Feedback Form
Quality
Research
Material!

Puritan’s Concept of Sin

The Puritan’s have a somewhat complex idea of what constitutes a sin. If the weather is bad, they would wonder what they had done to deserve the dreadful weather. If someone came down with a severe illness, they would assume they had committed a terrible sin to deserve it. They feel like the consequences of sin are very severe and that they are individually punished for their foul actions. This paper will examine the Puritan’s concept of sin, as seen in the text by William Bradford and Jonathan Edwards.

The text has selections of Bradford’s work from Of Plymouth Plantation. Bradford believed that with sin, came punishment. This belief is reflected in his writing. He felt that men who focus on pride and ambition were sinners. These people would be punished by God in some form or another. He says that “Satan took occasion and advantage thereby to foist in a number of vile ceremonies” (166). By this he means that Satan will punish every sinner in some ‘vile’ way.

Bradford writes of a young seaman, who was proud and profane, with a lusty and able body. The seaman seemed nice, but had intentions of throwing the crew overboard and stealing their poss

. . .

Simply not being converted is still a sin. For these sins, God punished the young seaman by throwing him overboard first. “They deserve to be cast into hell” (329). Contrary to Bradford, Edwards was out there preaching and trying to voice his views. “They noted it to be the just hand of God upon him…” (167).

Edwards opens his sermon by quoting Deuteronomy 32.

Edwards never comes out and specifically says what he feels constitutes a sin. Edwards concentrates on the consequences of sin, which appear to be incredibly severe according to him. “God will not hold them up in these slippery places any longer, but will let them go; and then, at that very instant, they shall fall into destruction” (329). We can come to realize that this is his evaluation when we read further into his sermon. Edwards makes it clear that he has no compassion for sinners. The theory being that God will send you directly into destruction or hell if you are committing sins.

Edwards basically follows this same theory throughout his entire sermon.

Approximate Word count = 779
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Simply subscribe to view this paper, and 100,000 others.

CREDIT CARD
ONLINE CHECK
JOIN BY PHONE
Members get exclusive access to over 100,000 essays.
Don't pay per page, get instant access to the whole database.

Essay's Topics

All research is for reference purposes only.

Copyright (c) 2001-2008 Mega Essays LLC, All rights reserved. DMCA