The Wonders of the Invisible World : 9781609620097

Cotton Mather's mythic image rests on his involvement in the Salem witchcraft debacle (1692-93) and on his Wonders of the Invisible World (1693)-an official defense of the court's verdict and a testimony to the power of Satan and his minions. Mather excerpts the six most notorious cases of Salem witchcraft and buttresses his account with the official endorsement of Lt. Governor William Stoughton, with a disquisition on the devil's machinations described by the best authorities that the subject affords, with a previously delivered sermon at Andover, and with his own experimentations. What ties the various parts together is Mather's millenarian theme of Christ's imminence, of which Satan's plot is the best evidence. Though Mather defends the court's verdict and justifies the government's position, he also voices his great discomfort with the court's procedure in the matter. Wonders appeared in print just when the trials were halting, but it remains, in his own words, "that reviled Book," a bane to his name.

Author: Cotton Mather

Publisher: Zea E-Books

Publication Date: Mar 01, 2011

Number of Pages: 226 pages

Binding: Paperback or Softback

ISBN-10: 1609620097

ISBN-13: 9781609620097