Calvin’s Thoughts on attending Public Worship on December 25

This post has 1157 words. It will take approximately 5 minutes, 47 secondes for reading it.

It is about time, we as Presbyterians took our foot out of Rome, which it is sad to say, much of Presbyterianism is still steeped by Romish superstition.

On  a sermon preached on December 25, 1551, his 20th sermon on Micah,  on  Micah: 5:7-14 Calvin preached:

Now, I see here today more people than I am accustomed to having at
the sermon. Why is that? It is Christmas Day. And who told you
this? You poor beasts. That is a fitting euphemism for all of you
who have come here today to honor Noel. Did you think you would be
honoring God? Consider what sort of obedience to God your coming
displays. In your mind, you are celebrating a holiday for God, or
turning today into one. But so much for that. In truth, as you have
often been admonished, it is good to set aside one day out of the year
in which we are reminded of all the good that has occurred because of
Christ’s birth in the world, and in which we hear the story of his
birth retold, which will be done on Sunday. But if you think that
Jesus Christ was born today, you are as crazed as wild beasts. For
when you elevate one day alone for the purpose of worshipping God, you
have just turned it into an idol. True, you insist that you have done
so for the honor of God, but it is more for the honor of the Devil.

Let us consider what our Lord has to say on the matter. Was it not
Saul’s intention to worship God when he spared Agag, the king of the
Amalakites, along with the best spoils and cattle? He says as much:
“I want to worship God.” Saul’s tongue was full of devotion and good
intention. But what was the response he received? “You soothsayer!
You heretic! You apostate! You claim to be honoring God, but God
rejects and disowns all that you have done” [1 Samuel 15:8,9].
Consequently, the same is true of our actions. For no day is superior
to another. It matters not whether we recall our Lord’s nativity on a
Wednesday, Thursday, or some other day. But when we insist on
establishing a service of worship based on our whim, we blaspheme God,
and create an idol, though we have done it all in the name of God.
And when you worship God in the idleness of a holiday spirit, that is
a heavey sin to bear, and one which attracts others about it, until we
reach the height of iniquity. Therefore, let us pay attention to what
Micah is saying here [Micah 5:7-14], that God must not only strip away
things that are bad themselves, but must also eliminate anything that
might foster superstition. Once we have understood that, we will no
longer find it strange that Noel is not being observed today, but that
on Sunday we will celebrate the Lord’s Supper and recite the story of
the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ. But to all those who barely
know Jesus Christ, or that we must be subject to him, and that God
removes all those impediments that prevent us from coming to him,
these folks, I say, will at best grit their teeth. They came here in
anticipation of celebrating a wrong intention, but will leave with it
wholly unfulfilled.

The Westminster Confession of faith, chapter XXI says thus:

I. The light of nature showeth that there is a God, who hath lordship and sovereignty over all; is good, and doeth good unto all; and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served with all the hearth, and with all the soul, and with all the might. But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will, that he may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation or any other way not prescribed in the holy Scripture.

The Directory for The Public Worship of God, also penned by the Westminster Divines, says thus:

THERE is no day commanded in scripture to be kept holy under the gospel but the Lord’s day, which is the Christian Sabbath.

Festival days, vulgarly called Holy-days, having no warrant in the word of God, are not to be continued.

Nevertheless, it is lawful and necessary, upon special emergent occasions, to separate a day or days for publick fasting or thanksgiving, as the several eminent and extraordinary dispensations of God’s providence shall administer cause and opportunity to his people.

As no place is capable of any holiness, under pretence of whatsoever dedication or consecration; so neither is it subject to such pollution by any superstition formerly used, and now laid aside, as may render it unlawful or inconvenient for Christians to meet together therein for the publick worship of God. And therefore we hold it requisite, that the places of publick assembling for worship among us should be continued and employed to that use.

The Reformation was built and stood on the principles of Sola Scriptura. By Scripture Alone. The Regulative Principle also stands on the same principle. Can any Presbyterian, who denies or rejects the teachings of our Reformed fore-fathers, and instead opts for celebrating the Christ mass and Easter, expressly rejected by our Reformed fore-fathers,  and even more importantly has no warrant from the word of God, in truth say they are reformed? Because I humbly suggest they cannot. There is far more to Calvinism than T.U.L.I.P. Calvin’s Calvinism, is not met by the majority of the Reformed churches today, they say they are following Calvin while practicing entirely opposing things to what man himself did.
There is a huge difference in my opinion, in people who are open to the truth, but may not have arrived at a full understanding of this yet,  to those who just utterly reject this principle, on no Biblical grounds whatsoever. Scripture is either sufficient or is it not? And if Sola Scriptura is what the Reformation was built upon, why would Reformed people now want to add to Scripture? The argument is commonly used that God never forbade it. It’s something I don’t have the health to go into at this point in time, but, He never commanded it. And in other places in Scripture one can only draw the conclusion by sure and necessary consequence it is an abomination in his site, and an unacceptable sacrifice.

Is any Presbyterian who may read this, willing to argue against Sola Scriptura?  And if not, if also partaking of man made festival days, we are expressly denying the sufficiency of Scripture while proclaiming with our lips by Scripture alone.  As I have said a thousand times,  Actions speak much louder than words.

Calvin's Thoughts on attending Public Worship on December 25

This post has 1157 words. It will take approximately 5 minutes, 47 secondes for reading it.

It is about time, we as Presbyterians took our foot out of Rome, which it is sad to say, much of Presbyterianism is still steeped by Romish superstition.

On  a sermon preached on December 25, 1551, his 20th sermon on Micah,  on  Micah: 5:7-14 Calvin preached:

Now, I see here today more people than I am accustomed to having at
the sermon. Why is that? It is Christmas Day. And who told you
this? You poor beasts. That is a fitting euphemism for all of you
who have come here today to honor Noel. Did you think you would be
honoring God? Consider what sort of obedience to God your coming
displays. In your mind, you are celebrating a holiday for God, or
turning today into one. But so much for that. In truth, as you have
often been admonished, it is good to set aside one day out of the year
in which we are reminded of all the good that has occurred because of
Christ’s birth in the world, and in which we hear the story of his
birth retold, which will be done on Sunday. But if you think that
Jesus Christ was born today, you are as crazed as wild beasts. For
when you elevate one day alone for the purpose of worshipping God, you
have just turned it into an idol. True, you insist that you have done
so for the honor of God, but it is more for the honor of the Devil.

Let us consider what our Lord has to say on the matter. Was it not
Saul’s intention to worship God when he spared Agag, the king of the
Amalakites, along with the best spoils and cattle? He says as much:
“I want to worship God.” Saul’s tongue was full of devotion and good
intention. But what was the response he received? “You soothsayer!
You heretic! You apostate! You claim to be honoring God, but God
rejects and disowns all that you have done” [1 Samuel 15:8,9].
Consequently, the same is true of our actions. For no day is superior
to another. It matters not whether we recall our Lord’s nativity on a
Wednesday, Thursday, or some other day. But when we insist on
establishing a service of worship based on our whim, we blaspheme God,
and create an idol, though we have done it all in the name of God.
And when you worship God in the idleness of a holiday spirit, that is
a heavey sin to bear, and one which attracts others about it, until we
reach the height of iniquity. Therefore, let us pay attention to what
Micah is saying here [Micah 5:7-14], that God must not only strip away
things that are bad themselves, but must also eliminate anything that
might foster superstition. Once we have understood that, we will no
longer find it strange that Noel is not being observed today, but that
on Sunday we will celebrate the Lord’s Supper and recite the story of
the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ. But to all those who barely
know Jesus Christ, or that we must be subject to him, and that God
removes all those impediments that prevent us from coming to him,
these folks, I say, will at best grit their teeth. They came here in
anticipation of celebrating a wrong intention, but will leave with it
wholly unfulfilled.

The Westminster Confession of faith, chapter XXI says thus:

I. The light of nature showeth that there is a God, who hath lordship and sovereignty over all; is good, and doeth good unto all; and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served with all the hearth, and with all the soul, and with all the might. But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will, that he may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation or any other way not prescribed in the holy Scripture.

The Directory for The Public Worship of God, also penned by the Westminster Divines, says thus:

THERE is no day commanded in scripture to be kept holy under the gospel but the Lord’s day, which is the Christian Sabbath.

Festival days, vulgarly called Holy-days, having no warrant in the word of God, are not to be continued.

Nevertheless, it is lawful and necessary, upon special emergent occasions, to separate a day or days for publick fasting or thanksgiving, as the several eminent and extraordinary dispensations of God’s providence shall administer cause and opportunity to his people.

As no place is capable of any holiness, under pretence of whatsoever dedication or consecration; so neither is it subject to such pollution by any superstition formerly used, and now laid aside, as may render it unlawful or inconvenient for Christians to meet together therein for the publick worship of God. And therefore we hold it requisite, that the places of publick assembling for worship among us should be continued and employed to that use.

The Reformation was built and stood on the principles of Sola Scriptura. By Scripture Alone. The Regulative Principle also stands on the same principle. Can any Presbyterian, who denies or rejects the teachings of our Reformed fore-fathers, and instead opts for celebrating the Christ mass and Easter, expressly rejected by our Reformed fore-fathers,  and even more importantly has no warrant from the word of God, in truth say they are reformed? Because I humbly suggest they cannot. There is far more to Calvinism than T.U.L.I.P. Calvin’s Calvinism, is not met by the majority of the Reformed churches today, they say they are following Calvin while practicing entirely opposing things to what man himself did.
There is a huge difference in my opinion, in people who are open to the truth, but may not have arrived at a full understanding of this yet,  to those who just utterly reject this principle, on no Biblical grounds whatsoever. Scripture is either sufficient or is it not? And if Sola Scriptura is what the Reformation was built upon, why would Reformed people now want to add to Scripture? The argument is commonly used that God never forbade it. It’s something I don’t have the health to go into at this point in time, but, He never commanded it. And in other places in Scripture one can only draw the conclusion by sure and necessary consequence it is an abomination in his site, and an unacceptable sacrifice.

Is any Presbyterian who may read this, willing to argue against Sola Scriptura?  And if not, if also partaking of man made festival days, we are expressly denying the sufficiency of Scripture while proclaiming with our lips by Scripture alone.  As I have said a thousand times,  Actions speak much louder than words.

Landmarks and Boundaries

This post has 1695 words. It will take approximately 8 minutes, 28 secondes for reading it.

Deut 19:14
Deut 27:17
Prov 22:28
Prov 23:10-12
Hos 5:8-10

Why the Westminster Standards are more important than ever today:

An image of the kind of person that the Westminster Standards type of Presbyterianism bred, in the lands of those times they were authored.

One person, describes The Scottish Peasant of those times, as the most remarkable man in Europe. Furthermore, the writer who said that, was an Anglo-catholic, rather than a Calvinist.

Dignity, intellect and character, of the typical Scottish peasant, largely flowed from the memorization of the shorter Catechism. They were far more equipped as a result of memorizing the shorter catechism, for conceptual thinking, than most 21 st century citizens of England or America.

They lived in huts, and toiled the land, wore kilts, and often seemed intellectually stinted due to their simplicity, in living, yet they are described as the most remarkable men in Europe. In the days when Education started to be esteemed and prized and sought after, it was the Scottish peasants, who were the most remarkable. And that was a result of the effect, of them memorizing, applying and believing, the Westminster Standards. What a man believes, so he is.

Nowadays, those entering the ministry are taught it, whereas it was written for children, and most 8 year olds in those days, had it memorized. How far we have fallen! What a tenth of their nobility we desire and should crave.

The covenanters had a strictness of life and behaviour and worship By that, I mean, they were a self denying lot in following the word of God. Their whole lives were regulated a by the Scriptures.

These men and women were courageous to the last. They had a high regard for people in need, and denied themselves to fulfil that need, and their courage seemed to know no bounds , as the list of martyrs shows us. They counted it a joy to sacrifice for the Lord. They lived in dangerous times, deadly times to believe and uphold the Truth of God that they did, but their actions proved by far more than speech, and didn’t only defend causes where they had very little to lose like we do today, in our self indulgent soft societies.

Calvinist’s in those days, were marked by a love of God and truth, justice, purity of character , and historically, they always shone in all these virtues above any other professing group of Christians.

One person wrote of the Calvinist’s of those times:

“We may with confidence maintain, that the world has never known, a higher type of Stalwart manhood, nor a gentler, purer, or more lovable womanhood, than has prevailed amongst those people in whose hearts and lives has entered the Calvinist creed. ”

Rather than the slant that is put on puritans historically, and the spin, which distorts the truth, and calls evil good and good evil, and presents those men and women as harsh, severe, unloving fanatics, the above is the truth, and history bears witness to testify to the truth of it.

Do you think the Covenanters or Calvinists today are producing the same kind of character? I would say unhesitatingly, a resounding no in many cases! Some of those traits remain, but the ones that made them stand out a head and shoulders above others, is no longer the typical Calvinist or Covenanter, of either England or America. I get infuriated at times, by how much it is not true. How their luke warm sense of serving, is a joke as compared to those days. As to my mind, it disgraces the great, rich, noble heritage that the name today trades on, yet fails to live up to in many cases. Today Reformed doesn’t always mean reformed. That’s where the crux lies I believe.

The Biblical picture we have of the true Christian home, is built on the standards and beliefs and practices of the Westminster Divines; they lived and breathed Scripture; the family homes were the nurseries of the church.

The democratic nations we live in, where the individual is upper most in importance, where political correctness is the emphasis, means Presbyterianism, built upon the Westminster Standards has been squeezed out. And man has become his own god. The landmarks and boundaries have not just been removed, they have been eradicated, as if they never existed. The covenants, made and swore to in Scotland, are no longer remembered, or even known anything about by most Christians in my country, even though it is their own country, that historically was at the fore of all these events.

Everything is now relative, on if it fits man’s taste, rather than us bending to God’s will, again, man is Sovereign of his own destiny, sovereign of our own behaviour and conduct, his own god. Discipline, both in our family homes, and self-discipline, is a dirty word.  Ignorant people within the so-called Reformed church but where Deformed would be the better term, believe that practicing it, and denying ourselves, makes us no better than the monks, of trying to win God’s favour, by our works, rather than the truth being of simply being obedient to what God desires and doing it cheerfully, not counting it a burden but a joy.

Presbyterianism, as set forth by the Westminster Standards, give us liberty. Presbyterianism and Tyranny cannot co-exist.. The same is true of the true Calvinistic or Reformed faith. We don’t need to be genius’ or above intelligence any more than anyone else. Some of us are distinctly below the majority! But again, where Calvinism and ignorance meet, one of them leaves the field.

We have an heir to the throne here, who will have to change the constitution if and when he takes the throne, to not be Defender of THE faith, but to become as he has said he will, “Defender of Faiths.” And that all faiths are equal. That is a scary thought to my mind, and I also wonder if he will take the oath as his mother did before him at the Coronation, for her to uphold the True religion in Scotland, as that is still included in the coronation oaths. She apparently took it but her son plans to openly defy that. Christ is the ruler of the Kings of the earth, but Charles seems in some form to be resurrecting to some degree, the divine right of kings by what he proposes. As the Scripture references above clearly show, God pours out his wrath on the removing of the landmarks and boundaries, and I believe the spiritual decay and decline that exists in England is evidence of that.

All the men who just before the writing of the Westminster standards, who were at the front of upholding tyranny, like King Charles, I and Archbishop Laud, were executed shortly after the completion of the Standards, and tyranny started to be squeezed out. Tthose works of Westminster, gave us liberty. True Liberty. The only True Liberty is liberty in Christ, which we find in the pages of Scripture.

Most faiths are accepted in our society, on a live and let live basis. If you take a different view you are seen as an intolerant bigot.  It is only the True Faith, the Reformed faith, based upon the Biblical teachings of the Westminster standards that today, makes for there being hostility against us. Universalism, popery, and arminianism, will be gladly tolerated. Yet try and tell people from a world view based on the Westminster Standards your point of view, you will not get the toleration or live and let live attitude you will be an outcast, someone who is causing “schism” because you hold to the truth, among the brethren here who hold to otherwise. Furthermore, the choice will have to be made, between pleasing the Lord and holding to the truth, or pleasing men, and your Christian brethren on one’s own doorstep, at the cost of betraying the truth you love. There is no contest! Yes, we need the courage, and nobility, of those Scottish peasants, that were so remarkable, even among the best of Christians, we are not prepared to go so far, or be as fierce and have the same goals and the same priorities. Our courage we leave behind the door, by comparison to protect ourselves and put ourselves first, which is why the easy way out of almost any situation, is the most oft chosen option. We are not prepared to suffer unduly, for either the Truth or the brethren. In doing so, we move the landmarks and make them shaky. The nobility that lived in a grass hut, among the Scottish peasants, in the fields of Scotland, put us to shame. They had so little, yet were willing to part with it all, even with dear life. We need to get our landmarks and boundaries put back in place. Only then, can or will England and America revive. And Scotland can once again glory, in the upholding of the Covenants!

“Art Thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? I shall not die.’ Then, just before the end, he lifted the napkin from his face, and cried, ‘The Covenants, the Covenants shall yet be Scotland’s reviving!’ [from an account of James Guthrie’s martyrdom]

[Blog owners note: of course there are may faithful calvinists around today, but sadly, there are also those who shame the name and noble heritage. And within the Reformed faith on the days of those Scottish peasants in the hills of Scotland that was not the case.  And Calvinism in these days, often doesn't represent Calvin's Calvinism at all, but a luke-warm, watered down version of it.  Those who hold to the same Calvinism as Calvin, are for the most part faithful Christians. There will always be the exception in any faithful church, as theology maketh no Christain, not on its own at least.  But Presbyterianism has taken on some many forms since those days, that Presbyteiranism in our day, doesn't always mean reformed.  They should call  themselves something other, to not degrade, defame and shame the noble history of Calvinsim.]

Calvinist’s Should not be the Frozen Chosen

This post has 3378 words. It will take approximately 16 minutes, 53 secondes for reading it.

I have heard it said, and I’m sure many of you may have experienced it to some degree, that those within the Reformed faith community can be unloving. Sadly, this is often the case, but it should not be.   Being God’s elect should not make us the frozen chosen.

John Calvin who is quite greivously slandered and misrepresented in death as much as he was in life, made this well known statement:

Doctrine is not an affair of the tongue, but of the life; is not apprehended by the intellect and memory merely, like other branches of learning; but is received only when it possesses the whole soul, and finds its seat and habitation in the inmost recesses of the heart.

Experimental religion doesn’t just appear as good theology, and doctrinal learning, it reaches into every recess of our lives and practices, it affects the whole man in the whole of life. It certainly doesn’t make us blocks of stone, because true Christianity, is about having tender hearts, and having the attributes that God does, though in a less perfect way, some of those ways being compassion, loving-kindness, long-suffering, and a few others I could mention.
This is a subjet that until a short time ago, I could not have written about without it turning into a rant at the cold, discompassionate Christians I have known, who have only sought their own or immediate families welfare, and anyone outside of that doesn’t count, and their soul is not worth nurturing, but now I am detached enough from the hurts I have felt for a very long time, since first being strapped to a sick bed, and left to basically die alone, by Christian “friends” both in my local vicinity and “friends” in the online world, whose faith didn’t extend outside their own four walls, or barely at least. But it is long over-due for saying even so.
In the times of the Reformers and puritans and Scots Covenanters, these people had a deep care and concern for the welfare of their brethren. Calvin never heard of an afflicted church, or someone awaiting martrydom, but he would write them a letter of comfort and consolation even if they were in different countries. He was not one of the frozen chosen.
This was displayed clearly in his concern for Servetus. Forget the fables you have read about that whole case, if you want to read an accurate account of events of Calvin and Sevetus then I may suggest you read an accurate and well researched account I posted some time ago, HERE.
If Michael Servetus at the last, escaped the flames of hell, it would have been because of how God used John Calvin to talk him out of his heresy. And there are some reports that when in the flames the last words he was heard to utter was, “eternal Father, accept my Spirit” I hope that is the case. But Calvin persevered so tirelessly in the case of Servetus because of his concern for his soul. It is why he was so frequent a visitor to him in his prison cell as he awaited execution, because he wanted him to repent before he died. Calvin certain wasn’t one of the frozen chosen.

The Wesminster Directory for the Publick Worship of God says this about visiting the sick:
Concerning Visitation of the Sick.

IT is the duty of the minister not only to teach the people committed to his charge in publick, but privately; and particularly to admonish, exhort, reprove, and comfort them, upon all seasonable occasions, so far as his time, strength, and personal safety will permit.

He is to admonish them, in time of health, to prepare for death; and, for that purpose, they are often to confer with their minister about the estate of their souls; and, in times of sickness, to desire his advice and help, timely and seasonably, before their strength and understanding fail them.

Times of sickness and affliction are special opportunities put into his hand by God to minister a word in season to weary souls: because then the consciences of men are or should be more awakened to bethink themselves of their spiritual estate for eternity; and Satan also takes advantage then to load them more with sore and heavy temptations: therefore the minister, being sent for, and repairing to the sick, is to apply himself, with all tenderness and love, to administer some spiritual good to his soul, to this effect.

He may, from the consideration of the present sickness, instruct him out of scripture, that diseases come not by chance, or by distempers of body only, but by the wise and orderly guidance of the good hand of God to every particular person smitten by them. And that, whether it be laid upon him out of displeasure for sin, for his correction and amendment, or for trial and exercise of his graces, or for other special and excellent ends, all his sufferings shall turn to his profit, and work together for his good, if he sincerely labour to make a sanctified use of God’s visitation, neither despising his chastening, nor waxing weary of his correction.

If he suspect him of ignorance, he shall examine him in the principles of religion, especially touching repentance and faith; and, as he seeth cause, instruct him in the nature, use, excellency, and necessity of those graces; as also touching the covenant of grace; and Christ the Son of God, the Mediator of it; and concerning remission of sins by faith in him.

He shall exhort the sick person to examine himself, to search and try his former ways, and his estate towards God.

And if the sick person shall declare any scruple, doubt, or temptation that are upon him, instructions and resolutions shall be given to satisfy and settle him.

If it appear that he hath not a due sense of his sins, endeavours ought to be used to convince him of his sins, of the guilt and desert of them; of the filth and pollution which the soul contracts by them; and of the curse of the law, and wrath of God, due to them; that he may be truly affected with and humbled for them: and withal make known the danger of deferring repentance, and of neglecting salvation at any time offered; to awaken his conscience, and rouse him up out of a stupid and secure condition, to apprehend the justice and wrath of God, before whom none can stand, but he that, lost in himself, layeth hold upon Christ by faith.

If he hath endeavoured to walk in the ways of holiness, and to serve God in uprightness, although not without many failings and infirmities; or, if his spirit be broken with the sense of sin, or cast down through want of the sense of God’s favour; then it will be fit to raise him up, by setting before him the freeness and fulness of God’s grace, the sufficiency of righteousness in Christ, the gracious offers in the gospel, that all who repent, and believe with all their heart in God’s mercy through Christ, renouncing their own righteousness, shall have life and salvation in him. It may be also useful to shew him, that death hath in it no spiritual evil to be feared by those that are in Christ, because sin, the sting of death, is taken away by Christ, who hath delivered all that are his from the bondage of the fear of death, triumphed over the grave, given us victory, is himself entered into glory to prepare a place for his people: so that neither life nor death shall be able to separate them from God’s love in Christ, in whom such are sure, though now they must be laid in the dust, to obtain a joyful and glorious resurrection to eternal life.

Advice also may be given, as to beware of an ill-grounded persuasion on mercy, or on the goodness of his condition for heaven, so to disclaim all merit in himself, and to cast himself wholly upon God for mercy, in the sole merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, who hath engaged himself never to cast off them who in truth and sincerity come unto him. Care also must be taken, that the sick person be not cast down into despair, by such a severe representation of the wrath of God due to him for his sins, as is not mollified by a sensible propounding of Christ and his merit for a door of hope to every penitent believer.

When the sick person is best composed, may be least disturbed, and other necessary offices about him least hindered, the minister, if desired, shall pray with him, and for him, to this effect:

“Confessing and bewailing of sin original and actual; the miserable condition of all by nature, as being children of wrath, and under the curse; acknowledging that all diseases, sicknesses, death, and hell itself, are the proper issues and effects thereof; imploring God’s mercy for the sick person, through the blood of Christ; beseeching that God would open his eyes, discover unto him his sins, cause him to see himself lost in himself, make known to him the cause why God smiteth him, reveal Jesus Christ to his soul for righteousness and life, give unto him his Holy Spirit, to create and strengthen faith to lay hold upon Christ, to work in him comfortable evidences of his love, to arm him against temptations, to take off his heart from the world, to sanctify his present visitation, to furnish him with patience and strength to bear it, and to give him perseverance in faith to the end.

That, if God shall please to add to his days, he would vouchsafe to bless and sanctify all means of his recovery; to remove the disease, renew his strength, and enable him to walk worthy of God, by a faithful remembrance, and diligent observing of such vows and promises of holiness and obedience, as men are apt to make in times of sickness, that he may glorify God in the remaining part of his life.

And, if God have determined to finish his days by the present visitation, he may find such evidence of the pardon of all his sins, of his interest in Christ, and eternal life by Christ, as may cause his inward man to be renewed, while his outward man decayeth; that he may behold death without fear, cast himself wholly upon Christ without doubting, desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ, and so receive the end of his faith, the salvation of his soul, through the only merits and intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ, our alone Saviour and all-sufficient Redeemer.”

The minister shall admonish him also (as there shall be cause) to set his house in order, thereby to prevent inconveniences; to take care for payment of his debts, and to make restitution or satisfaction where he hath done any wrong; to be reconciled to those with whom he hath been at variance, and fully to forgive all men their trespasses against him, as he expects forgiveness at the hand of God.

Lastly, The minister may improve the present occasion to exhort those about the sick person to consider their own mortality, to return to the Lord, and make peace with him; in health to prepare for sickness, death, and judgment; and all the days of their appointed time so to wait until their change come, that when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, they may appear with him in glory.

The whole document can read at one of my sister sites 2. Covenanted Reformation.

William Perkins, who is said to be the father of English puritans, and the first puritan, first  congregation was in a jail in Cambridge. He worked tirelessly with these men, many of them facing execution for their crimes, and he worked often never seeing the wages for his work.  One day however, a young man was awaiting execution at the jail, came to him in great distress about facing death, and his fear of it.  Perkins begged him and pleaded with him in tears, to accept Christ, telling him of the Gospel and how he could be sure of being like the thief on the cross and after execution be with Christ in paradise.  His tears and pleadings so affected the young prisoner that he did accept Christ, and he faced his execution with great courage, and it was a testimony to God’s grace at how bravely he met his death.  William Perkins, was not one of the frozen chosen. Neither were the Westminster divines who penned the Director of Publick Worship.

It is often said of Samuel Rutherford, that his life was one self sacrifice and consisted of: “always praying, always preaching, always visiting the sick, always catechising, always writing and [always] studying.”   Samuel Rutherford, was not one of the frozen chosen.

If you read for any time through Calvin’s letters, you will see his words of comfort and consolation to those facing death, awaiting martydrom, exhorting them to be constant to the end, not only out of his pastors heart, but out of real concern for their souls.

Oliver Cromwell, whatever one may think of him in history, is another one who was deeply moved by the sufferings of the puritans.  Oliver Cromwell was not one of the frozen chosen.

If people are sick, and facing death or uncertain futures, they need to be built up and prepared to die, to be ready to meet their maker, for their souls to matter enough to spend time in trying to get them  to a good spiritual estate.  I was blessed to have one friend who was not one of the frozen chosen.

Richard Baxter in his “The Reformed Pastor” wrote his of ones duties towards the sick and/or dying.

We must be diligent in visiting the sick, and helping them to prepare either for a fruitful life, or a happy death. Though this should be the business of all our life and theirs, yet doth it, at such a season, require extraordinary care both of them and us. When time is almost gone, and they must now or never be reconciled to God, oh, how doth it concern them to redeem those hours, and to lay hold on eternal life! And when we see that we are like to have but a few days or hours more to speak to them, in order to their everlasting welfare, who, that is not a block or an infidel, would not be much with them, and do all he can for their salvation in that short space!
Will it not awaken us to compassion, to look on a languishing man, and to think that within a few days his soul be in heaven or hell? Surely it will try the faith and seriousness of ministers, to be much about dying men! They will thus have opportunity to discern whether they themselves are in good earnest about the matters of the life to come. So great is the change that is made by death, that it should awaken us to the greatest sensibility to see a man so near it, and should so excite in us the deepest pangs of compassion, to do the office of inferior angels for the soul, before it departs from the body, that it may be ready for the convoy of superior angels to the “inheritance of the saints in light.” When a man is almost at his journey’s end, and the next step brings him to heaven or hell, it is time for us, while their is hope, to help him if we can.
—Richard Baxter, “The Reformed Pastor” B.O.T. pp. 102

Richard Baxter was not one of the frozen chosen. But through my pilgrimage through this world in such an afflicted condition the last few years I seem to have sure come across and known and even been friends with alot of the frozen chosen, or as Baxter calls them “blocks or infidels.”
It is not always the case among Calvinists today, but sadly it is too rife and I have seen and experienced that from the sharp end. Doctrine and theology maketh no man. A man with good doctrine and all his theological ducks lined up, and maybe even with the voice of an angel for the holy words he speaks, if his actions say otherwise, it counts not one iota, and the puritans and reformers, of which just a few instances there are above and there could be countless others added to it, were both theologically astute, but also practiced experimental religion and were very self denying and self sacrificing. Their brethren’s sufferings mattered to them, they wept with those who wept, and had concern for their souls.
But finally, what does our good Lord say about the frozen chosen? In Matthew 25:31-46 he says thus which should deter anyone from being so self seeking or self serving only, to not be those mentioned in this passage because of the end that is threatened to them

Matthew 25:31-46 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

Faith and religion is not passive, or just holy sounding words. Actions speak far louder than words, and show the inclination of our hearts, much more readily than any amount of holy sound words can ever do. Let us get back to the days of experimental religion. In the above example the whole sum of the law is broken, by not loving our neighboutr as ourself. And if we do not do so, then we do not love God aright either. As only when we love God rightly, we will be able to love our fellow man aright too. It does not only apply to Pastors, because we are all part of the royal priesthood

Are You Happy? Are you Satisfied?

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This is another post that didn’t get imported from the old site, and feel it is worth re-posting as a “new” post. As it is likely too my readership may have changed since first writing it.

Most Christians will answer yes to that, to a smaller or greater degree. They will feel obliged to; or as if they are letting the side down if they are not. After all, a Christians life is not an easy one, but it is a blessed one, right?

What makes us happy?

The Catechism says this well in the opening question:

What is mans chief end?

To glorify God and enjoy him forever.

I believe the only way a Christian can be truly happy in this life, no matter if they be rich or poor in a temporal sense, is by the enjoyment of God. Do we delight in God? Few really do. Do we delight in the days of Christian Sabbaths, where we are commanded to have our minds in heaven and upon God continuously? Few really do.

What makes us happy?

Are you happy with your job? Your status in life? Your car or spouse, or children or parents? Those things are all good and all blessings, (or should be) and reasons to be thankful to the God of Heaven, yet they should not be the chief means of our happiness.

I was reading in some puritan title some months ago now That, one can tell if the joy one has, is joy in and from the Lord, by if you lose all or most of your estate and temporal blessings, relations and health,  and you still have joy despite your losses and now impoverished state. Of course, when we have such loss, we all need a time of mourning, a time of grieving. But as Solomon said, there is a season for everything. To go on for months, or years, in overmuch sorrow, is not what the Lord tells us to do, no matter how poor our estate. We should have heavenly comfort and consolation.

The world, as they look at us sometimes, wonder why we proclaim to be different, or blessed, when we are such a bunch of misery guts, who whine and complain at everything, and have seemingly very little joy. The reason we seem joyless is, because we are not enjoying God. And therefore we are not glorifying him. If we were, the world would get the picture of how blessed we are, no matter our estate or poverty or suffering.

I have gone through many a rocky path on this, and it lasted longer than I care to admit. Yet, in the extraordinary circumstances and sufferings I find myself in, I believe perseverance was the key. When I listened to a lecture on the life of David Brainerd, some months ago now; of how he sat alone in his hut, on the Indian mission field, spitting up blood daily, and heard how the thing that caused him most conflict and angst and in some sense instability, was his longing and yearning, deep within his soul for Christian company. That was the first time I felt I knew of someone who knew exactly how I  have felt in the past.  The illness is different, yet there is very little difference in how alone I am, how it can be days or sometimes weeks between seeing a human being, and suffering dreadful illness all that time. Brainerd has many critics, because of his modes of instability and sometimes the way he spoke when in times of mental and emotional anguish because of his sufferings. And yet the lecture I heard, the speaker said, the thing that made him noteworthy, was that he persevered to the end despite his sufferings, and ultimately, when he died, triumphed in faith. Perseverance for me, even if joyless for longer than I should have been, was the key too.

I see other believers in much richer circumstances, and far more blessed lives, that they have regular down times where they are as the world sees, a “misery guts,” and so if they have blessings quite abundantly and the love of God, why do they lack joy at all quite regularly? I can’t presume to know the answer to this. But what would it take, when they have abundant riches and the love of God to not make them joyless and “misery guts” at regular intervals? I will tell you what I think. They need to enjoy God. Not in a formal or surface way, but they need to delight in him. They need to read his word, and not just meditate on it, but become besotted with the loveliness of Christ and delight in Him and His ways.

Someone used to tell me, some while ago, that you cannot simultaneously be suicidal and glorifying and praising God. How right they were! When we have times of angst or misery, no matter our afflictions, no matter how reasonable it may seem to the world, given what we are going through, we need to focus on enjoying God. Delighting in Him. Becoming so entranced by God and the things he reveals to us in the Scriptures that there is NO ROOM left for misery and depression, or spiritual lethargy. The delight of God, will give us an energy that we seem to largely not have today. To actively pursue God with every fibre of our being, and delight in him from morning till night. To be less neutral than we often appear to be.

One often hears Jonathan Edwards portrayed, as a dour, fanatical individual who would break out into religious speech in the most offensive way one could imagine. And yes, the terms and speech that Edwards used in things such as “Sinners in the hands of an Angry God,” would shock and offend many even today. Yet it was his passion for God, his delight in him, that made him so bold. Edwards practiced to the utmost redeeming the time well. He made a much better job of it than I have any hope of doing, even knowing my time may not be that long, and that Redeeming the time has become important to me the last few years. He practiced it in a way that no one would ever dream of doing so today. Even down to the amount he would eat, so that it would not interrupt his day in any way, with either indigestion, or how long it would take for him to digest the food, needing to sleep, or be distracted through headaches because of eating the wrong types of food. You see Edwards saw all those possible consequences of simply eating a meal, as ways that could unnecessarily eat into his day, and time, time he could be in the pursuit and delight of God. So he ate little, and healthy foods to make sure his time of studying God and delighting in Him would not be interrupted through his own carelessness of eating the wrong foods or over indulging.

Edwards vision of personal holiness and God enriched world, has never been replaced or superseded. Yet we need to try to edge our ways forward to imitating great men like Jonathan Edwards in their personal piety and personal holiness. Sadly, these men nowadays, seem to be used for little more than getting our impression or our view or beliefs about God from, instead of from God Himself. But Edwards had practical piety in the fullest. He knew how to enjoy and delight in life, no matter the circumstances. (And he didn’t always have it easy) Because he knew how to enjoy and delight in God, no matter what. And in doing so, he glorified God as much as any man is able to do. The opening question of the Catechism, was lived out by Edwards, to its fullest and is an example to us all who followed him after.

Questions to Ponderize:

Are you happy? Are you satisfied?

And.

Does your happiness and satisfaction chiefly proceed from the right source? Would you still be joyful if the uncertain riches of this world, was suddenly vanished and gone for good? Would you delight in God and be joyful in him, if you had nothing else left that you now have that contributes to your happiness of a temporal nature? These are important questions to be asking and searching ourselves about I think. Because we cannot guarantee that the good things in this life that God has given us, will still be there next week, next year or even tomorrow.

Schism and Division

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There are plenty of things I believe are worth getting up and fighting for over, in the Christian religion. I am a great proponent for purity in worship and returning back to the churches glory days, where Christ reigned in his Church in the manner of which he is to be worshipped. For that reason, even if Providence did not prevent me attending Church, because of chronic illness, there would be very many churches that I could not in good conscience attend, believing I would be partaking of sin to do so just by being there.

However, in America, the Presbyterian church is much more visible than in England, we have 3 Reformed Presbyterian churches of the Scots covenanting tradition,  for the whole of England. But in America, Presbyterianism means different things, many of the Presbyterian churches are quite liberal, and I would call them deformed rather than reformed. If I was the other side of the pond, then in no way could I join myself to any of the Presbyterian churches that fit that description.

BUT, I also think one can have an air of being too exclusive. To make the terms of membership to a church something that many people would have a hard job to square with either conscience or logic as part of the terms of communion and if you do not subscribe to those things, then I think that is unnecessary dividing the house of God, and going further than Scripture warrants. And in doing so, just as those who have wandered away from the Reformed history they were bred from by dethroning God in the practice of worship, then there is the other extreme, of extra creedal and extra Biblical requirements, which is no less schismatic than the first group. The schism in the first group, many Reformed Presybterians who hold to Reformation attainments, , couldn’t join themselves to those churches who have wandered away from them, because it would go against their beliefs and in many cases conscience. It is the sin of those churches in dethroning Christ that causes the need to separate from them, as far as not being able to join with them in worship.

The same with the other end of the extreme. Though I believe they are probably fewer in numbers. Those  that have extra creedal and extra Biblical requirements for joining to their church, which is of course legalism, by adding requirements that God has not imposed, and binding people’s consciences to those requirements is a form of tyranny, because the conscience should be answerable only to the Lord, and not to the doctrines of men. Yet there are some, who hold to these extra creedal requirements for terms of communion. They come from within the Covenanter groups, yet I am a covenanter myself, but not one that will go further than Scripture does, whether its in the liberal way of the first group of “anything goes,” or the exclusivity and extra Biblical strictness of the second group, the steelite covenanters, who clearly go further than Scripture requires to be able to join yourself to their church. But the result of either group, the liberals or the extra creedal churches is schism and unnecessary division. And in the second group, an unhealthy exclusivism, that in no way would the Lord warrant or approve of.

Christ’s priestly prayer of John 17 speaks to me in a way that many other Scriptures don’t. It will move me to tears for the desire of his and what he wants to see for his church of brotherly unity. It’s also interesting, that John Knox, that was the very passage of Scripture on which he “first cast anchor,” and was responsible for his conversion. On his death-bed, he asked his wife to read him again the passage of where he had “first cast anchor,” and the whole priestly prayer of Christ was very dear to him, and I feel a great attachment to that passage myself.

There is a time for separation for the good of Christ and his church, but we should not unnecessarily rent his body apart, on trifles or without Biblical warrant to support the stance we are taking on whatever the matter may be.

I am reading a book by puritan William Ames, called “A Fresh suit against Human ceremonies in God’s worship” Volume one, as the subject of purity in worship, and Christ reigning in his church by what is allowed and what is not allowed in the Worship of God is a subject very dear to me. But despite that, I still don’t believe that there should ever be things from outside of Scripture that causes separation, division, or being set apart and exclusive. What God has joined together, let no man put asunder. This is a quote from the William Ames book mentioned above.

There is a.. sort of profound disputers in the world, who apprehending they reach to be beyond the reason and writings of other men, have out of the depth of their judgments, devised a way judiciously to deceive their own souls; and out of their pick-lock subtlety, count it easy to make way for themselves, and maintain their way in any question. And this they do by making a maze of divisions, and cut things in so many shreds, by multitude of distinctions, that at length they lose their cause, the truth, and themselves in the issue, and must of necessity bewilder the reader, unless he be of searching judgment: This kind of distinguishing is like snuffing of the candle that is too near, putting out the light wholly, while they intend to make the light burn more clearly: so do these men darken the truth, professing to discover more of it. When to avoid the dint of argument concerning significant ceremonies and worship, his distinctions are so many and intricate, that one member destroys another, and the true nature of worship also.

Whether the Pharisees in their ceremonies did not pretend more holiness than other men? However, these men, in who effect say to all other men, stand back, I am more holy than thou. [William Ames]

The Gospel and its message was not meant to be shut up and an exclusive club that one may not be good enough to partake of in the worship of God. That kind of exclusivity is both unhealthy and unbiblical. And it perhaps is self serving since in separation from the vast majority of other Christians, they have no obligations with or real sense of brother hood. If that were not true, you could join in their worship service any Lord’s Day of your choosing, in an official public worship setting at least. Yet the terms of communion would make it almost impossible for anyone logical or right minded to be able to subscribe to the terms, so you would not be able to.

The steelites have serious error I believe, and there is a bent of legalism amongst them. That’s not to say they still don’t have a lot of good things about their beliefs and practices, but I still believe the later to be true, and rather than just this post which gives thoughts without Biblical reasons of why, I shall at some later point in time, with the Lord’s assistance in both, discernment, and giving me the time to, address in more detail, with the reasons from Scriptures and creeds, of why it is wrong.

I think it is a very slippery slope actually, when one considers the fiascos at the Edmonton Church who were also like-minded, and they became more and more exclusive and continued to add thing after thing that had no Biblical warrant, to continue being part of their church. The result was, that the church at Edmonton imploded on itself.

However, just because they have some error, I believe at least, and I doubt I am alone in this belief, doesn’t mean one should throw the baby out with the bath water and ignore the good and focus on the bad, or erroneous, or to start bandying words such as cults about them as is commonly done. But I do think they are on a slippery slope. I am a covenanter, through and through. I am not a steelite Covenanter however.

A Fresh Suit Against Human Ceremonies in God's Worship Vol 1 by William Ames

A Fresh Suit Against Human Ceremonies in God's Worship Vol 1 by William Ames

Q 93 of the Larger Catechism

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Question 93: What is the moral law

The moral law is the declaration of the will of God to mankind, directing and binding everyone to personal, perfect, and perpetual conformity and obedience thereunto, in the frame and disposition of the whole man, soul and body, and in performance of all those duties of holiness and righteousness which he owes to God and man: promising life upon the fulfilling, and threatening death upon the breach of it. [Q 93 WLC]

I believe the Law of God is a stone of stumbling to as many within the visible church as without it. Some people, who by name call themselves theonomists, (I consider myself a theonomist but a Westminster Theonomist not some seperate kind of school of thought or movement, that others seem to be) they seem to divorce the two tables. The second table is given higher priority than the first table. And I have seen others, who are generally more of a pious disposition, exalt the first table at the cost of the second, and again they divorce the two tables, because though two distinct tables, one our duty to God and the other our duty to man, then, they should work together not individually and as if separated. The second kind of person becuase duty to God is divorced form duty to man, have a sense of legalism about them.

No one keeps the law perfectly, not one of us. The only One who did was our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Yet if you read the above from the Westminster Larger Catechsim, then you will see what is required even though God knwos we can never meet it perfectly. He doesn’t expect perfection from us, he knows it not within our abilities to perform so. But he does expect us to give each and every commandment our very best shot and heart felt sincerity in upholding it. There is a difference between trying to obey God and keep the Law, and in our humanity failing; to disregarding the law and treating it as if it is void and of no account any longer. The blood of Christ I believe is for the first, but not the second. Christ himself said, if you love me you will keep my commandments. If we neglect to try or disregard them, or modify them to our own liking, then how can we say we love God when Christ Himself said that? The book of James says, “We shall know them by their fruit,” I personally believe that above anything else by that is meant our obedience or not. As that way it can in no way leave a works righteousness, of doing this or doing that, to try and gain God’s favour and merit our way to Heaven by our good works, but purely by obedience to the will of the Living God, which is not a doing as such, its merely being obedient to our Father in heaven. Doesn’t every father require obedience from his children? Isn’t it the duty of every child alive to be obedient to their parents? Those who love their parents often obey them without question or arguement, out of respect and love. And the parents loves the child for doing so, because by doing so, they are also obeying God when He instructs children to be obedient to their parents in the Lord. He doesn’t expect children to obey their parents if by doing so, they would be disobeying God. That’s why in the Lord is relevant.

J.G. Vos in his larger Catechsim commentary on Question 93 wrote this:

Q: Does God’s moral law change now, in our own times?

A: No. Since the completion of the Bible, the revelation of God’s will to mankind is complete and unchangeable and will stand in this fixed form until the end of the world.

Q: What attitude does many modern people take towards the idea that God’s Moral Law is fixed and will remain unalterable till the end of the world?

A: Many people who have been influenced by “modern” thought oppose this idea, callingit “narrow,” and “static,” and saying that is is absurd to suppose the detailed commandments given to men 2,000 or more years ago can be adequte for the needs of humanity in this modern age of scientific progress.

Q: What kind of obedience does God’s moral law require of mankind?

A: God’s moral law requires absolute obedience, ,that is, conformity of the whole man to the whole law through his whole life. thus God’s moral law demands absolute perfection inour thoughts, words, and deeds, as well as in the state or disposition of our heart, through our entire life, without falling short even for one instant.

Q: Does the moral law require us to be good?

A: The moral law of God requires us not to be merely “good,” but absolutely good, that is, to be morally perfect. The common manner of speaking about “being good” amounts to a lowering of God’s standard. God requires not merely “goodness” but absolute moral perfection.

Q: Is not such a standard far too high for the human race?

A: We must freely recognize that the ideal of moral perfection presented in the Bible is not attainable in the present life. The standard is not too high, though if Adam and Eve had not sinned, all humanity would have attained to this standard of absolute perfection, and the human raqce would have been very different from what it actually turned out to be. That thte stands is to too high for fallen man to attain is mankind’s own fault by reason of the fall into sin and resultqant corruption and inability. God’s standard has remained the same ever since the day he created mankind. It is the human race that has changed. Also we should realize that the fact that the standard is too high for fallen man to attain to shows the divine origin of the moral law. A stream cannot rise any higher than its source. If the moral law were the product of mans’ expereince, it would present a standard low enough to be attained by sinful human beings….The bible presents an absolute moral standard and portrays Christ as fully emboding that absolute moral pefection in his own character. It is high; we cannot attain unto it, bugt that very fact shows that is is not man’s standard but God’s.

Moving on to Question 96

Q: Should a human being be afraid to commit sin

A. yes.

Q: Why should a Christian be afraid to commit sin?

A: because is is right to fear that which is contrary to God’s holiness, and which will offend God and hide the light of his countenance from us, even gthough in the case of the Christian it involves no danvger of eternal damnation.

Q: How does the moral law enable the Christian to appreciate Christ?

A: The moral law enables the Christian to appreciate Christ by showing how much he owes to Christ, that is, how much Christ has done for him in perfectly keeping the whole law and bearing its penalty on the Christians behalf.

Q: Since the Bible teaches that the Christian is not under the law but under graqde, (Rom. 6:14), how can he be under the moral law as a rule of obedience?

A: The Christian is freed from the penalty of the law, but not from the precept of the Law as the standard of right living.
Johannes Geerhardus Vos commentary on the Larger catechism.

The visible church is full of people who are not Christians, we all know that is true. Whatever else you may disagree with me about this post then I doubt many of you would disagree with that statement. Christ said, if you love me you will keep my commandments. James said, we shall know them by their fruit. I think sometimes in spiritual discernment it is not too hard to make spiritual judgments on who is inside the covenant or outsisde of it. Not by if we keep the law perfectly, because noen of us do, but by the disposition of our hearts, in how we esteem the law and attain to keep it even knowing we shall do so only imperfectly. Someone hungering and thirsting after rightoueness, will want to be obedient to God and his precepts. If those who sit in Church on Sundays, have very low regard for even trying to keep the law, then I think that says a lot about their disposition of their hearts towards loving God. Jesus said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. [John 14:15; John 14:21; John 15:10] [James 2:18; James 2:14; James 2:17; James 2:24-26]

J. G. Vos commentary on the Larger Catechism

J. G. Vos commentary on the Larger Catechism

William Symington at the bicentennial commemoration

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We would not be chargeable with the enormous wickedness of forgetting that men are only what God makes them, and that to Him all the glory… is to be ascribed. But we are, at the same time, unable to see wherein the bestowment of a due need of praise on the memory of such …contravenes any maxim of sound morality, or any dictate of inspiration. We…have no hesitation in attempting to awaken, in the men of the present generation, sentiments of admiration and gratitude for the memory of worthies to whom all are so deeply indebted ..While we claim and exercise the right of bringing these, like all other human productions, to the infallible touchstone of Revelation,…We cannot but cherish the hope that the present commemoration…may be regarded as symptomatic at once of a growing attachment to the sentiments of the Westminster divines, and of an enlightened determination to maintain them more firmly and diffuse them more extensively than ever.
–William Symington at the bicentennial commemoration of the Westminster Assembly