A50170:119
The triumphs of the reformed religion in America the life of the renowned John…
The triumphs of the reformed religion in America the life of the renowned John Eliot, a person justly famous in the church of God, not only as an eminent Christian and an excellent minister among the English, but also as a memorable evangelist among the Indians of New-England : with some account concerning the late and strange success of the Gospel in those parts of the world which for many ages have lain buried in pagan ignorance / written by Cotton Mather.The triumphs of the reformed religion in America the life of the renowned John Eliot, a person justly famous in the church of God, not only as an eminent Christian and an excellant minister among the English, but also as a memorable evangelist amoung the Indians of New-England : with some account concerning the late and strange success of the Gospel in those parts of the world which for many ages have lain buried in pagan ignorance / written by Cotton Mather.
Boston: printed by Benjamin Harris and John Allen for Joseph Brunning, 1691
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 Natives of the Country now Possessed by the New-Englanders, had been forlorn and wretched Heathen ever since their first herding here; and tho we know not When or How those Indians first became Inhabitants of this mighty Continent, yet we may guess that probe bly, the Devil decoyed those miserable Salvages hither, in hopes that the Gospel of the Lord Jesus would never come here to destroy or disturb his Absolute-Empire over them. But our Eliot was in such ill terms with the Devil, as to alarm him with sounding the Silver-Trumpets of Heaven in his Territories, and make some Noble and Zealous Attempts towards outing him of his Ancient possessions here. Just before the first Arrival of the English in these parts, a prodigious Mortality had swept away vast Numbers of the poor Indians; and those Pagans who being told by a Shipwrack'd Frenchman which died in their hands, That God would shortly extirpate them, and introduce a more civil and worthy people into their place, blasphemously replied, That God could not kill them; were quickly killed with such a raging and wasting Pestilence, as left the very earth covered with their Carcasses. Nevertheless, there were, I think, Twenty several Nations (if I may call them so) of Indians upon that spot of ground, ⟨p. 75⟩which fell under the Influence of our Three Uni••d Colonies; and our Eliot was willing to rescue as many of them as he could, from that old usurping Land-Lord of America, who is by the wrath of God, the Prince of this world.
¶ The Natives of the Countrey now Possessed by the New-Englanders, had been forlorn and wretched Heathen ever since their first herding here; and tho we know not When or How those Indians first became Inhabitants of this mighty Continent, yet we may guess that prob• bly, the Divel decoy'd those miserable Salvages hither, in hopes that the Gospel of the Lord Jesus would never come here to destroy or disturb his Absolute-Empire over them. But our Eliot was in such ill terms with the Divel, as to alarm him with sounding the Silver-Trump•ts of Heaven in his Territories, and make some Noble and Zealous Attempts towards outing him of his Ancient possessions here. Just before the first Arrival of the English in these parts, a prodigious Mortality had swept away vast Numbers of the poor Indians; and those Pagans who being told by a Shipwrack'd Frenchman which dy'd in their hands, That God would shortly extirpate them, and introduce a more civil and worthy people into their place, blasphemously reply'd, That God could not kill them; were quickly kill'd with such a raging and wasting Petilence, as left the very earth covered with their Carcases. Nevertheless, there were, I think, Twenty several Nations (if I may call them so) of Indians upon that spot of ground,