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Protestant Philosophies In Cotton Mather And Michael Wigglesworth

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With a variety of works from poems to books, both Cotton Mather, and Michael Wigglesworth, show similar protestant philosophies as Anne Bradstreet or Jonathan Edwards do. In the Late 1600’s Cotton Mather, a protestant minister, had much to do with the Salem Witch Trials in Salem MA. He viewed the world as a burden to god, and that humans are completely at the will to his fury, much like Jonathan Edwards did. In one of his sermons, Mather says, "They which lie, must go to their father, the devil, into everlasting burning; they which never pray, God will pour out his wrath upon them; and when they bed and pray in hell fire, God will not forgive them, but there [they] must lie forever. Are you willing to go to hell and burn with the devil and his angels?”(Virginia EDU, 1) Mather believes that people whom sin deserve all the cruel and harsh punishments that god has to offer. …show more content…

Mather also said in one of his writing about witchcraft in Salem, “It is to be confessed and bewailed, that many inhabitants of New-England, and young people especially, had been led away with little sorceries, wherein they "did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God;”(Mather, 1). Mathers truly believed like edwards did, that people were subject to evil and must be punished for it. And their sorceries led them to do things that were completely against the glory of god, and therefore, must be punished. And although Michael Wiggins had similar views to Mather and edwards in some of his works, a couple of his poems also resonate with Bradstreet’s views of god and

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Witchcraft confined uneasiness In An disengaged occasion when. ” She reverts on biography, staying on the vanity from claiming cotton Mather, and the “intransigence” about William Stoughton, head equity of the exceptional court that attempted the individuals who pleaded innocent, What's more found them uniformly blameworthy from claiming partnering with the fiend.

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Cotton Mather’s letter is addressed to John Foster where he voices his worries about insufficient evidence to convict someone against witchcraft. His main point is that the devil himself is the source of the illness. The devil generally causes mayhem against those who are innocent. Due to the fact, that the devil is the source of the illness, those accused of witchcraft aren’t liable as they are being possessed by him. He believes that God is leaning more into the colony’s favor by having judges that understand that the devil is the source of the suffering.

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An Insight to Early New England Mentality In Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692, Richard Godbeer reconstructs a particular witch hunt that is less known than its counterpart, the Salem Witch Trials. This trial, which took place in the Stamford, Connecticut area in the seventeenth century, demonstrated the theologies as well as the natural and supernatural beliefs of early New Englanders. These factors played an important role in how these settlers viewed the world and its peculiar mysteries. The perspectives of key participants, such as Katherine “Kate” Branch, Daniel and Abigail Wescot, Elizabeth Clawson, Mercy Disborough, Sarah Bates, and Jonathan Selleck, displayed the range of reactions and thoughts of early New Englanders regarding

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Puritans believed that God was constantly at work within their lives, tempting them as well as rewarding them (Winthrop). When God chose to warn people, he either chose to inflict the warning himself or he chose to do it through the Devil. For example, when Minister Cotton Mather’s infant son died suddenly, Mather knew that either the devil was acting in a witch who in turn harmed his child or it was the will of God to directly harm his son (Godbeer Document 3). Mather himself states, “I made little use of, and laid little stress on, this conjecture, desiring to submit unto the will of my heavenly father, without which not a sparrow falls unto the ground.” Another example of the devil working in the lives of the Puritans was interactions with Native Americans.

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Religion was a very strong influence in the lives of Puritans as they followed a very strict moral code and based their entire lives on their faith. Most Puritans were taught from the Bible that "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" (Doc. A), which explains why the witch scare was taken so seriously and why the accused were punished so harshly. They believed and feared that "evil spirits were all around" (Doc. C) as noted in Memorable Providences Relating to Witchcraft and Possessions by Cotton Mather, who at that time was a reputable expert in the "invisible world. " It seems strange to 21st-century dwellers that people believed that witches could be identified by marks of the devil, as portrayed in an 1853 painting by T.H. Matteson (Doc. D).

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As the new court was created for the Salem witch trials five judges were assigned, coincidentally three of the appointed judges were really good friends with Cotton Mather. Furthermore, Mather’s own accounts became textual fact for determining the evidence of witches. This heavily influenced the court’s scheme. Mather implied to the judges to seek statements from those that were accused, accepting claims such as a witness testimony that the accused persons spirit or spectral shape appeared to him/her witness in a dream at the time the accused persons physical body was at another location as a legal

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Jonathan Edwards’s sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” and Anne Bradstreet’s “Upon the Burning of Our House” seem at first glance quite similar to one another regarding context, however, after taking a closer look, it becomes apparent that there are some substantial differences. These differences cannot be understood without the knowledge of cultural context concerning the Puritan belief system and their lifestyle. “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” was written with the sole purpose of scaring and intimidating the people that purtinans believed to be sinners. Edwards’s work contributed to a movement called “The Great Awakening”. It’s objective was to make the so-called ‘sinners’ aware of their wrongdoings and compel them to repent.

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Watters 7 considered becoming a doctor) although he attended Harvard University for his studies in Greek and Latin and graduated with a Master’s degree presented to him by his father, who was also the president of the college. Growing up in a strict home, where his father was a very highly respected Puritan, gave him very little room to have an imagination, just like many other Puritan children. But, like most children, Mather always was curious about the supernatural world and that only increased as he became more educated. “Like most educated people of the Western world, Mather believed that certain individuals had entered into compacts with the Devil and given up their souls in return for the powers of witchcraft” (#8.) Mather really researched the Devil and his witches which led him to publish his book, Memorable Providences Relating to Witchcraft and Possession in 1689, about his research and observations on witchcraft.

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Cotton Mather had minimal involvement in the actual proceedings of the Salem Witch Trials, however, he did prove to be a very influential figure from the very beginning. In 1684, he published the essay Illustrious Provinces, in attempt to prove the reality of the spiritual world. In 1689, he published Memorable Providences Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions, in which he describes the story of John Goodwin’s children and their speculated “possession”. It is often believed that Mather’s works fueled the flames for the hysteria leading to the Salem Witch Trials.

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Cotton Mather: Wonders of the Invisible World In this writing, Cotton Mather, a Puritan Theologian and a renowned reverend talks about his fears of the Christian religion being slowly obliterated from the country, which he believes is being taken over by the devil and his minions by the use of Witchcraft. In 1963 Cotton Mather was asked to create a literary piece, in defense of the persecutions, one year after the events of the Salem witch trials actually took place, where questionable events happened were depicted. This work was called the Invisible Wonders of the World. Throughout the writing, Mather is always depicting the devil as a real and tangible being (e.g. “invisible hands” and supernatural happenings).

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