N00524:82
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.
Thirdly. Let not Fear be cast off: Are we not Afraid, Le•t the Cup of that Fury, which has already dissipated as Glorious Churches as any of Ours, be likewise given unto ours. We have most Appalling Intimations given unto us, not only in the Wasting and the Doleful Disasters that have come upon the other Plantations of the English America; such Disasters as cause the most considerable Personages among them, to write from thence unto us, The Divine Providence almost seems to have forsaken this side of the World, and Left us unto the Treasures of Wrath, which we have been Long Laying up! But also in the Scatterings, that have elsewhere befallen, The Holy People. We may value our selves upon our Ecclesiastical Settlements & Ornaments, & upon the wonderful Appearances of God, in the first production of them: whereof a CHURCH HISTORY might indeed most profitably be [and is] Endeavoured Yea, but our Lord may say unto us, I have not found thy Works perfect before God! And who ⟨p. 59⟩can say, How far that Holy God, may proceed in punishing us, yet seven times more for our Iniquities? in punishing us, above the Rest of the Families of the Earth? When we see what has befallen others, our Lord says to us, as in Luc. 13. 3, 5. Except ye Repent, ye shall all Likewise perish. Let me then say to you, Go to Shiloh! and again, Go to Asia! and once more, Go to the European Churches! especially Go to France, where the greatest Scourge of the World, more than seven years ago, coined Medals, on which 'twas bragged, That he had then Reduced no less than twenty Hundred Thousand Calvinists, from the Protestant Religion. A worse, thing surely than the Cutting of so many Throats! Behold, the Warnings of God unto Us in these Ends of the Earth, by the Desolations thus made in the Earth.
Thirdly. Let not Fear be cast off: Are we not Afraid, Le•t the Cup of that Fury, which has already dissipated as Glorious Churches as any of Ours, be likewise given unto ours. We have most Appalling Intimations given unto us, not only in the Wasting and the Doleful Disasters that have come upon the other Plantations of the English America; such Disasters as cause the most considerable Personages among them, to write from thence unto us, The Divine Providence almost seems to have forsaken this side of the World, and Left us unto the Treasures of Wrath, which we have been Long Laying up! But also in the Scatterings, that have elsewhere befallen, The Holy People. We may value our selves upon our Ecclesiastical Settlements & Ornaments, & upon the wonderful Appearances of God, in the first production of them: whereof a CHURCH HISTORY might indeed most profitably be [and is] Endeavoured Yea, but our Lord may say unto us, I have not found thy Works perfect before God! And who