Calvin Synod Herald, 2007 (108. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2007-01-01 / 1-2. szám
8 CALVIN SYNOD HERALD The Content of Aaron’s Rod - continued from page 7 those to preach diligently and especially upon the Lord’s Day; that such as be already entered and cannot preach may either be removed, and some charitable course taken with them for their relief, or else be forced, according to the value of their livings, to maintain preachers; that non-residency not be permitted; that King Edward’s statute for the lawfulness of ministers’ marriage be revived; that ministers not be urged to subscribe, but according to the law, to the Articles of Religion, and the king’s supremacy only.” The Puritans are well-known for paragraph length sentences, but their desire in the above paragraph is plain. They wanted the ministers of the churches in England to concentrate on preaching. Further, they wanted the ministers who would not or could not preach to be removed from the pulpits and their stipends given to men who could and would preach. The new king finally agreed to a meeting to talk about “what was pretended to be amiss” in the Church of England. However, the plague was then ravaging London, so the meeting was first postponed and then moved to Hampton Court, which was judged to be a safe distance from the city. The meeting took place in January 1604. The king had been at Hampton Court since before Christmas 1603 entertaining himself and his guests with dancing, drinking, banqueting, and stage-plays while London underwent pestilence. Although the Millenary Petition was signed by more than ten percent of the ministers of the Church of England, King James did not allow them to send men of their own choice to the Hampton Court Conference. Instead James named four men from the church to discuss the items in the petition. Among them was John Rainolds, whom G. S. Paine called “the father of the King James Bible.” The four were not admitted to the meeting until the second day. When they were finally admitted, it was to face not only the king’s majesty, but a group of some 50 or 60 high churchmen, the lords of the council, deans, bishops, and even old John Whitgift, the Archbishop of Canterbury. When Rainold’s turn to speak finally came, he stressed four points. The first was that the doctrine of the church must be preserved in purity in accordance with the Word of God. The second point was that good pastors must be placed in all churches for the purpose of preaching the pure doctrine of God’s Word. His third item was that church discipline must be administered according to God’s Word, and finally he emphasized the need for the Book of Common Prayer to be made such that would increase piety among clergy and laity alike. Except for authorizing a new translation of the Scriptures, virtually nothing of lasting value came out of the Hampton Court Conference proper. The Puritan ministers and people could have become discouraged, and surely there were some disappointments. But the new translation of 1611 has continued to be the Bible of most English speaking Christians down to the present day; and just as significantly, the Puritan ministers returned to their parishes and spent a generation preaching Lord’s Day by Lord’s Day from their several pulpits. What good did that generation of preachers do? It was that generation that sent wave after wave of colonists to the “new world.” It was that generation that established a “middle class” in England as the Dutch Calvinists were doing on the continent of Europe. Perhaps most importantly of all, at the end of that generation (40 years), God used the parishioners of those preachers in the Houses of Lords and Commons (British Parliament) to resist the tyranny of James’ son in both church and state, to disestablish prelacy in England via the Root and Branch Bill, and finally to call the Westminster Assembly which constituted possibly the most learned and pious council the Protestant Churches ever held. During that same generation in Scotland, two other preachers made contributions that have endured to this present day, and in some respects actually formed the foundation for Christianity in America. Samuel Rutherford’s Lex Rex taught that civil freedoms and the safety of the people depend upon a nation and its leaders being submitted to the law of God, and that the power of kings can rightly be curbed by the people acting through a representative body. The second preacher, George Gillespie, wrote a work against the Erastian establishment of the church under the civil magistrate. That work, Aaron’s Rod Blossoming, laid the groundwork for a right understanding of the separation of church and state, a principle that found its way into the United States Constitution, though in a weakened form. One might say that the church today has fallen on lean times. There would be some truth in the statement. But the solution to building a generation of strong, vigorous, and manly Christians is not to have a coffee shop in the narthex of the church building. The solution is strong, vigorous, manly preaching in the Puritan style. The Puritan response to disappointment from the king was fervent and faithful preaching in both pulpit and press. Such should be the response in these days of decline as well if we hope to see a generation of strong Christians in church and state. Dr. Richard Bacon, Pastor Faith Presbyterian Church Reformed Mesquite, TX Published with the permission of the Christian Observer. West Side Hungarian Reformed Church, Cleveland, Ohio
