The...Puritan was such as one that honored God above all... His first care was to serve God, and therein he did not what was good in his own, but in God's sight, making the word of God the rule of his worship"(Geree).

Such was to be the mentality of every devout Puritan man and woman in this New World called America. However, the hardships of life in this new land were trying enough to tax even the most pure of heart, and consequently often lead many a faithful believer to wrestle with the sincerity of his personal faith. This was the case for wife, mother, and poet Anne Bradstreet. Born and raised in a fairly affluent English Puritan family, Bradstreet was able to spend the first part of her life learning what in meant to be a true Puritan. However, after her voyage to the New World, Bradstreet soon learned that reading about Puritanism and living it out were not quite the same. Each day in the midst of her chores, children, and other duties she was forced to explore the true depths of her own faith. Particularly, in times of calamity Bradstreet provides us with the lyrical evidence to assess the conflict and tension within her mind. One event in particular, a poem entitled "Here Follows Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House July 10th 1666" provides us with the opportunity to examine the tension between faith and doubt faced by Puritans such as Anne Bradstreet.

In examining the tension between faith and doubt it is important to first have an understanding of the history and components of the Puritan faith. It is these components that lie at the very heart and soul of every Puritan, including Anne Bradstreet, and that will provide the background necessary to gain an appreciation for the origin of the mental struggles every Puritan had to endure.

With their roots extending back to the Protestant Reformation of 16th century Europe, the Puritans adopted John Calvin's creed and his reinterpretation of the Pauline theology in the Bible (Gaer and Siegel 14). This new doctrine, named Calvinism, proposed several tenants of Christianity that would soon become the pillars of the Puritan faith. These tenants included total depravity, limited atonement, unconditional election, irresistible grace and the perseverance of the saints (Wu). Rejecting the Episcopal hierarchy and ritual vestments of the Church of England, the Puritans saw themselves as Gods chosen people, divinely ordained to set right the many wrongs the Church had been corrupted with.

"His own life he accounted [as] a warfare, wherein Christ was his captain, his arms, prayers, and tears. The Cross his banner, and his word, Vincit qui paptiur" (Geree).

However, this attitude was to sentence them to an angry backlash of hostility and persecution by the ruling monarchy, and ultimately drive them to set their sails for a New Canaan called America.

In was in this new land that their battle against the wiles of Satan was to take on the ultimate endurance test. Here they would be tempted by material riches, tortured by the weather, and live within deadly bow of the red man. Would they be able to prevail against such insurmountable obstacles? With only their Bibles and a rigid faith, many a devout Puritan was forced to asked himself if he could purge the tension felt between staunch faith and lingering doubt, and endeavor to help build Gods' City On a Hill for all the world to see (Berryman 4).

Perhaps no where is the tension between faith and doubt more evident in the life of the Puritan than as revealed in Bradstreet's poem "...Upon The Burning of Our House..." As its names implies, Bradstreet wrote this poem following the tragic fire that consumed her home and most of the material possessions within it while she was living in the New England colonies. Written in the neoclassical style and making use of the heroic couplet iambic meter, the poem gives clear evidence of the affection Bradstreet had for the earthly possessions she has connected so many of her precious memories to. However, as Bradstreet well knows, the quest of every good Puritan must be to rise above the bounds of emotion and sentiment for earthly goods and instead aspire to accept what the good Lord God has ordained to be, whether it be good or bad.

As the poem opens, Bradstreet is wakened in the middle of the night by that most dreadful of cries, "Fire!". It is this initial fear that brings out the sincere faith that she has within her. Upon the instant of being awakened one can see the automatic profession of faith Bradstreet makes as she cries to God to "strengthen me in my distress/ And not to leave me succorless (empty or naked)". This type of behavior would have been protocol for any good standing Puritan in that it was in the moment of calamity they were fully expected to call upon the peace of the Lord, thus demonstrating their unwavering faith while they walked through the valley of the shadow of death.

A little further into the poem Bradstreet once again confirms her faith in God. By this time she is out of the jaws of death, so to speak, but, can now see that the fire is devouring her homestead much as Satan seeks to devour Gods chosen people, the Puritans. As she looks upon the carnage of what once use to be her intricate dwelling place and the very vehicle of the family history (Breitweiser 126), Bradstreet makes a second profession of faith, this time in a semi-public manner. Here she blesses the Lord God, giver and taker of all things, including her once cherished home. For the Puritans, life in this New Canaan was always on the fringes of disaster. But, they firmly believed that whatever happened was either Gods way of chastising them for some sin, or perhaps humbling them for even greater servitude. Whatever the case, a righteous Puritan knew that "all things work together for good to them that love God"(Rom. 8.28), as Bradstreet clearly demonstrates in this case.

Yet, even upon the profession of faith just demonstrated by Bradstreet, the flawed carnal nature of the fleshly body begins to arise. As Bradstreet takes a hand full of the ash and dust of her now burned home, her mind is left to deal with the apparent gaps that blind faith has left behind. In order to make sense out of such a tragedy she must now turn to her own flawed human rationalization. And to the Puritans this represented the path that lead to doubt. "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding"(Prov. 3.5). Bradstreet acknowledges that indeed the house and all of its possessions (as well as she herself) do in fact belong to God, and, that she should chastise herself for even thinking of repining. She knows, just like every other good standing Puritan, that the Lord God loves her and in fact expresses it as she rationalizes that the Lord left what was "sufficient" enough to meet their needs. For Bradstreet, this point in the poem represents a desperate spiritual outcry. She simply cannot dismiss what has happened with a charismatic "Praise the Lord", and yet, she knows that her now charred possessions should no longer hold any value for her as a devout believer of the Puritan faith. The tension inside her is building up, and it is at this critical point that vanity rears its ugly head and points the way towards the domain of doubt.

As the tension between faith and doubts heats up, human rationalization comes face to face with the unbridled tenants of human emotion. Although Bradstreet surely hoped that the faculties of her mind would be enough to dissuade her of any repine, the limits of justification in her flawed human rationalization are quickly surpassed. All the apparent rationalization of even the most devout Puritan cannot explain the pain and anguish seen through the eyes of Bradstreet as she "spies" the corners and places of her beloved home. The temporal impulse to cleave to the things of this world wells up within Bradstreet until she can no longer contain herself. What was once unwavering faith is eclipsed by the sinfulness of doubt. It is at this point that Bradstreet begins a very dangerous trip down the path of sinners and hypocrites and risks jeopardizing her position as one of Gods Elect saints.

Her rationalization defeated, Bradstreet now reaches out and embraces that which she has lost. Beginning with simple household furniture, perhaps the reward of a hard years labor, and then rapidly descending down to such vanities as "pleasant" things. Here Bradstreet's mind runs counter to everything she knows and believes in as a Puritan. She has let her emotions take hold of her to the point of pining for want of personal treasures. It is at this point that the rigid, fixed faith of the Puritan melts away into the "warped organism" descended from Adam (Watkins 5).

As her journey into the dark and savage world of doubt continues, Bradstreet turns her sorrows to the things that people, presumably family and close friends, shall never be able to do under the roof of her now ill-fated home. Once again Bradstreet makes another dangerous departure from the virtues of the pure and true Puritan as she concerns herself more with the lost of "pleasant tales" and the inability to entertain guest. Such things of leisure would have been done by the devout Puritan also, but, never would be feigned over in this kind of way. The fact that Bradstreet literally mourns the lost of such extravagances in life is not at all in keeping with the true spirit of the Puritan and seems to reveal the mentality of one whose faith in Gods protection has been virtually shattered.

Finally, Bradstreet reaches the very pit of despair in her unorthodox journey down the path of doubt. Having cried her heart out for the earthly goods and treasures she has just lost, she is left with but one choice that will offer redemption and begin to rejuvenate her faith and trust as one of Gods Elect children. She must forsake all that she has lost and count it as a sin within herself to have grieved at the loss of her house (Waggoner 15). In essence, this means that she must turn her back on all that she treasured in this earthly home.

Dismissing these things as the vanity, she turns her heart away from the memory laden furniture and the ashes of pleasant things now gone, away from the tender and heart-warming stories of family and friends and the titillating excitement and drama of hosting a new guest. Bradstreet must now turn her whole heart, mind and soul away from this temporal impulse that has so entangled and ensnared her. Perhaps Dr. J.I. Packer stated it best when he said:

For the Puritans, true Christianity consisted in knowing, feeling, and obeying the truth; and knowledge without obedience, feeling without acting, or feeling and acting without knowledge were all condemned as false religion and ruinous to men's souls"(Packer).

In order for Bradstreet to return to this state of "true Christianity" she must implore the use of her flawed human skills of rationalization to rescue her from the darkness of doubt and bring her back into the glorious light of the true Puritan faith.

In imploring this rationalization Bradstreet is careful not to make the same mistake that lead down that dark path before. She begins by commanding herself to end her frivolous babble over the lost of but a few unimportant earthly trinkets. She reminds herself that the materials of this world are in fact just that, of this world. All her pathetic wailing's were for "mold'ring dust," the evidence of a fleshly and carnal heart. For the devout Puritan, the focus of ones attention must always be for the purpose of bringing glory to the God the Father. All other things must be second. Whether they be dearly beloved artifacts or dearly beloved friends, nothing or no one can possibly compare. By using this line of logic Bradstreet is able to shine a veritable beacon of light into her dark and sullen mentality.

In the next lines Bradstreet takes her flawed human rationalization to the next level in an exultant and triumphant manner, "Raise up thy thoughts above the sky." She further reminds her human nature that the charred heap of rumble that use to be her home was but a temporary earthly shelter. In agreement with the Puritan faith she acknowledges the heavenly manor that awaits her. In this, Bradstreet has almost rationalized herself back to her former state of faith. She has but to profess one more contrast in order to set herself on the straight and narrow path that leads to righteousness, which she is able to accomplish in the next section.

The importance of the contrast between the temporal impulses of the carnal flesh and righteous longings of the divine soul should in no way be underestimated or taken lightly. For Bradstreet, as well as any other good and faithful Puritan, the ability to make this clear and compelling contrast would mark an important milestone in keeping one's faith. Although short and simple in wording, the contrast illustrated in line 46 of the poem represents the ultimate achievement of an imperfect human rationalization. It allows one to pass beyond the blackness of despair at the lost of material objects, beyond the isolation brought about by the loss of familiar meeting rooms and ultimately into a state of pure adoration and praise for the Almighty. With these few words Bradstreet is now transcended from a world of consuming doubt and into a universe of opulent praise. In these words she dismisses all the possessions of this earthly world in exchange for treasures of an eternal heaven. Now Bradstreet no longer need question or doubt what the Lord hath wrought unto her, but instead, embraces this sign and uses it to release the souls fervent praise for the Lord God Almighty. The tension is coming to an end and the mind, body and soul can finally be joined together, united and strengthened in the bonds of the Puritan faith.

With her last few lines of the poem Bradstreet embodies the quintessential elements of the Puritan faith. She becomes keenly aware of where her real treasure is and knows that it will be more than she could ever have amassed in a thousand lifetimes on this world, even if there had been no fire. With one last gesture of emotional praise she bids farewell to trinkets and pelf which had shackled her to this world and greets the glorious treasure and love that only her God can provide. It should be pointed out that this last good-bye does not give the hint of doubt creeping into an unwary soul, but, in effect, declares the freedom she now has from the materialistic bonds of this world. It is at this point that we become aware that Bradstreet's enduring faith has withstood this trial for yet another day and has prevailed victoriously.

Throughout this paper one can see evidence of the tension between faith and doubt in the depths of the Puritan mind. Even in devout and upstanding Puritans like Anne Bradstreet, life was a daily battle to control the surging powers of her emotions and doubts, especially in times of calamity. This same tension which is derived from the most carnal desires of the human flesh, springs up like a weed in the otherwise fertile and contemplative mind of the true Puritan. When forced to acknowledge its presence, this leads one to use his flawed powers of rationalization, much as Bradstreet did in order to make order and sense out of what seemed like a random and chaotic lost. Once this process begins it becomes entirely too possible for human emotions to over power the restraints of the Puritan mind and adversely affect mood and behavior. This then leads to a display of emotions and feelings that would be considered an abomination to the most sacred principles of the Puritan faith. However, this path need not remain hopeless to resolve. By chastising oneself and exercising the most diligent of emotional restraint, the same flawed human reasoning and intellect may be used to ascend a moral ladder to purity and righteousness. Bradstreet demonstrates in the last parts of her poems as she becomes keenly aware of just who holds her life in the palm of His hands. With each passing line Bradstreet realizes her gross error in holding on to the materialistic things of this world. Acknowledging her faults she is able to bring herself back to the point where she can bid farewell to all that was vanity and once again rejoice and praise the Lord her God for her rekindled faith. At last, the tension has ended and faith has conquered the battle for this day. The chains of material possessions have been broken once more and Bradstreet can indeed proclaim that her "Faith is the victory that has overcome [her] world"(1 John 5.4).

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Gaer, Joseph and Ben Siegel. The Puritan Heritage: America's Roots in the Bible, New York: The New American Library, 1964.

Geree, John. "The Character of an Old English Puritan or Non-Conformist."
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The Holy Bible. King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1994.

Packer, J.I. "The Practical Writings of the English Puritans. " Annual Lecture of the Evangelical Library. 1951.

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Watkins, Owen C. The Puritan Experience: Studies in Spiritual Autobiography. New York: Schocken Books, 1972.

Wu, Kitty. "The Colonial Period: The New England Way." English 316 - American Literature (1620-1865). Bowie State University, Bowie. 5 Sept. 1997.