The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 3

CHAPTER SEVEN: High-Water Mark in Colonial Exposition

I. The Mather Dynasty of New England

RICHARD MATHER (1596-1669), founder of the “Mather dynasty,” was persecuted by the Archbishop of York in 1635 for not wearing a surplice, which the Puritans regarded as “the rags of Antichrist.” ¹ Therefore he left England for Boston. Of extensive learning in the classics and Scriptures, he quickly became minister at Dorchester. He was a constant student and a prolific writer, and a leader in church and state. PFF3 124.1

Of his six sons, four became famous, the most prominent being INCREASE MATHER (1639-1723), who entered Harvard at twelve, graduated at seventeen, and was preaching by nineteen Increase returned to Trinity College, Dublin, for further training, and at twenty-six he was back in America as pastor of North Church in Boston. Books flowed from his pen in a constant stream. ² Because of his learning, logic, eloquence, and energy he became the most powerful figure in New England. He was a pronounced theocrat. When he died, the spirit of the old Presbyterianism passed in Harvard. Later it was superseded by Unitarianism. ³ PFF3 124.2

Increase’s son, COTTON MATHER (1663-1728), the third generation, became the most famous of all. A veritable prodigy, he surpassed in influence all pre-Revolution Americans, with the exception of Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin. ⁴ He was called the “literary behemoth” of colonial New England because of his enormous literary output. In him, however, the inquisitorial pettiness of the Genevan system was “revealed so disagreeably.” ⁵ He lived in a transition hour. He belonged to the past, the “cold granite” of Puritan formalism, that was rapidly passing. In his later life the shadows of disappointment fell across his pathway, for the world had moved on from the positions of the previous generation that constituted his very life. ⁶ Of Increase and Cotton much will be noted. PFF3 124.3