The Glorious Feast of the Gospel, Christ’s Gracious Invitation and Royal Entertainment of Believers, by Richard Sibbes, published by the Banner of Truth Trust in their Puritan paperback series, 184 pages, £5.50.
Sibbes lived from 1577 to 1635 and was one of the better-known Puritan ministers in England. He had preaching responsibilities in Cambridge and London, as well as being the head of a college at Cambridge University, during a time when a primary responsibility of a university was to prepare men for the ministry.
C H Spurgeon is quoted in praise of Sibbes: “He scatters pearls and diamonds with both hands”. And the publishers state that “strong thoughts, simple sentences, the knowledge of the Bible and the human heart, and a sure pastoral touch, are here revealed in a sustained concentration on the glory and grace of God in Christ”.
The book contains nine sermons on Isaiah 25:6-9, a passage which begins by referring to “a feast of fat things” which “the Lord of hosts [shall] make unto all people”. In an introductory piece, “To the Reader”, three Puritan ministers who outlived Sibbes, tell those who take up this book that this is “an admirable feast indeed; wherein Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, is the bridegroom, where every believer . . . is not only a guest, but the spouse of Christ, and the bride at this wedding supper. Here Jesus Christ is the master of the feast, and the cheer and provision too.” They are describing the gospel feast, and Sibbes’ sermons reprinted in this book should be a feast for the spiritually-minded reader.
Sibbes points out that God uses earthly things, such as a feast, to be pictures of heavenly things, because “our apprehensions are so weak and narrow, that we cannot be acquainted with spiritual things, but by the inward working of the Spirit of the Almighty”. He explains that “this ‘mountain’”, in the text, “is the place where this feast is made, even ‘Mount Zion’; which is a type and figure of the Church, called in Scripture, ‘the holy mountain’. For as mountains are raised high above the earth, so the Church of God is raised in excellency and dignity above all the sorts of mankind.”
Again, Sibbes states, “Those that are invited to this glorious feast are ‘all people’. None excepted, none excluded, that will come to Christ! . . . Both Jews and Gentiles, all are invited, whosoever they are.” (Acts 10:15 is referenced here, but in common with other scriptures Sibbes has quoted, it is not in the words of the authorised version. He may have been quoting from memory or giving its general sense.) Sibbes says of “the good things in the world: the more one hath of them the less another must have, because they are . . . finite. . . . But in spiritual things all may have the whole . . . . It must be the Lord of hosts that can make such a feast as this is, a feast for all people. No other is able to do it.”
Sibbes tells believers: “In a feast all things are of the best; so are the things we have in Christ. Whatsoever favours we have by Christ, they are choice ones. They are the best of everything. Pardon for sin is a pardon of pardons. The title we have for heaven, through Him, is a sure title. The joy we have by Him is the joy of all joys. The liberty and freedom from sin, which He purchased for us by His death, is perfect freedom. The riches of grace we have by Him are the only lasting and durable riches. Take anything that you can, if we have it by Christ, it is of the best.” He goes on to comment on the variety in this feast – a variety that answers all our needs – then he comments on the sufficiency of it. When he speaks of “the fullness of pleasures that are provided for the Christian”, he insists that “we cannot honour God more than, of His bounty, to receive thankfully what He freely offers”.
We may quote one more of these pearls and diamonds which Sibbes scatters with both his hands: “We cannot honour God more than, of His bounty, to receive thankfully what He freely offers. To taste plentifully in the covenant of grace, of these riches, and joy, and hope of things to come, glorious above all that we are able to think of; I say this is the way to honour God under the gospel of hope. Of all things that are infinite, the more we take, the more we may take, and the more we honour Him that giveth.”
It is to be hoped that this book will have many readers and that they will discover, either for the first time, or even after many years of discovering, how glorious the gospel feast is. The present publishers have, in footnotes, helpfully explained out-of-date words and expressions.
The Works of Thomas Manton (22-volume set), published by the Banner of Truth Trust, hardback, average of approx 500 pages per volume, £330.
Even a few pages of these excellent works are sufficient to incline the reader to agree with Archbishop Ussher’s assessment of Thomas Manton as “one of the best preachers in England”. The 22-volume set of Manton’s works was previously published in 1871, and the Banner of Truth have recently reprinted it. Each of the volumes consists of sermons preached throughout his ministry in the seventeenth century. Some of them are available individually or as part of smaller sets.
Manton must be one of the most accessible of all the Puritans, and his sentences tend to be short and concise. The matter is comparable to “the finest of the wheat”. Christ, and the necessity of saving faith in Him, is a key theme. The lack of true saving faith is shown to be at the root of all sin, and not least because the great “war and conflict in men’s hearts is carried on under these two captains, faith and sense”. Manton demonstrates how fallen man is allured by present pleasures which the natural senses can appreciate, while the unseen and future spiritual blessings of salvation can be comprehended by faith alone. The relation between faith and Christ is compared to that of the bucket to the well, so that our principal care should be to get faith, for “in some sense there is as great a necessity of faith as of Christ. What good would a deep well do us without a bucket? John 4:11, ‘The woman saith unto him, Sir, Thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep;’ so for us to have a deep well and fountain of salvation, when we have nothing to fetch water out of these wells of salvation, what will it stead [advantage] us?”
The author, however, is far from making a Saviour of faith itself, and the Divine Redeemer Himself is brought to the fore as the great personal object of saving faith. Of His voluntary humiliation as the sinner’s Substitute he says, “Our misery cannot hinder us from being glorified with God, since Christ’s glory did not hinder him from being abased with men”. In addition to being richly doctrinal, the volumes are in parts deeply searching and one cannot help but be struck with the intense piety which these men pressed upon their people, and how they were at great pains to separate the “precious from the vile”. Manton says, “We toil for matters of the world, and are never weary; rise up early, go to bed late, eat the bread of sorrow, and all for a little pelf [money]; we make nothing of the hardest labours to accomplish our worldly delights. But now, to pray, read, meditate, perform acts of worship to God, how difficult are these? And how soon do we cry out, What a weariness is it? A little time spent in duty is with a great deal of murmuring; doth not this bewray too much unbelief?”
Our people would do well to immerse themselves in these sorts of works when using up their limited reading time. (Rev) I D MacDonald
The Mystery of Providence, by John J Murray, published by Ettrick Press, paperback, 140 pages, £4.95.
The author describes providence as God “taking care of the future, or rather an ordering of things and events after a predetermined and intelligent plan. It presupposes wisdom to devise and power to execute”.
One is not surprised that Mr Murray paid attention to the subject of providence after experiencing hard providences in his own life. He gave four addresses in 2000 on this subject and each address is reproduced as a chapter in this book: (1) the wonder, (2) the working, (3) the beauty and (4) the design of providence. The reader is provided with a straightforward and scriptural discussion of the subject. We may note the subheadings in the second main part of the last chapter: “The design of providence in the life of the Christian”. These are: (a) “to make Christ more precious to us”, (b) “to make us recognise that God is God”, (c) “to make us trusting and contented in our lives”, (d) “to prove that our Christianity is genuine”, (e) “to prepare us for glory”.
The book contains many quotations from other writers and justifiably so, given the many godly men who have written on providence. Not the least of these was John Flavel, whose book on the subject shares the same title as the one under review. When he states that “God’s Word and God’s works work in harmony”, the author uses a quotation from Flavel to back up his statement: “If two men travel along one road, it is agreed that they are likely to go to the same place. Providence and Scripture go all one way and, if they seem at times to go different or opposite ways, be sure they will meet at the journey’s end. There is an agreement between them to do so.”
The author cites B B Warfield saying, “A firm faith in the universal providence of God is the solution of all earthly troubles”. And the book concludes with a quotation from James Durham: “When the whole contexture and web of providence about the Church and every individual member . . . shall be brought out, and in its full length and breadth spread forth in the midst of all the redeemed – perfected, glorified and triumphant – the company standing around the throne . . . admiring, beholding it, there will not be found one misplaced thread or any wrong-set colour in it all. God’s perfect work will be manifested to all at the end of the day.”
1The books reviewed here may be obtained from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom.