Many of the Puritans have profoundly affected me and my walk with Christ. For instance, one of the greatest books I have ever read besides the Bible is Pilgrim’s Progress. I have read it more times than I can count. Bunyan’s treatment and exposition of the life of the Christian is exemplary for practical theology. The Pilgrim’s Progress has no doubt affected my life greatly.
Jeremiah Burroughs’ work, Gospel Worship, has transformed my views of worship from mundane to sacred. Burroughs has masterfully applied the implications of Leviticus 10:3 to the life of the church and the directives God gives for worship in a way few others have ever done. It is a gem. And many of his other sermons have been greatly helpful to me as well.
Nathaniel Ranew’s book, Solitude Improved by Divine Meditation is a classic work on Biblical Meditation. He expounds the proper and improper attitudes and directives to meditating on God’s Word from God’s Word. I do not know what I would have done as a young Christian without the help of that work on my daily devotional life.
Blaise Pascal’s Penses are phenomenal. He covers so many topics with deep insight that you are bound to ponder just a sentence or two for hours.
There are many, many others which I could mention. These men have had much tribute on the World Wide Web. You can find many of their writings posted by clicking on the hyperlink to their respective sites.
But among the Puritan expositors of God’s Word (which narrows this focus), the following men stand out for me above the rest. They not only profoundly affected the way I think about the Bible, but they have brought me into a deeper relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. They have helped me climb many “hills of difficulties” through their sermons, treatises, and writings.
These men have had relatively little exposure to the 21st century church, much less the World Wide Web. Hopefully that will change.
They are William Ames, Christopher Love, William Perkins, John Owen, Francis Turretin and the Scottish Presbyterians of the Westminster era. They are a wealth of knowledge. They speak to me as a pastor would through their expositions of the Word.
If you click on the links to the right in the margin, each one has a respective page (and these pages will grow in time as I am able to update them). I hope they will be as helpful for you as they have been for me.
Also visit the Jonathan Edwards section of this website. Though Edwards was not a puritan (which is a basic misconception), he was profoundly influenced by the Puritans and read much of their theology, as well as the writings of the Reformation. Edwards, for example, thought Christopher Love’s sermons on Hell were the best exposition of the doctrine overall. Edwards, however, is one of the greatest theological minds to come after the puritan movement.