N02149:27
Parentator. Memoirs of remarkables in the life and the death of the ever-memorable Dr.…
Parentator. Memoirs of remarkables in the life and the death of the ever-memorable Dr. Increase Mather. Who expired, August 23. 1723. : [One line from II Kings]
Boston: printed by B. Green for Nathaniel Belknap, 1724
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.
Introduction.
ALL the World allows a SON, to Erect a Monument for, & Preserve a Memorial of, his Departed FATHER. Antiquity proceeded so far in this Concession, that it Produced the Teraphim, wherein People kept the Images of their Ancestors, and Wickedly Consulted their Manes by them. At the same time there is an Allowance also given, that the Splendour of the Monument, and the Value of the Memorial, should bear a Proportion to the Merit of the Subject. If the Parent be a Man of Worth, it is on all Hands Agreed, that the Commemoration may be Proportionable.
ALL the World allows a SON, to Erect a Monument for, & Preserve a Memorial of, his Departed FATHER. Antiquity proceeded so far in this Concession, that it Produced the Teraphim, wherein People kept the Images of their Ancectors, and Wickedly Consulted their Manes by them. At the same time there is an Allowance also given, that the Splendor of the Monument, and the Value of the Memorial, should bear a Proportion to the Merit of the Subject. If the Parent be a Man of Worth, it is on all Hands Agreed, that the Commemoration may be Proportionable.
This is what Legitimates, and even Encourages, that which is now a doing. And yet I Solemnly Declare, That my Pen should not have been Employed on this Occasion, if I had not been verily persuaded, That it would be a Thing Acceptable to the Glorious GOD, and Serviceable very many ways unto the cause of PIETY, to Exhibit the Conduct of His Providence in the Life of a Good Man, and the Exemplary Methods taken by such a Man, to do Good in the World. THIS is the Mark ⟨p. ii⟩I would perpetually Aim at; And if it has been Determined, That the Name of an Historian shall be, Virtues Secretary, I know not how the Pen of an Historian can be better Employed, than in Reporting the Virtuous Tempers and Actions of the Men that have therein shown forth the Virtues of our Blessed REDEEMER, and been the Epistles of CHRIST unto the rest of Mankind. Nor indeed has Mankind generally found any sort of History more Useful and more Grateful, than what has been given in the Lives of Men that have been distinguished by an Excellent Spirit. The Best of Books does very much Consist of such an History!