1663-1728
Pastor of the Old North Church of Boston from 1683-1728
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Biblia Americana: America’s First Bible Commentary ed. Reiner Smolinski (1693-1728; Mohr Siebeck & Baker Academic, 2010-2023 ff.)
on Prov. 1
p. 147
“Q. In what streets? v. 20.
A. To them that walk in the broad ways leading to destruction, that they may be brought into the narrow ways of life.
Let me note it here once for all that I shall often be beholden to Dr. Jermyn’s in my illustrations on this book. And from him I now have this hint: We may take the meaning of the wise man to be this: That in every thing that is without and abroad in the world, in every thing that is to be found in the streets, the wisdom of God speaks unto us and invites us to knowledge and goodness.”
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p. 148
“Q. Calling, and stretching out the hand? v. 24.
A. Dr. Jermyn (Proverbs, pp. 18–19) thus distinguishes: It is not seldom that God calls in love, and his love is refused with a deaf ear; that God stretches out his hand in anger, and his anger is slighted with a careless eye.”
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on Prov. 7
p. 180
“The Wisdom of God, beholding the fall of man (and this, Innumeris Viribus iteratum, et contingentem quotidiè [repeated innumerable times and occurring daily]), Him like a tender mother which loves her children, even the rebellious, proceeds in the sweetest language to exhort and invite the return of man from his rebellions.
In the 8th chapter, this Divine Wisdom calls after man flying from the Face of God. We have here the Physician, who is Verbum υποστατικον [the hypostatic Word], and the medicine, which is Verbum προφορικον [the uttered Word].”
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on Isa. 5
p. 587
“Q. The Parable of the Vineyard: What, in brief, is its meaning?
A. Münster shall give you the summary of the matter:
Vinea fuit Populus Judaicus; Sepes Lex Mosis; Vites, Viri sancti et zelosi; Turris Templum et Dei Cultus; Torcular, Pænitentia et Mortificatio veteris Adam; Labruscæ, pessimi fructus, Adulteria, Rapinæ, Homicidia, &c. Spinæ, sunt Errores, Odia, Blasphemiæ, Cæcitas Mentis; Pluvia est Verbum Dei per quod offertur Remissio Peccatorum, Gratia Dei, et Vita æterna
[The vineyard was the Jewish people; the hedge was the Law of Moses; the vines were holy and zealous men; the tower was the Temple and the worship of God; the winepress was repentance and the mortification of the old Adam; the wild grapes were the worst fruits, adulteries, robberies, murders, etc.; the thorns were errors, hatreds, blasphemies, and blindness of mind; and the rain was the Word of God, through which forgiveness of sins, the grace of God, and eternal life are offered.]”
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on Heb. 3
p. 243
“Q. On that Passage, ‘Today, if ye will hear his voice?’ v. 7.
A. The words here used by the apostle, are found, in Ps. 95:7… The mystical sense is this: The voice of Christ, by which we have the Gospel delivered unto us, is the voice of God. The time of the dispensation of the Gospel is the festival day of grace, wherein God makes an offer of salvation and invites us to it by the preaching of the Gospel. This time will not last always unto particular persons; it will be but a day; and last unto them no longer than their own days at the furthest; and unto some, not so long. The apostle, in the words of the Psalmist, admonishes the Jews that they would speedily show themselves teachable and harken to the voice of God in the gospel, and yield obedience without any delay of the matter from day to day, without any procrastination.”
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on Rev. 3
p. 481
“Q. What emphasis is there in our Lord’s counsel unto the Laodiceans to buy of Him? v. 18.
A. Our Lord is called, Isa. 9:6, ‘a Counselor’. The Laodiceans were a very merchandising sort of people; Terrenorum mercimoniis quàm par erat, addictiores [more addicted than was fitting to earthly commerce]. Our Lord calls them off to the heavenly merchandise. The things which are bestowed by Him gratis are here proposed to be pursued under the notion of merchandise. Of this, the Jews have a notable saying; Is negotiatur fæliciter, qui Caducum vendit pro æterno [He trades successfully who sells what is perishable for what is eternal].”
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Small Offers towards the Service of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness: Four Discourses accommodated unto the designs of practical godliness… (Boston: Pierce, 1689), The Good Man’s Resolution, sect. 4, pp. 9-13
“Reason 2
We are to serve God, because Christ has bought us. Indeed, the Arminian universal Redemption we reject with a just abhorrence. The satisfaction of our Lord Redeemer was not intended by Him for the redemption of all mankind; nor was it intended any further than his intercession is, which reaches only to the elect of God. The virtue and success of our Lord’s death depends not wholly on something to be done by men which God is not the doer of, otherwise men would themselves be the principals in procuring their own salvation.
But one scope of our Lord’s death was even to purchase for us that grace, that faith, that free-will which may qualify us to enjoy the virtue and success of it. Certainly Peter was more beholden unto the merit of Christ for his redemption than Judas was for his. Yet the purchase of Christ wonderfully binds us all to the service of God.
For first, the redemption of Christ has made our serving of God, a possible thing. Had it not been for this, poor fallen undone man had never been in a capacity to serve the Lord. We had never heard this call from heaven, ‘O repent, return, reform!‘ this voice from on high, ‘O set yourselves now to the serving of that God whom you have been sinning against,’ it had never sounded in our ears, if the Lord Jesus had not made Himself a sacrifice. We must have continued the slaves of the Devil forever, if the stings of the Dragon had not fastened on the Lord. The Lord Jesus has bought us all into such a condition that the proffers and the tenders of the Gospel might be made unto us. We are told of some in 2 Pet. 2:1, ‘Who deny the Lord that bought them.’ O vile sacrilege and impiety! That we might all have the privilege of 〈◊〉 invitation to the service of God; this has cost no less than the heart-blood of Christ; and what a monstrous villainy were it for us now to despise the invitation?
Again, the redemption of Christ has made our serving of God, a reasonable thing. We are all among the redeemed, either in reality, or at least in possession, all the chosen and called of God are most really interested in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus; and therefore for them to decline the service of God were as unequal as it is unlikely. But every one of us is at least professedly interested in it. Man, art thou willing to quit all claim unto the death and blood of the Lord Jesus? O No, not for ten thousand worlds. Every one says, ‘I hope I am redeemed!’ Well then, the service of God is that which we must count ourselves redeemed unto. What says the apostle, in 1 Cor. 6:20, ‘Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God.’ We that have been the captives of the mighty and the prey of the terrible, apprehend ourselves to be set at liberty from their horrible tyrannies, by the suffering of Christ; What less than the service of God, are we thereby obliged unto? In a word, we are the bought servants of God; and woe to us if our behaviors be not agreeable to our obligations.
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Reason 3
…Truly, from God we enjoy great quietness; by the providence of God we are delivered from a thousand perils every day: and we are surrounded with ten thousand comforts every day; by the providence of God we are directed, protected, sustained and supplied, every day. This calls for the service of God at our hands. Tis said in Rom. 12:1, ‘I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice unto Him.’ What a persuasive piece of oratory is that! ‘I beseech you by the mercies of God.’ He that urges you to the service of God may thus plead with you, ‘I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God,’ that God may not have one servant in the world the less for you. I beseech you, brethren that when the goodness, and mercy of God is following of you, you do not turn your backs on the service of God.
To pursue this argument, I beseech you brethren, Whose light is it whereby you are every day revived? It is God’s whose air is it whereby you are every day refreshed? It is God’s. Whose Fire is it that warms you? Whose meat is it that feeds you? Whose raiment is it that covers you? All is God’s. O then, serve Him. These are the cords of a man with which we are bound to the service of our Lord. This is the poesy which God has inscribed in the ring of every mercy, O learn to serve the Giver of this!
It was a sad complaint which the Lord made in Isa. 1:2, ‘I have nourished them, and brought them up, yet have they rebelled against Me.’ Alas, what a ‘yet’ is there? Our God has been as a father to us; and yet shall not we serve Him as our Master? He relieves us, He supports us, He bestows on us the mercies of children, and shall not we yet return so so much as the respects of servants unto Him? The Heavens will hear and be amazed, the earth will give ear and be astonished, at a thing so much exceeding brutality itself as this.”
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Batteries upon the Kingdom of the Devil: Seasonable Discourses upon some Common, but woeful, instances wherein Men gratify the Grand Enemy of their Salvation (London: Hiller, 1695)
The Door of Hope, pp. 105-7
“Consideration 2: The Gospel invitation makes your salvation among the things that may be hoped for. God has done the acts of one desiring your salvation; He has done just as one willing that you should all come unto repentance. Why should you have any doubt of your being excluded from his mercy? The Lord Jesus Christ is come into the world, one mighty to save, one able to save unto the uttermost.
And who are concerned in it? We are told in 1 Tim. 1:15 it was the chief of sinners. It may be thou hast been even a ring-leader in wickedness, yet such as you did the Lord Jesus appear to save. He does invite every one of you to come unto Himself; He says in Isa. 55:1, ‘Ho every one that thirsts, come.’ He says in John 7:37, ‘If any man thirst, let him come.’ You say, ‘I don’t thirst.’ To that I answer, ‘Are you willing to come? Then you thirst. You may come;’ ‘Tis said in Rev. 22:17, ‘Whosoever will, let him come.’
Behold, the Great King this day holds out the golden scepter to every one of you all; you may all draw near and live. What can be more full than that in John 6:37, ‘Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out.’ What? Is thy name excepted there? Did the Lord Jesus ever say, ‘I except John such an one?’ Or, ‘I except Mary such an one?’ Truly, no. Immortal souls, the loud call of the Lord Jesus from the lofty battlements of heaven is that in Isa. 45:22, ‘Look unto Me and be saved.’ And we have a commission from our glorious royal Master to tell you that you are all concerned in it. The man in thy clothes, thou art the man whom this belongs unto. God says, ‘You may be saved;’ why will you say, ‘I mayn’t.’ Impudent potsherd, give not the lie to God.”
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Honey at the End of the Rod, p. 132
“Consider, First. If your are not the better for your afflictions, ’tis a sign that you are very bad indeed! There is an obstinate stupidity in that soul which afflictions will not awaken to repentance. ‘Tis from the hardness of our hearts that we should need any afflictions to reduce us from our evil ways; that the sweet invitations of the Gospel will not operate so far upon us as to bring us home to our God; that He must use briars and thorns upon us before we can be taught what an evil and a bitter thing it is to forsake the Lord.”
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Work upon the Ark: Meditations upon the Ark as a Type of the Church, delivered in a sermon… (Boston: Green, 1689), Intro, sect. 4, n.p.
“It may justly be thought that the flood which Noah’s ark was provided against reached unto America, though at that very point of time when t’other hemisphere was drowned, there seems to have been a failure of the waters here; and now the ark is also arrived hither, with invitations unto us, to secure our own eternal salvation by a lodging in the antitype thereof.”
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A Short & Plain Essay to Answer that Most concerning Inquiry: What Shall I do to be Saved? Now published with a Design to Assist the Addresses of Good Men unto their Neighbors, whom they press to mind the One Thing Needful (1765; repr. Sower’s Seed Books, 1995)
p. 5
“1. You must know, that there is a great salvation proposed unto the sinful children of men; and you must know and think that there is nothing of so great concernment for any man, as to obtain a part in that great salvation.”
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p. 14
“It is proposed unto you, that you shall no longer be the children of death, but be made the children of God. That you shall be forgiven and accepted with a reconciled God and be followed with perpetual testimonies of his Fatherly love: that no iniquity shall have dominion over you, but you shall become the amiable temples, wherein He will dwell, with the sweetest influences of his Good Spirit forever irradiating [illumining] of you.
It is proposed unto you; that your spirits at your dissolution [death] shall put on the garments of light, and enter into the peace a rest of an heavenly paradise: that your bodies ere long by a resurrection shall be restored unto your spirits: but be the lively, the lovely, the most agreeable and everlasting mansions for them: that you shall have a joyful portion in the city of God, and have his marvelous kindness forever doing unutterable things for you, in that strong city: there you shall at length be filled with all the fullness of God and have God become All in All unto you forever and ever.
All this is contained in the salvation whereof you have a tender [offer]…”
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p. 20
“The faith by which we receive a glorious Christ, and rest on Him for salvation as He is offered unto us.”
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p. 24
“Oh! Lie at the foot of sovereign grace confessing and imploring, Lord, I am justly destroyed if I do not sincerely renounce my sin, sincerely embrace my Savior. But I cannot, Oh! I cannot! I have deadly fetters upon my soul; I shall never answer your gracious calls, except your sovereign grace enable me.”
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p. 25
“Oh! Hear a compassionate Redeemer calling you; Isa. 45:22, “Look unto Me all ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved.” Comply, reply: ‘Lord I look unto thee, I will be thine, Save me.'”
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Related Pages
The Sincere Free Offer of the Gospel
Historic Reformed Quotes on the Sincere Free Offer of the Gospel