Wednesday 13 January 2016

McCrie on Baptism


McCrie on Baptism

How did I miss this gem?  I have never seen it listed, referred to or quoted, but this is an outstanding contribution from the presbyterian and reformed perspective.

Thomas McCrie, the  younger, was the elder son of his namesake, Thomas McCrie, the elder, biographer of John Knox and Andrew Melville.  McCrie was a pastor and theological  professor of the Original Secession Church.  When the majority of this body joined the Free Church of Scotland in 1852 he became a minister of the Free Church and served as Moderator in 1856.

McCrie, like his father, was principally a church historian, but he did produce one work of biblical theology, “Lectures on Christian Baptism”, (1850).  This work is a treasure!

It is pastoral.  This is not a heavy theological tome for theologians but the product of his teaching ministry at his congregation in Edinburgh.  It is written in simple, direct language, with few footnotes. He believed that covenant baptism was at the very heart of reformed faith and practice.  It was not a difficulty to be hidden, but a blessing to be proclaimed, and he did so in this series of lectures given to the ordinary members of his congregation.

It is persuasive.  I have tried to keep abreast with current reformed works on baptism and can say that McCrie stands head and shoulders with them as a popular defence of covenant baptism.  Argument after argument is presented in a driving logic that forcefully establishes the truth.  I especially appreciated his explanation of baptism as a seal, given that there is a tendency among some Scottish paedobaptists to teach a doctrine that verges on presumptive regeneration. 

It is polemical.  McCrie gently corrects the errors of those who reject covenant baptism, the Baptists, and those who exaggerate the sacramental efficiency of baptism, the High Anglicans who taught baptismal regeneration.  Firmly but fairly McCrie shows the errors of these positions.  (Federal Vision theology was not around then, but the principles he enunciates, answers their errors.) If there is such a thing as eirenical polemic then McCrie exemplifies it.

Here is a work that can be shared with our congregations in the knowledge that they can understand it without a degree in theology or a mastery of biblical languages. It is available for free:




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