The Puritan Dilemma

[H]e which would have suer peace and joye in Christianitye, essential non ayme at a condition retyred from the world and free from temptations, yet to knowe that the life which is most exercised with tryalls and temptations is the sweetest, and will prove the safeste. For such tryalls as fall within compasse of our callinges, it is better to arme and withstande them than to avoide and shunne them. -John Winthrop There, in Winthrops own words, is the puritan dilemma of which Mr. Morgan speaks here, the paradox that required a part to weather in the world without being of it. Superficially Puritanism was only a belief that the Church of England should be purged of its hierarchy and of the traditions and ceremonies inherited from Rome. hardly those who had caught the fever knew that Puritanism demanded more of the individual than it did of the church. Once it took possession of a man, it was seldom shaken off and would shape--some people would say warp--his unit life. Puritanism was a power not to be denied. It did great things for England and America, hardly only by creating in the men and women it affected a tension which was at best painful and at flog unbearable. Puritanism required that a man devote his life to quest salvation simply told him he was helpless to do anything but evil.

Puritanism required that he rest his whole hope in Christ but taught him that Christ would utterly reject him unless onward he was born perfection had foreordained his salvation. Puritanism required that man refrain from sin but told him he would sin anyhow. Puritanism required that he reform the world in the image of Gods holy kingdom but taught him that the evil of the world was incurable and inevitable. Puritanism required that he work to the best of his ability at whatever task was set before him and partake of the in effect(p) things that God had filled the world with but told him he must enjoy his work and his pleasures only, as it were, absent-mindedly, with his attention fixed on God. Caught... If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Orderessay

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