Tag Archives: Puritans

by | April 25, 2012 · 4:40 pm

Living Zealously: Interview with Joel R. Beeke

Kevin Boling, host of the Know the Trust Radio Program, interviews Joel R. Beeke about his newly coauthored book Living Zealously.

In Living Zealously, Joel R. Beeke and James A. La Belle address the much overlooked topic of Christian zeal. Having mined the depths of Puritan wisdom on what it means to live earnestly for Christ, they explain it in a way that is familiar to our modern ears and applicable to our souls. Beeke and La Belle do us a valuable service by helping us see the importance of Christian zeal and encouraging us to obtain it. Read this book and ask God to deepen your Christian life with a burning and holy zeal.

Dr. Joel R. Beeke serves as President and Professor of Systematic Theology, Church History, and Homiletics. He has been in the ministry since 1978 and has served as a pastor of his current church since 1986. He is also editor of the Banner of Sovereign Grace Truth, editorial director of Reformation Heritage Books, president of Inheritance Publishers, and vice-president of the Dutch Reformed Translation Society. He has written, co-authored, or edited fifty books and contributed over fifteen hundred articles to Reformed books, journals, periodicals, and encyclopedias. His Ph.D. (1988) from Westminster Theological Seminary is in Reformation and Post-Reformation Theology. He is frequently called upon to lecture at Reformed seminaries and to speak at conferences around the world. He and his wife, Mary, have three children: Calvin, Esther, and Lydia.

See interview here

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by | April 13, 2012 · 3:04 pm

Persecuted Preacher

John Flavel

(1628-1691) 

John Flavel (or Flavell) was born in 1628 in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire. He was the son of Richard Flavel, a minister who died of the plague in 1665 while in prison for nonconformity. John Flavel was educated by his father in the ways of religion, then “plied his studies hard” as a commoner at University College, Oxford. In 1650, he was ordained by the presbytery at Salisbury. He settled in Diptford, where he honed his numerous gifts.

He married Joan Randall, a godly woman, who died while giving birth to their first child in 1655. The baby died as well. After a year of mourning, Flavel married Elizabeth Stapell and was again blessed with a close, God-fearing marriage, as well as children.

In 1656, Flavel accepted a call to be minister in the thriving seaport of Dartmouth. He earned a smaller income there, but his work was more profitable; many were converted. One of his parishioners wrote of Flavel, “I could say much, though not enough of the excellency of his preaching; of his seasonable, suitable, and spiritual matter; of his plain expositions of Scripture; his talking method, his genuine and natural deductions, his convincing arguments, his clear and powerful demonstrations, his heart-searching applications, and his comfortable supports to those that were afflicted in conscience. In short, that person must have a very soft head, or a very hard heart, or both, that could sit under his ministry unaffected”

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by | April 10, 2012 · 5:23 pm

3 New Titles From RHB

Living Zealously

Joel R. Beeke and James A. La Belle

Paperback, 160 pages

Retail Price: $15.00

RHB Price: $11.00

In Living Zealously, Joel R. Beeke and James A. La Belle address the much overlooked topic of Christian zeal. Having mined the depths of Puritan wisdom on what it means to live earnestly for Christ, they explain it in a way that is familiar to our modern ears and applicable to our souls. Beeke and La Belle do us a valuable service by helping us see the importance of Christian zeal and encouraging us to obtain it. Read this book and ask God to deepen your Christian life with a burning and holy zeal.

Endorsement “The reason for the resurgence of interest in the Puritans today is found in their extraordinary devotion to the things of God and the depth of their understanding and exposition of sacred Scripture. I welcome this series of books that make the Puritans even more accessible in our day on a variety of important but often neglected subjects.” — R. C. Sproul, Founder and President of Ligonier Ministries

In Remembrance of Him: Profiting from the Lord’s Supper

Guilelmus Saldenus and Wilhemus à Brakel

Paperback, 144 pages

Retail Price: $15.00

RHB Price: $11.00

The two seventeenth-century essays translated and offered in this book were originally designed to help people of the Dutch Further Reformation derive the greatest benefit from celebrating the Lord’s Supper. Guilelmus Saldenus’s The Efficacy of the Lord’s Supper concentrates on the joy received in celebrating the sacrament and the sanctified living that it ought to generate. Wilhelmus à Brakel’s Edifying Discourses instructs believers in preparing their hearts for the celebration, participating in the Supper responsibly, and following up the meal in a spiritually beneficial manner. These contributions are but two examples of a much larger genre of edifying Lord’s Supper literature that developed in the Netherlands in the seventeenth century.

Endorsement  “I am delighted that the Dutch Reformed Translation Society is at last making this material available in the English language. It is a landmark feature of our Reformed heritage, and it is rich food for the soul in this or any other age.” — J. I. Packer, Regent College

The Mysteries of God

Maurice Roberts

Paperback, 120 pages

Retail Price: $10.00

RHB Price: $7.50

Many vital truths are given to us in the Bible that lead us to a vastly greater understanding of Him than the most intelligent heathen without a Bible could ever know. We refer to these truths as mysteries, not because man has invented this term, but because it is the word that God Himself has chosen to inform us of His wonderful way of salvation. In The Mysteries of God, author Maurice Roberts reminds us that it is important that we be thoroughly informed about God’s mysteries because they are His eternal purposes by which He has given Christ to be our Savior; understanding and believing them give us eternal life with God in the glory of heaven. In an edifying and easy-to-understand style, the author “investigates” twelve of the great mysteries of the Bible, including the mystery of God, the mystery of the gospel, the mystery of Christ’s glorious indwelling, and the mystery of the last things.

Endorsement  “When Rev. Maurice Roberts puts pen to paper, a classic is in the making. One dear Christian I know reads only Octavius Winslow, Horatius Bonar, and Maurice Roberts because, in his words, ‘I find spiritual profit on every page.’ Rev. Roberts is known to combine simplicity, profundity, and clarity, all of which are certainly requisite for any treatment of Bible mysteries. This book is so insightful, well-ordered, and helpful, it seems hard to imagine Christian readers have been without it for so long.” — Gerald M. Bilkes, professor of New Testament and biblical theology at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary

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by | April 2, 2012 · 9:00 am

The Skilled Commentary

Matthew Poole

(1624-1679)

Matthew Poole, famous for his concise commentary on the Bible, was born at York in 1624. After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1649, he accepted a call to the ministry at a Presbyterian parish, St. Michael le Querne, in London, where he succeeded Anthony Tuckney. In 1657, Poole earned a Master of Arts degree from Oxford.

In 1658, Poole published A Model for the Maintaining of Students of Choice Abilities at the University, and principally in order to the Ministry, in which he advocated that certain ministerial students should receive aid from a permanent fund. The plan drew considerable attention. It was supported by John Arrowsmith, Ralph Cudworth, and other divines. Though it was cut short by the Restoration, it gave Poole recognition throughout England, paving the way for acceptance of his later writings.

After the Restoration in 1660, Poole published a sermon that he had preached before the mayor of London, in which he argued that the liturgy of the Church of England should not be reinstituted. In 1662, Poole refused to comply with the Act of Uniformity and was ejected from his pastorate. For the next twenty years, he apparently made no attempt to gather a congregation, but instead worked mostly in solitude.

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by | March 19, 2012 · 9:00 am

The Meek Puritan

Christopher Love

(1618-1651)

Christopher Love was born in Cardiff, Wales, in 1618. At the age of fourteen, he went to hear William Erbury, vicar of St. Mary’s in Cardiff, who would later stray into mysticism. His wife later wrote how Love reacted to that sermon: “God met with him and gave him such a sight of his sins and his undone condition that he returned home with a hell in his conscience.” His father noticed his son’s depression and locked him in a room on the second floor of the house to prevent him from attending church the next Sabbath. Love tied a cord to the window, slid down it, and went to church. His earlier convictions deepened and he was soon converted.

Against the wishes of his father but with the encouragement of Erbury, Love was admitted to New Inn Hall, Oxford, in 1635, and earned a bachelor’s degree in 1639. Love then moved to London and became chaplain to Sheriff Warner. He met the sheriff’s ward, Mary Stone, the daughter of a London merchant; he married her, and the Loves had five children: two girls who died early in life, and three boys. The last son was born thirteen days after Love’s death.

Love was the first clergyman to refuse subscription to the canons of Archbishop Laud (1640). That action resulted in his suspension, but just prior to the suspension going into effect, Love received the call of the parish of St. Anne and St. Agnes within Aldersgate, London. The bishop of London, however, would not allow Love to accept this call because Love had not been ordained. A staunch Presbyterian, Love declined Episcopal ordination. He went to Scotland to seek Presbyterian ordination, but was refused because he had no call to a church there.

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by | March 6, 2012 · 9:00 am

Who Were the Puritans? Part 2

How to Profit from Reading the Puritans
With the Spirit’s blessing, Puritan writings can enrich your life as a Christian in many ways as they open the Scriptures and apply them practically, probing your conscience, indicting your sins, leading you to repentance, shaping your faith, guiding your conduct, comforting you in Christ and conforming you to Him, and bringing you into full assurance of salvation and a lifestyle of gratitude to the triune God for His great salvation. Here are six characteristics that permeate Puritan literature and account for its continuing relevance and power:

1. They shape life by Scripture. The Puritans loved, lived, and breathed Scripture, relishing the power of the Spirit that
accompanied the Word. They regarded the sixty-six books of Scripture as the library of the Holy Spirit graciously bequeathed to Christians. They viewed Scripture as God speaking to them as their Father, giving them the truth they
could trust for all eternity. They saw it as Spirit-empowered to renew their minds and transform their lives.

If you read the Puritans regularly, their focus on the Scriptures becomes contagious. Though their commentaries on Scripture are not the last word in exegesis, the Puritans show how to yield wholehearted allegiance to the Bible’s message. Like them, you will become a believer of the living Book, concurring with John Flavel, who said, “The Scriptures teach us the best way of living, the noblest way of suffering, and the most comfortable way of dying.”

2. They marry doctrine and practice. The Puritans understood that a mindless Christianity fosters a spineless Christianity. An anti-intellectual gospel quickly becomes an empty, formless gospel that doesn’t get beyond “felt needs.” That’s what is happening in many churches today. Tragically, few understand that if there is little difference between what Christians and unbelievers believe with their minds, there will soon be little difference in how they live. Puritan literature is a great solution to this problem.

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by | February 20, 2012 · 1:22 pm

Who Were the Puritans? Part 1

Definition of Puritanism

Just what is meant by the term Puritan? Many people today use the term to describe a morose and legalisticbrand of Christianity that borders on fanaticism. Much of this stereotype was the product of nineteenth-century anti-Puritan sentiments. While subsequent cultures have expressed various opinions of the Puritans, it is helpful to chronicle a brief history of the term and to assess the movement as objectively as possible.

The term Puritan was first used in the 1560s of those English Protestants who considered the reforms under Queen Elizabeth incomplete and called for further “purification” (from the Greek word katharos, “pure”).

The Puritans embraced five major concerns and addressed each of them substantially in their writings:

• The Puritans sought to search the Scriptures, collate their findings, and apply them to all areas of life. In so doing, the Puritans also aimed to be confessional and theological, and drew heavily on the labors of dedicated Christian scholarship.

• The Puritans were passionately committed to focusing on the Trinitarian character of theology. They never tired of proclaiming the electing grace of God, the dying love of Jesus Christ, and the applicatory work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of sinners. Their fascination with Christian experience was not so much motivated by an interest in their experience per se as it was in their desire to trace out the divine work within them so that they could render all glory to their Triune Lord.

• In common with the Reformers, the Puritans believed in the significance of the church in the purposes of Christ. They believed therefore that the worship of the church should be the careful outworking and faithful embodiment of her biblical faith, and so Puritanism was a movement that focused on plain and earnest preaching, liturgical reform, and spiritual brotherhood. Likewise, the Puritans believed that there was an order or polity for the government of the church revealed in Scripture, and the well-being of the church depended on bringing her into conformity to that order.

• In the great questions of national life presented by the crises of their day, the Puritans looked to Scripture for light on the duties, power, and rights of king, Parliament, and citizen-subjects.

• In regard to the individual, the Puritans focused on personal, comprehensive conversion. They believed with Christ that “except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven” ( John 3:3). So they excelled at preaching the gospel, probing the conscience, awakening the sinner, calling him to repentance and faith, leading him to Christ, and schooling him in the way of Christ. Likewise, the Puritans believed with James that “faith, if it hath not works, is dead being alone” ( James 2:17). So they developed from Scripture a careful description of what a Christian ought to be in his inward life before God, and in all his actions and relationships in this life.

Peter Lewis rightly says that Puritanism grew out of three needs: (1) the need for biblical preaching and the teaching of sound Reformed doctrine; (2) the need for biblical, personal piety that stresses the work of the Holy Spirit in the faith and life of the believer; and (3) the need to restore biblical simplicity in liturgy, vestments, and church government, so that a well-ordered church life would promote the worship of the Triune God as prescribed in His Word (The Genius of Puritanism, pp. 11ff.). Doctrinally, Puritanism was a kind of vigorous Calvinism; experientially, it was warm and contagious; evangelistically, it was aggressive, yet tender; ecclesiastically, it was theocentric and worshipful; politically, it aimed to be scriptural, balanced, and bound by conscience before God in the relations of king, Parliament, and subjects.

The Puritans were by no means a monolithic movement any more than were the Reformers, or, for that matter, any major group of theologians in church history. They too had their differences, not only ecclesiastically and politically, but also theologically. There were men among them who imbibed error, such as Richard Baxter on justification and John Preston on the atonement. Yet, for the most part, there was a remarkable unity of thought, conviction, and experience among the Puritans.

To be Continued

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by | January 31, 2012 · 8:53 pm

“Most Eloquent Pulpit Man”

Edward Reynolds

(1599-1676)

Edward Reynolds, bishop of Norwich, was born in Southampton in 1599. He was educated at Merton College, Oxford, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1618. He became a fellow in 1620, due to his ability in Greek, debate, and oratory. Later, he received a Master of Arts degree (1624) and a Doctor of Divinity degree (1648) from Cambridge.

Reynolds became a preacher at Lincoln’s Inn, London, and one of the king’s chaplains in 1622. In 1628, he became vicar of All Saints, Northampton; then, in 1631, rector of Braunston, Northamptonshire, where he remained for nearly thirty years. When civil war broke out, he earned a reputation as a voice of moderation willing to accommodate his views on church polity. A Presbyterian by conviction, he nonetheless wanted to maintain the unity of the national church, and argued for a milder form of episcopacy that would accommodate Presbyterian beliefs. He wrote out his convictions in A Sermon Touching the Peace & Edification of the Church (1638).

In 1643, he was appointed to serve as a divine at the Westminster Assembly. Though he spoke little, Reynolds played a
major role in committee work on behalf of the assembly. He was the only divine who was a member of all three major committees for the Confession of Faith: the large committee of nineteen, with four later additions, appointed to set parameters; the drafting committee of seven for the first composition; and the committee of three, with four later additions, for proofing and final editing. More than anyone else, Reynolds provided continuity throughout the twenty-seven months it took to write the Confession.

Reynolds and other Presbyterian conformists became the propagators of a Low Church party, remaining loyal to Puritan
ideals and tolerating dissenters within the Anglican Church. Paul Seaver concludes: “In an age of fierce partisanship his life presents rather an unheroic picture, but the popularity he enjoyed with his London vestrymen suggests that moderation in doctrine and action was regarded as a virtue by many of the laity”.

In 1661, after consulting Calamy, Chalmers, and Baxter, Reynolds accepted the king’s offer of the bishopric of Norwich, a position he retained until his death in 1676. Baxter thought he accepted this position too suddenly, while the historian
Wood attributed it to the political maneuverings of his wife. Whatever the case may be, Reynolds’s acceptance is not inconsistent with his character and his desires for reconciliation. Reynolds died of kidney stones in 1676 while at his bishop’s palace. His wife, Mary, probably the daughter of John Harding, president of Magdalen College, Oxford, survived
him by seven years. They had at least two daughters and one son, Edward, who served nearly forty years as archdeacon of Norfolk.

Reynolds was regarded by his contemporaries as a man of good judgment, a gifted preacher, a scholar of considerable talent, and a clear writer. He authored more than thirty books. Daniel Neal wrote of Reynolds: “He was reckoned one of the most eloquent pulpit men of his age, and a good old Puritan.”

Books By Edward Reynolds

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