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Maximo Gutierrez

Ms. Storer

English 3 Honors American Literature

September 4, 2019

Purity in God? Puritans Don’t Think So

In most portrayals of God, He is seen as a kind, forgiving deity who wants salvation for

everyone. However, in Puritan poet Anne Bradstreet’s “Upon the Burning of Our House” and “To

My Dear and Loving Husband,” and Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards’ “From Sinners in the

Hands of an Angry God,” a different perception of God and His actions exists. Anne Bradstreet

perceives God as both a deity that takes and causes suffering at random and one that also gives

heavenly-like rewards; on the other hand, Jonathan Edwards perceives God as a wrathful,

unforgiving deity that condemns people to eternal damnation at random.

Bradstreet views God as someone that can take away valued possessions almost

spontaneously. For example, as she writes about her house burning down in “Upon the Burning of

Our House,” she displays her immediate reaction: “The flame [consumed] my dwelling place. /

And when I could no longer look, / I blest his name that gave and took” (Upon the Burning of Our

House 12-14). Bradstreet blesses God even though seeing her house burn causes her distress. She

acknowledges that God took her house because it was somehow bound to happen, and despite

despairing at her belongings getting destroyed, she sees that God is worthy of blessing because He

planned for it to happen; she must give thanks to Him no matter what happens. Another example

is displayed after Bradstreet despairs of her possessions no longer existing as they once did: “Then

straight I ‘gin my heart to chide. / And did thy wealth on Earth abide? / Didst fix thy hope on

mold’ring dust? / The arm of flesh didst make thy trust?” (Upon the Burning of Our House 37-40).
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Bradstreet begins to point the blame at God and uses religious references to put Him down for

burning her house. She still believes God is responsible for everything that happens to her, but she

now begins to feel remorse and put God at fault rather than blessing Him as she did previously.

Her use of allusions to His accomplishment of His Kingdom on Earth and His using of man to

build hope and trust in Him make it clear that while she still aspires for these things to happen, she

believes God burning her house down did not help these goals get further accomplished, and tries

to make Him feel bad about it, to no avail. While she believes God can take at will, she also

believes he can give at will, too.

Bradstreet also perceives God as someone that can bless people with heavenly-like

rewards. In Bradstreet’s case, she feels this way about her husband, especially when she writes “I

prize thy love more than whole mines of gold / Or all the riches that the East doth hold. / My love

is such that rivers cannot quench,” (To My Dear and Loving Husband 5-7). Bradstreet prizes the

love of her husband more than all the riches she can think of, and nothing can quench it. While her

husband is the focus of the poem, she expresses to an outer force that she is extremely thankful for

being given such a valuable and unquenchable love for her husband, a thanks to which is further

expanded upon in the next example. Near the end of the poem, Bradstreet writes “Thy love is such

I can no way repay, / The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray. / Then while we live, in love let’s

so persevere/ That when we live no more, we may live ever” (To My Dear and Loving Husband

5-7). Bradstreet begins to say the heavens reward her in many different ways, and that while she

and her husband are alive, they can work to earn eternal salvation in Heaven. It is here that she

references the common Puritan belief that people are predestined for Heaven or Hell and must

strive for Heaven even though they may be doomed to Hell. Bradstreet thanks God for His ability

to give great gifts to people whom He knows deserve it; in turn, she uses his kindness to continue
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working for eternal life with Him in Heaven. This shows that whether God takes or gives, she

always feels obliged to thank Him for fear of being predestined to Hell rather than the eternal

reward she strives for. There exists another, darker perception of God, however.

Edwards sees God as a cold, unforgiving, angry deity that sentences every sinner to

inescapable doom in Hell. In his famous sermon, he stresses the helplessness of the people

predestined for Hell: “…they have no refuge, nothing to take hold of; all that preserves them every

moment is the mere arbitrary will, and uncovenanted, unobliged forbearance of an incensed God”

(Edwards 97). Edwards says the sinners have nothing to save themselves from Hell except the will

of their angry God. He assumes that most men are predestined for Hell, and uses his wrathful

perception of God to convince those sinners how weak and helpless they are against their horrible

fate. He also teaches people of the kind of person God is: “The bow of God’s wrath is bent […]

and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or

obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood”

(Edwards 98). God has an arrow at the sinner, and the only thing keeping him from letting it go to

kill them is his temporary pleasure, which is not guaranteed to every sinner. It is in this part of

Jonathan Edwards’ sermon where the personality of God in his eyes is most expressed. God is

described as angry and wrathful, and the forgiveness of sins that He has been recently known to

possess is almost completely absent; he seems to take pleasure in letting sinners die and serve an

eternal punishment for their sins. This viewpoint of God and His plan for mankind is a product of

the 17th century Puritan mindset, most certainly of their belief in predestination. When compared

to Anne Bradstreet’s perception of God, however, this is an especially dark depiction of a God that

is supposedly working towards the salvation of all humans in Heaven.

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There exist many different versions of God, but the Puritan versions stand out as especially

interesting. Puritan theologian and preacher Jonathan Edwards takes a darker approach at God,

seeing him as a spiteful tyrant who wants everyone to burn in Hell for all eternity; Puritan poet

Anne Bradstreet, however, sees God as an otherworldly force that, whether He takes and causes

suffering or gives heavenly-like rewards, is worthy of constant worship. These perceptions of God

help to give today’s readers an idea of the Puritan religious values at a time when that was all they

could rely on in a new, mysterious, scary world.

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Works Cited

Bradstreet, Anne. “Upon the Burning of Our House.” Early America, Unit 1, p. 91.

Bradstreet, Anne. “To My Dear and Loving Husband.” Early America, Unit 1, p. 92.

Edwards, Jonathan. “From Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” Early America, Unit 1, p. 97-

99