Forenote: here is some fruit from my study on the Puritans. I thank my parents who have provided me with books and opportunities to learn. Thanks to my dad who has labored as a lawyer and to my mom who has felt the pangs that brought me life and continued, with my dad, to labor on my behalf. In the context of this piece, my mom shared her knowledge about the history that was both shaped by and impacted believers of the past. Both of my parents have shared knowledge about church history with me and helped me learn of God and experience his gifts.
How is Puritan defined?
The term puritan, like other terms that describe adherents of controversial views, has been used negatively by opponents, and it has not always been used in the same way.
One definition is “someone who wants to purify himself as God is pure,” which we cannot do by ourselves, but must find in Christ (kjv).
While the term Puritan has been shared in various contexts it at least has referred to a group of 17TH-century people who apparently loved God and cared about living a good life – a godly life, which of course for them was found IN God.
These were people who may have been viewed as selfish by their contemporaries, as other persecuted Christians or believers who have made sacrifices for their faith (and what Christian has not made a sacrifice for his or her faith). So why wouldn’t they say what they were told by a magistrate, sign the paper, or whatever else (Google Search, Gemini)? Why indeed? Although believers at the time of the Puritans responded in different ways to requirements by civil and ecclesiastical authorities for ministers,
there were those termed Puritans who evidently refused to fulfill requirements from authority because they chose instead a practice – or lack of a practice – that they believed better reflected the priesthood of all believers (Cox).
If someone did not have the following qualities, that does not mean he or she would not be called a puritan, but if someone had these qualities, that person would be consistent with Robert Godfrey, Joel Beeke, Randall Pederson, and Oxford Language’s description of a Puritan:
- Living during the 17th century (Google Search, Oxford Languages)
- Being ordained in what was called the Church of England
- having theology that was Reformed
- wanting to live with holiness
- Preferring services with more visually simple components than the required practice
- Holding one’s liturgical convictions even to the point of choosing nonviolent resistance and being denied a preaching license
A common thread amongst believers who had things in common with the Puritans of the past, or among those were called Puritans by those looking back, is their focus on heaven – not as just a concept, but their future home which even at the present time spilled over in time through the second person of the Trinity (Google, Gemini AI, Bunyan, Owen).
“To you therefore who have believed” – whoever they are – “he is precious” (kjv). Believers of past centuries light the way, yet without the Way, the Truth and the Light whose words illuminate our path and provide words of wisdom,
there would be no heaven to live and die for (esv, kjv).
Writing centuries after the English puritans, Anne Cousins adapted the words of Samuel Rutherford as:
“The sands of time are sinking;
the dawn of heaven breaks;
the summer morn I’ve sighed for,
the fair sweet morn awakes;
dark, dark has been the midnight,
but dayspring is at hand,
and glory, glory dwelleth
in Emmanuel’s land” (Rutherford, Cousins).
Works Cited and referenced.
King James Version.
Karen Cox. Verbal sharing.
English Standard Version. Good news Publishers. English Standard Version, Crossway Bibles, 2001.
Rutherford, Samuel. Anne Cousins, The sands of time are sinking. https://hymnary.org/text/the_sands_of_time_are_sinking, accessed 9 May 2025.
Beeke, Joel, and Randall Pederson. Joel Beeke blog. Definition of Puritanism. https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=define+puritan&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8, accessed 10 May 2025.
Bunyan, John. Pilgrim’s Progress. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/39452/39452-h/39452-h.htm, accesed 9 May 2025.
Oxford Languages via Google Search. https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=define+puritan&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8, accessed 10 May 2025.
Owen, John. FreeMan Brandon. https://freemanbrandon.wordpress.com/2016/06/24/10-quotes-the-glory-of-christ/, accessed 9 May 2025.
Google Search. Gemini AI.
Google Search. Gemini. john owen christ is heaven quote, accessed 9 May 2025.
Research more: https://prts.org
The Puritans and family life (include Beeke): https://safeshare.tv/x/ss681ea4eaabafd
God Calls it Good 