The Puritans Pay Off

Part 8 - Theology in Practice

Chapter 59 - Lessons from the Puritans

The Puritans show us how to 

• focus on Christ - they treasured and extolled Him in all things
• stay Biblically balanced - maintain the objective salvation events of God with our subjective experience of it, God's sovereignty and our responsibility, avoiding Arminianism and hyper-Calvinism.
• teach the faith - using catechisms to cultivate biblical knowledge, apply it to life, enhance family worship, and bring people to Christ.
• pray without ceasing - they emphasized a pastor and preacher's private prayers, to model prayer publicly for all Christians and to enhance the power of sermons.
• bear up under troubles - "we need affliction to humble us" (966).  Besides, they are temporary, while our reward in heaven is eternal.
• kill pride - pride crops up over almost anything.  Don't get satisfied with yourself.  Focus on your sins and your humble Savior.
• rely on the Spirit - both to convert souls and grow in the Lord.

Imitate the piety of the Puritans.  They show us great godliness.

Chapter 60 - A Final Word
The Puritans lived in hard times and were largely unsuccessful in their reforming efforts.  But many elements of their work deserve recovery today.

• They kept their eye on great Gospel truths
• They valued learning, were highly trained in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, theology and philosophy, and taught their people.
• They furthered theological work begun a generation earlier, with more precise distinctions.
• They knew their Bibles well.
• They reformed the church with sincere and practical piety.
• They centered their work on the pulpit and press.

Godly Zeal

Part 8 - Theology in Practice

Chapter 58 - Sacrificial Zeal

"Many churches in America are looking less like armies engaged in war and more like La-Z-Boy chairs, from which drowsy Christians are saying, 'Don't wake me up!'" (947).

Everyone is zealous for and against things.  Zeal is passion or desire for something.  We may be zealous for the greatness of America or for the demise of ISIS, for example.  Many Christians seem uninterested in cultivating zeal for the glory and holiness of God.

Zeal can be counterfeit (hypocritically seeking a selfish end while professing a good one), blind (passion without direction), or turbulent (passion tinged with hate, envy, etc.).

True zeal seeks God's honor, follows the Bible instead of factions, reforms self before others, constantly asks what it can do for God, is constant instead of flashing hot then going cold, is bold but sweet and loving instead of abrasive.

The way to get zeal is the means of grace:

Prayer - ask and you shall receive!

Word - reading and hearing it preached.

Worship - as coals gathered together stay hot...

Repentance - 2 Cor. 7:11 says repentance produces zeal.

These means seem weak, but God uses them mightily and we should trust Him and use them, as Naaman had to trust Elijah's means of washing in muddy Jordan.

The authors call ministers, laborers and parents to zeal in their callings.

Be fervent in spirit (Romans 12:11), run to get the prize (1 Cor. 9:24-25), take the kingdom forcefully (Matthew 11:12).  Don't be lackadaisical or neutral in response to God's call to "be zealous" (Rev. 3:19).

Puritan Ethics, or Casuistry

Part 8 - Theology in Practice
Chapter 57 - Puritan Casuistry


    The Lord GOD has given Me
    The tongue of the learned,
    That I should know how to speak
    A word in season to him who is weary.   Isaiah 50:4


Casuistry is usually taken as caviling with words to get out of something, but in Protestant theology casuistry is the area of applied ethics in counseling and discipline/discipleship in daily living and in sticky situations.

Much was written to guide daily living, out of a pastoral desire to counsel folks, and out of criticism from the Catholic Jesuits that the Puritans had no such literature.

Three basic categories:

1. Personal - how am I saved, or assured of my salvation.  How can I be comforted when distressed in affliction?  How can I be restored when I have fallen into sin?
2. Apologetic/Public - How can I know the Bible is God's Word?  How do I apply Old Testament law to myself?  How should I worship God?
3. Social - How do I love my neighbor?

Perkins was a forerunner of this.  They saw it not just as ethics - how to live - but as cases of conscience, since if you lived wrongly your relationship with God would go awry.  The emphasis became relieving distressed consciences, but they also delved into policy, such as asserting that the king could abolish episcopacy without breaking any law or oath.

Puritans sought full-time faculty in universities/seminaries, devoted to this topic of "practical divinity," but were largely unsuccessful.  They did write lots of books on it, including Baxter's Christian Directory, probably the best (and longest) of the type.  This genre faded with the fading of Puritanism generally, upon the rise of Deism, Arminianism, and the attacks on Christianity by Hobbes and Locke.

This body of "counseling" work

• helps pastors be competent soul doctors
• focuses the person on their relationship with God more than their self-esteem
• promotes sanctification
• allows for counseling from the pulpit, and then follow up in visitation
• gave direction after tenderly listening, often with firmness and urgency
• preached the Word instead of probing feelings endlessly

Read God's Word in 2016

Would you commit with me to reading the Scriptures daily this coming new year?

It's too easy to let events overtake and push to the side your time with the Lord.

We need to plan for it daily.

Find a time and place that your family, friends and work can all give you as God's time.

Of course, it is all God's time, but we set aside the first day of the week to actually go and worship Him.  So should we set aside a few minutes of each day to DO NOTHING ELSE but pray, read His Word, and think upon Him.

Here's an article answering a few objections to reading the Bible with a plan.

How then shall we read?

With the variety and multitude of plans available (see below!), you need to decide a few things before you wade into plans:

1. How much can I read?  Plans take anywhere from 2 to 10 chapters a day.  Taking 2 years is a good option for a beginner, which means less quantity.  Do you want free days built in, maybe to catch up?  Do you want to read more on weekends, or less?
2. How do I want to read?  Straight through?  Chronologically?  A bit in each kind of Bible literature?

If you have these two things clear as you check out plans, you'll quickly find the one that's right for you.

Here are some plans:

1 year and 2-year chronological (at the bottom of the webpage)

Ligonier has options.

The ESV site has a dozen options.

"Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it" - Revelation 1:3.

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path" - Psalm 119:105.

"This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night" - Joshua 1:8.

Revelation 21-22

21
John sees the new heaven and earth and new Jerusalem.
God dwells with men and puts an end to all pain and sadness.
He gives His people the water of life, but casts the wicked into the lake of fire.
The bride, the new Jerusalem, has God's glory, 12 gates of pearl on 12 foundations, the apostles.
It is a perfect cube, made of gold, even the streets, and 12 jewels.
They will walk with God there in safety and purity.

22
The river and tree of life are in the midst of the city.  The leaves heal the nations.
We will see and worship God, reigning with Him with no night.

This is what will happen.
John is overwhelmed and falls to worship the angel showing him these things, and the angel stops him, directing him to worship God.
Jesus is coming soon.  He sent this message to us through His angel.  He is the root and son of David.
Blessed are those ready for Him.  Cursed are the wicked.
Don't add to or take away from this book.

"The grace of the Lord Jesus be will all.  Amen."


How this is about Jesus
The new heaven and earth are remade through Him.
The city is His, and it is His to recompense all men by His justice or mercy.
As we see God in the face of Jesus, we will fully see Him there - this is the greatest blessing.


Application
Looking forward to heaven changes us in the present.
"He who has this hope purifies himself" (1 John 3:3).
We cannot attain this ultimate blessing ourselves, but need Jesus to bring it to us.

The Puritan Conscience

Part 8 - Theology in Practice
Chapter 56 - The Puritans on Conscience

Conscience played a large role in the Puritan outlook.
Conscience is a part of human nature that God has given us to judge ourselves.  Everyone has one and it reasons, either condemning or exonerating ourselves to ourselves.

Our conscience is corrupted.  We condemn ourselves when we need not, and we excuse ourselves when we ought not.  Forms the corrupt conscience can take: doubt, moralism, over-scrupulosity, error, drowsy and seared.

To restore the conscience requires preaching the Word to show us our sin and guilt, conforming the conscience to the Word's norms, guarding it by our obedience, keeping it tender by self-examination.

Application
This section was extremely weak on the conscience being assured by Christ's work for us.  It wasn't said that our conscience is based mainly on our obedience, but this is the main emphasis.  This is a key Puritan weakness: relying on our own efforts of conscience searching more than looking to Christ's objective work, to ease our conscience.  "A good conscience does not promote legalism" (926) they say, and that is true.  But when the conscience is based mainly on our good works and deeds of repentance and sanctification it will tend that way.

Malachi

1

God's love remains with Israel, not Edom.

God rebukes the priests for offering blemished sacrifices on His altar, yawning and mocking at the routine and paltry worship.

2

The priests used to preserve knowledge, by now you are leading people astray, and going astray yourselves.

3

The messenger of the covenant is coming to refine you Levites.

The reason you aren't consumed already is because I am unchangeable in My mercy to you in spite of your stubbornness all along.

You rob Me by not giving Your full tithe.  You speak against Me by speaking ill of serving Me.

God-fearers unite and write down their obedient desires.  God recognizes and promises to honor it.

4

The distinction will be clear again when the day comes.  The wicked will burn like stubble, but the righteous will burst out in joy.

Remember Moses and his law.

Elijah will come to you before the day of the LORD to turn fathers to their children again, before destruction comes.

How this is about Jesus

He is the messenger of the covenant who comes and cleanses His priests and His temple.

John wears Elijah's clothes, and announces the coming of Jesus.

Application

The back-and-forth of Malachi ("how have we hated You?") shows that believers can backslide and not even realize it.  We must stay diligent in our walk with the Lord.  Give God your best in worship.

Nehemiah 7-13

7

Nehemiah takes a census and finds about 50,000 people.

8

Ezra reads from the Bible all morning to all the people, on a raised stage/pulpit.

The people are grieved, but the leaders call for a joyful feast.

They celebrate the feast of booths, which hadn't been done since Joshua's day.

9

Nehemiah prays a prayer of confession that first recounts Israel's history according to the Pentateuch, which they read in chapter 8.  God has been faithful, and Israel has been consistently sinful.  Israel makes a written covenant to this effect.

10

The signers of the covenant are listed, and then what they commit to, from the Law:

• to keep all God's commands
• to not marry with unbelievers
• to not buy and sell on the Sabbath
• to not charge interest on debt
• to give the land rest every 7 years
• to pay the temple tax and tithe

11

Most go to their towns to work their land, but a few volunteer to stay in the city.

These men are listed, and the places where others lived.

12

Priests and Levites listed.

All the Levites assemble and make music at the wall dedication.  Ezra leads one choir and Nehemiah the other, while they play on instruments made by King David.

The Levites' musical and sacrificial duties are organized going forward, and their tithes.

13

Nehemiah goes back to Persia for a time.

When he returns and it becomes known that the Bible says no Ammonite may enter the temple, Nehemiah throws Tobiah the Ammonite (see 4:3) out of the temple.

He enforces many laws the people had resolved to do, but neglected:

• tithing to Levites
• working and selling on Sabbath
• putting away foreigners and unbelieving wives

How this is about Jesus

He teaches the people to be pure in heart and life, pointing them to the Word, like Nehemiah.

He is zealous for God's house, cleansing the temple and corrupt financial dealing.

In the broad sweep of redemptive history, perhaps Nehemiah thought he was fulfilling Amos 9:11-15 (below), but that fulfillment awaited Christ's coming and the inclusion of the Gentiles in the New Testament church.

Application

Nehemiah is often considered a historical root of Pharisees.  Their emphasis was on their obedience to the Law of God being the key to God blessing or cursing Israel.  This results in great zeal to obey the Law, which is commendable.  But by Jesus' day this had become self-righteousness, hypocrisy, and emphasizing minor and extra-biblical duties.  Our focus needs to remain on God's sovereign grace, that He blesses us without our help, and also maintaining a zeal to obey God out of gratitude for that grace we have received.

Amos 9:11-15

    On that day I will raise up

    The tabernacle of David, which has fallen down,

    And repair its damages;

    I will raise up its ruins,

    And rebuild it as in the days of old;

    12      That they may possess the remnant of Edom, 

    And all the Gentiles who are called by My name,”

    Says the LORD who does this thing.

    13      “Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD,

    “When the plowman shall overtake the reaper,

    And the treader of grapes him who sows seed;

    The mountains shall drip with sweet wine,

    And all the hills shall flow with it.

    14      I will bring back the captives of My people Israel;

    They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them;

    They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them;

    They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them.

    15      I will plant them in their land,

    And no longer shall they be pulled up

    From the land I have given them,”

    Says the LORD your God.

Nehemiah 1-6

1
Nehemiah, an exile from Israel to Persia, hears that Jerusalem is reduced.
He confesses Israel's sins and asks for favor as he goes to the king for help.

2
He is sad before the king, who asks about it.  He asks to go and rebuild Jerusalem.  The king says yes.
When Nehemiah gets to Jerusalem, he inspects the walls and gates, then goes to the leaders and points out the poor condition and the king's permission, and encourages them to build.  Sanballat and other enemies mock and deride them.

3 - the men who work on each gate are named.

4
Enemies mock, much of the work is done which makes the enemies mad.  God's people get weary, and hear of the military threat.  Nehemiah stations soldiers with their own clans to be on guard and work at the same time.

5
Nehemiah gets the rich Jews to forgive debts and stop charging interest for loans to the poor.
He lives cheaply, so as not to charge a high tax.

6
Sanballat intimidates Nehemiah, making up rumors of Nehemiah's treason.  He isn't bullied, and they finish the wall, but powerful Tobiah is allied with Sanballat.


How this is about Jesus
He is zealous to build the city of God, to make His people strong and pure, as Nehemiah was.
He provides for His people both defenders and builders.


Application
We build and fight better when fighting for our own family and people.
Don't take advantage of the poor.
We are living stones being built into God's house (1 Peter 2:1-10).

Prayer and Meditation

Part 8 - Theology in Practice
Chapter 54 - Matthew Henry on Daily Prayer

Henry's "Method for Prayer" is much under-rated, published in 1710.
He calls us to prayer three times a day, and the beginning, middle and end.  We should begin our day with God, wait upon Him all day, and close the day considering our life's end.

The strength of Henry's book is his method for prayer: praying Scripture back to God as petitions and claiming promises.  He also turns a doctrine of God into prayer.


Chapter 55 - Meditation
The Puritans were meditating long before the new age movement co-opted this word.
Meditation is thinking upon a biblical truth such that it moves your heart and applies to your life and conscience.  God calls us to meditate on His Word in many places (Joshua 1:8; Deut. 6:7; Psalm 19:14; 119:11).  Puritans were fond of the digestion metaphor.  One may take in Scripture or a sermon, but it needs digesting in the soul or it won't do much good.  "It is better to hear one sermon only and meditate on that, than to hear two sermons and meditate on neither" (893).

They recommended meditating frequently (once or twice a day) for 15-60 minutes.  Solitude and quiet are necessary.  Choose a verse, short passage, or doctrine to begin with.  Use the three books of Scripture, creation, and conscience.  Examine yourself and make resolutions, concluding with prayer.  Especially important times to meditate are before and during worship and Communion, and on the Sabbath.

Meditation focuses you on God, stirs up your affections for Him, fosters repentance, aids prayer, weans us from worldliness, promotes gratitude and glorifies God.

Don't let these obstacles stand in your way:

• Lack of attention span
• Busyness
• Spiritual lethargy
• Worldly pleasures

"If the farmer meditates upon his land... shouldn't Christians meditate upon their God and Savior?" (906).

Evaluation

This is a much lost art, but perhaps the Puritans made a category and method of something that we can more plainly describe as thinking and examining one's self while you're reading Scripture and moving to prayer.

Two tendencies the Puritans had that I lean against showed up on the same page.  "The pleasures of the world discompose our souls" (905).  Yes, but God gave them to direct us to Him.  We abuse them in our sin, true.  And it is usually harder to go from a pleasure to a spiritual exercise, than from hardship to some devotional act.  But still, we ought to enjoy what God has given for our senses, and glorify Him for it, instead of deny lawful things.

The second was the assumption that God's truth doesn't impress us as it should because we don't meditate on them as we should.  I would say that while we have a responsibility to do our part, the blessings of God aren't ours for the taking like a vending machine.  God's Spirit must work.

Revelation 17-20

17
One of the 7 angels shows John a prostitute on waters who commits adultery with many kings and drinks the blood of the saints.  Her name is Babylon and she will fall to the kings.

18
Babylon's fall is sung.  She was a great city with much wealth and trade, so her fall affects many.
God's people are called out of her, so as not to be defiled by her.

19
The saints praise God for the destruction of Babylon.
The marriage of the Lamb is proclaimed - they are blessed who are invited.
Jesus appears on a horse with His armies behind Him.  He conquers the beast and earth's kings gathered against Him.

20
Satan is imprisoned for 1000 years while the martyred saints reign with Christ.
When he is released he deceives and gathers the nations to war against Christ, surrounding the beloved city.  Fire from heaven consumes them and Satan is thrown into the lake of fire.
The dead are brought before the throne of judgment and judged according to what they have done.  Death and Hades are thrown into the fire, and anyone not in the book of life.


How this is about Jesus
Babylon opposes Him, in her self-satisfied indulgence and harm done to His people.
He is the Bridegroom headed for a wedding to the glorious and spotless Church.
He is the warrior who conquers and destroys the bad guys.


Application
It is from Scriptures such as these that we write stories about the demise of bad guys and relish their defeat.  We long for our marriage to the Lord.
Whether we believe Satan is now bound and we are reigning, or that that time is still coming and Satan is loose and powerful now, the last judgment should motivate us to godliness (2 Peter 3:11-13).

Esther

1
The king of Persia throws a feast and calls for Queen Vashti to appear, but she refuses.  The advisors counsel that the king depose and replace her.

2
The king's young men (of course) propose a contest, for any beautiful woman to be taken to the palace, made up for months, and given one night with the king.  He can choose the one he likes to be the next queen.  A Jewish orphan Hadassah (Esther) is chosen.  Her uncle Mordecai discovers a plot against the king.

3
Mordecai descends from Saul; Haman from Agag (see 1 Samuel 15).  Haman is promoted, and proposes to pay for the destruction of the dangerous Jews.  The king accepts.

4
Mordecai hears of it, mourns publicly, and asks Esther to ask the king to change the decree.  She hesitates; he presses; she relents and asks him to fast 3 days for her.

5
She goes into the king and he accepts her.  (He could have had her executed for her uninvited entrance.)  She asks him and Haman to a feast.  At that feast she asks them to another feast the next day.  Haman is proud of his high position, and all the angrier at Mordecai.  He builds a gallows to hang him on.

6
The king can't sleep that night, and has old journals read to him.  He hears of Mordecai saving him and wants to honor him.  Haman comes in (is it morning now?), probably ready to accuse and execute Mordecai, but the king has Haman honor him publicly instead.  He is horrified!

7
Esther reveals that she is a Jew and Haman wants her and her people dead.  The king hangs Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai.

8
Esther gets Haman's house; Mordecai gets his position.
Esther asks again to revoke the law allowing the destruction of the Jews.  The king cannot, but gives them permission to write in new law regarding it.  They write that the king allows the Jews to defend themselves if any still try to attack, plunder or kill them.

9
The day comes and the Jews kill 500 in the capital Susa who try to harm them.  They mark the day as a perpetual feast, and Haman's sons are also executed.

10
The king rules, and Mordecai is a faithful second at his side, speaking peace.


How this is about Jesus
He is prefigured as Esther, the one chosen and favored by the king.  She intercedes successfully for her people, at risk to her own life.
Jesus is also prefigured as Mordecai, a faithful Jew who is raised to the right hand of the throne.  He is wise in his law-making and personal counsel to Esther.


Application
Esther emphasizes letters/laws and feasts, just as the church has been given the Word and Sacraments in the Kingdom of God.
This book never mentions God or prayer, as a literary way of showing that God's people had to learn how to live in a place that was far from God.

Ezra 5-10

5

Israel re-starts rebuilding the temple after Zechariah and Haggai prophesy to do so.

Their enemies living around tattle to Darius on them: "Did you say they could do this?  They say the last king Cyrus said they could do this."

6

Darius finds the record and writes to Israel's enemies to leave them alone to work.

They finish and dedicate the temple, and celebrate the Passover/Unleavened Bread for the full 7 days.

7

Ezra goes to Jerusalem in Artaxerxes' reign.  Ezra is a priest descended from Aaron, and goes to teach the Law of God to Israel.  The king gives him, silver and gold for use in the temple, a letter authorizing a large budget from the Syrian governor for temple supplies, tax exemption for all temple workers, authority to appoint teachers and judges of the Law under him throughout the province.

8

Ezra gathers the group of a few hundred, but there is no Levite, so they seek and find one.  They pray and fast for protection on the journey.  They didn't want to ask the king for a guard since they had already said God would protect them.  Ezra puts the gold in the care of a dozen leading priests.  They travel and arrive safely!

9

Some officials tell Ezra that many Israelites have inter-married with the syncretist or pagan people already in the land.  Ezra prays a prayer of grief and repentance about it.

10

The rulers encourage Ezra to help them set the situation right.  He prays all night, then summons Israel to assemble.  But it's the rainy season.  The people agree they have sinned, and ask to come to Jerusalem city by city to sort it out, since it'll take a while.  Those who had intermarried are listed.

How this is about Jesus/Application

He moves the heart of kings and robbers to provide for and protect His people.

He wants a pure people, not mixed up with other gods.

Revelation 14-16

Summary
14
John sees 144,000 pure saints with the Lamb, while 3 angels proclaim the judgment and demise of Babylon.
Angels with sickles harvest the earth of its crops and wine, representing mankind.  The blood runs deep and long 186 miles and as high as a horses bridle.

15
John sees the saints and angels worshiping God around the sea of crystal.
He sees 7 angels with 7 bowls of plagues and wrath, which are poured out next.

16
The first 4 bowls bring sores and hurt on nature and all people.
The 5th strikes the beast's kingdom with darkness and anguish.
The 6th unleashes an unholy trinity of demons that gather the nations' armies to fight God at Armageddon.
The 7th brings earthquake, hail, and further torment on mankind.


How this is about Jesus
14 - He is with His saints and directs the close of history.
15/16 - He orders the punishments on unbelieving mankind.  This is the wrath of the Lamb.


Application
14 - At the end, men will be harvested as crops.  Will the farmer want to keep you as good grain, or throw you to the fire as diseased or withered and no good?

15 - Worship of God continues whether saints are received to their everlasting rest, or unrepentant receive punishment from Christ.

16 - Punishment often brings further rebellion from us.

Puritan Family Worship

Part 8 - Theology in Practice
Chapter 53 - Walking Godly in the Home

How you live at home shows your true spirituality.  "Follow hypocrites home to their houses, and there you shall see what they are" (862).

To lead at home well, delight yourself in the Lord (Psalm 101:1), commune with Him personally (Psalm 101:2), and maintain your integrity (Ps 101:2) and purity (Ps 101:3).  Bunyan speaks of guarding your ear-gate and eye-gate.

The Puritans regarded family worship as the mark of a godly father and a duty for Christian families.  1 Tim. 2:8; Gen. 18:19; Deut. 6:6-7; Josh. 24:15; Acts 10:2; Psalms 127-128; and 2 Sam. 6:20 all show God's purpose for families to worship Him as families.  "Those that love the Lord God themselves should do what they can to engage the affections of their children to him" (868).  Fathers, or mothers in their absence, should set the Word before them (Deut 6:6-7), and lead them in prayer and praise (Ps. 118:15).

The Directory for Family-Worship by the Church of Scotland (1647) is a helpful resource.  Family worship should not replace private devotions.  Avoid dogmatism about time and place.  Elements are:
Prayer - be brief, direct and varied, without asking for the same things, or shallow things, every day.
Praise - sing Psalms and hymns heartily.  Don't sing erroneous lyrics no matter how great the tune.
Read the Bible - involve the whole family and teach them how to read for the family.
Catechize - use catechisms to keep discussion on track and help the leader know best where to go.
Conversation - ask questions, discuss and apply truth.  Make children attend
Admonition - address them directly, calling them to believe and love and live the truth taught.
Be brief (but frequent) so you don't provoke smaller children, not trying to do all 6 of these at once.

Objections to family worship
"There is no command in the Bible to do this."  Not explicitly, but the verses above give the idea.
"This is unique to the Puritans."  They were following Scripture, and others like Chrysostom called for family leaders to shepherd their families.
"This limits God's Spirit."  No, we put ourselves in the way for His grace to work.
"We don't have time for this."  But you have time for your other entertainment?
"I'm not good at leading this."  That's fine - learn as you go, from others if needed.
"Some children won't participate."  Are they the master of your house, or the Lord?  No worship, no food.

Motivations to family worship
To bring your loved ones to God.
To glorify and thank Him.


Evaluation
This chapter hits a strong point for the authors and the Puritans, who "warned against 'too much austerity and severity' on the part of fathers to their children such as 'sourness in countenance, threatening and reviling in words, too hard handling, too severe correction, too much restraint of liberty, too small allowance of things needful' " (861).  The call to family worship and description of it is simple and clear for all to heed.  They are aware of cries of legalism and address them quite well.  But they know the greater danger today is trying to be spontaneous and thus not planning, and thus never getting around to devotional exercises.  "Never separate the outward forms of worship from the personal practice of the fear of God" (876).