The Baptist Catechism

    A Commentary on the Shorter Catechism (1883), Alexander Whyte

    Question 89

    The Spirit of God maketh the reading—“God’s own words will not obtain full credit in the hearts of men, until they are sealed by the inward testimony of the Spirit. The same Spirit therefore who spoke by the mouth of the prophets, must penetrate our hearts, in order to convince us that they faithfully delivered the message with which they were divinely entrusted. . . . Let it therefore be held as fixed, that those who are inwardly taught by the Holy Ghost acquiesce implicitly in Scripture; that Scripture, carrying its own evidence along with it, deigns not to submit to proofs and arguments, but owes the full conviction with which we ought to receive it to the testimony of the Spirit” (Calvin).

    “But there is a thing ye man ever remember; there is na doctrine, nather of the simple word, nor yit of the sacraments, gif Christ abstract His Haly Spirit, that is able to move. Therefore, quhen ever ye come to hear the doctrine, quhider it be of the sacraments or of the simple word, crave of God that He wald be present be His Haly Spirit, or utherwise al the doctrine in the earth will not availe you” (Robert Bruce, Sermons, 1589).

    but especially the preaching of his word—“It does not answer the end which God had in instituting the office of preaching, merely for men to have good commentaries and expositions on the Scripture, and other good books of divinity; because, though these may tend, as well as preaching, to give a good doctrinal or speculative understanding of the word of God, yet they have not an equal tendency to impress them on men’s hearts and affections” (Jonathan Edwards). “The sermon has ever been the great central feature of primitive and Protestant worship, and still serves to distinguish the evangelical from the ritualistic type of Christianity” (Shields’ Liturgia Expurgata). “It is mainly by the institution of preaching that religion is kept a conspicuous thing, a public acknowledged reality. . . . If we are told that we ought rather to say that it is public worship that has this effect, we have to answer, that public worship, separately from preaching, has a very small effect in favour of religion, as far as instruction is concerned. It is quite certain that when the conductors of that worship have not knowledge and religion enough to preach, that worship will be little more than a ceremonial routine of forms.” (See John Foster’s Lectures, lxiv., “On the Institution of Preaching.”)

    convincing and converting sinners—See Answer 31. Savonarola, in his Triumph of the Cross, tells us that when he neglected the preaching of the word, and applied himself to discourses of philosophy, he gained little upon the hearts of the people; but when he came to illustrate and explain the Scriptures, the minds of the people were wonderfully inflamed and excited to a serious frame; and that when he discoursed in a philosophical manner, there was a non-attention, not only of the more ignorant, but of the more learned sort too; but when he preached Scripture truths, he found the minds of men mightily delighted, stung with divine truth, brought to compunction, and a reformation of their lives, which shows, he says, the power of the word, acting more vigorously than all human reason in the world.

    “When the word of God came into Paul’s conscience, then he died. As some metals will not melt till some other metal be put to them, so nor will sins melt or dissolve in the conscience till the word comes as fire and mingles with them; but when God sets it on work, it runs through the soul like hail-shot or like quicksilver. Have you seen hurricane winds or tempests that overthrew towers to their very foundation, tear up hills by the roots and cast them into the sea, toss up ships riding at anchor like tennis balls, and hurl them upon the dry land? Such and so great, though not so visible to the outward sense, is the power of the word. It tears men’s hearts, rooted in evil, from their dearest lusts; it makes their consciences to boil like a pot, and the waves thereof to roar, and with one word it stills them, and calms the winds and the waves, and they obey it, and the heart is pacified. . . . Such is the word, and every portion of it. Therefore take heed how ye hear. Men feel not this now, nor do they imagine what a design God hath upon men in this dispensation of hearing and preaching. He prepares and lays a train for the other world; yea, and this instrumentality serves to all His designs upon the ungodly that obey not His word” (Goodwin).

    Uses

    1. “You read your Bible regularly, of course; but do try to understand it, and still more to feel it. Read more parts than one at a time. For example, if you are reading Genesis, read a Psalm also; or if you are reading Matthew, read a small bit of an Epistle also. Turn the Bible into prayer” (M‘Cheyne’s Letter to a Boy).
    2. Let all students who aspire to preach, read Baxter’s Reformed Pastor; also Goodwin’s Memoir by his son, in the second volume of his Works.

    Questions

    1. Refer back to the quotation taken from Shields’ Liturgia Expurgata, and say in what Christian churches known to you does the Evangelical, and in what churches does the Liturgical element predominate.
    2. Sir James Stephen says: The system called Evangelical is that system of which, if Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Knox, and the writers of the English Homilies may be credited, Christ Himself was the Author, and Paul the first and greatest interpreter. Describe some leading features of the Evangelical system; what are its leading doctrines; and who, besides those named, were and are its best known interpreters.
    3. Who is the Agent, what are His more and less special means, and what are His ends, immediate and ultimate, set forth in this Answer?
    4. Support and illustrate the statement made in the text, that preaching is a more fruitful means of grace than the private reading of God’s word.