He had the happiness to be educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, which in those days deserved to be called the School of Saints, the nursing mother of gigantic evangelical divines. Some men are their own ancestors, and, for ought we know, Thomas Watson's genealogy reflected no fame upon him, but derived all its lustre from his achievements. We shall not attempt to discover his pedigree, and, after the manner of antiquarians, derive his family from a certain famous Wat, whose son distinguished himself in the Crusades, or in some other insane enterprise whether blue blood was in his veins or no is of small consequence, since we know that he was the seed-royal of the redeemed of the Lord. His writings are his best memorial perhaps he needed no other, and therefore providence forbade the superfluity. Although Thomas Watson issued several most valuable books, comparatively little is known of him - even the dates of his birth and death are unknown. There is a happy union of sound doctrine, heart-searching experience and practical wisdom throughout all his works, and his Body of Divinity is, beyond all the rest, useful to the student and the minister. Watson was one of the most concise, racy, illustrative, and suggestive of those eminent divines who made the Puritan age the Augustan period of evangelical literature. Thomas Watson's Body of Practical Divinity is one of the most precious of the peerless works of the Puritans and those best acquainted with it prize it most.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |