N00431:196
The wonderful works of God commemorated. Praises bespoke for the God in heaven in…
The wonderful works of God commemorated. Praises bespoke for the God in heaven in a thanksgiving sermon; delivered on Decemb. 19. 1689. Containing just reflections upon the excellent things done by the great God, more generally in creation and redemption, and in the government of the world; but more particularly in the remarkable revolutions of providence which are every where the matter of present observation. With a postscript giving an account of some very stupendous accidents, which have lately happened in France. / By Cotton Mather. ; To which is added a sermon preached unto the convention of the Massachuset-Colony in New-England, with a short narrative of several prodigies, which New-England hath of late had the alarms of heaven in.
Boston: printed by S. Green & sold by 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.
Having premised this I must now affirm, God is with you, while you are with Him. We need only reflect on the People of Israel, for an Instance of it. That whole History, which almost fills the Bible, proclaims nothing more than this; it loudly declares, That while a people are with God, God will be with them; but that He will be very Terrible in His providential Dispensations towards such a people as do forsake Him.
Having praemsed this I must now affirm, God is with you, while you are with Him. We need only reflect on the People of Israel, for an Instance of it. That whole History, which almost fills the Bible, proclames nothing more than this; it loudly declares, That while a people are with God, God will be with them; but that He will be very Terrible in His providential Dispensations towards such a people as do forsake Him.
But, What is it for a people to be With God? In short,
Our being With God, implies the Whole of our Obedience to Him. Our Duty to God must be attended, that we may have the Presence of God. The Who of this Duty is comprised in that Expression of our being with the Lord. Particularly the Hebrew Particle [•im] in our Text, admits of three Significations; it signifies, With, and For, & Like, [which last Signification I make the more free withal, because a little Philology will acquaint us with many Examples of it: for instance, When David saith in Psal. 120, 5. I dwell in (Gnim Hebr.) the tents of Kedar; a very great Interpreter translates it so, I dwell As the tents of Kedar. i. e. Like the inhabitants of the Stony Sun-burnt Arabia; whom indeed I don't Remember David ever was among.] Accordingly, a people have Three ⟨p. 14⟩