N00524:90
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, We have Hopes in the Sovereign Grace of our most Gracious God. O what an Heart-breaking Word is that, in Isa. 57. 17, 18. For the Iniquity of his Covetousness, was I wroth, and smote him: and he went on frowardly in the way of his Heart: And what? must all now be Lost? No; There is yet Hope in Israel! You shall see what Sovereign Grace can do. It follows, I have seen his Ways and will Heal him. And now, Lord, Be it unto thy People according to this thy Gracious Word!
First, We have Hopes in the Soveraign Grace of our most Gracious God. O what an Heart-breaking Word is that, in Isa. 57. 17, 18. For the Iniquity of his Coveteousness, was I wroth, and smote him: and he went on frowardly in the way of his Heart: And what? must all now be Lost? No; There is yet Hope in Israel! You shall see what Soveraign Grace can do. It follows, I have seen his Ways and will Heal him. And now, Lord, Be it unto thy People according to this thy Gracious Word!
I Reply, Secondly; We have Hopes ⟨p. 69⟩in the Hastening Time of Reformation, which our God will Hasten in his Time. If the Man of Sin Entered his Last Half Time! or his last Hundred and Eighty Years, as no doubt he did, at the Reformation, which Commenced about the Year 1517. We may then have a Lively Hope, that we are within a very few years, of a Reformation, more Heavenly, more Extensive, more Glorious, than the Church of God has ever yet been favoured with. But shall we be forgotten in this Time? We may presume that neither God, nor the King, will then forget us.
I Reply, Secondly; We have Hopes ⟨p. 69⟩in the Hastning Time of Reformation, which our God will Hasten in his Time. If the Man of Sin Entred his Last Half Time! or his last Hundred and Eighty Years, as no doubt he did, at the Reformation, which Commenced about the Year 1517. We may then have a Lively Hope, that we are within a very few years, of a Reformation, more Heavenly, more Extensive, more Glorious, than the Church of God has ever yet been favoured with. But shall we be forgotten in this Time? We may presume that neither God, nor the King, will then forget us.