March - 2018

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Reformed Faith, Practice and Piety.

Proving True Antiquity: The Church Fathers & Councils. John Cameron 1579-1625

That the only means to prove true antiquity, is to have recourse to the beginning by the Scripture. Now that we allege [a Church Father], it is not to authorise the truth, by the authority of men, only we borrow their words, and fancies to expresse it. We wish that it may be considered, not who speaks, but what is spoken. But if better authority here be called for, we will allege supreme authority; that of the Lord prescribing us the rule It was not so from the beginning. Wis

Five Reasons to Reject Festival Days, David Calderwood, 1575-1650.

The Rejection of Festival Days by the Scottish Church The observation of festival days has been rejected by our kirk, from the beginning of the reformation, in the explication of the first head of the first book of discipline, in the assembly held in 1566, where the confession of Helvetia was approved, but with special exception against these same days which are now urged. In the assembly held in 1575, the assembling of the people to preaching and prayers, upon festival days

Declensions from the Christian Religion or The Neglect of God's Law. John Owen's Preface to

I have seen an end of all perfection: but thy commandment is exceeding broad. Psalm 119:96 Many today are scornful of God's Law and scoff at those who strive for evangelical obedience to it. Indeed many within the Church are keen to relegate the Law to an historical peculiarity with many others being neglectful of the Law are keener to emphasis the Gospel and exclude the Law. Yet the Scriptures plainly teach that the Law and the Gospel do sweetly comply and the Psalmist procl

A Plea To All Favourers Of The Roman Religion, William Perkins

In A Reformed Catholic William Perkins addressed in detail the doctrines of the Church of Rome, setting out the points in which we consent with it and those points in which we differ and rightfully separate upon. Now in his Advertisement to all favourers of the Roman Religion, Shewing that the said religion is against the Catholic principles and grounds of the Catechism Perkins pleads for Roman Catholics to consider if their religion were Catholic and Apostolic (as they prete

"A Reformed Catholic", William Perkins, (10) of Real Presence.

Perkins now comes to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper and here two controversies exist with the Church of Rome, namely their view of the Eucharistic presence, which is called transubstantiation, and their view of the sacrament as a propitiatory sacrifice. In this chapter of A Reformed Catholic the former matter is considered, not of the fact of Christ’s presence, for that is accepted by the Reformed Church but rather over the mode of that presence. The Reformed position is

"A Reformed Catholic", William Perkins (9) Of Images.

When God delivered the law and the very words of the second commandment he used a voice only (ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice, Deut 4:12) and did not show himself in any visible form because it was not his pleasure to be worshipped in any such form. And yet again on this matter we have a further point of controversy with the Church of Rome. In this chapter of A Reformed Catholic William Perkins addresses the second commandment sho

The Second Commandment & Archbishop Ussher on the Church Fathers and Images.

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Exodus 20:4 The second commandment has today become a matter of controversy within modern Evangelicalism, with some conceding to their carnal sensory desires and permitting the making of images of the most holy and incorruptible God. This practice has been legitimised by adopting papist reasoning and li

"A Reformed Catholic", William Perkins (8) Of Traditions

We must not be mistaken in thinking that the Reformed religion strikes at all traditions, for as Archbishop Ussher rightly notes "... it acknowledges that the word of God, which by some of the Apostles were set down in writing, was both by themselves and their fellow labourers delivered by word of mouth; and that the Church in succeeding ages was bound not only to preserve the sacred writings committed to her trust, but also to deliver unto her children the form of wholesome

"A Reformed Catholic", William Perkins (7), Of Satisfaction

What is sufficient to satisfy divine justice? For Perkins the only and all-sufficient satisfaction made to God's justice for our sins, is to be found in the person of Christ, being procured by the merit of his death, and his obedience. But for Rome there remains a need to satisfy the justice of God for the temporal punishment of offences, to be purged either by works in this life or in purgatory. In A Reformed Catholic Perkins sets out the points regarding Satisfaction on whi

"A Reformed Catholic", William Perkins (6), Of Merits

In this next instalment from A Reformed Catholic Perkins comes to the question of merit. Indeed it was Rome's sale of the 'surplus merits' of the saints from its treasury of merit that triggered the Reformation in the sixteenth century, giving rise to the Protestant maxim- justification by faith alone. It must be remembered that when the Reformed Church speaks of justification by faith alone it is referring to the justification of a sinner by the righteousness of Christ alone

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