Are we Puritans?
It seems that the Puritans have enjoyed some revival, as far as people reading their voluminous works which are a rich treasure, still available to us today, in either the language they originally penned their treatises, books, sermons etc, or in re-prints, such as those that come out from the Banner of Truth. This is and can only be a good thing, for the church as a whole, that we are once again turning to the teachings of these spiritual giants, who were physicians to souls of the people of their times. And I would personally recommend for living the Christian life, to put our Systematic Theologies down somewhat, and pick up the works of the Puritans, who were the greatest Systematic Theologians we have.
However, those of us, who may hold the same beliefs as the Puritans in many aspects; those of us who exalt the same biblical teachings that they taught, and put a high price on those truths, and don’t think of them casually, there is often an error in our thinking, by thinking we today are puritans also and calling ourselves such. We may share their views, their holy lives, and their desire for reforming the church from within. But, for those who hold to the same Biblical worldview, represented most succinctly by the Original Westminster Standards, the same as the puritans of those times, cannot call ourselves puritans without adding the pre-fix Neo in front of it. The puritans belonged to a very specific time frame. That time frame started in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and ended more or less with the death of Oliver Cromwell; anyone to come after that time period can never be puritans nor claim that name as it is, rightly for themselves. We may want to hold to their teachings, ways of life etc, in such esteem, that we want to associate ourselves with the rich heritage they left us. I think many Christians can understand that, and I think many Calvinist’s feel the same about John Calvin and Martin Luther and the like.
Charles Spurgeon is often thought of as an “honorary puritan,” because he was alive and kicking in the days after the puritan era had closed. He is never officially referred to as a “Puritan.”. He talked like a puritan, taught like a puritan, lived and worked like a puritan, but he still was not a true puritan, because he was born in an age when Puritanism, was no longer a term for people of his time. The same goes for Jonathan Edwards in American, and George Whitfield. We may see these people referred to as puritans, yet the label in actual fact does not belong to them and is not accurate any more than it can realistically be accurate for us to call ourselves puritans either. Their ministries were after the age of the Puritans. The term Neo-puritan, will represent Spurgeon, Edwards and Whitfield, and it will also represent us. I think these are important distinctions to make for us today. As many say they admire the puritans, without really seeming to know much about them, and it’s more like an associating oneself with something noble, that if we adopt their name, we can share in their nobility. Many Christians seem to do this no less with Christ, and the Puritans are probably second on the list only below Christ himself for this happening. It’s almost like a Christian badge of honour, yet the term in itself was derogatory and for ridicule, and it’s not true that we today, can call ourselves the same name as they, as “Puritans”, no matter how much we may realistically share with them in our Christian lives. We today, if we do share much with them, would be right to call ourselves, “Neo-Puritans.”
As I have said before, the puritans get a bad press. And the term puritan, was actually a derogatory term, to refer to a group of individuals who were misrepresented and the term was cloaked in sarcasm, and put downs, about the men included in that term. The term Neo-puritan today, is also similarly used. The term Puritan was a put down, not a badge of honour, or anything good or noble about it; it was used to poke fun and ridicule them with. They are often represented as someone (both then and now) who thinks themselves better than everyone else, who are fanatical, deranged even, and who are modern day scrooges when it comes to things like holy day observance, or the like. The puritans historically were largely represented as being so strict, and utter kill-joys that one would think if they cracked a smile, the only explanation could be they were either intoxicated, or mad or felt nauseous! How very unlike the truth that picture is. Yet it is a widely held to view, even among Christians today. The sad thing is, that groups who will represent in some part today, the teachings of the puritans, that in some cases, they seem to have that strictness, yet love gets squeezed out in favour of that strictness, when that attitude was far removed from the puritans historically. They were no clashing cymbals or gongs that enforced the law without the law of love also. They didn’t hold themselves as superior in any way, they were full of meekness and humility, which was lived out in their lives and showed by their actions throughout their lives.
Before I go on, I don’t wish to make it sound like these were perfect men and women. They weren’t. They were flawed human beings, just like you and I; there has only ever been one perfect human being, and that is whom they desired to serve, but their desire to put away the old man, and to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God, meant they had very little value upon themselves. They thought very little of themselves. And that concept is so foreign today in our cultures, where we are taught, self-eteem, and a dozen other self words, that this outlook is far removed from us today. That is one thing, we can definitely learn from them, and that we lack in leaps and bounds today, when comparing, point for point, ourselves with the Puritans of 16-17th Century England.
The Puritans, or non-conformists, were rebels at the time. The term non-conformist speaks for itself. These rebels who rebelled against the hierarchy who despised God and his mandates could not tolerate the excesses and ceremonies within the Church of England that were being enforced upon all churches, so they rebelled against it. They didn’t rebel against God in doing so, but the rules of Elizabeth I and her high commission, usurped the authority of God, so they justly, and in righteousness rebelled. The groups who believed the same way as the puritans, yet also believed the problem was not fixable, that it was a battle they could never win, the Separatists of that time, arrived in New England on the Mayflower. They were puritans too, but they didn’t want to try and change a problem that they deemed to be unsurpassable, and that they would be banging their head up a brick wall to no avail. However, when the Separatists took that step, of setting sail for New England, I doubt they ever dreamed that one day, down the generations that their off-spring would also be separatists, in an attempt to keep themselves from worship practices, that they had fled from England to New England for. And that some of these generations down, now were speatted from a Church, for the very same reason that their forefathers left England for New England. One may think that the term Puritan means Calvinist too, and in the overwhelming majority that may be true for their beliefs and practices. Yet there were also puritans who had other than Calvinist beliefs. There is one puritan, though his name currently escapes me, who was known as the Arminian puritan. Richard Baxter of course, was also little more than a confused Arminian. Yet, read his works, and see the man’s heart. See his holiness. Every corner of the puritan heart was devoted to God and his service above all. With very few exceptions, the Puritans were Calvinists, experimental ones. Their whole life, from getting up in the morning, to going to bed at night, was filled by the knowledge of God, and applying that knowledge to the whole of their lives, and putting that knowledge into practice, so that it was more than just head knowledge, but it lived in the heart, as active, life-changing knowledge. It was active, living, faith. Even what we dream when asleep, is covered by some puritans in their writings, as far as us being accountable for answering to God for sinful thoughts, etc. Whatever one thinks about that, it does demonstrate the point, that nothing, nothing in their life, or the scope of life, was left out of the notion of “how do we live to God,” for not just one day in seven, but seven days in seven, for 12 months in 12, for every year that we are alive, and every minute, every second of those days, months and years—In other words, the whole of life.
The Puritans it is well known are often thought of as kill-joys. People who wanted to stamp out any fun, or pleasure. Who were so severe at the thought of anyone having any fun or recreation, they would almost have an apoplectic fit. Yet little could be further from the truth! This representation was put around and has continued through the years, for no other reason than them once again being objects of ridicule. It was a way to put them down and jeer at them. Cartoons in popular newspapers, would and will often depict something using the term “Puritan” as a put down, and indicating to be one, is an utter disgrace, and you are a harbinger of gloom.
The best representation of this comes from the famous slogan, of which the author is unknown, which says, “A puritan is someone, who is afraid someone, somewhere is having fun.” The trouble is, that the age we live in, in which fun, entertainment and recreation are high in our priorities, that if you are more sober minded, not lent to such trivialities being the subject of your speech, such as the football game last night, or who won American Idol, that like the Puritans, even in our world today, you will be an outcast and shunned by society, as someone who doesn’t know how to have fun, or is much too caught up in seriousness, when we were after all put on this earth to have fun and enjoy ourselves, right? In a way, yes, but that enjoyment should come in all things, from the enjoyment of God. That doesn’t exclude the good things in life, the fun things, it just means that we should be moderate in the use of fun things, and should have our minds in heaven, and on eternal things, no matter what we are doing at the time.
The puritans and their teaching’s, however have stood the test of time, and as I said at the beginning of this essay, there is even some small revival for their works being read going on, largely thanks to ministries such as Joel Beeke, I believe.
The puritans sought to reform the church of the time, from within it. Rather than doing as the Separatists did, and leave for foreign soil, where they would have liberty to worship God as they felt was right, the Puritans stayed to fight against the excesses and ceremonies within the Church of England. Their Mayflower compatriots may have very well believed they did the right thing, and saw it rightly, and acted rightly by leaving England for New England, because the Puritans never won any of the battles they ever fought. BUT, the blood and the ashes from the fires of the martyrs won many a battle to change the hearts of the people who witnessed their martyrdoms.
These men and women, were living examples of the Power of the Word of God to change; the Power of the Word of God unto salvation. For as much as they desired to reform the church, the biggest reformation, went on within their own persons, their own families, their own lives, their own homes. These men stood as Spiritual giants, and it was the Sword of the Spirit that made them so. They were not ignorant Christians, who didn’t know what Scripture said, or barely knew. They lived, breathed and acted out what Scripture taught, because it was engraved upon their hearts, because the Word of God had utmost priority and reverence in their lives, and what they learned and gleaned from the Word they applied to their everyday lives. This is also something we can learn from the Puritans, and attain to aspire to. As it is rare, very rare, to find Christians who spends so much time in the Scriptures, searching out its secrets and depths, and who has such a thorough knowledge of its teachings as the Puritans did.
They were not only godly men, they were active men. They didn’t do as seems to be the norm in most of our modern books today, to turn out a couple of hundred pages, and sit back and watch the profits roll in. They penned their books by hand. There was no technology to make it easier, such as we have today. And rather than two hundred pages being the norm, many, many of those works, in their original format are short if they are six hundred pages. Richard Baxter’s Christian directory, runs at over 1,110 pages, and he wrote umpteen, and I mean umpteen works, and many of those other works of his were lengthy, lengthy works. Yet the well known ones we know best today turned out book after book. And it certainly wasn’t for the money or profit to be had in doing so in those times. It was a love for the Word of God, and their pastor’s hearts wanting to get that word out as far and wide as they possibly could. The whole of their lives were regulated by the Word of God. They went to bed early, as they had no electricity, so after a certain time at night, going to bed would be the only reasonable thing they could do. But they got up early, often at four or five in the morning, so that they gave God the first fruits of the day. Luther is said that he prayed an hour at each start of the day. When he was busier than normal, he prayed for two hours instead. That is the exact attitude we need to get back in our lives. Rather than I have x, y, z, so can’t. We all have limits, but relying on the strength of God rather than our own, then our weakness can be turned into his strength will make us doers. The puritans never stopped it seems, they were always and continuously doing the work of the Lord, in various ways. They often had large families, in those days it was the norm for large families, rather than small. And they never neglected their wives or children, there is not one single instance of divorce recorded amonst the Puritans, yet their workload was massive and that is why, given the way they regulated the whole of their lives upon the Word of God, that they achieved so much, even though they never won any of the battles they fought against the powers that be. They were strong Christians, mature, They were not doubled minded nor blown and tossed in the wind into other or different opinions. Their Bibles and their creed, mad their knowledge firm and sure and built upon the Rock. They held fast to the truth, because it was engraved upon their hearts after having spent so much time, studying and pouring through the Word of God. The Scripture says, that it has the Power to change, unto salvation. And given the high value that these men put on the Scriptures above anything else, that is why their lives were ones so well regulated by the word of God, and why they have left us a heritage we should not only take advantage of, by getting into some of their works so easily available to us today, but improving on that heritage, and not putting the baton down, as to do so, is to deride and mock the heritage they left us, as much as those who coined the term “Puritan” to mock and ridicule, and sneer at them. We may say we love the Puritans, and that may well be true. Only you can discern your own heart. But if we love them, then lets also imitate them. And be doers of the word, regulated in all spheres of life by the authority of the Word, and let us also leave a heritage, that in four hundred odd years times, the generations of those days, can find us and the heritage we leave, as usual and helpful as we do of that the Puritans left us.
This is part of my “The Puritan way” series and is to be continued.
