N00896:24
The excellency of a public spirit discoursedThe excellency of a publick spirit discoursed
The excellency of a public spirit discoursed: in a sermon, preached in the audience of the General Assembly of the province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, May 27. 1702. Being the day for election of counsellors in that province. / By Increase Mather. ; [Four lines of quotations]The excellency of a publick spirit discoursed: in a sermon, preached in the audience of the General Assembly of the province of the Masachusetts Bay in New England, May 27. 1702. Being the day for election of counsellors in that province. / By Increase Mather. ; [Four lines of quotations]
printed by B. Green for Nicholas Boone, 1702
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Dedication: To the HONOURED Representatives of the Province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New England…
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.
I cannot but rejoice in that he has left such a Faithful Testimony now when he is just going to a better World, by which being Dead he will yet speak. I likewise rejoice in that a whole Association of Faithful Ministers of the Lord have lately agreed to Encourage the Republication of the Platform of Church Discipline, as also the Result of our other Synods.
I cannot but rejoyce in that he has left such a Faithful Testimony now when he is just going to a better World, by which being Dead he will yet speak. I likewise rejoyce in that a whole Association of Faithful Ministers of the Lord have lately agreed to Encourage the Republication of the Platform of Church Discipline, as also the Result of our other Synods.
It is much more a matter of joy, that God has inclined your hearts who are the Representatives of this Province with a great Unanimity to concur in Voting the Reprinting of those Synods. I hope it is a token for good, and a sign that the Lord will not destroy New England, neither cast them from His presence as yet ▪ 2 King. 13 23. Our Fathers were not ashamed to own their Religion. The General Court of this Colony in the year 1660. Concurred in an Address to K. Charles II. In which they declare the Reasons of their coming into this Wilderness, & that it was purely with respect to the Order of the Gospel. It will be good for us to be Established in the present Truth; & that Posterity should see that what their Fathers ⟨image ?⟩did profess and practice, was according to the Scriptures. We know not what hours of Temptation may overtake us, or those that shall come after us.