Prayer Meeting 5/3/2024
The Great Ejection Of 1662
(Thomas Watson)
Watch the sermon HERE.
Tonight we will draw from puritan Thomas Watson’s last sermon to his congregation, just before we was removed as it’s pastor for non-conformity during the great ejection of 1662.
Before I go into Watson’s sermon and advice, let me start with reading our puritan prayer.
This prayer is by Watson, during his sermon, and not therefore in any of the main prayer books we draw from. But this is Watson’s prayer to his congregation prior to his sermon.
It’s a lengthy prayer and well worth spending time in it, but for our purpose I will only read a small section from it. It’s on Page 137-138 of ‘The Great Ejection’ puritan paperback, from the Banner of Truth publishers:
Though we have lost the dutifulness of children, thou hast not lost the goodness of a Father. Let us be held forth as patterns of mercy, so shall we trumpet forth thy praise to all eternity. Whatever afflictions thou layest upon our bodies, let not our sins be unpardoned, let not sin and affliction be together upon us. Let there be peace in heaven and peace in the court of conscience. We have found this part of thy Word true: ‘in the world we shall have trouble’. Let us find the other part true: ‘in Jesus Christ we shall have peace’. O let peace and holiness go together. Make us new creatures, that we may be glorious creatures. Without faith Christ will not profit us. When we can call nothing in the world ours, let us call Christ ours… …bless all thine ordinances to us, make them to be the fullness of life to everyone before thee. We are come this day to partake of them. O pour in wine and oil into our souls, let us be watered gardens, let this blessed sacrament be a poison to our lust and nourishment for our grace. Hear us, be our Lord, be our God. Follow us with mercy, crown us with acceptance, and all for Christ’s sake, whom not seeing we love, in whom believing, we rejoice. To Christ with thee and the Holy Spirit be glory and honour and praise, now and forever, amen.
Let me read a snippet of the non-conformists catechism, which really tells of the truths and arguments of why they would not and could not comply. There are 61 of them. I am only going to read the first two:
- What are the grand principles in which the protestant non-conformist ground their separation from the church by law established? – The right of private judgement and liberty of conscience in opposition to all human authority in matters of religion. The supremacy of Christ as the only head of His church, and the sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures as the only rule of faith and practice.
- Does the scripture not require us to be subject to the civil magistrate as the ministers of God for conscience sake? – Yes, doubtless, in all civil affairs but not in matters of religion, much less in things contrary to the law of God. So that all human laws which are inconsistent with the divine ought to be disobeyed.
Watson in his farewell sermon entitled ‘Parting Counsels’, draws from the life and ministry of Apostle Paul. And in particular his love for his fellow believer, and those he pastors and fathers.
Watson’s text is from 2 Corinthians 7:1
Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
Watson only draws from the first half of the verse, as he speaks of Paul’s love for his people, and in turn his love for his own congregation in whom he now must depart.
I can’t imagine having to say farewell, or being told I can no longer serve you all or bring God’s Word. It’s no wonder Watson used this verse. It must have been heartbreaking, but at the same time, he had to show faithfulness and impart as much as he could before he left.
Watson speaks with most humble awe of Apostle Paul in his opening words. Firstly drawing on the two words ‘dearly beloved’. Oh to have those words not just on our lips but imbedded in our hearts towards one another. Watson says:
As a minister’s head is exercised with labour, so his heart is exercised with love.
Watson says of Apostle Paul:
St. Paul’s heart was a spring of love, his lips were the pipe, the Corinthians were the cistern into which this spring ran.
We ourselves have witnessed this unwavering love that Paul had for his congregation in Corinth. Watson again on Paul:
This man of God not only bestowed a sermon upon his people, but was willing to impart his very soul to them, if it might save theirs.
He adds:
Such was Paul’s affection to his people that he loved them more than his life.
It’s not that Paul never brought rebuke, as we know, nor that he never confronted, but as Watson wonderfully says:
No sooner did he lance the wound, but immediately he poured wine and oil into it.
Oh isn’t that such a picture of Christ? He cuts us open, then pours His blood into ours to cleanse us.
Oh how so many run from being cut, not knowing the blood, oil and the grace, and mercy and love is going to cover all the wounds.
Too often people feel the pain of the wound and run away from the healing that will come, and blame the lancer; blame those that have exposed the wound. However, true love not only opens the wound, but pours loving kindness into it, to bring deeper healing from any further infection.
Surely anyone in ministry must have this loving care at the very root of all they do. Watson says of those who have not:
How sad it is to have such ministers pour upon people as have no love for their souls. The work of the ministry is a labour of love. Oh how sad it is in the ministry as to have one who neither labours nor loves.
I think Watson for sure had that love for his congregation. Based on all he lived and taught that we have at our disposal.
Watson then, as a parting instruction, pours his heart into his people on what he would desire for them, in order to stand firm in the faith and keep growing and remain steadfast. A bit like Paul’s parting words to his spiritual son Timothy.
Watson then gives twenty directions to his people. He says:
There are, my beloved, twenty directions, that I desire you to take special notice of, which I would leave as advice and counsel about your souls.
So, as you’ll hear, all Watson has in mind is the spiritual wellbeing of his congregation’s souls, not his own situation. They are going to be pastor-less, he therefore is deeply intent on them not stumbling.
Tonight I will go through the first seven, and then follow on next time, maybe to a conclusion, as our introduction has took some time, we will see when we meet next if we can do so. Otherwise we will do it three parts:
- I beseech you, keep your constant hours every day with the Lord.
Watson adds:
The two testaments are the two lips by which God speaks to us.
He continues:
The scripture is both the glass to show you your spots, and a laver to wash them away.
Watsons second instruction:
- Get good books in your house… …when you have not that wholesome preaching that you desire, good books are cisterns that hold the waters of life in them to refresh you.
- Have care of good company, take heed to unnecessary familiarity with sinners.
I think the key here is ‘unnecessary familiarity’. I’m sure I’ve quoted this before earlier in First Corinthians, when Watson says to his congregants ‘we cannot catch health from another, but we may soon catch a disease.’
He then warns them:
I would be as afraid of coming among the wicked as among those that have the plague.
Often we have such loose boundaries with truly wicked people, it’s not long that we need to spend in their company but they start to affect us, and infect us.
The devil loves to play the ‘love and tolerance’ card, because he knows how quickly it infects our souls.
Again I think I quoted this previously, when Watson says:
If we cannot make others better, let us have a care that they don’t make us worse.
Such pertinent advice. Often we spend way too long trying to help people who are toxic and unwilling to get better, when it only makes us worse.
- Have care whom you hear.
I think few things must have concerned Watson more for his people than the false teachers who he knew would be lurking in the wings. And without a wise under-shepherd, they were even more susceptible to them.
Apostle Paul talks much about being aware of false teachers and wolves. Because he knows the level of damage they can cause to the souls of God’s people, and that they can be led astray.
This is why those that claim to be Christians, yet don’t sit under sound teaching, and are not members of a church, are in a perilous position. Often they eventually create their own theology, but its born from wrong teaching in the first place.
Some can distinguish between truth and error but many can’t due to their own lack. This is why we must grow in our own devotion to God’s Word - so we can test it when its preached.
- Follow after sincerity.
What does Watson mean by that?
He means: don’t be fake, don’t pretend to behave like a Christian when you’re not privately acting like one.
Watson says:
A little rusty gold is far better than a great of bright brass, a little true grace, though rusted over with many infirmities, is better than all the glittering shows of hypocrites.
I think one thing that happens, and is a danger of happening when you’re not sitting under continued sound teaching and pastoral care, is the tendency to start faking your life due to the lack of both accountability, and being convicted through the strong preaching.
The church is awash with pious Christians who truly do not live anywhere near how they try and portray themselves to others.
How many a so called Christian have you met that don’t attend church, who think they are better than they are? In fact, its those that are devoted who know how ‘not better’ they are, hence they need to trust that God making his grace is way more powerful.
- As you love your souls, be not strangers to yourselves.
This is a follow on from the previous, in fact it’s the opposite.
To not be a stranger to ourselves, is to look intently in the mirror. To examine ourselves.
One thing for sure that those who are not in church, or don’t have sound pastoral care in their life, is that they lose sight of who they are.
Often they stop examining themselves at all. Hence when you see them after a while, you who are devoted and committed are often utterly shocked at their decline from any form of truth, or awareness they show.
Because of the lack of examination, there is a total shift in truth towards obscurity. Sadly they don’t even see it, and worse - they think that they are on the right path, and it’s the devoted and committed who are straying.
Okay lastly:
- Keep your spiritual watch.
Again Watson is remaining in the same vain, such is its importance.
Without our vigilance, sin will find its way into our lives very subtly. Watson says:
Our sleeping time is the devil’s tempting time.
Amen.
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