ioned in the Bible. The same restrictions applied to their literature. The ideal Puritan style was a plain style-strong, simple, and logical. It was this literary style that could make explanations of the scriptures accessible to everyone. The Puritans believed that God revealed his purpose to humanity in three ways: through the Bible, through the natural world, and through Divine Providence. Thus the Puritans wrote on biblical and devotional topics. They wrote about spiritual truth they discovered in the natural world. And they wrote about moments of special providence or events that had great lessens, such as Anne Bradstreet's poem on the destruction of her house by fire. In this poem, Bradstreet does not show a dry lesson from the event, but she writes about her moments of joy in the house. Puritan literature records not just the moments when the physical and the spiritual worlds cross but the moments when they seem to be different.(Holt, Reinhart, Winston 9-10)
             During the Age of Reason discoveries made by physical scientists and mathematics were changing the way that people viewed the universe. This created new opportunities for people to pursue new professions and interests. Scientific investigation seemed to show that the universe was organized according to certain laws, and that people could discover those laws through the use of their reason. Sir Isaac Newton compared God to a clock maker who created a perfect mechanism of this universe. He then left his creation to run on its own. The French philosopher and mathematician Rene Descartes said in the opening sentence of his Discourse on Method, "I think, therefore I am." This shows the gift of reason that enabled people to discover both scientific and spiritual truth. This gift would later create a whole new lifestyle for the people in America. The people would learn to think independently and to pursue a life of their own beliefs.(Holt, Rineha...