N02239:21
Christodulus. A good reward of a good servant. Or, The service of a glorious…
Christodulus. A good reward of a good servant. Or, The service of a glorious Christ, justly demanded and commended, from a view of the glory with which it shall be recompensed [sic]. With some commemoration of Mr. Thomas Walter, lately a Pastor to a church in Roxbury: who had an early dismission from what of that service was to be done in this world. Jan. 10. 1724--5. / By Cotton Mather, D.D. and F.R.S. ; [Two lines of quotation in Latin]Christodulus. A good reward of a good servant. Or, The service of a glorious Christ, justly demanded and commended, from a view of the glory with which it shall be recempensed [sic]. With some commemoration of Mr. Thomas Walter, lately a Pastor to a church in Roxbury: who had an early dismission from what of that service was to be done in this world. Jan. 10. 1724--5. / By Cotton Mather, D.D. and F.R.S. ; [Two lines of qutation in Latin]
Boston: printed by T. Fleet for S. Gerrish, 1725
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.
THE Design at this Time is, to press as many as will be persuaded, into the Service of a great King, whose Name is Venerable. And that we may all now become the willing People of a Lord, who will accept of none but such, Behold, what that Service will bring us to. I show unto you the Encouragement, which the King of Glory gives unto all His faithful Servants. You are now informed and assured from the Glorious Lord, That you shall be with Him; which is to say, That you shall be in a state of Blessedness: Yea, and in that state, there will be astonishing Honours, which the FATHER of our SAVIOUR shall concur with Him, in bestowing upon you.
THE Design at this Time is, to press as many as will be perswaded, into the Service of a great King, whose Name is Venerable. And that we may all now become the willing People of a Lord, who will accept of none but such, Behold, what that Service will bring us to. I show unto you the Encouragement, which the King of Glory gives unto all His faithful Servants. You are now informed and assured from the Glorious Lord, That you shall be with Him; which is to say, That you shall be in a state of Blessedness: Yea, and in that state, there will be astonishing Honours, which the FATHER of our SAVIOUR shall concur with Him, in bestowing upon you.
Our SAVIOUR was told by some of His Disciples, That there were some Gentiles desirous of a private Admission unto Him. Upon this Occasion our SAVIOUR foresees the speedy Approach of the Hour, when he should be glorified among the Gentiles; and see a surrogate Israel. But at the same Time, He declares the unexpected way, in which He must arrive to this Glorification; the strange and black Preliminary that must lead unto it. It must be, by Death; even by Death; As a Grain of Corn must lie for Dead in the Earth, before it fructifies. Our SAVIOUR having foretold what was to be His own Condition, He foretells, what must also be the Condition of them that will serve Him; He forewarns them to expect a Conformity to Him, in Sufferings, preparatory to the Blessedness wherein He will have them to be associated with Him. Hard Lines! Dark Strokes! No Man serve our Lord JESUS CHRIST, or hope to be with Him, unless he be willing to Die like Him, to Die for Him! Flesh and Blood; What wilt thou say to This!—To fortify His Followers, our SAVIOUR now tells them, what will be the Consequence, and what will be done for them. This particularly, That His Father will put wonderful Honours upon them. And this is the DOCTRINE which is now to animate us in the ways of our GOD.