SolaGratia
Puritan Board Junior
I agreed with the decision the Westminster Authors made on this.
A CATECHISM FOR PREACHING?
Philip Schaff, the well known nineteenth-century historian, and J. R. Pitman, the editor of one of the divines’ works, have both stated that the Larger Catechism was also to be used for preaching. Schaff wrote that the Assembly produced “a larger [catechism] . . . for the public exposition in the pulpit, according to the custom of the Reformed churches on the continent.”11 Godfrey has observed that the evidence for this claim is lacking. He also points out that the Assembly’s Directory for Worship (still used by some Presbyterians) explicitly points out that the preacher is to preach from a text.12 This is an important point: if the minister was to preach from a biblical text, it is not likely that he was to use the man-made propositions in the Larger Catechism as the launching point for a sermon.
A reading of the unpublished minutes of the Assembly confirms Godfrey’s point. In the middle of the Assembly’s debates on preaching there is a somewhat cryptic statement: “Debate upon that text or argument because it gives liberty to preach without a text.”13 In twentieth-century parlance, this means, “we debated about whether a preacher should preach from a text of Scripture, or from a doctrinal proposition (such as a catechism answer); we were concerned that a sermon based on a doctrinal argument could allow a minister to preach without expounding a text.”
This statement of the Assembly reveals that the final declaration found in the directory was a deliberate one: the ministers at the Westminster Assembly did not think that the preacher should preach from a proposition, or argument, but only from the Scriptures themselves. As important as the catechisms were, the Westminster divines did not want to follow the practice of the Reformed churches on the continent who preached from the Heidelberg Catechism. Rather, keeping the original intentions of the authors of the Larger Catechism in mind, there seem to be two main reasons why it was written: (1) creedal unity and, (2) more fulsome instruction in the Christian faith; as the Scottish commissioners envisioned it, the chief beneficiaries of the Larger Catechism would be the adult Christians in both kingdoms who understood the doctrines and duties of the Shorter Catechism already, and needed “the meat of the Word.”
"The Making of the Westminster Larger Catechism" by Chad B. Van Dixhoorn
A CATECHISM FOR PREACHING?
Philip Schaff, the well known nineteenth-century historian, and J. R. Pitman, the editor of one of the divines’ works, have both stated that the Larger Catechism was also to be used for preaching. Schaff wrote that the Assembly produced “a larger [catechism] . . . for the public exposition in the pulpit, according to the custom of the Reformed churches on the continent.”11 Godfrey has observed that the evidence for this claim is lacking. He also points out that the Assembly’s Directory for Worship (still used by some Presbyterians) explicitly points out that the preacher is to preach from a text.12 This is an important point: if the minister was to preach from a biblical text, it is not likely that he was to use the man-made propositions in the Larger Catechism as the launching point for a sermon.
A reading of the unpublished minutes of the Assembly confirms Godfrey’s point. In the middle of the Assembly’s debates on preaching there is a somewhat cryptic statement: “Debate upon that text or argument because it gives liberty to preach without a text.”13 In twentieth-century parlance, this means, “we debated about whether a preacher should preach from a text of Scripture, or from a doctrinal proposition (such as a catechism answer); we were concerned that a sermon based on a doctrinal argument could allow a minister to preach without expounding a text.”
This statement of the Assembly reveals that the final declaration found in the directory was a deliberate one: the ministers at the Westminster Assembly did not think that the preacher should preach from a proposition, or argument, but only from the Scriptures themselves. As important as the catechisms were, the Westminster divines did not want to follow the practice of the Reformed churches on the continent who preached from the Heidelberg Catechism. Rather, keeping the original intentions of the authors of the Larger Catechism in mind, there seem to be two main reasons why it was written: (1) creedal unity and, (2) more fulsome instruction in the Christian faith; as the Scottish commissioners envisioned it, the chief beneficiaries of the Larger Catechism would be the adult Christians in both kingdoms who understood the doctrines and duties of the Shorter Catechism already, and needed “the meat of the Word.”
"The Making of the Westminster Larger Catechism" by Chad B. Van Dixhoorn