Puritans, Puritans, Puritans...

In my opinion, the Puritans were pretty intense people. According to their beliefs, you're born a sinner, you will always be a sinner, God hates you quite a lot, and no matter what you do, you still might burn in hell. Puritans believed in God's unending and undeniable grace, but then that Jesus only died for a precious few. It almost seems more like God's grace is not something He wants to give us, but something He has to give us whether he wants to or not. The only word that I think describes the Puritan's outlook on life is bleak

The concept of original sin has always been interesting to me. Why should we all be blamed for something that Adam and Eve did at the dawn of time? It doesn't seem fair that everyone should suffer for the wrongs of two people who lived so long ago. It’s sad to think that sweet little babies are born tainted by sin and that they will eventually befall to their sin nature. Puritans did believe that you could fight your sin nature, but that you would most likely backslide and give into temptation at some point.

I always find so much of Puritan belief to be contradictory. They believe in God's undeniable grace, but also that He is just waiting around the corner to smite the heck out of them. Also, they believe that Jesus only died for the sins of some, and that only a precious few will be saved; this does not speak of grace to me. I can't imagine worshiping a God that hates me, is disgusted by me, and who might not even save my soul from eternal damnation and hell fire. If you're born a sinner, there's nothing you can do to make yourself pure, and all the do gooding and pleading in the world won't guarantee your salvation, than what's the point?! Puritan belief seems very hopeless to me, and also very, very oppressive.

I have a feeling that these people lived in intense fear. If I went to church every Sunday and heard things like Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, I would be terrified. In Jonathan Edward’s sermon he mentions that God is responsible for the torments of hell: “They are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God that is expressed in the torments of hell.” I was always taught that the devil was the mastermind behind hell, so I wonder if Edwards was intentionally trying to scare his congregation. So much of this sermon makes me wonder what Edwards’ intent behind this sermon was. He obviously meant it to be scary, but for what purpose? Was he trying to scare his church into submission, or was he simply attempting to be a good pastor and lead them away from wickedness? He warns them, “The devil stands ready to fall upon them and seize them as his own…” “The devils watch them; they are ever by them, at their right hand; they stand waiting for them, like greedy hungry lions that see their prey, and expect to have it…” but he also says some things that are just plain terrifying, “God has so many different unsearchable ways of taking wicked men out of the world and sending ‘em to hell…” and “God has laid himself under no obligation by any promise to keep any natural man out of hell one moment.” From my understanding the Puritans lived very simple lives adorned by nothing and pleasure was thought to be sinful. So having sheltered themselves from flowery writing, the images these sermons induced would be all the more alarming. The other Puritan literary works like Of Plymouth Plantation are very mundane and boring, but these sermons are full of imagery, and not all of it is pleasant.

The Puritan belief that I think is most heavily exemplified in Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God is total depravity. Jonathan Edwards opens the sermon with the verse "Their foot shall slide in due time." Deuteronomy 32:35, he goes on to explain that this verse is about how even God's chosen people are wicked. No one is free from sin, so, Total Depravity. The second Puritan belief that I think is exemplified perseverance of the "saints". The whole sermon is Edwards' interpretation of the verses he chose to preach. His words were rule in the Puritan belief, no matter whether they were accurate or not. The things he says in Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God seem over the top, I think he took things too far, but in those days, he could almost do whatever he wanted.