It is well-known that Puritans were lovers of the Word of God. They were not content with the bare affirmation of the infallibility, inerrancy, and authority of Scripture. They read, searched, sang, and heard the Word with delight, al­ways seeking for and relishing the applying power of the Holy Spirit accompanying the Word. They re­garded the sixty-six books of Holy Scripture as the library of the Holy Spirit graciously given to them. For the Puritan, Scripture is God speak­ing to us as a father speaks to his children. In Scripture God gives us His Word as both a word of truth and a word of power. As a word of truth, we can trust in and rest our all upon Scripture for time and eternity. As a word of power, we can look to Scripture as the source of transformation used by the Spirit of God to renew our minds.

Also today, we must complement the defense of the doctrine of Bib­lical inerrancy with a positive dem­onstration of the transforming power of God's Word. That power must be manifested in our lives, our homes, our churches, and our com­munities. We need to show without pretense that though other books may inform or even reform us, only one Book can and does transform us, making us conformable to the image of Christ. Only as "living epistles of Christ" (2 Cor. 3:3) can we hope to win "the battle for the Bible" in our day. If half the strength spent in at­tacking or defending the Bible would be devoted to knowing and living the Scriptures, how many more would fall sway under their trans­forming power?

No movement in church history can teach us more than Puritanism about cultivating the transforming power of the Word. Puritan preach­ers excelled in expounding how the Word must be used as a means of personal transformation. Their focus centered upon practical directions on how to read the Scriptures and how to hear the Word of God preached (for "Hearing the Word in a Puritan Way" see next month's editorial, DV).

Richard Greenham on Reading Gods Word⤒🔗

Scripture teaches us that the Word of God must not only be read pub­licly in worship (Acts 15:21; 1 Tim. 4:13), but also serves as a blessing when personally read, heard, and obeyed, "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein" (Rev. 1:3).

But how must we read? Many Pu­ritan authors have provided us with ample direction.¹One of the most helpful early Puritan works on how to read the Scriptures was penned by Richard Greenham (c. 1535-1594) under the title, A Profitable Treatise, Containing a Direction for the reading and understanding of the holy Scriptures.²After establishing that the preaching and reading of God's Word are insepa­rably joined together by God in the work of the believer's salvation, Green-ham focuses on our duty regularly and privately to read the Scriptures, glean­ing support from Deuteronomy 6:6, 11:18; Nehemiah 8:8; Psalm 1:2; Acts 15:21; 2 Peter 1:19.

Waxing more practical, Greenham asserts that men sin not only when they neglect to read the Scriptures, but also "... in reading amisse: there­fore the properties of reuerent and faithfull reading are to bee set downe, which are these that follow":

1. Diligence            5. Conference
2. Wisedome          6. Faith
3. Preparation        7. Practise
4. Meditation          8. Prayer³              

Numbers one through three ought to precede reading; numbers four through seven ought to follow read­ing; number eight must precede, ac­company, and follow reading. Here is the gist of Greenham's advice.

1. Diligence must be pursued in reading the Scriptures more than in doing anything secular. We ought to read our Bibles with more dili­gence than men dig for hidden treasure. Diligence makes rough places plain; makes the difficult, easy; makes the unsavory, tasty.
2. Wisdom must be used in the choice of matter, order, and time. In terms of matter, the believer must not try to move from the re­vealed to that which is not revealed, nor spend the bulk of his time on the most difficult portions of Scrip­ture. If the minister must accommodate his preaching of the Word to the level of his hearers, "then much more the hearers themselues must apply their owne reading to their owne capacities."⁴
   In terms of order, the wise reader of Scripture will aim to be firmly grounded in all the "principall points of doctrine." Moreover, Scripture-reading must follow some semblance of order rather than skipping around. Only a whole Bible will make a whole Christian.Time must also be utilized wisely. The whole of the Sabbath should be devoted to such exercises as the read­ing of Scriptures, but as for other days, a portion of Scripture in the morning, at noon, and in the evening is a wise balance (Eccl. 3:11). In any event, no day should pass with­out some reading of the Scriptures.
3. Proper preparation is critical. Without it, Scripture reading is sel­dom blessed. Such preparation is threefold: First, we must approach Scripture with a reverential fear of God and His majesty. We must approach the Word "swift to hear, slow to speak" (James 1:19), determined like Mary to lay up God's Word in our hearts. Reverential fear is almost always blessed, either by having our under­standing enlightened, or by some other good affections put into us.

Second, we must approach Scripture with faith in Christ, look­ing on Him as the Messiah, who "is the lion of the tribe of Iuda, to whom it is giuen to open the booke of God." If we come to Scripture with reverence for God and faith in Christ, will Christ Himself not open our hearts as He did the hearts of the disciples traveling to Emmaus?

Third, we must approach Scrip­ture sincerely desirous to learn of God (Prov. 17:16). Those who bore fruit from thirty to a hundred fold, were precisely those who received the word "with a good and honest heart" (Lk. 8). We often do not profit from Bible-reading because we come "without a heart" for divine teaching.4. Meditation after reading Scrip­ture is as critical as preparation be­fore reading Scripture. One can read diligently, but the reading will bear no fruit if meditation does not fol­low. Reading may give some breadth, but only meditation and study will give depth. The difference between reading and meditation is like the difference between drifting and row­ing toward a destination in a boat. "Meditation without reading is er-ronious, and reading without medi­tation is barren.... Meditation makes that which wee haue read to bee our owne. He is blessed which meditates in the law day and night (Ps. 1)."⁵   

4. Meditation involves our mind and understanding, as well as our heart and affections. To reach a sound and settled judgment on various truths, the mind must be brought to meditative understanding. Meditation, however, also "digests" this settled judgment, and makes it work upon our affections. If our affections do not become involved, our sound meditative understanding will whittle away. The Scriptures must be transfused through the entire tex­ture of the soul.

5. By conference Greenham means godly converse with ministers or other believers. "As iron sharpeneth iron: so one friend another" (Prov. 2:7). The godly must share together what they are gleaning from the Scriptures, not in a proud manner speaking beyond what they know, but with humility, trusting that where two or three are gathered together for spiritual con­versation, God will be among them. Such fellowship should not be carried on in "too great a multitude," nor with a shut-door policy to others.⁶
6. Our Scripture reading must be mixed with faith. Faith is the key to profitable reception of the Word (Heb. 4:2); without faith it is impos­sible to please God (Heb. 11:6). To read without faith is to read in vain. Actually, all eight of these guidelines for reading Scripture should be fol­lowed in the exercise of true faith.
   Moreover, through reading the Word by faith, our faith will also be refined. Our Scripture reading ought often to try our faith, not only in the generalities of our lives, but also in our particulars — especially in our afflictions. As gold is tried in the fire, so faith will abide the fire of affliction.
7. The fruit of faith must be prac­tice. And practice will "bring foorth increase of faith and repentance."⁷ Practice is the best way to learn; and the more we put the Word into practice in the daily obedience of faith, the more God will increase our gifts for His serv­ice and for additional practice. When the Spirit sheds light upon our con­science that we are "doing" the read Word, we also receive the great benefit of being assured that we possess faith.
8. Prayer is indispensable through­out our reading of Scripture — preced­ing, accompanying, and following. In public reading of Scripture, it is not possible to pause and pray after each verse. In private reading, we would do well to salt Scripture constantly with short, pungent, applicable petitions suggested by the particular verses being considered.

If we pray for nourishment from our physical food for every meal, how much more ought we not pray for spiritual nourishment for every Bible-reading? If we do not dare touch our food and drink before we pray, how do we dare touch God's holy Book — our spiritual food and drink ­without prayer?

Prayer also necessarily involves thanksgiving: "If we be bound to praise God when he bath fed our bodies, how much more when hee bath fed our soules?⁸ Let us not be fervent in asking and then cold in giving thanks. Rather, let us pray to read with godly fear and humble thanksgiving, remembering that the believer who is perfunctory in Bible reading will be perfunctory in Christian living.

If the Bible is to get into us, we must get into it in a genuine and saving way. To neglect the Word is to neglect the Lord, but those who read Scripture by the Spirit's grace as a letter sent to them from God, shall experience its warming and transforming power.