N01810:29
The right way to shake off a viper. An essay, upon a case too…
The right way to shake off a viper. An essay, upon a case too commonly calling for consideration; what shall good men do, when they are evil spoken of? : With a preface of Dr. Increase Mather,
Boston: printed by S. Kneeland for S. Gerrish, 1720
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.
I Remember, Castellio writing a little Treatise, de Calumnia, he gives a mark by which to know Calumnious People; Si illum Libellum suum far nequirent, That is, if his little Book disturbed them. 'Tis possible, there may be some so Envious, that this little Book will disturb them, tho' written with all possible modesty, and concealment of the Author. It will be a disturbance to them, that an Author whom they love not, should be thought an Honest Man in the main, or do any Good in the World. Certainly such Persons will approach near the Character of Calumniators. I will only say, I do not know many Distempers of the Body, but what a Good Man would rather choose to suffer, than to be distempered with such a depravation of Mind, as these People are under the Power of! Lord! deliver me from such unreasonableness!
I Remember, Castellio writing a little Treatise, de Calumnia, he gives a mark by which to know Calumnious People; Si illum Libellum suum ferre nequirent, That is, if his little Book disturbed them. 'Tis possible, there may be some so Envious, that this little Book will disturb them, tho' written with all possible modesty, and concealment of the Author. It will be a disturbance to them, that an Author whom they love not, should be thought an Honest Man in the main, or do any Good in the World. Certainly such Persons will approach near the Character of Calumniators. I will only say, I do not know many Distempers of the Body, but what a Good Man would rather chuse to suffer, than to be distempered with such a depravation of Mind, as these People are under the Power of! Lord! deliver me from such unreasonableness!
There is a well-known Set of Men, concerning whom the Author might with Job complain, They raise up against me the ways of their Destruction; that is to say, I am, as I may say, the Beaten Path of their pernicious Reproaches. But when that Just Man made it his complaint, I am a Brother to Dragons, ⟨p. xiii⟩he found his Account in the True way of shaking off a Viper. Had his Exemplary Patience been even better than it was, it would not have been the worse for him, when GOD blessed his latter end.