N00619:73
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
Conclusion: THE CLOSE. Containing a Relation, of the Wonderful Deliverance, newly received, by the…
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.
BUT, Behold, O my dear People of New-England, while I am telling you, of the ⟨p. 69⟩Thunder to fall upon our Philistean Adversaries, there do this very Week arrive unto us the Joyful and the Wondrous Tidings, which give us a Stupendous Instance of this very matter; The Philistines drew near to Battle against Israel, but the Lord Thundered with a Great Thunder on that Day, upon the Philistines, and discomfited them, and they were Smitten before Israel. It is but just now that we have Advice, from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, That Great Britain is Miraculously delivered, from the utmost Perils, of becoming an Enslaved, and perhaps a Dragooned, Province of the French Empire, or, at least from a Bloody War, that must have cost many Thousands of the Best Lives in the Nations, to have shaken off the Chains, which a French Force would have laid upon them: And then, I am sure, that thou, O little New England, hast, above all the American Plantations, a share in this Deliverance; for if the Great-House, whereof thou art but a poor Lean-to, had fallen, how horribly hadst thou been crushed in the Ruins […] it! O come, and Behold the Works of the Lord, […] Desolations which He is bringing upon the Fren•• Philistines, by the Hand of His Omnipotency There hath been all along, a large party of B••gtted and Besotted People, the Sons of Nimr••• in the English Nation, who have long bee• seeking to overthrow those things, wherein […] Real Welfare of the Nation lies; and, Many ⟨p. 70⟩Time have they afflicted me, from my Youth, may England now say; Many a Time have they afflicted me, from my Youth; Yet have they not Prevailed against me. It may be those Adversaries, were never more confident of their prevailing, than in their late Execrable Plot, for the Murdering of our Illustrious King WILLIAM, in that horrid Juncture, when a French Army, with an Abdicated Prince in the Head of it, was coming over to join his Friends in England, and have made that Land such a stage of Blood, Fire, & Horror, as it never was before. But we have now appointed, by the Authority of this Province a Day of Public and Solemn THANKSGIVING unto the God of Heaven,1