Puritan Galaxy

Samuel Dunn, Memoirs of the Seventy-Five Divines: Whose Discourses Form the Morning Exercises at Cripplegate, St. Giles in the Fields, and in Southwark: With An Outline of a Sermon From each Author, p. vi:

Among such a number of writers, there will be perceived a rich variety of talent, and a great diversity of style. [John] Howe is distinguished for his original thinking and splendid imagery; [Richard] Baxter, for his fertility of genius, copiousness, and persuasiveness; [Stephen] Charnock, for energy and richness of thought; [David] Clarkson and [Thomas] Doolittle, for manly sense; [Thomas] Manton, for perspicuity; [William] Bates, for ease and elegance; [John] Owen, [Matthew] Poole, [Joseph] Hill, and [Theophilus] Gale, for deep erudition; [Thomas] Case and [Thomas] Watson, for spirituality and quaintness; [Vincent] Alsop and [Daniel] Burgess, for wit and smartness; [Thomas] Gouge, [Samuel] Annesley, and [Daniel] Williams, for pure and expansive benevolence: -- lights of various magnitudes and splendour; for in the mental and moral, as well as in the celestial hemisphere, one star differeth from another star in glory.

Puritans Rose Early

Robert Murray M'Cheyne wrote a paper entitled "Reformation," which was a searching "examination of his heart and life," a year before he died in which he said (Andrew Bonar, Memoir and Remains of the Rev. Robert Murray M'Cheyne, p. 162):

I ought to spend the best hours of the day in communion with God. It is my noblest and most fruitful employment, and is not to be thrust into any corner. The morning hours, from six to eight, are the most uninterrupted, and should be thus employed, if I can prevent drowsiness. A little time after breakfast might be given to intercession. After ten is my best hour, and that should be solemnly dedicated to God, if possible.

I ought not to give up the good old habit of prayer before going to bed; but guard must be kept against sleep: planning what things I am to ask is the best remedy. When I awake in the night, I ought to rise and pray, as David and as John Welsh did.

Though himself not a Puritan, his careful cultivation of the morning hours to practice secret worship is consistent with the piety of our Puritan forefathers who so often rose early to worship in imitation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

John Howe, "A Funeral Sermon for that Faithful and Laborious Servant of Christ, Mr. Richard Fairclough" (1682), in Works, Vol. 3, p. 408:

Every day, for many years together, he used to be up by three in the mornings, or sooner, and to be with God (which was his dear delight) when others slept.

James Reid, Memoirs of the Westminster Divines, Vol. 1, pp. 345, 355:

[William Gouge] began his studies early in the morning, and continued them until a late hour at night....He continued nine years in the College. And during all that time, he was never absent from morning prayers in the chapel, which were usually performed about half an hour after five o'clock in the morning, except when he went out of town to visit friends. He rose so long before, that he might have time for his secret devotions, and for reading his morning task of the Holy Scriptures. He resolved to read fifteen chapters of these every day; five in the morning, five after dinner, before he entered upon his other studies, and five before he went to bed. And when he could not sleep during the watches of the night, he meditated upon these, and enjoyed then a spiritual and an intellectual feast upon the Word of God....He generally rose about four o'clock in the morning, during the summer; and in winter, he rose before it was light, that he might have the better opportunity for his own devotion, in imitation of his blessed Lord and Master, Mark i. 35.

George Godfrey Cunningham, Lives of Eminent and Illustrious Englishmen, Vol. 3, p. 174:

[Matthew Poole, while working on his Latin Synopsis Criticorum] rose at three or four o'clock, took a raw egg at intervals, and kept on labouring all day till towards evening, when he usually sought for a short time the relaxation and enjoyment of society at some friend's house.

Edmund Calamy the Historian, The Nonconformist's Memorial, Vol. 3, p. 19:

[William Bridge] was a very hard student; rose at four o'clock winter and summer, and continued in his study till eleven.

John Howie, The Scots Worthies, p. 133:

[Samuel Rutherford at Anwoth] laboured with great diligence and success, both night and day, rising usually by three o'clock in the morning, spending the whole time praying, writing, catechising, visiting, and other duties belonging to the ministerial profession and employment.

Theodosia Alleine, Life and Death of the Rev. Joseph Alleine, p. 106:

All the time of his health, he did rise constantly at or before four of the clock, and on the Sabbath sooner, if he did wake. He would be much troubled if he heard any smiths, or shoemakers, or such tradesmen, at work at their trades, before he was in his duties with God; saying to me often, "O how this noise shames me! Doth not my Master deserve more than theirs?" From four till eight he spent in prayer, holy contemplations, and singing of psalms, which he much delighted in, and did daily practise alone, as well as in his family. Having refreshed himself about half an hour, he would call to family duties, and after that to his studies, till eleven or twelve o'clock, cutting out his work for every hour in the day. Having refreshed himself a while after dinner, he used to retire to his study to prayer, and go abroad among the families he was to visit, to whom he always sent the day before; going out about two o'clock, and seldom returning till seven in the evening, sometimes later. He would often say, "Give me a christian that counts his time more precious than gold."

Credenda and Agenda

Long before there was a magazine called Credenda Agenda, divines spoke of what a Christian is to believe (credenda) and how to live (agenda). Orthodoxy and orthopraxy, summed up as "experimental piety," are the two essential elements of the complete Christian life. It is worthwhile to consider these fundamentals as articulated by some of those divines.

William Chillingworth, The Religion of Protestants a Safe Way of Salvation (1637), p. 71:

16. To the third : "Whether it be not impertinent to allege the Creed as containing all fundamental points of faith, as if believing it alone we were at liberty to deny all other points of Scripture?" I answer—It was never alleged to any such purpose; but only as a sufficient, or rather more than a sufficient, summary of those points of faith, which were of necessity to be believed actually and explicitly; and that only of such which were merely and purely credenda, and not agenda.

Nathaniel Hardy, The first General Epistle of St. John the Apostle, unfolded and applied (1656-1659), p. 6:

The globe of divinity parts itself into two hemispheres, to wit, credenda et agenda, the things we are to know and believe, and the things we are to do and perform....

Richard Baxter, A Christian Directory (1673, 1846, 2000), p. 713:

6. The baptismal covenant of grace therefore is the essential part of the gospel, and of the Christian religion ; and all the rest are the integrals, and accidents or adjuncts.

7. This covenant containeth,

I. Objectively, 1. Things true as such; 2. Things good as such; 3. Things practicable or to be done, as such: the credenda, diligenda, (et eligenda,) et agenda; as the objects of man's intellect, will, and practical power.

The credenda, or things to be known and believed, are, 1. God as God, and our God and Father. 2. Christ as the Saviour, and our Saviour. 3. The Holy Ghost as such, and as the Sanctifier, and our Sanctifier (as to the offer of these relations in the covenant).

The diligenda are the same three Persons in these three relations as good in themselves and unto us, which includeth the grand benefits of reconciliation and adoption, justification, and sanctification, and salvation.

The agenda in the time of baptism that make us Christians, are, 1. The actual dedition, resignation, or dedication of ourselves, to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in these relations. 2. A promise or vow to endeavour faithfully to live according to our undertaken relations (though not in perfection); that is, as creatures to their Creator, and their reconciled God and Father; as Christians to their Redeemer, their Teacher, their Ruler, and their Saviour; and as willing receivers of the sanctifying and comforting operations of the Holy Spirit.

II. The objects tell you what the acts must be on our part; 1. With the understanding, to know and believe; 2. With the will to love, choose, desire, and resolve; and, 3. Practically to deliver up ourselves for the present, and to promise for the time to come. These are the essentials of the Christian religion.

8. The creed is a larger explication of the credenda, and the Lord's prayer of the diligenda, or things to be willed, desired, and hoped for; and the decalogue of the natural part of the agenda.

John Howe, The Vanity of a Formal Profession of Religion, Considered in Eight Sermons, on Titus 1.16 (Sermon 4, 1680), in The Whole Works of the Rev. John Howe, M.A., Vol. 5, p. 479:

What a poor pretence is it when one has nothing to trust to and rely upon, as the ground of his eternal hope, but only that he is an orthodox man! An orthodox son of this or that church! So far it is well. But what does it signify to be an orthodox drunkard, an orthodox swearer, an orthodox sabbath-breaker? If such would but admit one to reason soberly with them, I would ask them, "What! do you not believe, that holiness is as essential to Christianity, as truth? Do you not think that the decalogue is of as good authority, as the articles of your creed? is there not the same authority for the agenda, as there is for the credenda of a christian? Has not any man, that owns the Christian name, as great obligations to be pious, sober, and chaste; as he has to be true, or right in his principles?" There is certainly the same authority for the one as for the other. What does a man hope he shall gain, by tearing the essential parts of the Christian religion asunder, as much as, in him lies; or by dividing Christianity from itself?

Thomas Goodwin, The Work of the Holy Ghost in Our Salvation (1681), in The Works of Thomas Goodwin, Vol. 6, p. 232:

Now as the sum of our religion is reduced by the apostle to these two, 'Faith, and a good conscience,' 1 Tim. i.19, faith, which is principium credendorum, the principle of things to be believed; and conscience, which is principium agendorum, the principle of things to be done by us; for as the object matter of all religion is reduced to credenda and agenda, so the principles within us are answerably thus generally expressed by these two, faith and conscience. Faith looks upward to the things of the gospel, and takes in all supernatural truths, with application to a man's soul. Conscience looks both inward, to our own actings within; and outward, to the law or rule which is to guide us. And it also is the spring to all the wheels, and the mover in all provocations to duties, or avocations from sins.

Matthew Poole's Continuators

Matthew Poole completed his Synopsis Criticorum (Synopsis of Interpreters) on the entire Bible in Latin. But he felt the need to supplement his magnum opus with a commentary on the Bible for English readers. He wrote his English Annotations on the Bible through Isaiah 58 before he died in Amsterdam. His friends decided to take up the remainder of the work and complete the English Annotations through Revelation. The list of continuators is available elsewhere but as it is not widely known, I have provided it below for those interested.

John Jackson [Isaiah 59, 60]
John Collinges (1623-1691) [Isaiah 61-66; Jeremiah; Lamentations; Gospels; 1 and 2 Corinthians; Galatians; 1 and 2 Timothy; Titus; Philemon; Revelation]
Henry Hurst (1629-1690) [Ezekiel; Minor Prophets]
William Cooper [Daniel]
Peter Vinke (d. 1702) [Acts]
Richard Mayo (d. 1695) [Romans]
Edward Veale (d. 1708) [Ephesians; James; 1 and 2 Peter; Jude]
Richard Adams (c. 1626-1698) [Philippians; Colossians]
Matthew Barker (d. 1698) [1 and 2 Thessalonians]
Obadiah Hughes (d. 1704) [Hebrews]
John Howe (1630-1705) [1, 2, and 3 John]

Puritan Daniel Defoe

Daniel Defoe, English writer and jack-of-all trades, is known primarily today for being the author Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders and A Journal of the Plague Year, among other literary works. Students of church history and/or literary history may be interested to learn that he was a Puritan, or Dissenter, and that his life and writings intersected with many other Puritans.

He was born into a Nonconformist Presbyterian family and remained a Presbyterian throughout his life. His Presbyterian convictions permeate the whole of his body of literary works.

He was taught as a young man by Puritan Charles Morton, head of an academy for Dissenters at Newington (later vice-President of Harvard University), who was among the signatories of the 1673 Puritan Preface to the Scottish Metrical Psalter.

Defoe wrote the preface to Baptist Dissenter Thomas Delaune's Plea for the Nonconformists. Delaune served time at Newgate Prison where he and, as Defoe notes, his fellow-prisoner, William Jenkyn, noted Puritan minister and biblical expositor, died. Jenkyn was also a signer of the 1673 Puritan Preface to the Scottish Metrical Psalter.

Defoe's lifelong friend was the Puritan Timothy Cruso who, like Defoe, wrote religious guide books. It is believed that he named the protagonist in Robinson Crusoe after him.

He was the author of Memoirs of the Church of Scotland, which is in large measure a tribute to the Protestant martyrs and Scottish Covenanters who suffered religious persecution by the British Crown and Anglican Church.

Anonymously, he wrote The Shortest Way With Dissenters, a masterpiece of satire calling for the Anglican authorities to deal harshly with Dissenters and in so doing making a laughingstock of them. Ironically, he was arrested and pilloried for this, and then served time at the same aforementioned Newgate Prison.

Charles Drelincourt, French Huguenot, wrote Consolations de l'âme fidèle contre les frayeurs de la mort (Christians Defense against the Fears of Death). Defoe later wrote A True Relation of the Apparition of Mrs Veal, who came from the other world to recommend the perusal of Drelincourt on death, it is said, for the express purpose of promoting the sale of an English translation of the Consolations.

There was a bit of controversy between Defoe and Presbyterian Puritan John Howe over the subject of Occasional Conformity, Defoe's tract against the practice of requiring a measure of religious conformity to the Anglican Church on the part of officeholders. The two men addressed the issue from different angles and it was a lamentable controversy.

Defoe is buried at Bunhill Fields, the Dissenters' Cemetery, where other noted Puritans such as John Owen and John Bunyan, are likewise interred.