The Towering Redwoods

The great Puritan teachers nourished their churches on sound doctrine.  Over the past fifty years there has been a resurgence of interest in the writings of these great servants of God.  A growing number of Christians have found in their teaching a depth of insight, integrity and commitment too often missing in the pulpit today.  My prayer is that, by directly quoting them more often, I will be able to give you a taste of Puritan teaching.  I hope you will join the ever growing number of those who gratefully feast at their table every day.  To that end, I will let their own words speak for themselves as much as possible.  I will clarify or change words in a direct quotation only if necessary for understanding.  I pray that these daily meditations will convince you that, although over three centuries separate us from the Puritans, their writings are worth whatever extra effort is required to read them.  J. I. Packer’s book A Quest for Godliness, is a very fine introduction to the Puritans and their teaching.  In the introduction, Packer compares England’s Puritans with the giant Redwoods of California, which tower above the rest of the landscape.  Packer asserts that in theology and spirituality the Puritans are a breed of giants, rising above the majority of Christians in most eras.  Comparing the Puritans to the Christians he knows best, contemporary believers in Britain and America, Packer writes that “affluence seems for the past generation to have been making dwarfs and deadheads of us all.  In this situation, the teaching and example of the Puritan giants have much to say to us.”