Journal: Puritan Reformed Journal
Volume: PRJ 04:2 (Jul 2012)
Article: Condemning Coldness And Sleepy Dullness: The Concept Of Urgency In The Preaching Models Of Richard Baxter And William Perkins
Author: Maarten Kuivenhoven

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PRJ 4:2 (July 2012) p. 180

Condemning Coldness And Sleepy Dullness:
The Concept Of Urgency In The Preaching
Models Of Richard Baxter And William Perkins

Maarten Kuivenhoven

Preaching became a distinguishing factor between the various religious factions in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. Two styles of preaching emerged: the ornate style of preaching among the Anglicans in the established Church of England, and the plain style of the Puritans, a legitimate and powerful force on the English religious scene. Scholarship in recent decades has done much to delineate the contours and emphases of the two streams of preaching that developed.1 However, within the plain Puritan style of preaching, relatively little scholarship has emerged to discuss the concept of urgency in Puritan preaching.2

PRJ 4:2 (July 2012) p. 181

The term urgency presents some difficulties in researching this aspect of preaching in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Urgency is a term used by modern scholars to describe the compulsion or the driving force that controlled Puritan preaching.3 Horton Davies, in Worship of the English Puritans, writes of Puritan preaching that it was “biblical, simple, prolonged, and its urgency was emphasized by the vehemence of gestures.”4 It appears, however, that urgency was more than just a mechanical act comprehending gestures. Irvonwy Morgan discusses the themes of heaven and hell and the weight given these themes in Puritan preaching. As a result, these themes of the eternal state of souls “gave an urgency to their preaching, a passion for conversions and a terrible need for growing in grace in a life of holiness so that a man might be acceptable to God…. This urgency often communicated itself emotionally to the preachers, giving their sermons a sense of reality.”5 It is also evangelistic in nature since “all this passion, this urgency, this challenge was aimed at the conversion of souls.”6

This begs the question as to the validity of the use of the term urgency and its place in the study of Puritan preaching. Careful study, however, reveals that it serves as an umbrella term by modern scholars to describe various elements of Puritan preaching which contribute to the overall compulsion or force behind Puritan preaching as a whole. Capill suggests that “seriousness and fervency were at the heart of Puritan preaching.”7 It can also be arg...

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