Chapter 13 - Preaching

Summary

This chapter outlines the Laudian view of preaching and its role in the life of the church. Preaching was placed in a secondary role relative to prayer, prayer being the end to which preaching was the enabling means. In a settled church, such as the church of England, the role of preaching was limited to providing the relatively few doctrines necessary to salvation. Not that sermons were necessarily the best means to discharge that task. Consequently, the Laudians redefined preaching to include the reading of homilies, the reading of scripture and catechesis. In this way a justification was provided for unpreaching ministers. The other role for preaching was to provide top-up lessons and exhortations in which the reigning sins and errors of the times were denounced; hence the prevalence of printed Laudian sermons denouncing puritanism. The puritan cult of the sermon and addiction to extempore sermons was also called out.