Tony Reinke, a researcher and writer, blogs at Miscellanies, and is the author of Lit! A Christian Guide to Reading Books (Crossway: 2011). Tony is also an appreciator of the Puritans and helps us here with encouragement and direction.
What Puritan work have you most benefited from and why?
That’s an excellent question. Early in my Christian life I read the 2-volume works of Jonathan Edwards (Banner of Truth) which was life-transforming for me. His God-centered worldview has done more to shape my thinking than any other single theologian. So I would start there and say that his works were of the greatest benefit to me personally. I remember very clearly where I was sitting when I first discovered the biblical theme of the “splendor of God’s holiness” (see 1 Chr. 16:29, Pss 29:2, 96:9). Edwards pointed that out to me in his book Religious Affections. By God’s act of sovereign grace in our lives, the holiness and purity of God attracts us to Him. Now of course it’s not terribly uncommon for sinners to sense the power of God, or even to sense God’s holy anger toward sin. But to see God’s moral beauty and then to be attracted to it, to have a heart kindled in desire for Him in his glorious holiness — that can only be explained by the presence of saving grace in the heart. The attractiveness of God’s moral beauty reshapes everything about the Christian life, the goal of missions, what we look for in a spouse, our understanding of Heaven, all of our duties on earth, and why we pursue personal holiness in the first place. We begin to see and treasure the holiness of God reflected in the saints that we worship with on Sunday. It all comes back to this: God is holy, and his holiness is the pinnacle of beauty. The implications are life-changing and all-embracing.
J.I. Packer once wrote that the Reformers were classic theologians; the Puritans were classic pastors and spiritual guides. That seems to be a good way of locating the Puritans in the sweep of Church history. The Puritans are also theologically minded, but they sought to work out reformed theology in the practices and priorities of daily life. They were theologically driven men and women who pursued holiness with seriousness, but also with joy. In fact they rightly believed joy and holiness were inseparable. Puritan John Flavel once wrote, “Holy joy is the oil that makes the chariot-wheels of the soul free to follow the Lord.” In fact I think the work of sanctification is mostly the pursuit of finding delight in what reflects God’s holy character (Ps 40:8). Or to put this more technically, as does Thomas Goodwin, “Holiness is a disposition to be for God, even as God is for himself.” Or as Edwards asks, “Is corruption so far killed in us that we can obey the commands of God with pleasure?” Sin keeps us from true delight. In the pages of these ancient books, the Puritans continue to hold out to us eternal delight in God.
Caution is wise here. I would not recommend a first time reader jump headlong in a multi-volume series of collected works, especially any modern reader who appreciates a section break here or there. Edwards and Goodwin would also be rough. I would suggest four initial options: (1) Consider reading a book about the Puritans. Packer, The Quest for Godliness and Ryken, Worldly Saints are two great places to begin. (2) Consider reading a compilation of the best Puritan prayers: The Valley of Vision. (3) Consider picking up a very, very short “Pocket Puritan” booklet, especially the ones on faith, heaven, heart, speech, and anger. (4) Finally, consider reading a title from the “Puritan Paperback” series. These books run about 150 pages in length and are modernized and often abridged. My favorites include: Goodwin, The Heart of Christ; Owen, The Glory of Christ; Owen, Communion with God; Owen, The Mortification of Sin; and Sibbes, The Bruised Reed.
