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Perkins categories of hearer

 —  James Oakley

I’m always trying to find these. So to save me hunting, I’ll put them somewhere.

(William Perkins, chapter 7 of The Art of Prophesying, entitled “Use and Application”)

What do I notice when I read what Perkins is actually saying (as opposed to what people imagine him to be saying)? He’s saying:

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Election and the covenant / Creature and creator

 —  James Oakley

Extremely helpful quotation.

(OK, I can't resist writing this: James reads David who quotes Barb listening to Lusk quoting Leithart)

http://davidpfield.blogspot.com/2006/09/baptism-and-covenant.html

In particular, I've never before seen the conceptual link between the covenant community / elect distinction and the creature / creator distinction. Thanks David for fishing these things out for us.

The call to the ministry

 —  James Oakley

The debate has often gone on: Should someone experience a personal call from God to pastoral ministry before they start out? Some say yes (DMLJ), others have said that there is no evidence for this in Scripture, and the wisdom of the church is what counts.

Does it help to consider the parallel debate about assurance (or, more properly, reflex faith). Can I know that I have faith or not? The Roman Catholic church teaches that this cannot be known. Scripture, by contrast, tells us to be motivated in certain ways by our reflex faith. This presupposes that it is possible to have this kind of assurance.

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