between the Christian and non-Christian in what we think and believe, there will soon be little difference in how we live. Second, Puritan preaching confronted the conscience pointedly. The Puritans worked hard on the consciences of sinners as the “light of nature” in them. Plain preaching named specific sins, then asked questions to press home the guilt of those sins upon the consciences of men, women, and children. As one Puritan wrote, “We must go with the stick of divine truth and beat every