Puritans on Christ and the Gospel?

[FivePointSpurgeonist]

Wanting to focus the rest of the year on reading about Christ and what He has done, would love some recommended reading by the Puritans, books, discourses, sermons or anything good to add to my reading list would be great!

 

[W.C. Dean]

Can't go wrong with Death of Death by Owen

 

[PezLad]

Jonathan Edwards freedom of the will. Calvin's institutes. I bought both. I think it is wise endeavor for all christians to have a thorough understanding of original sin, the nature of volition, human depravity, reason and imagination. Only through Jesus Christ the King can one subject the body unto righteousness, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, a sweet aroma unto God. The Holy Spirit of truth, even the Truth, Jesus Christ the righteous, can mortify the flesh and vivify the inner man, the reason and imagination, where before both were wholly lost unto lust and idols.

 

[PezLad]

the blood and the Spirit by Andrew Murray; this is not puritan literature, nor is Murray the soundest of teachers, however he does get you to think about the blood of Christ. Does anyone have recommendations on the blood of Christ, the focus therein in puritan literature? Paul says "...faith in his blood." GILL: The "blood" of Christ is that, by which Christ is the propitiation; for without the shedding of that blood, there is no redemption, no peace, no reconciliation, or remission of sin; and "faith" in his blood is the means by which persons become partakers of the benefits of his propitiation; such as peace, pardon, atonement, justification, and adoption: and the end of Christ's being set forth as a propitiation, on the part of God's people, is, }}}}}. The blood of Christ the King is a most important focus of the sanctified christian mind.

 

[PezLad]

btw dont take Andrew Murray as gospel, but read critically; his book stimulates thinking on the blood of Christ the King. In some parts he appears to say some unbiblical stuff about the blood of Christ, so one must discern truth from error; i do not want to lead anyone astray.

 

[C. M. Sheffield]

Put this work at the top of your list—Looking Unto Jesus by Isaac Ambrose

After a serious illness in the early 1650s, Ambrose wrote a devotional on what the Lord had done for his soul, titled Looking unto Jesus, or the Soul’s Eyeing of Jesus as Carrying on the Great Work of Man’s Salvation (1658). The book, which stresses experiential identification with Jesus in thought and behavior, soon became a classic of Christ-centered divinity. Its readers feel they are standing on holy ground.

Ambrose describes numerous aspects of Christ’s ministry. For example, he presents Jesus’ ministry from eternity and during His life from a nine-point perspective: knowing Jesus, considering Jesus, desiring Jesus, hoping in Jesus, believing in Jesus, loving Jesus, rejoicing in Jesus, calling on Jesus, and conforming to Jesus in a particular aspect of His ministry.

Regarding conformity to Christ in His resurrection, Ambrose writes, “Look much at Christ raised, Christ glorified. [Let us] see our own personal vivification linked inseparably unto, and bottomed immovably upon the resurrection of Christ. When we can by faith get a sight of this, how courageously and successfully the soul will grapple in the controversies of the Lord against the devil, and our own deceitful hearts…. O that I could set my faith more frequently on Christ’s resurrection, so that at last I could see it by the light of God to be a destinated principle of my vivification in particular!” (pp. 490-91).This book has been reprinted many times, influencing many Christians over the centuries to pursue a closer walk with God. It equals Samuel Rutherford’s Letters in its Christcenteredness.

 

[Guido's Brother]

I just finished The Glory of Christ by John Owen (in the Puritan Paperbacks series). Awesome! Highly recommended.

Isaac Ambrose (mentioned above) is great too.

 

[Don Kistler]

"None But Christ" by John Wall, published by The Northampton Press.

 

[JTB.SDG]

Wanting to focus the rest of the year on reading about Christ and what He has done, would love some recommended reading by the Puritans, books, discourses, sermons or anything good to add to my reading list would be great!

Ha...any page of any Puritan volume will get you there

 

[CathH]

John Owen, The Glory of Christ.

If it doesn't have to be strictly the Puritans, these are excellent works on his atonement and intercession -

George Smeaton, The Apostles' Doctrine of the Atonement and Christ's Doctrine of the Atonement
Hugh Martin, The Atonement
William Symington, The Atonement and Intercession of Christ

 

[Shawn H]

John Owen, The Glory of Christ. This book gave great devotional thoughts to meditate on, "We might look on him praying, weeping, crying out, bleeding, dying,--in all things making his soul an offering for sin; so was he "taken from prison, and from judgment; and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression," saith God, "of my people was he smitten," Isa. 53:8. But these things I shall not insist on in particular, but leave them under such a veil as may give us a prospect into them, so far to fill our souls with holy admiration (Works of Owen Vol. 1 pg. 341, this was from his book Meditations on the Glory of Christ)."

Christ All in All by Philip Henry, published posthumously by his children. This book gives 40 offices of Christ. Though it does not hone in on just the atonement, it does cover Christ our Passover, Propitiation, Resurrection, Redemption, Altar, and then the last two chapters deals with Christ our all.
One of my favorite quotes from this book comes from the Christ our Life, "If there are no inward breathings towards God, no desires after him, no hearty praying, otherwise than in a cold, dead form rested in, the soul is dead. Crying is a sign of life. If there are no spiritual senses exercised, seeing, hearing, tasting, feeling; no sense of burden in sin, no taste of sweetness in the Word of God, no sight of invisible things, no ear to hear the voice either of the word or rod; the soul is dead (pg. 97)." From the chapter entitled, Christ our Redemption, "To this purpose we are told of a covenant of redemption which was transacted from all eternity between the Father and the Son, the terms whereof were--That if the Son would come and be a man and die, or that dying of his should be accepted as the price or ransom of all the elect, how many soever there were. The Son accepted of this motion, did what was to be done, suffered what was to be suffered, and so became our redemption (pg. 290)." Christ our altar, "Now our altar is Christ: the same is also our sacrifice. Of him we have all a right to eat, and may each of us take our part in him, and be refreshed and nourished by him if we will. But multitudes will not eat, that is, will not believe in him; for eating is believing, John 6:53-54 (pg. 361).

 

[arapahoepark]

John Owen, The Glory of Christ. This book gave great devotional thoughts to meditate on, "We might look on him praying, weeping, crying out, bleeding, dying,--in all things making his soul an offering for sin; so was he "taken from prison, and from judgment; and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression," saith God, "of my people was he smitten," Isa. 53:8. But these things I shall not insist on in particular, but leave them under such a veil as may give us a prospect into them, so far to fill our souls with holy admiration (Works of Owen Vol. 1 pg. 341, this was from his book Meditations on the Glory of Christ)."

Christ All in All by Philip Henry, published posthumously by his children. This book gives 40 offices of Christ. Though it does not hone in on just the atonement, it does cover Christ our Passover, Propitiation, Resurrection, Redemption, Altar, and then the last two chapters deals with Christ our all.
One of my favorite quotes from this book comes from the Christ our Life, "If there are no inward breathings towards God, no desires after him, no hearty praying, otherwise than in a cold, dead form rested in, the soul is dead. Crying is a sign of life. If there are no spiritual senses exercised, seeing, hearing, tasting, feeling; no sense of burden in sin, no taste of sweetness in the Word of God, no sight of invisible things, no ear to hear the voice either of the word or rod; the soul is dead (pg. 97)." From the chapter entitled, Christ our Redemption, "To this purpose we are told of a covenant of redemption which was transacted from all eternity between the Father and the Son, the terms whereof were--That if the Son would come and be a man and die, or that dying of his should be accepted as the price or ransom of all the elect, how many soever there were. The Son accepted of this motion, did what was to be done, suffered what was to be suffered, and so became our redemption (pg. 290)." Christ our altar, "Now our altar is Christ: the same is also our sacrifice. Of him we have all a right to eat, and may each of us take our part in him, and be refreshed and nourished by him if we will. But multitudes will not eat, that is, will not believe in him; for eating is believing, John 6:53-54 (pg. 361).

I second Christ in All. Devotional, yet weighty read.