Tuesday 2 October 2007

Farewell Sermons

D R Brooker wrote on a blog now removed:
Anyone with a passing interest in the history of 17th century Puritanism knows what happened in the year 1662. ... Iain Murray called this event a “spiritual watershed which which divides two eras of our religious history.” ... These men ... ruled themselves by principle and would rather rely on God to provide for them than opt for the comforts of employment and participate in what they deemed to be the mechanical worship of God. They acted to their own detriment for the honour of Christ.
[He gives John Stoughton's description of the last Sunday before expulsion when most farewell sermons were preached.]
Upon their ouster from the pulpit, many of these men preached “farewell sermons” to their beloved congregations. Many of them were wonderful exhortations to remain faithful to Christ and diligent in their study of the Scriptures. A number of these original sermons were collected and published as Sermons of the Great Ejection in two separate editions: 1662 and 1663; the latter containing more material. This volume of sermons has never been reprinted in its entirety. (We can only hope that Jon Dorsey of Dust & Ashes Publications keeps this volume on his list of planned books to republish in the future. I know he’s wanted to do this for some time). Both Banner of Truth (1962) and Soli Deo Gloria (1992) published a book of Ejection sermons drawing on materials from the original editions, but sadly, both books are long out of print. If I had to recommend one over the other, Farewell Sermons by SDG would be my choice as it contains more material, however, it is also the harder of the two books to find.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Solid Ground Christian Books now has plans to do a new edition of the FAREWELL SERMONS taken from the SDG edition. We have learned that SDG (now owned by RHB) have no plans to redo, and Don Kistler (former owner of SDG) has given his endorsement to our pursuit. Any help promoting this work will be greatly appreciated. We plan to have available early summer 2011.
Thanks. - Mike Gaydosh