Solemn advice to young men, not to walk in the wayes of their heart, and in the sight of their eyes; but to remember the Day of Judgment. / By Increase Mather, praesident of Harvard Colledge in Cambridge, & preacher of the Gospel at Boston, in New-England. ; [Five lines of Scripture texts]
printed by Bartholomew Green. Sold by Samuel Phillips, 1695
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.
2. When God shall bring them into Judgment, all the Secret Sins of men will be revealed before the whole World. Foolish sinful Creatures are apt to think themselves safe, if they can but hide their sins from th• knowledge of men, not considering that th• Eye of God is upon them in all their ways Children and Young men that live in secret sins, their chief care is that the Magistrates […] their Parents or Masters may know […] of what they do; but at the day of Judgment all will come out; and the whol• ⟨p. 37⟩World will hear of what they have done. Eccles. 12. 14. God will bring every Work into Judgment, with every Secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. As the Secret good deeds of pious Young men that follow the Lord in secret will then be openly revealed and rewarded, the same is to be said of the secret transgressions and abominations which ungodly Youths will be found guilty of at that day. Therefore the day of Judgment must needs be a day of horror and confusion to them. Where is there an ungodly Young man, but if all his secret sins (yea, the sins of his heart and all) should be revealed before the World, he would be ready to say as Tamar when solicited by a wicked Young man to commit folly with him, Whither shall I cause my shame to go, 2 Sam. 13. 13. The day of Judgment will be to them that die in their sins a day of the greatest shame that ever was or that can be: then will God fulfil that threatening against sinners, Jer. 23. 40. I will bring an Everlasting reproach upon you, & a perpetual shame which shall not be forgotten. Now they seek to cover their sins by denials, fictions, and false-hoods, but it will be in vain for them to think to do so then. Witnesses to their conviction will appear against them in that day. The Judge Himself will be a witness ⟨p. 38⟩against them: He will then say, My eyes saw what you did, and My ears heard every Word that was spoken by you.