A50162:75
Small offers towards the service of the tabernacle in the wilderness four discourses accommodated…
Small offers towards the service of the tabernacle in the wilderness four discourses accommodated unto the designs of practical godliness : preached partly at Boston, partly at Charleston / by Cotton Mather ; published by a gentleman lately restored from threatening sickness as a humble essay to serve the interest of religion, in gratitude unto God for his recovery.
Boston: printed by R. Pierce, 1689
THE GOOD MANS RESOLUTION. › Section 7 › Counsel 1: The First COUNSIL.
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.
The First COUNSEL.
The First COUNSIL.
Renounce and Forsake the Service of those Idols which you have heretofore been enslaved unto. We must, as Joshua here assures us, we must put away other gods, if we we would serve the Lord. Our Lord has admonished us, in Matth. 6. 24. Ye cannot •erve God and Mammon. Even so, Ye cannot serve God and Satan. And again, Ye cannot serve God and Sin. The Holy God may say of you as of them, long since, Ye have served strange gods. But, O do you now say to Him, as they in Isal. 21. 13. O Lord, other lords besides thee have had dominion over us; but we will no• ▪ be for Thee alone. Become weary of your Captivity under those Task-masters which have hither to been torturing your souls. There are two sorts of Tyrants that every unregenerate man is a Servant unto; his Tempers, and his Tempters. Let the Tempers within us, no more cause us to toil, and run, and sweat, for the gratifying of them. Let the Tempters without us, no more hurry us too & fro that their Humours may be pleased. Souls, I give you no bad counsel, when I propound this; and I do propound it, O, Run away from your old masters. Come away poor souls, come away from the land of your Captivity. ⟨p. 24⟩Look upon the grim face of the Patroons under which you groan; say to them all, Farewell, you malicious, you bloody, you for did Masters, Farewell; We hope you shall never have any of our Service more. O look upon the Calamities of your Service under your invisible Adversaries, and say, Tis enough! Say, The time past may suffice! Thus, Take ye the Wings of a Dove, and flee away.