N00597:48
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
Solemn Advice to Young Men. › Some Considerations and Councils Let me set before you.
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.
Some Considerations and Councils Let me set before you.
Consider. I. The way which the generality of Young men walk in is a Woeful way. It will be found so at the Judgment day. It is the ⟨p. 52⟩way of their own heart which is the broad way that leadeth to destruction […] that it might not be […] of the Young men who have been born in New England. Many of them are profane Are there no profane Swearers to be found amongst Young men? It is a sad thing that there are any such. I knew the time when in New England Young men knew not what it is to Swear. A man might live Twenty years (some have done so, I my self did so when in my Youth) and never hear a profane Oath in New-England. Is it so now? And are there not Young men who are lovers of Strong Drink? I wish I could say, that we had not Given the Nazarites wine to drink. Are there not Young men who are Sabbeth breakers, notwithstanding they have been put in mind of a Young man Executed for Murder, who when dying Cried out, Let Young men take Warning by me, and let them know that […] breaking will prove a dangerous and a costly sin unto them. Are there not Young men who are disobedient to their Parents, or to their Masters whom God has set over them, and that are like the Children of the Devil, given to Lying? Are there not Young men whose life is amongst the Unclean? Are there ⟨p. 53⟩not Young men that will Steal and […] that will rob their Parents or Masters and say it is no Transgression. Nay, Young men born in New-England, that have turned bloody Pirates, that to get Silver and Gold have imbrued their hands in blood. God will bring them into Judgment, and than they will wish that they had never been born, and most of all that they had never been born in New-England. There are others that are not profane, but like the Young man in the Gospel, they have Externally kept the Commandments in their Youth, who nevertheless, are strangers unto Faith in Christ, and strangers to the new birth. Is it not so with the Youth throughout this Land generally? There are some and blessed be God that are so many Young men in New England that the Grace of God is manifest in them. Nevertheless, do we not see that the Young Generation as to the greatest part of them, is a poor Unconverted, Perishing Generation? On that account it is not to be wondered at, that God from Heaven ha's Testified His displeasure against the present Generation.