Puritan Galaxy

Samuel Dunn, Memoirs of the Seventy-Five Divines: Whose Discourses Form the Morning Exercises at Cripplegate, St. Giles in the Fields, and in Southwark: With An Outline of a Sermon From each Author, p. vi:

Among such a number of writers, there will be perceived a rich variety of talent, and a great diversity of style. [John] Howe is distinguished for his original thinking and splendid imagery; [Richard] Baxter, for his fertility of genius, copiousness, and persuasiveness; [Stephen] Charnock, for energy and richness of thought; [David] Clarkson and [Thomas] Doolittle, for manly sense; [Thomas] Manton, for perspicuity; [William] Bates, for ease and elegance; [John] Owen, [Matthew] Poole, [Joseph] Hill, and [Theophilus] Gale, for deep erudition; [Thomas] Case and [Thomas] Watson, for spirituality and quaintness; [Vincent] Alsop and [Daniel] Burgess, for wit and smartness; [Thomas] Gouge, [Samuel] Annesley, and [Daniel] Williams, for pure and expansive benevolence: -- lights of various magnitudes and splendour; for in the mental and moral, as well as in the celestial hemisphere, one star differeth from another star in glory.

Puritan Polymath

John Wallis is a name perhaps better known to 21st century mathematicians than 21st century church-goers. But he is worth highlighting because he was, as it were, a Puritan polymath, or Renaissance man, versatile in so many ways. His list of credentials and accomplishments is a marvel to read. He

• Studied under Martin Holbeach (1597-1670), a noted Puritan educator, who also taught Isaac Barrow

• Was the protégé of Herbert Palmer

• Was a Minister of the Gospel

• Served as amenuensis to the scribes of the Westminster Assembly

• Was influential in the preparation and design of the Westminster Shorter Catechism

• Was the author of the first exposition of the Westminster Shorter Catechism (1648)

• Was an Ardent defender of the doctrines of the Trinity, Infant Baptism and the Christian Sabbath

• Was a leading mathematician who is partially responsible for the development of modern calculus, credited with proposing Wallis' Product, introduced the term "continued fraction", coined the phrase "interpolation"

• Was perhaps the first to maintain the theory of circulation of blood in a public disputation

• Was involved in a plan to teach deaf-mutes how to speak

• Authored an English grammar for native speakers and foreigners

• Served as chief cryptographer for Parliament and the royal court between 1643-1689

• Was one of the first members of the Royal Society

• Was appointed Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford

• Is credited with introducing the ∞ symbol for infinity

• Was the last surviving member of the Westminster Assembly of Divines (d. October 28, 1703) at the age of 87. [Thomas Case was the last nonconforming Westminster Divine, having died on May 30, 1684, at the age of 84.]

• His autobiography provides the last first-hand account of the proceedings of the Westminster Assembly

• Asteroid 31982 Johnwallis is named for him

His intellectual gifts were astounding. Wikipedia writes:

One aspect of Wallis's mathematical skills has not yet been mentioned, namely his great ability to do mental calculations. He slept badly and often did mental calculations as he lay awake in his bed. One night he calculated the square root of a number with 53 digits in his head. In the morning he dictated the 27 digit square root of the number, still entirely from memory. It was a feat which was rightly considered remarkable, and Henry Oldenburg, the Secretary of the Royal Society, sent a colleague to investigate how Wallis did it. It was considered important enough to merit discussion in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of 1685.

Wallis gives his own account of the matter in a letter to Thomas Smith of Madalene College, which is found in the Spectator, Vol. LII (1879), p. 11 and reproduced by E.W. Scripture, "Arithmetical Prodigies," in The American Journal of Psychology, Vol. IV (April 1891), p. 38:

December 22d, 1669. -- In a dark night, in bed, without pen, ink or paper or anything equivalent, I did by memory extract the square root of 30000,00000,00000,00000,00000,00000,00000,00000, which I found to be 1,77205,08075,68077,29353, fere, and did the next day commit it to writing.

February 18th, 1670. -- Johannes Georgius Pelshower (Regimontannus Borussus) giving me a visit, and desiring an example of the like, I did that night propose to myself in the dark without help to my memory a number in 53 places: 2468135791011112141113151618207192122242628302325272931 of which I extracted the square root in 27 places: 157103016871482805817152171 proxime; which numbers I did not commit to paper till he gave me another visit, March following, which I did from memory dictate them to him.

Yours, etc.,
John Wallis

The discussion by church historians of his role and influence on the productions of the Westminster Assembly may be of particular interest.

William M. Hetherington, History of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, pp. 259-260:

It has been also conjectured, that the first outline of the Catechism may have been drawn by Dr. Wallis, one of the scribes of the Assembly at that period, and afterwards so justly celebrated as Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford, and one of the first mathematicians of the age. This conjecture may have arisen from the fact that he wrote a short treatise, entitled, "A Brief and Easy Explanation of the Shorter Catechism;" which was so much approved of by the Assembly that they caused it to be presented to both Houses of Parliament. But in truth, as has been already suggested, the framing of the Catechism appears to have been the work of the committee, and not of any one individual; and it was brought to its present admirable degree of nearness to perfection by the united deliberations of the whole Assembly.

Chad Van Dixhoorn, The Making of the Westminster Larger Catechism:

Having outlined the historical purpose of the Larger Catechism, it still seems appropriate to ask why the Catechism had to be written. After all, respected teachers in Britain had composed good catechisms; Calvin’s catechism was in the bookstores and so was the Heidelberg Catechism. Why could the Assemblymen not agree to use one of these catechisms for purposes of unity and instruction?

One answer has to do with the structure or format of earlier catechisms that the majority of Westminster divines did not like. In the eighth edition of A Brief and Easie Explanation of the Shorter Catechism, a young divine named John Wallis, explains the Assembly’s unique method in setting up the catechism: “The Assembly was careful that all the Answers might be entire sentences by themselves, without depending for their sense upon the foregoing Question, being indeed so many distinct Aphorisms, containing briefly the grounds of Christian Religion.” One benefit of this structure, in Wallis’s view,

is that the learner is not necessitated to charge his memory with the Questions, that he may understand the Answer [sic]; nor is the like danger, as in many other Catechisms, of confounding the understanding by misapplying the Answer to a wrong Question. Their Questions also are so framed, that any one of them may be asked singly and distinctly, without dependance on the Question foregoing.14

14. John Wallis, A Brief and Easie Explanation of the Shorter Catechism Presented by the Assembly of Divines in Westminster, to both Houses of Parliament, and By them Approved. Wherein the Meanest Capacities may in a Speedy and Easie way be Brought to Understand the Principles of Religion, in Imitation of a Catechism, formerly published by Master Herbert Palmer, B. D. and late Master of Queens College (eighth ed., London: for Jane Underhill, 1662), preface. I am grateful to Jason M. Rampelt for bringing this preface to my attention in conversation.

A.F. Mitchell, The Westminster Assembly: Its History and Standards, pp. 430-431:

From first to last, it appears to me in its [the Westminster Shorter Catechism's] clear, condensed, and at times almost frigidly logical definitions, to give unmistakeable evidence of its having passed through the alembic of Dr. Wallis, the great mathematician, the friend of Palmer, the opponent of Hobbes and the Socinians, and probably the last survivor of those connected with the great Assembly who was not ashamed to speak of the benefit he had derived from its discussions during the preparation of its Confession and Catechisms, long after he had conformed to the Church of the Restoration.

James Reid, speaking of his published sermons, Memoirs of the Westminster Divines, Vol. 2, p. 214, sums up his most important qualities:

In these sermons [of Dr. John Wallis], the reader may see both the author's learning and piety; with the Calvinistic doctrines of the Reformation, and of the Holy Scriptures. They may indeed be accounted too Puritannical by some persons; but they will not be the less acceptable on that account to others. The style is plain, and the matter excellent.

Street Psalms

Although it seems strange today, the singing of psalms was once so prevalent in Christian communities that one could often hear them sung in the streets. John Bunyan described it is a hallmark of a Christian town in The Holy War, p. 203:

And now there was nothing heard in the camp of Diabolus but horrid rage and blasphemy; but in the town good words, prayer, and singing of psalms.

Charles Burney acknowledges, in a manner not-so-flattering but true nevertheless (A General History of Music from the earliest ages to the present period, p. 50):

In the reign of Queen Mary, all the Protestants, except those who courted martyrdom, sang these psalms sotto voce; but after the accession of Queen Elizabeth, like orgies, they were roared aloud in almost every street, as well as church, throughout the kingdom.

The Sorbonne prohibited French psalm singing in 1543, and royal decrees in 1558 and 1659 banned psalm singing in public, but the psalms were sung everywhere in France by Huguenots, though some were killed for it.

Richard Baxter famously wrote of the fruits, by God's grace, of his ministry in Kidderminster (Confirmation and Restoration, the Necessary means of Reformation and Reconciliation):

To the praise of my gracious Master.. . the church at Kidderminster became so full on the Lord's Day that we had to build galleries to contain all the people. Our weekday meetings also were always full. On the Lord's Day all disorder became quite banished out of the town. As you passed along the streets on the Sabbath morning, you might hear a hundred households singing psalms at their family worship. In a word, when I came to Kidderminster, there was only about one family in a whole street that worshipped God and called upon His name. When I left, there were some streets where not a family did not do so. And though we had 600 communicants, there were not twelve in whose salvation I had not perfect confidence.

Thomas Case wrote (Farewell Sermons, p. 45):

Time was, when one could not have come through the streets of London on an evening in the weekday, but we might hear the praises of God, singing of psalms: now it is a stranger in the city, even upon the Lord's own day.

Benjamin Franklin wrote of a 1739 revival associated with the ministry of George Whitefield (Autobiography, p. 183):

It was wonderful to see the change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants. From being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it seemed as if all the world were growing religious, so that one could not walk through the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every street.

And even today there are places in the world where psalms are sung in public streets.

S.T. Kimbrough, Orthodox and Wesleyan Scriptural Understanding and Practice (2005), p. 228:

Caribbean people are accustomed to hearing psalms sung on radio. Psalms 23, 91, 137, and 150 are a few that have been arranged and sung by local artistes and have caught the fancy of listeners. Their popularity is due to the fact that the message contained in them is considered relevant to the Caribbean context. If the man and woman in the street are singing psalms as they go about their daily routine, then all the more reason why Christian people ought not to desist from singing psalms when they meet with other Christians to worship God!

Romans, the 'Christian Catechism'

Thomas Case, Morning Exercise Methodized, Sermon I, in Puritan Sermons, 1659-1689, Vol. 5, p. 15:

The Epistle to the Romans, the Christian Catechism.

The Epistle to the Romans is upon this account justly called by some of the ancients, "the Christians' catechism;" as containing an [Gk.], or "list of the chief articles," of the Christian religion: for although the principal design of the apostle be to discuss that prime evangelical doctrine of justification in the negative and affirmative part of it, -- Neg. Not in works. Affirm. In a free, gratuitous imputation of the righteousness of Christ, applied by faith, -- together with the grounds, evidences, and fruits thereof; yet occasionally, "according to the wisdom given unto him," (2 Peter iii. 15,) he doth, with a most profound and admirable art, interweave other deep and fundamental points of religion; namely, a parallel between the two Adams; the doctrine of original sin; (Rom. v.; ) the corruption and depravation of nature; (chap. vii.; ) the doctrine of grace; (chap. viii.; ) the merit and efficacy of Christ's death and resurrection; (chap. vi.; ) the doctrine of affliction, and the use of it to believers; (chap. viii.; ) the mysteries of election and predestination; (chap. ix.; ) the excecation and rejection of the Jews; (chap. x.; ) the vocation of the Gentiles, with the restitution of the seed of Abraham, &c. (chap. xi.) And when he hath finished the [Gk.] of doctrinal principles, he winds up the epistle with a short, but full, delineation of evangelical duties; wherein he doth bring down those principles unto practice. The former part of the epistle is the doctrine; the latter part is the use: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God," &c. (Chap. xii. 1.)

The Government of Christ

Thomas Case, The Conclusion of the Morning Exercise in Puritan Sermons, 1659 - 1689, vol. v, pp. 520-521:

The government of Christ is to be owned publicly.

(i.) For, first, it is the will of Christ, who was appointed to be King of nations as well as "King of saints," (Rev. xv.3,) not only to erect himself a government in the hearts of his people, but also to be publicly owned by nations, as to the religion which he hath established. There is a national acknowledgment of Christ, as well as a personal and ecclesiastical. Christ is personally owned, when we receive him into our hearts: He is ecclesiastically owned, by his worship in the churches of the saints: and nationally owned, when the laws and constitutions of the civil government are framed so as to advance the interest of his sceptre, and the Christian religion is made a national profession. This is spoken of in many places of scripture. (Gen. xvii.8; xviii.18; Isai. lv.5; lx.12; Matt. xxviii.19, 20.)

Call the Sabbath a Delight

Thomas Case, "Of Sabbath Sanctification" in Puritan Sermons, 1659-1689, Vol. 2, pp. 28-29:

(I.) If we would sanctify the sabbath acceptably, we must call the sabbath "a delight." -- Call -- That, is, account it so. Calling -- It is an act of the judgment, or appreciative faculty. A delight -- Or, as some render it, "thy delights." We must reckon the sabbath inter delicias, as is said of Jerusalem: she "remembered all her pleasant things." (Lam. i.7.) Surely, her sabbaths were some of those "pleasant things." It is said, "Her enemies did mock at her sabbaths." Ay; but she did mourn. They were her "delightful things," whereupon her heart was: and so they must be to us. But we must also remember to take-in, with the day, all the ordinances and religious services and duties of the day. They must not only be done spiritually, holily, and universally, but they must be done with delight and complacency, we must prefer them to our chiefest joy; yea, the very approach of the sabbath should be our delight. So have all the saints and servants in all ages of the church done; they have been to them the very joy and life of their souls. "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem." (Psalm cxxii.1.) I was never more affected with joy and gladness in all my life, than when I was wont to hear the people encouraging one another to assemble themselves to the public worship of God, in the house of God, on God's day. O! it did my heart good to hear with us what alacrity and rejoicing they did provoke one another: "Come, let us go to the house of the Lord;" notably prophesied of in words at length: "Many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." (Isai. ii.3.) In the loss of ordinances and sabbaths they have been dead in the nest, like "Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not." [Matt. ii.18.] And in the recovery and enjoyment of them they have rejoiced as men rejoice that divide the spoil. (See Psalm iii., xlii., xliii., and xlviii., per totum.) Christians, we must write after this copy, and count the sabbath, not our duty only, but our delight and privilege.

Puritan Marriage

I finished reading Dr. Michael A.G. Haykin's new book last night, The Christian Lover: The Sweetness of Love and Marriage in the Letters of Believers (Reformation Trust, 2009). It is brief but very sweet. As he notes, the Puritans cherished marriage as a good gift from the Lord. One of my favorite Westminster divines, Thomas Case, illustrates well how precious a godly marriage can be.

James Reid, Memoirs of the Westminster Divines, Vol. 1, pp. 215-216:

Mr. Case was eminently distinguished in his relative capacity, and praise-worthy. He had a prudent wife from the Lord; a help meet for him. They lived together nearly forty-five years; and he often said, that in all that time there had been no contention between them, except in this, who should love one another most. They were equally yoked together, being both very pious and affectionate.