The Puritans saw the covenant as unilaterally established by God. He alone induces conversion as he works in the heart to give the faith and repentance he requires. Preparation is not legalism . But that was simply because through this work God frees us from our natural love of sinning to embrace Christ. For Puritans, preparation deals not with the terms of the gospel, but with the method of grace in the human heart.
Changed life reveals a true conversion .
Their definition is clear, and the formalist's failure to match up to it is clear too. In sum, for the Puritans, the Christian life was a hungry living out of God's grace-gift of salvation. The Puritans believed that unfaithfulness to God would bring judgment. Old England, having proved unfaithful to its calling, was now facing the barrenness and disruption of divine judgment. New England, please God, would do better.