The Three Wings of Puritanism

By and large, Puritans have had a bad press, and unfortunately, the dead can't speak for themselves. Despite the negative image we have of the Puritans as a people who were constantly worried that someone, somewhere was having fun, they had a positive outlook on life. Simply put, Puritans sought to order all things unto God. Their God was a deity who was transcendent and remote. (This was not a "God is my co-pilot theology). This insistence on ordering all things to God linked the various Puritan groups.

This is not to suggest that the Puritans were a monolithic movement. On the right wing were the Presbyterians who did not reject the idea of a state church, but argued that the Church of England was in need of reform on this score. Presbyterians believed that since the New Testament Church had been ruled elders or presbyters (hence their name) a purified Church of England should rid itself of Bishops, and adopt the Biblical pattern. And unlike some of their Puritan peers, Presbyterians practiced infant baptism.

The Pilgrims were on the left wing of the movement. These were the followers of a man named Robert Browne, and they viewed the Church of England as an impure church. The Pilgrims believed further association with this tainted church would jeopardize their souls, and therefore it was the duty of the Christian to withdraw from this corrupt institution. So they separated (hence the nick-name "separatists") themselves from "the Harlot of Babylon" as they sometimes referred to the established church.

Because they despaired of saving the great portion of humanity, and believed only a small elect could be redeemed, the Pilgrims sought to sequester themselves in congregations where they could be separated from the contamination of the surrounding culture. They believed it was their task as God's redeemed to unite in the true worship of God. This coming together of the truly redeemed was the true church. As such they were isolationists, rejecting any contact with the non-redeemed. Each congregation or local church, they believed, was independent, hence they were also known as congregationalists. Some insisted on administering baptism only to believers, and hence came to be known as Baptists.

But their efforts to segregate themselves did not free them from persecution or the seizure of much of their property. And so a group of Pilgrims decided to take the radical step of immigrating to America so they could simply be left alone. It was this group that settled the Plymouth colony. It was they who bequeathed to us the tradition of Thanksgiving, the Mayflower, and Plymouth Rock. Of those who sailed on the Mayflower in 1620, 35 of 102 passengers were Pilgrims. The rest were "strangers" to the body of "saints," the most famous of which were Miles Standish and John Alden.

These Pilgrims had originally planned to settle in Virginia, but strayed off course in what may have been an intentional act. When they landed at Plymouth, they prepared the first constitution written in America: "The Mayflower Compact." The 41 men in the company agreed to "covenant and Combine ourselves together into a Civil Body Politic for our better ordering and preservation...", and elected a governor.

Because of the lateness of their arrival in November, they were forced to winter without solid construction or the chance to plant crops. Nearly one half of the company died that first winter. The next spring they met English speaking Indians who had learned the language from fishermen on coast of Maine who assisted them with agriculture.

The Pilgrims practiced a strict communism. Their model was the early Christian communities written about in the Book of Acts. In keeping with their lack of emphasis on clergy, they did not have pastor first decade of existence.

The center of the Puritan movement was populated by what we know today as Puritans. They settled in Virginia and Massachusetts Bay. Like the Pilgrims, they believed that only the truly elect should be admitted to church membership, and the congregation of such persons represents the true church. However, they practiced infant baptism, and differed with their Pilgrim brothers and sisters in holding that the true church could enter into sisterly relations with other churches, even if they held to other doctrines on the theory that God's elect might be scattered among them. The Church of England was impure, but it was to be purified from within. While they too, latter separated from Church of England by going on an "Errand into the Wilderness" of New England, they claimed that it wasn't really a separation. They instead argued that they had embarked on their journey to the New World in order to erect a model Christian society--or "a city upon a hill" as John Winthrop had put it, for the Church of England and the rest of the world to follow. They did not come to this country to find a place to practice freedom of worship. Instead, they came to find a place where their true religion could flourish.

Unlike their Pilgrim neighbors who were pro-King and anti-church, the Bay Colony was settled by Puritans who were anti-King, and pro-church. These Puritans maintained the fiction that they were still members of the Church of England. They also differed greatly with their Pilgrim neighbors on the role of the clergy, placing great emphasis on the role of the minister in the church.

The founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony had a profound effect on the Pilgrims. Despite the differences between the two groups, the Pilgrims were quickly absorbed. Apart from their theological differences there was little to distinguish the Puritans from the Pilgrims. When both groups arrived in this country, they left Bishops and other such trappings of the Church of England on the opposite side of the ocean. Their worship was remarkably similar, and despite the popular mythology about these groups coming to America for religious freedom, both refused to grant religious toleration.

The Lack of Religious Toleration

A prime example is the case of Roger Williams who wished to start a Baptist Church in Massachusetts Bay. Roger Williams is claimed by the Baptists as their founder, but he wasn't a Baptist for long. In reality, he was a seeker; one who was never satisfied, one who was always searching for spiritual truth. When he left from England, he was a Church of England priest. But when he arrived in New England, he was a Separatist, and told the Puritans that they weren't Christians because they had not completely separated from the Church of England. His views on the matter had changed in the boat on the way over.

When Moses came down from Sinai, he carried two tablets of stone on which the Ten Commandments were carved. Tradition refers to the first four as the first table. The commandments of the first table refer to what is in one's mind. (Thou shalt have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.") The second table concerns ethics. (Honoring parents, Thou shalt not murder, commit adultery, steal, give false testimony [see: Mark Furman], or covet.) While it is a relatively simple matter to legislate matters of personal behavior toward others, one should never make a law regarding the first table. Human beings can't legislate as to what is in a person's heart. Only God can do that.

The Puritans clearly thought otherwise. When Roger Williams threatened to start his own church, it threatened their idea of a pure Christian commonwealth. He was challenging the right of the state to insure a pure theocracy, and asserting the individual's right to be the judge of religious matters. And if that were not enough, he attacked the Puritans for the way they had mistreated the Indians. They had beat them, and stole from them, and Roger Williams said so in public. More to the point, he informed anyone who would listen that the King of England did not have the right to grant land to the Puritans that belonged to the Indians. Instead of coming to America to convert the Indian, they had come to steal him blind. In other words, Williams was bold enough to speak the truth to people who did not wish to hear it. Far from being a righteous community of Christians--a city on a hill--for other societies to model themselves after--they were guilty of stealing, and covetousness, not to mention murder, and false testimony in their dealings with the Indians.

It probably didn't help matters that Roger Williams was one of those people who would cross the street to disagree with you. He went around telling people, for instance, that the Elect should not worship with reprobates, even those in one's own family. Finally, he was expelled from the colony. This was far more serious than it may sound to the modern ear. It meant he was cut off from any community where he might buy supplies or food, or receive protection from Indians. On the frontier, this was tantamount to a sentence of death. The traditional image of William's expulsion is that he was forced out in the middle of winter. The Puritans offered to wait to spring to carry out the expulsion because he was ill if he would hold his tongue. Williams left the courthouse, and went right out on the square and began preaching again. Forced out, he left the Bay Colony and founded Rhode Island.

The Puritans also restricted the Quakers. Consider the case of William and Anne Hutchinson. Anne was responsible for the move to New England. She wanted to follow her pastor John Cotton, and William--a successful business--accommodated her. Anne began to hold weekday meetings in her home for women in the community. She would give oral resumes of the preceding Sabbath's sermons for the women who were unable to attend worship. Her warm hospitality created an atmosphere of informality, and led women to seek clarification to various points raised by the pastor. Anne, who was remarkably astute and intelligent at a time when women were not encouraged to develop their talents, soon was offering her views on a whole variety of topics. As she did so, her meetings grew in popularity. Soon both men and women were coming, and the crowds included both sabbath keepers, as well as those who'd been absent. Soon the gatherings outgrew her home, and she had to have a second session.

When a new pastor came to the community, his sermons soon caused her great concern. His messages placed a strong emphasis on human actions as a means of preparation for God's granting saving grace. (In Puritan orthodoxy, man can do nothing to be saved. Salvation is solely God's gift.) Most people saw no real difference between Puritan orthodoxy and what the new pastor was preaching. And truth be told there wasn't much difference. Both rejected the idea that we can do something to be saved. Both held that God alone saves. But to Anne, who was theologically astute, there was a difference. There was a subtle suggestion that maybe human beings contribute something to their salvation. And so she became a critic of the pastor. By the summer of 1636, her meetings were drawing individuals of considerable status. Anne, by this time, had broadened her attack to include all the clergy of colony. She insisted they were preaching an covenant of works, not a covenant of grace. They were emphasizing conduct she claimed. To her, assurance of salvation was not conveyed by action, but by an essentially mystical experience of grace--an inward coming of the spirit to the individual.

At this point, Anne Hutchinson came to be viewed as a threat to the Puritan's pure commonwealth. They labelled her antinomian (anti-law) accusing her of looking inward for guidance and assurance rather than to the authority of church and state. The fact that she was a woman also played a major role in the developing opposition. She had no place teaching men is was believed.

Anne had some support. Merchants took solace from her, because she tended to divorce conduct from one's spiritual state. They were very much troubled by the clergy's criticisms of their business practices (too great a profit was attacked as theft).

In any event, the authorities moved against her. Judicial proceedings were implemented, and there in the Court Anne claimed to have direct revelations from God. Well this sent the Puritans into a tizzy. Certainly, God would not speak to a woman (they overlooked Ruth, Mary and Martha to mention a few). Her claims led her to be banished from colony, and like Roger Williams she left for Rhode Island.

Some Reasons Why the Effort to Create a Puritan Commonwealth Failed

Ultimately, the vision of a pure Christian society proved to be beyond the grasp of the Puritans. Their failure was not the result of external forces, but was the result of flaws and weaknesses within the Puritan movement.

For instance, Puritans believed in the ultimate authority of the word of God in all matters of faith and practice. This meant the scripture--not a pope or a pastor--was only arbiter of truth. On it, and it alone, the Puritans based their theology, doctrine, practices, and their statecraft. But they failed to recognize there is a difference between inspiration and printer's ink. Words are no more than symbols on a page, and have meaning only when we see their significance for us. The Bible is simply the record of men and women who have encountered God, and can never be the same again. But the Puritans came to idolize it.

The Puritans saw themselves as being elect, as persons who were set apart by God. They tended to ignore the Protestant doctrine of the Priesthood of Believers. Simply put, that means you become a priest to me, and I become priest to you. There is a certain egalitarian quality to that. It basically says the ground is level at the foot of the cross. God doesn't have any favorites. But the Puritans viewed themselves as a new chosen people set apart by God for a special purpose. It came as something of a shock that they were subject to many of the same failings as other human beings.

As I mentioned last time, it was extremely difficult for the Puritan to know if he or she was part of the elect. One could never be sure. Gradually this uncertainty became more than they could live with. And so many sermons were devoted to how one could "labor to make your election sure." Four rules of thumb were developed.

1) Only those who love God and enjoy reading their Bible.

2) Only those who love God and enjoy attending Church

3) Only those who love God and enjoy loving their Neighbors

4) Only those who love God and enjoy saying their prayers.

The desire to know that one was part of the elect is also reflected in the Puritan's Covenant theology. Consider the idea of a church covenant. If you are one of the elect, you'll be recognized by your Brothers and Sisters. This is the "birds of a feather flock together" test. Persons would be voted on by the members of the church after being given oral preliminary exams by the elders of the church, and after they had given convincing testimony of their conversion experience. Many failed. If failed, they still had to go to church. In Puritan society, the Heathen were expected to go to Hell quietly and in good order.

In addition to being an issue of ultimate importance church membership was also critical for another reason. In New England one could not vote or hold office without being a member of the church, and passing this rigid exam. Indeed, there were some who failed their preliminary exam because of political reasons. Those in power wanted to keep the suffrage small. The introduction of politics into this process, however, had the effect of undermining the Puritan effort to erect a purified commonwealth. The narrow base of the suffrage also created other problems. When a tax was levied for common defense, the citizens of Watertown, led by the pastor refused to pay, protesting their lack of involvement in the decision. As a result it was decided that representatives of all towns would have a say in such matters. This sense of disenfranchisement on the part of those not of the elect would corrosive to public morale.

Puritans were not just concerned with salvation. They also wished to purge evil from the world. They came to the new world to erect a model Christian community, but disputes soon broke out as to how far the reform effort should go. In many cases, clerical vestments, and many of the standard practices of the Church of England were discarded (such as the observance of Christmas). This concern with evil helped shape the political order. Puritans did not believe in the market or market forces. They imposed a rigid system of wage and price controls to insure that people did not unfairly profit from goods and services. To make an excessive profit was to steal, and so they regulated what one could and could not charge. When a shortage of hired help put upward pressure on wages, the Puritan authorities set a wage of 2 shillings a day.

In their struggle against evil, Puritans also sought to confront and eradicate witchcraft. The Salem witchcraft trials were the mainfestation of this effort. But there was more to these trials, however, than just resisting the power of Satan. There was also an economic dimension. If you were accused, your accusers could seize your property. The only way your land or goods would stay with your heirs was if the accused stood silent as they were slowly being executed (burned at the stake). Clearly, some accusations were made with little of substance to back them up other than a desire by one person to gain the possessions of another. That such practices took place suggests the degree to which even the Puritan commonwealth could be corrupted.

In summation, it was difficult to maintain the spiritual and doctrinal rigor of New England Puritanism beyond the first and second generations. The Puritans had assumed that their election was genetic, that their children would fall heir to the Covenant. But there is no such thing as an inherited faith. Each new generation must rediscover the faith for itself. Puritans soon were to discover that the first generation of Elect were having children who were baptized, but who latter in life failed to give adequate and convincing testimony of their conversion. These persons did not become part of the church. They did not own the covenant. But as these non-elect began to have children, the issue was raised as to what should be done with their children.

The result was the Half-Way Covenant. Puritans decided to allow any baptized member of the community to present a child for baptism even if they are ineligible to partake of sacraments or vote in church matters. Eventually, the result of this provision was a slow decline in the number of persons taking the exam for membership. One could be a baptized member of the community without being a church member. As more and more people opted for this provision, the old barriers to membership were slowly eroded.

At the time the Massachusetts Bay Colony was formed Puritans believed that election was an internal matter, and they could never be certain of their salvation. By the time of the Half-way Covenant, Puritans had come to see election as largely an external matter about which one could be certain. Having fled the corruptions of the Old World, Puritans were forced to confront an unpleasant reality: those very corruptions had stowed away in their hearts, and now had free run of this new Eden. And this time, there was no Eve to blame for the loss of paradise.