Views
Thomas Hooker strongly advocated extended suffrage to include Puritan worshippers, a view which would lead him and his followers to colonize Connecticut. He also promoted the concept of a government that must answer to the people, stating: "hey who have the power to appoint officers and magistrates, it is in their power, also, to set the bounds and limitations of the power and place unto which they call them" through "the privilege of election, which belongs to the people according to the blessed will and law of God". Thomas Hooker argued for greater religious tolerance towards all Christian denominations.
Hooker defended the calling of synods by magistrates, and attended a convention of ministers in Boston whose purpose was to defend Congregationalism. He later published A Survey of the Summed of Church-Discipline in defense of Congregationalism, and applied its principles to politics and government.
Thomas Hooker was a strong leader of the contrition doctrine. He believed that much of God's favor needed to be re-earned by men. To Hooker, sin was the most crafty of enemies, defeating grace on most occasions. He disagreed with many of the predecessor theologies of Free Grace theology, preferring a more muted view on the subject. He focused on preparation for heaven and following the moralist character.
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Famous quotes containing the word views:
“But of all the views of this law [universal education] none is more important, none more legitimate, than that of rendering the people the safe, as they are the ultimate, guardians of their own liberty.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“The universe is wider than our views of it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)