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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West Port Experiment 