Reference code
DWL/RB/1/267
Level of description
item
Title
Increase Mather’s comments on Baxter’s Glorious Kingdom of Christ
Date
16 December 1690
Extent and Medium
Extent:ff 3-4* Additional pagination pp. 1-7; 238 x 177 mm.
Creator
Scope and content
Notes and suggestions by Dr Increase Mather on the MS, sent for his perusal by Baxter, of his Glorious Kingdom of Christ. Not signed and written in a peculiar and difficult hand, referring to the pages and sections of that work, but not as numbered in the printed copy (1691, quarto DWL ‘8 Aa 8’ and ‘9 D* 6’). The author states his position in opposition to Baxter’s, and denies (p. 5) that the Independents in England or in New England, in general held like views. He states he has not seen Mr Beverley’s 'Catechisme, or ye Booke wch you Answer’, and saith (p. 6), and ‘As for the Reasons which first induced me to believe the Chiliad, they are (in part) mentioned in my preface to my Sermons about the Salvation of Israel, which I send herewith & pray your Acceptance of. I wrote that Booke when I was a young man (28 years old) but as to the Substance of what is there asserted, I am still (now that I am 52) of the same perswasion.’ (p. 6).
Finding aids
Argent / Black vii.220 (also listed as vii.26); Thomas p.23
Publication note
- For Increase Mather (1639-1723) see Corr 390, 1201, 1215, 1216, 1218, 1252, 1257 CR and ODNB.
- Baxter’s The Glorious Kingdom of Christ (1691) was an answer to Thomas Beverley’s The Catechism of the Kingdom (1690) and challenged Beverley’s view of Christ’s millennial kingdom. See Corr 1207. Baxter also wrote A Reply to Mr Tho. Beverley’s Answer to my reasons against his doctrine of the thousand years middle kingdom, and of the conversion of the Jews (1691). Beverley responded with The Thousand Years Kingdom of Christ (1691) and The Universal Christian Doctrine of the Day of Judgment(1691).
Personal name