N00428:32
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.
Secondly, Another Good Thought in the purposes of God, concerning them that are Serviceable to His People is, I will make that Serviceable Man to be an Honourable Man.
There are no small Honours in This World, which God Thinks to confer upon the man that shall study to be Serviceable. I will mention some of the Honours and the Roses that shall be cast upon such a man; whereof the First shall be This, That Wicked Men will Traduce, Abuse, Malign such a man at a monstrous Rate; those Vassals of the Devil, cannot but be in a Hellish Rage at any man that shall be Serviceable unto the Flocks of the Lord Jesus▪ of whom they would fain make a prey. 'Tis the property of those Tories, ⟨p. 16⟩that as in Neh. 2.10. It grieves them exceedingly, if there come a man to seek the Welfare of the Children of Israel. Hence an Elijah shall be railed at as, A Troubler of Israel; a Paul shall be stormed at, as. A mover of Sedition. They will invent all the ways imaginable to fix Reproach upon such a man; they will make Stories, and Forge Letters, and contrive a thousand shams; in hopes that some Dirt will stick, whereof they have Cart loads to spare. Such a man shall be, The Song of the Drunkard, and those people whose Tongues are no Slander, will try whether a Slander can't be fastened on him by the venomous Tongues, which they use as, their own. An Athanasius must be called a Sathanasius; A Calvin shall be made a Name for a Dog; An Huss. must be dressed with portraitures of Devils round about him; a Luther long since, and since him, a Voetius, may live to see horrible tragical Romances printed of the Confusions befalling of them. If a Jeremiah be drawn forth into Service, notwithstanding that excuse of his, I am a Child; he shall soon have cause for that complaint, in Jer. 20.50 I heard the defaming of many, Report, say, they and we will Report it; if you will but form some Ill-Report, say they, Let us alone to blow it all about the Town▪ Pardon me, ⟨p. 17⟩