Articles (Page 5)

Thomas Watson said, “Repentance is a grace of God’s Spirit whereby a sinner is inwardly humbled and visibly reformed.” The Doctrine of Repentance, 18. Thomas Watson (1620-1686) was born probably in Yorkshire, England. In his life, Thomas Watson, married Abigail Beadle in 1647. Thomas and Abigail had at least seven children during their marriage. Watson’s life was one that had many trials. Despite being strongly Presbyterian, during the English Civil War, Watson was sympathetic to the Monarchy. In 1651, he was imprisoned for…

“You cannot love God if you are under the continual secret suspicion that he is really your enemy! … You simply cannot love God unless you know and understand how much he loves you. … In the gospel, you can come to know that God truly loves you through Christ. When you have this assurance, you can even love your enemies, because you know that you are reconciled to God. You know that God’s love will make people’s hatred of…

Cotton Mather (1663-1729), was a third-generation American Puritan, son of Increase Mather, and grandson of John Cotton. He entered Harvard at 12 by passing the entrance exam highlighting his gifting in Latin and Greek. At the age of 18, he received his M.A. from his father, who was the president at Harvard.  Mather wrestled with his faith from a young age, at times he was so concerned about his salvation that he would appear depressed, and at other times he…

“Conversion is a work above man’s power … Never think you can convert yourself. If ever you would be savingly converted, you must despair of doing it in your own strength. It is a resurrection from the dead, a new creation, a work of absolute omnipotence … Conversion is a supernatural work.”— Joseph Alleine, An Alarm to Unconverted Sinners. Joseph Alleine (1634-1668) was born at Devizes, Wiltshire, and from a young age, he was an exceptionally gifted student who was willing…

Henry Scougal (1650-1678) was a young Scottish minister who God gifted with a beautiful intellect that resulted in him writing much during his short lifetime and influencing many future ministers. Scougal was the son of Patrick Scougal, a bishop of Aberdeen, and was educated at King’s College, Aberdeen, where he graduated with a Master of Arts at the age of 18. As a gifted academic he was soon appointed as a professor who taught Baconian (Francis Bacon) philosophy and guarded…

See from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down! Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown?” Issac Watts. Isaac Watts (1674 – 1748) was born in Southampton during a tumultuous time. Eleven years before his birth the bubonic plague swept through London (nearly wiped out the town of Southampton), and a year after the Great Fire of London leveled parliament which had a massive impact on Britain. But…

Samuel Rutherford (1600–61) was born in the village of Nisbet, Roxburghshire he was the eldest son of a well-to-do farmer. At an early age, his parents took notice of his intellectual gifts and believed that God would call him to the ministry, though they seldom spoke about Christ. He was a young man who knew much but lacked conviction and was living in sin. While in school, Rutherford excelled in Latin and Greek, and in 1623 he acted as Regent…

Benjamin Keach was born in 1640 in Stokes-Hammond, Bucks, England, and died July 18, 1704, in Horselydown, Southwark, England. Keach was a famous Baptist preacher in London who, among other achievements, wrote two theologically influential Baptist works, developed the first Baptist Catechism in 1677, and was involved in the formation of the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689 in tandem with the historically significant Baptist ministers Hanserd Knollys and William Kiffin, among others. Keach was born into an Anglican family and was christened as…

“Be not troubled to think what shall become of thee and thine after my death, for be assured that my God, and the God of the widows and the fatherless, will not forsake thee, but will wonderfully provide for those and be comforted in this, that tho’ men take thy husband from thee, they cannot take thy God from thee; and so, do not think that thou hast lost thy husband, but only parted with him for a while, and…

“Of all preaching in the world, (that speaks not stark lies,) I hate that preaching which tendeth to make the hearers laugh, or to move their mind with tickling levity, and affect them as stage-players use to do, instead of affecting them with a holy reverence of the name of God.” ― Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor. Richard Baxter (1615-1691) has been recognized as being gifted with a pastoral heart. He labored for nearly twenty years as a pastor in Kidderminster,…

“Those families wherein this service of God [family worship] is performed, are (as it were) little churches, yea, even a kind of Paradise upon earth.” William Perkins, Household-Government, in Works 3:670. While William Perkins (1558-1602) was an adolescent, his name was the talk of the town. Not in a good sense. Though the details are scarce, his personal life was quite sinful, he was addicted to alcohol, and he was seen as the town drunk. One day while a woman was walking…

“Though Satan has his devices to draw souls to sin, yet we must be careful that we do not lay all our temptations upon Satan, that we do not wrong the devil, and father upon him what is to be fathered upon our own base hearts. Man has such an evil root within him, that were there no devil to tempt him, no wicked men in the world to entice him, yet that cursed sinful nature that is in him…