Could you elaborate on what happened to the Puritan's children? Do you mean they forsook the teachings of their parents? If so, what is your opinion about why this happened?
the Puritan churches were largely replaced with more liberal Enlightenment-inspired ones. The once Puritan Presbyterian colony towns quickly became bastions of Unitarian/Universalism. The children and grandchildren of the Puritans sought to distance themselves from the strict discipline of their parents, which was also associated with witch trials and Pharisaical rules and regulations designed with all good intentions but implemented as "the letter that kills" rather than as the liberating aids to Spirit-led obedience that they were meant to be.
We are all tempted sometimes
to make a law out of something wonderful that has enriched us or edified us or enabled us to attain new heights of worship or holiness or passion for God. I've been guilty of this more than once! When I first came into the Charismatic experience, for example, I couldn't imagine how I had managed without it, and
insisted, with obnoxious persistence I might add, that all my Christian friends should know what I knew and worship as I did, because I knew they'd never be the same again.
I was guilty of it again when I came
out of "Charismania," and again when I embraced the doctrines of grace. And again when I experienced worship that was, for me, the loftiest and highest and most heavenly I had ever known; far more intimate than even the most ardent signs-and-wonders-filled Charismatic worship had been: Simple unaccompanied psalm singing. It was so pure and so glorious that everybody just had to be told, "this is the way to worship; nothing else can compare, anything else is less pure; anything else is false."
Every time I made a law out of a wonderful spiritual discovery or experience or teaching, I took it too far. My gaze fell from Christ to the trappings of worship or theology or evangelism or discipleship, and I tended to impose them others as laws. It is a weakness I must always remain on guard against.
I would speculate that the Puritan's noble quest for purity became twisted into that law-keeping model that I myself am so vulnerable to. And their progeny rejected Puritanism as fetters rather than using their teachings and writings as tools to greater holiness and deeper, more joyful communion with Christ and His people.
R
