Reformed Covenanter
Cancelled Commissioner
In affirming that the church discipline of the Scottish Reformation is that which principally distinguishes it from the Reformation achieved in other countries, I would not be understood to mean that our fathers alone of all the Reformers taught that Christ has given commandment and authority to the church, to watch carefully over the deportment of her members, admonishing and if necessary casting out those who wantonly violate the law of God.
This was no peculiarity of theirs; nor were they singular even when they taught that the duty and the responsibility connected with the exercise of discipline belong to the church exclusively, and he quite beyond the province of the civil magistrate. These principles (and it is well to remember the fact) are embodied in the public Confessions of nearly all the reformed churches; they are to be found in the Augsburg Confession and other symbolical books of the Lutheran church, in the Gallican and second Helvetic Confessions also, as well as in the documents of the Scottish Reformation.
The distinguishing and honourable peculiarity of our fathers was this, that they not only united their solemn testimony to that of their foreign brethren regarding the law of Christ on the subject of church discipline, but inculcated that law with an energy, and reduced it to practice with a fidelity and persistency unparalleled elsewhere.
For the reference, see:
reformedcovenanter.wordpress.com
This was no peculiarity of theirs; nor were they singular even when they taught that the duty and the responsibility connected with the exercise of discipline belong to the church exclusively, and he quite beyond the province of the civil magistrate. These principles (and it is well to remember the fact) are embodied in the public Confessions of nearly all the reformed churches; they are to be found in the Augsburg Confession and other symbolical books of the Lutheran church, in the Gallican and second Helvetic Confessions also, as well as in the documents of the Scottish Reformation.
The distinguishing and honourable peculiarity of our fathers was this, that they not only united their solemn testimony to that of their foreign brethren regarding the law of Christ on the subject of church discipline, but inculcated that law with an energy, and reduced it to practice with a fidelity and persistency unparalleled elsewhere.
For the reference, see:
William Binnie on the ecclesiastical discipline of the Reformed churches abroad and the Scottish church
In affirming that the church discipline of the Scottish Reformation is that which principally distinguishes it from the Reformation achieved in other countries, I would not be understood to mean th…
reformedcovenanter.wordpress.com
