Herbert Palmer (1601-1647), one of the Westminster Assem­bly Divines, issued a pamphlet entitled, The Character of a Christian, in Paradoxes and Seeming Contradictions. These paradoxes were tagged on to an edition of Bacon’s Remains and became mistakenly ascribed to him. A. B. Grosart of Kinross, a Puritan devotee of the last century, republished these para­doxes with other writings of Herbert Palmer.

The Puritans engaged themselves with interpreting hard texts and solving experimental mysteries hour after hour. At times, they enjoyed sharpening their wits and exercising their ingenuity by composing apparent contradictions, which were nevertheless matters of clear understanding to illuminated minds. No theme is so common in their paradoxes as the spiritual state of the believer. Certainly, this theme is so complex, so diverse, and so unique that it is a wonderful riddle to Christians.

Paradoxes⤒🔗

1. A Christian is one who believes things which his reason cannot comprehend...
    
2. Who hopes for that which neither he, nor any man alive ever saw...
    
3. Who labors for that which he knows he can never attain.
    
4. Yet in the outcome, his belief appears not to have been false; hope makes him not ashamed; labor is not in vain.
    
5. He believes Three to be One, and One to be Three; a Father not to be older than His Son, and the Son to be equal with His Father, and that One proceeding from both, is fully equal to both.
    
6. He believes in one Nature three Persons, and in one Person two Natures.
    
7. He believes a virgin to have been a mother, and her Son to be her Maker.
    
8. He believes Him to be born in time, who was from everlast­ing, and Him to be shut up in a narrow room, whom Heaven and Earth could never contain.
    
9. He believes Him to have been a weak child carried in arms, who is the Almighty; and Him to have died, who alone has life and immortality in Himself.
    
10. He believes the God of all grace to have been angry with One who never offended Him; and the God who hates all sin, to have reconciled to Himself those who sin continually, and never make Him satisfaction.
     
11. He believes the most just God to have punished a most innocent Person, and to have justified those who are most ungodly sinners.
     
12. He believes himself freely pardoned, and yet that a suf­ficient satisfaction is paid for him.
     
13. He believes himself to be precious in God’s sight, yet he loathes himself in his own sight.
     
14. He dares not justify himself, even in those things concern­ing which he knows of no fault in himself; yet he believes God accepts even those services in which he himself is able to find many faults.
     
15. He praises God for His justice, and fears Him for His mercies.
     
16. He is so ashamed that he dares not open his mouth before God; yet comes with boldness to God, and asks anything that he needs.
     
17. He is so humble as to acknowledge himself to deserve nothing but evil; yet so confident as to believe God means him all good.
     
18. He is one that fears always, and yet is bold as a lion.
     
19. He is often sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; often complain­ing, yet always giving thanks.
     
20. He is most lowly minded, yet the greatest aspirer; most contented, yet ever craving.
     
21. He bears a privileged, victorious spirit in a humble frame; and when he is uplifted, thinks poorly of himself.
     
22. He is rich in poverty, and poor in the midst of riches.
     
23. He believes all the world to be his, yet dares take nothing without special permission.
     
24. He makes no deals with God, yet looks for the greatest reward.
     
25. He loses his life, and gains by it; and even while he loses it, he saves it.
     
26. He lives not to himself, yet out of all people is most wise for his own interests.
     
27. He denies himself often, yet loves himself more than any self-seeker.
     
28. He is the most reproached of people, and the most honored.
     
29. He has the most afflictions, and the most comforts.
     
30. The more injury his enemies do to him, the more advan­tage he gets by them.
     
31. The more he himself forsakes worldly things, the more he enjoys them.
     
32. He is the most self-controlled of all people, yet fares most deliciously.
     
33. He lends and gives most freely, yet is the greatest gainer of interest.
     
34. He is meek towards all men, yet not persuadable by them.
     
35. He is the best child, brother, husband, friend, yet hates father, and mother, and wife, and brethren, etc.
     
36. He loves all men as himself, yet hates some men with perfect hatred.
     
37. He desires to have more grace than any in the world, yet he is truly sorry when he sees any man have less than himself.
     
38. He honors no man after the flesh, yet gives to all their due respects.
     
39. He knows that if he pleases men he is not the servant of Christ; yet for Christ’s sake he pleases all men in all things.
     
40. He is a peacemaker, yet continually fighting, and an irrec­oncilable enemy.
     
41. He believes him to be worse than an infidel that provides not for his family, yet he himself lives and dies without care.
     
42. He is strict to his children, because he loves them; and kind to his enemies, so bringing divine vengeance upon them.
     
43. He accounts all his inferiors his equals, yet stands firmly upon his authority.
     
44. He believes the angels to be more excellent creatures than himself, yet counts them his servants.
     
45. He believes he receives many good turns by means of the angels, yet he never asks their assistance, nor craves their prayers, nor offers them thanks (which yet he would not withhold from the lowliest Christian).
     
46. He believes himself a king, no matter how poor or how great he may be, and is never too high to be servant to the poorest saint.
     
47. He is often in prison, yet always at liberty, and a free man though a slave.
     
48. He accepts not honor from men, yet highly prizes a good name.
     
49. He believes that if people do good to him, it is because God has ordained it, yet he is, of all people, most thankful to those that do it.
     
50. He would lay down his life to save the soul of his enemy; yet will not risk one sin to save the life of someone who has saved his.
     
51. He will tell the truth to his own disadvantage and not relent; and cannot lie to get an advantage.
     
52. He believes Christ to have no need of anything he can do, yet diligently gives gifts of charity as if done to Christ.
     
53. He knows he can do nothing of himself, yet labors to work out his own salvation.
     
54. He confesses he can do nothing; yet just as truly professes he can do all things.
     
55. He knows that flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God; yet believes he shall go to heaven, body and soul.
     
56. He trembles at God’s Word, yet counts it sweeter to him than the honey and the honeycomb, and more precious than thousands of gold and silver.
     
57. He believes that God will never damn him; and yet he fears Him for being able to cast him into hell.
     
58. He knows he shall not be saved by his works, and yet does all the good works he can, and believes he shall not be saved without them.
     
59. He knows God’s providence orders all things; yet is he diligent in his business, as if his survival depended on himself.
     
60. He believes that God has purposed beforehand what shall be; and that nothing can make Him alter His purpose; yet he prays and strives, as if he would persuade God to hear him and satisfy him.
     
61. He prays and labors for what he believes God means to give him, and the more assured he is that he will receive it, the more earnest he is to pray.
     
62. He prays for things he knows he shall not obtain, and yet does not give up.
     
63. He prays and labors for things which he knows he may be just as happy without.
     
64. He prays with all his heart not to be led into trial, yet rejoices when he falls into it.
     
65. He believes his prayers are heard, even when they are denied, and gives thanks for that which he prayed would not happen.
     
66. He has within him the flesh and the spirit; yet is not a double-minded man.
     
67. He is often led away captive by the law of sin, yet it never gets the dominion over him.
     
68. He cannot sin, yet he can do nothing without sin.
     
69. He can do nothing against his will; yet he does those things that he does not want to do.
     
70. He wavers and doubts, and yet obtains; he is often tossed and shaken, and yet is like Mount Zion.
     
71. He is a serpent and also a dove; a lamb and also a lion; a reed and also a cedar.
     
72. He is sometimes so troubled, that he doubts his faith, and yet if he did really doubt it, he would never be troubled.
     
73. He thinks sometimes that God has no mercy for him, and yet is ready to die in the pursuit of it.
     
74. He believes, like Abraham, in faith and hope alone, and though he can never understand why God should require this of him, he hopes (like the woman of Canaan) to prevail with the pleadings of need.
     
75. He wrestles with God and prevails; and though realizing he is unworthy of the smallest of the blessings he enjoys already, yet (Jacob-like) he will not let God go without a new blessing.
     
76. He sometimes thinks himself to have no grace at all; and yet, no matter how poor and afflicted he is, he would not change place with the most prosperous worldling on earth.|
     
77. He sometimes thinks that the ordinances of God do him no good at all, and yet he would rather part with his life then be deprived of them.
     
78. He believes he was born dead, and yet capable of being murdered.
     
79. He believes life was put into him some time after his birth, with some, not until they learned to speak, and with others in adulthood, and with others, when they are ready to drop into the grave.
     
80. After he begins to live, he is constantly dying; and though eternal life has begun in him, yet he believes he has yet to pass through death.
     
81. He regards self-murder as a most heinous sin, yet he is con­tinually crucifying his flesh, and putting to death his earthly, bodily passions.
     
82. He believes that his soul and body shall in eternity be as full of glory as those that have more, and yet not more full than those that have less.
     
83. He has a spiritual life invisible to those that know him best; yet they sometimes see further into him, and judge more truly of him than he does of himself.
     
84. The world sometimes counts him a saint, when God counts him a hypocrite; and the world brands him a hypocrite, when God owns him for a saint.
     
85. In the end, his death does not make an end of him. His soul, which was created for his body, and is not to be per­fected without his body, is more happy when it is separated from it than it was all the while it was united to it. His body, though torn in pieces, burnt to ashes, ground to powder and putrefied, shall be no loser. His Advocate and his Surety shall be his Judge. His mortal part shall become immortal. What was sown in corruption, shall be raised in incorrup­tion and glory. His spiritual part, though it had a beginning, shall have no end; and he, though a finite creature, shall possess infinite happiness.

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 eighteen.

Ordained in the established church, he was first appointed to a lectureship at Canterbury Cathedral, where he imme­diately showed his Puritan views. (When admonishing the clergy, he would switch to Latin.)

At thirty-one, he became Rector of Ashwell in Hertford­shire, where he organized special classes for the doctrinal instruction of all the people, particularly the children. Find­ing that the official 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 laborers he had a special, large class following the Sunday afternoon sermon.

In 1643, he became a member of the Westminster Assem­bly of Divines. 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 better than in the service of the Lord.”

In 1644, he was appointed Master of Queen’s College, Cambridge. He is credited with the spiritual reformation of the life of the college, and the establishing of decidedly evangelical tutors, all being accomplished in three years, ter­minated by his death at 46.