A Beginners List for Reading Old Writers | The Whole Counsel

Recommended Old Writers for Beginners

Well, Jeremy, we're kind of needing to bring this down to a close, so why don't you give us kind of a sampler list, if you were to recommend some of the older riders, and you could just give a few. Who would you mention?

Well, I always hate that question, John, because I'm stuck with this embarrassment of riches. I think in terms of some of the men who've been a particular blessing to me, and I feel awkward, because it's like telling some of your friends that they're not part of a gang.

Anymore.

But Spurgeon, I love for his Christ-centeredness, and there's a beautiful collection of sermons or treatments. The Saint and His Savior, which is a wonderful study of the believer's relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ, absolutely fantastic.

John Bunyan, he's vivid, he's accessible. Again, he's taken up with the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm going to mention the Holy War, in fact. I love the Holy War. I really think that he's got this penetrating insight into the inner spiritual life, and it's so practical.

And then other favorites, some of the 18th century particular Baptists, men like Andrew Fuller, Samuel Pearce, John Ryland. There's a recent Andrew Fuller reader that's come out that could be a really good introduction.

And there's a couple of lovely little studies of Samuel Pearce that include some of his sermons or writings. Absolutely beautiful. But those, again, start there and think about the people that they talk about.

John Flavel and Christ in The Fountain of Life

How about you? Where would you go?

Yeah, well, you know, when we were talking about this earlier, I wrote a list, and then I wrote another list. So it's like you said, you know?

You're cheating.

Yeah, yeah.

So different guys crowd in and kick the door in and say, you're not leaving me out.

All right.

So I'm going to... I would say one of the early, most significant older writers that I read would have been John Flavel, and it was that book, The Fountain of Life, where, as you mentioned, it's really a Christology, but it's a collection of sermons.

So each one is kind of an individual unit. So as you mentioned, different than reading a long, kind of complicated, maybe a little more difficult work on Christ. So just all those heartwarming looks at Christ, but laid out in a very logical order.

So I found that very helpful. For letters, we're going to have a tie in the letter category. Rutherford's letters, as I mentioned, I had read a lot of guys who mentioned Rutherford's letters. So Spurgeon, I think Spurgeon must have given a blurb for more books than any human on the earth.

And so he says, aside from scripture, this is one of the greatest books. And even Rutherford's enemy, theologically, Richard Baxter said one of Rutherford's books was the worst book ever written in the English language.

And then the letters was the best book written in the English language by man. So, but Rutherford's letters, but I do say that with a kind of a little caveat. I do encourage people to start when he finds out he's going to be arrested for preaching the gospel and standing against the tyranny of the kings.

And start there when he starts traveling north in Scotland, where he's going to be under house arrest, because then he starts to speak of Christ in a way that just finds a new gear.

That experience of drawing near to God and God drawing near to him then starts to bleed out, doesn't it?

Yeah, yeah.

He describes prison as being living in the suburbs of heaven. He says, you know, I'm almost seeing, it's not even faith anymore. It's almost sight. And you know, and he was having such experiences of the nearness of God that he had to guard himself from two Christs, the Christ of scripture.

And then he had to guard himself from making an idol of the nearness of Christ, the experience you know. So what wonderful.

Yeah, it's just not a problem most of us struggle with, sadly.

John Newton's Pastoral Letters and Thomas Vincent on the Unseen Christ

And then the other letter writers, John Newton, I've read Newton's sermons and they're fine. But he's not my favorite sermon writer, but his pastoral letters, I read a little each night of those. And to me, those are just so down to earth practical.

I am ashamed at how he, I am ashamed at how easily as a pastor or as an individual I get stuck with these, you know, I don't know, you know, all this circumstantial stuff. And Newton just goes right to Christ.

And everything then sinks into its right proportion, you know, its right size compared to Christ. And my last one I'll throw in there is Thomas Vincent's little book, The True Christians The Unseen Christ.

And that was a book that helped me, you mentioned that it helped you during one of those times of coldness. I remember a quote by Rutherford, who said that, we dwell far from the well and complain dryly of our dryness, but we are dry, not thirsty.

So the point he was making was, go to the well, if you're thirsty, go to the well, quick complaining you're dry. So Vincent, to me, was like one of those wells where I ran to him and he gave me a cup of Christ and, you know, really reignited things that had become cold.

Yeah. Yeah.

Well, if you're getting four, I'm going to add John Fawcett's Christ Precious to Those Who Believe, which does just that same thing. Why do we delight in Christ? And he just has this beautiful, warm, stately tread around the Lord Jesus.

And he's just, you come away thinking, that's it. That's what it means. That's who, that's who this is all about. This is where I see the glory of God shining forth. Fantastic stuff.