If a man had killed your friend, or father, or mother, how would you hate him! You would not endure the sight of him, but follow the law upon him. Send out the avenger of blood with a hue and cry after thy sin; bring it afore God’s judgment seat, arraign it, accuse it, spit on it, condemn it and thyself for it, have it to the cross, nail it there, if it cry I thirst, give it vinegar, stretch the body of sins upon his cross, stretch every vein of it, make the heart strings crack; and then when it hangs there, triumph over the dying of it, show it no pity, laugh at its destruction, say, Thou hast been a bloody sin to me and my husband, hang there and rot. And when thou art tempted to it, and art very thirsty after the pleasure of it, say of that opportunity to enjoy it, It is the price of Christ’s blood, and pour it upon the ground.[HT: Tony Reinke]
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
"Pour it upon the ground."
Check this out. They are the words of 1th century Puritan preacher Thomas Goodwin:
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Thomas Goodwin was born prematurely at Rollesby, Norfolk in England. He entered Christ's College, Cambridge at age twelve, as a junior sophister, August 25, 1613. In 1619, Thomas Goodwin transferred to Catherine Hall, and the following year he was chosen Fellow, and made lecturer in the Hall as he began studying for the M. A. degree. This year was also marked by his conversion by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Goodwin was licensed a preacher of the University in 1625, and upon the death of John Preston in 1628, he was appointed Lecturer at Trinity Church, and he began to influence the scholars and the town as had William Perkins before him. In 1630, he was awarded the B. D. degree, and two years later was presented by the king to the vicarage of Trinity.
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In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, debate and argument (as an educational exercise, not necessarily as a path to knowledge) was considered an important part of education at Cambridge University. A first-year student at Cambridge, who was not expected to engage in such arguments, was called a fresh-man, which originally meant a novice at any activity. Second- and third-year student were assigned points that they were expected to defend in debate, and clever new arguments were called sophisms. From this, the upperclassmen were called sophisters ("users of sophisms"). This group was later divided into junior sophisters (or junior sophs, second-year students) and senior sophisters (or senior sophs, third-year students). In the seventeenth century, the designation sophumer (essentially a synonym of sophister) was inserted between freshman and junior soph. This does not appear to have been an extra year, but seems to have been one or more terms at the end of the first year or beginning of the second, or both. The bachelor's program at Cambridge has traditionally had just a three-year course of three terms per year (but some programs now require four years to earn a bachelor's degree there).
Thanks for the education, Nancy!
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