N00446:52
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.
Article II.
His particular care and zeal about the Lords day.
This was the Piety, this the Holiness of our Eliot; but among the many instances in which his Holiness was remarkable, I must not omit his exact Remembrance of the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy.
THis was the Piety, this the Holiness of our Eliot; but among the many instances in which his Holiness was remarkable, I must not omit his exact Remembrance of the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy.
It has been truly and justly Observed, That our whole Religion fares according to our Sabbaths, that poor Sabbaths make poor Christians, and that a strictness in our Sabbaths inspires ⟨p. 25⟩vigour into all our other Duties. Our Eliot knew this, and it was a most Exemplary zeal that he acknowledged the Sabbath of our Lord. Jesus Christ withal▪ Had he been asked, Servas•• Dominicum? he could have made a right Christian primitive answer thereunto. The Sun did not set, the evening before the Sabbath, till he had begun his preparation for it; and when the Lords-day came, you might have seen John in the Spirit, every week. Every day was a sort of Sabbath to him, but the Sabbath-day was a find, a type, a taste of Heaven with him. He laboured, that he might on this High-day, have no words or thoughts but such as were agreeable thereunto; he then allowed in himself no Actions, but those of a Raised Soul. One should hear nothing dropping from his Lips on this day, but the milk and honey of the Country, in which there yet remains a Rest for the people of God; and if he beheld in any person whatsoever, whether old or young, any profanation of this day, he would be sure to bestow lively Rebukes upon it. And hence also unto the general Engagements of a Covenant with God, which 'twas his Desire to bring the Indians into, be added a particular Article, wherein they bind themselves, mebquont amunat Sabbath, pahketeaunat tosobke pomantamog; i. e. To Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy, as long as we live.