Is the coronavirus pandemic divine retribution for our sins?
Or is it a moment of darkness that might lead to a strengthening of the bonds that bind us together?
“Because of the destroying angel standing over the town,
a day of prayer is needed that we may prepare to meet our God.”
You might think these words were written by a contemporary fire-and-brimstone preacher reflecting on the coronavirus pandemic. But they were penned by Boston’s most renowned Puritan preacher, Cotton Mather (1663-1728), urging his congregation to respond appropriately to God’s wrath, which was punishing the people with a devastating outbreak of smallpox.
Puritans in eighteenth-century Massachusetts did not believe in separation of Church and State. They were convinced God had a special covenantal relationship with New England, modelled on and even replacing the biblical covenant between God and Israel.
If the people of New England fulfilled the obligations of the covenant, they would receive unparalleled spiritual blessings and worldly prosperity. If, however, the people deviated from their obligations by sinning, God would punish them in proportion to their wrongdoing.
