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The Puritan Hope THE PURITAN HOPE [iv] Introduction THE PURITAN HOPE A STUDY IN REVIVAL AND THE INTERPRETATION OF PROPHECY Iain H. Murray THE BANNER OF TRUTH TRUST [v] THE PURITAN HOPE THE BANNER OF TRUTH TRUST 3 Murrayfield Road, Edinburgh EH12 6EL, UK P.O. Box 621, Carlisle, PA 17013, USA * © Iain H. Murray 1971 First published (clothbound) 1971 Reprinted in small-format paperback 1975 Reprinted 1984 Reprinted 1991 Reprinted 1998 Reprinted 2009 Re-typeset and reprinted in large-format paperback 2014 Reprinted 2017 ISBN Print: 978 1 84871 478 6 EPUB: 978 1 84871 479 3 Kindle: 978 1 84871 480 9 * Typeset in 10.5/14 pt Sabon Oldstyle at The Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh Printed in the USA by Versa Press, Inc., East Peoria, IL [vi] Introduction TO THE TRUSTEES AND ALL MY COLLEAGUES WHO SHARE IN THE WORK OF THE BANNER OF TRUTH TRUST [vii] THE PURITAN HOPE [viii] Introduction CONTENTS List of Illustrations xi Introduction xiii 1 Revival Christianity: England 1 2 Revival Christianity: Scotland 19 3 Unfulfilled Prophecy: The Development of the Hope 37 4 Apostolic Testimony: The Basis of the Hope 57 5 The Hope and Puritan Piety 85 6 The Eighteenth-century Awakening: The Hope Revived 107 7 World Missions: The Hope Spreading 133 8 The Hope and Scotland’s Missionaries 167 9 The Eclipse of the Hope 195 10 Christ’s Second Coming: The Best Hope 219 11 The Prospect in History: Christ Our Hope 233 APPENDICES John Howe on The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit 255 C. H. Spurgeon’s Views on Prophecy 273 Notes 285 Index 313 Index to Scripture References 325 [ix] THE PURITAN HOPE [x] Introduction ILLUSTRATIONS Elstow xiii Samuel Fairclough 1 The Glasgow College 19 David Dickson’s Church at Irvine 36 Richard Sibbes 37 ‘The Holie Land’, 1576 57 The Seal of the New England Corporation 85 George Whitefield 107 David Bogue 133 William Carey 139 Rowland Hill and Surrey Chapel, London 140 Alexander Duff 141 John Love 141 David Livingstone 142 The Albury Park Conference 143 Edward Irving 143 The Kilsyth Manse 167 St Andrews 194 Funeral of C. H. Spurgeon 195 Six Canterbury Martyrs 219 Matthew Henry’s Chapel at Chester 233 [xi] THE PURITAN HOPE [xii] Introduction INTRODUCTION Elstow, where John Bunyan was born in 1628 — a time when the gospel was in the ascendancy throughout England. [xiii] THE PURITAN HOPE The word hope I take for faith; and indeed hope is nothing else but the constancy of faith. JOHN calvin Commentaries on the Epistle of Paul to the Hebrews chapter 3, verse 6 But our chief consolation is that this is the cause of God and that he will take it in hand to bring it to a happy issue. Even though all the princes of the earth were to unite for the maintenance of our Gospel, still we must not make that the foundation of our hope. So, likewise, whatever resistance we see today offered by almost all the world to the progress of the truth, we must not doubt that our Lord will come at last to break through all the undertakings of men and make a passage for his word. Let us hope boldly, then, more than we can understand; he will still surpass our opinion and our hope. JOHN CALVIN Quoted by J. H. Merle D’Aubigné, History of the Reformation in Europe in the time of Calvin, 1876, Vol. 7, 49 Strong and certain was the conviction of the Christians that the church would come forth triumphant out of its conflicts, and, as it was its destination to be a world-transforming principle, would attain to dominion of the world. J. A. W. NEANDER History of the Christian Religion and Church translated by Joseph Torrey, Vol. 2, 1851, 395-6 Though our persons fall, our cause shall be as truly, certainly, and infallibly victorious, as that Christ sits at the right hand of God. The gospel shall be victorious. This greatly comforts and refreshes me. JOHN OWEN The Use of Faith, if Popery Should Return Upon Us, 1680 [The Works of John Owen, 1851, Vol. 9, 507-8] There will come a time when the generality of mankind, both Jew and Gentile, shall come to Jesus Christ. He hath had but little takings of the world yet, but he will have before he hath done. THOMAS GOODWIN, 1600–1679 Sermon XXXIV in An Exposition of the First Chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians [Complete Works, 1861, Vol. 1, 520] [xiv] Introduction There will come a time when in this world holiness shall be more general, and more eminent, than ever it hath been since Adam fell in paradise. THOMAS BROOKS The Crown and Glory of Christianity, 1662 [Complete Works, Vol. 4, 434] There have been great and glorious days of the gospel in this land; but they have been small in comparison of what shall be. JAMES RENWICK, martyred 17 February 1688 A Choice Collection of Prefaces, Lectures, and Sermons by James Renwick, 1777, 279 Plain it is, there is not a more stupifying, benumbing thing in all the world than mere despair. To look upon such a sad face and aspect of things through the world as we have before our eyes; to look upon it despairingly and with the apprehension that it never will, never can be better . But hope is a kind of anticipated enjoyment and gives a present participation in the expected pleasantness of those days, how long soever they may yet be off from us . Religion shall not be an inglorious thing in the world always. JOHN HOWE Sermons on The Prosperous State of the Christian Interest Before the End of Time, 1678 [Works, 1837, 578-9] I had a strong hope, that God would ‘bow the heavens and come down’ and do some marvellous work among the Heathen. DAVID BRAINERD Life and Diary for 22 July 1744, Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 2, 1840, 349 Hope is one of the principal springs that keep mankind in motion. It is vigorous, bold, and enterprising. It causes men to encounter dangers, endure hardships, and surmount difficulties innumerable, in order to accomplish the desired end. In religion it is of no less consequence. It makes a considerable part of the religion of those that truly fear God . ANDREW FULLER, first Secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society, in a circular letter to the Churches of the Northamptonshire Associa- tion on The Excellency and Utility of the Grace of Hope, 1782 [Complete Works, 1841, 714] [xv] THE PURITAN HOPE I long to be engaged in the blessed work of saying to the heathen, ‘Behold your God!’ Do not think that the future scenes cast me down. No! behold I go full of hope. ROBERT MOFFAT, Pioneer missionary to South Africa, to his parents before departing, 1816 The Lives of Robert and Mary Moffat, J. S. Moffat, 1896, 23 We also rejoice in hope. We have many and express assurances in the Scriptures, which cannot be broken, of the general, the univer- sal spread and reign of Christianity, which are not yet accomplished. Nothing has yet taken place in the history of Divine grace, wide enough in extent, durable enough in continuance, powerful enough in energy, blessed enough in enjoyment, magnificent enough in glory, to do anything like justice to these predictions and promises. Better days, therefore, are before us, notwithstanding the forebodings of many. WILLIAM JAY, 1769–1853, Nonconformist leader The Autobiography and Reminiscences of the Rev. William Jay, 1855, 162 David was not a believer in the theory that the world will grow worse and worse, and that the dispensation will wind up with general dark- ness, and idolatry. Earth’s sun is to go down amid tenfold night if some of our prophetic brethren are to be believed. Not so do we expect, but we look for a day when the dwellers in all lands shall learn right- eousness, shall trust in the Saviour, shall worship thee alone, O God, ‘and shall glorify thy name.’ The modern notion has greatly damped the zeal of the church for missions, and the sooner it is shown to be unscriptural the better for the cause of God. It neither consorts with prophecy, honours God, nor inspires the church with ardour. Far hence be it driven. C. H. SPURGEON From an exposition of Psalm 86:9, ‘All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name.’ The Treasury of David, 1874. [xvi] Introduction af AF y father was a Christian who believed in prayer but I Mknew and understood little of his praying until after my own conversion at the age of seventeen. From that time as I listened to my father’s petitions I concurred with them all—all, that is, except one, and this one had to do with a subject which was so much a part of his praying that I could not miss the divergence in our thought. Our difference concerned the extent to which the success of the kingdom of Christ is to be expected in the earth. My father would pray for its universal spread and global triumph, for the day when ‘nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more,’ and when great multitudes in all lands will be found numbered among the travail of Christ’s soul. According to the teaching with which I was then in contact these petitions were misguided, the product of a theological liberalism which believed in the upward pro- gress of man and in the coming of a better world.
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