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T.

and

T.

Claries PuUications.

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ST.
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' '
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THEOLOGY AND THEOLOGIANS OF SCOTLAND.

EXTRACTS FROM REVIEWS OF THE FIRST EDITION.
do not wonder that in their delivery Dr, Walker's lectures we should have wondered far more if they had not done so.' Mr. Spuugeon in Sword and Troioel.
'

We

excited great interest

'

We

commend

to our readers this ahle

and interesting volume.'

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to the cheap
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has been developed north of the Tweed.'

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contribution to the science of historical theology.

This volume must be welcomed as an important and seasonable There is a glow . of spiritual earnestness pervading these lectures which, indeed, has always connected itself with the awakening of an interest in the history of the contendings of the Scottish Church, and belies the extravagant assertions of those who ascribe a dry and speculative orthodoxy to Scottish religion, as its distinctive characteristic'
. .

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and Foreign Evangelical Review.

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WITH THE PUBLISr"

coil.

THE THEOLOGY
AND

THEOLOGIANS OF SCOTLAND,

PRINTED BY MOKRISON AND GIBB,

FOR
T.

&

T.

CLARK, EDINBUEGH.
HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND
CO.

LONDON,
DUBLIN,

NEW

YORK,

....

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THE THEOLOGY
THEOLOGIANS OF SCOTLAJ^D
CHIEFLY OF THE

SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES.

Bring one of

tfje

" Cunningfjam Eccturcs.'

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CAUXWATH.

D.D.

SECOND EDITION, REVISED.

EDINBURGH:
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&

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38

GEORGE STREET.

1888.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO FIRST EDITION.

HE

Trust-deed of the founder requires that

each course of Cunningham Lectures shall

be
delivery.

published

within

year

after

their

Xo
to

doubt a law like that could not be

enforced
illness

meant
stances.

be

under
a

exceptional

circum-

The

of

lecturer

would doubtless

be accepted by the Trustees as a sufficient reason

for

an
of

extension

of

time.

Unfortunately

in

the

case

Dr. Walker that excuse has

of
last

existed.

In
after

the

spring

year,

almost

immediately

the delivery of the Lectures, he was laid aside from

work
the

of every kind,

and has been obliged to spend

winter

abroad.

The

interest

produced by the

Lectures, however, at the time of their delivery,

was

so great, that their speedy publication w^as earnestly

pressed by

many
led

friends
to

and

this,

combined with

other things,
their

his his

being asked to consent to

absence.
at
first

publication

in

To
quite

this

arrange;

ment he was

naturally

averse

but

vi

Introdudorij Note

to

First Edition.

Leing most anxious

Trust-deed,

to

fulfil

the

conditions

of

the

and not

to delay

the publication

of his

Lectures

until perhaps another

to

volume

of the series

might be due, he agreed

to our care,

commit
to

his manuscripts

and

to

leave us

judge whether they

were

fit,

as

he had

left

them, for the press.

Tlie issue of the present

volume shows the concluled.

sion to

which we have been

As might have been

to

expected,

we have had many

difficulties

encounter;

but the Lectures seemed to us to contain so

that was fitted to interest

much
make

and stimulate,

as

to

an

indefinite

delay

in

their

publication

extremely

undesirable.

Although the work now appears under

great disadvantages,

we

are confident that

of the to

it

will be as

welcomed by
acceptable

all friends

Scottish

Church

an

contribution

an important department

of its literature.
It is right to explain further, that

none of the proofis

sheets have been

seen by Dr. Walker, and that he

therefore not to be held responsible for

any mistakes

that

may

possibly have occurred in

connection with

the deciphering of his manuscripts.

Had

he been his
all

own

editor,

he would of course have given

his

authorities,
It

and likewise appended

illustrative

notes.

was

also part of his plan to complete the discussion

of his subject

by adding four Lectures

to

the six that

were delivered.

Introductory Note

to

First Edition.

vii

We

cannot conclude without acknowledging very

cordially the effective help

which we have
press,

received, in

preparing the volume for the

from the Eev.

James Black

of

Dunnikier and the Rev. E. A. Thomson

Their intimate knowledge of Scottish
their readiness
to

of Edinburgh.

Church History, and

publication in every

forward the

way

in their power, have

made

their assistance quite invaluable.

NORMAN
W.
G.

L.

WALKER.

BLAIKIE.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO SECOND

EDITION.

[HE

First Edition of these Lectures has

been

long

since

exhausted, and their

re -issue

has been often pressed.

of

But the health

of
his

the
a

author

has

never
revision

allowed
of

underliitlierLo

taking

thorough
all

them,
to

and

he has resisted

the appeals

made

him

to permit

their republication in their original form.

tions,

His objecway,

however,

have

now

so

far

given

and

hence the present volume.

This

new
of

Edition has
the

been printed from a private copy

Lectures

which Dr. Walker himself read with pencil in hand

some years
annotated.

ago,

and

to a certain

extent corrected and

But substantially

tlie

work

is

unchanged.
it,

One

distinct addition only has

been made to

in the

shape of a supplementary chapter dealing with an

interesting

aspect

of

the

Doctrine

of

the

Visible
in

Church.

This

appeared

some
is

years

ago

The

Catholic Presbyterian,

and

reprinted here with the

permission of the Editor, Dr. Blaikie.

NORMAN

L.

WALKER.

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER

I.

SURVEY OF THE FIELD.

Scottish Theology begins with

John Knox

Andrew
Century

Melville's

Contributions were small Principal Rollock, of the University

of

Edinburgh
the
at

Beginning

of 17th

"Welsh,

Sharp,

Simpsons^ Boyd

of

Trochrigg,

a Writer of

Eminence
sity of

Home and Abroad Was

succeeded in Univer-

Glasgow by Cameron

Altare

Damascenum

David Calderwood and the Theologians of the Second Reformation

Durham,
Principal Strang

Samuel Rutherford, his Remarkable Character and Writings

George Gillespie, a Fit Fellow- Worker of Rutherford PrinBaillie,

cipal

Dickson,

James
Time
Results

Wood

of St. Andrews, one of the Ablest

Men

of his

Principal Patrick Gillespie,

Hugh Binning Literary

of the First Century of Presbyterianism

finds the

The

next Period

Church in Sackcloth Literary Activity of Exiled M'WardJohn Livingstone, a Great Preacher and a Great Scholar Brown of Wamphray, an Able and Voluminous Writer Home Literature of the Persecution The Literature of the Period after 1690 Contest as to Episcopacy Jamieson's Works claim a Special Notice Several Schools of Religious Thought now in the Church Thomas
Ministers

Boston, one of the Great Figures in our Religious History

The
ing

First Five Secederswere Theologians

and Men of Learn.

Special Notice of M 'Laurin and Adam Gib,

1-


X
Contents.

CHAPTER

II.

PREDESTINATION AND PROVIDENCE.

PAO ES
Scottish Theology deficient in

some Points It made no Contri-

bution to the Trinitarian Controversy

But

Scottish Theolo-

gians were intimate with the Ante-Nicene Fathers Frequency Their Opinion of the Nicene of Quotations from Augustine

Little was contributed towards Historical Apologetics Faith in the Self-manifesting Power of Divine Truth strong The External Evidence somewhat undervalued Peculiar Struggles of Eminent Men with Unbelief Experimental Apologetics Halyburton's Treatise Modern Apologetical Philosophy of Scotch Origin Philosophy applied to Revival Phenomena Doctrine of Fundamental Beliefs Doctrine of Conscience propounded before Butler Discussions on Predestination, Knox, Boyd, Rollock, Rutherford Rutherford on Sin God's Mean to an End Absence of Reverent Restraint in the Discussion This arose from Boundless Little Sympathy Confidence in God But there
Creed
etc.

Avas

with Difficulties
the Author
Rutherford's
this

now
Sin

so

common No
of

Idea of making

God

of

Boyd

Trochrigg's Explanation

Way of putting the Matter Dr.

Strang attacked

Doctrine of Physicus concursusDirect Action of the Divine Will in Nature This not connected with Caprice or Disorder Doctrine as to the Mode of the Answer to Prayer The Preciirsus and Concursus applied to Being God
View
all

held to be efficient of
Sin

all

Entitive Acts about Sin

is

Theory of

Sin not an Entitive ActWhat Noble in this Viewmakes the Moral give way to the Sanctity of Nature But Metaphysical General Influence and Prevalence of this View Calvinism and Necessitarianism Professor Simpson Adam Gib's Attack on Lord Kames' Necessitarianism He was afraid that Law would be elevated above God The
it
,

Motive-Spring of these Views,

oQ-QQ


Contents.

xi

CHAPTER

III.

THE ATONEMENT.
PAGES

Views of Scotch Divines on Necessity of Redemption

held no Necessity save in
Justitia

Free

Decree of

Rutherford God Denied

punUiva

of

God Threw no

Light on the Divine Per-

mission of Sin

Desired to Conserve the Freedom of Grace Patrick Gillespie nearly agreed with Rutherford Fraser of Brea, the last who held this View Boston and the "Marrow Men " held the Opposite Their A^iew of the Moral Law also different Views on the Nature of Redemption Opinions on the Covenant of Works The New Covenant of Grace Prominence of the Person of Christ Some Differences as to the Doctrine of the Covenants They held Christ to have offered a Real Satisfaction His Sufferings held to have been the same in kind Views on the Extent of Redemption Discussion of
Question, Did Christ die for
all

? Opinion

of Fraser of Brea
his

Commotion occasioned
Eraser's
all

by the Publication of

Book
for

Theory that Christ purchased Temporal Benefits

This Subject discussed by Durham and others Patrick View different The "Marrow" Controversy on Extent of Redemption Doctrine of "the Marrow" on this point condemned by General Assembly The Marrow Men Interpretation They held Particular Redemption pudiated The Marrow View of the Appropriation of Christ Objections the MarroAV Theology Reprobation Sinners of Mankind World's Conversion Christ's Legatees Judaic Theory of Yet Boston and the Marrow Men had the JModcrn MissionGillespie's
reits

to

tlie

ary Spirit,

67-94

CHAPTER

IV.

THE DOCTRINE OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH.

Vast Number of Scotch Treatises on the Church

The

Visible

Church

the

Idea of

it is

so feeble,

was then very

This Conception, now powerful The Idea of Catholic

Catholic

Protestant Unity

Different Churches in

same Territory


xii

Contents,
PAGES

generally inadmissible

Opinions of Rutherford, Durham, The Donatists did not obtain their Sympathy Gillespie's Pleading against Separations The Church was not to be Lax, but Schism was a Great Sin A Change begun by the Controversy of Resolutioners and Protesters Differences about the Indulgence M'Ward denies the State-Church to be of genus Church Brown of Wamphray's View of Unity The Old View of Unity losing groundRevolution Settlement the Non-Separation Cameronians The Three Field
etc.

Preachers join the Church

The Revolution Church

held the

Lauder's Views nearer to the Present The Secession of 1733 how justified Adam Gib splits the Secession his Unique Character The Present State of
Old View of Schism
Things would have horrified Rutherford or Brown
ship in the Visible Church
Belief but

Member-

on

The Visible Church not based on Profession The "Judgment of Charity" not
in enforcing

admitted
ence

More
Two

The Power of the Magistrate

Spiritual
etc.

Adher-

Views came into vogue

to

Views of Baptism,
tion of

opposed

Boston's Rutherford's Combina Christ Lesson for

95-126

Views, anent Schism and Membership

the Only Source of Blessing in the Church

Present Times,

CHAPTER

V.

THE HEADSHIP OF CHRIST AND ERASTIANISM.

Prefatory Note

But

Erastianism the Great Blot of Reformed Churches The the Best Periods The Crown of Christ prominent at Doctrine of the Headship enshrining a Present Christ
the Scotch Church had no Proclivity towards
all
it

" Meaning of the Doctrine The Minister a " Sent Messenger The Rutherford on the Meaning of Excommunication

Church the Real Kingdom of Christ

Christ the only King or

Head

no

Depute Headship admissible

Neither

Pontifical

nor Magistratical Headship

Magistrate's Headship as

Erastian

Vindication of the

" Gustos"

This View indefensible


Contents.

xiii
PAGES

Nature of the Magistrate's Power

Civil Side of

His

Action respects the

Things Civil Element in the First Table of the The Magistrate's being a Christian does not the case Catena of Testimonies Andrew Melville Testimony of Plea the Persecuted Ministers " Testimony of Brown

Law
'

alter

'

for

of

Wamphray Views
of

of the Early Seceders Rutherford's

Views that penetrated Church of 16th and 17th Centuries Limitation of these Views by Toleration Rights secured to the Church, 1st Right, Self-government 2nd Right, Cherishing and Nourishing 3rd Right, The Tithes 4th Right, Exclusion of other Claimants
Change

View

all

Toleration of Heretical Bodies

Special, if not only

dreaded The Church

as Mediator

Christ's

Kingdom
to

Views of

Hooker

and Cartwright as

Christ's

Mediatorial Sovereignty

Apollonius held the only

Kingdom Doctrine

It

was his

Weapon
specially

against Erastianism

of the Scotch

Church

Disputed whether this Doctrine But they held He was King of Zion very
.

This brought the Lord of Glory very near,

CHAPTER VL

127-156

PRESENT MISREPRESENTATION OF SCOTTISH RELIGION.

Alleged Gloominess of Scottish Religion

Mr.
by

Buckle's Extravag-

ance and Blunders His Misrepresentation of Excommunication

And
of the

of the Authority claimed

Christ's Ministers

And

Power claimed by them over the Future World

Samuel Rutherford and Thomas Buckle

the Period matched at the Present

Extravagances

of

Day Were

the Scotch

The Gospel gave the Love Personal Character of the Leading Divines Durham John Livingstone Richard Cameron John Welsh of Ayr Thomas Boston of Ettrick Hugh M'Kail Domestic Tenderness of these Men Story told by Livingstone of a "Tocher" Devotion, not Selfishness, the Ruling Force Scotch Religion alleged to be a Religion of Speculative Dogma Doctrinalism of Broad Church, Unitarian,
People really cowed and stricken
?

of

Freedom

to the People

xiv

Contents.
PAGES

The Personal Christ not absent from Scottish Religion Allegation of an English High Churchman Quotation from a Scottish Layman of 1665 Christ the Administrator of the Covenant Quotation from Boston Alleged Sabbatarianism of Scottish Religion The Facts do alleged Doctrine of the Sabbath not bear out what Formalism necessarily connected with the Sabbath Not conlined to Scotland Tendency of our Time to rebel against
and other Schools
is

Law The
Ettrick

Power

of the Scottish

Sabbath The Sabbath

at

Effects

on the Temporal Progress of Scotland

Conclusion,

157-187

CHAPTER

VIL
?

DO I'RESBYTERIANS HOLD APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION

Doctrine of Apostolical Succession held in some Sense by Scotch

Presbyterians Ordination regarded as essential

Proceedings
"

Significant Gillespie on Presbyterian " Orders Rutherford's Distinctions "What implied in the Idea of Succession No Sacramentarianism in Mr. Gladstone's Alistake A Visible Church recognised Indelibility repudiated Approbation of the People indispensable An not a Lawful Minister Independent Intruded "Orders" recognised by Presbyterians Lay Preaching English Presbyterian Secession of 1G62 Failure of
of

Cameronians

it

]\Iinister

tlie
it

Reasons

for

Dangers

of a

High Church Presbyterianism

Allowance

of Fellowship Meetings
tlie

Importance

of main-

taining the Preaching of

Word Scotch Rule

never to

administer the Sacraments without Preaching

Difference on this Point

Significant
.

among High Churchmen,

188-200

SCOTTISH THEOLOGY.
CHAPTER

I.

SUKVEY OF THE FIELD.

HE

theology of

Scotland

begins
first

with

the

Reformation,

and the
is

of

our great
himself.

theological writers

John Knox

No doubt the man of action

was the
strong
latter

Reformer was more a preacher and a

than a student and a thinker
as
;

yet he
clear,

well

as

the former.

His

mind
it

firmly

grasped

the

Calvinistic system,

with which

might be said he had both morally and

;

intellectually natural affinities

and he was

sufficiently

acquainted with

its

scriptural grounds, with its accepted

its
it.

methods of doctrinal statement, even with

physics, to be the expounder
far

meta-

and defender of

Very

from

beincj the

mere

iconoclast,

he was also the

first

great teacher of his countrymen.

of Faith, the First ficent

The

Book

of Discipline

Confession

in its

magni-

comprehensiveness, one of the most remarkable

compositions of a great time

the work of

Knox

both of them chiefly

the long and elaborate treatise on

Scottish Theology.

Predestination, in which the doctrines of grace and of

the divine sovereignty are so vigorously, yet upon the

whole

so wisely, asserted

and maintained
;

give

Knox
to the

a high place

among

theologians

and, at any rate, they

have been greatly influential in giving direction

theological thinking of our country.

Among
there

Knox's contemporaries and fellow-workers

;

were several accomplished divines

but

they

were more taken up with preaching the gospel and

organizing

the

Church than writing books,

with

making well-instructed Christians

of the people, than

addressing themselves to the schools.

Even

of a later

generation the theological remains are not very abundant.

Andrew
left

Melville, second to none in learning,

to

and hardly second

has

Knox
to the

in

power and

influence,

us only one theological treatise, a short com-

mentary on the Epistle

hand, however, as
of Discipline,
to the
is

Eomans.

We

have his

well known, in the Second

Book

probably, too, in the papers belonging

contention between the State and Church in

1596, which Calderwood has preserved, and which,

brief

though they

are,

bear the unmistakeable indicaintellect

;

tions of a clear

and powerful

and we can

only regret that

we have
first

so little

from his pen.

Passing by not a few names of able men,

to

we come

Pollock,

the

Principal

of the

University of

Edinburgh.

Inducted

to his office in

1583, during the

he developed a

twenty years

of his professorial labours

great theological activity,

and from

his training

came
first

many

of the best ministers of the day.

He

is

our

Survey of

the Field.

commentator of any
lished

note.

Besides the lectures pub-

by the Wodrow

Society, he gave to the world

of

works in Latin on several of the Epistles

Paul,

which are
also

still

worthy of being consulted.

He

wrote

on the Psalms and the book of Daniel.

less

Pollock

was no
treatise

a theologian than

an expositor, as his
;

on Effectual Calling shows

and though

cer-

tainly not of the scholastic type, he has proved himself

sufficiently familiar

with the intricate questions which

the schoolmen almost claim as their peculiar profession.

Neither a brilliant nor a powerful man, he was sensible

and capable
partment.

fit

for almost

any kind

of

work

in his de;

Calderwood says he was mild and timorous

it

and perhaps

was well

for

him

that he died before

the days of trial came.

There was considerable theological activity in the

first

quarter of the seventeenth century.

against

John Welsh
his

of

Ayr wrote

Eomanism.

John Sharp,

fellow-sufferer, published in

Latin his

Harmony

of the

Prophets and the Apostles, a very interesting work of

its

kind, in

which verses or passages which seem

to

disagree are placed side

by

side,

and

their

seeming

dis-

agreement explained

containing also a

number

of short

essays or discussions on difficult moral and theological

questions.
literature.

It has a place of its

own

in our theological
their

The Simpson brothers were busy with

first

pens.

Patrick gave us our

treatise

History of the Church,

Archi-

and William a
bald was
of talent.
still

on the Hebrew accents.

more

prolific.

He was
of

evidently a

man

His exposition

the

seven

penitential

4
Psalms
is

Scottish Theology.

quaint, and fresh, and telling,

and

affords ns

a very favourable specimen of the popular exposition

of the period.

But, not to dwell on less distinguished men, one of

much

greater

mark was Boyd

of

Trochrigg.

This

eminent person, after attending

his studies in France,

Bollock,

prosecuted

and became a minister in the

French Church.

All accounts represent him as a most

accomplished scholar.

friend said of him, with per-

haps some exaggeration, that he was more eloquent in

French than in his native tongue

tells

and Livingstone

us that he spoke Latin with perfect fluency, but

that he had heard

him

say,

if

he had his choice, he

in

w^ould rather express himself in Greek than

any

other language.

The Church

of Boyd's adoption,

which
do

had given Andrew Melville a chair in one university, and Sharp a chair in another, was not slow
honour
to their
brilliant

to

countryman.

He was made
;

a professor in the University of

for

Saumur

and there
per-

some years he taught theology.

He was

suaded, however, in

1614

to

come home and accept

the Brincipalship df the Glasgow University.

Though
and

he

was

far

from

extreme
less

in

his

Presbyterianism,

he was found to be
liis

tractable than the king

advisers expected,

and was obliged

in

to resign his
to leave

office.

But he was long enough

Glasgow

the

impress of himself on some of the young

men

destined to distinction in the Church in after years.

Boyd's great work

to the

is

his

Commentary on
of

the Epistle
size

Uphesians.

work

it is

stupendous

and

Survey of

the Field.

stupendous learning.

There

is

more in

it

than in the

four quarto tomes of Turretin.

Its ap'paratus criticus is

;

something enormous.
the
writers
of

The Greek and Latin Fathers

dark
aojes
;

the

the
;

Protestant

and

Eomish theologians
naeus
;

of his

own time
;

Justin and Ire-

Tertullian and Cyprian

;

Clement and Origen

Augustine and Jerome

Gregory Nyssen and Gregory

Nazianzen
Calvin
all

Anselm, and Bonaventure, and Bernard

;

and Eollock

Bellarmine and Pighius,

are

at

hand

to render aid or to receive replies.

is

In

one sense, Boyd on the Ephesians

that
is

a commentary,

to

say, the

author discusses the meaning of

every verse and clause, and does so well.

But much

more properly

it

might be called a theological thesaurus.

You have

a separate discussion of almost every im-

portant theological topic.

The

Trinity, the Incarna-

tion, Original Sin, Baptism, Arianism, Ubiquitarianism,

the Nature and Extent of Piedemption, are

handled.

all

fully

There

is

a treatise on Predestination wdiich

alone would

make

a considerable volume.

One can

only regret that a selection of these separate essays

or discussions

was not published, rather than the huge

beinc^ buried

indiscriminate mass, which has led to the calamitous

result of a oreat divine
erudition.

under his own

Boyd's character was as noble as his learning was

great.

He

was, says Livingstone,

''

of

an austere-like
Notwithstand-

carriage, but of a

most tender

heart.

ing of his rare

abilities,

he had no account of himself,

but a high account of every other man's parts,

when

Scottish Theology.

he perceived any spark of grace and ingenuity

"but

where these were

censurer."
age.

not,

no

man was

such a severe

He
may

died in his prime, under fifty years of

Boyd, I

notice,

was succeeded in Glasgow

of
still

after

some interval by a man

greater celebrity, Dr.

John Cameron.

He,

too,

had been in France, and a

professor in one of its colleges.

Owing

to

some

offence

he had given the French Government, he was obliged

to leave that country
;

and James, thinking him likely

installed

to

prove

serviceable,

him

in

the

vacant
there.

principalship.

He

did not find himself at

home

He was

lax in his doctrine and lax in his ecclesiastical

;

principles

and

this did not suit the tastes of

many

of

the students

whom Boyd

had trained, nor the current

still

of general sentiment,

which

ran strongly against

Prelacy and the Ceremonies.

to

Cameron was soon glad

return to

the Continent.
divines

We
;

can hardly reckon

it is

him among our Scotch

loss.

and perhaps

no

His repute

in

other countries was very great.

;

On
of

all

hands you have the praise of his learning

and

the great

him, even

men of the French Church, when they speak when differing from his sentiments, speak
respect.

of

him with

Yet

his

doctrine of the three

covenants, and his attempted mediation between Cal-

vin and Arminius, have had

indicate a

little

success,

and do not
in learning

mind

of high order.

The equal
unflinching

of either

Boyd
of

or

Cameron
and

was David Calderwood, the ardent Presbyterian, the

opponent
Prelacy
its

adjuncts.

Survey of the Field.

Banished
the

for his

nonconformity, he found a

home

in

Low

Countries, where he wrote his great work, the

It
is

Altare Damasccnum.

the most

serious

attack

on Diocesan, or rather Anglican, Episcopacy which I

suppose has ever been made in this country.
Patiently

and perseveringly Calderwood goes over the whole

system,
tearing
it

to

pieces,

as

it

were, bit

by

bit.

The
his

Bible, the Fathers, the Canonists, are equally at

command.

It does

our Church no credit that the

It

Altare has never been translated.

seems to have
it.

been more in request out of Scotland than in

large

The
was
the

and beautiful edition

I possess of the Altare

printed in

Amsterdam

as late as
*'

1700.

Among

Dutch divines he was ever

wood."

eminentissimus Calderthe principles

for

Calderwood lived to see

liad suffered,

which he

and which he had

so powerfully

vindicated, in complete ascendency.

at the

He was

present

Glasgow Assembly in 1638, and saw Prelacy

and the Ceremonies swept away.

gathering again before he died.

The clouds were

breathed his last at

He

Jedburgh, a fugitive from his parish of Pencaitland

and they

laid
first,

him

in

the

churchyard

of

Crailing,

where the

and very

likely the happiest, years of

his ministry

were spent.

And

so

we come down

to the theologians

of

the

so-called second Eeformation.

To

this period
Baillie,

belong

Samuel Eutherford, George

Dickson,
Blair,

Gillespie,

David
Patrick

Durham, Gray, Binning, Hutchison,

Ferguson,
Gillespie,

James

Wood, William Guthrie,

others.

and many

Scottish TJiCology.

Samuel Eutlierford
perhaps he
is

have put

first

on tins
of us

list,

and

the greatest.

To most

it is

likely

he

is

best

known by

his letters,

letters

which, I

say, stand all alone in religious literature,

may
as

to

some

bright
against

with unearthly glory, to others

all

as

offending

sacred

proprieties.

Yet

all

will

admit

there

is

something about them sui

if

generis.

Condemn
So
far

their taste

you

will,

you cannot but own that they

two centuries old
life

contain flashes of
as I

real, if unreojulatecl, oenius.

know, they are the only

still

letters

which are

a practical reality in the religious

of Scotland,

England, and America.

And

criticism

cannot get rid of the fact that they continue to retain

their hold of

human

hearts,

that they have

won

place for themselves beside such books as Augustine's

Confessions or
there

Thomas

a Kempis.
their

Something great
First
of
all

must be about

author.

Eegent in the University of Edinburgh, he was

at

settled

Anwoth, a beautiful
Solway.

parish, far

away on the shores

fall

of the

He

did not let his studies

into

abeyance in this severance from the centres of

lectual his
life.

intel-

In

1637

there

came from
'pro

his seclusion

Excrcitationes

Apologeticcc

divina gratia, in
in
of

which

are

discussed
controversy,

Arminian
theory,

Divine Decrees,

all

the the

main points
Immutability
a

the
the

the

Scientia Media,

the Efficacy of Grace,

new

Jesuit

God's Determination

of the Will,

and the

like.

Eutherford's fame w^as at

once established.
at
St.

He

was made Professor of Divinity

for the

Andrews, where

next twenty years he

"

"
:

Survey of the Fidel.

exercised an

immense influence on the future ministry

of our Church.
logical writer

He becomes now

the leading theo-

of his

day in Scotland, ever ready to

His pen
is

press into the very thick of controversy.

immensely
tiones
is

active.

Of the same
It

class

as his Exercita-

his

De

Proviclentiet, a larger

and much more

scholastic

book.

deals with every question from

which we now-a-days shrink back.

looked
into
it,

Good Mr. Wodrow

have been
terror-

and he seemssix

to

stricken.

Over more than

hundred

closely printed

pages, bristling with references to Thomas,

and Scotus,

and Bradwardine,
writers,
"

to the great

Jesuit and Arminian

he debates as
is

though in his very element

of

What

the

nature

God's

permissive
sin

will

"

Whether under God's permission

by a necessity
? ?

comes necessuch a thing

sarily about,

of consequence, though not

by a causal bond
as

"
"

"
"

Whether

there

is

Christian fate
is

Wliether in the sins of

"

and devils God

that

the eigens jprincijjedis in such a

all stain
?

men way

He

is free

from

winding up with an
God
?

excursus which contains questions that seem to carry

you

into very

cloudland

" Is

the
Is

origin

and

cause of possibles and impossibles

this

possible

something real
as
it

"

" Is there

anything impossible save

has

its original

impossibility from

God

Eutherford was somewhat of a hero-worshipper, and

his heroes were the schoolman

Bradwardine (Magnus

Bradwardine he always called him) and the Puritan

Dr. Twiss.

His choice of masters was not a happy

to

one

and he seems

have contracted from them a

10

Scottish Theology.

certain scholastic artificiality.

At the same

time,

it is

impossible not to admire the marvellous keenness of

his

mind, and the alertness with which he

flashes

through that maze of logical distinctions,

swords with Bellarmine,

now

crossing

now

striking hard at Suarez,

now, as he thinks, laying Arminius

low.

have

sometimes fancied that his Latin goes on with a more

vigorous and jubilant tread
intricacies are the greatest.

when

the difficulties and

Much more
or the

interesting than either the Exercitationes

to a large

De Providentia, while passing

is

extent

over the same ground,

the

It contains his lectures at St.

Examen Arminianismi, Andrews on that subject,

But

and

is,

in fact, an excellent theological manual.

while the great debate between Calvinists and Arniinians formed the chief subject of Eutherford's doctrinal

works, he did not confine himself to that.

His

visit to

England, and no doubt also his large reading, brought

him

into

contact with the

mystical Antinomianism
its

which in various forms had made

guise arisen

appearance since

the Eeformation, and which had in a very plausible

recently across the border.

The

result

was The Spiritual Antichrist,

production, containing
a

a strange, unarranged
of

survey

Antinomianism.

This

latter

work gives us
views
of
his

his views,

and we may

suppose
points
later.

the
that

time,

on

some
a

of

the

came

into

keen

discussion

century

Then Eutherford was not

contributions
to

less

voluminous in his
theology.

our

ecclesiastical

The

Survey of the Field.

Peacectble

Plea for
;

Presbytery;

The Due

Eight

of

Presbyteries

The Divine Right of Church Government,

fertile pen,

all

from his

contain the amplest exposi-

tion

and vindication

of our old ecclesiastical principles.

I do not say they are equal to

some

others, either in
field

power

or clearness

but they sweep over a wider

than any.

Most

essential points

which Gillespie has

;

barely touched, Eutherford carefully considers

instance, the nature of the visible
its

as, for

Church

as such,

and

constituent elements.
is

Even

in the Erastian conhis

troversy he

a necessary supplement to
It
is

great

contemporary.

something

to

me

altogether

amazing, the mass of thinking about Church questions

you have
over
-

in those writings.

Confused they often

sparkles

are,

subtle,

but

everywhere there are

of

suggestive thought, which indeed the writer, as though

heedless about them, does not care to use.

Nor did
at

the

St.

Andrews

professor confine himself to meta-

physical,

doctrinal,

and

ecclesiastical

theology

almost equal length he discussed the doctrine of the

State.

The

principle of toleration

was beginning

to

be broached in England, and in a modified shape to

find acceptance there.

Samuel Eutherford was alarmed, was

horrified, for

or rather, I should say, he

he neither
rushed to
it,

feared the face of

man

or argument.

He

the rescue of the good old view, as he thought

in a

work which bears the

find a theoretic

title,

Free Disputation against

It is not so easy to
;

Pretended Liberty of Conscience.

ground

for toleration

and Eutherford
it.

has

many

plausible things to say against

.With the

12

Scottish Tlicology.

most perfect confidence,

Scripture and
religious side
ally, it
is

lie

argues that

it is

alike against

common
by
side.

sense that you should have two

It is

outrageous ecclesiasticdoes not, however, take

sinful civilly.

He

wdrat 1 might call the essentially persecuting ground.

He
the

does

not

hold that the magistrate

is

to

punish

religion as religion.
civil

Nay, he strongly maintains that

never
urges,

magistrate

aims at the
does not

conscience.

The
the

magistrate,

he

send

any

one,

w^h ether a heretic or a murderer, to

the scaffold, wdth

or

idea of producing

conversion

other

spiritual

result,

but to strengthen the foundations of

civil order.

But

if

he gives so

much power
:

to the king,

he

is

no

lover of despotism withal

the king himself must be

this

under law.

To vindicate

great doctrine

is
;

the
of

object of another book, the celebrated Lex

Bex

which
that
it

it

has been said by one competent to judge,

first

clearly

developed the

constitutionalism

which
have

all

men now
a

accept.

In addition to
still

all

the works I have mentioned,

list

we

character,

The

considerable

of a less
;

controversial

Covenant of Life

The Trial and

Life of Grace,

Triiim'ph of Faith;

Lnflucnccs of the

partly scholastic, partly practical, with

author's finest thinojs in
it
;

many

of the

the

\o\vj,

and sometimes
Sinners,

very eloquent

Christ

Dying,

and Drawing
w^ants,

unequal and discursive, but abounding in those gleams

and coruscations their author never

terized

and charac-

by what

might

call

that

daring, reckless
is

affluence of language

and metaphor which

another

Survey of
of Eutlierford's peculiarities.

the Field.

active part

Eutherford also took an

I fear I

must

say, too

keen and

bitter a

part

in

the Protester and Eesolutioner controversy,

in its literature.

and had a hand

last book,

He

disfigures his

in answer to a divine of another

Church
in

and country, by a partisan preface sadly wanting

the
love of

which he had been wont

to

speak so

wondrously.
It is not easy to find

any one in Church history

remarkable

with
I

whom

to

compare

this

man

(thougli

have sometimes thought of Bernard of Clairvaux), a

of power, I

man

may

say of genius, fresh, bold, pene-

trating, to

whom

no subject came amiss, teeming with

intellectual energy, distinguished for his learning, but

never cumbered by

it,

the greatest scholastic of our

Presbyterian Church, and yet

we

are told, the plain

and

faithful preacher, the fieriest of

Church leaders

and the most devout of

saints, equally at

home among

the tomes of Aquinas, and writing letters to a poor

congregation.
logical,

Altogether a sort of intellectual, theoprodigy

!

religious

Great
both

defects

he

had and

assuredly.
spiritual, led

His

intensity, to

intellectual

him

extremes.
;

He
all,

seems to have

written currente ccdamo

and in
for

style

and arrangeis

ment he

greatly

fails.

But
it

he

one of our

highest names.

And

was not only

;

his

countrymen

that thought thus of

to

him

he was twice over invited

Countries, whose univer-

occupy a chair in the

were
still

Low

sities

in their glory.

The name you most naturally conjoin with Euther-

14
ford's
is

Scottish Theology.

that

of

his

younger contemporary, George

stripling

Gillespie.

He
of

was hut a

the field

authorship, in his

when he entered work on the English

Popish Ceremonies.
pression
it

made.

You do not wonder at the imWith an entire self-composure, the

The
call.

youthful theologian debates the points at issue with

the great writers opposed to him.
of the subject seems to be at his
wdiole literature
I do not sup-

pose that from the pen of so young a

ever appeared in our

man

there has

country a work of more con-

summate
In

learning.

The English Ceremonies was followed by other works.

London, Gillespie came
into
collision

with the

English Erastians.

This led to his Nihil Rcspondes

and

his

Male

Auclis, to

be reckoned among his best

;

productions.
feel

They
lively.

are brief

and when he did not

himself bound to spin out his arguments, Gillespie

was always
grounds
in

In those tractates he takes up the

Erastian

the

controversy

on which

all

Scottish divines

continued long to follow him.

The

London
a

contests induced
larger scale, and

him

to

undertake a work on

much

which he ushered into the

titles

world with one of those unfortunate

then the fashion.
d'osuvre,

which were
is

Aaron s Bod Blossoming

d'osuvre

his chef

and no doubt the chef

of

Scotch

ecclesiastical theology.
least say

I need hardly mention, or at

:

anything about, Gillespie's other books

his

Exposition and Defence of our Presbyterian Church

government, remarkable for

moderation
;

its

thoroughness and

its

his Miscellanies, in

which you have many

Survey of
fine

the Field.

discussions,

and now and again an elevated and

thoughtful eloquence, but in which are also some of

his least satisfactory efforts.
Gillespie, like Eutherford,

was

all

his days in the

midst of

strife

but his works are not disfigured by

the odium theologicum.

times, at least
clear

His style
writers.

is

notable for the

It is generally

among Scotch
There
is

and nervous.

no

art,

but there

is

often
of

a terseness and vivacity very different from

his contemporaries,

many

though when he
"

insists

on giving

twelve or twenty reasons against Mr. Prynne, he can hardly help becoming
dull.

Great Mr. Gillespie

"

he

was

called

for

many

a day,

and not undeservedly.

If

He

died at the age of thirty-five.

he had been
to
still

spared, he
distinction

would have
in

risen,

no doubt,

higher

other fields

of religious

thought than

the one he had almost exclusively cultivated.

as
it is,

Even

some have regarded him

took

as the prince of our

theologians.
Baillie

some part in the theological controand

his various

versies of the day,

works give proofs

if

of his learning

and his voluminous reading,

they

are

not so lively and interesting as his letters and

memoirs.

Dickson

is

always spoken of with high respect by

First of all minister
at

his contemporaries.

Irvine,

where his labours were very largely

and Edinburcjh.

blessed, he

became

afterwards successively Professor of Theology in Glasf{ow

Various works came from his

of

pen, the most notable

which theologically

is

his

16
Therccprntica,
practical.

Scottish Theology.

treatise

partly

doctrinal

and partly

But the true glory

of Dickson
set

was

his

devotion to biblical studies.

He

his heart on a

Scotch commentary on the Scriptures.

to assign particular

His plan was

books to

work

and

to

him

w^e

owe

it

that

men competent for the we have Ferguson

Durham on
the Song

on the Epistles, Hutchison on the Minor Prophets, on

Job, and the Gospel of John,

and the book of Eevelation.

Dickson put his own

hand
the

to

the work.
of

He

published English notes on

the
Epistle
is

Gospel

Matthew and
still

to

the

Hebrews.

His exposition of the Psalms

Christian readers
;

not un-

known to from him

Epistles,

and

besides, w^e

have

annotations in Latin on the whole of the

first

which were

of

all

read to his students,

and which, though

exegetical tact.

brief, are

sensible,

and show a

real

Nor

are

Dickson and his fellow-inter-

preters to be despised.
tb.e

They want the scholarship

But

of
if

present day, though they were scholars.

they wanted our scholarship, they were more than our

equals in theology.
I

Some think

that a disadvantage

must disagree with them.

the Bible,
risen

and
of

If there be a theology in

the fact that theologies have always

out

it,

when men have been

proof of that,

its

students,
all

is sufficient

earnest

it

must be against

the laws of scientific progress, not to say

common

sense, that

you should go
the
it.

to its interpretation without

the aid

of

best thought

that

has been already

bestowed on

You

will find sometimes light from

these old commentators, let us say of the theological

Survey of
school,

tlu Field.

where

" unprejudiced "

scliolarship

sees

and
all

says nothing.

the aids,

The

true idea

is

surely that

we

use

exegetical,

theological,

spiritual,

and the

aids of the past as well as the present.

Among
notice.

those

who

entered into Dickson's scheme I

of

have mentioned Durham, well worthy

further

No Scotchman
to the

of

that

age was more prounited in doing

foundly venerated.

Keen

partisans

homage

purity and elevation of his character.

And
sible,

he was a theologian as well as a good man.

of the period,

His

commentaries are of the type

always sen-

and always honestly endeavouring

to reach the real

meaning.

In his large book on Eevelation,

after the

Boyd in his commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians, we have also several essays, some of them
manner
of

on the most important and

difficult points in theology.

With undoubted vigour and

worship, the

freshness, he

discusses

such questions as the Trinity and the proper object of

nature and the
extent of the merit of

Christ's death, the intercession of Christ, the difference

between common and

savinsj crrace.

Durham
it

is

the author of a

book which once was

very famous.

For a hundred years and more you find

to.

constantly referred
it

Unhappily, as in so
all

many
events

other instances,

has a forbidding, or at

not an attractive name.

Yet

am

not sure that any-

where a better idea

asticism,

is

to be obtained of our old ecclesi-

and of

its

freedom to a large extent from

than from the book On Scandal B

the

severity

and rancorousness which have been so

it,

often attributed to

18
by
this judicious

Scottish Theology.

ing,

cumbrous

intellect,

man, who, with his thorough, searchreminds you not seldom of

John Owen.

No mean

theologian was Dr. Strang, Principal of

Glasgow College, author of the Dc voluntate et actioniUis It is a work of the same class as Dei circa peccatum.
Eutherford's
part a reply.
as
Piutherford,

Dc

Frovidentia, to

which indeed
some

it

is

in

Strang was not so high a Predestinarian

and ventured

to

assail

of

the

positions of the latter, as

we

shall

have occasion to

notice again.
at last

He

suffered for his boldness.

The

case

had

to

withdraw from his

is

came before the Assembly, and in the end he office in the Glasgow College.
the author also
of an

Dr. Strang

able

and most

learned defence of the Scriptures against the Church

of Piome.

There
of

is

none of these second Eeformation divines

whom,

if

God had
of

spared him, and the times had

been

happier,

more might have been hoped than

Paitherford's

James Wood, one

Andrews.
there

colleagues

at

St.

With

the

invasion
also of

of

Cromwell's

was an invasion

Independency.

army With
in

the Puritan Pailer a minister of the

name

of

Lockyer

came
ful

north,

to

win Scotland

from her

errors

Church government.
as

The divine was not

However, he did his

so successbest.

the soldier.

He

strongly attacked Presbyterianism in a book bearing

as usual a quaint
Little Stone out
title,

and in

its

day Mr. Lockyer's

impression.

of the Moimtain
to
rej)y

made some
it,

Wood was

selected

to

and

his

reply

is

Survey of
of sterling worth.
It is

the Field.

19

admirably

clear.

The writer
any of

reminds
this

me more

of the great
is

man with whose name

than
almost

lectureship

connected,

our old authors, in his power of putting the status

q^umstionis.

Evidently well read in

past a
;

the great theo-

logians of the

knowing

his

subject thoroughly,

and never
ring that

for

moment
his

letting the
grip,
it

point in hand

out of his sight or out of his

of

with a certain

power in

expressions,

seems

to

me
So

James Wood ranks among our

I

ablest men.
is

far as

know, his only other publication

part of

a pamphlet belonging to the sad controversy between

the Protesters and
the Eesolutioners.
It discusses

with the same clearness and thoroughness the question

of

Church

authority,

and

is,

in

fact,

perhaps

the very best and most satisfactory discussion of that

question

we

possess.

Wood
after his

died

comparatively
colleague,

young man, not long

with

illustrious

whom
of
all

through these years of that most calaour controversies he had been in conIf either of those good
fruit

mitous

stant conflict.

and able men

had dreamed what

was

to

be reaped from their

animosities and divisions, would they not perhaps on

both sides have been

their respective views

less
?

extreme in the assertion of

Patrick Gillespie, the

Commonwealth

Principal of
of the Prois
is

Glasgow College, and the energetic leader

testers,

claims a more conspicuous place than

wont
the
It

to be given

him

in

Scottish theology.

He

author of a posthumous work on the Covenants.

20
came from
in
tlie

Scottish Theology.

press with a preface from great Puritan

:

John Owen,

which the

bears the following re-

markable testimony

" I

do freely declare

my

judg-

ment, that for order, method, perspicuity in treating,

and

solidity

of

argument,
single

the

ensuing
I

discourse

exceedeth

whatsoever

treatise

have

seen

written with the same design."

Teaching the same

doctrine as Eutherford and Dickson, Gillespie unfolds

it

with
is

richness

and fulness peculiar

on
the

to

himself.

There

little

doubt his books were a quarry from

writers

which
from

succeeding

Covenants

drew

materials, even

though in some points they diverged

Gillespie's views.

Hugh Binning
on his short

died

young man

just

entering
a dis-

career,

but he had already

won

tinguished place for himself in the theological literature of his country.

Some
of our

of

his

lectures on the

Common

Principles

religion

are

in

high

strain of thoughtful eloquence.

They

are not indeed

little dicta-

theological discussions,
torial
;

and are perhaps a

but there can be no doubt that their author,

accounts of

as

all

him bear testimony, had

great

speculative powers, and might have risen to the very

highest eminence as a theologian.

gifts

He
back

has literary
;

of

a remarkable order for his times

the

first-

fruits

of

harvest which, kept

by the

sad

events of the times, were not reaped for more than

a century.

These are some of the more eminent theological names belonging to the Confessional period. I might

Survey of the Field.

liave

21
either
of
less

added

others,

whose works are

importance or of a more practical kind.

does
all

ISTow

what
of

this

amount

to

The
that

first

century

Presbyterianism in Scotland has been one of almost

incessant
struggle.
it

During

period

you can

hardly say that

has had five-and-twenty years of

quiet and peaceful ascendency.

And

yet the Scottish

Church has produced several divines recognised as of

the
first

class

among

continental Protestants

it

can

point to a respectable exegetical school from

which

came commentaries upon

of the Old.

all

the books of the JSTew

Testament, and a considerable number of the books

Indeed that
for

is

not a full statement of

the facts

you have
to the

at least four

commentaries

on the Epistles

Eomans and

the Ephesians, and

of the

two in the case

ture
;

of

some other portions

Scrip-

and when,

after a long

down-trampling, in

1638
its

Scottish Presbyterianism reclaimed

rights,
it

and regained
to

was able

to

send

representatives

the

Westminster Assembly, who could hold their own in

every respect, and perhaps more than their own, in

one of the most venerable and learned Church Conventions of Christian history.

The second century

opens

of

Scottish

Presbyterianism

with

thorough

change.

The Church
internal
;

of

1638, rent
has so

and

enfeebled
its

by

divisions,
it

becomes the easy prey of

enemies

and before

much

as
it is

time to attempt the reorganization

lying in the dust, with the fetters

of its forces,

22
firm

Scottish Theology.

on

its

limbs.

During the

thirty

years

of

suffering that follow, the Presbyterian ministers

to
all

were

intents

and purposes outlaws, and

for

they had
theological

no

opportunity

the

cultivation

of

literature.

But even
without

this period withal is

not barren.
Charles

Following the
the

example of
delay

his

grandfather,
quit
of

Second

got

the

men

whose
all,

talents

and

influence he

feared

by, first of

proposing an oath which

he knew they could

it,

not take, and then, on the refusal to take

ing them from Scotland.

banish-

The
as

exiles

found a home
little

and

welcome in Holland.
such

The

circle

of

refugees included

men

Brown, Livingstone,

M'Ward.
banishment
in

How
?

do they occupy themselves in their

Well, they do not forget their friends

Scotland.
is

They

are

kept well informed of

all

that

taking place in their native land, and they

are ever ready with their counsels and encouragements.

M'Ward,
letters

in

particular,

keeps

up a busy

fire

of or

and pamphlets.

The Banders

D islanded,

The Poor

Mans Cup

of Cold Water, or The Testimony

still

against Paying the Cess, vigorously reasoned, and

more vigorously expressed, form a sort of among the more resolute of the Scottish
In
fact,

fiery cross
sufferers.

the good

man blew

the flame
to

till it

scorched

himself,

and he vainly tried

allay

it.

To M'Ward

also is attributed

a more considerable book. The True

Nonconformist, which, in answer to a Prelatic disputant,

goes over the whole controversy between Presbyterians

and Episcopalians.

Survey of

the Field,

23

John Livingstone,
had been with
one occasion
it

as every one knows,

tirae.

was the most

popular preacher of his

Once and again there

his preaching a resistless power.

On

was

said

500, on another 1000, souls

had been converted by the word he spoke, any

rate,

were, at

profoundly moved.

Very many
as

will

un-

doubtedly think of such a

of the romance.
last

man

another M' Briar

in the writings of

I have found

him

century quoted to illustrate covenanting fanaticism.

For forty years the favourite preacher of Scottish Covenanters in their most intense, their most Calvinistic
religious sera, will he not be entirely out of his

element

shut up at Eotterdam
tastes to fall

? ?

back upon
as

Can he have any literary The truth is, Livingstone

with

was a scholar such

Chaldee,
his

we

shall not readily fall in

in these days in the Church.

and

something

hand,

he says, at

He knew Hebrew and He had tried Arabic. He was sufficiently

of

Syriac.

acquainted with French and Italian to be able to

use of French and Italian books.
Bible,
too,

make
he

He
in

could read the

his
exile

in

Spanish.

And now

desired to do something " whereby the knowledge of

the only true

of

God might be more

set

plentifully
first

had out
all

the original;" so he

himself

of

to

revisino'

the best Latin text of the Old

Testament

Scriptures,

comparing

it

with the original

Hebrew,
by side

intending to print the

in separate columns.

Hebrew and Latin when

side

This work was actually done,

the friend died

and was ready

for the press,

who
it

had consented

to bear the responsibility of giving

to

24
the world.

Scottish Theology.

What became

of the fruit of Livingstone's

;

scholarship I do not

know

but the fact of

it

may

help to dispel some misconceptions, and give truer

notions of Presbyterian learning in
century.

the seventeenth

The works

of

Brown

of

Wamphray form
Apologetical

almost a
a

library in themselves.
historical defence of the

The

Relation,

Scottish Church, and exposiis

tion and vindication of its principles,

well known,
his

and

has been recently reprinted.

Among

works
his

in English, besides several smaller ones,

you have

Commentary

07i the

Epistle to the
latter

Romans and

his Life

of Justification.

The

seems to

me

to

occupy a
It is

place by itself in our theological literature.

far our

by

most thorough exposition and discussion

it

of the

doctrine

handles

and

it is all

the more to be prized

it

because of the particular bearing

has on the

new

views which Baxter and others had begun to propagate,

and which in some shape are ever returning upon

I need not say
it
it is

ourselves.

not distinguished for

brevity

but I have read

to feel in

with more interest than I

of the
sjreat

have been able

Puritans.

some

Ensrlish

The

exiled minister of

copious in Latin as in English.

Wamphray was as He discusses in one

Latin work with a foreign rationalist the principles

of Scripture interpretation
;

and in another, he makes

ecclesiastical

an additional contribution to our

theo-

logy in a reply to the Erastian principles asserted by

Velthusius.

Brown

treads here chiefly in the footsteps

;

of Gillespie and

Ptutherford

but his book has an


Survey of the Field.
25

independent value, and takes

its

place beside Aaron's

Rod and The Divine Right But the magnum opus of this
Dei contra antisahbatarios.
published works
of

of Church
divine
is

Government.

is

his

De Causa
together.

It

larger than all the

Dr.

Cunningham put

Beginning from a
a strong fortress

far distance, like a captain attacking

manned by

the most powerful guns,

he

toils

slowly and steadily forwards, in a sort of

zigzag way, withal overlooking no advantage, seizing

and

fortifying every point, that

he

may

deliver

his

assault with success.

The strength and resources

of

a modern author would be spent long ere this good

man

gets within range of his subject.

Law
Even

m genere,
after

morality from the will of God, God's natural rights,

such are some of the preliminaries.

he

has entered fully into his subject, you have essays on

cognate questions, which you will not
find, so far as I

know, so fully treated elsewhere

Cameron's peculiar views
in
;

as, for

instance, on

whether in some sense, and

to the

what

sense, the

law of works belongs

as to his

Mosaic

dispensation.

And

main theme,

I need only

say that, with a fulness of argument and an amount

of learning
subject,

which belong

to

no other writer on the

he gives himself

to the establishment of

what
In

may
the

call

our Scottish doctrine of the Sabbath.

belongs,
it

a word,
of

De Causa
mighties
great
:

among
in

books, to the order

length,
of

is

great

great

in

learning,

in
of

patient

sifting

the

subject,

and in

meeting

assertions

and marshalUng of

arguments.

'26

Scottish Theology.

I briefly notice, further, that

we have

also

home

as well as a foreign literature of the persecution, such as Na;phtali,

and emphatically I

refer to the introduc-

tory essay by Sir

James Stewart, which has a remark;

able vigour and grasp

Forrester's

Bedius

Instriteiulitm

The Plea for

number,

the Persecuted

Ministers, hy

all

of

them works

of

Two uncommon

of their
vigour,

and not meriting the comparative oblivion into which

they have
I
fallen.

can hardly
that,

imagine anything more

distressing

than

after

two

hundred
all

years

have

passed

away, Scotclunen cannot

of

admire the noble heroism

that

our

martyr

days.

Say
-

these

ploughmen,

and

cottars,
:

and

serving

girls

were under strauge

delusions
fearing
;

they were at least honest, virtuous, God-

they thought they had God's voice in

;

His

word, pointing out to them the path of dut}^

surely
it

and

was
life,

something
that those

to

elevate

and

ennoble

national
to

humble people were ready

meet death
stain

endure any amount of suffering, to

scaffold

whether on
their

or moorland,

rather than

consciences

even with the faint equivocation

offered as a loophole

which might sometimes be

escape.

of

I for one shall say that I

would

feel the loss

of the
loss

Wigton Martyrdom

to be

something like the

of

one of our greatest national

memories like
I

the blotting of Bannockburn from our annals.

am am

not

ashamed

of

the

Cloud of Witnesses, or

their

testimonies.

At

the same time, in saying this I

all

not to be held as assenting to

you

find in

Lanark

Survey of

the Field.

27
of the people,

and Sanquhar
with

declarations.

The mass

even the leading Cameronian ministers, did not accord

all

that was done in this

way by

those

who

so

long held out against Stuart tyranny.

If

you would
Scottish

know what manner

ministers, even the

of

men were

these

more extreme

of them,

men who

stedfastly resisted all complicity with the indulgences,

read

The Plea for Persecuted Ministers, published in

1677, a work occupying no secondary place in our

theology.

I shall very rapidly glance over the period succeed-

ing 1690.

Taking

all

things into account,

it is

wonderful how
itself

the Eevolution Church was able to arrange

rapidly and so successfully as

so

remarkable that
fill

it

found so

it did. It is every way many competent men to

its

pulpits,

and even the chairs

it

in tlie Divinity

Halls.

For instance,

finds

in

one who has lived

quietly all
for

through the days of suffering, a professor

Edinburgh,

whom

the ablest ministers

of save

who

studied

under him never speak

George Campbell.

as " the great " Mr.

Perhaps

it

was only natural

first

in the circumstances,

that one of the

things the Presbyterian theologians

to,

should address themselves

again in power,

with Presbyterianism
of
their

was the defence

Church

government against Episcopalian

cipal
to

attacks.

Their prin-

works in

this

department are Forrester's Answers

Honeyman,

Scott,

and Munro

Ptule's

Good Old

28

Scottish Theology.

Way;
troversy

The
;

'Ld.\\(\QY'^

Ancient Bishops; The UpiscojKtl Con-

Querela Nazianzeni

The

Cyprianus of

Jamieson

all of

tliem learned and able books, all of

of

them debating the point both on grounds

and
ecclesiastical antiquity.

Scripture

Those of Jamieson claim a special

author was blind
;

notice.

Their
blind.

so far as appears, he

was born

Yet he
%vell

w^as a

thorough scholar, and in particular was

acquainted both with the Latin and Greek Fathers.

His works are of somewhat unequal merit, but as a

whole they are among the best
of

their class,

and

contain an effective defence of Presbyterian Church

government.

Nor did Jamieson

confine himself to the

Episcopal controversy.

We

have a curious work from

him which he

entitles Spicilegia,

and which

is

in reality

notes on the connection between sacred and profane

works, including under the latter the history of Egypt,

Assyria, Scythia, Syria.
It is full of discussions

based

on Herodotus, Justin, Diodorus, Strabo, and many other

ancient writers, poetical as well as historical.
I

am

not able to give any judgment as to

it is

its real

merits, but
It

evidently a

work

of learned research.

has been

oftentimes remarked that there are deep connections

between Eomanism and Eationalism

these connections
of our living

have been eloquently pointed out by some

theologians.

The blind Glasgow

subject,

lecturer has a Latin

work on the
and in

which he
in

calls

Boina Bacoviana,
external

which,

though

perhaps too

manner, he shows that many doctrinal accordances exist between Socinianism and the latest creed of the

Survey of the Field.

false

29

Church

that Tridentine

Eomanism
I

is

indeed

Socinian at heart.

Passing

over

various

names,

merely

mention

Halyburton, to

whom

M'Claren
against

and Flint

Simpson,
of;

whose

I shall

have to allude again

of

the

defenders

orthodoxy
highly
of

works were
an

once

thought

Sim^^son

himself,

able

man,

large reading, propably the ablest

rationalistic

man
to

of that semi-

type

now beginning

appear

in

the
first

Church, and whose defence of himself, in his

trial, is

not unimportant in our theological history, as

giving the Church freedom from one or two merely

scholastic
points,

which few people now have any

really left

notion

of,

and which the Confession had

untouched.

There were evidently

thought in the Church,

now

several schools of religious

the

men who,

like M'Claren,

clung in every point to the traditional, the

new evan-

gelical, the evangelical-moderate, the semi-rationalistic,

all,

no doubt, shading
all

off

from and into one another.

In

these parties there were

men

of first-rate talent,

especially in the second.

The persecutions had quickIntellect

ened and roused instead of depressing.

sharpened
;

was

convictions were,
;

among

the best part of

the people, deepened

religious life

and there are evidences that

the young

had come to have even more geniality

and

heartiness.

And from

men who came

of

about this time to the Divinity Halls from the flower

of Scottish homes, the

Church got an infusion

its veins.

new

evangelical blood into

The

result was, that

30

Scottish Theology.

many
first

able

men were found

and

all

over Scotland in the

half of last century, chiefly in the country parishes,

chiefly of the school
class I

and

have particularly

referred to.

Boston,
figures

Among these whom I

in

I notice, first

and foremost, Thomas

cannot but regard as one of the great

theological
history.

our

Brave,

honest,

capable, forming his

own
lie

opinions about everything,

never letting a question

by him

unsettled; combining

with the aspirations or ambitions of a strong and active

intellect, a sense of responsibility

which pressed him to

most unfavourable

work with
and

his might; in spite of the

circumstances, he
left his

won

his

way

to theological eminence,
religion

mark both on the theology and the

of his country.
his

There, in his lonely abode at Simprin,

questions, he has

mind teeming with arduous

is sufficiently

no
his

university or other library at his

command, and

own
"

scanty.

"He hadZanchy,"
It stung

he says,
to the

some one or two books more."

book-press, and

him

quick when one of his neighbours one day peeped into

the
little

made some
he longed
;

jeering allusion
for

to its contents.

And how

books

He
it,

has a parcel of them coming

it is

as the prospect of

a fortune to him, he cannot take his

mind from

and God chastens him by the grievous tidings that

the parcel
against
is

lost

He bows

submissively, yet hopes

after all

hope, and the treasure

It

reaches
say,

its

destination.

was when thus,

as

we

poorly

equipped,

he

wrote the remarkable work called the

Miscellanies,

and wrought himself to some conclusions

Survey of
that

tlie

Field.

31

mark an

sera,

I believe, in our religious history.

Sensitively conscientious in his pastoral duties, taking

as

much

interest in his little flock as

;

though they had

been the whole world to him

shepherds of Ettrick,
full of

preaching sermons to
;

thought and of theology

he kept hard

at

study,

not intermitting

even that

summer when
had was
it

the

new manse was

building, and he

to betake himself to the stable

not,

and the barn.

He
man

however, dreaming of authorship or of fame

intellectual force of the

was the sheer grand

lofty

and his

conscientiousness which would not let

greatly surprised

him
any

rest.

He was
publishing,
So,

when

friend

suggested
loss.

and

offered

security

against

gradually,

the

Church obtained the

fruits of the

Simprin and Ettrick studies

the Four-

fold State; the

the

Covenant of Grace; the Miscellanies;

Body of Divinity ; the Crook in the Lot, the Sermons which have exercised an influence second
to

none upon our religious thinking and our religious

life.

At Simprin he had mastered the French

literature

language,

that he might have an entrance into French theological

;

but he seems to have been yet unacquainted

with Hebrew.
tells

At

the time he
" piece

came
of the

to Ettrick,

he

us,

he borrowed a

Hebrew Bible
Holy Tongue."

containing the books of Samuel and Kings," and with

that set himself to the study of the "

After a while he bought for himself the whole

Scriptures.
" This,"
first

Hebrew

he

says,

"

was the happy year

wherein I was

master of a Hebrew Bible."

And

32

Scottish Theology.

now

lie

" plied

the
I

Hebrew

original close

and with
ran

great delight."

need not

tell at

length
till

how he

the course of

Hebrew

scholarship

he became an

enthusiast on the subject of

wanted

to

publish on

it.

Hebrew accentuation, and The learned men in his

own country gave him slight encouragement, but he had now devoted admirers who would not let a work
of the Ettrick scholar fall out of sight.
script

The manuout
it

was

submitted

to

competent judges
Ellis,

of
to

Scotland.

An

Englishman, Sir E.

sent

Holland
simple
battling

and you can think how the heart of the

minister

was

gladdened,

or

rather,

what

experiences he had,

when he

read that the

two learned Hebraists Schultens and Grenobius had

examined what had been put into

gave as their judgment
:

their hands,

and
sur-

"

The author has given

prising instances of the usefulness of the accents to

settle the

meaning

of the text
is

and in the supposition

equal to this sketch,
it

that the rest of the book

will,

on the whole, be the best book that has been

written on the subject."

scholar in Scotland, as he

He was
was the

the best
freshest

Hebrew
and most
I have

powerful of Scottish living theologians.

And
as

been

told

by the most competent scholar of our

regards

country that he
sterling value,

Boston's

work

one of

and not yet out of

date.

I have

somewhere read an interestiug account

of in the

of

Bishop Bull, as yet the poor curate or

vicar, labouring

unknown and unthought

literature,

mine

of patristic

penning those works which have made him

Survey of the Field.

illustrious.

33

There, in the Ettrick forest, without fame

or other expected reward to

our Scottish counterpart,

not less picturesque
?

stimulate him, you have

shall I say not less striking,

And Boston was

unfit

not alone
to

he

had several contemporaries not

beside

him,

be

placed

mostly

country

ministers.
:

He had
at

several in his

own neighbourhood
of

Charles Gordon of

Ashkirk,

who became
learning

Professor of

Hebrew

Aberus,

deen
of

Wilson

Maxtou, a man, Boston assures

vast

and great
BisJioj^s ;

intellect

Lauder,

the

author of the Ancient

Eiccalton of Hobkirk,

the author of the Sohcr Enciuiry, in answer to Principal

Haddow,

of a remarkable but peculiar

Treatise on the

Christian Life, of a Commentary on the Galatians, and

of various other w^ritings rather speculative than theological.

Boston mentions a number of his friends of

these.
five

like

stamp with
first

All the

Seceders

w^ere

men

of

learning,

theologians
Moncrieff,

and

Fisher, Wilson,

and Ebeuezer Erskine,

indubitable proofs.
all

Kalph
all

of
is

which they have

ground

left

There

for believing that

over Scotland, in the not thinly

at

first

half of last century, such

men were
ministers

sown.

More

of our Scottish

that time could

have written a theo-

logical tractate in Latin

on any of the Loci Communes

than of ministers in the Church of Ensjland.

There are two theologians

ere I
close

my
who

Lecture

would

like to

mention

M'Laurin, and

Adam
of

Gib

the Antiburgher.
theologians

When
precede

turn from the evangelical

to

him
c

the

pages

the

34
former,
I
all

Scottish Theology.

am

conscious

of

vast

change.

He

is

beyond

doubt an earnest believer in the doctrines

of grace,

Brown

yet he

and substantially one with Eutherford and is evidently looking at all things from
of view.
I

a changed point

do not think his able on God could have

discourses on Sin not chargeable

been written by one of the old schoolmen.

There

is

an underlying element
Still

of apologetic in
is

what

he writes.

more

striking to

me

the literary culture wdiicli

of the

he

disi^lays.

The elaboration
is

sermon on the
to the

Glory of the Cross

something quite foreign

I

theologians of wdiom
exception, altogether
so
far,

have spoken, with the single

of Binning.

In
an
its

Adam Gib
of

it

is

difierent.

He

is

ecclesiastic

the

second Eeformation type.

All

leading principles

he had

firmly

grasped, or

rather

they

had

taken
logic

possession

of him.

hard, dry

man, fond of

and formulas, he had an extraordinary intensity of

character.

He

writes
veins.

his

blood of his
dares to act
doctrines.

own
It

covenant with God in the Though the world mocks, he

strictly

and sternly on the old Church

not

would

be

difficult

to

trace our

own Church
Yet even

connection with the Antiburoher leader. o

he, as

we

shall

see,

made some movement

all

theologically from the past.

Boston, M'Laurin, Gib,

they are

notable men.

In Boston you have the cosmopolitan idea of Christianity

sinners "

"his deed brought

of

gift

and grant to manhinclprominence which

is

into

not

found in the older theologians, who were hampered by

Survey of the Field.

35

some peculiar ideas

tliey

found

it

hard to put away

about the method of God's forgiveness.

In M'Laurin

we

see Christianity forming

an alliance with modern

culture and

modern

speculation, yet in such a

way

as

to promise hopeful results.

In

Adam

Gib, and those

who
the

think with him,

is

to

be found, for a season, a

place of refuge in Scotland for the Church views of

past,

which brought

into relation

wdth

altered
civil

government
circumstances

especially with

new

theories of

led to or helped on ecclesiastical

different lines

move-

ments on very

from any dreamed of by

their preservers.

CHAPTER

11.

PREDESTINATION AND PROVIDENCE.

HEEE

are

some departments in which Scottish

is

theology

unquestionably deficient.

Eirst, it has

made no

contributions to the

Trinitarian

controversy, like those

which have been

made

in England.

There are good reasons for this

of Bull in defence of Trinitarian

deficiency.

The works

doctrine appeared partly during the martyr period of

Scottish history,

and partly during the time succeed-

ing the Eevolution.

But in the midst

of one

fieriest persecutions Church history records,

of the

shut out

from

all

the seats of learning

not caring, even

when

living in quiet, to seek the

honours of martyrdom
;

finding

it

hard to earn a livelihood

wrapt up in other
of distant con-

and more pressing

troversies,

interests than those

it

could not be expected that Presbyterian

ministers should be digging into patristic tomes, even

had they possessed them, or writing books without a

public to welcome and read

them

if

they were written.

Then

it

is

not to be forgotten that the matter was

side of the
it

greatly

more pressing on the one

border

than the other.

be
said

As
battle

to the

English Church,
at

might
the

the

was

the

gates.

When

86

Fredestination

and

Providence.

37
with in

Scottish

Church had Trinitarian heresy

its

to deal

a comparatively mild form,

theologians found the

in the well-known

work done; and they depended,

case
of
troversialists.

Professor Simpson, on the great English con-

It

would be an utter mistake, however,

the
Scottish

to suppose

that

divines

of

the

seventeenth

and
and

eighteenth centuries had not the necessary equipment

for the battle

which the Anglicans fought

so nobly

successfully.

They were most thoroughly

it

familiar with
closely;

the Nicene theology, and adhered to the great Christian writers of the
ally the Latin ones,
first

and

centuries, especi-

were their careful study.

Gillespie,

Boyd,

and Eutherford, and

found
themselves

and Brown, would have

engaged in a perfectly congenial

occupation, debating the doctrine of the Trinity, whether

in its metaphysical or its historical
aspects.
It
is,

indeed, one of the

older

notable

differences

and our

later theology,

between

our

the greater dependence

of the former on the ancient Church.

theological

work used

to

be regarded as incomplete without the

witness-bearing of Augustine, and Hilary, and Chrysostom, and Basil

In some

cases, the

pages of these

old Presbyterians groan under the weight of patristic

quotations and references.

English Churchmen have

been generally supposed

to find themselves specially at

home

in

the

Cyprianic age.

Presbyterians did
;

not

regard the Church of that age as a pure one

they

thought

many

changes had taken place since apostolic

days, and in their view these changes were corruptions,

38
not improvements

Scottish Theology.

but they,

too,

cultivated a

close

acquaintance with the writings of Cyprian and his

time,

and found in them, as they believed, arguments

absolutely conclusive against

modern Prelacy.

From
and

Calderwood downwards,
years, the

for

more than a hundred

all

Bishop of Carthage, with

his follies

aberrations, figures largely in their

works both against

Independents and Episcopalians.

ally held in special veneration.

Augustine was naturIn nearly every sort

I have

of question his opinions are brought forward.

taken three w^orks of the

century, and counted

first

half of the seventeenth

the quotations from Augustine

;

and Calvin respectively

former the number
latter
astical
is

and I find that from the

of

upwards

350, and from the

writers on
ecclesi-

between 70 and 80.

Our

theology leant greatly on Augustine's works

against the Donatists, or at least

drew support

for the

Church principles they enunciated from them.

They

did not ascribe any proper authority to the Fathers.

They

clearly

and unhesitatingly pointed out

their

many
to

blemishes, and

how

little

claim they had to the place

writers

Eomish and semi-Eomish

them
;

would ascribe

but they had a real affection for the theologians

of the early centuries,

and were always disposed to

render a respectful homage to their teachings.

It is in the following terms that a Scottish

divine

of the most decided type

Nice.

speaks of the

Council of

I quote the words, as they

illusions

may

help to dispel

some

which prevail in regard

:

to

Presbyterian

narrowness and bigotry

"

Whatever

else

amiss

it

may

Predestination

and

Providence.

39

have decreed, who that candidly considers how great

and,

consent

how spontaneous proved the many pastors and other persons of eminence summoned from so many parts of the world
if

I niight so speak, of

so

in the passing of the

IS'icene

symbol,

what

bright

luminaries of the Church these doctors were, and

how

many
cause,
perils,

of

them, in the defence of the

common

Christian
greatest

underwent the greatest

sufferings, the

with what constancy they ever declared that

the doctrine embraced by that symbol had descended

in continuous

and never interrupted course from the

apostles themselves,
of the

what was

the exceeding gravity

question agitated, the slightest error in which

assail

would

the very vitals of

Christianity,

what

anxious care was taken that nothing should be put in

it

but what was contained in sacred Scripture,

what
last,

depth and firmness of root this creed has had in the

minds of good men in every age and land,

not
least,

and
man

with what steady faithfulness and fervour

Christ's noblest athletes,

who

in the long array of ages

of sin,

have stood up against

resisting

sin,

nay, against the

even to blood and death, have clung

;

to it

and

doue

it

homage

who,

I say, that lays these things to

heart in all sincerity, need shrink from affirming that there well might be, in the case of such an assembly,

a Divine Providence keeping

it

free

from a lapse which

must have been

of so serious a character, and from the

?

great crime of a most vile idolatry

"

I suppose

you

might search thousands

divinity,

of

volumes of high Anglican

and search in vain,

do not say for such a

40

Scottish Tlicology.

generous appreciation,

but for anything like a

fair

estimate of the Westminster Assembly or the

Dort.

Synod

of

Another department of theological literature in which

we

are behind our

neighbours

is

that

of Historical

Apologetics.
or less value

We

want the kind

of books of greater

which appeared in England in answer

Bible.

to the earlier assailants of the

In volumes of

sermons which have gone into oblivion, and in pamphlets perhaps yet to be found in the great libraries,

you

will find,

no doubt, a considerable amount of apolo-

getics of a sort

in

proofs of the resurrection, discussions

of the reasonableness of a divine revelation, answers to

particular
deistical objections
;

but

we have nothing
if

like those English works on the evidences which,

they are

now

some measure superseded, were

so

effective in their day.

Various explanations
coming.
portant

may
is

be given of this shortcomparatively unimtheologians

Probably one
place

the

our

evangelical

used
is

to
its

attach to the historical argument.

The Bible

own

who miraculously gave it of old to prophets and apostles, now unveils it supernaturally to God's elect, and brings home the convicevidence.

The

Spirit

tion of

its
it

divinity

and

it is

only this faith that really

makes
you
to

God's book to you.

From

this point of

view

find the old divines

even disposed, one might say,

call

look

askance

upon what we

the

external
this

evidences.

Simpson was less out of the

way on

point than on some others, but he gave great offence

":

Predestination

and

Providence.

41

by
"

his views.

Says one of his ablest antagonists

are dealt with

While men

by mere reason
want plausible
;

in divine

matters, the others will not

reasons, too,

wherewith

to defend themselves

for reason,

however

true and clear, hath never that force to convince an

adversary as arguments
themselves.

drawn from the Scriptures

the
Scriptures
to

In

proving

be the
beget a

word

of

God by such
themselves."

proofs as found and

is

divine faith, the

ultimate proof

drawn from the

is

Scriptures

Eeference

then made to

the Confession of Faith, where the only proofs of the

divinity of the Scriptures are
tures themselves.

drawn from the

Scrip-

You have
still

the same view strongly

put by Eutherford, and

burton,
daresay,
in

more strongly by Halywhich,

I
familiar.

remarkable discussion with

of

many

you are

If the

latter

theologian does not refuse the external evidence, the

whole tendency of his powerful and eloquent argumentation

is

to depreciate

it.

The

apostles,

he urges,

never made

use of "

moral and rational considerations,"

but required their hearers to receive and believe God's

word.

As

to the miracles,

he says,

"We

are

no other

way

sure of

them than by the testimony

circle.

of the

word

and he seems

to hold that the miracle-argument is a

kind of vicious

As you

see the sun,

and do

not reason yourself into a belief of his existence, so

with a gracious intuition you must behold the divinity

of the holy book.
rise

In

its

blessed pages there

vision,

must
the

up

before

you

the

as

it

were, of

Heavenly Majesty, the Lord seated as on a throne


42
high and
lifted

Scottish Theology.

up

and

its

utterances
directly

must thus

become must go

to

you voices issuing

If
it

from the most

at least

excellent majesty.
to

was said that

you
as

the Scriptures with the belief of

God

the ground, so to speak, of their possible authority

that, as

we sometimes put
as the basis

it,

you must have natural

religion

religion

of revealed
is

"

this

was
hath

denied.

The Bible

the

most glorious of God's

works, and the highest proof of Deity. magnified His word above
all

He

His name."

Besides, a

mere

rational faith in

God

does not afford a basis for

"

the further faith of a

supernatural revelation.
it

To

be settled in the faith of a divinity,"

was

said, " it is

not enough to assent to this truth merely upon grounds

of reason, but
faith
:

you should assent

more
clear

to it

upon grounds of
of a

there are

marks and characters

divinity stamped
all

upon the Holy Scriptures than upon

I have

the works of nature."

I

have a great sympathy with these views.

never been able to see that in the theistic arc^ument I

am

excluded from reference to Bible miracles, whether

of knowledge, or power, or morality.

And

I suppose
slight

none

of

us imao^ines that mere lo^ic will aive a

a

of Christ, or take

man

into the kingdom,

any more
will

than the demonstration of

enable a

the

sun's existence

man

to see.

supernatural intuition, what

some

of the

Marrow
I

divines called " a seeing persuaall

sion," is

connected with

vital faith.

But, at the

same time,
place

do not think the old divines gave that

external, or, as they said,

to the

the rational

Predestination

and Providence.

43

evidences which they claim, and which they have in

the word.
I have

sometimes thought that

it

was one
and

of the chief w^ants of the religion of the sixteenth

seventeenth centuries, that along with

its

magnificent
its

conception of the doctrines of salvation, and

spiritual faith in

vivid

them,

it

had not what men are

striving after in these days

a strong historical conSo,

viction resting on strictly historical grounds.

when
there

the direct vision grew^, as

it

were,

dim and dimmer,

said,

came that sudden tremendous

To supply that
now.
defect, as I

collapse into unbelief.

have

we

are struggling
terrible,fear.

Already the battle has been sometimes

it

and

may

be yet more terrible

but

let

us not

Who

shall estimate the

stupendous power of a faith

like that of apostolic days

a faith in which
?

we have
can only

the spiritual and the historic combined

faintly

We

dream

of the energy with

which the Church,

there had

now no

longer a

small

community, but a powerful

if
is

kingdom, would have told upon mankind,

been then that kind of realization which

historical convictions of Christian facts,

given by
spiritual
gifts

and a

and saving conviction

of the

of Christian doctrine

both
for

Holy

Spirit.

Suppose you had had,

example,

the doctrinal Christ of the seventeenth century in the

second, and the historical Christ of the second century
in the

seventeenth

But

this

by the

v/ay.

These

being the views of our divines, you see

how

naturally
it

they kept out of a line of authorship which

not be
difficult

might

to

show was

as

naturally

followed

elsewhere.

44
Perhaps there

Scottish TJicology.

is

a further explanation of the theo-

logical deficiency I refer to, in the peculiar experience

of

many

of our distinguished
strno-crles

men.

Many

of

them

had sore

CO with Eobert Bruce, one of the most commanding figures

in our religious history, about

with unbelief.

Tliis

was the case

whose words there was

" It

a certain hingly power,

we

are told, as though they

is

came

direct out

from the sanctuary.

to say,
" to

a great
I

thing," he

was wont

believe in God."

have no doubt what that meant.

Eutherford, in speak-

ing of the atheistic doubts with which good

men

are

sometimes
"

assailed,

adds in sympathetic parenthesis,

Expertus Loquor"

The youthful Eenwick describes

his dearest convictions

his

immeasurable agony in that soul-tempest which

all

threatened to engulf
hopes.
tains,

and

Being in the
he

fields,

and looking
all

to the

moun-

said, " If these

were

devouring furnaces of

burning limestone, I would be content to go through

them,
there
if
is

so be that thereby I could be

assured that

a God."

Hogg

of Carnock,

in his autobio-

graphy, narrates how, being led off his feet by Cartesian

speculations, he
self familiar

was drawn
all

as

by a

spell to

make him-

with

that could be said against religion,

and

fell

headlong for a time into a sort of scepticism.

the same thing in Halyburton, whose case
"
is

You have

more generally known.

native

The

alternative," says a great

writer, speaking of the present time, " the only alter-

now

in front of the cultivated branches of the

is

human

family,

this,

Christianity or Atheism.
;

All
all

lines of thought are visibly tending to this point

Fredestination

and

Providence.

45

men who
are

are well-informed,

and whose habits of thoudit

are unshackled, have long ago

come

to see this, or

they

coming

to see

it,

or are convulsively struggling to

it."

hold themselves

off

from

This was very

much
;

the

alternative of Scotch experience generations ago

result partly of national peculiarity,

the

and partly

of the

soul intensity which belongs to Puritanism, and which

craves

strong

convictions,

and

will

not

be content

without them.

Well, in none of these cases does

deliverance seem to
dence,"
at
least to

have come from

" external

evi-

any great

extent,

but

mainly
to

through direct manifestation of Christian

the soul.

truths

The Bible was

its

own

revealer.

And

yet,

though deficient in historical apologetics,

Apologetics of our own.
lesser

we have an

To pass over
I
it.

some works of

note,

we have Haly burton's

vigorous and thoughtful reply to the English deists.

think Professor Shedd has hardly done justice to

He
is

seems, in

fact, to

have merely glanced

at the re-

marks on Lord Herbert.

But Halyburton's argument

and indeed very much

certainly not less valid than,

resembles, that of Conybeare, to

whom Shedd
is

renders
the

such

ample
:

commendation.

Halyburton puts

matter thus
of God,

Admit

that there

a natural revelation
light to be at-

and a considerable measure of

;

tained from nature

yet, after

all,

the knowledge you

thus get of the Divine Being

far too vajue ever to

is

imperfect and vague,

:

come
of

close to men's hearts

it

affords

you no

system

worship,

without
of

which

religion will be of little avail to the

mass

mankind

46
it

Scottish Tlieology.

leaves you in the dark as to the

meaning of

sin

it
;

gives no assurance that sin will of course be forgiven

it

leaves an awful uncertainty about the future

it

has

not, apart

from Christianity, even under the highest

culture, attained to anything like a satisfactory morality

;

it

has entirely failed to supply a motive power

in a word, your natural religion leaves you dark, dreary,

feeble against temptation, unsatisfied, sufficient to

draw
" but,

from you
if

the cry, "

Who

will

show us any good

Then,
too,

there be a God, affording no response.

is

Bible Chris-

tianity

your only resting-place.

of

we have

the thoughtful treatise

M'Laurin upon prophecy.

of interpretation,

Without entering upon these minutise

which are
unbelief,

so apt to afford hiding-places for a skilful

he takes the great general fact that the Old

all

Testament

through

is

travailing in birth of a great

coming Deliverer of the Jewish race

King, the Teacher of the nations
;

the Priest, the

and he asks whether,

apart altogether from the credibility of the

New
live.

Testa-

ment
of all

records, the fulfilment is not patent to the eyes

men

in the Christendom in

which we

At

later period, too,

whose reply

to

comparison, in
the same class.

we have Dr. Campbell of Aberdeen, Hume, I imagine, is not unworthy of its own way, with any modern work of

May

I not claim, too, for the Scottish Church, the

?

great Apologetical Philosophy of modern times

for I

suppose I do not err in thus characterizing the philo-

sophy

of the so-called Scottish school.

Sir

W. Hamilton
of

thinks that Professor

Gershom Carmichael

Glasgow

Predestination

and

Providence.

47

may, perhaps, be regarded as the founder

sophy, or at least
its

of that philo-

herald.

He was

the son of one Dr. Eeid

of the outed ministers of the Persecution.

himself was a Scotch Presbyterian minister, and came

of a line of Presbyterian ministers.
this to be a

Nor do

I believe

mere accidental connection between our Church and our philosophy. In a curious controversy

connected with the Kilsyth and

Cambu slang

revivals,

some

of

whose peculiar manifestations Mr. Pobe

tried

by a philosophic theory, Ealph Erskine and Fisher had already maintained and exto explain or vindicate

plained, just as Pteid does, the trustworthiness of the

senses,

and

opposed the
of primitive

idea

of

image -pterception.
beliefs

The doctrine

and fundamental
divines.

was

also traditional

among our

Halyburton, for

instance, speaking with reference to Locke,

whom he seems disposed to interpret in the more spiritual way,

had stated
it,

I think quite clearly, in the beginning

of the century.

Scotch theologians even held the law

written in the heart to be a natural revelation, from

which there developed themselves, with the develop-

ment
is

of

the

human

soul,

the

great

principles

of

morality and religion.

The law

of nature and nations

discussion.

no

less

the subject

of frequent

One

cannot but sometimes doubt whether the account which

the histories of philosophy give you of the real authorship of certain views
is

to

be depended on.

These

authors have seldom had

much

acquaintance, I believe,

with theologians.

If

they had, probably not a few

of their statements and conclusions

would have been

48
modified.

Scottish Theology.

Nowhere

is

Bishop Butler
;

lield

in higher
his ethical
of that

honour, I believe, than in Scotland

and

philosophy

we

all receive.

But when you read

tribunal within all men, of which our writers so often

speak, and think of their subtle discussions concerning

the authority of that awful power, and

how

the theoto hold

logical moralists, as they are called, are

wont

that even an erring conscience ligat non ohligat,

you
say

question with yourself whether the author of the Analogy

is

the great discoverer in this matter that

is.

men

he

Sir J.

Mackintosh notices in

his

dissertation

that Cudworth, as well as

many who

succeeded him,

confounded the apprehension of the difference between

right

and wrong, with the practical authority which

these important conceptions exercised over our volun-

tary

actions.

The theologians

of

the

seventeenth
:

century knew, I think, the

naturalis,"

distinction well

"

Lex

says Brown, " est signum voluntatis Dei

est nostra illius signi intellectio."

lumen naturale
But
to
if

in

some things we are

last Lecture,

deficient, as I
it

attempted
folly to set

show

in

my
in

and
and
is

would be

oui'selves
larger,

comparison with other Churches greatly

opportunities

and with

never possessed,
ature

we

which

Scotland

has
liter-

have a not inconsiderable

ecclesiastical

both
I

in

doctrinal

theology.

And what
position
of

propose to do
Scottish

to give a sort of ex-

doctrine on

some

of the

great

points included in both these departments of theology,

in so far as they

have been the subject of discussion

Predestination

and

Providence.

49
concluding

in the past history of our Church.

In

my

Lecture I shall consider some of the objections made to

Scottish religion and religious
First of
all, let
life.

us take the great subjects which the

the heads of

old theologians used to discuss under

Be

Prcdestinatione

the days of

and De Providentia, and which since Augustine have had such a charm for the
West.
subjects the Scottish divines devoted them-

Churches

of the

To these
selves

most strenuously.
is

Knox's principal theological

work

on Predestination.

The lonoest and most o

is

elaborate of Boyd's discussions

on the same

subject.
field

In his own way, Eollock has cultivated the same

so, as

we have

seen,

have Eutherford and many

others.
first

The type

of our Calvinism varies during these

two centuries of our Church

historv, risincj to a high

Supralapsarianism in the great period of the second

Eeformation, and gradually descending therefrom,
in
till

some points the strongest Calvinists

of the latter

period might seem considerably to diverge, at least in

their

way

of putting

many

questions, from their pre-

decessors.

There

is

a chanore, thouoh

not in

the

doctrine, yet in the philosophy of the doctrine.

" It is asked," says

Eutherford, " whether sin

;

is

pro-

perly a means of the divine glory

in itself gv per accidens
?

and

if

so,

whether
a means,

1 reply that

it is

and a means in
will

itself,

and not per

aceidens, as

Arminius
it is

have

it.

Tor

sin, just in

that respect that

so

utterly bad in genere mali, is the better

and

fitter

means

in genere honi, so far as

it

is

useful and serviceable."

50
"

Scottish Theology.

The permission
effect

of the first sin,"

he teaches,

" is the

common

of

election

and

of reprobation.

God

intends in the order of nature, before

He

creates us,

the glory of His justice through the efficacious per-

mission of

sin,

and the glory of His mercy in the

"Whoever wishes the end, wishes,

gift

of repentance.

too,

means both near and remote, though it is not necessary that he desires the end and the means with
the

the same love and the same complacency

it is in this

sufficient

matter that God, with an effective practical

it,

complacency in
ive justice.

wills the declaration of

is

His vindictwilling with

to that

There

no need

for
all

Him
the

the same effective complacency

means

end

enough that

He

wills

sin with a

complacency

permissive, which best consists with the moral dislike

of the offence.
So,

when you

desire health as the

end

with an

effective

complacency, you do not require to

of your vein
its
;

desire in the

same way the section

latter,

it

is

enough that you wish the

but for something
to cut
it."

not for

own

sake,

else,

" Sin

and that you allow the surgeon

is

that

God's

mean

to

an end that

He
it

could not otherwise accomplish."

God, as he puts

in substance, desires to have the glory of His justice

and His mercy manifested.

without the proper objects

without
may

But that

is

impossible

sinners to save,

and sinners

to punish.

Accordingly
justice

He must

have

sin,

in order that
priate objects,

mercy and
and the

have their approit.

and be magnified in their action towards

fall

The
idea,

creation

do not, as in the Sublapsarian

belong to one line or order of things having ends

Predestination

and

Providence.

51

of its own, and salvation to another order of thing^s, in

which you
working out

have supernatural grace interposing and

its

decrees of righteousness and grace

;

upon

the sinful mass

but the order of creation, which has

its idea, is

properly nothing distinct or independent in

only a means to a higher end, and sin

is

but the

fitting

and necessary step in

There
in
is

its

outworking.

a great deal in the

way of

looking at things
is

some

of the old Scottish writers,

which

evidently

based upon these views, even

when you may

The
"
:

not have

them
works

stated in so
"
is

many

words.

covenant of
all

a poor and transitory thing

it is set

about
;

it

indicates that

up only

to be

taken

down

it is

no more than the scaffolding

structure.

for the erection of a nobler

Even

at a later period,

when

the sterner

features of our theology were

somewhat

mitigated,

you

have one

of the ablest writers of his time,

famous as

a defender of the

Marrow

doctrine, maintaining in a
life,

remarkable dissertation on the Christian

that the

main

object of creating

and putting

Adam

for a little

while into Paradise, was to afford a type or picture of

the greater
loss in it

who was
so far

to

come

while as to his

fall, "

his

was

from being matter of regret either

to himself or his posterity, that it

was incomparably
and
all his

better for both, than

if,

by

his standing, he

posterity had been confined to that low state.

For

far

higher ends was

man

designed."

]^ow, even siij)pose

is

there were truth in these views, as there

a side of

truth in them, one would have desired something more

of reverent restraint in the

way

in

which they are given

"

52
forth.

Scottish Tlicology.

Brown
"

of

Wamphray
his

explains the point of view

from which he and

questions
:

school

regarded these high

In respect of God's sovereignty, and truly

and in

itself considered,

God may do

to

His creatures

whatsoever
of injury
;

He

wills,

without any even the least kind

for injury supposes

some right or debt in

the injury
is

the case of the person to

whom

done.
as his
;

But

in the creature,

viewed

in his relation to

God

Creator and absolute Lord, no right, no due exists

therefore no injury here
is

possible.

Wherefore, though
all

He
is if

should

inflict

suffering

on the creature,
;

unde-

serving.

He would

do him no injury

for wdiere there

no pis, no injuria can have any

place.
?

Cannot God,
if He can And if He

He

will, annihilate

His creatures

And
?

annihilate, can

He
?

not put them to death

can put tliem to death, cannot

or a shorter time

He
;

do this in a longer
this,
if

And

if

He

can do

cannot

He

do

it

with some degree of pain

and

with some

why not with a greater ? These men were not cold and heartless speculators. They were teeming, many of them, with Christian
degree,

sympathies and kindnesses.

But they had learned

to

lose themselves so utterly before the glorious majesty

of the Eternal, that

they shrank from everything that

.

had even the appearance of a right or a claim upon

Him

from the creature as destructive of His absolute

independence

in fact, taking

away His crown.

You

have, besides, in this extreme phase of our theology, a

protest against Arminianism,

which

I do not say in

respect of individuals, but as a system

does tend to

Predestination

and Providence.

53

bring

down the Almighty from His throne of sovereignty, and make Him simply the best and most excellent of
beings.

The Church
its

of the Eeformation, too,

was not

yet across

Jordan, and

enemies were mustering

;

everywhere, and bright hopes had been sadly clouded

and, shall I say
?

she

felt

her need of an all-resistless

arm, of an all-subduing sovereignty.

Yet

it

strikes

one often painfully,

seventeenth century

the

feebleness wdth which

the

felt

many

of these dread mysteries

souls.

which now

so often cast their

affair it

gloom on good men's

to let sin

How

easy an

seemed then

and

suffer!

ing come in and act their part in God's universe

I have said, however, there

As

came gradually a change.

theoretic founda-

Good men saw

tions.

that they could hold all the doctrines of

grace without placing

them on such

They spoke much more

of the nature of God,

and of His actions

After

as determined thereby, in perfect

consistency with His holy freedom.

all,

we

are not to suppose that the holders of

these views had any idea of

of
sin.

making God the author

came
permissive
decree.

They

carefully explain that, while sin

about

infallibly

under God's

He
pro-

was not
duction.
it,

directly or immediately efficient in its

But
an

this permission was, as they expressed

not

otiose

permission

it

was a permission

indirectly, yet infallibly fruitful.

The Arminian
abuse.
:

per-

mission, which merely, as

is

it

were, left the field open,

the theme of

much contemptuous
and

Boyd

of

Trochrigg illustrates the matter thus

in a

" I plant a tree

sunny

spot,

such a tree as might in the

54

Scottish Tlieology.

course of time strike deep

its roots,

and bear

fruit for

many

a year,

if

1 choose to shelter

it

with hedges from

the violence of winds, or to restrain the assault of the

tempests.
it

Well, though I
to

am

well aware of this, yet

it

seems good

me

not to encircle

with the shelter;

ing hedge, or to keep off the fierce storm -blast

result
is,

and the
I

that the tree is straightway uprooted.

am
I

not the cause of the overthrow, merely because I could

have prevented

it,

but the winds themselves

are.

am

not to be regarded as the cause of the catastrophe,

it,

though I foresaw
permitting
it

and willed
about,

it

to

the extent of

to

come

by not preventing when

and both because I was

prevention was in
not bound to do
for

my
as

power

it,

under no obligation, and because

u]3

good reasons I had made

my mind

to allow this

particular upshot of affairs.

In like manner did God

with Adam, letting temptation try him, and making

it

abundantly manifest what the creature

is

capable

when without the assistance and regimen of the Yet is God in no sense to be called the cause of Adam's la^^se, since, instead of bringing him into it. He plied his fears, He warned and threatened him and since He neither inclined him to evil, nor put into him any sinful longing, nay, not so much as took from
of

Creator.

him any

gift

conferred in his creation

to

but only, as

it

seemed good

Him, denied

or

did not bestow the

to claim."
this is

confirming grace which

Adam
it

had no right

Something more positive

implied in the

might seem than

way
put

in

which Eutherford and

his school

were wont

to

it.

Adam,

it

was tanght, had high

Fredestination

and

Providence.

55

endowments.

In respect of knowledge, and holiness,

lie

and wisdom,
to the task

was adequate, with the divine

assistance,

imposed on him.
it

Did he

refuse that assist?

ance
it

Did he thrust

away from him

ISTo,

God took

from him, and he

it

fell

as a stone falls

from the hand

that lets
precipice.

go from the house-top or from the sheer

Perhaps the doctrine looked severe

at

and

though the ar^rument was

hand that God's influence

it

was not due

to

our

first

parent,

was but a

sort of

mitigating or apologetic explanation that was offered.

God's act was to

all

intents a punishment, a punish-

ment
aid

for

the

virtual

casting

away

of

help

divine.

Adam made

no objections about losing the all-precious

effort

made no

to retain

it

nay, in the very act

of the divine withdrawing, he

was consentient thereto

virtually in God's

and the prescience of

this

made him

eyes guilty before the act, and so more than justified

the divine procedure.

This view was strongly attacked

of

by Dr. Strang, Principal

least as

Glasgow College, who was

at

pronounced a Sublapsarian as Ptutherford was

;

the opposite

and the Church was agitated about the

metaphysics of the abstrusest of questions.

It

perhaps

indicates the prevalence of very high doctrine, that

Strang had to give up his chair.

There were various points named in the discussion,

all

more or

less
;

connected with what

was

called

physicus concur sus

doctrines of other

one of the most generally accepted

days,

and one which has a great

was taught, was every-

place in Scottish theology for more than two hundred

years.

The essence

of

God,

it

56

Scottish Theology.

where, and everywhere directly and immediately energetic.

In ref^ard to the material world,

it

all

motion and

action in

spring immediately from

influence.
it

God, and are

Tire
is

sustained by His immediate

entity distinct from

a real
active

God, but

has only

its

power through
concursus.

an immediate

divine

j9?'t'c??'5?^s

and

So, in the miracle of the

arrest, as it were,

Hebrew

children,

you have not an

upon the indwelling

by the withholding

powers of the natural agent, but the non-action of the

power ordinarily connected with

of the energy ordinarily given.

it

In no vague or distant

sense the Almighty shines in the sun, breathes in the

life,

brings
or the

gales of

spring,

refreshes
utters

in

the

summer

dew

summer shower,

His voice in the

rolling thunders.

The idea of a miglity mechanism

laws

kept agoing by inherent

primal impulse,
preservation,

and
"

forces
sort

under a
general

and having only a

rejected.

of

was utterly

No

part of matter

has any intrinsic power for producing any effect inde-

pendently of God's working in and by

it."

Second

causes are not properly causes, even subordinate, having

in

some sense a communicated and indwelling causal

;

energy

they

are, at

most, the Great Worker's tools,

which
the

He

uses directly, according to a well-established

order of His own.

In every case God

is

not merely

cause

supreme, but the cause immediate

it

more
it

immediate,

was

said,

than the natural agents along

with which
the word
is

He

works.

As we hold

in spiritual things,

ineffectual without the application of

;

by

the Holy Ghost

so fire burns,

and the sun gives

light,

Predestination

and

Providence.

67
by a
actu-

and the shower refreshes

in every particular case

particular application of the

same

Spirit, as the Spirit,

;

so to speak, not of grace, but of creation

or, as

ating grace

is

needed as well
is
it

as habitual, so actuating

divine power

needed in the case of the material

physically effective.
or

agent to

make

And

just as, at

my

willing,

and shuts,
of the

my my

hand

my

foot moves,
so,

my

eye opens

tongue articulates,

by

direct action
is

action

divine will, every separate

element

put in

nature frowns or smiles, gives tokens of ap-

proving love, or warnings of divine displeasure.

did this

Nor

mean

wilfulness, or caprice, or disorder.

How

could this be,

agent,

when

the Best and the Wisest was the

in

when He was
?

every instance only carrying

out with an unfailing irresistibility His eternal purposes

straits

One

of our w^orthies tells us

how

once in his

he sought of God, as a sign of his prayer's

acceptance, that

if

the thing might be

a wind-gust

should pass over and bend

down

the bushes

among

which he wrestled.

Well, that was not a usual thing,

and no theologian of the Scottish type ever held that

he should ground his faith or his action save on the

word of the Most High.

his petition,

But he had no idea

of

breaking the eternal order, and no idea of success in

on the ground that God was capricious

and mutable.

He

simply believed that

all

w^as in

the hands of the Great Sovereign, and that without

Him

"

not a sparrow falleth to the ground."

We

learn from

some

of the best

and ablest
their

of these days,

what, as

we now

speak,

was

view of prayer

58
"

Scottish Theology.

Preces nostrse," says Eutherford, " media sunt adim"

plendaB Dei voluntatis."

Our fervent

supplications,"

says a later writer, " as these are a due

universal Lord, so they are

homage

to the

among

the

means He has
concursits
;

appointed and brings about, through which His ends

are gained."

But these
and

i^recursus

and

did

not only extend to the material world

to all things
all

they applied

all events.

All being was good, for

being came from the good Being.

And

so far as

the mere being in any sinful act was concerned, there

was no reason why

it

should be disconnected from

Him who

is

its source.

In truth,

it

could not be dis-

connected from Him, as by

continuously created, and by

Him created, Him having

and by
all its

Him
its

action

and

existence.

Take the

first

sin, for instance, in

essence
there
is

or

being,

apart from
is

moral law forbidding

good in the act of the
to

nothing but what

will willing,

and the act of the hand going forth

tree.

pluck an apple from a

the acting, as

Well, the willing and

directly the product

mere

entities, are

of the Creator, ever Creator of all

it

being.

But thus
and

happens, that as

God

efficiently

and

infallibly

inscrutably brings about an event entitively good, and

not to

Him

forbidden, for

He

is

ex

leg.,

an event
is

is

presently and freely brought about

which

sin

on
lies,

man's part, because of the law under which he

and which under highest penalties enjoins him not

to

take or

touch.
to

It is as

though there were two

worlds,

and

both of them
:

man

beloncjs,

and in

both he acts in every act

in the one, as a

mere entity

Predestination

and Providence.

59

under divine causality

under law
:

in the other, as a moral being act is in one world good,

it

and the same

evil.

and in another

"

God,"

was

said, " is the first

is

cause of the sinful act in linea physica, but

not in

any way

the

cause of the

evil."

It

is

urgently ex-

plained that in this physical predetermination, though

it

is

de facto sin, there

:

is,

properly speaking, no will-

necessitation
will of

mysteriously and transcendentally the

man

concurs, and
"

you

liave a conspiratio rather

than a
will
is

neccssitatio.

By

the

predestination of God,

not prevented or

lost.

And though we

freely

confess that

we
tlie

are

not in the least able to explain

how

it

is

the divine predetermination and the detercreated will conspire towards one and
yet,

mination of
the same

act,

at the

same

time,

we must not
and queen

admit

that the created will is the mistress

of divine concourses

and

all free acts."

But not
let

to dwell further

on a subject so abstruse,

me

only notice that the whole argument involves

theory of
sin.

a peculiar
entitive

If

God

is

efficient

in

all
is

acts about

sin,

as about

all

besides,

but

not efficient in the production of

that
sin

sin,

then

it

follows

must be thought of as not an

fertile brain, in his

entitive act.
It

This was the theory of sin universally held.

out of Augustine's

sprung

intense reaction
still

from Manichsean dualism.

It

was

more

fully

developed by the schoolmen, and at least in the Calvinistic churches

of the

Eeformation seems to have

This doctrine of sin as a

been universally received.

nonentity,
a

nothing,

was regarded as

fundamental.

60
If it

Scottish Theology.

was something
either

real,

an entity, then

it

came

into

existence

without

God
"

or

by God,

is

in

the

former case
latter

overthrowing God's omnipotence, in the

holiness.

case His

Admit
But

that sin

is

an

entity," said Eutherford, in his daring way, "

and you

destroy

the

idea

of

Deity."

if

sin

mere
and
on
in
all

privation, the

nothing of the moral world, then the

still

Most High
the
fall

is

alone Creator and Lord of

all,

a sort of 2')e^niitted mornl self-annihilation

]S"ow in

the part of man.

this

some respects there

is

is
:

view

of being

something that

very noble

it

being simply in

itself is
it

good, has something in

of

Him

from
of

whom

comes, some ray of His glory, some

gleam

His excellence.

The notion seems

effect

to

have

got abroad that Calvinism has a sort of spite at nature.

I

have seen a statement to that

philosophers.

by one
baseless

of our
it
is.

modern

You

see

how

Why,
all

nature's sanctity lies

at

the very foundation of

the old Augustinian speculation.

all,

But yet you

you have here

cannot avoid the feeling that, after

only a line-spun theory.
line
It is

something out of the

and scope of the Bible.

The moral view

If,

of sin
said,

gives

way

to

the metaphysical.
is,

as has

been

the meaning

that sin

is

not a separate substance,

the same thing applies to good inhering in something

else as well as sin.

Besides, if

it

be a nonentity,
the true

it is

a nonentity of active antagonism to

Being.

That wliich the holy book describes as the fountain of

all

human woe and

degradation, the

object of God's

infinite displeasure

and detestation, the enemy against

Predestination

and

Providence.

61

which

He summons
of

us to unceasing struggle, in the

is

power
such

which there

awakened
has
it

in the

human

spirit

an intense

and virulent

character and
of the real
to theorize

laws,

and

positive,

which
sin

hatred of
all

Jehovah's
it

the action in

does not seem natural

or nothingness.

away
of

into

mere negativeness
had
once

In any way

it,

there
of

can be no doubt of the grasp

of

which

this

view

the

Scottish

theological mind.
all

Boyd, and Strang, and Eutherford,

it

adopt

it,

the last asserting

again and again with

endless illustration and almost passionate vehemence.

At

a later period

it is

still
it

the same,
in

Webster and

M'Laren stand
off-turning from

up
the

for

an age of change and

Strongly the
:

old

paths.
it

early

Secession theologians clung to

you

find it in such

a comparatively popular book as

the

the Exijlanaiion of

AssemUijs Catechism, by Fisher.

The one

of all

our Scottish divines the least scholastic, who never

came

across a scholastic distinction but he

seemed

to

feel that

he was in the presence of an enemy, Dr.

Chalmers, has accepted the nonentitive conception of

sin,

and, I might say, in

it

its

least satisfactory shape

perhaps drawn to

by

his admiration of

Edwards,

and

its

congruity with his necessitarian views.

It has

been debated in our day, whether there

is

perfect consistency between our old Calvinism

and the

modern

necessitarianism,

which Calvinism has shown

its

a tendency to appropriate as

philosophy.
I

I shall

not go into that

difficult subject.

may

merely say,
it,

that I think that, so to speak, on one side of

the

62

Scottish Tlicology.

Divine causal energy comes more sharply out in the earlier than in the later doctrine, and that yet on
another side there seems to be more ascribed to the
unfallen

human
old,

will

some kind
still

of self-determination.

But the
some

while

firmly held, and the

new

in

of its earlier forms, actually

came once

or twice

into collision, near

enough

to get a look of each other,

but there was certainly no falling into each other's Professor Simpson seems to have been a philoarms.
sophic necessitarian.
doctrine
of

He

denied the time-honoured

the

divine

concursus.

Acknowledging
wish

God's absolute dominion over all the free actions of

men, he somewhat contemptuously expresses

that none

his

may make
the
evil,

jest of the notion that God's pro-

vidence can be effective of the entity, and only permissive of

since there cannot ever

be the
states as

former without the

follows
:

latter.

His own view he

"

God may determine

infallibly all the actions

of reasonable creatures that are not above their natural

power, by placing them in such circumstances by which

they have a certain series or chain of motives laid

before them,

by which they may

series of

infallibly yet freely

produce such a

actions as

He

has decreed."

This, he thinks, will be sufficiently availing in the case

of all sinful action,

and

in the case of

men

in their

ordinary civil relations.

With

respect to graver actions,

however,
potent

it

is

different.

There you need an omnithereafter.

first

grace,

and continual influence

It seems a mild enough type of necessitarian doctrine

but

it

w\as

made

part of the libel against him.

It

was


Predestination

and

Providence.

63

asserted that this doctrine

made God's dominion over

full

men's actions

indirect,

and so not

and absolute,
of

His providence objective and external, instead

mediate and internal
result,
;

im-

while as for the infallibility of

that did not alter the abstract nature of the

divine action,

Media,

it

was but another form of the Scientia

His common influences upon men

it

destroyed one great branch of the Spirit's

of
;

economy, that
to say that

men never do actions morally good, but when motives suitable to them are applied, was to

bring in a starlike necessity,

ence, as Professor

deny
;

a particular influit

Simpson does

and
to

is

plain that

we depend upon God

given,

in reference

our actings, no
these are

otherwise than as to our being,

when once

but

it

is

ridiculous to aver that aught

which
its

has a physical entity should not be dependent for

existence on

the immediate operation of God.

The
and
com-

feeling evidently was, that this

new theory
the

of motive

causes

removed

God away

into

distance,

tended to destroy that near dependence and

munion which good men

supreme necessity they
decree
all

felt

to

be

their

believed in

life.

A
con-

the eternal

dominated

all

but that

necessity

was

nected with the presence and immediate action of a

living person, of a holy will
this
;

and they

felt as

though
kind

were a necessity of a nobler

series of

sort, difl'erent in

from that chain or

second causes.
the old and the

At

a later

period

we

find

new

brought into contact in one of the Seceding Churches,

the

one which had been most conservative of the

64
religious feelings

Scottish Theology.

and opinions

of the past.

An

Anti-

burgher preacher adopted the views developed in the

essay of Lord Karnes.

He was

censured.

Deep

in

Kutherford and Brown, the Seceder theologian

Adam

Gib took in hand

to justify the

proceedings of his

Church in an attack upon Lord Karnes's work, which

perhaps the philosophers laughed without
its
at,

but which

is

not

interest

theologically.

Gib undoubtedly

mistakes some points of the necessitarian argument,

and

his

argument against Lord Kames would not

;

apply against other upholders of the system

objections, as offered

but his

by a competent Calvinistic divine

noteworthy.

of the old school, are

tions

The same

objec-

which were made in Simpson's case are sub"

stantially repeated.

Into the constitution of things

are put certain imaginary powers

and

qualities,"

in-

cluding " the continued interposal of God's efficacious

wdll
;

" that is to say, " that all

human
;

actions proceed

in

fixed

and necessary train

"

" that,

comparing

together the moral and the material world, everything

is

as

much

the result of established laws in the one as

;

in the other

" these " destroy

accountableness to God."

Lord Kames,

in one of the editions of his essay,

liberty,

had

spoken about a delusive source of

said Gib, a
acter of the his point. dispositions

evidently,

happy lapse

there you have the real char-

scheme admitted. And Gib will not give up He will not listen to what is said about the of man being the real object of praise and
however,

blame, apart from any consideration from whence they

come.

In

reality,

it

comes out that he

is

Predestination

and

Providence.

65
in
of

substantially a necessitarian of the

Edwards school
and the action

regard to the nature of freedom

motives.

The

real offence

is,

that

you have

a neces"

sity of nature

rather than a necessity of God.

The
is

Essayist teaches," he says, " that universal necessity

the true system of nature, the real plan of the universe

;

and

this

he teaches concerning
to

necessity

which he supposes
tion of things.

be in the nature and constituaffirm the very

But we may justly

reverse

that according to the constitution of things

abstracting from the continual prevalence and interposition of the divine will and power, universal liberty

and contingency

is

the true system of nature, the real

plan of the universe."

That

is to say,

God, not law,

God's

is

the principle of order in the universe.

living

power

is

the real thing that binds, and moves, and

changes.

You

cannot think or

will,

motives cannot do

their part, without

vs^as

His immanent energy.

The

feeling

evidently,

You

are going to put us out of

;

imme-

diate relation to the Highest

you are going to turn

many

of the Bible's

most blessed words into metaphors.

In nature and providence, as we think, we are in the

presence of the Divine Shechinah
of things the
;

in this
to

new system

glory

is,

as

it w^ere,

be taken away,
it.

or have the veil of distance put on

have

this fatalism of second causes.

We will not We must have

to all

Him who

can rule the nature

free.

He

has

made

His

ends, and yet leave us

in this representation of

Now, was there nothing Has there been the matter ?

no tendency in the direction which these good men

66
feared
?

Scottish Tlicology.

Did they without cause

like,

object to the sub-

stitution of such phrases as motives

and moral powers

and the
ences
?

for

common

grace and

common
faith,

influ-

Do men

pray with the same

order,

under the

modern idea
must
clung
hold.
to.

of the world's

as

they did two

concur sus w^q

hundred years ago?

Some form

oi

i\\Q

The

" Creatio continuata "

even Edwards

Be

it

that sometimes they went too far in

it

their theories, let us not forget that

sprang from
their
all

their profound
desire to

homage
all

to

the

Supreme Power,

keep

His

glories unstained,
of

and that

through their speculation the cry

their inmost soul

was
love

after the living

God

of holiness

and might and

God

in Jesus.

CHAPTER

III.

THE ATONEMENT.

OMIT many
for
all

questions often discussed

by

the Scotch theologians.

in
this

There

is

not room

course of Lectures.

And

without further introduction, I go on to-day to give

some account

of the

views and discussions of Scotch

theologians in regard to the necessity, the nature, and

the extent of redemption.

I.

First of

all,

in regard to the necessity of atone-

ment
It

of satisfaction to the divine justice.

has been strikingly shown, in the case of the

of

Church

Eome, how,

as religious life

began

to

wane,

abated views upon this question began to be entertained.

theology of

With the growth of mere externalism, the Anselm and Bernard passed away, till you
and the deeper views of the atonement
to all

have the Pelagianism of the Jesuits and the Council

of Trent,

intents put under brand.

Strange enough,
Calvinists,

it

seems that among some ultra-

from a difterent point of view altogether,

came what appears unsatisfactory teaching on that

great doctrine.
07

68

Scottish Theology.

Among
free decree

our

own
God.
It

divines, Eutlierford

adopted the
tlie

view that the atonement has no necessity save in

of

Sin he held, indeed, to merit

punishment.

might have been justly punished

is

even more severely than God has ordained, and

the object of His infinite displacency.

ever

But punish-

ment might
been
at

either have been less, or

might not have

;

all, if

God

in

His sovereignty had chosen

of

it

comes from no holy necessity

" God," he says, "

the divine nature.

if

would not be God

sin did not dis-

please

Him,

for holiness is
is

essential to

God

but the

punishment of sin
essence of sin, but

not formally included in the

is

something posterior in nature

;

to sin, already constituted in its entire essence

and

therefore

God punishes

sin

by no necessity of nature,
leave
it

nay,

if

He

chose,

He

might

altogether

unpunished" (AjJoL 296).

This doctrine absolutely possessed him.

There

is

not a single one of his doctrinal works in which he

does not assert and defend
it.

If justitia punitiva be
:

essential in the divine nature, then he argues

Just as
its its
it

the

fire

burns when

it is

brought into contact with

proper object, so must such a justice go forth in

destroying energy
appears.
"

upon every
if

transgression, even as

Yea," he says, "

by necessity of
justice
shall

justice

God cannot but punish

sin, this

cause

Him

to follow the
;

law of works without any gospel

is,

moderation

which

that the same person that sins,

If there

and no

other, should die for his sins.

ohjcctivc

be such

a connection

ex natura rei

between sin and

Tlu Atonement.
punishment,
in the very
it

69
and punishment
For
this is justice

must be between
That

sin

noxa
sin,"

same person that sinned.

ca'piit!'
is,

sequitiir

you must have a

the

divine freedom in the whole matter, or you overthrow

Eedemption.
says, "

The good man sometimes

still

drives
"

matter to conclusions

more

startling.

Whatever
of

he

God
God

forbids.

He

forbids the existence

of

it

by His
:

approving

will,

not

by necessity

nature

for if

essentially and

by nature

willed

that sin should never be.

it
:

He would

efficaciously hinder
will,

but what

God

wills

by His commanding
that

we

see

He

does

not efficaciously hinder

the existence

thereof.

But how do you prove

than

God

is

more
to

obliged by necessity of nature to defend the glory of

His

justice,

He

is

by the same necessity

"
?

defend His legislative glory

Here, indeed,

is

the mystery.

How
"

does sin come

shalt not "
fail
?

on the stage against that great

Thou

And

certainly Eutherford
it,

and

his

school

to bring

us daylight upon

when they seem

is

to suggest that
real,

behind that great forbidding there

that, for

nothing

and
and

anything

we know,
Highest
is

all

other manifestations

and revelations
so that all living

of the

may

be unreal too

we have
Himself.

phenomenal shadow, not the

true to the Bible

God

It is neither

nor to the wants of the

of

human
" is

soul,

this exaltation
"

Deity into a kind of practical non-existence.

Let

us

make man
it

in our image

a glorious word to have

inscribed on the portals of Eevelation, and

we must

not yield

away

to

a transcendental theology, any

70 more than
to

Scottish Theology.

man-degrading unbelief.
?

How,

then,

did Eutherford put the matter

For he was a most

devout believer in the Cross

did,

and

if

ever any

man

he gloried in the Cross.

It is altogether different,

he says, God's doing a thing with the object of revealing and manifesting His justice, and His doing a thing
ex justitia.

In the one case

act.

He

acts freely, in the

is all

other

He

cannot but

So there
as a

the difference

possible between

mercy

"native inclination" of

the Highest, and mercy as something

forth to

He would show
you have

His creature

in the latter case,

;

room

for wdll

and pleasure

in the former,

God cannot

help Himself.

Not, then, from any necessity of His

nature, but simply and only to manifest the glory of

His justice in His eternal

since the thing
salvation,
is

free purpose,
itself, that,

God

resolves,

right in

in bestowing

He

will

bestow

it

in the justice-magnifying

way
is

of an atoning death.

I do not say that there

nothinsj in the danorers

which haunted Eutherford.

sinner's right,

Arminianism had made redemption the

something he had a positive claim
to.

God's love had

no help

for itself.

God's compassion must needs bring

forth salvation.

So people no doubt

still

exaggerate.

By

their

way
all

of

speaking of the divine benevolence,

they deny

that sovereignty of grace which

we can

neither explain nor control, and which does not answer

to us for its ways.
for

But

it

is

a perfect illusion, that

God

to

act according to the holiness

and

justice

of His nature

by any

sort of necessity, implies

the

upgiving of His freedom.

The Atonement.

71

In a modified form, Patrick Gillespie, in his Arh of

the Covenant,

seems disposed

to agree

with Eutherford

and there

is little

doubt that his view had once conIt gradually,

last faint

siderable prevalence in Scotland.

ever, passed away.

howit

Almost the
the
the

gleam of

we have
In
the

in the universalism of good Fraser of Brea.

Simpson
dissent

case,

defender
great

of

orthodoxy

declared

from

theologian

whom
was not
without

he so deeply reverences, and maintains that punitive

justice is essential in the divine nature.
" It
"

possible for God," says this estimable man,

any consideration or
righteousness
of

satisfaction

to

forgive sin

and
and
it."

release the sinner, because the justice, holiness,

His nature
goes

would

not

allow

hundred years

after Eutherford's
to,

death, the highest

say, the

Calvioist in Scotland

may

very

opposite extreme from him, affirming that the Infinite

One would renounce

to go

the sovereignty of His being and

if

the righteousness of His nature,

He

should suffer sin

is

unpunished
"

and as the sinner

immortal, and

has no power of
eternal.

self -recovery, his

sir,

punishment must be
asks Nomista in the
is

But,

might not the Lord have pardoned

?

Adam's
Marrow.

sin without satisfaction

"

"

No," replies
It is

Evangelista, " for justice

essential in God.
satisfaction."

unjust to pardon sin without

This, there can be

no doubt, expresses
all

the doctrine of Boston, and, I should say, of

the

Marrow men.

And

not merely in the point before

it,

us,

but

in

other questions kindred with

the positions of the

72

Scottish Theology.

Eutlierford-Brown school were given up.

Thus they

held that in the moral law you had three different classes
of precepts.

The

first

three certainly belonged to the

eternal.

class of the essential

and

God

could not but

enjoin the worship, the exclusive worship, the adoring

worship of Himself.
lay back of
positive, that
will.
is, it

These three precepts, as

it

were,

The fourth commandment was

came by way
of external revelation,
;

and was not written on the heart

might be called natural,
it

or in so far as it
so.

was only remotely

The

remaining six commandments they placed in an intermediate category.

positive.

They were,
natural,

so

to

speak, natural-

They were

as

belonging to that
heart
;

natural revelation written in the

human

they

were

positive, as

coming rather from God's

will

than

from God's nature, and were in themselves

as seen in the

alterable,

command
It is

of

Isaac to death, and in the

God to Abraham to put command to Israel to spoil

clear

the

Egyptians.

quite

there was

some

mistake or misconception.

It was, in fact, the

remains

of the overdrawn distinction of the schoolmen between

the volmitas signi and the voluntas

the scholastics of the

henc2)laciti.

But

De

Provicleniia
tell

and the De Causa

language of

Dei seem, you can hardly

sight.

how, to pass out of

in the

The moral law becomes,

effluence

later theologians, the "

of God's moral glory.

The ten commandments," says the great Marrow

of the

leader, " being the substance

law

of nature, a

representation of
holiness,

God's image, and a

beam

or

His

bestowed for ever unalterably to be a rule of

The Atonement.
life to

73
and circum-

mankind

in all possible conditions

stances, nothing but the utter destruction of

human
of that

nature and
office,

its

ceasing to be could divest

is

them

since

God

unchanging in His

image

and

holiness.

No

change of covenant or dispensation could

ever prejudice this their royal dignity."

II.

In regard to the nature of the atonement of

Christ,

you may say there was no

all, it

difference.

On

the

part of

was held

to

be a true and proper

satis-

faction offered to the justice of God.

say, all

We

are, I

dare-

familiar with the

to

way

in

which

this

matter

was wont

be put.

The

old theology of Scotland

as a covenant theology.

might be emphatically described

Man was
Maker.

created in God's image, and under law to his

Any

breach of law exposed him under this

natural constitution to merited punishment, though, as

we have

seen, Eutherford thought the actual infliction

of that, or the

amount
to

of

it,

was

entirely arbitrary;

and even divines

"

of another

school declined to

say

what behoved

have been the Creator's disposal of

the creature on the supposed event of sin's entering

without a covenant being made

time, they had no doubt about

" while, at the

same
claims

what
l)is

sin justly merited.

On

the other hand,

:

man on
it

part had no
to

upon God
nature a

no claims by his obedience

honour or
in his

immortality, though

was admitted there was

kind of image of the covenant which was

is

formally entered into, as

struggling of all

plain from the instinctive

men

after a work-salvation.

74

Scottish Theology.

But the covenant

of works, based, so to speak, on

the natural relationship in which the Creator and His

intelligent creature stood to each other,

and including,

as

it

were, all that

is

implied in that relationship, put

things in a distinct and definite shape, in order to

human

probation

and the outworking of the divine

is

purposes.

Adam

raised

from being the merely

natural head of mankind, in which character his influence on his race

would not have been

different in

kind from the influence of any ordinary parent, to be

the federal head of humanity,
so

that

all

men
;

are

viewed as being in him morally and legally

this character

and in
said a

God

enters into a sacred

if

it

was

gracious

pact with him, that

he perfectly keep His

holy law in that specific positive precept in which,

however simple in
in the form

itself,

the

human

will

is

put in

simple direct relation to the divine

will,

and perhaps

most suitable in

all

the circumstances, he

and those he represented

shall

have in God and in His

;

favour an eternity of holy blessedness

the other hand,
service
if

but that, on

he

fail

in

rendering that perfect

which

is

required of him, he and his race shall

be made liable to eternal death.

Comin^^ from God,

God's
will.

man

of course
is

was bound
;

to accept
is

God's

proposal

law

God's

way

man's.

To a new and higher

is

stage,

humanity,

it

was

said,
it.

thus lifted up.

Grand
has

destinies

open up before

The very highest and strongest motives

are supplied.
his

of holy action

Man
is

now

in a sense claims

upon
intel-

Maker, and

brous^ht into closer

and more

Tlie

Atonement.

75
put.

ligible relation to
it is

Him.

So

it

was certainly

Yet

plain the probationary element comes into great

it

prominence, and that

Scotch Theology.
first

is

very boldly marked in

It

was held that man, under the

covenant, was not in a state of justification, but

or,

only in a state of negative justification,

non- condemnation.

as

it

were,
of

There

is

sometimes, too, a

way

speaking about the covenant of works, where probation

is,

so to

speak, exaggerated, which gives one an unif

comfortable feeling, as

the whole thing were per

I

vaded by a hireling element.

that

have

to say,

however,
to

the Scottish
it

divines are very careful

bring

clearly out that

first

was no hireling obedience which the

It

covenant claimed.
or
selfish

was no
which

service

of

selfish
its

terrors

longings

would
be

meet
above

requirements.

God

Himself

must

all

heavens, and severance from

all hells.

God more

terrible

than

But

must not

tarry.

This covenant of works was

broken, and
still

mankind
its

lay under its curse, and, though

pressed by

claims, were unable to fulfil them.

And now comes

mankind thus

into view another covenant.

About
of

how
the

fallen there are transcendent counsellings

?

else

can you speak

The Three Persons

and the second

Godhead decree
into

salvation,

(allis

willing) undertakes the work.

covenant of grace
as

entered

between the

Father

representing

essential Deity,

and the Son, invested already with the

in

mediatorial

office,

which

it

is

concluded the latter

shall in an actual incarnate state take " the law-place,"

76
as
it

Scottish Theology.

was

said,

of the

chosen ones, and by His

all-

meritorious sufferings and death render " all that law

and

justice could exact of

broken

man

"
;

and that

this

should,

be accepted as the redemption price on the

all

ground of which

for

whom He

thus vicariously

acted should have full law-quittance as to their guilt,

acceptance, sonship, holiness, and
everlasting
life,

as

well as whatever was required to

make
But

the purchased

inheritance the real possession of the ransomed.

is

This

the substance of the matter.

far

more than

this

have our old authors

to

unfold of the glories of

its

the grace covenant.

Under

promises you have not

state.

a mere restoration to the

is

Adamic

The believer
first

exalted to that higher state which our

if

parents,

and we in them, would have attained

bation had ended happily
justification,

Edenic pro-

to

that real

and glorious

with

its

nearer relation to

God and
Christ.

its

unfailing security in the righteousness of

A
it

new and

peculiar right of sonship

is

taken out by the

Lord Jesus, in which His people

almost seems as
if

share.

Sometimes

things very extreme were spoken

about that
in kind,

new and

nobler

life,

life

almost distinct

which the new man has in

his Lord.
is

Perhaps no part of the old covenant theology

more remarkable, more

which you have

precious,

than

the

way

in

set forth the

promises made to Christ

Himself as Mediator, and, in connection with these,

the blessed doctrine of the administration of graceblessings, in

His hand.

We

hear

it

said ofttimes that

It is not

our theology puts Christ in the background.

: ;

Tlie

Atonement.
Scottish

77
Presbyterians.
I

Jesus, but doctrine, with

shall

have to refer to this again.

But

if

they

who

speak thus ignorantly would glance into Gillespie or

Boston, no
prejudice could

keep them from seeing

entire
is

almost on

every page
is

how

their

mistake.

Why,

Christ

everywhere with these old teachers.

Christ circles like a life-pulse through
I

The Person
though
in
I

of

every doctrine and aspect of doctrine.

may

add,

have not time to enter into the subject, that

the Scottish doctrine of the Covenants you note

differences.

some

Dickson and Eutherford spoke

of

both the covenant of redemption, and of the covenant

of grace or reconciliation
:

by the former, they meant

;

the covenant between the Father and the Son

latter,

by the

a distinct and subordinate covenant, based on

the former, between

in fact, tlie

God and His

people, under which,

blessings of redemption are administered

the former, so far as

latter

man was

concerned, absolute

the

having as

its

condition faith.

Boston and Gib

re-

refused the

distinction

between the covenant of

of

demption and the covenant

there
is

grace, asserting

no

such

distinction

in

the

Bible,

that

the

covenant of redemption and the covenant of grace in

their view being only
"

two names
Christ

of the

same

thing,

which in

resp)ect of

may

be called a covenant

of redemption, for

He

alone engaged to pay the price

it is

while in respect of man,

all

a covenant of grace, as
later divines

to us comes freely."

The

saw some
or,

tendency in the earlier doctrine to E'eonomianism,

as the covenant of reconciliation

was external

in the

"

78
visible Church,

Scottish Theology.

even a sort of bar to immediate dealing

union with Him.

with the Saviour, and entrance by an appropriating

faith into living
It is

perhaps a

difference in the

same

line

when

the earlier theologians

Christ, not as a

say

"

The covenant was made with

public person representing many, but as an eminent

chosen person, chosen out from among His brethren

and the
tracting

later teachers:

"Jesus

Christ, the party con-

on man's

side in the covenant of grace, is to

last or

be considered as the

second Adam, head and

is

representative of a seed."
intricate,

The question
believe
;

sufficiently

and

do

not

there

is

any

real

difference

between the two

only in the one case the

vicarious

was brought more

;

distinctly out, in the other

the representative

and the one making the relation

His
people
it

between Christ
artificial,

and

more

arbitrary or
real,

the other

making

more natural and

though mystical.

But
I have

to return
said, a

from

this long digression, it was, as

real satisfaction to the justice of God, as

Christ
of

offered

the

substitute

and

representative
stead.

His people.

He

obeyed in their room and

He

bore the curse in their room and stead.

By His

obedience unto death.

He

acquired for them, under

His covenant with

life
;

tlie

Father, law-rights to eternal

so that, while in respect of themselves this life

all of grace, in

was
"

respect of Christ

it

was due under

the law-covenant to which

He

had bowed Himself.

As in Adam we sinned," it was said, " so in Christ we satisfied." Eutherford makes the believer say " I
:

The Atonement,

79

was condemned, I was judged, I was crucified for sin, when my surety Christ was condemned, judged, and
crucified for

my

sins.

I have paid

all,

because

my

Surety has paid

I

all."

may add

that the old Scotch divines cling to the

suffered,

view that Christ not merely

but bore the

to

same

sufferings in hind

which were due

it

His people.

While, in their view,

Christ's person that

was the divine dignity of

infinite

gave such

worth

to

His

atoning work, they did not regard the nature or the

measure of the sufferings as unimportant.

Once and

again they protest against the bold statement, that

a drop of Christ's blood

of sins away.
"

is is

enough

to

wash mountains
in substance

There

a necessity to hold," says

Brown,

" that

Christ

suffered the
;

same

that the elect were liable to suffer

death, the
ents."

the same curse and

essential ingredilarge,

same punishment in
is

its

The matter

explained

at

and not

irreverently.
is

I confess for myself, that I think there

slide

tendency in our day to

is

away from

these

views, which

not true to the Christian experience of

the past, and which

expiation more seriously than

may endanger the we think.

and more

idea of proper

III.

But

further,

particularly, in regard

to

the EXTENT of Eedemption, or the extent of the

merits of Eedemption.
It is implied in

what has been already

said,

that

Christ, in

some altogether peculiar

His
people.

Saviour of

sense, was the But was there no other

"

80
(improper)
sense

Scottish Theology.

in
for

which
others
?

He

might have

been
is

said to die also

Well, the

subject

largely discussed.

It is discussed

by Eutherford, and
;

Brown, and Durham, and Dickson, and Gillespie

whatsoever sense Christ died for any of our
that same sense

and

I think there can be no doubt that they hold, that in

race, in

He

died for

all for

whom He
;

died.

They

held, indeed, the intrinsic sufficiency of Christ's

death to save the world or worlds

but that was

altogether irrespective of Christ's purpose, or Christ's

accomplishment.
ciently for all

The phrase that Christ died

"

suffi-

was not approved, because the

theological

For

seemed

to

imply some reality

Scottish

of actual substitution.

Yet

the

mind
in

was

evidently
aspects,

greatly exercised

upon the subject

many

and once and again we have discussions in connection with it, which are little known, and not without their
interest.

The name

of Eraser of

Brea
a

is

one well known, and

very precious to
piety, full of love

many

man

he was of profound

and devotion

to his Master, for

whom

in the days of suffering he had borne an unflinching

testimony.

ISTone is

mentioned with greater respect by

his contemporaries

among the good men of his time. I have added him to the writers whom I mentioned might

in

my

last

lecture as having

had experience of sore

us
as

spiritual struggles.

He

with

historic

doubts,

tells

how he was
might

assailed

such

have

been

learned in the school of Strauss or Baur.

But these

very unfoldings of his inner

life

which he has given

The Atonement.
us, evidently indicate that
gifts
if

81

be was a

man

both of

and

grace,

he was also a

man

of a peculiar type.

You do
his pen.

not wonder at singular doctrines coming from

An

earnest gospel preacher, he yet seemed

to himself to
offer;

want a

sufficient

ground

for the gospel

and while a prisoner on the Bass, he wrote a

subject.
in

work upon the

ford,

As

have already mentioned,

he was, at least

some

points, a follower of Euther;

and not infrequently he quotes Dr. Twiss

yet,

strange to say, he wrought out a theory of Universal

Eedemption from the extremest positions

Calvinistic masters.

of his ultra-

He
room

asserts

that " Christ obeyed, and died in the

of
:

all,

as the

head and representative

"

of fallen

man

"

that "

men
:

are all fundamentally justified in

" that Christ died for all."
?

Him

and by
all

Him

But
to

then are

men

saved

No.

God

did not

mean

save any but His chosen.

of that

What,
Well,

then,

was the object

which God's
all,

one indivisible

sacrifice for all,

?

Son

offered

on the cross

first

of

to lay a

real foundation for the gospel offer.

For every

man
all
?

was
Is

satisfaction rendered,
it

and every

man might
real.

appro-

priate
it

as

something objectively

Is this

simply the old story of a conditional salvation

at
all.

Not
and

Eraser

scorns

the

idea of conditional
take,

redemptions and salvations.

insufficient
it

Men
to

he argues, low

views of the Saviour's work, when

they think

had respect

human

happiness alone.
is its last

The manifestation
and highest end.

of God's justice

and grace

And

this,

according to him,

is

the


82
Scottish Theology.

glory of His scheme.

It lays

a basis for a gospel in

as

which reprobates, just

as well

the

elect,

can be
elect,
;

asked to believe, while they are not, as the

brought under the divine appointment unto

hence, too,
it

life

and
of

follows that, in their free

rejection

what

is

simple verity, they become liable not to law,

;

but to gospel wrath and vengeance

and the same blood

which magnifies
essentially

God's

grace
It

exceedingly, magnifies
to this, in short,

His

justice.
it,

comes
that

Eraser plainly states

bates, that

Christ dies for repro-

they

may

fall

under a more tremendous

doom,
theirs

as,

on the other hand,

He

dies for the elect, that

may

be an all-transcendent blessedness.

In

many other aspects the good man presents his theory. As you may buy a casket for its jewels, so Christ bought all the world, and all men in it, for His
chosen's sake, not to save
it
all,
;

but to use them, and, as

still,

suits

Him,

to cast
is

away

though

as there is a

purchase, there

no unreality in offering them pardon

it.
;

and acceptance in virtue of

is

So he puts
is

it.

There

no hiding or mitigating
out.

all

plainly and boldly

spoken

This work was not published in the author's

time.

life-

About the middle

of

last

century

it

was given

to the world,

and created no

little

commotion in two

communities, the

Cameronian

and the Antiburgher.

Cameronian
presb}^-

Two

of the five ministers of the

its

tery seem to have embraced

views substantially,

and broke

off

from good Mr. M'Millan.

Secession
also

An

excellent

minister of the

became

tainted,

and

The Atonement.

83
to

was deposed.
at almost

It

was not

difficult

answer

them
spirit

every point.

That whole notion of gospel

vengeance was altogether out of keeping with the

of the Bible.
satisfied,

How

monstrous the idea of the Father

the wrath-inflicter
1

and the Saviour made

?

What

did you gain by this

That vague doctrine

to the real

of

redemption did not help you

as a ladder to
it,

one.

Meant
the
first

it

really broke
it.

down under

footstep placed on

The work soon passed out of

result of its production

memory.

The most important

theolocjical discussions

was the
I

which

it

brought from

the pen of

Adam
more

Gib, the ablest and most important,

imagine, of their day.

left

At the same time, I think

on our theology than

Eraser

traces of himself

we commonly
There
is

suppose.

one point in Eraser's book to which I have

is

not alluded, and which

of larger interest than

It "

some
bene-

of his other doctrinal speculations.

his

was a part of

scheme that Christ had purchased

common
life,

fits,"

the ordinary temporal blessings of

and that
sustained

it

is
it

through His grace that the world

is,

is

as

and that

all

its

bounties

are enjoyed

by

mankind.

At

different times

and in

different forms this ques-

tion has been debated in the Scottish Churches.

Durham

has

an

essay,

in

which

he

considers

whether any mercy bestowed upon the reprobate, and

enjoyed by them,
of,

may

be said to be the proper fruit

death.

or purchase in

of,

Christ's

And he

answers
fruits

decisively

the

negative.

The native

of

84
Christ's death,

Scottish Theology.

he

says, are not divided,

but they

all

go together.

So that for

whom He
There

satisfied
respect,

and

for

whom He

purchased anything in a.ny

He

did

so in respect of everything.

may

be certain

consequences

of Clirist's

death of an advantageous kind

which reach wicked men.

Nay, to the wicked there

But that

is

a mere accident.

may

be given

common

gifts,

by which the Church

Lord
advanced
;

is

edified

and the glory of the

covenant
God's people.

but

these

belong to the
to

redemption, as promised
It is argued

blessings
it

further, that

is

very doubtful whether,

it

looked at in every point of view,

that
it is

can well be said

a blessing to

men

w^ho yet reject the Son of

God, that they have the morally purifying influences of

Christianity,

and are more or

less affected

by them in

their character, or
to fall

by any such blessing

life.

as can be said

from the tree of

So, too,

thought Gillespie,

and

so thought Paitherford.
trial the subject

In the Simpson
shape.

came up

in another

Simpson maintained that there was in nature

revelation of grace.

dim

That the wrath of God did

;

not straightway overtake sinners

that the sun shone,

still

and the showers

to

fell,

and the harvests

came round
not, in
its

supply the wants of men,

revelation of
?

was
?

this
it

measure, a

grace

Did

not speak

faintly of the cross

grace.

If so, it

can only be the crossrejected

But the idea was decisively

divines
of

by the

evangelical

the

day,

who, indeed,
libel.

made
in

Simpson's doctrine one of the points of the

Halyburton handles the question

in his

own way

The Atonement.
a famous excursus of his Natural Religion,

85

on
?

God's

government of the heathen world.

answers in the negative.

" Is

that govern"
it

ment," he asks, " in any sense one of grace

He
is,

Eemarkable indeed
the reasons

that the guilty should be spared from generation to

generation.

But who knows

?

all

God may

have

for that

As Adam
is it

stood the representative of

all

the race of mankind,

not fitting that

whom

he

represented should come into existence, and bear their

part in the great responsibility
part of
?

Why
and

should only a

mankind

live,

and

sin,

suffer,

and others

involved in the great transaction as well as they never

come
ones

into

existence
still

Besides,

some of the chosen

may
sins.

belong to those to

whom He

exercises

this forbearance, or, as it were, this holy

connivance in

their

Not any law

of grace,

but the law of

creation, the

law of works, unretracted, unmitigated,

;

reigns everywhere outside the gospel realms

and even
sus-

by that law, although

its

penalties are

meanwhile
still

pended, a certain outward order can be

preserved,

and a certain system of external rewards and punishments comes

in.

The only theologian

Gillespie,

of

any note in whose writings

is

there appears something different from this

Patrick
I

at least,

he

is

the only one in

" It
is

whom

have

noticed anything different.

" that establishes

Christ,"

he says,

the earth, that so the creatures which

;

are for man's use are not destroyed

for justice

did

require as speedy vengeance

angels."

upon men

as

upon the

86

Scottish Theology.

fair

representation of
tlie

tlie

Scottish doctrine

may

be given in

words of the old Seceder, who has

:

elaborately written on this point

"

There can be no

proper

enjoyment

of

any

benefits

from

Clirist,

as

benefits of

His mediatory kingdom, but in a way of

fellowship with

communion and
no common

Him

by

faith.

Thus,

material benefits, as enjoyed by wicked

men

or unbelievers, can be looked

upon

as benefits of

His mediatory kingdom, or as the

chase.

fruits of

His pur-

These material

benefits,

in the

most general
as the

consideration

thereof, do

proceed

from God

great Creator and

Preserver of the world, in which

respect they are

common

to

men and
come
to to

beasts.

But

more

particularly, they always

men

in

some
the

covenant

channel.

They come
the

wicked

men, or
in

unbelievers,

through
its

broken
so,

covenant,

channel of

curse

and

whatever material goodtheir

beasts,

ness be in these things to them, as suited to

fleshly nature, like the goodness thereof unto

yet there

is

no spiritual goodness attending the same,

no

divine love, but wa^ath.

Whereas, on the other

hand, these benefits come to believers through the

covenant of grace in the channel of

so they enjoy these benefits in a

its

blessing
of

and

way

communion

with Christ, as benefits of His mediatory kingdom."

Again, in the
agitated

Marrow
tlie

controversy, the Church was

of

about

extent

redemption.

Boston,

when he was
his flock, fell
his

minister of Simprin, in visiting

among

in with a volume in the house of one of

title

members, the

of

which interested him.

He

The Atonement
took
it

87
for books,

home with him.

Eager at the time

its

he was soon busy with

perusal,

and that perusal

life

was, you might say, both an epoch in his

and in

the religious history of Scotland.

That book was the

and the Marroiv of Modern Divinity was in course of time issued afresh from the
Marroiv of Modern Divinity
;

Scottish press.

Soon

the country was a-blaze with

theological discussion.

as

The Marroio was condemned by the General Assembly teaching several erroneous doctrines, and among
universal redemption as to purchase.
to

others, that of

The same charge was made, and continued made, against the supporters of the Marrow.

be

The
it is

ground of the accusation was their holding that

died for me, and that what
did and suffered for me.
Principal

part of the direct act of faith to believe that Christ

He

did and suffered

it

He

This,

was asserted by

Haddow and

other writers, evidently capable

else
it

men, could mean nothing

than that Christ had

was, in fact, a part of

died for every man, and that

savin Gj faith to believe in that.

The Marrow men denied the charge indignantly.

In
truth, they

were extreme particular redemptionists.

As Boston

points out, they

more thoroughly

identified

Christ and His elect than the theologians

who

pre-

ceded them.

The second

Adam

included His whole

spiritual seed in

Him

and only they

whom He
it

repre-

sented,

and who

should spring spiritually, as

were,

out of Him, could have any part in His salvation.

As

well midit the idea be entertained of some other

88
than a mere
stock,

Scottish Theology.

man

being engrafted

into

tlie

human

and
of

falling heir to its sin

and woe,

as that of

any out
the

the Christ-man race being engrafted into

new and

higher stock.

What

they taught was not,

" Christ died for thee

as for every
true,

man

believe that,

and be saved
not "
;

it

is

whether thou believest or

for

this

was sheer universalism.

said,
"

They were

only falling back, they

of

on the old Scottish doctrine

Davidson and Eollock.

divine,
"

We
is

do affirm," says the

latter

and defend the certainty of special

procured and offered

grace.

In the gospel, grace

all,

not only in general to

but in special to every one

is

wherefore the certainty of special grace

required in
general
is

every one.

The
no

Spirit

of Christ,

when any

promise or sentence touching Christ and His mercy

alleged, doth
less

particularly apply the

same

to

every man, by speaking inwards to the heart of every

one, than of old Christ did

by His holy voice apply

the

these particular promises to certain persons, as to

woman

in

Simon's house, to Zaccheus, to the thief

It was, in
short,

upon the
tion

cross."
still

the appropriating

persuasion,

more strongly put by

the

many Eeformato

theologians,

Marrow men wanted

life,

bring

back.
in

Perhaps the Eeformers had spoken too strongly

days of a fresh strong

those

when

Christ's

entry into the soul was often as though amid songs

and shoutings
seem almost

at

least

their

definitions

of

faith
it

to imply, that

you can never have

it

without being sure that you have

object.

and

its

glorious

The Atonement.

89
cautiously,

At a

later period the point

was put more

and

though not in substance

indicated a

differently;

that,

no doubt,

movement
is

in another line.

That movecarried

ment was,
too
far

there

some ^rround

for thinkino-

in

another direction.

somewhat distant
in.

kind of dealing with salvation had crept

all,

First of
;

you were

to get well

humbled by the law

you were
in
to look

and

then, bruised

and

stricken,

towards

the Saviour as a great

for

One

you; put your confidence

to

whom in Him
will.

there

was hope

as all-sufficient,

and devote yourself

His holy

This was mean-

while sufficient to give you a measure of peace.

course of time there would
reality
able,

In

come the evidences

of the

of

your union to Christ, and you would be

with a faith of a stronger and more vigorous

appropriate

kind, fully to
yours.

Him,

fully

to

call

Him

There are hints that the soul manipulation in

such works as Dickson's Thcrapeutica was not altogether successful.

The mere law work, without,

a

as

Eutherford
created

said,

dash

of

the

gospel,

sometimes
Pro-

acerbity,

resistance,

positive

im belief.

bably there was among the Marrow

men

a reaction
so

towards an earlier view, and not the

their tional

less

that

own

experiences were more or less of the intui-

type.

What

they aimed at

is

clear in

their

reply to the questions put by the General Assembly.

First of
all,

a glorious
to

object

is

presented to your

view, offered

your acceptance, brought more and

in

more home

to

you
;

His worth and suitableness, and

grace and beauty

nearer

He

comes, and nearer

your


90
sonl
closes
Scottish Theology.

with

Him

and

as,

in the

band

of the

Holy Ghost, the heavenly

supernatural power,
conviction,

call presses in

on you with

in a faith divine, of living soul

offered One, take

you take the

His
blood,

Him
He

as

yours yours

yours
all

yonrs

His

righteousness,
all

the

fulness of
for

His salvation,
;

has

done

and

suffered

poor sinners
not I
;

so

that
life

with

Paul you say,

I

" I live, yet

and the

which
I do
faith,

now
see

live,

I live

by the

faith of the
for

Son
me."

of God,

which loved
not

me and

gave Himself

how one with

Catechism,
less

anything

of

living

heart to heart with the

as

divine reality, can be said,

to

in

the

embrace

Christ,

without

having more or

strongly an experience like this.

In proportion as you are really resting on the Blessed

One, not clinging to a notion, or building on some
vague, dim hope, but dealing with a real Saviour, and

putting confidence in a real Saviour, offered of God,

in the

same proportion you

will

have the confidence

that
sin.

He gave Himself for you, and. suffered for your And the Marrow doctrine had nothing to do
universal
or
partial

with either
" whatever

redemption.

The

He
is,

did for the redemption of

as
it

mankind He

did for me,"

were, the joyful cry with which

the experiences of a soul welcoming this redemption

with vivid,

or,

as

they

said,

with supernatural
glory.

faith,

accompanied realizations of the Lord of

truth
is,

The

these
object

good

men had

strong belief in the

spiritual

and the

spiritual

power,
of

in

Christ's

essential

adaptation

and the

working

the

Holy


The Atonement.

91
reality, in
all

Ghost

tliey

had

faith

enough in the

the

divine grandeur of these, "

labour," "

Come unto Me,

still

ye that

Ho

every one that thirsteth," to expect that

the everlasting gates

would

be widening before

And if it may be they sometimes went too far, though I do not know that they did, they were nearer the right way than many of their opponents, who, it is to be feared,
them
for glorious

enterings of the King.

liad

no very earnest wish

for

a strong and lifeful

Christianity, whatever
tion or assurance.

was

its

orthodoxy as to redemp-

But while the Marrow theology was almost extreme

in its doctrine of particular redemption,
there were
it

aspects of
offence.

it

in

which you do not wonder that

it

gave

I think

would have given

offence in

some
for

points to the best

men

of a passing
its

generation, and
positions
;

they would have dreaded some of

while
it is
it is

substantially the old Calvinistic

I shall notice one or
:

theology,

certainly more.

two points
frequency
introduced

that have struck

1.

me

have been often struck with the

is

with which the subject of reprobation

into our older theological works, and the almost

unkind
the

way in which reprobates Marrow divines, as well as

But they
treat
it,

are

spoken

of.

Now

the divines of the second

Beformation, believed in the doctrine of reprobation.

as it were, with a holy awe,
it

and do

not care to thrust

forward.

In Eutherford's work

on the Covenant, the word reprobation or reprobate

occurs between eighty and ninety

times

in Boston

92
ou the Covenant
little
it

Scottish Theology.

only occurs thrice.

There can be

doubt of what that indicates.

Then, in the Marrow theology, you might say
is

2.

there

more
souls.

of a desire

to

put the gospel near to

human
gift,

This

is

seen in their deed of grant and

and, as I think, often very questionable appliance

It is

of texts to the support of that doctrine.

also

seen in a difference between the seventeenth century

and the eighteenth century

been hardly ever referred

divines,

which has perhaps

earlier treatises

to.

In the

on the Covenant you have generally some discussion

Christ's testament.

of

Indeed, some of the richest and

are

tenderest
particular,

things
is

spoken

about

it.

Much,

in

said

of the
?

legacies

and the

legatees.

Who

are the legatees

In the older works, without

apparently any other idea being supposed capable of

entertainment,
says Boston.
effectual
;

they

are

the elect

believers.

No,

To the

elect only the testament

becomes

but they are not the only persons to

left.

whom
manhow-

the legacies are

The

legatees are sinners of

is

kind
to

indefinitely,

and every mankind sinner

entitled

put in his claim.

;

No

doctrinal divergence,

ever, is implied

yet Boston explains carefully, at the

same
to

time, that in his view Christ's testament belongs

His administration of the covenant.

the difference
is

But

still,

as a

fact,
3.

worthy

of remark,
still,

Another

thing,

more noticeable
call their

briefly

refer to.

The seventeenth century divines were greatly

Judaic theory of
idea of the visible

hampered by what I might

the world's conversion.

Our modern

The Atonement.

93

Church

as a

kingdom

of faith pushing out in bold

aggression

on every

side,

gathering in

converts

by
at

units or hundreds, as the case

may

be, to

become

once soldiers of Christ, aiming at nothing less than

the spiritual subjugation of the world to the faith and

obedience of the gospel, was very faintly realized in

that earlier period of our history.

What

our fathers

rather thought of was a sort of expansion of nationalism

after

the Jewish fashion,

in

which,

when God has

elect ones

among

a people to be gathered in,

He

takes

the nation into external covenant

with Himself, and

within the order and under the ordinances of a visible

Church

as

His

" office-house of grace,"

not excluding

the aid extrinsic of the sword of the magistrate.

carries out the purposes of grace
;

He

calls, shields, sanctifies

His chosen
lets

and when

He

has no more of these, then

" If the doctrine of

the framework
its

fall in pieces.

the covenant of

own
all

nature," says Eutherford, "

nations,

may

be so preached to

without exception, in
all

every difference of time, then must

the earth, in
all difference of time,

the nations of

be in a capacity to be
;

a covenanted people of

God

the Church of Christ

;

the

vineyard of the Lord

Christ
to
;

His inheritance

the spouse of
flock.

His

lovely,

His called and chosen

For,
to

have the doctrine of the covenant preached

nation,

and Christ
vineyard

offered

to

them,
"

is

to
field

be
is

the
the

planted
field

of the

Lord."

The

of

the visible

kingdom

of Christ,

because the
field,

world

of all natural

men

is

not the Lord's

visible

where
is

He

soweth

His wheat, but the

Church

94
only such a
field.

Scottish Theology.

Tor seeing the gospel, the immortal

is

seed of the regenerate,

not sown through the whole

world of mortal men, but only in the visible Church,

the field must be Christ's
professors."
field,

or

His world of Church

Boston

tells

us that he was at one period

It

of his life sorely perplexed about this view.

was the
Church

common
had the
as

saying, that

members

of the

visible

right to have the gospel preached to them, just

though no others had.

He

did not

understand
offer

it.

But
all,

light came,

and he saw the gospel

to

was
but

for

that

not

visible
calls

Church

sinners,

to

mankind
first

sinners, the

and ministries of heavenly

love were to be sent.

of all

Boston and the Marrow men,

divines, entered
;

among our

fully into the

to

missionary spirit of the Bible

Calvinistic doctrine

were able

see that

was not inconsistent with worldefforts.

conquering aspirations and

CHAPTER

lY.

THE DOCTEIXE OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH.

jHERE

is

perhaps no country in the world in

all

which

kinds of Church questions have

been so largely discussed as our own.

We

have an immense authorship of one

rights of the Church.

sort

and another

in regard to the nature, constitution, government, order,

Discussion on this subject, you

may

say, has

never been in abeyance since the days of

John Knox.
I propose to devote

two

of these Lectures to givino-

an account of the views our theologians have developed on some of the points to which they have mainly
devoted their attention.

I.

The

visible Church, in the idea of

is

the Scottish

theologians,

catholic.

You have
it

not an indefinite
^N'ational

number

of Parochial,

or Congregational, or

Churches, constituting as
ical individualities,

were so many

ecclesiast-

but one great spiritual republic, of

which these various organizations form a part. The visible Church is not a genus, so to speak, with so

many

species under

it.

It is thus
is

you may think

a totum integrale

of

the State; but the visible Church

95

96
it is

Scottish Theology.

an empire.
constitute

The Churches

of the various nation;

alities

the provinces of this empire

far

and

though they are so

independent of each other, yet

is

they are so one, that membership in one

ship in
all.
all,

member-

and separation from one

of

is

separation from

The member

the Scottish

Church presents

his credentials to

the French, or Italian, or African

all its privileges,

Church, and has a right at once to

at least in actio primo.
is

The

Scottish

excommunicate

a heathen

man and

a publican over the Church

of the

universal.

Though every separate organization

Church has an
it,

Catholic

ecclesiastical

completeness

belonging to

so that the presbytery, for example,

can by inherent right ordain and exercise discipline

in all
its

forms, just as

if it

had been constituted a

it

separate Church, yet in order of nature, as

all

was

said,

these powers and rights are bestowed

first

on the

visible
of

Church

Catholic.
;

presbytery has the power

excommunication

but that power in idea belongs

primarily to the Church Catholic, and the

ication
is

excommun-

catholic.

presbytery has the power of

ordination,

and ordains a minister over a congregation

but ordination in idea belonGfS to the Church Catholic,

and the ordination makes a man a minister

Church
Catholic.

of the

Frimarily, as

it

was

said, the

power

of the keys

was given

to the universal visible

Church

of Christ.

This conception of the Church, of which, in at least

some

aspects,

we have

^practically

so

much

lost

sight,

had a firm hold of the Scottish theologians of the

The Doctrine of
seventeenth century.
It

the Visible Church.

97

Church idealism of Eome

and
attractive

enabled them to meet the

in

many ways

so

grand
It

with a nobler Church idealism.

enabled them to throw back the charge that Protest-

antism
unity

fails

to
it

realize the Bible

doctrine of Church

that

dismembers and breaks up the kingdom

of heaven

upon

centre of unity
is

earth, in

severing

it

from

its visible

with the reply that Protestant unity

as

much
it

a reality as
is

Eoman
visible

unity, only that the

centre of
Tiber.

in heaven, not on the banks of the

Of

this

great

Church the various

separate true Churches are

with one another

departments of
a

members
to
;

or

in

communion

related

one another like the

kingdom
in

and

though differences

may
to

exist

between them, they are not on that account

as

be

regarded

opposition

conflict.

In

accordance
or

wdth this

idea,

the CEcumenical Council

to of

Assembly

was acknowledged
on
its

be the supreme
questions

Church

authority

the

sort

which

naturally fall within

scope,

it

questions bearing on

such matters as are necessary not indeed to the Church's

being or well-being, but certainly to
being.
It
its

highest wellevil of

was

also held that

was only the

the times that prevented a Protestant CEcumenical from

assembling and pronouncing sentence of excommunication on the

Church

of Piome as a false Church, or in

some form cutting

True

it off

from

ecclesiastical fellowship.

Churches of Christ, side by side with

one

another, forming separate organizations, with separate

governments,

seemed

to

them G

utterly

inadmissible,!!


98
unless
it

Scottish Theology.

might be in a very limited way, and

for

some

reason of temporary expediency.

ents proposed to the Westminster

When

the Independ-

Assembly a friendly
it

co-existence and occasional communion,

was, as

is

well known, resolutely declined.

"

That will
;

be no
shall

plain and total separation," said the former

"

we

be working substantially towards the same end."

it

"So,"

was answered,

"

might the Donatists and Novatians

all

have pled, and indeed almost

the separatists

who
were

have figured in the Church's history.

Such separation
unless
it

was unknown in the

used by
false teachers
:

apostles'
all

time,

who

professed Christianity
If

then held communion together as one Church.

you you

can join with us occasionally in acts of worship,

ought to act with us in joint

separated congregations.
to such as are otherwise at a distance

communion, not in
of revealing truth

God's

way
is

minded,
other.

not by setting

men

from each

That you should be a

distinct

Christian

oro-anization, takincj

members from
is

our Churches

who may have

scruples of conscience,

schism undoubted in the body of Christ."

Separation

from a true Church

seemed

to

these good
is

men

to

mean
"

either that the

Church on earth
of

not one,
visible

which truth of the unity

it

the

Catholic

Church,
all

was

said,

is

the

manifest

OTound
this

of

Church union and communion, or that

parts,

one

Church may be of such heterogeneous

one part ought
other,"

as that

not

to

have

communion with
to

the the

a thing

which was held

carry in

it

destruction of the very idea of unity.

The Doctrine of
"

the Visible Church.

99

These great Churches of

Eome and
body
;

Carthage," says

Eutherford, "
ators

made one

visible

and the innov-

were not schismatics because they separated from

single

one

congregation

but,

saith

Socrates,

they

hindered the Churches from union.

Optatus, and the Fathers,

Auojustine,

and

make

the Donatists schis. .

matics in separating from the Catholic Church.

The

Novatians, Donatists, and others of old, and the Anabaptists of late, have been all

by

their fellow-Christians

branded with

this, that

they went and separated from

the Church, which certainly can be understood of no particular congregation."

" for those that
" It is

impossible," says

Durham,

maintain that principle of the unity of

the Catholic visible Church to

own

a divided

way

of
it

administering government or other ordinances, but

will infer either that one party hath no interest in the

Church, or that one Church

the unity thereof in

may

be many, and so that

to

its visible state is

no purpose.

This

we

take for granted."

When
errors

it

was urged, in

behalf of secession

and separate organization, that and

which people
it

there were impurities

felt

themselves bound

to

have no connection with,

was

answered

''
:

See what impurities and errors there were

in the Jewish

Church
;

see

how
;

idolatry sometimes

prevailed in

it

see how, even in its better days, the

high places were not taken away

yet did

its

good

men withdraw from it, See how secession ?

apostolic

or
it

any of the prophets preach

age

was

in the

Church of the
Thyatira
;

at

Corinth, at

Sardis, at

what departures from the truth, what lacking of right

100
discipline
;

Scottish Theology.

what

offences against sacred order

Have

we any
to

call

from the Master or His inspired servants

severance
?

ecclesiastical

Is

your

conscience
?

tenderer than that of prophets and apostles

Must

you have a purism which Isaiah and Paul would not

have required
?

We

separate, indeed,

from Papists,

Anabaptists, idolaters, because, though they profess the

true God, as

Edom

did, yet they dearly evert the

funda-

mentals

but you cannot say that either

we

or

any

of

the Eeformed Churches, in words or by consequence,

overthrow the essentials of salvation.

too,
;

We

separate,

from all corruption in the Church we cannot have communion with the best of Churches in what we bebut separation from the corruption lieve to be wrong
;

of the

Church and separation from the worship of the

If a preacher

corrupters are things entirely different.

be sound in the main, though he mix errors with his

teaching,

you may

sit

under

his

ministry
believe.

for
'

what
all

you hear you

thins^s,

are to try ere

you

Try

hold fast that which

is cjood.'

Are we not
the only
errors
;

told
?

to hear the Pharisees, but to

beware of the doctrine

is

Nor can
have

it

be said that separation

way

of

testifying effectually against sins

liberty,

and

for if

you

such a testimony can be far more effectu-

ally borne in

union than in severance.

instance in the conduct of Joseph and Xicodemus,

You have an who

continued in connection with the Jewish Church, and

took part in
its

councils,

even when very sinful and

dreadful things were done

by

it,

and who

yet,

because

they dissented and testified, are not merely exonerated

The Doctrine of

the Visible Church.

101

from

all

blame, but their act has more honourable menif

tion than

they had made a formal secession."

And,

adds Eutherford, the substance of whose statements I

give in a modified form,

"The unity

of the

Church hath
it

the same ground, and no fewer motives to press

now
life

than then."
startling

So

it

was argued.

Positions sufficiently

were thus laid down by

men whose whole

was nevertheless a

battle for orthodoxy.

You might have supposed

that the divines of the

seventeenth century would have sympathized with the

Donatists rather than with the Church,
so

when

it

had

much

in it to shock a seventeenth

century Presbyof

terian.

But

it

was not

so.

In Augustine's views

the Catholic Church and of schism they seem to have

heartily sympathized.
" Better," says the

Westminster
brethren,

Committee, in their reasonin^js with the

" that a

five

man want

the Lord's Supper

in
it,

if his

conscience

scruple about

some things
of

than make a separation

is

from the
one thing
"

con!]jreejation
is

which he

a member.

The

safer

than the other.

See,"

they added,

how

they,

who thought

kneeling in the act of comin

munion unlawful, neither

any secession
;

Endand

or Scotland

made
zeal

instead of that, some of

them with

and learning defended the Church against the separatists."

There

is

a tract or pamphlet of Gillespie's,

of toleration. It is

very

little

known, on the subject

decidedly against toleration, and in the worst cases of

heresy almost pitiless

derfully sober

but,

and mild

upon the whole,

it is

won-

far

more generous and kindly

It concludes

than Piutherford's Liberty of Conscience.

102

Scottish Theology.

with what the author

calls a Para^netick, in

which you

have the ideas and longings of the time in regard to

the unity of the visible Church
strife
:

"

Let there be no
brethren
;

between us and you,

for

we be

and

is
?

not the Cauaanite and the Perizzite yet in the land

Oh,

let it

not be told in Gath, nor published in the streets

of Ashkelon.

Let

it

not be said that there can be no

Brethren, I
fields,
:

unity in the Church without Prelacy.

charge you, by the roes and by the hinds of the

that ye
for

awake not nor

rest is sweet

stir

up Jesus Christ

till

He

please

His

and glorious with His well-beloved.

It shall be

no grief of heart to you afterward, that you

have pleased others as well as yourselves, and have

stretched

your

principles for
as well

an accommodation in

Church government
for the

as in worship,
;

and that

Church's peace and edification

and that the

it

ears of our

common enemies may

tingle

when

shall
rest,

be

said,

The Churches
edified, and,

of Christ in

England have

and are

walking in the fear of the Lord,

and

in the joy of the

Holy Ghost,
and

are multipHed.

Alas!

how

shall our divisions

contentions hinder

the

preaching and learning of Christ, and the edifying of

one another in love

apostle.

'

Ls Christ divided
;

'

saith the

There

is

but one Christ

yea, the

Head and

the body

make but one

Christ, so that

you cannot divide

Is there so

the body without dividing Christ.

as a

much
woven

seam in

all Christ's

garment

Is it not
?

throughout, from the top to the bottom

Will you

have one half of Israel to follow Tibni and another

half to follow

Omri?

Oh, brethren, we shall be one in

The Doctrine of
heaven;
let

the Visible Church.

103

us pack up differences in this place of our

pilgrimage the best

Nay, we will not Hath not God promised to give us one heart and one way and that Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not
can.

way we

despair of unity in this world.

'

vex Ephraim, but they shall

fly
;

upon the shoulders

the Mediator
'

of

the Philistines toward the west

of the east together
'

they shall spoil them

Hath not
it is

(whom

the Father heareth always) prayed

that all His

;

may
it,

be one

'

Brethren,
it,

not impossible

pray for

endeavour
modation.

press hard toward the

better
is
it

mark

of accom-

How much

that you be one

with the other Eeformed Churches, though somewhat

straitened

and bound up, than

to
'

be divided, though at
is

full liberty

and elbow-room
"

Better

a dry morsel,

and quietness therewith, than a house

with
strife.'

full of sacrifices

]^ow
be
lax.

all this

did not

mean

that the Church was to

to

She was, on the contrary,

truth.

be the pillar

and ground of the

scandals from

She was

to

hunt out
zeal.

all
is

her borders with a holy

It

needless to say that Paitherford and Dickson were not

latitudinarians.

What

ought to be borne from the

its

Church, without breaking

visible unity,

was an

entirely different matter from

what was the Church's

and
life

duty in keeping purity

pale.
it

of doctrine

within her

In regard to the former point, the point in hand,

seems to

me

quite clear that a very high doctrine of

the Catholic visible

old days.

Church was the doctrine

reality.

of these

Schism was a great

The question

104

Scottish Theology.

was not merely whether a

fessing Christians
it

certain

community

of pro-

was orthodox and pure, but whether

belonged to Christ's visible empire.

The Donatists

held the fundamentals, yet they were to be abandoned

for the Catholic Church.
It
is

not clear to

me

what,

according to this view, was the exact position of a

schismatical Church.
still

If it

had the main

truth, it

was

a Church,

a Church, I

think they would have

said,

concreto

and materially, and salvation work

;

might go on there

but formally and

ahstracto, it

could not be recognised as a Church, or

held with
it

communion
as
schis-

as such.

A
its

Church

recjarded

matic could only hold

ground on the principle

that severance was necessary, because

communion was

no longer possible or lawful on Catholic communion

ground.

The doctrine
doctrine
doctrine
of our
its

have
of

briefly

explained was
period,

the
the
its

eminently

the

Confession
in

Presbyterianism
glory.

the

day of

power and

The

first

seeds

of a

change

were early sown in the

the Eesolutioners

fierce

controversy between
of the

and Protesters, one

put

saddest

yet
ical

most

influential
It

controversies in our ecclesiastill

annals.

blood into our Church

expel.

life,

which a century and a half did not

might have come
the
of it

What
free

had the Church been

of

Commonwealth
the

disabilities, it is impossible to say.

When

days of suffering came, you might have

expected an end to divisions, and a union of heart and

effort against the

common enemy.

But, as you know.

The Doctrine of
it

the

Visible Church.

105

was

far otherwise.

Bitter variances

more

bitter

srrowincr ever

arose.

The

persecutor, with

his

indul-

gences, threw in an apple of discord

among

those noble

witnesses of Christ, and

furnace.

they took to fighting in the

accept the

Was
lawful
?

it

lawful to

indulgence

Was
those

it

to
it

hold

any

indulged

Was

lawful to

communion with the hold communion with

the indulged
?

who held communion with

John Welsh,

When

the field-preacher

bravest of the brave,

with not merely the blood of John

Knox

but the
is

spirit of

John Knox

in his soul,

the very romance of our martyr era,

into the

whose when John

story

in his veins,

Welsh came

Covenanting camp of Bothwell

Bridge, he was looked on as a sort of messenger of

judgment, because he had had friendly converse with

some who had touched the

king's grace-act.

moor-

land union conference took place in the killing times.

Good men who were

the

perilling their lives every

day

for

same truths

if

of

one heart about

Prelacy, and

Erastianism, and indulgence, as well

article in the Calvinistic creed

met

as

about every

in

some western
It

solitude

to

see
do.

they could have one banner.

party demanded, and the

would not

One

other
it

refused, contrition

on account of past

defection, as

was

called.

It speaks, all this, of change.

its

The idea

of

Catholic visible unity, at least as to

practical power,

was passing away.

the

Yet, after

all, it still

cluug even to

mountain-men.

What

seems

to

us an intense
the best

separatism, was

ingeniously represented as

that could be done in that churchless time to supply

106

Scottish Tlieology.

the kind of discipline which the Church in full action

would have

carried out

or rather, it

was the

effort of

individuals to keep their

Church could

act again.

own souls blameless till the As the Cameronians explained

the Informatory Vindication

themselves, at least in

they did not think that the exclusiveness under wdiich

the famous societies were
to

managed was

to

be applied

Church communion.

In the same book, written, I

believe,

by Eenwick the Cameronian, they indicate an

expansiveness of view which could not be supposed to

belong to them from looking at their outside history.

You have
is,

still

the idea of the Catholic Church

and

Catholic fellowship maintained by

at least in expression,
]N"o

them

and schism bad

as ever.

made out
all

to be as

man had more

became
he

to do than

MacWard
his

with the

indulgence-conflicts,
sufferers

and

the casuistry in which the Yet, in

adej)ts.

True Nonconold
paths.

formist,

treads

very

much
to

in

the

Answering a
Eutherford

prelatic

disputant,

who
the

tries,

through

and Wood,

make

Presbyterians

schismatics because they refuse to accept the actually

existing State Church, he has no difficulty in throwing
off the

accusation.

He
to

asserts

that

the institution
is

which then claimed

be the Church of Scotland

not, in fact, of the gc7ius

Church

at

all,

that,

by

its

mere physical
land,
it

force-raid

on the real Church

of

Scot-

has proved

itself to

be absolutely devoid of
case
in

ecclesiastical rights.^
^

But he puts a

which

believe the Erastian doctrine to be absolutely alien to the old

it is to

Presbyterian idea of the Church, far more so than

Church

The Doctrine of

the Visible Church.

107

he admits he might have been ready to acknowledge

some
this

validity in his opponent's arguments

if

" I freely

acknowledge," he says, " that

God had permitted

the present evils
of

whole Church

to

slide into

your Prelacy and corrupt ministers, and thereafter had

blessed us with a discovery
;

yet I would not in that

condition allow the same necessity and expediency of

separation that

now

I find to plead for a non-compliis

ance, inasmuch as our present non-compliance

not
is

only a more certain, seasonable, and safe duty, but

also attended with a faithful
to our true

and edifying adherence

to

and sent teachers, who, though removed

corners, do still

remain the Lord's ministers and our

it

pastors

which things do much difference

from the

case of a proper separation as above described."

You

have there clearly enough the old tone of thought.

Brown

of

Wamphray

was, without doubt, the most

period.

important theologian
essay from

of this

We

have an

him on
to

the visible Church, in the shape of

his

an introduction

book in reply
a

to Velthusius

and he belongs,
writes
"

let

us remember, to

period

when

the Catholic conception was waning.

:

It is

thus he

To the Catholic

visible

Church Christ gave

and

the ministry, the word, and the ordinances of God, for the ingathering and perfecting of the saints
;

all

the members of this Church are bound to keep holy

where there is a claim of proper priesthood, or of supernatural virtue I must also add, that a clerical headin the person of the minister. ship in any priest or person as necessary to the Church Catholic, or to its oecumenical relations, was held by our fathers to be altogether a
prelatical figment.

108

Scottish Theology.

fellowship, both in divine worship

and

in the perform-

ance of such spiritual

edification.

offices as

tend to promote mutual

But

since all the

members

of this

Church

cannot in actual fact meet together for God's worship,

particular Churches, less or greater, are instituted as

convenience
ticular

may

require.

So

all

who
in

in these

par-

Churches have fellowship with each other in

divine worship,
also

celebrating

some way have

visible

and profess communion with the w^hole Catholic

Church

for,

as I

have

said, there is

only one Church

of Christ, as there is

only one King of the Church,

this

and one Head.

For of

Catholic Church all the

Churches are members in particular; and though in

their

particular

meetings

they have a nearer com-

munion with those who

yet they

are parts of the given meeting,

have a potential and remoter communion

with

all

the

members

of the visible

Church

just as the

guests at a great
that be
at the

feast

have

all

communion, though

more intimate between those who are seated same

is

table or in the

same apartment." Church

You

see there

not only the one

invisible, the

communion
sense
;

of the saints in the high

is

there

clearly

and boldly

and transcendent
the one visible

kingdom, under
primarily
all

the

one

heavenly King, to which

the rights and privileges of the visible

of which, as
it

Church belong, and

are primarily

were, all professors

and fundamentally

subjects.

The

prin-

ciples of Eutherford in regard to the non-responsibility

of

members

for the imperfections

or pollutions of the

Church are reiterated by

his disciple.

In the case of

The Doctrine of

the Visible Church.

109

a true Church, no separation in point of actual Church-

fellowship can be lawful, although you must certainly

separate

worship,

which

yourself

from

its
is

errors

in

doctrine

and

indeed

all

that the arguments of

the separatists prove lawful.

It is

only from a Church

corrupted in

fundamentals, and in which you cannot

sin, especially if

have communion without

the faithful

are compelled to take part in the worship, that separation

is

lawful.
all,
it

After

is

clear to
feeling.

change of view or

me that there What used to

member

is

now

be called

the Separatist view, that every

is to

of the

Church

hold himself responsible for the corruptions that

it,

exist in

for the
for
if

defections or shortcomings of its

failures in the exercise
is

ofiSce-bearers,
cipline,

its

of

dis-

even
is

he does what

competent to him in

his place,
to read

making way.

It is curious

and

significant

how

the brave and

gifted

Eenwick has

to

debate out, in the wild regions between the

Dee and

the Cree, with the bloodhounds on his track, whether

he was

justified in accepting ordination

from the Dutch

its

Church, since there was something ritualistic about

form

of baptism.

Then

" the

Testimony," the peculiar

as
it

word
its

of

Scottish patience, consecrated

was in

every part by the blood of so

many

martyrs, has

risen

up

to

an overshadowing height.
cast

Any

departure

from, any shade

is to

upon, attained-to

reformation,

many

of the best

men something
for,

dreadful above
dis-

all

expression.
to say, let

Every item and atom, they are

us stand
as for hearth

posed

and home.

110
Defection
of
it.

Scottish Tlieology.

is

a terrible thoudit, a terrible word.

Brown

Wamphray, the leader of the day, thunders against From everything of the sort Christ's people are
to

bound

as

keep themselves entirely separate

to break

so I interpi'et

him
it,

from
at

all

communion with such

that

are

guilty of

least in

way

of

intra-

ecclesiastical secession

which used

to be so well

known

in Scotland,
practised.

and which

at a later period

was so often

The Eevolution came.

was reconstructed.

The

Presbyterian Church
of the people at
It

The great mass

it.

once connected themselves wdth

was very
It

far

from the ideal of Presbyterian longing.

best, or at

was

to the

any

rate to the

most earnest, of the ministers

to the

and the people, what the second temple was

old

men who had

seen and remembered the glorious

structure of

King Solomon.
it
;

They had much

trouble

of conscience about as to its future.

they had fears and forebodings

Still it

was a true Church

of Christ,

from which they dared not separate.

with the followers of Cameron,

And how was it who had been standing

till

more and more

were reduced
not

aloof from the rest of the country, as

though they could never hope to conquer

to Gideon's three

they

much

given to

They were compromise, and no one would ever

hundred
?

think of accusing them of

extreme, or
the more

cowardice.

Of the more
party broke off

resolute, State.

one

from both Church and

Another party declined

to take so decided a course.

To

this latter party the

it

State

was

far

from what they would have liked

to

The Doctrine of
be
;

the Visible Cliurch.

Ill

but they were tliankful for the deliverance

to

God

had wrought, and loyal

Church,
it

King William.

As

for the

was

full of blemishes,

covered from head to

foot with

wounds and
it,

bruises

but they retained their

lists of

connection with

laying long black

grievances

before Synods and Assemblies, earnestly and pathetically pleading for repentance

and reformation.
in

They
bore

found a pastor after their

Urr, Dumfriesshire, a

own mind

Mr. Hepburn of

man
;

of spiritual power,

who

God not merely in ecclesiastical deeds, but human consciences and with him they kept up for many years their negative separation, forming a sort of
witness for
iu

distinct

community within the Church.

;^

Mr. Hepburn

was suspended, deposed, imprisoned

the people

but yet he and

struggled on in

who sympathized with him

Boston
tells

their resolute,

impracticable way, and would not be

us in his diary

schismatics.

how some

of

them in his day came to Ettrick. They recognised him as one of the faithful, w4th whom they could hold
fellowship,
" I

and sought Christian privileges

says, " to
spirits,

at his hand.

found them," he

religion

on their own

be men having a sense of much affected with their

circumstances as destitute of a minister, endowed with

a good measure of Christian charity and love, and of a very different temper from that of Mr. M'Millan's
followers.

I perceived their separation ultimately to

resolve into

that unwarrantable

principle, viz.

That

joining in

communion with
is

the Church, in the ordin-

ances of God,

an approbation of the corruptions

in her; the very

same from which

all

the rest of the

112
separations

Scottish Theology.

do spring, some

carrying that

principle
Still these

further than others, in different degrees."

men were
they

not separatists; rather than

become such,
Church,
the
it

and break the order and unity

were
willing
to

of the visible

be

long

years

without

ordinances which were so precious to them.

is

And

to

me

full

of interest

and

significance, that there

was nothing
their

of superstition about them.

They held

own through

long years against Church courts,

higher and lower, as they remained long without the

communion
intensely.

of the Supper, after

which they longed

a

But they did not form

;

new Church
said,

communion

they shrank, as they would have

from rending the seamless robe

breach in the Saviour's kingdom.

from

making any

its

may add

that the three Cameronian field-preachers

all

they possessed

joined

the Scottish Church at

the Eevolution.

They did

so with a saving testimony,

which they

laid

on the table of the Assembly, and

distasteful

which must have been

enough

to

many

of

members
minds

at the

same time adding

received, they

that,

whatever

treatment their paper

their
"

had made up

not to separate from the Church, but to

maintain union and communion in truth and duty

with

all

its

ministers and

members who

followed,

and

in so far as they followed, the institutions of Christ."

One

of these

men, the well-known Alexander Shields,

vindicated the course he took in a work on " Church

Communion," which was once well known and often

referred to.

To

a large extent

it

takes the ground of

The Doctrine of
Eutlierford and
is little

tlw

Visible Church.

113
it

Durham,

of

whose work on Scandal

re-edition.

more in many parts than a

is

The

old idea of the visible Church

firmly held.

Separat-

ism
not

is

still

under the ban.

in a

"

Such

differences as do
its

make communion
''

Church and in

ordinances

sinful," says Shields,

cannot be a ground of separation."

Yet in

this

work

of Shields I see the

marks

of the

previous half-century.
it

In

many

practical applications

is

more
;

separatist

than the works of early theo-

logians

the purist and nationalistic elements are more

predominant.

In regard to the Eevolution Church

in the old ways.

itself, it

stood

Principal Eule has a

TVctij,

chapter on

Schism in
brilliance

liis

Good Old

not

characterized

by

or

literary taste,
"

but

by moderation and
principle,"
is

good sense.
" is that

Our Presbyterian

he

says,

a Christian should part with wliat

dearest
of

to

him

in the world to
;

redeem the peace and unity

the Church
it

yea, that nothing can warrant or excuse

sin."

but the necessity of shunning

He

then goes on

to

show what was the idea

of Catholic unity in the

it

early Church,

and how the basis of

was the

essential

and fundamental
nothing
Principal's work,

articles of the Christian

faith,

where

positively sinful
if

was

required.

Eead the
sort of

you wish

to see

what

a true-blue Presbyterian of the old school was,

believed in the divine right of his Church system,

man who who

hated

ceremonies and holidays, and

perhaps

would

have died rather than practise them.

Yon

will see

what room

his ideas

left

him

for a

generosity and

114

Scottish Theology.

expansiveness to which his prelatic antagonists were,

I should think, utter strangers.

Eule, however, was con-

evidently disposed

to

deal more tenderly with

scientious separation than the divines of other days,

and, I believe, spoke the

of
his

mind

of the great majority

of

contemporaries.

Yet the Assemblies

the

Eevolution Church were not slack in their charges of

schism, nor slack in their censures.

The most devout

and

least

devout appear in this to have concurred.

No

man
ford's

has spoken more strongly than

is

Boston in his

sermon on Schism, which

extreme utterances.
time in

almost an echo of lluther-

The only eminent man

might

of

this

whom

have, noticed, I

say, a

kindlier view of conscientious separation

to

what

are

now more

generally entertained

views akin Lauder,

is

the author of Ancient Bisho]js.

For more than one

hundred and
!

fifty years,

the idea, in short, of a visible

empire, of a Catholic visible Church of Jesus Christ,

'had an immense hokl of the Scottish mind.

They

clung with affection to the Eeformed Churches, and

sought to

make

excuses for their shortcomings.

it

They

were to them fellow-members, as

confederacy.

were, of the glorious

Separatism was detested.

Schism was a

word
side

of power.
side,

They could not

see

how two Churches,

the very least,
;

by

could be
of

members
to

of the sacred republic,

and not members

each other.

At
them

it

seemed extremely unnatural

and they were

glad to have the aid of the civil magistrate to relieve

them

of a theological difficulty.
to the

They held

resolutely

and strongly

views of the ancient Church in


The Doctrine of
the Visible Church.

115

regard to the Donatists and Novatians, with whose

struggles, I

have no doubt, our Scottish peasantry were

at one time quite familiar.

Yet during the

tury,

latter half of the seventeenth cen-

you have tendencies and developments which

led on to

betokened, and
to

change.

It

is

remarkable

me

that the Cameronian Secession was not

much

more numerous.
two small

The same manner

of viewincj thinofs

produced in the course of the next forty years one or

offshoots,

which soon disappeared, and

1733.

of

which now-a-days very few have ever heard.

Then
do not

came the Secession

of

That secession, I have

to justify
it.

always thought, had very

much

wonder that the Erskines, once extruded, shrank from

venturing back into that strong current of rationalism

and defection in the National Church

always careful to

plex statement of reasons for secession,

and their comfor

they were

show that

it

was not one or two

truly

corruptions which led

their

them

to their final severance,

complex statement
I

of

reasons, I

say, is

weighty.

doubt, however, more

than I once did,

whether they have successfully vindicated their action

on the old principles of the Scottish Church.
read both the Church
Currie of Kinglassie and Wilson of Perth
in grasp and power of argument the
I

have

and the Secession advocates,

;

and though

latter is

immeasur-

ably superior

to

his opponent,

am

not convinced

that he has answered

him on some

points successfully.

At any

rate,

the results of that memorable Secession

have been very notable,

such, in

some

respects, as

116
none of
its first

Scottish Theology,

leaders for a

moment

tlionglit of.

Its

watcliword was the

Second
It

Eeformation.

Its roots

were

all

in the past.

was intensely

historical

and

traditional.

In

fact, it

was not a separation from the

Church
had

of Scotland, that ideal

Church

of

1638, which
;

so great a hold of all

good Presbyterians

it it

was a
were,

mere secession from the present occupants,

of this

as

divine temple.
its

But events ran

their course,
historical

and in

larger representatives this

most

of Scottish

Churches became

less

historical in

some

respects

than any other Presbyterian community in

That, indeed, was only, shall I say, a tran-

Scotland.

sient ecclesiastical

mood

for
past,

no Church, as no nation,

long forgets a glorious

of the

which

is,

in

fact,

one

great

spiritual

forces

by which God works.

Scarce a de-

Nevertheless Secession bred Secession.

cade had gone,

when Adam
split

Gib, with the

same weapon

the Erskines used to sever their connection with the

National Church,
yet,

the Secession into two.

And

even in that scoffing age, there was in his excom-

munication of the Secessionists, as he held them, for contumacy, a transient blaze-up of the old principles.

According to those principles, he would not have been

faithful to his Master, he could not
position,
if

have

justified his

he had done otherwise

for either

he or his

opponents were breaking the order of the sacred empire,

and offending the King.

Adam

Gib

he

is

one of the

little

known men

of the

past century by

whom,

I confess, I have been strongly

;

impressed.

Perhaps I over-estimate him

but to

me

The Doctrine of
there
is

the Visible Churcli.

117

sometliing very remarkable about liim.

He

is

altogether a unique figure in that eighteenth century.

He
was

ruled his Antiburghers with a firm, strong hand

and I do not know but that an Antiburgher Synod

as difficult to rule as

many
it

a great empire

they
clear-

tried

rebellion

once, but

utterly failed.

headed man, with no imagination, plodding away in

the old theologies,

I should suppose a dull preacher,

he had
fanatic.

save to persons of his

in

own
are

type,

given
his
veins.

to

formulas,

him the elements

wrote,

of the enthusiast or the

first

He

we

told,

covenant

with God in the blood

mellowness
disinherited
chief burned

of his

own
his

Not without
brother

of
for

soul

withal:

elder

was
to

bad behaviour, but the Antiburgher

father's

their

will

on his promise
Ultimus

amend

and
!

his plan

was

successful.

ecclesi-

asticorum

have sometimes been disposed to exclaim

of the past, this singular

And yet, full sowed many of the seeds

over him.

man

of the ecclesiastical develop-

ments

of

our
still

own

day.
on,

At any
till

rate the process of

Secession

went

the

old ideas

seem

to

have passed away in the presence

of the patent

fact

that you had several Christian communities separate

from each

other,

with separate governments, and yet

all

apparently having
claims
to

very

much

the same sort

of

of

be

reckoned visible
this

Churches

Christ.

And, in
related

fact, at

moment, with our various kindly

less

and more or
state

co-operating Churches,

we
or

have

of

matters

which

to

Eutherford

Brown, or even Boston, would have been exceedingly


118
perplexing.
It

Scottish Theology.

seems

all

very natural to
it.

us.

We

are

not put about on account of

But

confess this

whole question of the

aspects I have hinted
study.
of

visible
at,

Church, in some of the

to

seems

Is there indeed that Catholic visible

?

demand our earnest kingdom

Is every

which our old divines made so much

a
?

Christian body, with the profession of the fundamentals

of
Christianity,

member
If so,

of

it ?

Is
it

there such a
or

thing as schism
Is the

what does

mean

imply

Catholic visible Church a mere genus, a mere

ens rationis, as they scornfully said

two hundred years

a

ago

Can we

realize

it

under

confederacy

of

co-operating Churches, non-propagandist,

acting out their
at

and quietly

own

individuality

Could we have

this

day a Protestant (Ecumenical Council with

?

anything of authority
tions; but it appears to of

can only ask these questhat a serious consideration

me

them
IF.

is

required.

I shall

have time

to say a

few words on another

with the present

point closely connected in

my way

the constituent elements, the actual members, of the

visible Church.

We
Church
which

must

clearly understand here that the visible

signifies

the Church in

that aspect of

it

of
or,

visibility is

the distinguishing characteristic,

in the old phraseology, its form.

In this aspect

it is

a society not of believers, but of professors of belief,

of saints not in internal reality, but as " adorned with

external

holiness,"

irrespective

of

the

existence

or

The Doctrine of

the Visible Church.

119

non-existence of true grace.

to this society
is

Admission, accordingly,

not on the basis of any judgment of

a man's being really a Christian, but on the basis of

what appears
Christianity,
Christ.

to

be a morally serious profession of

to the

and a promised subjection

should

laws of

He
of
is

indeed

be a Christian,
;

Many

members
Church

the Church are Christians

the invisible

within

the

visible.

But they are not

;

admitted formally in that character

standing in that
character
;

they have no

and

if

it

were revealed

from heaven that a

man was

in the gall of bitterness

and bond of

iniquity,

he would not be extruded on

the formal ground of his irregeneracy.

ive

The

charitatless

judgment

of the Independents,

founded on a

or

more thorough inquisition

of

into soul-experience

and

examination

the

fruits,
is

was

utterly

disclaimed.

Where,
the

it

was asked,
?

there anything like that in

inquisition
to

New

Testament

John made no such

Christ

or trial in the case of the multitudes

his

who came

baptism

nor

did

Himself, nor Christ's

But did not the old theologians mean that, if a man made a serious profession, or what could be regarded as such, he might, apart from any trial of his
disciples.

inward
in the

state,

be simply on that profession reckoned,

charity, a subject of saving grace
?

judgment of

Statements

may
;

be occasionally
if

made

that look in

this direction

but

not to be interpreted from some

point of view with which

we

are not

now
The

familiar,

they are

mere

slips

or

inaccuracies.

doctrine

was

that, for example, of

Eichard Baxter as developed

120
in his
ever,

Scottish Tlieology.

work on Baptism.

The Scottish

divines,

how-

though taking generally the same view as the

" I agree,"

English Puritan, dissented from him here.

in

substance

said

Wood,

"

with the learned author,

faith,

that a serious

profession of

combined with a

professed subjection to the

of

commands and ordinances

heart, is the

Christ, without

any searching of the

ground on which members should be admitted into the

Church

but I

differ

from him when he teaches that

" I

they are to be admitted under the notion of true

believers,"

judged

to
if

be

such

even

probably.

agree with him, that

a man's outward conduct were

such as to show that he was not a member of the

invisible

Church, he should not be taken into the

of

fellowship

the

visible

Church

but

not on the

formal ground that such conduct was a proof of his

irregeneracy, but on the ground of its being materially

inconsistent with his very outward profession of faith.

And my

reason

for

holding

that

irregeneracy,

or

anything considered formally under the notion of a

sign of irregeneracy, ought not to exclude from the
visible Church,
is,

that I conceive

'

it

is

God's revealed

will in
visible

His w^ord that men may be received into the

Church that they may be regenerate, and that

is

the ministerial dispensation of ordinances

by God's

revealed will set up in the Church to be means of

regeneration
edification
this,
it

and

conversion,'

as

well

as

means
to

of

to

God's true people."

faith

In keeping with
belong
the
it

was said that

does not

essence of the visible Church

it is

an accident of

The Doctrine of
faitli
is

the

Visible Church.

121
Church
is

moral necessity

of

every visible
;

member, but not a physical necessity

if,

that

to say,

though with unbelief in the heart, you profess the

faith

and

live

decorously,

you

are

homogeneous with
as

the

nature of the visible Church

its

such,

and are

therefore entitled to

membership.

You have
the

a partial

development of
of

this idea

of

constituent

elements

the
to

visible

Church in

the power which was ascribed

enforce

the

magistrate to
then,"

Church
"

profession.

" Seeing,

says
rule

Eutherford,

the Church has no other

mark and
no

to look to, in the receivino' of

members
is is

into a visible
infallible

Church, but external profession, which

mark when
there.

of a true convert, the

all

Church

right-constitute

born within the visible Church and professing

the faith are received, though there be

many wicked

And

as time, favour of

men, prosperity accom-

panying the gospel, bring many into the Church, the

magistrate

may

comjDcl

men

to

adjoin themselves to

the true Church.

Simon Magus, Ananias, and Sapphira

of a king, on the motives of

turned members of the visible Church on as small

motives as the

command

gain and honour, and were never a whit nearer Christ

for
all."

Those doctrines,

however,

began
to

to

be go

modified,

and the modification seems

me
I

to

almost

side

by

side

with

the

modification

have
I

pointed out in regard to visible Church unity.

am

not sure that Gillespie ever held them as strongly as

Eutherford and
indications

Ward and
he

Dickson.

There are some

the

that

tended

towards

moderate

122

Scotiish Theology.

Independent views, and

it

almost seems to

me

that

he avoided the question.

There were a great

many

things in the latter part of the seventeenth century

which naturally led men

spiritual views
fruits

to

what might appear more

Church.
that

of the visible

You

see the

of this in the writings

;

appear after
subject

the
at

Ee volution
large

and Boston enters into the

celebrated
treatise

in

his

on Baptism, which

almost reads like a polemic against The

Presbytery.
It is indeed a

Due Right

of

most singular and

startling transition

from the Due Bight, or The

"

Little Stone, or

The TheraMiscellany
earlier

peutica Sacra, to the seventh of Boston's

Questions.

True heart conviction," says the

sanctification,

writer,

" regeneration,

inward

saving

grace, in reality of existence, or

at least
is

conceived to

be so in the judgment of charity,

as

not represented
ecclesiastical

the

qualification

necessary

in

the

court, in order to admitting

persons to be members of

the visible Church."

says
the later divine,

"

Those who cannot be judged,"

"

probably to

be

within the

covenant really and savingly, have no right to admission to the Church."

Almost with vehemence Rutherfaith

ford argues that the children of wicked parents who

have themselves been baptized, and profess the

even though they should be excommunicates, are to

be baptized.
Boston argues against such a doctrine as
"

simply monstrous,

That those who cannot be probably

judged to be within the covenant, have no visible

right to baptism
;

but the children of openly-wicked


The Doctrine of
the

Visible Church.

123

parents cannot be judged to be within the covenant."

Rutherford grounds baptism upon the federal or external

holiness,

and strongly

rejects the connecting it with the

personal faith of the parents.

the opposite view,
infants
is

Boston takes as decidedly

that

the only valid

baptism of

with

respect to

the

faith

of

immediate

parents, as

when

they are regarded in the

judgment

of charity or probability as real believers.

Some

of

the seventeenth century divines

seem

to

teach that

baptism
nant
to

is

a seal of the external or conditional coveof the visible

members

Church

as

such,

which

appears to
it is

me

to be very

much

equivalent to making

a seal of the gospel

offer.

Boston denies that there

all,

properly any such conditional covenant at

is

and
are

maintains that baptism

only a seal to those

who

in internal real covenant with

God

in

His Son, in
Kutherford

actual possession

of covenant

blessings.

maintains that a Church (a Church, he means, in the

real

sense

" a

mystical
a visible

believing Church

visible

Church

")

and a

Church

as visible,

and con-

sisting formally of professors of belief

may

be opposed

by way
" Christ,"

of

contradiction,

as

number

of believers

and a number of non-believers

writes

{Peciccahle Plea,

107).

Boston,

"

hath not two Churches

one visible and another invisible

but one Church,

which

is

in one aspect visible,

and in another aspect

invisible."

And

the change was not in a theologian

shelter of the vague phrase, ''a

or two.
credible

Under the
profession,"

which I

have
;

noticed

in

the

earlier Scottish

writers, it

went on

and I suppose

a
;

124

Scottish Theology.

something like Boston's doctrine

is

very

generally

prevalent, at least so I have found in

my

experience

but the older divines did not hold, any more than
Boston, that there were two Churches.
All
parties

found an extreme
the

difficulty in stating their doctrine of

its

Church.

Eome had
So had
the

tremendous
So

difficulties,

and could not he

pendents.

consistent.

had the

Indelast

Presbyterians.

These

certainly did not hold that the visible

to speak,

Church was,

so
It

an aspect or expression
like that of the
is

of the invisible.

was rather a case

union between soul

and body.
not separate

The body

not the soul, or the expression

of the soul, as the soul is not the

body

yet they are

It

they make one person.

was someit

thing of this kind in the Church, the visible as

were

the body, the invisible as

it

were the soul

and there

was something
this is a

like a

communio idiomatum.

Of course

mere

illustration.

It

seems to

me

very noticeable the two courses of

I

historical

development

have been pointing

out.

On

one side you seem to have the sense of the sacredness

of the
visible

Church

as

such growing feebler,

and

tendency, you might say, to the notion of a society

based on a

common

profession cf Christian belief,

using Christian symbols

rather than a Church
;

to

the notion of a society

on the other hand, you have

the sacredness of the visible Church apparently growing, in so far as in

men's ideas

it is

more

tlian

once

it

was a communion

of saints in vital union to the Lord.

in the

You

see the

same thing

Independents in the

Tlie Doctrine of the

VisiUc Church.
the

125
is

seventeenth
far to

century.

And

connection
of

not

seek.

Let the kingdom idea

the

visiljle
it,

Church, with the sacredness which belongjs to

faint, that sacredness will

grow

be sought for in some other

society

way,

as
;

by making the
let

more

select,

more
as

spiritual

the

idea of the visible

Church

communion
either in

of real saints, in vital fellowship with the

Lord, or something like that, prevail, and you must

some way reduce your Church

that

doctrine, or

it

will be very difficult not to be borne on to the con-

clusion

the visible

Church

is

in idea the true

bride of Christ.

Our
visible

old

theologians
to

disliked

both

views.

The
by

Church was

them

a real

kingdom

of Christ,

in which were His laws and ordinances, accompanied

supernatural forces and energies bringing these

to

home
but

His true people.

There was a communion of visible

saints,

and so

far a

connnunion of real
the
real

saints,
life

Christ Himself was

blessing.

source of

and of
instru-

The

visible

Church was rather an

ment by which He wrought His gracious work, than a community for mutual spiritual help and quickening

than

a fellowship for moral impulse

its

and

so,

for

example,

ordinances were not marred to good

of those

men

by the presence

impure elements wdiich you

must always have on earth. There was no need for an extreme purism, which has always been a failure
proud division ending sometimes in formalism, sometimes in mysticism; though, at the same time, the
Scottish

doctrine

of

scandal developed

discipline

126
stricter in

Scottish Theology.

many

respects tlian
all.

the

opposite

theory.

It

was equal-handed upon

There was no charity

of action, as

when you had

the charitative judgment

that a
if

man was

in heart devout.

On

the other hand,

with the doctrine of the Divine Kingship you made

its

the Church in

idea a

company

of saints, our theo-

logians thought, as I have hinted already, you thus

made

it

in

idea

the real mystical

body of

Christ,

and you were landed in Eomanism.

of their strong arguments against the
Christ, as

This was one

Independents.

head of the Church

visible,

they said was

;

not a vital head, but a political head

respect
it

and in

this

was

called

His body in a gracious

sense.

In a word, then, their struggle was to get a temporary

home, as

it

were, on

earth for the

try sting-place

human

spirit,

Canaan here below, a

where the gracious

Lord might meet His people in a peculiar fellowship,

while yet they avoided the sacerdotalism, the despotism,
the materialism of Eome.

There are some extreme positions in both the subjects

have spoken of to-day.

easily put away, but I

They

are accidents

you can

am

well convinced that

in the Presbyterianism of the seventeenth century

shall obtain the elements

of the

we Church system we
If there
is

need.

And we

need such a system.

any-

thing the history of Christianity proves more decisively

than another,

it is

that

we
it

need (and our condition at

the present time proves

most emphatically) some-

thing more than a mere religious society

we

need a

Church.

CHAPTER

V.

THE HEADSHIP OF CHEIST AND ERASTIANISM.

[I

would

like to say, before I go

all

be held as assenting to
are points

the views which

on to this Lecture, that I am not to there I do not contradict

:

which the

close study of our old divines has raised, about

I confess to be in some perplexity. I would like also to say that not desirous in tliese Lectures to hide or cover up anything that might appear to be extreme, but to state what I have found. Sometimes I may do injustice by not being able to put in all needful explanations e.g. in regard to the old doctrine of the proper matter of the visible Church, where you have Brown of Wamphray closing a devoted ministry with the assertion that you may have a true visible Church without a single Christian in it ; giving Laodicea as an

which
I

am

loose views about the

mistake, however, if you supposed that he held duty of self-examination in the case of the Lord's Supper, or that any but a converted man should come there. The truth is and why should I not say it ? I have been startled by finding what an approach there was in the divines of the seventeenth century to what is known in this age as the Highland idea, about which I give no personal opinion.]

example.

You would

ITI TiS^)!^'^^^^^

^ 9M
This
is

^^^^

^^^

doubt

that

one of the
is

most serious blots on Protestantism

Erastianism
of
so

the

many
;

of

its

Churches.

the result partly of the reaction from the Stateor perhaps

dishonouring doctrine of Ptome

we may

connect

it

still

more

closely with the use

of the State as its

which the

Church of Ptome made

mere instruso necessitatit

ment

to

put down

all

opposition to
127

it,

ing State action in self-defence whenever

could be

128
obtained.

Scottish Theology.

The

religious

struggle

of

the

sixteenth

century, in the actual circumstances of the case, gave

such a prominence to

civil

power in the cause

to the

of truth,

as almost inevitably led to a confusion

of the civil

and

ecclesiastical,

and hence
latter.

ascendency of the
Erastianism
is

former

over

the

Certainly

neither necessarily nor naturally a Protestant thing,

and does not either necessarily or naturally belong

or

to,

come

of,

the Eeformed doctrine as that was held

in the sixteenth century.

The

case of the Scottish

Church
of

is

a proof in point.

In relation to the Church

as

Eome, that Church may be described

of
dissent,

the very

dissidence
proclivities

and yet

it

has

indicated no

in

the Erastian

direction.

In fact

the

spiritual

freedom and independence of the Church, as

Christ's visible

kingdom on
It has

earth, has

been the

dis-

tinctive

word

of our testimony through all these three

hundred

years.

been more or

less

connected

with almost every struggle-period of our history

with
High
notable

the struggles of 1580, of 1596, of 1605, of the

Commission

Period, of

1638,

of the thirty years of fiery

persecution, of 1733, of
rights of Christ imprinted
is

1843,

It

all

have the crown

JSTot less

on them.

the presence of this doctrine as an inspiring element

life.

in our periods of religious

was

active in the re-

vivals which preceded and heralded the second Eeformation, in the glorious

sacraments of

tlie

Commonwealth
and soul of the

time, in the spiritual harvests

which signalized the

martyr days.

It

was

in the very heart

Marrow-preaching, and the thousands to

whom

that


The Headship of Christ and Erastianism.
preaching was blessed
it
;

129

and

if it

ever has gone away,

so well, with the

has come back again, as

we know

singing of birds, to re-animate and

before.

re- invigorate

us as

Here

it is, still

Headship

with us, that old truth of the

fresh

and living

working, and with work

to do, in the

Church and the world.

This great doctrine could never have taken the hold

it

has of our country and our Church,

it

could never

have played the part

unless
it

has in our religious history,

to our

had in some way been fundamental

I believe
it

Presbyterianism.
in various aspects.

to be thus

fundamental
is to

It is for us
is

what the Papacy

to the

Eorae, what the priesthood

Greek and the

High Anglican Churches.

It gives us the reality of a

Church without ritualism or sacerdotalism, and enables

us to take that sort of mediatory position in the great

Church controversy which

will yet, I believe, be far

more

recognised.
as

The

old writers did not think so

much

we

are apt to do, of Christianity as beginning

with the actual historical appearance of our incarnate

Lord among men.

They much more usually regarded

the Christian Church as the Old Testament Church in a

new

manifestation,
for a

as ancient Israel, its shackles

exchanged

crown, the types and shadows gone

in the rising of the

local

Sun

of righteousness, the merely

it

and temporal thrown away, with, as

were,

such new dress,

befits
its its

in the form of sacred ordinances, as

the altered circumstances,

breaking out from

confinement among the

hills of

Judah, to clasp in

embrace

all

the nations in the order and

I

way

of

130

Scottish Theology.

that special providence which

to the covenant people
to say, the Christian

still

as

of old belongs
;

and the holy kingdom

is

that

is

Church

really the old theocracy

on a grander
of the

scale,

and with a more glorious Shechinah

its

Holy King in

truths,

spiritual influences,

and ordinances, and

kind of
and, in short, none

in which, indeed, as in a

open Holy
but

of Holies,

He

abides

Himself, the

theocratic

Saviour,
of

must
a

rule

or

legislate
rite

within

it.

The making

new

sacred

was something in kind

like the putting of idols

into

the temple by a Persian

or Syrian

conqueror.

This view lay at the bottom of both the old theology,

and the old sentiment, in the so-called Erastian controversy.

I propose to-day to give

theological

some account
to

of Scottish

teaching in

regard

the

Headship of

Christ, as that is

connected with the controversy I

to.

have just alluded

I.

They meant that Christ

is

the real King, the

politic

King and Head, of the Church, as a visible organization, ruling it by His statutes, and ordinances, and officers, and forces, as truly and literally as David
or

Solomon ruled the covenant people of

old.

It is

not a mere society for mutual religious improvement.

It is not a sacred association

with an order of
so

its

own,

by which

it

uses up,

if

may

speak, the general

for its

religious influences lying to its

hand

own good
It is a

and the good of mankind.

It is a

kingdom.

kingdom

with a divinely appointed order administered

The Headship of Christ and Erastianism.

in the

131

name
is

of the Divine King,

and enforced by

Him

when

truly administered in His name, as certainly as

any order

enforced by the guns and bayonets of an

earthly monarch.

Accordingly the
his office as

"

sent minister," regularly called to

is

Aaron was,
a

not a mere expounder of

orator.

doctrine,

or

pious

or eloquent
;

He

is

an

ambassador of the King

and

as he delivers objectively

the King's message, he has the King's power with

him

not in
loose.

him

as a real supernatural

energy to bind

God may or may not work with the godly and earnest who are unsent but conversion or hardening as naturally goes on where the legate, when duly authorized in some cases, it may be, an unconverted
and
;

man

delivers

the Kincj's words, as the walls of a

fortress

crumble
power,

under
or

the

material
are

forces

of

an
the

earthly

the

chains

locked

on

prisoner's limbs with keys of iron.

Excommunication
according to His

by the King's messengers, when

laws, clave

it is

non

errante,

is

not simply severance from

Christian brotherhood, from the Church-society,

act, as it were, of natural self-defence,

an
;

and

fitted in its
it

own

nature to produce contrition and penitence

it

has also belonging to

a supernatural enforcement.

" I conceive," says Kutherford, " that

excommunication

hath neither election nor reprobation, regeneration nor

non-regeneration, for
it

its

object or terminus

but only

cutteth

contumacious person from the visible

Church

on

earth,

and from the

Head

Christ

in

heaven, not in regard of his state of regeneration, as

132
if

Scottish Theology.

Christ,

ratifying

the

sentence in
conditionally
ISTo,

heaven,

did

so

much as cut him off member of His body.

second acts of the
life

from
regard

being
of

but in

the

of

God, and the sweet efficacy

and operation of the

Spirit,

by which the ordinances and

less vigorous,

are less living, less operative,

the

man
in

being, as
life

Mr. Cotton

says, as

a palsied member,

which

remaineth but a
Satan's

little

withered

and

blunted, and he in

power

to

vex his

spirit

and therefore
tion
is

I grant all to

imply that excommunica-

not a real separating of a

unbelief does that,
is

body,

only
it

but

man from
it

Christ's

follows not

therefore

separation

only from the

(1) this

external

society of the Church.

off is ratified in

For
;

external cutting
it

heaven

(2) Christ hath ratified

by

a real internal suspension of the

Spirit in heaven."

influences of

His

Certainly the Scottish theologians had no belief in

either

ministerial

or

synodical

infallibility.

They
to read

taught the very opposite.

They urged men

it
;

the word, and try their message by

and no people

were ever more sturdily independent than the Scottish

people, at the very time

when

the sacredness of Church

ordinances was most intensely held by them.

the Cameronians and others,
their
for

Witness

who clung

resolutely to

own

convictions and beliefs, and yet would not

Neither, as

anything break the sacred order.

we
In

have seen from Eutherford, did they imagine that they

had any power

truth,

of

severing the soul from Christ.

excommunication in their view did not even put

The
a

Headslii'p of Christ

and Erastianism.

133
That

man

without the pale of the visible Church.

could

be done only by the excommunicatio maxima,

it

which perhaps
above
never

scarcely

belonged to the Church

ever to pronounce, unless by direct intimation from

;

in fact, our best

theolodans held that

the

it

should

take

place

without

consent

obtained of

the congregation.
ordinances,
in

But they held

Christ's

that the
to

word and
laws

administered according

Christ's

the

Bible,

had

living

power with them.

was King
or sphere

Wliether
in Zion.
of

for salvation or destruction, Christ

The

visible

Church was the region

the ordinary supernatural action of the ascended

Saviour.

Not
all

that there was anything magical in the

matter of this action.

cipline
objects.

Word and

sacraments and dis-

had

an instrumental

fitness for their various

Only there was more than

that.

The

glorious

One,

who

has His oroin^s amonor the ojolden candletoo, in

sticks,
it

was with them,

His living energy.

ISTo
;

So

used to be taught, and so to be believed.

grand

ceremonial, no aw^ful sacrifice was

needed

in their

barest simplicity, the Christian ordinances were to these

old

Scotch people the trysting-place of a wondrous

fellowship, the

mount

of expected manifestations.
;

The
word
little

Church, they

said,

was supernatural

indeed, this

almost haunts the long-forgotten pamphlets and

books of even the good Seceders of last century.

II.
is

But

still

higher ground was taken up.

Christ

not merely King of His Church, but the only King

it.

and Head of

By

this it

was meant that no depute

134

Scottish Theology.

headship like that of the Pope or that of the

magistrate
is

civil

admissible.

Jesus

is

given to the visible

Church

as

Head, in respect of government as well as

;

in respect of saving influence

slightest hint of

and there

is

not the

any other being given

to the Church,

to

whom

even in a subordinate sense that designation

that
it

beloncjs, so

is

neither more nor less than the

Saviour's office that the

self.

Eoman
is

Pontiff takes to him-

No

doubt there

truth, so far, in
fails

Hooker's

argument, that the physical analogy

to hold in

reference to the political organization.

In this case

there

is

no such monstrosity in the idea of head with

his under-heads.
of

pure absolute monarchy, in a sort

;

improper sense, admits of other heads

only any

claim to the exercise of regal powers under any pretence whatever, without the indubitable conveyance of

them from the

throne
all

sovereign,

is

a direct assault upon the

is

the very highest conceivable offence.

Now
and

Christians

admit

that,
is

in

very peculiar

blessed sense, Christ

King

of the

Church, absolute
to claim or

Monarch

of

it.

It

must be a great thing

given,

exercise vicarial authority under Him.

He

alone can

give the right

as to

and

if

it

must be

in such a of

way

put the fact beyond

is

all

possibility

doubt.

But there
the
face

not in

all

the Bible the dimmest hint of

a vice-Christ.

On

the contrary, the pervading idea of

is

New

Testament

that of bringing

men
in

face to

with the King Himself.

alone.

He

is,

short, the

King Himself

The old theology was

far-seeing

in

this

matter.

TJie Heaclsliip of Christ

and Erastianism.

135

Where

there

is

an earthly monarchy, you have the

vice-regal

court,
to

and

all

the

ceremonies

and forms

which belong

the actual power of the monarch.

of the real, the higher the
substitute, the

The greater the distance

responsibilities given over to the

more

important the latter becomes.

vice-Christ

By
to

the same law, a

upon earth becomes

of

himself,

and those

who think

him

as such, a kind of Deity.

We

have

seen the Papal vicariate develop in our day into that

idea of a sub-incarnation which

some of the Eomish

It

theologians have begun to entertain.

was on the

same principle that Prelacy, with

tion

its

claims to legisla-

and priesthood, was viewed in every shape with

dislike.

such

That always implied more or

the

less of the

vicariate,

and of distance from

priesthood,

Lord

Himself.
a

Prelacy,

sacraments,

ceremonies, were

scheme

to

put the veil on the sanctuary.

case
is, if

In regard

to the earthly king, the If

possible, stronger.

he enter the Church, he also enters with a vicariate, he change

his
is
:

unless
else

character

become

something

than what he

he comes wearing a crown where

;

no crown but one has any place

legislative authority,

he takes with him

is

where

all

the legislation

in the

hands of the heavenly Master.

tratical

In principle, a magis-

headship

is

still

more indefensible than a

the external government of

pontifical

headship.

If

the Church be an inherent right of the

Crown

or the

supreme State-power, does not that imply either that

a heretical, or infidel, or heathen

magistrate

may

be

the subordinate head under Christ of an institution

136

Scottish Thiology.

whose highest object

and
idolatry,

is

to destroy unbelief,

and

error,

or that

heresy or unbelief makes the

?

authority of the magistrate null

of him, in

In

fact,

you require
to king-

such a

case,

Church

qualifications, destroying

his natural rights,

and yielding the arguments

destroying Eome, or falling into the wildest Anabaptism.

In their sphere, their ends, their instruments. Church

and

State

are

entirely
is,

different.

The

distinction

between them
strongest
"

indeed,
are

drawn
said

in the
to
differ

boldest and
toto

way.

They

genere.

The

civil

power hath

for the object of it the tilings

of this

life,

matters of peace and justice, the king's

matters and the country's matters,

those things that

belong to the external

man

but the ecclesiastical

God, the

power hath

for its object things pertaining to

Lord's matters as they are distinct from civil matters,

and things belonging

to the

inward man, distinct from

So, too, the

things belonging to the outward man."

Church and the State

and the
one
forces

differ

in the instrumentalities

by which

their ordinances are adminis-

tered and their statutes enforced.

is

The symbol

of the

the keys, and

it

can produce

only spiritual

effects.
it

The other has the sword

civil

for its symbol,

effects.

and

can produce only

and temporal

The
to
say.

Erastians, however,

had many plausible things

They made

great use, for example, of the

" Custos."

famous doctrine of the

is

What
first

they urged,
table of the

not the civil ruler keeper of the

law as well as of the second, having therefore authority in religion

?

Has he not by

universal

consent.

The Headship of Christ and Erastianism.

as custos
et

137

vindex ulrmsque tahulce, the right to put

to

down

idolatry,

punish heresy, and profanity, and

blasphemy, to
to attend the

command men to keep the Sabbath, house of God and hear Christ's Gospel?
Church sphere belongs
that,

and what does that amount to but a plain admission

that the visible
diction
self is
?

to his juris-

It

was answered,
utriusque

as

Christ
is

Himas

its

Head, so the visible Church

a
custos

a keeper of

the
State
of

law,
;

tahulce

as

well

the

and

that, for that part

of

it,

the

supremacy
be
just
as

the

Church

over

the

State

might

validly argued as that of the State over the Churcli.

Every father
a household
custos.

of a family is a custos
is

every master of

a custos;

every individual

man

is

Plainly, the Erastian reasoning

is

based on a vague
to

and equivocal premiss, which seems

the domain of the magistrate
;

sweep

all

into

whereas he only has

is

with others a charge in the matter, which he

fulfil

to

in the
office.

way and manner

In
fact,

suitable to the nature

of his

he just guards the law by

it

his sword,

as the

Church guards
by
in
this

by

its

censures,

and the individual

monitions.

his private

counsels and adit

He

is

matter, as

was

said,

only a
there
of

bit,

so to speak, of an ordinance.

Besides,
tables

was

some distinction made about the

the law.

The second
more
special

table,
field,
;

it

was

held, is

the

magistrate's

as directly impinging
there, in his

on men's temporal

interests

and only

exercise of power, has he extrinsically or objectively

138

Scottish Theology.

proper jurisdiction.^
injuries

As

the Churcli has to do with

property, not
society,

done

to

persons or

are civil offences injurious to civil

^

as

they

has no

" The magistrate's power in spiritual causes is formally civil, and and he neither hath nor needeth any spiritual power to attain his temporal end, nor needeth the Church any power formally civil to attain her spiritual end. The reason is, because powers have their specification and nature from their formal Because the magistrate punisheth object, not from the material.
only objectively spiritual
;

heresies

and

false doctrine as

they disturb the peace of the

;

civil State,

and because the Church censureth injustice, incest (1 Cor. v. 1, 2), and sins against the second table, because they are scandalous in the Church, and maketh the name of God to be ill spoken of, though materially those sins be punishable by the magistrate, yet is the Church's power spiritual, because it judgeth those as scandalous and offensive to God, and therefore the power is spiritual, because the object, to wit, as scandalous to the Church, and as offensive to God, is spiritual, although, as The magisdestructive to civil peace, it is formally a civil object. trate, without any spiritual power, judges what is the true Church He doth and trae ordinances, and setteth them up by his sword. set them up only for a civil end, because they conduce most for the peace and flourishing condition of the civil State, whereof he is head, for the not that the members of his State may attain life eternal magistrate intendeth life eternal to his subjects in setting up a true Church and true ordinances, not as a magistrate, but as a godly
therefore
his

power

is

civil

man

(as

the

woman

of Samaria

brought out the Samaritans, that

they might receive Christ in their heart by faith as she had done); but as a magistrate he intendeth not life eternal to his subjects. So, a master, as a master, hireth a man to serve who is a believer, and as a master he judgeth such a one will be most faithful and Now the master judgeth him not to be a active in his service. The Church saint, that he may be a fit member of the Church. Nor doth he only, as the Church, is to judge so of this servant. judge him a believer that he may obtain life eternal, nor doth he
love and choose
Christians,
as

him

as his servant that

he

may

obtain

life

eternal

and love one another that way." "So the magistrate, as a magistrate, judges, loves, chooses, and setteth up true ordinances, a true Church, as means of a flourishing kingdom, and of external peace, and pulleth down the contrary, as means destructive to the peace and safety of his subjects."
Christians, judge

The Headship of Christ and Erastianism.

jurisdiction in civilihus, but only
ci7'ca civilia,

139

are

ecclesiastical

scandals,
religious

as they

so

the

State

has to do

with

distinctly

offences,

not

as

they

are
civil

religious,

but only as they

is

may

be breaches of

order.

It

not for a civil end that the

civil

Church
be the

censures dishonesty, though

result
;

ends

may

neither

is

it

for

a spiritual or ecclesiastical

end that the magistrate suppresses heresy or schism.

The

magistrate, as such, has only civil ends in view,

and never can produce more

whatever
accruing.

than

civil

effect,

may
as

be the religious advantage incidentally

juridical cognizance

The Church takes no

citizens,

of

men
;

but

only as

members
the

of

the

Church

and neither does the State take juridical

of

cognizance

men

as

members

of

Church, but

only as citizens or members of the State.

Not

as

belonging to Christ's kingdom, but as one who, being

a subject of Christ's

kingdom,

is
:

also

subject of

the State,

is

the heretic punished

to

for the

argument

seems sometimes
is

be put on

tlie

assumption that he

punished for having committed a direct breach of

for the injury

civil order, or

he

inflicts

on an

institu-

tion which, whether as established or even tolerated,

is

so far part of the civil order of a country.

Not

as

belonging

to

Christ's

kingdom, but as a subject

of the State, is the Cliurcli office-bearer or the

Church and
it

member commanded
visible

to be faithful to his duties in a

organization

which has

civil

protection,

whose well-being concerns the

involves a

State.

Accordingly

manifest confusion

of

thought, to

argue

140
from the
the
fact

Scuttish Thcolurjy.

that

the

State

has jurisdiction over

as the

same person and about the sauie actions

it

Church, that
Church.
Britain
It

has jurisdiction

in

and over the

because

might just as well be said that Great

over
France,

has jurisdiction

our

courts punish a riotous or dishonest Frenchman, who,

being a Frenchman,
civil

comes
it.
;

incidentally

within our

order and breaks

Erastianism seems to

me

to involve persecution

but what

we may

regard as

the persecuting doctrines of our fathers were never

put on an Erastian

basis,

and thus gave the magistrate

no place within the Church.

Non- tolerance

of

murder
civil

and non-tolerance
acts,

of schism

were both purely

and contemplated

directly

and primarily

civil

ends.
it

Everything must somehow become

civil before

comes within the magisterial sphere.

;

It

may
it
it,

be

materially religious and spiritual

respect
it

but unless in some

has a civil

side, in virtue of

which
see

comes
touch
effect

into the civil ruler's domain, he cannot

it,

minister praise

or

blame

to

it.

To

this

says Eutherford, at the close of his book on Liberty

of

Conscience

"

We
is

grant,

with Calvin and Beza,

of

that
the

Eomans
first,

xiii.

meant

the

duties
;

not

of
it

but of the second table of the law

but

follow^s

not that the magistrate's punishing of ill-doers,

of

and so

seducing
is

teachers,

is

excluded, for

that

punishing

a duty of the second table of the law.

object be spiritual, as sorcery
xiii.),

Though the
the
first

is

against

commandment (Eom.

though sorcery be
it is

a sin formally against the

first

table of the law,

"

The Headship of Christ and Urastianism.

punished as ill-doing

141

and why should the magistrate

table,

punish one sin against the

as they are
societies
?

and not

all,

in so far

against the peace and safety of

human

There

is

nothing, then, of a Church character in the

action of the magistratical " Gustos."

He

does not

punish heresy or blasphemy in a Church sense, or for

Church ends, but

civil

as

it

comes out of the Church into

so there is nothing ecclesiast-

order,

and

is

injurious directly or indirectly to

man and
ical

society.

And

in his action about sacred things, either in the

authority he exercises, or the instruments he uses, or

the end he contemplates.

All

is

done by him in his

civil

own

civil

sphere, and in his

I

own

way.

At the
the
of

same time,
reasonings

think
the
old

the

notion

runs

through
breach

of

divines, that

the

the precepts of the

first

table

was not only remotely,

thing,

but directly, as an
of civil
offence.

external

an
it

infringement
seems, a civil

order,

and so
to

directly,

as
it

God was
it

them, as

were, the supreme

civil Euler.
If,

again,

was

said that the magistrate,

when a
Church,

Christian, could not but have a place in the

and by necessity
Christianity
confers on
is

jurisdiction,

it

was answered that his

It neither
;

only a gracious accident.

magistratical powers

him new

general legitimization of his authority

nor by a
is,

that

suppos-

ing that,

if

he were a heathen or an
all

infidel,

then a magistrate at
Christ's

he was not
in

does
is

it

give

him a place

kingdom.

There

no hint of such a thing in

142
the Bible.
trate is as

Scottish Theology.

The heathen,

or infidel, or heretical magisas

essentially a magistrate

the Christian.

Everything circa sacra which the Christian magistrate

can do, the heathen magistrate can do.
Tiberius had

the same right to call a Synod of the Christian Presbyters living in his day in the
preside in
it

Eoman Empire, and

of Orange, or

to

sua modo, as

James

of Christian Scotland,

or Charles of England, or
of Navarre.

William

Henry

There were examples at hand which our

to.

old theologians often referred

of

His Catholic Majesty Synods of the French

Antonio

France was always present, by his commissioner or

representative, in the General

Protestant Church, and was always welcome.

De Dominis
that in
his

stated in his book,

Dc Christiana Bepublica,
within the Turkish

diocese

of Spalato,

dominions, he enjoyed Turkish toleration, but that his

civil

master kept a watchful oversight of him and of

it

his flock, carefully looking to

that they kept their

of his.

own
only,

order, as being so
it

far part

They did
to
do.
all

was

held,

what they had

the

right

Mahomet

or Solyman, under

Crescent,

had

the powers circa sacra of Coustantine or Theodosius

under the Cross.

The

Christian
his

magistrate
better

is,

no
the

doubt, able to perform

duties

than

heathen

but his Christianity does not

office.

change the

nature of his
fuller
light,

He
in

has nobler motives, he has

condition more perfectly to
;

he

is

carry

out

God's will in his special sphere

but, as

a magistrate, he has not altered ends, nor a larger

jurisdiction.

You

cannot make a

new power

out of

The Headship of Christ and Erastianism.

Christianity and magistracy, any

143

more than you can

make
lion.

a creature of a

new genus out of a horse and a You cannot make an ens per aggregationem. If
of a heathen neighbour's

the Erastian argument has any good basis, a Christian

monarch may take possession

rich domains
;

or

Church, when she reforms,

may
only

claim the unreformed king's sceptre.

tian
civil
civil
life,

In short, Chrisis

or heathen, the

end of the
it

magistrate

and temporal, and

can only produce directly

and temporal

effects.

The inner man, the

;

spiritual

are out of his range

is

and so the Church which

a low view of State-

deals with these

out of his jurisdiction.

perhaps,

This

may

appear,

duty, and hardly in keeping with the impressions our

national religious

history seems naturally to

convey.

But you have

which
it

a catena of testimonies in its favour

resist.

seems impossible to

Hear how the

addressed

leaders of the
at

Church
"
:

of

1590, with Andrew Melville

their

head, in a memorable document,

:

King James

There are two jurisdictions exercised

the one spiritual, the

in this realm

other civil

the
;

one respects the conscience, the other external things

the

one

directly

procuring

the

obedience
othQj"

of

God's

word and commandments, the

civil

obedience unto

laws

the one persuading by the spiritual word,

;

the other compelling by the temporal sword

the one

spiritually procuring the edification of the Kirk,

is

which

the body of Jesus Christ

the other, by entertaining

justice, procuring the

commoditie, peace, and quietness

in the

of the

Commonweal, the which, having ground

144

Scottish Theology.

light of nature, proceeds

from God, as

and so termed by the Apostle

multiply quotations from him.
is

He is Creator, Humana CreaturaJ'

:

Already have we seen Gillespie's views

and

might

But

let

me

give

what

said

by the
:

writers

of

the Flea for the Persecuted

Ministers
essential

"

That government whose immediate and

ends are specifically different from the im-

mediate and essential ends of the magistrate's government,

is

distinct
it is

from the government of the magistrate.

:

But here
of

so

the essential and immediate ends

different

Church government are

from the essential

and

immediate end of magistracy, as will be clear to

together.

any that compares them

and
are

The ends
soul, the

of

Church

government are the saving of the

edification of sinners, etc.

conversion

The ends

of magistracy of the

the outward public peace

and prosperity
justice in the

commonwealth, the execution of

Church's government
does

main-

taining and preserving of property.

With
" It

these the

not

meddle, nor
says
:

intend

them

of itself."

Brown

also

cannot be
is

denied that the proper end of the republic

servation of

the con-

human and

political affairs.

The principal
God, the author

remote cause of the

of
is

civil

republic

is

Nature

the principal remote cause of the Church

God, the author of Grace.

is

The principal proximate

the natural tendency with

cause of the civil republic

which

man
is

is
;

endowed, as born to cultivate society

with others

but the principal proximate cause of the

Church

a supernatural disposition with which the

Christian

man

is

endowed.

The

less principal cause

The Headship of Christ and Erastianism.

of the civil republic
is tlie

145
which
;

need

of those things

have respect to

this

our natural and civil

life

the

less principal cause of the ecclesiastical republic is the

need of those things that have respect to the good of

the soul, and without which the spiritual
well be preserved and cherished.
life

cannot

The

ecclesiastical

power
inner

is

spiritual,

having

to

do with those things

which look

to the soul
;

and the conscience and the

is

man

but the political

natural and mundane,

touching only the external man."

The

early Seceders liad the whole question of the

his relation to religion to discuss

civil magistrate in

soon after they separated from the National Church,

while yet the principles of the second Eeformation

were regarded by them with an

admiration
preserved.
;

almost

idolatrous

and we have
"

their

testimony carefully

The public good

of

outward and common

order in all reasonable society unto the glory of

is,"

God

they say, " the great and only end which those

invested with magistracy can propose in a sole respect

to that of^ce.

And

as,

in prosecuting this end civilly,

according to their
evil

office, it is

only over men's good and

it is

works that they can have inspection, so

only

over these they must needs take cognizance for the

said public good
so as
;

while, at the

same time,

their doing
so far only

must be in such a manner and proceed

is

requisite

for

that

end, without

assuming any

lordship immediately over men's consciences, or

making
privi-

any encroachments on the

leges of the

special business

and

Church.

And, moreover,

as the

whole

146
institution
lie

Scottish Theology.

and end of

tlieir office

are cut out

by and
it

within the compass of natural principles,

were

absurd to suppose that there could or ought to be any

exercise thereof towards that end in the foresaid cir-

cumstances, but what can be argued for and defended

from natural principles."

theologian

There

is

indeed one great

who

at

one time differed from his contemRutherford, in his

civil

poraries on this point.

Due

Rigid,

437, teaches unequivocally that the

magistrate

has directly spiritual and supernatural ends.

That

view, however, he was led to modify, and in his later

books he often rather extremely takes up another view.

Thus he explains himself

conflicts of the

in his Divine Right of

Church

Government, after he had passed through the Erastian

Westminster Assembly
That

" It is true I
is

have said that the intrinsical end of the magistrate

a supernatural good
:

But,

1.

I speak, in

opposi-

tion to the author of The Bloody Tenet, to Socinians

and such as exclude the magistrate from

and

all

meddling

with religion, or using of the sword against heretics,

apostates,
idolaters.
2.

That I understand only

of

the

material

end, because the Prince, punishing

accidens

idolatry,

may joer

and indirectly promote the

but he doth that, not in

salvation of the

Church by removing the temptations

Church
;

of heretics from the

order to the conscience of the idolater, to gain his soul

(for

pastors

as

pastors do that), but

to

make
to

the
life

Church quiet and peaceable in her journey

eternal.

But

all

this
"

is

but to act on the external

{Church Government,
p.

man by

worldly po^Yer

592)

The Headsliip of Christ and Erastianism.

147
let

And
political

these views

of

the

civil

magistrate,

me

observe, were

inwrought into the whole ecclesiasticoof

theory

the

sixteenth

and

seventeenth
fact,

centuries,

and were intimately connected, in

religious

with

their

more

notions of the

magistrate.
in

The
so far

magistrate, they held,

was God's vicegerent,

standing on a peculiar elevation which to no Church

officer belonged.
lie

In relation to the Highest a servant,

was in

relation to

men, in a great and signal sense,

issued his
fact,

a master.
in
his

He commanded and own name. Unless, in

commands
his enact-

he acted in this
all

sovereign way, with the sword behind

ments and injunctions, he did not act in the proper

sense magistratically.

But such

a sovereignty as this

within the soul and conscience would have been intolerable

;

so

it

was limited

to

the

external

man.

Emphatically,

all his
it

sovereignty in regard to religion

was external

only produced, as magistratical, and

;

was only meant

fact,

to produce, external effects

religious,

effects in

though in a sense

merely bearing in
the

themselves on the outward

order of society.
versally held that

man and

outward

Then the very

the

fact that it

was uniChurch,

magistrate had the power to

command
schism
of the

all

outward religious acts

to attend

profess the truth, to punish

made

men

for idolatry, heresy,

it

absolutely necessary to keep

;

him out

soul-region

for

if

he did the same things

did,

materially which

the

Church

and in the same

sphere and in order to the same spiritual ends, what

was

this but giving

him an

authority in sacred things?

148

Scottish Theology.

That would have been paving the way

to

a depute

Headship under Jesus

to the

and

therefore, that, with safety

Church's liberty, the Church might have the

King's
sw^ord in an

advantage, as they said, of the

extrinsic

way

in

driving the wolves from

the

flock,

our fathers kept him carefully in the external sphere.

The truth

is,

we can go

further with safety than

our fathers in the religious direction, just because we

have materially excluded the magistrate from using

sword in the religious sphere by our doctrine of They certainly found no difficulty under toleration.
his
their views in securing for the

Church a high enough

place in the earthly kingdom.

do that in various ways.

a coUaterality with
order of society
:

The

State, in their idea,

They were enabled to had

all rights

belonging to the natural

such as the right to hold property

and use
art

it

as the right of
to,

men
it

to practise a particular
;

according

as

it
;

were, art-laws

the

right

of

husband, father, master

and

was, at the same time,

protector of these natural rights and institutions,

to give to

bound
nutrix

them
all.

all

encouragement

to be custos

them
its

But, on the same principle that the State

gives

support to these natural institutions, some of

them
itself,
it

diverse in nature

and in immediate object from

and claims that
civil
is

when another

institution appears

is of

God, and demands a place in

all

order,

and
it,

the protection of that order in

there does not

that

p)eculiar to

seem any reason why,

if its

claims are

proved,

it

should not be admitted.

claims,

Well, the Christian

Pi'otestant

Church makes these

the

Church

The HcaclsJiip of Christ and Erastianism.

149

makes these claims

they are considered and admitted,

it

and with the family or the household

straightway

belongs to the civil order of the country.

And
with

this, in fact, is
is

the establishment of the Church.

Establishment
all
its

the State giving the Church a place,

rights,

inherent

among
of

the the

positively

tolerated

societies

and
?

institutions

country.

What
(1.)

are those ric^hts o

There

is tlie

right of self-government
I

under

its

glorious Head.

That, as

have

said,

was not con-

ceived to be in the least foreign to the idea of civil

society,

which admitted and existed

for the protection

of collateral rights

and

institutions.

The

old divines
out, for in-

made

a great deal of this.

They pointed
relationship

stance,

how

in the conjugal

and in the
in

paternal relationship
the
State

there

was

sphere

which
but

has
it

properly
said,

no

intrinsic

authority,

merely, as
authority.
(2.)

was

an extrinsic and cumulative

Then, again, this acceptance of the Church into

the State
it,

civil order implies that

is

bound in
great

all fitting

ways

to

cherish and nourish

else
it
it

just
its

as it does

with

whatever
family.

has taken into

house or

Here,
!

seems to me,

is

the old principle of

State,

endowment

The idea was not that the

desirous to convert

men

objects of its existence

having
its

as

that as one of the

in a sort of
;

way employs

the

Church

as the fitting instrument

but rather that the

Church, having that as

that end

glorious work, appointed to

by God, comes

to the State,

and

says, " I

have

150
God's commission
full
;

Scottish TheoloQTj.

examine

it,

and

see.

Let
for

me have
blessed

and

free course within

thy domain

my

work."

The
action

old divines

had an immense
But,
the

dislike to

anything like State precedence, either in legislation

or

in

about religion.

commission

examined, the claims acknowledged, the Cliurch, according:

to its necessities,

and as

it

is

faithful

to

its

character, has its claim, like

any other

institution, to

the civil rewards and praises.

You

see

how ample was

modern

the scope thus given to the magistrate, or the State de

faxto Christian.
I do not

much

believe in the

notion of a concordat, or an alliance between Church

and

State, as very vividly present to the

minds of our

old orthodox divines.

their having

Certainly I utterly disbelieve in

of

any notion

the Church ever bartering

any

of her liberties for earthly gain.

She had freedom

;

and independence under heathen princes

warranted
to give that

and was she

?

away under

Christian princes

All that the State could do in her case was cumulative,

not privative.
the
as
It could, in

a sense, add something in

aids, just

way
it

of defending

and affording external

;

did in the case of the family

but

to

take was

sacrilege, as for the

Church

to
;

surrender was treason.

I

At least that was the theory but endowment was very prominent.
For
(3.) I

do not think that

think
it

it

was strongly held that the divine

sacred rights with

kinc^dom, as

widened out from the narrow bounds of

its
it,

ancient Israel, took

had an
ac-

indefeasible claim to the tithes,

and other things

cruing

to

it,

by a kind of common law

or custom.

The Headsliip of Christ and Urasticmism.

151

But the

State, in

acknowledging the Protestant Pres-

byterian Church to be the Church, the true kingdom

of Christ within the realm, ipso facto gave
rights, just as it gives a
all
it all

Church

man

in the permission to trade

trade rights, or in the permission to hold property

all

property rights.
regular
to

Ordination by a true Church, in

essential

way,
the

conferred

and indefeasible

rights

benefice.

This was very strongly held

by many of our

divines.

That the State had no

liherum arhitrium properly in that case in regard to

the stipend, though
I think, a later idea.
it

was dealing with

its

own, was,
does not

With

all deference, it

seem

to

me

that at the Eeformation the State took

it

the Church's property, and then gave

at its pleasure.

According to the idea of Calderwood and Eutherford

and Brown, what the State

did, or

should have done,

either a court

was
of

liker

what takes place now, when

or

law

Parliament determines, concerning some

property, to which of two ecclesiastical
rightfully
said, "

ecclesiastical

claimants
State

it

belongs.
is,

Hence,

when
it

the

power

This

in our view, the Church,"

her real rio-hts

one.
(4.)

and her

civil ridits

became, as

were,

And, once

again, in the very fact that the State

its civil

gave the Church a place as the true Church in

order,
it first

of all

excluded

all

other claimants in the

it

same

line,

and thereupon recognised

as the rightful

religious instructor of the country.

The

State could

not be that
w^as

itself.

The

spiritual training of the people

beyond

its

sphere, just as the family training of

152
children, or the

Scottish Theology.

management

of wives or servants,

was

beyond
of

its

sphere.

But here the

;

true spiritual trainer

humanity appears

and the Church claims, and the

it.

State gives, the civil liberty of his civil house to

may add

that, in

keeping with these views, there

was long
positive

in Scottish theology a peculiar dread of the

toleration
of

non-orthodox religious bodies

of the last century

down

at least to the

end

you have

this feeling very strong.

If

you give them anything

but taking them

of positive acknowledgment, anything of positive protection,

what

is
?

that,

it

was

said,

into your house

And
it

if

you give them recognition

is

and

shelter,

what

difference

there between that and

?

giving them, as

were, bed and board

There was

something in

it.

These old writers had clear vision,

and in

their

patient

way looked round and round

which we are perhaps
our time
is,

things in a

way

in

deficient.

One

of the difficulties of

that you have

established, as one of the approved forms of society,

freedom of opinion and

free

religious

asseveration.

That was then dreaded, as we now dread universal

endowment.
passed,
it

When

the Toleration Bill of

as equivalent to the

1712 was
establish-

was regarded

ment
civil
all

of Episcopacy,
is,

and denounced in that character.

The truth

that the apparently low doctrine of the

magistrate as the protector of civil order

place,
civil

giving

rights their
it

and becoming their defender,

while

kept the

he ought not

magistrate from intruding where

did

not interfere with

the

amplest

recognition of religion and of the Church of Christ.

The

IlcadsJdjJ of Christ

and Erastianism.
of

153
While

And
office,

there

were

other

ways

putting

it.

reliaion, it

was
it is

said, is

not the end of the magistrate's

office.

yet

all-important for the ends of his

magjistrate

The

Christian

or

State

recomises Chris-

tianity as

from God, and, as hy God's blessing the

is

highest renovator of society, he

bound

to give it all

encouragement.

III.

Once more.
His Church

It is not
;

merely that Christ was

King

in

but that the Church was His

only,

special, if it

was not His

kingdom
in

as Mediator.

Some
view.
instance,

great divines have certainly held this latter

The question was debated

" that the civil

England, for

between Hooker and Cartwright.

mai^istrate
is

The great
cometh from
not subor-

Puritan taught

God immediately,
dinate to Christ
;

as

Christ doth, and

"

that Christ governs "

kingdoms and
;

commonwealths

as the equal of the Father

but the

Church, as His mediatorial kingdom, as the Father's

delegate and deputy."

The great Anglican

tells

us

that at such views, as very strange, he

of astonishment
;

mused

in a kind

and

arGjuimy that kinqs are Christ's

as kings, not less surely than as saints, he, from his

point of view, developed therefrom his

High Church
is

Erastianism, and asserted that " civil government

branch of Christ's regal

trate is

office,*'

that the " civil magis-

an under subordinate head of Christ's people."

subject

The

was

also largely discussed

by continental
the
circa

divines.

The celebrated work

rights

of

Apollonius,

Dutchman, on the

of

the

civil

power

: ;

154
sacra,
is,

Scottish Theology.

you may

say,

based on the doctrine that

;

Christ

is

only King of the Church as Mediator

and

King

of the nations, Lord of the universe, in respect of

His essential Deity.

This distinction, he maintains,

is

of itself sufficient to settle the Erastian controversy.

Thus he lays down some

"

of his fundamental positions of Christ as

The economical kingdom and dominion

is

Mediator

different

and of another nature from the

the natural universal sovereignty

kingdom
of the

of

God and
of

Son of God, as

He

is

one God with the Father

is

which kingdom

divine excellence and majesty

independent and supreme.

The universal kingdom and

natural sovereignty the Father possesses in

common
Deus
;

with the Son and the Holy Ghost, qua

but the special economicfil

6/ji,ooi/(tco<;

kingdom

is

proper and

peculiar to Christ, as depending on His mediatorial

office,

and having

frora it its origin

and

its

constitu-

tion.

By

such differences as these the kingdoms are

:

distinguished
in
itself

(1.)

The mediatorial kingdom, viewed

is
it

and

economically,

subordinate
the

to

God,
is

dependent on
less

Him

and in

King Mediator

than God, and inferior to God, unequal to Him,

and His servant,

which

things cannot be affirmed of

the natural universal divine kingdom. the Mediator's sovereignty

satisfaction
is

The

right of

based on the merit of the

which the Mediator performed in place of

;

the Church

but God possesses the right of natural and

universal dominion from His divine nature, and the glory

which belongs

to

His Deity.

Hence the
is

act

and

effect

of the sovereignty of the

Mediator

the acquisition.

The Headslii;p of Christ and Erastianism. government, and defence

universal
of

155

the

Church
and

but of the

King

is

providence, government,
all

and

dis-

position in regard to the whole world,

it.

things in

The

office

and power which the magistrate bears are

not subordinated to the mediatorial kingdom of Christ,

but to the universal kingdom of God.

of his office, the magistrate
is

... In

respect

not, nor is called in the

Scriptures, a servant of Christ-Mediator, to fulfil his

office

in

Christ's

name, a
to

leirate

of Christ, or in the
his legation."
" circa sacra."

name
This
is

of

Christ

acquit

himself of

the fundamental doctrine of the

It runs

through and gives direction to the whole arguthe writer vindicates the liberties of

ment by which

the Church, and unfolds the peculiar nature of those

adventitious or accidental
relations

between Church
title

and State which are

ground

signified

by the

of his book,

and under the shelter of which the Erastians took up

chiefly their

and waged the most plausible

contention.
It has

been subject of dispute whether

this be the

view of the seventeenth century divines of Scotland or

not, but I shall not enter into the discussion.

All at

least agree in this, that in a very close

and blessed

sense, Christ, as Mediator, is

is

King

of the Church.

He

King in
It

Zion.

From Zion
this,

goes forth the rod of His

power.

was

intensely realized, that

moved the
offensive,
feeling,

Scottish heart once so profoundly.

And
it

Erastianism

was not merely an

error in theology;
it,

was

in the very thought of

to all right

and holy

an

assault in no mitigated sense

upon His crown,

156
and
notliiiiG^

Scottish Theology.

less

than a turning^ of

tlie

kinc^dom of

heaven into a kino^dom of this world.

than in a general

There was more

way

the freedom and independence

of the Church, something nearer and

more touching
There was the

that concerned

them

in the matter.

thought of membership in a kingdom of which incarnate Deity had said, with a glorious emphasis
is
:

"This

my

kingdom
;

in

it

I reign as
it

nowhere
blood,

else in the

universe

have won
it

by

my

and

all

to

myself I claim
this

and

its

people."

appropriating of Christ as

Above all, it was King to the Church,

might

which developed those

intensities of personal affection

and sacred
so speak,
It

loyalty, that kingdom-patriotism, if I

which are so notable in our

fairly

religious history.

might be

debated whether you have not, as

another result less favourable, some want of expansiveness,

some tendency

to the

Church seclusion of the Old

Covenant.

Never, however, since apostolic times was

the personal
religion

Jesus more truly, never in a popular

fully realized.
for the Scottish
:

more

That old doctrine of the

Headship did
to

Church wliat Eome

" heavenlies "

tries

do with the Mass

it

brought the Lord of Glory

here

very near, and gave gracious souls

below; and this without any materializing of the sacred

ordinances, or any use of priestly magic.

CHAPTER

VI.

PEESENT MISREPKESENTATION OF SCOTTISH RELIGION.

an uncommon allegation that Scotch

jT is not

religion is harsh, austere,

gloomy

a stern

and frowning^

thinsj, revellins^ in

the dark,

dread mysteries of a stern theology.

it is

Well, sometimes
is

not very easy to

If
it is

know what

meant by the
of man's

alleojation.

meant that the doctrines

fallen

and guilty

state, of

the reality and punishment

of sin, of regeneration, of vicarious

atonement,

doc-

trines

which Scotch theology has always taught and

alluded

Scotch preachers have always strongly proclaimed,

are
of the
sort
to,

then, of

course, I

have

merely to answer that these doctrines are no peculiar

heritage of our country
:

they have a place in every

creed in Christendom

they were the belief of Luther

and Cranmer, of Hooker and Baxter.

Even

in

its

doctrine of the Sovereign Electing Grace of God, the

Church

of Scotland only treads in the footsteps of the

greatest of the Fathers, venerates.

whom

all

Western Christendom

All the

Churches of the Eeformation, as

substantially Calvinistic.
so,

we know, were on
Certainly
the

this point

Anglican Church was

and

it

has

never wanted a great and influential Calvinistic party

158
within
its

Scottish Theology.

pale.

Our Anglican

friends,

who

are very

often the fault-finders in this matter, might do well to

remember that we have no Athanasian Creed, and that

our days of sacred rejoicings are not darkened, as their

Christmas

is,

by

its

dread Anathemas.

I suppose

it is w^ell

known how

strongly Mr. Buckle

has put this point, in what dark colours he has painted

the severity of that seventeenth century religion from

which we draw
to I

so

much
of our

of our religious impulse,

and

which

so

many

grand traditions

cling.

Now

am

not going to enter into lengthened controversy

with this writer, who, by so completely overdoing his

case,
less.

has perhaps made his work comparatively harm-

He

reasons from a point of view which I utterly

repudiate.

He

regards as abject superstition what I

hope

I shall ever count dearer to

me

than

life.

can I imagine that an author

who can

give the

Nor mean

account he does of our greatest national movements,

to

whom Knox and

Melville are

little

better than

turbulent demagogues, not seldom carrying out with

dirty tools w^hat w^e, I trust, shall never cease to regard
as a glorious revolution,
to the

and who pins his

faith so often

most extreme of our Prelatic

vilifiers,

will

have

any great weight among Scottish people.

Very extravagant, indeed,

times

are the blunders he somefor

makes.

He

tells

us,

example,

three -fourths of the page with proofs,

covering

that in that

dismal seventeenth century, whoever presumed to dis-

obey the minister w^as excommunicated, and was believed to have incurred the penalty of eternal perdition.

Present Misrepresentation of Scottish Religion.

159

His

first

authority

is

a quotation from a Spottiswood

its

Miscellany, which sufficiently indicates

value.

Not

content with
head.

that,

Mr. Buckle goes to the fountainan influential divine

He

refers to Gillespie as

of his time,

who puts
all

the matter of the asserted per-

dition

beyond

question,

by plainly
is

declaring,

he

says, that

an excommunicated person
all

given over to

Satan.
so far

Of course we
from meaning
;

know

that excommunication,

to

give a

man

over to perdition,

means the opposite

a means of grace.

and
If

that, in truth, it

was used

as

Mr. Buckle had happened to

possess a very ordinary acquaintance with the E'ew

Testament,

and

I think that, even on the grounds of

patriotism, every thoughtful

expected

to

have

that,

Englishman might well be

and
he ought

he would have been aware

;

whence the phraseology came

to

at least

have known that this

terrible blot

on our Scottish
if

religion belonged to every

Church in Christendom,

not in actual exercise, at least in profession.

Besides,

there does not seem any reason to believe that excom-

munication was ever frec|uent in our Church.

states that it

Baillie
;

was very uncommon

it

in his time

and

Gillespie taught that

should only be exercised with

consent of the people.

exercised
it

But however that

be,

when

was,

it

had

salvation, not perdition, as its

end.

Mr. Buckle has a paragraph in which he gathers

together, as into a focus, all that
religion of the period in question.
is

appalling in our
rises

He

from step

to step,

till

he reaches a climax of the dreadful, at

160
wliicli,

Scottish Theology.

bold

man

as

lie

is, lie

seems

to

stand

agliast.

He

accuses the Scottish preachers of fostering for their

own ends
They

the most fearful and soul-oppressive delusions.

told their hearers,

he

asserts,

that

what was

spoken from the pulpit was binding upon

all believers,

and was

to

be regarded as

immediately proceeding
says,

from the Deity.

Does not Durham, he

the Song, that

teach,

in his exposition of

directions given

by

Christ's

ministers

from
if

His

word are

to

be

accounted by him as

He

did immediately speak

them Himself

But Mr. Buckle was surely aware of

the fact that the Scotch people had the Bible in their hands, and that they
right to search
"
it,

knew
try

it

to

be their duty and

things

and

all
is

by

it

that
of

Search

the

Scriptures "

the

very

motto

Protestantism, especially of Calvinistic

Protestantism.

Durham,
Buckle
belongs

in his
also
to

work on the

Pievelation,

which Mr.
it

quotes, lays
believers

down

the principle that

even to try apostles, who are

faith,

not

lords

of

their

but helpers
It

of their joy.

And

the

thing was done.

spirit

was in anything but

of

a crouching

that

many

these

old

blue-

bonnets sat under the

preaching of

the word.

At

the very time to which he makes special reference,

there
their
is

good reason to believe that ministers had

difficulties

own

in

dealing with them.

Again
sheer
his

he

says, "

The clergy believed that they alone were

It is

privy to the counsels of the Almighty."

illusion.

When Samuel
of

Paitherford
wdiole

said

that

pteople

had heard

him the

counsel of God,

Present Misrepresentation of Scottish Eeligion.

161

he merely meant to say

that, so

far as

he knew, he

had spoken

fully

and faithfully the gospel of Christ as

It is

revealed in the

Holy Book.

one of the commonest

counsels given to a young pastor, to do what Eutherford

says he did
is to tell

and

it

means nothing more than that he

truths
of
life,

holdly out the

holding back
;

nothing of God's Word, whether through fear or favour

and any idea

of its

implying acquaintance with

all

the

secrets of the Eternal

Mind
is

is

as

far

meaning

as the

east

from the west.

of

away from its The misconall

ception furnishes another instance

how thoroughly
unfamiliar

out of his range was this able man, when,

with

it,

he entered the
this
all,

field

of theological literature.

Nor was
the

says Mr. Buckle.

Not merely did

in their

Scottish

ministers

claim

infallibility

sermons, and the full knowledge of the counsels of

the Almighty
:

they claimed to be able to predetermine

;

every man's future state

and with a simplicity that

these good

is

almost touching, he gives as his only authority Wishart's

Memoirs of Montrose.
state

Alas

times sore struggles of spirit about their

;

men had oftown eternal

dark

clouds
its

came over
being as
it

their
is

dearest hopes.

And

instead of

represented, one of

their favourite
occultis

maxims

was, in regard to others,

:

De

non judicat

ecclesia

they held that

it

did not

belong to them to say of one or another that he was

or

was not in a
there

state of grace, the heir of life or death.

But

rageous.

Why,

was what Mr. Buckle thought yet more outthese men, he declares, did not scruple

to afiQrm that,

by

their censures, they could

open and

;:

162

Scottish Theology.

shut the kingdom of heaven

Dickson's Truth's Victory.

and he
Well,
if

refers in proof to

he had read the

whole
and

chapter there, he might have been led to at

least suspect that

if

he was somehow mistaking things

he had turned to his friend

"

Durham On

Scandal,

he would have found that the

key of discipline doth

only shut out from outward privileges, and doth not

shut out from any spiritual interest in Christ, but as
it

concurreth to confirm some threatening of the word.

The same key doth admit

privileges,

or restore

men

to

outward

and absolve men from outward censures."

might
have
also

Mr.

Buckle

known, by a

little

inquiry, that

in censures, as in doctrine, the

Church

claimed no

infallibility,

and that the

clavis errans

was

every way unavailing.

It is not possible that

he could

have done more than turn over in the most cursory

way
or

these dozens of dusty volumes to which he refers,

light as to the

some

meaning

of the

old theological

terminology would have dawned on him.

ing to him, even this was not thing more, which, he says,
if this
all.

Yet, accordis still

There

some"

is "

utterly horrible."

As
by
at
it
?

were not enough, they also gave out that a word

of theirs could hasten the

moment

of death, and,

cutting off the sinner in his

prime, could bring

him
gave

once before the judgment-seat of God."

out
?

Who
own

Was

it

given out in some Church confession

Eutherford writes to his people, in his

as

vivid way,

many

a fervid orator has preached from the pulpit

loins of

" Gird
for the

up the

your mind, and make you ready

I

meeting the Lord.

have often summoned you,

Present Misrepresentation of Scottish Beligion.

163

and now I summon you again,

Judge, to

to

compear before your

life."

make

a reckoning of your

And upon

a bit of bold and earnest rhetoric, which the simplest,

you might think, could hardly misinterpret, an enor-

mous charge
and an
of
age.

is

made

against a whole Church, and far-

reaching conclusions

drawn

in

regard to
is

people

Samuel Eutherford
dislike.

one of the objects

Mr. Buckle's intense

at
it.

And

one does not

wonder

The

old divine has been a

mark
that

to fire

at ever since

he gave a book to the world.

;

But you

cannot slay the immortal

and

my belief

is,

human
is

souls will be getting life

and nourishment from the

wondrous

Letters,

when
I

the History of Civilisation

lying unheeded and unread on the high shelves of our

great
libraries.

affirm that those

blunders are a

scandal to our modern literature.

thought of the writer in

himself familiar with
spectre which
deep, or
disease
its

What would be philosophy who had not made

nomenclature
?

The

friohtful

literary art has conjured

from the vasty

some other

quarter, dissolves like the illusions of

when you stretch forth your hand to touch them. do not mean to assert the ideal perfection of sevenN"o doubt
it

teenth century religion.

had

its

blemishes.
as there

There were superstitions connected with

are great superstitions,

it,

think,

connected with the

highest culture of our

own

time.

Suppose

that,

by

any chance or mischance,

Covenanting
thing
!

table-turning

had been a

In

regard to the witch-mania,

alone, I

which did not touch Scotland

the whole subject
is

have to say that

singularly inconspicuous in our

164

Scottish Theology.

higher theological literature.

remember reading, some

years ago, in one of the accomplished Broad School

thinkers of the English Church, an attempt to prove

that
"
it
is

to

Satan our Lord refers when

kill

He
is

says

Fear not them which

;

the Lody, but are not able

able to

to kill the soul

but rather fear him which

hell."

destroy both soul and body in

have found

nothing like that in

read.

all

the Scottish theology I have

I have nothing to

say in defence of the nonso

skilfully

toleration

which our fathers

it
till

vindicated,

save that

was the

all

but universal theory of the time,

and that

the conflict and strife of the Eeformation,

sects,

and the ground-swell of sw^arming

so

which were

triumphantly

pointed
its
it

to

by the adversaries of

Protestantism to

disadvantage, had quietly settled

w^as very natural there should be

down

into a calm,

timidity in the direction of freedom of thought.

There

are emergencies in the moral as in the political sphere,

when

action like that of the State in suspending Habeas

is, if

Corpus, or instituting martial law,

tified, at least to

not to be jus-

be palliated.

It

seems to

me

sheer

nonsense, or rather the indication of an animus from

which
matter

nothing but injustice can

be

expected,

the

attacks that have been made, say

of Servetus.

upon Calvin

in the

Calvin and his contemporaries

stood openly out, not upon the ground of liberty of

conscience, but

upon the ground of truth

and

if

they

had taken any other ground, they would have exposed

themselves to a
fire

from the Eomish controversialists

it difficult

which they would have found

to withstand,

Present Misrepresentation of Scottish Religion.

165

and the result might possibly have been the turning

back of the Eeformation.
In reference to Scotland,

we

at least can say that the martyr-roll of anti-Presbyis

terians

very

brief,

and not very bright

is

and

to

all

these charges of ghostly tyranny which

said to have

prevailed, I give the general answer, that the very time

when

the hateful thing

is

said to have

most

flourished,

was the time dearest

Scotland,

to the

memories of Presbyterian

its

golden age, whose glory almost hid out

of

of sight the days

Knox and

Melville

and

that,

instead of the spirit of the Scottish people being crushed,

their intellectual energies
to the utmost: there

were quickened and roused

came upon them a new and powerful

before.

sense of individual responsibility and dignity, such as

they

had never known

Did Drumclog and

?

Dunkeld speak
brave

of a people

cowed and stricken

Have
to

you the natural products of a priestly tyranny in those

peasants,

who, loving the old ways even

to

idolatry,

and without a minister

head them, held

at

bay

in

the western shires the whole power of the

British Empire, nay, shook the old torn flag full in the

very face of the tyrant

See

how

the

little

moorland

farmer or the farm lad meets with gaze unquailing

the scornful and merciless soldier, whose terrible
still

name

ghost-like haunts the glens and wilds of Galloway

!

and Ayrshire

What
is,

does that

mean

The truth
time, of

there were forces in that memorable

which Mr. Buckle, I

Those

suppose, had

not a

glimmering.

same

ministers,

whom
their

he so
people

utterly misunderstands, spoke

much

to

166
of a liberty

Scottish Theology.

wherewith Christ makes His people

free

told

them

that in Christ they were sons of the

Most

High, that they were a holy priesthood, having access

through the riven veil to the nearest intimacy of their

Maker

that
to

the

Book
their

of Life
;

was open
lonc^

to

them

as well as

their

teachers

and

ere

French

Eevoliitionists,

in

godless
pulpit,

levelling

way, pro-

claimed

it,

the
is

Scottish

amid that ghastly

it,

gloom which

said to have surrounded

sense,

was ever
"

declaring in a nobler

no way impinging on
done in any extreme

God's holy order, a blessed " equality and fraternity

in Jesus Christ.

Nor was

this

and
old

fanatical style.

Shrinking and trembling, a good

to himself the great news.
far as it

Scotchman took home

it

But

was

real to

him

and in so

was

real

to him,

he was elevated and ennobled, and could not

but feel and claim his rights. o

slave.

He
was

could not be a

That very system of

too
inquisitorial,
staff

discipline, severe it

may
be

be,

and

he

disposed

to

thankful for as a
tried to climb

on which he could

lean, as

he

up those heights of holy attainment

was thus that in

towards whose summits he aspired, and by a very

necessity of his nature aspired.
It

the heart of a civil intolerance there was going on a

work, without which theories of toleration and Parlia-

mentary enactments would have been of

without which,

little

value

let me add, we should never have had our " Cottar's Saturday Night," nor, with all his dislike

in

many

things to that which

made him,

Burns

to

sing

its glories.


Present Misrepresentation of Scottish Beligion.

167

But

let

us

make

the closer acquaintance of some

of these old divines.

The types and representatives

us see really what

of the religion of their time, let

manner

of

men they
Blairs.
or,
if

were, these Livingstones, Durhams,

Eutherfords,
peculiarities,

Now
you
will,

affirm

that,

whatever

blemishes of their age,

it

belonged to those good men,

affirmed of

certainly cannot be

them that the

stern

and the frownino- was

their distinguishing characteristic.

and who seems

Durham, who was but a young man when he died, to have made a very great impression
for the

on his contemporaries, was remarkable

elevation of his character.
his time
;

mild

He was

the peacemaker of

and in one

of the fiercest controversies of

which

have ever read, retained, without declaring

for either party, the love

and respect of both.

need

not say

how

Eutherford,

with

it

how,

how
if

the love-element characterized Samuel

his

whole soul seemed

to be

on

fire

he was the extremest of Calvinists

how,

if

he could speak of the terribleness of divine

wrath and the awful claims of the divine righteousness, the love of Christ

was
it

still,

above

all,

his theme,
for

about which he spake as

would be scarcely wise

any
soul

to

become

his imitator,
to

and
about

how from
the

his very

he

longed

bring

sacred

match

between the glorious Emmanuel and the simple people

of his charge far

away on the Solway's

shores.

No
those

man was

in his

own way more conspicuous

their

in

old days, as I have said already, than

John Livingstone.
preacher.

He was

perhaps

most

successful

168
Memorable
Ireland,
revival

Scottish Theology.

awakeniriG^s,

both
his
it

in

Scotland

and

in

occurred

under

ministry.

an
?

The

Shotts

event which, as

strikes us, has not

it

had

sufficient

importance given to

Scottish

Church

in the history of the

took

place

through

the

instru-

mentality of his preaching.

AVell,

what

sort of person
spirit-

was he

He was

man

of

soft

and gentle

He

had passed through no

tragic

conversion-experito

ences, giving

any gloomy intensity

"

his piety.

"I

do not remember," he says,

conversion, or that I was

any particular time of

cast

much
Shotts
;

down

or lift up."

He

describes

himself at

as

visited

"with a
doubt

wonderful melting of heart

that his power lay, above

"

and there

is little

all,

in his tenderness

and

pathos, speaking out against sin, indeed, and threaten-

ing doom, but above all proclaiming, as out of the very

heart of the

of the gospel.
thirsty,

Weeper of Olivet, the calls and invitations With a keen relish for music, an eager, and somewhat indiscriminate reader, out of his
fierce ecclesiastical controversy,
if his

element in

and witness-

ing from his dying bed, that

lifted up, it

heart had been ever

;

had been in preaching Jesus Christ

is

this

ideal

man

of the seventeenth century

as unlike as

may

be to the scowling religionist of

whom some
to

have have

dreamed.

William Guthrie of Fenwick seems

been a remarkable person, perhaps niore of a genius

than any of his contemporaries.
Christian's Saving Interest
religious
life "
is

His Trial of a part and parcel of the

"

of

our

country.

He

was,"

says

Livingstone,

a great light in the west of Scotland."

Present 3Iisrc2orescntation of Scottish Religion.

169

But, as everybody knows, he was the most genial of

men, joyous, hearty, book

is

full of

laughter

and

his

famous
not out

calm, and wise, and. kindly.

He was

of his element taking a

hawking excursion over the

Ayrshire moors, with the good county gentlemen of

his acquaintance.

Take even the field-preachers of persecution's hottest

days.

One would not

"

like to pledge himself to all they

"

said or did.

Oppression makes

even

" the

wise

mad."

Perhaps they spake too readily sometimes

I think that was no cause of surprise

and
is

man

of God's judg-

ments, though

we should
is

not forget that there

an

opposite error which

the indication of feebleness of

as gospel all

moral conviction

and we must not hold

the stories that have

come down

to us about their pro-

phetic words and such like things.

But go and

listen,

say to Eichard Cameron, in some Clydesdale solitude,

where hundreds or thousands hang upon

his lips.

He

preaches Christ with a glorious freeness, with a pathetic

fervour,
till

under his appeals his hearers and himself

"

are greatly moved.

hearts melted

drawn
add,

They

fall into

a quiet weeping;"

not shivered by the lightning's stroke

to

Jesus as with bands of a man, not driven

with scourges of flame.

These Scotch worthies,

ascetic

let

me

had

little

of the

about them
It

nothing?

of his

more unnatural developments.

is

told of
roll

Francis Xavier, one of the highest names on the

of the Papal canon, a heau ideal saint, that

on going

away

to

his

noble work, he passed by his father's

to

gateway without turning aside

bid adieu to any in

170
the liome of
liis

Scottish Theology.

cliildliood

without, perhaps, so

much
Such

as casting a last lingering look on the dear place.

a spirit was utterly foreign to the old Scottish religion.

The
altar,

fire

of domestic

love, kindled

from God's own

grace,

instead of quenching, strengthened

and

made all family ties more tender and more hallowed. John Welsh of Ayr, the man of prayer above all
others,

whom

our Church annals mention as eminent

in this respect, of

whom
it

it is

said that he

was some-

times eight hours out of the twenty-four upon his

knees, and of

whom

might have been thought that

the earthly and the

overbalanced,

human would have been at least John Welsh, when God took from him
bloom
of

his eldest daughter in the

early

womanhood,

was,

we

are told, almost

;

bent to the ground under

the bereavement

and when he sought sympathy from

Trochrigg, his closest friend, he told

too unsteady with grief

how

his

hand was

and agitation

to hold the pen,

and another had

to write in place of him.

Perhaps there was quite as much of the ascetic

element in Boston as in any of the eminent persons
I

have

mentioned,

though

shall

utter

no word

against these family fasts, which seem to have been

a kind of institution

among good

folks a century
if

and

a half ago.
a

home

of

But Ettrick Manse was, love and tenderness.

little

ever

home was,
the
pastor
;

How

mourned when one

Ebenezer was removed

another, to
to

and

how he gave thanks when

give the same dear name,

whom

he could
!

came

supply the vacancy

I almost wish I could have read to

you the quaint eulogy

Present Misre]prese7itation of Scottish Religion.

171

on his
of

wife,

whom, he

says,

he passionately loved, and

if

whose beauty he speaks as

with the ardour

life

of

an

admiring youth, after twenty years of married

passed.

have
to

A
of

tenderly pathetic

human element seems

one
:

me

to

run through even the

witnesses.

last testimonies of the

cloud

Every

knows the dying

I leave off

apostrophe of
to speak
to Thee,

Hugh M'Kail
I

"And now
and turn
I begin

any more
Lord

to creatures,

my

speech

And now

my
off.
;

intercourse

with God, which shall never be broken

father
w^orld

Farewell,

and mother, friends and

and
all delights
;

relations

farewell, the
;

farewell,

meat and drink

fare;

well, sun,

moon, and

stars.

welcome sweet Lord Jesus, the Mediator

covenant; welcome blessed
of all
life
;

Welcome God and Father of the new Spirit of grace, and God
;

consolation

welcome glory
It

welcome eternal
it

welcome death."

became, as

were, a kind

of martyr refrain.
affecting,
if,

It beats like a pulse through these

as the struggle thickens,

sometimes rather

too

lurid,

scaffold

utterances of the dark years that

there

followed.

And

is

not

here,

in

a beautifully
I

pathetic way, with the tender

home element

have

noticed, a simple genial appreciation of the ordinary

conflicts of ordinary life
?

There

is

a story told

by Livingstone,

a mirror, I

The Covenanting army think, in so far of the time. was across the border, and one of his people who was
about to join
ster
it

came, before leaving, to ask the minifor

whether he had any messages

to

him

to the

camp.

The thought occurred

Mr. Livingstone that he might

172

Scottish Theology,

have a collection from his

little
;

flock for the friends

who were
ingly.
It
all

fighting for

them

and he resolved accord-

was taken in the church, and proved large

expectation.

above

One woman,
it.

a maltster's wife,

contributed eight sterling pounds of

She was asked

she
said,

about her
"

liberality.

" It
for

was a

tocher,"

my only daughter. The Lord has been pleased to take my daughter to Himself, and I thought I would give Him her tocher too."
which
I

had gathered

The case brings out the twofold aspect

religious
life

of

Scottish

the natural

and the supernatural

supreme homage

to the Highest,

with a real and true

soul.

human
deep,
is

interest
is,

and tenderness of

And what
so

maintain

that the latter, so real,

itself
it

genuine, so

an answer in

to all those attacks

which

have been made upon

thing.

as a grim, surly, anti-natural to

am

old

enough

have known some Scotch

country people of a type which has very

away,

men

much

passed
fire

whose eyes would have flashed

of the

if

you but spoke

martyr times,

men

of prayer,

who would have gone many

famous preacher

a long mile to liear a

to

of

Calvinists
it

the

backbone; and
were hearty,
that

whether you can explain

happy, genial men.
It

or not, they

is

quite

possible

the
to

good
tell,

old

man
the

whom James Hamilton

uncovered

used

one of his father's elders, who, when he took

to

him

strawberries,

and

besought

God's blessing ere he plucked, might have had the

voice of loudest and merriest
bonspiel.
riiicj

out in the winter

Present Misrepresentation of Scottish Religion.

I need hardly

173

add that

it is

also a complete mistake

to suppose that in Scotch religion

as

the mainspring

men

you have

selfishness
it

driven into Paradise, as

were, in spite of themselves, by ghostly terrors.

if

Why,
it

there was anything carefully guarded against,

w^as

that.

Even

the law-work, as they spoke

of a

by which
to see

was just meant the experience

his sins

man coming

and his wants

is

only subordinately helpful

in the

way

of leading or pointing

you towards Jesus.

as it were, in cool

man, says William Guthrie, must,

blood

make

choice of Christ as his Lord and Saviour,

to

and dedicate himself

and generously, and
of the noble
sition

the Divine

Eedeemer

freely,

heartily.

One

of the great points

Marrow-men was
called

their determined oppo-

to

what they

federal

holiness

holiness

in order to get the bliss of the better world.

Holiness

was

that

is,

the love and the likeness of the All-blessed

itself

the very essence of heaven, the Cross's

;

noblest

purchase

and

to

ask

them whether they

thought holiness requisite in the saved, seemed to be

equivalent to asking them
if

without being saved

inent
of

man

could be saved

if

man

could have the enjoy-

heaven without entering the Golden City.

One

of the

main points

in the Secession reasons of

disruption

from the Established Church

spoke the mind of the Scotch evangelicals

and was

they
the

introduction by the semi-rationalists of a utilitarian

theory of morality and religion.

"

God knows,"

said

good

J. Livingstone,

" that

would rather serve God

of the lost,

on earth, and then endure the torments

174
than live a
life

Scottish Theologij.

of sin on earth, and then have for ever

the bliss of the ransomed."

11.

Then, again, I think the idea has taken pos-

session of

many

in our day, that Scotch religion is a

religion of speculative

dogma, with

little

in

it

of the

personal Christ.
iSTow it

seems to

me

there

is

a great deal said at

present about Doctriue or

Dogma which means

nothing.

How

can you act in regard to or feel about a thing,

save as you have some conception and some opinion

concerning

it ?

You must have some

if

opinion about

the person of Christ,

practical
life.

He

is

to be

an element in your

How
as

can

He

act

on you otherwise

And,

therefore,

you are

Trinitarian, or Arian, or
else, so will

Unitarian, or Humanitarian, or something

be the
docjmas
hours.

effect
is

on you.

And, in

fact,

the

man who

abuses

as much a dealer in doGjmas as his neio^hWhat is it but a dogma generally asserted,

indeed, with a fierce and contemptuous fanaticism,

carried out with a remorseless logic

and

that there should

be no dogmas
kills
itself.

Like scepticism, this sort of thing

will, all action, all

Say what men

organ-

ization, all religious or irreligious fellowship, is

based

upon a

Credo.

In regard to

many who

bring the accusation most

readily about Scottish doctrinalism, I assert that there

are none

more doctrinal than themselves.

doctrine
of

The Broad
the

Churchman maintains the

Fatherhood
;

Divine

puts that doctrine into definite concep-

Present 3Iisre/presentation of Scottish Religion.

tion

175

argues on the basis of that doctrine to immense

conclusions, which

make

ilhisive a large

amount

of the

deepest and
history.

most powerful experiences of Christian

of the

The Unitarian maintains the doctrine

overthrowing, as

Divine Unity, and evolves therefrom proposition after

proposition,

he thinks,

all

the

life-

giving Christian beliefs.

The

real truth is that ortho-

doxy
its

is

chary of the speculative.

ideas.

Mystery
than
that

is

one of
far

fundamental
to

The Theosophic belongs

not

more

heterodox
I

Alexandrianism
do
think

orthodox
it

Augustinianism.
affirmed
of

can

be

Calvin, that

he was as supreme in the

all else.

metaphysical or speculative as in our Scottish theology

is

Certainly
a

not in any proper sense

metaphysical system, though there has been often a

cloud or a halo of metaphysics about
it,

but the pro-

duct in the main of an honest study of the Bible and

a practical religious experience.

The
the

doctrines which
us,

have been prominently taught among

atonement of Christ,
justification,

such as the
birth, the

new

indwelling of the Holy Ghost, are not in any sense

speculative

human

reasonings, but transcendent facts,

all

mysteries which, according to

experience, tell with

prodigious power on the

human

soul,

and take hold of

the deepest convictions of the least philosophical and

cultured.
ISTot,

however, to dwell on

this.

I wish to say a few

words about the other

point.

I find

the

following

statement in an able paper by an English High Church-

man.

It applies to all Protestant theology,

and

is

of


176
Scottish Theology.

the same type as accusations which I daresay you have

seen
"

made

against us Scotch people in particular

From

the twelfth century, for instance,

is

down

to the

very outbreak of the Eeformation, there

an unbroken

chain of evangelical teaching, beginning,

we may

say,

with

St.

Bernard and Eichard

of St. Victor,

and ending

with Henry Harphius and Girolamo Savonarola.

Im-

mediately upon the Eeformation, the personal Christ

almost disappears from the theory and sermons of the

new

learning

and we

find in

His stead a number of

doctrines, theses,

and speculations

the substitution,
I

in short, of

a dead system for a living King.

may

give you a forcible illustration of this fact, by drawing

vour attention to the contrast between

two highly

I typical books, one Catholic and one Protestant. mean the Imitation of Christ and the Pilgrims Progress.

In the former, Christ

teaching, warning,
latter,

is

present throughout, conversing,

comforting the disciple.

In the

Christ

is

absent, save for a casual glimpse or so,

from the beginning to the end of Christian's pilgrimao-e.

He
when

is

not with

him

in the Valley of the

Shadow

of Death, nor amidst the temptations of

Vanity Fair,

nor

crossing the Black Eiver

and that because

is

the doctrine of personal union with Christ

of Protestant theology,

no part

whence

its

nearly unanimous

rejection of the full mystery of the Eeal Presence."

Now,
sion,
still

while, of course, in seasons of religious declenlife is

when, though the

cling to

gone, the words and forms

men, and are used by them, we have had

these o-reat doctrines

among

us without a living Christ

Present Misrepresentation of Scottish Ecligion,

to

177

animate them, that has certainly not been so in our

best days.

A
A

living personal Christ,

we

believe, has

never been more of a reality since apostles lived and

laboured, than
Scotland.
it

has been in the Eeformed Church of

living personal Christ

;

was the very soul

it

of the seventeenth century struggle

was the heart

and soul of Marrow divinity and experience.

As

had

occasion to remark in a former Lecture, the Scottish

struggle concerning the Headship brought the personal

Christ into an exceeding prominence.

Here

are the

words
"

of a

devout squire or county gentleman of 1665:

My

children, the consideration of your

may
But

be the mean to
oh,

own hazard make you flee unto a Saviour. when you come to know Him, who is the
and
earth,

chief of all the thousands in heaven

then

you would not quit His

service,

even though there were

not a reward for the righteous.

as a servant in this lower world,

To stand
and

before

Him

to go through the

hardest pieces of service for

rich reward.

Him,

is

in itself a very
of

This testimony of

Him and

His ways

I desire to leave on record to you,

this

my
'

children, with

confession, that I cannot express the thousandth

is

part of that worth which

lovely.' "

in

Him who

is

altogether

" I

here," writes

a lady of the

Covenant,

" give

my
all

hearty consent. Lord Jesus, to

Thy coming
I

in

and taking possession of

Thee

my

soul,

and to Thy casting

be ruled and

out of

there that stands in opposition to Thee.

for

desire here to take

my
;

all,

to

governed by Thee, acquiescing to whatsoever shall be

Thy way

of dealing

with

me M

give

me

Thyself,

and

this

178
shall be all

Scottish Theology.

my

desire."

Is that heartless, Christless

dogma
seem
Jesus

Eead these martyr

testimonies.

It does not

to

me

that, in a doctrinal point of view,

they are

often very full and rich; rather the opposite.

is

But King

always there, in realization intensely vivid.

When
sister,

the younger of the two sufferers in the waters of

Blednock exclaimed, as she cast her eyes on her martyr-

now

in her last agonies, "

What

do

I
?

behold but
"
it

Christ wrestling in one of His

members

was no

brave metaphor she spake;

of a Stephen's vision.

it

was a breaking on her view

Or take the old teaching about

Christ, as they said,

the covenant of grace, especially that doctrine of the

administration of the covenant.

not merely obtains the blessings of redemption, but

He
the

has had conferred on

Him

their

management, as the
house.

Great
Trustee

Steward
of the

of

the

Father's

He

is

covenant.

All

its

blessings are

put

into His hands

the

spirit of life,

pardon and justify-

ing righteousness, sanctifying, establishing, glorifying

comforting:
o^race,

resurrection,

and eternal
all

life

and
is

from those blessed hands must

Testator of the covenant.
are the old

be taken.

He

the

And

beautiful and affluent

ways

of developing this.

rich

man

dies

and leaves vast bequests, but he cannot be his

executor
to.
;

own

the execution others than himself must see

here, in

But

our

salvation,

the

same glorious

Person at once bequeathes and executes.

get His

You must
;

owm

precious legacies from His very self

your

hand must take them from the nail-pierced hand that wrote the sacred will, and sealed it with His blood.

Present Misrejpresentation of Scottish Religion.

Christ
calls

179
its

is

the

King

of the covenant.

He
grace.

sends forth

and invitations of heavenly

He

subdues

His people under

gathers

Him by

His word and

Spirit.

He

the chosen into a holy kingdom under His

;

special care

establishes, upholds,
life
;

and energizes ordinthe

great
old

ances

of

spiritual

gives

law

which

Adam

broke,

no longer a covenant of works,

threatening and condemning, but rather

now

a cove-

nant blessing.

He
in

writes

it

anew

in brighter characters

upon the human

cross's

soul, as

with a pen dipped in the covenant -providence

still,

love;

a supernatural

He
up

watches over His own, an Israel

in the great wilderness of the nations, as in

when out when locked

things

the land of promise

making

all

work
light

together for their good, turning the world for them, as

it

were, into a sort of purgatory, in which

battle

by

and shadow,

and

victory, sorrow

and

joy, life

and death, and by noble work, akin in some measure

to

His own, making them, as though

to

it

were His

angels,

gather

together

His

elect

from the four

winds. He, as their Divine Priest-King, sanctifies and

ennobles
higher

them

into

ever-growing
for.

meetness
be
all

for the

life

they hope

He must

in

all.

None

of

His blessings can be enjoyed apart

from

Himself.

Of

doctrine

and precept, of hope and of

be
the

promise, the joy of the present, the light and the glory
of the future.
"

He must

constant

principle.

He

is

their

companion on

to the edge of the

dark

flood, enters it

with them, breaks the swelling current

takes

for

them,

and

them

safely

to

the

Canaan

180
of brioliter
it is
licrlit

Scottish Theology.

and

fuller

manifestations."

Here
the

also

in

tlieologic
"

formula:

"Christ,"
benefits

say
of

Marrow
purchase

theolocjians,

and

the

His
are

cannot

be
of

divided.

Wherefore

we

made
only

partakers

the

redemption
procured

purchased

by
to

Christ, or of

the
the

benefits

by His death,
thereof
in
us,

through

effectual
Spirit,

application
faith

us

by His Holy

working

and

thereby uniting us to Christ.

And whoever
of

do actually
as

receive

and enjoy any benefits

it

His purchase,

they do they will

full

only in the

way

of enjoying Himself, so

all

be brought forward in due time to the

all

enjoying of Himself and

things

His benefits
received

for ever.

And whatever
Christ,

are actually

or used

any otherwise than hj faith in a

are

state

of union witli

not to

be reckoned among the benefits

It is thus

purchased by His death."

closes a

an older writer
:

book, once

famous,

on the Covenant
Christ
?

" If

you
(1)

ask, When do we receive When we receive the very

answer

bonds

of

the word,

and that which doth meet our own corruption and

straiten the looseness

and

liberty

of

our flesh

(2)

when we embrace and kiss the promises, that is, when we love them dearly and welcome them kindly
for

the o Cfood that

is

in
;

them

for
"

the things which o

find

they carry forth to us

(3)

when we

and receive

something sweeter and better in the promises than

salvation,

even Christ Himself."

is

This

is

my
joy,

beloved,

and

this

my
may

friend,

daughters of Jerusalem."

temporary

receive the

word with

and the

Present Misrepresentation of Scottish Religion.

181

promises of the word, but

in

how

for salvation that is

them; but the believer finds in them something " Then Simon Peter answered better than salvation.

Him, Lord,
words
Thee
t

to

whom
life.

shall

we go

Thoic hast the

of eternal

Whom

have I in heaven but

I desire

and there

is

none upon the earth that

besides Thee."

III.

In the third place,

idea,

it

seems to be not an uncalled

;

common
very
is

that what

is

Scotch religion

is

a mere rigid

Sabbatarianism
essence
;

that Sabbatarianism
after
its

is
it

much
it.

its

that,

own way,

a kind of ritualism, with feeble presence of

the

moral in

And how

stands the matter

I take

some of the

representative

names

I have mentioned.

We We

have an

autobiograpliy of

John Livingstone.
some
of

We

have a fare-

well sermon to his people at Ancrum.

have a

number

of his letters,

them long and

of

elaborate.

In not one of those writings has Sabbatarianism any

prominence

in the

whole

them taken
I daresay
letter,

together,

there are not

five lines

devoted to the subject of the

Sabbath and Sabbath observance.

some

of

us are familiar with Livingstone's long

place of his exile, to his former

from the
It is

Ancrum
;

flock.

a sort of treatise on practical religion

and

it

closes

with a sort of summary of practical directions, nineteen in number.

He

urges fidelity to one's calling,

;

and freedom from covetousness

duties
;

diligence in worldly

care in having^ children taught to read; alms-

182
giving

Scottish Theology.

to the poor

love

to

enemies

watclifulness

against the disposition to speak of the miscarriages of

others,

and various things besides

but there

is

no

more than an
day.

indirect reference to the holy day, which,

withal, he does not call the Sabbath, but the Lord's

In Guthrie's Saving

Interest,

where you have

the marks of grace in the soul largely described, and

where there

is

a close dealing with the nature and the

life,

manifestations of the relisrious

as a

famous Scotch
it
;

theologian of the second Reformation regarded

and

where, according to the notions which some entertain,

we might have expected

main,
if

to

find

Sabbath -keeping a
;

not the principal, theme

in that work,
is

so

dear to the good

men

of the past, the Sabbath

clause.

only

mentioned once, and in a single

Fourfold State,

Boston, in his

another book in which our old Scotch

religion finds its expression,

has a chapter on

the

nature of regeneration, in which are set forth the

notable fruits or indications of the great change
I do not think anything
is
;

more
and
about

directly
all.

said in

it

the Fourth

Commandment
mean by

at

Now
to

I do not

this that the

Sabbath was

not regarded and kept as a sacred day by the worthies

whose works I have been

referring.

The very

opposite

was the

case.

One

of

our highest

men

has given his utmost strength to the defence of the

Sabbath's unalterable obligation, and to our Scottish

views of that.

But

I think that, in the simple facts

I have mentioned, I have offered conclusive proof that

the

old

Scotch

religion

was anything but a mere

Present Misrepresentation of Scottish Beligion.

religion

183

of

Sabbatarianism,
its

or

that

it

bad

SabbatScottish

arianism as

chief and dominating thing.

Sabbatarianism had, properly speaking, nothing ritualistic

about

it

at alL

It

was never held that there was

and
day of the week.

any

virtue in merely ceasing from ordinary toil

ordinary recreations

on the

first

These things they held, indeed, to be commanded of

God, to

whom men
was

were bound

to give a reverent

and
in a

dutiful obedience,
right spirit,
rest

and obedience

to

whom, wlien
;

spiritually elevating
chiefly regarded

but the day of

a

was ever and

apart
its

as

means

to a

blessed end.
gregation,

The mere presence

from

in the public con-

an

intelligent

and

spiritual

entrance into
of

services,

was never counted an

of

act

worship.

The mere outward partaking

and communion

the

elements in the Sacrament of the Supper, apart from

spiritual

discernment

of,

with,

the

divine

realities

which

they

symbolized, was

never

counted homage to Christ.

And
apart

no more was outfrom

tlie

ward and physical

exercises of prayer

resting,

fitting

and meditation, and converse with

God and

Christ and Eternity, counted a keeping of the

Sabbath of the Lord.

man who
far

attended to the

outward resting might be so

better than a

man

who made any

gross public exhibition of his contempt

;

for God's precept

but he certainly was not thought of

as an observer of that precept.

And,

for

my

part, I

do not comprehend how any

person with religious feelings and sympathies should

not be ready to admit that at least there
is

something

184

Scottish Theology.

very grand about the Scottish Sabbath, in

a day of
of

its

idea of

communion with the Unseen and Eternal adoration of our Maker and our Saviour of self;

examination
religions

and moral exercise

;

of

acquisition

of

knowledge

and

all

this

in

order

to

the

spiritual elevation of the soul, the replenishing of our

moral energies, and a closer hold of the verities which

have a place in our creed.

has had
its

Of

course, Scotch religion

formalism

and that formalism very natur-

ally connects itself with the Sabbath.

The Sabbath

is

the thing

among us

in

which the Pharisaic tendency

It is our chief

and conscience

find readiest exercise.

opportunity for religious display.

And no

doubt we
JSTor

have had our share of the miserable thing.

I hold myself obliged to defend all

do

the minutiae of

Sabbatic observance which you

records,
reports.

or

of

which people

may may

find in presbytery

have heard stray

In breaking in a turbulent, and energetic,

believe,

and uneducated people, a certain rigour was, I

both necessary and advantageous.
of of

But

is

there more

sham and
our

unreality in the North than the South

?

Island

Under any
in

of

the ordinary
it

tests

which you apply

Scottish religion,

such cases, can

it

be said that

when

has been a day of power

with
force

it,
?

has been deficient comparatively in vital moral

At

the same time

we admit

that Scotch religion has

been distinguished by a certain Sabbatic stringency.

We

have regarded the outward observance

of the

day

of holy rest as resting

upon

direct

divine

command,

Present MisrejJresentation of Scottish Religion.

185

and as includinf? in

it

larojer

measure of abstinence
life.
it.

from work and the ways of ordinary every-day

Have we
It

suffered from
to us that

this

do not believe

seems

one of the most perilous tendencies

of our time is the kicking of

men

against law.

They
act

rebel against all "

Thou
of a

shalts."

They accept and

the eternal moralities, but not as obeying the will of

a personal
adore,

God

supreme Lawgiver.

They may
;

and

praise,

and commune with the Highest

He.

but

they choose the right and true as well as He, and very

much
to

in the

same way

as

There

may
it

be more

of this abroad

than we imagine.
;

And
all

simply goes
is

make men gods

to

overthrow

that

funda-

mental in Christianity, or rather in

religion.

Does

it

not indicate the great importance of the positive precept, as such, in the religious discipline
soul,

of

the

human
feel,

of the precept which, so far as

we
?

see

and

rests

back entirely on the divine authority, or shows

that at least to be very prominent

And we may

come
more

to

find

our

strict

Sabbath doctrine something

vital,
;

having deeper reaches than we had ever

dreamed

in so far as it is not a

mere human super-

stition, like the rites of

the Church of Rome, but that

by wdiich the Scottish conscience has been kept in loving connection with a Law^giver and an objective
law, as our religion has thereby been
faith

endowed with a

and

reality
I

which may
there
is

be greatly helpful in a

trial-day.

think

everything to

make us
no other

cling in this matter to the old paths, instead of being

ashamed

of theni.

Suppose you took

it

in

186

Scottish Theology.

way, who shall say what Scottish intellect owes to the

Sabbath.
It

had a thinking day as well as a worshipEttrick, for instance,

ping day in

that.

was

for

twenty

years the centre of intellectual stimulus to a whole

country-side
there
;

there

was
in

more
most

fresh
of

thought

going
halls.

than

perhaps

our divinity

You may say that those shepherds and peasants could make little of it. I think otherwise. I know the
power
little

of culture.

regret that literary taste

was so

cultivated

by our eminent men

are good

of other times.

But good thoughts

literary

thoughts in any guise

all

and strong heads are strong heads, apart from

attainment.

The way
lilve

in

which some people

that

speak,

sounds

very

the

proposition

you
coat.

cannot have brawny limbs save under a dress

Mr. Buckle,

may

notice, is pained

exceedingly that

Scotch people long ago walked such distances to hear

favourite preachers.

There

is

a tradition of

my own

neighboai'hood, that a farmer went regularly to Ettrick,

a distance, to and from, of

say

fifty miles,

during the
not
;

preaching

of the

Fourfold

State.

shall

say

whether he was right or wrong, wise or foolish

think
it

but I
face to

extremely probable that that

man was
with
;

face with

many

of the

are

still

discussing,

problems which philosophers

face
to

face

the

great

questions of man, and God, and nature

is

and that he

just a specimen of

what the Ettrick pulpit every

over broad Scotland,
to the cities,

Sabbath-day was doing with a hundred others, sending an impulse of intellectual

life

which, finding

its

way

in course of time

Present Misrepresentation of Scottish Religion.

187

gave

us,

or

helped

to

give

ns,

our Glasgows and

for-

Dundees,

sent, or

helped to send, our country

of material progress in

ward in that race

her European
I

which she
to

has, I believe, kept relatively

sisters.

more than up

any of

On mere

grounds of patriotism,

think no Scotchman should be over-ready to find

fault

with the Sabbath of his country, and should

be very chary in

meddling

with

an institution so

entwined with our history, and I believe our nation's

progress.

In

closino;

Our
But

fathers themselves called no

man
them
what

master, and

it is

not in their spirit that

it is

we should bend
in

at their feet.

a dutiful thing to defend

when you can

honestly do
glory,

constitutes their

Would that, we were liker them

so.
;

that

followed them so far as they followed Christ,

we

in their

wrestling prayers, in their great love to Christ and

souls, in their pathetic earnestness, in their close inter-

course with the word, in their gravity, in their habits

of self-inspection and penitential exercise
!

May

I not

with a real propriety say, with

seeing

the apostle, "

Wherefore,

we

are compassed about with so great a cloud

aside

of witnesses, let us lay

sin

every weight, and the

which doth so

easily beset us,

is

and

let us

run with
unto
?

patience the race that

Jesus, the

set before us, looking

Author and

the Finisher of our faith "

CHAPTEE

VII.

DO PEESBYTERIANS HOLD APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION

^HERE

is

no doubt that Scotch Presbyterians

have held what, in some sense, might be

called a doctrine of Apostolical Succession.

That

is,

they have held that those

office

who
were

were ordained by apostles to the ministerial

endowed with the authority

office,

to ordain

others to that
that ordinarily

and so

to continue the succession

neither the possession of the needed

gifts,

nor the

call

of the people, superseded the solemn setting apart of

the Presbytery.

When

the
is

Westminster Assembly
act of a Presbytery,"

" voted that ordination

the

they expressed

the view unanimously

held

by the

Scotch theologians of the period.

Gillespie, " is necessary

" Ordination," says

and essential
. .

to the calling of
.

a minister.

Ambassadors

generals, admirals

do not run unsent.

have
less order

Shall the visible Church of Christ

civil

than a

republic

"

"

The

estab-

lished

and

settled
" is

order of calling

of pastors," says
to pastors."
feel-

Eutherford,

by succession of pastors

We

have an illustration of how strong was the

ing in this matter in the conduct of the Cameronians.


Apostolical Succcssio7i.

189

After the martyrdom of Cargill they were without a

minister,

and there was no minister in Scotland

whom

they could acknowledge.

their

But instead

of ordaining at

own

hands, they sent Eenwick to Holland to get

theological training from

Dutch
office

professors,

and orderly
;

instalment in the sacred

from Dutch presbyters

to the

and from the middle of 1G81

Eenwick, in the

end of 1683, they

Shields

had neither preaching nor sacraments.

tions that
first

men-

year of his wonderful

ministry, kept note of five hundred baptisms performed

by him, and

at

that

number

" lost count."

At

the

Eevolution, they were again pastorless,

Shields and

Linning having gone into the Established Church,

and they did

as before.
till,

Instead of making a minister,

they waited on,

sixteen or seventeen years after,

God

in

His providence sent them Mr. M'Millan, ex-

truded from the Church for his sympathy with Cameronian principles.

And

further, as one presbyter could

not ordain, they

years more,
to their

still

waited and prayed for about thirty

when
;

the seceder Nairn became a convert

views

and, holding his deposition invalid, clave

to

erranic, at the

end of half a century they were enabled

form themselves into a complete Presbyterian Church.

When the Presbyterians in these days were taunted about their " orders " coming to them through such an
impure channel
as the

Church

of

Eome, they answered

(1) that they could trace a visible Protestant succession

down through

the centuries; and (2) that "the substance

and essence of ordination consist in the appointing men

to the holy ministry

by persons in

office.

But

all

the

190

Scottish TheologTj.

corrupt rites added

by the Church
of

of

Eorne take not

away the essence and nature

ordination."
if

"We

" that are told," says Gillespie in substance,

we hold
of either

ordination to be necessary and essential to the calling

of a ministry,

we

are wrecked on the

dilemma

acknowledging that those who ordained the Eeformers were true ministers of Christ, or that we have got our
orders from those
to

who had no commission from Christ make ministers for Him but ... I answer, as a
;

learned countryman of mine

that although

did

seventy years ago,

Eome

was morally corrupted and defaced,

Church.
. .

yet it luas even then a

Wherefore, I con-

clude that those

who were
name
truly
of

ordained in the Church of

so far as they

Eome

hefure

the Reformation, in

were

ordained in the

Christ,

by those who had

themselves been ordained presbyters as well as bishops,

w^ere thus far
. .

and lawfully ordained."

IS'or

would

Gillespie, Eutherford,

and Dickson have been

startled

by the declaration which has been recently

1654,
to
to the
effect that " their

quoted from a paper issued by the London Provincial

Assembly

in

ministry

was derived

them from Christ and His

Our good

apostles,

by

succession of a ministry continued in the Church for

sixteen hundred years."
forefathers would,
it

we

think, rather have enjoyed the palpable hit, as

to
us,

seems

so well

delivered

against

the haughty

Prelatists,

who boasted

of their long succession, which,

at least

after all, shorter

by a century

than that of the

Presbyterians, could not go back beyond the middle

of the second century

without

tlie

aid of forged or

Apostolical Succession.

191

dubious documents, and whicli even then was incomplete

and undeveloped.
let

But

ns explain.

The Church was

not, in the

idea of these

men, a mere voluntary association

;

for

moral and religious impulse and improvement

but a

supernatural institution, whose ordinances were effective,

not merely by their instrumental fitness for the objects

of their appointment, but, in

when

rightly used, as

means
was

connection
;

with

which,

supernatural

grace

bestowed

and

they

shrank

from

any

apparent

divergence from scriptural ways.

Further, they liked

things to be done decently and in order in the Church

as well as in the

State

and they were perhaps too

had an anarchical appeartheir high views,

much

afraid of anything that

ance or tendency.

But there was no superstition in

connection with their views

like

if

you

concerning ordination.
historical

They had no
that

trouble of

mind about any

succession
chain.
to

gap or any break in the

held

They
letter

when
to

mere
great
real

adherence

the

was opposed

the

objects of the institution,

and when there was a

necessity for the infringement of the order so greatly

prized, the ordinary

way

of pastoral succession

might

and ought
says
:

to

be departed from.
is

Samuel Eutherford
not of that absolute

"

Ordination of pastors

necessity,

but in an exigence

(of necessity) the election

of

the people or
of
it."

some other thing may supply the

if

want
die,"

"

What

all

your presbyters were to

asked

the

Independents, somewhat scoffingly

" shall

there

then

be

no

ministry

"

Eutherford

192
reminded them
of

Scottish Tluology.

King

in the

heavens from whose

;

grace and power pastors and teachers ever came

and

further replied that even in that case there would be

no

difficulty

"a ministerial power

is

then immediately
is

conferred on some in a Church which

removed from
Gillespie
"

any Church consociation with other Churches."

expresses
similar views.
" Suppose,"
first

he says,

those

Protestant ministers

who

ordained other ministers

were themselves ordained by such as had no power to

ordain
to

them

nay, suppose the

first

reforming ministers
not pre-

have been no ministers, hut

'private ijcrsons,

tending to
this
?

be ordained, what will they conclude from

It proves nothing against that

which we hold

concerning the necessity of ordination, for

say that, in extraordinary cases,

be had, and when there are

we plainly when ordination cannot none who have authority

call

from Christ

to ordain,

then and there an inward

from God, enlarging the heart, stirring np and assisting with the goodwill and consent of a people

whom God

makes

willing, can

make

a minister authorized to do

ministerial acts."

Then
doctrine

it is

to be
"

remembered that with the Scotch

there

of

succession "

was
is

connected

no

mystico-magica.1 virtue.

(1)

There

nothing sacrais

mental in the Scotch idea of order.

disclaimed by

This

carefully

our theologians.
retained, but
it

The "laying on
" I

of

hands
the

"

was

still

w^as not regarded " as

substantial

part

of

ordination."

hold

the

laying on of hands,"

says Gillespie, " to

be no sacra-

ment, nor efficacious and operative for the giving of

Apostolical Succession.

193

the

Holy Ghost."

ordination

whether

(2)

While

it

was thought that

in regular succession or not

was generally necessary

the

to the right administration of

sacraments,

unknown.
tion, or in

High Church sacramentalism was There was no belief in baptismal regenerawine.

any transubstantiation or consubstantiation

of the

communion bread and

Instead of
its

Take baptism,

for example.

being the ordinary and

divinely-appointed means or instrument of regeneration

''As the Israelites w^ere
first

brought out of Egypt

before they w^ere brought through the sea, so

first

we

are

redeemed by
eyes, before

Christ,

and find grace and favour in

His

we
is

receive the seals of the covenant

grace.

Baptism

intended only for the redeemed."'

of the union

The view that was held

between Christ
like

and His true people made anything

regeneration offensive above measure.

baptismal

For baptismal
the
visible

regeneration

means
its

the

doctrine

that

Church,

with

masses of unbelief, and ignorance,

is

and immorality,
bride.

Christ's true

mystical body and

article,

Mr. Gladstone,

w^e think, in a notable

spoke of Presbyterians and others as denying a visible

Church,

But the Scotch theologians had a most

Church.

dis-

tinct idea of the visible

It consisted not of

believers

and regenerate,
faith,

but

of

professors

of

the

Christian

having
;

a reputable
Christ's

outward "walk
but

and conversation
politic

"

not

mystical,

His

body

His earthly house, in which there were

food,

and

shelter,

and training

for

His people, where

also

were the power and working of the Holy Ghost,

194

Scottish Theology.

blessed manifestations of the

is

King

and

of which,

too, there

this

record, that

multitudes

" are

born

there."

(3)

As every one knows, an

orders
is

essential idea of

High Church

that of their indelibility.

There

may

be deposition, there

may

be degradation, but the

character, the sacred brand, still remains.

When
a

the

Presbyterians

were accused

of

teaching

similar

doctrine about their orders, the charge

denied.
"

was indignantly
"

We

see,"

says

Paitherford,
is

no

indelible
;

charoxter because a pastor

if

always a called pastor

the

man commits

scandals the Church

into a
is

may

call

his

character

from him, and turn him

other
is

mere private
in an
or

man."
office
;

Presbyterian ordination
the

installation
of

the infusion

a mystical

miracle-working power.
ence.
(4)

This

is

an essential

differ-

Then important
was
also

as pastoral ordination
else

was

regarded, there

something

important and

generally necessary, of a very unsacerdotal character.

One
work

of

the Articles
is

of

the

Savoy Conference (Inthat " ordination to the

it

dependent)

to the

effect,

of the ministry,

though

be by persons rightly

ordained, does not convey any office power ivithout a

previous election of the Church!'

terians, if

The Scotch Presbytended in the same

his days, Euther-

they did not go so

Describing

far,

direction.

how
is

it

was in

ford

says that "

no

man

obtruded on a flock against

their consent,

and no man appointed a pastor but of a

In the w^ords of Calvin, quoted with
"

certain flock."

approval by Gillespie,

Any
is

one intruded without the

destitute of a legitimate

approbation of the people

"

Apostolical Succession.

195

call."

But

this, if

it

does not give the people any

part properly in the act of ordination, seems to

make

their consent necessary to the constitution of a ministry

that can " rightly administer " the ordinances of the

Church.
that

At
"

a later period
"

it

was very strongly held

an

intruded

minister

was

not

" a

lawful

minister of Christ, and

many

of

the people would not

accept the sacraments at his hands.

fail

And no

one can

to

see

how

little

akin such ideas are to sacer;

dotalism or sacramentalism

though Calderwood, in his

Altar e, points out

times

how

a remnant of early and better

in the Anglican Ordination Service there is a of the people,

recognition

however unreal.

(5)

We

may add

that the Scotch Presbyterians, and certainly

of In-

some English ones, acknowledged the orders

dependents.

That

is

implied in some things we have

Gillespie

mentioned already.

and Livingstone must

;

have preached in Independent pulpits in London

and

such able and thoroughly representative Presbyterians

as

the

authors

of the Plea for Persecuted Ministers

teach, that while the difference

between Presbyterians

and

Prelatists is vast, that

is

between Presbyterians and

Indejoendents

trifling,

and by mutual explanation

might be got

over.

Altogether, whatever high and

stringent views of .Church authority and

Church order

were held by Gillespie, Eutherford, Dickson, Wood, Durham, and others, we think they cannot be charged w^ith any sympathy with a doctrine of orders such as
is

developed

in.

our times out of apostolical succession.

In regard to the preaching of laymen, Presbyterians

196

Scottish Theology,

certainly held that, ordinarily,

it

belonged to pastors
sacraments and
of teaching they

regularly ordained to administer the

to

instruct

the flock.

The matter

thought to be of very high importance, as God's word

from the

lips

of faithful

and qualified men was, in

of Christian
life,

their view, the great

power

without

which, indeed, sacraments would become mere forms

and
that

superstitions.
it

And

their

opinion

was

decided
it

was neither

right,

nor in any aspect of

expedient, for a private person, at his

to take

own

impulse,

on him the pastor's function, whether in the

pulpit or at the

communion

table.

The circumstances

of the time no doubt led them sometimes to express

themselves very strongly about

this.

There
annals

is

scarcely anything sadder in the Church's

than
its

the

story

of

English

Presbyterianism.

Among

ministers were

many

admirable men,
all,

men
But
the

of intellect, of learning, and,

above

of piety.

they failed to use aright the day of their opportunity.

They were made

press
of conflict

for quieter times.

And when

came they had no chance with the

on the one

ruthless unscrupulosity of the Prelatists,

hand, and the intensity and energy of the Independents,

on the

other.

Was

there ever anything nobler than

that Presbyterian St.

Bartholomew

And

yet what
?

came

of the

secession of the two thousand

There

was no organizing among them.

effort

There was no real

to

rouse

the nation.

Instead of getting from

it

their heroism life

and power,
it.

almost seems as

if

they

had been exhausted by

And

while Independency

Apostolical Succession.

197
its

survived and strengthened,

Presbyterianism

and kept
slow,

orthodoxy,

respectable,

unimpulsive

collapsed to a large
alism.

extent into a miserable Eation-

"We have an instance of this want of discernment

on the part
referred to.

of the Presbyterians in the

paper already

"When, after Cromwell's assumption of the

all

Protectorship and grant of toleration, London was

astir

with

" sectaries "

and enthusiasts, and perhaps

done,

very

many offensive and disorderly things were we do not wonder that the sober and dignified
byterian divines were greatly disturbed.
things was all out of their way.
vailing ideas,
it

Pres-

This state of

According to prestill

was an open

insult to them, as

the established Church of the nation.

And
crisis

they com-

mitted the mistake

of

meeting the

with

an

assertion of their Church's claims,

and an attack upon

as

opponents,

many

of

them devout and orthodox,

sinning after the manner of Korah and his company,

because of certain disorderly Church doings

the chief
to Neal,

immediate occasion of the manifesto, according

being that
" pulpit

doors were set open to laymen and

gifted brethren."

But comparisons with Old Testament incidents were made in those days in a somewhat
general way, and they are not to be pressed.
tainly

Cer-

these

men

w^ere

not

sacerdotalists.

Besides,

the

London Presbyterian ministers were not quite They were known as representative of their brethren.
very high and
rigid.

If reference
it is

is

made

in their

manifesto to the Independents,

a suggestive and

198

Scottish TJieology.

interesting fact that at this very time, in

some parts

of

Enghmd,

there were associations which held regular

meetings, composed of Presbyterian, Independent, and

Episcopal ministers, of which the London clergy did

not approve.
Baillie
fight, in

mentions that he and his friends

the Westminster Assembly, with

had a stout

Calamy and some other Presbyterians, on the proposition that a minister should not be ordained without

designation to a certain church, and that they carried

their point with difficulty,

the success, in fact, not

being very complete.

It is another proof of a

High
be a
will

Presbyterian party, whose want of success

may

warning to
not do.

us.

High Church Presbyterianism

for the

Give a taste

sacerdotal,

and people

will quickly betake

the genuine article,

"

themselves where they will get

the old wine of the Apocalyptic
in
it,

woman," with pith and body

own.

and a flavour

all

its

There was, moreover, some difference among Scotch

Presbyterians on this point.
general view
strict

While

all

agreed in the

we have

stated, there
strict.

was a party more

easily

and a party

less

Shortly after 1638,

there arose

a hot discussion, which was not

repressed, in regard to certain religious meetings,

which

seem
land,

to

have originated with Presbyterians from Ireministers

who, when their

were driven from

them, had acquired the habit of meeting among themselves for religious exercises.

The matter was brought

to

before
ill-set

the

Church by Harry Guthrie, a turbulent,

man, afterwards Bishop of Dunkeld,

whom

Apostolical Succession.

199
and who was
to

the " innovation " was very offensive,

almost

fanatical

in

his

determination

have

it

stamped out
Aberdeen.

at once.

There was an immense excitein

ment on the
It

subject

the

Assembly

of

1640

at

became

sometimes quite tumultuous,

and the grave men hissed and cheered.

Henderson

But though
not
it,

strong

and authoritative

did

like

the thing, and would have put

an end to

such

men
Blair,

as

Eutherford, Dickson, Livingstone, and even

had other views.

Notwithstanding a judgment rather adverse in the

Assembly

of 164:7, the issue

was the firm

which the

establishlaity

ment

of the fellowship meeting, in

had

religious

communion and
became a
history,

discussion

among themselves,
in

and which
religious

vitalizinoo

element

Scotch
at

developing,

as

we know,

one

period into a system of lay religious activity, whicli

has had very notable results in the Northern Highlands

of Scotland.

The

difficulty

was not exactly in the lay element.

for the ministry is a

The Scotch probationer

and may preach
probationers.

layman,

for a lifetime

as such.
-

During the
only

Persecution some

of

the field

preachers were

For a considerable period Cameron had

licence.

no more than a probationer's

The Church,

in

the view of these great men, was a kingdom

with

mighty forces in
tion,

it,

and

it

needed order and organizato

men

of

might and wisdom

rule

under the

Heavenly King.
In conclusion,
let the great

importance Presbyterians


200
attach
to
Scottish Theology.

the

preaching of the

Word
is

be carefally

observed.

Sacerdotalists have no difficulty about lay

preaching.

With them, preaching

which has

a mere accident

of the priestly office,

chiefly to

do with the
to

Holy Sacraments.
the Word.

The Scotch

rule

was never

administer the sacraments without the preaching of

NOTE.
The Scotch
asserted that
theologians, at the

same time, urgently

the

Sacraments were not mere sims.

There was always efficacious grace connected with the

true

receiving

of

them.

Regeneration

might

take

place at Baptism.

In the Lord's Supper there was a body and blood in the bread
redeeming
benefits, to

real giving of Christ's

and wine, as to
true recipients.

all

their

the

It

was admitted that there was some

mystery about that blessed ordinance, any change or

any inherence
denied.

of grace in the elements being always

:

Says Eutherford

" ]N"os

dicimus
;

auctiorem
et

gratiam dari per sacramenti receptionem

quamvis

actio organica sacramenti sit nobis incomprehensibilis,

an ideo res ipsa neganda

of grace is given

est

"

"

We

say that increase

by the reception

of the sacrament,
is

and although the organic action of the sacrament

us incomprehensible, are

to

we on

that account to deny

the thing itself?"

Ex. Arminiaiiismi, 721.

INDEX.

Anglican
198.

Ordiiiatioii

Service,

Campbell, " The great Mr.," 27. Campbell, Principal, of Aberdeen,

46.
Cargill, 189.

on the Mediatorial Sovereignty, 153. Apologetics, Scotch, 40. Apostolical Succession, 188. Articles of Savoy Conference, 194. Atonement, The, 67 tf.
A])ollonms Augustine,
St., 37, 99.

Carmichael,
46.

Professor

Gershom,

Catholic Character of the Church,

95.

Baillie, Principal, 7, 15, 198. Baptism, 122, 193, 200. Bernard of Clairvaux, 13.
Bible its own Evidence, 40. Binning, Hugh, 7, 20. Blair, Robert, 7, 199. ]3oston, Thomas, 30-33, 86, 123,
170. l>oston's Literary Neighbours, 33. Boyd of Trochrigg, 4, 5, 49, 53.
^

Chalmers, Dr., 62. Church, Sanctity of, 124. Church, Visible, 95 ff. Church more than a Religious
Society, 126.

Church the Kingdom of

133.

Christ,

Church

Common Blessings Whence

Concursus, Doctrine
Confession,
of, 55.

of

Rome,

189.

83.

The
:

fir.st

Scotch,

1.

Conscience
48.

Its Place in Ethics,

Bradwardine,

9.

Broad Church Dogmatism, 174. Brown of Wamphray, his Works,

24, 48, 107, 144. l^ruce, Robert, 44.

Covenant of Redemption, 77. Covenants of Works and Grace,

51, 73.

Currie of Kinglassie, 115. "Gustos," Doctrine of the, 136.

Buckle's, Mr., Misrepresentations,

158

tf.

De Dominis, Antonio, 142. Dickson, David, 7, 15, 103, 162,

198.
6,

Calamy,

Calderwood, David,
Calvin, 38.

195.

Calvinism and Necessitarianism,

62.

195, 199. Discipline, First Book of, 1. Discipline, Second Book of, 2. Dogmatism not peculiar to Scotch Religion, 174.

Cameron, Principal, 6. Cameron, Richard, 169, 199. Cameronians, 106, 110, 132, 188.

Donatists, 98.

Due Right
146.

of Presbytery, 11, 122,

202
Durliam,
7,

Index.
16, 17,

80, 99,

1G2,

London
197.

Presbyterian
Provincial

Ministers,

167, 195.

London

Assembl}^,

Edwards,

President, 62.
ff.

190.

Entities, Doctrine of, 61. Erastianism, 106 ; note, 127 Erskine, Ealpli, 75.

Magistrate's
nounced, 135,

Headship

Re-

Erskines, The, 33, 115.

Magistrate's Power circa sacra,

137.

Excommunication, 131, 158. Extent of Redemption, 79.

Marroio of Modern Dicinity,

51, 71, 86-94.

40,

Ferguson, Mr.,

7.

Fisher, Mr., 33, 47, 62. Flint, Mr., 29. Forrester's Writings, 26, 27, Eraser of Brea, 71, 80, 83.

M'Kail, Hugh, 171. M'Laren, Mr., 29. M'Laurin, Mr., 33, 74. M'Millan, Mr., 82, 111, 189. M'Ward, Mr., 22, 106. Mediatorial Sovereignty, Christ's,
SO,

Gib,

Adam, 33, 64, 83, 116. Gillespie, George, 7, 14-15,

153. Melville,

101, 190, 192, 194, 195. Gillespie, Patrick, 7, 19, 71, 85. Gladstone, Mr., 193.

Andrew, 2, 143. Membership in the Church,

Misrepresentations, 158 Moncrieff, Mr., 33.
tf.

119.

Glasgow, Assembly of, 1638, Gray, Mr., 7. Guthrie, Harry, 198. Guthrie, William, 7, 173.

7.

Xaphtali,

26.
86.

Natural Religion, 40, Nature, God in, 55.

jSTecessitarianism, 62.

Haddow,

Principal, 33.

Halyburton, 29, 41, 44, 45, 84, Headship of Christ, 127. Henderson, 199.

Nice, Council

of, 38.

Novatians, 98.

Hepburn

Hog

of Urr, 111. of Carnock, 44.

7, 16.

Ordination, 189-195.
Patristic Writings, 37.
Persecuting Period Its Literature, 22-27. Personal Christ, The, 77, 177. Plea for Persecuted Ministers, 26,
:

Hutchison,

Independents,
Informatory
106.

195, 196, Indulgence, The, 105.

Vindication,

The,

144. Pontifical Headship, 134.

etc., 28,

Jamie.son's Cypriann>i,

Prayer,

Answer

to, 57.

Kames, Lord, 64. Knox, John, 1.

Lauder's Ancient Bishops,
33, 114. 28,

Prayer and Natural Law, 66. Precursus, Doctrine of, 56.

Predestination, Predestination
36.

Knox
and

on,

1, 49.

Providence,

Prelatists, 190, 195.

Linning, 189. Livingston, John, 23, 167, 171,

173, 195, 199.

Presbyterianism, English, 196. Presbyterianism, High Church,

198.

Lockyer's Sto7ie ont of the

tain, 18.

Moun-

Presbyterianism, Scottish First Century, 21.

Its

Index.
Protesters and Resolutioners, 19. Providence, 36.

203

Shields, Alexander, 112, 189.

Redemption

Its Necessity, 67.

7.

Reformation, The Second,

Reid, Dr. Thomas, 47.

Simpson, Professor, 63. Simpsons, The Three Brothers, 3. Sin, Rutherford on, 49. Sternness of Scotch Theologians,
Alleged, 157. Strang, Dr., 18, 55. Sufferings of Christ
79.

Renwick, 44, 189. Resohitioners and Protesters, 104. Revohition Church, 110, Riccaltoun of Hobkirk, 33. Rights of the Church from Civil
Magistrate, 149. Robe, Mr., Cambuslang, 47. Rollock, Principal, his Writing.,
2, 49.

How viewed,

Superstitions, Old

and New, 163.

36.

Trinitarian Controversy,
Toleration, 11, 101, 152. Twiss, Dr., 9.

Roma, Racoviana,

28.

Rule, Principal, 27, 113. Rutherford, Samuel, 8-13, 37, 41, 49, 58, 68, 99, 121, 131, 146, 163, 190, 191, 194, 200.

Unity

of the Church, 96.

to,

Yelthusius, Brown's Reply

24.

Visible

and Invisible Church, 123.

of Ayr, 3, 170.
21,

Sabbataiuanism,
181.

Scottish,

25,

Welsh
198.

Schism A great

Reality,103,113. Secession of 1733, 115, 145. Separatism, Doctrine of, 109. Servetus and Calvin, 164.

Westminster Assembly,

40,

Sharp, John,

3.

Wigton Martyrs, 26. Wilson, Mr., of Perth, 33, 115. Wood, James, 7, 18, 120, 195.

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