B09511:42
The Bostonian Ebenezer. Some historical remarks, on the state of Boston, the chief town…
The Bostonian Ebenezer. Some historical remarks, on the state of Boston, the chief town of New England, and of English America. With some, agreeable methods, for preserving and promoting, the good state of that, as well as any other town, in the like circumstances. / Humbly offered, by a native of Boston.
Boston: printed by B. Green & J. Allen for Samuel Phillips, 1698
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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, Beware, I beseech you, of those Provoking Evils that may Expose us to a Plague, Exceeding all that are in the Catalogue of the Twenty Eighth of Deuteronomy. Let me go on, to say; What? Shall there be any Bawdy-Houses in such a Town as This! It may be, the Neighbours, that could Smoke 'em, and Rout'em, if they would, are loth to Stir, for fear of being reputed Ill Neighbours. But, I say unto you, That you are Ill Neighbours, because you do it not: All the Neighbours are like to have their Children and Servants poisoned, and their Dwellings laid in Ashes, because you do it not! And, Oh! that the Drinking-Houses in the Town, might once come under a laudable Regulation. The Town ha's an Enormous Number of them! Will the Haunters of those Houses, hear the Counsels of Heaven? For You that are the Town Dwellers, to be oft, or long in your Visits of the Ordinary, 'twill certainly Expose you to Mischiefs more than ordinary. I have seen ⟨p. 32⟩certain Taverns, where the Pictures of horrible Devourers were hanged out for the Signs; and thought I, 'twere well, if such Signs were not sometimes too too Significant! Alas, men have their Estates Devoured, their Names Devoured, their Hours Devoured, and their very Souls Devoured, when they are so besotted, that they are not in their Element, except they be Tippling at such Houses. When once a man is Bewitched, with the Ordinary, what usually becomes of him? He is a gone man; And when he comes to Die, he'll cry out, as many have done, Ale ho• ses are Hell-Houses! Ale-houses are Hell houses! But Let the Owners of those Houses, also now hear our Counsels. Oh! Hearken to me, that God may Hearken to you another Day! It is an Honest, and a Lawful, tho' it be not a very Desirable, Employment, that you have undertaken: You may Glorify the Lord Jesus Christ in your Employment, if you will, and Benefit the Town considerably. There was a very Godly man, that was an Inn-keeper; and a Great Minister of God, could say to that man, in 3 Joh. 2. Thy Soul prospereth. O ⟨p. 33⟩Let it not be said of you, since you are fallen into this Employment, Thy Soul withereth! It is thus, with too many: Especially, when they that get a License perhaps to Sell Drink out of Doors, do stretch their License to Sell within Doors.