Why Read Puritan Writings?

     Why should we read Puritan writings? Simply stated the writings can enrich your Christian life by allowing the pastors of bygone centuries to open the Scriptures and apply them to you in practical ways. Let their works probe your conscience, lead you to repentance, deepen your faith, guide your conduct, comfort you, be a means to conform you to the image of Christ, bring you into full assurance of salvation, and lead you into a lifestyle of gratitude to the Triune God for His great salvation. There are six characteristics that permeate the works of the Puritans.  We will cover just 2 each week.

     First, the Puritans shape life by Scripture. The Puritans loved, lived, and breathed Scripture. They regarded the sixty-six book of Scripture as the library of the Holy Spirit graciously bequeathed to Christians. They saw Scripture as Spirit-empowered to renew their minds and transform their lives. The Puritans searched, heard, and sang the Word with delight and encouraged others to do the same. Richard Greenham suggested reading Scripture in eight ways – with diligence, wisdom, preparation, meditation, conference/discussion, faith, practice, and prayer. Thomas Watson suggested three guidelines for listening to the Word: first, come to it with a holy appetite and a teachable heart; second, sit under the Word attentively, receive it with meekness, and mingle it with faith; and third, retain it, pray over it, practice it, and speak to others about it. Puritans called believers to be Word-centered in faith and practice. They regarded the Bible as a trustworthy guide for all of life. Henry Smith wrote, “We should set the Word of God always before us like a rule and believe nothing but that which it teaches, love nothing but that which it prescribes, hate nothing but that which it forbids, and do nothing but that which it commands.”

     Second, the Puritans marry doctrine and practice. They do this in three ways, first, addressing the mind. The Puritans did not set mind and heart against each other but taught that knowledge was the soil in which the Holy Spirit planted the seed of regeneration. The Puritans understood that a mindless Christianity fosters a spineless Christianity. Secondly, they confront the conscience. The Puritans were masters at naming specific sins, then asking questions to bring conviction for those sins. Devotional reading should be confrontational as well as comforting. We experience little growth if our consciences are not pricked daily and directed to Christ. Thirdly, they engage the heart. The Puritans reason with the mind, confront the conscience, and appeal to the heart. They write from hearts full of love for God’s Word, love for the glory of God, and love for the souls of men. They set forth Christ in His loveliness, moving us to yearn to know Him better and live wholly for Him.

     Third, the Puritans focus on Christ. Isaac Ambrose wrote, “Think of Christ as the very substance, marrow, soul, and scope of the whole Scriptures.” Thomas Adams worte, “Christ is the sum of the whole Bible, prophesied, typified, prefigured, exhibited, demonstrated, to be found in every leaf, almost in every line, the Scriptures being but as it were the swaddling bands of the child Jesus.” The Puritans loved Christ and wrote much about His beauty.

     Fourth, the Puritans show us how to handle trials. We learn from the Puritans that we need affliction to humble us (Deut. 8:2), to teach us the sinfulness of sin (Zeph. 1:12), and to bring us to God (Hos. 5:15). The Puritans show us how God’s rod of affliction is His means to write Christ’s image more fully upon us, so that we may be partakers of His righteousness and holiness (Heb. 12:10-11). Three suggested books include: Lifting Up For the Downcast by William Bridge, Mute Christian Under the Smarting Rod by Thomas Brooks and Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes.

     Fifth, the Puritans show us how to live in two worlds. Richard Baxter’s Saint’s Everlasting Rest shows how the hope of heaven must direct, control, and energize the Christian’s life on earth. Despite its nearly one-thousand-page length, this classic became household reading in Puritan homes. It was surpassed only by John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, an allegorical outworking of the same truth. The Puritans believed that we should have heaven in our eye throughout our earthly pilgrimage. They stressed that keeping the hope of glory before our minds should guide and shape our lives on earth.

     Sixth, the Puritans show us true spirituality. The Puritans promoted the authority of Scripture, biblical evangelism, church reform, the spirituality of the law, spiritual warfare against indwelling sin, the filial fear of God, the art of meditation, the dreadfulness of hell, and the glories of heaven.

(Meet The Puritans by Joel Beeke Randall Pederson and Fraser Jones)