It’s common at this time of year to look back at the best books of the year. Lists and reviews of books can certainly be helpful. Here are the best books published during the year that mined the riches of the Second Reformation.
1. EXPOSITION OF JOB (JAMES DURHAM)
“It is certain to be good, for Durham is always admirable.”— Charles Spurgeon.
The book of Job can be difficult to follow but Durham provides the flow of the debate and a succinct summary of the arguments. It is also helpfully applied. Durham’s work is compact, with a few pages of exposition and comment, closing with a few pages of practical observations. This makes the work perfectly suitable for private and family devotions.
This newly revised edition has been carefully compared again to the original and corrected and updated.
2. SAMUEL RUTHERFORD (NEIL M ROSS)
Samuel Rutherford (1600-1661), renowned as “the saint of the Covenant”, was one of the greatest men that Scotland ever saw, whether considered as a preacher, theologian, devotional writer or political theorist. His memory of Samuel Rutherford will be ever fragrant in the minds of all who savour the spirituality of his letters. Rutherford’s fruitful ministry in Anwoth was cut short by being banished to Aberdeen where he wrote many of his famous letters. His teaching at St Andrews and his published writings bore a vital spiritual and theological influence on many. He was untiring in defended the principles of the Scottish Church. We continue to benefit today from his faithful contribution to the work of the Westminster Assembly. The purpose of this present work is to place the main facts of Rutherford’s life in a convenient form before the modern reader. In particular, it highlights his significance as a theologian, an aspect that is sometimes neglected. Rutherford was able to combine doctrine and devotion in an elevated way that is all too rare in our own day.
Purchase here.
3. NEW SERMON BY GEORGE GILLESPIE
The Confessional Presbyterian Journal for 2018 contains the discovery and transcription of a surviving portion of a sermon preached by George Gillespie at the opening of the Scottish Parliament in March of 1648. The notes are incomplete on a sermon preached on Psalm 2:10–12. Only two Gillespie sermons are known to have survived, so even a portion of another is a significant find, let alone one preached at that crucial time, and on top of that, with the last verses of Psalm 2 as the text.
The journal is also contains a large article on the Covenanter Alexander Shields.
4. EXPOSITION OF TEN COMMANDMENTS (JAMES DURHAM)
John Owen commended this book as essential guidance for “our walking before God in all duties of obedience” marked by wisdom and deep experience. Durham provides in-depth treatments of the second, third, and fourth commandments which make this exposition especially valuable. This new edition has been carefully collated and checked against the first and early editions and the text corrected and notations considerably augmented.
“Whatever Durham has written is very precious. He has the pen of a ready writer, and indites good matter.” — Charles Spurgeon.
Purchase in North America – Purchase in the UK.
5. SCOTTISH COVENANTERS (JG VOS)
This has already been reviewed on this site in the following article.
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