N00595:52
Memoria Wilsoniana. Or, Some dues unto the memory of the truly Reverend & renowned…
Memoria Wilsoniana. Or, Some dues unto the memory of the truly Reverend & renowned Mr. John Wilson, the first Pastor of Boston: who expired August. 7. 1667. Aged, 79. Paid by Cotton Mather. ; [Two lines of Latin quotation]
Boston : Printed for and sold by Michael Perry, at his shop, under the west end of the Town-House, in Boston, in N.E., 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.
These were Extraordinary Passages; Many of them, are Things, which Ordinary Christians may more safely Ponder, and Wonder, than Expect, in Our Days! Though sometimes Great Reformers, and Great Sufferers, must be Signalized with them. I know very well, what Livy sayes, Datur haec Venia Antiquitati, ut miscendo Humana Divinis, Primordia Urbium Augustiora faciat: but I have been far from Imposing the Least ⟨p. 37⟩Fable upon the World in Reporting such Extraordinary Passages of Mr. Wilson, or any other Great Confessor, by whom the Beginnings of this Country were made Illustrious; there are Witnesses Enough, yet Living, of them.
These were Extraordinary Passages; Many of them, are Things, which Ordinary Christians may more safely Ponder, and Wonder, than Expect, in Our Dayes! Though sometimes Great Reformers, and Great Sufferers, must be Signalized with them. I know very well, what Livy sayes, Datur haec Venia Antiquitati, ut miscendo Humana Divinis, Primordia Urbium Augustiora faciat: but I have been far from Imposing the Least ⟨p. 37⟩Fable upon the World in Reporting such Extraordinary Passages of Mr. Wilson, or any other Great Confessor, by whom the Beginnings of this Country were made Illustrious; there are Witnesses Enough, yet Living, of them.
S. 20. There is a certain Little Sport of Wit, in Anagrammatizing the Names of Men; which was used as long ago at Least as the Days of Old Lycophron: and which sometimes has afforded Reflections very Monitory, as Alstedius by his just Admirers changed into Sedulitas, or very Satirical, as when, Satan Ruleth me, was found in the Transposed Name of a certain Active Persecutor: and when, Lo, a Damned Crew, was found in the Name of One that made a Figure, among the Popish Plotters against the Nation. Yea, Tis possible, that they who affect such Grammatical Curiosities, will be willing to plead a Prescription, of much Higher and Elder Antiquity for them; Even the Temurah, or, Mutation, with which the Jews do Criticise upon the Oracles of the Old Testament. There, they say, You'll find the Anagram of our First Fathers Name Ha adam, to express Adamah, the Name of the Earth, whence he had his Original. An Anagram, of a Good Signification, they'll show you [