I've been reading a lot lately. Some of what I've been reading includes many of the Puritan preachers from centuries past. These include Richard Baxter, Richard Sibbes, John Bunyan, and Jonathan Edwards among others. It's not that I have not been aware of the Puritan writings or dabbled in reading them before, but just not in depth. One writer that has been particularly helpful in the past couple of months has been Sibbes, but more on that later.
The first thing to note about the Puritans is that they have been misaligned. Yes, their 'label' comes from the idea of being pure, but not in the way that we might think. Just like the word Christian was first used as a derogatory remark, so was the word Puritan and it still is today. Much of what the Puritans wrote about, however, is not too much different from what we might hear from more solid preachers of the Bible today, such as John Piper, Mark Dever, and my own pastor Brad Evangelista.
They wrote about sin, trusting in God alone for our salvation, having joy in God, marriage, family, and living a life of holiness. Many of the Puritans were of the Calvinist/Reformed tradition, and they fought hard against superficial Christianity, legalism, and the state control of religion. Sound familiar? Sometimes the Puritans were even at odds with each other, but their message was often the same: trust in Christ to change your heart.
One book that is helpful in diving into the Puritans is J. I. Packer's A Quest for Godliness. In it, he gives an introduction to the Puritans, their writings, and highlights a few of the preachers from that time period, such as Baxter and Sibbes. He also talks of some of the challenges they faced as well as things that he disagrees with some of them on, particularly Baxter. Jonathan Edwards is included in this list as well, often called the American Puritan.
Getting back to Sibbes, his The Bruised Reed is perhaps one of the most helpful, challenging, and heart-wrenching books one can read, whether in times of trouble, or not. Sibbes digs down into the scripture to get you to see that despite everything that you might be going through, it's all a matter of your heart, and Christ performing heart surgery on you. You're not broken, but you are definitely bruised. Christ is healing that bruise and leading you into paths of righteousness. I will leave you with perhaps one of the more famous quotes from this book:
The Holy Ghost is content to dwell in smoky, offensive souls. O that that Spirit would breathe into our spirits the like merciful disposition! We endure the bitterness of wormwood, and other distasteful plants and herbs, only because we have some experience of some wholesome quality in them; and why should we reject men of useful parts and graces, only for some harshness of disposition, which, as it is offensive to us, so grieveth themselves? Grace whilst we live here is in souls, which as they are unperfectly renewed, so they dwell in bodies subject to several humours, which will incline the soul sometimes to excess in one passion, sometimes to excess in another.
Bucer was a deep and a moderate divine; upon long experience he resolved to refuse none in whom he saw, aliquid Christi, something of Christ. The best Christians in this state of imperfection are like gold that is a little too light, which needs some grains of allowance to make it pass. You must grant the best their allowance. We must supply out of our love and mercy, that which we see wanting in them. The church of Christ is a common hospital, wherein all are in some measure sick of some spiritual disease or other; that we should all have ground of exercising mutually the spirit of wisdom and meekness.
Sibbes, R. (1862). The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes. (A. B. Grosart, Ed.) (Vol. 1, p. 57). Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; W. Robertson.
