NOTES 



Cotton Mather, in his Magnalia, says, " Mr. J. Higginson and Mr, 

 W. Hubbard have assisted me and much obliged me with information 

 for many parts of our history." 



In his " Attestation," prefixed to Mather's Magnalia, or " Chnrch 

 History of New England," dated 'Salem, 25 th of the first month, 

 1697," Mr Higginson says, — " As for myself, having been by the 

 mercy of God, now above sixty-eight years in New England, and served 

 the Lord and his people in my weak measure, sixty years in the minis- 

 try of the Gospel, I may now say in my old age, I have seen all that the 

 Lord has done for his people in New England, and have known the 

 beginning and progi'ess of these churches unto this day, and having 

 read over much of this history, 1 cannot but in the love and fear of God 

 bear witness to the truth of it." " Joijn Higginso^j." 



Dr. Mather, having given the original covenant, hero [^printed in 

 Roman letters, immediately subjoins the following remarks : 



" By this instrument was the covenant of grace explained, received, 

 and recognized by the first Church in this colony, and applied unto the 

 evangelical designs of a church-estate before the Lord. This instrument 

 they afterwards often read over, and renewed the consent of their souls 

 unto every article in it ; especially when their days of humiliation 

 invited them to lay hold on particular opportunities for doing so. 



" So you have seen the nativity of the First Church in Massachusetts 

 Colony. 



" As for the circumstances of admission into this church, they left it 



very much unto the discretion and faithfulness of the Elders, together 



, with the condition of the persons to be admitted. Some were admitted 



by expressing their consent unto their confession and covenant ;" &c., 



as before quoted on the Gth page. 



