[Reformation Heritage Books has graciously provided this biographical and reprint essay on the life and works of William Guthrie. You can find this information and others in the book, Meet the Puritans.]

William Guthrie (1620-1665)

William Guthrie was born in 1620 to James Guthrie, Laird of Pitforthy, Angus. He was the eldest of five sons, three of whom would become ministers of the gospel. He studied under his cousin, James Guthrie, at the University of St. Andrews, graduating with a Master of Arts degree in 1638. He stayed in St. Andrews to study theology under Samuel Rutherford, whom God used to call Guthrie both to salvation and to the ministry. Once called, Guthrie decided to give his family inheritance to a younger brother so that he would be free to minister unencumbered by earthly cares. Meanwhile, he remained close friends with his cousin until James died as a martyr at the gallows, one of the first to be executed in the persecution that followed the restoration of Charles II.

Guthrie was licensed to preach by the presbytery of St. Andrews in 1642. For two years he was tutor to Lord Mauchlin, eldest son of the earl of Loudoun, a leading Covenanter. In 1644, he was ordained as minister in Fenwick, an Ayrshire parish that recently had been established as an offshoot of Kilmarnock. Conditions in the parish were dismal. Ignorance abounded. People did not fear God. Many villagers refused to attend church services and would not take time for catechizing or family worship. Nevertheless, Guthrie served diligently as pastor. He even offered half of a crown to a man who preferred hunting birds on the Sabbath if he promised to attend church. The next Lord’s Day, the man came to church. Guthrie promised him the same amount the next week. The man never missed church again. He was converted and later became an elder in the church.

Under Guthrie’s twenty-year ministry in Fenwick, the town received a fresh outpouring of the Spirit. The new church was filled. Hundreds of people became regular attenders, were reborn, and grew in the grace and knowledge of Christ Jesus. Matthew Crawford, who was the minister at Eastwood, said that Guthrie “converted and confirmed many thousand souls, and was esteemed the greatest practical preacher in Scotland” (cited by Matthew Vogan, “William Guthrie,” Free Church Witness [March 2003], p. 4). George Hutcheson, who assisted Guthrie at Communion, said that, if there was a church full of saints on the face of the earth, it was at Fenwick.

Guthrie married Agnes Campbell one year after he settled in Fenwick. Less than a year after he married, he was called to serve as chaplain during the Civil War in the Scottish army. When Guthrie fell seriously ill before his departure, his bride stopped worrying about his safety in the war. She bowed under God’s sovereignty, realizing that her husband was in God’s hands everywhere. Guthrie was preserved through his time in the army and returned to his parish.

Guthrie suffered numerous physical ailments related to stress. He tried to overcome these, in part, through fishing and bird hunting. Even while hunting, he discussed spiritual truths with fellow sportsmen.

Guthrie’s work was marked by zeal and courage. On one occasion, several soldiers who lacked proper credentials approached the Lord’s Table. Guthrie talked to them with such loving gravity that they immediately returned to their seats.

In 1647, a treaty was signed between Charles I and some Scottish nobles, binding the king to a limited support of Presbyterianism in exchange for freedom to return to the throne. Guthrie then joined his cousin James, Samuel Rutherford, and John Livingston, who supported the minority Protestors in opposition to the Resolutioners. In 1654, Guthrie served as moderator of the Protester Synod of Glasgow and Ayr.

Other appointments also came Guthrie’s way. In 1649, he was appointed as a commissioner to visit the University of Glasgow. A few years later, he became one of the Triers to approve ministers and lecturers before they assumed their ecclesiastical positions. By that time he had received pastoral calls to several larger parishes, but he declined them all.

In 1657, a collection of Guthrie’s unedited notes from his sermons on Isaiah 55 were published without his consent as A Clear, Attractive, Warning Beam of Light. In response, Guthrie published those sermons the following year as The Christian’s Great Interest. John Owen was much impressed with these writings. He said Guthrie’s little book contained more divinity than all of his own writings combined. “He is one of the greatest divines that ever wrote,” Owen said.

Because of his connection with William Cunningham, earl of Glencairn, Guthrie was allowed to retain his pulpit for several years following the restoration of Charles II. The archbishop of Glasgow, Alexander Burnet, embarrassed by Guthrie’s refusal to submit to episcopacy and envious of the crowds that attended Guthrie’s services, however, deprived him of his ministry in 1664. On the Wednesday before the Sunday on which the suspension was to take effect, the people of Fenwick observed a day of prayer and fasting. Guthrie preached to them from Hosea 13:9: “O Israel! Thou hast destroyed thyself.” The following Sunday he preached his last sermon on the remainder of the text: “but in me is thine help.” By the end of the sermon, much of the congregation was in tears.

When twelve soldiers seized Guthrie at noon that Sabbath, he said to one, “The Lord may pardon your countenancing this business.” When the soldier responded, “I wish we never do a greater fault,” Guthrie replied, “A little sin may damn a man’s soul” (John Howie, Lives of the Scottish Covenanters, p. 287).

Guthrie lived for about a year in the Fenwick manse. While visiting Pitforthy to settle the family estate due to the death of the brother, he fell very ill and died of kidney disease on October 10, 1665, at age forty-five. He was survived by his wife and two daughters. Four of his children predeceased him.

Most of Guthrie’s unpublished writings were seized and destroyed in 1682 by a soldier searching his widow’s home. A collection of seventeen of his sermons was printed in 1779, then reprinted in 1880 as Sermons Delivered in Times of Persecutions in Scotland.

The Christian’s Great Interest (BTT; 207 pages; 1969).

This book is a classic on assurance of faith. It has been reprinted more than eighty times and has been translated into several languages, including French, German, Dutch, and Gaelic.

Guthrie’s book is divided into two sections. The first part provides numerous biblical tests on how one may know whether or not he is a Christian. Guthrie’s use of “Interest” in the title refers to a legal claim in the covenant that Christ makes with believers. He places us in a courtroom setting to be examined by Scripture to determine whether or not we possess saving grace. After proving that believers may be assured of their salvation, Guthrie examines various ways by which sinners are drawn to Christ. He then focuses on saving faith as a most sure evidence of having a saving interest in Christ. He also distinguishes that faith from the faith of hypocrites. He concludes the first part by explaining why some believers doubt their interest in Christ.

The second part deals with how we might attain a saving interest in Christ. In the second chapter, “What it is to Close with God’s Gospel Plan of Saving Sinners by Christ Jesus, and the Duty of So Doing,” Guthrie reaches the crux of his treatise. This is a helpful chapter for those struggling with the reality of their faith. The next chapter deals with objections one can raise against closing with Christ, such as excessive sinfulness, inability to believe, unfruitfulness, and ignorance. The final chapter describes personal covenanting with God in Christ. The book concludes with a four-page, question-and-answer summary of the work.

Throughout this book, Guthrie distinguishes between the extraordinary and ordinary experiences of the believer. In this he helps sincere believers who have discounted their own salvation because they have been looking for extraordinary experiences upon which to build their salvation rather than relying on a childlike faith that trusts in Christ alone.

This is a wonderful book for people who are searching for spiritual certainty. Thomas Chalmers claimed it was “the best book I ever read.” He added, “It has long been the favorite work of our peasantry in Scotland. One admirable property of this work is that, while it guides, it purifies.”

Other Puritan Profiles in the 08PRC:

* Who Is Sameul Bolton? (September)
* Who Is William Bridge? (July)
* Who Is John Bunyan? (May)
* Who Is Jeremiah Burroughs? (April)
* Who Is Thomas Watson? (March)
* Who Is John Flavel? (February)
* Who Is Richard Sibbes? (January)

Continuing in the string of excerpts from Samuel Bolton’s book, The True Bounds of Christian Freedom, I want include Bolton’s commentary on the “five-fold peace of a Christian man.”  Bolton writes:

1.  There is a peace which flows from the witness-bearing of our conscience to our integrity and exact walking.

2.  There is a peace which flows from the soul’s communion and converse with God in duty.

3.  There is a peace which comes to the believer from the exercise of the grace implanted in him.

4.  There is a peace which flows from the sense and knowledge of God’s grace implanted in the soul.

5.  There is a peace which flows from the assurance that God is at peace with the soul, a peace which flows from the sense of Divine favour.

- Samuel Bolton, The True Bounds of Christian Freedom, 156-57.

Samuel Bolton, in his book The True Bounds of Christian Freedom, lays out nine differences between legal obedience and evangelical obedience.  He writes:

1.  Slavish spirit vs. Childlike spirit

“In one case the man does things in a legal spirit, either hoping to get rewards by it, or fearing punishments if he omits the duty.  The godly man, on the other hand, goes about duty for the sake of obtaining communion with God, and knows it to be his reward and happiness to have that communion, while the lack of it is the greatest punishment he can endure.”

2.  Burdensome vs. Delight

“To the man who has to do with nothing but duty while he is performing duty, to him duty is tedious; but to those who have to do with God, with Christ, in their duties, to them duty is a delight. . . . The godly man has to do with God.  He labours, he breathes, his heart gapes for him.  He it is who he has in his eyes, and whom he labours after in prayer, even if he cannot enjoy Him.”

3.  Conviction of conscience vs. Necessity of nature

“With many, obedience is their precept, not their principle; holiness their law, not their nature.  many have convictions who are not converted; many are convinced they ought to do this and that, for example, that they ought to pray, but they have not got the heart which desires and lays hold of the things they have convictions of, and know they ought to do.  Conviction, without conversion, is a tyrant rather than a king; it constrains, but does not persuade; it forces, but does not move and incline the soul to obedience.  It terrifies but does not reform; it puts a man in fear of sin and makes him fear the omission of duty, but it does not enable him either to hate sin or love duty.  All that it does is out of conviction of conscience, not from the necessary act of a new nature. Conscience tells a man that he ought to do certain things, but gives him no strength to do them.  It can show him the right way and tell him what he ought to do, but it does not enable the soul to do it.  Like a milestone by the roadside, it shows the traveler the way, but does not give him strength to walk in the way.  On the other hand, where there is the principle of the Gospel, where there is grace, it is in the soul as a pilot in a ship who not only points the way but steers the vessel in the way which he appoints.”

4.  Satisfaction in duty vs. Satisfaction in Christ

“The one kind of man looks for his satisfaction in the duty by the performance of the duty, the other looks for satisfaction in the duty as he finds Christ thereby; it is not in the duty, but above the duty, that he finds his satisfaction.”

5.  Shell vs. Substance

“The one kind of man contents himself with the shell, the other is not content without the substance.  The godly man goes to duty as the means of communion with God; the other goes to duty merely to satisfy the grumblings and quarrels of his conscience.”

6.  Performance as self-righteousness vs. Performance as Christ’s righteousness

“The one type of man performs duty in order to live but it. . . . But the believer prays and performs duty, yet he looks beyond them, and looks to live by Christ alone. . . . Even though he has done both these things in abundance, yet for his acceptance he looks up to Christ as if he himself had done nothing at all.”

7.  Formality vs. Fervency

“The one man does things coldly and formally, the other fervently. . .  A natural man may pray earnestly at times when in fear or horror, under pangs of conscience, but he does not cry believingly.  There may be much affection in a prayer when there is but little faith; there may be fleshly affections, natural affections, affections heightened either from convictions or fears or horrors.  Yet these are but the cries of nature, of sense, and of reason, the cries of flesh, not of faith.  Affections based on true faith are not loud, yet they are strong; they may be still, yet they are deep; though they are not so violent, yet they are more sweet, more lasting.”

8.  Duty only when pressured vs. Duty continually with happiness

“The formal man does duty with a view to it serving other ends, and especially when he finds himself in extreme difficulties. . . . But it is not so with the godly man.  He closes with these duties as his heaven, as a part of his happiness, a piece of his glory.  He does not close with them from a necessity of submission, but out of delight; these things are not his penance but his glory and his desire.”

9.  Duty with reluctance vs. Duty with delight

“The one man engages in duty as it if were medicine, not food.  He is reluctant to perform it; he has no pleasure in it; he is driven to it only because he conceives that his soul’s health demands it.  But the godly man engages in duty as a healthful man sits down to meat; there is delight, desire, and pleasure in he exercise.”

- Samuel Bolton, The True Bounds of Christian Freedom, 140-44.

At the close of his first chapter in The True Bounds of Christian Freedom, Samuel Bolton gives seven positive aspects of our freedom in Christ.  Bolton writes:

1.  We are freed from a state of wrath and brought to a state of mercy and favour (Eph. 2:1-10).

2.  We are freed from a state of condemnation and brought to a state of justification (Rom. 8:1).

3.  We are freed from a state of enmity and brought into a state of friendship (Col. 1:21).

4.  We are freed from a state of death and brought to a state of life (Eph. 2:1).

5.  We are freed from a state of sin and brought into a state of service (Rom. 8:12).

6.  We are freed from a state of bondage, a spirit of slavery in service, and brought into a spirit of sonship and liberty in service (2 Pet. 1:4).

7.  We are freed from death and hell, and brought to life and glory.  Heaven is our portion, our inheritance, our mansion-house.  It was made for us, and we for it; we are vessels prepared for glory (Rom. 9:23).

- Samuel Bolton, The True Bounds of Christian Freedom, 47-49.

Samuel Bolton outlines his book, The True Bounds of Christian Freedom, rather nicely with two propositions and six questions.  At the heart of these propositions and questions is what role the law plays (if any) in the Christian life.  This is an important topic because there subtleties that can easily incline one to err on the sides of both legalism and antinomianism.  If Christ has come to see us free, what does that freedom look like?

Bolton’s two propositions are:

Proposition 1: “The law remains as a rule of walking for the people of God.”
Proposition 2: “The law is not incompatible with grace.”

Bolton answers the following questions which result in the substance of his book:

Query 1: “Are Christians freed from the moral law as a rule of obedience?”
Query 2: “Are Christians freed from all punishments and chastisements for sin?”
Query 3: “If a believer is under the moral law as a rule of duty, is his liberty in Christ infringed?”sin?”
Query 4: “Can Christ’s freemen sin themselves into bondage again?”
Query 5: “May Christ’s freemen perform duties for the sake of reward?”
Query 6: “Are Christians freed from obedience to men?”

Interested?  Join in on the Puritan Reading Challenge!

[Reformation Heritage Books has graciously provided this biographical and reprint essay on the life and works of Samuel Bolton. You can find this information and others in the book, Meet the Puritans.]

Samuel Bolton (1606-1654)

This scholar and member of the Westminster Assembly was not related to his namesake above. Samuel Bolton was born in London in 1606, was educated at Manchester School, matriculated as a pensioner at Christ’s College, Cambridge, in 1625, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1629 and a Master of Arts in 1632.

Bolton became curate of Harrow, Middlesex, in 1634; minister of St. Martin Ludgate, London, in 1638; and then, in 1641, minister of St. Saviour’s, Southwark. During his ministry there, he was also appointed lecturer at St. Anne and St. Agnes, Aldersgate, and was delegated as a member of the Westminster Assembly.

In 1645, Bolton became master of Christ’s College, Cambridge (1645). Even then, however, he continued to preach regularly in London, especially at St. Andrew’s, Holborn, because “his desire to win souls to Christ by preaching was so great” (Calamy, p. 25). Later, he served as vice-chancellor of Cambridge University (1650-52).

Bolton wrote seven books, most of which were collections of revised sermons. They reveal him as a clear, warmly experimental, orthodox interpreter of Scripture. He lived as he preached, taught, and wrote.

He died October 15, 1654, at the age of forty-eight, after a long illness. At his funeral, he was described as a God-fearing, other-worldly divine whose preaching “snatched our souls by vigorous sympathy.” In his will, he asked “to be interred as a private Christian, and not with the outward pomp of a doctor, because he hoped to rise in the Day of Judgment and appear before God not as a doctor, but as a humble Christian.” Edmund Calamy preached at his funeral.

The Arraignment of Error (SDG; 460 pages; 1999)

Notwithstanding its title, this book aims to show why unnecessary controversy ought to be avoided as well as why errors on essential doctrines must be firmly opposed. Its title page summarizes the questions addressed:

A discourse serving as a curb to restrain the wantonness of men’s spirits in the entertainment of opinions, and as a compass whereby we may sail in the search and finding of truth, distributed into six main questions.

Question 1. How may it stand with God’s, with Satan’s, and with a man’s own ends, that there should be erroneous opinions?

Question 2. What are the grounds of abounding errors?

Question 3. Why are so many carried away with errors?

Question 4. Who are those who are in danger?

Question 5. What are the means of examining opinions, and the characteristics of truth?

Question 6. What ways has God left in His Word to suppress error and correct erroneous persons?

Under which general questions, many other necessary and profitable queries are comprised, discussed, and resolved. And, in conclusion of all, some motives and means conducing to a happy accommodation of our present differences are subjoined.

The Arraignment of Error addresses the question: If there is one truth and one gospel, why are there so many divisions among God’s people? Bolton’s answer is that errors abound to try and sift God’s children, thus preparing them to hold the truth dear. He addresses other questions as well, such as: Why does God allow errors in the church? What should we do when godly men disagree on doctrinal matters? What is the importance of synods and councils in settling matters? Bolton teaches that both the pastoral use of synods and the power of the civil magistrate are necessary, but both should be limited, clearly defined, and subjected to Scripture. He writes with conviction: “The Word of God and God in His Word, the Scripture and God in Scripture is the only infallible, supreme, authoritative rule and judge of matters of doctrines and worship, of things to be believed and things to be done.”

The True Bounds of Christian Freedom (BTT; 224 pages; 2001)

First published in 1645, this book explains the place of the law in the Christian’s life. Living in an age in which licentiousness and immorality abound, we cannot recommend this book enough. Bolton’s analysis is piercing. While opposing Antinomianism, he assures the believer that the law is not a death sentence, but rather an encouragement to do good works. The law is to be loved and cherished, not feared and disobeyed.

After defining the nature of true freedom, Bolton answers six related questions:

Are Christians free from the moral law as a rule of obedience?
Are Christians free from all punishments and chastisements for sin?
If a believer is under the moral law as a rule of duty, is his liberty in Christ infringed? Can Christ’s freemen sin themselves back into bondage?
May Christ’s freemen perform duties for the sake of reward?
Are Christians free from obedience to men?

Bolton concludes his treatise by saying, “It is my exhortation therefore to all Christians to maintain their Christian freedom by constant watchfulness.”

Christian Freedom first appeared under the endorsement of John Downame, who described it as a “solid, judicious, pious and very profitable” book. In this edition, S.M. Houghton provides a poignant summary of the historical background to Bolton’s book in an appendix (pp. 225-30).

[Reformation Heritage Books has graciously provided this biographical and reprint essay on the life and works of William Bridge. You can find this information and others in the book, Meet the Puritans.]

William Bridge [1600-1670]

William Bridge was a native of Cambridgeshire. He entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1619, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1623 and a master’s degree in 1626, then served for several years as a fellow at the college. While a student at Cambridge, he was greatly influenced by John Rogers’s lectures at Dedham, Essex.

Bridge was ordained a priest in the Church of England in 1627. Two years later, he was appointed a lecturer at Saffron Walden, Essex, where he began to show some nonconformist influence, refusing to wear the surplice and hood on the basis that he had not been licensed by a bishop. In 1631, he was licensed and did conform. About that time, he was appointed lecturer at Colchester, Essex, and was also asked to give the Friday lectures at St. George’s Tombland, Norwich. In 1632, he became rector of St. Peter Hungate in Norwich. In 1634, he was brought before the consistory court and temporarily suspended for espousing limited atonement and condemning Arminians. Two years later, the new bishop of Norwich, Matthew Wren, who led a vicious campaign against nonconformity, deprived Bridge. Bridge’s supporters petitioned the king on his behalf, claiming that Wren was undermining the economy. Bridge did not respond to charges made against him, but remained in Norwich until he was excommunicated and ordered away from English soil.

Archbishop Laud wrote to the king, “Mr. Bridge of Norwich rather than he will conform, hath left his Lecture and two Cures, and is gone into Holland.” Charles I responded in the margin, “Let him go: we are well rid of him.”

Bridge settled in Rotterdam by May of 1636, where he succeeded Hugh Peters and began co-pastoring a congregation with John Ward. He renounced his Church of England ordination and was ordained as an Independent by John Ward, whom he in turn ordained. Eventually Ward was deposed in 1639 for opposing Bridge and recycling too many old sermons. Jeremiah Burroughs replaced Ward as Bridge’s co-pastor.

Bridge returned to England in 1641, where he became better known for his Puritan views. In 1642, he was appointed as a member of the Westminster Assembly of Divines and proved himself a noted Independent. With Burroughs, Thomas Goodwin, Philip Nye, and Sidrach Simpson, he wrote An Apologetical Narrative to promote Congregational polity and present objections to Presbyterianism.

In 1642, Bridge accepted a position as town preacher at Yarmouth, where he organized an Independent church, and formally became its pastor in the fall of 1643. He labored there until 1662, when he was ejected from the pulpit by the Act of Uniformity.

Bridge was an excellent preacher, able scholar, and prolific writer with a well-furnished library. He arose at 4 a.m. each day to search the Scriptures, confess his sins, and commune with God. He often studied for seventeen hours a day, yet did not become an ivory tower theologian. His parishioners viewed him as a charitable and candid pastor whose ministry helped many people.

Bridge was often called to preach before the Long Parliament and was consulted by Parliament on church-related issues. He was also a prominent member of the Savoy Conference and a well-known writer.

Bridge spent his last years at Yarmouth and Clapham, Surrey, where he preached for an Independent church, which he probably founded. Reportedly, “the people flooded in such numbers to hear him that by 7 a.m. there is no room to be got” (Barker, Puritan Profiles, p. 87). He died in Clapham on March 12, 1671.

The Works of William Bridge [SDG; 5 volumes; 1990].

First published in three volumes in 1649, in two volumes in 1657, and later expanded to include all the writings of Bridge in five volumes in 1845, The Works of William Bridge (reprinted from the 1845 edition) is full of practical Puritan teaching. Topics such as the gospel mystery, the great things of faith, Christ and the covenant, and evangelical repentance are covered with keen insight and pastoral warmth.

Chapters in volume 1 include: “The Great Gospel Mystery of the Saints’ Comfort and Holiness,” “Satan’s Power to Tempt and Christ’s Love to and Care of His People Under Temptation,” “Grace for Grace, or the Overflowings of Christ’s Fullness Received by All Saints,” “The Spiritual Life, and Inbeing of Christ in All Believers,” “Scripture Light the Most Sure Light” (sermons on 2 Peter 1:19 which elicited a response from the Quaker, George Whitehead), and “The Righteous Man’s Habitation in the Time of Plague and Pestilence” (an exposition of Psalm 91 to encourage believers while the plague ravaged London).

Volume 2 includes: “A Lifting up for the Downcast,” “Five Sermons on Faith,” and “The Freeness of the Grace and Love of God to Believers Discovered.”

Volume 3 contains “Christ and the Covenant” (a series of ten sermons taken down by note-takers), “Christ in Travail,” and “Seasonable Truths in Evil Times” (nine sermons preached in the London area, including one that asserts the repression of nonconformists is part of God’s design to test them).

Volume 4 contains “Seventeen Sermons on Various Subjects and Occasions” and “Evangelical Repentance.”

Volume 5 contains “The Sinfulness of Sin and the Fullness of Christ,” “Eight Sermons,” “A Word to the Aged,” “The Wounded Conscience Cured” (asserts the right of subjects to defend themselves and of parliament to declare what the law is), “The Truth of the Times Vindicated” (insists that truth must be defended even as it acknowledges that civil war is the worst form of conflict), “The Loyal Convert” (condemns “service-book men” who do not uphold the Solemn League and Covenant), and “The Doctrine of Justification by Faith Opened.”

A Lifting Up for the Downcast [BTT; 288 pages; 1988]

This book, based on Psalm 42:11, is a collection of thirteen sermons on spiritual depression. It has helped hundreds of God’s people battle discouragement. Bridge addresses the following causes of depression: great sins, weak grace, miscarriage of duties, lack of assurance, temptation, desertion, affliction, and inability to serve. This book is packed with comforting advice showing why believers ought not be discouraged no matter what their condition.

The final sermon, “The Cure of Discouragements by Faith in Jesus Christ,” is worth the price of the book. “Be sure that you do not go to God without Christ, but with Christ in your arms,” Bridge says (p. 276).

A Word to the Aged [SDG; 20 pages; 2003]

In this booklet, William Bridge addresses particular sins to which the elderly are most inclined, such as a complaining spirit, bitterness, and impenitence. Pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ as the remedy for the sins and infirmities of old age, he gives counsel on improving the remaining years of the elderly so that their lives might more glorify the Lord and be pleasing to Him.

As many of you have noticed, I did not blog anything during the month of June for the Puritan Reading Challenge.  There are numerous reasons for this, not the least of which is my transitioning to a new city, adapting to my new ministry responsibilities, and living out of a suitcase for the past month (my library and all our belongings are still in storage as we await news on a house).  With the annual meeting of the SBC and the National Founders Conference, it seems like I was on the blog a lot this past month when in actuality I have spent relatively little time on the internet.  I regret having missed last month, especially since it was on John Owen and The Mortification of Sin (!), but providence had it that my time and energies would be best spent with whatever extra time getting to know the city and more importantly those who make up Grace Baptist Church.

I trust that you understand my absence in this aspect of my blogging for the past month, and it is my hopes to pick back up with greater focus and discipline for your encouragement and joy in learning from the Puritan divines.  Six months to go in 2008, and with plenty of time to devour some Puritan Paperbacks, this is a good point to refresh our minds and revive our hearts that there would be greater resolve in our study together.

I do sincerely appreciate the encouragement I have received via comments, email, Facebook, and elsewhere, and I hope that those who have perhaps set aside the challenge in recent months will rejoin me (and others) in taking up the Puritan Reading Challenge for the remainder of the year.  The challenge has always been and will continue to be a means to grow in godliness and greater enjoyment in God, not a drudgery or obligation to check off at the end of the month.  With that said, I am gathering my thoughts and energies to use this blog and this challenge for the expressed purpose of provoking others to godliness that we may pant ever harder for the glories of Christ in things.

For those interested, here’s what I whipped up for this past month (and which I use as prep for the radio interview). 

A couple days late, but I figured it’s never a bad time to hear your thoughts on Bunyan’s work Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ! The thread is open: please take a moment to share with others your observations, experiences, benefits, or uses this book as been for you over the past month.

UPDATE: Some of you may have noticed that I failed to confirm and announce the free books for this month.  However, I will still be doing a random drawing from those on this thread and will indeed be giving two books away, both from Reformation Heritage Books.  They are:

1.  The Fear of God by John Bunyan
2.  Meet the Puritans by Joel Beeke and Randal Pederson

John Bunyan, in his book Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ, gives 25 particulars wherein he contrasts the qualities of faith and unbelief.  Consider the following:

1. Faith believes the Word of God; but unbelief questions the certainty of the same (Psa 106:24).

2. Faith believes the Word, because it is true; but unbelief doubts thereof, because it is true (1 Tim 4:3; John 8:45).

3. Faith sees more in a promise of God to help, than in all other things to hinder; but unbelief, notwithstanding God’s promise, says, “How can these things be?” (Rom 4:19-21; 2 Kings 7:2; John 3:11-12).

4. Faith will make you see love in the heart of Christ, when with his mouth he giveth reproofs; but unbelief will imagine wrath in his heart, when with his mouth and Word he says he loves us (Matt 15:22-28; Num 13; 2 Chron 14:3).

5. Faith will help the soul to wait, though God defers to give; but unbelief will take huff and throw up all, if God makes any tarrying (Psa 25:5; Isa 8:17; 2 Kings 6:33; Psa 106:13-14).

6. Faith will give comfort in the midst of fears; but unbelief causeth fears in the midst of comfort (2 Chron 20:20-21; Matt 8:26; Luke 24:26-27).

7. Faith will suck sweetness out of God’s rod; but unbelief can find no comfort in his greatest mercies (Psa 23:4; Num 21).

8. Faith makes great burdens light; but unbelief makes light ones intolerably heavy (2 Cor 4:1; 14-18; Mal 1:12-13).

9. Faith helps us when we are down; but unbelief throws us down when we are up (Micah 7:8-10; Heb 4:11).

10. Faith brings us near to God when we are far from him; but unbelief puts us far from God when we are near to him (Heb 10:22; 3:12-13).

11. Where faith reigns, it declares men to be the friends of God; but where unbelief reigns, it declares them to be his enemies (John 3:23; Heb 3:18; Rev 21:8).

12. Faith puts a man under grace; but unbelief holds him under wrath (Rom 3:24-26; 14:6; Eph 2:8; John 3:36; 1 John 5:10; Heb 3:17; Mark 16:16).

13. Faith purifies the heart; but unbelief keeps it polluted and impure (Acts 15:9; Titus 1:15-16).

14. By faith, the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us; but by unbelief, we are shut up under the law to perish (Rom 4:23-24; 11:32; Gal 3:23).

15. Faith makes our work acceptable to God through Christ; but whatsoever is of unbelief is sin. For without faith it is impossible to please him (Heb 11:4; Rom 14:23; Heb 6:6).

16. Faith gives us peace and comfort in our souls; but unbelief works trouble and tossings, like the restless waves of the sea (Rom 5:1; James 1:6).

17. Faith makes us to see preciousness in Christ; but unbelief sees no form, beauty, or comeliness in him (1 Peter 2:7; Isa 53:2-3).

18. By faith we have our life in Christ’s fullness; but by unbelief we starve and pine away (Gal 2:20).

19. Faith gives us the victory over the law, sin, death, the devil, and all evils; but unbelief lays us obnoxious to them all (1 John 5:4-5; Luke 12:46).

20. Faith will show us more excellency in things not seen, than in them that are; but unbelief sees more in things that are seen, than in things that will be hereafter (2 Cor 4:18; Heb 11:24-27; 1 Cor 15:32).

21. Faith makes the ways of God pleasant and admirable; but unbelief makes them heavy and hard (Gal 5:6; 1 Cor 12:10, 11; John 6:60; Psa 2:3).

22. By faith Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob possessed the land of promise; but because of unbelief, neither Aaron, nor Moses, nor Miriam could get thither (Heb 11:9; 3:19).

23. By faith the children of Israel passed through the Red Sea; but by unbelief the generality of them perished in the wilderness (Heb 11:29; Jude 5).

24. By faith Gideon did more with three hundred men, and a few empty pitchers, than all the twelve tribes could do, because they believed not God (Judg 7:16-22; Num 14:11, 14).

25. By faith Peter walked on the water; but by unbelief he began to sink (Matt 14:28-30).

John Bunyan, Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2004), 202-05.

[Reformation Heritage Books has graciously provided this biographical and reprint essay on the life and works of John Bunyan. You can find this information and others in the book, Meet the Puritans.]

John Bunyan [1628-1688]

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. John Bunyan was born in 1628 at Elstow, near Bedford, to Thomas Bunyan and Margaret Bentley. Thomas Bunyan, a brazier or tinker, was poor but not destitute. Still, for the most part, John Bunyan was not educated well. He 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” (Works of Bunyan, ed. George Offor, 1:6). Sporadic periods of convictions of sin helped restrain some of that rebellion, however.

When Bunyan was sixteen years old, his mother and sister died a month apart. His father remarried a month later. Young Bunyan joined Cromwell’s New Model Army, where he continued his rebellious ways. Fighting in the Civil War sobered him considerably, however. On one occasion, his life was wonderfully spared. “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” (ibid.).

Bunyan was discharged from the army in 1646 or 1647. His military experience was later reflected in his book, The Holy War.

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. He started attending the parish church, stopped swearing (when rebuked by a dissolute woman of the town), and tried to honor the Sabbath. After some months, 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.

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 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” (cited by Greaves, John Bunyan, p. 18). While walking through a field one day, Christ’s righteousness was revealed to Bunyan’s soul and gained the victory. Bunyan writes of that unforgettable experience:

One day, as I was passing in the field, this sentence fell upon my soul: Thy righteousness is in heaven; and methought 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! methought, 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 (Grace Abounding, paragraphs 229-32, pp. 129-31).

The year 1654 was a momentous one for Bunyan. He 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 people were led to conversion in response to it. By the end of the year, he had lost his beloved pastor to death.

In 1655, Bunyan began preaching to various congregations in Bedford. Hundreds came to hear him. He published his first book the following year, Some Gospel Truths Opened, 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 attacks 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 passed away.

In 1659, Bunyan published The Doctrine of the Law and Grace Unfolded, which expounds his view of covenant 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, though it led to false charges of antinomianism by 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” (Works of Bunyan, 1:lix). 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.”

Prison years, however, were productive years for Bunyan. 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 (his understanding of church history and the end times), and The Resurrection of the Dead. This latter work is a sequel to The Holy City, in which Bunyan expounds 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 among the Nonconformists and latitudinarianism among the Anglican establishment.

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. That book, which sold more than 100,000 copies in its first decade in print, 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, who used his influence at court to secure Bunyan’s release from prison on June 21, 1677. Bunyan 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” (Oxford DNB, 8:707). 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.

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. Most of those books were reproduced in paperback by William Frasher in the 1960s through Reiner Press, in Swengel, Pennsylvania. They are not listed separately in this book because they are included in Bunyan’s Works.

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” (Works of Bunyan, 1:lxxviii). 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!” and then died. He was buried in Bunhill Fields, close to Thomas Goodwin and John Owen.

The Works of John Bunyan (BTT; 3 vols., 2,400 pages; 1999).

Bunyan was unusual among the Puritans in that he had little formal education. Nevertheless, he read exhaustively, and the Holy Spirit blessed his studies. He became a prolific writer and wrote more than sixty works in sixty years. Many of those have been overshadowed by Pilgrim’s Progress and The Holy War, but they are still worthy of reading.

Bunyan’s works are a treasure of scriptural, experiential truth. He was a Spirit taught theologian who had the gift of interpreting evangelical truth for the masses. Bunyan was one of the most popular Puritans, no doubt because, while possessing the Word-centeredness and depth of doctrine and experience of other Puritans, he presented truth with warm simplicity. Several publishers have reprinted Bunyan’s individual works. Most recently, SDG has reprinted The Fear of God, in which Bunyan addresses the objects and reasons for fearing God, the various kinds of fear, the character and effects of godly fear, and the privileges and uses of this doctrine. BTT has also reprinted five of Bunyan’s works (The Acceptable Sacrifice, All Loves Excelling, Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ, The Jerusalem Sinner Saved, and Prayer) in the Puritan Paperback Series. GM has reprinted Groans of a Lost Soul, Solomon’s Temple Spiritualized, and Advice to Sufferers, among others.

For those wishing to own the best of what Bunyan has written, the BTT edition of George Offor’s 1854 compilation is the best option. It offers fifty-five of Bunyan’s works in three volumes. The first volume contains valuable introductions and an eighty-page memoir of Bunyan’s life and times. Volumes 1 and 2 contain his experimental, doctrinal, and practical works, such as Christ a Complete Saviour and The Fear of God. Volume 3 has Bunyan’s allegorical, figurative, and symbolical works, such as The Pilgrim’s Progress, The Holy War, and The Life and Death of Mr. Badman, as well as a compendious index.

Christiana’s Journey; Or, The Pilgrim’s Progress, The Second Part (BP; 150 pages; 1993).

This edition contains the text of Christiana’s Journey and seventy-three beautiful full-page oil paintings by Albert Wessels, which especially engage children.

Bunyan may have been motivated to write the second part of Pilgrim’s Progress in which Christiana and other female characters, as well as children, play prominent roles to depict a more subdued way in which the Holy Spirit often works conversion in typical church members. Hence Christiana and her children do not fall into the Slough of Despond nor have such a dramatic experience at the cross as Christian did. Christian and Christiana traverse much of the same ground, which shows the universality of believers’ spiritual experiences, but the section on Christian is more autobiographical while the section on Christiana is more corporate and normative, showing a more typical morphology of conversion.

Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (AP; 243 pages; n.d.).

An indispensable source for Bunyan’s early life and conversion, this autobiographical classic chronicles his life from infancy to his imprisonment in 1660. Text on the remainder of Bunyan’s life is supplied by the editor. It provides an open and candid look into his life struggles, showing that God’s grace abounds to even the chief of sinners. Richard Greaves writes, “Although conventional in structure, Grace Abounding transcends contemporary examples of the genre in its depth of psychological experience, its riveting account of Bunyan’s struggle to keep from succumbing to pervasive, numbing despair, and his agonizing wrestling with biblical texts” (Oxford DNB, 8:705).

Grace Abounding was published six times during Bunyan’s lifetime, and has been reprinted scores of times over the centuries. This reprint is taken from the eighth edition.

The Holy War (Reiner; 454 pages; 1974).

This allegory, second only to Pilgrim’s Progress, bears the full title of The Holy War, made by King Shaddai upon Diabolus, for the Regaining of the Metropolis of the World; or, the Losing and Taking again of The Town of Mansoul. Reiner’s edition contains the valuable “explanatory, experimental, and practical notes” of George Burder and sixty-eight engravings.

Macauley claims that The Holy War, written after Bunyan’s imprisonment, “would be the best allegory ever written if Pilgrim’s Progress did not exist.” The Holy War is more difficult to read but is also more profound in places than Pilgrim’s Progress partly because it involves several levels of allegory. “Mansoul is not only the soul of each believer and the allegorical personification of Christianity but the symbol of England itself” (Oxford DNB, 8:707). The Holy War contains valuable counsel on how to fight the good fight of faith. It will richly reward the meditative reader.

The Pilgrim’s Progress (Reiner, 1974; BTT, 1983; BP, 1999).

This is a moving, allegorical account of spiritual warfare experienced by a wayfaring pilgrim traveling from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City, in which Bunyan allegorizes his own religious experience as a guide for others. “Christian is both pilgrim and warrior, and the message of The Pilgrim’s Progress is not only a call to embrace and persist in the Christian life, but also a summons to battle the forces of evil” (Oxford DNB, 8:705).

Bunyan’s insights into mankind’s desperate plight and God’s redeeming grace make this a legendary classic. Regeneration, faith, repentance, justification, mortification, sanctification, and perseverance are poignantly painted for us in biblical, doctrinal, experiential, and practical detail.

Among the more than two dozen reprints of Bunyan’s classic since 1960, three are worthy of mention. First, an excellent edition of both parts of Pilgrim’s Progress containing the invaluable explanatory notes of Thomas Scott, original marginal notes, and textual support, has been reprinted by Reiner (1974), and is the most helpful edition. It includes a helpful 50-page memoir of Bunyan by Josiah Condor.

Second, Banner of Truth Trust published a deluxe edition in 1983, which includes original marginal notes and references from Scripture, both parts of Pilgrim’s Progress, and a series of sketches by William Strang.

Third, Bunyan Press has issued a handsome, coffee-table volume containing the complete text of Pilgrim’s Progress along with a beautiful collection of more than seventy oil paintings by Albert Wessels. This edition is excellent for helping children grasp the classic story. A number of retellings of Bunyan’s famous story have been printed for children by other publishers.

Another month in the books, another Puritan Paperback mined in the challenge that is the 2008 PRC.  So how was it?  That is, what did you think of The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs?  How has your life been impacted?  Challenged?  How will anything you read be useful to you in your life or ministry?  Please take a moment to share your thoughts.  From those who respond in this open thread will be one of you who will be the winner of the April Giveaway!

Don’t forget to listen and call in today at 1:00 p.m. EST as we will have special guest Phil Simpson with us.

The thread is open: please take a moment to share with others your observations, experiences, benefits, or uses this book as been for you over the past month.

I am excited to share with you that Phil Simpson, who is currently writing a biography on Jeremiah Burroughs, will be joining to talk about The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment tomorrow (Wednesday, April 30) at 1:00 p.m. EST on Calling for Truth with Paul Dean and Kevin Boling. It will be a live call-in radio broadcast for an hour (1:00-2:00 p.m. EST), and you can listen two ways:

1. If you live in SC or parts of NC, GA, or TN, you can listen in at Talk 660.
2. If you are like me and live elsewhere, you can listen online by going here.

The toll-free number to call in is 1.888.660.9535.

We would love to hear from you! If you have time, and would like to participate in the discussion, let us hear your thoughts by calling in. I don’t know if there is a more needed topic today in our hyper-consumeristic culture than contentment. I am really looking forward to our conversation about Burroughs, contentment, and how we can pursue contentment in the world in which we live.

[Phil Simpson, whom I have mentioned in an earlier post, has graciously agreed to guest blog here at P&P with an article on Jeremiah Burroughs' life, and more specifically, how he learned contentment. Phil is currently writing a biography on Burroughs which hopes to be published within the year. You can find more information at his website, The Jeremiah Burroughs Homepage.]

Imagine you are listening to a sermon on Christ’s faithfulness in the darkest trials. The sermon is being preached by a young, married preacher who recently had a child. You will likely listen and benefit from the sermon. But imagine that same sermon being given by a man whose wife and only daughter were killed two years ago in an automobile accident, and whose only son has just been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. Which of the two sermons is most likely to make you sit on the edge of your seat? As you can imagine, a man’s life experiences can certainly add force and weight to his message. This is the case with Jeremiah Burroughs, whose teaching on contentment is given weight by a series of trials experienced during his lifetime.

Jeremiah Burroughs was born in East Anglia, England, in 1599. After completing his MA at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1625, he was forced to leave the University because he refused to conform to unbiblical rituals, ceremonies, and superstitions which the Church of England had begun to enforce at that time. However, this did not prevent him from entering the ministry, and after serving two years as curate at All Saints Church, Stisted, he was appointed lecturer at Bury St. Edmunds in 1627. As a lecturer, he was free from the restrictions placed on the vicars of the church. He served in the same town as Edmund Calamy, and shared a town lectureship with him. His future seemed bright. His heart’s desire was to serve the Lord and his kingdom in as great a capacity as the Lord would allow.

However, his first job ended in disappointment. In 1630, he reported that “I have been nearly three and a half years with them with little success.” He further commented that the people had a “strange disposition”. To make matters worse, the congregation seemed determined to get rid of Burroughs because he spoke out against the sin of one of the town’s local officials. When a change in pay left him without any certainty of income, he was forced to take a job offered to him in Tivetshall, Norfolk. This was somewhat disappointing to him, since it was a small country church, and he felt there might be less opportunity to do good than at the larger town of Bury.

Nevertheless, in 1631 he became the vicar of Tivetshall, and served there for several years. He was even able to engage in rotating lectureships with William Bridge and William Greenhill. However, when William Laud was appointed Archbishop, all ministers in England were required to read, from their pulpits, The King’s Book of Sports, an official declaration of recreational activities in which king’s subjects were to participate on Sundays. Such “sports” included “leaping, vaulting… May-games, Whitsun-ales, and Morris-dances, and the setting up of May-poles”. Burroughs and other Puritan ministers felt this violated their convictions of the sanctity of the Sabbath. Laud then appointed bishop Matthew Wren to visit the churches in Norfolk and report any nonconformists to him. Wren was especially zealous, and also enforced his own recently-published “visitation articles” which contained 139 articles with 897 questions to be asked of ministers at these visitations! These included:

-Does he receive the sacrament kneeling himself, and administer to none but such as kneel?

-Does he wear the surplice while he is reading prayers and administering the sacrament?

-Does he in Rogation-days use the perambulation around the parish?

-Has your minister read the book of sports in his church or chapel?

-Does he use conceived (rather than written) prayers before or after the sermon?

-Are the graves dug east and west, and the bodies buried with their heads at the west?

-Do they kneel at confession, stand up at the creed, and bow at the glorious name of Jesus?

Burroughs could not in good conscience conform to such superstitions. His personal conviction was as follows: “In God’s worship, there must be nothing tendered up to God but what He has commanded. Whatsoever we meddle with in the worship of God must be what we have a warrant for out of the Word of God.”

When Wren’s chancellor showed up at Tivetshall, Burroughs refused to conform, and was subsequently suspended from the ministry in 1636. In 1637, he was formally deprived of his living, and was sheltered by the Earl of Warwick. Burroughs had hoped to serve the Lord in such a way as to do much good for His kingdom. Instead, preaching before the Earl of Warwick’s family and friends in the Earl’s home became his only opportunity for service.

To make matters worse, Burroughs was accused by another minister of justifying the Scots in their taking up arms against the king. Though the minister later recanted, officials continued with proceedings for Burroughs’ arrest. In late 1638, he sailed for Rotterdam, Holland, responding to a call from William Bridge to assist him as teacher there. This was especially difficult for Burroughs, for he left behind many friends and earthly goods. Further, he was a patriot who loved England. “We scarcely thought we should ever have seen our country again”, he said.

Burroughs’ perseverance during this downward spiral of narrowing influence and ministry opportunities is exemplary. Many of us would have thrown in the towel at Bury St. Edmunds, but Burroughs continued to serve the Lord with gladness. One reason for this is his view of contentment. Borrowing Burroughs’ own definition of contentment, he possessed that “sweet, inward, quiet gracious frame of spirit” which freely submitted to and delighted in “God’s wise and fatherly disposal in every condition”.

Contentment did not come to Burroughs by his simply suppressing his complaints, but rather by embracing the work of God in the very circumstance about which he might have otherwise been tempted to complain. He recognized that God was in his circumstances, and His intentions are always good: “Is God about to humble me? Is God about to break my heart, and to bring my heart down to Him? Let me join with God in this work of His…”

He further stated that it is critical to “labor to make a good interpretation of God’s ways towards you.” He understood that the providence of God was yielding God’s results through his circumstances, even if he didn’t see the end in view. He said, “There is nothing that befalls you but there is a hand of God in it”. Burroughs himself bore out the truth of this statement, for how many multitudes of people have benefited from his teaching on contentment, and how much did Burroughs’ thoughts on contentment depend upon this very difficult circumstance of his fleeing from England?

However, the primary reason that Jeremiah Burroughs was able to reach a contented state during these difficult years was because God Himself was his cherished possession, which he treasured above all else. He said, “A Christian should be satisfied with what God has made the object of his faith (i.e., Christ). The object of his faith is high enough to satisfy his soul, were it capable of a thousand times more than it is. Now if you may have the object of your faith you have enough to content your soul.” He added, “If the children of God have their little taken from them, they can make up all their wants in God Himself… If anything is cut off from the stream (a godly man) knows how to go to the fountain, and makes up all there. God is his all in all.”

Sometimes difficult circumstances are a vital means used by God to direct our attention and love toward Him. Burroughs pointed out that,
Since God is contented with Himself alone, if you have Him, you may be contented with Him alone, and it may be, that is the reason why your outward comforts are taken from you, that God may be all in all to you. It may be that while you had these things they shared with God in your affection, a great part of the stream of your affection ran that way: God would have the full stream run to Him now.

In leaving England, Burroughs knew that it was important that he possess a “contentment of spirit that should be present in leaving all for the cause of God”; interestingly, he penned these words while in Holland! If Burroughs was to reach any level of effectiveness for the service of Christ in Rotterdam, he could not do so with a grumbling, complaining spirit.

Burroughs’ contentment during these extenuating circumstances paid off, for in 1641 the new Parliament allowed all ejected ministers, including Burroughs, to return to England! Almost immediately, he was appointed three large lectureships, two of which, Stepney and Cripplegate, were accounted to be England’s largest congregations.

Burroughs’ appointment to these large, wealthy congregations led to a new trial, one he called “the burden that is in a prosperous condition”. Being well-paid for these lectureships (though not sought by him), Burroughs sought to find contentment in his newfound prosperity, as well as attaining a “sanctified use” use of those things for God’s glory. In his view, it was more difficult to learn contentment when facing plenty and abundance than when in want and need. The Christian, he taught, must never allow earthly goods to possess his heart, but rather must allow such things to convey to him the goodness of Christ: “O, Lord, these comforts that You have given me in created things,” he said, “oh, they are sweet; but how sweet is Yourself! How sweet is Jesus Christ! That is the fullness of all this fullness!” Prosperity should increase humility as well: “A godly heart by his fullness grows to increase his humility; he grows sensible of his unworthiness by his fullness.” His friends later remarked that, by God’s grace, Burroughs achieved his goal of finding contentment in prosperity.

Jeremiah Burroughs had longed for usefulness in service for Christ, and did not give up during dire circumstances; as a result, he became arguably England’s most listened-to preacher. He was also given the honor of serving in the Westminster Assembly of Divines, where he worked on the catechism and confession of faith, as well as attempting (albeit unsuccessfully) to obtain toleration for those convinced of a congregational form of church government.

Although he experienced other trials (not being married until about 1645, remaining childless, and especially receiving vitriolic attacks by enemies who sought to undermine his ministry through slanderous treatises written against him), his character remained so exemplary that nearly all the Puritan ministers remarked about his peaceable and godly spirit.

Burroughs died in 1646 following a fall from a horse. So loved had he become during these years in London that, following his death, it was reported that he was “a man much lamented”.

I trust that many of you are mining all the gold that is found in Burroughs this month! You will certainly want to catch up reading and be ready to share your thoughts on the open thread at the end of the month because RHB will be giving away an excellent bundle of books with a retail value of over $100! Here they are with a little description:

1. Gospel Revelation: Finding Worth in Knowing Christ by Jeremiah Burroughs
Description: When Christ asked Peter, “Who do men say that I am?” He understood that opinions are as varied as the men who hold them. But the only trustworthy knowledge of God comes from God Himself. Only God’s revelation of Himself is infallible; only that revelation can be trusted to save a sin-sick soul. In the last of the “gospel” series, Jeremiah Burroughs gives us God’s revelation regarding Himself and regarding His Son, Jesus Christ. And then he gives precious insight into the worth of the human soul, created by God to joyously serve and glorify Him. Sin debases a man, but a right relationship to God elevates him to the position of worth and dignity God gave him at first. True Christians can revel in this revelation. Retail: $26.00.

2. A Treatise on Earthly-Mindedness by Jeremiah Burroughs
Description: In this important work, Burroughs shows from Scripture the great sin of thinking as the world thinks rather than thinking God’s thoughts after Him. Then, realizing that right conduct is the result of right thinking, Burroughs gives us another gem in the second treatise offered here, A Heavenly Conversation, or Walking with God, which is a discussion on what it means to be heavenly minded, with an accent on living godly in Christ Jesus. Several chapters deal with how to foster heavenly conversation and a heavenly walk. Of this book, Mark Dever notes,”We give ourselves with abandon to our pleasures as if we would die tomorrow. But we build houses and we accumulate things as if we would live forever. You ought to consider this more. The Puritans were great at meditating on this life with the next one in view. I encourage you to read Jeremiah Burroughs’ A Treatise on Earthly-Mindedness . It is a wonderful meditation on exactly what this kind of worldly mindedness means, and what is looks like in our lives.” Retail: $19.00.

3. The Excellency of a Gracious Spirit by Jeremiah Burroughs
Description: This title was the first of his writing published. It is based on Numbers 14:24: “Caleb was of another spirit; he followed God fully.” The first part of this book deals with what that “other spirit” is — a gracious spirit, synonymous with a regenerate heart. Those with this gracious spirit are true Christians and desire to follow the Lord fully. The second part of this book explains what it means to serve God thoroughly from a spirit activated and motivated by His grace. I have personally been blessed immensely with this book and find it challenging and convicting. Retail: $24.00.

4. Meet the Puritans by Joel Beeke and Randall Pederson
Description: The most comprehensive guide to the Puritans in print. This work provides great biographical information on each of the Puritans along with a annotated description of all their works and reprints. Not only does it cover the English Puritans, but it also provides resources on the Scottish and Dutch Reformed traditions. The book also has a great reference index, including a lengthy bibliography and glossary of terminology. Shepherd’s Scrapbook named it the 2006 Book of the Year, and for good reason! Retail: $35.00.

Again, let me say a special thanks to Reformation Heritage Books who have been so supportive of this project. They have been incredibly helpful and generous, and I encourage you to consider checking out their bookstore if you plan on purchasing online as they have some of the lowest prices on great reformed and Puritan literature anywhere.

I will be posting the open thread in one week, and I look forward to reading your responses and interaction with Burroughs’ The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment.

If you are reading Jeremiah Burroughs or have enjoyed Burroughs in the past, you need to check out The Jeremiah Burroughs Home Page.  This is an excellent website run by Phil Simpson who is currently writing a biography on Burroughs.

Here are some of the stuff you might want to check out in particular:

* Complete Works of Jeremiah Burroughs
* Links on Jeremiah Burroughs
* Books by Jeremiah Burroughs (some downloadable in PDF)
* Excerpts from Jeremiah Burroughs
* Audio Resources
* Sermons by Jeremiah Burroughs
* What Others Have Said

These are some great resources for those of you reading Burroughs this month in the PRC.  I am looking forward to a great April gleaning from Mr. Burroughs together!

[Reformation Heritage Books has graciously provided this biographical and reprint essay on the life and works of John Flavel. You can find this information and others in the book, Meet the Puritans.]

Jeremiah Burroughs (c. 1600-1646)

Jeremiah Burroughs (or Burroughes) was baptized in 1601 and admitted as a pensioner at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1617. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1621 and a Master of Arts degree in 1624. His tutor was Thomas Hooker.

Burroughs’s ministry falls into four periods, all of which reveal him as a zealous and faithful pastor. First, from about 1627 until 1631, he was assistant to Edmund Calamy at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Both men became members of the Westminster Assembly. Both men strongly opposed King James’s Book of Sports. Both refused to read the king’s proclamation in church that dancing, archery, vaulting, and other games were lawful recreations on the Lord’s Day.

Second, from 1631 to 1636, Burroughs was rector of Tivetshall, Norfolk, a church that still stands today. Despite the best efforts of his patron, Burroughs was suspended in 1636 and deprived in 1637 for refusing to obey the injunctions of Bishop Matthew Wren, especially regarding the reading of the Book of Sports, and the requirements to bow at the name of Jesus and to read prayers rather than speak them extemporaneously.

Third, from 1638 to 1640, Burroughs lived in the Netherlands, where he was teacher of a congregation of English Independents at Rotterdam, formerly ministered by William Ames. William Bridge was the pastor and Sidrach Simpson had established a second like-minded church in the city. Thus, three future dissenting brethren were brought together, all of whom would serve as propagandists for congregationalism later in the 1640s.

In the final period from 1640 to his death in 1646, Burroughs achieved great recognition as a popular preacher and a leading Puritan in London. He returned to England during the Commonwealth period and became pastor of two of the largest congregations in London: Stepney and St. Giles, Cripplegate. At Stepney, he preached early in the morning and became known as “the morning star of Stepney.” He was invited to preach before the House of Commons and the House of Lords several times. Thomas Brooks called him “a prince of preachers.”

As a member of the Westminster Assembly, Burroughs sided with the Independents, but he remained moderate in tone, acting in accord with the motto on his study door: Opinionum varietas et opinantium unitas non sunt hasustata (”variety of opinion and unity of opinion are not incompatible”). Richard Baxter said, “If all the Episcopalians had been like Archbishop Ussher, all the Presbyterians like Stephen Marshall, and all the Independents like Jeremiah Burroughs, the breaches of the church would soon have been healed.”

In 1644, Burroughs and several colleagues presented to Parliament their Apologetical Narration, which defended Independency. It attempted to steer a middle course between Presbyterianism, which they regarded as too authoritarian, and Brownism, which they regarded as too democratic. This led to division between the Presbyterians and Independents. Burroughs served on the committee of accommodation, which tried to reconcile the differences, but on March 9, 1646, he declared on behalf of the Independents that presbyteries were “coercive institutions.” Burroughs said he would rather suffer or emigrate than submit to presbyteries. Ultimately, the division between Presbyterians and Independents helped promote the cause of prelacy after the death of Oliver Cromwell.

Burroughs pursued peace to the end. He died in 1646, two weeks after a fall from his horse. The last subject on which he preached became his Irenicum to the Lovers of Truth and Peace, an attempt to heal divisions between believers. Many of his friends believed that church troubles hastened his death. Burroughs was a prolific writer, highly esteemed by Puritan leaders of his day, some of whom published his writings after his death. Nearly all of his books are compilations of sermons.

The Evil of Evils, or The Exceeding Sinfulness of Sin (SDG; 345 pages; 1999).

This book, first printed in 1654, consists of sixty-seven short chapters that expose sin and urge believers to choose affliction over sin. Burroughs organizes his material around seven major thoughts: (1) there is more evil in the least sin than in the greatest affliction; (2) sin and God are contrary to each other; (3) sin is directly against our good; (4) sin opposes all that is good; (5) sin is the evil of all other evils; (6) sin has infinite dimension and character; and (7) sin makes us comfortable with the devil. Evil of Evils is invaluable for sensitizing our consciences to the “exceeding sinfulness of sin” (cf. Rom. 7:13).

The Excellency of a Gracious Spirit (SDG; 260 pages; 1995).

Based on Numbers 14:24 (”Caleb was of another spirit; he followed God fully”), this book is divided into two parts: (1) what this gracious spirit is, and (2) what it means to follow God fully. Burroughs says we must strive to live in the fear of the Lord to depart from evil and draw closer to Him. Living out of godly fear is the sum and substance of a gracious spirit.

An Exposition of the Prophecy of Hosea (SDG; 699 pages; 1990).

This mammoth exposition of Hosea is one of Burroughs’s finest works. This edition is a facsimile reprint of the 1863 James Sherman edition. Burroughs died before finishing the work, but two of his closest friends, Thomas Hall and Edward Reynolds, finished the commentary. Spurgeon called this work “masterly,” noting that it is “a vast treasure-house of experimental exposition.” No work on Hosea has since superseded this commentary.

Gospel Conversation (SDG; 310 pages; 1995).

This masterful treatise deals with the right living of believers. It includes seven sermons on Philippians 1:27 (”Let your conversation be as becometh the gospel of Christ”), three on John 18:36 (”My kingdom is not of this world”), and a sermon on Exodus 14:13, titled “The Saints’ Duty in Times of Extremity.”

Burroughs moves the reader to mourn his alienated state and yearn for the spring of holiness, union, and communion with Christ. He stresses there can be no works of sanctification before union with Christ. But once in Christ, the Christian must give evidence of that union by fervently pursuing the pious life to which God calls him. Good works are dangerous if they are made the foundation of justification, but are necessary and useful in sanctification. The conversation and conduct of believers must be on a higher plane than that of unbelievers.

Gospel Fear: Developing a Tender Heart that Trembles at the Word of God (SDG; 147 pages; 2001).

The concept of reverence has nearly been forgotten in our day, even by many who regard themselves as Christians. We are irreverent because we are ignorant of God and His holiness. As Burroughs writes, “The reason men worship God in a slight way is because they do not see God in His glory.” These sermons (on Isaiah 66:2, “he that trembleth at my word” and on 2 Kings 22:19, “because thine heart was tender”) are a corrective to prevailing ignorance. The entire volume shows our need for reverence and awe towards God and His Word.

Gospel Reconciliation (SDG; 379 pages; 1997).

There is no more important issue for any one than how to be right with God. In this treatise of eighty-one chapters on 2 Corinthians 5:19, 20 (”God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself”), Burroughs answers questions about reconciliation. Christ’s atoning work is the only way for fallen sinners to be reconciled with God, for a finite creature can never satisfy the justice of an infinite God. Burroughs explains the consequences of our reconciliation in Christ, showing that this reconciliation is a deep mystery, that it is free, sure, full, honorable, firm, and eternal, but also a difficult work, for we are only saved by divine accomplishment, not by human achievement.

Gospel Remission (SDG; 310 pages; 1995).

Subtitled True Blessedness Consists in Pardon of Sin, this first-time reprint consists of a series of sermons on Psalm 32:1, which Burroughs preached after finishing his masterpiece on sin, The Evil of Evils. As a tender pastor, Burroughs knew that after hearing about the deadly nature of sin, his congregation would need to hear about the remission of sins offered in the gospel. Burroughs covers five areas of forgiveness: (1) the many gospel mysteries in remission; (2) the glorious effects proceeding from remission; (3) the great mistakes made about remission; (4) the true signs and symptoms of remission; and (5) the ways and means to obtain remission. Burroughs stresses the dishonor done to God by not resting on the mercy of His remission.

Gospel Worship (SDG; 400 pages; 1990).

Subtitled The Right Manner of Sanctifying the Name of God in General, this treatise on Leviticus 10:1-3 is a call to propriety and sobriety in the worship of God. It deals with the believer’s sanctification through “three great ordinances”: (1) hearing the Word, (2) receiving the Lord’s Supper, and (3) prayer. In a day that promotes man-made forms of worship, Gospel Worship is a call to biblical worship of the Triune God through the means that He has instituted. Burroughs shows how important worship is to God and teaches us how to “give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name” (Ps. 29:2). He makes plain that we do not need new forms of worship to be relevant, but to renew old forms of worship.

Hope (SDG; 150 pages; 2005).

This treatise on 1 John 3:3, “And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself,” first establishes that every believer is a hopeful person; second, explains that where true hope resides, it will purge the heart; and third, provides ten ways in which believers can purify themselves by hope. Burroughs also shows the origin, object, and ground of hope. The book concludes with an exhortation to put away sin. This is a timely, succinct masterpiece for our impure world, lost in sin and full of despair.

Appendixed to Hope is a 63-page sermon by Burroughs on the misery of those who have hope only in this life, based on Psalm 17:14b, “From men of the world, which have their portion in this life.”

Irenicum to the Lovers of Truth and Peace (SDG; 440 pages; 1998).

Subtitled, Heart-divisions opened in the causes and evils of them, with cautions that we may not be hurt by them, and endeavors to heal them, this volume contains the last sermons Burroughs preached before his death. Burroughs pleads for unity among his brethren, addresses the issues that seriously divided believers in his day, and offers practical ways to promote unity. He explains when one should plead his conscience, provides rules to know in what areas we are to bear with our brethren, and shows that “every difference in religion is not a differing religion.” He discusses the role of pride, self-love, envy, anger, rigidity, rashness, willfulness, inconsistency, jealousy, contentiousness, covetousness, and gossip in division. He concludes that the answer for division does not lie in blanket tolerance of all religions nor in a compromising attitude towards sin, but in a biblical striving for peace. Given the divisiveness of Christians in all generations, this treatise is extremely applicable.

The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment (BTT; 228 pages; 2000).

In this book on contentment (Philippians 4:1, “I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content”), Burroughs presents two major themes: (1) peace among believers of various persuasions, and (2) peace and contentment in the hearts of believers during “sad and sinking times.”

Burroughs expounds what Christian contentment is (chap. 1), unveils its mystery (chaps. 2-4), shows how Christ teaches it (chaps. 5-6), and describes ten of its fruits (chap. 7). He then addresses the evils and aggravations of discontentment (chaps. 8-11). He concludes by showing how to attain contentment (chaps. 12-13). This classic provides numerous practical remedies for the spiritual disease of discontent.

The Saints’ Happiness (SDG; 264 pages; 1988).

This book offers a detailed exposition of the Beatitudes in forty-one sermons. Though Burroughs does not match Thomas Watson in popular appeal or Robert Harris in exegetical skill on the Beatitudes, his work is a significant contribution for proper understanding of these important marks of spiritual life.

The Saints’ Treasury (SDG; 175 pages; 1994).

This is a compilation of five sermons on the holiness of God, Christ as all in all, faith’s enjoyment of heavenly things, the natural man’s bondage to the law and the believer’s liberty by the Gospel, and preparation for judgment.

A Treatise of Earthly-Mindedness (SDG; 220 pages; 1998).

A timely reprint for our earthly-minded age, this book contains two treatises: a serious warning against the evils of being earthly minded; an explanation on how to “get our hearts free from earthly-mindedness”; and a discussion on what it means to be heavenly-minded, with an accent on living godly in Christ Jesus. Several chapters deal with how to foster heavenly conversation and a heavenly walk.

D.L. Kane, who happens have been (and continues to be) a big supporter of the 2008 Puritan Reading Challenge, is the winner of the March giveaway, which includes four books by Thomas Watson:

1. A Body of Divinity
2. The Beatitudes
3. The Lord’s Prayer
4. All Things for Good

What I have not mentioned, however, is that RHB is also throwing in a free copy of Meet the Puritans to go with the bundle of books!  Thank you, Banner of Truth, for sponsoring the month of March and donating these excellent books to the cause of the Puritan Reading Challenge! Also, thanks to RHB for the copy of Meet the Puritans!

If you want to get in on all the book love, be sure to read the Puritan Paperback for each month and comment on the open thread that I will post on the end of the month. From the comments shared, I will then randomly select (computer generated) a number to determine the winner. Jeremiah Burroughs is up next, and you won’t want to miss his great treatise on contentment!

Calling for Truth has uploaded the audio for today’s interview, capping off March’s Puritan Paperback, The Godly Man’s Picture by Thomas Watson.  You can listen to the show online or download it (MP3) as well (right click, save as).

Tomorrow, I will announce the winner of the March giveaway of books.  Oh, and we are throwing one more book in there as well. 

So we didn’t get to talk much about Watson and The Godly Man’s Picture this month, but we do have an hour tomorrow to catch up.  I would love to hear from you guys!

Tomorrow (Wednesday, April. 2) at 1:00 p.m. EST, I will again be on Calling for Truth with Paul Dean and Kevin Boling to discuss Watson and godliness–a topic certainly worth our time and attention. It will be a live call-in radio broadcast for an hour (1:00-2:00 p.m. EST), and you can listen two ways:

1. If you live in SC or parts of NC, GA, or TN, you can listen in at Talk 660.
2. If you are like me and live elsewhere, you can listen online by going here.

The toll-free number to call in is 1.888.660.9535.

Here’s an idea: find one thing in particular that you enjoyed the most, convicted you the most, or impacted your thinking and call in to share that with us.  Once the audio is available online, I will post the MP3 here on P&P.  I look forward to catching up with you tomorrow afternoon!

Pursuing Christ Together,

Timmy Brister

Wow–March has absolutely flown by!  Yet it is never too late to give away some books!  I must say, the books Banner of Truth is giving away this month are quite good, so be sure to take a moment to comment with your thoughts on The Godly Man’s Picture.  Remember, the goal behind the 2008 Puritan Reading Challenge is not merely to complete the readings but also seek to apply what we have learned to our lives.  The Puritans were very experiential with doctrinal truths, finding them useful in everyday life.

So with that said, how has The Godly Man’s Picture impacted your life or helped you in your relationship with God?

Please take a moment to share with others your observations, experiences, benefits, or uses this book as been for you over the past month.