The Puritans were far from killjoys. They knew joys their critics failed to fathom. For the Puritans, the foundational secret to all this joy—in God, in work, in the home, among the children, in public worship and on the Lord’s Day, and for the unknown future in the conversion of rising generations—is the serious, reverential fear of the Lord in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, applied by the Holy Spirit.
Don’t forget the Puritans’ love of accusing innocent people who they didn’t like, especially women, of being witches. One of their greatest joys was to watch people being roasted alive.
Yep, those Puritans sure were a barrel of laughs.