N00570:30
The short history of New-England. A recapitulation of wonderful passages which have occurred, first…The short history of New-England. A recapitulation of wonderful passages which have occurr'd, first…
The short history of New-England. A recapitulation of wonderful passages which have occurred, first in the protections, and then in the afflictions, of New-England. : With a representation of certain matters calling for the singular attention of that country. Made at Boston-lecture, in the audience of the great and General Assembly of the province of the Massachusett-Bay, June 7. 1694. / By Cotton Mather. ; [Four lines from Samuel]The short history of New-England. A recapitulation of wonderful passages which have occurr'd, first in the protections, and then in the afflictions, of New-England. : With a representation of certain matters calling for the singular attention of that country. Made at Boston-lecture, in the audience of the great and General Assembly of the province of the Massachusett-Bay, June 7. 1694. / By Cotton Mather. ; [Four lines from Samuel]
Boston: printed by B. Green for Samuel Phillips, 1694
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
I. What is to be done? Let Every […] most penitently Enquire and Bewail, what […] Hath done, towards making a Gap in our Hedge? When the People had l•id ⟨p. 13⟩themselves open to many Ruins, it was Th•• the complaint concerning them, in Jer. 8.6. No man Repented him of his Wickedness, Saying▪ What have I done? Every one turneth •o his Course, as the Horse rusheth into the Battle; and indeed, they Break through the Hedge in doing so! As it was with Old Israel, Oh Let it not be so with New-England at this Day, for Impenitent Inadvertency. There is no Gap, ordinarily made in an Hedge, but all the People within, have an Hand in making it. I say then, Yea, 'tis the Lord of Hosts, who saith it; That all the People, upon our Earth, are to obey that Repeated call of Heaven, in Hag. 1.5, 7. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Consider your wa•es. When the Grove of Ophrah was cut down, there was great▪ Asking, Who hath done this thing? and the Answer was very particular, That it was done by such an One. If our Hedge be Broke down, it should also be asked, Who hath done this thing? but the answer must be very Comprehensive; even like that in the Acknowledgements of the Returning Levites, when they were making up their Wall, after their Captivity, That all sorts of men have done wickedly. It was a Confession frequently, and it may be Sinfully, made by the […] in the primitive Times, upon ⟨p. 12⟩any notable Turn of the Times, Peccavimus Omnes; We have all mistaken! But it becomes us all, with all the Dispositions of a Penitent Soul, to make that Confession at this Time, We have all miscarried. For indeed, All we like Sheep, have gone astray; [Peccare, est instar Pecudum Errare] and we have all broke through, and broke down, the Hedge of God about us, in those our Violent Aberrations.