An Investigation of the Seventeenth- to Nineteenth-Century Puritan Vernacular Tradition : To Please God or to Not Please God

Shakespeare asked, "To be, or not to be?" Likewise, the author of this work asks a similar question of Puritan authors: "To please nor not to please God?" The Puritans eternal struggle is embodied by this singular phrase that the Puritans used in an attempt to decipher the rectitude of their own actions.

An Investigation of the 16th-18th Century Puritan Vernacular Tradition argues that Puritan writers, specifically from the 17th to the 19th century, developed a collective vernacular which was intended to—in the words of John Milton—"justify the ways of God to man." However, their phrases (much like the Puritans themselves) never achieved a sufficient level of uniformity. As a result, their verbiage, though quite often similar, the manner in which it is used frequently differs. Puritan authors'' routine suggestion that certain circumstances "pleased God" began as an attempt with which to interpret God''s involvement in their day-to-day lives. However, as time passed, these interpretations became further removed from the Scripture and ultimately functioned as a way for writers to indict God when things badly or to praise him only when he showed them favor.