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The Puritan Preachers and Preaching |
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The movement saw the flowering of expository preaching. The Puritans devotedly dig into the profound meaning of the gospel message in the well of the Bible. Equally true was that the Puritans excelled in preaching in a practical way as their sermons reflect it. By doing so, they made the Word of the Bible relevant to the people of their day. Preaching, the Puritans said, is the exposition of the Word of God. They even said that, in faithful preaching, God himself is preaching, and that if a man is giving a true exposition of Scripture, God is speaking because it is God’s Word, and not the word of man. The Puritans also asserted that the sermon is more important than the sacraments or any ceremonies. They claimed that it is as much an act of worship as the Eucharist and more central in the church service (Lloyd-Jones 1987:379-380). The Puritans believed in ‘plain, direct, experimental, saving preaching.’ Preaching was to be simple, earnest, and faithful (Lloyd-Jones 1987:284-285). For the Puritans the end of preaching is to make manifest to the unlearned stranger the things of his own heart. It is to obtain “an admirable plainness and an admirable powerfulness.” That must be plain by which an unlearned man is enabled to perceive his own faults. That must be powerful which moves the unregenerate conscience to exclaim, “Certainly God speaks in this man!” (Haller 1957:130).[2] The Puritan preachers asserted that only so much doctrine was important to be understood by men of least knowledge and capacity. What is important for us is, then, not what the learned doctor’s doctrine was—not how they argued among themselves—but what it meant and did to the common public. Thus, the Puritan preachers labored earnestly to make themselves understood by their audience (Haller 1957:131). Of the supreme value in the Puritan preaching is the unity of 'exposition' and ‘application’ they retained in their preaching. As Packer remarks it: “Puritans preached the Bible systematically and thoroughly, with sustained application to personal life, preaching it as those who believed it, and who sought by their manner to make their matter credible and convincing, convicting and converting" (1994:280). The Puritan preacher regarded himself as the mouthpiece of God and the servant of His words. He must speak ‘as the oracle of God.’ His task, therefore, was not information, fastening on to Scripture text meanings they do not bear, nor was it juxtaposition, using his text as a peg on which to hang some homily unrelated to it. The preacher’s task was precisely, exposition, extracting from his texts what God had encased within them (Packer 1994:284). The Puritan method of ‘opening’ a text was first to explain it in its context; next, to extract from the text one or more doctrinal observations embodying its substances, and then to amplify, illustrate, and conform form other Scriptures the truths thus derived; and finally, to draw out their practical implications for the hearers (:284). Puritan preaching was piercing in its application. The Puritan preachers trained their homiletical searchlights on specific states of spiritual need, and spoke to these in a precise and detailed way. Puritan pastoral preachers would speak half or more of their preaching time developing applications. Packer comments, “Strength of application was, from one standpoint, the most striking feature of Puritan preaching, and it is arguable that the theory of discriminating application is the most valuable legacy that Puritan preaching have left to those who would preach the Bible and its gospel effectively today” (1994:286-87). Moreover, the Puritans maintained the harmony of explication and application in plain speech. The calculated effort to appeal to the popular audience affected the structure as well as the style of the sermon. The preacher carried into the pulpit, as a rule, little more than the heads of the discourse he was to deliver. This method of preaching, as prescribed by Perkins, required first that the preacher read the text out of Scripture and then explains or ‘open’ it in its context. He should then proceed to collect a few and profitable points of doctrine out of the natural sense. Finally he must apply the doctrines rightly collected, to the life and manners of men in a simple, plain speech. These were called ‘the uses’ (Haller 1957:134). Just as the
Puritan preachers had, we also have the question: "What are the
essentials of the Kingdom of God proclamation that can be translated
into the language that even most unlearned people can understand?"
And this is how we find that the Puritan preacher's harmony of
explication and application in plain speech has implications for the
preaching in our days. Indeed , it is a clue for our missiological
approach to the homiletic question, "How can a preacher be a person of
deep understanding in Scripture, and still use easy language for
audience?"
The Puritan movement marked the age of perplexing change when many men and women, especially those of lowly position and simple understanding, were racked by anxiety for their future here and hereafter. It was a period of storm and stress. A group of Puritan preachers laid their learning aside in order to win the ear and confidence of all men. Their function was to probe the conscience of the downhearted sinner, to name and cure the malady of his soul, and then to send him out strengthened for the continuance of his lifelong battle (Haller 1957:27). The Puritans preached large numbers of sermons. Some preached every day of the week, and on Sundays more than once. People would travel considerable distances in order to hear such preaching. Nothing was so characteristic of the Puritan preaching as their belief in preaching and their delight in listening to preaching. They printed remarkable number of sermons. So much of the theological teaching of the Puritans was given in the form of preaching and sermons (Lloyd-Jones 1987:379). Pierson comments that The Puritans wanted godly, learned pastors who are able to expound the Scripture, and who were resident in every parish.[1] In the Anglican Church, there were priests who were appointed, but uneducated and even did not know where his parish was. The Puritan ideal was the godly, well-trained preachers resident in the parish.[2]
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