Difference between revisions of "Puritans"

<p> A name given in the primitive church to the Novatians, because they would never admit to communion any one, who from dread of death, had apostatized from the faith; but the word has been chiefly applied to those who were professed favourers of a farther degree of reformation and purity in the church before the act of uniformity, in 1662. After this period, the term [[Nonconformists]] became common, to which succeeds the appellation Dissenter. "During the reign of queen Elizabeth, in which the royal prerogative was carried to its utmost limits, there were found many daring spirits who questioned the right of the sovereign to prescribe and dictate to her subjects what principles of religion they should profess, and what forms they ought to adhere to. The ornaments and habits worn by the clergy in the preceding reign, when the Romish religion and rites were triumphant, [[Elizabeth]] was desirous of preserving in the [[Protestant]] service. This was the cause of great discontent among a large body of her subjects; multitudes refused to attend at those churches where the habits and ceremonies were used; the conforming clergy they treated with contumely; and from the superior purity and simplicity of the modes of worship to which they adhered, they obtained the name of Puritans. </p> <p> The queen made many attempts to repress every thing that appeared to her as an innovation in the religion established by her almost unlimited authority she readily checked open and avowed opposition, but she could not extinguish the principles of the Puritans, 'by whom alone, ' according to Mr. Hume, 'the precious spark of liberty had been kindled and was preserved, and to whom the English owe the whole freedom of their constitution.' Some secret attempts that had been made by them to establish a separate congregation and discipline had been carefully repressed by the strict hand which Elizabeth held over all her subjects. The most, therefore, that they could effect was, to assemble in private houses, for the purpose of worshipping God according to the dictates of their own consciences. These practices were at first connived at, but afterwards every mean was taken to suppress them, and the most cruel methods were made use of to discover persons who were disobedient to the royal pleasure." The severe persecutions carried on against the [[Puritans]] during the reigns of Elizabeth and the Stuarts, served to lay the foundation of a new empire in the western world. [[Thither]] as into a wilderness they fled from the face of their persecutors, and, being protected in the free exercise of their religion, continued to increase, till in about a century and a half they became an independent nation. </p> <p> The different principles, however, on which they had originally divided from the church establishment at home, operated in a way that might have been expected when they came to the possession of the civil power abroad. Those who formed the colony of Massachusetts's Bay, having never relinquished the principles of a national church, and of the power of the civil magistrate in matters of faith and worship, were less tolerant than those who settled at New Plymouth, at Rhode Island, and at [[Providence]] Plantations. The very men (and they were good men too) who had just escaped the persecutions of the English prelates, now in their turn persecuted others who dissented from them, till at length the liberal system of toleration established in the parent country at the revolution, extending to the colonies, in a good measure put an end to these proceedings. Neither the Puritans before the passing of the [[Bartholomew]] act in 1662, nor the Nonconformists after it, appear to have disapproved of the articles of the established church in matters of doctrine. The number of them who did so, however, was very small. While the great body of the bishops and clergy had from the days of archbishop [[Laud]] abandoned their own articles in favour of Arminianism, they were attached to the principles of the first reformers; and by their labours and sufferings the spirit of the reformation was kept alive in the land. </p> <p> But after the revolution, one part of the Protestant Dissenters, chiefly Presbyterians, first veered towards Arminianism, then revived the Arian controversy, and by degrees many of them settled in Socinianism. At the same time another part of them, chiefly [[Independents]] and Baptists, earnestly contending for the doctrines of grace, and conceiving as it would seem, that the danger of erring lay entirely on one side, first veered towards high Calvinism, then forbore the unregenerate to repent, believe, or do any thing practically good, and by degrees many of them, it is said, settled in Antinomianism. Such are the principles which have found place amongst the descendants of the Puritans. At the same time, however, it must be acknowledged that a goodly number of each of the three denominations have adhered to the doctrine and spirit of their forefathers; and have proved the efficacy of their principles by their concern to be holy in all manner of conversation. </p> <p> See articles [[Brownists, Independents]]  and NONCONFORMISTS, in this work. </p> <p> See also list of books under the last-mentioned article. </p>

<p> In England, the term Puritans was applied to those who wished for a farther degree of reformation in the church than was adopted by [[Queen]] Elizabeth; and a purer form, not of faith, but of discipline and worship. It was a common name given to all who, from conscientious motives, though on different grounds, disapproved of the established religion, from the reformation under Elizabeth, to the Act of [[Uniformity]] in 1662. From that time to the revolution in 1688, as many as refused to comply with the established worship, (among whom were about two thousand clergymen, and perhaps five hundred thousand people,) were denominated Nonconformists. From the passing of the Act of [[Toleration]] on the accession of [[William]] and Mary, the name of Nonconformists was changed to that of Protestant Dissenters. [[Prior]] to the grand rebellion in 1640, the Puritans were, almost without exception, Episcopalians; but after the famous "League and Covenant" of those turbulent times the greater part of them became Presbyterians. Some, however, were Independents, and some Baptists. The objections of the latter were more fundamental; they disapproved of all national churches, as such, and disavowed the authority of human legislation in matters of faith and worship. The persecutions carried on against the Puritans during the reigns of Elizabeth and the Stuarts served to lay the foundation of a new empire, and eventually a vast republic, in the western world. Thither, as into a wilderness, they fled from the face of their persecutors; and, being protected in the free exercise of their religion, continued to increase, until at length they became an independent nation. The different principles, however, on which they had originally divided from the church establishment at home, operated in a way that might have been expected, when they came to the possession of the civil power abroad. Those who formed the colony of [[Massachusetts]] having never relinquished the principle of a national church, and of the power of the civil magistrate in matters of faith and worship, were less tolerant than those who settled at New Plymouth, at Rhode Island, and Providence Plantations. The very men who had just escaped the persecutions of the English prelates, now, in their turn, persecuted others who dissented from them; until, at length, the liberal system of toleration established in the parent country at the revolution, extended to the colonies, and in a good measure put an end to these censurable proceedings. </p>

<p> A name given to a body of clergymen of the Church of England who refused to assent to the Act of Uniformity passed in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, because it required them to conform to Popish doctrine and ritual; and afterwards applied to the whole body of Nonconformists in England in the 16th and 17th centuries, who insisted on rigid adherence to the simplicity prescribed in these matters by the sacred Scriptures. In the days of Cromwell they were, "with musket on shoulder," the uncompromising foes of all forms, particularly in the worship of God, that affected to be alive after the soul had gone out of them. </p>