"A formidable French squadron hath not shot one Bomb into the midst of
Thee;" our Streets have not run Blood and Gore; devouring-flames have
not raged. "Boston, 'Tis a marvellous Thing, a Plague has not laid
desolate!" "Boston, Thou hast been lifted up to Heaven; there is not a
Town upon Earth, which, on some accounts, has more to answer for."
Secondly, we are to acknowledge whose help it is. "This is the voice
of God from Heaven to Boston this day; Thy God hath helped thee!" "Old
Boston, by name, was but Saint _Botolphs Town_. Whereas Thou, O
Boston, shall have but one Protector in Heaven, and that is Our Lord
Jesus Christ."
The preacher's third division is that the help Boston has already had
should lead her people to Hope. "Hope in him for more help hereafter."
"The motto upon all our Ebenezer's is Hope in God! Hope in God!" In the
course of this part of his lecture, the preacher says,--
"The Town is at this day full of Widows and Orphans, and a multitude
of them are very helpless creatures. I am astonished how they live! In
that church, whereof I am the servant, I have counted. The Widows make
about a sixth part of our communicants, and no doubt in the whole
town, the proportion differs not very much. Now, stand still my
Friends, and behold the will of God! _Were_ any of these ever starved
yet? No, these widows are every one in some sort provided for."
Fourthly, "Let all that bear public office in the town contribute all
the help they can that may continue the help of God in us!" First the
ministers will help, and then he calls upon the Justices of the
Courts, the constables, the school-masters and the townsmen to help:
"Each of the sorts by themselves, may they come together to consider,
What shall we do to save the town?"
Fifthly, "God help the town to manifest all that piety which a town so
helped of Him, is obliged unto!" And then the town is warned against
all sorts of iniquities: against fortune-tellers, bad houses, drinking
houses, &c.
"Ah! Boston, Beware, Beware, lest the Sin of Sodom get Footing in
thee!"
"And, Oh! that the Drinking Houses in the Town, might once come under
a laudable _Regulation_. The Town has an _Enormous Number_ of them!
Will the _Haunters_ of those _Houses_ hear the Counsels of Heaven? For
_you_ that are the _Town Dwellers_, to be oft, or long, in your
_Visits_ of the _Ordinary_, 'twill certainly Expose you to Mischiefs
more than ordinary. I have seen certain _Taverns_ where the Pictures
of horrible Devourers[9] were hang'd out for the signs; and thought I,
'twere well if such _Signs_ were not sometimes too _Significant_!
Alas, men have their estates _Devoured_, their names _Devoured_, their
Hours _Devoured_, and their very soul _Devoured_, when they are so
besotted, that they are not in their _Element_, except they be in
Tippling at Such Houses. When once a man is Bewitched with the
Ordinary, what usually becomes of him? He is a _gone man_. And when he
comes to Dy, he'l cry out, as many have done, _Ale Houses are Hell
Houses! Ale Houses are Hell Houses! Ale Houses are Hell Houses!_" ...
"There was an _Inn_ at _Bethlehem_, where the Lord Jesus Christ was to
be met withal. Can _Boston_ boast of many such? Alas, Too ordinarily
it may be said, _There is no Room for Him in the Inn!_ My Friends, Let
me beg it of you: Banish _the unfruitful works of Darkness_, from your
_Houses_, and then the _Sun of Righteousness_ will shine upon them.
Don't countenance _Drunkenness_, _Revelling_ and _Mispending_ of
precious Time in your Houses. Let none have the _snares of Death_ Laid
for them in your _Houses_."
The preacher goes on in two or three _further divisions_ with his
declamation against evil and sins, and his conjurations for better things,
in faith, hopes and works, intimating all the evils that exist in Boston,
and warning the people of the danger of them.
The second sermon is a piece of similar declamation, about what the
preacher calls Household Religion, "at Boston Lecture, 26d. 7m. 1695." A
short extract will give a sample of this discourse.
"First, I suppose, we are all sensible, That for us to Loose our
Houses by any Disaster whatsoever, would be a very terrible Calamity:
Oh! it would be a _Judgment_ of God, wherein the _Anger_ of God, would
be seen written with _fiery_ characters. If by an accident, or by an
enemy, our House be laid in desolation, every Roar of the Raging
Flames, every crack of the Tumbling Timbers, every Downfall of the
Undermined walls, and every jingle of the Bells then tolling the
Funeral of those Houses, would loudly utter the voice in Deut., _A
Fire is Kindled in the Anger of God_."
This discourse is very severe upon all "Houses where God is not served,"
and defines them as gaming-houses, drinking-houses, houses where troops
and harlots assemble. "If the Worshipful Justices, and the Constables, and
the Tythingmen, would Invigorate their zeal, to Rout the Villanous Haunts
of those Houses, the whole Town would be vastly the Safer for it."
All that can be said of these curious discourses is that they are a
strange medley of declamation, fanaticism, and exhortation, not lacking in
thought perhaps, or devoid of sense, but rather insinuating than direct
and sensible. The author does not print his name, though they purport to
be Boston Lectures, one delivered in 1695 and the other in 1698: it is
understood, however, that they were by the Rev. Cotton Mather.