J. I Packer is one of those writers
who is always a pleasure to read. Any writer must consider it pure gold to have him do
an introduction to their book. Also
Packer is at his best when he is talking up the Puritans. His
introduction to the Death of Death is a classic in its own right and was
essential reading when I was at college for the course The Person and Work of
Christ. So right from the start Puritan portraits promises much. It's a compilation of his introductions to Puritan works
with Christian Focus, they do however lose something as they belong with the
books assigned, this is certainly felt in the shorter introductions. Although this is the case the Puritan Portraits is still an excellent
read. The biggest loss is felt in the first section on Henry Scrougal. It may
whet your appetite for Scrougal’s book, The Life of God in the Soul of Man, but
it is as much about George Whitefield as Scrougal himself because of the
effects that Scrougal’s work had on Whitefield and then through him the great
awakening. I have read The Life of God
in the Soul of Man and loved it and this introduction stands well alongside it.
Yet it isn’t much of a portrait of Scrougal. I suspect this is in part that as
he died at such a young age these isn’t too much to say about it.
I wondered how I would react to those Puritans that I hadn't read, when I read Packers portrait of Stephen Charnock it gave me a desire to read Charnock for myself so I downloaded one of his works for my Kindle, so job done Dr Packer.
The Bunyan portrait is a good
introduction to Bunyan whose Pilgrims progress is one of the most successful
books of all time. Packer distils Grace Abounding to the Chief of sinners
effortlessly whilst interviewing comments from Pilgrims
Progress and the book he was introducing the Heavenly Footman.
Of Matthew Henry Packer begins with ‘This write up of asset of six
sermons was Matthew Henry’s final literary labour’ and could have been edited
as it is clearly introducing a work that isn’t included in Puritan Profiles. That said Packer offers us in this small
section Henry’s view of God, the Word and the Church and this written in such
beautiful prose that I am eager to read Henry afresh. Packer urges us to get into Henry to discover
that the Puritan reputation of being downcast is not true as Henry wants us to
a joy filled life whatever circumstance we find ourselves in. Henry wants us to
be devoted to God and to live our lives in the presence of God.
On the section on John Owen,
Packer is in his element he acknowledges the enormous debt he owes to his hero
Owen and he points us to why, we Packer rightly believes do not have the
attributes of attributes of God, that is the holiness of God that Owen and
Scripture have. We also don’t have the same view of our sinfulness and how to
deal with our sin. Something that Packer found lacking in his own early
Christian experience until he discovered Owen and found himself being
challenged and changed as Owen exposed Packer to the word of God.
Packer introduces us to John
Flavel whose work is heart-warming and
like many of the Puritans his work seeks to lead us into both understand how to
say yes to God not just with actions but with a heart that longs to say yes.
With regard to Thomas Boston,
Packer points out that this leading light of Scottish Reformed Theology was a
man concerned with soul winning. We, Packer points out think of the conversion
process as something that happens in an hour or two following a special meeting
where someone shares the gospel, gives an appeal and then sends them those on a
counsellor for follow up. Boston recognised in his own experience and that of
those around him that the new birth could be a process of months. Boston
believed in Evangelism, sharing the gospel through the preaching of the Word
both in a worship setting and in the home.
Boston believed that we should be
like our Lord in Fishing for souls, 1, faithfulness even at the risk of
upsetting people. 2, to seek to recover lost sheep. 3, prayerfulness, Jesus
prayed spending much time and energy in prayer so should we. 4,
Singlemindedness. 5, Seek opportunities
to move from earthly things to heavenly things.
Packer also walks us through
Boston as the shepherd of souls, not just evangelising but ministering to those
in need who have suffered. Packer reminds us that this is because this was
something that Boston knew from experience. In very saints life comes hard
times but these hard times are used of God for our good and are only for this
time. Some of those will remain for all of our days on earth whilst we go
through these times we must ask God to straighten the crook in our lives but
being patient and seeking hard for the lessons that God is seeking us to learn
during these times.
For Packer the reason to read the
Puritans is multifaceted but one of those reasons is because they are deep,
they desire you to be serious about who God is and how serious sin is not just
in general but your own sin. Packer acknowledges that the Puritans are hard
going but that is because what most Christian books are today is just froth. He
urges us to keep on with the Puritans, underline their headings and then go
back again and read them again, in doing this you’ll realise it wasn’t a waste
of time.
May the God of the Puritans be our God as we strive to live in light of His bountiful grace
Stephen
