N00428:15
The serviceable man. A discourse made unto the General Court of the Massachusetts colony,…
The serviceable man. A discourse made unto the General Court of the Massachusetts colony, New-England, at the anniversary election 28d. 3m. 1690. / By Cotton Mather Minister of the Gospel. ; [Two lines of Latin quotation]
Boston: printed by Samuel Green for Joseph Browning, 1690
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.
That you are this Day Assembled for a Revival & a Renewal of your Anniversary Elections, is, I suppose, intended by you, as no less ⟨p. 2⟩a part of your Obedience to their Majesties, who upon the Address of our Convention to Them, Declaring, That they accepted Government of this People according to the Rules of the Charter, did in answer thereunto, Order A Continuance in the Administration thereof: than it is a part of your Deference to so great and just a Judgment, as that of the English Nation Assembled in Parliament, That the Invasion of our Charters was Illegal and a Grievance, and that they ought to be restored unto us. Bu• the Word of the Almighty God has been still one usual stroke in our Annual Solemnities, and something of that are you now to attend unto.
THat you are this Day Assembled for a Revival & a Renewal of your Anniversary Elections, is, I suppose, intended by you, as no less ⟨p. 2⟩a part of your Obedience to their Majesties, who upon the Address of our Convention to Them, Declaring, That they accepted Government of this People according to the Rules of the Charter, did in answer thereunto, Order A Continuance in the Administration thereof: than it is a part of your Deference to so great and just a Judgment, as that of the English Nation Assembled in Parliament, That the Invasion of our Charters was Illegal and a Grievance, and that they ought to be restored unto us. Bu• the Word of the Almighty God has been still one usual stroke in our Annual Solemnities, and something of that are you now to attend unto.
In the Words now Read, we find not only the Prayer, but also the Picture of a no les• worthy than famous Magistrate, and it will be no unprofitable Meditation, to reflect a little upon the occasion of it. The Truth and Manner of the Return which the Jew• made out of their Babylonish Captivity, ha been declared in a Book written by Ezra, a great Man greatly concerned in that Return. But the Fruit and Event of it is now related in a Supplement unto that History, written by Nehemiah a Renowned Governor of that Restored People; for whom it was no mor improper to Record His own Acts, than it wa