N02149:455
Parentator. Memoirs of remarkables in the life and the death of the ever-memorable Dr.…
Parentator. Memoirs of remarkables in the life and the death of the ever-memorable Dr. Increase Mather. Who expired, August 23. 1723. : [One line from II Kings]
Boston: printed by B. Green for Nathaniel Belknap, 1724
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.
I may not pass it over, That his Ministry was carried on, with continual Supplications over it. On his Days of Prayer, a common Article of Petition with him, was, Direction what Subjects to Preach upon. He perpetually went from his Knees unto the Pulpit, and before his going forth to Preach a Sermon, the last Thing with him, was, A Secret Prayer for a Gracious Presence of GOD with him, in the Work before him. And when he came home, the First Thing with him was, A Secret Prayer, to give Thanks for the Help he had enjoyed, and ask a Blessing on the Truths Delivered. I find him sometimes Importunate in these Prayers. Once particularly when he was a very Young Preacher, I find this Passage in his Diary; After I came home, in my Study I was much affected and carried out, in Prayer for the Conversion of some of those Young Merchants that usually hear me.
I may not pass it over, That his Ministry was carried on, with continual Supplications over it. On his Days of Prayer, a common Article of Petition with him, was, Direction what Subjects to Preach upon. He perpetually went from his Knees unto the Pulpit, and before his going forth to Preach a Sermon, the last Thing with him, was, A Secret Prayer for a Gracious Presence of GOD with him, in the Work before him. And when he came home, the First Thing with him was, A Secret Prayer, to give Thanks for the Help he had enjoy'd, and ask a Blessing on the Truths Delievered. I find him sometimes Importunate in these Prayers. Once particularly when he was a very Young Preacher, I find this Passage in his Diary; After I came home, in my Study I was much affected and carried out, in Prayer for the Conversion of some of those Young Merchants that usually hear me.
And with what Leading of Heaven granted unto it, would a Ministry so filled with Visits to Heaven, be likely to be befriended!
Let one Instance instead of many Illustrate it. The Doctor felt once upon his mind, a strong Impression, to Preach a Sermon about the Crime of Self-Murder; but he resisted, he declined, he laid it aside.