N00499:34
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.
VI. An Intimate communion with the unseen & future world, would make an excellent-spirit, and a good man would pursue that communion. It was confessed concerning Daniel in Dan. 5.12. An Excellent Spirit was found in him. And, I pray, what was the Spirit of a Daniel? why, it was a Spirit so Refined by Mortification of all Sensual inclinations, and by assiduous, Meditations on Scripture, and Supplications to Heaven, that the Spiritual World became very familiar with him. I say then, A Good Man would have his own Spirit wound up unto an Unison, with that part of the Spiritual World, which now dwells in God. There is a blessed World of Spirits at this day, in the Celestial Regions; but a Good Man thinks with himself. O! what are they now a doing in the Spiritual World! How are they Disposed, How are they Employed, in that Excellent World! And as far as this present, Sinful, Dying State will allow of it, he accordingly conforms himself thereunto. He therefore would be most exquisitely Purified from the Feculencies of Pride, Malice, Envy, Selfishness, Uncleanness, and all that may be offensive to the Holy Spirit of God; and He comes hence to be of so fine a Spirit, that he ha's now & then those Touches upon him, whereof I may say,They are unutterable things; & a Stranger cannot intermeddle in them. Such an exalted ⟨p. 22⟩Spirit, is an Excellent Spirit. But there was one thing in the Spirit of Daniel, which calls for a little further Illustration with us. An Angel said unto him, in Dan.9 23. Thou art greatly Beloved. It seems, the Angel counted him one of an Excellent Spirit. But it may be rendered, Thou art a man of Desires; which a very great Interpreter, says, 'tis to be taken Actively. He was a man that had many Desires in his Holy Soul, after the Messiah, after the Coming of the Messiah, and after the Knowledge of his Coming. He consulted the Sacred Prophecies very much, with Desires to understand whereabouts the Church of God was in the Line of Time; and by much Prayer with Fasting, he prepared himself accordingly. Here was a thing that rendered him, A man of Desires, among the very Angels of God. Thus, if a man would soberly Bend himself (which the Apostle tells us, the very Angels themselves Desire to do!) to Look into the Characters and Approaches of the Coming of our Lord;