Addresses to Old Men Young Men and Little Children, Dedication 3
The Dedication of, The little Childs Lesson. To the CHILDREN Dwelling in the North-part of BOSTON.
VEry terrible and sorrowful are the Presages which many Learned, Holy, Thinking Men have had about the State which they have suspected New-England as running apace into. One of our Seers hath long since in publick writings told us, The Gospel, I fear, is going, the Lord Jesus is departing from these Coasts. Ano…her of our Watchmen foretold it a great while ago unto us, That God would punish the wantonness of this people, with a sad loss, and want, of Able Men. And a third of our Shepherds, did not stick to tell us many years ago, I am verily afraid such a dismal night is towards us and such sore Afflictions, that the Lord will fill the hearts of all that shall be saved in those days with such A…guish of Spirit, as never more in the worst days of our Fo…e-fathers. These and many more such as these, have been the dark thoughts which our F…ther… have had concerning our condition; and our Hearts are wonderfully hard, if we tremble not at the late and large steps of Providence towards the fulfilment of such Predictions upon us. But among all the deadly Symptoms which threaten us with a speedy Ruine, there is none more ghastly, than the ignorance, the wildness, the lewdness found in so great a part of the Rising Generation. Multitudes of our C…ildren are very much Ʋn-Catechised, as to the principles, and sadly Ʋnnurtured and Ʋngove…ned as to the practices of Christianity. Our Children are miserably both neglected and indulged; tho' too much be made of them, in gratifying of their unruly will's, nevertheless too little is made of them in providing for their immortal souls; and some of you have not the Knowledge of God; I speak this to the shame of your ungodly Tutors. It was the last a…d worst of all the Egyptian plagues, That a Child was dead in every house. But may it not now be reckoned among… the New-English Ones, that in so many Houses all the Children are dead in trespasses and sins, & have their Eyes closed and muffled by a most unhappy Ignorance. 'Tis This that of all our dismal Omens looks blackest upon us; and it should awaken the vigorous endea…our of every sensible Christian to prevent that w…ful Degeneracy in which There will arise another Generation that know not the Lord; and by which the God of our Fathers will be so provoked at us as to say with the expence of all his Arrows upon us, What shall I do unto thee? What shall I do unto thee?
Here was the consideration that produced the little Discourse, which I now put into the hands of Children, and especially of those Children which are the Lambs, that I have received a special charge from the Lord Jesus Christ about the Feeding of. Our Saviour, in a certain place, hath intimated. That His little Children have the Angels of Heaven marvelously concerned about them; be sure those Ministers forget the denomination of Angels put upon us in the Oracles of God, that have not their very hearts within them working and yerning towards the Little Children that are under the watch of their Ministry. For my own part, I must be impatient until I see the ltitle children here so well instructed, that a Papist, or which is much what one, a Quaker, shall be as unable to seduce them, as the Jesuits were to corrupt the well-educated Children of the Waldenses when they were sent among them; and until I see also the Little Children here as forward in all Piety, as the Well-informed Children of the Ancient Jews were in the Law of Moses, the six hundred and thirteen Precepts whereof they had by heart before they were thirteen years of Age.
My dear Children, when Pharaoh could not hinder the people of God from going to serve the Lord in the Wilderness, he still objected against their therein having the company of, their little Ones; this is the desire, this the design which the Devil, is here with great fury managing; that so he may have his long enjoyed America, all return into his bloody hands. But you have now before you, some of our cares to engage our Little Ones with us, in the Service of our God; O that the Little Ones among us, might become greatly solicitous, to know the God of our Fathers, and serve Him with a perfect heart, and a willing mind. It raised surely some Agony in the mind of David, when there befell him the disaster, whereof he afterwards gave that Report, Thy Servant kept his Fathers Sheep, and there came a Lion and took a Lamb out of the Flock. In like manner, when I understand that any of you are ignorant, or naughty and vicious Children, methinks I see the horrid Lions of Hell, fetching some of my poor Lambs away, and how shall I answer it, if I do not go out after them! The following pages are some of my Essays to pluck you out of your Eternal Perdition; and I hope you will read them seriously, frequently, very profitably. I have personally with more private Addresses, notwithstanding the toyl of my public Employments, treated with many scores of you; I have seen the tears, and heard the vows, with which many of you have declared, That you would be the Servants of God as long as you live; and I shall be a witness against you, if after this you be of them who draw back. But I do now before all the world, renew my Applications to you for your early Repentance and Obedience. Hence as I have studied in a Sermon to touch your Affection…, I have laboured also to help your Ʋnderstandings, by a Scriptural Catechism, annexed thereunto; and tho' I am far from not encouraging any of you to prize and learn those excellent Catechisms which are now commonly used among us, yet I was willing to offer you one more, because it pretends to these few little Singularities.
First, The Answers are all of them, the express words of sacred Scripture; which have in them a force beyond the purest words of any Writing else. And now also, you are at once taught with ease not only to Assert, but also to Confirm all the Doctrines of the Christian Religion. Besides, the Answers are for the most part short, and not seldom explained in the Questions, to which they do belong; and as for the younger of you, I have distinguished a few of them by little Stars, that you may single out them, to begin the charging of your infant-Memories therewithal. More …ver, there is in so brief a sheet as this, perhaps a fuller Collection of Divine Subjects for you to be acquainted withal, than I have yet seen in so small a Room; and whoever lives to Preach upon each of the Texts quoted here, may therein go over, An entire body of Theology. I now leave you in the Arms of the Lord Jesus, The great Shepherd of the Sheep, that he may feed you, and lead you to the Fountains of Living Water for-evermore. Amen; My dearest Children; and I pray, do you also say, Amen! Amen!
Cotton Mather.
THE LITTLE CHILDS LESSON.
1 John II.XIII.
I write unto you, Little Children, because ye have known the Father.
BEhold the Aged, Beloved, Inspired Apostle John, applying himself to Christians of all Ages; wherein, as it has been observed long since, Dat cui{que} ordini quae ipsi conveniunt, he speaks things marvellously convenient and agreeable to them all. The last Subjects of the Apostolical Address, are the least that can be written unto; namely, Little Children; for even among such, there may sometimes be found the true knowledge of God. Our holy John thought himself concerned in the Charge, which he had over-heard the Lord giving unto Peter, a little before he left the world, Feed my Lambs; and accordingly he does here take a most paternal and pathetick notice of the Lambs, in the Flock of the Lord Jesus; indeed the Greek word in our Text, rendred Li…tle Children, carries F…eding In the Notation of it. We have before us the Attainment of devout and pious Children, in the School of the Lord Jesus Christ; it is, They have known the Father; by which Father, is meant the God of Heaven. Little Children scarce know any man or thing so soon as they know their Father; nor are they so fond of any man or thing as they are of their Fathe…. Now 'tis the prerogative of some little Children to know the great God, as their Father; yea, to love Him, and serve Him as their Father too, which is implied in the knowing of Him. This therefore is the Doctrine to be remembred by you little Children, that are now before the Lord.