N01899:235
India Christiana. A discourse, delivered unto the Commissioners, for the Propagation of the Gospel among the American Indians : which is accompanied with several instruments relating to the glorious design of propagating our holy religion, in the Eastern as well as the Western, Indies. : An entertainment which they that are waiting for the kingdom of God will receive as good news from a far country. / By Cotton Mather, D.D. and F.R.S.
printed by B. Green, 1721
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.
Most Reverend Sir,
FROM Your Letters, which you wrote on the Thirty-first of December, in the Year 1717. I could not but observe in the first place, That You are a Person adorned with a Mind agreeable to JESUS CHRIST, and suitably walking in the power of His Spirit; And One the Care of whose Heart it is, that the work of GOD for the Conversion & Salvation of Souls, may be well-founded, and continually make Improvements, not only with you in the West-Indies, but also that the same work with us in the East-Indies may be daily on the growing hand; Yea, that it may get into the Minds of all far and near; whereby a People deluded by the craft of Satan, may be soon brought from their Idolatry into the True Worship of GOD; and forsaking their Pagods, may make it their Main Intention, that their Hearts being full of Faith, the most Holy GOD may dwell as in His Temple there.
That this affair, tho' it be yet struggling in its Infancy, should nevertheless excite in you, most Reverend Sir, upon your hearing of what GOD is doing here, so much of Joy, and of Delight, and of Good Will, We cannot but render our Greatest Thanks unto GOD, who has been pleased to give us the Friendship of such a Man; Yea and that besides you, there should be others of the like Mind and Heart with you, whose Piety disposes them to rejoice with us, in such Beginnings as are always attended with some Grievous Difficulties; and more than this, with their Prayers and Counsels Labour to open a more happy and easy way for the Progress of the work which the present Mission is concerned for.
That this affair, tho' it be yet struggling in its Infancy, should nevertheless excite in you, most Reverend Sir, upon your hearing of what GOD is doing here, so much of Joy, and of Delight, and of Good Will, We cannot but render our Greatest Thanks unto GOD, who has been pleased to give us the Friendship of such a Man; Yea and that besides you, there should be others of the like Mind and Heart with you, whose Piety disposes them to rejoyce with us, in such Beginnings as are always attended with some Grievous Difficulties; and more than this, with their Prayers and Counsils Labour to open a more happy and easy way for the Progress of the work which the present Mission is concerned for.
Most Reverend Sir, You directed your Letters in the first place to the Blessed Mr. Ziegenbalgh, and his Colleague. But it has pleased GOD to recall him home from the Vineyard sooner than any of us looked for; so that upon me who alone survive the• lie• the whole Care and Load of this Mission, and of Writing to you, which I do with deepest Sorrow, the Account of his Death; with happened on the Twenty Third day of February, in the Year, 1719. Heavenly Joys encompass him while we are here drowned in Tears. But going, whither the […] ⟨p. 77⟩of GOD have carried him. The Lord of the Harvest has called him away from the Labour of a Mission heavy & weighty enough; has dismissed him, has accepted him; has introduced him into, and begun to refresh him with, Eternal Consolations. And now since 'tis so, what remains as my Duty, is with your Leave, to impart unto you such things as these at the present, by way of Answer to your Letters to Mr. Ziegenbalgh.
Most Reverend Sir, You directed your Letters in the first place to the Blessed Mr. Ziegenbalgh, and his Colleague. But it has pleased GOD to recal him home from the Vineyard sooner than any of us look'd for; so that upon me who alone survive the• lie• the whole Care and Load of this Mission, and of Writing to you, which I do with deepest Sorrow, the Account of his Death; wich happened on the Twenty Third day of February, in the Year, 1719. Heavenly Joys encompass him while we are here drowned in Tears. But going, whither the 〈…〉 ⟨p. 77⟩of GOD have carried him. The Lord of the Harvest has called him away from the Labour of a Mission heavy & weighty enough; has dismissed him, has accepted him; has introduced him into, and begun to refresh him with, Eternal Consolations. And now since 'tis so, what remains as my Duty, is with your Leave, to impart unto you such things as these at the present, by way of Answer to your Letters to Mr. Ziegenbalgh.
That Man of Blessed Memory is much wanted in the Work of this Mission.
First, For his singular Diligence and Vigilance, with which he governed this Work of the Mission.
Then, For the most frequent Conferences, which he maintained with the People, upon Salvation to be expected from CHRIST alone.
Lastly, For the Translation of the Word of GOD into the Damulick Tongue of this People; — For indeed in all these things, the Lord adorned him very much with the Gifts as well of Nature as of Grace, for the singular Service of gathering a Church unto Him.
As a Remembrance of this Worthy Man, and as a Testimony to the Truth of what I say, Sir, I here present you with the New Testament in the Damulick Tongue; together ⟨p. 78⟩with some little Books written concerning True Christianity; all which you will take in good part; and I pray you kindly to accept them as a small present from such as would render you very great Thanks for the Books which were sent hither from you.
Those Presents of Gold from your young Gentlemen, I have Distributed unto the Youth in our Charity Schools. GOD the best Rewarder, will render to every one according to his Work. And, that GOD would more and more adorn the Souls of these Young Gentlemen with a Clothing of wrought Gold; This is what is in the Prayers and Hopes of our Youth for them; who also render very great Thanks unto their Benefactors.
In the mean time, While these things are doing, and while Bartholomew Ziegenbalgh leaves Earth for Heaven, a Merciful GOD has remembered His Work of this Mission here in the midst of all its Troubles. For through His Governing Providence at the same time three Candidates for the Mission are sent unto us; who being endued with true Piety, industriously spend all their Time in Learning the Damulick Tongue. And so, as soon as they have attained a Competent Skill in this Malabarick Language, there will be Four of us who are principally employed in the ⟨p. 79⟩Conversion of the Nations, endeavouring to bring them out of Darkness into the True Worship of GOD. But since the Harvest of the Lord here is Great, and Four Missionaries are not enough, we have in this Year made known our Desires to the Curators of the Mission in Europe, about sending over Four Candidates more unto us; making in the mean time our most humble Supplication unto our GOD, that He would please anon to send yet more Labourers to us in this His so very large an Harvest.
In the mean time, While these things are doing, and while Bartholomew Ziegenbalgh leaves Earth for Heaven, a Merciful GOD has remembred His Work of this Mission here in the midst of all its Troubles. For through His Governing Providence at the same time three Candidates for the Mission are sent unto us; who being endued with true Piety, industriously spend all their Time in Learning the Damulick Tongue. And so, as soon as they have attained a Competent Skill in this Malabarick Language, there will be Four of us who are principally employed in the ⟨p. 79⟩Conversion of the Nations, endeavouring to bring them out of Darkness into the True Worship of GOD. But since the Harvestof the Lord here is Great, and Four Missionaries are not enough, we have in this Year made known our Desires to the Curators of the Mission in Europe, about sending over Four Candidates more unto us; making in the mean time our most humble Supplication unto our GOD, that He would please anon to send yet more Labourers to us in this His so very large an Harvost.
That Method of proceeding which you have been pleased to supply us withal, we have Entertained with the highest Satisfaction; Receiving in it, as a Testimony that JESUS CHRIST is Preached among you with all Sincerity; and indeed, which is to us the greatest pleasure that can be, in the very same Method, that we our selves make use of here, in treating with Men about the Salvation of their Souls; laying aside those things which are Matters of mere Opinion, and wholly applying our selves to This, That CHRIST alone, without any manner of Disguise, may be Propounded and Exhibited. That Method of ours in Proposing the Doctrine of the Gospel unto the Nations, does, to tell in short, consist in these things.
That Method of proceeding which you have been pleased to supply us withal, we have Entertained with the highest Satisfaction; Receiving in it, as a Testimony that JESUS CHRIST is Preached among you with all Sincerity; and indeed, which is to us the greatest pleasure that can be, in the very same Method, that we our selves make use of here, in treating with Men about the Salvation of their Souls; laying aside those things which are Matters of meer Opinion, and wholly applying our selves to This, That CHRIST alone, without any manner of Disguise, may be Propounded and Exhibited. That Method of ours in Proposing the Doctrine of the Gospel unto the Nations, does, to tell in short, consist in these things.
First, We Declare to these Heathens, One only True GOD, who has manifested Himself in Three Persons: Fairly Noting to them therewithal, what Blessings each Person has given forth to Men, & will bestow upon them.
Next, We treat of Man, considering him according to his Fourfold State; while we show, in how Blessed a State he was, while he yet shone with the Image of GOD which was Concreated with him: Then, How, or in what way, he lost that Image of GOD, and put on the Visage of Satan, and of his own Accord run headlong into wickedness.
Next, How GOD sent His most Beloved and Only Son into the World, that he might bring us by Repentance out of that Cursed State, unto which every one is by Nature liable, into a State of Grace; that so being translated into a State of Grace, we may be willing to have the Image of GOD recovered in our Souls; seeking for our Righteousness in CHRIST alone, by Faith, which working by love, we may carefully walk on in a life pure from Vices, and in the daily Exercise of Godliness; and grow more and more into the Likeness and Resemblance of our SAVIOUR.
