N00896:61
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.
This poor Province is at this day reduced to great straits. The want of money has brought a deadness on Trade, and incommod•d public Interests. And is not this Evil owing to a private self-seeking spirit: Are there not those among us, who if they can themselves grow rich by sending all the money in the Country away, that's all that they take care for. If former General Assemblies, out of a due regard to the Wealth of their People, did well in making a Law to prevent that which would prove injurious ⟨p. 27⟩to the Province in general, they who ou• of respect to their particular interests and gain, have by transgressing that Law hurt the whole Country, have not done well. Many other things might be mentioned which show the evil of a self-seeking spirit. It is sadly true, that there is too much of self in good men; but the reigning power of this evil is inconsistent with real Christianity. A man cannot be a Disciple of Christ except he deny himself. Mat. 16.24. It is said of Believers, that none of them liveth to himself. Rom 14.7. They then who seek nothing but themselves, are like to lose themselves and Souls for ever. What is the Epitaph on a Self seeker▪ One says well, that it should be written over his Grave, Here lies a man that sought himself whilst he lived, and lost himself when he dyed.
This poor Province is at this day reduced to great straits. The want of mony has brought a deadness on Trade, and incommod•d publick Interests. And is not this Evil owing to a private self-seeking spirit: Are there not those among us, who if they can themselves grow rich by sending all the money in the Country away, that's all that they take care for. If former General Assemblies, out of a due regard to the Wealth of their People, did well in making a Law to prevent that which would prove injurious ⟨p. 27⟩to the Province in general, they who ou• of respect to their particular interests and gain, have by transgressing that Law hurt the whole Country, have not done well. Many other things might be mentioned which shew the evil of a self-seeking spirit. It is sadly true, that there is too much of self in good men; but the reigning power of this evil is inconsistent with real Christianity. A man cannot be a Disciple of Christ except he deny himself.