Geoffrey chaucer tells In the Canterbuy Tales, is much like the characters of many real, historical puritans. Sadly, through the ages, we have gone from Chaucer’s quite accurate depiction, to the cardboard cut outs and caricatures we so often see today, as a representation of “puritanism” when, these “representation” for the most part, goes way beyond poetic licence, to border on slander, and even stark lies.  But enough truth has been left, that if we want to see who or what these  men and women were in actual fact, we can do o today, despite the passing of time, which is often not the case in  many instances. It is not so easy to defend John Calvin for instance, against all the hatred that is out there against him. And his writings, which we have translations of not in his original language written, could quite often mean other things than how they have been translated. Unless we understood the language he used at the TIME, he wrote it, (and many of us English speaking folk do not even understand English from those days) and also understand the times that Calvin lived in, that what may seem cruel or unjust to us today, was common place in those days, as one thing Calvin was, was a man of his time.  But that should give caution to folks who take issues of life, rather than Scripture passages which Calvin has exposited, and think they know what Calvin said on thi subject or that because of the translations we have available to us today, that the translations may actually be in some parts, stating the case far different to how Calvin intended when he wrote the original text, because of the above issues and perhaps some besides.

But the puritans it is not so hard as it to get a clear picture, even though the misrepresentations of them are perhaps even more rife than that of Calvin.  The Bible says Woe to them who call good evil, and evil good, and in the cases of both Calvin and the puritans, and more figures from the Reformation era, we have this very syndrome often times.  I could cite several sources, but, I think the reader is probably already aware of many of them, so unless anyone asks, I will not do so in the post.  But Chaucer’s depiction of his puritan he met on the way to Canterbury goes like this:

“His business and his opportunity was to preach to the people but in order to preach successfully he must preach to the people, must preach what the people would listen to and think they understood. He must preach what could be practiced, and he must himself practice what he preached. The preacher has to say that a man’s chief concern sould be with teh welfare of his own soul, that he m ust not let his life be swallowed up in immediate and material affairs but must dedicate it to spiritual ends.
—William Haller “The Rise of Puritanism” pp. 4

Chaucer lived in the fourteenth century, two or three centuries before the age of that which is known as puritanism began. Yet, he depicted the character quite accurately, and more than many modern day writers do, and sadly, even more than many who are part of the Reformed church. If we remain ignorant on such matters, that is our choice. But it is a choice. We have a duty to our God, and to our Reformed fore fathers to not remain ignorant, because to do so, we not only do so to the detriment of our own souls and spiritual welfare, we also do so, at the risk of harm and damage to the Reformed faith.

There are plenty of places in Scripture that give us warrant and duty to study Christian history, Psalm 78 is one that easily comes to mind, as does verses 4-5 from Psalm 22
There are other places in Scripture that also give a warrant to of course, it is not only a great encouragement to our faith, a strengthening of it, to see how God delivered or worked among his church through the ages, but it also helps us, to not tarnish the memory or testimony of those who paid with their blood for the love of Christ. Sadly there are too many who do so. And for me, its one of those things that steps upon my bllue suede shoes of Christendom. But whether puritan history, Reformed history, or any aspect, it is our duty to be learned in such matters, and Scripture calls us to it on many occassions, yet, it is sadly a subject oft neglected, and folk can fail to see the import of or relevance to us in our lives today. But it is HIStory. It does and always will have relevance, because of that alone.

Canterbury Tales

When we pray for thing pertaining to this life, we must desire temporal thing for spiritual ends; we must desire these things to be as helps in our journey to heaven. If we pray for health, it must be that we may improve this talen of health for God’s glory, and may be fitter for his service… if we are to pray for temporal good things, then how  much more for spiritual? If we are to pray for bread, then how much more for the bread of life? If we pray to have our hunger satisfied, how much more should we pray to have our souls saved…. Therefore, let u be earnest for spiritual mercies.—Thomas Watson, “Practical Divinity”

We are kept by God’s power, and God’s power is triggered by prayer… We pray aright when we “pray in the Holy Ghost.” This is necessary with respect to acceptance… Surely, God’s ear will be opened if our hearts be opened… Fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice was the solemn token of acceptance heretofore; fire from heaven is the token still, even a holy ardour wrought in us by the Spirit.
Prayer is a work too hard for us; we can babble of ourselves, but we cannot pray without the Holy Ghost; we can put words into prayer, but it is the Spirit who puts affections, without which it is but a little cold praattle adn spiritless talk.
—Thomas Manton “The Epistle of Jude”

The Lord nourishes and cherishes his church…When he first created man, he provided beforehand all things needful to nourish him…When he was moved deeply to destroy the earth…he had care of his church and provided an ark to keep her out of the water and stored up in the ark all things needful for her. When he purposed to bring a famine on the world, he sent a man beforehand to lay up a provision for his church. When his church was in a barren and dry wilderness, he gave them bread from heaven, water out of the rock…After this he brought his church into a land flowing with milk and honey…Neither has he merely nourished her with temporal blessings, but also with needful spiritual blessings–his Word and sacraments, his Spirit and grace… With his own flesh and blood he has fed her, and with his own righteousness he clothed her.
–William Gouge

The apostle calls it to ‘fall into temptation’ (1 Tim. 6:9), as a man falls into a pit or deep place where there are  traps and snares with which he might be entangled. The man is not instantly killed or destroyed, but he is entangled and detained. He does not know how to get free or be at liberty. So Paul speaks in 1 Corinthians 10:13 in terms of temptation taking us. To be taken by a temptation is to be tangled with it, to be held in its cords, and not find at present, a way to escape. Peter also says in 2 Peter 2:9, ‘The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations.’ If they are entangled with them, God knows how to deliver them out of them. When we allow a temptation to enter into us, then we ‘enter into temptation.’ When sin knocks at the door, we are at  liberty; but when a temptation comes in and we allow it to speak with our heart, reason with our mind, entice and allure our affections, for a long, or a short time, then sin subtly and almost imperceptibly draws our soul to take particular notice of it: we enter into temptation.
—John Owen, “Temptation”

One thing that is quite clear, about the majority of Christians today, (self included) is that we do not have knowledge and indepth understanding that the puritans had nor before them the  Reformers.  The Bible was at the heart of the reformation, to making it accessible to the common man, and it not being shut up in darkness and obscurity and only having what the Pope said to understand and be able to interpret it for the common people. Our forefathers, paid for the freedom and easy accessibility we have today to the pages of God’s Word, with their blood and very lives often times. And what do we today do with this inestimable treasure? we do not prize it, as they did, at least over all, that is to be sure.. They had the Word in their hearts, as Scripture tells us to have it.  They were Biblicists in the real sense of the word, (and believe it or not I have even heard them called that in a way of trying to put them down!) Oh for more  such Biblicists among us today.  Knowledge or rather ignorance of the Bible, its teachings, God’s will, God Himself and Christ, are, in my opinion one of the major causes for the church to be in its current state of declination.  Even among  parts of the so-called Reformed church.  To know Him is to love him, that much is true. The more we know HIM, the more we will love HIM, and the more we will be the shining lights that we should be.  Rather than groping our way along, still in darkness and not being able to discern if we turn to the right or the left, so limping blindly on regardless and hoping for the best.  That we, of the Reformed faith, are no less culpable of this than any other branch of Christianity, is an abomination, when the Bible and its freedom and accessibility and availability to the common man,  was at the heart of the Reformation, and that they started off not having that glorious liberty we have today. And yet, we turn liberty to licentiousness, by refusing or rejecting the godly liberty of a Bible for every man, woman and child; to the ungodly liberties we find in the pleasures of the world.

Today we have Bible memorization programmes, and the technology to help them stick, such as this one by John Piper’s  ministry So, what excuse do we have. And also, God makes it quite clear, that ignorance is not an excuse for sin. And I myself have long believed, that ignorance is often a choice.

A New England Antinomian  was heard to utter:

I had rather hear such a one that speaks from mere notion of the Spirit, without any study at all, than any of your learned scholars, although he maybe fuller of Scripture.

Which would also seem to confirm my theory that often, ignorance is a choice.

According to a biography on John Bruen, Robert Pasfield who was an illiterate servant of Bruen’s was:

“a man utterly unlearned, being unable to read a sentence or write a sylablle. Yet he was so well acquainted with the history of the Bible, and the sum and substance of every book and chapter, that hardly could any ask him where such a sayinkg or sentence were, but he would with very little ado tell them in what book, and what chapter they might find it.”

We all have to start somewhere. You can’t expect a two year old Christian to have the vast stores of understanding and knowledge  that a 15 year old on will have. But if after, considerable time has passed, and  medical reasons notwithstanding, that could cause it,   the person remains ignorant as many a new born babe, then, I think that person should do some soul searching to ask why it is so.

Lord perseve us from ignorance, and from choosing the worldly pelasures to the dteriment of spiritual concerns. Give us grace to perservere, even when we don’t see  progress, but trust that your grace is sufficient, in this matter, as much as it is, in any other. In Jesus, Name. Amen.

This seems like it maybe an appropriate post to start off my series of “Reformed or Deformed” which at the moment I am trying to organize in my mind to set down on paper in an organized way.

Until we are tested, we think that we are living on our own strength. It is, however, God alone who keeps us from falling by his preventing grace. We might say, “All men may do this or that, but we will not!” When the trial comes, however, we quickly see that only God’s preservation upholds us. So it was with Abimelech (Gen. 20:6), God withheld him from sinning. God also reveals his renewing grace through our testings. Paul in his prayer for deliverance from his thorn in the flesh, found God’s sufficiency and renewing grace (2 Cor. 12:9). We do not realize the power and strength that God puts forth on our behalf, and the sufficiency of his grace, until we compare our trials with our weaknesses. God’s power and grace are then seen clearly in our lives. The effectiveness of an antidote is not realized until one has been exposed to the poison. The preciousness of a medicine is revealed by the presence of the disease. We will not know the power of grace until we feel the power of testing. We must be tried, to realize the glory of being preserved.
—John Owen “Temptation”

“God who is rich in mercy…. loved us even when we were dead in our sins [and] quickened us together with Christ.” Why did he do all this? “That in ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness towards  us in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:4-7). So he allures others and their children to come to him and partake of the same grace through Jesus Christ.
As the Jerusalem sinners were of the highest sort among the Jews, so these Ephesian sinners were of the highest sort among the Gentiles (Eph 2:1-3; 2:11, 12)…. When God saves one great sinner, it is to encourage another great sinner to come to him for mercy.
—John Bunyan “The Jerusalem Sinner Saved”

If God had said he will forgive one sin, it would have been undeserved grace. But when he says he will pardon all but one, this is grace of the highest order. Nor is that one [unpardonable] sin otherwise but because the Saviour that should save them is rejected and put away.
We read of Jacob’s ladder. Christ is Jacob’s ladder that reaches up to Heaven, and he that refuses to go by this ladder will not, though using other means, get up so high. There is none other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved. There is also none other sacrifice for sin than his. He also, and he alone is the Mediator that reconciles men to God. And sinner, if you would be saved by him, his benefits are yours… even though you are a great and Jerusalem transgressor.
—John Bunyan, “The Jerusalem Sinner Saved”

Flame is soon spent, graces that act most strongly require most influence, as beng most subject to abatement. We sooner lose our affections than anything else. Love is a grace we can ill spare; it is the spring and rise of all duties to God and man… If we would do anything in the resistance of sin, in keeping the commandments, we cannot spare our love… Well, then, watch the more earnestly against the decays and abatement’s of love.
Sin confessed without remorse… prayer made for spiritual blessings without the desire of obtaining… hearing without attention… singing without any delight or melody of heart—all this is but the just account of a heart declining in the love of God.
—Thomas Manton, “The Epistle of Jude”

Learn to judge of the sufficiency of the merits of Christ… the unsearchable riches of Christ. Consider what offer he makes—after his resurrection—-of his grace to sinners… There is sufficiency in his blood to save the biggest sinners (Acts 13:38, 39)… Remission of sins is through faith in his blood (Eph. 1:7)… The biggest of sinners cannot be saved but by the abundance of grace.
“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31). He will grip hard, his fist is stronger than a lion’s paw. Take heed of him. He will be angry if you despise his Son. And will you stand guilty in your trespasses when he offers you his grace and favour?
—John Bunyan “The Jerusalem Sinner Saved”

God will not quench the smoking flax, but blow it up till it flames. In smoking flax there is but little light… Grace is little at the first… Let us not be discouraged at the small beginnings of grace, but look on ourselves as “elected to be  blameless and without spot” (Eph. 1:4)… Christ will not quench small and weak beginnings. First, because this spark is from heaven, it is his own, it is kindled by his own Spirit. And secondly, it tends to the glory of his powerful grace in his children that he preserves light in the midst of darkness–a light in the midst of swelling waters of corruption.
–Richard Sibbes, “The Bruised Reed”

None but the upright, who are indeed renewed by the sanctifying Spirit of Christ, will in all things make Christ’s will their rule and in everything hold close to it, preferring it before their pleasure, profit, preferment, or any other outward allurement. They who do so give good evidence that they belong to the body of Christ, and may be sure that Christ is their Saviour.
Christ became a King to govern us, a Prophet to instruct us, a Priest to make atonement for us… He wholly set himself apart for our use and benefit.
—William Gouge “Domestic Duties.”

Adore the grace that returns him to us, and inclined him to take that strange course…to repair his forlorn temple, and fill this desolate, forsaken world with the joyful sound of those glad tidings, “The tabernacle of God is with men!
Our discourse must here proceed by these steps, to show: 1. That mankind has universally revolted, and been in a state of apostasy from God; 2. That hereby the temple of God in man has been generally made waste and desolate; 3. That he has laid both the new foundation and the platform of his present temple in Immanuel, God with us, his own incarnate Son, who rebuilds, beautifies, furnishes, inhabits it, and orders all its concernments.
That that have read the sacred volume cannot be ignorant that all flesh have corrupted their way; that the great God, looking down from heaven,..has only the unpleasing prospect before his eyes of universal depravation and defection….This was not the first state of man, but he is degenerated into it from a former and better state…Even many who have never conversed with those sacred records have no less clearly discovered their sense of man’s present evil state…How far he has swerved from what he was is easy conjecturable by comparing him with the measures which show what he should be…We neither are, nor do what we should!
Man is corrupted from his primitive integrity, and become a depraved and degenerate thing…By this degeneracy, the temple of the living God among men became waste and desolate uninhabitable or unfit for his blessed presence…The divine image [is] now defaced and torn down ….Instead of a temple, man is a cage of every unclean and hurtful thing…full of unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, envy, murder…How repugnant, in all respects, to the holy, pure, benign, merciful nature of God! How remote from the imitation of his Maker!
Thus is the true image of God torn down from his own temple, and become the temple of a false God, dedicated to that abominable idol, self.
It is no wonder that the blessed God absents himself and is become a stranger to this once beloved mansion….The stately ruins are ever visible to every eye and bear this doleful inscription: Here God once dwelt…The lamps are extinct and the altar overturned; the light and love are now vanished…the golden candlestick is displaced to make room for the throne of the prince of darkness…Look upon the fragments…the yet legible precepts that relate to practice…engraven by the finger of God, and how they now lie torn and scattered…The truth which is after godliness is not so much disbelieved, as hated, held in unrighteousness…The faded glory, the darkness, the disorder, the impurity, the decayed state…too plainly show the great inhabitant is gone.
When God left his temple, he did not consume it …Whatsoever was necessary [for its restoration] is designed and done at his own dear expense–his only begotten Son most freely consenting with him …sustaining the weight and burden of this great undertaking.
—John Howe “The Living Temple”

The way to prevail is to get the victory over the pride of our own nature, by taking shame to ourselves, in humble confession to God; to overcome the unbelief of our hearts, by yielding to the promise of pardon; to set ourselves against those sins which have prevailed over us, in confidence of Christ’s assistance. Then, prevailing over ourselves, we shall easily prevail over all our enemies.
—Richard Sibbes “The Bruised Reed.”

Let a king who of grace sends out to his rebellious people an offer of pardon if they accept it by such a day, yet beheads or hangs those that come not in for mercy until the expiry time be past, so Christ Jesus has set the sinner a day–a day of salvation—an acceptable time, but he who will not come and goes on in rebellion beyond that time, is liable to come off with the loss of all his soul.
To slight grace, to despise mercy, and to stop the ear when God speaks…so much to our profit is a great provocation. He offers, he calls, he woos, he invites, he prays, he beseeches us, in this his day of grace. He has provided us with the means of reconciliation himself. This despising must needs be provoking.
—-John Bunyan “The Jerusalem Sinner Saved.”