A Sermon by Hugh Martin
Isaiah 9:3. They joy before Thee according to the joy in harvest.
- But now, tracing out yet further the fulness of this idea of harvest, we also find the grand principle of life in death – life reached and reproduced through death. This is the very core of what is implied in harvest. “That which thou sowest is not quickened except it die; but if it die,” it is quickened; “it bringeth forth much fruit.”
The seed corn cast into the ground undergoes a process of disorganisation and decomposition. Its outer body, or shell, really dies; it becomes assimilated to the soil and lost in it; “dust to dust, and ashes to ashes”. But an inner and central germ of vital power is thus set free, which, bursting the rapidly-disorganising outer layers and setting them aside, sprouts into a new life – urging, securing its resurrection, and claiming our notice as “first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear”. Here is vitality in the original grain more powerful than death; not only so, it turns death into its service – making death the occasion, the means and the minister of its own development.
Most completely is the analogy in this respect met in the person and work of Christ. And in the very nature of things, it never could have been met in the moral government of God and the spiritual world except in a redemption and a Redeemer – yes, a Divine Redeemer. In a sinless universe, the phenomenon of harvest in the natural world could have had no analogue, no parallel, in the moral world.
I have said that only in redemption and a Redeemer can the analogy of harvest be truly met; and, I add emphatically, a Divine Redeemer – God manifest in the flesh – dying as a substitute for sinners. Observe what it is that the analogy demands. It demands an inner life that shall prove more than a match for death; nay, that shall serve itself at death’s hands, that shall turn death into its help and servant and make death the very means of liberating it into full and free development and crowning it with glorious triumph. No creature can do this; no creature has such an inner and invincible vitality. For that vitality is invincible which passes unhurt, not through danger and disease, but through very death itself; indeed it outlives death and breaks forth into its grandest triumph in the valley and shadow of death. That surely is life invincible. And invincibility is no quality of the creature. The “Child born”, the “Son given”, must in very truth be “Wonderful” if He can put this into effect. He must be “the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father”.
1Taken with editing from The Family Treasury for 1866. Two of the six main points appeared in last month’s section: Harvest presupposes (1) surrender (2) surrender unto death.
A Divine Person, He is Life itself – the very fullness, the fountain, of life. A Divine Person in human nature, He is not only the Life; He is capable of death. As a Divine Person, He answers to that element of the analogy in which the seed corn is seen to have a secret life capable of prevailing over death itself. As a Divine Person in human nature in the room of sinners, He meets the analogy also in respect of the seed corn falling into the ground and dying. That death which would have engulfed in everlasting ruin the sinner suffering in his own person, Christ, in His Divine Person taking the sinner’s nature and place and condemnation, can suffer and conquer and set aside.
And the Fountain of life, which death hitherto had sealed against us, bursts forth for us, liberated for us by death itself, triumphing not only in death and over death, but, most marvellously, by death. And the life that could not come to us direct from the throne of heaven has come through an earthly grave. Heaven could not be – what the grave has become – the birthplace of life for sinful men. For “except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone”; and “that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die”.
This principle of “life in death” – life by death – re-appears in you who are members of Christ. You are baptized into His death. You are engrafted into Christ, expressly and especially, as a dying Christ. You take hold on His death by faith, and make it your own. This is the very value of the cross to you. It becomes full of meaning and full of worth exactly when you see and believe this: that when conscience and the law are denouncing death to you, the cross is that very death – death complete, death harmless to you. You embrace death when you embrace the cross.
It is no less the very death the law was denouncing because it is Christ’s death. On the contrary, it is for that reason exactly the death which the law was denouncing – no, which it has exacted and received. But it is the death of Him who is the Fountain of life. Receiving it, being baptized into it, buried with Christ, you are so buried with Him that, like as He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so you also now walk in newness of life. Being planted with Him in the likeness of His death, you are also in the likeness of His resurrection. In union with Him you partake of His death, which the law exacts and inflicts for sin. But receiving death in virtue of union with Him who is the way and the truth and the life, you receive life also, everlasting life.
Everlasting life has thus reached you through death: first, Christ’s death for you, and then your death in Him. Not only does Christ die for you; you die in Him. You see Christ dying on the cross, offering Himself to God a sacrifice in death. As between you and Christ and God, you see no reason for this, no justification of this, no possible fruit of this, unless the cursed death of the cross shall be held as suffered for your sin and unto your salvation.
To furnish a reason, therefore, and justification and fruit of this wondrous death of Calvary – the highest, grandest loyal duty man or angel can discharge – you conjoin yourself, by faith, with Christ in His death. You offer yourself up to God in and with Him on the cross. You render up the old life to be extinguished. You thus judge, that if One died for you, then you also died, that you, now living, may not live unto yourself, but unto Him that died for you and that rose again. Thus you are crucified with Christ; nevertheless you live. You are part, in fact, of Christ’s harvest. It is the life of Christ reproduced in you. Christ does not now “abide alone”. He has you with Him. “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”
The Christian life is life in death; and the death is helpful to the life, on the harvest principle: “If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live”. This also is the quickening power of sanctified affliction. It is just so much death, liberating so much more life; procuring and conveying great scope for the unhampered development of life. It is “bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal body. For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, the inward man is renewed day by day.” Our outward man is the shell of the seed corn; and it must be disorganised, that the secret germ of life may burst in to its plenitude and power and triumph.
- In the idea of harvest, there is not only the thought of life through death, but of abundance of life. “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” The life produced by the dying of the seed corn is not merely sufficient to compensate for the death which has taken place, but exceedingly abundant above that. The result is not another seed corn as a substitute, replacing what had been surrendered, but a manifold return – in some thirty, in some sixty, in some an hundredfold. Thus harvest is enriching. The surrender that is required to procure a harvest is the source of riches.
Economists, in fact, tell us that agriculture is the only real source of wealth. The literary, scientific and professional men of a community may ornament and dignify a nation; the talented and energetic men of commerce may redistribute and circulate, to the advantage of the greatest number, the materials of necessity, convenience and luxury; but it is the cultivators of the soil alone who, positively and immediately, increase the country’s wealth. The total increase of the world’s wealth in any year is the sum of its harvests – nature itself teaching that, under this world’s constitution, surrender unto death is the condition of plenteousness and abundance of life.
Need I say that this is very gloriously illustrated in the Person and work
of Christ? His death is the source of life. Himself the firstfruits and first-begotten from the dead, He is, by His death, the cause of life to a people whom no man can number. It was concerning Himself that He said, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit”. And when He said this, the harvest field His eye really rested on was the countless myriads of His people in Gentile days and Gentile lands, as it is written also in Psalm 72: “There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth. . . . Men shall be blessed in Him: all nations shall call Him blessed.”
The same thing is exemplified in the Christian as in Christ: the life which the believer has through death is an abundant life – plenteous, overflowing, eternal life. “I am come,” says Jesus, “that ye might have life, and that ye might have it more abundantly.” “They that receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life.” They shall have a royalty, a kinglyness of life. “He that hateth his life” – surrendering it, as we have seen, on the principle and on the faith of harvest – shall not only keep it, but “shall keep it unto life eternal”. That which he receives is abundant and plenteous compared with that which he surrendered. He surrendered a life unto self; he receives a life unto God. He lives henceforth not unto himself, but unto God. And greater as God is than self, so much greater is the amount of real life he receives than he surrendered. For before the surrender the seed corn was “alone”; now it has brought forth “much fruit”.
This is exemplified also in the Christian’s good works. Each of them is a seed corn cast into the ground, but it does not re-appear “alone”. Let it simply be surrendered unselfishly and unreservedly; let all personal interest of your own in it be abjured, for only then does the principle hold good – the work is really good only when it is disinterested. But following the analogy of the seed corn put away, abandoned, given up, it will in due time re-appear in the harvest in a plenteous return. Yes, the Saviour has declared that no man can act thus for His sake without receiving “an hundredfold now in this time . . . with persecutions” – this is one form of the dying of the seed – “and in the world to come eternal life”. There is a vitality in every good work, every work of faith, which absolutely nothing can extinguish. No opposition can crush or quench it. The world’s utmost hostility, when it comes nearest to killing a Christian’s good work, is only hastening its fertile harvest – only disimprisoning the life that is in it and making it reproduce itself more rapidly. And when reproduced, it is far more abundant: handfuls of corn, bosomfuls of sheaves.
- In analysing the idea of harvest we find, still further, the element of beauty.
It is also beautiful life. There is not only more life than was surrendered, but it is much more lovely also; no imagination could have anticipated the result. The pen of inspiration speaks of it thus: “That which thou soweth, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain; it may chance of wheat, or some other gain”. There is no beauty in the bare naked grain, the seed corn – a rough husk, with no pretension whatever to fine form or colouring or delicacy. There is no violation of good taste in casting it out among the clods of the valley.
But mark the exquisite delicacy of the fresh and tender little blade. Mark the stately, graceful form of the full-grown stalk in earing time. Mark the queenly dignity with which it bows its head with autumn’s rich tiara of the full-grown corn in the ear. This you have now, replacing what Paul calls the “bare grain”. And he accounts for this change: “Thou sowest . . . bare grain . . . but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him”. Yes, “as it hath pleased Him”. He consults His own “pleasure”, His own good taste – to speak with deepest reverence, for good taste, like all that is good, is of God. He consults His own sovereign sense of what is fit, becoming, beautiful; and so it comes to pass that every seed acquires a body that “pleases” God. I might apply this again to Christ, to the Christian, and to Christian good works.
To Christ, dying and living through death as the root of David, the root of all the Israel of God; to Him God gives a body as it pleases Him – the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. That Church, that body, is called Zion; and Zion is called “the perfection of beauty”. “Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God,” O body of Christ. Thou art Beulah; thou art Hephzibah; thou art a crown of glory; thou art a royal diadem; thou art adorned as a bride for her husband; “thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah; comely as Jerusalem” – and Jerusalem is beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth.
Beauty appears also in the individual Christian. The Lord beautifies His people with salvation. The life that springs up from the surrender of the old life is beautiful. It is the image of God. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” All these are beautiful. They are the beauteous life that, in regeneration, is developed from communion with Christ crucified.
There is a beauty also in the good works of the believer. Each of them is as a seed corn from which manifold return accrues; and the harvest here too is beautiful as well as abundant. Shining in the beauty of holiness, which is the beauty of the Lord, it is so beautiful that believers will not know their own good works again but will be ready to deny them, saying, “Lord, when saw we Thee an hungered and fed Thee?”
- In a harvest, there is not only the idea of beauty, but variety of life too – abundant diversification. Paul goes on to speak of this also, in a passage already quoted. He not only speaks of the great difference, in respect of beauty, between the bare grain you sow and the lovely plant that springs from it – “God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him” – but He brings into view the principle of diversification, which God illustrates and honours in this area of His works perhaps more than in any other: “God giveth it a body as it pleaseth Him, and to every seed his own body”.
God has a variety of forms – boundless variety in the compass of His grand creative idea – at the disposal of His great creative fiat. And He has given “to every seed his own body”. “All flesh is not the same flesh”, continues the Apostle, and then follows a detailed protest against the idea of tame repetition and insipid uniformity, every region of the universe being summoned to be witness against it. “There is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection.” So also is it in harvest, of which resurrection is but a single, special case. In harvest the whole autumnal plain of nature is not one field of wheat, or of any one grain. No, nor is that harvest in which the Church of God rejoices as in harvest joy.
See, rather, a garden tastefully laid out! See where botanical skill, the finest taste and the resources of many countries have contributed to produce some lovely specimen of nature’s wealth of flora. There is one glory of the rose, and another glory of the lily, and another glory of the daisy, and another glory of the violet. And one flower differs from another flower in glory. There is one glory of the oak, and another glory of the cedar, and another glory of the palm, and another glory of the cypress. And one tree differs from another tree in glory. So in the harvest of Christ’s death, of the Christian’s death in communion with Christ, and of the Christian’s good works. There is variety – diversity – in them all.
I shall not speak of the variety of beauty in Christ – the Rose of Sharon, the Lily of the valley, the good Olive tree, the Vine out of Egypt, its goodly branches like the cedars of Lebanon as it fills the land. Nor shall I speak of the diversities of gifts, of ministrations, of operations among believers, all wrought by that selfsame Spirit, who divides to everyone severally as He will.
I specify only the good works of believers. And I would put the case somewhat as Paul puts it: “Let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not”, for “he that soweth bountifully shall reap also
bountifully”, and he that soweth variously shall reap also variously – not bare grain again, but something unutterably more beautiful: with wonderful variety also, on which indeed beauty so much depends. For “to every seed” you sow, God gives its “own body”. Now all seed is not the same seed. For there is one kind of seed of prayers, and other seeds of silent tears, anxious cares and thoughtful devising for the good of others, another seed of liberality, another seed of almsgiving, another seed of kind teaching of the young, and countless others, of which we cannot now speak particularly.
Yes, there are good works which, because of God being their more immediate object, we might – culling some more of Paul’s vocabulary on the mysteries of harvest – call celestial: such as worship of God and meek submission and obedience to Him. And there are good works which, because of man being their object, may be called terrestrial – such as scrupulously-just transactions, carefully-kind courtesy, generous forgiveness, charitable construction and all mutual helpfulness, sympathy and love. “But the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.” To each of all these kinds of good works, and to every individual instance of them all – considered as a seed which you sow in faith – “God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him, and to every seed His own body”. Therefore when you reap, after God has given the increase, you will be gathering the produce of a variedly-lovely garden which the Lord has blessed: “I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day”. With what joy unspeakable and full of glory will the reaping be!
Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous; and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart. Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for all them that are upright in heart. In due time you shall reap them. Think of sheaves of light, bosomfuls of gladness – gladness and light more rich, beautiful, variegated. And, blessed rule, “they that sow in tears shall reap in joy: he that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him”. Verily, they joy before Thee then, according to the joy of harvest.
There are yet two other principles to be born in mind:
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There is the principle of identity in kind. There is increase, but it is increase in the same kind. He that sows tares shall not reap wheat. He that sows wind shall not reap sunshine. The increase shall be in kind: “they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind”. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that also shall he reap.”
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There is the principle of proportion. The return may be manifold; yet it is in proportion. “He that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he that soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.” “Therefore be ye
steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”
Benefiting from the Lord’s Supper1
3. What We Are to Do in the Lord’s Supper
Thomas Manton
See that you stir up faith. It is not enough to have it, but it must be exercised – ay, and in a vigorous manner: “When the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof” (Song 1:12). Here faith is to be exercised. It is to be a twofold faith, a faith that respects our whole duty, and one that more specially goes out to the person of Christ:
- A faith that respects our whole duty, and is nothing but an expectation of the blessings of God’s ordinances, or the comforts annexed to them by promise. And certainly they act merely by habit who do not look to the purpose of the service but, like a horse and mule, go on in a course of duties and observances without considering why: “What went ye out into the wilderness for to see?” (Mt 11:7). Man is to have an end in view in every serious business, but especially in the duties of worship, which are the most important actions of our lives. Now God has not only appointed the work but also the ends to be promoted by it. The work is commanded by God, and the ends and benefits are in the promise. The command is the reason for the duty, and the promise is our great encouragement.
Now, as you use this ordinance, you must consider that, because it was instituted by Christ, it has a blessing. When He instituted it, He did so with prayer; He prayed over it to bless it for our use, and therefore we must use it in faith, in the face of all discouragements; we must continue waiting when success is not visible at once, saying, It is God’s ordinance, and I will wait: “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength” (Is 40:31); and I will use God’s means: “Surely shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength” (Is 45:24). Christ will be master of His own mercies; He keeps the dispensing of grace in His own hands, and gives it out when He pleases, not at our command, as if it were a debt due to us. God is free, not bound to our time and to the measure we expect. It is good to be waiting on God’s way.
1A further section of the application of a sermon on Hebrews 11:28: “Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them”. It is taken, with editing, from By Faith, a volume of Manton’s sermons on Hebrews 11. Previous sections have dealt with preparation for the Lord’s Supper.
- A faith that goes out to the person of Christ. The duty was ordained by Christ, and it is well observed when it leads you to Christ. Here Christ makes a new offer of Himself: “Take, eat, this is My body”. Now certainly we are to take and accept an offered Saviour, with His benefits. Christ makes here an offer of Himself as our Lord and Saviour to bring us into favour with God, to wash us from our sins in His blood, to call us from deserved wrath to undeserved mercy and happiness, to dwell in us by His Spirit as a fountain of living waters, or of everlasting refreshing.
Accordingly we are to take and eat – to eat His flesh, and drink His blood, to receive of His fulness “and grace for grace” (Jn 1:16). We are to receive Him into our hearts, to trust in His merits, to rejoice in His love, to give ourselves up in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten: “Gather My saints together unto Me, those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice” (Ps 50:5). So you ought to sue out your pardon, to renew your charter of grace for the confirmation of your hopes. Look on the blood of Christ as the price of reconciliation; set open the doors of your hearts, that He may live in your heart and by His Spirit keep there up an everlasting day of refreshing.
Thomas Cartwright1
3. Return to England
Before he left Antwerp, Cartwright was asked to undertake a refutation of the writings of the English Jesuits and, in particular, a translation of the New Testament, produced by them at their English College, in the French city of Reims. This translation was accordingly known as the Rhemists’ Translation and became part of the Douay Bible. However, in 1586, Archbishop Whitgift ordered him not to proceed any further – the reason being a fear on the part of the ecclesiastical authorities that some of Cartwright’s arguments against the Roman Catholics would apply also to certain practices in the Church of England. It was not until 1618 that Cartwright’s work saw the light of day; it was published in Leiden under the title, A Confutation of the Rhemists’ Translation, Glosses and Annotations on the New Testament, so far as they contain manifest Impieties, Heresies, Idolatries, Superstitions, Profaneness, Treasons, Slanders, Absurdities, Falsehoods and other evils. By occasion whereof the true Sense, Scope and Doctrine of the Scriptures,
1In last month’s article we considered Cartwright’s contribution, from the Puritan side, to ecclesiastical controversy in England. This resulted in a warrant for his arrest and in his flight to the Continent, where he began to minister to the English merchants in Antwerp, and later in Middelburg, in the Netherlands.
and human Authors, by them abused, is now given. . . . By that Reverend, Learned, and Judicious Divine, Thomas Cartwright, some time Divinity Reader of Cambridge.
The Douay translation was based on the Latin Vulgate, to which Cartwright naturally opposed “the royal value of the original Greek”. One should not be surprised to find Cartwright declaring the Pope to be the Antichrist and describing the Council of Trent as a conspiracy of which “we make no account” (p 207).2 He argues against such doctrines as purgatory, Mariolatry, monasticism, confession to a priest, and the worship of saints; he spends considerable time refuting the doctrine of the mass and, on the other hand, expounds fully the doctrine of justification by faith alone. But his comment that the Lord had provided prophesying “for the more plentiful nourishment of the faithful in all times” (p 208) was exactly the sort of remark that neither the Queen nor the Archbishop would wish to see in print.
In writing his Confutation, while Cartwright was making an effort to avoid turning an anti-Roman polemic into a defence of Presbyterianism, he could not altogether avoid bringing in his own views on church order. Bishops, whom he identifies as pastors and elders, he sees as the highest officers in the Church, and he indicates his belief that the principal service of the pastor is to preach. He describes both kinds of elders, taken together, as a senate or an eldership. Yet here he includes under the general heading of deacons, not only “those that have the care of the poor and sick of the Church”, but also “the elders that govern only and teach not” (p 209).
In 1583 Cartwright’s opponent, John Whitgift, had been elevated to the see of Canterbury in place of Grindal, who had died. The Puritan movement was in danger of dividing into two parties, according to their views on how far they ought to go in conforming to the new regime, which, under Whitgift, was determined to impose uniformity within the Church at all costs. There was a feeling that the movement needed wise leadership, and Edmund Chapman took the initiative; he was minister of the parish of Dedham in Essex, a place famous for its Conference, which originally gathered for “prophesying”, (meetings for the exposition of Scripture) but was now developing into a presbytery, yet with only informal authority. Chapman wrote to Cartwright, the obvious leader, in late 1584, requesting a long letter of advice as to how best to procure peace. In any case, by that time, Cartwright was suffering from serious ill-health and was anxious to return to England.
Accordingly in early 1585 Cartwright applied to the Privy Council for permission to return. This permission was granted, but Cartwright seems to
2All references in brackets are to A F Scott Pearson, Thomas Cartwright and Elizabethan Puritanism 1535 to 1603, Cambridge, 1925.
have sailed back to his native land before he received it. Among his successors in Middelburg was John Forbes, the Aberdeenshire minister, who was Moderator of the General Assembly held in 1605 in Aberdeen, which James VI forbade to meet. In consequence of the meeting going ahead, to the extent that those present appointed the date of the next meeting, Forbes was banished from Scotland, along with John Welsh of Ayr.
Back in England, Cartwright followed up his petition to the Privy Council with a private appeal to Lord Burghley, the Lord High Treasurer, whom we previously met as William Cecil and who had since been ennobled. Cartwright knew that he was suspected of disloyalty and was in danger of arrest. On the basis of his five years’ service to the Church of England on the Continent, but especially because of his ill-health, he was appealing to Burghley to win the Queen’s favour for him. But already Bishop Aylmer of London had issued a warrant in the Queen’s name for his arrest; as a result Cartwright was committed to prison. However, some of Elizabeth’s courtiers, probably including Burghley, interceded on Cartwright’s behalf. Cartwright was set free and the Queen made Aylmer feel her displeasure for his action – though her displeasure was probably political rather than sincere.
At the end of 1583 Whitgift had made it known that, if Cartwright “would return and live in the peace of the Church, he would not find a better friend than myself” (p 231), although the Archbishop made it clear that he was not repenting of the stance he took when he wrote against Cartwright’s views. No more had Cartwright altered his mind on Church polity; he still longed for a day when the Church of England might become Presbyterian, but he felt a fundamental loyalty to that Church, a loyalty which may well have been strengthened through controversy with Brownists (English separatists) in Holland.
Cartwright seems to have accompanied the English armies on a military expedition in the Netherlands in 1585 under the Earl of Leicester. But he was back in his own country by early 1586 and soon afterwards was appointed Master of the Leicester Hospital, effectively a home for the infirm, which was established by the Earl of Leicester in Warwick. Cartwright’s duties included praying with the men in the Hospital twice each day and catechising them twice a week; he was granted this position for life and it was not subject to the authority of the bishops, which left him some freedom to conduct the worship according to his own views. The post also provided him with a comfortable salary although that was not to last, as Leicester died before he had finalised the legal arrangements.
It seems that Cartwright used to preach, particularly in his later days in Warwick, at 7 am each Sabbath in one of the churches and in another in the
afternoon, “when he could be suffered”. In this second church he also preached a lecture on Saturday afternoons, “in which”, says a sixteenth-century writer, “he went over a great part of the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes with singular judgement and profit; and this he did of his own free will without demanding or receiving one penny for his pains. And whereas he was sometimes suspended by the bishops from preaching in the churches, his manner was at those times to preach in the Hospital, whither many resorted to hear him, though they were sure to be brought into the Bishops’ courts for the same.” No wonder this writer commented that Cartwright “was a man of a very laborious and indefatigable spirit” (pp 299-300).
When Cartwright came to Warwick, the minister of the first of these churches was a Humphrey Waring, described as having “some knowledge, little discretion; he preacheth sometimes, but negligently; he is thought to be unsound in some points of Christian religion; loveth the alehouse well”. However his successor, Hercules Morrell, while described as no preacher, was “yet honest and zealous, and daily profiting and expounding to the people” (p 299). Clearly there was much need for the efforts of a man such as Cartwright, who had both the ability and the grace to preach effectively.
Meanwhile a Book of Discipline was being produced, no doubt influenced by the First and Second Books of Discipline in Scotland. The main moving force behind it was Walter Travers, though Cartwright probably had some input in the latter stages of its preparation and may have been responsible for translating it from Latin into English. However, the translation did not appear in print until 1644, when the Westminster Assembly was sitting. Yet by 1587 the Puritan movement was adopting some of the features of the Book of Discipline. The conferences were becoming known as classes (corresponding to our presbyteries). In Northamptonshire, for instance, there were three classes, which generally met in private houses every three weeks or so, and two representatives from each of the classes met in Northampton as a synod every six or eight weeks. There was also a Warwickshire Synod which met near the town of Warwick in 1588. Cartwright was one of those who subscribed to the Book of Discipline, but only in a limited way: only “as far forth as the same might stand with the peace of the Church now established in England and the laws of the land, and no otherwise or further” (p 262).
From 1586 onwards, Cartwright took a prominent place in the leadership of the Presbyterian movement. Richard Bancroft, who was eventually to become Archbishop of Canterbury, complained of how much attention was being paid to Cartwright: “If he be in prison, prayers are made for his deliverance; if he be delivered, great thanks are publicly given unto God for the same. . . . When great matters are to be handled, he must needs be . . . in
every place: country, Cambridge, London etc.” However, by 1590 the Presbyterian movement had almost collapsed. One factor was that, while the danger of a Spanish invasion had continued, the authorities were afraid to move too strongly against such strong Protestants, who provided a counterbalance against Roman influence. But after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, the Anglican hierarchy knew that they could safely move against them because Roman Catholics no longer posed a danger to the throne.
The House of Many Mansions1
J C Ryle
These three verses are rich in precious truth. For eighteen centuries they have been specially dear to Christ’s believing servants in every part of the world. Many are the sick rooms which they have lightened! Many are the dying hearts which they have cheered! Let us see what they contain.
We have, firstly, in this passage a precious remedy against an old disease. The disease is trouble of heart. The remedy is faith. Heart trouble is the commonest thing in the world. No rank or class or condition is exempt from it. No bars or bolts or locks can keep it out. Partly from inward causes and partly from outward, partly from the body and partly from the mind, partly from what we love and partly from what we fear, the journey of life is full of trouble. Even the best of Christians have many bitter cups to drink between grace and glory. Even the holiest saints find the world a vale of tears.
Faith in the Lord Jesus is the only sure medicine for troubled hearts. To believe more thoroughly, trust more entirely, rest more unreservedly, lay hold more firmly, lean back more completely – this is the prescription which the Master urges on the attention of all His disciples. No doubt the members of that little band which sat round the table at the last supper had believed already. They had proved the reality of their faith by giving up everything for Christ’s sake. Yet what does their Lord say to them here? Once more He presses on them the old lesson, the lesson with which they first began: Believe! Believe more! Believe on Me!
Never let us forget that there are degrees in faith, and that there is a wide difference between weak and strong believers. The weakest faith is enough to give a man a saving interest in Christ and ought not to be despised, but it will not give such inward comfort as strong faith. Vagueness and dimness of perception are the defect of weak believers. They do not see clearly what they believe and why they believe. In such cases, more faith is the one thing
1Comments, with editing, on John 14:1-3 from Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on John, vol 3.
needed. Like Peter on the water, they need to look more steadily at Jesus, and less at the waves and the wind. Is it not written, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee” (Is 26:3)?
We have, secondly, in this passage a very comforting account of heaven, the future abode of saints. It is but little that we understand about heaven while we are here in the body, and that little is generally taught us in the Bible by negatives much more than by positives. But here, at any rate, there are some plain things.
Heaven is “a Father’s house”, the house of that God of whom Jesus says, “I go to My Father, and your Father”. It is, in a word, home: the home of Christ and of Christians. This is a sweet and touching expression. Home, as we all know, is the place where we are generally loved for our own sakes and not for our gifts or possessions; it is the place where we are loved to the end, never forgotten and always welcome. This is one idea of heaven. Believers are in a strange land and at school in this life. In the life to come they will be at home.
Heaven is a place of “mansions” – of lasting, permanent and eternal dwellings. Here in the body we are in lodgings – tents and tabernacles – and must submit to many changes. In heaven we shall be settled at last and go out no more. “Here we have no continuing city” (Heb 13:14). Our house not made with hands shall never be taken down.
Heaven is a place of “many mansions”. There will be room for all believers and room for all sorts – for little saints as well as great ones, for the weakest believer as well as for the strongest. The feeblest child of God need not fear there will be no place for him. None will be shut out but impenitent sinners and obstinate unbelievers.
Heaven is a place where Christ Himself shall be present. He will not be content to dwell without His people: “Where I am, there ye may be also”. We need not think that they shall be alone and neglected. Their Saviour – their elder Brother, their Redeemer, who loved them and gave Himself for them – shall be in their midst for ever. What they shall see, and whom they shall see in heaven, they cannot fully conceive yet, while they are in the body. But one thing is certain: they shall see Christ.
Let these things sink down into our minds. To the worldly and careless they may seem nothing at all. To all who feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of God, they are full of unspeakable comfort. If we hope to be in heaven it is pleasant to know what heaven is like.
We have, lastly, in this passage solid ground for expecting good things to come. The evil heart of unbelief within God’s children is apt to rob them of their comfort about heaven. “We wish we could think it was all true.” “We
fear we shall never be admitted into heaven.” Let believers hear what Jesus says to encourage them.
One cheering word is this: “I go to prepare a place for you”. Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people: a place which they shall find Christ Himself has made ready for true Christians. He has prepared it by procuring a right, for every sinner who believes, to enter in. No one can stop them and say they have no business there. He has prepared it by going before them as their Head and Representative, and taking possession of it for all the members of His mystical body. As their Forerunner He has marched in, leading captivity captive, and has planted His banner in the land of glory. He has prepared it by carrying their names with Him as their High Priest into the holy of holies and making angels ready to receive them. They that enter heaven will find they are neither unknown nor unexpected.
Another cheering word is this: “I will come again and receive you unto Myself”. Christ will not wait for believers to come up to Him, but will come down to them, to raise them from their graves and escort them to their heavenly home. As Joseph came to meet Jacob, so will Jesus come to call His people together and guide them to their inheritance. The second advent ought never to be forgotten. Great is the blessedness of looking back to Christ coming the first time, to suffer for His people; but no less great is the comfort of looking forward to Christ coming the second time, to raise and reward His saints.
Let us leave the whole passage with solemnised feelings and serious self-examination. How much they miss who live in a dying world and yet know nothing of God as their Father and Christ as their Saviour! How much they possess who live by faith in the Son of God and believe in Him! With all their weaknesses and crosses, they have what the world can neither give nor take away. They have a true Friend while they live and a true home when they die.
Mbuma Zending Meeting 2012
The annual meeting of the Mbuma Zending was held as usual on April 30, and the venue this year was the spacious Brabantallen in the town of ‘s-Hertogenbosch. This date is always chosen as it coincides with the public holiday observed annually in Holland in celebration of the Queen’s birthday. When presumably most people would be disposed to spend the day in pursuit of worldly, secular activities, it is remarkable that at least 4000 souls made their way to this location where the focus was on matters relating to the cause of Christ and, in particular, our mission work in Africa.
The Word of God was read, addresses were given by several ministers,
the audience listening to each in turn with what appeared to be rapt attention. Children and young people were not forgotten, Mr den Breejen reading to them an account of some Christians who endured persecution in days gone by – such as let their light so shine before men that they, in suffering, glorified their Father which is in heaven. The Psalm-singing was impressive and made one pine for the arrival of the day when congregations of this magnitude shall be a common sight worldwide and “all lands to God with joyful sound” shall “aloft their voices raise”.
Ds Tj de Jong opened the proceedings, speaking first in Dutch and then in English. He gave a concise account of the work being done on the Mission field and feelingly referred to the loss sustained as a result of the removal by death of Rev Zororai Mazvabo. He then cordially welcomed the writer and invited him to speak.
After thanking the Mbuma Zending Board for inviting him to be present and for giving him the opportunity to speak, he referred to the shared desire to see souls converted and the need for the gospel to be preached to sinners in its purity. Even if we do have our portion allotted to us in dark days, we were not to lose sight of the facts that Christ was seeing of the travail of His soul, that His purpose would surely be fulfilled, and that the whole earth would yet be filled with the knowledge His glory.
The writer also referred to the historical link between Scotland and Holland. It was there, in days gone by, that Scottish ministers, hunted and persecuted in their native land, found refuge and some were even ordained to the ministry. Among such were the martyrs, Richard Cameron and James Renwick, the last named being the last to suffer in Scotland prior to the Glorious Revolution of 1688. The extent to which the Mbuma Zending supported the work in Africa was referred to and the gratitude of the Foreign Missions Committee and of the whole of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland was expressed. The prayers of those present were sought.
It was good to be among the like-minded friends in Holland again. Some of those who sat on the platform we were meeting for the first time, while others we could greet as old friends with familiar faces. The atmosphere throughout the day was what we might expect to find prevailing in a Christian assembly. During the interval, it was good to meet on the floor of the hall, among others, Mrs Nel van Vliet, Mr and Mrs Slabberkoorn, Mr and Mrs Beukers, the parents of Petra, who served the Mission faithfully for many years as a nursing sister; also Leendert Boon and Mr and Mrs Paul Backhurst from Nijmegen.
It so happened that the meeting was held this year on a Monday; so it was necessary to travel to Holland on the previous Saturday. Over the weekend
I stayed under the hospitable roof of Mr and Mrs van Haaften in the village of Odijk, near Utrecht, and to them I anew express my gratitude for having so kindly entertained me. On Monday they conveyed me to the meeting at ‘s-Hertogenbosch and afterwards took me to the Amsterdam Airport for my flight home.
That so many attended the meeting indicates that support for our African mission work remains strong; the sum of money raised on the day, amounting to €50 000 (c £40 000), bears that out. It is, however, recognised by all who are discerners of the times we live in that, however useful and vitally-necessary material resources are, only an outpouring of the Spirit of God will turn sinners in Africa and elsewhere “from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God”. For such an outpouring we are bound to pray.
(Rev) John MacLeod