N01899:250
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.
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.
Lastly, We Inculcate this, That only they, who in this Life, do by CHRIST, pass into a State of Grace, with a True Change of Mind ⟨p. 81⟩upon them, and persevere in Faith to the End; These only may partake in the Hope of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light; which is our Eternal Blessedness.
We every where keep to this Order of Salvation; so that not only in the Damulick Tongue, when we speak to the Damuleans, but also in the Portuguese Tongue, when we tender the Word of GOD, unto such as are of a Portuguese Original, or to Slaves that have Christian Masters, yea, or unto Europeans in the High-Dutch Tongue, we for ever oblige our selves in this manner to deliver it. For which cause, whatever is done among us, in Preaching, or in Teaching, or in Examining, or in our most private Conferences, All still is Entirely Levelled at this Mark, that we may admonish and Excite and quicken Men, unto a True Repentance, unto a Living Faith, unto an Undissembled Piety; At the same time calling upon GOD with most ardent Prayers, that He would thrust forth such Missionaries, whose chief concern it shall be, that the Sheep may be led unto that best of Pastures, which is with JESUS CHRIST, and be refreshed from none but the pure Fountain of Israel.