Abraham Cummings

author

Abraham Cummings

1755–1827

An early American minister and religious writer, he is remembered for sermons, theological works, and a striking book on apparitions and immortality linked to events reported in Sullivan, Maine. His writing opens a window onto the religious debates and supernatural questions that stirred New England in the early republic.

1 Audiobook

Immortality proved by the testimony of sense : In which is contemplated the doctrine of spectres and the existence of a particular spectre

Immortality proved by the testimony of sense : In which is contemplated the doctrine of spectres and the existence of a particular spectre

by Abraham Cummings

About the author

Born in 1755 and dying in 1827, Abraham Cummings was an American clergyman whose surviving books place him in New England, especially Maine. Early publications identify him as "A.B." and later "A.M.," and his works include The Nature and Subjects of Christian Baptism Considered and the 1799 sermon The Present Times Perilous.

He is best known today for Immortality Proved by the Testimony of Sense, a work built around extraordinary phenomena said to have been witnessed by many people in Sullivan, Maine, in 1800. That book gave him an unusual place among early American religious writers, blending pastoral argument, eyewitness testimony, and reflection on the afterlife.

Cummings's writing shows a minister engaged with both doctrine and daily moral life: baptism, prophecy, public crisis, and the fate of the soul. For modern listeners, his work offers a vivid glimpse of how faith, fear, and curiosity met in the religious culture of the early United States.