N00499:96
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.
Hear this, ye children of New-England, and be not more unrelenting at this voice of the Lord Jesus, than the Rock it self was, when Moses called upon it; O Give! O Melt into the Tears of a conquered Soul; and say with Ephraim Lord, I am ashamed, I am even confounded, for the Reproach of my Youth, Turn thou me, and I shall be turned. Become Young Samuels, Young Josiahs, Young Timothy's; & You will not only make Joy in Heaven, by Turning unto God; but you will make, Joy on Earth too; inasmuch as it will help to make all Things go well among us. I only urge this; ⟨p. 83⟩and if as many Drops of My Heart Blood, as I have now spent of Tears in pressing this matter, would obtain it, I would not value it; I say, only thus much: My son, know thou the God of our New-English Fathers; and Serve him with a Perfect Heart, and a Willing Mind; if thou seek him, he will be found of thee. And we shall all fare the better for it.
Hear this, ye children of New-England, and be not more unrelenting at this voice of the Lord Jesus, than the Rock it self was, when Moses call'd upon it; O Give! O Melt into the Tears of a conquered Soul; and say with Ephraim Lord, I am ashamed, I am even confounded, for the Reproach of my Youth, Turn thou me, and I shall be turned. Become Young Samuels, Young Josiahs, Young Timothy's; & You will not only make Joy in Heaven, by Turning unto God; but you will make, Joy on Earth too; inasmuch as it will help to make all Things go well among us. I only urge this; ⟨p. 83⟩and if as many Drops of My Heart Blood, as I have now spent of Tears in pressing this matter, would obtain it, I would not value it; I say, only thus much: My son, know thou the God of our New-English Fathers; and Serve him with a Perfect Heart, and a Willing Mind; if thou seek him, he will be found of thee. And we shall all fare the better for it.
But, Lastly; Let Prayer be going, and all will go well; only that Supplication then must be Joined with Reformation. Whatever things are before us, tis Prayer that must make them go well; Frustra nititur, qui non innititur. If we don't go Leaning upon God, every step, we shall go wrong, and nothing will go well in our Hands. Moses in the Mount, will make all thing to go well, in the Camp. The Jews alluding to their usual posture of Standing, when they Pray, have a saying, Sine Stationibus non staret Mundus. i. e. The world would not Stand, if we did not. If thus you Enquire of […], Whether we shall stand? I shall answer […] with Demanding, Do we Pray? A Town in Switzerland, was once very horribly ruined by an Earth-quake all except one piece of an House, in which a Good man happened then to be at Prayer with his Family. O may this people be all hands at Prayer continually, but especially in