Morning Prayer and the Litany (1662 Book of Common Prayer)

ISAIAH-ALERT. He’s at it again, laying in some ordnance on target. Another aerial run over the target. The Marcionites and the subjectivists will groan, moan, bemoan and remoan. Casting a look—with an unblinking eye-lock—over at the staff in their theological jammies with sippy cups of syrup at Westminster Abbey and DC’s National Cathedral. Will you all allow Isaiah to preach next Sunday? I didn't think so. Expect fly-over, bombing missions by trained combatants. LECTIONS. John Calvin on the Psalms. Keil & Delitzsch: Joshua. Matthew Henry: Isaiah. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown: Gospels. Matthew Henry: Revelation. Dr. Robert Reymond: Systematic Theology. Prof. Berkhof, Systematic Theology: Soteriology. Dr. Philip Schaff, Apostolic Christianity, Medieval Christianity, Swiss Reformation and Creeds. Westminster Larger Catechism, 10-14. For Psalm 10, Prof. Calvin says on 10.5-6, “Since the ungodly have the hardihood to devise and perpetrate every kind of wickedness, however atrocious, it is from this sufficiently manifest, that they have cast off all fear of God from their hearts.” Did you get that Prof. Berkhof? See below. We’re with the Psalmist, Augustine, Calvin, and Cranmer here, not allowing Prof. Berkhof’s back-handed slap at his Reformed colleagues. For Joshua 9, Prof. Keil continues to comment on the slave-status of Gibeonites and offers a side-comment that they were accursed Canaanites since the days of Noah’s degenerate line. For Isaiah 1.21-30, Prof. Henry cites another sermon, as it were. He dates it to 738, or, Ahaz’s time? It’s another aerial combat run over Jerusalem. Isaiah is not pulling back, but is in an approach to the target with ordnance aimed at manifold sins and wickednesses. For the Introduction to the Gospels, Prof. Jamiesson notes the impress of Pauline thinking here-and-there in Luke’s Gospel. For Revelation 4, Prof. Henry notes that the Church Triumphant praises God. Rev. 4.11: “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” Prof. Henry wisely notes, it’s “not the merit” of those praising God, but the focus is on God’s worthiness. As in heaven, so here on earth. For Bibliology, Prof. Reymond deals with the Romanists’ “dual source” tradition to divine authority, reaffirmed in Vatican 11. Tradition which grows organically over centuries as identified by Papal affirmation is co-equal with the Law, Prophets and Apostles. For Soteriology, Prof. Berkhof really offers a back-handed head-slap of the Reformed who reject his Kuyperian approach to common grace, going as far as to accuse his Reformed brethren of not having the full picture of God and of mis-exegesis. Quite the game, there. It’s slyly done and briefly, but it’s a back-hand. For Apostolic Christianity: quite, quite contrary to Prof. Philip Schaff, the very first duty of the church historian is to be a devout, pious, humble, God-fearing, confessing, Bible-driven, and a Reformed Churchman. Quite, quite contrary to Philip Schaff, the above duty precedes and must accompany the other duties of a church historian--research, original sources insofar as able, sometimes being forced to rely on secondary sources, etc. Amazingly, the German Reformed Prof. Schaff missed this critical point. Am thinking of Dr. Diane Butler, PhD Duke, a church historian of note, yet, an inmate to her own elastic, subjectivistic, poisoned perspective and anthropocentrized hermeneutic. She "freaked" at a "literalist," Bible believing Anglican winning the VA governorship. She sounded like a scared kid. Duty one above obtains for every single discipline also. For Medieval Christianity, Mr. Schaff notes that Latin Christianity via Gregorianism wafted over England—Latin masses, saint worship, relics worship, monastic virtues (scholarship, prayer, hospitality, schools, copying of books), monastic vices (sodomy in places), monetized pilgrimages, superstitions and monetized, but pious purchases of merits by the rich in bequeathments of land. A nice job here by the Professor. For the Swiss Reformation, Mr. Schaff rounds off a reputable tribute to the hero of Basel, Oecolampadius. However, in one sentence, the Prof. ruins it by saying Oecolampadius's wide corpus is historically unimportant. That says more about Schaff than Oecolampadius. For the Creeds, Mr. Schaff offers a nice introduction to the Athanasian Creed, disavowing Athanasius’s authorship, noting its 8th-9th century provenance in the East and West with the absence of the Filioque clause in the East. For the WLC, 12-16.