The History of the Puritans from the Reformation in 1517 to the Revolution in 1688

The gift of liberty was won for people of all faiths and none by the heroic achievements of English Puritans. This is a central message of the book that more than any other can be considered the official history of the Puritan movement. 

Daniel Neal was born in 1678, as the greatest generation of Puritan leaders was beginning to disappear. After his parents died, he was raised by his uncle, who provided him with a solid education and sent him to study for Christian ministry at Thomas Rowe’s dissenting academy at Newington Green. Following studies in his 20s with Dutch theologians at Utrecht and Leiden, Neal was ordained in London in the Independent congregation that met in Loriner’s Hall and later in Jerwin Street. In the capital, he befriended Philip Doddridge and Isaac Watts, seemingly accepting something of the doctrinal weakening of dissent during that critical period. Like Watts, Neal did not take sides in the 1719 Salters’ Hall debate over whether ministers should subscribe to the doctrine of the Trinity.