Essays to Do Good (originally titled “Bonifacius: An Essay Upon the Good,” 1710) is Cotton Mather’s comprehensive guide to practical Christian benevolence, systematically addressing how believers in various stations and callings can maximize their usefulness to God and neighbor through intentional good works.
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Written by Boston’s most prominent Puritan minister during the early eighteenth century, this influential work presents organized approach to Christian service, encouraging readers to form associations for promoting public welfare while fulfilling particular duties attached to their specific roles and relationships.
Mather systematically addresses good works across multiple spheres, beginning with personal reformation as foundation for usefulness, then examining particular callings including ministers’ duties, magistrates’ responsibilities, physicians’ service, schoolmasters’ influence, wealthy persons’ stewardship, and parents’ obligations to children and servants. For each station, he provides specific guidance on maximizing beneficial impact, demonstrating how every position offers opportunities for serving God through benefiting others. His treatment shows how Puritan theology’s emphasis on calling shaped comprehensive vision of Christian service.
What distinguishes this work is Mather’s practical, organized approach to benevolence, moving beyond general exhortations to concrete methods and specific proposals for doing good. Unlike purely devotional works emphasizing internal piety or theological treatises addressing doctrine, Mather provides actionable guidance for implementing Christian charity systematically across all life dimensions. His treatment is especially valuable for demonstrating early American Protestant social engagement combining evangelical piety with public-spirited activism anticipating later reform movements.
The work particularly emphasizes forming voluntary associations for promoting public good, encouraging readers to organize societies addressing specific needs including poor relief, education, moral reform, and religious instruction. Mather proposes neighborhood groups meeting regularly to identify needs and coordinate responses, anticipating voluntary associations that would become characteristic of American civic life. His vision combines Christian motivation with practical organization, showing how systematic cooperation multiplies individual efforts.
Mather addresses various forms of benevolence including relieving physical poverty through alms and employment assistance, providing spiritual help through evangelism and religious instruction, promoting education through schools and libraries, encouraging moral reformation through personal example and organized efforts, and advancing public welfare through civic improvements. He demonstrates how Christian charity encompasses both immediate relief and long-term systemic improvements addressing root causes of distress.
Author BiographyCotton Mather (1663-1728) was one of colonial America’s most prominent Puritan ministers, intellectuals, and authors whose prolific writings addressed theology, history, science, medicine, and practical Christian living. Born to Increase Mather in Boston, Cotton entered Harvard at twelve, becoming minister at Boston’s North Church where he served throughout his life.
