Bless God At All Times

I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. (Ps. 34.1)

Thomas Brooks, The Unsearchable Riches of Christ (1655), in The Works of Thomas Brooks, Vol. 3, pp. 24-25:

The seventeenth property of an humble soul is this: an humble soul will bless God, and be thankful to God, as well under misery as under mercy; as well when God frowns as when he smiles; as well when God takes as when he gives; as well under crosses and losses, as under blessings and mercies: Job. i. 21, 'The Lord gives and the Lord takes, blessed be the name of the Lord.' He doth not cry out upon the Sabeans and the Chaldeans, but he looks through all secondary causes, and sees the hand of God; and then he lays his hand upon his own heart, and sweetly sings it out, 'The Lord gives, and the Lord takes, blessed be the name of the Lord.' An humble soul, in every condition, blesses God, as the apostle commands, in the 1 Thes. v. 18, 'In every thing give thanks to God.' So 1 Cor. iv. 12, 'Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer.' The language of an humble soul is, If it be thy will, saith an humble soul, I should be in darkness, I will bless thee; and if it be thy wil I should be again in light, I will bless thee; if thou wilt comfort me, I will bless thee; and if thou wilt afflict me, I will bless thee; if thou wilt give me the least mercy, I will bless thee; if thou wilt give me no mercy, I will bless thee. An humble soul is quick-sighted; he sees the rod in a Father's hand; he sees honey upon the top of every twig, and so can bless God; he sees sugar at the bottom of the bitterest cup that God doth put into his hand; he knows that God's house of correction is a school of instruction; and so he can sit down and bless when the rod is upon his back. An humble soul knows that the design of God in all in his instruction, his reformation, and his salvation.

It was a sweet saying of holy [John] Bradford, If the queen will give me my life, I will thank her; if she will banish me, I will thank her; if she will burn me, I will thank her; if she will condemn me to perpetual imprisonment, I will thank her. Ay, this is the temper of an humble heart. An humble soul knows, that to bless God in prosperity is the way to increase it; and to bless God in adversity is the way to remove it. An humble soul knows, that if he blesses God under mercies, he hath paid his debt; but if he blesses God under crosses, he hath made God a debtor.

William Secker, The Nonsuch Professor (1660), p. 128:

To bless God for mercies is the way to increase them; to bless God for miseries, is the way to remove them. No good lives so long, as that which is thankfully improved; no evil dies so soon, as that which is patiently sustained.

William Dyer, Christ's Famous Titles, or The Believer's Golden Chain (1663), p. 179:

To bless God for merces is the way to increase them; to bless God for miseries is the way to remove them: no good lives so long as that which is thankfully improved; no evil dies so soon as that which is patiently endured.

The Sabbath a Season for Meditation

William Bates, "On Divine Meditation," in The Works of William Bates, Vol. 3, pp. 127-128:

The sabbath day, is a season for meditation. This should be the temper of every christian to be in the Spirit on the Lord's day. On that day when our Saviour did arise from the earth, our souls should ascend to heaven.

Consider with yourselves, the Lord's day is a type of heaven, and contemplation is the work of heaven. The rest of the sabbath is but an abridgment of that long eternity which the saints shall enjoy with God; and the employment of heaven is contemplation. The glorified spirits above are always exercised in a steady view and consideration of God's infinite glory. Now the sabbath being a type of heaven, and meditation being the work of heaven, certainly this day is the most fit season for meditation. As for you who disrelish this duty, and are unacquainted with it, do you expect heaven? Your indisposition to this duty will be a bar to keep you from blessedness, and hinder you from entering into that rest. A gracious soul upon the Lord's day by his meditation may converse with God; he may discourse with the inhabitants of another world, he may enjoy as much of God as this interposing veil of flesh and blood may admit; the only difference between a saint in heaven, and a saint upon earth who meditates upon God, is in respect of the degrees and the manner of their fruition. For otherwise a saints upon earth enjoys heaven especially on the Lord's day, when every duty receives a special blessing, and therefore the duty of meditation.

Works of George Swinnock

The 5-volume Works of Puritan George Swinnock have recently become available to read online (HT: Tony Byrne). Of him James Hamilton wrote (Our Christian Classics: Readings from the Best Divines, with Notices Biographical and Critical, Vol. II, p. 282):

Except to a few collectors, the writings of Swinnock are almost unknown; but we confess that we have rejoiced in them as those that find great spoil. So pithy and pungent, and so practical, few books are more fitted to keep the attention awake, and few so richly reward it.

Volume 1: The Christian Man's Calling (Google Books)
Volume 2: The Christian Man's Calling cont'd (Internet Archive; Google Books)
Volume 3: The Christian Man's Calling cont'd; Heaven and Hell Epitomised; The Fading of the Flesh (Internet Archive)
Volume 4: The Fading of the Flesh cont'd; The Pastor's Farewell; The Gods are Men; The Beauty of Magistracy; Men are Gods; The Incomparableness of God (Internet Archive; Google Books)
Volume 5: The Door of Salvation Opened by the Key of Regeneration; The Sinner's Last Sentence (Internet Archive; Google Books)

Pisgah-Meditation

Henry Law, "Christ is All": The Gospel of the Pentateuch (Numbers-Deuteronomy) [re: Deut. 34.1], pp. 193-196:

But Moses on Pisgah not only warns -- he also encourages to rapturous meditation; he leads us by the hand to precious thoughts. His eye thence traverses a wondrous circuit. Aided by superhuman power, he roams along the grand expanse of Israel's portion. From plain to plain -- from valley to valley -- from hill to hill, he wanders in entranced delight. What beauty -- what fertility -- enchant him! He sees the earthly home, so worthy of God's chosen sons.

Believer, is there no Pisgah, from which you, too, may gaze? There is. It is the Gospel-record. You should by frequent step ascend this hill. You should release your mind from the poor grovelings of earthly things. You should seek elevation for your heart in this chart and picture of the coming bliss.

Jesus invites you to this Pisgah. Without Him, indeed, your daily walk must be in a squalid marsh. Apart from Him, your horizon is confined -- and hope has no watchtower of survey. But join yourself to Him. He will conduct you to a lofty seat, and open out a clear prospective of your sure heritage. Seated by Him, your eye may feast on promised mansions. He has indeed bought a rich country for you. And He gives the Gospel as the graphic map.

The Spirit, too, delights to meet you with enlightening aid. He will give power to apprehend this new Jerusalem; to count the towers; to go round the buttresses; to mark the palaces. He will confer that telescopic eye of faith, which scans the valleys, the plains, the mountains, of your Canaan.

Bright, indeed, is the prospect. It reveals that glorious home, which is the recompense of Jesus' blood. But what can be a recompense for divine merit? We estimate things by their price. The price, which He presents, is infinite. The equivalent, which He wins, is heaven. This, then, must be a treasure beyond thought.

Again, think by whom these mansions are prepared. Eternal love suggests their plan. Infinite power executes. Therefore they must be infinitely perfect. Nothing can be absent, which can contribute to pure ecstasy.

But Jesus dwells there now, intent on their completion. They are wondrous words, "I go to prepare a place for you." His grace is an ocean without shore. Here it flows out in ceaseless employ. His might is boundless. Here it finds full exercise. Heaven, then, must be the concentrated blaze of all the happiness, which Jehovah can contrive and form. My soul, may you reach heaven! Cling to Jesus, and you cannot fail. Reader, may you reach heaven! Cling to Jesus, and you cannot fail.

Neglect not, then, the truth, that in the Gospel we are led to a Pisgah, whence we may survey this home. Let no one say, the prospect is so dazzling that mortal gaze cannot rest on it. True! the reality cannot be known by flesh and blood. Bodies, until transformed into the likeness of the Lord, cannot become inhabitants. True! heaven in all its blessedness exceeds our present thought. To know it fully, we must enjoy it for eternal ages. But still we are encouraged to look forward from our Pisgah's heights.

Believer, strain, then, the eye of faith. Look, look again. No, never cease to look. There you behold a flood of glory upon glory. There cannot be improvement. Sin is outside. Temptations have no place. Tears no more flow. Sighs are no longer heaved. Satan and his legion are afar in utter darkness. The world has passed away. There is no longer any fear of grieving God, or falling short, or bringing shame to Christ's all-glorious name. Righteousness and peace are the streets and highways. Eternal safety forms the battlements. Eternal praises sound from all the inhabitants. Eternal glory sparkles on each brow. Eternal pleasure breathes around. Each happy saint drinks a cup -- so full, that it can hold no more -- so pure, that it cannot be purer--so deep, that everlasting ages cannot exhaust it. My soul, may you reach heaven! Cling to Jesus, and you cannot fail. Reader, may you reach heaven! Cling to Jesus, and you cannot fail.

But when you thus contemplate heaven, especially observe what is its chief joy. It is God -- all -- God -- everywhere -- God manifest, and gazed on with undazzled eye. It is Jesus ever near -- and seen without an intervening cloud. Here on earth, ofttimes He is hidden, because sin interposes, and distrust brings mist, and other scenes attract, and indolence deadens the soul. In heaven there is no darkening medium. It is eternal vision, and eternal adoration, of Jehovah, clearly displayed -- intensely and entirely loved.

Believer, will you not, then, mount Pisgah, and let thought revel in anticipating views? Such meditation is heaven on the path to heaven. It is a foretaste, before earth be left.

Close not this humble volume, without deep resolve. Vow in the spirit, to consecrate some portion of each day to searchings for heaven in the Gospel-page. Become knowledgeable of your sure estate. Be not a stranger to your near country. Often go in, perusing your own Canaan. And may God meet you, as He met Moses! May He enlarge your sight to see -- your heart to love!

It is true wisdom to cultivate this Pisgah-meditation. Thus strength is revived, and muscles are nerved to fight and persevere. The combatant gains vigor, the racer presses on, when he beholds the crown of victory almost reached. Think much of heaven, and you will soon be there.

Thus sanctity progresses. Can he love sin, whose soul is ever conversant with purity? Can he be won by siren-notes of earthly pleasure, whose ears are ever drinking in the hallelujahs of the saved?

Thus cares grow light. Can his head hang down, or his breast sigh, who is by constant thought an inhabitant of the realms of bliss?

Thus death is welcomed as the friend, who comes to change long-cherished hope into reality. Thus Jesus more and more is prized and loved. We bless Him in proportion as we feel, that heaven is the purchase of His grace, His work, His blood. When we say, He earned it -- He bestows it. Then we add, 'To Him be hourly praise -- for Him let every moment toil.'

Happy they, who gather such rich harvest on Pisgah's summit! Spirit of God, strengthen my sight for such delightful gaze! Spirit of God, use these poor pages to attract pilgrims to this mount!

Bibliomania: A Case Study

Barry Waugh writes in his biographical sketch of American Presbyterian Thomas Smyth:

As with many ministers and theologians, Thomas Smyth was afflicted with bibliomania. His symptoms appeared early in his life. As a young child, he was a voracious reader and while at Belfast College he worked as the librarian. Reading and cataloging were not sufficient to alleviate his love for books; he had to own them as well. He wrote in 1829, "My thirst for books, in London became rapacious. I overspent my supplies in procuring them, at the cheap repositories and left myself in the cold winter for two or three months without a cent …" (Autobiography, 39). Dr. Smyth's comments on his developing bibliomania are reminiscent of Erasmus and his practice of buying books first, and then, if any money was left, he bought food. A few years later as he entered his ministerial service in Charleston, he specifically purposed to develop a theological and literary library similar to Dr. Williams's Library in London. Over the years, he accumulated about 20,000 volumes. One unusual book in his possession was a Hebrew Psalter with the autographs of Jonathan Edwards, Edwards's son, and Rev. Tryan Edwards, who gave it to Dr. Smyth. The Grand Debate and other original documents of the Westminster Assembly were procured at great cost, as well as forty works by members of the Assembly along with ten quarto volumes of their discourses. Dr. Smyth's compulsive, though purposeful, book buying may have been a point of tension for he and his wife. In a letter written by Margaret to him in the summer of 1846 she informed him of the expenses they were incurring due to the addition of three rooms to their home:

"I tell you all this now as a preface to a caution, not to involve yourself too deeply or inextricably in debt by the purchase of books & pictures; of the last, with the maps, we have enough now to cover all the walls, even of the new rooms; & the books are already too numerous for comfort in the Study & Library. … But I would enter a protest not only against books & pictures, but all other things not necessary & which can come under the charge of extravagance. Do be admonished & study to be economical." (Autobiography, 384f).

It should be noted that one of the reasons the three rooms were built was to accommodate Dr. Smyth's ever-growing library; one of the new rooms was thirty feet long and intended for his use. As Dr. Smyth's health continued to deteriorate, he made the difficult decision to sell over half of the volumes of his library to Columbia Theological Seminary. He was concerned that since he could not take full advantage of his magnificent library it would be best that ministerial students have access to the books. The actual sale was dated May 28, 1856 and the seminary contracted to pay the Smyths $14,400 for the volumes. The seminary organized the collection in a special area designated the Smyth Library. Dr. Smyth continued to add to the collection by donating other books so that by May of 1863, the special collection contained 11,845 volumes, and by the time a posthumous inventory was taken in November of 1912, the number was over 15,000. Even though he had sold and donated thousands of volumes to Columbia Seminary, his remaining library was still large, but it was reduced once again when a fire, in 1870, burned about 3,000 books. Though the affliction of bibliomania can become all-consuming, it is certain that many Presbyterian ministers trained at Columbia Seminary benefited from the collection gathered by Thomas Smyth.

'I Dressed Him, and God Healed Him'

It was customary at the conclusion of his medical case reports, or upon congratulations from friends for curing a patient, for the French Huguenot surgeon Ambroise Paré (1510-1590), who pioneered surgery under battlefield conditions with great success and is also credited with inventing the tourniquet, to deflect praise from himself toward God with this saying: Je le pansai, Dieu le guérit ('I dressed him [that is, his wounds], and God healed him').

It has been disputed by historians whether Paré was indeed a Huguenot or a Catholic, but his own 1575 memoir states that he was a member of "the Religion," on account of which he was hated by his enemies, and he believed that he had been poisoned once in 1562 for adhering to the Reformed faith, while Charles IX himself is said to personally intervened to save Paré during the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre (Francis R. Packard, M.D., Life and Times of Ambroise Pare, pp. 88-89).

This saying of Paré, which is inscribed on his statue in Paris, was a favorite of Sigmund Freud, and is the official logo of the Canadian Association of Paediatric Surgeons. It represents the Calvinistic principle that duty is ours, events are God's. These words also reflect the humility of one who understands with the Psalmist who wrote Psalm 127 that "there is no success without the blessing of God" (Martin Luther, A Commentary on the Psalms Called the Psalms of Degrees [on Ps. 127.3], p. 285).

Every Thing Betters A Saint

William Jenkyn, "How Ought We to Bewail the Sins of the Places Where We Live?" in Puritan Sermons, 1659-1689, Vol. 3, p. 125:

Every thing betters a saint. -- Not only ordinances, word, sacraments, holy society, but even sinners and their very sinning. Even these draw forth their graces into exercise, and put them upon godly, broken-hearted mourning. A saint sails with every wind: as the wicked are hurt by the best things, so the godly are bettered by the worst. Because "they have made void thy law, therefore do I love thy commandments." (Psalm cxix. 126, 127.) Holiness is the more owned by the godly, the more the world despiseth it. The most eminent saints were those of Caesar's (Nero's) house: (Phil. iv. 22: ) they who kept God's name, were they that lived where Satan's throne was. (Rev. ii. 13.) Zeal for God grows the hotter by opposition; and thereby the godly most labour to give the glory of God reparation. Lime, by casting water upon it, grows inflamed; and opposition confirms the upright Christian in holiness; winds make the trees more firmly rooted. It was said of old, Grave bonum a Nerone damnari: "The best action saints account that which is opposed by the worst men." Elijah's jealousy for religion was the more kindled by its being opposed by idolaters: (1 Kings xix. 14: ) Lot showed himself a better man in Sodom than in the cave. (Gen. xix. 30.)

Willem Apollonius, Dutch Presbyterian

In the 1640s, church polity was a matter which excited great agitation between Presbyterian, Erastian and Independent parties, not only in the British isles, but also across the channel in the Netherlands, as well as across the pond in New England. At the encouragement of Presbyterian Robert Baillie (who "masterminded a grand anti-Independent strategy encompassing the three nations [Scotland, England and the Netherlands]," Keith L. Sprunger, Dutch Puritanism, p. 365), and his cousin William Spang of Veere, the Dutch Classis of Walcheren commissioned Willem Apollonius (d. 1657) to answer seven questions of church polity and worship in a treatise directed to the Westminster Assembly called A consideration of certaine controversies at this time agitated in the kingdome of England, concerning the government of the church of God (Latin, 1644; English trans. 1645), a copy of which was given to each Westminster divine, and which elicited a letter of thanks from the Assembly, and praise from Baillie: "Surely he hes done a piece of good service to God and his churches here" (Baillie, Letters, II.246). Acting on behalf of the classis again, he sent those seven questions to the Congregationalists of New England, who appointed John Norton to write a response, Responsio ad totam questionum (1648; English trans., The Answer to the Whole Set of Questions of the Celebrated Mr. William Apollonius, 1958), which was in fact the first book published in Latin in America.

William Hetherington provides additional insight into the importance of Apollonius' contributions to the debates over church polity, History of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, pp. 301-302:

There appeared another work at this time, not indeed written by one of the Assembly of Divines, but so intimately connected with the controversies which were agitated among them, that it deserves to be mentioned here. This was a treatise written by the celebrated Apollonius of Middleburg, entitled, "Consideratio Quarundam Contraversiarum ad Regimen Ecclesiae Dei Spectantium, quae in Angliae Regno hodie Agitantur." When this treatise was published, a copy of it was sent to each member of the Westminster Assembly. "It was," says Baillie, "not only very well taken, but also, which is singular, and so far as I can remember, absque exemplo, it was ordered, nemine contradicente, to write a letter of thanks to Apollonius."1 The spirit of this work is thoroughly Presbyterian, encountering alike the theories of the Independents and the Erastians. It consists of seven chapters, each treating of a separate topic briefly, but with great clearness and force of reasoning. They are as follows: -- "1. Concerning the qualification of Church members. 2. Concerning a Church covenant. 3. Concerning the Church visible and instituted. 4. Concerning power ecclesiastical. 5. Concerning ecclesiastical ministry and its exercise. 6. Concerning Classes (Presbyteries) and Synods, and their authority. 7. Concerning forms or directories of faith and worship." It will at once be seen, that in the discussion of these topics the learned author must come into direct collision with both the Independents and the Erastians; yet his work has very little of a merely controversial character, being a calm and dispassionate, but very clear and able, disquisition concerning these important theological questions. There is another very valuable work by the same author, written a short time before the meeting of the Westminster Assembly, but treating very fully of the Erastian theory. Its title is, "Jus Majestatis Circa Sacra; sive, Tractatus, Theologicus de jure Magistratus circa res Ecclesiasticus." A translation of this work, for the purpose of general circulation, would be a very valuable contribution to the cause of religious liberty, which is at present beset by so many and such formidable enemies.

1 Baillie, vol. ii. p. 246.

It is to be hoped that one day someone will heed this encouragement from Hetherington to translate Jus Majestatis Circa Sacra. There are other works by Apollonius written in Dutch which this writer would very much like to see in English, such as Tractaat van eenige byzondere Deugden der Kinderen Gods (Treatise on some especial Virtues of the Children of God), and Over den Sabbath (On the Sabbath), both published in 1652. Apollonius is little-known in our day, but in the heady days of international Puritanism, his writings constituted a major Dutch contribution to the debates over church polity in Old and New England in defense of Presbyterianism.

Harvard University Rules of Conduct c. 1643

As the son of a Harvard grad student, I have certain memories associated with the university that has been described as "the oldest, richest, and most famous of American seats of learning." Apart from grad student housing on Park Drive, and visits to the Peabody and The Coop, they mostly center around life at Harvard Square, including the ubiquitous Chessmaster, and the diversity of "expression" to be found at the Pit. Be that as it may -- and no doubt everyone's associations with Harvard University in the 20th and 21st centuries are in some aspects unique and subjective -- historically, life was very different for the earliest Harvard student community.

John Milton in 1644 (Of Education) famously described the purpose of education thus:

The end then of Learning is to repair the ruines of our first Parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like him, as we may the neerest by possessing our souls of true vertue, which being united to the heavenly grace of faith makes up the highest perfection.

The authors of a 1643 tract called New Englands First Fruits, which outlines the rules of conduct for the Harvard student body, were of like mind in this regard, and hence it is worth looking at the standards of America's first institution of higher learning when it was a Puritan institution.

New Englands First Fruits, pp. 26-28 (modernized spelling):

Rules, and Precepts that are Observed at the College:

1. When any scholar is able to understand Tullius [Cicero] or such like classical Latin author extempore, and make and speak true Latin in verse and prose, suo ut aiunt marte ["to stand, as they say, on his own feet"], and decline perfectly the paradigms of nouns and verbs in the Greek tongue, let him then, and not before, be capable of admission into the College.

2. Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well: the main end of his life and studies is "to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life" (John 17.3), and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning.

And seeing the Lord only giveth wisdom, let everyone seriously set himself by prayer in secret to seek it of Him (Prov. 2.3).

3. Everyone shall so exercise himself in reading the scriptures twice a day that he shall be ready to give such an account of his proficiency therein, both in theoretical observations of the language and logic, and in practical and spiritual truths, as his tutor shall require, according to his ability: seeing "the entrance of the word giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple" (Psal. 119.130).

4. That they, eschewing all profanation of God's name, attributes, word, ordinances and times of worship, do study with good conscience carefully to retain God and the love of His truth in their minds. Else, let them know that (notwithstanding their learning) God may give them up "to strong delusions" (II Thess. 2.11, 12), and in the end "to a reprobate mind" (Rom. 1.28).

5. That they studiously redeem the time, observe the general hours appointed for all the students, and the special hours for their own classes; and then diligently attend the lectures, without any disturbance by word or gesture. And if in anything they doubt, they shall inquire as of their fellows, so (in case of "non-satisfaction") modestly of their tutors.

6. None shall, under any pretense whatsoever, frequent the company and society of such men as lead an unfit and dissolute life.

Nor shall any, without his tutor's leave or (in his absence) the call of his parents or guardians, go abroad to other towns.

7. Every scholar shall be present in his tutor's chamber at the seventh hour in the morning, immediately after the sound of the bell, at his opening the scripture and prayer; so also at the fifth hour at night, and then give account of his own private reading (as aforesaid in particular the third), and constantly attend lectures in the hall at the hours appointed. But if any (without necessary impediment) shall absent himself from prayer or lectures, he shall be liable to admonition, if he offend above once a week.

8. If any scholar shall be found to transgress any of the laws of God or the school, after twice admonition, he shall be liable, if not adultus, to correction; if adultus, his name shall be given up to the overseers of the College, that he may be admonished at the public monthly act.

Common Grace and the Arts

Abraham Kuyper, Lectures on Calvinism, Lecture 5: Calvinism and the Arts:

And therefore I must still illustrate the second factor, which alone decides the case. I have already, more than once, called your attention to the important significance of the Calvinistic doctrine of “common grace,” and of course in this lecture on art I must refer to it again. That which is to be ecclesiastical must bear the stamp of faith, therefore genuine Christian art can only go out from believers. Calvinism, on the contrary, has taught us that all liberal arts are gifts which God imparts promiscuously to believers and to unbelievers, yea, that, as history shows, these gifts have flourished even in a larger measure outside the holy circle. "These radiations of Divine Light,” he wrote, “shone more brilliantly among unbelieving people than among God's saints.” And this of course quite reverses the proposed order of things. If you limit the higher enjoyment of art to regeneration, then this gift is exclusively the portion of believers, and must bear an ecclesiastical character. In that case it is the outcome of particular grace. But if, at the hand of experience and history, you become persuaded that the highest art-instincts are natural gifts, and hence belong to those excellent graces which, in spite of sin, by virtue of common grace, have continued to shine in human nature, it plainly follows that art can inspire both believers and unbelievers, and that God remains Sovereign to impart it, in His good pleasure, alike to Heathen and to Christian nations. This applies not only to art, but to all the natural utterances of human life, and is illustrated by the comparison in early times between Israel and the other nations. As far as holy things are concerned, Israel is chosen, and is not only blessed above all nations, but stands among all nations, isolated In the question of Religion, Israel has not only a larger share, but Israel alone has the truth, and all the other nations, even the Greeks and the Romans, are bent beneath the yoke of falsehood. Christ is not partly of Israel and partly of the nations; He is of Israel alone. Salvation is of the Jews. But just in proportion as Israel shines forth from within the domain of Religion, so is it equally backward when you compare the development of its art, science, politics, commerce and trade to that of the surrounding nations. The building of the Temple required the coming of Hiram from a heathen country to Jerusalem; and Solomon, in whom, after all, was found the Wisdom of God, not only knows that Israel stands behind in architecture and needs help from without, but by his action he publicly shows that he, as the king of the Jews, is in no way ashamed of Hiram's coming, which he realizes as a natural ordinance of God.

How One Student Spent £100

George Smeaton, one of Scotland's greatest 19th century ministers and Biblical scholars, went to Edinburgh University in 1829 as a 15 year-old. It was an adjustment for him, according to Thomas Smith (who was with him on that first day, and later as a professorial colleague, and still later preached Smeaton's funeral sermon), but Smeaton soon overcame the disadvantages of his earlier education and went on during his final year to win a prize of £100 given by Dr. Thomas Chalmers to the best student of his class. One wonders, how did he spend the money?

His son, Oliphant Smeaton, tells the story, which is recounted first by William Knight, Some Nineteenth Century Scotsmen (1903), pp. 108-109; and later by John W. Keddie, George Smeaton: Learned Theologian and Biblical Scholar (2007), p. 26.

Characteristically a "bibliophile," he at once laid the sum out in books, securing among other things a complete edition of Migne's "Patristic Library" in seventy folio volumes, a first edition of "Calvini Opera," a fine copy of "Poli Synopsis," the famous folio "Erasmus" in five volumes, and other treasures.

This laid the foundation of a library to which he continued to add until the time of his death, and which at that time numbered considerably over fifteen thousand volumes, and was as varied as it was choice. I had the privilege of presenting it, afterwards, to the New College, where it now remains.

Emilé Doumergue's Biography of John Calvin

Loraine Boettner has noted (Calvinism in History)that "beyond comparison the most exhaustive and authoritative work ever published on [John] Calvin" is Emilé Doumergue's (1844-1937) massive seven-volume biography written in French, Jean Calvin: Les hommes et les choses de son temps (1899-1927). Jean-Daniel Benoît, author of Jean Calvin: La Vie, l'homme, la pensée (1933), describes his own biography (only 275 pages) as constituting "the quintessence of the seven big volumes of my old master, dear Emile Doumergue."

Although it has never been translated into English (except for brief portions here and there), Domergue's seven-volume biography is -- happily for those who read French -- available to read online:

Vol. 1
Vol. 2
Vol. 3
Vol. 4
Vol. 5
Vol. 6
Vol. 7

In the course of preparing this blog post, I came across an undated letter by Doumergue which was for sale at auction which includes the following remarks (translation provided by the auctioneer):

" ... So what has caused you to know my name, is my work on Calvin, - a work of which seven volumes have appeared and of which the eighth and last volume without doubt will appear shortly; it is finished ... "

This raises a question which I would love to clarify. Is there, in fact, an eighth and final volume which has never been published? If so, does it exist in manuscript somewhere? Inquiring minds, who consider Doumergue to be the premier biographer of the premier theologian of the Reformation, would like to know.

The Battle for Hearts and Minds

It is always helpful to clarify truth by distinguishing it from error, that is, to better define what truth is, it is useful to determine what it is not. "Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error" (1 John 4.6b). This has been done in credal statements, catechisms and other works by the Church since its earliest days. The genre of literature which specifically focuses on this apologetic task is known as heresiography. Early examples of this include Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies; Hippolytus of Rome, Refutation of All Heresies; and Tertullian, The Prescription Against Heretics.

Puritan heresiography too reflects an interest in upholding the truth and combating error. The 1640s, in particular, was a time of competing claims to truth, and while the Westminster Assembly succeeded in vindicating truth more eloquently than anyone, the battle for hearts and minds continued and many took up the challenge to refute error. Notable examples from the Puritan era include Thomas Edwards, whose Gangraena was published in three parts, the first and second of which was titled, The first and second part of Gangraena: or A catalogue and discovery of many of the errors, heresies, blasphemies and pernicious practices of the sectaries of this time, vented and acted in England these four last years (1646); Robert Baillie, A dissuasive from the errours of the time vvherein the tenets of the principall sects, especially of the independents, are drawn together in one map, for the most part in the words of their own authours, and their maine principles are examined by the touch-stone of the Holy Scriptures (1646); Ephraim Pagit (his father was a Puritan and he was a royalist sympathetic with Presbyterianism), Heresiography; or a description of the Hereticks and Sectaries of these latter times (1645); and Johannes Hoornbeek, Summa Controversiarum Religionis; Cum Infidelibus, Hæreticis, Schismaticis: Id Est, Gentilibus, Judæis, Muhammedanis; Papistis, Anabaptistis, Enthusiastis et Libertinis, Socinianis; Remonstrantibus, Lutheranis, Brouvnistis, Græcis (1653) [see here].

Catechisms also provided a launching pad for catalogues and refutations of particular errors such as David Dickson's Truth's Victory Over Error (this is the first sympathetic commentary on the Westminster Confession of Faith prepared from lectures given c. 1650 and first published in 1684; the first published commentary on the WCF was published in 1651 by an opponent of the Assembly, William Parker, although often misattributed to Henry Parker) which includes An alphabetical List of the proper and patronymic Names of the Authors of the old and late Heretics, confuted in the foregoing Treatise (a most useful reference, although among modern editions it is to be noted that the 2002 Presbyterian Armoury Publications edition includes page references, while the 2007 Banner of Truth edition does not); and a Compendium of the Principal Errors of Those that are Outside the Reformed Church was added to Abraham Hellenbroek's A Specimen of Divine Truths (one of the features constituting the expanded "big Hellenbroek" edition of his Catechism, although the Compendium was not authored by him).

In 1647, the London ministers of Sion College issued A Testimony to the Truth of Jesus Christ, and to Our Solemn League and Covenant, as Also Against the Errours, Heresies and Blasphemies of these times, and the Toleration of them. Wherein is inserted A Catalogue of divers of the said Errours &c. This Testimony was a powerful witness against the spiritual tumult of the 1640s, yet the 1650s required that this witness be expanded and clarified for the common man. Puritan Presbyterian William Lyford took up the challenge with a work that would be later be titled The Instructed Christian, or The Plain Man's Senses Exercised to Discern Both Good and Evil being a discovery of the errors, heresies, and blasphemies of these times (1655), and the toleration of them, as they are collected and testified against by the ministers of London, in their testimony to the truth of Jesus Christ. This book was reprinted by Soli Deo Publications, and I commend it to the reader as both a worthy exposition of the 1647 London Testimony, and a helpful guide to many of the errors of our own day as well.

How Precious is Sabbath-Time

The following is from a meditation by John Willison titled Meditation IV. From Eph. vi. 16 [note: should read Eph. v. 16]. Redeem the Time., from Meditations for the Sabbath Day, published as an appendix to his Treatise Concerning the Sanctification of the Lord's Day.

Of all time Sabbath-time is the most precious and valuable; it being the time God has allotted and set apart for himself, and upon the improvement whereof the glory of God and salvation of our souls depend in a most peculiar manner; it being the day of special access to God, and of free commerce and correspondence between heaven and earth. It is heaven's weekly market day, or God's deal-day to the poor and needy; the day of access to God's presence-chamber. Time by some is compared to a gold ring, and the Sabbath to [a] sparkling diamond, which give it its lustre, and heightens its value. Wherefore, if we be wise, we will show a peculiar esteem for the Sabbath above all the days of the week; we will reckon every moment of Sabbath-time most precious, and desire that none of it may be mispent. What Christ said to his disciples concerning the loaves and fishes, the like he seems to speak to us concerning his holy day, "Gather up the fragments," gather up all the parcels, the spare hours and minutes of it; account them as precious as the goldsmith doth the smallest filing of his gold, and let nothing of Sabbath-time be lost.

Athanasius in Psalmos

The Book of Psalms is so rich; so broad in it scope; so extensive in its range of comprehension; so suitable and sufficient for all persons, times, circumstances and places that Richard Bernard observed "there is no condition of any in prosperity or adversity, peace or wars, health or sickness, inward or outward distress, with many particular causes in all these kinds, but he shall find some Psalms, which he may think almost to have been composed upon his own occasion" (Preface to the Reader, Davids Musick).

John Calvin memorably wrote (Preface to Commentary on the Psalms) that:

I have been accustomed to call this book, I think not inappropriately, “An Anatomy of all the Parts of the Soul;” for there is not an emotion of which any one can be conscious that is not here represented as in a mirror. Or rather, the Holy Spirit has here drawn to the life all the griefs, sorrows, fears, doubts, hopes, cares, perplexities, in short, all the distracting emotions with which the minds of men are wont to be agitated. The other parts of Scripture contain the commandments which God enjoined his servants to announce to us. But here the prophets themselves, seeing they are exhibited to us as speaking to God, and laying open all their inmost thoughts and affections, call, or rather draw, each of us to the examination of himself in particulars in order that none of the many infirmities to which we are subject, and of the many vices with which we abound, may remain concealed.

With this Puritan conception of the Psalter as a mirror of the human soul in view, which is suitable to all of life's circumstances, it is not surprising that an epistle of Athanasius was commonly prefixed to early English editions of the metrical Psalter such as John Day's 1562 and Matthew Parker's 1567 versions of Sternhold & Hopkins (along with a lengthy list or table of directions for the use of specific psalms in specific situations) titled A treatise made by Athanasius the great, concerning the use and vertue of the psalms or, in the 1567 Parker edition, Athanasius in Psalmos. Some extracts from this treatise, The Letter of Athanasius, Our Holy Father, Archbishop of Alexandria, to Marcellinus on the Interpretation of the Psalms, are included below because they show how a great man of God in the early Church eloquently described the sufficiency of the Psalter.

SON, all the books of Scripture, both Old Testament and New, are inspired by God and useful for instruction[2 Tim 3:16], as it is written; but to those who really study it the Psalter yields especial treasure. Each book of the Bible has, of course, its own particular message: the Pentateuch, for example, tells of the beginning of the world, the doings of the patriarchs, the exodus of Israel from Egypt, the giving of the Law, and the ordering of the tabernacle and the priesthood; The Triteuch [Joshua, Judges, and Ruth] describes the division of the inheritance, the acts of the judges, and the ancestry of David; Kings and Chronicles record the doings of the kings, Esdras [Ezra] the deliverance from exile, the return of the people, and the building of the temple and the city; the Prophets foretell the coming of the Saviour, put us in mind of the commandments, reprove transgressorts, and for the Gentiles also have a special word. Each of these books, you see, is like a garden which grows one special kind of fruit; by contrast, the Psalter is a garden which, besides its special fruit, grows also some those of all the rest.
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And, among all the books, the Psalter has certainly a very special grace, a choiceness of quality well worthy to be pondered; for, besides the characteristics which it shares with others, it has this peculiar marvel of its own, that within it are represented and portrayed in all their great variety the movements of the human soul. It is like a picture, in which you see yourself portrayed, and seeing, may understand and consequently form yourself upon the pattern given. Elsewhere in the Bible you read only that the Law commands this or that to be done, you listen to the Prophets to learn about the Saviour's coming, or you turn to the historical books to learn the doings of the kings and holy men; but in the Psalter, besides all these things, you learn about yourself. You find depicted in it all the movements of your soul, all its changes, its ups and downs, its failures and recoveries. Moreover, whatever your particular need or trouble, from this same book you can select a form of words to fit it, so that you do not merely hear and then pass on, but learn the way to remedy your ill. Prohibitions of evil-doing are plentiful in Scripture, but only the Psalter tells you how to obey these orders and abstain from sin.
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It seems to me, moreover, that because the Psalms thus serve him who sings them as a mirror, wherein he sees himself and his own soul, he cannot help but render them in such a manner that their words go home with equal force to those who hear him sing, and stir them also to a like reaction. Sometimes it is repentance that is generated in this way, as by the conscience-stirring words of Psalm 51; another time, hearing how God helps those who hope and trust in Him, the listener too rejoices and begins to render thanks, as though that gracious help already were his own. Psalm 3, to take another instance, a man will sing, bearing his own afflictions in his mind; Psalms 11 and 12 he will use as the expression of his own faith and prayer; and singing the 54th, the 56th, the 57th, and the 142nd, it is not as though someone else were being persecuted but out of his own experience that he renders praise to God. And every other Psalm is spoken and composed by the Spirit in the selfsame way: just as in a mirror, the movements of our own souls are reflected in them and the words are indeed our very own, given us to serve both as a reminder of our changes of condition and as a pattern and model for the amendment of our lives.
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So then, my son, let whoever reads this Book of Psalms take the things in it quite simply as God-inspired; and let each select from it, as from the fruits of a garden, those things of which he sees himself in need. For I think that in the words of this book all human life is covered, with all its states and thoughts, and that nothing further can be found in man. For no matter what you seek, whether it be repentance and confession, or help in trouble and temptation or under persecution, whether you have been set free from plots and snares or, on the contrary, are sad for any reason, or whether, seeing yourself progressing and your enemy cast down, you want to praise and thank and bless the Lord, each of these things the Divine Psalms show you how to do, and in every case the words you want are written down for you, and you can say them as your own.

Funera Domestica Duo Luctuosissima

The year 1611 was a year of turmoil and grief for Johannes Kepler. First, his seven year-old son died of smallpox; and then his wife Barbara died of Hungarian spotted fever. Also, at this time, his sympathies with the Calvinist doctrine of the Lord's Supper prevented him from returning to the Lutheran University of Tübingen in Württemberg. In the midst of this time of trouble, his great scientific mind produced a little Latin poem in memorial to his wife and child entitled Funera domestica duo luctuosissima. Here is the English translation as provided by Max Caspar, Kepler, pp. 207-208:

Oh physical eye so weakly made
Your seeing is only dissembling
In these dark fields
When however your shine is extinguished here
From countenance to countenance
You will behold the eternal light
Make the change with confidence
Do not fear
Do not be childishly afraid

Oh mind, your knowledge is piece work
And though it may bring you some pleasure
And sweet fantasy
When, however, the final perfection
Will have destroyed this vanity
How greatly will this please you
Hurry and forget
That which is uncertain
So that this may turn out well for you.

O man you now live a perpetual death
For true life death's agony
Is but the beginning
All at once like grain you will
Be reborn to eternal life
Through Christ you will succeed
Do not wish for delay
Hurry to die
In order to achieve life.

Eutaxian Humor

Today's Friday Funny comes from a book that revolutionized the American Presbyterian church in the 19th century. Charles W. Baird -- who, like his brother, Henry M. Baird, was a Huguenot historian of note -- published Eutaxia, or the Presbyterian Liturgies: Historical Sketches in 1855. It was successful in moving American Presbyterians away from the form of worship sketched by the Westminster Assembly's Directory of Public Worship and towards liturgical forms of worship more akin to Anglicanism. In fact, James W. Alexander had this to say about this book in a letter dated June 13, 1855: 'If the Eutaxian Liturgy come into actuality, the only result will be to train people for the "Common Prayer"' (Forty Years' Familiar Letters of James W. Alexander, D. D., Constituting, with the Notes, a Memoir of His Life (1860), p. 208).

Be that as it may, one particular anecdote provided by Baird in this book (pp. 83-84) strikes the funny bone.

We may be allowed to vary these souvenirs by adducing one of the more lively cast. It is connected with the baptismal service. When the famous [Jean] Claude was pastor of the church at Charenton, near Paris (about the middle of the seventeenth century), he was called on one occasion to perform the marriage ceremony between two Huguenots in high life; of whom the bridegroom was a decrepit septuagenerian, leading to the altar a young girl of some sixteen summers. As the minister saw this ill-matched couple advancing up the aisle to meet him, whether by accident or design we cannot say, he opened his book to the baptismal form, and addressed the disconcerted bridegroom with the interrogation: "Dost thou here present this child to be baptized?"

Last Words of Cotton Mather

In February 1728 -- on the day of his 65th birthday, in fact -- Cotton Mather laying dying in his Boston home. He had been in good health until December, but this last sickness had depleted his vitality. This was a Monday and from the previous Thursday, he had experienced asthma, coughing and fever, but the pain was not too bad. He bid farewell to his loved ones. After a lifetime of fruitful ministery, to his son Samuel, who sought from him the guidance of a final exhortation, he charged him: "Remember only that one word 'fructuosos' ['fruitful']." The next day, his wife was by his side as Mather spoke his last words. "Is this dying? Is this all? Is this all I feared, when I prayed against a hard death? O! I can bear this! I can bear it! I can bear it!" As his wife wiped his eyes, he concluded, "I am going where all tears will be wiped from my eyes." And so he passed from this world to the next on Tuesday, February 13, 1728, and, while the last two days of a man's life do not constitute the sum, truly the wisdom of Solmon was manifest here in this saying: A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth (Eccl. 7.1).

A Puritan Sermon Mystery

There is a sermon contained in Volume Three (pp. 611-624) of Puritan Sermons, 1659-1689, entitled "What Advantage May We Expect From Christ's Prayer for Union With Himself, and the Blessings Relating to It?" It has a sweet, gospel-incense savor to it, and I commend it to the Reader who wishes to delve into the wonderful prayer of our Savior in John 17. But there is also a mystery associated with this sermon. Who wrote it?

It was published anonymously ascribed to "N.N." as was another sermon included in the Cripplegate Morning Exercises (now titled Puritan Sermons, 1659-1689), "How the Religious of a Nation are the Strength of It," which has generally been ascribed (by Cotton Mather and others, including James Nichol) to John Collins (c. 1632 - 1687), and both sermon manuscripts are apparently written in the same hand.

However, James Nichol, 19th-century editor of the Cripplegate Morning Exercise Sermons, "on the strength and credit of a List of Preachers, written in ancient hand, and prefixed to a well-preserved copy of the volume," ascribes it to David Clarkson, although this sermon is not included the Practical Works of David Clarkson (editor Basil Cooper believes that Nichol was mistaken and proposes instead that "Mr. Barker" should be credited).

Moreover, James Darling in one place (Cyclopaedia Bibliographica, Vol. 2, 2114) ascribes its authorship to David Clarkson (although he fails to include it in a list of Clarkson's works elsewhere, Cyclopaedia Bibliographica, Vol. 1, 689-690), and in another (Subjects, 1150) to John Barker.

John Langdon Sibley, Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University, Vol. 1, p. 191, points out that the timeframe for John Barker (1682-1762) makes it seemingly impossible for him to have preached this sermon, published in 1682, and instead assigns its authorship to John Collins.

Thus, we are left with conflicting claims of authorship and, for those inclined to press the question, a mystery as to who authored the sermon. Do you, dear Reader, have any insights as to who the author may be? If so, let me know.

Meanwhile, consider, and rejoice that, as the author as noted,

Here is the greatest encouragement for our prayers that can be desired. -- For hereby it is manifest, that whatever we can beg of God, which is needful for our happiness here or hereafter, it hath already been prayed for on our behalf by Christ himself, who was not, and could not, be denied. When we pray for our relatives or others, who are given to Christ, but do not yet believe, that they may have faith; when we pray for union with the Father and the Son, for the comfort, improvement, and continuance of this union; when we pray for pardon of sin, and the purging of guilt, by the Grand Sacrifice of expiation; when we pray for holiness, the increase and exercise of it; when we pray to be kept from the evil of the world, (which is all in the world we need to fear,) from the evil of suffering, or whatever may be destructive to our souls; in a word, when we pray for eternal glory; -- it is evident, by the premisses, that all these, and what else is necessary for these purposes, were, on the behalf of those that do or shall believe, the requests of the Great Mediator, -- who was God and man in one person, and could no more repulsed than God can deny himself, -- in a prayer that was not liable to the least exception from Justice or Holiness itself, that was in all points exactly agreeable unto the will of God, and infinitely acceptable to the Divine Majesty. Therefore, praying for any or all [of] these things expressed or included in this divine prayer, as we are required, we may be as fully persuaded that they will not be denied us, as we may be confident that the requests of our great Advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous, will be granted.

Songs From The Soul

Geerhardus Vos, "Songs from the Soul," in Grace and Glory, pp. 169-171:

The Psalter is of all books of the Bible that book which gives expression to the experimental side of religion. In the law and the prophetic writings, it is God who speaks to his people; but in the Psalter we listen to the saints speaking to God. Hence the Psalter has been at all times that part of Scripture to which believers have most readily turned and upon which they have chiefly depended for the nourishment of the inner religious life of the heart. I say that part of Scripture and not merely that part of the Old Testament, for even taking the Old and New Testament together the common experience of the people of God affirms that there is nothing in Holy Writ which in our most spiritual moments -- when we feel ourselves nearest to God -- so faithfully and naturally expresses what we think and feel in our hearts as these songs of the pious Israelites. Our Lord himself, who had a perfect religious experience and lived and walked with God in absolute adjustment of his thoughts and desires to the Father's mind and will, our Lord himself found his inner life portrayed in the Psalter and in some of the highest moments of his ministry borrowed from it the language in which his soul spoke to God, thus recognizing that a more perfect language for communion with God cannot be framed.

Undoubtedly it is in the Psalter that the specific work of inspiration which the Holy Ghost performs in inditing the Scriptures and the more general task which he carries out in sustaining, directing, stimulating and guiding the religious thoughts and aspirations of believers are most closely united. Inspiration for the disclosure of truth is not always accompanied by the subjective appropriation of the truth in a saintly experience (a Balaam and a Caiaphas were among the prophets) ; but nevertheless it remains the more natural and ordinary procedure of God that the instrument through which his truth is brought to man should be a mind in intimate touch with his own; a mind responsive to that personal revelation of God himself which lives and throbs in the truth. And consequently we see that the great prophets (like a Moses, an Isaiah or Jeremiah) appear at the same time as the outstanding examples of a wonderfully rich and tender religious intercourse with God. But in the Psalms we can more clearly than anywhere else observe the interaction of these two things: supernatural reception of the truth and spiritual nearness to God. Possibly the fact that in David's case the prophetic disclosures of truth that he received were so vitally connected with his own life and destiny may have something to do with the presence of this feature in the Psalms, whereas the other prophets sometimes stood more or less apart from the development of things to which their words applied. And then the prophets, of course, in many instances spoke to and for the nation collectively, whereas in the Psalter it is the individual soul which comes face to face with God.

Hence the lessons and encouragements which we obtain from other parts of the Old Testament are frequently drawn indirectly by a process of inference, for which we are not always in the right frame of mind and the proper spiritual mood. But the in Psalms, whatever our mood, whether we are exultant or downcast, vigorous or weary, penitent or believing, we can always find our hearts mirrored there. It needs no process of reasoning to make their sentiments our own. Here the language of the Bible comes to meet the very thoughts of our hearts before these can even clothe themselves in language and we recognize that we could not have expressed them better than the Spirit has here expressed them for us. At first sight, this may easily seem strange to us when we remember that the the psalmists lived under the conditions of a typical and preparatory dispensation; that on many points they saw through a glass darkly, whereas we, who live in the full light of the complete gospel, see face to face. But for the very reason that the Psalms reflect that experimental religion of the heart, which is unvarying at all times and under all circumstances, we need not greatly wonder at this. The influx of the divine light, whether more or less strong, must always produce the identical effect of joy, hope and peace in every soul to which it comes. The well at which we drink may flow more abundantly than that at which the psalmists drank, but the experience of thirst, of drinking and of satisfaction must still be the same as it was in the time of David.