How is a Puritan born?

Answer 1

The Puritans, who came to Massachusetts Bay after the Pilgrims came to Plymouth, came to set up a theocracy, a "city on the hill" that would show the rest of Europe, especially England with its religion that they regarded as corrupted, just what a religious community could be. They were quite fervent, and the ministers were the community leaders. Their doctrines stressed original sin--that all people are sinners (for Adam sinned), but that God, in his infinite mercy, has chosen to save a few. Since He knows everything, he knows who will be saved (and in Heaven) and who will be damned to Hell; however, a person does not know for sure if he or she is saved. Therefore, the Puritans were constantly examining their lives, especially their thoughts and inclinations, to see if they indicated whether they might be saved. They knew that people who "seemed" to live good lives might in fact be sinners and damned (although they recognized that all were sinners.) This inward analysis didn't seem to do much for their lives, sometimes; they did not believe that you could be saved by how you lived, but that how you lived might indicate whether you were saved or not. A couple of generations later, people in Massachusetts had lost much of their attachment to the religion they had been born into, for they had never had to stand up for their faith against prosecution and life was pretty prosperous.