Selected Sermons

The Crossway Short Classics Series Presents Rare Sermons from Black Puritan Minister Lemuel Haynes

Born in 1753, Lemuel Haynes was an indentured servant who grew to become a dynamic Reformed preacher. Nicknamed ＂The Black Puritan,＂ he is credited as being the first African-American ordained for ministry in the United States. This addition to the Crossway Short Classics series presents some of Haynes’s important yet little-known work.

Selected Sermons features 4 rarely published sermons, along with a biography of Haynes. In ＂Universal Salvation,＂ he preaches on the reality of hell and the character of Satan. ＂A Sermon on John 3:3＂ explores Jesus’s command to be born again. ＂The Character and Work of a Spiritual Watchman Described＂ details qualifications for gospel ministers, and in ＂Liberty Further Extended,＂ he presents a biblical argument against slavery and oppression. This collection of Haynes’s sermons offers readers robust spiritual insight and a closer look at an extraordinary figure in church history.

• Collection of Rarely Published Sermons: A unique, accessible resource for pastors and scholars
• Written by Black Puritan Minister Lemuel Haynes: Includes his sermons on racial justice, regeneration, biblical qualifications for ministry, and the heresy of universalism
• Part of the Crossway Short Classics Series: Other titles include The Lord’s Work in the Lord’s Way and No Little People;The Life of God in the Soul of Man; and Fighting for Holiness
• Includes a Foreword by Jared C. Wilson

Lemuel Haynes (1753-1833) was a Reformed minister and theologian from West Hartford, Connecticut. Born to an unknown white woman and African American man, he spent the first twenty years of his life as an indentured servant. In 1780, Haynes became the first African American preacher ordained in the United States and received an honorary Master of Arts degree from Middlebury College.