Today I am beginning a new Sunday series entitled “The Puritans.” I have a growing fascination with Puritan writing and thought it might be valuable to introduce you (and me!) to some of the most important Puritan writers. I will focus primarily on men whose works I have read in the past. Because I do not have the expertise to introduce the men or their work, I will be relying on experts like Joel Beeke and J.I. Packer to guide …

Today I continue this new Sunday series entitled “The Puritans.” I have a growing fascination with Puritan writing and decided it might be valuable to introduce you (and me!) to some of the most important Puritan writers. I will focus primarily on men whose works I have read in the past. Because I do not have the expertise to introduce the men or their work, I will be relying on experts like Joel Beeke and J.I.Packer to guide me. This week …

Today I continue this new Sunday series entitled “The Puritans.” I have a growing fascination with Puritan writing and decided it might be valuable to introduce you (and me!) to some of the most important Puritan writers. I will focus primarily on men whose works I have read in the past. Because I do not have the expertise to introduce the men or their work, I will be relying on experts like Joel Beeke and J.I.Packer to guide me. This week …

Today I continue this new Sunday series entitled “The Puritans.” I have a growing fascination with Puritan writing and decided it might be valuable to introduce you (and me!) to some of the most important Puritan writers. I will focus primarily on men whose works I have read in the past. Because I do not have the expertise to introduce the men or their work, I will be relying on experts like Joel Beeke and J.I.Packer to guide me. This week …

Matthew Henry was born in 1662, the same year that the Act of Uniformity barred his father, Phillip, and 2000 other pastors (including Thomas Brooks) from official ministry in the Church of England. Henry was raised by godly parents in the Puritan way (daily Bible reading, prayer, self-examination, etc.) and always wanted to be a pastor. However, believing there was little chance of ever becoming one, he decided to study law and pursue theological study only on the side. Before …

William Perkins was born in 1558 to Thomas and Hannah Perkins in Warwickshire county, England. At the age of 19 he went to Cambridge where he earned his Bachelors and then finished with his Masters in 1584. He was converted to Christ while at Cambridge and though the details are scarce, one story is that he overheard a woman on the street instruct her child by referring to his drunkenness, which the Lord used to convict and then save him. …

Richard Baxter was born in Rowton, England in 1615, the only son of Beatrice and Richard Baxter, Sr. His father was converted when Baxter was about 10 years old, which he says God used to prepare his own heart to believe. Eventually, “a prolonged illness and various books–William Perkins‘s Works in particular—were the means God used” to confirm Baxter’s conversion. For his education, Baxter attended Wroxeter grammar school under John Owen. In lieu of going on to study at a …

Stephen Charnock was born in London in 1628. He went to Cambridge University at age 14, and it was there that he came to faith in Jesus Christ. In 1655 he was sent to Dublin to be a chaplain to Oliver Cromwell’s son, Henry, who was then governor of Ireland. At this post, Charnock gained the reputation of being a great preacher. In 1660, when the monarchy was restored in England, Charnock returned to London. He is reported to have …

Thomas Boston might not technically count as a Puritan in the minds of some, either because he was Scottish or because he lived the majority of his life in the eighteenth century. J. I. Packer, however, includes him in his book Puritan Portraits and describes him as one who, alongside Jonathan Edwards in America, “represents most brilliantly the prolonging into the eighteenth century of pure Puritanism” (106). He was an “inheritor and champion of Puritan theology and of the Reformational …

John Bunyan, author of The Pilgrim’s Progress and undoubtedly the most famous of all Puritans, was born on November 28, 1628 in Bedfordshire, England. His father was a brazier (a brass worker) and it was intention that his son would take over the family business. But in 1644, when he was 16, both his mother and sister passed away. Within two months his father remarried, and Bunyan soon left to join the Parliamentary Army. After two and a half years …