4 Qualities that characterize Puritan piety:
The first is HUMILITY, the cultivated lowliness of a sinful creature who is always in the presence of a great and holy God, and can only live before him through being constantly pardoned. The second is RECEPTIVITY... openness to be taught, corrected, and directed by one's discoveries in Scripture... disciplined by the darkness of disappointment...encouraged by happy provinces... readiness to believe that the good hand of a faithful and gracious God, who is ripening his children for future glory, shapes it all... the third is DOXOLOGY, the passion to turn everything into worship and so to glorify God by all one's words and deeds. The fourth is ENERGY, the spiritual energy of the true Protestant work ethic whereby laziness and passivity are damned as irreligious, just because so much remains to be done before God's name is hallowed in his wold as it should be. That all four qualities are formed by the Puritan view of God...is obvious... they constitute a mind and heart-set which, once formed, nothing can daunt or destroy...J.I. Packer, The Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of a Christian Life
