Status
Not open for further replies.

C. Matthew McMahon

Christian Preacher

The Affects of Sin on the Soul – by John Dod (1549-1645).

John Dod (1549-1645) was a learned Reformed minister and puritan, an exquisite Hebrew scholar, and a most pious divine.

In an expanded treatise on 2 Samuel 24, Dod explains David’s grievous sin of numbering the people against the direct order of God. He shows that in actions of good intent, there can still be great sin which causes us harm, and causes God to act in judgment. Christians often perform activities that seem to glorify God, but are in fact a course of sin, especially when they are not recognized as sin. In diagnosing any sin, the first step to true repentance is to be wounded in our hearts for it against the holiness of God. Dod shows that sin brings Christians into all kinds of trouble, and that God will in fact make his judgments suitable to the sins of his people. In this, there is a great affect that sin has on the souls of God’s people.

Annexed to Dod’s work is Robert Cleaver’s (d. 1613) brief tract on godly zeal. Cleaver shows that whatever Christians are zealous for must in fact be lawfully good and for God’s glory. In being zealous, Christians must make the greatest account of the weightiest matters in religion. Such a zeal will tend towards personal, family and church reformation.

(This work is not a scan or facsimile, has been carefully transcribed by hand being made easy to read in modern English, and has an active table of contents for electronic versions.)

Get the eBook pack here at Puritan Publications.
Get the Printed Book here at our Spotlight Page.
Get the Google Book Version here.
Get the Kindle Version here.
Get the Nook Version here.

SinJohnDodCOVERPS.jpg
 

The Affects of Sin on the Soul – by John Dod (1549-1645).

John Dod (1549-1645) was a learned Reformed minister and puritan, an exquisite Hebrew scholar, and a most pious divine.

In an expanded treatise on 2 Samuel 24, Dod explains David’s grievous sin of numbering the people against the direct order of God. He shows that in actions of good intent, there can still be great sin which causes us harm, and causes God to act in judgment. Christians often perform activities that seem to glorify God, but are in fact a course of sin, especially when they are not recognized as sin. In diagnosing any sin, the first step to true repentance is to be wounded in our hearts for it against the holiness of God. Dod shows that sin brings Christians into all kinds of trouble, and that God will in fact make his judgments suitable to the sins of his people. In this, there is a great affect that sin has on the souls of God’s people.

Annexed to Dod’s work is Robert Cleaver’s (d. 1613) brief tract on godly zeal. Cleaver shows that whatever Christians are zealous for must in fact be lawfully good and for God’s glory. In being zealous, Christians must make the greatest account of the weightiest matters in religion. Such a zeal will tend towards personal, family and church reformation.

(This work is not a scan or facsimile, has been carefully transcribed by hand being made easy to read in modern English, and has an active table of contents for electronic versions.)

Get the eBook pack here at Puritan Publications.
Get the Printed Book here at our Spotlight Page.
Get the Google Book Version here.
Get the Kindle Version here.
Get the Nook Version here.

SinJohnDodCOVERPS.jpg
I wonder why writings that are this old are not public domain? Can anyone answer this and why there would be a charge for buying a book from 500 years ago? Perhaps I do not fully understand public domain apparently

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk
 
I wonder why writings that are this old are not public domain? Can anyone answer this and why there would be a charge for buying a book from 500 years ago? Perhaps I do not fully understand public domain apparently
Most of them are public domain and obtainable on the internet with some searching in the right places. For example:
http://www.prdl.org/author_view.php?a_id=245 (wait a few seconds for the page to fully load)

Then again, some are not readily available at all except in printed form in darkened areas of libraries.

That said, what is being sold by PP above is actually a reformatted, hand typed, and usually modernized version of the same, unless otherwise advertised, along with additional commentary, introduction, etc. So you are paying for the publisher's efforts to bring such a work forward.

The very nominal amount for such a work is worth the price, versus trudging through a 30 megabyte scan or facsimile (usually poorly done) of the original with its old English typesetting and wording on a darkened background. Electronic versions like this are also searchable and contain active tables of contents for easy navigation.
 
I wonder why writings that are this old are not public domain? Can anyone answer this and why there would be a charge for buying a book from 500 years ago? Perhaps I do not fully understand public domain apparently

Lauren,

This is a great question.

Interest in solid Reformed and Puritan works continues to grow today because without a doubt, they are the most Christ-glorifying works in church history, In my humble opinion. However, many readers find these old works hard to understand. They don't, generally speaking, like reading Old English. On top of that, many of the "available" old works are in rough shape. They get posted online with a hard to read format. Usually this is the cause of poor scanning, or just the antiquity of the work. Many are certainly online for free. You simply have to wade through the difficult text and formatting to read them.

I overcome that difficulty by offering Reformed and Puritan books that are not generally long (under 200 pages most of the time), and carefully edited with modern readers in mind. We take time to update the difficult language of the Reformation and Puritanism without losing the intention of the original authors. That way they read in modern English. And, you can take advantage of key biblical subjects written by some of the most gifted men in the history of the Christian church in easier typeface.

Doing that is exceedingly time consuming, and quite a bit of work by my wife and I. None of our books are facsimiles, or scans. They are meticulously typed out, reformatted and such.

Another issue surrounds the old works that are public domain by definition. The Print on Demand publishers will not print public domain works of any kind, even updated as much as we do, unless there is "new" and "original" content in the book. That means with every new work, I write both a bio of the writer, and a seperate chapter on some topic that relates to the work, such as an intro to the topic, or some summary of key points.

Again, unless one owns their own printing press, like Banner of Truth or Reformation Heritage Books, this is an extra added amount of time and labor on every book.

Also, many of the book publishers that own their own printing house have just begun to create eBooks. Formatting eBooks is a pain, and tedious. This is why there are relatively few made that way. You have to create a printed book format, a separate Kindle format, a separate Nook and iBook format, etc. Its like making 5 books for every one.

And just think, I charge as much as a Venti cappuccino at Starbucks for all that work, on one book that I might have 30 people purchase. Much less advertise it via video, which I also have to make, edit and render.

So on that brief note, a LOT goes into it, which is really an understatement.

Why do I do it? Well, 239 books so far, 60+ from Westminster Divines, and 95% which have never been republished since the 17th century. They are, simply, the best books, and most Christ glorifying. They are most certainly worth the time and trouble.

I hope that helps!
 
Most of them are public domain and obtainable on the internet with some searching in the right places. For example:
http://www.prdl.org/author_view.php?a_id=245 (wait a few seconds for the page to fully load)

Then again, some are not readily available at all except in printed form in darkened areas of libraries.

That said, what is being sold by PP above is actually a reformatted, hand typed, and usually modernized version of the same, unless otherwise advertised, along with additional commentary, introduction, etc. So you are paying for the publisher's efforts to bring such a work forward.

The very nominal amount for such a work is worth the price, versus trudging through a 30 megabyte scan or facsimile (usually poorly done) of the original with its old English typesetting and wording on a darkened background. Electronic versions like this are also searchable and contain active tables of contents for easy navigation.
:D Thank you for the link and your ideas/ comments :)

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk
 
Is there a way to purchase from APM without Paypal? I prefer bill pay through our bank.
 
Lauren,

This is a great question.

Interest in solid Reformed and Puritan works continues to grow today because without a doubt, they are the most Christ-glorifying works in church history, In my humble opinion. However, many readers find these old works hard to understand. They don't, generally speaking, like reading Old English. On top of that, many of the "available" old works are in rough shape. They get posted online with a hard to read format. Usually this is the cause of poor scanning, or just the antiquity of the work. Many are certainly online for free. You simply have to wade through the difficult text and formatting to read them.

I overcome that difficulty by offering Reformed and Puritan books that are not generally long (under 200 pages most of the time), and carefully edited with modern readers in mind. We take time to update the difficult language of the Reformation and Puritanism without losing the intention of the original authors. That way they read in modern English. And, you can take advantage of key biblical subjects written by some of the most gifted men in the history of the Christian church in easier typeface.

Doing that is exceedingly time consuming, and quite a bit of work by my wife and I. None of our books are facsimiles, or scans. They are meticulously typed out, reformatted and such.

Another issue surrounds the old works that are public domain by definition. The Print on Demand publishers will not print public domain works of any kind, even updated as much as we do, unless there is "new" and "original" content in the book. That means with every new work, I write both a bio of the writer, and a seperate chapter on some topic that relates to the work, such as an intro to the topic, or some summary of key points.

Again, unless one owns their own printing press, like Banner of Truth or Reformation Heritage Books, this is an extra added amount of time and labor on every book.

Also, many of the book publishers that own their own printing house have just begun to create eBooks. Formatting eBooks is a pain, and tedious. This is why there are relatively few made that way. You have to create a printed book format, a separate Kindle format, a separate Nook and iBook format, etc. Its like making 5 books for every one.

And just think, I charge as much as a Venti cappuccino at Starbucks for all that work, on one book that I might have 30 people purchase. Much less advertise it via video, which I also have to make, edit and render.

So on that brief note, a LOT goes into it, which is really an understatement.

Why do I do it? Well, 239 books so far, 60+ from Westminster Divines, and 95% which have never been republished since the 17th century. They are, simply, the best books, and most Christ glorifying. They are most certainly worth the time and trouble.

I hope that helps!
Wow yes that explains it very thoroughly. I just imagined reading the old originals in Old English which doesn't bother me at all but everything that you've done and all the efforts that you've made to modernize them and get them out to the public sounds great also! Thanks for explaining it all! God-bless you guys for trying to make these more main stream Or I mean accessible!

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top