Nine Reasons to Read the Puritans

At the recent Ligonier Conference, in a brief exhortation, Joel Beeke offered nine reasons to read the Puritans:

1. The Puritans will help shape your life according to the Bible.
2. Puritan writings will show you how to integrate Biblical doctrine into daily life by: addressing your mind, confronting your conscience by exposing specific sins and asking questions to press home the conviction of those sins and by engaging your heart with affectionate warmth.
   
3. The Puritans show you the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ and exalt Him — the whole Christ for the whole man.
4. The Puritans will warm you and bring you the highlight of the Christian faith by showing you the Trinitarian character of theology. They were motivated by a deep sense of the holiness of the godhead.
5. The Puritans will teach us how to handle trials.
6. Puritans will explain true spirituality.
   
7. The Puritans will teach you how to live by holistic faith. Every subject, every doctrine they treat they bring into what they call "practical uses" — uses that will propel you into passionate and effective action for Christ's kingdom.
8. Puritan writings teach us the importance and the primacy of expository preaching. For the Puritans preaching was the highlight of one's life — it was the market day of the soul to go to God's house and worship Him.
   
9. Puritan writings show us how to live in two worlds. The Puritans said we should have heaven in our eye even as we have earth in our hands.
   

In summary, J. I. Packer wrote,

The Puritans were strongest just where Christians today are weakest. Their writings can give us real help — more real help than any other body of Christian teachers, past or present, since the days of the Apostles.

I have found these reasons to be true in my own life. My heart was whetted to an appetite for the Puritans through the pen of Thomas Watson. If you want to start reading them, I would suggest either his All Things for Good or The Godly Man's Picture. Another good place to begin is by reading some of their sermons, many of which may be found here.