Paste your essay in here…John Winthrop’s sermon, “A Model of Christian Charity” (1630) and Anne Bradstreet’s poem “The Flesh and the Spirit” (1650) reveal that even the Puritans, who strive to be the most Christ-like, in reality, held the same earthly desires as any other human. The Puritan ideology demonstrates the belief that they are chosen by God to “purify” the new land is their destiny to get into heaven; however, the only way Puritans were able to reach perfection was to stray away from their religious tenets. Although Winthrop lays the foundation of Puritan ideologies, Bradstreet, in her use of metaphorical and symbolic descriptions, allows one to clearly see the complex yet intricate beliefs held by the Puritans. The tactics used by the devil to lead Puritans astray resulted in people beginning to stray away from their faith in God when they engage in worldly pleasures in the form of temptations. Both authors argue the hypocritical ways within the Puritan society and expose how deviated the Puritan beliefs were through their acts of selfishness, exceptionalism, and emphasis on wealth. These factors prove that Puritans are the same as any other person and compare to an issue in a modern-day society where leaders feel empowered over others.
Although the Puritans intentions were to receive peace and prosperity for their new land, they were selfish by not spreading the Gospel. Meaning that if the inhabitants of the New World were to practice any other religion besides the Puritan religion, they would be exiled and shunned for their beliefs. Their belief system was corrupt because they only spread the gospel as God wanted them to in exchange for a new way of life. The Puritans arrival to the New World resulted from the prosecution they faced as they could no longer practice or spread their religion in Holland. The ones that did survive viewed America as the new promised land and became infatuated with the vision of a utopian society. When the Puritans arrived in the New World, they took it as a sign from God to spread the gospel so that everyone can be a part of this new group of believers. However, the belief that everyone was free to practice a religion of any form was false. In not practicing the standard principles of loving one another despite their beliefs, they failed in their mission to allow religious freedom in the New World. The Puritan community then became separated because of failure to accept differences in beliefs. The Puritans were hypocritical because “they in turn… denied those who did not conform to their own doctrines the same right of religious freedom” (Paul 138). Winthrop assures the puritans “if the Lord shall please to hear [them], and bring [them] in peace to the place [they] desire, then hath He ratified [their] covenant and sealed [their] commission (176).” Winthrop uses the word commission as a type of deal they are making with God. The Puritans bargained their beliefs as a selfish act rather than for appropriate intentions. Therefore, asserting that if God sees what righteous acts they are doing, in return they will receive a promise of gain. The Puritans desired this type of dominance over everyone else because it allowed them to feel entitled to their beliefs and fulfill their promise to grow a closer bond with God.
In “The Spirit and the Flesh,” the spirit symbolizes a typical Puritan who is selfish with her religion. It is the duty of the spirit to preach the word of God to the flesh, yet the spirit wants to preserve her beliefs for herself. As a Puritan, they are given the privilege of predestination by God and the spirit declares to the flesh “Eternal substance I do see, with which enriched I would be” (75-76). Evidently, the spirit will be the one with receiving the satisfaction because she can reach eternal salvation. Unlike the flesh, who is ignorant in the Puritan beliefs she will not reach the ultimate goal since she is not as privileged as the spirit. Furthermore, the spirit is selfish because she knows she will be in heaven with God when the time comes and will feel spiritually fulfilled. According to a historian, James Boyce, the flesh will never feel this spiritual fulfillment since human beings were born sinners (4). Nowadays, leading thinkers in America are atheists because they believe it is merely human nature to be sinners. For the most part, religion was never shared with them, so they kept the mentality that God is nothing but a fantasy. The Puritans committed acts of sin such as selfishness and greed which led an English philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, to accept the same mentality.
God chose the Puritans as exemplary leaders to preach the Gospel for all to hear. Winthrop’s sermon allowed them to believe they were set apart from other religions because of their privilege to preach the Gospel, also known as exceptionalism. Thus, set the stage for the development of the identity Americans applied exclusively to Puritans. Winthrop addresses to the Puritans that they should aspire to construct a “city upon a hill” which becomes a preeminent symbol of exceptionalism over Non-Puritans such as Native Americans (177). Since Native Americans were seen as inhumane creatures, Puritans already had preconceived notions of them. In fact, Dennis Owens, a scholar of colonial literature at Princeton University, suggests that hypocrisy revealed that “the Indians could now be used as a standard against which Puritans could measure other groups suspected of being in league with the Devil” (128). Initially, there was little to no tension between Puritan- Indian relations; instead, the Puritans viewed the Indians as heathens in need of salvation. Problems began to rise when the Puritans became aware of the physical differences between the Indians and white Europeans like themselves. It is a human tendency to favor the people who resemble them rather than a stranger; however, the gospel was there to counter that tendency. Winthrop demonstrates the hypocritical idea that Puritans solely love “his elect because they are like Himself” (173). They believe that they were the only ones created in the image of God and no other race will suffice to become a true Puritan or to live the utopian dream and prosper.
The way the Puritans viewed themselves as exceptional in the eyes of God is how many of the wealthiest people in America perceive themselves today. American exceptionalism is the backbone of this whole issue. The wealthy are already prospering in the American dream and rising above the system of capitalism. Similarly, if a Puritan was rich and successful, then that was a sign of spiritual reassurance. Rose Garrity, author of “Classism: Why Should We Care?”, proposes the idea that the rich fail to pay taxes to redistribute their wealth; meanwhile, the poor and middle-class people are being brainwashed by these ideas allowing them to accept the oppression that ensures the wealthy to continue to prosper (23). Their mentality is that they are providers of the nation because of their philanthropy. The rich believe that they will use the money they aren’t paying in taxes for their businesses and eventually create job opportunities for those in lower classes. In time, this will go back to those in lower classes in one way or another.
Moreover, the life of a Puritan became a system of messages, symbols and signs from God that they were the chosen ones amongst others. Through those signs, they believed to be the only ones with exclusive access to divinity. Bradstreet’s poem reveals one of the many ways the Puritans hypocritically saw themselves as the exceptional religious group through their view of the invisible world. The spirit is prideful in saying that her “eye doth pierce the heavens, and see what is invisible to thee” (77-78). Because the spirit is a Puritan, she is indicating that she holds the divine right to see beyond the naked eye of what a simple human like the flesh is able to see. The spirit is proving her value over the flesh considering the flesh will always give into temptations of the world because she is not as pure. In comparison to Winthrop, the Puritans had similar if not the same attitudes towards people they considered to be below them. The bible contradicts the Puritans attitudes in this context by stating the people will “all go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return” (English Standard Version, Eccles. 3:20). Although the Puritans base their religion off the bible, they fail to interpret this verse for its true meaning. Everyone holds equal value. As much as the Puritans strive to be these perfect believers, they are still sinners with their arrogant attitudes of being exceptional to God. In reality, they are just like any other human; all come from the same roots.
Winthrop overviews the extent of the Puritan’s duty to keep the community balanced. He emphasizes it is their spiritual obligation to God if a Puritan is wealthy to first help others in need before helping themselves. While their actions appear to be for the benefit of the people, the reality behind those actions are based on their own selfish desire to have a good image of themselves. It’s ironic that they make it their purpose to help others to make a positive change in the community, yet they set this image for themselves to give them a piece of mind. Winthrop explains how the Puritans are supposed to observe the act of helping someone through this maxim: “thou art to look at him not as an act of mercy, but by way of commerce” (169). The Puritans do not give out of an act of love but rather a personal profit. This whole concept emphasizes how hypocritical they really are when they are the ones who spend their whole lives trying to please others instead of pleasing God. Distinguished economist, Edgar A. J. Johnson, examines the thoughts of Winthrop and suggests “it was lawful and necessary to lay up riches… for their own sake” (237). Meaning that if they accumulate excessive wealth it is beneficial to their soul which again contradicts their beliefs. By accumulating excessive wealth, the Puritans believed it would lead to the sin of greed. They attempt to deny all worldly temptations such as riches, but they do not realize they are also worldly people who just hold beliefs. The hypocrisy in this sense is that since it appears to be for the better good for the community it was considered acceptable to have this wealth in their society.
In comparison to Winthrop’s ideology about the wealthy serving to maintain a balance in the Puritan society, Bradstreet reveals the hypocritical views on wealth the spirit has about heaven. Like the Puritans, they claim the real concern is not materialistic things in this world, but it is to have eternal salvation. The spirit cannot wait to reach the goal of heaven because she anticipates “the gates of pearl both rich and clear…the streets thereof transparent gold” (89-91). This anticipation the spirit has of heaven is hypocritical because just like the Puritans she claims that material possessions are of no value, all will stay here on Earth. In a metaphorical sense, the real gold in life is the key of salvation to heaven. Therefore, riches such as gold should not be of importance to the spirit. Jerald C. Brauer, former dean of the University of Chicago’s divinity school, supports the fact that Puritans have a double perception of predestination (41). This double perception is a comparison to Bradstreet’s spirit as she still wants to have those earthly desires of riches just like any other human. Heaven for a Puritan is a symbol of the ultimate goal in their religion. It is supposed to be a place free of sin and hypocrisy and yet Puritans still have their eyes on riches.
As much as the Puritans desire to reach perfection, they fail to do so by deviating from their initial beliefs. Unfortunately, there is much injustice in the mentality of the wealthy in the modern-day American society. Just like many religious individuals currently have interpersonal conflicts in which they are stuck between saving their soul and falling into worldly temptations. It is essential to understand this so that Americans will not have the same mentality as the Puritans did in their views on others. Additionally, straying away from one’s beliefs will never set the example that God imposed on his believers. People will begin to meditate on the ideology of American exceptionalism and that it is acceptable to think they are the superior country.