N00524:80
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.
Proper Earthquakes, will probably abound in the Near Advances of That Notable Day of the Lord. But be sure, Metaphorical Earthquakes, there will be Enow; State-quakes, Church-quakes, Nation-quakes, will now Rage at a mighty rate. As Jonah ran through Nineveh, proclaiming, Yet Forty Days and the Great City shall be Overthrown. So do I now run through' New-England, and proclaim, There is a Great City going to be Overthrown; and yet within less than Twenty Years, the greatest Shakes are like to be given unto the World, that ever happened from the first Foundation of it.
Proper Earthquakes, will probably abound in the Near Advances of That Notable Day of the Lord. But be sure, Metaphorical Earthquakes, there will be Enow; State-quakes, Church-quakes, Nation-quakes, will now Rage at a mighty rate. As Jonah ran through Ninive, proclaiming, Yet Forty Days and the Great City shall be Overthrown. So do I now run thro' New-England, and proclaim, There is a Great City going to be Overthrown; and yet within less than Twenty Years, the greatest Shakes are like to be given unto the World, that ever happened from the first Foundation of it.
Secondly. Let not Fear be cast off: Are we not Afraid, Lest when the Storms of Divine Vengeance do burst and break upon our own Sinful Nation, some Drops of the Storms do fall upon our Heads. The Profanity, the Debauchery, the Superstition, wherewith our Nation has been infected, have Long been making a Loud Cry in the Ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth; So that he seems to say, as in Jer. 5. 9. Shall not I visit for these things, saith the Lord: Shall not my Soul be avenged on such a Nation as this? And when the Holy God shall visit for those things, it will be well, if Showers of Blood be not Rained on a Land, where the Blood of His Dear Son has been treated as an Unholy Thing. Hence 'tis that many Thinking Men, in the Nation at this Day, are Looking upon one another with paleness in their Faces▪ and wishing, O that we had Wings like a Dove! But especially, when they Look back upon the fierce Persecutions, which formerly flamed in that Land against the Pure Worship of our Lord, they conceive that they may see, Wrath coming unto the uttermost. And how