The Puritans and Franklin had very different items of take on God and human mother nature and the interaction between your two. As the Puritans observed God as an existent creator who was enthusiastic about all human being affairs and doings, the deist Franklin got the same perceptions of a standard creator but didn't think He was concerned or thinking about the affairs of men. The puritans got their total opinion in one God- Providence, who gave them salvation. In addition they noticed they owed it a obligation to praise and worship Him and in return, He either blessed or punished them matching with their deeds whether good or bad. Deists on the other hand, such as Franklin, didn't see the originator as a Christian God. They revered Him but presumed that He just created the world and let it be which He had nothing to do with individuals deeds or punishment. To them, Jesus was seen as a sensible man. Puritans assumed in predestination by God and lifetime of afterlife while Deists presumed in freewill given to all mankind on the planet no afterlife. Quite simply, the puritans saw God as the guts with their lives and this everything they did or stood for was centered on Him while the deist Franklin saw God as a creator who was not mixed up in lives of mankind but rather, virtues and moral excellence shaped the action and future of man.
Puritans were a group of Protestants who assumed in predestination, justification and providence. They thought in one Supreme Being-God, who from creation possessed predestined humans to salvation or doom. "But all effort is eventually futile if it does not result from the sophistication that God offers to those He wishes to save lots of and to no person else" (Wigglesworth, 2). Predestination inferred that God had set aside specific people who He wanted to save. Hence, if the "chosen ones" do wrong or right, they were guaranteed heaven. Alternatively, those people who have not been predestined unto salvation cannot rescue themselves out of this cataclysmic doom. Instead, they might have to resign to fate. Puritans believed a whole lot in predestination to the degree that they said even infants who was not predestined unto salvation would get the "easiest room in hell" (Wigglesworth, 4). They saw nothing unfair relating to this doctrine or perception. Franklin on the other side didn't even assume that God managed the affairs of men on earth. He said that there is an "all wise, all wise-powerful and everything good God" who created the heavens and the earth. "If He's all powerful, there can be nothing at all either existing or behaving in the universe against or without His consent and what He consents to must be good because He's good, therefore bad doth not exist" (Franklin, 26). By this, Franklin buttresses his point that absolutely and undisputedly, there's a God who is the inventor but He will not interfere in the affairs of men or their final future. This deist belief contradicts the thought of predestination that the puritans have confidence in.
Even though Franklin was a 19 year-old when he wrote his pamphlet on "A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain", it can be inferred that he was convinced in what he was discussing with no iota of hesitation. Despite the fact that he was raised as a strict Calvinist, he matured with an extent where he weighed puritanism and deism and decided to select for deism. To him, deism proved to be more truthful and sensible. Franklin wrote in his pamphlet about the freewill given to mankind by the creator. "When there is no such thing as freewill in creatures, there may be neither merit nor demerit in creatures" (Franklin 27). What this looks for to do is to further refute the puritan case of predestination. By this Franklin was hoping to convey that there was nothing beats being predestined unto salvation or doom, but instead, humans were at liberty and had been given freewill on earth "and therefore, every creature must be evenly esteemed by the creator" (Franklin, 27).
Furthermore, with regards to the puritan point of view about the discussion between God and individual nature, Puritans assumed that God was thinking about all the affairs of men on earth even politically "the covenant between God and man, in the moral legislations and the politic covenants" (Winthrop, 1). In addition they thought that he was responsible for all the circumstances whether good or bad that befell them. A good example of this is seen in the storyplot of Mary Rowlandson where she says "For whom god, the father loveth, He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receivedth, but now I start to see the Lord possessed his a chance to scourge and chasten me" (Rowlandson, 20). This demonstrates she believed that the ill- treatment, loss, torture and disgrace that she experienced was from God. Another example of this is actually the storyline of John Dane who thought that he was punished by God for not joining chapel one fateful Sunday and instead, chose to go to a friend's house. "Therefore i gone into an Orchard and sat down in an arbor, so that before, on the same finger, and on the same place, I was stricken as before" (Dane, 9). This further buttresses the punishments that puritans thought they acquired from God every time they disobeyed Him or perpetuated an incorrect doing. This was however in contradiction to the deist thoughts of Franklin who said that God had not been in charge of whatever situations befell us on the planet and that people are architects of our own destiny. He in essence said that if you wished to lead a happy, healthy and successful life, it was your decision and that if you also wished to lead a sorrowful, wretched and unorganized life, it was your decision as well. He said that doing what was either good or bad depended on the morals implemented by the individual.
To the puritans, God was everything even to the aspect of provision. And as such, they also described God as Providence. John Dane tells of a period when he and his family were in want and they had nothing to make it through on. But, to him, God taken a magic "And my sister. . . laying her hands on the floor o rise up, there place a shilling under her palm. She helped bring it in. I, being a little young man, asked her where she found it. She exhibited me. I gone and scrabbled with my fingers in the area and found anotherand I mistrust not but it made good improvement thereof" (Dane, 6). This event explains to that the puritan God is very merciful to his content and takes care of them as well. To the deist Franklin, this incident would probably be termed as one of good luck rather than providence because to him the Creator had nothing to do in the affairs of man.
Another difference between your Puritans and the deist Franklin's view of the conception of God by real human nature was at the afterlife. Puritans presumed that there is an afterlife and it entailed of God's goodness and everlasting splendor. This would happen when Jesus returned to earth a second time to guage the living and the deceased and send them to their final destinations that was either heaven or hell. "The Child of God most dread; who along with his train occurs amain, to guage both quick and dead" (Wigglesworth 3). On this be aware, the puritans believed an afterlife existed after fatality and the view that would happen was seen as "the puritan sense of God's terrible majesty and wrath in popular form" (pg 3). Franklin the deist on the other hands did not trust this and in his pamphlet, he explained why he thought the puritan idea of the life of an afterlife was incorrect. He said that "pain is equally balanced by pleasure and this therefore, you don't have to assume an afterlife. Even when there is an afterlife, there could be no memory space of earthly life, so it could make no difference to us" (Franklin, 27). What this only means when described further was the actual fact that humans aren't conscious of themselves at labor and birth until uneasiness comes up. When this happens, you have the desire to quench this pain or uneasiness. When this desire is satisfied, it results in pleasure and hence, the equation is that the desire is add up to the uneasiness. For this reason, Franklin said that there was no afterlife and even if there have been, the pain on earth balances out with the pleasure in the afterlife which would make no difference to us.
Puritans indulged in righteous procedures because they thought that that was what God wished from them which if indeed they disobeyed, they would be punished. In addition they assumed that if God didn't bless them or see with their needs, there is nowhere else they could go to get for help. The deist Franklin on the other hand did not notice this way. He thought that virtues maketh man and said that everyone who desired success should make an effort to achieve moral excellence. He emphasized the "importance of virtue that did not depend on Christian dogma or the rewards and punishments of the afterlife. " (Franklin, 29). He also said that the type of behavior exhibited by a person depended on whether the specific thought it to be "beneficial or hazardous alone" ( pg 29) "yet probably, these actions might be forbidden because they were bad for us, or commanded because these were good for us, in every natures, all things should be considered" (Franklin 29). This recommended that your patterns shouldn't be dictated from your optimism to find yourself in heaven just as the puritans thought but instead, your habit should be dictated by doing what you thought was good for you.
In finish, the puritans and the deist Franklin possessed very different views on God the inventor and His connections with human character. As the Puritans presumed that God was interested and was involved in every move they made, Franklin thought the opposite that God had not been concerned about the affairs of real human nature and this was why he provided mankind with the freewill to do whatsoever he deemed right to his own benefit. Puritans looked at God as providence who always provided because of their needs and at the same time punish them if indeed they disobeyed him. They also believed in the idea of predestination and an afterlife after common sense. The deist Franklin didn't believe in this but instead said that there was nothing like predestination or an afterlife and this whatsoever destiny befalls a person in life was because of this of morality or immorality. He motivated moral efficiency and urged everyone to inculcate virtues into their daily lifestyle if they truly desired success.
