The Puritans: 5 Books to Start With 

When I started to read my first book from a puritan I realized they are relatable, and they speak to my heart almost every time I read them.

Dear Pastor Gavin, if you ever run out of content, may I give some suggestions?☺️ Could you do videos on - the 7 ecumenical council from a Protestant perspective - Indulgences from a Protestant prospective - The treasury of merit from a Protestant perspective - That’s a big one: in depth video on the reasons for the reformation. - Praying for the dead from a Protestant perspective - More in depth video on the Eucharist from a Protestant perspective - More in depth video on justification from a catholic and Protestant view - Maybe a short video on why most Protestants don’t have the crucifix but a cross without Jesus on it. - The great schism and if there where schisms before the great one. - The 5 solas, why we believe it and the reasons behind it - An overview on the first 300 years of church history, the most important things to know. - The main differences between Protestants and Catholics - The main differences between Protestants and Eastern Orthodox Only to give some suggestions ☺️ Thank you for your great and faithful work!

I recently found this channel and have been binge-watching it! I've been exploring Catholic and Orthodox views for the last 10 years and frankly find Gavin's perspective to be very enlightening and persuasive. There's a lot in Catholic and Orthodox teachings and apologetics that has never sat right with me, and now I'm finding that my intuition wasn't wrong.

I've been a subscriber to Truth Unites for about a year now, and I cannot thank you enough Gavin for the enormously helpful content you produce. You say that your desire for the channel is that it may ease anxiety and help to put someone's conscience at rest in the Gospel - and that, throughout my ecclesiastical angst, is exactly what it does for me. Every blessing to you and your family from the north of England.

I see and I click! So thankful for your channel Gavin ❤️ God bless you and your family

So glad to see you share more about the Puritans and what to read. It is such a goldmine. Hopefully this video will introduce them to a broader audience than just us reformed folks.

As always thank you for providing key resources. Very helpful.

Thank you for these recommendations! I am grateful for your ministry and for your encouragement :)

Love the video. These are 5 books that belong on everyone's shelf, no doubt about that.

SO many excellent resources made available on this channel. The references to Christ made in this video touch my heart. Thank you!

Thank you!

Thanks so much for these recommendations . I will read these . I can get them even in India now ! I read Richard Sibbes Bruised Reed , Smoking flax - but now I will read the others too ! Greetings from Mumbai ministry

You know you have to have at least 5 Puritan paperbacks to be a Reformed Baptist 😂. I used to read them all the time when I was in the RB church. I don’t as much anymore but you definitely brought out some of the best. The Bruised Reed is still a favorite of mine.

Those are some classics. My personal favorite Puritan work is A Saint indeed by John Flavel. It is a really cool discourse on Proverbs 4:23.

Awesome, refreshing and encouraging. Thank you. Durban, South Africa

It breaks my heart that in the US public school system their only exposure to the Puritans is the worst of them as depicted in “The Scarlet Letter”. I read John Owen’s “On the Mortification of Sin” in college & it changed my life for the better.

Ha! Another reason to visit Grand Rapids! Joel Beeke and Puritan Reformed's seminary and library and publisher are here !

Love the puritans. Their writing is so rich and so good.❤ My favorite is The Art of Divine Contentment by Watson.

Wonderful video Gavin ... as an ex-RCC, you have helped to guide me into the Protestant intellectual world. You certainly put me at rest as Richard Baxter says a pastor should.

Great list! Whenever I read 'Mortification of Sin', I get completely unravelled. So I tend to not read it *too* often, or it could tend to despair!

Richard Baxter is especially good for people that are not super into hardline Calvinism. Because he was a Puritan, but he also couldn't really be nailed down in terms of traditional Calvinism.

Love these 5 books series you are doing. Straight from your wheelhouse.

I'm personally going through Banner of Truths "Refreshment for the Soul: A Year of Daily Devotional Readings from the 'Heavenly Doctor Richard Sibbes" and so far it's been pretty great. I'm readimg it in conjunction with my morning Bible reading. 🙂

Piercing Heaven and The Valley of Vision are two that I would add. They are all rich and weighty. These people knew the word and it was expressed in their thoughts words and lives.

This is almost exactly the same list I would have given! I would add either 'The Mystery of Providence' by John Flavel or 'The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification' by the later puritan Walter Marshall.

Great vid, Gavin! Would you consider doing a similar type of video for Wesleyan reading? I’m pretty much reformed, but I’ve long been interested in such a different tradition that seems to have produced so many admirable Christians.

I'm curious as to how you feel about the work of Jeremiah Burroughs and particularly "a treatise on earthly-mindedness"?

Though I see another commenter has recommended it, I will second the suggestion to read Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices. It was recommended to me by a Pastor during a time of anxiety and guilt, and it was truly a blessing.

Any of the Puritan Paperbacks are good.

It would be cool if you did a video about Puritan Spiritual Practices. Given that they believe in predestination, it surprises people how much they practiced spiritual discipline. Meditation, etc.

Any reason why the puritan paper back for Mortification of sin was avoided?

Dear Pastor, I admire what you do. I just wonder why you make these funny faces on your thumbnails lately? Please the quality of your reflections are enough to make me want to click. It just reminds of other secular youtubers who do this. Please ponder on what I 've just said. Also.. I am a yound woman in her late 20s and I find you quite handsome. So really.. no need to pull these faces to intrigue. Greetings from Switzerland and thank you for all what you pour into this channel.

I agree with Gavin that those 5 books are great. Though #1 and #3 he listed might be too difficult to read for some because of the style of older English. My Additional Recommendations for an *Introduction* to the Puritans include: - All Things For Good by Thomas Watson [Originally titled "A Divine Cordial," meaning a comforting or pleasant-tasting medicine] ANY BOOK BY WATSON IS WORTH MORE THAN ITS WEIGHT GOLD!!! He's probably the most readable of the Puritans in terms of style of English, AND the content is GREAT. If you can only read one Puritan, read Thomas Watson. Every sentence drips with gospel milk & honey. - Prayer by John Bunyan Two excellent book on prayer combined in one. - A Sure Guide to Heaven by Joseph Alleine This book is highly evangelistic. It's like Richard Baxter's book, "A Call to the Unconverted," which I also highly recommend. Both books can revive Christians out of their lethargy and complacency. I wish every non-Christian could read these books. - Heaven on Earth by Thomas Brooks This is book is about the Assurance of Salvation in the Christian Life. Reading it is like jumping into a cool lake on a hot summer day. - Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices by Thomas Brooks This is about how evil spirits work to tempt, terrify and discourage Christians and how to overcome them. - Smooth Stones Taken from Ancient Brooks: Being a Collection of Sentences, Illustrations, and Quaint Sayings from That Renowned Puritan, Thomas Brooks This is a collection of quotations by Charles Spurgeon of Thomas Brooks - The Mystery of Providence by John Flavel This is about God's sovereignty in people's lives. Especially Christians. It assumes a high view of providence. Some non-Calvinists might not like it. But it's well worth the read.

where is that book available how to buy????

In what ways is Baxter different theologically?

Surprised “Godly man’s picture” by Thomas Watson isn’t in your top five.

Important quote from Archibald Alexander of Princeton College: How often do we hear a preacher expatiating on the rich consolations of the exceeding great and precious promises of God, when no mortal can tell, from anything which he says, to whom they are applicable! In much of preaching, there is a vague and indiscriminate application of the special promises of the covenant of grace, as though all who heard them were true Christians and had a claim to the comfort which they give. This is not a skilful division of the Word of truth. In such a division, the saint and the sinner are clearly distinguished by decisive Scripture marks. (..) Rightly dividing the Word of truth includes, therefore, what may be termed characteristical preaching - that is, a clear and just delineation of character by using the pencil of inspiration. (..) It is much to be regretted that this accurate discrimination in preaching has gone so much out of use in our times. It is but seldom that we hear a discourse from the pulpit which is calculated to afford much aid to Christians in ascertaining their own true character; or which will serve to detect the hypocrite and formalist, and drive them from all their false refuges. In the best days of the Reformed churches, such discriminating delineation of character, by the light of Scripture, formed an important part of almost every sermon. But we are now more attentive to the rules of rhetoric than to the marks of true religion. How do Owen, Flavel, Boston and Erskine abound in marks of distinction between the true and false professor! And the most distinguished preachers of our own country - the Mathers, Shepards, Stoddards, Edwardses, as also the Blairs, Tennents, Davies and Dickinsons, were wise in so dividing the Word of truth that all might receive their portion in due season. But certainly the Word of truth should be so handled, that every person who does not turn away his eyes may see the lineaments of his true character, reflected from the Word as the image from the glass. This, indeed, requires something more than a fertile imagination and a ready utterance - more than the learning of the schools or profound, critical acumen. It requires that the preacher study much upon his knees, that he examine his own heart with unceasing care, that the Word of God dwell in him richly in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, and also that he converse frequently and freely with experienced Christians.

I have reservations about Baxter's book because by paralleling the priest of the OT with the NT minister, he effectively undermines the priesthood of all believers. His vision of ministry is very much top-down not the NT vision of the Body of Christ where we minister to "one another"

You show one version of "Mortification of Sin" but give reference to another on Amazon. Intentional?

Would you ever do a video on Jesus's siblings and the debate surrounding that? Great vid as always Also looked up your brother's books, pretty cool he did a book in the "on the Christian Life" series

No Johnny Edwards?????

What, no John Flavel??! But seriously, thanks for this. My pastoral peer group have been working through The Bruised Reed for the past few months.

Have you studied much about the New England Puritans? King Phillips war and the Colonial counsel who became overly suspicious of the praying indians , also how the Puritans led up to the American Revolution.

Thank you for the video. What would you recommend for getting to learn more about the Valdensians and the Moravian brethren? I haven't seen any books about these two fascinating groups whatsoever, really.

You forgot John Owen's the Glory of Christ. Oh, one more Precious Remedies against Satan devices, by Thomas Brooks. Would like to see some of the Puritan Paperbacks with a new typeset. The Bruised Reed is great for depression and feeling down, Spurgeon used to read when depressed. 1856 someone yelled fire while Spurgeon was preaching, 7 people were trampled to death, this weighed on his spirit for years.

What? No John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress? :)

Dr. Ortlund speaking at 0:59 -1:07: "Samuel Rutherford, 17th century Scottish reformed minister, was a participant in the Westminster Confession of Faith, amazingly godly man." That would mean Samuel Rutherford signed on to this passage from the Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter XXV, Of The Church, Paragraph VI: "There is no other head of the Church, but the Lord Jesus Christ; nor can the Pope of Rome, in any sense, be head thereof; but is that Antichrist, that man of sin, and son of perdition, that exalteth himself, in the Church, against Christ and all that is called God." [The original text of 1646, from the manuscript of Cornelius Burges, Assessor to the Westminster Assembly, with the Assembly’s proof texts, as published in the modern critical edition of 1937 by S. W. Carruthers. fpcna org website, beliefs, wcf]

No PROGRESSS??

No love for Reformation Heritage Books? Come on, man.

Very Hard Pass on Baxter.

Evangelical churches are to Christianity what McDonald's and Burger King are to gastronomy. Some even go as far as operating by franchise agreements!

Never trust anyone who doesn't celebrate Christmas.