Puritans Believed That All People Were Corrupt Religion Essay

John Winthrop one time proclaimed to the Massachusetts bay settlement that we shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon usaˆ¦Therefore Lashkar-e-Taiba us take life ” ( Winthrop, City Upon a Hill ) . Winthrop was portion of a group of Protestants that separated from the Church of England in order to get down a new life of spiritual freedom in the New World, and they deemed that God should be cardinal to their being. Benjamin Franklin, nevertheless, viewed God as peripheral and did non point his life around faith. These cardinal spiritual differences manifested themselves through alternate ways of thought and life, and their opponent constructs of God and humanity elicited specific positions of authorities, relationships, agony, and Scripture.

First, the Puritans believed that all people were corrupt and inherently evil while God embodied flawlessness. They thought that their wickedness enslaved them and that the lone manner to be free was to subject to God ( Winthrop 1 ) . In their heads, God was important and demanded entry to his Torahs. Therefore, they viewed adult male as inherently evil, and they viewed God as the keeping force that kept them in cheque ( Winthrop 1 ) . This interaction between God and the Puritans influenced the manner that they governed the settlement. For illustration, the governor John Winthrop explains to his citizens that they have a natural autonomy, which is perfectly corrupt, and a civil autonomy, which can merely be in subjugation to authorization ( Winthrop 1 ) . Winthrop besides states that, “ we shall regulate you and judge your causes by the regulations of God ‘s Torahs ” ( Winthrop 1 ) . In comparing, Franklin thought that humanity was inherently good and could better, and he believed that “ truth, earnestness, and unity in traffics between adult male and adult male were of the extreme importance to the felicitousness of life ” ( Franklin 29 ) . He thought that God was peripheral and non straight involved in adult male ‘s life, and this led him to believe that work forces were responsible for bettering the province of their being. These positions helped organize Franklin ‘s thoughts about the function authorities, which included advancing human betterment. When he is elected to office he hoped that “ going a member would enlarge my power of making good ” ( Franklin 42 ) . Franklin ‘s religion in adult male looking out for the public good was contrary to the Puritan ‘s position that leaders were evil and wanted to enslave their topics, and their really different spiritual differences precipitated these positions.

The Puritans besides concluded that Christ was the sole manner to obtain redemption, and everyone who did non swear in Christ was traveling to hell ( Wigglesworth 3 ) . This belief about God ‘s sole offer of redemption and homo ‘s built-in wickedness interacted to impact their interpersonal relationships because they wanted their household and friends to be saved. Most interpersonal relationships had some religious focal point. For illustration, Dane recounts that he was “ educated under reverent parents ” and that “ my scruples was really disposed to state me of immoralities that I should non make ” ( Dane 6 ) . Peoples besides comforted each other with the promise of redemption, like when Rowlandson and her boy Joseph read the Bible together during their imprisonment ( Rowlandson 18 ) . Franklin, nevertheless, had strikingly opposing positions than the Puritans because his faith had “ no grade of any of the separating dogmas of any peculiar religious order ” ( Franklin 35 ) . Therefore, in his relationships with others, virtuousness is the cardinal subject, because he concludes, “ the importance of virtuousness did non depend on Christian tenet or the wagess and penalties of the hereafter ” ( Franklin 29 ) . Therefore, in his interactions with people, he focuses on moving morally while avoiding specific dogmas of faith ( Franklin 35 ) .

In add-on, the Puritans concluded that God closely involved Himself in the inside informations of human lives, while Ben Franklin believed that God existed as a peripheral figure. This belief in God ‘s ubiquity led the Puritans to hold complex, religious readings for all events. John Dane ‘s history supports this thought in that he frequently credits God for good things. For illustration, John Dane returned some lost gold he had found, and credited “ God ‘s goodness in so giving me keeping grace to continue me from such a enticement ” ( Dane 7 ) . He besides sees something every bit little as a WASP biting his pollex as a correction from God, and he proclaims that, “ God had found me out ” ( Dane 9 ) . Since the Puritans believed that God was omnipresent in every facet of their lives, their readings of even little happenings had considerable religious significance, and it was up to them to construe these happenings right. Contrary to these positions, Franklin was a thorough freethinker in that he thought God was really separate and detached from human lives ( Franklin 26 ) . He did non believe in the Bible or in the Christian God ( Franklin 25 ) , so he voiced that worlds were responsible for directing their ain lives and bettering their fortunes ( Franklin 37 ) . He exerts a assurance in his control over his ain life by utilizing phrases such as “ I would suppress, ” “ I conceived, ” “ I considered, ” and “ my fortunes ” ( Franklin 32 ) . He does non used the Bible to steer his determinations, and he does non construe events as if God was someway involved, which is really different than how the Puritans lived. These differences in their cardinal beliefs about God led to antithetic techniques for construing life fortunes.

Besides, The Puritan ‘s thought that wickedness led worlds astray and needed God ‘s subject interacted to impact their perceptual experience of adversity ( Rowlandson 20 ) . In comparing, Ben Franklin posited that hurting and pleasance existed in equal proportion in the universe and was non controlled by God ( Franklin 27 ) . This thought caused them to impute hard fortunes to independent ( outside their control ) variables, such as God distributing adversity. Therefore the Puritans frequently rejoiced in the thick of trouble because it meant that God still cared about them. Mary Rowlandson exclaims at one point in her narrative that when she saw others “ under many tests and afflictionsaˆ¦I should sometimes be covetous ” ( Rowlandson 20 ) . Rowlandson was grateful for the Indian foray, because Hebrews 6 says that “ Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth. ” The manner that Rowlandson interprets events in her life coincides with the hopeful manner that the Puritans approached adversity, and it reflected their core religious beliefs. Ben Franklin, on the other manus, believed that hurting and pleasance happened in equal proportion during a individual ‘s life, and provinces in his thesis that “ this uneasinessaˆ¦produces desire to be freed from it, great in exact proportion to the edginess ” ( Franklin 27 ) . Franklin is suggesting that hurting is merely a natural portion of life, and is dispelled by actively seeking pleasance, because “ pleasance is the satisfactionaˆ¦which is caused by the achievement of our desires, and those desires beingaˆ¦caused by hurting ” ( Franklin 27 ) .

The inerrancy of Scripture was another built-in dogma of the Puritan ‘s faith that diverged from Franklin ‘s beliefs. The Puritans thought that the iniquitous nature misguided worlds and that they needed the Bible to demo them the truth, and these positions interacted to bring forth entire trust in the Bible for counsel. Mary Rowlandson frequently peppers her history with Bibles that she deems appropriate for a state of affairs. In Mary ‘s extreme agony, she refreshes herself with transitions from the Psalms relation God assisting his people in their clip of demand ( Rowlandson 18 ) . Another illustration of this is when Dane decides to go to the New World when he tells his male parent, “ if where I opened my Bible there met with anything either to promote or deter that should settle me ” ( Dane 11 ) . These histories exemplify the manner in which the Puritans viewed Scripture relation to their lives. Franklin, nevertheless, regarded the Bible as “ largely fabrications ” ( Franklin 26 ) , and did non acknowledge it as a godly authorization. His sentiment about the Bible produced incredulity toward the Bibles that the Puritans lacked. As a immature male child he found the Scripture “ disputed in the different books I readaˆ¦and I began to doubt of Revelation itself ” ( Franklin 25 ) . As a consequence, he dismissed the bible as Godhead and alternatively used the narratives approximately Jesus as a moral usher ( Franklin 33 ) .

In decision, the Puritan ‘s Christianity differed significantly from Ben Franklin ‘s free thought. The settlers conducted all manners of personal businesss with respect to the spiritual deductions it would hold, and all of their determinations were made in visible radiation of the religion that was cardinal to their being. Unlike the Puritans, Ben Franklin ‘s doctrine of God and humanity was deistic in nature, and he had a much more hopeful mentality on humanity because he thought that they were capable of populating morally without the Christian God. The Puritan ‘s and Franklin ‘s worldviews shaped their thought in early colonial New England, and their alternate positions resulted in divergent readings of the universe at big.