(Vol. iv., p. 344.)
In the early church the sermon was delivered immediately after the
reading of the Scriptures (_Const. Apost._ lib. viii. c. 5.), and
sometimes preached without any text; at other times, upon more texts
than one; but most commonly the text was taken out of some paragraph of
the Psalms or Lessons, as they were read. Origen expressly calls
Sermons, _explanations of the Lessons_ (Orig. _cont. Cels._, lib. iii.).
The Fathers sometimes so ordered the matter, as to preach upon the
Psalm, the Epistle, and the Gospel all together, when they happened to
be on the same subject. Thus St. Augustine (_Serm._ x. t. x. p. 112.)
preached upon the subject of praise and thanksgiving, out of the
Epistle, the Psalm, and the Gospel together, because they each had
something relating to his subject. (_Bingham_, book xiv. ch. iv. [Section] 17.)
This may have given rise to the present plan of textual preaching.
During the middle ages we frequently meet with the terms _postilla_,
_postillae_, _postillare_, and the like (from _post illa verba Scripturae
sacrae_), denoting sometimes merely expositions of Scripture, and
sometimes popular discourses founded upon a passage just before read.
In England, about the year 957, Elfric, afterwards Archbishop of
Canterbury, required the priest in each parish to explain the Gospel of
the day, the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer, on Sundays and holydays.
(Canon XXIII. AElfrica, Wilkins, _Concil._ tom. i. p. 253.) The same
person afterwards compiled Homilies in the Anglo-Saxon language, which
for some time continued to be read in the English Church. (Cave,
_Historia Literaria_, tom. ii.)
During the reign of King John, A.D. 1204, the custom of preaching from a
text appears to have originated with Stephen Langton, Archbishop of
Canterbury, and adopted by some of the divines of the University of
Oxford. The practice, however, met with some opposition by the sages and
seniors of that seat of learning, as related by the author [Sir John
Peshall] of _The History of the University of Oxford, from the Death of
William the Conqueror to the Demise of Queen Elizabeth_, 4to. 1773, p.
7.:--
"The ancient practice of explaining considerable portions of
Scripture first showed itself openly in this University. This was
to name a thesis or text from the Scripture, and make divisions
upon it; which method is said to have been adopted by Stephen
Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, who therefore divided the
Scriptures into chapters. The people at their religious assemblies
much approved of this way, in preference to the raw discourses of
young and ignorant preachers. Yet others, rejecting new customs
and innovations, chose to follow their old way, which was that of
the Saints Austin, Jerome, Barnard, &c.; and Robert Grostest, D.D.
(whose word was a law with the university), was among the
opposers. This was _postillando_, i.e. by expounding the words of
Scripture as they stood in order, by inferences drawn from them.
They took no text, but began in this manner: 'I intend, by the
grace of God, in my following discourse, to treat of certain
matters; and in these matters I intend to draw certain and true
conclusions, for I intend now to speak of the fear of God. First,
concerning fear,' &c. And so far down as the fifteenth century
this kind of preaching continued: for so Vascanius, doctor and
chancellor of the university, relates of himself: 'Anno 1450, in
the octaves of St. John the Evangelist, on the Lord's Day, I
showed in my sermon, preached at Oxford, in St. Martin's Church at
Carfax, that Dr. Augustine preached four hundred sermons to the
clergy and people without any thesis, and without taking a text at
the beginning of his discourse. And so I (says he) preached the
day and year above mentioned, in Oxford, by taking no theme or
text; but I administered to the people profitable matters, without
repeating of any text, but only words pertinent to matters
proposed or declared.'"
The ancient practice of explaining considerable portions of Scripture to
the people was revived by our reformers. Before them Colet had employed
many years in publicly expounding all the Epistles of St. Paul.
Archbishop Cranmer expounded Hebrews; as Bishops Hooper, Latimer, and
Jewel, did Jonah, the Lord's Prayer, many of the Epistles, and all the
Epistles and Gospels on Sundays and holydays.
"From the practice of Ambrose, Origen, Chrysostom, and Austin,
among the ancients, and of our reformers, and more modern divines,
we may safely affirm (says Mr. Shepherd in his _Elucidation of the
Morning and Evening Prayer_) that explaining and applying portions
of Scripture read in the Lessons, is a very beneficial mode of
preaching to ordinary congregations."