The twelve good rules of Puritan behavior:
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Profane no Divine ordinance.
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Touch no state matters.
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Urge no healths.
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Pick no quarrels.
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Encourage no vice.
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Repeat no grievances.
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Reveal no secrets.
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Maintain no ill opinions.
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Make no comparisons.
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Keep no bad company.
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Make no long meals.
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Lay no wagers.
The New England Primer, 1691
In Adam's Fall
We Sinned all.
Thy Life to Mend
This Book Attend.
The Cat doth play
And after flay.
A dog will bite
A Thief at night.
The Idle Fool
Is whipt at school.
John Robinson - On Children (ca. 1630)
Surely there is in all children...a
stubbornness and stoutness of mind arising from natural pride, which must,
in the first place be broken and beaten down; that so the foundation of
their education being laid in humility and tractableness, other virtues
may, in their time, be built thereon. For the beating and keeping down
of this stubbornness parents must provide carefully...that the children's
wills and willfulness be restrained and repressed, and that, in time; lest
sooner than they imagine, the tender springs grow to that stiffness, that
they will rather break than bow.
John Milton (ca. 1670)
God's universal law gave
to man despotic power
Over his female in due awe.
John Winthrop, 1649
Some false principles were
these:
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That a man might sell as dear as he
can, and buy as cheap as he can.
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If a man lose by casualty of sea in
some of this commodities, he may raise the price of the rest.
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That he may sell as he bought, though
he paid too dear and though the commodity be fallen.
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That, as a man may take the advantage
of his own skill and ability, so he may of another's ignorance or necessity....
Jonathan Edwards, 1734
The God that holds you over
the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over
the fire, abhors you and is dreadfully provoked. His wrath toward you burns
like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into
the fire.
Questions
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Identify the basic Puritan beliefs illustrated
in these quotations.
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What do these quotations suggest about Puritan
attitudes toward women and children?
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In what ways did the Puritans attempt to make
religion a controlling force in everyday life?
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Based on these quotations, do you consider
Puritanism a repressive and intolerant moral and religious code or as a
rigorous and realistic attempt to face up to the harsh realities of life?
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