John of Salisbury, Metalogicon, 1159
We are like dwarfs sitting on the shoulders of giants. We see more, and things that are more distant, than they did, not because our sight is superior or because we are taller than they, but because they raise us up, and by their great stature add to ours.
George Swinnock The Christian Man’s Calling
Men print, in a sense, for eternity. Sermons preached, or men’s words, pass away like wind…but sermons printed are men’s works (that) live when they are dead, and become an image of eternity: “This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord.” (Psalm 102:18)
Jay Green, founder of Sovereign Grace Publishers, 1955, as to why we should read the Puritans
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You will grow in grace and knowledge!
In Grace because you will be brought face to face with Him Who is the Author and Finisher of your faith...These old writers did not write to please men but to please a pure and holy God! They bring Scripture to bear on your sin, and then they take you before your God - modern writings generally miss this mark.
In Knowledge because these old authors are so exhaustive in their searchings into Scripture. They will, by their deep probings into God's Word, convince you of your ignorance of Scripture - and the beginning of knowledge is to realize that you are ignorant.
There is in my heart a sincere desire to surround you with the GOLD of human writings; and to ruin your appetite for the brassy, adulterated writings of this day. It is a short life, and one who redeem the time must heed to WHAT he read.
George Whitefield Preface to the Works of John Bunyan, 1767
Ministers never write or preach so well as when under the cross; the Spirit of Christ and of glory then rests upon them. It was this that made the Puritans such burning and shining lights. Though dead, by their wrtings they yet speak; a peculiar unction attends them to this very hour. The more true and vital religion has revived, the more the good old Puritanical writings have been called for.
C.H. Spurgeon Commenting and Commentaries: Two Lectures together with A Catalogue of Biblical Commentaries and Expositions
Our Puritan forefathers were strong men, because they lived on the Scriptures. They fed on good meat, whereas their degenerate children are far too fond of unwholesome food. The chaff of fiction, and the bran of the Quarterlies, are poor substitutes for the old corn of Scripture.
F.J. Powicke Life of Richard Baxter
The Puritans were men sure of God, sure of his will, sure of the absolute duty to act in his sight and for his approval. Nothing else mattered by comparison. Consequences were of no account. Obedience alone held the secret of freedom, courage, peace, power, happiness and salvation.
Benjamin Brook, English Nonconformist minister and historian. Dedication in Vol. 1 of The Lives of the Puritans, 1813
The Puritans were a race of men of whom the world was not worthy. They devoted their days and nights to hard study; they cherished devotional feelings; and they enjoyed intimate communion with God. The stores of their minds were expended, and the energy of their souls was exerted, to separate the truths of the gospel from the heresies of the times in which they lived; to resist the encroachments of arbitrary power; to purify the church from secularity and corruption; and to promote the power of religion among the people. They persevered in this course amidst a host of difficulties, and in defiance of the most powerful opposition. The rulers of those times persecuted them with wanton cruelty, in total contempt of every sacred law, of every just principle, and of every humane feeling.
From these volumes you will learn, that the glorious cause of Nonconformity has been adorned by the holy lives of a multitude of good men; has been consecrated by the blood of martyrs; and has been sanctioned by the approbation and protection of heaven.
For their exalted attainments in piety, their assiduous researches in literature and divinity, and their unwearied exertions in the cause of God and their country, the Puritan divines are entitled to the admiration and reverence of every succeeding age. Our political freedom, our religious liberty, and our Christian privileges, are to be ascribed to them more than to any other body of men that England ever produced. When you learn by what struggles these blessings have been acquired, and at what price they have been obtained, you will know how to estimate their value; and you will regard the men to whom we are indebted for them as distinguished benefactors to the English nation and the church of God.
For the sacred cause of religion, the Puritan divines laboured and prayed, wrote and preached, suffered and died; and they have transmitted it to us to support it, or to let it sink. With what feelings will you receive this precious inheritance? Will you lightly esteem what they so highly valued? Will you stand aloof from the cause which they watched with jealous vigilance, and defended with invincible courage? If the blood of these men run in your veins, if the principles of these men exist in your souls, most assuredly you will not.
That you may learn the wisdom, and imbibe the spirit of the Puritans; — that you may take them as patterns, imitate them as examples, and follow them as guides, so far as they followed Christ — that you may adhere to the cause of religion with the same firmness, adorn it with the same holiness, and propagate it with the same zeal, is (my) fervent prayer.
C.S. Lewis "Introduction to Athanasius: On the Incarnation"
Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones in a message to the Literary and Debating Society at Charing Cross, March 1926 on Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress
If you wish to know what Puritanism really is, don't read large volumes on the subject by men who may be scholars but never were Puritans, but rather read the life-stories of Puritans...and pray God to give you light not merely to see what is in print but also to see what is between the lines.
J.I. Packer in the forward to Day By Day With The English Puritans, Selected Readings For Daily Reflection
Clearheaded about biblical authority, justification by faith, and the covenantal framework of God's grace, the Puritans were equally clear on the realities of the Christian life - communion with the triune God, biblical morality, and the pilgrim perspective. In spiritually decadent days like ours, they can help us to recover the wisdom and power of this ideal...
Dr. Wilbur Smith, former Professor of Biblical Studies for Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and with Charles Fuller and Harold Ockenga founder of Fuller Theological Seminary; regarding the works of William Gurnall.
Do not say one does not have time to read this. What does one use his time for? What better use of time could one possibly make than in reading some of the most spiritual, devotional literature that has ever proceeded from the pen of an uninspired man?
Lewis Allen in the introduction to All Things Made New, John Flavel for the Christian Life
We need (the Puritans) to instruct us in how to know God and walk confidently with Jesus Christ. (They) were godly, Bible-believing church pastors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They longed to see godliness flourish in heart, home, church, and nation, and they believed that the gospel was the power of God to transform both individuals and the nations.
"Why Read The Puritans?"
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Puritan Library