N01899:44
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.
The Joyful Sound reaching to both the INDIA's. › APPLICATION.
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.
I. Blessed the People, who Know the Joyful sound; Then Wretched the People, Forlorn the People, Undone the People, who are Strangers to the Joyful sound. Oh! The pity that is due unto them!
The Jewish Nation have now lost their Silver Trumpets for these many Ages. And in their long Dispersion, how pathetical is their Cry unto us. Have pity on me, O ye my Friends, have pity on me, for the Hand of the Lord hath touched me. Yea, And how many Protestant Churches, have in our Days, had their Silver-Trumpets forced from them; and instead thereof heard the Enemies roaring in the midst of the Congregations! Yea, How many Nations are there, that never heard the Joyful sound! That lye buried in Paganising or in Mahometan infidelity! And is it not a lamentable ⟨p. 19⟩thing, that so near unto our selves, there should be so many Ungospellized Plantations! Our Pity for these, ought certainly to put us upon Prayer for them; upon Study for them; Oh! What shall be done for them who lye in Wickedness, and have this Epitaph upon them; If our Gospel be hid, it is hid unto them that be Lost.
II. Blessed the People, who Know the Joyful sound; Then we are a Blessed People: And at the same time we are to be taught how to continue so. My Brethren, We have the Joyful sound at such a rate, that it may almost be said of us, as in Deut. IV. 7. What Nation is there, who hath God so nigh unto them? For the Silver Trumpets to be heard sounding as they are in the American Regions; Verily, 'Tis the Lords Doing, and marvellous in our eyes. May we ever account these, Our Precious, and our Pleasant Things.