10 Readable Puritans

Puritan.

It’s a word that for many is as abrasive as “ni” to Arthur and his court. The word conjures up witch burning and narcoleptic inducing sermons. H.L. Mencken once said that Puritanism is defined as, “the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy”.

Yet, in recent days the Puritans have enjoyed a revival of sorts, especially in Reformed circles. Thanks to men like Joel Beeke, a new generation of believers are encouraged to Meet the Puritans. And it seems that is about as far as we get.

The Puritans have become more like your grandma’s fine china than your mother’s worn out dinner plate. We talk about them. We like the thought of them. We know they have value. But we seldom bring them out.

I believe part of the reason for their neglect is that we have flattened the Puritans. We’ve leveled them in such a way that we don’t know the difference between William Perkins and Richard Baxter. To us they are just “Puritan”. And so young men go to conferences and get encouraged to read the Puritans. They pick up a valuable resource like Beeke’s book, Meet the Puritans, swirl their finger around and land on a name. They buy Stephen Charnock’s The Attributes of God and never get any further than page 20, with the sad conclusion that the Puritans are too tough to read.

You know what? Some of them are. Charnock, in my opinion, is a terror to read. John Owen can be just as difficult. But not all Puritans are tough to read. Some are about as easy to read as a book you would find in your local Christian bookstore. Here are ten of the most readable Puritans with a suggested book to get you started.

1. Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed
2. John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress
3. Thomas Watson, The Doctrine of Repentance
4. Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor
5. Samuel Rutherford, The Letters of Samuel Rutherford
6. Jeremiah Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment
7. William Bridge, A Lifting Up for the Downcast
8. Thomas Boston, The Art of Man-Fishing
9. Anne Bradstreet, The Works of Anne Bradstreet
10. Obadiah Sedgwick, The Anatomy of Secret Sins

These are ten books by Puritans that are very readable. There are within these a few speed bumps. Even if the writing is easy to understand, at times the work of God on your soul will be so intense that your only recourse is to put the book down for awhile and worship. At times you’ll trip over an archaic word. But most modern translations give footnotes to help you along.

Start with Sibbes and go from there.