Sermons on Jeremiah's Lamentations (Dickson)

This rare, never-before-published volume powerfully expounds a neglected book of Scripture. David Dickson carefully applies Lamentations in a time not only of epidemic disease, international turmoil, economic devastation, and persecution but also of revival. There are clear parallels with our own time, particularly the unprecedented circumstances of upheaval in the nations of the world. Dickson also deals with church decline and argues that its afflictions should cause us great sorrow. Yet he also shows how Lamentations gives those with such heavy hearts words with which to sorrow in hope. This edition has been carefully produced from notes taken by a member of Dickson’s congregation.

Table of Contents:

Introduction - Matthew A. Vogan

Sermons on Jeremiah’s Lamentations

Chapter One

1. Sermon 1 on Lamentations 1:1

2. Sermon 2 on Lamentations 1:2–5

3. Sermon 3 on Lamentations 1:6–8

4. Sermon 4 on Lamentations 1:9–10

5. Sermon 5 on Lamentations 1:11–14

6. Sermon 6 on Lamentations 1:14–18

7. Sermon 7 on Lamentations 1:18–22

Chapter Two

8. Sermon 1 on Lamentations 2:1–4

9. Sermon 2 on Lamentations 2:4–11

10. Sermon 3 on Lamentations 2:11–14

11. Sermon 4 on Lamentations 2:15–22

Chapter Three

12. Sermon 1 on Lamentations 3:1–13

13. Sermon 2 on Lamentations 3:14–21

14. Sermon 3 on Lamentations 3:21–24

15. Sermon 4 on Lamentations 3:24–28

16. Sermon 5 on Lamentations 3:24–30

17. Sermon 6 on Lamentations 3:30–38

18. Sermon 7 on Lamentations 3:39–40

19. Sermon 8 on Lamentations 3:40–44

20. Sermon 9 on Lamentations 3:44–54

21. Sermon 10 on Lamentations 3:55–66

Chapter Four

22. Sermon 1 on Lamentations 4:1–4

23. Sermon 2 on Lamentations 4:5–11

24. Sermon 3 on Lamentations 4:12–20

25. Sermon 4 on Lamentations 4:20–22

Chapter Five

26. Sermon 1 on Lamentations 5:1–7

27. Sermon 2 on Lamentations 5:8–22

Naphtali Press Special Editions (NPSE)

Hearkening back to the days of subscription and older days of patron-supported publishing, through yearly sponsorships NPSE researches and produces labor-intensive Puritan, Reformed, and Presbyterian titles that otherwise would be cost prohibitive to produce in good-quality and critical editions. Depending on sponsorship levels, each series year NPSE will be able to take on projects such as large, Puritan-era works never published in modern editions; transcriptions of Puritan and other era works that remain in manuscript; and translations of Reformed works into English for the first time.

Author

David Dickson (c. 1583–1662) served as minister at Irvine in Ayrshire and professor of theology at both Edinburgh and Glasgow. His commentaries continue to be highly prized for concise insight and application. His preaching was marked by similar powerful exposition, and he was considered the greatest gospel minister in Scotland at the time.

Editor

For over thirty years through Naphtali Press, Chris Coldwell has published fine-quality editions of Puritan, Presbyterian, and Reformed literature. He is also the general editor and publisher of The Confessional Presbyterian journal.

Endorsement

“You hold in your hands a rare treasure by a rare man who should be much better known—one of the most relevant books of Scripture for today, preached by one of the greatest preachers of yesterday.

“By one estimate, David Dickson trained as many as three-quarters of Scotland’s ministers in the mid-seventeenth century; and in an age of towering figures in pulpit and academy, Dickson proved a close mentor and colleague to many of them—statesmen like Archibald Johnston of Wariston, preachers like John Livingstone, and theologians like Samuel Rutherford. Such a résumé should arrest the attention of today’s Christians who may have overlooked him in the shadow of some of his more celebrated associates.

“Dickson’s revival preaching, careful commentaries, pastoral wisdom, and prophetic zeal for his national church earned him the praise of his generation. This magnificent collection of long-forgotten sermons on Lamentations now displays each of these rare qualities for the edification of a new generation. They once applied Jeremiah’s searching message to a congregation facing tumultuous times remarkably similar to our own: days of spiritual decline and government overreach in the church, days of plague and international upheaval. But today’s church doesn’t just need these published sermons from Dickson’s pulpit; it desperately needs preaching like Dickson’s in its pulpits. It is to be hoped that through them, Jeremiah’s timely call may awaken a slumbering church to repentance and a renewed commitment to gospel faithfulness in pulpit and pew.” — David G. Whitla, professor of church history, Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania