MAKERS OF AMERICA" COTTON MATHER Cije puritan priest BY BARRETT WENDELL NEW YORK DODD, MEAD, AND COMPANY Publishers ^^7 V\ 4. Copyright, 1891, By Dodd, Mead, and Co. All rights reserved. John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. NOTE. Whoever finds anything in this little book must share my gratitude to the possessors of Cotton Mather's manuscripts, who have so generously put them at my disposal. To the Massachusetts Historical Society, the American Antiquarian Society, the Congregational Library, and Mrs. Skinner of Chicago, our most earnest thanks are due. I heartily regret that I have not been per- mitted to examine the exhaustive life of Cotton Mather left in manuscript by the late Rev. Mr. Marvin, of Lancaster, Massachusetts. CONTENTS. Page I. Introduction i II. The Puritan Fathers : Cotton and Mather 4 III. The Youth of Cotton Mather ... 21 IV. The Fall of the Charter. —The Be- ginning OF Cotton Mather's Min- istry 39 V. The Revolution of 1689 and the New Charter 70 VI. Witchcraft 88 VII. The End of Sir William Phipps . . . 124 VIII. Harvard College 130 IX. Cotton Mather's Private Life until THE Death of his Wife 154 X. Cotton Mather's Private Life. — His Second Marriage.— Charter of Har- vard College. — Quarrel with Joseph Dudley 199 XI. Cotton Mather's Private Life to the Death of his Second Wife .... 228 XII. Cotton Mather's Private Life. — His Third Marriage 249 vi CONTENTS. XIII. Inoculation XIV. The Death of Increase Mather . XV. The Last Diary of Cotton Mather XVI. The Last Days of Cotton Mather XVII. Cotton Mather, the Puritan Priest Page 273 282 288 297 300 Authorities 309 Index 311 COTTON MATHER. I. INTRODUCTION. Two hundred years ago there was living in Boston a man whose name is still remembered. Few nowadays know why we have heard of Cotton Mather; but even in this last decade of the nineteenth century few Yankees do not know his name. My object is to tell what manner of man he was, what manner. of world he lived in, why — with all the oddities and failings that are to us so grotesque — he seems well worth remem- bering. For this Cotton Mather was of those who take life in earnest ; and the life he took in earnest was, throughout the sixty-five years he passed on earth, the hfe of that New England which we who come of it like to believe the source of what is best in our own Amer- ica. If, for a while, we can make ourselves see life as he saw it, we shall have done what I have in view. Cotton Mather's diaries, together with his published works, express his views of hfe with rare completeness. So far as may be, then, I shall tell his story in his own words. In so doing, I shall doubtless expose myself to little less than the contempt of many serious students of Colonial history. The man's veracity has been seriously 1 2 COTTON MATHER. questioned \ and one can see why. In the first place, he was the champion of a cause that, even in his own time, was hopelessly lost, — the cause of the old hie- rarchy of New England, that once hoped to govern the Western world in accordance with no laws but those of God and Calvin ; and not the least tragic fate of men whose cause is hopelessly lost is that victorious posterity rarely appreciates how they can have been honest. Again, Cotton Mather was a priest, and in this world priests are generally accepted in one of two ways : whoever will not bow to their authority is lost in horror of their priestcraft. Finally, Cotton Mather was a man of such passion as rarely worries a human being from the cradle to the grave : throughout his life his emo- tions swept him into ecstasies which he found sometimes divine, sometimes diabolical; and, having a ready tongue and pen, he gave utterance to many hasty things not always consistent with fact or with each other. Wherefore such of posterity as have not loved his memory have inclined now and again to call him by a name he would probably have been the first to use in their place, — a very great liar. To me he seems otherwise. The better I know him, the more firmly I believe that from beginning to end he meant to be honest. Beyond doubt, like emotional people about us, — abolitionists, nationalists, what not, — he often saw things not as they were but as he would have had them. What counted for him was God's own work, what counted against him the Devil's ; and God's work, of course, was all good, and the Devil's refreshingly free from any redeeming trait. But I do not believe that he often wrote or spoke a word that he INTR OD UC TION 3 disbelieved when it was written or spoken. He writes as follows in the Magnalia : — " I have not commended any person, but when I have really judged, not only that he deserved it, but also that it would be a benefit unto posterity to know wherein he de- served it ; . . . yett I have left unmentioned some cen- surable occurrences in the story of our Colonies, as things no less unuseful than improper to be raised out of the grave, wherein Oblivion hath now buried them." If we cannot accept him, then, as a veracious his- torian of all that went on before him, it is rather that his eyes were blinded than that his pen put down what he knew was error. And we may accept him, I believe more and more, as a singularly veracious historian of himself, who shows us year after year not exactly what things were, but exactly what he felt God bade him believe them. In the chapters that follow, I shall try first to give some account of the race he sprang from, and of the place and the period in which he found himself. Then I shall try to tell, from his own point of view, the story of his own career. And I shall be sorry if I do not make it seem that there is still good ground for believing that it was a good man they buried on Copp's Hill one February day in the year 1728. II. The Puritan Fathers : Cotton and Mather. 1585-1662. To understand the founders of New England we must recall more than tradition has preserved. All the world knows that to a rare degree the settlers of Plymouth and of Massachusetts alike were men of character. Cromwell himself is no bad type of them. Among the descendants of one of the emigrant minis- ters, indeed, a tradition is preserved that Cromwell, at the height of his power, once said that he had been more afraid of their ancestor at football than of "armies in the field." One may almost say that all the notables during the first generation of New Eng- land were men who might have played at football with Cromwell, and who, if they had, would probably have kept his hands full. All the world knows, too, that these men came hither to found a state where for once the laws of God and of man should coincide. But in the course of two centuries the world has forgotten that their conception of the laws of God was very different from what prevails nowadays. Yet to understand the Puritans at all we must in a general way understand their creed. To the time of the Reformation, England, with the rest of Europe, had virtually accepted the doctrines of THE PURITAN FA THERS. 5 Christianity as expounded by the CathoHc Church. The Reformation and the Renaissance, affecting Eng- land together, produced there a new state of rehgious thought, which was greatly fostered by the political accidents of the time. Under Queen EHzabeth the first duty of Englishmen was to fight Spain ; and Spain was the head and front of the powers that professed allegiance to the Church of Rome. Protestantism, in that sense of the word which means repudiation of Rome, was the spirit that must be nurtured. Bibles in the English language were chained to public reading- desks in the churches ; so were great folios of Foxe's Book of Martyrs : whoever could read might go and read the truth. The truth they read was not favor- able to ecclesiastical authority. When the danger of Spanish aggression was passed, the Church of England found that in fostering patriotic Protestantism it had permanently strengthened a class of people not free- thinking enough to discard religious authority, but firmly resolved to accept no other authority than Scrip- ture. The Scriptural creed thus developed in Eng- land, but formulated most definitely at Geneva, was the creed of the founders of New England. Stripped of subtlety and technicality, it may perhaps be stated as follows : ^ In the beginning God created man, responsible to Him, with perfect freedom of will. Adam, in the fall, exerted his will in opposition to the will of God : thereby Adam and all his posterity mer- ited eternal punishment. As a mark of that punish- ment they lost the power of exerting the will in harmony with the will of God, without losing their ^ Magnalia, V. I. 6 COTTON MATHER. hereditary responsibility to Him. But God, in His infinite mercy, was pleased to mitigate His justice. Through the mediation of Christ, certain human beings, chosen at God's pleasure, might be relieved of the just penalty of sin, and received into everlasting salvation. These were the elect : none others could be saved, nor could any acts of the elect impair their salvation. v/ Now there were no outward and visible marks by which the elect might be known : there was a fair chance, then, that any human being to whom the Gospel was brought might be of the number. The thing that most vitally concerned every man, then, was to discover whether he were elect, and so free from the just penalty of sin, ancestral and personal. The test of election was ability to exert the will in true harmony with the will of God, — a proof of emancipation from the he- reditary curse of the children of Adam : whoever could ever do right, and want to, had a fair ground for hope that he should be saved. But even the elect were infected with the hereditary sin of humanity ; and, be- sides, no wile of the Devil was more frequent than that which deceived men into believing themselves regener- ate when in truth they were not. The task of assuring one's self of election, then, could end only with life, — a life of passionate aspirations, ecstatic enthusiasms, profound discouragements. Above all, men must never forget that the true will of God was revealed, directly or by implication, only and wholly in Scripture : in- cessant study of Scripture, then, was the sole means by which any man could assure himself that his will was really exerting itself, through the mediatory power of Christ, in true harmony with the will of God. THE PURITAN FATHERS. 7 Such, if I read the Magnaha aright, was the creed of the fathers of New England, at least as Cotton Mather understood it. To live in accordance with this, they crossed the Atlantic. To lead unmolested their lives in accordance with this, they confined the franchise to actual communicants, and dealt so sum- marily with whoever proclaimed other opinions, — Mrs. Hutchinson, Roger Williams, and the crazy fanat- ics whom they called Quakers. To preserve this unal- tered, they founded Harvard College. In obedience to the implications of this, they rated far above other men the official ministers of the Gospel. Cotton Mather sprang from a race of these minis- ters. His very name combined two of those most distinguished among the emigrant clergy of Massa- chusetts. In his chief book, the Magnalia, he has written the lives of his grandparents. And these lives, combining the historical and the domestic tra- ditions amid which he grew to manhood, deserve our attention, if we would understand the life he strove to live throughout in accordance with these traditions. Among the ministers who came from England in the full flush of their powers, none was more eminent than John Cotton.i Born at the town of Derby in 1585, the son of a pious and industrious lawyer, he was sent at the age of thirteen to Trinity College, Cambridge. Early chosen a fellow of Emanuel, he distinguished himself by "an University sermon, wherein, aiming more to preach j-^^than Christ, he used such florid strains, as extremely recommended bim unto the most, who relished the wisdom of words above the words of wisdom : though the pompous 1 Magnalia, III. I. i. 8 COTTON MATHER. eloquence of that sermon afterwards gave such a distaste unto his own rene'wed sotil^ that with a sacred indignation he threw his notes into the fire." For at this time, "such was the secret enmity & prejudice of an unregenerate soul against real holiness^ Sz such the ^orme/il which our Lord's witnesses give to the consciences of the earthly-minded^ that when he heard the bell toll for the funeral of Mr. Per- kins, his mind secretly rejoiced in his dehverance from that powerful ministry, by which his conscience had been so oft beleagured: the remembrance of which thing afterwards did break his heart exceedingly. " Converted by the preach- ing of a certain Dr. Sibs, he signalized his regeneration by preaching at St. Maries a sermon so plain in substance and diction that "the vain wits of the University . . . discov- ered their vexation ... by their not Juuujnitig} as ac- cording to their sinful & absurd custom they had formerly done. . . . Nevertheless, the satisfaction which he enjoyed in his own faithful soul, abundantly compensated unto him the loss of any human favour or honour.'' Shortly after this he was invited to become the min- ister of Boston, in Lincolnshire, where, in spite of the Bishop's opposition, he w^as settled at the celebrated church of St. Botolph for twenty years. Throughout this period his non-conformity steadily increased : his conscience bade him discard every rite and vestment for which he could not find authority in Scripture. At length, neither his learning, nor his character, nor the moral excellence of his work, nor the friends he had made among those in power, could save him from the consequences of a charge, brought by " a debauched fellow in the town," that the magistrates under his cure did not kneel at the sacrament. The debauched fel- low, in fulfilment of a prediction of "the renowned Mr. John Rogers of Dedham," ^ Cf. page 19. THE PURITAN FATHERS. 9 " quickly after this, died of the plague^ under an hedge, in Yorkshire ; and it was a long time ere any one could be found that would bury him. This "'tis to turn persecutor.''^ But Cotton was driven into hiding. Doubtful whether to remain in Boston, preaching in private, he consulted an elderly divine, who gave the opinion " 'That the removing of a minister was like the draining of a fish-pond : the good fish will follow the water, but eels, & other baggage fish, will stick in the mud.' Which things, when Mr. Cotton heard, he was not a little con- firmed in his inclination to leave the land.'' So he ultimately came to New England in a ship which brought two other notable ministers, — Hooker and Stone. It was pleasantly said at the time that this ship brought New England " three great necessities : Cotton for their clothing, Booker for X\\q\x fishing, and StoJie for their building.'' Among them the three managed to solace the voyage by a daily sermon ; and in favorable weather by three sermons a day. Hooker and Stone became the ministers of Hartford : Cotton remained in " New-Boston, which in a few years, by the smile of God, . . . came to exceed Old Boston in everything that renders a town considerable." On his arrival '• he found the whole country in a perplexed & a divided state, as to their civil constitution " ; and being requested to suggest convenient laws " from the laws wherewith God governed his ancient people," he recommended among other things '* that none should be electors, nor elected, . . . except such as were visible subjects of our Lord Jesus Christ, personally confed- erated in our churches. In these & many other ways, he propounded unto them an endeavour after a theocracy, as near as might be, to that which was the glory of Israel." 10 COTTON MATHER. This theocracy came near getting him into trouble. In spite of the passionate defence of Cotton Mather, there is Uttle room for doubt that he was almost per- verted by the heresies of Mrs. Hutchinson ; but he re- traced his steps in time, learning for once in his hfe to conform. " Nineteen years & odd months he spent in this place, doing of good publickly & privately, unto all sorts of men, as it became 'a good man full of faith, & of the Holy Ghost.' Here in an expository way, he went over the Old Testament once, & a second time as far as the thirtieth chapter of Isaiah ; & the whole New Testament once, & a second time as far as the eleventh chapter to the Hebrews. Upon the Lords-days & lecture-days, he preached thorow the Acts of the Apostles ; the prophesies of Haggai & Zechariah, the books of Ezra, the Revelation, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, second & third Epistles of John, the Epistle to Titus, both Epistles to Timothy, the Epistle to the Romans, with innu- merable other scriptures on incidental occasions." At last, in 1652, going to preach at Cambridge, he caught cold ; his voice failed in the midst of his sermon. It had been "his declared wish ' That he might not outlive his work! ' . . . he had rather /^^^itx fifteeti years, and, all that while never wore a siirpliss^ one of them swore, ' It had been better for him that he had gotten seven bastards ! ' " Once suspended, his thoughts turned to New Eng- land. " He drew up some arguments for his removal thither, which arguments were, indeed, the very reasons that moved the first fathers of New-England unto that unparellelled undertaking of transporting their families with themselves, over the Atlantic ocean: I. A removal from a corrupt church to 2, purer. II. A removal from a place where the truth & profes- sors of it are persecuted., unto a place of more quiet & safety. III. A removal from a place where all the ordinatices of God cannot be enjoyed, unto a place where they 7nay. IV. A removal from a church where the discipline of the Lord Jesus Christ is wanting, unto a church where ' may be practised. V. A removal from a place, where the ministers of God are unjustly inhibited from the execution of their functions, to a place where they may more freely execute the same. VI. A removal from a place, where there are fearful signs of desolation, to a place where one may have well grounded hope of God's protection." So in 1635, after a stormy voyage, he came to Bos- ton. The first church founded in Dorchester had followed its minister to Connecticut. Within a year, Richard Mather had gathered there a new church, where " he continued, a blessing unto all the churches in this wil- derness until his dying day, even for near upon four and t6 COTTOy AfATfiER. thirty years together. . . He never changed his habitation after this till he went unto the 'house eternal in the heav- ens ' ; albeit his old people of Toxteth vehemently solicited his return unto them when the troublesome Hierarchy in England was deposed.'* In 1669 he died of the stone, "wherein, accord- ing to Solomon's expression of it, 'the wheel was broken at the cistern.' " "As he judged that a preacher of the gospel should hQ, he was a very hard sttidefit : yea, so intent was he upon his beloved studies, that the morning before he died, he im- portuned the friends that watched with him to help him into the room, where he thought his usual works & books ex- pected him ; to satisfie his importunity they began to lead him thither; but finding himself unable to get out of his lodging-room, he said, ' I see I am not able ; I have not been in my study several days ; & is it not a lamentable thing, that I should lose so much time ? ' " His temperament was sombre, self-conscious. " He was for some years exercised with . . . uncertain- ties about his everlasting happiness. ... In those dark hours ... a gi^orious light rose unto him . . . which I find in his private papers thus expressed: ' My heart re- lented with tears at this prayer, that God would not deny me an heart to bless him, & not blaspheme him, that is so holy, just, and good ; though I should be excluded from his presence, & go down into everlasting darkness & dis- comfort.'" On his death-bed, "though he lay in a mortal extremity of pain, he never shrieked, he rarely groaned, with it ; & when he was able, he took delight in reading Dr. Goodwin's discourse about patience, in which book he read until the very day of his death. When they asked ' how he did ? ' his usual answer was, '■ Far from well, yet far better than mine iniquities deserve.'" THE PURITAN FATHERS. ly His last recorded words were a solemn charge to his son as to who might properly be admitted to baptism, — a question then seriously disturbing the churches of New England. The only bright touch in Cotton Math- er's picture of him is that which tells how, one Satur- day evening in 1661, two of his sons, both ministers, arrived at about the same time, — one from England, one from " a Remote place where he was now Stationed in the Coun- try ; And the Comforted Old Patriarch, sat shining like the Sun in Gemini^ & hearing his two Sons, in his own Pulpit entertain the People of GOD, with Performances, that made all People Proclaim him, An Happy Father."^ Richard Mather's first wife^ was " Mrs. Katharine Holt; a Gentlewoman Honourable for her Descent J but much more so, for her Vertiie. . . . She sometimes told her Son, while he was yet scarce more than an Infant, but very much her Darlings That she desired of the Glorious GOD only two things on his behalf; the one was, The Grace to Fear & Love GOD; the other was, the Learning that might Accomplish him to do Service for GOD. . . . Among her Instructions, it is to be Reinembred that she mightily inculcated the Lesson of Diligence upon him, & often put him in Mind of that Word, Seest thou a Man Diligent in his Business : He shall STAND BE- FORE KINGS. . . . When he was about Fifteen Years Old, she Died Marvellously Triumphing over the Fear oj Death, which thro' all her Life she had been Afraid of. " If a pretty late Abordon might have Passed for a Birth, it might have been said of this Gentlewoman, she was a Mother of Seven Sons. ... Four proved Useful, & Faithful & Famous Ministers of the Gospel. Increase 1 Parentator, p. 23. - Ibid, pp. 3-5. 2 1 8 COTTON MATHER, was the Youngest of them; Whom his Father called so . . . because of the never-to-be-forgotten Increase^ of every sort, wherewith GoD favoured the country, about the time of his Nativity. . . . Had he been Indisputably a seventh son, yet he would not have Countenanced the Foolish, Profane, Magical Whimsey of the silly People which fur- nishes the seventh Son, with I know not what uncommon Powers; 'T was among the Vulgar Errors always derided with him. However, we shall hear of Strange Things done by him, & for him." Born at Dorchester in June, 1639, Increase Mather,^ to use his own words, " Swam quietly in a Stream of Impiety & Carnal Security for many Years together, till it pleased the Lord in the year 1654, in Mercy to Visit me with a sore Disease, which was Apprehended to be the Stone." The serious frame of mind thus induced resulted in his conversion. In 1656 he took his first degree at Harvard College, " At which time the Praesident,^ who was deep in the Dark Principles with which the Stagyrite has for so many Ages Tyrannized over Human Understanding, upon a Dislike of the Ramcsan Strains in which our Young Disputant was carrying on his Thesis, would have cut him Short; but Mr. Mitchel Publickly Interposed, Pergat, Qucbso, nam doctis- sime disputat.^^^ In 1657, "on his Birth-Day, he Preached his First Ser7non, at a Village belonging to Dorchester. And on the next Lord's- 1 Throughout my account of Increase Mather, I follow Cot- ton Mather's " Parentator." 2 Charles Chauncy, who was inclined to Baptist heresies. 3 "Let him go on, I beg, for he is arguing like a great scholar." THE PURITAN FATHERS. 1 9 Day he Preached in his Fathers Pulpit, . . . When the whole Auditory were greatly Affected with the Light & Flame, in which the Rare Youth Appeared unto them : Especially was his Father so, who could scarce Pronounce the Blessing, for the Tears which from the Blessing he had himself now so Sensibly Received, he was thrown into." A month later, young Increase Mather sailed for England, whence he presently went to Dublin, where his brother Samuel was settled as a minister. The next year he proceeded Master of Arts at Trinity College, where " the Scholars were so Pleased with the Wit & Sense & Polite Learning brilliant in his Exercises, that they Pub- lickly Hummed'^ him -, which being a Complement that he had never heard Paid unto any one before, at first had Hke to have given too much Surprise unto him." Declining a fellowship, he preached for one winter in Devonshire ; and in 1659 became chaplain to the garrison of Guernsey. But the Restoration was upon him. In 1660, finding that he must "either conform to the Revived Superstitions in the Church of England, or leave the Island," he gave up his charge. Refusing a living in the Established Church, disappointed in a chance to travel on the Continent, his thoughts turned homeward. "In fine, all things Conspired for the moving of the Star, to illuminate the Western Haemi- sphere." In June, 1661, he sailed from Weymouth ; in August he came to his " comforted old patriarch " of a father 1 Cf. page 8. A capital example this of Cotton Mather's " inconsistency." 20 COTTON MATHER. at Dorchester, who had now for six years been the husband of John Cotton's widow. The following win- ter Increase Mather passed in preaching alternately for his father and " to the New Church in the North-part of Boston." In the course of the year, Mrs. Mather's daughter, Maria Cotton, conquered his affections. *' On March 6, 1662, he Came into the Married State ; Espousing the only Daughter, of the celebrated Mr. John Cotloii J in Honour to whom he did . . . call his First- born son by the Name of Cotton." Of such parentage, whose story I have told chiefly in his own words. Cotton Mather was born, in Boston, on the 1 2th of February, 1662-3. III. The Youth of Cotton Mather. 1662-1678. At this time the Plymouth Colony was about forty years old, the Charter of Massachusetts about thirty. Their story has been told again and again. Founded shortly before Laud became Archbishop of Canterbury, the Colonies were first strengthened by such emigration as was stimulated by the persecutions in England, and then confirmed in their strength by the independent responsibility thrust upon them by the civil wars, which kept the attention of England centred on herself. During the Commonwealth, home matters were too important to permit much attention in England to subjects beyond the Atlantic; for the rest, these pro- fessed a faith and a policy not very diff'erent from those which for twelve years prevailed in the mother country. What that faith was, we have seen; and in some degree what that policy was, too. It was based on a hope that the government of the visible world might, by the grace of God, be brought into harmony with the system by which God governed the invisible. At the outset the Puritans were met by a difficulty they never quite realized. The government of God, as they under- stood it, was the reverse of democratic. But the very 2 2 COTTON MATHER. fact that drove them to a wilderness for the found- ing of their system was the assumption at home of divinely autocratic power by kings and bishops for whose claims they could find no authority in Scripture. On Scripture only they were determined to rest ; but who should interpret Scripture? "All things in Scrip- ture," they themselves professed, " are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all." ^ Clearly no bishops, no ecclesiastical tradition, could do their busi- ness; they must fall back on active ministers of the Gospel. But whence came the authority of these min- isters, which might be held final? Again, only from Scripture, or from such occasional presences of God as we shall see revealing themselves in the ministrations of the Mathers. And who should designate the Scrip- turally authorized interpreters of the Scripture on which all authority must ultimately rest? Scripture, unhap- pily, contained no prophetic catalogue of its proper exponents. They fell back on the visible members of churches, on those of themselves whose public pro- fession of religious experience had proved, as far as earthly processes could prove, their regeneration. The elect of God became the electors of God's chosen. In other words, their system at once claimed autocratic power, temporal and spiritual, and yet rested its claim on something remarkably like the consent of the gov- erned. They strove to establish a thing that can never exist, — a Protestant priesthood. The democratic spirit implied in all Protestantism, in all revolution, was greatly strengthened by the political circumstances in which they found themselves. Under 1 Magnalia, V. I. i. vii. ms YOUTH. 23 the first Charter of Massachusetts, virtually that of a trading corporation, the freemen elected the magis- trates. And though for more than a generation the theocratic principles of John Cotton prevailed, and none were freemen but the members of churches, there was neither among the churches nor among their mem-' bers that heavenly unanimity which alone could pre- vent voters from now and then — and more and more — voting as they pleased. "The will of man," their creed admitted, " is made perfectly and immutably free to good alone in the state of glory only." ^ In the firsts thirty years of their life in America, the theocratic spirit was strong enough to establish the terms of the fran- chise, to banish Roger Williams and Mrs. Hutchinson, to hang the Quakers ; the democratic meanwhile had established and maintained civil order, and had been forced by the presence of Indians and other harassing neighbours into strengthening demonstrations of mili- tary power, as well as into that Confederacy of New England whose memory is dear to lovers of Union. The democratic spirit, I take it, made Sir Henry Vane Governor in 1637; a year or two later, the theocratic drove him in disgust from the Colony. It was the growth of the democratic that stopped the hanging of Quakers before Cotton Mather was born. In 1660, Charles II. came to the throne of his father. Massachusetts had grown unaccustomed to paying much attention to what went on in England. She sent him a complimentary address ; but it was more than a year before she was brought to the point of officially proclaiming him sovereign. Theocracy and 1 Magnalia, V. I. i. ix. 24 COTTON MATHER. democracy, priesthood and protestantism, agreed in profound disinclination to be meddled with. To- gether they met in peaceable but dogged resistance to the effort of royal commissioners to assert in New England a power superior to that of the Charter. In their common cause their mutual antagonism was for- gotten. What is more, the two spirits were not sharply distinguished : both were inherent in the original con- stitution of the Colonies. Theoretically, pretty much everybody beheved at once in the divine authority of the clergy, and in the right of godly men to say who should preach to them and who govern them. It was at this time that Cotton Mather came into the world. Little record is preserved of his childhood ; but he was of a temperament at once so sensitive and so precocious that we must consider the aspects of life that first presented themselves to him. For above a year. Increase Mather hesitated to accept the charge of the Second Church in Boston, having " some Views ... of greater service elsewhere. At last, the Brethren of the Church kept a Day of Supplicatio7is unto Him who has all Hearts in His Hands, to pray that GOD would Incline him and Perswade him, to Accept the Invitation which they had given him. From This Day, he felt another Biass on his mind, and soon Complied with their Desires; and on May 27, 1664, he did with a great Solemnity, wherein his Father publickly gave him his Charge, Accept the Pastoral Care of the Flock ; with which, (Them and Their Children,) he Continued Serving the Lord, with many Tears and Temptations, and keeping back nothing that was Profitable for them, for more than Threescore Years together." HIS YOUTH. 25 Early in his work he was assailed by Satanic tempta- tions to doubt the existence of God : these he over- came, not by reasoning, — '^ it puts too much Respect upon a Devil, to Argue and Parley with him, on a Point which the Deri/ himself Believes and Trembles at,'' — but by ''flat contradiction," fortified by the reflection that, since some of his prayers had been answered, there must evidently be a God to answer them. Failing in this direct attack, the Devil betook himself to the hearts of the parish, which he so hard- ened as to keep Increase Mather's salary for some years decidedly below his expenses. Amid the heavy debts that naturally followed, the good man had re- course to prayer, sometimes tempered with thanksgiv- ings for such blessings as he was graciously permitted to enjoy. After a while, the church paid him well, to the very end of his life, — a consummation which Cot- ton Mather attributes chiefly to these prayers. In fact, the form which the answer to these prayers probably took was a growing and well grounded conviction on the part of the members of the Second Church that un- awares, in calling to their ministry a promising young man, they had secured to themselves the ablest and most eminent minister in America. An indefatigable worker he seems to have been. His diary records devices for saving and employing every moment, and for maintaining incessant seriousness of heart. And in 1669, when his father died, and his brother Eleazar, of whose death he had supernatural warning, he broke down. The mood in which, some months later, he recovered, is best phrased in his own diary, for the nth of June, 1670 : — 2 6 COTTON MATHER. " The Threefold Wish of the Chief of Sinners. I Wish ! I Wish I I Wish! i. That I may do some Special Ser- vices for my dear God in Jesus Christ before I leave this World. 2. I would fain Leave So7nethiiig behind me, that may be doing of Good upon Earthy after I shall be in Heaven. 3. After I have finished my Doing Work, I would fain Suffer for the Sake of my dear God, and for Jesus Christ." 1 In 1674, " observing the Sins of the Times, & there- with Discerning the Sig?is of the Times,'' he preached a prophetic sermon on the text, " The Day of Trouble is near." The next two years were the most dread- ful in the history of New England. The Colonies, which since the discomfiture of the royal commission- ers had been disturbed by no more insidious tests of their civil strength than discussions about baptism, and the intrigues concerning the presidency of Harvard College that broke the heart of Leonard Hoar, were plunged into the horrors of King Philip's war. Palfrey tells in detail the story of that helpless struggle of the native savages, and of the organized military power which at last exterminated them with no foreign aid. Sewall's Diary gives glimpses of the ghastly news of massacre that now and again found its way to Boston. But neither Palfrey nor Sewall emphasizes the senti- ments concerning the Indians that pervade the long accounts of the struggle which form an interesting part of Cotton Mather's " Magnalia." In the view of the Puritans, the Indians were the wretched remnant of a race seduced to the Western Hemisphere by the Devil himself, that he might rule them undijtnrbed by the 1 Cf. page 47. HIS YOUTH. 27 rising light of the Gospel. The landing of the Pilgrims was an invasion of the Devil's own territory ; the mis- sionary work of Eliot and the Mayhews was a direct storming of his strongholds, almost unprecedented in his experience. The outbreak of the Indians was his natural retort ; every arrow, every bullet, every war- song and magic chant, of the expiring natives of New England was a missile aimed by Satan himself against the power of Christ. The laity met the attack with gunpowder ; the clergy were no less active with prayer. To which should be attributed the final vic- tory, — a victory not so much over Philip and his followers as over Philip's Satanic master, — opinions may differ. But Increase Mather was not disposed to undervalue his petitions to the Lord : his estimate of them was confirmed by a singular experience in August, 1676. " He had for diverse Lords- Days,'" writes Cotton Mather, " made the Death of that Miserable King, a Petition which in his Public Prayers he somewhat Enlarged upon> But on one Lords-Day he quite forgot it; for which Forgetful- iiess I well Remember, that I heard him wondring at, and Blaming of, himself in the Evening. However, he was more Sadsfied, when a few Hours after, there came to Town the Tidings, That before That Lords-Day, the Thing was Accomplished.'''' — "I will not Theologize,'' writes Cotton blather a little later, "much less will I Philosophize, upon the Original and Operation of those Prc^sagious Impressions about Future Events, which are often Produced in Minds, which by Piety and Purity and Co7itemplation, and a Prayerful and Careful walk with God, are made more susceptible of them. I am only to Observe that this Holy Man of Cod was no stranger to them." 28 COTTON MATHER. He was no stranger, either, to ecstasies of an even more mysterious kind. *' As I was Praying," he wrote in 1672, " my Heart was exceedingly Melted, and methoughts, saw God before my Eyes in an Inexpressible Manner, so that I was Afraid I should have fallen into a Trance in my Study." — " In his latter years," writes Cotton Mather, "he did not Record so many of these HeaveJily Afflaiions, because they grew so frequent with him. And he also found . . . that the Flights of a Soul rapt up into a more Intimate Conversa- tion with Heaven, are such as cannot be exactly Remein- bred with the Happy Partakers of them.'' Such was the career of Cotton Mather's father during the first sixteen years of the boy's life. During these years must have been founded and confirmed the passionate personal affection that marked their relations throughout life. Increase Mather, I take it, was of a temper whose affections were most conciliated by en- thusiastic acquiescence. Cotton Mather never observed any other law of God quite so faithfully as the Fifth Commandment. And the father he delighted to honour, the father who handed down traditions of ancestors equally honourable, was at the same time clothed with the divine authority of the ministry, to all appearances specially favoured by God, and revered by the public both personally and in his official capacity as minister of the Second Church and Fellow of Harvard College. Under these circumstances, nothing could have made a stronger or more lasting impression on the boy's mind than the example and the teachings of his father. How that example impressed him, his accounts of his father and his grandparents show. Exactly what those teach- mS YOUTH. 29 ings were is not recorded. Two or three records of domestic life at this time, however, may help us guess what Increase Mather's teachings must have been. To understand these records nowadays, we must recall afresh the creed that at almost every moment made the concerns of another world than this the chief reality in the minds of the Puritans. It was our duty, they held, to live for the glory of God ; only by so living, with all our hearts, could we assure ourselves of the election which alone could save us from the eternal penalty of Adam's sin and our own. The first thing for us to learn was acquiescence in the will of God, — in His eternal justice. His unmerited and for all we could see capricious grace ; without such acquiescence our wills must inevitably exert themselves in unregenerate baseness. At w^orst we could be no worse off than our damnable deserts ; and if at any time we had the in- effable joy to find ourselves elect, nothing could more exquisitely torture us than the memory of early godless- ness. As soon as children could talk, then, they were set to a process of deliberate introspection, whose mark is left in the constitutional melancholy and the frequent insanity of their descendants. In the light of these facts, two entries in Sewall's Diary are even more significant than grotesque. "Nov. 6," 1692, runs the first, '^Joseph' threw a knop of Brass and hit his Sister Betty on the forhead so as to make it bleed and swell; upon which, and for his playing at Prayer4ime, and eating when Return Thanks, 1 whipd him pretty smartly When I first went in (call'd by his Grandmother) he sought to shadow and hide himself from 1 Born 15 August, 1688. 30 COTTON MATHER. me behind the head of the Cradle : which gave me the sorrowfull remembrance of Adam's carriage." The second is for January 13, 1695-6 : — " When I came in, past 7 at night, my wife met me in the Entry and told me Betty 1 had surprised them. ... It seems Betty Sewall had given some signs of dejection and sorrow ; but a Httle after diner she burst out into an amazing cry, which caus"d all the family to cry too ; Her Mother ask"d the reason : she gave none ; at last said she was afraid she should goe to Hell, her sins were not par- don'd. She was first wounded by my reading a Sermon of Mr. Norton's, about the 5th of Jan. Text Jno. 7. 34, Ye shall seek me and shall not find me. And those words in the Sermon, Jno. 8. 21, Ye shall seek me and shall die in your sins, ran in her mind, and terrified her greatly. And stay- ing at home Jan. 12, she read out of Mr. Cotton Mather — Why hath Satan filled thy heart, which increas'd her Fear. Her Mother ask'd her whether she pray'd. She answered, Yes; but feared her prayers were not heard because her Sins not pardon'd. :\Ir. Willard,"^ though sent for timelyer, . . came not till after I came home. He discoursed with Betty who could not give a distinct account, but was con- fused as his phrase was, and as had experienced in himself. Mr. Willard pray"d excellenth'. The Lord bring Light and Comfort out of this dark and dreadful Cloud, and Grant that Christ's being formed in my dear child, may be the issue of these painfull pangs."' A familiar example of infant piety, from the Magna- lia,^ shows what elect children were expected to be. " Anne Greenough . . . left the world when she was but about five years old. and yet gave astonishing discoveries 1 Born 29 December, 16S1. 2 Minister of the Old South Church. 3 VL VIL, Appendix. HIS YOUTH. 31 of a regard unto God, and Christ, and her own soul, before she went away. When she heard any thing about the Lord Jesus Christ, she would be strangely transported, and rav- ished in her spirit at it ; and had an unspeakable delight in catechizing. She would put strange questions about eternal things, and make answers her self that were ex- treamly pertinent. Once particularly she asked, 'Are we not dead in sin ? ' and presently added, ' But I will take this way: the Lord Jesus Christ shall make me alive.' She was very frequent and constant in secret prayer, and could not with any patience be interrupted in it. She told her gracious mother, 'that she there prayed for her ! ' and was covetous of being with her mother, when she imagined such duties to be going forward. When she fell sick at last of a consumption, she would not by sports be diverted from the thoughts of death, wherein she took such pleas- ure that she did not care to hear any thing else. And if she were asked 'whether she were ready to die ? ' she would still cheerfully reply, ' Ay, by all means, that I may go to the Lord Jesus Christ.' " Such domestic influences as these surrounded Cot- ton Mather's childhood. The Boston in which they flourished was between thirty and forty years old. From a bare peninsula of such gravelly hills as one may still see about the harbour, it had become a flour- ishing seaport, in aspect not unlike the older parts of Newburyport or Portsmouth to-day. The population of ^Lassachusetts in 1665 was, according to Palfrey, about twenty-five thousand, of whom a large minority resided in the capital. New England, in short, was becoming too important to be much longer abandoned to its own devices. By far the most vivid pictures of the social life of the time are in Sewall's Diary. People were forced by public opinion to the willing 32 COTTON MATHER. performance of their several duties : they attended to their business, they took conscientious interest and part in poHtics, they went to church as often as pos- sible, — which was at least three times a week, — and their most edifying festivals were the frequent funerals incident to the physical hardship of the period. Per- haps the most suggestive fact concerning their extreme simplicity of manners is, that young people of the better sort habitually went into domestic service. The Se walls were people of consideration; but in 1676 Sewall's sister Jane came from Newbury to live with Mrs. Usher; and, finding that this lady had supplied herself with help, went to live at Sewall's *' Father Hull's," who wanted a maid, and discovered that it was hard to find a good one.^ hX. this time Seth Shove, a minister's son, and later a minister himself, was also living at Mr. Hull's, where on the day of his arrival a neighbour, mistaking him in the dark for a stray dog, had knocked him over the head, — a cir- cumstance which led Sewall to fear that "• the Devil seemed to be angry at the child's coming to dwell here." ^ And a little earlier Sewall gives a very curious account of the spiritual experience of one Tim Dwight, son of a gentleman in Dedham, and likewise appren- ticed to Father Hull.^ Just after prayers one day, Tim fell in a swoon, and, recovering, in a most incoherent condition lamented that his day of grace was out. Sewall reproached him, saying that " 't was sin for any one to conclude themselves Reprobate." But Tim was not to be comforted. 1 Sewall's Diary, I. 34. 35. 2 Ibid., 30. ' 3 Ibid., 15, 16. HIS YOUTH. i-ii " Notwithstanding all this semblance of compunction," adds Sewall, " 't is to be feared that his trouble arose from a maid whom he passionately loved : for that when Mr. D wight and his master had agreed to let him goe to her, he eftsoons grew well." A fortnight later, Sewall "spake to Tim of this, asked him whether his convictions were off. He answered, no. I told him how dangerous it was to make the convictions wrought by God's spirit a stalking horse to any other thing. Broke off, he being called away." In such a society, and among such domestic influ- ences as we have seen, Cotton Mather grew up. Late in life, he wrote for his son Samuel some account of his early years.^ " I desire to bewayl unto the very end of my Life, the early Ebullitions of Original Sin, which appeared at the very Beginning of it. Indeed 3^our Grandfather, tho' he were a wise and strict parent, would from the observation of some Dispositions in me, comfort himself with an Opinion of my being Sanctified by the Holy Spirit of God in my very infancy. But he knew not how vile I was, he saw not the instances of my going astray, even while I was yet an in- fant. However, there were some good things in my child- hood, in which I wish 7ny child may do better than L I began to pray, even when I began to speak. I learned myself to write before my going to school for it. I used secret prayer, not confining myself to Fonnsm it : and yett I composed Forins of prayer for my school-mates (I sup- pose when I was about seven or eight years old), and obliged them \.o pray. Before I could write Sermons in the public Assemblies I commonly tvrote what I remembered when I came home. I rebuked my play mates for their w'cked words and ways ; and sometimes I suffered from them, the persecution of not only Scoffs but Blows also, for my 1 Paterna. MS. in the library of the late Judge Skinner, of Chicago. 3 34 COTTON MATHER. Rebukes, which when somebody told your Grandfather, I remember he seemed vQ.ry glad, yea, almost proud of my Affronts, and I then wondered at it, tho' afterwards I better understood his Heavenly principles."' The principal schoolmaster of this godly youth was the celebrated Ezekiel Cheever, to whose memory Cot- ton Mather paid a heartfelt tribute : " 'T is Corlett's praise and Cheever's, we must own, That thou, New England, art not Scythia grown." ^ Sewall gives a graphic account of the last days of this famous pedagogue,^ ending with this sketch of his life : — " He was born January 25, 1614. Came over to N". E. 1637, to Boston : To New-Haven 1638. Married in the Fall and began to teach School; which Work he was constant in till now. First, at New-Haven, then at Ipswich ; then at Charlestown ; then at Boston, whither he came 1670. So that he has Laboured in that Calling Skillfully, diligently, constantly. Religiously, Seventy years. A rare Instance of Piety, Health, Strength, Serviceableness. The Wellfare of the Province was much upon his Spirit. He abominated Perriwigs." ^ What Cotton Mather studied, and how he comported himself under this master, appears from the manuscript he left his son.^ 1 Corderius Americanus (1708). 2 Diary, II. 230, 231 (August, 1708). 3 This was always a serious matter with Sewall : " Friday, Nov. 6 [16S5]. Having occasion ... to go to Mr. Hayward, the Publick Notary's House, I speak to )iim about his cutting off his Hair, and wearing a Perriwig of contrary Colour : men- tion the words of our Saviour, Can ye not make an Hair white or black. ... He alledges, the Doctor advised him to it. " Diary, I. 102. And of. II. 36, 37. 4 Paterna. HIS YOUTH. 35 "One special Fault of my childhood (against which I would have you my'son be cautioned) was idleness. And one thing that occasioned me very much idle time., was the Distance of my Father's Habitation from the School; which caused him out of compassion for my Tender and Weakly constitution to keep me at home in the Winter. However I then much employed myself in Church History; and when Summer arrived I so plied my Business, that thro' the Blessing of God upon my endeavours, at the Age of little more th^iu eleven years I had composed many Z^//;/ exercises, both in prose and verse, and could speak Latin so readily, that I could write notes of sermons of the English preacher, in it. I had conversed with Cato., Corderius, Terence., Tully, Ovid, and Virgil. I had made Epistles and Themes ; presenting my first Theme to my Master, without his requiring or expecting as yett any such thing of me; whereupon he complimented me Laiidabilis Dilige?itia tua. 1 I had gone through a great part of the New Tes- tament in Greek, I had read considerably in Socrates and Homer, and I had made some entrance in my Hebrew gram- mar. And I think before I came to Fourteen, I composed Hebrew exercises and Ran thro' the other Sciences, that Academical Students ordinarily fall upon."' At twelve he had been admitted to Harvard College. What the College was then like may be guessed from the " Laws, Liberties, and Orders " printed in the Appendix to Quincy's History of Hansard University.^ In brief, the students had to observe rules of pious de- corum inconceivable in the nineteenth century, and ultimately to prove their fitness for the bachelor's degree by showing that they could " read the original of the Old and New Testament into the Latin tongue, and resolve them logically." To be sure, human depravity 1 "Your diligence is praiseworthy." 2 Vol. I. p. 515. 36 COTTON MATHER. had so manifested itself among undergraduates as early as 1659 that the authorities of the College thought proper to authorize the town watch to keep order in the college yard. But in general whoever looks through the pages of Sibley's " Harvard Graduates " must feel sure that during the first half-century of its existence Harvard College to a rare degree fulfilled the purpose for which it was founded, and gave the Colonies a notably vigourous, learned, devoted ministry. In the " Magnalia " ^ Cotton Mather gives a catalogue of the Congregational ministers officiating in New England in 1696; he names one hundred and twenty-one; of these only eleven were not graduates of Harvard. Of his academic studies. Cotton Mather writes thus : " I composed Systems both of Logick and Physick, in Catachisins of my own, which have since been used by many others. I went over the use of the Globes., and pro- ceeded in Arithmetic as far as was ordinary. I made Theses., and Antitheses upon the main Questions that lay before me. For my Declinations I ordinarily took some Article of Natural Philosophy for my subject, by which contrivances I did Kill two birds with one Stone. Hundreds of books I read over, and I kept a Diary of my studies. My son I would not have mentioned these things, but that I may provoke your emulation." ^ Meanwhile his spiritual life had been growing. "I can't certainly remember," he writes,- "(having by an unhappy casualty ^ lost some of my records) when it was that I began to keep Days of Prayer with Fasting alone by myself. But I think it was when I was about fourteen years old. And I remember well That I made Mr. Scud- der''s Christian'' s Walk my Directory in those Duties." 1 I. VII. - Paterna. ^ See page 271. HIS YOUTH. 37 He notes that he was melancholy, and thought he had every distemper he read of. His self-conscious- ness was enhanced by what often afflicts people of active mind, — an impediment of speech. i He " had great benefit from a Society of Young Men, who met every Evening after the Lord's Day for the Services of Religion." Two other small facts about his under- graduate career are recorded in the Mather Papers : he sent to his uncle abroad a carefully drawn map of the region, wherein his uncle was surprised to find that the Blue Hills were not, as he remembered them, north of Boston ; and during some vacations he was invited to act as tutor to some kinsmen older than he. hX sixteen, he became a member of the Second Church. Slight enough these facts ; but they should help us to imagine what manner of boy it was who in 1678 presented himself for the bachelor's degree. At that time he was the youngest who had ever applied for it at Harvard j to this day but two have applied younger.^ And this is what President Urian Oakes said to him in his Commencement oration : — " Alter vero Cottonus Matherus nuncupatur. Quantum Nomen ! Erravi, fateor, Auditores ; dicissem etenim, quanta Nomina ! Nihil ego de Reverendo Patre, Aca- demije Curatore vigilantissimo, municipii Academici socio primario, dicam; quoniam coram et in os laudare nolim ; sed si Pietatem, Eruditionem, Ingenium elegans, Judicium Solidum, Prudentiam et Gravitatem Avorum Reverendissi- morum Joannis Cottoni et Richardi Matheri, referat 1 S. Mather, Life of Cotton Mather. ■^ Paul Dudley, 1690, and Andrew Preston Peabody, 1826. Sibley, III. 6. :^S COTTON MATHER. et representet, omne tulisse Punctum dici poterit ; nee des- pero futurum, ut in hoc juvene CoTTONUS atq -. Matherus tarn re quam Nomine coalescant et reviviscant." ^ 1 Sibley, III. 6, 7. — "The next is named Cotton Mather. How notable a name ! I am wrong, my friends ; I should rather have said what notable names ! I will say nothing of his reverend father, the most watchful of guardians, the most distinguished Fellow of the College : I dare not praise him here, to his very face. But if this youth bring back into being the piety, the learn- ing, the elegant accomplishment, the sound sense, the prudence, and the gravity of his very reverend grandfathers, John Cotton and Richard Mather, he may be said to have done his highest duty. Nor is my hope small that in this youth Cotton and Mather shall, in fact as well as in name, join together and once more appear in life." IV. The Fall of the Charter. — The Beginning of Cotton Mather's Ministry. 1678-1686. The next eight years were among the most critical in the history of Massachusetts. From the settlement the Colony had been governed under a royal charter, granted to the Governor and Company of Massachu- setts Bay in 1629. Under this, as we have seen, none but church-members had been freemen. Church-mem- bers had elected all political officers ; they had estab- hshed their own system of law ; on their actions, and on their actions alone, rested everything in the rapidly strengthening community ; not so much as the title to an acre of land came from any other source. The re- lation of the Colony to the Crown, in short, was com- prised in the fact that the Crown had originally granted the Charter. As we have seen, the disturbed condi- tion of England during the Civil Wars and the Com- monwealth conspired with the original insignificance of the Colony to allow it virtual independence ; and its political history is that of a conflict between the theo- cratic and the democratic spirits inherent in its original constitution. A new factor had now appeared, however. Theoret- ically, New England, in virtue of its discovery by the Cabots, was the private property of the sovereign. Only I 40 COTTON MATHER. the voluntary act of the sovereign, in the Charter, gave the colonists any rights at all ; their position resembled that of tenants on a private estate. And from the beginning the Charter had been contested by some gentlemen, who maintained that it was in violation of previous royal grants to them. Under Charles II. this attack was renewed, partly perhaps because New Eng- land was growing too prosperous to be let alone. Dur- 1 ing King Philip's War there came to Boston for the " first time Edward Randolph, agent of the Lords of Trade, with a royal letter requiring the Governor and Assistants of Massachusetts at once to send representa- tives to England, there to answer the claims of those who contested the Charter. The contest thus begun lasted till 1684. Massachusetts fought to the death, but no diplomacy could save her. What is more, a party ap- peared in the Colony itself which favoured submission to royal authority. This party seems to have been built up chiefly by the exertions of Randolph, who constantly went back and forth from England, and achieved a pop- ular detestation not yet quite forgotten. At the head of the Royalists was Joseph Dudley, son of Thomas Dudley, second Governor of the Colony. In 1 684 came the end : the Court of Chancery vacated the Charter of Massa- chusetts. Without a government, without a single legal right, the Colony lay at the mercy of the Crown. It was the intention of Charles II. to send over as gover nor, vested with absolute authority, that Colonel Percy Kirk whose " Lambs " a few months later did such notable work in suppressing the traces of Monmouth's rebellion.^ But before anything definite was done, See Macaulay's History of England, Chapter V. THE FALL OF THE CHARTER. 41 Charles was dead, James on the throne, Monmouth in arms, and Kirk busy cutting undefended throats. Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, one more election was held under the forms of the vacated charter : the last Governor elected by the people was Simon Bradstreet, who was likewise the last survivor of the magistrates who nearly sixty years before had founded the govern- ment now at an end. With these facts in view, certain dry notes in Sewall's Diary ^ grow dramatic. He tells how, on the 14th of May, 1686, the Rose frigate arrived at Nantasket ; how Randolph came to town by eight in the morning, and took coach for Roxbury, where Dudley lived ; and how, with other magistrates, he himself was summoned to see the judgment against the Charter with the Broad Seal of England affixed. He tells how, on the follow- ing Sunday, Randolph came to the Old South Church, where Mr. Willard in his prayer made no mention of Governor or government ; but spoke as if all were changed or changing. He tells how next day the General Court assembled, and how Joseph Dudley, temporarily made President of New England, exhibited the condemnation of the Charter and his own commis- sion under the Broad Seal of England ; how the old magistrates began to make some formal answer, and how Dudley said he could not acknowledge them as a court nor in any way capitulate with them ; and how, when Dudley was gone, a sorrowful group of the old magistrates decided that there was no room for a protest : " The foundations being gone what can the Righteous do?" He tells how Increase Mather with 1 Vol. I. pp. 137-140. 42 COTTON MA TITER. Other ministers vainly strove to persuade Dudley not to accept the presidency. And finally comes this note : — "Friday, May 21, 1686. The Magistrates and Deputies goe to the Governour's, . . . Mr. Nowell prayed that God would pardon each Magistrate and Deputies Sin. Thanked God for our hithertos of Mercy 56 years, in which time sad Calamities elsewhere, as Massacre Piedmont ; thanked God for what we might expect from sundry of those now set over us. I moved to sing, so sang the 17. and 18. verses of Habbakkuk.i The Adjournment . . . was declared by the weeping Marshall-General. Many Tears Shed in Prayer and at Parting." This dry note marks the end of the pristine govern- ment of Massachusetts. From that day to this church and state have been finally separate there. Until the American Revolution, the people never had a word in the choice of another Governor. The dream of the Puritans — the dream of a state governed only by the dictates of Scripture — had passed, with other dreams of men, into the region of things that may not be. For seven months Joseph Dudley was President of the provincial government of New England. On Sun- day, May 30, Sewall notes that he sang "the 141 Psalm . . . exceedingly suited to the day. Wherein there is to be worship according to the Church of England, as 'tis called, in the Town House, by coun- tenance of Authority." In August, he had grave doubts as to whether he 1 Hab. iii. 17, 18. " Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat ; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." THE FALL OF THE CHARTER. 43 could conscientiously serve in the militia under a flag in which the cross was replaced ; in Nov^ember, he finally resigned his commission as Captain of the South Company. On Saturday, September 25, the Queen's birthday had been celebrated with drums, bonfires, and huzzas. Next day, " Mr. Willard expresses great grief in 's Prayer for the Profanation of the Sabbath last night." On Sunday, December 19, while Sewall was reading to his family an exposition of Habakkuk, he heard a great gun or two which made him think Sir Edmund ^ might be come. Sure enough he was, " in a Scarlet Coat laced." That day the President went to hear Mr. Willard, who " said he was fully persuaded and confident God would not forget the Faith of those who came first to New England, but would remember their Posterity with kindness." Between sermons the Presi- dent went down the harbour to welcome Sir Edmund. The next afternoon Andros landed in state, and was escorted by the eight companies to the Town- House. Here his commission was read, declaring his power to suspend councillors and to appoint others, and vesting the legislative power in him and his Council. Then he took the oath of allegiance, and stood by with his hat on while eight councillors were sworn. The same day he demanded accommodation in one of the meet- ing-houses for the services of the Church of England. This was too much for the Puritans. At a meeting of the ministers and four of each congregation, it was agreed that they could not with a good conscience consent that their meeting-houses be made use of for ^ Andros, the Governor appointed by James II. 44 COTTON MATHER. the Common Prayer worship ; and " Mr. Mather i and Willard thorowly discoursed his Excellency about the Meeting-Houses m great plainess." So for a while Sir Edmund was content to worship at the Town- House. But Sewall notes, on January 25, that ''this day is kept for St. Paul, and the bell was rung m the Morning, to call persons to Service. The Governour (I am told) was there "; and on January 31 there was a similar service " respecting the beheading Charles the First." Meanwhile there had been minor symptoms of the change that was coming to New England. As early as November, 1685, *' the Ministers Come to the Court and complain against a Dancing Master who seeks to set up here and hath mixt Dances, and his time of Meeting is Lecture-Day; and 't is reported he should say that by one Play he could teach more Divinity than Mr. Willard or the Old Testament . . . Mr. Mather ^ struck at the Root, speaking against mixt Dances." Early in September, 1686, " Mr Shrimp- ton . . . and others come in a Coach from Roxbury about 9 aclock or past, singing as they come, being inflamed with Drink : At Justice Morgan's they stop and drink Healths, curse, swear, talk profanely and baudily to tlie great dis- turbance of the Town and grief of good people. Such high-handed wickedness has hardly been heard of before in Boston." And though on Christmas day shops were " open generally and persons about their occasions,'' there was a sad affair on Shrove Tuesday: "Joseph Maylem carries a Cock at his back, with a Bell in 's hand, in the Main Street; several follow him blindfold, and under pretence of striking him or 's Cock, with great cart-whips strike passen- gers, and make great disturbance." ^ Increase. THE FALL OF THE CHARTER, 45 During these eight years the career of Increase Mather was steadily advancing. No figure was more conspicuous among those who resisted the change. We have seen how he vainly tried to dissuade Joseph Dudley from accepting the presidency of New England, and how he told Sir Edmund " in great plainness " that the meeting-houses of Boston should not be used for the rites of the Established Church. But we must turn to Cotton Mather for a full account of his life, public and private.^ In 1679 Increase Mather was among the leaders of that Synod which assembled to consider *' What are the Evils that have Provoked the Lord to bring his judgments on New England? and w^hat is to be done that so these Evils may be Reformed ? " A general revival followed, in which the earnest work of the preachers resulted in many renewed covenants with the Lord. A year later, on the verge of a severe illness, he was called to preside at a second meeting of the Synod, which formulated the elaborate Confession of Faith printed in the " Magnalia." ^ He "kept them so close to their Busifiess that in Two Days they dis- patch'd it : and he also Composed the Frce/ace to the Confession. On this he immediately took to his Bed under a dangerous fever." But, in accordance with many prayers of many good people, he recovered ; and preached his first sermon on the text, '' To me to Live is Christ." At the death of Urian Oakes, in 1681, he acted for a while as President of Harvard College. Four years later, after the death of John Rogers, he finally accepted the presidency. 1 Parentator, Arts. XVIII -XXII. 2 V.I. 46 COTTON MATHER. It was in 1683 that the demand came from Charles II. that Massachusetts should '^ make ?i full Submission and entire Resignation of their Charter to his pleas- ure." At a meeting of the freemen of Boston, Increase Mather was invited to give them his thoughts on the Case of Conscience before them. "I verily Believe," he said, "We shall Sin against the GOD of Heaven if we vote an Affirmative. . . . Nor would it be Wisdom for us to Comply. We know, David made a Wise Choice, when he chose to fall into the Hands of GOD rather than into the Hands of Men. If we make a full Submission and entire Resignation to Pleasure, we shall fall into the Hands of Men Immediately. But if we do it not, we still keep ourselves in the Hands of GOD; we trust ourselves with His Providence : and who knows, what GOD may do for us?" — "Upon this pungent Speech," writes Cotton Mather, " many of the Freemen fell into Tears ; and there was a General Acclamation, We thank you ^ Syr / We thank you^ Syr I The Question was upon the Vote car- ried in the Negative, Nemine Contradicente. And this Act of Boston had a great influence upon all the Country." The next year came one of the most critical incidents of Increase Mather's life. A letter signed with his ini- tials and addressed to a friend in Holland was inter- cepted and brought to the notice of the authorities in England. It contained sentiments which, if not treason- able, were in the highest degree offensive to the King. Nothing could more seriously affect his public influence abroad. The Mathers always declared this letter a for- gery, which they attributed to Edward Randolph ; their enemies, then and now, have pronounced the letter genuine and the defence a lie. The question of veracity can never, perhaps, be satisfactorily settled. THE FALL OF THE CHARTER. 47 But a note on the subject from Increase Mather's diary seems to me honest : — " The Lord has had respect unto all the Wishes Written down before Him; on Jun. ii, 1670I — Yea he had so far Gratified my Desire of Suffering for Him, that my Name hath been cast forth as Vile, and Wicked Men in England. Scotland, Irelajid, Barbadoes, and the Leeward Islands, and elsewhere, have been Speaking all manner of Evil of me falsely. And the Ground of these my Sifferings has been, because I^ have desired to Approve myself faithful unto the Lord Jesus, and unto His Kingdom and Interest." A less depressing experience came on the 6th of February, 1685 ; at this time Kirk was expected as governor. ''This Day," wrote Increase Mather, "as I was Pray- ing to God for the Deliverance of New-Ejigland, I was very much Moved and Melted before the Lord, so that for some time I was not able to speak a word. But then, I could not but say, GOD will deliver New-England ! GOD will deliver New-England! God will deliver New-England! So I rose from my knees, with much Comfort and Assurance, that God had heard me. These things, I hope, were from the Spirit of God. Before I Prayed, I was very sad, and much dejected in my Spirit ; but after I had Prayed, I was very Cheerful and joyful; I will then Wait iox the Salva- tion of GOD/'' Sure enough. Kirk never came to Massachusetts. It is during these eight years that we begin to have definite accounts of Cotton Mather's private life. Twehty-four of his diaries are preserved; and of these, four fall within this period.^ The diaries always 1 Cf. page 26. ■^ Those for 1681, 1683, 1685, and 1686; all in the possession of the ^Massachusetts Historical Society. 48 COTTON MATHER. begin on his birthday; and as he begins the year, after the old fashion, on the ist of March, the first three weeks of each volume bear date of the year be- fore the rest of it. By far the greater part of the entries concern his spiritual experiences; yet among them are notes of other matters sufficient to giv^e us a pretty vivid notion of what manner of life he led. It is characteristic of Cotton Mather that, until 1711, none of the diaries are original copies. For some years he took the trouble to copy from his records such as he deemed worth preserving, and then to de- stroy the notes. But the presumption of error which this process raises is greatly weakened in my mind by the fact that his diaries, after he gave up the practice of revision, show no change in the general character of the entries ; and this is particularly true of one volume, which his third wife, who was occasionally in- sane, stole, and hid before it was finished, and which, apparently, he never saw again. Until 1 68 1 I find nothing concerning him beyond what his son tells. -^ Suffering from an impediment of speech, he at first believed himself unfitted for the ministry, and studied medicine ; but, following the ad- vice of a friend to "■ oblige himself to a dilated Deliber- ation in speaking," he "procured with Divine Help an happy delivery." On August 22, 1680, he preached in his grandfather's church, at Dorchester, his first sermon, in which, " because of the Calling he had rehnquished, he did . . . consider our blessed Saviour as the glori- ous Physician of Souls ; chusing those words for his first Text in Luke iv. 18. He hath sent me to heal the broken- 1 S. Mather, Life of Cotton Mather, 26, 27. THE FALL OF THE CHARTER. 49 heartedy Just six months later he was unanimously invited to assist his father at the Second Church. This was his occupation during 1681, the year cov- ered by his first extant diary. The notes in this con- cern little but spiritual experiences. The first is a long devotional passage, full of good resolutions, " penned by Cotton Mather, a Feeble and worthless, yett [Lord by thy Grace] desirous to approve himself a Sincere & Faithful Servant of Jesus Christ." On the following Sabbath, " The Singular Assistencies which the God of Heaven gave unto mee, in my public ministrations . . . were such as caused me to draw up this conclusion: I believe I shall have a Glorious Presence of God with me through my whole Ministry.''^ And about this time he was gratified by a subscription of seventy pounds, "for my Encourage- ment in my public service the ensuing year." On the 13th of March, "in the Assurances, the glo- rious and Ravishing Assurances of the Divine Love, my joyes were almost insupportable." On the 19th, he was depressed ; on the 3d of April, he was again ecstatic ; on the 8th, he suffered from a " silence of God" in prayer- time — a punishment for "an Idle Fraud of Soul"; on the loth, he recovered his poise of temper : " If it be thy Will," he wrote, " I would live, to do some Special Service for thee, before I shall go hence and bee no more seen." I cite this experience in some detail, because its course and period of emotional action and reaction is typical of what followed him throughout life. In March he was "taken with a violent /^/«, . . . which looked like a mes- senger of Death. Here I am/' he wrote; "Afflict mee; 50 COTTON MATHER. Do what thou wilt with mee ; Kill mee ; for thy Grace hath made mee willing to Dy : Only, Only, Only, Help mee to Delight in thee, and to glorify thy dearest Name." Two months later, he had a toothache, which in- duced two reflections : — " I. Have I not sinned with my Teeth? ... By sin- ful, Graceless, excessive Eating. And by Evil Speeches, for there are Liberal Dentals used in them. II. This is an Old Malady, from which I have yett been free, for a considerable while, Lett me ask then : Have not I of late given way to some old Iniquity?" The iniquity which troubled him most seems to have been the one he mentions most definitely in October. " I desire to walk Humbly before the Lord, all my Dayes, in the Remembrance of the Lothsome Corruptions, which my Soul has been from my Youth polluted withal. Lord, Wherewithal shall a youfig man cleanse his way ? Altho' I have been kept from such Out-breakings of Sin, in Ac- tions towards others, as have undone many in the world, yett I have certainly been one of the Filthiest Creatures upon Earth." Another besetting sin was revealed to him in June. A good woman told him how one of his sermons had convinced her that she had fallen into the sin of pride. Reflecting that pride is " the sin of young ministers," he straightway discovered it in himself. A day of pas- sionate prayer followed, which the Lord was pleased to reward with " glorious Assurances that Hee would never Leave the Work which Hee had begun in my soul." A week later came a day of secret Thanksgiving. " Oh Lord,^' he wrote, '^ Not unto mee, Not unto mee, but unto thy Name is All, All^ All the Glory due ; and thou THE FALL OF THE CHARTER. 51 shalt have it. There shall Hallelujahs be sung to thee forever and ever " — for the " great works " which Cot- ton Mather, thus freed from the sin of pride, shall ac- complish. But before he closes this grotesque day, he earnestly thanks God, too, for " the Life and Health of my dear Father, whom I may reckon among the Richest of my Enjoyments." Meanwhile, several of his experiences had been com- forting. In May, a man whom he had warned of Divine displeasure for not joining a church, fell off a roof, "and received a Blow, whereof he Lay, for some while, as Dead. But coming to himself one of the first things he thought on, was what I had said unto him ; under the sense whereof, hee quickly went and joined himself unto the South church " In October, he preached in the pulpit of his Grand- father Cotton, " with a very singular Assistance of the Lord. Yea, such was his powerful presence with mee, that some afterwards declared their melted and Broken Hearts could hardly for- bear crying out in the Assembly." About the same time, he fixed on certain habits of de- votion which he found permanently edifying: one was "to start the day with a Scripture . . . which might be of some special consequence to my everlasting Interests"; and his first meditation was on Zech. 13 i,^ "cast into Three Observations. The Blood oi the Lord Jesus Christ is fitly compared unto a Fountain. This is an Open Foun- tain. And, the End of it is, for the Washing away of Sin, which is Uncleanness." 1 '* In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness." 52 COTTON MATHER. A little earlier he had had a still more comforting experience ; — "As 1 was in Meditation . . . How I might glorify God? I happened to Look thro' the window upon the Heavens ; and this Thought was after a most powerful and Refreshing manner cast into my mind, Surely, If the Lord intended not forever to glorify mee in Heaven, Hee would never have put it into my Heart, that I should seek to Glorify Him on Earth.*' But perhaps his most characteristic experience in 1 68 1 was this : — "I bought a Spanish Indian; and bestowed him for a Servant on my Father. This Thing I would not Remem- ber . . . but only because I would observe whether I do not hereafter see some Special and Signal Return of this Action. ... I am secretly persuaded, That I shall do so !''' In the course of his life he had a great many secret persuasions and particular faiths : this is the first he records. In the " Magnalia " he defines them : — *' Good men, that labour & abound in prayer to the great God, sometimes arrive to the assurance of a particular faith for the good success of their prayer. . . . Many a real Christian ... is a stranger to . . . this thing ; ... it is here & there a Christian, whom the sovereign grace of Heaven does favour with the consolations of a particular faith. . . . The luondrous 7neltiiigs, the mighty wrestlings, the quiet waitinos^ & the holy resolues^ that are characters of a particular faith, which is no delusion, are the works of the Holy Spirit, wherein his holy angels may be instruments." ^ A particular faith which proved no delusion, then, was above most things else an assurance of election : it was, as it were, a momentary sharing of the foresight of 1 IV. II. I. §6. THE FALL OF THE CHARTER. 53 God. To justify his faith about the Spanish Indian, Cotton Mather had to wait sixteen years : then a knight whom he had laid under many obligations bestowed a Spanish Indian on him.^ The actual facts he noted this year are few. On August 9th, " I took my Second Degree, proceeding iVIaster of Arts. My Father was president, so that from his Hand I Re- ceived my Degree. Tis when I am gott almost Half a year beyond Eighteen in my age. And all the circum- stances of my Commencement were ordered by a very sensibly kind providence of God. My Thesis was, Puncta Hebraic a sunt Origin is Diviner^ •^ In October he was active in forwarding a plan, objected to by some as superstitious, that devout people should devote a given hour every Monday to prayer for persecuted churches abroad. In November he declined a call to New Haven. Towards the end of December, he was elected pastor of the Second Church, with a salary of seventy pounds. In February, 1682, he again refused a call to New Haven. " My Reason was, because the Church of iXorth Boston would have entertained uncomfortable Dissatisfactions at my Father, if after so many Important Votes of Theirs for my Settlement here, he had anyway permitted my Removal from them." He remained minister of the North Church all his life. "Horae plusquam amoenae, nunquam rediturae,"^ is the motto of his diary for 1683. From now on, each ' S. Mather, Life, etc., p. 12. 2 Hebrew vowel points are of divine origin. 3 "More than delightful hours, never to return." 54 COTTON MATHER. of his diaries bears some motto on the outer leaf; and begins with a devout and generally searching birthday meditation. Towards the middle of the year he copied one of his original notes which shows the course of his daily life : — " 28 d. 6in. Legi Exod. 34, 35, 36 | Oravi | Examinavi adolescentes | Legi Cartesium | Legi Commentatores in Joh. 6. 37 I Jentacul | Paravi concionem | Oration! interfui Do- mestica | Audivi pupillos Recitantes | Legi Salmon phar- macop : I pransus sum | Visitavi plures Amicos | Legi Varia I Paravi concionem | Audivi pupillos Recitantes | Meditat: On, the exceeding Willingness of the Lord Jesus Christ to Do good iDito them that come 7(ftto Him. And, I Resolve As to be Encouraged in my Addresses unto the Lord Je- sus for His Mercy from the Thoughts of his mercifulness, then also the Endeavor that I may be Like unto Him in Humble and Ready Helpfulness to others | Oravi | Coe- navi j paravi Concionem | Orationi interfui Domestica."^ He made, and often put in practice, any number of good resolutions : some concerning other people, as to encourage rich gentlemen to support a country minister, and to pay an old hawker to distribute good books ; some more personal, as to govern his speech carefully, to close visits with some suitable text of Scripture, and to contrive " what Noble Attainments I should be continually purposing of." In pursuance of this last, he writes : — ^ Read Exodus, etc. : Prayed: Examined the children: read Descartes : read commentators, etc : breakfasted : prepared sermon : took part in family prayer : heard pupils recite : read Salmon on medicine : dined : visited many friends : read vari- ous books : prepared sermon : heard pupils recite : meditated, etc.: prayed: supped: prepared sermon: took part in family prayer. THE FALL OF THE CHARTER. 55 " While I was lying on my Couch in the Dusk of the Evening I extempore composed the following Hymn, which I then sang unto the Lord." A typical stanza runs : " I will not any Creature Love But in the Love of Thee Above . . . " I designed rather pietie than poetrie in these lines." He comments on them in three closely written pages. He hit upon a device of fining himself for any misconduct : — " Thus I Laid a penalty for some while upon myself. That if in Joining with the prayers of another, I did Lett more than one entire Sentence pass me, at any Time, with- out annexing some Ejaculation pertinent thereunto, I would forfeit a piece of money to be given unto the poor. And I found this effect of it, that in a Week or Two, I had Little occasion to Lay xws penalty j for I found my Distractions in my Duties, which had been my plague, most wonderfully cured." During an evening walk, when he "had such a prospect of our Neighbourhood as gave rnee to see that God had cast my Lot, in a place exceedinglyjz^^^;/- /^//j-, I found my Heart, after a more than ordinary manner melted in Desires after the Conversion and Salvation of the Souls in this place. And my soul was afterwards exceed- ingly Transported, in prayers for such a Mercy." Praying over a friend critically ill, "the good man felt, as it were, a Load or Cloud, beginning to Roll off his Spirits ; and from that Instant, unto his own admiration, he began to Recover. . . . Oh ! my Soul, why dost thou forgett such Benefits ! " In July, " Overlooking the addresses of persons to join unto the church, I found over Thirty Seals of my ministry in this place. . . . From whence I may form ?^ probable covipiitation of many Scores, that have here and elsewhere been thereby helped in their 56 CO 7^ TON MATHER. acquaintance with the Lord. Blessed be God." At a young people's thanksgiving late in the year, "the Lord helped mee to preach unto them almost Three Hours (tho' I had Little more than One Hour's Time to prepare for it). . . . And a good Day it was !" Two little incidents this year impressed him much. His father admiring his watch, he gave it to him; shortly afterwards a gentleman from whom he " had no reason to expect such a visit " gave him a better one : an experience which induced a resolution to stir up dutifulness to parents in himself and others. And a gentleman imported a seal for him, which was lost in a fire, but subsequently found in the ruins. "I prayed herewithal," he writes, "That by no Fire^ neither the Fire of Liist here, nor the Fire of Hell here- after I might miss of the promise which the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ hath sealed.'' Far edifying as this year was, it was not without sor- rows. His baby sister Katharine died. And in July comes a note that shows a more intimate trouble : — " Using of sacred ^neditations (with mixed Supplications) at my waking minutes every morning in my Bed, and in this Course going over many portions of the Scriptures a Verse at a Time, the Thought of Lsaac having his happy Consort brought unto him when and where he was engaged in his Holy Meditations, came sometimes into my mind, and I had sometimes a strange persuasion, That there would a Time come, when I should have my Bed Blessed with such a Consort given unto mee, as Isaac, the Servant of the Lord, was favoured withal." In December he found Satan buffeting him with unclean temptations. "Besides my . . . usual . . . Devotions,"' he writes, "I THE FALL OF THE CHARTER. 57 did this Day write after this manner, That I may pluck out my Right Eye, and cutt off my Right Hand. ... Oh ! Blessed Saviour, Save me from the horrible pitt." He prayed and fasted assiduously ; but a month later the same ''Sorrowful and Horrible Vexation" tormented him again. About the same time an elderly minister violated the Seventh Commandment : Cotton Mather fasted and prayed more than ever. " I likewise carried the wounded minister in my prayers unto the Lord for all reasonable mercies." At the very end of the year, he began to fear that he had carried his mortification of the flesh so far as to violate the Sixth Commandment : — "'T is well, if I escape a Consumption. . . . What! Are my Duties now but Murders ? Lord, pardon niee and pitty mee, for the sake of Jesus Christ ! " The record of the year closes with a long list of the ejaculatory prayers he accustomed himself to utter on all occasions : a typical one is this : — " On the Gentlewoman that carv'd for the Guests : ' Lord, . . . Carve a rich Portion of thy Graces and Comforts to that Person ! ' " 1 He was the grandson of John Cotton and Richard Mather, the son of Increase Mather, sprung from a race of the chosen vessels of God, himself a chosen vessel ; and he was just twenty-one years old. The diary for 1685 finds him approaching ordina- tion. In April there was some trouble about it, which led him to pray that if his life were a real prejudice to 1 S. Mather, Lite, p. 107. 58 COTTON MATHER. God, or a necessary occasion of strife and sin, he might be taken out of the world. But the " design of Satan " was frustrated by " a most uniting work of God upon the Spirits of the people." From the 22d of April to the 3d of May he was in a state of sustained ecstasy ; on the 4th of May came reaction, and on that day he wrote and signed his formal covenant with God : — " I renounce all the Vanities and Cursed Idols & Evil Courses of this World," it runs. " I engage That I will ever have the Great God my Best Good, my Last End, and my only Lord. That I will ever bee Rendering of Ac- knowledgments unto the Lord Jesiis Christ in all the Relations which Hee bears unto mee. That I will ever bee studying what is my Dutiem these things; and wherein I find myself to fall short, I will ever make it my grief\ my Shame., and for pardon betake myself unto the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant. Now, Humbly Imploring the Grace of the Mediator, to bee Sufficient for mee, I do as a further Solemnitie, hereunto subscribe ray Name with both Hajid and Heart '^ His signature to this document is more than twice the usual size. On the 13th of May he was finally ordained, in a frame of mind adequately expressed by his covenant. Sewall was present. " Mr. Cotton Mather is ordained Pastor by his Father." he writes,^ " who said, My son Cotton Mather, and in 's ser- mon spake of Aaron's Garments being put on Eleazar, intimating he knew not but that God might now call him out of the World. Mr. Eliot '-^ gave the Right Hand of Fellowship, calling him a Lover of Jesus Christ." 1 Diary, I. 76. 2 The Apostle to the Indians See Magnalia, 111 III. THE FALL OF THE CHARTER. 59 Samuel Mather adds a characteristic trait : — " A truly primitive Ordination! which he never . . . scru- pled tlie Validity of. After a curious Examination of most of the Fathers in the three first Centuries, he was verily perswaded that every 07te of them had been perverted and abused by designing Men to serve their own Ends, espe- cially in the Instance of OrdinatTon''' ^ Ten days later, Sewall notes a " private Fast," which gives a glimpse of the manners of the time : — " The Magistrates . . . with their wives here Mr. Eliot prayed, Mr. Willard preached. I am afraid of Thy judg- ments. — Text Mother gave. Mr. Allen prayed ; cessation half an hour. Mr Cotton Mather prayed ; Mr. Mather preached, Ps. 79. 9.2 Mr. Moodey prayed about an hour and half ; Sung the 79th Psalm from the 8th to the End -, distributed some Biskets, & Beer, Cider, Wine. The Lord hear in Heaven his dwelling place." How busy Cotton Mather was this year appears from a note he made in December : — " The Last Week of the month I preached on Lords- Day, Monday, Tuesday. Wednesday, Thursday in the same week Yea. several weeks I have in one week preached fi7:e times; and once I preached yfTy^- times in Two Days which came together.'' In the course of the year he preached above a hun- dred carefully written sermons. At the same time he was constantly engaged in parish visiting ; and, besides starting an elaborate method of Bible reading, and pursuing his studies, and devoting many days to prayer 1 Life, p 18. - " Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name : and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name's sake." 6o COTTON MATHER. and thanksgiving, he had a number of pupils. And not content with teaching these, he " did successively use to send for them, one by one., into his Study, and there in the most moving, soft, obliging, and yet most solemn and lively manner discourse with them about their own everlasting hiterests j and he would then bestow some good Books on them to further the Work of God . . . upon their Spirits: And . . . in every Recitation he would . . . make an Occasion to let fall some Sentence, which might have a tendency to promote the Fear of GOD in their Souls." ^ His private devotions meanwhile were more pro- longed and more ecstatic than ever; his emotional condition throughout the year was more and more overwrought. And for this there were several reasons : besides being constantly impressed with the solemnity of the ordination which made him at last a fully equipped minister of the Gospel, and an Overseer of Harvard College, he suffered, as did Massachusetts, from not a few buffets of Satan. In August, his sup- plications were " especially to seek for the guidance and Blessing of God in what concerns the change of my condition in the world, from Single to married ; whereto I have now many in- vitations." In October, a similar state of mind recurred, slightly complicated by the fact that, like his father, he was quite willing to die for the salvation of any soul. Early in November, he was more concerned about matrimony than ever : he wanted to do God's will ; if celibacy were God's will, he accepted it ; but he vowed that, 1 S. Mather, Life, p. 40. THE FALL OF THE CHARTER. 6l if Ciod would permit him to marry, he would always keep two annual thanksgivings with his wife. Late in January came another fast, very similar, more intense. Meanwhile the scope and variety of his good resolu- tions, of his thanksgivings, of his self-searching med- itations, are bewildering. And he had not a few assurances of Divine presence with him. The most remarkable of these was apparently con- nected in his mind with those public affairs which this year were so troublesome. Some of his records con- cern these. In May, when James II. was proclaimed, two friends happened in as he was busy with a private fast. " I preached unto my Two Friends," he writes, " Three Sermons each of them about an Hour Long apeece, on a Text, which was the very first, that on the opening of my Bible for a subject of Meditation, came to sight: namely Psal. 109. 19. 20,1 which proved wonderfully suitable." All three resolved to do special services for Christ, if He would relieve His people from the distresses now upon them. In September, the " calamities & confu- sions of the English Nation " caused him to be called daily an hour earlier than usual, that he might " Retire for Sighs, and prayers, and psalms, to bee employed for the distressed churches of God " : within a fortnight after tidings of the Lord's victory, he vowed he would keep a special day of thanksgiving, and ponder other acknowledgments. Late in January comes the follow ing retrospective note : — ^ " Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually. Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the Lord, and of them that speak evil against my soul." 62 COTTON MATHER. " The Glorious Assurances which I have enjoyed and uttered, very many times, for now some years together, about the Lords Appearing to dehver His people from Impending Desolations are now answered That monster Kirk, who was coming to N. England with a Regiment of Red Coats., to sacrifice the best Lives among us, is diverted from coming hither, by the happy Death of that greater Monster, K. Charles IL And with K. James IL Things are operating towards such a Liberty for the Dissenters as may for aught I know bring the Resurrection of the Lord^s witnesses : it being just three years and a half since their Congregations were all Dissipated, and a Thanksgiving z^\- ebrated thro' a wicked nation for it. Wherefore Lett me now procure as many Dayes of praise as I can among the meetings with whom I have had so many Dayes of prayer on these occasions." This entry bears no date. The one before it, dated January 27, relates a prolonged thanksgiving, which closes with a consideration of what services Cotton Mather shall render to the Lord for His mercies to himself and to New England : in particular, he con- cludes, he should " immediately procure some Testi- mony, against some Common and growing Evils, which offend him in the land." A note of Sewall's throws some light on this entry and the next : — "Jan. 2oth. . . . Cousin Fissenden tells me there is a Maid at Woburn who 'tis feared is Possessed by an evil Spirit." On the 6th of February, 1685-6, Cotton Mather wrote as follows : — " It will cost mee very Bitter Toyle and paines yett per- haps I may bee very serviceable in it: If I procure to my- self an Exact Account of those Evil Humours, which the I THE FALL OF THE CHARTER. 63 place is at any Time under the observeable Dominion of. And, whereas those Divels may bee cast out by Fasting and prayer, sett apart (first) a Day of Secret prayers with Fasting on the occasion of each of them ; to Deprecate my own guiltiness therein, and sicpplkate for such Effusions of the Spirit from on High, as may Redress, Remove, and Banish such Distempers fron tJie place.'''' We have seen enough of Cotton Mather now, I think, to understand at once the tremendous reality to him, and the bearing on what we have just read and on what is coming, of the record I shall copy next. It bears no date ; it is written on the inner side of the cover — the first leaf — of the diary for 1685 : — " Res Mirabilis et Memoranda. Post Fusas, Maximis cum Ardoribus, Jejunisqu;, Preces, apparuit Angelus. qui Vnltnin habuit solis instar Meridiani micantem: Caetera Hiiniamini, at prorsus imberbem : Caput magnifica Tiara obvolutum : In Humeris, Alas : Vestes deinceps Candidas et Splendidas: Togani nempe Talarem : et Zonatn circa Lumbos, Orientalium cingulis non absimilem. Dixitqu; hie Angelus, a Domino Jesu, se missum, ut Responsa cujusdam Juvenis precibus, articulatim afferat, referatqu : Quamplurima retulit hie ^;/^^//^j-, quae hie Scribere non fas est. Verum inter alia memoratu digna ; Futurum Hujusce Juvenis Fatum optime posse exprimi, asseruit in illis Vatis Ezekielis verbis. Ezek. 31 : 3, 4, 5, 7, and 9 Behold hee was a Cedar in Lebajion, with fair branches, and with a Shadoiving Shrowd and of an High Stature, and his Top was a?nong the Thick Boughs. The waters ifiade him great, the Deep Sett him up on High with her Rivers runtting about his plattts. His Heighth was Exalted above all' the Trees of the Field, and his Boughs were jnulti- plied, and his Branches became Long, because of the Mul- titude of Waters when he shott forth. Thus was hee fair in his Greatness, in the Length of his Branches, for his 64 COTTON MATHER, Root ivas by the Great Waters. Nor was any Tree in the Garden of God like unto hitn in his Beauty. I have made him fair by the multitude of his Branches^ so that all the Trees of Eden, that were in the Garden of God, Envied hifn. Atqu : particulariter clausulas de Rationis ejus extendendis, exposuit hie Angelus, 6.Q Libris 2iO hoc Juvene componendis, et non tantum in America,, sed etiam in Europa, publicandis. Additqu : peculiares quasdam praedictiones, et pro Tali ac Tanto peccatore, valde mira- biles, de Operibus Insigfiibus, quae pro Ecclesia Christi in Revolutionibus ]2ivs\ Appropinquantibus, Hie Juvenis olim facturus est. Domijie Jesu ! Quid sibi vult haec res tarn Extraordinaria ? A Diabolicis Illusionibus, obsecro te, Servum Tuum Indignissimum, ut Liberes et Defendas ! "^ Thus we find him at the close of his twenty- third 1 " A strange and memorable thing. After outpourings of prayer, with the utmost fervour and fasting, there appeared an Angel, whose face shone like the noonday sun. His features were as those of a man, and beardless ; his head was encircled by a splendid tiara ; on his shoulders were wings ; his gar- ments were white and shining; his robe reached to his ankles; and about his loins was a belt not unlike the girdles of the peoples of the East. And this Angel said that he was sent by the Lord Jesus to bear a clear answer to the prayers of a certain youth, and to bear back his words in reply. Many things this Angel said which it is not fit to set down here. But among other things not to be forgotten he declared that the fate of this youth should be to find full expression for what in him was best : and this he said in the words of the prophet Ezekiel, etc. . . . And in particular this Angel spoke of the in- fluence his reason should have, and of the books this youth should write and publish, not only in America, but in Europe. And he added certain special prophecies of. the great works this youth should do for the Church of Christ in the revolutions that are now at hand. Lord Jesus ! What is the meaning of this marvel ? From the wiles of the Devil, I beseech thee, deliver and defend Thy most unworthy servant." THE FALL OF THE CL/ARTER. 65 year : the youth in whom Cotton and Mather have joined and shown themselves once more in Ufe ; a minister so busy that it is still a marvel how he found time for half the things he did ; torn by emotions that he believed to come now from (iod, now from Satan, — never from anything less ; bound by covenant to do great works for the God who had answered his prayers for New England ; assured by a celestial visit- ant that his works shall be fruitful ; and with his thoughts directed by a chance that might well seem providential to those visitations of the Devil — so strangely akin to his own visitations from heaven — that the doctors of his time called witchcraft. He was very anxious to be married, too ; a fact which probably had more than he knew to do with his state oi mind. For the year 1686, troublous enough to New ICngland, was a much more peaceful one for him. Almost his first note tells how he paid one of his first visits to a young gentlewoman, the daughter of worthy and pious parents in Charlestown, '' unto an Acquaintance with whom the wonderful providence of God, in Answer to many prayers directed " him. This was Abigail, daughter of the Honourable Colonel PhilHps. He writes at some length his notions of how godly his wooing ought to be. He notes how one Sunday he stayed at home from Charlestown, to preach, after the custom of the time, to a criminal,^ who was to be exe- cuted during the week, and was formally brought into church to hear his last sermon ; and how, as a re- 1 James Morgan. See Sewall's Diary, I. in, 124-126; Mag- nalia^ VI. VI. App. (VII.). 5 66 COTTON MATHER. 1 ■ver ■ ward, this sermon was published. Cotton Mather never lost the passion for seeing himself in print ; and this was apparently the first book he acknowledged : it was re- printed, with an appendix containing an account of his talk with Morgan on the way to execution. He notes later how he examined himself, and made sure that he really preferred Jesus to anything else, how he prayed for a comfortable habitation, hov/ he refrained from asking the church to raise his salary, how older min- isters asked him to join their prayer-meeting and met in his study. Then he tells how a young minister has been discipKned for some fall from grace, and prays that, if similar treatment of him may do God good, he may be similarly treated : " Here I am," he writes, " Do with me as Thou wilt." He notes how his heart goes out toward neighbours who have a low opinion of him ; he prays that he may not be a vessel of dishonour ; and that he may be very careful of other people's reputations. In short, he shows himself as thoroughly in love as an honest Puritan could be. The 4th of May was his wedding-day. He got up early, to ponder ; but in spite of his pondering he reached Charlestown ahead of time. So he repaired to the garden with his Bible, and read the second chapter of John,^ fetching "one observation and one supplication out of every verse in that story." Then the appointed time came, and " the good providence of God " caused his wedding " to be attended with many circumstances of respect and Honour, above most that have ever been in these parts of the world." 1 The wedding at Cana. THE FALL OF THE CLIARTER. 67 Next Sunday he preached at Charlestown ; the next, at Boston, on Divine Dehghts, stoutly asserting that after all the Bible was the most delightful thing in his experience. This was on the very Sunday when Mr. Willard " prayed not for the Governour " ; 1 next day Joseph Dudley assumed the Presidency. For several months Cotton Mather lived with his father-in-law, serene in mood and noting various prom- ises in Scripture which we should remember daily. "The methods of Religion," he writes, "which the Spirit of the Lord has heretofore taught me, were the most that now, for some considerable while, I contented myself withal. And I wish that thro' my slothful and carnal Dispo- sition, some of these also had not begun to wither with me." At length he moved to Boston, where he took " An House wherein jny Father Lived in the years 1677 and 168 1 and wherein my more Childish Age made many Hundreds of prayers unto the God of Heaven. I could not but observe the providence of God, in Ordering my Comforts now, in those very Rooms where I had many years before sought him with my prayers." A year before, Mr. Shepard^ of Charlestown, being ill, had asked Cotton Mather to preach for him. " As for you, Syr," he had said after church, " I beg the Lord to bee with you unto the end of the world." That very night, to the consternation of all his friends, Mr. Shep- ard had died. In September, 1686, Cotton Mather had a startling dream : he dreamt he saw Mr. Shepard, whom he knew to have been dead for above a year. "On that account," he writes, " I was contriving I0 slip out of the Room; whereupon he nimbly coming up witJi 1 Cf. page 41, 2 See Magnalia, IV. IX. 68 COTTON MATHER. mee, took me by the Hand, and said, Syr, you need not he so skie of fnee,for you shall quickly be as I am, and where I am.'''' A short fit of iHness followed, in which Cotton Mather felt " the Foretastes and Earnests of Life Eternal.'' He recovered in a somewhat disturbed spiritual condition ; he had an excessive ecstasy, which made him resolve to be particular about the spiritual welfare of his dear consort and her father. He started some Sunday evening prayer-meetings, which outgrew his house, and which, for want of a colleague, he had finally to give up by reason of their very success. His last note for the year tells of a thanksgiving : he went, he writes, "from Room to Room in my house, Deliberately Look- ing upon the Distinct parcels of the Estate whereof 1 am now become the Owner, or as I would rather say, the Steward. And with a Ravished Soul, I gave Every Thing back to God, variously contriving and so Declaring How All that I have should bee made serviceable unto his glory." He formed numerous good designs this day, too : one was to be kind to the French refugees, but to stir them up about Sabbath-keeping ; another was to start certain gentlemen and certain religious families in prayer-meetings. x'Vnd he recorded two distinct res- olutions : — "I. The co?n7no7i-prayer worship now being sett up in this country I would procure and assist the publication of a Discourse written by my Father that shall enlighten the Rising Generation in the unlawfulness of that Worsliip, and Antidote them against Apostasy from the principles of the TEE FALL OF THE CHARTER. 69 First Settlement. II. And I would prosecute the pub- lication of the Like Testimony against several other superstitions that are now creeping in upon the Rising ge7ieratio7iP Sir Edmund was Governor now, Joseph Maylem was making merry on Shrove Tuesday, and there \vere peo- ple abroad possessed of evil spirits. No one knew quite what was coming. '* And thus," closes the rec- ord, " the Good Hand of God brings mee to the end of my Twenty Fourth year." V. The Revolution of 1689 and the New Charter. 1686-1692. Sir Edmund Andros, the new Governor, who came over vested with the absolute authority secured to James II. by the vacating of the Charter, was a gentle- man of Guernsey, whose youth had been passed in at- tendance on the King's aunt, the Queen of Bohemia. From 1666 to 1680 he had served in America, for the last six years of that period as Governor of New York. In this capacity he had come into collision with the authorities of Connecticut, who had disputed his claim to the country between the Connecticut River and the Hudson. And what happened then was enough to impress him and the people of New England with sentiments of mutual disgust. In point of fact, he seems to have been an honest gentleman, a good churchman, a man of the world, and a governor of no small ability.! But no temperament and no policy could have been much more foreign than his to the curious society, half theocratic, half democratic, that he came to govern with an authority more arbi- trary than has ever been assumed in New England, before or since. It is no wonder that, to theocrats and democrats alike, he seemed the incarnation of ^ See Andros Tracts, I. Memoir of Sir Edmund Andros. THE REVOLUTION OF 1689. 71 political villany, that in common opposition to him the theocratic spirit and the democratic forgot for a while any differences of their own, and that the miani- mous tradition of America has preserved his memory to the present day as that of a very bad man indeed. His jurisdiction was not confined to Massachusetts, but comprised the whole of New England. Boston, to be sure, by far the most important town in America, was his capital ; but here he exerted a power which extended from Canada to the Hudson. Putting aside the charges of extortion and corruption and treason- able plotting with Indians, — probably honesdy made, but certainly insufficiently supported by any extant evidence, — we may perhaps reduce the grave phases of what is still called his tyranny to three : an effort to establish the Church of England ; the assumption of the power of taxation without the consent of the peo- ple ; and the laying down of the principle, that all titles to land had been vacated along with the Charter, and so that whoever wanted a sound title must get his claim confirmed by Sir Edmund, and pay for it. When certain people pleaded the privileges of Englishmen, they were told that these things would not follow them to the ends of the earth, and that they had no more privileges left them but that they were not bought and sold for slaves. And this I see no reason to doubt that Sir Edmund very honestly believed. " In short," says Cotton Mather,^ '^ all was done that might be expected from a Ki}'k, Except the Bloody Part. But that was coming on." In all probability, the Mathers, along with most good ^ Parentator, XXIII. 72 COTTON MATHER. people of New England, honestly thought their heads in danger. That they really were, there is no evidence at all. But it is no wonder that so complete an over- turn of the government set all manner of wild fancies afloat. Increase Mather opposed Andros in every possible way, and meantime betook himself to prayer for good tidings out of England. " I sought unto God," be writes, early in 1687, ''in se- cret with Tears that He would send Reviving News out of Engla7id : And I could not but Believe that He will do so." He had not long to wait. In April, 1687, James II. issued his Declaration of Indulgence.^ Really de- signed, of course, to relieve the Catholics, this pro- claimed liberty of conscience, suspending all laws against non-conformity, and authorizing all British sub- jects to meet and serve God in their own way. How grateful it was to Dissenters, Cotton Mather's own svords characteristically express : — '*// b?-07(ght them out of their Graves: And if it as- sumed an Illegal Power of Dispensing with Laws, yet in Reladon to Them, it only dispensed with the Execution of such Infamous Laws as were ipso facto Null and Void be- fore : Laws contrary to the Laws of God, and the Rights and Claims of Human Nature." The ministers of New England were for a public thanksgiving, which Sir Edmund forbade, with threats of military force. On the motion of Increase Mather, the churches of New England drew up an address of 1 See Sewall's Letter-Book, I. 52, note. 1 THE REVOLUTION OF 1689. 73 thanks to the King. This it was thought best to in- trust to some " Well-qualified Pefson^^ who " might, by the Help of such Profesta?it Dissenters as the King began upon Political Views to cast a fair Aspect upon, Obtain some ReHef to the Growing Distresses of the Country : and Mr. Mather was the Person that was pitch'd upon." He referred the question of his going to his church : " They that at another time would have almost assoon parted with their Eyes as have parted with him now were willing to it : They Unanimously Consented.'^ Randolph made an effort to stop him by bringing against him an action for libel, based on a letter in which Mather had intimated a belief that Randolph had forged the treasonable document signed with his initials in 1683.^ But Mather, having once been released by a jury, avoided a second arrest by slipping out of his house in disguise, and remaining for a little while in hiding at Colonel Phillips's, in Charlestown. On the 7th of April, 1688, he managed to board a ship, well down the harbour, and so bore away for England. On the 6th of May he landed at Weymouth. His church was left in charge of his son Cotton. Harvard College, of which he had been Presi- dent since 1685, was left in the hands of Leverett and Brattle, resident tutors, and Fellows of the Corporation. The story of Increase Mather's mission in England is told at length in the " Parentator," and has been admirably illustrated by the '' Andros Tracts." Taken from the midst of the petty colonial society of whose limits we should by this time have a pretty thorough notion ; placed in the midst of the turmoil, the bustle, ^ Cf. page 46, 74 COTTON MATHER. the intrigue, of a great capital and a corrupt court : taken from the post of an eminent leader in matters ecclesiastical and political alike ; placed where at best he was one of a multitude, struggling and plotting for the notice and the favour of the great, Increase Mather proved himself no common man. Hitherto, at least in the " Parentator," on which I have chiefly relied for my impressions of him, he has appeared as an honest, godly Puritan minister, doing his best to maintain the principles that are already becoming traditions. Now, without sacrificing a shade of his principle, without giving up those ecstatic prayers and afflations which whoever would understand the passionate enthusiasm of old Puritanism must always keep in mind, he shows himself able, in a rare degree, to conduct the affairs of men. In brief, his task was to persuade a Catholic King, full of belief in the Divine authority of his absolute power, to restore, of his free will, the vacated Charter of Massachusetts. On the 30th of May he presented the Addresses of Thanks to James II., thus for the first time fulfilling his mother's prophecy. ^ Two days later he had another audience with the King, who listened kindly to his complaints of the conduct of An- dres. It was James's purpose, Cotton Mather thinks,^ to set up the Roman Catholic religion in America. It was Mather's purpose to secure a restoration of the theocratic democracy of the fathers, and incidental! to procure for Harvard College a royal charter which' should permanently secure it to the Calvinistic dis senters who had founded and cherished it. These 1 Cf. page 17. '^ Parentator, XXV. e I THE REVOLUTION OF 1689. 75 purposes agreed in not being exactly those of poor Sir Edmund. James spoke kindly, but did nothing; Mather worked vigorously, using every influence he could command. On the 2 2d of November, 1688, Sewall sailed from Boston, partly for the purpose of joining Mather in London. His notes of the voyage are pretty full. " Friday, Dec. 21," runs one, " I lay a [wager] with Mr. Newgate that shall not see any part of Great Britain by next Saterday senight sunset. Stakes are in Dr. Clark's hand." He won his bet. Still at sea, on " Sabbath, Dec. 30th. Spake with a ;?hip. Tells us he spake with an Eng- lish Man from Galloway, last Friday, who said that the King was dead, and that the Prince of Aurang had taken England, Landing six weeks agoe in Tor Bay. Last night I dreamed of military matters."' A fortnight more the voyage lasted, and each vessel they spoke gave some new version of the great ne\vs. In point of fact, WiUiam had landed on the 5th of November, James had fled from London on the 23d of December; and on "Sabbath, Jan. 13th," when Sewall finally went ashore at Dover, to " hear 2 Ser- mons from Isaiah, 66. 9," ^ the Revolution was accom- plished. Two weeks later, William and Mary were proclaimed. On the 4th of April, 1689, a young man named John Winslow arrived in Boston from the island of Nevis, with a copy of the Declaration issued by the Prince of Orange on his landing in England. Sir Edmund, hear- ' " Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth } saith the Lord : Shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb ? saith thy God." 76 COTTON MATHER. mg the news, sent for him, and tried to silence him by threats and promises ; faiUng, he committed him to prison "for bringing traitorous and treasonable libels and papers of news." But it was no use. The people of Massachusetts were ripe for revolution. Palfrey tells the story very graphically.^ On the i8th of April, Boston rose in arms, seized the chief magistrates, be- sieged Sir Edmund in the Castle, dismantled the Rose frigate, and took possession of the government in the name of " His Highness " (the Prince of Orange) and " the English ParHament." To appreciate the full boldness of this bloodless revolution, we must remem- ber that no rumor of the Prince's fortunes had reached New England, and that every man of those who put themselves at the head of the movement knew that, if, as might well be, James had prevailed in England, their action would probably cost them their heads. For all this, the magistrates who had last served under the vacated Charter resumed the power provisionally. Samuel Mather ^ says that they did it lest inaction on their part should result in bloody work by less prudent leaders. It was their fortune to be justified by what had happened abroad. On the 26th of May, a ship arrived with orders to proclaim William and Mary ; on the 29th, they were proclaimed. And Sir Ed- mund, with Joseph Dudley and the rest of his crew, as Cotton Mather called them, were fast prisoners in Boston Castle. And absolute authority in New Eng- land had seen its last day. 1 Book III. Chapter XV. 2 Life of Cotton Mather, II 2 2. This passage is probably the most valuable historically in the lifeless book. THE REVOLUTION OF 1689. 77 The next service that Increase Mather ^ did for New England was — at least for his contemporaries — perhaps the most notable of all. On the accession of William and Mary, a circular letter was drawn up to all the Colonies, confirming the old governors until fur- ther order. Had this been sent to New England, it would have reinstated Sir Edmund ; and how that hot- tempered gentleman might have conducted himself towards his enemies nobody knows. By some means, Mather succeeded in stopping it, and in leaving au- thority temporarily in the hands of the provisional government. In the end. Sir Edmund and his crew were shipped to England for trial. Far from con- demnation, they were received there with favour. Sir Edmund was soon made Governor of Virginia ; Joseph Dudley was made Chief Justice of New York, and later Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Wight ; later still he became a member of Parliament. But New Eng- land saw Sir Edmund no more : as for poor Randolph, all we hear further of him is that he died in Virginia, so miserably that only two or three negroes attended his funeral ; ^ and Dudley for the moment had his hands agreeably full abroad. There is good reason, I think, to believe that this peaceable issue of what might have been a very tragic matter was due chiefly to Mather's diplomacy. There were now high hopes in New England that the Charters would be restored. To prove their loy- alty, the Colonies fitted out an expedition against Port 1 For all facts about Increase Mather in the rest of this chap- ter, see Parentator, XXVI., XXVII. 2 Parentator, XXIV. 78 COTTON MATHER. lin- 11 Royalj and temporarily annexed to the British domin ions the country that is now Nova Scotia. Encour- aged by this, they followed it by a still more formida- ble expedition against Quebec, under the command, like the former, of the redoubtable Sir William Phipps. But this armament came to grief in the St. Lawrence, going far to unmake the favourable impression estab- lished by the previous success. And the country was generally in a disturbed condition, doubtful as to what form its government might take, harassed on its bor- ders by French and Indians, and infested along the coast by the pirates whose traditional hoards still ex- cite the interest of credulous treasure-seekers. It is to this epoch, though not precisely to this moment, that we owe the fame of Captain Kidd. In England, meanwhile. Increase Mather — preach- ing, praying, making the best of his way among what Dissenters were in favour at court — was doing his ut- most to secure the restoration of the Charters. He waited on the King more than once, to be received with marked, though guarded civility. He waited on the Queen, when the King was gone to Holland, and, pressing the claims of the New England Dissenters, heard from her lips what Cotton Mather calls a " Divine Sentence " : "I wish all good men were of one mind ; however, in the mean time I would have them live peaceably, and love one another." But all he could do brought his business little further. WilHam of Orange was a good Calvinist, but no Republican : he was willing enough to say civil things to New England, but by no means disposed to make a prosperous part of his dominions virtually independent. The longer \ THE REVOLUTION OF 1689. 79 Mather waited, the clearer it became to him, if not to his colleagues in the mission, that the best he could do for Massachusetts was to secure for it the best Charter he could induce the King to sign. The old Charter was hopelessly lost. Such was the state of affairs at the beginning of the year 1692, — the next for which Cotton Mather's diary is preserv'ed.^ What impressions I have of his per- sonal career for these five years, then, I gather from outside sources. In the first place, we shall do well to remember the situation in which he found himself at the age of twenty-five. Full of traditional belief in the Divine authority of his professional work, he was left, by the absence of his father on the most important pubhc business ever yet confided to a native of New England, in full charge of one of the greatest churches in Amer- ica. There is no reason to doubt that, according to the standard of his time, he was a scholar unapproached by any one of his age : that is, he had read more books than anybody else, he was reading more day by day, and he was already launched in that career of author- ship which made him at last the most voluminous of American writers. And the state of public affairs, bringing theocracy and democracy for the moment into complete accord, and throwing political as well as spiritual leadership once more — and for the last time — chiefly into the hands of the clergy, gave his words and actions such public authority as he never enjoyed again. All the while, too, there is every reason to 1 In possession of the American Antiquarian Society. Occa- sional citations in print seem to show that some of the intermediate diaries may be preserved. But I have not come across them. 8o COTTON MATHER. believe that his ecstatic prayers and fastings kept him in what he never doubted was direct communication with the angels of God. Sewall's Diary gives a few glimpses of his public preaching, and of pastoral visits all the more notable for the fact that Sewall was a member, not of Mather's church, but of Mr. Willard's, the Old South. One of his sermons, in 1687, taught Sewall a practical lesson of which he made immediate use. " Went to Roxbury/' runs Sewall's note,^ " and heard Mr. Cotton Mather preach from Coles. 4. 5, Redeeming the Time.2 Shew'd that should improve Season for doing and receiving good whatsoever it cost us. His Excel- lency ^ was on the Neck, as came by, call'd Him in and gave Him a glass of Beer and Claret and deliver'd a Peti- tion respecting the Narraganset Lands." Three years later, Sewall heard another of his ser- mons with less satisfaction. ''March 19, 1690," he writes, "Mr. C Mather preaches the lecture from Mat. 24, and appoint his portion with the Hypocrites.* In his proem said, Totus inundus agit his- trionem.^ Said one sign of a hypocrit was for a man to strain at a Gnat and swallow a Camel. Sign in 's Throat discovered him ; To be zealous against an inocent fashion, taken up and used by the best of men ; and yet make no 1 Diary, I. 181. 2 " Walk in wisdom towards them that are without, redeeming the time." 3 Andros. * Matt. 24. 51. "[The lord of that servant] shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites ; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." ° Everybody plays a part. THE REVOLUTION OF 1689. 8 1 Conscience of being guilty of great Immoralities. Tis sup- posed means wearing of Perriwigs : ^ said would deny them- selves in any thing but parting with an oportunity to do God service ; that so might not offend good Christians. Meaning, I suppose, was fain to wear a Perriwig for his health. I expected not to hear a vindication of Perriwigs in Boston Pulpit by Mr. Mather ; however, not from that Text. The Lord give me a good heart and help to know, and not only to know but also to doe his Will ; that my Heart and Head may be his." Of Cotton Mather's domestic life, meanwhile, I find but two or three stray notes. Three daughters were born to him before 1693 ; and one of them died. In 1688, he was much excited by a case of witchcraft in Boston, and for a while had one of the possessed girls in his own house. The same year his brother Nathan- iel died, — a very godly youth, who, if we may trust the account of him which Cotton Mather published,^ systematically studied and worried himself to death. One of his notes, which Cotton Mather quotes, gives a curious insight into his character. He is lamenting, in terms which suggest all manner of misdeed, the sins of his boyhood. " Of the manifold sins which then I was guilty of," he goes on, "none so sticks upon me as that, being very young, I was whitling on the Sabbath-day ; and for fear of being seen, I did it behind the door. A great reproach of God ! a specimen of that atheism that I brought into the world with me." Samuel Mather ^ is the chief authority concerning the 1 Cf. page 34. In his only existing portrait, Cotton Mather wears a remarkably full wig. 2 Magnalia, IV. X. 3 Life, II. 2. 2. 82 COTTON MATHER. part Cotton Mather played in the Revolution of 1689. Before the outbreak, he says, " the principal Gentlemen of Boston met with Mr. Mather to consult what was best to be done : and they all agreed, if possible, that they would extinguish all Essays in our People to an Insur- rection.'" In case of an outbreak, however, they deter- mined to prevent undue violence by putting themselves at the head of it. " And a Declaration was prepared accordingly." ^ At a public meeting of the inhabitants of Boston, shortly before the outbreak. Cotton Mather succeeded in calming the people by an " affectionate and moving Speech ... at which many fell into Tears and the whole Body . . . present immediately united in the Methods of Peace Mr. Mather proposed unto them." In spite of this he was to have been committed to prison for his politics on the very day when the insurrection broke out : on that day and the exciting ones that followed, he devoted all his energies, with success, to hindering " the Peoples proceeding any further than to reserve the Criminals for the Justice of the English Parliament." On the whole, Samuel Mather's last remark on this subject is the most notable. " Upon Discoursing with him of the Affairs," it runs, *'he has told me that he always pressed Peace and Love and Submission unto a legal Government, tho' he suffered from some tumultuous People, by doing so; and upon the whole, has asserted unto me his Innoce7icy and Freedom from all known Iniquity in that time, but declared his Reso- lution, from the View he had of the fickle Humors of the Populace, that he would chuse to be concern'd with them as little as possible for the future." 1 See Andros Tracts, I. 20. This paper has been attributed to Cotton Mather. THE REVOLUTION OF 1689. S>T, Apart from this, I get my chief impression of him during this interval from the Hst of his works in Sib- ley's '' Harvard Graduates." Indeed, there are but two definite facts that I have noted from any other authority. One is, that on the 12th of June, 1690, he was elected a Fellow of Harvard College.^ I doubt if the Corporation has ever had a younger member.^ The other is, that in November of the same year, when there was a dispute between hot-tempered Sir William Phipps and his prisoner, M. de Meneval, the captured Governor of Port Royal, concerning certain moneys on which Sir William had laid hand, "Mr. Moody and Mr. Mather . . . had very sharp discourse ; Mr. Mather very angrily said that they who did such things as suf- fering Sir William to be corrected by Meneval were Frenchmen, or the people would say they were, etc." ^ Cotton Mather had a temper of his own, it seems, which sometimes got the better of him. But the more serious side of his personal life between 1687 and 1692 shows itself chiefly in his writings. From " Military Duties" — a sermon preached in September, 1686, but not published till the next year — to the "Mid- night Cry," — the last of his publications during the period covered by this chapter, — Sibley mentions twenty-nine titles. Of these, one appeared in 1687, seven in 1689, ten in 1690, nine in 1691, and two in the beginning of 1692. Twenty of the twenty-nine were sermons, including some political sermons, and three funeral discourses, — two of which were enlarged into the biographies of Nathaniel Mather and of the ^ Sewall's Diary, T. 322. 2 27 years, 4 months. 3 Sewall's Diary, I. 339. 84 COTTON MATHER. Apostle Eliot, which appeared again in the jMagnalia ; two dealt with the Quakers ; five concerned devotional matters in general ; and two — " Memorable Prov- idences," first published in 1689, and '^ Late Memo- rable Providences," pubHshed in 1691 — concerned witchcraft.^ From the moment that his glorious assur- ances were justified by the news that King Charles was dead and Kirk's coming averted in 1685, this matter seems to have been much on his mind. He was bound by covenant to do special work for the Lord, and here was special work to be done. So we come to that portion of his diary for 1692 which belongs in this chapter. Like the other vol- umes I have noted, this one is not the original, but an abridged copy in his own hand of what portions he deemed worth preserving. And it is certainly true that the notes he has copied for this year are less specific and fewer than usual. To those who hate his mem- ory, and they are not few, this fact should count against him ; for my part, as I have said, the better I grow to know him, the more honest I believe his in- tentions. I shall note very briefly all that I have found in the earlier part of this manuscript volume. *'This year finds me," it begins, " in my public Ministry handling the Miracles of our Lord Jesus Christ. . . . Who can tell, what miraculous Things, I may see, before this year bee out ? " The next thing he notes is, that he has induced a meeting of ministers at Cambridge to vote that the churches shall make catalogues of " such things as can 1 Increase Mather's " Remarkable Providences " had appeared in 1684. THE REVOLUTION OF 1689. S5 indisputably bee found amiss among them," and then shall relentlessly put them down. Most of the churches paid little attention to this vote. But Mather himself drew up an instrument denouncing sixteen distinct common evils and transgressions of the covenant. He preached about this ; he wove it into his prayers ; and on the 2d of April it was adopted by a vote of the North Church. He had it printed, and conveyed the little book to every communicant. On the 29th of April, he held a day of secret humiliation and prayer. His prayers for the Holy Spirit were answered with assurances. He went on to recount the abasing circumstances of the land, to pray for the awakening of the churches, par- ticularly by himself; therefore he prayed above all for the smiles of God on his " Midnight Cry," "which was just then coming out of the press." He obtained of God an assurance that " Hee will make use of me, as of a John, to bee an Herald of the Lord's Kingdom now approaching. . . . But my prayers," he goes on, " did especially insist upon the horrible Enchantments and possessions broke forth upon Salem Village, — things of a most prodigious Aspect. A good issue to these things and my own Direction and protection thereabout I did especially petition for." His next note, undated, tells that his health is " lam- entably broken, . . . partly by my Excessive Toyle in the public and private Exercises of my Calling, but chiefly, I fear, by my Sins against the God of my Health." In spite of this, and of preaching when he " had been fitter to have been in my bed," he has had great assist- ances in the pulpit ; " and come easier out of the pulpit than I went into it." Whoever has had crazy nerves knows what that means. 86 COTTONT MATHER. *' But now," he goes on, " Illnesse and Vapours, with an Aguish Indisposition, grows upon me at such a rate that indeed I Live in Exceeding Misery: and I can see nothing but a Speedy Death approaching. Blessed be God., that I can Dy I " " But the time for Favour was now come !" runs the next note I have copied, " the Sett Time was Come ! I am now to Receive the answer of so many prayers as had been employed for my absent parent ; and for the Deliverance and settlement of my poor Countrey, for which hee had been Employed in so long an Agencie. We have not the former Charter, but wee have a Better in the Room of it : one which much better suits our Circumstances. And in- stead of my being made a Sacrifice to Wicked Rulers, all the councellours of the province are of my own Father's Nomination," Among thenfi were his father-in-law and several brethren of his church. And the Governor was Sir William Phipps, one whom he himself had baptized, in March, 1690.1 In fact, the four years' work of Increase Mather had reached a successful issue in October, 1691. Convinced that nothing could revive the old Charter, he had done all he could to make the new one as good as possible. The appointment of the Governor, and the final power of veto, were left with the King ; the franchise was made a matter no longer of church- membership, but of freeholds : but the people were to elect the Governor's Council ; and above all, the power of taxation was vested in the bodies they elected. Mather's colleagues refused to accept the inevitable : they came back to New England, ready to stir up feel- 1 See Magnalia, Life of Sir William Phipps. THE REVOLUTION OF 1689. 87 ing against him. And Sewall notes that as early as February 8, 169 1-2, when the first copy of the new Charter reached Boston, there was much discourse. But Mather's diplomatic tact had actually enabled him to name the chief officers who were to put the gov- ernment into operation ; and the good man came home to his good son with the full conviction that now at last good people were to have their way in New England. "May 14th, 1692," writes Sewall, "Sir William arrives in the Nonsuch Frigat : Candles are lighted before he gets into Town-house. Eight companies wait on Him to his house, and then on Mr. [Increase] Mather to his. Made no volleys because 'twas Satterday night." Next day, though ill and unprepared, Cotton Mather preached on "the Lord's passing over the water," with much assistance from Heaven. " Monday, May 16;' writes Sewall, ' Eight Companies and two from Charlestown guard Sir William and his Councillours to the Townhouse, where the Coiiiissions were read and Oaths taken. I waited on the Dept. Gov- ernour to Town, and there was met by Brother Short . . . who informed me of the dangerous illness of my father, so ... I was not present at the Solemnity: found my father much better. At Ipswich,i as we were going, saw a Rainbow just about Sunset." "Thus," writes Cotton Mather the same day, "have I seen the wonderful effects of prayer and Faith ; and now I will call upon the Lord as Long as I Liv£." 1 The elder Sewall lived at Newbury. VI. Witchcraft. 1692-1693. What happened in the next two years was of less consequence to New England than the matters we have been considering. To Cotton Mather, however, and to the cause which throughout his hfe he had most at heart, — the preservation, the restoration, of the pure polity of the fathers, — these two years were fatal. It was the great tragedy of witchcraft, I think, that finally broke the power of theocracy : it was almost surely the part Cotton Mather played in it that made his life, for the five and thirty years that were left him, a life — at least publicly — of constant, cres- cent failure. Tragic even if we join with those who read in the records left us no more worthy story than that of frustrated ambition, his career takes an aspect of rare tragic dignity if in his endless, undiscouraged efforts to do God's work we can honestly see what he tells us was there, — an all-mastering faith that the fathers were divinely right, that all which tended away from their teaching was eternally wrong, and that his own failure meant nothing less than the failure of the kingdom of Christ in a land whither Christ's servants had come with high hopes that here, as nowhere else on earth, Christ's kingdom should prevail. WITCHCRAFT. 89 Sir William Phipps, the new Governor, is in certain aspects a most romantic figure. The obscure son of a settler in the wilds of Maine, he was first an appren- tice to a ship-carpenter : coming to Boston early in manhood, he learned there to read and write, and soon married a widow of position and fortune de- cidedly above his own. Prospering for a while as a shipbuilder, he soon took to the sea ; and by the year 1684 he had so distinguished himself that he was put in command of a frigate, in which he sailed to the West Indies in search of a wrecked Spanish treas- ure-ship. After various adventures and mutinies, he actually discovered the wreck. He brought back to England treasure to the amount of three hundred thousand pounds, in return for which feat he was knighted by James II. And in Sir Edmund Andros's time he came home to Boston with a comfortable for- tune of his own and the office of High Sheriff of New England. By no means in sympathy with the Gov- ernor, he soon went back to England for a while, where he had more or less to do with Increase Mather. In 1690 he was again in Boston, where, as we have seen before, he took command of the successful ex pedition against Port Royal. The first real rebuff in the career of this archetype of self-made Yankees was the failure of the expedition which, too late in the same year, he led against Quebec. Undiscouraged, he went back to England with plans for a fresh expe- dition against the French. This came to nothing ; but Increase Mather, who saw much of him in Lon- don, pitched on him, and obtained the approval of King William for him, as the man of men to be 90 COTTON MATHER. ^ the first Governor of the royal Province of Massa- chusetts. It would have been hard to find a governor who should promise more for the polity to which the Math- ers gave every energy of their lives. A man of the people, conspicuous above any one else of his time for just that kind of material success which most touches the popular imagination, Sir William, though hot- headed and full of the pompous tyranny of the quarter- deck, seems to have had one of those big, hearty, human natures which command liking even where one cannot approve. He might be expected at once to command the sympathy of the people, who would see in him an example of what any one of them might be- come, and to be very firm in his determination to have his own way. If such a man be on the right course, he will carry things farther than any other kind. And, like most self-made Yankees, Sir William was on ex- actly the right course, from the point of view of the clergy. As a class, self-made men to this day grow up with a rather blind faith in the superiority to other men of ministers of the Gospel : in worldly moments they may smile at their spiritual advisers as impracti- cal ; but they go to church, and when it comes to spending their money they are very apt to spend it as the minister tells them to. And more than most self- made men Sir William looked up to the clergy, and most of all the clergy to the Mathers. It was Increase Mather's sermon on "The day of trouble is near," in 1674,^ that first made him sensible of his sins; it was by Cotton Mather, just before the expedition to Port i Cf. page 26.^ WITCHCRAFT. 91 Royal, in 1690, that he was baptized and received into the communion of the faithful ; it was to Increase Mather that he owed the office which crowned his worldly ambition. Clearly such a man as this might be trusted, if anybody might, to do the will of God as the Mathers expounded it. And the Mathers meant to expound it in the good old orthodox way; and the new Charter gave the Governor more power than he had ever had under the old ; so there was never a moment when the hopes of Christ's kingdom looked brighter. To understand what followed, we may well recall some things at which we have glanced already. In the view of the Puritans, the continent of America, whither they came to live in accordance with no laws but those of Scripture, had been until their coming the special territory of the Devil. Here he had ruled for centu- ries, unmolested by the opposing power of the Gospel : whoever doubted this had only to look at the degrada- tion of his miserable subjects, the native Indians, to be pretty well convinced. The landing of the Puritans was a direct invasion of his territories. He fought it in all manner of ways, — material and spiritual. The physical hardship of the earlier years of the settlement was largely his work ; so were the disturbances raised within the Colonies by heretics and malcontents ; so, more palpably still, were the Indian wars in which his subjects rose in arms against the servants of Christ ; so, too, were certain phenomena that every one at the present day would instantly recognize as natural : more than once Cotton Mather remarks as clearly diaboli- cal the fact that the steeples of churches are oftener / 92 COTTON MATHER. Struck by lightning than any other structures. And from the very earliest days of the settlement the Devil had waged his unholy war in a more subtle way still : ap- pearing in person, or in the person of direct emissaries from the invisible world, to more than a few hapless Christians, he had constantly striven with bribes and threats to seduce them to his service. Whoever yielded to him was rewarded by the possession of supernatural power, which was secretly exerted for all manner of malicious purposes ; these were the witches : whoever withstood him was tortured in mind and body almost beyond the power of men to bear; these were the bewitched. There was no phase of the Devil's warfare so insidious, so impalpable, so dangerous, as this : in the very heart of the churches, in the pulpits them- selves, witches might lurk. Their crime was the dark- est of all, — deliberate treason to the Lord ; but it was the hardest of all to detect and to prove, — the most horrible, both in its nature and in its possibility of evil- doing. Mysterious, horrible, inevitable, it demanded every effort of Christians to withstand its subtle power. To the Mathers, I believe, all this was very real. In 1684 Increase Mather had written a book against witchcraft. Two years later, as we have seen, Cotton Mather had had what he might well have believed a special message from Heaven that his chief mission for the moment was to fight the witches. The sins of the Colonists had brought on them the most terrible of their misfortunes : the Charter was gone, and Kirk was coming with his red-coats ; and, in the deep agony of secret prayer, Cotton Mather was beseeching God to show mercy to New England, and promising, when such WITCHCRAFT. 93 mercy came, what special services the Lord might see fit to demand. The good news came, at a moment when the Lord was rewarding his prayers by visions of a white-robed angel from whose hps he heard as- surances of Divine favour. King Charles was dead, Kirk was coming no longer. His prayers had availed to save New England from the worst of her dangers. What should he do for the Lord? At that very mo- ment, as we have seen, witchcraft was abroad. It was his duty to collect testimony against it, to denounce it, to fight it with all his might. From that moment, ap- parently, he began. And the more he studied it, the more real and terrible he found it. In 1688 there was a sad outbreak of it in Boston : Cotton ]\lather took into his own house one of the afflicted children, whose behaviour as he relates it was in all respects such as to increase his belief both in the reality of the Devil's work, and in the divine sanction of his own efforts against it. And now, in 1692, when the prayers of New England for a righteous charter had been granted, when the best of governors was come, ready to put into execution the best of policies, when at last the ma- terial prospects of Christ's kingdom were fairer than for years before, the Devil began such a spiritual assault on New England as had never before been approached. The story of Salem Witchcraft has been told by LTpham with a fulness and a fairness that leave nothing to be added. But he fails, I think, sympathetically to understand a fact which he emphasizes with character- istic honesty, — the tremendous influence on human beings of that profound realizing sense of the mysteries that surround us, to which those who do not share it give the name superstition. 94 COTTON MATHER. At various periods of history epidemics of supersti- tion have appeared, sometimes in madly tragic forms, sometimes, as in modern spirituaHsm, in grotesquely comic ones. These are generally classed as pure delu- sions, based on no external facts. But for my part, though I may claim none of the authority which would come from special 'study of the subject, I am strongly inclined to believe that from the earUest recorded times a certain pretty definite group of mysterious phe- nomena has, under various names, really shown itself throughout human society. Oracles, magic, witchcraft, animal magnetism, spiritualism, — call the phenomena what you will, — seem to me a fact. Certain phases of it are beginning to be understood under the name of hypnotism. Other phases, after the best study that has been given them, seem to be little else than de- liberate fraud and falsehood ; but they are fraud and falsehood, if this be all they are, of a specific kind, un- changed for centuries. The evidence at the trial of the Marechal de Rais, a soldier of Joan of Arc and the original of the tale of Blue-Beard, relates phenomena that anybody can see to-day by paying a dollar to a " materializing medium." And some of them are very like what are related in the trials of the Salem witches. So specific is the fraud, if only fraud it be, that it may well be regarded, I think, as a distinct mental, or per- haps rather moral disorder. With no sort of pretension to scientific knowledge, I have found that a guess I made in talk some years ago throws what may be a little light on many of the myste- rious phenomena that in Cotton Mather's time were deemed indisputably diabolical. I shall venture, then, WITCHCRAFT. 95 to State it here, to be taken for no more than a lay- man's guess may be worth. If, as modern science tends to show, human beings are the result of a pro- cess of evolution from lower forms of Ufe, there must have been in our ancestral history a period when the intelligence of our progenitors was as different from the modern human mind — the only form of intelligence familiar to our experience or preserved in the records of our race — as were their remote aquatic bodies from the human form we know to-day. To-day we can per- ceive with any approach to distinctness only what re- veals itself to us through the medium of our five senses ; but we have only to look at the intricate wheelings of a flock of birds, at the flight of a carrier pigeon, at the course of a dog who runs straight home over a hundred miles of strange country, to see more than a probability that animals not remote from us physically have per- ceptions to which we are strangers. It seems wholly conceivable, then, that in the remote psychologic past of our race there may have been in our ancestors cer- tain powers of perception which countless centuries of disuse have made so rudimentary that in our normal condition we are not conscious of them. But if such there were, it would not be strange that, in abnormal states, the rudimentary vestiges of these disused powers of perception might sometimes be revived. If this were the case, we might naturally expect two phenom- ena to accompany such a revival : in the first place, as such powers of perception, from my very hypothesis, belong normally to a period in the development of our race when human society and what we call moral law have not yet appeared, we should expect them to be 96 COTTON MATHER. intimately connected with a state of emotion that ignores what we call the moral sense, and so to be accompanied by various forms of misconduct ; in the second place, as our chief modem means of communi- cation — articulate language — belongs to a period when human intelligence has assumed its present form, we should expect to find it inadequate for the expres- sion of facts which it never professed to cover, and so we should expect such phenomena as we are con- sidering to be accompanied by an erratic, impotent inaccuracy of statement, which would soon shade into something indistinguishable from deliberate falsehood. In other words, such phenomena would naturally in- volve in whoever abandons himself to them a mental and moral degeneracy which any one who believes in a personal devil would not hesitate to ascribe to the direct intervention of Satan. Now what disposes me, scientifically a layman I must repeat, to think that my guess may have some- thing in it is that mental and moral degeneracy — credulity and fraud — seem almost invariably so to entangle themselves with occult phenomena that many cool-headed people are disposed to assert the whole thing a lie. To me, as I have shown, it does not seem so simple. I am much disposed to think that necro- mancers, witches, mediums, — what not, — actually do perceive in the infinite realities about us things that are imperceptible to normal human beings ; but that they perceive them only at a sacrifice of their higher faculties — mental and moral — not inaptly symbolized in the old tales of those who sell their souls. If this be true, witchcraft is not a delusion : it is a I WITCHCRAFT. 97 thing more subtly dangerous still. Such an epidemic of it as came to New England in 1692 is as diaboHcal a fact as human beings can know : unchecked, it can really work mischief unspeakable. I have said enough, I think, to show why I heartily sympathize with those who in 1692 did their utmost to suppress it; to show, too, why the fatally tragic phase of the witch trials seems to me, not the fact that there was no crime to condemn, but the fact that the evidence on which certain wretched people were executed proves, on scrutiny, utterly insufficient. It was Httle better than to-day would be the ravings of a clairvoyant against one accused of theft. And yet, if there be anything in my guess, this too is just what we might expect. Not knowing what they did, the judges would strain every nerve — just as in their rapt ecstasies the Mathers strained every nerve, along with their Puritan fellows, and the saints of every faith — to awaken from the lethargy of countless ages those rudimentary powers which can be awakened only at the expense of what we think the higher ones that have supplanted them. The motive may make a difference : he who strives to serve God may end as he begun, a better man than he who consents to serve the Devil. But, for all that, bewitched and judges alike, the startled ministers to whom the judges turned for counsel, and perhaps not a few of the witches too, who may well have believed in themselves, vie with one another in a devil's race, harking back to mental and moral depths from which humanity has taken countless centuries to rise. Whoever cares to know in detail the story of 1692 may read it in Upham, or in Palfrey. In brief, the 7 98 COTTON MATHER. children of Mr. Parris, minister of Salem Village, were seized early in the year with disorders which seemed of no earthly origin. They accused certain neighbours of bewitching them ; the neighbours were arrested. The troubles and the accusations spread with the speed of any panic. By the time Sir William assumed the government, the whole region was in an agony of super- stitious terror ; and whoever raised his voice against the matter fell under suspicion of league with the Devil. At that moment, as the old judicial system had fallen with the Charter, there were no regular courts. Within a few weeks, Sir William, full of the gravity of the situation, and probably under the direct advice of the Mathers, appointed a special Court of Oyer and Ter- miner to try the witches. William Stoughton, the Deputy Governor, was made Chief Justice : his six associates were gentlemen of the highest station and character in the Province : among them was Sam- uel Sewall, whose Diary I have so often quoted. On the 2d of June this court condemned one Bridget Bishop : on the loth she was executed for witchcraft. Before proceeding further, the court consulted the ministers of Boston and the neighbourhood. The answer of the ministers is said to have been drawn up by Cotton Mather: in general terms it urged "the im- portance of caution and circumspection in the methods of examination," but " earnestly recommended that the proceedings should be vigorously carried on." ^ It is largely on this document that the charge against Cotton Mather rests : he is believed by many deliber- ately to have urged the judicial murder of innocent 1 Upham, II. 268. WITCHCRAFT. 99 people for the simple purpose of establishing and main- taining his own ascendency in the state. To me, and what I have written already should show why, the paper seems the only possible thing for an honest, superstitious man — himself in direct communication with the blessed part of the invisible world — to have written. Witchcraft was to him the most terrible of realities ; not to proceed against it would have been to betray the cause of Christ ; but the Devil stood ready to beguile the courts themselves ; the evidence must be carefully scrutinized, or who could tell what mischief might come ? Thus encouraged, the Court proceeded. How many wretched people were committed can never be quite known : Upham thinks several hundreds.^ Nineteen were hanged ; one was pressed to death for refusing to plead to his indictment ; at least two died in jail. By the end of September, a revulsion of popular feeling had come. The accusations had spread too far : the evidence on which the witches were executed was be- ginning to seem too flimsy. On the 2 2d of Septem- ber came the last executions. In January, 1693,^ the special Court of Oyer and Terminer was supplanted by a regular Superior Court, consisting of much the same men. It threw out "spectral evidence," — that is, it declined to consider the ravings of the bewitched : only three out of fifty indicted for witchcraft were con- demned, and none of these was executed. In May, 1693, the panic was over. By proclamation. Sir William Phipps discharged all the accused. " Such a jail delivery," says Hutchinson, " has never been known in New England." ^ J Upham, II. 35r. - Ibid., II. 349. lOO COTTON MATHER. In all this matter Increase Mather seems to have played no conspicuous part. Four years of diplomacy in the capital of the British empire had perhaps taught him practical lessons of prudence not to be learned in any less arduous school. But while these were learning, his son, not yet thirty years old. had been surrounded by influences diametrically different. In the provincial Boston, which was at once the greatest city in America and the only home he ever knew, Cotton Mather had found himself, at an age when most men are still passed by as young, among the chiefs of the leaders. And then, as later, it had been his lot to meet hardly anybody whom he could honestly deem by his own standards superior to himself. As we shall see by and by, his later career was marked by what has often seemed, particularly when we remember his constant failure to achieve the public ends he strove for, a ridiculous and overweening vanity. But I think that few can rise from a careful study of his diary without feeling that this vanity was no blind self-approval ; but at most a conviction, in his happier moments, that, far as he was from the attainment of his ideals, there were none about him who were any nearer the attainment of theirs, and that there were many — and year by year more — who were falling away from the ancestral traditions that he never gave up. In 1692 he was still in the flush of youth and of success. No one was more active in fighting the Devil's works as revealed in witchcraft. No one, for well on to two centuries, has borne so much of the odium of what was done as he. We have seen how his books and his conduct in 1688 tended to stir up public feeling against the WITCHCRAFT. 101 witches ; we have seen how the letter of the ministers which he drew up encouraged the puzzled Court of Oyer and Terminer to proceed with its deadly work. On the 19th of August, 1692, the most eminent of the victims of the proceedings was hanged ; this was the Rev. George Burroughs, a graduate of Harvard Col- lege, and for something Uke twenty years a minister of the Gospel. Four others died with him. One of Sew- all's very few notes of this period describes this day. " A very great number of Spectators . . , present. Mr Cotton Mather was there. ... All of them said they were ihocent. . . . Mr. Mather says they all died by a Righteous sentence. Mr. Burroughs, by his Speech, Prayer, protes- tation of his Innocence, did much move unthinking per- sons, which occasions their speaking liardly concerning his being executed." In the margin Sewall has written " Dole- full Witchcraft ! " 1 Calef, of whom we shall hear more by and by, gives a fuller account of the scene : — " When [Mr. Burroughs] was upon the ladder, he made a speech for the clearing of his innocency, with such solemn and serious expressions, as were to the admiration of all present : his prayer (which he concluded by repeadng the Lord's prayer'-^) was so well worded, and uttered with such composedness, and such (at least seeming 1 fervency of spirit, as was very affecting, and drew tears from many, so that it seemed to some that the spectators would hinder the execution. The accusers^ said the black man stood and dictated to him. As soon as he was turned off, Mr. 1 Diary, I. 363. ^ It was believed that no witch could repeat the Lord's prayer without error. ^ The bewitched : a capital example of spectral evidence. T02 COTTON MATHER. Cotton Mather, being mounted upon a horse, addressed himself to the people, partly to declare that . . . [Bur- roughs] was no ordained minister, and partly to possess the people of his guilt, saying that the devil has often been transformed into an angel of light ; and this somewhat ap- peased the people, and the executions went on. When he was cut down, he was dragged by the halter to a hole . . . between the rocks, about two feet deep, his shirt and breeches being pulled off, and an old pair of trowsers of one executed put on his lower parts ; he was so put in . . . that one of his hands and his chin . . . were left uncovered." ^ Just a month later, Giles Corey was pressed to death for refusing to plead to his indictment, — the solitary instance in America of this terrible barbarity of the old English criminal law. '' Sept. 20," writes Sewall, " Now I hear from Salem that about 1 8 years agoe he was suspected to have stamped and press'd a man to death, but was cleared. Twas not re- membered till AiTe Putnam was told of it by said Corey's Spectre the Sabbath-day night before the Execution."'-^ On this very day, the 20th of September, two days before the last of the executions. Cotton Mather wrote to Stephen Sewall, clerk of the court at Salem, a let- ter which Upham deems conclusive of his artful dis- honesty.^ " That I may bee the more capable to assist, in lifting up a standard against the Infernal Enemy," it runs, " I must 1 Page 213. - Diary, I. 364. Upham, II. 341, seq., shows the charge against Corey to have been groundless. There is no more nota- ble example of the popular infatuation. 3 Upham, II. 487, seq. Cf. Sibley, III. 11. WITCHCRAFT. 1 03 Renew my most Importunate Request, that you would please quickly to perform, what you kindly promised, of giving me a Narrative of the Evidences given in at the Trials of half a dozen, or if you please a dozen, of the prin- cipal Witches, that have been condemned. ... I am will- ing that when you write, you should imagine me as obstinate a Sadducee and Witch-advocate as any among us : ad- dress mee as one that Believ'd Nothing Reasonable; and when you have so knocked mee down, in a spectre so unlike mee, you will enable mee, to box it about, among my Neighbs, till it come, I know not where, at last" Two days later, on that very 2 2d of September when the last witches were hanging, Sewall notes that " William Stoughton, Esqr., John Hathorne, Esqr., Mr. Cotton Mather, and Capt. John Higginson, with my brother St., were at our house, speaking about publish- ing some Trials of Witches." ^ The result of this letter and conference seems to have been Cotton Mather's well known ''Wonders of the Invisible World," pub- lished the next year both in Boston and in London. A few of Sewall's notes show the course of popular feeling meanwhile. On the 15th of October he went to Cambridge to discourse with Mr. Danforth about witchcraft : Mr. Danforth " thinks there cahot be a procedure in the Court except there be some better consent of Ministers and People." On the 26th, " A Bill is sent in about calling a Fast, and Convocation of Ministers, that may be led in the right way as to the Witchcrafts. The reason and maiier of doing it, 1 Diary, I. 365. Stoughton, Hathorne, and Sewall were judges of the Court of Oyer and Terminer ; Stephen Sewall, clerk of the Court, was the man to whom Cotton Mather had written on September 20. 104 COTTOX MATHER. is such, that the Court of Oyer and Terminer count them- selves thereby dismissed. 29 Xos and 33 yeas to the Bill." On the 28th, Sewall, •• as had done several times before, desired to have the advice of the Governour and Council as to the sitting of the Court of Oyer and Terminer next week : said should move it no more ; great silence, as if should say, do not go." Next day, •■ Mr. Russell asked whether the Court of Oyer and Terminer should sit, ex- pressing some fear of Inconvenience by its fall. Governour said it must fall. Lieut. -Governour ^ not in Town." It was nearly a year later, in September, 1693, that Cotton Mather, in Upham's phrase,^ " succeeded in getting up " the case of witchcraft that cost him dear- est. One Margaret Rule, a young woman of Boston whose character seems to have been none of the best, was seized with all the s)TQptoms of possession. One symptom, mentioned I think only in her case, throws considerable light on her disorder : the devils pre- vented her from eating, but permitted her occasionally to swallow a little rum. Both of the blathers visited her, surrounded by her startled and credulous friends ; they listened with full faith to her tales of black spirits and white who haunted her ; they examined her per- son with what in less holy men might have savoured of indiscretion ; they prayed with her and for her. And finally, the discouraged de\'ils fled away ; and she, returning perfectly to herself, though extremely weak and faint and overwhelmed with vapours, most affec- tionately gave thanks to God for her deliverance.^ This case, portending such a diabolical descent on Bos- ton as had passed over Salem, attracted the attention ^ Stoughton. - Upham, II. 4S9. - Calef, p 34. WITCHCRAFT. 105 among others, of one Robert Calef, a merchant of the town. He visited Margaret Rule when the Mathers were with her. A perfect matter-of-fact man, thor- oughly honest and equally devoid of imagination, he saw in her sufferings only a vulgar cheat, and in the conduct of the Mathers something which seems to have im- pressed him as deliberate and not wholly decent con- nivance in her imposture. He made notes of what he had seen, and submitted them to Cotton Mather. The controversy that followed, which has been admirably summarized by Sibley,^ lasted in one form or another for six years. In 1700, Calef s book on the subject was published in London, and soon found its way to Boston.^ Calefs temper was that of the rational Eighteenth Century : the Mathers belonged rather to the Sixteenth, — the age of passionate religious enthusiasm. To me, both sides seem equally honest ; and the difference be- tween them seems chiefly due to the fact that, as in a thousand other cases in human history, a man of the future can rarely so rise above himself as to understand men of the past. In such a controversy, it is the man of the future that the future holds right. In the time that has passed since the Mathers and Calef have lain in their graves, the world has seen an age of reason, and not of imaginative emotion. And most of those who have concerned themselves about these dead men have deemed Calef all in the right, and the Mathers foolish, if not worse. But did Calef see all ? Is there, after all, in a great epidemic of superstition nothing 1 Harvard Graduates, III. 12-18. '^ Cf. pages 150, 1S6. io6 COTTON MATHER. beyond what those who escape the contagion perceive? Are we not to-day beginning to guess that there may be in heaven and earth more things than are yet dreamt of in your philosophy? If there be, it may in the end prove the verdict of men that neither honest Calef nor the honest Mathers saw all that passed before their eyes ; but that each in his own way caught a glimpse of truth, and that each believed that all the truth was comprised in the bit he saw. But we are come now to a point where we must turn to Cotton Mather himself; where we must look to the diaries he has left us, and to the works he wrote later, for an account of what these critical years meant to him. The substance of his later writings seems to me adequately represented by the passages about witch- craft in the " Magnalia " and the " Parentator." A few words of these, and we will pass to his diaries for 1692 ^ and 1693.^ The substance of his final view of the case, as shown in his published works, seems to have been this : The witchcraft was a real attack of the Devil, per- mitted perhaps as a punishment for dabblings in sor- cery and magical tricks which people had begun to allow themselves.^ The afflictions of the possessed, which he details in all their petty absurdities, that seem nowadays as monstrously trivial, were really diabolical. "Flashy people may burlesque these things, but when hundreds of the most sober people in a country where they 1 In possession of the American Antiquarian Society. '^ In possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society. 3 Parentator, XXVIII. WITCHCRAFT. 107 have as much mother-'wit certainly as the rest of mankind, know them to be true^ nothing but the absurd and froward Spirit of Sadducism can question them." ^ The only doubtful question was whether the Devil had the power of assuming before the eyes of his vic- tims the shape of innocent persons. The assumption on the part of the judges that he had no such power led to the conviction on spectral evidence of not a few victims of the court. The abandonment of this as- sumption led to the cessation of the prosecutions, and to the jail delivery of 1693. Mather asserts in sub- stance that he always opposed spectral evidence ; and it is certain that Increase Mather's " Cases of Con- science," published in 1694, clearly condemns it. It is certain, too, that Cotton Mather's letter to John Richards, dated May 31, 1692,^ warns the judge in the most specific terms against the dangers of spectral evi- dence. Cotton Mather's own position, as he finally states it, then, seems to have been a persistent belief in witchcraft, a persistent determination to keep the public alive to all the horrors of the crime, and to op- pose it by every means in his power^ but a growing doubt as to how far so mysterious and terrible an evil can be dealt with by so material an engine as the crim- inal law. On the whole he inclines more and more to reliance on fasting and prayer. This was undoubtedly the view taken, when the panic was once over, by even the most strenuous advocates of the reality of witchcraft, and Cotton Mather undeniably takes to himself the credit of having held and urged it all along. 1 Magnalia, II. App. § 16. 2 Mather Papers, 392, seq. See page no. 1 08 CO TTON MA THER. The part of the '' MagnaUa " in which these facts ap- pear is the Life of Sir WilUam Phipps, first pubUshed separately and anonymously in 1697. On the fact that this book was anonymous, Calef bases much of his charge that Mather wrote it dishonestly to praise himself, and to delude people into believing him free from the responsibility of having urged on the prosecu- tions. On this fact, on the feebleness of the caution addressed by the ministers to the Court of Oyer and Terminer, and on the letter to Stephen Sewall, rests most of the charge of dishonesty from which Mather's name has never been cleared to the satisfaction of his opponents. It seems to me that the anonymous pub- lication — by no means the only example of it in Mather's voluminous works ^ — may well have been due to no worse motive than a wish for a fair hearing, which might not have been accorded to a name which was held up to public execration. It seems to me, too, that the letter of the ministers may be taken for just what it purports to be, — an honest warning of a danger, in spite of which the Court has no moral right to hesitate in the performance of its official duty. And in the letter to Stephen Sewall I can see nothing incon- sistent with the conclusion that what Cotton Mather wished to maintain unshaken was not the fatal penalty of the law, but that belief in the reality of witchcraft which he certainly never abandoned. Calef and pos- terity seem to me to have confused two distinct things, — this belief in the reality of witchcraft, and insistence on the validity of spectral evidence. But, when all 1 What is more, he acknowledged the book in 1702, when the " Magnalia" was published. WITCHCRAFT. 1 09 is said, I think two facts against Mather remain : his conduct and his words had as much as any one man's could have to do with the raising of the panic ; and in his final presentation of the matter, both in his diaries and in his published works, he never grants or meets the full strength of the case against him. But before we agree with those who beUeve him to have been deliberately dishonest, it will be only fair to read what his diaries tell us of these troubled years ; and to read it, too, with certain facts in mind that seem to me too little considered. In the first place, as we have seen, Cotton Mather had for years been a reli- gious enthusiast whose constant ecstasies brought him into such direct communication with Heaven as he be- lieved the witches to maintain with Hell; in other words, he had for years been, what he remained all his life, a constant victim of a mental or moral disorder whose normal tendency is towards the growth of un- witting credulity and fraud. In the second place, I grow to believe more and more that the ceaseless activ- ity of mind and body, of thought, of emotion, of action, into which he never ceased to lash himself, — the ac- tivity which produced in actual words and deeds a life- work whose bulk to-day seems almost incredible, — never permitted him, in any act or word, to be really . deliberate at all. Striving with all his might to do the Lord's work, believing that the Lord's will forbade him for a moment to relax a particle of his energy, he went through this world from beginning to end in a state of emotional exaltation, of passionate afflation and reac- tion, which left him in all the sixty years of his con- scious life hardly an hour of that cool thoughtfulness no CO TTON MA THER. without which any dehberation is impossible. It has been his fate — a man whose whole career was a storm of passion — to be judged, in the seclusion of libraries, by unimaginative, unimpassioned posterity. So cool sympathizers with old Calvinism who have sought to defend him, and cooler Protestants who have constantly condemned him, have alike failed to understand. They have failed, too, adequately to emphasize what seems to me the most notable piece of contemporary evidence. On May 31st, 1692, we have seen, — three days before Bridget Bishop, the first victim of the Court, was sentenced, — Cotton Mather wrote to John Rich- ards, one of the judges, a letter in which he takes, with the utmost decision, exactly the ground he occupied to the end of his life. "Do not lay more stress upon pure Spectre evidence than it will bear," he writes. . . . '' It is very certain that the divells have sometimes represented the shapes of per- sons not only innocent, but also very vertuous." There should be confession, or unmistakable signs : he believes in witch-marks, to be sure, and in the water-ordeal. But at the very end he adds this caution : — "It is worth considering whether there be a necessity ahvayes by Extirpacons by Halter or fagott [to punish] every wretched creature that shall be hooked into some degrees of Witchcraft. What if some of the lesser Crimi- nalls, be only scourged with lesser punishments, and also put upon some solemn, . . . Publike . . . renunciation of the Divel? I am apt to thinke that the Divels would then cease afflicting the Neighbourhood." WITCHCRAFT. 1 1 1 So we come back to the diary for 1692.^ As I have said already, this is far more abridged and less spe- cific than most of his diaries. But I do not believe it untrue. The last entry I quoted was made in May, when his father had just returned, and the new Charter was just passing into operation. "And now," he wrote, " I will call upon the Lord as long as I live." The rest of his entries for the year bear no date. He notes briefly that he has preached against temporal persecution of heresy ; " And I hope the Lord will own me with a more Singular Success in the suppression of Haeresy by Endeavours more Spiritual and Evangeli- cal." He notes that in his public ministry he has been largely handling the Day of Judgment, from texts in the 25 th chapter of Matthew. Then comes a long note beginning, " The Rest of the Summer was a very doleful Time unto the whole Countrey." He tells how devils possessed many people, how witches were ac- cused in the visions of the afflicted, how he himself testified both publicly and privately against the dan- gers of spectral evidence, and how it was he who drew up the letter from the ministers to the Court of Oyer and Terminer. "Nevertheless," he goes on,^ ''I saw in most of the Judges a most charming Instance of prudence and patience, and I knew their exemplary pietie, and the Anguish of Soul with which they sought the Direction of Heaven : above most other people, whom I generally saw enchanted 1 In possession of the American Antiquarian Society. ^ This passage, and indeed the diaries concerning this matter in general, have been studied and cited by Peabody: Sparks's American Biographies, Vol. VI. 112 COTTOX MATHER. into a Raging, Railing, Scandalous and unreasonable dis- position as the distress increased upon us. For this cause, though I would not allow the Principles, that some of the Judges had espoused, yet I could not but speak honourably of their Persons, on all occasions: and my Compassion upon the Sight of their Difficulties Raised by my Journeys to Salem, the Chief Seat of these Diabolical Vexations, caused me yett more to do so. And merely, as far as I can Learn, for this Reason, the mad people thro' the Coun- trey under a fascination on their Spirits equal to what the Energumens had on their Bodies, Reviled 7nee^ as if I had been the Doer of all the Hard Things that were done in the prosecution of the Witchcraft.*' He goes on to note how he offered to provide in his own family for six of the possessed, that he might try whether prayer and fasting " would not putt an End to their Hea\7 Trials " ; how throughout the summer he prayed and fasted weekly for this heavy affliction to the country ; how he visited witches in prison and preached to them ; and how he wrote his " Wonders of the In- visible World." And at the end of this passage is a note in brackets, apparently made at some later time : — " [Upon the severest Examination, and the Solemnest Supplication, I still think, that for the main, I have Written Right.'] " Later come less coherent notes. One remarks that the spectres brought books in which they urged the possessed to sign away their souls. Now, as Cotton Mather worked for God largely by writing books, this looked as if " this Assault of the Evil Angels upon the Countrey was intended by Hell as a particular Defiance unto my poor Endeavours to bring the Souls of men unto Heaven." Whereupon, he wrote "Awakenings WITCHCRAFT. II3 for the Unregenerate," which he resolved, if he Uved, to give away at the rate of two a week for two years. In the margin he notes that the evil angels, through a possessed young woman, reproached him for never hav- ing preached on B-Cv. 13. %} '-I to oppose them," he goes on, " and yett not follow them, chose to preach on Rev. 20. 15."^ Later he makes a memorandum : as the devils bid Energumens sign books, he will sign the best of books. On the fly-leaves of his favourite Bibles he wrote professions and confessions of his faith : for example, " Received as the Book of God and of Life by Cotton Mather." "The Hearty Wishes of Cotton Mather." come next. " I have ever now and then gone to the good God with the most Solemn Addresses That I may be altogether delivered from Enchantments : that no Enchantment on my 7nind may hinder mee from seeing or doing any thing for the glory of God^ or dispose mee to anythifig whereat God may be displeased. The Reason of this Wish is Because I be- leeve, that a Real and proper Enchant7nent of the Divels do's blind and move the minds of the most of men : even in Instances of every sort. But I remember, That much Fasting as well as prayer is necessary to obtain a Rescue from Enchantments." The last entry I have noted for the year, when I remember all the circumstances of the man's life, has for me real pathos : he would carefully avoid personal quarrels, 1 " And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him [the beast], whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." * " And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." S 114 CO TTON MA THER. " Because no man can manage a personal Quarrel against another without Losing abundance of precious Time. . . . And one Likely to Live, so little a Time, as I, had need throw away, as Little of his Time, as ever he can." The diary for 1693^ is a little more full than that for 1692 ; but, like that, is an abridgement of the origi- nal, and omits most of the dates. On his birthday, he preached from the text, " O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days." Then he set to preach- ing over the whole Epistle of Jude,^ "intermingled wdth occasional texts." A little later he notes that a young woman possessed of devils has been delivered after he has held three fasts for her. He holds a thanksgiving accordingly ; but, her possession being renewed, falls again to fasting and prayer : — " And unto my amazement, when I had kept my Third Day for her, shee was finally and forever deHvered from the hands of the Evil Angels : and I had afterwards the satis- faction of seeing, not only Her so brought home unto the Lord that she was admitted into the Church, but also many others, even some scores, of young people Awakened by the picture of Hell exhibited in her Sufferings, to fiee from the wrath to come.'''' The next note I have copied tells more than any other I have found of Cotton Mather's pastoral methods : — " The church having hitherto extended a Church Watch unto none but Communicants, and confined Baptism unto Them and Their Children, I was desirous to bring the ^ In possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society. 2 A most minatory scripture. I WITCHCRAFT. II 5 church into a posture more Agreeable unto the Advice of the Synod^m the year, 1662." So he preached on the sub- ject, and allowing no disputation, proceeded to circulate among the brethren of the church "an instrument contain- ing my Sentiments and purposes." The brethren " gener- ally signed a Desire and Address unto myself thereto annexed that I would act accordingly. As for the few . . . who were Disaffected unto my proceedings, I carried it so peaceably, and obligingly, and yett resolutely, towards them, that they patiently Lett me take my way: and some of them told mee, they thought I did well to do as I did : tho' they could not yett come to see as I did. . . . Thus was the church quiedy brought unto a point, which heretofore cost no Little Difficulty. But my Charge of such as now submitt themselves to my Ecclesiastical Watch was ex- ceedingly increased. — Lord, Lett thy Grace bee suf- ficient FOR ME." He notes that during the spring his days of fast and humiliation were so frequent that he lost record of them ; that he kept, too, one or two days of Thanksgiving in his study. On one of these days, he goes on, — "My Special Errand unto the Lord was this: That whereas His Good Angels, did by His Order, many good offices for His people, Hee would please to grant unto mee the Enjoyment of all those Angelical Kindnesses, which are to bee done by His Order, for His Chosen Servants ... in a manner and measure more Tratiscendent, than what the great Corruptions of the generalty of Good Men, permitted them to be made partakers of. Now that I might bee Qnaliffd for this Favour, I . . . Entreated that I may not, and Engaged that I will not, on the Score of any Angelical Coinmutiications , forsake the Conduct of the Lord's Written Word.'' li6 COTTON MATHER. He goes on to state certain lines of conduct which he proposes to follow, with the hope of making his be- haviour as agreeable to that of angels as he can. And his closing purpose is this : — " To Conceal ^\\\-\ all prudent Secrecy whatever Extraor- dinary Things I may perceive done for mee, by the An- gels^ who love Secrecy in their Administrations. 03'~" I do now believe," he adds, " That some Great Things are to be done for mee by the Angels of God." On the 28th of March his first son was born. The child had a malformation beyond the reach of con- temporary surgery. On the ist of April it died un- baptizcd. It was buried beneath the epitaph, " Re- served for a glorious Resurrection." "I had ,<;reat reason," writes the bereaved father, ''to suspect a Witchcraft, in this praeternatural Accident; be- cause my Wife, a few weeks before her Deliverance, was affrighted with an horrible Spectre, in the porch, which fright caused her Bowels to Turn within her ; and the Spectres which both before and after, Tormented a young woman in the Nei again Renewed, and with a Flood of Tears, I thought I received an assurance from Heaven, That she should Re- cover. Whereupon I begg'd of the Lord, That He would by His Good Spirit incline me to be exemplarily wise, and chast, and Holy, in my whole Conversation, when I should again obtain such favour of the Lord, as to have my Good Thing with me, in former Circumstances.' Next day, for all this, she grew worse ; her physi- cian was called out of church to attend her; and Mather '' was called up, in the middle of the following Night, because they thought her Dying." At one or two in the morning he retired to his study, where the Lord renewed '' assurances of His purpose to Recover her." She lingered on. In a special fast for her on the 4th of July, he prayed too for the town, where small-pox had broken out; for the land, where war had been proclaimed ; ^ and for " other sad circum- stances we have in our government."^ On the 12th, he held his seventh fast for her : — 1 " Malbrook s'en va-t-en guerre," etc. 2 See Chapter X. 13 1 94 CO TTON MA THER. " On which Day I also made Seven several Addresses for her, wherein I resigned her unto tlie Lord, and submitted unto all the sorrowful Consequences of a Rejected prayer, and a Defeated Failh, and a desolate broken Family, if He should order them for me. But while I thus ^ave up my dear consort, still I could noX. give her overP And his particular faith was renewed. On the 21st, as she was still terribly ill, " I chose ... to Spread my Distress before the Lord, in the way of a Vigil. I Retired into my Bed-Chamber, and spent good part of the Night, prostrate on the Floor (with so Little of Garment on, as to render my lying there painful to my Tender Bones) crying to God for the Life of my poor Consort. ... I think, before I went unto my Rest, I obtained some further satisfaction that my God has heard me." On the I St of August, she was a little better : — "And yett, after This, . . . her Feebleness grows again to that extremity, as to render her condition, as dubious perhaps as ever. I am kept up all Night that I may see her Dy, and therewith see the Terrible Death of my prayer and Faith. But in this Extremity, when I renew my Vis- its unto Heaven, ... a strange Irradiation comes from Heaven upon my Spirit that her Life shall not as yett come unto an End. — My Heavenly Father will still have me attended with some special Exercise, that shall keep my prayer and Faith employed. And that which His Fatherly Wisdome has ordered for me, in these later weeks, has been the singular Calamity of my poor Consort : and an Illness which none of the ablest physicians know, what to Judge of, or what to do for." On the 29th, reflecting that his consort had been " strangely upheld, and tho' chasten'' d sore, yett not given over to Deaths for twice seven weeks together," PRIVATE LIFE. 195 he determined to hold a thanksgiving : it might be, he thought, that '' a Day of praise, would be followed with salvations, beyond what any Dayes of prayer had yett obtained." But though she mended a litde hereupon, it was only a little. So in September he writes : " I suspect, I have been too unattentive unto the meaning of the Holy Spirit, and His Angel, in iht partic7tlar Faith, which I have had about my Consort's being Restored unto me. . . . When she has been Several Times on or near the Last Agonies of Death, ... I cry to the Lord, that He will yett spare her. He tells me. That He will do it. Accordingly, to our Astonishment, . . . she stayes yett longer with us. . . . But it may be, after the Lord has given me admirable Demonstrations, of His being Lothe to Deny me anything that I importunately ask of him, and therefore does one Month after another Delay the Thing which I fear ; yett I must at Last Encounter the Death which I have so deprecated, when both my wife and my- self shall be better prepared for it." On thQ 2 2d of October, matters still unchanged, he held a vigil, at the close of which he writes : — " I took my psalm-book into my hand that I might sing something for the Quickening of my uneasy Mind. And unto my Surprize, the very first Verse, that at the opening of the Book, my Eye was carried unto was that : Psal. 105. 37. And there was not among the Tribes A Feeble.person told. Lord, I thought ! — This won't be fulfilled until the Resur- rection of the Dead. The Tribes of the Raised will not have one /'^^(^/^^^rjf?^ among them. And must I resign the condition of my Consort at last unto what shall be done in the future state .? Lord, Thy Will be Done-'' 196 COTTON MATHER. The next night his wife had a vision. A grave per- son appeared to her, — " she supposes, in her sleep," — leading a woman in such " meagre and wretched cir- cumstances " that Mrs. Mather was presently stirred to praise God that " her condition was not yett so miser- ably circumstanced." The grave person proceeded to suggest remedies that had not occurred to the doctors ; the doctors approved the suggestions ; and Mrs. Mather grew better, " Insomuch that she came twice on Saturday out of her Sick Chamber, unto me in my Study ; and there she asked me to give Thanks unto God with her, and for her, on the Account of the Recovery in so surprising a Degree begun unto her. — After this, my dear Consort continued much Refreshed, and yett Feeble. We had Great Hopes of her becoming a Strong person again; and yett great Fears, Lest some further Latent mischief within her, prove after all too hard for her." On the 30th of October comes this note : — "Yesterday, I first saw my Church History, since the publication of it. A Gentleman arrived here from New- castle, in England,, that had bought it there. Wherefore, I sett apart this Day, for solemn Thanksgiving unto God, for His Watchful and gracious providence over that Work and for the Harvest of so many prayers, and cares, and Tears, and Resignations, as I had employ'd upon it. My Religious Friend, Mr. Bi'oomfield, who had been singularly helpful to me in the publication of that great Book (of Twenty shillings price, at London') came to me, at the Close of the Day, to join with me, in some of my praises to God. — On this Day my little daughter Nibby began to fall sick of the small-pox. The dreadful Disease, which is raging in the Neighbourhood, is now gott into my Family. God prepare me, God prepare me, for what is coming upon PRIVATE LIFE. 197 me. The child is favourably visited, in comparison of what many are." The pestilence increased through November. So did the fervency of Cotton Mather's prayers. Late in the month, he writes : — "Humiliations are coming thick upon me! My Study, is tho' a Large, yett a Warm Chamber, (the hangings whereof, are Boxes with between two and three thousand Books in them,) and we are so circumstanced, that my House, tho' none of the smallest, cannot afford a safe Hos- pital now for my Sick Folks, anywhere so well as there. So I Resigned my Study, for an Hospital 10 my little Folks, that are falling sick of a Loathsome Disease." The first patient there was his "godly maid"; Nancy came down on the 24th ; little Increase on the 29th. "The Little Creatures," he writes, "keep calling for me so often to pray with them that I can scarce do it less than ten or a dozen times in a day ; besides what I do with my Neighbours." Two days later, " At last, the Black Day arrives. ... I had never yett seen such a Black Day, in all the Time of my Pilgrimage. The Desire of my Eyes is this Day to be taken from me. . . . All the Forenoon, . . . she lies in the pangs of Death ; sensible until the last minute or two before her final expiration. I Cannot Remember the Discourses that passed between us. Only, her Devout Soul was full of Satisfaction, about her going to a State of Blessedness, with the Lord Jesus Christ, and as far as my Distress would permitt me, I studied how to confirm her satisfaction and consolation. This I Remember, That a little while before she died, I asked her to tell me Faithfully, what 198 COTTON MATHER. Fault she had seen in my Conversation, that she would advise me to rectify. She replied, (which I wondred at,) That she knew of none, but that God had made what she had observed in my Conversation, exceedingly serviceable unto her, to bring her much nearer to Himself. When I saw to what a point of Resignation I was now called of the Lord, I Resolved, with His Help therein to glorify Him. So, Two Hours before my Lovely Consort Expired, I kneeled by her Bed-Side, and I took into my two Hands, a dear Hand, the dearest in the World. With her thus in my Hands, I solemnly and sincerely gave her up unto the Lord: and in token of my Real Resignation, I gently putt her out of my Hands, and Laid away a most Lovely Hand, Resolving That I would never touch it any more. This was the Hardest, and perhaps, the bravest Action, that ever I did. She afterwards told me, That she sign'd and seaVd 77iy Act of Resigiiation. And tho' before that, she call'd for me, continually, she after this never asked for me any more. She continued until near two a clock in the Afternoon, And the last Sensible Word that she Spoke, was to her weeping Father, Heaven, Heaven, will make amends for all. When she was expired, I immediately prayed with her Father, and the other weeping people in the chamber, for the grace to carry it well under the pres- ent Calamity, and I did Consummate my Resignation, in terms as full of glory to the wisdome and Goodness and Alsufficiency of the Lord, as I could utter. She Lived with me just as many years, as she had Lived in the World, before she came to me, with an Addition of the seven months, wherein her Dying Languishments were preparing me to part with her." X. Cotton Mather's Private Life. — His Second Marriage. — Charter of Harvard College. — Quarrel with Joseph Dudley. 1702-1707. Before proceeding with Cotton Mather's private hfe, we may best glance at the history of Massachusetts and of Harvard College for the next five years ; and first, perhaps, glance back at Cotton Mather's account of his first interview with Governor Dudley. On the last page of his diary for 1702 is this memo- randum : — "June 16. I received a Visit from Governour jC>//(^/^/. Among other things ... I said to him, . . . ' Syr, you arrive to the Government of a people, that have their various and their Divided Apprehensions, . . . particularly about your own Government over them. I am humbly of opinion. That it will be your Wisdom to carry an Indiffer- ent Hand towards all parties. ... I would approve it . . . if any one should say to Your Excellency : By 110 means lett any people have cause to say. That you take all your measures fro7n the Two Mr. Mathers. By the same Rule, I may say without offence : By no meatis lett any people say, That you go by no 7neasures in your coJiduct but Mr. Byfield's and Mr. Leverett's. This 1 speak not from any personal prejudice against the Gentlemen, but from a due consideration of the Disposidon of the people ; and as a service to your Excellency.' The Wretch went unto 200 COTTON MATHER. those men, and told them, that I had advised him to be no ways advised by them : and inflamed them into an im- placable Rage against me." For some years Mather maintained friendly relations with the "wretch" in question; but they were strain- ing more and more. The verdict of posterity is that from beginning to end Joseph Dudley was a self-seeker. Such verdicts, of course, are to be taken with caution ; and in estimating this one it is but fair to remember that Dudley was the first of the native Tories, and that New England tradition has never done the native Loyal- ists justice. At the same time, I have found little to show that in this particular case posterity has erred. At home and abroad Dudley's whole training had been that of a gentleman, — an aristocrat. In his eleven years of exile he had been in constant contact with in- triguing, self-seeking courtiers. How foreign his tem- per was to that of the compatriots he came to govern appears most vividly in a misadventure which befell him in December, 1705.^ " Dec. 7," writes Sevvall, "Went to Brooklin. . . . After DiiTer met the Govr. upon the Plain; . . . told me of what hapened on the road, being in a great passion : threaten'd to send those that affronted him to England." What had happened on the road was this. Driving in his travelling chariot, Governor Dudley found his way stopped by two carts loaded with wood. He ordered the carters to move aside. They declined, one of them saying, " I am as good flesh and blood as you ; . . • 1 See Sevvall's Diary, II. 144, seq., and note. Meantime Sewall's son had married Dudley's daughter. JOSEPH DUDLEY. 20i you may goe out of the way." The Governor drew his sword on the man, who snatched it and broke it, declaring that he acted in defence of his hfe. '' You lie, you dog; you lie, you devill ! " cried Dudley. — "Such words don't become a Christian," said the carter. — "A Christian, you dog ! " cried Dudley. " A Christian, you devill ! I was a Christian before you were born." And snatching the carter's whip he lashed him. Then he had both carters arrested, and apparently tried to make their conduct appear treasonable. The case hung on until the following November, when the Superior Court discharged the prisoners. This was the Governor that the Mathers had fondly hoped to manage. The temper Dudley thus showed in private appears, more decorously, in his public conduct. Palfrey^ tells in detail the story of his relations with the legislature, and of the wars which harassed the frontiers. It was during these wars that Deerfield was sacked, Cotton Mather's cousin Mrs. Williams killed, and her husband and family carried off by French and Indians. And before 1707, the people of Massachusetts had generally come to believe that Dudley's administration was cor- rupt ; and that he was personally interested in illicit trade with the enemy. Harvard College meanwhile proceeded under the pro- visional government of Vice-President VVillard. From the time of President Mather's dismissal Cotton Mather never attended a meeting of the Corporation. On the loth of August, 1703, he was reckoned to have abdi- cated ; and Mr. Brattle elected in his place.^ As a » Book IV. Chapters VIII.-X. ■'- Quincy, I. 151. 202 COTTON MATHER. minister of Boston, he remained an Overseer ; but apparently attended only one other meeting of the board. VVillard and Dudley had married sisters, — a fact which might well have had influence on such a temper as the Governor's. Whatever the reason, no steps were taken for a new charter during Willard's administration beyond two mentions of the subject in the Governor's messages : one in 1 703, the other in 1705.^ So we come back to Cotton Mather's diary. It was on Tuesday, December i, 1702, that his wife died. On Saturday she had been buried ; and we find him holding a day of prayer and fasting, " That I may obtain the pardon of all the sins for which the Lord is now chastening me ; and Grace and Help from Heaven to glorify the Lord with a wise Behaviour, under the Temptations of the Condition which is now come upon me." Next day he preached on the death of the prophet Ezekiel's wife ; and he notes that in many ways the people showed their love to him, — among other tokens of affection subscribing to build Mrs. Mather a costly tomb. A little later, the pestilence began to abate ; the children grew better, and escaped scarlet fever, which was also abroad. Cotton Mather himself re- mained well. His godly maid recovered, too ; but so " distracted " that she had to go. His next note is very long and curious. The seven months' strain has brought reaction. With a good deal of deliberation, he proceeds to consider the " Dispensa- tions of Heaven, that have been Rolling over" him. 1 Quincy, Vol. 1. Chapter VIII H/S SECOND MARRIAGE. 203 " Has not the Death of my Consort,"' he asks, " that most astonishing- Sting in it : A iniscarriageofa particidar Faith ? Truly, Nothing has ever yet befallen me, that has come so near it. But "— he finds reassuring thoughts. In the first place, it was compassionate in God to remove her : she could never have grown strong enough to perform her conjugal and maternal duties. " More than all this. She was a Gentlewoman of a Melancholy Temperament : and there were come dreadful changes in her Father's Family. He had extremely broken her Spirit by bringing home a mother-in-law. . . . Her youngest Brother, and a consider- able Interest of mine with him. (some hundreds of pounds perhaps) was newly fallen into the Hands of the French Enemy. Her Second Brother, who was her Darling, . . . was dead in London. . . . Her Eldest Brother proves an Idle, profane. Drunken, and sottish Fellow, and a Disgrace to all his Relatives. . . . The sight of these Things, would without a miracle, have brought such a Disorder of Mind upon her, as would have rendered my Condition Insup- portable. And now, who can tell, what way may be made for Blessings unto me, and mine, by her Translation to the Heavenly World.'' " In the second place, she herself had prayed that she might never live to hear of the death of her favorite brother ; and this prayer was granted. In the third place, within a fortnight after her death he had preached on John 4. 47,^ from which he had expounded the doctrine that '• Tho' Faith be no Folly, yett Faith may be mixed with Folly ; and particularly with the Folly of Limiting the Wis- dome of God, unto our own way of answerino^ it.'' And a gentlewoman, who heard the sermon, had been so moved as to address him thereupon in verses, ending — " Your whole Discourse is Swol'n with its own praise, But this fair Article, does wear the Baies." ^ " When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judea into Gali- lee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son : for he was at the point of death." 2 04 COTTON MATHER " It may be," he writes at last, "The Lord will ere long Enable me, to penetrate further into the Nature, meaning;, and mystery of 2i particular Faith. However, I have mett with enough to awaken in me a more exquisite Caution, than ever I had in my Life, concerning it." In January, Nancy was very ill : but when her life was despaired of, his prayers recovered her. The only other note I have recorded for this month runs thus : — " Before the late Weeks of my Life, I had rarely known Tears, except those that were for the Joy of the Salvation of God. But now, scarce a day passes me without a Flood of Tears, and my Eyes even Decay with weeping. One Day, considering how frequently and foolishly widowers miscarry, and by their miscarriages dishonour God, I ear- nestly with Tears besought the Lord, That he would please to favour me, so far as to kill me rather than to leave me unto anything that might bring any Remarkable Dishonour unto His Holy Name. (Within a few Minutes, I found myself grow very 111. ... I suspected that the Lord was going to take me at my word. But anon, 1 perceived that it was nothing but Vapours ^'^ The next month began a new trial. He received a visit from a very attractive young gentlewoman, who de- clared that she had long admired his public character, and now felt herself at liberty to confess herself equally pleased with his person. The state of perplexity into which this address threw him lasted for two months. His diary for 1 703 ^ begins with a birthday fast on this occasion. His note of it is typical of all on the subject. " Nature itself," he writes, " causes in me a mighty Tenderness for a person so very amiable Breeding re- 1 In possession of the American Antiquarian Society. HIS SECOND MARRIAGE. 205 quires me to treat her with Honour and Respect, and very much of Deference to all that she shall at any time ask of me. But Religion, above all, obliges me instead of a rash Rejecting her Conversation, to Contrive rather how I may Imitate the Goodness of the Lord Jesus Christ in his deal- ing with such as are upon a Conversion unto him. — On the other side I cannot but fear a fearful Snare, and that I may soon fall into some error in my Conversation, if the point proposed unto me be found after all unattainable thro' the violent Storm of Opposition which I cannot but foresee . . . will be made unto it." So on the i8th of February he begged her to desist ; and, finding her inflexible, devoted himself to the task of converting her. And on the 20th he held a vigil, partly for himself, whom he feared "■ rejected and ab- horred of God," — relatives and friends being dis- pleased with gossip about the gentlewoman, — but partly for his church. " It was a consolation unto me," he writes, "to think That when my people were all asleep in their Beds their poor pastor should be watching and praying and weeping for them." On the 27th, he held another fast, in which he gave up to the Lord '* the Ingenious Child that sollicits my Respects unto her." On the 6th of March he was in great trouble ; the gentlewoman's reputation turned out to be somewhat damaged ; to marry her would seriously interfere with his ministry ; and her attentions were beginning to cause much tattle. On the I 2th, his state of mind was confused: the Assembly had voted " the most unworthy man in the world to be Praesident of the Colledge in Cambridge. God knows what further trials 2o6 COTTON MATHER. are comins; upon me." But at the same time, " the Spirit of the Lord sometimes does Visit me with Raptures of Assurances, That He has loved me, and that I shall glorify Him. I am sometimes even ready to faint away with the Rapturous praelibations of the Heavenly World.'' On the 15th, he definitely renounced the gentle- woman. " I struck the Knife into the Heart of my Sacrifice by a Letter to her Mother." But next day comes this : — " Was ever man more Tempted than the miserable Mather ? Should I tell in how many Forms the Devil has assaulted me, ... it would strike my Friends with Hor- rour. Sometimes Temptations to Impurities: and some- times to Blasphemy and Atheism and the Abandonment of all Religion as a mere Delusion : and sometimes to Self- Destruction itself. These, even These, O miserable Math- er, do follow thee with an astonishing Fury. But I fall down into the Dust on my Study-floor, with Tears before the Lord : and then, they quickly vanish : Tis fair weather again. Lord, what wilt thou do with me t '' On the 3d of April he held another fast, to guard against the temptations of widowhood. He would like to remain a widower, he thought ; but his father and his friends advised otherwise. On the 13th, 14th, and 15th, he kept three successive days of fastmg and prayer, in which extraordinary things were done for him. "The Angels of Heaven are at work for me," he writes, " And I have my oiuu An^ei, who is a better Friend unto me, than any I have upon Earth." But the " desirable frame " in which this left him lasted only two days. Still, on the i8th of May he found himself assured that "for the sake of the Lord [esus Christ, whose I am, a desireable consort should be bestowed upon me : and a HIS SECOND MARRIAGE. 207 glorious Angel of the Lord, should be concerned for me (as for Isaac of old) in this important matter." His friends, it appears, were trying to make a match for him ; but succeeded only in getting him distress- ingly talked about. A '* marvellous providence of God " diverted him from "doing a thing- whereto . . . Friends had mightily urged " him. On the 19th, he went to Salem for five days. The gentlewoman and her mother took advantage of his absence to call on Increase Mather, who had been suffering with gout ; and to urge their case. But Cotton Mather, though dis- tressed, remained resolute. And a little later he writes, "While the Lord is otherwise laying me exceedingly low, He yett gratifies me with Strange Favours on that point which is the very Apple ot my Eye: and that is, my being employed in Service for His Blessed Name." In other words, his condition had proved unusually favourable to pulpit eloquence. In June, when gossip began to accuse him of jilting the gentlewoman, she joined her mother in loyally protesting that his conduct had been thoroughly hon- ourable. " Yea," he writes, " they have proceeded so far beyond all bounds in my vindication, as to say, They verily look on Mr. M r to be as great a Saint of God as any upon earth.'' The poor gentlewoman had a worse trial coming, though. Sundry fasts of Cotton Mather's early in July directed his attention to Mrs. Elizabeth Hubbard, a godly and comely widow who lived near by. On the 14th, he paid her his first visit. In a few days more they were engaged. The gentlewoman raged, but re- lented. People in general approved. And Cotton 2o8 COTTON MATHER. Mather's troubles reduced themselves to groundless fears that he should die before his wedding day. On the 1 8th of August, after spending the day in Heaven, he became in the evening the husband of " the most agreeable Consort (all things considered) that all America could have afforded me." Of this lady her son Samuel wrote : — " She was one, of finished Piety and Probity, and of an unspotted Reputation ; one of good sense, and bless'd with a compleat Discretion in ordering an Household ; one of singular good-Humour and incomparable Sweetness ot Temper; one, with a very handsome and engaging Coun- tenance; and one honourably descended and related; . . . the Daughter of Dr. John Clark. She had been a Widow four years when Dr.^ Mather married her."^ The rest of Cotton Mather's notes for this year show him very busy with pastoral and literary work, and quite relieved of the morbid tension that preceded his mar- riage. My summary of his annual literary work in the last chapter should be sufficient. A glance at Sibley's cata- logue of his works ^ will show that the years I have summarized are typical. Of this matter I shall say no more, save that his publications in 1703 amounted to twelve ; and in i 704 to the same number. And so he kept on all his life. His diary for i 704 is not preserved. The only facts I have noted for this year are these. A daughter, Elizabeth, was born to him. It was the year when ^ The title is premature. Cotton Mather \vas not Doctor of Divinity until 17 10. ^ Life, page 13. 8 Harvard Graduates, III. 42-1555 HIS SECOND MARRIAGE 209 Deerfield was sacked. In June, certain pirates were hanged in Boston ; and Cotton Mather preached to them and went with them to execution, where, '' when the scaffold was let to sink," Sewall writes, " there was such a Screech of the Women that my wife heard it sitting in our Entry, . . . yet the wind was sou- west. Our house is a full mile from the place." In July, Sewall notes that Cotton Mather was at Commence- ment; on October 12 th, that Cotton Mather prayed for the College. Two days before, Samuel Mather^ tells us, a dying man had sent for Cotton Mather, to beg his forgiveness for wanton slanders. Mather for- gave him : and " the Man . . . kept continually cry- ing for him to be with him the next Day in the Forenoon, and he died in the Afternoon." I incline, also, to attribute to the period of his troubles with the gentlewoman of 1703 the anecdote preserved in a vituperative pamphlet of 1707, and probably a good example of the stories told of him by his enemies. It runs thus : — " A Gentlewoman of Gayety, near Boston^ was frequently visited by the Reverend Mr. C. M. which giving offence to some of his Audience, he promised to avoid her Conver- sation But Good intentions being frustrated by Vicious Inclinations, he becomes again her humble Servant : the Reciprocal promise being first made, that Neither of THEM SHOULD CONFESS THEIR SEEING EACH OTHER : However it becoming again publick, his Father accused him of it, who after two or three Hems to recover himself, gave this Aequivocal Answer, Indeed, Father, if I should SAY I DID SEE HER, I SHOULD TELL A GREAT LYE." ''' 1 Life, page 64. 2 Sewall's Diary, II. 81*. See page 222. 14 210 COTTON MAIMER. Which story, having read his diaries, I do not believe. The diary for 1705^ records a busy year, more whole- some than usual. I have noted a few entries. On the 1 6th of March, maligned for falsehood, he held a very earnest day of fasting and prayer. "And I considered," he writes, "That tho' my whole Time all the Day long, and all the Week long, is employed in a continual Contrivance of . . . Zeal to do good, yett few men meet with more clogs in it, from the malignity of Evil people, . . . And if I had jogg'd on in an Indifferent manner as others do, and less thwarted and vexed the Divel in his interests, I might have been as little envied and maligned as they: But I resolved. That I would not at all Abate of my Endeavors to be universally Service- able." In May, Nancy had another severe illness. " I cannot be at rest," he writes, " until I have obtained of the Lord that this Child shall in Spiritual Blessings have an abundant and glorious Compensation for all her Temporal Sufferings." In May he was specially maligned by a '' very wicked fellow," who, with Cotton Mather's approval, had been disciplined by the Church of Woburn. Early in June, then, he examined himself for " what marks I can find in myself, that might carry me cheerfully thro' the Dark Valley of the Shadow of Death, if I should be (which I have abundance of Reason to look for) immediately called into it." He found eleven, of which the last was compassion for personal enemies. " I am afraid," he writes, "of allowing my Soul a Wish of Evil to the Worst of them All. . • . Q. Whether the man that can 1 In possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society HIS SECOND MARRIAGE. 2ii find these marks upon himself may not conclude himself inark'd otit for the City of God ? " At this time he was very busy, starting Societies for t?he Suppression of Disorders. '' I am well content," he writes, " that I have not the Time, to Record a hundredth part of the 7)iethods to bring forth Fruit wherein I am endeavoring \o glorify God, so that they should be utterly buried in oblivion for this world." In July, hearing in a hymn the words, "With persons merciful that be Thou merciful thyself wilt show," he was affected to tears by the thought that the merci- ful dispositions he could discover in himself were but faint rays of the sun of God's mercy. In November, he examined himself curiously. " A man Bitten with a Mad-Dog,''' he writes, " has not only his Body, but his very Soul also poisoned. The poi- son . . . pervades the Nervous Fluid. . . . The Spirit of such a man, will cause him to say to his Friend, . . . / would not hurt you. Notwithstanding this, yett when his Fitt arrives the Spirit must knock under and ly fettered. . . . The Soul of every man is Dog-Bitten, or, which is as bad, serpent-bitten, or Divel-bitten. Original Sin has de- praved it. ... A Regenerate Spirit . . . chuses above all Things, to Glorify God, . . . and it has gotten an Empire over the Soul, in doing of it." By this test, he found himself probably regenerate. In January, there was a thanksgiving for successes in the war with France. " For the best part of Two Hours together," he writes, "my soul kept soaring and Flaming towards Heaven in the wondrous praises of God. Such length in this kind of De- 212 COTTON MATHER votions being somewhat unusual, and unto some folks (I fear'd) uneasy, I took occasion in my Sermon to make this Apology for it." The apology I will not quote ; it is very long. The volume closes with five elaborate notes : one about the dispositions of his mind relating to a great reputation in the world, concerning which he believes himself to care little ; one about the education of his children, which is substantially what his son Samuel reports of his practices ; ^ one about several points of conduct, in which he resolves to practise Christian hu- mility ; and one about his flock, which he purposes to edify by pastoral visits, and by edifying speeches on all occasions, — giving them many books, too, with the charge that they are to remember that he speaks to them whenever the books are before them. The fifth note is similar to that which closes nearly every volume of the diary, — a memorandum of the texts he has preached from this year : it covers four closely written pages. The diary for 1706^ opens with a very long memo- randum of how his time is occupied : this is digested under thirty-one heads. It appears that he rises at seven or eight ; ^ sings a hymn of praise ; writes a short paragraph, — " hereby sometimes I have insensibly prepared whole sermons " ; adds illustrations to the '* Biblia Americana " ; prays in private and then with his family ; works ; dines, edifying the family mean- 1 See page 165. ■^ In possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society 3 Thus habitually sleeping eight or nine hours, which is prob- ably what kept him alive. HIS SECOND MARRIAGE. 213 while ; retires to his study for a short prayer ; goes out visiting ; about the shutting in of the evening hears the children say the catechism, and makes an evening prayer chiefly of thanksgiving ; sups at ten, edifying the adult part of his family ; prays and reflects on the day in his study ; and reads himself to sleep with some agree- able book at eleven or so. Sermons, the children, the sick, calls from all manner of visitors, the fourteen or fifteen religious societies he belongs to, new books to be read, frequent days of fasting and prayer, and the discipline of his church constantly engage his attention. He notes all this in the hope that by perusing it he may be kept up to work. Four pages of notes of his cor- respondents follow : I observe no names of permanent importance. His birthday note is worth remembering. He would Hke to record thoughts "that carry in them a peculiar Advancement of my Soul to- wards the perfection after which I am aspiring. One of them, which has been of late singularly useful to me in my pressing after the true temper of Christianity is This. I see all Creatures everywhere full of their Delights. The Birds are singing; the Fish are sporting; the Four-footed are glad of what they meet withal ; the very Insects have th'eir satisfactions. Tis a marvellous Display of Infinite Good- ness. The Good God has made His Creatures capable of Delights : He accommodates them with continual Delights. These Delights are the Delicious Entertainments of His Infinite Goodness. His Goodness takes pleasure in . . . the Delights of His Creatures. — Well: Is there no way for me to Resemble and Imitate this Incomparable Good- ness of God ? Yes : I see my Neighbours all accommo- dated with their various Delights. All have some, and some have many. Now I may honestly make their Delights 214 COTTON MATHER. my own. ... I may make their prosperity, not my Envy^ but my pleasure. . . . Oh, the glorious Joy of this Good- ness ! Lord, Imprint this thy Image upon me ! " With good resolutions, one against evil-speaking, for example ; with prayers and assurances, among others for the prisoners among the French and In- dians, the year went on. In March, little Increase having begun school. Cotton Mather wrote a verse daily for the child to get by heart, that he might " im- prove in goodness at the same time that he improv'd in Reading " : these verses ultimately made a popular book. In April, he was pleased to find that he had " no Fondness at all for Applause and Honour in this World " : for which disposition '' in the midst of . . . Humiliations," he gave thanks. Late in May, lan- guishing in health, he hurried work and finished the first draft of the " Biblia Americana." He kept add- ing to it, however, for years. As late as 1720 he wrote John Winthrop ^ that he had inserted in the " Bibha Americana" an account of the discovery in New England of a water-dove, probably the species employed by Noah. The manuscript of the " Biblia x\mericana," by far the most voluminous of Cotton Mather's works, is preserved by the Massachusetts His- torical Society. He could never find subscribers enough to publish it; and I have not had the time or the courage to examine it. At a superficial glance, it seems to be a marvellously industrious, uncritical collection of every scrap of learning he could find which might by any chance have bearing on Holy Writ. It includes a great deal of such matter as is most fiimiliarly known 1 Mather Papers, 436. HIS SECOND MARRIAGE. 215 nowadays in Burton's " Anatomy of Melancholy " ; and a great deal, too, of that eager observation of na- ture ^ which some years later made Cotton Mather a Fellow of the Royal Society. His next work, printed in June, was an essay to pro- mote the Christianizing of Negroes.^ He determined to give a copy of this to every family in New Eng- land who possessed a Negro, and to send copies to the West Indies. In July, he was much disturbed about illicit trade with hostile Indians. These Indians made a descent this very month on the Andover road, over which he .had passed a few days before. On this journey, he writes, " being desirous to do some Good on the Road in the Woods, I called some children to me, which I met there, and bestowed some Instructions with a little Bonk upon them: which I understood afterwards made no little Im- pression upon the Family. But it proved a family which in a few Dayes the Indians visited, and murdered the mother, and several of the children." So the year went on, busier than ever. In October I find two notes worth recording. On the 17th, he writes : — " One of my more special Actions . . . was to make my Children, Four of them,^ successively to come into my 1 For examples of this, see Cotton Mather's letters to John Winthrop, in the Mather Papers. 2 See Sibley, III. 93 ; and in regard to Cotton Mather's rela- tions to negroes in general, see a paper by Professor Haynes in the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society. ^ Katharine, Abigail, Hannah, and Increase ; their ages ranged from fourteen to seven. 2i6 COTTON MATHER. Study, and observe and mention to me the special mercies which they were sensible they had received of God ; and then charge them immediately to Retire and give Thanks unto the Lord, and beg to be possessed by the Spirit of the Lord." On Wednesday, the 30th, he writes : — " With many favourable Circumstances for which the Lord had been sought unto, my Consort fell into Travail: and after a Wondrous Good and Quick Time, was about three-quarters of an hour past nine at Night, happily de- livered of a Son; to appearance a hearty and an handsome Infant. — On the Lord's-day following I Baptized this my Son, and called him Samuel. Tis my desire to have him devoted unto the Service of the Lord as long as he hves." That night, accordingly, he held a vigil for his whole family. This Samuel lived to grow up into a very commonplace divine, whose biography of his father is probably the most colourless book in the English language. In November, Cotton Mather's assurances were re- warded by the return of his cousin, Mr. Williams of Deerfield, from captivity. In December some gentle- men gave Mather a negro, named Onesimus, worth forty or fifty pounds. " I would use the best endeavours," he writes, " to make him a servant of Christ, and also be more serviceable than ever to a flock which laies me under such obhgations." The same month comes a note that shows his temper up. He has two wicked brothers-in-law, he writes : — " The first of these prodigies, namely J. O.,^ married my Lovelv Sister Hannah, a most Ingenious and sweet-Natured, John Oliver. A HIS SECOND MARRIAGE. 21 7 and good-carriaged Child : one that would have been a Wife, to have made any Gentleman Happy ; but married unto a Raving Bruit. The Fellow, whom they called, Her Hus- band, perfectly murdered her, by his base and abusive way of treating her; and he chose to employ in a special man- ner, the ebullitions of his venome against me, to weary and worry her, out of her Life, who Loved me dearly. ... At last on id. lom., . . . the pangs of Death came upon her. Her Death was Long and Hard, and has awakened me more than ever, to pray for an Easy Death. She kept in her dying Distresses much calling on me : her Brother, her Brother ! As I had heretofore used all possible Diligence and Contrivance, to prepare her for her Death, so I now as- sisted her, as well as I could, in her last Hours. I prayed with her Six Times this Day : and in the Night following she died. The Monster, to whom she owes her Death, now with Anguish, bears a most honourable Testimony for her ; as the best Wife in the World ; and a great example of piety. And from a convinced conscience, he now also speaks of me, with no little pretence of Honour and Ac- knowledgement. Indeed, she had Cause to Bless God for the Wretch, for he was a great occasion of her growing a serious and gracious Christian, weaned from this World and fitted for a better." The other wicked brother-in-law was a Phillips, whose offences seem less a matter of opinion. On the loth of January, Cotton Mather writes :• — " My Father-in- Law at Charlestown has of late been in a very froward and Evil Frame. The elder of his Two wicked Sons, has been lately Fined by the General Assem- bly of the Province for his unlawful Trade with the Enemy. The crime of the Traders, whereof he was one filled the Countrey with a mighty Inflammation. On that occasion, it was necessary for me, to bear my part with the other ministers, in a faithful Testimony. And I did my part as 2 1 8 CO TTON MA THER. easily and as modestly, tho' as faithfully as I could. The Humoursome Old Man is so very unhappy, as to be en- raged at me, and express himself, as I hear, very En- ragedly and Abusively. . . . His Two Wicked Sons do also strangely manage him." So Cotton Mather was afraid that old Mr. Phillips would disinherit his Mather grandchildren and offered up prayers accordingly. The very next note, however, is of different tenor : — " My little Son waits upon his Grandfather every day, for his Instruction, as well as upon other Tutors and Teach- ers. This day I sent him on an Errand, where the person imposing on his Flexible Temper, detained him so long that his Grandfather was displeased at him, for coming so late ; and his punishment was, that his Grandfather, did Refuse to Instruct him, as he uses to do. The child, una- ble to bear so heavy a punishment, as that his Grandfather should not look favourably upon him, repairs to me, full of weeping Affliction. Hereupon, I appHed myself with a Note, unto my Father^ as an Advocate for the Child. I pleaded all that could be said by way of Apology for the Infirmity of the Child. I asked, that I might bear the dis- pleasure due for it, because of what had passed relating to it. I assured my Father, the child should no more in this way displease him. So the Child was presently received into favour with my Father: My Father looked on him with a pleased Aspect, and bestowed agreeable Illumina- tion upon him. I thought, the Lord ordered this httle Accident this Day, to raise in my mind, the Thoughts of the Reconciliation, which the Son of God, who is my Advo- cate with the Father, would obtain for me, with God." The diary closes with a painful record of how Cotton Mather was persistently vexed with vile thoughts : but he fought them hard, he resolved that they should not J JOSEPH DUDLEY. 219 tempt him to forbear testimony against sin in others, and he meditated "on the inexpressible evil, which there would be, ... if one of my . . . many and mighty obligations, to the most unspotted Sanctity, should harbour or indulge in myself any wicked Thing in the World." Of the diary for 1707 only a fragment remains ; 1 in which I have remarked nothing of more note than that Cotton Mather was praying fervently for the expedi- tion against Port Royal that came to nothing. For the notable events of this year, then, we must turn to other authorities. Palfrey tells with great clearness the story of Joseph Dudley's administration. ^ Frequent notes of Sewall's, a member of the Council, a judge of the highest court in the Province, and closely connected by marriage with the Governor, become very vivid when we keep in mind the state of politics. In brief, with his over- bearing temper, so thoroughly foreign to the temper of New England, Dudley had been doing his best to strengthen the power of the Crown. Without much success, he had been carrying on the war against Can- ada; in 1707 a fruitless expedition was sent against Port Royal, restored to the French by the Peace of 1697. Meantime, like other men in office before and since, he had taken good care of his personal friends ; and was suspected of connivance with some of them in illicit trade with the enemy. As Cotton Mather wrote in 1 706, a number of illicit traders, among whom was 1 In possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society. 2 Book IV. Chapters VIII. to X. 2 20 COTTON MATHER. John Phillips, brother of the first Mrs. Mather, had been condemned by the General Court to pay heavy fines for their offence. It is certain that Dudley wrote to England in their behalf; and that the Privy Council ultimately ordered the fines to be repaid, on the ground that the General Court of Massachusetts had no cog- nizance of the offence. Before this decision, certain men of New England, mostly resident in London, had addressed to the Queen a formal petition for the removal of Dudley, for corruption, injustice, and oppression. Harvard College,^ meanwhile, had been proceeding under the charge of Vice President Willard, who had retained meantime his charge of the Old South Church, and seems to have given little more attention to aca- demic duties than Increase Mather had given. Appar- ently, however, he was much less vigorously conservative in temper ; and so far as records show made no par- ticular efforts to secure a new charter. As we have seen, Dudley twice suggested that application be made for one to the Crown. But no notice was taken of these suggestions : the friends of the College, Quincy thinks, were convinced that no satisfactory charter could be secured from any more foreign source than their own elected Provincial legislature. Willard's health was now failing. He managed to preside at Commencement, but gave the degrees so feebly that Sewall, who was not far off, could not hear a word he said. In the middle of August he went to Cambridge for the last time, where he found so few scholars that he returned home before prayer-time. 1 Quincy, Vol. I. Chapter VIII. HARVARD COLLEGE. 221 And on the 12th of September, a friend informed Sevvall that the President was very sick. "I hoped it might go off," writes Sewall, "and went to Diiier ; when I came there Mr. Pemberton^ was at Prayer, near concluding, a pretty many in the Chamber. After Prayer, many went out, I staid and sat down : and in a few minutes saw my dear Pastor Expire : . • . just about two hours from his being taken. . . . The Doctors were in an- other room Consulting what to doe. . . . Tis thought cut- ting his finger, might bring on the tumultuous passion that carried him away. There was a dolefull cry in the house." Three days later Mr. Willard was buried ; both of the Mathers were among his bearers. And on the 2d of October, a fast day, the Mathers conducted after- noon exercises at the Old South. The first business of the Corporation of Harvard College was to elect a President. Increase Mather was nearly sixty-nine years old. But Cotton Mather was only forty-four. His learning, his piety, his ortho- doxy, and his devotion to the old principles of the College, made him, in his own opinion, the proper suc- cessor of Mr. Willard. There is reason to think that the want of deliberate judgment which naturally came from his overworked, overwrought habits of life, led his hopes to run high. So what happened on the 28th of October must have stung him to the quick. " The Fellows of Harvard College meet," writes Sewall, "and chuse Mr. Leverett President: He had eight votes, Dr. Increase Mather three, Mr. Cotton Mather one." Within the week Sewall saw for the first time a docu- ment that gave rise to much excitement in Boston. ' Willaid's colleague at the Old South. 222 COTTON MATHER. This was " A Memorial of the Present Deplorable State of New England," ^ lately published in London, and stating with great distinctness every charge against Dudley. These were supported by sundry affidavits, and by a long letter, evidently written by Cotton Mather. It is dated October 2, 1706 :^ it specifically mentions the proceedings against Phillips and the other illicit traders, and contains this passage : — " Our Present Governour is not without a number of those, whom he has by Promotions and Flatteries made his Friends; but this hinders not a much more consider- able number, from wishing, that we had a Governour, who would put an end unto the horrid Reign of Bribery, in our Administration, and who would not Infinitely incommode Her Majesty's Service, by keeping the People in con- tinual Jealousies of his Plots, upon their most Valuable Interests." On the I St of November, the day when Sewall saw this pamphlet, the Governor produced in the Council a copy of the petition for his removal, and requested the Council to vote their abhorrence of it. Sewall pleaded for delay, but the vote was passed. The Dep- uties refused to concur in it. At a Conference of the Houses on the 20th, " Gov. made a long speech, begihing from his father, who laid out a Thousand pounds in the first adventure, was Governour. He himself the first Magistrat born in New England . . . Took an opportunity to say, he heard ^ Reprinted at the beginning of the second volume of Sewall's Diary, and summarized by Palfrey, Book IV. Chap. VHI. It is in a reply to this pamphlet that the scandalous story appeared which I lately cited, page 209. 2 Sewall's Diary, II. 40*-42*. JOSEPH DUDLEY. 223 some whisper'd as if the Council were not all of a mind : He with courage said that all the Council were of the same mind as to every word of the Vote. This gall'd me ; yet I knew not how to contradict him before the Houses." At another conference next day, " the Govr. had the Extract of many of Mr. C. M. Letters read, of a later date than that in the printed book, . . . giving him a high charac- ter." On the 25th of November, "The Govr. read Mr. Cotton Mather's letter ... in Council. . . . When the Govr. came to the horrid Reign of Bribery : His Excel- lency said. None but a Judge or Juror could be Brib'd, the Governour could not be bribed, sons of Belial brot him no Gifts. Moved that [a committee] go to Mr. Cotton Mather with the Copy of his Letter, . . . and his Letters to the Govr., and speak to him about them: this was agreed to. I shew'd some backwardness, . . . hinting whether it might not be better for the Govr. to go to him himself: That seem'd to be Christ's Rule, except the Govr. would deal with him in a Civil way. ... p. m. I desired the Governour's patience to speak a word; I said I had been concerned about the Vote pass'd Novr. i. 'At the Conference his Excellency was pleas'd to say, that every one of the Council remain'd steady to their vote, and every word of it; This Skrewing the Strings of your Lute to that height, has broken one of them ; and I find my self under the Necessity of withdrawing my Vote ; . . . and desire the Secretary may be directed to enter it in the Minutes of the Council.' And then I delivered my Rea- sons for it,i written and sign'd with my own Hand. . . . The Govr. directed that it should be kept privat : but I think Col. Lynde went away before the Charge was given. . . . Nov. 26 Mr. Secretary reports the Discourse with Mr. Cotton Mather favourably; It seems they stay'd there ^ Borland, one of the convicted traders, had given Sevvall to understand that the charges against Dudley were true ; but subsequently denied Sewall's construction of his words. vSee Sewall's Diary, IL 215, 216. 2 24 COTTON MATHER. more than two Hours ; and Dr. Mather was present. Mr. Mather neither denys nor owns the Letter : Think his Letters to the Govr. and that . . . not so inconsistent as they are represented. . . . The Council invited the Govr. to Diner ; . . . I drank to his Excellency, and presented my Duty to him. ... In the evening by Candle-Light I fell asleep in the Council-Chamber : and when I waked was surprised to see the Govr. gone." ^ On the 28th, Dudley wished the vote of November I St published, to prevent the spreading of false reports. " I said," writes Sewall, " I could not vote to it because I had withdrawn my vote. The Govr. said, I pray God judge between me and you ! . . . Lord, do not depart from me, but pardon my sin ; and fly to me in a way of favour- able Protection." On the 6th of December, there came before the Council a bill fixing the salary of the new President of Harvard College. To this was subjoined the following provision,^ which we should now call a '' rider " : — " And inasmuch as the first foundation ... of that House -^ . . . had its original from an act of the General Court, made and passed in the year one thousand six hundred and fifty, which has not been repealed or nulled ; the President and Fellows of the said College are directed ... to regulate themselves according to the rules of the constitution by that act prescribed." Dudley and his Council approved this bill. The charter of 1650, thus revised, governs Harvard College to the present day. And thus it came about that Har- vard College, in spite of all the labours and prayers of the Mathers, has become, for better or worse, the per- ^ Sewall's Diary, II. 199-204. 2 Quincy, I. 159. ' I.e. Harvard College. HARVARD COLLEGE. 225 petual nursery, not of priests, but of ever more earnest Protestants. How the defeated party took this matter appears in a note of Sewall's for December i8th : — "Mr. Bridge 1 . . . takes Job 15. 34.2 for his Text; especially that clause, — Fire shall consume the tabernacle of Bribery ; From which he preach'd an excellent sermon. . . . Dr. Mather not at Lecture. Governor . . . there." In spite of sermons, Leverett was inaugurated on the 1 8th of January. The Mathers were not present. Sewall gives a minute account of the ceremony. " In the Library the Governour found a Meeting of the Overseers . . . according to the old charter of 1650. . . . Took the President by the hand and led him down into the Hall. The Books of the College Records, Charter, Seal and Keys were laid upon a Table running parallel with that next the Entry. The Govr. sat with his back against a Noble Fire ; • • . President sat on the other side of the Table. . . . The Govr. read his Speech and (as he told me) mov'd the Books in token of their Delivery. Then the President made a short Latin Speech, importing the diffi- culties discouraging, and yet that he did Accept. . . . Had a very good Diner upon 3 or 4 Tables: . . . Got home very well. Laus DeoP On the 23d of January, Sewall attended a funeral. "When had gone a little way," he writes, '^ Mr. Cotton Mather came up and went with me." From the bury- ing place they went to make a call, where they had some very pious talk. 1 Minister of the First Church. 2 "For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery " IS 2 26 COTTON MATHER. " As went thence," continues Sewall, " told me of his Letter to the Govr. of the 20th Inst, and Lent me the Copy. , . . Dr. Mather it seems has also sent a Letter to the Govr. I wait with concern to see what the issue of this plain home-deahng will be ! " Palfrey^ and Quincy^ summarize these letters. As- suming all the spiritual authority of their ministry, the Mathers reiterate every charge that has been made against Dudley ; and rebuke him with every anathema of Puritanism. The letters are the agonizing death- cry of old New England. Two or three more notes of Sewall's tell what this " plain home-dealing " seemed to the victors. ''Jany 31 Mr. Pemberton . . . talk'd to me very warmly about Mr. Cotton Mather's Letter to the Govr., seemed to resent it, and expect the Govr. should animad- vert upon him. Said if he were as the Govr. he would hum- ble him though it cost him his head; Speaking with great vehemency just as I parted with him at his Gate. The Lord apear for the Help of his people. — Feb. 2. . . . Some- body said, . . . That no man was admitted to be a Captain without giving the D. of Marlborough, or his Dutchess five hundred Guinys : the Govr. took it up, and said, What is that ! Speaking in a favourable, diminutive way. And said that there had not been any admitted these thousand years but in a way like that; mentioning his own experience in the Isle of Wight. His Excellency seems hereby to jus- tify himself against those who charge him with Bribery. — Febr. 5. Mr. Colman preaches the Lecture . . . from Gal. 5. 25. If we live in the Spirit, let we also Walk in the Spirit. Spake of Envy and Revenge as the Complexion and Condemnation of the Devil. . . . 'Tis reckoned he lash'd Dr. Mather and Mr. Cotton Mather and Mr. Bridge 1 Vol. HL pp. 295, 296. '^ Vol. I pp. 201, 202. JOSEPH DUDLEY. 227 for what they have written, preach'd and pray'd about the present Contest with the Govr," Next day, after a fortnight's waiting, Joseph Dudley sent his answer to the Mathers.^ With Scriptures as good as theirs, he recommended self-scrutiny to them. And he went on thus : — " Every one can see through the pretence, and is able to account for the spring of these letters, and how they would have been prevented, without easing any grievances you complain of. ... I desire you will keep your station, and let fifty or sixty good ministers, your equals in the province, have a share in the government of the College ... as well as yourselves. ... I am an honest man, and have lived religiously these forty years to the satisfaction of the min- isters in New England, and your wrath against me is cruel, and will not be justified. . . . The College must be dis- posed against the opinion of all the ministers in New Eng- land except yourselves, or the governor torn in pieces. This is the view I have of your inclination." And this is the view posterity has accepted, with what justice the records I have quoted may help to show. While the Mathers were reading this letter, Samuel Sewall, " in the uper Chamber of the North- East end of the House, fastening the Shutters next the Street," was holding a solemn fast. But though he prayed for so many things that the record covers a closely printed page, I found my eye caught chiefly by one passage : — " Save the Town, College, Province from Invasions of Enemies open. Secret and from false Brethren : Defend the Purity of Worship. Save Connecticut." ^ 1 Palfrey, III. 297. 2 Diary, II, 217. 10 February, 1707-8. XI. Cotton Mather's Private Life to the Death of HIS Second Wife. 1707-1713. For the next six years Joseph Dudley remained Gov- ernor of Massachusetts. His quarrel with the Mathers seems never to have been settled. Throughout these years, Cotton Mather was busier than ever in his pas- toral work, and his endless plans for doing good in general ; and Increase Mather, growing old, and not gaining buoyancy of temper, preached and prayed, — not a little about the good old time. With pubhc offices and with the College, which prospered under the care of Leverett, neither seems to have had much to do. So the course of public affairs has little to do with us. In his relations with the General Court, Dudley seems, in his later days, to have been less aggressive. The war went on with varying success : Port Royal was taken in 17 10, but there were disasters later, Indian massacres all along. In fifty years, Hutchinson esti- mated,^ the population did not double : in 1709, Dud- ley estimated it at about fifty thousand, increasing at the rate of a thousand a year ; Hutchinson thinks that from five to six thousand of the youth of the country 1 Palfrey, III. 303. PRIVATE LIFE. 229 fell in the wars which ended with the welcome peace of Utrecht in 1713. Meanwhile, according to Palfrey/ a new generation was growing up under the Provincial charter, far more loyal to the Crown than the old independent Dissenters of the Colony. In this chapter our business will be to follow the private Hfe of Cotton Mather until 1713. Cotton Mather's diary for 1 708 is not preserved. But in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society is a copy in his handwriting, with the date 1708, of Swift's burlesque prophecy of the death of Partridge, etc., which Cotton Mather seems to have taken in sober earnest. In Sewall I find but one note worth recording here. In June Mr. Bromfield received an anonymous letter, " putting him upon enquiring after Debaucheries at North's, the Exchange Tavern," and urging him to ask Sewall's advice. Cotton Math- er's constant eagerness to suppress disorder, his inti- mate relations with Bromfield and Sewall, and his frequent practice of " doing good " anonymously, make it not unlikely that this letter came from him. I can- not refrain from citing one more note of Sewall's, though — a little glimpse of manners : " Govr. calls and smokes a pipe with my wife at night Qr. i." Sewall's diary for 1 709 gives a few glimpses of the Mathers, with whom his relations were now cordially intimate. '' June 22. . . . Going to visit sick Mr. Gerrish ... I met Dr. Mather, who tells me that yesterday, he was 70 years old.— Octobr. 6. . . . Mr. C. Mather preaches from Prov. 14. 14. Backslider in heart shall be filled with his 1 Vol. 111. p. 302. 230 COTTON MATHER. own Ways. Mention'd the indulgence of Adonijak ; the prophet Mlcajah ; not the prophet, but the King was hurt by his estrangement." There are glimpses of Dudley, too, giving no new traits; and on January 28th, this note: — " The Govr. told me of News from Albany, as if the French of Canaday were coming against us. The good Lord stop them ! " Cotton Mather's diary for 1 709 ^ is on the whole not noteworthy. On the 20th of June he makes an entry that is typical of the year : — " I am so full of employments ; and in such a happy way of continually every day doing a variety of services, which yett I do not ask to have remembered, that I have not the Leisure, which else I might have to replenish these memorials." Little Sam had a fever. Another son, Nathaniel, was born to him on the i6th of May, and died on the 24th of November. I find but two other notes worth recording. In March, Mather was "assaulted with Solicitations [from Hell] to look upon the whole Christian Religion as — [I dare not mention what !] " but resolved to " Beleeve Him wise and Just and good, and confess myself unable to Judge of His Dispensations, but Refer all unto a Time when He shall please to entertain His people in another world with a Discovery of what He has done and meant in His former Dealings." At this time Mather was very poor, he remarks, — literally in rags. In September, the other ministers dined with the " Wicked Governor." ^ In possession of the American Antiquarian Society. PRIVATE LIFE. 231 "I," writes Cotton Mather, "have by my provoking plainness and Freedom in telhng this Ahab of his wicked- ness procured myself to be left out of his Invitations. I rejoiced in my Liberty from the Temptations with which they were encumbred while they were eating of his dain- ties, and durst not reprove him. . . . And considering the power and mahce of my enemies, I thought it proper for me to be this day Fasting in Secret before the Lord." At the end of the diary is a long account of how he is accustomed on rising every morning to enter in a book '' Good Devices " for the day : of them w^e shall hear more by and by. The volume closes, as usual, with notes of the course of his preaching for the year : among which is one telling how when his sermon was three quarters preached his meeting was broken up by a fire, and how when the congregation returned he began afresh and preached a brand-new sermon extempore. His diary for 17 10 is not preserved. Sewall tells a little of what happened to the Mathers. On the 3d of April there was difficulty in finding a minister to preach the election sermon : and though Mr. Pember- ton finally agreed to do it, his temper — a very excit- able one — was up. So when "■ word was brought that Dr. Mather was chosen to preach the Artillery Ser- mon, Mr. Pemberton said Must choose agen." Several notes of Sewall's this year show the infirmity of Pem- berton' s temper : the divine had an unconfortable way of accosting his parishioner in public places and up- braiding him at the top of his voice. Towards the end of the year Cotton Mather received from the University of Glasgow the degree of Doctor 232 COTTON MATHER. of Divinity. Even in Samuel Matlier's lifeless book we can see how grateful the good man found this honour : for one thing he immediately began to wear a signet- ring bearing '^ a Tree with Psal, i . 3 ^ written under it ; and about it Glascua Rigavit? The Cast of his Eye upon this, constantly provoked him to pray. . . . O God, make me a very fruitful T7'ee.'" ^ But he was not permitted to enjoy his title unmolested. One John Banister wrote thereupon the following verses. "On C. Mr's. Diploma. " The mad enthusiast, thirsting after fame, By endless volum'ns thought to raise a name. With undigested trash he throngs the Press ; Thus striving to be greater, he's the less, But he, in spite of infamy, writes on, And draws new Cullies in to be undone. Warm'd with paternal vanity, he trys For new Subscriptions, while the Embryo [his two vol- umns] * lyes Neglected — Parkhurst ^ says, Satis fecisti^ My belly's full of your Magnalia Christi. Your crude Divinity, and History Will not with a censorious age agree. Daz'd with the stol'n title of his Sire,^ To be a Doctor he is all on fire : 1 '' And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season ; his leaf also shall not wither ; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." '^ Glasgow has watered it. 3 See S. Mather's Life, pp. 74-77. ^ " Biblia Americana." 5 The publisher of the " Magnalia." ^ Increase Mather, it will be remembered, was made Doctor of Divinity under the Harvard charter of 1692, subsequently dis- approved by the King. See pages 135-137- PRIVATE LIFE. 233 Would after him the Sacrilege commit But that the Keeper's [Leverett], care doth him affright. To Britain's Northern Clime in haste he sends, And begs an Independent boon from Presbyterian friends; Rather than be without, he 'd beg it of the Fiends. Facetious George brought him this Libertie To write C. Mather first and then D. D." 1 On the 25th of November Increase Mather laid this libel before Sewall. On the 28th, Sewall had Banister and others before him in consequence, and, in spite of a letter from i^otton Mather in favor of Banister, imposed a fine on him. This greatly stirred up Mr. Pemberton, who had lately been abused by a certain Captain Martin, against whom no proceedings had been taken. " Mr. Pemberton," writes Sewall, " with extraordinary Vehemency said, (capering with his feet) If the Mathers ordered it, I would shoot him thorow. I told him he was in a passion. He said he was not in a Passion. I said, it was so much the worse. . . . The truth is I was surpris'd to see my self Insulted with such extraordinary Fierceness, by my Pastor, just when I had been vindicating two wor- thy Embassadors of Christ (his own usual Phrase) from most villanous Libels. , . . These Things made me pray Earnestly . . . that God would vouchsafe to be my Shep- herd, and . . . bring me safely to his Heavenly Fold." And the same evening Sewall visited Madam Pem- berton, and gave the nurse three shillings ; which did not prevent Mr. Pemberton from giving out next Lord's day a most invidious psalm.^ 1 Sewall's Letter-Book, I. 407. Cf. Diary, II. 290-295. 2 For all this matter, see Sewall's Diary, II. 290-295. 234 COTTON MATHER. The only other note of Sevvall's I have recorded for this year runs as follows : — "Mid-week, Jany. 31. Went and heard Mr. Bridge, and Dr. Cotton Mather pray and preach, at the said Dr's House. . . . Dr. Mathers [Text was] The whole world lyes in Wickedness. Had Cake and Butter and Cheese, with good Drinks, before parting." In Sewall's diary for 1711, I find little that concerns us. The Mathers were as busy as ever. On the 31st of May, Mr. Wadsworth gave a dinner for the Gover- nor, to which he invited both the Mathers : and both came, — a fact which throws a little fresh light on Cotton Mather's secret fast in September, 1709.^ Cotton Mather's diary for 1711^ is different from all the preceding ones. Those, as I have said, are not the original copies, but abridgements made by him- self; rather annual autobiographies than diaries proper. This volume and the six others that remain are origi- nal copies, hastily written from day to day, and little revised. They differ in character from the others, too. Instead of being records of what has happened, they are generally daily entries of good devised for each day, — with the letters " G. D." prefixed. Now and then he inserts a passage that he thinks worth remem- bering. So we have now, for the years whose records are presented, a daily note of what he means to do, and occasional notes of what has actually been done. One troublesome fact about the diary for 1 7 1 1 is that he usually enters there only the days of the week, leav- 1 See page 231. 2 In possession of the American Antiquarian Society. PRIVATE LIFE. 235 ing the month to be calculated as best it may. The truth seems to be that, about this time, he concluded that he had wasted too much time on the records of his life : there were other things better worth doing. His birthday note, with which this volume, like all the rest, begins, shows this state of mind. Hereafter he will keep no separate book of good devices : they shall be entered in his regular diary. He had devised a set of questions to ask himself each day : on Sunday, for example, he asked what he should do as a pastor ; on Monday, what he should do for his family ; and so on. " There is no need of Repeating here," he writes, " The questions assigned for each day of the Week. My answer to each of them will be a Good Devised, for which a G. D. will be the Distinction in these Memorials." Daily good devices fill the pages of this volume, which is twice as thick as any of the preceding ones. Perhaps his most curious note hereabouts is this : — " Having some Epistolar Conversation with Mr. De Foe I would in my letters unto him, excite him to apply himself unto the work of collecting and publishing an History of the persecutions which the Dissenters have undergone from the Ch. of E, —And give him some Di- rections about the work. It may be a work of manifold usefulness." Somewhat later, curious reflections follow a fit of cholera morbus and a morning cough : the latter moves him to ejaculate, " Oh ! that I may always cast up and throw off, whatever may be inimical to the Health of my Soul ! " On the 2d of October there was a great fire in Boston, which aroused proper reflections in Cotton Mather ; and which Increase Mather attrib- 236 COTTON MATHER. uted to the growing profanation of the Sabbath. Later in the same month we find Cotton Mather writing to Sir Richard Blackmore and to Dr. Watts, whose hymns he greatly admired. At intervals through the year he mentions his cousin, Eunice Williams, a captive among the Indians, whose mode of life she ultimately adopted. At Christmas he was greatly disturbed by some young people of both sexes belonging to his flock, who had " a Frolick, a Revelling Feast, and Ball, which discovers their corruption." And a month later he writes : — " Fast. ... I took the catalogue of the Books which I have been the Author of. The Number in the Catalogue is Two hundred and five. On each of the Titles I made a pause. And I obliged Every one of them, to suggest unto me some Remarkable Article of Humiliation, which I thereupon with an Abased Soul mentioned before the Lord." But the most interesting notes this year concern his family. Early in the year he notes a good device not to use his influence against a merchant who has injured him. "No sooner had I written these words," he goes on, " but there was a pretty occurrence in the Family which carried with it a fine picture and Emblem ... of the Dis- position which I am Endeavoring. My little son Sammy did not carry it so kindly to his little sister Lizzy as I would have had him. 1 chid him for his crossness, and gave her a piece oi pome-cif?'oii, but would give none to him, to pun- ish him for being so cross to her. I had no sooner turned my back but the good-conditioned creature fell into Tears at this punishment of her little Brother, and gave to him a part of what I had bestowed upon her." Somewhat later, he writes that his son Increase, now PRIVATE LIFE. 237 about twelve years old, is giving him trouble. Later still, he writes that the time is come for his daughters to be " fixed " in '' the opificial and Beneficial mysteries wherein they should be well instructed." Katy, he decides, shall be taught medicine ; the inclinations of Nibby and Nancy shall be consulted before he reaches a decision about them. Another daughter, Jerusha, was born this year. But towards the end of the year Increase is most in his mind. "My Son Increase," he writes, " now being of Age for it, I would often call him into my Study, especially on the Lord's-day Evenings, and make him sitt with me, and hear from me such Documents of piety, and of Discretion, as I shall endeavor to suit him, and to shape him withal " A lit- tle later : " It may be of excellent consequence to my son Increase if he may turn into Latin, after the rate of one Question p. day, my Supplies frojn the Tower of David. It may also supply me with an Engine, which after my bestowing further Additions on it, may do inexpressible good in other Countreys." And his last daily note for the year runs thus : " G. D. Now my son Increase is arrived unto the exercise of making Themes, at the School, I would make this become an Engine of piety for him ; and I would procure such subjects to be assigned unto him, as may most assist the study of goodness and virtue in him." An active, busy year this seems to have been ; less morbid than most. His final summary of it is perhaps worth recording : — " Thus I am come to the end of another year, over- whelmed with confusion, when I look back on the Sin and Sloth constantly attending me in it. It is true I have been helped by Heaven this year, To Lett not One Day pass, without Contriving and Recording, some Inventions to do 238 COTTON MATHER. 9 Good ; And those which have pass'd thro' my pen are but a few of the projections which I have had: ... To lett not One Day pass, without actually expending something of my Revenues ... on pious uses : To write some Illus- trations for the most part Every Day ; doubtless ... I have this year added unto the Biblia Afnericana , . . more than a thousand : To preach many Sermons . . . : To pubhsh near as many books as there have been Months in the year : . . . To make many hundreds of Visits ; but never One, without some Explicit Essays or Desires to Do Good in it : To manage some scores of Correspondencies ; and ... to propose the Service of my Glorious Lord in every one of them : ... To read over many Scores of Books, and gather into my Quotidiana from them : etc. etc. etc. But after all, o my dear Saviour, I stand in infinite need of thy Sacrifice. I have been a most unprofitable Servant. God be merciful to me a Sinner ! " Mather's diary for 1712 is not preserved. In Sew- all's I find nothing especial about him, except that he went to Commencement. From a note in Quincy,i it appears that a new Catalogue of the College was printed at this time. Leverett asked Dudley if Mather had ever apologized for the " undutiful " letter of 1707 : if not, Leverett supposed Cotton Mather's new title had better not be recognized in the Catalogue. But Dud- ley told him not to leave out the title on any such account. And in Harvard Catalogues ever since Cotton Mather has been Doctor of Divinity. In the Mather Papers ^ are preserved some of his letters this year to John and to Wait Winthrop : they show him deeply in- terested in the European news of the day, which chiefly concerns the approaching Peace of Utrecht. And Sib- 1 Vol. I. p. 520. 2 Pages 407-415. PRIVATE LIFE. 239 ley names fifteen books published by Cotton Mather during the year. So we come to his diary for 1713/ an eventful year in Cotton Mather's domestic life. At the very begin- ning of the year, we find him in much disturbance of mind because some of his flock had been inspired by Satan with the idea of starting a new meeting. He did his best to reason with them, but to little purpose. And towards the middle of March he writes : — *' I ought to . . . grow in my Thankfulness to the glori- ous Lord, in that I have my mind preserved from Hypo- chondriac Maladies, which, considering my Studies and Sorrowes, tis a wonder, they have not utterly overwhelmed me. The view I have of some other men, unhing-ed and ruined that way, very much awakens my gratitude." One of the other men in question was probably the Rev. Ebenezer Pemberton. But a note on the 24th of March shows trials nearer home : — " Still my aged parent must be the object of my cares ; To make him easy under his Resentments of the proceed- ings about the New Church ; and to procure him Releefs against Bodily Distempers that somewhat incommode him ; and to gett his mind raised unto the points of Resig- nation to God and Satisfaction in His Will, which become us in the Suburbs of the Heavenly World." — " God calls me," he writes a few days later, " in an extraordinary man- ner to be armed for the Trials which I may undergo in a church, breaking all to peeces, thro' the Imperdnencies of a proud crew, that must have pues for their despicable Families.'' So he prayed and fasted, and had his son Increase ^ In possession of the American Antiquarian Society. 240 COTTON MATHER. ■ come in and pray too. Not long afterwards he real- ized that he was growing too impatient of slights, and resolved to govern his temper. In April he was still in high excitement. " There is one point in my Conversation," he writes, early in the month, " wherein I must press after much greater Sanctity and purity; and have my Behaviour in it more governed by that Reflexion, The Eye of the Great God is ?iow upon me / . . . And I must go mourning to my grave, in the sense of the miscarriages, in this point, wherewith His Holy Eyes have seen me chargeable." A little later comes the vigil in which he begged to know the meaning of the descent from the invisible world so many years before.^ Education is the next thing in his mind. Increase, it is clear, must be "applied unto Saccular Business," and he must cry to Heaven thereabout. The tutors at the College must be reminded that they ought to " in- still good principles into their pupils, and be concerned for their Orthodox and Religious, as well as Learned education." And a Httle later, he notes that he has "litt on a person" to restrain "profaneness in a con- siderable number of Unruly children on the Lord's day in our Congregation." About this time returned the hypochondriac notion that he was near his end, which often assailed him ; he must select guardians for his children. A httle later, he determined to write phy- sicians '' to obtain for me, as much as may be, of the knowledge of the Botanicks of the countrey : as also of rare cures or cases occurring to them." And a little later still comes this : — 1 See page 123. PRIVATE LIFE. 241 " My poor son Increase ! Oh ! the Distress of mind with which I must lett fall my daily Admonitions upon him, even with a continual Dropping, especially on these Two points : Conversion to God, in a Sincere compliance with His Covenant: And, The Care of Spending Time so as to give a good Account of it." Then the new church troubled him again : — " When any persons . . . fall into errors and evils, and great miscarriages, I must keep a guard of meekness and wisdom on the expression of my zeal. . . . Violent, Bois- terous, Intemperate Expressions . . . will not work the Righteousness of God. I am afraid lest I am sometimes too vehement." In answer to this resolution the Lord helped him to treat " the swarming Brethren " in an obliging man- ner, — "the best thing I can do to prevent the wiles of Satan." A few days later, " in a wicked book I readd a fling at clergymen, as a Revengeful generation of men, who never Forgive such as have offended them. I do not remember, for my own part, that ever I designed the Revenge of an Injury in my life. However, this Ven- emous Fling, shall quicken my Watchfulness, upon this Article." Within a few days he had a chance to quicken it : — " G. D. There are Knotts of Riotous Young Men in the Town. On purpose to insult piety they will come under my Window in the middle of the Night and sing profane and filthy Songs. The last night they did so, and fell upon people with clubs taken off my wood-pile. Tis high-time, to call in the help of the Government ... for the . . . suppressing of these disorders." On the I St of July, he took his son Increase to Commencement.^ On the 4th, he held a vigil for the 1 Sewall's Diary, II. 390. 16 242 COTTON MATHER. " Impurities which my life has been filled withal. . . . From the Depths I cried unto the Lord, for his grace to be given unto my children: particularly my son Increase." The youth, now about fourteen, was beginning to show himself what he ultimately proved, — a sadly riotous young man. And this may have been what prompted another good device, a few weeks later. 'M have shown too much Respect unto Wicked Men in my Conversation. . . . Though my Intention has been to show all Gentleness to all men . . . yett I doubt, less Free- dom with such Wretches, less Familiarity with such Devils, would have been better." So the year goes on, his family more and more on his mind. On the birthdays of his children, he re- solves, he will " not only discourse very proper and pungent things . . . relating to their eternal Interests, but also oblige them to consider ; first, what is their main Errand into the World j and then, what they have done of that Errand. And such of them as are old enough to Write, shall give me some Written Thoughts upon these things." His negro servant was best governed by reason : he would assay to reason him into good behaviour.^ His " aged parent " — the phrase by which he names his father from this time on — was out of order. " I would persuade him to a frequent use of the sal vola- tile, which God has blessed unto me for more than ordi- 1 In the library of the American Antiquarian Society is an in- teresting memorandum of the conditions on which, a little later, this negro, Onesimus, bought his freedom. He was to see that his place was properly supplied, and to turn up every day accordingly. PRIVATE LIFE. 243 nary Benefit, and I would prevent him with a Bottle of it." And when the remedy worked, he resolved " mightily to double my diligence, especially in Afternoon-Studies, for the Dispatch of those things I would fain finish before I Dy." Meanwhile Increase was always on his mind : one day he made him read the life of a pious youth ; again, while seeking a place for him, he would have him "preserve learning," and would daily inquire if he has made secret prayers ; a little later, when the youth had blown up himself and his sister Lizzy with gunpowder, " I would improve this occasion to inculcate Instructions of piety in them and the rest ; Especially with Relation to their Danger of Eternal Burnings. Cressy ^ must also employ the leisure which this had occasioned for him, in the most profitable manner" : there had been lately an oppor- tunity " to gett . . . Increase cultivated with many points of polite conversation, in his Evening-Hours." Another note runs thus: " Oh ! Why don't I in my Family more Hvelily keep up the Temper and Conduct of a parent ex- pecting to be Speedily taken from his Family ? " Another still : " My youngest little daughter ^ is a marvellous Witty, Ready, Forward Child " : he would set the others to teaching her maxims of piety. Towards the end of September, the death of an " aged and pious Matron (the First-born of this Town) . . . affords mean opportunity to discourse with my mother, upon her preparation." A little later, he was trying to get Increase a place with a rehgious merchant, in good business ; and selecting guardians for his children ; and praying to the Lord that He would return to them what their father had spent in charity. 1 Increase. 2 Jerusha, born in 171 1. 244 COTTON MATHER. I find but three other notes before October worth recording. The first runs thus : — " G. D. Perhaps by sending some Agreeable Things to the Author of the Spectator, and the Guardian, there may be brought forward some Services to the best Interests of the Nation." The second expresses an intention to help an old man in the town, eighty- eight years old and needy, " who was a souldier in the Army of my admirable Cromwel, and actually present in the Battel of Dun- bar^ The third is a resolution to counteract the cor- ruption spread by '' filthy ballads," by having cheap hymns hawked about, — " some from the excellent Watts." The rest of his story for this year is more notable in his personal history. " I2d. 8m. 1 This Day, in Ships arriving from London, I receive Letters from the Secretary of the Royal Society, who tells me, That my Curiosa A?nerica7ia being Readd before that Society, they were greatly Satisfied therewith, and ordered the Thanks of the Society to be returned unto me ; They also Signified their Desire and purpose to Ad- mitt me as a Member of their Body. And, he assures me, that at their first lawful Meeting for such purposes, I shall be made a A Fellow of the Royal Society. . . . This is a marvellous Favour of Heaven ; . • . One that will much Encourage me . . . in my Essayes to Do Good : and add unto the Superiour Circumstances, wherein my Gracious Lord places me above the Contempt of Envious Men." So he cried to the Lord hereby to quicken his "Diligence in His Holy Service "; and resolved to improve his " Corre- spondence with the Secretary of the Royal Society^ to sett 1 October I2th. PRIVATE LIFE. 245 afoot among the members thereof, such studies as may be for general Benefit, and have hitherto been but little prosecuted." In less than a week he writes : — *' A very deep storm ... my family may expect in the common calamity of the spreading Measles." Increase fell ill on the 1 8th : on the 30th, Katy and Nibby came down. The same day Mrs. Mather was brought to bed of twins, — a boy and a girl. "The Glorious God," he writes, "in the Surprising In- crease of my Family, rebukes my sinful Fears of having them all well-provided for. Thro' the Assistance of his Grace, I find my Soul rejoicing in the View of my having in my Family more Servants born unto my Saviour. . . . I must march against the least Tendencies of Unbelief." On the I St of November the twins were baptized: the girl was named for her maternal grandmother, Martha, which "signifying Doctrix may the better suit (as my Father said) a Doctor's Daughter. I then thought, who was Martha's brother ; and that Eleazar was the same with Lazarus ; and a priestly name ; and the child must be led to look for the Help of God, which is the signification of the Name. I also had an excellent uncle of that Name.^ So I called them Eleazar and Martha." In three days measles had attacked his wife, Nancy, Lizzy, Jenisha, and the maid. "8. 9.2 This Day, I entertained my Neighbourhood with a Discourse on Joh. xviii. 11. : The cup which my Father has given me^ shall not I drink it. And lo, this Day, my Father is giving me a grievous and Bitter Cup, which I hop'd had pass'd from me. . . . When I saw my 1 See page 25. - November 8th. 246 COTTON MATHER. consort safely delivered, and very easy, and the Measles appearing with favourable symptoms upon her ... I flattered myself that my Fear was all over. But this Day we are astonished at the surprising symptoms of Death upon her ; after an Extreme want of Rest by Sleep, for Diverse whole Dayes and Nights together. — To part with so desirable ... a companion — A Dam from such a Nest of young ones too ! — . . . Tho' my dear Consort had been so long without sleep, yett she retained her under- standing. I used my opportunities as well as I could, . . . with Discourses that night ... to prepare her for what was now before us. It comforted her to see, that her chil- dren in Law, were as fond of her, as her own could be ! God made her willing to Dy. . . . I prayed with her many Times, and left nothing undone, that I could ... do for her consolation. On Monday, 9d. 9m., between three and four in the Afternoon, my dear, dear, dear Friend expired. — Whereupon, with another prayer in that Melancholy Chamber, I endeavoured the Resignation to which I am now called. ... It comforts me to see how extremely Be- loved and Lamented a Gentlewoman I now find her to be in the Neighbourhood." " 10. 9. In the midst of my Sorrowes . . . the Lord helped me to prepare no less than Two Sermons, for a public Thanksgiving, which is to be celebrated the day after tomorrow.'^ "II. 9. This day, I interred the Earthly part of my dear Consort. She had an Honourable Funeral." And Sewall tells us that among her bearers were Pemberton and Colman. " 14. 9. This morning, the first thing that entertains me, after my Rising, is, the Death of my Maid-Servant. . . . Tis a satisfaction to me, that tho' she had been a Wild, Vain, Airy Girl, yett since her coming into my Family, she became disposed unto serious Religion : . . . and my poor PRIVATE LIFE. 247 Instructions were the means that God blessed for such happy purposes." Next day Jerusha and the twins lay dying ; Eleazar died at midnight on the 1 7th, Martha on the morning of the 20th. ''21. 9. This Day I attended the Funeral of my Two — Eleazar and Martha. Betwixt 9 and 10 at night, my lovely Jerusha expired. She was Two years, and about Seven Months, old. Just before she died, she asked me to pray with her; which I did, with a Distressed, but Re- signing Soul ; And I gave her up unto the Lord. The minute that she died, she said, That she would go to Jes7is Christ. She had lain speechless, many Hours. But in her last Moments, her speech returned a little to her. Lord, I am oppressed : undertake for me ! " " 23. 9, This Day, I followed my dear Jerusha to the grave. But having a mind, full of Resignation, with Reso- lutions more than ever to glorify my dear Saviour ; espe- cially in what I may do for my own, and other children." There were none in his family now, he remarked, under seven years old. Much might be done at table, then, for both their manners and their minds. A little later, " The Quiet and Easy and unhurried Condition which my Family (by sad things) is bro't unto, gives me now Opportunity to examine more Distinctly my children every night." Along with religious books, he wrote and published a letter on the " Right Management of the Sick under the Distemper of the Measles." Cressy was much on his mind : the boy must study fencing, music, geometry, navigation ; " his genius stands much that way." 248 COTTON MATHER. " My two Younger Children, ^ shall before the psalm and prayer, answer a Quaestion in the catechism ; and have their Leaves ready turned unto the proofs of the Answer in the Bible; which they shall distinctly read unto us, and show what they prove. This also will supply a fresh matter for the prayer that is to follow." Late in January he wrote to a gentleman in Con- necticut, urging him first to be good, and then to do good : by which it seems probable that he meant give money to the College that was soon to be called Yale. And his last note for the year runs thus : — "I must in the Society for pure purposes, bring on an Enquiry, what may be done for the suppression of some very wicked Houses, that are the nests of much Impiety. I must also assist the Booksellers in Addressing the As- sembly, that their late Act Against pedlers, may not hinder their Hawkers from carrying Books of piety about the countrey. . . . And thus, the goodness, and mercy, of the glorious Lord, has brought me to the end of another year. The Fifty-first year of my age is terminated." 1 Elizabeth and Samuel, the latter just seven years old. 1 XII. Cotton Mather's Private Life. — His Third Marriage. 1713-1718. The history of Massachusetts for the next five years has Httle to do with our story. In brief what happened was this. In 17 14, Queen Anne died ; and on the 2 2d of September, George I. was proclaimed at Boston. The commission of Joseph Dudley expired six months after the death of the sovereign. Sewall's Diary ^ shows how reluctantly the first of the Tories relinquished power ; but relinquish he had to at last, and retired to private life at Roxbury for the rest of his days. Next year, a certain Colonel Burgess was appointed Gover- nor : he was unwelcome to the Province, whose agents paid him a round sum to decline the office. Lieutenant Governor Tailer was at the head of affairs until 1716. On October 4th, Samuel Shute, the new Governor, ar- rived in Boston. The next two years passed in various misunderstandings with the legislature, about which we need not trouble ourselves. Our business in this chapter is to follow Cotton Mather's hfe to the close of 1718. Cotton Mather's Diary for 1714 is not preserved; but in the Mather Papers are several of his letters to the Winthrops during that year. They show him inter- 1 Vol. III. pp. 35-39. 250 COTTON MATHER. ested in scientific and public matters. And one of them, of the 2d of March, contains a passage worth quoting. For it shows that after all he might have been no bad contributor to the "Spectator" : he was not insensible to the literary style of the new century. ^ "There has been much Talk," it runs,^ "about a Duel fought between the Duke Hajnilton^ and the Lord Mohun. . . . The former finding himself mortally wounded, made it an opportunity to thrust his Sword up to the Hilt in the unguarded body of the other. So both perished. ... — I am now on a New side of the leaf, and so may take the Liberty to divert you with a short story ; which therefore will not necessarily belong to anything in the t'other page. You knew old Major Thojnpsoii. He had a story, that a young Nobleman, travelling with his Tutor, visited a church in Italy ^ and viewing the Epitaphs, ask'd his Tutor to read one of them, which was not very legible. He read TroTrvXoKoXoOpoTTov [a word, whereof I am not learned enough to know the Etymology]. The Nobleman enquired what the English of it.? And the Tutor answered, T/ie World is well rid of a K^iave. And so my old Major, was used, when he heard of the Death of certain persons, only to Lift up his hands, and say Populokolothropoii. And others also, would quere Major Tho7npso7i^ s Greek, as they called it, on such occasions." Sewall's Diary gives us a few more facts for this year. On the 4th of April, Mrs. Increase Mather died after fifty-two years of wedded Hfe. One of her son's six- teen publications for this year was her funeral sermon. 1 His "Political Fables" of 1692-3, reprinted in the " Andros Tracts," are another example of his lighter literary touch. 2 Mather Papers, 416. Lovers of " Henry Esmond " will find this task interesting. HIS THIRD MARRIAGE. 25 1 Before very long, the venerable widower married the widow of her nephew, John Cotton, of Hampton : she survived him. On the 20th of October, the " swarm- ing brethren " gathered their New North Church, founded by "seventeen substantial mechanics"; and Increase Mather gave the charge, and Cotton IMather the right hand of fellowship, Pemberton joining them in laying on their hands. On the 24th of November, "a very cold day," one Mr. George, a merchant of Boston, was laid in Sewall's tomb, " till Madam George have an oportunity to build one." Whether he was the ''facetious George" who brought over Cotton Mather's diploma in 1710,1 I know not: but of the widow we shall hear more. And on the 23d of December, " Dr. C. Mather preaches excellently from Ps. 37. Trust in the Lord, etc. only spake of the Sun being in the center of our System. I think it inconvenient to assert such problems." Sewall's Diary for 1 7 1 5 gives a few glimpses of the Mathers. Early in the year, they were much interested in the discussions about Dudley's tenure of office, which was fast drawing to a close. On the 13th of April, they enjoyed a singular satisfaction : the Governor, on the verge of enforced retirement, dined with the ministers ; and, as had happened at his first official feast in Boston,^ Increase Mather craved a blessing, and Cotton Mather gave thanks. On the 2d of August there was a fast at Mr. Colman's about calling another minister ; when in the afternoon 1 See page 233. 2 gge page 191. 252 COTTON MATHER. " Mr. Pemberton pray'd, Dr. Cotton Mather preach'd from Isa. 5. 6. latter clause, I will command the clouds, etc.i Excellently: censur'd him that had reproach 'd the Minis- try; . . . caird it a Satanick insult, twice over, and it found a kind Reception. ... I could wish the extremity of the censure had been forborn — Lest we be devoured one of another." A fortnight later, Mr. Pemberton vexed his parish- ioner by appearing in a '' Flaxen Wigg." On the 26th of September, Mr. Bridge died, — apparently the most cordial ally of the Mathers in the Boston ministry. "With him," writes Sewall, "much primitive Christianity is gone. . . . His Prayers and Sermons were many times Excellent; not always alike. It may be this Lethargick Malady might though unseen, be the cause of some Un- evenness. . . . We may justly fear he is taken away from Evil to Come. Isa. 57." For about this time trouble in England was expected. But a few days later came welcome news that all tu.- mults were quelled ; with which on the 7th of October Sewall visited "utrumque Doctorem." ^ Cotton Mather's Diary for 17 15 is not preserved. But in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society are three long memoranda in his handwriting which bear this date. The first is a copy of a letter to a lady, not named ; the following extract wall give a notion of its general character : — " If he [who now addresses you] be One who Looks 1 " And I will lay it waste ; it shall not be pruned, nor digged ; but there shall come up briers and thorns : I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it." 2 " Both doctors " ; that is, the Mathers. HIS THIRD MARRIAGE. 253 upon Love to his Neighbour, as a very essential Article of his Religion, and who so Loves every man, that the offer of an opportunity for the doing of Good unto any One, is the sweetest pleasure that can be given him, . . . it will be very Reasonably Inferred from hence, that the Gentlewoman who comes one day into the nearest Relation unto him, will be Lov'd by him, as much as can be wish'd by her." And he waxes warm about " Your bright Accomplishments, your shining piety, and your polite education, your superiour Ca- pacity, and a most refined Sense, and incomparable Sweet- ness of Temper, together with a Constellation of all the perfections that he can desire to see related unto him." This letter is very long indeed ; the second memo- randum is short enough to be quoted in full : — "2id. im.i 1715- In the Evening. — After some Words of decent Respect unto Mrs. G. — She said, she had thought fitt, to have one Interview alone with me, that I might fully know her mind, about the Matter I had pro- posed unto her. She remonstrated the Reproach that she had suffered in the Talk of people about that affair; and therefore she thought it time, to lett me know her Desire, that she might hear no more of it, and that I would Speak and Think no more of it. She said, There were other per- sons that would be more agreeable to me ; and in whom the prayers of many good people for me, would be more likely to be answered. She gave me to understand, That if it were not for a Regard she had unto my Character as a Minister, she should forbid my ever making any more Visits unto her. She said, My Visits would have been a consolation and satisfaction unto her if I had mentioned nothing of this affair: But she peremptorily forbad my Writing any more Letters unto her. She many times in- sisted on it, That I would say to all persons, As for the ^ March 21st. 254 COTTON MATHER. Matter talk'd of, there is nothing in it. I offered that I would say to All persons, Tis a Matter which Madam is not at present disposed to hear of. She then said :— But people will say. Why does she Entertain him? — if she have no purpose hereafter to allow of his Intentions ? — This she express'd herself desirous, that there should be no Occasion for. I represented unto her, some fatal con- sequences, Hkely to follow on this conduct. But she would not admitt any Apprehensions of them. The Conversation lasted for several Hours, On my part, it was as Calm, and as pertinent, and as obhging as my dull Witts could render it. With as full Answers as could be made unto the Things that were objected to me; and just Reasons for every step of my conduct. At last I said; Madaui^ To give you a full Testimony of my Honour and Esteem for you, My Satisfaction shall be entirely sacrificed unto Yours. She answered: Say and Hold.'''' The third memorandum is a copy of a very long letter to the Rev. Thomas Craighead, who had pro- posed that the pair have another interview. Mather thinks it undesirable for the moment, but begs Craig- head "to assure that excellent person, that my Resolutions to keep out of Sight . . . oppress my own mind with Vio- lence, which could be well borne, by none but One of my Age, and one so much used unto Sacrifices. . . . She may depend upon it, (tho', I know not, whether a Total Deliv- erance from me, would not make her yett more easy,) that I can by no means lay aside these Vast Respects. But must renew my endeavours one day to make her yett more sensible of them. However, to be free with you, I have strong Apprehensions that my Dying Hour will Intervene (which. Oh ! join with me in my praises to our dear Sav- iour for it,) I often even long for, and hope it will be the best Hour that ever I saw," HIS THIRD MARRIAGE. 255 Who Mrs. G. was must remain a conjecture. But the following passage from Samuel Mather's book ^ is suggestive : — "In his Jifty-thirdyediY, July 5. 1715. he was married to his third Wife. She is the Daughter of the renowned and very learned Mr. Samuel Lee: She was the Widow of Mr. George, a worthy Merchant, when Dr. Mather pay'd his Respects unto her in order to be Marry'd. She is a Lady of many and great Accomplishments, and is the Doctor's disconsolate Widow.^ By this last Gentlewoman he had no issue." Cotton Mather's Diary for 1716^ begins with a birthday fast, in which his most remarkable petitions were for " the Good State of my Family ; the Welfare of my Son abroad ; the Rescue of my Daughter-in-Law from her un- happy Circumstances ; the comfortable Disposal of my Daughters in the Married Life." And amid such daily notes of good devised as fill his other diaries are occasional memoranda concerning his family affairs. Early in March he held a very ecstatic thanksgiving, in which, among other things, he writes, " I celebrated the Favours of Heaven to my Family, especially in the Excellent Mother that He has bestowed upon it." A marginal note, evidently made later, throws pain- ful light upon this: "Ah! Quam deceptus." * A glimpse of the beginning of his undeception comes in the middle of April : — 1 Life, p. 13. 2 Samuel Mather wrote in 1729. 3 In the Library of the Congregational House, Boston. * " How I was deceived ! " 256 COTTON MATHER. " My Religious and Excellent Consort meets with some Exercises, which oblige me, (and, oh ! how happy am I, in the conversation of so fine a Soul, and one so capa- ble of soaring to the higher Flights of piety!) To treat her very much on the point of having a Soul, wherein God alone shall be enthroned, and all the Creatures that usurped his Throne Ejected." Sammy at this time was ill of a fever ; and Increase, the subject of constant prayers and letters, was off on a voyage. Early in May, however, an edifying incident oc- curred. "A Wondrous Thing is come to pass," he writes on the 6th. " My Consort's only Daughter has had an Husband, who has proved one of the Worst of men ; a sorry, sordid, froward, and exceedingly wicked Fellow. His Life would have kill'd the Child : and have utterly confounded, not only her Temporal Interest, but my Wife's also. I was a Witness of their Anguish, And almost a year ago, I began to have some Irradiations on my mind, which I communi- cated unto them, that before a year came about, they should see a Deliverance. However, I could not bring about my purposes, to beseech the Lord Thrice until towards the Beginning of the Winter. But then, I kept Three dayes of praye}'^ in every one of which, a principal errand unto Heaven was, to putt over this Wicked Creature into the Hands of the Holy God, that in His Way, and in His Time, the poor child might be delivered from his Insupportable Tyrannies, But above all, that it might be by his becom- ing a New Creature, if that might be obtained. The Sup- plications were made on these, and on other Dayes, with a proper spirit of Charity towards the miserable Man, and with all possible Resignation to the Will of God. And my excellent Consort often went up with me to my Library, to make a Consort in them. Well : I had no sooner kept my HIS THIRD MARRIAGE. ■SL Third Day but God smote the Wretch, with a Languish- ing Sickness, which no body ever knew what to make of. He was a Strong, Lively, Hearty Young Man ; a Little above Thirty : But now, he Languished for Six Mo7iths j nor were any of the physicians tho' he successively em- ployed no less than five of them, able to help him. In this while, our Faith, our Love, our patience, and our Submis- sion to the Will of God, underwent many Trials more precious than Gold. But on the last Wednesday^ the Glo- rious God putt a period unto the grievous Wayes of this Wicked Man. — Now what remains, is for me to make a very holy Improvement of these Dispensations. ..." (9 my God, I will call upon ihee, as lo?ig as I live ! " The gentleman whose death is thus narrated was named Howell. Cotton Mather was made adminis- trator of his estate. Resulting complications, such as often attend the efforts of unpractised people to manage money matters, made him uncomfortable for years. It was during this same month of May that Katha- rine Mather's consumptive symptoms became alarm- ing. And Katharine was very dear to her father : she " understood Latin, and read Hebrew fluently." ^ But other matters were less depressing. On the 2 2d, Cotton Mather writes : — "This Day my son Increase returns to me: much pol- ished, much improved, better than ever Disposed, with Articles of less Expense to me than I expected : And, which is wonderful, with an excellent Business prepared for him immediately to fall into. I am astonished at the Favours of the prayer-hearing Lord. Oh my Father, my Father, how good a thing it is to trust in thy P^atherly 1 S. Mather, Life, p. 14. 17 ^258 COTTON MATHER. Care ! — But Oh ! What shall I now do to fix the returned Child for the Service of God ! " A week later, discovering that Samuel had many play days, he had the happy thought of occupying the youth in turning into Latin some sentences about " the true and right Intent of play, and a good use of it." June found Katharine worse ; and Increase in evi- dent need of " Proper Books, to employ him in the Intervals of Business . . ., and furnish his mind with valuable Treasures." The elder Increase Mather, too, was ailing. " My parent just finishing seventy-seven," writes Cotton Mather, " I must now more than ever treat him, as one taking Wing immediately for the Heavenly World." Harvard College, too, was employing far too much 'ivax^'m.^^ E thicks . . . a vile piece of paganism." But although his troubles were enhanced by the fact that Nibby fell ill of an ague, he had the satisfaction of accepting for her the proposals of a " hopeful young Gentleman, a merchant," whose intimacy with the Mathers had "brought him into a Business, which is likely to prove Superiour unto what any young Man in the Country pretends unto." So "that it maybe to his Advantage, in regard to his Better part," Cotton Mather immediately began to administer to him " con- tinual Admonitions and Inculcations of piety." And mid- July found the good man in a thankful mood : — " Except it be the Sickness of my Two Elder Daughters, I enjoy upon all accounts a most wonderful prosperity. A most wonderful prosperity ! A valuable Consort ! A comfortable Dwelling! A kind Neighbourhood. My son Increase, vastly to my mind — and Blessings without Num- HIS THIRD MARRIAGE. 259 ber. Together with my own Health and Strength, strongly recruited. I must be solicitous to hear what the Holy One speaks to me in my prosperity." On the 14th of August, an accident happened to him, which Sewall briefly notes with the remark that he " received no hurt." But Cotton Mather took it seriously. " This day," he writes, " a Singular Thing befel me. My God, Help me to understand the meaning of it ! I was prevailed withal, to do a thing, which I very rarely do; (not once in years.) I rode abroad with some Gentlemen, and Gentlewomen, to take the Country Air, and to divert our- selves, at a famous Fish-pond. In the Canoe, on the pond, my foot slipt, and I fell overboard into the pond. Had the Vessel been a little further from the Shore, I must have been drown'd. But I soon recovered the Shore, and going speedily into a Warm Bed, I received no sensible Harm. I returned well in the Evening ; sollicitous to make all the Reflections of piety, on my Disaster, and on my Deliver- ance. But not yett able to penetrate into the Whole mean- ing of the occurrence. Am I quickly to go under the earth, as I have been under the Water ! — My Consort had her mind, all the former part of the day, and the day before, full of Uneasy Impressions, that this little Journey, would have mischief attending it." The state of things in September is expressed by his note for the i8th : — "Of my Two Elder Daughters, The one I am giving up to God, and preparing for the Finishing Stroke of the Sacrifice, which the Death of the dear creature puts me upon. . . . The other, I am giving away to an hopeful young Gentleman, who is tomorrow to become her Husband." Next day Abigail was married to Mr. Daniel Willard, 2 6o COTTON MATHER. But Katharine grew steadily worse. Her temper, how- ever, was serene. " Death is become Easy," he writes, " yea, pleasant unto her : she rather chuses it, and has a contempt for this World, and a most satisfying Vision of the Heavenly World. It is very Strange to me ; The child feels herself a dying : but has a strong and bright persuasion of her own Recovery. I have none. I expect the Speedy approaches of Death upon her. — I sett apart this Day, for prayer with Fasting in Secret, on the behalf of the Dying Child. And it was a Day of Inexpressible Enjoyments unto me. I ob- tained pardon for all the Sins, that may have had a share in procuring my present Sorrows. I resigned the Child unto the Lord : ]\Iy Will was extinguished. I could say My Father^ kill my Child, if it be thy pleasure to do so. But yett I interceded, that if it might be so, the cup of Death might pass from me." Through October she grew gradually worse. But Cotton Mather was gladdened by the arrival of Gover- nor Shute. " Our New Governour," he writes on the 25th, " appears to have a Singular Goodness of Temper, with a Disposi- tion to Do Good, Reigning in Him : He also favours me with singular Testimonies of Regard. Oh ! Let me im- prove these unexpected opportunities to do good, in such a manner that God may have much Glory, and His people much Service from it." In November there was little new. Displeased with some proceedings in the House of Representatives, he sent for the members to visit him at his house. '' I would endeavour," he writes, ''their Illummation in the things of our peace. I would also Endeavour to re- duce our own Frowards from the Error of their way." HIS THIRD MARRIAGE. 261 The administration of the Howell estate, too, looked as if it were drawing to a close ; and he determined to propose to his wife " what special Service for God and His Kingdome she will do, in case the Administration be well finished, and she find any Estate remaining, that may render her Capable of doing anything." But the most remarkable thing that happened this month was the merciless blotting, with a madly scrawl- ing pen, of two long passages of Good Devised. " I could never learn," he writes in the margin, " How or Why these Blotts were made." Two years later he discovered. Meanwhile Katharine had been steadily ailing. On the 1 6th of December came the end : — " A little before sh. A. M. My Lovely Daughter Katha- rine expired gloriously. The Things which her dear Sav- iour has done to her and for her. Afford a Wonderful Story. . . . Much of my Time, of Late, has been spent in Sitting by her with Essayes to Strengthen her in her Agonies, wherein God graciously assisted me. ... I have been for many months a dying in my feeling the dying circumstances of my lovely Katy. And now, this Last Night, she is actu- ally Dead : But how triumphantly did she go away ! " And he made many pious resolutions on this occa- sion, especially in regard to Creasy, whose conduct worried him again. There was another thing to worry him, too : — " The Health of my Lovely Consort, who is the greatest of my Temporal Blessings, is a pardcular matter of concern unto me." The remaining two months of the year passed quietly. 262 COTTON MATHER. His son-in-law, Mr. Willard, gratified him by joining the church. And on the 3d of February he could write thus : — " My Heart is exceedingly affected with my most com- fortable and undeserved Enjoyments in my Domestic Cir- cumstances. I can scarce desire to be better off, than I am, upon all accounts. An amiable consort, agreeable Children, most accommodated Habitation, a plendf ul Table, The Respects of Kind Neighbours, a flourishing Auditory. — I am even distressed. That I may render unto the Lord, according to the Benefits which I have received from Him. Full of Thoughts, what shall I do in a way of extraor- dinary Thankfulness and Fruitfulness : Full of cries to Heaven, that I may be Directed, Quickened, Assisted unto a Right Behaviour." It was during this year 1 7 1 6 that Cotton Mather re- duced to writing the aflhdavit, officially certified, of how an apparition appeared to Anne Griffin and Ruth Weeden. This admirable ghost- story, very like De Foe's " Mrs. Veal," is printed in the Mather Papers.^ A note of Sewall's for the 13th of February will fitly close the year : — " Susan brings word that Mr Pemberton had a good night. . . . Yet afternoon am sent for to him as aproaching his end. When came was finishing his Will. Then I went in to Him : He call'd me to sit down by him, held me by the hand and spake pertinently to me, though had some difficulty to hear him. Mr. Sewall ^ pray'd fervently, and quickly after he expired, bolstered up in his Bed, about | past 3 after noon in the best Chamber. . . . My Son writ 1 Pages 421-424. 2 Joseph, son of the Judge, and Mr. Pemberton's colleague at the Old South. HIS THIRD MARRIAGE. 263 a Letter to Dr. Cotton Mather to preach for him, and be- fore 'twas superscrib'd, he came in, which took as a Token for good." Cotton Mather's diary for 1717 ^ begins with his re- marks about Pemberton : — " Yesterday in the Afternoon, there died the elder Min- ister of the Old South Church ; . . . who was eight or nine years younger than myself. He was a Man of greater Abilities than many others; and, no doubt, a pious man; but a man of a strangely Choleric and Envious Temper, and one who had created unto me more Trials of my pa- tience, and more clogs upon my Opportunities to Do Good, than almost any man in the world. The younger minister of that church, a dear son, and One of an Excellent Spirit, should have preach'd this Day ; But in his Distress he flies unto me to take his place in the pubHc Services. I cannot easily reckon up the opportunities to Do Good, which I find concurring, in this one Invitation to public performance, on such an Occasion. And the Glorious Lord helped me to glorify Him, in the speaking of many Things to serve the General Interests of Religion, as well as in the Testimony which I gave to what was Laudable in the character of the Departed Minister. Praehminary to my public perform- ance, ... I humbled myself before the Lord, bewayling all the Distempers which the 111 Carriage of the Deceased Neighbour may at any time have thrown me into, and ad- miring the Divine Goodness and patience which has given me to outlive so many of my younger Brethren." The year goes on with no more notable matters than a good devise to " Read a Chapter of Egardus unto my Lovely Consort every morning before we Rise " ; and a troublesome accusation of idolatry, based on the fact * In possession of the American Antiquarian Society. 264 COTTON MATHER. that he spoke civilly to a ship- cancer who had made a figure of St. Michael for the French provinces. " Our Excellent Governor," he remarks in May, " who has delivered the Country from a Flood of corruption, which was introduced by the selling of places, is to be encouraged." And on the 3d of July : — "This Day being the Commencement, as they call it; a Time of much Resort unto Cambridge, and sorrily enough thrown away, I chose to spend this time at home," and to pray that " the Colledge, which is on many accounts in a very Neglected and unhappy condition . . . may be re- stored unto better circumstances." But all along come notes that show domestic trouble. His family is much on his mind. Finally, on the 14th of July, he writes thus : — " Suppose that a child of my Singular Love and Hope should so fall into Sin, and be after wondrous meanes of Recovery so abandoned of God, . . . that there may be terrible cause to fear lest he prove a cast-away ; . . . what should be my Behaviour ? " He must guard himself against rebellion of spirit, adore the divine sovereignty, lament his own sins thus chastised, mourn for the sins of the child, and never give over crying unto the Lord. " My Son Increase ! " he writes on the 23d, '' With what plainness, . . . but yett with what prudence must I dis- pense . . . my Admonitions unto him. I take him into my Library; There I renew my Importunities: I obtain from him expressions of Repentance, and fitt Answers to the De- mands of piety. I pray with him there, and make him see I feel my Agonies for him. . . . Methinks I hear the Glorious One saying to me, Conceriii7ig thy Sojt I hear thee / " Other things troubled him, as the months went on : " the Venome and malice " of the '' Disaffected Rulers HIS THIRD MARRIAGE. 265 of our Colledge," for one thing; his daughter Abigail bore his first grandchild ; his consort was ill ; Sammy's education puzzled him. Finally, in the middle of Oc- tober, he felt that he must "sett apart Three Days \_Beseech the Lord thrice f] to ex- traordinary supplications that [Increase] may not go on in a course of Impiety." The same week Sewall gives us another glimpse of him. Mrs. Sewall was very ill. " Oct. 17. I asked my wife whether twere best for me to go to Lecture : She said, I can't tell : so I staid at home, put up a Note. It being my Son's Lecture, and I absent, twas taken much notice of. — Oct. 19. Call'd Dr. C. Mather to pray, which he did excellently in the Dining Room, having Suggested good Thoughts to my wife before he went down. . . . About a quarter of an hour past four, my dear Wife expired. — Oct. 20. I goe to public Worship forenoon and Afternoon. My Son has much adoe to read the Note I put up, being overwhelmed with tears." A week later Cotton Mather preached Mrs. Sewall's funeral sermon. Meanwhile he had been filled with unhappy fore- bodings. A few more notes tell the story. " [Nov. 5.] The Evil that I greatly feared is come upon me. I am within these few hours astonished with an In- formation, that an Harlot big with a Bastard, Accuses my poor Son Cressy, and Lays her Belly to him. The most sensible Judges, upon the strictest Enquiry, beleeve the youth to be Innocent. But yett, oh! the Humiliation! — Oh ! Dreadful Case ! O sorrow beyond any that I have mett withal ! What shall I do now for the foolish Youth I What for my Afflicted and Abased Family ! My God, look mercifully upon me." 266 COTTON MATHER. " 19. My God has not heard me. . . . My poor Son has made a worse Exhibition of himself unto me this day than I have ever yett mett withal. Oh my God, what shall I do ! What shall I do ! I will not yett utterly cast off the wretched child. But I will still follow Thee with supplications for what nothing but an Almighty Arm can accomplish." " Dec. 22. The aspect that some occurrences have upon me tells me, that I have not sufficiently repented of some Former Iniquities. . . . My God, help me, help me, to conform unto Thy Dispensations, and ly in the Dust before Thee ! " His wife was ill, too : and though Sammy was the best boy imaginable, his education was puzzling. Then his " transcendently wdcked brother-in-law " died, and he had to console the wddow. February found him a little more calm, determining to have a cold bath set up for fever-patients ; and, entreating of his " Discreet Consort " that she would plainly discover to him any traits of his that she would have otherwise, he had the satisfaction to be told of nothing. For his owm part, he thought himself too touchy, — " tho' I must be blind indeed if I do not see . . . that ... I meet with very odd, absurd, and frow^ard usage from some of the people." But perhaps the most permanently notable of his good devices for the year — he made at least one every day — was that which he made on the 2d of January. "What shall I do," he asked himself that morning, "for the welfare of the Colledge at New-Haven ? I am inclina- ble to write unto a wealthy East- India merchant at London, who may be disposed on Several Accounts, to do for that Society and Colony." VALE COLLEGE. 267 The College in question had been founded in 1700 : ^ without any endowment to speak of, it had distinguished itself from Harvard by maintaining, in pristine auster- ity, the Calvinism of the fathers. So the Mathers, and Sewall, and all who felt the old time passing from Mas- sachusetts, looked with growing fondness to New Haven. The letter which Cotton Mather projected on the 2d of January, he wrote on the i8th.^ It was to Elihu Yale. And among other arguments he urged was this : — " Sir, though you have your felicities in your family, which I pray God continue and multiply, yet certainly if what is forming at New Haven might wear the name of Yale College, it would be better than a name of sons and daughters. And your munificence might easily ob- tain for you such a commemoration " Yale thought so too : he gave a handsome gift to the College ; and ever since, thanks to Cotton Mather, the greatest nursery of New England priesthood has borne his name. '* Yale College," wrote Cotton Mather to Governor Sal- tonstall next June, "cannot fail of Mr. Yale's generous and growing bounty. I confess that it was a great and inex- cusable presumption in me, to make myself so far the god- father of the beloved infant as to propose a name for it. . . . [But] when the servants of God meet at your Com- mencement, I make no doubt, that under your Honour's influences and encouragements they will make it an oppor- tunity ... to deliberate upon projections to serve the great interests of education, and so of religion, . . . and not suffer an interview of your best men to evaporate such a senseless, useless, noisy impertinency as it uses to do with us at Cambridge." 1 Quincy, I. 197-200; Palfrey, III. 343-345- 2 Quincy, I. 226-229, 524-527. 268 COTTON MATHER. How things were going at Cambridge appears from a long note of Sewall's ^ in the following November. At a meeting of the Overseers, to consider an enlarge- ment of the College buildings, Sewall arose and said that there was an affair of greater moment : he under- stood that exposition of the Scriptures in the Hall had not been carried on ; he asked the President '^ whether 'twere so or no." Leverett was much displeased at Sewall's manner, but admitted the charge. After a hot discussion, Mr. Wadsworth moved that '' the president should as frequently as he could entertain the students with Expositions of the Holy Scriptures." " I mov'd," writes Sewall, " that as he could might be left out; and it was so voted. Mr. President seem'd to say softly, it was not till now the Business of the President to Expound in the Hall. I said I was glad the Overseers had now the Honour of declaring it to be the President's duty." Next day Leverett repeated his view in private to Sewall. " I said," writes the sturdy Puritan, "Twas a shame that a Law should be needed : meaning ex mails 7noribus bonae leges^^ In 1 718, too, another matter showed how far the College had strayed from the polity of the fathers. A graduate named Pierpont was refused the Master's de- gree on the ground that he had contemned and in- sulted the government of the College. He sued for it at law, with the encouragement of the Mathers. And Cotton Mather wrote a long letter in his behalf to Gov- ernor Shute. It was of no avail. The courts held that 1 Diary, III. 202, 203. 2 '* Good laws spring from evil practices." HIS THIRD MARRIAGE. 269 the matter was wholly within the jurisdiction of the College authorities.^ And this is why, in 1718, Cotton Mather again and again bewails " the wretched condi- tion of the College." On the 2d of July, •• this being the Day of the senseless Diversion they call the Commencement at Cambridge, one of my special er- rands unto Heaven was to ask Blessings for the Colledge, and the Rescue of it from some wretched circumstances in which it is now languishing." And now and again he has words of counsel for the "good, wise, generous Governor," who, Sewall tells, "gave occasional balls, and went to a horse-race." Cotton Mather's diary for 1718^ contains good de- vices for every day in the year. It shows his marvel- lous activity and restlessness at its highest point. But what seems nearest to him is the condition of his family. His aged parent was on his mind more and more ; he prayed and struggled for Increase with ago- nizing efforts to achieve an assurance that after all the boy should be saved ; and now and again comes the single cry, " My God ! My God ! " Once he writes, " Things appeared unto me, as if the Holy Ghost, were coming forth, to take a terrible Vengeance on me for the sins which my life has been filled withal; yea, and as if my Death being at hand I am to Dy on 111 Terms with Heaven, and have the dreadful portion of the Hypocrites assigned unto me." There are one or two curious notes, — one showing his feeling toward the mother country he never saw : he will write " home," he plans, about Jacobite troubles. 1 Quincy, Vol. I. Chap. XL '^ In possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society. 270 COTTON MATHER. And late in the year he projects something he never executed, — an " Enchiridion of the Liberal Sciences . . . which might enable persons easily to attain them : and at the same time consecrate the whole Erudition unto the Designs of piety." But throughout the year one feels a growing trouble, and knows not quite what it is. This note, written on the 1 8th of November, is typical : — " My Family is in astonishing circumstances. O ! the patience, the prudence, the prayer that is called for. If it were not for my calling of a glorious Christ into my mind continually, and the visits which He graciously makes unto my poor, sinful, sickly soul, what, what would become of me ! I here leave this tesdmony to you, my children, or whosever Hands these papers may fall into : That a glo- rious Christ conversed withal, will be the life of the Soul that has Him dwelling in it." On the 1 8th of January the volume suddenly breaks off, with a resolution to read Thomas a Kempis, "a Book of piety, which tis observable, all Chrisdans of all comunions have approved and valued.'' A little volume of seven leaves, entitled, " The Con- clusion of the LVI. Year," ^ — preserved quite sepa- rately from the rest, — tells the secret. "2id. xim 1718. Wednesday," runs the first entry. " My Glorious Lord has inflicted a New and a Sharp Chas- tisement upon me. The consort in whom I flattered my- self with the View and Hope of an Uncommon Enjoyment, has dismally confirmed it unto me, that our Idols must prove our Sorrow. Now and then, in some of the former years I observed and suiTered grievous outbreakings of her J In possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society. HIS THIRD MARRIAGE. 271 proud passions ; but I quickly overcame them with my victorious Love, and in the Methods of Meekness and Goodness. And, O my SA VI OUR, I ascribe tmto thee all the glory of it, and I wondrously praise thee for it : I do not know, that I have to this Day spoke one Impatient or Unbecoming Word unto her; tho' my provocations have been unspeakable ; and it may be few men in the World, would have borne them as I have done. But this last Year has been full of her prodigious paroxysms, which have made it a year of such Distresses unto me, as I have never seen in my Life before. When the paroxysms are gone off, she has treated me still with a Fondness, that it may be, few Wives in the World have arrived unto. But in the Return of them (which of late still grow more and more frequent) she has insulted me with such Outrages, that I am at a loss, which I should ascribe them to : Whether a Distraction which may be somewhat Hasreditary,) or to a possession; (whereof the symptoms have been too direful to be men- tioned.) In some other papers ^ I leave a more particular Account of these Things. But what I have here to Relate is : That she had expressed such a Venome, against my Reserved Memorials, of experiences in, and projections for, the Kingdom of God, as has obliged me to Lay the Memo- rials of this year, I thought, where she would not find them. It has been a year wherein I have made more Advances in piety, than in many former years. Perhaps, my Journey thro' the Wilderness just expiring, I must ride more way in one year now than in forty before. . . . For every Day I have noted, my purposes of Service for the Kingdom of God. For fear of what might happen, I have not one dis- respectful word of this proud woman, in all the papers. But this week, she has in her Indecent Romaging found them, and she not only detains them from me, but either she has destroy'd them, or she does protest, that I shall never see them any more. I have offered unto her, to blott out with 1 These papers I have not come across. 2 72 COTTON MATHER. her pen whatever she would not have to be there. But no Wing Entreaties of Mine can prevail upon her to Restore them. Only, she gives me hope of Restoring some time or other, the papers of the Four or Five preceding years, which this ungentlewomanly woman has also stolen, . , . I have Lived for near a year in a continual Anguish of Ex- pectation, that my poor Wife, by exposing her Madness, would bring a Ruine on my Ministry. But now it is Ex- posed, my Reputation is marvellously preserved among the people of God, and there is come such a General and Vio- lent Blast upon her own, as I cannot but be greatly troubled at. I will now go on." And go on he does, with good devices for every day until his next birth-day. But the secret was out. His wife was mad ; and mad she remained all the rest of his life. XIII. Inoculation. 1721. The history of Massachusetts during the ten remain- ing years of Cotton Mather's Ufe concerns us Httle. In 1720, Joseph Dudley died, in his last days weak as a child. Amid increasing troubles with the legislature, Shute remained Governor until the death of George I. ; but during the last years of his office he was in Eng- land, and Lieutenant Governor Dummer in charge of affairs at home. There were troubles with Jesuits and Indians in Maine ; there were financial difficulties, and disputes about official salaries ; there were squab- bles about the seizure of timber for the Royal Navy. George II. 's first Governor was William Burnet, still in office when Cotton Mather died. Our business now is to follow Cotton Mather to his end. In this chap- ter I shall tell of his hfe to the end of 1721. His diaries for 1719 and 1720 are not preserved: nor do I find any record of these years that shows him other than what we have seen. Eternally busy with his preaching, his writing, his reading, his scien- tific study, his endless projects to do what he thought was good ; perplexed with the growing infirmities of his aged parent, with the periodic madness of his wife, with the constant misconduct of Increase, he passed through his fifty-seventh and fifty- eighth years. And in 18 2 74 COTTON MATHER. 1 72 1, like loyal sons of Harvard since his time, he sent Sam to college there, with cordial letters to a President of whom he heartily disapproved. His diary for 1721 ^ records one of the busiest and most useful years of his life. The daily notes of good devices, for all manner of things and people in all parts of the world, crowd the pages. But month by month there are notes of other matters. It may perhaps be best to glance at them month by month. In March, busy as ever, he felt his family much on his mind ; and one good device is worth remembering : new accomplishments for Cressy must be paid for, — " to render him a more finished gentleman [Oh ! when, when shall I say Christian !]" So too is a note that recalls the death of Howell : ^ a '' wicked party " had been raising trouble in the country, and Cotton Mather had prayed earnestly against them ; this month one of their leaders was stricken with apoplexy. "Methinks," writes the life-long foe of witchcraft, " I see a wonderful token for Good in this matter ; and I go on with my Humble Supplications to the Lord." Early in April, Increase was arrested for night-riot with " some detestable rakes in the Town." ** What, what shall I do ! " writes his poor father. " How shall I glorify my Just, Wise, Dear Saviour on this deplora- ble occasion. And what is my Duty in relation to the In- corrigible prodigal." — " I must chase him out of my sight," he writes, a few days later, "forbid him to see me, until there appear sensible marks of repentance upon him. Nevertheless, I will entreat his Grandfather to take pains 1 In possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society. ^ See page 256. INOCULA TION. 2 75 for his Recovery." — 'M will write a tremendous letter to my wicked son Increase," comes still later ; . . . " I will tell him that I will never . . . look on him. till the characters of a penitent are very conspicuous in him. . . . Lord, Tho' I am a Dog, yett cast out the Devil that has posses- sion of the Child." — " Ah, poor Increase ! " he writes at last, " Tho' I spake against him, yett I earnestly remember him, and my Bowels are troubled for him." Nor was this the only trouble now : many of his flock were leaving for another church, which vexed him sorely. He comforted himself with this reflection : — "I shall enjoy a bright conformity to my Saviour, . . . if, just before my Death, I suffer a general withdrawal of my hearers from me." But old Increase Mather was not so patient : — " My aged father laies to heart the withdrawal of a vain, proud, fooHsh people from him in his age." There is one charming note in May : — " The Time of the year arrives for the glories of Nature to appear in my Garden. I will take my Walks there, on purpose to read the glories of my Saviour in them." But that very week there was calamity abroad. His note for the 26th of May is probably the most memora- ble he ever made. He wrote good devices every day, we must remember. Hundreds of these and thousands came, for all we know, to nothing; but the one he made this day was of lasting good to humanity : — " G. D. The grievous Calamity of the Small-pox has now entered the Town. The practice of conveying and suffer- ing the Small-pox by Inoculation has never been used in America, nor indeed in the Nation. But how many lives 276 COTTO.V MATHER. might be saved by it, if it were practiced. I will . . . con- sult our physicians, and lay the matter before them." The pestilence was very severe : it aroused the best activities of his nature. Nowhere else in his records does he show himself so free from morbid introspec- tion, so active in self- forgetful altruism, as now. And in June, he laid before the physicians his suggestion of inoculation. He had read of it, I believe, in some papers of the Royal Society ; and his early training as a physician gave him authority.-^ But the proposal was startling to many of the learned, and to all the vulgar. " It raised an horrid Clamour." In July, this clamour was all about him. Quarrels with his step-children, the Howells, whose estate he had tried to administer, vexed him, at the same time ; to meet their claims, he had even to sell some of his clothing. But what troubled him most was the panic of the plague-stricken town. " The cursed clamour of a people strangely and fiercely possessed of the Devil will probably prevent my saving the Lives of my Two Children from the Small-pox in the way of Transplantation." And he prayed, " that God would requite me good for all the cursing of a people that have Satan filling of them : and yett appear, to rescue, and in- crease my opportunities to Do Good, which the great ad- versary is now making an Hellish Assault upon." He was assailed with '' wild abuse ... for nothing but instructing our base physicians, how to save many precious lives " ; but at the end of the month he could write thus : " I must 1 The American Antiquarian Society preserves a large manu- script of Cotton Mather's entitled the " Angel of Bethesda." Valueless to-day, this is said to be a good manual of contempo- rary medicine. INOCULA TION. 277 exceedingly Rejoice in my Conformity to my Admirable Saviour : who was thus, and worse Requited, when he . . . came to save their Souls." So came August. His son Samuel wished to be inocu- lated. But if the boy should die, thought the father, ^' the people, who have Satan remarkably filling their hearts, . . , will go on with infinite prejudices against me and my ministry. . . . His Grandfather advises, That I keep the whole proceeding private, and that I bring the Lad into this method of Safety. My God, I know not what to do ! " "It is the Hour ... of Darkness on this Despicable Town," he wrote later; but drew his pen through "Des- picable" and wrote "miserable " instead. In the middle of the month, he yielded to Sam's re- quest, and the lad was inoculated. He sickened so fast and so severely that his father was seized with a dread that perhaps, before the inoculation, the poor boy had already contracted the disorder. And the panic against inoculation rose so that the town became " almost ^n Hell on Earth." Nancy came down with the pestilence, too ; and as the month went on, both grew worse. Yet in all his agony, and with such ex- ecrations about him as even in his troublous life he had hardly heard before, he resolved that he would write to England, urging that they try inoculation there. So, with prayers, and faith amid every doubt, he did his duty : and at the very end of the month came relief. Opening his Bible for comfort. Cotton Mather's eye fell on the words, " Go thy way. Thy Son liveth." And that very day Sam was bled, and began to mend. Inoculation had triumphed. 278 COTTON MATHER. In September, both Sam and Nancy were convales- cent ; but a new trial came. There was an interval of comfort; Cotton Mather preached for the bereaved minister of the New North Church, — the church of the ''swarming brethren," — thereby introducing "a more peaceable condition of Things in our Churches." But Increase began to misbehave again ; and on the 19th, Abigail died in childbed. Cotton Mather's last prayer for the month is typical of his mood : — "That I may humble myself before the Lord," it runs, "for all the Sins which the Death of my dear Nibby calls me to repentance for. That I may obtain mercy for the Family that she has left behind her. That Nancy may have a perfect recovery; Creasy be made a New Creature; Liza have her life preserved in the Dangers of the Conta- gion; and Sammy be bless'd in his Education. That I may be supported and preserved in my daily Visits to the Sick Chambers that are so lothsome, and full of Malignity. That I may be directed, assisted, prospered in my whole Ministry. And have a particular Smile of Heaven on the Essays I am now sending beyond sea to serve the King- dom of God." And this troubled month he gave no less than three publications to the press. Early in October comes a different note. Three of his children lived with him, and a kinswoman of his wife's. " Tho' I will have my Table Talk Facetious as well as Instructive, . . . yett I will have the Exercise continually intermixed. I will sett before them some sentence of the Bible, and make some useful Remarks upon it." The pestilence was at its height, though : in one week 315 petitions for prayer were put up in the North INOCULA TION. 279 Church; the next week, 322. And Increase Mather, in his sorrowful old age, was now " wholly Laid by from all public ser\dce." Cotton Mather struggled hard. The petitions for prayers fell to 180. But at the end of the month he wrote : — " In my Remarks on the Folly and Baseness contin- ually expressed by our Absurd and wicked people, I do not always preserve that meekness of Wisdom, which would adorn the Doctrine of God my Saviour. I will ask Wis- dom of God for the cure of this Distemper." What happened in November he shall tell for himself : — " My Kinsman, the Minister of Roxhiry^ being enter- tained at my House, that he might there undergo the Small-pox Inoculated^ and so Return to the Service of his Flock, which have the contagion begun among them : Towards Three a clock in the Night, as it grew towards the Morning of this Day,^ some unknown Hands, threw a Fired Granado into the Chamber where my kinsman lay, and which uses to be my Lodging-Room. The Weight of the Iron Ball alone, had it fallen upon his Head, would have been enough to have done part of the Business de- signed. But the Granado was charged, the upper part with dried powder, the lower part with Oil of Turpentine, and powder and what else I know not, in such a manner that upon going off, it must have splitt, and have probably killed the persons in the Room, and certainly fired the Chamber, and speedily Laid the House in Ashes. But, this Night there stood by me the Angel of GOD, whose I am and whom I serve ; and the Merciful providence of my Saviour so ordered it, that the Granado passing thro' the Window, had by the Iron in the middle of the Casement, such a Turn given to it, that in falling on the Floor, the 1 14 November, 1721. 28o COTTON MATHER. fired wild-fire in the Fuse was violently shaken out upon the Floor, without firing the Granado. When W\^ granado was taken up, there was found a paper so tied with string about the fuse that it might out-hve the breaking of the shell, — which had these words in it: — Cotton Mather^ you Dog; Dam yo7i : PI enoculate you with this, with a pox to you.'''' Cotton Mather had read Foxe's Martyrs all his life. This attack was such as had been made on the saints in Queen Mary's days, and older still ; he was almost a martyr. " I would much rather Dy for my Conformity to the Blessed Jesus," he wrote, "in Essays to save the Lives of Men from the Destroyer, than for some Truths, tho' precious ones, to which many Martyrs testified formerly in the Flames of Smithfield." And he closed the month by publishing far and wide accounts of inoculation, "by Which means, I hope, some hundreds of thousands of lives may in a little while come to be preserved." December brought lesser troubles. An enemy, to deride him, named a troublesome slave " Cotton Mather"; but he placed his hope in heaven, and prayed especially for '' the welfare of the unknown per- son, who sought my Death by the fired Granado." And this month comes almost the last glimpse we have of the riotous young Increase : — " My son Increase, by a violent and passionate Resent- ment of an Indignity, which a wicked Fellow offered unto me, has exposed himself to much Danger, and me also to no little Trouble. I must employ this occasion as much to his Advantage, especially in regard to piety, as I can." INOCULA TION. 2 8 1 The month ended with reaction : — " By a dark and a faint Cloud striking over my Mind, I begin to feel some Hazards, lest my Troubles, whereof I have a greater share than any Minister in the Countrey, grow too hard for me, and unfit me and unhinge me for my Services." And in January he told an assembly of ministers that his efforts to do good had brought obloquy on him and destroyed his usefulness. Hereafter he would follow good schemes, not propose them. "An Ingenious person in the company, Mr. Wm. Cooper, made the first and a quick Reply, ... in these Words, / hope the Devil don't hear you, Syry The last note for the year fitly closes the record : — "The year being so finished, what can I do better than seriously peruse the memorials of it, and make the Reflec- tions of piety that may be proper upon them." XIV. The Death of Increase Mather. 1722-1723. • In the year 1722, a startling thing happened at Yale College. The Rev. Timothy Cutler, who had been a successful President there for several years, announced his conversion to the Church of England. He was relieved of his office, and proceeded to England : whence by and by he came back as an Episcopal clergyman to Boston. Whether this fact had anything to do with what went on at Harvard I cannot say. In the time that had intervened since Leverett had been made President, the course of things there had been wholly in the direction of the liberalism, which in growing and changing forms has constantly characterized the older College. As we have seen, the sympathy of whoever held faithfully to the old traditions of New England had been more and more directed to Yale. Quincy^ shows good reason for supposing that Cotton Mather, without due open- ness, tried hard to divert thither at least a part of the benefactions of Thomas Hollis. This gentleman, a Baptist merchant of London, was in his time the most generous friend Harvard College had ever had. And the effort which the Orthodox clergy of Massachusetts 1 Vol. I. Chapter XII. DEATH OF INCREASE MATHER. 283 made to confine the Professorship of Divinity that HoUis founded to their own creed — a creed distinctly differ- ent from his — is among the least admirable features of their hopeless struggle to maintain priestly authority in a state committed to constantly more advanced Protestantism. The passage I cited from Sewall,^ describing his con- troversy with Leverett in the Board of Overseers, re- lates one incident of a controversy that was going on at Harvard. Quincy^ tells the story in detail. The Corporation consisted chiefly of men in sympathy with Leverett ; Colman, for example, was now a Fellow. Two tutors, apparently of more conservative temper, advanced a claim to seats in the Corporation. A fierce dispute broke out, of which the details need not con- cern us. One of its features, however, was an official inquiry into the actual state of the College, educa- tional, religious, and moral. This was in progress throughout the year 1723 : and Cotton Mather eagerly urged it on. His suggestions on points to be inquired into, Quincy prints in full. It seems possible that the state of the " beloved infant " Yale led him to hope for a return of grace to the mother Harvard. In the beginning of this paper is a phrase which refers to the event of this year which meant most to Cotton Mather : — "The performances of a deceased person, and with what industry and fidelity the churches of New England were served in them, 'tis too late to inquire into." The deceased person was Increase Mather. The old man had died on the 23d of August, 1723. 1 See page 26S. 2 Vol. I. Chapter XIII. 284 ^ COTTON MATHER. Cotton Mather gives a long account of his father's latter days ; ^ of the constancy and method of his devo- tions and studies; of his benign charity, — a trait of which I find little trace elsewhere ; of the grave civility of his carriage in all departments of life. His faults the pious son passes lightly : were it not for Sewall's diary, and the frequent allusions to " my aged parent " in Cotton Mather's own, we should not have the pain- ful picture I can dimly see of the austere Puritan's sad old age. He had given the best energies of a Hfe that had been among the most laborious of his time, to the Colony and the Province and the churches of Massa- chusetts. He had won for the people the Charter under which they lived less fettered, I believe, than any other colonists in the world. And his reward had been neglect. Political power, Harvard College, his very congregation, had one after the other been withdrawn from him. And plagued with the pains of pedantic old age, he had diffused about his last years, I fear, an atmosphere free from moral or spiritual exhilaration. The greatest of his trials, the most mysterious of all the dispensations he had to bear, was the disappointment of the greatest particular faith of his life. Again and again, wrestling with the Lord, he had been assured that he should once more serve God in England. His son had shared his faith and his assurances. But they came to nothing. The College fell back to the old charter that fatally failed to secure it to the faith of the fathers. And what God meant, neither of the Mathers could ever guess. There is pathos in Cotton Mather's last note about the matter : after all, was not 1 Parentator, XXXI., XXXII. DEATH OF INCREASE MATHER. 285 the faith perhaps fulfilled when, in 17 15, an assembly of ministers asked Increase Mather to bear a formal address of congratulation to George I.? A few of his last speeches Cotton Mather preserves. Of Boston he said, "There is yet a number of Godly People in the town; they may be brought low, But the Town shall be yet pre- served": of the times in general, "There will be no set- tled Good Times, I suppose, till the second coming of the Lord." It was he who drew up a loyal address for the Min- isters of Boston to King George, delivered from some Jacobite plot. And in the last year of his life he wrote a solemn paper, briefly asserting the old principles of New England, to maintain which the Colony and the College had been planted ; and earnestly charging posterity with the duty of preserving them. In his last days, grievously plagued with the stone, his spirit, like his father's before him, sank low. " In a deep Abyss of Humility, there was utterly Absorb'd with him all Sense of his ever having done atty good at all in the World." And he prayed, and begged those about him unceas- ingly to pray for the free grace of Christ. And hearing that Thomas Hollis had written to ask if he were yet in the land of the living, he bade his son write back : — " No, Tell him I am going to it ; This Poor World is the Land of the Dying." Late in July Sewall wrote thus : — " Fast at the Old North. As I went along towards Cambridge-Court, I called at the old Doctor's who was agonizing and Crying out, Pity me ! Pity me ! I told him 286 COTTON MATHER. God pity'd him, to which he assented and seemed pacify'd. He prayed God to be with me."^ He lived three weeks longer. This is his son's account of his end : — " At last, he began to fall into the Torments of the Wheel broken at the Cistern : Which yet became not Intol- erable, and forced no Ejaculation from him till about Three Weeks before he Died. Under these, about Three Days before his Expiration, coming out of a Dark Minute, he said, // is now Revealed from Heaven to me^ That I shall quickly^ quickly ^ quickly be fetched away to Heaven, and that I shall Dy in the A ri7is of my Son. After this, he kept very much calling for me ; till Friday, \}:\^ Twenty-Third oi August, 1723, in the Morning perceiving the Last Agonies now come upon him, I did what I could after my poor man- ner, that he might be Strengthened by such Quickening Words as the Lively Oracles of our God have provided for such Occasions. As it grew towards Noon, I said unto him, Syr, the Messe7iger is now come to tell you, This Day thou shalt be in Paradise. Do you Believe it, Syr, and Re- joice i?i the Views and Hopes of it? He Replied, / do/ I do / I do ! — And upon these Words he Dyed in my Arms.'' Posterity has inclined to deem him a cunning schem- er, justly disappointed in such ambition as to-day not a few among us attribute to the priesthood of Rome. That he earnestly longed to see the temporal power of America at the feet of the spiritual, no man can doubt ; nor yet that he saw in himself the man who should by right stand at the head of the spiritual power of his time and country. And there will always be men, and many, who cannot believe that such views can be held for any other reason than vulgar longing for human 1 Diary, III. 325. DEATH OF INCREASE MATHER. 287 power. But whoever has followed the history of Har- vard College, through Unitarianism, to that more shad- owy heresy still which calls itself unsectarian religion, — even though he rejoice, as I do, in the unfettered spirit- ual freedom of the greatest stronghold of American Protestantism, — must know that the grim old man read the future right. If the faith from which he never swerved be true, then assuredly we of the later times are lost. And those who can train themselves to that sympathy without which no man can under- stand his fellows will not forget, when they sit to judge the greatest of the native Puritans, that not one of his efforts to preserve and strengthen his earthly authority was not also an effort to make their lives, and all the lives still to come, lives which should tread in the paths of salvation. So, after nearly eighty-four busy, troubled years, he came to his peace. And so the son, who had never faltered in devotion, who for well on to forty years had shared every hope and grief with an affection as broth- erly as it was filial, was left alone, to struggle with a world which all his life had been pressing onward from the station where his feet were planted. With a mad wife, with but four of his fifteen children left him, with his eldest son — and to the end his dearest — straying further and further towards perdition, with the New England churches ever straying further and further from the holy traditions they were founded to preserve. Cotton Mather was left alone. XV. The Last Diary of Cotton Mather. 1724. The last of Cotton Mather's diaries preserved is that for 1724.^ The daily notes of good devices continue until November, when a sharp fit of illness broke them off. And when he grew better, and began to write once more, in a style whose incoherence shows how his troubles had shaken him at last, his first note tells that he will record his good devices no more ; in the little time left him on earth, there are other things that call for every moment. It was a troubled year, this 1724. Yet his first note is not a troubled one. On his birthday he held a fast as ecstatic as any he had known ; and among his works for the day was the long Latin epitaph with which he ended the life of his father, — the book from which my picture of the old man has chiefly been drawn, and the book which shows how firmly, even in his closing years. Cotton Mather still held the faith which had governed his whole life. And a little later he had a satisfaction : forty years before. Increase Mather had preached against suicide a sermon insti- gated by the act of one Taylor, father of the Lieutenant Governor to be, who had hanged himself with a snafile- 1 In possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society. HIS LAST DIARY. 289 bridle. Another notable suicide now occurring, Sewall sent to Cotton Mather, asking whether the sermon were preserved. Cotton Mather found it almost at once : Sewall had it published.^ And so Increase Mather, though dead, still spoke to the people of New England.'-^ But there were many things to vex Cotton Mather, too : Increase was gone to sea ; the troubles about the ad- ministration of Howell's estate went so far that writs against Mather were issued ; ^ and in his house was a niece of his wife, — " a very wicked Creature, and not only deaf to all proposals of piety, but also a monstrous Liar, and a very mischievous person, and a Sower of Discord, and a Monster of Ingrati- tude." Nor did discord need to be sown in the unhappy house : Mrs. Mather's paroxysms were worse than ever. Again and again this year come Latin notes, telling under the thin veil of that learned tongue what the horrors of his last marriage were. Another matter which troubled him much he men- tions thus : — " I hear of strong Machinations and Expectations among the wicked Church of England ]\Ien, to gett our Colledge into their hands ; which will be a most compendious way to bring Quick Ruine on our Churches. I would apply my- self with all proper Awakenings to the men at Helm on this Occasion."' And next day he would '' sollicit for Days of prayer ... in the CoUedge-Hall, on the Occasion of the condition . . . it is . . . exposed unto." 1 Sewall's Diary, III. 331, 332, - See page 26. ^ The two Howells, who made all his trouble, were drowned, while skating at the foot of Boston Common, Jan. 8, 1727-8. Sewall's Letter-Book, II. 307. 19 29© COTTON MATHER. The state of aifairs was this. The Rev. Timothy Cutler, the converted President of Yale, had come from England to Boston, as Episcopal Rector of Christ Church, — the church from which fifty years later, by a curious irony of fate, the lantern was shown that sent Paul Revere galloping to Lexington and Concord. One Mr. Myles was Rector of King's Chapel, the of- ficial place of worship of the royal Governor. As <' ministers of Boston," these gentlemen claimed seats in the Board of Overseers of Harvard College ; ^ and though their claim was never allowed, it was urged until after Cotton Mather was dead. And it had to be fought hard. It was this, among other things, which led Cotton Mather to that day of meditation of which Upham has pubhshed the greater part of the record.^ He asked himself question after question about his earthly state, and gave answers ; of which this is an example : — " What has a gracious God given me to do \w good offices wherever I could find opportunities for the doing of them ? I for ever entertained them with alacrity. . . . And yet I see no man for whom all are so loth to do good offices. . . . Often have I said, What would I give if there were any one man in the world to do for me what I am willing to do for every man ! " But Upham thought irrelevant and not worth quot- ing the close of these meditations. " I have a clear and strong persuasion of a Future State. ... I do most freely . . . consent unto the condition of a crucified man, . . . without any prospect of any Outgate, 1 Quincy, Vol. I. Chapter XVII. 2 Salem Witchcraft, II. 503, seq. HIS LAST DIARY. 291 but at and by the Dying Hour. Yea, Secondly, I have al- ready received an abundant Recompense of Christ. ... If I never had any other compensation for my Troubles, I have had so much, that I need not ask for any more." Which words and others like them make the passage seem to me other than to Upham : he finds in it a confession of selfish wickedness which deliberately sacrificed human life in the witchcraft trials, two and thirty years before. What Cotton Mather had to bear from his wife, these two notes tell : — August 13. " This night my unaccountable Consort, had a prodigious return of her pangs upon her. . . . After a thousand unrepeatable Invectives, compelling me to Rise at Midnight, and retire to my Study that I might there pour out my Soul before the Lord ; she also gott up in a horrid Rage, protesting that she would never Live or Stay with me ; and calling up her wicked Niece and Maid, she went over to a Neighbour's House for a Lodging. ... I, with my Son Samuel^ and my daughter Hajinah., retired up to my Library, where we together . . . poured out our Sup- plications. Towards the morning, I went unto my Bed, and enjoy'd some Repose. . . . What was pretended as the Introduction to the present, was. That, forsooth, for a Day or two, my Looks and Words were not so very kind as they had been." August 23. " In the Evening, . . . my poor Wife, re- turning to a Right Mind, came to me in my Study, entreat- ing that there might be Eternal Oblivion of every thing that had been out of point; . . . and that for the . . . further obtaining of this Felicity, I would now join with her in pouring out Supplications to the Lord. ... I did accordingly. And the Tokens of the greatest Inamoration on her part ensued upon it." 292 COTTON MATHER. Meanwhile another trial was in progress. On the 3d of May, John Leverett, President of Harvard Col- lege, was found dead in his bed. On the 6th, he was buried, and Cotton Mather was one of his bearers. Next day, Mather writes : — " The sudden death of that unhappy man who sustained the place of president in our colledge, will open a Door for my doing of Singular Services to the Best of Interests. Indeed his being within a year of the same Age with my- self loudly calls upon me to live in a daily expectation of my own call from hence. ... I do not know that the care of the colledge will be now cast upon me : tho' I am told, it is what is most generally wished for. If it should, I shall be in abundance of Distress about it. But if it should not, I may do many things for the good of the colledge, more quietly and more hopefully than formerly. . . . Why may I not write unto the tutors . . ., and Sollicit . . . That they would exert their powers to make the Students, become indeed what they are called, and spend . . . their Time well; and therefore not content themselves with the daily Recitations (the matter of which also, ought to be fur- ther considered) but assign them suitable Books to read, and see that they Read them. That they encourage So- dalities among them ; to meet every week for the Com- munications of their Acquisitions to one another. That they Countenance Industry, with distinguished Rewards ... to the Meritorious. That they bring up the use of the Latin Tongue in Conversation among the Scholars. That above all things, they do what may be done for the Anima- tion ... of PIETY among the young men : . . . cast a kind Aspect on those who Associate for Devotions ; and . . . establish them in the Faith and Order of the Gospel^ in which the Churches of New England have their Beauty and their Safety." August 12. "I am now informed that the Six Men who HIS LAST DIARY. 293 call themselves the Corporation of the Colledge mett, and contrary to the Epidemical Expectation of the Countrey, chose a modest young man, of whose piety (and little else) every one gives a laudable character. I always foretold these Two Things of the Corporation: First, That if it were possible for them to steer clear of me, they will do so. Secondly, That if it be possible for them to act Foolishly, they will do so. . . . It proves accordingly. Now, tho' the senseless Management of these men threatens little short of a Dissipation to the Colledge, yett I have personally unspeakably to admire the com- passion of Heaven to me on this occasion. Tho' I have been a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with Griefs, yett none of the least Exercises I have met withal, was the Dread of what the Generality of sober people . . . desired : the Care of the Colledge. . . . I had a Dismal Apprehension of the Distresses, which a call to Cambridge would bring upon me. . . . But the Sleight and the Spite of my Six Friends, has produced for me an Eternal Deliverance. I doubt, I have expressed myself with a httle too much Alac- rity on this Occasion. Lord, help me to a wise Behaviour ! " Next day he wrote : " G. D. Hasten, Hasten, O Slothful Mather, in dispatching thy Treatise of Advice to the Can- didates of the Ministry. Thou mayest thereby do more Good, than Twenty presidents of Colledges.'' That very night was the one when his wife left his house. A month later, he had another meditation about the College : Had the care of it come to him, it might have worried him to death ; and who knows but the Lord, designing shortly to call him from earth, purposely deliv- ered the College from a fresh inconvenience? Again, though as President he might have served God, the " Grace which I have already received in that kind, espe- cially considering my prodigious unworthiness, may well 2 94 COTTON MATHER. be sufficient for me. . . . Finally, The preferring of a Child before me as my Superiour in Erudition, or in Capacity ... to manage the Government of an Academy, or in piety and Gravity, This is what ... it would be a Crime in me to be disturbed at." The ''Child " in question was Joseph Sewall, son of the Judge, and minister of the Old South Church. He declined the office. In November the Corporation met again. " The Corporation of our Miserable Colledge," wrote Cotton Mather, "do again (upon a Fresh Opportunity) treat me with their accustomed Judgment and Malignity But Oh ! may I take pleasure in the Opportunity I have to glorify my God and Saviour." The choice of the Corporation fell on Colman, who also declined. It was not until June, 1725, that a President was finally found : it was Benjamin Wads- worth, who held office till after Cotton Mather died. Meanwhile, in August, just when his wife was at her w^orst, had come a harder blow still. On the 20th he writes : — " While I am this morning, about projecting of Services for the Kingdom of God ... I have sad Advice of His going on to pull down mine [House], with dreadful Dis- pensations. . . . My son hicrease is Lost, is Dead, is Gone. The Ship wherein he was bound from Barbadoes to St. Peter's, had been out five Months . . . ; and some singular circumstances of the Vessel also . . . confirm the Apprehension that it is perished in the Sea. Ah ! my Son Increase ! My Son, My Son ! My Head is Warm, and my Eyes are a Fountain of Tears. — I am overwhelmed ! — And this at a Time when the Domestic Inhumanities and Diabolisms which I am treated withal, are so Insupport- HIS LAST DIARY. 295 able ! — Oh my God, I am oppressed : undertake for me. — But the Soul of the Child ! — If the purposes which he left in my Hands were Sincere, and His Heart went with his pen, — All is well ! — Would not my God not have me to hope so ? — My Saviour yett affords me this Light in my Darkness, that He enables me, to offer up all the Sacrifices He calls me to." In September came a rumour that, after all, the ship in which Increase sailed was safe ; but a day or two later comes this note : — " The Good News of poor Creasy's being Rescued and Releeved from Death is all come to nothing: Twas another Vessel. O my Father^ Thy Will be done.^'' Later still comes a supplication "with a special Regard unto the sad case of my son Increase; that I may have Light arise in Darkness to me under it ; . . . and that the Discourse^ which it has awakened me to prepare for the pubhc may be published and prospered." Late in November, as I have said, Cotton Mather fell very ill. For five weeks he was unable to make entries in his diary. As I have said, those he made when he grew better show him broken in health and mind as never before. I will cite but one : it is the last ; and one, I think, with which he would have chosen to ])id us farewell. "February 7. 1724-5. Lord's-Day. When I sitt alone in my Languishments, unable to Write or to Read, I often compose Little Hymns agreeable unto my present circum- stances, and Sing them unto the Lord. Vast numbers have I had of these, which are immediately all Forgotten. But tho' none of them have been hitherto recorded, I will here insert one of them; inasmuch as I design to use it again, and often upon occasion. Having found my Mind for 296 COTTON MATHER. some time without such precious and Impressive Thoughts of God my Saviour, as are the Life of my Spirit, I thus mourn'd and Sung unto the Lord : — " O glorious Christ of God ! I Live In Views of Thee Alone. Life to my gasping Soul, Oh ! Give ! Shine Thou, or I 'm undone. " I cannot Live, my God, if Thou Enliven'st not my Faith ! I'm Dead ; I 'm Lost ; Oh ! Save me now From a Lamented Death. " For the Return of my Health I added: " My glorious Healer now Restore My Health, and make me whole. But this is what I most implore : Oh, For an Healed Soul." I XVI. The Last Days of Cotton Mather. 1724-1728. In this year, 1724, Cotton Mather's youngest surviv- ing daughter, EHzabeth, had married one Edward Cooper. In this year, too, Benjamin FrankHn saw him for the last time. In Franklin's /Autobiography, the prince of self-made Yankees tells that one of the books that most influenced his youth was Cotton Mather's "Essays to Do Good," ^ — a work in which Mather insisted on a point that was always dear to him, the importance of combined, co-operative effort. In 1724, Franklin, better dressed than usual, came home for a few weeks from his first expedition to Philadelphia. Among other visits, the young man paid one to Cotton Mather, in the study where a placard bearing the words "Be Brief" warned visitors that they had to do with the busiest of men. When Franklin took leave, Mather showed him out through a dark passage, and, as the youth was walking ahead, suddenly called out, " Stoop ! " Not understanding, Franklin took an- other step and bumped his head against a projecting beam. Whereupon Mather warned him that, through- out life, he would find judicious stooping a great means of avoiding trouble. So they parted. Years after- 1 See Sibley, III. 102, 103. The book was published in 17 10. 298 COTTON MATHER. wards Franklin wrote Samuel Mather that he had never forgotten the useful counsel. For the remaining three years of Cotton Mather's hfe, I find no record that shows him other than we have seen him. Between the beginning of 1725 and the end of 1728, Sibley shows that no less than fifty of his pubU- cations appeared, — sermons, books of good counsel, and so on. In general, one may say that his published work was historical, biographical, expository, and hor- tatory : its chief features are lives of good people, instructions as to how good may be done, explanations of Scripture and of various points of godliness, and such scientific instruction as appeared in his writings about inoculation. Considering how much he wrote and how actively he busied himself with public affairs, it is amazing that he left behind so little controversial writing. The fact is, I take it, that he was from the beginning so convinced of the essential authority of the clergy, that, except under very great provocation, argument of any kind seemed needless in one of his profession. In August, 1726, his daughter Elizabeth died, leav- ing children. Of his own fifteen children only Samuel and Hannah survived him. In December, 1727, he fell ill.^ " My Last Enemy is come," he said, " I would say my Last Frie?td.^' He lay ill five or six weeks. On Thursday, February 8th, he began to suffer with " an hard Cough and a suffocating Asthma with a Fever; but he felt no great Pain ; he had the sweet Cojnposure I S. Mather, Life, VII. 3, 4. HIS LAST DA YS. 299 and easy Departure^ for which he had entreated so often diudi fervently the sovereign Disposer of all Things." On Sunday, writes Samuel Mather, "I asked him what Sentence or Word . . . He would have 7ne think on constantly^ for I ever desired to have him before me and hear him speaking to me. He said, ' Re- member only that one word Fructuosics.' ^ " On Tuesday, February 13th, 1728, — the day after his sixty-fifth birthday, — he died. Sewall describes the last scene of all : — "Monday, Febr. 19. Dr. Cotton Mather is intombed: Bearers, The Rev'd. Mr. Colman, Mr. Thacher ; Mr. Sewall, Prince; Mr. Webb, Cooper. The Church went before the Corps. First, the Rev'd Mr. Gee ^ in Mourning alone, then 3 Deacons, then Capt. Hutchinson, Adam Winthrop esqr. Col. Hutchinson — Went up Hull street. I went in a Coach. All the Council had gloves; I had a pair. It seems when the Mourners return'd to the House, Mr. Walter said, My Bror. had better Bearers; Mr. Prince answer'd, They bore the better part." 1 Fruitful. ^ Cotton Mather's colleague at the North Church. I XVII. Cotton Mather, the Puritan Priest. Before Cotton Mather's tomb was fairly closed, then, men who had known him best were whispering among themselves other than good things concerning the dead. Posterity has held them right. A subtle priest, self- seeking, vain, arrogant, inconsistent, mischievous in his eternal business, many have called him : even if honest, dreadfully deluded and grotesquely lacking in judgment, is what those mostly say who say the best. And if we had only public records to guide us, I should be dis- posed to assent. The son of Increase Mather, the grandson of John Cotton and of Richard MatTier, sprung of a race of chosen vessels of the Lord, himself a chosen vessel be- fore his boyhood was fairly closed, intoxicated with such adulation as Urian Oakes spoke when, the youngest of Harvard graduates, he took his degree, he began his half- century of earthly work. Full of the traditions of the fathers, he pressed on, divinely authorized to lead the people of God in the path of salvation : whoever would not follow was godless. Then he saw his father's great work in England; and meanwhile did great work at home. He saw the tyranny of Andros fall : his prayers were answered. He saw Phipps come with the new Charter : New England was saved. Now he might THE PURITAN PRIEST. 301 lead on more confidently still. And he plunged into the horrors of witchcraft. And he saw theocracy fall with poor Sir William Phipps. And he saw Harvard College lost to the cause of the fathers. And he saw the very churches of Boston preaching new doctrines, full of delusion. For five and thirty years he saw the clergy of New England started on the course in which they still travel : from a position where the influence of the church was greater than anywhere else in the world, to one where the influence of the church has become almost imperceptible. And he fought against fate with every weapon he could clutch ; and he believed his own advancement was what God needed to restore His king- dom ; and some of the blows he struck — and for aught I know many of them — may have been foul ones. But before we can judge him aright, we must strive to see him as he saw himself. This is what I have tried to do. I have told his story perhaps too much in his own words. By no other means could I show so simply what seems to me the truth : that with a depth of human nature which makes him above most men who have lived a brother man to all of us, he never ceased striving, amid endless stumblings and errors, to do his duty. It was his lot to possess a mind and a temperament more restlessly active than most men ever know. With this nature, it was his lot to live all his life in a petty provincial town, further removed from the great current of contemporary life than any spot to-day in the civil- ized world. And this he never realized ; nor have any of those reaHzed who have sat to judge him. His grand- fathers, and the other founders of New England, came 302 COTTON MATHER. from the midst of the seething England which was soon to dethrone the Stuarts, full of the passion of a contest that had been to every one of them the greatest of earthly realities. His father's life had brought the elder man face to face with kings and bishops : In- crease Mather had fought hard to preserve and to per- petuate a Puritanism whose pristine freshness was still within his own memory. But when Cotton Mather's time came, Puritanism — like Anglicanism itself — was already not the great reality it had once been : it had become a tradition. The world travels faster nowadays. The Civil War is already such a tradition to us. This great tradition of Puritanism he fought so pas- sionately to defend had in it the seeds of a grim, un- truthful formalism, which has made it seem to many men of later times a gloomy delusion, fruitful only of limitation and of cant. Those who see in it only or chiefly this, forget what even to Cotton Mather himself was its greatest truth. Few human philosophies have been more essentially ideal ; few systems formulated by men have so strenuously kept before the minds of those who accept them the transitory unreality of those things which human beings can perceive, the eternal and infi- nite reality of the Divine universe that lies beyond hu- man ken. Once learn this, and nothing on this earth is so great as to deserve a care, when we think of the infinite realities beyond ; nor anything on this earth so mean as not to be a manifestation of divine truth. At onQe contemptible and reverend, this earthly life of ours is but the fragment of an instant in the timeless eternities of God. But to the Puritans, it was an in- stant in which the infinite mercy of God, with free THE PURITAN PRIEST. 303 grace mitigating His infinite justice, gave every living man the chance and the hope of finding in himself the signs of eternal salvation. It is not every man who can rise to such heights of idealism as this : whoever cannot or will not so rise, whoever cannot feel beneath the austere pettiness of Puritanism the passionate enthusi- asm that made things unseen — Hell and Heaven, the Devil, and the Angels, and God — greater realities than anything this side of eternity, can never even guess what Puritanism meant. On its earthly side, however, Puritanism had a trait which has been more generally recognized, though not, perhaps, more fully understood. In its origin it was Protestant. It began, and it gained earthly strength, in a passionate revolt of human thought from those phases of ecclesiastical tradition which human experience had proved false and wicked. God's word contains God's truth, the first Protestants cried ; we will read it for our- selves, none but God shall be our guide. So, Bible in hand, they led the way for who would follow ; and when they were gone far enough to muster their forces, they would have cried halt. But what authority had they to stop the progress they had urged? God's world con- tains God's truth, cried those of their followers whose spirit came nearest to that of the leaders : let us read it there, and read it each for himself ; none but God shall be our guide. And those who press ever onward, seek- ing God's truth each for himself, are the Protestants of to-day. Protestantism can have no priesthood. This truth Cotton Mather never guessed. To this day honest Protestant Christians are blind to it. Nor did he guess, either, some other truths which modern 304 CO TTON MA THER. Protestant Christianity equally fails to recognize. The priestly office, let it derive its authority from Rome or Canterbury, Geneva or Utah, demands in those who exercise it even most fervently a trait which in its most obvious form the priests are the first to condemn, — histrionic insincerity. Placed before men as an accred- ited spiritual leader, the priest — whatever his mood or his character — must conduct himself, at least in his public functions, as if he were what no human being ever was or can be, — wholly given up to the service of God. And the adulation of the worshippers who see in him an ever present minister of God strengthens him year by year in the power in which applause strength- ens the actor : the power of seeming at will to be what in the depths of his heart he is not. To gain this power, to strengthen it, is part of the priest's duty. And there is no way of strengthening it so certain as the way Cotton Mather took, like the saints of Rome before him. Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, he cast himself in the dust before the Lord ; he strained his eyes for a fleeting gHmpse of the robes and crowns of God's angels, his ears for the faintest echo of their celestial music. Pure in motive, noble in purpose, his whole life was one unending effort to strengthen in himself that phase of human nature whose inner token is a riot of mystical emotion, whose outward signs are unwitting manifesta- tions of unfettered credulity and unmeant fraud. Yet it is not as a sly and superstitious priest that I remember him to-day : any more than I think that sly- ness and superstition to-diy make up the character of a Christian minister. In the first place, the passionate THE PURITAN PRIEST. 305 idealism to which he held with all his heart — like honest priests since the world began — coloured, and glorified, and made divine, even the meanest things in the petty earthly life he knew. A squatting dog brought him a message straight from the throne of God. In the second place, the life he lived — with all its gro- tesque pettiness — was the life which had in it the seeds of that great continental life in which Hes the chief hope of the modern world. To understand the America of to-day, we must know the New England of the fathers ; to know the first New England of the fathers, there is no better way than to study this man, — its last, its most typical incarnation. And as we study him, and then look back at the figure that emerges from the dusty books and manuscripts of two centuries ago, the final trait of him, that hides the rest, is this : strenuously, devoutly, he did what he deemed his duty. All about him he saw ever crescent disappointment and sorrow and earthly failure ; but he never lost heart, not ever for a moment ceased effort, with word and deed alike, to do good to mankind. Friutuosus — be fruit- ful, do God's work here on earth — was his last com- mand to his son. And the incessant training of his career in the art that in its meaner form he would have been the first to execrate, — the art of the actor, who can at will seem to be what in truth he is not, — made him what it makes good ministers to-day. More than other men they can sympathize with mankind : in agony, in sorrow, in sin, men turn to them for aid, for counsel, for charity in all its divinest forms. And this the saintly actors give as no other men can, thus doing good un- speakably reverend. The very weakness of their calling, 20 306 COTTON MATHER. SO palpable to those who have not known their benefi- cence, — so fruitful of obloquy and execration in those who neither share their faith nor will let themselves sympathize, — makes them more blessed to mankind than a thousand of their more candid fellows. Out of evil God brings good : it is the histrionic insincerity of priesthood that brings to unhappy men the Divine sym- pathy of priests. And in his ministry Cotton Mather never faltered : with ever growing earnestness, he went through that grim and sorrowful old New England, in every deliberate thought and act ministering to the bodies and the souls of the people of God. Fructuosus — fruitful — is the final word for him. And what fruit has his priesthood borne that is with us to-day? New England is far enough from the stern creed in which alone he saw hope of salvation. But not long ago an old friend, talking of the New England that both of us love, spoke a phrase I like to remem- ber : *' We have here," he said, " what the world has never seen before : we have devout free thought." It is the Protestantism of the fathers that has won us our freedom. But freedom alone were a curse. It is the faithful earnestness of the Puritan priesthood that has kept our freedom from strapng into that pert irrever- ence which elsewhere than here has made so many who cast aside the false cast with it the true. And among the Puritan priests there was never one, I beHeve, more faithfully earnest than this Cotton Mather. One hundred and sixty-three years have passed since he was laid in his father's tomb on Copp's Hill. And few of us to-day can believe that he is gone to such a little company of God's elect as would make the THE PURITAN PRIEST. 307 heaven he preached of. If he be, then, when by chance he looks back at the earth where he laboured, he must see a sight that for the instant should dim the joys of Paradise. But there are not a few to-day who dream of a heaven in whose blessedness all the fetters of humanity are broken ; where what is best in men waxes better than men can even dream, amid the ever- growing glories of eternal freedom from sin, and weak- ness, and sorrow. And if by chance his eyes have opened again in a heaven like this, and if from thence he looks back to an earth where his sins and errors have borne little fruit, but where the devoutness of the free thought of New England speaks still for what was best in his human life, he sees, I like to think, little that should disturb the great serenity of his peace. AUTHORITIES. The books I have cited are these : — Andros Tracts, 3 vols. Boston : Prince Society, 1868- 1874. Calef, Robert: More Wonders of the Invisible World, etc. Salem : Gushing and Appleton, 1823. Massachusetts Historical Society: Collections: — Fourth Series, Vol. VIII. : The Mather Papers, 1868. Fifth Series, Vols. V.-VII. : Sewall's Diary, 1 878-1 882. Sixth Series, Vols. I., II.: Sewall's Letter-Book, 1886- 1888. Mather, Cotton : Manuscript diaries in possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston; of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass. ; and of the Con- gregational Library, Boston. Magnalia Christi Americana. Hartford : Silas Andrus and Son. Vol. I., 1855; Vol. II., 1853. Parentator. Boston: Nathaniel Belknap, 1724. Paterna (manuscript), in possession of Mrs. Skin- ner of Chicago. Mather, Samuel : Life of Cotton Mather. Boston : Sam- uel Gerrish, 1729. Palfrey, John Gorham: Compendious History of New England, 4 vols. Boston: J. R. Osgood & Co., 1884. Peabody, Wm. B. O. : Life of Cotton Mather. Sparks's American Biographies, Vol. VI. Boston: Hilliard, Gray, & Co., 1836. Quincy, Josiah : History of Harvard University, 2 vols. Cambridge: John Owen, 1840. 310 AUTHORITIES. Sibley, John Langdon : Harvard Graduates, Vol. III. Cambridge: Charles William Sever, 1885. Upham, Charles W. : Salem Witchcraft. 2 vols. Boston ; Wiggin and Lunt, 1867. The numerous standard books I have consuhed I need not name. I may perhaps, however, mention the remark- able impression of Puritan ways of thought that may be obtained by reading the first two volumes of Stedman and Hutchinson's " Library of American Literature " ; and the notable suggestiveness of Mr. Brooks Adams's " Emancipation of Massachusetts." INDEX. Adams, Brooks, his "Emancipation of Massachusetts," 310. Aduhery, Cotton Mather's view of, 57, 163, 166, 16S, 219. Afflations, 28, 144, 157, 179, 188; In- crease Mather's view of, 28. Allen, Rev. Mr., 59, 137. America, Cotton Mather's view of, 88, 91, 159, 162. See England. Andros. Sir Edmund, Governor of New England, arrival, 43 seq., 69; life and character, 70; tyranny, 71 seq., 75 ; deposed by Revolution, 76 ; subsequent career, 77 ; mentioned, 80, 89, 190, 300. " Andros Tracts," 73. Angels, Cotton Mather's view of, 52, 65, 80, 93. 115 seq., \i,\seq., 149, 151, 157, 162 seq., 165 seq., i6S seq., 171, 176, 179, 186, 19s, 206, 279; vision of, 63. Anne, Queen, igi, 220, 249. Apostasy, Cotton Mather's view of, 68, 149; Increase Mather's view of, 141. See Brattle Street Church. Assurances, of Cotton Mather, 49 seq., 61 seq., 84 seq., 92 seq., 116, 119, 122, 140 seq., 144 seq., 148 seq., 155 seq., 162 seq., 167 seq., 174 seq., 181, 1S6, 188, 193 seq., 206, 210, 214, 264, 269, 277, 2S4, 2qo ; of Increase Math- er, 47, 72, 84, 136 seq., 139, 284. See Particular Faiths, Premonitions, Presences of God. Atheism, temptations to, 25, 81, 206, 230. Attention to Divine Services, Cotton Mather's, 55, 169. Banister, John, libels Cotton Math- er, 232 seq. Beliomont, Earl of, Governor of Mas- sachusetts, 130, i4oseq., 144^^^,151. Bishop, Bridget, hanged for witchcraft, 98, no. Blackmore, Sir Richard, 236. Books, Cotton Mather favors hawking of, 54, 244, 248; gives away, 60, 85, 175' 179 seq., 212, 215 ; works with, despite devils, 112 seq. See Library, Writings. Boston, in Lincolnshire, 8 seq. ; in Massachusetts, 9, 31, 55, 71, 76, 87, 100, 276 seq., 285, 301. Bradstreet, Simon, Governor of Mas- sachusetts, 41. Brattle, Thomas, Treasurer of Harvard College, 144, 150. Brattle, Rev. William, of Cambridge, 73. 136, 141. 142 seq., 144, 150, 201. Brattle Street Church (P'ourth Church of Boston), origin, 141 seq. ; mani- festo, 142; troubles concerning, 143, 147 seq ; assurances of Cotton Mather concerning, 148 seq. ; men- tioned, 150, 185. Bridge, Rev. Mr., Minister of Old Church, 225 seq., 234, 252. Bromfield, Mr., 186, 196, 229. Burgess, Colonel, Governor of Massa- chusetts, 249. Burnet, William, Governor of Massa- chusetts, 273. Burroughs, Rev. George, hanged for witchcraft, loi. Byfield, Colonel, Speaker of the House, 139. 199- Calef, Robert, his " More Wonders of the Invisible World," 105, 108, 136, i^ioseq., 179 ; cited, loi ; Cotton Mather's view of, 118, 151, 169, 182, 186. Calvin sweetens Cotton's mouth, 12. Charles II., 23, 40, 46, 62, 84, 93. Charters of Harvard College, of 1650, granted by General Court, 131, 133; falls with Charter of Massachusetts, 134. Of 1692, granted by Phipps, 135 ; vetoed by King William, 137. Of 1696, passed by Council and opposed by ministers, 137. Of 1697, drawn by 312 INDEX. I. Mather, and passed, 138 ; vetoed ; by King William, 140. Of 1699. pro- j posed by Bellomont, 140; sectarian proviso inserted, 141 ; vetoed by Bellomont, 141. Of 1700, Kmg ad- dressed for, 144. Of 1703 and 1705, suggested by Dudley, 202, 220. Of 1650, revived irregularly by Gen- eral Court and Dudley, 224 seq. Charters of Massachusetts, First or Colonial, history and fall, 24, 39 seg ., 46; legal consequences of fall, 71 ; attempts to renew, 74; prospect of restoration, 77 ; hopelessly lost, 79 ; mentioned, 21,23,92, 131. Second or Provincial, grant and character of, 86, gi, 152, 300 ; how received, 87; quarrels concerning, 125 Chauncy, Rev. Charles, President of Harvard College, iS, 132, 137, 179. Cheever, Ezekiel, schoolmaster, 34. Christ Church, Boston, 290. Church of England, 5, 19, 43, 68, 71, 174, 235, 282, 289 seq. Civil Wars, effect on New England, 21, 39- Colman, Rev. Benjamin, of Brattle Street Church, 142, 150 seq., 185, 226, 246, 251, 283, 294, 299. Commencement at Harvard College, »8, 37, 53, 209, 220, 238, 241, 264, 267, 269. Connecticut, 15, 70, 186, 227, 248. Conversation, Cotton Mather's, i63, x66, 278. Cooke, Elisha, opponent of Provincial Charter, 125, 128. Cooper, Edward, marries Elizabeth Mather, 297. Cooper, Rev. William, of Brattle Street Church, 281, 299. Corey, Giles, pressed to death, 102. Correspondents of Cotton Mather, | 213,235,236,238. Cotton, Mrs, Joanna, wife of John, of | Plymouth, 171, 177. | Cotton, Rev. John, of Boston, his life j and character, 7-13 ; mentioned, 20, 1 , 23, 37> 51, 57, 65, 300. Cotton, Rev. John, of Hampton, 251. Cotton, Mrs., widow of John, of Hamp- ton, marries Increase Mather, 251. Cotton, Rev. John, of Plymouth, dis- grace and death, 163, 171 seq., ijj. Cotton, Maria, daughter, of John, of Boston, marries Increase Mather, 20. See Mather. Cotton, Mrs. Sarah (Story), widow of John, of Boston, marries Richard Mather, 13. 20. Covenant of Cotton Mather, 58. Craighead, Rev. Thomas, 254. Creed of Puritans. See Puritans. Crew of Andros, 76 seq., 152. See Dudley, Randolph, Stoughton. Cromwell, Oliver, 4, 244. Cutler, Rev. Timothy, President of Yale College, 282, 290. Daily Life, Cotton Mathers, 1683, 54; 1706, 212 ; 1709, 230; 1711, 237, Dancing mtroduced in Boston, 44. Danforth, Rev. Mr., of Cambridge, 103, 125. Death, Cotton Mathers view of, 49, 58, 60, 68, 86; 117, 148 seq., 157, 164, 169 seq.f 17s, 181, 204, 208, 210, 217, 240, 243, 259 seq., 27s, 290, 292 seq., 298. Declaration of Indulgence, 72. Deerfield sacked, 201, 209. De Foe, Daniel, 235, 262. Delights, Cotton Mather's view of, 6 , 213. Democracy in New England, 23 seg., 39 seq., 79, 124, 130 seq. See Royal- ists, Theocracy. Devil, Puritan view of the, 26 seq., 91 seq. Diaries of Cotton Mather, i, 36, 47 seq., 84, 154, 183, 234- Dudley, Joseph, Governor of Massa- chusetts, career until 1702, ^oseq., 76 seq., 190 seq. ; appointed Governor, 130, 153 ; personal character, 200, 219, 229, 230; administration, 201, 219, 220, 22S ; relations with the Mathers, 130, 153, 199, 225 seq., 231, 234, 238, 251 ; relations with Harvard College, 201, 220, 224 seq. ; charges against, 200 seq., 220, 222 seq. ; retirement and death, 249, 273. Dummer, Lieut. -Gov. of Massachu- setts, 273. Dwight, Tim, spiritual experience, 32. Ecstasy of Cotton Mather, a typical, 49. Education, Cotton Mather's methods of, 60, 163 seq., 175, 212 seg., 237, 240, 242 seq., 247, 258, 265. Ejaculations of Cotton Mather, 55, 57, 170,235. Election and the Elect, doctrine of, 6, 29; examples of, 8, 14, 16, 22, 27. 2qseq.,Z2 seq., 52, 63, 115, 119, 163 seq., 172, ij6 seq., iSo seq., 210 seq-, 217, 242 seq., 247, 256, 285 seq., 294. Eliot, Rev. John, Apostle to the In- dians, 27, 58 seq. ; Cotton Mather's Life of, 84. Enchantments, Cotton Mather's view of, 113. England, Cotton Mather's view of, 158. 269. Ethics, Cotton Mather's view of, 258. INDEX. 313 Evil speaking, Cotton Mather's view of, 54, 183, 214,241 seq. Evil Spirits, Cotton Mather's view of, 2, 25, 62 seq., 69, gi seq,, 99, 102, 104, \(±iseq., no seq., 116, 118 seq., 122 seq., 143, 165, 168 j^y. , 179, 189, 210, 240, 275. Executions, 65, 98 seq., loi seq., no, 116, 171 j^y., 209. Exposition of Scripture at Harvard College, 184, 268. Fast, a typical private, 59. Fasts of Cotton Mather, 36, 57, 61 , 63, 80, 112, 114 seq., 119, 140, 151, 155 seq., 162, 165, 167 seq., 176, 179, 186 seq., 193, 202, 205 seq. f2io, 213, 231, 236,255. Fines, Cotton Mather lays on himself, Flock of Cotton Mather. See Second Church. Foreign Affairs, Cotton Mather's in- terest in, 53, 61 seq., 155, 157, 162, 166, 168, 211, 23S, 269. Foxe's Book of Martyrs, 5, 280. Franklin, Benjamin, 297. Freemen of Massachusetts, 23, 39, 46, 86. See Theocracy. French harass New England, 78, 124, 130, 201, 214, 230. Gee, Rev. Joshua, of Second Church, '■ 299. Gentlewoman makes love to Cotton Mather, 204 seq., 209. George I., 249, 273, 285. George II., 273. George, Mr., 233, 251, 255. George, Madam Lydia (Lee), 251, 252 seq. ; marries Cotton Mather, 255. See Mather. Glasgow, University of, makes Cotton Mather D.D., 231 seq. Good Devices,Cotton Mather's, nature of, 231, 234; examples of, 234 seq., 237, 239 seq., 247 seq-, 255, 260 seq., 263, 266, 269, 272, 274 seq , 281, 288 seq., 293. Granado thrown into Cotton Mather's bedroom, 279 seq. Greenough, Anne, elect child, 30. "Guardian," Cotton Mather would contribute to the, 244. Hackshaw, Robert, publisher, 186. Hamilton, Duke of, duel, 250. Harvard, Rev. John, of Charlestown, 131- Harvard College, foundation and early history, 7, 28, 131 seq. ; early charac- ter, 35 seq., 132 seq. ; struggle be- tween priesthood and protestantism in, under Increase Mather, 45, 73 seq., 133 seq., 140 seq., 144 seq, 151 seq. ; progress under Willard, 201 seq., 220 seq.; progress under Lev- erett, 221, 224 seq., 227 seq., 238, 258, 264, 268 seq., 282 seq., 289 seq.. 292 seq. ; later history, 287, 294, 301; Cotton Mather's relations with, 35 seq., bo, 83, 137, 140 .y^^., i^^seq-, 201, 209, 221, 225 seq., 238, 240 seq., 258, 264, 267, 269, 283, 289, 292 seq , 301. See Brattle Street Church, Charters, Commencement, Over- seers. Heresy, Cotton Mather's policy to- ward, III. Hoar, Rev. Leonard, President of Harvard College, 26, 132. Holidavs observed in Boston, 44, 6g, 236. ' HolHs, Thomas, benefactor of Harvard College, 282 seq. , 285. Howell, Nathaniel, son-in-law of Mrs. Lydia Mather, dies in answer to Cot- ton Mather's prayers, 256 seq , 274 ; Cotton Mather administers estate of, 257, 261, 276, 289. Howell, Mrs. Nathaniel, 255 seq. Hubbard, Mrs. Elizabeth (Clark), marries Cotton Mather, 207. See Mather. Hull, John, father of Mrs Samuel Sewall, 32. Hull, Mrs. John, 29, 59. Hutchinson, Mrs. Ann, heretic, 7, 10, 23- Hutchinson, Colonel, 166, 299. Idolatry, Cotton Mather accused of, 263. Illicit Trade, 201, 215, 219, 222 seq. Impurities, Cotton Mather's conscious- ness of, 50 seq., 56 seq., 66, 157, 163, 168, 193, 202, 204, 206, 218 seq., 240, 242, 266, 269. Inconsistency, Cotton Mather's, 19 w , 29, 145 «., 160 n. Indians, Puritan view of, 26 seq., 91 seq. ; harass New England, 23, 71, 78, 124, 130, 2or, 214 seq., 228, 236, 273 ; Cotton Mather's conduct to, 175, 178, 182, 187. See French, Illicit Trade. Inoculation introduced by Cotton Mather, 275 seq. ; of Samuel Mather, 277 ; of the Minister of Roxbury, 279. James II., 41, 61 seq., 70,72, lA^eq., 89 ; his view of Harvard College, Journeys of Cotton Mather, 118, 162, 170, 207, 215. 3^4 INDEX. KiDD, Captain, 78, 130. King Plillip's War, 2.b seq. King's Chapel, Boston, 290. Kirk, Colonel Percy, 40 seq-, 47, 62, 71, 84, 92 seq. Latin, Cotton Mather's notes in, 54, 63, 16S, 288, 289. Letters of Cotton Mather: to Mrs. Jo- anna Cotton, concerning J. Cotton's death, 177 ; to Craighead, concerning Mrs. G., 254; to Dudley, 130, 153, iqo, 226 ; to England, concerning Dudley, 222 ; to Mrs. G. , 252 ; to a gentleman in Connecticut, concern- ing Yale College, 248 ; to John Richards, concerning witchcraft, 107, no; to Saltonstall, concerning Yale College, 267 ; to Stephen Sewall, concerning witchcraft, J02, loS ; to Sliute, concerning Harvard College, 26S; to Winthrop, with anecdote, 250; to Yale, 267. Letters of Increase Mather: alleged forgery, 46; to Dudley, 190, 226. Leverett, Rev. John, President of Harvard College, 73, 136, 138, 141, 144, 195, 221, 225, 22S, 233, 238, 264, 268, 274, 283, 290, 292. Library of Cotton M:ither, isS, 179, 197, 291, 297. See Books, Writings. Liglitnnigand Tempest, Cotton Math- er's view of, 91, 128. "Magnalia Christi Americana." See Writmgs of Cotton Mather. Manifesto. See Brattle Street Church. Marlborough, Duke of, 193,226. Marriage, Cotton Mather's view of, 56, 60. See Widowhood. Marv, Queen, 75 .r^^-, i35. i54; her " Divine Sentence," 78. Massachusetis, history of, 21, 23, 26 seq.^ 39 seq , 70 seq.^ 86 seq.^ 90 seq., 124 seq., 130, 151 seq , 190, 199 seq , 7.\()seq, 228, 249, 273; population of, in 1665, 31 ; in 1709, 228. IMather, Mrs. Abigail (Phillips), first wife of Cotton, 68, 116, 168, 176, 181, 188, 192 seq., 202 seq., 220. Mather, Rev. Dr. Cotton, of Second Church, ancestry, 7 seq. 1662-3, birth, 20. 1663-74, St. i-ii, circumstances of his youth, 24 seq. ; his childhood, 28, 33 seq. 1674-78, jEt. n-rs, at Harvard Col- Icgs, 35 seq., 132 ; begins days of fasting, 36 ; joins church, 37 ; takes bachelor's degree, 37. 1679, St. t6, stud es medicine, and conquers impediment of speech, 48. 1680, aet. 17, begins preaching, 48; assistant at Second Church, 49, 1681, aet. 18 {Dutry extant), ecsta- sies and depressions, 49; besetting sins, 50; methods of devotion, 51 ; particular faith concerning Spanish Indian, 52 ; takes Master's degree, 53 ; refuses cail to New Haven, 53 ; elected pastor of Second Church, 53- 1683, aet. 20 {Diary extant), daily habits, 54 ; imposes fines on him- self, 55 ; meditation in bed, 56 ; un- clean lemutations, ejaculations, 57. 1685, St 7.2[Diary extant), zov]es with Increase, 274 seq. ; Sam sent to college, 274 ; Second Church breaking up, 275 ; small-pox in town excites him to introduce inoculation, 275 ; popular panic against him, 276 seq- ; Abigail dies, 278 ; attempt to assassinate him, 279 seq. ; Increase defends him, 280; exhaustion, 281. 1722, aet. 59, conduct concerning Harvard College, 282 seq. 1723, ast. 60, death of Increase Mather, 2S3 seq. ; position at sixty-one, 287. 1724, ast. 61, writes " Parentator," 288; family troubles, 289; Church of England assaulting Harvard Col- lege, 289 seq. ; retrospective medi- tation, 290 seq. ; death of Leverett revives hopes of presidency, 292 ; hopes disappointed, 293 ; wife de- serts him, 291; news of death of Increase, 294 ; wife returns peni- tent, 291 ; rumors of safety of In- crease prove false, 295 ; again disappointed of presidency, 294 ; Elizabeth marries, 297 ; Franklin visits him, 297 ; severe illness, 295 ; his last hymn, 296. 1725-27, aet. 62-64, life unchanged, 298; Elizabeth dies, 298. 1728, aet. 65, last illness, death, and burial, 298 seq. ; character and influence, 30-^ seq. Mather, Cotton, his children by Mrs. Abigail (Phillips) Mather: — 1. Abigail (b. and d bef. 1693), 81. ^ 2. Katharine, or Katy (b. bef. 1693, d. 1716), 8r, 120, 164, 174, 237, 245, 257 seq. INDEX. 317 3. Mary(b.bef. 1693, d. 1693), 81,119. 4. Increase, malformed (b. and d. 1693), 116, 176. 5. Abigail, or Nibby (b. 1694, m. D. Willard, d. 1721), 154, 156, 178, 196, 237, 245, 255, 258 seq.y 265, 278. 6. Mehitabel (b. 1695, d. 1696 , 154, 156. 7. Hannah, or Nancy (b. 1697, d. after 1728), 140, 158, 172, 175, 178, 197, 204, 210, 237. 245, 277 seq., 291, 298. 8. Increase, or Creasy or Cressy (b. 1699, d. 1724), 176, 178, 197, 214, 218, 237, 239 seq., 24s, 247, 255 seq.., 261, 264 seq., 269, 273 seq., 278, 280, 294 seq. 9. Samuel (b. \^oo, d. 1 700-1), 178, 181. Mather, Cotton, his children bv Mrs. Elizabeth (Clark- Hubbard) Mather: — 10. Elizabeth, or Lizzy (b. 1704, m. E. Cooper, d. 1726), 208, 236. 243, 245, 248, 278, 297 seq. 11. Samuel, Rev. Dr., or Sammy (b. 1706, d. 1785), 33, 36, 165, 216, 230, 236, 248, 256, 258, 265 seq., 274i 277 seq., 29 1, 298 seq. See Rev. Dr. Samuel Mather's " Life of Cotton Mather.'' 12. Nathaniel (b. and d. 1709), 230. 13. Jerusha (b. 171 1, d. 1713), 237, 243- 245. 247- 14. Eleazar, ) twins (b. and d. 1713), 15. Martha, ) 245, 247. Mather, Creasy or Cressy. See In- crease, eighth child of Cotton. Mather, Rev. Eleazar, son of Richard, 17. 25. Mather, Mrs. Elizabeth (Clark-Hub- bard), second wife of Cotton, 208, 216, 245 seq. Mather, Hannah, daughter of Increase. See Oliver. Mather, Rev. Dr. Increase of Second Church. President of Harvard Col- lege, life until settled at Second Church, \j seq., 24 seq. ; career until fall of Charter, 25 seq , 33, 37 ; home career until agency to England, 44 seq., 58 seq , 72 ; agency to England securing newCharter, -jiseq., jj seq , 86 seq , 89; home career under new Charter : relations to Phipps and witchcraft, 84, 87, 89 seq., 92, 98, 100, 104 seq., 124 seq. ; struggle as Presi- dent to secure Harvard College to orthodoxy, 132 seq, 143 seq-, 184; private life meanwhile, and later career, 163, 166, 181, 185 seq., 191, 199, 207, 218, 221, 223, 225 seq.t 231 seq., 239, 242, 24s, 250 seq., 258, 268, 273. 275, 277, 279, 289; death and character, 283 seq. Life of, by Cot- ton, see Writings, s. v. Parentator. Mather, Katharine, infant daughter of Increase, 56. Mather, Mrs. Katharine (Holt), first wife of Richard, 17, 74. Mather, Katy. See Katharine, second child of Cotton. Mather, Lizzy. See Elizabeth, tenth child of Cotton. Mather, Mrs. Lydia (Lee-George), third wife of Cotton, 255 seq. , 238 seq., 261 seq., 265 seq., 270 seq., 289, 291. Mather, Mrs. Maria (Cotton), first wife of Increase, 20, 243, 250. Mather, Mrs. (Cotton), second wife of Increase, 251. Mather, Nancy. See Hannah, seventh child of Cotton. Mather, Nathaniel, son of Increase, 81,83, 170. Mather, Rev. Nathaniel, son of Rich- ard, 166. Mather, Nibby. See Abigail, fifth child of Cotton. Mather, Rev Richard, the emigrant, life and character, 13 seq. ; men- tioned, 25, 37, 48, 57, 65, 300. Mather, Mrs. Sarah (Story-Cotton), second wife of Richard, 13, 20. Mather, Rev. Samuel, son of Richard, 19. Mather, Rev. Dr. Samuel, son of Cotton, his" Life of Cotton Mather," cited, 48, 59, 82, 165, 208 seq., 232, 255> 257, 298 seq. ; mentioned, 53, 76, 179, 212. "Mather Papers," cited, iio, 177, 250; mentioned, 37. 238, 249, 262. May, Samuel, religious impostor, 174. Maylem, Joseph, misconduct, 44, 69. Measles, epidemic in Boston, 245 seq. Medicine, Cotton Mather's interest m, 48, 211, 240, 242, 247. 266, 27s seq., 280. Ministers of New England, 36, 72, 79, 98, 103, 125, 132, 134, 140, 301. See Priests, and all proper names with prefix Rev. Mohun, Lord, duel, 250. Monmouth, Duke of, 40, 41, 128. Moody, Rev. Mr , 59, 83. Mottoes, of Cotton Mather's Diaries, 53, 157, 167, 191; of Harvard Col- lege, 133. Myles, Rev. Mr., of King's Chapel, 290. Negroes, Cotton Mather's view of, 120, 153, 183, 215 jey., 242; Sewall's view of, 183. 3i8 INDEX. New England, 23, 31 seq., 40 seq., 44, I 71, 77 seq., 87, 92 seq.i 282, 306. 6"^^ I Magnalia, Massachusetts, Puritans. New North Church, of Boston, 241, 251,278. I Niece of Mrs. Lydia Mather, 278, 289, 291. North Church. See Second Church of Boston. Notes of Sermons, Cotton Mather takes, 33, 169. Numbers, Cotton Mather's view of mystic, 18, 114, 186, 194, 206, 256, 265. Oakes, Rev. Urian, President of Har- vard College, 37, 45> 132 seq., 137, 300. Occultism, suggested theory of, 94 seq.^ 105, 304 ; for some evidence, see Afflations, Angels, Assurances, Calef, Death, Devil, Ecstasy, En- chantments, Evil Spirits-, Fasts, Im- purities, Inonsistency, Original Sin, Particular Faiths, Pastoral Methods, Physical Condition, Prayer, Preach- in.^, Premonitions, Presences of God, Priests, Prophecy, Puritans, Reputa- tion, Revenge, Secrecy, Self-exam- ination, Spectral Evidence. Temper, Thanksgivings, Veracity, Vigils, Vis- ions, Witchcraft. Old Church ( First Church of Boston), 51. 119, 185- Oliver, Mrs. Hannah (Mather), 217. Oliver, John, brother-in-law of Cotton Mather, 217. Onesimus, negro slave of Cotton Mather, 216, 242. Ordination, Cotton Mather's view of, 59- Original Sin, doctrine of, 5 ; examples of, 8, 14. 16, 18, 2q seq., 33, 35, 81 ; Cotton Mather's view of, 211. See Self-examination. Overseers of Harvard College, 131, 136 seq., 202, 268, 290. Oyer and Terminer, Court of, the Witch-Court, 98 seq., lor, 103 seq.. Ill, 122. Palfrey, John Gorham, his "Com- pendious History of New England," mentioned, 26, 31, 76, 97, 201, 219, 226, 229. Parris, Rev. Samuel, of Salem Village, Particular Faiths, doctrine of, 52 ; of Cotton Mather, concerning Harvard College, 140 seq., 144 seq; 174 seq.. 284 : concerning Mrs Abigail Mather, 193 seq., 203 ; various, 56, 168, 172, 188; of Increase Mather, 72, 141, 284. 5"^^ Assurances, Pre- monitions, Presences of God, Vis- ions. Pastoral Methods, Cotton Mather's Pastoral Visits, Cotton Mather's, 54, 59, 80, 117, 175, 179, 212 seq., 238. Peabody, Wm. Bourne Oliver, his "Life of Cotton Mather," iii seq. Pemberton, Rev. Ebenezer, of Old South, 221, 226, 231, 233, 239, 246, 251 seq., 262 seq. Phillips, Abigail, marries Cotton Mather, 66. See Mather. Phillips, Colonel, of Charlestown, father-in-law of Cotton Mather, 65, 68, 73, 187, 198, 203, 217 seq. Phillips, Mrs., mother-in-law of Cot- ton Mather, 174. Phillips, John, brother-in-law of Cot- ton Mather, 203, 217, 220, 222. 266. Phipps, Lady, 89, 129, 155. Phipps, Sir William, Governor of Massachusetts, career until 1692, 78, 83, 86 seq., 89 seq : character. 90, 124, 126; relations with the Mathers, 86, 90, 98 ; relations with witchcraft, 98 seq., 104; administration, i2\seq., 135 ; quarrels, retirement, and death, I2T seq. ; mentioned, t,oo seq. Physical Condition, Cotton Mather's, 35> 37> 48 seq., 56 seq., 60, 65, 68, SSseq., 117, 127, 166 seq., 173, 179, 202, 204, 2o6seq., 214, 235, 239 seq , 243, 254. 281, 2S8, 295, 298. Pierpont, Mr., sues for degree, 268. Pirates harass New England, 78, 130, 209. Plan of this book, 3. Populace, Cotton Mather's view of the, 82. Port Royal, expeditions against, 78, 83, 89, 219, 228. Prayer, answers to, 24 seq., 45, 50, 55, 61 seq., 86 seq , 93, 120, 169, 203 seq., 257, 274. Preaching, Cotton Mathers, 48 seq, 51, 55 seq., 59, 61, 67, 80, 84 seq., 87, III, 112 seq., w] seq., 126, 144, 158, 166 seq., 171 seq., 179, 202 seq., 207, 211, 230 seq-, 234, 245 seq., 251 seq., 265.295; Cotton Mather's view of, 120, 182, 188, 251 seq.\ Increase Mather's view of, 139, 146. Premonitions, 8, 17, 25 seq., 47, 56, 116, \^^seq., 166 seq., 180, 187, 192, »95i 259, 265 ; Cotton Mather's view of, 27. Presagious Impressions. See Premo- nitions. Presences of God, doctrine of, 22 ; Cotton Mather's, 51, 55, S5, 87, 162, 167 ; Increase Mather's, 28, 47, 49. INDEX. 319 Priests, 2, 7, 304, 306. See Protestant- ism. " Primitive Counsellors," Increase Mather's sermon on, 125. 136. Prophecy, Cotton Mather's view of, 191. Protestantism, its incompatibility with priesthood, 5, 22 seq., 287, 303, 306 , of Harvard College. 134, 225. Puritans, their creed, 4 seq., 29, 45, 160; their policy, 7, 15, 21 seq , 39, 42 seq., 88, 146, 158; their conduct and views, 17,26 seq., 2gseq , giseq., 114, 141, 160; their ideals and char- acter, 74, 159, 161, 286 seq., 202 seq. Quakers, 7, 23, 84. Quincy, Josiah, President of Harvard College, his " History of Harvard University," cited, 35, 139 seq., 224, 267, 283 ; mentioned, 131, 150, 220, 226, 238, 282 ; his view of religious freedom at Harvard College, 133. Randolph, Edward, Royalist, 40, 46, 73> 77- Regeneration. See Election. Representatives, Bill to require resi- dence among constituents, 126. Reputation, Cotton Mather's view of, 66, 118, 120, 148 seq., 158, 167, 169 se^., 205, 209 seq., 214, 230, 277. Resignation, Cotton Mather's view of, 198. Revenge, Cotton Mather's view of, 66, 210 se^., 236, 241. Revolution of 1689, 75 seq., 82. Richards, John, Judge of Witch-Court, 107, no. Rogers, Rev. John, President of Har- vard College, 45, 133. Roxbury, Minister of, inoculated, 279. Royalists in New England, 40, 125, 200, 229, 249. See Andros, Dudley, Randolph, Stoughton. Roval Society, Cotton Mather elected Fellow of, 244 ; publications of, 276. Rule, Margaret, bewitched, 104, 118 seq- Sabbath-keeping, 13, 43, 68, 128, 236. Salem witchcraft. See Upham, Witch- craft. Sal volatile, Cotton Mather's reflec- tion on, 243. Second Church of Boston, under the Mathers, 20, 24, 25, 28, 37, 49, 53, 55. 66, 73, 85, 114 seq., 121, 133, 139, 146 seq., 152, 182, 185, 202, 205, 212, 216, 236. 239 seq , 251, 275, 279 seq. Secrecv, Cotton Mather's view of, 115, 118, 162. Self-examination, of Cotton Mather, 50, 61, 192, 210 seq., 266, 290; urged on children by Cotton Mather, 164, 215, 242. Sermons, Cotton Mather's methods of preparing, 119, 212. Servants, status of, 32, 52, 119; in Cotton Mather's family, 156, 197, 202, 216, 242, 245 seq. See Negroes, Onesimus, Slaves. Sewall, Elizabeth (Betty), daughter of Samuel, 2g seq. Sewall, Mrs. Hannah (Hull), wife of Samuel, 229, 265. Sewall, Jane, sister of Samuel, 32. Sewall, Rev. Joseph, of Old South, son of Samuel, 29, 262, 265, 293 seq., 299. Sewall, Samuel, Chief Justice of Mas- sachusetts, relations to witchcraft, 98, loi seq., 121; relations to Har- vard College, 137, 146, 153, 184, 186, 225, 227, 268, 2S3 ; relations with the Mathers, 58 seq., 75, 80, 128, 138 seq., 153, 163, 183 seq , 225 seq., 229, 233, 251 seq , 265, 285, 289, 291 ; relations with Dudley, 200, 222 seq., 225 seq., 229; accounts of public matters, 41 seq , 87, 129 ; private life and character, 29 seq., 34, 75, 80, 151, 171, 185, 209, 219, 231, 233, 252, 262, 265. Sewall, Samuel, " Diary," cited, 29 seq., 34, 42 seq., 58 seq., 62, 75, 80, 83, 87, Joi seq ,121,12$ seq., 137 seq., 142 seq., 146, 151, 153, 158, 163, 171, 183 seq., 191, 200, 209,221 seq., 22g seq. ,211 seq., 251 .rif^ , 262, 265, 268, 285,299; mentioned, 26, 31,41, 153, 209, 219 j^y., 231, 238, 246, 249 seq., 259, 283, 289. Sewall, Samuel, " Letter-Book," cited, 185 j^^. ,232; mentioned, 153. Sewall, Stephen, Clerk of Court, brother of Samuel, \02seq; Cotton Mather's letter to, 108. Shepard. Rev Mr., of Charlestown, 67. Shove, Rev. Seth, 32. Shrimpton, Mr., misconduct, 44. Shute, Samuel, Governor of Massa- chusetts, 249, 260, 263, 268 seq., 273. Sibley, John Langdon, his " Harvard Graduates,"' cited, 102, 150; men- tioned, 36, 83, 105, 132, 154, 208, 238, 298. Slaves, 52, 280. See Negroes, Onesimus. Sleep, Cotton Mather's habitual, 212, n. See Vigils. Small-pox, epidemic in Boston, 193, 202, 275 seq. ; in Cotton Mather's family, 196, 277. Societies for good purposes, 37, 68, 187, 192, 211, 213, 248. 320 INDEX. South Church (Old South, Third Church of Boston), 30, 41, 43, 51, 80, 152. 220 sea-, 265, 294. " Spectator,'' Cotton Mather would contribute to the, 244, 250. Spectral evidence, 97, 99. loi, 107, 121 ; Cotton Mather's view of, 107 seq , no seq. Spectres. See Evil Spirits. Stedman (Edmund Clarence), and Hutchinson (Ellen McKay), their "Library of American Literature," 310. Stoughton, William, Lieut. Governor of ALissachusetts, relations to witch- craft, 93, 103 seq., 122 ; relations to Harvard College, 137, 139, 143, 145, 151, 152 ; administrations, 127 seq.., 130, 151 ; last days and character, 132. Studies of Cotton Mather, 35 seq., 53 seq., 59, 79, 214, 238. See Medicine, Royal Society, Writings of Cotton Mather. Style, Cotton Mather's literary, 161. Suicide, Cotton Mather tempted to, 206. Swift, Jonathan, 229. Synods in New England, 45. Tailer, Lieut. Governor of Massa- chusetts, 249, 288. Temper, Cotton Mather's, 2, 83, 114, 118, 153, 183 seq., 216, 239 j^y., 266, 279 Texts preached from. Cotton Mather's memoranda of, 48, 61, iii, 113 seq., 166, 173, 182, 203, 212, 231. Thanksgivings of Cotton Mather, 50 seq., 61 seq., 68, 114 seq., 158, 166, 188, 191, 19s seq., 211, 214, 255, 262. Theocracy in New England, 9, 21, 23 seq., 39 seq., 70, 79, 125, 131, 141, 152, 282 seq., 286. See Democracy. Thompson, Major, Cotton Mather's anecdote of, 250. Time, Cotton Mather's view of, 191. Tories. See Royalists. Turyl, Ferdinando, regenerate old man, 180. Unitarianism, 287. Upham, Charles Wentworth, his " Sa- lem Witchcraft," cited, 290; men- tioned, 93, 97, 99, 291 ; his view of Cotton Mather, 102, 104, 290 seq. Vane, Sir Henry, Governor of Mas- sachusetts, 23. Vanity, Cotton Mather's, 100. Veracity, Cotton Mather's, i seq., 84, 159, 161, 209. Verses, addressed to Cotton Mather, 182, 203, 232; written by Cotton Mather, 34, 55, 296. Vigils of Cotton Mather, 123, 192, 194, 205, 216, 240 seq. Visions, of Anne Griffin and Ruth Weeden, 262 ; of Mrs. Abigail Mather, n6, 196: of Cotton Mather, 63, 67, 93, 180; of Increase Mather, 28. Wadsworth, Rev. Benjamin, Presi- dent of Harvard College, 234, 268, 294. Watts, Rev. Dr. IsaaC; 236, 244. Widowhood, Cotton Mather's view of, 202, 204, 206. See Marriage. Wilkins, Mr., shopkeeper, 153, 183 seq. Willard, Daniel, son-in-law of Cotton Mather, 25S seq., 262. Willard. Rev. Samuel, of Old South. Vice-President of Harvard College, 30, 41, 43 seq., 59, 80, 137 seq., 143, 151 seq., 20 1 seq., 220 seq. William of Orange, 7Sseq., 78, 89, 117, 142, 191 ; his relation to Harvard College, 135, 137, 140. Williams, Rev. Mr., of Deerfield, 2or, 216. 236. Williams, Eunice, captive, 236. Williams, Roger, 7, 23. Winslow, John, brings news of Revo- lution, 75. Winthrop, John, Governor of Massa- chusetts, 131. Winthrop. John, Cotton Mather's cor- respondence with, 214, 2-?8, 250. Winthrop, Wait, Cotton Mather's cor- respondence with, 238, 250. Wishes, of Cotton Mather, 113; of In- crease Mather, 26, 47. Witchcraft, doctrine of, 92 ; atWoburn, 62, 69; at Boston, 81, 100, 114, 118 seq. ; at Salem, 93, 98 seq. ; Cotton Mather's relation to, 62 seq., 81, 84, 88, 93, 99, 100 seq,, 156, 290, 301 ; Cotton Mather's final view of, 106 seq , 112, 122 seq., 155. See Angels, Calef, Evil Spirits, Occultism; c/. Howell, and p. 274. Writings of Cotton Mather, general remarks on, 2, 64, 112, 232, 236, 298. Separate works: " Biblia Ameri- cana." 118, 160, 212, 214, 232, 238 " Death Made Easy and Happv," remarkable discovery of, igo. " De- fence of Evangelical Churches," 150. " Enchiridion," 270. " Essays to Do Good," 297. " Life of Nathan- iel Mather," 81, 170. " Life of Jon- athan Mitchel," 141. " Life of Sir William Phipps," 108, 155, 160,166. INDEX. 321 " Magnalia Christi Americana," ac- count of, 158 sea. ; Cotton Mather's experiences with, 167,179, 186 seq., 196; cited, 3, T seq., 30, 5, 81, 106, 132, 158 seq. ; mentioned, 26, 36, 45, 84, 108, 117 seq. , 192, 232 . " Order of the Gospel," 148. " Parentator,'' cited, 17 seq., 24, 26seq , AS^eg , 71 seq., 152, 2S5 seq.; mentioned, 74, 77. 106, 284, 288. " Paterna," cited, 33 seq., 36. "Political Fables," 250 «. " Wonders of the Invisible World," 103. Other works men- tioned, 66, 83 seq., 100, 117, 121, 154, 166 seq., 173 seq., 178, 182, 189, 192, 215. 237. 239, 244, 278, 280, 295, 298. Yale, Elihu, 266 seq. Yale College, foundation, 186, 248; name and character, 266 seq. ; Cot- ton Mather's relations to, ib. ; con- version of Cutler, 282. MAKERS OF AMERICA, The following is a list of the subjects and authors so far arranged for in this series. The volumes will be published at the tmiforiti price of y^ cents^ and ivill appear in rapid succession : — Christopher Columbus (1436-1506), and the Discov- ery of the New World. By Charles Kendall Adams, President of Cornell University. John "Winthrop (1588- 1649), First Governor of the Massachusetts Colony. By Rev. Joseph H. TWICHELL. 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By Prof. Herman Grimm, author of " The Life of Michael Angelo," " The Life and Times of Goethe,"' etc. DODD, MEAD, & COMPANY, 75S and 755 Broadway, New York. F 907 i