Selected from: John Brown of Wamphray, An Apologetical Relation of the Particular Sufferings of the Faithful Ministers and Professors of the Church of Scotland (rpnt.; Edinburgh: Robert Ogle and Oliver and Boyd, 1844), 145-146.
There is a vast difference to be put betwixt1betwixt – between (Ed.) a time wherein the church is advancing in a course of reformation, and a time wherein she is declining and sliding back from that degree of reformation unto which she had already attained.…When God hath wonderfully, by his mighty power and outstretched arm, brought a church to a great length in reformation, it will be the duty of that church, and of the members thereof, to adhere to that degree unto which they have attained with all perseverance. It will be lawful for the church which is but coming up the hill to stand at such a step until they gain another, when yet it will not be lawful for the same church to go backward after they have advanced. The truth once bought should never be sold.…Much more may be seen when the sun is up than in the twilight: therefore the scrupling of honest people now doth no way condemn their forefathers; but, on the contrary, the steadfastness of their forefathers, in standing to the degree to which they had reached, and their endeavouring to advance, will condemn this generation for backsliding … but those in this generation are not at liberty to give or grant their after consent, because they are engaged to stand to the work of reformation, and to own it in all its parts.
Footnotes
- 1betwixt – between (Ed.) ↩︎
