N01899:264
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.
As to the Popish Missions in this our India, they are thought more Numerous than ours; insomuch that they say, there are no less than Two Thousand who here go to and fro in the Earth: But, alas, the deluded Heathen ⟨p. 86⟩People, is translated out of Darkness into Darkness, and from one Idolatry to another, without the least sense of the Good that in a CHRIST is to be met withal: That I may not say, Paganism is wickedly grafted into Popery.
The Word of GOD abundantly declares, That in the Latter Days there must arise Witnesses of the Truth, endued with the Gifts of Miracles. And since that thread-bare saying of Divines in the Church, Dona Miraculosa dantur propter Infideles, is a Truth shining with its own indisputable Rays; we do allow, That to facilitate His work in the Conversion of the Pagans, our GOD may crown it with these Extraordinary Helps to it; and may furnish His Missionaries with so great Powers, and bestow the Gifts of Miracles upon them. However these things we wholly leave with the Grace, and Mercy, and Providence of Heaven; the best Dispenser of all.
That which I now desire, is, That the Correspondence by Letters, which you have begun with us, may be still kindly continued; so that the East may talk with the West, and the West may manifest unto the East, its Desires, and the works of GOD. Yea, that they may stir up each other in the course of ⟨p. 87⟩the Gospel; quicken each other with their Prayers; push on each other in the way to Heaven; give to each other the Admonitions of Patience; and Confirm each other in the Hope that is our Life.