Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	abandon_v	church_n	common_a	16	3	4.9415	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50170	The triumphs of the reformed religion in America the life of the renowned John Eliot, a person justly famous in the church of God, not only as an eminent Christian and an excellant minister among the English, but also as a memorable evangelist amoung the Indians of New-England : with some account concerning the late and strange success of the Gospel in those parts of the world which for many ages have lain buried in pagan ignorance / written by Cotton Mather.	Mather, Cotton, 1663-1728.; Mather, Increase, 1639-1723. De successu Evangelii apud Indos in Nova-Anglia epistola. English.	1691 (1691)	Wing M1163; ESTC W479490	74,580	162

Town-Orders if I may cast them so peculiar to themselves With respect hereunto Mr. Eliot on a Solemn Fast made a publick Vow That seeing these Indians were not prep ssessed with any Forms of Government he would ●nstruct them into such a Form as we had written in the Word of God that so they might be a people in all things ruled by the Lord. Accordingly he Expounded unto them the eighteenth Chapter of Exodus and then they chose Rulers of Hundreds of Fifties of Tens and therewithal Entred into this Covenant We are the sons of Adam We and our Forefathers have a long time been Lost in our sins but now the mercy of the Lord beginneth to find us out again therefore the grace of Christ helping us we do give our selves and our Children unto God to be his people He shall Rule us in all our Affairs The Lord is our Judge the Lord is our Law-giver the Lord is our King he will save us and the wisdome which God has taught us in his Book shall guide us Oh Jehovah Teach us Wisdome send thy Spirit into our hearts take us to be thy people and lett us take thee to be our God Such an o●inion about the perfection of the Scripture had he that he thus expressed himself upon this occasion God will bring Nations into Distress and Perplexity that so they may be forced unto the Scriptures all Governments will be shaken that men may be forced at length to Pitch upon that firm foundation The Word of God The Little Towns of these Indians being pitched upon this foundation they utterly abandoned that Polygamy which had heretofore been Common among them they made severe Lawes against Fornication Drunkenness and Sabbath-breaking and other Immoralities and they next began to Lament after the Establishment of a Church-order among them and after the several Ordinances and Priviledges of a Church-Communion The Churches of new-New-England have usually been very strict in their Admissions to Church-Fellowship and required very signal demonstrations of a Repenting and a Believing Soul before they thought men fit subjects to be entrusted with The Rights of the Kingdom of Heaven But they seem'd rather to Augment than Abate their usual Strictness when the examination of the Indians was to be performed A Day was therefore set apart which they called Natootom●threack●suk or a Day of Asking Questions when the ministers of the Adjacent Churches assisted with all the best Interpreters that could be had publickly examined a good Number of these Indians about their Attainments both in Knowledge and in Vertue And notwithstanding the great satisfaction then received our Churches being willing to proceed Surely and therefore Slowly in Raising them up to a Church-State which might be Comprehended in our Consociations the Indians were afterwards called in Considerable Assemblies convened for that purpose to make open Confessions of their Faith in God and Christ and of the Efficacy which his word had upon them for their Conversion to Him which Confessions being taken in writing from their mouths by able Interpreters were scanned by the people of God and found much Acceptance with them I need pass no further Censure upon them than what is given by my Grand-father the well-known Richard Mather in an Epistle of his Published on this occasion says he There is so much of Gods work among them as that I cannot but count it a great evil yea a great injury to God and His Goodness for any to make light of it To see and hear Indians opening their mouths and lifting up their hands and eyes in Prayer to the Living God calling on him by his Name Jehovah in the Mediation of Jesus Christ and this for a good while together to see and hear them Exhorting one another from the Word of God to see and and hear them confessing the Name of Christ Jesus and their own sinfulness sure this is more than usual And tho' they spoke in a Language of which many of us understood but little yet we that were present that day we saw and heard them perform the Duties mentioned with such grave and sober Countenances with such comely Reverence in their Gesture and their whole carriage and with such plenty of Tears trickling down the Cheeks of some of them as did argue to us that they spake with the Holy Fear of God and is much affected our Hearts At length was a Church-state settled among them they entred as our Churches do into an holy Covenant wherein they gave themselves first unto the Lord and then unto one another to attend the Rules and Helps and expect the Blessings of the Everlasting Gospel and Mr. Eliot having a Mission from the Church of Roxbury unto the work of the Lord Christ among the Indians conceived himself sufficiently Authorized unto the performing of all Church-work about them grounding i● on Act. 13.1 2 3 4. and he accordingly Administred first the Baptism and then the Supper of the Lord unto them e The Hindrances and Obstructions that the DEVIL gave unto HIM VVE find four Assemblies of Praying Indians besides that of Natick in our Neighbourhood But why no more Truly not because our Eliot was wanting in his Offers and Labours for their good but because many of the obdurate Infidels would not receive the Gospel of Salvation In one of his Letters I find him giving this ill report with such a good reason for it Lyn Indians are all naught save one who sometimes comes to hear the Word and the reason why they are bad is principally because their Sachim is naught and careth not to pray unto God Indeed the Sachims or the Princes of the Indians generally did all they could that their Subjects might not entertain the Gospel the D●vils having the Sachims on their side thereby kept their possession of the people too Their Pauwaws or Clergy-men did much to maintain the Interest of the Devils in this Wilderness those Children of the Devil and Enemies of all Righteousness did not cease to pervert the Right ways of Lord but their Sachims or Magistrates did M●re towards it for they would presently Raise a Storm of Persecution upon any of their vassals that should Pray unto the Eternal God The ground of this conduct in them was an odd Fear that Religion would abridge them of the Tyranny which they had been us'd unto they always like the Divel held their people i● a most absolute servitude and Rul'd by no Law but their Will which left the poor Slaves nothing that they could call their Own They now suspected that Religion would put a Bridle upon such usurpations and oblige them to a more Equal and Humane way of Government they therefore some of them had the Impudence to Address the English that no motions about the Christian Religion might ever he made unto them and Mr. Eliot sometimes in the Wilderness without the Company or Assistence of any other Englishman has been treated in a very Threatening and Barbarous manner by some of