David Calhoun remarks in his lecture on the Puritans:
In their preaching, the Puritans were champions of grace. Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners is the name of Bunyan’s book, and it could stand for the whole period. And they were very concerned to teach the law. To set forth the Ten Commandments. And God’s requirements for Christian living. Sometimes it’s thought that the Puritans fell into legalism, and they probably did. We know Baxter did in his neo-nomianism. And even in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Charles Spurgeon is disappointed when in the beginning of the story Evangelist sends poor Christian — not really yet a Christian although that’s his name already — sends him to the wicket gate and not directly to the Cross. Well, Bunyan doesn’t often get it wrong, but there he perhaps did. The way of preaching of the gospel is an indirect way, not a direct way to the Cross. And the Puritans do stress that law work; they preach the law. It’s important, I think, and they do it well and they do it right. But you can preach the law so long. You should not wait too long to get to the Gospel. And I think the Puritans kept people often marinating in the law too long. They need to let them go on to the Gospel and be forgiven when the conviction was there.
But by and large, the Puritans were, as J. I. Packer put it, law-oriented without lapsing into legalism. I would agree with that by saying that the Puritans were usually law-oriented and did not usually lapse into legalism. But I think there are places where we can see that. But there is much good in what the Puritans do with the law, great stress on the third use of the law and careful teaching of what God requires. But it can produce books that seem beyond us. As you read the Puritans, don’t allow Puritan writing to discourage you as sometimes it can. There are many great encouraging things in the Puritans too. But the standards are so high that we can feel like we can never make it. Of course, the standards in the Bible are so high that we can feel like we can never make it. But remember reading once that John Duncan, the 19th-century Scottish theologian was reading the Puritan, Thomas Shepard. And he said Shepard is fine, but the problem with Shepard is that I wish I was as good as one of his hypocrites. And you kind get that feeling occasionally. We have a right to criticize some of the Puritans perhaps many of the Puritans for pruning the tree too closely. But it’s wrong to suppose that there should be no pruning. Whether we look at worship or Christian conduct — something corresponding to the Puritan criticism is always needed.
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What is this 3rd use of the Law thing? from the links that you posted I am getting the idea that they are saying that we have to be “good” to even be able to accept Christ. That sounds like something that I would never hear anyone say but act like it any way.
First time I’ve read this post. I’m not sure the phrase ‘puritan grace’ is not itself somewhat self-contradictory. The Puritans’ history, correctly studied and understood, ie ‘why’ they ‘wanted’ to be ‘puritans’ in the first place… and why they ‘did’ what they did…. one reason was based on, angry offense and strong negative reaction, that, the new Protestant religion in England, wasn’t reforming enough, wasn’t going far enough in ‘reform’,remained too much like the bad awful Church of Rome, which everybody who called themselves Protestant, was taught to hate and loathe. So because this new Protestant religion of England, was angrily judged, as not reforming enough, etc., it had to be rejected. And those who rejected The Church of England,at the time, obviously were not all the bad, bad Catholics, protestants were being taught to hate. The puritans rejected the Church of England, whole sale. Everything had to go. They went to such extremes, that, any semblance of a beautiful church windows, to remind people of the beauty of God, any form of blessed Ikons, to remind people of the beauty of the lives of the saints, all of that sort of thing was ‘bad’,’evil’ and had to be thrown out and church places purged of. These were externals, in the natural, physical, visible things, which had nothing bad or evil in them at all. And, they did not represent false gods or falsehoods about beauty and God. The next things to go was, guess what! Music. And then Christmas. Yes, it became against the law of the puritans, to even sing in church services! They believed music was also a form of idolatry. Believe it or not, at one time in England’s social cultural England, the Puritans actually cancelled Christmas! If christians were found to be singing hymns on Christmas day, by the religious secret police-puritans, in any church where they were caught, they would be arrested and thrown into jail. The Puritans controlled the people by fear. Believe it or not. Puritans went to such an extreme, to ‘purify’ themselves, of whatever they perceived as ‘bad’, ‘evil’, and ‘not of God’, and therefore must be immediately excised from their lives, so as to ‘not’ CONTAMINATE THEM!!!…. which was basically whatever they disapproved of’ from their high and mighty arrogant high horses of super- spiritual- superiority……. they thought that to purify themselves, ‘first’ had to be done by ‘exiting’, and leaving behind, everything that ‘smacked’ of ‘not being pure enough!’ Which of course again, was anything they did not approve of! First it was a church they angrily exited out of. Next it was Ikons. Next it as music. Next it was Christmas. Church going christians were so intimidated by them, that, they caved under the intimidation, and allowed themselves to be ruled over and controlled by what by now had become, a false religion of puritanism. It was not the christians who rebelled against the cancelling of christmas. It was the non christians. The government had to overrule the puritans’ religious rules and ungodly control, and reinstate christmas as a social and cultural practice, because the unbelievers began to riot in the streets! God spoke truth through the circumstances, through ordinary sinners, non christians, ‘to the government’, that there was nothing impure or sinful about the social and cultural practice of christmas. And the government realized that, allowing a religious sect such as the puritans, to control society by making unnecessary religious laws, was a very dangerous thing. There was a lot of subjectivism in this kind of reactive decision making and angry behaviour, on the part of the people who called themselves puritans. There was also a lot of pride, self-righteousness, and anger motivating these Puritans to act like they did. I have learned by observation and personal experience, that whenever people ‘leave’ a group in anger, they usually ‘take their anger with them.” Also that being completely honest about our feelings and emotions of anger, is so important after we ‘exit’ groups, under the most unpleasant circumstances, which many of us who read this blog can relate to. It’s not a sin to be angry. It becomes a sin when we take our anger out on other people. And if we suppress our anger and deny it, we risk making ourselves ‘sick.’ Societies that are ‘against pleasure’, tend to violence.” The Puritans opposed the healthy pleasures and fun of the christmas season. And they cancelled christmas. Then they opposed the singing of songs in church, of praising and worshipping God! The army of angry men who went about merry old England, to purify the land of sinners, went with their songs of war and their angry hearts of triumphalism, against all the evils of impurity, which was whatever they disapproved of,as they ‘saw the world through closed eyes’… and with their Bible books and swords,they literally ‘killed’ anyone who disagreed with them got in their way, and opposed them. A rather questionable expression of Gospel values! Just a little intimidating, I would suggest. The main reason the Puritans were ‘helped and hastened’ out of Merry Old England, by the then reigning king, was, ‘that he couldn’t wait to get rid of them!’ After killing people by the sword in England, driving the king crazy, interfering with people’s private and spiritual lives, and wreaking havoc wherever they went, these angry self-righteous Puritans, went one step further, once they got religious control in an American colony, in infamous Salem, Massachusetts, sending many poor souls, and innocent people to the gallows to be executed, to the fires, to be burned as witches, to ‘purify the community’ of imagined and perceived, sin and evil.And the only reason they ‘stopped’ practicing this evil against fellow believers, was because the civil- secular -local government, stepped in, and disallowed them, to any longer make their own laws, run their own communities, independent of, and apart from the protection of the civic and secular government. The puritans as a peculiar religious society, were in all intents and purposes, ‘a society that was against pleasure.’ No one was allowed to have any fun. And to say their tendencies ‘led to violence’ would be an understatement. Children raised to not be allowed to play and have any fun, grow up as very very angry children. they become very, very angry adults. And in positions of influence power and authority, can lead to them becoming physically violent and abusive. Angry children can become angry parents. And some of them kill their children, if not physically, then spiritually and emotionally. A secular local government, had to make a law to protect the puritans from themselves! Just like the Calvinists in early reformation Europe, as soon as puritans were given any kind of legal rights or power, they immediately went about ‘abusing’ that authority, abusing power, and wielding power over people. Calvinists were so fanatically out of control in Paris France, in early reformation dreadful times, that they were banned from the city, and had to remain outside of city limits. But as soon as they were given any legal rights to practice their new form of religion, they misused that power to ‘execute a catholic priest’ who they found just outside Paris’s city limits. Whom they saw as ‘fair game.’ Authority and political rights, to the calvinists then, had nothing to do with ‘serving’ as disciples, followers of christ, or even christianity. It had only to do with power, power over people, power to be wielded over people, to dominate, manipulate and control them. Calvin’s Reign of terror in Geneva, is one of the best sanitized evils of reformation history. Read about it online. The city was so sanitized, sterilized,calivinized and puritanitized by Calvin of so called sin, ( ‘everything’ that Calvin disapproved of was sin ), that the city for all intents and purposes was’dead.’ Societies that are against pleasure tend to violence. Truth without grace kills. Truth without love hurts. Christians don’t assassinate other Christians literally anymore in the western world. They just assassinate peoples’ character, trying to destroy their reputations, and manipulate gullible to believe the lies that they spread around about people, so other people will, agree with them in their evil, and distrust those people too. So puritan grace didn’t get practiced by the power brokers, until the secular governments took their ‘religious power’ away from them. And forbade the puritans to any longer ‘make their own laws’ and ‘practice them’ in isolation from their governments, with an entitlement attitude of assuming they could be ‘accountable to no one but themselves!’ A secular government had to make laws to force puritans to respect the true values of the Gospel, and ‘stop’ burning their neighbors as witches. Puritan grace? I don’t think so. Grace and Law was never meant to mix. Galatians speaks volumes about that truth.
Well, yeah. I’m not going to disagree. Look at the date I published this. I was in the deepest throes of my BJU trauma. My closest friends were shunning me. It was terrible. I was listening to these lectures to keep even. . . . And even there, Jesus spoke through it.
But yeah, I do agree.