Puritan Justification

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A Puritan Justification for Community The provided “Justifications for Undertaking a New Settlement” clearly represents Puritan ideals, both religious and political, in respects to their beliefs of creating an exemplary community for God, where sins are punishable by God. The justification begins with a subtle jeremiad “Our many sins, for which the Lord shows his displeasure with us,” very simply stating that when Puritans sin, the Lord strikes down against them. According to James A. Monroe, in his selection “U.S.: A City upon a Hill,” expressing jeremiads in Puritan culture was one method of maintaining Puritan utopia. The establishment of jeremiads and their implementation appeared to maintain the block between rich and poor, called…show more content…
Winthrop explains in his third reason that “Thirdly, that every man might have need of others, and from hence they might be all knit more nearly together in the bonds of brotherly affection. From hence it appears plainly that no man is made more honorable than another or more wealthy etc., out of any particular and singular respect to himself, but for the glory of his Creator and the common good of the creature, man.” This idea fully embraces the Puritan concept of neighborly affection and no creation or need for enemies, that Puritans, in a community together, must peacefully coexist, not only for one another, but to appreciate the community and brethren that God has provided them with. This also provides reasoning for maintenance in the gap between rich and poor in Puritan society: that it is kept to respect how God created each individual and that each individual respect how God has created them and that by attempting to remove oneself from their role, they are going against their God and withdrawing faith in why God created them in that

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