cussing the right of those who were not members in full communion to bring their children to baptism. It was a transition state of the colony. The older churches had been established for nearly a generation, and many of the younger people did not regard themselves as regenerated persons. According to the rules of the church, their children could not be baptized. This question was begun in Connecticut, but it soon spread to Massachusetts and the other colonies. In the discussion, Mr. Mather united his efforts with those of President Chauncy and John Davenport in opposition to the general synod's decree in favor of the “half-way covenant.” He afterward gave in a modified consent to the decision. He urged a stronger union of all anti-Episcopal believers both in England and in America, and anticipated the doctrine of Jonathan Edwards in regard to the millennium. It was his discussion of the subject, together with that of Samuel Hopkins and Joseph Bellamy, that reversed the previously received notions of the coming thousand years of peace.
In 1669 he was prostrated by fever, but in 1670 resumed his pulpit. In 1675 he declared to his people that King Philip's Indian war had come upon them because of their iniquities. During the second year of the war his church and library were destroyed by a fire that was set by the Indians. Then came the small-pox, which led to the calling of a synod at the suggestion of himself and several others to make inquiry what follies had provoked the Lord to bring his judgment upon New England. This synod declared that the work of reformation must begin with the magistrates and all those who are in authority, and it enjoined greater strictness in the admission of members to the church. The well-known New England confession of faith was also adopted. This was, in substance, the Savoy confession, together with some of the points of the Westminster confession. The confession was printed with the Cambridge platform of 1648 as the book of doctrine for the churches of the Massachusetts colony. Mr. Mather was a strong supporter of the established order of things within the New England churches. It was the custom to require of persons that were admitted to communion some account of their religious experience. It was declared by some clergymen that no such evidence of regeneration should be required, but this was opposed by Mr. Mather. Another innovation that he opposed was the abandonment by particular churches of their separate action in the choice of pastors and their consenting to vote only in connection with the congregations. The Brattles and John Leverett, afterward president of Harvard, were leaders in this movement, and took church affairs out of the hands of the whole membership as a body. Dr. Elliot speaks of Increase Mather as “the father of the New England clergy.” President Quincy said that he was an effective agent in producing the excitement relating to witchcraft. The fact is that he was in England nearly all the time of the greatest excitement, and that on his return he immediately prepared a book entitled “Cases of Conscience concerning Witchcraft” (1693), in which he refuted the doctrine of “spectral evidence” on the ground of which so many innocent persons had been condemned. The governor immediately pardoned the condemned, and the accused were acquitted. Thus while Mr. Mather wrote sermons and books against witches, yet he also became a powerful factor in subduing the excitement. He looked with sorrow upon the innovations that have been noted above. He always insisted upon filling the churches with converted members and the right of each church to decide upon what minister it should have. It is claimed for him that he was the man who, in the face of much personal sacrifice, saved the great body of Massachusetts Congregational churches from the ruin which threatened them. President Quincy says he was influenced by worldly, selfish, and ambitious motives, but this has hardly been substantiated.
Side by side with his duties in the line of religion Mr. Mather became one of the chief educators in this country. In 1681 the Rev. Uriah Oakes, president of Harvard, died, and Increase Mather was appointed his successor, taking the chair and conferring the degrees at the following commencement. His church, however, refused to give him a dismission, and he at once resigned the office. The offer of the presidency was renewed in 1685 after the death of President John Rogers. This time it was accepted, with the understanding that Mr. Mather was to reside in Boston and spend part of his time in Cambridge. Thus he remained the sixth president of Harvard college until 1701. Before this time the classes at Harvard had usually consisted of from two to ten students, but during Mr. Mather's presidency the number increased so that the classes often contained more than twenty. While serving the colony in England he presented the claims of the college to the king, and solicited not only royal but private patronage. In this way he secured the benefits that came from the donations of Thomas Hollis. During the four years of his absence from the country the college was committed to the care and instruction of John Leverett and William Brattle, the tutors. In 1692 he prepared a charter for the college, which received the sanction of the general court, but it was afterward vetoed in England. Several times Mr. Mather attempted to go to England to procure a charter that would receive the signature of the king, but was prevented and the college continued in a very unsatisfactory state. President Mather repeatedly proposed to resign, the corporation as repeatedly prevailed upon him to reconsider his determination, and finally induced him to remove to Cambridge. Finding that he could not do justice to his pastoral work also, he sent in his resignation. President Mather was not only active in affairs of religion and education, but he served the colony well at a most critical time. In 1682 Charles II. demanded the surrender of the charter that had been granted to the colony of Massachusetts bay. In case of refusal he threatened that a quo warranto should be prosecuted against the colony. The people were led by Mr. Mather in their opposition to the surrender, the ground being that by voluntarily yielding the charter the people lent aid to the plots of designing men, but if they were overpowered the sole responsibility would be on their oppressors. For his activity Mr. Mather had the enmity of Edward Randolph, the king's emissary, who was afterward the secretary of Sir Edmund Andros. After the charter had been taken away, and while Andros was governor, Mr. Mather was sent to England in 1689 as the agent of the people to ask redress from the king. The hostility of Andros and Randolph was so great that he was obliged to go on board ship in disguise to avoid the service of a writ that Randolph had taken out against him. Samuel Nowel, Elisha Hutchinson. and Richard Wharton met him in London. Randolph, in a letter to the lords of trade, dated 29 May, 1689, gives a narrative of the unsettled state of the territory of New England and speaks of “some persons, inhabitants of Boston, who had pretended grievances against the governor
