N29515:215
Instructions for children: or, The child's & youth's delight, teaching an easy way to…Instructions for children: or, The child's & youth's delight, teaching an easie way to…
Instructions for children: or, The child's & youth's delight, teaching an easy way to spell & read true English. : Containing the father's godly advice; directing parents in a right and spiritual manner to educate their children. : With a Christian catechism, wherein all the chief principles of true Christianity are clearly opened. : Together with many other things both pleasant and useful for the education of children. / Written by Benj. Keach.Instructions for children: or, The child's & youth's delight, teaching an easie way to spell & read true English. : Containing the father's godly advice; directing parents in a right and spiritual manner to educate their children. : With a Christian catechism, wherein all the chief principles of true Christianity are clearly opened. : Together with many other things both pleasant and useful for the education of children. / Written by Benj. Keach.
New York: printed by Will. Bradford, 1695
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.
Ch. But pray, Father, what other Reason is there, why I should seek after God, & strive to lead an holy Life in my Youth?
Fa. 4. Because God accepteth of such and their Service, exceedingly, who yield the first and best of their Days to him: God ought not to be put off with old Age, which are the dr•gs of our days. Besides, thy dear Saviour spent all his days on Earth that so he might glorify thee in Heaven, therefore shouldst thou spend all thy days in his Service, and to Honour him. He lived for thee, that thou ⟨p. 21⟩shouldst live to him; and died for thee in the prime of his days, that thou sh••l•st not spend the primest o• thy days in sin. Moreover, most of those Renowned and Eminent Saints we read of in the Scripture, who were greatly beloved and honoured by the Almighty, were early seekers, or such that gave up themselves to God in their youth: as namely, young Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Solomon, Josiah, the Apostle John, Timothy, and divers others. Furthermore, What ground is there for any to think, that after they have spent all their youthful and primest days in the Devils Service, in doing his will and pleasing him by living in wicked and ungodly ways, that when they are old, and their Nature almost spent, •hat God will accept them? Nay, and it is hard to know then whether they for• sake Sin, or Sin forsakes them. 5. Further to persuade thee in ⟨p. 22⟩thy youth to cleave to God, and to be holy betimes, consider that hereby thou wilt prevent and escape m•n• grievous sins (which others run into) to the great dishonour of God and grief of their Parents? which will also more and more pollute and defile thy Soul, and cause the Lord to loathe and abhor thee; and by this means also will Satan get the greater Power over thee; and the more difficult will it be for thee to leave the ways of sin, and the vanities of this World; for evil habits and customs in sin, are not easily broken; which made the Prophet say, Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the Leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil,