Heavenlize Your Spirit

Bartholomew Ashwood, The Heavenly Trade, pp. 144-146:

Fifthly, Dwell much in the meditation of Heaven; this will heavenlize your spirit: 'Twas this made the Apostles persons of such heavenly spirits; they did often look to things above. 1 Cor. 4.18. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. No affliction could discourage them from owning and professing Christ; nor earthly comforts allure their desires and delights from Christ; and that which so strongly guarded their hearts from either of these dangers, was a firm persuasion of an interest in future glory, and a diligent observing eye upon this glory: a levelling look at this mark does wonderfully raise the heart towards it, and put in a new spirit and life into the soul, strongly engaging all its attempts towards the enjoyment of it: Frequent contemplations of Heaven do much wean the heart from this Earth. If thou remembrest thou art not of this world, earthly things shall only be admitted into the Court of the Temple, not into the heart, which is the Holy of Holies, [Anthony Burgess] on 17. John. How contemptibly did those Worthies of old look on this world, when once they got sights of Heaven! Heb. 11, They counted themselves strangers and pilgrims on the Earth; were not mindful of their own Country; went out from it; would no more return to it; sought an heavenly Country; were persuaded of those great and glorious things above, and embraced them; laid hold of them by faith: and made after them: and that which did so powerfully work over their spirits to these things above, was their believing sights of them. V. 13. These all died in the faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off; that, the things promised, (viz.) heavenly things, of which Canaan was a type. So [David] Pareus refers the participles here to the things signified of the promise, that heavenly Country which they only desired. Things nearest Heaven (saith one [Thomas Adams]) take least care of the Earth: The Fowls of the Air neither plow nor sow. The glory of the world seems little to one that dwells much on the believing views of Heaven. 'Tis said of Fulgentius, That when he beheld the splendour and joy of Rome, the glory of the Roman nobility, the triumphant pomp of King Theodorick, he was so far from being taken with it, that it raised up his desires after heavenly joys the more, saying, How beautiful may the Celestial Jerusalem be, when [terrestrial] Rome so glittereth! If such honour be given to lovers of vanity, what glory shall be imparted to the Saints, who are lovers and followers of truth! Serious thoughts of Heaven will inflame desires after it: Our conversation is in Heaven (saith Paul) whence also we look for the Saviour, who shall change our vile bodies into the likeness of his glorious body. Phil. 3.20. We wait, hope for, and expect Heaven, to be where this blessed Country is; the breadth and length of which we now look into by faith. If your thoughts be much on Heaven, your longings will be much for Heaven. I have read of one being in his journey towards Jerusalem, though he saw famous Cities in his way, and met with many friendly entertainments; yet would often say, I must not stay here this is not Jerusalem: So will thy heart say (if thou conversest much in Heaven now) when thou meetest with the most desirable comforts of this life; yet this is not Heaven; my affections must not stay here. Allow time every day to take some turns in the upper world, and to get thy heart held in the galleries above; where are the sweetest delicacies, and most delighting views to take thy heart, and sublimate thy affections to these pure and eternal things?

Thomas Watson, A Body of Practical Divinity, p. 448:

1. Are we heavenly in our Contemplations? Do our Thoughts run upon this Kingdom? Do we get sometimes upon Mount Pisgah; and take a Prospect of Glory? Thoughts are as Travellers: Most of David's Thoughts travelled Heaven's Road, Psalm 139.17. Are our Minds heavenliz'd? Psalm 4812. Walk about Zion, tell the Towers thereof, mark ye well her Bulwarks. Do we walk into the heavenly Mount, and see what a Glorious situation it is? Do we tell the Towers of that Kingdom? While a Christian fixeth his Thoughts on God and Glory, he doth as it were tread upon the Borders of the heavenly Kingdom, and he peeps within the Vail: As Moses, who had a sight of Canaan, tho' he did not enter into it; so the heavenly Christian hath a sight of Heaven, tho he be not yet entered into it.

Jacula Prudentum

George Herbert -- who died on this date, March 1, 1633 -- is a favorite poet of mine. But his works are not limited to poetry. If you enjoy reading proverbs, take the opportunity to read his remarkable collection of "outlandish proverbs" entitled Jacula Prudentum. Originally compiled in 1632, it was first published posthumously in 1640, and then in expanded form in 1651. Although the credit assigned to him as the compiler of these proverbs has been challenged (in 1857 by James Yeowell), I think the historical attribution of Herbert as the editor has withstood the challenge.

Herbert was not the author then, of these proverbs, but the compiler, and the credit assigned to him is that of an editor whose collected proverbs have lived on even to our own day. If you recognize the following aphorisms or variations thereof, we owe much to Herbert's recording labors.

"Man proposeth, God disposeth." ["For man proposes, but God disposes." -- Thomas à Kempis]
"He loseth nothing, that loseth not God."
"Love, and a Cough, cannot be hid."
"He that will learn to pray, let him go to Sea."
"Love your neighbour, yet pull not down your hedge." ["Good fences make good neighbors." -- Robert Frost]
"Buy at a fair, but sell at home."
"God heals, and the Physician hath the thanks."
"Hell is full of good meanings and wishings." ["Hell is full of good desires." -- Bernard of Clairvaux]
"Sometimes the best gain is to lose."
"Knowledge is folly except grace guide it."
"Fear nothing but sin." ["Therefore, let us fear nothing so much as sin and transgression." -- John Chrysostom]
"All is not gold that glitters." ["But all thing which that schyneth as the gold / Ne is no gold, as I have herd it told." -- Geoffrey Chaucer]
"Be not a Baker, if your head be of butter."
"Good finds good."
"The greatest step is that out of doors." ["It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door," he used to say. "You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to. -- J.R.R. Tolkien]
"Hope is the poor man's bread."
"On a good bargain think twice."
"Help thyself, and God will help thee." ["God helps those who help themselves." -- Benjamin Franklin]
"You may bring a horse to the river, but he will drink when and what he pleaseth."
"More have repented speech than silence."
"God's Mill grinds slow, but sure."
"Give not Saint Peter so much, to leave Saint Paul nothing."
"For want of a nail the shoe is lost, for want of a shoe the horse is lost, for want of a horse the rider is lost." [“The want of a nail loseth the shoe, the loss of a shoe troubles the horse, the horse endangereth the rider, the rider breaking his rank molests the company so far as to hazard the whole army.” -- Thomas Adams, 1629]
"A penny spared is twice got."
"Bear with evil, and expect good." ["I am ready for favourable events in every case, but I am prepared for evil." -- Seneca]
"Living well is the best revenge."
"Life is half spent before we know what it is."

Every Man Dies, But Not Every Man Truly Lives

Ascribed to Walt Whitman or William Wallace (Braveheart):

Every man dies, but not every man truly lives.

The story of Similis, captain of the guard for the Roman Emperor Hadrian, is illustrative of this point. I would add for clarification that it is not cloistering oneself from the world which is to be commended, but rather the life redeemed and, forsaking vanity, spent for God in this world.

Charles Buck, Anecdotes: Religious, Moral, and Entertaining, p. 93:

Similis, captain of the guards to Adrian, got leave to quit that emperor's service, and spent the last seven years of his life in rural retirement. At his death, he ordered the following inscription on his tomb: "Here lies Similis, who lived but seven years, though he died at sixty-seven." Our true age, and our real life, are to be dated from the time of our abstraction from the world, and of our conversation to God.

Onward (Vol. 2, 1869), p. 95:

Life is not always to be estimated by years. "Here he lies who was so many years, but lived only seven," was the inscription on the tomb of Similis of Xiphilim. The writer of the epitaph correctly estimated the life of Similis, for the great man lived usefully but seven years.

John Carstares (Carstairs), Preface, p. xii, to James Durham, The Blessed Death of Those Who Die in the Lord:

The story is told of one Similis, captain of the Roman emperor Hadrian's guard, who had lived long in the city and at court, and had some seven years before his death retired to a private country house, where he thought that he had enjoyed himself more, being freed from the avocations, distractions, noise, and cumbersome converse of a court life. He commanded that after his death it should be written over his grave, "Here lies Similis who was many years old, but lived only seven." How many professors of religion are there, I say, who may thus sadly and sorrowfully complain of themselves when they come to die, "Ah! we have been here many years, but have either none at all, or but very few years." For that life that is not lived to God, and to the honor and glory of Jesus Christ, is not at all worthy of the denomination of "life," since we are, all the time we live so, but dead while we live.

Thomas Adams, Sermon XXXI: "The Two Sons; or, The Dissolute Conferred With the Hypocrite," in Works, Vol. 2, p. 89:

I have read of a courtier that, wearied with that few in these days will be wearied of, -- glorious vanities, gallant miseries, -- retired himself into the country, where he lived privately seven years. Dying, he caused this epitaph to be engraven on his tomb: Hic jacet Similis, cujus aetas multorum annorum fuit: ipse duntaxat septem annos virit; --

'Here lies Similis, whose age
Saw many years on this world's stage.
His own account is far less given,
He says he only lived seven;'

esteeming the compass of his life no longer than his retiring himself from worldly vanities. So it may be said of a wicked old man: Non dia vixit, sed diu fuit, -- He hath not lived long, but been long upon the earth. After this rule many good men have reckoned their years: not from the time of their birth, but of their new birth; accounting only from that day when they were supernaturally born again, not when naturally born into the world: as if all that time were lost which an unsanctified life took up.

Quote Chain

John Brentnall wrote an eloquent publishers' foreword to the Puritan Paperback edition of Richard Sibbes' The Bruised Reed, which begins thus:

`Our books may come to be seen where ourselves shall never be heard. These may preach where the author cannot, and (which is more) when he is not.' This prediction by one of the great Puritans has had many fulfillments. An ungodly Welsh clergyman, shopping at a fair in the eighteenth century, bought an article which happened to be wrapped in a page torn from an old Puritan folio. The reading of that one page led to his sound conversion. As Luther said, `Satan hates the use of pens,' and never were pens more powerfully wielded in the cause of God than by the Puritan divines of the seventeenth century. Nor have their books outlived their usefulness. Although the original volumes are worn with age, the truths found in them are as fresh as the new formats in which they are now appearing.

To flesh out these words a bit, as a personal exercise in reading to better understand and researching as needed to fulfill that goal, I thought it would be useful to explore the allusions made. The fruits of my research turned into the following quote chain.

The author of the initial quote is Thomas Adams who, writing "[t]o the candid and ingenious reader" in Volume 1 of his Works said (pp. xix-xx):

Speech is only for presence, writings have their use in absence: quo, liceat libris, non licet ire mihi, -- our books may come to be seen where ourselves shall never be heard. These may preach when the author cannot, and (which is more) when he is not.

The Latin line quoted by Thomas Adams comes from Ovid's Amores (The Loves) 3.8 (Elegy VIII - To His Mistress, Complaining That She Has Given Preference To A Wealthier Rival):

cum pulchre dominae nostri placuere libelli,
quo licuit libris, non licet ire mihi;

Although my books have pleased my mistress well,
where my books are allowed to go, I am not.

The story of the Welsh clergyman converted after reading a paper torn from a Puritan folio bought at a fair evidented occurred in the 17th century rather than the 18th; the source is John Flavel who wrote The Mystery of Providence in 1678 (Part I, The Evidence of Providence, Chap. 3, The Work of Conversion):

A scrap of paper, accidentally coming to view, has been used as an occasion of conversion. This was the case of a minister in Wales, who had two livings, but took little care of either. Being at a fair, he bought something at a pedlar’s stall, and tore off a leaf of Mr Perkins’ Catechism to wrap it in, and reading a line or two in it, God sent it home so as it did the work.

Charles Buck, Anecdotes, Religious, Moral, and Entertaining (1831 ed.), p. 115, elaborates:

The Minister Converted By Going To The Fair

Various are the ways in which God is pleased to bring his people to the knowledge of himself. Sometimes it is by stated ordinances, and sometimes by means apparently insignificant. "A scrap of paper," says Flavel, "coming to view, has been used as an occasion of conversion." This was the case of a minister in Wales, who had two livings, and cared little for either. Being at a fair, he bought something at a pedlar's standing, who rent off a leaf of Mr. Perkin's Catechism to wrap it in, and reading a line or two in it, it proved the means of his conversion.

"Mr Perkins' Catechism" refers to The Foundation of the Christian Religion gathered into Six Principles by William Perkins, first published in 1591.

The line from Martin Luther has proven somewhat difficult for me to pin down, but the connection between Luther and his ink is well known. It is said that while in conflict with the Devil he would often thrown his inkwell against the wall, after which he was reported to have said that he had "driven the Devil away with ink." In fact, I have been shown stains on the wall of a room in the Wartburg Castle which are said to be evidence of these events, although it is highly unlikely that actual stains from Luther's inkwell remain on that wall.

Moncure Daniel Conway, Demonology and Devil-Lore (1879 ed.), Vol. 2, p. 286:

Referring to Luther's inkstand thrown at the Devil, Dr. Zerffii, in his lecture on the Devil, says, 'He (the devil) hates nothing so much as writing or printers' ink.'

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"