Central to the concerns of late-sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English Puritanism was a desire to recapture and experience a biblical piety in all of its Christological and pneumatological glory.[1] Even during the waning of this movement in the final quarter of the seventeenth century, this passion was still evidently driving the Puritan mind and heart. In fact, it was during this period of decline that the English Puritans—now found in the main in Presbyterian, Congregationalist and Baptist chapels outside of the Church of England—made what Michael Watts has deemed to be “a major contribution” to the history of Christian devotion, namely, the introduction of the hymn into public worship. After the Scriptures, hymns have arguably been the foremost shaper of Christian thought and piety in the past three hundred years.
One of the earliest hymnals was the Seventh-day Baptist Joseph Stennett’s (1663–1713) Hymns In Commemoration Of the Sufferings of Our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ, Compos’d For the Celebration of his Holy Supper. First published in 1697, it was twice enlarged in new editions that appeared in 1705 and 1709. Stennett was one of the most prominent pastors of his day. It says much for the general respect in which he was held that an Anglican prelate once remarked that if Stennett were willing to relinquish his Baptist convictions and join the Established Church, no post within that Church would be beyond his merit.
He had received a superb education at Wallingford Grammar School, Berkshire, which enabled him to become fluent in French and Italian and extremely proficient in the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures. Converted at a young age and with an early desire to be a theologian like his father, Edward Stennett, Stennett extensively studied the Church Fathers and other significant theological literature. His education enabled him to serve as a tutor in London, where he moved in 1685, and where he joined Pinners’ Hall Seventh-day Baptist church in the autumn of 1686. Two years later, Stennett was asked by the church to preach “every Sabbath when they had not assistance from any other church.” He was ordained on March 4, 1690.
His hymnal reveals that generally speaking, Stennett’s thinking about what is taking place at the Lord’s Table is fully in line with the overall perspective of the Puritan tradition enshrined in the Westminster Confession. While Stennett can thus call the bread and wine “kind Memorials,” “proper Symbols” and “Figures,” he is also convinced that the presence of the Risen Christ, who comes to the Table by his “free Spirit,” makes the Lord’s Supper a place of spiritual nourishment. In particular, the Lord’s Supper is designed to provide participating believers with a fresh and powerful reminder that Christ’s death has sufficiently atoned for all of their sins: “…at thy Table we behold/Thy All-Sufficient Sacrifice.” In another hymn Stennett makes the same point this way:
O Prince of Peace, bless thou this Board
With those sweet Smiles which Angels chear;
O give us Peace; and tell us, Lord,
We’re pardoned, and accepted here.
This experience of God’s loving forgiveness at the Table because of Christ’s atoning death should also overwhelm the believer with wonder and lead to ardent re-dedication to Christ:
Thou art All Love, my dearest Lord,
Thou art All Lovely too:
Thy Love I at thy Table taste,
Thy Loveliness I view.
Thy Divine Beauty, vail’d with Flesh,
Thy Enemies despise;
Thy mangled Body they did disdain,
And turn from Thee their Eyes.
But thou more Lovely art to me
For all that thou hast borne;
Each Cloud sets off thy Lustre more,
Thee all they Scars adorn.
Thy Garments tincturd with thy Blood,
The best and noblest Dye,
Out-shine the Robes that Princes wear;
Thy Thorns their Gems out-vie.
That I may be All Love to Thee,
And Lovely like Thee too,
O cleanse me with thy Precious Blood,
And me they Beauty show.
My former Vows I now renew:
O Lord, as thou art Mine;
I freely give my Heart to Thee,
For ever I’ll be Thine.
At the Table, believers not only taste afresh the love of Christ, but they also see the beauty of their Saviour: “Thy Loveliness I view.” While the beauty of Christ is tied to his cross-work of love for sinners—“thou more Lovely art to me/For all that thou hast borne”—it cannot be simply identified with this. Christ acts in love towards sinners because ultimately he is a person of “Divine Beauty,” One with a “sweet and Reverend Face.” This loveliness is veiled to his enemies; in fact, they despise his person. His friends, though, not only see the Lord’s beauty at the Lord’s Table, but they long to share in it. Hence, Stennett prays in the fifth stanza that he would be cleansed with Christ’s precious blood so that he might be lovely like Christ.
May this indeed be our experience when we come to the Table of the Lord!
[1] An earlier version of this article appeared in Tabletalk in July of 2012 and is used here by permission.
