Wednesday, August 23, 2023

It is the 23rd of August 2023. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org, I’m Dan van Voorhis.

It is not hyperbole to say that the person we remember today, a giant in Colonial America was most likely the “last” Puritan if you’re into deciding who gets to be last, AND he has one of the more curious names in American history- he was Increase Mather born in Dorchester in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1639 and died, on this, the 23rd of August in 1723 in Boston at the age of 84.

 So, the name “Increase,” he was the youngest of 6 children to Richard and Katherine Mather. They were English Puritans who were convinced to come to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635. As the last child to the parents, he was given the name “Increase” as he was both an “increase” in size and in what Katherine claimed was the “increase” of God’s plan for his people in the New World. It is also related to the Hebrew name “Joseph,” which means “God Increases.”

At 12, Increase left home for Harvard. At 15, he had a religious experience after the death of his mother and decided to go to school back in the British Isles, where one of his brothers was living. He attended Trinity College Dublin, receiving his MA in 1658. When he graduated as a staunch Puritan, he refused to wear the gown and hood- they were too ostentatious. His professors liked the young man enough to humor him. He may have stayed in England as a preacher amongst the Puritans (this is the age of the Commonwealth of the Cromwell, and thus he was welcome), but with the Restoration of the Stuart Monarchy, he made his way back to his home in Massachusettes. There he would marry his stepsister Mary Cotton- uniting the two dynasties of the Mather and Cotton families (his own son would be named Cotton Mather).

Increase would be involved in many theological dustups in the new colony- representing a kind of bridge to the Puritans, such as his father, and to the new generation. He would oppose and then favor the “half way” covenant which allowed church membership and baptism even if one hadn’t had a distinct conversion experience.

He was pastor at Second Church in Boston and was the President of Harvard from 1685.

In 1684 King Charles II nullified the Massachusetts charter in a plan to become the sole head of the colonies. He would put Edmund Andros in charge- anyone with familiarity with colonial history knows his name as a byword for royal malfeasance and tyranny. Increase was secretly sent to London to discuss Andros with the King in April of 1688. But after he arrived, the Glorious Revolution occurred in England- displacing the King in favor of the Dutch William of Orange and his wife, Mary of the Stuart line. Meanwhile, back home, Andros tried to keep the news of the Revolution back home a secret, it was discovered, and he was overthrown. Increase would negotiate the new charter for Massachusetts, which untied it and Plymouth- it also created a religious tolerance heretofore unseen in the Colonies. To the surprise of those who saw Increase as an old-school Puritan, the charter was the first to disconnect the right to vote and church membership- it would now be based on owning land. 

Of course, back home in 1692, he would be wrapped up in the Salem Witch Trials, which would make his son, Cotton and the Mather name infamous. But Increase was the last of the old breed- not only did he argue for a modicum of religious toleration, but he also noted that he would rather the courts mistake a witch for an honest woman than an honest woman as a witch. It was said in his later years that he ceased to preach as if New England was a New Israel. One biographer suggested that Increase was the middleman between John Cotton of the old Puritan stock (and his father in Law) and John Adams and the new breed of statesmen.

His theology was Puritan. He was an old-school congregationalist who believed in special providence and wrote on topics from the demonic to the judgment of God on the land on account of things ranging from open sin to the braiding of one's hair. But he evolved in this- the “between time” of the Puritans and the Founders. Increase Mather would die on this, the 23rd of August in 1723. Born in 1639, he was 84 years old.

The last word for today comes from the daily lectionary from Matthew 8:

When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. 2 A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

3 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. 4 Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 23rd of August 2023, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man whose favorite names that are also verbs include Increase, Hope, Sue, and Pat- he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man whose favorite names are complete sentences, including: Nancy Drew, Pete Rose, Ben Folds, and Britney Spears- I am Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.