The Life & Ministry of Benjamin Keach | Ep. 85

And even in his relations with Watts, we can see there’s some borrowing there and Keach setting the ground floor. But Keach himself, was a generation removed from Watts. So he was born 1640, a, son of the church of England. So his parents had him baptized in the church of England as an infant. he grew up as a tailor in his teen years, the kids worked from a very young age in the 16 hundreds. and so he took on a trades job as a tailor. he was drawn into a dissenting congregation, which meant that he was baptized a believer’s baptism by immersion. At the time he was 15, by John Russell was a minister there. It was an Armenian general Baptist church in Buckinghamshire. and he was set apart fairly early on as a teacher of the word. He began preaching, in Winslow, by age 18. And then after a number of instances and some persecution, he faced him and his family. They moved down to London. He became a minister at Horsley down. he was there for 36 years, served faithfully as a minister there, representing that church, at the general assembly, 1689, endorsed and signed the confession of faith, which the majority of Baptists hold to, still, even now, both in Britain and in North America, he wrote, near 50 works, some of them being full length books, novel lengths. One of them is a million words long, which was quite substantial, and in that day would have costed a year’s salary for the average layperson because it was such a massive work. Then he wrote tracks and primers and poems, pamphlets, hymn books, prefaces to other works, quite a, ah, well known writer in his own right. and then ultimately, by the time he passed in 17, four, he had become a leader within this emerging denomination of the English Baptists. Wow.

Clay Kraby: and listeners might be most familiar with Keach. When we mentioned Keach’s catechism, that’s something that maybe is a touch point that people have with Benjamin Keach and have come across maybe a little bit more frequently than some of his other works. And also that he pastored the church that would eventually be pastored by Charles Spurgeon. So, if someone knows the name Benjamin Keach, but doesn’t know a whole lot about him. More than likely, it’s probably coming from one of those two things there. But he was what’s known as a particular Baptist. And this is being put out by Particular Baptist Heritage Books. So what is a particular Baptist as opposed to a general Baptist? Could you give some definitions there?

Matthew Stanton: Yeah, absolutely. There were essentially two streams of Baptists in the 17th century, the general Baptist and the particular Baptist. The general Baptist came out of the, Remonstrants, out of that persuasion from Holland. So a key leader there, Joseph Smith, who, was Anglican church minister and then left, who insisted that, worship liturgy was all a matter of the heart. So he removed things like the Book of common prayer. As a separatist, he, wouldn’t even allow the reading of the Bible in service because it was prescribed form. Everything was spontaneous. And so, General Baptists were Armenian m and, atonement beliefs as well. So a general atonement, were these Baptists. The second stream, though, were the particulars, and they came out of the more of, a puritan, persuasion. So Hanson Knowles, William Kiffin, going back to the JLJ (Jacob, Lanthrop, Jesse) church. so they were particular in the sense that they were Calvinistic, a particular atonement. So the easiest way to remember is regarding their soteriology, how they believe the atonement, effectuated itself, whether it was general for the entire world or where it was, particularly towards the elect. And keech, interestingly, was in both of these camps, beginning as a general with, Russell, with William Ryder, and then by the time he gets to London, he is, in a sense, particular Baptist. I like to call Keech a particular generalist because he was a particular Baptist through and through, no question about that. But he had a couple of, general baptistic traditions, he held onto, such as the laying out of hands that he would still maintain was an ordinance of a church, which was rare amongst the particulars, particularly, in the. But very common amongst the generals. And Keach would even write, In, the ordinance of faith. Sorry, articles of faith, I believe, 1697. It’s a little catechism book, which was essentially, ah, an abridged version of the 1689. And in it he added this little. He added two things. Him singing, which I’m sure we’ll talk about. And then he added this laying out of hands, looking at the Pauline practice and teaching from Acts 19:1, Timothy 5, and then Jesus’s practice as well. Mark 10, Luke 4. “Children come to me.” So Keach argued and continued for that practice, which, interestingly, continued through to the Philadelphia Confession. It’s still in there in 1724. but it was ultimately removed by the time we get to the Charleston confession in about 1767. Then the laying, on hands, even within the Keach’s flow of thought, if you will, was removed. But I argue that this particular generalist that Keech was, I think that is one of the things that got him to introduce him singing. I think because these general Baptist upbringings and tendencies afforded him the normative principle of worship, he was able to use that to introduce him singing into a context where the particular Baptists weren’t singing, by at large. the general Baptist had a practice of solo singing, throughout the. Because, again, that spontaneity and worship, they didn’t want anything prescribed, certainly not the book of common prayer, but even a psalter or hymn book. So they weren’t singing particulars. Did practice some psalm singing, but keech kind of comes down in the middle here to provide songs, of new modern human composure that songs that he wrote and afforded him the introduction of these in his own church back in the 1680s, and then ultimately throughout London by the end of the century.

Clay Kraby: Wow. So for those of us that that’s a staple of our church services, where we sing together, particularly, we’re singing hymns. we really owe a lot, then, to Benjamin Keach. A little bit of a pioneer in that, right?

Matthew Stanton: Oh, 100%. Yeah. Keach pioneered. Someone has a. I think it’s I think it’s in Jim Carnes. He did an MA thesis back in 84, The Famous Mr. Keach, which is a fabulous work. But in that, I think he has a line about, Keach is the pioneer for him singing at large. And then he argues for that, and that’s really become a basis, in the scholarship, that kind of standard that’s been continually proven over and over. And, Yeah, 100%.

Clay Kraby: Are there any of his hymns that are still kind of in the rotation today or all those kind of fallen by the wayside at this point?

Matthew Stanton: Yeah, that’s a good question. the latest hymns I found of his were in America, in the 18th century, but not into the 19th century. So they really fell out after, basically after we get Charleston confession, kind of the, 1760s, 1780s. Then the couple of hymns of Keach’s that were his best. And these new hymn books were ultimately not rerecorded. So I doubt anybody’s ever sang a Keach hymn in probably at least 100 years, I tried something when I was doing some of my studies where I would retune his hymns, which just means place a melody to the words that’s provided. And, it was hard in the sense that his prose was very focused, more on content as opposed to rhyme or meter. And so that made it harder to sing and ultimately retune.

Clay Kraby: Well, if there’s anyone, that’s particularly musical listening, there might be a diamond mine out there for you to go and work and bring some of those back to life for us. So what’s happening in just history, in church history at this time, in Benjamin Keach’s life and ministry, what’s going on in the world, particularly in England at this time?

Matthew Stanton: Yeah, great question. I mean, this era, this is 17th century England. So it’s been called the most, tumultuous time in English history, a, period of great turmoil, both the state of political, social, religious upheaval, and that’s the environment that Keach is, brought up in. And he’s certainly not immune to these realities. So starting with the English civil war that breaks out in 1642, Keech is only two years old at this point. The royalists, the parliamentarians, are fighting ultimately until 1651, trying to figure out a balanced approach to the monarchy and the parliamentarian system. which kind of 1646, when Charles II is taken into custody, is the first, era in which, parliament is fully functioning. And you get men like Oliver Cromwell begin to arise, they take the scene and, all the way until the establishment of the commonwealth in England. So Charles II is then, crowned king in Scotland in 1650, and he agrees in part to this kind of presbyterian church in England and Scotland. Britain’s essentially in a unitary state until from the preceding period of the protectorate, at the time which we know as interregnum, that’s 1649 to 1660, when we get the, Stewart’s, restoration. So keech first gets into trouble here, which we can talk about shortly, because the monarchy, ah, has been reestablished. So there is that kind of period where there’s some thriving in the dissenting separatist movement. but once we get 1660 and the monarchy reestablished, then the hammer comes down and Keach, gets in trouble, essentially, as did many ministers in England.

Clay Kraby: Yeah, particularly those of Keech’s tribe, the dissenters and what have you. So before we get into that, there’s a lot of important vocabulary when looking at this period of church history and the life of Benjamin Keech. So I was wondering if I can just fire know a handful of words for you and you give us a quick definition of those. One of those being dissenters. You mentioned it once already, but what is a dissenter?

Matthew Stanton: Yeah, dissenters were English separatists. They were Protestants that wanted to separate from the state church, the church of, England. England church. So the label dissenter was given to them. In the Latin, it means to disagree. And they sure did. With the state church. the centers were primarily concerned with the purity of the church, both in worship and practice. And so that’s why they dissented. They left, separated from the Church of England.

Clay Kraby: Now, is that the same as a non-conformist? So when we’re talking about non conformity, what are we talking about?

Matthew Stanton: Yeah, non-conformity is a more specific term, in the sense that these were clergymen who didn’t comply with the imposition of the act of uniformity and therefore they were required to use the book of common prayer following the Church of England. And if they didn’t, those were non conformers. So keech, he was never, ejected from the church. he was never kicked, out in that sense, because he wasn’t an Anglican minister like Keech, started a dissenter and remained, ah, as a Baptist, as a congregationalist. In that vein. so there’s the difference there between, the general dissenters, these separatists, but then more specifically, the nonconformists that were within that tribe, and then, removed.

Clay Kraby: Excellent. And you mentioned two really important terms for understanding, really any of the Puritans you might be reading, or this era in the church, and that is the act of uniformity. And then being ejected. The great ejection. What was the act of uniformity? What was the great ejection?

Matthew Stanton: Okay, the act of uniformity said 1662. It prescribed the forms of public prayers and administration of the sacraments, as the established Church of England, prescribed them, such as the Book of Common Prayer. So the act of uniformity, when it’s reached its session, it required that all ministers follow that practice. So nonconformists, such as puritans, they had abolished many features of, the high church’s practice, especially during that civil war period we talked about, And so, because they were not with. Following that act of uniformity, that led to the great ejection, which again, 1662, over 2000, more likely 3000, I would imagine. clergymen were ejected. They were removed from their posts. And it actually led. It’s more than just a single event, because it led to a series of acts that were brought up further coming down on these nonconformists, like the Clarendon Code, 1661, which, stated that ministers had to abide by the Anglican high church communion, conventional act, so they couldn’t meet with more than five people in a household, really to eliminate all types of meeting places. The five-mile act where a minister couldn’t go back within 5 miles of where they were living and teach there. all these acts came in to kind of bring down the dissenting movement, to give appropriate, ah, pushback to them, so that the Church of England could be reestablished as the state church. And, that occurred all the way up until we get to the act of toleration, 1689, at, which point parliament then grants freedom to these nonconformists, these dissenting Protestants, such as Baptists, such as Congregationalists, as part of the glorious revolution where James II was overthrown, we get William of Orange, who was a dutchman, and Mary, the daughter, they come and they take over as the new monarchs. And at that point we get a relief from this monarchist, imposition over the, in all that.

Clay Kraby: You just hear how tumultuous these times were for England, for the church, and for Benjamin Keats, just as an individual, as a minister. And he gets in hot water too. And one of the things that you have here in volume one is his, children’s primer. And this children’s primer gets Keach in a lot of trouble. What is so controversial that one? What is a children’s primer and what was so controversial about it?

Matthew Stanton: Okay, so this is, yeah, ah, 1660. Once he’s once every minister, every, clergyman is required to abide by the book of common prayer. this book is deemed a schismatic book, meaning it goes against that teaching. It was against specifically, in Keech’s trial, it was specifically against his, mode of baptism, talking about these children, ah, being baptized, when obviously they’re not infants anymore, these are older kids. So in general, the primer is an instruction book for children that was used throughout early modern England. and Keach, surprisingly, was very invested in remarkable ways into the education of children. back at this time, obviously, Sunday school didn’t exist in the way we’re thinking, where you take the kids out and all that kind of stuff. Ah, but as a precursor to that, he did teach, the kids, and he used these primers in order to teach them, and he wrote a number of them. Now, you mentioned the first volume in that volume, my coeditor Ian and myself included the transcript of the trial, rather than the work itself, because the work itself was destroyed. All the copies were brought up and burnt, as part of the punishment for what he had done. but we do have the majority of what it was because Keach would later, in the 1690s, would, I think, 96 97, he later recreates instructions for children. He recreates a lot of that same material. So we understand what he was saying and what he talked about, but in this instance, we don’t actually have any because, it was in October he was put on trial. The chief justice at the time would have been Robert Hyde, sentenced Keach to two weeks imprisonment. He fined him 20 pounds. He left him two days in the pillory, both in Aylesbury and Winslow, Keach’s home. And this ultimately was the persecution that I mentioned earlier that led Keech to London, that he would leave this context, in part. One of the reasons that would lead him down to London was because this book, which contradicted what, the approved teaching, sanctioned teaching of the church, got, him in so much trouble. And, he ultimately faced, punishments for that.

Clay Kraby: Wow. Yeah, it’s a really interesting read to see that transcript of the trial and just the penalties that he faced with that. The pillory, I mean, that’s like the stockade, right? Where you got your head and your arms through. Is that what that is?

Matthew Stanton: Yeah.

Clay Kraby: Subject to open mocking from the populace.

Matthew Stanton: Yeah. And there’s a beautiful scene where his wife, would stand beside him, because again, his hands would be held up so he couldn’t do anything. And she would hold his Bible in front of him and he would be preaching to the people that gathered. And in one instance, where they originally came to mock and insult him, by the end of his pillory in Aylesbury, he’s, preaching to them and they’re all listening intently to what he has to say. And, yeah, what the enemy meant for evil, God can use for good.

Clay Kraby: A wonderful picture of who Benjamin Keech was. So another thing that we find in this volume are some really long poems by Keech. What was he trying to accomplish with this style of writing? Know, a, ah, theological treatise or something like that? What was Keech’s desire? Was this purely. He just has this artistic bent or what was he trying to accomplish here?

Matthew Stanton: Oh, yeah, both. And I mean, his favorite genre was, apocalyptic allegory for sure. He liked to tell story and use that narrative. and the genre in that genre specifically, it was about what’s going to happen? How is the world going to end this Zion in distress? how is the Lord going to return for his bride and ultimately save her? So Keech is very steeped in that, persuasion. But the way he communicated it, because of his creative mind, he used poem and the pros in which that he could communicate in beautiful language, these stories. And that did reflect the print media in that culture of the time he lived in. A lot of kind of literary devices were being used and he grabbed a hold of those things and acquired them for the religious community to be able to use. So he wasn’t, kind of new in that sense, but certainly in how he was doing it. Again, this is pre Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. This is, adopting the form of allegory in order to communicate theological truths through story. And again, probably relating to the primers that he wrote, so that people of all ages and understandings, could grab a hold of it. And I think maybe the last thing I’ll say about that, maybe that has something to do with the fact that he himself was this uneducated. Like, he wasn’t, the puritan went to Oxford or Cambridge, he was uneducated man. So he was writing in a way that he knew his fellow, colleague, in that sense could understand. And that led him to the poem.

Clay Kraby: That’s really helpful. So you mentioned his wife a moment ago. What was Benjamin Keach’s family life like?

Matthew Stanton: Yeah, so he was married in 1660 to Jane Grove in Winslow. together they had four daughters and a son. and then Jane died when she was 30 in October of 1670. Keach then remarries in 1672. Godly woman, Susannah Partridge, she was from Brickmansworth. and then they had five daughters together. and it was a godly family that he raised. I always like to say keech presents a great balance between a pastor like ministry and at home. Keech’s Son would become a minister himself, both in, America and then back in England. When he would return, one of his daughter’s husbands took over for him as his successor at Horsleydown as the pastor there. So he raised him in the environment of. This isn’t something I do. We are, a family together in ministry. And again, that’s why I bring the London move in at this time, because he’s got children. And even that fast remarriage of 1670 to 1672, I mean, he already has these kids. And so when he finds his helpmate in Susannah, it is a meaningful marriage in which they minister together. And Susannah outlives him by 20ish years. And she continues to support the ministry of the church where he pastored.

Clay Kraby: And what was he like as a pastor? What would that have looked like if you were in Benjamin Keech’s church?

Matthew Stanton: Okay. two things, I would say. One, he was engaged in the community. He certainly, didn’t seek to exist himself in a bubble. Baptists have always existed in association, so he was in regular fellowship and communication with his fellow ministers, but also within the community at large. A Baptists have always been involved in the community and even, to give a specific example, even politics. I mean, during the English civil wars, Baptists fought with a parliamentarian army. they ran for positions of power. The mayor of London was a Baptist. Surrounding areas. They were Baptists in the 1680s. And so there was this engagement in what was going on. And Keach certainly propagated, that in his life and how he began to minister to the greater London area as the pastor of this local flock. So he engaged with the community, but he also engaged with his flock in very meaningful ways. He has a pastor’s heart. I like to call him, a minister, a theologian and a controversialist, because the minister, he was a pastor first, theologian, because obviously he was thinking through, processing through and writing many, many works, and then a controversialist who is always, in thought and writing issues, trying to sort through things. but as that pastor, he kind of sets the bar for, a pastor in the family and in the congregation. So within the congregation, a specific example of how he cared for them. When he introduced him singing, it wasn’t, an all or nothing. In 1680, he introduces it with the Lord’s Supper, and then he doesn’t say, if you don’t sing, get out, we’re singing. he doesn’t do that. And even when what he calls the unmusical brethren would get up to leave or maybe they went to the back of the room, he said it grieved him, like it was hard for him to see that. And so he ultimately took 20 years to introduce him singing throughout his, regular services, until when he celebrates in one of his works that even the unmusical brethren were now joining in. But it was that long and process of ministering to their heart and walking step by step, and he did that. Obviously. That’s evidenced through the way he preached, day in, day out. As preacher for over 40 years. He trained up leaders in his congregation, that co shepherded with him. he took several of them as messengers and representatives to the assemblies. So he was very engaged in their lives. Even though looking back, we may think of him as having a big platform in terms of his writings and being one of the leading Baptist figures alongside of Noel’s and Kiffin. but at the end of the day, he was in his church and he was dedicated to their faith and how he could support that as their shepherd.

Clay Kraby: Even just kind of hearing that description of what he was like as a husband, as a father, as a pastor. You really do hear how he was not just a precursor to Spurgeon chronologically and then in the pastor of that church. But you see a lot of what Spurgeon found appealing in keech, and he obviously looked up to him and benefited a lot from his works and his ministry. And you kind of hear a lot of that same aspect from what you’re saying about Benjamin Keech, as you see later in men like Spurgeon.

Matthew Stanton: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. keech, like I said, sets that bar that guys like Spurgeon would later, just expand upon and create now as a kind of normative principle for us today. but I love that we’re able to point back not just with the physical building and congregation, but even just look back through those generations and to see how God used Keech and able to establish that set of principles and priorities that would flourish within Baptist thought.

Clay Kraby: Now, when I mentioned Spurgeon, most people probably know who I’m talking about, maybe not so much with Keech. Why do you think it is that he’s not as familiar to Christians today as he ought to be?

Matthew Stanton: Yeah, that is a good question. well, first, I should say I’m very thankful for the Keach scholars that have gone before, if you will. There’s been a resurgence in the scholarship around Keach and even the English Baptist in the last, 20 years. Guys, like Austin Walker, who wrote a full-length novel bio of Keach. Jonathan, Arnold studied Keech’s reform theology, DB Riker, likewise his federalism. and then one of my favorites, of course, Jim Carnes and many theses that came, within the last 20 or so years. So there has been this work that’s been done and that started to reproduce. But I would still say within the, next 50 years, we’ll know a lot more and be a lot more familiar with Keach than we have been over the past 200 for sure. But back to your question of why he isn’t maybe well known. I would say, one, he was controversial in nature. so it might be easier to pretend he wasn’t a leading Baptist figure and just kind of denigrate him to a, know rather than know. He was like a wild card. And the association had to keep dealing with him periodically. so maybe in that way he doesn’t have as much clout as the Kiffin and Knowles. but the more research you do and seek to understand what’s going on within these Baptist circles, particularly in the 1680s and 90s, you realize that Keech’s voice really aided in the establishment of this emerging, denomination. But, perhaps a controversial nature as well. His prose, I mentioned, like, we don’t sing any of Keech’s hymns anymore. He was a pastor, he was a theologian first, not a musician. But all early Baptist ministers were the music leaders in that sense. So he kind of set that bar, a ah, bar, which Watts, 50 years later, obviously he falls short of that bar. And Watts was much more designated, to that role. but Keach having to do both and essentially provide the song books for these Baptist churches in the 1690s, he does an incredible job providing, reprinting and republishing, sharing these works, as well. And then I would just say Keach, he finds himself in an era of great turmoil, but also expanse and growth. There’s simply so much going on at this time that Keech can fade into the background. A wider descent is becoming popularized after the act of toleration. So perhaps we look back and note the, steps that were being made rather than the figures that were normalizing these practices. So maybe it is that Keech is not as well known today, not because of his historical influence, which was obviously great, but because of how we read history today.

Clay Kraby: When did you kind of encounter Benjamin Keach and what have you found so valuable about studying his life?

Matthew Stanton: Yeah, I encountered him when I, started, my master’s degree. And I was very interested from my bachelor’s about music in the church. And I wanted to study, a theology of worship and included in that liturgy and music. And one of my professors had mentioned to, it was Dr. Michael Haken at southern. he mentioned to me that if you want to learn more about singing in the church and the songs of the church, particularly within this Baptist persuasion, then you need to learn everything you can about this guy, Benjamin Keach. And I remember because, I was in a coffee shop and I was writing. I was just kind of taking notes, and I put Keech. I didn’t even know how to spell his name. I just said, oh, keech, that’s got to be close. And then from there, it was really the launch pad into. I want to learn more about this guy. and that’s why I think he’s worth studying and reading first and foremost for his efforts. With him singing, I always like to say the reformation had a psalter in its hand, but evangelicalism was born with a hymn book in its hand. And that transformation, I think we find Keach right there, also the treasure trove that he left us. Just all these writings you look at, like Kiffin and nulls. Each had ten or so works. Keach has 50. This huge corpus that he left, his influence in the print media as well, was just astounding. Interestingly, Keach’s, allegory, travels of true godliness about the main character, true godliness in his walk of salvation. That volume, sold more copies and went through more editions than even Bunyan’s pilgrim progress throughout the 1670s. He was widely read and, had great influence. And we’ve missed some of that in later years, so I think we can recapture that. And then I think he just has lots that he can teach us, as ministers, being faithful over the long term and how he served and even lay workers, how we need to work hard, to, ascertain biblical truths and be, disciplined in that regard. He dealt with a lot of disputes with his fellow brothers, but he taught us that tone and tenacity are both of the utmost, importance. Tone that we say everything in love and that we don’t let disputes arise and ultimately lead to splitting and divisions, but also the tenacity with the conviction with which we must, hold to our theological convictions, I think all of which lead to, a great man of faith that, I certainly want to learn more about and hope many will by reading these volumes.

Clay Kraby: In addition, out of all your scholarship on Benjamin Keats, you run a website called Benjamin Keats Journal. What can folks find there?

Matthew Stanton: Yeah, so I started the journal in 2017 as, a basic, database for everything I was learning. Because the first thing you learn when you’re doing a PhD is you’re going to take in so much stuff, but your dissertation can only be. I mean, it’s still 100,000 words, but it’s very narrow in its approach. So all the other things, what do you do with them? And so my supervisor, Crawford, recommended I start some sort of database, which I took as a website to put all that information. So that’s essentially what it began as. But since then, I wanted to make it a bit more of a platform for Keech research. So stuff on his life, his bio, all of his works, in terms of the, kind of online digital ways you can see it. And that actually led to producing this series with PBHB, because it’s either terrible copies or it’s impossible to get to them because they’re behind all these paywalls and stuff. So I wanted to get all the copies into people’s hands. and so when my friend Ian, who is a member of the church, I pass. Incredible how, God brought us together in that regard. then together, he transcribes, and I go through and annotate, and it’s working excellently in that regard. But that kind of all contributes to the journal kind of hub for scholarship. And like I mentioned, there’s still a few guys that are, very well versed in Keech’s life and thought and so still working with them to produce content, to aid the website and even the series that’s coming out, so that together we can provide this voice and this influence, for Keech.

Clay Kraby: Yeah, it’s wonderful. And as we mentioned at the outset, this series from particular Baptist heritage books, this is the first of a 16-volume series. What do you have in store for later volumes?

Matthew Stanton: Yeah, that is a good question. So it’s everything he wrote. That’s the short of it. Whatever he wrote, it’s in there, and, it’s mapped out. And at the very beginning, when you open it up, a couple of pages in all, 16 volumes are laid out. But his tracks, primers, his poems, his treatises, pamphlets, sermons, letters, hymn books that he produced. so there you go. For the musicians, we’ll reproduce his hymn, so you can have those right in front of you. and even the prefaces he wrote to other works. We’re a couple of volumes ahead, obviously, as we release these. So we’re down the road already looking at volume five. but as we’re going through these, there are some smaller works that you wouldn’t even think was noteworthy. But as we’ve been going through them and reproducing them, we realize that they carry little nuggets of gold, too. So we just want to get everything into it. And if volume one is any indication, including the transcript of his trial, he didn’t write that, obviously, but we just want to get everything that either he wrote, or that was impacting to his life directly into these series. So you’re going to see all those things coming out over the next, I’m going to say, four to five years, but who knows how the Lord will direct that.

Clay Kraby: Yeah, Lord willing. And just with everything that particular baptist heritage puts out, it’s really high quality. It’s a beautiful volume. It’s quality materials, quality binding. It’s going to look great on your shelf. And it sounds like this is really going to be a treasure trove, not only for the study of Benjamin Keach, but to benefit from his life, his works, his ministry, which he has a lot remaining to teach us and to encourage us and equip us in the faith.

Matthew Stanton: Yeah, well, and a huge thank you to PBHB for that. we had other publishing contracts we were looking at, but ultimately, we went with PBHB because of, not just the quality, like you mentioned, but you’re 100% correct. But also because of the vision they had, which was the reproduction of all of these works, together in harmony, in series. And we just found that their vision and what they want to do with all these kind of early modern texts and works that they do really aligned with what, we want to do as well, so highly encourage you. It’s Particular Baptist Heritage Books, um.com is the website. You can go there. Volume one is available. And, very thankful for how well it’s going and selling and getting people’s hands, because, the more Keach you read, the better off you are.

Clay Kraby: That’s great. And I’ll be sure to link to where you can pick up a copy of volume one of the works of Benjamin Keach. I’ll link to the other resources that we mentioned in this conversation as well. You can find those in the show notes for this episode@reasonabletheology.org. Slash Keach. That’s K-E-A-C-H for, those that aren’t yet familiar with Benjamin Keach. As we close here, what do you hope that folks are going to take away from really starting to go through these volumes of Keech’s life?

Matthew Stanton: Yeah, I pray that they would grab insight into his thought, his theology, what he was striving to teach, but then also his passion, a passion for understanding what God’s word has for us, and his inerrant, inspired word that we’ve been given. How does that impact your life? Keith was a practical theologian. He wanted to apply every text of scripture, not just, know it in the mind, but love it in the heart, and I pray that these volumes would help readers to grow in their love for God, their love for one another, and that we’d go on this journey together of faith.

Clay Kraby: Amen. Well, our conversation has been about the life and ministry of Benjamin Keech. Our guest has been Dr. Matthew Stanton. Encourage you to go and learn more about Keech’s life, his works, his ministry, and pick up a copy of the works of Benjamin Keach, volume one, from Particular Baptist Heritage Books. Dr. Stanton, thank you so much for joining me on the reasonable theology podcast.

Matthew Stanton: Thank you, Clay. I appreciate that very much.