Puritan Papers, Volume 1: 1956–1959
Overview
J. I. Packer, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Iain Murray, and Ernest Kevan are among the distinguished contributors to this compilation of papers on a wide range of topics pertaining to Puritan and Reformed teaching, piety, and life. This volume, the first in a series, captures the principles and passion of Puritan belief as presented in the Puritan and Reformed Studies Conferences of 1956–1959. The 23 papers gathered here are, by design, “practical and constructive, not merely academic,” says Packer, and helpful to pastors as well as the whole church. Topics include interpreting Scripture; Christian experience; worship; the Lord’s day; the life and work of a minister; dealing with troubled souls; the law and the covenants; discipline; and revival.
Top Highlights
“The doctrine of election was vital to the Puritans, they believed with Zanchius that it ‘is the golden thread that runs through the whole Christian system,’ and they asserted that a departure from this truth would bring a visible church under God’s judgment and indignation. No subject could have a more direct reference to us and to our times.” (Page 5)
“Faith, said the Puritans, begins in the mind, with belief of the truth of the gospel message. It results from spiritual illumination.” (Page 18)
“All this springs out of the basic Puritan theme of the complete sovereignty of God; no man, even though he be regenerate, can keep himself from sin, and if God for any reason withholds is supporting grace, then that man immediately falls.” (Page 38)
“‘To know Him, to serve Him, to enjoy Him, was with them the great end of existence.’” (Page 3)
“This spiritual appreciation of spiritual things is mediated to man, as a thinking being, by reasoned exposition of Scripture and rational reflection upon it; man cannot come to know any spiritual object except through the use of his mind; but the knowledge itself goes beyond reason. It is not a mere logical or imaginative construction, nor is its certainty the derived certainty of an inference drawn from more certain premises; its certainty springs from an immediate awareness of and contact with the thing known.” (Pages 18–19)
- Title: Puritan Papers, Volume 1: 1956–1959
- Author: J. I. Packer
- Series: Puritan Papers
- Volume: 1
- Publisher: P&R
- Print Publication Date: 2000
- Logos Release Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Puritans › Congresses; Reformed Church › Congresses; Puritans
- ISBNs: 0875524664, 9780875524665
- Resource ID: LLS:PURITANPAPERS01
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T02:31:32Z
J. I. Packer (1926–2020) is regarded as one of the most influential evangelicals in North America. He was Board of Governors’ Professor of Theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, and his writings include books such as Knowing God, A Quest for Godliness, Growing in Christ (Crossway) and Rediscovering Holiness. He preached and lectured widely in Great Britain and North America and served as general editor of the English Standard Version of the Bible published in 2001, and theological editor of the Study Bible version. In 2014, Packer was named Author of the Year by the Association of Logos Bookstores. He was a frequent contributor to and an executive editor of Christianity Today and wrote numerous articles published in journals such as Churchman, SouthWestern Journal, Reformation Revival Journal and Touchstone. He received a BA, MA and PhD from Oxford University.