N00499:89
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.
Fifthly. Things will Go Well, When people find fit Remedies against the Growth of those two Twins, Poverty and Idleness, among them. When the Almighty would have Things to Go well, He said in Psal. 132. 15 I will abundantly Bless her provision, I will satisfy her poor with Bread. When there is not one in the Bee-Hive without Food, or Work, Things go well in such an orderly Hive. As for the Needy, things go well, when these are supplied with, Food Convenient for them. Only then, it must be looked unto, that the Slothful may not be indulged in that, whereof, There comes not Goodness. Tis far from well, when people are permitted, in a course of life, which will disable them to answer Pharaohs ⟨p. 74⟩Question, Of what Occupation are you? Diligent Hands make all things to Go Well, where they come. Things would Go Well among ourselves, if our very Children might not only maintain themselves, but assist the Public Charges also too; and at the same time have an Ingenuous education freely bestowed upon them. And yet I suppose, A ll This might be accomplished, if a little advice were hearkened unto! However, as it helps not a little to make things Go Well in Old-England, that those whom the Law calls Idlers, have suitable Corrections ordered for them; So things did Go Well in our New-England, when one Returning home to London could in a Sermon before the Lord Mayor, declare, I have newly spent seven years in a Country, where all that while, I never saw one Man Drunk, Or heard one Oath Sworn, Or beheld so much as one Beggar in the Land. God forbid, that now in the Room of our wasted Indians, there should rise up an Unworking and Indigent Generation of English, Humoured like them: That would be a thing too Ill for us to find a Worse!
Fifthly. Things will Go Well, When people find fit Remedies against the Growth of those two Twins, Poverty and Idleness, among them. When the Almighty would have Things to Go well, He said in Psal. 132. 15 I will abundantly Bless her provision, I will satisfy her poor with Bread. When there is not one in the Bee-Hive without Food, or Work, Things go well in such an orderly Hive. As for the Needy, things go well, when these are supply'd with, Food Convenient for them. Only then, it must be look'd unto, that the Slothful may not be indulged in that, whereof, There comes not Goodness. Tis far from well, when people are permitted, in a course of life, which will disable them to answer Pharaohs