John Brown (clergyman)
Encyclopedia
John Brown Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 divine, grandson of John Brown of Haddington
John Brown (theologian)
John Brown of Haddington , was a Scottish divine and author. His works include “The Self-Interpreting Bible”, “The Dictionary of the Bible”, and “A General History of the Christian Church”.-Career:...

, was born at Whitburn
Whitburn, West Lothian
Whitburn is a small town in West Lothian, Scotland located halfway between Scotlands's two largest cities being about east of Glasgow and west of Edinburgh...

, Linlithgowshire.
He studied at Glasgow university
University of Glasgow
The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...

, and afterwards at the divinity hall of the Burgher branch of the Secession church at Selkirk, under the celebrated George Lawson. In 1806 he was ordained minister of the Burgher congregation at Biggar, Lanarkshire
Lanarkshire
Lanarkshire or the County of Lanark ) is a Lieutenancy area, registration county and former local government county in the central Lowlands of Scotland...

, where he labored for sixteen years. While there he had an interesting controversy with Robert Owen
Robert Owen
Robert Owen was a Welsh social reformer and one of the founders of utopian socialism and the cooperative movement.Owen's philosophy was based on three intellectual pillars:...

 the socialist.

Transferred in 1822 to the charge of Rose Street church, Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

, he at once took a high rank as a preacher. In 1829 he succeeded James Hall at Broughton Place church, Edinburgh. In. 1835 he was appointed one of the professors in the theological hall of the Secession church, and, great as was his ability as a preacher and pastor, it was probably in this sphere that he rendered his most valuable service.

He had been the first in Scotland to use in the pulpit the exegetical method of exposition of Scripture, and as a professor he illustrated the method and extended its use. To him chiefly is due the abandonment of the principle of interpretation according to the analogy of faith, which practically subordinated the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

 to the creed. Brown's exegesis
Exegesis
Exegesis is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially a religious text. Traditionally the term was used primarily for exegesis of the Bible; however, in contemporary usage it has broadened to mean a critical explanation of any text, and the term "Biblical exegesis" is used...

 was marked by rare critical sagacity, exact and extensive scholarship, unswerving honesty, and a clear, logical style; and his expository works have thus a permanent value. He had a considerable share in the Apocrypha
Apocrypha
The term apocrypha is used with various meanings, including "hidden", "esoteric", "spurious", "of questionable authenticity", ancient Chinese "revealed texts and objects" and "Christian texts that are not canonical"....

 controversy, and he was throughout life a vigorous and consistent upholder of anti-state-church or voluntary views.

He eagerly supported the separation of church and state. In Edinburgh an impost called the annuity tax was levied for the support of the city's Church of Scotland ministers. This he finally refused to pay, whereupon in 1838 his goods were twice seized and sold. His two sermons on The Law of Christ respecting civil obedience, especially in the payment of tribute, called forth by this grievance and the controversy it engendered, were afterwards published with extensive additions and notes, and are still regarded as an admirable statement and defence of the voluntary principle. The part he took in the discussion on the Atonement, which agitated all the Scottish churches, led to a formal charge of heresy against him by those who held the doctrine of a limited atonement. In 1845, after a protracted trial, he was acquitted by the synod
Synod
A synod historically is a council of a church, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. In modern usage, the word often refers to the governing body of a particular church, whether its members are meeting or not...

.

From that time he enjoyed the thorough confidence of his denomination (after 1847 merged in the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland
United Presbyterian Church of Scotland
The United Presbyterian Church of Scotland was a Scottish Presbyterian denomination. It was formed in 1847 by the union of the United Secession Church and the Relief Church, and in 1900 merged with the Free Church of Scotland to form the United Free Church of Scotland, which in turn united with...

), of which in his later years he was generally regarded as the leading representative.

His chief works were:
  • Expository Discourses on First Peter (1848)
  • Exposition of the Discourses and Sayings of our Lord (1850)
  • Exposition of our Lord's Intercessory Prayer (1850)
  • The Resurrection of Life (1851)
  • Expository Discourses on Galatians (1853)
  • Analytical Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans (1857).


See Memoir of John Brown, D.D., by John Cairns (1860).
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