To launch us into the new year, I offer an “Epistle to the Reader,” by Edmund Calamy. Calamy was a Presbyterian minister before, during, and after the turbulent years of the English Civil Wars. For a period, he was a chaplain to Charles II, but was subsequently ejected from the church as a nonconformist, in 1662. For some time he was empowered to grant publication licenses to theological works, and in 1648 he issued the Imprimatur for Clavis Bibliorum, by Francis Roberts, to which he also provided his “Epistle” as a Forward. I am always encouraged to see the faithfulness of prior generations and trust that you will find it as encouraging as I have. [The spellings have been modernized. Italics are per the original.]
There is no one duty more commanded or commended in the Word of God or more practiced by the saints of God, than the diligent and conscientious reading of the Holy Scriptures. Our Savior Christ commands us not only to read them, but to search into them. The apostle Paul commands us not only to have them with us, but in us, and not only to have them in us, but to have them dwelling and abiding in us, richly in all wisdom. David professes of himself that the Law was in the midst of his bowels. And that “he had hid the word in his heart, that he might not sin against God. Augustine says of himself, that the Holy Scriptures were his holy delight. And Jerome tells us of one Nepotianus, who by long and assiduous meditation of the holy Scriptures, had made his breast the Library of Jesus Christ. And for my part, I have always observed, that the more holy and humble any man is, the more he delights in the Holy Scriptures; and the more profane and proud any man is, the more he slights and undervalues them. Cursed is that speech of Politian that proud critic, that he never spent his time worse than in reading the Scriptures. And famous is the answer of Basil to that cursed apostate Julian who said of the Scriptures, That he had read them, understood them, and condemned them; but Basil answered him excellently: That he had read them, but not understood them, for if he had understood them, he would not have condemned them.
No man that hath the Holy Spirit, but will love those books which were written by holy men as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. As David said of Goliath’s sword, There is none to that, give it me, so may I [also] say of the Holy Scriptures. There are no books like these books, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation and to make the man of God absolute, and perfect unto every good work. And therefore let me persuade all men to read these books, and not only to read them, but to meditate on them day and night: and to hide them in their hearts as a divine cordial; to comfort them in these sad days; as a divine lamp, to guide them in this hour of darkness; as as part of the whole Armour of God, to enable them to resist temptation in this hour of temptation, that is coming upon the whole earth.
And when they read them, to read them with a humble heart, for God hath promised to give grace to the humble, and to teach the humble his way. To read them with prayer, that God would open their eyes, that they may understand the wonders of His law. To read them with a godly trembling, for fear lest with the spider these should suck poison out of their sweet flowers, and wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction, as they that are unstable and unlearned. To read them with a purpose to practice what they read. He that practices what he understands, God will help him to understand what he understands not. To read them in an orderly and methodical way.
And for their better help herein, to take this ensuing treatise [Robert’s book] in their hands. It is short and pithy; it sets the whole Bible before them in an orderly, plain, and perspicuous manner, and helps them to understand ever book. The author of it is a godly learned minister, well known and very well esteemed in this famous city. The book itself is called The Key of the Bible, because it unlocks the richest treasury of the Holy Scriptures. Take this Key with you, whenever you go into this treasury … The God that made these books, can only un-riddle these books. And therefore when you use this Key, pray for that other Key, and pray unto Christ to deal with you as He did with his apostles, To open your understanding that you may understand the Scriptures.
So prays Your Servant in Christ Jesus,
Edmund Calamy.
Edmund Calamy, “An Epistle to the Reader,” in Clavis Bibliorum: The Key of the Bible, Unlocking the Richest Treasury of the Holy Scriptures, by Francis Roberts (London: George Calvert, 1648), iii–ix.
