Adam Nicolson, in his book, God’s Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible, describes Puritans this way: “A puritan ate and drank the word of God. That word was his world.” (123) Nicolson does not intend this as a compliment, and there were errors of various sorts associated with various ones known as”Puritan.” However, …
Henry Barrow was a 17th century Puritan pastor imprisoned and eventually executed for his faith. After three years of imprisonment in despicable conditions, having not been outdoors in that time, Anglican officials visited him to convince him of his errors. Being unsuccessful he bishop quipped that Barrow should enjoy his opportunity for solitude. In response, …
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“This ordinance hath a direct and peculiar tendency to the improvement and strengthening of faith. It is a pledge superadded to the promise for faith’s sake: Heavenly and sublime mysteries do therein stoop down to your senses, that you may have the clearer apprehensions of them; and the clearer the apprehensions are, the stronger the …
Meet the Puritans, Joel Beeke & Randall Pederson (Reformation Heritage Books, 2006), hb., 896 pp. This is an incredible, monumental work! This is the most significant, most helpful guide to the Puritans I know of. The book provides a brief bio and list of reprinted works of over 120 Puritans as well as a brief …
There is much wisdom to be gleaned here, both in how we live and in how we shepherd the souls of people. When you think of the pastoral role in terms of “preparing the saints to leave this world in peace when their time comes”, you automatically leave behind much of what goes under the …
People often think that a firm belief in the sovereignty of God in all things including the salvation of souls will undercut evangelistic zeal. History is full of examples to the contrary, and the Puritans are key examples. I previously mentioned Richard Alleine’s book Instructions About Heartwork . In this book Alleine has an entire …
One of our Wednesday night classes at church is studying J. I. Packer’s A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life. I am enjoying going back through the book because it is so good. Here is a quote from Packer about how the Puritans viewed the Bible. I have elsewhere, in a …
Alleine (1611-1691), like his other Puritan counterparts, understood the importance of oversight. Addressing his hearers on the importance of guarding their hearts (Prov 4:23-27), he mentioned others whom God has ordained to watch over us. He quoted Hebrews 13:17 and then wrote: “We deal so plainly and so closely with you, we are so instant …
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