Cotton Mather
Cotton Mather
Cotton Mather, FRSwas a socially and politically influential New England Puritan minister, prolific author, and pamphleteer. Known for his vigorous support for the Salem witch trials, he also left a scientific legacy due to his hybridization experiments and his promotion of inoculation for disease prevention. He was subsequently denied the Presidency of Harvard College which his father, Increase, had held...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionReligious Leader
Date of Birth12 February 1663
CityBoston, MA
CountryUnited States of America
The Spirit of Slumber which the Poison of the old Serpent has brought upon the children of Men is to be deplored exceedingly.
Our opportunities to do good are our talents.
What Must I Do to Be Saved? It is impossible to ask a more weighty Question! It is deplorable that we hear it asked with no more Frequency, with nor more Agony.
Ah! destructive Ignorance, what shall be done to chase thee out of the World!
That there is a Devil is a thing doubted by none but such as are under the influence of the Devil. For any to deny the being of a Devil must be from ignorance or profaneness worse than diabolical.
Wilderness is a temporary condition through which we are passing to the Promised Land.
The Word of God must be Read and Heard with Diligence that so you may arrive to the Knowledge that is needful for you.
Religion brought forth Prosperity, and the daughter destroyed the mother.
If we admit instrumental musick in the worship of God, how can we resist the imposition of all the instruments used among the ancient Jews?—yea, dancing as well as playing, and several other Judaic actions? or, how can we decline a whole rabble of church-officers, necessary to be introduced for instrumental musick, whereof our Lord Jesus Christ hath left us no manner of direction?
What was it that obliged Jerome to write his book, Concerning Illustrious Men? It was the common reproach of old cast upon Christians, 'That they were all poor, weak, unlearned men.' The sort of men sometime called 'Puritans' in the English nation have been reproached with the same character. . . But when truth shall have liberty to speak, it will be known that Christianity never was more expressed unto the life than in the lives of the persons that have been thus reproached.
Is this dying? Is this all? Is this what I feared when I prayed against a hard death? Oh, I can bear this! I can bear this!
That there is a Devil, is a thing doubted by none but such as are under the influences of the Devil.
You are young and have the world before you; stoop as you go through it, and you will miss many hard bumps.
Ignorance is the Mother not of Devotion, but of Heresy.