The Puritans: Height and Decline
Cotton Mather,
Witches, and The
Devil in New
England
Jonathan Edwards,
The Great Awakening,
and the Jeremiad
The Devil in New England
The Basics: Salem Witchcraft Trials
Over 150 people (78% women) were accused of witchcraft in Salem, MA in 1692.
Most of the accusers were young girls.
A witch was defined as a person who signed the devil’s book, thus giving the devil
permission to use her shape and go around harming others.
Evidence Used in Trials: accusations of harming animals, making people sick, pinching
people while they slept, unladylike behavior, yelling at husbands in public, etc.
Spectral Evidence: accusers claimed they saw specters (ghosts) of accused witches that
hurt them.
Those who confessed lived; those who denied the charges lived.
Causes of Death: 19 hanged and one pressed to death (burning occurred in Europe, not
Salem)
Cotton Mather
Cotton Mather, the minister of Boston's Old North church, was a true believer in
witchcraft. In 1688, he had investigated the strange behavior of four children of a
Boston mason named John Goodwin. The children had been complaining of sudden
pains and crying out together in chorus. He concluded that witchcraft, specifically that
practiced by an Irish washerwoman named Mary Glover, was responsible for the
children's problems. He presented his findings and conclusions in one of the best
known of his 382 works, "Memorable Providences." Mather's experience caused him to
vow that to "never use but one grain of patience with any man that shall go to impose
upon me a Denial of Devils, or of Witches."
As it happened, three of the five judges appointed to the Court of Oyer and Terminer
that would hear the Salem witchcraft trials were friends of Mather and members of his
church. Mather wrote a letter to one of the three judges, John Richards, suggesting
how they might approach evidentiary issues at the upcoming trials. In particular,
Mather urged the judges to consider spectral evidence, giving it such weight as "it will
bear," and to consider the confessions of witches the best evidence of all. As the trials
progressed, and growing numbers of person confessed to being witches, Mather
became firmly convinced that "an Army of Devils is horribly broke in upon the place
which is our center."
Cotton Mather (cont.)
On August 4, 1692, Mather delivered a sermon warning that the Last Judgment was
near at hand, and portraying himself, Chief Justice Stroughton, and Governor Phips as
leading the final charge against the Devil's legions. On August 19, Mather was in Salem
to witness the execution of ex-minister George Burroughs for witchcraft. When, on
Gallows Hill, Burroughs was able to recite the Lord's Prayer perfectly (something that
witches were thought incapable of doing) and some in the crowd called for the
execution to be stopped, Mather intervened, reminding those gathered that Burroughs
had been duly convicted by a jury. Mather was given the official records of the Salem
trials for use in preparation of a book that the judges hoped would favorably describe
their role in the affair. The book, "Wonders of the Invisible World," provides
fascinating insights both into the trials and Mather's own mind.
When confessed witches began recanting their testimony, Mather may have begun to
have doubts about at least some of the proceedings. He revised his own position on the
use of spectral evidence and tried to minimize his own large role in its consideration in
the Salem trials. Later in life, Mather turned away from the supernatural and may well
have come to question whether it played the role in life he first suspected.
SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN
ANGRY GOD
Jonathan Edwards,
The Great Awakening,
and the Jeremiad
Great Awakening: The Basics
Span: 1735-1745
Religious revival that swept New England that re-emphasized basic beliefs but
also stressed that God could be apprehended through the senses.
Congregationalists (Puritans) split into two groups: New Light and Old Light
New Light: primacy of emotions, justification by faith, itinerant
evangelization, revival
Old Light: rationalism, moderation, predestination, justification by works
Results: Baptists gained converts and social leveling (underscored the inherent
depravity of the human soul)
Great Awakening: Origins
Church membership declined and the Great Awakening was an attempt to get people
back.
Winthrop’s “A Model of Christian Charity” was based on the idea of the covenant.
There were two types of covenants: external and internal.
External Covenants: Church and Society – God blesses both as a result of the deeds of
members
Internal Covenants: Redemption (through Jesus) and Grace (Diety through election
provides man with saving grace)
“Half-Way Covenant”: 1662 – if you were baptized and a child of the primitive church
members, you could be included in church life but not have full membership
Great Awakening: Origins
“The theology of the founders conceived man as single and alone (from individual to
community) in an empty field, wrestling with his sins; once he had survived this in
solitude he could walk into church and by telling about it could join the church. But the
communal confession… was something new.” The concept of renewal of the covenant.
Community members were becoming more worldly with the growth of the colonies.
Rise of sectarianism following immigration of Quakers, Lutherans, and Presbyterians
Doctrine of Arminianism: opposition to predestination, emphasis on free will, belief in
good works as a means of salvation
Rise of skepticism
Great Awakening: Key Components
Conversion
• Agitations of the soul lead the sinner to feel humiliated at his behavior.
• The sinner attempts to fix his sins by “legal obedience” to committing good works,
but his efforts fail.
• The sinner sees his problems and self as inconsequential before God and despairs
more.
• At the deepest moment of despair, the sinner sees a glimmer of God’s grace.
• Gratitude at seeing grace causes the sinner to live a life of obedience and
thanksgiving, ever vigilant to avoid temptation and backsliding
The Jeremiad
• Epigraph: A short scriptural reading explored grammatically (restated in simpler
form), logically (Biblical context), and figuratively (present context)
• Doctrine: message is divided into subsets and linked to other scriptural texts
• Reasons: explanation of why the doctrine is true and why the listeners should
believe the truth of the doctrine.
• Application: statement of how this applies to personal, communal, and world levels
• Epilogue: boldly restate main points, stresses action and awareness
Jonathan Edwards: The Basics
Life: 1703-1758
Educated at Yale
Preacher, writer, missionary
New Light preacher who was influenced by Enlightenment principles
Prolific writer and preacher best known for “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry
God”, though most of his sermons dealt with love and the glory of the natural
world
His writings are some of the first to employ a distinctly “American voice”