“Baptism and Baptismal Regeneration” by Archibald Boyd

The Anglican Expositor is pleased to offer this reprint of Archibald Boyd’s classic treatise on Baptism and baptismal regeneration. This book might be little known but for its beingmentioned in Ray Sutton’s. In fact, Boyd’s work underlies that of Sutton, who fleshes out in greater detail many of Boyd’s thoughts. Boyd was, himself, quite the controversialist in his day, writing extensively in defence of the Church of Ireland against the Presbyterians. This book, although written later in Boyd’s career, addresses many of the Presbyterian accusations against and critiques of the Prayer Book and its baptismal office. Boyd also addresses the criticism of infant baptism raised by the “credobaptists” who were on the rise in the 19th Century.

Boyd does an excellent job of demonstrating the soundly biblical nature of the Anglican baptismal office and of the effects and benefits of baptism, especially discussing at some length the proper and biblical understanding of baptismal regeneration—a concept condemned by many in his day (and ours) due not so much to a difference in doctrine, but to the evolving meaning of the term “regeneration”. Boyd closes the book with an excellent discussion of the Reformers and their understanding of the subject.

Originally printed in 1869, Boyd’s work is very readable and a very important contribution to our sacramental theology.

 (Hardcover, 272 pages, US$23.00)
 (Paperback, 272 pages, US$12.50)

The Annotated Book of Common Prayer by John Henry Blunt

If you’ve browsed our Resources for Sunday library here at the Anglican Expositor, you’re probably familiar with John Henry Blunt’s commentary on the Epistles and Gospels.  We’re pleased to bring you this reprint of Blunt’s The Annotated Book of Common Prayer, the source for that commentary and one a treasure trove of historical, doctrinal, liturgical, and ritual commentary on the entire 1662 Book of Common Prayer.  This is not only a great resource for preachers, but is an essential volume for the study of Anglican liturgy and the classic Book of Common Prayer.

This reprint has been produced from fresh, quality scans of the final 1899 edition of the commentary and is printed in the original oversized format.

 (8.25″ x 10.75″ Casewrap Hardcover, 754 pages, US$48.00)

An excellent article on the nature of preaching as God’s Word was posted today on The Gospel Coalition blog.  Anyabwile always has good insights to share on preaching, but his thoughts here are particularly good.  I’ve been working my way through Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics of late and had recently been pondering his assertion that proclamation of the biblical witness is truly God’s Word.  Anyabwile affirms this profound truth.

Something indescribable happens whenever we faithfully preach God’s word. God speaks, too. He speaks first. He speaks powerfully. He speaks presently. His voice rings true insofar as His word comes through. This mean the preacher never preaches alone when he preaches the Bible. This means the power of preaching derives from God, not the preacher. This means all preaching should be expositional. This means the preacher should put His trust in God and His Word. This means preaching is glorious!

Consider what it means that as preachers our words are God’s words.  Such knowledge drives me to my knees in prayer and motivates me to biblical faithfulness.  Read the full article here.

“Christ did something or other, which, somehow or other, had some connexion or other with salvation.”

Is the Gospel clear in our preaching?  Do we drive home the important doctrines of the faith from the pulpit?  Or do we preach a feel-good, non-confrontational, sentimental, and wishy-washy message of the goodness of God and the goodness of man?  I ran across this blog post at the Scriptorium on the life and preaching of F.W. Robertson and it caught my attention.  Robertson was popular in his day not because he was a preacher of hearty convictions, but because he was a hearty preacher of little conviction other than that those of hearty conviction were wrong.  As Sanders points out here, a lack of strong doctrinal truth in the pulpit often points to a lack of doctrinal truth being lived out in the life of the preacher.

F.W. Robertson (1816-1853) was the kind of preacher people spoke of in superlatives: Charles Dickens reportedly said that “”he was one of the greatest masters of elocution I ever knew. To hear Robertson read the church prayers was in itself a liberal education.” He was very popular in his day, and after his death (on this day, August 15) many volumes of his sermons sold briskly.

He started out as a fiery young evangelical of the type that read the journals of Henry Martyn and David Brainerd. Studying at Oxford, he ran up against the Tractarians with their own, competing radicalism. In the end, he developed into neither an Evangelical nor a Tractarian, deciding that both the low church and the high church were too committed to specific doctrines and forms. Robertson opted for a form of Romantic liberal theology, and preached it exquisitely.

The height of his popularity came during his curacy in Brighton, where he preached for six years, beginning in 1847 and lasting until his death, at Holy Trinity Church. The word spread abroad that a great preacher was in the land. Luminaries like Gladstone and Tillotson would go out of their way to hear his preaching.

In the last few years, new light has been shed on Robertson’s personal life. Investigators have discovered Robertson’s private journal from the year 1849. He made his entries in a code that protected its contents from those who shared his household, but is no barrier to later scholars. What’s in the journal? No surprise: extramarital sex. The entry for October 1, 1849: “Four hours in bed with Augusta.” Mrs. Robertson’s name was Ellen, and the name of Augusta’s husband (she had one) is not recorded.

We don’t know everything about Robertson’s life or character, and it’s not possible to say precisely how he dealt with his sin. Did it torture him inescapably, or did he weave elaborate excuses and self-justifications? Was the contradiction between his Christian ministry and his actual life something that pressed down on his consciousness, or was he blithe about it? We don’t know.

One reason we don’t know is that Robertson’s sermons, whatever other merits they may have, are pervasively vague. They are vague with their liberal theology, they are vague as to personal application, and they are vague with poetic suggestiveness. The classic evangelical take-down of Robertson’s overblown reputation is the line: “Robertson believed that Christ did something or other, which, somehow or other, had some connexion or other with salvation.” Spurgeon didn’t coin that one, but he loved to quote it.

To test the vagueness of the sermons, try this experiment: Knowing what we now know about how Robertson spent October of 1849, read his January 1851 sermon about David’s repentance from adultery in Psalm 51. Are there cracks in the sermon, through which we can see anything like the repentance Robertson needed? There are many fine phrases and considerable insight:

Two sides of our mysterious twofold being here. Something in us near to hell: something strangely near to God.

This psalm, written three thousand years ago, might have been written yesterday: describes the vicissitudes of spiritual life in an Englishman as truly as of a Jew.

Conscience, when it is healthy, ever speaks thus: “my transgression.”

We can not help believing that our sentiments towards right and wrong are a reflection of God’s. That we call just and true, we can not but think is just and true in His sight.

I venture to say, into true penitence the idea of punishment never enters. If it did, it would be almost a relief; but oh! those moments in which a selfish act has appeared more hideous than any pain which the fancy of a Dante could devise!

When I read Robertson’s sermon on Psalm 51, I can barely pick up the note of spiritual reality. And just when I think I might be catching it, Robertson swerves the direction of the sermon to an attack on evangelical commitments. In turn, he mocks the ideas of punishment, atonement, heaven, and hell.

Doug Wilson once described the connection between pastoral sin and vague preaching, in a blog post titled “Porn as Liturgical Corruption:”

when men preach wiggle room they often find that other men will frequently like the look of that wiggle room…. This creates a cycle — the minister is being pushed to compromise from within, and once he begins preaching more tolerant (and therefore more tolerable) sermons, he begins to be pulled. He has presented handles to those who would pull him. And so the lie about Jesus that he has allowed to take root in his heart is a lie that works its way into his manuscript. And from there into other hearts.

No doubt there are many explanations for the vagueness of Robertson’s sermonic work. “Robertson believed that Christ did something or other, which, somehow or other, had some connexion or other with salvation.” His sermons were somehow or other about that.

And, of course, if there is little conviction in the life of the preacher and his sermons, how can we ever expect there to be any conviction in the life of his congregation?

“Sermons on the Epistles and Gospels” by Isaac Williams

The Anglican Expositor is pleased to present this new edition of Isaac Williams’ Sermons on the Epistles and Gospels for Sundays and Holy Days Throughout the Year.  Originally published in two volumes in the mid-19th Century, the text is now fully re-typset and offered in a single volume with up-to-date formatting.  While studying at Trinity College, Oxford Williams’ poetry caught the eye of John Keble, who took Williams under his wing.  After his graduation and ordination Williams went on to assist John Newman as curate of St. Mary’s, Oxford.  He became known for his able exposition of Scripture.  These sermons are fine examples of the art of expositional preaching.  In each sermon Williams begins with a solid exposition of the day’s Epistle as a lead-in to an exposition of the Gospel.  He ties both together with the unifying theme of the day and then concludes with  excellent devotional thoughts and practical application.  Every set of “propers” from the eucharistic lectionary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer is covered.  These sermons are both an excellent devotional aid to the Church Year for laymen and a homiletic treasure trove for the preacher.
(Hardcover, 601 pages, US$30.00)

(Paperback, 601 pages, US$21.00)

Praying Scripture to Shape Scriptural Preaching

What we pray for the people to whom we preach reflects the priorities we have for them and will impact what we preach to them.  If we are faithful biblical expositors it’s probably safe to assume that our desires for God’s flock are biblical and, hence, are what God also wants for his flock.  Praying the Scriptures back to God is the surest way to know that what we pray is in accordance with God’s will and desires.  We can be more deliberately biblical in the priorities of our preaching ministry by following this principle of praying God’s own words back to him.  One of the best ways I’ve found to do this is to adapt the Spirit-inspired prayers of St. Paul for the churches in his care into prayers for my own congregation.  These prayers remind me that as I preach I need to prioritise things like helping my congregation to better plumb the depths of God’s love for us in Christ, the importance of love and reconciliation within the Body, the importance of sound doctrine and of pursuing genuine holiness.  Daily praying prayers like this for my congregation not only shapes my priorities in preaching, but gives me focus as I evaluate specific areas in which my congregation particularly needs growth.  That in turn helps to prioritise areas of focus in the pulpit.  Below are five prayers adapted from St. Paul’s own prayers in Ephesians 1:15-23, 3:16-21; Philippians 1:9-11; Colossians 1:3-6, 9-12; and 2 Thessalonians 1:4-12.  These prayers are only a starting point.  I find in my reading and study of Scripture this practice has kept me on attentive for additional passages that address other areas of need in life and ministry.

Pastor’s Prayers from the Epistles of St. Paul

 from Ephesians 1:15-23

ALMIGHTY God and Father, I give thee thanks that thou hast established in the hearts of my flock both faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints; and yet I beseech thee glorious Father, that thou wouldst give unto them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in thy knowledge.  Enlighten the eyes of their understanding, that they may know the hope of their calling, the riches of the glory of thy inheritance among the saints, and the exceeding greatness of thy power to usward who believe, according to the working of thy mighty power, which thou hast wrought in Christ, when thou raisedst him from the dead, and settest him at thy own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.  Thou hast put all things under his feet, and thou hast given him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.  Amen.

from Ephesians 3:16-21

I BOW my knee before thee, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.  I beseech thee to grant to my flock, according to the riches of thy glory, that they be strengthened with might by thy Spirit in the inner man, that Christ might dwell in their hearts by faith, that they, being rooted and grounded in love, might be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that they might be filled with all fullness of thee. I beseech thee, who art able to do exceeding abundantly above all that I ask or think, according to the power that worketh in me, unto thee be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.  Amen.

from Philippians 1:9-11

O HOLY God, thou art my record, how greatly I long after the flock thou hast put in my charge, that their love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgement: that they might approve things that are excellent; that that they might be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto thy glory and praise.  Amen.

 from Colossians 1:3-6,9-12

TO thee, O God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, I give thanks in gazing up on the flock which thou hast entrusted to my care.  Thou hast established in them faith in thy Son, a love for all the saints, and a hope for that which thou hast laid up for them in heaven.  Thou hast brought forth in them fruit as they have heard the truth of thy gospel and known thy grace.  For this cause, O Father, let me not cease to pray for them, and to desire that they might be filled with the knowledge of thy will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding: that they might walk worthy of thee, unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of thee; strengthened with all might, according to thy glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.  Amen.

from 2 Thessalonians 1:4-12

ETERNAL Judge, I lay before thee the persecutions and tribulations of thy church, asking that thou wouldst strengthen her with patience and faith.  Let her endurance, I beseech thee, be a manifest token of thy righteous judgement, that she may be counted worthy of thy kingdom, for which she suffereth.  As she is troubled, let thy church rest in the Lord Jesus when he shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not thee, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from thy presence, O Lord, and from the glory of thy power; when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe in that day.  Wherefore, O Father, I beseech thee that thou wouldst count thy church worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of thy goodness, and the work of faith with power: that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ might be glorified in her, and she in thee, according to thy grace and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

If you find these prayers helpful, you can download a PDF that can be printed (and scaled as necessary) for insertion in your Prayer Book.  You can find more information on this topic in D.A. Carson’s excellent book, A Call to Spiritual Reformation: Priorities from Paul and His Prayers (Baker, 1992).

The Blog is Resting

In case you hadn’t noticed, I haven’t been posting much lately.  I spent most of November and early December working intensively on my new edition of Isaac Williams’ Sermons on the Epistles and Gospels.  The good news is that my proof copy arrived a week before Christmas.  The bad news is that it arrived at the same time I started experiencing some health problems that have significantly decreased my activity.  I am, however, on the mend and getting back into the swing of things.  Proofing Williams’ sermons is entailing more work than I thought it would and right now I’m devoting my free time to that project rather than to posting my own thoughts on preaching.  I will do my best to stay on top of keeping the Resources for Sunday page updated weekly.  Keep checking back.  When I’m finished with this latest (massive) publishing endeavour I’ll be back to posting.