抗拒世俗影響

    除了信徒內心的操練外，社會和政治上的勢力不斷打擊及沾染信徒的生潔生命。如諾克斯的慨嘆：「我們可以斷言有訐多果樹是當果子成熟之前即被毀壞了......被專制暴力所摧殘，......有的為暴風雨所擊打，再有的被害蟲或毒泉所毒害」。

    因此，Owen 也就這方面有以下提醒：

“ The world is a present in a mighty hurry, and being in many places cut off from all foundations of steadfastness, it make the minds of men giddy with its revolutions, or disorderly in the expectations of them......hence men walk and talk as if the world were all, when comparatively it is nothing. and when men come with their warmed affections, reeking with thoughts of these things, unto the performance of or attendance unto any spiritual duty, it is very difficult for them, if not impossible, to stir up any grace unto a due and vigorous exercise.”

    以上可見，世俗的思想很難與聖潔和平共存，清教徒們須要竭力地抗拒世俗的沾染，持守聖潔。此外，清教徒更要以聖潔的真理改良社會、律法、風俗，改良人民的人生，叫人棄惡從善。

小結：

    清教徒要以聖潔的真理改革社會固然是聖經的教導，但改革的方法必須謹慎。以福音的大能和見証的能力喚醒人的道德良知，自然能改良社會；但若靠政治力量逼使人民服從真理，這只是摧向道德主義罷了！

正如Karlberg指出：“ Efforts to build a Christian society, one in which godly piety and faith were its hallmarks, inevitably paved the way for a form of moralism......More seriously, the rise of moralism in Puritan theology jeopardized the purity of the gospel. ”