If I asked you to give me a list of the great Puritans, your list would almost certainly include famous names such as John Owen, Richard Baxter, John Bunyan, maybe Jeremiah Burroughs, William Perkins, William Ames, and one of several Thomases: Boston, Watson, or Brooks. Some who have progressed further would be able to provide some of the more obscure names printed in the twentieth century: Richard Sibbes, Samuel Bolton, Robert Bolton, Obadiah Sedgwick, Ralph Venning. Others will come up—Samuel Rutherford, James Buchanan, and maybe the literary figures, John Milton and John Donne—and then we begin to run out. There are many others, however, and others that are perhaps even more important than these great figures. Allow me to list some of the most influential Puritan writers of their time along with their impactful writings (see how many you have even heard of): 

—    Thomas Becon, “The news from heaven” (1541), “A pleasant new nosegay” (1542), “The fortresse of the faithful” (1550), and hundreds of sermons.

—    William Conway, An exortation to charitie (1550)

—    Thomas Lupset, A treatise on charitie (1533)

—    Thomas Starkley, (1533–36)

—    Henry Brinkelow, The lamentation of a Christian against the citie of London (1542), The complaint of Roderyck Mors (1550)

—    Thomas Lever, A fruitful sermon… in Poules churche (1550), and other sermons

—    Thomas Drant, A fruitfull and necessary sermon (1572), and many other sermons

—    Thomas White, preacher and founder of Sion College (1570s–90s)

—    Richard Turnbull, An exposition upon… St. James (1591)

—    Samuel Bird, Lectures (1598)

—    William Harrison, Deaths advantage (1602)

—    Henry Smith, Sermons (1599)

—    Richard Curteys, The care of the conscience (1600)

—    Robert Allen, The oderifferous garden of charitie (1603)

—    William Fulbecke, A book of Christian ethics (1587)

—    Thomas Twyne, The garland of godly flowers (1574)

—    George Whetstone, A mirour for magestrates of cities (1584)

—    Andreas Gerardus, The regiment of the pouertie (1572)

—    Henry Tripp, preacher of Gerardus’ ideas

Never heard of a single one of these men or their works? I had not either, at least not until I read the magnificent work by W. K. Jordan, Philanthropy in England, 1480–1660.[1] Jordan shows how the Protestant Reformation, through preaching and social application of the gospel, led to an unprecedented outpouring of private charitable giving in society. From fortunes amassed through international trade and businesses fueled by technological advance, Puritans turned to improve society through founding schools, training workers, relieving and training the poor, and through improvements in public works. And the wealthy businessmen in many cases did not merely create these ideas on their own: preachers beginning as early as the reign of Edward VI preached on social improvement from the pulpit. Jordan notes well why the money flowed: 

These gifts were principally made by men moved by the stirring pleas of the great preachers of the Edwardian Reformation, Latimer, Ridley, Hooper, and the rest, who were warm in their confidence, resolute in their demands on the reformed conscience, and fresh and humane in their view of the social obligations of the Christian conscience.[2] 

Examining what we can of the works of such gentlemen we find exactly what Jordan notes. Hugh Latimer, for example, preached his then famous “Sermon of the Plough” (1548), decrying the nobles and lords who busied themselves with luxurious living and excuses while the poor died in the streets:

In times past men were full of pity and compassion but now there is no pity, for in London their brother shall die in the streets for cold, he shall lie sick at their door between stock and stock. I cannot tell what to call it, and perish there for hunger, was there any more unmercifulness in Nebo [Jer. 48:1]? I think not.… Repent therefore repent London and remember that the same God lives now that punished Nebo, even the same God and none other, and he will punish sin as well now as he did then, and he will punish the iniquity of London as well as he did then of Nebo.[3]

We find the same Latimer preaching on very specifics social issues like “Inflation of Prices and Decay of Standards” (1549)—a sermon preached to the face of the King. Latimer said,

So now you have double too much which is too too much. But let the preacher preach until his tongue be worn to stumps, nothing is amended. We have good statutes made for the commonwealth as touching commoners, enclosers, many meetings and Sessions, but in the end of the matter there comes nothing forth. Well, well, this is one thing I will say unto you, from where it comes I know, even from the devil. I know his intent in it. For if you bring it to pass, that the yeomanry be not able to put their sons to school (as indeed universities do wondrously decay already) and that they be not able to marry [off] their daughters to the avoiding of whoredom, I say you pluck salvation from the people and utterly destroy the realm.[4]

These guys had a greater and broader understanding of “salvation” than the pietistic Puritanism that has been presented to us up until now. I wish we could begin to recover it.

Several years ago, many in the evangelical and Reformed community made a push to dig up the works of the Puritans. The great heritage of the English Reformation held many treasures, and some Christians determined to find these lost nuggets and present them to the Christian public. As a result, up-and-coming Calvinists like me walked into a plethora of “Puritan Paperbacks” [more on this in particular at a different time] and the great publications of Soli Deo Gloria (now subsumed under Reformation Heritage Books).

As I grew further in the faith and had more questions, however, I ran across a very sad phenomenon: our treasure hunters have only given us a fraction of the works of the Puritans, and worse, the fraction they have given only deals with a fraction of what these great Reformers believed and worked for. As a result, our understanding of the Puritans (and thus of the breadth of the Reformation as a whole) has suffered from a certain myopia. We have come to see those great reformers as churchmen concerned mainly with doctrine, personal conscience, and piety. In short, we have been presented with a pietistic Puritanism. A pietistic market has cherry-picked the Puritans, and stripped them of half their contribution, and perhaps the most important half at that.

I don’t know of any seminary, Christian college, or publishing house (aside from American Vision, anyway) that very much acknowledges, let alone emphasizes, the great social work of our Reformation heritage. There are of course the liberals such as Jim Wallis and Ron Sider who would acknowledge it, but only leverage it to lean toward their leftist solutions. Since, to most Christians, social action in general smacks of “Social Gospel”—generally perceived as denuded gospel and liberal utopianism—conservatives face enormous opposition to returning to this aspect of our own heritage. To bring it up is to risk being tarred-and-feathered with “Social Gospel” or “worldliness” of some sort. So, evangelicals and most modern Reformed believers retreat inwardly to “personal Jesus” pietism and “don’t-rock-the-boat” church life. Our seminaries and colleges train pastors and believers to preach and teach to this market. With the exception of Leland Ryken’s book Worldly Saints: The Puritans as They Really Were,[5] I don’t know of many Christian books that remind us of this forgotten part of the Reformation.

I’m not sure if any of the above listed works, or others, appear on the web—I have not had time to check. If you have time, search for a couple. If you find something, email me a link. We can begin unearthing the rest of the Puritan treasure together. Finding something and circulating it may inspire a church or two to begin local social efforts of their own.

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Article posted June 12, 2009