English Puritan Class

I finished my course on "The English Puritans" this week at Reformed Theological Seminary. The course contains lectures by J.I. Packer and can be listened to for free at iTunes U.

I found the best resource in the course to be Dr. Packer's book "A Quest for Godliness". I read the book in the early 90's and it was great to read it again earlier in the fall. The hero of the book is John Owen.

Owen lived from 1616 -1683 and (as I noted over the summer) much of his work has been reprinted and can also be found online. Here's a link to The Puritan Library which contains is work online: http://www.puritanlibrary.com/

Enjoy,
-D.

Pilgrim's Progress Online

....as a followup to my previous post, here's a link to an online version of John Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress"

http://www.lgmarshall.org/Reformed/bunyan_pilgrim.html


-D.

A Pilgrim's Progress

I finished reading John Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress" tonight. It's one of the required books for my class on the English Puritans at Reformed Theological Seminary.

If you have not read it, I would highly recommend at least skimming the book.

The book is an allegory of the Christian experience...of going through this life to Heaven. It's likely that Bunyan came up with the idea for the book while imprisoned, then published an initial version in 1678. Of all of the writings of the English Puritans, "The Pilgrim's Progress" is the most well known.

There are two parts to the book. Part One tells the story of Christian, Part Two tells the story of his wife Christiana and their children as they journey from their home in the "City of Destruction" to God's "Celestial City".

For me, the book is a helpful reminder that I (like all Christians) am on a spiritual pilgrimage...I will encounter various trials and difficulty and places of rest as I follow Him.

Bunyan's main characters, Christian and Christiana, found it helpful to have others join them on their pilgrim journey. Christian found assistance from individuals named: Evangelist, Interpreter and Hopeful. Christiana, found help from people named: Mercy, Great-Heart, Gaius, and Valiant-for-Truth.

(As an aside, as I read about Mr. Great Heart in Book Two, the great model of a Puritan pastor, I was reminded about some biographies that I've read about Teddy Roosevelt. When he was a child, he and his siblings would call their father by the nickname: "Great Heart"...as they had read "Pilgrim's Progress" and felt that he personified the name. What a great nickname to be given by one's kids.)

As I read "Pilgrim's Progress", I thought too about the monthly worship gathering that I've been hosting through a new group called the "Anglican Fellowship of Cincinnati". I thought of how one of our primary roles is to serve as encouragers (like Great Heart, and Mercy and Hopeful); to encourage one another along the "pilgrim way" of Christian discipleship as people take the journey from their own "City of Destruction" to God's "Celestial City". For me, that's quite an encouraging thing to think about.

I'll post more about our monthly worship meetings at: http://www.cincyanglican.org/

I'm hoping to have the next worship gathering planned soon.

Blessings to you in your pilgrimage,


-D.

John Owen, continued

...a few more quotes by John Owen, quoted by J.I. Packer in "A Quest for Godliness":

On communion with God, Owen wrote:

"Our communion...with God consisteth in his communication of himself unto us, with our returnal unto him of that which he requireth and accepteth, flowing from that union which in Jesus Christ we have with him...[a] mutual communication in giving and receiving, after a most holy and spiritual manner, which is between God and the saints, while they walk together in a covenant of peace, ratified by the blood of Jesus."

Receiving Christ's love is by faith, Owen describes as:

free, willing consent to receive, embrace and submit unto the Lord Jesus, as their huband, Lord and Saviour, -- to abide with him, subject their souls unto him, and to be ruled by him for ever...When the soul consents to take Christ on his own terms, to save him in his own way, and says, 'Lord...I am willing to receive thee and to be saved in thy way, --merely by grace; and though I would have walked according to my own mind, yet now I wholly give myself to be ruled by the Spirit, for in thee have I righteousness and strength, in thee am I justified and do glory; --then doth it carry on communion with Christ...Let believers exercise their hearts abundantly unto this thing. This is choice communion with the Son Jesus Christ. Let us receive him in all his excellencies as he bestows himself upon us;--be frequent in thoughts of faith, comparing him with other beloveds, sin, world, legal righteousness; and preferring him before them, counting them all loss and dung in comparison of him...and we shall not fail in the issue of sweet refreshment with him."

-D.

Remembering John Owen

I read part of J.I. Packer's book called "The Quest for Godliness" today. It is a terrific book about the English Puritans (who lived generally between 1550 and 1700). As I was reading I learned that one of the most notable Puritan theologians, named John Owen, died on this date in 1683...325 years ago.

Owen is, according to Packer "the hero of this book" and "was one of the greatest of English theologians." Referring to himself as a "teacher" Owen spoke and wrote at length about the importance of the cross and the Spirit in the lives of Christians in dealing with sin.

On sin, Owen wrote, "its nature and formal design is to oppose God; God as a lawgiver, God as holy, God as the author of the gospel, a way of salvation by grace and not by works, are the direct object of the law of sin."

Much of his work has been reprinted and can also be found online. Here's a link to The Puritan Library which contains is work online: http://www.puritanlibrary.com/

-D.