N00446:222
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.
But although' he thus dismissed himself as one so near to the Age of Ninety, might well have done, from him public Labours; yet he would not give over his Endeavours, in a more privare Splae•e, to Do good unto all. He had always been an Enemy to Idleness; any one that should look into the little Diary that he kept in his Almoneck, would see that there was with him, No day without a Line; he was troubled when he saw how much Time was devoured by that slavery to Tobacco, which too many debase themselves unto: and now he grew old. ⟨p. 138⟩he was desirous that his work should hold page with his •tfe; the less Time he saw less; the less was he willing to have lost. He imagined that he could now do nothing to any purpose in any Service for God; and sometimes he would say with an Air peculiar to himself, I wonder for what the Lord Jesus Christ lets me live; he knows that I can do nothing for him! And yet he could not forbear Essaying to Do something for his dea•ch Lord; wherefore, thought' he. What shall I do? And he then conceived, that tho' the English could not be benefited by any Gifts which he now fancied himself to have only the Ruins of, yet who can tell but the Negro's might! He had long lamented it with a bleeding and a burning passion, that the English used their Negro's him at their Horses or their Oxen and that so little care was taken about their […] and i••mbrial Souls; He looked upon it as a prodigy, that any wearing the Name of br•lltares, should so much have the Heart of Devil in them, as to prevent and hinder the Information of the poor Bl•chamo•rs, and confine the Souls of their miserable Slaves to a destroying ignorance, merely for fear of thereby loosing the benefit of their Vassalage; but now he made a motion to the English within two or three miles of him that at such a time and place they would send their Negro• once a week unto him: for he would then Carcass them, and Enlighten them to the utmost of his ⟨p. 139⟩power in the Things of their Everlasting Peace; however, he did not live to make much progress in this Undertaking.