N00570:71
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.
Might […] have added, yet another Symptom […] Hedge? The inspired Wise man allows any Wise man, to reckon his Good Name, among his dearest Interests: But what an Unhedged place will that be, where a mans Good Name can have no Security? It was the hard measure which the Great Athanasius had from his Arian Adversaries; that, Caedes, Adulteria, Furta, quicquid Atrox Confingi Poterat, Sancto Viro Objiciebantur; this Great Saint had all manner of Devillism laid unto his charge, by a Diabolical Generation: and he had no Hedge to Fend off their Calumnies! The Hedge of Judea was gone, when a Prophet of the Lord, could complain, in Jer. 20 10. I heard the Defaming of many,—Report, say they, and we will Report it. Where a man ha's in a most unspotted Conversation, been Serving of God, and His People, 'tis all the Reason in the World, that his Virtuous Life should be a Durable Hedge, about him, to […] him the Reputation, of A Witness for […] World. But what? Shall every […] bred o• the Corruptions in every Malicious and […] Brain, become immediat••• ▪ a credible Report through a […]. •hall the ••st Well-deserving […] o• mankind, have the just Repute, which recommends t••m to service among the People ⟨p. 50⟩of God, lie at the […] every Passionate and Reproachful […]? Or, shall the most Circumspect Walkers, at once loose all the Stock of Credit with which a course of long Piety ha's Enriched them, merely upon some sort of Spectral Exhibitions, which cannot be accounted for? Our Hedges are under a most unhappy Dissipation, if ever it come to this. It may be that some who have been convicted of maintaining a Trade of Secret Wickedness, under the Cloak of a Splendid and Glorious Profession, for many years together, may have given dreadful Wounds, unto the Good Names, of all the best Christians, that may happen to be spoken against; None of our Exact Living all our Days will now be such a Vindicating Hedge about us as once it was, because of some that have been found Ill men after th•y had long Enjoyed Good Names in the Church of God. All that I shall now sy of it, is; W to the World, because of the Offences which […] been given by these Wretch Hedge- […] Oh! Where is the […] that […] where the Heart that […] conceive, […] that belong unto them that hav iven those Offences.