The Chapel Library introduces Abraham Booth as follows: “Abraham Booth was born at Blackwell in Derbyshire. Working on the family farm, he received only sporadic schooling. He then supported himself to get further elementary education and opened a school. In 1755 he was baptized by immersion after being spiritually awakened by Baptist preaching. He became a Particular Baptist and began to preach in the Midland towns and villages, still keeping his school. The Particular Baptist church of Little Prescot Street, Goodman’s Fields, in east London, invited Booth to be their pastor in 1769, where he sustained a ministry of increasing importance. In the 1790s Booth preached in the cause of the abolition of slavery, and around 1804 founded the Baptist Education Society with others. At his death, he had ministered for 50 years, 35 as the pastor of the Prescot Street chapel. Booth published The Reign of Grace in 1768, which received a wide readership on both sides of the Atlantic. The Death of Legal Hope followed in 1770, highlighting errors relating to the Christian’s view of the Law. In 1784, he published Paedobaptism Examined and in 1796 Glad Tidings to Perishing Sinners.” My purposes in bringing Abraham Booth’s article for your reading: (1) I want to expose you to different writers including those from other denominations. He is a particular Baptist, who practiced baptism by immersion and believed in Calvinist doctrine of salvation. (2) This article will impress upon your heart about prayers with all serious and spiritual manners. I hope that you will get blessed in the next few weeks. 

“Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen” (Matthew 6:9-13).

Introduction:TheWordAmen

The graciously condescending character of God which constitutes the introduction to this divine pattern of prayer, the various petitions contained in it, and the doxology subjoined have all been discussed by my brethren in the course of this monthly exercise. The concluding and emphatic term amen, and that only, now remains for our consideration. But, so concise and so unusual is my text that it is highly probable I should never have appeared with it in any pulpit had it not been chosen for me on the present occasion. Nay, when I first heard that this detached and single word was allotted for me, I could not help but hesitate because I have long detested the thought of selecting any part of sacred Scripture to be the subject of a trial of skill in order to excite popular curiosity and to afford amusement. For such conduct deserves the most emphatic disapproval, as being a disgrace to the pulpit and a profanation of the sacred ministry. But when I reflected on the meaning of the word amen, on the solemn connection in which it stands, and on its being, of itself, a sentence, I acquiesced in the choice which my brethren had made for me. Even though the text is extremely concise and very unusual, the subject is of considerable importance to both ministers of the Word and private Christians. Totally banishing from our minds, therefore, all vain curiosity and every trifling thought, let us with devout solemnity and as in the presence of God proceed to consider the meaning of the expressive term as here used and the edifying truths which are suggested by it.

a. The meaning of the word

As to the meaning of the term amen, of which my text consists, it may be observed that, when prefixed to an assertion, it signifies “assuredly,” “certainly,” or emphatically, “so it is.” But when, as here, it concludes a prayer, whether longer or shorter, “so be it” or “so let it be” is its manifest import. In the former case, it is assertive. It assures of a truth or a fact and is an asseveration (solemn declaration). In this manner it is frequently used by our Lord in His divine discourses, especially in the Gospel according to John, and is properly translated “verily.” In the latter case, it is petitionary and, as it were, epitomizes all the requests with which it stands connected. It is a purely Hebrew term but has been transplanted into many languages, both ancient and modern. Its meaning in the passage before us is therefore “so be it” or “so let it be.”

b. Its authorized use

Thus it was used by the ancient Hebrews, of which we have abundant evidence in the Old Testament. [An instance of this use is] when the word first occurs in our English Bible, respecting an Israelite woman suspected of adultery, who, on hearing the conditional curse pronounced upon her, was to reply, “Amen, amen” (So be it, so be it; Numbers 5:22). Thus, likewise, [it is used] in the very last example of its use by inspired writers. For, to the language of our Lord, “Surely, I come quickly,” the answer is, “Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).

Nor was the emphatic term used among the ancient Hebrews by detached individuals only, but also on certain occasions by an assembly at large. Thus, for example, when six of the chosen tribes were convened at Mount Ebal, and the Levites denounced a variety of curses on those who transgressed the laws of Jehovah, all the people were to unite in saying, “Amen…Amen” (Deuteronomy 27:14-25). So, when Ezra blessed Jehovah, the great God, “all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands” (Nehemiah 8:6). This branch of religious practice, not being of a ceremonial kind nor peculiar to the Jewish ritual, was far from being confined to the Mosaic dispensation; for it was adopted in the public worship of the primitive Christian churches and received the sanction of apostolic authority, as appears by the following words: “When thou shalt bless with the spirit [by the use of an extraordinary gift, in an unknown language], how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest?” (1 Corinthians 14:16; Revelation 5:11-14). By this remarkable passage we are taught that it was customary in the apostolic churches, when he who led the worship concluded a devotional address to God, for all the Christians that composed the assembly to unite, either audibly or mentally, in saying, “Amen.” This was practiced, not only by churches which consisted principally of Jewish converts, who might be supposed to have transferred the usage from the synagogue worship (Capegius Vitringa, The Synagogue and the Church, L. III Pars II. Cap. 18), but also in the Gentile churches, of which number was the church at Corinth. And it had the sanction of divine authority, for the inspired writer argues on this very ground when reproving the misapplication of an extraordinary spiritual gift. This practice in the primitive churches receiving a divine sanction as relating to New Testament worship has the force of an express apostolic precept or of divine law; and consequently, being of a moral nature, it must be equally the duty of those individuals who constitute a worshipping assembly now, as it was of the church at Corinth, to unite in subjoining their solemn, “Amen,” at the close of a devotional address to God.

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