Required reading Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter (we'll be reading from the 1862 edition available from Amazon or free on the internet, here for example) - Commence Chapter 3 by beginning Section 1 (The use of humiliation) by reading Points 1 (On account of our pride) and 2 (Our not seriously, unreservedly, and laboriously laying out ourselves in our work).
My summary Today we begin Chapter 3 and the First Section of that chapter looking at the usefulness of humiliation.
After introducing the subject of humiliation, Baxter looks at two ministerial sins: pride and laziness.
Firstly, pride 'is a sin that hath too much interest in the best of us, but which is more hateful and inexcusable in us than in other men. Yet is it so prevalent in some of us, that it inditeth our discourses, it chooseth our company, it formeth our countenances, it putteth the accent and emphasis upon our words.'
Secondly, ministers are not seriously, unreservedly, and laboriously laying themselves out in their work. Particularly by: (1) negligent studies; (2) dull, drowsy preaching; (3) not compassionating and helping destitute congregations.
What grabbed me Such a good section today. I must admit that pride and laziness are two of my biggest problems.
Loved the reminder to study hard: 'O what abundance of things are there that a minister should understand! and what a great defect is it to be ignorant of them! and how much shall we miss such knowledge in our work! Many ministers study only to compose their sermons, and very little more, when there are so many books to be read, and so many matters that we should not be unacquainted with. Nay, in the study of our sermons we are too negligent, gathering only a few naked truths, and not considering of the most forcible expressions by which we may set them home to men's consciences and hearts. We must study how to convince and get within men, and how to bring each truth to the quick, and not leave all this to our extemporary promptitude, unless in cases of necessity. Certainly, brethren, experience will teach you that men are not made learned or wise without hard study and unwearied labour and experience.'
The minister's studies don't end once his sermon is composed.
Next week's reading Continue Chapter 3 by concluding Section 1 (The use of humiliation). Now it's your turn Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
Required reading Reformed Doctrine of Predestination by Loraine Boettner (Available from Amazon or free on the internet, here for example). Read Chapter 17 (That it makes God the author of sin).
My summary Now Boettner looks at another objection to the doctrine of predestination: it makes God the author of sin.
Firstly Boettner looks at the problem of evil and the way that God uses evil for good.
Then follows a discussion of the fall and God's involvement in it.
Then it is stated that God is perfectly in control of evil and this is backed up with Scriptural proofs.
Finally we see how grace is increased through sin and that Calvinism offers the best understanding of the problem of evil.
What grabbed me Boettner started the Chapter off well: 'To begin with, we readily admit that the existence of sin in a universe which is under the control of a God who is infinite in His wisdom, power, holiness, and justice, is an inscrutable mystery which we in our present state of knowledge cannot fully explain. As yet we only see through a glass darkly. Sin can never be explained on the grounds of logic or reason, for it is essentially illogical and unreasonable.'
But there were a number of statements in the chapter that seemed to go further than Scripture goes when we probe into God's sovereign control over sin: 'Hence God Himself is ultimately responsible for sin in that He has power to prevent it but does not do so, although the immediate responsibility rests on man alone God is, of course, never the efficient cause in the production of sin.'
Another example: 'Calvinism can give a fairly adequate explanation in that it recognizes that God is ultimately responsible since He could have prevented it; and Calvinism further asserts that God has a definite purpose in the permission of every individual sin having ordained it "for His own glory."'
I think Boettner is allowing logic to run away with him when he says God is 'ultimately' responsible for sin.
Scripture teaches that man is always responsible for his sin. Whereas God is light and in him there is no darkness.
I don't think I'd dare say that God is 'ultimately' responsible for my sin. Would you?
Next week's reading Read Chapter 18 (That it discourages all motives to exertion) and 19 (That it represents God as a respecter of persons, or as unjustly partial).
Now it's your turn Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
Required reading City of God by Augustine (available from Amazon or free on the internet, here for example) - Conclude Book 13 by reading Chapters 17 to 24. My summary Today Augustine continues looking at man's body and soul.
Philosophers are again attacked for denying that man can be resurrected to a physical body and still be happy. One of Augustine's main arguments is that the philosophers contradict their own teaching when they claim that the Supreme God and other gods have physical bodies in some sense and are also happy.
Then we are given a fairly lengthy discussion about what it meant for man to have a physical body before sin, after sin and once resurrected with heavenly bodies.
This is followed by an examination of what precisely is the soul and how that relates to the Spirit of God.
What grabbed me I thought I'd highlight one of the dangers of Augustine - his use of allegory. We are given two examples today of the hidden meanings Augustine found in the Garden of Eden:
'No one, then, denies that Paradise may signify the life of the blessed; its four rivers, the four virtues, prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice; its trees, all useful knowledge; its fruits, the customs of the godly; its tree of life, wisdom herself, the mother of all good; and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the experience of a broken commandment. The punishment which God appointed was in itself, a just, and therefore a good thing; but man’s experience of it is not good.
These things can also and more profitably be understood of the Church, so that they become prophetic foreshadowings of things to come. Thus Paradise is the Church, as it is called in the Canticles; the four rivers of Paradise are the four gospels; the fruit-trees the saints, and the fruit their works; the tree of life is the holy of holies, Christ; the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the will’s free choice. For if man despise the will of God, he can only destroy himself; and so he learns the difference between consecrating himself to the common good and revelling in his own. For he who loves himself is abandoned to himself, in order that, being overwhelmed with fears and sorrows, he may cry, if there be yet soul in him to feel his ills, in the words of the psalm, “My soul is cast down within me,” and when chastened, may say,” Because of his strength I will wait upon Thee.” These and similar allegorical interpretations may be suitably put upon Paradise without giving offence to any one, while yet we believe the strict truth of the history, confirmed by its circumstantial narrative of facts.'
These allegories appear to be highly speculative and I don't really see how they could be of any encouragement to the believer.
But I still love you Augustine.
Next week's reading Commence Book 14 by reading Chapters 1 to 12.
Now it's your turn Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
Required reading Life and times of George Whitefield by Robert Philip (available from Amazon or free on the internet, here for example) - Read Chapters 24 (Whitefield's influence in America) and 25 (Whitefield and the Bishops).
My summary In Chapter 24 we hear more of Whitefield's work in America. He is now quite unwell but still managing to preach and collect money for various needs - in this instance for an Indian school. Philip acknowledges his inadequacy in writing about Whitefield's work in America and calls upon American writers to give a fuller treatment of it.
Then in Chapter 25 there is a discussion of Whitefield's opinion on church government, particularly the role of Anglican Bishops. Philip states: 'My own conviction is, that he [Whitefield] had neither fixed nor definite opinions upon the subject of episcopacy. He was for it and against it, just as it was for and against the work of evangelizing the county. He thought highly of episcopal power, when it aided or protected faithful preaching; and meanly, when it hindered the gospel.'
What grabbed me I loved the enthusiasm of the Americans to keep Whitefield in their towns.
The Bostonians were very persistent in trying to keep him, despite his poor health and his trouble with the heat: 'He preached for them, however, thrice a week for some time; and such was the number of converts discovered after his farewell sermon, that his friends actually proposed to send after him a book, full of names of the multitude who were clamorous for his return, although he was fleeing for his life. The heat alone had compelled him to leave. It was now summer, and he began to sink again. What could he do but fly ? The good Bostonians assured him, that their summers had lately become much cooler than formerly, and that he might safely risk their dog-days now ! He tried to believe them, until he had hardly breath enough to say farewell. His parting with them tried him much. " It has been heart-breaking," he says, " I cannot stand it! "'
I've never heard of anyone trying to keep a preacher by convincing him that their climate has changed. They must really have loved him.
Next week's reading Read Chapters 26 (Whitefield's last labours at home), 27 (Whitefield and Edmund-Hall) and 28 (Whitefield's last voyage).
Now it's your turn Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
Required reading Art of Manfishing by Thomas Boston (Available from Amazon or free on the internet, here for example) - Commence Part 2 by reading Chapter 1 (What following Christ supposes and implies). My summary Today we begin the second part of the book which examines how you may come by the art of manfishing.
In the chapter we read today we are told to follow Christ and that this supposes and implies manfishers have:
(i) life;
(ii) knowledge of the way that Christ took;
(iii) a sense of weakness and the need of a guide;
(iv) renounced their own wisdom;
(v) not made men their rule, but follow men no farther than they follow Christ.
What grabbed me When looking at what it means to have life as a manfisher, Boston spoke about how we should treat our bodies: 'Therefore I do not spare this weak body, and therefore have I desired never to be idle, but to go unsent for sometimes. Yet my conscience tells me of much slackness in this point, when I have been in private with people and have not reproved them as I ought when they offended, being much plagued with want of freedom in private converse. This I have in the Lord's strength resolved against, and have somewhat now amended it.'
I agree. It is so easy to be idle when we should be active - particularly when it comes to points in conversations where we should speak up and not be silent.
Do not spare your weak bodies!
Next week's reading
Continue Part 2 by commencing Chapter 2 (Wherein is Christ to be followed?) by reading the first four points.. Now it's your turn Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
Required reading Practical Religion by JC Ryle (available from Amazon or free on the internet, here for example)- Commence Chapter 5 (Bible reading) by reading points 1 to 5. My summary Now we begin a lengthy chapter on Bible reading. We see five points which makes the Bible totally unique: I. There is no book in existence written in such a manner as the Bible; II. There is no knowledge absolutely needful to a man’s salvation, except a knowledge of the things which are to be found in the Bible; III. No book in existence contains such important matter as the Bible; IV. No book in existence has produced such wonderful effects on mankind at large as the Bible; V. No book in existence can do so much for every one who reads it with an open heart, as the Bible.
What grabbed me I liked the opening: 'By reading that book we may learn what to believe, what to be, and what to do; how to live with comfort, and how to die in peace. Happy is that man who possesses a Bible! Happier still is he who reads it! Happiest of all is he who not only reads it, but obeys it, and makes it the rule of his faith and practice!'
Do you want to be happy? Have the Bible, read the Bible, obey the Bible and you will be happy.
Next week's reading Conclude Chapter 5 (Bible reading) by reading from point 6 to the end of the chapter.
Now it's your turn Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
Required reading
Marrow of Modern Divinity by Edward Fisher (available from Amazon or free on the internet, here for example) -Continue Chapter 3 by reading the three sections entitled 'Efficacy of faith for holiness of heart and life'; 'Use of means for strengthening of faith'; and 'Distinction of the law of works, and law of Christ, applied to six paradoxes'. My summary
This week we firstly look at how faith is effective at producing a holiness of heart and life. Faith is effective because it derives power from Christ ingrafting a man, who is by nature a wild olive branch, into Christ as the natural olive.
Secondly we are told the means that the Spirit loves to use for strengthening faith:
(i) prayer;
(ii) the preached word;
(iii) the read word;
(iv) meditation upon God's promises;
(v) the Lord's Supper.
Thirdly, Neophytus asks whether these six statements are true:
1. That a believer is not under the law, but is altogether delivered from it.
2. That a believer does not commit sin.
3. That the Lord can see no sin in a believer.
4. That the Lord is not angry with a believer for his sins.
5. That the Lord doth not chastise a believer for his sins.
6. Lastly, That a believer hath no cause neither to confess his sins, nor to crave pardon at the hands of God for them, neither yet to fast, nor mourn, nor humble himself before the Lord for them.
Evangelista answers that they are paradoxes because 'for in one sense they may all of them be truly affirmed, and in another sense they may all of them be truly denied; whereof if we would clearly understand the truth, we must distinguish betwixt the law as it is the law of works, and as it is the law of Christ.'
What grabbed me Great quote about the response of the Christian towards God's gifting him with good works: 'So that, although he be endowed with excellent gifts and graces, and though he perform never so many duties, he denies himself in all; he does not make them as ladders for him to ascend up into heaven by, but he desires to "be found in Christ, not having his own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ," (Phil 3:9). He does not think himself to be one step nearer to heaven, for all his works and performances. And if he hear any man praise him for his gifts and graces, he will not conceive that he has obtained the same by his own industry and pains-taking, as some men have proudly thought; neither will he speak it out, as some have done, saying; These gifts and graces have cost me something—I have taken much pains to obtain them; but he says, "By the grace of God I am what I am; and not I, but the grace of God that was with me," (1 Cor 15:10).'
We cannot boast in anything we do as Christians - any good we do is simply further evidence of God's grace towards us.
Next week's reading
Conclude Chapter 3 by reading the six sections entitled 'The use of that distinction in practice'; 'That distinction a mean betwixt legalism and Antinomianism; 'How to attain to assurance'; 'Marks and evidences of true faith'; 'How to recover lost evidences'; 'Marks and signs of union with Christ'.
Now it's your turn Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
Required reading Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter (we'll be reading from the 1862 edition available from Amazon or free on the internet, here for example) - Conclude Chapter 2 by reading Sections 2 (The manner of this oversight) and 3 (Motives to the oversight of the flock).
My summary In the first section we read today, we look at the manner of the oversight of the minister. The ministerial work must be carried on:
1. Purely for God, and the salvation of souls;
2. Diligently and laboriously;
3. Prudently and orderly;
4. Insisting chiefly on the greatest and most necessary things;
5. With plainness and simplicity;
6. With humility;
7. With a mixture of severity and mildness;
8. With seriousness, earnestness and zeal;
9. With tender love to our people;
10.With patience;
11.With reverence;
12.With spirituality;
13. With earnest desires and expectations of success;
14. Under a deep sense of our own insufficiency, and of our dependence on Christ;
15. In unity with other ministers.
In the second section we read today, we are shown the motives of our oversight as ministers:
1. From the relation in which we stand to the flock--we are overseers;
2. From the efficient cause of this relation--The Holy Ghost;
3. From the dignity of the object which is committed to our charge--The Church of God;
4. From the price paid for the Church--which he hath purchased with his blood.
What grabbed me
I liked the advice given ministers to be careful to read what is helpful and ignore what is unhelpful: 'The great volumes and tedious controversies that so much trouble us and waste our time, are usually made up more of opinions than of necessary verities; for, as Ficinus saith, "Necessity is shut up within narrow limits; not so with opinion": and, as Gregory Nazianzen and Seneca often say, "Necessaries are common and obvious; it is superfluities that we waste our time for, and labour for, and complain that we attain them not." Ministers, therefore, must be observant of the case of their flocks, that they may know what is most necessary for them, both for matter and for manner; and usually the matter is to be first regarded, as being of more importance than the manner. If you are to choose what authors to read yourselves, will you not rather take those that tell you what you know not, and that speak the most necessary truths in the clearest manner, though it be in barbarous or unhandsome language, than those that will most learnedly and elegantly tell you that which is false or vain, and "by a great effort say nothing." I purpose to follow Augustine"s counsel: "Give first place to the meaning of the Word, so that the soul is given preference over the body; from which it follows that we seek the more true as much as the more discerning discourses to be met with, just as we seek the more sensible, as much as the more handsome, to be our friends."'
You have very little time on the earth and there is much rubbish that can be read - make sure you read only what is clearly profitable.
Next week's reading
Commence Chapter 3 by beginning Section 1 (The use of humiliation) by reading Points 1 (On account of our pride) and 2 (Our not seriously, unreservedly, and laboriously laying out ourselves in our work). Now it's your turn Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
Required reading Reformed Doctrine of Predestination by Loraine Boettner (Available from Amazon or free on the internet, here for example).Read Chapters 15 (That it is fatalism) and 16 (Inconsistent with free agency). My summary
Today we begin a new section of the book which looks at objections commonly urged against the Reformed doctrine of predestination.
In Chapter 15 the charge that predestination is fatalism is answered: 'There is, in reality, only one point of agreement between the two, which is, that both assume the absolute certainty of all future events. The essential difference between them is that Fatalism has no place for a personal God. Predestination holds that events come to pass because an infinitely wise, powerful, and holy God has so appointed them. Fatalism holds that all events come to pass through the working of a blind, unintelligent, impersonal, non-moral force which cannot be distinguished from physical necessity, and which carries us helplessly within its grasp as mighty river carries a piece of wood.'
In Chapter 16 the charge that predestination is inconsistent with the free agency and moral responsibility of man is answered. Basically Boettner shows in a number of ways that man never has a free will as it is commonly claimed - his choices are always influenced and in some way predictable. Yet Scripture continues to affirm that man is a free agent while God is in sovereign control of him: 'Predestination and free agency are the twin pillars of a great temple, and they meet above the clouds where the human gaze cannot penetrate. Or again, we may say that Predestination and free agency are parallel lines; and while the Calvinist may not be able to make them unite, the Arminian cannot make them cross each other.'
What grabbed me In Part 3 of Chapter 15 Boettner claimed certainty is consistent with free agency: 'We are often absolutely certain how we will act under given conditions so far as we are free to act at all...A father often knows how his son will act under given circumstances and by controlling these he determines beforehand the course of action which the son follows, yet the son acts freely. If he plans that the son shall be doctor, he gives him encouragement along that line, persuades him to read certain books, to attend certain schools, and so presents the outside inducements that his plan works out. In the same manner and to an infinitely greater extent God controls our actions so that they are certain although we act freely. His decree does not produce the event, but only renders its occurrence certain; and the same decree which determines the certainty of the action at the same time determines the freedom of the agent in the act.'
It is tempting to try and explain something that is unexplainable and I think the above illustration of father and son tries to do that. If the circumstances surrounding the son force him to pick a particular path (i.e. to be doctor), then he is no longer responsible for his action.
But Scripture does not give such illustrations. It gives paradoxes where, for example, Joseph's brothers are in God's control yet held completely responsible for their actions against Joseph.
I know Boettner does believes God's sovereignty and man's free agency is a paradox from elsewhere in the chapter, but I think this part of the chapter contradicts what he has said elsewhere. Certainty is not consistent with free agency - well, at least not in our little minds.
Next week's reading
Read Chapter 17 (That it makes God the author of sin). Now it's your turn Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
Required reading City of God by Augustine (available from Amazon or free on the internet, here for example) - Commence Book 13 by reading Chapters 1 to 16. My summary Now in Book 13 Augustine looks at the fall of man and origin of human mortality.
Augustine sees that there are two deaths for man: (i) the death of the soul (when God abandons it); (ii) the death of the body (when the soul departs).
The origin of death is Adam's sin which passed death onto the whole human race because the 'whole human race was in the first man'.
Next Augustine shows us that although death is evil and always a bad thing for the unrighteous, death is actually made a good thing for the righteous as it is a gateway to life
Then follows a discussion about whether anyone can be said to be 'dying'. It is difficult to say that anyone is dying because if someone is dying they are still alive and therefore not dead. Nevertheless Augustine says that we should 'conform to normal usage' and speak of people dying even when they are still living.
After that Augustine looks at which of the types of death God threatened the first human beings with if they sinned. The answer is 'All of these deaths'.
Then to finish today's reading Augustine begins to examine the arguments against Christians by Platonists concerning death and resurrection. Philosophers claim that it is ridiculous to understand that man will be raised for eternity with an actual body, but Augustine points out that Plato himself endorses eternal physical bodies.
What grabbed me Excellent discussion of death.
I loved the reminder that despite what we may deceive ourselves to believe, we are all in the process of dying: 'For no sooner do we begin to live in this dying body, than we begin to move ceaselessly towards death. For in the whole course of this life (if life we must call it) its mutability tends towards death. Certainly there is no one who is not nearer it this year than last year, and to-morrow than to-day, and to-day than yesterday, and a short while hence than now, and now than a short while ago. For whatever time we live is deducted from our whole term of life, and that which remains is daily becoming less and less; so that our whole life is nothing but a race towards death, in which no one is allowed to stand still for a little space, or to go somewhat more slowly, but all are driven forwards with an impartial movement, and with equal rapidity. For he whose life is short spends a day no more swiftly than he whose life is longer. But while the equal moments are impartially snatched from both, the one has a nearer and the other a more remote goal to reach with this their equal speed.'
We are all marching steadily toward our own death. The sooner we wake up to that fact, the sooner we will begin to prepare ourselves for it.
Next week's reading Conclude Book 13 by reading Chapters 17 to 24.
Now it's your turn Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
Required reading Life and times of George Whitefield by Robert Philip (available from Amazon or free on the internet, here for example) - Read Chapter 23 (Whitefield's public spirit).
My summary In Chapter 23 we return to Britain and are told 'But if he [Whitefield] loved America most, England loved herself more, and drew him with "the cords of love"'. So we see Whitefield moving around all over England, Scotland and Ireland again.
At this time Whitefield engages a little in politics as 'the enroachments of the French upon the British colonies in America, awakened his jealousy. He saw more than civil liberty at stake..."I hope I shall always think it my bounden duty, next to inviting sinners to the blessed Jesus, to exhort my hearers to exert themselves against the first approaches of popish tyranny."' Philips believes that his being too political may be why he experienced less success in Scotland at this time.
We again witness further examples of persecution of Whitefield's preaching, including an attack from the secular theatre with the writing and performance of plays mocking him.
And now we also note the regular deterioration of Whitefield's health.
What grabbed me As I read this title, I continue to be outraged at the attacks on Whitefield coming from those who purport themselves to be inside the Protestant Christian camp: 'The next time Whitefield preached in Long Acre, "all was hushed;" and he publicly ascribed the peace to the bishop's intervention. It was only a pause in the storm. The rioters contented themselves with making "odd noises" in an adjoining house, whilst a scaffold was preparing for the full flourish and chorus of "such instruments of reformation" as "a copperfurnace, bells, drums, clappers, marrow-bones and cleavers, and large stones of a pound weight to break the windows." This volley was planted and played off against the chapel, in the yard of his Lordship's overseer, by some of his Lordship's vestry and parishioners. This fact Whitefield told him, Lett. 1122, 1124; and added, " C, one of your Lordship's relations, can acquaint you with many more particulars; and if you would be so good as ride to C.'s house, you would see such a scaffold, (if not taken down,) and such costly preparations for a noise upon it, that must make the ears of all that shall hear it to tingle. I have only one favour to beg of your Lordship, that you will send to the gentlemen, as they are your parishioners, and desire them henceforward to desist from such riotous and dangerous proceedings."—" Indeed, my Lord, it is more than noise. It deserves no milder a name than premeditated rioting." His Lordship's answer to these appeals seems to have been respectful to Whitefield, but useless to the occasion. He quoted canons, instead of quelling the riots; and threw doubts upon the lease and license of the chapel, instead of displacing the overseer of the parish.'
Imagine preaching in a church while at the minister's residence next door they have erected a scaffold on which to stand and make as much noise as possible! Disgraceful behaviour.
Next week's reading Read Chapters 24 (Whitefield's influence in America) and 25 (Whitefield and the Bishops).
Now it's your turn Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
