Sovereign

Based on Bob Juch’s Kin, I have traced my maternal ancestry to Jean de la Fontaine, born in the year 1375. The information contained in this article is gathered verbatim from Descendants of Jean de la Fontaine. This website acknowledges: “Some information in this family tree is taken from the book, “From Riches to Rags to Respectability – a Fontaine Family,” written by Winston F. Fontaine and published for the author by Alabama Ancestors, Mobile, Alabama, 1987, and is submitted with the permission of the author.”

I have chosen to submit this article to the online resources of the AHB, because I share the sentiments of David—“Thy faithfulness is unto all generations.” (Ps 119:90) One of my descendants was Gilles de la Fontaine, who was converted to Christ in 1535 when the Reformed faith was first preached in France. He forthwith joined a band of Christians who were given the nickname of “Huguenots”. Hailing from this man’s pedigree have come five pastors whose ministries have sought to promulgate the gospel of sovereign grace.

In light of this generational story, it may well be said that “the counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.” (Ps 33:11) Indeed, “And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry…This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” (1 Tim 1:12-16)

1. Jean de la Fontaine – Born in France in the year 1375.

Believed to have descended from Jean de la Fontaine, who fought in the First Crusade under Godfrey, at Jerusalem in 1099, and who established the de la Fontaine family at Fontenay, anciently prominent in Normandy, Anfou, Maine, Poitou, and Picardy which maintains descent from Arthur, Duke of Brittany. 

Jean married Buyonne de Monthibault in 1399 who gave birth to Guy de la Fontaine Lord of Seville in 1400. 

2. Guy de la Fontaine Lord of Seville – Born in France in the year 1400. 

Guy married Buyonne de Audigne in the 1420’s who gave birth to Jean de la Fontaine in 1425. 

3. Jean de la Fontaine – Born in France in the year 1425. 

Jean married…

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It does not appear that Christ took any particular text when he preached the sermon on the mount; but he proceeded at once to say—Blessed is this class, and that class, and the other class of persons. But shortly after this, he went into a synagogue, and they gave him the book of the prophet Esaias, and he opened it and read the first two verses of this chapter:—“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath…

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It is infinitely important to possess the Spirit of God, and to have “the love of God shed abroad in one’s heart by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” Having this, of course we are lovers of God; and if lovers of God, we are lovers of everything that is godly, or God-like; and therefore, it is a very great mercy for us that the Holy Spirit has condescended to mention a very considerable number of infallible evidences of Christianity,—of interest in the everlasting love of God. The child of God has frequently derived comfort from the declaration of Divine truth by the Apostle John,—“By this we know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.” If, therefore, we love Christians, we love Christ. If we love the brethren…

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John Hazelton^[1] (1822-1888) was a high-calvinist and strict-communion Baptist pastor^[2], whose 35 year ministry with the church meeting at Chadwell Street, London, resulted in a congregation that became one of the leading Strict Baptist (SB) churches during the first fifty years of the 20th century. Like most SB’s, Hazelton stood aloof from the ministry of Charles Spurgeon. In many respects, Spurgeon may be regarded as the father of the Reformed Baptist movement—he espoused many of the features…

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AN ORDER OF SERVICE FOR DIVINE WORSHIP; DESIGNED FOR PRIVATE DEVOTIONS, FAMILY GATHERINGS AND CHURCH MEETINGS.

Sermon—“Free Will Or Free Grace”

For the full order of service, including hymns and reading, please follow this link…

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AN ORDER OF SERVICE FOR DIVINE WORSHIP; DESIGNED FOR PRIVATE DEVOTIONS, FAMILY GATHERINGS AND CHURCH MEETINGS.

Sermon—“Unknown Footsteps”

For the full order of service, including hymns and reading, please follow this link…

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AN ORDER OF SERVICE FOR DIVINE WORSHIP; DESIGNED FOR PRIVATE DEVOTIONS, FAMILY GATHERINGS AND CHURCH MEETINGS.

Sermon—“Bible Covenants”

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Some of the points covered in this sermon:
• A review of the definition and purpose of a covenant
• Showing the difference between Dispensationalism, Reformed Theology and Hyper-calvinism as it relates to the covenants
• Showing the major differences between Dispensationalism and Covenant Theology, as it relates to the covenants
• Showing the difference between Moderate-calvinism and High-calvinism as it relates to the covenants
• Asserting the correct view of Hyper-calvinism as it relates to the covenants
• Showing the clear and definitive responsibilities of the unregenerate and the regenerate, depending on the covenant under which they are subject (either the covenant of works or the covenant of grace)

For the full order of service, including hymns and reading, please follow this link…

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AN ORDER OF SERVICE FOR DIVINE WORSHIP; DESIGNED FOR PRIVATE DEVOTIONS, FAMILY GATHERINGS AND CHURCH MEETINGS.

Sermon—“My Complaint”

For the full order of service, including hymns and reading, please follow this link…

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AN ORDER OF SERVICE FOR DIVINE WORSHIP; DESIGNED FOR PRIVATE DEVOTIONS, FAMILY GATHERINGS AND CHURCH MEETINGS.

Sermon—“Bible Ages”

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Some of the points covered in this sermon:
• A review of the flawed Dispensational framework of history
• A review of the correct Sovereign Grace framework of history
• The key words used by Dispensationalists that need to be addressed—ages, covenants and institutions
• The twofold division of history and how it coincides with the twofold division of the Bible
• The difference between Dispensationalists and Hyper-calvinists, in the way they understand “responsibility” and “authority”
• The structure of Hebrews 11:1-40
• The timeline of Hebrews 11:1-40
• Hebrews 11 doesn’t organize the dispensations according to events, but rather, according to individual life spans (Abel, Enoch, Noah, etc)
• The meaning of the word “ages” and how it is used throughout the New Testament
• The meaning of the word “ages” as it appears in Hebrews 11:3: “Through faith we understand that the AGES were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”
• The two catalogues of generations recorded in Hebrews 11
• The two summaries of generations recorded in Hebrews 11
• The proper way to view a dispensation of time—it is the lifespan of each individual, as he/she is under the administration of God

For the full order of service, including hymns and reading, please follow this link…

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A Sermon Preached by Joseph Philpot at Providence Chapel, Eden Street, London, on Tuesday Evening, July 6, 1847

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.” John 15:4

Have you ever considered the experience of the disciples when their Lord and Master was sojourning here below? To my mind, there is something very instructive, and, I may add, very encouraging in it.

On the one hand, observe how ignorant they were of the nature of Christ’s kingdom! Two of the most eminent of them besought him that they might sit, the one on his right hand, and the other on his left, in his glory. What ignorance did that request imply of the nature of his spiritual kingdom, as if there were a right and a left hand there! Observe, too, their unbelief. How continually the Lord had to chide them! “Where is your faith?” and “O ye of little faith!” Remark also, their carnality and worldly-mindedness. How, on one occasion, two of them asked their Master that fire might come down from heaven to destroy his enemies! and how, at the very first onset of danger, “they all forsook him and fled!” It is, to my mind, very instructive and encouraging, thus to see their weakness, ignorance, and unbelief.

We have taken a hasty glance at the dark side of the question; we have traced out what they were in self. Let us now take another view of their character, and mark something of the…

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According to some people, Christ died to give all a chance of being saved!

I do not know that I hate anything more in my soul than to hear that. It makes Jesus Christ so little that He should do so much, and after all only to get us a chance of being saved. Why, if a man is set up in business, you see how often it happens that he fails in it; and if man cannot manage the…

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About sixteen years ago, I heard a young man from Hoxton (Association Baptist) Academy make the following remarks: “I now offer you Christ, and Christ stands with open arms ready to receive you. Yea, he begs, and prays, and beseeches you all to come unto him and have life; and yet some of you will not come. Nay, it is as if God the Father came and…

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The Setting: The child has attended the house of God with his/her parents, and was dazzled by the fashionable outfits worn by the members. Upon returning home, the child enquires:

CHILD: Mother, did you see what handsome bonnet Miss Dressy had on at the chapel this morning?

MOTHER: Child, your mind runs upon nothing but pride and nonsense. Do you suppose that I have nothing to do at chapel but to notice what people wear? Did you ever ask yourself what you went to chapel for?

CHILD: Indeed, mother, I never thought of such a thing? What do people go for?

MOTHER: Child, it is not a very easy thing to say what ends people have in view. Some go because their parents go; some go to see and be seen; some go, like you, to notice people’s dress; some go because…

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The Substance of a Sermon preached at Zoar Chapel, London, in April 1842

“And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him, and he became a captain over them.” (1 Samuel 22:2)

These words contain something more than a literal meaning of the circumstances which are mentioned. And the order in which they have been laid upon my mind is as follows:

I. In many respects, David was an eminent type of the Lord Jesus Christ.
II. The men that went down to the Cave of Adullam, and the circumstances in which they were placed, were typical of all who really go unto Christ for salvation.

I. The psalmist, the sweet singer of Israel, was an eminent, a soul-comforting type of our spiritual David, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Two or three observations here must suffice…

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“Hold-Fast”

A Sketch of Covenant Truth and Its Witnesses

By: John E. Hazelton

“Hold fast the form of sound words” (2 Tim 1:13)

“An everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure” (2 Sam 23:5)

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The following pages are but a slight sketch of a vital subject; they aim in a simple way to show the continuity through the centuries of the testimony to “the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3). The Author has, so far as possible, given interesting quotations, bearing upon present-day perils, so that it may be said of each Witness referred to…

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“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.”—Ephesians 2:8,9

In the crowded synagogue of Capernaum the Lord Jesus Christ, addressing many who had eagerly followed Him because of His miracles, declared, “Therefore said I unto you, that no man can some unto Me, except it were given him of My Father.” Immediately the enmity to the truth of God which is latent in every unrenewed hearted was deeply stirred; for, “From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him.” “Will ye also go away?” was the piercing question put to the twelve. “Then Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the…

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“The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.”—Ephesians 6:17

The peaceful little Leicestershire town of Lutterworth, situated in the midst of beautiful pasture lands, has no more prominent object than its noble Church, the tower of which is visible for miles round. To it many travelers wend their way that they may look upon a place which will ever be association with John Wycliff, who in the fourteenth century was so eminent a patriot and above all so great a spiritual benefactor to his country by his translation of the Bible into the English tongue, multiplying the copies with the aid of transcribers, and by his “poor priests” in their russet gowns recommending it to the perusal of their hearers. His spare, emaciated form, weakened by study, hardly promised a Reformer who could stand before the rising storm, but within this frail body was an immense energy and an immovable conviction, and the personal charm which ever accompanies real greatness drew many around him. He was wondrously strengthened for the work given him to do, and in his well-nigh 300 treatises…

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First, at no time is a sinner duty-bound under both covenants simultaneously.

Second, so long as the sinner remains unregenerate, he/she is held accountable under the terms and promises of the Covenant of Works (not the Covenant of Grace).

Third, once the sinner has been born again, he/she is delivered/released from the Covenant of Works, being brought experientially under the terms and promises of the Covenant of Grace.

Fourth, the non-elect have absolutely no part in the Covenant of Grace—it is not their duty to believe savingly on Christ, nor is it the duty of the preacher to offer…

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Wade Burleson wrote an article entitled, “The Problem of Calling People Hyper-Calvinists”. Having attended the John 3:16 Conference in 2008, he described how Dr. David Allen, Professor of Preaching at Southwestern Theological Seminary, circulated a handout that listed a dozen names identified as “Hyper-Calvinists”. Following Dr. Allen in the pulpit, was Dr. Steve Lempke of New Orleans, who made the observation, “I am not sure that there is such a thing as a living hyper-calvinist. I find that those who call others hyper-calvinists have simply run into people more calvinistic than they are.”

Yet, there is a listing for “Hyper-Calvinism” in the New Dictionary of Theology. The definition is framed by Dr. Curt Daniel, who earned a doctorate studying “hyper” Calvinism…

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Here is a classic misrepresentation of High-Calvinism, and the misleading assertion that Fuller was the hero who rescued the Particular Baptists from ‘Hyperism’:

“Fuller’s pastorate at Soham, which lasted until 1782 when he moved to pastor the Baptist church in Kettering, Northamptonshire, was a decisive period for the shaping of his theological outlook. It was during his time there that he decisively rejected High Calvinism (i.e., an emphasis on the sovereignty of God in salvation to an extent which denied the free offer of the gospel and seriously hampered effective evangelism. Fuller said that his predecessor ‘had little or nothing to say to the unconverted.’).”

First, denying the free-offer is not an extreme emphasis on the sovereignty of God in salvation, it is a consistent application of His sovereignty in salvation.

To “offer”, is to “present or proffer (something) for (someone) to accept or reject as so desired”. An offer of the gospel reduces God to an ineffectual, pathetic beggar, desperately…

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Having not been able to complete the scheduled Bible study for the mid-week service, I threw together some notes on the ninth chapter of Romans. It is not often I go ‘old school’ by scribbling on the nearest blank piece of paper. After teaching the study, I proceeded to broaden my notes for future reference. As the notes set forth a statement on High-Calvinism, I’ve chosen to include them with the online resources of the AHB. There are two sets of notes—the handwritten scribble is what I used in the pulpit (I haven’t bothered typing them out); the typed notes are what I jotted down after teaching the study.

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William Styles published a book in 1902 entitled, “A Guide to Church Fellowship, as Maintained by Primitive, or Strict and Particular Baptists”. On pages 31 and 32, under the general heading, “ Error Concerning the Covenant of Grace to be Resisted”, the following statement is found:

“Any so-called Gospel which expressly or implicitly denies these truths [anti-duty-faith and anti-free-offer]—which represents the regeneration and conversion of sinners to be contingent on the earnestness and activity of “Gospel workers”—or the progress of God’s salvation…

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The following chapters have been mainly compiled from materials supplied to the Author from various sources. His task has, therefore, to a great extent, resembled that of one who binds together into a bouquet, a number of flowers, chosen and culled by others.

His special acknowledgments are due to Mr. J. E. Hazelton, without whose laborious and indefatigable help, this Memoir of his beloved father could not have been prepared.

To the Rev. C. T. Bust, LL.B., of Westerfield, Ipswich, and the Rev. E. Spurrier, of Colchester, he is under great obligations. His respected ministerial brethren, W. Barnes, of Walshamle-Willows…

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Cowper, “The Task,” Book III.

I was a stricken deer that left the herd
Long since. With many an arrow deep infixed
My panting side was charged, when I withdrew
To seek a tranquil death in distant shades.
There was I found by One who had Himself
Been hurt by the archers. In His side He bore
And in His hands and feet the cruel scars.
With gentle force soliciting the darts,
He drew them forth, and healed, and bade me live.
Since then, with few associates, in remote
And silent woods I wander, far from those
My former partners of the peopled scene;
With few associates, and not wishing more.

The salvation of a sinner is the result of divine arrangements which were made before the foundation of the world. The chosen of the Father were ransomed by the blood of the Son; and the power of the Spirit is…

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“I desire to follow providence, not to force it.”—Dr. Doddridge

“Happy the man who sees a God employed
In all the good and ill that chequer life!
Resolving all events, with their effects
And manifold results, into the will
And arbitration wise of the Supreme.”
Cowper.

The county of Suffolk will ever he regarded with interest by those to whom the Gospel is precious and important. Here pure and undefiled religion has long found illustrious exemplifications. In thousands of its cottage homes God has been honoured and His precepts obeyed. Its places of worship have often been associated with deeds of truest heroism, and with patient and prolonged efforts for the salvation of men, that were grand in their tenderness and…

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“Along my earthly way
How many clouds are spread!
Darkness, with scarce one cheerful ray,
Seems gathering o’er my head.

Yet, Saviour, Thou art love;
Oh, hide not from my view!
But when I look in prayer above,
Appear in mercy through.

And, O! from that bright throne,
I shall look back and see—
The path I went, and that alone
Was the right path for me.”

“Our lives through various scenes are drawn.” So writes the great poet of the sanctuary; and his words find exemplification in the narrative we are relating; the next scene of which is laid in the heart of the Fens of the Eastern Counties.

This district was originally one of those immense forests which abounded in our land, broken at intervals by spaces which had been cleared, in which were farmhouses, surrounded by land either under tillage or pasturage. In course of time, however, the aspect of the country was changed. Storms which raged from the East raised the sea to…

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“He that believeth shall not make haste.” (Isa. 28:19)

“Thy way, not mine, O Lord,
However dark it be;
O lead me by Thine own right hand
Choose Thou the path for me.

Smooth let it be, or rough
It will be still the best;
Winding or straight it matters not,
It leads me to Thy rest.

I dare not choose my lot,
I would not if I might:
But choose Thou for me, O my God.
So shall I walk aright.”

Our narrative brings us to the year 1852. A curious lull followed the closing of the Great Exhibition of 1851, which some had considered as the pioneer of the reign of anti-christ, and others as the harbinger of the millennium, but dreams of universal and unbroken peace were soon rudely interrupted by the fierce conflicts of contending politicians…

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“‘Tis not a cause of small import
The Pastor’s care demands.”—Doddridge.

“Preaching administ’ring in every work
Of his sublime vocation, in the walks
Of worldly intercourse ‘twixt man, and man,
And in his humble dwelling, he appears
A labourer with moral virtue girt,
With spiritual graces like a glory crowned.”
Wordsworth’s “Excursion.”

The settlement of a pastor over a Church is an important event in the history of religion. It is intimately connected with the glory of God, and the welfare of souls, and is to the individual himself, and to the people of his charge, the commencement of…

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“Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.”—Proverbs 4:28

“There stands the messenger of truth! there stands
The legate of the skies! His theme divine,
His office sacred, his credentials clear.
By him the violated law speaks out
Its thunders; and by him, in strains as sweet
As angels use, the gospel whispers peace.”—Cowper

Chadwell-Street is in the heart of a densely populated district in the north of London, and was in 1858 one of the most advantageous positions for a dissenting chapel that could have been found in the whole of the metropolis. Many changes have occurred in recent years. Old Smithfield, which was then an institution, has disappeared. Clerkenwell was the home of…

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“We can do nothing against the truth but for the truth.”—2 Corinthians 13:6

“Should all the forms that men devise
Assault my faith with treach’rous art,
I’d call them vanity and lies,
And bind the Gospel to my heart.”

Attention is at this point claimed to a brief and cursory review of some of the more public religious events which transpired during the period to which this and the preceding chapter are devoted.

An accurate estimate of the character of a prominent Christian minister is impossible, unless we take into account the spiritual tendencies of his age, the currents of popular thought, the opinions which were then rising into…

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