Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A33100
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Letter from the Commission of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland to the honourable council and inhabitants of the Scots colony of Caledonia in America dated at Glasgow, July 21, 1699.
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Church of Scotland. General Assembly. Commission.
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1699
(1699)
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Wing C4231; ESTC R40834
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14,482
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20
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get Footing with you which hath been one great Cause of the Poverty of our Nation at Home and our Reproach among the Rich and Trading Nations Abroad That it is below a Gentleman to follow Trade and Imployment Let not only all Falshood in Words and Actions be severely punished as what is inconsistent with Humane Society and Enervats and Destroys Trade Faith and uprightness in Dealing being the Life and Soul of Commerce Prov. 10.9 and the best Foundation of Success for he that walketh uprightly walketh surely But likewise Discourage and Disgrace Self-seeking and Narrowness to the prejudice of the Publick Let not every one seek his own Things to the Detriment of his Neighbour but every one the Good of others and common Benefit for in the Interest of the Publick and Prosperity of the Common-wealth that of each particular Person consists and is best secured Especially this is to be look'd to in the beginning of a Settlement and Infancy of a Government where Publick Spiritedness and Self-denial as they are Gospel-precepts so will be found best Principles of Policy whereas Self-seeking hath ever been the Bane and Ruine of many promising Undertakings We cannot forget to Recommend to you Brotherly-Love and Concord and that you Live in Peace and Unity among your Selves a Thing no less Profitable to you than Pleasant to the God of Peace and suitable to the Christian Name This is our Lord 's New Commandment left by Him in Legacy to all his Followers Joh. 13.34 35. that they Love one another By this ev'n the Heathen-Nations shall know that you are the Disciples of the Prince of Peace We need not tell you what is the Common-remark on these of our Nation that however Hasty Impatient and Warm they may be in their Debates while at Home yet they are Noted as Exemplary to others in an affectionat Concern in Sympathy with and close Adherence to one another when Abroad We heartily Wish this may be Verified of you now when you are far removed from your Native Land and plac'd amidst envious Neighbours who are waiting for your Halting and would make it their Work to Improve to your Hurt any Difference that might arise among you Let righteous Judgement be Executed betwixt Man and Man for the Judgement is the Lords Let it be done Impartially without vexatious Quibbles or dilatory Forms and Dispensed either Gratis or upon a publick Salary so as no Magistrat may Gain by Fynes of his own Imposing a Practice most hurtful in your Native Land whereby the Covetous are Tempted to Squeeze and Oppress and those of a more honest and free Disposition to become over Slack left they should appear gripping for their own Interest And in general whatever Scripture or solid Reason hath Discovered to you to be Wrong or of ill Consequence in the Customs you have seen at Home or else where and in the Errors of other Plantations let these Things be carefully Avoided in your New Government The Eyes of God of Angels and of Men are upon you The World begins to take Notice of you as a most hopeful Colony to the Envy of your Enemies and the Joy of your own Country and Friends Remember as you are a People of great Expectation and of great Advantages So your Honour and Renown your Temporal as well as your Spiritual and Eternal Gain shall be Great if you improve your Talent and Manage the Price put in your Hands Wisely and Well but if otherwise your Reckoning must be Sore and Heavy and your End Inglorious We again Repeat our most earnest Intreaties unto you our Dear and Honoured Friends that you be very Exact Vigilant and Conscientious in Modeling your New Colony to all Vertue and Godliness Especially in the first Beginning which is of vast Importance in all great Undertakings And a due Care of which will render all after Proceedings Easse Pleasant and Succesful That you bend your outmost Endeavours both by Example and Law to make Righteousness Sobriety and Godliness appear in the Eyes of others as they are in themselves Amiable and Honourable And all Vice and Impiety Detestable and Infamous So as a vitious Person may look like a Monster and Object of Horrour amongst you Thus Religion and Vertue will Incorporat into your very Customs and Constitutions and your Laws and Persons will be Venerable without the grievous Necessity of being Severe and God will Bless you and Delight to Dwell among you Isa 62.4 Ezek. 43. and your Land shall be called Hephzi-bah and the Name of your Place Jehovah-shammah the Lord is there But if any will do Wickedly if Men will be Foolish and Froward your Duty to God and Mercy to the Community calls for Speedy and Exemplary Justice that you may put the Evil away from among you and that Others may Hear and Fear As we Recommend unto you a Just and Christian Regard to all Gospel-Ordinances So in Particular a Religious Observance and Sanctification of the Lord's Day the Neglect of which will ly heavy on Governours the Command being peculiarly giv'n to them as Persons that must Answer for their Children and Servants and for the Stranger that is within their Gates as well as for Themselves If the Sabbath of the Lord be Prophan'd Lev. 26.43 He will cause your Land to Enjoy its Sabbaths by Desolation But if you Sanctifie the Holy Day of Rest unto the Lord he will Procure and Maintain Rest for you in your Land And as we are hopeful of your Just and Faithful Dealings with all Men whom you may have Occasion to Negotiat and Trade with So we Recommend not only Equity and Justice but obliging Kindness towards the Natives That your People may not only have their Conversation Honest among the Gentiles but winning and engaging by Beneficence That they Beholding and Enjoying the Benefit of your Good-Works may Glorifie God in the Day of your Visitation If you Partake of their Temporal Things are you not bound to Minister unto Them of your Spiritual Things Verily their Debtors you are And not only is it the Interest of your Trade and your Safety to keep good Measures with them but 't is your positive Duty for which the Lord seems in a peculiar Manner to have Designed your Plantation as its most glorious End To Propagat the Light of his Gospel amongst them and that Heavenly Wisdom which is more Precious than all Riches and whose Merchandise is better than the Gold of Ophir or Darien 'T is by their Consent that God Confirms your Right therefore Cherish them as your Brethren of the same Blood and Kindred in Adam And Endeavour that you may have them also your Brethren in Christ not only let no Stumbling-block or Occasion of Offence be laid before them but all due Encouragement giv'n them to Embrace the Everlasting Gospel Let them see what Veneration and Regard you Pay to your Ministers as the Servants of the most High God who must Labour amongst them and to
Service of your Faith and Joy and in communicating this Gospel to the Gentiles in the Regions beyond you 1 Thess 5.12.13 Do you therefore Esteem them very highly in Love for their Works sake entertain their Message encourage their Endeavours and strengthen their Hands We trust they shall through Grace make full Proof of their Ministry among you 2 Cor. 10.6 Heb. 13.17 1 Thess 2.19 Do you also fulfill your Obedience to them in the Lord as Men that Watch for your Souls and must give an Account That you may be their Hope and Joy their Glory and Crown of Rejoycing in the Presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his Coming and they may Labour amongst you and give up their Account of you in that Day with Joy and not with Grief for that is unprofitable for you We have fully Instructed them to set up a Christian Discipline and Order in your Church 1 Cor. 14 â—â— for God is not the Author of Confusion but of Order and Peace in all the Churches of the Saints and in this they will stand in need of some of you to be joined with themselves as Elders and Office-Bearers in the Church Overseers of the Manners of the People and Assistants in the Exercise of Discipline and Government And we hope such of you as shall be orderly Called hereunto will reckon it your Duty to embrace the same and discharge that Office with Christian Meekness Prudence and Faithfulness And we are confident of the Zeal and Love of all of you in every thing wherein they may need your Assistance Nor will the Church of Scotland be wanting in what may be requisit from time to time towards the maintaining the Gospel among you and diffusing its Glorious Light and Influence upon the Neighbouring Gentiles that they to whom Christ was not heretofore spoken of Rom. 15.21 may see and they that have not heard may consider and understand And now Honoured Friends and Dear Country-men whilst you are far from us 2 Cor. 11.2 our Bowels earn towards you and we are Jealous over you with a godly Jealousie lest any among you forget the Obligations of their Birth Sacramental Entrance into and Education in a Christian Church their Vows in the day of their Distresses or Fears the marvelous loving Kindness of the Lord in your Preservation hitherto and Establishment and what Duty and Service these wonderful Providences you have met with and still are under do require lest there should be any Achan in your Camp to trouble your Israel and kindle the Displeasure of your God provoking Him to turn against you to do you Evil after he hath done you Good And we hope you will consider what we say as proceeding from the warmest Affections of your tender loving Mother the Church of Scotland Remember then in the first Place That God is the Soveraign Lord and absolute Proprietor of all the Earth it 's He who hath appointed a Place for you and carried you safely to it He it is even the Lord of Hosts who fights your Battles against those who would disturb your Settlement From Him you derive your Original Right and your Security acknowledge Him then as your Great Land-Lord with Sincere and Upright Souls All you enjoy is His all you expect is from Him Pay therefore unto Him due Homage for all Serve Him who is your God and the God of your Fathers and the God of this Nation to which you belong and cleave to Him with upright Hearts For the Lord is with you 2 Chron. 15.2 while ye be with Him and if ye seek Him He will be sound of you but if ye forsake Him He will forsake you You are not left like the blind Heathen to grope after Him as in the Dark Acts 17.27 He hath been and Is nigh unto you and your Eyes have been opened even all of you at least by Christian Education to behold him not only in his wondrous Works which all Men behold but in the most wonderful of all his Works in his Glorious Gospel By this you have been taught that God is a Spirit John 4.24 Deut. 12.4 31. and you must Worship him in Spirit and in Truth You shall not do so unto the Lord your God as the Heathen do unto their Gods who stupidly and blockishly Worship their blockish Idols 2 Kings 17.26.27 but you must remember the Manner of the God of the Land from whence you came and serve him after his own Manner revealed in his Gospel There you have been instructed that in all Places his Eye is upon you and he observes your Hearts and Ways in Caledonia no less than in Scotland Psal 139.9 The Wings of the Morning and the uttermost Parts of the Sea hide not from him All are his Territories and under his Dominion 'T is there you Learn that in every Nation and in every Place he that feareth God Acts. 10.35 1 Tim. 2.8 and worketh Righteousness that lifteth up holy Hands without Wrath or Doubting is accepted of him but that the Workers of Iniquity can no where escape his Notice nor get out of the Reach of his Justice but by Flying in to Christ and taking Refuge in that blessed Hope which the Gospel sets before them We beseech you to Ponder these Things with all due Seriousness Let them be ever present to your Minds with a Practical Influence and Operation upon your Spirits and your whole Deportment that you Reverence and Serve Trust and Adore Love and Obey that God whose you are and whose are all your Wayes To him you owe your present Settlement and your future Hopes See and enjoy his Bounty and Kindness in all Labour to know and discern upon Gospel-Evidence that he bestoweth outward Blessings upon you from his Love in Christ This will make your Caledonia to be a Land of Promise and a Pledge of that better Inheritance reserved in Heaven for you where all the Gold and Riches of the Earth the Things most Valued by Men heap'd together do make but a faint Metaphor for the Pavement of that most Glorious City And after all the Acquisitions of this World what is a Man Profited if he lose his own Soul Let such as are yet Strangers to Christ repent of all their Sins committed in Scotland or since their Arrival in their New Dwellings and consider with Astonishment with Gratitude with relenring Sorrow and Shame how many hundreds of Leagues they have been carried fafe through the Vast Abyss when there was but the thickness of a Plank between them and Death and consequently between them and Hell How near they have bordered upon the confines of Eternity and how dreadful it will be at last if the Waves and Billows of Divine Wrath shall go over their Souls for ever This is the Doom that every Sinner must undergo by himself if it be not taken off by his Surety and such as Fly not to the Gospel-Sanctuary and Refuge their