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Archive for November, 2018

“Being crafty, I caught you with guile”

Posted in Church of Scotland, Gospel Tactics, Missiology, Moral Suasion, Parish Theory & Practice, Parochial Strategy, Vignettes from the Old Parish Way on November 27, 2018| Leave a Comment »

“Some Highland Evangelicals (in the 18th century) resorted to coercive tactics to compel people to hear their message. A mild example was Walter Ross’ confiscation of the cooking utensils in a fishing village that repeatedly emptied of its suspicious inhabitants when he approached. He returned the pots and pans after entertaining the villagers at a meal two days later. At that time they promised to receive his visits and to attend church.”

-Stephen A. Woodruff, The Pastoral Ministry in the Church of Scotland, p. 242

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Pastoral visitation in the old Church of Scotland

Posted in Church of Scotland, Church Order & Discipline, Experimental Religion & the Cure of Souls, Family Religion, Parochial Strategy, Pastoral Theology, Practice of Piety, Vignettes from the Old Parish Way, Visitation Evangelism on November 21, 2018| 1 Comment »

X. Sess. 13 et ult., April 27, 1708.—Act and Recommendation concerning Ministerial Visitation of Families.

“. . . Seeing, for the faithful discharge of ministers’ work, they ought, besides what is incumbent to them in the public congregation, to take special care and inspection of the particular persons and families under their oversight and charge, in order to which, it hath been the laudable custom of this Church, at least once a year, if the largeness of the parish, bodily inability in the minister, or other such like causes, do not hinder, for ministers to visit all the families in their parish, and oftener, if the parish be small, and they be able to set about it.

“For the more uniform and successful management of which work, although in regard of the different circumstances of some parishes, families, and persons, much of this work, and the management thereof, must be left to the discretion and prudence of ministers in their respective oversights, yet these following advices are offered and overtured as helps in the management thereof, that it may not be done in a slight and overly manner.

(more…)

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Be filled with the fulness of God

Posted in Experimental Religion & the Cure of Souls, Practice of Piety, Puritans & Puritanism on November 17, 2018| Leave a Comment »

A choice morsel from Puritan Thomas Brooks from his classic, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices (1652). Here he gives a remedy to Satan’s attempt to distract the Christian with vain thoughts while he is seeking the face of God.

“Rem. 5. Labour more and more to be filled with the fulness of God, and to be enriched with all spiritual and heavenly things. What is the reason that the angels in heaven have not so much as an idle thought? It is because they are filled with the fulness of God. Take it for an experienced truth—the more the soul is filled with the fulness of God and enriched with spiritual and heavenly things, the less room there is in that soul for vain thoughts. The fuller the vessel is of wine, the less room there is for water. O then lay up much of God, of Christ, of precious promises and choice experiences in your hearts, and then you will be less troubled with vain thoughts. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart, bringeth forth good things, Matt. xii. 35.”

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Luther on schisms, godly princes, and councils

Posted in Establishments, Patronage on November 7, 2018| Leave a Comment »

How many different masters will the next century follow? The confusion will reach new heights. None of them will be willing to be governed by the opinion or authority of the others. Each will want to set up as his own rabbi: look at how Osiander and Agricola are already behaving. . . And what terrible scandals there will be! What excesses! The best course would be for the princes to avert such evils by means of a council. But the Papists would avoid this: they are so afraid of the light!

– Martin Luther, 1538

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Disorganized religion, the last frontier

Posted in Secularization, The Church in America, The Visible Church, Theology of Community on November 5, 2018| Leave a Comment »

A revealing (and heartbreaking!) article on the secularizing migration of America into the frontiers of heathenism. “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof” (Psa. 137:1-2).

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