A message from our Puritan daddy Peter Bulkeley

Submitted by HistoricalAG t3_10ndvb3 in boston

“And thou New-England, which art exalted in priviledges of the Gospel above many other people, know thou the time of thy visitation, and consider the great things the Lord hath done for thee. The Gospel hath free passage in all places where thou dwellest ; oh that it might be gloried also by thee. Thou enjoyest many faithful witnesses, which have testified unto thee, the Gospel of the grace of God. Thou hast many bright starres shining in thy firmament, to give thee the knowledge of salvation from on high, to guide thy feet in the way of peace : Be not high-minded, because of thy priviledges, but fear, because of thy danger. The more thou hast committed unto thee, the more thou must account for. No peoples account will be heavier then thine, if thou do not walk worthy of the means of thy salvation. The Lord looks for more from thee, then from other people; more zeal for God, more love to his truth, more justice and equity in thy ways; Thou shouldst be a special people, an onely people, none like thee in all the earth… Take heed lest for neglect of either, God remove thy Candlestick out of the midst of thee; lest being now as a Citie upon a hill, which many seek unto, thou be lest like a Beacon upon the top of a mountaine, desolate and forsaken. If we walke unworthy of the Gospel brought unto us, the greater our mercy hath been in the enjoying of it, the greater will our judgement be for the contempt. Be instructed, and take heed.”

The Gospel-Covenant or The Covenant of Grace Opened, 1651

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gmcgath t1_j685hbh wrote

The Puritans believed so strongly in their "priviledges of the Gospel" that they didn't allow competing religions. Mary Dyer was hanged in Boston for preaching Quakerism. Roger Williams had to flee on a winter night to avoid being arrested on charges of heresy.

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3720-To-One t1_j689qmi wrote

Which is why it is LAUGHABLE when whenever conservatives act like this country was founded by people feeing religious persecution.

Yeah, the Puritans fled England because the Church of England wasn’t tyrannical enough for their tastes.

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HistoricalAG OP t1_j68c7oy wrote

No that was not why they fled. People don't really know much about actual Puritan history; they've just picked up all the misconceptions from modern day stories like the Crucible. They left England because they were loosely the various religious leaders that didn't want to conform to Anglican traditions that they felt were outdated and useless, like wearing ornate vestments to deliver sermons and doing the holy cross. Over here they did some tyrannical stuff which is famous, but they weren't a monolith or super organized identity and obviously things in every community were different. They didn't even call themselves Puritans; that name was given to them later in the 18th century. Here's a video discussing the circumstances of why they left England from an actual historian. And I'm not a conservative, I'm very liberal, I can just handle history without lashing out with misconceptions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPLP1T1RA_A&t=948s

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3720-To-One t1_j68hn0o wrote

Yeah, and they wanted “religious freedom” to be able to persecute anyone who didn’t think exactly like them.

Now that I think about it, that sounds a lot like today’s conservative Christians.

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HistoricalAG OP t1_j68idy9 wrote

And it was the 1600s, atrocities were taking place literally everywhere in the world by pretty much every group that had any power. It was a lot worse back in England under the rule of the Anglican church and king. Even today, atrocities are committed by Americans all the time, but anyone looking back 400 years later and acting like all Americans in 2023 were evil and corrupt would be seriously lacking in nuance and context.

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3720-To-One t1_j68ivl6 wrote

Yeah?

And the puritans were especially bad.

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HistoricalAG OP t1_j68k3k7 wrote

For their time, they actually weren't. They were much more progressive than their contemporaries in many ways. They weren't as cute and humble as the Quakers, a very small group, but compared to the Catholic or Anglican churches at the time, they were pretty chill. As Calvinists they believed in the democratization of religion and did away with the belief that you were closer to God through being born into a certain church hierarchy. As such they believed everyone should be taught to read and write so they could understand the bible, and that one was predestined for heaven so long as they led a good life. They also got rid of silly bullshit like the ornateness of the Catholic church. They believed in reinvesting money in their community rather than blowing off wealth on luxury items for personal enjoyment. These ideas arguably led to the fact America was never as hellbent on rigid class structure as Europe was in the 1600-1800s, and why many poor or middle class Americans were able to obtain an education long before this was possible in Europe. And while many of them had slaves, many of them like Judge Samuel Sewell also condemned slavery so much that it was probably some part of the reason slavery never took off in the north as much as it did in the south. Today Congregationalists and Unitarians, two of the most liberal Christian denominations in the country, are the direct descendants of the Puritan church in New England. Puritanism was more than just the Salem Witch Trials and Anne Hutchinson (which were obviously bad, but they aren't representative of the entire people in the MBC). Here's another good video from another historian on their history: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Er7-VjX72w

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HistoricalAG OP t1_j685t88 wrote

We know. They also basically laid the foundation for everything that is today unique to New England, including being among the first in the world to establish mandated public education, which included girls. Historically, they're interesting and important to understanding how we got here.

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PuritanSettler1620 t1_j68w5w5 wrote

Very interesting piece of New England history. Very good read, thank you!

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HistoricalAG OP t1_j685lc0 wrote

To whoever downvoted, no this is not proselytizing and I’m not even a Christian. I just thought it was an interesting piece of New England history. Re-contextualizing, it still kind of works today if you remove the whole religious aspect. New Englanders are still privileged in many ways compared to the rest of the world, and it's good to remember that with privilege comes a duty to do good and be good humans. That's why I liked the quote.

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