The Life and Death of John Eliot, Title page – Introduction
THE LIFE and DEATH Of the Reverend Mr. JOHN ELIOT, Who was the First PREACHER OF THE GOSPEL TO THE INDIANS in America.
With an Account of the Wonderful Success which the Gospel has had amongst the Heathen in that Part of the World: And of the many strange Customs of the Pagan Indians, In NEW-ENGLAND.
Written by Cotton Mather.
Religion stands on Tiptoe in our Land,
Ready to pass to the American strand.— Herbert.
The Third Edition carefully Corrected.
LONDON: Printed for John Dunton, at the Raven in the Poultrey. MDCXCIV.
To the Right Honourable PHILIP Lord WHARTON, a no less Noble than Aged Patron of Learning and Virtue; and a Favourite of that Great King, Whose Throne is in the Heavens, and whose Kingdom Ruleth over all.
May it please Your Lordship,
IF it be considered, that some Evangelical and Apostolical Histories of the New Testament, were by the Direction of the Holy Spirit Himself, Dedicated unto a Person of Quality, and that the Noble Person Addressed with One such Dedication, entertain'd it with Resentments that encouraged his dear Lucilias to make a Second; the World will be satisfied that I do a thing but Reasonable and Agreeable, when, unto a Narrative of many Evangelical and Apostolical Affairs, I presume to prefix the Name of one so Excellent, for Love to God, as Your Lordship is known to be; and One upon this account only, an Ʋnmeet Subject for the Praises of the Obscure Pen which now writes that Quis Virtuperat? I do not, I dare not, so far intrude upon Your Honour, as to ask Your Patronage unto all the New English Principles and Practices which are found in the Character of our Celebrated ELIOT; for, as the Distance of a Thousand Leagues, has made it impossible for me to attend the (usual) Orders and Manners of asking first your Allowance for what I have openly Entituled you unto; so, the Renowned ELIOT is gone beyond any occasions for the greatest Humane Patronage.
But that which has procured unto your Lordship, the Trouble of this Dedication, is, My Desire to give you the Picture of One Aged Saint, lately gone to that General Assembly, which the Eternal King of Heaven by the Advances of your own Age in the way of Righteousness, does quickly Summon your Self unto. The profound Respect which our ELIOT had for your Honour, will doubtless be answered and requited with your own Value for the Memory of such a memorable Christian, Minister, and Evangelist; inasmuch as, Your Affections, like his, take not their Measures from these or those matters of Doubtful Disputation, but from such an universal Piety, and Charity, and Holiness, as he was an Instance of.
No Man ever complained of it, that in the Works of Chrysostom we find Seven Orations not far asunder, in Commendation of Paul; nor is it any fault that I have now written One in Commendation of a Man whom a Pauline Spirit had made illustrious. In describing him, I have made but little Touches upon his Parentage, and Family, because as the truly Great Basil excuses his Omission of those things, in his Oration upon Gordius the Martyr, Ecclesia haec tanquam supervacua dimittit. But I have related those things of him which cannot but create a good Esteem for him, in the breast of your Lordship, who are a Faithful and Ancient Witness against those Distempers of the World, whereby (as the blessed Salvian lamented it) Cogimur esse Viles, ut Nobiles habeamur; and raise the sweetness of your Thoughts upon your Approaches, which may our God make both slow and sure, unto that State, wherein, The Least is Greater than this JOHN. But if I may more ingenuously Confess the whole Ground and Cause of this Dedication, I must own, 'Tis to pay a part of a Debt; a Debt under which you have laid my Country, when you did with your own Honourable Hand, Present unto His Majesty the same Account which I have here again Published, Concerning the Success of the Gospel among the Indians in New-England.
My Lord, in one ELIOT, You see what a People 'tis that you have counted worthy of your Notice; and what a People 'tis, that with ardent Prayers bespeak the Mercies of Heaven for your Noble Family. Indeed, it is impossible that a Country so full as New-England is, of what is truly Primitive, should not be exposed unto the bitterest Enmity and Calumny of those that will strive to entangle the Church in a Sardian Ʋnreformedness, until our Jesus do shortly make them know, that He has loved what they have hated, maligned, persecuted. But if the God of New-England have inclined any Great Personage to Intercede or Interpose for the prevention of the Ruines which ill men have designed for such a Country, or to procure for a People of an Eliot's Complexion in Religion, the Ʋndisturbed Enjoyment and Exercise of that Religion: It is a thing that calls for our most sensible Acknowledgments.
It is an odd Superstition which the Indians of this Country have among them, that they count it (on the penalty of otherwise never prospering more) necessary for them, never to pass by the Graves of certain Famous Persons among them, without laying or leaving some Token of Regard thereupon. But we hope that all True Protestants will count it no more than what is equal and proper, that the Land which has in it the Grave of such a Remarkable Preacher to the Indians as our ELIOT, should be treated with such a Love, as a Jerusalem uses to find from them that are to prosper.
Ʋpon that score then, let My Lord accept a Present from, and for, a Remote corner in the New-World, where God is praised on your behalf; a small Present made by the Hand of a Rude American, who has nothing to recommend him unto your Lordship, except this, that he is the Son of One whom you have admitted unto your Favours; and, That he is Ambitious to wear the Title of,
MY LORD, Your Lordship's Most Humble and most Obedient Servant, COTTON MATHER.
THE INTRODUCTION.
'TWas a very surprizing as well as an undoubted Accident which happened within the Memory of Millions yet alive, when certain Shepherds upon Mount Nebo, following part of their Stragling Flock, at length came to a Valley, the prodigious Depths and Rocks whereof rendred it almost inaccessible; in which there was a Cave of inexpressible Sweetness, and in that Cave was a Sepulchre that had very difficult Characters upon it. The Patriarchs of the Maronites thereabouts inhabiting, procured some Learned Persons to take Notice, and make Report of this Curiosity, who found the Inscription of the Grave-Stone to be in the Hebrew Language and Letter, Moses, the Servant of the Lord. The Jews, the Greeks, and the Roman Catholicks, thereabouts, were altogether by the Ears for the possession of this Rarity; but the Turks as quickly laid Claim unto it, and strongly guarded it. Nevertheless, the Jesuits found a way by Tricks and Bribes to engage the Turkish Guards into a Conspiracy with them, for the Transporting of the inclosed and renowned Ashes into Europe; but when they opened the Grave, there was no Body, nor so much as a Relick there. While they were under the Confusion of this Disappointment, a Turkish General came upon them, and cut them all to pieces; therewithal taking a course never to have that place visited any more. But the Scholars of the Orient presently made this a Theme, which they Talkt and Wrote much upon; and, whether this was the true Sepulchre of Moses, was a question upon which many Books were published. The World would now count me very absurd, if after this I should say, that I had found the Sepulchre of Moses in America; but I have certainly here found Moses himself; we have had among us one appearing in the Spirit and Power of a Moses; and it is not the Grave, but the Life of such a Moses, that we value our selves upon being the owners of.
Having implored the Assistance and Acceptance of that God, whose Blessed Word has told us, The Righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance; I am attempting to write the Life of a Righteous Person, concerning whom all things, but the meanness of the Writer, invite the Reader to expect nothing save what is truly extraordinary. 'Tis the Life of one who has better and greater things to be affirmed of him, than could ever be reported concerning any of those famous Men, which have been celebrated by the Pens of a Plutarch, a Pliny, a Laertius, an Eunapius, or in any Pagan Histories. 'Tis the Life of one, whose Character might very agreeably be look'd for among the Collections of a Doratheus, or the Orations of a Nazianzene, or is worthy at least of nothing less than the exquisite Stile of a Melchior Adam to Eternize it. If it be, as it is, a true Assertion, That the least Exercise of true Faith or Love towards God in Christ, is a more glorious thing than all the Triumphs of a Caesar; there must be something very considerable in the Life of one, who spent several Scores of years in such Exercises; and of one, in the mention of whose Atchievements we may also recount, that he fought the Devil in (once) his American Territories, till he had recovered no small Party of his old Subjects and Vassals out of his cruel Hands; it would be as unreasonable as unprofitable, for Posterity to bury the Memory of such a Person in the Dust of that Obscurity and Oblivion which has covered the Names of the Heroes who died before the Days of Agamemnon.