5 Joshua 9. first part

And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the Reproach of Egypt from off you. As to the Penman of this Book there are variety of apprehensions: but famous Calvin, & some others, suspend their determinate judgments about it as not having sufficient grounds to bottom any certainty upon.42

The Scope of this Book is of great excellency & usefulness upon sundry accounts. As

1. To discover to us the sufficiency of a divine promise for Faith to build upon, & (as I may say) rest it self in. God for many years before had promised to give Abraham & his Seed y^e Land of Canaan: but in the interim he seems (as it were) to have forgotten that Promise. But yet in his own good & promised time, he doth most punctually notwithstanding all intervening difficulties, seeming impossibilities, & naturally reall invincible impediments fully perform every part of y^t promise. Hince then all true Israelites have enough to stay upon in all ages as long as they have a Divine promise to build & bottom upon.
2. To discover to us the sufficiency of a divine threatening to strike terrour into Heavens Rebells. God had threatened y^e Canaanites for their Idolatry & other wickednesses that he would root them out of the earth, & give their Land to another & a better people: but this threatning was long delayed before it was brought unto execution: & very likely y^e carnall Canaanites thought it altogether impossible. Well but at length wⁿ those w^o were to cut them off drew near, & impediments were miraculously removed, namely Jordan driven back, so as to give way to the Israelites dry passage, as soon as ever the Priests w^o bare y^e Ark were dipped in the brim of the water: now these poor cursed Canaanites tremble. 5. Chap. 1. And this doctrine, or lesson, is exceeding usefull for our unbelieving dayes. Alas! unless there be a present fulfilling of an evil threatned many, too many, will little regard it. What the wise man saith is sadly applicable to multitudes in our dayes. 8. Eccl. 11. Because sentence against an evil work——sinners see no hell, & therefore they fear none. Oh Sinners! time enough, time enough, have but a little patience, & you shall see an hell time enough, wrath will overtake you time enough, if you prevent it not by true Repentance.
3. To discover to us the true, & most shining, ornaments of a good Ruler whither in Church, or Commonwealth, namely that he be endued w^th true piety, prudence, valour, diligence, patience &c as Joshua here. Such a one should have his eyes so fastened upon Religion as no Basilisk should remove them. Such a one should be so much for the advancement of Gods pure worship that he should resolve to carry it on as far as he can, when he cannot carry it as far as he would, & tho he cannot get one soul from abroad to joyn with him in it. 24 Josh. 15.
4. To discover to us the very best way for the attaining of a flourishing Common wealth. Many very anxiously have disputed about this point, but the unerring word of God, in this book & elsewhere, & also experience gives full proof that there is no readier way to prosperity than to walk heedfully in the paths of piety. New-England knows very well this to be true.
5. To discover to us y^e spiritual conduct Gods true Israel have by Christ Jesus thro y^e Wilderness of this world into the other Canaan, y^t blessed land afar off. Joshua both in name & deeds was a type of Christ Jesus. Joshua must convey Israel thrô y^e swellings of Jordan Se put them into a peaceable possession of Canaan, the promised typicall Rest. In all which was typified what Christ Jesus doth for beleivers.
6. Last. To discover to us w^t Xtians must look for whilst they appertain to the Church Militant, & so are warriours under y^e Lord Jesus: namely laborious & hazardous combats both publick & private till they are brought to the Rest above
But so much for y^e severall generall usefull instructions this book offers us.

In this book of Joshua is described

The history of Joshua’s

Joshua’s life is set forth principally in reference to y^e great office committed to him of being chief Govern^r over Israel to conduct them into the promised land after Moses’s death
Touching this his Office two things are observable
1. His vocation to this Office 1. Chap. Wherein you find God com̄anding him to this work, instructing him in it, & encouraging him to go about it
2. His administration, or Execution, of this his Office, & y^t

both in times of

In time of peace after his conquest, by his distributing y^e conquered land, & appointing cities of refuge, & laying out fourty & eight cities for the Levites, all which were done according to Gods fore appointing & com̄andment.
In time of war we have an acc^o or narrative of his prudent, valiant, & martiall acts for dispossessing and destroying of the Canaanites. As
1. His Com̄anding the people by their officers to make ready for their passing over y^e River Jordan. 1. Cap. 10. 10. v.
2. His Reminding the two tribes & a half (whose Lot was assigned them on this side Jordan) of their engagement to Moses to help their Brethren, in y^e war till y^e Lord had given them Rest: whereunto is annexed their profession of Obedience unto Joshua. 12. v. ad finem.
3. His sending, or dispatching, of two Spies to view y^e Land w^o being received & entertained by Rahab do therefore Covenant w^th her by oaths to save her, & her houshold, & w^o at their return make a faithfull & encouraging report unto their Generall Joshua. 2. Cap ⅌ totū To adnomine
4. Last: His, & all Israels, miraculous passage through y^e River Jordan, 3. & 4. Cap.
And so we come to this 5^th Cap. wherein instead of many things (for brevity’s sake) we may take notice of two. As
1. Of the wonderfull terrour w^ch fell upon y^e Canaanitish Kings upon Israel’s thus passing over y^e River Jordan 5. Cap. 1. God had long before threatned them with destroying judgments but they trusting in their own strength were secure & slighted divine threatnings. But now wⁿ they understand y^t y^e enemie had passed over Jordan their hearts melted, i.e. their wisdom, valour, & the like failed them.
Jordan was their great Bulwark: a defense to their whole Countrey, & therefore they feared little. They heard no doubt of Israels prodigious travelling thrô y^e Red Sea. I but y^t was a great while agoe. & besides very far from them, therefore this terrified y^m not, or else time had eaten up y^t terror. I but now the like is done near themselves, & mining enemies are upon their very banks, at the presence of whom their very Bulwark Jordan as affrighted gives way, & this strikes terrour into their sinfull souls. What y^e holy Ghost sais 20. Job. 22. of the oppressor is many times fulfilled, & particularly here. In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straights. When wicked men think themselves most secure many times they are most in danger. As here y^e Canaanites never dreamt of any Invasion this way, on this side their Countrey because it was their strongest post but lo here they are invaded, & their defense opens to the enemy, this strikes terrour into them.
2. Of Joshua’s renewing Circumcision 2–10. verse. Concerning w^ch we may take notice of two things: namely the Causes & the Consequents thereof.
1. The causes of Joshua’s circumcising y^e children of Israel: & they are two, namely Gods com̄and, & y^e Peoples former omission.
1. Gods com̄and 2. v. therefore he dos it in y^e 3^d. verse.
Quest: But it may be asked w^t is meant by circumcising y^e Second time mentioned in the 2 verse.
Answ: Only in a very few words (thô there are w^o do considerably controvert about it) It is not meant by the second time, y^t those w^o were already circumcised should again be circumcised, w^ch is inconsistent both w^th Religion & Nature. Seing y^t could not be cut off again w^ch was cut off before. But the meaning is restore the Sacrament of Circumcision, to its primitive use at y^e first institution of it to Abraham & his seed w^ch now for a long time had been neglected, or at least omitted, if not during their abode in Egypt, yet during their travel in the wilderness. So y^t not y^e same individual person is com̄anded to be circumcised, w^o was before circumcised, but y^e same people w^o were at first circumcised in their Parents, is now com̄anded to be circumcised in their children.
2. The peoples omission of this duty & ordinance before as you read in the 4. 5. 6. 7. verses.
II. Now follows to be taken notice of y^e consequents of Joshua’s circumcising the Israelites. Namely
1. Their forbearing to prosecute their Enemies y^e Canaanites. 8. v. The reason was because of their present inability for war as appears in the instance of the Shechemites. 34. Gen. 25. And it is worthy our noting what a notable advantage y^e Canaanites now had for doubtless they had spies abroad w^o could tell them what was doing among the Israelites, I but God overawed them. Obedience to God is the best defense against the greatest hazards. 34. Exod. 23. 24.
2. Gods speech to Joshua hereupon. Text. And y^e Lord said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away y^e Reproach of Egypt from off you. In this speech to be short we may take notice of these following things. Viz.
1. God tells us y^t an Evil was removed, namely y^e evil of Reproach. Reproach, contempt, disgrace &c w^ch are synonomous words every one will readily own to be an Evil. Well sais God this Evil is removed, or rolled away.
2. God tells us the kind or quality of this Evil or Reproach namely the Reproach of Egypt. Not a bare & naked Reproach, but a grand Reproach, a very foul Reproach indeed: the Reproach of Egypt, i.e. y^t being uncircumcised they were like the Egyptians, namely profane & strangers unto God, not being interested in his coven^t w^ch is a very great shame, obloquie & Reproach to any person or people as is by & by to be hinted
3. God tells us w^o removed this Evil, namely he himself
4. God tells us frō whom this Evil was removed, namely Israel. I have rolled away the Reproach of Ægypt from off you.
5. God tells us how he removed it, namely, by rolling it away. Now by rolling away a Reproach dos not mean only the removal of contempt disgrace & infamie but also the bestowing honour & dignity upon such: as 119. Ps. 22. Remove from me Reproach & contempt. Not as if the Psalmist aimed at nothing else in his Prayer but the removal of Reproach, but also at promotion & dignity namely y^t God would so shine upon him as y^t those who would be glad to Reproach & contemn him might not by providence be favoured w^th any advantage so to do: but that he might be above the contempt of his wicked adversaries
6. Last. God tells us y^e time when, the very day wherein he removed this evil from them, & so consequently & implicitely y^e way whereby he did remove this evil from them, namely, by admitting y^m into covenant w^th himself, & confirming it unto them by his Seals the Sacraments; Circumcision mentioned in y^e former verses & y^e Passover mentioned in the verse following y^e text.
Doctr. It is an Egyptian-like disgrace & Reproach to any people to be out of visible & Sacramental com̄union w^th God in his Ordinances, w^ch Ordinances when God doth gratiously bring a people to the enjoyment of, then, & thereby, God doth not only take away their former disgrace & Reproach, but also most highly exalt promote, & dignify them.43
1. Prop: It is an Egyptian-like disgrace & Reproach to be out of visible & Sacramentall com̄union with God in his Ordinances.
If you say how may this appear
1. An: From the blessed Gods account. Text. And the Lord said unto Joshua This day, have I rolled away the Reproach of Egypt from off you. i.e. This day I have freed you from that shame & dishonour which did lye upon you whilst ye were bondslaves in the Land of Egypt, by receiving you into covenant & com̄union with my self, & acknowledging y^u for my peculiar people, & admitting you to have this priviledge, sealed unto you by this seal of circumcision. Or by this Reproach of Egypt may be meant y^t Reproach w^ch did lye upon the Egyptians themselves, as upon all other Nations in y^t being out of Coven^t w^th God, & not partakers of the Seals thereof, they were Aliens, and strangers to God, in an Heathenish & damnable condition, & were so reputed, & had in abomination w^th the Church & people of God. For y^e was one end for which God appointed y^e Sacram^t of Circumcision viz, to distinguish between his own peculiar servants, & other people, as may be gathered from y^e 12. Exod. 48. And hince it is y^t profane Nations are characterized by their being uncircumcised & so out of Coven^t with God. 34. Gen. 14. 1. Sam. 14. 6. & many other places. So Sais God here: You were before Uncircumcised as y^e Egyptians & other Aliene Nations. You were out of Covenant as they. There was no difference between you & my cursed enemies. This was your Reproach: your disgrace but now it is rolled away.44
2. An: From mans account, that is to say y^e account of the best of men, godly men in all ages have lookt upon it, as indeed it is, a disgrace & Reproach to be void of visible & Sacramentall com̄union with God, & therefore have deeply bewayled such a condition. 42. Ps. 1–5. 74. Ps. 1–11. 79. Ps. ⅌ totū 80. Ps. 1–12. But I must not stay here.
3. An: Last in a word. From y^e nature of y^e thing: Because it is in such a way as God dos offer his seal up to us, & also confirm our Faith in an interest in whatsoever dos or can indeed exalt us. 17. Gen. 11. Ye shall circumcise y^e flesh of your Foreskin, & it shall be a token of y^e Covenant betwixt you & me. And this Circumcision sais Paul. 4. Rom. 11. was a seal of the righteousness of Faith. It was signū memorativū, introductivum, demonstrativum, prefigurativum, distinctivum.45 But I must but hint at such things. So of y^e Lords Supper, sais Christ. 26. Matt. 28. This is my blood of the New-Testament, i.e. a sign & Seal thereof.
2. Prop: When God doth graciously bring such a people to y^e enjoym^t of his Ordinances, then, & thereby God doth not only take away their former Egyptian-like disgrace & Reproach but also most highly exalt dignify & promote them. Before they were Profane as other Nations: now they are holy foederally holy. Before they were grosly ignorant of their best good, last End, & way to it, now they have the knowledge hereof: & these things exalt a people above all others 147 Ps. 19. 20. 3. Rom. 1. 2 Other Nations are said to have been without God, because without Gods lively Oracles & exalting Ordinances. 2. Chr. 15. 3. where its said even of Gods Israel that they were without God, because without y^e publick worship & ordinances of God. But on the other hand where God bestows his ordinances the signs of his gracious favour & presence such a people are said to be exalted, yea to be highly exalted, to be exalted unto Heaven as Christ sais of Capernaum. 11. Matt. 23.
Reas: in one word because of the blessed presence of Christ in his Ordinances when duly attended upon. As
1. Christ is present there in his Royall & Kingly Majesty. 4. Rev. 1. 2. By w^ch heaven is by some, & very well may be, meant, not only the third heaven, but also his instituted Churches wherein as in heaven, Christ as a King sits & dwells, holding out y^e Sceptre, y^e golden Sceptre of grace, and offers most Royall & inestimable bounties.
2. Christ is present there in his Mediatoriall Beauty. 27. Ps. 4.—To behold y^e beauty of y^e Lord. i.e. to enjoy the blessed worship & ordinances of God’s house, wherein Christ Jesus is offered unto, & accepted of, y^e beleiver, as his greatest beauty & delight.
3. Last: Christ is present there in wayes of Communication & bounty according to y^t promise. 20. Ex. 24. Here it is y^e Hammer of Gods word by y^e hand of his spirit breaks y^e Rocks in peices. Here it is y^t y^e eyes of y^e blind are opened, & the ears of y^e deaf are unstopped. Here it is y^t y^e strong man armed (the Devil) meets with one that is stronger than he (w^o overmatcheth him, viz Christ Jesus) w^o turns him out of his tenement, the Souls of sinners & works deliverance for the lawfull Captive. Here it is y^t y^e poor are filled, yea feasted: the wounded are anointed: the sorrowfull are comforted: the shagless are reduced: & y^e weak confirmed &c
I aim at a word or two of use & so shall shut up w^th great brevity because of the shortness & somwhat sharpness of the season; & the considerableness of time y^t the remaining work calls for.
1. Use Information
1. Hince learn we to adore, & in our very souls to magnify, the free grace of God in our Lord Jesus, for the gracious distinction he is pleased to make between us in New-England and millions of others. We are all one by nature w^th Egyptians, Turks, Pagans, Indians, Ethiopians, &c: but we differ vastly in holy Priveledges. If we ask ourselves, as Paul dos y^e Corinthians 1. Ep. Cor. 4. 7. w^o make y^e difference? There is a vast difference indeed. But how comes it? Why not from any merit in us, but from the mercy of God to us as to Israel of old. 7. Deut. 6. 7. 8. It is God w^o hath rolled away our disgrace & Reproach, & brought this honour & dignity upon us: & seing it is the Lords gracious doing let it be marvellous in our eyes. Sais David, when Zadock brought after him (in his flight from Absalom) y^e Ark of the Covenant of God, carry it back: if I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me again & shew me both it & his habitation. 2. Sam. 15 24. 25. So I say we have found favour in Gods eyes, let us thankfully own it, & admire at it: & say not unto us, not unto us, or our merits, but unto Gods Name is due the glory of these distinguishing privelledges
2. Hince learn Ye at this place (this Village) y^t God hath graciously brought you to a good day this day. This is the day wherein God is giving you hopes y^t he will roll away y^e Reproach of Egypt from off you. It is true indeed some of you (& yet alas but a few of you) were partakers of visible & Sacramentall com̄union w^th God in his Ordinances, by virtue of your Memberships w^th other Churches of our Lord Jesus. I but still you had no such settled sacred & Royall dignities, & distinguishing privelledges among your selves. The Reproach of Egypt continued in the place, thô some few persons were exempted from it. Now w^t an Egyptian-like disgrace & Reproach was it for such a Number of people (so well able to maintain the Lords Ordinances) in such a land as New-England, so long to continue unlike their professing Neighbours, without y^e signs & seals of the blessed Covenant of Grace? In y^e eyes of God, & in the eyes of godly persons this was your Reproach. But this day God gives you hopes of rolling away this Reproach from off you.
3. Last: (To say no more) This doctrine serves to vindicate & justify the holy & Spirituall disquietness of such who were groaning in spirit under the want of the seals of the Covenant to be brought home to their own doors. If there are any grieved at y^e restlessness of such in y^t condition, let them but remember y^e Reproach such were under, & that is enough to vindicate their labour after the rolling of it away. Therefore
2. Use may be of caution & admonition. Let none be offended at the work of this day. Do not Reproach the goodness of God: when he is about rolling away of your Reproach: let none say in their hearts, they were in as good a case before, they see not y^t they were under any Reproach; or the like. I may say to such as Moses did to Korah. 16. Num. 9. Seemeth it a small thing to you y^t y^e God of Israel hath brought you near to himself &c
1. Consider by so thinking, or speaking, you contradict God himself. He calls it a rolling away of your Reproach &c
2. Consider by so thinking, or speaking, you will be found in Gods eyes (whatever you are in mens) guilty of a profane Esau-like spirit.
3. Use. Last: Exhortation
1. To all w^o belong to this small Congregation. Oh be exhorted to meet God in the gracious work that he is this day about of rolling away your Reproach from off you, by getting into the covenant of grace, & so coming under the Seals of y^e covenant.
And to y^t end attend heedfully & constantly to the Preaching of the word, by w^ch y^e spirit of God is wont first to move y^e soul to entertain Christ, before it sets his Seal upon the Soul of its interest in Christ in y^e Sacram^ts. And remember whilst you keep off from the Seals of the covenant you are maintainers of your own Reproach. The very Seals of the covenant whereby we are initiated into, & confirmed in an interest in Christ is as holy Calvin sais worth an hundered lives.46 And remember it is not the bare privation, but y^e contempt of Sacraments (as Bernard sais truly47) is damnable & destructive. Therefore you cannot hereafter live without partaking of y^e ordinances, but you will of necessity heighten your sins by such neglects or omissions. But I must not insist
2. To all of us who are more especially concerned in the work of this good day: from off whom God is rolling away our Reproach, & upon whom God is about conferring honour & dignity: Oh let us be exhorted in our places most heedfully to Beware of Reproaching & disgracing the work of this day, & for prevention thereof there is no better way in all y^e world than to take direction from y^e word of God how we are each of us from this day forward to behave our selves. In a word
1. I will begin w^th my self. Much work is laid, or like to be laid, upon my weak shoulders. I will labour to sum it up in a word
I am to carry it not as a Lord, but as a Servant, yet not as mans but the Lords servant: now the greater the Master, the greater y^e service.

I am to be zealous in my Masters service: to give my self wholly to these things.

I am in all godliness to labour to be exēplary.

I am to labour that my doctrine may burn, & my conversation may shine

I am to make difference between y^e clean, & unclean: so as to labour to cleanse & purge the one, & confirm & strengthen the other.

As I am to give Cordials to some, so I must be sure to administer corrosives to others. And what I do this way without partial respect to persons, you must not, you cannot, you ought not to be angry, for so I am commanded. Here is some, & but some of my work, & yet here is work enough, & work hard enough: yet this must be attended, or I shall Reproach the work of this day: & therefore for my help herein I crave, & humbly challenge an interest in all your fervent Prayers who would not have your God Reproached.
2. I will now come to you my Brethren, & usual hearers: somthing you are to do, & not a little neither. You are to pay me that Reverence which is due to an Embassadour of Christ Jesus. You are to bear me a great deal of love. 1. Thes. 5. 13. You are indeed highly to love every Minister of Christ Jesus: but (if you can notwithstanding the vast disproportion between my self & others) you are to love me best. You are to obey me (at lest) so far as I watch for your souls. 13. Hebr. 17 You are to communicate to me of your carnall good things, both that which is stable, sufficient, & (according to your capacity) honourable: & that not as a piece of alms, or charity, but of justice & duty. 15. Rom. 27. 1. Cor. 9 11. 6. Gal. 6. 1. Tim. 5. 17. 18.
You are to pray for me, & to pray much & fervently alwayes for me, but especially when you expect to hear from God by me.

You are to endeavour by all lawfull means to make my heavy work as much as in you lyes light & cheerfull. 13. Hebr. 17. And not by unchristian like behaviour to my selfe, or one another, or other Churches of God, or any whither within or without, or to God, or man to add to my burthen, & to make my life among you grievous, & my labour among you unprofitable. So y^t you see here is work enough for you also: & therefore by your leave, & in your Name, what I just now requested for my self, I will also desire for you of all praying persons that they would pray for a Sufficiency of grace y^t you & I may give up a good account in the season thereof: And as every lover of Gods honour will, so let them, say Amen.

1 Samuel Parris, Sermon Notebook, Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford, Connecticut. See below pp. 196, 202. Henceforth, references to the Notebook will be made parenthetically in the text.

2 Paul Boyer and Paul Nissenbaum, ed., Salem-Village Witchcraft: A Documentary Record of Local Conflict in Colonial New England (Belmont, Cal., Wadsworth Pub., 1972), p. 266.

3 Charles W. Upham, Salem Witchcraft (2 vols., New York, Ungar Pub., 1867), i, 312; George Bancroft, The History of the United States of America (1887; rep. Boston, 1962), pp. 394–95; Arther Miller, The Crucible (1954); Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft (Cambridge, Harvard Univ. Press, 1974); Larry Gragg, The Quest for Security: The Life of Samuel Parris, 1653–1720 (New York, Greenwood Press, 1990). Readers of SP’s sermons should consult Gragg’s biography for detailed accounts of the circumstances surrounding the individual texts.

4 Gragg, Quest for Security, p. 116.

5 Important studies include Harry S. Stout, The New England Soul: Preaching and Religious Culture in Colonial New England (New York, Oxford Univ. Press, 1986); Donald Weber, Rhetoric and History in Revolutionary New England (New York, Oxford Univ. Press, 1988); and Teresa Toulouse, The Art of Prophesying: New England Sermons and the Shaping of Belief (Athens, Univ. of Georgia Press, 1987).

6 The book presented here is inscribed “Lib. 3.” At one point SP refers to “Lib. 21.”

7 Gragg, Quest for Security, p. xviii.

8 See Boyer and Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed, pp. 60–65.

9 Willey, The Seventeenth-Century Background: Studies in the Thought of the Age in Relation to Poetry and Religion (New York, Columbia Univ. Press, 1934), p. 195.

10 The information in the next two paragraphs is taken largely from Michael Winship, “Satan, Cotton Mather, and Transatlantic Puritan Evangelism in the 1690s,” paper read at the Salem Conference on Witchcraft, Salem, Massachusetts, June 1992. The editors would like to thank Dr. Winship for sharing the results of his research with them.

11 See Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century England (Harmondsworth, England, Penguin Books, 1978), pp. 576–83; Paul H. Kocher, Science and Religion in Elizabethan England (San Marino, Huntingdon Library, 1953), pp. 127–45.

12 Observing the similarities between the symptoms of the Goodwin children and the afflicted young women of Salem, Kenneth Silverman notes that Mather’s works were widely available and read. The Life and Times of Cotton Mather (New York, Columbia Univ. Press, 1085), p. 87.

13 Larry Gragg (Quest for Security, p. 125) makes the important point that SP did not use isolation therapy, as Cotton Mather had on Martha Goodwin.

14 See, for example, Willey, Seventeenth-Century Background, pp. 194–99, 160–68; Thomas Goddard Wright, Literary Culture in Early New England, 1620–1730 (New Haven, Yale Univ. Press, 1920), pp. 107, 142–43, 160–61; and Norman Fiering, Moral Philosophy at Seventeenth-Century Harvard (Chapel Hill, Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1981), pp. 219–20. Among the authors of the five major texts consulted by the Salem judges in their deliberations were Joseph Glanvill, Richard Baxter, and Cotton Mather. Samuel G. Drake, ed., The Witchcraft Delusion in New England (3 vols., New York, Burt Franklin, 1866), 3, 361.

15 Gragg, Quest for Security, p. 134.

16 On the long history of witchcraft proceedings in the colonial period, see John Putnam Demos, Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England (New York, Oxford Univ. Press, 1982), esp. ch. 12; for SP’s language, see, for example, below pp. 149–52, and Gragg, Quest for Security, pp. 123–25.

17 Another book that SP made some use of was Richard Bernard’s The Bibles Abstract and Epitomie. The Capital Heads, Examples, Sentences and Precepts of all the Principall Matters in Theologie (London, 1642), bound with Thesaurus Biblicus seu Promptuarium (London, 1644). The Abstract and Epitomie was an alphabetical listing of important theological and pastoral topics, with their major proofs and doctrines, biblical examples, and even uses, in effect providing ready-made sermon outlines for the parish minister.

18 Stout, New England Soul, p. 33.

19 Boyer and Nissenbaum, ed., Salem-Village Witchcraft, p. 280.

20 See E. Brooks Holifield, The Covenant Sealed: The development of Puritan Sacramental Theology in Old and New England, 1570–1720 (New Haven, Yale Univ. Press, 1974).

21 Upham, Salem Witchcraft, 3, 316.

22 Boyer and Nissenbaum, ed., Salem-Village Witchcraft, pp. 278, 280.

23 Of the 38 males cited for delinquent payments in Dec. 1689, none was listed as a member in full covenant as of May 1690, indicating that SP’s supporters were joining the church while his opponents were not. Ibid., pp. 350, 269–72.

24 Boyer and Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed, pp. 169–70.

25 Boyer and Nissenbaum, ed., Salem-Village Witchcraft, p. 271. The Salem Village church joined a minority of churches in eastern Massachusetts in refusing to adopt the Half-Way Covenant.

26 Gragg, Quest for Security, pp. 98–100.

27 Boyer and Nissenbaum, ed., Salem-Village Witchcraft, p. 307.

28 Gragg, Quest for Security, p. 135. The confessions came mostly from Andover inhabitants.

29 Boyer and Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed, pp. 176–77.

30 Gragg, Quest for Security, pp. 158–60.

31 See below p. 276. SP may refer, at least in part, to testimonies from the trials that speak of witches’s sabbaths and the observance of a “Bloody Sacrament.” Several witnesses stated that they had heard of or partaken in the sinister parody of the Lord’s Supper. For example, Mary Lacy noted that “The bread was brownish & the wine Red. They had also a table and Erthen Cups & there was so many that there was not bread Enough for them all. Some of them Stole bread and some brought bread with them and some of the bred look’t of a Reddish Color.” Other witnesses confirmed that the “Bloody Sacrament” had been administered on several occasions in SP’s own pasture. Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, ed., The Salem Witchcraft Papers (3 vols., New York, Da Capo Press, 1977), p. 523; see also pp. 66, 363, 504, 624, 647. On the perpetuation of occult beliefs in early American popular piety, see David D. Hall, Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgment: Popular Religious Belief in Early New England (New York, Knopf, 1989); Jon Butler, Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing the American People (Cambridge, Harvard Univ. Press, 1990); and Richard Godbeer, The Devil’s Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England (New York, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1992).

32 Boyer and Nissenbaum, Salem-Village Witchcraft, p. 297.

33 Ibid., p. 296.

34 See, for example, Perry Miller, The New England Mind: From Colony to Province (Cambridge, Harvard Univ. Press, 1953); Robert G. Pope, The Half-Way Covenant: Church Membership in Puritan New England (Princeton, Princeton Univ. Press, 1969); and Stephen Foster, Their Solitary Way: The Puritan Social Ethic in the First Century of Settlement (New Haven, Yale Univ. Press, 1971).

35 Holifield, The Covenant Sealed; Charles Hambrick-Stowe, The Practice of Piety: Puritan Devotional Practices in Seventeenth-Century New England (Chapel Hill, Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1982); and Leigh Eric Schmidt, Holy Fairs: Scottish Communions and American Revivals in the Early Modern Period (Princeton, Princeton Univ. Press, 1989).

36 Hall, Worlds of Wonder, pp. 154–61. The fact that the Salem Village brethren voted to limit baptism amidst the first flurry of opposition to SP in Feb. 1689/90 suggests that sacramental privileges became a political weapon in the intra-village struggle, effectively closing out SP’s opponents. The number of baptisms dropped as precipitously after Aug. 1691 as did the number of admissions to full communion. Gragg, Quest for Security, p. 89.

37 However, most of the 62 members admitted during that period were SP’s supporters and remained sympathetic to him. For admissions, see the Salem Church Records in Boyer and Nissenbaum, eds., Salem-Village Witchcraft, pp. 269–76.

38 Ibid., pp. 275–76.

39 See Edmund S. Morgan, “New England Puritanism: Another Approach,” William and Mary Quarterly XVIII (1966), 241; James Hoopes, “Art as History: Perry Miller’s New England Mind,” American Quarterly (1982), 21–22; and Theodore Dwight Bozeman, To Live Ancient Lives: The Primitivist Dimension in Puritanism (Chapel Hill, Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1988), appendix.

40 Edward Taylor, A Treatise Concerning the Lord’s Supper, ed. Norman S. Grabo (East Lansing, Univ. of Michigan Press, 1966).

41 Years later, seven members voted against removing the sentence of excommunication from Martha Kory, demonstrating continuing support for SP’s interpretation of the events.

42 “As to the AUTHOR of this Book, it is better to suspend our judgment than to make random assertions. Those who think that it was JOSHUA, because his name stands on the title page, rest on weak and insufficient grounds.” John Calvin, Commentaries on the Book of Joshua, trans. Henry Beveridge (Grand Rapids, Michigan, Eerdmans, 1949), p. xvii.

43 At this point SP wrote “1. Prop: Vide pag. 8. latter part*” to cue him to the statement of the first proposition that he neglected to include here and wrote on the next page. The proposition has been shifted in accordance with his directions.

44 SP writes “Vide pag. 7. the last words” to instruct him where to place the misplaced proposition.

45 “It was a memorative, introduttive, demonstrative, prefigurative, and distinctive sign.”

46 SP seems to be referring to Calvin (possibly directly or more likely through a commentary) on the issue of the wicked partaking of the sacraments. In the Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536), bk. IV, ch. xiv, §7 (ed. John T. McNeill [Philadelphia, Westminster Press, 1977], pp. 1281–82), Calvin argues, “They are not reasoning closely enough when they argue that the sacraments are not testimonies of God’s grace because they are offered to the wicked, who, however, do not find God more favorable but rather incur a heavier condemnation. For by the same argument, because the gospel is heard but rejected by many, and because Christ was seen and recognized by many but very few of them accepted him, nether gospel nor Christ would be a testimony of God’s grace.”

47 A reference to Richard Bernard (c. 1567–1641), an English divine who briefly espoused Separatism and then returned to the Church of England. On SP’s use of Bernard’s works, see above p. 8, n. 17 and below p. 150, n. 31 and p. 321, n. 52; see also Gragg, Quest for Security, p. 58.

48 John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition Upon All of the Books of the New Testament (London, 1656; rep. 1865), pp. 715–16. “Not for filthy lucre] As your church-choppers and money changers, that take up the ministry only as a trade to pick a living out of it. We preach the gospel amongst us, saith a Popish writer, tantum ut nos pascat et vestiat, merely for food and raiment.” As seen throughout the notebook, SP relied heavily on the works of John Trapp (1601–1669), a minister in the Church of England. Trapp’s commentaries, studded with references to the church fathers and Reformation writers, as well as arcane quotes from a variety of sources, provided the parish minister with manifold anecdotes and appropriate citations. This acquisition of knowledge at second- and third-hand is an illustration of the Puritan penchant for anthologization.

49 SP writes: “Se the. 2^d sermon on this subject in page the. 30.” See below, p. 66.

50 John Trapp, A Commentary or exposition upon all the Epistles and the Revelation of John the Divine (London, 1647), p. 35. The Latin phrase, which translates as, “Touch the mountains and they will smoke,” is from the Vulgate, Ps. 103:32: “Qui respicit terram, et faciteam fremere; qui tanget montes, et fumigant.”

51 By “it is noted,” SP is referring to the marginal commentaries that appeared in the KJV of the times. For the significance of such commentary, see Harry S. Stout, “The Word and Order in Colonial New England,” in Nathan O. Hatch and Mark A. Noll, ed., The Bible in America: Essays in Cultural History (New York, Oxford, 1982), pp. 19–38.

52 “Before or preferably during the meal.”

53 “After the meal.”

54 SP writes: “Se the first sermon in page. 16.” See above, p. 52.

55 SP writes: “Se the 1^st sermon on Page. 21.” See above, p. 57.

56 Commenting on the portion of the verse that reads, “To be tempted of the devil,” Trapp writes, “No sooner was Christ out of the water of Baptisme, then in the fire of Temptation.” John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon The four Evangelists, And The Acts of the Apostles (London, 1647), p. 56.

57 MS: “Annas.”

58 “He who does not know how to dissimulate, does not know how to live.”

59 “During the meal.”

60 “The faithfulness of a friend is tested in a disputed matter.”

61 “Do not boast of anything that is your own, unless you keep your own eyes on the crucified one.” This seems to be a paraphrase of Gal. 6:14.

62 John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon the four Evangelists, And The Acts of the Apostles, p. 55: “Luther observed of himself, that when God was about to set him upon any speciall service, he either laid some fit of sicknesse upon him before-hand, or turned Satan loose upon him . . . Hence also it was that in his Sermons, God have him such a grace . . . that when he preached, they that heard him thought, every one, his own temptations to be severally touched and noted. Whereof when signification was given unto him by his friends, and he demanded how that could be? Mine own manifold temptations (saith he) and experiences are the cause thereof. For from his tender years he was much beaten and exercised with spirituall conflicts.”

63 “See sermons following for more sustained treatment.”

64 Trapp, Commentary or Exposition Upon All of the Epistles and the Revelation of John the Divine, p. 245. “Became obedient unto death] That is, to his dying day, saith Beza. He went thorow many a little death all his life long, and at length underwent that cursed and painful death of the Crosse, his soul also being heavy to the death, Mat. 26.” The revised ed. (Commentary or Exposition Upon All of the Books of the Old Testament, p. 606) adds, “He suffered the insufferable wrath of God for a season. Ne perderet obedientiam, perdidit vitam, saith Bernard.”

65 Here again SP draws on Trapp, Commentary on the four Evangelists, And The Acts of the Apostles, p. 136: “Possumus etiam hinc asseverare ex latere Christi Fluxisse nostra Sacramenta, saith Calvin, We may safely say that our Sacraments issued out of Christ’s side.” In Commentary on the Gospel According to John (trans. William Pringle [Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1949], p. 133), Calvin discusses how the blood and water symbolize the sacrifice for and the washing away of sin. The sacraments, he argues, have the same design of purification and sanctification. “For this reason, I do not object to what Augustine says, that our sacraments flowed from Christ’s side.”

66 I.e. Job 1:21.

67 SP does not specify whether he omitted merely the preceding sentence or the whole use. He probably decided to leave out part or all of this point because of its confrontational tone. At this time, a portion of the congregation was behind in paying its ministerial rate, and SP was involved in a struggle to obtain parsonage lands. See Gragg, Quest for Security, pp. 87–88, 91–92.

68 “May we follow you, Lord, through you, to you, because you are truth: through you, you are the way; to you, because you are the life.” SP once more uses Trapp, Commentary Upon the four Evangelists, And The Acts of the Apostles, p. 88. Expounding on John 14:6, where Christ says “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” Trapp states, “As if he should say, Thou hast no whither to go but to me, nor which way to go but by me, that thou mayest attain eternall life. Which made Bernard say, Sequemur, Domine, te, per te, ad te: Te, quia veritas, per te, quia via, ad te, quia vita. And this was one ofthose sweet sayings, that old Beza had much in his mouth, a little afore his death.”

69 Trapp, Commentary or Exposition Upon All of the Books of the New Testament, p. 680, on Heb. 10:20: “By a new] Fresh, and as effectual at all times, as if Christ were but newly sacrificed for us. Tarns recens mihi nunc Christus est, ac si hac hora fudisset sanguinem, saith Luther. Christ is even now as fresh to me as if this very hour he had shed his precious blood.”

70 MS: “arisise.”

71 “The Master’s victory is the slave’s triumph.” Hieronymus is better known as St. Jerome (d. 420), a biblical translator and commentator and monastic theologian most known for his condemnation of Pelagianism, an early heretical movement that posited that with the resurrection of Christ, humankind was capable of attaining perfect righteousness while yet on earth.

72 SP apparently drew the structure for the remainder of this sermon from Bernard, The Bibles Abstract and Epitomie, p. 13, where the author lists and considers “Christs apparitions after his Resurrection.”

73 MS: “Exhortation.”

74 “Place your faith in heaven and you shall have touched.” SP in all likelihood found this reference to Augustine, Bishop of Hippo (d. 604), in a commentary.

75 Thianthropos: “God-man.”

76 The passage to which SP is here referring is in William Ames’ Medulla Theologica (London, 1623), bk. I, ch. xxiii: “The place from which he ascended was the Mount of Olives, Acts 1:12. It was here also that he suffered his deepest humiliation, Luke 22:39. This occurred so that he might teach that his suffering and ascension pertained to the same thing.” SP, as with virtually all Puritan clergymen, would have had a strong grounding in the works of Ames (1576–1633), whose works were part of the curriculum of Harvard when SP attended. Indeed, he seems to have taken Ames’ structure in the Medulla for his series of sacrament sermons on Christ’s suffering, resurrection, ascension, and exaltation. Sections 21–24 of that book deal with the life of the humiliated Christ, his death, exaltation, and the application of his death and resurrection. In dealing with Christ’s life, for example, Ames divides his discussion of Christ’s humiliation into two parts: his conception and birth, and the period after his birth. SP uses the same organizing concepts, but where Ames treats the passive and active nature of Christ’s obedience, SP deals in great detail with Christ’s physical sufferings.

77 Theos: “God.”

78 Augustine asserted the co-eternality of the Father and Son in criticism of the teachings of Arius (250–336), a Greek-speaking African cleric who held that Christ was not divine, but rather was a super-angelic creature who shared neither the same essence nor nature with God the Father. The ultimate source of this reference may be Augustine’s essay on The Trinity, where, distinguishing between “Father” and “God,” he states, “The Arians, of course, understand these words as though the Son were not the true God. But setting them aside, let us see if, when he [the Lord] says to the Father: ‘that they may know thee, the one true God,’ we are to understand them in this sense, that the Father alone is also the true God, lest we should not understand any to be God except the three together, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Are we, therefore, from the Lord’s testimony to call the Father the one true God, the Son the one true God, and the Holy Spirit the one true God, and at the same time call the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, that is, the Trinity itself together, not three gods, but one true God?” The Writings of St. Augustine, in Fathers of the Church (New York, Fathers of the Church, 1959), 45, 211.

79 Here follows the equivalent of about eleven deleted, illegible lines.

80 “The corruption of the very best is the worst wickedness.”

81 Louis XIV ruled France from 1643–1715. In 1685, he revoked the Edict of Nantes, which had allowed free exercise of religion for French Protestants.

82 “Verse 44. Ye are of your father the devil.] . . . Satan is called the God of this world; because as God at first did but speake the word, and it was done: so if the divel do but hold up his finger, give the least hint, they obey him.” Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon The four Evangelists, And The Acts of the Apostles, p. 46.

83 These are quotes from Richard Baxter’s The Certainty of the Worlds of Spirits. Fully Evinced by unquestionable Histories of Apparitions and Witchcrafts, Operations, Voices, &c. (London, 1691). The first reference is to Joseph Hall, the Bishop of Norwich (1574–1656); SP then quotes practically verbatim from Baxter (pp. 122–23). The case Baxter cites about the “woman who pretended to have the holy Ghost” is, he tells us, taken from “the Epistle of Finnilianus to Cyprian, Ep. 75, Pag. 238.” It is interesting to note that in the next paragraph (pp. 123–24), Baxter goes on to describe the “case of Mrs. Hutchinson, and Mrs. Dyer in New England.” He concludes, “Though I find no proof of Witch-craft in their Case, there is much of Satanical Delusion, joined with Humane Self-conceit and Pride.”

84 Johann Heinrich Alsted (1588–1638) was a philosopher and theologian who taught at the universities of Herborn and Weissenburg, Germany. SP here refers to Alsted “on this topic,” which could possibly be in Triumphus Bibliorum Sacrorum; seu Encyclopedia Biblica (Frankfurt, 1625), one of Alsted’s many compendiums of philosophical, scientific, theological, and biblical knowledge.

85 MS: “keen”

86 MS: “inudued.”

87 SP deletes: “See farther on this subject Lib. 4. pag. 19.”

88 MS: “thro.”

89 In the margin appears the word “Dagger,” in a different, later hand.

90 SP deletes: “30.”

91 SP deletes: “For this cause many are weak & Sickly among you, & many sleep.”

92 This second notation is to a later repreaching.

93 Here SP draws from Bernard, The Bibles Abstract and Epitomie, p. 54, under the topic “Man what he is.”