A50170:87
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.
Article II. His Family-Government.
The Apostle Paul, reciting and requiring the Qualifications of a Gospel Minister, gives Order, that he be, The Husband of one Wife, and one that ruleth well his own House, having his Children in subjection with all gravity. It seems, that a mans carriage in his own House is a part, or at least a sign, of his due Deportment in the House of God; and then, I am sure, our Eliot's was very Exemplary. That one Wife which ⟨p. 51⟩was given to him truly from the Lord, he loved, prized, cherished, with a kindness that notably represented the Compassion which he (thereby) taught his Church to expect from the Lord Jesus Christ; and after he had lived with her for more than half an hundred years, he followed her to the Grave with Lamentations beyond those, which the Jews from the figure of a letter in the Text, affirm, that Abraham deplored his aged Sarah with; her Departure made a deeper impression upon him than what any common Affliction could. His whole Conversation with her, had that sweetness, and that gravity and modesty beautifying of it, that every one called them Zachary and Elizabeth. His Family, was a little Bethel, for the Worship of God constantly and exactly maintained in it; and unto the daily prayers of the Family, his manner was to prefix the Reading of the Scripture; which being done, 'twas also his manner to make his young people choose a certain passage in the Chapter, and give him some Observation of their own upon it. By this method he did mightily sharpen and impro••, as well as try, their Understandings, and endeavour to make them wise unto Salvation. He was likewise very strict in the Education of his Children, and more careful to mend any error in their Hearts and Lives, than he could have been to cure a blemish in their Bodies. No Exorbitancies or Extravagances could find a room under his Roof, nor was