John Colquhoun 

(1748–1827)

John Colquhoun (ka-hoon) was a minister in the Church of Scotland and a prolific writer. He was born in the parish of Luss (Dunbartonshire) in 1748 and was led to conversion as a teenager by the answer to the Shorter Catechism’s question “What is effectual calling?” He immersed himself in the writings of Thomas Boston, then studied at the University of Glasgow. He was ordained as minister of St. John’s in South Leith in 1781, where he served for forty-six years. He died in 1827.

Colquhoun was a Reformed experiential preacher. His sermons and writings reflect those of the Marrow brethren, whose theology was more like that of the Secession churches than like that of Colquhoun’s fellow evangelicals in the Church of Scotland. Though Colquhoun, as a Church of Scotland minister, was not allowed to recommend Fisher’s Marrow of Modern Divinity because the General Assembly had condemned it, he felt free to recommend Thomas Boston’s notes.

Colquhoun’s writings are theologically astute and intensely practical. He wrote on the core doctrines of the gospel, particularly on experiential soteriology. He wrote A Treatise of Spiritual Comfort in 1813, then, three years later, A Treatise on the Law and the Gospel. He also wrote books on the covenant of grace (1818), the covenant of works (1821), saving faith (1824), the promises of the gospel (1825), and evangelical repentance (1825). Then, too, he wrote a catechism for young communicants (1821) and a volume of sermons that was published posthumously (1836) with a brief memoir.