N00446:47
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.
In a word, he was one who Lived in Heaven while he was on Earth; and there is no more than ⟨p. 21⟩pure Justice in our endeavours that he should Live on Earth after he is in Heaven. We cannot say that we ever saw him walking any whither but he was therein walking with God; wherever he sat•, he had God by him and it was in the Everlasting Arms of God that he Slept at night. Methoughts he a little discovered his Heavenly way of living, when walking one day in his Garden, he plucked up a weed that he saw now and then growing there, at which a Friend pleasantly said unto him, Sir, you tell us, we must be Heavenly-minded; but he immediately Reply d, It is true; and this is no impediment unto that; for were I sure to go to Heaven to morrow, I would do what I do to Day. From such a frame of spirit it was that once in a visit, finding a Merchant in his Counting House, where he saw Books of Business only on his Table, but all his Books of Devotion on the shelf, he gave this Advise unto him, Sir, Here's Earth on the Table, and Heaven on the shelf; pray don't sit so much at the Table as altogether to forget the shelf; let not earth by any means thrust Heaven out of your mind.
In a word, he was one who Liv'd in Heaven while he was on Earth; and there is no more than ⟨p. 21⟩pure Justice in our endeavours that he should Live on Earth after he is in Heaven. We cannot say that we ever saw him walking any whither but he was therein walking with God; wherever he sat•, he had God by him and it was in the Everlasting Arms of God that he Slept at night. Methoughts he a little discovered his Heavenly way of living, when walking one day in his Garden, he plucked up a weed that he saw now and then growing there, at which a Friend pleasantly said unto him, Sir, you tell us, we must be Heavenly-minded; but he immediately Reply d, It is true; and this is no impediment unto that; for were I sure to go to Heaven to morrow, I would do what I do to Day. From such a frame of spirit it was that once in a visit, finding a Merchant in his Counting House, where he saw Books of Business only on his Table, but all his Books of Devotion on the shelf, he gave this Advise unto him, Sir, Here's Earth on the Table, and Heaven on the shelf; pray don't sit so much at the Table as altogether to forget the shelf; let not earth by any means thrust Heaven out of your mind.