For Christ's Crown & Covenant!

Posted at Purely Presbyterian:

John Brown of Haddington
Systematic Theology, pp. 309-315.
Christ’s Mediatorial Dominion Distinguished from his Natural Supremacy.

Besides that natural supremacy and dominion over all things equally with his Father and the Holy Ghost, Christ hath also a mediatorial dominion, or kingdom, which,

I. Was given him by his Father as the reward of his offering himself in sacrifice, Ps 2:8; Matt 28:18; Phil 2:6-11; Isa 53:10-12; Isa 52:13-14; 1 Pet 1:21; Luke 22:29; Dan 7:14.

II. Belongs to him as God-man, Isa 9:6-7; John 5:22-27.

III. Which chiefly respects his church, and is administered for promoting the eternal salvation of her true members, Eph 4:11-14.

1. Multitudes of scriptures ascribe lordship and dominion to him, Gen 49:10; 1 Sam 2:10; 2 Sam 7:16; Ps 2; Ps 21; Ps 45; Ps 72; Ps 89; Ps 96-100; Ps 110; Ps 132; Ps 47; Ps 145-149; Ps 22:27-31; Ps 68:17-35; Ps 24:7-10; Ps 118:22; Isa 9:6-7; Isa 11:4-5; Isa 32:1-2; Jer 23:5-6; Jer 33:15-16; Jer 30:21; Ezek 17:22…

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There are different events that take place in small pockets of the earth that shape the course of human history and revolutionise the planet. John Knox was nicknamed the "thundering Scot", he is little known today, but what legacy did he leave on this earth?

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knghfWPv0_c

Posted at Jardine's Book of Martyrs:

In 1685, the Covenanters may have trained for a rising that they later refused to join.

When he was captured by John Graham of Claverhouse, among the things that John Brounen gave intelligence of was a field preaching by James Renwick at the back of Cairn Table hill on the edge of Ayrshire when 260 men mustered for weapons training in early 1685. It is clear that Renwick’s Covenanters were preparing for a confrontation with the Scottish Army, as records of their musters are extremely unusual. The Cairn Table muster was the largest gathering of armed militant Society people between the Battle of Bothwell Bridge and the Revolution. The question is why?

The historical evidence does not make it clear when the muster took place. Can a time frame for the muster be pinned down? Was it on Sunday 22 March, 1685? Why did it take place?

In his letter of 3 May, 1685, Claverhouse gave an account of his interrogation of John Brounen, whom he had captured in …

Editor's Note: I am pleasantly surprised to discover this index page for "Scottish Covenanters" at ancestry.com. I hope you will find it helpful. For Christ's Crown & Covenant, Angela Somers-Wittman


Posted at ancestry:
About Scottish Covenanters Index

In the 17th century conflict arose between Church and State in Scotland. Those who remained steadfast in their Presbyterian beliefs and refused to take an oath to the king saying that he was the head of the church became known as Covenanters. They believed that Christ was the head of the church and were punished for this belief. Many were forced to pay the ultimate price for this by laying down their lives. The Royalists and Dragoons, who were seeking their lives, chased the Covenanters from glen to glen, especially in the Lowlands. If anyone was found hiding them, they suffered imprisonment and/or death as well. This punishment was not just reserved for the strong and healthy -- children and the elderly were subjected…

Posted at Reformation Scotland:

They were on a Scottish hillside in fear of government troops arresting or killing those at this “illegal” worship service. Why would the young preacher pause his sermon and begin to pray for the restoration of the Jews?

It was 11 July 1680, a Lord’s Day. The government was hunting Richard Cameron, just 32 years of age, across the moors and hills of Scotland. His crime was that he would not submit to the government total control of the Church. To worship in secret was considered rebellion and there was a high price on his head.

Within eleven days he would suffer a bloody death at the hands of soldiers. Was he aware of that? Yes, to some extent, he was. He had spent the previous day in prayer and meditation and told one lady gloomily “my carcass shall dung the wilderness, and that within a fortnight”.

Now he was ready to preach to the gathered people on the border of Lanarkshire and Dumfries-shire. It was a powerful sermon on John 5:40, one of his favour…

Posted at Jardine's Book of Martyrs:

Popular tradition is littered with stories of secret tunnels used by the Covenanters to escape capture in their houses. However, there is precious little evidence for them, except in one case, that of Major Joseph Learmont of Newholm captured in 1682…

Learmont appears to have been a veteran soldier, given the recognition of his rank of ‘Major’ by all of the sources.

He had been a tailor, who through ability, had forged a successful military career before he commanded the Covenanter’s horse on the left at the battle of Rullion Green during the Pentland Rising of 1666.

Since he was in his late seventies when he was captured in 1682, it is almost certain that he had served in the wars of the 1640s or 1650s, either in Britain, or on the Continent. However, his name does not appear either in Edward Furgol’s exhaustive list of the officers involved in the Scottish regiments during Covenanting Wars of 1639 to 1651, or in the documents relating to Scots Br…

Posted at This Day in Presbyterian History:

More than an ordinary man?

Alexander Peden was born sometime during the year 1626 in Scotland. His father was a small business man who left him a small inheritance. He could have entered into any of the social positions in the area, but a call from God came to him early to seek the proclaim the good news of everlasting life to his neighbors. Graduating from the University of Glasglow, he was ordained and became the pastor of New Luce, in Galloway, in his native Scotland. It was here that his congregation discovered that Pastor Peden was more than an ordinary man.

Let Rev. J.M. Dryerre sum it up for us. He writes, “his prayers were conversations with a personal friend. His sermons were visions of the glory of God which had come to him in his meditations, and filled his people with awe. His talk was about God and His will in regard to downtrodden Scotland. Tall in stature and well-built, he proclaimed his message from God.” (Heroes and…

Posted at Jardine's Book of Martyrs:

In September, 1680, Donald Cargill excommunicated king Charles II somewhere near the Wallace Oak at Torwood in Larbert and Dunipace parish, Stirlingshire.

The Torwood Excommunication will be discussed in detail in later posts. One great mystery surrounding the events is where they took place in the Torwood.

According to the Rev. George Harvie’s parish entry in the Old Statistical Account of 1794:

‘In Dunipace parish is the famous Torwood; in the middle of which there are the remains of Wallace’s tree, an oak which, according to a measurement, when entire, was said to be about 12 feet diameter. To this wood Wallace is said to have fled, and secreted himself in a body of that tree, then hollow, after his defeat in the north. Adjoining to this is a square field, inclosed by a ditch, where Mr Donald Cargill excommunicated King Charles II.’ (OSA, III, 336.)
The Wallace Oak, or Wallace Tree, was first recorded by name in 1687 when a contract was agreed fo…

Posted at Jardine's Book of Martyrs:

On 5-7 October, 1680, Lord Fountainhall notes the escape of a woman who helped Donald Cargill flee from near capture at South Queensferry, in Dalmeny parish, Linlithgowshire.

‘Mr. John Wause, keeper of the [Edinburgh] tolbuith, got a severe reprooff from Councell, for suffering one of the weeman to escape the prison, who had assisted Mr. Donald Cargil’s escape at the Queensferrie, in June last’. (Lauder, Historical Notices of Scottish Affairs, 1661-1683, 274.)
Wodrow notes that on 10 June, 1680, ‘one Margaret Wauchop is brought in prisoner from Queensferry, for being accessory to Mr Cargill’s escape.’ (Wodrow, History, III, 207.)

Continue reading here.


See also:

Ambushed at the Inn: The Queensferry Incident of 1680 (Jardine's Book of Martyrs)

Posted at Electric Scotland/ Women of Covenanting Times (Part 2):
My early home was at Redbraes Castle in Berwickshire; the Blackadder river ran close to our house and the country round was hilly; farther away we could see much higher hills. My childhood was very happy, and it was busy because I had so many younger brothers and sisters that I was always helping my mother. We were not rich and had not many servants. It did make me sad sometimes to see my father look so anxious, and to hear him talk about the poor folk, further away to the west, who were being hunted by the King’s troopers. Indeed, my father was not safe, and his greatest friend, Mr. Baillie of Jerviswood, was in prison in Edinburgh on account of his opinions.

One day, when I was about twelve, father said to me: ‘Grizel, I want you to take a letter to Edinburgh for me; Jamie Winter shall go with you and you must go to the Tolbooth prison and give the letter to Mr. Robert Baillie. The guards will let you in but it would be…

Posted at Electric Scotland:

(Part 1)

In order to understand what is meant by "Covenanting Times’ we must imagine ourselves to be watching a scene in the church of St. Giles in Edinburgh in the summer of 1637, when King Charles I. is reigning in England.



The Dean of St. Giles is preaching, in a white surplice, not in the black Geneva gown approved of by those of the Reformed Church. Suddenly, a stool flies at the preacher’s head, not striking it, indeed, but other stools follow till the place is in an uproar ‘and the Dean is fain to come out of the desk and pull off his surplice for fear of being torn to pieces.’ And even when the Bishop tries to speak from the pulpit sticks and stones flew at him till at length both Bishop and Dean were obliged to give over and retire to the vestry.’ So runs an old account of the matter.

We may laugh at such doings, we, in our easy-going tolerant days, but it was all deadly earnest to the citizens of Edinburgh. For here was King Charles, a Stuart to…

Posted at Reformation Scotland:

Could there be any question more important? But you don’t hear a lot of people asking it these days. Some people think it’s unhelpful, unsettling and unnecessary to ask such a question. But if we are wrong on the matter of greatest personal concern to us – wouldn’t we want to know? Sometimes people think it’s just a case of believing the gospel and seek to convince struggling souls to do this. But you can believe these things to be true and still not be assured they apply to you. Perhaps we are also functioning at a low level of assurance. The truth is that we cannot expect to have high levels of assurance while we have low levels of obedience. The more we find the evidences of faith working by love in our lives and hearts, the more assurance we can enjoy.

One book in particular has been of supreme help in this area: William Guthrie’s The Christian’s Great Interest. The subject of the book is assurance of salvation and it seeks to give various tests by wh…