heaven who put it in his heart to grant them the said liberty, which they call a gracious and surprising favour.' And yet this Toleration, in consequence of the terms on which it was granted, was an 'overturning of the very foundations of our civil as well as religious liberties; and was a most sinful, and unwarrantable, and, in the present juncture, a most dangerous restriction upon ministers in the exercise of their ministry, and became one of our public national sins.'* Of such materials was the majority of the first Assembly after the Revolution composed. So far as we know, they all professed to be adherents of the Covenants; and, as shall afterwards be stated, if left unto themselves, they would at once have restored the covenanted constitution of the church in its integrity. But the designs of the court were otherwise; and when men have once, in any degree, succumbed to power in a question of principle, it is always easier to bend them a second time; and the majority of the Revolution Assembly suffered themselves to be swayed by court influence, and to accept of a modified constitution without protestation. There were, however, a number of excellent men within the church, whose fidelity had remained inviolate during the whole period of the previous oppression. As soon as the news of deliverance arrived, it was proposed by them that the Covenants should be renewed in a bond suited to the times; and they continued all their days to bewail it as a national sin that this had not been done, and to express their disapprobation of the church courts for their temporising policy. In the Wodrow Correspondence, the rough draft of a bond for renewing the Covenants has been preserved. It was drawn up by one whom Wodrow calls that great and almost apostolic servant of Christ, Mr Thomas Hogg.' He was minister of Kiltearn in Ross-shire, and was remarkable for his piety and prophetic spirit. It was he who gave charge on his death-bed to dig his grave in the threshold of his church, that his people might regard him as a continual sentinel placed at the door;' and on whose tombstone was written the striking, and now well-known inscription,'THIS. STONE. SHALL. BEAR. WITNESS. AGAINST. THE . PARISHIONERS OF KILTEARN. IF. THEY. BRING. ANE. UNGODLY. MINISTER. IN. HERE.' As this draft has never been published, so far as we are aware, our readers may not take it amiss to have it presented to them in full :— 'BOND AT THE REVOLUTION, BY MR THOMAS HOGG. 'We in sincerity and as in the sight of God, being convinced of the truth of the reformed religion, particularly according to the Confession of Faith in the Church of Scotland, in doctrine, worship, government, and discipline, do declare our resolution; and being under the sense and apprehension of the dreadful wrath of God. which has been these many years upon us, and is yet imminent over us for our defections and backslidings from the National and Solemn League and Covenant, after many fasts, days of humiliation, and reiterations of these solemn engagements, and our acknowledgment of sins and engagement to duties, and yet in all having dealt treacherously with God, and having been these many years bygone under *Judicial Act and Testimony, pp. 35, 36. inextricable bondage by our cruel and treacherous enemies, till the Lord's time and season came, all endeavours have been ineffectual for the restoration of our privileges, conveyed by divine laws to us, restored once and again by sad sufferings and eminent instruments in state, church and armies, yet after all these signal appearances of God, we have deceitfully departed from him, and sold our birthright for a thing of nought. And now we therefore solemnly promise, and protest to endeavour the outmost restoration of our reformation in the kingdom and Church of Scotland, as it has been professed from the year 1638 to the year 1650, vowing to the God of heaven, in our adhering to this our profession and confession against popery, prelacy, and supremacy, and for recovery of our backslidings, and reformation of our life and conversation, as we are obliged to return unto the Lord with all our hearts, and that we shall prosecute, with the hazard of our lives and interest, this cause above mentioned, and that we shall faithfully sympathise with, and defend one another who join in the faithful maintenance of this cause. And seeing the Lord good and gracious, who is glorious in holiness, and terrible in praises, and working wonders, calling to an account our monstrous and abominable rulers, and their unworthy and detestable assertors* (adherents,) and hearing the groans of his people in England, Scotland, and Ireland, under their grievous bondage, hath raised up that serene and illustrious Prince of Orange, (a true successor and heir to his glorious ancestors, who made reformation and procured liberty to the famous church of the Netherlands, and thereby gave life and encouragement to all the reformed churches in Europe,) to be a deliverer whose declarations do evince his designs, as divine providence has countenanced him in all his procedure in that great revolution for the restoration and preservation of religion, laws and liberties, in these three kingdoms, whom we solemnly vow and promise also to defend to the utmost in his glorious and noble projects above mentioned. So help us God.'-[Note by Wodrow: This seems to be but the first rude draught, and not smoothed.'] เ But the proposal to own the Covenants, as often as it was made, was put aside by intrigue. Several instances of this are given by Hogg of Carnock, in his Memoirs. So much,' says he, also was proposed and urged by judicious and godly men, divers of whom had been old and honest sufferers. But our chief managers, sundry of whom were but temporary presbyterians, did carry us into quite other measures. He acknowledgeth that an honest essay toward this was made by our first General Assembly, and that they made an act for a national fast, wherein a particular enumeration was made of some chief steps of our defection, viz., the declaration against the Covenants, the test, and more such just causes of the Lord's indignation against us. The draught containing these particulars was also read in open assembly, with great complacency, of the members; and the moderator declared thereupon that he thought it a very savoury paper; yet it had not that relish with their Majesties' High Commissioner, who desired that the passing of the act might be delayed that session; and in the meanwhile he sought up the bill, that he might review it before any farther progress. Accordingly, it was given to his Grace; and these particular crying sins of the late times were dashed out. This change was surprising, and alarmed sundry of the members who were thinking to challenge it; yet, for peace sake, they were silent so great were our fears of everything that might have any tendency to break squares with the politicians of that time.' If the first Assembly had been left unto itself, it would have owned the guilt of the land for breach of Covenants; but this was overruled by their majesties' commissioner, and therefore anti-covenanting principles in the Church of Scotland had an Erastian origin. That she was not the covenanted Church The language here used is very broad, but it is not too strong. Bear witness, Sharp, and Dalziel, and Claverhouse, and their bloodhounds in Scotland. Bear witness, Scroggs, and Jeffries, and Wright, who filled the place of Chief Justices in England, and were the most abandoned, and profligate, and base of mankind.-(See Campbell's Chief Justices, and Macaulay's History of England, vol. 2.) + Hogg of Carnock's Memoirs, by Professor Bruce, pages 34, 35. of Scotland after, as well as before, the Revolution, was owing to the Erastian intrusions of the state into spiritual matters, and to the criminal silence of the church when she had a call to speak aloud. Other proposals of a similar kind were treated in the same manner. To quote again from the Memoirs of Hogg: He also remembers that a very honest letter of an old dying minister, with reference to this matter, was read in the committee of overtures, and that the worthy author did therein, humbly and gravely, yet most earnestly, recommend to their serious consideration an assertion and revival of our Covenants. He heard that epistle read, (being a probationer and present,) which was very refreshful to severals who were there. After reading, a motion was made that it might be given to those brethren who had the charge of preparing the Monitory Bill, and there the matter rested. The same was also the fate of other proposals of that kind.' He mentions other attempts which were frustrated in the same manner, to which we shall not refer. We cannot, however, withhold from our readers the following passage, in which the portrait of those times is drawn to the life: Behold! after a great and happy Revolution, other measures are recommended, under the specious names of prudence and just moderation. Men of a leading influence, both in church and state, do, by a kind of strange concert, agree TO SUPPRESS THE TESTIMONY OF THE FORMER TIMES, not to mention our Covenants, at least in any solemn way, and with the honour due to them; and to manage in church matters as much to the mind of the rulers as could consist in any manner with our known principles; and sundry stretches were made, to the grief not only of those who swayed towards extremes, but to a wounding the hearts of several judicious and godly persons, who were quiet, sober, and had a just aversion from extremes on any hand whatsoever. And when these strange accommodations were challenged, as they failed not to be, by severals exercised to godliness, the ordinary answer was, that the circumstances of the time and prudential considerations required so much, and that it was not as yet the season to intermeddle, either with our Covenants, and defections from them, or to take such measures as might give the least umbrage to those who were in the government; though yet few of them were of our principles, though they gave us so much as they thought their present interest rendered advisable; whereas, many then and afterwards in power, had been among the leaders in the former persecutions. We were at that time, as to the prevalent sway, much of a piece with the Jews, after their return from the Babylonish captivity, who generally pretended "that the time was not come, the time to rebuild the Lord's house," (Hag. i. 2, 3,) and in the meanwhile they were much busied in building and beautifying their own houses; but the hand of the Lord was against them, and their secular wealth was gradually consumed, according to the sequel of that prophecy just quoted, which had also, and still has, its accomplishment upon us, who continue much of a piece with them on the worse part, but are not as yet awakened as they were to give God the glory, in a solemn, free, and national acknowledgment of our defections, reviving our Covenants, and returning unto him.'* This extract requires no comment. It shows that, in the opinion of the upright portion of the church, the testimony of the former times was suppressed' at the Revolution, and that the faithful friends of the Covenants were soothed into silence by smooth and deceitful representations about the necessity of moderation, and that the time was not favourable for moving, as they ought to have done, as if they could choose a better time for doing their duty in than that which God had sent. These first submissions only paved the way for farther encroachments, such as the dismissal of the Assembly, by the king's authority, before its * Pages 28, 29. business was done the discharging of it to meet till permission was given from the court-the dictating by his majesty of the terms on which the curates were to be admitted. These things were grievous encroachments on the independence of the church, and as such they were generally regarded. In regard,' says Hogg, that sundry encroachments were made since that time, manifestly contrary_to_the_liberties of Christ's courts, as we ourselves acknowledged in private, it much affected him that no entertainment was given to any motion he or others made towards an assertion of the church's liberty, in opposition to confessed encroachments on them. Our utter silence in such a juncture was, in his opinion, a falling from the foresaid testimony, and imported real submission unto an Erastian yoke.' The Erastian nature of the power exercised by the court became matter of serious consideration beyond the pale of church courts. From the minutes of parliament it appears that, on the 8th November, 1700, the draught of an act was introduced into parliament by Sir John Home, for ratifying the intrinsic power of the church, granting power to meet, sit, and adjourn themselves whether the king's commissioner be present or not.' After being read a second and a third time, the matter was delayed, never more to be resumed. From this time matters moved onwards with ever-increasing progress, and the principle of expediency admitted in this manner, gave birth to a progeny stamped with its own likeness. The prudence and moderation of the men of the Revolution produced in due time what is well known as moderatism. Still, however, as the shadows of night were settling over the church, there was now and then heard the Testimony of faithful men, in sorrow, not in anger, against the defections with which the church and land were chargeable, in consequence of their mis-improvement of the great deliverance graciously vouchsafed to the land by the Revolution. Thus writes one, who was eminent for piety, and who adhered to the Revolution church, in a letter before his death in 1700: The conception you have of the dispensation of the Lord towards this poor plagued church, and the temper of the spirits of professors under this dispensation, are not different from what many of the Lord's people are groaning under. There is palpably a sensible difference between what the church now is, and what it was many years ago; yea, what it hath been within these few years. The church hath lost much ground, and is still upon the losing hand, and, it seems, will continue so until it pleases the Lord to pour down his Spirit from on high, or else by some sharp awakening dispensation, arouse up drowsy souls out of the lethargy wherein they are fallen. It is many years since the sun fell low upon Scotland, many a dismal day hath it seen since 1649. At that time our Reformation mounted towards its zenith; and since we left our building on that excellent foundation, laid by our honoured forefathers, we have still moved from ill to worse, and are like still more to do, until we slide ourselves out of sight and sense of a reformation. We have been lately trysted with a wonderful deliverance from the slavery of a heaven-daring enemy, but not one line of reformation is pencilled upon our deliverance. We have the shell of ordinances and church government, but want the kernel, the great things of Christ's law, as to contend for his interest, is wrapped under a cloud.'* From these statements it must be apparent in what light the Revolution Settlement was viewed by the most godly men in the church before the Secession, and we shall now lay before our readers some extracts, in order to show the views entertained on this subject among Seceders from the days of our fathers down to the present time. Our first extracts will be from three well-known documents, which have the authority of standards in the Original Secession Church. The defects of the Revolution Letter of Mr J. Dickson, quoted by Bruce in British Jubilee, p. 231. ment. Settlement are pointed out at great length in the Act Declaration and Testimony, from which we give the following extract: When the Parliament of Scotland met immediately after the Revolution, in the first session they abolished prelacy, as a great and insupportable grievance to this nation, and contrary to the inclination of the generality of the people ever since the Reformation, they having reformed from popery by presbyters. And in the second session of the same parliament, anno 1690, presbyterian church government and discipline is established and ratified, according to the civil ratification and establishment given unto the government of this church, anno 1592. Thus a retrograde motion is made near an hundred years backward; and all the legal securities given to this church in that covenanting period from 1638 to 1650 are overlooked and passed by. Likewise all the acts of the first session of the first parliament of King Charles Second, together with the infamous Act Recissory, anno 1661, (whereby a covenanted Reformation was razed, and the acts and deeds of that covenanting period were declared seditious and treasonable), are left untouched in this above-mentioned settleThe indignities done to the National and Solemn League and Covenant, and consequently to the Most High God, the great party in them are never regarded, but these Solemn Oaths and Covenants are left buried under an Act Recissory, and other acts and deeds subversive of them. In the Acknowledgment of Sins, the defections of the Revolution Settlement are referred to in these terms:-'When the Estates of the Nation were met in a free parliament, in the year 1690, our presbyterial church government was settled according to its civil establishment in the year 1592; and all the steps of reformation attained to in that covenanting period betwixt 1638, and 1650, were neglected and passed by. Yea, in the said Settlement of Presbytery, all that was done against a covenanted work of reformation in the first session of parliament of King Charles, after his restoration, is left untouched; particularly the infamous Act Recissory, whereby all the acts and deeds of the foresaid covenanting period were declared null and void, is never repealed; also that impious and wicked act, the second act of the second session of the same parliament, declaring null and void the proceedings of that faithful Assembly at Glasgow in the year 1638, and all other acts and deeds of that reforming period, stands in the body of our Scots law to this very day. And thus that great work which the Lord wrought with an outstretched arm in the days of our fathers, lies still buried under the gravestone of several parliamentary acts and deeds, which is an iniquity that testifies against us to this very day.'t In the Answers to Mr Nairne's Reasons of Dissent, after pointing out the defects of the Revolution and Union Settlement, the following result is arrived at :-' And, upon the whole, it appears that, under the present constitution, a mighty bar is thrust into the way of our covenanted Reformation, both in church and state; yea, a gravestone is laid and established upon the same.' In these passages we have the authoritative teaching of Seceders respecting the Revolution Settlement. According to them, a retrograde motion was then made an hundred years backward;' it ' overlooked all the legal securities given to the church between 1638 and 1650;' it left untouched the infamous Act Recissory, whereby a covenanted Reformation was razed, and the acts and deeds of that covenanting period were declared seditious and treasonable;' 'it left our Solemn Oaths and Covenants buried' beneath tyrannical laws; it neglected and passed by all the steps of reformation attained to in that reforming period betwixt 1638 and 1650; and, in fine, the Revolution Settlement was the burial of the covenanted cause, for by the constitution then adopted, a gravestone is laid and established upon our covenanted Reformation both in church and state.' เ *Display, vol. i., pp. 86, 87. + Display, vol. i., p. 230. |