The Puritans Covenant With God, As Revealed In Narrative Of The Captivity & Restoration Of The Puritans Covenant With God, As Revealed in Narrative of the Captivity & Restoration of Mrs. When one thinks of the Puritans, images are conjured of Pilgrims sharing a Thanksgiving feast with their Indian neighbors. The Puritans settled in New England to exercise their religious freedom to worship God in their own devout (and some believed) overly zealous way. They were going to tame the savage Indian beasts, and all would live happily ever after. At least, thats what the myth would have us believe. However, real life bears little resemblance to its mythical depictions, and the actual relationship between the English colonists and the Indian settlers was always uneasy at best.
When cultures eventually collided in the late seventeenth century, there was inevitable bloodshed. The cornerstone of the Puritan religion is that believers were the chosen people of God, and it is this unique relationship and its resulting covenant which is at the heart of Mary Rowlandsons harrowing 1682 memoir, Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. A divine providence special covenant had been articulated in Governor John Winthrop’s A Model of Christian Charity (Gleason hhr 4-2. htm). The special relationship between Puritans and God was described as, We are entered into Covenant with Him…
we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us (Gleason hhr 4-2. htm). In order to satisfy this covenant, Winthrop believed that Puritans had an obligation to serve as the ideal Christians, exercising unwavering faith, regardless of the traumatic situations which confronted them.
God would provide guidance and protection in return, which would allow these chosen souls triumph ove adversity (Gleason hhr 4-2. htm). Mary Rowlandsons narrative personifies this devotion to God, and while not always understanding Gods plan, the believer is always unquestioning. Mrs. Rowlandsons narrative begins in February of 1675, when a group of Indians, led by King Philip, descended upon Lancaster, Massachusetts, and attacked the English settlers living there, including Pastor Joseph Rowlandson, his wife Mary, and their children. Mary recalled that when her sister was dead and that Mary was wounded, She said, And Lord, let me die with them, which was no sooner said, but she was struck with a bullet, and fell down dead over the threshold.
I hope she is reaping the fruit of her good labors, being faithful to the service of God in her place (299). Mary reasoned that her sisters covenant with God had been satisfactorily fulfilled, so she was now free to join her Creator. Mary didnt blame the Indians for being taken captive. Instead, she regarded it as Gods test of her loyalty. The Puritans may have considered themselves Gods chosen people, but this meant that much was expected of them. When assessing the mass destruction of her home in the aftermath of the Indian attack, she reasoned, Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he has made in the earth (299-300).
As Mary, whose foot had been injured by a bullet, carried her critically wounded child in her lap, she mused, But the Lord renewed my strength still, and carried me along, that I might see more of His power… Oh, I may see the wonderful power of God, that my Spirit did not utterly sink under my affliction: still the Lord upheld me with His gracious and merciful spirit, and we were both alive to see the light of the next morning (301). As long as Mary had her faith, she truly believed that she could overcome any adversity, including the death of her beloved child. After all, it was the preservation of her relationship with God, which was of paramount importance, and took precedence over any and all earthly ties, no matter how intimate. Her Indian captors constantly moved Mary from place to place, and despite her injury and subservient status, she was occasionally given special consideration. Mary attributed this compassion to God, not to the benevolence of the Indians.
According to Mary, By the advantage of some brush which they had laid upon the raft to sit upon, I did not wet my foot (which many of themselves at the other end were mid-leg deep) which cannot but be acknowledged as a favor of God to my weakened body (306). A special relationship with the man upstairs inevitably results in special treatment, which seems to defy conventional explanation. Mary believed God was keeping His ever-watchful eye firmly affixed to her, and would never give her a greater hardship than she could bear. This exclusive relationship the Puritans maintained with God is also evident in Mary Rowlandsons observations about the Indians, and their success in their battles with the English. She wrote, I cannot but take notice of the strange providence of God in preserving the heathen… On that very day came the English army after them to this river, and saw the smoke of their wigwams, and yet this river put a stop to them.
God did not give them courage or activity to go over after us. We were not ready for so great a mercy as victory and deliverance (306). Incredibly, despite being separated from her family, and witnessing the deaths of her sister, child and neighbors, Mary did not believe that she had suffered enough for her sins against God. In her fleeting moments alone, when she could read the Bible one of her charitable captors secured for her, Mary realized that her comfortable old life made her lose sight of her Puritan role as a chosen person to follow in Gods footsteps. She became more influenced by superficiality than by spirituality.
The Indian attack and her subsequent capture was the jolt into reality both Mary and her fellow Puritans needed, as they retraced the journey of the historical Israelites. While nonbelievers may well have perished under similarly harrowing circumstances, Mary Rowlandson, miraculously, persevered. Whenever her situation looked particularly bleak, something would happen which would enable her to overcome. Marys covenant with God became her sustenance. She would find charity in the most unlikely places. As she recalled in her memoir, As I was eating, another Indian said to me, he seems to be your good friend, but he killed two Englishmen at Sudbury, and there lie their clothes behind you: I looked behind me, and there I saw bloody clothes, with bullet-holes in them.
Yet the Lord suffered not this wretch to do me any hurt (321). Marys message is clear: Her Indian attackers were not evil in and of themselves. They were merely messengers of God. When one does not live up to his or her contractual obligations, sooner or later, there is pay-back time.
Mary Rowlandson was spiritually content to bide her time until her God was satisfied that she had paid sufficient penance for her waywardness. Amazingly, although she frequently demonstrated her unflappable allegiance, the God Mary depicted in her narrative was not always the traditional loving father figure. He would inflict hardship on his people if He contended they had significant strayed from His teachings. It was God and His over-ruling hand (324) which was halting the English from defeating the Indians. As Mary observed, It was thought, if their corn were cut down, they would starve and die with hunger, and all their corn that could be found, was destroyed, and they driven from that little they had in store, into the woods in the midst of winter; and yet how to admiration did the Lord preserve them for His holy ends, and the destruction of many still amongst the English! strangely did the Lord provide for them; that I did not see (all the time I was among them) one man, woman, or child, die with hunger… yet by that God strengthened them to be a scourge to His people (324-325).
Mary Rowlandsons faith was eventually rewarded by her release and reunion with her family. The Indians had served their purpose as the devices of punishment for the sinning Puritans. Now, it was time to bring the nightmare to its end. Upon her release, a redeemed Mary had written, Blessed be the Lord… for great is His power, and He can do whatsoever see meth Him good… Now I have seen that scripture also fulfilled…
If any of thine be driven out to the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee… And thine God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee (328). Although this story had a happy ending, at least for Mary Rowlandson and her surviving family members, one must wonder what kind of God the Puritans worshipped, almost fearfully, rather than freely. The emphasis was clearly more on rigid conformity to morality than it was on compassion to humankind. All that was important was that the sinning Puritans were shown the error of their ways; everything else was insignificant. The Indians mattered not; they were a means to an end, not the end itself.
The end, was a happy one, at least for the English who had survived the massacre, for they were spiritually held accountable for their covenant with God. But is being one of Gods chosen people worth the price the Puritans were expected to pay BIBLIOGRAPHY Gleason, Caroline. The Chosen People of God: Mary Rowlandsons Captivity Narrative. (25 Aug.
1997). web (1 Aug. 1999). Rowlandson, Mary. Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.
In Baym, Nina (General Editor). The Norton Anthology of American Literature (Fifth Edition, Volume 1). New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1998, pp.
298-330… Bibliography Gleason, Caroline. The Chosen People of God: Mary Rowlandsons Captivity Narrative. (25 Aug. 1997). web (1 Aug.
1999). Rowlandson, Mary. Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. In Baym, Nina (General Editor). The Norton Anthology of American Literature (Fifth Edition, Volume 1).
New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1998, pp. 298-330… 3 b 9.