N00446:70
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.
The Lust of the Ey•, was put out by him in such a manner, that it was in a Manner all one with him to be rich or poor. It could not be said of him, That he sought great […] for himself, ⟨p. 32⟩but what estate he became owner of, was from the Blessing of God upon the Husbandry and industry of some in his Family, rather than from any endeavours of his own. Once when there stood several kine of his own before his door, his Wife, to try him, asked him, Whose they were? and she found that he knew nothing of them. He could not endure to plunge himself into secular Designs and Affairs, but accounted Sacerdo• in foro as worthy of Castigation as Mercator in Templo; he thought that Minister and Market-man, were not Unisons, and that the Earth was no place for A•run's holy Mitre to be laid upon. It was the Usage, of most Parishes in the Country, to have an annual Rate for the maintenance of the Ministry, adjusted commonly by the select-men, of the Towns; which tho it raised not any exuberant Salaries for the Ministers, who also seldom received all that the people had contracted for, nevertheless in many places it prevented sore Temptations from befalling those that were labouring in the Word and Doctrine; who must else often have experienced the Truth of Luther's Observation, Duriter profecto & miser viverent Evangeliy. Ministrisi•ex Libera populi contributione essent sustentandi, However, for his part, he propounded that what stipend he had, should be Raised by Contribution; & from the same temper it was, that a few years before his Dissolution, being left without an Assistant in his Ministry, he pressed his Congregation ⟨p. 33⟩to furnish themselves with another Pastor; and in his Application to them, he told them, 'Tis possible, you may think the burden of maintaining two Ministers may be too heavy for you; but I'll deliver you from that fear; I do here give back my Salary to the Lord Jesus Christ, and now, Brethren, you may fix that upon any man, that God, shall make a pastor for you. But his Church with an handsome Reply, assured him, That they would count his very presence worth a Salary, when he should be so superannuated as to do no further Service for them.