Packer on the Puritans

J. I. Packer’s A Quest for Godliness is a fine introduction into the life and thought of the 17th Century English Puritans.  This was one of the books that was instrumental in leading me to, what is for my money, the best Christian literature ever to bless the Church.  I want to share the reasons Packer has devoted himself to a life-long study of the Puritans and the benefits he believes reading their sermons and writings has to offer Christianity today.  I will close today with George Whitefield’s assessment of Puritan preaching: “Ministers never write or preach so well as when under the cross, the Spirit of Christ and of glory then rests upon them.  It was this, no doubt, that made the Puritans such burning and shining lights.  When driven from their respective churches to preach in barns and fields, in highways and hedges, they in an especial manner wrote and preached as men having authority.  Though dead, by their writings they yet speak; a peculiar unction attends them to this very hour.”