In our continuing series on the Puritan vision for Christian zeal (part 1, part 2), we now take up how they described its characteristics. False Zeal First, they described authentic zeal over against false zeal. Oliver Bowles (d. 1674)…
Understanding the relationship between believers and the promises of salvation is not too difficult. The same cannot be said, however, with respect to the many warnings found throughout the Old Testament and New Testament. Do the curses, threatenings, and warnings…
If I asked you the name of Noah’s wife, would you answer, “Joan of Ark?” Sadly, many would today. The level of biblical illiteracy today among the professing Christian church is sad. Recently arch-atheist Richard Dawkins commissioned his foundation to…
Imagine your pastor announcing from the pulpit, “I want you to know that I regard myself as a prophet.” Don’t you think this would raise a few eyebrows? In this third of five parts on Puritan preaching (part 1, part…
William Ames (1576-1633) Life William Ames was born in 1576 at Ipswich, Suffolk, then a center of the robust Puritanism. Ames’s father was a well-to-do merchant with Puritan sympathies; his mother was related to families that would help to…
This Monday, February 29, is your final opportunity to download a free .pdf of “The Character of an Old English Puritan” by John Geree. This is a classic text in modernized English, footnotes, and an “Introduction” by Daniel R. Hyde. Free downloadable…
Last time I encouraged you (especially my fellow Anglicans!) to join me in reading the Puritan Paperback, Sermons of the Great Ejection. This title is a collection of nine sermons recalls one of the great turning points in English Christianity—when…
The great Scottish theologian and preacher James Durham (1622-1658) published a monumental Commentarie Upon the Book of Revelation in 1658 extending over 1000 pages. John MacLeod stated that Durham’s work “gives what, in past days, was the accepted Protestant view…
Statistics can be misleading if they are abstracted from the moment they are calculated. But in that moment, they reveal a glimpse of reality. The well-known church growth leader, George Barna, provides us an opportunity to glimpse the sad reality…
William Greenhill, Stop Loving the World, ed. Jay T. Collier (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2010). 73pp. Worldliness is an increasing problem in Western Christendom. No one wants to admit that they are worldly, but the tragic fact is…
