Charles Spurgeon on the Puritan writers

[stenerson]

I heard an excellent sermon by Charles Spurgeon on you tube this week.
In it he speaks about how many of his bethren have struggles of conscience and faith due to their reading of some Puritan writers. He praises these writers for their zeal and commitment to truth. He said though that the problem is the readers expect the same experience in every case that these Puritans writers had. Specifically an overwhelming emptiness, a great sense of their sin, trembling, great fear etc...
From his counseling of these people he discovered that in many cases they had faith but they doubted their standing with God because their experience didn't seem to match what these Puritan writers seemed to expect from a true believer.
Anyway, having read a lot of Edwards and others I felt as if he was preaching directly to me.Struggles of conscience

 

[gord44]

Interesting. I think the Puritans lived in a different time and that's why they can come across as 'harsh' or in 'desperation' in a sense as they were really up against it in regards to defending what they believed. It was an ugly time. Imagine the strife and turmoil in England around the time many of the major Puritan works came out.

 

[stenerson]

Interesting. I think the Puritans lived in a different time and that's why they can come across as 'harsh' or in 'desperation' in a sense as they were really up against it in regards to defending what they believed. It was an ugly time. Imagine the strife and turmoil in England around the time many of the major Puritan works came out.

Seems to me they were very zealous and very cerebral at the same time. Sometimes tough reading for a modern day slacker like me.

 

[Apologetic_Warrior]

So much could be said about the differences between modern Christians and the Puritans and the reasons for them. One difference that comes to mind is the sheer amount of distractions modern Christians get involved with whether willingly or unwillingly. The problem today is no longer accessibility to information rather finding time for the wealth of it. In Puritans times, people tended to live slower, but all but wealthy worked harder, and also by and large died faster. Something I think is important to remember is that things can appear one way on paper and much different away from the paper. Take Facebook for example, it is an extremely selective window into people's lives, and most people leave out the "bad" and "negative". Anyway just some thoughts...

 

[twin1954]

The Puritans can have a great effect on those who read them regularly. They certainly inspire to deep theological thought and piety. They can exalt the Lord as few in this age can even aspire to. They can bring joy and hope and strong faith to those who read them with a discerning eye. There is much gold to be dug from reading the Puritans. Much of what they taught has an influence even in our day.

But there are some things in the Puritans that can rob you of joy, assurance and peace in Christ. They tended very much toward legalism in their theology and sought holiness as though it were something that they did instead of what Christ gives. Much the same way as many do today.