The Puritans

The puritans were a newfound religion in a time when religion weighed much more than it does in our current times. It was times were religion and politics tied together so tightly that if one followed another denomination of Christianity it was a plague on their social status. With the over bearing Church of England mandated membership the puritans and other smaller denominations of the English isle found themselves under persecution. Their believes that were very similar to that of the Church of England’s but still they were not treated as equals.

For writing their own beliefs and preaching them amongst puritans they defined their own beliefs. They were firm believers in the fact that all humans were born into sin. Their fore bearers Adam and Eve had doomed them to a life in which they must maintain a sin free live style and highly personal communication with God. They must keep their life in such a fashion because they believed that God only saved those he wished to save not those who had accepted him into his heart. They based that belief on the assumption that Jesus died only for those that he thought worthy and graceful in his father’s eyes. The saints amongst Puritans were the only ones deemed worthy to interpret God’s word, which lead to the upholding of a saints’ word over that of any common puritan.

In Jonathan Edward’s sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" an insight into puritan believes through the eyes of one of their declared "saints." The sermon initials details of the live style a puritan should be wary that they face. A life style that "implies, that they were always exposed to sudden unexpected destruction. As he that walks in slippery places is every moment liable to fall, he cannot foresee one moment whether he shall stand or fall the next; and when he does fall, he falls at once without warning." This would greatly direct implication to a life lead on a pathway to almost certain and unforeseen damnation. Any puritan or any god fearing Christian who heard such a sermon would at once be stout with fear and overwhelmed by the possibility that they will "Be left to fall, as they are inclined by their own weight. God will not hold them up in these slippery places any longer, but will let them go; and then, at that very instant, they shall fall into destruction; as he that stands on such slippery declining ground, on the edge of a pit, he cannot stand alone, when he is let go he immediately falls and is lost." This type of fear was Jonathan Edward’s greatest tool he used in his sermons.

"They deserve to be cast into hell; so that divine justice never stands in the way, it makes no objection against God's using his power at any moment to destroy them." From this words comes a since of guilt created in the listener of the sermon. To be accused of deserving to go to hell would amount great feelings of terror in any Christian in that day and age. These feelings provoke an overwhelming desire to be clean of sin and in any way redeem themselves in the eyes of God. I think this only adds to the use of control that religion can spawn when used by people who interpret any religion’s meaning and the will of it’s deity. This is misused in my opinion in almost all cases I can reflect upon. Maybe not directly by the interpreter but in transcending the message to as many people as religious leaders often do, many of those listening are susceptible to misinterpretation.

"Yea, God is a great deal more angry with great numbers that are now on earth: yea, doubtless, with many that are now in this congregation, who it may be are at ease, than he is with many of those who are now in the flames of hell." This is how I believe what I see as the narrow views of Jonathan Edwards. In so called great numbers in the congregation I would be lead to believe the numbers where no more than a few hundred in the most. Why would God be angry with the "great" numbers on earth when God would be able to fore see the future. The future that went along with god’s master plan that held problems of over population on many different continents. These factors were not even within the capabilities of Jonathan Edwards to see. This is what I wish more religious speakers would take into consideration, their inability to see the bigger picture God has planned for the human species, if he has taken the time to plan such a thing.

"It is no security to wicked men for one moment, that there are no visible means of death at hand." This I think greatly reflects one of the puritan’s firm beliefs of being born into sin. It foreshadows a lifetime of retribution for the sins of the predecessors. To be told that there is no security from the approaching sin in its various forms would only discomfort puritans more. The amount of fear I would think could only make sin that much more tempting. The eventual size reduction of the Puritan congregation was directly in ties with these reasons that a puritan must lead a sin free life in the most virtuous way with no insurance of salvation.

The puritans were convinced that God saved only those he wished to save. He saved only the puritans he saw as truly virtuous and sin free. The others, which were many according to the high standards of puritans, were doomed to burn in the fiery gates of hell and to be a tormented soul for the rest of eternity. To further install this believe Mr. Edwards used such phrases as "They are already under a sentence of condemnation to hell. They do not only justly deserve to be cast down thither, but the sentence of the law of God, that eternal and immutable rule of righteousness that God has fixed between him and mankind, is gone out against them, and stands against them; so that they are bound over already to hell."

Atonement is the term Christians used to describe the death of Jesus for the world’s sinners. The puritans felt that there was a limited amount of atonement Jesus would stand for. I suspect the puritans felt that the limited number of soul’s Jesus died for was their small congregation on a newly discovered continent…..For white people. The Puritans felt that those damned to hell rejected Christ from their heart through sin. Mr. Edwards rationalized these puritan beliefs in much more sensitive way. "All wicked men's pains and contrivance which they use to escape hell, while they continue to reject Christ, and so remain wicked men, do not secure them from hell one moment." The puritans though brave and original in their concept of religion were no more ignorant to me then how they considered the native Americans.