What is the difference between a Pilgrim and a Puritan? Pilgrims were a name given to a small band of English immigrants who came to America in 1620 on the Mayflower and settled in Plymouth. They were originally called “Separatists” for breaking with the Church of England to form their own distinctive branch of Christian community. We use the moniker Puritan to refer to a much larger group of English settlers who came to America ten years later and established the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Puritans prized religious freedom like their Pilgrim compatriots but wanted to reform the Church of England rather than separate from it. While our Thanksgiving observance is closely tied to Pilgrims, the Puritan migration is also a substantial part of early American history.
John Winthrop set sail for America in 1629 with seven hundred fellow Puritans in eleven ships, known as the “Winthrop Fleet.” John left with an exploratory group aboard the Arbella, accompanied by three escort ships, while the remainder of the fleet sailed a few weeks later. John is most remembered for his speech spoken on the deck of the Arbella when he famously declared, “We shall be a city on a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us,” a metaphor borrowed from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 5.14). The Puritans aspired to build a model Christian community as a witness to the world of “rightful living.” The entire fleet of eleven ships arrived at Salem, Massachusetts, but the tiny settlement was inadequate to assimilate such a large influx of refugees, so they settled along the Charles River, calling their new community Boston after their hometown in England. The flow of Puritans to the American continent continued for another ten years during a period known as the Great Migration.
I have become partial to Puritans in researching Prayers from the Cloud. I concur with something J. I. Packer wrote about Puritans as “a Christianity of an older, deeper, richer and riper sort.” Their searching, introspective prayers challenge our casual, breezy approach to prayer. Arthur Bennett was a Church of England minister who became intrigued with Puritan history and gathered their prayers into book form to introduce to modern readers, The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions. These prayers, left unidentified by Bennett, are arranged in topical fashion. One prayer that caught my eye is simply titled “Praise and Thanksgiving.” How appropriate to pray on Thanksgiving: