The Puritan High View of Women.

I'm reading Jonathan Edwards: The Holy Spirit in Revival by Michael A. G. Haykin. The author points out that Jonathan Edwards, deeply loved his wife, Sarah. As a matter of fact, Haykin quotes Amanda Porterfield about an interesting trademark about the American Puritans.

One of the most striking phenomena about the New England Puritans is that their greatest ministers and governors -- Thomas Shepard, John Winthrop, Simon Bradstreet, Edward Taylor, Jonathan Edwards, for example -- loved their wives beyond measure. These men found their wives to be earthly representatives of God's beauty. For these men a loving wife was not only a model Christian but also an expression of the beauty of the world that pointed beyond itself to divine beauty. And the enjoyment of God's beauty was the essence of Puritan spirituality. (Haykin, p. 111)

This generation has seen a revival of the proclamation of the same doctrines to which the Puritans held. These Reformed or Calvinistic doctrines are claimed by an increasing number in our generation. Men, we can only pray that our generation of believers not only be characterized by doctrinal purity, but that we love our wives in the same manner of Edwards: our love should be beyond measure to the glory of God.