The stereotypical image of the Puritans is of a colorless,
bland people who considered anything remotely similar to "fun" as sinful. This image is
quite wrong. The Puritans engaged in any number of activities which are all but
"puritanical." They wore colorful clothes, ate, drank alcohol, listened to secular
music, danced, and made merry. The key was moderation; they were encouraged to do all
things in moderation except they should "zealously aspire" to
piety.
Sex within marriage was not only considered a good
thing, one could be expelled from the church for not satisfying the sexual desires of
one's spouse:
which failure to satisfy denies all reliefe in
Wedlock unto Human necessity, and sends it for supply unto
Bestiality.
Sex outside of
marriage was of course condemned, and repeat offenders were made to wear a large "A" on
their clothing, literally a "Scarlet Letter." Similarly, those guilty of getting
habitually drunk were made to wear a large "D." Yet consumption of alcohol in moderation
was not a sin, but a quite proper pleasure. Rev. Increase Mather discribed it this
way:
Drink is
in and of itself a good creature of God, and to be received with thankfulness; but the
abuse of drink is from Satan, the wine is from God, but the Drunkard is from the
devil.
They were, however, a
firm believer in the Covenant of Believers, which precluded democracy. Rev. John Cotton
once commented on Democracy:
Democracy I do not conceive that ever God did
ordain as a fit government either for church or commonwealth. If the people be
governors, who shall be governed? As for monarchy, and aristocracy, they are both of
them clearly approved, and directed in scripture, yet so as referred the sovereignty to
himself, and setteth up Theocracy in both, as the best form of government in the
commonwealth, as well as in the
church.
So although their
ideas of government were pretty stereotypical, their true lifestyle was
not.
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