Ejected from the Pulpit and Subjected to Pain: Benjamin Keach (1640-1704) and Dissenting Ministers in Seventeenth-Century England Written by: Matthew Stanton As our title suggests, there were many dissenting ministers in seventeenth-century England who were ejected from their pulpit and subjected to persecution as exemplified by Benjamin Keach. This paper, whilst noting some of the... Continue Reading →
On October 9, 1664, Benjamin Keach appeared before Lord Chief Justice Hyde. As a dissenting minister, Keach's crime was found to be his teaching -via publication- which was contrary to the Church of England. In his recently published book, one meant for the instruction of children; Keach revealed several points of doctrine which did not... Continue Reading →
Keach is perhaps best known for his work in 'repairing the breach found in the public worship of God'. Central to his efforts was Keach's high elevation of public or corporate worship. This elevation of public worship over private worship had deep puritan roots. To the Puritans, the worship service was more than just a gathering of like-minded believers, rather it was often... Continue Reading →
To Keach not only was Justification an act of God's doing, but it was an act of his grace. Grace brought deliverance and deliverance brought justification. For Keach this order could not be changed or re-worked as God first enacted his grace in saving a perishing world/people. Justification was grace's greatest gift. ".... the lost... Continue Reading →
Reading the Bible Christocentrically is no new modern construct of the church. Seeing Christ through the Scriptures - the metaphors and imagery specifically- was Keach's forte. In his: Preaching from the Types and Metaphors of the Bible, Keach explains at great length the beauty of seeing Christ at work throughout the Bible . Overview of... Continue Reading →
For Keach there were two things which rendered a Man an Heretick: 1. An Error in matters of Faith, Fundamental or Essential to Salvation. 2. A Stubbornness in continuing to hold to such a thought after it has been disproved. After believers work to convince the heretic of their abominable Error; and they remain obstinate,... Continue Reading →
"Wicked men are undone by reckoning wrong; they do not keep their accounts well; they put the evil day far off; they measure their days not by the king’s standard, or by just rules and measures. Perhaps they reckon by their present health, their present strength, or by the lives of their progenitors. Their father... Continue Reading →
1. It is the duty of every member to pray for his Pastor and Teachers. 2. They ought to show a reverential estimation of them, being Christ’s ambassadors, also called Rulers, Angels, etc. 3. It is their duty to submit themselves unto them, that is, in all their exhortations, good counsels, and reproofs. 4. It... Continue Reading →
Taken from Keach's: A Golden Mine Opened, pp. 169-175, 1694 edition). That all the saints of God, or sheep of Jesus Christ, shall be saved, and none of them shall so fall away as eternally to perish. The truth of this point I shall prove by divers arguments and scriptures. And my first argument shall... Continue Reading →
Taken from Keach's: The Counterfeit Christian or the Danger of Hypocrisy, (London: John Pike, 1691) What can render the state of a person worse than to be an enemy of God, Jesus Christ, and the power of godliness; and yet to think he is holy and a good Christian? Nay, because his conscience is blind... Continue Reading →
Benjamin Keach Journal 