Worldly Saints: The Puritans As They Really Were by Ryken Leland

Author:Ryken, Leland [Ryken, Leland]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2010-09-27T16:00:00+00:00

There is not anything or any condition that befalls a Christian in this life but there is a general rule in the Scripture for it, and this rule is quickened by example, because it is a practical knowledge.40

For Cartwright the Bible “contains the direction of…whatsoever things can fall into any part of man’s life.”41

Within such a framework, it is not surprising that the range of issues to which the Puritans applied biblical principles and proof texts is an ever-expanding list. According to William Perkins, the Bible “compre-hendeth many holy sciences,” and when he began to list them, they included “ethics…, economics (a doctrine of governing a family)…, politics (a doctrine of the right administration of a common weal)…, academy (the doctrine of governing schools well).”42 According to another source, the Bible is so broad in its application that all subjects “in schools and universities” can be related to it.43

In thus applying Scripture to all of life, the Puritans did not simplistically expect to find specific rules that they could literally or directly follow. What they found was general principles that could be translated into contemporary situations or applied in general ways to various disciplines of thought. George Gillespie conceded that for many of his beliefs “no express Scripture will prove it,” but he believed that the principle underlying a given belief was a “necessary consequence” of biblical data.44

Ultimately the best index to how the Puritans viewed biblical authority is to observe how they actually applied Scripture. They quoted proof texts and biblical models on virtually every topic—economics, government, family, church, life, sex, nature, education, and many others. Did the Puritans embrace limited or full inerrancy? Their practice, as well as their theory, made Scripture the rule for all of life.

For people who do not share this conviction that the Bible is an infallible authority, the perennial charge has always been “bibliolatry.” The charge is actually frivolous. Everyone claims some authority for his or her beliefs. To hold the Bible as the ultimate authority did not mean that the Puritans worshiped the Bible. Increase Mather wrote, “But though we ought to reverence the blessed Bible above all other books, yet we may not worship it, but the author of it only.”45

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