Front matter

NICHOL S SEEIES OF STANDARD DIVINES.

PURITAN PERIOD.

THE

WORKS OF THOMAS GOODWIN, D,D.

VOL. I.

COUNCIL OF PUBLICATION.

W. LINDSAY ALEXANDER, D.D., Professor of Theology, Congregational Union

Edinburgh.

THOMAS J. CRAWFORD, D.D., S.T.P., Professor of Divinity, University,

Edinburgh.

WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM, D.D., Principal of the New College, Edinburgh.

D. T. K. DRUMMOND, M.A., Minister of St Thomas Episcopal Church, Edin

burgh.

WILLIAM H. GOOLD, D.D., Professor of Biblical Literature and Church His

tory, Reformed Presbyterian Church, Edinburgh.

ANDREW THOMSON, D.D., Minister of Broughton Place United Presbyterian

Church, Edinburgh.

THE WORKS

THOMAS GOODWIN, D.D.,

SOMETIME PRESIDENT OF MAGDALENE COLLEGE, OXFORD.

(Benecal

BY JOHN C. MILLER, D.D., LINCOLN COLLEGE; HONORARY CANON OF WORCESTER; RECTOR OF ST MARTIN S, BIRMINGHAM.

BY ROBERT HALLEY, D.D., PRINCIPAL Of THE INDEPENDENT NEW COLLEGE, LONDON.

VOL. I., ./. v/

CONTAINING AN EXPOSITION

OF THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS.

EDINBUEGH: JAMES NICHOL. LONDON : JAMES NISBET AND CO. DUBLIN : W. ROBERTSON.

M.DCCC.LXL

EDINBURGH I PXJMTiD BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPAJTF,

PAUL S -WORK.

CONTENTS.

CONTENTS.

SERMON XXV. EPHESIANS I. 19, 20, . XXVI19, 20, . XXVII 19, 20, . XXVIIL19, 20, .

XXIX. 19, 20, .

XXX. 20, .,; XXXL20, 21, . XXXIL21, 22, . XXXIIL 21,22, . XXXIV.- 21-23, . XXXV. 22, 23, . XXXVL22, 23, .

GENERAL PREFACE.

JOHN C, MILLEK, D.D., LINCOLN COLLEGE, OXFORD; HONORARY CANON OF WORCESTER;

RECTOR OJF ST MARTIN S, BIRMINGHAM.

GENERAL PEEFACE.

THE stores of theology, enriched by the accumulating treasures of successive generations, have of late years been thrown open widely to the Church of Christ. The Fathers, the Keformers, many of the

great Puritan writers, no less than the later theologians of the Church of England and of the Nonconformist Churches, have been issued in a form and at a price which places them within general reach. In the departments of Hermeneutics and Exegetics, more espe

cially, these stores are receiving constant and, with more or less of the alloy of human imperfection and error, most valuable addi

tions. Among English scholars, the labours of Professor Ellicott, who, in philological acumen and attainments of the highest order, in combination with an absence of party bias, and with a profound rever ence for the inspiration and authority of the Sacred Scriptures, is a

very model of scholarship, sanctified to the honest and fearless inter

pretation of God s Word, trusting Scripture, and anxious only to educe its meaning, to whatever conclusions it may lead; Dean Alford and Dr Wordsworth, in their great works

; Dean Trench, Dr

Peile, Professor Eadie, Dr Vaughan (whose unpretending Exposi tion of the Epistle to the Komans is sufficiently indicative of many of the qualifications of an expositor) ; Messrs Conybeare and How-

; Dr Henderson on the Prophets ; in

son, in their well-known work

America, Professor Stuart, with all his faults, and (though not as a

philological scholar, yet as a sober, copious, and painstaking exposi

tor) Albert Barnes, have given to the Church /crrj^ara e? del.*

* In enumerating (not invidiously, and without the affectation of attempting to do it exhaustively) some of the most valuable modern additions to our ex pository theology. I cannot bring myself to omit Haldane s

" Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans," though not agreeing with Mr Haldane on every point, any more than with the other writers specified above. No difference on par ticular points (where we recognise substantial orthodoxy on the capital truths of the gospel) should tempt u to withhold our meed of gratitude to such philo logists and expositors. Their contributions should be recognised, not in a

yjji GENERAL PREFACE.

Nor must our obligations to modern German theologians be for

gotten. Their works, the best of them, need to be read with dis

crimination. And in those which have been brought within reach of

the English student, some of which are deservedly in high esteem,

there is even in the best, with scarcely an exception, not only much

that is prolix and wearisome, but, specially to those of us who read

them under the disadvantage of a translation, much that is misty,

and not a little that is questionable. These are within our reach,

and much used by many of our clergy and ministers. No theological

library can be complete without them. To the student and to the

preacher they are storehouses with which they can ill afford to dis

" instructed unto the kingdom

pense, if they are to be as scribes well

of heaven," bringing "forth out of" their "treasure things new

and old." For although there is something specious in the notion that the

preacher can afford to be a man of one book, if that book be the

Book of God, and we doubt not that such men have been, and will

be yet again, blessed to great usefulness in the Church of Christ,

it involves surely a blind and ungrateful misappreciation and dis

paragement of the gifts dispensed by that Divine Spirit whose

" manifestation" is "given to every man to profit withal," when we

underrate the treasures which have been left to us by men raised

from time to time for the close study and investigation of the

written Word, and for the enforcement and defence of the doctrines

" unlearned and igno

" most holy faith." Individual cases of

of our

rant men," lacking apostolic inspiration and endowments, may arise

not seldom, in which, with humble gifts, and little or none of the

assistance of human lore and training, they have been signally owned and honoured by God to do His work in the ingathering and

edification of His people. But, as a rule, an ignorant clergy, a

clergy undisciplined by habits of study and uninformed by reading,

will fail to be effective in an enlightened and inquiring age. Their

preaching will be vapid, superficial, and desultory, ultimately settling down into an iteration (fluent enough perhaps) of facile topics.

These remarks apply with peculiar force to a crisis in the Church s

history in which heresy is rife, and the foundations of the faith are

undermined and assailed by formidable errors. The Church then

needs well-equipped champions. Such can be found only among

narrow-minded spirit of party, but with candour and large-hearted acknowledg ments. Kobert Haldane s grasp of the general scope of the Epistle to the

" the righteousness of God," have long led me to value his work as one of the noblest pieces of exegetics in our language.

Romans, and his lucid exposition of its key-phrase,

GENERAL PEEFACE. ix

" mighty in the Scriptures," but well versed also in the works of the great and gifted champions and

well-stored theologians, theologians

exponents of the faith in every age the Fathers and Reformers of

old, and the later and the living contributors to the Church s stores.

Among these stores, it will not be denied that the writings of the Puritan Divines must ever be held in high estimation. Many of them are, in extensoj within our reach, widely circulated, and largely used; as Bishop Hopkins, Owen, Baxter, Howe, Bates, Flavel, &c. &c. Others, such as are to be published in this Series, are gene

rally accessible in select works only ; as Manton, Goodwin, Sibbes, Brooks, Charnock, Adams, &c. The works of the first four of

these have never been published in a uniform edition ; and of the works of Sibbes and Brooks, no complete collection exists in any

public library of the kingdom, and probably in few, if in any, of the

private libraries is a full set of either to be found.

The projector of the present scheme a scheme to be followed up, should its success realise the expectations formed of it, by the issue

of the works of Trapp, Swinnock, Gilpin, Trail, Bates, Burgess, and

others which have been suggested is conferring a great boon upon the Church of Christ, and one the influence of which may be felt

throughout the Protestant pulpits of Christendom ; by doing for the

comparatively inaccessible works of these Puritan Divines what has been done for many of the Fathers, the Reformers, and the German

Theologians, in collecting their works, and issuing them in a form and at a price which will place them on the shelves of thousands of

our students and ministers, at home, in the colonies, and in the United States of America.

It would obviously be beyond the scope of this preface to enlarge upon the history of the Puritans, interwoven as it is with stirring events and times, more familiar to us probably than any others in

the annals of England. From Bishop Hooper, down to the disas

trous ejectment of 1662, their story has been often told. By none with greater candour, with more enlarged catholicity of spirit, or with more graceful diction, than by the historian of the Early and Later

Puritans, the Rev. J. B. Marsden, in his standard volumes :

"Wherever the religion, the language, or the free spirit of our

country has forced its way, the Puritans of old have some memorial. They have moulded the character and shaped the laws of other

lands, and tinged with their devouter shades unnumbered congre gations of Christian worshippers, even where no allegiance is pro

fessed, or willing homage done to their peculiarities. It is a party that has numbered in its ranks many of the best, and not a few

x GENERAL PREFACE.

of the greatest men that England has enrolled upon her history.

Amongst the Puritans were found, together with a crowd of our

greatest divines, and a multitude of learned men ; many of our most

profound lawyers, some of our most able statesmen, of our most

renowned soldiers, and (strangely out of place as they may seem)

not a few of our greatest orators and poets. Smith and Owen, Baxter and Howe, were their ministers, and preached amongst them.

Cecil revered and defended them while he lived ; so did the illus

trious Bacon ; and the unfortunate Essex sought his consolations

from them when he came to die." *

Mixed up as were the Puritans with keen and long-continued

controversies, both political and religious, they have left behind them

a vast mass of theology, not controversial, but expository and horta

tory, which is the common property of the Church of Christ, and

which Episcopalians and Presbyterians and Wesleyans, Independents and Baptists, may alike appreciate, use, and enjoy. Their works,

developing and embodying the theology of the Keformation, form a

department in our theological literature, and occupy a place so specific and important, that their absence from the student s shelves can be

compensated neither by Fathers nor Reformers, nor by the richest

stores of modern divinity, whether English or Continental.

They have ever been subjects of eulogy with those best acquainted with them. The gustus spiritualis judicii predicated of Goodwin

" James Barron,"f the

" Thankful Owen," and

by his editors,

" genius to dive into the bottom of points," and

" to study them

down," "the happiness of high and intimate communion with

" deep insight into the grace of God and the covenant

God," the

of grace," these are characteristic of the whole school; and, in

an eminent degree, of those whose works have been selected for this

Series. Of Manton writes the

silver-tongued Bates :"

" God had furnished him with a rare union of those parts that

are requisite to form an excellent minister of His Word. A clear

judgment, rich fancy, strong memory, and happy elocution, met in

him, and were excellently improved by his diligent study."

" .... In the performing this work he was of that conspicu ous eminence that none could detract from him, but from ignorance or envy.

" He was endowed with extraordinary knowledge in the Scrip

tures, those holy oracles from whence all spiritual light is derived ; and in his preaching gave such a perspicuous account of the order

* Early Puritans, Second Edit., pp. 4, 5. f Original Preface to folio, MDCLXXXI. See pp. xxix., xxx.

GENERAL PREFACE.

and dependence of divine truths, and with that felicity applied the

Scriptures to confirm them, that every subject by his management was cultivated and improved. His discourses were so clear and

convincing, that none, without offering voluntary violence to con

science, could resist their evidence. And from hence they were

effectual, not only to inspire a sudden flame, and raise a short

commotion in the affections, but to make a lasting change in the

life."

" His doctrine was uncorrupt and pure ; the truth according to

goodness. He was far from a guilty vile intention to prostitute

that sacred ordinance for the acquiring any private secular advan

tage. Neither did he entertain his hearers with impertinent sub

tleties, empty notions, intricate disputes, dry and barren, without

; but as one that always had before his eyes the

productive virtue

great end of the ministry, the glory of God and the salvation of

men, his sermons were directed to open their eyes, that they might

flight from

see their wretched condition as sinners, to hasten their

&lt;

the wrath to come/ to make them humbly, thankfully, and entirely

receive Christ as their Prince and all-sufficient Saviour. And to

build up the converted in their most holy faith, and more excellent

love, that is the fulfilling of the law. In short, to make true

Christians eminent in knowledge and universal obedience.

"As the matter of his sermons was designed for the good of souls,

so his way of expression was proper to that end. Words are the

vehicle of the heavenly light. As the Divine Wisdom was incarnate

to reveal the eternal counsels of God to the world, so spiritual wis

dom in the mind must be clothed with words to make it sensible to

others. And in this he had a singular talent. His style was not

exquisitely studied, not consisting of harmonious periods, but far

distant from vulgar meanness. His expression was natural smd free,

clear and eloquent, quick and powerful, without any spice of folly,

and always suitable to the simplicity and majesty of divine truths.

His sermons afforded substantial food with delight, so that a fas

tidious mind could not disrelish them. He abhorred a vain ostenta

tion of wit in handling sacred things, so venerable and grave, and

of eternal consequence."

"His fervour and earnestness in preaching was such as might

soften and make pliant the most stubborn, obdurate spirits. I am

not speaking of one whose talent was only in voice, that labours in

the pulpit as if the end of preaching were for the exercise of the

body, and not for the profit of souls; but this man of God was in

flamed with a holy zeal, and from thence such ardent expressions

broke forth, as were capable to procure attention and consent in

Xii GENERAL PREFACE.

his hearers. He spake as one that had a living faith within him

of divine truths. From this union of zeal with his knowledge, he was excellently qualified to convince and convert souls."

" His unparalleled assiduity in preaching declared him very sen

sible of those dear and strong obligations that lie upon ministers to

be very diligent in that blessed work."

e abounded in the work of the Lord ; and, which is truly admirable, though so frequent in preaching, yet was

" This faithful minister

always superior to others, and equal to himself."*

Of Clarkson, Bates spoke thus in his funeral sermon

a ln his preaching, how instructive and persuasive to convince

and turn the carnal and worldly from the. love of sin to the love of

holiness, from the love of the earth to the love of heaven. The

matter of his sermons was clear and deep, and always judiciously derived from the text. The language was neither gaudy and vain, with light trimmings, nor rude and neglected, but suitable to the

oracles of God. Such were his chosen acceptable words, as to re commend heavenly truths, to make them more precious and amiable

to the minds and affections of men, like the colour of the sky, that makes the stars to shine with a more sparkling brightness." f

Both are included by the admirable and lamented Angell James in

" mighty shades" of those a illustrious and holy"

an apostrophe to the

Nonconformists, who have "bequeathed" to us "a rich legacy in

" Earnest

their immortal works." Later, in the pages of his stirring

Ministry," he places Clarkson in the first rank of those who were

"most distinguished as successful preachers of the Word of God." j: The work of Charnock on the Divine Attributes is thus spoken of by his early Editors :

" But thou hast in this book not only an excellent subject in the

general, but great variety of matter for the employment of thy under

standing, as well as enlivening thy affections, and that, too, such as

thou wilt not readily find elsewhere : many excellent things which

are out of the road of ordinary preachers and writers, and which may be grateful to the curious, no less than satisfactory to the wise and judicious. It is not, therefore, a book to be played with, nor

slept over, but read with the most intent and serious mind

; for though

it afford much pleasure for the fancy, yet much more work for the

* Bates Works, (Farmer s Edit.,) vol. iv., pp. 231-235. t Bates Works, vol. iv., p. 385.

$ An Earnest Ministry the Want of the Times, pp. 56, 269 (Third Edition.)

Folio, 1699.

GENERAL PREFACE. xiii

heart, and hath indeed enough in it to busy all the faculties. The

dress is complete and decent, yet not garish or theatrical

; the

rhetoric masculine and vigorous, such as became a pulpit, and was

never borrowed from the stage ; the expressions full, clear, apt, and

such as are best suited to the weightiness and spirituality of the

truths here delivered. It is plain he was no empty preacher, but was more for sense than sound

; filled up his words with matter, and

chose rather to inform his hearers minds than to claw any itching

ears."

" In the doctrinal part of several of his discourses thou wilt find

the depth of polemical divinity, and in his inferences from thence

the sweetness of practical; some things which may exercise the

profoundest scholar, and others which may instruct and edify the

weakest Christian; nothing is more nervous than his reasonings, and nothing more affecting than his applications. Though he make

great use of school-men^ yet they are certainly more beholden to him

than he to them."

" He is not like some school writers, who attenuate and rarefy the

matter they discourse of to a degree bordering upon annihilation ; at least beat it so thin that a puff of breath may blow it away ; spin their threads so fine that the cloth, when made up, proves useless ;

solidity dwindles into niceties; and what we thought we had got by their assertions, we lose by their distinctions."*

Baxter enumerates the works of Keynolds among those which he

considers as indispensably necessary to the library of a theological student. Dr Doddridge says that Keynolds "are most elaborate

" were more

both in thought and expression. Few men," he adds,

happy in the choice of their similitudes. He was .... of great

learning, and a frequent preacher." f

" Distinguished by profound learning and elevated character, seri

ous without gloom, and zealous without harshness, he stands out as

one of the best ecclesiastical characters of his time ; and, in a crisis which was most solemn and memorable for the Church of England, he bears a lofty contrast to most of the dignitaries which assembled around James.

" The divines of the Puritan school," writes the Kev. C. Bridges, with his wonted discrimination,

" however, (with due allowance for

the prevalent tone of scholastic subtleties,) supply to the ministerial

* Charnock s Works, folio, 1699. t Keynolds Works, (Chalmers Edit.,) Preface, p. Ixxi.

J Dr Tulloch s English Puritans, p. 33.

XJV GENERAL PREFACE.

student a large fund of useful and edifying instruction. If they be

less clear and simple in their doctrinal statements than the Reformers,

they enter more deeply into the sympathies of Christian experience.

Profoundly versed in spiritual tactics, the habits and exercises of

the human heart, they are equally qualified to awaken conviction

and to administer consolation, laying open the man to himself with

peculiar closeness of application ; stripping him of his false depen

dencies, and exhibiting before him the light and influence of the

evangelical remedy for his distress." *

" I have learned far more from John Howe," said Robert Hall,

" than from any other author I ever read. There is an astonishing

" He had not

magnificence in his conceptions." Having added

the same perception of the beautiful as of the sublime, and hence

" There was, I think, an innate inapti tude in Howe s mind for discerning minute graces and proprieties, and hence his sentences are often long and cumbersome" he

his endless subdivisions

declared him

unquestionably the greatest of the Puritan Divines."

Baxter," said Mr Hall,

" enforces a particular idea with extraordi

nary clearness, force, and earnestness. His appeals to the conscience

are irresistible. Howe, again, is distinguished by calmness, self-

possession, majesty, and comprehensiveness ; and, for my own part, I decidedly prefer him to Baxter." Owen, Mr Hall did not admire.f

It is curious to compare with this the criticism of another master mind

Baxter," said Richard Cecil,

surpasses, perhaps, all others in the grand, impressive, and persuasive style. But he is not to be named with Owen, as to furnishing the student s mind. He is, however, multifarious, complex, practical." "Owen stands at the head of his class of divines. His scholars will be more profound and enlarged, and better furnished, than those of most other writers. His work on the Spirit has been my treasure-house, and one of my very first-rate books.

It is not to be denied, however, that Puritan theology has, of late

years, been comparatively little read, either by clergy or laity, in this country. Owen and Baxter and perhaps Howe are those best known to the present generation. Of the others a few select works only are accessible to the mass of readers. Nor has the pre sent Series been projected under the anticipation that their works, as

* Christian Ministry, Third Edition, 12mo, pp. 53, 54. Robert Hall s Works, Bohn s Edition, vol. i., pp. 163, 164. Z Cecil s Remains, pp. 281, 282.

OKNERAL PKEFACK. xv

a whole, will be popular, in the wide sense of that term, in our own day. The current of theological literature has become wider but shallower. Shorter books, books calling for little thought; the thoughts of the intellectual giants of former days diluted and watered down to our taste; these are best adapted to an age of much and rapid reading, but little study an age marked by a

pernicious taste for light reading, and content to derive too much of its learning and information at second-hand, from periodicals and newspapers. An age, too, in which even the multiplication of

privileges, in the number of sermons preached and of public meet

ings held, in combination with the cheap publications with which the press teems, tends to diffuse, but not to deepen, thought. And ministers find in the multiplication of facilities for the com

position of sermons a corresponding snare. Many a boy at school would grow up into a sounder, riper, and more independent scholar

certainly the process of acquirement would have proved a more healthful gymnasium to his mental powers and habits, as well as for the general disciplining of his character if he had fewer crutches on which to lean, in lexicons and translations and copious English

notes, which make everything easy, and enable him to dispense with

personal and direct reference to the great fountain-heads of learning and scholarship. Thus the minister finds appliances so multiplied, the old theology of Fathers, Reformers, and Puritans so ready to his

hand, in commentaries and in diluted forms, that he is tempted to a

growing habit of indolence; takes all at second-hand; and finds it

easier to manipulate into sermons and expositions the cheap com

mentary, than to study the ponderous folio for himself.

It must be confessed that while, in substance, the Puritan theo

logy is of sterling value, it presents not a few characteristics which

are drawbacks to general popularity among theologians of our habits of thought. They are over-copious and diffuse, and thus not seldom prolix to wearisomeness ; solid, often to heaviness

; and encumbered by references to works little known and altogether un

" Due allowance," says Mr Bridges, in the passage just

read.

" for the prevalent tone of scholastic subtle

quoted, must be made

" the occasional mixture of obscurity and

and, in some, for

ties ;

bombast." And Mr James, in eulogising a sermon of Doolittle s as

" the most solemn and awful sermon in the English or any other language," qualifies that high eulogium by a criticism on much of its

perhaps

terminology," as expressive of a

familiarity with awful realities

" which was a

" of the Puritan age and school.* Neither their expository works nor their sermons are presented as

" vice

* Earnest Ministry, p. 103.

GENERAL PREFACE. XVI

w The former, looked upon as expositions, are marred occa-

lly by the endeavour to make them exhaustive treatises, and by

a tiresome minuteness of division and subdivision. A sermon of

siona

Charnock s would be ill suited, as such, to a modern congregation:

though not so much so as one of the English Chrysostom Jeremy

Taylor But this very over-copiousness and attempts at exhaustive-

ness render them as storehouses invaluable. They are tomes of mas

sive theology; theology with prolixity, and pedantry, and subtlety,

but never as dry bones. It is experimental. There is unction,

There is warmth. It is theology grasped and wrought out by

great minds, but realised by loving hearts. The writers have tasted

that the Lord is gracious. Their every page bears the impress ot

the bene orasse est bene studuisse. They are not theologians only

but saints.

Nor are their characteristic excellencies hard to be accounted or.

Not only were they pre-eminently men of God, and deep students of

living and walking Bibles"* and this in combi

God s Word

nation often with great secular erudition but their lot was cast in

troublous times, times in which great principles were at stake, to

which they were called to witness, and for which they were called

to suffer. As with the individual Christian, the time, not of his

wealth and ease, but of his trial and suffering, is that which braces

his power, and stimulates his health and growth, so is it with the

aggregate Church. Stirring times produce stirring men. Christ s

heroes are drawn out by conflicts. When we handle the doctrines

of the gospel merely as the subject-matter of sermons, and treatises, and controversies, we are in danger of handling them drily and ab

strusely. But when we are called to confess Christ by the actual

bearing of His cross, and to suffer for His truth s sake, our theology must be experimental. We then want not Christianity but Christ. The gospel is then a reality, not a creed, nor a system only nor

" Christ

mainly, but an inner life, an indwelling, inworking power.

the Scripture your own hearts and Satan s devices," writes Thomas Brooks, "are the four things that should be first and

most studied and searched ; if any cast off the study of these, they can be neither safe here, nor happy hereafter." f Hig words are the

key-note of Puritan theology.

These divines were diligent and profound students to a degree attained by few ministers of our own day, when, in all sections of

the Christian Church, so much of their time is consumed in out-door work and quasi-secular duties. The organisation and maintenance

* Original Preface. See p. xxx. t Preface to

" Precious Remedies against Satan s Devices."

GENERAL PREFACE. Xvii

of parochial or congregational machinery, the anxiety and labour

merely of raising funds for their varied agencies and institutions, the

co-operation expected of them in the countless philanthropic schemes and multiplied religious societies of our age, these drive or draw them from their studies. The mental tone and habits of the student are soon lost. A restless, desultory, excited spirit is engendered. And many an energetic minister falls into the fallacy that he is never

working for his people, unless he is going up and down among them, and busy in schools, visitation, committees, and public meetings. No doubt it is a working age ; working as distinguished from re

tirement, study, and meditation. But no minister should, under any stress of fancied duties, cease to be a student.

" Apart from practice, thought will become impoverished without

study ; the most active and fertile minds have perceived this. We cannot derive all the nourishment we need from ourselves

; without

borrowing we cannot create. It is true that there are other methods of study besides reading. When we have learned anything from

books, and in the best of books as well as in others, we must make use of our native powers in order to assimilate it, as also we assimi

late nourishment for the body. But when, without the aid of books, or in the absence of facts, we labour in solitude, on what materials shall we labour unless it be on those supplied by recollection?

"Whence do our thoughts arise except from facts, or from books, or from social intercourse? A great volume, which also demands our careful study. We must, therefore, study in order to excite and encircle our own thoughts by means of the thoughts of other men. Those who do not study will see their talent gradually fading away, and will become old and superannuated in mind before their time.

Experience demonstrates this abundantly, so far as preaching is concerned. Whence comes it that preachers who were so admired when they entered upon their course, often deteriorate so rapidly, or disappoint many of the lofty expectations which they had excited ? Very generally the reason is because they discontinue their studies. A faithful pastor will always keep up a certain amount of study; while he reads the Bible, he will not cease from reading the great book of humanity which is opened before him

; but this empirical study will not suffice. Without incessant study, a preacher may make sermons, and even good sermons, but they will all resemble one another, and that increasingly as he continues the experiment. A preacher, on the other hand, who keeps up in his mind a constant flow of substantial ideas, who fortifies and nourishes his mind by various reading, will be always interesting. He who is governed

GENEJJAL PREFACE. XVI

The former, looked upon as expositions are marred occa-

ny by the endeavour to make them exhaustive treatises, and by

7 minuteness of division and subdivision. A sermon of

esome

Charnock s would be ill suited, as such, to a modem congregation: AoTh not so much so as one of the English Chrysostom Jeremy

Taylor But this very over-copiousness and attempts at exhaustive-

ness render them as storehouses invaluable. They are tomes of mas

sive theology; theology with prolixity, and pedantry, and subtlety,

but never Is dry bones. It is experimental. There is unction.

There is warmth. It is theology grasped and wrought out by mat minds, but realised by loving hearts. The writers have tasted

that the Lord is gracious. Their every page bears the impress ot

the bene orasse est bene studuisse. They are not theologians only

but saints.

Nor are their characteristic excellencies hard to be accounted tor.

Not only were they pre-eminently men of God, and deep students of

God s Word "living and walking Bibles"* and this in combi

nation often with great secular erudition but their lot was cast in

troublous times, times in which great principles were at stake, to

which they were called to witness, and for which they were called

to suffer. As with the individual Christian, the time, not of his

wealth and ease, but of his trial and suffering, is that which braces

his power, and stimulates his health and growth, so is it with the

aggregate Church. Stirring times produce stirring men, Christ s

heroes are drawn out by conflicts. When we handle the doctrines

of the gospel merely as the subject-matter of sermons, and treatises, and controversies, we are in danger of handling them drily and ab

strusely. But when we are called to confess Christ by the actual

bearing of His cross, and to suffer for His truth s sake, our theology must be experimental. We then want not Christianity but Christ. The gospel is then a reality, not a creed, nor a system only nor

" Christ

mainly, but an inner life, an indwelling, inworking power.

the Scripture your own hearts and Satan s devices," writes Thomas Brooks, "are the four things that should be first and

most studied and searched ; if any cast off the study of these, they can be neither safe here, no? happy hereafter." f His words are the

key-note of Puritan theology.

These divines were diligent and profound students to a degree attained by few ministers of our own day, when, in all sections of

the Christian Church, so much of their time is consumed in out-door work and quasi-secular duties. The organisation and maintenance

* Original Preface. See p. xxx. t Preface to

" Precious Remedies against Satan s Devices."

GENERAL PREFACE. XVU

of parochial or congregational machinery, the anxiety and labour

merely of raising funds for their varied agencies and institutions, the

are soon lost. A restless, desultory, excited spirit is engendered. And many an energetic minister falls into the fallacy that he is never

working for his people, unless he is going up and down among them, and busy in schools, visitation, committees, and public meetings. No doubt it is a working age ; working as distinguished from re

tirement, study, and meditation. But no minister should, under

any stress of fancied duties, cease to be a student.

" Apart from practice, thought will become impoverished without

study ; the most active and fertile minds have perceived this. We

cannot derive all the nourishment we need from ourselves ; without

borrowing we cannot create. It is true that there are other methods

of study besides reading. When we have learned anything from

books, and in the best of books as well as in others, we must make

use of our native powers in order to assimilate it, as also we assimi

late nourishment for the body. But when, without the aid of books, or in the absence of facts, we labour in solitude, on what materials

shall we labour unless it be on those supplied by recollection? Whence do our thoughts arise except from facts, or from books, or from social intercourse ? A great volume, which also demands out

careful study. We must, therefore, study in order to excite and

encircle our own thoughts by means of the thoughts of other men. Those who do not study will see their talent gradually fading away, and will become old and superannuated in mind before their time.

Experience demonstrates this abundantly, so far as preaching is

concerned. Whence comes it that preachers who were so admired when they entered upon their course, often deteriorate so rapidly, or disappoint many of the lofty expectations which they had excited ?

Very generally the reason is because they discontinue their studies. A faithful pastor will always keep up a certain amount of study; while he reads the Bible, he will not cease from reading the great book of humanity which is opened before him

; but this empirical

study will not suffice. Without incessant study, a preacher may make sermons, and even good sermons, but they will all resemble one another, and that increasingly as he continues the experiment. A preacher, on the other hand, who keeps up in his mind a constant

flow of substantial ideas, who fortifies and nourishes his mind by various reading, will be always interesting. He who is governed

GENERAL PREFACE.

by one pervading idea and purpose will find in all books, even in

those which are not directly connected with the ministry, something

aim." *

that he may adapt to his special

" For a man who preaches much, without from time to time re

newing the stock of matter with which he began his career, however

sound or pious he may continue to be, will be almost sure ultimately

to become a very barren preacher. And I only say almost, in con

sideration of a few rare instances, in which observation of life, and

intercourse with varieties of character, seem to make an original and

peculiar cast of mind, independent in a good measure of reading. But these are rare exceptions. Generally, and all but universally, a public teacher requires to have his own mind supplied and exer

cised by books. And to derive full advantage from them, I need

hardly say, that he must not only read, but think. Undigested

reading is better, I am sure, than none. I know that a different

opinion is entertained by some, but this is mine. For there is no

one who does not take away some matter from what he reads, and

no mind can be so inert as not to be forced to some activity, while

taking in new facts or thoughts. And, what is not to be put out of

view, every mind becomes continually more unfurnished and more

inert, when reading is wholly given up. But the benefit to be de

rived from reading without purpose and thought, of course falls far

short of that which reflection will draw from the same, or from

scantier stores. And this applies very particularly to the most

fruitful, as well as the most important of the sources from which the

preacher s materials are to be drawn. By reading the Holy Scrip

tures, without meditating upon them, a man may, no doubt, obtain

considerable acquaintance with the facts and doctrines which they

contain, may become an adroit controversialist, and a well-furnished

textuary, but unless he studies the sacred volume with patient thought, (I need not add to you, my brethren, with earnest prayer,) until he becomes imbued with its spirit as well as acquainted with

its contents, his use of Scripture will be comparatively jejune, and

cold, and unprofitable. And so, you remember, the Apostle exhorts his beloved son in the faith :

&lt; Meditate upon these things, give thy self wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all. And, certainly, all do feel the difference which there is between one who is giving out crude materials, taken in hastily for the occasion, and one who is drawing from the stores which he has laid up in this meditative study of divine truth." f

* Vinet s Pastoral Theology, pp. 109, 110. t Bishop O Brien s Charge at Primary Visitation, 1842.

GENERAL PREFACE. XJX

The Puritan writers were men engaged in stirring scenes, and had the conduct of questions and controversies involving great principles and in which the liberties of this country and of the Church of Christ were at stake. They had to endure, in not a few cases,

" a

great fight of afflictions/ persecution, imprisonment, ejectment. They were not students as living in stagnant times. But study, long, close, deep, sustained, was with them an integral part of their

ministry. They toiled alike in rowing and in fishing; but they mended their nets. They gave themselves unto reading. They were not content with indolently picking up a few stray surface

pieces of ore, which had been dropped by others at the mine s mouth. They sunk the shaft and went down and toiled and dug and smelted and refined and burnished for themselves, and for the Church Catholic.

We hear, in our own day, complaints loud and frequent -of the feebleness of the pulpit. Not men of the world only, to whom, if

they ever hear sermons, the sermon is a form with which they would

" Has the modern evan

gladly dispense, but an Angell James asks,

gelical pulpit lost, and is it still losing, any of its power?"*

Sir James Stephen writes f

" Every seventh day a great company of preachers raise their

voices in the land to detect our sins, to explain our duty, to admo

nish, to alarm, and to console. Compare the prodigious extent of

this apparatus with its perceptible results, and inestimable as they

are, who will deny that they disappoint the hopes which, anteced

ently to experience, the least sanguine would have indulged ? The

preacher has, indeed, no novelties to communicate. His path has been trodden hard and dry by constant use; yet he speaks as an ambassador from Heaven, and his hearers are frail, sorrowing, per

plexed, and dying men. The highest interests of both are at stake. The preacher s eye rests on his manuscript ; the hearer s turns to the

clock ; the half-hour glass runs out its sand ; and the portals close on well-dressed groups of critics, looking for all the world as if just dismissed from a lecture on the tertiary strata."

" The

No doubt, in many cases, our critics are not qualified.

natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him

; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." And the true power of the pulpit, be it

remembered, is not in Paul, nor in Apollos, but with the Holy Ghost.

* Earnest Ministry, Preface, pp. vii., viii. + Essays in Ecclesiastical Biography, (Fourth Edition,) p. 393. VOL. I. r

xx GENERAL PREFACE.

And we cannot yield to the clamour for interesting sermons, if ser

mons are to be made attractive by smatterings of geology, and

political economy, and geography, in an age in which intellect is a

chief idol.

But that there is a want of solid matter, a flimsiness, in too many

of our modern sermons is undeniable. They may be faithful, but

they are too often, if not crude, meagre and vapid. There is a cry

for simplicity. Too often in aiming at simplicity we fall into im

becility. Practical preaching is in demand. But Christian practice must be enforced on Christian motive ; and Christian motive cannot

be urged in all its fulness and power, unless Christian doctrine in its

depth and variety be stated and enforced. The gospel must be

offensive to the natural heart. But surely that scheme into which

angels desire to look," and which is to those lofty intelligences, surrounded by many evidences of the divine wisdom beyond man s

present ken, the brightest manifestation of it,* must have matter

capable of exercising (and that lawfully and profitably) man s highest

intellectual powers. We call upon men to receive it with the simple

faith of little children, but not necessarily as in itself unworthy of

intellectual study and research. "To the Greek foolishness," is

" the foolishness of God," not the foolish

still true. But let it be

" Preaching indeed, considered

ness of our indolence and insipidity.

in regard to its sublime object, is at its best but foolishness after all ; but this, we venture to think, is a reason why it should do its best, not its worst."f To this end ministers must be, as were the Puritan

giants, students. Less public work. Fewer committees. Less

serving of tables. A larger enlistment of the laity, specially in that which is secular. We must determine on this, or we shall have, in

another generation, that of which we have but too threatening symp toms now if indeed we have not passed beyond symptoms into a

disastrous state of malady an ill-stored, unlearned, untheological

clergy.

Complaints of pulpit feebleness are not the only evil results. Our

divinity students pass into the ministry and ascend our pulpits, having gone through their university curriculum, and

" crammed up

" the few authors required by their bishop or theological college, but unstored with experimental theology; too often with no discernment of distinc tive truth, no well-proportioned and symmetrical view of Christian

doctrine. Hence they are in danger of being

" carried to and fro with

* Eph. iii. 10.

t Dean Alford s Lecture on Pulpit Eloquence of the Seventeenth Cenury (Lectures to Young Men s Christian Association, Exeter Hall, 1857-58,) p.

;-&gt;

GENERAL PREFACE. XXI

every blast of vain doctrine." The mistiness and vagueness of nega tive theology, the husks of ritualism, would fail to satisfy men who had tasted

" and drunk deep into the wells of such theo

" the living bread

logians as this Series is designed to make accessible. Faults of pro

lixity, pedantry, scholastic subtlety, over-systematising, over-strain

ing, and over-spiritualising, a familiarity and a homeliness running into a coarseness which would now shock where it did not provoke

levity inconsistent with the reverence due to high and holy themes, are as trifles when weighed against the scriptural knowledge, the

clear, distinct statement of doctrine, the close, masterly handling of

all the subtle intricacies of the experiences of the inner life, in its varied conflicts, its hopes, its fears, its sorrows, its consolations, its

joys. Contrast with a page of our modern negative theology, an

essay or sermon in which the writer, dealing with the fact of the death of Christ, at one time so employs the language of Holy Scrip ture as to leave no doubt of his orthodoxy, and, the next moment, so explains, and fences, and emasculates this language as to deprive the cross of its true efficacy, and to leave us in doubt as to any adequate cui bono for that unutterably solemn display of the divine

perfections, contrast with this a page of Charnock, or Reynolds, or

Goodwin, or Clarkson, or to go beyond the limits of this Series of Thomas Jacomb,* or of Edward Pollrill,t and we at once feel the

difference of the atmosphere. If we seem to have been guided by the negative theologian to some height of intellectual power and

philosophic research, we find it not to be a height from which, in

flooding sunshine, we may survey the panorama of Christian truth, but a height on which we stand shivering amid the mists of un-

* Several Sermons preached on the whole Eighth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, by Thomas Jacomb, D.D. London, 1672.

" He was an excellent preacher of the gospel, and had a happy art of convey ing saving truths into the minds and hearts of men.

" He did not entertain his hearers with curiosities, but with spiritual food. He dispensed the bread of life, whose vital sweetness and nourishing virtue is both productive and preservative of the life of souls. He preached

* Christ

crucified, our only wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption. His great design was to convince sinners of their absolute want of Christ, that with flaming affections they might come to him, and from His fulness receive

divine grace.

" His sermons were clear, and solid, and affectionate. He dipped his words

in his soul, in warm affections, and breathed a holy fire into the breasts of

his hearers ; of this many serious and judicious persons can give testimony, who so long attended upon his ministry with delight and profit." Bates Works,

vol. iv., p. 286.

f The Works of Edward Polhill, Esq., of Burwash, in Sussex, are reprinted in a cheap form by Thomas Ward & Co., London. They form a grand volume of

divinity. The author s preface is dated 1677.

xx GENERAL PREFACE.

And we cannot yield to the clamour for interesting sermons, if ser

mons are to be made attractive by smatterings of geology, and

political economy, and geography, in an age in which intellect is a

chief idol.

But that there is a want of solid matter, a flimsmess, in too many

of our modern sermons is undeniable. They may be faithful, but

they are too often, if not crude, meagre and vapid. There is a cry

for simplicity. Too often in aiming at simplicity we fall into im

becility. Practical preaching is in demand. But Christian practice

must be enforced on Christian motive ; and Christian motive cannot

be urged in all its fulness and power, unless Christian doctrine in its

depth and variety be stated and enforced. The gospel must be

offensive to the natural heart. But surely that scheme into which

angels desire to look," and which is to those lofty intelligences,

surrounded by many evidences of the divine wisdom beyond man s

present ken, the brightest manifestation of it,* must have matter

capable of exercising (and that lawfully and profitably) man s highest

intellectual powers. We call upon men to receive it with the simple

faith of little children, but not necessarily as in itself unworthy of

intellectual study and research. "To the Greek foolishness," is

" the foolishness of God," not the foolish

still true. But let it be

" Preaching indeed, considered

ness of our indolence and insipidity.

in regard to its sublime object, is at its best but foolishness after all; but this, we venture to think, is a reason why it should do its best, not its worst.

"t To this end ministers must be, as were the Puritan

giants, students. Less public work. Fewer committees. Less

serving of tables. A larger enlistment of the laity, specially in that which is secular. We must determine on this, or we shall have, in

another generation, that of which we have but too threatening symp toms now if indeed we have not passed beyond symptoms into a

disastrous state of malady an ill-stored, unlearned, untheological

clergy.

Complaints of pulpit feebleness are not the only evil results. Our

divinity students pass into the ministry and ascend our pulpits, having gone through their university curriculum, and

" crammed up

" carried to and fro with

* Eph. iii. 10. t Dean Alford s Lecture on "Pulpit Eloquence of the Seventeenth Cen-

ry, (Lectures to Young Men s Christian Association, Exeter Hall, 1857-58,) p. 323.

GENERAL PREFACE. XXI

every blast of vain doctrine." The mistiness and vagueness of nega tive theology, the husks of ritualism, would fail to satisfy men who had tasted

" and drunk deep into the wells of such theo

" the living bread

logians as this Series is designed to make accessible. Faults of pro

lixity, pedantry, scholastic subtlety, over-systematising, over-strain

ing, and over-spiritualising, a familiarity and a homeliness running into a coarseness which would now shock where it did not provoke levity inconsistent with the reverence due to high and holy themes, are as trifles when weighed against the scriptural knowledge, the

clear, distinct statement of doctrine, the close, masterly handling of

all the subtle intricacies of the experiences of the inner life, in its varied conflicts, its hopes, its fears, its sorrows, its consolations, its

joys. Contrast with a page of our modern negative theology, an

essay or sermon in which the writer, dealing with the fact of the death of Christ, at one time so employs the language of Holy Scrip ture as to leave no doubt of his orthodoxy, and, the next moment, so explains, and fences, and emasculates this language as to deprive the cross of its true efficacy, and to leave us in cloubt as to any adequate cui bono for that unutterably solemn display of the divine

perfections, contrast with this a page of Chamock, or Reynolds, or

Goodwin, or Clarkson, or to go beyond the limits of this Series of Thomas Jacomb,* or of Edward Polhill,t and we at once feel the

difference of the atmosphere. If we seem to have been guided by the negative theologian to some height of intellectual power and

philosophic research, we find it not to be a height from which, in

flooding sunshine, we may survey the panorama of Christian truth, but a height on which we stand shivering amid the mists of un-

* Several Sermons preached on the whole Eighth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, by Thomas Jacomb, D.D. London, 1672.

" He was an excellent preacher of the gospel, and had a happy art of convey ing saving truths into the minds and hearts of men.

{ Christ

" His sermons were clear, and solid, and affectionate. He dipped his words in his soul, in warm affections, and breathed a holy fire into the breasts of his hearers ; of this many serious and judicious persons can give testimony, who so long attended upon his ministry with delight and profit." Hates Works, vol. iv., p. 286.

t The Works of Edward Polhill, Esq., of Burwash, in Sussex, are reprinted in a cheap form by Thomas Ward & Co., London. They form a grand volume of

divinity. The author s preface is dated 1677.

XY -| GENERAL PEEFACE.

satisfying negatives; and if, awhile/ the mists seem ready to roll

away and to disperse themselves, they return to cloud and chill

us as before. When Manton expounds St James, or Goodwin

" Soul s Conflict," or

St Paul, when Sibbes is opening up the

" Beloved" and His "Bride," when Brooks brings

dilating on the

" Heart s Ease," when Owen

" Precious Kemedies" and

forth his

is analysing indwelling sin, or opening out the Epistle to the

Hebrews, or Polhill treating of election and redemption, we have

massive theology baptized with all the rich unction of Christian

experience. To travel still further beyond the limits of this

par-&gt;

ticular Series, the Lectures of Bishop King on Jonas* present a

combination of expository ability and pulpit power specially in

the element of uncompromising rebuke which renders them a

masterpiece and a model which modern preachers would do well to

study. Contrasting these, and such as these, among our theological

writers, with many whose unsound productions have for awhile un

happily superseded them, and are unsettling the minds of many in

our universities and pulpits, we may employ the words of the editors

" wondering greatly at the

of Goodwin, when they represent him as

daring attempts of some men of this age, unskilful in the word of

righteousness, upon the great and momentous points of our religion, which are the glory of our Eeformation ; but these points will prove

gold, silver, precious stones, when their wood, hay, and stubble will be burnt up. These will have a verdure and greenness on them, whilst the inventions of others will be blasted and wither. These

will be firm, whilst others, wanting somewhat within, it will be with them as it was with the Jewish and heathenish worship, when a fate was upon them, all the efforts and endeavours of men could not make them stand." f

* Lectvres vpon Jonas, delivered at Yorke, in the yeare of ovr Lord 1594. London: Printed by Humfrey Lownes. 1618. In the epistle addressed by the Christ Church students at Oxford to James I., in which they request that monarch to give Dr King the deanery, he is called

Clarissimum lumen Anglicans Ecclesise." Sir Edward Coke used to say of him that he was the best speaker in the Star Chamber in his time.

" Deus bone, quam canora vox (saith one) vultus compositus, verba selecta, grandes sententiaa ! Allicimur omnes lepore verborum, suspendimur gravitate sententiarum, orationis impetu et viribus flectimur."--TFoocfs Athence Oxon., vol. i

p. 458, year 1621. Folio Edit., MDCCXXI. HENRY SMITH, who died about 1600, (see Fuller s Life prefixed to Sermons, iit. 1675,) was

" esteemed the miracle and wonder of his age, for his .... fluent, eloquent, and practical way of preaching." "The Puritans flocked to .ear him at St Clement Dane s, esteeming him the prime preacher of the ion. His sermons were taken into the hands of all the people." Wood s Athena, Oxon., vol. i, p. 263, year 1593. f Original Preface. See p. xxxii.

GENERAL PREFACE.

The controversial writings of the Puritans are beyond the province of this preface. If in one instance that of a Treatise on Church Government by Goodwin controversy has been included in this

Series, it has been done to prevent his Works from being incomplete. As a whole, this class of subjects hardly enters into the writings of

the authors whose Works are comprised in this Series. Of their

abilities in polemical divinity Mr Marsden observes, with more immediate reference to the earlier among them, that

" the student, after a wide search amongst the combatants of later times, finds

to his surprise how insignificant are all their additions to a contro

versy opened, and, as far as learning and argument go, finally

7 * Their style, if sometimes inflated and obscure, has a nervous pithiness and

closed, by the earliest champions on either side.

quaintness rarely found among the theologians and preachers of our own day. The commonplace book of the student will soon be filled

" words of the wise which

up with terse and pointed sayings those

...s goads." A strong, homely saying, quoted from an old Puritan, will be the sentence of all others, in many a modern sermon, which

will fasten itself most readily on the memory, and retain the most

" Several of them/ says Mr Marsden,

" write the

lasting hold.

English language in high, if not the highest, perfection, before

it was degraded and Latinised by the feeble men of the last

century."

Their homeliness, to call it by the mildest name, is nowhere more

striking (nor, at times, more grotesque) than in the titles prefixed by them to treatises and sermons. Thomas Adams, for example,

" The White

(following Luther,) designates a sermon on Judas,

" The Shot, or the Wofull Price which the Wicked pay for the Feast of Vanitie;

Devil, or the Hypocrite Uncased;" another,

" a

" The Sinner s Passing Bell, or a Complaint from Heaven for Man s Sinnes ;

third, on Jer. viii. 22,

" a fourth, on Matt. xii. 43 ; (the unclean spirit s return to the man from whom he had gone out,)

" The Black Saint, or the Apostate ;

" a fifth, on Eccles. ix. 3,

Mysticall Bedlam, or the World of Madmen." We can hardly open a page of his sermons without finding quaintnesses of the most striking kind. The openings of the sermons,

" The Fatall Banket

" The Shot," are among the most singular. And not seldom, when we feel that the writer is running into fanciful

" and

conceit rather than exposition, the application is so full of power and beauty that, despite our judgment, it carries us with it. Take the following from Adams sermon on (l Christ his Starre, or the AVisc Men s Oblation," folio, 1630, p. 165 :

* Christian Churches and Sects ; article, Puritans, voL ii., p. 139.

GENERAL PHEFACE.

Some will give myrrh, but not frankincense; some will give

frankincense, but not myrrh; and some will give myrrh and/rar^

incense, but not gold.

" 1. Some will give myrrh, a strict moral life, not culpable ot any

o-ross* eruption or scandalous impiety; but not frankincense. Their

prayers are thin sown, therefore their graces cannot come up thick.

Perhaps they feel no want, and then, you know, rarce fumant

felicibus arcs. In their thought, they do not stand in any great

need of God; when they do, they will offer Him some incense.

These live a morally honest life, but are scant of religious prayers;

and so may be said to offer myrrh without frankincense.

" 2. Some will give frankincense, pray frequently, perhaps tedi

ously ; but they will give no myrrh, not mortify or restrain their

* The Pharisees had many prayers, but never the

concupiscence.

fewer sins. These mock God, that they so often beg of Him that

His will may be done, when they never subdue their affections to

it. There are too many such among us, that will often join with

the Church in communion devotions, who yet join with the world

in common vices. These make great smokes of frankincense, but let

not fall one drop of myrrh.

" 3. Some will give both myrrh and frankincense, but by no

means their gold. I will give (saith the worldling) a sober life

there s my myrrh; I will say my prayers there s mj frankincense ;

but do you think I will part with my gold? This same gold lies

closer in men s hearts than it doth in their purses. You may as

well wring Hercules s club out of his fist as a penny from their

heaps to charitable uses."

" The Blacke Saint

" is a most

The skeleton of the sermon on

curious specimen of the over-elaborate division of a subject, specially

as typographically displayed by the author (p. 352.)

" the Puritan was a Calvinist

It need hardly be remarked that

" Calvinism had been, if not the progeni

naturally and entirely."

tor, the nursing-mother of Puritanism."* Our Calvinism may be more or less than theirs, but every lover of evangelical truth will be

at one with them in their full exhibitions of the grace and glory of

Emmanuel, as the Church s Head and the sinner s only Saviour.

" sweet savour of Christ." Man, in his utter ruin in the first Adam, and his glorious salvation in the

Their transcendent merit is their

second Adam ; the sovereign grace of the Triune Jehovah, in the

eternal purpose and plan for man s recovery; the riches of the Father s love ; the might aud comfort, the peace and joy of the Spirit s

* English Puritanism and its Leaders, by John Tulloch, D.D., pp. 5, 41.

GENERAL PREFACE. XXV

grace, these are so taught as to fulfil the good pleasure of the

" may have the pre-eminence." Their gospel is not

" that in all things" Christ

Father,

" another gospel, which is not another," but the

" God in Christ

glorious gospel of the grace of the blessed God.

reconciling the world unto himself;" the surrendered life of Christ ; the penal and vicarious satisfaction by which the curse of the broken law was met ; the blood of Christ the fountain opened for unclean-

ness and for the consecration of God s elect to their royal priesthood ; the active obedience of Christ, as

" made under the law," combining with his sufferings and blood-shedding to constitute Him "the

Kighteousness of God" to His people ; present pardon and justifica tion ; the Spirit indwelling as the Sanctifier, the Teacher, the Com

forter, the inward Witness to sonship, the Intercessor, the seal, the

earnest ; in a word, THE NEW COVENANT, with all its riches, and

privileges, and strength, and peace, and hope, and joy, these are

their great and central theme. They discerned the difficulties pre

sented, not by the implacableness of the Father, but by the laws of His moral government, based upon His own moral perfections, to

the salvation of a fallen moral being ; and how these were met by the counsels and provisions of that eternal scheme by which God is

just, and the justifier of the ungodly at once a Moral Governor of

unsullied truth and purity, and a Saviour.

On the expulsion of the Puritans, on St Bartholomew s Bay, in

" they carried with them the spiritual light of the Church of England."* And

1662, under the disastrous and suicidal Act of Uniformity,

" in the course of ninety years, the nation had descended to

a state of irreligion which we now contemplate with feelings of dis

may."!

" It was the opinion of those who lived in these evil days that had

it not been for a small body of respectable clergymen who had been

educated among the Puritans, and of whom Wilkins, Patrick, and

Tillotson were the leaders, every trace of godliness would have been

clean put out, and the land reduced to universal and avowed atheism.

Indeed, the writings and sermons of the Church of England divines

of this period confirm these statements. They are evidently ad

dressed to hearers before whom it was necessary to prove not merely the providence, but the very being of a God not only the soul s

immortality, but the soul s existence. Their pa.ins are chiefly spent not in defending any particular creed or system of doctrine, for they

appear to have thought all points of doctrine beyond the attainment

of the age. They take up the people of England where heathenism

* Marsden s Later Puritans, p. 473. t Ibid., p. 472.

.GENEKAL PREFACE.

beyond moral and didactic instructions. Theology

lluished, and Jiritnal religion became nearly unknown; and a

ew Lat and good men handed down to one another the practice

and fhe^tions of a piety which was almost extinct. The resto

ration of civil liberty brought with it no return of spiritual life

within the Church of England. The nation became less immoral

without becoming more religious. Politics and party ate out the

very vitals of what little piety remained. At length one of the most

cautious of English writers, as well as the most profound of English

divines, seventy years after the ejection of the Nonconformists, por

trays the character of the age in those memorable words, in which

he tells us that it had come, he knew not how, to be taken for

granted by too many, that Christianity was not so much a subject

of inquiry as that it was now at length discovered to be fictitious

How widely these opinions had infected the nation and its educated

classes we may infer from the circumstance that he devoted his 1

to that wonderful book in which he proves by the argument from

analogy that religion deserves at least a candid hearing. Bishop

Newton, a few years afterwards, wrote his treatise on the fulfilment

of prophecy, with the same intentions; while Doddridge, amongst

Dissenters, deplored the prevalence of a fatal apathy, and the decay

of real piety." *

The preaching with which these great and holy men aroused the

nation was the preaching of Puritan doctrine, in place of the Christ-

less ethics and semi- (or more than semi-) Socinian doctrine by

which it had been supplanted. Substantially, it is the preaching by

which the Sacramentalism and the -Neology of our own day are to

" wood, hay,

be met; for, substantially, not without its measure of

stubble," it is gold, silver, precious stones," built upon the one

foundation Christ. The present may seem, in some sense, an unfavourable moment

for the issue of this Series. The theological taste of the day is not

for systematic theology. Nevertheless, the cordial favour with which

the design of this project has been greeted by divines of the great

est eminence, from nearly all sections of the Christian Church, both

in this kingdom and in America, is in itself a token for good, and

may well afford encouragement to those among us who are disposed

* Marsden s Later Puritans, pp. 470, 471.

OENERAL PREFACE.

to take a gloomy view of our prospects, by reason of the heresies and divisions which are rife. In the Puritan Theologians, not, of

cqurse, in all their views and statements of doctrine, but substan

tially, a large body of the most eminent and best qualified judges recognise a clear, rich, scriptural statement of evangelical truth. And, amid diversities of opinions and conflicting parties, no less than as affording hope that the power of the pulpit will be greatly strengthened among us, the accord of so large a body of Christian men and ministers is a hopeful and cheering sign. It will be an

incalculably blessed result of this reprint, should our ministers catch

something of the grandly SCRIPTURAL character of Puritan preaching and exposition. In this lay the secret of their strength. No "Broad Church" divinity will be found in these pages. Our students and younger ministers are often attracted by more brilliant writers and bolder (not deeper) thinkers. They may pro nounce the Puritans old-fashioned, behind the age, heavy. But the Series has been projected in the hope that a healthier tone may be fostered, and that facility may induce familiarity. Writ

ings which must have been sought in rare and costly folios, or watched for at sales or at book-stalls, may now be upon our shelves without effort and at little cost. The supply will create a demand. A reaction in favour of Puritan theology so far, at

least, as to give it its due place will indicate a healthier tone. The more spiritually-minded of our reading laity will find in these volumes truths and thoughts which may well tempt them to substi-

for those of writers who, if they make less demands upon the intellectual power of their readers, by presenting their matter in an easy and diluted form, repay the perusal in a proportionately moderate measure. But the main object and the paramount desire

tute^them

is that this Series may conduce to the soundness, solidity, and unction of the pulpit ministrations of our own day and of days to come; that, as these men were

" mighty in the Scriptures," and proclaimed the gospel in all the riches of its grace, and exalted Christ, and honoured the Spirit of God, and entered, with a skilful and searching anatomy into the hidden secrets of the experience of God s saints, many a student and many a preacher may imbibe their spirit. No disparagement of the early Fathers nor of the Reformers, whose

theology is here embodied and developed, is intended,- nor any un

grateful undervaluing, by invidious comparison, of the treasures accumulated by later and living labourers. Still less are the Puritan

theologians held up that we may call them fathers or masters, or make them an authoritative standard of appeal. Our first business, our solemn responsibility, is with THE WRITTEN WORD.

" WHAT SAITH

GENERAL PREFACE.

THE SCRIPTURE?" Let that inquiry be first pursued, in lowly

teachableness, in reliance upon no inner light, but upon the Spirit s

promised teaching. Let it be pursued with diligent, honest study,

not with a pedantic, but an exact and sound philology ; and with a

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