Old Mens TEARS For their own DECLENSIONS, Mixed with FEARS Of their and Posterities further falling off from New-England’s PRIMITIVE CONSTITUTION.

This is an online edition of Scottow’s popular tract, published in Boston in 1691, based on the first edition. Later editions were published in Boston in 1715, 1733, and 1749, and in New London in 1769. It is a searchable PDF document. The characteristics of Scottow’s original text (spelling, punctuation, capitalization, italics, etc.) have been retained. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected, and a list of emendations is included at the end. Its typographic design is based on that of the original. The work decries the falling off of New England from the purity and purpose of its original founding, and ascribes the recent series of misfortunes to God’s displeasure over the worldliness of the colonial churches and society. Scottow’s tract is an important example of the jeremiad formulation of punishment and promise, and it provides a wealth of typological imagery and Biblical allusion connecting the Puritan enterprise to the Israel of the Old Testament and to the anticipated Kingdom of God in America. Users are encouraged to download, browse, save, and print copies, and to link to this page and URL. Users are admonished, however, not to publish or post this document elsewhere without prior permission. Length = 6,100 word