A50170:183
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.
IT is to be confessed, That the Roman Catholics have a Clergy so very Numerous, and so little Encumbered, and are Masters of such prodigious Ecclesiastical Revenues, as renders it very easy for them to exceed the Protestants in their Endeavours to Christianize the Pagan Salvages. Nor would I Reproach, but rather Applaud their Industry in this matter, wishing that we were all touched with an Emulation of it. Nevertheless, while I commend their Industry, they do by their Clamours against the Reformed Churches upon this account, oblige me to tax divers very scandalous things in the Missions which they make pro propaganda side throughout the world; and therewithal to compare what has been done by that little Handful of Reformed Churches in this Country, which has in divers Regards out-dyie the furthest Efforts of popery.
IT is to be confessed, That the Roman Catholicks have a Clergy so very Numerous, and so little Encumbred, and are Masters of such prodigious Ecclesiastical Revenues, as renders it very easy for them to exceed the Protestants in their Endeavours to Christianize the Pagan Salvages. Nor would I Reproach, but rather Applaud their Industry in this matter, wishing that we were all touched with an Emulation of it. Nevertheless, while I commend their Industry, they do by their Clamours against the Reformed Churches upon this account, oblige me to tax divers very scandalous things in the Missions which they make pro propaganda side throughout the world; and therewithal to compare what has been done by that little Handful of Reformed Churches in this Country, wh•ch has in divers Regards out-dyie the furthest Efforts of popery.
The Attainments which with Gods help we have carried up our Indians unto, are the chief Honour and Glory of our Labours with them. The Reader will smile perhaps, when I tell him, that by an odd accident there are lately fallen into my hands, the Manuscripts of a ⟨p. 125⟩Jesuit, whom the French Employed as a Missionary among the Western Indians; in which Papers there are, both a Catechism containing the principles which those Heathen are to be instructed in; and Cases of Conscience, referring to their Conversations. The Catechism which is in the roquoise Language (a Language remarkable for this, that there is not so much as one Labial in it) with a Translation annexed, has one Chapter, about Heaven, and another about Hell, wherein are such Thickskulled passages as these.