1. Cohen, Charles L., God's Caress: The Psychology of Puritan Religious Experience (New York, 1986), pp. 75–110.Google Scholar

2. Hailer, William, The Rise of Puritanism (New York, 1957), pp. 27–28;Google ScholarGreenham, Richard, The Workes of… Richard Greenhorn (London, 1612), p. 447.Google Scholar

3. Runia, Klaas, “The Hermeneutics of the Reformers,” Calvin Theological Journal 19 (1984): 121–152;Google ScholarKnott, John R. Jr, The Sword of the Spirit: Puritan Responses to the Bible (Chicago, 1980), PP. 34–35;Google ScholarDavidson, Edward H., “John Cotton's Biblical Exegesis: Method and Purpose,” Early American Literature 17 (1982): 119–121.Google Scholar

4. Knott, , Sword of the Spirit, p. 32;Google ScholarStein, Stephen J., “The Quest for the Spiritual Sense: The Biblical Hermeneutics of Jonathan Edwards,” Harvard Theological Review 70 (1977): 101, 105;CrossRefGoogle ScholarNew, John F. H., Anglican and Puritan: The Basis of Their Opposition, 1558–1640(Stanford, 1964), pp. 26–27;Google ScholarDavies, Horton, Worship and Theology in England, volume 2, From Andrewes to Baxter and Fox, 1603–1690 (Princeton, 1975), pp. 114, 529–530.Google Scholar

5. Gane, Erwin R., “The Exegetical Methods of Some Sixteenth-Century Puritan Preachers: Hooper, Cartwright, and Perkins,” Andrews University Seminary Studies 19 (1981): 23, 29,36; 109, 111,112, 114,Google Scholar uses the term “in the sense that they were not satisfied to give Bible passages their obvious meanings in context, but, to a greater degree than did the Anglicans, sought to see their own era, as well as their own biases, as the subjects of the scriptural message” (p. 109). Gane's terminology is misleading—“presentist” better conveys his intentions than does “ultra-literal”—but his point that Puritans took liberties with the text in serving their religious agendas despite (indeed because of) their insistence on adhering strictly to it is most insightful. Compare Levy, Babette May, Preaching in the First Half Century of New England History (1945; reprint, New York, 1967), p. 91.Google Scholar

6. Frei, Hans W., The Eclipse of Biblical Narrative: A Study in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Hermeneutics (New Haven, 1974), pp. 1, 19, 25;Google ScholarBlench, J. W., Preaching in England in the late Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries: A Study of English Sermons 1450-c. 1600 (New York, 1964), pp. 57–58, 60–61;Google ScholarRunia, , “Hermeneutics of the Reformers,” pp. 122, 135–136, 143;Google ScholarToulouse, Theresa, The Art of Prophesying: New England Sermons and the Shaping of Belief (Athens Ga., 1987), p. 16;Google ScholarStein, , “Quest for the Spiritual Sense,” p. 106.Google Scholar

7. Coughenour, Robert A., “The Shape and Vehicle of Puritan Hermeneutics,” Reformed Review 30 (1976):Google Scholar 30, hints that ministers expounded more than just the bare literal meaning. Working from traditional Protestant hermeneutic principles, Jonathan Edwards also took the literal meaning variously but went further by identifying a spiritual sense that comes only to those regenerated through the Spirit and that allows for typological and allegorical interpretations freed from the confines of the literal text. He even evoked anagogic and tropologic meanings. See Stein, , “Quest for the Spiritual Sense,” pp. 107–113;Google Scholaridem, “Jonathan Edwards and the Rainbow: Biblical Exegesis and Poetic Imagination,” New England Quarterly 47 (1974): 441, 453–456.

8. Morgan, John, Godly Learning: Puritan Attitudes towards Reason, Learning and Education, 1560–1640 (New York, 1986);Google ScholarMiller, Perry, The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century (New York, 1939), pp. 111–235;Google ScholarTodd, Margo, Christian Humanism and the Puritan Social Order (Cambridge, 1987);Google ScholarReventlow, Henning Graf, The Authority of the Bible and the Rise of the Modern World, trans. Bowden, John (Philadelphia, 1985), pp. 94–99;Google ScholarLevy, , Preaching in the First Half Century, pp. 15–24, 102, 116–122.Google Scholar

9. Toulouse, , Art of Prophesying, pp. 16–18;Google ScholarKnott, , Sword of the Spirit, pp. 36–37.Google Scholar

10. Lewaiski, Barbara Kiefer, Protestant Poetics and the Seventeenth-Century Religious Lyric (Princeton, 1979), pp. 111–140;Google ScholarBlench, , Preaching in England, pp. 61–62;Google ScholarFrei, , Eclipse of Biblical Narrative, pp.2, 19–20, 27–31, 33–34;Google ScholarBercovitch, Sacvan, ed., Typology and Early American Literature ([Amherst, Mass.], 1972);Google ScholarElliott, Emory, “From Father to Son: The Evolution of Typology in Puritan New England,” in Literary Uses of Typology From the Late Middle Ages to the Present, ed. Miner, Earl (Princeton, 1977), pp. 204–227.Google Scholar

11. Reventlow, , Authority of the Bible, pp. 114–118;Google ScholarCoolidge, John, The Pauline Renaissance in England (Oxford, 1970), pp. 1–12, 20–22;Google Scholar Cane, “Exegetical Methods,” pp. 22–23, 29; 112–113.

12. Williams, Charles Stephen Conway, A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, 2d ed. (London, 1964), p. 194;Google ScholarErnest, Haenchen, The Acts of the Apostles, A Commentary, trans. Noble, Bernard and Shinn, Gerald (Oxford, 1971), p. 494;Google ScholarNeil, William, The Acts of the Apostles (London, 1973), p. 182;Google ScholarHooker, Thomas, The Vnbeleevers Preparing for Christ (London, 1638), 1st pagination, p. 193.Google Scholar

13. Bruce, F. F., Commentary on the Book of Acts (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1954), pp. 64, 216, 331.Google Scholar

14. Sibbes, Richard, The Complete Works, ed. Grosart, Alexander B., 7 vols. (Edinburgh, 1862–1864), 6:520–522.Google Scholar

15. Ibid., pp. 523–529.

16. Rogers, John, The Doctrine of Faith, 3d ed. (London, 1629), p. 61,Google Scholar and see Mather, Richard, The Summe of Certain Sermons Upon Genes: 15.6 (Cambridge, 1652), p. 4;Google ScholarDent, Arthur, The Flame Mans Path-way to Heauen (London, 1623), p. 23,Google Scholar and see John, Preston, Remaines of that Reverend and Learned Divine, John Preston (London, 1634), p.227.Google Scholar

17. Ames, William, The Marrow of Sacred Divinity (London, 1642), 2–8.8;Google ScholarPerkins, William, The Whole Works… William Perkins, 3 vols. (London, 1626–1631), 1:86;Google ScholarCotton, John, Gods Mercie Mixed with His Ivstice (London, 1641), p. 3.Google Scholar

18. Sibbes, , Works, 6:524–525, 522.Google Scholar

19. Bulkeley, Peter, The Gospel-Covenant, 2d ed. (London, 1651), p. 335;Google ScholarRogers, Richard, Seven Treatises (London, 1603), pp. 22–23.Google Scholar

20. Hooker, Thomas, The Soules Preparation for Christ (London, 1632), pp. 178, 180;Google ScholarPerkins, , Works, 1:364–365;Google ScholarHildersam, Arthur, The Doctrine of Fasting and Praier (London, 1633), p. 89.Google Scholar

21. Shepard, Thomas, The Works, ed. Albro, John Adams, 3 vols. (1853; reprint, Hildesheim, 1971), 1:39.Google Scholar

22. Shepard's contention that certain figures like Lydia were converted before they believed in the Messiah leads to a confusing analysis of her progression to faith. When he alleges that the centurion was a proselyte (like Lydia and the eunuch) “who feared God, and whose prayers were accepted, (ver. 4) (which can not be without faith) yet did not know that this Jesus crucified was the Messiah, until Peter came unto him,” he is saying that the centurion had faith before he believed in Christ (Works, 1:1410). Did Shepard seriously advance a thesis so repugnant to the Puritans' most basic theological instincts? Undoubtedly not, since he always adhered to Reformed conventions. It would seem that in sewing up the argument that all converts undergo compunction whether the Bible illustrates it or not, the orthodox minister left a few heterodox threads unraveled.

23. Ibid., 1:140.

24. Ibid., 1:141.

25. Shepard makes a stronger case when he maintains that “Scripture usually sets down matters very briefly; it oftentimes supposeth many things, and refers us to judge of some by other places.” For instance, although I Timothy 1:13–14 do not mention if Paul had any “castings down,” if one looks to the “fuller example” of Acts 9, “we shall see it otherwise” (ibid.). The practice of trying to understand one biblical passage by referring to another—standard Puritan practice—is reasonable enough, and the essential gospel command “repent and believe” lends some credence to Shepard's view. The point remains, however, that he (and other ministers) read more into Acts 16:14 than it can bear as far as Lydia is concerned.

26. Sibbes, , Works, 6:520.Google Scholar

27. Calvin, John, Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. McNeill, John T., trans. Battles, Ford Lewis, 2 vols. (Philadelphia, 1960), 3..24.13.Google Scholar

28. Daigleish, Edward R., Psalm Fifty-One in the Light of Ancient Near East Patternism (Leiden, 1962), pp. 277,Google Scholar and see pp. 1–7, 209–248; Oxtoby, Gurdon Corning, “Conscience and Confession: A Study of the Fifty-First Psalm,” Interpretation 3 (1949): 415–426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

29. Perkins, , Works, 1:366.Google Scholar

30. Thomas, Hooker, Soules Preparation, p. 163,Google Scholar but see idem, The Soules Exaltation (London, 1638), p. 187, where he portrays David as a Saint. Shepard also showed the king as a sinner and a Saint; Works, 1:152, compared with 2:270.

31. Perkins, , Works, 1:454;Google ScholarMather, , Summe, p. 34;Google ScholarDent, Arthur, A Sermon of Repentaunc (London, 1583), A5v.Google Scholar

32. Sibbes, , Works, 1:44;Google ScholarRogers, , Doctrine of Faith, p. 253.Google Scholar

33. Cotton, John, The way of Life (London, 1641), p. 47;Google ScholarHildersam, , Doctrine of Fasting, pp. 139, 142;Google ScholarSibbes, , Works, 1:171.Google Scholar

34. Hooker, Thomas, The Soules Implantation(London, 1637), p. .128;Google ScholarSibbes, , Works, 5:365.Google Scholar

35. Preston, John, The Breast-Plate of Faith and Love, 2d ed. (London, 1630), 3:67.Google Scholar

36. Sibbes, , Works, 3:223.Google Scholar

37. Greenham, , Works, pp. 450, 449, 447, 450.Google Scholar

38. Hooker, , Soules Exaltation, p. 188;Google ScholarHildersam, , Doctrine of Fasting, pp. 120–121.Google Scholar

39. Davenport, John, The Saints Anchor-Hold in All Storms and Tempests (London, 1661), p. 107;Google ScholarRogers, , Doctrine of Faith, pp. 340–341.Google Scholar

40. Pietersz, David. Dc Vries, “Korte Historiael endejournaels aenteydeninge,” in Narratives of New Netherland, 1609–1664, ed. Jameson, J. Franklin (New York, 1909), p. 204.Google Scholar

41. Frei, , Eclipse of Biblical Narrative, pp. 17–50Google Scholar and passim.