Serve God. Love God. Pray to God
The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray and for any virtue in me
The wrath of God burns against them in a furnace of fire, rage, and glow.
But if our heartes shall turne away, some that wee will not obey, but shall be seduced, and worshipp and
serve other Gods.
I will follow thee to heaven, if heaven shall permit.
We are a people of prayer, and good works to boot, and abide no such wickedness.
There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name
Come, devil, for I am maddened with despair
Of the wild and dreary road to salvation.
We, natural men, are held in the hand of God over a pit of hell
All of we deserve the fiery pit, and have already been sentenced
But we have little power to help ourselves
Speak the truth. Tell no lies. Do not steal
What’s right and good now shew me Lord, and lead me by they grace and word. Thus shall I be a child of
God, and love and fear thy hand thy wrought before the Lord.
What nature would, God grant to you and yours, the many faults that well you know I have.
Then why we live?
If thy foot shall slide in due time
If thou cast them down in destruction
If nothing keeps wicked men from hell but God
Strive to learn. Do not swear. Mind your book.
Holiness becomes Gods house forever
just as its good for em to draw near unto God.
Upon the wicked, God shall rain an horrible tempest
In the eternal critics hand, beware thou dost not come; and take thy way where yet thou art not known
But we are all sinners in the hands of an angry God.
This poem explores themes of total depravity. As seen in the beginning of each stanza when I use quotes
from the litany. The idea of this is to exaggerate the fact that these values were drilled into the youth and
the people in general, even though the Puritans knew that they were all sinners and that they were going
to hell. This poem connects to my personal life because I feel like everything I do isn’t good enough, like
how the Puritans believed that even if they performed acts of virtue, they couldn’t get into heaven without the help of God. The majority of quotes I used were pulled from the New England Primer. This source provided insight into what the Puritans truly believed about the world around them. It shows there ever going quest of sanctification. Another very different source I pulled quotes from was Anne Bradstreet’s letters to her husband. These letters show how a single individual felt about her life and God. The main idea behind these letters was belief in God and how that benefits the soul.