Increase Mather (June 21, 1639-August 23, 1723) was the President of Harvard College, 1685-1701. He was the son of the influential preacher, Richard Mather (1596-1669), who emigrated to Massachusetts, 1635, and co-authored the Bay Psalm Book. Increase Mather became a primary leader in colonial America, representing the Colonists in England, where he helped negotiate a new charter with King William III, 1792. He was the father of Cotton Mather, the first American member of the Royal Society of London, who helped found Yale University.
When King Charles II demanded the return of the charter of Massachusetts, Increase Mather prepared his response:
<To submit and resign their charter would be inconsistent with the main end of their fathers' coming to New England....[Resistance would bring]
great sufferings, [but] better to suffer than sin. Let them trust in the God of their fathers, which is better than to put confidence in princes. And if they suffer, because they dare not comply with the wills of men against the will of God, they suffer in a good cause.> 1639IM001
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1639IM001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Increase Mather. Lovejoy, Revolution, p. 154. Peter Marshall and David Manuel, The Glory of America (Bloomington, MN: Garborg's Heart'N Home, Inc., 1991), 6.21.