Kept in the Church of Scotland, the established Presbyterian church of that country. Almsgiving is treated as a duty of the whole congregation and was made an office of the church, the deacon's, rather than left to private charity.
Kept in the Church of Scotland, the established Presbyterian church of that country. Baptism is by pouring or sprinkling, and the Confession states plainly that dipping is not necessary.
Kept in the Church of Scotland, the established Presbyterian church of that country. Baptism is a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, and the Confession teaches that its efficacy is not tied to the moment it is administered.
Observed today, but the Kirk suppressed Christmas after 1640 and it was not a public holiday in Scotland until 1958, so the present observance is a restoration rather than an unbroken keeping.
Kept in the Church of Scotland, the established Presbyterian church of that country. Solemn fastings are named in the Westminster Confession as a part of religious worship, kept on particular occasions rather than by a fixed calendar.
Kept in the Church of Scotland, the established Presbyterian church of that country. The Reformed burial was deliberately plain, and the Westminster Directory directed that the body be interred without ceremony, which is a reaction against the medieval rite rather than an absence of one.
Kept in the Church of Scotland, the established Presbyterian church of that country. Ordination is to the offices of minister, elder and deacon, by a body of ministers rather than by a bishop, and it is not a sacrament.
Kept in the Church of Scotland, the established Presbyterian church of that country. The infants of one or both believing parents are to be baptised, and the Confession calls it a great sin to contemn or neglect the ordinance.
Kept in the Church of Scotland, the established Presbyterian church of that country. Marriage is not a sacrament, and the Confession treats it under the law of God rather than under the ordinances of the church.
Kept in the Church of Scotland, the established Presbyterian church of that country. The Christian Sabbath is kept with a rigour found nowhere else in Christianity: the whole day set apart, ordinary works, words and thoughts about worldly employments and recreations laid aside. This is the plainest Reformed distinctive in practice.
Kept in the Church of Scotland, the established Presbyterian church of that country. Prayer is treated as the chief exercise of faith, and the Heidelberg Catechism makes it the whole of its third part, on thankfulness.
The Church of Scotland's own General Assembly authorized this metrical psalter for public worship in 1650, after Scottish revisors spent two years and four months reworking the Westminster Assembly's initial draft; first sung publicly in Glasgow the same year and still part of the church's worship inheritance. Distinct from the pre-existing Presbyterianism edge, since this documents the specific national church that commissioned and first adopted it rather than the broader confessional family.
Kept in the Church of Scotland, the established Presbyterian church of that country. The breaking of the bread is emphasised as a sign in itself, and the Reformed rite made the minister break the bread in the sight of the people.
Kept in the Church of Scotland, the established Presbyterian church of that country.
The Claim of Right of 1842, the Disruption of 1843 and the Church of Scotland Act 1921 settled that the church holds its spiritual jurisdiction from Christ and not from the state, which the state acknowledges rather than grants.
Kept in the Church of Scotland, the established Presbyterian church of that country. The words of institution are read as a warrant for the action, and the Reformed rite makes the reading of them a separate declaratory act.