The Puritans on Prayer

John Preston This celebrated Puritan divine was born in 1587 and educated at Cambridge. He was converted under the faithful preaching of John Cotton. An indefatigable student, he rose at four in the morning to pray, stating that it was the best use of time to pray with one’s eyes closed when it was dark so as not to waste good light by which one might be studying the Scriptures. He died in 1628 at the age of forty-one.

Nathaniel Vincent was a prodigy. He entered university at the age of eleven and had earned an MA degree by the age of eighteen. He was one of the ejected ministers of 1662 but returned to London after the fire of 1666 and preached to large multitudes in the ruins of the city. He spent many years in prison and under persecution for his nonconformity. He died at the age of fifty-three on June 21, 1697, and was buried in Bunhill Fields in London, the nonconformists’ burial ground.

Samuel Lee was born in London in 1627. He served as proctor at Oxford when John Owen was vice- chancellor and ministered at St. Botolph, London, but was ejected in 1662. He came to New England in 1686 and pastored at Bristol, Rhode Island, for three years. He died at the age of sixty-four while returning to England with his family.