The wiser people being troubled at these trifles, they took the opportunity of Governour Winthrop's being there, to have the thing publickly propounded in the congregation: who in answer thereunto, distinguished between a theological and a moral goodness; adding, that when Juries were first used in England, it was usual for the crier, after the names of persons fit for that service were called over, to bid them all, 'Attend, good men and true;'whence it grew to be a civil custom in the English nation, for neighbours living by one another, to call one another 'good man such an one;'and it was pity now to make a stir about a civil custom, so innocently introduced.
Cotton Mather — COTTON MATHER: Magnalia Christi Americana (1702), Volume 1
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