Thanksgiving

Puritan Sabbath Strictness and the Theology of Providence

Cotton Mather, quote, It hath been truly and justly observed that our whole religion fares according to our sabbaths, that poor sabbaths make poor Christians, and that a strictness in our sabbaths inspires a vigor into all our other duties.

These contrasted days in which Fast recognized the displeasure of God in thanksgivings as benevolence toward his covenanted people were modeled on Old Testament parallels and express a profound sense of divine providence.

The interpretation of providence, as we shall see, could be exceedingly ambiguous. It could also change quite rapidly. In one celebrated case, a congregation prepared for a day of humiliation, that is a fast day, gathered for a day of thanksgiving instead.

It appears that the Reverend John Wilson, renowned teacher of the Boston Church, had returned to England to bring back his wife, but when the return was delayed, according to Edward Johnson in 1633, the disappointed congregation was to meet for a day of humiliation,.

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In 1638, similar transformation of an intended fast into an occasion of thanksgiving had taken place. In that autumn, the newly arrived colonists lived in ramshackle huts, and many of them were sick. They had not had the time to plant seeds so late in the year.

Governor Winthrop, expecting an acute shortage of food, had arranged for Captain William Pierce to sail to the nearest Irish port for provisions. The captain was delayed by towing a dismastered ship at sea to her home port of Bristol, so desperate was the state of the colonists in winter that their fare was only acorns, groundnuts, mussels, and clams.

In this situation, a day of fasting and prayer was appointed, probably for February 5th, 1630. But the arrival a few days before of Lyon, with its cargo of wheat, meal, peas, oatmeal, beef, and pork with lemon juice for curing scurvy, caused the governor and council to order a day of thanksgiving on February 22nd.

These two incidents make it plain that the scowl of God's judgment was seen in threatening events, and the smile of his approval in benevolent occasions. Days of humiliation in which penitent Puritans sought God's forgiveness were occasioned by severe droughts, seriously depleted harvest, incursions of destructive insects, the spread of diseases, losses at sea, the presence of prodigies, that is, children going astray away from the faith, and defeats in warfare.

Those were all group calamities. But Puritans also regarded individual illness, fire or storms, damage to homes, and deaths in the family as divine judgments calling for private days of humiliation. Whatever the secondary causes of events might be, these were traced back to their initiator and controller, Almighty God.

These abstractions will become concrete only by illustration. Many days of humiliation were called for in New England during the ill fortune of the roundheads in the English Civil War. Droughts were the commonest cause of fast in Massachusetts, as on June 13, 1639, July 3, 1644, June 5, 1662, and June 21, 1662.

The blasting of the wheat crop required fast days in Massachusetts on September 1, 1664, and in Connecticut on May 29, 1668. Caterpillars destroyed the corn in the summer of 1646, causing the church to keep a day of humiliation in the Bay Colony, and a fast day on June 22, 1665 was called because of the canker worms that were ravaging the apple trees.

Many threatening diseases called for days of humiliation, or also for days of thanksgiving if averted, especially between 1644 and 1649, and also between 1658 and 1666. Comets seen on the deaths of leaders such as John Cotton or Governor Endicott called for fast.

A surfeit, that is excess, of such experiences, culminating in the drought of 1662, led Michael Wigglesworth to write a jeremiad in verse, the melancholy God's Controversy with New England. Its conclusion is orthodoxly Puritan.

The clouds are often gathered, as if we should have rain, before our great unworthiness are scattered again. We pray and fast and make fair shows, as if we meant to turn. But whilst we turn not, God goes on, our field and fruits to burn.".

The numerous fast days called by the General Court of Massachusetts from 1632 to 1686 are also significant and they have been analyzed by Richard P. Gildrey according to their major themes. In these 55 years, 29 fast days were held because of troubles in the order of nature comprising threats to harvest, disease, losses at sea, and others.

By contrast, over the same half century, 58 fast days were held because of troubles in the social order comprising heresy, contention, death, or lack of leaders, neglect of public or family order, the younger generation, threats from England or other nations, and weighty occasions.

Other troubles in Christendom accounted for 40 fast days comprising difficulties in England, Europe, and the New World. Finally, sins, both unspecified and private, the latter including vanity, luxury, oppression, uncleanliness, drunkenness, pride, and sensuality, required 23 fast days and another 22 fast days were held for unspecified purposes and unspecified troubles.

Altogether in these 55 years, 172 fast days were held, a fast day occurring approximately once every four months. It should also be observed that fast days were called for far more frequently when the political horizon was darkened just after the Restoration and when New England's liberties and privileges were reduced and when the Jeremiads required the renewal of church covenants.

Thus from 1660 to 1668, there were 47 fast days and 40 between 1678 and 1686. As for more personal providences, these can be discovered in the diaries of Judge Samuel Seawall and of Dr. Cotton Mather and in the autobiography of the Reverend Thomas Shepherd of Cambridge.

The latter shows the divine hand as manifested mainly in unexpected deliverances from life-threatening dangers, including saving the rider even when the horse falls on a flooded bridge or when the ship driven by a fierce gale seems certain to founder, but God averts the apparently inevitable wreck.

Seawall's diary entry for July 15, 1685 reads, quote, One Humphrey Tiffany and Frances Lowe, daughter of Anthony Lowe, are slain with a lightning and thunder about a mile or half a mile beyond Billings Farm, the horse also slain, they that rode on, and another horse in company slain, and his rider who held the garment on the maid to steady it at the time of the stroke, a coat or cloak, stounded but not killed, were coming to Boston.

Anthony Lowe was being in town. The sad bill was put up with regard to that solemn judgment of God, fast day forenoon, unquote. Dr. Cotton Mather found it necessary to discipline himself spiritually by a private day of humiliation and fasting from time to time.

On one such occasion, which proved to be a deep psychological self-examination, he made a recapitulation of the humbling things that had befallen me, and I confessed and bewailed the special miscarriages by which I had rendered myself most worthy to be humbled with such dispensations of heaven, unquote.

In the earliest days of New England, the minister or elder of a church could call for a stated day of fasting or thanksgiving by giving the reasons for it. This would then be sustained by the votes of the church members and then enacted.

As churches increased in number, it became customary for groups of ministers to prepare a proclamation and present it before the general court or the governor and the council for ratification. Secular authorities, so the theory went, acted at the desire of the churches.

Thus the fast day's character of holiness was legally sanctioned and attendance at its services of worship was compulsory throughout New England. Further, an individual might put up a bill for a prayer of confession or thanksgiving, which the minister would include in his petitionary prayer in the Sabbath service.

Thus divine providence ruled the private as well as the public life of the Puritans. It was important to know how to prepare for such fast days. The Westminster Directory for Public Worship was specific in its recommendations.

These included that each family was required to prepare their hearts to arrive early at the congregation and to be dressed in simple, unostentatious garments without ornaments. The major part of such a day was to be spent in listening to the preaching of the word, in the singing of psalms, and particularly in prayer.

The purpose of the day was to afflict the soul, with the minister instructed to engage the hearts of the people to be the Lord's with the determined resolution to reform whatever was amiss with them. The most important sermon ever delivered in New England on the meaning of a fast was preached in 1674, printed in 1678, and strongly recommended in Cotton Mather's Magnilia Christi Americana.

It was Thomas Thatcher's A Fast of God's Choosing, Plainly Opened. Increase. Mather gave it his blessings in a preface, Thatcher defined a fast as, an extraordinary part or act of gospel worship, wherein for a convenient season we abstain from the comforts of this life, and upon due examination of our ways towards God and consideration of God's ways toward us, we make a solemn and real profession that we justify God and judge ourselves.

God is justified for the evil of the affliction that is either felt or feared, godly repentance and sorrow is expressed for the sin, God's forgiveness is sought, and lastly the people, quote, bind ourselves to reform the evil of our ways and to walk before God in new obedience according to his word for the time to come, unquote.

Thatcher lists the special occasions when public fasts are appropriately kept. These include public danger, when a notable but hazardous duty must be undertaken, in time of great sickness, when a notable blessing is lacking or a great transgression has been committed, and when a calamity threatens.

In each case Thatcher gives an Old Testament example of a fast as his authority. Thatcher insists that proper preparation includes an examination of our ways and the ways of God as well as genuine confession, sincere contrition, asking God's forgiveness, and forgiving all others who have wronged us.

Finally and significantly he adds that the people of God bind themselves to reform what is wrong, an act that is an implicit making and renewing of covenant with God. It's interesting to compare another sermon on the same text, Isaiah 58 verse 5, with a similar title, The Fast Which God Hath Chosen, which Benjamin Coleman preached in Boston 60 years later on March 21st, 1734.

The phrasing is more elegant and the ethical requirements are more stringent. The elegance is seen in such an approach as, quote, we are we are indigenous beggars at the gate of heaven and there we lay in our sores as well as rags unworthy of a crumb but supplicants for the riches of grace, bounty and mercy, unquote.

The ethical emphasis is seen in the charity with which we feed the poor and respect our neighbor whom we are to love as ourselves. It's worth recalling that at every public fast there was a collection for the needy.

Coleman's conclusion sums up the whole intention of a public fast, quote, but if God see us more sincere and fervent in secret worship, more careful in Sabbath sanctification, more just and righteous in our dealings, more kind and good, charitable and merciful, more sober, chaste and temperate, and all from true humiliation for sin and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, then he will accept our persons and prayers and make good all the great and precious promises in our context to his repenting and reformed people, unquote.

Thanksgiving Days as Signs of Divine Favor

Equally interpreted in the light of the divine providence, Thanksgiving days were more cheerful occasions than fast or days of humiliation. The chief occasion for New England Thanksgivings were three, harvest saved in the early years of the settlements, the arrival of ships when famine was predicted, or the arrival of friends.

Thanksgiving days for the first cause were held in Massachusetts on November 11, 1631, June 13, 1632, September 27, 1632, June 19, 1633, and August 20, 1634. The first Thanksgiving day in New England was held in the fall of 1621 as recorded in William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation, although the exact day is not listed.

It was in gratitude for the very first harvest of the pilgrims. It was an extended celebration lasting three days. However, the first generally celebrated day of Thanksgiving in New England was held in 1637 on October 12.

This celebrated the victory of the colonial soldiers over the Pequot Indians. Thanksgiving days were celebrated for wider as well as for narrower concerns. For example, the colonists celebrated the victories of Gustavus Adolphus, whose Protestant armies were advancing southward against the Catholic forces of Europe in the Thirty Years' War.

As Love reports, quote, the King of Sweden and the Emperor of Austria played unwittingly the parts of David and Saul in the dramatic language of their supplications, unquote. These were a parallel to New Haven's system of monthly fasts, which the Connecticut colony adopted beginning on January 10, 1643, which meant the popular demand for linking the Puritans with their opposite numbers fighting in the parliamentary forces in England against the Cavaliers.

Cotton Mather reported a general day of Thanksgiving on January 24, 1705 in the following words, there was a day of Thanksgiving celebrated through the providence for the smile of heaven on the arms of the allies against France in the year past, unquote.

For the acknowledgement of mercies in the natural order, 20 days were called for improved harvest and better health. 31 days were required to express gratitude for blessings of the social order, which included peace and unity, civil and sacred liberties, good leaders, victory in war, peace with others, and improved relations with England.

On five occasions there were Thanksgiving days for the well-being of England and for peace in Europe. Finally, there were five days when the mercies were unspecified. Thus, altogether there were 61 days of Thanksgiving in 55 years, or approximately one in every year.

It is significant that in periods of acute political difficulty, restoration of the monarchy, for example, in England, and the loss of privileges of the Puritans, Thanksgiving days were held far more frequently.

For example, there were 16 such days between 1660 and 1668, and 14 such days between 1669 and 1677, which argues that the New England Puritans were grateful that matters were not as bad as they had feared.

Narrower concerns were also expressed in wholly personal and private days of Thanksgiving. For example, Seawall noted a particular providence in the fact that he found a lost horse and saddle. If this seems rather trivial to modern eyes, what is one to think of Cotton Mather recording his gratitude to God for his having parted with one watch only to receive a superior one in return?

His account shows how he saw God as in charge of all things large and small. Quote, I was the owner of a watch whereof I was very fond, for the variety of motions in it. My father was desirous of this watch, and I in a manner gave it him.

With such thoughts, I owe him a great deal more than this, and the observation of the fifth commandment never wants a recompense. Quickly after this there came to me a gentle woman from whom I had no reason to expect so much as a visit, but in her visit she to my surprise prayed me to accept as a present from her a watch which was indeed preferable unto that which I had before parted with.

Unquote. Thanksgiving required them to see God is in control of all the good that came upon them. So, for example, Cotton Mather, as his diary indicates, quote, to be diligent in observing and recording of illustrious providences.

Unquote. Yet had to confess on 14th of May 1683, quote, I am exceedingly defective in recording particular providences that appear in the conduct of my life, but indeed I am so shallow that I cannot easily avoid the fault of being either negligent on one side or superstitious on the other.

Unquote. In 1684, Increase Mather wrote a book, Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providences. Cotton Mather in the Magnolia Christi Americana gave examples of remarkable providences of which one example may be given.

Quote, an honest carpenter being at work upon a house where eight children were sitting in a ring at some childish play on the floor below, he let fall accidentally from an upper story a bulky piece of timber just over these little children.

The good man with inexpressible agony cried out, Oh Lord, direct it. And the Lord did so direct it that it fell out on end in the midst of the little children and then canted along on the floor between two of the children without even touching one of them all.

Unquote. Thanksgiving is one of our most authentically Christian holidays. The Puritans were a group of zealous, committed Christians who sought to make the church what the Bible said it should be, and they gave us Thanksgivings.

Pilgrim Thanksgiving, Human Providence, and the Meaning of Gratitude

The first group of Puritans, a group of nonconformists we now call pilgrims, landed on Cape Cod in the fall of the year 1620. They came ashore in the area of Native Americans that had just recently been wiped out by disease, which meant for these newly arrived pioneers that there were cultivated fields and cleared land just sitting there ready for them to move into.

They, of course, saw the hand of God in that. Of the few remaining natives was a man named Squanto. Squanto had earlier been picked up by English explorers and taken to England. He finally made it back to Plymouth just before the pilgrims arrived, so he helped them learn how to grow native crops and better survive in the harsh North American environment.

They would see the provision of God in that too. Despite all of Squanto's help, the first year was very difficult and many of them died of diseases, but when they had survived and felt that they were established, they thought that that was an occasion to thank God for sustaining them.

That was their great celebration, their holiday and holy day. It wasn't, as many people today imagine, that after a great feast they said, this was fun, let's do it again next year, and so a tradition was born.

No, they had Thanksgiving as an expression of what they believed. They believed that there were basically three special days during the year. It may seem odd to us, but they didn't celebrate Christmas or Easter, but they kept the weekly Sabbath, meeting for worship on the first day of the week, and then fast days and Thanksgiving days, but neither were set on set days in the calendar.

They were dynamic and spontaneous. If events showed that God was displeased with them, they would call a day of fasting humiliation. If there were droughts or shipwrecks or severe Indian attacks, they saw those events as whips in God's hands to discipline them.

They believed all these things were under the control of God, that nothing was outside of his control, and so they would call a day for repentance. They would also call a fast day for trouble in the church or society if heresies rose or contention and divisions in the church or there was a neglect of family order and worship or immorality broke out among the youth.

They knew that God was afflicting them by allowing these things and would afflict them more if they didn't turn from them, so they would call a special day, a day of humiliation. Each family was supposed to prepare their hearts to arrive early at church, to dress simply, then they would spend the day listening to preaching, singing psalms, and particularly in prayer.

The purpose was to afflict the soul, say, woe is me and seek God's mercy. To be truly thankful, to be able to have true days of thanksgiving, we need days of repentance and self-affliction. We need some dark nights of the soul to taste the bitter before we can appreciate the sweet.

Desperately seeking the God we know we have offended and who we know is in control of all the adversities that have come upon us. The Puritans called about three times as many fasting days as they did Thanksgiving days, three times because they were aware of their sinfulness.

They took God's judgment seriously. It says a lot about us and our culture, doesn't it? That we have neglected the fasting day and only kept the feasting day, but I'm glad at least we've kept that one holiday.

Thanksgiving is such a genuinely Christian holiday because it recognizes that God is indeed control of it all and that, too, is something we need in order to be truly thankful. After all, if good things we've received depends upon luck or happenstance, good fortune just randomly striking us, if the forces that have brought us all the things we need and enjoy are just impersonal and out of control, oh, we might be overflowing with good things, all that we could wish for, but there's no one behind them providing them for us.

Then there's no one to be thankful to. We could be happy we got lucky, but it would no more make sense being thankful, if that's the way the universe is, than it would be to sincerely thank the government if you happen to win the lottery.

The government didn't intend on bestowing the lottery winnings on you. You just got lucky and the government signs the check that luck says you should have, or as many people believe, their good things came about because they were hardworking and smart.

They studied in school. They made the breaks happen. Maybe they were even insightful enough to pick the right lottery numbers, although if they were really smart, they'd know better than to waste their money on the lottery.

Every good thing they have, they believe, is a result simply of their working hard and working smart, so there's no need to be thankful or humble. I wonder if such people visited a place like Ethiopia and got to know the people and realized that in so many places, you could be as hardworking or smart as the best American entrepreneur, but still, there, you just will have so few opportunities to do well.

People who think they're self-made really just don't see how much went into making them, but thankfulness comes when we really believe that there is a God who is at work. Yes, so many bad things strike.

We accept the discipline from his hand, like Job began to do. Shall I accept good from the Lord and not adversity, in Job chapter 2, and use the occasion to search our hearts? And when we look at all the good we've received, perhaps a loving spouse, good children, a home, rewarding work, food and drink, churches where others, too, are thankful, a country where we're free to attend and support those churches, that it wasn't just luck.

It wasn't because we worked hard and smart. It was because a gracious God placed us where we are for such a time as this. You see, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to be thankful to the little God some people today call God.

Today, well-meaning but badly taught Christians see the world is largely out of God's control. That God loves us, which means he feels sympathetic about us. He's cheering for us, hoping we make the right decisions, and that things turn out okay for us.

God is a supplier of good feelings. He might be able to do things for us in the next life, but it seems there's not much God can do about life in this world. Nature, both human nature and the forces of nature, are out of his control.

There is very little understanding of the doctrine that made the Puritans so thankful, that made them so thankful that they founded a holiday all about expressing that thankfulness. That doctrine, in distinction to the ignorance of luck and the arrogance of the self-made, is called providence.

Providence means that a holy God perfectly rules all our affairs, and if he sees fit to give us life and food and clothing, it's not because we deserved it, but because he's chosen to be good to us. As a, quote, red Puritan, P .U., an Indian convert to Christianity, said in 1671, now we have food and clothes more than we were wont to have before we prayed to God, and we have contented ourselves therewith and have bent our minds more to look after heavenly riches.

On one of those early Puritan thanksgiving days, he prayed, quote, we do give humble thanks unto thy holy name, O Lord our God, for our life, health, food, raiments, and for the present food whereby we are refreshed.

We thank thee, O Lord, for the love we find among our friends and of our freedom and good discourse for the good of our souls. We do pray for a blessing upon both, that our food may strengthen our bodies and our discourse may do good to our souls.

Help me so to declare thy word and thy works, that I may win their souls to love thee and to forsake their sins and to turn unto the Lord by true repentance. These and all other mercies we pray for in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.