The Wonderful Works of God Commemorated.
PRAISES Bespoke for the God of Heaven, In a Thanksgiving SERMON; Delivered on Decemb. 19. 1689.
Containing Just REFLECTIONS upon the Excellent Things done by the Great God, more Generally in CREATION and REDEMPTION, and in the GOVERNMENT of the World; But more Particularly in the Remarkable Revolutions of Providence which are every where the matter of present Observation: With a POSTSCRIPT giving an Account of some very stupendous Accidents, which have lately happened in France.
By COTTON MATHER.
To which is Added a SERMON Preached unto the CONVENTION of the Massachuset-Colony in NEW-ENGLAND.
With a short Narrative of several Prodigies, which New-England hath of late had the Alarms of Heaven in.
Printed at Boston by S.Green. & Sold by Joseph Browning at the corner of the Prison Lane, and Benj. Harris at the London Coffee-House. 1690.
AT THE CONVENTION of the Governour and Council, and Representatives of the Colony of the Massachusets Bay.
IT having pleased the God of Heaven to mitigate His many frowns upon us in the Summer past, with a mixture of some very signal Favours, and in the midst of wrath so far to remember Mercy; That our Indian Enemies have had a check put upon their Designs of Blood and Spoil; That others have not seen their Desires accomplished upon us; And that we have such hopes of our God's adding yet more perfection to our Deliverances: Inasmuch also, as the great God hath of late raised up such a Defenoe to the Protestant Religion and Interest abroad in the World, especially in the happy Accession of Their Majesties our Sovereigns, KING William and QUEEN Mary to the Throne.
It is therefore Ordered, that Thursday the nineteenth instant, he kept as a Day of THANKSGIVING throughout this Colony; And all Servile Labour Labour on said Day is hereby inhibited: And the several Ministers and Assemblies are Exhorted to Observe the same, by Celebrating the just Praises of the Almighty God, Of whose tender Mercies it is that we are not Consumed.
To the Right Worshipful Sir Henry Ashurst, Baronet.
TIS an obscure Pen, among the Antipodes of that World in which you dwell, which now waits upon you, to let you understand, That [...]here [...]s an England in America, as well as One in Europe, which the Name of ASHURST has been no less Dear, than Known, unto. Upon that Expression in the Sacred Scripture, Cast the Unprofitable Servant into [...] Darkness, there is an Interpreter who imagines that the Regiones Exteroe of America are the Tenebroe Exteriores, which [...] unprofitable are there Condemned un [...] Doubtless The Authors of those Ecclesiastical Impositions and Severities, which drove our Predecessors into this American Wilderness, esteemed those old Puritans to be a very Unprofitable sort of Creatures; and we their Children, desire with much Humiliation to Confess and Lament our own Unprofitableness; [Page] not without our wonder, that any Party in our Nation, should propound unto themselves any profit, by Endeavouring our further Misery. We nevertheless flatter our selves with slopes, that as while we sat under the shadows of our Char [...]ers we at least made the other parts of the English America to be profitable unto the Crown of our King, so the Church of our God in the other Hemisphaere, will not Excommunicate us from their Fellowship and Affection, when 'tis considered, that the Exercise of the Protestant Religion in the purest and fullest Reformation, is That very Thing which this considerable Plantation was first built upon. He that shall Travel over New-England, will find a large Countrey fill'd with Churches, which I may without vanity call Golden Candlesticks, in this Outer Darkness, and which are Illuminated with Able, Faithful and Laborious Ministers, among whom the person who now Addresses you, is no more worthy to be Reckoned, than the Seventh which appears no [...] among the Pleiades, is to be counted One of the Seven Stars. These Churches, in their Doctrine, do profess, and in their Worship, do practise, most intirely the [...] ant Religion, as our Confession of Faith, [...] [...] Platform of Church Discipline, has [...] [...]; and though they want the [Page] Liturgies and Holydays and Ceremonies, which were not Conceived before the Man of Sin was Born, they do but approach thereby the nearer to that Primitive Christianity, which will be our Glory, while we continue in it. It is in these Churches that we have long seen the Goings of God our King, for the Regeneration, and Edification of multitudes, who after an Arrival to a pitch of Holiness equal to what any part of this Lower World affords, have gone to the Spirits of Just Men made perfect; and though a Decay of Piety has accompanied an Increase of People in the midst of us, yet even among Us of the Third Generation, the God of our Fathers, hath such a Number of Serious, Gracious, Fruitful Christians, as encourages our Hopes, that He still has Reserves of Mercy for us. 'Tis in these Churches (however Degenerate) that One may see Discipline managed, H [...] resy subdued, Prophaness conquered, & Communion maintained, with a very beautiful subserviency to the Great Ends of the Gospel. And if after all the Printed Books, not only of our Cotton, Shepard, Hocker, Bulkley, Mather, D [...]venport, Cobbet, Norton, Newman, Whiting, Mitchel, and the rest now Asleep of the former Generation, but also of our Higginson, Fitch, Morton, Wigglesworth, Allen, Moodey, Torrey, Willard, Batly, Stoddard, [Page] (not to mention my own Fathers both, English and Latine Composures) thro' the Favour of God, vet Alive among us, we must he indg'd unprofitable to the Church of God abroad, yet the prodigious and Atloean Industry of the Reverend Eli [...]t and of those whom that Venerable Saint yet Lives to see succeeding him in cares for Evangelizing the poor Pagans here, must be own'd profitable to those, whose Cuter Darkness we are sent into.
But the [...]ght of these Churches, to a good Reputation with all them, that have any value for the Protestant religion, is not more palpable, than the Wrong which has been sometimes Ignorantly, and sometimes Maliciously done unto us, by them that have baited us for the sake of the Bear-Skins, which themselves have put upon us. Never was any thing more wicked than the Calumny, with Loads whereof our Enemies compelled our Fathers in the Infancy of this Plantation, to do as divers of those, whom they call, The Fathers, did of old, even, [...]o write Apologies; nor can any thing be more Slanderous and Romantic, than the Accusations that some Ill, Men have more Lately trad [...] [...]ed us withal; One may see the very Spirit of Persecution revived in them! Nevertheless, after all the Nanter of our Adversaries, as I would never desire an Easier Task, than to prove, That their Majesties have [...] in all their Dominions, more Loyal Subjects, than the People of New-England; so 'tis evident enough, That, where any Real Miscarriage has procured One, our zeal for the Protestant Religion in the power of it, has procured more than Ten of the Complaints that have been made against us. And therefore, we not only challenge [...] [Page] Interest among the Reformed Churches, in whose Comforts we cannot but Rejoice, as we have most inquisitively and 'Affectionately mourned in their Sorrows; but we also expect the Friendship of all those particular persons who are well affected unto the stones of Zion, and take pity on the Dust thereof. As it is a thing too observable to be denyed, or concealed, That tho we are a very unworthy people, yet the Haters of NewEngland stil [...] find themselves pushing hard against the Great Stone, so I believe none of those Noble Persons who have been sincerely concerned for our Wellfare, will ever see cause to Repent of it; but Goodness and Mercy shall follow them all their Days. Blessed [...] the God of our Fathers, that albeit we are as an Outcast, yet it may not be said, No man has cared for us! There were Three Knights among our first Parentees; it calls for our Extreamest Gratitude if there have been more of That, or Another Quality willing to be our Patrons.
And Sir, whereas you have been pleased your self to let the World know, how much you are desirous to see New-England flourish, you will pardon it if One born and bred in that Countrey, and a Son of the Colledge there, take the Liberty to acquaint you, That we are not insensible. That you are, my Fathers Friend, is a thing that Lays me under Obligations; but your being New-Englands Friend, is a thing which we would All Resent; and though the Dedication of these two Little Sermons to your Name, does not, Take of the best Fruits of the Land, as a Present for you, yet I humbly ask your Acceptance of them, as a part of out Acknowledgments. Among the other Curiosities of New-England, One is that of a mighty Rock, on a perpendicular side whereof by a River, which at High Tide covers part of it, there are very deeply Engraved, no man alive knows How or When, about half a score Lines, near Ten Root Long, and a foot and half broad, filled with strange Characters; which would [Page] suggest as odd Thoughts about them that were here before us, as there are odd Shapes in that Elaborate Monument; whereof you shall see, the first Line Transcribed here.
Sir, I take leave to add, That the English people here will study to have the kindnesses of their Benefactors, not less Durably, but more Intelligibly Recorded with them, than what the Indian People have Engraved upon Rocks; And therefore it is, That you shall now publickly find your person and Family mentioned in our prayers to the God of Heaven, for your Enjoyment of all the Prosperity engaged unto them that Love Jerusalem. The Voices that ascend from the Thrones of the Lord Jesus here, are asking for you, Grace and Glory and every good thing: and among them, there are my own Wishes, That the Son, and the Church of God may find you their KNIGHT which is to say (in English) an hearty Servant, and that in the day when [...] a Word will be esteem'd above ten thousand Worlds, you may hear a Well Done! from the mouth of your Glorious Judge. 'Tis with these, that I subscribe my self,
PRAISES Bespoke for the GOD of Heaven, In a Thanksgiving SERMON.
OUr Blessed Saviour, being to Preach upon a Text, [...] out of that very Book from whence we have now taken ours, began His Holy Sermon, with sayings [...] [Page 2] Day is this Scripture fulfilled in your Ears. It is by an unhappy Encounter of Gods Mercies and your Desires, that upon the Reading of the Text now before us, I may in like manner, close the Book, and say, This day is this Text fulfilled amongst us. Truly tis known abroad, that our God has done excellent things; and for this cause we are with no less Grounded than Solemn THNKSGIVINGS endeavouring to Sing unto the Lord. Behold a Word of the day in its day here provided for you! May our further considering and understanding of the Text, but promote our fuller Conformity thereunto, and more exactly imprint the shapes of this Heavenly Mould, upon us.
As the Noble Prophet Is [...]iah, is in the Books of the New-Testament quoted perhaps no less than threescore times; thu the Dayes of the New-Testament are those which his Prophecies have their frequent and special References to.
Among other Employments of this An [...]elical, and Evangelical Pen, one was the pre [...]a [...]ing of Sacred Songs, for the use of the [...], in the circumstances which there [...] been predictions of; and so, besides the [...] which common conjecture, have af [...] unto this Prophet the composing of; [...] forty sixth particularly, which in imitation, [Page 3] of the great Luther, we may at this day make the Anodyne of our cares: we have two inspired Songs in this Chapter laid before us [...] in the first of the Songs, the Confessors of God endeavour thmeselves to celebrate the Praises of that Eternal one; in the next they endeavour to excite and engage others unto a consort with them in this glorious Exercise. And here we have the Text which we are now to descant upon. [In that Day ye shall say] But What day is That day? we must be beholden unto the foregoing Chapter, for an Answer thereunto. We there find, that there will a Day come, when the Lord will set His Hand again the second time, to recover the remnant of his People: which will be when the Tribes of lost Israel are converted unto the Faith of the Lord Jesus; when according to the Language of the New-Testament, All Israel shall be saved. There will a Day come, when the Root of Jesse shall stand for an Ensign for the People: which will be at the second coming of our Lord; when according to the phrase taken by our Saviour from this very place, the sign of the Son of man shall appear. There will a Day come, when the Lord shall with the Breath of His Lips, slay the wicked; which will be when Antichrist shall [...]erish by the fiery approach of the Lord Jesus, to take vengeance on His wickedest [Page 4] Enemy: when according to the phrase taken by the Apostle also from this very place The Lord shall consume that wicked one with the breath of his mouth, and shall destroy, him with the brightness of his coming.
Tis that day which the Song now before us, is peculiarly calculated for. But certainly, we that are only getting into the D [...]wnings of that day, are not excluded from all medling with it; no, it is written for our Admonition.
In the Words to be now Handled, we have two Things.
First, The Doings of God are here mentioned. It is said, He hath done Excellent Things: or as the Original imports, Great Things, and High Things: or as it may likewise be rendred Magnificent, and Illustrious Things. The Hebrew Word ( [...]) is indeed a Substantive; and it intimates, that the Works of God are even Excellency in the Abstract, and Majesty it self. And the Chaldee Paraphrase here fitly puts upon them the term of [...] of Magnali [...], noting in them something eminent and powerful. Such things are done by Him, who is Wonderful in Working!
Secondly, The Duties of men are then specified hereupon. Since excellent Things are done by God, there are two things to be done by us.
[Page 5] First, We are to sing the Praises of God. It is here said, Sing unto the Lord. And such is the expression in the Holy style, as to signifie, not only an exactness, but also an instrument used in the Song. We are with a Sacred Musick to magnifie the God, who is worthy to be Praised.
Secondly, We are to spread the Praises of God. It is here said, This is known in all the Earth; but the version which is by some chosen for it rather is, Let this be known is all the Earth: We should not only our selves do it, but likewise provoke and excite all the Earth to take notice of what Wonders have been done by Him who is fearful in Praises.
Wherefore the Truth to be now entertained with us, is,
Chat it should be our study to SING and SPREAD the Praises due to the Eternal God, for the EXCELLENT Things which are done by him in the World.
It is by the Propounding of two or three, Conclusions that this Doctrine, will have its due Advantages.
PROPOSITION I.
There are multitudes of Praises due to the God the Heaven from us. To praise God, is to Acknowledge the perfections that are in Him; 'tis to Acknowledge the infinite Power, Wisdom, Goodness, Justice and Holiness, which are His Attributes; and this we are to do, In all our ways. We have received our Being for this End; and our Grand, our Chief Errand into the World, is, That our God may have a Number of Rational Beholders to be sensible of His Excellencies. When Mankind came first out of His Glorious Hand, He then said, as in Isa. 43. 21. This people have I formed for my self, they shall shew forth my praise. In our Lower Little World, no Creatures can be found capable of Conceiving and Expressing those Acknowledgments of God, which are, The Glory due unto his Name, besides MAN; who is therefore not unfitly called, The Highpriest of the Creation. The devout psalmist once called upon all Creatures, with a Repeated Invitation, Praise ye the Lord; but they all reply that Man is to do it for them, and they all therefore conspire to offer the Notices of the Almighty God, unto Mans affectionate Contemplation.
[Page] To praise God, is to Acknowledge in Him something Excellent, as 'tis said in Psal. 148. 13. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for His Name alone is Excellent; thus, when we Acknowledge an Excellency in all those Manifestations which God maketh of Himself; then 'tis that we praise Him. Now the Praises owing to the God of Heaven from us are obliged not only by what He Is, but also by what He Does: indeed by what He Does it is that we come to Learn what He is. We ought to Acknowledge an Excellency in the Nature of God; which is to Ascribe Glory to Him. The Language of our praises is to be that in Psal. 89. 6. Who can be compared, who can be Likened, unto the Lord? God should be truly Transcendent with us. We should apprehend, that as the Name of our God is, I AM, so all other Beings are as meer NonEntities in comparison of Him; subscribing to that is Isa 40. 17. All are before Him as Nothing. We should apprehend the Being of God, so Independent, so Unchangeable, so Mysterious, as no other Being is; and with Dazzled Souls fall into such praises as to say, I cannot find out the Almighty to perfection. The perfections that are in the [...] mighty God should even Astonish our [...] standings; and fetch the Exc [...] [...] Moses from us, in Exo [...]. 15. 11. [...] [...] [Page 8] unto thee, O Lord, who is like unto thee? One while our praises are like Hannabs, to say, There is none Holy as the Lord! Another while our praises are like Ethans to say, Who is a Strong God like unto thee? Sometimes our Praises, like Pauls, are to say, God is only Wise; and sometimes again, God is True, but every man a Lyar; and then with David, we are to praise and say, O how great is thy Goodness! But the Excellency which is in the Works of God; is that which renders the Glory of His Essence, most apparent unto us; and the praises which we are to bring unto Him, are in a great measure to spring from thence. We are told in Isa. 28. 29. The lord of Hosts is Excellent in Working. Our praises of God, are in This to find the Reasons of them, He has done Excellent Things.
First, We ought with many praises to observe the Excellent Things which God has done for our selves. As the Psalmist call'd upon himself, in Psal. 103. 1. Bless the Lord, O my soul; and forget not all his Benefits; thus ought we to Reflect upon the many Benefits and Kindnesses of the most High towards our selves, with praises too many to be Numbred, too Hearty to be ended. We ought to see something of God, in all our Circumstances, and upon all that happens to us, we are to say, The Lord be magnify'd! But there are some Excellent Things done for us, [Page 9] by our God; Things which no Friend, no Hand, none else could have done for our Good; and These Things we should with suitable praises be particularly grateful for. It is the manner of the Jews, to receive the Comforts of their Lives, with a Baruk Adonai, or Blessed be the Lord. We that are Christians may not suffer our selves to be exceeded by any people, in Thankfulness unto God. It is related concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, in John 6. 11. [...]hat he would not Eat a Meals Meat, without a Thanksgiving over it. Much more ought the more Excellent Things that are done for us, to be so Acknowledged. When God had heard a Prayer, there was that praise returned for it, in John 11. 41. Father, I thank thee for it. We ought seriously to think, What Answers of our Prayers, what Reliefs of our Wants and Woes, the great God has in an excellent manner favoured us withal; and the Result of all should be, Lord, I thank thee for these Excellent Things. A good Hezekiah himself may smart by failing here. Those persons are worse than Pharisees, [...]n whose mouths, God be Thanked, is not a frequent but yet solemn Interjection.
Secondly, We ought with many praises to observe the Excellent Things which God has done for Others as well as for our selves. Our [Page 10] praises must not be confined unto those mercies of God, which we our selves have been the Subjects of. But all His Dispensations abroad in the world, are to be the Occasion of our Halleluj [...]bs to Him. A Soul that is Fill'd with all the Fullness of God, will be Filled with praises to Him for all his Workmanship. We should be like him that said, in Psal 139. 14. I will praise thee, for marvellous are thy Works. Whatever our God is Doing, we should upon the sight thereof be praising; and we should Acknowledge Him, in all those Excellent Things, which we see done in any part of the Universe. It was said in Psal. 40. 5. Many, O Lord, my God, are the Wonderful Works which thou hast done. God has done many Wonderful Works, and many Excellent Things, in which we our selves have not an Immediate, or at least not a peculiar share; but we should all render praises unto Him on the account thereof. It is mentioned as the priviledge of a Righteous man, in Psal. 112. 9. His Horn shall be exalted. What if one thing intended in it should be This? That as the praises of God were sounded by His People, in Cornets of old, so there were Exalted Horns, or Exalted Notes, which He would have their praises to be Raised with. Thus we read in I Chron. 25. 5. of, Words to Life up the Horn. To [Page 11] accommodate the Allusion; The Praises of God are to Sound High, in our Devotions. When we praise God for being Excellently Good unto our selves, we do well; but we are to Raise our praises unto an Higher pitch than so; they are to Expatiate upon all those things, wherein our God has exhibited Himself as Excellently Great, throughout the world Such Abstracted Praises are agreeable to the Inclinations of every Godly man; he argues at that Rate, Great is the Lord, and therefore Greatly to be praised.
PROPOSITION II.
We ought both to Sing, and to Spread, the praises which we owe unto the God of Heaven. Behold, a double Office incumbent on us, with respect unto those Acknowledgments which we are to pay unto our God; beside and beyond the first Motions of them, in our own Souls. Indeed the Spring of all the Acknowledgments which we make unto God, must be in our Hearts, and the gracious Opinions and Resentmen's which are first formed there. We must first look to this, that God be praised by the Thoughts in our minds, and, as the Psalmist speaks, by, All that is within us Blessing his Holy Name. They never will praise God sufficiently or acceptably, who cannot say, as in Luke 1, 46. My Soul [Page 12] does, Magnify the Lord. As all worship of God, so particularly, all praising of God, must be performed in Spirit; otherwise it will not be in Truth. But the praises of God, being shaped in the Honourable Thoughts of our Souls, what are we then to do?
First, We are to Sing the praises due to God for the Excellent Things that He hath done. And if we keep close to the Text, we shall see two things here demanded of us.
First, There should be an Exactness used; in our praising of God. There should be in our Praises, as on one side an Amputation of all that is improper, so on the other side no Omission of any Article that calls for out meditations. The charge given to us it That in Psal. 103. 2. Forget not all His Benefits. We should not Forget so much as One of the Excellent Things, which we can Remember to be done by God. The skipping of One stroke in a Lesson, often spoils the grace of the Musick. So does the missing of One Thing, in a Commemoration of what God has done. We should be careful with an often, yea with a daily Examination, to inform our selves, about the Things for which God is to be praised. It is hardly convenient for a man to sleep at Night, until he have pondered, What New Excellent Things has been done by God this Day, that I should particularly [Page 13] praise Him for? And we should be careful that our Sorrows do not swallow up our praises. 'Tis often so, that as that worthy woman of old could not eat of the Peace Offering, which was a Thank-Offering, because She Wept; thus we can't praise God, because He Smiles us. We cannot see Excellent Things done by God, because we feel Terrible Things done to our selves. But this is our Folly.
Where we have One Trouble, we have a Thousand mercies of our own to be praising for. And if we were a million times more afflicted, than we are, yet the Lord might challenge our Praises. It was a great Speech of the Renowned G [...]rson, Quiequid de me ordinaverit Deus, said He, However God may dispose of me for ever, whether to Eternal Weal or Wo; yet This I know, that He is worthy of my praises, and He shall have them all. Indeed Praises are a Debt owing to Him, even from those woful Spirits that are broken in the place of Dragons, and covered with the shadow of Death.
Secondly, There should also be an Instrument used in our Praising of God. But of what kind? Far be it from us to plead for that which is properly instrumental Music in the Church of the Lord Jesus. Indeed before the coming of our Lord, there was in the Church a Divine appointment for such a thing; and between the Neginoth and the [Page 14] Nehiloth, I find, if I miscount not, sixteen or more kinds of Instruments for the maintaining of it. But upon the Abolition of the Mosaic Pedagogy, we have uo order-for the continuance of this Temple Worship, by introducing of it into our Synagogues. The Primitive Church had it not, as even a Bellarmine tells you; the Ancients often & loudly declaim against it, and Aquinas himself about four hundred years ago, notwithstanding all his Popery and Bigottry, yet bestows none of the kindest Remarks upon it. The Schoolmen themselves own, that Aliquid Figurabat, it was a Typical thing; and we having in the Tydings of the Gospel that grace and joy which this was a figure of, ought not to Judaize by upholding the shadow in the presence of the Substance; nor ought we to bring into the House of God, a Troop of Officers which the Lord Jesus never instituted. What Instruments are we then to praise God withal? we are all furnished with two at least.
First, Our Lips are to be employed in the praises of God. The Psalmist called his Tongue my glory. Our Tongues are then our glory, when we glorifie God therewith all. 'Tis a proper service for them; Hence the Apostle sayes, Therewith we bless God. It is Desired for the Saints in Psal. 149.6. let [Page 15] the High Praises of God be in their mouthes. And it is Resolved by one of them, in Psal. 145.21. My mouth shall speak the praises of the Lord. Hence the Apostle urges it, in Heb. 13.15. let us offer the Sacrifice of praises to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips. There were Offerings of many sorts, which God was praised withal of old; but our Lips are to be instead of the Calves and Lambs, and other Euchr [...]tical Offerings that then were customary.
With our Lips we are to rehearse and recite the Excellent Things that have been done by God, especially when we are with bended Knees and lifted Eyes, presenting our selves before him. With mentioning what God has done, we are to do as he said, in Psal. 145.2. Every Day will I bless thee my God.
But there is one Exercise of our Lips, which God is more peculiarly to be praised with; and that is the Singing of Psalms. In those Commands of God which require the praises of God, even in our Dayes, we have such clauses as those, in Psal. 95 1. O come, let us sing to the Lord, let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our Salvation. The New-Testament sufficiently inculcates this way of praising the most High; and if you will believe Tertullian, the Primitive Christians [Page 16] hardly ever had a Feast without it. There are savoury Hymns, of an Humane Composure, which no doubt we may praise God by singing of. But Scriptural and inspired Hymns are those which we should principally thus put Regards upon. The Psalms of David are those which God is to be Praised by a Reverent, and Attentive Singing of. These were those, no doubt which our Savio [...]. Himself Sang, at the Passover, more than a score of Times, And the very Angels whose Melodies the Shepherds overheard of old, seem to sing out of the Eighty fifth Psalm. Hence when the Apostle says, in Eph. 5. 19. Speak to your selves in Psalms and Hymns, and Spiritual Songs; he alludes to the well-known Division of the Psalter. q. d. Go sing all the Psalms of David over. Till we can mend them, never let us, leave them. He that shall sing those Blessed Psalms, and ordinarily spend at least one Observation, and one Ejaculation, upon every verse, as he goes along, will therein praise the great God, at no common rate.
Secondly, Our Lives are likewise to be Employ'd in the Praises of God. We have Hands as well as Tongues for it; and something there is that our Hand finds to do. The best Thanksgiving is Thanks living.
[Page 17] We should sometimes put that Question to our selves, in Psal. 116:12. What shall [...]render to the Lord for all His benefits? As a return to God for the Excellent things that are done by Him, we are to order our lives in such a manner as may be pleasing to him. Hence in Psal. 50.23. He that offers praise, and he that orders his conversation aright, are equiv [...] lent.
There is a general Return of Obedience, which we are to praise God by yielding of. It is said in Phil. 1.11. the fruits of Righteousness are unto the glory and praise of God. When God had carried Israel over Jordan, there were Stones erected for His praise; but what was inscribed on them? was it any History of what had been done by God? No, it was a Copy of the Law. Our keeping the Law is our praising of him that gave it. We praise God when we fear and blush to do any thing that he may be displeased at.
There is also a special Return of well-doing which we should now and then praise God withal. As when David had seen many mighty things done by God, he became inquisitive, in 2 Sam. 7.2. What shall I now do for the House of God? so some signal act of Piety, or of Charity should be done by us, that God may not be without his [...]. We praise God when we are labour [...] [Page 18] to do some singular thing, for the advancement of His Truths and Wayes.
Secondly We are to Spread the Praises due to God for the excellent things that He has done. Yea, our outmost is to be done that they may be known in all the Earth.
A good man desires that he may not be Alone in the praising of God, he would have all men to joyn with him in it. It is therefore said by such a man, Come, I will declare what God has done for my Soul. We are to praise God as publickly and as openly as we can; and to say like him in Psal. 22.25. My praise shall be of thee, in the great Congregation. And we are to do what we fairly can, that the excellent things done by God, may not be concealed things, but that all men may be acquainted with them: so are we advised in Psal. 105.1,2. Give thanks to the Lords, make known His Deeds among the people: sing unto Him, talk ye of all His wondrous Works. We should render them as Notorious as they are Notable; and publish them among all our Neighbours, as the happy partakers did the healing Miracles of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hence it was the wish of the Psalmist, in Psal. 26.7. That I may publish with the voice of Thanks giving, and tell of all thy wondrous works.
[Page 19] Yea, when God has done Excellent things, we are not only to speak of them, but (If we can) to write of them too. Every good man should leave to his Children, a Diary for a Legacy. Some written Memorials and Experiences of Excellens things which a good, man in the time of his Pilgrimage hath seen done by the most High; these would be will worth bequeathing to them that should come after him, that they may set their hope in Gods.
And the more considerable Appearances of God in every Generation, ought with a fuller Publication to be transmitted unto Posterity, by the Pens of good Historians. That we have no more Books of Remarkable Providences, is an Omission that has wrong'd and rob'd the Almighty God of more than a Million [...]. There should be compiled sufficient [...] ratives of the excellent things, occurring in every Age and every place; like the Books of Jasher, and Nathan, and Iddo, and other Seers; or like the Pillars among many Monuments of Antiquity. What shall I say, more? when God has done a more conspicuously excellent thing, He is to be Praised after that manner, in Psal. 102. 18. This shall be written for the Generation to come, and the people that shall be Created shall praise the Lord.
[Page 20] But it remains, that these things be made useful to us.
APPLICATION.
And O that we might all stir up our selves this Day to sing and Spread the praises due to the Eternal God for the excellent things which He has done.
It is an excellent thing indeed, that we may have a Day of Thanksgiving, while the World is in so much Confusion and Combustion, and every where Mens hearts are failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are doing upon the Earth. Let us be at some pains, that this Day be not lost, or that it may not evaporate in a few fensual satisfactions. The Excellent things done by God, are now to be the Repast of our Souls.
Day's of Thanksgiving as they are among the most Heavenly, so they will be among the most prosperous, of all our Devotions. There are Pious Men that will now and then in secret places, keep their Dayes of Thanksgiving before the Lord; laying our whole Dayes in praising of the Great God for what He is, and what He does, and in pondering on What they shall do for God. And I'll assure you, such [Page 21] persons ripen for Heaven a pace; yea they live in Heaven upon Earth.
But as for Dayes of Thanksgiving observed in the Assemblies of good men; all men have seen the wonderful successes of them. New-Englands Prosperity has more visibly followed upon its Thanksgivings than upon its Humiliations, as in times both of War and of Sickness, has been more than once perceived. We have seen the fulfilment of that Word in 2 Chron. 20.22. When they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against their Enemies. Praises, thousands of high praises be to our God, that we may have a Day to celebrate His praises. But that our praises may be awakened, and that no man may make a Jar in our Harmony.
Consider how Reasonable these praises are for us all.
O consider with our selves, Who is God? it is He that Humbles Himself to behold the things that are in Heaven. Consider, Who is, Man? a poor Worm, yea, a cursed Viper. Now that this GOD should look upon this man [...] Lord, What is man that thou shouldest be mindful of him? Yet the Eternal God has been doing of Excellent things, which we not only behold, but also enjoy? There is not one of us all, who has not excellent things to be this Day praising the Almighty for. They whose case is never so bad, yet have cause to carry on this [Page 22] Day of Thanksgiving with us, in that it is no worse. The most miserable person in all this Congregation, may with an eye to his own condition, say like him in Psal. 119.156. Many are thy mercies O Lord. If I could find out the most unhappy, and the most complaining person among you all, even to that person would I say, God has done Excellent things for thee, and some that never finned so much, yet suffer more than you.
Consider Likewise, how Profitable these Praises will be to us all. Behold an Expedient for the obtaining of all the Blessings that can be wish'd for. It was said in Psal. 67. 5, 6. Let the people praise thee; then our God shall bless us.
If the Earth send Vapours up to Heaven, Heaven will make Showers to descend on the Earth. Let our praises be continually ascending from us, and they will soon issue in those things that are called, The Showers of Blessing. When we have a Jealousie of a Leaky Vessel, we try it by first putting of Water, before we trust Better Liquors in it; if we that have little; more than Water to comfort us, will yet not permit it to Leak without Praises from us, then God has more Excellent Things to do for us. To be always Begging and Craving, as a Dog for his Morsels, ad Spem futuri semper hians, without [Page 23] multiplyed praises unto God; this is a most vile Disingenuity. 'Tis no less than a Loss of, yea, no less than a Curse on, all our Blessings, which we incurr by not praising the giver of them. But the praising Soul may fill himself with such a Joyful Hope, as that in Psal. 71. 14. I will Hope continually, and will [...] thee more and more. Those that are [...]llicitous least God should Loose any of His Praises, are the persons, for whom God will be concerned that they don't Loose any of His Blessings; these are they that shall experimentally understand the Loving-kindness of the Lord. Man, wouldest thou have any Excellent Things done for thy self? Then bring thy praises for what Excellent Things have been done in the world.
I suppose by this time, we have generally got our Halleujahs ready; but you call for a Catalogue of those Excellent Things, which they are to be fixed on. 'Tis a Feast that you are this Day to be treated at; and before you go out of these Doors, a Feast you shall have. I shall set before you a short Account of some Excellent Things, which I [...]tend as a Feast for your praises; and believe me, though your praises had [and O that they may have!] no less than an Eternity to be Feeding on those matters in, they never would be glutted, never cloyed.
[Page 24] First, The Excellent Things done by God, in the Works of CREATION, call for our Praises. It was once the out-cry of the Psalmist, in a Rapture, Praise the Lord from the Heavens, Praise the Lord from the Earth, praise the Lord all ye His Armies. Truly, 'Tis our Business to praise Him, for the Heaven and for the Earth, and for all those Armies which He has replenished the World withal. We have a good pattern for us, in Psal 104. 24, 33. says the Psalmist, O Lord, how manifold are thy Works! in wisdom hast thou made them all. Well, and what is now incumbent upon us, that have the view thereof? It follows, I will sing praise unto my God, while I have any Being. Methinks the Children of Men too much imitate the Spider, when they Look after nothing but building a little House for themselves, and concern themselves with nothing but the petty Affairs thereof. We should remember that we are Citizens of the WORLD, and as far as we can, we should visit every Corner of it, with our Praises to Him, of whom and for whom is all! I make no question, but that we do in a blessed manner Ante [...]a [...]e Heaven, by doing so. The Praises of God are Exhibited in every part of the World, and we forfeit the [...]viledge of Reasons, if we do not put as [Page 25] many of them as we can, into our Acknowledgments. There are above six Thousand Plants growing on that little Spot of the World, which we Tread upon; and yet a Learned Man, has more than once, found One Vegetable enough to make a Subject for a Treatise on it. What might then be said [...] the Hundred and fifty Quadrupeds, the Hundred and fifty Volatils, the five and Twenty Reptiles, besides the vast multitudes of Aquatils, added unto the rich variety of Gems and Minerals, in our World? Our own Bodies are, to use the Phrase of the Psalmist, So Fearfully and Wonderfully made, that one of the Ancient Heathen at the sight thereof, could not forbear breaking forth into an Hymn unto the praise of the great Creator; 'Tis impossible that any thing should be better shaped! Indeed, All the Things that we have every Day before our eyes, have a most charming prospect in them; and the very Deformities which the Flood has brought upon this Terraqueous Globe, are made Beauties, by the Disposals of the Lord that sat upon the Flood. There is not a Fly, but what may confute an Atheist. And the Little things which our Naked Eyes cannot penettate into, have in them a Greatness not to be seen without Astonishment. By the Assistence of Microscopes have I seen Animals [Page 26] of which many Hundreds would not AEqual a Grain of Sand. How Exquisite, How stupendous must the Structure of them be! The Whales that are sometimes found more than an Hundred Foot in Length, methinks those moving Islands, are not such Wonders, as these minute Fishes are.
But alas, All this Globe Is but as a P [...] point, if compared with the mighty Universe. Never did any man yet make a tolelerable Guese at its Dimensions: but were we among the Stars, we should utterly lose the sight of our Earth, although it be above twenty six thousand Italian Miles in the compass of it. Look upon the Wandring Stars, and you shall see so many Worlds, that swallow up all our Conjectures at the circumstances of them, and of their Satellites. Look upon the Fixed Stars, and what shall we say about the Bigness of them? Doubtless they many scores of times exceed the Bulk of this poor Lump of Clay, about a few Foot whereof the Inhabitants are so Quarrelsome. Or, what shall we say about the Number of them? For though they are but a few above a Thousand, That we ever see, without a Telescope, yet that will tell us, that the Six, which we commonly call, The Seven Stars, have above Sixty among them, and the rest are like the Sand of the Sea, innumerable. [Page 27] But above all, the Sun, that principal Engine, which the whole Visible Creation hath such a manifest Dependence on; This declares the Glory of God, at such a Rate, that the Philosopher once thought himself Born on purpose, to Behold the Splendors of it. This at last hath glar'd out my Eyes, that at this Time, I can look no further upon the Marvels of the Creation. But, my Brethren, Let us take our Time to Travel over the World; (I hope, we shall one Day have Bodies more able to do it, than our Spirits at present are!) and then let us give many Thousands of Praises to Him, whose Omnipotent and Omniscient Hand hath Created all. O Sing unto the Lord, because He hath done Excellent Things, in making and managing the vast Fabrick of the World.
Secondly, The Excellent Things done by God, in the works of REDEMPTION call for our Praises. It was the Exordium of a Psalm, in Psal. 107. 1, 2. O give Thanks unto the Lord, for He is Good; Let the Redeemed of the Lord say so. Behold, a Constellation of Excellent Things here which the very Angels at this Day are with a million Praises adoring of. Could we steal a Look this Day into the Third Heaven, we should see [Page 28] the multitude of the Heavenly Host there clapping of their Golden Wings, and hear them reiterating that Heavenly Shout, in Luke [...] 1 4. Glory to God in the Highest, because there is on Earth Peace, and good will towards men! When the blessed Angles beheld the horrible Pit which Man by Sin was fallen down into, doubtless they were even at their Wits ends about a way for his Rceovery; doubtless with pity and much Despair, they cry'd out, Alas, for miserable man; He is helpless and hopeless now for ever! But they have now seen a Remedy provided for undone wretched man, and therein they see, what they Stoop and Bend themselves to pry into; they see The manifold Wisdom of God; and they have ever since, even for more than five Thousand years, been Praising of the God, that has Remembred us in our Low Estate, because his Mercy Endures for ever. That there should be a Man, who was Born perhaps in September, not seventeen Hundred years ago, and who yet is the Father of Eternity; a Man who lay in a Cradle, and who yet cannot be contain'd by the Heaven of Heavens; a man, who is his own Mothers Father, in a word, a man, in whom dwells the Fulness of the God-head, and from whose Fulness, all we receiv [...]ll behold an Excellent thing which the very Angels cover their faces at. No man [Page 29] Living is able to comprehend the Trimmphant Praises that were among the Angels of God, when our Saviour was first Born into the world. When the Sun of Rightecusness first shone in our Horizon, doubtless these Morning Stars were presently making their Acclamations at it. The Tidings of it were quickly carried through all the quarters of the Heavens, and the whole City of God was moved at the Report. When it was told, The Redeemer of Lost Man is Born! it set them all on Praising the most High God, and saying, Glory, Glory to the Highest, in the Highest for ever! Well, they call us, Their Brethren, and from the Lofty Battlements of the Third Heaven, they call unto us, that we would not Leave them to Praise Alone. A famous Minister Lying at the point of Death, after he had been for some Time sensless, fell to Singing in a manner very extraordinary, and gave this Reason for it, I heard the Angels, and shall not I joyn with them! Surely our Interest in Redemptions is not inferiour to Theirs; but then strike up, Ye Redeemed of the Lord; where, O where are the Praises due to Him that hath Delivered you from all the fiery plagues, which you have madly expos'd yourselves unto. What could we Children of wrath have imagined, but that a just and a terrible God [Page 30] would have said concerning us, I will avenge me on those Adversaries! But instead thereof, behold, He has ready for us, a Jesus, who saves His People from their Sins; and that calls aloud unto us, O Look unto me, and be saved. This is an Excellent Thing! 'Tis an Excellent Thing which God has done, in so Loving the World as to give His only begotten Son, that whosoever Believes, may not perish, but have Everlasting Life. 'Tis an Excellent Thing which God has done, in ordering that He who thought it no Robbery to be Equal with God, should take on him the Form of a Servant, for us thereby to gain the Dignity of Children. 'Tis an Excellent Thing, That He who knew no Sin, should be made Sin for us, and we be made the Righteousness of God in Him; and that we who have lain in the Belly of Hell, should be Renewed by the holy Spirit, and be made to sit together in Heavenly Places in Christ Jesus. I am to tell you, That the Blackest of all the Devils are Saints, in comparison of that Man, whom these Excellent Things do not Effectually bespeak all possible praises from. But you that by Regeneration, are arrived unto a more Plenary, Actual, sensible Interest in this Redemption, are to be more abundant in your Praises. O strain the utmost of your Capacities, to shew forth the praises of Him, who has called you out of [Page 31] Darkness into his Marvellous Light; Come, SING unto the Lord, because He has done Excellent Things in the Recovering of Lost Man to an Intimates, and Eternal Fellowship with Himself.
Thirdly, The Excellent things done by God in the Government of the World, call upon us to praise His blessed Name for ever. The continual providence of God, is disposing of all things in an Excellent subordination to His own praise; the Wheels of providence are not carried on coeco impetu, but are full of eyes, and if we praise Him not for Things that every day occur unto us, tis because we are worse than blind; These two things are conjo [...]ned in Psal. 103. 19, 20. The Lords Kingdom ruleth over all, Bless ye the Lord. We may see our eternal King after an excellent manner keeping all the World in a real Order, notwithstanding all the seeming Distractions of it. We may see him fulfilling of His promises and His Threatnings, and giving Recompences among the children of men. We may see him frustrating and confounding of His Enemies, and preserving his Church, As a burning Bush not consumed.
We should pursue a distinct sight of these things, and Bless the Lord. When we see, that His is the Kingdom [...], we should adde, And thine is the Glory too.
[Page 32] My arrival to this part of our Discourse, puts me into a capacity to give you some Recapitulations of the Excellent things which this Day of THANKSGIVING is more particularly designed for.
My Brethren, there are Excellent things which our God has of late been doing in the English World. He that moves the four wheels of Providence through all the four parts of the Earth, has given the English Nation lately to see those Revolutions which the Histories of all Ages can hardly parallel. And now let us this Day sing unto the Lord, for He hath done excellent things.
I. The Late Revolutions in the Land of our Fore-Fathers Graves, afford unto us a sight of Excellent Things which ought to be had in Everlasting Remembrance.
And here,
The first and great and most comprehensive matter of our Praises is, The happy accession of their Majesties, King William, and Queen Mary, To the Throne of the Three Kingdoms.
This was a Thing in all the parts of it so Circumstanced, a [...] to make all men say, [Page 33] This is the Lords Doing, and it is Marvellous in our Eyes! It made a Second EIGHTY EIGHT out-shining that in the former Century. For,
Consider, the Season of it. It was when the Protestant Religion was Lying at the Stake; and foreign Popish Writers did not stick to tell the World in Print, That there was a Private League made between two of the most Potent. Monarchs in Christend [...]me, (which one of their own Ambassadors also, did in a manner own) for the Extirpation of Hoeresy; and that not only the subduing of Holland, but also the Enslaving of England were steps to be taken in order there unto. It was when the Indefatigable Drudges of the Papacy, who had more than Ten years before declared, We have here a Mig [...] [...]y Work upon our Hands, no less than the Conversion of three Kingdoms, and by that perhaps the utter subduing a Pesi [...]lent Heresy, which has domineered a long time over a great part of this Northern World; whereof never such Hopes as now; had now got all the Advantageous Posts of the Nation into their Hands, and had so model'd all their Business that they counted themselves cut of the Reach of chance for ever; and were even teady! like Human to cast Lots for a Lucky Day to throw all their Vizards off. It was when the Fundamental [Page 34] Laws of the Kingdom were overturned, and the Frogs of the Romish Egypt were swarming in a main, to take possession of the Glorious Holy Mountain between the Seas. When things were thought hastening to that pass, that every vacancy in the publick Employments would have made several Proselytes unto Popery; when a great Creation would suddenly have given the Papists a majority in the House of Lords, and New Charters with Bold Returns might quickly have given them a Majority in the House of Commons too; a Condition of Affairs that was formidable to all that penetrate into the Tendencies of Popery.
THEN it was that the (then) Prince of ORANGE entred upon his Glorious Enterprize of Rescuing the Church of God from the Bloody Altar, which it was now bound upon; and the Protestant Princes Combining with him, offered up their Vows to God, for the prosperity of this Important Undertaking, as counting that in the miscarriage of it, All was Lost. There had been one or two Attempts made before, but a wrong step taken in them, onely brought a R [...]ine upon the unhappy people Engaged therein. The Popish Party were then flash'd with their Successes, and forgot or slighted the Dying Words of one [Page 35] whom they Burnt (tis said) for only Relieving a Destrested Sufferer; Though you are seemingly fixed, and using your Violence against those whom you have got under you, yet unless you can secure the Lord Jesus Christ, and all His Holy Angels, you shall never do your Business; but Vengeance will be upon you, before you are aware.
Consider also the Manner of it. It was the Expectation which the Late Earl of Arg [...]le Expired withal, That God would accomplish His work, Not by Might, nor by Power, but by His own most Holy Spirit. And so it has been done! The Spirit of God inclined the Dutch to give their Great PRINCE in the Assistence that could be given. When the Navy, with such Wonderful Turns of the Wind, as argued a particular Care of God about it, was come into its Harbour, the Spirit of God strangely inclined persons of all Degrees to an Agreement with the Princes Declaration: it was a Touch of God upon their Souls! Whence, though the Nation were D [...]hauched on purpose to make Popery acceptable to them, yet many thousands that were of no Religion at all, could not now fight for that Religion. The same Spirit sent a Terror into the Great Oppressors of the Nation, so that though there was a vast Army to oppose the Prince, the very sound, of his Approach, put them to Rout, equal [Page 36] to one given by the clearest Victory; and as they had endeavoured by Shams to establish themselves, One piece of Paper, which ('tis said) was a Sham, had no little Hand in the Defeat of those Daring Criminals; nor was any blood shed [...] these Transactions, but of a Little and a desperate Party that seemed weary of their Lives, or they might have kept them. Hence ensued, by the unexempled and scarce accountable Desertion of the Late King, such a Dissolution of the Government as never had been known; and the Throne becoming Vacant, the Crown is una [...]id [...]bly placed upon those Illustrious Head, which, God grant Long to Reign!
And then, Consider the Prospect of it. For what may be now hoped for, but a Protestant KING, Just and Ruling in the Fear of God, as a morning without Clouds unto the Protestant World! We now see upon the British Throne, A KING, whose unparallel'd zeal for the Church of the Lord Jesus at the Lowest Ebb, hath made Him the Phenix of this Age; A KING in whom Courage and Prudence make a Temper which is to be no where seen but in the Greatest Heroes; A KING that scornfully rejected a Soveraignty over his own Countrey, when he might have have had it, by betraying of [Page 37] it; A KING, that uses to say, That be can cannot have so unworthy a Conception of God, or so base Thoughts of Mankind, as to believe that any one person should be designed b [...] the Almighty King, to trample and oppress a Society placed under him; A KING, that so abhors all Persecution, that when he accepted the Crown of Scotland, he Explained a clause in the Coronation Oath, with this Proviso, I will not be obliged to be a Persecutor: A KING, that has twice had a Crown of Light, appearing in the Heavens over his Principality to signalize him unto the World: With him we see A QUEEN, whose Virtues had long since Enthron'd her in the Hearts of the whole English Nation: We do not now see a Rom [...] Dalilah for the Phil [...]stins to Plough withal; no [...]ls our Solomon under the Temptations which the greatest Monarches have sometimes fell before. What can be hop'd for, but that the Chains with which the Tyrannous and Treacherous Grand Segniour of France had Petter'd Europe, will now be broken? and that the most monstrous Tygre in the world, having the Forces of Three Kingdoms let loose upon him, while he is Attack'd with such a General Storm on every side as was never seen before, must quickly either perish, or proclaim Liberty for that Religion which he has out done [Page 38] all that ever Liv'd, for the Perscution of? 'Tis an unaccountable Coincidence with this, That some hundreds of People in France are lately fallen into Predigious Extasies, wherein being Dead asleep, they both speak of Things and speak with Tongues, which before they had nothing of; and they agree to tell us, The Late Revolutions in England were to begin the Deliverance of the Church of God. These are some of the Excellent Things done by our God! Thus are all the Affairs of Europe overturned.
But there is a further matter for our Praises which has followed hereupon; and we that are a Countrey of Nanconsormists, may not pass it by unmentioned.
It is, The Repeal of those Laws, which the Protestant Dissenters were long Harassed with.
It is well-known, That those whose Consciences did not allow them, to worship God, in some Ways and Modes then by Law E stablished, were not many years ago, Persecuted with a violence, to be abho [...]red by all sober Men. It is well known that Five and Twenty Hundred Faithful Ministers of the Gospel, were Silenced in one Black Day, because they could not comply with some [Page 39] things, by themselves justly counted, Sinful, but by the Imposers confess'd Indifferent. And it is affirmed, That by a modest Calculation, this Persecution procured the untimely Death of Three Thousand Nonconformists, by Imprisonment in Noisome Goals, and the Ruine of Threescore Thousand Families, within five and twenty years. As the Dissenters are far from charging their Sufferings upon all that the Church of England in its National Constitution acknowledges for her Sons; for we have seen the most Learned and Worthy Members of that Church make their publick Pleas for the Nonconformists, and Boldly beg for Moderation to them; and advance this Assertion, That for every man to worship God according to his Conviction, is an Essential Right of Humane Nature; and we have Learnt, That the late persecutors were mostly a Knot of Ill men who professed, that they had rather be Papists than Presbyterians, and that they would as soon be Turks as Papists; and who surrendred themselves as meer Tools to a Popish Party, that thought to grow great upon the Ruines, of both the Parties whom they so set together by the Ears: So, I hope, the Dissenters will now forgive and forget the most inhumane Injuries that they have ever yet sustained. The Severity of that Persecution, [Page 40] which at last had broke up the Congregations of them that had perfected their Testimony to the Kingly Office of the Lord Jesus, than Celebrating a Thanksgiving for it, indeed caused the Dissenters to Accept of Liberty, tho' upon some Terms which they approved not. You are not ignorant that we then told you, There would quickly come an Earthquake that should carry on that Liberty to more perfection; and behold it is now done in a Parliamentary Way! Blessed be God, that Protestants are come to a better understanding of their true Interest! May the Apples of Strise among them now be removed! May all Good men concur in pursuance of that Reformation, which God now calls His Church unto! and may the Reformers have Peace among themselves, and (as one speaks) War with none but Hell and Rome. But for the Church of God, in Scotland, as their Calamities exceeded what their Neighbours felt, which I suppose, the Mar [...]yrology they promise us will demonstrate; so they have not come behind them in Deliverances. O what has God wrought? my Brethren, It looks as if God had begun the Resurrection of His Dead People. O Lord God, Thou hast begun to shew they Servants they Greatness, and thy mighty Hand, for what God is there in Heaven, [Page 41] or in Earth, that can do according to thy works? And if so, 'tis time for us to Laft up our Heads, with at least some Examination, whether we shall not shortly see the Vintage of the Papal Empire? Whether Italy be not near a greater Earthquake, than that which made hideous Desolations in above Thirty Cities, Towns, and Villages there, a little while ago? Whether the Blast of the Second Wo Trumpet, be not just expiring, and the Turkish Power be not within two or three years (at least) of that End, which will make him incapable to Disturb Europe any more. Yea, Whether the Gospel of the Lord Jesus will not quickly have Liberty with an Efficasy, not only in Popish Countreys, where it is Restrained: but also in Pagan Countreys, in One of which, we hear of near two Hundred Thousand Heathen, Converted unto true Christianity, within these few years?
In a word, Whether the Day is not at Hand, when the Kingdoms of the World, shall be the Kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ!
Whether we shall not very quickly see those, glorious Things which are spoken of thee, O thou City of God!
II. The late Revolutions among our selves, have also been attended with some Excellent [Page 42] Things, where of we may say, The finger of God is here! Indeed nothing in the World could more exactly imitate and resemble the late circumstances of our Mother England than the Revolutions here, in all the steps thereof, and this, though we understood not one another. This was from the Excellent operations of that God who turns a Wheel in a wheel! And what shall we now say? The Judgments of God have been upon us heretofore; but this poor Land has cry'd unto the Lord, and the Lord has heard and sav'd. And the Enemies of New-England have still perished be fore the Rebukes of that God who is our King, our Lord, our Lawgiver. It has been as dangerous to seek the Hart of this poor Countrey, as ever it was to annoy the Piccardines, of old; and they that have stretched out their long Arms to make us miserable, have brought upon their own Heads the vengeance of the Temple. But we were grown a worldly, Sensual, Factious People; and then our God fulfill'd unto us that Word of His, I will punish you yet seven times for your Iniquity.
Our Charters were taken from us, and our Land, Strangers devoured in our presence. You have seen cause to Declare, That there were deny'd unto us the Common Rights, which all English-men justly reckon themselves born unto; and that all that was dear unto us, [Page 43] was entirely given up to the Arbitrary disposals of four or five Men, that beyond all measure hated us, and made no stick to tell us, We were. but Slaves.
You have seen cause to Declare, that we were now given to understand, Our Lands were none of our own; and that a Storm of unjust Violence was every day falling upon the more Honest, and sober part of the Countrey, while the wicked walked on every side, and the vilest Men were exalted.
Our Churches also began to feel the kindness of those, who had Sworn by the Living God, to ruine them; and all Debauchery was coming in among us like a mighty Flood. All this while we were in a Sea of fire, miserably scorched and scalded; and yet it was mingled with Ice; there were great cakes of Ice over our Heads; there was no getting out. That one person, who new hazarded his All to obtain us Relief, by [...] our Addresses for us, was made [...] of this.
Remember, O New-England, [...]w often that cry then went up from thee [...] [...] Lord, Return we b [...]s [...]ch thee, O God of [...]! look down from Heaven and visit [...] [...]; And now, behold, He is Returned. Our Adversaries are what and where they are; and we see so far Our Judges as [...] [...] first, [Page 44] and our Councellors at the Beginning.
And there are several Excellent Things that have been done for for us by our God, while He has been effecting of our Deliverance.
We have cause to Praise the God of Heaven, That in the Tumult of our Action, there was not the loss of a Drop of Blood, nor such Plunder and Outrage as would have been a Disgrace to our Profession.
We have cause to Praise Him, that our Soveraign has Declared, He took very well what we had done for Him, and for our selves in the Revolution.
We have cause to Praise Him, that we have been so comfortably carried through the Difficulties of a whole Summer, while we could not say That any Law was of any Force with us. Every Week erected a new Ebenezer for us [...].
We have cause to praise Him, for putting it into the Heart of a Person, well known unto you all, to take a Voyage into England, just before the late Overturnings there: on purpose to be in the way of those Opportunities, which his Faith was that he should have, to serve the Churches of the Lord Jesus here; by which means, (as our Friends there assure us) it is that we have been preserved from being totally udome.
[Page 45] We have cause to praise Him, for giving a check to those Indian Blood-Hounds, which have been worrying of us in the East; who having destroy'd several Plantations, met with no full stop, till they assaulted the first Place where a Gospel Ministry was maintained; but there they found such a Ba [...] in their Carrier, that we now hear no more of them.
And may I not say it? We have cause to Praise the Glorious God, for some Excellent Things, which as yet we know not of. We gave Imperfect, but (with many) probable Accounts, of a Deliverance from a French Force, that the possession of this Territory, would have been a valuable Thing unto.
But this is indubitable. If it had not been the Lord, who was on our side, may New-England now say, they had swallowed [...] up quick: Blessed be the Lord, who hath [...] given us as a prey to their Teeth.
New-England, Be humbly Thankful to thy God, and exalt the God of thy Fathers. God forbid there should be any Murmurers among us all. A year or two ago, we would have been Thankful for a small moyety of what we now enjoy: But if our Praises are not yet enough animated, I pray then, let us make a comparison of our Condition.
Compare our Condition with that of [Page 46] them in Hungary. The Protestant Churches there, have be [...]n made a Desolation, and it would break an heart of Stone to Hear, what both Pa [...]tors and People have endured. Should you see one of the poor Confessors come out of an hideous Dit [...]geon full of T [...]ads, and S [...]akes, and Excrements; with their very Throats putrified, their Teeth fallen out, and their Eyes gone into their Heads, and their Flash mangled in a thousand places, you could not forbear preaching a Sermon on, Thankfulness to God Imagine your selves under the continual Executions of the most witty Divels, and all that shall but relieve you with a bit of Bread, torn to pieces by the hand of an Hangman, and you will see what has befallen the most venerable Ministers of that Kingdome, until the Protestant Religion has been almost extirpated there, and this after the Oathes of their Monarch to support it.
Compare our Condition with that of them in Germany. The French King has there made even the Popish Provinces themselves a Stage of Blood, and laid all in Ashes for many Leagues together. He has given the Sun for his Device upon many of his Coines; and by the Fiery Destructions which his Bombs have made, he has given us cause to suspect whether he be not the [Page 47] Sun in the fourth Vial, that has power to Scorch men with Fire. Imagine that you were put under the French Contributions, and not only Rob'd of all you have in the World, but also driven like so many Cattle before their Slaughterers. Imagine your Towns laid all in H [...]aps, and your Persons obnoxious to all manner of Rapine and Murders from the worst of H [...]rpyes: this is what thousands are now feeling of.
Compare our Condition with that of them in [...]rance. Except in the matter of our Sabbaths, what are we better than the People of God in that rueful Countrey? But all the Bloody Butcheries and Cruelties committed in the By-past Ages, are meer Triflles in comparison of what that People have of late endured, and this after Faith given often enough unto the contrary. After they had gone thorough intolerable vexations in all those things that they had any kindness for, they have been at last given up into the claws of the merciless Dragoons: and were all the Divels of Hell Incarnate, they could not invent more or wors [...] Tortures, than these Dragons inflict upon persons of all sorts, till they have compelled them to abjure the Truth of God; and thus all the Flocks of the Lord Jesus have been worried and Ruined there. Imagine a Swarm [Page 48] of Lew'd Souldiers, like Locusts quartered in your Houses, and there binding of you, that they might abuse your nearest Relations before your eyes; imagine them Hanging of you by the Hair of your Heads and then half Choaking of you with Smoke, or half Roasting of you with Fire; imagine them pricking of you with Knives and Bod [...]ns, and with ten thousand lingring Tortures, making you Desire, while you may not enjoy, such a priviledge as Death; until at last you have been worried into an Abjuration, which makes the wounds on your Consciences no less than those on your Bodies were before.
To have done, Compare our Condition; with that of our English Brethren, in woful Ireland, especially the more Southern Counties of it. Behold, their Estates Confiscate; the value of Four Millions was long since the Account of the Losses felt by only them who had Fled into. England. Behold their person [...] Confind; having sharp Sk [...]ins ready for [...] their Throats, with just Fears day and night of a new Massacre. What would you think, if you were driven like Dogs into the Goals of Galloway: if you were Enjoyned to carry your own Fathers [...] Heads upon Poles in the Head of a Regiment, or if you lay at the mercy of a Wild Irish Rabble?
[Page 49] Behold these things, Behold them with Sympathy O New-England; and be not scanty in thy Praises to Him, that has known thee above all the Families of the Earth.
Come, and Sing unto the Lord, for the Excellent Things which He has done. But yet let us not put Him off with a Song. 'Tis a thing very pleasing to God, that we have a Day of Thanksgiving to Praise Him in; and if this Day, he duely kept, I doubt not but Good News will quickly put us upon the keeping of Another. He that Inhabits the Praises of Israel will keep House among us, if by Leaving off our Praises we turn Him not out of Doors. It was a Remarkable thing that befel One of our Neighbours, a while ago, By a Ship wrack, he was cast upon a desolate Island, where he was left many months Alone. After many a Day of Prayer, for succour, he at last kept a Day of Praise, for the support which he had so long Enjoy'd; and within a few Hours upon this, there came a Vessel by that saved him. NewEngland has been, and yet is, in so many Troubles, that some have questioned whether a Day of Thanksgiving would be Seasonable! O Yes! most highly Seasonable! Keep it well, and it shall yet be said, Also in New-England, things went well.
But the principal Thing in our Thanksgiving, yet remains, and that is, a Thanks-Doing [Page 50] Let us all Repent, and Reform, and set up on the Lively Doing of the Good Thing which the Lord our God Requires. The Apostle speaks pathetically, I beseech you, Brethren, by the Mercies of God. It is This, I conclude withal; I beseech you Brethren, by the Mercies of God, that New England may be as a Noble Person sometimes call'd us, The best people in the world; and that no scandalous Things may be done here, to offend the God that has done Excellent Things for us. I beseech you by the Mercies of God, that as we profess the Protestant Religion with the most exalted Purity, so we may practise it, in such an Exemplary manner, that, A New-England man, may be a Term of Honour in the world. I beseech you by the Mercies of God, that we may all sincerely intend the same Ends, which brought our Predecessors here, even to propagate the Spiritual Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. May all due pains be taken, that not only the English may every where have the knowledge of God, but that the Indians too, may share with us in it; for an Engagement whereunto God has given us to see, as that a very visible Blast has attended the Estates of them who have grown Rich by Trading of Drink with them, so a visible Blessing has accompanied them who have Laboured in Preaching [Page 51] of Truth to those poor Pagans; and since at this day, the most powerful Nation of them, namely, the Mohawks, ask for the Gospel, it cannot but be a piece of Policy as well as Religion, in us to carry the Gospel unto them, while they cannot be reconciled unto the Superstitions of our French Neighbours, that have been Tampering with them. O that we might not forget the Errand of our Fore-fathers hither! We shall then Flourish, in spite of all that wish ill unto us; Thus will Salvation be nigh unto us, and Glory shall dwell in our Land. May our God sanctifie all His Dispensations to us; particularly those of the Summer past, as well the Terrible as the Merciful. 'Tis a Metaphorical Earthquake which has lately been among us, and there was a Literal one in some parts of the Countrey preceding of it. May these Earthquakes produce better effects on us than those at Lima in this our [...] New-World America, did upon the people there a little while ago. We are informed, That an horrible Earthquake, after some Warnings of it, shook that Great and Lewd City; till with incredible Noise and Fury, it sunk a large Part of it into the Earth, and the Sea came hideously Rolling in upon it. While the miserable Spaniards were under [...]Apprehensions of perishing in speedy Ruines, they that had been Enemies [Page 52] one to another immediately made Reconciliations; they professed a Deep Repentance of their former Vices; their fine Ornaments and other Vanities, they buried under ground; and with consternation cryed out, Our Oppression, our Injustice, the Extravagancies of our Cloathings and our Houses, have brought all this upon us! We have newly been passing thro' a Figurative Earth-quake, which is not set quite over with us. God forbid, we should be Impoenitent after all; and, since I would End, where I began, God forbid, that we should be Unthankful for our preservations. New-England is not used unto such Follies as Bonfires, nor do we think Ringing of Bells; but Singing of Psalms, to be a Thanksgiving Exercise. Come then, Sing unto the Lord; Sing the Praises which He may lay claim unto. It was a no less wonderful than undoubted Thing which happened in France a few months ago, when, upon the Dissolution of the French Congregations, and a particular Interdict upon the Singing of Psalms thro' the Kingdom, there were thousands of persons, in hundreds of places, at scores of Times, that plainly heard the Singing of Psalms after the manner of the French Assemblies with a most Ravishing Melody, by Invisible Singers in the Air; a thing so notorious that the very Psalms were [Page 53] often Distinctly as well as Audibly enough Sting, to let the Hearers know what Psalms they were; such as the Fifth, the Forty Second, the Hundred and Thirty Eighth particularly; and even the Parliament of Pau made a Decrce that men should not go abroad to hear this unaccountable Singing under a forfeiture of Two Thousand Crowns, upon which the Reflection of the incomparable Jurieu is, This is a Reproach that the Providence of God makes unto us: because you have not dared, nor been willing any more to Sing His Praises and Songs of Thanksgiving. God has made mouths in the midst of the Air! But behold an Happy Presage, that God will not suffer your Voices and your Songs to Dy, the Angels have fiezed on them.
Thus, give me Leave to say, That if we will not Sing unto the Lord, there are others that will; and we that will not, never shall [...] Yea, our Silence may provoke the very Rocks and Stones to loud Shouts; in praising the Eternal God.
O come, and Sing unto the Lord; and though we do not certainly know what Changes yet may come upon us; nor how far the Clouds may Return after the Rain; len us nevertheless be found, Singing to the Lord.
They that Remember how many Princes and Interests were concerned for the Protestant [Page 54] Religion threescore years ago, and how almost all of them afterwards Disappeared, cannot yet be without Apprehensions in the midst of their Thanksgivings. But, though we may not Sing Requiems to our selves, yet we may Sing Praises to our God: and whatever Fears may be upon us, I am now to Repeat that Call; Awake, Awake, O Congregation, Awake, Awake, and utter a Song. It was a memorable Accident which happened near one of the Lee-ward Islands some years ago. A Ship with some pious people in it, was by a violent Storm driven between two hideous Rocks; where she lay on one side so that every moment they expected she would overset; In this Distress, in this Despair, they agree to Dy Singing, and there they sat Singing the Hundred and Forty sixth Psalm. But behold, a Dutch Ship that had newly taken a Spanish Vessel, at that Instant came by, and not only delivered them from the perils of their own Ship, which immediately perished, but also bestowed an other Vessel on them. Methinks, this poor Countrey has been, and yet i [...], much in the condition in which That serious people were: Well, but supose we should Sink after all the Excellent Things which have been done for us, (and yet we can't forbear saving, If the Lord were pleased to kill us, would He have [Page 55] shewed us all these things!) Let us however Sink and Sing both at once, and keep Singing to Him that has done Excellent Things, while we have any Breath; (and when we have None, we shall do it Better!) such a Course it is, which gives the greatest Likelilihoods, that He will with a perfection of Deliverance, Arise and Save us.
A Passage in Mr. Flavels Thanksgiving-Sermon, Preached Febr.14. 1688.
SHall we Ingratefully Overlook the Beginnings of Mercy, as small and Inconsiderable Things? Shall we say, All this is Nothing, because we have not yet All that we would have? God forbid. When Israel was in Egypt, then a Little Straw would have been Esteemed as a great Mercy; but afterwards Quails and Manna were Despised. Brethren, Three or Four Years ago, you would have Accounted it a Special Mercy, to have Enjoy'd an Hour or Two together in Prayer, or to have had a Little Spiritual Bread Handed to you, behind your Enemies Backs; and is it nothing in your Eyes this Day, to behold the Worship of God at Liberty? Yea, to see the Success of the Gospel, in bringing home of many Souls to Christ? The Fears of Popery vanished? The Witnesses Risen; the Tenth-part of the City fallen; and such a prospect of far greater and more glorious Things before your Eyes? O let not the Consolations of the Almighty seem small.
A Postscript.
Endeavouring the Satisfaction of them that are Inquisitive after the late Stupendous Extasies and Prophesies in France.
THe Words of God are True, in the Notice which they have given us, That the Works of God are Great; and certainly no Age did ever afford Instances of Greater than those which are Now the matters of Discourse and Wonder throughout the World.
Among the Marvellous Things which at this Day strike the minds of Men with a just Astonishment, there are not many more considerable, than those of the late Extasies in France. Concerning, which we have undoubted Information;
That about the beginning of the Year 1688: a young Shepardess in the Province of Dauphine, fell into unaccountable Trances, wherein tho' the standers by, pull'd her, struck her, cut her and burnt her, yet it was impossible to awaken her. In this condition, her custome was to utter many Divine things; [Page 58] and though she could neither write nor read, nor could speak any Language but that of her Countrey, which has nothing of pure French in it, yet she now Pray'd and Preach'd at a most prodigious rate, and Sang Psalms after the manner of the French Protestant Congregations: and when Auditors that could thereby be edified, were present, she expressed herself, not only in French of a Dialect most Exact and Correct, but also having occasion to speak Latin, in the Refutation of the Romish Superstitions, she did it with a distinctness that fill'd all the Hearers with Admiration. And though when she came out of her sleep, she remembred not what had befallen her; yet she had her wits thereby made more Sparkling and Refined.
Those new French Apostles, the Dragoons, quickly did their utmost, for the suppression of this Rare Thing; but behold the event! It was not long before other persons fell into the like Trances, with Symptoms not unlike to those which had attended her; and the Number encreased unto several Hundreds of these Prophets, if I may call them so? where [...] of even the Kings own Guards afforded One. And at length some that were Awake were carried forth unto Rapturous Exercises with an Eloquence and Energy equal to that of those that were Asleep.
[Page 59] They are People of all Ages and Sexes; but the greatest part of them are Boyes and Girles, from six or seven to five and twenty years of age; and persons very old; all of them the meaner sort of People: but of Families Exemplary for their good living; the whole affair being indeed so prodigious, that the most obstinate Saddu cees in the Kingdom confess it, A natural Distemper directed by Providence to procure the Repentance of a sinful World.
The Ministry of these Extraordinary People, does chiefly consist of two things.
One part of it is, the Admonition of those unhappy persons that have provoked God by many notorious Miscarriages, but especially by Apostasie under the late Persecution. They deride the Follies of the Mass, with a surprizing ingenuity; and in a vast Assembly of perhaps two thousand People come together to hear these Preachers, if there be any that have abjured the Protestant Religion, they will call them before them, and address them in such powerful Terms, as usually make not not only the whole Congregation shed floods of Tears, but the Apostates themselves to become Penitents: and there comes not one away, who does not positively declare, That he had rather be torn to pieces with wild Horses than ever go to Mass again. No [Page 60] man is able to resist their Words! And they make the Penitents now and then confess other particular sins, which they convince them of, though the Transgressors had imagined these Faults impossible to be discovered. A whole Council assembled could not manage any matter with more Authority than They do the Conviction of those, who have gone to Mass, that they may shun the Severities of the French Dragoons.
It may not be unprofitable to recite a few of the Sentences, which fell from the mouths of these Extaticks.
Have a care (said one of them) that you come not hither out of Curiosity. Better it w [...]ere for the Wicked that hot Coals of Fire should p [...]ss through their mouths, than that they should mo [...]k at the Word of God; they had better swallow a Serpent with all its Poison.
If the Wicked (said one of them) had the same power over God, that they have over you, they would do the same to Him that they do to you: but God will pronounce the Sentence of Malediction on them, and will say, Go into Eternal Fire.
Brethren, (said another of them) Pray hard; and then though we should meet an Army of Enemies at the Door, God will place a million of Angels for your Guard.
Brethren, (said another of them) We [Page 61] have alwayes apprehended more the Threats of Men than those of God, else what happened to us, would not have happened.
One of them said, Your Riches have ruined you, and your Prayers must Relieve you.
One of them said, I am afraid the first Persecution will make you return to Mass again; but O suffer your selves rather to be first out in pieces. Alas! Jesus Christ has poured out all his Blood for us, and we can't endure the prick of a pin for Him.
To the Apostates, they generally so conclude their Warnings; You have sinned against the Father, you have sinned against the Son, take heed of sinning against the Holy Ghost, for God will then pardon you no more.
And when the Children are told, They shall be Hang'd, they are not at all afraid, but answer, That is but a little harm for a greater good.
But the other part of their Ministry is, The Prediction of Things quickly [...] come to pass. They do indeed foretell many Things of a more private concern; they foretell a thousand Things that must happen to themselves and their Friends: and the issue confirms the Prophesie. One of them being thrown into a Dungeon, said,. The man who sent her thither should within eight Dayes fetch her out, and it strangely was accomplished.
[Page 62] But the Things of a more publick Concern, are chiefly those which they foretel. The Gentlemen, who give us the History, tell us, that they judge it not yet convenient to publish a large part of the Authentick and sufficient Collections which they have made of these Prophecies. However, they have given us a Taste. In general, The Subjects of this Enthusiasm all agree in foretelling, A Speedy Deliverance to the Church of God: and they declare, The Late Revolutions in England, to be the Beginning of that Deliverance.
Tho' all France was fill'd with a Rumour, That the Late K. James had Defeated the [...] (then) Prince of Orange, both by Land and Sea, these then said, The Authors of these Report, commit a great sin, for the Prince of Orange has Chas'd, and shall Chase the King out of England; and that is the Beginning of the Deliverance of the Church.
They foretold a fresh Assault of Persecution in France, and it had a very dreadful fulfilment; for after it Ensued a Terrible Storm of Outrage upon the Relicks of Protestantism in the Desolate Kingdom: in one Article of which, there was a Massacre, of about four hundred people; but they foretold within how many Days the Persecution should be over; and they give hopes of a Protestant [Page 63] King, very quickly to be seen in France. They proclaim, The Divel is going to be shut up in the midst of Hell! They say, The Accomplishment of the Prophetical Months and Dayes is at Hand; but it must be accompanied with very Terrible Wars and Plagues.
The whole is a Thing very unaccountable: and when I consider the Fate of the famous German Prophets, which made such a Noife in the World: or, when I consider, that while the Jews were under their Infatuations about their false Messiah, Sabatai Soevi, some Hundreds of people fell into Extasies (as 'tis Reported) wherein they Prophesied, the speedy Deliverance of the Jews by that impostor, and Little Children that could not [...]tammer a word, yet repeated and pronounced the Name of this Deceiver, with Happy Omens of Him but consider on the other side, That not to Regard the Works of the Lord, i [...] a Destroying evil; [...] [...] make any Reflections on it. I [...] [...] say, what [...] thority; or [...]hat Origin [...] is [...] assigned unto these Inspirations; [...] [...] I know [...] Comfort and Counsil of the Church is without such things now sufficiently provided for; and our Lord Jesus having foretold the State of the Church until He come again, hath so concluded His Predictions, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add Plagues unto [Page 64] Him. Nevertheless, This also I shall take for granted, That the Great God intends hereby to Awaken us unto a Consideration of what is before us; That is a proper use of Miracles; and when we are once Awakened, there is provided for our Entertainment A more Sure Word of Prophecy: which O that our God may help us to Give Heed unto Am [...]n [...]
The Way to Prosperity.
A SERMON Preached to the HONOURABLE CONVENTION Of the GOVERNOUR, Council, and Representatives of the Massachuset-Colony in New-England; on May 23. 1689.
By COTTON MATHER.
BOSTON. Printed by R. Pierce. for Joseph Brunning, Obadiah Gill, and James Woode, MDCXC.
A Prophesy in the Divine Herbert's Church-Militant.
REligion stands on Tip-toe in our Land, Ready to pass to the American Strand. When height of Malice and prodigious Lusts, Impudent Sinning, Witchcrafts and Distrusts, (The marks of future Bane) shall fill our cup Unto the Brim, and make our measure up;
—Then shall Religion to America flee; They have their Times of Gospel, even as we.
—Yet as the Church shall thither westward fly, So Sin shall Trace and Dog her instantly.
The Preface,
THe Occasion which first produced the following Sermon, cannot be expressed in better Terms, that those which were used by the Worthy Gentlemen that were the Conservators of our peace, in their humble Address to Their Majesties, bearing Date, May 20th 1689. Wherein among other things they say,
—Your three several Princely Declarations, Encouraging the English Nation, to cast off the Yoke of a Tyrannical and Arbitrary Power, which at that time they were held under, have occurred unto the View and Consideration of the people in this Countrey, being themselves under alike (if not worse) evil and unhappy Circumstances with their Brethren in England; First by being unrighteously deprived of their Charter-Government, & Priviledges, without any Hearing or Tryal, and under utter impossibilities of having Notice of any Writt served upon them; and then followed with the Exercise of an illegal and Arbitrary power over them, which had almost ruined a late flourishing Countrey, and was become very grievous & intolerable; besides the growing miseries, [Page] and daily fears of a total Subversion, by enemies at home, and Invasion by forreign force; the people thereby excited, to imitate so noble and heroic an Exemple, being strongly and unanimously spirited, to intend their own safeguard and Defence, resolved to sieze upon and secure some of the principal persons concerned, and most active in the ill management, of the illegal and arbitrary Government, set over them by Commission. Accordingly upon the eighteenth day of April, last past, arose as one man, siezed upon Sr. E. Andros the late Governour, and other of the evil instruments, and have secured them for what Justice, Order from your Majesties shall direct.—Thus that Address.
Upon the late Revolutions thus described, ensued various debates about the further Steps that were needful to be taken for the service of Their Majesties and this afflicted Countrey; Which Debates quickly issued in the Return of our Government, into the Hands of our Ancient Magistrates; who with the Representatives or Deputies of the several Towns in the Colony, made another Address unto Their Majesties, bearing date, June 6. 1689. in which Address there were these Words.
—Finding an Absolute Necessity of Civil Government, the People generally manifested their Desires and Importunity once and again [Page] That the Governour, Deputy Governour and Assistants, chosen and sworn in May 1686. according to Charter & Court as then formed, would assume the Government;—
—the said Governour, Deputy-Governour, and Assistents, then Resident in the Colony, did Consent to accept the present Care and Government of this people, according to the Rules of the Charter, for the preservation of the Peace and common safety, and the putting forth further Acts of Authority, upon Emergencies: until by Direction from England, there should be an orderly Settlement; which we hope will Restore us to the full Exercise thereof, as formerly; notwithstanding we have, for some time, been most unrighteously, and injuriously deprived of it.
That Royal Charter being the sole Inducement and Encouragement unto our Fathers and predecessors, to come over into this Wilderness, and to plant the same at their own Cost and Charge.
In Answer to this Address, His Majesty in a most gracious Letter, bearing Date the 12th of August 1689. unto the Government here, uses these Expressions,
Whereas you give Us to understand, that you have taken upon you the present care of the Government, until you should receive Our Order therein, We do hereby Authori [...]e and [Page] Empower you to Continue in Our Name, your Care in the Administration thereof, and Preservation of the Peace, until We shall have taken such Resolutions, and given such Directions for the more orderly Settlement of the said Government, as shall most conduce to Our Service, and the Security and Satisfaction of Our Subjects within that Our Colony.
It was in the time of our greatest Heats and Straits, and at a time appointed for a General Assembly of this great Colony, that the ensu [...]ing Sermon was expected from me. Through the Grace of God, the Sermon Then was not altogether unacceptable to some who desired the Publication of it. But I gave not my full Consent unto their Desire, until now, they had an Opportunity (with their Renewed Importunity) to join in with another Discourse which they have obtained from me; and tho' the little Differences which were among us, when the Sermon was preached, are now so well Composed, yet I flatter any self with an opinion, that the things here insisted on, will not, should not be judg'd Unseasonable.
I confess it is a very Bold thing, for one every way so mean as my self, to Address the whole Countrey in such a manner as here I do; but, Si crimen erit, crimen Amoris erit; and if the general Dispositions of the year will not excuse [Page] a Breach of Order in me, I have but one thing more to offer by way of Satisfaction for it. There was once a people in the world, with whom it was a Custome, That when men would Conciliate the Favour of the Ruler, they were to present his own Son before him, as a Sight which would speak more than any Advocate. Instead thereof, that I may not want the Favour of my Countrey, how blameable soever they may count my freedome with them, I shall only present them with my own Father; whose cheerful Encounter with an hazardous Voyage unto a strange Land, and with innumerable Difficulties and Temptations these, for no other Cause, than that he might Speak FOR them, has at least merited oe Pardon for Mce, with whom he has for near two years now left both his Church and Family, if I have transgressed by taking a Liberty of Speaking To them at the same time, the things which may promote our Enjoyment of the Divine Presence with us. Now, may Salvation be nigh unto us, and Glory dwell in our Land!
The Way to PROSPERITY.
IT is a Remarkable Occasion which has brought these Words to be the Subject of our present Meditations; but it was much more a Remarkable Occasion which these Words were first uttered upon. We find them in the Sacred Book of Chronicles, which Chronicles are not the Civil Records, in other-parts of the Bible refer'd unto; but an Inspired History of things that concerned the Line of Christ and the Church of God for five hundred more than Three Thousand [Page 2] years. It seems as an Epitome of the Whole, (for so tis in Jerom's Language) to be written as late as the Last of all the Books in the Old Testament; and the Hebrew Bibles give it a place accordingly. The Greeks choose to entitle it, The Book of things (else where) passed by; because, as Lyra notes, according to the Rule of our Saviour, It gathers Fragments that nothing may be lost; and if there were nothing else but the Story which affords our Text unto us, to justifie that Appellation, it were enough: 'tis a Story passed by in the Book of Kings; but worthy to be had in everlasting Remembrance.
The ready Pen of Ezra (for him we conjecture to be the Scribe of the Holy Spirit here, notwithstanding those few Clauses which may be judged to be added by another hand after his Decease, I say the Pen of Ezra) is here informing us, That the people of God had newly been invaded by a vast Army of Cushites; but we are yet at a loss who these Cushites were? Far more Scholars [...] the World, than there were Souldiers [...] that Army have hitherto been content with our Translation, which renders them Ethiopians here. But that learned French-man Bochart, by whose happy industry, more than any man's, the Treasures in the Bowels of the Scriptures have been dely'd into, has with [Page 3] irrefragable Demonstration prov'd, That not Ethiopians but Arabians are the Cushites mentioned in the Oracles of God. These Arabians, tho they have not been called Saracens (as has been thought) from their word Sarak, that signifies, to Steal; yet for their Euracious Inclinations, they well deserved such an Etymology; they were a wild sort of men, that liv'd much upon the Rapin and Ruin of their Neighbours; and particularly, a Million of them now designed Jerusalem for a prey. The blessed God gave His people a notable victory over these Invaders, and they were now returning from Gerar (a place between thirty and forty miles off) unto Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit of God excited and inclined a Prophet whose Name was Az [...]iah, to entertain them with a faithful & solid Sermon hereupon; and in my Text you have the Sum and Substance of it.
We may observe,
First, The Proeface of it; and that is very awful and earnest: Hear ye me Asa, and all Judah, and Benjamin. As he was probably none of the greatest, so tis like he was none of the oldest men; for it seems by the eighth verse, that his Father was yet alive, & present at this time. Yet being to speak in the Name of the great and eternal God, he expects, he demands the attention of the [Page 4] whole Army to him.
Secondly, the Design of it; and that is, to decclare both the Rise and Use of their late Prosperity. The Lord is with you, while you you are with Him; or as the Vulgar Latin has it, Inasmuch as you have been with him. What follows, is but an Explication, and Amplification of this. He saw they were taken up with various Businesses and Contrivances; they had their Enemies under Hatches, and their minds were full of Thoughts and Cares, What to do next? But he calls them off to acknowledge the Presence of God, as the cause of their coming off so well in their late Action, and above all things to obtain & secure the presence of God, that they might come off as well, in in their future Enterprises.
I am therefore to call for your Attention unto this Faithful Saying.
DOCT. That The GOD of Heaven will be with a people while they are with Him.
'Tis by the ensuing Propositions, that the Explication of this Truth shall be endeavoured.
PROPOSITION. I.
It is the Interest, and should be the Desire, of Every people to have the God of Heaven With them. But we are to enquire,
What is implied in that presence of GOD, which we are to be solicitous about?
[Page 5] For Answer to this; There is a Threefold Presence of God, mentioned in the Scripture of Truth.
First, God is Naturally present with all Creatures. He is an Immense Being, and no Creature can be without him. The Apostle thus argued in the Court at Athens, in Act, 17.27. God is not far from every one of us. No, He is near us all, He is with us all. And Paul could have had the Gentiles themselves confessing it; for besides what their Seneca did own, One of their own Poets had said, Jovis omnia plena. It is the Speech of our God, in Jer. 23. 24. Do not I fill Heaven and Earth, saith the Lord? Yea, That He do's. The Jews call God by the Name of Makom, or of Place, because all things are in Him; this is His Name in the Book of Esther, if I mistake it not. Whether we may count it proper and physical to speak of an Imaginary, Infinite space, beyond the utmost Selvige of the world, replenished with our God alone; yet we are sure that the Heaven of Heavens gives no limits unto His Being; and the Ancients were not mistaken when they said, Deus Ipse Sibi, et Mundus et Locus et Omnia. We cannot so well say, That God is in the World, as we may say, The whole World is in God; & we may say with the Psalmist, in Psal. 139.7. Whither shall I flee from thy presence?
[Page 6] Secondly, God is Gloriously present with the Inhabitants of the Third Heaven. The Heaven of Heavens hath in it most intimate and marvellous manifestations of God. It is the Place, of which we may say, as tis said of that State, in Rev. 21. 23. The glory of God doth lighten it. There the blessed ones have God with them, so that they Alwayes behold His face; and they are satisfied with His likeness for ever. When we come to Heaven, then as in I. Thes. 4. 17. We shall ever be with the Lord. So the Lord will be with us for ever. Heaven is the Throne of the Most High; He is there as a Prince in his Throne; the Great KING is in a manner very ineffable residing there. To be there, is called in 2. Cor. 5. 4. A being present with the Lord. Hence unto the Heaven, and not unto a Bible, are we directed to make our Corporal Applications in our Prayers, or our Oathes before the Lord.
But Thirdly, God is Graciously present with His people, by being Favourable unto them. And this Gracious presence of God is that which a people ought to be concerned for. It lies in The Engagement of Divine Providence for the Welfare of such a people. God is with us when God is for us.
To particularize,
First, God is with a people by Directing [Page 7] of them. When Israel was to pass thro' the Wilderness, they had that encouragement, in Exod. 22. 15. The presence of God going with them. What was that? Why, They had a cloudy fiery Pillar miraculously Leading of them every step of the way; There was a wonderful Pillar which was a Cloud by day, and a Fire by night; the Lower part of which rested on the Tabernacle, while the Upper part was to be seen by the whole Congregation: the Motions of this being managed by the Ministry of Angels, now God was with them, and He led them forth by the right way. A people are often brought into a Wilderness of Difficulties and Emergencies: but if God be with them, He guides them to a good Issue of them all. The Presence of God appears in His Directing and Inclining of a people to such Actions, as may be for His Honour and their Safety, and such Methods, as may extricate them out of all Distresses. When God is with a people, He shapes their Counsels for them, and he disposes them to the Things that should be done. He supplies them with Apprehensions beyond the Reach and Verge of their own Wisdome, and He [...]ayes before them Invitations, and Provocations, which as it were push them into the way wherein they should go. When the Jews were upon a Re-Assumption of the desireable things [Page 8] which the Babylonians had deprived 'em of' they took a Right Way to dissappoint all that were desirous to interrupt them in it. We find in Neh. 4. 13. That while those Exercises continued, they waited in a posture agreeable thereunto; and when the danger was over, then they returned every one to his work. How came this to pass? 'Twas because GOD was with them.
Secondly, God is with a People, by Protecting of them. 'Twas the promise of God unto His people, in Isa. 43. 2. When thou passest thro' the Waters, I will be with thee, and thro' the Rivers, they shall not overflow thee. On which Text, blessed Bilney after his Condemnation so sweetly paraphrased, that his Friends caused the whole Sentence to be fairly written on their Tables. A people may be ready to be swallow'd up, by a stormy, gaping Ocean of Troubles, but if God be with them, they shall escape clear of all. The Presence of God is a Defence, a Refuge to the people that are partakers of it. It was said unto David in 2. Sam. 7. 9. I was with thee, and have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight. When God is with a people, He distracts and confounds their enemies, and He troubles those who trouble them. A people who have God with them, are too strong for all the Malice and Power of their enemies; no Adversary [Page 9] no Desolation, shall make such a people miserable; they are the Jacob, unto whom in Gen. 28. 15. Behold, I am with thee, and I will keep thee, saith the Lord.
Thirdly, God is with a people by His Assisting and Succeeding of them. When Joshua had a vast Undertaking in hand, it was said unto him in Cap. 1. 9. Be of good Courage, for the Lord thy God is with thee, whither soever thou goest. q. d. God will Assist thee, and succeed thee, in thy undertakings. The Presence of God will carry a people comfortably through all that they take in hand. If they have Canaanites to subdue; if they have Enjoyments to obtain or preserve, the Presence of God will prosper them in doing all. It was said unto Solomon, in I. Chron.22. 11. My son, the Lord be with thee, and prosper thou, and build the house of the Lord thy God. Thus, if the Lord be with a people, they shall prosper In all their Affairs; in every Expedition, they shall come off with Satisfaction; and they shall not miscarry in any of their Applications. This is the Presence of the Lord.
Proposition. II.
The Presence of God with a people in His Outward Providence, has a diverse Foundation and Continuance from His Presence with His People, in the Covenant of Grace. As tis well [Page 10] observed by the great Owen, in a Discourse unto the Parliament, These two are to be carefully distinguished. We must not reflect on the Stability of the New-Covenant, for what Variety and Soveraignty we may see in providential Dispensations, toward this and that people in the world. This matter seems determined by David, in 2. Sam. 23. 5. Tho' my house be not so with God, yet He has made with me an Everlasting Covenant, ordered in all things and sure. David had promises for the prosperity of his House; He had also the sure mercies of the Covenant made over to him in the promises of God. These promises had now a different Establishment; The Sure mercies of the Covenant, were unto him more Absolute and Immutable; but the prosperity of his House, we find under another Law, and subject unto a dreadful Alteration.
To bring these things into the case before us.
God has in the Covenant of Grace, promised, That He will be with His people. This we read in Heb. 13. 5. He hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. The Alsufficient God, who is HEE that answers our Necessities, Let them be what they will; the Unchangeable God, who is a HE still, whatever He was to the Saints of old; this God hath said [and how much better is this Autos E [...]reken than the best Ipse dixit in the world! [Page 11] He hath said it, and this] with multipli'd Negatives, in the Original, heaped one upon another, I will not, I will not leave thee, I will not, I will not, I will not forsake thee. Well, but God is not with a people in His outward Providence just after the manner therein observed.
This Two-fold Presence of God;
First, It has a Diverse Foundation. When we look on the Covenant of Grace, there the Sins of one are explated by the Sufferings of another; and so, God comes to be with His people, for whom the Atonement is thus Procured. Thus tis said in 2. Cor. 5. 25. Christ was made sin [or a Sin-offering] for us, that we might become the Righteousness of God in Him. Now come to outward Providence, and there you see other measures taken. Here God is with a people, according to those Terms, in Ezek. 18.20. The Soul that sinneth IT shall dye; one shall not bear the Iniquity of nother.
Again, It hath a Diverse Continuance. When we look on the Covenant of Grace, there God hath [...]ound Himself to be with His people for ever; yea, to see that they shall therefore for ever be with Him. He there sa [...]es as in Jer. 32. 40. I will not turn away from them to do them good, but I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me. Now come to outward Providence; and there [Page 12] you see tis otherwise. God is with a people for a while; and upon their misbehaviours and provocations, He changes the Tenour of His Dispensations to them. Tis with them, as it was with that family, in I. Sam. 2.30. I said indeed, that thy house should walk before me forever; But now the Lord sa [...]es, that be far from me.
The sense of these things will prepare your Thoughts for one Conclusion more, which is,
Proposition. III.
A People must be with God, or God will not be with them. And here also, to prevent Mistakes, Let that one Text be alwaies carried in our Minds; Neh. 9. 18. Being merciful, thou for sookest them not; there is Mercy in the Whole of this matter. Let it be noted, That tho' this Condition seems to be im [...]sed upon us; yet it is Grace, pure Grace, rich Grace that helps us, when we are helped unto the performance of it. When a people have so been with God, as that He has been with them, they are to shout, Grace, Grace! concerning all. It is also to be noted, that this Benefit dos not depend upon that Condition, as an Effect upon the real and proper cause of it. When a people has been with God, this does not merit, and so procure that God should be with them; but that is barely the Antecedent unto which, this is the Conse [...].
[Page 13] Having praemsed this I must now affirm, God is with you, while you are with Him. We need only reflect on the People of Israel, for an Instance of it. That whole History, which almost fills the Bible, proclames nothing more than this; it loudly declares, That while a people are with God, God will be with them; but that He will be very Terrible in His providential Dispensations towards such a people as do forsake Him.
But, What is it for a people to be With God? In short,
Our being With God, implies the Whole of our Obedience to Him. Our Duty to God must be attended, that we may have the Presence of God. The Wh [...]oe of this Duty is comprised in that Expression of our being with the Lord. Particularly the Hebrew Particle [ [...]im] in our Text, admits of three Significations; it signifies, With, and For, & Like, [which last Signification I make the more free withal, because a little Philology will acquaint us with many Exemples of it: for instance, When David saith in Psal. 120, 5. I dwell in (Gnim Hebr.) the tents of Kedar; a very great Interpreter translates it so, I dwell As the tents of Kedar. i. e. Like the inhabitants of the Stony Sun-burnt Arabia; whom indeed I don't Remember David ever was among.] Accordingly, a people have Three [Page 14] Things incumbent on them, if they would enjoy the Presence of God.
First, A People should be with God, by Communion [With] Him. This tis to be With Him; There are Certain meanes of Communion between God and us; and these we must be continually approaching to Him in. We are With God, while we are at Prayer before Him; hence in our Context here, it immediately follows, If you seek the Lord, He will be found of you, While we do seek Him, we are with Him. The Psalmist was a man much in prayer, and therefore he could say as in Psal. 73. 23. I am continually with thee. A people much in Prayer may say the same, We are continually with the Lord. A People that will pray upon all occasions, a people that will pray over all Businesses, a peothat will retire into the Mount for pr [...]er (and Easting too) at every turn; that people is with the Lord. And the whole Worship of God must be, diligently, graciously, faithfully frequented by a people that would be with Him. We are with God, when we are at His House. A people should support & esteem, and use all the Ordinances of God among them. The Church of God hath His very special Presence in it; the Name of the Church is that is Ezek. 48. 35. Jehovah Shammah, the Lord is there. We should all be there [Page 15] too, and there give those Encouragements which are due to the Institutions of God; So shall we be with the Lord.
Secondly, A people should be with God by Activity [For] Him. To be For God is to be with God. It was once the Summons given in Exod. 32. 26. Who is one the Lords side? And all the Sons of Levi gathered themselves; they were with God in doing so. Tis a Summons given to the world in every Generation, Who is on the Lords side? They that obey the Summons are with the Lord. A people full of Contrivances for the Interest of God, are with Him. A people should set themselves to advance the Glory of God; they should own His Truths, and His Wayes; and endeavour to draw all about them into the Acknowledgement of the same. A people should propound the Glory of God as their cheef End and the main Scope of all that they do; and they should think much of no Cost, no Pains, nor (tho, as a Martyr once expressed himself, tho every hair on their heads were a life) should a Thousand Lives be dear unto them, in the promoting of it. Then are they with the Lord; they are so, when God can say of them, as in Isa. 43. 10. Ye are my Witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant.
Thirdly, A people should be With God, by [Page 16] Behaviour [Like] Him. To be Like God is to be with God. They that are with Him, do not walk contrary to Him. God and we should be One. A people should have the same Designs, the same Desires, which the Written Edicts of Heaven declare to be in the blessed God; and not only so, but the same Vertues too. Is God Holy? Thus a people should not bear with them that are evil. Is God Righteous? Thus a people should abhor all Injustice and Oppression. Is God Merciful? Thus a people should be disposed unto all fair acts of Pitty and Kindness. Then they will be with the Lord; and, O that this people were so with Him!
This is the USE to be now made of what has been delivered.
Let us all now, Be with God, that God may Be with us. I suppose, whatever else we differ in, we generally concur in that wish, I. King. 8. 27. The Lord our God be with us, as He was with our Fathers, let Him not leave us nor forsake us. O that we might all as much concur in an endeavourous Resolution, to be with God, as our Fathers were with Him; not to leave Him, nor forsake him. There is as much of New-England in this great Congregation as can well be reach'd by the voice of one Address; tis indeed, the best part of [Page 17] New-England, that is, at least Represented in this Assembly. As the great Council at Jerusalem satt near the Temple, thus the whole Convention of the Massachusets, is here come into the House of God this day: Wherefore I take the boldness to say, Hear ye me Asa, and all Judah, and Benjamin. The Cheef Sinner and least Preacher among all your Sons, now takes a Liberty to mind you, That God will be with you while you are with Him. Now that we may be all of us inspired with a Zeal for this great thing this Day,
Let us Consider, First,
How Desirable, How Necessary a Thing it is, that we should have God with us. Truly, This is the Unum Necessarium of New-England!
Nothing is more Desireable, for us, than the Presence of our God. The Jews have a Fable of their Manna, That whatever any man had a mind to [...]ast, he presently found in the Manna a Savour & a Relish of it. It is very true of this Blessed Presence; all manner of Blessings are enwrapped in it. There is a multitude of Blessings which we are desireous of; but they are all contained in this comprehensive thing: It will give every honest man, all that he wants. This will extricate us out of all our Labyrinths; This will set all things to rights among us; This will [Page 18] wonderfully carry on all the Salvations which have been begun for us, by the God of our Salvations. If Christ, if God be aboard, our little Vessel will not sink in the gaping, roaring, formidable Waves now tossing of it. Well did the Apostle say, in Rom. 8. 31. If God be for us, who can be against us? Thus, If God be with us, we have All for us. One GOD will weigh down more than ten Worlds. If we have the Presence of that God, Who made and moves the Universe by a Word; if we have the Presence of that God, Who can Command and Create our Deliverances, O most Happy We! We may then join in such Triumphant Acclamations as that in Psal. 118. 6. The Lord is on my side, I will not fear; what can man do unto me? We may then defie, even the Gates of Hell it self, for, Cur met [...]at homine [...] homo in sinu Dei posit us? and tho' abroad at this day, The earth is removing, and the Waters roar, and are troubled, and the mountains are shaking, splitting, tumbling, with the swelling thereof; Tho' the great and the terrible God be at this Day, coming out of His place, to make all Europe a stage of blood and fire, and make the Nations everywhere drink deep of the Cup that shall make them giddy with all manner of Confusion & Astonishment; Yet WE shall be helped right early, for God is in the midst of us.
[Page 19] Add to this; Nothing is more Necessary for us, than the Presence of God. We are undone, thrice, and four times Undone, if we have it not. Methinks I hear the Almighty GOD with a voice more awful than that of the loudest Thunder, saying over us, as in Hos. 9. 12. Wo to them when I depart from them. And Wo to us indeed; we are in a most woful estate, if it come to that! How can we endure the mention of it, without our most importunate Deprecations, O our God, leave us not! We can have a prospect of nothing but horrible Disorders, Agonies and Vexations, if we lose the Presence of our Lord: We ly open to no less than a fearful Dissipation, and more than all our late Oppressors would rejoice to see brought upon us. We have lately been complaining of Burdens, that were grievous to us; but I may warn you of our danger to feel one Burden more, which will infinitely exceed them all; tis that in Jer. 23. 33. What Burden? I will even forsake you, saith the Lord. Behold a Burden that will sink us into a bottomless Abiss of Calamities! The Presence of GOD, This is no less than the very Soul of New-England; We are dead and gone, if that withdraw. When Israel was nimbly enough possessing themselves of the promised Land, which God had given them such a CHARTER [Page 20] for, they perished in the Attempt; for in Deut, 1. 42. The Lord said, go not up, for I am not among you. Alas, if we don't in the first place look to this, That God be among us, we cannot avoid all manner of Dissappointments, Desolations.
Let us Consider, Secondly: What uncomfortable Symptomes we have had of God's not being with us. It seems as if God had fulfilled that sad Word on this poor Land, in Deut. 31. 17. I will forsake them, and many evils shall befal them, so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because God is not among us? There is a vast number of Calamities, which have given us lamentable cause to fear, That God has forsaken us. Why have we suffered such a Blast, both on our Trade, and on our Corn, that the Husband-man complaines, I looked for much, and [...]o, it came to little! and the Mariner complains, I went out full, & came home empty! Tis Because our God is not among us. Why have we had Fire after Fire, laying our Treasures in Ashes? What means the heat of this Anger, that Boston, the most noble, and vital Bowel of the Territory, hath with a twice repeted Conflagration suffered such a Loss of that which in the Body politic answers to Blood in the Body natural? Tis Because [Page 21] our God is not among us. Why have we had War after War, made upon us by a Foolish Nation? Why have the worst of the Heathen had renewed advantages to disturb our Peace? And why have so many of our Brethren and Neighbours been made a prey to the most Savage Murderers in the world? It is Because our God is not among us. Give me leave to say, as in Judg. 6. 12. If the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? But we may find Humiliation enough to convince us of this deplorable thing, from what we have endured upon the Loss of our Government. She of old said unto our Lord Jesus, in J [...]h. 11. 21. Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not dyed. So, If the Lord had been here, tis possible we had not Died. If the Lord had been with us, would he have made our Wall so feeble, that (as they said of Jerusalem) the going up of a poor Fox upon it, should break it down? If the Lord had been with us, had all the wild Creatures that passed by this Vineyard, found such Opportunities to be plucking at it? No, Our God would have kept us, as A vineyard of red Wine; and lest any should have hurt us, He, (the Lord) would have kept it, night and day. If the Lord had been with us, had you ever thought you had seen cause to Declare, as you have lately & justly done, That a Company of [...]bject strangers had made a meer Booty of us? Had [Page 22] Had we ever felt the sore grievances of an illegal & arbitrary Government? No; The God of Heaven was not with that oppress'd people, to whom He said in Isa. 1. 7. Your Countrey [...] desolate; your land, Strangers devour it.
What shall I say? It was an Appeal made in Joel, 1. 2. Hear this, ye old men,; hath this been in your dayes? Even so, I may say to the old men within the hearing of it; My Fathers, You Remember how we were, when God was with us; pray, was it so in your dayes, as it has been in ours? Were you visited with Plague after Plague, in a long Series of heavy Judgements, as We your poor Children are? Surely, They will tell us; God as not with us, as He was with them.
In all these matters, our Case may at least have some Correspondence with that in Luc. 23. 28. He made as though He would havegone; but they constrained Him, saying, Abide with us!
Let us Consider Thirdly; If we are not With God, we shall be guilty of an Apostasie, and that under very shameful, very direful Aggravations too.
We shall be Apostates, and O let us not be so, lest our God say, My soul can have no pleasure in them. But if we are so, we shall be of all Apost [...]s the most inexcusable Let us Consider, what Fathers we have had; they were with God: I may say of 'em as in hos. 9. 8. They were with my God: & they are gone to be so forever. [Page 23] What an unaccountable thing will it be for us, to have that Character, which we have been so much cautioned against, There arose another generation which knew not the Lord? What? Shall the Grandchildren of Moses turn Idolaters? and shall the Children of Samuel become the Children of Belial? Shall we forget the Hope of our Fathers, or forsake our Fathers Friend? The very Graves of those blessed men, every Post, every Stone upon their Graves, is a Witness against us, if we do. With dismal Accents, Methinks, their very Ghosts, will groan unto us, Alas, Is our posterity come to this! Nay, Abraham would be Ignorant of us, and Israel would not acknowledge us, if we should be so degenerate as to lose the Presence of the Lord.
Let us also consider, what Warnings we have had. It may be said unto us, as in Jer. 25. 4. The Lord hath sent unto you all His Servants the prophets. This Countrey has been blessed with a most faithful Ministry, by which, I suppose, every Assembly in this Territory, has been called upon, to Be with God, and to keep with Him. Especially the Sermons which our ELECTIONS have put the Embassadours of God upon Preaching and Printing of; these have been so many loud Warnings unto us, That we leave Him not. [Page 24] In them we have been faithfully warned, That our true Interest is Not to Lye unto God. We have been Warned, That the latter end of our Misbehaviours will be Destruction from the Lord. We have been Warned, That We must Repent and do our first Works, or have the Candlestick of the Lord Jesus removed from us. In a word, We have been warned from Heaven, That If we forsake our God, He will cast us off for ever. O miserable We, if we do it after all.
These Considerations, will not have their due Force, unless they expire in a Threefold Request, which I must now lay before you; and I may justly assert concerning the Things contained therein, They are not Vain Things, they are Our Life. Wherefore, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah, & Benjamin; Hear ye these things, all ye people of the Massachusetts!
First, Let us Return to the Lord. We must Come to Him, if we would Be with Him. We have marvellously backsliden from our God, but He [...] after us, Return ye backsliding Chil [...], and I will heal your Backslidings. O that we may all as one man Reply what is in Jer. 3. 22. Behold, we come unto thee, for thou are the Lord our God! If we ask that Question, in Mal. 2. 7. Wherein [Page 25] shall we return? Methinks, t'were an harder Quaestion, Wherein should we not? But, Behold, We have had a great voice out of the Temple in answer thereunto. We have had the Elders and Messengers of our Churches, conven [...]d in a STNOD, solemnly informing of us, Wherein we shall Return. God forbid the Advice of that Synod, should only serve to Convict us and Condemn us, in the Day when He shall take vengeance on us for our Conten [...]ing of it. That were dreadful indeed! But in Compliance with it, Let every man seriously now enquire of himself, What have I done? Mark what I say, That man who does not suspect himself, of having a share in the Sins which have driven away from us the Presence of our God; That man, I may safely affirm it, is one of the principle Troublers of this Israel; I do without any Scruple say it, Thou art the man. Let us all then Examine our selves, and set upon the Reforming of our own Hearts and Lives, and the Renewing of our Covenants with the Lord.
Indeed, both the Objects in which, and the Authors from whom we have endured our Calamities, those are enough to indigitate what Sins they are that have exposed us thereunto. Let me in two or three instances use of plain dealing with you, agreeable to my [Page 26] station here this day.
What have been the Objects in which we have been afflicted? Our Fruits have been blasted; & were they not abused in the excesses of Sensuality? Our Lands have been threat'ned; and were not They the Idols, for the sake of which we have offended GOD, and almost Renounced all that was Holy, and Just and Good? The most happy and easy Government in the world, was changed with us, into what has by the most impartial men been confessed to have become Intolerable; Why, Did not men despise the Best of Governments, and procure other things to be set over them, because they endeavoured to make Loggs of what they before enjoyed? To pass on, Were we not in the late unreasonable Extortions of the Law, invited to consider, Whether our needless Multiplications of Litigious Contentious Law-Suits formerly amongst us, were not as Scandal thus chastised? Were we not in the late unsufferable Injuries, Abuses, and Exactions of them, that under the pretence of the Excise carried on very outragious Villanies, put upon Considering, Whether the Multitude or Quality of Drinking-Houses, in the midst of us, had not once been a Stumbling-block of our Iniquity!
[Page 27] Again, What have been the Authors from whom we have been afflicted? Our Molestations have risen very much from Indian Hands. And Alas, have we not very much Injured the Indians? I do not mean, by taking from them Their Land; For it was Hardly possible they should be more fairly dealt withal than they have been in that particular; but by Teaching of them, Our Vice. We that should have learn'd them to Pray, have learn'd them to Sin. Endeavors for their Conversion have by many people been blown upon; but there have been wicked English, who have taught them to drink, yea, and to curse, and swear; things which they knew not the meaning of, till they came to School unto such White Pagans as some that wear the Christian-Livery among our selves. And have not we also Followed the Indians? The Indians are Infamous, especially for Three Scandalous Qualities: They are Lazy Drones, and love Idleness Exceedingly! They are also most impudent Lyars, and will invent Reports and Stories at a strange and monstrous rate; and they are out of measure Indulgent unto their Children, there is no Family-Government among them. But, O how much do our people Indianize in every one of those Abominable things. We must repent of these our miscarriages, or else our [Page 28] God will take up that Resolution concerning us, I will even forsake them, saith the Lord.
Secondly, Let not Sin be With us, and God will be so. Tis the purpose of our God, in Josh. 7. 12. I will not be with you except ye destroy the Accursed Thing, from among you, Let us then Destroy that Accursed thing.
Especially, Let us take heed of the Sins, which at this Time, we have a peculiar Disposition to. It was complain'd in Hos. 7. 1. When I would have healed Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered. It has bin thus, but God will not be With us, if it still be thus among our selves. Our good God, the Lord our Healer, is now Healing of us: O let us not now be impatient patients, lest that our blessed Physitian deal hardly and roughly with us. Impatiens agrotus crudelem facit Medicum. Let us now no more discover Revengefulness against them that have deserved Ill of us. Let the Law, and not the Sword measure out their due unto them. No more discover an Unthankfulness unto them that have deserved Well of us. Requite them not with Censure and Hatred for their unwearied pains to preserve our Peace. No more discover a Contempt of the Ministers, who set themselves faithfully to Declare the [Page 29] whole Counsil of God, and to Lift up their voice like a Trumpet in shewing us our sins. They are all agreed (I hope) as one man to live and dye studying of your Well-fare; but if they are unjustly ill-treated with you, the great God, whose Messengers they are, will take notice of it, and say, Ye have despised Me!
And O let us no more Discover such a Spirit of Lying as we have made our selves worthy to be reproved for. We find mention of an Evil Spirit, that said in I. King. 22. 22. I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all the prophets. Doubtthe same Devil has been suing for a License to go forth and be a Lying Spirit in the mouth of near all the people here: I would to God, this Devil were in a Shorter Chain! I beseech you Let not this Land have that Character, A Countrey full of Lies.
But of all our Errors, There is none of such dangerous and threatning Consequence as the Contention which we are too prone to break forth into. We are too much a Contentious, and that will soon render us a Wretched and a Ruin'd people. A Divided and Quarrelsome People, do even say to the Almighty, Depart from us; for He is the God of Peace. But O, What is our meaning then, to make a full submission & entire resignation [Page 30] of our selves to the Tyranny of our own Passions, as we have too much done, while we have been debating about the Measures of another Submission and Resignation in our various Revolutions! I have read of a people with whom it was a Law, That in a Fray, where Swords were drawn, If a Child did but cry PEACE, they must End the Quarrel, or else he dyed that strook the first blow after PEACE was named. He that Considers the Feavourish Paroxysms which this Land is now raging in, through meer Misunderstanding about the Means leading to the End wherein we are generally agreed, and how ready we are to treat one another with fiery Animosities, had need cry, Peace, Peace! with a very speedy importunity. For my own part, I confess my self but a Child, and among the meanest, the smallest of your Children too; but yet I am old enough to cry Peace! and in the Name of God I do it. Peace! my dear Countrey-men; Let there be Peace in all our Studies, Peace in all our Actions, and Peace notwithstanding all our Differences. We cannot avoid having our Different Sentiments; but Peace! I say; O let not our Dissents put us upon Hatred and Outrage, and every evil work. It has not a little surprised mee to read in a Greek Author, who wrote Fifteen hundred [Page 31] years ago; that in the times long praeceding his, there was a Tradition among them, that Europe, and Asia, and Africa, were Islands, encompassed by the Ocean, without and beyond which was another as big as They: in which other World, were mighty and longliv'd people, inhabiting of great Cities; the two greatest whereof were called, one of them, The Fighting City; the other of them, The Godly City. Behold very Ancient Footsteps of the knowledge which the old World had of our America, some Thousands of years ago. But I pray, which of them American Cities, must New-England become Incorporate into? Truly, if we are a Fighting, or a Disagreeing People, we shall not be a Pious one. We have hitherto, professed our selves, A Countrey of Puritans; I beseech you then let us have the wisdom to be first [...] then peaceable. Every man should count himselfe liable to follies, & mistakes, & [...] not a few. Are you so, or are you not? If you are not, what do you here in this Lower World, where you can find no more of your own Attainments? If you are so, then be patient and peaceable towards those who see not with your eyes! Let us all condescend one unto another; and let no man be in a foaming Rage; if every she of do not how to hi [...]. There is one ingenious [Page 32] way to unite this people, if it were so heeded as it ought to be. I remember, an inquisitive person of old, that he might know which was the Best Sect among all the Philosophers, he asked one and another, and every one still preferr'd the Sect which he was of himself: But he then asked them, successively, Which do you reckon the next best? and they all agreed, that next to their own, Plato's was the Best: upon which, he chose That, as indeed the Best of all. Thus, We all have our several Schemes of things, and every man counts his own to be the Best; but I would say to every man, Suppose your Scheme laid aside, What would you count the Next Best; Doubtless we should be of One mind as to That: And if we could act by the common measures of Christianity, we should soon be united in it. O that we could receive the Word of the Lord Jesus, in 2. Cor. 13. 11. Brethren, live in peace, and the the God of Love and Peace shall be with you.
Thirdly. Let every man do his Part, and his Best in this Matter, That God may be with us.
Behold, a work provided for all sorts of men.
Pardon me, that I first offer it unto You, that are or may be Our Superiours. It was said in Hos. 11. 12. Judah ruleth with God. When Rulers are with God, O happy Government! Unto YOU, much Honoured, [Page 33] I would humbly address this Petition. That Your first work may be to think on some considerable Expedient, by which the Presence of God may be secured unto us. A little Consultation may soon produce, what all New-England may bless you for. Yea, tis very much in your Power to do what may have a Tendency to perpetuate the Presence of God unto the succeeding Generations. I cannot for bear uttering the Wish of the great Chytr [...]us in this Honourable Audience, Utinam potentes rerum Domini majorem Ecclesioe et Scholarum cur am susciperent! May a godly and a learned Ministry be every where encouraged: and no Plantations allowed to live without a good Minister in them. May the Colledge be maintained, and that River the wholsome streams whereof have made glad the City of God, and blest us with a priviledge above the other Out-goings of our Nation, be kept Running, with Issues beyond those from the Seminaries of Canada or Mexico; may Schools be countenanced, and all good wayes to nourish them and support them in every Town, be put in Execution; you shall then probably leave the Presence of God, as a blessed Legacy with such as may come after you. I know not whether we do, or can at this Day, labour under an iller Symtom, than the too general Want of Education in the Rising Generation; [Page 34] which, if not prevented, will gradually, but speedily, dispose us, to that sort of Criolian Degeneracy, observed to deprave the Children of the most noble and worthy Europeans, when transplanted into the America. The Youth of this Countrey, are very sharp, and early ripe in their Capacities, above most in the world; and were the Benefits of a Religious and Ingenuous Education bestowed upon them, they would soon prove an Admirable People; and as we know that England afforded the first Discoverers of America in these latter Ages, whatever the Spaniards may pretend unto the Contrary; for it may be proved that both Britains and Saxons, did inhabit here, at least Three or Four hundred years before Columbus was born into the world, which the Annals themselves of those times do plainly enough Declare; So our little New-England may soon produce them that shall be Commanders of the greatest Glories that America can pretend unto. But if our Youth be permitted to run wild in our Woods, we shall soon be Forsaken by that God, Whom our Fathers followed hither, when it was a land not sown; and Christianity, which like the Sun, hath moved still Westward, unto these Goings down of the Sun, will Return to the old World again, leaving here, not a New-Jerusalem, as Doctor Twiss hoped, [Page 35] but a Gog and M [...]gog, as Master Mede feared; for the last of the Latter dayes. Now may the God of Heaven, bless the Wisdome and Goodness of Your Endeavours, for the continuance of His Presence, with those that may rise up in your stead, when you shall be gone to be forever with the Lord. Allow me to say, unto the Fathers of this Countrey, what was said unto the Judges of old, Deal courageously, and the Lord shall be with the good.
And as for Us, that are and shall be Inferiors, Let us also do what we can, That our God may be still among us. We ought all of us humbly to lay before our worthy Rulers that Encouragement in Ezr. 10 4. Arise, for this matter belongs to thee, we also will be with thee, be of good courage & do it. Let there be a publick Spirit in us all, for the good of the whole; the Rarity & Mortality where of among us, New-England bewails among the greatest of its Calamities. Especially, Let us Pray hard, That God would not leave the Land. It was a Publique Spirit which was in that Famous Prince of Orange, who was the first Captain General of the United Provinces an hundred years ago; and the Ancestor of that Illustrious Person, whose glorious D [...]gh and Service, we have lately with so much [...] Declared for; that when he was ha [...]ly [...]rchered by the Pistol of a papist, His dying and only words were, O [Page 36] my God, take pitty of my soul, and of this poor people. When he had but one breath to draw in the world His poor people had half of it! O Let this poor People have no less than Half our Cares, half our Prayers. Let no man say, I am a sorry Creature, of what account can my prayers be? For You that can do little else but pray, can yet be the instruments of saving this poor people, by the Presence of the Lord. We find in Amos. 7. 2. That a poor Herdsman and Huckster, kept the great God from Leaving of the Land. A poor Husbandman, yea a poor Woman, by lively prayers, may do incredibly much towards the Keeping of our God yet among us.
And if God be With us, then His Rod, and Staffe, His mighty Crook, which horribly breaks the bones of all that it falls upon, will crush and wound all that shall go to make this Wilderness, A valley of the shadow of Death unto us; and beat away all that may essay to do us any Harm. So shall we be Led and Fed among the Sheep of our GOD; He will Restore us, and His Goodness and Mercy shall follow us all our Dayes.
MANTISSA.
THus have the Words of God been Calling upon us, to beware of Loosing His gracious Presence. Now the Presence of God, will either go or stay with His Gospel; and the Principal Danger of New-England lies in its giving an ill Entertainment unto that glorious Gospel of our Lord Jesus. Let us then see wether the Works of God, have not also been calling upon us to take heed of that Epidemical Evil; and let what has befallen some of our Neighbours, in our dayes be produced as a Warning unto us to avoid any Contempt of that Gospel, which others have smarted for the Slighting of.
I would fill the Remaining pages of this sheet with a Discourse fetch't from a Reserved Collection of MEMORABLE PROVIDENCES, not improper to be produced on this Occasion.
To Despise and Reject the Glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ, is an Evil, than which none is more evil; and yet nothing is more ordinary than this extraordinarily sinful Sin; which Unbeleef may be accounted, as Tertullian of old esteem'd Idolatry, the Praecipuum crimen Humani generis, the grand Crime of [Page 2] Mankind. Low thoughts about the Person, and the Office, and the Beauty of the Lord Jesus; contemtuous Apprehensions of His Truths and His waves, and His Ordinances; these are the Things which bring the most Signal fiery Wrath of God upon the Children of unperswadeableness. The peculiar Controversy of God with man, in the managing of which the most High God inflicts upon particular persons, at once a Blasting on their Estates, and a Blindness on their Spirits here, as the Prologue to the Hottest Vengeance of Eternal fire in the dismal vaults of Hell below, is not so much on the score of all their other Profanity & Iniquity, as this one thing, They sleight the Redeemer of their souls. And this is that thing, by which whole Nations & Peoples bring swift Destruction upon themselves; that thing for which all the Seals, all the Trumpets, all the Vials in the Apocalypse, have brought in the direful plagues of the Almighty upon the Pagan and the Papal, after the Ruine of the Jewish World. They have maintained a vile Praejudice against the Saving and the Ruling Hands of a Gracious Mediator. O that, besides the other innumerable Rebukes of Heaven upon mankind for this Madness in their hearts, the following Instances of Divine Displeasure may awaken us to Take heed of an evil heart of Unbelief.
Exemple I.
¶ AMong all the Nations of wild Salvages by which the vast Territory of New-England was inhabited, scarce any was more potent or populous than that of the Narragansetts. Unto those miserable Heathen was the Gospel, and a Gospel without charges too, offered by some English preachers of it, but they peremptorily with much affront & contempt refused the Glad tidings of Salvation by Jesus Christ, praeferring their own devillish Rites & gods before the New Thing tendered unto them. An holy man, then famous throughout our Churches, hereupon let fall a speech to this purpose, I speak altogether without the Spirit of God, if this nation be not speedily & remarkably destroyed. And so it happened. This Nation, much against the advice of the more aged men among them, engaged in the late bloody armed Conspiracy with the other Indians in the Countrey to cut off the English: in prosecution of which, after they had done many Acts of Hostility, the English Army took the just provocation in the depth of Winter to assault the strong Fort & Swamp in which was their General Rendezvouz. The Number of our Forces was much inferior unto theirs, but with a wonderful Valour, & memorable Success, on our part, the Day was carried against the tawny Infidels. Their City was laid in Ashes, two and twenty [Page 4] of their Cheef Captains were kill'd, with we know not how many Hundreds or Thousands of the common Indians; after which, mortal Sickness & horrid Famin pursued the Remainders of them; so that there are scarce any of them that we know of, to be now seen upon the face of the Earth.
Exemple. II.
¶ The Ringleader of the last Warr which the Indians afflicted the English in this Land withal, was Philip the Prince of the Wompanoags. That gracious and laborious Apostle of the Indians, the Reverend John Eliot, made a Tender of the Gospel to this Monster, who after the Indian mode of joining signs with words, pulling off a Button on the good man's Coat, told him, He did not value what he said so much as that: and he moreover hindred his subjects from embracing the Christian Religion through a fear which he expressed, That it might obstruct something of their Civil absolute unlimited Obedience to him. After his Invasion of the English with some unhappy Success, the Hand of God so sell upon him, as that after many Calamities, one of his own Vassals upon a disgust at him, for killing an Indian who had propounded an Expedient of Peace with the English, ran away from him, informing our Forces where he was; and they came upon him in the Thicket, just as he was telling his Counsellours of his Dream the night [Page 5] before, that the English had taken him, and while he endeavoured an Escape an Indian shott him thro' the heart, whereof he dyed immediately, nor are any considerable part of his people now to seen any where out of their own place.
Exem. III. Some time since there were Sundry well disposed persons in Virginia, upon whose affectionate Letters, full of desires, that they might enjoy the meanes of eternal Salvation, diverse worthy Ministers were sent from hence unto them, Mr. Thomson, Mr. Knowles, & Mr. James; who after a passage so tedious & dangerous as made them almost suspect their Call, at length arrived there, where God gave them a blessed Success of their labours, with a loving & a liberal Entertainment in the Countrey: Yet it was not long before the Rulers of the Plantation drove them away by an Order, That all such as would not Conform to certain things, which the consciences of these Gentlewere known to scruple, should leave the Countrey by such a day. Before that black day came, the Indians, who for some hundreds of Miles had entred into a Consoederacy to cut off all strangers, made a dreadful massacre of the English, & 300 at least were suddenly kill'd by the natives there: A grievous Mortality by Sickness did also accompany the said Massacre, so that many removed from thence, & many of the Rest glorified & magnified the Justice of God, [...] [...] [...] ing the Quarrel of His Refused Gospel. [...]
An APPENDIX Touching Prodigies In NEW-ENGLAND.
AS an Appendix to the Endeavours used in the foregoing Treatise, to Commemorate the Wonderful Works of God, and at the same time to awaken this Countrey unto such a Devotion and Repentance as the Works of God are calling for: It ought to be seriously enquired, Whether we have not been by any Prodigies Warned of the Evils near unto us? tho' it must be confessed, that our Hearts were Predigiously obdurate and insensible, if we needed any, while we have Moses and the Prophets. The written Word of God is that Firmament, spread over the Spiritual, which answers the Expansum in the Natural World; and the Threatnings with the Histories therein shining [...]nd Thundering, would give to a sinful People [Page] as great a praemonition of impendin Plagues, as the most Portentous Armies in th Air, or Comets in the AEther of the Universe. Yet even Insolit Accidents of Nature, as well as Faithful Cautions of Scripture have been emplov'd for our awakening in our late stupidity. Indeed there are some from whom we might have expected a less unreasonable Scepticism, who deride all Prodigies; but these Gentlemen, like Those who deny Original Sin, do in their own Disputation confute themselves, by Giving, yea, by Being an Instance of the very thing, which they oppose. Nay, Let no more than the Authorities and Varieties recited by the Great Zuinger, in his Elaborate Theatre, upon the Head of Prodigies, be fairly considered, and I know not whether you will allow them to be called Gentlemen, that shall be so Disingenuous as to make a Ridicule of all in this kind, that has been hitherto Reported and Believed. I acknowledge, That there ought to be much Accuracy in the Observation of Prodigies; and that those things ought not always to be accounted Prodigies which are Extraordinaries; and that it is a simple thing to believe every word; and since I have seen the Nonconformists Reproched for their minding of Prodigies, by the loose Pens of certain Writers, whom, weighing well their Accomplishments, [Page] by their own Rule, we ought not to mind, I have been desirous that we may 'so far take the Informations, tho' we value not the Judgments of their Malice, as to be sufficiently critical in this important point; yet we may not by profanity maintain our own Security. Altho' that the Eternal God, Hate Robbery for burnt offering, and it is as Pangerous as 'tis an officious thing, To Ly for Him: nevertheless those people, I am sure, were stigmatized for none of the wisest, Who Regard not the Works of the Lord, nor the Operation of his Hands; and the Communion between Us and the Angels, either good or bad, which are Invisibly about us, is more frequent, and Upheld and Applied unto more purposes than Mankind is Happy enough to be well Aware. I therefore pass on to say, That New-England also seems to have had its Prodiges. We have had inded One Omen, which was rather a Prophesy than a Prodigy unto us. I Remember that Leontius, the Aged and Famous Minister of Antio [...]b, pointing to his own White Head, said unto his people, Brethren, when this Bank of Snow falls, I can tell you, that you'll have a dirty [...]me on't; intimating the Troubles and Quarrels that should happen among them, after his Decease. Truly that sort of Snow fell so fast among us, and the precious, praying, Excellent [Page] Old Disciples were so fast interr'd, that we might well conceive as much of our Quiet, would go away with them, as there went of our Glory. But I yet speak too figuratively, to answer the Expectations of my Reader; Let him then know: That
Just before our late Vexations, we were terrified with an Earth-quake in the Southern Parts of the Countrey. And if so base a man as Polydore Virgil could reckon an Earthquake in England long since, the Forerunner of a Bloody and Cruel French War, We that knew what Neighbours we had, were not without ground of Conjectures that were none of the most Comfortable or Encouraging.
In the Summer of the Year, 1688. just before the first eruption of our unhappy War, we bad growing in Boston a Cabbage Root, out of which there sprouted three very wonderful Branches, one of them exactly resembling a C [...]tlace, another of them, as exactly resembling a R [...]pi [...], and a third, ext [...]amly like to the Club used by the Indians in their Barbarous Executions. I was my self one among the Multitudes that visited this Curiosity, with no little surprize at the odness of it; and the Characters of it in my thoughts have grown m [...]re Serious and Solemn, since the Consiquences of it have been so agreeable. I do not imagine my self herein impos'd upon, [Page] as Lycosthenes who wrote of Prodigies, was in the Business of his Bearded Grapes; but it would be Crambe bis cocta for me to offer the Reader what Exemples parallel hereunto are mentioned by the exquisitely Learned, and Curious Authors of the Renowned German Ephemerides.
Moreover, it was credibly affirmed, that in the Winter of the Year 1688, there fell a Red Snow, which lay like Blood on a spot of Ground, not many miles from Boston; but the Dissolution of it by a Thaw, which with in a few hours melted it, made it not capable of lying under the contemplation of so many Witnesses as it might have been worthy of. The Bloody Shower that went before the suffering of the ancient Britains from the Picts, (a sort of People that painted themselves like our Indians) this Prodigy seem'd a second Edition of.
And in the opinion of the most Critical Observers, throughout the Countrey, they were prodigious or at least, Uncommon SIGHTS and SOUNDS, which on the first of October, in the Year, 1689. We were entertained withal, and not unlike those which Pl [...]ny mentions as presages to the Cimbric Wars of old. For on that Day, in the Morning, while the Sky was too clear, to give us a suspicion of any thing like Thunder approaching [Page] there suddenly Blazed a Flames in the fashion of a Sword; which Blaze after a continuance, far longer than that of an ordinary Lightning, expired in a smoke that gave Terror unto the Beholders of it. But hereunto succeeded immediately very terrible and Repeated Noises, exactly like Volleys of small Shot, not without Reports like those of Great Guns superadded thereunto. This was a Scaene which all the Colonies of this large Countrey, and Thousands of People, at once were Spectators of, carrying in it, something, beyond the known Law [...] which ordinary Meteors are Conform'd unto. And herein was indeed One Circumstance, that gave Demonstration, of something Rare and Great in this Occurrent; That persons which were Distant from one another many scores of Miles above an Hundred, yet at the same Time, both Saw and Heard the whole of what is now related; and though I know, the Fancies of men applying themselves unto what is in the Clouds, are Fruitful even to a Ridicule; strong imagination being able to find, even a Juno in them. and all that can be any where imagined; the shapes of Clouds, like the Clinks of Bells, humoring the Thoughts of any one; yet in This Accident, no small Numbers of Gentlemen, who do not use to be imposed upon, but count no Trial severe [Page] enough to Examine Things of this Nature with, were so surprised as with one mouth to say, The Finger of God was here! But with Him are left the Events of all. And in the mean time we are not ignorant, that
Nanq [...]am Fatili [...]s Excanduit Ignibus AEthers
ERRATA.
PAge [...]. l. Last, Read Saying.
Page [...] Line 5. Read Jews.
Page 37. Line I. dele Can.
Page 44. Line I. Read as at.
Page 44 Line last r. undone.
Page 45. Line 13. for gave, r. have.