Category Archives: Puritans

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8 [More] Wishes About the Ministry

Faithful Ministry

Yesterday I gave you the first eight wishes of George Swinnock, a forgotten Puritan, regarding a faithful ministry.

If you are a pastor, I encourage you to pray that God would make these things true in your ministry. If you are a church member, I encourage you to pray that God would make these things true in your pastor’s ministry.

8 [MORE] WISHES ABOUT THE PASTOR’S CALLING

  1. A Prudent Preacher. “I wish that I may prepare for preaching the gospel diligently, ever handle this weapon warily, deliver the message of my God soberly, as may be most for his glory and my people’s good, not with the enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and power.” “I wish also that I may preach over every sermon to my own heart before I preach them to my hearers; that I, preaching feelingly, may preach more effectively.” “I wish that I may preach a crucified Savior in a crucified style.”
  2. A Ceaseless Intercessor. “I wish that all my congregants, without exception, may have so deep a share in my affection, upon a religious account, that without ceasing I may make mention of them always in my prayers; that my heart’s desire and prayer to God, both in private and public, for poor and rich, may be, that they may be saved.”
  3. A Patient Instructor. “I wish, that should my labors prove unfruitful when I am faithful in the discharge of my trust, that I may not be discouraged, knowing that I shall be a ‘sweet savor to my God.'”
  4. A Discerning Judge. “I wish, that in the administration of the sacraments, I may have an impartial regard to the fitness and meetness of the subjects, lest I set those precious seals of the covenant of grace to blanks, where by they should signify nothing, especially about the Lord’s Supper.”
  5. A Faithful Shepherd. “I wish that, like a faithful shepherd, I may often visit my flock, and warn every one night and day with tears.”
  6. A Powerful Example. “I wish that I may be as John the Baptist, both a burning light in my sermons, and a shining light in my conversation, lest my works give the lie to my words.” “Oh that I might preach as powerfully by my life as by my lips.”
  7. A Humble Instrument. “I with that . . . when God has enabled me by his Spirit to cast down imaginations and high things that exalted themselves against the knowledge of him, and to bring into captivity many sinners to the obedience of Christ, that I may set the crown of glory upon the head of God alone, and not suffer the least part of his honor to stick to my fingers.”
  8. A Watchful Overseer. “I wish that I may take heed to myself, my doctrine, to my life, be watchful in all things, endure affliction, make full proof of my ministry, do the work of a faithful pastor.”
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8 Wishes About the Ministry

Faithful Ministry

One of my Endeavors for 2014 is to read through the collected works of a Puritan named George Swinnock. One of the more unique aspects of Swinnock’s work The Christian Man’s Calling – which makes up 2.5 of 5 volumes – is its personal nature.

The work is punctuated by small sections of “wishes,” which are something akin to personal prayer requests. For example, after his section on how a Christian may exercise godliness in the practice of prayer, Swinnock offers, “A good wish about prayer, wherein all the forementioned particulars are epitomized.”

Yesterday I read his section on how a Christian may exercise godliness in his particular called and was treated to another collection of wishes, those “about the calling of a minister; wherein several properties and duties of a conscientious pastor are epitomized.”

Just last year Stephen Yuille and Reformation Heritage published this section in a slim volume entitled A Labor of Love: Puritan Pastoral Priorities. So if you don’t want to fork over pretty pennies for the Banner of Truth volumes, make sure to grab Yuille’s book. It would be a great devotional for the pastor and an excellent resource for elder teams. In case you don’t buy either of those choices, here are the first eight wishes from good Dr. Swinnock along with some choice quotes.

8 WISHES ABOUT THE PASTOR’S CALLING

  1. A Royal Ambassador. “I wish . . . that I may take heed to myself, and too all the flock over which the Holy Ghost has made me overseer.”
  2. A True Vessel. “I wish that I may know experimentally what regeneration means, before I travail with others, till Christ be formed in them.”
  3. A Sincere Suitor. “I wish that the spring of my motions, and principle of all my work, may be love to my Master, and not expectation of any temporal reward.” “I desire that my ends in the ministry may be purely to exalt the glorious name of God, in the conversion and edification of his precious and chosen ones.”
  4. A Wise Builder. “I wish . . . that, as a wise builder, I may lay the foundation of sound doctrine, raise up strong pillars of convincing reasons, and cover it with useful and powerful application.”
  5. A Skilled Physician. “I wish, that since I am a steward of the mysteries of Christ . . . that knowing the fear of the Lord, I may persuade men, and give to every on their particular and proper portion in due season.”
  6. A Diligent Student. “I wish that I  . . . may mind the work of the ministry, and make it appear that both in my preparation for, and execution of my office, I labor in the word and doctrine.”
  7. A Tender Mother. “I wish that I may be tenderly affected to all the souls in my charge, as knowing their worth, and believe of what concernment their unchangeable estates are in the other world.” “Lord, when I behold wounded, bleeding, dying souls, let mine eyes affect my heart with sorrow, that both mine eyes and heart by be up to thee, with the greatest importunity for a blessing upon my diligent endeavors for their recovery.”
  8. A Courageous Soldier. “I wish that, being a sworn soldier of the Lord of hosts, whatsoever trials and tribulations I meet in my holy warfare, whatsoever dangers and death shall look me in the face, I may never fly from my colors, or forsake my captain, but ‘endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.'” “My only safety consists in keeping close to my Savior.”

Eternal life springs from death, glory from ignominy, and blessedness from a curse. We are healed by stripes, quickened by death, purchased by blood, crowned by a cross, advanced to the highest honor by the lowest humility, comforted by sorrows, glorified by disgrace, absolved by condemnation, and made rich by poverty. Thus the wisdom of God shines with radiant brightness in the work of redemption. – Thomas Boston

Complete Works of Thomas Boston: Vol. 1 88
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I Want to Live Like That

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To read the memoirs of Thomas Boston is to be struck by the earnestness with which one pastor pursued communion with God.

A typical entry in his Memoir reads like this: “Having allotted the morning entirely for prayer and meditation, some worldly thoughts crept in. . . . In the afternoon I somewhat recovered my forenoon’s loss.”  Vigorous in self-examination was he. One might say, “Don’t you think that kind of puritanical introspection is unhelpful?” Maybe. But I for one would love to see pastors today fall into the “Vigorous” category in their pursuit of God.

Beeke and Pederson say that, for Boston, personal organization was essential to the ministry, so he rose early each Monday morning and devoted hours to prayer and meditation. He was a man of regular prayer and fasting as he sought habitual communion with God. Evidently it didn’t take long for the public to notice his dedication to commune with God, for one biographer said,

When his congregation saw him enter the pulpit on the morning of the Lord’s day, they knew that they were looking into the face of one who had just come forth from intimate communion with God, and who at once was God’s ambassador and their friend.

I want to live like that.

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A Synonymn for Holy Living

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One of my endeavors for 2014 was to read Looking Unto Jesus, the magnum opus of Isaac Ambrose. I planned for slow, meditative reading, but LUJ was far too good to put down. Thus, the Ambrose endeavor is now complete.

Here then I stand on the precipice of 2014’s second month wondering if I should add another endeavor to the list. The next eleven months offer open vistas of opportunity, growth, and challenge. The small shouting voice in my soul proclaims, “Go big or go home!” So I endeavor to go big with Boston; Thomas Boston that is.

I endeavor to read the collected works of Thomas Boston in 2014.

Boston was one of the subjects of my thesis, This is Not the End: Puritans on the Glory of Heaven, and I found him to be unusually illuminating. But perhaps the greatest motivation for this endeavor is found in Andrew Thomson’s description of the man from Ettrick:

If Scotland had been searched during the earlier part of the eighteenth century, there was not a minister within its bounds who, alike in personal character, and in the discharge of his pastoral function, approached nearer the apostolic model than did this man of God. It is a fact that, even before he died, men and children had come to pronounce his name with reverence. It had become a synonym for holy living.

“A synonym for holy living,” now that is an endeavor worth much prayer and pursuit.

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“But One Word to Speak”

Looking Unto Jesus

I started this year with the aim of reading two pages per day from Isaac Ambrose’s Looking Unto Jesus. That pace would allow me to finish the work in just over eleven months. Well, I finished it in less than one.

It was just too good to put down.

Never before have I read such a warmth in meditation on the beauty of Christ. Looking unto Jesus (Heb. 12:2) has taken on a fresh fullness. A section of Ambrose’s conclusion is worthy of mention and prolonged meditation:

If I had but one word more to speak to the world, it should be this; Oh! let all our spirits be taken up with Christ, let us not busy ourselves too much with toys, or trifles, with ordinary and low things, but look to Jesus.

Surely Christ is enough to fill all our thoughts, desires, hopes, loves, joys, or whatever is within us, or without us; Christ alone comprehends all the circumference of our happiness; Christ is the pearl hid in the large field of God’s word;

Christ is the scope of all the scripture:

all things and persons in the old world were types of him;

all the prophets foretold him,

all God’s love runs through him,

all the gifts and graces of the Spirit flow from him,

the whole eye of God is upon him,

and all his designs both in heaven and earth meet in him.

Oh! how should all hearts be taken with this Christ? Christians! turn your eyes upon the Lord: “Look, and look again unto Jesus.” Why stand ye gazing on the toys of this world, when such a Christ is offered to you in the gospel?

If there be any heaven upon earth, thou wilt find it in the practice and exercise of this gospel duty, in “Looking unto Jesus.”

And all God’s people said, “Amen.”

Of all things that are to be known this is most evident, that God is to be feared, to be reverenced, served, and worshiped; this is so the beginning of knowledge that those know nothing who do not know this. – Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Commentary Vol. 3:793.
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6 Directions to Look Off the World

Looking Unto Jesus

In Looking Unto Jesus Isaac Ambrose says, “We must take off our mind from everything which might divert us in our Christian race from looking unto Jesus.”

The allure of this world and indwelling sin within our heart will motivate the mind’s eye to be fascinated with things other than Christ. Therefore, we must do the work of turning from the fleeting pleasures of this world to the everlasting pleasures of Christ. It’s only then that we will begin truly to know, consider, desire, hope, believe, love, enjoy, and be conformed to Christ.

What can help us to look off all other things? Ambrose provides six of them.

6 DIRECTIONS FOR HOW TO LOOK OFF ALL OTHER THINGS

  1. Study every day more and more the vanity of this world. Read Ecclesiastes often to learn the lesson of striving after the wind. Men often look on such strivings through a false glass and thus don’t seem them as being the vapors that they are. Learning of this vanity shows worldly honor and respect to be little more than bubbles soon to pop.
  2. Converse but little with any evil thing this side of Christ. Have as little to do with the sinful pleasure, profits, riches, and manners of the world as much as you can. The less the better. Ambrose says, “Things of this world have a glutinous quality; if you let the heart lie any while amongst them, it will cleave unto them, and if it once cleave to them there will be no way, but either repentance or hell-fire must part them.”
  3. Be more and better acquainted with Christ. Get more tastes of Christ and heaven and the earth will become more bitter to the soul. When Christ is in view all the world begins to fade and collapse in comparison. “The glory of Christ will darken all other things in the world.”
  4. Set before your heart the example of such saints who accounted themselves as pilgrims and strangers on the earth. When you read about those saints of old who expectantly wandered through their wilderness condition, don’t be surprised to find your heart being shaken off earthly things.
  5. Go in your meditations to heaven and stay there a while. The mind that is in heaven cannot dwell among earthly things. The eyes that take in a survey of heaven and heavenly things have no time to fix his eyes on such poor things below.
  6. Cry mightily unto God that he would take of your eyes off the world. If the heart bends down to earth, go to God to raise it up towards heaven. Cry out with the psalmist in 119:37, “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.”

AN IMPLICATION FOR ORDINARY MINISTERS

Dear pastor, you have a unique, God-given chance each week to help your congregation look off the world and look up to Christ. As you ascend to the sacred desk you must do so with an aim to preach Christ and Him crucified.

Lift Him up! Lift Him up in all His glory, majesty, power, and beauty and watch the world fade away from your congregation’s eyes. Pray for the Spirit to shine forth the brilliance of Christ in your explanations and exclamations. Pray for the Spirit to inflame your heart with love for Christ that the cold and worldly souls melt under your proclamation of the Savior.

Apply Ambrose’s directions to your own life so that when you stand behind the sacred desk your you soul appears blessedly burned from seeing the Son.

Lift Him up! Lift Him up in your preaching, so that in looking unto Jesus your people might find life.

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Come Then, Let Us Look

Looking Unto Jesus

I continue to make my way, slowly, through Isaac Ambrose’s Looking Unto Jesus. I can only hope the final 650 pages are as good as the first 50. Explosions of joy and praise abound on page after page. Here’s just one example:

In this knowledge of Christ, there is an excellency above all other knowledge in the world; there is nothing more pleasing and comfortable, more animating and enlivening, more ravishing and soul contenting; only Christ is the sun and center of all divine revealed truths, we can preach nothing else as the object of our faith, as the necessary element of your soul’s salvation, which does not some way or other, either meet in Christ, or refer to Christ; only Christ is the whole of man’s happiness, the Sun to enlighten him, the Physician to heal him, the Wall of fire to defend him, the Friend to comfort him, the Pearl to enrich him, the Ark to support him, the Rock to sustain him under the heaviest pressures, “As a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of waters in a dry place and as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land” (Isa. 32:2). Only Christ is that ladder between earth and heaven, the Mediator between God and man, a mystery, which the angels of heaven desire to pry, and peep, and look into (1 Pet. 1:12).

Here is a blessed subject indeed; who would not be glad to pry into it, to be acquainted with it? “This is life eternal, to know God, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent” (John 17:3).

Come then, let us look; on this Sun of righteousness: we cannot receive harm but good by such a look; indeed by looking long on the natural sun, we may have our eyes dazzled, and our faces blackened; but by looking unto Jesus Christ, we shall have our eyes clearer, and our faces fairer; if “the light of the eye rejoice the heart.” Prov. 15:30, how much more, when we have such a blessed object to look upon? As Christ is more excellent than all the world, so this sight transcends all other sights; it is the epitome of a Christian’s happiness, the quintessence of evangelical duties, “Looking unto Jesus.”

Tolle lege!

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The Epitome of a Christian’s Happiness

Looking Unto Jesus

Isaac Ambrose opens his work Looking Unto Jesus with some magisterial language indeed:

“As Christ is more excellent than all the world, so this sight transcends all other sights; it is the epitome of a Christian’s happiness, the quintessence of evangelical duties, Looking unto Jesus. . . . This, indeed, is the glad tidings, the gospel, the gospel privilege, and our gospel-duty, Looking unto Jesus.”