The Art of Prophesying

William Perkins

A treatise on the sacred and only true manner and method of preaching. First written in Latin by William Perkins and translated into English by Thomas Tuke in 1607. Rewritten here in modern English by Paul Lintott.

About This Book

The Art of Prophesying is the first full handbook on preaching written in the English Reformed tradition. William Perkins (1558–1602) wrote it in Latin in 1592, and Thomas Tuke translated it into English in 1607. Perkins was a fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge, and the preacher at Great St Andrew's church in the town, and he taught many of the men who became the next generation of Puritan ministers.

His aim was practical. England had many people who could say the right things and few who could preach them well. Perkins asks three questions. How do you open a passage of Scripture honestly? How do you draw out its teaching? How do you apply it so that each kind of hearer, from the stubborn to the doubting to the broken, is dealt with as they need? His answer is a plain, orderly method that serves the text instead of showing off the preacher. It shaped how English-speaking Protestants preached for the next hundred years.

Reading it today. Preachers will find a clear method they can use. Hearers will find out what a faithful sermon is supposed to do to them. Perkins writes in short numbered points, so the book is easy to stop and start. It is a short, practical book that rewards a slow reading.

About this edition

This is a rewrite of the 1607 English translation, in plain modern English, with Perkins's own order and divisions kept. His numbered points are turned into headings, and his long lists of examples are shortened to their conclusions where the argument doesn't depend on every case.

All Scripture is quoted from the English Standard Version and labelled, for example "(Hebrews 4:12, ESV)". Tuke translated his Scripture quotations himself from Perkins's Latin, so in a few places the ESV reads differently from the text Perkins argues from. Where that matters, an italic editor's note says so and Perkins's point is kept.

Tuke's printed text had Greek and Hebrew words, and some of them were lost when it was copied for this edition. Where a note depended only on such a word, it has been left out. Where the argument depended on the word, the note says what Perkins was pointing at.

Preface

William Perkins

(Editor's note: this preface is not in Tuke's 1607 text. It is supplied from Perkins's Latin by way of a modern English translation, and is put here in fresh words, in the sense of the original.)

This book is for faithful ministers of the gospel, and for anyone who cares about sacred learning.

Preparing sermons is the ordinary work of the church, yet it carries great weight and is far from easy. It's hard to name a harder task in theology. Its subject is prophesying, and the apostle tells us to "earnestly desire the higher gifts" (1 Corinthians 12:31, ESV), whether you think of its dignity or of its use.

For its dignity, picture a queen riding in her carriage with the other gifts of speech and learning walking beside her as her attendants, knowing she outranks them.

Preaching is worth a great deal in two ways. It gathers the church and brings the elect together. And it drives the wolves away from the Lord's folds. It moves the soul, and by it our stubborn wills are subdued and turned from a godless, pagan life to Christian faith and repentance. It has also been the weapon that shook the old heresies, and in our own time cut the sinews of the Antichrist. If anyone asks which gift is the best, the prize has to go to prophesying.

The better a thing is, the more it deserves careful and wise treatment. Yet this daily work has often been handled thinly, compared with the attention given to other branches of learning. So I have read what the theologians have written, drawn out rules and principles from them, and tried to set them down in a way that is useful and easy to remember.

Now I'm putting these thoughts on preaching into print. If they're worth anything, let them be approved. If they fall short, let them be corrected or thrown out. If you agree with this way of preaching, walk with me. If you doubt it, ask questions with me. If you notice you've drifted, come back to the road with me. And if you think I've wandered, call me back to yours. People who dislike moderate and godly men will find fault soon enough. But if anyone has small complaints about these few pages, my conscience is defence enough, because my only aim has been to serve God's church. So I commend you to God, and I commend this little book on the art of prophesying to you both.

William Perkins
12 December 1592

Chapter 1

What prophesying is

Prophesying, which the Bible also calls prophecy, is a public and solemn speech by the prophet. It belongs to the worship of God and to the salvation of our neighbour. Paul says, "The one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation" (1 Corinthians 14:3, ESV). He adds that if an unbeliever or outsider comes in while everyone is prophesying, "he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all" (1 Corinthians 14:24, ESV).

The word is also used for the whole service of God's ministers. Paul says, "God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son" (Romans 1:9, ESV). (Editor's note: Perkins's translator points out that the Greek word behind "serve" can also be rendered "worship".)

So the art of prophesying is a sacred doctrine: the knowledge of how to carry out this ministry rightly.

Chapter 2

The two parts of prophesying

Prophesying has two parts: preaching the Word and public prayer. A prophet, who is a minister of the Word, has only two duties when he speaks. He preaches the Word, and he prays to God in the name of the people. Paul writes, "Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith" (Romans 12:6, ESV). And God says of Abraham, "He is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live" (Genesis 20:7, ESV).

That's why Scripture uses the word "prophesy" of prayer as well as of preaching. The sons of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun "prophesied with lyres, with harps, and with cymbals" (1 Chronicles 25:1, ESV). The prophets of Baal "called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon", and later "as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation" (1 Kings 18:26, 29, ESV). (Editor's note: in the Hebrew, the ESV's "raved on" is the ordinary verb "prophesied". That's the usage Perkins has in mind.)

The prophet speaks for God and for the people

Every prophet is partly the voice of God and partly the voice of the people. He's God's voice when he preaches, and the people's voice when he prays. God told Jeremiah, "If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless, you shall be as my mouth" (Jeremiah 15:19, ESV). And when Ezra prayed, "Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people answered, 'Amen, Amen'" (Nehemiah 8:6, ESV).

Preaching stands in for Christ

Preaching the Word is prophesying in the place and in the name of Christ. By it people are called into a state of grace and kept there. God "through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5:18, ESV), and so "we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God" (2 Corinthians 5:20, ESV).

Other passages say the same:

- "God chose you as the first fruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel" (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14, ESV).
- "I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes" (Romans 1:16, ESV).
- "Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint" (Proverbs 29:18, ESV).
- "How are they to hear without someone preaching?" (Romans 10:14, ESV).

Chapter 3

The Word of God

The right and complete subject of preaching is the Word of God. (Editor's note: Tuke's margin explains that the Word is the whole and only field the preacher must keep to.) Abraham says, "They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them" (Luke 16:29, ESV). Jesus says of the scribes, "The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so practice and observe whatever they tell you" (Matthew 23:2-3, ESV). In other words, they teach the doctrine of Moses, and that is why they are to be heard.

The Word of God is God's wisdom about the truth, the truth that accords with godliness, and it comes down from above. James calls it "the wisdom from above", which is "first pure" (James 3:17, ESV). Paul speaks of "their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness" (Titus 1:1, ESV).

The excellence of the Word

The Word is wonderfully excellent, and you can see that in two ways: in what it is, and in what it does.

Its nature. What it is divides into its perfection and its eternity.

Its perfection has two sides. First, it is sufficient. It is so complete that nothing can be added to it or taken from it that belongs to its proper purpose. "The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul" (Psalm 19:7, ESV). "Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it" (Deuteronomy 12:32, ESV). The book of Revelation closes with the same warning: "if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book" (Revelation 22:18, ESV). Second, it is pure. It stays whole in itself, free from deceit and error. "The words of the LORD are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times" (Psalm 12:6, ESV).

Its eternity means it can't be broken or pass away until everything it commands is fully accomplished. "Until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished" (Matthew 5:18, ESV).

Its working. The Word has power. First, it searches the human spirit. "The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12, ESV). Second, it binds the conscience. "There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy" (James 4:12, ESV). "The LORD is our judge; the LORD is our lawgiver; the LORD is our king; he will save us" (Isaiah 33:22, ESV). (Editor's note: Perkins's text cites Isaiah 33:21, but the passage is verse 22 in the ESV.) To bind the conscience is to force it to accuse us or to clear us of sin before God.

The Word is in Scripture

Scripture is the Word of God, written in a language suited to the church, by men called directly to act as the Holy Spirit's clerks or secretaries. "No prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21, ESV).

It's called canonical because a canon is a rule or a builder's line. By it the truth is first found out, and afterwards tested. "As for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them" (Galatians 6:16, ESV). So the final and highest judgement in the church's disputes belongs to Scripture.

The whole of Scripture comes down to one argument. (Editor's note: Tuke's margin labels the parts of the argument. The first premise is the "major", the second the "minor", and the last the conclusion.) The true Messiah will be both God and man, of the seed of David. He'll be born of a virgin. He'll bring the gospel out of his Father's bosom, satisfy the Law, offer himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the faithful, conquer death by dying and rising again, ascend into heaven, and come back in his own time to judge. Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Mary, is exactly this person. So he is the true Messiah. The first premise is the aim of all the prophets' writings, and the second is the aim of the writings of the evangelists and apostles.

The Old Testament

Scripture has two parts, the Old Testament and the New.

The Old Testament is the first part, written by the prophets in Hebrew, or in part in Aramaic. It sets out mainly the old covenant of works. "Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27, ESV).

It divides into historical, doctrinal and prophetic books.

The historical books record things done, to illustrate and confirm the teaching set out elsewhere. "These things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction" (1 Corinthians 10:11, ESV). "Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction" (Romans 15:4, ESV). Perkins counts fifteen:

1. Genesis: creation, the fall, the promise, and the church kept in private families.
2. Exodus: the rescue from Egypt, the giving of the Law, and the tabernacle.
3. Leviticus: the ceremonial worship.
4. Numbers: Israel's march to Canaan.
5. Deuteronomy: a commentary repeating and explaining the laws.
6. Joshua: entering and possessing the land.
7. Judges: the sad and corrupt state of Israel from Joshua to Eli.
8. Ruth: her marriage and descendants.
9. First and Second Samuel: the days of Eli and Samuel as priests, and of Saul and David as kings.
10. First and Second Kings: the reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah.
11. First and Second Chronicles: an orderly history of Israel's beginning, growth and ruin, tracing the line of Christ.
12. Ezra: the return from captivity in Babylon and the start of the city's rebuilding.
13. Nehemiah: the rebuilding of the city to its completion.
14. Esther: how the Jewish church in Persia was kept safe through her.
15. Job: the causes of temptation, his many battles, and his happy end.

The doctrinal books teach the doctrine of divinity. There are four.

1. Psalms: sacred songs for every condition of the church and its members, to be sung with grace in the heart (Colossians 3:16).
2. Proverbs: a treatise on Christian conduct, teaching devotion to God and justice to our neighbour.
3. Ecclesiastes, "the Preacher": the emptiness of all human things when they're pursued without the fear of God.
4. The Song of Songs: the mutual love of Christ and the church, under the picture of a bridegroom and his bride.

The prophetic books foretell either God's judgements for his people's sins or the rescue of the church, which will be completed when Christ comes. But the prophets mix their predictions with a call to repentance, and almost always add comfort in Christ for those who repent. They also make their sermons short for the sake of their hearers' memory and understanding, even though they preached them at greater length. "Take a large tablet and write on it" (Isaiah 8:1, ESV). "Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it" (Habakkuk 2:2, ESV).

The prophecies are greater or lesser. The greater ones give fuller accounts of what is foretold: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. Jeremiah's Lamentations belong with them, mourning the people's misery around the time of Josiah's death. The lesser ones deal more briefly with what is foretold: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.

The New Testament

The New Testament is the second part of Scripture. The apostles wrote it in Greek, or at least approved it, and it sets out the doctrine of the new covenant plainly. The church is "built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets" (Ephesians 2:20, ESV).

Perkins notes that Peter approved Mark's Gospel, and John approved Luke's. He also thinks little of the claim that Paul wrote the Gospel called Luke's, based on Paul's phrase "my gospel" in 2 Timothy 2:8 and Romans 2:16. Paul isn't speaking of one book there, but of his whole ministry. In that same passage he adds that he is "suffering, bound with chains as a criminal" for it (2 Timothy 2:9, ESV).

The New Testament contains histories and letters.

The histories. There are three kinds.

1. The four Gospels, by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the story of Christ's life, deeds and teaching from his conception to his ascension. There are four writers, two who heard him and two who saw him, so that the truth of the story would be better assured. They differ in this way. Matthew sets out the teaching Christ gave. Mark tells the story briefly, though he did not simply shorten Matthew, as Jerome thought. He starts differently, follows another order, sometimes tells things at greater length and sometimes adds new matter. Luke aims at a full history, written in order. John is taken up almost entirely with Christ's divinity and the benefit that flows from it to us. Jerome tells the four apart by their openings. Matthew is the man, because he starts with Christ's humanity. Mark is the lion, because he starts with John's preaching, which was like a lion's roar. Luke is the ox, because he starts with Zechariah offering sacrifice. John is the eagle, because he soars up and starts with Christ's divinity.
2. The Acts of the Apostles, an orderly history of the deeds of Peter and Paul in particular, so that the church would have an example of how it should be governed.
3. Revelation, a prophetic history of the church from John's own time to the end of the world.

The letters. Paul wrote thirteen. Romans deals with justification, sanctification and the duties of the Christian life. First Corinthians corrects the abuses in the church at Corinth. Second Corinthians is chiefly Paul's defence of himself and his apostleship against his opponents. Galatians is about justification by faith without works of the Law. Colossians, Philippians, Ephesians and the two to the Thessalonians strengthen the churches in doctrine and Christian duty. First and Second Timothy lay down how to order the church rightly, and Titus how to order the church in Crete. Philemon is about receiving Onesimus.

Beyond Paul there are Hebrews (the person and offices of Christ, and faith that bears fruit in good works), James (works that must go with faith), First and Second Peter (sanctification and the works of new obedience), First John (the signs of fellowship with God), Second John (to the chosen lady, on holding fast to the truth), Third John (to Gaius, on hospitality and steadiness in doing good) and Jude (steadiness in the faith against false prophets).

That's how the canonical Scripture divides into its books.

How we know it is God's Word

There are very strong proofs that Scripture alone is the Word of God. One kind makes a person certain of it. The other kind only bears witness to it.

The proof that makes us certain. There is only one, the inward testimony of the Holy Spirit, who speaks in the Scriptures. He doesn't only tell a person in their heart. He persuades them with power that these books are God's Word. "My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth" (Isaiah 59:21, ESV).

It happens like this. The elect have God's Spirit, and they first recognise the voice of Christ speaking in Scripture. They approve the voice they recognise, and they believe what they approve. Believing, they are sealed with the Spirit's seal. "In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit" (Ephesians 1:13, ESV).

The church can bear witness to the canon, but she can't persuade anyone of it. Otherwise the church's voice would carry more weight than God's voice, and everything about a person's salvation would depend on men, and what could be more wretched than that?

Someone objects: Scripture is God's Word in itself, but for us it's only so by the church's judgement. Perkins answers three ways. First, the distinction is empty. The first half names how Scripture is God's Word, and the second half only names the person it's God's Word to. Second, Scripture bears witness to itself with a kind of testimony surer than any human oath. We have the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking in it, and he works in our hearts a full persuasion when we hear, read and meditate on it. We don't believe a thing because the church says it should be believed. We believe it because what the church says, Scripture said first. The church can't stand, or even be imagined, without faith. Faith can't exist without the Word, and the Word is the rule and object of faith, not anyone's judgement, even the holiest person's. Third, anyone who doubts Scripture will doubt the church's testimony as well.

A second objection: the church has a right to judge, as in Acts 15:28, "it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us" (Acts 15:28, ESV). Perkins answers: the highest judgement in matters of faith belongs to the Holy Spirit speaking in Scripture. The church is given only a ministerial judgement, because she must judge by Scripture, and she doesn't always do that. She sometimes fails. And at the council in Jerusalem the apostles were present, men whose word was to be believed on their own authority, which the church's ministry doesn't have now.

The proofs that bear witness. These don't make us certain. They only attest and give signs of the true canon. There are many.

1. The constant agreement of the church. The ancient Jewish church held to it, since "the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God" (Romans 3:2, ESV). So did the later church. Christ and the apostles quoted these books. The Fathers affirmed them. Origen did, as Eusebius reports (Church History 6.18 and 6.23), and so did Melito, as the same Eusebius says (Church History 4). Athanasius, Cyril (in his fourth sermon), Cyprian (or rather Rufinus, in his exposition of the Creed), Hilary (in his preface to the Psalms; Editor's note: this name is supplied from Perkins's Latin, since it is missing in Tuke's 1607 text), Jerome (in his prologue to Galatians and his preface to the books of Solomon), Epiphanius (in his book on weights and measures), John of Damascus (in the fourth book of his On the Orthodox Faith) and Gregory (in his Morals on Job, book 9) all give the same list. So did the councils of Nicaea and Laodicea (canon 59). Later writers agree: Hugh of St Victor in the first book of his Sacraments, Nicholas of Lyra in his prologue to the Apocrypha, and Cardinal Hugh in his prologue to Joshua.
2. The partial agreement of outsiders and enemies. Pagan writers affirm things Scripture tells. Homer and Plato (in the Timaeus) speak of creation. Josephus speaks of Christ, in his Antiquities and in his Jewish War. The Sibyls prophesied of a Redeemer to be shown in the last times, as Lactantius records, and Cicero (in his work on divination) and Virgil (in his fourth Eclogue) also speak of it. Suetonius (in his life of Nero) and Tacitus speak of Christ's miracles. Pliny speaks of the star of the wise men, and Macrobius of the killing of the infants. Josephus tells of the death of Herod Agrippa. Berosus, in the fragments that survive, and Josephus and the poets, speak of the flood. Eupolemus speaks of the tower of Babel, as Eusebius reports. Plutarch mentions the dove that Noah sent out. The poets invent many stories about Japheth, Noah's son. Alexander Polyhistor speaks of Abraham's sacrifice, and Pliny of Moses's miracles, though he does wrong to call him a magician.
3. Its antiquity. It tells of events from the beginning of the world. The oldest human history anywhere was not written before the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, around the year 3500 from creation.
4. The certain fulfilment of its prophecies, such as the calling of the Gentiles, Antichrist, and the Jews' falling away.
5. Its subject matter: the one true God, his true worship, and that God is the Saviour.
6. The agreement of all its parts.
7. Its miraculous preservation through the church's dangers and times of general falling away.
8. Its effect. It converts people, and though it runs flatly against human reason and desire, it wins them to itself.
9. Its majesty in the plainness of its words.
10. Its honesty. The holy writers record their own faults, and Moses calls himself the meekest of men, which shows they were led by the Holy Spirit. And Christ, as the Gospel describes him, says plainly that he is the Son of God and one with the Father, and claims all of God's glory for himself. If that weren't true, he would have felt God's wrath as Adam did, and as Herod did, who wanted to be like God. Instead God avenged his death on Herod, on the Jews, on Pilate, and on the emperors who persecuted the church.

What is not in the canon

These are the signs of Scripture. They show that the books of Tobit, the Prayer of Manasseh, Judith, Baruch, the Letter of Jeremiah, the additions to Daniel, the third and fourth books of Ezra, the additions to Esther, the two books of Maccabees, Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus don't belong in the canon. Perkins gives four reasons. They weren't written by the prophets. They weren't written in Hebrew. Christ and the apostles quote nothing from them in the New Testament. And they contain made-up things that contradict Scripture.

Chapter 4

Preparing a sermon: private study

So far Perkins has spoken about what preaching is about. Now he turns to preaching itself, which has two parts: preparing the sermon and delivering it. Jesus says, "Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old" (Matthew 13:52, ESV).

In preparing, private study must be pursued with diligence. "Devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching" (1 Timothy 4:13, ESV). The prophets themselves "searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time" (1 Peter 1:10-11, ESV), and Daniel says, "I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years" (Daniel 9:2, ESV).

How to study divinity

Perkins gives five pieces of advice.

First, fix the substance of divinity in your mind and memory. Learn it in definitions, divisions and explanations of its properties.

Second, read Scripture in a good order. Use grammar, rhetoric and logic, and the help of the other arts. Read Paul's letter to the Romans first, then John's Gospel (the two keys to the New Testament), then the rest of the New Testament, which will then be easier. After that, learn the doctrinal books of the Old Testament, especially the Psalms, then the prophetic books, especially Isaiah, and last the historical books, especially Genesis. The apostles and evangelists very probably read Isaiah and the Psalms most, since no Old Testament books are cited more often. Perkins counts about sixty passages cited from Isaiah and sixty-four from the Psalms.

Third, take help from sound writers, and from the early church as well as recent writers. Satan has raised the old heresies from the dead to hinder the church's recovery in our own time. Antitrinitarians have polished up the views of Arius and Sabellius. The Anabaptists revive the old sects of the Essenes, Cathari and Donatists. Papists resemble the Pharisees and Pelagians. The Libertines repeat the Gnostics, Servetus the ancient heretics of Christ's person, and those who separate from the Reformed churches repeat the Donatists. So we shouldn't hunt for fresh refutations. We should take the old ones from the councils and Fathers and count them settled and firm.

Fourth, record what you meet in study. Put what's necessary and worth remembering in your tables, or commonplace books, so you always have both old and new at hand.

Fifth, and before all of it, pray. Ask God to bless these means and to open the Scriptures to us, who are blind. "Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law" (Psalm 119:18, ESV). Christ counsels the church to buy "salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see" (Revelation 3:18, ESV).

Keeping a commonplace book

Perkins adds some modest counsel on the commonplace book.

1. Have ready a heading for every point of divinity.
2. Divide the first pages of a paper book into two columns. Put one heading at the top of each page and leave the facing side empty, so you can add more later.
3. Don't write down everything you read, only what's worth remembering and rarely met. Don't copy the author's words. Note the main points, and mark the place in the author's own book, so you know where to find it again.
4. Some things turn up under uncertain headings. For those, add an alphabetical index to the book.
5. Don't trust the book too much. It isn't enough to have a thing written down. It must also be laid up and locked in your memory.

Interpretation

Preparation has two parts: interpretation and right division, which means cutting up the text rightly for use.

Interpretation is the opening of the words and sentences of Scripture, so that one whole, natural sense appears.

One sense, not four

The church of Rome says Scripture has four senses: literal, allegorical, moral and heavenly. Take Melchizedek bringing out bread and wine. The literal sense is that the king of Salem refreshed Abraham's tired soldiers with food. The allegorical sense is that the priest offers Christ in the Mass. The moral sense is that something ought to be given to the poor. The heavenly sense is that Christ in heaven will be the bread of life for believers. Perkins says this fourfold meaning must be thrown out.

Scripture has one sense only, the literal. An allegory is just a certain way of expressing that one sense. The "moral" and "heavenly" senses are ways of applying it.

Who and what interprets Scripture

The chief interpreter is the Holy Spirit. "No prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation" (2 Peter 1:20, ESV). The one who makes the law is also its best and highest interpreter.

The final and highest means of interpretation is Scripture itself. In Nehemiah's day, "they read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading" (Nehemiah 8:8, ESV). (Editor's note: Perkins's text adds the Latin words "by Scripture itself" here, and takes the verse to mean that the sense was given out of Scripture. The ESV doesn't say that.)

Three lesser means serve Scripture: the analogy of faith, the circumstances of the passage, and comparing passages.

The analogy of faith is a short summary of Scripture drawn from its plainest and best-known passages. It has two parts. The first is faith, set out in the Apostles' Creed. The second is love, set out in the Ten Commandments. "Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 1:13, ESV).

The circumstances of the passage are these: who is speaking, to whom, on what occasion, at what time, in what place, for what purpose, what comes before it and what follows.

Comparing passages means setting them side by side like parallels so that their meaning shows more clearly. Luke says Paul "confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ" (Acts 9:22, ESV). (Editor's note: Perkins presses the Greek verb here, which means to join or fit together, as a craftsman fits the parts of a piece. The ESV's "proving" doesn't carry that picture.)

Two ways of comparing

First, compare a passage with itself, where it's quoted again elsewhere in Scripture. Isaiah 6:10 is repeated six times in the New Testament: Matthew 13:14, Mark 4:12, Luke 8:10, John 12:40, Acts 28:27 and Romans 11:8. Repeated passages often change in the wording, and for different reasons. Perkins gives five, each with examples set side by side. (Editor's note: Tuke printed his own renderings in two columns. Here the ESV text of each pair is given one after the other, so the wording of the two may differ a little more or less than in Perkins's.)

1. The wording changes to explain.

- Psalm 78:2 and Matthew 13:35. “I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old,” (Psalm 78:2, ESV) Matthew quotes it this way: “This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet: I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.” (Matthew 13:35, ESV)
- Psalm 78:24 and John 6:31. “and he rained down on them manna to eat and gave them the grain of heaven.” (Psalm 78:24, ESV) John quotes it this way: “Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” (John 6:31, ESV)
- Isaiah 28:16 and Romans 9:33. “therefore thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: 'Whoever believes will not be in haste.” (Isaiah 28:16, ESV) Paul quotes it this way: “as it is written, Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” (Romans 9:33, ESV)
- Psalm 110:1 and 1 Corinthians 15:25. “The LORD says to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” (Psalm 110:1, ESV) Paul puts it this way: “For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.” (1 Corinthians 15:25, ESV)
- Psalm 116:10 and 2 Corinthians 4:13. “I believed, even when I spoke, I am greatly afflicted;” (Psalm 116:10, ESV) Paul quotes it this way: “Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, I believed, and so I spoke, we also believe, and so we also speak,” (2 Corinthians 4:13, ESV)
- Genesis 13:15 and Galatians 3:16. “for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.” (Genesis 13:15, ESV) Paul presses the singular word: “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, And to offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one, And to your offspring, who is Christ.” (Galatians 3:16, ESV)

2. The wording changes to tell places, times and persons apart. Micah says, “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.” (Micah 5:2, ESV) Matthew quotes it this way, with the difference that Bethlehem is by no means the least: “And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.” (Matthew 2:6, ESV)

3. The wording changes to limit the sense, so that it's kept within what the Holy Spirit meant.

- Deuteronomy 6:13 and Matthew 4:10. “It is the LORD your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear.” (Deuteronomy 6:13, ESV) Jesus adds "only": “Then Jesus said to him, Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ' You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.” (Matthew 4:10, ESV)
- Isaiah 29:13 and Matthew 15:8-9. “And the Lord said: Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,” (Isaiah 29:13, ESV) Jesus adds "in vain": “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” (Matthew 15:8-9, ESV)
- Genesis 2:24 and Matthew 19:5. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24, ESV) Jesus quotes it as: “and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh'?” (Matthew 19:5, ESV) (Editor's note: Perkins's translation has Moses say "they shall be one flesh" and Christ say "they which were two shall be one flesh", and he takes the added words as a limiting of the sense. The ESV has no such difference, since both verses read "they shall become one flesh".)
- Isaiah 59:20 and Romans 11:26. “And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression, declares the LORD.” (Isaiah 59:20, ESV) Paul says: “And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob;” (Romans 11:26, ESV)

4. The wording changes to apply the type to the reality, or the general to a particular case.

- Jonah 1:17 and Matthew 12:39-40. “And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” (Jonah 1:17, ESV) Jesus applies it to himself: “But he answered them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matthew 12:39-40, ESV)
- Isaiah 61:1-2 and Luke 4:18-21. “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;” (Isaiah 61:1-2, ESV) Jesus reads it and says it is fulfilled: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:18-21, ESV)
- Psalm 69:21 and John 19:28-29. “They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.” (Psalm 69:21, ESV) John applies it to the cross: “After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), I thirst. A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.” (John 19:28-29, ESV)
- Exodus 12:46 and John 19:36. “It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones.” (Exodus 12:46, ESV) John says: “For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: Not one of his bones will be broken.” (John 19:36, ESV)
- Psalm 69:25 and Acts 1:20. “May their camp be a desolation; let no one dwell in their tents.” (Psalm 69:25, ESV) Peter applies it to Judas: “For it is written in the Book of Psalms, ' May his camp become desolate, and let there be no one to dwell in it'; and 'Let another take his office.” (Acts 1:20, ESV)

5. Things are left out for brevity, or because they don't suit the point. Zechariah 9:9 reads, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (Zechariah 9:9, ESV) Matthew leaves out the clause about the king being triumphant and having salvation: “Say to the daughter of Zion, 'Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.” (Matthew 21:5, ESV)

Second, compare a passage with other passages. Those are either alike or unlike.

Passages that are alike agree either in phrase or in sense.

Passages that agree in phrase include these.

- Genesis 28:12 and John 1:51. “And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it!” (Genesis 28:12, ESV) Jesus says: “And he said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” (John 1:51, ESV)
- Genesis 3:15 and Romans 16:20. “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15, ESV) Paul says: “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” (Romans 16:20, ESV)
- Genesis 8:20-21 and Ephesians 5:2. “Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.” (Genesis 8:20-21, ESV) Paul says of Christ: “And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 5:2, ESV)

Greek and Hebrew concordances are very useful for finding such passages.

Passages that agree in sense have the same meaning. The best use here is setting a general statement beside a particular example of the same kind.

- Proverbs 28:13 stands beside David's confession. “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.” (Proverbs 28:13, ESV) David says: “For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, I will confess my transgressions to the LORD, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah” (Psalm 32:3-5, ESV)
- David's submission in 2 Samuel 15:25-26 stands beside 1 Peter 5:6. “Then the king said to Zadok, Carry the ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the LORD, he will bring me back and let me see both it and his dwelling place. But if he says, 'I have no pleasure in you,' behold, here I am, let him do to me what seems good to him.” (2 Samuel 15:25-26, ESV) Peter says: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,” (1 Peter 5:6, ESV)

Perkins says you'll find many such passages gathered up in Marlorate's commonplaces.

Passages that are unlike only seem not to agree, in phrase or in meaning. Perkins gives five examples and lets them stand as cases to be reconciled. The next chapter gives his rule for doing that.

- Romans 3:28 and James 2:24. “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.” (Romans 3:28, ESV) But James says: “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.” (James 2:24, ESV)
- 1 Kings 9:28 and 2 Chronicles 8:18. “And they went to Ophir and brought from there gold, 420 talents, and they brought it to King Solomon.” (1 Kings 9:28, ESV) But the Chronicler says: “And Hiram sent to him by the hand of his servants ships and servants familiar with the sea, and they went to Ophir together with the servants of Solomon and brought from there 450 talents of gold and brought it to King Solomon.” (2 Chronicles 8:18, ESV)
- Acts 7:14 and Genesis 46:27. “And Joseph sent and summoned Jacob his father and all his kindred, seventy-five persons in all.” (Acts 7:14, ESV) But Genesis says: “And the sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt, were two. All the persons of the house of Jacob who came into Egypt were seventy.” (Genesis 46:27, ESV)
- Acts 7:16 and Genesis 48:22. “and they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.” (Acts 7:16, ESV) But Genesis says: “Moreover, I have given to you rather than to your brothers one mountain slope that I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow.” (Genesis 48:22, ESV)
- Zechariah 11:13 and Matthew 27:9. “Then the LORD said to me, Throw it to the potter- the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD, to the potter.” (Zechariah 11:13, ESV) But Matthew says: “Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, and they gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord directed me.” (Matthew 27:9-10, ESV)

Chapter 5

Ways of explaining a passage

How you interpret depends on the kind of passage in front of you. Passages are either plain, meaning they agree with the analogy of faith at first sight, or hidden, meaning they're difficult and dark.

Plain passages

For plain passages the rule is this: if the natural meaning of the words agrees with the circumstances of the passage, that is its proper meaning.

For example, "To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name" (Acts 10:43, ESV). The words are perfectly clear. Jesus Christ gives righteousness and eternal life to those who believe in him. We accept that sense at once, because it agrees with the analogy of faith and with the rest of Scripture.

We should also know that every article of doctrine about faith and conduct that is necessary for salvation is set out very plainly in Scripture.

Hidden passages

For hidden passages the rule is this: if the natural meaning of the words plainly clashes with the analogy of faith or with very clear passages, then another meaning is the natural and proper one, provided it agrees with contrary and similar passages, with the circumstances and words of the passage, and with the nature of the thing being discussed.

The example is the Lord's Supper. Jesus took bread, and "when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, 'This is my body which is for you'" (1 Corinthians 11:24, ESV). Some say the bread is truly and properly the body of Christ, by a change of substance, or that his body is in, under or with the bread. This reading doesn't fit. Taken literally, it contradicts the article of faith that Christ ascended into heaven, and the nature of a sacrament, which is a memorial of a body that is absent.

So a second sense has to be sought: the bread is a sign of his body. It's a figure of speech in which the thing is named for what goes with it. Perkins gives six reasons why this sense is proper.

1. It agrees with the analogy of faith. Christ really did ascend into heaven, in place and in sight, so we don't receive his body with the mouth at the Supper, but take hold of it by faith in heaven. And he was truly born of the virgin Mary with a natural body, with length, breadth and thickness, in one place. So the bread can't be that body itself, but only a sign or pledge of it.
2. It agrees with the circumstances. Christ took the bread and broke it. It isn't likely that he took and broke his own body with his own hands while sitting among his disciples. The bread is "for you", which can only be said of the body. The cup is called "the new covenant in my blood" (1 Corinthians 11:25, ESV), and that is plainly a figure, so nothing stops "this is my body" from being one too. Christ himself ate the bread, but he didn't eat himself. "Do this in remembrance of me" means Christ is present to the faith of the heart, not bodily to the mouth. And "until he comes" means he is absent in body. Finally, he didn't say "under the form of bread" or "in the bread". He said, "this", meaning this bread, "is my body".
3. It agrees with the nature of a sacrament, where there has to be a likeness between the sign and the thing signified. There can be none if the bread is itself the body.
4. It agrees with similar places. Circumcision is called "my covenant" (Genesis 17:10-11), and the Rock was Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4). Circumcision is a "sign" of that covenant and a "seal" of the righteousness of faith (Romans 4:11). The Passover lamb is the Lord's Passover (Exodus 12:11, 13). Baptism is "for the forgiveness of your sins" (Acts 2:38, ESV). And Jesus says, "I am the bread of life" (John 6:35, ESV). Paul asks whether the cup of blessing and the bread we break are not "a participation" in Christ's blood and body (1 Corinthians 10:16, ESV), meaning a sign of that communion.
5. It agrees with the laws of logic, which say that two unlike things are only called each other by a borrowed way of speaking.
6. It agrees with ordinary speech. We put the bundle of rods carried before magistrates for government itself, the gown for peace, and the laurel for a triumph.

So the second sense is the proper one.

Conclusions that follow from this rule

Perkins draws six conclusions, each useful for understanding Scripture.

1. Supply any missing word that fits the passage. The supplied word must agree with the analogy of faith and with the circumstances and words of the passage. Ephesians 3:1 is unfinished: "For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles" (Ephesians 3:1, ESV). One could supply "I will be an ambassador" for you Gentiles, but Paul was an ambassador for Christ, not for the Gentiles. One could supply "I have boasted", but that's bold, and nothing like it appears anywhere in Scripture. The best supply is "I, Paul, am the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles". The same applies to other gaps: Isaiah 1:13, Luke 13:9, Exodus 4:25, 2 Samuel 21:16, 1 Corinthians 9:25 and Exodus 19:4.

2. If the other reading swaps one noun for another, the passage contains a figure of speech. Several kinds of figure matter for sacred writing.

- Human feelings and parts spoken of God. These are a sacred metaphor, where what is properly said of a human is said of God by comparison. His soul stands for his life or being (Jeremiah 5:29), his face for favour or anger (Psalm 30:7; 34:16), his eyes for grace and providence (Psalm 34:15), the apple of his eye for something very dear (Zechariah 2:8), his ears for accepting prayers, his nostrils for anger, his hands for power and protection, his arm for strength, his right hand for authority, his finger for power, his foot for rule, and his smelling for acceptance (Genesis 8:21). When God "repents", it means a change in things and actions that he brings about.
- The sacramental figure. The name of the sign, or of what goes with it, is put for the thing the sacrament represents, or the reverse. So the tree of life, the Passover lamb, the altar called "The LORD is my banner", Jerusalem called "The LORD is there", Christ called the Lamb of God, and Christ our Passover (1 Corinthians 5:7), and the Rock called Christ, and baptism called "the washing of regeneration" (Titus 3:5), and the cup and the bread of the Supper.
- The exchange of what belongs to each nature of Christ. Because of the union of his two natures in one person, what belongs to one nature is said of the whole person. "The church of God, which he obtained with his own blood" (Acts 20:28, ESV). "No one has ascended into heaven except him who descended from heaven, the Son of Man" (John 3:13, ESV). "They would not have crucified the Lord of glory" (1 Corinthians 2:8, ESV). "Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58, ESV). "Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man" (Luke 2:52, ESV). This works only with the whole person, as God, Man or Christ, and not with a single nature considered alone, such as his Godhead or his manhood.
- Things said of God that look like evil. These are to be understood of his operative, or working, permission. Perkins gives these examples. “And its rich yield goes to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins. They rule over our bodies and over our livestock as they please, and we are in great distress.” (Nehemiah 9:37, ESV) “The LORD has mingled within her a spirit of confusion, and they will make Egypt stagger in all its deeds, as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.” (Isaiah 19:14, ESV) God hardens Pharaoh's heart (Exodus 4:21; 9:12; 14:4). “But Sihon the king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him, for the LORD your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might give him into your hand, as he is this day.” (Deuteronomy 2:30, ESV) “For it was the LORD's doing to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle, in order that they should be devoted to destruction and should receive no mercy but be destroyed, just as the LORD commanded Moses.” (Joshua 11:20, ESV) “If someone sins against a man, God will mediate for him, but if someone sins against the LORD, who can intercede for him? But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for it was the will of the LORD to put them to death.” (1 Samuel 2:25, ESV) “But it was ordained by God that the downfall of Ahaziah should come about through his going to visit Joram. For when he came there, he went out with Jehoram to meet Jehu the son of Nimshi, whom the LORD had anointed to destroy the house of Ahab.” (2 Chronicles 22:7, ESV) “He turned their hearts to hate his people, to deal craftily with his servants.” (Psalm 105:25, ESV) “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.” (Romans 1:28, ESV) “Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false,” (2 Thessalonians 2:11, ESV) “And if the prophet is deceived and speaks a word, I, the LORD, have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.” (Ezekiel 14:9, ESV) Perkins reads every one of these as God's operative, or working, permission.
- Things spoken as already finished that are only begun. When Noah was five hundred years old and "fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth" (Genesis 5:32), the sense is that he began to. In the same way Paul says, "Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect" (Philippians 3:12, ESV) yet speaks of "those of us who are mature" (Philippians 3:15, ESV).
- A command against one sin names the whole family of that sin. It forbids its causes, occasions and enticements, and commands the opposite virtues. Christ expounds the commandments this way throughout Matthew 5 (see also 1 John 3:15).
- Threats and promises carry conditions. Threats carry the condition of faith and repentance. Promises, especially those that are bodily, carry the exception of chastisement and the cross. "If he turns from his sin and does what is just and right … he shall surely live; he shall not die" (Ezekiel 33:14-15, ESV). Jonah's "Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" carries a hidden condition (Jonah 3:4), as does Isaiah's word to Hezekiah (Isaiah 38:1) and God's word to Abimelech (Genesis 20:3). From this arose the schools' distinction between God's signifying will and his will of good pleasure. His good pleasure wills something absolutely and without condition, as with creation and the sending of his Son. His signifying will wills something with a condition, and we call it a will because the condition is the sign of it.
- "Only" said of one person doesn't exclude the others. "The only true God" (John 17:3, ESV) excludes false gods, not the Son and Spirit. "My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all" (John 10:29, ESV) is said against creatures, not the other persons. All the outward works of the Trinity are the work of all three persons.
- When "God" is used on its own it covers all three persons. When it's set beside a person of the Trinity, it means the Father (2 Corinthians 13:14).
- A general word is sometimes used narrowly, and the reverse. Augustine observes that "all" is often put for "many" and "many" for "all". "Everyone turns to his own course" means most (Jeremiah 8:6, ESV). "all hold that John was a prophet" (Matthew 21:26, ESV) means most. "All things are lawful for me" (1 Corinthians 6:12, ESV) means all things that are indifferent. Likewise "nothing" can mean little (John 18:20), "none" can mean few (1 Corinthians 2:8), "always" can mean often or long (Proverbs 13:10; Luke 24:53), "eternal" can mean as long as the matter allows (Genesis 17:8; Leviticus 25:46; Deuteronomy 15:17), "everywhere" can mean here and there (Mark 16:20), and "not" can be limited to a particular matter or mean "seldom" (Psalm 7:4; 1 Kings 15:5; Luke 2:37).

3. Grammatical and rhetorical features have their own force.

- Ellipsis, where words are left out, shows either brevity or strong feeling: "Let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens" (Genesis 11:4), "how long?" (Psalm 6:3).
- The past tense for the future in prophecy shows certainty: "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given" (Isaiah 9:6, ESV), and "Fallen, fallen is Babylon" (Isaiah 21:9).
- Repetition does several jobs. It gives force: "Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord'?" (Luke 6:46). It can mean many: droves and droves (Genesis 32:16). It can mean each: a man and a man, that is, every man (Leviticus 17:3). It can mean variety, as in "a double heart" (Psalm 12:2, ESV). Doubling a noun can show certainty or excellence: "the God of gods" (Psalm 136:2), "King of kings", "vanity of vanities" (Ecclesiastes 1:2), "Song of Songs". Tripling shows intensity: "Holy, holy, holy" (Isaiah 6:3), "O land, land, land" (Jeremiah 22:29, ESV). Doubling a verb gives emphasis, certainty or speed: "you shall surely die" (Genesis 2:17, ESV). Repeating a sentence in other words explains it, as in Psalm 6:9-10 and Isaiah 3:9.
- Every figure of speech has force. Beyond delight and ornament, figures feed faith. When Christ is put for a Christian or for the church (Matthew 25:35; 1 Corinthians 12:12; Acts 9:4), it comforts the faithful soul and nourishes faith.
- Irony is a just rebuke of sin. Elijah mocks the prophets of Baal: "Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened" (1 Kings 18:27, ESV). Paul says to the Corinthians, "Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings!" (1 Corinthians 4:8, ESV).
- A question can be an earnest affirmation ("If you do well, will you not be accepted?", Genesis 4:7, ESV), a denial ("Is anything too hard for the LORD?", Genesis 18:14, ESV), a prohibition (Psalm 79:10), or a sign of wonder, pity, complaint or blame ("O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!" Psalm 8:1; "How the faithful city has become a whore!", Isaiah 1:21; "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?", Psalm 22:1, all ESV).
- A concession signals denial and rebuke: "But granting that I myself did not burden you, I was crafty, you say, and got the better of you by deceit" (2 Corinthians 12:16, ESV).

4. When passages seem to oppose each other, reconcile them. An opposition dissolves when it turns out the two passages are not about the same matter, or not the same part of it, or not in the same respect, or not in the same manner, or not at the same time.

Example: "Judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness" (Psalm 7:8, ESV), against "all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment" (Isaiah 64:6, ESV). The two are not about the same thing. One kind of righteousness belongs to the cause or action, and another to the person. David speaks of the first, Isaiah of the second.

Another: Matthew tells the disciples to take no sandals or staff (Matthew 10:10), and Mark allows "nothing for their journey except a staff" and sandals (Mark 6:8-9). Perkins distinguishes the sort of staff. Matthew means one that burdens the bearer, Mark one that helps a traveller, like Jacob's. Matthew's shoes are new ones, specially prepared for the trip, and Mark's sandals are the everyday ones already worn.

The fourth conclusion gives several cautions for reconciling.

1. The sacred writers sometimes speak of past people and places by the names of their own day. Genesis 12:8 speaks of a mountain east of Bethel, though in Abraham's time the town was called Luz. In 1 Peter 3:19, the spirits are said to be in prison from Peter's point of view, not Noah's. Psalm 105:15 calls the patriarchs "anointed" by the standard of David's time, though they had no outward anointing.
2. Allegories are explained by their purpose. Chrysostom says parables are not to be read literally, to avoid absurd results. Augustine says that in every allegory you should consider what is spoken of under the picture, according to the purpose of the passage.
3. People and places often have two names, and one name sometimes varies in spelling. Gideon is also Jerubbaal (Judges 6:32), Simon is Peter and Cephas, Saul is Paul, and Matthew is Levi. Salmon is Salma, Abigal is Abigail, and Aram is Ram. On the other hand, different people and places share a name. Matthew 1 counts Jechoniah twice to keep the three sets of fourteen, which only works if there were two of that name, father and son. Succoth is the name of three places.
4. Because of a wicked king's wickedness, his name or the years of his wicked reign are sometimes left out. First Samuel 13:1 says Saul reigned two years, meaning lawfully. Matthew 1:8 skips three kings between Joram and Uzziah for their wickedness. (Editor's note: the ESV renders 1 Samuel 13:1 with gaps, "Saul was … years old when he began to reign, and he reigned … and two years over Israel", because the Hebrew text is damaged here. The ESV does not support Perkins's reading.)
5. A time may be counted as complete or incomplete, and its parts inclusively or exclusively. This reconciles the reigns of Nadab and Baasha, the "six days" and "about eight days" of the Transfiguration, and the three hundred years of Judges 11:26. It also covers a king who, hindered by war, age or illness, names his son king while he still lives, so that the years of father and son are counted together or apart, as with Jehoram and Jotham. The texts and Perkins's figures are given below.
6. The day is counted in different ways. The people of the East divide the day into twelve hours and into quarters, each named from the hour before. So Mark's "the third hour" (Mark 15:25, ESV) and John's "about the sixth hour" (John 19:14, ESV) don't contradict each other. (Editor's note: Perkins sets out the Eastern and Western hours in a table, which was lost when the source was copied. The ordinary hours of the Western count are seven to twelve, then one to six.)
7. The smaller number is counted within the greater. Judges 3:30 says the land had rest eighty years, and that includes Ehud's and Shamgar's years, since no judge could govern eighty years alone. The same holds for Judges 3:11; 5:31; 8:28; 9:22; 10:2-3 and 11:26.
8. Sonship is natural or legal. Natural sonship is by birth. Legal sonship is by adoption, shown by upbringing, by succession to a kingdom, or by the law of the brother-in-law. Perkins uses this to reconcile 2 Samuel 21:8, where his Hebrew text names Michal's five sons, with 1 Samuel 18:19 and Matthew 1:12 with Luke 3:27, as set out below.

The texts behind these reconciliations. Perkins sets the opposing passages side by side. Here they are in the ESV, with his reconciliation after each.

- Staff and sandals. “Acquire no gold nor silver nor copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, nor two tunics nor sandals nor a staff, for the laborer deserves his food.” (Matthew 10:9-10, ESV) Mark says: “He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff- no bread, no bag, no money in their belts but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics.” (Mark 6:8-9, ESV) Perkins's answer is the one given above: two different kinds of staff and shoes.
- The years of Nadab and Baasha. “Nadab the son of Jeroboam began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel two years.” (1 Kings 15:25, ESV) Yet: “So Baasha killed him in the third year of Asa king of Judah and reigned in his place.” (1 Kings 15:28, ESV) Nadab's second year as king could still run into Asa's third, because the last year of a king isn't counted as a full one.
- Six days or about eight. Matthew has “And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.” (Matthew 17:1, ESV) Luke has: “Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray.” (Luke 9:28, ESV) Matthew counts only the whole days between, and Luke counts the first and last day as well.
- The three hundred years of Jephthah's message. “While Israel lived in Heshbon and its villages, and in Aroer and its villages, and in all the cities that are on the banks of the Arnon, 300 years, why did you not deliver them within that time?” (Judges 11:26, ESV) Perkins adds up the years from the Exodus to that point: forty in the wilderness, seventeen under Joshua, forty under Othniel, eighty for Ehud and Shamgar, forty for Barak, forty for Gideon, three for Abimelech, twenty-three for Tola and twenty-two for Jair. That comes to 305, and he thinks the five odd years are left out because three hundred is the neater number for counting and speaking.
- Twenty-five thousand or twenty-five thousand and a hundred. “So all who fell that day of Benjamin were 25,000 men who drew the sword, all of them men of valor.” (Judges 20:46, ESV) Yet earlier: “And the LORD defeated Benjamin before Israel, and the people of Israel destroyed 25,100 men of Benjamin that day. All these were men who drew the sword.” (Judges 20:35, ESV) The hundred is left out for brevity.
- Jehoram's years. “So he died according to the word of the LORD that Elijah had spoken. Jehoram became king in his place in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, because Ahaziah had no son.” (2 Kings 1:17, ESV) Yet: “In the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Ahab became king over Israel in Samaria, and he reigned twelve years.” (2 Kings 3:1, ESV) Perkins explains that Jehoshaphat, going to war beside Ahab, made his son Jehoram viceroy, so that the son's years are counted both with the father's and on their own. Compare “In the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab, king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, began to reign.” (2 Kings 8:16, ESV)
- Jotham's years. “Then Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah and struck him down and put him to death and reigned in his place, in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah.” (2 Kings 15:30, ESV) Yet: “He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jerusha the daughter of Zadok.” (2 Kings 15:33, ESV) He reigned sixteen years alone after his father's death, and twenty with his father, for he governed for his father, who was ill.
- The hours of the crucifixion. “And it was the third hour when they crucified him.” (Mark 15:25, ESV) Yet: “Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, Behold your King!” (John 19:14, ESV) The two don't oppose each other, because the manner of counting the hours of the day differs.
- Whose sons? “The king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Merab the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite;” (2 Samuel 21:8, ESV) Yet: “But at the time when Merab, Saul's daughter, should have been given to David, she was given to Adriel the Meholathite for a wife.” (1 Samuel 18:19, ESV) (Editor's note: the ESV follows the Greek and some Hebrew copies and reads "the five sons of Merab", so the conflict doesn't show in the ESV. Perkins and Tuke follow the Hebrew text, which has Michal.) On Perkins's reading they were Merab's by birth and Michal's by upbringing, and "bore" only means that Michal brought them up. In the same way Genesis 50:23 says Machir's sons were "born on Joseph's knees", meaning brought up there.
- Who was Shealtiel's father? “And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,” (Matthew 1:12, ESV) Yet: “the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri,” (Luke 3:27, ESV) He was Neri's son by birth and Jechoniah's by succession to the kingdom. In the same way Zedekiah is called Jehoiachin's brother (2 Chronicles 36:10), uncle (2 Kings 24:17) and son (1 Chronicles 3:16), his brother by birth and his son by succession. That is how Matthew and Luke are reconciled in the genealogy of Christ: Matthew follows the legal line and Luke the natural.

5. When several meanings are possible for one word, choose the one that suits the passage. Perkins cites the Hebrew letter waw, which Brunerus counted as having some thirty-seven meanings, such as "but", "for", "therefore", "so that", "and yet", "also" and "if". Context decides which. Another case is the Hebrew word barak, which can mean both to bless and to curse (Job 1:5; 1 Kings 21:10). (Editor's note: Tuke's list of the particle's senses is set out in Latin and tied to Hebrew forms the source has lost, so the full list isn't reproduced here.) From this it is clear that Genesis 4:26 doesn't say people "profaned" the name of the LORD. It says they "began to call upon the name of the LORD" (Genesis 4:26, ESV). Perkins has two reasons. When the Hebrew verb means "profane", it takes a noun, but here it is followed by an infinitive verb. And among the many causes of the Flood, Moses doesn't list the profaning of God's worship, which he would surely have noted if it had reigned among God's people.

6. A word in the Hebrew or Greek text is the proper one when it agrees with the grammar and with other approved copies, and also with the sense and drift of the passage and with the analogy of faith. Perkins doesn't say the Hebrew and Greek texts have been corrupted by the Jews' malice, as the papist Lindanus slanders. He says only that in some places variant readings have crept in, through the ignorance or carelessness of copyists, and they need to be weighed. In Psalm 22:16 some copies read as a lion my hands and my feet, and others they have dug (or pierced) my hands and my feet. The second reading is to be followed, since it agrees with the grammar, with the circumstances of the psalm, with some ancient copies, and even with the Jews' own testimony. The ESV has the second reading: "they have pierced my hands and feet" (Psalm 22:16, ESV).

The texts behind the rules

Perkins backs each of the rules above with a long run of examples. Here they are in the ESV, in the order he gives them, so the argument can be checked. (Editor's note: some of these examples turn on a repetition or a word order in the Hebrew that the ESV smooths out in English, so a few won't show the effect plainly.)

Missing words that need supplying (conclusion 1). In these the sentence is unfinished in the original, and the translators supply the word.

- Isaiah 1:13. Perkins supplies "bear" iniquity. “Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations- I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.” (Isaiah 1:13, ESV)
- Luke 13:9. Perkins supplies "you shall let it stand". “Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.” (Luke 13:9, ESV)
- Exodus 4:25. Perkins supplies "knife". “Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it and said, Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!” (Exodus 4:25, ESV)
- 2 Samuel 21:16. Perkins supplies "was" and "sword". “And Ishbi-benob, one of the descendants of the giants, whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of bronze, and who was armed with a new sword, thought to kill David.” (2 Samuel 21:16, ESV)
- 1 Corinthians 9:25. Perkins supplies "they are self-controlled". “Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.” (1 Corinthians 9:25, ESV)
- Exodus 19:4. Perkins supplies "as it were" upon eagles' wings. “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.” (Exodus 19:4, ESV)

Parts of a human being spoken of God.

- “Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD, and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?” (Jeremiah 5:29, ESV) “But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.” (1 Corinthians 11:3, ESV) “By your favor, O LORD, you made my mountain stand strong; you hid your face; I was dismayed.” (Psalm 30:7, ESV) “The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.” (Psalm 34:15-16, ESV) “For thus said the LORD of hosts, after his glory sent me to the nations who plundered you, for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye:” (Zechariah 2:8, ESV) “And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.” (Genesis 8:21, ESV)

The sacramental figure. The name of the sign stands for the thing signified.

- “And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” (Genesis 2:9, ESV) “So Abraham called the name of that place, The LORD will provide; as it is said to this day, On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.” (Genesis 22:14, ESV) “and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.” (Genesis 28:22, ESV) “And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, The LORD is my banner,” (Exodus 17:15, ESV) “The circumference of the city shall be 18,000 cubits. And the name of the city from that time on shall be, The LORD is there.” (Ezekiel 48:35, ESV) “The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29, ESV) “Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” (1 Corinthians 5:7, ESV) “whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.” (Romans 3:25, ESV) “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” (1 Corinthians 10:17, ESV) “he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,” (Titus 3:5, ESV)

Things spoken as already done that are only begun.

- “After Noah was 500 years old, Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” (Genesis 5:32, ESV) “When Terah had lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.” (Genesis 11:26, ESV) “I will keep your statutes; do not utterly forsake me!” (Psalm 119:8, ESV) “And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord.” (Luke 1:6, ESV)

Threats and promises with their conditions.

- “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” (Revelation 21:8, ESV) and the promise just before it, “And he said to me, It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.” (Revelation 21:6, ESV)
- “In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, Thus says the LORD: Set your house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover.” (Isaiah 38:1, ESV) “But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man's wife.” (Genesis 20:3, ESV)

"Only" and other exclusive speech.

- “to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.” (Romans 16:27, ESV) “To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” (1 Timothy 1:17, ESV) “My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.” (John 10:29, ESV) “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Mark 13:32, ESV) (Editor's note: Perkins cites this as Mark 13:37. The saying about "the Father alone" is Mark 13:32 in the ESV.)
- And for "God" standing for the Father when set beside the other persons: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (2 Corinthians 13:14, ESV)

Words that stand for more or less than they say.

- "All" for many or most. “I have paid attention and listened, but they have not spoken rightly; no man relents of his evil, saying, 'What have I done?' Everyone turns to his own course, like a horse plunging headlong into battle.” (Jeremiah 8:6, ESV) “But if we say, 'From man,' we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.” (Matthew 21:26, ESV) “They all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 2:21, ESV) “And the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.” (Deuteronomy 28:64, ESV) “Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was taskmaster over the forced labor, and all Israel stoned him to death with stones. And King Rehoboam hurried to mount his chariot to flee to Jerusalem.” (1 Kings 12:18, ESV) “And the next day the LORD did this thing. All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one of the livestock of the people of Israel died.” (Exodus 9:6, ESV) “Why have you prophesied in the name of the LORD, saying, 'This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without inhabitant'? And all the people gathered around Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.” (Jeremiah 26:9, ESV) “And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.” (Matthew 4:23, ESV) “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” (John 14:13, ESV)
- "Nothing" for little. “Jesus answered him, I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret.” (John 18:20, ESV)
- "None" for few. “None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” (1 Corinthians 2:8, ESV)
- "Always" for often or long. “And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.” (Luke 18:1, ESV) “and were continually in the temple blessing God.” (Luke 24:53, ESV)
- "Forever" for as long as the matter allows. “And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.” (Genesis 17:8, ESV) “You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly.” (Leviticus 25:46, ESV) “then you shall take an awl, and put it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your slave forever. And to your female slave you shall do the same.” (Deuteronomy 15:17, ESV) “Then David said that no one but the Levites may carry the ark of God, for the LORD had chosen them to carry the ark of the LORD and to minister to him forever.” (1 Chronicles 15:2, ESV) “Then the Chaldeans said to the king in Aramaic, O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.” (Daniel 2:4, ESV) “behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the LORD, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation.” (Jeremiah 25:9, ESV)
- "Everywhere" for here and there. "And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them" (Mark 16:20, ESV) “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,” (Acts 17:30, ESV)
- "Not" limited to a particular matter, or meaning "seldom". “O LORD my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands, if I have repaid my friend with evil or plundered my enemy without cause,” (Psalm 7:3-4, ESV) “because David did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and did not turn aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.” (1 Kings 15:5, ESV) “and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.” (Luke 2:37, ESV)

Grammar and rhetoric (conclusion 3).

- Ellipsis. “but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God! So they took his advice,” (Acts 5:39, ESV) “Whoever sacrifices to any god, other than the LORD alone, shall be devoted to destruction.” (Exodus 22:20, ESV) “Then the LORD God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever-” (Genesis 3:22, ESV) “Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain! And God granted what he asked.” (1 Chronicles 4:10, ESV)
- Repetition for emphasis or distribution. “It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes!” (Psalm 133:2, ESV) “These he handed over to his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, Pass on ahead of me and put a space between drove and drove.” (Genesis 32:16, ESV) “If any one of the house of Israel kills an ox or a lamb or a goat in the camp, or kills it outside the camp,” (Leviticus 17:3, ESV) “He appointed judges in the land in all the fortified cities of Judah, city by city,” (2 Chronicles 19:5, ESV) “Unequal weights and unequal measures are both alike an abomination to the LORD.” (Proverbs 20:10, ESV) “Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death.” (Exodus 31:15, ESV) “In that day they shall take up a taunt song against you and moan bitterly, and say, We are utterly ruined; he changes the portion of my people; how he removes it from me! To an apostate he allots our fields.” (Micah 2:4, ESV) “And the LORD said to me, What do you see, Jeremiah? I said, Figs, the good figs very good, and the bad figs very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.” (Jeremiah 24:3, ESV) “The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,” (Exodus 34:6, ESV) “Do not trust in these deceptive words: 'This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.” (Jeremiah 7:4, ESV) “Why, when I came, was there no man; why, when I called, was there no one to answer? Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, by my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a desert; their fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst.” (Isaiah 50:2, ESV) “Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, The LORD will surely separate me from his people; and let not the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree.” (Isaiah 56:3, ESV) “These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.” (Psalm 50:21, ESV) “May his children wander about and beg, seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit!” (Psalm 109:10, ESV) “And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, 'As the LORD lives,' even as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they shall be built up in the midst of my people.” (Jeremiah 12:16, ESV) “They said to Moses, Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?” (Exodus 14:11, ESV) “Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: ' You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.” (Matthew 13:14, ESV) “All the people of Israel did just as the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron.” (Exodus 12:50, ESV) “The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.” (Psalm 145:18, ESV) “OF DAVID. If it had not been the LORD who was on our side- let Israel now say” (Psalm 124:1, ESV)
- Repeating a sentence in other words, to explain. “Now, O LORD, please remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight. And Hezekiah wept bitterly.” (2 Kings 20:3, ESV) “Depart from me, all you workers of evil, for the LORD has heard the sound of my weeping. The LORD has heard my plea; the LORD accepts my prayer.” (Psalm 6:8-9, ESV) “For the look on their faces bears witness against them; they proclaim their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves.” (Isaiah 3:9, ESV) “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (John 1:3, ESV)
- Irony. “Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress.” (Judges 10:14, ESV) “And he said to them, You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!” (Mark 7:9, ESV) “And when he had come to the king, the king said to him, Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall we refrain? And he answered him, Go up and triumph; the LORD will give it into the hand of the king.” (1 Kings 22:15, ESV)
- Repeated words and sounds. “The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, shall bless us.” (Psalm 67:6, ESV) “For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.” (Isaiah 48:11, ESV)
- Questions. “And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day.” (Joshua 10:13, ESV) “Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, then comes the harvest'? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.” (John 4:35, ESV) “What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?” (Romans 3:3, ESV) “And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?” (Matthew 12:26, ESV) “Why should the nations say, Where is their God? Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants be known among the nations before our eyes!” (Psalm 79:10, ESV) “And Abner said again to Asahel, Turn aside from following me. Why should I strike you to the ground? How then could I lift up my face to your brother Joab?” (2 Samuel 2:22, ESV)

Cautions in reconciling passages (conclusion 4).

- Past things named by later names. “From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD.” (Genesis 12:8, ESV) “So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the Negeb.” (Genesis 13:1, ESV) “in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison,” (1 Peter 3:19, ESV) “saying, Touch not my anointed ones, do my prophets no harm!” (Psalm 105:15, ESV)
- Two names for one person. Perkins lists many. Gideon is also Jerubbaal (Judges 6:32) and Jerubbesheth (2 Samuel 11:21). Solomon is also Jedidiah (2 Samuel 12:24-25). Zimri is also Zabdi (1 Chronicles 2:6; Joshua 7:1), and Uzziah is also Azariah (2 Kings 15:1; 2 Chronicles 26:1). Esther is also Hadassah (Esther 2:7), Simon is also Peter and Cephas (John 1:42), Joseph is Barnabas (Acts 4:36), Saul is Paul (Acts 13:9), and Matthew is Levi. Jerusalem is also called Jebus and Salem.
- One person with different spellings. Salmon is Salma (Ruth 4:21; 1 Chronicles 2:11), Abigal is Abigail (2 Samuel 17:25; 1 Chronicles 2:16), Tiglath-pileser is Tilgath-pilneser (2 Kings 15:19; 1 Chronicles 5:6), and Aram is Ram (Matthew 1:3; 1 Chronicles 2:9).
- Two people or places with one name. Matthew counts Jechoniah twice to complete the three sets of fourteen: “and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon. And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,” (Matthew 1:11-12, ESV) Succoth is the name of three places: “And the people of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children.” (Exodus 12:37, ESV) “and in the valley Beth-haram, Beth-nimrah, Succoth, and Zaphon, the rest of the kingdom of Sihon king of Heshbon, having the Jordan as a boundary, to the lower end of the Sea of Chinnereth, eastward beyond the Jordan.” (Joshua 13:27, ESV) “In the plain of the Jordan the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarethan.” (1 Kings 7:46, ESV)
- A wicked king's years left out. “Saul was... years old when he began to reign, and he reigned... and two years over Israel.” (1 Samuel 13:1, ESV) “and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah,” (Matthew 1:8, ESV)

Chapter 6

Dividing the Word rightly

So far Perkins has spoken of interpreting the Word. Now he comes to dividing it rightly.

To divide the Word rightly is to make it fit to build up God's people. "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15, ESV). (Editor's note: the Greek word behind "rightly handling" means literally to cut straight. Perkins thinks the picture may come from the Levites, who weren't to cut up the parts of a sacrifice carelessly.) "The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary" (Isaiah 50:4, ESV).

It has two parts: resolution, which means breaking the passage down into its teachings, and application.

Resolving a passage into its teachings

Resolution is like unravelling a weaver's web into its separate threads. It is how Apollos "powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus" (Acts 18:28, ESV). There are two ways of doing it: notation and collection.

Noting the teaching that is stated

Notation is when the teaching is stated in the passage itself. Paul writes, "We have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin, as it is written: 'None is righteous, no, not one'" (Romans 3:9-10, ESV). The teaching is stated outright. So is Peter's in Acts 2:24-27, where he says God raised Christ up, "loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it" (Acts 2:24, ESV), and then quotes David's psalm in proof.

Collecting the teaching that isn't stated

Collection is when a teaching that isn't stated is soundly drawn out of the text. It's done with the help of the standard lines of reasoning: causes, effects, subjects, accompanying circumstances, opposites, names, divisions and definitions. Perkins gives examples.

- From the lesser to the greater. Jesus argues, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I said, you are gods'? If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken—do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?" (John 10:34-36, ESV). If those who received God's word are called gods, how much more may the Son of God be called what he is?
- Again from the lesser. Paul quotes the law against muzzling an ox, and asks, "Is it for oxen that God is concerned?" (1 Corinthians 9:9, ESV). The conclusion is drawn from the verse before: "Do we not have the right to eat and drink?" (1 Corinthians 9:4, ESV). In other words, those who work at preaching have a right to be supported.
- From the contrary. Those under the law are under a curse, so those who rely on faith are blessed. "Those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith" (Galatians 3:9, ESV). And so "no one is justified before God by the law, for 'The righteous shall live by faith'" (Galatians 3:11, ESV).
- From what goes with it. Hebrews quotes God's promise of "a new covenant" (Hebrews 8:8, ESV) and concludes, "In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away" (Hebrews 8:13, ESV).

When gathering teachings we should remember one thing in particular. An example in its own kind, whether moral, domestic, political, ordinary or extraordinary, has the force of a general rule for matters of that kind. The examples of the fathers are patterns for us. "Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction" (1 Corinthians 10:11, ESV). It's a principle of logic that the genus is present in every species, and a rule in optics that we see the general kinds of things before the particular ones.

An example from the species. Paul argues from Isaac that "not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring" (Romans 9:7, ESV), and concludes, "It is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring" (Romans 9:8, ESV). In the same way, from Abraham's faith he concludes that the words "it was counted to him" were not written for his sake alone, "but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord" (Romans 4:23-24, ESV).

Collections must be sound

Collections must be sound, drawn from the true and proper meaning of Scripture. Otherwise we could draw any teaching from any text. In Proverbs 8:22 the old Greek translation says "The Lord created me", which is Wisdom, that is Christ, speaking of himself, and the Arians wickedly concluded that the Son was created. But the Hebrew says the Lord possessed me, and the ESV agrees: "The LORD possessed me at the beginning of his work" (Proverbs 8:22, ESV). The Father possesses the Son because he begot him from eternity, and because the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father. Compare Eve's words at Cain's birth, "I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD" (Genesis 4:1, ESV). Perkins thinks the mistake came from a Greek word being put for another that looks like it, through ignorance or malice.

He adds two examples from Augustine, whom he doesn't follow here. On Psalm 39, Augustine reads "I held my peace because you have made me", and wittily concludes that it's remarkable someone should keep silent who has been given a mouth to speak. But the word "me" is in neither the Hebrew nor the Greek. The ESV reads, "I am mute; I do not open my mouth, for it is you who have done it" (Psalm 39:9, ESV). (Editor's note: Perkins cites this as verse 10, following the Latin numbering used in Augustine's day.) On Psalm 72, Augustine argues at length that charging interest is sin, though nothing of the kind is in the text. The verse says only, "From oppression and violence he redeems their life, and precious is their blood in his sight" (Psalm 72:14, ESV).

Allegories

It's lawful to gather allegories, which are arguments from likeness, and Paul uses them in his teaching (1 Corinthians 9:9). But they need four cautions. Use them sparingly and soberly. Don't strain them, but fit them to the matter in hand. Dispatch them quickly. And use them to teach how to live, not to prove a point of faith.

What a sound collection proves

Any teaching collected by sound consequence is itself to be believed, and it proves its point. Luke describes Apollos as "an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures" (Acts 18:24, ESV), who "powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus" (Acts 18:28, ESV). Three things follow.

First, don't cite human authorities for a doctrine, whether philosophers or Fathers. Augustine says, "If I speak, let no one hear. If Christ speaks, woe to the one who does not hear." And again, "Let us not hear 'I say this' and 'you say that', but let us hear 'The Lord says this'." The exception is when such a testimony convinces the hearer's conscience. Paul does this with the poets: "as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we are indeed his offspring'" (Acts 17:28, ESV), and then he concludes, "Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone" (Acts 17:29, ESV). He quotes Menander, "Bad company ruins good morals" (1 Corinthians 15:33, ESV), and Epimenides, "Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons" (Titus 1:12, ESV). Even then it should be done sparingly, and the name of the pagan writer should be left out.

Second, use only a few texts of Scripture to prove a doctrine, and sometimes none.

Last, a prophet who teaches this way shouldn't be rebuked by other prophets. "The spirits of prophets are subject to prophets" (1 Corinthians 14:32, ESV). Yet Paul adds, "If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord" (1 Corinthians 14:37, ESV).

Chapter 7

Applying the Word to the hearers

Application is fitting the teaching you've rightly drawn out to the place, the time and the people. God says, "I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep… I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak" (Ezekiel 34:15-16, ESV, with the middle omitted). Jude writes, "And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire" (Jude 1:22-23, ESV).

The foundation: Law and Gospel

The foundation of application is knowing whether the passage in front of you is a statement of the Law or of the Gospel. When the Word is preached, the Law does one thing and the Gospel another. The Law shows us the disease of sin, and by its own working stirs it up, but it offers no cure. The Gospel teaches what must be done and also carries the power of the Holy Spirit with it, by whom we're born again and given strength both to believe the Gospel and to do what it commands. So the Law comes first in teaching, and the Gospel second.

A statement of the Law speaks of perfect righteousness within us, of eternal life by works of the Law, of the opposite sins, and of the curse they deserve. "For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse" (Galatians 3:10, ESV). John the Baptist's "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" is also of this kind (Matthew 3:7, ESV).

A statement of the Gospel speaks of Christ and his benefits, and of faith bearing fruit in good works. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16, ESV).

So many sayings that look like Law are to be taken, because of Christ, with the Gospel's qualification and not as bare law. "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!" (Luke 11:28, ESV). Moses says of the commandment that "this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off… the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it" (Deuteronomy 30:11, 14, ESV), and Paul takes the same words as Gospel (Romans 10:8). The same goes for Psalm 119:1-2, for John 14:21, 23, and for the descriptions of Noah and of Abraham as "blameless" in their walk with God (Genesis 6:9; 17:1).

Seven kinds of hearers

Perkins says there are mainly seven ways of applying the Word, matching seven conditions of people.

1. Unbelievers who are ignorant and unteachable.

They first have to be prepared to receive the teaching. Jehoshaphat sent Levites through the cities of Judah to teach the people and turn them from idols (2 Chronicles 17:7-9). Preparation happens partly by reasoning with them, so you can see their character and disposition, and partly by rebuking some notorious sin in them, so that, struck and frightened, they become teachable. Paul "reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there" (Acts 17:17, ESV). The Lord stopped Saul on the Damascus road. The jailer at Philippi, shaken awake, was brought to ask, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" (Acts 16:30, ESV), and he was told, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household" (Acts 16:31, ESV). In Athens Paul began with the people's own religion. “So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, 'To the unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,” (Acts 17:22-24, ESV)

When there's hope they've become teachable, the teaching is first set before them in general, familiar terms. "The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed" (Acts 17:30-31, ESV). If they accept that, it's opened up to them point by point. If they stay unteachable with no hope of winning them, they are to be left. "Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you" (Matthew 7:6, ESV). "Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you" (Proverbs 9:8, ESV). In Ephesus Paul "withdrew from them and took the disciples with him" (Acts 19:9, ESV).

2. The teachable but ignorant.

These need the catechism. Apollos "had been instructed in the way of the Lord" (Acts 18:25, ESV), and Priscilla and Aquila "took him and explained to him the way of God more accurately" (Acts 18:26, ESV). Luke writes "that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught" (Luke 1:4, ESV).

The catechism is the teaching of the foundation of the Christian religion, briefly put, in questions and answers by the living voice, to help the understanding and the memory. The foundation is a summary of the first principles of Christianity. "You need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God" (Hebrews 5:12, ESV). A principle is what directly serves both people's salvation and God's glory, so that if it were denied or overturned there'd be no hope of salvation. Perkins finds six: repentance, faith, baptisms (that is, the sacraments), laying on of hands (that is, the ministry of the Word), resurrection, and final judgement (Hebrews 6:1-2).

The way to teach it is to handle the basics plainly by asking and answering. Perkins cites 1 Peter 3:21, where he takes baptism to be a pledge made in answer to questions, and Acts 8:37, the eunuch's confession, and Tertullian: "The soul is cleansed not by washing but by answering." (Editor's note: Perkins takes the word in 1 Peter 3:21 as "interrogation". The ESV has "an appeal to God for a good conscience" and doesn't support his reading. The ESV leaves out Acts 8:37 entirely, since the verse isn't in the oldest manuscripts.)

Here we should hold on to the difference between milk and strong meat, which are the same food but differ in how they're served. Milk is a short, plain, general account of the faith's principles: one God in three persons, trust in God's grace alone in Christ, the forgiveness of sins, and the need to repent, avoid evil and do good. Strong meat is a full, copious, clear handling of the doctrine of faith: man before the fall, the fall, original and actual sin, guilt, free will, the mystery of the Trinity, the two natures of Christ, the union of the person, Christ's offices, the imputation of righteousness, faith, grace, and the use of the law, all set out distinctly and exactly from the Word. Milk is for babes, who are untaught or weak in knowledge, and strong meat is for those of full age who are better taught. Paul writes, "But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food" (1 Corinthians 3:1-2, ESV).

3. Those who have knowledge but aren't yet humbled.

In these, the foundation of repentance must be stirred up, a sorrow "according to the will of God". "As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief… For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death" (2 Corinthians 7:9-10, ESV). Godly sorrow is grief over sin because it is sin.

To stir up this sorrow, the minister first uses the Law to bring about a broken heart and the terrors of conscience. These aren't good in themselves, but they're a needed remedy for a sinner's stubbornness and they prepare the mind to be taught. To work this sorrow, use a well-chosen part of the Law that reproves one notable sin in people who aren't yet humbled, since sorrow and repentance for one sin is in substance sorrow and repentance for all. Peter said to Simon, "Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you" (Acts 8:22, ESV). On the Day of Pentecost he said, "this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men" (Acts 2:23, ESV).

If someone struck by the cross and by outward troubles has only worldly sorrow, because they grieve for the punishment of sin and not for sin as sin, they shouldn't be comforted at once. First that sorrow needs turning into the godly kind. Perkins compares it to doctors, who, when a man's life is at risk from a nosebleed, order blood to be let from his arm so as to stop the flow at his nose.

Then preach the Gospel, in which the Holy Spirit works effectively to salvation. As he renews people and they begin to will and do what pleases God, he truly produces in them the sorrow that is according to God and repentance that leads to salvation.

With the hard-hearted, press the Law, announce its curse with warning, and make plain how hard it is to be delivered until the heart is purified. See John's words to the Pharisees and Sadducees (Matthew 3:7), Christ's answer to the rich young man, "If you would enter life, keep the commandments" (Matthew 19:17, ESV), and his woes against the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 23:13, 33). But when the first signs of being pricked in the heart appear, they're to be comforted with the Gospel at once.

4. Those who are humbled.

Here we need to judge carefully whether their humbling is complete and sound, or only begun and slight. Otherwise, if they're comforted sooner than they should be, they'll become harder afterward, like iron that turns very hard once it has been in the furnace and cooled.

With those who are only partly humbled, set out the Law, but temper it with the Gospel so that while they're terrified by their sins and the thought of God's judgement, they receive comfort from the Gospel at the same moment. Peter's words to Simon the magician are an example (Acts 8:20-23). So is God's questioning of Adam and Eve in the garden, which ends with the promise about the woman's offspring (Genesis 3:9-15). So is Nathan's parable, which brings David back to his conscience and then declares his pardon when he repents (2 Samuel 12).

With those who are fully humbled, preach faith, repentance and the comforts of the Gospel. "He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound" (Isaiah 61:1, ESV), which Jesus took as his own (Luke 4:18). When the crowd was "cut to the heart" at Pentecost and asked, "Brothers, what shall we do?", Peter answered, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins" (Acts 2:37-38, ESV). Jesus says, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners" (Matthew 9:13, ESV).

5. Those who believe.

Three things are to be set before them. First, the Gospel of justification, sanctification and perseverance. Second, the Law without its curse, so they can be taught to bear the fruit of new obedience that fits repentance. "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1, ESV), and "the law is not laid down for the just" (1 Timothy 1:9, ESV). Paul's letter to the Romans is the pattern. Third, though the curse of the Law isn't to be pressed against the person who is righteous in God's sight, it is to be pressed against the sins that remain in that person. A father often sets the rods meant for servants before his sons' eyes, to frighten them, and in the same way the thought of the curse should often be stirred up in believers, so they don't turn God's mercy into an excuse for loose living, and so they're humbled more fully. Sanctification is only partial. So to get rid of what's left of sin, we should always begin with the Law and the feeling of sin, and end in the Gospel.

6. Those who have fallen.

These are people who have partly fallen from the state of grace. The fall is either in faith or in conduct.

Falling in faith is either in knowledge of the Gospel's teaching or in taking hold of Christ.

Falling in knowledge is sliding into error, whether light or fundamental. To such people the teaching that cuts across their error must be pressed home, along with the call to repent, in a brotherly spirit. Paul's letter to the Galatians is the example. "Correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth" (2 Timothy 2:25, ESV).

Falling in taking hold of Christ is despair. To restore the despairing, there must be a trial and a remedy.

The trial is of the cause of the temptation, and of their condition. The cause is best found through private confession. "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed" (James 5:16, ESV). So that confession doesn't become a kind of torture, it must meet three conditions. It must be free, not forced, because salvation doesn't depend on it. It must cover not every sin but only those that weigh on the conscience, and that would put the person in greater danger if left unrevealed. And it should be made chiefly to pastors, though it may safely be made to other faithful believers in the church.

The trial of their condition is a careful check on whether they are under law or under grace. We have to draw out by questions, first, whether they're displeased with themselves because they've displeased God, which means whether they hate sin as sin, the foundation of repentance to salvation. Second, we ask whether they feel a desire in their heart to be reconciled with God, which is the root of living faith.

When the trial is done, the remedy is drawn from the Gospel. First, certain Gospel thoughts are to be pressed on them often. Their sin is pardonable. The promises are general toward believers and open toward each individual, and exclude nobody. The will to believe is faith (Psalm 145:19; Revelation 21:6). Sin doesn't wipe out grace, but rather, since God turns everything to the good of his own, it makes grace shine. And all God's works are done by contrary means. Second, they're to be urged, in the very bitterness of the temptation, to stir up their faith, which has lain in a swoon and been covered as with ashes. They should settle it with themselves that their sins are forgiven, and struggle manfully in prayer, alone or with others, against carnal feeling and human hope. To do this they need urging earnestly, and the unwilling almost have to be compelled. "Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD! O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!" (Psalm 130:1-2, ESV). Abraham, "In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations" (Romans 4:18, ESV).

For these remedies to work, the minister uses the power of binding and loosing in the form the Word prescribes. David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." And Nathan said to David, "The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die" (2 Samuel 12:13, ESV). "We are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God" (2 Corinthians 5:20, ESV). And if melancholy troubles the mind, medical help should be sought in private.

Falling in conduct is when a believer falls into some actual sin, like Noah's drunkenness, David's adultery or Peter's denial. Because grace may be lost for a time in feeling and working, though it remains in power and habit, those who have fallen this way need the Law mixed with the Gospel. A new act of sin calls for a new act of faith and repentance. "Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity… They have forsaken the LORD… Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes… Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow" (Isaiah 1:4, 16, 18, ESV, with parts omitted).

7. A mixed people.

A mixed people means the ordinary gatherings of our churches. Any teaching, whether Law or Gospel, may be set before them, if it is limited to the people it fits. "On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink'" (John 7:37, ESV). This was how the prophets preached, announcing judgement and ruin to the wicked and deliverance in the Messiah to those who repent.

A doubt: if someone despairs in the public congregation while the rest are hardened, what should be done? Answer: let the hardened hear the Law, limited to their persons and their vices, and let the troubled conscience hear the voice of the Gospel applied directly to it.

Chapter 8

The kinds of application

Application is either of the mind or of the life.

Application to the mind is either teaching or refutation. "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17, ESV). Teaching shapes the mind toward a right judgement about what we're to believe. Refutation turns the mind back from error.

When the preacher refutes an error publicly before the congregation, three cautions apply. First, he has to understand fully the point at issue and the state of the question. Second, he should refute only the errors that trouble the church he lives in, and leave alone any that are dead or merely external, unless real danger is coming from them. Jesus says, "Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod" (Mark 8:15, ESV), and the church at Pergamum was warned about those who "hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans" (Revelation 2:15, ESV). Third, if the error doesn't touch the foundation of faith, the refutation shouldn't only be Christian, as it always should be, but also friendly, gentle and brotherly in its disagreement.

Application to the life is instruction and correction.

Instruction applies the teaching to shape a person to live well in the family, in the commonwealth and in the church. Consolation and exhortation belong here (Romans 15:4).

Correction applies the teaching to reform life from ungodliness and unrighteous dealing, and admonition belongs here. It's done first in general terms, leaving out the circumstances of the people involved. Nathan brought David to see his sin through a general parable (2 Samuel 12). The town clerk at Ephesus quieted the crowd by pointing out that Paul and his companions were "neither sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess" (Acts 19:37, ESV). Afterward, if the first reproof doesn't work, it has to be pressed more specifically. "As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear" (1 Timothy 5:20, ESV). But in hating the sin, the love of the person should always show in what is said, and the minister should include himself in the rebuke where he can, to make it milder and gentler. Daniel said to the king, "My lord, may the dream be for those who hate you" (Daniel 4:19), and then applied the vision to him. Paul says, "We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners" (Galatians 2:15, ESV), and, "I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written" (1 Corinthians 4:6, ESV).

An example of all four

These four kinds of application offer themselves in every sentence of Scripture. Perkins sets down an example from Flacius Illyricus, from his book on how to understand the Scriptures. The text is Matthew 10:28-31.

"And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows." (Matthew 10:28-31, ESV)

Teaching. From this passage you can draw many doctrines, some about confessing the faith and some about God's providence. We need to confess openly the doctrine we know whenever there is need. We must confess it even at the risk of goods and life. Our life should be counted cheap compared with Christ and his truth. Everlasting punishment in soul and body is prepared for those who aren't afraid to deny Christ and his truth. God is watching and ready to guide us so that we may confess rightly. And God's providence is not only general but particular, busy with our smallest affairs, even the hairs of our head.

Refutation. Those are wrong who think it enough to embrace the faith in the heart and who treat it as a matter of choice what they admit before others, as place, time and company may suggest, especially when their life seems in danger. The Epicureans are wrong to deny God's providence because they think it beneath his majesty to care for human affairs. The Stoics are wrong to say that fate, an irresistible necessity, governs everything. Wrong too are those who credit chance and fortune, with no wise ordering by providence. The Pelagians are wrong in giving too much to human strength, as though it were in our power to embrace the faith at will, hold to it, and confess it to the end without fear. And wrong are those who lean more on outward things and uncertain riches than on God's power and goodness.

Instruction. You should work with all your strength to keep the true fear of God before your eyes, since this passage says the one God is to be feared above all people. You should learn such a contempt for human things that you always long to leave them behind and be with Christ in heaven. And the thought of God's particular providence should make you aware of God watching you, make you ask his help, and make you believe you're helped in everything, since there is no danger so terrible that he can't and won't deliver you from it when the time is right.

Correction. These words of Christ correct the carelessness of people who don't ask God in prayer for a sincere love that would make them ready to lay down their life for his name. They correct those who don't see God's providence showing itself in all things. They correct those who don't thank God for governing and defending us and all that is ours by his providence. And they correct those who misuse God's good creatures, when it's plain he cares for all of them.

So any passage of Scripture ought to be handled. Not all the doctrines in it should be set before the people, only those that fit our times and the church's present condition. They should be well chosen and also few, so the hearers aren't overloaded with their number.

Chapter 9

Memory in preaching

Because it's the accepted custom for preachers to speak by heart before the people, something has to be said about memory.

The art of memory, which depends on places and images, would very easily teach how to commit sermons to memory without effort, but Perkins doesn't approve of it. First, bringing the image to life, which is the key to the method, is ungodly. It calls for absurd, shocking and monstrous thoughts, especially thoughts that sharpen and inflame the most corrupt desires of the flesh. Second, it dulls the wit and the memory, because it demands a threefold memory in place of one: the memory of the places, of the images, and of the thing to be said.

It isn't bad advice, then, for the preacher to fix firmly in his mind, by means of a clear arrangement, the separate doctrines of the passage he'll handle, the proofs and applications of each, the illustrations of the applications, and the order of them all. In the meantime he needn't fret about the words, which, as Horace says, "will not unwillingly follow a matter that has been thought through beforehand."

Learning a written sermon word for word has many drawbacks. It takes great labour. A man who stumbles over one word out of fear both troubles the congregation and confuses his memory. And delivery, gesture and the holy movements of the affections are hindered, because the mind is wholly fixed on keeping the memory, already faint under its burden, from failing.

Chapter 10

Delivering the sermon

So far Perkins has spoken of preparing the sermon. Now comes the delivery. Two things are needed in it: hiding human wisdom, and showing the Spirit.

Hiding human wisdom

Human wisdom must be hidden, both in the matter of the sermon and in how the words are put. The preaching of the Word is God's testimony and the profession of the knowledge of Christ, not a display of human skill. And the hearers shouldn't credit their faith to men's gifts but to the power of God's Word. Paul says, "And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:1-2, ESV), "that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God" (1 Corinthians 2:5, ESV).

Someone may think this would bring barbarism into the pulpit. They should understand that the minister may, and must, use the arts, philosophy and wide reading in private while he's preparing his sermon. But in public he should hide all this from the people and make no display of it. It is also a point of art to hide art.

Showing the Spirit

The demonstration of the Spirit happens when the preacher behaves in the pulpit in such a way that everyone, even the ignorant and unbelievers, can judge that it isn't so much he who speaks as the Spirit of God in him and through him. "My speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power" (1 Corinthians 2:4, ESV). And if an unbeliever or outsider enters while everyone prophesies, "he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you" (1 Corinthians 14:24-25, ESV). Paul says, "I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power" (1 Corinthians 4:19-20, ESV). Micah says, "I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin" (Micah 3:8, ESV). That's what makes ministry living and powerful.

This demonstration is in speech and in gesture.

Speech

The speech must be spiritual and gracious.

Spiritual speech is what the Holy Spirit teaches. "And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual" (1 Corinthians 2:13, ESV). It is simple and clear, fitted to the people's understanding and to the majesty of the Spirit. Paul "on three Sabbath days… reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead" (Acts 17:2-3, ESV). He wrote, "O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified" (Galatians 3:1, ESV). And again, "We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God" (2 Corinthians 4:2, ESV).

So the sermon shouldn't be mixed with technical words, or Greek and Latin phrases and quibbles. They confuse the hearers' minds, so that they can't join what came before to what follows. A strange word blocks understanding of what's being said. And it draws the mind off the point to something else. Telling tales and every profane or ridiculous kind of talk must also be left out.

Gracious speech is speech in which the grace of the heart shows. "All spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth" (Luke 4:22, ESV). "No one ever spoke like this man!" (John 7:46, ESV).

Grace is of the person and of the ministry.

Grace of the person is holiness of heart and a blameless life. It doesn't make a minister, but it is very necessary, for five reasons.

1. The teaching of the Word is hard both to understand and to live, so the minister has to show in his own life what he teaches, as a pattern. "Not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock" (1 Peter 5:3, ESV). "Set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity" (1 Timothy 4:12, ESV). Paul says, "What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you" (Philippians 4:9, ESV).
2. A man who isn't godly, however well he understands the Scriptures, doesn't grasp the inward sense and experience of the Word in his heart. "Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way" (Psalm 25:8-9, ESV). "The Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets" (Amos 3:7, ESV). God said of Abraham, "I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD" (Genesis 18:19, ESV).
3. It is detestable in God's sight for godly speech to go with an ungodly life. "To the wicked God says: 'What right have you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips? For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you'" (Psalm 50:16-17, ESV). It's a strange sight to see the guide of the way wandering off it, or a physician of others himself covered in sores, as Gregory of Nazianzus says.
4. It's an unwritten rule of the church that the minister should cover his weaknesses so they aren't seen, because simple people look not at the ministry but at the person of the minister. Herod heard John the Baptist gladly, not because John was a good minister but because he was a good man (Mark 6:20). Gregory of Nazianzus says, "He who teaches sound doctrine and lives wickedly teaches with one hand what he tears down with the other." Chrysostom says, "The teacher in the church by teaching well and living well instructs the people how to live well, but by living badly he instructs God how to condemn him." And again, "It is easy to show wisdom in words. Teach me to live by your own life. That is the best teaching, for words don't make the impression on the soul that works do."
5. A wicked minister, openly or secretly, isn't fit to stand before the face of the holy and almighty God. "If you return, I will restore you, and you shall stand before me" (Jeremiah 15:19, ESV). The seraph touched Isaiah's lips with the coal and said, "your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for" (Isaiah 6:7, ESV), and only then did Isaiah answer, "Here am I! Send me." (Isaiah 6:8, ESV). God said, "Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified" (Leviticus 10:3, ESV). So God's judgements stand ready to make wicked ministers tremble, as with the sons of Eli (1 Samuel 2:17, 25).

Grace of the ministry has three parts.

1. Being able to teach. "An overseer must be above reproach… able to teach" (1 Timothy 3:2, ESV). Paul's meaning isn't merely that this gift is fitting and praiseworthy, but that it is so necessary it can't be missing. For this reason Gregory of Nazianzus refused a bishopric, and Theophylact says the duty of teaching is above all others the one needed in bishops. In the Councils of Nicaea and Meletius the penalty imposed was that a man should keep the name of a minister but not preach the Gospel.
2. Authority, by which he speaks as the ambassador of the great LORD. "Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you" (Titus 2:15, ESV). "Whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God" (1 Peter 4:11, ESV).
3. Zeal, by which, longing for God's glory, he works to carry out God's decree of election for people's salvation through his ministry. "I am full of words; the spirit within me constrains me. Behold, my belly is like wine that has no vent; like new wineskins ready to burst" (Job 32:18-19, ESV). "Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ" (Colossians 1:28, ESV).

Delivery

Delivery is in the voice and in the body.

The voice should be loud enough for everyone to hear. "Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet" (Isaiah 58:1, ESV). On the last day of the feast Jesus "stood up and cried out" (John 7:37, ESV), and Peter "lifted up his voice and addressed them" (Acts 2:14, ESV). In teaching the preacher should be more restrained, and in exhortation more fervent and forceful.

The body should carry a dignity that suits God's messenger. The trunk should be upright and still, and the other parts, the arm, the hand, the face and the eyes, should move in ways that express the godly feelings of the heart. Lifting the eyes and hands shows confidence. Solomon "knelt on his knees in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven" (2 Chronicles 6:13, ESV), and Stephen, "full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God" (Acts 7:55, ESV). Lowering the eyes shows sorrow and heaviness. The tax collector, "standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!'" (Luke 18:13, ESV).

On gesture no other rules can be given. Let the example of the most serious ministers stand in place of a rule.

Chapter 11

Framing prayers

So far Perkins has spoken of preaching the Word. Now he turns to the second part of prophesying, framing prayers, in which the minister is the voice of the people calling on God. "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples" (Luke 11:1, ESV).

Four things need to be considered.

1. The matter of prayer. It's first the people's needs and sins, and then the graces of God and the blessings they need. "First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions" (1 Timothy 2:1-2, ESV). Tertullian says, "We all pray for all emperors, that they may have long life, a quiet reign, a safe household, brave armies, a faithful council, loyal subjects, a peaceful world, and whatever a man or a Caesar could wish." The Lord's Prayer gathers the matter of prayer into six heads: God's glory, his kingdom, obedience, the keeping of life, the forgiveness of sins, and the strengthening of the spirit.

2. The form of prayer.

- Let there be one voice, the minister's alone, with the people silent in the meantime and showing their agreement at the end by saying "Amen". "They lifted their voices together to God" (Acts 4:24, ESV). "Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people answered, 'Amen, Amen'" (Nehemiah 8:6, ESV). "How can anyone in the position of an outsider say 'Amen' to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying?" (1 Corinthians 14:16, ESV). Justin Martyr says that when the president has finished his prayers and thanksgivings, all the people present call out their approval and say "Amen". Athanasius, Eusebius and Jerome say the same.
- Let the voice be understood. "I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also" (1 Corinthians 14:15, ESV).
- Let the prayer be continuous, not broken and abrupt, so that idle repetition is avoided. "When you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do" (Matthew 6:7, ESV). (Editor's note: Tuke's text has a Greek word here that was lost in the copy.)

3. The parts of prayer are three: consideration, ordering and uttering.

- Consideration is carefully searching out suitable matter for framing prayers.
- Ordering is arranging that matter in the mind, once found, in a fixed order.
- Uttering is delivering it in order in public, to build up the people.

Summary

(Editor's note: this summary is not in Tuke's 1607 text. It is supplied from Perkins's Latin by way of a modern English translation, and is put here in fresh words, in the sense of the original.)

Preaching has four parts.

1. Read the text plainly from the canonical Scriptures.
2. Once it's read, explain its meaning from the Scriptures themselves.
3. Gather a few useful points of doctrine from the natural sense of the passage.
4. If you're gifted for it, apply those points to the life and conduct of the congregation, in plain and straightforward speech.

And the whole matter comes down to this:

Preach one Christ, by Christ, to the praise of Christ.

To the triune God be glory. (Editor's note: the closing line in the source reads "Trin-vni Deo Gloria", a damaged form of the Latin for this phrase.)