Friday, February 5, 2021

English Puritans

Anglican Puritans
Thomas Adams (1612-1653)
Paul Baynes (c.1560-1617)
John Davenant (1576-1641)
Thomas Gataker (1574-1654)
William Gurnall (1617-1679)
Joseph Hall (1574-1656)
Joseph Mede (1586-1638)
William Perkins (1558-1602)
John Preston (1587-1628)
John Rainolds (1549-1607)
Edward Reynolds (1599-1676)
Richard Sibbes (1577-1635)
John Trapp (1601-1669) [sympathetic to Presbyterianism]
William Twisse (1578-1646) [moderate Anglican]
James Ussher (1581-1656)

Baptist Puritans
John Bunyan (1628-1688)
Benjamin Keach (1640-1704)
Hanserd Knollys (1599-1691)
John Smyth (1554-1612) [formerly Separatist; formerly Anglican]

Independent Puritans
Thomas Brooks (1608-1680)
Robert Browne (1550-1633)
Jeremiah Burroughes (1599-1646)
Joseph Caryl (1602-1673)
Isaac Chauncy (1632-1712)
David Clarkson (1622-1686)
Tobias Crisp (1600-1643)
Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658)
Thomas Goodwin (1600-1680)
John Milton (1608-1674) [formerly Presbyterian; formerly Anglican]
John Owen (1616-1683)

Presbyterian Puritans
Joseph Alleine (1634-1668)
Isaac Ambrose (1604-1662) [formerly Anglican]
William Ames (1576-1633) [formerly Anglican]
John Ball (1585-1640)
Richard Baxter (1615-1691)
Edmund Calamy (1600-1666)
Thomas Cartwright (1535-1603)
Stephen Charnock (1628-1680)
John Flavel (1630-1691)
William Gouge (1578-1653)
Matthew Henry (1662-1714)
John Howe (1630-1705) [formerly Anglican]
John Lightfoot (1602-1675) [formerly Anglican]
Thomas Manton (1620-1677)
Matthew Poole (1624-1679) [sympathetic to Anglicanism]
Robert Traill (1642-1716)
Thomas Watson (c. 1620-1686)
Daniel Williams (1643-1716)

Other Puritans: John Arrowsmith, Sir Richard Baker, Robert Bolton, Samuel Bolton, William Bridge, Elisha Coles, George Downame, John Downame, John Eaton, Edward Fisher, Richard Greenham, William Greenhill, Ezekiel Hopkins, William Jenkyn, Walter Marshal, Matthew Mead, Christopher Ness, Phillip Nye, William Pemble, Vavasor Powell, Francis Roberts, Richard Rogers, John Saltmarsh, Henry Scudder, John Sedgewick, Obadiah Sedgewick, George Swinnock, Thomas Taylor, Robert Towne, Samuel Ward, Andrew Willet...
Jonathan Edwards and Charles Spurgeon are considered among the Puritans, though they came afterward.

Time fails us to list all such heroes (cf. Hebrews 11:32). As Spurgeon said, “There were giants in the land in those days.” However, these giants, as with the early church father giants, held some surprising, strange, shocking, and/or false beliefs. (Sometimes even heretical beliefs, such as Arianism [e.g., John Milton]—the modern representation being that of the Jehovah's Witnesses.) They each deviated from the Scriptures in their own ways. None of the heroes of the past was without error, and none had a monopoly on truth. The problem I have is when people stick so stubbornly close to the traditions and theology they were taught and raised with, rather than filtering those traditions and theology through the Bible. Whatever rings true with the Scriptures, regardless of what denomination it is found in, that is what biblical Christians should be adhering to.