Biblical References

Anne Bradstreet and Elizabeth Clinton, the Countess of Lincoln, both wrote pieces that were to help others. They are both filled with advice for what everyone else should do and reasons why. Many of the pieces were about of for their children and the most common theme I noticed throughout all of the pieces I read was family. Or at least then attempt to pass that knowledge onto family members. There were also many religious undertones which were used to get their point across. Most of them presented the pieces to the god fearing people as if it was their only choice. The stories are not exactly the same but the religious theme makes certain that the same general point gets across. This happened in the bible so you better do it is the most common example while the other main example is god said so.

The many religious stories are used to get points across. Bradstreet's main point in using religion was to prove that the afterlife was better and that good was working toward a god end. She wrote her stories and used god as supporting evidence and the stories as examples. In "The Body and Sprit," Bradstreet uses the story of Adam and Eve to explain how she is sister to all "begotten by the same father." In that same poem she makes a reference to the pearly gates saying they are the greatest treasure in a city built for angels that "earth cannot match." She talks about Christ resurrection and how he repeats this act with each person uniting the body with the soul. Overall Bradstreet to me does not seem to be all supportive of god. She talks of him giving her many faults in "before the birth of one of her children." She even talks a little about all men being like the Greeks or being Greeks. In this sense she is following the Greek tradition of religion rather then that of the Christian gods. It seems that she is only religious when need be instead of having it be an overwhelming all consuming obsession as many writers of the time found themselves getting caught in.

Elizabeth Clinton on the other hand uses god in a much different way. She uses her stories to provoke fear in the almighty and to oppress people into doing what she feels is correct. Her main focus is the god said so reference. This is where the argument is defined or supported by the fact that god said it was a good idea or something along those lines. If someone were to say that today they would be locked away in a loony bin but back in the seventeenth century it held a lot of power to say god wanted something. The first example of this argument is found on the first page of Clinton's work. She states that it is the "express ordinance of god that mothers should nurse their own childrenÐ'..." She even claims that this statement should stop all talk against it because "god is all wise." She uses the fact that Eve suckled Cain and Able as proof that god had meant women to breast feed. She also uses Sarah the wife of Abraham to demonstrate that even she, a princess, nursed her young and if she is good enough to do it why not anyone else. She also uses an argument of why would there be breast milk if god had not meant woman to breast feed. That was a very effective argument during this time period because in the eyes of people who see god as perfect, he would not do anything without it