Isaac Ambrose Entered Glory 350 Years Ago

"Oh! how should all hearts be taken with this Christ? Christians! turn your eyes upon the Lord: 'Look, and look again unto Jesus.' Why stand ye gazing on the toys of this world, when such a Christ is offered to you in the gospel? Can the world die for you? Can the world reconcile you to the Father? Can the world advance you to the kingdom of heaven? As Christ is all in all, so let him be the full and complete subject of our desire, and hope, and faith, and love, and joy; let him be in your thoughts the first in the morning, and the last at night." -- Isaac Ambrose (Looking Unto Jesus, p. 715)

It was 350 years ago today that English Puritan (Presbyterian) Isaac Ambrose entered glory (1604 - January 20, 1664). He was a minister of the gospel, a writer, and, by the grace of God and by means of much spiritual meditation and contemplation, showed himself to be, in the words of Thomas Watson, "a true citizen of heaven; it is known what place he belongs to by his speech, habit, gesture. There is a kind of angelical brightness on him; he shines in holiness, as Moses' face shone when he had with God in the mount. He is still doing angels' work; his life is a very heaven upon earth." 

After a faithful ministry, he was ejected from his pulpit for nonconformity in 1662. "He spent his later years in meditation and quietude among his friends in Preston. A lover of nature as well as of God, like his namesake the patriarch, 'Isaac went out to meditate in the field at eventide.' [Gen. 24.63] He spent a great part of his time every summer in Widicre wood, where, seldom seen by any, except on the Sabbath, he communed with his own heart and his God. The last time he was seen alive was by some friends from Garstang, of whom he is said to have taken leave with unusual affection and solemnity. Immediately after they left him he retired to his place of meditation, where he was found by an attendant in the moment of death. He departed in 1664 at the age of sixty-one." (Robert Halley, Lancashire: Its Puritanism and Nonconformity, Vol. 2, p. 202) 

Of Ambrose, Dr. Edmund Calamy the Historian wrote, "He was holy in his life, happy in his death, and honoured by GOD,and all good men." 

"The writings of Isaac Ambrose breathe with the inspired pulse of a person who has experienced the love and joy of God. He urges his readers, '[l]abour so to know Christ, as to have a practical and experimental knowledge of Christ in his influences, and not meerly a notional [one]'" (Tom Schwanda, Soul-Recreation: The Contemplative-Mystical Piety of Puritanism, p. 81).

I write of him today because Ambrose taught me personally much of the nature of true Christian warfare; the beauty of the covenant of redemption; the value of meditation; the benefit of writing a spiritual diary (which he included extracts from in his devotional manual, Media, as an encouragement to others to take up this useful practice); the importance of all the means of grace, public and private; and the blessing of solitude when it is improved upon as a opportunity to communion with God, as well as the blessing of serving the Lord within the family and other spheres to which we are called. It is good to remember the godly man who points us to Christ, and Ambrose was indeed such a man. For those who are interested, I commend the following links as an introduction to his life and legacy.

Meet the Puritan Biography of Issac Ambrose by Joel Beeke and Randall J. Pederson

The Spiritual Discipline of Meditation: Reading the Scripture with Isaac Ambrose by Tom Schwanda

Puritan Isaac Ambrose

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.

America's Oldest Art Galleries

The New England Primer:

In the burying place may see,
Graves shorter there than I,
From death's arrest no age is free,
Young children too must die.
My God may such an awful sight, Awakening be to me!
Oh! that by early grace I might
For death prepared be.

There is a word for the appreciation that some have for final resting places which is not morbid: taphophilia. Cemeteries offer many reasons to stop, consider and remember, one of which is that, in New England, they served as colonial America's earliest form of public art displays. The ornate carvings on tombstones were the first works of sculpture by European hands on our shores, a skill that was transported from England, particularly.

The earliest colonial American graves were marked with whatever rocks and wood happened to be nearby. When survival was paramount, initially, little effort was made to create lasting remembrances of those laid to rest. But as colonial settlements became more established, in the later 17th century, and those skilled in the art of sculpting and engraving became more numerous, tombstones became a vehicle for creative expression that some have viewed as America's first art galleries.

It is believed that one particular tombstone served as the inspiration for that of Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Elizabeth Pain (d. 1704) was a settler who was laid to rest in King's Chapel Burying Ground in Boston. There was no scandal attached to her life, but Hawthorne writes as if describing Pain's marker, upon which some today still see an 'A' engraved, p. 238:

And, after many, many years, a new grave was delved, near an old and sunken one, in that burial ground beside which King's Chapel has since been built. It was near that old and sunken grave, yet with a space between, as if the dust of the two sleepers had no right to mingle. Yet one tombstone served for both. All around, there were monuments carved with armorial bearings; and on this simple slab of slate—as the curious investigator may still discern, and perplex himself with the purport—there appeared the semblance of an engraved escutcheon. It bore a device, a herald's wording of which might serve for a motto and brief description of our now concluded legend; so sombre is it, and relieved only by one ever glowing point of light gloomier than the shadow:

"On a field, sable, the letter A, gules."

New England gravestones today are famous for their intricate and often mysterious symbolic carvings. The folk art on the headstones themselves has even spawned a new art form: gravestone rubbings. By affixing paper to the designs on a tombstone, and using charcoal or crayon, one may replicate the images below and take away copy of the memorial. As historical, genealogical and artistic interest in early American gravestones grew in the late 19th century, gravestone rubbings became a fad. Photography serves a similar purpose today, documenting the names, dates, and images associated with people otherwise to-be-forgotten. Gravestone rubbings may still be done at some locations, but there are often rules to be followed to prevent damage to these monuments. As a boy, I recall making my own gravestone rubbings at the Old Burying Point Cemetery in Salem, Massachusetts. Much credit for generating the early interest in American gravestones goes to "Harriette Merrifield Forbes (1856-1951) ... an historian, photographer and author. Her book" Gravestones of Early New England And the Men Who Made Them, 1653-1800, "published in 1927, was the first to treat early American gravemarkers as art objects, the country's oldest sculpture." She was the the mother of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Esther Forbes. Having spent her days exploring the local cemeteries around her, Harriette took great pains to research, document and explain the significance of colonial tombstones. Of particular interest is her research into the symbolism of the carvings, p. 114:

The thoughts suggested by the carving of the gravestones can be divided roughly into five classes:

I. A recognition of the flight of time.
II. The certainty of death and warnings to the living.
III. The occupation of the deceased or his station in life.
IV. The Christian life.
V. The resurrection of the body and the activities of the redeemed soul.

To give examples of each, the flight of time is most often represented by an hour-glass. Also employed were figures of Father Time, sometimes holding a scythe or an hour-glass. The certainty of death is represented prominently by a skull and crossbones, or variations thereof. The crowing cock (Matthew 26.75), lines from The New England Primer ('In Adam's fall/We sinned all'), and coffins all served as images to warn the living of impending death and the reckoning to follow. Military symbols and coats-of-arms denoted a person's station in life. "A very humble symbol, conceived in quite a different spirit from the coat-of-arms, military trappings, or even the minister's gown, is the scallop shell emblematic of our earthy pilgrimage. The scallop shell, abounding on the shores of the eastern seas, was use by the Pilgrims for cup, spoon, and dish; later it symbolized for them their crusade and was even adopted on their coat armor, an honorable and dignified device" (p. 120). The Christian life was often symbolized by the grapevine. "When bunches of grapes are combined with ears of corn, they symbolize the blood and body of Christ. Other vines besides the grapevine were employed. Sometimes a bird was placed in the vine, which, they tell us, signifies the soul partaking of celestial food...The dove, which may be the bird on at least some of our gravestones, is typical of Christian constancy and devotion. A squirrel cracking a nut is said to be a symbol of religious meditation" (p. 121). Mermaids were sometimes used, which are harder to explain. The trumpet and the rising soon speak to us as symbols of the resurrection. Likewise employed were images of the world, moon, and stars, the redeemed spirit emerging from a tomb or "making heavenly music," as well as the peacock. In one case, we can see a mother stepping out of her tomb holding her baby in her arms, an image of hope.

Many a tombstone tourist has been inspired to take a closer look at the gravestone symbols and the messages they convey. What is it that the person entombed, or his gravestone engraver, has to say to us even now? What can we take away from a tour of those old Puritan cemeteries besides a remembrance of that hearty generation that served the Lord and endured so much? The New England Primer, quoted at the beginning of this post, gives us a clue. Consider that you are made of clay and dust, and to the dust you shall return. Thomas Watson wrote: "O meditate on death! It is reported of Zeleucus, that the first piece of household stuff he brought to Babylon, was a tombstone: think often of your tombstone. The meditation on death would work these admirable effects...There is no stronger antidote, saith [Augustine], than frequent meditation upon death... " (A Christian on the Mount, p. 60). While walking through a cemetery, one might recall the words of the Book of Common Prayer funeral collect, "In the midst of life we are in death." Or we might hearken to the words of Martin Luther: "We say, 'In the midst of life we die.' God answers, 'Nay, in the midst of death we live'" (quoted by Roland Bainton, Here I Stand, p. 384).

While I Was Musing the Fire Burned

Thomas Watson, The Ten Commandments (extracted from A Body of Divinity), p. 105:

Meditating on a Lord's-day morning on Christ's love, would kindle love in our hearts to him. How can we look on his bleeding and dying for us and our hearts not be warmed with love to him? Love is the soul of religion, the purest affection. It is not rivers of oil, but sparks of love that Christ values. And sure, as David said, 'While I was musing the fire burned' (Psa 39:3), so, while we are musing of Christ's love in redeeming us, the fire of our love will burn towards him; and then the Christian is in a blessed Sabbath-frame, when, like a seraphim, he is burning in love to Christ.

The Good Inquisition

Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment, p. 13:

Self-examination; for a man to take his heart, as a watch, all in pieces, to set up a spiritual inquisition, or court of conscience, and traverse things in his own soul; to take David's candle and lantern (Ps. 119.105) and search for sin; nay, as judge, to pass the sentence upon himself (2 Sam. 34.17) this is against nature, and will not easily be attained to without learning.

Thomas Watson, A Body of Practical Divinity, p. 371:

Quest. 2. What is self-examination?

Ans. It is a setting up a court of conscience and keeping a register there, that by a strict scrutiny a man may see how matters stand between God and his soul. Self-examination is a spiritual inquisition, a heart-anatomy, whereby a man takes his heart, as a watch, all in pieces, and sees what is defective there. It is a dialogue with one's self, Ps. lxxvii.6, "I commune with my own heart." David called himself to account, and put interrogatories to his own heart. Self-examining is a critical descant or search; as the woman in the parable did light a candle, and search for her lost groat, Luke xv.8, so conscience is the candle of the Lord; search with this candle what thou canst find wrought by the Spirit in thee.

Thomas Watson, The Christian Soldier; or, Heaven Taken By Storm, p. 55-56:

5. The fifth duty wherein we are to offer violence to ourselves, self-examination; a duty of great importance: it is a parleying with one's own heart, Psalm lxxxvii. 7. 'I commune with my own heart.' David did put interrogatories to himself. Self-examination is the setting up a court in conscience and keeping a register there, that by strict scrutiny a man may know how things stand between God and his own soul. Self-examination is a spiritual inquisition; a bringing one's self to trial. A good Christian doth as it were begin the day of Judgment here in his own soul. Self-searching is a heart-anatomy. As a Chirurgeon, when he makes a dissection in the body, discovers the intestina, the inward parts, the heart, liver, and arteries, so a Christian anatomizeth himself; he searcheth what is flesh and what is spirit; what is sin, and what is grace, Psalm lxxvii. 7. 'My spirit made diligent search:' As the woman in the Gospel did light a candle, and search for her lost groat, Luke xv. 8. so conscience 'is the candle of the Lord,' Prov. xx. 27. A Christian by the light of this candle must search his soul to see if he can find any grace there. The rule by which a Christian must try himself, is the Word of God. Fancy and opinion are false rules to go by. We must judge of our spiritual condition by the canon of Scripture. This David calls a 'lamp unto his feet,' Psalm cxix. 105. Let the word be the umpire to decide the controversy, whether we have grace or no. We judge of colours by the sun. So we must judge of the state of souls by the light of Scripture.

Self-examination is a great, incumbent duty; it requires self­-excitation; it cannot possibly be done without offering violence to ourselves. 1. Because the duty of self-examination in itself is difficult: 1. It is actus reflexivus, a work of self-reflection; it lies most with the heart. 'Tis hard to look inward. External acts of religion are facile; to lift up the eye to Heaven, to bow the knee, to read a prayer; this requires no more labor than for a Catholic to tell over his beads; but to examine a man's self, to turn in upon his own soul, to take the heart as a watch all in pieces, and see what is defective; this is not easy. -- Reflective acts are hardest. The eye can see everything but itself. It is easy to spy the faults of others, but hard to find out our own.

MHCC 21: Choose Affliction Over Sin

Matthew Henry writes on Ex. 22.5:

We should be more careful not to do wrong than not to suffer wrong, because to suffer wrong is only an affliction, but to do wrong is a sin, and sin is always worse than affliction.

The Scriptures teach plainly what our choice ought to be between the one or the other:

Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; (Heb. 11.25)

William Tong, one of Matthew Henry's continuators, later wrote on Heb. 11.25:

Suffering is to be chosen rather than sin, there being more evil in the least sin than there can be in the greatest suffering.

Thomas Watson adds succinctly elsewhere (A Body of Practical Divinity, In a Series of Sermons on the Shorter Catechism Composed by the Reverend Assembly of Divines at Westminster, p. 587):

There is more evil in a drop of sin, than in a sea of affliction.

And Jeremiah Burroughs before him, The Evil of Evils, or The Exceeding Sinfulness of Sin, p. 4:

Better be under the greatest Affliction then be under the guilt or power of any Sin.

Puritan Preface to the Scottish Metrical Psalter

In 1673, a group of Puritan divines authored a preface to a new edition of the 1650 Scottish Metrical Psalter. The following year, many of these same divines signed an Epistle to the Reader for Thomas Vincent's Exposition of the Shorter Catechism (Vincent himself being a signer of the Psalter preface). Their preface to the Psalter is brief but eloquent so I reproduce it here, along with biographical links and information that I have compiled about the signers.

Good Reader,
’Tis evident by the common experience of mankind, that love cannot lie idle in the soul. For every one hath his oblectation [way of enjoyment] and delight, his tastes and relishes are suitable to his constitution, and a man’s temper is more discovered by his solaces than by any thing else: carnal men delight in what is suited to the gust [i.e., taste] of the flesh, and spiritual men in the things of the Spirit. The promises of God's holy covenant, which are to others as stale news or withered flowers, feed the pleasure of their minds; and the mysteries of our redemption by Christ are their hearts’ delight and comfort. But as joy must have a proper object so also a vent: for this is an affection that cannot be penned up: the usual issue and out-going of it is by singing. Profane spirits must have songs suitable to their mirth; as their mirth is carnal so their songs are vain and frothy, if not filthy and obscene; but they that rejoice in the Lord, their mirth runneth in a spiritual channel: “Is any merry? let him sing psalms,” saith the apostle (James 5:13). And, “Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage,” saith holy David (Ps. 119:54).

Surely singing, ’tis a delectable way of instruction, as common prudence will teach us. Aelian (Natural History, book 2, chapter 39) telleth us that the Cretans enjoined their children to learn their laws by singing them in verse. And surely singing of Psalms is a duty of such comfort and profit, that it needeth not our recommendation: The new nature is instead of all arguments, which cannot be without thy spiritual solace. Now though spiritual songs of mere human composure may have their use, yet our devotion is best secured, where the matter and words are of immediately divine inspiration; and to us David's Psalms seem plainly intended by those terms of “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,” which the apostle useth (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16). But then ’tis meet that these divine composures should be represented to us in a fit translation, lest we want David, in David; while his holy ecstasies are delivered in a flat and bald expression. The translation which is now put into thy hands cometh nearest to the original of any that we have seen, and runneth with such a fluent sweetness, that we thought fit to recommend it to thy Christian acceptance; some of us having used it already, with great comfort and satisfaction.

• Thomas Manton D.D. (1620-1677)

• Henry Langley D.D. (1611-1679) - English Puritan minister and educator. He served as master of Pembroke College (1647) until he was ejected for his Presbyterian convictions (1662), after which he maintained an academy for young men at his house, where he taught logic and philosophy. He preached again after the indulgence of 1672.

• John Owen D.D. (1616-1683)

• William Jenkyn (1613-1685)

• James Innes ( )

• Thomas Watson (c. 1620-1686)

• Thomas Lye (?-1684) - English Puritan known for his emphasis on and abilities in catechizing. He wrote an exposition of the Westminster Shorter Catechism that was popular. He was one of the ministers ejected for nonconformity in 1662. His additional works include The Child’s Delight, two Farewell sermons, a sermon entitled Death, the Sweetest Sleep and several of the Cripplegate Sermons, among others.

• Matthew Poole (1624-1679)

• John Milward (1619-1688) - English Puritan, fellow of Corpus Christi College and served at a pastorate at during the Interregnum, but was ejected from his pulpit in 1660. After this he settled in London where he contributed two of the Cripplegate Sermons: 1) How ought we to love our neighbors as ourselves? and 2) How ought we to do our duty towards others, though they do not theirs towards us?

• John Chester ( )

• George Cokayn or Cokayne (1619-1691) - English Puritan, was a lifelong friend of John Bunyan. He wrote the preface to Bunyan's The Acceptable Sacrifice shortly after Bunyan's death; he also endorsed John Toldervy's The Foot Out of the Snare; assisted Joseph Caryl in the preparation of an English-Greek lexicon; and wrote other works.

• Matthew Mead (1629-1699)

• Robert Francklin or Franklin (1630-?) - English Puritan, ejected from his pulpit for nonconformity in 1662 (he said, "I left my living, rather than defile my conscience by the then Conformity"). He was persecuted and imprisoned often in the following years prior to the Glorious Revolution. He wrote an account of his own life and short catechism, as well as other works.

• Thomas Doolittle (1630-1707) - English Puritan, born at Kidderminster and was converted at the age of 17 under the preaching of Richard Baxter (sermons later published as The Saints' Rest), under whom he later served as an assistant minister. Doolittle was a one of the ejected ministers of 1662. Afterwards he opened a boarding school, with the assistance of Thomas Vincent, and later a private academy. Among his pupils were Matthew Henry and Edmund Calamy the Historian. He preached one of the Cripplegate Sermons on the subject of Family Worship. He also preached on Motives to Love Jesus and wrote a Plain Method of Catechizing with a Prefatory Catechism (1698).

• Thomas Vincent (1634-1678)

• Nathaniel Vincent (1639-1697)

• John Ryther (1634-1681) - English Congregationalist, ejected in 1662 for nonconformity. He served time in prison twice for illegal preaching. He preached a funeral sermon for James Janeway, as well as other works.

• William Tomson ( )

• Nicholas Blaikie (d. 1698) - Scottish Puritan, graduated from the University of Edinburgh on April 15, 1652 and was later ejected from his pulpit at Roberton in 1662 for nonconformity. He later pastored the Scots' Church in London (afterwards succeeded by Robert Fleming).

• Charles Morton (1626-1698) - English Puritan minister and educator. He opened an academy for young men in London at which he taught Daniel Defoe. He also served as vice-President of Harvard University.

• Edmund Calamy the Younger (1635-1685) -- Son of Edmund Calamy the Elder, Westminster Divine, and father of Edmund Calamy the Historian.

• William Carslake (d. 1689) - English Puritan, graduate of Exeter College, Oxford, and a Presbyterian minister who was ejected for nonconformity in 1662. He preached in London during the Great Plague (1665). Edmund Calamy the Historian says of him that "he was a good and pious man, but inclined to melancholy."

• James Janeway (1636-1674)

• John Hickes (1633-1685) - English Puritan ejected from his pulpit in 1662 for nonconformity. His brother George, however, remained part of the Established Church. Following the Battle of Sedgemoor, John Hickes sought shelter at the house of Alice Lisle, who was executed on September 2, 1685 for harboring John Hickes, who was himself executed the following month, both executions arising from the Bloody Assizes.

• John Baker ( )

• Richard Mayo (1631-1695) - He was one of the continuators of Matthew Poole's English Annotations, while his son Daniel was one of the continuators of Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Bible.

A Christian's Life is a Busy Trade

Dear Christian,

Did you ever think that after conversion life would be simple and challenges few? Far from it, the Christian's life is much like a salmon swimming upstream. Thomas Watson, preaching his farewell sermon on August 17, 1662, about to be ejected from his pulpit for nonconformity, said:

If you are living fish, swim against the stream, dead fish swim down the stream.

The Christian is holy but the world in which we live, where God has posted us, like a soldier at an outpost in the wilderness on duty to serve in his kingdom, though it is created good and belongs to him who made it, is not. We can no longer float downstream in conformity to the world's ways. We now live for him and daily die to ourselves, and that is to be conformed to him and to resist following the multitude in the ways of sin, or as Watson puts it, to "walk [as] antipodes to the corruptions of the times," which often results in persecution. In fact, that is promised to us (2 Tim. 3.12), for we where our Master has walked, there must we walk too. Though renewed in the pure image of Christ, we find in ourselves corruption which works against us. We have responsibilities to God, to our familes, church and society, and to ourselves. We have a command to work six days a week, and even on the other day we have works of piety, necessity and mercy to perform. We must always be on guard against the world, the flesh and the devil. Idleness only works in Satan's favor. Man was made to work even in the Garden of Eden, and Christ bids us "Occupy, till I come" (Luke 19.13). But the good news, friends, is that it is Christ who is our strength, who gives us the Spirit without measure, who enables us to live, to live as we ought. It is the bondage of sin which is the hard master; he who puts his yoke upon us promises that his "yoke is easy and "his "burden is light" (Matt. 11.30). Therefore, after instructing us to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" the Apostle adds for our comfort "[f]or it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Phil. 2.12b-13). "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2.10). In the strength of Christ then, we are called to "gird up the loins of your mind" (1 Pet. 1.13) and put on his armour (Eph. 6), trusting that duty is ours but events are God's, and "[t]herefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord" (1 Cor. 15.58).

Richard Sibbes, Divine Meditations and Holy Contemplations, in Works, Vol. 7, p. 204:

178. Christianity is a busy trade. If we look up to God, what a world of things are required in a Christian, to carry himself as he should do: a spirit of faith, a spirit of love, a spirit of joy and delight in him above all. And if we look to men, there are duties for a Christian to his superiors, a spirit of subjection; to equals he must carry a spirit of love; and to inferiors a spirit of pity and bounty. If we look to Satan, we have a commandment to resist him, and to watch against the tempter. If we look to the world, it is full of snares. There must be a great deal of spiritual watchfulness, that we be not surprised. If we look to ourselves, there are required many duties to carry our vessels in honour, and to walk within the compass of the Holy Ghost; to preserve the peace of our consciences; to walk answerable to our worth, as being the sons of God and coheirs with Christ. He must dispense with himself in no sin; he must be a vessel prepared for every good work; he must baulk in no service that God calls him unto: and therefore the life of a Christian is a busy trade.

Quicksilver Hearts

Quicksilver is another name for mercury, the fast-flowing element which has the quality of seeming alive, moving this way or that at the slightest instigation. So it is with our inconstant hearts, we waver in our affections this way and that, often for trifles. What is the way then, O Christian, to channel our affections, by God's grace, in the right manner and to fix steadily upon the most worthy object? In the movie Chariots of Fire, Eric Liddell says, "If you commit yourself to the love of Christ, then that is how you run a straight race." Hear what Thomas Watson has to say about the fanning the flames of love for God in a Christian's heart.

Thomas Watson, Religion Our True Interest (1682), reprinted as The Great Gain of Godliness (2006), p. 92:

Get a love for God and his ways. One cannot but think of that which he loves: 'Can a maid forget her ornament?' (Jer. 2:32). When she has not her jewel on her ear, she will have it her thoughts. A person deeply in love cannot keep his thoughts off from the object he loves. The reason we think on God no more, is because we love him no more. Let there be but one spark of love to God and it will fly upward in heavenly thoughts and prayers. By nature we have quicksilver hearts which cannot be made to fix on God, but by love.

The Saints' Reward

Thomas Watson, "How God is His People's Great Reward," in Puritan Sermons, 1659-1689, Vol. 3, p. 68:

II. QUESTION. How is God his people's reward?

ANSWER. In bestowing himself upon them. The great blessing of the covenant is, "I am thy God." The Lord told Abraham, kings should come out of his loins, and he would give the land of Canaan to him and his seed; (Gen. xvii. 6; ) but all this did not amount to blessedness. That which made up the portion was, "I will be their God." (Verse 8.) God "will not only see that the saints shall be rewarded, but his own self will be their reward." A king may reward his subjects with gratuities, but he bestows himself upon his queen: God saith to every believer, as he did to Aaron, "I am thy part and thine inheritance;" (Num. xviii. 20; ) and as the king of Israel said to Benhadad, "I am thine, and all that I have." (1 Kings xx. 4.)

Abraham sent away the sons of the concubines with a few gifts; but he settled the inheritance upon Isaac. (Gen. xxv. 5, 6.) God sends away the wicked with riches and honour, but makes over himself to his people. They have not only the gift, but the Giver. And what can be more? As Micah said, "What have I more?" (Judges xviii. 24: ) so what hath God more to give than himself? What greater dowry than Deity? God is not only the saints' rewarder, but their "reward." "The Almighty shall be thy gold:" (Job xxii. 25: ) so much the Hebrew word imports. The sum of all is: the saints' portion lies in God: "The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup." (Psalm xvi. 5.)

Love Makes All Things Easy

Thomas Watson, A Body of Practical Divinity Contained in Sermons Upon the Assembly's Catechism, pp. 229, 278:

Love is like oil to the wheels, it quickens us in God's service....But love oils the wheels, it makes duty a pleasure.

William Bridge, Christ and the Covenant, the Work and Way of Meditation, God's Return to the Soul or Nation, Together With His Preventing Mercy: In Ten Sermons, "Sermon 7. The Sweetness and Profitableness of Divine Meditation," in The Works of William Bridge, Vol. 3, p. 136:

Every thing is hard at the first: writing is hard at the first, painting is hard at the first, and the getting languages hard at the first. A trade is hard at the first. So certainly the work of meditation will be hard at the first. There is nothing not hard to those that are unwilling. There is nothing hard to those that love, love makes all things easy. Is it an hard thing for a lover to think or meditate on the person loved?

Tolle Lege

Samuel Davies, Letter to his brother-in-law:

I have a peaceful study, as a refuge from the hurries and noise of the world around me; the venerable dead are waiting in my library to entertain me, and relieve me from the nonsense of surviving mortals.

Here is counsel on the value of good reading, a sadly-neglected art in our modern sound-bite age, and encouragement to tolle lege, take up and read!

Thomas Watson, Farewell Sermons of Some of the Most Eminent of the Nonconformist Ministers, pp. 196-197:

First, I beseech you, keep your constant hours every day with God. The godly man is a man set apart, Ps. iii. not only because God hath set him apart by election, but because he hath set himself apart by devotion. Give God the Aurorae filiam. Begin the day with God, visit God in the morning before you make any other visit; wind up your hearts towards heaven in the morning, and they will go better all the day after! Oh turn your closets into temples; read the scriptures. The two Testaments are the two lips by which God speaks to us; these will make you wise unto salvation: the scripture is both a glass to shew you your spots, and a laver to wash them away; besiege heaven every day with your prayer, thus perfume your houses, and keep a constant intercourse with heaven.

Secondly, Get books into your houses, when you have not the spring near to you, then get water into your cisterns: so when you have not that wholesome preaching that you desire, good books are cisterns that hold the water of life in them to refresh you. When David's natural heat was taken away, they covered him with warm clothes, 1 Kings i. So when you find a chillness upon your souls, and that your former heat begins to abate, ply yourselves with warm clothes, get those good books that may acquaint you with such truths as may warm and affect your hearts.

Charles Spurgeon, Sermon No. 542: Paul -- His Cloak and His Books:

Even an apostle must read. Some of our very ultra Calvinistic brethren think that a minister who reads books and studies his sermon must be a very deplorable specimen of a preacher. A man who comes up into the pulpit, professes to take his text on the spot, and talks any quantity of nonsense, is the idol of many. If he will speak without premeditation, or pretend to do so, and never produce what they call a dish of dead men's brains—oh! that is the preacher. How rebuked are they by the apostle! He is inspired, and yet he wants books! He has been preaching at least for thirty years, and yet he wants books! He had seen the Lord, and yet he wants books! He had had a wider experience than most men, and yet he wants books! He had been caught up into the third heaven, and had heard things which it was unlawful for a men to utter, yet he wants books! He had written the major part of the New Testament, and yet he wants books! The apostle says to Timothy and so he says to every preacher, "Give thyself unto reading." The man who never reads will never be read; he who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains, proves that he has no brains of his own. Brethren, what is true of ministers is true of all our people. You need to read. Renounce as much as you will all light literature, but study as much as possible sound theological works, especially the Puritanic writers, and expositions of the Bible. We are quite persuaded that the very best way for you to be spending your leisure, is to be either reading or praying. You may get much instruction from books which afterwards you may use as a true weapon in your Lord and Master's service. Paul cries, "Bring the books"—join in the cry.

Matthew Poole, The Last Sayings of Matthew Poole:

Ministers are living Books, and Books are dead Ministers; and yet though dead, they speak. When you cannot heare the one, you may read the other.

Richard Baxter, A Christian Directory, pp. 56-57:

Direct. xvi. ' Make careful choice of the books which you read. Let the Holy Scriptures ever have the pre-eminence, and next them, the solid, lively, heavenly treatises, which best expound and apply the Scriptures; and next those, the credible histories, especially of the church, and tractates upon inferior sciences and arts: but take heed of the poison of the writings of false teachers, which would corrupt your understandings: and of vain romances, play-books, and false stories, which may bewitch your fantasies, and corrupt your hearts.'

As there is a more excellent appearance of the Spirit of God in the Holy Scriptures, than in any other book whatever, so it hath more power and fitness to convey the Spirit, and make us spiritual, by imprinting itself upon our hearts. As there is more of God in it, so it will acquaint us more with God, and bring us nearer him, and make the reader more reverent, serious, and divine. Let Scripture be first and most in your hearts and hands, and other books be used as subservient to it. The endeavours of the devil and Papists to keep it from you, doth shew that it is most necessary and desirable to you. And when they tell you, that all heretics plead the Scripture, they do but tell you, that it is the common rule or law of Christians, which, therefore, all are fain to pretend: as all lawyers and wranglers plead the laws of the land, be their cause never so bad, and yet the laws must not be therefore concealed or cast aside: and they do but tell you, that, in their concealment or dishonouring the Scriptures, they are worse than any of those heretics. When they tell you, that the Scriptures are misunderstood, and abused, and perverted to maintain men's errors, they might also desire that the sun might be obscured, because the purblind do mistake, and murderers and robbers do wickedly by its light: and that the earth might be subverted, because it bears all evil doers : and highways stopt up, because men travel in them to do evil: and food prohibited, because it nourisheth men's diseases. And when they have told you truly of a law or rule (whether made by pope or council), which bad men cannot misunderstand or break, or abuse and misapply, then hearken to them, and prefer that law, as that which preventeth the need of any judgment.

The writings of Divines are nothing else but a preaching the Gospel to the eye, as the voice preacheth it to the ear. Vocal preaching hath the pre-eminence in moving the affections, and being diversified according to the state of the congregations which attend it: this way the milk cometh warmest from the breast. But books have the advantage in many other respects: you may read an able preacher, when you have but a mean one to hear. Every congregation cannot hear the most judicious or powerful preachers; but every single person may read the books of the most powerful and judicious. Preachers may be silenced or banished, when books may be at hand: books may be kept at a smaller charge than preachers: we may choose books which treat of that very subject which we desire to hear of; but we cannot choose what subject the preacher shall (rent of. Books we may have at hand every day and hour; when we can have sermons but seldom, and at set times. If sermons be forgotten, they are gone. But a book we may read over and over until we remember it; and, if we forget it, may again peruse it at our pleasure, or at our leisure. So that good books are a very great mercy to the world. The Holy Ghost chose the way of writing, to preserve his doctrine and laws to the church, as knowing how easy and sure a way it is of keeping it safe to all generations, in comparison of mere verbal tradition, which might have made as many controversies about the very terms, as theie be memories or persons to be the preservers and reporters,

Books are (if well chosen) domestic, present, constant, judicious, pertinent, yea, and powerful sermons: and always of very great use to your salvation: but especially when vocal preaching faileth, and preachers are ignorant, ungodly, or dull, or when they are persecuted, and forbid to preach.

You have need of a judicious teacher at hand, to direct you what books to use or to refuse. For among good books there wre some very good that are sound and lively: and some are good, but mean, aad weak, and somewhat dull: and some are very good in part, bat have mixtures of error, or else of incautious, injudicious expressions, fitter to puzzle than edify the weak. I am loath to name any of these latter sorts (of which abundance have come forth of late): but to the young beginner in religion, I may be bold to recommend (next to a sound catechism) Mr. Rutherford's Letters; —Mr. Robert Bolton's Works ;—Mr. Perkins's;—Mr. Whateley's ;—Mr. Ball, of Faith;—Dr. Preston's;—Dr. Sibbs's ;—Mr. Hildersham's :—Mr. Pink's Sermons ;— Mr. Jos. Rogers's;—Mr. Rich. Allen's;—Mr. GurnalPs; —Mr. Swinnock's;—Mr. Jos. Simonds's. And to establish you against Popery, Dr. Challoner's Codex Credo Eccles. Cathol.;—Dr. Field, of the Church ;—Dr. White's Way to the Church, with the Defence;—Bishop Usher's Answer to the Jesuit; and Chillingworth, with Drelincourt's Summary. And for right principles about Redemption, &c. Mr. Truman's Great Propitiation; and of Natural and Moral Impotency;—and Mr. William Fenner, of Wilful Impenitency;—Mr. Hotchkis, of Forgiveness of Sin. To pass by many other excellent ones, that I may not name too many.

To a very judicious, able reader, who is fit to censure all he reads, there is no great danger in reading the books of any seducers : it doth but shew him how little and thin a cloak is used to cover a bad cause. But, alas! young soldiers, not used to such wars, are startled at a very sophism, or at a terrible threatening of damnation to dissenters (which every censorious sect can use), or at every confident, triumphant boast, or at every thing that hath a fair pretence of truth or godliness. Injudicious persons can answer almost no deceiver which they hear: and when they cannot answer them they think they must yield, as if the fault were not in them but in the cause, and as if Christ had no wiser followers, or better defenders of his truth than they. Meddle not, therefore, with poison, till you better know how to use it, and may do it with less danger, as long as you have no need.

As for play-books, and romances, and idle tales, I have already shewed in my "Book of Self-Denial," how pernicious they are, especially to youth, and to frothy, empty, idle wits, that know not what a man is, nor what he hath to do in the world. They are powerful baits of the devil, to keep more necessary things out of their minds, and better books out of their hands, and to poison the mind so much the more dangerously, as they are read with more delight and pleasure: and to fill the minds of sensual people with such idle fumes, and intoxicating fancies, as may divert them from the serious thoughts of their salvation: and (which is no small loss) to rob them of abundance of that precious time, which was given them for more important business; and which they will wish and wish again at last that they had spent more wisely. I know the fantastics will say, that these things are innocent, and may teach men much good (like him that must go to a whore-house to learn to hate uncleanness; and him that would go out with robbers to learn to hate thievery): but I shall now only ask them as in the presence of God, 1. Whether they should spend that time no better ? 2. Whether better books and practices would not edify them more. 3. Whether the greatest lovers of romances and plays be the greatest lovers of the book of God, and of a holy life? 4. Whether they feel in themselves that the love of these vanities, doth increase their love to the Word of God, and kill their sin, and prepare them for the life to come? or clean contrary? And I would desire men not to prate against their own experience and reason, nor to dispute themselves into damnable impe- nitency, nor to befool their souls by a few silly words, which any but a sensualist may perceive to be mere deceit and falsehood. If this will not serve, they shall be shortly convinced and answered in another manner.

C.S. Lewis, Introduction to Athanasius' On The Incarnation:

There is a strange idea abroad that in every subject the ancient books should be read only by the professionals, and that the amateur should content himself with the modern books. Thus I have found as a tutor in English Literature that if the average student wants to find out something about Platonism, the very last thing he thinks of doing is to take a translation of Plato off the library shelf and read the Symposium. He would rather read some dreary modern book ten times as long, all about "isms" and influences and only once in twelve pages telling him what Plato actually said. The error is rather an amiable one, for it springs from humility. The student is half afraid to meet one of the great philosophers face to face. He feels himself inadequate and thinks he will not understand him. But if he only knew, the great man, just because of his greatness, is much more intelligible than his modern commentator. The simplest student will be able to understand, if not all, yet a very great deal of what Plato said; but hardly anyone can understand some modern books on Platonism. It has always therefore been one of my main endeavours as a teacher to persuade the young that firsthand knowledge is not only more worth acquiring than secondhand knowledge, but is usually much easier and more delightful to acquire.

This mistaken preference for the modern books and this shyness of the old ones is nowhere more rampant than in theology. Wherever you find a little study circle of Christian laity you can be almost certain that they are studying not St. Luke or St. Paul or St. Augustine or Thomas Aquinas or Hooker or Butler, but M. Berdyaev or M. Maritain or M. Niebuhr or Miss Sayers or even myself.

Now this seems to me topsy-turvy. Naturally, since I myself am a writer, I do not wish the ordinary reader to read no modern books. But if he must read only the new or only the old, I would advise him to read the old. And I would give him this advice precisely because he is an amateur and therefore much less protected than the expert against the dangers of an exclusive contemporary diet. A new book is still on its trial and the amateur is not in a position to judge it. It has to be tested against the great body of Christian thought down the ages, and all its hidden implications (often unsuspected by the author himself) have to be brought to light. Often it cannot be fully understood without the knowledge of a good many other modern books. If you join at eleven o'clock a conversation which began at eight you will often not see the real bearing of what is said. Remarks which seem to you very ordinary will produce laughter or irritation and you will not see why - the reason, of course, being that the earlier stages of the conversation have given them a special point. In the same way sentences in a modern book which look quite ordinary may be directed at some other book; in this way you may be led to accept what you would have indignantly rejected if you knew its real significance. The only safety is to have a standard of plain, central Christianity ("mere Christianity" as Baxter called it) which puts the controversies of the moment in their proper perspective. Such a standard can be acquired only from the old books. It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones.

Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books. All contemporary writers share to some extent the contemporary outlook - even those, like myself, who seem most opposed to it. Nothing strikes me more when I read the controversies of past ages than the fact that both sides were usually assuming without question a good deal which we should now absolutely deny. They thought that they were as completely opposed as two sides could be, but in fact they were all the time secretly united - united with each other and against earlier and later ages - by a great mass of common assumptions. We may be sure that the characteristic blindness of the twentieth century - the blindness about which posterity will ask, "But how could they have thought that?" - lies where we have never suspected it, and concerns something about which there is untroubled agreement between Hitler and President Roosevelt or between Mr. H. G. Wells and Karl Barth. None of us can fully escape this blindness, but we shall certainly increase it, and weaken our guard against it, if we read only modern books. Where they are true they will give us truths which we half knew already. Where they are false they will aggravate the error with which we are already dangerously ill. The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books. Not, of course, that there is any magic about the past. People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes. They will not flatter us in the errors we are already committing; and their own errors, being now open and palpable, will not endanger us. Two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction. To be sure, the books of the future would be just as good a corrective as the books of the past, but unfortunately we cannot get at them.

Good Wine Needs No Bush

When it comes to painting a picture with words, few Puritans can equal the skill of Thomas Watson. It is interesting to note the many ways he refers to wine in his word pictures. He speaks of the "wine of glory," the "wine of the gospel," and God's "promises dropped into the soul like wine."

I like this one from The Godly Man's Picture (as found inThe Sermons of Thomas Watson, p. 518):

A godly man doth not indulge himself in any sin. Though sin lives in him, yet he doth not live in sin. Every man that hath wine in him, is not in wine.

Jim West elaborates on one particular reference which is perhaps not so clear to 21st century readers in Drinking With Calvin and Luther, p. 71:

In a more obscure reference from The Godly Man's Picture, one of his most enduring works, Watson writes, "If there is wine in the house, the bush will be hung outside, and where there is a principle of godliness in the heart, it will vent itself at the lips; the bush will be hung up." The explanation for the figure is that in Watson's day, a bush was a branch of a tree that was hung out as a sign for a tavern. When the "bush custom" was eventually discontinued, Englishmen hung a coronated frame of wood as a tavern sign. The English thus coined a proverb: "Good wine needs no bush."

Spiritual Paradise

Thomas Watson, A Christian on Earth Still in Heaven (Appendix to the Former Discourse: A Christian on the Mount), in The Sermons of Thomas Watson, p. 273:

The scripture is a spiritual paradise, the book of Psalms is placed as the tree of life in the midst of this paradise; the Psalms are not only for delight, but usefulness; they are like the pomegranate tree which is not only for savour, but fruit; or like those trees of the sanctuary, Ezek. xlvii.12 both for food and medicine. The Psalms are enriched with variety, and suited to every christian's estate and condition. They are a spiritual panoply and store-house; if he find his heart dead, here he may fetch fire; if he be weak in grace, here he may fetch armour; if he be ready to faint, here are cordials lying by. There is no condition you can name but there is a Psalm suited to that condition.

Spiritual Rumination

And the LORD spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying unto them, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, These are the beasts which ye shall eat among all the beasts that are on the earth. Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat. Nevertheless these shall ye not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the hoof: as the camel, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you. And the coney, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you. And the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you. And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you....The carcases of every beast which divideth the hoof, and is not clovenfooted, nor cheweth the cud, are unclean unto you: every one that toucheth them shall be unclean. (Lev. 1-7, 26)

And every beast that parteth the hoof, and cleaveth the cleft into two claws, and cheweth the cud among the beasts, that ye shall eat. Nevertheless these ye shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the cloven hoof; as the camel, and the hare, and the coney: for they chew the cud, but divide not the hoof; therefore they are unclean unto you. And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it is unclean unto you: ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcase. (Deut. 14.6-8)

The Letter of Aristeas (c. 2nd century BC), 153-155:

For all cloven-footed creatures and ruminants quite clearly express, to those who perceive it, the phenomenon of memory. Rumination is nothing but the recalling of (the creature's) life and constitution, life being usually constituted by nourishment, wherefore he exhorts us in the Scripture also in these words: 'Thou shalt surely remember the Lord that wrought in thee those great and wonderful things' (Deut. 7.18; 10.21).

Philo of Alexandria, De Specialibus Legibus 4.107:

For just as a cud-chewing animal after biting through the food keeps it at rest in the gullet, again after a bit draws it up and masticates it and then passes it on to the belly, so the pupil after receiving from the teacher through his ears the principles and lore of wisdom prolongs the process of learning, as he cannot at once apprehend and grasp them securely, till by using his memory to call up each thing that he has learned by constant exercises which act as the cement of conceptions, he stamps a firm impression of them on his soul.

But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. (Ps. 1.2)

Samuel Smith, David's Blessed Man (re Ps. 1.2):

For without this meditation this law, which is the word of God, will either in time be forgotten, whereby we shall become unmindful of it, or else it will prove as a talent hid in the ground, utterly unfruitful unto us, for this meditation indeed is the third step of a true convert. The first is to hear the word of God readily; the second to remember it diligently; and the third to meditate on it seriously; and this is compared to the 'chewing of the cud,' Deut. xiv. 6, 7, which is never found in the unclean but in the clean beasts....Use 2. This may admonish all men, as they love their own souls, to make more care and conscience of the performance of this duty, to call to mind that we do hear or read, to think and muse upon it, to chew the cud, to lay it to heart, yea, and to apply it to our own souls and consciences in particular. This is like the rumination or chewing of the cud to be found only in the clean beasts, whereas they which chewed not the cud were unclean, Deut. xiv. 6, 7.

Bartholomew Ashwood, Heavenly Trade (re Ps. 1.2):

Meditation chews the cud, and gets the sweetness and nutritive virtue of the Word into the heart and life: this is the way the godly brings forth much fruit.

Thomas Watson, A Christian on the Mount, p. 2 (re Ps. 1.2):

Doctrine. The proposition that results out of the text is this, that a good christian is a meditating christian. "I will meditate in thy precepts," Ps. cxix.15. "Meditate upon these things," 1 Tim. iv.15. Meditation is the chewing upon the truths we have heard: the beasts in the old law that did not chew the cud, were unclean; the christian that doth not by meditation chew the cud, is the be accounted unclean.

I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways. (Ps. 119.15)

George Horne, A Commentary on the Book of Psalms, p. 523 (re Ps. 119.15):

Meditation is that exercise of the mind, whereby it recalls a known truth, as some kinds of creatures do their food, to be ruminated upon, until all the nutritious parts are extracted, and fitted for the purposes of life. By study we lay in knowledge, by meditation we reduce that knowledge to practice.

Remove Not Old Landmarks

Historically and spiritually speaking, many of the old landmarks (Prov. 22.28; 23.10) have been removed from us. Or so it may seem in our modern age which is so often characterized by -- in the words of C.S. Lewis -- "chronological snobbery" (Surprised By Joy, pp. 206-208). But God is faithful to his people to not remove them completely. Wisdom is not confined to the golden ages of the first or second Reformations, yet what Charles Spurgeon said (Preface, Illustrations and Meditations, or, Flowers From a Puritan's Garden, Distilled and Dispensed) of the writings of Thomas Manton is true for us as well with respect to divines of old:

Ministers who do not know Manton need not wonder if they are themselves unknown.

Gerrit Hendrik Kersten was a 20th-century Dutch divine who delighted in the old paths. One biographer described his appreciation for the giants upon whose shoulders he stood thus.

M. Golverdingen, Rev. G.H. Kersten: Facets of His Life and Work, pp. 252-253:

It was the great attention given to the work of the Holy Spirit which knit Rev. Kersten to Calvin, and particularly to the men of the Dutch Second Reformation and their English and Scottish contemporaries. Calvin's Institutes unfolded the doctrine of the inner testimony of the Holy Spirit, who seals the Word of God in the hearts of men. There was no other work of Calvin which Kersten read with "more acquiescence and greater blessing."[275] He was very much of one mind with men such as Boston, the Erskines, Watson, Justus Vermeer, and Van der Kemp, who so eminently described the work of the Spirit in the spiritual life of the regenerate, as well as with Comrie, who was one of the few orthodox theologians of stature from the eighteenth century. Numerous times in his sermons and writings he refers to Comrie, a kindred spirit. He also took the initiative to reprint his works, which were frequently advertised in De Saambinder and De Banier during the 1930s. The old writers are the spokesmen of the "old, proven truth"; the views of the neo-Reformed contradicted these truths.

[275] De Saambinder, 25 February 1932.

Friday Funny

For some 21st century readers, there may be confusion about names referred to in Puritan and Reformed literature. So this is intended as a helpful (read: humorous) guide to select prominent Reformed individuals in church history.

William Ames was an English Puritan; Willie Aames is the actor who starred in Eight is Enough and Charles in Charge.

Thomas Manton was an English Puritan; Thomas Manton IV is a modern-day self-proclaimed "prophet."

John Owen was an English Puritan; Johnny Owen was a Welsh boxer.

Thomas Watson was an English Puritan; Thomas A. Watson is the man whose name Alexander Graham Bell first called on the telephone.

David Clarkson was an English Puritan; David Clarkson is a Canadian ice hockey star.

Robert Shaw was a 19th century Scottish Presbyterian who authored a commentary on the Westminster Confession; Robert Shaw was the English actor who starred in Jaws, The Sting, From Russia With Love and A Man For All Seasons.

John Kennedy (of Dingwall) was a 19th century Scottish Presbyterian; John F. Kennedy was an American president.

William Cunningham was a 19th century Scottish Presbyterian; Billy Cunningham was an American college and professional basketball star.

Jonathan Edwards was an American Puritan; John Edwards is an American Democratic politician.

Who can think of other names shared by Puritans or Reformed figures and notables from popular culture or modern history?

Will We Know Each Other in Heaven?

Wilhelmus à Brakel, The Christian's Reasonable Service, Vol. 4. pp. 360-361:

The Saints Will Recognize each Other in Heaven

Question: Will there be mutual recognition in heaven?
Answer: Even though such knowledge will not be what it is here (it being associated with a physical relationship and affections), we nevertheless believe that ministers will know their members, members their minister, the husband his wife, the wife her husband, parents their children, and children their parents. Relatives and acquaintances will know each other. Furthermore, all men of renown in the Bible, and all who excel in glory will be known by all. All who are in heaven will mutually know each other by divine revelation and through the eternal fellowship they will have with each other. No one will be a stranger to each other or be considered as such by anyone, for there will be no loss of memory. Ignorance is a weakness, and there will be no imperfection. Mutual fellowship will be perfect there; it will not be engaged in ignorantly, but knowledgeably. I believe that they shall recount to each other the ways in which the Lord had led them. They shall then praise and magnify the perfections of God which manifested themselves at each step of the way. They shall thus not be occupied with the immediate beholding of God only, without thinking of each other. Rather, as glorified men they shall fellowship together, unitedly glorifying God. The disciples knew Moses and Elijah when they were on the holy mountain (Mat. 17:3). The poor will know their benefactors when "they may receive you into everlasting habitations" (Luke 16:9). The absence of relatives will not engender sorrow since all physical relationships and affections cease there. The righteousness of God will give as much reason for joy and rendering of glory to God as His goodness.

That they shall have the ability to speak is evident from the fact that inability to speak is an imperfection. How else would they be able to sing praises? Moses and Elijah spoke with Christ, its purpose being to render glory to God. We believe, however, that the difference between languages will cease, this being a consequence of sin. However, which language will be spoken there is not known. It may possibly be the language that Adam spoke, which up to the moment when the languages were confused (a period of nearly two thousand years) was the only language -- the Hebrew language. Perhaps it will be a language enabling the saints to express the essence of heavenly matters better than any earthly language, which is generally derived from temporal matters. Whatever the language will be, however, it will be the glorification of God.

Richard Baxter, The Saint's Everlasting Rest, pp. 39-40, 141:

But yet it much sweeteneth the thoughts of that place [heaven] to me, to remember that there are such a multitude of my most dear and precious friends in Christ: 'with whom I took sweet counsel, and with whom I went up to the house of God, who walked with me in the fear of God, and integrity of their hearts:' In the face of whose conversation there was written the name of Christ: whose sensible mention of his excellencies hath made my heart to burn within me. To think such a friend that died at such a time, and such a one at another time, and that all these are entered into rest: and we shall surely go to them. It is a question with some, Whether we shall know each other in heaven or no? Surely, there shall no knowledge cease which now we have; but only that which implieth our imperfection. And what imperfection can this imply? Nay our present knowledge shall be increased beyond belief: it shall indeed be done away, but as the light of the stars is done away by the rising of the sun; which is more properly doing away our ignorance than our knowledge; indeed we shall not know each other after the flesh; but by the image of Christ, and spiritual relation, and former faithfulness in improving our talents, beyond doubt, we shall know and be known. Nor is it only our old acquaintance, but all the saints of all ages, whose faces in the flesh we never saw, whom we shall there both know and comfortably enjoy. Yea, and angels as well as saints will be our blessed acquaintance. Those who now are willingly ministerial spirits for our good, will willingly then be our companions in joy for the perfecting of our good: and they who had such joy in heaven for our conversion, will gladly rejoice with us in our glorification. I think, christian, this will be a more honourable assembly than ever you heave beheld; and a more happy society than you were ever of before. Then we shall truly say as David, 'I am a companion of all them that fear thee: when we are come to mount Sion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels; to the general assembly, and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of th enew covenant.' So then I conclude: This is one singular excellency of the rest of heaven. 'That we are fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.'
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I must profess, from the very experience of my soul, that is the belief that I shall love my friends in heaven, that principally kindles my love for them on earth. If I thought I should never know them after death, and consequently never love them more when this life ended, I should, in reason, number them with temporal things, and love them comparatively but a little: even as I love other transitory things, allowing for the excellency in the nature of grace. But now I converse with some delight with my godly friends, as believing I shall converse with them for ever, and take comfort in the very dead and absent, as believing we shall shortly meet in heaven: I love them, I hope, with a love that is of a heavenly nature, while I love them as the heirs of heaven, with a love which I expect shall there be perfected, and more fully and for ever exercised.

The last reason that I give you, to move you to bear the loss or absence of your friends, is, that it gives you the loudest call to retire from all the world, and to converse with God himself, and to long for heaven, where you shall be separated from your friends no more.

Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity, p. 585:

We shall, in the kingdom of heaven, have sweet society with glorified saints; then the communion of saints will be illustrious. O what a blessed time will it be when those who have prayed, wept, suffered together, shall rejoice together! We shall see the saints in their white linen of purity, and see them as so many crowned kings: in beholding the saints glorified, we shall behold an heaven full of suns. Some move the question, whether we shall know one another in heaven? Surely our knowledge shall not be diminished, but increased. It is the judgment of Luther and Anselm, and many other divines, that we shall know one another -- yea, the saints of all ages, whose faces we never saw; and, when we shall see the saints in glory without their spots, viz. their infirmities, pride, and passion, this will be a glorious sight. We see how Peter was transported when he saw but two prophets in the transfiguration, Mat. xvii. 3.; but, what a blessed sight will it be when we shall see such a glorious company of prophets, and martyrs, and holy men of God! How sweet will the music be, when they shall sing together in concert, in the heavenly choir! And though, in this great assembly of saints and angels, "one star may differ from another in glory," yet no such weed as envy shall ever grow in the paradise of God; then there shall be perfect love, which, as it casts out fear, so also envy; though one vessel of glory may hold more than another, yet every vessel shall be full.

Martin Luther after the 1542 death of his daughter Magdalena:

As Adam, when he awoke from sleep, recognized the newly created Eve at once as flesh of his flesh....Even so and far better shall we, who have been renewed in Christ, recognize one another there.

The Excellence of Meditation

Thomas Watson, The Christian on the Mount: A Treatise on Meditation, p. 92:

Aristotle places felicity in the contemplation of the mind. Meditation is highly commended by Augustine, Chrysostom, and Cyprian as the nursery of piety. Jerome calls it his paradise. With what words shall I set it forth? Other duties have done excellently, but you excel them all. Meditation is a friend to all the graces; it helps to water the plantation. I may call it, in Basil's expression, the treasury where all the graces are locked up, and, with Theophylact, the very gate and portal by which we enter into glory. By meditation the spirits are raised and heightened to a kind of angelic frame. Meditation sweetly puts us in heaven before we arrive there. Meditation brings God and the soul together.

Meditation is the saints' looking glass, by which they see things invisible. Meditation is the golden ladder by which they ascend to paradise. Meditation is the spy they send abroad to search the land of promise, and it brings a cluster of the grapes of Eshcol with it. Meditation is the dove they send out, and it brings an olive branch of peace in its mouth. But who can tell how sweet honey is save they that taste it? The excellence of meditation I leave to experienced Christians, who will say the comfort of it may be better felt than expressed.

To Glorify God and To Enjoy Him Forever

In answer to the query, "What is the chief end of man?" the Westminster Shorter Catechism responds thus: "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever." The chief end of man is articulated to consist of two clauses, and the relationship between those two clauses has been the subject of some interest and study, particularly in light of John Piper's "Christian Hedonism" philosophy. Below I have compiled the statements of some divines in order for us to better understand the nuances of this relationship between glorifying God and enjoying God.

John Brown of Haddington:

Q. Why is the glorifying of God placed before the enjoyment of him?

A. Because the glory of God is of more value than our happiness, Isa. xl. 17.

Q. Whether is our glorifying or enjoying of God first in order?

A. We must first enjoy God in his gracious influences, and then glorify him; and this leads on to further enjoyment of him, Psalm cxix. 32.

Q. Is our delight in the glory or glorious excellencies of God as satisfying to us, to be our chief end or motive in our actions, religious or moral?

A. No; but our shewing forth the honour of those glorious excellencies, Isa. ii. 11, Psal. xvi. 4, Isa. xliii. 21.

Q.Why may we not make our own delight in the glory of God as satisfying to our desires, our chief end and motive?

A. Because this would be a setting up of our own happiness above the glory of God.
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Q. Why are the glorifying and enjoying of God joined as one chief end?

A. Because none can obtain or rightly seek the one without the other, 1 Cor. xv. 58.

Q. How do we most highly glorify God?

A. By receiving and enjoying him most fully.

William Gouge:

God's glory is the most principal and supreme end of all. As at the next (but subordinate) end, God in His Providence aimeth at His children's good.

Fisher's Catechism:

Q. 1.44. Why is the glorifying God made the leading part of man's chief end, and set before the enjoyment of him?

A. Because, as God's design in glorifying himself was the reason and foundation of his design in making man happy in the enjoyment of him, Rom. 11:26; so he has made our aiming at his glory, as our chief end, to be the very way and means of our attaining to that enjoyment, Psalm 50:23.

Q. 1.45. Is our happiness, in the enjoyment of God, to be our chief end?

A. No; but the glory of God itself, Isa. 42:8; in our aiming at which chiefly, we cannot miss the enjoyment of him, Psalm 91:14, 15.

Q. 1.46. Is not our delighting in the glory of God, to be reckoned our chief end?

A. No; we must set the glory of God above our delight therein, otherwise, our delight is not chiefly in God, but in ourselves, Isa. 2:11. Our subjective delighting in the glory of God belongs to the enjoyment of him, whose glory is above the heavens, and infinitely above our delight therein, Psalm 113:4.

Thomas Boston:

Glorifying of God is put before the enjoying of him, because the way of duty is the way to the enjoyment of God. Holiness on earth must necessarily go before felicity in heaven, Heb.12:14. There is an inseparable connection betwixt the two, as between the end and the means; so that no person who does not glorify God here, shall ever enjoy him hereafter. The connection is instituted by God himself, so that the one can never be attained without the other. Let no person, then, who has no regard for the glory and honour of God in this world, dream that he shall be crowned with glory, honour, immortality, and eternal life, in heavenly mansions. No; the pure in heart, and they who glorify God now, shall alone see God, to their infinite joy in heaven.

Thomas Watson:

If we glorify God, he will glorify our souls forever. By raising God's glory, we increase our own: by glorifying God, we come at last to the blessed enjoyment of him.

John Willison:

Q. Do we not promote our happiness, by making God's glory our chief end?

A. Yes; and therefore glorifying God, and enjoying him for ever, are connected in the answer.

Joseph Alleine:

Q. What is mans chief duty?

A. To glorifie God.

Q. What is mans chief happinefs?

A. To enjoy God.

John Flavel:

Q. 9. Why are the glorifying and enjoying of God put together, as making up our chief End?

A. Because no man can glorify God, that takes him not for his God; and one takes him for his God, that takes him not for his supreme Good; and both these being essentially included in this Notion of the chief End, are therefore justly put together.

Thomas Vincent:

Q. 7. Why is the glorifying of God and the enjoyment of God joined together as one chief end of man?

A. Because God hath inseparably joined them together, so that men cannot truly design and seek the one without the other. They who enjoy God most in his house on earth, do most glorify and enjoy him. "Blessed are they that dwell in thy house; they will be still praising thee." — Ps. 84:4. And when God shall be most fully enjoyed by the saints in heaven he will be most highly glorified. "He shall come to be glorified in his saints."— 2 Thess. 1:10.

A.S. Paterson:

Obs. 3. The glorifying of God, and the enjoyment of him, are inseparably connected.

The glorifying and the enjoyment of God are here connected as one chief end, because God hath inseparably connected them, and no one can truly design and seek the one, without, at the same time, designing and seeking the other. And we may here remark, that the glorifying of God is here set before the enjoyment of him for ever, to show that the former is the means by which the latter is obtained ; that holiness on earth must precede happiness in heaven ; and that none shall enjoy God for ever who have no desire to glorify him in this world. Heb. xii. 14; Matt. v. 8.

Thomas Doolittle:

Q. Is the principal to glorifie God? Yes.

Q. And the lefs principal to enjoy him for ever? Yes.

Q. Are thefe two joyned together with And? Yes.
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Q. S.D. What is the firft Propofition?

A. Man's chief End is to glorifie God, I Cor. 10. 31. Whether ye eat or drink, or whatfoever ye do, do all to the Glory of God: Rom. 11. 36.

Q. What is the fecond Propofition?

A. Man's Chief End is, in, or next to to the glorifying of God, to enjoy him for ever, Pfal. 73. 25, to the end. Whom have I in Heaven but thee? and there is none upon Earth that I defire befides thee. 26. God is the ftrength of my Heart, and my Portion for ever: Joh. 17. 21, 22, 23.

Thomas Lye:

I. Mans chief end is,

1. To glorifie God; Proved out of 1 Cor. 10.31. Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatfoever ye do, Do all to the glory of God.

2. Next to the glorifying of God, to enjoy him for ever. Proved out of Pfal. 73. 25, 26. Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I defire befide thee, v. 26. My flefh, and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
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Q. How many Doctrines or diftinct Truths are there in this firft Anfwer?

A. There are Two.

Q. VVhat is the firft Doctrine in this Anfwer?

A. That Mans chief end is To glorify God.

Q. How is this Doctrine proved?

A. It is proved out of I Cor. 16.31. VVhether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatfoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

Q. VVhere lies the force of this Text to prove this Doctrine?

A. In thefe words, Do all to the glory of God.

Q. How know you, that the force lies in thefe Words?

A. By two things.

1. By the fenfe of the words themfelves.

2. Becaufe thefe words are printed, with a different Character, or letter, from other words of the fame Text.

Q. Wherein lies the difference?

A. The words, wherein the force lies, are printed Text. with blacker, and lefs Characters: The others, in whiter, and bigger Letters.

Q. But what if at any time, as it is very often in the Catechifm, all the words of the Text are printed alike?

A. Then the Force lies not in any particular words of the Text, but in the whole.

Q. What is the fecond doctrine in this firft Anfwer?

A. Next to the glorifying of God, to enjoy him for ever.

Q. Why fay you fo? This is no Doctrine: for A Doctrine muft be full, and perfect fenfe.

A. It is fo printed in my Catechifm.

Q. It is fo indeed. But here you muft note with all Care, That when ever you are bid to draw A Doctrine, either from the Anfwer, or Scripture, you be fure to give full, and compleat fenfe.

A. Thats but fit indeed. But I know not how to help my felf herein.

Q. To help you therefore, look narrowly into your Catechifm, and there you fhall find immediately after the Anfwer to the queftion, fome other words, which being added to what you have faid, will make the fenfe full, and compleat.

A. I now fee thefe words -- Mans chief end is -- standing juft under the Anfwer.

Q. Adde them then to the words you faid before: and now tell me, what is the fecond Doctrine in this firft Answer?

A. That Mans chief end is, next to the glorifying of God, to enjoy him for ever.

Q. Now indeed you Anfwer rightly;
How is this Doctrine proved?

A. It is proved out of Pf. 73. 25, 26. Whom have I in heaven but thee! and there is none upon Earth that I defire befides thee. 26. My Flefh and my Heart faileth, but God is the ftrength of my heart, and my portion for ever.

Q. Where lies the force of this Text to prove this Doctrine?

A. In thefe words, -- Whom have I in Heaven but thee! none that I defire befides thee, 26. God is my portion for ever.

J.G. Vos:

5. Why does the catechism place glorifying God before enjoying God? Because the most important element in the purpose of human life if glorifying God, while enjoying God is strictly subordinate to glorifying God. In our religious life, we should always place the chief emphasis on glorifying God. The person who does this will truly enjoy God, both here and hereafter. But the person who thinks of enjoying God apart from glorifying God is in danger of supposing that God exists for man instead of man for God. To stress enjoying God more than glorifying God will result in a falsely mystical or emotional type of religion.