Read The Mathers: Three Generations of Puritan Intellectuals, 1596-1728 Online

Authors: Robert Middlekauff

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The Mathers: Three Generations of Puritan Intellectuals, 1596-1728 (105 page)

BOOK: The Mathers: Three Generations of Puritan Intellectuals, 1596-1728
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39.
Ibid
. 6.
Chapter 14
1. Cotton Mather,
Malachi. Or, The Everlasting Gospel
, 7-8 and
passim
.
2. See above, Chapters 4 and 10; and John Cotton,
The Covenant of Gods Free Grace
(London, 1645), 18; Peter Bulkely,
The Gospel-Covenant, Or The Covenant Of Grace Opened
(2d. ed., London, 1651), 321; John Preston,
The New Creature
(London, 1633), 23, and
The New Covenant, or The Saints Portion
(London, 1629), 477. I have been guided to these works and to several of the quotations by Perry Miller's essay, "The Marrow of Puritan Divinity," in
Errand Into The Wilderness
(Cambridge, Mass., 1956), 50-98.
3. Cotton Mather always carefully argued that faith "justified" men only in a limited sense"
Organically
and
Relatively
; Inasmuch as it is the Instrument by which a man apprehends the
Righteousness
of the Lord. . . ." It did not justify men as "a
Page 407
Work.
" The material and meritorious cause of the believer's justification was the righteousness of Christ. See his
Faith At Work
(Boston, 1697), 3; and
The Everlasting Gospel
, 8-15 and
passim
4. Cotton Mather,
A Soul Well-Anchored
, 12.
5. Cotton Mather,
Meat Out Of The Eater
148-49; and Mather's
Genuine Christianity
(Boston, 1721), 4, 5.
6. Cotton Mather,
Coelestinus
, 7, 8, and see also, 9-10;
Christodulus
(Boston, 1725).
7. Mather, of course, did not often make clear every premise of his theory, but he left no doubt that the power in the covenant came from God.
8. Cotton Mather,
The Call Of The Gospel
, 36;
Nails Fastened
(Boston, 1726), 13, 15.
9. Cotton Mather,
The Cure of Sorrow
(Boston, 1709), 35, for an example of Mather's urging men to plead the promises of the covenant.
10. But, of course, Mather always emphasized that the power for these inner, "subjective," actions came from God. See, for example, Mather's
Faith At Work
and
The Everlasting Gospel
. This matter is also discussed in Chapter 13.
BOOK: The Mathers: Three Generations of Puritan Intellectuals, 1596-1728
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