The Duties of the Church (Bullinger)

Henry Bullinger's mid-sixteenth century publication, The Decades is a four volume collection of sermons on the main points of the Christian faith. The Decades is something like Calvin's Institutes in structure, content, and character. These sermons by Bullinger are worth reading! In the fifth book of The Decades, sermon 1, Bullinger wrote on the church. …

The Standard for True Piety and Godliness (Kuyper)

                Sometimes when one Christian sees another Christian's practices of piety he or she thinks, "That's a good practice, I should do it." At one level, this isn't a bad thing. Those who follow Jesus in faith and obedience should be good examples for others who follow him. …

Hypercalvinism, Election, and Godliness (Zanchi)

Hypercalvinism is a serious distortion of the gospel and the grace of God.  In hypercalvinist circles you'll hear sermons on election and reprobation, but you'll rarely hear calls to faith and repentance.  Hypercalvinists don't want to sound Arminian so they usually don't use terms like "receive Christ" or "flee to Jesus."  Hypercalvinism shows up in …

Godliness – Not By Our Own Strength

One excellent book on the topic of godliness is Willem Teellinck’s (d. 1629) The Path of True Godliness.  The following lines give a great snapshot of this discussion. “We must therefore begin to practice [godliness], not in our own strength, which means absolutely nothing, but in the power of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, …

Contentment, Prosperity, and God’s Glory

I’m grateful to the folks at Cross Focused Reviews and Reformation Heritage Books for the opportunity to review Jeremiah Burroughs’ Contentment, Prosperity, and God’s Glory for this week’s blog tour.  In case you haven’t heard of him, Burroughs (d. 1646) was a great Puritan preacher-theologian and a member of the Westminster Assembly. He is probably …