Mather Cotton (1663-1728) Ratio Disciplinae Fratrum Nov-Anglorum. A Faithful Account of the Discipline Professed and Practised in the

Mather, Cotton (1663-1728) Ratio Disciplinae Fratrum Nov-Anglorum. A Faithful Account of the Discipline Professed and Practised in the Churches of New England . Boston: Printed for S. Gerrish, 1726. Octavo, first edition, contemporary blind-tooled sheepskin, rubbed, with later label, discoloration at foot of spine, with several eighteenth century ownership inscriptions and some notes in shorthand on the back pastedown; collated, last free endleaf may be integral blank. This clarification of the platform of New England Congregational churches was written at a critical juncture in colonial history. The first group of New England divines may have begun as a unified group, but they quickly splintered. As founding members of the First Church in Cambridge departed for other regions, disputes arose with Quakers and other Protestant dissenters, and varying interpretations of scripture and doctrine began to pull congregations apart, Mather composed this work to define and re-affirm the central mission of Congregationalism.