N01367:31
Nepenthes evangelicum. A brief essay, upon a soul at ease; in what piety will…
Nepenthes evangelicum. A brief essay, upon a soul at ease; in what piety will bring both parents and children to. : A sermon occasioned by the death of a religious matron, Mrs. Mary Rock. Who having entered the eighty first year of her age, withdrew from us. 30d. 7m. 1713. / By Cotton Mather, D.D. ; [One line from Matthew]Nepenthes evangelicum. A brief essay, upon a soul at ease; in what piety will bring both parents and children to. : A sermon occasion'd by the death of a religious matron, Mrs. Mary Rock. Who having entred the eighty first year of her age, withdrew from us. 30d. 7m. 1713. / By Cotton Mather, D.D. ; [One line from Matthew]
Boston: printed by Thomas Fleet for Daniel Henchman, 1713
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.
Let us Inform our selves upon what Account!
First. The Piety of Parents does bring their Children into the Covenant of God. Pious Parents give up Themselves unto God, in His Covenant. But then, they give up their Children as well as Themselves; their Children as a part of Themselves. The Result is that; Gen. XVII. 7. An everlasting Covenant, to be a God unto thee, and unto thy Seed after thee. Oh! the Rich Inheritance of the Children thus brought into the Covenant of God, and of Grace! To Inherit the Earth, yea, to Inherit the whole World, is not so much as to have the great God in Covenant with us, for our Inheritance. It follows; If these Children Die in their Infancy, they have a Claim to all the Blessings of the Covenant, in the Eternal World. When the great GOD says, I will be the God of these Children, He intends, I will bring them to a part in the Heavenly City. O Pious Parents, your Dead Children ⟨p. 26⟩are but gone before you, into the Suburbs, and some Foretastes of that Inheritance, which you have secured for them. Yea, this Clause, They shall Inherit the Earth, must be a little more nicely thought upon. There is an Earth to be Inherited by these Children: Even that New Earth, wherein shall dwell Righteousness; that New Earth, over which they shall Reign, of whom is the Kingdom of Heaven. These Children of Abraham, are to be Heirs of the World; But in the World to come. When you Read of, Inheriting the Earth, O Saints, look forward, as far as that World, for the Explaining, and the Fulfilling of it. If these Children should survive their Infancy, the Covenant has ensured this, That they shall have an Offer of the Gospel; That Christ, and Grace, and Heaven, shall be Offered unto them. Unto them first is that Saviour sent, that would Bless them in turning them from their Iniquities. O Invaluable Privilege!
First. The Piety of Parents does bring their Children into the Covenant of God. Pious Parents give up Themselves unto God, in His Covenant. But then, they give up their Children as well as Themselves; their Children as a part of Themselves. The Result is that;