A Cotton Mather Reader

by Cotton Mather, Reiner Smolinski (Editor), Kenneth P. Minkema (Editor)

Overview

An authoritative selection of the writings of one of the most important early American writers
 
“A brilliant collection that reveals the extraordinary range of Cotton Mather’s interests and contributions—by far the best introduction to the mind of the Puritan divine.”—Francis J. Bremer, author of Lay Empowerment and the Development of Puritanism
 
Cotton Mather (1663–1728) has a wide presence in American culture, and longtime scholarly interest in him is increasing as more of his previously unpublished writings are made available. This reader serves as an introduction to the man and to his huge body of published and unpublished works.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300265460
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	07/12/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	448
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Reiner Smolinski is professor of English at Georgia State University and general editor of Cotton Mather’s Biblia Americana. Kenneth P. Minkema is editor of The Works of Jonathan Edwards and director of the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Note on the Text xi

Editors' Introduction xiii

Autobiography and Meditations 3

"Paterna" 6

To My Son 6

Diary (March 1681) 10

[Mather's "Infirmity"] 10

Samuel Mather, Life (1729) 10

[Mather Is Given a Way to Minimize His Stutter] 10

Christianus per Ignem (1702) 23

[Meditations on Fire] 23

New England History and the Glorious Revolution 39

Magnolia Christi Americana (1702) 45

A General Introduction 45

Nehemias Americanus: The Life of John Winthrop, Esq. 55

The Declaration, of the Gentlemen, Merchants, and Inhabitants of Boston, and the Countrey Adjacent (1689) 65

Gender, Childrearing, and Education 71

Ornaments for the Daughters of Zion (1692) 75

The Vertuous Maid 75

The Vertuous Wife 78

The Vertuous Mother 82

The Vertuous Widow 86

Bonifacius. An Essay upon the Good (1710) 89

[Husband, Wife, Parents, and Children] 89

Natural Philosophy (Science) 96

The Christian Philosopher (1721) 99

Essay I: Of the Light 99

Essay XXI: Of Gravity 104

Conclusion 109

Medicine and the Cure of Diseases 111

"The Angel of Bethesda" (c. 1693) 116

Cap. VII: Conjecturales 116

An Account of the Method and Success of Inoculating the Small-Pox (1722) 120

Diary (November 14, 1721) 132

[Assassination Attempt on Cotton Mather] 132

Mercantilism and Paper Money 134

Some Considerations on the Bills of Credit (1691) 141

Theopolis Americana (1710) 144

Biblical Hermeneutics 152

Psalterium Americanum (1718) 161

Introduction 161

An Admonition Concerning the Tunes 163

Psalm XXIII 163

Psalm CXXXVII 164

Manuductio ad Ministerium (1726) 164

[Reading the Sacred Scriptures] 164

Biblia Americana (1693-1728) 165

[Entry on Genesis 1:31 (Atomist Explanation of the Mosaic Creation Account)] 165

[Entry on Exodus 16:33 (On me Generation of Insects)] 173

[Entry on Joshua 10:12 (On the Sun Standing Still)] 175

[Entry on Judges 11:38 (The Sacrifice of Jephthah's Daughter)] 175

[Entry on 2 Chronicles 1:1 (Solomon a Type of Christ)] 176

[Entry on the Psalms (A Jewish Curiosity About the Psalms)] 178

[Entry on Isaiah 7:14 (Isaiah's Prophecy on a Virgin Conceiving)] 179

[Entry on Isaiah 7:16 (The Applicability of Isaiah's Prophecy to Christ)] 182

[Entry on Romans 3:31 (On a Sinner's Justification)] 183

[Entry on Ephesians 5:32 (The Mystery in the Marriage of Adam and Eve)] 185

[Entry on Ephesians 5:22-32 (Marriage as a Type of Union Between Christ and the Church)] 185

The Invisible World and Salem Witchcraft 187

Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions (1689) 196

Witchcrafts and Possessions 196

"The Return of Several Ministers Consulted by His Excellency, and the Honourable Council, upon the Present Witchcrafts in Salem Village" (June 15, 1692) 210

Diary (May-December 1692) 211

[Account of Activities During the Witch Hunt] 211

"Letter to John Foster" (August 17, 1692) 214

The Wonders of the Invisible World (1693) 216

Enchantments Encountred 216

The Tryal of G[eorge] B[urroughs] 224

The Tryal of Susanna Martin 229

Race, Slavery, and Servitude 236

Biblia Americana (1693-1728) 240

[Entry on Genesis 9:27 (The Curse of Cham)] 240

[Entry on Genesis 9:20-27 (The Prophecy of Noah)] 241

[Entry on Genesis 10:20 (The Nations Descended from One Man)] 244

Diary (October-December 1693) 245

[Establishing a "Society of Negroes"] 245

Rules for the Society of Negroes (1693) 246

A Good Master Well Served (1696) 248

The Negro Christianized (1706) 257

Puritans and Native Americans 266

Humiliations Follow'd with Deliverances (1697) 270

A Narrative of a Notable Deliverance from Captivity 270

A Narrative of Hannah Swarton, Containing Wonderful Passages, Relating to Her Captivity, and Her Deliverance 272

Duodecennium Luctuosum (1714) 278

Pietism and World Missions 285

Manuductio ad Ministerium (1726) 287

[Maxims of Piety] 287

India Christiana (1721) 295

III. Unio Fidelium. Communications Between the Western and Eastern India 295

To the Reverend … Mr. Bartholomew Ziegenbalgh 297

The Second Coming and Millennialism 304

Triparadisus (1727) 307

The Third Paradise: An Introduction 307

X: The New Earth Survey'd 308

Appendix: Texts and Sources 321

Chronology 325

Notes 329

Bibliography 365

General Index 381

Index of Names 389

Editorial Reviews

[A] prodigious undertaking, resulting in a definitive model of its kind.”—William J. Scheick, Seventeenth-Century News

“A gift to scholars. . . . An ideal single volume introduction to a figure who was indeed extraordinarily ‘meddlesome.’”—Erik Nordbye, New England Quarterly

“With its magisterial grasp of previous Mather scholarship and its mastery of Mather’s published and unpublished writings (a huge feat in itself), this reader marks the culmination of Mather’s intellectual and academic rehabilitation.”—Mark Noll, University of Notre Dame

“A Cotton Mather Reader is a remarkable achievement. In 300 pages, the editors capture this most prolific author whole, offering a complete and rounded portrait of a man too often depicted as two-dimensional, the caricatured ‘witch hunter’ of Salem. Instead, we see Mather as the sophisticated intellectual, preacher, public figure, and family man that he was, engaged in every aspect of a complex and changing colonial world—politics, economics, race relations, medicine, science, international relations, and biblical interpretation. Mather’s life embodied the contradictions and tensions of the society he lived in and helped to shape, as any reader of this marvelous collection will see.”—Mark Petersen, author of The City-State of Boston: The Rise and Fall of an Atlantic Power, 1630–1865

“A brilliant collection that reveals the extraordinary range of Cotton Mather’s interests and contributions—by far the best introduction to the mind of the Puritan divine.”—Francis J. Bremer, author of Lay Empowerment and the Development of Puritanism

“For most of American history, Cotton Mather has been more despised than studied, more ridiculed than read. Although he was, as the editors of this outstanding volume write, ‘the foremost scholar and innovative thinker of his generation in New England,’ many Americans only remember Mather as an intolerant and self-righteous Puritan who participated in the Salem witchcraft trials. But there was much more to Mather. He was ahead of his time in many ways, and was involved in virtually every movement and issue of his time. The thousands of pages he wrote spanned a wide range of topics, from religion and politics to slavery, medicine, and economics. With selections from Mather’s writings and illuminating introductions to Mather, his most important works, and his time, this book is a reader into Mather’s world, making his life and thought accessible like never before.”—James P. Byrd, Vanderbilt Divinity School

“This anthology situates Mather as a cosmopolitan writer and effective pastor, bringing us much closer to the real person.”—David D. Hall, Harvard Divinity School
 
“For too long Cotton Mather has languished in the shadow of his fellow colonial theologian Jonathan Edwards. Now, thanks to this prodigious volume, that scholarly imbalance has been definitively addressed. This meticulously researched and documented collection of Mather’s major writings provides a comprehensive overview of early America’s most prolific author. These selections reveal a linguistic genius fluent in seven languages and remarkably informed over a variety of subjects spanning theology, witchcraft, foreign missions, medicine, slavery, and Native American ethnography. This volume offers an indispensable tool for unlocking the full spectrum of early American thought and practice and represents an essential addition to any early American library.”—Harry Stout, Yale University

From the Publisher