Chapter 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.