N00499:90
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.
Sixthly, Things will Go Well, when people Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy. They that, Keep the Sabbath from polluting it, will be likely to, Keep their Land from feeling of Evil too. It is Well foretold in Isa 58. 13 14. ⟨p. 75⟩If thou call the Sabbath a delight the Holy of the Lord Honourable; Then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord;[There are Spiritual Blessings!] And I will cause thee to Ride on the High places of the earth. [Here are Temporal Blessings also!] It was no Injudicious Observation, of that Admirable Person, the Lord Chief Justice Hale; That be could ordinarily form a probable Conjecture, how all matters would prosper with him all the week, by the manner of his Keeping the Sabbath Day. It seems we may give a shrewd guess, whether things are like to Go well, among us, by the Respect which we give to the Sabbath of our God. The Holy God, will wonderfully Break the Rest of that Professing People, that shall not Keep His Holy Rest. Among the Looser Protestants abroad, the Doctrine of the Sabbath, has been abusively called, Figmentum Anglicanum; An English Fancy. But is it any Fancy, ye Sleeping Virgins; That God has with a long Train of Desolations, been taking away a Sabbath from you? Is it any Fancy, that you can get no Rest, but are, Afflicted and Tossed with Tempests, and not Comforted? Oh That they would Consider of it! A Person of Quality, reflecting upon, The Tears of Germany, Printed Fifty Years ago, saw cause to say, he believed, the Wars of Germany ⟨p. 76⟩would not be over yet, Because in a Catalogue of their, Provoking Evils, there is no Confession made of the, Sabbath-breaking, too common among them. And you know how Ill all Things have since gone in those parts of the World! When poor England was filled with Sports on the Lords-Day, what an horrible Day of the Lord soon came upon the Nation? What Bloody, Fiery Wars, quickly overwhelmed the Nation, and most particularly the Authors of those Unlawful Sports? Blessed be God, for the Regard which the English Laws have since had unto the Sabbath of our Lord; Laws worthy to be written in Letters of Gold; yea, worthy to he Engraven in our Conversations, by the point of that Sword, which is not to be Born in vain! Would we have Things to Go well, among us, by our speedy entering into the Twilight of that, Rest which Remains for the People of God?
Sixthly, Things will Go Well, when people Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy. They that, Keep the Sabbath from polluting it, will be likely to, Keep their Land from feeling of Evil too. It is Well foretold in Isa 58. 13 14.