N00772:23
A pillar of gratitude. Or, A brief recapitulation, of the matchless favours, with which…
A pillar of gratitude. Or, A brief recapitulation, of the matchless favours, with which the God of heaven, hath obliged the hearty praises, of his New-England Israel. A sermon delivered in the audience of His Excellency, the Earl of Bellomont, captain general, and governor in chief, and of the Council & Representatives, of the General Assembly of the province of the Massachusetts Bay, convened at Boston, in New England. On May 29 1700 the day, for the election of counsellors, in the province. / By Cotton Mather. ; Whereto there is appendixed, an extract of some accounts, concerning the wonderful success of the glorious Gospel, in the East-Indies. ; [One line of Latin quotation]A pillar of gratitude. Or, A brief recapitulation, of the matchless favours, with which the God of heaven, hath obliged the hearty praises, of his New-England Israel. A sermon delivered in the audience of His Excellency, the Earl of Bellomont, captain general, and governour in chief, and of the Council & Representatives, of the General Assembly of the province of the Massachusetts Bay, convened at Boston, in New England. On May 29 1700 the day, for the election of counsellors, in the province. / By Cotton Mather. ; Whereto there is appendixed, an extract of some accounts, concerning the wonderful success of the glorious Gospel, in the East-Indies. ; [One line of Latin quotation]
Boston: printed by B Green, 1700
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
Now, First, Let not the Method be charged with any Rudeness, if Religion take the first place, in our Enumeration of those Matchless Favours, wherewith our God hath obliged us infinitely This, This was the grand point wherein the Israelites of old, were the Favourites of Heaven The Lord showed his words, [i e. the Ten Commandments of the Moral Law] unto Jacob, his Statutes (or the Ceremonial Law) and His Judgments (or the Judicial Law) unto Israel: And Then it follows, He hath not so dealt with ⟨p. 13⟩any Nation; Praise ye the Lord. God in •avouring us (and the English Nation,) with the Knowledge of the Christian, and the Protestant Religion, […] so dealt with us as not with any Nation. As it was said, Psal. 148.14. He Ex••teth the Horn of His People, even of the Children of Israel, a people near unto Him. When God makes a forlorn Race of Gentiles, to become his Israel, and by His Holy Religion brings them near unto Him, it becomes them to Exalt the Horn, that is to say, to utter His Praises with Higher Notes than ordinary. 'Tis done for the English Nation, and very singularly done for thee, O New English Israel How much ought we to Praise the Lord, for that Religion, which alone teaches us how to Praise the Lord! When the Herald of the King of Spain, proclaimed the Greatness of his Master, by more than Forty several Titles, the Herald of the King of France, as often repeated that one Title, The King of France, France, France! Intimating, that this One, was more than all the other This I will say, Tell me not of more than Forty Blessings and Staples and Pleasures of other Countries. My New England has ⟨p. 14⟩one Thing that will weigh down more than Forty of the best things that other Countries on brag of; That is, Religion, Religion, Religion! The Christian Religion, is indeed a Matchless Favour of Heaven to them that have it Revealed, and published among them. By this Religion men are Lifted up to Heaven, and have Heaven coming down to them. We have the Gospel of our Lord JESUS CHRIST, which is most justly called, The Glorious Gospel of God: And this Gospel will make a Glorious People: But, O Gospelized People, then Glorify God! They are most Noble Mysteries that the Gospel of the Christian Religion, does Enrich us withal, and they are most Noble Directions with which it counsels us. O New-Englanders, While you have a Bible in your Habitations you Eat Angels Food!