Forgotten Reformer, Myles Coverdale, by Geoffrey F Main, published by the author, paperback, 236 pages, £9.99 from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom.
Geoffrey Main is a retired history teacher and a member of a Gospel Standard Strict Baptist church. The title of this book, Forgotten Reformer, is regrettably appropriate. Myles Coverdale (1488-1568) was an English Reformer, a Bishop briefly under Edward VI and a significant Bible translator. Whilst his life has been summarised in encyclopaedia and biographical dictionary articles, he has not been the subject of a full-scale biography since 1838, when J J Lowndes’s Memorials of Myles Coverdale sometime Bishop of Exeter was published.2
Following the introduction, the first two chapters of the book provide an overview of England prior to the Reformation, and its beginnings in Cambridge, Oxford and London. The narrative then focuses on Coverdale, who was born in Yorkshire, probably at York. He was ordained a priest in 1514 and entered the house of the Augustinian friars at Cambridge, of which Robert Barnes became the Prior in 1520. Barnes’ thinking progressed from the humanist views of Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam towards the full Lutheran insight into faith in Christ, to which the Prior had been brought in 1525 by the witness of Thomas Bilney. Barnes was Coverdale’s mentor, and his beliefs progressed along with those of the future martyr.
In 1528, having preached against the mass, image worship and auricular confession, Coverdale was forced to leave the country for his own safety. This was his first exile; he joined William Tyndale at Hamburg and helped him to retranslate the Pentateuch, since Tyndale’s original version had perished through a shipwreck in 1529. While at Antwerp in 1535, Coverdale had the distinction of bringing out the first complete English Bible, the fruit of a year’s work, based upon a collation of Tyndale’s Pentateuch and New Testament, the Vulgate, Pagninus’ Latin Old Testament, Luther’s German Bible and the work of the Zurich translators. Coverdale knew both Latin and German well, but not Greek or Hebrew; hence he could only compare the versions he was using and usually followed the majority opinion when they disagreed with each other. However, his smooth, clear English gave distinction to his rendering.
In 1535 Coverdale returned to England where, two years later, on the instruction of his patron, Thomas Cromwell, who at that time was the chief minister to Henry VIII, he revised what was known as Matthew’s Bible. This revision became the “Great Bible” of 1539, which was ordered to be installed in all parish churches. In 1540, the year after the reactionary Six Articles Act3 was passed, to which Henry VIII required conformity, Coverdale was exiled for the second time. On the continent he was able to settle down in 1543 as pastor at Bergzabern, a township 40 miles north of Strasbourg, where he became acquainted with Martin Bucer. When Henry VIII died, Coverdale came back to England, and after the suppression of the rebellion of Devon and Cornwall against Cranmer’s English Prayer Book of 1549, he distinguished himself by preaching and teaching Reformation doctrine throughout these counties. His work was recognised by his appointment as Bishop of Exeter in 1551.
In 1554, the year following Mary’s accession, he was allowed to leave the country, because of the intervention of the King of Denmark (to one of whose chaplains Coverdale was related by marriage); otherwise he would almost certainly have been martyred. This led to his third exile, in which he travelled widely, spending some time in his old pastorate at Bergzabern and then going on to Calvin’s Geneva, where he assisted in the making of the Geneva Bible. He returned to England in 1559 and took part in the consecration of Matthew Parker as Archbishop of Canterbury, wearing a black Geneva gown. He declined the offer of his former position as Bishop of Exeter, because of unhappiness with the Elizabethan settlement. Coverdale was an early Puritan and objected along with Elizabethan Puritans to the surplice and the other ceremonies that the settlement entailed.
In 1563 he became incumbent of St Magnus, London Bridge, but resigned in 1566, the year in which Parker sought to enforce conformity. Coverdale died on 20 January 1569, and two days later was buried in the chancel of St Bartholomew by the Exchange, in London, under the communion table. The marble stone and brass inscription were destroyed in the great fire of 1666.
In addition to his Bibles, Coverdale translated several works of continental theologians, including John Calvin’s Treatise on the Lord’s Supper, Henry Bullinger’s The Old Faith, Luther’s Exposition of Psalm 23. He also issued in 1564 an important volume of letters of the Marian martyrs – Godly Letters of the Martyrs. The author includes as an appendix a list of Coverdale’s most important literary works.
We are indebted to Geoffrey Main for this biography of Coverdale and setting his life in the context of the first 40 years of the English Reformation. After perusal of the book, Myles Coverdale will no longer be for the reader a “forgotten reformer” but will take his place among the worthies of the English Reformation. We warmly recommend this book to our readers.
Roy Middleton
The Pastor, His Call, Character, and Work, published by the Banner of Truth Trust, hardback, 255 pages, £12.50 available from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom.
This book “consists of nine addresses by the faculty and friends of old Princeton”, which were delivered, mostly to students, around 200 years ago. These addresses are followed by brief biographical sketches of those who delivered them. As explained in a very helpful introduction by Sinclair Ferguson, “the chapters here republished have been drawn from two much larger volumes” (edited by Dr James Garretson), Princeton and the Work of the Christian Ministry. Dr Ferguson continues, “A sample of the Princeton view of the ministry is contained in this little volume. Taken together, its chapters form a small instruction manual on the key elements in the work of a minister of the gospel in any age and place. They underline both the high privilege of the calling and the deep consecration of life to which it summons those who receive it. No one should be able to put this book down without being left with a profound sense of the dignity of the ministry, or without feeling, ‘Who is sufficient for these things?’ and, ‘Our sufficiency is of God’.”
The first of the addresses is by William Plumer and is entitled, “The Scripture Doctrine of a Call to the Ministry”. After some comments on the spirit with which the subject ought to be studied, Plumer proceeds, on the basis of the Lord’s calling of His disciples in Matthew 4:18-22, to speak of the evidence and importance of such a call.
The second address, by J W Alexander, is on “The Lord Jesus Christ the Example of the Minister”. He speaks here on such points as the manner and spirit of Christ’s ministry, referring among other things, to the love, candour, humility and wisdom of the Saviour.
The third address, the first of three by Archibald Alexander, deals with, “The Importance of Aiming at Eminent Piety”. Alexander presents six points. (1) “Without some degree of eminence in our piety, it is scarcely possible that we should possess satisfactory evidence of its reality.” (2) Eminent piety is necessary for the minister, “to prepare him for the faithful, diligent, and successful discharge of the duties of his office”. (3) “Eminent piety will make you mighty in prayer, and this will give success to all your other labours.” (4) “The example and daily walk of a pastor is of the utmost importance to his usefulness among his people.” (5) “Without [earnest piety] no man can be qualified to solve cases of conscience and to direct the perplexed and troubled spirit in the way of peace.” (6) Finally, “uniform and exalted piety is the only thing which can render your work delightful”.
The fourth address, “The Character Traits of a Gospel Minister”, was given by Charles Hodge. In this Address he lists five characteristics: (1) “a sacred regard for the truth of God”, (2) “a sacred regard for all moral obligations”, (3) “activity in doing good”, (4) “unusual mental discipline and furniture [that is, preparation]”, and (5) “a spirit of elevated piety, as a requisite for the ministry, which the circumstances of the times render particularly important”.
The fifth Address, and second by Archibald Alexander, is entitled, “The Pastoral Office”. This was in fact a sermon on the words of John 21:16, “Feed my sheep”, which was preached at Philadelphia, “before the Association of the Alumni of the Theological Seminary at Princeton on . . . May 21, 1834,” and is, as we would expect, an excellent exposition of the subject.
The sixth address entitled, “Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth”, is also by Archibald Alexander, and again was a sermon, based on 2 Timothy 2:15, “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth”. Alexander here deals with such points as: “The truths of God’s Word must be carefully distinguished from error . . . philosophy and mere human writings and speculation”; it must be arranged “in such order as [to] be most easily and effectually understood”; there must be a clear distinction “between the law and the gospel; between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace”.
Address seven, entitled, “Holding Fast the Faithful Word”, again is a sermon, by Samuel Miller, on Titus 1:9. Miller centres his thoughts around the need for sound doctrine and he makes two enquiries, (1) “Why we ought to maintain sound doctrine”, and (2) “In what manner, and by what means, this duty ought to be fulfilled”. He concludes with some practical inferences.
The eighth address is by Ashbel Green and is entitled, “Christ Crucified the Characteristic of Apostolic Preaching”. This again was a sermon, preached in 1825 on 1 Corinthians 1:23, “But we preach Christ crucified”. In this most instructive sermon, Green asks two questions: (1) “What was that system of preaching which the apostle declared that he had adopted, to the exclusion of every other?” and (2) “What were the reasons which determined the apostle to adopt, and inflexibly to adhere to, the system of public teaching, which has been explained – to the preaching of Christ crucified?”
The ninth and final address, “The Ministry we need”, was by Nicholas Murray and was given at the “Inauguration of the Rev Alexander T McGill DD as Professor of Pastoral Theology, Church Government, and the Composition and Delivery of Sermons in the Theological Seminary at Princeton”. In this address, Murray asks, “What are the characteristics of an able minister of the New Testament?” and he lists among these: (1) “Decided piety”, (2) “Due qualification for the work”, (3) “The full presentation of its great doctrines”, and (4) He “must be impressive”.
Two further samples from these very rich addresses might be given. The first is from the fifth address, by Archibald Alexander. In speaking of supreme love to Christ being the most important qualification of a pastor of Christ’s flock and of the necessity of maintaining this love, Alexander says, “This is the hallowed fire which should be kept bright and burning continually. All other warmth is no better than ‘strange fire’. Nothing but the love of Christ can make a truly faithful pastor or evangelist assiduous in all his services, and indefatigable in the most private and self-denying duties of his office. Other motives may lead a man to great diligence in preparing for his labours in the pulpit, where splendid eloquence wins as much applause as anything else. Other motives also may stimulate a minister to great public exertion, and give him all the appearance of fervent zeal and devotedness to God in the eyes of men; but if supreme love to Christ be wanting, he is, after all, nothing; or, at best, a mere ‘sounding brass or tinkling cymbal’. Genius, learning, eloquence, zeal, public exertion, and great sacrifices, even if it should be of all our goods, and of our lives themselves, will be accounted of no value, in the eyes of the Lord, if love to Christ be wanting.” Alexander goes on: “The church is now using laudable exertions to increase the number of ministers; but we may multiply preachers; we may educate them well, and they may be acceptable to the people; but, alas! if they love not the Lord Jesus Christ, Zion will not be built up. The great harvest will not be gathered” (pp 93,94).
The second sample is from the ninth and final address; “The Ministry we Need”, by Nicholas Murray. On his third point, “to be an able minister of the New Testament requires a full presentation of its great doctrines”, Murray says, “It is by the preaching of the gospel that God ordained to save men. Everything else, as far as saving men is concerned, is but giving scorpions for eggs, and serpents for fish. The grand object of the Saviour during His incarnation, was to prove that He was the promised Messiah by the miracles which He wrought and by showing that in Himself all the lines of history and prophecy met and blended. His life He closed upon the cross agreeably to the Scriptures; being made a sin offering for His people that they might be made the righteousness of God in Him. “And with the cup of sorrow in His hand, and with the agonies of Gethsemane and Calvary in full view, He uttered this memorable sentiment, ‘And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me’. This refers, primarily, to His crucifixion, but in a secondary and important sense to the preaching of the doctrines of the cross. And, hence, after the resurrection had completed the circle of testimony to His Messiahship, and the Spirit had been granted, the work of the apostles was to preach a crucified Christ as God’s great remedy for the moral diseases of man. This was the theme of Peter amid the gatherings at the feast of Pentecost – and of Paul amid all the cities of the Gentiles. Their grand theme was ‘repentance toward God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ’. And, hence, their ministry was mighty, through God, to the pulling down of strongholds. And such is the course which must be pursued by all their successors in office who desire to approve themselves as able ministers of the New Testament” (pp 218-9).
This excellent book, as its title suggests, is especially for pastors. The reviewer is in no doubt but that it would be to the good of all such – not least those preparing for or beginning the work of the holy ministry – to be carefully and prayerfully giving heed to those addresses given many years ago but as relevant now as then.
(Rev) W A Weale
The righteousness of Christ justifies no one until it is set down to his account, and it is appropriated to none but by faith.
Archibald Alexander
Sermons on Jeremiah’s Lamentations, David Dickson, edited by Chris Coldwell, published by Naphtali Press and Reformation Heritage Books, hard-back, 317 pages, £39.99 from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom.
The eminent Scottish divine, David Dickson (c1583-1662), experienced both persecution and great blessing in his ministry in Irvine in Ayrshire in the 1620s. Any gleanings from his pulpit work are therefore to be greatly prized. This is all the more so when a series of his sermons has been published for the first time ever, nearly 400 years after they were initially preached and taken down in manuscript by one of Dickson’s hearers in 1628. This edition of these sermons on the Book of Lamentations is a work of meticulous scholarship which has obviously involved a great deal of painstaking effort to produce. An added bonus is the highly informative Introduction by Matthew Vogan which sets the preacher and his sermons in their proper context.
The fact that this work is being published at this juncture in providence is certainly worthy of note but the most impressive feature of all is the solemn content of the material itself. Dickson was greatly apprehensive of imminent dangers to the cause of the Reformation, and the parallels with the low state of the cause of Christ in our own day are striking. Like the earlier Reformers, we see that Dickson and other seventeenth-century Presbyterian divines were outward-looking and international in their ecclesiastical concerns. The parlous state of the Protestant cause in Europe during the early stages of the Thirty Years War (1618-48) form the historical background to these discourses. Many of the points of application that Dickson brings out are very pointedly addressed to the Lord’s dealings in providence with Church and state. Dickson found in Jeremiah’s Lamentations a book which echoed his own anguish over the condition of the Church both at home and abroad. “How many”, he asks, “are moved with the desolation of the church in Germany and Bohemia and the Palatina?” . . . So now when the other end of Christ’s Kirk is burnt and a little part of it standing, yet we neither mourn for it nor are afraid” (p 47). Throughout these sermons, Dickson succeeds in applying Jeremiah’s message to the needs of his own hearers. There is much reproof and solemn warning here and much that we might profitably lay to heart for ourselves. In reference to Lamentations 2:6, “And He hath violently taken away His tabernacle”, Dickson says, “If we do not make use of our solemn meetings, frequent preaching and communions, they shall go out of remembrance. The public ensigns [banners] whereby we should follow our Lord shall cease to be displayed” (p 47). Commenting on the following verse, he says, “The casting down of the altar shows that the Lord will rather abolish religion than suffer it to be abused” (p 125). Again, on verse 8 of that chapter, he exhorts his flock to “make use of the Word and preachers of it. Then shall the Lord care for you. If you will not, He shall remove it and give it to them that will make better use of it, and let your preachers be silent” (p 128). How these words should make us consider our ways in the light of the Lord’s dealings with us all, over the past year and a half.
One point to bear in mind, however, is that the scope of the material remains tightly focused throughout. Dickson does not extend the discussion further than what is immediately derived from the plain historical context of the passage, which reminds us of the approach we find in the sermons of John Calvin. In comparison with the sermons of some of the later Scottish divines we might desire some more reference both to the Person and work of Christ and to the work of conversion. Dickson does not greatly emphasise these subjects in these addresses. However, in minute and searching application of Jeremiah’s words, Dickson sticks closely to the theme of the book he is expounding.
The publishers are to be commended for bringing this rare and relevant work to the attention of modern readers and it would be good if it had a wide circulation. It would be even better still if its contents were blessed to further the work of repentance and reformation in our hearts and within the Church, as Dickson desired for the people of his own generation. (Rev) A W MacColl
1The volumes reviewed here are available from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom.
2Coverdale’s work as a Bible translator is dealt with in J F Mozley, Coverdale and His Bibles, London, 1953, but as Main points out, only the first chapter is biographical. Coverdale’s Works contain just a 17-page account of his life (The Remains of Myles Coverdale, Parker Society, 1844-46, vol 2, pp vii-xxiii). Probably the most comprehensive article on Coverdale’s life is that by David Daniell in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; another shorter one is by James I Packer in Philip Hughes (ed), The Encyclopedia of Christianity, National Foundation for Christian Education, 1972, vol 3, pp 229-230.
3Among other things the articles required belief in transubstantiation, the celibacy of the priesthood and confession to a priest.
4The “Palatina” was one of the regions of Germany.