Increase Mather

Increase Mather (June 21, 1639 – August 23, 1723) was a Puritan educator and clergyman.

Churchwork

In the winter of 1661/62, he commensed preaching at the Old North Church of Boston, and was ordained there on May 27, 1664. During the 1662 Puritan Synod, he represented the Church of Dorchester – his father's church – where he opposed the Halfway Covenant adopted by the Synod and defended by his father and a one Jonathan Mitchell (1624–1668). Soon afterwards, though, he switched sides, and like his father and Mitchell before him, became one of the chief exponents of the same Halfway Covenant. Despite this, he was bitterly opposed to the liberal practices that followed the Covenant and (after 1677) particularly to that of Stoddardeanism, the doctrine of Solomon Stoddard (1643-1729).

Related Topics:
1661 - 62 - Old North Church - Boston - May 27 - 1664 - Synod - Halfway Covenant - Jonathan Mitchell - 1677 - Solomon Stoddard

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Stoddard stated that all "such Persons as have a good Conversation and a Competent Knowledge may come to the Lord's Supper," implying that only those of openly immoral life should be excluded from the ritual meal that roughly paralelled the Catholic sacrement of the Eucharist. Stoddard would have allowed both church members and non-members to take part in the ritual. In opposition to Stoddard, Mather held to the orthodox Puritan position, and therefore wished to exclude many more from the Lord's Supper. According to Puritan doctrine, only full church members were allowed to participate in the Lord's Supper. In order to gain full church membership, one had to be recognized by the church as a "visible saint," a person who was known to be saved. Mather's problem with Stoddard was that the latter would allow even the unsaved (those destined for hell) to participate in the Lord's Supper.

Related Topics:
Eucharist - Puritan

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In May 1679 Mather petitioned the General Court to call a synod to consider a reformation in New England of the "Evils that have Provoked the Lord to bring his Judgments." When the synod met in September it appointed him one of a committee to draft a creed. The committee reported back in May of 1680 at the second session (which Mather moderated) with the "Savoy Declaration". After some modification to the Declaration's "Civil Magistrate" chapter and other portents, the Declaration was finally approved, but was never made mandatory on the churches by the General Court (judgment reaffirmed: Saybrook, Connecticut, 1708).

Related Topics:
1679 - Synod - New England - Creed - 1680 - Savoy Declaration - Saybrook, Connecticut - 1708

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The Cambridge Platform of 1646, which was drafted by his father, and the Confession of 1680, for which Increase was largely responsible, were later printed together as a book of "doctrine and government" for the churches of Massachusetts.

Related Topics:
Cambridge Platform - 1646 - Confession of 1680 - Massachusetts

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