Sword & Trowel 2015: Issue 1  Palmer’s life Born to a titled family in 1601,


Herbert Palmer was apparently an exceptional child, reading the Bible at four, mastering French shortly afterward, and completing his degree at Cambridge at 18. Ordained in the established


church, he was fi rst appointed to a lectureship at Canterbury Cathedral, where he immediately showed his Puritan views. (When admonishing the clergy he would switch to Latin.) At 31 he became Rector of Ash-


well in Hertfordshire, where he organised special classes for the doc- trinal instruction of all the people, and particularly the children. Find- ing that the offi cial catechism was not suitable for young children or for young people of scant education, he prepared his own, which earned him the reputation of being the best catechist of his generation. Soon, very few people in Ashwell


were not enrolled in one of his classes. For servants and farm la- bourers he had a special (very large) class following the Sunday afternoon sermon.


Westminster and Cambridge In 1643 he became a member of


the Westminster Assembly of Di- vines. While in London he preached at so many services that other Puritans became convinced he would lose his health. He told them, ‘My strength will spend itself though I do nothing, and it cannot be spent bet- ter than in the service of the Lord.’ In 1644 he was appointed Master of Queens’ College, Cambridge. He is credited with the spiritual


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Special Topic audio CDs of ministry from Metropolitan Tabernacle Bible Studies are made available for £1. Ministry can also be watched or listened to online without charge on the Tabernacle website. What Exactly is Worldliness? ‘Love not the world’ texts are frequently twisted to mean – be worldly as long as you don’t sin. Past believers always saw the world as a complex evil campaign orchestrated by Satan. Here are passages proving this view and defi ning worldliness. (Bible Study, 30th September 2015)


Paradoxes & Seeming Contradictions in the Christian


reformation of the life of the college, and the establishing of decidedly evangelical tutors, all being accom- plished in three years, terminated by his death at 46.


‘The Character of a Christian, in


Paradoxes and Seeming Contradictions’ is included in Palmer’s Memorials of Godliness and Christianity, assembled by A B Grosart, with a biography, and published in 1865.


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