USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > History of the Second Church, or Old North, in Boston : to which is added a History of the New Brick Church > Part 5
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The value in which his cotemporaries held his services, and the esteem with which they regarded his character, are strikingly shown in a letter from the principal Dissenting clergymen in England to the General Court at Boston, --- a letter no less noticeable for the beauty and grace of its style than for the justice and wisdom of its sentiments. In the course of it, they say, " The truth is, your affairs were so difficult and thorny, that the rare union of the wis- dom of the serpent and the innocence of the dove was requisite in managing them .... We must, therefore, give this true testimony of our much esteemed and beloved bro- ther, Mr. Increase Mather, that with inviolate integrity, excellent prudence, and unfainting diligence, he hath managed the great business committed to his trust. As he is instructed in the school of heaven to minister in the affairs of the soul, so he is furnished with a talent to transact affairs of state. His proceedings have been with that caution and circumspection which is correspondent to the weight of his commission. He, with courage and constancy, has pursued the noble scope of his employment; and, understanding the true moment of things, has preferred the public good to the vain conceits of some, that more might have been obtained if peremptorily insisted on."
But his services abroad were not confined to the single object for which he had been sent. He constantly preached in the pulpits of his brethren, declining all remuneration to himself, and asking only the interest of the ministers on behalf of his country. He let slip no opportunity to
penetrated to his hidden motives, and brought to light every real or possible infirmity of his spirit.
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advance the interests of religion in England. He gained the general esteem of the Dissenting churches, and the inti- mate friendship of the leading divines of all parties, - of Tillotson and Burnet, as well as of Bates and Mead and Baxter. Through his instrumentality, according to the testimony of Dr. Annesley and others, more than through that of any other man, the Union of the English Presby- terian and Congregational Churches was effected ; and with his assistance the " Heads of Agreement " were drawn up. For this eminent service, and "the great pains taken there- in," he received a vote of thanks from the General Assem- bly of Devonshire, through their Moderator, the celebrated John Flavel .*
For the college also he strenuously labored, laying its case before the king, and commending its interests to the wealthy and munificent. If he cannot justly claim the credit, attributed to him by his son, of having, "through his acquaintance with, and proposal to, that good-spirited man and lover of all good men, Mr. Thomas Hollis, intro- duced his benefactions to the college," there can be no doubt that he used what influence he had, to further the noble purpose which has made that name honored and dear to every New England scholar, and every admirer of liberality and goodness.
I cannot close this brief sketch of his foreign labors, without alluding to yet one other service to New England, too important to be forgotten. I refer to the happy union, brought about directly by his influence, between the colo-
* Cotton Mather's Life of Increase.
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nies of Plymouth and Massachusetts. He discovered that a design was on foot to unite Plymouth to New York, notwithstanding the distance between them. Nay, it had already gone so far, that, when Mr. Slaughter was appointed Governor of New York, Plymouth was actually put into his commission. It was taken out, and the commission altered, only through Mr. Mather's industry and discreet application .* A second time, the same project was at- tempted, and, on the very eve of its consummation, was again defeated through his renewed exertions. Let the wise and firm agency by which the two choicest colonies of the Pilgrims were so early bound together, in preparation for that noble State in which they are now blended insepara- bly and for ever, be cherished in grateful remembrance !
It deserves to be mentioned further, in connection with this important transaction, that Mr. Mather served the country without any remuneration. It was charged against him, in a malignant publication, that he had spent much of the public money during his negotiation. The accusa- tion was so grossly false, that his friends, having obtained from him an exact statement of the facts in the case, prepared and published a vindication. In this it appears that he not only never demanded a farthing of recom- pense for the four years spent abroad, but actually pro- cured, in donations to the province and the college, at least nine hundred pounds more than all the expenses of his agency.t
* Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 405.
+ This last expression leads me to suppose, that the actual " business- expenses " of the agency, separate from the agent's private expenses and
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I have thus endeavored to trace the career of Mr. Mather, and develop his character and opinions, especially in connection with the most important public transactions and controversies in which he was engaged. You have seen that from early life he was marked for eminence in church and state, and no sooner had arrived at maturity than " he was looked up to as a leader in both religious and civil affairs, equally active, distinguished, and trusted .* You have seen that he was a zealous Calvinist and a thorough-going Congregationalist ; strict in doctrine, in an age of strictness ; severe in morals, where morality was the
every thing in the nature of a salary, may have been, at least in part, pro- vided for by the colony. In a statement written by him while in London in 1691, he uses this language : "Besides what was sent tome out of New England, I expended upwards of two hundred pounds of my own personal estate, out of love to that people; and I did, for their sake, borrow of a merchant in London above three hundred pounds more." Referring to a later period of his agency, he says, "For more than a twelvemonth, not one penny was received, so that I was forced either to suffer a ruin to come upon the country, or else must borrow money again to serve them; which I did, and engaged all the estate I have in the world for the repayment thereof."
* " Nature had bestowed upon him the power to be great, and he was religiously sensible of his obligations to exercise this power usefully. Born and trained in a young colony, struggling with hardships, and forcing its way through peril and fear ; his mind fashioned by a father who had all the zeal and firmness which characterized the Puritans of that age, - a race eminently formed to do and to dare, - thus gifted and educated, he be- came peculiarly fit, and no wonder it was felt that he was fit, to have an ascendency, and exercise a control. He had received the best education of his own country ; he had completed it abroad; he had been driven from place to place, suffering for his religion, and presented with strong tempta- tions to abandon it ; thus acting a hurried and various part in the most try- ing times in the mother-country ; and after this discipline, so calculated to give firmness and character, he returned to labor in the service of this infant state. Nothing can be conceived more likely to prepare a man to act well his.part in so peculiar a scene." - Rev. H. Ware, jun. 8
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sternest; and rigid in piety, where all were rigid. You have seen that he was ardent, and yet firm; enthusiasti- cally devotional, yet eminently sagacious and practical; of quick impulses, yet persevering in purpose and patient in execution ; a lover of study, yet at the same time fond of affairs ; familiar with books, yet equally acquainted with men; devoted to the church, and yet ever at the service of the state. You have seen that he was bold and deter- mined alike in attack or in defence, when any important principle was involved, or any public interest at stake. He may have sometimes appeared to you ambitious, but never out of the line of duty. He may have struck you as fond of authority, but never as subordinating principle to place. You may have inferred that he wished to rule, but never where he was not reasonably conscious of superior ability, or sincerely desirous of some result which he believed bene- ficial to his country or salutary to the church. You may have regretted in him a few infirmities, in common with the best of men ; but you have admired in his character a variety and combination of virtues rarely surpassed or even equalled. You may have wondered at occasional mani- festations of irritability and rudeness in dispute, because they break the harmony of an otherwise holy life; but they are not sufficient to destroy your conviction, that at heart he was sound in goodness, and in spirit consecrated to God.
He had his enemies, however, in his own day; some of them among the great of the land, and some full of bitter- ness ; and they did not spare their accusations. His distin- guished position exposed him to their shafts. His political
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THE SECOND CHURCH.
measures were offensive to some ; his theological opinions, to others. To some men, he was an obstacle in the way of their preferment; others hated him, as having been de- prived by his influence of the offices they coveted; others remembered him as a powerful antagonist in controversy ; others envied his popularity, or feared his opposition.
But, in spite of all these, and of all that they have written, his name, till very recently, has held an honorable place in the history both of church and state. The fame which contemporary enemies could not destroy has encoun- tered, at length, a more powerful and honored assailant, from whose condemnation it can never rise again, if it be not aided by the inherent resurgency of virtue, - if it be not vindicated through the eternal law, that merit shall overmaster the influence of the strong, and disannul the adverse judgment that seems, and is intended to be, most just.
I trust that truth is dearer to me than the reputation of one whom I venerate; and if the truth required that the image of one of my predecessors should be taken down from the shrine which it has occupied, for more than a hundred years, in the churches' reverence, and publicly dis- honored, I could bow the head in silence, though I might not sympathize with the spoiler, nor be accessory to the deed. But when I feel, as in the case of our first Mather, that the claims of truth are coincident with the claims of affection, and that the sentiment of justice conspires with the impulse of pious duty, it would be no less criminal than mean-spirited to refrain from attempting to reinstate his name in its former glory, because to do so must bring
-
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me into conflict with the living whom I respect and honor.
Grave charges have been made against him, which I need not here repeat. But what is the ground on which they rest ? what the source from which the proofs that sus- tain them have been gathered or inferred? Every public document of his times, in which his name is mentioned, speaks of him in terms of respect. All his public acts praise him. Repeated votes of the court and of the college bear strong testimony to the value set upon his services, and the esteem in which his character was held. The clergy honored him with undoubted marks of reverence. Single churches looked up to him for counsel, and assem- bled churches acknowledged his authority. In difficult crises, the magistrates consulted him ; and, in perilous emergencies, the colony employed his agency and hear- kened to his advice. And, to crown all, the record of his long ministry to this church is not only unstained by a sin- gle line to his discredit, but spread all over with proofs of his fidelity and power, tokens of the love which was che- rished towards him by his flock, and names of the sainted or illustrious, who are the seals of his ministry, the stars of this church, the jewels of God.
Where, then, is the ground of these accusations ? They are professedly supported, in great measure, upon the evi- dence which his private diary supplies. His public acts, interpreted by this, are traced, it is said, to their inte- rior motives ; and, again, the motives so deciphered are transferred to other public acts, of which the ostensible motive is suspected, while the diary furnishes no other ;
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and thus he is made, unintentionally, to convict himself. His sincerity in his closet becomes traitor to his caution before the world. His inadvertence behind the curtain dis- closes his artifice on the stage. And secret passions, which his contemporaries could only suspect, are unwittingly re- vealed to the searching eye of the future historian. For these ends, the sanctity of his closet has been invaded; the record of his solitary devotions, his most sacred hours, has been ransacked; the record of his prayers, - prayers, many of which are so tender and earnest as might touch the coldest heart; of his confessions to God, -confessions so profound- ly humble that one might well shrink from prying into what was told as a secret only to Him who is more merciful than man,- this record of prayers, confessions, resolves, interior experiences, with here and there a fact or a com- ment upon men and things, has been shuffled over and spelled out, to supply instruments for the destruction of the writer's own fame, which public registers and all other sources had failed to furnish.
I cannot trust myself to speak, as I feel, of such dealing with the private papers of holy men. They were not written for critical eyes to examine, or irreverent observers to inspect. Such will be sure to misunderstand, and can never fairly interpret them. What is uttered concerning one's self before God, in the moment of deep contrition and humiliation, will be taken as literally as if it were the calm verdict of a judge. The expression of that sense of unworthiness which bows the pious soul in shame be- fore the immaculate holiness of Heaven, and finds vent in stern self-upbraidings for faults and blemishes which com-
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mon men would not notice in themselves, and none but the saintly would mourn, will be construed as if it were the positive testimony of a witness on the stand, to guilt as grievous as the terms in which it is stated are strong. The impressions of a desponding mood ; the emotions of an hour of joy; the sudden feeling aroused by a real wrong from an · enemy, or an imagined injury from a friend; the fancy that flits through the mind; the doubt that passes over it like the shadow of a cloud; the superstitious feeling that for a moment weighs upon the heart, and which the wisest men cannot always shake off, - all these, or any one of them, merely because they are noted down, are read as if they were established convictions, settled opinions, confirmed habits ; and as if, having been once experienced, they must needs be stamped upon the character and fixed in the life for ever.
But the diary of Increase Mather does not support the charges that rest upon it. It does not establish the impu- tation of selfish and mean motives. It does not show that he was a self-seeker. It does not convict him of being influenced by any sinister purposes in his management of the affairs of church, state, or college. There are some entries, indeed, which one so disposed might easily turn into ridicule; there are some, that, judged by a modern standard, might seem superstitious and credulous ; there are some which might be thought to indicate a degree of self-esteem hardly to be expected in a mature Christian, - yet often seen in the diaries of the best, though likely to be overrated by the reader, who forgets that the jour- nalist wrote only of himself and for himself; and, after
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all, not greater, I imagine, than might be detected in the very persons who sneer at it, if all their private feelings were written down, - and there are other passages which show, that, like other men, he had some imperfections ; enough to give opportunity for the exercise of blessed cha- rity in his human judges, and sweet mercy in the Divine. But, notwithstanding all these, it is full of the sincerest piety and the strongest faith ; it overflows with prayer, - prayer gentle and tender as a little child's, and strong and urgent as the passionate wrestlings of a powerful spirit breaking its way through doubts and darkness to come nearer to peace and God. It clearly shows that the master- passion was not ambition, but piety ; that the ruling pur- pose was not self-aggrandisement, but the glory of his Maker; that, whatever his faults, he longed and strove to correct them; and, whatever his weaknesses, he sincerely thirsted after righteousness, and heartily loved his God.
If the secrets of all our hearts were revealed; if every thought and purpose were disclosed; if all our hidden motives were brought into the light; if every imagination and desire and day-dream of our solitary hours were exposed to the inspection of earth and heaven ; few, very few, would have less for which to blush before the world, and less for which to be ashamed before the Almighty, than, judging from his diary alone, would he whose life we have been reviewing.
And now I gladly turn from considering the charges against him, to take one more glance at his life, as history has represented it to us in his latter days. The fire that burned so warmly in his manhood, old age did not quench.
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His preaching was still vigorous, evén at fourscore years. Large congregations, as at first, gathered to listen to him, and " lost no appetite for his instructions " because he had fed them so long .* The churches loved his venerable pre- sence, and "would not permit an ordination," we are told, "to be carried on without him, as long as he was able to be conveyed to them in a coach." His pen, that had writ- ten so much, did not become idle or weary, nor lose any thing of its power in his tremulous hand.
On the fiftieth anniversary of his settlement, he re- quested a dismissal from the church; but they would not listen to it; though afterwards, "to render his old age easy to him, they wisely and kindly voted that the labors of the pulpit should be expected of him only when he should find himself able and inclined for them." His last sickness, though long and painful, and attended with occa- sional depression of spirits, was patiently borne in expecta- tion of rest and reward ; and when he died, at length, on the bosom of his son, it was with repeated ejaculations of joyous belief and hope that he should on that day be with Christ in Paradise .;
The day of his death was a day of general mourning. An honorable funeral was given him, such as few citizens had been known to receive before; and every testimony of
* It is said that notes were not unfrequently taken of his later sermons by stenographers, for private circulation and for the press.
t On being told, one day, that his excellent friend, Mr. Thomas Hollis, of London, was inquisitive in his letters whether he was yet in the land of the living, he replied, "No! tell him I am going to it. This poor world is the land of the dying. "Tis heaven that is the true land of the living."
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affection and veneration accompanied him to the tomb .* " The feelings of that day have passed away ; the eyes that knew him, and wept for him, have long been sealed in death; and other generations have risen, and gone by, and been forgotten. But the name of Increase Mather still lives; and, when hundreds of generations shall have sunk to irrecoverable oblivion, he shall still be hailed as one of the early worthies of New England." }
But it is time that we should pass on, in our survey, to the characters of succeeding pastors and the record of later events. It will not seem to you that I have devoted too large a proportion of this discourse to our second minister, if, in connection with the fact that he presided over the Second Church nearly one-third of the whole period of its existence, you regard his distinguished abilities, his import- ant services both to church and state, and also the necessity that was laid upon me to endeavor to rescue his character, at least with this congregation, from opprobrium and for- getfulness. If I have delineated that character in lines of truth, and you can trust the fidelity of the sketch, as I am sure you trust the purity of my purpose in defending him, his moral portrait will henceforth hang in the minds of yourselves and your children above the reach of ridicule or reproach, as the likeness, not, indeed, of a faultless, but of an eminently useful and holy man.
The only important event relating to the history of the
* Hon. Wm. Dummer, Lieut. Governor; Chief Justice Sewall; the President of the College; and three of the principal clergymen, - were pall- bearers. The students of Cambridge, a multitude of ministers, and citizens of every rank, joined the funeral procession.
t Henry Ware, jun.
9
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Second Church that took place towards the close of the ministry of Increase Mather, was the amicable separation of a part of his society, which had become too numerous for their meeting-house, in order to the establishment of a new church at the north part of the city, called afterwards the "New North," of which Dr. Parkman was recently the respected pastor.
It is also worth recording here, that the number of admissions to the church during the ministry of the elder Mather was over one thousand; and the number of bap- isms recorded -the record being incomplete previous to the year 1689 - was about thirty-three hundred .*
* The exact numbers during the ministry of Increase and Cotton Mather were of admissions, eleven hundred and four, and of baptisms, for the thirty-nine years during which the record is complete, three thousand three hundred and eighty-four.
Cotton Mather.
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FROM THE MATHER, 1723, TO 1768.
COTTON MATHER. - JOSHUA GEE. - SAMUEL MATHER. SAMUEL CHECKLEY.
THE name that stands next on the list of the pastors of the Second Church has been for a century more familiarly mentioned and more widely known than that of any other New England minister .* Its celebrity, however, is less enviable than extensive. It is seldom mentioned but in association with some anecdote of credulity, quaintness, or oddity, that excites a smile; or some instance of supersti- tion, irritability, or vanity, that provokes a sneer. Yet, notwithstanding the universality of his fame, the quantity
* Cotton Mather, son of Increase and Maria, - daughter of the cele- brated John Cotton, from whom he took his Christian name, - was born in Boston, Thursday, Feb. 12, 1662-3. He was educated at the Free School in Boston, under the care, first of Benjamin Thompson, a good classical scholar and a poet ; and, afterwards, of the famous Ezekiel Cheever. At the age of twelve years, he had made such advance in Latin and Greek as to be throughly prepared to enter Harvard College. He took his first degree with marked distinction at sixteen, and his second before he was quite nineteen. On account of an impediment in his speech, fearing that he should not be able to preach, he first studied medicine. But, having overcome his stam- mering by persevering efforts, he devoted himself to his favorite study, theo- logy. After having for a long time hesitated to accept the call of the Second Church, he was at length ordained as colleague with his father, May 13, 1685.
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that has been written and spoken concerning him, and the quite distinct impression of him which the generality of persons suppose they have formed, I am convinced that few historical characters are less understood than COTTON MATHER. He has paid the penalty always attached to sin- gularity. The protuberance of a few eccentricities has thrown all the elements of his character into false perspec- tive. His oddities stand in the light of his virtues. They give a grotesqueness to his whole image. They mark the man so strongly that all who see them imagine they under- stand him. " This is himself, and nobody else," people say; and therefore they think they know who and what he is, and all that is worth knowing about him. They conclude they have a true likeness, when they have only a broad carica- ture, founded upon some odd feature or two; and, with a smile of satisfaction at their own penetration and his pecu- liarities, inquire no deeper.
But those who know only the eccentricities of Cotton Mather know little about him. Those who suppose they comprehend him, because they are familiar with the current anecdotes about him, or imagine that he could be fairly sketched by a few strong touches, could not be under a greater misapprehension. The truth is, few characters are less intelligible ; few harder to describe ; few are so many- sided; few have so little uniformity; few have so great a variety of qualities, in such strange admixture; few show such supposed inconsistencies ; few present themselves in such ever-shifting positions and hues, such kaleidoscopic changes and combinations; few exhibit such surprising contrasts, such an apparent jumble of great and small,
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