A Question for Reformed Dave

Who are your favorite Puritan authors?

Mine are.....

Stephen Charnock
Christopher Love
Richard Baxter
Cotton Mather
Jonathan Edwards

Why Salvation Must be Supernatural
Stephen Charnock

The insufficiency of nature to such a work as conversion is, shows that men may not fall down and idolize their own wit and power. A change from acts of sin to moral duties may be done by a natural strength and the power of natural conscience: for the very same motives which led to sin, as education, interest, profit, may, upon a change of circumstances, guide men to an outward morality; but a change to the contrary grace is supernatural.

Two things are certain in nature. (1.) Natural inclinations never change, but by some superior virtue. A loadstone will not cease to draw iron, while that attractive quality remains in it. The wolf can never love the lamb, nor the lamb the wolf; nothing but must act suitably to its nature. Water cannot but moisten, fire cannot but burn. So likewise the corrupt nature of man being possessed with an invincible contrariety and enmity to God, will never suffer him to comply with God. And the inclinations of a sinner to sin being more strengthened by the frequency of sinful acts, have as great a power over him, and as natural to him, as any qualities are to natural agents: and being stronger than any sympathies in the world, cannot by a man's own power, or the power of any other nature equal to it, be turned into a contrary channel.

(2.) Nothing can act beyond its own principle and nature. Nothing in the world can raise itself to a higher rank of being than that which nature has placed it in; a spark cannot make itself a star, though it mount a little up to heaven; nor a plant endue itself with sense, nor a beast adorn itself with reason; nor a man make himself an angel. Thorns cannot bring forth grapes, nor thistles produce figs because such fruits are above the nature of those plants. So neither can our corrupt nature bring forth grace, which is a fruit above it. Effectus non excedit virtutem suae causae [the effect cannot exceed the power of its cause]: grace is more excellent than nature, therefore cannot be the fruit of nature. It is Christ's conclusion, "How can you, being evil, speak good things?" Matt. 12:33, 34. Not so much as the buds and blossoms of words, much less the fruit of actions. They can no more change their natures, than a viper can do away with his poison. Now though this I have said be true, yet there is nothing man does more affect in the world than a self-sufficiency, and an independence from any other power but his own. This attitude is as much riveted in his nature, as any other false principle whatsoever. For man does derive it from his first parents, as the prime legacy bequeathed to his nature: for it was the first thing uncovered in man at his fall; he would be as God, independent from him. Now God, to cross this principle, allows his elect, like Lazarus, to lie in the grave till they stink, that there may be no excuse to ascribe their resurrection to their own power. If a putrefied rotten carcass should be brought to life, it could never be thought that it inspired itself with that active principle. God lets men run on so far in sin, that they do unman themselves, that he may proclaim to all the world, that we are unable to do anything of ourselves towards our recovery, without a superior principle. The evidence of which will appear if we consider,

1. Man's subjection under sin. He is "sold under sin," Rom. 7:14, and brought "into captivity to the law of sin," ver. 23. "Law of sin:" that sin seems to have a legal authority over him; and man is not only a slave to one sin, but many, Tit. 3:3, "serving divers lusts." Now when a man is sold under the power of a thousand lusts, every one of which has an absolute tyranny over him, and rules him as a sovereign by a law; when a man is thus bound by a thousand laws, a thousand cords and fetters, and carried whither his lords please, against the dictates of his own conscience and force of natural light; can any man imagine that his own power can rescue him from the strength of these masters that claim such a right to him, and keep such a force upon him, and have so often baffled his own strength, when he attempted to turn against them?

2. Man's affection to them. He does not only serve them, but he serves them, and every one of them, with delight and pleasure; Tit. 3:3. They were all pleasures, as well as lusts; friends as well as lords. Will any man leave his sensual delights and such sins that please and flatter his flesh? Will a man ever endeavour to run away from those lords which he serves with affection? having as much delight in being bound a slave to these lusts, as the devil has in binding him. Therefore when you see a man cast away his pleasures, deprive himself of those comfortable things to which his soul was once knit, and walk in paths contrary to corrupt nature, you may search for the cause anywhere, rather than in nature itself. No piece of dirty, muddy clay can form itself into a neat and handsome vessel; no plain piece of timber can fit itself for the building, much less a crooked one. Nor a man that is born blind, give himself sight.

God deals with men in this case as he did with Abraham. He would not give Isaac while Sarah's womb, in a natural probability, might have borne him; but when her womb was dead, and age had taken away all natural strength of conception, then God gives him; that it might appear that he was not a child of nature, but a child of promise.

Stephen Charnock (1628 - 1680), Puritan divine, was born in the St Katherine Cree parish of London. The events of his life are somewhat vague and have been assembled from his writings and from various accounts of those who knew him.

He studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, during which he was converted to the Christian faith, beginning his spiritual journey as a Puritan divine.

After leaving the college, he held a position possibly as a private teacher or tutor, then for a short time as a minister of the faith in Southwark, winning others to the faith.

He then spent some time in New College, Oxford, where he gained a position as senior proctor, after distinguishing himself there by his learning and his labours.

In 1656 he removed to Ireland to become a chaplain. In Dublin, he began a regular ministry of preaching to other believers. Those who came to hear him were from different classes of society and differing denominations, and he became widely known for the skill by which he discharged his duties.

In 1660, the monarchy of England was restored after its brief time as a republic, and Charles II ascended the throne of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Due to new restrictions, Charnock was now legally prevented from practicing public ministry in Ireland, and in England where he returned. Nevertheless he continued to study and to minister in non-public ways.

In 1675 he began a co-pastorship at Crosby Hall in London; this was his last official place of ministry before his death in 1680.

Nearly all of the numerous writings attributed to him were transcribed after his death, one of the most famous of which was preached at Crosby Hall, and is preserved today as The Existence and Attributes of God.

[Neck]

Not sure where he fits in....Great writer it was too bad he was a few years before the new Century revival.


Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892), preacher, came of a family of Dutch origin which sought refuge in England during the persecution of the Duke of Alva. Charles Haddon's grandfather, James Spurgeon (1776-1864), born at Halstead, Essex, was independent minister at Stambourne. His son, John Spurgeon, the father of Charles Haddon, born in 1811, was successively minister of the independent congregations of Tollesbury, Essex, of Cranbrook, Kent, of Fetter Lane, and of Upper Street, Islington.

Charles Haddon, elder son of John Spurgeon, by his wife, the youngest sister of Charles Parker Jarvis of Colchester, was born at Kelvedon, Essex, [England] on 19 June 1834. His early childhood was spent with his grandfather, James Spurgeon, but in 1841 he was sent to a school at Colchester conducted by Henry Lewis. In 1848 he spent a few months at an agricultural college at Maidstone. In the following year he became usher in a school at Newmarkert. His employer was a baptist, and although Spurgeon had been reared an independent, and converted in a primitive Methodist chapel, he was baptised and formally joined the baptist community at Isleham on 3 May 1850. In the same year he obtained a place in a school at Cambridge, recently founded by a former teacher and friend, Henry Leeding. There he became an active member of a baptist congregation, and while a boy of sixteen, dressed in a jacket and turndown collar, preached his first sermon in a cottage at Teversham, near Cambridge. His success was pronounced; his oratorical gifts were at once recognised, and in 1852 he became the pastor of the baptist congregation at Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire. In April 1854 he was 'called' to the pulpit of the baptist congregation at New Park Street, Southwark. Within a few months of his call his powers as a preacher made him famous. The chapel had been empty; before a year had passed the crowds that gathered to hear the country lad of twenty rendered its enlargement essential. Exeter Hall was used while the new building was in process of erection, but Exeter Hall could not contain Spurgeon's hearers. The enlarged chapel, when opened, at once proved too small, and a great tabernacle was projected. In the meantime Spurgeon preached at the Surrey Gardens music-hall, where his congregations numbered ten thousand. Men and women of all ranks flocked to his sermons. The newspapers, from the 'Times' downwards, discussed him and his influence. Caricature and calumny played their part. On 19 Oct. 1856 a malicious alarm of fire raised while Spurgeon was preaching at the Surrey Gardens music-hall led to a panic which caused the death of seven persons and the injury of many others; but the preacher's position was not endangered. At twenty-two Spurgeon was the most popular preacher of the day.

Neckstadt, Spurgeon was a prolific writer and preacher. He fits into this discussion in the following way:

Spurgeon was a Baptist and a Calvinist in the tradition of the Puritans, and is especially highly regarded amongst Presbyterians and Congregationalists, although he differed with them over the issue of baptism (on June 5, 1862, Spurgeon alienated many paedobaptist Christian leaders when he preached against infant baptism in his most famous sermon called "Baptismal Regeneration"). Additional controversy flared again, this time among his fellow Baptists in 1887 with the publication of the "Down-grade" paper which exposed the spiritual decline among the churches. This led to The Metropolitan Tabernacle separating from the Baptist Union to become essentially the largest non-denominational church of the time.

[Nahum]

Where is Reformed Dave when we need him?

[ReformedDave]

Originally Posted by Pastor Poster

Where is Reformed Dave when we need him?

Sorry! I'm away from the computer for today.

My favorite Puritans are Jeremiah Burroughs- His great "gospels" series is a marvelous collect. "Gospel Worship" changed my life.

Jonathan Edwards- Greatest American mind ever produced and a man with his soul on fire for God. His "Freedom of the Will" is incomparable.

Christopher Love- His work on "Grace" is the best I've read on the subject.

Matthew Mead- His book- "The Almost Christian Discovered" shook me to the core. Not for the feint hearted.

John Owens- His book "The Death of Death in the Death of Christ" is wonderful. He's a difficult read as he is not the best writer but oh what a wonderful heart for God. He proves that while there are "Not many wise" it doesn't say "Not any wise".

There's MANY more but I haven't got the time right now.