A large amount of what is published today will be gathering dust in ten or twenty years. There is a reason these older Puritan works are still being published and read centuries after the deaths of their authors.
Over the last year, I did a lot of reading in the old Puritan authors (I’m not going to get into the interminable debate over the definition of “Puritan” here). Many of them, I had the opportunity to read at length for the first time. These works are treasure troves, and I cannot recommend them highly enough. If you are not sure where to begin and are hesitant to spend a lot of money before you are sure, I would recommend perusing various Puritan works at The Digital Puritan website. I enjoy recommending books and authors, so I thought I’d attempt to come up with my “Top 5” list. This is merely a list of the five Puritan authors I have most enjoyed reading for a variety of reasons. Others will enjoy different authors.
Thomas Brooks
Thomas Brooks is best known for his work Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, and that is a great introduction to his work, but by all means do not stop there. Brooks has written so much more, and all of it is biblically rich, Christ-centered, and practically edifying. You will find yourself driven to prayer repeatedly when reading Brooks. Banner of Truth has his collected works in a six-volume set. It’s one of the few multi-volume sets in which every volume is worth reading from first to last. If you don’t want to take my word for it, here is Sinclair Ferguson discussing and recommending the works of Thomas Brooks. If you haven’t read Brooks, choose a work by him and put it at the top of your reading list.
We have all things in Christ. Christ is all things to a Christian. If we are sick, Jesus is a physician. If we thirst, Jesus is a fountain. If our sins trouble us, Jesus is our righteousness. If we stand in need of help, Jesus is mighty to save. If we fear death, Jesus is life. If we are in darkness, Jesus is light. If we are weak, Jesus is strength. If we are in poverty, Jesus is plenty. If we desire heaven, Jesus is the way. The soul cannot say, ‘this I would have, and that I would have.’ But having Jesus, he has all he needs—eminently, perfectly, eternally (Thomas Brooks).
Thomas Watson
It is difficult to choose between Thomas Brooks and Thomas Watson for first place on my list of five favorite Puritans. It’s basically a tie for first in my mind because I enjoy reading both of them so much. His best known work is titled A Body of Practical Divinity, Consisting of Above One Hundred and Seventy Six-Sermons on the Shorter Catechism, Composed by the Reverend Assembly of Divines at Westminster. As this typically concise Puritan book title indicates, this work consists of over one hundred and seventy six sermons on the Westminster Shorter Catechism. It is preached theology, theology done in and for the church, and that is one of the things that makes reading it such a delight. This is not dry and dusty ivory tower theology by a mile. This is theology driven home to the heart, and it is theology that results in doxology. Banner of Truth has published the bulk of this work in three volumes: A Body of Divinity, The Ten Commandments, and The Lord’s Prayer. Another work originally published together with these is titled The Art of Divine Contentment. It was published by Soli Deo Gloria and now by Reformation Heritage Books. Read all of these together. Doctrine and practice weren’t as easily separated in the older Reformed theologies, and reading all three of these together as they were preached and published reminds us of why they shouldn’t be separated as they have often been in the contemporary church.
