PRACTICAL WISDOM

THE

PASTOR’S

LIFE

FROM THE PURITANS

MATTHEW D. HASTE & SHANE W. PARKER

FOREWORD BY SINCLAIR B. FERGUSON

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2011.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version.

Copyright © Matthew D. Haste & Shane W. Parker 2019

paperback ISBN 978-1-5271-0367-2

epub ISBN 978-1-5271-0463-1

mobi ISBN 978-1-5271-0464-8

First published in 2019

by

Christian Focus Publications Ltd,

Geanies House, Fearn, Ross-shire,

IV20 1TW, Great Britain.

www.christianfocus.com

Cover by Pete Barnsley (CreativeHoot.com)

Images edited by Lindsey Jacobs (lindsey-jacobs.com)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying. In the U.K. such licences are issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London, EC1 8TS www.cla.co.uk

Contents

Acknowledgements

Foreword

by Sinclair Ferguson

1. The Puritans as Pastors

2. The Pastor’s Call

with John Bunyan

3. The Pastor’s Bible

with Thomas Goodwin and Stephen Charnock

4. The Pastor’s Doctrine

with John Owen

5. The Pastor’s Piety

with Lewis Bayly

6. The Pastor’s Prayers

with Matthew Henry

7. The Pastor’s Family

with William Gouge

8. The Pastor’s Preaching

with William Perkins

9. The Pastor’s Affections

with Richard Sibbes

10. The Pastor’s Shepherding

with Richard Baxter

11. The Pastor’s Evangelism

with John Eliot

12. The Pastor’s Leadership

with John Cotton and John Winthrop

13. The Pastor’s Failures

with Jonathan Edwards

14. The Pastor and the Puritans

Concluding Reflections from Thomas Brooks

Acknowledgements

In a book about a community of leaders, it is especially appropriate to acknowledge the many individuals who have contributed to this work.

We are grateful to Willie MacKenzie, Rosanna Burton, and the rest of the team at Christian Focus for their careful edits and consistent encouragement throughout this project. We want to thank Sinclair Ferguson for his kind, thoughtful foreword, and Lindsey Jacobs for her great work on the various images within the book. At the risk of forgetting a deserving co-laborer, we would also like to thank the following friends for reading early copies of the manuscript and offering valuable feedback: Brian Albert, Blake Batchelor, Will Cornell, David Gentino, Joe Harrod, Drew Hawthorne, Justin Howard, Caleb Pringle, Andre Rogers, Blaise Shields, Bill Starr, Nathan Stewart, and Randy Williamson.

I (Matt) want to thank my wife, Cheyenne—my best friend and brilliant editor. You are a treasure, who makes every day brighter and every sentence better. To Haddon, Anna, and Addie: thank you for supporting ‘Daddy’ ...