The Scottish
Confession was one of three documents from the time of the
Reformation included in the
Book of Confessions, each document originating in a different center of the Reformation:
Scotland,
Germany, and
Switzerland.
The Confession was written after the Scottish civil war in response to medieval catholicism. The Scottish Parliament, having declared Scotland a Protestant nation, asked the clergy to frame a confession of faith. Six ministers, including John Knox, completed their work in four days. The document was ratified by Parliament, in 1560, as "doctrine grounded upon the infallible Word of God."
The confession sets out to trace and define the "true" church through out history and into the future. God's providential deliverance is a present reality not just a thing of the past.
The true church as described in the Scots Confessional bears the following marks: "the true
preaching of the Word of God,"; "the right administration of the sacraments of Christ Jesus,"; and "ecclesiastical discipline . . . whereby vice is repressed and virtue nourished."
Index:
The Scots Confession: Chapter 1- God
The Scots Confession: Chapter 2 - The Creation of Man
The Scots Confession: Chapter 3 - Original Sin
The Scots Confession: Chapter 4 - The Revelation of the Promise
The Scots Confession: Chapter 5 - The Continuance, Increase, and Preservation of the Kirk
The Scots Confession: Chapter 6- The Incarnation of Jesus Christ
The Scots Confession: Chapter 7 - Why the Mediator Had to Be True God and True Man
The Scots Confession: Chapter 8 - Election
The Scots Confession: Chapter 9 - Christ's Death, Passion, and Burial
The Scots Confession: Chapter 10 - The Resurrection
The Scots Confession: Chapter 11 - The Ascension
The Scots Confession: Chapter 12 - Faith in the Holy Ghost
The Scots Confession: Chapter 13 - The Cause of Good Works
The Scots Confession: Chapter 14 - The Works Which Are Counted Good Before God
The Scots Confession: Chapter 15 - The Perfection of the Law and The Imperfection of Man
The Scots Confession: Chapter 16 - The Kirk
The Scots Confession: Chapter 17 - The Immortality of Souls
The Scots Confession: Chapter 18 - The Notes by Which the True Kirk Shall Be Determined From The False, and Who Shall Be Judge of Doctrine
The Scots Confession: Chapter 19 - The Authority of the Scriptures
The Scots Confession: Chapter 20 - General Councils, Their Power, Authority, and the Cause of Their Summoning
The Scots Confession: Chapter 21 - The Sacraments
The Scots Confession: Chapter 22 - The Right Administration of the Sacraments
The Scots Confession: Chapter 23 - To Whom Sacraments Appertain
The Scots Confession: Chapter 24 - The Civil Magistrate
The Scots Confession: Chapter 25 - The Gifts Freely Given to the Kirk
Source: The Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Part I, Book of Confessions