N00532:64
The great blessing, of primitive counsellors. Discoursed in a sermon, preached in the audience…The great blessing, of primitive counsellours. Discoursed in a sermon, preached in the audience…
The great blessing, of primitive counsellors. Discoursed in a sermon, preached in the audience of the governor, Council, and representatives, of the province of the Massachusetts Bay, in New-England. May 31st. 1693. Being the day for the election of counsellors, in that province. / By Increase Mather. President of Harvard College in Cambridge, and teacher of a church at Boston, in New-England. ; [One line epigram in Latin]The great blessing, of primitive counsellours. Discoursed in a sermon, preached in the audience of the governour, Council, and representatives, of the province of the Massachusetts Bay, in New-England. May 31st. 1693. Being the day for the election of counsellours, in that province. / By Increase Mather. President of Harvard Colledge in Cambridge, and teacher of a church at Boston, in New-England. ; [One line epigram in Latin]
Boston, : Printed and sold, by Benjamin Harris, over-against the Old-Meeting-House., 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.
You have at present a Governor, and a Lieutenant Governor, (and all the Council likewise) from amongst yourselves, who do unfeignedly seek your welfare. And is this nothing? Some of you say it will not be long thus. In which you speak more then you know. But Suppose so. Ezra and the Lords People with him, thought they had great cause to be thankful to God in that He had given them a Little reviving in their Bondage, and extended mercy to them in the sight of the King of Persia, who had by a Charter granted them Liberty to set up the House of God, and to repair the Desolations thereof, as we may do this Day. But if a Change come, and the Lord be Provoked again to set Rulers over you that will obstruct what is Good and desirable, you that are the Murmurers will be found the Guilty cause of it before the Lord, in the Name of the Lord be it spoken to you.
You have at present a Governour, and a Lievtenant Governour, (and all the Council likewise) from amongst yourselves, who do unteignedly seek your welfare. And is this nothing? Some of you say it will not be long thus. In which you speak more then you know. But Suppose so. Ezra and the Lords Peole with him, thought they had great cause to be thankful to God in that He had given them a Little reviving in their Bondage, and extended mercy to them in the sight of the King of Persia, who had by a Charter granted them Liberty to set up the House of God, and to repair the Desolations thereof, as we may do this Day. But if a Change come, and the Lord be Provoked again to set Rulers over you that will obstruct what is Good and desireable, you that are the Murmurers will be found the Guilty cause of it before the Lord, in the Name of the Lord be it spoken to you.
3. Prayer unto God may be a means to obtain the Continuance of this so great a mercy. Be Earnest with God that you may still have Counsellors as at the Beginning. And you are on this (as well as on many other) accounts Concerned to pray for the King and Queen; For as long as Their present Majesties shall hold the English Sceptre in their Hands, we in New-England may hope to see Good days. God has Blessed Our Nation with a King in the Preservation of whom the Fate of Europe and of the Church of God is more concerned then it has been in the life of any one Person for these Thousand Years. A King that Fights the Battles of the Lord. A King that when a Crown was offered to him, declared, that nothing should Oblige him to be a Persecutor. Who that has a Spark of Grace in his Heart, will not pray for such a King? A King that has more then once or twice in My hearing and to me expressed a singular respect to His Good Subjects in these Colonies.