The Publican's Prayer

This little booklet - The Publican's Prayer by Theodore van der Groe - was published by Zoar Publications in the 1970's as part of their Apples of Gold series. It was very popular but has long been out of print. For years many customers have asked for this title and we have had to disappoint them, so it is pleasing news that it is available again. This new edition has been fully retypeset by Gospel Mission Books. The following taster is taken from the conclusions...
"This then is the great and blessed lesson, which the Publican teaches us by his prayer: that true and unfeigned repentance is never present without true faith. Through the one the sinner loses life in himself and through the works of the law, and through the other he finds life everlasting through mercy in Christ. When a sinner is truly penitent, then his heart is wholly laid low through a heavy burden of his sins and of God's righteous condemnation and terrifying wrath. This burden presses the poor man as it were down to the earth and he becomes completely exhausted under it. If he could not now have a view by faith of the merciful majesty of God in Christ, and could not with the serpent-bitten Israelites look upon the uplifted brazen serpent, the crucified Son of man, then the miserable and dejected sinner would utterly succumb and perish, for he finds no means whereby his life can be saved and preserved, apart from Christ and mercy. The hypocrite, in his hour of greatest need, when in danger of drowning, is always able to lay hold of a plank of self-rghteousness, and on that he floats along until he comes here or there to land at last. But a true penitent who is quite cast down under the burden of sins and God's anger, can find no salvation in tears or good desires, through sudden joy or vain delusion, nor through anything else. He sees and feels himself for all that, completely and eternally lost. There remains nothing for him but the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and God's pure mercy, promised freely to truly penitent and despondent sinners in the sacred Gospel. How should he die then, without laying hold on that? Shall the name of the Lord be for us a strong tower, and shall a truly penitent soul who can find no refuge elsewhere, not run into it, and be safe? Either repentance is not complete, or it must surely lead on to faith, to which it is God's ordained pathway. For a true repentance can never end in delusion or despair, for then the Holy Spirit's own work would be in vain, which he begun solely in order to save poor sinners."

quoted from The Publican's Prayer by Theodore van der Groe published by Gospel Mission Books, £1.95

Lorna

Honey out of the Rock

This is the free booklet we are giving away with each purchase during our Sale Week. From the 'Apples of Gold' series of Puritan reprints, it is worth buying anything else just to get it! Willcox was a Particular Baptist pastor among those incredibly brave men and women who dared to be nonconformists in the England of the 1660's. He was buried in Bunhill Fields (the dissenter's burial ground in London) alongside more famous names like Bunyan and Gill, but his short tract based on Psalm 81 v 16 is not worthy of any such treatment. It was recommended by William Romaine in his day. Even today, with very light editing, this tract is very readable. Willcox is direct and pithy. He gets at the essence of true religion - a personal experience of God-given faith in Christ, and its results. This is really searching stuff. I know of a local pastor who reads this booklet every year in self examination. It was blessed to his soul many years ago and he recommends it to everyone. The tract has been translated into foreign languages over the years. At the back of the booklet there is a short but remarkable account of how it was used by God to bring about a revival in Finland in the 18th century. We still want it to be freely circulated - may it be greatly blessed yet.
Jeremy

Advent

Only £1
For less money than an advent calendar you can have from us something vastly more profitable. It is a only a booklet but it will easily see you through the advent season. It is simply titled 'Immanuel', being an extract from Archbishop Ussher in the Apples of Gold Series of reprints. Its contents are highly distilled, as you would expect from a Puritan writer. So just take it steadily with frequent meditation (on the scriptures referred to I need hardly add.) You will be delivered from Christmas sentimentality, and settled upon biblical foundations, and may sense again the mystery and the joy of the incarnation of the Son of God.
Jeremy

Apples of Gold

This series of booklets, published by Zoar Publications in the 1970's, are real gems. On many occasions we have had customers testify to the spiritual profit they have found in them. One local customer talked of finding one of these booklets in a little Christian Bookshop in the middle of nowhere in the US!

Indeed, when they were first published they were sent in good quantities all over the world. Jeremy remembers watching his Dad pack these booklets up in big boxes addressed to Kalamazoo (MI, USA). His father and Mr David Oldham formed Zoar Publications with a vision to publish puritan writings in small booklets making them accessible to many. Mr Oldham prepared and printed them, and his father distributed them. In total about 16 booklets were published, some of which are now out of print. They also published 2 bound volumes of which only Volume 1 is still available.

I recently read 'It is Well' by John Hill and found it very good. Hill writes clearly on the subject of submission to the will of God in a typically structured puritan style. He examines what submission is, what the foundations of submission are, the fruits of submission, faith and submission, and helps to submission. I would recommend this booklet, particularly to anyone who feels to be walking a difficult path. Although it is now out of print as an individual booklet, Volume 1 includes it and at only £6 it is a bargain at the price.

Volume 1 includes:

Mason's Sayings - John Mason

Everlasting Mercy - Thomas Adams (now out of print as an individual booklet)

It is Well - John Hill (ditto)

Honey Out of the Rock - Thomas Willcox

Divine Meditations - Richard Sibbes (ditto)

The Christian on Watch - Thomas Gataker
Heart Surgery - Robert Bolton

Christ's Pre-eminence - Tobias Crisp

To check which booklets are still available individually, go to Zoar Publications on our site.

Lorna

Archbishop Ussher

Do you spell it Usher or Ussher? In any case I'm sure you know who I mean. Archbishop of Armagh in c17th, but most famous of all for dating the Creation at 4004BC. Also the stranger who replied "eleven" when catechised by Samuel Rutherford as to how many divine Commandments there are. His identity being discovered, he was constrained to preach the next day and did so from 'A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another.'

He also produced a valuable little piece on the deity-humanity of Christ, which was published by Zoar Publications in the Apples of Gold series of reprints, called 'Immanuel.' This has already been widely circulated but is still almost exclusively obtainable from us, and we still have a good number in stock. Price £1 plus £1 postage.

As can be seen on our website http://www.christianbookshopossett.co.uk/just_in.htm Ussher's major written work was his 'Body of Divinity.' This has been long out of print, but now is available again. I have seen that paperback versions are being sold, but really this is the sort of book that you consult for a lifetime, as well as being sizeable, so the hardback is best. It has been nicely produced with a dustjacket. Dr Crawford Gribben, who wrote 'James Ussher and the Irish Puritans' an Evangelical Press paperback which we stock, has prepared this edition and given an introduction to it. One notable and very useful feature of this particular body of divinity is that Ussher wrote it in a question and answer style throughout. This makes it more accessible for lesser mortals and anticipates many of the questions which all of us have on doctrine from time to time. Gribben goes as far as to claim for this book that it had the single most influence upon the Westminster Assembly, as it was well established and regarded by then and known to all the members of it. That's a big claim indeed. If your Articles of faith are based on the Westminster Confession then perhaps you need this book, or else you need to tell your pastor that he does and where to get it!

Jeremy