Cushman, Robert. The Sin and Danger of Self-Love Described, in a Sermon preached at Plymouth, in New-England, 1621: with a Memoir of the Author. Boston: Charles Ewer, 1846. Reprint Edition. [12131]
Removed, sewn into a new acid-free wrapper, 8 1/2 x 5 1/4 inches, 32 pages. Very good. Pamphlet.
The text for the sermon is I Corinthians 10:24, "Let no man seek his own: but every man another's wealth."
The author examines the text, explains it, shows the doctrine of it, illustrates the doctrine by the "scriptures, experience, and reasons"; and lastly, makes applications of the doctrine.
The sermon is pp. 11-32.
Pages 7-10 are Rev. Cushman's Introduction, in which he describes New-England as settled in the providence of God. He describes the natives as "very much wasted of late, by reason of a great mortality that fell amongst them three years since, which together with their own civil dissensions and bloody wars, hath so wasted them, as I think the twentieth person is scarce left alive, and those that are left, have their courage much abated, and their countenance is dejected, and they seem as a people affrighted." - p. 8.
Before that is a recommendation from Judge Davis, and a Biographical Sketch of Cushman by the Judge, contemporary with the pamphlet date.
Robert "Pilgrim" Cushman ( 1577-1625), b. & d. at Kent, England. Cushman became a Separatist while in England, was arrested several times for distributing tracts, was briefly imprisoned and excommunicated from the Anglican Church. Judge Davis says that he "was one of the most distinguished characters among that collection of worthies, who quitted England on account of their religious difficulties, and settled with Mr. John Robinson, their pastor in the city of Leyden, in Holland, in the year 1609."
Cushman was instrumental in the planning and execution of the trip on the Mayflower to Plymouth; Cushman was on the Speedwell, and the ship had to abort the trip due to damage. Cushman sailed the next year (1621) for Plymouth.
"Cushman penned The Cry of A Stone about 1619 but not published until 1642. This is an important Pilgrim document. In 1621 he sailed to Plymouth Colony with his son, Thomas, on board the Fortune. He contributed the first narrative of Plymouth in Mourt's Relation (1622), advocated tirelessly for the colony upon his return to England in 1624, and died there on 6 May, 1625, leaving a legacy as the indispensable architect of the Mayflower enterprise, the community's spiritual shepherd, and the man whose negotiations turned a scattered sect into a foothold for English America." - findagrave online.
