Increase Mather wrote The Mystery of Christ in 1686 just one year after being named the first American born president of Harvard University and in the middle of his remarkable 62-year pastoral ministry at Second Church in Boston, Massachusetts. In Mather's words, "this book is a collection of sermons and sacramental meditations on the person, divinity, offices, and glory of Christ." This work was written in a very readable and devotional manner and intended not primarily for the advanced theologian (though they may absolutely benefit from this work as well) but the layman who desires to know Christ more.

Increase Mather (1639-1723) was a remarkable man. Mather was a brilliant intellect, voluminous author, reluctant politician, controversial university president, and faithful Congregational pastor. He wrote 130 books, negotiated with two kings (James II and William III) in an effort to secure a new charter for the Massachusetts Bay Colony, served as the first American born president of Harvard University, and ministered for 62 years in the same church (Second Church) in Boston, Massachusetts.