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Archive for the ‘Church of Scotland’ Category

Robert Bruce on the spiritual relation to Christ

Posted in Church of Scotland, Ordinary Means Ministry, Redemption Applied, Sacraments, Union with Christ on February 17, 2025| Leave a Comment »

That same Holy Spirit that is in Him, is in every one of us in some measure: and in respect one Spirit is in Him and in us, therefore we are accounted all to be members of one spiritual and mystical body. And in the same verse the Apostle says, “We are all made to drink into one and the self-same Spirit” that is we are made to drink of the blood of Christ. And this blood is no other thing than the quickening virtue and power that flow from Christ, and from the merits of His death: we are made all to drink of that blood, when we partake of the lively power and virtue that flow out of that blood. So there is not a bond that can couple my soul with the flesh of Christ, but only a spiritual bond and a spiritual union. And therefore it is that the Apostle (1 Cor. vi. 17 ) says, “He that is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit.” And John says (ch. iii. 6), “That which is born of the Spirit, is spirit.” So it is only by the participation of the Holy Spirit that we are conjoined with the flesh and blood of Christ Jesus. That carnal bond, whether it be the bond of blood running through one race, or the carnal touching of flesh with flesh, that carnal bond was never esteemed by Christ. In the time that He was conversant here upon earth, He respected it nothing for as He witnessed himself by His own words, He never had it in any kind of reverence or estimation in comparison with the spiritual bond. But as for the spiritual tie whereby we are coupled with Him, He ever esteemed it in the time that He was conversant on earth, and in his Book, He has left the praise and commendation of the same.

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Presbyterianism & political dissent

Posted in Church of Scotland, Covenanters, Establishments, Political Dissent, Political Theory & Theology, Secularization on February 17, 2025| Leave a Comment »

The following is a six-part series of articles by my father-in-law, Brian Myers, who is a long-standing elder in our Des Moines, Iowa congregation of the Presbyterian Reformed Church on the subject of the Scottish Covenanters, the Reformed Presbyterians, and political dissent. It really is an extremely helpful overview of the subject from the perspective of confessional Presbyterians today who accept the basic legitimacy of the Revolution Church of 1690, who oppose separation and schism, and who allow a legitimate place for voting in the modern democratic political order without the compromise of original Presbyterian principles. Well worth your time.

1. Political Dissent Part One: A Practice Searches For A Doctrine

2. Political Dissent Part Two: The Doctrine Articulated

3. Political Dissent Part Three: A Shift To A New Cause

4. Political Dissent Part Four: Change And Division

5. Political Dissent Part Five: The U.S. Constitution

6. Political Dissent Part Six: Conclusion

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John Brown of Haddington’s ecclesiology

Posted in Audio Resources, Catholicity, Church of Scotland, Church Order & Discipline, Separatism & Schism, Terms of Communion, The Secession Church on February 11, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Just recorded three of John Brown’s Letters on the Constitution, Government, and Discipline of the Christian Church: No. 4, “Of the Qualifications of Church Members,” No. 18, “Of Scandals and Discipline,” and No. 19, “Of Church Fellowship and Separation.” Very solid and worth your time. Visit the entire WPE Audio library at the tab up top.

Below I’ve included a few striking passages, followed by the entire PDF. A few observations. First, I note that his letters definitely reflect his Secession outlook vis-a-vis certain corruptions of the Church of Scotland at the time. Second, baptized children may revoke their church standing by falling into heathenish “principles or practices.” Next, it would seem that Brown agrees with me (or better, I with him) that a working knowledge of the Shorter Catechism is more or less the cognitive requisite for an intelligent profession of faith. And while he counts as useful and warranted to utilize confessions and catechisms as a means to ascertaining an intelligent profession of faith, he has great misgivings against overloading the minds and consciences of applicants by the misuse of obliging them to public covenanting. He has said what I have long thought: to require taking vows to historically involved and obscure documents easily calls for implicit faith.

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Boston, “The Evil and Danger of Schism”

Posted in Audio Resources, Catholicity, Church of Scotland, Separatism & Schism, Thomas Boston on February 4, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Thomas Boston preached this sermon in 1708, which I’ve just recorded here. He addressed very tangible forms of division in his day, but its relevance is timeless. Visit the entire WPE Audio library at the tab up above.

Boston, Sin of SchismDownload

Whole doctrine catholicity | “Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners” (Song 6:10)?

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Church establishments & the economy of God

Posted in Church of Scotland, Establishments, Parish Theory & Practice, Thomas Chalmers on February 4, 2025| Leave a Comment »


Religious establishments are built upon the divine economy, both of nature and of grace: “They are the overflowings of the Nile which have given rise to the irrigations of an artificial husbandry in Egypt, for the distribution of its waters. And there is positively nothing in the doctrine of a sanctifying or fertilizing grace from heaven above, which should discharge us—but the contrary—from what may be termed the irrigations of a spiritual husbandry in the world beneath. It is not enough that there be a descent; there must be a distribution also, or ducts of conveyance, which, by places of worship and through parishes, might carry the blessings of this divine nourishment to all the houses and families of a land” (Thomas Chalmers, Works 17:190-91).

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“For Love of Jewish Neighbor”

Posted in Audio Resources, Church of Scotland, Israel; Calling of & Mission to the Jews, Missiology, Thomas Chalmers on January 27, 2025| Leave a Comment »

A really solid and balanced article by Zach Groff. Sadly necessary these days in some conservative Reformed circles.

Also, Groff mentions a sermon by Robert Murray M’Cheyne, “Our Duty to Israel.” I recorded that in audio not long ago: you can access that here. He also mentions M’Cheyne’s mentor, Thomas Chalmers. Here is a lecture of his on Romans 11, on Paul’s prophecy of the Jews’ future repentance and embrace of their rejected Messiah. And check out the entire WPE Audio library by clicking the tab at the top.

For Love of Jewish Neighbor

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Lachlan Mackenzie of Locharron (1754-1819)

Posted in Audio Resources, Church of Scotland, Highlands & Islands on January 20, 2025| Leave a Comment »

This was a really helpful biographical sketch of the great Presbyterian preacher of the Scottish Highlands, Lachlan Mackenzie (1754-1819). Below that are a collection of his sermons. Listen to some of his material I’ve recorded in audio here. And visit my entire audio library here.

Lachlan-Mackenzie-of-LochcarronDownload
Mackenzie-Lachlan, SermonsDownload

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John Maclaurin (1693-1754)

Posted in Audio Resources, Church of Scotland, Gospel Proclamation, The Gospel on January 14, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Before reading of him in Principal John Macleod’s Scottish Theology in Relation to Church History, I had never heard of John Maclaurin. A contemporary of Jonathan Edwards and Thomas Boston, he stood within the old Evangelical wing of the Church of Scotland during the long, wintry reign of Moderatism. Impressed with the high praise for his sermon “Glorifying in the Cross of Christ,” I recorded it here. Here is a rich sample from Maclaurin as he waxes eloquent on the “fabric of nature” visibly responding to the horror of the death of the Prince of life:

“The frame of nature solemnized the death of its Author; heaven and earth were mourners; the sun was clad in black; and if the inhabitants of the earth were unmoved, the earth itself trembled under the awful load. There were few to pay the Jewish compliment of rending their garments; but the rocks were not so insensible, they rent their bowels. He had not a grave of his own; but other men’s graves opened to him. Death and the grave might be proud of such a tenant in their territories; but he came not there as a subject, but as an invader, a conqueror. It was then the king of terrors lost his sting; and on the third day the Prince of life triumphed over him, spoiling death and the grave. But this last particular belongs to Christ’s exaltation: the other instances show a part of the glory of his humiliation, but it is a small part of it.”

You can read more about Maclaurin in the PDF below, taken from Macleod’s work and the DSCH&T. And be sure to check out other audio titles from the Old Church of Scotland and the entire West Port Audio library.

MaclaurinDownload

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Home missions: a thorough pervading

Posted in Church of Scotland, Free Church of Scotland, Missiology, Parish Theory & Practice, Thomas Chalmers on January 8, 2025| Leave a Comment »

“For the accomplishment of this, there must not only be a going forth on the vast and untrodden spaces that are without; there must be a filling up of the numerous and peopled vacancies that are within—a busy, internal locomotion, that might circulate, and disperse, and branch off to the right and to the left, among the many thousand families which are at hand: and thoroughly to pervade these families; to make good a lodgment in the midst of them, for the nearer or the more frequent ministrations of Christianity than before; to have gained welcome for the Gospel testimony into their houses, and, in return, to have drawn any of them forth to attendance on the place of Sabbath and of solemn services—this, also, is to act upon our text, this is to do the part, and to render one of the best achievements of a missionary.”

-Thomas Chalmers, Works, 6:270.

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Boston’s “Consent to the Covenant”

Posted in Church of Scotland, Church Order & Discipline, Covenant Theology, Terms of Communion, The Visible Church, Thomas Boston, tagged , , , , on December 9, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Came upon this choice piece from Boston’s Memoirs. A series of questions put to a prospective communicant. The first question I find rather insightful—I’ve long tended to think that a working understanding of the Shorter Catechism is basically the cognitive side of Presbyterian terms of communion. Without reaching that bar, the session ought to delay that applicant and give further instruction (L. Cat. 173). Also, there is explicit submission to church discipline.

I am aware that Boston arguably had some “independent” aspects to his presbyterianism, and perhaps this reflects too much a likeness to the old Congregational “church covenants?” But whatever the case, I find this explicit consent and covenanting commendable:

“And if the Session be satisfied in this also, the party is to be put explicitly to consent to the Covenant (whereof he desires the seal), to be the Lord’s, live under Him, and serve Him all the days of his life, by answering expressly the following (or the like) questions: 1. Do you believe the doctrine of the Shorter Catechism of this Church, so far as you understand the same, to be the true doctrine agreeable to the Holy Scriptures, and resolve through grace to live and die in the profession of the same? 2. Do you consent to take God in Christ to be your God, the Father to be your Father, the Son to be your Saviour, and the Holy Ghost to be your Sanctifier; and that, renouncing the devil, the world and the flesh, you be the Lord’s for ever? 3. Do you consent to receive Christ, as He is offered in the gospel, for your Prophet, Priest and King; giving up yourself to Him, to be led and guided by His Word and Spirit; looking for salvation only through the obedience and death of Jesus Christ, who was crucified without the gates of Jerusalem; promising in His strength to endeavour to lead a holy life, to forsake every known sin, and to comply with every known duty? 4. Lastly, do you promise to subject yourself to exhortation, admonition, and rebuke, and the discipline of the Church, in case (which God forbid !) you fall into any scandalous sin?”


Memoirs, Appendix 3, § 10, p. 488.




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