How to Profit from Reading the Puritans; ‘Meet the Puritans’, Beeke and Pederson
1. They shape life by Scripture: “The Scriptures teach us the best way of living, the noblest way of suffering, and the most comfortable way of dying”, John Flavel
2. They marry doctrine and practice
- Addressing the mind: An anti-intellectual gospel quickly becomes an empty, formless gospel that doesn’t get beyond “felt needs”
- Confronting the conscience: “We must go with the stick of divine truth and beat every bush behind which a sinner hides, until like Adam who hid, he stands before God in his nakedness.” since we are prone to run for the bushes, we need daily help to be brought before the living God “naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do” (Heb. 4:13).
- Engaging the heart: They set forth Christ in His loveliness, moving us to yearn to know Him better and live wholly for Him.
3. They focus on Christ: “Think of Christ as the very substance, marrow, soul, and scope of the whole Scriptures.” (Isaac Ambrose)
4. They show how to handle trials: The Puritans show us how God’s rod of affliction is His means to write Christ’s image more fully upon us, so that we may be partakers of His righteousness and holiness (Heb. 12:10-11).
5. They show how to live in two worlds: Living in the light of eternity necessitated radical self-denial.
6. They show us true spirituality: Pray to emulate their spirituality by asking questions like these daily,
- Am I, like the Puritans, thirsting to glorify the triune God?
- Am I motivated by Biblical truth and Biblical fire?
- Do I share the Puritan view of the vital necessity of conversion and being clothed with the righteousness of Christ?
- Do I follow them, as they followed Christ?
An excellent resource to catapult you into further reading and study of those whose shoulders we are to stand on. Throughout, there are notations of books to further your study of a particular subject which were written by men who lived it.
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Filed under: Meditation, Meet the Puritans, Puritans, Reading
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