N00594:321
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.
§ 7. He observed, that when a Reformation of the Church has been brought about in any part of the World, it has rarely been Afterwards carried on any One step further, than the First Reformers did Succeed in their first Endeavours; He observed that as easily might the Ark have been removed from the Mountains of Ararat, where it first Grounded, as a People get any Ground in Reformation, after […] beyond the first Remove of the Reformers. And this Observation quickened him to Embark in a Design of Reformation, wherein he might have Opportunity to Drive things in the First Essay▪ as near to the Precept and Pattern of Scripture, as they could be driven. The Plantation of New England afforded him this Opportunity, with the Chief Undertakers whereof he had many Consultations, before he had ever taken up any Purpose of Going himself into that part of the World; and he ⟨p. 10⟩had, indeed, a very great stroke in the Encouraging and Enlivening of that Noble Undertaking. He was one of those by whom the Patent for the Massachuset Colony was procured; and though his Name were not among the Patentees, because he himself desired it might be omitted, Left his Enemy, the Bishop of London, then of the Kings Privy. Council, should upon his Account appear the more fiercely against it, yet his Purse was in it, his Time was in it, and he contributed unto it all manner of Assistances: This he did before his Going to Holland. And while he was in Holland, he received Letters of Mr. Cotton, from the Country whereto he had thus been a Father; telling him, That the Order of the Churches, and of the Common wealth, was now so settled in New England by common consent, that it brought into his Mind the New Heaven and the New Earth, wherein dwells Righteousness. Wherefore, soon after his Return for London, he Shipped himself with several Eminent Christians and their Families, for New England; where, by the Good Hand of God upon them, they arrived in the Summer of the year 1637.
§ 7. He observed, that when a Reformation of the Church has been brought about in any part of the World, it has rarely been Afterwards carried on any One step further, than the First Reformers did Succeed in their first Endeavours; He observed that as easily might the Ark have been removed from the Mountains of Ararat, where it first Grounded, as a People get any Ground in Reformation, after 〈…〉 beyond the first Remove of the Reformers. And this Observation quickened him to Embark in a Design of Reformation, wherein he might have Opportunity to Drive things in the First Essay as near to the Precept and Pattern of Scripture, as they could be driven. The Plantation of New England afforded him this Opportunity, with the Chief Undertakers whereof he had many Consultations, before he had ever taken up any Purpose of Going himself into that part of the World; and he