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

§. 1. WERE I Master of the Pen, wherewith Palladius embalmed his Chrysostom, the Greek Patriarch, or Posid•nius Eternized his Austin, the Latin Oracle, among the Ancients; Or, were I Owner of the Quill, wherewith among the Moderns, Beza celebrated his Immortal Calvin, or Fabius Immortalized his Venerable Beza; the Merits of John Cotton would oblige me to Employ it, in the Embalming his Famous Memory. If Boston be the chief •eat of New England, it was Cotton that was the ⟨p. 2⟩Father and Glory of Boston: Upon which account it becomes a piece of pure Justice, that the Life of Him, who above all men gave Life to his Country, should bear no little Figure in its intended History; and indeed it any Person in this Town or Land, had the Blessedness, which the Roman Historian, long since pronounced Such, even, To do Things worthy to be Writ, and to Write Things worthy to be Read, it was He; who now claims a Room in our Pages. If it were a Comparison sometimes made of the Reformers, Pomeranus was a Grammarian, Justs Jonah was an Orator, Melanchthon was a Logician, but Luther was All: even that Proportion, it may without Envy be acknowledged that Cotton bore to the Rest of our New English Divines; He that, whilst he was Living had this Virtue Extraordinarily Conspicuous in him, That it was his delight always, to acknowledge the Gifts of God, in other men, must now he is Dead, have other men acknowledge of him, what Erasmus do's of Jerome, In boc uno conjunctum fuit et Eximium, quicquid in al•is partim admiramur.

§. 1. WERE I Master of the Pen, wherewith Palladius embalmed his Chrysostom, the Greek Patriark, or Posid•nius Eternized his Austin, the Latin Oracle, among the Ancients; Or, were I Owner of the Quil, wherewith among the Moderns, Beza celebrated his Immortal Calvin, or Fabius Immortalized his Venerable Beza; the Merits of John Cotton would oblige me to Employ it, in the Embalming his Famous Memory. If Boston be the chief •eat of New England, it was Cotton that was the ⟨p. 2⟩Father and Glory of Boston: Upon which account it becomes a piece of pure Justice, that the Life of Him, who above all men gave Life to his Country, should bear no little Figure in its intended History; and indeed it any Person in this Town or Land, had the Blessedness, which the Roman Historian, long since pronounced Such, even, To do Things worthy to be Writ, and to Write Things worthy to be Read, it was He; who now claims a Room in our Pages. If it were a Comparison sometimes made of the Reformers, Pomeranus was a Grammarian, Justs Jonas was an Orator, Melancthn was a Logician, but Luther was All: even that Proportion, it may without Envy be acknowledged that Cotton bore to the Rest of our New English Divines; He that, whil'st he was Living had this Virtue Extraordinarily Conspicuous in him, That it was his delight always, to acknowledge the Gifts of God, in other men, must now he is Dead, have other men acknowledge of him, what Erasmus do's of Jerom, In boc uno conjunctum fuit et Eximium, quicquid in alis partim admiramur.