a primitive cast of Puritanism, with a severity the more painful to me, that I see not well how I can demur to its justice." And in a note, in the last edition of his History, Mr. Grahame says: "From President Quincy's History of Harvard University, it appears to me, much more clearly than agreeably, that, in the instance of Cotton Mather, as well as of his father, a strong and acute understanding, though united with real piety, was sometimes corrupted by a deep vein of passionate vanity and absurdity."* Had Mr. Grahame lived long enough to learn the real character of President Quincy's History, and the little credit which is due to it, more especially on points which conflict with the author's religious prejudices, his good opinion of the Mathers would not have been much affected by such an authority.

But we leave the venerated Increase Mather to his rest. It will not be disturbed, nor will his reputation permanently suffer, by any attempts, at this late day, to tarnish and reproach it. The shafts of his revilers will recoil and fasten on themselves, rather than fall with lasting injury on him.

* Memoir, p. 24. Hist. vol. I, p. 289.

CHAPTER XI.

Abstract of Cotton Mather's Sermon, on the death of his father. Catalogue of Increase Mather's publications.

I HAVE before stated, that the sermon at the funeral of Dr. Mather was preached by the Rev. Mr. Foxcroft, of the first church. But this was not the only funeral sermon. The ministers of Boston all delivered discourses on occasion of his death; and not only in Boston, but "throughout the country, the pulpits rang with mingled eulogies and funeral lamentations."

The fact that so many sermons were preached on the occasion, is proof of the deep veneration in which the deceased patriarch was held; and the sermons themselves, could we have access to them, would furnish the best means of forming a due estimate of his character. But these discourses, like their authors, have passed away. They are treasured up in the book of God's account, but (so far as I know, with a single exception) they are no longer accessible to the living. The exception to which I refer is the sermon of

Cotton Mather, preached to the Old North Church, in Boston, September 8th, 1723, the second Sabbath after his father's death. The greater part of this discourse is preserved; and I know not how I can more appropriately conclude the Memoir of Increase Mather, than by presenting my readers with an abstract of it. It will be interesting, not only on account of the preacher and the solemn circumstances under which it was preached, but as exhibiting the topics on which Increase Mather had chiefly insisted, during his long ministry.

The preacher commences in his peculiar, quaint, characteristic manner, as follows: "My design this day is, to preach over some thousands of sermons; and yet I design but one short sermon for you. My design is, to preach over the sermons of another man; and yet the sermon shall be honestly and entirely my own. My design is, to give pungency to a ministry of which God has now deprived us; and to apply over again the goads which the late master of our assemblies had used upon us; or to clench the golden nails which, for more than three score years together, he has been driving into us. I shall endeavor that the word of the gospel, as he preached it to you, may endure forever in your affectionate remembrance; yea,

more than this, that it may be retained in the hands of children after you.

your

"The advice given to the church at Sardis, Rev. 3: 3, may be a very proper introduction to my undertaking: Remember how thou hast received and heard.'"

DOCTRINE.

A people ought to remember what they have heard preached unto them, and how they have received it.

After opening and discussing the doctrine of the text, the preacher proceeded to make application of it, as follows:

"In the ministry of your departed pastor, there were some articles of a more frequent and cogent inculcation, whereof you will allow me to be, this day, a remembrancer unto you. Though he preached over the whole body of divinity, and occasional subjects without number, yet there were all along some articles which in the fulfilling of his ministry, he pressed with a peculiar flame; and I hope you will apprehend him speaking to you, in my brief recapitulation of them.

"1. Remember how you have received and heard, that sin is an odious and a dangerous 17

VOL. V.

evil. Your late pastor began his ministry here with several sermons on Lam. 5: 16. • Wo is unto us, that we have sinned;' wherein he discoursed on the woful effects of sin. And although few now alive remember those sermons, yet this you may all remember, that the unknown and too much unregarded and unlamented evil of sin was what his ministry did exceedingly mind you of. What pains did he take to convince you, that none but fools make a mock at sin; that it is a most vile thing, by sin, to deny the God above; and that no sinner can hope to go unpunished. How vehemently did he, as with the hammer which breaketh the rock in pieces, drive this home upon you, that no sin is to be indulged or harbored, nor so much as a sinful thought to be allowed a lodgment within you. How often has he declared it unto you, that one known sin, lived in, is incompatible with a state of salvation; that it will be leak enough to sink the soul that persists in it. What mighty thunderings have you heard from this pulpit, as from a flaming mountain, against those things, for which the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience? What warnings was he accustomed to give against those particular sins, by which he saw that the souls of men were most endangered? O remember