If I was a member of the general court, I probably wouldn't find anything offensive in this message. When Cotton Mather composed it, many of his ideas/beliefs were already accepted and practiced by the Puritans. Mather didn't believe that the Puritans should drink alcohol or get drunk, as this was a sin. He was also against kidnapping men to be slaves, because it wasn't moral or Christian. He praised New England Judges for their decisions regarding the Salem Witch Trials. He supported the idea that Christ couldn't return, until all the Jews were converted. To back up this theory, Cotton attempted to make up Biblical prophecies and apply them to America.
He thought that New England would be a part of God's kingdom, but not the center of it or the"New Jerusalem". However Mather wasn't a true Christian in that he never mentioned Jesus's rule or dominance as a King over the earth So he disagreed with his theological friend, Joseph Mead who said the Devil would be in charge of the Western Hemisphere. Mead also maintained that it would be a worldwide expansion of the kingdom of God.
In many of Mather's sermons, he advocated an anti-Catholic viewpoint, even saying that the Pope was the anti-christ. This is why, according to him, the Catholic church had to be abolished for Jesus to return.He had a one-track mind that basically said the Puritan way was the only real,true path to follow. Europe and the colonies were the center of his attention and he thought they were specially chosen by God.
It asked how this would influence your "politics"-not sure you answered that.
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