A50170:142
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.
(c) His Translating the Bible, and other Books of Piety into the INDIAN TONGUE.
One of his Remarkable Cares for these illiterate Indians, was to bring them into the use of Schools and B••ks. He quickly procured the benefit of Schools for them; wherein they profited so much, that not only very many of them quickly came to Read and Write, but also several arrived unto a Liberal Education in our College, and one or two of them took their degree with the rest of our Graduates. And for Books, 'twas his chief desire that the sacred Scriptures might not in an unknown Tongue be Locked or Hidden from them; very hateful and hellish did the policy of Popery appear to him on this Account; Our Eliot was very unlike to that Franciscan, who writing into Europe gloried much how many thousands of Indian he had Converted, but added, That he desire• his Friend would send him the Book called th• Bible; for he had heard of there being such a Boo• in Europe, which might be of some use to him. ⟨p. 99⟩No, our Eliot found he could not live without a Bible himself; he would have parted with all his Estate sooner than have lost a Leaf of it; and he knew it would be of more than some use unto the Indians too; he therefore with a vast Labour translated the Holy Bible into the Indian Language. Behold, ye Americans, the greatest Honour that ever you were Partakers of […] This Bible was Printed here at our Cambrid••; and it is the only Bible that ever was Printed in all America, from the very Foundation of the World. The whole Translation he writ• with but one Pen; which Pen had it not been lost, would have certainly deserved a Richer Case than was bestowed upon that Pen which Holland writ his Translation of Plutarch with. The Bible being justly made the Leader, of all the rest, a Little Indian-Library quickly followed: for besides Primers, and Grammars, & some other such Composures, we quickly had, The Practice of Piety, in the Indian Tongue & the Reverend Richard Baxers, Call to the Unconverted: he also Translated, some of Mr. Shepherd's Composures; & such Caechsms likewise as there was occasion for. It cannot but be hoped that some Fish were to be made Alive, since the Waters of the Sanctuary thus came un them.