N00499:82
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.
and it may be Satan's policy to undo us, by thus making of this Gradually to become, A Land of darkness. ⟨p. 65⟩Hereby, 'twould in truth soon become His own Again! & the New-Englanders would become A BASE PEOPLE, in a little while. But while I am thus a Petitioner for the Life of the Schools, let me put in a good word, peculiarly for my dear Mother, THE COLLEGE, with which this Wilderness has been Subdued and Ennobled. We are not Ignorant, how vigorously, the Eminent Reformers of the Last Century, applied themselves, to set up Colleges every where; without which, how miserably had the Reformation sunk! When the States of Holland, had Received a Miraculous Deliverance from the Spaniards, they, to show their Thankfulness, Erected and Endowed a College at Leiden, with most ample privileges; and all the World has had cause to bless God for that University. […] ••trely, 'Twould be an Ill Return for the benefits of God, bestowed upon our selves, if we should not now do something for our COLLEGE, among the First Things we do. The Admirable Voetius, could happily boast of it; that whereas there are no less than Ten Provinces in the Popish Belgium, there are no more than Two Universities in them; when, tho' there are but Seven Provinces in the Reformed Belgium, there are Five Universities therein, besides other ⟨p. 66⟩Academical Societies. May We, have the like Regards unto Learning, far exceeding what is to be found in Canada and Mexico! And may our zeal for an University, become the Emulation of Barbados and Virginia, till they also have settled among them such Nurseries for Learning, as the Good Spirits there have long bin wishing for. Alas, How far from well had things gone among us, if our Fathers had not formed, that Elessed COLLEGE, of our Cambridge! When things went well with Israel, there was that Memorandum of it, in Amos. 2. 11. I Raised up of your sons for Prophets; Is it not even thus, O ye Children of Israel? And Things have gone well with New-England, because of such a vast Convenience for us. We cannot conceive that Europe would have sent us over MEN enough to answer our Necessities; but if we had not been thus among our selves provided for, Darkness had soon covered the Land, and gross Darkness the People. But I pray mark what I say;