Six Degrees of Alexander Comrie

As in the parlor game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, I like to find connections between select Puritans, such as Richard Rogers. Today's "Six Degrees" centers on the Scottish-Dutch Puritan Alexander Comrie (1706-1774). He was an interesting figure because of he was both Scottish-born and educated, and also ministered in the Netherlands, where he was one of the last leaders of the Nadere Reformatie, or Dutch Further Reformation. He is the author of the well-beloved book entitled The ABC of Faith.

In his family tree, he counted the Scottish Covenanter/Puritan minister Andrew Gray (1633-1656) as a great-grandfather on his mother's side; Scottish Biblical commentator George Hutcheson (d. 1678) was his mother's step-father; Scottish Covenanter James Fraser of Brea (1639-1698) was his great-uncle; and Scottish Anglican Bishop and church historian Gilbert Burnet (1643-1715) was also a relative (who himself was a cousin of Scottish Covenanter Robert Baillie (1602-1662), who was brother-in-law to Scottish Covenanter Archibald Johnston, Lord Warriston (1611-1663)).

As a young man, he was catechized by Ralph (1685-1752) and Ebenezer Erskine (1680-1754).

Later in life, he translated into Dutch Hutcheson on the Minor Prophets; Thomas Shepard's (1605-1649) The Parable of the Ten Virgins; Walter Marshall's (1628-1680) The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification; Thomas Boston's (1676-1732) The Covenant of Grace; John Owen's (1616-1683) treatise on Indwelling Sin in Believers; Stephen Charnock's (1628-1680) treatise on the Atonement; Gisbertus Voetius' (1589-1676) treatise on the Experience of the Power of Godliness; and Isaac Chauncy's (1632-1712) exposition of the Westminster Shorter Catechism entitled The Doctrine Which is According to Godliness.

Six Degrees of Richard Rogers

If you, dear Reader, have heard of the parlor game, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, then this will make sense. It seems like Richard Rogers is at the center of the Puritan universe, although similar levels of interconnectivity can be achieved with other Puritans, methinks. If not, consider this a Puritan family tree with honorary branches. The following is only a snapshot, because many other names of interest and connections have not been included, but it shows just how much influence one godly man has had through his family and ministry.

Puritan minister Richard Rogers (1551-1618, author of the first major Puritan devotional manual on the Christian life, Seven Treatises, and a notable commentary on the Book of Judges, who by the way is NOT kin to the "protomartyr" John Rogers, c. 1500-1555, or, so far as I know, the American composer Richard Rogers, 1902-1979) was the father of Puritan minister Daniel Rogers (1573-1652, student of William Perkins and author of the classic Puritan marriage treatise Matrimoniall Honour) and Ezekiel Rogers (1590-1660, one of the founders of Rowley, Massachusetts); the stepfather of Puritan minister Samuel Ward of Ipswich (1577-1639/1640, who was also cousin [I think] to Puritan scholar Samuel Ward, 1577-1643, one of the translators of the King James Bible and a delegate to the Synod of Dort and an invited, but non-attending, delegate to the Westminster Assembly) and Puritan minister Nathaniel Ward (1578-1652, author of the Massachusetts Body of Liberties), whose son-in-law was Puritan minister Giles Firmin (1614-1697, author of The Real Christian); the grandfather of Puritan minister William Jenkyn (1613-1685, author of a notable commentary on the Book of Jude); the uncle of Puritan minister John Rogers of Dedham (c. 1570-1636, known as 'Roaring Rogers' for his preaching style and author of Sixty Memorials), who was the father of Puritan minister Nathaniel Rogers (1598-1655), who was the father of Harvard University President John Rogers (1630-1684); and the teacher of pupil-turned-Puritan minister Paul Baynes (d. 1617) by whose ministry Puritan minister Richard Sibbes (1577-1635) was converted.