Note 21 — Last Words of Distinguished Men and Women. (continued 2)
Reading edition
It has been suggested that Franklin was helped to his famous epitaph upon himself by Benjamin Woodbridge's funeral elegy upon John Cotton, preserved in Mather's Magnalia:
"A living, breathing Bible; tables where Best covenants at large engraven were; Gospel and law in his heart had each its column; His head an index to the sacred volume; His very name a title-page; and next His life a commentary on the text. O, what a monument of glorious worth, When in a new edition he comes forth, Without erratas, may we think he'll be In leaves and covers of eternity."