Abstract
In one of the instructive dialogues of which puritan preachers were so fond, Obadiah Sedgwick asked a doubter why he did not believe. The reply was ‘if I had assurance that God were my God, and Christ were my Christ, and the promises were mine, I would’. Sedgwick explained that assurance was the fruit of faith, but that God’s word was its basis: ‘experiences are good encouragements to the future acts of faith, but the word of God is still the ground of faith.’1 The word of God — and the promise of salvation — was contained in the bible. And the bible was the puritan’s constant companion: the godly should ‘evermore be musing, reading, hearing and talking of God’s word’, advised Richard Greenham.2 If we are to understand the puritans it is essential to comprehend the place of the bible in their lives.
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