Excerpt from The Development of School Support in Colonial MassachusettsIt was against dogmatism, authority, form, pretence that Puritanism and its sister movements Pietism and Jansenism arose. Conduct, faith, piety, righteousness, and good works, the holding Up of high individual standards marked this movement and made its followers stand out distinctly. The religious tenets of the Puritans believed to have been ably and faithfully worked out Of the Scriptures, at first carried out the best traditions Of the Reformation in the general ideas expressed above, that they soon became narrow and intolerant is but the fault of the age. The fact that they believed themselves to be God's elect as proved by the Bible, that their way Of thinking and doing must therefore be the only possible escape from punishment and the way whereby mankind might be saved made them the stronger and more per sistent in their ideas when they were met by opposition and perse cution. The Puritan was one with the Reformation in his belief in his power to draw inspiration from God, to have direct per sonal communion between each human being and his Maker, and to find in the Bible, each man for himself, the guiding principles Of all his thoughts and acts.Nothing could be stronger than the Puritan belief in the Bible. The Westminster Confession which the Puritan accepted teaches that all things necessary for man's salvation are found in the Scriptures, that they were immediately inspired by God and con tain within themselves the infallible rule of interpretation, and that they commanded all the people Of God to read and search them.1 Unquestionably the Bible and the capacity to read it was an essential part Of Puritan society derived from the general Reformation movement. They did not wish a blind acceptance of their faith but that each should read for himself and embrace the Creed through conviction of the righteousness Of their faith. Such conviction was possible only to those who could read a Bible whose authenticity was vouched for by a still higher schol arship. They were God's elect, but to deserve His protection each one must read, ponder over the Scriptures and the explana tion by the minister in order to know His will.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.