{"id":131716,"date":"2026-03-27T16:33:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T16:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.banneroftruth.org\/uk\/?p=131716"},"modified":"2026-03-27T16:34:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T16:34:34","slug":"the-works-of-watson-publishers-preface","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.banneroftruth.org\/uk\/resources\/articles\/2026\/the-works-of-watson-publishers-preface\/","title":{"rendered":"The Works of Watson: Publisher’s Preface"},"content":{"rendered":"

What follows is from the ‘Publisher’s Preface’ to our forthcoming five-volume edition of\u00a0The Works of Thomas Watson<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Banner of Truth Trust was founded in 1957, and early in the following year the Trust published its first books. Thomas Watson\u2019s Body of Divinity<\/em> was one of them. At that time the book and its author were little known. In an issue of the Banner of Truth<\/em> magazine (Nov. 1957), the editor, Iain H. Murray, enthusiastically informed readers of the new titles that were soon to come from the press: \u2018Watson\u2019s Body of Divinity<\/em>,\u2019 he wrote, \u2018contains some of the richest doctrinal and experimental material to be found anywhere amongst the Puritans.\u2019 And then he asked, \u2018Who can estimate how much we have suffered individually and as a nation for neglecting our unsurpassed seventeenth-century literature!\u2019<\/p>\n

The book when published carried an interesting note on its copyright page: \u2018The unabridged but revised version of Watson\u2019s Body of Divinity<\/em>, published in 1890,1<\/a><\/sup>The revised edition by Rogers was first published in 1869, and was reprinted often.<\/span> has been followed in this reprint. \u2018This present edition, though a comprehensive work in itself, does not contain the whole of Watson\u2019s sermons on the Catechism; it is the Publishers\u2019 wish to reprint the remainder if warranted by public demand.<\/em>\u2019 Many contemporary voices decried the idea of republishing the books of seventeenth-century Puritans in the middle of the twentieth century. But the founders of the Trust believed that such were needed, and if made available, would be avidly read by Christians whose spiritual appetite was being whetted by the kind of preaching they had heard from the minister of Westminster Chapel, London, Dr D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. The trustees\u2019 wishes were soon to be fulfilled, and in a manner \u2018exceeding abundantly above all they could ask or think\u2019; for not only was Watson\u2019s Body of Divinity<\/em> to be reprinted many times in the succeeding years,2<\/a><\/sup>Reprinted (cloth): 1958, 1960, 1965 (revised), 1970, 1974, 1978, 1992, 1997, 2012, 2017, 2020, 2024; (paperback): 1983, 1986, 1992, 1997, 2000, 2008, 2011, 2015, 2018 [special], 2021).<\/span> but alongside it was soon to appear the two other parts of Watson\u2019s sermons on the Catechism, The Ten Commandments<\/em> (1959)3<\/a><\/sup>Reprinted 1959, 1965 (revised), 1970, 1976, 1981, 1986, 1990, 1995, 1999, 2002, 2009, 2013, 2021, 2025.<\/span> and The Lord\u2019s Prayer<\/em> (1960).4<\/a><\/sup>Reprinted 1960, 1965 (revised), 1972, 1978, 1982, 1989, 1993, 1999, 2009, 2012, 2015, 2020, 2024.<\/span> In 1971 the Trust also reprinted Watson\u2019s sermons on The Beatitudes<\/em>.5<\/a><\/sup>Reprinted 1975, 1980, 1985, 1989, 1994, 2000, 2007, 2014 (retypeset), 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n

The hunger for more of Watson\u2019s writings led to the inclusion of a number of them in the Banner\u2019s Puritan Paperbacks<\/em> series. The first to appear was A Divine Cordial<\/em> (1963),6<\/a><\/sup>Now published under the title All Things for Good<\/em>.<\/span> followed by The Doctrine of Repentance<\/em> (1987), The Godly Man\u2019s Picture<\/em> (1992), The Lord\u2019s Supper<\/em> (2004), The Great Gain of Godliness<\/em> (2006), and Heaven Taken by Storm<\/em> (2025).<\/p>\n

The seven decades that have passed since the beginning of the Trust\u2019s work has witnessed a remarkable growth of interest in the writings of the English Puritans. In acknowledgment of this, the Banner of Truth is issuing The Works of Thomas Watson<\/em>. It is amazing to think that this will be the first time that Watson\u2019s \u2018concise, racy, illustrative, and suggestive\u20197<\/a><\/sup>See Spurgeon\u2019s description of Watson\u2019s writings on p. xiii.<\/span> treatises and sermons will appear in a uniform set of volumes, similar to those produced in former generations for the works of several of his contemporary Puritan authors, such as John Owen, John Flavel, and Thomas Brooks, which have also been reprinted by the Trust. It should be said, however, that not every work that bears the name \u2018Thomas Watson\u2019 has come from the pen of the minister of St Stephen\u2019s, Walbrook. In particular, two works, The Witnesses Anatomized, and Jerusalem\u2019s Glory, do not appear to belong to our Thomas Watson, when judged on the basis of internal and external evidence. We are grateful to Dr Chad Van Dixhoorn for his expert insight and helpful advice regarding this matter.<\/p>\n

This new production has followed the editorial policy of George Rogers, principal of Spurgeon\u2019s Pastors\u2019 College, who prepared the 1869 edition of Body of Divinity<\/em> (see his comments on p. xx \u2014 reproduced below for the sake of this article). Where it was thought necessary, translations of foreign words and phrases have been added, as well as footnotes to elucidate the text. May the \u2018happy union of sound doctrine, heart-searching experience, and practical wisdom\u2019 make these volumes useful to all who read them.<\/p>\n

The Grey House
\nEdinburgh
\nJanuary 2026<\/p>\n

The Editorial Policy of George Rogers (from page XX of Volume I of\u00a0The Works of Thomas Watson):<\/em><\/h3>\n

‘All editions extant which we have seen, abound in errors and imperfections. These have been rectified, not entirely we fear, but in a degree as nearly approaching to accuracy as in revision of another\u2019s composition could be expected. No alteration of sentiment has been made, but every shade of the author\u2019s meaning has been scrupulously retained. The style has been modernised, so far as could be done without detracting from its own peculiar characteristics. Long sentences have been divided into two or three, where it could be done without injury to the clearness or force of the signification. Modern words have been substituted for such as had become obsolete; Latin quotations restored to their correct form, as far as their sources could be ascertained; and divisions of subjects more perspicuously arranged. The whole, in fact, has been rendered more readable, and consequently more attractive and intelligible, which in our estimation far outweighs all the supposed advantages that could arise from perpetuating the crudities and vulgarities, as they now appear to us, of former times. By popularizing ancient works, their readers are multiplied and their meaning may often be more readily apprehended.’<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Works of Thomas Watson:<\/em><\/h3>\n