'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.

Mather's Student Library

Many have proposed recommended reading for the Christian student of the Word, or student for the ministry, as I have referenced previously in my own Books for People of the Book. I thought it might be useful for some if I set forth such a list as prepared by Cotton Mather, along with bracketed information for the modern reader who might be less familiar with the names and titles identified by Mather, as a window into early 18th century American Puritan studies.

In consideration of a young ministerial student's choice of books, it is wise to remember Cotton Mather's adage: “What and where my Relish for BOOKS, which I may be hungry for? LORD, Because I shall see THEE, or serve THEE, the more for the Reading of them.”

Cotton Mather, "A Catalogue of Books for a Young Student's Library," in Manuductio Ad Ministerium: Directions for a candidate of the ministry. Wherein, first, a right foundation is laid for his future improvement; and, then, rules are offered for such a management of his academical & preparatory studies; and thereupon, for such a conduct after his appearance in the world; as may render him a skilful and useful minister of the gospel (1726), pp. 148-149:

[Nathan] Bailey's English Dictionary. [Before Samuel Johnson and Noah Webster, Nathan Bailey (d. 1742) helped to pioneer English lexicography with his An Universal Etymological English Dictionary (1721), which became the most popular English dictionary of the 18th century, and went through nearly thirty editions.]

[John] Ward's Introduction to the Mathematicks. [John Ward of Chester (1648-c. 1730) published in 1703 the Young Mathematician's Guide, which became a favorite textbook at Harvard and elsewhere.]

[Basil] Kennet's, Roman Antiquities. [Basil Kennett (1674-1715) was the author of Romae Antiquae Notitia, or the Antiquities of Rome. . . .To which are prefixed two Essays concerning the Roman Learning and the Roman Education (1696).]

[John] Potter's, Archeologia Attica. [Archbishop John Potter of Canterbury (c. 1673/74-1747) was the author of Archæologiæ Græcæ: or, The antiquities of Greece (1706), which served as the definitive work on Greek Antiquities until the middle of the 19th century.]

[Thomas] Lewis's Origines Hebraeae. [Thomas Lewis (1689-1749) was a controversialist and an opponent of Scottish Presbyterians; he wrote Origines Hebraeae: The Antiquities of the Hebrew Republic (1724).]

[Edward] Wells's, Sacred Geography. [Edward Wells (1667-1727) was an Anglican  minister and author of Sacred Geography: being a geographical and historical account of places mentioned in the Holy Scriptures

Mat. Prideaux, his Introduction for Reading all Sorts of History. [Mathias Prideaux (1622-c. 1646), son of the Calvinistic Anglican churchman John Prideaux, wrote An easy and Compendious Introduction for Reading all sorts of Histories (1648), which was edited by his father after his early death.]

[William] Whiston's Chronology. [William Whiston (1667-1752) was the protégé of Isaac Newton, as well as his mathematics professorship at Cambridge, though the two parted ways upon Whiston's conversion to Arianism. His A Short View of the Chronology of the Old Testament and of the Harmony of the Four Evangelists (1702) was based on Archbishop James Ussher's earlier Annals but came into conflict with the Biblical chronology of Isaac Newton.

[Friedrich] Spanheim, his Introductio ad Historiam Sacra. [Friedrich Spanheim the Younger (1632-1701) was a Swiss-German Reformed theologian of conservative views, son of Friedrich Spanheim the Elder, who as a member of the faculty at the University of Leiden was of the Voetian party. He wrote Introductio ad Chronologiam et Historiam Sacrum (1694).

[Cotton Mather] The Christian Philosopher. [Inspired by Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, a novel by 12th-century Islamic philosopher Abu Bakr Ibn Tufail, Mather wrote in 1721 the first systematic book on science published in America.]

[Bulstrode] Whitlock's, Memorials, both Volumes. [Bulstrode Whitelocke (1605-1675) was an English lawyer and historian, author of Memorials of the English affairs from the beginning of the reign of Charles I (1682). Mather wrote of this work (Manuductio Ad Ministerium, p. 63: "If you would come at all near to the Truth of what Concerns those Times, you must look for it, in Whitlock, his Memorials of English Affairs, from the Beginning of K. Charles I. to the Restoring of K. Charles II."]

[Thomas] Fuller's Worthies of England. [Anglican churchman and historian Thomas Fuller's The History of the Worthies of England (1662) is one of the great Christian hagiographies.]

[Edward] Leigh, his Critica Sacra, both Parts. [Edward Leigh (1602-1671) was a Puritan politician and lay theologian. He wrote Critica Sacra, or Philologicall and Theologicall Observations upon all the Greek Words of the New Testament in order alphabeticall, &c. (1639, 1646) and Critica Sacra. Observations on all the Radices or Primitive Hebrew Words of the Old Testament in order alphabeticall, wherein both they (and many derivatives . . .) are fully opened, &c. (1642), with a commendatory epistle by William Gouge; both of which were published together (1650, 1662). This great lexicographical compilation endeared Leigh to Archbishop James Ussher.

[Stephen] Charnock's Works. [Stephen Charnock (1628-1680) was one of the great Puritan writers, whose magnum opus was published posthumously as The Existence and Attributes of God (1682).

[Matthew] Pool's Annotations. [Matthew Poole (1624-1679) was a Puritan minister and Biblical commentator who first compiled in Latin the Synopsis Criticorum (1669-1676), a synopsis of interpreters on the whole Bible, followed by his English Annotations on the Holy Bible (completed after his death by friends in 1683). The Latin Synopsis is being translated and published, together with the English Annotations, by The Matthew Poole Project. Poole's unfinished project to record providential occurrences was the basis of Increase Mather's (Cotton's father) An Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providences (1684).]

[William] Strong, On the Covenant. [William Strong (d. 1654) was a member of the Westminster Assembly. His A Discourse on the Two Covenants was published by Theophilus Gale (1678).]

[Edward] Polhil, his Speculum Theologiae in Christo. [Edward Polhill (1622-1694) was a notable Puritan minister and author of Speculum theologiae in Christo: or, A view of some divine truths, which are either practically exemplified in Jesus Christ, set forth in the Gospel; or may be reasonably duduced from thence ... (1678) . Cotton Mather wrote elsewhere "Everything of Polhill is evangelical and valuable, especially his Speculum Theologiae."]

The Leyden, Synopsis Purioris Theologiae. [Synopsis purioris theologiae disputationibus quinquaginta duabus comprehensa (1625), often referred to as the Leiden Synopsis, was co-authored by Antonius Walaeus (1573-1639), André Rivet (1572-1651), Antonius Thysius (1565-1640), and Johannes Polyander van den Kerckhoven (1568-1646), all notable members of the faculty of the University of Leiden.

[Petrus, or Peter van] Mastricht, his Theologia Theoretico-practica. [Peter van Mastricht (1630-1706) was a leading theologian of the Nadere Reformatie, best known for his systematic theology Theologia Theoretico-Practica (1682-87), which is currently being translated into English by the Dutch Reformed Translation Society. Mather wrote of him (Manuductio Ad Ministerium, p. 85): "I hope, you will next unto the Sacred Scripture, make a Mastricht the Store-house to which you may resort continually."]

[Author uncertain, attributed to John Locke], Common-Place Book to the Holy Scriptures. [Originally published in 1676 as Graphautarkeia, or, The scriptures sufficiency practically demonstrated. Wherein whatsoever is contain’d in scripture, respecting doctrine, worship, or manners, is reduced to its proper head. Weighty cases resolved, truths confirmed, difficult texts illustrated, and explained by others more plain, the title given in 1697 was A common-place-book to the Holy Bible: or, The scriptures sufficiency practically demonstrated. Wherein whatsoever is contain’d in scripture, respecting doctrine, worship, or manners, is reduced to its proper head: weighty cases resolved, truths confirmed, difficult texts illustrated, and explained by others more plain. … A 1725 edition was titled A common-place-book to the Holy Bible: or, The scriptures sufficiency practically demonstrated. Wherein the substance of scripture, respecting doctrine, worship, and manners, is reduced to its proper head, weighty cases resolved, truths confirmed, and difficult texts illustrated and explained. Commonly attributed to John Locke, this work was excluded from the 1777 edition of Locke's Works because of uncertain authorship.

Tune the Heart, If Not the Voice

Thomas Fuller, Good Thoughts in Bad Times, pp. 5-6:

Lord, my voice by nature is harsh and untuneable, and it is vain to lavish any art to better it. Can my singing of psalms be pleasing to thy ears, which is unpleasant to my own? yet though I cannot chant with the nightingale, or chirp with the blackbird, I had rather chatter with the swallow,* yea, rather croak with the raven, than be altogether silent. Hadst thou given me a better voice, I would have praised thee with a better voice. Now what my music wants in sweetness, let it have in sense, singing praises with understanding.** Yea, Lord, create in me a new heart (therein to make melody),*** and I will be contented with my old voice, until thy due time, being admitted into the choir of heaven, I have another, more harmonious, bestowed upon me.

* Isa. 38.14
** Ps. 47.7
*** Eph. 5.19

Pounds and Ounces

Henry Carey, in a play with the most memorable title of The Tragedy of Chrononhotonthologos: The Most Tragical Tragedy that ever was Tragediz'd by any Company of Tragedians (1734), wrote a bit of carnal wisdom:

One ounce of mirth, is worth a pound of sorrow.

Earlier, Richard Baxter in his Treatise of Self-Denial (1660), in The Practical Works of Richard Baxter, Vol. 3, p. 476, had written in his famous Dialogue between the Spirit and the Flesh:

Flesh.

Why should I think of what will be to-morrow?
An ounce of mirth is worth a pound of sorrow.

To which Spirit replied:

But where's that mirth when sorrows overtake thee?
Will it then hold when life and God forsake thee?
Forgetting death or hell will not prevent it.
Now lose thy day, thou'lt then too late repent it.

Soon after which Flesh responds:

Must I be made the football of disdain?
And call'd a precise fool or puritan?

And Spirit answers:

Remember him that did despise the shame:
And for thy sake bore undeserved blame:

Baxter is often credited with the saying "An ounce of wit is worth of pound of sorrow," but a variation of this proverb appears in Thomas Fuller's Gnomologia (1732) as:

Ounce of wit that's bought is worth a pound that's taught.

Living Libraries

Harry Emerson Fosdick:

Life is like a library owned by an author. In it are a few books which he wrote himself, but most of them were written for him.

Have you ever known anyone who is a "walking encyclopedia" or a "living library"? Well, I have come across similar expressions a few times in my studies of the Puritans (and the Puritan-minded), so often known not only for their piety but their scholarship and intellectual acumen.

Andrew Willet (1562-1621), the great English Puritan Biblical commentator is described as a "living library." Thomas Fuller, Abel Redevivus, or, The Dead Yet Speaking: The Lives and Deaths of Modern Divines, Vol. 2, pp. 317-318:

...yet I am well assured that he had learned over and to good purpose many learned authors ancient and modern, till he [Andrew Willet] became himself [Gk.], "a living library."

In fact, Thomas Fuller (1608-1661), the famous English Church historian, earned a similar nickname as well. Life of Thomas Fuller, p. 69:

He was a perfect walking library...

John Quarles (1624-1665), son of Francis Quarles (1592-1644) -- both notable British poets -- wrote an elegy upon the death of a dear friend of the family, James Ussher (1581-1656), Irish Anglican bishop, in which the younger Quarles described him as a "living library." John Quarles, An Elegie on the Most Reverend and Learned James Usher, L. Archbishop of Armagh (1656), p. 4:

He was a living Library, in whom
A man might read things past and things to come.

Miles Smith (1554-1624), British bishop and Biblical scholar, was a one of the translators of the King James Bible and the author of its famous Preface. Another bishop described him as "a very walking library."

John Rainolds (or Reynolds) (1549-1607), English Puritan who helped to initiate and translate the King James Bible, is described by Daniel Neal as a "living library." Daniel Neal, History of the Puritans, Vol. 1, p. 440:

He [John Rainolds] was a prodigy for reading, his memory being a living library.

George Hakewill, An Apologie or Declaration of the Power and Providence of God, states that Rainolds had memorized the entire corpus of Augustine, and indeed all classical authors, becoming "a living librarie" and "a third university."

Edmund Staunton (1600-1671), Westminster Divine, was known as a "walking concordance." John Stoughton, Ecclesiastical History of England, Vol. 2, p. 256:

Dr. Edmund Staunton, President of Corpus, has been called a Walking Concordance, on account of his minute knowledge of the Holy Scriptures.

Another Westminster Divine, Richard Capel (1586-1656) was styled a "living library." Samuel Clarke, Lives of Thirty-Two English Divines, p. 311:

He [Richard Capel] was a living library, a full storehouse of all good literature, a judicious preacher, and a sound orthodox divine.

Cotton Mather (1663-1728), American Puritan and historian, wrote of his grandfather English-American Puritan John Cotton (1595-1652), Magnalia Christi Americana, Vol. 1, p. 273, that:

Mr. Cotton was indeed a most universal scholar, and a living system of the liberal arts, and a walking library.

Matthew Slade (1569-1628), English divine who took up academic duties in Holland, was also said to be a "walking library." Anthony Wood, Athenae Oxonienses, Vol. 2, p. 154:

...he [Matthew Slade] was esteemed, by all that knew him, an excellent Latinist, a good Grecian, one well read in profound authors, a stiff enemy to the Socinians, and a walking library.

Alexandrian Library

Being the bibliophile that I am, I have often wished to use a time machine to visit the great ancient Alexandrian Library before it was consumed by fire. Historians write as if it was the repository of the sum and pinnacle of human knowledge, and its destruction was indeed presumably a great loss for mankind. But if quality counts more than quantity, I would rather have access to a small library, carefully selected and employed for the most spiritual edification and profit, than the multitudes of dusty tomes that take up space in a basement or bandwidth on an e-library because they are not worth reading. It is not only Christian literature to which I am referring, but that which meets the criteria found in Philippians 4.8.

Thomas Fuller, Introductio ad Prudentiam: or, Directions, Counsels, and Cautions, Tending to Prudent Management of Affairs in Common Life:

When thou hast resolved what to study, advise what are the best books on that subject, and procure them: as for indifferent ones, I would not have thee throw away any time or pains on them if thou canst get better. A few books well chosen, and well made use of, will be more profitable to thee than a great confused Alexandrian Library.

Battle of the Pulpits

Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1 (Act 2, Scene 4):

WARWICK. This blot that they object against your house
Shall be wip'd out in the next Parliament,
Call'd for the truce of Winchester and Gloucester;
And if thou be not then created York,
I will not live to be accounted Warwick.
Meantime, in signal of my love to thee,
Against proud Somerset and William Pole,
Will I upon thy party wear this rose;
And here I prophesy: this brawl to-day,
Grown to this faction in the Temple Garden,
Shall send between the Red Rose and the White
A thousand souls to death and deadly night.

London's Temple Church has been the site of many notable events, both fictional (including The DaVinci Code) and non-, in its long history. The reason it was chosen by William Shakespeare for being the site of the commencement of the War of Roses in Henry VI has to do with a famous Battle of the Pulpits that took place in the 1580's between Puritan Walter Travers and his cousin by marriage, Anglican Richard Hooker, the ripple effects of which have lingered long after the "battle" ended.

In 1581, Travers became Reader (lecturer) at the Temple Church. After Master (rector) of the Temple Richard Alvey died, Travers Puritan convictions worked against him, and instead of being promoted to Master, Richard Hooker was brought to the Temple and installed in that position on March 17, 1585. Hooker preached his first sermon on March 28, and immediately there was conflict between him and Travers. In the morning, Hooker would preach his views, and in the afternoon, Travers would preach against them. The two men met to confer but were unable to reconcile their agendas despite the family bond. By March 1586 Archbishop Whitgift forbade Travers to preach any further. Travers later became Provost of Trinity College in Dublin. Hooker meanwhile resigned as Master of the Temple in 1591, and was appointed vicar of Bishopsbourne in Kent. Here he developed his thought in his masterpiece, Ecclesiastical Polity, which was in large measure the fruit of his thought as his developed during the conflict with Travers. The Battle of the Pulpits resulted in Travers' removal from the Temple Church, but the issues raised have continued to resonate through the centuries. It was a battle between Canterbury and Geneva, as Thomas Fuller memorably put it, The History of the Worthies of England (1860 ed.), Vol. 1, p. 423: "Here the pulpit spake pure Canterbury in the morning, and Geneva in the afternoon, until Travers was silenced."

Walter Travers himself listed the points of controversy raised after that first sermon by Hooker, as recorded by Hooker's sympathetic biographer Isaac Walton, The Life of Mr. Richard Hooker, in The Works of Richard Hooker, Vol. 1:

Doctrines delivered by Mr. Hooker, as they were set down and shewed by Mr. Travers, Mar. 30, 1585, under this title, A short Note of sundry unsound Points of Doctrine at divers times delivered by Mr. Hooker in his public Sermons.

1. The church of Rome is a true church of Christ, and a church sanctified by profession of that truth, which God had revealed unto us by his Son, though not a pure and perfect church.

2. The fathers which lived and died in Popish superstition were saved, because they sinned ignorantly.

3. They which are of the church of Rome may be saved by such a faith as they have in Christ, and a general repentance of all their sins.

4. The church of Rome holdeth all men sinners, even the Blessed Virgin, though some of them think otherwise of her.

5. The church of Rome teacheth Christ’s righteousness to be the only meritorious cause of taking away sin.

6. The Galatians which joined with faith in Christ, circumcision, as necessary unto salvation, notwithstanding be saved.

7. Neither the church of Rome, nor the Galatians, deny the foundation directly, but only by consequent: and therefore may be saved. Or else neither the Lutherans, nor whosoever hold any error (for every error by consequent denieth the foundation), may be saved.

8. An additament taketh not away that whereunto it is added, but confirmeth it. As he that saith of any, that he is a righteous man, saith, that he is a man: except it be privative; as when he saith, he is a dead man, then he denieth him to be a man: and of this sort of [privative] additaments neither are works, which are added to Christ by the Church of Rome; nor circumcision, added to him by the Galatians.

9. The Galatians’ case is harder than the case of the church of Rome; for they added to Christ circumcision, which God had forbidden and abolished: but that which the church of Rome addeth, are works which God hath commanded.

10. No one sequel urged by the Apostle against the Galatians, for joining circumcision with Christ, but may be as well enforced against the Lutherans holding ubiquity.

11. A bishop or cardinal of the church of Rome, yea, the Pope himself, denying all other errors of popery, notwithstanding his opinion of justification by works, may be saved.

12. Predestination is not of the absolute will of God, but conditional.

13. The doings of the wicked are not of the will of God positive, but only permissive.

14. The reprobates are not rejected, but for the evil works which God did foresee they would commit.

15. The assurance of things which we believe by the Word, is not so sure, as of those which we perceive by sense.

Thomas Fuller, also representing the historiography of the establishment, elaborates on the Battle of the Pulpits, The Church History of Britain (1845 ed.), Vol. 5, pp. 183-185:

53. Mr. Hooker his voice was low, stature little, gesture none at all, standing stone-still in the pulpit, as if the posture of his body were the emblem of his mind, unmovable in his opinions. Where his eye was left fixed at the beginning, it was found fixed at the end of his sermon. In a word, the doctrine he delivered had nothing but itself to garnish it. His style was long and pithy, driving on a whole flock of several clauses before he came to the close of a sentence; so that when the copiousness of his style met not with proportionable capacity in his auditors, it was unjustly censured for perplexed, tedious, and obscure. His sermons followed the inclination of his studies, and were for the most part on controversies and deep points of school divinity.

54. Mr. Travers his utterance was graceful, gesture plausible, matter profitable, method plain, and his style carried in it indolem pietatis, a genius of grace flowing from his sanctified heart. Some say that the congregation in the Temple ebbed in the forenoon and flowed in the afternoon, and that the auditory of Mr. Travers was far the more numerous, the first occasion of emulation betwixt them; but such as knew Mr. Hooker, knew him to be too wise to take exception at such trifles, the rather because the most judicious is always the least part in all auditories.

55. Here might one, on Sundays, have seen almost as many writers as hearers: not only young students, but even the gravest benchers, (such as sir Edward Cook and sir James Altham then were,) were not more exact in taking instructions from their clients, than in writing notes from the mouths of their ministers. The worst was, these two preachers, though joined in affinity, (their nearest kindred being married together,) acted with different principles, and clashed one against another; so that what Mr. Hooker delivered in the forenoon, Mr. Travers confuted in the afternoon. At the building of Solomon's temple, (1 Kings vi. 7,) neither hammer, nor axe, nor tool of iron was heard therein; whereas, alas! in this Temple not only much knocking was heard, but (which was the worst) the nails and pins which one master-builder drave in were driven out by the other. To pass by lesser differences betwixt them about predestination,

Hooker maintained

The church of Rome, though not a pure and perfect, yet is a true church; so that such who live and die therein, upon their repentance of all their sins of ignorance, may be saved.

Travers defended

The church of Rome is no true church at all; so that such as live and die therein, holing justification in part by works, cannot be said by the scriptures to be saved.

Thus much disturbance was caused, to the disquieting of people's consciences, the disgrace of the ordinance, the advantage of the common enemy, and the dishonour of God himself.

Choice Sentences

In the New England Primer, there are three valuable and well-known "Choice Sentences" for meditation and direction:

1. PRAYING will make us leave sinning, or sinning will make us leave praying.
2. OUR weakness and inabilities break not the bond of our duties.
3. WHAT we are afraid to speak before men, we should be afraid to think before GOD.

I was curious about their origin and decided to dig into the background a bit.

The first comes from an adage of Thomas Fuller (the physician and writer, not the church historian), Introductio Ad Prudentiam: Or, Directions, Counsels, and Cautions, Tending to Prudent Management of Affairs in Common Life. Compiled by Thomas Fuller, M.D. (first published in 1725; 3rd ed., 1731, p. 45):

742. Leave not off praying to God: for either praying will make thee leave off finning; or continuing in Sin will make thee defift from praying.

Beyond its inclusion in the Primer, I have not identified the source of the second "choice sentence."

The third comes from Richard Sibbes, Divine Meditations and Holy Contemplations (first published in 1638, now found in The Works of Richard Sibbes, Vol. 7, p. 189):

49. What we are afraid to speak before men, and to do for fear of danger, let us be afraid to think before God. Therefore we should stifle all ill conceits in the very conception, in their very rising: let them be used as rebels and traitors, smothered at the first.

Geneva Bible Contra Tyranny

Lewis Lupton, A History of the Geneva Bible, "Vision of God," Vol. 5, pp. 138-139, describes the Genevan marginal notes on the subject of civil tyranny thus:

AGAINST TYRANNY

A mixture is in these [Geneva] notes, wherein most are pious and proper to expound their respective places, but some (and those too many though never so few) are false, factious, dangerous, yea destructive to religion. I could therefore wish some godly discreet persons were empowered and employed to purge forth the latter, that the rest may remain without danger for the profit of plain people. But till this be done, I am, I thank God, old enough to eat fish, feeding on the flesh thereof, and laying by the bones on my trencher, or casting them down to the dog. Thomas Fuller, The Appeal of Injured Innocence, 1659.

LOSELY ALLIED to hatred of cruelty was hatred of tyranny. Induced by persecution it evoked republican attitudes in firm aristocrats! 'Gyantes,' Gensis 6 v. 4 were 'tyrants which usurped autoritie over otheres and did degenerate from yt simiplicitie wherein their fathers lived'. Nimrod, 'ye mighty hunter before the Lord', Genesis 10 v. 9 was counted 'a cruel oppressor & tyrant. His tyrannie came into a proverbe as hated bothe of God and man: for he passed not to commit crueltie even in Gods presence.' Rulers were exhorted to be kind. Deuteronomy 17 v. 20. 'Kings oght so to love their subjects, as nature bindeth one brother to love another.' They cited Mordecai as an example. Esther 10 v. 3. 'These thre pointes are here set forth as commendable and necessarie for him that is in autoritie: to have the favour of the people: to procure their welth, & to be gentle and loving toward them.' They had experienced other kinds of rule. I Samuel 11 v. 2 'The more nere that tyrants are to their destruction the more cruel thei are.' But God would deal with them. Judges 9 v. 54 'his page thrust him through.' 'Thus God by suche miserable death taketh vengeance on tyrants even in this life.' There might even be occasions when it was right to kill them. I Samuel 26 v. 9 'Iehu slew two kings at Gods appointment.' To say nothing of driving his chariot over Jezebel! 2 Kings 9 v. 33 'This he did by the mocion of the Spirit of God, yt her blood shulde be shed, that had shed the blood of innocents, to be a spectacle and example of Gods judgements to all tyrants.' Small wonder Stuart monarchs failed to appreciate this version!