N00896:39
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.
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.
1. Men ought to be affected with other mens Condition, and especially with Public concerns as if •hey were their own. That's one thing implied in a Public Spirit. Where there is such a spirit, there is a sympathizing with others: and that ought to be. Rom. 12 15 Rejoice with them that rejoice, and weep with them that weep. The contrary to this argues a private, s••fish spirit. When if a man is in prosperity himself, he cares not who is in misery: If he has plenty he cares not who has poverty. The holy Apostle was of another spirit, 2 Cor. 11 29 Who is weak, and I am not week? who is offended, and I burn not. Especially we should be concerned for the Public Interest. Jer. 22 10 Weep ye not for the dead, but weep for him that goeth away, for he shall return no more, nor see his native Country. That is, don't weep so much for the loss ⟨p. 5⟩of your particular friends, as for the Public Calamity which is coming on the Nation: In this did our Saviour Christ give the greatest Instance of a public Spirit: He showed more concernedness for the misery of others, than for his own particular sorrows, though they were greater than ever any mans, when he said to the daughters of Jerusalem, Weep not for me, but weep for your selves and for your Children, Luk 23.28. And when he considered what was coming on that City, He wept over it, because they knew not the things that concerned their peace, Luk. 19 41. Most of all the concernments of the Church of God should lie near to our hearts. Uriah showed that a pious and public Spirit ruled in him, when he had more regard to the condition of the Lords People, and of the Ark of God, than to his own domestic concerns. So Nehemiah was much affected and afflicted when he heard that in Jerusalem they were in great distress. And the holy Penman of the 137. Psalm, preferred Jerusalem above his chiefest joy.
1. Men ought to be affected with other mens Condition, and especially with Publick concerns as if hey were their own. Thats one thing implyed in a Publick Spirit. Where there is such a spirit, there is a sympathzing with others: and that ought to be.