A50170:199
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.
But although' he thus dismissed himself as one so near to the Age of Ninety, might well have done, from his public Labours; yet he would not give over his Endeavours, in a more pri•ate Sphere, to Do good unto all. He had always been an Enemy to Idleness; any one that should look into the little Diary that he kept in his Almanalks, would see that there was with him, No day without a Line; he was troubled when he saw how much Time was devoured by that slavery to Tobacco, which too many debase themselves unto, and now he grew old, ⟨p. 138⟩he was desirous that his work should hold pace with his Life; the less Time he saw left, the less was he willing to have lost. He imagined that he could now do nothing to any purpose in any Service for God; and sometimes he would say with •n Air peculiar to himself, I wonder for what the L•rd Jesus Christ lets me live; he knows that ro•• I can do nothing for him! And yet he could •ot forbear Essaying to Do something for his dearest Lord; wherefore, thought he, What shall I do? And he then conceived, that tho' the English could not be benefi ed by any Gifts which he now fancied himself to have only the Ruins of, yet who can •ell but the Negro's might! He had long lamented it with a bleeding and a burning passion, that the English used their Negro's but as their Horses or their Oxen, and that so little care was taken about their precious and immortal Souls; he look d upon it as a prodigy, that any wearing the Name of Christians, should so much have the Heart of Devils in them, as to prevent and hinder the Instruction of the poor Blackanu•res, and confine the Souls of their miserable Slaves to a destroying ignorance, merely for fear of thereby loosing the benefit of their Vassalage; but now he made a mo••on to the English within two or three miles of him that at such a time and place they would send their Negro's once a week unto him: for he would then Catechise them, and Enlighten them to the utmost of his ⟨p. 139⟩power in the Things of their Everlasting Peace; however, he did not live to make much progress in this Undertaking.