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William Tyndale is justly best remembered as a Bible translator. During the last eleven years of his short life he published three editions of the complete New Testament, the Pentateuch, the book of Jonah, and a few other parts of the Old Testament. He may well have left behind him in manuscript form a translation of the Old Testament’s historical books from Joshua to 2 Chronicles, which was published as part of ‘Matthew’s Bible’ in the year following his martyrdom. In the last letter from his pen, we see him zealous to make progress with the translation of the Old Testament, as languishing in his final imprisonment he requests that his ‘Hebrew Bible, Hebrew grammar, and Hebrew dictionary’ be granted to him.

There is little doubt that Tyndale could have translated the whole of the Bible into English if he had given himself exclusively to that work. But alongside the work of translation he felt it was necessary to contend earnestly for the Reformed faith and so he threw himself into several of the key theological controversies of the times. For this ‘Apostle of England’ the Bible must not only be translated, its teachings also must be expounded and applied in a practical way. To such work of exposition and application Tyndale gave himself with a passion, and in so doing not only proved himself a master of true biblical interpretation, but has left to posterity works of lasting value. As F.F. Bruce wrote in another context: A reprint of this kind is no mere archaeological curiosity; one who was so intensely a man of the Bible as Tyndale was speaks to more ages than his own, and in the following pages we shall find that he has much to say to us, if we pay heed to what we read.

Repentance
In this treatment of the biblical doctrine of repentance, the author distinguishes between evangelical or true repentance and legal repentance. Though the latter may be produced by a fear of God’s wrath and lead to reformation of life, it is an experience which falls short of salvation. Evangelical repentance, on the other hand, is the result of the Holy Spirit’s work in regeneration, is inseparable from faith in Jesus Christ, and is evidenced by turning from all sin to God.

Facing Grief
In this work, Flavel meditates on the words of Luke 7:13, And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, ‘Weep not’. From this verse Flavel helps the reader think about sorrowing that is ‘moderate’ and ‘immoderate’. He spells out what is permitted and appropriate for a Christian, and what is not. He even has a section of advice to non-Christians who are mourning a loss.

John Newton (1725-1807) has rightly been called ‘the letter-writer par excellence of the Evangelical Revival’. Newton himself seems to have come to the conclusion, albeit reluctantly, that letter-writing was his greatest gift. In a letter to a friend he confessed, ‘I rather reckoned upon doing more good by some of my other works than by my ‘Letters’, which I wrote without study, or any public design; but the Lord said, ‘You shall be most useful by them,’ and I learned to say, ‘Thy will be done! Use me as Thou pleasest, only make me useful.’ Indeed, he wrote to his close friend William Bull that if the letters were ‘owned to comfort the afflicted, to quicken the careless, to confirm the wavering, I may rejoice in the honour He has done me’, and not envy the greatest writers of the age.

All but ten of the letters in the present volume have been brought out of undeserved obscurity by Dr Grant Gordon, whose researches in libraries and archives, as well as in little-known nineteenth-century periodicals, have uncovered much material which is certainly calculated to comfort, quicken, and confirm. Of those already in print, one letter is in volume 1 of the Trust’s six-volume edition of Newton’s Works, and nine more are in volume 2. Three of the nine are also in the Trust’s Letters of John Newton, edited by Josiah Bull. The rest should be new to almost all readers.

The particular recipient of Newton’s ‘wise counsel’ in this book was John Ryland, Jr. (1753-1825), Baptist pastor and educator, and close friend of Andrew Fuller, William Carey, and all the pioneers of the modern missionary movement. But in the background stand all the major figures of the eighteenth-century Evangelical Revival. A list of Newton’s friends and correspondents would, in fact, read like a ‘who’s who’ of the Revival. And forming the wider background is a very eventful period of history, from the American Revolution to the French Revolutionary Wars, by way of the colonization of Australia, the first missions to India, and the abolition of the slave trade. Dr Gordon has helpfully set the letters in the context of these events and provided useful background detail.

The reader will discover afresh in these letters, not only mature and wise counsel, but a wholesome emphasis on true Christian experience, a great breadth of Christian sympathy, and a strong confidence in the power of the grace of God, for, as Newton said, ‘Grace has long and strong arms!’

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Challies

Persbyterian Thoughts

Gospel-Centered Musings

Anger is God’s good gift to help us resist all that is wrong. But anger may itself be sinful. Richard Baxter gives valuable and practical advice on how to recognize and overcome this sinful anger in all its forms. Buy here. 

Samuel Ward Samuel Ward explains the immense value of faith, not only as the gateway to salvation and life everlasting, but as the key to a joyful and triumphant life in this present world. In every sense Christians should be those who live by their faith. Buy here.

According to Jonathan Edwards, heaven will be a world of holy love. God himself is the source of this love, and in heaven he will impart it perfectly to all his people. Edwards unfolds the nature, expression, effects, and enjoyment of this best of all the gifts God ever bestows on those who believe. Buy here. 

John Flavel faithfully and powerfully applies the warnings of Scripture against sexual immorality. He exposes both its truly horrid nature and frightening consequences, before giving sound advice on how to avoid the snares of sexual sin, and how to escape if ensnared. Buy here.

I take it for granted that we all believe the Bible to be the Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice. I take it for granted that we all read the Bible with regularity. What I am going to plead for, however, is concentrated, sustained, devoted study of the Bible, the kind of study that is not fulfilled by the perfunctory reading of some passage each day. Indeed, the minimal use of the Bible in this way has often left an indelible impression for good. But what I am going to stress is the necessity for diligent and preserving searching of the Scriptures; study whereby we shall turn and turn again the pages of Scripture; the study of prolonged thought and meditation by which our hearts and minds may become soaked with the truth of the Bible. The study by which the Word of God will grip us, bind us, raise us up from the dunghill, bring us down from our high conceits and make us its bondservants in all of thought, life and conduct.

The Word of God is a great deep; the commandment is exceeding broad; and so we cannot by merely occasional, hurried and perfunctory use of it understand its meaning and power. Sustained and diligent study of the Bible is indispensable for several reasons. We will look at three of these.

1. The Bible is God’s Word, the revealed counsel of God. It is possible for us to develop a certain kind of familiarity with the Bible so that we fail to appreciate the marvel of God’s favor and mercy and wisdom in giving it to us. We need to stop and consider what hopeless darkness, misery and confusion would be ours if we did not possess the Bible. We would be without God and without hope in the world, endlessly stumbling over our own vain imaginings with respect to God, with respect to his will for us and with respect to our own nature, origin and destiny. The Bible is the infallible revelation to us of the truth regarding God himself, regarding the world in which we live and regarding ourselves. It reveals God’s mind and will for us; it declares the way of salvation; it discloses the knowledge that is eternal life. The secrets of God’s mind and purpose, secrets which eye hath not seen nor ear heard, have been laid open to us, the things that concern God’s glory, and our highest interests against all the issues of life and death, of time and eternity. If we truly appreciate the mystery of God’s grace and wisdom, we shall study the Bible as one who has found a great treasure. The very nature and content of the Bible as God’s Word will compel our most earnest application to it.

2. We must study the Bible with all diligence and persistence if we are really to know and understand its truth. It is perfectly true and an unspeakable mercy that a certain simplicity characterizes the Bible. The things necessary to be known, believed and observed for salvation are clearly propounded in Scripture. But no Christian should be satisfied with the bare minimum of knowledge necessary for salvation. It is, indeed, to be lamented that the life of many earnest Christians is based upon a fragmentary, piecemeal knowledge of Scripture teaching. Our knowledge of the Bible, if it is to be really adequate, must understand that the whole Bible stands together and that the fibers of organic connection run through the whole Bible connecting one part with every other part and every one truth with every other truth. When we appreciate this feature of Scripture and as we engage in concentrated study of one passage, our minds will course back and forth through the whole Bible along the lines which connect that passage with the rest of Scripture, lines which illumine for us the meaning of that particular passage and show the closely-knit organic unity of the whole Scripture. It is in this way that the Bible will consist for us not in a string of texts to be used simply at random, but rather each detail of our knowledge and faith will find its place in a body of knowledge that has the same coherent, systematic and closely organized character. What might appear to us to be rather incidental and unimportant details will, on sounder and more intelligent reflection, become replete with meaning.

3. Painstaking study of the Bible is indispensable to our own thought and practice. Life is very complex and we are constantly beset with baffling questions. New situations daily confront us. We need to know anew what is the right thing to think and what is the right thing to do. If we are to meet these situations, we must be armed with the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God, and we must be equipped with such knowledge of the Word that we shall derive from it the needed direction and strength. We are in constant danger of becoming static in our thinking. Perhaps we have a well-rounded and competent knowledge of the Christian faith. Perhaps we have digested some good textbook in theology. Perchance we have learned the Shorter Catechism or the Heidelberg Catechism. All this is excellent. But if we rely upon such a reservoir of knowledge we are in a dangerous and slippery position. Thought and life are too complex to be adequately met by any such reservoir. The means that God has provided for every circumstance that may arise is the Word of God itself. The Bible is the only sufficient rule of faith and life as well as the only infallible rule. We must betake ourselves anew, day by day, with humble and submissive minds to the law and to the testimony so that our minds may be illumined, replenished, refreshed, renewed and re-invigorated by the pure light that shines in the pages of God’s inerrant Word.

In all our study and application of the Word of God, we must appreciate that God has not left us to our own resources in the study of His Word. There is the never-failing promise and the ever-present ministry of the Holy Spirit. He is the author of the Word and it is His peculiar prerogative to illumine the Scripture and to seal its truth upon our hearts. These are the two pillars of faith and life – the whole organism of Scripture revelation and the promise of the Spirit to guide us into all truth. The Spirit honors and seals His own Word, and the Word assures us that “if ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?”