May We Meet in the Heavenly World: The Piety of Lemuel Haynes

Lemuel Haynes on the impossibility of faith preceding regeneration:

It is necessary that we consider those things that are the attendants or consequences regeneration or the new birth, for there are no gracious or holy exercises that are prior thereto, to be sure, in the order of nature. Some seem to suppose faith to be before regeneration, but a little reflection upon the matter will show this to be wrong. By faith we are to understand a believing of those truths that God has exhibited in His Word with a friendly heart. Now, to suppose that a man believes this friendly heart antecedent to regeneration, is to suppose that a man is a friend to God while in a state of unregeneracy, which is contradictory to Scripture. Now, if to believe with a friendly and rightly disposed heart is absolutely necessary in order to constitute a true faith , and such a heart is peculiar to the regenerate only, then we must be possessed with this heart (which is given in regeneration) before there can flow from it any such exercises. So that the man must become a good man, or be regenerated, before he can exercise faith, or love, or any grace whatever. Hence we read of men’s receiving Christ, and becoming sons of God (John 1:12).

—Lemuel Haynes, May We Meet in the Heavenly World: The Piety of Lemuel Haynes, ed. Thabiti Anyabwile (Reformation Heritage Books, 2007), 32–33.

The following is taken from a letter of Lemuel Haynes to his friend and first biographer, Timothy Mather Cooley.

With respect to religion in these parts, although the year past some towns have been remarkably visited with divine influence, yet it is in general a very ignorant time. I think I never knew infidelity more prevalent. As you observe, Paine has advocates. I have attended to his writings on theology and can find little but invective and the lowest kind of burlesque. . . . We may rest satisfied that the Lord omnipotent reigneth.

—Lemuel Haynes, May We Meet in the Heavenly World: The Piety of Lemuel Haynes, ed. Thabiti Anyabwile (Reformation Heritage Books, 2007), 57.

Haines refers here to the deist Thomas Paine, whose book The Age of Reason was a diatribe against Christianity. Notice, though, that rather than panicking and calling Christians to campaigns and protests and boycotts, he simply says, “We may rest satisfied that the Lord omnipotent reigneth.” If only American fundamentalists believed that!

In his sermon, Divine Decrees (1805), Lemuel Haynes answers well the question, “Why, if God has ordained all that comes to pass, ought we to pray, or take action of any kind? Why not just passively see what happens?”

Faith in divine purpose will excite the people of God to the diligent use of means, as He has appointed them as instruments by which he will accomplish His designs and has commanded them to be workers together with him; indeed, without the exertions of men, it is impossible that they should take place. God revealed to Abraham that his seed should go down into Egypt and at such a time be delivered, but this supposed series of second causes [was] all dependent on the first cause; without them the event could not take place. One was the edict of Pharaoh to destroy the male infants of the Hebrews, that Moses should be born and hid three months, that he should be educated at the expense of the King of Egypt, that the Egyptians should be visited with ten plagues, etc. I might with the propriety make the same remark with respect to the deliverance of Israel from Babylonian captivity and the birth and death of Christ. The people of God consider themselves as active instruments to bring about His holy designs and are, in a good degree, cured of that unreasonable temper of mind that will deduce a natural consequences from certain promises, in order to gratify a licentious conduct.
   The truly pious are pleased with the absolute decrees of God, as what will promote the greatest possible good. If it is desirable that all God’s counsels should stand, then it must be pleasing to saints to be in the use of such means as tend to bring them to pass—without which they cannot exist; this makes them cheerfulin the service of God, as they are seeking the same glorious ultimate object with Him. Jochebed and her husband doubtless understood that God, by this remarkable child, designed the deliverance of the church from the iron furnace, which was an animating object; all they did in fitting him for this work afforded satisfaction. Although the children of God cannot always see the connection between means and ends, yet they put such confidence in the divine Being as delights their souls in preserving in the path of duty—believing that God will effect the greatest good by it.
   The friends of God delight in expressingtheir obedience to Him. The use of means affords them opportunity to glorify God and commend him the others if love and obedience are delightful exercises to the saints, then to express them will be pleasing. As God cannot exhibit any true virtue of moral excellence without pursuing a plan, so neither can we, unless we regard His will and interest and are workers together with Him.
   The humble Christian will feel his own weakness and insufficiency to do anything of himself and will see that all his sufficiency is of God, and his faith and hope will rest of His power and providence to do all—which will be a motive to diligence. This will be the foundation of his trust and will excite him to work out his salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that it is God that worketh in him, both to will and to do His good pleasure (Phil. 2:12–13). This supported the parents of Moses amidst all their care about him and [was the reason] “They were not afraid of the kin’s commandments.”
   Christians will diligently attend to means, as they will see much to be done. Wherever they turn their eyes, they will behold work laid out for them. It is criminal to stand idle in the marketplace. The good man will see enough to employ his head, his heart, his hands, and his temporal interest in the service of God. The reason that so many can find but little to do for God is on account of a slothful and indolent heart that refuses to labor.

—Lemuel Haynes, May We Meet in the Heavenly World: The Piety of Lemuel Haynes, ed. Thabiti Anyabwile (Reformation Heritage Books, 2007), 81–83.

Lemuel Haynes on the benefits of thinking often of death, and living in its expectation:

[T]hey who are properly looking out for death look upon it as an event to which they are exposed at any time, at any place, or on any occasion, at home or abroad, and they will endeavor not to engage in any work inconsistent with being called immediately before the bar of Christ. A willingness to depart out of time and to land on the shores of immortality comports with the nature of the duty under consideration. With what holy and ecstatic joy does the apostle, in the chapter and verse from which our text [2 Timothy 4:6–8] is selected, anticipate the approaching moment of his departure. “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” In a word: to live as expectants of death is to do the work of every day in the day, that we faithfully discharge the duties we owe to God, to ourselves, and fellow creatures; that we live in the daily exercise of Christian graces and persevere in holy obedience, in a constant dependence on the mercy of God through Jesus Christ.

—Lemuel Haynes, May We Meet in the Heavenly World: The Piety of Lemuel Haynes, ed. Thabiti Anyabwile (Reformation Heritage Books, 2007), 87–88.

My situation is very much as it has been—I think not very encouraging. I am in the hands of God and in a measure reconciled to His will; and it is impossible to determine what will be the issue of the disease. I hope I can say, “The Lord reigns; blessed be His name.” But you see what poor work I make of writing—should be glad to see you all before I die—I commit all to God. Oh! Remember your Creator! Let not the fashions of the world divert your minds from eternity!

   Your dying father,

—Lemuel Haynes

—Lemuel Haynes, May We Meet in the Heavenly World: The Piety of Lemuel Haynes, ed. Thabiti Anyabwile (Reformation Heritage Books, 2007), 123.