N00446:117
The triumphs of the reformed religion, in America. The life of the renowned John…
The triumphs of the reformed religion, in America. The life of the renowned John Eliot; a person justly famous in the church of God, not only as an eminent Christian, and an excellent Minister, among the English, but also, as a memorable evangelist among the Indians, of New-England; with some account concerning the late and strange success of the Gospel, in those parts of the world, which for many ages have lain buried in pagan ignorance. / Written by Cotton Mather. ; [Two lines from Luke]
Boston: printed by Benjamin Harris for Joseph Brunning i.e, 1691
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.
He was a modest, humble but very reasonable Nonconformist unto the Ceremonies, which have bin such unhappy Apples of strife, in the Church of England; otherwise the dismal thickets […] America, had never seen such a person in them. He could not count it lawful for him ordina••• to perform his Ministerial Acts of solemn and public Prayer, by reading or using any Forms of Pray composed by other persons for him, as thousands of Preachers do at this day. And this, not only because an Ability to express the case of a Congregation in prayer, is a Ministerial Gift, which our Lord forbids his Ministers to Neglect; and a Minister that should only Read Forms of Sermons composed for him, would as truly discharge the Duty of Preaching, as one that […] only read such Forms of prayers, would the duty of praying in it; but also because he could not find that any Forms of prayer were used in an• ⟨p. 63⟩part of the Church, until about four hundred years after Christ; nor any made for more than some single Province until six hundred years; nor any imposed until eight hundred, when all manner of Abominable Things began to be found in the Temple of God; and he had over and above, his particular Dissatisfactions at the English Liturgy, for weighty causes rather increased than abated since his first notice of them. He could not wear a Surplice in and for the Worship of God; as well-knowing the Original of that unholy Vestment, and agreeing with Dr. Abbot; who was no Fanatic, and yet says in his Book of Antichrist, That all Priestly Garments, whereby Ad••isters are distinguished, from the rest of the Church, are a special part of the character of the Beast. He could not use the Cross in Baptism; forasmuch as Dr. Taylor himself confesses, 'tis An Unt•s••uted Ceremony retained as a part of External Worship; and so 'tis as much a violation of the Second Commandment in the Law of our God, as the oil, cream, salt and spittle, with which that Institution has been de••led by the Roman Catholics. Indeed, he thought with Learned Parker, That the Cross is the greatest Devil among the Idols of Rome. He could not Kneel before the Eucharist; inasmuch as it was a usage introduced about the thirteenth Century, merely to suit and serve the Idolatry of the Transubstantiation.