Posted in Catholicity, Ecclesiology, Patristics, Sacraments, Separatism & Schism, The Visible Church on November 10, 2025| Leave a Comment »
A very insightful and theologically rich article on Augustine and the Church. I realize now just how much classic Westminsterian ecclesiology and sacramentology owes to him, especially as he articulated biblical truth over against the Donatists.
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Posted in Church of Scotland, Ordinary Means Ministry, Sacraments, Samuel Rutherford, The Lord's Supper on October 7, 2025| Leave a Comment »
“He has dressed the whole Supper Himself, covered the table, and there is no more for us to do, but sit down and eat. If we look to this dressed Supper, Christ dressed it all Himself, in the furnace of God’s wrath, and the bread that we here eat is His flesh, which He gave for the life of the world. The wine, which is mingled and drawn is His blood. And, O, sirs, was not our Lord a hot man in making ready this Supper? Not one dish is mis-cooked, all is set before us in the gospel, and Jesus craves no more for all His pains, but only that His friends come to the banquet and eat and be merry; and if ye will come, Christ will pay all the reckoning. When the Israelites were fed with manna, they behoved to go out of the camp, and gather it themselves; but we furnish nothing of this Supper. God be thanked, Christ bears all the expense. Alas! alas! that the unhappy world will not eat heartily, since Christ pays for all. The poor sons of Adam were all sick and at the point of death, and their stomachs were so spoiled with a sour apple that Adam did eat, that they were famished and not able to eat. In comes Jesus and makes a medicinal dinner of His own flesh and blood; lays down Himself and is slain to make physic of His crucified body for us, in order to affect our cure. It is just they die for hunger, and lose their stomach for evermore, who loathe this meat. In the sacrament all things are ready; whatever the soul wants, it shall find at the Table. All the hungry shall find Christ meat and drink.”
Samuel Rutherford
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!
(more…)Posted in Christian Life & Experience, Experimental Religion & the Cure of Souls, Practice of Piety, Sabbatarianism & the Church Calendar, Sacraments on May 30, 2025| Leave a Comment »
“As the Sabbath Day is the most excellent of all the Days in the week; so a Communion Sabbath is the most desireable of all the Sabbaths in the Year; for, that is a Day in God’s Courts, in an eminent Manner, and is truly better than a Thousand. . . . If ordinary Sabbaths do require great Care and Diligence in preparing for, and improving them; then much more do Communion Sabbaths, being solemn and high Days; wherein we make most near Approaches unto God, and he makes near Approaches unto us: They are Days of Heaven upon Earth, and do most eminently represent the Employments and Enjoyments of the Glorified in Heaven.”
John Willison
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.
(more…)Posted in Audio Resources, Church of Scotland, Sacraments, The Lord's Supper, tagged baptism, christianity, church, jesus, Sacraments on October 8, 2024| Leave a Comment »
“This is their [Romanist] argument; whereof ye see their conclusion to be this: We get no other new thing in the sacrament than we do in the word, if there be no perception but spiritual. Ergo, the sacrament, is superfluous. We admit the antecedent to be true; we get no other thing, nor no new thing in the sacrament, but the same thing which we got in the word. I would have thee devise and imagine with thyself, what new thing thou wouldest have: let the heart of man devise, imagine, and wish; he durst never have thought to have such a thing as the Son of God; he durst never have presumed, to have pierced the clouds, to have ascended so high, as to have craved the Son of God in His flesh, to be the food of his soul. Having the Son of God, thou hast Him who is the heir of all things; who is King of heaven and earth; and in Him thou hast all things. What more then canst thou wish? What better thing canst thou wish ? He is equal with the Father, one in substance with the Father, true God, and true man, what more canst thou wish? Therefore, I say, we get no other thing in the sacrament than we had in the word: content thee with this. But suppose it be so; yet the sacrament is not superfluous. For wouldest thou understand what new thing thou obtainest, what other thing tbou gettest? I will tell thee. Suppose thou get that same thing which thou hadst in the word, yet thou gettest that same thing better. What is that better? Thou obtainest a greater and surer hold of that same thing in tire sacrament, than thou hadst by the hearing of the word. That same thing which thou possessedst by the hearing of the word, thou dost possess now more largely; He has larger bounds in thy soul by the receiving of the sacrament, than otherwise He could have by the hearing of the word only. Then, wilt thou ask what new thing we get? I say, we get this new thing : we get Christ better than we did before; we get the thing which we had, more fully, that is, with a surer apprehension than we had of it before; we get a greater hold of Christ now. For by the sacrament my faith is nourished, the bounds of my soul are enlarged: and so, whereas I had but a little hold of Christ before, as it were between my finger and my thumb, now I get Him in my whole hand; and still the more that my faith grows, the better hold I get of Christ Jesus. So the sacrament is very necessary, if it were no more but to get Christ better, and to get a closer apprehension of Him, by the Sacrament than we could have before.”
The following is an extremely profound passage from Robert Bruce’s magisterial treatise on the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Listen to this chapter in audio here. Those who may not be used to the older style may benefit from a modern rendition available here. Access more titles in the WPE Audio library.
Posted in Care for the Youth, Catechesis, Medieval Church, Missiology, Pastoral Theology, Sacraments on March 10, 2023| Leave a Comment »
The following selections are from Alcuin of York (c. 735-804), some of which were directed to the Emperor Charlemagne. Drawn from The History of Christian Missions, by George Frederick Maclear (1863).
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“The Apostolic Order . . . is first to teach all nations, then is to follow the administration of baptism, and further instruction in Christian duties. Therefore in teaching those of riper years, that order should be strictly maintained, which the blessed Augustine has laid down in his treatise on this special subject.
First, a man ought to be instructed in the immortality of the soul, in the future life, in its retribution of good and evil, and in the eternal duration of both conditions.
Secondly, he ought to be taught for what crimes and sins he will be condemned to suffer with the devil everlasting punishment, and for what good and beneficial actions he will enjoy eternal glory with Christ.
Thirdly, he ought most diligently to be instructed in the doctrine of the Trinity, in the advent of the Saviour for the salvation of mankind, in His life, and passion, His resurrection, ascension, and future coming to judge the world. Strengthened and thoroughly instructed in this faith, let him be baptized, and afterwards let the precepts of the Gospel be further unfolded by public preaching, till he attain to the measure of the stature of a perfect man, and become a worthy habitation of the Holy Ghost.”
Alcuin in another letter exhorts the emperor to provide competent catechists for his newly-conquered subjects: “They ought to follow the example of the apostles in preaching the Word of God; for they at the beginning were wont to feed their hearers with milk, that is, gentle precepts, even as the Apostle Paul saith, ‘And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.’ And thereby that great Apostle of the whole world, Christ speaking in him, signified that newly converted tribes ought to be nourished with mild precepts, like as children are with milk, lest if austerer precepts be taught, their weak mind should reject what it drinks. Whence also the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in the Gospel replied to those asking
Him why His disciples fasted not, ‘Men put not new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish; but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.’ For, as the blessed Jerome saith, the virgin purity of the soul which has never been contaminated with former vice is very different from that which has been long in bondage to foul lusts and passions.”
“In this sacrament . . . there are three visible and three invisible things. The visible things are the priest, the person to be baptized, and the water; the in visible are the Spirit, the soul, and faith. The three visible things effect nothing externally, if the three invisible have no internal operation. The priest washes the body with water, the Spirit justifies the soul by faith. He that will be baptized must offer his body to the mystery of the sacred washing, and his mind to the voluntary reception of the Catholic Faith. These points ought a teacher to consider most diligently if he desire the salvation of the neophyte, and he must beware of slothfully or carelessly celebrating so great a sacrament.”
Posted in Audio Resources, Church of Scotland, Church Order & Discipline, John Knox, Sacraments, The Lord's Supper, The Social Status of the Church, The Visible Church, Visiting the Sick & Dying on December 6, 2022| Leave a Comment »
“Our Reformers were men of great wisdom, undaunted courage, irrepressible zeal and strong faith. They relied not on human expediency, vain traditions, or worldly wisdom, but on God’s promised blessing on His own means. They went direct to the Bible for all their plans, and the result was that every rag of rotten Popery, and every relic of the Amorite was purged away, and cast forth as things accursed into the region of eternal detestation, and the pure evangel set up instead. In the language of George Gillespie:
‘The Church of Scotland was blessed with a more glorious and perfect reformation than any of our neighbor Churches. The doctrine, discipline, regiment, and policy established here by ecclesiastical and civil laws, and sworn and subscribed unto by the king’s majesty and [the] several presbyteries and parish churches of the land, as it had the applause of foreign divines; so was it in all points agreeable unto the word; neither could the most rigid Aristarchus of these times challenge any irregularity of the same.'”
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These words are drawn from the opening of David Hay Fleming’s four-part series of articles in the Original Secession Magazine in 1878 entitled, “The Discipline of the Reformation.” I’ve just finished recording the fourth today. Listen to them here. The PDF is below. And check out more titles in my expanding amateur audio library.
I do not suggest that everything our fathers in the Reformation and Second Reformation did or said regarding discipline should be carried over in toto today. Nor do I think Fleming himself thought this. But before we too quickly dismiss what we may judge austere or harsh, let us consider that we are just as much creatures of our time as they were. And if we shouldn’t be slaves to their judgments, yet we still ought to honor father and mother. And listen to them in the first case!
Posted in Articles, Church of Scotland, Church Order & Discipline, Confessional Subscription, Establishments, Experimental Religion & the Cure of Souls, Free Church of Scotland, Free Offer of the Gospel, John Murray, Practice of Piety, Presbyterian Reformed Church, Psalmody, Puritans & Puritanism, Sabbatarianism & the Church Calendar, Sacraments, The Free Offer of the Gospel, The Godly Prince, The Lord's Supper, Vital Godliness, Worship, True & False on October 7, 2021| Leave a Comment »
The following is a series of messages given to lay out the distinctives of the Presbyterian Reformed Church, a denomination organized through the instrumentality of Professor John Murray in 1965, committed to the principles of historic Scottish Presbyterianism in doctrine, worship, government, and discipline, as enshrined in the original Westminster Confession of Faith (1646).
(Note: The title “Our Testimony” is merely thematic, and does not refer to a supplementary ecclesiastical document besides the Westminster Standards as is done among Reformed Presbyterian brethren.)
Our Testimony, Part 1: Psalm Singing
Our Testimony, Part 2: Instruments in Worship
Our Testimony, Part 3: Presbyterianism
Our Testimony, Part 4: Holy Days, True & False
Our Testimony, Part 5: Confessionalism
Our Testimony, Part 6: Experimental Religion
Our Testimony, Part 7: The Free Offer of the Gospel
Our Testimony, Part 8: Religious Establishments #1
Our Testimony, Part 8: Religious Establishments #2
Our Testimony, Part 9: Head Coverings
Our Testimony, Part 10: Liberty of Conscience
Our Testimony, Part 11: Our Communion Practice
Our Testimony, Part 12: Frequency of Communion
Posted in Catechesis, Ordinary Means Ministry, Sacraments, The Lord's Supper, The Visible Church, Theological Diagrams on August 17, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Another theological diagram as a teaching aid for my next lesson on the Westminster Shorter Catechism this Sabbath. I designed this some time back and got some feedback on it from a couple of my ministerial colleagues.
Like any diagram, it doesn’t say it all. But I think it helps distinguish the Reformed position from extremes on either side. What think ye?
West Port Experiment 