Who Said It?

The doctoral seminars are flying by after one week. Today we enjoyed presentations from each other on various expositors through church history. We heard about Hus, Lloyd-Jones, Boice, Criswell, Spurgeon, M’Cheyne, and Calvin. For me the highlight was fellow classmate, John Glass’s presentation on John Calvin. John Glass is a one of a kind. He is the only pastor who can say all of the following: 1) he believes in and practices expository preaching, 2) preaches in both French and English, 3) is an expert on Calvin, and 4) is the only expositor pastoring in Geneva, Switzerland today. Since we’re on the subject of Calvin, who said the following about the Reformer?

“Next to the study of the Scriptures which I earnestly inculcate, I exhort my pupils to peruse Calvin’s Commentaries, which I extol in loftier terms than Helmich himself (a Dutch divine, 1551–1608); for I affirm that he excels beyond comparison in the interpretation of Scripture, and that his commentaries ought to be more highly valued than all that is handed down to us by the library of the fathers; so that I acknowledge him to have possessed above most others, or rather above all other men, what may be called an eminent spirit of prophecy. His Institutes ought to be studied after the (Heidelberg) Catechism, as containing a fuller explanation, but with discrimination, like the writings of all men.”