The serviceable man. A discourse made unto the General Court of the Massachusetts colony,…

The POSITION.

The People of New-England are a People of God. There have been very critical and ingenious Attempts made by some Learned men to find lost Israel in America; tho' it be not easy to find any other Track of them, than this; that the Tartars are the Ten Tribes, which Dr. Fletchers Dissertations have rendered almost evident; and the Northern Indians of this mighty Continent are of a Scythian Original which will be almost as evident unto him, that shall read the Disquisitions of the Learned Hornius. But behold, you may see an Israel in America, by looking upon this Plantation; may Peace be upon this Israel of God! It is notorious, That a Settlement in this part of America, was first endeavoured by some that had no designs but those of a Secular Interest: but the God of Heaven blasted all those Designs, and broke up one Plantation after another ⟨p. 28⟩by very terrible Frowns of His Holy Providence. Until at length a number of Pious and Worthy men transplanted themselves into this Wilderness, with Designs of practising the Religion of the Lord Jesus here, without such Obstructions as in Europe they feared thereunto; and then, the Great God smiled upon the undertaking with Mercies little short of Miracles. Tis the prerogative of New-England above all the Countries of the world, That it is a Plantation for the Christian and Protestant Religion. You may now see a Land filled with Churches, which by solemn and awful Covenants are Dedicated unto the Son of God; there are I suppose, more than an Hundred of those Holy Societies among us, which would, in Luther's Judgment, render the meanest Village more glorious than an Ivory palace; in these Churches you may see Discipline managed, Heresy subdued, Profaneness opposed, and Communion maintained, with a careful Respect unto the word of God in all; you may see faithful Ministers, and sincere Christians, and multitudes of Souls Ripening apace for the Kingdom of God; you may see proportionably as much of God among them, as in any spot of Ground which the Children of Adam walk upon; if our Degeneracies cause you not quickly to Joose ⟨p. 29⟩