|
Title:
"True
Woman - Puritan Piety"
Author:
Excerpt from Susan Hunt's "The True Woman"
"Thus
saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old
paths,
where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your
souls.
But they said, We will not walk therein."
Jeremiah 6:16
Puritan
Piety
"I know that piety is an old-fashioned word.
But it is time that we dusted it off and rediscovered its rich meaning.
I confess that it is a reach for me to write about it because I am so
unfamiliar with it conceptually and experientially. I want to be
more mature in my faith, but when I read of the piety of the Puritans, I
know that I am so immature. I feel like a spiritual wimp.
The Greek word 'eusebeo' means to reference. It is akin to 'eusebes',
which is sometimes translated pious, devout, or godly.
In his Institutes, John Calvin says:
'The gist of true piety does not consist in a fear which would
gladly flee the judgment of God, but . . . rather in a pure and true
zeal which loves God altogether as Father, and reveres Him truly as
Lord, embraces His justice and dreads to offend Him more than to
die. . . . I call "piety" that reverence joined with
love of God which the knowledge of His benefits induces. For
until men recognize that they owe everything to God, that they are
nourished by His Fatherly care, that He is the Author of their every
good, that they should seek nothing beyond Him -- they will never
yield Him willing service. Nay, unless they establish their
complete happiness in Him, they will never give themselves truly and
sincerely to Him.'1]
J.I.
Packer says that four qualities characterize Puritan piety:
'The first is humility, the cultivated lowliness of a sinful
creature who is always in the presence of a great and holy God, and
can only live before Him through being constantly pardoned.
The second is receptivity . . . openness to be taught, corrected,
and directed by one's discoveries in Scripture . . . disciplined by
the darkness of disappointment . . . encouraged by happy providences
. . . readiness to believe that the good hand of a faithful and
gracious God, who is ripening His children for future glory, shapes
it all . . . . The third is doxology, the passion to turn
everything into worship and so to glorify God by all of one's words
an deeds. The fourth is energy, the spiritual energy of the
true Protestant work ethic whereby laziness and passivity are damned
as irreligious, just because so much remains to be done before God's
name is hallowed in His world as it should be. That all four
qualities are formed by the Puritan view of God . . . is obvious . .
. they constitute a mind and heart-set which, once formed, nothing
can daunt or destroy....' 2]
Packer
goes on to explain that 'in mapping the path of piety,' the Puritans
emphasized four areas:
.
. . the first steps (conviction and conversion through faith and
repentance . . .); the fight (against the world, the flesh, and the
devil . . .); the fellowship (communion with God . . . and with
other Christians); and the finish (dying well, in faith and hope,
with all preparations made and a clear and quiet conscience as one
moves into that final momentous meeting with the Father and the
Son).
It
is no wonder that Puritan piety penetrated the soul, the family, the
church, and the culture."
_______
1] John Calvin, Calvin's Institutes of the Christian
Religion, Vol. 1 (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1960), 40-41.
2] J.I. Packer, The Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of
the Christian Life (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 1990), 331.
__________
Excerpt taken from "The True Woman" by Susan
Hunt, pp. 150-152. This book is available at http://www.cvbbs.com
JoyPals.com-ReformedWomen
Editor & Publisher,
“Heavenly Notes 2002”
* * *
JoyPals.com-ReformedWomen
began a new Bible Study on April 29 from the book "The
Sovereignty of God" by Arthur Pink. Come and study with us!
Click
Heavenly Notes Address:
The JoyPals Network
http://www.joypals.com
|
