Read  "The Imitation of Christ"  by Thomas à Kempis

The Puritan's Index

The Puritans and Revival Christianity 
Innumerable writers have attempted to explain the phenomena by political and social considerations. They have supposed that the success which the historical Reformers and Puritans achieved occurred through a curious combination of historical circumstances which cannot be expected to happen again. To the Christians of that era, however, the explanation was entirely different.

A Prayer From The Book That Started Puritanism 
Dr. John Gerstner said it was the devotional book that started the Puritan movement (besides the Bible). Here's a prayer from one of the most popular devotional manuals written by the puritans of the 17th century.

The Puritan Fire
The real beginnings of Puritanism are seen in London, when, as the fruit of the sacrificial labors of Tyndale and his brethren, the Book of God was at last given to the people in their own tongue. The first six Bibles were set up in the nave of St. Paul's, and day after day crowds flocked to the edifice to drink from the living stream.

Great Puritan Messages
Sermon messages from some of the great Puritan preachers, such as Thomas Watson, John Bunyan, Richard Baxter, Thomas Brooks, Matthew Henry, Thomas Manton, John Owen and many more. Inspiring, convicting!

The Puritan Prayers
Twenty-three heart rending Puritan prayers from the book, A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions.

The Puritan's Convictions
Puritanism generally extended the thought of the English Reformation, with distinctive emphases on four convictions: (1) that personal salvation was entirely from God, (2) that the Bible provided the indispensable guide to life, (3) that the church should reflect the express teaching of Scripture, and (4) that society was one unified whole.

Notable Puritans
The Puritans enjoyed a great number of forceful preachers and teachers. The learned Dr. William Ames explained "the doctrine of living of God" in The Marrow of Theology, a book used as a text during the first fifty years of Harvard College. The sermons and tracts of William Perkins outlined with sympathy the steps that a repentant sinner should take to find God.

The Major English Puritans
A larger more indepth look at the major English Puritans, also includes a list of some of the lesser known Puritans who also had an effect upon the puritan era.

Messages by the Puritans
Read powerful gospel messages written by some of the most beloved Puritans like John Owen, Christopher Love, Samuel Chadwick, Richard Baxter and John Bunyan just to name a few.

A Puritan Compass That Leads To Doctrinal Truth

Sometimes it's just easy to loose sight of the forest through the trees, and so it is with the teachings of the bible as well. From the quill of the 17th century Puritan John Flavel, comes this excellent one-paragraph summary of the bible. It's "old truth" that we can use as a compass, in evaluating modern methods and movements:

"Whatever religion or doctrine condones or makes allowances for sin is not of Christ. The Doctrine of Christ everywhere teaches self-denial and mortification of worldliness and sin. The whole stream of the gospel runs against those things. Scripture emphasizes the 'holy' and the 'heavenly' (not the sinful and the worldly). The true gospel has not even the slightest tendency to extol corrupt nature, or feed its pride by magnifying its freedom and power. And it rejects everything that undermines or obscures the merit of Christ, or tries to give any credit to man, in any way. And it certainly never makes the death of Christ a cloak to cover sin, but rather it always speaks of it as an instrument that destroys it!"

Overlay John Flavel's template on any of the fads and debates that are so prevalent in the modern church, and you'll have a clearer understanding of which side is true and which side is an impostor.

Great Puritan Messages

The Hallway to the Saints' Rest  by Richard Baxter
The hallway to heaven is not barricaded anymore. The flaming sword no longer bars the passage to Paradise, for Christ has provided the way in. The porch of this temple is magnificent, and the gate of it is called "Beautiful." Here are the four corners of this porch of Paradise.

A Reproof to Such as are Only Pretenders to Godliness  by Thomas Watson
Here is a sharp rebuke to such as are 'glittering dross' Christians, who only make a show of godliness, like Michal, who put 'an image in the bed', and so deceived Saul's messengers (I Sam. 19:16). These our Saviour calls 'whited sepulchres (Matt 23:27) - their beauty is all paint!

Peace and Stupidity
by John Owen

Many love to walk in a very careless, unwise profession. So long as they can hold out in the performance of outward duties, they are very regardless of the greatest evangelical privileges,-of those things which are the marrow of divine promises,-all real endeavours of a vital communion with Christ.

Such are spiritual peace, refreshing consolations, ineffable joys, and the blessed composure of assurance. Without some taste and experience of these things, profession is heartless, lifeless, useless; and religion itself a dead carcass without an animating soul. The peace which some enjoy is a mere stupidity.

They judge not these things to be real which are the substance of Christ's present reward; and a renunciation whereof would deprive the church of its principal supportments and encouragements in all its sufferings. It is a great evidence of the power of unbelief, when we can satisfy ourselves without an experience in our own hearts of the great things, in this kind of joy, peace, consolation, assurance, that are promised in the Gospel.

For how can it be supposed that we do indeed believe the promises of things future,-namely, of heaven, immortality, and glory, the faith whereof is the foundation of all religion,-when we do not believe the promises of the present reward in these spiritual privileges? And how shall we be thought to believe them, when we do not endeavour after an experience of the things themselves in our own souls, but are even contented without them? But herein men deceive themselves.

They would very desirously have evangelical joy, peace, and assurance, to countenance them in their evil frames and careless walking And some have attempted to reconcile these things, unto the ruin of their souls. But it will not be. Without the diligent exercise of the grace of obedience, we shall never enjoy the grace of consolation.

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