N00732:40
The surest way to the greatest honour
The surest way to the greatest honour: discoursed in a sermon, delivered in the audience of His Excellency the Earl of Bellomont, captain general and governor in chief, and the Council, and representatives of the General Assembly of the province of the Massachusetts-Bay, convened at Boston in New-England, May 31st. 1699. Being the day for the election of counsellors in that province. / By Increase Mather.The surest way to the greatest honour: discoursed in a sermon, delivered in the audience of His Excellency the Earl of Bellomont, captain general and governour in chief, and the Council, and representatives of the General Assembly of the province of the Massachusetts-Bay, convened at Boston in New-England, May 31st. 1699. Being the day for the election of counsellors in that province. / By Increase Mather.
Boston: printed by Bartholomew Green for Samuel Phillips, 1699
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.
We proceed therefore unto the Second Enquiry, viz. What Honour it is that God will bestow on such as do thus honour him?
A. •. Sometimes the providence of God does pu• honour upon them that have honoured him, by putting them into honourable Stations and Employment. No man is put into any honourable Station, but it is the Lord that ha's done it. Psal. 75. 6, 7. Promotion comes neither from the East, nor from the West, nor from the South, but God is the Judge, he putteth down one and setteth up another. A man may go from one end of the world to another, from East to West, and he may cross the World from North to South, and yet never find promotion, except God shall see meet to set him up. It is true, that men may be the instruments of promoting a man: They may d• it •y their Election. Nevertheless, God do's it. For Prov.16. 33. The Lot is cast into the Lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. Or a man may be promoted to an honourable Station & Employment by a Commission from a Superior Power▪ […] neither is that without the Providence of God. When Pilate •oasted of his power, Christ said to him, thou couldest have no power at all, except it were given thee from above. Joh.19. ••. He ha• ⟨p. 22⟩his Authority by virtue of a Commission from the Emperor, but there was an hand of Heaven in it. No man shall be promoted to honour without the Providence of God. The King of Moab said to Balaam, I thought to promote thee to great honour, but the Lord ha's kept you back from honour. Numb 24. . Notwithstanding the intentions and inclinations of Kings, they shall promote no man to honour whom God is resolved to keep back from that honour. Nor is this so to be understood, as i no man were by the Holy providence of God set in an honourable Station, but such as have honoured God; for many Times the Vilest of men are exalted, and God does it not to honour them, but to punish a inul world by them. Before honour, goeth Humility. If a proud ambitious man obtains the honour which he ha's been aspiring after it is in Judgment to himself and others: but if an humble man ha's honour conferred on him, it is in mercy to the people concerned in him. And sometimes the Lord promotes his faithful Servants to honourable Stations as a reward for their Fidelity unto his Interest; which is in special the honour intended in the Text before us. E was set in an honourable Station, and his posterity should […] had that honour continued to them, ad they honoured God as they ought to have done.