N00524:79
The day, & the work of the day. A brief discourse, on what fears…
The day, & the work of the day. A brief discourse, on what fears we may have at this time to quicken us; what hopes there are at this time to comfort us: and what prayers would be likely to turn our prayers into hopes. With reflections upon time and state, now come upon the Church of God, and collections of certain prophecies relating to the present circumstances of New-England. Uttered on a fast, kept in Boston, July 6th. 1693. / By Cotton Mather.
Boston: printed by B. Harris, 1693
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.
First, Let not Fear be east off: Are we not Afraid, Lest the Confusions which are to over-set and overwhelm, the whole World, in these Latter Days, do Come hither also. There is yet a Third Woe, wherewith Mankind is to be most horribly plagued, for its Opposition to the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ; a Woe, in comparison whereof, all the horrendous Desolations, brought first by the Sar•acen Locusts, and then by the Turkish Horsemen, upon the Roman Empire, were but easy things. And what? Is that Kingdom of our Lord so Loved, so Studied, so Embraced among our selves, that we need not Fear being reached by that astonishing Woe? I would to God it were so. Tho' it will be a Joyful Day for them that ⟨p. 55⟩are to be Refreshed by the presence of the Lord, yet it will be a woeful Day for them that Know not God, and obey not His Gospel. The Fields will grow loth to nourish those Rebels; There shall be Famines. The Air will grow Loth to let them Breathe; There shall be Pestilences. The Eyes of Heaven will grow loth to behold them: The Lights of Heaven shall be Darkened. The Earth will grown under the Burden of them; There shall be Earth-quakes in divers places. There is to be Expected indeed, a further Accomplishment of that word, in Heb. 12. 26. Yet once more, I Shake, not the Earth only, but Heaven also. It is a Day of Earthquakes, and should it not be a Day of Heart-quakes too? Literal and Natural Earth-quakes are like to be multiplied in the approaching Age. The Subterranean Fires that are shortly to assist the Conflagration of this Globe, will get head apace, and Earth-quakes more stupendous than the Late one upon our miserable Neighbours, will be thereby occasioned. As it was with a Burning Mountain, that our God gave our His Law unto the Jewish World, so He terrified the World, with another Burning Mountain, ⟨p. 56⟩when He gave out His Gospel unto the Gentile World. Throughout Europe and Asia and Africa, people were then f••led with Horrid Consternations, at the Fiery Eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, as the Historians of those Times Report unto us. Why, our God is now coming to Judge the World for the Contempt of His Law, and of His Gospel; and He will in a more affrighting manner set the World in a Burning Fire, at His Coming: A Fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very Tempestuous round about Him.