N00772:45
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.
When the KING, Resolving to Favour us, with a most Exact Image of His own Royal Virtues, in a GOVERNOR, gave His Commission unto the truly Noble Earl of BELLOMONT for the Government of these Plantations, we were from almost every Quarter told, That the Nobility of Three Kingdoms could not have afforded a person more charmingly Agreeable: But since His Excellency's Happy Arrival, we now find, That the One half was never told us. You will pardon me, My Lord, if I call upon my people to Bless God, and Thank the King, for Your EXCELLENCY, when I am reckoning up the Things, wherein we are so Dealt withal, as not any Nation. I do not forget that I am standing in a place, very near Heaven, in which, more than in any under Heaven, Flatter• would be offensive: to My Maker. Yea, I do Believe, our▪ GOVERNOR Himself, hath so much of the Great Constantine in him, that I could not more Offend Him, than by going to El•ter him. ⟨p. 36⟩Nevertheless, I Judge, it would be no less than a Sinful Omission in me, if I should not reckon our GOVERNOR, among the Matchless Favours of our God unto us. I am not Praising of Him; for in the Langua•• of a Divine, I must call to mind, that he is Nothing, but what GOD makes him to be: But I am urging you, to the Praising of GOD for Him. Yea I will say [And I wish I could so speak it, that all New England might Hear it!] That as we made our GOVERNOR, a Great Article of our Prayers to GOD, before we Received Him, So, now we see our Prayers thus remarkably answered, if we don't make him an Article of our Praises to GOD, not only in public, but also in private, every where throughout the Land, we deserve the Disaster which the Enemies of the Kings Interests desire to see befalling us; that is to say, to be Deprived of so great a Blessing▪ But I am the more Excused from insisting on this Matchless favour of God unto us, because I perceive, our people Generally have some affectionate Resentments of it. It was of old said, Psal. 144.14, 15. Let there be ⟨p. 37⟩no Complaining in our Streets; Happy is that people that is in such a case. Now, tho' I must freely own it, That no people has been more prone to Complain than we, yet I have heard persons that converse among all sorts of people, say, That they never yet could see the man, who uttered, or muttered, the least Complaint against His EXCELLENCY'S Government. Say, O New England;