Calvinism, Puritan New England, and the Death of Children

Last updated on: May 21, 2020 at 12:52 am by johnturner

Calvinism, Puritan New England, and the Death of Children 2020-05-20T21:59:21-04:00 johnturner

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

In the winter of 1676-1677, a “malignant” fever swept through New England communities. In the town of Plymouth (in Plymouth Colony), one-year-old Josiah Cotton died. Josiah was the son of John and Joanna Cotton. John Cotton Jr., pastor in Plymouth for nearly three decades, is most known for his facility with the Wampanoag language and for the philandering that ultimately cost him his pulpit. At the time of Josiah’s death, it was only a few months since the end of what became known as King Philip’s War, a conflict that devastated English communities across the region and devastated Native communities to an even greater and long-lasting extent.

Joanna Rossiter Cotton, 1642-1702, gravestone in Sandwich, Massachusetts

When Josiah died, his mother Joanna became, according to her husband, “most desolate and pensive.” Even ten days after Josiah’s death, she had “fall[en] afresh to mourning, as if she had nothing else to do.” Excessive grief displayed a failure to accept God’s will or, even worse, an idolatrous attachment to the things of this world. For a poignant discussion of this idea, see Catherine Brekus’s Sarah Osborn’s World, one of my favorite books from recent years.

Other New England ministers provided the Cottons with standard advice after Josiah’s death. Submit to God’s will. Be glad cruel Indians had not killed him. Remain moderate in grief. Increase Mather, minister at Boston’s Second Church and John Cotton Jr.’s brother-in-law, had especially pointed advice for Joanna. If she did not restrain herself, she might provoke God into further punishing her family. The lives of her other children were at stake.

This all sounds harsh, in keeping with stereotypes about grim and unfeeling puritans. There was a strong dose of mercy alongside these warnings, however. New England ministers comforted grieving parents by assuring them that their infants and young children were in heaven. Increase Mather, for instance, consoled Joanna Cotton. “God had made you an instrument,” Mather suggested, “to replenish heaven, and bring forth an heir for the kingdom of God.” Jesus Christ gathers little lambs to his bosom, another ministerial colleague stated.

Such assurances seem to contradict Calvinist verities. The ecclesiastical descendants of Calvin formally accepted that God’s eternal decrees included infants. God was no respecter of person. If God decreed each individual’s salvation or damnation prior to the world’s creation, that applied to infants and children as well. Otherwise, God would be playing favorites. Many New England ministers, though, insisted that at least nearly all infants and young children went to heaven. In his Day of Doom, Michael Wigglesworth envisioned “an infant throng / of babes, for whom Christ died / whom for his own, by ways unknown / to men, he sanctified.” At a time when hell was far more crowded than heaven, heaven was full of children.

John Cotton Jr. lived at a time when New England ministers tightened connections between the church covenant and salvation. In his sermons, Cotton sought to comfort “weak Christians.” Even those with weak faith should take comfort, he taught. “Every true Christian shall get safe to heaven,” Cotton preached. Those who had owned the church covenant had stood before the congregation and had testified to the work of God’s grace in their hearts. They should trust God to save them. At the very least, they should trust that God would save those children born within the church’s covenant.

One final word on child mortality in seventeenth-century New England. Statistics are understandably unreliable for the time period, but around a tenth of New England infants died before their first birthday. Perhaps a quarter died before the age of ten. As Anne Bradstreet wrote, young children were “like as a bubble, or the brittle glass.”

Earlier generations of historians sometimes assumed that because the death of children was so common, it was easier for parents to bear. More recently, historians such as Judith Graham have reached opposite conclusions. Each successive death was a heavier blow, and some parents endured unimaginable torment. Samuel Sewall, half of whose fourteen children died before the age of three, once dreamed that all of his sons and daughters were dead. John Saffin, who grew up in the Plymouth Colony town of Scituate, outlived every single one of his eight children, though some reached adulthood. He mourned their loss for the remainder of his life. These painful losses, it seems, bent a sometimes stark theology toward mercy.

American Religious History

Children

John Turner

Puritans

Previous Post

May 20, 2020

The Reformed Evangelicals Who Smoked Pot in Toronto

Next Post

May 22, 2020 I Gave Them Laws Through Which They Could Not Live

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abolitionism Abortion Abraham Joshua Heschel Abraham Kuyper Abraham Lincoln Academia Activism Adam Renberg Advent Adventist africa African American Religion Agnes Howard Albert Camus American History American Religious History American Revolution American West Anabaptists Ancient History Andrea Turpin Andrei Tarkovsky Anglicanism Annales Ansley Lillian Quiros anti-Catholicism Antisemitism Anxious Bench apologetics Apparitions Arash Azizi Archaeology archives art Artificial Intelligence Asia Asian Americans Augustine Authors Bad Bunny Baptism Baptists Barack Obama Battle of Hastings Benjamin Franklin Bernard-Henri Levy Beth Allison Barr Beth Moore Bethany Mannon Bible Bill Cunningham Billy Graham Black Music Bob Dylan Body Boenhoffer Books Breastfeeding Bruce Springsteen C.S. Lewis Calvinism Cancel Culture Capitalism Carmelites Catholicism Cedric Robinson Cesar Chavez Charismaticism charity Charles Dickens Charles Lindbergh Che Guevara Chicago Children Chinese Christianity Chris Gehrz Christ Christian death Christian Higher Education Christian life Christian Nation Christian Nationalism Christianity Today Christmas Church life Church Practice cinema Civil Religion Civil Rights Movement Civil War civility Classics Climate Change Cold War Colonial Mexico colonialism Comer Communism community complementarianism Conference on Faith and History Congregationalism Conspiracies Conspiracy Conversion Narratives Coronavirus Costa Rica Council of Nicaea Covid-19 Creation Critical Race Theory Crusades Culture culture wars Daniel K. Williams David Barton David Swartz Death Ways death with dignity DEI democracy Democratic Party Devotion Digital Age Diplomacy discipleship diversity Donald Trump Drama Dua Lipa Early Church early modern Early modern Catholicism Easter Eastern Christianity economic exploitation Education elections Elie Wiesel Elizabeth II Elizabeth Taylor emotions Empire Engineering England enslavement Entertainment Episcopal Church Erica Ramirez eschatology Eurocentrism Evangelicalism Evangelicals Exegesis Family Feminism Film Flannery O'Connor folk music Food Foreign Policy founding fathers Franciscans Franciscus Junius fundamentalism Funerals G.K. Chesterton Gender Genocide genre geography George W. Bush George Washington George Whitefield Global Christianity Global church Grief Guadalupe Guest Post guest post gun control gun violence Gustavo Gutierrez Hamid Dabashi Harold John Ockenga Harvest Hate Hawaiian Christianity Healing health care Heather Cox Richardson Hell Heresy Hermeneutics Higher Education Hinduism Hippocratic oath Historical Fiction Historical Methodology Historical Profession Historical Profession Historical Theology Historical Thinking historiography Holidays Holocaust horror movies Human rights Humanitarian Work humanities Hummingbirds Hungary hymns Imago Dei Immigration Injustice Interviews Iran Islam Islamophobia Israel Ivan's Childhood Jacob Randolph James Bratt Janine Giordano Drake Japanese history Japanese Literature Jean Paul Sartre Jesse Miranda Jesus Jesus Christ Jimmy Carter Joan Baez Joan Didion Joanne Freeman João B. Chaves Joao Chaves Joey Cochran John Calvin John Fea John Tillotson John Turner Johnny Cash Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Tran Joseph Smith Josh Howerton Journalism Jr. Judaism Jürgen Moltmann Just War Justice Justin Brierley Karl Barth Katelyn Beaty koi ponds Kris Kristofferson Kristin Kobes Du Mez Latin American Religious History Latino Americans Lectio Divina Leisure Lent Leonard Cohen liberal arts liberalism Liberation Theology Linda Ronstadt Lisa Clark Diller Literature Lou Reed Lynchings Lynneth Miller Renberg Mainline Protestantism Malcolm Foley Marilyn Monroe Maritime history Mark Noll Marriage Martin Luther Martin Luther King Martyrdom Marxism Mary Masih Alinejad mass shootings material culture medieval Christianity Medieval Ethiopia Melissa Borja memory Mennonites Mental Health Mental Illness Methodism Mexican Americans Mexicans Mike Madrid Miles Mullin Min Jin Lee Miscarriage Missionaries Mister Rogers Mitt Romney modernity Monasticism Mormonism Motherhood Mothers of the Church Moving Music Musicals Nadya Williams Nahua Christianity Native Americans Natsume Sōseki New Contributor New England New Year New York Nico Non-Violent Protest Orthodoxy pacifism Paleo Evangelicals Palestinians Parenting Patti Smith Paul Kingsnorth Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pentecostalism Philip Jenkins Phillis Wheatley physician-assisted suicide pilgrimage Pilgrims Piracy pluralism Plutocracy Poetry Politics Pope Francis Pope Leo XIV post-modernism prayer preaching Presbyterians prosperity gospel Protest Public Executions Public history Publishing Puritans purity culture Quakers race Race Massacres Racial Capitalism racial reconciliation racialization Racism Raha Bahloulipour Re-Enchantment reading Reformation Refugees religion and the university religion and war Religious Freedom Religious Nones Religious Pluralism Religious Symbols religious violence Republican Party Revival Rita Coolidge Ritual Roger Williams Roman Catholic church Royalty Russell Moore same-sex marriage Sarah Irving-Stonebraker Scandinavia Science Science and Technology Scopes trial Scriptural Interpretation secularism Selena Quintanilla seminary Seventh-Day Adventists sexual morality Sexuality Sikhs Silence slaveholders theology Slavery Slavoj Zizek social justice Social Media Southern Baptist Convention Southern Religion Spain Spiritual Autobiography Spiritual but not religious Spiritual Discipline Sports Stanley Hauerwas Suffering Summer Camps Sunday Night Odds and Ends Supernatural Supreme Court Syriac Christianity Tal Howard Taylor Swift Teaching Technology Television Thanksgiving The Beatles The Mission theater TheoBros Theology Thomas Dixon Thomas Jefferson Thomas Kidd Thomas Merton Tim Gloege Tim Walz Tom Holland Tourism tradition Tragedy Translation Transnationalism Travel Trump Ukraine Uncategorized Unitarians United Methodist Church US History Vanessa Chan Velvet Underground Verónica A. Gutiérrez Veronica Gutierrez Vikings Violence Virgin Mary Virtue Virtue ethics Visions Voting War WCTU Wendell Berry Westminster Assembly White Evangelicalism Wildfires Winnie the Pooh Witches women Women in Ministry Women's and Gender Studies Work Worship writing Yasunari Kawabata Zena Hitz

Select a Month November 2026 October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which Christian denomination emphasizes adult baptism over infant baptism?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Methodist Baptist Lutheran Catholic