The Failure of the Puritan Community I. The Consciousness of Sin II. The Impossibility of a City on a Hill 1) The Presence of Sin: The True and False Principles of Trade (1639) 2) Compromises with the World: a) The Halfway Covenant b) Sumptuary Laws III. Land, Class and Community
Terms: Sumptuary Laws “Spiritual Milk for American Babes” (1646) True & False Principles of Trade (1639) Halfway Covenant (1662)
Themes: 1) Puritans lived with tremendous inner tension. The consciousness of sin always battled with the aspiration toward grace. 2) Their perfect community was doomed to failure. Human imperfections and growing social tensions made it impossible to sustain.
The Tension Within
John Cotton, Spiritual Milk for American Babes (1646) reflects the inner anxieties of Puritanism
John Cotton,
The Impossibility of Puritan Community
"forced worship stinks in God's nostrils“ – Roger Williams. Williams arrived in Massachusetts in 1631 and was in exile in Rhode Island by 1636
True & False Principles
Compromises With the World
Solomon Stoddard’s House, Northampton Stoddard was a major supporter of the Halfway Covenant
Sumptuary Laws Attempted to Control How Puritans Dressed
Land, Class & Community
The Savage Family, a 1779 painting by the New England painter Edward Savage
Within a few generations competition for land undermined the early sense of community.