PURITANS
PURITAN THEOLOGY:
- Puritans =
- chosen people of God
- to be an example for the world (city upon a hill)
- committed to bringing to fruition God’s kingdom on earth
- dissenters
- dissenting from, disagreeing with
- COE beliefs, practices
- some didn’t sign the Oath of Loyalty to COE
- Puritan grievances with COE:
- anything Papal, Roman Catholic
- vestments (surplice robe)
- images
- no holidays
- Christmas, Easter
- esp. hierarchy of clergy
- traditional Catholic rituals
- simplicity in worship
- king as head of church (only Christ)
- personal biblical interpretation (middlemen)
- change from within
- not Separatists (like Pilgrims)
- Calvinist election
- selected by God
- before birth
- Book of Life
- rest = damned to Hell
- didn’t know which you were
- prosperity = sign of election
- Scriptural authority
- Bible = #1
- no middlemen, no heresy
- personal biblical interpretation (1:1 relationship w/God)
- Community
- work together
- we’re all in this together
- Christians = 1 Body of Christ
- linked together by Love
- Christian charity
- covenants
- Covenants
- God makes covenants, we make covenants
- God’s “Covenant of Works” w/Adam in the Garden of Eden
- live forever
- just obey
- just don’t eat of that tree
- God’s “Covenant of Grace” w/Fallen Man through Christ
- Christ freely obeys God
- becomes human
- gives himself over to death
- to seal the covenant
- to return them to favor, 1 Body
RESULTS of this Theology:
- God = actively present in their lives
- active role in history
- protects His faithful, His people
- punishes the disobedient
- total faith in God, God’s plan, God’s providence, God’s protection
- History =
- working out of God’s plan
- evidence of God’s presence
- break contract = ruin, destruction
- 2nd FALL of MAN ****
- reasonable assumption
- b/c of what happened the last time a human broke a contract w/God
- sin & death entered the world
- make covenants w/each other, others
- bonds, contracts
- reap what ye sow –
- good reputation w/others for good deeds
- live by good example to others, even non-Christian
- live as a community
- together
- love
- charity
- daily life:
- pray, read the Bible, listen to sermons (simple life)
- responsibility =
- constant self-reflection
- to scrutinize his or her own feelings and behavior for indications of election
- to accept God’s grace
- spiritual matters = priority
- anti-materialism
- learn to wean themselves from earthly attachments—including their family relationships
- MARRIAGE:
- civilceremony
- Puritan clergy did not officiate
- still, adultery = serious violation, homosexuality = death
- still, couldn’t marry outside the church
- still, no divorce (annulments w/infertility)
- marriage = society
- hierarchically structured
- husband over wife, parents over children
- marriage = metaphor for relationship between God & Christian
-
- care for spouse, family
- be faithful
- (also = sign of piety)
- BUT
- remember God = #1
- keep your eyes on the prize –
- “Puritan ministers warned against excessive devotion between family members lest such love distract from proper spiritual focus.
- John Cotton, a Puritan minister, preached that marriage should make men and women “better fitted for God’s service, and bring them nearer to God.”
- He also cautioned, “[W]hen we exceedingly delight ourselves in husbands or wives or children, [it] much benumbs and dims the light of the spirit.”
- Daniel Rogers: “Marriage is the preservative of chastity, the seminary of the commonwealth, seed-plot of the church, pillar (under God) of the world, right-hand of providence, supporter of laws, states, orders, offices, gifts, and services: the glory of peace, the sinews of war, the maintenance of policy, the life of the dead, the solace of the living, the ambition of virginity, the foundation of countries, cities, universities, succession of families, crowns, and kingdoms; truly (besides the being of these) it is the wellbeing of them being made, and whatsoever is excellent in them, or any other thing, the very furniture of heaven (in a kind) depending thereupon.”