N00499:72
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.
First. Things will go well, when there is due care taken that every place become furnished with, Able Ministers of the New Testament. ⟨p. 52⟩Those people are indeed gotten some Degrees beyond Pagans in impiety, who are willing to Live without some among them, that shall be, Set a part for the special service of their Souls. Barbarous Ignorance & Hideous wickedness, will soon overwhelm such a people; and is that the way for things to go well among them, think ye? The Devil himself knows, That Things cannot Go well where there are no Ministers of the Gospel settled; and therefore he uses multifarious Devices, to deprive men of this Gift, which our Ascended Lord has left unto us. Every Day convinces us, That all Things, within a little while go to Wrack the Ruin, in those Plantations which Live one year after another without any Ministers of our Lord among them: Mankind will own at last, Nullus est Capitalior Humani Generis Hostis, quam qui Evangelij cursum impedit; But it it as Evident, That for Things to Go well in a place, the way is, to place Evangelical Ministers there. And indeed upon this Article, I need only to Quote the Words of One that had as great an Influence as any man, in laying the Foundations of our New-England; Said he? No where sit down without Good Ministers, if it be possible; and sure possible it is; else Christians may Resolve to Tarry ⟨p. 53⟩where they are; as Ezra tarried by the River Ahava, Ezra 8. 15. till he had got, some Levites to go with him, that they might go and make a comfortable work of it; you have seen, says he, Plantations very suddenly unsettled by the God of Heaven for the want of this. Even so, I say; If we would not have a direful Blast of Heaven upon all our Concerns, let it be made an ••••rable thing, for any Plantations to remain long, without such as may dispense the Ordinances of God unto them. Tis said, in Prov. 29.18. Where no Vision is, the People perish. And surely Things cannot go well, with such a People. I believe that Things went well in Judah, when Jehoshaphat made provision, that there should be some Able Men, having the Book of the Law of the Lord with them, to teach in all the cities of Judah. And it would be a prodigy if there should be one such Atheist among us, as would be afraid of such a Blessedness.