Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	earth_n	good_a	great_a	7,371	5	2.6096	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59662	The Day-breaking, if not the sun-rising of the Gospell with the Indians in New-England	Wilson, John, 1588-1667.; Shepard, Thomas, 1605-1649.; Eliot, John, 1604-1690.	1647 (1647)	Wing S3110; ESTC R21203	20,924	28

them that indeed it was strange as everything else they heard preached was strange also and they were wonderfull things which they never heard of before but yet they thought it might bee true and that God was so big every where whereupon we further illustrated what wee said by wishing them to consider of the light of the Sun which though it be but a creature made by God yet the same light which is in this Wigwam was in the next also and the same light which was here at Massachusets was at Quinipeiock also and in old England also and every where at one and the same time the same much more was it so concerning God Whether they did not finde somewhat troubling them within after the commission of sin as murther adultery theft lying c. and what they thinke would comfort them against that trouble when they die and appeare before God for some knowledge of the immortality of the soule almost all of them have They told us they were troubled but they could not tell what to say to it what should comfort them hee therefore who spake to them at first concluded with a dolefull description so farre as his ability to speake in that tongue would carry him of the trembling and mourning condition of every soul that dies in sinne and that shall be cast out of favour with God Thus after three houres time thus spent with them wee asked them if they were not weary and they answered No But wee resolved to leave them with an appetite the chiefe of them seeing us conclude with prayer desired to know when wee would come againe so wee appointed the time and having given the children some apples and the men some tobacco and what else we then had at hand they desired some more ground to build a Town together which wee did much like of promising to speake for them to the generall Court that they might possesse all the compasse of that hill upon which their Wigwams then stood and so wee departed with many welcomes from them A true relation of our coming to the Indians the second time VPon November 11. 1646. we came the second time unto the same Wigwam of Waawbon where we found many more Indians met together then the first time wee came to them and having seates provided for us by themselves and being sate downe a while wee began againe with prayer in the English tongue our beginning this time was with the younger sort of Indian children in Catechizing of them which being the first time of instructing them we thought meet to aske them but only three questions in their own language that we might not clog their mindes or memories with too much at first the questions asked and answered in the Indian tongue were these three 1. Qu Who made you and all the world Answ. God 2. Qu. Who doe you looke should save you and redeeme you from sinne and hell Answ. Jesus Christ 3. Qu. How many commandements hath God given you to keepe Answ. Ten. These questions being propounded to the Children severally and one by one and the answers being short and easie hence it came to passe that before wee went thorow all those who were last catechized had more readily learned to answer to them by hearing the same question so oft propounded and answered before by their fellowes and the other Indians who were growne up to more yeares had perfectly learned them whom wee therefore desired to teach their children againe when wee were absent that so when wee came againe wee might see their profiting the better to encourage them hereunto wee therefore gave something to every childe This Catechisme being soone ended hee that preached to them began thus speaking to them in their owne language viz Wee are come to bring you good newes from the great God Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth and to tell you how evill and wicked men may come to bee good so as while they live they may bee happy and when they die they may goe to God and live in Heaven Having made this preface hee began first to set forth God unto them by familiar descriptions in his glorious power goodnesse and greatnesse and then set forth before them what his will was and what hee required of all men even of the Indians themselves in the ten commandements and then told them the dreadfull torment and punishment of all such as breake any one of those holy commandements and how angry God was for any sinne and transgression yet notwithstanding hee had sent Jesus Christ to die for their sinnes and to pacifie God by his sufferings in their stead and roome if they did repent and beleeve the Gospell and that hee would love the poore miserable Indians if now they sought God and beleeved in Jesus Christ threatning the sore wrath of God upon all such as stood out and neglected such great salvation which now God offered unto them by those who sought nothing more then their salvation thus continuing to preach the space of an houre we desired them to propound some questions which were these following Before I name them it may not be amisse to take notice of the mighty power of the word which visibly appeared especially in one of them who in hearing these things about sinne and hell and Jesus Christ powred out many teares and shewed much affliction without affectation of being seene desiring rather to conceale his griefe which as was gathered from his carriage the Lord forced from him The first Question was suddenly propounded by an old man then present who hearing faith and repentance preacht upon them to finde salvation by Jesus Christ hee asked whether it was not too late for such an old man as hee who was neare death to repent or seeke after God This Question affected us not a little with compassion and we held forth to him the Bible and told him what God said in it concerning such as are hired at the eleventh houre of the day wee told him also that if a father had a sonne that had beene disobedient many yeares yet if at last that sonne fall downe upon his knees and weepe and desire his father to love him his father is so mercifull that hee will readily forgive him and love him so wee said it was much more with God who is a more mercifull father to those whom hee hath made then any father can bee to his rebellious childe whom he hath begot if they fall downe and weepe and pray repent and desire forgivenesse for Jesus Christ's sake and wee farther added that looke as if a father did call after his childe to returne and repent promising him favour the childe might then bee sure that his father would forgive him so wee told them that now was the day of God risen upon them and that now the Lord was calling of them to repentance and that he had sent us for that end to preach repentance for the remission of

come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ The last helpe wee gave them was repentance they must confesse their sinnes and ignorance unto God and mourne for it and acknowledge how just it is for God to deny them the knowledge of Jesus Christ or any thing else because of their sinnes These things were spoken by him who had preached to them in their owne language borrowing now and then some small helpe from the Interpreter whom wee brought with us and who could oftentimes expresse our minds more distinctly then any of us could but this wee perceived that a few words from the Preacher were more regarded then many from the Indian Interpreter One of them after this answer replyed to us that hee was a little while since praying in his Wigwam unto God and Jesus Christ that God would give him a good heart and that while hee was praying one of his fellow Indians interrupted him and told him that hee prayed in vaine because Jesus Christ understood not what Indians speake in prayer he had bin used to heare English man pray and so could well enough understand them but Indian language in prayer hee thought hee was not acquainted with it but was a stranger to it and therefore could not understand them His question therefore was whether Jesus Christ did understand or God did understand Indian prayers This question sounding just like themselves wee studied to give as familiar an answer as wee could and therefore in this as in all other our answers we endeavoured to speake nothing without clearing of it up by some familiar similitude our answer summarily was therefore this that Jesus Christ and God by him made all things and makes all men not onely English but Indian men and if hee made them both which wee know the light of nature would readily reach as they had been also instructed by us then hee knew all that was within man and came from man all his desires and all his thoughts and all his speeches and so all his prayer and if hee made Indian men then hee knowes all Indian prayers also and therefore wee bid them looke upon that Indian Basket that was before them there was black and white strawes and many other things they made it of now though others did not know what those things were who made not the Basket yet hee that made it must needs tell all the things in it so wee said it was here Another propounded this question after this answer Whether English men were ever at any time so ignorant of God and Jesus Christ as themselves When wee perceived the root and reach of this question wee gave them this answer that there are two sorts of English men some are bad and naught and live wickedly and loosely describing them and these kind of English men wee told them were in a manner as ignorant of Jesus Christ as the Indians now are but there are a second sort of English men who though for a time they lived wickedly also like other prophane and ignorant English yet repenting of their sinnes and seeking after God and Jesus Christ they are good men now and now know Christ and love Christ and pray to Christ and are thankfull for all they have to Christ and shall at last when they dye goe up to heaven to Christ and we told them them all these also were once as ignorant of God and Jesus Christ as the Indians are but by seeking to know him by reading his booke and hearing his word and praying to him c. they now know Jesus Christ and just so shall the Indians know him if they so seeke him also although at the present they bee extrmely ignorant of him How can there be an Image of God because it 's forbidden in the second Commandement Wee told them that Image was all one Picture as the Picture of an Indian Bow and Arrowes on a tree with such little eyes and such faire hands is not an Indian but the Picture or Image of an Indian and that Picture man makes and it can doe no hurt nor good So the Image or Picture of God is not God but wicked men make it and this Image can doe no good nor hurt to any man us God can Whether if the father bee naught and the child good will God bee offended with that child because in the second Commandement it 's said that hee visits the sinnes of fathers upon the children Wee told them the plainest answer wee could thinke of via that if the child bee good and the father bad God will not bee offended with the child if hee repents of his owne and his fathers sinnes and followes not the steps of his wicked father but if the child bee also bad then God will visit the sins of fathers upon them and therefore wisht them to consider of the other part of the promise made to thousands of them that love God and the Evangenesh Iehovah i. e. the Commandments of Jehovah How all the world is become so full of people if they were all once drowned in the Flood Wee told them the story and causes of Noabs preservation in the Arke at large and so their questioning ended and therefore wee then saw our time of propounding some few questions to them and so take occasion thereby to open matters of God more fully Our first question was Whether they did not desire to see God and were not tempted to thinke that there was no God because they cannot see him Some of them replyed thus that indeed they did desire to see him if it could bee but they had heard from us that hee could not be seene and they did beleive that though their eies could not see him yet that hee was to bee seene with their soule within Hereupon we sought to confirme them the more and asked them if they saw a great Wigwam or a great-house would they thinke that * Racoones or Foxes built it that had no wisedome or would they thinke that it made it selfe or that no wise workman made it because they could not see him that made it No but they would beleeve some wise workman made it though they did not see him so should they beleeve concerning God when they looked up to heaven Sunne Moone and Stars and saw this great house he hath made though they do not see him with their eyes yet they have good cause to beleeve with their soules that a wise God a great God made it We knowing that a great block in their way to beleiving is that there should bee but one God by the profession of the English and yet this God in many places therefore we asked them whether it did not seeme strange that there should bee but one God and yet this God in * Massachusets at Concetacut at Quimipeiock in old England in this Wigwam in the next every where Their answer was by one most sober among

then the Sun warmes and heates c. so it was true they knew but little of Jesus Christ now but wee had more to tell them concerning him hereafter and after that more and after that more untill at last they may come to know Christ as the English doe and wee taught them but a little at a time because they could understand but little and if they prayed to God to teach them he would send his Spirit and teach them more they and their fathers had lived in ignorance untill now it hath beene a long night wherein they have slept and have not regarded God but now the day-light began to stirre upon them they might hope therefore for more ere long to bee made knowne to them Thus having spent some houres with them wee propounded two Questions What do you remember of what was taught you since the last time wee were here After they had spoken one to another for some time one of them returned this answer that they did much thanke God for our comming and for what they heard they were wonderfull things unto them Doe you beleeve the things that are told you viz that God is musquantum i. e. very angry for the least sinne in your thoughts or words or workes They said yes and hereupon wee set forth the terrour of God against sinners and mercy of God to the penitent and to such as sought to know Jesus Christ and that as sinners should bee after death Chechainuppan i. e. tormented alive for wee know no other word in the tongue to expresse extreame torture by so beleevers should after death Wowein wicke Jehovah i. e. live in all blisse with Iehovah the blessed God and so we concluded conference Having thus spent the whole afternoone and night being almost come upon us considering that the Indians formerly desired to know how to pray and did thinke that Jesus Christ did not understand Indian language one of us therefore prepared to pray in their owne language and did so for above a quarter of an houre together wherein divers of them held up eies and hands to heaven all of them as wee understood afterwards understanding the same but one of them I cast my eye upon was hanging downe his head with his rag before his eyes weeping at first I feared it was some sorenesse of his eyes but lifting up his head againe having wiped his eyes as not desirous to be seene I easily perceived his eyes were not sore yet somewhat red with crying and so held up his head for a while yet such was the presence and mighty power of the Lord Jesus on his heart that hee hung downe his head againe and covered his eyes againe and so fell wiping and wiping of them weeping abundantly continuing thus till prayer was ended after which hee presently turnes from us and turnes his face to a side and corner of the Wigwam and there fals a weeping more aboundantly by himselfe which one of us perceiving went to him and spake to him encouraging words at the hearing of which hee fell a weeping more and more so leaving of him he who spake to him came unto mee being newly gone out of the Wigwam and told mee of his teares so we resolved to goe againe both of us to him and speake to him againe and wee met him comming out of the Wigwam and there wee spake againe to him and he there fell into a more aboundant renewed weeping like one deeply and inwardly affected indeed which forced us also to such bowels of compassion that wee could not forbeare weeping over him also and so wee parted greatly rejoycing for such sorrowing Thus I have as faithfully as I could remember given you a true account of our beginnings with the Indians within our owne bounds which cannot but bee matter of more serious thoughts what further to doe with these poore Natives the dregs of mankinde and the saddest spectacles of misery of meere men upon earth wee did thinke to forbeare going to them this winter but this last dayes worke wherein God set his seale from heaven of acceptance of our little makes those of us who are able to resolve to adventure thorow frost and snow lest the fire goe out of their hearts for want of a little more fewell to which wee are the more incouraged in that the next day after our being with them one of the Indians came to his house who preacht to them to speake with him who in private conference wept exceedingly and said that all that night the Indians could not sleepe partly with trouble of minde and partly with wondring at the things they heard preacht amongst them another Indian comming also to him the next day after told him how many of the wicked sort of Indians began to oppose these beginnings Whence these Indians came here to inhabit is not certaine his reasons are most probable who thinke they are Tartars passing out of Asia into America by the straits of Anian who being spilt by some revenging hand of God upon this continent like water upon the ground are spread as farre as these Atlanticke shores there being but few of them in these parts in comparison of those which are more contiguous to the Anian straits if wee may credit some Historians herein what ever these conjectures and uncertainties bee certaine it is that they are inheritors of a grievous and fearefull curse living so long without Ephod or Teraphim and in nearest alliance to the wilde beasts that perish and as God delights to convey blessings of mercy to the posterity of some in respect of his promise to their fathers so are curses entailed and come by naturall descent unto others for some great sinnes of their Ancestors as no doubt it is in respect of these Yet notwithstanding the deepest degeneracies are no stop to the overflowing grace and bloud of Christ when the time of love shall come no not to these poore outcasts the utmost ends of the earth being appointed to bee in time the Sonne of Gods possession Wee are oft upbraided by some of our Countrymen that so little good is done by our professing planters upon the hearts of Natives such men have surely more spleene then judgement and know not the vast distance of Natives from common civility almost humanity it selfe and 't is as if they should reproach us for not making the windes to blow when wee list our selves it must certainely be a spirit of life from God not in mans power which must put flesh and sinewes unto these dry bones if wee would force them to baptisme as the Spaniards do about Cusco Peru and Mexico having learnt them a short answer or two to some Popish questions or if wee would hire them to it by giving them coates and shirts to allure them to it as some others have done wee could have gathered many hundreds yea thousands it may bee by this time into the name of Churches but wee have not learnt as yet