N00759:388
A token for children. Being an exact account of the conversion, holy and exemplary…
A token for children. Being an exact account of the conversion, holy and exemplary lives and joyful deaths of several young children. / By James Janeway, Minister of the Gospel. : To which is added, A token, for the children of New England. Or, Some examples of children, in whom the fear of God was remarkably budding before they died; in several parts of New England. Preserved and published for the encouragement of piety in other children.
printed for Nicholas Boone, 1700
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
4 He was wont to ask many serious & weighty Questions, about matters which concerned his Soul and Eternity.
5 His Mother being greatly troubled upon the Death of one of his Uncles, this Child came to his Mother and said, Mother, though my Uncle be Dead, doth not the Scripture say, he must Rise again: Yea, and I must Dye, & so must every Body, & it will not be long▪ before Christ will come to Judge the World, and then we shall see one another again, I pray Mother do not weep so much. This grave Counsel he gave his Mother, when he was not quite five years old, by which the sorrow for her Brother was turned into admiration at her Child, & she was made to sit silent and quiet under that smarting stroke.
6 After this, his Parents removed to Aberdeen in Scotland, and settled their Child under an able & painful School-Master there, ⟨p. 115⟩whose custom was upon the Lord's day in the Morning, to examine his Scholars concerning the Sermons that they had heard the former Lords day, and to add some other Questions which might try the Understanding & Knowledge of his Scholars; the Question that was once proposed to his Form was, Whether God had a Mother? None of all the Scholars could answer it, till it came to John Harvey, who being asked, Whether God had a Mother? Answered N•, as He was God, He could not have a Mother, but as He was Man He had; this was before he was quite Six Years old His Master was somewhat amazed at the Child's answer, and took the first opportunity to go to his Mother, to thank her for instructing her Son so well; but she replied, that he was never taught that from her, but that he understood it by Reading, and his own Observation.