Introduction --

1: Loomings. The soul's preparation for Christ (c. 1626) / Thomas Hooker ; Christ the fountain of life (c. 1628) / John Cotton ; The sound believer (c. 1633) / Thomas Shepard ; 2: The migration. Plymouth. Reasons and considerations touching the lawfulness of removing out of England into the parts of America (1622) / Robert Cushman ; Mourt's relation (1622) / G. Mourt ; New English Canaan (1634-1635) / Thomas Morton ; Of Plymouth Plantation (1630-1650) / William Bradford --

Massachusetts Bay. Conscience with the power and cases thereof (c. 1630) / William Ames ; The danger of desertion (1631) / Thomas Hooker ; Reasons to be considered for ... the intended plantation in New England (1629) / John Winthrop ; God's promise to his plantations (1630) / John Cotton ; A model of Christian charity (1630) / John Winthrop ; Letter from New England (1634) / John Cotton ; Journal (1642) / John Winthrop ; New England's tears for old England's fears (1640) / William Hooke ; Foreword to John Norton, The answer (1648) / John Cotton ; Wonder-working providence of Sion's savior in New England (c. 1650) / Edward Johnson ; The gospel-covenant (c. 1639-1640) / Peter Bulkeley --

3: City on a hill. The first American poetry. "Upon the first sight of New England" (1638) / Thomas Tillam ; Poems and prose (c. 1635-1670) / Anne Bradstreet --

The Antinomian crisis. A treatise of the covenant of grace (c. 1636) / John Cotton ; The examination of Mrs. Anne Hutchinson (1637) / Anne Hutchinson ; A defense of an order of court (1637) / John Winthrop ; A brief answer (1637) / Henry Vane ; The parable of the ten virgins (1636-1640) / Thomas Shepard ; The application of redemption (c. 1640) / Thomas Hooker --

The specter of toleration. The simple cobbler of Aggawam (c. 1646) / Nathaniel Ward --

Business in the Bible Commonwealth. Last will and testament (1653) / Robert Keayne --

4: O New England! The Cotton-Williams debate. The bloody tenent of persecution (1643) / Roger Williams ; The bloody tenent, washed and made white in the blood of the lamb (1646) / John Cotton ; Experiments of spiritual life and health (c. 1650) / Roger Williams --

The passing of the fathers. Abel being dead yet speaketh (c. 1655) / John Norton --

New England alone. The saint's anchor-hold (1661) / John Davenport ; Election sermon : Sion the outcast healed of her wounds (1661) / John Norton --

The Jeremiad. "God's controversy with New England" (1662) / Michael Wigglesworth ; The mystery of Israel's salvation (1667) / Increase Mather ; Eye-salve (1672) / Thomas Shepard, Jr. --

The revival of piety. Narrative of captivity and restoration (c. 1677) / Mary Rowlandson ; The safety of appearing at the day of judgment (c. 1685) / Solomon Stoddard --

5. Coming of age. The faith once delivered to the saints. Diary (1675-1727) / Samuel Sewall ; Phaenomena quaedam Apocalyptica (1697) / Samuel Sewall ; Poems (c. 1680-1725) / Edward Taylor ; Magnalia Christi Americana (1693-1702) / Cotton Mather ; Reserved memorials (1681-1724) / Cotton Mather ; Agricola (c. 1725) / Cotton Mather --

Witchcraft. The wonders of the invisible world (1692) / Cotton Mather ; Examination of Susanna Martin (1692) / Susanna Martin ; Petition of Mary Easty (1692) / Mary Easty ; More wonders of the invisible world (1697) / Robert Calef --

Politics and society. Will and doom (1692) / Gershom Bulkeley ; A vindication of the government of New England churches (1717) / John Wise ; A defense of the New England charters (1715) / Jeremiah Dummer --

A new style. Practical discourses on the Parable of the ten virgins (c. 1705) / Benjamin Colman --

6. The dispersion of the New England way. The history of the Kingdom of Basaruah II (1715) / Joseph Morgan ; An examination of the power of the fraternity (c. 1715) / Solomon Stoddard ; "My present thoughts of episcopacy" (1719, 1722) / Samuel Johnson ; Dogood paper No. 4 : On the higher learning (1722) / Benjamin Franklin ; Preface to Roger Wolcott, Poetical meditations (1725) / John Bulkeley

Afterword.