N00499:23
Optanda. Good men described, and good things propounded. A serious consideration of two very…
Optanda. Good men described, and good things propounded. A serious consideration of two very important cases. I. What should be our spirits, and II. What should be our studies, that so all things may go well among us. / By Cotton Mather. ; In two sermons; whereof one, was preached unto the governor, and General Court, of the province of the Massachusetts-Bay, in New-England; at their first session: June 9. 1692. ; Published by authority[.]Optanda. Good men described, and good things propounded. A serious consideration of two very important cases. I. What should be our spirits, and II. What should be our studies, that so all things may go well among us. / By Cotton Mather. ; In two sermons; whereof one, was preached unto the governour, and General Court, of the province of the Massachusetts-Bay, in New-England; at their first session: June 9. 1692. ; Published by authority[.]
Boston: printed by Benjamin Harris, 1692
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
I. An Excellent Spirit is an Extraordinary Spirit; and such would a Good man have his own Spirit arise to be. We Look upon Rarity and Excellency to be Equivalent Why, a Good man will always be a Rare man, as long as almost the whole World Lies in Wickedness; But he will further aspire after those Rare Attainments, which even many a Good man do's not arrive unto. No, he would in all that is Virtuous and Laudable be, An Extraordinary man. There is a Commendable Singularity Endeavoured by such a man; and he will not be Barked out of it, by such Flouts and Scoffs, as they some times assaulted the Great Luther with, Tune ⟨p. 5⟩Solns Sapis? Is there no Wit, no Sense among Mankind, but what you have monopolized? A Good man, will not oblige himself unto the Common measures of Iniquity. There are Ordinary Vices, which, be sure, a Good man will not comply withal; he ha's not a Spirit that will permit him, To follow a multitude in the Doing of evil: if he dwell in a Sodom, hell be a Lot for all. When the whole Congregation had been Sinning against God, said the Lord in Num. 14.24. My Servant Caleb, he had another Spirit, and hath followed me fully. Tis that other Spirit, that is an Excellent Spirit. Suppose, a Whole Country, yea, a whole Nation, be distempered with Formality, Debauchery, and Enmity against the Right ways of the Lord, a Good man will be of Another Spirit; although like Elijah he be put upon Complaining, I am left alone! If a whole people decline and back-slide from God, and let the World eat up all their Zeal for the House of the Lord; Yet a Good man will be of Another Spirit; he'll be another Noah for his Uprightness, though there be a Deluge of Profaneness, overwhelming of all his Neighbourhood. He is one bound for Heaven; and thinks he, To heaven I'll go, though I should not have one man alive, to bear me Company. But there are Ordinary Virtues too, with ⟨p. 6⟩which a Good man will not be Satisfied; he will ingenuously confess himself to be, The least of Saints; but he will diligently Labour to be one of the Highest Form; to be Ultimus Bonorum, •ill not serve his turn; he ha's a Spirit suited by that Advice of the Apostle, Seek that ye may Excel. Said our Lord, in