A Covenant People - 2: The First Purpose of Magnalia Christi Americana

 

In the last article we looked at how Magnalia Christi Americana demonstrates how early Americans saw themselves as a covenant people in a covenant land. To demonstrate how that same worldview shaped Joseph Smith’s Book of Mormon, we’re going to walk through the purposes behind both books.

Luckily John Higginson spells out the goals of Magnalia in his introduction to Cotton Mather’s work. Once you compare those intentions to the Book of Mormon, the influence is hard to miss.

The First Purpose of Magnalia Christi Americana:

First, That a plain scriptural duty of recording the works of God unto after-times, may not any longer be omitted, but performed in the best manner we can.

(Magnalia Vol 1, pg 10)

Higginson meant this in a very literal way. Puritans worried that if they didn’t record God’s works, their children wouldn’t know how God had acted among them, and the community could lose sight of the guidance they believed God had provided. 

Mather builds his entire project around this idea. Magnalia Christi Americana is his attempt to create a comprehensive record of God’s works in New England. He collects accounts of ministers, wars, revivals, providences, and miracles, treating each one as evidence of divine involvement. He organizes the whole history so future Americans will see their beginnings as sacred. In his view, remembering these stories was essential for keeping the community faithful to the covenant that he believed defined their identity.

...I shall set my modest endeavours to prevent the loss of a country... but certainly one good way to save that loss, would be to do something that the memory of the great things done for us, by our God may not be lost, and that those very circumstances attending the foundation and formation of this country, and of its preservation hitherto, may be impartially handed unto posterity. This is the undertaking whereinto I now address myself...

(Magnalia Vol 1, pg 40)

When Joseph Smith began dictating the Book of Mormon, he tapped into that same instinct. The difference is that he expresses the idea through a fictional storyline rather than a true history. The responsibility that Mather felt as a historian became a responsibility carried by the Book of Mormon prophets, beginning with Nephi.

...I have received a commandment of the Lord that I should make these plates, for the special purpose that there should be an account engraven of the ministry of my people."

Upon the other plates should be engraven an account of the reign of the kings, and the wars and contentions of my people; wherefore these plates are for the more part of the ministry; and the other plates are for the more part of the reign of the kings and the wars and contentions of my people. 

(1 Nephi 9:3-4)

 Interestingly enough, both Colton Mather AND the fictional historian Nephi emphasized that their respective history's were intended to primarily focus on what was spiritually significant.

Colton Mather:

History, in general, hath had so many and mighty commendations from the pens of those numberless authors... the Church wherein the service of God is performed, is much more precious than the world...

...Tis very certain, that the greatest entertainments must needs occur in the History of the people...

..the rages of war, and the glorious violences, whereof great warriors make a wretched ostentation, to be the noblest matter for an historian. But there is a nobler, I humbly conceive, in the planting and forming of Evangelical Churches, and the temptations, the corruptions, the afflictions, which assault them, and their salvations from those assaults, and the exemplary lives of those that Heaven employs to be patterns of holiness and usefulness upon earth: and unto such it is, that I now invite my readers; things, in comparison whereof, the subjects of many other Histories, are of as little weight

(Magnalia Vol 1, pg 26-27)

Nephi:

Wherefore, the things which are pleasing unto the world I do not write, but the things which are pleasing unto God and unto those who are not of the world...

 (1 Nephi 6:5)

 This shared purpose is exactly what we should expect if the Book of Mormon is drawing from early American religious thought. Joseph didn’t invent this anxiety. He inherited it. He absorbed it. Then he scripted it into the voices within the Book of Mormon

Check Your Understanding: The First Purpose of Magnalia & Nephi’s Plates

Test what you remember about how Magnalia Christi Americana and the Book of Mormon share the same storytelling goals.

1. What is the main goal of this article?

To prove Magnalia is historically unreliable
To defend the Book of Mormon as literal history
To compare the stated purposes of Magnalia and the Book of Mormon
To summarize the entire life of Cotton Mather

2. According to John Higginson, what is the first purpose of Magnalia Christi Americana?

To argue for religious liberty in England
To record the works of God for future generations
To provide a manual for church discipline
To catalog every law passed in New England

3. Why were Puritans anxious about recording God’s works?

They feared their children would forget how God had acted among them
They worried the king would ban all religious books
They wanted to impress European universities
They needed material for courtroom evidence

4. How does Cotton Mather actually carry out this recording project in Magnalia?

By writing fictional parables about imaginary colonies
By collecting only sermons and doctrinal essays
By focusing only on battles and political charters
By compiling ministers, wars, revivals, providences, and miracles into one sacred history of New England

5. According to the article, how does Joseph Smith tap into the same instinct as Mather?

By writing a detailed chronicle of New England churches
By publishing Magnalia under a new title
By scripting the duty to record God’s works into the voices of fictional Book of Mormon prophets
By rejecting the idea of written records altogether

6. In 1 Nephi 9, what distinction does Nephi make between different sets of plates?

One set for prophecies and one set for poetry
Plates focused on ministry while the other focused on kings, wars, and contentions
Plates for public reading versus plates for private use
Gold plates versus brass plates

7. What shared emphasis do Mather and Nephi have about the kind of history they want to write?

They both privilege spiritually important events over what is “pleasing unto the world.”
They both focus mainly on military tactics and battles
They both concentrate on trade, wealth, and economic data
They both avoid mentioning God to appear neutral

8. What argument does the article make about Joseph Smith’s “anxiety” to record sacred history?

That he invented the concern from nothing
That it came from secret ancient plates in New England
That it only appears late in Mormonism, not in early America
That he inherited and absorbed an existing early American religious anxiety, then wrote it into the Book of Mormon