Read The Mathers: Three Generations of Puritan Intellectuals, 1596-1728 for Free Online

the freshman class, he received the beginnings of the liberal arts course with instruction in the trivium and quad-rivium . Certain it is that he liked Oxford: several of his former students were there, and he enjoyed seeing them (though if they were juniors and seniors he must have had mixed feelings in greeting them); he admired the learned instructors and delighted in his studies. The only disturbing feature of Oxford life was the profaneness he encountered there. So perhaps, given his Puritan cast of mind, he was disposed to leave when he received the call from Toxteth Park to return as minister of the church. In

 

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any case, he departed his college and in 1619 took holy orders. 24
At his ordination an incident took place that reveals how highly his spiritual gifts were valued. The Church official in charge was Doctor Morton, the Bishop of Chester. When the ceremony ended the Bishop took Richard Mather aside, saying to him: "I have an earnest Request unto you, and you must not deny me, It is that you would pray for me: for I know the Prayers of men that fear God will avail much, and you I believe are such a one." 25
The Bishop might not have been so eager for Mather's prayers had he known that Mather took the holy orders of the Church of England with considerable reservations. For Mather was a Puritan and already tending to embrace openly Congregational notions of Church organization. Still he accepted the vows of the Church and continued to preach, though not to conform outwardly to all its rites and ceremonies. 26
Mather's congregation shared his scruples and made no trouble for him. But his views caused problems of a personal sort: it took time to persuade Edmund Holt of Bury to give permission for the marriage of his daughter, Katharine, to Mather. Holt did not care for nonconforming churchmen. But the marriage took place nonetheless in September 1624, and six sons followed over the next fifteen years. 27
The next few years were good ones for Richard Mather and his family. He enjoyed good health all his life, never missing an opportunity to preach the Sabbath sermon in fifty years; and his wife and children, if not so robust, at least escaped the early death that dogged people in the seventeenth century. Richard Mather's sermons for these years do not survive, but we know that he preached heavily from Samuel, Isaiah, and the Epistles of Paul. These books provided texts for many Puritan ministers in the seventeenth century. From them the preacher could remind his people of the obligations of Israel, another people highly favored by God. Many ministers seized the opportunity to liken England to Israel, urging that the English too were a chosen people with extraordinary obligations to keep the faith with the Lord. Israel had failed and Israel had suffered; the gentiles in England should profit from this example. The words of Paul suggested other kinds of lessons. The need for conversion was obvious; and Paul had insisted that men were saved by faith. But no minister could be content with simply announcing

 

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this doctrine. The converted had to be exhorted to live up to their conversions, to demonstrate their grace by leading holy lives. Faith implied a good conversation, as ministers styled the godly life. And the ordinary day-to-day constituents of gracious behavior could be extracted from Paul. 28
Richard Mather preached these doctrines plainly but with great vigor. Like most Puritan preachers of his day, he favored the plain style. His sentence structure was clear and simple; he avoided Latin words and phrases; where a homely word or phrase would most affect his simple village auditory he used it. In this way he hoped to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. Without vanity himself, he sought not to impress his flock but to instruct those already in the faith and to bring those who were without it into the fold. 29
While he was going methodically through these Scriptures, he was not altogether