Evening Prayer (1662 Book of Common Prayer)

LECTIONS. John Calvin on the Psalms. ISBE: Genesis. Keil & Delitzsch: Joshua. Matthew Henry: Isaiah. ISBE: Matthew. 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 of Christendom. Westminster Larger Catechism, 181-184. For Psalm 15, Prof. Calvin notes that judges and other can be bribed. We’d add like the Arminian toads and sycophants turning towards the Arminians under Laud—simoniacs sniffing for bread, loaves and a larger kitchen. Throne-sniffers. Church-jobbers. Indefatigable place-and-preferment seekers, including covetous Anglican Bishops. Calvin notes that God’s people can’t be bribed. Oh those honest, industrious Calvinists! ISBE on Genesis: Dr. Harrison notes that JEDP theorists were never without opponents, e.g. Hengstenberg, Keil and others. To present the whims and imprecisionists as the final report errs. For Joshua 15, Joshua gives another geography lesson. For Isaiah 4.2-6, Prof. Henry begins a wide sweep of beautiful promises of a restored Zion, a sure contrast to the gloom-and-doom brought about by the malapertiness of brain-dead sinners. ISBE on Matthew: Dr. Hagner is hamming to the mast his view of Marcan priority. He's using a plastic hammer with a plastic nail. For Mathew 3.13-17, Prof. Jamiesson discusses Jesus’s approach to baptism. For Revelation 10.1-7, Prof. Henry discusses the angel with the seventh trumpet, perhaps, allusive of Jesus Himself. For Theology Proper, Prof. Reymond, the hound, chases Ligonier apologists off the field. For Soteriology, Prof. Berkhof rhapsodizes about historical and temporal faith, an important subject. For Apostolic Christianity, Prof. Schaff discusses the decay and decline of the Roman Empire, decadent by Paul’s times. For Medieval Christianity, Prof. Schaff tells of Boniface’s brutal assassination on 5 June 754 or 755. In 1875, Pope Pee-on-Us IX ordered invocations of Boniface for these troubled times. Guess Jesus as the Sovereign Mediator is in a wheel-chair. Such a half-Christology is as clear as the sun on a cloudless day. For the Swiss Reformation, Prof. Schaff discusses Zwingli’s eschatological hope to meet the saints of the OT and NT, the saints of the ages, but also some of the Greeks whom he believed were recipients of revelation before the Gospel extension to Greece and other parts. For the Creeds of Christendom, Prof. Schaff discussed the superior document that interprets the Council of Trent, to wit, the “Profession of the Tridentine Faith” issued by Pope Pius IV in 1564. Westminster Larger Catechism 181-184: Q. 181. Why are we to pray in the name of Christ? A. The sinfulness of man, and his distance from God by reason thereof, being so great, as that we can have no access into his presence without a mediator; and there being none in heaven or earth appointed to, or fit for, that glorious work but Christ alone, we are to pray in no other name but his only. Q. 182. How doth the Spirit help us to pray? A. We not knowing what to pray for as we ought, the Spirit helpeth our infirmities, by enabling us to understand both for whom, and what, and how prayer is to be made; and by working and quickening in our hearts (although not in all persons, nor at all times, in the same measure) those apprehensions, affections, and graces which are requisite for the right performance of that duty. Q. 183. For whom are we to pray? A. We are to pray for the whole church of Christ upon earth; for magistrates, and ministers; for ourselves, our brethren, yea, our enemies; and for all sorts of men living, or that shall live hereafter; but not for the dead, nor for those that are known to have sinned the sin unto death. Q. 184. For what things are we to pray? A. We are to pray for all things tending to the glory of God, the welfare of the church, our own or others' good; but not for anything that is unlawful.