The Covenant of Grace in Puritan Thought

For many years, the magnum opus of Dr. John Von Rohr -- former dean of the Pacific School of Religion and Professor Emeritus of Historical Theology and History of Christianity, president of the American Society of Church History, and an ordained Congregationalist minister, has been out of print and hard to find. Now, however, The Covenant of Grace in Puritan Thought (1986, Scholars Press) is available again as a reprint from Wipf & Stock (2010).

A comprehensive account of the major theological themes in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century Puritanism of England and New England as seen through the concept "covenant of grace." The covenant of grace, von Rohr argues, enabled Puritanism to affirm both a continuation of Calvinistic predestinationism and an emergent voluntaristic pietism, pastorally both the absolute and conditional promises of God. An extensive array of primary source material is used in substantiating the author's thesis.

Dr. Von Rohr died on January 31, 2005 (providentially, my brother died on this very date), just two weeks after his wife also passed away, after they had been married for 65 years. Besides his family, this work is perhaps his greatest legacy. I am thankful that it is available once again.

Gold That Glisters

Edward Fisher, The Marrow of Modern Divinity (2009 ed.), p. 201:

Antinomista - But, sir, if an unbeliever may have a resemblance of every grace that is wrought in a believer, then it must be a hard matter to find out the difference: and therefore I conceive it is best for a man not to trouble himself at all about marks and signs.

Evangelista - Give me leave to deal plainly with you, in telling you, that although we cannot say, every one that hath a form of godliness hath also the power of godliness, yet we may truly say, that he who hath not the form of godliness, hath not the power of godliness; for though all be not gold that glitters, yet all gold doth glitter. And therefore, I tell you truly, if you have no regard to make the law of Christ your rule, by endeavouring to do what is required in the Ten Commandments, and to avoid what is there forbidden, it is a very evil sign: and, therefore, I pray you consider of it.

Thomas Boston, "Who have right to baptism, and are to be baptized?" in Complete Works of Thomas Boston, Vol. 6, p. 218:

But whenever men may speak of people's going to heaven, the sound of their feet not being heard, it seems to be no very difficult question, Whether or not a person come to eyars, can be a real saint, and yet want a form of godliness? "Although," says a grave author, "we cannot say, every one that hath a form of godliness, hath also the power of godliness, hath not the power of godliness; though all be not gold that glisterth, yet all gold doth glister." Our Lord tells us, "By their fruits ye shall know them." I shall ad, that if a person be a real believer, and yet not appear so to be, he that judgeth him a visible believer, judgeth amiss, for he is not so.

The New England Primer Martyr: An Historical Correction

Although thousands, if not millions, of schoolchildren have read and even memorized the famous poem in The New England Primer (published by Benjamin Harris) ascribed to the Marian Martyr John Rogers, and the poem itself has had a deeply profound effect on many, the historical circumstances of its authorship and subsequent printing have obscured the deaths of not one but two saints.

The Primer says:

MR. JOHN ROGERS, minister of the gospel in London, was the first martyr in Queen MARY's reign, and was burnt at Smithfield, February 14,1554. His wife with nine small children, and one at her breast following him to the stake; with which sorrowful sight he was not in the least daunted, but with wonderful patience died courageously for the gospel of JESUS CHRIST.

Some few days before his death, he wrote the following Advice to his Children.

Whereupon follows the famous poem (which may be read here in the 1777 ed.).

First, it should be noted that John Rogers actually was burned at the stake on February 4, 1555, rather than February 14, 1554.

Second, John Rogers had eleven children rather than nine. John Foxe and others historians of the age record that his wife attended his execution with ten children at her side and one infant at her breast. George Livermore (The Origin, History and Character of the New England Primer, p. 34) supposes that the error originated as typographical mistake:

The error may at first have been merely typographical -- arising from the transposition of the numerical letters XI, as originally printed in Foxe. Later historians, copying at second hand, have helped to perpetuate the error.

Finally, the poem itself was first published in England in 1559 in a book with the title John Rogers' Primer and ascribed to "An exhortation of Mathewe Rogers vnto his children." From early on, it was ascribed -- erroneously, as it turns out -- to John Rogers, who was the first of the Marian Martyrs, when, in fact, the true author was another by the name of Robert Smith, who was executed on August 8, 1555. He wrote several poetic compositions -- unlike Rogers -- two of which were conflated to create the poem reprinted in the Primers ("Smith was the author of several poems, and the one given in the Primer is made up, with some alterations and omissions, from two of his pieces," Livermore, ibid, p. 36). An early edition of John Rogers' Primer "bears the name of Thomas Mathew, which was assume'd by Rogers in his translation of the bible; and hence, it may be, he obtain'd the name of Mathew Rogers, unless it were, more likely, a mistake of M. (i.e. master) Rogers. He, too, was a Martyr in the same year with Smith, to whom Foxe, a diligent collector, and good authority, ascribes the poem in question" (Paul Leicester Ford, ed., The New-England Primer: A History of Its Origin and Development, p. 250).

Robert Southey, The Book of the Church, p. 342:

Robert Smith, one of the martyrs here alluded to, wrote several poems in prison. The following lines from that which he addressed to his children, are well worthy of preservation, the circumstances under which they were written giving them a deep interest.

---- That ye may follow me, your father and your friend,
And enter into that same life which never shall have end,
I leave you here a little book for you to look upon,
That you may see your father's face when I am dead and gone:
Who, for the hope of heavenly things, while he did here remain,
Gave over all his golden years in prison and in pain,
Where I among mine iron bands, enclosed in the dark,
Not many days before my death, did dedicate this work
To you, mine heirs of earthly things which I have left behind,
That ye may read, and understand, and keep it in your mind,
That as you have been heirs of that which once shall wear away,
Even so ye may possess the part which never shall decay.
In following of your father's foot in faith, and eke in love,
That ye may also be his heirs for evermore above:
And in example to your youth, to whom I wish all good,
I preach you here a perfect faith, and seal it with my blood.

HT: Henry Christoph, Jr.

MHCC 37: National Providences

Matthew Henry, Preface to his Commentary, Vol. 2:

That great man archbishop Tillotson (Vol. 1. Serm. 3. on Prov. xiv. 34) suggests that though, as to particular persons, the providences of God are promiscuously administered in this world, because there is another world of rewards and punishments for them, yet it is not so with nations as such, but national virtues are ordinarily rewarded with temporal blessings and national sins punished with temporal judgments, because, as he says, public bodies and communities of men, as such, can be rewarded and punished only in this world, for in the next they will all be dissolved.

John Tillotson, The Works of the Most Reverend John Tillotson, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, Vol. 1 (Sermon 3 on Prov. 14.34), pp. 96-97:

Indeed as to particular persons, the providences of God are many times promiscuously administered in this world; so that no man can certainly conclude God's love or hatred to any person, by any thing that befals him in this life. But God does not deal thus with nations. Because publick bodies and communities of men, as such, can only be rewarded and punished in this world. For in the next, all those publick societies and combinations wherein men are now linked together under several governments, shall be dissolved. God will not then reward or punish nations, as nations; but every man shall then give an account of himself to God, and receive his own reward, and bear his own burthen. For although God account it no disparagement to his justice to let particular good men suffer in this world, and pass "through many tribulations into the kingdom of God," because there is another day coming which will be a more proper season of reward; yet in the usual course of his providence he recompenseth religious and virtuous nations with temporal blessings and prosperity. For which reason St. Austin tells us, that the mighty success and long prosperity of the Romans was a reward given them by God for their eminent justice and temperance, and other virtues. And on the other hand, God many times suffers the most grievous sins of particular persons to go unpunished in this world, because he knows that his justice will have another and better opportunity to meet and reckon with them. But the general and crying sins of a nation cannot hope to escape publick judgments, unless they be prevented by a general repentance. God may defer his judgments for a time, and give a people a longer space of repentance, he may stay till the iniquities of a nation be full, but sooner or later they have reason to expect his vengeance. And usually the longer punishment is delayed it is the heavier when it comes.

Now all this is very reasonable, because this world is the only season for national punishments. And indeed they are in a great degree necessary for the present vindication of the honour and majesty of the divine laws, and to give some check to the overflowing of wickendess. Publick judgments are the banks and shores upon which God breaks the insolency of sinners, and stays their proud waves. And though among men the multitude of offenders be many times a cause of impunity, because of the weakness of human governments, which are glad to spare where they are not strong enough to punish, yet in the government of God, things are quite otherwise. No combination of sinners is too hard for him, and the greater and more numerous the offenders are, the more his justice is concern'd to vindicate the affront. However God may pass by single sinners in this world, yet when a nation combines against him, "when hand joins in hand the wicked shall not go unpunished."

Architect of Orthodoxy

Robert Lewis Dabney, besides being a famous Southern Presbyterian theologian, was, among other things, both an architect and an opponent of musical instruments in worship. These features combined to form churches that were built to keep organs out.

While serving as pastor of Tinkling Spring Presbyterian Church in Fishersville, Virginia (1847-1853), Dabney authored an 1849 letter to the Watchman and Observer of Richmond, Va. submitted under the pseudonym of Chorepiscopus on the subject of "Organs." (In the July 1889 Presbyterian Quarterly, he also reviewed favorably John L. Girardeau's treatise contra Instrumental Music in Public Worship.)

In 1850, he designed the construction of the present Tinkling Spring church building in the Greek Revival style. Calder Loth of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources wrote of Tinkling Spring (The Virginia Landmarks Register, p. 55):

The present building, the third to serve its worshipers, was designed and built under the direction of its incumbent minister, Robert Lewis Dabney, who was the architect of several churches in the state. Dabney described his design, executed in 1850, as "the plainest Doric denuded of all ornaments." The chaste building, distinguished by its portico in antis, is similar to the chapel Dabney designed for Hampden-Sydney College. Its no-nonsense character appealed to Calvinist austerity and influenced the architecture of a number of Virginia's Presbyterian churches.

The Museum at Tinkling Spring notes, however:

Robert Dabney ardently opposed musical instruments, so not until 1869 did the session vote to permit the purchase of a "Cabinet Organ or Carmonium" and only after a close congregational meeting that saw 49 members vote in favor of musical instruments and 33 vote against such a move....A pipe organ became part of the church's musical offerings with the extensive building renovation under pastor J.O. Mann in 1916....In 1981 a new organ was installed. This was rebuilt and restored as part of the extensive church expansion in 2007 by the organist John Slechts.

Dabney went on design the construction of the Briery Presbyterian Church in Keysville, Va. in the Gothic Revival style circa 1855. He also designed the Farmville, Va. Presbyterian Church in the Greek Revival style around 1859.

Serving both on the faculty of Hampden-Sydney College and as pastor of the College Presbyterian Church from 1858 to 1874, Dabney designed the College Church also in the Greek Revival Style in 1860. The church website gives the following account of its historical design, noting in particular that its architect intentionally designed it to keep organs out, and the description reveals certain biases by its author against his views.

This is the third building to be used by the Presbyterian congregation at Hampden-Sydney. It was designed by the famous 19th century conservative theologian, Robert Lewis Dabney, whose hobby was dabbling in architecture. The structure itself was built of hand-made brick, molded and baked on the site, and the entire building was constructed in the space of the three summer months of 1860. There had been an earlier, box-like wooden church building in the vicinity of Hampden House, near the north gateway onto the campus, and this had served the congregation from the late 1770's until 1820. In that year the congregation purchased four acres of land at the present church site, and a small brick building was constructed "with ugly tudor arches," as an early chronicle editorially stated. That structure was located between the present building and Atkinson Avenue, and it faced south toward the cemetery.

Architect Dabney had earlier used this same design at the Tinkling Spring Presbyterian Church near Waynesboro, Virginia, and also at the Farmville Presbyterian Church, except in those cases there was a center entrance, while at College Church there were two entrances, one for women and one for men. The stairways on either side of the porch led to the slave galleries. With the original pews the seating capacity was 400 downstairs, 200 upstairs. Until recent years this space was sufficient for seating the entire student body, and for over a century, most of the all-college events were traditionally held here. These included daily chapel, seasonal convocations and graduations. Dr. Dabney also designed for his family use, a nearby Italiante-style residence, and he was the architectural consultant for the American Gothic design of Briery Presbyterian Church near Keysville. However, he was probably adapting that exquisite design, as well as his own sophisticated Westmerton residence, from 19th Century pattern-books.

Dr. Dabney believed that a church building should display what one believed, and he therefore avoided any symbolic elements whatsoever, as this stern, somewhat Puritan-like, figure abhorred all high church elements as being ambiguous at best and idolatrous at worst. His stern Calvinism was based on the clear light of reason, and he therefore used plain, clear window panes, in the fashion of the New England meeting hourses. He especially disliked stained-glass windows, believing that they obscured God in mystery, whereas the Deity should be explained rationally and orally. He specifically detailed that there should be no "popish cross" on public display in this room, and since he was decidedly opposed to pipe organs he thought that he had designed the room in such a way that no such instrument could ever be installed. However, when a pipe organ was installed in 1920, in the generation following his death, its parts were painstakingly taken up the slave gallery steps, piece-by-piece, and assembled in the balcony. Dr. Dabney never used the word "sanctuary, which he associated with Episcopalians, and he consistently referred to this main room as an "auditorium," a word which underscored his concept of worship as a listening experience. He designed the over-built pulpit as a virtual throne for the preacher, and the plain, hard wall immediately behind the pulpit has meant that the acoustics in the building are unusually bright.

The only decorative features within his auditorium design are: a classical frame outlining the sounding wall behind the pulpit - again "framing the pulpit and preacher with prominence - and the recurring series of panels that are carved into the balcony. The latter may possibly represent the tablets of the law, as given to Moses on Mt. Sinai, since Dr. Dabney was big on the law, and somewhat small on matters of grace. Some believe that the entry doors with their tripartite mullions could possibly be taken as symbols of the Trinity, but if so they were probably unintentional. The left front door, incidentally, still shows the marks of a futile attempt by one of General Sheridan's troopers to break into the church - possibly to steal the Communion silver - when a large part of the Federal infantry and cavalry came through Hampden-Sydney on April 6 and 7, 1865.

Godwin, Not Goodwin

File this one under 'Puritan historical triva': the classic historical treatise entitled Moses and Aaron. Civil and Ecclesiastical Rites used by the ancient Hebrews observed, and at large opened for the clearing of many obscure Texts throughout the whole Scripture (1625) was written not by Thomas Goodwin, the famous Westminster Divine (1600-1680), to whom is often erroneously ascribed its authorship, but rather by Thomas Godwin (also spelled Goodwin or Godwyn) (1587-1643). This authority, says Thomas Hartwell Horne (An Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 2, p. 156), is a "compendium of Hebrew antiquities [which is] now rather scarce [but] was formerly in great request as a text-book and passed through many editions." In fact, among the many editions, one published in 1694 was edited by Herman Witsius, who added two essays, one on the Jewish theocracy and one on the Rechabites; the most highly regarded edition seems to be that of Johann Heinrich Hottinger, published in 1710. The work has been cited as authority by many other Puritans, including George Gillespie, in Aaron's Rod Blossoming, and Edward Taylor, in Upon the Types of the Old Testament, and Alfred Edersheim, among other more modern scholars. Moses and Aaron has been reprinted in 2003 by Kessinger Publishing and in 2010 by BiblioBazaar.

Thomas Godwin himself was a learned scholar and writer, as well as a educator of young men. He served as the headmaster of Abingdon School from 1608 to 1625, and while there he founded a scholarship for poor boys, known as 'Bennett Boys'. He also wrote a study of Roman Antiquities which was often bound with Moses and Aaron. In the preface to Romanæ Historiæ Anthologia. An English Exposition of the Roman Antiquities, wherein many Roman and English Offices are parallelled, and diverse obscure Phrases explained (1614), he makes mention of the conditions under which he wrote while at the school: "If it fail to please, put it down to the whispered chatterings of the noisy boys amongst whom the work had its origin; but if approved ascribe it to the continuous questionings of the boys." He got into a dispute with William Twisse in his old age over another book by Godwin, Three Arguments to prove Election upon Foresight of Faith, and Samuel Clarke reports that Twisse "whipt this old Schoolmaster" (The lives of sundry eminent persons in this later age, Part 1, p. 16). His widow raised a monument to him after his death, which preceded the convening of the Westminster Assembly by a few months.

MHCC 36: Revised Matthew Henry Study Bible

The revised edition of the Matthew Henry Study Bible is expected to be available from Hendrickson in October 2010 (see the link for details). This is another way for students of the Word to benefit from the labors of Matthew Henry and participate in the Matthew Henry Commentary Challenge.

(HT: Benjamin Glaser)

In Praise of Marriage

Daniel Rogers, Matrimonial Honour: or, A Treatise of Marriage (1642), p. 7:

Marriage is the Preservative of chastity, the Seminary of the Common-wealth, seed-plot of the Church, pillar (under God) of the world, right-hand of providence, supporter of laws, states, orders, offices, gifts and services: the glory of peace, the sinewes of war, the maintenance of policy, the life of the dead, the solace of the living, the ambition of virginity, the foundation of Countries, Cities, Universities, succession of Families, Crownes and Kingdoms.

Sweet Counsel

The man whose efforts made it possible for Samuel Rutherford to be installed as pastor at Anwoth was Sir John Gordon, later 1st Viscount of Kenmure, an ardent Puritan Presbyterian. It is recorded that his role in this regard was "the most meritorious action of my life." He died young in 1634 at about the age of 35, and was attended by Rutherford on his deathbed. It is Rutherford to whom is attributed authorship of an anonymous tract published soon thereafter entitled The Last and Heavenly Speeches, and Glorious Departure, of John, Viscount Kenmure, and it is thought that Rutherford is the "Pastor" spoken of therein.

Among the last counsels given by Gordon on his deathbed, Rutherford records that he spoke thus to "a young man his neighbor":

...because you are but a young man beware of temptations and snares, and above all, be careful to keep your self in the use of means, resort to good companie, and howbeit you be nicknamed a Puritan and mocked, yet care not for that but rejoyce and be glad, that they who are scorned and scoffed by this godless and vain world, and nick-named Puritans, would admit you to their societie, for I must tell you when I am at this point as you see me, I get no comfort to my soul by no second means under Heaven, but from these who are nick named Puritans; They are the men that can give a word of comfort to a wearied soul in due season, and that I have found by experience since I did lie down here.

Too Strange to Self-Communion

R.L. Dabney, "Meditation as a Means of Grace," in Discussions, Vol. 1, pp. 652-653:

...the Christian life must have its seasons of quietude and calm meditation. Too much of even a religious bustle is unwholesome for the soul. Time must be allowed in sacred seasons for divine truth to steep the heart with its influence. Our hurry and externality has impoverished our graces. Solitude is essential to the health of the soul. Is not our modern life far too hurried? Surely we are in too much haste to be rich; we are too strange to self-communion; our very education is too stimulating and mercenary; and while we degrade the heavenly minister, science, to material uses, we teach our young men to forget that the true, the beautiful, and the good are in themselves the happy heritage of the soul. The clangor of our industry and the dust and glare of our skill have repelled the heavenly Dove and exhaled the dews of his grace out of our life. How woeful is the waste of our holiness and happiness by this mistake! Let us, then, learn to commune with our own hearts and be still.

Spanish Psalter Now Available

As I mentioned in June 2009, the first-ever complete Spanish Psalter has been in the works for some time, and to the praise of God, it is now finally available. It is published by Publicaciones Faro de Gracia (Beacon of Grace Publications), and can be ordered here.

Gloria a Dios!

(HT: Edgar Ibarra)

MHCC 35: God's Garden

Matthew Henry on Deut. 32.7:

The reason given for the particular care God took for this people, so long before they were either born or thought of (as I may say), in our world, does yet more magnify the kindness, and make it obliging beyond expression (v. 9): For the Lord's portion is his people. All the world is his. He is owner and possessor of heaven and earth, but his church is his in a peculiar manner. It is his demesne, his vineyard, his garden enclosed. He has a particular delight in it: it is the beloved of his soul, in it he walks, he dwells, it is his rest for ever. He has a particular concern for it, keeps it as the apple of his eye. He has particular expectations from it, as a man has from his portion, has a much greater rent of honour, glory, and worship, from that distinguished remnant, than from all the world besides. That God should be his people's portion is easy to be accounted for, for he is their joy and felicity; but how they should be his portion, who neither needs them nor can be benefited by them, must be resolved into the wondrous condescensions of free grace. Even so, Father, because it seemed good in thy eyes so to call and to account them.

Zion God's Habitation

Thomas Shepard, Journal (January 2, 1642), in Michael McGiffert, God's Plot: Puritan Spirituality in Thomas Shepard's Cambridge, p. 108:

In singing Psalm 132:12, 13, 14, 15 in the public, I was sweetly refreshed by seeing the reason why the Lord's people, if they keep his covenant, he would not leave them [when they are] in church fellowship, because the Lord desired to be with his people; he is loath to depart. In musing on which when I came home I saw a strong motive to have God our God (1) because he makes choice of his people in Sion above all places and persons in the world; (2) because when this is done he desires never to be parted by any sin again; (3) because when this is done he takes full content and is at rest when he enjoys his people; (4) because he promiseth upon this there he will dwell, not because of their good but because he delights in them.

Our Duty to Pray for One Another

William Attersoll, A Commentary Upon the Fourth Book of Moses, Called Numbers, p. 806 (re: Num. 21.7):

[And Moses prayed for the people.]...The Doctrine from this place is this; It is our duty to pray for one another. The Lord requireth of us, not only to commit to God, and commend in our prayers the Saints, but to be mindful of our enemies, and them that hate us, and to desire their good and conversion. This affection we see in Abraham, who prayed earnestly and oftentimes for the Sodomites, that God would spare them, & not destroy the righteous with the wicked, but rather to spare the wicked for the righteous sake. This was also in Samuel, when the people besought him to pray for them that they died not, he said, God forbid, that I should sin against the Lord, and case praying for you, &c. 2 Sam. 12, 23. How often did Moses & Aaron pray for Pharoah, and spread out their hands unto the Lord, That the plagues might cease, and that he might know that the earth is the Lords? Exod. 9, 29. This duty Christ our Saviour setteth down as a rule to guide us, both by word of mouth, and by example of life. For he taught his Disciples this Doctrine, Mat. 5.44. Love your enemies: bless them that curse you: do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that hurt you, and persecute you, &c. Now this point as Christ preacheth, so he practiceth and prayeth for his enemies, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Luk. 23.24. Thus did the faithful witness of God, Stephen, when he was stoned, he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. Acts 7, 60.

450th Anniversary of the Scottish Reformation

O Lord, give me Scotland, or I die! -- John Knox

On August 17, 1560, the Scottish Parliament ratified a confession of faith that had only been prepared the week before but which was to change the course of Scottish history permanently. Authored by the Six Johns (John Knox, John Winram, John Spottiswoode, John Willock, John Douglas, and John Row), its 25 articles were read through twice, including its preface which calls on men to correct any false teaching contained therein by the word of God:

if any man will note in this our confession any article or sentence repugning to God's holy word, that it would please him of his gentleness, and for Christian charity's sake, to admonish us of the same in writing; and we, of our honour and fidelity, do promise unto him satisfaction from the mouth of God (that is, from his holy scriptures), or else reformation of that which he shall prove to be amiss.

John Knox gave an account of the matter (History of the Reformation in Scotland, Vol. 1, pp. 338f):

Our Confession was publicly read, first in audience of the Lords of Articles, and after in audience of the whole Parliament; where were present, not only such as professed Christ Jesus, but also a great number of the adversaries of our religion, such as the fore-named Bishops, and some others of the Temporal Estate, who were commanded in God's name to object, if they could, any thing against that doctrine. Some of our Ministers were present, standing upon their feet, ready to have answered, in case any would have defended the Papistry, and impugned our affirmatives: but while that no objection was made, there was a day appointed to voting in that and other heads. Our Confession was read, every article by itself, over again, as they were written in order, and the votes of every man were required accordingly. Of the Temporal Estate, only voted in the contrary the Earl of Atholl, the Lords Somerville and Borthwick; and yet for their dissenting they produced no better reason, but, "We will believe as our fathers believed." The Bishops (papistical, we man) spake nothing. The rest of the whole three Estates by their public votes affirmed the doctrine; and many, the rather, because that the Bishops would nor durst say nothing in the contrary.

Three dissented, but the Scots Confession of 1560 was adopted as an expression of the religion of the realm, marking the most significant victory of the Reformation to-date. A week later, on August 24, 1560, Parliament abolished both the mass and the jurisdiction of the Pope in Scotland. Mary, Queen of Scots, did not give royal consent to the Scots Confession, but in 1567 it received full legal recognition when it was reenacted by Parliament and confirmed by King James VI of Scotland (later King James I of England).

Thus, 450 years ago, the Reformed religion was professed by the Scottish nation. It is this anniversary which is worth noting today. John J. Murray has authored a book published by the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) called The Reformation 1560 - The Greatest Year in Scotland's History (2010), which is a helpful introduction to both the context and relevance of this history for today. He writes (pp. 5-6):

The year 2010 marks the 450th anniversary of the Scottish Reformation....

The situation prevailing in the Church and in the nation in 2010 is such as makes one wonder if the martyrs died in vain, if the labours of the Reformers were all for nothing. We are in a new age of darkness with the Gospel buried out of sight, not only by an unchanged Roman system, but by a Protestantism largely devoid of the authority of Scripture, the saving truths of the Gospel, and holiness of life. With the Church in such a weakened state, atheism, scepticism and secularism flourish. Scriptural illiteracy abounds. The moral structure has collapsed. Our culture is declining like some of the ancient civilisations. The liberties won for us at the Reformation are being eroded by government legislation.

As will be made clear in the following pages, the Reformation was first and foremost a mighty work of the Holy Spirit. Spiritual renewal lay at the heart of the transformation which took place. God had mercy on Scotland and delivered her from a dark night. As we face a similar situation today we need to humble ourselves before God and repent of our sins and the sins of the Church and nation. We need to cry to him to once again have mercy on our land. May the light which shone at the Reformation shine again and scatter the darkness of Romanism, unfaithful Protestantism and secularism from our land. ‘O send out thy light and thy truth’ (Psa 43:3).

Murray, in his concluding remarks, speaks of the need for spiritual renewal in Scotland and elsewhere today (pp. 57-58). Scotland's need is not unique to the land of John Knox.

We need men like Luther and Calvin and Knox who will speak that Word with boldness. These men took their stand against error and were prepared to put their lives at risk to do so. They did not shun controversy. Over a century ago C.H. Spurgeon said: 'We want John Knox back again. Do not talk to me of mild and gentle men, of soft manners and squeamish words; we want the fiery Knox, and even though his vehemence should "ding our pulpits into blads" it were well if he did but rouse our hearts to action.'

We need the Holy Spirit. The Reformation came about because, as John Knox said, 'God gave his Holy Spirit to simple men in great abundance.' God worked mightily in him and through him. John Knox caught the fire and it burned brightly for God and His cause. The cry that needs to go our from our heart today is 'Where is the God of John Knox?'

The Scots Confession itself concludes thus with a similar prayer:

Arise, O Lord, and let thy enemies be confounded: Let them flee from thy presence that hate thy godly name: Give thy servants strength to speak thy word in boldness; and let all nations cleave to thy true knowledge.

So be it.

Matthew Poole on Revelation is Now Complete!

The third and final volume of the first-ever English translation of Matthew Poole's Synopsis Criticorum (Synopsis of Interpreters) on the Book of Revelation is now available. Revelation 15-22 can be purchased as a single volume, but if you order the full set of three volumes on Revelation this month (through August 31, 2010), you will receive a 20% discount on the first two volumes. Also, because of Lulu.com's summer special savings, if you order by August 23, 2010, you will receive free shipping on orders over $19.99.

Remember that these volumes include both his English commentary as well as the Synopsis (a collection of interpretative comments, which is a veritable history of exegesis), and so comprise much more than most commentaries on Revelation. Poole has mined the works of Puritan and Reformed, Arminian, Roman Catholic, Jewish and other scholars to bring extraordinary light to bear on this most challenging of prophetic books. He believed that John's Apocalypse was intended to be, not a concealment, but indeed a revelation. This exegetical treasury has been locked away from English readers since the Puritan era, but is now available to both scholars and laymen in the 21st century English-speaking world.

Project update: The Matthew Poole Project is working to both translate and publish the remainder of the Synopsis (Genesis [3 vol.] and Exodus [2 vol.] are complete and available, and Leviticus is the next book forthcoming), as well as Matthew Poole's other works (his first work, a defense of the Deity of the Holy Spirit, is forthcoming).

Take advantage of this opportunity to employ the exegetical labors of Matthew Poole on the Book of Revelation by ordering the full three-volume set today. The 20% discount is available through the end of this month, and Lulu's free shipping special expires August 23, 2010. Matthew Poole on Revelation is a goldmine of Scriptural wisdom and this is an opportunity not to be missed!

The Forgotten 97 Theses

W. Robert Godfrey, Insights Into Luther, Calvin, and the Confessions: Reformation Sketches, pp. 35-38:

The year 1992 was the 475th anniversary of Luther's nailing of the 95 Theses on the church door in Wittenberg. The posting of those theses on October 31, 1517, is usually looked to as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. Luther's attack on aspects of the sale of indulgences captured the attention of many people -- common and noble -- who were tired of the greed and corruption in the church of their day. Through the 95 Theses Luther became a public figure and the leader of the Reformation.

The 95 Theses, however, were not the only theses that Luther wrote in 1517. In September of that year Luther wrote 97 theses that are largely forgotten but are known to historians as the Disputations Against Scholastic Theology. These 97 theses are much more interesting and important from a theological point of view than the 95 Theses.

In his 97 theses Luther shows how critical he had become of central aspects of medieval theology and how he had become convinced that the church needed more of Augustine's theology and less of Aristotle's.

Luther's first thesis must have stunned many who heard it: "To say that Augustine exaggerates in speaking against heretics is to say that Augustine tells lies almost everywhere." Augustine's teaching on sin, grace, and predestination was so clear and uncompromising and Augustine's authority as a theologian was so great that the only way that medieval theologians could disagree with him was to declare that he had exaggerated some of his teachings in confronting heretics. This softening of Augustine had been widely accepted in the Middle Ages. For Luther to attack this approach was remarkable.

This attack reflected the extent to which Luther's theology had become Augustinian. As we read on in the theses, we see Luther's specific concerns to maintain the pure Augustinian heritage. His first concern was with the nature of the will in fallen people. Luther stresses that the human will is in bondage to a corrupt nature and can do only evil. "4. It is therefore true that man, being a bad tree, can only will and do evil." The desperate condition of man is summarized: "17. Man is by nature unable to want God to be God. Indeed, he himself wants to be God."

Luther stresses that only grace can rescue humanity from its fallen condition. Man can do nothing to prepare himself for grace. Only God's electing love can prepare man for grace. "29. The best and infallible preparation for grace and the sole disposition toward grace is the eternal election and predestination of God." Luther had recovered from Augustine not only the biblical picture of man's lost-ness but also the biblical truth of predestination as the source of redemption. Man cannot merit grace. All goodness comes from God: "40. We do not become righteous by righteous deeds, but, having been made righteous, we do righteous deeds."

Luther sees Aristotle, the ancient Greek philosopher, as the prime destructive influence that undermined Augustinian theology in the Middle Ages. "50. Briefly, the whole Aristotle is to theology as darkness is to light." Luther attacks the method of Aristotle as relying too much on reason....But even more he attacks the impact of Aristotle on the content of theology. From Aristotle flowed ideas about the goodness of man, the ability of his will to choose the good, about freedom and merit.

Goodness and freedom were key theological concepts in the medieval church. The Reformation began when Christians like Martin Luther came to see the goodness and freedom of man as teaching opposed to biblical religion.

Conversion Not the Whole of Religion

Charles Hodge, The Way of Life, p. 204:

It is natural for those who have experienced the agitations which frequently attend upon conversion, and have felt the peace which flows from a hope of acceptance with God, to imagine that the conflict is over, the victory won, and the work of religion accomplished. This imagination is soon dissipated. Birth is not the whole of life; neither is conversion the whole of religion. A young mother may, in the fulness of her joy, forget for a moment the great duties of her vocation that lie before her; but when she looks upon her infant, so wonderful in its organization, and instinct with an immortal spirit, she feels that it is entirely dependent. An hour's neglect might prove its ruin. Thus the young Christian, although at first disposed to think that his work is finished, soon finds that the feeble principle of spiritual life needs to be watched and nourished with ceaseless care. If abandoned at its birth, it must perish as certainly and as speedily as an exposed infant.

Sublimity

J.W. Alexander, The Life of Archibald Alexander, D.D.: First Professor in the Theological Seminary at Princeton, New Jersey, pp. 29-31:

But in this same valley, and not very remote from the objects of which I have spoken, there is one which, I think, produces the feeling which is denominated the sublime, more definitely and sensibly than any that I have ever seen. I refer to the Natural Bridge, from which the county takes its name. It is not my object to describe this extraordinary lusus naturae, as it may be called. In fact, no representation which can be given by the pen or pencil can convey any adequate idea of the object, or one that will have the least tendency to produce the emotion excited by a view of the object itself. There are some things, then, which the traveller, however eloquent, cannot communicate to his readers. All I intend is, to mention the effect produced by a sight of the Natural Bridge on my own mind. When a boy of fourteen or fifteen, I first visited this curiosity. Having stood on the top, and looked down into the deep chasm above and below the bridge, without any new or very strong emotions, as the scene bore a resemblance to many which are common to that country, I descended by the usual circuitous path to the bottom, and came upon the stream or brook some distance below the bridge. The first view which I obtained of the beautiful and elevated blue limestone arch, springing up to the clouds, produced an emotion entirely new; the feeling was as though something within sprung up to a great height by a kind of sudden impulse. That was the animal sensation which accompanied the genuine emotion of the sublime. Many years afterwards, I again visited the bridge. I entertained the belief, that I had preserved in my mind, all along, the idea of the object; and that now I should see it without emotion. But the fact was not so. The view, at this time, produced a revival of the original emotion, with the conscious feeling that the idea of the object had faded away, adn become both obscure and diminutive, but was now restored, in an instant, to its original vividness, and magnitude. The emotion produced by an object of true sublimity, as it is very vivid, so it is very short in its continuance. It seems, then, that novelty must be added to other qualities in the object, to produce this emotion distinctly. A person living near the bridge, who should see it every day, might be pleased with the object, but would experience, after a while, nothing of the vivid emotion of the sublime. Thus, I think, it must be accounted for, that the starry heavens, or the sun shining in his strength, are viewed with little emotion of this kind, although much the sublimest objects in our view; we have been accustomed to view them daily, from our infancy. But a bright-coloured rainbow, spanning a large arch in the heavens, strikes all classes of persons with a mingled emotion of the sublime and beautiful; to which a sufficient degree of novelty is added, to render the impression vivid, as often as it occurs. I have reflected on the reason why the Natural Bridge produces the emotion of the sublime, so well defined and so vivid; but I have arrived at nothing satisfactory. It must be resolved into an ultimate law of our nature, that a novel object of that elevation and form will produce such an effect. Any attempt at analyzing objects of beauty and sublimity only tends to produce confusion in our ideas. To artists, such analysis may be useful; not to increase the emotion, but to enable them to imitate more effectually the objects of nature by which it is produced. Although I have conversed with many thousands who had seen the Natural Bridge; and although the liveliness of the emotion is very different in different persons; yet I never saw one, of any class, who did not view the object with considerable emotion. And none have ever expressed disappointment from having had their expectations raised too high, by the description previously received. Indeed, no previous description communicates any just conception of the object as it appears; and the attempts to represent it by the pencil, as far as I have seen them, are pitiful. Painters would show their wisdom by omitting to represent some of the objects of nature, such as a volcano in actual ebullition, the sea in a storm, the conflagration of a great city, or the scene of a battle-field. The imitation must be so faint and feeble, that the attempt, however skilfully executed, is apt to produce disgust, instead of admiration.

Letter from Charles Hodge to his wife Sarah, dated May 28, 1828, in A.A. Hodge, The Life of Charles Hodge D.D. LL.D. Professor in the Theological Seminary Princeton N.J., p. 197:

My Beloved Sarah: -- I have seen the Alps! If now I never see any thing great or beautiful in nature, I am content. I felt that as soon as I saw you, I could fall at your feet and beg you to forgive my beholding such a spectacle without you, my love. You were dearer to me in that moment than ever. I left Basel about one o'clock with a young English gentleman for Lucerne. We rode about fifteen miles and arrived at the foot of a mountain. As the road was steep and difficult, we commenced walking up the mountain in company with two Swiss gentlemen. We ascended leisurely for about two hours before we reached the top. I was walking slowly with my hands behind me, and my eyes on the ground, expecting nothing, when one of the Swiss gentlemen said with infinite indifference -- "Voila les Alpes." I raised my eyes -- and around me in a grand amphitheatre, high up against the heavens, were the Alps! It was some moments before the false and indefinite conceptions of my life were overcome by the glorious reality. The declining sun shed on the immense mass of mingled snow and forests the brightness of the evening clouds. This was the first moment of my life in which I felt overwhelmed. Every thing I had ever previously seen seemed absolutely nothing. The natural bridge in Virginia had surprised me -- the Rhine had delighted me -- but the first sudden view of the Alps was overwhelming. This was a moment that can never return; the Alps can never be seen again by surprise, and in ignorance of their real appearance.

Peden's Notes on the Covenant of Redemption

Alexander Peden:

I recommend these views, thoughts and notes upon the Covenant of Redemption, as the extract of God's love, that in crosses and out of crosses ye may rejoice.

Be it known to all men, that, in the presence of the Ancient of Days, it was finally contracted, and unanimously agreed, betwixt these honourable and royal persons in the God-head, to wit, the great and infinite Lord of Heaven and earth, on the one side; and Jesus Christ, God-man, his eternal and undoubted heir, on the other side, in manner, form and effect, as follows; That forasmuch as the Lord Jesus Christ is content and obliges himself to become surety, and to fulfil the whole law; and that he shall suffer and become an offering for sin, and take the guiding [management] of all the children of God on him, and make them perfect in every good word and work; and that of his fulness they shall all receive grace for grace; and also present them, man, wife and bairns, on Heaven's floor, and lose none of them; and that he shall raise them up at the last day, and come in on Heaven's floor with all the bairns at his back: therefore, the noble Lord of Heaven and earth, on the other side, binds and obliges himself to Christ, to send all the Elect into the world, and to deliver them all fairly to Christ; and also to give him a body, flesh of their flesh and bone of their bone; and to carry Christ through in all his undertaking in that work, and to hold him by the hand: and also, let the Holy Ghost, who is our equal, go forth into the world, that he may be sharer in this great work, and also of the glory of this noble contrivance; and let him enlighten the minds of all those whom we have chosen out of the world, in the knowledge of our name; and to convince them of their lost state; and perswade and enable them to embrace and accept of his free love offer; and to support and comfort them in all their trials and tribulations, especially these for our name's sake; and to sanctifie them, soul and body, and make them fit for serving us, and dwelling with us, and singing forth the praises of the riches of our free grace in this noble contrivance, for ever and ever. Likewise, the same noble Lord of Heaven and earth doth fully covenant grace and glory, and all good things, to as many as shall be perswaded and enabled to accept and embrace you, as their Lord, King and God: and moreover, he allows the said Jesus Christ to make proclamations by his servants, to the world in his name, that all that will come and engage under his colours, he shall give them noble pay in hand for the present, and a rich inheritance for ever; with certification, that all those who will not accept of this offer, for the same cause, shall be guilty and eternally condemned from our presence, and tormented with these devils, whom we cast out from us, for their pride and rebellion, for the glory of our justice, through eternity.

In testimony whereof, he subscribes thir [these] presents, and is content the same be registrate in the Books of Holy Scripture, to be kept on record to future generations. Dated at the throne of Heaven, in the ancient records of eternity.

Equally Brave

Henry Alexander White, Stonewall Jackson, p. 95:

"General," said [Gen. John D.] Imboden, "how is that you can keep so cool, and appear so utterly insensible to danger in such a storm of shell and bullets as rained about you when your hand was hit?"

"Captain," replied Jackson in a grave and reverential manner, "my religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed. God has fixed the time for my death. I do not concern myself about that, but to be always ready, no matter when it may overtake me."

After a pause, and looking Imboden full in the face, he added, "That is the way all men should live and then all would be equally brave."

MHCC 34: Sing While You Work

Matthew Henry on Deut. 12.7, 12:

...work for God should be done with holy joy and cheerfulness.... See what a good Master we serve, who has made it our duty to sing at our work.

On Deut. 28.47-48:

God is a Master that will be served with gladness, and delights to hear us sing at our work.

From the preface to his commentary on the Psalms:

See what a good master we serve, and what pleasantness there is in wisdom's ways, when we are not only commanded to sing at our work, and have cause enough given us to do so, but have words also put in our mouths and songs prepared to our hands.

Matthew Henry, The Pleasure of Being Religious, in The Complete Works of Matthew Henry, Vol. 1, pp. 44, 49:

We may sing at our work, if our minds be by the Spirit of God brought to it, our hands strengthened for it, and our infirmities helped, Rom. viii. 26. and particularly our infirmities in prayer, that by it we may fetch in strength for every service, -- and strength for the day....We should not only be reconciled to our duty, as we ought to be to our greatest afflictions, and make the best of it, but we should rejoice in our duty, and sing at our work.

Rain and Shine

William Gouge, The Saints' Sacrifice: or, A Commentary on Psalm CXVI (re: Ps. 116.13), pp. 89-90:

Never was any saint brought into so desperate a distress but that through the mist of his misery sweet beams of God's mercy have shined upon him. Nor ever was there any set in so bright and clear a sunshine of God's favour but that some clouds have let fall showers of sorrows; if not in outward troubles, yet in regard of inward corruptions, yea, and in the thought or fear of some eclipse of that sunshine. Thus in greatest occasion of hearty thanksgiving there is just occasion of humble petition. And where there is most cause of humiliation, there is also much cause of exultation.

Presbyterianism Begins Locally

John Murray, "The Form of Government," in Collected Writings of John Murray, Vol. 2, pp. 348-349:

4. Local Government. We have found that the kind of government set forth in the New Testament is that of a plurality of elders or bishops exercising oversight on a parity with one another. It is all-important to take account of the fact that it is on the local level that this must, first of all, be applied. It is in the local assembly, or congregation of God's people, that the ordinances of Christ's appointment for his church are regularly administered. The importance of the local congregation is therefore paramount and it is in the local congregation that the presbyterian principle must first be exemplified. If it is not preserved and practised at this point, it is not in operation at all. If and when it so happens that a particular congregation is not able, for reasons of geographical isolation, or for reasons of loyalty to the whole counsel of God, to establish a broader fellowship with other congregations of like faith and practice, that congregation must not consider itself pre-empted from discharging all the rights and prerogatives, as well as duties, of presbytery. In the New Testament the presbuterion is simply the elders gathered together for the discharge of those functions of government devolving upon them when acting in that capacity. The presbyterian principle begins at the level of the particular flock or congregation, and if, for good reasons, it does not extend further than one congregation, we are not to deem it unpresbyterian. To be concrete, to that local presbytery belong all the functions that Christ has accorded to presbytery.

The Joy of Church Fellowship Rightly Attended

Edward Taylor, The Joy of Church Fellowship Rightly Attended:

In Heaven soaring up, I dropt an Eare
On Earth: and oh! sweet Melody!
And listening, found it was the Saints who were
Encoacht for Heaven that sang for Joy.
For in Christs Coach they sweetly sing,
As they to Glory ride therein.

Oh! joyous hearts! Enfir'de with holy Flame!
Is speech thus tasseled with praise?
Will not your inward fire of Joy contain,
That it in open flames doth blaze?
For in Christs Coach Saints sweetly sing,
As they to Glory ride therein.

And if a string do slip by Chance,
They soon Do screw it up again: whereby
They set it in a more melodious Tune
And a Diviner Harmony. For in Christs
Coach they sweetly sing,
As they to Glory ride therein.

In all their Acts, publick and private, nay,
And secret too, they praise impart.
But in their Acts Divine, and Worship, they
With Hymns do offer up their Heart.
Thus in Christs Coach they sweetly sing,
As they to Glory ride therein.

Some few not in; and some whose Time and Place
Block up this Coaches way, do goe
As Travellers afoot: and so do trace
The Road that gives them right thereto;
While in this Coach these sweetly sing,
As they to Glory ride therein.

Book Review: Pierre Viret

At long last, as his 500th birthday approaches, thanks to Jean-Marc Berthoud, Zurich Publishing and the Pierre Viret Association, one of the great French Reformers, Pierre Viret (1511-1571), has been brought out of the shadow of John Calvin, whose 500th birthday we observed last year, and into worthy remembrance (Jean Marc-Berthoud, Pierre Viret: A Forgotten Giant of the Reformation - The Apologetics, Ethics, and Economics of the Bible, Tallahassee, Florida: Zurich Publishing, 2010). I have previously noted the ongoing efforts to translate select Viret works; now Mr. Berthoud's anticipated biographical sketch is available from Zurich Publishing.

With an excellent and succinct introduction by Thomas Ertl, President of the Pierre Viret Association, Mr. Berthoud has sketched for us a brief biography of this neglected Reformer, known as the "Angel of the Reformation," who was perhaps John Calvin's best friend, who as a preacher outrivaled his friend, and the man who in Lausanne in 1537 founded the first Reformed Academy, whose professors later served in Calvin and Beza's Genevan Academy. In this biography, particular attention has been paid to Viret's work as an ecclesiastical reformer, ethicist, apologist, economist, and philosopher, with extracts from his writings on each subject.

A prolific writer, Viret published over 40 works in his lifetime, "some up to a thousand pages in length," few of which have been republished in modern times. The Pierre Viret Association is working to rectify this oversight. As I have noted last year, select translation works are forthcoming. Mr. Berthoud has provided us with a list of Viret's published works in French, and a complete bibliography, including Viret's Latin works, is also forthcoming from Dominique-Antonio Troilo next year, Lord willing. Also expected next year is an English translation of Viret's letters by Michael Bruening.

Viret was greatly concerned to bring truth and application of the evangelical gospel to the people around him. This was the impetus for his academy, his prolific writings addressed most often to laymen, and his apologetic themes.

According to Robert Linder, Viret was probably present to observe first-hand the famous meeting between William Farel and John Calvin at which Farel issued his thunderous call to Calvin to pastor in Geneva (Linder, The Political Ideas of Pierre Viret, pp. 28-29). From the days when Viret, William Farel and John Calvin jointly defended in public debate Farel's 1536 Lausanne Articles, the three men were remarkably united in their friendship and ministry, each with different gifts. Theodore Beza noted that Calvin taught with authority, Farel thundered mightily, and Viret preached eloquently and winsomely (Berthoud, p. 20). Together, they were known as Geneva's Triple Light, or the Genevan Triumvirate. Viret's popularity as a preacher, in fact, exceeded that of Calvin.

Viret believed "that 'good laws' in a truly in Christian state always would be based on on the Ten Commandments of God found in the Holy Scriptures" (Linder, p. 58). Mr. Berthoud, as a theonomist, does not recognize the traditional Reformed threefold distinction of moral, judicial and ceremonial law (Berthoud, p. 35). He views Viret as "not explicitly theonomic (the term did not then exist), [yet] far more consistently and thoroughly Biblical than...his Genevan colleague [Calvin]" (Berthoud, p. 35). In this writer's view, Linder's statement that "Viret, unlike Calvin, was ready to extend openly the authority of the Bible over the state" (Linder, p. 63) is inexplicable in light of Calvin's theocratic statements in his Institutes and elsewhere, and too much is made of this erroneous dichotomy by Mr. Berthoud, in this writer's opinion, when he emphasizes the descent into the particulars Mosaic judicial laws by Viret over Calvin. The theocratic views of Viret in his application of God's law to society and the state as found in his massive Instruction Chrétienne, considered by Pierre Courthial to be "one of the magisterial works of the Reformation" (Courthial, Christian Instruction, Vol. 1, Introduction, p. 19), are apparent and admirable. It is to be regretted that Mr. Berthoud's theonomic views take such precedence in his chapter on Viret's ethics, but the extracts from Viret and Linder are most helpful in bringing forward Viret's ethical views.

Mr. Berthoud also sees Viret as a presuppositional apologist. Berthoud is on stronger ground here, and his discussion of Viret's understanding of common grace as it bears upon discussion of gospel truth with unbelievers, is most interesting. Berthoud is not favorable to the Ramist philosophy adopted by the Puritans (which he views as "binary," Berthoud, p. 82), or the evidentialist apologetic of C.S. Lewis and Alister McGrath, but shows how Viret in his Christian Metamorphosis brings both heathen philosophers and, above all, the holy Scriptures to bear in his witness to the unbeliever, with Viret calling Job the 'greatest of all philosophers' (Berthoud, p. 57). Berthoud rightly distinguishes between the fallacy of "an imaginary common intellectual ground shared in dialogue with the adversaries of the Christian faith" and Biblical wisdom of "mak[ing] use of all aspects of man's intellectual and cultural activities to reach, in a very concrete and practical fashion, the interests of his contemporaries" (Berthoud, p. 57).

Berthoud's discussion of Viret's concern with rightly understanding Biblical magistracy versus tyranny, particularly in the economic sphere, is most illuminating. Viret has much to say about taxes, just and unjust, and Mr. Berthoud highlights this point most appropriately. The gabelle tax was employed in his day, as Berthoud notes, much like a value added tax in our modern society, as a catch-all means of increasing statist power. If the power to tax is the power to destroy, then it is a power that must be reined in by Biblical limitations of civil authority, which Viret discusses at length.

This modern introduction to the life and thought of Viret is very timely as Viret's 500th birthday celebration draws near. As "the most successful and sought-after Protestant preacher in sixteenth-century France" (Linder, "Forgotten Reformer," Christian History No. 71 (July 2001)). He was a very important Reformer, so important that, in my view, the four Reformers presently at the center of the Reformation Wall should have been expanded to five to include him, rather than pushing him to the side. Viret contributed greatly to light of the Reformation which dispelled darkness (Post tenebras lux) and therefore it is most fitting that he should now step out of the shadows. Many thanks to Mr. Berthoud, Tom Ertl and others for bringing Pierre Viret into the light once again.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Thanks Be To God For Mountains!

As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about his people from henceforth even for ever. (Ps. 125.2)

Stonewall Jackson, Letter to his sister, Lexington, Virginia, September 7, 1852:

Of all places which have come under my observation in the United States, this little village is the most beautiful.

Robert Burns, My Heart's in the Highlands:

My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here;
My heart's in the Highlands a-chasing the deer;
A-chasing the wild-deer, and following the roe,
My heart's in the Highlands wherever I go.

William Howitt, The Book of Seasons; or, The Calendar of Nature, pp. 262-268:

Mountains! how one's heart leaps up at the very word! There is a charm connected with mountains so powerful, that the merest mention of them, the merest sketch of their magnificent features, kindles the imagination, and carries the spirit at once into the bosom of their enchanted regions. How the mind is filled with their vast solitude! how the inward eye is fixed on their silent, their sublime, their everlasting peaks! How our heart bounds to the music of their solitary cries, to the tinkle of their gushing rills, to the sound of their cataracts! How inspiring are the odours that breathe from the upland turf, from the rock-hung flower, from the hoary and solemn pine! how beautiful are those lights and shadows thrown abroad, and that fine transparent haze which is diffused over the valleys and lower slopes, as over a vast, inimitable picture!
...
We delight to think of the people of mountainous regions; we please our imaginations with their picturesque and quiet abodes; with their peaceful secluded lives, striking and unvarying costumes, and primitive manners. We involuntarily gives to the mountaineer heroic and elevated qualities. He lives amongst the noble objects, and must imbibe some of their nobility; he lives amongst the elements of poetry, and must be poetical; he lives where his fellow-beings are far, far separated from their kind, and surrounded by the sternness and the perils of savage nature; his social affections must therefore be proportionably concentrated, his home-ties lively and strong; but, more than all, he lives within the barriers, the strongholds, the very last refuge which Nature herself has reared to preserve alive liberty in the earth, to preserve to man his highest hopes, his noblest emotions, his dearest treasures, his faith, his freedom, his hearth and his home. How glorious do those mountain-ridges appear when we look upon them as the unconquerable abodes of free hearts; as the stern, heaven-built walls from which the few, the feeble, the persecuted, the despised, the helpless child, the delicate woman, have from age to age, in their last perils, in all their weaknesses and emergencies, when power and cruelty were ready to swallow them up, looked down and beheld the million waves of despotism break at their feet: -- have seen the rage of murderous armies, and tyrants, the blasting spirit of ambition, fanaticism, and crushing domination recoil from the bases in despair! -- "Thanks be to God for mountains!" is often the exclamation of my heart as I trace the History of the World. From age to age, they have been the last friends of man. In a thousand extremities they have saved him. What great hearts have throbbed in their defiles from the days of Leonidas to those of Andreas Hofer! What lofty souls, what tender hearts, what poor and persecuted creatures have they sheltered in their stony bosoms from the weapons and tortures of their fellow-men!

Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold!

was the burning exclamation of Milton's agonized and indignant spirit, as he beheld those sacred bulwarks of freedom for once violated by the disturbing demons of the earth; and the sound of his fiery and lamenting appeal to Heaven will be echoed in every generous soul to the end of time.

Thanks be to God for mountains! The variety which they impart to the glorious bosom of our planet were no small advantage; the beauty which they spread out to our vision in their woods and waters, their crags and slopes, their clouds and atmospheric hues, were a splendid gift; the sublimity which they pour into our deepest souls from the majestic aspects; the poetry which breathes from their streams, and dells, and airy heights, from the sweet abodes, the garbs and manners of their inhabitants, the songs and legends which have awoke in them, were a proud heritage to imaginative minds; but what are all these when the thought comes, that without mountains the spirit of man must have bowed to the brutal and the base, and probably have sunk to the monotonous level of the unvaried plain?

When I turn my eyes upon the map of the world, and behold how wonderfully the countries where our faith was nurtured, where our liberties were generated, where our philosophy and literature, the fountains of our intellectual grace and beauty, sprang up, were as distinctly walled out by God's hand with mountain ramparts from the irruptions and interruptions of barbarism, as if at the especial prayer of the early father's of man's destinies, I am lost in an exulting admiration. Look at the bold barriers of Palestine! see how the infant liberties of Greece were sheltered from the vast tribes of the uncivilized North by the heights of Haemus and Rhodope! behold how the Alps describe their magnificent crescent, inclining their opposite extreminities to the Adriactic and Tyrrhene Seas, locking up Italy from the Gallic and Teutonic hordes till the power and spirit of Rome had reached their maturity, and she had opened the wide forest of Europe to the light, spread far her laws and language, and planted the seeds of many mighty nations!

Thanks to God for mountains! Their colossal firmness seems almost to break the current of time itself; the geologist in them searches for traces of the earlier world, and it is there too that man, resisting the revolutions of lower regions, retains through innumerable years his habits and his rights. While a multitude of changes has remoulded the people of Europe, -- while languages, and laws, and dynasties, and creeds, have passed over it like shadows over the landscape, -- the children of the Celt and the Goth, who fled to the mountains a thousand years ago, are found there now, and show us in face and figure, in language and garb, what their fathers were; show us a fine contrast with the modern tribes dwelling below and around them; and show us, moreover, how adverse is the spirit of the mountain to mutability, and that there the fiery heart of Freedom is found for ever.

J.G. Machen, Mountains and Why We Love Them:

Can the love of the mountains be conveyed to those who have it not? I am not sure. Perhaps if a man is not born with that love it is almost as hopeless to try to bring it to him as it would be to explain what color is to a blind man or to try to make President Roosevelt understand the Constitution of the United States. But on the whole I do believe that the love of the mountains can at least be cultivated, and if I can do anything whatever toward getting you to cultivate it, the purpose of this little paper will be amply attained.

One thing is clear—if you are to learn to love the mountains you must go up them by your own power. There is more thrill in the smallest hill in Fairmount Park if you walk up it than there is in the grandest mountain on earth if you go up it in an automobile. There is one curious thing about means of locomotion—the slower and simpler and the closer to nature they are, the more real thrill they give. I have got far more enjoyment out of my two feet than I did out of my bicycle; and I got more enjoyment out of my bicycle than I ever have got out of my motor car; and as for airplanes—well, all I can say is that I wouldn't lower myself by going up in one of the stupid, noisy things! The only way to have the slightest inkling of what a mountain is is to walk or climb up it.

Now I want you to feel something of what I feel when I am with the mountains that I love. To that end I am not going to ask you to go with me to any out-of-the-way place, but I am just going to take you to one of the most familiar tourist's objectives, one of the places to which one goes on every ordinary European tour—namely, to Zermatt—and in Zermatt I am not going to take you on any really difficult climbs but merely up one or two of the peaks by the ordinary routes which modern mountaineers despise. I want you to look at Zermatt for a few minutes not with the eyes of a tourist, and not with the eyes of a devotee of mountaineering in its ultra-modern aspects, but with the eyes of a man who, whatever his limitations, does truly love the mountains.
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Then there is something else bout that view from the Matterhorn. I felt it partly at least as I stood there, and I wonder whether you can feel it with me. It is this. You are standing there not in any ordinary country, but in the very midst of Europe, looking out from its very centre. Germany just beyond where you can see to the northeast, Italy to the south, France beyond those snows of Mont Blanc. There, in that glorious round spread out before you, that land of Europe, humanity has put forth its best. There it has struggled; there it has fallen; there it has looked upward to God. The history of the race seems to pass before you in an instant of time, concentrated in that fairest of all the lands of the earth. You think of the great men whose memories you love, the men who have struggled there in those countries below you, who have struggled for light and freedom, struggled for beauty, struggled above all for God's Word. And then you think of the present and its decadence and its slavery, and you desire to weep. It is a pathetic thing to contemplate the history of mankind.
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The alternative is that there is a God—a God who in His own good time will bring forward great men again to do His will, great men to resist the tyranny of experts and lead humanity out again into the realms of light and freedom, great men, above all, who will be messengers of His grace. There is, far above any earthly mountain peak of vision, a God high and lifted up who, though He is infinitely exalted, yet cares for His children among men.

J.A. Wylie, Wanderings and Musings in the Valleys of the Waldenses, pp. 44-45:

We bid the garish plain, with its white towns and glancing spires, farewell, and we enter the sanctuary of the mountains. Ye solemn shadows, hail! Ye peaks that rise to heaven, untrodden by foot of man, welcome! Ye châlets that look out so sweetly from your nests of verdure -- ye frowning rocks -- ye peaks that greet the morning -- ye majestic pines -- ye gleaming snows -- ye herdsmen keeping your watch on the far-off pasture lands, all through the summer's day and star-lit night -- ye mists that now veil, now reveal, the glories amid which you move -- ye clouds, now dark with thunder, now flaming in gold -- ye rivulets, that sing with quiet gladness in the shade -- ye cataracts, that leap, with shouting joy, from cliff to cliff -- ye torrents, that send up to heaven in eternal thunder your hymns of praise, welcome all! welcome! welcome!

When the Soul Rings Like a Bell

Jeremiah Burroughs, Gospel Worship, pp. 63-67:

Preparation for worship consists in these five things:

First, in possessing the heart with the right apprehension of that God before whom we come to tender our duties. Then we make conscience to prepare our hearts when we labor upon our going to worship God to get our hearts possessed beforehand with right apprehensions of the majesty of that God whom we are going to worship, and of the greatness and weight of the duty that we are setting about, the nature of it, the manner how it is to be performed, the rule by which we are to guided, and the end at which we are to aim.

Meditation is a good preparation to holy duties. And these are the general headings of our meditation for our preparation to duty: what God He is, with whom we have to deal. Meditate on God's attributes, and then them, the rule of them, and the end of them. Get your hearts possessed with meditations of this nature, and in this, as a special thing, does your preparation to holy duties consist. That's the first thing.

The second thing in which the preparation to a duty consists is in taking the heart off from every sinful way (the endeavor at least). If there is iniquity in your hand or heart, labor to put it out. When you come into God's presence, do not bring into the presence of God the love of any sin in your heart, but labor to put it from your heart. In 2 Chronicles 29:5, we find what is required for preparation. Hezekiah said unto them, "Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place." So sanctifying our hearts is done by carrying forth the filthiness out of our hearts so as to be fit for a duty. Job 11:13-14: "If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hand towards him [what then?], if iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles." These two must be together.

A third thing is this: the preparation of the heart is the disentangling of the heart from the world and from all occasions and businesses in the world. Speak thus to yourself: "I am to worship God, but how is my heart ensnared and entangled in this and the other business? Now when I come to worship God, I must lay aside all." There's the preparation of the heart, separating it for such a work. That's the nature of sanctification: separating a thing from its common use. "I am to worship God. Now I must labor to separate my heart from a common use. At other times God gives me liberty to let out my heart to common uses, but, when I come to worship Him, I must separate my heart from all common uses so that my heart may be wholly for God."
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The fourth thing for preparation is to watch and to pray. We should watch over our hearts lest they be made unfit for duties. So we should prepare for prayer all day long in this sense. That is, we should watch over our hearts so that they are not let out so far as will hinder us in prayer when we come to it. I remember Tertullian said that the Christians supped as if they were about to pray. So, when you are with company, you should watch unto prayer. Oh, that you did so! You cannot but be conscious of the fact that oftentimes, when you have been out of tune and frame, so much so that you have been in no way fit for prayer. When you come home, your house and family finds it so. You who take such delight in company and sitting up late, I appeal to your consciences whether you can come home and find yourselves fit either in your family or closet to go and open your hearts to God.

This is one note, by the way, whereby you may come to know whether you have been immoderate in company at any time. God does not give men liberty to be busy in any outward occasions in the world so as to make them unfit for His service. Preparation consists in watching over your hearts so that you may not be unfit for any holy duty when God calls you to it, but that you may be ready even to every good work.

Fifth, preparation consists in the readiness of the faculties of the soul and the graces of the Spirit of God to act upon the setting upon a holy duty. When a man or woman shall find the faculties of their soul and the graces that are in them to be ready to act as soon as every they fall upon duty, they will be like a company of bell raising of the bells, then the instant when they begin to pull all the bells go in that tune according to their skill. And so it should be with our hearts, the faculties of our souls and graces. Though now we are not upon duty, yet we should be so ready that, upon a pull, as it were, all the faculties of our souls and graces of God's Spirit should work in a melodious way.

There are those who keep their hearts so prepared that, the very first moment they set about the duty of worship, all faculties and graces begin to act and stir and are working towards God like a fire. When all the matter is already laid, presently it comes to be kindled and flame out -- and thus it should be with our hearts. So now you see wherein preparation of our hearts to duty consists.

MHCC 33: Matthew Henry's Hair

In Matthew Henry's commentary, on the subject of appropriate hair length for men, one may naturally turn to 1 Corinthians 11 and read the comments of Henry's continuator, Simon Browne (1680-1732), on verses 13-15:

He enforces his argument from the natural covering provided for the woman (v. 13-15): "Judge in yourselves—consult your own reason, hearken to what nature suggests—is it comely for a woman to pray to God uncovered? Should there not be a distinction kept up between the sexes in wearing their hair, since nature has made one? Is it not a distinction which nature has kept up among all civilized nations? The woman's hair is a natural covering; to wear it long is a glory to her; but for a man to have long hair, or cherish it, is a token of softness and effeminacy." Note, It should be our concern, especially in Christian and religious assemblies, to make no breach upon the rules of natural decency.

Browne's emphasis on the distinction between the sexes with respect to hair length is consistent with what Henry has written elsewhere in the same commentary.

On Deut. 22.5, Henry writes:

The distinction of sexes by the apparel is to be kept up, for the preservation of our own and our neighbour's chastity, v. 5. Nature itself teaches that a difference be made between them in their hair (1 Cor. xi. 14), and by the same rule in their clothes, which therefore ought not to be confounded, either in ordinary wear or occasionally.

And on Ezek. 44.20, he writes:

Concerning their hair; in that they must avoid extremes on both hands (v. 20): They must not shave their heads, in imitation of the Gentile priests, and as the priests of the Romish church do; nor, on the other hand, must they suffer their locks to grow long, as the beaux, or that they might be thought Nazarites, when really they were not; but they must be grave and modest, must poll their heads and keep their hair short. If a man, especially a minister, wear long hair, it is not becoming (1 Cor. xi. 14); it is effeminate.

But are Henry's words consistent with the picture we have of him? J.B. Williams, in the preface to his Memoir of Matthew Henry wrote (pp. xv-xvi):

It is to be regretted that no verbal description of Mr. Henry's person has been preserved; and the more so, as the portrait which accompanied the Exposition, and which has been frequently copied, was not taken from a picture upon which full reliance can be placed. A pen and ink sketch only, the work of the engraver (Vertue), and now possessed by my excellent friend the Reverend Dr. Raffles, of Liverpool, is said to have been used upon that occasion.
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On this account the engraving from an original picture, in my own possession, and now first published, will, it is hoped, be acceptable. The painting was executed when Mr. Henry was in his vigour at Chester; and is expressive of the animation and intelligence, for which he was pre-eminently distinguished. As it represents him in a wig, it must have been drawn subsequent to January 22, 1707-08.

We know that his father, Philip Henry, was strongly personally opposed to men wearing wigs. Matthew Henry's own memoir of his father records (p. 233) that:

He would never be persuaded to wear a perriwig or border, though he had but very little hair, and was like Elisha for a bald-head. He sometimes said, -- As long as I have three hairs of my own, I will never wear any body else's.

I have written before about the mixed views of Puritans towards male wigs, even noting the difference of opinion between Increase Mather and his son Cotton. Here we see Matthew's practice -- recall that he studied law and was around wigged jurists -- differed from his father's.

Yet, under his wig, Matthew's hair was cut as one would expect from his remarks above. His Diary for January 22, 1707-08, for instance, notes:

This day I was quite over-ruled by Brother H. and some of my friends, to cut off my hair, I having of late been very uneasy with coldness in my head, tooth-ache, and at present a deafness. I had purposed not to have done it, but feared, lest persisting in my refusal against the most earnest advice of my physician and friends, should arise from a secret pride in my own hair, and an affectation of singularity.

Although his wearing a wig is a distinct issue worthy of its own consideration, Henry was not personally inconsistent with respect to his writings and the length of his own hair.