N00499:86
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.
If when men have been doing their best for the removal of Throttling circumstances from a people, they must count it Recompense Enough to escape without having their Heads bitten off: And if when men have been Showing favour and Lending, for the support of a distressed people, they shall be requited with unjust censures of, I know not what, Selfishness, in what they do; Or if when men have with Inviolate Integrity and Unfainting Industry, been serving of their people, they shall be treated with unworthy Infamies, and perhaps be Blamed as the Authors of those very Inconveniences against which they have most Vehemently, though Ineffectually, Laboured; it will at last come to this, that every man of sense will say, I will never be an Healer to such a people! But would that be well, I beseech you? Things went well with the people of God, when Gideon, that had ventured his Life to serve them, had them saying to him, Thou shalt rule over us: But they Go not Well, where all the services done by a Joseph shall find no better memories, than Riven Dishes to retain them.
If when men have been doing their best for the removal of Throtling circumstances from a people, they must count it Recompence Enough to escape without having their Heads bitten off: And if when men have been Showing favour and Lending, for the support of a distressed people, they shall be requited with unjust censures of, I know not what, Selfishness, in what they do; Or if when men have with Inviolate Integrity and Unfainting Industry, been serving of their people, they shall be treated with unworthy Infamies, and perhaps be Blamed as the Authours of those very Inconveniences against which they have most Vehemently, though Ineffectually, Laboured; it will at last come to this, that every man of sense will say, I will never be an Healer to such a people! But would that be well, I beseech you? Things went well with the people of God, when Gideon, that had ventured his Life to serve them, had them saying to him, Thou shalt rule over us: But they Go not Well, where all the services done by a Joseph shall find no better memories, than Riven Dishes to retain them.
Fourthly. Things will Go well, when people, having laid aside all Dividing and Contentious Animosities, do come to Love one another. I have good Authority for this