What type of interpretation of the bible did puritans adhere to

Puritans showed certain interpretations of the Bible that made them unique. For example, they were pre-modern in that they assumed that the present culture was the same as Biblical times, they excelled at exegesis or doing a critical interpretation of the text of the Bible, and they sought to make the Bible practical for themselves and their people.

John Stuart Mill is arguing against conformity. The human being, through its faculties of "perception, judgment, discriminative feeling, mental activity, and even moral preference", only excercices those faculties when going against custom, against what is known as received wisdom. If someone merely follows the dictates of custom, then he is not thinking, or judging, or making moral choices: he is, so to speak, on autopilot, or simply following the herd. He is not asserting himself as an individual in full command of his humanity. In our daily lives we face many situations where we follow preestablished behaviors: at work, in the street, when dealing with our family. But it is only when we depart from what is expected from us that we become individuals, when we reject the well-worn path of custom and make personal choices.