N00446:200
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.
Let us then Offer a clean and pure Sacrifice, as Noah did; so God will smell a favour or Rest, and he will with-hold the Rain, and Bless us with such Fruitful Seasons as we are desiring of him.
Thus preached an Indian called Nishokkon, above thirty years ago; and since that I suppose, they have grown a little further into the New-English way of preaching: you may have in their sermons, a, Kukkooton•wehteaonk, that is, a ⟨p. 120⟩Doctrine, Nah•ootomtvehteaonk, or, an Answer, […] Witcheayevonk, or, a Reason, with an Ouwot•ank, or, an, Use for the close of all.
Thus preached an Indian called Nishokkon, above thirty years ago; and since that I suppose, they have grown a little further into the New-English way of preaching: you may have in their sermons, a, Kukkooton•wehteaonk, that is, a ⟨p. 120⟩Doctrine, Nah•ootomtvehteaonk, or, an Answer, 〈…〉 Witcheayeuonk, or, a Reason, with an Ouwot•ank, or, an, Use for the close of all.
As for Holidays, you may take it for granted, our Eliot would not persuade his Indians to any Stated ones. Even the Christmas Festival i• self, he knew to be a stranger unto the▪ Apostolical Times; that the exquisite Vss himself acknowledges, 'twas not Celebrated in the first or second Century: and that there is a Truth in the words of the great Chemnuius, Auniversariura Diem Natalis Christi, celebratum fsseapud vetustissimos nunquam legtur. He knew that if the Day of our Lords Nativity were to be observed, it should not be in December, that many Churches for divers Ages kept it not in December, but in January; that Chrysostom himself, about four hundred years after our Saviour, excuses the Novelty of December season for it, and confesses it had not been kept above ten years at Constantinople: No, that it should be rather in September, in which Month the Jews kept the Feast that was a Type of our Lords Incarnation; and Solomon also brought the Ark into the Temple; for our Lord was thirty years. Old when he entered upon his public Ministry; and he continued in it three years and an half; Now his Death was in March, and it is easy then to calculate when his Birth ought to be. He knew, that indeed God had hid this Day as […]