April - the Free Presbyterian church of Scotland

116The Free Presbyterian Magazineness of the Antitype. What was done upon the victim was supposed to havebeen done upon the priest, who now became a party to the action. Heappropriated the blood, which now passed for his own blood, for the priest’saction began here.The ritual advanced gradually till it reached this act of sprinkling, wherewe find sin expiated and divine wrath propitiated. But from the necessaryimperfection of types, the idea was broken into parts, and in succession. Theblood was brought to God and made to cover sin. The sprinkling – whetherperformed at the horns of the altar or in the holy of holies, the meeting placebetween God and His people – figured forth that the sin of the individual orof the nation, though piled up as an heap, was now covered and all cause ofseparation removed. Death had intervened, and the blood that had passedthrough death was now most holy and had atoning power wherever it wassprinkled (Heb 13:12).Scottish Reformers’ View of Romanism 11. IntroductionRev D W B Somersethe Scottish Reformers’ view of Romanism is well known: theyTregarded it as unbiblical, evil and highly dangerous, both for individualsouls and for the nation. It was a false religion that had to be opposed androoted out, and it is remarkable how successful they were in this. Romanismcompletely collapsed in 1560, and this was accomplished without the deathof a single Roman Catholic, other than soldiers killed in battle. There wereno martyrs for Romanism (indeed the only Roman Catholic “martyr” in thewhole history of Scotland was John Ogilvie who was executed in 1615under Episcopalianism).In this series of articles we consider how the Church of Rome appearedto Scottish Reformers between 1494 and 1560, and how they came to separatethemselves from it. We begin with some general remarks and then go onto an historical survey of their views and of the steps that they took towardscomplete separation.1. General remarks.(1.) The Reformers saw the Church of Rome in an undisguised state. TheScottish Reformers saw Romanism in a position of dominance in Scotland.The Church of Rome was the established Church, with immense power andnothing to fear, and therefore no need to hide. Rome was so strong that she1 The first part of a paper presented at the 2010 Theological Conference.