December - the Free Presbyterian church of Scotland

364The Free Presbyterian Magazineits position as a state Church. The Confession was adopted by the first parliamentof the infant James VI in 1567 as the Confession of Faith professedand believed by the Protestants within the realm of Scotland, published bythem in Scotland, and by the Estates “authorised as a doctrine groundedupon the infallible Word of God”. 6Professor Lyall points out that what we have here “is the Confession publishedby the Protestants of Scotland and ratified and approved by Parliament.The civil authority does not act, it approves a statement formulated outsideof itself. Again, it is not the Confession of the Church of Scotland at this stage.Nor is it adopted or put forward by authority of that Church. It is the Confessionof the Protestants in Scotland, and no institutional church is referred to.” 7Though The Scots Confession was replaced in 1644 by the fuller and morecarefully-systematic document, The Westminster Confession, it was notablefor its freshness and directness and, as becomes a confession of faith, it appearsto come from the heart. Among its 25 articles, the section on good works isof particular relevance to the setting up of Presbyterianism in Scotland. ThereKnox and his colleagues inveigh against any idea of merit or supererogatoryvirtue. Good works are those done in faith and in obedience to God’s commandments,but they are not done by man’s free will. “The Spirit of the LordJesus dwelling in us by faith brings forth good works.”Having in view the gross errors of the Roman Church, this section goes onto state that, not only are contraventions of the moral law evil, but so also arethose “that in matters of religion and worshipping of God have no assurancebut the invention and opinion of man, which God from the beginning has everrejected”. This was in accord with the view of Calvin that, in the worship ofGod, nothing was permissible which did not have express Scripture warrant.Calvin states, “The whole sum of righteousness, and all the parts of divineworship, and everything necessary to salvation, the Lord has faithfully comprehended,and clearly unfolded, in His sacred oracles so that in them Healone is the only Master to be heard”. 8 We have here, in other words, a plainstatement of the Regulative Principle. This insistence on drawing guidancefrom Scripture alone would have its application in Scotland in the form ofChurch government and the establishment of Presbyterianism.Burleigh highlights another relevant and important statement of The ScotsConfession concerning the nature of the true Church of God: “Where thereis true preaching of the Word of God, right administration of the sacramentsof Christ Jesus, ‘which must be annexed to the Word and promise of God,6 G D Henderson (ed), The Scots Confession of 1560, Saint Andrews Press, 1960, p 3.7 Francis Lyall, Of Presbyters and Kings, Aberdeen University Press, 1980, p 13.8 Institutes of the Christian Religion, Beveridge translation, Eerdmans 1957 reprint, vol 2, p 436.