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Archive for the ‘Puritans & Puritanism’ Category

The devils, free yet bound

Posted in Divine Providence, Puritans & Puritanism, Spiritual Warfare; the Occult on September 26, 2026| Leave a Comment »

An evidence of the power and efficacy of this darkness we may find in the devil himself. The apostle Peter tells us that the angels who sinned are “reserved unto judgment” under “chains of darkness,” 2 Pet. ii. 4. It is plain that there is an allusion in the words unto the dealing of men with stubborn and heinous malefactors. They do not presently execute them upon their offences, nor when they are first apprehended; they must be kept unto a solemn day of trial and judgment. But yet, to secure them that they make no escape, they are bound with chains which they cannot deliver themselves from. Thus God deals with fallen angels; for although yet they “go to and fro in the earth, and walk up and down in it,” as also in the air, in a seeming liberty and at their pleasure, yet are they under such chains as shall securely hold them unto the great day of their judgment and execution. That they may not escape their appointed doom, they are held in “chains of darkness.”

They are always so absolutely and universally under the power of God as that they are not capable of the vanity of a thought for the subducting themselves from under it. But whence is it that, in all their wisdom, experience, and the long-continued prospect which they have had of their future eternal misery, none of them ever have attempted, nor ever will, a mitigation of their punishment or deliverance from it, by repentance, and compliance with the will of God? This is alone from their own darkness, in the chains whereof they are so bound that although they believe their own everlasting ruin, and tremble at the vengeance of God therein, yet they cannot but continue in their course of mischief, disobedience, and rebellion. And although natural men are not under the same obdurateness with them, as having a way of escape and deliverance provided for them and proposed unto them, which they have not; yet this darkness is no less effectual to bind them in a state of sin, without the powerful illumination of the Holy Ghost, than it is in the devils themselves.

John Owen, Pneumatologia: Discourses Concerning the Holy Spirit

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Godward religion

Posted in Christian Life & Experience, Church of England, Experimental Religion & the Cure of Souls, Practice of Piety, Puritans & Puritanism on September 23, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Direct. XX. See that your religion be purely divine, and animated all by God, as the beginning, the way, and the end; and that first upon thy soul, and then upon all that thou hast or dost, there be written “HOLINESS TO THE LORD;” and that thou corrupt not all with an inordinate hypocritical respect to man.

To be holy is to be divine, or devoted to God, and appropriated to him, and his will, and use; and that our hearts and lives be not common and unclean. To be godly, is to live to God, as those that from their hearts believe that he is God indeed, and that “he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him,” that he is “our God all-sufficient, our shield and exceeding great reward,” Heb. xi. 6; Gen. xv. 1; xvii. 1; and that “of him, and through him, and to him are all things,” that all may give the glory for ever unto him, Rom. xi. 36. As God is infinitely above all creatures, so living upon God, and unto God, must needs advance us above the highest sensual life; and therefore religion is transcendently above all sciences or arts. So much of God as is in you and upon you, so much you are more excellent than the highest worldly perfection can advance you to. God should be the First, and Last, and All in the mind, and mouth, and life of a believer. God must be the principal matter of your religion. The understanding and will must be exercised upon him. When you awake you should be still with him, Psal. cxxxix. 8. Your meditations of him should be sweet, and you should be glad in the Lord, Psal. civ. 34. Yet creatures, under him, may be the frequent, less principal matter of your religion; but still as referred unto him. God must be the author of your religion; God must institute it, if you expect he should accept it and reward it. God must be the rule of your religion, as revealing his will concerning it in his word. God must be the ultimate end of your religion; it must be intended to please and glorify him. God must be the continual motive and reason of your religion, and of all you do: you must be able truly to fetch your reason from heaven, and to say, I do it because it is his will; I do it to please, and glorify, and enjoy him. God must be taken as the Sovereign Judge of your religion, and of you, and of all you do; and you must wholly look to his justification and approbation, and avoid whatever he condemneth. Can you take God for your Owner, your Sovereign, your Saviour, your sufficient Protector, your Portion, your All? If not, you cannot be godly, nor be saved: if his authority have not more power upon you, than the authority of the greatest upon earth, you are atheistical hypocrites, and not truly religious, whatever you pretend. If “holiness to the Lord” be written upon you, and all that is yours, you are devoted to him as his own peculiar ones. If your names be set upon your sheep, or plate, or clothes, you will say, if another should take them, They are mine; do you not see my mark upon them? Slavery to the flesh, the world, and the devil, is the mark that is written upon the ungodly (upon the foreheads of the profane, and upon the hearts of hypocrites and all); and Satan, the world, and the flesh have their service. If you are consecrated to God, and bear his name and mark upon you, tell every one that would lay claim to you, that you are his, and resolved to live to him, to love him, to trust him, and to stand or fall to him alone. Let God be the very life, and sense, and end of all you do.

Richard Baxter, Christian Directory

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WPE Audio: New England Heritage

Posted in Audio Resources, Historical Theology, Historiography, New England Puritanism, Puritans & Puritanism on November 27, 2025| Leave a Comment »

As we turn in deep gratitude to the Most High for all His blessings towards us, let us remember especially the unique favor He has shown to our fathers and mothers of the faith who first came to these shores on a holy “errand into the wilderness.” In the words of the Mayflower Compact (1620), their cause was “undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country.”

Let me encourage you to listen to our Pilgrim and Puritan fathers. In addition to other amateur recordings, I’ve been steadily adding to this collection of sermons, treatises, and narratives from the pen of these giants of the faith, who helped found this “City on a Hill.” And if you’d like to hear an early account of the Pilgrim colony, check out Cotton Mather’s, “Magnalia Christi Americana 1.1: Discoveries of America.” Also, John Winthrop’s original sermon where he speaks of the “city on an hill,” is available under “A Modell of Christian Charity.”

And as we thank the Lord today, lest us with humility and earnestness implore Him to restore the former glory through national repentance. He did it before, and He can do it again! “Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee” (Psalm 85:6)?

Visit the WPE Audio page for our full audio library.

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“Cotton Mather and the Jews”

Posted in Israel; Calling of & Mission to the Jews, Missiology, New England Puritanism, Puritans & Puritanism on November 4, 2025| Leave a Comment »

This is an academic article from the earlier 20th century on New England Puritan, Cotton Mather, on his zealous concern for the salvation of the Jews. He develops the account from Mather’s notable journal entry in 1696: “This day, from the dust, where I lay prostrate, before the Lord, I lifted up my cries: For the conversion of the Jewish Nation, and for my own having the happiness, at some time or other, to baptize a Jew, that should by my ministry, bee brought home unto the Lord.”

Friedman-Lee M, Cotton Mather and the JewsDownload

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Like a ship in the hands of foolish guides

Posted in Catholicity, Connectionalism & Conciliarism, Puritans & Puritanism on September 2, 2025| Leave a Comment »

“Sometimes the church is like a ship in the hands of foolish guides that know not the right art of steerage, at other times spotted with the calumnies of adversaries, or the stains and scandals of its own children; sometimes rent and torn by sad divisions, every party impaling and enclosing the common salvation within their own bounds, unchristianing and unchurching all the rest, and the name of christians challenged to themselves and denied to others, and like a ball of contention carried away by that party that can rustle down others who stand in their way. Though with all this disadvantage it is better to dwell in the courts of the Lord than in the tents of wickedness; yet surely a tender spirit that minded Sion’s welfare will groan under these disorders, and long to come at that great council of souls who with perfect harmony are lauding and praising of God for evermore, ‘that innumerable company of spirits made perfect,’ Heb. 12:23. That general assembly, gathered together out of several countries into one body and one place, who live together sweetly, and serve God without weakness, weariness, and imperfection.”

Thomas Manton

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Whole doctrine catholicity | “Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners” (Song 6:10)?

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“The order of this charity”

Posted in Christian Ethics, Common Grace, Conscience & Casuistry, Natural Law, Paternalism & Patriarchy, Political Theory & Theology, Postwar Consensus, Nationalism, Puritans & Puritanism, Social Issues, William Ames on July 29, 2025| Leave a Comment »

The following is drawn from William Ames’ Marrow of Theology 2.16, “Of Justice and Charity toward our neighbour.” A Reformed orthodox treatment of the ordo amoris or order of love.

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13. The order of this charity is this: that God is first and chiefly to be loved by charity, and so he is, as it were, the formal reason for this charity toward our neighbour. Next after God we are bound to love ourselves, namely with that charity which respects true blessedness; for loving God himself with a love of union, we love ourselves immediately with that chief charity which respects our spiritual blessedness. But secondarily, we should love others whom we would have partake of the same good with us. Moreover, others may be deprived of this blessedness without our fault, but we ourselves cannot; and therefore we are more bound to will and to seek this blessedness for ourselves than for others.

14. This is why the love of ourselves has the force of a rule or a measure for the love of others: You shall love your neighbour as yourself.

15. Hence it is never lawful to commit any sin for another’s sake, even though our offence may seem small, and to be a chief good which we should seek for another. For he that wittingly and willingly sins, hates his own soul. Pro 8.36, He that sins against me, offers violence to his own soul. Pro 29.24. He that partakes with a thief, hates himself: he hears cursing and does not declare it.

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Watson on Constantine and other “nursing fathers”

Posted in Christian Ethics, Constantine, Establishments, Puritans & Puritanism, The Civil Magistrate, The Godly Prince on July 6, 2025| Leave a Comment »

The following are quotes are from A Body of Practical Divinity (1838 edition):

“We glorify God, when we give God the glory of all we do. . . . As the silk-worm, when she weaves her curious work, she hides herself under the silk, and is not seen; so when we have done Constantine did use to write the name of Christ over his door, so should we write the name of Christ over our duties; let him wear the garland of praise” (27).

“The word being begun to be preached, hear it with reverence and holy attention. ‘A certain woman, named Lydia, attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.’ Acts 16: 14. Constantine, the emperor, was noted for his reverent attention to the word” (381).

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Flavel on Constantine & Christendom

Posted in Christendom, Constantine, Establishments, Historiography, Puritans & Puritanism on May 17, 2025| Leave a Comment »

The following are extracts from John Flavel’s Whole Works reflecting his (and Protestantism’s) mainly positive appraisal of Constantine and the shift to Christendom. The first passage doesn’t mention his name in particular, but employs the “earth helping the woman” trope for Christian magistrates supporting the true religion that I first encountered in Thomas Chalmers, but clearly predates him.

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“Secondly, We shall next enquire how Jesus Christ administers this providential kingdom. And here I must take notice of the means by which, and the manner in which he does it. The means, or instruments, he uses in the governing the providential kingdom, (for he is not personally present with its himself), are either angels or men, “the angels are ministering creatures, sent forth by him for the good of them that shall be heirs of salvation,” Heb. 1:14. Luther tells us, they have two offices, superius canere, et inferius vigilare, “to sing above and watch beneath.” These do us many invisible offices of love. They have dear and tender respects and love for the saints. To them, God, as it were, puts forth his children to nurse, and they are tenderly careful of them while they live, and bring them home in their arms to their Father when they die. And as angels, so men are the servants of Providence; yes, bad men as well as good. Cyrus, on that account, is called God’s servant: they fulfill his will, while they are prosecuting their own lusts. “The earth shall help the woman,” Rev. 12:16. But good men delight to serve Providence; they and the angels are fellow servants in one house, and to one master, Rev. 19:10. Yes, there is not a creature in heaven, earth, or hell, but Jesus Christ can providentially use it and serve his ends, and promote his designs by it. But whatever the instrument be Christ uses, of this we may be certain, that his providential working is holy, judicious, sovereign, profound, irresistible, harmonious, and to the saints peculiar” (Works 1:216).

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Owen on Christ’s “inauguration”

Posted in Christ & the Church, Puritans & Puritanism, Redemption Accomplished, Union with Christ on May 17, 2025| Leave a Comment »

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Sibbes’ last two sermons

Posted in Audio Resources, Experimental Religion & the Cure of Souls, Puritans & Puritanism on May 1, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Listen to the last two sermons of Richard Sibbes here. Both of them are on the words of our Lord on the night of his betrayal, “Let not your hearts be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me” (John 14:1).

“Holy men, as they be ‘ trees of righteousness,’ Isa. Ixi. 3, and desire to be fruitful at all times, so most especially towards their end; having but a short time to live in the world, they be willing to leave the world with a good savour. So it was with Jacob. So with Moses, as appears in his excellent Song made before his death. You may see it in King Solomon and David before their deaths. But especially in our Saviour. The nearer to heaven, the more heavenly-minded. When grace and glory are ready to join, the one to be swallowed up of the other, then grace is most glorious. All the passages of Christ are comfortable; but none more comfortable than those sermons of his, that were delivered a little before his death. Of all words that come from loving men to those they love, such are most remarkable as be spoken when they be ready to die; because then men are most serious, they being about the most serious business. Then they be wisest, and best able to judge; for the consideration of their end makes them wise. And therefore, saith God, ‘ that my people were wise to consider their latter end!’ Deut. xxxii. 29. And, ‘ teach me to number my days, that I may apply my heart to wisdom,’ saith Moses, Ps. xc. 12. And indeed there is no wisdom to that; for it teacheth men to pass a right judgment upon all things in the world. They be no longer drunk with the prosperity of the world; they be no longer swayed with opinion, but they pass an estimation of things as they are.”

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