Prævent

It is known what endeavours I uſit to prævent the paſſing of it; and, if our freinds had been in the Houſe, or, as the Houſe was at that time conſtituted, had that buſines been carried by reaſon, and not by violence and faction, the motioning of it had been explodit with ſhame.

And it ware to be wiſhed that we had ſuch a ſtatute made with us, as I find they have in England, viz. Act 27, anno 21 Jacobi 1. Regis, viz. that I ſhall be murder for the mother not to call for help, or to conceall the death of hir baſtard child; which would prævent exceedingly the deſtroying of children, if theſſe violent preſumptions ware once made eneugh, vide ſupra, page 25, in the caſe of one Knox.

Where that damn’d wisard hid in sly disguise (For so by certain signes I knew) had met

[…] and little did I, or perhaps either hee or you thinke (any more than my selfe) 10 months since, that it should have fallen to my share to prævent him in doeing this office first for mee […] […] But though it bee very unlucky, and being what you could not well prævent, as haveing nothing before you but publique bruite to reckon by […]