Thomas Watson: 24 Helps to Read the Scripture.10

04 Saturday Jun 2016

Posted by memoirandremains in Bibliology, Faith, Reading, Thomas Watson, Uncategorized

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24 Helps to Read the Scripture, Faith, Reading, Thomas Watson

In this section, Watson makes one argument: To read the Scripture profitably, we must believe that the Scripture comes from God.

He supports that direction with the contention that the assertion of divine origin is not a bare assertion, but one grounded in reason. Thus, it is an interesting mix of presuppositional and evidentiary apologetic.

First, the basic direction

Give credence to the word written; believe it to be of God; see the name of God in every line. The Romans, that they might gain credit to their laws, reported that they were inspired by the gods at Rome. Believe the Scriptures to be divinely inspired. 2 Tim. 3:16: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.”

Before going further with this argument, we must realize the importance of this direction. If we do not believe the Scripture to be sacred, we cannot read it with any profit. All good which we receive from God comes through the conduit of faith, of trust and belief. If we do not trust or believe the words of Scripture, the words can never do us good. It did the disciples no good to be told that Jesus had risen from the dead, when they did not believe the story related by the woman. Luke 24:11.

Watson then turns to his evidence: He sets up his argument by testing the presuppositions against evidence. His basic argument runs as follows:

If the Scripture is divine, then it will have quality X.
It has quality X.
Therefore, the Scripture is divine.

Who but God could reveal the great doctrines of the Trinity, the atonement of Jesus Christ for sinners, the resurrection? Whence should the Scriptures come, if not from God?

He then makes a second argument which supports and develops the first. The structure of the argument is:

If the Scripture were from someone beside it God, it would lack quality X.
It does not lack quality X.
Therefore, it is from God.

However, to make it more rhetorically emphatic, he phrases the argument, It is not from someone beside God, because it has quality X.

Sinners could not be the authors of Scripture; would they indite such holy lines, or inveigh so fiercely against the sins which they love?

Saints could not be the authors of Scripture; how could it stand with their sanctity to counterfeit God’s name, and put “thus saith the Lord,” to a book of their own devising?

Angels could not be the authors of Scripture. What angel in heaven durst personate God, and say, “I am the Lord?”

Then re-asserts his primary contention and adds additional divine qualities: antiquity, profundity, purity, harmony, efficacy.

Believe the pedigree of Scripture to be sacred, and to come from the Father of light. The antiquity of Scripture speaks its divinity. No human history extant reaches farther than Noah’s flood; but the Scripture treats of things before time. Beside, the majesty, profundity, purity and harmony of Scripture, show it could be breathed from none but God himself.

Add to this the efficacy the written word hath upon men’s consciences; by reading Scripture they have been turned into other men, as may be instanced in Austin, Junius, and others. If you should set a seal upon a piece of marble, and it should leave a print behind, you would say there was a strange virtue in that seal; so that, when the written word leaves a heavenly print of grace upon the heart, it argues it to be of divine authority. If you would profit by the word, you must believe it to be of God. Some skeptics question the verity of Scripture; though they have the articles of religion in their creed, yet not in their belief.

He ends with the restatement

Unbelief enervates the virtue of the word and makes it abortive; who will obey truths he does not believe? Heb. 4:2: “The word did not profit them, not being mixed with faith.”

Thomas Watson, “How We May Read the Scriptures with Most Spiritual Profit,” in The Bible and the Closet: Or How We May Read the Scriptures with the Most Spiritual Profit; and Secret Prayer Successfully Managed, ed. John Overton Choules (Boston: Gould, Kendall and Lincoln, 1842), 25–27.

Thomas Watson, 24 Helps to Read the Scripture.7

07 Saturday May 2016

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VII. Labor to remember what you read. Satan would steal the word out of our mind; not that he intends to make use of it himself, but lest we should make use of it. The memory should be like the chest in the ark, where the ark was put. Psalm 119:52: “I remembered thy judgments of old.” Jerome speaks of that religious lady, Paula, that she had most of the Scriptures by heart; we are bid to have “the word dwell in us.” Col. 3:16. The word is a jewel; it adorns the hidden man, and shall we not remember it? If the word stays not in the memory, it cannot profit. Some can better remember a piece of news than a line of Scripture; their memories are like those ponds where the frogs live, but the fish die.

If we have no memory, we cannot mediate:

Get a love to spiritual things. We usually meditate on those things which we love.—The voluptuous man can muse on his pleasures: the covetuous man on his bags of gold. Did we love heavenly things, we should meditate more on them. Many say they cannot meditate, because they want memory; but is it not rather because they want affection? Did they love the things of God, they would make them their continual study and meditation.

Thomas Watson, The Christian Soldier, or Heaven Taken by Storm, ed. Armstrong, Second American Edition. (New York: Robert Moore, 1816), 54–55.

Failing to remember what we read is like chewing food but never swallowing: we gain a taste but get little profit.

Thomas Watson, 24 Helps to Read the Scripture

02 Monday May 2016

Posted by memoirandremains in Reading, Scripture, Thomas Watson, Uncategorized

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24 Helps to Read the Scripture, Judgment Day, Reading, salvation, Spiritual Disciplines, Thomas Watson

In this section, Watson gives a general proposition, three motivations and a rebuke.

First, the general proposition: Read the Scripture with seriousness:

VI. Read the word with seriousness. I one go over the Scripture cursorily, says Erasmus, there is little good to be got by it; but if he be serious in reading it, it is the savor of life; and well may we be serious if we consider the importance of those truths which are bound up in this sacred volume. Deut. 32:47: “It is not a vain thing for you; it is your life.” If a letter were to be broken open and read, wherein a man’s whole estate were concerned, how serious would he be in reading it.

Watson does not give further explanation of what he means by seriousness; however, some consideration will make the point clear. First, seriousness at the least requires undivided attention. Go into a room where someone else is intently watching a movie or a sporting event at a critical juncture. Their entire attention is focused upon that one thing and any distraction is likely to upset them. If the Scripture is as serious as fictional characters in a petty conflict, then certainly reading the Scripture must require focused attention.

Second, seriousness must entail an earnest consideration. Children plummeted into a game will give themselves heart and soul to some task. They will not merely give undivided attention but they will consider each aspect earnestly: it matters how this matter concludes.

Third, seriousness a willingness to respond as a result of the information received. Your friend watching a movie may give undivided attention and earnest consideration to the movie — but once it is over, your friend is not likely to move to Manhattan to be of assistance to the character whose life has been upended by a surprise revelation. When the movie is over, your friend quickly forgets what has taken place.

Yet, when we read the Scripture, we must read it with a seriousness that we are transformed by what we have read.

Watson now gives three examples why Scripture requires such seriousness. First, Scripture is serious because it concerns Christ, the Lord and King of Creation:

In the Scripture our salvation is concerned; it treats of the love of Christ, a serious subject. Christ hath loved mankind more than the angels that fell. Heb. 2:7. The loadstone, indifferent to gold and pearl, draws the iron to it; thus Christ passed by the angels, who were of more noble extraction, and drew mankind to him. Christ loved us more than his own life; nay, though we had a hand in his death, yet that he should not leave us out of his will. This is a love that passeth knowledge; who can read this without seriousness?

Second, Scripture concerns our eternal end; nothing could of greater concern to a human being than the unending end of his soul:

The Scripture speaks of the mystery of faith, the eternal recompenses, and the paucity of them that shall be saved. Matt. 20:16: “Few chosen.” One saith the names of all the good emperors of Rome might be engraved in a little ring; there are but (comparatively) few names in the Book of Life.

Third, Scripture explains with what deadly concern we must treat our destiny:

The Scripture speaks of striving for heaven as in an agony. Luke 13:24. It cautions us of falling short of the promised rest. Heb. 4:1. It describes the horrors of the infernal torments, the worm, and the fire. Mark 9:44. Who can read this and not be serious?

The lightness with which we treat Scripture must in part be because we do not actually think that much hangs in the balance. We belong to an age which does not consider Judgment Day to be a concern. Just today, a friend wrote to me and said many people treat Judgment Day as “Acceptance Day” because there God will be such an accepting Judge. Watson writes of this sort:

Some have light, feathery, spirits; they run over the most weighty truths in haste, (like Israel who eat the Passover in haste,) and they are not benefited by the word. Read with a solemn, composed spirit. Seriousness is the Christian’s ballast, which keeps him from being overturned with vanity.

Thomas Watson, 24 Helps to Read the Scripture.5

28 Thursday Apr 2016

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24 Helps to Read the Scripture, Reading, Study, Thomas Watons

V. Get a right understanding of Scripture. Psalm 119:73: “Give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments.” Though there are some knots in Scripture which are not easily untied, yet things essential to salvation the Holy Ghost hath plainly pointed out to us.

Not everything in the Scripture is easy to understand. There are many reason for this. First, there are thousands of years between us and the events described. A reference to a custom or place may simply be unavailable to us.

Second, some concepts are difficult: the difficulty may not lie in the explanation but in the difficulty of the thing itself. The Scripture calls to an understanding and life which is not “normal” in the world as it currently stands. The Scripture speaks of something fundamentally different than what we would normally experience: thus there are difficulties in the thing itself: It would be like explaining to a stone what it feels like to fly.

Third, some difficulty lies with us. Sometimes the difficulty is of a more intellectual nature. Certain ideas or phrases may be harder for some to follow than others. Not all people are born with the same abilities. (Commentaries and sermons help here.)

Fourth, some difficulties are moral. Hebrews 5:14. It was common for ancient theologians to think that piety was the most important element in theological study. One cannot understand another human being well without a certain affinity. Communion with God and a heart which longs for holiness will not be separated.

Fifth, some-things are difficult for our good. We profit by needing to struggle with the text, just like an athlete profits from a strong opponent.

Watson concludes:

The knowledge of the sense of the Scriptures is the first step to profit. In the Law, Aaron was first to light the lamps, and then to burn the incense; the lamp of the understanding must be first lighted before the affections can be inflamed. Get what knowledge you can by comparing scriptures, by conferring with others, by using the best annotators. Without knowledge the Scripture is a sealed book; every line is too high for us; and if the word shoot above our head, it can never hit our heart.