usage ridicule

[Joel S. Berson]

For my bedtime reading recently I turned to "Tremenda: The Dreadful
Sound with Which the Wicked are to be Thunderstruck", a sermon
delivered by Cotton Mather on May 25, 1721, on the occasion of the
execution of Joseph Hanno, an "African".  I came across:

"There are many Woes which the word of GOD threatens unto the Spirits
of the wicked, in a Blind Heart, an Hard Heart, an Heart forsaken of
GOD."  [p. 13]

I assume Mather spoke this sermon (perhaps using a
previously-prepared draft), then wrote (or edited) it for the
publisher.  So, unless his printer made changes (and it was a civil
crime in the Province of Massachusetts Bay to disrespect -- or
ridicule -- a minister), I wonder how Mather pronounced these words.

Joel

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