The Witchcraft Delusion in New England: Its Rise, Progress, and Termination, (Vol 1 of 3). Calef Robert
For we know that as soon as Calef's Book did appear, some of Dr. Mather's Friends came out with another Work against that Author, from the Title of which alone its Contents can pretty well be judged of. It is Some few Remarks upon a Scandalous Book written by one Robert Calef. But this Book and its Authors are alike almost unknown, while Calef occupies a conspicuous Place among the Benefactors of Mankind.
The foreign Correspondence of Dr. Mather was very extensive; "so that," says his Son, "I have known him at one Time to have above fifty beyond Sea." Among his Correspondents were many of the most learned and famous Men in Europe; as Sir Richard Blackmore, Mr. Whiston, Dr. Desaguliers, Mr. Pillionere, Dr. Franckius, Wm. Waller, Dr. Chamberlain, Dr. Woodward, Dr. Jurin, Dr. Watts, &c., &c. In a Letter which he wrote in 1743 Dr. Watts says, "he had enjoyed a happy Correspondence with Dr. Cotton Mather, for nearly twenty Years before his Death, as well as with the Rev. Mr. Samuel Mather, his Son, ever since."
In 1710 came out a Book from the Pen of our Author, which he entitled "Bonifacius: An Essay upon the Good to be devised by those who would answer the great End of Life." In this Work are many good Maxims and Reflections, but its Popularity has probably been very much enhanced by what Dr. Franklin has said of it. Dr. Mather was well acquainted with Franklin when the latter was a young Man; and when Franklin was an old Man, in the Year 1784, in writing to Samuel Mather, Son of our Subject, he thus alludes to it in his happy Style: "When I was a Boy, I met with a Book entitled, Essays to do Good, which I think was written by your Father. It had been so little regarded by a former Possessor, that several Leaves of it were torn out; but the Remainder gave me such a Turn of thinking, as to have an Influence on my Conduct through Life; for I have always set a greater Value on the Character of a Doer of Good than on any other Kind of Reputation." In the same Letter is to be found that often told anecdote of an Interview he once had with Dr. Mather. This too, that it may lose nothing at our Hands, we will give in the Author's own Words: "You mention being in your seventy-eighth Year; I am in my seventy-ninth; we are grown old together. It is now more than sixty Years since I left Boston, but I remember well both your Father and Grandfather; having heard them both in the Pulpit, and seen them in their Houses. The last Time I saw your Father was in the Beginning of 1724, when I visited him after my first Trip to Pennsylvania. He received me in his Library, and on my taking leave showed me a shorter Way out of the House through a narrow Passage, which was crossed by a Beam overhead. We were still talking as I withdrew, he accompanying me behind, and I turning partly towards him, when he said hastily, 'stoop, stoop!' I did not understand him, till I felt my Head hit against the Beam. He was a Man that never missed any Occasion of giving Instruction, and upon this he said to me, 'You are young, and have the World before you; Stoop as you go through it, and you will miss many hard Thumps,' This Advice, thus beat into my Head, has frequently been of Use to me; and I often think of it, when I see Pride mortified, and Misfortunes brought upon People by their carrying their Heads too high." This Moral, so essentially good in itself, does not need the high Recommendation of a Franklin, though but for him it would not, probably, have been brought to the Knowledge of every Youth who has learned, or may yet learn to read.
The Essay to do Good has passed through many Editions, but how many it would be difficult to determine. It was several Times reprinted in London, once as late as 1807, under the Supervision of the distinguished Dr. George Burder. In this Country its Issue has not been confined to the Press of one Denomination.
It may be too much a Custom for us to dwell on the Errors and Misfortunes of People while living; and to err, on the other Hand, by making their Characters appear too perfect after they have passed away; especially if they have been sufficiently conspicuous in Life to require a written Memorial of them after their Decease. Though Dr. Cotton Mather had Enemies while living, his Memory has been pursued with more Malignity since his Death, than has happened to that of most Men; and, as we conceive, without sufficient Reason, and which could only be warranted by the most undoubted Proofs, that he has purposely led us into Errors, and that he acted falsely on the most important Occasions; and that, finally, he was too bad a Man to make any Acknowledgment of all this, though conscious of it when he took his final Departure with the Messenger of his last Summons.
He had vituperative Enemies in his Lifetime, from some of whom he received abusive anonymous Letters. These Letters he carefully filed, and wrote upon them simply the Word "Libels," which was all the Notice he took of them. It was an invariable Rule with him, that if he was obliged to speak of the evil Ways of People to do so in Humility and Regret, and never in a Manner that could be offensive. In his Diary he speaks of Pride as a Sin, "which all are subject unto, and more especially Ministers," and still more especially was it "the besetting Sin of young Ministers." Had he lived in these latter Days that Annoyance might have been less on Account of its Universality.
Mr. Mather's Time was that of long Sermons, and we are told that he usually closed them with the fourteenth Division of his Discourses. Besides his Labors on Sundays, he sometimes preached eleven Sermons in one Week besides. He also constantly had Students with him whom he instructed in various Branches of Knowledge.
Of the Part Dr. Mather took in State Affairs, his Biographer says he was not at Liberty to omit an Account, although it was a difficult Section; and that he was "more at a Loss what to do about it than any one in the whole Book." The Author, however, concludes, as he could not omit the Subject, to treat it "in such a general Way as to give no One any Offence." And as it is a Section of the Doctor's Life of great Interest, it will here be given entire in the Language of his Biographer, who wrote so near the Time that his Account carries its Readers back to those stirring Scenes of the Revolution of 1688, and furnishes a Picture, life-like, of the every-day Manners of our Fathers on that memorable and novel Event.
The Account follows: "My Country is very sensible that in the Year 1688 (when one of the most wicked Kings was on the British Throne) Andros and his Crew were very violent, illegal and arbitrary in their Proceedings. I need not give any Narrative of their Managements here, because there has been an Account of them already given to the World.28
"While these roaring Lions and ranging Bears were in the midst of their Ravages; it was in the Month of April when we had News by the Edges concerning a Descent made upon England by the Prince of Orange for the Rescue of the Nations from Slavery and Popery; then a strange Disposition entred into the Body of our People to assert our Liberties against the arbitrary Rulers that were fleecing them. But it was much feared by the more sensible Gentlemen at Boston, that an unruly Company of Soldiers, who had newly deserted the Service in which they had bin employed for the Eastern War, by the gathering of their Friends to them to protect them from the Governor, who, they tho't, intended Nothing but Ruine to them, would make a great Stir, and produce a bloody Revolution. And therefore the principal Gentlemen in 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 Insurrection; but that, if the country People to the Northward, by any violent Motions push'd on the Matter so far as to make a Revolution unavoidable, then to prevent the shedding of Blood by an ungoverned Multitude, some of the Gentlemen present would appear in the Head of what Action should be done; and a Declaration was prepared accordingly.
"On April 18, the People were so driving and furious, that unheaded they began to seize our public Oppressors: upon which the Gentlemen aforesaid found it necessary to appear that by their Authority among the People the unhappy Tumults might be a little regulated. And thro' the Goodness of God, although the whole Country were now in a most prodigious Ferment and Thousands of exasperated People in Arms were come into Boston, yet there was no Manner of Outrage committed; only the Public Robbers that had lorded it over Us were confined. 'Twas then Mr. Mather appeared – He was the Instrument of preventing the Excesses into which the Wrath of Man is too ready to run. He came, and like a Nestor or Ulisses reasoned down the Passions of the Populace. Had he lisped a Syllable for it, perhaps the People would, by a sudden Council of War, have try'd, judg'd and hang'd those ill Men who would have treated him otherwise. Nevertheless he set himself both publicly and privately to hinder the Peoples proceeding any further than to reserve the Criminals for the Justice of the English Parliament.
"Now the Persecution which was intended for Mr. Mather was diverted; for on that very Day that he was to be committed
Referring doubtless to