Increase Mather, An Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providences

Susannah Jane Lee (Independent Scholar - Australia)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.1: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Colonial Period, 1604-1783.
Vol. editors: Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Scott Slawinski (Western Michigan University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1684

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Essays/ Lectures (any)

Resources

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An Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providences: Wherein an Account is given of many remarkable and very Memorable Events which have hapned this last Age; Especially in NEW-ENGLAND

is one of Increase Mather's most wide-ranging works covering events and topics of historical, theological, linguistic and literary interest to modern scholars.

The Essay was designed “for Gods Glory, and the good of Posterity” (preface), and records such diverse events as shipwrecks and sea-deliverances, remarkable recoveries after injury, lightening strikes, the story of a deaf woman who could prove her understanding of religion through signed communication and was a full member of her church, remarkable judgements, and instances of witchcraft, demon-possession, and haunting. While it does include

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675 words

Citation: Lee, Susannah Jane. "An Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providences". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 January 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6673, accessed 19 April 2024.]

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