 Like most ministers in western Connecticut, Mather was an "Old Light" preacher, less interested in the emotional style of worship taken up by the "New Lights" more prevalent in eastern Connecticut.He was intellectually inclined and public spirited, with an interest in Enlightenment principals as they applied to politics.During and before the American Revolution he was the most vigorous promoter of the Patriot cause from the pulpit of any of the nearby parishes.