A few words over the passing of time have become almost by-words and rather than the words associated with godliness that that they were originally perceived as, they now have negative connotations. Two that easily come to my mind are the term, "Pious" and "Religion." Originally they were universally understood words, synonymous with godliness. But, faith and the life of faith over centuries has become less, not only in numbers, but also in how it is practiced. When Jonathan Edwards wrote one of his best known treatises "Religious affections," everyone knew what he meant by the term. It is true, one can have religion, and not have Christ. Just as it is also true, one an have self-righteousness and sanctimoniousness, that can often be confused with genuine godliness yet not have living faith. Read more on Calvin's Character of Piety…
Filed under Calvin and Calvinism, Crazy Calvinist, Hall of Fame, Johnathan Edwards, Quotes, Reformation, faith by on Jun 25th, 2010. Comment. 
Robert Barnes was the faithful minister of the Gospel who burned at smithfield, England in, 1540, and who, as he was committed to the flames, addressed the onlookers with these farewell words:
I trust in no good works that ever I did, but only in the death of Christ. I do not doubt but through Him to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. But
imagine not that I speak against good works, for they are to be done, and verily they that do them not shall never enter into the kingdom of Heaven.
Cited from "Last words of saints and sinners" by Herbert Lockyer
Filed under Church History, Crazy Calvinist, Hall of Fame, Misc Puritans, Persecution, Quotes, The World Was Not Worthy, dying words by on Apr 2nd, 2010. 1 Comment.
I have a significant amount I would like and hope to say on The dreamer, John Bunyan over the coming time, (DV); but for now, I offer two poems on this man of God. One from William Cowper, the other from Rudyard Kipling.
May we all learn to live our faith, with the convictions of the immortal dreamer, Bunyan, and have our consciences bound to God alone as he did.
William Cowper:
“Oh thou, whom borne on fancy’s eager wing,
Back to the season of Life’s happy spring,
I pleased remember and while memory yet holds
Fast her office here can never forget.
Ingenious dreamer, in whose well-told tale
Sweet fiction and sweet truth alike prevail;
Whose humorous vein strong sense and simple style
May teach the gayest, make the bravest smile;
Witty and well employed, and like thy Lord,
Speaking in parables His slighted word.”
“Rather Than Thus to Violate My Faith and Principle"
Rudyard Kipling:
“A tinker out of Bedford,
A vagrant oft in quod,
A private under Fairfax,
A minister of God;
Two hundred years and thirty
Ere Armageddon came
His single hand portrayed it,
And Bunyan was his name.
“All enemy divisions,
Recruits of every class,
And highly screened positions
For flame or poison-gas;
The craft that we call modern,
The crimes that we call new,
John Bunyan had ‘em typed and filed
In Sixteen Eighty-two.
“He mapped for those who followed,
The world in which we are —
This famous town of ‘Mansoul’
That makes the Holy War.
Her true and traitor people
The gates along her wall,
From Eye Gate into Feel Gate,
John Bunyan showed them all.”
Filed under Crazy Calvinist, Hall of Fame, John Bunyan, Poetry, The Puritan Way, William Cowper, faith by on Feb 3rd, 2010. Comment.
Here we read of John Knox answering the call to the ministry as called out by John Rough.
If ever there was no man more suited to the ministry and who worked great things by the power of God by his ministry, it would be Knox. Yet today, it often seems, that people enter the ministry without any real calling to. They may have some notion that they can do good, yet, if unsuited and it not being their true calling, they may be responsible for being the instrument for many souls to perish. Being a Christian, is no reason to think one has what it takes to be a minister of the Gospel. The state of the ministry today, in much of Christendom, validates this. The call if the ministry is a very special and high calling. Those who have the calling and are faithful ministers for Christ and his gospel, is a different thing entirely from those who on some notion that has nothing of God given wisdom behind it, think themselves fit to enter the ministry to do so, and do far more harm than good, and far more work for Satan than for God.
No fitter candidate for the office of Minister existed than John Knox, yet he recognized the great responsibility that went with it, and he wrestled with it, heavy in heart, because he didn't want to go where he was not truly called to be. Oh for more men to take notice of Knox's example in this way, and for many to recognize, that unlike Knox, they do not have what it takes to be a minister of the Gospel, without doing Satan's work. Passing all one's exams is one thing, but head knowledge never did make a heart what it needs to be, for any mission or calling in life.
As told by Thomas McCrie in his life of John Knox, of Knox's anguish at this time in his life after John Rough called him out publicly to take up the call of Minister of the Gospel of Christ:
This scene cannot fail to interest such as are impressed with the weight of the ministerial function, and will awaken a train of feelings in the breasts of those who have been intrusted with the gospel. It revives the memory of
those early days of the Church, when persons did not rush forward to the altar, nor beg to “be put into one of the priests’ offices, to eat a piece of bread”; when men of piety and talents, deeply impressed with the awful responsibility of the office, and their own insufficiency, were, with great difficulty, induced to take on those orders, which they had long desired, and for which they had labored to qualify themselves. What a glaring contrast to this was exhibited in the conduct of the herd, which at this time filled the stalls of the popish Church! The behavior of Knox also reproves those who become preachers of their own accord; who, from vague and enthusiastic desires of doing good, or a fond conceit of their own gifts, trample upon good order, and thrust themselves into a sacred public employment, without any regular call. Read more on Knox's Example in Not Entering the Ministry without a real Calling…
Filed under Hall of Fame, John Knox, covenanters by on Jan 30th, 2010. Comment.
While he was in Geneva:
We have received letters from our brethren of Strasbourg, but not
in such sort and ample wise as we looked for; whereupon we
assembled together in the Holy Ghost (we hope), and have, with
one voice and consent, chosen you so particularly to be one of the
ministers of our congregation here, to preach unto us the most
lively Word of God, according to the gift that God hath given you;
forasmuch as we have here, through the merciful goodness of God,
a Church to be congregated together in the name of Christ, and be
all of one body, and also being of one nation, tongue, and country.
And at this present, having need of such a one as you, we do desire
you and also require you, in the name of God, not to deny us, nor
to refuse these our requests; but that you will aid, help, and assist
us with your presence in this our good and godly enterprise, which
we have taken in hand, to the glory of God and the profit of His
congregation, and the poor sheep of Christ dispersed abroad, who,
with your and like presences, would come hither and be of one
fold, whereas now they wander abroad as lost sheep without any
guide. We mistrust not but that you will joyfully accept this
calling.
Fare ye well from Frankfurt this 24th of September.
Filed under Hall of Fame, John Knox, covenanters by on Jan 28th, 2010. Comment.
Amazing Grace, is still the best loved and best known hymn in the Western World, written of course by former Slave Trader, John Newton. It has struck me as ironic of late, perhaps with a connection to how we like things that are pleasing to us, whether they are pleasing to God or not, that the very stanza most folks would say is their favourite today, was not written till 1910, long after Newton's death and does not belong to the original hymn. The Hymn as Newton wrote it is below.
Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)
That sav’d a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears reliev’d;
How precious did that grace appear,
The hour I first believ’d!Thro’ many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
’Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.The Lord has promis’d good to me,
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease;
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who call’d me here below,
Will be forever mine.
A small anecdote on John Newton, give his former slave trading, is that when William Wilberforce, who was to become the great abolitionist, first entered politics, it was as a dare and a joke. He lived the high life for several years, and did not take his occupation seriously at all. However, after he had a thorough conversion, several years into his political life, he started questioning if politics was where God wanted him to be and was his calling. And the irony is, and a wonderful ironic providence of God, that to get counsel on this matter, of if he should stay in politics or not, he went to John Newton's house in London, and Newton told him emphatically yes he should stay. If not for the former slave trader giving that counsel, perhaps Wilberforce would never have become the great abolitionist.
The epitaph on John Newton's gravestone says:
JOHN NEWTON, Clerk [preacher]
Once an infidel and libertine
A servant of slaves in Africa,
Was, by the rich mercy
of our Lord and Saviour
JESUS CHRIST,
restored, pardoned and
appointed to preach
the Gospel which he had
long laboured to destroy.
He ministered,
Near sixteen years in Olney, in Bucks,
And twenty eight years in this Church.Written by John Newton, it is engraved on a marble plaque in St Mary, Woolnoth, UK.
Filed under Chief Covie Know-all, Church History, Hall of Fame, Poetry, Quotes, The Puritan Way, faith by on Jan 25th, 2010. Comment.
2 Tim 1:9.—Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.
The mystical union betwixt Christ and a sinner is brought to pass in the effectual calling of a sinner, which I come now to explain, and we have in the text. The apostle had exhorted Timothy to a confident adhering to the doctrine of the gospel, over the belly of afflictions for the cause of God; and in the text shews a good reason that both he himself and Timothy had to do so, taken from what God had done for them.
1. What the Lord had done for them. (1) Saved them; namely, from sin and wrath; i.e. had brought them into a state of salvation out of a state of sin and misery, applied Christ’s salvation to them, which is so effectual that never one dies of the disease after it is applied, and therefore may be said thereupon to be saved. (2) Called them, namely, by his Spirit, when they were at a distance from him; he called them to himself, saved and called; not that he first saved, and then called them; but he saved them by calling them; which shews this call to be an effectual call. Therefore also it is called an holy calling, not only as proceeding from an holy God, but as making the called holy too.
2. The cause of the Lord’s doing this for them. (1) Negatively; not for any merit of theirs, they had done nothing to move God to call them more than others. (2) Positively: [1] His eternal purpose of love and salvation to them, as the apostle explains it, Rom 8:30. They were from eternity predestinated to salvation and the means of it, and therefore in complement of that purpose were savingly called. [2] His grace or free favour given them in and through Jesus Christ, which is said to have been given them before the world began, from eternity; namely, virtually in the decree, which secured the real giving them it in time, as much as if they had it in hand. And this account of the causes of this call does further evince it to be effectual calling that is meant.
The doctrine of the text is,Doctrine. “All that partake of Christ’s salvation are effectually called.”
Here I shall briefly explain to you the nature of effectual calling, and then apply it.
Effectual calling is the first entrance of a soul into the state of grace, the first step by which God’s eternal purpose of love descends unto sinners, and we again ascend towards the glory to which we are chosen. And upon the matter, it is the same with conversion and regeneration. I shall shew,
I. What the effectual call in the general is.
II. Who they are that are effectually called.
III. Whence and whither are they called that are effectually called.
IV. What makes the call effectual to some, when it is not so to others.
V. What is the necessity of their being thus effectually called.
VI. I shall more particularly explain the nature of effectual calling.
I. I am to shew what the effectual call in the general is. An effectual call is opposed to an ineffectual one. An effectual call is the call that gains its real intent; that is to say, when the party called comes when called. An ineffectual call is that which gains not the real intent of it, but falls short thereof, the party called not answering and obeying the call. To apply this to our purpose, all that hear the gospel are called; but,
1. To some of them it is ineffectual, and these are the most part of gospel-hearers, Matt 20:16, “For many be called, but few chosen.” They are called, invited, and obtested to come to Christ; but it is but the singing of a song to a deaf man that is not moved with it, Prov 1:24. The real intendment of the call is lost upon them. Though the intent of God the great caller can never be lost, who says, “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure,” Isa 46:10, yet the design of the thing is so. Though they are called, yet they come not to Christ, they sit his call, to their own destruction.
2. To others it is effectual, and these are but few, Matt 20:16 forecited. They get the call, and they rise and come away to Christ. It is not only the intent of the call, but of him that called them, to have them home to himself; and they receive not the grace of the gospel in vain. While others at best do but play about the bait, they greedily embrace it, and are catched according to that, “Ye shall be fishers of men.” They come away like Lot out of Sodom, while others account the call in effect but a jest, and so abide and perish in the overthrow. Read more on Of Effectual Calling…
Filed under Hall of Fame, covenanters by on Jan 24th, 2010. Comment.
I have been and continue to take part in the Matthew Henry Commentary Challenge. Not sure I shall read it in a year, certainly not at least without forsaking some other planned study, but how long it takes it not the point, so much as how much the profit, on a spiritual level, and how much it helps to love and understand the Word of God.
It's still January, so still early enough for others to join in if they so wish to do, who haven't yet started.
But on account of this regular reading plan, the reader may have noticed that I have posted odd short excerpts from Matthew Henry here the last week or two, and think I shall have the Matthew Henry minute when it seems appropriate, just a sentence or two or a few lines, from the incomparable Matthew Henry commentary. I had someone write me a while ago, asking who apart from Henry of puritans would make a good second commentary. Matthew Poole was the answer I gave, and would be the answer I would give to anyone. He is much briefer than Henry, his commentary is more in the form of notes, but actually the brevity of Matthew Poole, compliments Henry's flowing prose nicely.
But the first official at least, Matthew Henry Minute follows below:
By this way, sinners draw near to the throne of grace with acceptance. By faith we perceive this way, and in prayer we approach by it. In answer to prayer we receive all needful blessings of providence and grace. We have no way of getting to heaven but by Christ. And when the soul, by faith, can see these things, then every place will become pleasant, and every
prospect joyful. He will never leave us, until his last promise is accomplished in our everlasting happiness. [MH commentary on Gen 28]
Filed under Books, Hall of Fame, Matthew Henry, Misc Puritans, Quotes, The Puritan Way by on Jan 23rd, 2010. Comment.
Filed under Daily Quote, Hall of Fame, S. Rutherford, covenanters by on Jan 22nd, 2010. Comment.
[The martyr to whom reference is here made is James
Guthrie, whose last words were, " The Covenants ! the cov
enants shall yet be Scotland's reviving." In the story of
his life, as told by the Rev. Thomas Thomson, is the fol-
lowing passage which Mrs. Menteath has made the subject
of her touching poem : " James Guthrie had a son named
William, about four or five years old ; so young, indeed,
and therefore so ignorant of the dismal tragedy that was
approaching, that James Cowie (Mr. Guthrie's servant,
precentor, and amanuensis) could scarcely detain him from
playing in the streets on the day of his father's execution.
Guthrie, whose soul yearned over his boy, so soon to be-
come an orphan, took him upon his knee and gave him
such advices as were suited to his capacity. He bade him
to become serious — to become religious — and to be sure to
devote himself to that honest and holy course in which his
father had walked to the death. 'Willie,' he said, 'they
will tell you. and cast up to you, that your father was hang-
ed ; but think not shame of it, for it is upon a good cause.'
After the execution, the head was set up on the Nether
Bow Port as a spectacle for the finger of scorn to point at.
But among those who repaired thither, and looked up at
the long grey hairs rustling in the wind, and the features
embrowning and drying in the sun, one little hoy was oft-
en seen gazing fixedly upon that countenance with looks
of love and terror — and still returning, day after day, and
hour after hour, as if there was for him a language in that
silent head which none else could hear. And who could
that child be but Guthrie's young son — the little ' Willie'
of the Martyr's last affectionate counsels and cares? His
love of playing in the streets was now over ; a new occu-
pation had absorbed him ; and as he returned from these
pilgrimages, we may conceive with what feelings his moth-
er heard him when, on her anxious inquiry as to where he
had been, his usual reply was, ' I have been seeing my
father's head !' The dyiug admonitions of the departed
parent, enforced by such a solemnizing spectacle, seem to
have sunk deep into William's heart ; for it was observed
that after his father's death, he spent much time in solitude,
and was often employed in prayer. Resolving to walk in
his father's steps, he directed his studies to the^jhurch,
and became a scholar of excellent promise ; but he died in
early youth, when he was entering upon trials to be licensed
as a preacher."]
0. the sunrise! the sunrise hath wondrous power
To gladden all living things;
It breaks on the chill night's milkiest hour.
Like a smile from the King of kings!
"Pis earliest June, and the earth hatli thrilled
With the earnest of summer given :
And the very city's self is tilled
With the breath and the beam of heaven !
A glory is circling the stern dark brow
Of Dunedin's fortress old,
And a gleam is waking, more faintly now.
Her Tolbooth prison-hold,
"Where one hath risen, but not from sleep.
To gaze on that dawning sky —
True wife! what aileth thee now to weepy
Heaven brightens ere I die!" Read more on The Martyrs Son…
Filed under Flowers that Fell, Hall of Fame, James Guthrie, Poems of the Covenant, covenanters by on Jan 20th, 2010. Comment.
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