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| Volume 4, Page 466
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among the earliest taken off from the standing form, is a well looking,
perfect captital, but in two other copies appears to have its face battered,
as if it had been in irregular company, and in the only other copy ever
seen by me, the body appears to have a twist, wh. may account for the
bruise on its face.
Which now, of these two, both print. early in 1644, was prior? Very
short time, only few hours prob. elaps. betw. them; and further scrutiny
of the note to the Reader may be useful to aid the decision of that question.
The opening words are "meeting with this Book, newly come
forth of the Press;" and it is very strange, that no other man than
Thomas Weld is kn. to have ever seen such a supposed book, bef. or
since. Industry was most active, in that day of civil war, to hunt up
every thing as soon as print. The eager friend of King Charles I. in
London, whose assiduous attent. to such serv. furnishes one of the most
curious and complete assortment of treasures in the British Museum,
contain. near. thirty thousand pieces and tracts, bound in over two
thousand vols. in the order of success, dates betw. 1640 and 1660,must
be inq. of whether this be one book or two. Now in that vast collect.
this tract stands with only the tit. Short Story, &c. obtain. by the book
collector 19 Feb. 1643, and no such work as "Antinomians and Familists
condemn." &c. is nam. Next, in reference to the point of priority,
should be weigh. what is told in that note to the Reader, as to the
names of some that acted in our troubles, wh. the writer says "are
already in print. without any act of mine." But we are left uncertain,
whether that print without his act means (as seems fairly to follow) in
the Book newly come forth. Unless it may be shown, that such print.
of the names can be found elsewhere than in Short Story, bef. the issue
of Antinomians and Familists condemn. it may well be thought this
addr. to the reader is only a subterfuge. Such evidence it may be hard
to find; yet no other man than Weld can be nam. wh. would in London
be so deeply engag. in such cause. But what motive had Weld to make
such a statement? To this question, a reasonable reply is, that he
might fear prosecution for libels by one or another. Friends of the
parties implicat. must have been numerous eno. in London; for tho.
Gov. Cradock, Sir Richard Saltonstall, Sir Bryan Jansen, treas. Harwood,
Alderm. Andrews, Col. Ven and others, may have been impartial,
Sir H. Vane would, of course, sympathize with Cotton, Wheelwright,
and the majority of his fellow-worship. in Boston ch. Mr. Hutchinson
also had a br. there, wh. had liv. here, was of high esteem and large
property, and beside others of the Antinom. party, Coggeshall was a man
of influence in Boston, and Aspinwall a ready writer, both able to command
friends in the great city; while Wheelwright, s. of one of the
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