Presentation Transcript

1. The Puritans

   The Rule of the Saints

2. A typical puritan
3. Puritanism The puritan experience is a type of piety coming from the purely gracious work of God in the heart of the believer. The puritans in the 1600’s had the only opportunity to apply the law of God to an entire nation. Despite the stereotypes, Puritanism is not straight-laced, it stands for change in England.
4. Puritans Puritanism is a deep conviction that spiritual conversion was crucial to Christianity A rebirth that separated the Puritan from the masses and gave him privileges and duties of God’s chosen ones. The church may prepare a person for this experience, and after it may guide him, but the reception of the grace of God into one’s soul is beyond the church’s control.
5. Puritans In its crusade to reshape England the Puritan movement passed through three periods First, under Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603) when it tried to “purify” the Church of England along the lines of Calvin Second, under James I and Charles I (1603 – 1642) it resisted the claims of the monarchy and suffered under royal pressures designed to force conformity to official church Christianity Third, during England’s Civil War and Oliver Cromwell’s rule (1642-1660) when puritans had a chance to shape the national church in England but failed because of their own internal bickering
6. Puritans Puritans had a public side and a personal side Personal: The individual experience of the grace of God Public: The shaping of society according to biblical principles.
7. Persecuted Puritans Puritanism first appeared during the reign of Elizabeth with a new style of message aimed at the heart Under the persecution of Bloody Mary they fled to Geneva. Elizabeth’s crowning seemed like an invitation to return to England, however Queen Elizabeth would not give into all of their demands.
8. Puritans She allowed their complaints about anything that looked like Roman Catholicism, but she would not hear of their control of the Church which would remain firmly in the hands of appointed bishops, not ministers elected by the people. If the church remained in the hands of the bishops and therefore in control of the crown.
9. The Book of Martyrs In Geneva the Puritans used the Geneva Bible They also relied heavily on another book The Book of Martyrs The Book of martyrs was written by John Foxe during his exile in the reign of Bloody Mary, in which he depicted the stories of Protestants who died for their beliefs. The conclusion was clear: God had a special place for the English people in his worldwide plan of redemption.
10. The Book of Martyrs The influence of the Book of Martyrs on Englishmen was enormous. The puritans in particular, through their study of the Bible and Foxe’s book, came to think of themselves as God’s new Israel when they journeyed to the New World they carried his book with them
11. The Covenant The key to the Puritan view of the Bible and of themselves lies in their understanding of the covenant A covenant is a spiritual contract between man and god The Puritan’s believed the most fundamental of these was the covenant of grace. This was the contract by which true Christians were bound to God. They believed God sovereignly elected men to salvation (Calvinist influences from their time in Geneva) they also believed that any by personal faith in Jesus could be added to the covenanted company. By grace believers became God’s people and he their God.
12. The Covenant of Grace To live within this bond – the covenant of grace- was to live within the light of the Word and according to the plan of God as laid out in the Bible. This became the source of determination for which the Puritans became famous.
13. Conflicts with the King When James I took over the throne the Puritans tried to get him to change the Church of England to their interpretation of religion, just like they had with Queen Elizabeth I However James I, having been James VI in Scotland and having to deal with the tensions that developed under Mary Queen of Scots, was not open to dealing with the Puritans and threatened them with persecution if they did not like his decisions. The only concession he made was to have a new translation of the Bible installed which is now called the King James version.
14. King James I He was equally rude with parliament and ignoring the wishes of the people he dissolved Parliament an ruled as an absolute monarch. So supporters of parliament and the Puritan leaders banded together in resistance to royal power.
15. Separatism The Puritans were determined to worship as they felt the Bible taught them, not as English leaders ruled. This movement is called separatism because they were intent on leaving the Church of England They left for Holland for safety and freedom of worship,.
16. The move to the New World however after 10 years they realized their children were forgetting the ways of their homeland The could not return to England to the evil ways of English society, so they decided to move to the English colony of Virginia A small number were willing to brave the unknown and in September 1620 approximately 100 puritans left from Plymouth on the Mayflower.
17. Puritan Baptists Those who stayed in Holland took on a different kind of battle. John Smythe, the pastor, discovered that the practice of baptizing babies was never mentioned in the Bible. So he came to the conclusion that if babies were not included in the covenant of grace, then shouldn’t churches be constituted by confession of faith, rather than ties of covenants. So his congregation were baptized on profession of faith and the first English Baptist church was born.
18. King Charles I At this point most of the Puritans had not gone so far as separatism. Charles I was even more determined than his father to rule by divine right. Charles I, and his Archbishop Laud, went opposite the Puritans and brought the church closer to Catholicism than Elizabeth I had negotiated under via media, and James had maintained.
19. King Charles I When Charles tried to punish the leaders of the opposition (parliamentarians) civil war erupted and the Royalists left London to join forces defending the King. So in the absence of opposition, parliamentarians were free to institute the reforms it wanted
20. King Charles I King Charles I and Laud’s plans drove many Puritans to separatism or America However they ran into problems when Charles tried to force his religion on Scotland. When faced with this the Scottish Presbyterians opposed Charles by joining in a “National League of Covenant: and took up arms against their king.
21. King Charles I To put an army in the field Charles was forced to call Parliament In this parliament a royalist party and a parliamentary party developed The parliamentarians agreed on broad Puritan principles but were divided over the form of the church The royalists were in support of the King.
22. King Charles I The Parliamentarians united in their hatred of Archbishop Laud succeeded in bringing him to trial and seeing him beheaded. When Charles tried to punish the leaders of this opposition civil war broke out. The royalists left London to join forces defending the king, so parliament was free to institute the Church the Puritans had always wanted.
23. Westminster Assembly Puritan theologians gathered to create a new form of worship and church government for the church of England They produced the Westminster Confession of Faith to replace the Thirty-nine articles as well as a Larger and Shorter Catechism for use in the churches. They also ordered the creation of presbyteries and the election of elders for the churches. However, the system never fully took because Parliament never ruled the entire country.
24. Oliver Cromwell He was a military genius in the parliamentary forces, his regiment, the Ironsides, was never defeated because Cromwell instilled a sense of discipline and Christian mission in his men Cromwell rose to the leadership of the New Model Army who considered the war a Puritan crusade against the enemies of righteousness. Their army prayed before battles and plunged into conflicts singing hymns.
25. Oliver Cromwell
26. Oliver Cromwell Cromwell's army forced Charles to surrender. Charles played his enemies against each other. The Scots The Presbyterians in parliament The independents in the army He made an alliance with the Scots and war broke out again. The Army defeated the kings allies and the Presbyterians were ousted from the House of Commons. In 1649 King Charles was executed.
27. Oliver Cromwell Ultimately it led to the downfall of the Puritans because it gave the royalists their own martyr. The Army abolished the House of Lords, and the House of Commons and proclaimed England a republic – the Commonwealth. However in 1653 the Army overthrew the Commonwealth and set up a Protectorate Cromwell held the Office of Lord Protector, essentially a military dictator of England
28. Oliver Cromwell He tried to achieve a religious settlement for the nation by granting liberty to all Christian groups, however he found the task impossible. When he died the “rule of the saints” died with him and within two years the country welcomed the return of the monarchy. In the American wilderness the saints were determinedly setting up the kingdom of God.