Journal: Reformed Presbyterian Theological Journal
Volume: RPTJ 05:1 (Fall 2018)
Article: Zealous Preaching: Exercising Fervent Love for God and His People
Author: Barry J. York

---

RPTJ 5:1 (Fall 2018) p. 30

Zealous Preaching:
Exercising Fervent Love for God and His People

Barry J. York

President and Professor of Pastoral Theology
Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary

Throughout much of their time at the Westminster Assembly, the divines worked on a single catechism. Yet this attempt to write just one catechism left the assembly disappointed, as some stressed conciseness for lay people, while others wanted fuller statements for the learned. Finally, the decision was made to produce two catechisms - the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, published in 1647. For, as Samuel Rutherford said, the divines were not satisfied to “dress up milk and meat both in one dish.”1

Clearly, one place that the Westminster Larger Catechism (WLC) expanded the “milk” of the Shorter Catechism (WSC) into “meat” is in this area of preaching. From Question 89, which asks, “How is the word made effectual to salvation?” we hear the only real mention regarding preaching and its work in the WSC. “The Spirit of God maketh the reading, but especially the preaching, of the word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort, through faith, unto salvation.” But the description of preaching is expanded in the WLC into six descriptive phrases, only four of which we consider in this issue of the journal.

Correspondence: Preaching In The Larger Catechism And The Directory Of Publick Worship

Interestingly, these six phrases have a high degree of correspondence to a document published earlier by the assembly, which testify to their origin. The Westminster Directory for Publick Worship (WDPW) contains, in the section headed “Of the Preaching of the Word,” one of the best descriptive statements on preaching. This chapter on preaching begins by declaring, “Preaching of the word, being the power of God unto salvation, and one of the greatest and most excellent works belonging to the ministry of the gospel, should be so performed, that the workman need not be ashamed, but may save himself, and those that hear him.”2 This chapter continues by describing the qualifications of a minister, how he should develop the text for a sermon, how to structure a sermon, and errors he should avoid. Then it concludes with how “the servant of Christ, whatever his method be, is to perform his whole ministry.”3 It is here, in these concluding statements on the minister’s preaching duties, that the correspondence to the WLC’s description of preaching is seen.

For instance, Dr. Joel Beeke considered the WLC’s phrase...

visitor : : uid: ()