GroshLink

In a recent communication from the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary, I came upon audio files by The Reformation Society of Pittsburgh on The Puritan's View of the Pulpit and The Pilgrim's Progress. I'm placing these presentations on my to listen list. Hope to squeeze them into my travels.

These talks are timely because on Saturday I had an extended conversation w/a grad student who shared with me J.I. Packer's thoughts on the elements of good Puritan preaching.  I've asked for the link to which he was referring, I believe it was an audio file.  BTW, here's a link to Packer's Why We Need the Puritans (from A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life). He concludes:

Puritan sermons show that problems about providence are in no way new; the seventeenth century had its own share of spiritual casualties, saints who had thought simplistically and hoped unrealistically and were now disappointed, disaffected, despondent and despairing, and the Puritans' ministry to us at this point is simply the spin-off of what they were constantly saying to raise up and encourage wounded spirits among their own people I think the answer to the question, why do we need the Puritans, is now pretty clear, and I conclude my argument at this point. I, who owe more to the Puritans than to any other theologians I have ever read, and who know that I need them still, have been trying to persuade you that perhaps you need them too. To succeed in this would, I confess, make me overjoyed, and that chiefly for your sake, and the Lord's. But there, too, is something that I must leave in God's hands. Meantime, let us continue to explore the Puritan heritage together. There is more gold to be mined here than I have mentioned yet.

Time to schedule some listening and reading.