N03999:182
Captives bound in chains, made free by Christ their surety
Captives bound in chains, made free by Christ their surety: or, The misery of graceless sinners, and their recovery by Christ their Saviour. By T. Doolittel [sic]. ; [Three lines from Isaiah]
Boston: printed by Rogers & Fowle for J. Edwards, 1742
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Liberty to the Captives. › Chapter 9: Containing the 8, 9, 10 Chain or Bond of these Captives.
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.
3. But why should you content your selves in being such as your Fore-fathers were? though I do not, dare not, will not say that they are damned; yet are you so sure that they are saved? are you all sure, that all your Fore-fathers did believe, and did repent; that they were all sanctified and saved? if so, surely that age was better than this, and better it would have been to have lived then, than Now. But if they did not believe, did not repent, would you then go to the place where now they are? or would it be any ease to your pain, to meet any of your Fore fathers there? your wisest, safest course, is not to say, we will live as our Fore-fathers did, but as God in his Word doth command and direct you to do.
4. But why might you not be wiser and better than your Fore-fathers were? Were they perfect in Wisdom and goodness? If ⟨p. 148⟩they were not wise indeed for heaven and their souls, and if they were not good indeed, you must be wiser and better than they were, or you shall not be saved. If they were truly wise and good, it was their burden and their grief that they were no wiser, and no better, and why should that be a fault in you to be wiser than they were, which they complained of as a fault in themselves that they were no wiser, and no better than they were?
Besides, would you not be richer than your Fore-fathers were? and greater and more honourable in the World if possible you can? Do not you labour for greater Estates than they had, had they much or had they little? had they little, would not you have much? had they much, would not you have more? If you would be richer and greater, why may you not endeavour to be wiser and to be better than they were?