Meet the Puritans

It has long been popular to characterize Anglicanism as a distinctive middle way or via media between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism. Many today understand Anglicanism as a unique combination of the best features of the two traditions, which avoids the perceived errors of both Protestants and...

Family life today is disintegrating, and by studying the Puritan family we have discovered some reasons why. First, many families do not share a worthy goal . In addition, they lack an exalted central principle that will direct them towards this worthy goal. And yet, even with a worthy goal and an...

Satan encourages spiritual ignorance. Unbiblical thinking frequently results in unbiblical living. "Gross errors make the heart foolish, and render the life loose," writes Thomas Brooks. “Error spreads and frets like a gangrene, and renders the soul a leper in the sight of God." We are more likely...

In any organisation, a worthy goa l is not sufficient to ensure success; there must also be an agreed means to get there. The Puritans were no different, and they held up biblical love as the fundamental means in reaching their shared goal of God’s glory. In their view, such love had to flow out...

This is the final post in a series related to my new book on the theology of William Strong (ca. 1611–1654). In previous posts we defined a "covenant of works," determined that God did actually make such a covenant, and delineated the sense in which that covenant is still in effect today. But a...

Every organisation needs a worthy objective to thrive, and— as we saw previously —the Puritans were biblical in their approach to family life. This meant that the Puritan family took its cue from God’s word and zealously sought it. This goal directed everything they did and every decision they made...

This is the third post in a series related to my new book on the theology of William Strong (ca. 1611–1654). In the previous posts we defined a "covenant of works" and determined that God did actually make such a covenant with Adam in the Garden . But is the covenant of works still in effect today...

The Puritans show us how to live from a two-world point of view. Richard Baxter’s The Saint’s Everlasting Rest is a magnificent demonstration of the power that the hope of heaven should have for the directing, controlling, and energizing of your life here on earth. Despite being 800+ pages, this...

Samuel Sewall lived with his family in Puritan America between 1652 and 1730, and he suffered in ways unimaginable to us today. Over a period of 24 years, he and his wife Hannah had 14 children: his first son John died aged 17 months; his third son Hull died aged 23 months; his fourth son Henry...

This is the second post in a series related to my new book on the theology of William Strong (ca. 1611–1654). In the first post we asked "What is a covenant of works?" Now we'll look at whether God made such a covenant with Adam in the Garden. Consider two points drawn from Strong’s treatment of...