“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.