Puritan Reformed Spirituality

[JM]

Book Review

Spirituality is a subject much on the minds of people today. With its prevailing secularism and materialism, modern culture has failed to satisfy its consumers. The result is a new interest in discovering and nurturing the inward, spiritual dimensions of human life. This book promotes biblical spirituality through a study of the Reformed and Puritan heritage. Dr. Sinclair Ferguson writes: “In these pages Dr. Joel R. Beeke provides us with a first class tour of some of the great sites of Reformed theology and spirituality. Here we meet John Calvin, reformer extraordinaire; then we encounter the learned Dr. William Ames and the insightful Anthony Burgess. Soon we travel north to meet the Scotsmen, John Brown of Haddington, the great Thomas Boston, and the remarkable brothers, Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine. Predictably, but happily, our guide brings us eventually to The Netherlands and to the time of the Nadere Reformatie. Then we remain in the area to learn the influence of ...

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[JM]

http://hnrc.org/files/PuritanMeditation.pdf

“Meditation applieth, meditation healeth, meditation instructeth.†–Ezekiel Culverwell1
Spiritual growth is intended to be part of the Christian life of believers. Peter exhorts
believers to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ”
(2 Pet. 3:18). The Heidelberg Catechism says that true Christians are members of Christ
by faith and partake in His anointing. By Christ’s power they are raised up to a new life
and have the Holy Spirit given to them as an earnest; by the Spirit’s power they “seek the
things which are above (Col. 3:1). Spiritual growth is only to be expected, since “it is
impossible that those, who are implanted into Christ by a true faith, should not bring forth
fruits of thankfulness.”2