Quest. CLIV. Must all our preaching be upon a text of Scripture?

Answ. 1. In many cases it may be lawful to preach without a text; to make sacred orations like Gregory Nazianzen’s, and homilies like Macarius’s, Ephrem Syrus’s, and many other ancients, and like our own church homilies.

2. But ordinarily it is the fittest way to preach upon a text of Scripture. 1. Because it is our very office to teach the people the Scripture. The prophets brought a new word or message from God; but the priests did but keep, interpret, and preach the law already received: and we are not successors of the inspired prophets, but as the priests were, teachers of God’s received word. And this practice will help the people to understand our office. 2. And it will preserve the due esteem and reverence of the holy Scriptures, which the contrary practice may diminish.

Acts ii.; iii.; Luke iv. 18.

Mal. ii. 7.