A Good Man Making a Good End, Title page – To the reader
A Good Man making a Good End.
THE LIFE and DEATH, of the Reverend Mr. JOHN BAILY, Comprised and Expressed IN A Sermon, On the Day of his FUNERAL Thursday. 16. d. 10. m. 1697.
By Cotton Mather.
Pulchra sunt verba ex ore
Ea Facientium. Adag. Judaic.
BOSTON in N. E. Printed by B. Green, and J. Allen, for Michael Perry, at his Shop, under the West End of the Town House. 1698.
Reader,
WE are not so Wise, as the Miserable Papists! Among Them, a Person of Merit, shall, at his Death, be Celebrated and Canonized, by all men agreeing in it, as in their Common Interest, for to applaud his Life. Among Ʋs, Let there be Dues paid unto the Memory of the most Meritorious Person, after his Decease; many of the Survivers are Offended, I had almost said, Enraged at it: They seem to take it as a Reproach unto themselves, (& it may be, so it is!) That so much Good should be told of any man, and that all the Li…tle Frailties and Errors of that man, (and whereof no meer man was ever free!) be not also told with all the U…just Aggravations that Envy might put upon them This Folly, is as Inexpressible an Injury to us all; as it cannot but be an Advantage unto Mankind in General, for Interred Vertue, to be Rewarded with a Statue.
If ever I Deserved well of my Countrey, it has been, when I have given to the World, the Histories and Characters, of Eminent Persons, which have adorned it, Malice will call some of those things Romances; but that Malice it self may never hiss with the least colour of Reason any more, I do here declare, Let any man Living, Evince, any one Material Mistake in any one of those Composures, it shall have the most Publick R… cantation, that can be desired. In the mean Tin… while some with Impotent Cavils, Nibbling at the Statues, which we have Erected for our Worthies, take pains to prove themselves, The Enemies of New-England, and of Religion, the Statues will out live all their Idle Nibbles; The Righteous will be had in Everlasting Remembrance, when the Wicked who see it and are grieved, shall gnash with their Teeth and melt away.