Wednesday, December 21, 2005

A Christmas Present?!?

The works of Matthew Hole found its way mysteriously into my office and was sitting on my desk this morning. It is a 1732 edition! Wow! I have been trying to find out who put the book there and who Matthew Hole is. I found a little about him. He is a non-conformist, Puritan, pastor in England in the early 1700's. He was a favorite of Charles Spurgeon. And, above all he was a God-Treasurer. Read the quote below and see for yourself:

This praising God rests not in the mere speculation or idle contemplation of the Divine excellence, floating only in the brain, or gliding upon the tongue, but in such quick and lively apprehensions of them as to sink down into the heart, and there beget affections suitable to them; for it will make us love him for his goodness, respect him for his greatness, fear him for his justice, dread him for his power, adore him for his wisdom, and for all his attributes make us live in constant awe and obedience to him. This is to praise God, without which all other courting and complimenting of him is but mere flattery and hypocrisy...God Almighty endowed us with higher and nobler faculties than other creatures, for this end, that we should set forth his praise; for though other things were made to administer the matter and occasion, yet man alone was designed and qualified to exercise the act of glorifying God...In short, God Almighty hath so closely twisted his own glory and our happiness together, that at the same time we advance the one we promote the other. —Matthew Hole, 1730.

1 comment:

RevReav said...

Thank you Pastor Bill!