Preachers and their preaching 5 – the Puritans
J.I. Packer, who has done so much to revive interest in the Puritans, identifies the following characteristics of Puritan preaching:-
1. It was expository in its method. The preacher’s task was to extract meaning from the text, rather than to impose meaning on it. The preacher seeks the mind of God as revealed in Scripture, and then seeks to express it faithfully. In ‘opening’ a text, the Puritan preacher would explain it in context, extract from it one or more doctrinal observations, and then amplify, illustrate and confirm from other scriptures the truths thus derived.…