N01545:100
Two discourses showing, I. That the Lords ears are open to the prayers of…Two discourses shewing, I. That the Lords ears are open to the prayers of…
Two discourses showing, I. That the Lords ears are open to the prayers of the righteous. II. The dignity & duty of aged servants of the Lord. : Also, a preface in which the Congregational discipline of the churches in New-England is vindicated, with the authors dying testimony there-unto. / By I. Mather, D.D. ; [Four lines of quotations]Two discourses shewing, I. That the Lords ears are open to the prayers of the righteous. II. The dignity & duty of aged servants of the Lord. : Also, a preface in which the Congregational discipline of the churches in New-England is vindicated, with the authors dying testimony there-unto. / By I. Mather, D.D. ; [Four lines of quotations]
printed by B. Green for Daniel Henchman, 1716
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.
Sometimes God is pleased to comfort His Aged Servants, who have walked with Him, and been Eminent workers of righteousness with sensible manifestations of His favour. It is related concerning ⟨p. 106⟩an Eminent Minister in Scotland, who in his younger Years had been diligent at his Study, and laborious in Preaching, when he was through Age and Weakness confined to his Chamber, One asking him about the State of his Soul, the return he made, was, When I was Young I was diligent, & I lived by Faith in the Son of God, now I am Old, He condescends to feed me with lumps of Sense. The remembrance of many years past spent in Serving God, and endeavouring to promote the Salvation of Souls will be a comfort on a death-bed.
Inst. 4. Aged Persons who are Strangers to the way of righteousness are very Miserable. The hoary head which Providence has favoured them with, for want of righteousness to adorn it, will prove an aggravation of their Sin and Misery. Would you know who is the most Miserable Creature on the face of the Earth? It is an ungodly ⟨p. 107⟩Old Man. Isai. 65.20. The sinner of an hundred years old shall be cursed. O how cursed! yet there are such Miserable Creatures in the World. There are Old Atheists. Ezek. 8.12. Hast thou seen what the Ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark. They say, the Lord seeth us not. Such Atheists are they. And there are Old Liars, Old Drunkards, Old Lascivious Wretches: Such […] are Old in Adulteries, Ezek. 23.43. Whoever escape destruction from God, such Sinners shall not. There was a destroying Angel sent to Jerusalem with a slaughter weapon in his hand, and a positive order to destroy utterly: but who did he slay in the first place?