N00732:56
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.
Other Plantations were built upon a Worldly Interest, but New-England was founded on an Interest purely Religious, and this not so much in respect of the Faith of Gospel (in which we agree with all other Reformed Churches in Europe) as of the Order o• it. Our Fathers (who are now beholding the Glory of Jesus Christ in Heaven) did therefore come into this Land, when it was a Wilderness, a Land not •own. God was pleased to show unto them the form of his House, and the Goings out thereof, and the Comings in thereof, and all the Ordinances thereof. This they left ⟨p. 41⟩to us their Children as a Legacy. The Platform which they d•ew out of the Word of God, they have left with us. If we faithfully adhere to those Holy Truths which from the Scriptures have been delivered to us, we shall please and honour God; but if we depart from them, or any of them, we shall dishonour his Name.
Other Plantations were built upon a Worldly Interest, but New-England was founded on an Interest purely Religious, and this not so much in respect of the Faith of Gospel (in which we agree with all other Reformed Churches in Europe) as of the Order o• it. Our Fathers (who are now beholding the Glory of Jesus Christ in Heaven) did therefore come into this Land, when it was a Wilderness, a Land not •own. God was pleased to shew unto them the form of his House, and the Goings out thereof, and the Comings in thereof, and all the Ordinances thereof. This they left ⟨p. 41⟩to us their Children as a Legacy. The Platform which they d•ew out of the Word of God, they have left with us. If we faithfully adhere to those Holy Truths which from the Scriptures have been delivered to us, we shall please and honur God; but if we depart from them, or any of them, we shall dishonour his Name.