Johannes in eremo. Memoirs, relating to the lives, of the ever-memorable, Mr. John Cotton,…

§. 21. Such has been the Jealous Disposition of our New-Englanders about their Dearly-bought Privileges, and such also has been the Various Understanding of the People about the Extent of those Privileges, that of all the Agents, which they have sent over unto the Court of England, for now Forty years together, I know not any One, who did not at his Return, meet with some very froward Entertainments among his Country-men: and there may be the Wisdom of the Holy and Righteous God, as well as the Malice of the Evil One, acknowledged, in the Ordering of such Temptations. Of these Temptations, a Considerable share fell to Mr. Norton; Concerning whom there were many, who would not stick to say, that he had laid the Foundation of Ruin to all our Liberties; and his Melancholy Mind Imagined, that his Best Friends began, therefore, to Look awry upon him.

§. 21. Such has been the Jealous Disposition of our New-Englanders about their Dearly-bought Priviledges, and such also has been the Various Understanding of the People about the Extent of those Priviledges, that of all the Agents, which they have sent over unto the Court of England, for now Forty years together, I know not any One, who did not at his Return, meet with some very froward Entertainments among his Country-men: and there may be the Wisdom of the Holy and Righteous God, as well as the Malice of the Evil One, acknowledged, in the Ordering of such Temptations. Of these Temptations, a Considerable share fell to Mr. Norton; Concerning whom there were many, who would not stick to say, that he had laid the Foundation of Ruine to all our Liberties; and his Melancholly Mind Imagined, that his Best Friends began, therefore, to Look awry upon him.

§. 22. In the Spring before his Going for England, he Preached an Excellent Sermon unto the Representatives of the whole Colony, Assembled at the Court of Election, wherein, I take particular Notice of this Passage, Moses was the Meekest Man on Earth, yet it went ill with Moses, tis said, for THEIR SAKES. How long did Moses live at Meribah? Sure I am; it killed him in a Short Time; a man of as Good a Temper as could be expected from a mere Man: I tell you, it will not only Kill the People, but it will Quickly, Kill Moses too! And in the Spring after his Return from England, he found his own Observation in himself too much Exemplified. It was commonly Judged, That the Smothered Griefs of his Mind, upon the Unkind Resentments, which he thought many People had of his Faithful and Sincere Endeavours to Serve them, did, more than a Little, Hasten his End; an End, whereat JOHN NORTON went, according to the Anagram of his Name INTO HONOUR. But he had the Privilege to enter into Immortality, without such a Formal and Feeling Death, as the most of Mortals Encounter with; for though in the Forenoon of April 5. 1663. it was his Design to have Preached in the Afternoon, he was that Afternoon taken with a sudden pothymie, which presently and easily carried him away to those Glories, wherein the Weary are at Rest; but it was a Dark Night,