Covenants

• The idea of covenants, or contracts with God, was central to the Puritan belief system. These included the covenant of grace, which says God has already chosen those who are saved, and those people are in turn bound to live up to God's expectations. The idea of covenants also helped form the Puritan system of organizing churches. Members of a congregation were bound together in their mutual covenant with God, and in turn made covenants with one another in service of this faith. In this way, each member of the congregation felt like an important part of the church, and each congregation was self-sufficient.
  
  

Belief in Predestination

• The Puritans believed that all people were born deserving damnation, but that God had chosen some of them to be saved. This choice was made before you were born, and a person's way into heaven could neither be earned through good works nor lost. According to this belief, Christ's sacrifice was made only for God's elect and not for everyone.
  
  

The Experience of Conversion and Self-Scrutiny

• The only way to prove to a Puritan congregation that you were one of God's elect, and thus part of a covenant of grace, was to testify to an experience of conversion in which God revealed to you that you were one of the saved. However, the Puritans also believed that no one could ever entirely understand God, and as a sinner no one could be certain of his destiny. So a person needed to constantly examine everything in his life to reaffirm his covenant with God.
  
  

Cultivation of Good Works

• While a person could not earn her way into heaven, the Puritans believed that doing good works was preparation for receiving grace, and more than that, the desire to do good works was one of the signs that a person was one of God's elect. So while a person who was saved could never fall from grace, it was still important to become a more spiritual person as part of the covenant of grace.