IX.

CURIOUS BOSTON LECTURES.

BOSTONIAN EBENEZER.

There was published in Boston, in 1698, a very small thin volume of 82 pages, 3 × 5 inches, entitled “The Bostonian Ebenezer.” “Some Historical Remarks on the State of BOSTON, the Chief Town of New England and of the English AMERICA, with some agreeable methods for Preserving and Promoting, the Good State of THAT, as well as any other Town, in the like circumstances.” “Humbly offered by a native of Boston.” Ezk. 48, 35, “The Name of the City from that day, shall be THE LORD IS THERE.” Boston: printed by B. Green and F. Allen, for Samuel Phillips, at the Brick Shop, 1698.

This singular little volume contains two lectures. Preceding the first lecture at the top of the page are these lines:—

“THE HISTORY OF BOSTON, Related and Improved. At Boston Lecture 7d. 2m. 1698.” [April 7, 1698.]

The remainder of the page is occupied with this preface:—

“Remarkable and memorable, was the Time, when an Army of Terrible Destroyers was coming against one of the Chief Towns in the Land of Israel. God Rescued the Town from the Irresistible Fury and Approach of those Destroyers, by an Immediate Hand of Heaven upon them. Upon that miraculous Rescue of the Town, and of the whole Country whose Fate was much enwrapped in it, there follow’d that Action of the Prophet, SAMUEL, which is this Day, to be, with some Imitation Repeated, in the midst of thee, O, BOSTON, Thou helped of the Lord.”

At the head of the next page we have the text,—

I SAM. VII. 12.

“Then SAMUEL took a Stone and Set it up, ... and called the Name of it EBENEZER, saying, Hitherto the Lord hath Helped us.”

Then follows the exordium, in which the preacher says the Thankful Servants of God have used sometimes to erect monuments of stone as durable tokens of their thankfulness:—

“Jacob did so; Joshua did so; and Samuel did so.” “The Stone erected by Samuel, with the name of Ebenezer, which is as much as to say, A Stone of Help. I know not whether any thing might be Writt upon it; but I am sure, there is one thing to be now Read upon it, by ourselves, in the Text where we find it: Namely, this much,

“That a People whom the God of Heaven hath Remarkably Helped, in their Distresses ought Greatly and Gratefully to acknowledge, what help of Heaven they have Received.

“Now, ’tis not my Design to lay the Scene of my Discourse, as far off as Bethcar, the place where Samuel set up his Ebenezer. I am immediately to Transfer it into the heart of Boston, a place where the Remarkable Help Received from Heaven, by the People, does loudly call for an Ebenezer. And I do not ask you, to change the Name of the Town, into that of Help stone, as there is a Town in England of that Name, which may seem the English of Ebenezer; but my Sermon shall be this Day your Ebenezer, if you will with a Favorable and Profitable Attention Entertain it. May the Lord Jesus Christ, accept me, and assist me now to Glorify Him, in the Town, where I drew my First Sinful Breath. A Town, whereto I am under Great Obligations, for the Precious Opportunities to Glorify Him, which I have quietly enjoy’d therein, for NEAR EIGHTEEN years together. O my Lord God, Remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me this once, to speak from thee, unto thy People.

“And now, Sirs, That I may set up an EBENEZER among you, there are these Things to be inculcated.”

“1. Let us Thankfully, and Agreeably, and Particularly, acknowledge what Help we have received from the God of Heaven, in the years that have rolled over us. While the Blessed Apostle Paul, was as it should seem, yet short of being Threescore years old, how affectionately did he set an Ebenezer with the Acknowledgment in Acts 26, 22. Having obtained Help of God, I continue to this day. Our Town is now Threescore and Eight years old: and certainly ’tis Time for us, with all possible affection to set up our Ebenezer, saying, Having obtained Help from God, the Town is continued, until almost the Age of Man is passed over it. The Town hath indeed Three Elder Sisters in this Colony; but it hath wonderfully outgrown them all; and her Mother, old Boston, in England also; Yea, within a Few Years, after the first settlement it grew to be, the Metropolis of the whole English America. Little was this expected, by them that first settled the town, when, for a while, Boston was proverbially called Lost Town, for the mean and sad circumstances of it. But, O Boston, it is because thou hast Obtained help from God.” “There have been several years wherein the Terrible Famine hath Terribly Stared the Town in the Face. We have been brought sometimes unto the Last Meal in the Barrel! But the fear’d Famine has always been kept off.”

The preacher proceeds,—

“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.