Understanding the True Legacy of the Puritans
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The Puritans were God-centered; it was a view of the sovereignty of God, a view of the Holiness of God, and a view of the Transcendence of God. These Puritans were not anti-education or anti-learning. Many of them, before they came to New England, were Cambridge trained and Oxford trained, and they were trained in classical education. [00:03:10]
For the Puritan, all of life is to be lived in the worship of who God is. So we start with God, and that takes us to worship. The other thing we find with the Puritans is they were people of the book. The Bible was very much a part of Puritan culture and the Puritan mind. [00:04:43]
The Puritans were people of the book. You see this even at the center of their worship, at the center of their Church architecture. As you walked into some of these New England meeting houses, they were very plain. Immediately, your eyes were drawn to the pulpit. It was always prominent, always displayed off the ground. [00:05:23]
The idea of the pulpit was twofold. One was a practical reason: this is before microphones and sound systems. The main reason was the symbolism that we come to church to sit under the authority of the preached word. The sermon was like a blood sport for the Puritans; it was the highlight of their week. [00:06:22]
The Puritans were Calvinists. They have a high view of God, but they're going to follow through on all of these doctrines. They're going to affirm the doctrine of original sin. You might have heard the jingle for A: "In Adam's fall, we sinned all." They start off with this notion of total depravity. [00:07:46]
Salvation, how we come to faith in Christ, is exclusively, only, solely the work of God. We call this monergism, and monergism literally means work of one, and here we're talking about the work of God. This is going to be very important because it's this Calvinism that is the theology that dominates and undergirds the First Great Awakening. [00:08:42]
The Covenant structures all of the relationships within the Puritan world. First, the Covenant structures our relationship to God. This is what we see in the Old Testament: God enters into a covenant with his people. The prophets remind Israel that they are God's covenant people and that God has been faithful to the Covenant. [00:12:18]
The Covenant moves out to the Human Relationships that we have. In the family, there is a covenant bond between father and children, and children and parents. There's a covenant between husband and wife. The Covenant dominated the family, but moving out, the Covenant also dominated the church. [00:13:39]
The Covenant governs all relationships. Here's the thing about puritanism: puritanism functions best as a whole system. It's almost like an either-or thing. Puritanism is not really something that can sort of be halfway; it sort of either is or it isn't. Within a few generations, puritanism becomes isn't. [00:16:48]
The Puritans were people of two books. They were people of the Bible, people of the book, but they were also people of the book of nature. They used that as a gateway to not hide from learning but to run into learning. One of the first things they do in Massachusetts is found Harvard University. [00:18:12]
They loved learning; they loved exploring. We're going to talk about Cotton Mather and Increase Mather. These were scientists in addition to being ministers. We forget that sometimes about the Puritans, that these Puritans were not just about exploring God's word; they were about exploring God's world. [00:18:47]
Cotton Mather wrote on all subjects. He wrote on medicine, science, astronomy, hermeneutics, and theology. He is, to me, that consummate Puritan whose mind just explores every nook and cranny, turns over every stone in the stream. Honestly, I think it goes back to the focus on worship in the God-centered. [00:21:12]
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For the Puritan, all of life is to be lived in the worship of who God is. So we start with God, and that takes us to worship. The other thing we find with the Puritans is they were people of the book. The Bible was very much a part of Puritan culture and the Puritan mind. [00:04:43]
The Puritans were people of the book. You see this even at the center of their worship, at the center of their Church architecture. As you walked into some of these New England meeting houses, they were very plain. Immediately, your eyes were drawn to the pulpit. It was always prominent, always displayed off the ground. [00:05:23]
The idea of the pulpit was twofold. One was a practical reason: this is before microphones and sound systems. The main reason was the symbolism that we come to church to sit under the authority of the preached word. The sermon was like a blood sport for the Puritans; it was the highlight of their week. [00:06:22]
The Puritans were Calvinists. They have a high view of God, but they're going to follow through on all of these doctrines. They're going to affirm the doctrine of original sin. You might have heard the jingle for A: "In Adam's fall, we sinned all." They start off with this notion of total depravity. [00:07:46]
Salvation, how we come to faith in Christ, is exclusively, only, solely the work of God. We call this monergism, and monergism literally means work of one, and here we're talking about the work of God. This is going to be very important because it's this Calvinism that is the theology that dominates and undergirds the First Great Awakening. [00:08:42]
The Covenant structures all of the relationships within the Puritan world. First, the Covenant structures our relationship to God. This is what we see in the Old Testament: God enters into a covenant with his people. The prophets remind Israel that they are God's covenant people and that God has been faithful to the Covenant. [00:12:18]
The Covenant moves out to the Human Relationships that we have. In the family, there is a covenant bond between father and children, and children and parents. There's a covenant between husband and wife. The Covenant dominated the family, but moving out, the Covenant also dominated the church. [00:13:39]
The Covenant governs all relationships. Here's the thing about puritanism: puritanism functions best as a whole system. It's almost like an either-or thing. Puritanism is not really something that can sort of be halfway; it sort of either is or it isn't. Within a few generations, puritanism becomes isn't. [00:16:48]
The Puritans were people of two books. They were people of the Bible, people of the book, but they were also people of the book of nature. They used that as a gateway to not hide from learning but to run into learning. One of the first things they do in Massachusetts is found Harvard University. [00:18:12]
They loved learning; they loved exploring. We're going to talk about Cotton Mather and Increase Mather. These were scientists in addition to being ministers. We forget that sometimes about the Puritans, that these Puritans were not just about exploring God's word; they were about exploring God's world. [00:18:47]
Cotton Mather wrote on all subjects. He wrote on medicine, science, astronomy, hermeneutics, and theology. He is, to me, that consummate Puritan whose mind just explores every nook and cranny, turns over every stone in the stream. Honestly, I think it goes back to the focus on worship in the God-centered. [00:21:12]
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