Making Religion One's Business

Herbert Palmer (1601-1647) was an important Westminster divine, powerful preacher, studious Christian and a pastor’s theologian. There is a great gulf fixed between being religious and being a Christian. Are you a Christian? Or, are you just religious in some way? Palmer’s desire in this written work is that Christians would be glad to see written down a pattern for their hearts and lives before Christ, and also strive to make it their own in Christian practice. He penned this list of remembrance to quicken and push to action, what he called, “…his own frequent dullness.” He desired, “to have his affection all molded by religion, and towards it,” and that we in turn, in following his directions, would remember that, “religion is the end of our creation, and of all the benefits, not only spiritual, but temporal, which God bestows on us.” To harness Palmer’s work is to make religion our business. It is not simply to be a religious zealot, but a true Christian.