Okay, it looks like I didn't read anything this summer but I really did. I'm working my way through a Bonhoeffer biography, read some novels (just to be summery) and two autobiographical accounts of women who were held captive in the Columbian jungle for about seven years. None of these can really amount to 'theology' though so I haven't posted anything.
But this one is worth waiting for. A Body of Divinity was first published in 1692 and has been reprinted fifteen times between 1890 and 2003. Should that qualify it as a classic in Christian literature? I would think so. Again, I was challenged by my theological mentor to tackle this book and attempt to ingest it into my knowledge bank. It is printed in the original language from the 1600's. The scriptural references are in roman numerals and some of the 'turns of phrase' are those that have fallen out of the modern English language. But, please, in no way let this dissuade you from picking up this treasure and working your way through it - even if you do it 2-3 pages at a time. I would liken this to a systematic theology but with more personality to it as Mr. Watson did share many of his personal opinions throughout.
But why read this book? I'll allow the back cover to explain. This book "deals with the foremost doctrinal and experimental truths of the Christian Faith...the main principles of Christianity that lie scattered in the Scriptures are brought together and set forth in the form of question and answer [based on the Westminster Assembly's Shorter Catechism]." So, it gives you the answers to so many of the whys and hows of your faith.
Alas, there is so much in this book, I cannot possibly pull out every nugget that gave me a moment of clarity or furthered my insight in a particular area. Therefore, I will simply quote some of the most powerful passages from each section of the book and hope that they not only bring more light to your understanding of God and His Word but make you fall deeper in love with both. The remainder of this post will be direct quotes from the book (unless indicated otherwise).
A Preliminary Discourse to Catechising
To be unsettled in religion, argues want of judgment...As feathers will be blown every way, so will feathery Christians (p. 1)
To be settled in religion is both a Christian's excellence and honour...Such as are not settled in the faith can never suffer for it...Unsettled Christians do not consult what is best, but what is safest...If ye are not settled in religion, you will never grow...He can no more grow in godliness, who is unsettled, than a bone can grow in the body that is out of joint. There is great need to be settled, because there are so many things to unsettle us. (p. 2)
Man's Chief End
[Okay, this is me. Anyone who has read John Piper's Desiring God or many of his other works will know the answer to the question 'What is the chief end of man?' Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever. This section expounds on this incredible truth]
Glorifying God consists in four things:
1) Appreciation... we glorify God when we are God-admirers; admire his attributes...his promises...the noble effects of his power and wisdom in making the world...To glorify God is to have God-admiring thoughts; to esteem him most excellent, and search for diamonds in this rock only. (p. 7)
2) Adoration...a civil reverence...a divine worship. (p. 7)
3) Affection...God counts himself glorified when he is loved...a love of delight...we give God the best of our love...He who is the chief of our happiness has the chief of our affections. (p. 8)
4) Subjection...we dedicate ourselves to God and stand ready dressed for his service...he who glorifies God has not only his affections heated with love to God, but he goes his circuit too; he moves vigorously in the sphere of obedience. (p.9)
It will be a great comfort in a dying hour, to think we have glorified God in our lives...If we glorify God, he will glorify our souls forever. By raising God's glory, we increase our own; by glorifying God, we come at last to the blessed enjoyment of him. (p. 20)
The Scriptures
God having given us his written Word to be our directory takes away all excuses from men. No man can say, I went wrong for want of light; God has given thee his Word as a lamp to thy feet; therefore if thou goest wrong, thou does it wilfully. No man can say, If I had known the will of God, I would have obeyed it; thou are inexcusable, O man, for God has given thee a rule to go by, he has written his law with his own finger; therefore, if thou obeyest not, thou hast no apology left. (p. 32)
Read the Bible with reverence. Think in every line you read that God is speaking to you...It is a matter of life and death; by this Word you must be tried; conscience and Scripture are the jury God will proceed by, in judging you. (p. 35)
Satan deceives people with delusion, instead of divine revelations; therefore we are to be thankful to God for revealing his mind to us by writing. We are not left in doubtful suspense that we should not know what to believe, but we have an infallible rule to go by. The Scripture is our pole-star to direct us to heaven, it shows us every step we are to take; when we go wrong, it instructs us; when we go right, it comforts us; and it is a matter of thankfulness, that the Scriptures are made intelligible, by being translated. (p. 38)
The Being of God
We may prove a Deity by our conscience...Natural conscience in the wicked accuses. When men go against its light they feel the worm of conscience. (p. 41)
He is God, and has a sovereignty over us; therefore, as we received life from him, so we must receive a law from him, and submit to his will in all things. (p. 45)
God is a Spirit, and will be worshipped in spirit; it is not pomp of worship, but purity, which God accepts. Repentance...consists in the sacrifice of a broken heart...When the fire of fervency is put to the incense of prayer, then it ascends as a sweet odour....[when the publican said] 'God me merciful to me a sinner'...it came from the heart, therefore it was accepted. (p. 49)
The Knowledge of God
There is not the most subtle thought that comes into our mind, but God perceives it...Thoughts speak as loud in God's ears as words do in ours. (p. 55)
The lamp of God's knowledge is so infinitely bright, that all things are intelligible for him...God's knowledge is unerring; he can neither deceive, nor be deceived; he cannot deceive, because he is truth, nor be deceived, because he is wisdom. (p. 56)
The Eternity of God
The reason why sin committed in a short time is eternally punished, is because every sin is committed against an infinite essence, and no less than eternity of punishment can satisfy. (p. 63)
Every work we do promotes either a blessed or cursed eternity. (p. 65)
The Unchangeableness of God
God is jealous of two things; of our love, and of our trust. He is jealous of our love, lest we love the creature more than him...and of our trust, lest we should place more confidence in it than in him...If we make the creature an idol, what we make our trust God will make our shame. (p. 69)
We are not elected for holiness, but to holiness...[The believers of Acts] were not elected because they believed, but they believed because they were elected. (p. 70)
The Wisdom of God
Men may be wise in some things, but in other things may betray imprudence and weakness. But God is the exemplar and pattern of wisdom, and the pattern must be perfect. (p. 71)
God sees what condition is best for us...he sees it good sometimes that we should be without comfort...God sees humility to be better for us than joy. It is better to want comfort, and be humble, than to have it, and be proud." (p. 76)
The Power of God
Though God can do all things, he cannot do that which stains the glory of his Godhead. He cannot sin; he cannot do that which implies a contradiction. To be a God of truth, and yet deny himself, is a contradiction. (p. 79)
The Holiness of God
Holiness in the saints is subject to ebbing, but holiness in God is unchangeable; he never lost a drop of his holiness; as he cannot have more holiness, because he is perfectly holy. (p. 83)
Holiness is God's image; and God cannot choose but love his image, where he sees it...Holiness is the only thing that distinguishes us from the reprobate part of the world...Holiness is our honour. Holiness and honour are put together...the holy person goes to God as a child to its father; his conscience does not upbraid him with allowing any sin, therefore he can go boldly to the throne of grace, and have mercy to help in time of need. (p. 86)
The Justice of God
He can no more be unjust than he can be unholy...God wills nothing but what is just; and therefore it is just because he wills it...Our mercies are more than we deserve, and our punishments less. (p. 88)
The Lord never afflicts his people without a cause...The trials and sufferings of the godly are to refine and purify them. (p. 89)
God is not bound to give an account of his actions to his creatures...Though some are saved and others perish, yet is no unrighteousness in God; because, whoever perishes, his destruction is of himself...God is not bound to force his mercies upon men. If they wilfully oppose the offer of grace, their sin is to be regarded as the cause of their perishing, and not God's justice. (p. 91)
The Mercy of God
Mercy is the result and effect of God's goodness...It is the great design of the Scripture to represent God as merciful. This is a loadstone to draw sinners to him...God is more inclinable to mercy than wrath...The bee naturally gives honey, it stings only when provoked; so God does not punish till he can bear no longer. (p. 93)
Unbelief stops the current of God's mercy from running...What will tempt us to believe, if not the mercy of God?...Think not that because God is merciful, you may go on in sin; this is to make mercy your enemy. (p. 97)
The sum and definition of religion is, Be rich in works of mercy, be helpful to the bodies and souls of others. Scatter your golden seeds; let the lamp of your profession be filled with the oil of charity. Be merciful in giving and forgiving. 'Be ye merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful'. (p. 99)
The Truth of God
God is the pattern and prototype of truth. There is nothing true but what is in God or comes from God. (p. 99)
We must be true in our words...A liar is most opposite to the God of truth...Lying shuts men out of heaven...Falsehood in friendship is a lie. Counterfeiting friendship is worse than counterfeiting money...Hypocrisy in religion is a lie...When God sees 'truth in the inward parts' and 'lips in which is no guile' he sees his own image, which draws his heart towards us. Likeness produces love. (p. 102-3)
The Unity of God
There is only one direct road to heaven...There is no way to be saved but this. As there is but one God, so there is but one true religion. If there be but one God, then there is but One whom you need chiefly to study to please, and that is God...our main work is to please him. Be sure to please God, whoever else you displease. (p. 105)
Our love to other things must be more indifferent. Some drops of love may run beside to the creature, but the full stream must run towards God. The creature may have the milk of our love, but we must keep the cream for God. (p. 106)
The Trinity
If there be not three persons in the Godhead, man's salvation cannot be wrought out; if there be no second person in the Trinity, there is no redeemer; if no third person, there is no comforter. (p. 110)
The Creation
God brought all this glorious fabric of the world out of the womb of nothing. Our beginning was of nothing. Some brag of their birth and ancestry; but how little cause have they to boast who came from nothing. (p. 114)
If there be any comfort below, how much more is there in God, who made all these things! How unreasonable is it that we should delight in the world, and not much more in him that made it! (p. 118)
Let us never rest till we are restored to God's image again...Grace is our best beauty, it makes us like God and angels. (p. 119)
The Providence of God
Providence is God's ordering all issues and events of things, after the counsel of his will, to his own glory. (p. 119)
God takes care of every saint in particular, as if he had none else to care for...Providence wonderfully supplies the wants of the elect...God's children sometimes scarce know how they are fed, except that providence feeds them. (p. 120)
Better is the loss that makes them humble than the success that makes them proud...If it were always sunshine we should see no stars; so if we should always have prosperity, it would be hard to see the acting of men's faith. (p. 121)
He makes use of the wicked sometimes to protect and shield his church; and sometimes to refine and purify it...God does not infuse evil into men, he withdraws the influence of his graces, and then the heart hardens of itself. (p. 122)
Learn quietly to submit to divine providence. Do not murmur at things that are ordered by divine wisdom...Let us be content that God should rule the world; learn to acquiesce in his will, and submit to his providence...Remember God sees it is that which is fit for you, or it would not come...believe that all God's providence shall conspire for your good at last...so affliction in itself is not joyous, but grievous; but the Lord turns it to the good of his saints. (p. 125)
That Christ should make himself knows to us, and touch our hearts with his Spirit, when he passes by others; whence is this but from the miraculous providence of God, which is the effect of his free grace. (p. 126)
Okay, back to me now. Phew, I'm going to stop there for a while. That's about half way through the book and there is already a lot of 'treasure' that I have typed out. I love all these little nuggets that can be pulled from this book. Again, I would encourage you to read this book in it's entirety and find and note all the words that speak to you. I have some other books that I've read that I want to write about before I dive back into this one. The best I can do is commit to having the remainder of this book written about by Christmas!!
...if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven... - Colossians 1:23
...so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. - Ephesians 4:14
...in order that in everything, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. - 1 Peter 4:11
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. - 1 Corinthians 10:31
The LORD has made everything for its purpose. - Proverbs 16:4
...and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. - 2 Corinthians 5:15
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom. - Colossians 3:16
For I know their works and their thoughts... - Isaiah 66:18
But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal; "The Lord knows those who are his" and "Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity". - 2 Timothy 2:19
The Almighty - we cannot find him; he is great in power; justice and abundant righteousness h will not violate - Job 37:23
The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness - Exodus 34:6
The LORD could no longer bear your evil deeds and the abominations you committed. - Jeremiah 44:22
For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree - 1 John 5:7
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