John Flavel on Preaching to the Pastor

"But it is plain, from that very place (Hosea 9:7), that a man may be objectively a spiritual, and all the while subjectively a carnal man. Believe it, brethren, it is easier to declaim, like an orator, against a thousand sins of others, than it is to mortify one sin, like Christians, in ourselves; to be more industrious in our pulpits, than in our closets; to preach twenty sermons to our people, than one to our own hearts. Believe it, sirs, all our reading, studying, and preaching, is but trifling hypocrisy, till the things read, studied, and preached, be felt in some degree upon our own hearts. We tell our people (the Lord help us to tell the same to our own hearts) that there are similar, as well as saving works of the Spirit, by which their (and why not our own) souls may be lost?" 

John Flavel, "The Character of a True Evangelical Pastor" in The Works of John Flavel, Vol. 6. 

For Consistent Christian Lives

"Lord, you have made yourself to be ours. therefore now show yourself to us in your wisdom, goodness and power. To walk faithfully in our Christian course we need much grace. Supply us out of your rich store. We need wisdom to go in and out inoffensively before others; furnish us with your Spirit. We need patience and comfort, you who are the God of comfort and consolations, bestow comfort and consolation upon us; for Christ's sake. Amen."

Adapted from Richard Sibbes quoted in A Book of Reformed Prayers. Edited by Howard L. Rice and Lamar Williamson, Jr. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998), 32.

The Genius of Puritanism

To some, the suggestion that the Puritan movement possessed a genius to it would be a laughable suggestion. Those who sat under their preaching, who received counsel in their studies--or today while reading republished sermons and books-- would know that Puritan pastors did indeed possess a genius in one area especially that has, quite possibly, outstripped any group of pastors before or since the Puritans ministered in 16th and 17th century England. The Puritans excelled in teaching all theology as practical theology; and, as such, the typical Puritan sermon would not merely announce a theological idea, but would explain why it mattered and how the average layperson might apply this truth from Scripture to their life. If the sermon was on a text that called men and women to trust in the Lord, the sermon would first discuss the selected text, then identify the theological truth or doctrine to be found within the text (while also explaining how that doctrine was derived from Scripture), and then would apply that doctrine to the lives of that specific congregation using vivid examples and memorable aphorisms. In applying the text, the Puritan pastor would be sure to give counsel on how to (for instance) trust in God-- perhaps giving three, six, or nine helps for trusting in God in their current situations. The typical Puritan sermon was not vague, general, or trite, but sought to equip and empower the immediate congregation for living out God's Word and growing in faith, regardless of the ease or difficulty of personal circumstances.


Peter Lewis' The Genius of Puritanism is an punchy examination of Puritan preaching, worship, and spiritual counseling practices. The book begins by a brief introduction to Puritan history and thought that would be helpful for any who are wondering who the Puritans were and what they were about. Then it proceeds to discuss the Puritan in the pulpit, in the pew, and in private. It is this third element that demands most of the book's attention. 

With regard to the Puritan in private (and by this Lewis is referring to the Puritan Pastor in his study as he cared for those people under his care), Lewis directs his attention to the Puritan pastors treatment of spiritual depression, or as the Puritans also called it, spiritual desertion-- the feeling in a person that God has abandoned them. While God does not actually abandon those he has forgiven and claimed as his own, certain individuals may truly feel as if God has deserted. This feeling is not imaginary or foolish, but is a genuine heaviness of heart and soul that comes upon a person who believes that they are God forsaken. For the pastor, he might encounter this as a woman comes into his study and complains that she no longer feels like God is there when she prays or reads her Bible. God feels distant to her! A teenager might come to the pastor because he has done something that he knew was wrong and now wrestles with deep-seated guilt and the fear that God could no longer accept him back. Or, the pastor may be confronted with a father who has suddenly lost his son, and feels that God has abandoned him. All three people really feel like God is distant and, quite possibly in their minds, that he no longer loves them. To these scenarios, which are quite plausible today, the Puritans offer tremendously keen insights on how to explain this feeling of desertion and what might be done to alleviate this spiritual darkness. 

Lewis, an English pastor, is writing as one who has enjoyed and revered the wisdom of the Puritans and it clearly shows through his writing. While for some readers Lewis' bias might detract from the book, his interest in the Puritans makes him more than willing to let them speak for themselves. Though The Genius of Puritanism is small, it is slow reading because of extensive quotations from a wide range of Puritan works. This allows the reader to hear the Puritan voice firsthand and to truly take in the compassionate tone that these pastors preached with and the practical counsel they offered-- in private and in public-- to those who were struggling to find the peace and comfort that was supposedly offered in Christ. 

The book offers its own commendation in the conclusion, when it says, "Every Christian is aware of the many forms of spiritual depression that can and do accompany the Christian life in this uncertain world. Perhaps few ages have been more neurotic than our own, and the crying need for an adequate, biblical, pastoral ministry to anguished minds, disillusioned Christians, stricken consciences and subconscious fears, was never more evidence than in our day. Such cases, and in such number, need more studied and scriptural treatment than they are receiving... In this matter, as in all others, we have the Puritans' Bible, the Puritans' God-- why may we not have 'the Puritan genius'?" (136). This genius, this acute ability to diagnosis the heart and prescribe treatment for our spiritual difficulties, is clearly introduced in this fine work. 

To students of the Puritans, to pastors, and to those who desire to see what a nuanced and practical theology looks like, I suggest the slow-reading, but valuable, The Genius of Puritanism.

What Praise is Due to a Pen?

I came across this excerpt of J.I. Packer's in searching for some devotional material. Isn't it marvelous?

Richard Baxter

Christianity teaches us not to pretend that we lack qualities which we know very well that we have, but to acknowledge that all we have is God's gift to us, so that he should be praised and admired for it rather than we. The test is to ask yourself how pleased, or how displeased, you become if God is praised while you are not, and equally if you are praised while God is not. The mature Christian is content not to have glory given to him, but it troubles him if men are not glorifying God. It pained the dying Puritan, Richard Baxter, the outstanding devotional writer of his day, when visitors praised him for his books. "I was but a pen in God's hand," he whispered, "and what praise is due to a pen?" That shows the mentality of the mature; they want to cry every moment, "Give glory to God!-- for it is His due, and His alone!" (italics mine)

J.I. Packer, Knowing God's Purpose for your Life: 365 Daily Insirations for Living a Life of Purpose (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 2004), 133.

The Bleeding Christ

In this season of Lent, William Gurnall (a solid English Puritan) provides us with excellent words about the work of Jesus: 

Faith finds that Christ has made full payment to the justice of God having poured out his blood to death upon the cross. All of his previous acts of humiliation were but preparatory for this. He was born to die; he was sent into the world as a lamb bound with the bonds of an irreversible decree of sacrifice. 

Jesus' was the Suffering Servant, who did not come to be served, but to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). 

Without this [namely, his sacrificial death], all he had done would have been labour undone. There is no redemption but by his blood. Christ did not redeem and save poor souls by sitting in majesty on his heavenly throne, but by hanging on the shameful cross, under the tormenting hand of man's fury and God's just wrath. 

Jesus died so that he could save us from the wrath of God that sinners deserve. God's justice demanded that the penalty be paid, but God's love offered his Son, Jesus, to bear that penalty. His work for us is not a cheap thing. Christ's work for us was not a trifle enacted by a mere turn of a royal hand, but a work of suffering accomplished through pierced hands. 

And therefore, the poor soul that would have pardon of sin, is directed to place its faith not only on Christ, but on a bleeding Christ, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood (Rom. 3:25).

The work Christ accomplished, which the Easter season draws particular attention to, is one that beckons us to place our hopes for today and tomorrow in his scarred hands. The bleeding Christ, the Slain Lamb, who was also resurrected, bids us now to trust in the sufficiency of his suffering for us. 

William Gurnall, Works, 11:3-6; quoted in Richard Rushing, Voices from the Past, 85. Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 2009).

Perkins: The Minister and His God

In The Call to Ministry, William Perkins provides further insights into the primacy of a pastor's relationship to God. Effective ministry overflows out of lives transformed by the gospel of a gracious God. No man can pastor effectively who has not had his soul lanced deeply by repentance and comes to have an immediate sense of God's full and complete forgiveness (so said Thomas Watson in The Doctrine of Repentance, another Puritan classic). Here are a couple more bits of wisdom from Perkins:

1. If pastors/ministers are to encourage and see change in others, they must first encourage and see it in themselves ("If ministers are to see any fruit from their ministry, they must first sanctify themselves and cleanse their hearts by repentance before they presume to stand up to rebuke sin in others" (151).   
2. "It is the minister to whose conscience God has pronounced the pardon of his own sins who most powerfully pronounces the pardon of sins to others" (174). 
3. Before ministers are filled by God, they must be emptied by him. "We must develop a conscious sense of the lack of [the excellent graces] in ourselves. For God does not normally bestow gifts on any except those who in humility and lowliness confess to him and acknowledge in themselves the need of them" (159). 
4. Sometimes a minister must have a fiery tongue (169). Sin must be spoken of in an appropriate manner. 
5. It is the minister's task to learn how to properly apply the doctrine to the lives of its hearers in a way that is appropriate in their context (170-171). It is wrong to beat down the congregation with the Law when "their hearers are sufficiently humbled and need instead to be raised up by the comfort of the gospel". Others burden their congregation with overly academic, novel concerns. Others apply comfort too quickly.

Perkins, William. The Art of Prophesying. Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1996.  

The Art of Prophesying with The Call to Ministry by William Perkins

Published: 1996 by Banner of Truth Trust

Length: 191 pages  

Purpose Statement: "The pages which follow have been written for faithful ministers of the gospel and for all who are concerned about and pursue the knowledge of holy learning" (Preface).

Difficulty (out of 5): Three

Rating (out of 10): Seven

Recommended For: Pastors, preachers, and those considering pastoral ministry

Cheapest Place to Buy: Monergism Books is selling it for $5.60 (US); its available for Kindle on Amazon for $2.99; and The Art of Prophesying (not The Call to Ministry where most of the above quotes are from) is available free online at Monergism's website.  

Perkins: The Minister and His Calling

William Perkins was a popular Puritan preacher in 16th century England. Perkins served as lecturer at Great St. Andrew’s Church, Cambridge, where he preached, lectured, extended pastoral care, mentored students, and served as the dean of Christ's College. Perkins influenced many English Puritans, "Perkins as rhetorician, expositor, theologian, and pastor became the principle architect of the Puritan movement" (Joel Beeke and Randall Pederson, Meet the the Puritans). Despite Perkins' ministry at Cambridge, his ministry could not be categorized as abstract and heady, "Perkins had exceptional gifts for preaching and an uncanny ability to reach common people with plain preaching and theology" (Beeke and Pederson). 

I recently read Perkins' books The Art of Prophesying and The Calling of the Ministry, a Puritan preaching manual, and deeply enjoyed Perkins' wisdom on the role of the pastor and the call to ministry. Instead of reviewing the book, I thought that I would spend two posts sharing some of the insights I took away from Perkins' gem:

1. Ministers are like ambassadors, they may receive gifts from the world (e.g. salary or approval of a congregation) but they do their duty on behalf of the King who sent them. They will receive their real reward from him (182).
2. The ministry should only be entered into at the calling of God. Ministers are called by God. They serve Him on his terms and at his calling. The ministry is not something to be entered on a whim (179). 
3. For those who are studying, we must prepare ourselves so that we are ready for the moment when God calls us and we can proceed without delay (177). 
4. God goes with those he sends. God equips, guides, strengthens, empowers, defends, and protects his true servants (191). 
5. God's call is discerned through the following means: Scripture, conscience, and the Church. Through Scripture, God shows the "dignity and excellency" of the ministry. Our conscience determines whether we are willing and the Church ought to determine whether we are able. The call to ministry is determined within the context of Christian community (188-189). 
6. Linger not on "speculative studies" at the expense of your ministerial calling (186). 
7. The cure to doubts about one's ability to endure the ministry's challenges is to further reflect on God's forgiveness (184). 
8. Ministers are God's ambassadors and as such they must not offer their own speculations or ideas, but only the message they have received (183). 

Perkins, William. The Art of Prophesying. Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1996.

John Bunyan on the Wiles of the Sinful Man

“The Soul who sins shall die,” Ezekiel 18:4 

“It is sin that is the cause of our damning in hell fire. The soul who sins—that soul shall die. The soul sins against God when it receives sin in the heart to entertain it there. It has chosen sin rather than God. At God’s command, the soul refuses to let sin go. Consider seven efforts of the sinner to hold onto sin.

1. If possible, the soul that entertains sin will hide it that it will not be discovered.
2. The soul that cannot hide its sin will excuse it and plead that it is not such a bad thing: ‘Why make such a fuss about it?’
3. The soul that justifies its sin will seek to cover it with a good name: Note—Isaiah 5:20.
4. If his convictions cannot deny that it is sin and that God is offended by it, then that soul might give flattering promises to God that it will put the sin away before too very long, but actually maybe not at all. It is clear that this soul delights in its abominations.
5. If God yet pursues, and seeks to see if he has indeed put this sin away, this soul might put part of it away, but keep a little for itself to enjoy. It might put away the worst part, and keep the finest. It might put away the part that can best be spared, and keep the most profitable for help in a pinch.
6. Yes, if all sin must be abandoned or the soul will have no rest, why then, the soul that is entertaining it might let it part, but it will part with a sad heart since it hates to let it go.
7. If at any time they can, or shall meet with each other again, and nobody will be the wiser, O what a courting will be between sin and the soul! This is called doing things in the dark. By these things you might see that sin has a friend in the soul. This is a strong argument that God, his Word, his ways, and his graces are out of favor with your soul, and that sin and Satan are its only true pleasant companions."

John Bunyan, Works, 1:126-128; Excerpt taken from Richard Rushing, ed. Voices from the Past: Puritan Devotional Readings. Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2009.

Puritan Public Relations Mishap

As mentioned previously, my wife and I have taken to reading Puritan prayers as part of our dinner-time devotions together. Now, I have had to do a great deal of public relations work when explaining my adoration of the English Puritans (I'm told that I have Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter to blame). Yet, I fear that even my best efforts are in tough after we prayed a particular prayer on the weekend when we had guests over for dinner. Humorously, the title of the prayer we shared with our friends was "The Dark Guest", and it opened with great force: "O Lord, bend my hands and cut them off..." As my Uncle Bill would say, "Awkward."

My quest to right the distorted Puritan image was once again made more difficult; however, I gladly persevere for those spiritual giants who would pray prayers like "The Dark Guest", which is not about mutilation of the body, but the mortification of sin and the pursuit of God's daily graces. Here's how the prayer ends: 

"There is no treasure so wonderful
     as that continuous experience of thy grace 

          toward me which alone can subdue 

               the risings of sin within: 

                    Give me more of it."

Arthur Bennett, ed., The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions (Edinburgh, UK: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1975), 126-127.

He will be our God forever and ever

The words of Thomas Brooks (1608-1680) are an encouragement to believers that God is ours because we are his. It was he who purchased us at the cost of his Son. Now, all who are in Christ Jesus can say with confidence, "This is God, Our God forever and ever." 

"This is God, Our God forever and ever," Psalm 48:14

Our God is a safe portion, a secure portion. He is a portion that no one can rob you of. He is a portion that no one can touch or take from you. He is a portion that no one can cheat or spoil you of. God is such a portion, that no friend, no foe, and no devil can ever rob you of. O Christians, God is so yours in Christ, and so yours by covenant, and so yours by promise, and so yours by purchase, and so yours by conquest, and so yours by marriage union and communion and so yours by the earnest Spirit, and so yours by the feelings and witnesses of the Spirit, that no power on earth can ever pilfer your portion, or cheat, or rob you of your portion. He is not only our God for the present, O no! He will be our God forever and ever. If God is once your portion, he will forever be your portion.

Thomas Brooks (Works, 11:26-27) excerpt taken from Voices from the Past: Puritan Devotional Readings, edited by Richard Rushing (many thanks to my wonderful wife for giving me this devotional for Christmas!).

The Convicting Spirit

My wife and I are using a collection of Puritan prayers as part of our mealtime devotions. Arthur Bennett collected a number of Puritan prayers and published them through The Banner of Truth. They have been an inspiration to us, putting into words our prayers and giving us a springboard into further prayers of our own. My thanks to Dr. Ben Reynolds who introduced me to this wonderful book, The Valley of Vision.

We read read this prayer, The Convicting Spirit, last night. 

Thou blessed Spirit, author of all grace and comfort, 

Come, work repentance in my soul; 

Represent sin to me in its odious colours that I may hate it; 

Melt my heart by the majesty and mercy of God; 

Show me my ruined self and the help there is in him; 

Teach me to behold my Creator, 

his ability to save, 

his arms outstretched, 

his heart big for me. 

May I confide in his power and love, 

commit my soul to him without reserve, 

bear his image, observe his laws, 

pursue his service,
and be through time and eternity 

a monument to the efficacy of his grace, 

a trophy of his victory.

Make me willing to be saved in his way, 

perceiving nothing in myself, but all in Jesus: 

Help me not only to receive him but 

to walk in him, 

depend upon him, 

commune with him, 

be conformed to him, 

follow him, 

imperfect, but still pressing forward, 

not complaining of labour, but valuing rest, 

not murmuring under trials, but thankful for my state. 

Give me that faith which is the means of salvation,
and the principle and medium of all godliness; 

May I be saved by grace through faith, 

live by faith, 

feel the joy of faith, 

do the work of faith. 

Perceiving nothing in myself, may I find in Christ 

wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption. 

May this be our prayer as well: to perceive nothing in ourselves, but to find all fullness in Jesus.