Written for the Massachusetts Sabbath School Society, and revised by the Committee of Publication. BOSTON: MASSACHUSETTS SABBATH SCHOOL SOCIETY, Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, BY CHRISTOPHER C. DEAN, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. PREFACE. THE difficulty of preparing a work of this nature can only be conceived of by one who has tried it. The mere collecting of the scattered materials, dis persed in the obscurest corners, as they usually are, is a great labor. It is a greater toil to arrange them in due order, when once they are collected. The settling of doubtful and contradictory statements is often a tedious and perplexing business. And then comes the writing, which the author must accomplish as he can. The only merit which this little book can claim, is laborious accuracy bestowed upon a worthy subject. For its faults in other respects, there can hardly be any remedy. For, to apply here a rhyme of President Oakes, "They that can Cotton's goodness well display, Must be as good as he :-but who are they ?" In prosecuting the design of the Publishing Committee of the Massachusetts Sabbath School Society, it is evident that the distinctive principles of the Puritans must come under review. In order that these might be more completely presented, they are discussed somewhat fully in a few chapters devoted to that object. Accordingly, in this volume, will be found a chapter occupied with an account of the nature and |