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Things for a distressed people to think upon. Offered in the sermon to the…Things for a distress'd people to think upon. Offered in the sermon to the…
Things for a distressed people to think upon. Offered in the sermon to the General Assembly of the province, of the Massachusetts Bay, at the anniversary election. May, 27. 1696. Wherein, I. the condition of the future, as well as the former times, in which we are concerned, is considered. II. A narrative of the late wonderful deliverance, of the King, and the three kingdoms, & all the English dominions, is endeavoured. III. A relation, of no less than seven miracles, within this little while wrought by the Almighty Lord Jesus Christ, for the confirmation of our hopes, that some glorious works, for the welfare of his church, are quickly to be done, is annexed. / By Cotton Mather.Things for a distress'd people to think upon. Offered in the sermon to the General Assembly of the province, of the Massachusetts Bay, at the anniversary election. May, 27. 1696. Wherein, I. the condition of the future, as well as the former times, in which we are concerned, is considered. II. A narrative of the late wonderful deliverance, of the King, and the three kingdoms, & all the English dominions, is endeavoured. III. A relation, of no less than seven miracles, within this little while wrought by the Almighty Lord Jesus Christ, for the confirmation of our hopes, that some glorious works, for the welfare of his church, are quickly to be done, is annexed. / By Cotton Mather.
printed by B. Green for Duncan Campbel, 1696
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.
Fourthly; The Evident Blows from […] Hand of an Angry God, in a long Train of Disasters upon all our Affairs, How much do they Solicit our Tears before the Lord? A Recapitulation of the sad things, which have befallen us, while our Days have passed away under the wrath of God, in this Wilderness, and we have seen one Destruction after another, almost without any Intermission, might justly bring us to that Lamentation, in Lam. 3.48, 49. Mine eye runneth down with Rivers of Water, for the Destruction of the Daughter of my People; Mine eye trickleth down, & ceaseth not, without any Intermission. The Vials of the wrath of God, have been long Pouring out upon us, in Continued, & Horrendous Desolations; it becomes us therefore to Draw Water, and pour our Tears into the Vials of the Lord. God began to smite us, with an Annual Blast upon several sorts of our Grain, just Forty years ago: and although, if our Husbandman were taught Discretion by his God, no doubt, many Natural Remedies for much of that Blast, might be lit upon, a kind of Dead sleep upon men still detains them under Blasting Disadvantages: & behold, by an Alteration come upon the very Course of Nature among us, our Indian Grain it self, the very Native Grain in the Country, is the last year so Blasted, that we hear such an hideous Cry, for, Bread! Bread! this year, as was never heard in this Land before. And how ⟨p. 24⟩very much have our Estates been Diminished, by Losses that have been Multiplied, upon us? On Shore, once and again such Fires have laid wast the Treasures of our Metropolis, that we have had cause to Cry, Oh! What means the heat of this Anger! And at Sea, besides our Frequent Ship-wracks, I suppose, no part of the English Dominions, have proportionably had near so many Ships, taken by the common Adversary, as New-England; poor Boston & Salem, I am sure, has Felt what I Speak: Yea, it is the Discourse among the Virtuous Merchants upon the Exchange at London, That surely, Almighty God is much offended at New-England, for they miscarry from no Quarter so much as they do from thence: But what Havoc, ha's been all this while, ever now and then making upon the Lives of our People, by the Angels of Death, in Epidemical Sicknesses? We have ever now and then, been visited with Mortal Contagions; the Arrows of Death have been flying thick among us;
Fourthly; The Evident Blowes from 〈…〉 Hand of an Angry God, in a long Train of Disasters upon all our Affayres, How much do they Sollicit our Tears before the Lord? A Recapitulation of the sad things, which have befallen us, while our Dayes have passed away under the wrath of God, in this Wilderness, and we have seen one Destruction after another, almost without any Intermission, might justly bring us to that Lamentation, in