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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.
Don't forget to check out these divines in the
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