View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Zea E-Books Zea E-Books 2-2011 The Wonders of the Invisible World. OBSERVATIONS As well Historical as Theological, upon the NATURE, the NUMBER, and the OPERATIONS of the DEVILS. Cotton Mather Second Congregational Church, Boston Reiner Smolinski , Editor Georgia State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/zeabook Recommended Citation Mather, Cotton and Smolinski, Reiner , Editor, "The Wonders of the Invisible World. OBSERVATIONS As well Historical as Theological, upon the NATURE, the NUMBER, and the OPERATIONS of the DEVILS." (2011). Zea E-Books. 4. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/zeabook/4 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Zea E-Books at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Zea E-Books by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. The Wonders of the Invisible World. O B S E R V A T I O N S As well Hiſtorical as Theological, upon the NATURE, the DEVNUMBER, and the OPERATIONS ILS of the . Accompany’d with, I. Some Accounts of the Grievous Moleſtations, by DÆ- MONS and WITCHCRAFTS, which have lately annoy’d the Countrey; and the Trials of ſome eminent Malefactors Executed upon occaſion thereof; with ſeveral Remarkable Curioſities therein occurring. II. Some Counſils, Directing a due Improvement of the ter- rible things, lately done, by the Unuſual & Amazing Range of EVIL SPIRITS, in Our Neighbourhood: & the methods to prevent the Wrongs which thoſe Evil Angels may intend againſt all ſorts of people among us; eſpecially in Accuſations of the Innocent. III. Some Conjectures upon the great EVENTS, likely to befall, the WORLD in General, and NEW-EN- GLAND in Particular; as alſo upon the Advances of the TIME, when we ſhall see BETTER DAYES. IV. A short Narrative of a late Outrage committed by a knot of WITCHES in Swedeland, very much Reſem- bling, and ſo far Explaining, That under which our parts of America have laboured! V. THE DEVIL DISCOVERED: In a Brief Diſcourſe upon the TEMPTATIONS, which are the more Ordinary Devices of the Wicked One. By Cotton Mather. Boston Printed, and ſold by Benjamin Harris. 1693. Edited, with an Introduction, by Reiner Smolinski The Wonders of the Invisible World World Invisible the of Wonders The Cotton Mather’s mythic image rests largely on his involvement in the Sa- lem witchcraft debacle (1692–93) and on his Wonders of the Invisible World (1693). The work aims at several purposes. On the one hand, Wonders is The Wonders of the Invisible World. New England’s official defense of the court’s verdict and testimony to the power of Satan and his minions; on the other, it is Mather’s contribution O B S E R V A T I O N S to pneumatology, with John Gaul, Matthew Hale, John Dee, William Per- As well Hiſtorical as Theological, upon the NATURE, the kins, Joseph Glanville, and Richard Baxter in the lead. Before Mather ex- NUMBER, and the OPERATIONS of the cerpts the six most notorious cases of Salem witchcraft, he buttresses his account with the official endorsement of Lt. Governor William Stough- ton, with a disquisition on the devil’s machinations described by the best authorities that the subject affords, with a previously delivered sermon at Andover, and with his own experimentations. Mather’s Wonders, however, . DEVAccompany’d ILS with, does not end without a due note of caution. While exposing Satan’s plot to overthrow New England’s churches, Mather also recommends his fa- I. Some Accounts of the Grievous Moleſtations, by DÆ- MONS and WITCHCRAFTS, which have lately ther’s caveat Cases of Conscience (1693), thus effectively rejecting the use of annoy’d the Countrey; and the Trials of ſome eminent “spectral evidence” as grounds for conviction and condemning confessions Malefactors Executed upon occaſion thereof; with ſeveral extracted under torture. What ties the various parts together is Mather’s Remarkable Curioſities therein occurring. millenarian theme of Christ’s imminence, of which Satan’s plot is the best II. Some Counſils, Directing a due Improvement of the ter- evidence. Robert Calef’s accusation that Mather and his ilk incited the hys- rible things, lately done, by the Unuſual & Amazing teria is, perhaps, unfounded, but Calef’s charge of Mather’s ambidextrous Range of EVIL SPIRITS, in Our Neighbourhood: & disposition seems warranted. For while Mather defends the court’s verdict the methods to prevent the Wrongs which thoſe Evil and justifies the government’s position, he also voices his great discomfort Cotton Mather Angels may intend againſt all ſorts of people among us; with the court’s procedure in the matter. Wonders appeared in print just eſpecially in Accuſations of the Innocent. when the trials were halting, but it remains, in his own words, “that reviled III. Some Conjectures upon the great EVENTS, likely Book,” a bane to his name. to befall, the WORLD in General, and NEW-EN- GLAND in Particular; as alſo upon the Advances of the TIME, when we ſhall see BETTER DAYES. , ed. R. Smolinski IV. A short Narrative of a late Outrage committed by a knot of WITCHES in Swedeland, very much Reſem- bling, and ſo far Explaining, That under which our parts of America have laboured! V. THE DEVIL DISCOVERED: In a Brief Diſcourſe upon the TEMPTATIONS, which are the more Ordinary - Devices of the Wicked One. ISBN 978-1-60962-009-7 By 90000 Cotton Mather. Zea Books Printed, and ſold by 1693. Zea Books Boston Benjamin Harris. Lincoln, Nebraska 9 781609 620097 Edited, with an Introduction, by Reiner Smolinski The Wonders of the Invisible World [1693] The Wonders of the Invisible World Observations as Well Historical as Theological, upon the Nature, the Number, and the Operations of the Devils [1693] by Cotton Mather Edited, with an Introduction, by Reiner Smolinski Zea Books Lincoln, Nebraska 2011 Introduction copyright © 1998 Reiner Smolinski. The introductory essay and the text of The Wonders of the Invisible World originally appeared in The Kingdom, the Power, & the Glory: The Millennial Impulse in Early American Literature, Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, Dubuque, Iowa, 1998. isbn : 978-1-60962-009-7 Zea Books are published by the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries. Introduction otton Mather (1662/3–1727/8). The eldest son of New England’s leading divine, Increase Mather and grandson of Cthe colony’s spiritual founders Richard Mather and John Cotton, Mather was born in Boston, educated at Harvard (B. A. 1678; M. A. 1681), and received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Glasgow University (1710). As pastor of Boston’s Sec- ond Church (Congregational), he came into the political limelight during America’s version of the Glorious Revolution, when Bos- tonians deposed their royal governor, Sir Edmund Andros (April 1689). During the witchcraft debacle (1692–93), Mather both warns the Salem judges against admitting “spectral evidence” as grounds for indictment and advocates prayer and fasting to cure the afflicted, but he also writes New England’s official defense of the court’s procedures on which his modern reputation largely de- pends: The Wonders of the Invisible World (1693). As the Lord’s re- membrancer and keeper of the Puritan conscience, he writes the grandest of American jeremiads, his epic church history Magna- lia Christi Americana (1702). Like his father a staunch defender of Puritan orthodoxy, Mather persuades Elihu Yale, a London mer- chant and practicing Anglican, to endow Yale University (1703) as the new nursery of Puritanism, when Harvard seemed to become too liberal in its teaching and too independent in its thinking. If such endeavors bespeak Mather’s partisan politics on the one hand and his transcendent thinking on the other, it is his chilias- tic credo that leads him to champion Pietist ecumenism, his ef- fort to unite all Christian denominations in New England, nay all Christians, Jews, and Moslems in the Orient and Occident, un- der the umbrella of his “3 Maxims of Piety” to hasten the Second Coming of Christ. Likewise, his interest in the new sciences and in new medical theories distinguish Mather from his American con- v vi Wonders of the Invisible World temporaries. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Lon- don (1713), defended and popularized the new scientific theories of Henry More, William Derham, John Ray, Thomas Burnet, Wil- liam Whiston, Sir Isaac Newton, and others, and staunchly advo- cates a new germ theory and inoculation against smallpox in the face of the united opposition of Boston’s physicians during the ep- idemic of 1721. Whereas Increase Mather never quite made the transition into the Enlightenment, his son Cotton had come full circle; he represents the best of early Enlightenment thinking in Colonial America. His contributions to the literature of the New England Errand are as diverse as his publications are prolific and inexhaustible. In all, he published more than four hundred works on all aspects of the contemporary debate: theological, historical, biographical, political, and scientific. It is therefore deplorable that Mather’s reputation is still largely overshadowed by the specter of Salem witchcraft. No single work of Mather’s gargantuan publication record does justice to his long, productive career in New England’s fore- most pulpit, but several representative types afford a glimpse at his overall achievement. The Diary of Cotton Mather (Vol. I, 1911; II, 1912; III, 1964) provides a more comprehensive insight into his volatile nature than his autobiography Paterna (1976).