Text and Audience in Three Puritan Sermons
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Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 1987 Unspeakable Rich Mercy: Text and Audience in Three Puritan Sermons : John Cotton's the Covenant of God's Free Grace, Thomas Hooker's the Christian's Two Chiefe Lessons, and Thomas Shepard's the Saint's Jewel Parley Ann Boswell Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss Part of the Literature in English, North America Commons Recommended Citation Boswell, Parley Ann, "Unspeakable Rich Mercy: Text and Audience in Three Puritan Sermons : John Cotton's the Covenant of God's Free Grace, Thomas Hooker's the Christian's Two Chiefe Lessons, and Thomas Shepard's the Saint's Jewel" (1987). Dissertations. 3131. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/3131 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 1987 Parley Ann Boswell "UNSPEAKABLE RICH MERCY": TEXT AND AUDIENCE IN THREE PURITAN SERMONS: JOHN COTTON'S THE COVENANT OF GOD'S FREE GRACE, THOMAS HOOKER'S THE CHRISTIAN'S TWO CHIEFE LESSONS, AND THOMAS SHEPARD'S THE SAINT'S JEWEL by Parley Ann Boswell A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School . of Loyola University of Chicago in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy April 1987 © 1987, Parley Ann Boswell ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would 1 ike to thank the director of this dissertation, Professor James E. Rocks, whose own good judgment, generosity, and thoroughness have contributed significantly to my work. Professor Rocks and the others on my committee, Professor Agnes M. Donohue and Professor Paul R. Messbarger, have all been exceptionally helpful and attentive to my efforts, and I thank them all. I am grateful for my fellowship from the Arthur J. Schmitt Foundation, and for my instructorship from the Department of English, Loyola University of Chicago, which have afforded me the opportunity to research and write this dissertation. I also want to thank the staff of the Rare Book Room, University of Illinois Library, Urbana-Champaign, for their help with my research, and John H. Pruett and Nancy Workman, who both made valuable suggestions to me during the research and writing stages. I want to acknowledge those individuals who have always encouraged me, and who have lovingly endured my own sermonizing: the Boswell family, particularly my parents, Arlie and Parley Boswell: Shauna and Clif Carey: and Maria Garvy. Finally, I am indebted to J .J. Gittes, who has helped me to understand what "unspeakable" means. ii PREFACE I chose to study Puritan sermons for several reasons. As a student of literature and history, I am fascinated by the power of religious language and the significance of the sermon experience in early New England culture. My own reading of scholarship on the colonial Puritan community has indicated that preaching was at the very heart of the Puritan faith, and that each individual who consented to be part of a Puritan community acknowledged that the words he heard from the pulpit bound him most fundamentally to God's Word. In order for me to understand this most significant means of expression of the Puritan faith, I chose to consider the sermons as they were conceived by those who delivered them and those who heard them: as individual oral presentations. We are three hundred and fifty years removed from the Puritan community of New England. It is impossible for us to know exactly how a preacher sounded, or how his words affected any of his listeners. It is possible, however, to identify certain patterns, tensions, and strategies in the published texts of these oral presentations which we, with our own experiences as listeners and readers, will recognize. By remembering that each text represents an oral delivery, and by reading each text accordingly, we are able to understand some of the needs, fears, iii and hopes which concerned a people who seem very far removed from us indeed, a people who chose to lead their daily lives according to the Bible, and who were influenced, on an almost daily basis, by the controlled, yet passionate language of their Calvinist preachers. In the spirit of the Puritan preachers about whom I have written, I have composed my study according to a three-part scheme, by choosing to consider three sermons. In all three sermons, the preachers and their listeners are searching for the means and the words with which to express their faith. My readings of The Covenant of God~ Free Grace, The Christian~ Two Chiefe Lessons, and The Saint's Jewel represent my own search as well. By allowing these English preachers to lead me on a journey through their powerful, graceful, and passionate words, I can begin to understand their relationship--and their legacy--to the powerful, graceful, and passionate language of later American literature. iv VITA The author, Parley Ann Boswell, was born 3 September, 1953, in Chicago Heights, Illinois, to Arlie o. and Parley Dabney Boswell. She attended public school in Harrisburg, Illinois, and graduated from Rich Township High School, Central Campus, Olympia Fields, Illinois. In 1971, Ms. Boswell entered the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where she was graduated cum laude in 1975 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and American History. She received a Master of Arts degree in American History from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in 1977. Between 1977 and 1981, Ms. Boswell worked as an editorial assistant for a Buffalo, New York metropolitan magazine, and she taught English and History at Amherst Central Senior High School, Amherst, New York. During 1979, she also taught courses in the Women's Studies College at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Ms. Boswell entered the Doctoral program in English at Loyola University of Chicago in June, 1981, where she held teaching assistantships from 1981 to 1984. During 1983, she also administered the English Department Writing Center, and was a student representative to the Ph.D. Council of Loyola University. Under the supervision of Professor James E. Rocks, Ms. Boswell began her dissertation research in 1984, as an Arthur J. Schmitt Fellow. In addition to her dissertation research, Ms. v Boswell was the administrator of the Freshman Writing Program at the Loyola University School of Law from 1984 to 1987. She published an article on her work at the School of Law, "Loyola's Legal Writing Program," in the September, 1986 issue of Second Draft: Journal of the Legal Writing Institute. Ms. Boswell was awarded an instructorship from the English Department at Loyola during the 1985-86 academic year. During 1986-87, she taught English as an adjunct instructor in the Humanities Department, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. Ms. Boswell is a member of several honorary organizations, including Phi Alpha Theta, the National History Honor Society, and Alpha Sigma Nu, National Jesuit Honor Society. She was a University of Illinois James Scholar between 1971 and 1975, and in 1983, she was one of the winners of the Stanley Clayes Competition in Scholarly Writing at Loyola University of Chicago. She is also an active member of professional associations, including the Modern Language Association, the American Historical Association, and the American Culture Association. In August, 1987, Ms. Boswell will begin teaching American Literature as an assistant professor of English at Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, Illinois, where she will also continue her research and scholarship in Early American Literature and History. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . ii PREFACE . iii VITA . v chapter I. "To Pierce the Minds": Form, Content, and Textual Significance of the Colonial Puritan Sermon • • . • • • • • • • • . • . 1 II. Labor and Constancy: John Cotton's The Covenant of God's Free Grace • • • • • • . 35 III. Journey into the "Melting Heart": Thomas Hooker's The Christian's Two Chiefe Lessons • • • • . 71 IV. Sweet and Secret Persuasion: Thomas Shepard's The Saint's Jewel •.•••.•.. 114 v. "And So I Came Hither": The Puritan Audience in Early New England . • 153 BIBLIOGRAPHY • 185 vii CHAPTER I "To Pierce the Minds": Form, Content, and Textual Significance of the Colonial Puritan Sermon When Puri tan minister Thomas Shepard and members of his congregation sailed from their native England for Massachusetts in 1635, they endured a dangerous, terrifying ocean voyage. Shepard was to recount the journey in his autobiographical notes years later, where he attributed their safe arrival in New England to the "unspeakable rich mercy" of the Lord (God's Plot 60). Characteristic of a Puritan preacher in this description, Shepard acknowledged no "speakable" human language with which to describe God's providence. Yet his autobiography itself testifies to another significant characteristic of a Puritan preacher: Shepard spent his life crafting human language into sermons, always designed to guide, comfort and instruct his congregation on the ways of the Lord. In England and New England, the Puritan sermon served as the primary lifeline between preacher, community and personal faith. Particularly in New England, where printed material was sometimes scarce, sermons functioned as a common denominator which allowed literate and illiterate alike to participate in their religion. Preached on a daily basis, sermons brought the Puritan faith to life as ministers transformed Biblical passages into useful lessons for their listeners. The language was simple, the reasoning straightforward, and the lessons intended to help the 1 2 listeners to live in this world. For all their simplicity and utilitarianism, the texts of these sermons were closely crafted and scrupulously documented.