'Puritan' Nickname Coined 450 Years Ago

It was in 1564, according to Thomas Fuller (The Church History of Great Britain, Vol. 2 (1854 ed.), p. 474), that the term 'Puritan' first began to be used by English Bishops who opposed those who desired a purer, Reformed religion in the Anglican Church (although the movement itself began earlier). Perhaps hearkening back to the name Cathari, or Puritan, which was applied to other sects at different times in church history, it was intended as an odious slur, as was 'precisian,' and 'Presbyterian,' as used by Archbishop Matthew Parker, for instance, in his letters to describe the reforming party of his church. As with many such labels, what was intended as an insult was eventually embraced by those so-called, although other more neutral terms such as 'dissenters' and 'nonconformists' were sometimes preferred. John Geree embraced 'Puritan' and 'Nonconformist' in The Character of an Old English Puritan, or Non-Conformist (1646):

The Old English Puritan was such an one, that honored God above all, and under God gave every one his due. His first care was to serve God, and therein he did not what was good in his own, but in God’s sight, making the word of God the rule of his worship. He highly esteemed order in the House of God: but would not under colour of that submit to superstitious rites, which are superfluous, and perish in their use. He reverenced Authority keeping within its sphere: but durst not under pretence of subjection to the higher powers, worship God after the traditions of men. He made conscience of all God’s ordinances, though some he esteemed of more consequence.

Robert Bolton, for example, spoke of 'Puritan' as "the honourable nickname of the best and holiest men" (Mr. Bolton's Last and Learned Worke of the Foure Last Things (1635), p. 12).

Robert Bolton, A Discourse About the True State of Happinesse (1631), p. 163:

I am persuaded there was never poor persecuted word, since malice against God first seized on the damned angels, and the graces of heaven dwelt in the heart of man, that passed through the mouths of all sorts of unregenerate men, with more distastefulness and gnashing of teeth, than the name of puritan doth at this day; which notwithstanding as it is now commonly meant, and ordinarily proceeds from the spleen and spirit of profaneness and good fellowship, as an honourable nickname, that I may so speak, of christianity and grace.

Elsewhere he is reported to have said:

All those nick-names of Puritan, Precisian, Hypocrite, &c. with which lewd tongues are wont to load the saints of God, are so many honourable badges of their worthy deportment in the holy path, and resolute standing on the Lord's side.

Samuel Rutherford, Letters (1894 ed.), p. 512:

I assure you, howbeit we be nicknamed Puritans, that all the powers of the world shall not prevail against us.

George Gillespie, English Popish Ceremonies (1846 ed.), Vol. 1., p. 39:

...they make godly and zealous Christians to be mocked and nicknamed Puritans, except they can swallow the camel of conformity....We know the old Waldenses before us were also named by their adversaries, Cathares or Puritans; and that, without cause, hath this name been given both to them and us.

Packer sums up the issues beautifully. J.I. Packer, A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life, p. 114:

Because of their concern for preciseness in following our God's revealed will in matters moral and ecclesiastical, the first Puritans were dubbed 'precisians.' Though ill-meant and derisive, this was in fact a good name for them. Then as now, people explained their attitude as due to peevish cantankerousness and angularity or morbidity of temperament, but that was not how they themselves saw it. Richard Rogers, the Puritan pastor of Wethersfield, Essex, at the turn of the sixteenth century, was riding one day with the local lord of the manor, who, after twitting him for some time about his 'precisian' ways, asked him what it was that made him so precise. 'O sir,' replied Rogers, 'I serve a precise God.' If there were such a thing as a Puritan crest, this would be its proper motto. A precise God -- a God, that is, who has made a precise disclosure of his mind and will in Scripture, and who expects from his servants a corresponding preciseness of belief and behaviour -- it was this view of God that created and controlled the historic Puritan outlook. The Bible itself led them to it. And we who share the Puritan estimate of Holy Scripture cannot excuse ourselves if we fail to show a diligence and conscientiousness equal to theirs in ordering our lives according to God's written word.

The Flower of Flowers

"God has made many fair flowers; but the fairest of them all is heaven, and the Flower of all flowers is Christ." -- Samuel Rutherford

Heaven-Sent

The letters of David Brainerd, like those of Samuel Rutherford or Joseph Alleine, savor so sweetly of heaven that they seem sent from Immanuel's Land. Though his time in this vale of tears was short, he was conscious of the preciousness of time, possessing as he did a view of eternity, and made the most of the time given to him in order to answer his chief end, that is, to glorify God. And that was the view of time which he bequeathed to others. This is the counsel of one who tasted eternal bliss while on his earthly pilgrimage, and now sends word to us from heavenly places to be heavenly-minded.

Letter (II) to John Brainerd (Dec. 27, 1743):

I find nothing more conducive to a life of Christianity than a diligent, industrious, and faithful improvement of precious time.

Letter (III) to Israel Brainerd (Jan. 21, 1743/4):

Again, Be careful to make a good improvement of precious time. When you cease from labour, fill up your time in reading, meditation, and prayer: and while your hands are labouring, let your heart be employed, as much as possible, in divine thoughts.

Letter (IV) to a Special Friend (July 31, 1744):

Verily, no hours pass away with so much divine pleasure, as those that are spent in communing with God and our own hearts.

Letter (VI) to John Brainerd (Dec. 25, 1745):

My brother, "the time is short." Oh let us fill it up for God; let us "count the sufferings of this present time" as nothing, if we can but run our race, and finish our course with joy." Let us strive to live to God....I think I do not desire to live one minute for any thing that earth can afford. Oh that I could live for none but God, till my dying moment!

Letter (VII) to Israel Brainerd (Nov. 24, 1746):

Let me intreat you to keep eternity in view, and behave yourself as becomes one that must shortly "give an account of all things done in the body."

Letter (VIII) to Israel Brainerd (June 30, 1747):

It is from the sides of eternity I now address you....But let me tell you, my brother, eternity is another thing than we ordinarily take it to be in a healthful state. Oh how vast and boundless; how fixed and unalterable! Of what infinite importance is it, that we be prepared for eternity!

Letter (IX) to a Young Gentleman, a Candidate for the Ministry (Summer 1747):

How amazing it is that "the living who know that they must die," should notwithstanding put far away the evil day, in a season of health and prosperity; and live at such an awful distance from a familiarity with the grave, and the great concerns beyond it. Especially it may just fill us with surprise, that any whose minds have been divinely enlightened, to behold the important things of eternity as they are, I say, that such should live in this manner. And yet, Sir, how frequently is this the case. How rare are the instances of those who live and act, from day to day, as on the verge of eternity; striving to fill up all their remaining moments in the service and to the honour of the great Master. We insensibly triffle away time, while we seem to have enough of it; and are so strangely amused as in great measure to lose a sense of the holiness and blessed qualifications necessary to prepare us to be inhabitants of paradise. But oh, dear Sir, a dying bed, if we enjoy our reason clearly, will give another view of things.

350th Anniversary of Rutherford Translation

Today marks the 350th anniversary of Samuel Rutherford's greatest translation. We are, of course, still waiting for the full and complete translation of his great treastise on Providence, Disputatio Scholastica de Divina Providentia (1649), and his systematic theology, Examen Arminianismi (1668), but it was on March 29, 1661, that the great Scottish Covenanter minister left this world and was translated to the next.

We do well to remember his life and legacy. There have been many biographical sketches written of him, including this recent article by Guy Richard which touches on a chapter in Rutherford's life which reveals his human frailty, a scandal which demonstrates the depth of God's amazing grace. I recommend visiting this website devoted to his life and works for a helpful introduction. It is my aim in this post only to highlight select aspects of the "little, fair man," who showed us "the loveliness of Christ."

• A Scottish Covenanter and commissioner to the Westminster Assembly, he was not ashamed to be known as a Puritan. Letters (1894 ed.), p. 512:

I assure you, howbeit we be nicknamed Puritans, that all the powers of the world shall not prevail against us.

• He authored, according to Guy Richard, "13 major theological treatises in his lifetime, amounting to just over 7,000 pages of text, not to mention other works, including sermons, letters, an in-depth catechism (totaling 562 questions and answers--over five times the number in the Westminster Shorter Catechism), and a variety of political writings, all of which add nearly 3,000 pages to the total [as well as] a commentary on Isaiah, which has tragically been lost, and several unpublished manuscripts and sermons."

• His Lex, Rex (1644) helped to solidify the theological groundwork for both the English Puritan Revolution and the American Presbyterian Revolution. He wrote:

I lay down this maxim of divinity: Tyranny being a work of Satan, is not from God, because sin, either habitual or actual, is not from God: the power that is, must be from God; the magistrate, as magistrate, is good in nature of office, and the intrinsic end of his office, (Rom. xiii. 4) for he is the minister of God for thy good; and, therefore, a power ethical, politic, or moral, to oppress, is not from God, and is not a power, but a licentious deviation of a power; and is no more from God, but from sinful nature and the old serpent, than a license to sin.

• His Letters are considered to be among the greatest classics of Christian devotional literature. Charles Spurgeon wrote, "When we are dead and gone let the world know that Spurgeon held Rutherford’s Letters to be the nearest thing to inspiration which can be found in all the writings of mere men" (The Sword and Trowel, 189).

• He authored the wise maxim, "Duties are ours, events are God's." Letters, CXVII (1637), p. 238:

Providence hath a thousand keys, to open a thousand sundry doors for the deliverance of His own, when it is even come to a conclamatum est ["all is over"]. Let us be faithful, and care for our own part, which is to do and suffer for Him, and lay Christ's part on Himself, and leave it there. Duties are ours, events are the Lord's.

• There are no known contemporary portraits of Rutherford. Andrew Bonar writes:

If ever there was any portrait of him, it is not now known. The portraits sometimes given of him are all imaginary. We are most familiar with the likeness of his soul.

• On his death-bed, Rutherford uttered the immortal dying words, "Glory, glory, dwelleth in Immanuel's Land." These words were also uttered a century later by Thomas Halyburton, the great Scottish Reformed minister, on his own death-bed. Halyburton's request to be buried next to Rutherford was honored, as evidenced by this picture of their tombstones side-by-side here. Rutherford's dying words also inspired an hymn (The Sands of Time Are Sinking) and a poem (Immanuel's Land) by Annie Ross Cousin:

The sands of time are sinking, the dawn of Heaven breaks;

The summer morn I’ve sighed for — the fair, sweet morn awakes:

Dark, dark hath been the midnight, but dayspring is at hand,

And glory, glory dwelleth in Immanuel’s land.

• The following tribute is written on his grave.

An Epitaph on His Grave-Stone

What tongue, what pen, or skill of men

Can famous Rutherford commend!

His learning justly rais'd his fame

True goodness did adorn his name.

He did converse with things above,

Acquainted with Immanuel's love.

Most orthodox he was and sound,

And many errors did confound.

For Zion's King, and Zion's cause,

And Scotland's covenanted laws,

Most constantly he did contend,

Until his time was at an end.

At last he won to full fruition

Of that which he had seen in vision.

• Viewed by those around him as one of the most humble saints of his or any other age, Rutherford described himself thus: "I am made of extremes" (Letters, CLXVIII (1637), p. 315). Alexander Whyte, Samuel Rutherford and Some of His Correspondents, p. 16-18:
  

And yet again, what others thought of him, and how they treated him, compared with what he knew himself to be, caused Rutherford many a bitter reflection. Every letter he got consulting him and appealing to him as if he had been God's living oracle made him lie down in the very dust with shame and self-abhorrence. Writing on one occasion to Robert Blair he told him that his letter consulting him about some matter of Christian experience had been like a blow in the face to him; it affects me much, said Rutherford, that a man like you should have any such opinion of me. And, apologising for his delay in replying to a letter of Lady Boyd's, he says that he is put out of all love of writing letters because his correspondents think things about him that he himself knows are not true. 'My white side comes out on paper— but at home there is much black work. All the challenges that come to me are true.' There was no man then alive on the earth so much looked up to and consulted in the deepest matters of the soul, in the secrets of the Lord with the soul, as Rutherford was, and his letters bear evidence on every page that there was no man who had a more loathsome and a more hateful experience of his own heart, not even Taylor, not even Owen, not even Bunyan, not even Baxter. What a day of extremest men that was, and what an inheritance we extreme men have had left us, in their inward, extreme, and heavenly books!

Once more, hear him on the tides of feeling that continually rose and fell within his heart. Writing from Aberdeen to Lady Boyd, he says: 'I have not now, of a long time, found such high spring-tides as formerly. The sea is out, and I cannot buy a wind and cause it to flow again; only I wait on the shore till the Lord sends a full sea.... But even to dream of Him is sweet.' And then, just over the leaf, to Marion M'Naught: 'I am well: honour to God.... He hath broken in upon a poor prisoner's soul like the swelling of Jordan. I am bank and brim full: a great high spring-tide of the consolations of Christ hath overwhelmed me'.. But sweet as it is to read his rapturous expressions when the tide is full, I feel it far more helpful to hear how he still looks and waits for the return of the tide when the tide is low, and when the shore is full, as all left shores are apt to be, of weeds and mire, and all corrupt and unclean things. Rutherford is never more helpful to his correspondents than when they consult him about their ebb tides, and find that he himself either has been, or still is, in the same experience.

But why do we disinter such texts as this out of such an author as Samuel Rutherford? Why do we tell to all the world that such an eminent saint was full of such sad extremes? Well, we surely do so out of obedience to the divine command to comfort God's people; for, next to their having no such extremes in themselves, their next best comfort is to be told that great and eminent saints of God have had the very same besetting sins and staggering extremes as they still have. If the like of Samuel Rutherford was vexed and weakened with such intellectual contradictions and spiritual extremes in his mind, in his heart and in his history, then may we not hope that some such saintliness, if not some such service as his, may be permitted to us also?

Rutherford's Christian Directions

Samuel Rutherford, Letter CLIX, in Letters of Samuel Rutherford, pp. 292-295:

To John Fleming, Bailie of Leith [Letter LXVIII.]

Worthy and Dearly Beloved in the Lord, -- Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you. I received your letter. I wish that I could satisfy your desire in drawing up, and framing for you, a Christian directory. But the learned have done it before me more judiciously than I can; especially Mr. [Daniel] Rogers, [Richard] Greenham and [William] Perkins. Notwithstanding, I shall show you what I would have been at myself; howbeit I came always short of my purpose.

1. That hours of the day, less or more time, for the word and prayer, be given to God; not sparing the twelfth hour, or mid-day, howbeit it should then be the shorter time.

2. In the midst of worldly employments, there should be some thoughts of sin, death, judgment, and eternity, with at least a word or two of ejaculatory prayer to God.

3. To beware of wandering of heart in private prayers.

4. Not to grudge, howbeit ye come from prayer without sense of joy. Down-casting, sense of guiltiness, and hunger, are often best for us.

5. That the Lord's-day, from morning to night, be spent always either in private or public worship.

6. That words be observed, wandering and idle thoughts be avoided, sudden anger and desire of revenge, even of such as persecute the truth, be guarded against; for we often mix our zeal with our wild-fire.

7. That known, discovered, and revealed sins, that are against the conscience, be eschewed, as most dangerous preparatives to hardness of heart.

8. That in dealing with men, faith and truth in covenants and trafficking be regarded, that we deal with all men in sincerity; that conscience be made of idle and lying words; and that our carriage be such, as that they who see it may speak honourably of our sweet Master and profession.
...
There are some things, also, whereby I have been helped, as -- 1. I have been benefited by riding alone a long journey, in giving that time to prayer. 2. By abstinence, and giving days to God. 3. By praying for others; for by making an errand to God for them, I have gotten something for myself. 4. I have been really confirmed, in many particulars, that God heareth prayers; and, therefore, I used to pray for anything, of how little importance soever. 5. He enabled me to make no question, that this mocked way, which is nicknamed, is the only way to heaven.

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.

MHCC 32: Dominion Founded In Grace or Not?

Samuel Butler wrote in his satirical poetic attack on the Puritans, Hudibras (pt. III, canto III, l. 1173-1174), that:

Sure 'tis an orthodox opinion,
That grace is founded in dominion.

This was indeed the position of the Millenarians, or Fifth Monarchy movement, which believed themselves to be saints ushering in Christ's kingdom on earth, and perhaps that of the Levellers in Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army, who sought to abolish civil and political inequalities, and the language can be traced further back to John Wycliffe. When Wycliffe argued that dominion was founded in grace,* however, his argument was an ideal one, aimed at ecclesiastical tyranny and worldly abuses within the Roman Catholic Church -- i.e., those ecclesiastics who claimed authority in the church and over temporal affairs while living ungodly lives -- rather than promoting a doctrine which would assert civil rights or temporal power on basis of being in a covenant relationship with God. He asserted that God was the Sole Proprietor of all things and the fountain of all authority, and that authority flowing from God to men could be deprived upon condition of living in 'mortal' in; yet he was emphasizing the de jure spiritual nature of the kingdom of God within the church on earth, not seeking to prematurely claim for the saints temporal dominion over God's creation and overthrow the de facto civil authority. Wycliffe certainly did not intend to preach political revolution, though the Peasant Revolt of 1381 soon followed.

Samuel Rutherford shows how Wycliffe's doctrine was wrested by the very Popish authorities with whom he was contending in Lex Rex, p. 205 (Quest. 41):

P. Prelate. -- Some said that the right of dominion is founded on grace, whether the Waldenses and Hus held any such tenet, I cannot now insist to prove or disprove. Gerson and others held that there must be a new title and right to what men possess. Too many confidently hold these or the like.

Ans. -- 1. That dominion is founded upon grace as its essential pillar, so as wicked men be no magistrates, because they are in mortal sin, was falsly imputed to ancient protestants, the Waldenses, Wicliff, and Huss, by papists; and this day by Jesuits, Suarez, Bellarmine, Becanus. The P. Prelate will leave them under this calumny, that he may offend papists and Jesuits as little as he can, but he would lay it on us; but if the P. Prelate that the dominion is not founded on grace, de jure, that rulers should have that spirit of God put on the seventy elders for their calling, and that they ought not to be "men fearing God and hating covetousness," as Gerson and others did, he belieth the Scripture. 2. It is no error of Gerson that believers have a spiritual right to their civil possessions, but by Scripture, 1 Cor. iv. 21; Rev. xxi. 7.

The Westminster Confession teaches both aspects of the dominion doctrine with respect to civil authority; ie., that de jure (23.1)

God, the supreme Lord and King of all the world, has ordained civil magistrates, to be, under Him, over the people, for His own glory, and the public
good:

and that de facto (23.4):

Infidelity, or difference in religion, does not make void the magistrates' just and legal authority, nor free the people from their due obedience to them: from which ecclesiastical persons are not exempted, much less has the Pope any power and jurisdiction over them in their dominions, or over any of their people; and, least of all, to deprive them of their dominions, or lives, if he shall judge them to be heretics, or upon any other pretence whatsoever.

Matthew Henry certainly felt the need to make his views known on this doctrine, and he emphasizes the de facto aspect, perhaps as a conservative dissenter in response to Butler or the Millenarians of the earlier Puritan age. By my reckoning, Henry repeats this observation at least seven times in his Commentary through the Book of Acts: "Dominion is not founded in grace."

Gen. 4.6-7:

Dominion is not founded in grace, nor will religion warrant disloyalty or disrespect in any relation.

Gen. 23.16-20:

Note, Dominion is not founded in grace. The saints' title to an eternal inheritance does not entitle them to the possessions of this world, nor justify them in doing wrong.

Gen. 33.16-20:

Note, Dominion is not founded in grace. Those that have heaven on free-cost must not expect to have earth so.

Deut. 2.1-7:

They must not expect to have any part of their land given them for a possession: Mount Seir was already settled upon the Edomites, and they must not, under pretence of God's covenant and conduct, think to seize for themselves all they could lay hands on. Dominion is not founded in grace.

Jer. 27.1-11:

Note, Dominion is not founded in grace. Those that have not any colourable title to eternal happiness may yet have a justifiable title to their temporal good things.

Dan. 7.15-28:

Far be it from us to infer hence that dominion is founded on grace, or that this will warrant any, under pretence of saintship, to usurp kingship. No; Christ's kingdom is not of this world; but this intimates the spiritual dominion of the saints over their own lusts and corruptions, their victories over Satan and his temptations, and the triumphs of the martyrs over death and its terrors.

Luke 12.13-21:

Now this shows us what is the nature and constitution of Christ's kingdom. It is a spiritual kingdom, and not of this world. 1. It does not interfere with civil powers, nor take the authority of princes out of their hands. Christianity leaves the matter as it found it, as to civil power. 2. It does not intermeddle with civil rights; it obliges all to do justly, according to the settled rules of equity, but dominion is not founded in grace.

* For example, De Dominio Divino and De Civili Dominio; Trialogus 4.17; and his exposition of the seventh commandment.

Spokesmen for Christ

Robert Wodrow, Analecta, or Materials for a History of Remarkable Providences, Vol. 3, pp. 3-4:

I hear there was a certain merchant came from London to Saint Andrews in Fife, where he heard first the greatly and worthy Mr. [Robert] Blair preach. Next he heard the great [Samuel] Rutherford preach. Next Lord's day he came to Irwin and heard Mr. [David] Dickson preach. When he came back to London, his friends asked him what news he had from Scotland? He answered, he had very great and good news to tell them. They wondered much what they could be, for he was before that time a man altogether a stranger to true religion. He told them he heard one Mr. Blair preach, at Saint Andrews; and, describing his features, and the stature of his body, he said, 'That man shewed me the majesty of God,' which was Mr. Robert Blair's peculiar talent: Then added he, 'I afterward heard a little fair man preach,' (Mr. Rutherford,) 'and that man shewed me the loveliness of Christ: Then I came and heard, at Irwin, a well-favoured, proper old man, with a long beard,' (which was famous Mr. Dickson,) 'and that man shewed me all my heart!' -- for he was the most famed of any man in his time to speak of cases of conscience. And they say that Englishman became an excellent Christian. The whole General Assembly of the Church of Scotland could not have given a better character of these three men than that man gave.

Happy 200th Birthday, Andrew Bonar

Andrew Alexander Bonar, Free Church of Scotland minister, was born 200 years ago today on May 29, 1810. The younger brother of Horatius Bonar, they shared convictions regarding premillennial eschatology, the conversion of the Jews, revivalism, and other such matters. Andrew was a close friend of Robert Murray M'Cheyne, and wrote a biography of M'Cheyne a year after his death. Bonar also published an edition of the Letters of Samuel Rutherford, commentaries on Leviticus and the Psalms (which bears witness to that saying of Augustine, quoted by Bonar, that "the voice of Christ and his Church was well-nigh the only voice to be heard in the Psalms"), and other works, as well as a diary which was posthumously edited and published by his daughter Marjory. He was a great man of prayer, who felt that he had not prayed enough. Among the great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us, he is worthy to be remembered on this bicentennial birthday.

MHCC 15: Duty is Ours, Events are God's

Matthew Henry on Ex. 2.1-4:

Duty is ours, events are God's.

For more on the origin of this wise proverb, see this previous blog post, where I have traced its use back to Samuel Rutherford, whose letters were read by Matthew Henry's father, Philip.

Consociation of Providence

And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. (Matt. 15.22)

Samuel Rutherford, Sermon 10 (re Matt. 15.22), in The Trial and Triumph of Faith, pp. 74-78:

"My daughter:" Observe the rise of this passage of providence. (1.) Christ, wearied of Judea, came to the borders of Tyre and Sidon. (2.) He went to a house to hide himself from her. (3.) She heard of Christ. (4.) The hard condition her daughter was in, tormented with a devil; upon this, God driveth her to Christ. (5.) Christ is hereby declared to be the Saviour of the Gentiles. (6.) An illustrious miracle is wrought. See a wise consociation of many acts of providence, as one cluster of passages of the art of wise omnipotency; as many herbs and various sorts of flowers make up one pleasant and well-smelled meadow; many roses, lilies, and the like, one sweet-smelling garden.
...
2. The book of providence is full, both page and margin: God hath been adding to it sundry new editions; and like children, we are in love with the golden covering, the ribbons, filleting, and the pictures in the frontispiece, but understand little of the argument of providence. "Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord." (Psalm 107:43.) "I said (said Elihu) days (things of providence) shall speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom." (Job 32:7.) God is worthy to be chronicled.
...
5. Slander not God's ways of providence, with the reproach of confusion and disorder: to God all his works are good, very good, as were the works of creation. There is a long chain and concatenation of God's ways, counsels, decrees, actions, events, judgments, mercies; and there is white and black, good and evil, crooked and straight, interwoven in this web; and the links of this chain, partly gold, partly brass, iron, and clay, and the threads of his dispensation, go along through the patriarchs' days, Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and are spun through the ages of Moses, and the church in Egypt, and the wilderness, and come through the times of the kings of Israel and Judah, and the captivities of the church, and descend along through the generations of prophets, Christ, the apostles, persecuting emperors, and martyrdoms of the witnesses of Jesus, slain by the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, till the end of the thread and last link of the chain be tied to the very day of the marriage of the Lamb. Now, in this long contexture of divine providence you see, (1.) Not one thread broken. "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work," (saith Christ). Providence hath no vacancy, but causes, events, actions, ways, are all bordered one upon another, by the wisdom of providence, so that links are chained and fettered to links, not by hazard or chance. (2.) Though this web be woven of threads of divers colours, black and white, comfortable and sad passages of God's providence, yet all maketh a fair order in this long way. Jacob weepeth for his dead child Joseph; Joseph rejoiceth to come out of the prison to reign: David danceth with all his might before the ark; David weepeth sore for Absalom his son's miserable death: Job washeth his steps with butter, and the candle of the Almighty shineth on his head; and Job defileth his horn in the dust, and lieth on ashes, and mourneth. All is beauty and order to God.

The Eleventh Commandment

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. (John 13.34)

Here are two accounts of a story which has legendary status in the lives of two great divines: Samuel Rutherford and James Ussher.

Andrew Thomson, Samuel Rutherford (1884), pp. 31-33:

An incident is recorded as having taken place at a somewhat earlier period in his pastorate, the truth of which has been questioned by some, but which is at least not so very improbable as they have represented it, and which is so beautiful in itself, as to make us wish that it were true.

The story, as it has been narrated by different writers, varies in some of its details, but it is substantially the same in all. We are told that the devout and learned Archbishop Usher was on his way from England to his diocese in Armagh, and that passing near Anwoth on a Saturday afternoon, anxious to listen to the preaching of one of whose piety and eloquence he had heard much, he assumed the disguise of a wayfaring man, or mendicant, and turning aside to Anwoth manse, asked lodging for the night. According to the custom and law of the good pastor's house, not to be "forgetful to entertain strangers," he was readily received. It was the practice of Mrs. Rutherford, while her husband was engaged in finishing his preparations for the coming Lord's Day, to gather together her servants and the "strangers within her gate," for the purpose of catechizing them on some religious subject; and on this occasion the stranger in lowly garb readily joined the little circle of catechumens. Probably for the purpose of testing the knowledge of the wayfarer, Mrs. Rutherford asked him how many commandments there were? To which he answered, " Eleven." Regarding this as evidence of unusual ignorance, she expressed to her husband, at a later period in the evening, her fears that the stranger was very ill-instructed in religion, and mentioned as evidence of the fact that he did not even know the number of the commandments.

Rising early on the Sabbath morning, and retiring for prolonged devotion to his sanctuary not far off among the trees, Rutherford was astonished to find that there was one there already engaged in solitary worship. It was the stranger who had been welcomed the night before to his hospitality. Listening, he was struck with the evidence which his words afforded of the religious knowledge and the depth of devotion of the suppliant; and as soon as the prayer was ended he accosted him, and told him that he was certain that he was not the mendicant that he appeared to be. Disguise was no longer necessary or possible, and Usher, not unwillingly, revealed himself.

The scene ended in Rutherford's urging him to preach for him, to which Usher assented, not averse to conform for the day to the simpler forms of Presbyterian worship. He read out as his text those words of the Master: "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another." This explained all. "There," whispered Rutherford to his wife, "is the eleventh commandment."

Those who have denied the reality of this beautiful incident should remember that Archbishop Usher was pre-eminently a lover of all good men, that he never sympathized with that ecclesiastical assumption and exclusiveness which did so much to produce and embitter the controversies of the age, and that he was even the author of a scheme of comprehension by which he hoped that Episcopalians and Presbyterians would one day be included in one common pale. Let the further fact be added that the military road by which Usher must have passed from England to Portpatrick, on his way to Ireland, passed by the gate of the Anwoth manse, and that, within the memory of old men, the daily post to Ireland passed by the same gate; and when facts like these are remembered, is not the unlikelihood greatly diminished? What a Sabbath evening must that have been which was spent by the two men of God! The points of ecclesiastical difference were no doubt, for the time, forgotten, in their conscious unity, produced by their common faith, and hope, and life. They ascended together in thought from the valley of conflict to the "delectable mountains," and obtained blessed glimpses and foretastes of the land of love.

Charles Buck, Anecdotes, Religious, Moral and Entertaining (1841), pp. 54-56:

The eminent Archbishop Usher, being once on a visit in Scotland, heard a great deal of the piety and devotion of the famous Mr. Samuel Rutherford, who, he understood, spent whole nights in prayer, especially before the Sabbath. The bishop wished much to witness such extraordinary down-pouring of the Spirit; but was utterly at a loss how to accomplish his design. At length it came into his mind to dress himself like a pauper; and on a Saturday evening, when it was turning dark, he called at Mr. Rutherford's house, and asked if he could get quarters for a night, since he could go to no other house at so late an hour for that purpose. Mr. Rutherford consented to give the poor man a bed for the night, and desired him to sit down in the kitchen, which he did cheerfully. Mrs. Rutherford, according to custom on Saturday evening, that her servants might be prepared for the Sabbath, called them together and examined them. In the course of examination that evening, she asked the stranger how. many commandments there were? To which he answered eleven. Upon receiving this answer, she replied, 'What a shame it is for you! a man with gray hairs, living in a Christian country, not to know how many commandments there are! There is not a child of six years old in this parish hut could answer this question properly.' She troubled the poor man no more, thinking him so very ignorant! but lamented his condition to her servants; and after giving him some supper, desired a servant to show him up stairs to a bed in a garret. This was the very situation in which he desired to he placed, that he might hear Mr. Rutherford at his secret devotion. However, he was disappointed; for that night that good man went to bed, but did not fall asleep for some hours. The stranger did not go to bed, but sat listening, always hoping to hear Mr. Rutherford at prayer; and at length concluding that all the family were asleep, the bishop thought if he had been disappointed of hearing another offering up his desire to God at the throne of grace, he would embrace the opportunity himself, and poured out his heart to God with so much liberty and enlargement, that Mr. Rutherford, immediately below, overheard; and getting up put on his clothes. Should this have awakened Mrs. Rutherford, she could have suspected nothing of his design, seeing he rose commonly every day at three o'clock in the morning; and if she could have heard one at prayer afterwards, she would naturally have concluded it was her husband. Mr. Rutherford went up stairs, and stood waiting at the garret door till the bishop concluded his devotion; upon which he knocked gently at the door, and the other opened it with surprise, thinking none were witness to his devotion. Mr. Rutherford took him by the hand, saying, 'Sir, I am persuaded you can be none other than Archbishop Usher; and you must certainly preach for me to-day, being now Sabbath morning.' The bishop confessed who he was; and after telling Mr. Rutherford what induced him to take such a step, said he would preach for him, on condition that he would not discover who he was. Happy union of souls, although of different persuasions! yet not marvellous; God makes but two distinctions among mankind, the righteous and the wicked.

Mr. Rutherford furnished the bishop with a suit of his own clothes, and early in the morning he went out to the fields; the other followed him, and brought him in as a strange minister passing by, who had promised to preach for him. Mrs. Rutherford found that the poor man had gone away before any of the family were out of bed. After domestic worship and breakfast, the family went to the kirk, and the bishop had for his text, (John xiii. 34,) 'A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another;' a suitable subject for the occasion. In the course of his sermon, he observed that this might be reckoned the eleventh commandment: upon which Mrs. Rutherford said to herself, 'That is the answer the poor man gave me last night;' and looking up to the pulpit, said, 'It cannot be possible that this is he!' After public worship, the strange minister and Mr. Rutherford spent the evening in mutual satisfaction; and early on Monday morning the former went away in the dress he came in, and was not discovered.

Duties are Ours, Events are God's - Part 2

In a previous blog post, I aimed to identify the originator of the famous saying "Duties are ours, events are God's." It was a maxim of Matthew Henry, Stonewall Jackson, and others. I traced it back to a similar saying of Pierre Corneille, the French playwright, as used in a play that was produced in 1639.

Since then, I have done a little more research and found that besides Matthew Henry, it was a saying of his father Philip Henry. Philip, moreover, read the Letters of Samuel Rutherford, and in fact, Rutherford articulated this very expression in a letter dated March 7, 1637, to David Dickson.

Letter CX (March 7, 1637), Letters of Samuel Rutherford (1891 ed.), p. 226:

Now for my case: I think that the council should be essayed, and the event referred to God; -- duties are ours, and events are God's.

Sands of Time

The hour-glass was not only used in Puritan pulpits to measure sermon-time, but also placed on tombstones to remind passers-by of the brevity of life. It is a common motif in classic poetry which in the age of digital clocks may perhaps seem obsolete or irrelevant to modern man, but even so, the sands of time, representing our days as they are measured out by the hand of God, are finite, and the consideration of them is meant to stir us to apply our hearts to wisdom (Ps. 90.12). So if you see an hour-glass in an antique shop or read the following lines, take a moment to consider. It is time well-spent.

When children learned the alphabet from The New England Primer they would read:

G As runs the Glass,
Our Life doth pass.

The hour-glass motif appears in George Herbert's The Temple more than once, including these lines from Church Monuments which are reminiscent of Isa. 40.6:

That flesh is but the glasse, which holds the dust
That measures all our time; which also shall
Be crumbled into dust.

and visually it is evident in Easter-Wings.

The first stanza of a hymn inspired by the words and letters of Samuel Rutherford by Annie Ross Cousin, Last Words, or, The Sands of Time Are Sinking:

The sands of time are sinking,
The dawn of Heaven breaks,
The summer morn I've sighed for,
The fair sweet morn awakes:
Dark, dark hath been the midnight,
But dayspring is at hand,
And glory -- glory dwelleth,
In Immanuel's land.

An extract from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, A Psalm of Life:

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime.
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.

A meditation by John Bunyan who spiritualized temporal things in A Book for Boys and Girls, later renamed, Divine Emblems, in The Works of John Bunyan, Vol. 3, p. 760:

Upon an Hour-Glass

This glass, when made, was, by the workman's skill,
The sum of sixty minutes to fulfil.
Time, more nor less, by it will out be spun,
But just an hour, and then the glass is run.
Man's life we will compare unto this glass,
The number of his months he cannot pass;
But when he has accomplished his day,
He, like a vapour, vanisheth away.

All Israel

Herman Witsius writes that one of the "benefits of the New Testament" is "the restoration of Israel." What does he mean by "the restoration of Israel"? We shall see what he has to say about Israel based on the Apostle Paul's words in Romans 11.

Herman Witsius, The Economy of the Covenants Between God and Man, Vol. 2, pp. 414-415:

XXII. From what we have said before, it appears, that they depart from the apostle's meaning, who, by all Israel, understand the mystical Israel, or the people of God, consisting both of Jews and Gentiles, without admitting the conversion of the whole Jewish nation to Christ, in the sense we have mentioned. Notwithstanding this may be confirmed by the following arguments, 1st. The apostle speaks of that Israel, to whom he ascribes his own pedigree, ver. 1 whom he calls his flesh, that is, his kindred, ver. 14. and the natural branches, ver. 21. whom he constantly distinguishes from the Gentiles; to whom, he testifies, blindness is happened. All this is applicable to Israel properly so called. 2dly. He lays before us a mystery: but it was no mystery that a very few Jews were converted to Christ together with the Gentiles; for we have daily instances of that. 3dly. He reminds the Gentiles not to exult over, or despise the Jews, from this argument, that, as they themselves were now taken in among the people of God, so, in like manner, the Jews were in due time to be taken in again. But if the apostle meant, that the body of the Jewish nation was to continue in their hardness; and but a few of them to be saved, who, joined to the Gentiles, should form a mystical Israel, the whole of that discourse would be more adapted to the commendation of the Gentiles than of the Israelites; and encourage rather than repress the pride of the Gentiles. 4thly. As the fall and diminishing of Israel, ver. 12. and their casting away, ver. 15. are to be understood; so likewise the receiving and saving of them; for here the rules of a just opposition must be observed. But the fall, diminishing, and casting away of Israel are to be understood of the generality of the Jewish nation; therefore the receiving and saving of Israel in like manner.

He sums up the expectation Christians ought to have based on this exegesis of Romans 11 (p. 418):

As from all this it is evident, we are to expect the general conversion of the Israelites in time to come, not indeed of every individual, but of the whole body of the nation, and of the twelve tribes.

And how is this promise of God a "benefit" for which Christians are to be thankful? Witsius answers (p. 419):

Lastly, To this restoration of Israel shall be joined the riches of the whole church, and as it were, life from the dead, Rom. xi. 12. "Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?" and ver. 15. "For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world; what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?" The apostle intimates, that much greater and more extensive benefits shall redound to the Christian church from the fulness and restoration of the Jews, than did to the Gentiles, from their fall and diminuation; greater, I say, intensively, or with respect to degrees, and larger with respect to extent.

What a day to look forward to, and to hasten, if the Lord wills, by our humble prayers for the conversion of the Jews. As Samuel Rutherford memorably wrote, Letters, XXXIX, p. 89:

Oh, to see the sight next to Christ's coming in the clouds, the most joyful! our elder brethren, the Jews, and Christ fall upon one another's necks, and kiss each other! They have been long asunder, they will be kind to one another when they meet: O day! O longed for, and lovely day, dawn! O sweet Jesus, let me see that sight that will be as life from the dead, thee and thy ancient people in mutual embraces!

God Is Merciful To All

Thy mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O LORD, thou preservest man and beast. How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. (Ps. 36.5-7)

The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works. (Ps. 145.8-9)

It is denied by some that God shows mercy to the reprobate, but rather only, always wrath. This view recoils at the notion that if grace is truly unmerited favor, therefore the reprobate in this life, as well as the elect, whether regenerate or not at a point in time, do in fact partake of God's lovingkindness by the mere fact that such are not consumed and cast into hell immediately and by the reception of undeserved gifts are allowed to enjoy blessings in this life which are favorable, merciful and indeed gracious.

Love is the bond that unites the ethically perfect. Grace is the objective pleasantness and the subject attraction of the ethically perfect. Mercy wills and desires the ethically perfect to be blessed. It should be evident from this that God cannot be merciful to the reprobate wicked and that His mercy toward his people must be founded in His sovereign election, according to which he beholds them eternally as perfectly righteous in the Beloved. (Herman Hoeksema, Reformed Dogmatics, Vol. 2, p. 115, quoted by David Silversides, The Free Offer: Biblical & Reformed, p. 35).

Silversides adds (pp. 42-43):

Remember Hoeksema's words, 'God cannot be merciful to the reprobate wicked.' Hoeksema's presuppositions require this conclusion. In fact, the Scripture teach that God can and does show mercy to the reprobate wicked in this world, according to his sovereign good pleasure.

The Apostle Paul says:

Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? (Rom. 2.4)

Silversides (p. 16):

Romans 2:4-5 actually teaches that the guilt of the reprobate is increased by the fact that God does show lovingkindness to them. It is the genuineness of the kindness that heightens their guilt, albeit within the decree of God.
...
It must also be borne in mind that elsewhere Hoeksema's definition of the word 'goodness' is very different from the meaning commonly given to it by Reformed writers and, most particularly, its usage in the Westminster Standards. For example, in Answer 4 of the Shorter Catechism, we read, 'God is a Spirit, infinite eternal and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.' The Shorter Catechism has been criticized by some at this point for not using the terms 'grace, mercy, love', but it must be recognised that in the minds of the Westminster Assembly the term goodness included all of these. This explains why the term 'goodness' is expanded in the Larger Catechism as equivalent to 'most merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness' (Ans. 9) and in the Westminster Confession as 'most loving, gracious, merciful, longsuffering, abundant in goodness...forgiving inquity, transgression and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek him...' (ch. II, i).

The terms 'good' and 'goodness' (Heb. tob) are consistently linked to God's mercy or faithful love (Heb. chesed), for example in Psalms 23:6, 25:7-8, 86:5, 100:5, 145:9 etc., and when Psalm 34:8 is referred to in 1 Peter 2:3, the term is rendered 'gracious' (Gk. chreestos: A.V. 'kind'). No doubt this explains why the term is rendered 'gracious' in the 1650 Metrical Psalter rendering of Psalm 86:5.

Puritans often distinguished between the general mercy of God to all his creatures and the special mercy shown to the elect.

Samuel Rutherford, Christ Dying and Drawing Sinners to Himself (1803 ed., slightly modernized spelling), p. 550:

2. There is a second love and mercy in God, by which he loves all men and angels, yea, even his enemies; makes the sun to mine on the unjust man, as well as the just, and causeth dew and rain to fall on the orchard and fields of the bloody and deceitful man, -whom the Lord abhors; as Christ teacheth us, Mat. v. 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48. Nor doth God miscarry in this love; he desires the eternal being of damned angels and men; he sends the gospel to many reprobates, and invites them to repentance, and, with longanimity and forbearance, suffereth pieces of froward dust to fill the measure of their iniquity; yet does not the Lord's general love fall short of what he willeth to them.

William Jenkyn, An Exposition Upon the Epistle of Jude, p. 27 (re: v. 2):

For the sorts or kinds of God's mercy. It is either, 1. A general mercy, extended to all creatures in common, as there is no creature in any misery which in some respect he does not succour: he gives food to the hungry; warmth by wool, and sundry sorts of skins, to the naked; medicine by many kinds of herbs; the sun, the clouds, the winds, the rain, to refresh the earth severally: and thus he is merciful to the elect and reprobate, just and unjust, nay, men and beasts, Psal. cxlvii. 9; Matt. vi. 26, &c.; Psal. cxlv. 15. Or, 2. A special mercy bestowed upon the elect alone, different from the former both in regard of God's will to help, and also in regard of the effects of that will. It is the will of God, John vi. 39, that the elect should be delivered from their sins, his wrath, Satan's power, the sting of death, and that they should obtain eternal life in Christ. The will and pleasure of God is to do them good, they are his "Hephzi-bah," Isa. Ixii. 4; but he hath no pleasure in or special love to others, Mal. i. 10. The effects likewise of his will to help are different toward the elect from those he expresses upon the reprobate; he calling effectually, justifying, redeeming, glorifying the elect, Rom. ix. 15, 18; I Tim. i. 13. "The Lord pitieth them that fear him," Psal. ciii. 13. "He that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about," Psal. xxxii. 10. The Lord is "plenteous in mercy to them that call upon him," Psal. Ixxxvi. 5. Of others he saith, "I will deal in fury; mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity," Ezek. viii. 18. The elect are vessels of mercy, the other of wrath. To the former he is merciful in bestowing upon them an eternal, to the latter in affording a temporal, life. These two differing as much as the mercy with which a man regards his beast does from that wherewith he tenders his son: the beast is fed to be slain, or to be fit for labour; the son to be preserved, and out of a paternal care for his good. To the wicked God affords a drop, to the godly a draught of mercy; to the wicked, the crumbs under the table, to the godly, Christ with all his benefits, that bread of life which endureth to eternal life.

We do well that remember that as Matthew Mead said, "Everything on this side of hell is mercy," and as Richard Allestree wisely noted, "The very breath with which we complain is a blessing" (The Art of Contentment).

We should sing with praise to God and thanksgiving for the Lord's lovingkindness and tender mercies to all with the Psalmist who wrote these words:

1650 Scottish Metrical Psalter:

9 Good unto all men is the Lord:
O'er all his works his mercy is.
10 Thy works all praise to thee afford:
Thy saints, O Lord, thy name shall bless. (Ps. 145.9)

6 Thy justice is like mountains great;
thy judgments deep as floods:
Lord, thou preservest man and beast.
7 How precious is thy grace!
Therefore in shadow of thy wings
men's sons their trust shall place. (Ps. 36.6-7)

What's In A Nickname?

The Puritans had a thing or two to say about nicknames, Robert Bolton in particular. He spoke of 'Puritan' as "the honourable nickname of the best and holiest men" (Mr. Bolton's Last and Learned Worke of the Foure Last Things (1635), p. 12).

Robert Bolton, A Discourse About the True State of Happinesse (1631), p. 163:

I am persuaded there was never poor persecuted word, since malice against God first seized on the damned angels, and the graces of heaven dwelt in the heart of man, that passed through the mouths of all sorts of unregenerate men, with more distastefulness and gnashing of teeth, than the name of puritan doth at this day; which notwithstanding as it is now commonly meant, and ordinarily proceeds from the spleen and spirit of profaneness and good fellowship, as an honourable nickname, that I may so speak, of christianity and grace.

Elsewhere he is reported to have said:

All those nick-names of Puritan, Precisian, Hypocrite, &c. with which lewd tongues are wont to load the saints of God, are so many honourable badges of their worthy deportment in the holy path, and resolute standing on the Lord's side.

Samuel Rutherford, Letters (1894 ed.), p. 512:

I assure you, howbeit we be nicknamed Puritans, that all the powers of the world shall not prevail against us.

George Gillespie, English Popish Ceremonies (1846 ed.), Vol. 1., p. 39:

...they make godly and zealous Christians to be mocked and nicknamed Puritans, except they can swallow the camel of conformity....We know the old Waldenses before us were also named by their adversaries, Cathares or Puritans; and that, without cause, hath this name been given both to them and us.

In the tradition of David, the "sweet Psalmist of Israel," many individual Reformers, Puritans and Reformed have been known to contemporaries and to posterity by nicknames dubbed and bequeathed by both admirers and opponents. Here are a handful to consider.

Thomas Adams, English Puritan (1583-1652) -- "prose Shakespeare of the Puritan theologians"
William Ames, English Puritan (1576-1633) -- "Learned Doctor Ames"
William Bates, English Puritan (1625-1699) -- "Silver-Tongued"
Richard Baxter, English Puritan (1615-1691) -- "Chief of English Protestant Schoolmen"
Wilhelmus à Brakel, Dutch Puritan (1635-1711) -- "Father Brakel"
John Bunyan, English Puritan (1628-1688) -- "Immortal Tinker" and "Immortal Dreamer"
Jeremiah Burroughs, English Puritan (1600-1646) -- "Prince of Preachers"
Richard Cameron, Scottish Covenanter (1648-1680) -- "Lion of the Covenant"
Thomas Cartwright, English Puritan (1535-1603) -- "Father of English Presbyterianism"
John Cotton, English-American Puritan (1585-1652) -- "Patriarch of New England"
Samuel Davies, American Presbyterian (1723-1761) -- "Apostle of Virginia"
David Dickson, Scottish Covenanter (1583-1662) -- "Apostle of the Covenant"
John Duncan, Scottish Presbyterian (1796-1870) -- "Rabbi Duncan"
Jonathan Edwards, American Puritan (1703-1758) -- "America's Greatest Theologian" and "Last Puritan"
Hans Egede, Danish-Norwegian Lutheran (1686-1758) -- "Apostle of Greenland"
John Eliot, English-American Puritan (1604-1690) -- "Apostle to the Indians"
Bernard Gilpin, English Reformer (1517-1583) -- "Apostle of the North" and "Northern Apostle"
William Gouge, English Puritan (1575-1653) -- "Father of the London Divines" and "Arch-Puritan"
John Howe, English Puritan (1630-1705) -- "Platonic Puritan" and "Puritan Plato"
John Kennedy of Dingwall, Scottish Presbyterian (1819-1884) -- "Prince of Highland Preachers"
John MacDonald, Scottish Presbyterian (1779-1849) -- "Apostle of the North"
Thomas Manton, English Puritan (1620-1677) -- "King of Preachers"
Stephen Marshall, English Puritan (1594-1655) -- "Geneva Bull"
Joshua Moody, English-American Puritan (1633-1697) -- "Angelical Doctor"
James Nalton, English Puritan (1600-1662) -- "Weeping Prophet"
John Owen, English Puritan (1616-1683) -- "Prince of the Puritans"
William Perkins, English Puritan (1558-1602) -- "The Calvin of England"
John Robinson, English Separatist (1575-1625) -- "Pastor of the Pilgrim Fathers"
Richard Rogers, English Puritan (1550-1618) -- "Enoch in His Age"
Thomas Shepard, English-American Puritan (1605-1649) -- "Soul-Melting Preacher"
Richard Sibbes, English Puritan (1577-1635) -- "Heavenly Doctor Sibbes"
Henry Smith, English Puritan (1560-1591) -- "Silver-Tongued Smith"
Charles Spurgeon, English Baptist (1834-1892) -- "Prince of Preachers"
Solomon Stoddard, American Puritan (1643-1729) -- "Northampton Pope" and "Pope of Connecticut Valley"
Willem Teellinck, Dutch Puritan (1579-1629) -- "Father of the Dutch Further Reformation"
Pierre Viret, Swiss Reformer (1511-1571) -- "Angel of the Reformation" and "Smile of the Reformation"
John White, English Puritan (1575-1648) -- "Patriarch of Dorchester" and "Founder of Massachusetts"
John Wycliffe, English Reformer (1385-1384) -- "Morning Star of the Reformation"

Cellar of Affliction

It is commonly reported that Samuel Rutherford said: "The secret formula of the saints: When in the cellar of affliction, I look for the Lord's choicest wines." Another variation of this oft-repeated quote is: "When cast in the cellars of affliction, remember the great King keeps his wine there." It is a noble quote and the sentiment is certainly in accord with the mind of Rutherford from what I know of him. However, to me, the language does not quite sound like his and, having spent some time researching this, I wonder if these are his words or perhaps a revised version of something else he said.

I have investigated the source of this quote only to ascertain if it is really his not to take anything away from the quote. It may be that he said it after all, but so far I have not been able to find it sourced anywhere in his writings. It is only very rarely that any source is ascribed to the quote at all beyond Rutherford's name. Joel Beeke quoted the line, along with others, in The Quest for Full Assurance: The Legacy of Calvin and His Successors, p. 162, and provided a footnote to p. 52ff of the 1881 edition of his Letters; although the other quotes referenced on p. 162 are found there, this particular quote is not. However, there are some other lines in his Letters that seem to echo the thought, if not the exact language.

Letter 35 (First Part, June 15, 1637) [Letter 177 of Andrew Bonar's 1891 ed.] (p. 105 of Thomas Smith's 1881 ed.):

O, that my Master would take up house again, and lend me the keys of His wine-cellar again, and God send me borrowed drink till then.

Letter 50 (First Part, 1637) [Letter 249 of Andrew Bonar's 1891 ed.] (p. 129 of Thomas Smith's 1881 ed.):

But for you hing on, your feast is not far off; ye shall be filled ere ye go, there is as much in our Lord's pantry, as will satisfy all His bairns, and as much wine in His cellar as will quench all their thirst.

Letter 122 (First Part, June 15, 1637) [Letter 179 of Andrew Bonar's 1891 ed.] (p. 224 of Thomas Smith's 1881 ed.):

I wish, for my part, I could send you, and that gentleman who wrote his commendations to me, into the King's innermost cellar and house of wine to be filled with love. A drink of this love is worth the having indeed.

Letter 32 (Second Part, February 13, 1640) [Letter 295 of Andrew Bonar's 1891 ed.] (p. 431 of Thomas Smith's 1881 ed.):

Come, come, dear friend, and be pained, that the King's wine-cellar of free love, and His banqueting-house (O so wide, so stately! O so Godlike, so glory-like!) should be so abundant, so overflowing, and your shallow vessel so little, to take in some part of that love.

Letter 3 (Third Part, July 21, 1630) [Letter 12 of Andrew Bonar's 1891 ed.] (p. 488 of Thomas Smith's 1881 ed.):

You have been of late in the King's wine-cellar, where you were welcomed by the Lord of the inn, upon condition that ye would walk in love; put on love, and brotherly kindness, and long-suffering; wait as long upon the favour and turned hearts of your enemies, as your Christ waited upon you, and as dear Jesus stood at your soul's door with dewy and rainy locks, the long cold night; be angry but sin not.

I hope that if my research is incomplete and this quote is properly ascribed to Rutherford after all, that someone will kindly provide the citation. Regardless, may each child of God who finds himself or herself in the cellar of affliction drink deeply of the King's choice wine and be filled with his love.

Tyranny: A Maxim

Samuel Rutherford, Lex Rex, or, The Law and the Prince (1644), Question IX. Whether or No Sovereignty is So From the People, That It Remaineth In Them In Some Part, So As They May, In Case of Necessity, Resume It, p. 34:

I am not now unseasonably, according to the Prelate's order, to dispute of the power of lawful defence against tyranny; but, I lay down this maxim of divinity: Tyranny being a work of Satan, is not from God, because sin, either habitual or actual, is not from God: the power that is, must be from God; the magistrate, as magistrate, is good in nature of office, and the intrinsic end of his office, (Rom. xiii. 4) for he is the minister of God for thy good; and, therefore, a power ethical, politic, or moral, to oppress, is not from God, and is not a power, but a licentious deviation of a power; and is no more from God, but from sinful nature and the old serpent, than a license to sin.

Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God (Part 3)

This is a continuation in a study of sources upon which the U.S. Declaration of Independence was drawn from, extracted for consideration as the Fourth of July commemorations draw near.

* July 26, 1581 - The Act of Abjuration, or Dutch Declaration of Independence, was signed, whereby the Dutch Low Countries declared their independence from Spain (read it online here).

As it is apparent to all that a prince is constituted by God to be ruler of a people, to defend them from oppression and violence as the shepherd his sheep; and whereas God did not create the people slaves to their prince, to obey his commands, whether right or wrong, but rather the prince for the sake of the subjects (without which he could be no prince), to govern them according to equity, to love and support them as a father his children or a shepherd his flock, and even at the hazard of life to defend and preserve them. And when he does not behave thus, but, on the contrary, oppresses them, seeking opportunities to infringe their ancient customs and privileges, exacting from them slavish compliance, then he is no longer a prince, but a tyrant, and the subjects are to consider him in no other view. And particularly when this is done deliberately, unauthorized by the states, they may not only disallow his authority, but legally proceed to the choice of another prince for their defense. This is the only method left for subjects whose humble petitions and remonstrances could never soften their prince or dissuade him from his tyrannical proceedings; and this is what the law of nature dictates for the defense of liberty, which we ought to transmit to posterity, even at the hazard of our lives. And this we have seen done frequently in several countries upon the like occasion, whereof there are notorious instances, and more justifiable in our land, which has been always governed according to their ancient privileges, which are expressed in the oath taken by the prince at his admission to the government; for most of the Provinces receive their prince upon certain conditions, which he swears to maintain, which, if the prince violates, he is no longer sovereign.

* 1603 -- Johannes Althusius published Politica.

Chapter XXXVIII - Tyranny and Its Remedies
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When a ruler has failed only in some part of his office or government, however, he is not immediately to be called a tyrant. Regarding such a person one must consider that even the best at some time or other are weak in the performance of their offices, and are not for this reason to be thought of and treated as tyrants, provided the foundations and bonds of the universal association remain safe and unharmed, and are not shaken, assaulted, or upset by vices or faults of princes. Nor is one to be treated as a tyrant who, having already started on the road to tyranny, nevertheless does not obstinately and insanely persist on it. For the wicked life of a magistrate does not invalidate his royal authority, just as a marriage is not dissolved by every misdeed committed by one mate against another — unless it is the misdeed of adultery, because this is directly contrary to the nature of marriage. So not every misdeed of a magistrate deprives him of his sceptre, but only that in which he, having accepted and then neglected the just rule of administration, acts contrary to the fundamentals and essence of human association, and destroys civil and social life....

* 1613 -- David Pareus' Commentary on Romans (see David Pareus, Operum theologicorum, Vol. II, pp. 246-263) was published, a book that was burned publicly at Oxford and Cambridge in 1622 by order of the British Privy Council because of its exposition of Romans 13, which upholds the Calvinist theory of resistance to tyranny.

* August 4, 1642 - The British Parliament, already engaged in a civil war with King Charles I, issued its Declaration of the Lords and Commons to Justify Their Taking Up Arms (found online in part here, and in full at John Rushworth, ed., Historical Collections of Private Passages of State, Weighty Matters in Law, Remarkable Proceedings in Five Parliaments (1680-1722), vol. 4, pp. 761-768; or online at 'House of Lords Journal Volume 5: 2 August 1642', Journal of the House of Lords: volume 5: 1642-1643 (1802), pp. 256-260). This document, sometimes referred to as the Puritan Declaration of Independence, was directly influential upon the 1775 Second Continental Congress as mentioned below.

We the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled, having taken into serious Consideration, the present State and Condition of imminent Danger in which the Kingdom now stands, by reason of a Malignant Party prevailing with his Majesty, putting him upon violent and perilous Ways, and now in Arms against us, to the hazarding of his Majesty's Person, and for the Oppression of the true Religion, the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom, and the Power and Priviledge of Parliament: all of which every honest Mand is bound to defend, especially those who have taken the late Protestation, by which they are more particularly tied unto it; and the more answerable before God, should they neglect it:

Wherefore we finding ourselves ingaged in a Necessity to take up Arms likewise for the Defense of these, which otherwise might suffer and perish, And having used all the good ways and means to prevent Extremities, and preserve the Peace of the Kingdom (which good endeavors of ours the Malignity of our Enemies hath rendered altogether successless and vain) do now think fit to to give this Account unto the World, to be a Satisfaction unto all Men of the Justice of our Proceedings, and a Warning unto those who are involved in the same Danger with us, to let them see the Necessity and Duty which lies upon them, to save themselves, their Religion and Country, for which purpose we set out this ensuing Declaration.
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Therefore, we the Lords and Commons, are resolved to expose our Lives and Fortunes for the Defence and Maintenance of the true Religion, the King's Person, Honour and Estate, the Power and Priviledge of Parliament, and the Just Rights and Liberties of the Subjects.
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And we do here require all those who have any sense of Piety, Honour or Compassion, to help a distressed State, especially such as have taken the Protestation, and are bound in the same Duty with us unto their God, their King and Country, to come into our Aid and Assistance: This being the true cause for which we raise and Army, under the command of the Earl of Essex, which whom in this Quarrel we will live and die.

* 1644 -- Samuel Rutherford published Lex Rex (read it online here) is a major Calvinistic treatise which teaches that the king is under the law, not above it, and that the ruler who becomes a tyrant may lawfully be resisted.

Question XXVIII. Whether or no wars raised by the subjects and estates, for their own just defence against the king's bloody emissaries, be lawful.
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We hold, that the king using, contrary to the oath of God and his royal office, violence in killing; against law and conscience, his subjects, by bloody emissaries, may be resisted by defensive wars, at the commandment of the estates of the kingdom.

* 1648 -- John Goodwin published Right and Might Well Met to vindicate the British Parliament and its army against charges of rebellion in its resistance to King Charles I.

The first-born of the strength of those who condemn the said act of the Army as unlawful, lieth in this: that the actors had no sufficient authority to do what they did therein, but acted out of their sphere, and so became transgressors of that law which commandeth every man to keep order, and within the compass of his calling.

To this I answer: . . . as our Saviour saith (Matt. 2. 27) that the sabbath was made for man (i.e., for the benefit of man), and not man for the sabbath, so certain it is, that callings were made for men, and not men for callings. Therefore the law of the sabbath, though enacted by God, was of right, and according to the intention of the great Lawgiver himself, to give place to the necessary accommodations of men, and ought not to be pleaded in bar hereunto; in like manner, if the law of callings at any time opposeth, or lieth cross to, the necessary conveniences of men, during the time of this opposition it suffereth a total eclipse of the binding power of it.

* 1649 -- John Milton published The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (read it online here).

For if all human power to execute, not accidentally but intendedly, the wrath of God upon evil doers without exception, be of God; then that power, whether ordinary, or if that faile, extraordinary so executing that intent of God, is lawfull, and not to be resisted. But to unfold more at large this whole Question, though with all expedient brevity, I shall here set downe from first beginning, the original of Kings; how and wherfore exalted to that dignitie above thir Brethren; and from thence shall prove, that turning to Tyranny they may bee as lawfully depos'd and punish'd, as they were at first elected: This I shall doe by autorities and reasons, not learnt in corners among Scisms and Heresies, as our doubling Divines are ready to calumniat, but fetch't out of the midst of choicest and most authentic learning, and no prohibited Authors, nor many Heathen, but Mosaical, Christian, Orthodoxal, and which must needs be more convincing to our Adversaries, Presbyterial.
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It follows lastly, that since the King or Magistrate holds his autoritie of the people, both originaly and naturally for their good in the first place, and not his own, then may the people as oft as they shall judge it for the best, either choose him or reject him, retaine him or depose him though no Tyrant, meerly by the liberty and right of free born Men, to be govern'd as seems to them best. This, though it cannot but stand with plain reason, shall be made good also by Scripture. Deut. 17.14. When thou art come into the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt say I will set a King over mee, like as all the Nations about mee. These words confirme us that the right of choosing, yea of changing thir own Goverment is by the grant of God himself in the People.
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Therfore Saint Paul in the forecited Chapter tells us that such Magistrates he meanes, as are, not a terror to the good but to the evil; such as beare not the sword in vaine, but to punish offenders, and to encourage the good. If such onely be mentiond here as powers to be obeyd, and our submission to them onely requir'd, then doubtless those powers that doe the contrary, are no powers ordain'd of God, and by consequence no obligation laid upon us to obey or not to resist them.

* January 30, 1750 -- Jonathan Mayhew preached his famous sermon, A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to Higher Powers, credited by John Adams with being greatly influential in leading to the commencement of the War of American Independence.

Let us now trace the apostle's reasoning in favor of submission to the higher powers, a little more particularly and exactly. For by this it will appear, on one hand, how good and conclusive it is, for submission to those rulers who exercise their power in a proper manner: And, on the other, how weak and trifling and unconnected it is, if it be supposed to be meant by the apostle to show the obligation and duty of obedience to tyrannical, oppressive rulers in common with others of a different character.
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Thus, upon a careful review of the apostle's reasoning in this passage, it appears that his arguments to enforce submission, are of such a nature, as to conclude only in favor of submission to such rulers as he himself describes; i.e., such as rule for the good of society, which is the only end of their institution. Common tyrants, and public oppressors, are not intitled to obedience from their subjects, by virtue of any thing here laid down by the inspired apostle.

I now add, farther, that the apostle's argument is so far from proving it to be the duty of people to obey, and submit to, such rulers as act in contradiction to the public good, and so to the design of their office, that it proves the direct contrary. For, please to observe, that if the end of all civil government, be the good of society; if this be the thing that is aimed at in constituting civil rulers; and if the motive and argument for submission to government, be taken from the apparent usefulness of civil authority; it follows, that when no such good end can be answered by submission, there remains no argument or motive to enforce it; if instead of this good* end's being brought about by submission, a contrary end is brought about, and the ruin and misery of society effected by it, here is a plain and positive reason against submission in all such cases, should they ever happen. And therefore, in such cases, a regard to the public welfare, ought to make us withhold from our rulers, that obedience and subjection which it would, otherwise, be our duty to render to them. If it be our duty, for example, to obey our king, merely for this reason, that he rules for the public welfare, (which is the only argument the apostle makes use of) it follows, by a parity of reason, that when he turns tyrant, and makes his subjects his prey to devour and to destroy, instead of his charge to defend and cherish, we are bound to throw off our allegiance to him, and to resist; and that according to the tenor of the apostle's argument in this passage.

* May 20, 1775 - The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence (although its authenticity has been questioned by some) was signed by the citizens of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, becoming the first declaration of independence issued within the British colonies (read it online here).

Resolved: That whosoever directly or indirectly abets or in any way way form or manner, covutenances the invasion of our rights, as attempted by the Parliment of Great Britain, is an enemy to his country, to America, and the rights of man.

Resolved: That we, the citizens of Mecklenburg county, do hereby disolve the political bonds which have connected us with the mother country, and absolve ourselves from all allegiance to the British crown, abjuring all political connection with a nation that has wantonly trampled on our rights and liberties and inhumanly shed the innocent blood of Americans at Lexington.

Resolved: That we do hereby declare ourselves a free and independent people, that we are and of right to be, a sovereign and self-governing people under the power of God and the general Congress; to the maintenance of which independence we solemnly pledge to each other our mutual cooperation, our lives, our fortunes, and our most sacred honor.

* May 31, 1775 - The Charlotte Town Resolves were issued by the Mecklenburg County, North Carolina Committee of Safety (read it online here).

* July 6, 1775 - The Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms (read it online here), written by Thomas Jefferson and John Dickinson, and issued by the Second Continental Congress, was signed. Thomas Jefferson's Autobiography records his study of the historical collections of John Rushworth, personal secretary to Oliver Cromwell, who is the source of record for the British Parliament's August 4, 1642 Declaration of of the Lords and Commons to Justify Their Taking Up Arms, which is the primary model for the 1775 Continental Congress Declaration.

Our cause is just. Our union is perfect. Our internal resources are great, and, if necessary, foreign assistance is undoubtedly attainable. -- We gratefully acknowledge, as signal instances of the Divine favour towards us, that his Providence would not permit us to be called into this severe controversy, until we were grown up to our present strength, had been previously exercised in warlike operation, and possessed of the means of defending ourselves. With hearts fortified with these animating reflections, we most solemnly, before God and the world, declare, that, exerting the utmost energy of those powers, which our beneficent Creator hath graciously bestowed upon us, the arms we have been compelled by our enemies to assume, we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverence, employ for the preservation of our liberties; being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live slaves.

Lest this declaration should disquiet the minds of our friends and fellow-subjects in any part of the empire, we assure them that we mean not to dissolve that union which has so long and so happily subsisted between us, and which we sincerely wish to see restored. -- Necessity has not yet driven us into that desperate measure, or induced us to excite any other nation to war against them. -- We have not raised armies with ambitious designs of separating from Great-Britain, and establishing independent states. We fight not for glory or for conquest. We exhibit to mankind the remarkable spectacle of a people attacked by unprovoked enemies, without any imputation or even suspicion of offence. They boast of their privileges and civilization, and yet proffer no milder conditions than servitude or death.

In our own native land, in defence of the freedom that is our birthright, and which we ever enjoyed till the late violation of it -- for the protection of our property, acquired solely by the honest industry of our fore-fathers and ourselves, against violence actually offered, we have taken up arms. We shall lay them down when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, and all danger of their being renewed shall be removed, and not before.

With an humble confidence in the mercies of the supreme and impartial Judge and Ruler of the Universe, we most devoutly implore his divine goodness to protect us happily through this great conflict, to dispose our adversaries to reconciliation on reasonable terms, and thereby to relieve the empire from the calamities of civil war.

Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography, in The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 1, pp. 6-7:

The next event which excited our sympathies for Massachusetts, was the Boston port bill, by which that port was to be shut up on the 1st of June, 1774. This arrived while we were in session in the spring of that year. The lead in the House, on these subjects, being no longer left to the old members, Mr. [Patrick] Henry, R. H. [Robert Lee, Fr. L. Lee, three or four other members, whom I do not recollect, and myself, agreeing that we must boldly take an unequivocal stand in the line with Massachusetts, determined to meet and consult on the proper measures, in the council-chamber, for the benefit of the library in that room. We were under conviction of the necessity of arousing our people from the lethargy into which they had fallen, as to passing events ; and thought that the appointment of a day of general fasting and prayer would be most likely to call up and alarm their attention. No example of such a solemnity had existed since the days of our distresses in the war of '55, since which a new generation had grown up. With the help, therefore, of Rushworth, whom we rummaged over for the revolutionary precedents and forms of the Puritans of that day, preserved by him, we cooked up a resolution, somewhat modernizing their phrases, for appointing the 1st day of June, on which the port-bill was to commence, for a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer, to implore Heaven to avert from us the evils of civil war, to inspire us with firmness in support of our rights, and to turn the hearts of the King and Parliament to moderation and justice. To give greater emphasis to our proposition, we agreed to wait the next morning on Mr. Nicholas, whose grave and religious character was more in unison with the tone of our resolution, and to solicit him to move it. We accordingly went to him in the morning. He moved it the same day; the 1st of June was proposed; and it passed without opposition. The Governor dissolved us, as usual.

* July 4, 1776 - The United States Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Second Continental Congress, and signed on August 2, 1776.

Stay tuned tomorrow (DV) for the story of the Patriot Pastor.