N01367:46
Nepenthes evangelicum. A brief essay, upon a soul at ease; in what piety will…
Nepenthes evangelicum. A brief essay, upon a soul at ease; in what piety will bring both parents and children to. : A sermon occasioned by the death of a religious matron, Mrs. Mary Rock. Who having entered the eighty first year of her age, withdrew from us. 30d. 7m. 1713. / By Cotton Mather, D.D. ; [One line from Matthew]Nepenthes evangelicum. A brief essay, upon a soul at ease; in what piety will bring both parents and children to. : A sermon occasion'd by the death of a religious matron, Mrs. Mary Rock. Who having entred the eighty first year of her age, withdrew from us. 30d. 7m. 1713. / By Cotton Mather, D.D. ; [One line from Matthew]
Boston: printed by Thomas Fleet for Daniel Henchman, 1713
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.
The Excellent Father of this Gentlewoman, and of this Country, (whose Life makes a Great Article among the MAGNALIA of New-England,) would in her Childhood, often present her to them that came to see him, and say with a peculiar Satisfaction, This is my New-England Token! because a good God had sent her to him, as a Token of His Favour to his Family, so soon after his coming to New-England. And I know not why New-England should not now present her to the World, as a Token of the Divine Favour to a Country, which He has adorned with such bright Jewels, as do surpass those of the Orient. When she lay at the Point of Death in her Minority, and was indeed given over for Dead, while Mr. Cotton was at Prayer with her, the Heart of her Father was raised unto a particular Faith for it, which he immediately declared, That the Child should Live! And now, having out-lived the Eightieth Year of her Age, I have an Opportunity to tell you, what sort of a Life it was, which that ⟨p. 42⟩Prayer of my Grandfather, had its Remarkable Answer in. It was a Life of the most exemplary Piety in all the parts of it; And my Sermon has all along done little more than tell her Story, when it has told you, what the Fear of God will do, and what Ease and Peace it will bring unto.
While she was a Wife, to a most valuable Servant of God, Mr. SAMUEL DANFORTH, the Pastor of Roxbury, she was no Stranger to Afflictions; especially in the Infirmity and Mortality of many Children. But by being thus Afflicted, she was but the more improved in that Piety which made her Honourable in the Eyes of all that have the Fear of God at all directing of their Sentiments.
As those Holy Women that bore a part in the First Voyages to this Wilderness, were those Good Things, than which the World had not many to show, that were Better, or more worthy to be had in Everlasting Remembrance: Thus our Land hath not many Things to be more boasted of, than a set of Holy Women found among their Daughters, who have been