N00431:208
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.
Let us Consider, Secondly: What uncomfortable Symptoms we have had of God's not being with us. It seems as if God had fulfilled that sad Word on this poor Land, in Deut. 31. 17. I will forsake them, and many evils shall befall them, so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because God is not among us? There is a vast number of Calamities, which have given us lamentable cause to fear, That God has forsaken us. Why have we suffered such a Blast, both on our Trade, and on our Corn, that the Husband-man complains, I looked for much, and •o, it came to little! and the Mariner complains, I went out full, & came home empty! Tis Because our God is not among us. Why have we had Fire after Fire, laying our Treasures in Ashes? What means the heat of this Anger, that Boston, the most noble, and vital Bowel of the Territory, hath with a twice repeated Conflagration suffered such a Loss of that which in the Body politic answers to Blood in the Body natural? Tis Because ⟨p. 21⟩our God is not among us. Why have we had War after War, made upon us by a Foolish Nation? Why have the worst of the Heathen had renewed advantages to disturb our Peace? And why have so many of our Brethren and Neighbours been made a prey to the most Savage Murderers in the world? It is Because our God is not among us. Give me leave to say, as in Judg. 6. 12. If the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? But we may find Humiliation enough to convince us of this deplorable thing, from what we have endured upon the Loss of our Government. She of old said unto our Lord Jesus, in J•h. 11. 21. Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not dyed. So, If the Lord had been here, tis possible we had not Died. If the Lord had been with us, would he have made our Wall so feeble, that (as they said of Jerusalem) the going up of a poor Fox upon it, should break it down? If the Lord had been with us, had all the wild Creatures that passed by this Vineyard, found such Opportunities to be plucking at it? No, Our God would have kept us, as A vineyard of red Wine; and lest any should have hurt us, He, (the Lord) would have kept it, night and day. If the Lord had been with us, had you ever thought you had seen cause to Declare, as you have lately & justly done, That a Company of bject strangers had made a mere Booty of us?