N00594:107
Johannes in eremo. Memoirs, relating to the lives, of the ever-memorable, Mr. John Cotton,…
Johannes in eremo. Memoirs, relating to the lives, of the ever-memorable, Mr. John Cotton, who dyed, 23.d. 10.m. 1652. Mr. John Norton, who dyed, 5.d. 2.m. 1663. Mr. John Wilson, who dyed, 7.d. 6.m. 1667. Mr. John Davenport, who dyed, 15.d. 1.m. 1670. Reverend and renowned ministers of the Gospel, all, in the more immediate service of one church, in Boston; and Mr. Thomas Hooker, who dyed, 7.d. 5.m. 1647. Pastor of the church at Hartford; New-England. / Written, by Cotton Mather. ; [Three lines of Latin quotation]
Boston : Printed for and sold by Michael Perry, at his shop, under the west end of the Town-House., 1695
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.
Indeed there did happen Paroxysms in this Hour of Temptation, between Mr. Cotton and some other Zealous and worthy Persons, which though they did not amount unto the Heat and Height, of those that happened between Chrysostom and Epiphanius, or between Hierom and Ruffinus, yet they Inclined him to meditate a Removal into another Colony. But a ⟨p. 38⟩certain Scandalous Writer, having Publicly Reproached Mr. Cotton, with his former Inclination to Remove, there was thereby provoked his Public and Patient Answer; which being a Summary Narrative of this whole Business, I shall here transcribe it.
Indeed there did happen Paroxysms in this Hour of Temptation, between Mr. Cotton and some other Zealous and worthy Persons, which though they did not amount unto the Heat and Heighth, of those that happened between Chrysostom and Epiphanius, or between Hierom and Ruffinus, yet they Inclined him to meditate a Removal into another Colony. But a ⟨p. 38⟩certain Scandalous Writer, having Publickly Reproached Mr. Cotton, with his former Inclination to Remove, there was thereby provoked his Publick and Patient Answer; which being a Summary Narrative of this whole Business, I shall here transcribe it.
There was a Generation of Familists, in our own and other Towns, who under Pretence of Holding forth, what I had taught, Touching Union with Christ, and Evidencing that Union, did Secretly vent Sundry and Dangerous Errors and Heresies, denying all Inherent Righteousness, and all Evidencing of a Good Estate thereby in any sort, and some of them also Denying, the Immortality of the Soul, and the Resurrection of the Body. When they were questioned by some Brethren about those things, they carried it, as if they had Held forth nothing, but what they had Received from me: whereof, when I was Advised, to clear my self, I Publicly Preached against those Errors. Then, said the Brethren to the Erring Party, See, Your Teacher declares himself clearly to differ from you▪ No matter (say the other) what he saith in Public, we understand him otherwise, and we know what he saith to us in Private. Yea, and I my self could not easily Believe that those Erring Brethren and Sisters, were so Corrupt in their Judgments as they were Reported; they seeming to me forward Christians, and utterly