mgpcpastor's blog

While I was in transit today I started to read The Worship of the American Puritans by Horton Davies. (Soli Deo Gloria 1999)
The Puritans as a movement were impacted by the reformed and Calvininian aspects of the Reformation and yet maintained a number of distinctives, among which were a more congregational and democratic form of church government, especially initially. While the name ‘Puritan’ is commonly understood to be descriptive of the most narrow and judgemental of attitudes, the Puritans were desirous that Christian life and particularly Christian worship be purified, that is to follow only those precepts and examples provided for or deduced from the Scriptures. The Presbyterian heritage shares much in common with that aim.
There is much that is daunting to a modern Christian reader.
The church year was stripped bare. No Christmas or Easter, let alone other seasons. But there were distinct times of thanksgiving and times of fasting and humiliation. These were not set times, but observed according to observed need.
The Sabbath (the Christian Sabbath of Sunday) was the only instituted Holy Day for the Christian Church and it was observed with stringent dedication. Its blanket observation was founded on the idea that not only the church, but the society of which it was a part were part of God’s commonwealth.
Church Services took hours. This is not daunting in itself, but the content of the Services brings pause. While the idea of Sermons taking one or more hours to preach may not bring total surprise the fact that pastoral prayers would take just as long, or perhaps longer did make me stop and wonder.
While the content of the Sermons was often recorded, the content of the prayers was not. Apparently the content included various written requests from the Congregation and sometimes a repeating of the key themes of the sermon along with material derived from Scriptural meditaton.
Neither Sermon or prayers were read. Study was done beforehand, manuscripts were written out to aid the memory, but they were not taken into the pulpit. Even the use of notes was frowned upon. Freshness and plain delivery were prized and anything that lent itself toward the idea that the Holy Spirit was not being relied upon or that oratory and speaking skill were being used were discouraged. No prayer books, responses or the like were used.
Only Psalms were sung, with no instrumental accompanyment. This of course led to difficulties in a number of areas. Keeping a tune (both melody and tempo) was hard. Leading illiterate congregations was challenging, as the lead singer would sing a line and the congregation would then repeat the line in song, which created problems where thoughts or expressions would be continued over two or more lines.
The other overall problem of finding the most appropriate translations of Hebrew language poetry which did justice to the meaning of the words, while also being rendered in a form fit for English speakers to recognise as both poetry and be singable is a continuing challenge experienced today.
In reading the original references that Davies uses the genuine piety of the Puritans is never in doubt. The area that I reflected on is the idea that because the Scriptures say something is good and beneficial that a lot of it must be best.
It seems the movement followed the idea that length and duration of devotion were markers of spiritual maturity and the challenge that many felt in living up to that standard was a factor that led to a lack of assurance.
I am challenged by the desire that the Puritans had for biblical authority, spiritual vitality and a desire for their faith to mark their entire life. As I read and reflect though I still consider the need to temper that which the Bible says we must do with considered judgment about the amount of it that is beneficial to God’s people, particularly as they gather for corporate worship.
Tomorrow I spend more time in transit and I should finish it up.
I’ll try and interact with Davies concluding observations sometime on Wednesday.