Puritans Assignment 1: Beliefs

The Puritans were an exceedingly god centered society. They believed that they were among Gods chosen, and all aspects of their daily lives were under Gods providence and reflected his will. According to their doctrines, all men were born into evil and must be redeemed through the grace of God. However, only a limited number, which had already been selected uner Gods plan for humanity, would be given this redemption. Redemption through could not be earned or denied, but was given, therefore if you werent lucky enough to win at the holy lottery, you were apparently condemned to remain in your depravity and wickedness until you were eventually cast into hell.

As Gods elect, the Puritans believed that were given the authority to interpret Gods will as they were intune to such matters, and their duty to live righeously as exemplifications of morality for the rest of the world, "a city set upon a hill". Consequently this translated into their being rather legalistic and perhaps slightly self righteous, looking down on others who did not measure up to their standards of uprightness and morality. Though the puritans cheif aspiration was to glorify God, they seemed to have thought this would have been detracted from by making any sort of praise or reference to his creation, as they lifestyles and literature were almost bland and rather spartan. If they rejected these doctrines, or became smug in their own righteousness, although they had been chosen they believed they could still fall back into sin, therefore they must always continue to be vigilant in prayer and introspection.