N00524:84
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.
Fifthly. Let not Fear he cast off: Are we not Afraid, Lest our Unreformed Iniquities, bring down upon us, most Irretrievable Calamities. What are our Iniquities? Even those very Crimes for which, 'tis said, The Wrath of the Lord arose against His People of Old, until there was no Remedy You have them, in 2. Chron. 36. 14, 16. First, The People Transgressed very much, after all the Abominations of the Heathen. And have not we shamefully Indianized, by being one of the most Lying (if not like the Indians, also the most Idle) People almost in the Universe? Again, They polluted the House of the Lord. And have not the Scandalous, Damnable, Miscarriages in multitudes of our Church-Members done so too? Or, is not the cursed Contempt cast upon the Table of the Lord by such multitudes as Turn their Backs thereupon, a further doing so? Once more, They misused the Prophets. And how feelingly might many ⟨p. 62⟩of our Discouraged, Reviled, Cheated and Starved Ministers complain of such Usage, if they Loved Complaining? Yea, may not we Boston, even call Sodom our Sister, for our […], our Fullness of Bread, our Abundance or Idleness, and our Oppression of one another? See whether thy Face, O Town Once (and well if not justly still▪ ) […] Lo•t Town, to •ers, be not, […] Sororum: For my part, […] confess, my particular indisposition […] moved by many things that […] accounted, […] out […] These Iniquities are the worst […] A thousand […] Blazing […], or views of •t•mies […] […] of Impending Evils, man […] Iniquities. But […] […] our Faults […] most Natural•• […] Instruments ⟨p. 63⟩of Saving the Lands, the Lives, the most precious Liberties of this People, are acknowledged but with the worst of Abuses for all their Services; cruel […] and Slander, is now commonly known by the Name of Country-Day for the most of them that Lay this People under the most Eternal Obligations. What now can follow Naturally, but this; That our Tired Benefactors, will make all the sensible part of Mankind join with them in saying, We will never be the Healers of such a People!