N00570:51
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.
Especially, those things which do more grossly Pollute the Land, most greatly expose it. Mark it, I pray; when the Good Spirit of God, goes away from a People, so as to Influence them no more by His Holy Motions, but Abandon them to the ways of their own Hearts, He makes a Broad Gap in the Hedge, at His Going. Now this Harm is done, by more Intolerable Defilements indulged among a People; They drive the Good Spirit of God away from among them, who says, Woe to them, when I depart from them!
Especially, those things which do more grossly Pollute the Land, most grea•ly •xpose it. Mark it, I pray; when the Good Spirit of God, goes away from a People, so as to Influence them no more by His Holy Motions, but Abandon them to the wayes of their own Hearts, He makes a Broad Gap in the Hedge, at His Going. Now this Harm is done, by more Intolerable D•filements indulged among a People; They drive the Good Spirit of God away from among them, who sayes, Wo to them, when I depart from them!
I am sure that Sorceries familiarly practised among a People will wound their Hedge inexpressibly. It ha's been •nquired How so many People came to be Possessed by th• Devil, about the Time of our Lords Incarnation? T••ly, 'twas not mee•ly because an Aping Satan ⟨p. 30⟩would be more manifest in the Flesh, when there was going to be God manifest in the Flesh; but Learned men have told us, that horrid Sorceries usually practised among the Jews, were the Things that broke the Hedge about them, and let in the Devils to Worry them amazingly. Monstrous the Stories, in the Talmuds hereabout! I will not now recite them; only say, If Idle Fortune-tellers, and they that by unlawful Arts, do seek after the Forbidden Knowledge of Secret and Future things, are countenanced among a People, or Impious Almanacs come to be therefore of more Credit perhaps, than the Infallible Predictions of the Scriptures among them: The Grieved Spirit of God will soon leave the Hedge for Evil Spirits to get in, as they please, upon them.