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Puritan literature in America was fiercely didactic, replete with longitudinal and latitudinal references to Scripture—whether  the forms of writing were diaries, historical sketches, political tracts, devotional poetry, or , of course, sermons. Probably the most common thread amongst all of Puritan literature was this baseline: sin and salvation. After Adam and Eve defied God by eating from the Tree of Knowledge, they and their descendents were cut off from God (incurvatum), becoming susceptible to a multitude of degenerate passions.  Our nature was thus permanently corrupted; we were innately depraved creatures. Our miserable state continued until Christ, the second Adam, sacrificed himself on the Cross, a martyrdom that offered salvation to all who had faith in his grace. But there is a Catch-22. Because we don’t deserve this grace, we can do nothing on our own to redeem ourselves. We must humble ourselves before Christ and hope for salvation. And even then, Christ does not afford his grace to all who are devoted to him. Only a chosen few will be selected (predestined) to go to heaven. There is no way to tell for sure who will be saved. It is possible, according to many Puritan preachers, for God to redeem an unrepentant sinner and to damn a righteous follower of Christ’s teachings. God’s will is inscrutable—to presume that one (no matter how virtuous) is going to heaven is a sign of pride that might very well condemn that person to the pit of Hell.