“Jonathan Edwards is probably the best example in this country of a predestination evangelist. This New England Puritan preached, with equal vigor and insistence, the decrees of God and the responsibility of men.”                                                                                                                                   John H. Gerstner

“As a Bible lover, a Calvinist, a teacher of heart-religion, a gospel preacher of unction and power, and, above all, a man who loved Christ, hated sin, feared God, Edwards was a pure Puritan; indeed, one of the greatest of all the Puritans.”                                           J. I. Packer

“In this world, so full of darkness and delusion, it is of great importance that all should be able to distinguish between true religion and that which is false. In this, perhaps none has taken more pains, or labored more successfully, than he whose life is set before the reader.”                                                                                                                                Unknown  

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) is referred to and identified as America’s greatest theologian and philosopher and the last Puritan. God used him as a powerful instrument during the First Great Awakening. Edwards was also a champion of Christian zeal and spirituality. Both Christian and secular scholars agree on his importance in American history.

The riches from Edwards’s writings have been searched, pondered, and evaluated to the present day. His famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” is still being read and studied in America’s public schools as a specimen of eighteenth-century literature. Students of American history pay much attention to Edwards’s scientific, philosophical, and psychological writings while theologians and church historians regard Edwards’s work on revivals as unexcelled in analysis and scope.

Christians to this day continue to read his sermons with great appreciation for their rich doctrine, clear and forceful style, and powerful depiction of the majesty of God, the sinfulness of sin, and Christ’s power to save.

However, not everyone agrees about Edwards’s place in the history of Christian scholarship. There are those who continue to debate his philosophical considerations, his commitment to certain historic Calvinist or Reformed theological doctrines, and his influence upon subsequent generations. As Iain H. Murray notes, “Edwards divided men in his lifetime and to no less degree he continues to divide his biographers”

Edwards was born October 5, 1703, in East Windsor, Connecticut. He was the only son of eleven children born to Timothy Edwards and Esther Stoddard, daughter of Solomon Stoddard. Both Edwards’s father and maternal grandfather greatly influenced his education and career. Solomon Stoddard served for sixty years as minister of the parish church of Northampton, Massachusetts. He was a powerful force in the pulpit, a leader in the churches of western Massachusetts and along the Connecticut River, and a gifted writer. Timothy Edwards was highly educated and also well known as a preacher.

Like many other ministers in that day, Timothy Edwards conducted a grammar school in his home, preparing boys for Connecticut’s Collegiate School, known as Yale College after 1718. The school was founded in 1701 as an orthodox Congregationalist alternative to Harvard College.

As one Edwards’ biographer explains, “Edwards received his early education in his father’s school, where he was nurtured and instructed in Reformed theology and the practice of Puritan piety. At age thirteen, he went on to the Collegiate School, which as yet had no permanent home. Several towns were competing for the honor of playing host to the fledgling institution. Edwards went to the nearest location, downriver from Windsor at Wethersfield, to begin his studies with Elisha Williams. When the college finally located at New Haven in 1716 under the rector- ship of Timothy Cutler, Edwards went to New Haven, where the course of study included classical and biblical languages, logic, and natural philosophy. He was awarded the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1720, finishing at the top of his class, and then stayed at Yale to study for a master’s degree.”

Edwards’s spiritual life was influenced by various factors. His parents were a godly example and nurtured Edwards toward godliness. He went through several periods of spiritual conviction in his childhood and youth, which culminated in his conversion in 1721 after being impacted by the words of 1 Timothy 1:17, “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

Edwards stated regarding his conversion, “As I read [these] words, there came into my soul…a sense of the glory of the Divine Being; a new sense quite different from anything I ever experienced before…. I kept saying and as it were singing over those words of Scripture to myself and went to pray to God that I might enjoy Him…. From that time I began to have a new kind of apprehensions and ideas of Christ, and the work of redemption, and the glorious way of salvation by him. And my mind was greatly engaged to spend my time in reading and meditating on Christ, in the beauty of his person and the lovely way of salvation by free grace in Him.”

Following his education, conversion and an eight month sabbatical, Edwards was ready to begin serving the Lord.

Soli deo Gloria!

 

 

 

The Rev. George Whitefield (1714–1770) was a contemporary of Jonathan Edwards and John Wesley. He was an English Anglican preacher who spent most of his life spreading the gospel by preaching in the open air and was one of the major instruments God used in the 18th century Great Awakening in Britain and the United States.

He was probably the best known preacher in Great Britain and America during his lifetime and was considered one of the founders of Methodism. He drew great crowds when he preached, had amazing oratory skills and a voice which carried over long distances. Benjamin Franklin, when listening to Whitefield, once estimated that he could be heard by over thirty thousand people at one time in the open air.

Whitefield was born in Gloucester, England, Dec. 27, 1714 and died in Newburyport, Massachusetts, Sept. 30, 1770. He was the son of an innkeeper. At the age of twelve he was placed in the school of St. Mary de Crypt at Gloucester in 1732. He eventually graduated after a year’s intermission of his studies so that he might be drawer of liquor in the inn (kept by his mother since his father’s death in 1716).

He entered Pembroke College, Oxford. The religious impressions which he felt on different occasions had been deepened while he was at school and at Oxford he fell in with the Wesley’s. He joined the “Holy Club,” and observed its rules rigorously, being the first of the Oxford “Methodists” to profess conversion (1735). Due to poor health, he left Oxford for a year, returning in March, 1736.

On June 20, 1736, Bishop Benson ordained him. Whitefield preached his first sermon the following Sunday. It was at the ancient Church of Saint Mary de Crypt, the church where he had grown up as a boy and was consequently well known. He described this occasion later:

“…Some few mocked, but most for the present, seemed struck, and I have since heard that a complaint was made to the bishop, that I drove fifteen people mad during the first sermon.”

He took his B.A. in the same year. He spent much time among the prisoners in Oxford, preached in London and elsewhere and quickly rose to great prominence as a pulpit orator. He continued in active service until the end, preaching for two hours at Exeter, Mass., the day before his death, while it was his regular custom to preach every day in the week, often two and four times daily.

George Whitefield and John Wesley were close friends but had sharp theological differences over predestination and the degree of the work of the Holy Spirit in the salvation of men. Following his friend’s death, the story is told that John Wesley was timidly approached by one of the godly band of Christian sisters who have been brought under his influences and who loved both Whitfield and himself:

“‘ Dear Mr. Wesley, may I ask you a question?’

“‘ Yes, of course, madam, by all means.’

“‘ But, dear Mr. Wesley, I am very much afraid what the answer will be.’

“‘ Well, madam, let me hear your question, and then you will know my reply.’

“At last, after not a little hesitation, the inquirer tremblingly asked, ‘ Dear Mr. Wesley, do you expect to see dear Mr. Whitefield in heaven?’

“A lengthy pause followed, after which John Wesley replied with great seriousness, ‘No, madam.’ “His inquirer at once exclaimed, ‘Ah, I was afraid you would say so.’

“To which John Wesley added, with intense earnestness, ‘Do not misunderstand me, madam; George Whitefield was so bright a star in the firmament of God’s glory, and will stand so near the throne, that one like me, who am less than the least, will never catch a glimpse of him.'”

May such humility towards ourselves, and exaltation of others, be our pattern of life.

Soli deo Gloria!  

Isaac Watts (1674-1748) is often identified as the Father of English Hymnody. He was the first prolific and popular English hymn writer and is credited with some 750 hymns. Many of his hymns remain in use today and have been translated into many languages.

Watts was born in Southampton. He was brought up in the home of a committed Nonconformist — his father had been incarcerated twice for his controversial views. At King Edward VI School (where one of the houses is now named “Watts” in his honor), he learned Latin, Greek and Hebrew and displayed a propensity for rhyme at home. He drove his parents to the point of exhaustion on many occasions with his verse.

Once, he had to explain how he came to have his eyes open during prayers. Watts replied, ““A little mouse for want of stairs ran up a rope to say its prayers.”  When receiving punishment for reciting verse, he is reported to have said, ““O father, do some pity take, and I will no more verses make.”

Watts, unable to go to either Oxford or Cambridge due to his nonconformity, went to the Dissenting Academy at Stoke Newington in 1690. Watts’ education led him to the pastorate of a large independent chapel in London, but he also found himself in the position of helping young preachers, despite his poor health.

While taking work as a private tutor, he lived with the Nonconformist Hartopp Family at Fleetwood House, Abney Park in Stoke Newington, and later in the household of Sir Thomas and Lady Mary Abney at Theobalds, Cheshunt, in Hertfordshire, and at their second residence, Abney House, Stoke Newington.

Isaac Watts held religious opinions that were more nondenominational or ecumenical than was at that time common for a Nonconformist; having a greater interest in promoting education and scholarship, than preaching for any particular ministry.

In 1707 he published his first hymnbook. He wrote Divine and Moral Songs for the Use of Children. He authored over six hundred hymns, some of which are the finest in the English language. Two of his most famous and beloved hymns are O God Our Help in Ages Past, and When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.Not only did Watts write hymns but he also wrote on logic, astronomy, geography, English grammar, pedagogics and theology. His writings were influential and his learning and piety attracted many.

On the death of Sir Thomas Abney, Watts moved permanently in with Widow Lady Mary Abney, and her remaining daughter, to their second home, Abney House, at Abney Park in Stoke Newington. It was a property that Mary had inherited from her brother along with title to the manor itself. The beautiful grounds at Abney Park, which became Watts’ permanent home from 1736 to 1748, led down to an island in the Hackney Brook where Watts sought inspiration for the many books and hymns written during these two decades.

Prior to his death, Watts wrote a solemn Address to the Deity, …“in which he poured out his soul to God over the whole subject of the Trinity in a manner which shows most clearly, his reverence for the Holy Scriptures, his humility, his teachable spirit, his earnest desire to understand and receive all that God had taught.”

He died at Stoke Newington and was buried in Bunhill Fields, having left behind him a massive legacy, not only of hymns, but also of treatises, educational works, and essays. His work was influential amongst independents and early religious revivalists in his circle, amongst whom was Philip Doddridge who dedicated his best known work to Watts. On his death, Isaac Watts’ papers were given to Yale University; an institution with which he was connected due to its being founded predominantly by fellow Independents (Congregationalists).

Soli deo Gloria!

 

 

John Henry Newton (1725 – 1807) was an English pastor and hymn writer. He was the son of an English sea captain. His mother was a deeply righteous woman who taught John from the Bible until she died when John was seven years old.

Not much is known about John’s childhood immediately following his mother’s death, but at the age of eleven John went to sea and spent the next 20 years as a sailor engaged in slave trading. His life was spent in the vilest and sordid forms of wickedness. At one time, he was the property of an African woman, who fed him only that which she threw him under her table. He was nearly killed several times during a terrible storm at sea, which almost sank his ship. His wicked life passed before him and with deep conviction over his sinful life he cried out to God for salvation.

He married Mary Catlett in 1750. They had no children. The next several years were spent in preparation for the ministry. He learned Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and studied the Scriptures intensively.

In 1764 he was appointed pastor of Olney, where he served for 16 years before moving to St. Mary Woolnoth in the city of London. In addition to his pastoral duties, Newton was an ardent writer. His works included Omicron, Narrative, Review of Ecclesiastical History, and Cardiphonia.

John Newton is perhaps best known as the author of the world-famous hymn, Amazing Grace, which was one of the Olney Hymns written in collaboration with
William Cowper. Newton is also remembered for his work in the anti-slavery movement in England, which occupied the latter part of his life.

The following are a series of selected quotations from several of Newton’s writings.

An excerpt from a letter entitled, Causes, Nature and Marks of a Decline in Grace (March 1765): “But still it is to be lamented, that an increase of knowledge and experience should be so generally be attended with a decline of fervor. If it was not for what has passed in my own heart, I should be ready to think it impossible. But this very circumstance gives me a still more emphatic conviction of my own vileness and depravity. The want of humiliation humbles me, and my very indifference rouses and awakens me to earnestness. There are, however, seasons of refreshment, ineffable glances of light and power upon the soul, which, as they are derived from clearer displays of divine grace, if not so tumultuous as first joys, are more penetrating, transforming, and animating. A glance of these when compared with our sluggish stupidity, when they are withheld, weans the heart from this wretched state of sin and temptation, and makes the thoughts of death and eternity desirable. Then this conflict shall cease;-I shall sin and wander no more, see Him as he is, and be like Him forever.

John Newton on the subject of salvation by grace alone: ““Salvation is wholly of grace, not only undeserved but undesired by us until God is pleased to awaken us to a sense of our need of it. And then we find everything prepared that our wants require or our wishes conceive; yea, that He has done exceedingly beyond what we could either ask or think. Salvation is wholly of the Lord and bears those signatures of infinite wisdom, power, and goodness which distinguish all His works from the puny imitations of men. It is every way worthy of Himself, a great, a free, a full, a sure salvation. It is great whether we consider the objects (miserable, hell-deserving sinners), the end (the restoration of such alienated creatures to His image and favor, to immortal life and happiness) or the means (the incarnation, humiliation, sufferings and death of His beloved Son). It is free, without exception of persons or cases, without any conditions or qualifications, but such as He, Himself, performs in them and bestows upon them.”

Newton’s Epitaph: While working as a tide surveyor he studied for the ministry, and for the last 43 years of his life preached the gospel in Olney and London. At 82, Newton said, “My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things, that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Savior.” 

Newton’s tombstone reads, “John Newton, Clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy.” 

 Soli deo Gloria!

 

 

 

John Bunyan had enjoyed only a few years of freedom when he was again arrested for preaching and put in the town jail. Here he wrote Instruction for the Ignorant (a catechism for the saved and unsaved that emphasizes the need for self-denial), Saved by Grace (an exposition of Ephesians 2:5 that encourages the godly to persevere in the faith notwithstanding persecution), The Strait Gate (an exposition of Luke 13:24 that seeks to awaken sinners to the gospel message), Light for Them That Sit in Darkness (a polemical work against those who oppose atonement by Christ’s satisfaction and justification by His imputed righteousness, especially the Quakers and Latitudinarians), and the first part of his famous Pilgrim’s Progress.

Pilgrim’s Progress sold more than 100,000 copies in its first decade in print. It has since been reprinted in at least 1,500 editions and translated into more than two hundred languages, with Dutch, French, and Welsh editions appearing in Bunyan’s lifetime. Some scholars have asserted that, with the exception of the Bible and perhaps Thomas à Kempis’s The Imitation of Christ, this Bunyan classic has sold more copies than any other book ever written.

John Owen, minister of an Independent congregation at Leadenhall Street, London, successfully appealed for Bunyan to Thomas Barlow, bishop of Lincoln. Barlow used his influence at court to secure Bunyan’s release from prison on June 21, 1677.

John spent his last years ministering to the Nonconformists and writing. In 1678, he published Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ, a popular exposition of John 6:37 that movingly proclaims a strong free offer of grace to sinners to fly to Jesus Christ and be saved. This book went through six editions in the last decade of Bunyan’s life.

In 1680, he wrote The Life and Death of Mr. Badman, described as “a series of snapshots depicting the commonplace attitudes and practices against which Bunyan regularly preached. Two years later, he published The Greatness of the Soul and The Holy War. In 1685, he published the second part of Pilgrim’s Progress, dealing with Christiana’s pilgrimage, A Caution to Stir Up to Watch against Sin, and Questions About the Nature and the Perpetuity of the Seventh-day Sabbath.

As one author comments, “In the last three years of his life, Bunyan wrote ten more books, of which the best-known are The Pharisee and the Publican, The Jerusalem Sinner Saved, The Work of Jesus Christ as an Advocate, The Water of Life, Solomon’s Temple Spiritualized, and The Acceptable Sacrifice.”

In 1688, Bunyan died suddenly from a fever that he caught while traveling in cold weather. On his deathbed, he said to those who gathered around him, “Weep not for me, but for yourselves. I go to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will, no doubt, through the mediation of his blessed Son, receive me, though a sinner; where I hope we ere long shall meet, to sing the new song, and remain everlastingly happy, world without end.” After telling his friends that his greatest desire was to be with Christ, he raised his hands to heaven, and cried, “Take me, for I come to Thee!” He then died. He was buried in Bunhill Fields, close to Thomas Goodwin and John Owen.

Professor James Coffield writes, “If often seems as if God narrates the story of our lives with irony. Joy is often fleeting and real joy is paradoxically birthed in the most challenging of times. Joy flows from a particular way that one engages life. Joy is the product of praying for and entering into His presence, seeking His ultimate purpose, and stumbling toward His perspective.” Professor Coffield’s comments could well apply to the life and work of John Bunyan.

John 3:27 says, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.” Certainly, God gave John Bunyan the ability to communicate biblical truth through writing, even in the midst of persecution. What gift has God given you by which to serve Him and the church?

Soli deo Gloria!

 

 

One of the most familiar Puritans was John Bunyan. His allegory, The Pilgrim’s Progress, remains in print and by many statisticians is second to the Bible as the all-time best-selling book. There are some 1,300 editions of The Pilgrim’s Progress currently in existence.

In spite of his many years in prison, John Bunyan remained productive. In the mid-1660s, Bunyan wrote extensively, with only the Bible and Foxe’s Book of Martyrs at his side. In 1663, he wrote Christian Behaviour, intended as a handbook for Christian living and a response against charges of Antinomianism, as well as a last testament, since Bunyan expected to die in prison. He also finished I Will Pray with the Spirit, which expounded 1 Corinthians 14:15, and focused on the Spirit’s inner work in all true prayer.

In 1664, he published Profitable Meditations; in 1665, One Thing Needful, The Holy City, and The Resurrection of the Dead. This work, a sequel to The Holy City, found Bunyan expounding on the resurrection from Acts 24:14-15 in a traditional way, and then uses his prison torments to illustrate the horrors that await the damned following the final judgment.

In 1666, the middle of his prison-time, he wrote Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, in which he declared, “The Almighty God being my help and shield, I am determined yet to suffer, if frail life might continue so long, even till the moss shall grow upon my eyebrows, rather than violate my faith and principles.”

During the last part of his imprisonment, he finished A Confession of My Faith, A Reason for My Practice, and A Defence of the Doctrine of Justification, an uncompromising criticism of the rising tide of Pelagianism. The Bedford congregation, sensing some relaxation of the law against preaching, appointed Bunyan as pastor on January 21, 1672, but Bunyan was not released until May. He had been the first to suffer under Charles II and was the last to be released. His long years in Bedford’s county prison made him a martyr in the eyes of many.

Bunyan had enjoyed only a few years of freedom when he was again arrested for preaching and put in the town jail. Here he wrote Instruction for the Ignorant (a catechism for the saved and unsaved that emphasizes the need for self-denial), Saved by Grace (an exposition of Ephesians 2:5 that encourages the godly to persevere in the faith notwithstanding persecution), The Strait Gate (an exposition of Luke 13:24 that seeks to awaken sinners to the gospel message), Light for Them That Sit in Darkness (a polemical work against those who oppose atonement by Christ’s satisfaction and justification by His imputed righteousness, especially the Quakers and Latitudinarians), and the first part of his famous Pilgrim’s Progress.

Yet John Bunyan was not finished with the work for which God gave him. What work has God given you to accomplish? Are you being faithful to the task at hand?

Soli deo Gloria!

 

One of the most familiar Puritans was John Bunyan. His allegory, The Pilgrim’s Progress, remains in print and by many statisticians is second to the Bible as the all-time best-selling book. There are some 1,300 editions of The Pilgrim’s Progress currently in existence.

Following his conversion, Bunyan moved to Bedford with his wife and four children under the age of six; his firstborn, Mary, was blind from birth. That same year, he became a member of Gifford’s church, and was soon appointed deacon. His testimony became the talk of the town. Several were led to Christ because of God’s work in John’ soul.

In 1655, Bunyan began preaching to various congregations in Bedford. Hundreds came to hear him. He published his first book, Some Gospel Truths Opened, the following year. John wrote it to keep written to protect believers from being misled by Quaker and Ranter teachings about Christ’s person and work.

Two years later, Bunyan published A Few Sighs from Hell, an exposition of Luke 16:19-31 about the rich man and Lazarus. The book attacked professional clergy and the wealthy who promote carnality. It was well received, and helped establish Bunyan as a reputable Puritan writer. About that same time, his wife died.

In 1659, Bunyan published The Doctrine of the Law and Grace Unfolded, which expounded his view of Covenant or Reformed theology, stressing the promissory nature of the covenant of grace and the dichotomy between law and grace. This helped establish him as a thoroughgoing Calvinist, although he still had disagreements with another Puritan pastor, Richard Baxter.

In 1660, while preaching in a farmhouse at Lower Samsell, Bunyan was arrested on the charge of preaching without official rights from the king. When told that he would be freed if he no longer preached, he replied, “If I am freed today, I will preach tomorrow.” He was thrown into prison, where he wrote prolifically and made shoelaces to provide some income for twelve and a half years (1660-1672).

Prior to his arrest, Bunyan had remarried, this time to a godly young woman named Elizabeth. She pleaded repeatedly for his release, but judges such as Sir Matthew Hale and Thomas Twisden rejected her plea. So Bunyan remained in prison with no formal charge and no legal sentence, in defiance of the habeas corpus provisions of the Magna Carta, because he refused to give up preaching the gospel and denounced the Church of England as false (see Bunyan’s A Relation of My Imprisonment, published posthumously in 1765).

In 1661 and from 1668-1672, certain jailers permitted Bunyan to leave prison at times to preach. George Offer notes, “It is said that many of the Baptist congregations in Bedfordshire owe their origins to his midnight preaching.” His prison years were times of difficult trials, however. Bunyan experienced what his Pilgrim’s Progress characters Christian and Faithful would later suffer at the hands of Giant Despair, who thrust pilgrims “into a very dark dungeon, nasty and stinking.” Bunyan especially felt the pain of separation from his wife and children, particularly “blind Mary,” describing it as a “pulling of the flesh from my bones.”

One of the defining characteristics of the Puritans, especially John Bunyan, was their commitment to the Scriptures in spite of the sacrifice it would entail. May we be found to as faithful in our day as they were in their day.

Soli deo Gloria!

 

 

One of the most familiar Puritans was John Bunyan. His allegory, The Pilgrim’s Progress, remains in print and by many statisticians is second only to the Bible as the all-time best-selling book. There are some 1,300 editions of The Pilgrim’s Progress currently in existence.

In an excerpt from Meet the Puritans by Dr. Joel Beeke and Randall J. Pederson, the authors write: “John Owen said of John Bunyan, a powerful preacher and the best-known of all the Puritan writers, that he would gladly exchange all his learning for Bunyan’s power of touching men’s hearts.” We’re going to focus our attention upon this infuential Puritan for the next several days.

John Bunyan was born in 1628 at Elstow, near Bedford, to Thomas Bunyan and Margaret Bentley. Thomas Bunyan, a brazier or tinker who mended people’s pots and pans was poor but not destitute.

John Bunyan was not a well-educated man. He eventually became rebellious, frequently indulging in cursing. He later wrote, “It was my delight to be taken captive by the devil at his will: being filled with all unrighteousness; that from a child I had but few equals, both for cursing, swearing, lying, and blaspheming the holy name of God.” When Bunyan was sixteen years old, his mother and sister died a month apart. His father remarried a month later.

Bunyan joined Oliver Cromwell’s New Model Army during the English Civil War (1642-1648) where he continued his rebellious ways. Fighting in the English Civil War had a sobering affect upon John. On one occasion, his life was providentially spared. In his book Grace Abounding, John recounted an incident from this time, as evidence of the grace of God: “When I was a soldier, I with others, was drawn out to go to such a place to besiege it. But when I was just ready to go, one of the company desired to go in my room; to which when I consented, he took my place, and coming to the siege, as he stood sentinel he was shot in the head with a musket bullet and died.”

His military experience was later reflected in his book, The Holy War in which he used his knowledge of military language to describe the spiritual war of the believer. Bunyan spent nearly three years in the army, leaving in 1647 to return to Elstow and a tinker’s trade.

In 1648, Bunyan married a God-fearing woman whose name remains unknown, and whose only dowry was two books: Arthur Dent’s The Plain Man’s Pathway to Heaven and Lewis Bayly’s The Practice of Piety. When Bunyan read those books, he was convicted of sin, but was not as yet converted to Christianity. He started attending the parish church, stopped swearing, and tried to honor the Sabbath.

Several months later, Bunyan came into contact with some women whose joyous conversation about the new birth and Christ deeply impressed him. He mourned his joyless existence as he realized that he was lost and outside of Christ. “I cannot now express with what longings and breakings in my soul I cried to Christ to call me,” he wrote. He felt that he had the worst heart in all of England. He confessed to be jealous of animals because they did not have a soul to account for before God.

Dr. Joel Beeke writes, “In 1651, the women introduced Bunyan to John Gifford, their pastor in Bedford. God used Gifford to lead Bunyan to repentance and faith. Bunyan was particularly influenced by a sermon Gifford preached on The Song of Solomon 4:1, “Behold thou art fair, my love, behold thou art fair,” as well as by reading Luther’s commentary of Galatians, in which he found his own experience “largely and profoundly handled, as if [Luther’s] book had been written out of my own heart.”

Bunyan recounts his own conversion this way in his book Grace Abounding. He writes, “One day, as I was passing in the field, this sentence fell upon my soul: Thy righteousness is in heaven; and me thought withal I saw with the eyes of my soul, Jesus Christ, at God’s right hand; there, I say, as my righteousness; so that wherever I was, or whatever I was a-doing, God could not say of me, He wants my righteousness, for that was just before Him. I also saw, moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse; for my righteousness was Jesus Christ Himself, the same yesterday, today, and forever. Now did my chains fall off my legs indeed. I was loosed from my afflictions and irons; my temptations also fled away. Now I went home rejoicing for the grace and love of God. I lived for some time very sweetly at peace with God through Christ. Oh! me thought, Christ! Christ! There was nothing but Christ that was before my eyes. I saw now not only looking upon this and the other benefits of Christ apart, as of His blood, burial, and resurrection, but considered Him as a whole Christ! It was glorious to me to see His exaltation, and the worth and prevalency of all His benefits, and that because now I could look from myself to Him, and would reckon that all those graces of God that now were green in me, were yet but like those cracked groats and fourpence-halfpennies that rich men carry in their purses, when their gold is in their trunk at home! Oh, I saw that my gold was in my trunk at home! In Christ my Lord and Saviour! Now Christ was all.”

Can you recall a moment in time in which the righteousness of Christ became your own, by grace alone, through faith alone in the person and work of Jesus Christ alone? If so, you know the truth of God loosing your burdens and afflictions from your soul. If you have not received Christ, you may. Right where you are.  

Soli deo Gloria!

Following the conclusion of the English Civil War (1642-1648), and the publishing of the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647), the Puritans continued to experience difficulties. Partly this was due to their becoming in control of the government along with seeking to influence the church.

Increased tensions occurred following the Puritan victories under the military leadership of Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658). Following the creation of a new Commonwealth, the political disagreements between Christians led to government gridlock. Therefore, Cromwell, as head of state, dissolved Parliament in 1653 and singularly ruled the country as Lord Protector. This continued until his death in 1658.

Religious freedoms flourished under Cromwell’s tenure. Leading Puritans, such as John Owen, were appointed to prestigious positions such as Oxford University. However, the political leadership which followed Cromwell, including his son Richard, failed. The English Monarchy resurrected in 1660 under King Charles II. This resulted in a return to the days of Puritan persecution. Many Puritan pastors, including John Bunyan and Richard Baxter, were imprisoned.

As Dr. Joel Beeke explains, “In 1662, the Act of Uniformity required Puritan ministers to repudiate their denominational ordinations, renounce their oath of the Solemn League and Covenant, and be re-ordained under the bishops. Nearly two thousand minsters (a fifth of all the clergy) refused to conform and were ejected from their parishes on St. Bartholomew’s Day, August 24, 1662.”

Additionally, The Conventicle Act of 1664 banned those who would not conform to government edicts from preaching in fields and in homes. The Five Mile Act of 1665 prohibited ministers from coming within five miles of their former churches or the town in which they were located.

However, the Puritans continued to preach, write, and defend the truth of God’s Word. Some of the most cherished classics were born during this intense time of persecution.

Sadly, the influence of the Puritans began to wane in the mid-17^th century. While there would remain small vestiges of Puritan preaching, the widespread influence of Puritanism never reoccurred.

Brief Bio:

Matthew Henry (1662-1714)

Excerpt from Meet the Puritans
by Dr. Joel Beeke and Randall J. Pederson

Matthew was Philip Henry’s second son. Born prematurely to his mother Katherine Henry, he apparently suffered from a weak constitution during his childhood. But what he lacked in physical health he made up for in spiritual vigor.

Schooled by his gifted father till he was eighteen, Henry went on to study at a Nonconformist academy in Islington, then a village near London. After 1662, Nonconformists like Henry were barred from graduating from either of the ancient universities of Oxford and Cambridge. As a result, various Nonconformist academies had come into existence to provide a liberal arts education and training for ministry.

The tutor at this academy was an eminent Presbyterian scholar, Thomas Doolittle (1631-1707), who had been converted as a boy in Kidderminster under the preaching of Richard Baxter (1615-1691). In 1682, however, persecution forced the academy to move, and Henry returned home.

Henry was the author of a goodly number of publications, some of which had a wide circulation in the years following his death — for example, A Communicant’s Companion (a treatise on the frame of heart in which to receive the Lord’s Supper written in 1704) and Directions for Daily Communion with God (1712). But the work for which Henry is best known is undoubtedly The Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, otherwise known as Matthew Henry’s Commentary. 

Henry had begun this massive work in November 1704. By the time of his death ten years later, the project had got as far as the end of the book of Acts. It would be finished by a number of ministers after his death.

The commentary is quintessentially Puritan. It focused on biblical spirituality and was alert to the need to glorify God in the whole of life. It was also chock-full of the terse and piquant aphorisms that the Puritans delighted to use to penetrate the hearts of their hearers and readers.

Soli deo Gloria!

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2-4)

One of the paradoxes of the Christian life is that great blessings from God often occur when we encounter great burdens and difficulties. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:11-12).

The Apostle Paul echoed this perspective in Romans 5:1-5 when in writing to Christians in Rome he explained, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

Not only did James address this truth at the very beginning of his epistle, but also did the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews in 11:30-40. In this extensive paragraph, the writer gives testimony of the many saints who persevered under trials by faith.

It should then not surprise us that the Puritans encountered their share of trials and tribulations for their faith in Christ and their commitment to biblical truth. As one author comments: “It often seems as if God narrates the story of our lives with irony. Joy is often fleeting, and real joy is paradoxically birthed in the most challenging of times.”

It was during the most challenging of times that Puritan pastors wrote and preached wonderful sermons filled with theological gold. Were these magnificent texts composed and created in spite of their trials or as a direct result of the tribulations they encountered? I submit it was the latter and not the former.

One such treatise which was the result of Puritan commitment to biblical truth during turbulent times was the Westminster Confession of Faith. It was during the English Civil War (1642-1648), while under the direction of Parliament no less, that over one hundred Puritans leaders gathered at Westminster Abby to draft a new confession of faith for the national church.

The Westminster Confession of Faith was completed in 1647. It was approved by churches throughout Scotland, England and even New England in 1648. The Westminster Confession of Faith became the doctrinal statement for Puritan theology.

The Confession contains 33 chapters, which address doctrinal topics such as the inerrancy of Scripture, the Trinity, Creation, Providence, Justification, Sanctification, Marriage and Divorce and the Last Judgment. The Confession may be found in some study Bibles (The Reformation Study Bible) and online.

My favorite online source for the Westminster Confession of Faith is presented by the Center for Reformed Theology and Apologetics (CRTA). It can be accessed at www.reformed.org/documents/wcf_with_proofs. Not only does the website contain the entire confession, but also supporting Scriptural texts. It is a convenient resource that is available at no cost.

It should not surprise us that we have a connection to our Puritan brothers and sisters. 2 Timothy 3:12 states, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” While the Puritans did not seek trials and tribulations for their faith in Christ and commitment to biblical truth, they were not willing to compromise either. Neither should we.

Soli deo Gloria!

Brief Bio:

John Owen (1616-1683)

Excerpt from Meet the Puritans
by Dr. Joel Beeke and Randall J. Pederson

John Owen, called the “prince of the English divines,” “the leading figure among the Congregationalist divines,” “a genius with learning second only to Calvin’s,” and “indisputably the leading proponent of high Calvinism in England in the late seventeenth century,” was born in Stadham (Stadhampton), near Oxford. He was the second son of Henry Owen, the local Puritan vicar. Owen showed godly and scholarly tendencies at an early age. He entered Queen’s College, Oxford, at the age of twelve and studied the classics, mathematics, philosophy, theology, Hebrew, and rabbinical writings. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1632 and a Master of Arts degree in 1635. Throughout his teen years, young Owen studied eighteen to twenty hours per day.

Pressured to accept Archbishop Laud’s new statutes, Owen left Oxford in 1637. He became a private chaplain and tutor, first for Sir William Dormer of Ascot, then for John Lord Lovelace at Hurley, Berkshire. He worked for Lovelace until 1643. Those years of chaplaincy afforded him much time for study, which God richly blessed. At the age of twenty-six, Owen began a forty-one year writing span that produced more than eighty works. Many of those would become classics and be greatly used by God.

Owen’s fame spread rapidly in the late 1640s through his preaching and writings, gradually earning him a reputation as a leading Independent theologian. While he was still in his early thirties, more than a thousand people came to hear his weekly sermons. Yet Owen often grieved that he saw little fruit upon his labors. He once said that he would trade all his learning for John Bunyan’s gift for plain preaching. Clearly, he underestimated his own gifts.