N00428:79
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.
But if I must pass to a further Answer, it shall be This, Be sure Those things are to be Done for us, that Ill men, are most loth to have us do. The Antipathies of them that Hate us, will be a Notable Direction unto our Services: thus one of the Ancients argued, ⟨p. 47⟩Christianity must needs be a good thing; why? Because Nero could not endure it. Those are usually the Best men, and the best things that are most barked at by men of a visible Impiety. We may then make our worst Enemies to Do for us, whether they will or no; and seth a Treacle out of the Vipers that are gnawing out our Bowels. We say, Malice is a Good Informer; may we take Information from the Malice of evil men; For, Fas est & ab hoste doceri.
But if I must pass to a further Answer, it shall be This, Be sure Those things are to be Done for us, that Ill men, are most loth to have us do. The Antipathies of them that Hate us, will be a Notable Direction unto our Services: thus one of the Ancients argued, ⟨p. 47⟩Christianity must needs be a good thing; why? Because Nero could not endure it. Those are usually the Best men, and the best things that are most bark'd at by men of a visible Impiety. We may then make our worst Enemies to Do for us, whether they will or no; and seth a Treacle out of the Vipers that are gnawing out our Bowels. We say, Malice is a Good Informer; may we take Information from the Malice of evil men; For, Fas est & ab hoste doceri.
But if you press me to a more particular Answer still; I will in one word express the most considerable Thing that is to be done for us; Tis, Reformation! Reformation! Reformation! We have many and many a time confessed, That our Apostasies from God have procured unto us all the Calamities, which we are now Groaning under. And we have lately had • very large Admonition from our Honourable Rulers, to Reform our many provoking Evils. O that all ranks and kinds of people among us, were in earnest about the universal Reformation of our Manners. When the French recovered Calais from the Hands of the English, a French Captain insultingly asked an English Officer, When shall we see you at Calais again? but he made that wise Repartee upon him, Sir, when your Sins come