Meet the Puritans

“So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.” (Hebrews 13.12-13) Last time I paused at the half-way point in our reading of the Puritan Paperback, Sermons of the Great...

Reformation Scotland Trust was formed in 2013. Their stated aim is “to promote the restoration of the Christian Church in Scotland, by informing, educating and promoting understanding of the attainments of the Second Reformation in Scotland.” That is an aim that I’m sure many readers of Meet the...

The God of the Bible is the God who has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass from all eternity and who in human history brings all his plans to reality through creation and redemption (Eph. 1:11). This means he surely is not absent, but present in all the affairs of his creation. And because he is...

In my last article I discussed that the puritans believed that good works are more than the fruit of faith, justification and salvation in that they are the way to eternal life and an antecedent condition of glorification. The minority of puritans labelled as "antinomians" not only rejected this...

At some point in every local pastor's ministry he is going to experience an inquiry and even a call to serve in another congregation or area of service. I know for me, the first time this happened I had no idea what to do. I certainly was not prepared in seminary for this! Thankfully I like old...

Samuel Rutherford (1600-1661) is often regarded as the finest Scottish theologian of the mid-seventeenth century. I’m not sure I entirely accept that. For me, at least David Dickson and James Durham were on a par with him, if not his theological betters. But Rutherford wrote more, and specifically...

Can faith damn us? The Dutch “Puritan” theologian Wilhelmus à Brakel (1635-1711) argued that the first sin of Adam and Eve was unbelief. To state this differently, they exchanged faith in the Word of God for faith in the word of the Serpent ( The Christian’s Reasonable Service , 1:372-373; print ;...

Thanks to our friends at The Latimer Trust , we have two (2) copies of Peter Adam's book, To Bring Men to Heaven by Preaching: John Donne's Evangelistic Sermons to give away. The deadline for entering is Friday, May 20 . Here's the Entry Form .

A while back while teaching a mid-week series on the life and work of Thomas Manton, I came across the following quote from Charles Haddon Spurgeon about Thomas Manton. It comes from the "Preface" to Illustrations and Meditations, or, Flowers From a Puritan's Garden, Distilled and Dispensed (London...

We continue our series on the blessed but difficult subject of assurance of salvation (see part 1 ). Assurance or certainty about a truth in general may come in various ways, such as seeing or hearing something with your eyes and ears, knowing a first principle and making logical deductions from it...