We have seen that for John Brown the foundation of piety lies in a Covenantal Christology: ‘Let my first care be to be in Christ and in his covenant’.2 This stands in sharp contrast to Moderatism. While it is true that Moderates did not deny the mysteries of the faith, their interest was in a moral and rational religion.3 Brown, however, believed that only
1 Ibid, 234.
2 Brown, Devout Breathings, 95.
3 Sher, Church and University in the Scottish Enlightenment, 35. MacLeod, Scottish
doctrinal knowledge leads to true Christian behaviour. By this he did not mean speculative knowledge, a merely rational perception of things
natural or divine, without faith or love to God.1 Indeed, for Brown, to study general history without the presupposition of God’s providence, is
tantamount to atheism or deism: ‘To read of events without observing the hand of God in them, is to read as Atheists: to read and not observe how all events conduce to carry on the work of redemption, is to read as Deists’.2 Thus he could write in the context of the Scottish Enlightenment:
But what avails knowledge without the true fear of God, unless to make me liker to the devil? … Better be an humble peasant, with the grace of God in my heart, than a proud philosopher, that attempts to
comprehend both heaven and earth’.3
The theological knowledge that Brown refers to is a spiritual taking up of divine things, where through the word and Spirit we not only perceive in a rational way, but are also powerfully and kindly disposed to believe in and love God in Christ.4
This is an experiential knowledge, involving reason, affections and will. Brown was not interested in a speculative theology that ignores or goes beyond the limits of Scripture, but rather in a biblical theology that leads to a real and experiential knowledge of the gospel. In his own words: ‘Instead of curious prying into the unsearchable depths of Godhead, let me chiefly labour to experience the quickening and sanctifying power of gospel truth’.5 This experiential Calvinism was rooted in the Scottish Reformed
1 Brown, Dictionary, 398.
2 Brown, The Life of John Brown, 94.
3 Brown, Devout and Practical Meditations, 667-668. 4 Brown, Dictionary, 398.
tradition. Here we can detect the influence of Samuel Rutherford’s theology. Brown’s language and vocabulary are similar to Rutherford’s. Both describe the communion that believers have with God in theological and experiential terms.1 For example Rutherford wrote to Rev. John Nevay in 1638, in the midst of his difficulties in Aberdeen, ‘I never write to any of Him [Christ] so much as I have felt. Oh, if I could write a book of Christ, and of His love!’.2 Then in 1647, in Christ Dying and Drawing Sinners to Himself: ‘The soul which never felt the love of Christ, can never be troubled, nor jealously displeased for the want of love’.3 Similarly, Brown wrote: ‘How many live in the church, who never feel the eminent strivings of the divine Spirit!’.4
Here, there is a noticeable difference between the Moderate Hugh Blair and John Brown. In his sermon On the Sense of the Divine Presence, Blair states,
There are principally two effects, which the sense of the Divine presence is fitted to produce upon men. One is, to restrain them from vice; the other, to encourage their virtue’.5
But as we saw, for Brown, the ends of God’s sensible presence in believers’ heart are not social moralism, but glorifying God for his saving works. For Brown, ‘without his powerful presence I sink into nothing; without his
1 For Rutherford see Maurice Roberts ‘Samuel Rutherford: The Comings and Goings of
the Heavenly Bridegroom.’The Westminster Conference (1993).
2 Rutherford, Letters, 409. 3 Rutherford, Christ Dying, 49. 4 Brown, The Christian Journal, 152.
5 Hugh Blair, Sermons (Complete In One Volume; London: Printed for T. Tegg & Son,
gracious presence, I fall into sin; without his merciful presence, I plunge into hell’.1
The main ends of such experiential knowledge are to know Christ and to live in holiness. There must be a connection between knowledge and life:
Much knowledge, without much holiness of heart and life, will but render my future judgment the more shameful and dangerous … Learning is good in itself; but a good conscience and an holy life, are much better. Nay, by labouring to know much rather than to live well, many deprive themselves of the benefit of their knowledge.2
Thus the main foundation of the Christian life lies not in the Christian himself, but in the person of Christ. For Brown, a practical religion that is not founded on Jesus’ imputed righteousness and the indwelling Spirit of grace is equivalent to seeking to ‘erect a castle in the air’.3 But if Christ, and union with him, form the basis of the Christian life, there is no other
purpose in it than Christ himself. In Brown’s words:
If I follow Jesus Christ …Let me therefore be one with Christ …put on Christ …receive Christ, as my life, strength, food, and all-filling treasure, follow Christ, as my pattern, and always regard Christ, as my royal Master and chief end’.4
1 Brown, The Christian Journal, 180.
2 Brown, Devout and Practical Meditations, 668. 3 Ibid, 667.
The Christian life therefore is a journey of faith, structured by the covenant of grace and in communion with the Triune God:
Let me … by the hand of faith, take hold of the new covenant, that I may dwell for ever in the palace of King Jesus; and even now thrust myself into the most intimate fellowship with him.1
So far we have seen that for John Brown understanding Covenant Theology, and the person and work of Christ, undergird a practical
application of the doctrine of sanctification, and lead to a life of covenantal piety lived out in experiential communion with God on the basis of union with Christ. So too, it is within the Covenant Society, the Church, that Christians develop a covenantal godliness.
All of this in turn indicates why it is so important that believers should gather to pray for and to choose wisely those who will preach Christ and his Covenant. To the character of such ministers of the gospel we now turn our attention.