N00594:369
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.
§ 10 As his Person was thus Adorned with a well▪ grounded Learning, so his Preaching was notably set off with a Liveliness Extraordinary: insomuch that I cannot give a fu•er, and yet briefer Description of him, than that which I find given of Bucholtzer; that Pattern of Preachers, before him; Vivida in to omnia fuerunt, vivida vox, vividi oculi, vividae manus, gestus omnes vividi: he was all that he was, and he did all that he did, Unto the Life: He not only had that which Quintilian calls, A Natural Moveableness of Soul, whereby the Distinct Images of Things would come so nimbly, and yet so fitly, into his mind, that ⟨p. 14⟩he could utter them with such fluent Expressions, as the old Orators would usually Ascribe […] a special Assistance of Heaven, [Deum tune Ad•u•sse, u••eres Orators aiebant] and counted that man did therein THE•OS L•GEIN, or Speak Divinely; but the Rise of this Fluency in him, was the […] Relish which he had of the things to be spoken, the Sacred Panting of his holy Soul after the Glorious Objects of the Invisible World; and the true zeal of Religion, giving Fire to his Discourses. Whence, though the Ready and Noisy Performances of many Preachers, when they are as Plato speaks, THEAIBOU MESTOI, or Full of the Theatre, Acting to the Height in the Public for their Applause, may be ascribed unto very Mechanical Principles▪ vet the vigour in the Ministry of our Rocker, being Raised by a Coal from the Altar of a most Real Devotion, touching his Heart; it would be a wrong unto the Good Spirit of our God, it He should not be Acknowledged the Author […]. That Spirit accordingly gave a wonderful and unusual Success, unto the Ministry wherein be Breathed so Remarkably. Of that Success there were many Instances; but one particularly I find mentioned in Clark's Examples, to this purpose. A profane person, Designing therein only an Ungodly Diversion and Merriment, said unto his Companions, Come, Let us go Hear, what thus Ban•ling Hooker will say to ⟨p. 15⟩