N00428:95
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.
My Brethren, Tho' it may be said of us, They are a Generation of Sinful men risen up in the stead of their Fathers. Yet Oh Let it not be said, They Arose a Generation which knew not the Lord. It was a pungent word used by one on such a Day as this, That the Books to be opened at the last Day, will contain Genealogies in them. How, How shall we hold up our Faces, when out of those Books it shall be Read; Such an one, the Son of such an one; His Father did much for the People of God; but he, Nothing at all?
Come then, and be you concerned for th• Good of the people, which you belong unto, and Oh Tremble at suffering the work of the Lord Jesus here to miscarry in your Hands, which as you may see this Day, tis coming apace into.
III. But the Things that are to be done for this people, come into no Hands either with more Opportunity, or with more Importunity, than into those Honourable Ones, which the Government of this Territory is now devolved into.
Tis to YOU, much Honoured, that I now Address my self; and I know not what better message to bring you, than This; That whereas you are the Ministers of God unto us for Good, He will certainly Think upon you for Good, according to all that you Do for His People here. It is more than a little that ha's already been done for us, by your prudent and pious management of our Affairs, which we should Accept always with all Thankfulness The Pains of Governing always are such that Luther justly reckoned them among the three sorts that were Intolerable. But never were they Greater at any time, than since you have been entrusted with the Administration of our Government. That one of your Number who can count, I suppose, Threescore years from