Puritan History :: essays research papers

in the seventeenth century some Puritan groups separated from the Church of England. Among these were the Pilgrims, who in 1620 founded Plymouth Colony. tenner years later, under the auspices of the Massachusetts Bay Company, the first major Puritan migration to New England took place. The Puritans brought strong spiritual impulses to bear in all colonies conjugation of Virginia, only when New England was their stronghold, and the Congregationalist churches established there were able to perpetuate their viewpoint about a Christian society for more than 200 years. Richard Mather and tush Cotton provided clerical leading in the dominant Puritan colony planted on Massachusetts Bay. Thomas Hooker was an example of those who settled bare-assed areas farther west according to traditional Puritan standards. Even though he broke with the authorities of the Massachusetts colony over questions of religious freedom, Roger Williams was in addition a true Puritan in his zeal for persona l godliness and doctrinal correctness. Most of these men held ideas in the mainstream of Calvinistic thought. In addition to accept in the absolute sovereignty of God, the total depravity of man, and the complete dependence of human beings on divine grace for salvation, they stressed the importance of personal religious experience. These Puritans insisted that they, as Gods elect, had the duty to direct national affairs according to Gods will as revealed in the Bible. This union of church and state to form a saintly commonwealth gave Puritanism direct and exclusive control over most colonial activity until commercial and political changes forced them to relinquish it at the end of the 17th century. Because of its diffuse nature, when Puritanism began to decline in America is difficult to say. Some would hold that it lost its influence in New England by the early 18th century, but Jonathan Edwards and his able disciple Samuel Hopkins revived Puritan thought and kept it alive until 1800. Others would point to the gradual decline in power of Congregationalism, but Presbyterians under the leadership of Jonathan Dickinson and Baptists led by the example of Isaac Backus (1724 - 1806) revitalized Puritan ideals in several denominational forms through the 18th century.