Propoganda– Mather’s narrative reads like religious propaganda. The dying speeches of the repentant sound very crafted, calculated, and unauthentic. It does not seem realistic for a servant to blame his misery after murdering his master on his earlier disobedience to his parents, for example. The mutinous sailors, according to Mather, fell because “Their education had been under the means of Grace, and the faithful preaching of the gospel in England; but they had sinned against that Education.” All of the stories are reduced to trite morals.
Jealous– Jealous is used here almost like vengeful. Mather talks repeatedly of a “jealous” God causing the downfalls of various sinners. In speaking of the revelation of a man’s bestiality, Mather says “By these means, the burning Jealousy of the Lord Jesus Christ, at length, made the churches to know, that He had all this while seen the Covered Filthiness of this Hellish Hypocrite…” The use of the word jealous has implications of a sort of human anger at being ignored which perhaps the church felt when it believed people were “backsliding” and transferred onto God.
Impurity– Mather speaks of religious impurities throughout the chapter, but he also treats race and gender as impurities. When he speaks of Indians and blacks he implies an innate moral inferiority. He speaks especially often of the weakness of women, and how easily they succumb to sex and murder. He even uses class as a kind of impurity- servants trying to overthrow their masters are a theme.