A Manual of Religious Belief

The surviving manuscript of the instructional work A Manual of Religious Belief is written in the form of a theological dialogue between father and child written out in holograph by John Murdoch for William Burnes, Robert Burns's father. William had started to compose and compile the work before Robert Burns's birth and wrote the first rough draft that has not survived. This work was originally composed with a stronger Scots language content that Murdoch modified, as well as making grammatical corrections. It is lightly tied with a piece of red thread, and John Murdoch's legible and elegant handwriting is found on all the sheets except the final verso.

The manuscript and its contents As stated William Burnes had been working on his theological manual for religious guidance since Robert's birth and probably before. The ponderous religious jargon used shows the religious influences of the 18th-century ministers, but producing the manual as a dialogue was very innovative for the time. William had used "douther" for "daughter" and his handwriting was not as readable as Murdoch's copperplate hand.

Son. Dear Father, you have often told me, while you were initiating me into the Christian religion, that you stood bound for me, to give me a Christian education, and recommend a religious life to me. I would therefore, if you please, ask you a few questions that may tend to confirm my faith, and clear its evidences to me.

Father. My Dear Child, with gladness I will resolve to you, (as far as I am able,) any questions you ask; only with this caution, that you will believe my answers, if they are founded in the word of God.

How will I evidence to myself that there is a God? If God be possessed of all possible perfection, ought we not then to love him, as well as fear and serve him? Then one would think this were sufficient to determine all men to love God, but how shall we account for so much wickedness in the world? What do you understand by faith? By what shall I know that Jesus Christ is really the person that was prophesied in the Old Testament; or that he was that seed of the woman that was to destroy the kingdom of sin You speak of repentance as absolutely necessary to salvation; I would know what you mean by repentance? I should be glad to hear you at large upon religion giving pleasure to animal life; for it is represented as taking up our cross and following Christ.

Commentary on the religious beliefs expressed

The paternal affection and that of the son for the father are expressed in the terms "Dear Son and Dear Father". The religious views expressed are more relaxed than rigid Scottish Calvinism and have been compared to Arminianism, named for the 17th-century theologian, Jacobus Arminius, of the University of Leyden. John Calvin insisted on salvation by grace alone whilst Arminians emphasised God's mercy and the freedom of Will, proposing that salvation might be conditional upon an individual good works in life, and that grace can be resisted and lost, that Christ died for all men.