Articles (Page 5)

“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…

Ralph Venning wrote in The Sinfulness of Sin, “let me again, then, entreat, beseech and beg you for God’s sake and for your souls’ sake not to sin.”  Ralph Venning (1621-1674) was born in Devon, England, and spent his childhood and young adult life in Tavistock. It was there that Venning met a Puritan preacher, George Hughes, who faithfully ministered to him and two other men who also went on to minister. Historians note that Venning owed a lot of his…

“Contentment is not such a poor business as many make it. They say, ‘you must be content,’ and so on. But Paul needed to learn it, and it is a great art and mystery of godliness to be content in a Christian way, and it will be seen to be even more of a mystery when we come to show what lessons a gracious heart learns when it learns to be contented. Take a scholar who has great learning and…

Many Christians have read, used, or heard of Matthew Henry’s New and Old Testament Biblical Commentary. Many have seen his Commentary online and without much careful consideration never thought much of the man.  Matthew Henry was born in a farmhouse in a border town between Wales and England. It was around the time of his birth that his father, Philip Henry, was ejected from the pastorate for not complying with the Act of Uniformity. During his childhood, his father, Philip,…