# On a Half Reform being No Reform at all--Samuel Rutherford



## NaphtaliPress (Apr 14, 2013)

Use Two. The honorable Houses are to beware of the half-reformation of Darius; nothing [is] more odious to God than,

(1) A negative devotion; Nebuchadnezzar thinks he has done all, if nothing be spoken amiss of the true God (Dan. 3:29).

(2) Agrippa, his almost a Christian is not a Christian at all [Acts 26:28]; _Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to me with her whole heart _(Jer. 3:10).

(3) God detests lukewarmness, and coldness in his matters.

(4) He hates a mixture. It is a mark put on Samaria (2 Kings 17:33), [that] _They feared the Lord, and served their own gods. _This is that which brings the stretched out arm of the Lord’s fury on the land (Zeph. 1:5), because they _swear by the Lord, and by Malcom,_ and because the people _halt between the Lord and Baal_ (1 King 18:21). And it is Jehu’s reproachful reformation (2 Kings 10:28, 29). _Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel_. _Nevertheless he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat._ Oh how fearful to be under this? He is for the good cause, nevertheless, he knows nothing of the power of religion, so he is right in the house, nevertheless he complains much with malignants. It is known to you all when the whore of Babylon was cast out of the church, that she left behind her a gold ring, and some lover tokens, I mean Episcopacy, and human ceremonies. This was the whore’s policy to leave a token behind her that she might find an errand in the house again. And she was indeed returning to the house to demand her love token again, but it shall be heavenly wisdom to make a perfect reformation; keep nothing that belongs to Babylon, and let not _a stone to be a cornerstone or a foundation be taken out of Babylon_ for building of the Lord’s house, for they are cursed stones [cf. Jer. 50]. ​
Samuel Rutherford, “Sermon Before the House of Commons, January 31, 1644,” on Daniel 6:26, _Sermons Preached Before the English Houses of Parliament by the Scottish Commissioners to the Westminster Assembly of Divines 1643–1645_ (Naphtali Press, 2011) 409–410.


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## One Little Nail (Apr 15, 2013)

A half baked Reformation sounds like your talking about the Church of England,ha ha.
all humour aside as presbyterians we've always frowned upon CoE's holding of Prelacy
& other Romish things & rightly so but she had a mighty Reformation as to Doctrine
& Idolatry, turned wholly to The Lord God Jehovah forsaking her idols in this regard.I think 
her Reformation doesn't compare to the Older Covenant ones mentioned,to be fair human
composed innovations,particularly in worship are idolatry but spiritual idolatry as opposed
to actual & essential idolatry ie wood & stone ones, the CoE held firm till the 19th Century
when the Oxford movement hit & the Vatican's satanic jesuit devils did there dirty work of
infiltration & she fell in one generation.


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