Puritans

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Puritans

Jeremiah Burroughs

Jeremiah Burroughs (or Burroughes) was baptized in 1601 and admitted as a pensioner at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1617. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1621 and a Master of Arts degree in 1624. His tutor was Thomas Hooker. Burroughs’s ministry falls into four periods, all of...
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Puritans

Anthony Burgess

Anthony Burgess, “a pious, learned, and able scholar, a good disputant, a good tutor, an eminent preacher, a sound and orthodox divine” (Wallis, Sermons, p. 15), was born to the son of a schoolmaster at Watford, Hertfordshire. He entered St. John’s College, Cambridge, in 1623, and graduated with a Bachelor...
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Puritans

The Obstacles of Meditation

Here is a summary of their responses to such obstacles: Obstacle 1: Unfitness or ignorance. Such say they cannot confine their thoughts to a particular subject. Their “thoughts are light and feathery, tossed to and fro.” Answer: Disability, ignorance, and wandering thoughts offer no exemption from duty. Your “loss of...
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Puritans

Shape Our Lives by the Authoritative Scriptures

The reading of the word is an ordinance of God, and mean[s] of salvation, of God’s own appointment. The Bible is this word, and God has given it to us, and appointed it to be read. —THOMAS BOSTON In John Bunyan’s (1628–1688) famed Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian is escorted into a...
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Puritans

Contagious Love for the Scriptures

The Puritans shape our minds according to the Bible. They loved the Bible, lived the Bible, sang the Bible, preached the Bible, read the Bible, memorized the Bible. They were thinking about the Bible every day. They were Bible-shaped theologians and Bible-shaped preachers. They just thought that way—that’s who they...
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Puritans

Extremism or Reasonable Service?

The Puritans were zealous not only to learn the Bible but to live the Bible. Some people think that such zealous attention to the Bible is a bit extreme. A common criticism that has been hurled at the Puritans is the charge of legalism. But their desire to honor the...
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Puritans

Theocentric, Scripture-Shaped Piety

Because the Puritans had a high view of the Bible, they had a high view of God. Actually, it was their high view of God that led them to have such a high esteem for the Bible, because it is His self-attested, self-authenticating, inspired and precious Word. They “received it...
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Puritans

The Preaching of the Word

“Preach the word” (2 Tim. 4:2), Paul charged Timothy. The Puritans took this charge seriously. The insistence of the Puritans on the primacy of preaching in the church was rooted in their conviction of the divine inspiration, authority, power, and purity of the Word. Being deeply convinced that God builds...
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Puritans

The Reading of the Word

The Puritans believed that the Bible should be the Christian’s daily companion. The Scottish, puritan-minded Thomas Boston (1676–1732) said, “The reading of the word is an ordinance of God, and mean[s] of salvation, of God’s own appointment. The Bible is this word, and God has given it to us, and...
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Puritans

All of Scripture for All of Life

Sola Scriptura, one of the five “solas,” or watchwords of the Protestant Reformation, asserts that Scripture alone is the supreme, infallible authority for Christian faith and life. Known as the “formal principle” of the Protestant Reformation, this watchword summarizes the truth that Scripture is the ultimate criterion for all that...
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