N00594:393
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.
Many Volumes of the Sermons Preached by him were since Printed; and this Account is to be given of them.
Many Volumns of the Sermons Preached by him were since Printed; and this Account is to be given of them.
While he was Fellow of Immanuel-College, he entertained a special Inclination to those Principles of Divinity, which concerned, The Application of Redemption; and that which eminently fitted him for the Handling of those Principles, was, That he had been from his Youth Trained up, in the Experience of those Humiliations and Consolations, and Sacred Communions, which belong to the New-Creature; and he had most critically compared his own Experience, with the Accounts, which the Quick and Powerful Word of God, gives of those Glorious Things. Accordingly, he Preached, first more briefly on these Points, whilst he was a Catechist in Immanuel College, in a more Scholastic way; which was most agreeable to his present Station; ⟨p. 34⟩and the Notes of what he then Delivered were so Esteemed, that many Copies thereof were Transcribed and Preserved. Afterwards, he Preached more largely on those Points, in a more popular way at Chelmsford, the Product of which were those Books of Preparation for Christ, Contrition, Humiliation, Vocation, Union with Christ, and Communion, and the rest, which go under his Name; for many wrote after him in Short-Hand; and some were so bold, as to Publish many of them, without his Consent or Knowledge; whereby his Notions came to be Deformedly misrepresented in multitudes of Passages; among which I will suppose that Crude Passage, which Mr. Giles Firm•in in his Real Christian, so well confutes, That if the Soul be rightly Humbled, it is content to bear the State of Damnation. But when he came to New England, many of his Church, which had been his Old Essex Hearers, desired him once more to go over the Points of God's Regenerating Works upon the Souls of His Elect; until, at last their Desires prevailed with him to Resume that pleasant Subject. The Subject hereby came to have a Third Concoction, in the Head and Heart of […] as able to Digest it, as most men Living in the World; and it was his Design to perfect with his own Hand his Composures for the Press, and thereby […] both Author and Matter, from the