Blog of the week 1

THOMAS ADAMS PURITAN SHAKESPEARE

A Calvinist lived name of Adams

He preached against all of the bad'uns.

With puns and with quips

That fell from his lips

He fed both the sheep and the lambs.

I began this blog in 2007 and it can be found here There are over a hundred posts there at present. I first came across Adams when my parent-in-law ave me the three volume works in the Tanski edition. When i later listened to a week of lectures from Professor William Barker I took opportunity to pursue my studies with an essay on Adams (found on the blog and elsewhere).

Most popular post Want of a nail.

Foundations Archive

You may be interested to know that the archive of the theological journal Foundations is now up on the Affinity website. See here. Would it be wrong to point out that I have six articles in these pages?

See

26 Exegesis The barren fig tree 

30 Infant salvation

34 What is the conscience?

36 A candle in the wind (more on conscience)

51/52 Shakespeare of the Puritans - aspects of piety in the preaching of Thomas Adams, Part 1/2

Aneirin Glyn

Apologies for being a bit slow with this but last Sunday afternoon I stepped slightly out of my comfort zone on two fronts at a time when we went down to the Welsh Anglican Church of St Benet (nothing to do with Phil Bennett apparently), near St Paul's in the City of London to be at the licensing service for Aneirin Glyn.
I say on two fronts because  the service was both an Anglican one and partly in the Welsh language. The Welsh language wasn't an issue as I have some Welsh and being an Anglican service it was all written out (and translated).

The service was led by the Bishop of London, Richard Chartres. I did have to look at him for a short while to remember where I'd seen him last - speaking at the royal wedding! We again had a 10 minute sermonette that you couldn't really object to but that you weren't entirely sure of the meaning of either.

The service itself was okay with lots of nuanced evangelical statements but other things that made you a little nervous. Even the bishop thought it a little ludicrous that Aneirin had to swear allegiance to the Queen, rather than that being taken for granted. I could probably cope with the dressing up and some of the other pantomime elements but the episcopal nature of the arrangement wouldn't sit well with this particular nonconformist I must confess.

Being licensed obviously includes some caretaking duties as a big thing was made of giving Aneirin the key to the building. As it turned out when he tried to get in with it there was a problem and he had to ring the church bell to get back in again. ;-)

There were about fifty people present and we all had our picture taken afterwards before enjoying some food and drink. We knew one other couple there visiting and one of the main families in the church through the school. Eleri had also been in school with the organist. The newsreader Huw Edwards was sat in front of us. I also had a brief chat to William Taylor from St Helen's, where Aneirin has close connections, who I know by sight but had never spoken to before. (I don't think the St Helen's crowd are quite aware that there are other Welsh speaking churches in London - at least 10 - and some have evangelical input. See here.)

I think it will be an uphill task to cut though the layers of churchiosity that mask the gospel in a situation like that but the gospel is powerful and who knows what might happen if it is unleashed. 

Demand to learn Welsh in London is certainly on the rise. There were 60 places available on the most recent course at the London Welsh Centre in King’s Cross; it was oversubscribed and the number of places on the next course has been expanded to 75.

An article appeared in the Times recently (here) which you may be able to access.

There Aneirin says “London has a large Welsh community and I would love St Benet’s to be the place where they can hear the great news about Jesus in the language in which they are comfortable. ....  I think for some people in London, Welsh is the language in which they think and speak. We want to meet people where they are. Some people ‘feel’ Welsh, so if that happens then we will gladly welcome them and share the Gospel in Welsh.”
The church website is here.
The other thing about St Benet's is that this is where Thomas Adams was the minister before the Great Fire.

Our mortality

This recent story struck me as a reminder of our mortality. I came across it because the 16 year old victim shares the name of a past Puritan who I like to research. The report here says

The tragedy that took the life of a young baseball catcher from Garfield, N.J. on Friday may not have been preventable no matter what kind of protective gear he was wearing, doctors and sports equipment experts agreed Monday.

Thomas Adams probably succumbed to commotio cordis, a sudden, usually fatal condition that occurs when a blow to the chest wall at a specific point between beats disrupts the electrical activity in the heart, medical experts said. The heart stops beating and instead just shakes and quivers.

"We know it’s underreported because there is no mandatory reporting," said Dr Barry Maron, a commotio cardis expert with the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation, which keeps the registry. "We just don’t know how much." Read the full story at northjersey.com.

Thomas Adams on Psalm 71:18

I just posted this here. Worth taking note of - especially we older ones.

18 Forsake me not; until, etc Apostasy in old age is fearful. He that climbs almost to the top of a tower, then slipping back, hath the greater fall. The patient almost recovered, is more deadly sick by a relapse. There were stars struck from heaven by the dragon's tail (Re 12:4); they had better never have perched so high. The place where the Israelites fell into that great folly with the daughters of Moab, was in the plain, within the prospect of the Holy Land; they saw their inheritance and yet fell short of it. So wretched is it for old men to fall near to their very entry of heaven, as old Eli in his indulgence (1 Sam 2); old Judah in his incest (Gen 38); old David with Bathsheba; old Asa trusting in the physicians more than in God (2 Chr 16:12); and old Solomon built the high places. Some have walked like cherubs in the midst of the stones of fire, yet have been cast as profane out of God's mountain. Eze 28:14, 16. Thus the seaman passeth all the main, and suffers wreck in the haven. The corn often promises a plenteous harvest in the blade, and shrinks in the ear. You have seen trees loaden with blossoms, yet, in the season of expectation, no fruit. A comedy that holds well many scenes, and goes lamely off in the last act, finds no applause. Remember Lot's wife (Lu 17:32): think on that pillar of salt, that it may season thee.
As found in Spurgeon's Treasury of David

Blog of the week 1

As an inveterate blogger I thought that here on my main blog I might draw attention to the 10 others, starting with the Thomas Adams one here.

A Calvinist lived name of Adams

He preached against all of the bad'uns.

With puns and with quips

That fell from his lips

He fed both the sheep and the lambs.

It draws attention to doctrinal puritan Thomas Adams (1583-1652) described by Robert Southey as "the prose Shakespeare of Puritan theologians". I first came across Adams when I was given a three volume set of his works as a birthday present. I then wrote an essay on him for Dr William Barker. I started the website a year ago and it now contains some 110 posts. It has officially had 2,260 visits (an average of 14 a day) and 3,869 page views (an average of 27 a day). No-one stays for very long.
Special feature - some lute music by John Dowland that you can play as you browse.
Quote: Ahab cast a covetous eye at Naboth's vineyard, David a lustful eye at Bathsheba. The eye is the pulse of the soul; as physicians judge of the heart by the pulse, so we by the eye; a rolling eye, a roving heart. The good eye keeps minute time, and strikes when it should; the lustful, crochet-time, and so puts all out of tune.

Thomas Adams Link

I don't often add to my Thomas Adams blog these days but I just ran across this quotation in Spurgeon's Treasury of David where he deals with Psalm 80:4 ("O Lord God of Hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people?" ) and added it here as well as here.
There may be infirmities enough in our very prayers to make them unacceptable. As if they be Exanimes, without life and soul; when the heart knows not what the tongue utters.
Or Perfunctoriae, for God will have none of those prayers that come out of feigned lips.
Or Tentativae, for they that will petere tentando, tempt God in prayer, shall go without.
Or Fluctuantes, of a wild and wandering discourse, ranging up and down, which the Apostle calls "beating the air, "as huntsmen beat the bushes, and as Saul sought his father's asses. Such prayers will not stumble upon the kingdom of heaven.
Or if they be Preproperae, run over in haste, as some use to chop up their prayers, and think long till they have done. But they that pray in such haste shall be heard at leisure.
Or sine fiducia; the faithless man had as good hold his peace as pray; he may babble, but prays not; he prays ineffectually, and receives not. He may lift up his hands, but he does not lift up his heart. Only the prayer of the righteous availeth, and only the believer is righteous. But the formal devotion of a faithless man is not worth the crust of bread which he asks.
Or sine humilitate, so the Pharisee's prayer was not truly supplicatio, but superlatio. A presumptuous prayer profanes the name of God instead of adoring it. All, or any, of these defects may mar the success of our prayers.

Thomas Adams New Blog

I've just opened up a new blog on the doctrinal Puritan Thomas Adams. A fascinating preacher, he is eminently quotable. See here