This year we’re reading selections from the discussions and the spiritual insights of the evangelical ministers who regularly met in London as “The Eclectic Society.” I hope you will find the time to read further around the section, so I have found the original volume for you in Google Books/Google Play. You can find the text by clicking this link.
John Bacon, one of the layman members, poses the following question to the meeting of January 21, 1799: What circumstances have determined the popularity and unpopularity of different preachers, and what instruction may be derived from the consideration of the subject? With the death of George Whitefield only 29 years previously, Bacon was convinced that popularity was useful in a preacher.
Thomas Scott disagreed. He insisted that the faithful declaration of the whole council of God in the preaching will inevitably render a man unpopular. If a faithful man is popular, it will be only due to unique circumstances within the providence of God and are therefore not transferable to another.
John Newton suggested that the issue was not one of popularity, but of simplicity in teaching. A preacher may become popular or loved by his congregation for a deep experiential acquaintance with religion and an earnest love for souls. A worldly popularity is more of the ignorance and foolishness of their hearers. “There can be no popularity without simplicity,” Newton said. He continued by saying that rather than seek popularity among men, ask instead how well-pleased is our heavenly Father and Christ our Head? A mind dedicated to the school of the Cross joined with a deep feeling and sympathy with the souls of his congregation so as to preach to them, is pleasing to God. He concluded by saying that popularity is nothing if a minister is not faithful.
What then is the path of reformation for Christ’s Church? It was the Dutch nadere reformatie (Further Reformation) that coined the phrase, Ecclesia Reformata, Semper Reformanda Secundum Verbum Dei, “The church is reformed and always [in need of] being reformed according to the Word of God.” The phrase was first used in 1674 by Jodocus van Lodenstein. According to the theologians of the nadere reformatie, the Reformation reformed the doctrine of the church, but the lives and practices of God’s people always need further reformation. Lodenstein and other nadere reformatie theologians were committed to the teaching of the Reformed confessions and catechisms. They did not believe that they were in error, they simply wanted to see that teaching become more thoroughly applied as well as understood. It is also true that that the nadere reformatie theologians saw that further reformation was needed that was not touched or barely touched in the first Reformation.
Notice how the verb is passive: the church is not “always reforming,” but is “always being reformed” by the Spirit of God through the Word. It is done corporately through God’s established means of grace, the preaching of his word and the administration of his sacraments. It is not done individually. We are to reform everything to the Word of God. Not by novelty, creativity or by any human whim.
