I.
THE study of books on experimental theology is not so common as it was with our fathers. The serious-minded among them revelled in this rich and edifying field of spiritual instruction. While there is a danger that the expression of experiences should degenerate into those of the individual merely and that he should make his own experiences the basis by which all others should be tried yet the setting forth of the experiences of the true people of God and especially those of the great teachers whose praise is in all the Churches may be most comforting and edifying to the Church of God. Just as mere doctrine may become dry and without appeal to the heart so experiences based on the mere feelings of an individual are not for edification if not founded on the Word of God.
The great experimental theologians avoided these extremes. They were eminent theologians well trained in the different systems of theology but they were above all else men whose theology came from hearts renewed by the Holy Spirit. Perhaps no age of the Church was privileged with so many and so eminent experimental theologians as the period of the Puritan ascendancy in England and in the New England States. There is a richness and spiritual depth and unction in the writings of the Puritans which give them a pre-eminent place as helpers to God’s heritage. Chief among them stands John Owen who, notwithstanding his heavy labouring style,—Dr. Duncan said in this connection Owen moves like a whale—has by his commanding intellect and rich spiritual insight, left in some of his works a storehouse of experimental teaching that will never lose its interest as long as there are men and women battling with a corrupt nature and longing to be rid of sin. We can do no more at present than mention some of his works such as Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers—The Nature, Power, Deceit, and Prevalency of the Remainders of Indwelling Sin in Believers—A Practical Exposition upon Psalm CXXX—The Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded—A Treatise of the Dominion of Sin and Grace, etc. These are works based on the teaching of God’s Word. The doctrines of His truth are the basis of the experience set forth in them and with God’s Word as his guide the great Puritan theologian carefully and with a well balanced judgment divides the false from the true in the experiences of believers.
In our own country we have not had such a number of distinguished experimental theologians as England has had. Yet, in this connection, it may not be out of place to remind our readers what Dr. Owen said of William Guthrie’s The Christian’s Great Interest: “You have truly men of great spirits in Scotland; there is for a gentleman Mr. Baillie of Jerviswood, a person of the greatest abilities I ever met with. And for a divine that author [William Guthrie] I take to have been one of the greatest divines that ever wrote. It [The Christian’s Great Interest] is my vade mecum. I carry it and the Sedan New Testament about with me. I have written several folios, but there is more divinity in it than in them all.” While making all allowance for the great Puritan’s humility in the tribute paid to the little but precious book of the minister of Fenwick who that has read it with care will not be ready to say that it is a work worthy of the highest praise and which has been helpful and blessed to thousands. Well might Guthrie say, if he had been living, when Dr. Owen paid the above tribute what Dr. MacCrie said to Prof. Dugald Stewart when he complimented him for his Life of Knox: Pulchrum est laudari a landato (it is pleasant to be praised by one who has been praised). Dr. Chalmers also, among others, pays this fine tribute: “in prosecuting the business of self-inspection it is of importance that we be guided aright in our inquiries into our spiritual state; and we know of few works better fitted to assist the honest inquirer in his search than Mr. Guthrie’s Christian’s Great Interest. We think it impossible to peruse this valuable treatise with the candour and sincerity of an honest mind without arriving at a solid conclusion as to our spiritual condition. His experimental acquaintance with the operations and genuine fruits of the Spirit, and his intimate workings of the human heart fitted him for applying the tests of infallible truth to aid us in ascertaining what spirit we are of . . . . Nor is his clear and scriptural exhibition of the dispensation of grace less fitted to guide the humble inquirer into the way of salvation. As a faithful ambassador of Christ he is free and unreserved in his offers of pardon and reconciliation through the death and obedience of Christ, to the acceptance of sinners; but, he is no less faithful in stating and asserting the claims of the gospel to an unshrink-ing and universal obedience, and to an undisputed supremacy over the heart and affections.” The Christian’s Great Interest was first published in 1658 and was at one time a household book in Scotland. No production of any Scottish writer it has been said has so often been reprinted. It has been translated into French, Dutch, and Gaelic.
Another book better known in Scotland in other days than now—The Sum of Saving Knowledge—in the estimation of some may not be regarded as having a right to a place among works on experimental theology yet, though it has been characterised as “cold and stiff” in its dialectics, it was not so to Robert Murray M’Cheyne, one of the saintliest ministers Scotland ever had. In his diary there is the following entry for 11th March, 1834: “Read in the Sum of Saving Knowledge the work which I think first of all wrought a saving change in me. How gladly would I renew the reading of it, if that change might be carried on to perfection.” And in connection with these words Dr. Bonar, his biographer, adds: “Those who are acquainted with its admirable statements of truth will see how well fitted it was to direct an inquiring soul.” Dr. Hay Fleming points out that “when the Scotch Covenanters were groaning under the rod of persecution, not a few of the wrestling remnant, who were privileged to seal their testimony with their blood, made special reference in their dying speeches to The Sum of Saving Knowledge” (The Pres. and Reform. Review, x. 318). Among these was the youthful, James Stuart, who in his dying testimony left this witness to the Sum: “I adhere to The Sum of Saving Knowledge, wherein is held forth the life and marrow of religion.” Dying men do not usually feed upon “cold and stiff dialectics.” That it was very highly appreciated by our fathers is evident from the fact that when Dunlop’s Collection of Confessions was published in 1719 there were loud complaints because the volume did not contain the Sum of Saving Knowledge.
In an article contributed to the Presbyterian and Reformed Review (vol. x) Dr. Hay Fleming deals with the authorship of the Sum. Wodrow, in pursuance of his plan of gathering materials for the biographies of Scottish Reformers and ministers, had received information from Rev. Patrick Simson, minister of Renfrew, that the Sum was the work of Revs. David Dickson and James Durham. His information was that David Dickson and James Durham drew up the Sum of Saving Knowledge in afternoons when taking an outing in the fresh air in the Craigs of Glasgow. These are now in the modern Necropolis of Glasgow. Mr. Patrick Simson further informed him that the Sum was the substance of some sermons preached by Dickson at Inveraray which were written out at the request of the “Lady Argyle.” Both Dickson and Durham were honoured ministers of the gospel whose labours were abundantly blessed in the conversion of sinners and in the edification of God’s people. The oft quoted and happy characterisation of the English merchant who heard certain of the Scottish ministers when north on business may be repeated: “I went to St. Andrews, where I heard a sweet majestic looking man [Robert Blair] who showed me the majesty of God. After him I heard a fair little man [Samuel Rutherford] and he showed me the loveliness of Christ. I then went to Irvine, where I heard a well favoured, proper old man, with a long beard [David Dickson] and that man showed me all my heart.” Well might Wodrow say that the whole Assembly could not have given a happier characterisation of these three ministers.
The Sum of Saving Knowledge though never officially acknowledged as a recognised document of the Church of Scotland has been invariably printed with the Confession of Faith. Owing to its omission from Dunlop’s Collection an edition of “The Confession, Catechisms, Directories, Form of Church Government, Discipline, etc.” was issued in 1725 by “the favourers of the Covenanted Reformation.” In the “advertisement” the publishers say of the Sum of Saving Knowledge and the Practical Use thereof: “It was never yet condemned . . . but, on the contrary, has met with such approbation in the hearts and consciences of the Lord’s people, and been so universally received, as if it had been a public standard, that now it may pass for such by common consent.” The Sum of Saving Knowledge is stated under Four Heads and these are followed by the Practical Use of Saving Knowledge, Warrants to Believe, and Evidences of True Faith. The late Rev. John MacPherson issued in Clark’s Bible Hand-books a small book on the Sum of Saving Knowledge with comments on the Four Heads already mentioned. Unfortunately this book does not contain the Practical Use of Saving Knowledge, etc.
(To be continued).