N00499:25
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.
II. Holiness is Excellence; and that is ⟨p. 8⟩it with which a good man would have a Spirit most gloriously Replenished. We are told in Psal. 16. 3. The Saints that are in the Earth, are the Excellent. The Spirit of a SAINT is an Excellent Spirit. I know not whether he be most of a Brute or a Devil; 'tis one of them; that shall make a Scoff at being a Saint; tho' that be a wickedness that has been committed, by some that would be called Christians. But a Good Man, is very desirous to be, A Saint on Earth, & one of the, Holy Brethren, Indeed the Inclination of many, is too agreeable to the Popish Canonization: which acknowledges no Saints, but what are already in the Heaven of the Blessed. We do but humour that, when we do say, Saint Matthew, and won't as well say, Saint Abraham. But we do more grossly follow it, when we are for no Saintship, till we are dead and gone, and we are, Like Sheep laid in the Grave. Whereas, A good man is for being, A Saint on Earth; inasmuch as he believes, 'tis that, Without which, No man shall see the Lord. But Holiness; What is that? It is in short, A Consecration to the Service and Glory of the Great God. God Holiness is His Advancing of Himself alone, and his Agreeing with none but such as concur with him in doing so. And ⟨p. 9⟩thus our Holiness, lies in our Advancing the Honour of God, and making all that we are, and all that we have, and all that we do, subservient thereunto. New a good man, would be such a Saint, as thus to have, Holiness unto the Lord, written upon all that he is concerned in; he does like those worthy Macedonians, of whom we read, They gave themselves unto the Lord; and then he subscribes himself, as in Psal. 119. 38. Lord, I am thy Servant, Devoted unto thy Fear. A Spirit of Respect unto God, has touched him; and being a Needle touched with such a Lodestone, he would always have none but God-ward Vergencies of Soul. A good man, would be an Enoch, that is to say, A Dedicated man; and he would, Walk with God, by a Continual Dedication of every thing within his Reach, unto that Great END of, Showing forth the Praises of God. We are Commanded, in I Cor.6. 20