Lavenham is a charming village in East Anglia, located in the heart of the Suffolk countryside. Considered a medieval gem, Lavenham was one of the wealthiest villages in Britain by the end of the 15th century. The wealth of the town came largely from its thriving wool trade.

Today, Lavenham still features many well-preserved buildings from the 15th and 16th centuries including the great guildhall at the center of the village. Many of the older buildings are designed with exposed wood timbers, giving the village its distinctive architectural character. One of the most famous buildings in Lavenham is the Crooked House (pictured right) which is now a delightful little tea room. Contributing to the charm of the shops and cottages lining the streets are the wide variety of flowers that teem from underneath windows and above doors.

At the edge of the village is the stunning St. Peter and St. Paul Church which was completed in 1525. The church is encompassed by a beautiful courtyard which creates a brilliant contrast with the church’s imposing stone tower. The church tower is believed to be the highest of its kind in any village in Britain. In fact, during WWII, RAF pilots referred to the tower as, “Thank God Tower,” because the it was the first thing they could see from the sky upon returning to English airspace after a bombing raid.

St. Peter and St. Paul is of significance to our tour because it is where the Puritan, William Gurnall (1616-1679) ministered for three and a half decades. Gurnall graduated from Emmanuel College Cambridge, that famous “nursery of the Puritans,” in 1639. In 1644 he became rector of St. Peter and St. Paul where he would minister till his death 35 years later. From everything we can tell he was a faithful pastor who carried on his ministry relatively detached from the controversy and commotion found in other parts of England during that tumultuous era. Though a Puritan theologically, Gurnall never withdrew from the Anglican communion like many of his Puritan brothers. Though some 2,000 of them were ejected from their pulpits in 1662 for refusing to sign the Act of Uniformity, Gurnall did not dissent, choosing to remain within the state church. His exact reasoning behind this decision remains unknown.

Biographical information on Gurnall is scarce. However, he did make one seminal contribution to the overall body of Puritan literature which has come down to us today as something of a classic of the period. He produced a work, first published in 1655, called The Christian in Complete Armour. The book is 1,240 pages in my Banner of Truth edition. It is, in essence, a sustained treatment of Ephesians 6:10-20 on the subject of spiritual warfare and the armor of God. Gurnall introduces the work with these words,

“The subject of the treatise is solemn; A War between the Saints and Satan, and that so bloody a one, that the cruelest which was ever fought by men will be found but sport and child’s play to this. It is a spiritual war that you shall read of; and that not a history of what was fought many ages past and is now over, but of what is now doing—the tragedy is at present acting—and that not at the furthest end of the world, but what concerns thee and everyone that reads it. The stage whereon this war is fought is every man’s own soul. Here is no neuter in this war. The whole world is engaged in the quarrel, either for God against Satan, or for Satan against God.”

Gurnall’s work would garner high praise, not only from his peers, but also from great men of later generations. John Newton famously said that if he were allowed to keep only one book in his library beside the Bible, he would choose Gurnall’s The Christian in Complete Armour. Spurgeon said of the book, “peerless and priceless; every line full of wisdom. The book has been preached over scores of times and is, in our judgment, the best thought-breeder in all our library.”

As one sits in the beautiful church courtyard, surrounded by the picturesque scenes of charming little Lavenham, with the sight of sheep grazing on a pasture a little ways off from the church, one is impressed that a man surrounded by so peaceful a setting would produce so significant and comprehensive a work on the subject of spiritual warfare. One might have thought the task would fall to other Puritans such as John Owen or Richard Baxter, who saw their fair share of warfare during the English Civil War; or perhaps even John Bunyan, himself a soldier at one time and later incarcerated for his faith. And yet it was Gurnall, the humble retiring Anglican pastor, ministering in a quintessential little English village, who gave 1,240 pages to this great subject.

William Gurnall saw past the pleasant meadows, the beautiful flowers, and the quaint cottages. He saw past the stillness and tranquility of little Lavenham. He was enabled to see that behind all the pleasantries of this life, there constantly raged a war in the spiritual realm, “and that so bloody a one” he says, “that the cruelest which was ever fought by men will be found but sport and child’s play to this.” He recognized that the greatest conflicts he and his flock would know would not be found in the quiet streets of Lavenham. They would be found in the spirit realm, where each Christian finds himself engaged, alongside of Christ, in spiritual warfare.

Greatest Work: The Christian in Complete Armour

Recommended Biography: Chapter on William Gurnall in Light from Old Times by J. C. Ryle

Some sites we’ll visit on the tour: