Puritan clergyman, scholar and author. He countenanced the Salem witch trials. Unsigned handwritten manuscript, 3.75 x 6, four pages on two adjoining sheets, July 5, 1703. Minutely penned sermon written in Mathers difficult to decipher hand, beginning “How can I utter such an awful sound without using…words of Jeremiah 4:19. An alarm has been sounded in the midst of you…O Lord. You have been awakened with the admonition & exhortation…yourselves…This is ye plot, and O you people of God, be you never so just…will ye wicked plot again to you and call upon you with highest. But alas you may be saved.” Sermon features a number of deletions and revisions, including several passages written in the left borders. Jeremiah 4:19 reads, “My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.” In very good condition, with a few small spots of ink erosion, several small professional silking repairs, mild toning and light show-through from text on reverse of pages. An unusually lengthy example from this very rare and controversial clergyman. COA John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and R&R COA.
