N00619:57
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.
The Hard Things done by them to a Brother of theirs, Things done Twenty years ago, so came unto Remembrance, as to make them cry out with Horror, We are verily Guilty! If none of all these Instances are enough to perplex our Thoughts, about the Unsearchable Judgments of God, I'll give you one more. I take Notice, That when David Numbered the People, there was a Great Sin cleaving to that matter; and it was not Holy David alone, but it was the People, whom the Lord was in that matter chiefly offended at. ⟨p. 48⟩God had Required, That when the People were Numbered, Every man should give a Ransom for his Soul unto the Lord, That there be no Plague among them (says he) when thou Numberest them. Now, because the Lord had a Controversy with that People, for their Former Iniquities, he leaves David, the Best man in the Nation, to act in this weighty matter, without the Advice of the Priests of the Lord; Hence, tho' it was not a Sin simply to Number the People, yet the People not being put upon their part, that they might be Ransomed from a Plague among them, it became a Sin and a Snare unto them: Now, as an effect hereof, I take Notice of a strange Threatening, in 2 Sam. 24.13. Shall seven years of Famine come unto thee, in thy Land? Whereas, the Threatening runs no more than so, in 1 Chron. 21.12. Three years of Famine. I pray, How shall these two passages be Reconciled? Attend, and you shall see a very Remarkable Thing, in the Reconciliation. There had been Three Years of a Famine upon the People, for an old Sin, of slaying the Gibeonites; God thus chastised the people, for a Sin that had been Committed more than Forty years before: and while the Fourth Year was Running, there was that New Provocation, about the Numbering of the People, added unto the former: and that Fourth year being well nigh Expired, Three years ⟨p. 49⟩more of a Famine denounced, make up the Seven: The first of which seven years Famine, was the year that next followed after the Rebellion of Absalom: as That was Forty Years, after the Anointing of David at Bethlehem. Oh! What a world of Intricacies, were there, in these Dispensations of Providence!
The Hard Things done by them to a Brother of theirs, Things done Twenty years ago, so came unto Remembrance, as to make them cry out with Horror, We are verily Guilty! If none of all these Instances are enough to perplex our Thoughts, about the Unsearchable Judgments of God, I'le give you one more. I take Notice, That when David Numbred the People, there was a Great Sin cleaving to that matter; and it was not Holy David alone, but it was the People, whom the Lord was in that matter chiefly offended at.