In 1655, Phillip Goodwin, wrote a book called, Family Religion Revived in which he covers a number of important matters of family life. He begins the book speaking directly to pastors who are charged to care for local congregations. Here is how he begins, “To the Inhabitants of the Town and Parish of Watford in Hertfordshire.” He offers several practical matters for serious reflection that led him to write the following.
First, the principal duty of a minister is to labor for the everlasting good of others. His concern must not be his own temporal advantage but the spiritual benefit of his flock. This must be the motive that guides and energizes all his work. He must spend his life laboring earnestly, giving life to all his labors. His calling is to magnify his office—not by worldly dignity or clever speech that draws disciples to himself—but by steady and vigorous diligence that draws many souls to God.
Second, in his work a minister must not only be earnest but also varied, using every fitting means to do good and win souls to God. Hence Scripture calls ministers “laborers” and describes them in many ways that show the variety of their tasks—planting, plowing, building, rowing, and the like. Whatever their work, it must be done with the full exertion of their strength for the spiritual profit of the people.
Third, the people among whom God has placed a minister are those toward whom he must chiefly direct all these efforts for spiritual good. They are the city he must watch and guard, the vineyard he must plant and tend, the field he must plow and sow, the flock he must feed, and the ship he must row until he has safely landed them in heaven and left them with God.
Fourth, among the many ways a minister may labor for his people’s good, the written word may well prove most effective, because
Written teaching often works more deeply on the heart. What strikes only the ear may vanish like air, but what meets the eye often sinks further. “My eye affects my heart” (Lamentations 3:51). Words may pass lightly, but what is written may prove weighty. As Paul’s critics said, “His letters are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible” (2 Corinthians 10:10).
Through writing, a minister can also communicate God’s truth more widely—even at home among his own people. Public preaching may be hindered or interrupted: preachers may be restrained or removed; hearers may be unwilling or unable to attend. Yet those who will not come to the fountain to draw water may still drink when it is brought to their houses through the pipe. So, by means of the written word, truth may reach those who would otherwise remain in darkness.
Furthermore, writing gives permanence to a minister’s labor. Sermons are like passing showers that water the ground for a moment; books are like snow that lies long upon the earth, keeping the seed warm in winter. Death removes a pastor’s voice from among his people, yet his writings remain with them. As Elijah’s mantle fell to Elisha after he was taken up, so a faithful minister may leave behind writings that continue to bless.
Some object that there are already too many books. This may be true of controversial works that keep alive divisions. But for practical books that press men toward holiness, there can never be too many.
Faithful pastors seek to place before their people truths that concern their souls most deeply—truths of constant and universal use, suited to all sorts of persons and all seasons of life. Such writings are both goads and guides: they stir the heart to do good and direct the hands how to do it.
I hope that these things may more readily reach your hearts, reminding you that these duties concern you particularly and urging you to practice them. All that I ask is your kind acceptance and your fruitful response.
It is said that, about three hundred and seventy years after Christ, when a man was baptized and received into the church, the minister gave him a white garment, saying, “Receive this robe with a sincere heart, and keep it undefiled until you appear before Christ.” In later days, when the deacon Muritta was persecuted by one who had once been baptized, he held up such a robe and said, “This garment shall accuse you at the coming of Christ.”
Source Note:
This article is excerpted from Family Religion Revived by Phillip Goodwin (originally published in London in 1655 as Religio Domestica Rediviva). The public-domain text has been lightly modernized for contemporary readers, including updates to spelling, punctuation, and some archaic phrasing, while preserving the author’s original meaning, pastoral tone, and biblical emphasis.