Paul Baynes (also Bayne, Baines; c. 1573 – 1617) was an English clergyman. Described as a "radical

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...

", he was unpublished in his lifetime, but more than a dozen works were put out in the five years after he died. His commentary on ''

Ephesians The Epistle to the Ephesians is the tenth book of the New Testament. Its authorship has traditionally been attributed to Paul the Apostle but starting in 1792, this has been challenged as Deutero-Pauline, that is, pseudepigrapha written in Pau ...

'' is his best known work; the commentary on the first chapter, itself of 400 pages, appeared in 1618.

Life

He went to school at

Wethersfield, Essex Wethersfield is a village and a civil parish on the B1053 road in the Braintree (district), Braintree district of Essex, England. It is near the River Pant. Wethersfield has a school, a social club, a fire station and one places of worship. Nearby ...

. A pupil and follower of William Perkins, he graduated from

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 170 graduate students. The college was founded by William Byngham in 1437 as ...

with a B.A. in 1593/4, M.A. in 1597, and was elected a Fellow of Christ's College in 1600, a position he lost in 1608 for non-conformity. He was successor to Perkins as lecturer at the church of

St Andrew the Great St Andrew the Great is a Church of England parish church in central Cambridge. Rebuilt in late Gothic style in 1843, it is a Grade II listed building. The church has a conservative evangelical tradition and participates in the Anglican Reform mov ...

in Cambridge, opposite Christ's; they were considered the town's leading Puritan preachers.

Influence

Baynes was an important influence on the following generation of English Calvinists, through

William Ames William Ames (; Latin: ''Guilielmus Amesius''; 157614 November 1633) was an English Puritan minister, philosopher, and controversialist. He spent much time in the Netherlands, and is noted for his involvement in the controversy between the Cal ...

, a convert of Perkins, and

Richard Sibbes Richard Sibbes (or Sibbs) (1577–1635) was an Anglican theologian. He is known as a Biblical exegete, and as a representative, with William Perkins and John Preston, of what has been called "main-line" Puritanism because he always remained in ...

, a convert of Baynes himself. This makes Baynes a major link in a chain of "Puritan worthies": to John Cotton, John Preston, Thomas Shepard and

Thomas Goodwin Thomas Goodwin ( Rollesby, Norfolk, 5 October 160023 February 1680), known as "the Elder", was an English Puritan theologian and preacher, and an important leader of religious Independents. He served as chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, and was impo ...

. Ames quoted Baynes: "Beware of a strong head and a cold heart", an idea that would be repeated by

Cotton Mather Cotton Mather (; February 12, 1663 – February 13, 1728) was a New England Puritan clergyman and a prolific writer. Educated at Harvard College, in 1685 he joined his father Increase as minister of the Congregationalist Old North Meeting H ...

, who was grandson to John Cotton.Leland Ryken, ''Worldly Saints: The Puritans as They Really Were'' (1991), p. 17.

Works

*''Commentary on Ephesians'' (1618) *''A Counterbane against Earthly Carefulnes'' (1619) *''The Diocesans Tryall'' (1621) *''Brief Directions unto a Godly Life (1637)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Baynes, Paul Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge 1573 births 1617 deaths 17th-century English Puritan ministers 17th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians Fellows of Christ's College, Cambridge English Calvinist and Reformed theologians 16th-century English writers 16th-century male writers 17th-century English writers 17th-century English male writers English male non-fiction writers

Life

Influence

Works

References

Further reading

External links