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Archive for the ‘Church of Scotland’ Category

Pointers on preparation

Posted in Articles, Audio Resources, Christian Life & Experience, Church of Scotland, Experimental Religion & the Cure of Souls, Free Church of Scotland, Practice of Piety, Sacraments, The Lord's Supper, WPE Editor on June 5, 2025| 1 Comment »

“Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation [judgment] to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body” (1 Cor. 11:27-28).

How should you prepare for the Lord’s Supper? A few thoughts for those who have come to appreciate the theology, practice, and piety of confessional Presbyterianism around the celebration Communion.

First, dedicate time ahead of time. You cannot put things off until Saturday night. Nor can you just let attendance at a midweek preparatory service ‘check the box.’ You need to begin to schedule in some meaningful time, in addition to your regular personal and family seasons of worship, to be one on one with God. Adjust your week’s schedule early, especially if you have more responsibilities surrounding the weekend, such as food preparation, etc. And husbands, be especially mindful of your wives. Help plan ahead and streamline things so that preparation doesn’t get eclipsed, helping the children step up–and even stepping up yourself!

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The educational program of the Scottish Kirk

Posted in Church of Scotland, Education, John Knox on May 27, 2025| Leave a Comment »

The following is drawn from the First Book of Discipline (1560), adopted by the Church of Scotland during the Reformation period. Education is key!

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The Necessity of Schools

Seeing that God has determined that his church here in earth shall be taught not by angels but by men; and seeing that men are born ignorant of all godliness; and seeing, also, God now ceases to illuminate men miraculously, suddenly changing them, as that he did his apostles and others in the primitive church: of necessity it is that your honours be most careful for the virtuous education and godly upbringing of the youth of this realm, if either ye now thirst unfeignedly [for] the advancement of Christ’s glory, or yet desire the continuance of his benefits to the generation following. For as the youth must succeed to us, so we ought to be careful that they have the knowledge and erudition to profit and comfort that which ought to be most dear to us-to wit, the church and spouse of the Lord Jesus.

Of necessity therefore we judge it, that every several church have a schoolmaster appointed, such a one as is able, at least, to teach grammar and the Latin tongue, if the town is of any reputation. If it is upland, where the people convene to doctrine but once in the week, then must either the reader or the minister there appointed, take care over the children and youth of the parish, to instruct them in their first rudiments, and especially in the catechism,[10] as we have it now translated in the book of our common order, called the Order of Geneva. And further, we think it expedient that in every notable town, and especially in the town of the superintendent, [there] be erected a college, in which the arts, at least logic and rhetoric, together with the tongues, be read by sufficient masters, for whom honest stipends must be appointed; as also provision for those that are poor, and are not able by themselves, nor by their friends, to be sustained at letters, especially such as come from landward.

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Videos on the Scottish Covenanters

Posted in Church of Scotland, Covenanters, Historical Theology on May 5, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Below are a number of documentaries and educational videos about Scottish Presbyterian history, with special focus on the history of the Covenants and the Covenanters.

The following short documentary series by my friend, Matthew Vogan, definitely the best out there from a confessionally sympathetic perspective. Well produced, informative, and challenging to the mind and heart. The trailer is immediately below; watch the entire series here.

Check out also a great series for children, “Stories of the Covenant” by the same. Watch a sample below; view the entire series here.

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The Lord Christ, Steward of heaven

Posted in Christ & the Church, Church of Scotland, Covenant Theology, Mediator, Mediatorial Kingship, Samuel Rutherford, Thomas Boston on March 24, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Joseph Receives His Brothers on their Second Visit to Egypt, a painting by Bacchiacca, ca. 1515.

The following are some passages from Scottish Presbyterian fathers on the Christological theme of our Lord’s mediatorial “stewardship.” Sublime:

“And if there be varieties of temperature of saints, some rough and stiff, some mild, some old men, and some babes, 1 John 2:13. And as there be some lambs, some fainting, weak and swooning tender things, that Christ feeds like kings’ sons, with wine of heaven: so there be others that are under the care of the steward Christ, who are heifers and young bullocks, like Ephraim not well broken yet, Jer.31:18, 19 and there be hoping and waiting saints, that must bear the yoke in their youth, Lam. 3:26, 27 and sundry kinds and sizes of children; every one must have their own portion and diet, 2 Tim.2:15; Mat. 24:45. One man’s meat is another’s poison, and yet they are both the sons of one Father.”

-Samuel Rutherford, Christ’s Dying and Drawing Sinners to Himself

“You have cause to hold up your heart in remembrance and hope of that fair long summer day, for in this night of your life, wherein you are in the body absent from the Lord, Christ’s fair moon-light in his word and sacraments, in prayer, feeling, and holy conference, hath shined upon you to let you see the way to the city. I confess our diet here is but sparing; we get but tastings of our Lord’s comforts; but the cause of that is not because our steward Jesus is a niggard, and narrow-hearted, but because our stomachs are weak, and we are narrow-hearted. But the great feast is coming, and the chambers of them made fair and wide to take in the great Lord Jesus . Come in, then, Lord Jesus to hungry souls gaping for thee!”

-Samuel Rutherford, Letters

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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, Connectionalism & Conciliarism, 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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