John Durant (1620-1686)
An Independent Puritan divine with a Pastoral Heart“Love is the commanding affection of the soul, consisting in the expansion of the heart as it moves towards a person or thing in hopes and workings for its good.”
Books and Articles by John Durant (or Durance):
- Comfort and Counsel for Dejected Soules. Being the heads and sum of divers Sermons preached to a particular congregation, 1651, 4th ed. 1658, where the author is described as pastor of a church of Christ in Canterbury, i.e. the cathedral.
- Sips of Sweetness, or Consolation for weak Believers, 1651.
- The Salvation of Saints by the Appearances of Christ Now in Heaven and Hereafter from Heaven, 1653.
- A Discovery of Glorious Love, or the Love of Christ to Believers; being the sum of 6 Sermons on Ephes. 3:19, preached at Sandwich eleven years before (1655).
- The Spiritual Seaman, or a Manual for Mariners, being a short tract comprehending the principal heads of Christian religion, handled in allusion to the Seaman’s Compass and Observations, 1655; reissued, with alterations, as The Christian’s Compass, 1658.
- Altum Silentium, or Silence the Duty of Saints under every sad Providence; a Sermon preached after the death of a Daughter by her Father, 1659 (September).
Biography of John Durant (1620-1686)
John Durant (1620-1686) was a zealous and popular independent puritan preacher. He often preached at Sandwich in Kent (1644), but lived at Canterbury, where he gathered a separate church, and dispensed the word and ordinances of the gospel. His published works bear out Edmund Calamy’s description of him as “an excellent practical preacher.” They also show him to have been a man of some learning, acquainted with both Greek and Hebrew as well as Latin. After the Restoration he was ejected from Canterbury Cathedral, but of his further history nothing is known.