N01899:238
India Christiana. A discourse, delivered unto the Commissioners, for the Propagation of the Gospel…
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.
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.