THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE PURITAN PREACHING
Puritanism was a
genuine movement of renewal. It was a renewal reacting
to the institutionalized or nominal state church—the Anglican
Church. What characterized the movement was the renewal of
preaching. It was the Puritans
who,
in their historical context, renovated the expository,
evangelistic preaching. Indeed, their sermons were missionary
proclamation.
The Historical Background of the Puritan Movement
The direct factor of the Protestant Reformation
in England was political one rather than pure religious one. In
the late 1520's and early 1530's Henry VIII was experiencing
matrimonial and political difficulties such that, in 1533, he
insisted that the Convocation of Canterbury declare his marriage
to Catherine of Aragon annulled. In the next year, Henry had
the English Parliament declare him the Supreme Head of the
Church in England, thus severing all ties with the Roman Church
(Logan 1996).[1]
In less that a century of history of English
Protestant Reformation, a renewal movement in a true sense of
the word was arousing. At first, the royal opposition against
the movement was fierce. Two hundred seventy- seven Christian
leaders were burned to death at the stake during the reign of
Queen Mary. She earned the title 'Bloody Mary' during her reign
from 1553 to 1558. Yet the cause of Christ grew and prospered.
It was during the reign of Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603) that the
Puritan movement was born (Hulse 1996). As
Packer defines it Puritanism is “that movement in sixteenth and
seventeenth century England which sought further reformation and
revival in the Church of England than the Elizabethan settlement
allowed” (1995:35).
At first the Puritans received the name
Puritan because they sought to purify the National Church of
England. In later times they were called Puritans because of the
purity of life that they sought. They set out to reform the
Church of England. Their desire was to conform the national
Church to the Word of God in government, worship and practice
(Hulse 1996:154).
D.
M. Lloyd Jones put it: “It was a purification, an effort, wise
or unwise, to rid the Christianity of England from all adhesions
to its power; an endeavour to remove everything in the
doctrines, discipline, ceremonial, which during the Middle Ages
had been added to the Gospel of Christ”(1962:11).
The Puritans wanted to convert the Church of
England; they sought after a Church that was theologically
orthodox, spiritually alert, and joyously sure of salvation. In
addition, they believed in integrating into their lives the
Christian faith. For them, there is no distinction between the
sacred and the secular. They had a high view of women and
marriage and encouraged family worship. They wanted godly
society and acted for it—schools they started for the poor is
one of the examples.[2]
Elizabeth came to the throne in 1558. While
her father may be said to have seized the church, her brother
and sister tried to reform it—but with unhappy results. She
perceived that she must govern it or be ruined. Her people were
divided in faith. The majority, especially in London, were
Protestant, but a considerable number were still Catholic, and
of these there was no telling how many might prove hostile to
her authority. There were, in addition, differences within the
ranks of both parties. Practically, everybody agreed that there
could be but one true religion and that the church should be
maintained by the state (Haller 1957:6).
In good contrast to her predecessor Mary who
persecuted Protestants in favor of Catholicism, Elizabeth tried
to maintain a uniformity policy. What she was interested in was
unity and stability. Haller observes it from its historical
circumstances. Her prior value was the continuance of ordered
society for which the Christian church must play a role. The
church was inconceivable except as a single comprehensive
institution uniform in faith and worship. But since in fact her
subjects could not agree as to what religion ought to be
enforced as true, Elizabeth’s policy was to maintain at least
the semblance of unity and the framework of the church without
at the same time wrecking her government (1957: 6-7). Paul
Pierson observes that what she was interested in was unity and
stability.[3]
Elizabeth affirmed the independence of, and
the Puritanism within the English church. As head of the
nation, she asserted her control over church government. She
insisted that her bishops be men she could depend upon, and se
saw to it that they asserted their authority and her own. The
only religious test she unfailingly insisted upon was
willingness to sweat allegiance to herself as the church’s
governor. Such practices failed to please earnest reformers,
bigots and doctrinaires, but they gave her people a taste of the
practical advantages of toleration and patriotism (:7).
England under the rule of Queen Elizabeth won
the battle against the invasion of Spain, the Catholic nation.
But she, who was also the head of the national Church, did not
want to be too Protestant. In this context the Puritans arose.
They wanted to purify the Church.[4]
When James I (who reigned from 1603 to 1625)
came to the throne there was hope that now reform would
progress. Instead the struggle intensified. It did not improve
when Charles I came to the throne in 1625. Ministers began to
despair of improvement and some left for America where a new
group of Puritans developed. The situation came to a climax when
civil war broke out during the 1640s. During that time Oliver
Cromwell became the supreme governor in place of the King. When
Cromwell died there was no one suitable to replace him. The
nation returned to the monarchy. Charles II came to the throne
(Hulse 1996).
A group of Puritans formed the Separatist
movement. Among the leaders of the movement, John Robinson,
William Brewster, and William Bradford were directly involved in
the group of Separatists which, in 1608, left England for the
Netherlands, and then later decided to emigrate to the New
World, landing at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620. Many
(probably most) Puritans chose to remain within the English
church working for reform, and it was from this group
that a much larger group of emigrants left from
England for New England in the late 1620's, establishing their
colony at Massachusetts Bay (Logan 1996).
Following the reign of Queen
Elizabeth,
the struggle in the Church was renewed with even more conflict
than before. An act of Parliament was passed which required
conformity to rules, which the Puritans simply were unable to
follow. In 1662, over 2,000 ministers and leaders in the Church
of England were forced to leave. Refusing to compromise their
consciences, they left. Historians regard the Puritan period as
coming to an end in 1662. It is noteworthy, however, that it
was after 1662 that the Puritans wrote some of their finest
expositions (Hulse 1996).
The Theological Background of the Puritan
Movement
Pierson suggests that the Puritans were
influenced by Continental Reformers such as Calvin and Bucer.
Thus, we see them starting in order to foster preaching,
biblical exposition and prayer.
"Puritans" wanted to remain as part of the
English establishment, working for biblical reform from within.
Even as they emigrated to New England, they affirmed their
"Englishness" and saw the main purpose of their new colony as
being that of a biblical witness, a "city on a hill" which would
set an example of biblical righteousness in church and state for
Old England and the entire world to see. As deeply committed
covenant theologians, they emphasized especially strongly the
corporate righteousness of their entire community before God
(Logan 1996).
The Puritans were passionately concerned for
education and high academic standards. Almost all the Puritans
were graduates of Oxford and Cambridge. Sidney Sussex College
and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, were famous Puritan
institutions of learning.
Pierson comments that The Puritans wanted godly, learned pastors
who are able to expound the Scripture, and who were resident in
every parish.[1] In
the Anglican Church, there were priests who were appointed, but
uneducated and even did not know where his parish was. The
Puritan ideal was the godly, well-trained preachers resident in
the parish.[2]
The
Puritan Preaching as a Church Renewal Movement
The Puritan movement was highly marked by the renewal of
preaching. The Puritans had brought a new, fresh understanding
of preaching to the English pulpit of the sixteenth and the
seventeenth centuries. They preached not only for the
reformation of the Church of England but also for effective
communication of the gospel.
The Puritan movement marked the age of perplexing change when
many men and women, especially those of lowly position and
simple understanding, were racked by anxiety for their future
here and hereafter. It was a period of storm and stress. A
group of Puritan preachers laid their learning aside in order to
win the ear and confidence of all men. Their function was to
probe the conscience of the downhearted sinner, to name and cure
the malady of his soul, and then to send him out strengthened
for the continuance of his lifelong battle (Haller 1957:27).
The Puritans preached large numbers of
sermons. Some preached every day of the week, and on Sundays
more than once. People would travel considerable distances in
order to hear such preaching. Nothing was so characteristic of
the Puritan preaching as their belief in preaching and their
delight in listening to preaching. They printed remarkable
number of sermons. So much of the theological teaching of the
Puritans was given in the form of preaching and sermons
(Lloyd-Jones 1987:379).
The Puritans excelled in preaching in a
practical way and many of their sermons reflect this concern to
be practical. They made them practical for both life
application and pulpit communication. The Puritans taught in
more detail than Calvin that biblical principles must be applied
to every aspect of life. They proclaimed the gospel message to
apply it to every realm of life of their audience. They
translated their profound exposition of the Bible into simple
and accessible language for their audience.
The Puritan View of Preaching
The Anglican and the Puritan views were different in that to the
Puritans preaching was central, and the most important thing of
all. Lloyd-Jones quotes from the Elizabethan Archbishop saying:
With regard to preaching, nothing is more evident from Scripture
than that it was a great blessing to have the gospel preached,
and to have plenty of laborer sent into the Lord’s harvest.
That this was the ordinary means of salvation…that through
reading homilies was good, yet it was not comparable to
preaching, which might be suited to the diversity of time,
plays, and hearers, and be delivered with more efficacy and
affection (Lloyd-Jones 1987:375-76).
William Haller observes that the difference between the preaching of
the Anglicans and that of the Puritans, between witty and spiritual
preaching so-called, between the Wisdom of Words and ‘the Word of
Wisdom,’ was not merely one of style. As a matter of conviction
and of convention, the Puritans professed to disapprove the citation
of human authors and to depend solely upon Scripture (1957:23).
The Centrality of Preaching
Jams I. Packer discusses that preaching takes the supreme importance
in the ministries of the Puritans. To them, the sermon was the
liturgical climax of public worship. “Preaching, under any
circumstances, is an act of worship.” Nothing, they said, honors
God more than the faithful declaration and obedient hearing of his
truth (1994:281-82).
Preaching, the Puritans said, is the exposition of the Word of God.
They even said that, in faithful preaching, God himself is
preaching, and that if a man is giving a true exposition of
Scripture, God is speaking because it is God’s Word, and not the
word of man. The Puritans also asserted that the sermon is more
important than the sacraments or any ceremonies. They claimed that
it is as much an act of worship as the Eucharist and more central in
the church service (Lloyd-Jones 1987:379-380.
The Human Needs in the Puritan Preaching
What was the human need to which they preached? The Puritan’s
anthropology accented man’s total depravity. Ever since Adam, all
the Puritans proclaimed, man has been a slave to sin. Not only
ignorance of the divine will, but also obstinate perversion from the
divine way makes up the human character. Adam's sin left man’s
nature died. This, however, did not destroy man’s rational and
volitional faculties. In these God’s image remains imprinted. To
men’s natural faculty God addresses himself in the book of nature
and of Scripture (Rooy 1965:310-311).
(* This draft will be will be added and revised later.)
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This article is originally an excerpt from Dae Ryeong Kim's paper, "The Missionary Proclamation of the English Puritanism."
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