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Cotton Mather's the Wonders of the Invisible World CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by UNL | Libraries University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Electronic Texts in American Studies Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln 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) Cotton Mather Second Church (Congregational), Boston Reiner Smolinski , Editor Georgia State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/etas Part of the American Studies Commons 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 (1693)" (1693). Electronic Texts in American Studies. 19. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/etas/19 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Texts in American Studies by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. The Wonders of the Invisible World: COTTON MATHER (1662/3–1727/8). The eldest son of New England’s leading divine, Increase Mather and grand- Observations as Well Historical as Theological, son of the colony’s spiritual founders Richard Mather and John Cotton, Mather was born in Boston, educated at Har- upon the Nature, the Number, and the vard (B. A. 1678; M. A. 1681), and received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Glasgow University (1710). Operations of the Devils As pastor of Boston’s Second Church (Congregational), he came into the political limelight during America’s version [1693] of the Glorious Revolution, when Bostonians deposed their royal governor, Sir Edmund Andros (April 1689). During the witchcraft debacle (1692–93), Mather both warns the Sa- by Cotton Mather lem 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 depends: The Wonders of the Invisible World (1693). As the Lord’s remembrancer and keeper of the Puritan con- science, he writes the grandest of American jeremiads, his epic church history Magnalia Christi Americana (1702). Like his father a staunch defender of Puritan orthodoxy, Mather persuades Elihu Yale, a London merchant and prac- ticing 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 think- ing. If such endeavors bespeak Mather’s partisan politics on Edited, with an Introduction, the one hand and his transcendent thinking on the other, it by Reiner Smolinski is his chiliastic credo that leads him to champion Pietist ec- umenism, his effort to unite all Christian denominations in New England, nay all Christians, Jews, and Moslems in the Orient and Occident, under 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 contemporaries. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of London (1713), de- ii COTTON MATHER INTRODUCTION iii fended and popularized the new scientific theories of Henry craft and Possessions (1689) and Wonders of the Invisible World More, William Derham, John Ray, Thomas Burnet, Wil- (1693). The former mostly recounts the possessions and an- liam Whiston, Sir Isaac Newton, and others, and staunchly tics of the Goodwin children, the eldest of whom Mather ob- advocates a new germ theory and inoculation against small- served in his own home and eventually cured through fast- pox in the face of the united opposition of Boston’s physi- ing, prayer, and patient reassurance. While to modern readers cians during the epidemic of 1721. Whereas Increase Mather the narrative smacks of singular gullibility, Mather’s practi- never quite made the transition into the Enlightenment, cal tests, careful observations, and—most important—san- his son Cotton had come full circle; he represents the best ative procedure in indemnifying the girl’s excesses bespeak of early Enlightenment thinking in Colonial America. His his experimental treatment of the case. The latter work aims contributions to the literature of the New England Errand at several purposes. On the one hand, Wo n d e r s is New Eng- are as diverse as his publications are prolific and inexhaust- land’s official defense of the court’s verdict and testimony ible. In all, he published more than four hundred works on to the power of Satan and his minions; on the other, it is all aspects of the contemporary debate: theological, histori- Mather’s contribution to pneumatology, with John Gaul, cal, biographical, political, and scientific. It is therefore de- Matthew Hale, John Dee, William Perkins, Joseph Glan- plorable that Mather’s reputation is still largely overshad- ville, and Richard Baxter in the lead. Before Mather excerpts owed by the specter of Salem witchcraft. the six most notorious cases of Salem witchcraft, he but- No single work of Mather’s gargantuan publication re- tresses his account with the official endorsement of Lt. Gov- cord does justice to his long, productive career in New Eng- ernor William Stoughton, with a disquisition on the devil’s land’s foremost pulpit, but several representative types afford machinations described by the best authorities that the sub- a glimpse at his overall achievement. The Diary of Cotton ject affords, with a previously delivered sermon at Andover, Mather (Vol. I, 1911; II, 1912; III, 1964) provides a more and with his own experimentations. Mather’s Wo n d e r s , how- comprehensive insight into his volatile nature than his auto- ever, does not end without a due note of caution. While ex- biography Paterna (1976). His Diary is a Puritan document posing Satan’s plot to overthrow New England’s churches, par excellence. It focuses on him as an instrument of divine Mather also recommends his father’s caveat Cases of Con- providence in the world. If his public persona in his sermons science (1693), thus effectively rejecting the use of “spectral is overbearing and bombastic, his private persona in his Di- evidence” as grounds for conviction and condemning con- ary is modest and unostentatious: a doting son, loving fa- fessions extracted under torture. What ties the various parts ther, affectionate husband, and caring Pastor evangelicus— together is Mather’s millenarian theme of Christ’s immi- fully aware of his own weaknesses. nence, of which Satan’s plot is the best evidence. Robert Cal- Mather’s mythic image still rests on his involvement in ef ’s accusation that Mather and his ilk incited the hysteria the Salem witchcraft debacle (1692–93) and on Robert Cal- is, perhaps, unfounded, but Calef ’s charge of Mather’s ambi- ef’s libelling allegations in More Wonders of the Invisible dextrous disposition seems warranted. For while Mather de- Wo r l d (1700). Mather’s most important publications on the fends the court’s verdict and justifies the government’s po- supernatural are Memorable Providences, Relating to Witch- sition, he also voices his great discomfort with the court’s iv COTTON MATHER INTRODUCTION v procedure in the matter. Wo n d e r s appeared in print just when handbook The Angel of Bethesda (wr. 1723/24, publ. 1972), the trials were halting, but it remains, in his own words, his manual for the ministry Manuductio ad Ministerium “that reviled Book,” a bane to his name. (1726), and his hermeneutical defense of eschatology The His most enduring and, at once, most famous legacy Threefold Paradise: “Triparadisus” (wr. 1712, 1720-27; publ. is his Puritan epic Magnalia Christi Americana (London, 1995). Mather’s Bonifacius, An Essay . to Do Good represents 1702), an ecclesiastical history of New England in the con- the most comprehensive expression of his life’s purpose: temporary tradition of providence literature. In seven books “Fructuosis,” to be serviceable to one’s fellow man. His life- of uneven length, Mather commemorates on an epic scale long interest in the German Pietist movement of his Fred- virtually every aspect of New England’s formative period erician colleague August Hermann Francke, of Halle (Sax- (1620-1698). From a literary point of view, Mather’s Plutar- ony), convinced Mather that specific practical advice rather chan biographies of New England’s governors and ministers than pious exhortations could engender social reform. His (book 2) are of greatest interest. Puritan heroes are juxta- subsequent essays (chapters) address all classes of society and posed with heroes of classical and biblical antiquity, with the their various occupations. former surpassing the latter by emulating their outstanding In typical Renaissance fashion, Mather was at home in characteristics. Even though each life follows the pattern virtually every discipline of human knowledge, ancient and of medieval hagiography, he does not fail to mention some modern. Though a theologian by vocation, he was a vir- of his heroes’ shortcomings and how they overcame them. tuoso of science by avocation, as his “Curiosa Americana” Since its appearance, Magnalia Christi Americana has been (1712, 1714) and his Christian Philosopher (1720/1) attest. In criticized for its lack of thematic unity, bombastic style, and the former, he describes in more than 23 separate epistles undigested material. However flawed by modern standards, his pseudo-scientific observations of the American flora and each of the seven books develops a specific theme, unified by fauna, ornithology, birth defects, rattlesnakes, earthquakes, Mather’s Virgilian theme of the mighty works of Christ in Indian customs, and many other American curiosities.
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