Puritan Conferences

In this profound address, delivered at one of the Puritan Conferences held at Westminster Chapel 1950-1970, Dr. J.I. Packer explores the heart of Puritan theology through their understanding of communion with God. Drawing primarily from John Owen's classic treatise, Packer demonstrates how the Puritans viewed communion with God as the central purpose toward which all creation and redemption point. He contrasts modern evangelical attitudes—which treat communion with God as something taken for granted—with the Puritan approach, where it was a source of constant wonder and awe. The sermon unfolds Owen's sophisticated analysis of communion as a relationship of mutual interchange with the Triune God, emphasizing friendship with the Almighty and the necessity of disciplined worship and meditation for deepening our walk with Him.

Is it possible to know the truth yet remain unchanged by it? In this message titled "Summing-up: Knowing and Doing," Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones addresses the Westminster Ministers' Conference with a sobering challenge about the relationship between knowing and doing. Based on John 13:17, "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them"—Dr. Lloyd-Jones warns against the subtle danger of being content with mere intellectual knowledge while neglecting practical application. He challenges believers to move beyond reaction against error to positive pursuit of God, beyond discussion of doctrine to demonstration of power. Addressing concerns about missionary zeal, communion with God, and genuine spiritual joy, Dr. Lloyd-Jones calls the conference to examine whether their understanding of Reformed doctrine translates into intimate knowledge of God. This is not a traditional sermon but a pastoral exhortation before corporate prayer—a plea to stop limiting God to the boundaries of personal experience and to seek the pneumatic reality promised in Scripture.

In this address delivered at the Puritan Conference, Dr. J.I. Packer examines the central place of conscience in Puritan thought and practice. Beginning with the Reformers' conviction that conscience is man's awareness of himself as standing in the presence of God — subject to God's Word, commanded and judged by God's law — Dr. Packer traces how the Puritans understood conscience as a rational faculty of self-knowledge in communion with God. Drawing on the writings of Sibbes, Fenner, Ames, Goodwin, Bunyan, and others, he shows how the Puritans personified conscience as God's deputy in the soul: a register, a witness, an accuser, a judge, and an executioner. This teaching, Dr. Packer argues, reflected the Puritans' view of Holy Scripture as a precise revelation sufficient for detailed holy living, their understanding of personal godliness as the life of a good conscience maintained through sight of the cross, and their conviction that faithful preaching must apply truth directly to the conscience.</br></br> Dr. Packer then brings these principles to bear on the events of 1662, when nearly two thousand ministers were ejected from the Church of England under the Act of Uniformity. Focusing particularly on the case of Richard Baxter and his associates — men who had no objection in principle to episcopacy, liturgy, or a national church — Dr. Packer shows that the principles weighing upon their consciences were the fear of perjury in swearing unfeigned assent to the prayer book, the refusal to declare the Solemn League and Covenant unlawful, concern over the implications of reordination, and above all, the conviction that the ministers of God must not appear to discredit the truths they had publicly upheld. The address concludes with the challenge that such conscientiousness — evangelical, not legalistic; joyful, not morbid; costly, but precious — is a basic need in the Church at all times and a word the present generation needs to hear.

The year 1662 marked a decisive turning point in English church history—the final defeat of Puritan hopes for a truly Reformed Church of England. In this penetrating historical address, Dr. Lloyd-Jones examines why the Commonwealth period's promise collapsed into the Restoration Settlement, when two thousand faithful ministers were ejected from their pulpits for refusing to compromise their convictions. What caused this catastrophic failure? The answer reveals uncomfortable truths: the fatal mixture of religion and politics, devastating divisions among those who agreed on doctrine, and the persistent allure of establishment thinking that preferred state sanction to spiritual purity. <br><br>Yet Dr. Lloyd-Jones does not merely recount history—he applies it with surgical precision to the contemporary church. Standing at a moment when everything seemed "in the melting pot" once more, with denominational barriers weakening and new ecclesiastical arrangements emerging, he warns that the same dangers threaten again. The lesson of 1662 is primarily one of warning: against allowing secondary matters to divide those united on gospel essentials, against seeking worldly methods to advance spiritual ends, against the compromises that flow from desiring state recognition over faithfulness to Scripture. Here is a clarion call to prioritize the purity of the gospel, the freedom of the church, and the authority of conscience above institutional unity or political expedience.

In this address delivered at the Puritan Conference on the centenary of the 1859 Revival, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones confronts a startling paradox: those who hold most firmly to the doctrines of sovereign grace have largely ceased to think about revival. Surveying the history of revivals from the seventeenth century through the great awakenings of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Dr. Lloyd-Jones traces the decline of revival consciousness in the church after 1860 and identifies its causes — the rise of theological liberalism, the influence of Charles Finney's methods, the dangers of intellectualism, an excessive reaction against Pentecostalism, and the silence of the Puritans themselves on the subject.<br><br>Dr. Lloyd-Jones then dismantles the objections raised against praying for revival, including the claim that Pentecost was a once-for-all event and that reformation must precede any outpouring of the Spirit. Drawing on Buchanan, Smeaton, and Jonathan Edwards, he argues that the history of redemption has been carried forward mainly by remarkable effusions of the Holy Spirit at unexpected times and places — and that nothing so demonstrates the sovereignty of God, the irresistibility of grace, and the impotence of man as revival. The address closes with a fervent call to prayer, grounded in Isaiah 64, that God would rend the heavens and come down.

Does Calvinism stifle missionary zeal, or does it fuel it? This charge against Calvinism has persisted for generations, yet a careful examination of church history reveals a very different story. In this Westminster Puritan Conference address, B.R. Easter presents a comprehensive historical survey demonstrating that the great pioneers of Protestant missions—from John Calvin's sending of pastors to Brazil, to John Eliot among the American Indians, to David Brainerd's sacrificial ministry, to William Carey's launch of the modern missionary movement—were men firmly rooted in the doctrines of grace. Far from paralyzing evangelistic effort, the Reformed faith provided the very theological foundation that sustained these missionaries through overwhelming obstacles.</br></br> Easter traces the development of missionary thought and practice from the sixteenth century through the modern era, showing how each new advance in missions sprang not from a weakening but from a revival of Reformed doctrine. The address distinguishes carefully between hyper-Calvinism, which did indeed hinder the free offer of the gospel, and classical Calvinism, which held together both God's sovereign election and the universal call to repent and believe. The discussion that follows, chaired by Dr. Lloyd-Jones, probes the practical implications for contemporary believers: What produces genuine missionary passion? How does one's view of Christ as the only Saviour drive evangelistic urgency? This conference paper stands as a powerful corrective to the notion that Reformed theology chokes missionary concern, demonstrating instead that when rightly understood, the doctrines of grace possess within themselves the dynamic and impetus for worldwide gospel proclamation.

It may come as a surprise that the Puritan pastors were among the greatest advocates of Christian joy. In this address from the 1961 Puritan Conference at Westminster Chapel, Thomas J. Gwyn unfolds the rich Puritan teaching on the nature, duty, and practice of rejoicing in God—drawing extensively from Richard Sibbes, Richard Baxter, and John Howe. Far from the popular caricature of sour-faced moralists, these godly men insisted that joy is the reasonable and commanded state of every believer, grounded not in temperament or circumstance but in the gracious nature and being of God Himself. Gwyn traces the Puritan distinction between carnal mirth and holy joy, the directions they gave for cultivating delight in God, and the intimate connection between joy, faith, conscience, and the ministry of the Word.<br/><br/>The address is followed by a lively discussion chaired by Dr. Lloyd-Jones, in which the conference wrestles with pressing pastoral questions: Can a Christian be both unhappy and joyful at the same time? What is the relationship between the duty of joy and the experience of spiritual desertion? Must we define our doctrine by our experience, or ought our experience to conform to what Scripture commands? Dr. Lloyd-Jones insists that joy is indeed a doctrine and a duty, rooted in the command to "rejoice evermore," and that our whole danger is to approach the matter subjectively rather than heeding the command of God. The discussion brings the Puritan teaching to bear on the realities of the Christian life with both theological precision and warm pastoral concern.

It may come as a surprise that the Puritan pastors were among the greatest advocates of Christian joy. In this address from the 1961 Puritan Conference at Westminster Chapel, Thomas J. Gwyn unfolds the rich Puritan teaching on the nature, duty, and practice of rejoicing in God—drawing extensively from Richard Sibbes, Richard Baxter, and John Howe. Far from the popular caricature of sour-faced moralists, these godly men insisted that joy is the reasonable and commanded state of every believer, grounded not in temperament or circumstance but in the gracious nature and being of God Himself. Gwyn traces the Puritan distinction between carnal mirth and holy joy, the directions they gave for cultivating delight in God, and the intimate connection between joy, faith, conscience, and the ministry of the Word.<br><br> The address is followed by a lively discussion chaired by Dr. Lloyd-Jones, in which the conference wrestles with pressing pastoral questions: Can a Christian be both unhappy and joyful at the same time? What is the relationship between the duty of joy and the experience of spiritual desertion? Must we define our doctrine by our experience, or ought our experience to conform to what Scripture commands? Dr. Lloyd-Jones insists that joy is indeed a doctrine and a duty, rooted in the command to "rejoice evermore," and that our whole danger is to approach the matter subjectively rather than heeding the command of God. The discussion brings the Puritan teaching to bear on the realities of the Christian life with both theological precision and warm pastoral concern.

What place does preaching hold in the worship of God? In this address from the 1961 Puritan Conference, the Westminster Directory for Public Worship is examined alongside the practices of the Reformers, Puritans, and eighteenth-century Evangelicals to reveal the central, indispensable role of proclamation in the life of the church. Drawing on the Directory's detailed prescriptions for the minister's preparation, doctrinal exposition, and pastoral application, the paper demonstrates that true preaching is not an addendum to worship but its very heart — set within a framework of prayer, Scripture reading, and the singing of psalms, and aimed always at the edification and salvation of the hearers.</br></br> In the discussion that follows, Dr. Lloyd-Jones presses the practical implications for the modern minister: the danger of professionalism in the pulpit, the temptation to follow models rather than to preach to the actual congregation, and the absolute necessity of dependence upon the Holy Spirit. He warns against a preoccupation with the form of the sermon at the expense of genuine contact with the people, insisting that the preacher's chief business is not to satisfy his own standard but to convey the truth of God to the souls before him. With characteristic directness, Dr. Lloyd-Jones reminds both preachers and laypeople that the remedy for the church's weakness lies not in new methods but in the old power — the outpouring of the Spirit upon the faithful ministry of the Word.