A vindication of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Scotland : from various charges preferred against her on the subject of civil government

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Macindoe, Peter.
A vindication of the
Reformed Presbyterian

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VINDICATION

REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

SCOTLAND,

•ROM VARIOUS CHARGES PREFERRED AGAINST HER ON THE
SUBJECT OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT,

[Extracted, •with the kind permission of the Editor, from the Edinburgh
Christian lN8TRnCT0ii,j'?w April, May, aiui June, 1830.]

BY

PETER MACINDOE, A.M.

CHIRNSIDE.

EDINBURGH :
O [AS NELSON J W. WHYTE & CO. : M. OGLE; J. KBIT H,
GLASGOW; AND ALEXANDER GARDNER, PAISLEY.

MDCCCXXX.

rRINTEI> BY A. BALFOUR & CO. NIDDRY ? . . f J T.

ALEXANDER MCLEOD, D.D.

OF NEW YORK,
THE FOLLOWING VINDICATION

IS INSCRIBED,

AS A SLIGHT EXPRESSION OF ESTEEM

FOR HIS WORTH, TALENTS, AND LEARNING,

AND

AS AN HUMBLE MEMORIAL OF GRATITUDE

FOR THE PLEASURE, INFORMATION, AND STIMULUS,

DERIVED FROM HIS VISIT

TO THIS COUNTRY IN

MDCCCXXX.

CONTENTS.

Page
Introductory Remarks ....... 1

I. PaiNCirAL CAUSES OF THE UNMERITED REPBOACHES WE SUFFER,
RESPECTING CIVIL GOVERNMENT.

1. The public procedure of the more rigid Presbyterians, — our venerated pre-
decessors,— before the Revolution ..... 4

2. The freedom with which we have testified, in various forms, against the
evils of the government, ever since the Revolution ... 7

3. The unfairness of several writers who have appeared against us, at differ-
ent times, in the Secession ...... 10

4. The gross mistatements respecting us, that abound in the principal writings

yet produced on Scottish affairs, opinions, customs, and manners . 14

II. Particular charges refuted.

1. That we are enemies to monarchical government ... 19

2. That we are enemies to the genuine principles of the present constitution 23

3. That we are enemies to the measures of every administration . 26

4. That we are enemies to our native country .... 30

5. That we hold persecuting principles ... .38
C. That we never pray for the civil rulers .... 43

ERRATA.

Page 13, line 6 from bottom, for eight read eighteenth

14, — 4 for misstacements read mistatements

20, — 2 — for presbysery read Presbytery

32, — 2 for expression read affections

VINDICATION

REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH,

SUBJECT OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT.

Sir, — There are, I believe, a very few individuals, both in the other
dissenting bodies, and especially in the national church, to whom such
a vindication, as that now proposed, is scarcely necessary. They already
know, by impartial examination of authentic documents, by occasional cor-
respondence with intelligent members, and by continued observation of
our public proceedings, that our political creed is neither so erroneous,
so absurd, nor so dangerous, as has usually been supposed. They have
even been candid enough to acknowledge, at various times, and in dif-
ferent forms, that it derives much greater countenance from the volume
of revelation, and possesses much greater subserviency to the interests of
society, than its opponents have frequently represented. Such, however,
is the impression only of a few. The great mass of the population, even
in this part of the island, entertain a very different opinion, — if a mere
prejudice which they have imbibed, without the due exercise of their
own minds, deserve the dignified appellation of opinion. They, too in-
dolent to inquire for themselves on a subject to which they, on insuffi-
cient grounds, cherish dislike, too prone to indulge, with pleasure, in-
jurious prepossessions against any party with which they themselves are
not connected, and too ready to appropriate to their own denominations
respectively, all truth, all excellence, and all honour, with glaring illi-
berality, — seem fully persuaded that our political belief is either totally-
groundless, or practically injurious, inconsistent with the virtuous sub-
jection of citizens, and the proper supremacy of rulers, and deserving
from all men, in this enlightened age, either of unbounded contempt or
of unmingled abhorrence. Looking at it only through the thick mists
of prejudice, passion, and ignorance, they have given it any shape, how-
ever inaccurate, fantastic, or frightful, that their imaginations have sug-

2 Vindication of the Reformed Preshyterian Church.

gested ; and have usually supposed it either a strange spectre, from
which prudence requires them to uiaintain the greatest distance, or a
hideous monster, Avhich they cannot survey with too great horror, or vi-
sit with too speedy destruction.

It is true, JSir, we have no strong claim on the attention, the indul-
gence, or the consideration of our countrymen. As a church we occupy
but a small space in the list of modern denominations, and but an inferior
rank in the scale of civil distinctions. We are very sensible to the de-
fects with which she is chargeable in her constitution and administra-
tion,— in her partial declension from that elevated piety and high-toned
morality, that were once more conspicuous in her members, and in her
occasional conformity to the doubtful maxims and questionable amuse-
ments that prevail, unchecked, in all departments of irreligious society.
Neither are we disposed to deny that, in our lives, as individuals, are
improprieties over which we ought, in the sight of God, sincerely to
mourn, and from which we ought, with increased vigilance, habitually
to abstain. But, while we would not ohtnide ourselves on the notice of
our fellow men, we think ourselves entitled to justice, whenever they, of
their own accord, are pleased to take notice of us. If they will pronounce
judgment on us, in the plenitude of their numerical strength and col-
lective wisdom, they should surely first allow us a fair hearing, examine
■with care the evidence produced in our favour, as well as the vulgar
clamour which has so long resounded against us, and come to a judicious
decision, warranted by a candid review of the whole case, no less than
consonant to the dictates of discriminating judgment and impartial feel-
ing. No doubt, so long as we are doomed only to mere neglect, or even
to silent contempt, we are bound to exercise continual patience under
these partial evils, rather than proclaim those good qualities, or those
virtuous actions, or those just principles, that entitle us to some measure
of esteem, affection, and approbation. But the moment that we are
made the subjects of spontaneous reflection in historical narration, — in
private circles, or in public assemblies, in ephemeral pamphlets, or
standard publications, — that moment we are warranted to demand the
exercise of impartial justice, in reference at once to our general charac-
ter, our peculiar views, our judicial determinations, and our political de- .
portment ; and never is any individual warranted, however superior to
us he may think himself in personal accomplishments, and ecclesiastical
connexions, to load us with the odium of obnoxious tenets, which we
do not hold, or of mischievous practices which we do not pursue, how-
ever narrow the bounds of our depressed communion, oi small our claims
on public consideration.

It were certainly discreditable, in any age, to persist in indulging any
injurious prejudices against any party, however small, when a very little
trouble might serve to ascertain their total groundlessness. But, surely,
in such an age as the present, — an age in which liberality of sentiment
has been recently extended to all classes of heretics, however pernicious
their peculiar opinions, and however absurd their distinctive forms, — an
age in which a spurious charity has become the idol, at whose shrine are
willingly sacrificed the articles of scriptural belief, and the principles of
eternal rectitude, — an age in Avhich such laudable efforts are made to
extend the bounds of our knowledge, by travels in remote countries, by
voyages on distant seas, and by researches in all the branches of useful
science, physical, moral, and political, — in suck an age, it were surely
more than discreditable to persist in imputing to us irrational views.

Findication of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. 3

which we have explicitly disavowed, and dangerous designs, which we
are not conscious of entertaining. It is time for all of us to banish from
our minds those preconceived judgments which we have so long in-
dulged,— erase from the tablet of our hearts all bitter remembrances, all
injurious associations, all unkind emotions, — and fling back, in the face
of such accusers, every charge, however gratifying to party spirit, that
is not substantiated by sufficient evidence, either from valid documents,
or from credible witnesses. Henceforth let truth, not victory, be the
object of our unwearied search, — 7nind, not passion, the instrument we
employ in the noble pursuit, — revelation, not reason, the standard with
which we compare our respective peculiarities, — and ccmdour, not pre-
judice, the umpire to which we look for an impartial decision — an um-
pire that will acknowledge truth, in whatever creed it is found, and ap-
plaud excellence whatever party it adorns.

Among all the opprobrious phrases that have so long been bestowed
on our church, by ignorant, or uncandid, or malicious opponents, no one
has proved more painful to our feelings, or injurious to our reputation,
than the phrase " anti-government people." 'I'his uncourteous designa-
tion was first applied to us, in a regular form, about a iiundred years
ago, — has since figured, in capital letters too, in many ephemeral pro-
ductions,— and even now, instead of being cheerfully consigned to that
oblivion of which it is so worthy, is kept in smart circulation, through
various channels, over which, we have no opportunity of exercising any-
direct control. Surely, the continued reiteration of such an obnoxious
name, in the unrestricted sense in which it is generally used, by our
opponents, is, to say the least, a very unkind, illiberal, and contemptible
employment, — an employment that evinces a sad destitution of that
charity to which they assert such lofty pretensions, an ungenerous an-
xiety to lower the credit of our party, in the estimation of the public,
who generally abhor political disaffection, and a pitiful ambition of
raising themselves higher in popular favour, by those vulgar artifices
which have, in all ages, been the chief resource of selfish, and base, and
mean minds. ''It costs no labour," to borrow the language of a pro-
found writer, who exposes, with singular force, and with becoming in-
dignation, all such artifices ; " it costs no labour, and needs no intel-
lect to pronounce," tlie terras that have now been mentioned. " I'he
weakest, or most uncultivated mind, may, therefore, gratify its vanity,
laziness, and malice, all at once, by a prompt application of vague con-
demnatory words, where a wise and liberal man would not feel himself
warranted to pronounce without the most deliberate consideration, and
where such consideration might, perhaps, terminate in applause. You
cannot wonder that, such compendious words of decision, which can give
quick vent to crude impatient censure, emit plenty of antipathy ni a
few syllables, and save the condemner the difficulty of telling exactly
what he wants to mean, should have had an extensive circulation. Such
terms have a pleasant facility of throwing away the matter in question
to scorn, without any trouble of making a definite intelligible charge of
extravagance or delusion, and attempting to prove it. What a quantity"
of noisy zeal would have been quashed in dead silence, if it had been
possible to enforce the substitution of statements and definitions for tljis
unmeaning, vulgar, but most efficacious term of reproach. What a
number of persons have vented the superabundance of their loyaitv, or
their rancour, by means of this and two or three similar words, who, if^

7

4- Vindication of' the Reformed Presbyterian Church.

by some sudden lapse of memory, they had lost these two or three words,
would have looked round with an idiotic vacancy, totally at a loss what
was the subject of their anger or their approbation." *

In attempting to wipe away, from the character of the Reformed Pres-
byterian Church, unmerited reproaches, on the subject of civil govern-
ment, I may, not improperly, begin with a brief investigation of their
principal causes, ^uch an investigation may prove, not ojily gratifying
to that curiosity which naturally delights in tracing facts to their re-
motest causes, but also instructive to our minds, both in showing the
moral obliquities under which the hearts of some men, otherwise esti-
mable, have laboured, and in furnishing useful directions that may, in
time coming, prevent the adoption of those unfounded prejudices, and
those injurious aspersions, under which the party in question has hither-
to, so unjustly, suftered.

On this part of the subject, I may remark generally, that govern-
ments have, naturally, a strong tendency to look, with suspicion, on all
classes of dissenters from the national church. The single circumstance
that they have formally withdrawn from the church that the state has
adopted, sanctioned and endowed, and complied with the dictates of
their own judgments, rather than with the requirements of the legisla-
ture, in the organization of their respective churches, leads many, parti-
cularly weak rulers, their immediate satellites, and their injudicious
friends, to imagine that they are, equally, unwilling to submit to the
political branch of the constitution, form, necessarily, a part of the re-
jgular opposition Avith which government has usually to contend, and en-
tertain designs unfriendly to any administration that commits that in-
terference with religion, against which they have, in the face of the
world, recorded their solemn protest. This, no doubt, is very inconclu-
sive reasoning on the part of those who belong to the ecclesiastical esta-
blishments,—reasoning abundantly refuted by the loyal behaviour of all
protestant dissenters in the three kingdoms, amounting to several mil-
lions,— reasoning of which no magnanimous prince, no enlightened mi-
nistry, and no honourable partisans, will ever suifer themselves to be
guilty, — reasoning that can never find supporters, except among those
who, either from obtuseness of intellect, cannot perceive its glaring in-
accuracy, or, from corruption of moral principle, are disposed to use
any artifices, even in logic, for the purpose of rendering all dissenting
denominations obnoxious to the civil authorities. Such reasoning, how-
ever, has, sometimes, been resorted to, by the monopolizers of political
loyalty and royal favour, brought upon dissenters a degree of odium, in
the eyes of the rulers, which even their proverbial subordination has
scarcely been sufficient to remove, and exposed our church, in poriicu-
lar, to the suspicion of being a little nursery in which the leading prin-
ciples of sedition are nourished, supported, and avowed. But there are
peculiar causes which have operated very powerfully against our politi-
cal credit, to which I would request, for a few moments, the kind atr
tention of your readers.

A primary cause is the public pr'ocedure of the more rigid Presbyterians
or CovetianterSff — our venerated predecessors,- — before the Revolution.

* Foster's Essays, pp. 167, 170, 171, 17?.

f Many persons of distinguished worth never hear the Covenants mentioned, without
strong feelings of aversion to these venerable deeds. If such are unwilling to examine
^e instructive writings which have been produced on this important subject, by divines

Vindication of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. 5

That they opposed the measures of the government, during several years
prior to this memorable event, by their counsels, their writings, and their
actual struggles, is readily admitted. Subjected to unrelenting persecu-
tion on account of their sound opinions, religious observances, and laud-
able habits ; exposed to the greatest cruelties at the instigation of an
oppressive administration, and the hands of barbarous soldiers ; and ru-
minating on the gloomy prospects they had of continued sufferings under
a monarch who had subverted the fundamental laws of the constitution,
violated the solemn oaths hehad sworn, and arrogated to himself "absolute
power," — they thought themselves warranted to disown, in the most
explicit manner, the royal authority, to resist the daring infringements
that were made on their most valued privileges, and even to defend, by
arms, those imprescriptible rights on which their dearest interests were
suspended. And who, recollecting, that the Scottish convention, in
1689, resolved that the king had " forfeited" the crown by his previous
misdeeds,* that resistance to misused power is an essential principle in
the British constitution,-]- — and that " a great preponderance of good";};
thus accrued from the revolution to the country, in the great interests
of religion, and liberty, trade, commerce, and agriculture, will say that
they acted wrong? "Considering their circumstances," says a living
writer, " it is not surprising that they assumed an attitude of deliance,
or spoke in language which their rulers deemed seditious and insulting.
The wonder would have been had they acted otherwise, — had they felt
no resentment for past indignities, or expressed no inclination to reta-
liate. And who, we are tempted to ask, in the same situation, but would
have pursued similar steps .'' Is it possible to put on bowels of compas-
sion towards murderers and incendiaries, or speak of their atrocities with
affected tenderness ? It is a surer mark of an honest mind to avow its
indignation openly and boldly, to be ingenuous and undisguised in word
as well as in deed. If we do discover fierceness in their expressions,
or asperities in their temper, we may Avell suppose that their sensibilities
must have been a little impaired, and their kindlier feelings worn off
amidst the storms of persecution and the strife of party contentions.
Taking these into account, there is a tone of sobriety, of indulgence,
and forbearance which we could scarcely have expected, and which may
be thought almost incompatible with their stern principles, or the un-
avoidable irritation of their spirits. Towards the established authorities

of various churches, will they listen to the testimony of an illustrious historian, whom
no one can accuse either of bigotry, or fanaticism, or liberalism ? Principal Robertson,
referring to the period when the National Covenant was adopted, says, " The zeal of the
people, on tliis occasion, was not inferior to that of the king; and the extraordinary dan-
ger, with which they were threatened, suggested to them an extraordinary expedient for
their security. A bond was framed for the maintenance of true religion, as well as the
defence of the king's person and government, in opposition to all enemies, foreign and

domestic The king, the nobles, the clergy, and the people, subscribed with equal

alacrity. .....At the juncture in which it was first introduced, we may pronounce it to

have been a prudent and laudable device, for the defence of the religion and liberties of
the nation ; nor were the terms in which it was conceived other than might have been
expected from men alarmed with the impending danger of popery, and threatened with
an invasion by the most powerful prince in Europe." The History of Scotland, vol. i.
542—54.4..

* Laing's History of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 191.

f De Lolme on the Constitution of England, p. 308, 309.

J Brown's Lectures on the Philosophy of the Human Mind, vol. iv. 381.

6 Findicaiion of the Reformed Presbt/ierian Church.

they manifested disrespect and aversion ; but this arose from the accu-
mulation of intolerable grievances, of which they saw no prospect either
of termination or redress. They could not reverence the emblems of
official power when borne by hands that were polluted by extortion, and
reeking with human blood. They could not pay reciprocal homage
to a government which had not only refused them the benefits of justice
and protection, but driven them beyond the reach of clemency and for-
giveness. They could not respect laws that had violently overturned
all the fences about their lives, properties, and religion ; laws that had
delegated a justiciary power to the meanest soldier, and planted the
assassin's dagger in the hand of every mercenary spy ; that had ruined
their estates by enormous exactions, and laid their conscience under an
absolute and inextricable subjection to the crown."*

Now, since we hold, substantially, the same political views which they
advocated, respecting the duties of sovereigns, and the rights of sub-
jects, it has been inferred that we must be disposed to adopt, at any
time, similar proceedings. It has been even argued that we too, though
placed in far more favourable circumstances, would be the turbulent sub-
verters of thrones, and the sanguinary asserters of liberty, had we a
proper opportunity. No doubt, ivere we placed in the same circum-
stances in which they were placed, we should probably feel ourselves
constrained taact the same part which they pursued, only endeavouring
to avoid any excesses into which they were betrayed by their outraged
feelings, and to add any improvements which subsequent experience may
have recommended. Should our present race of princes ever so far de-
generate as to resemble that which the revolution drove from these
realms ; should they ever, with incorrigible obstinacy, stretch their pre-
rogatives beyond the checks of the constitution, and the barriers of the
Parliament ; should they ever attempt to rob us, by military violence and
legal injustice, of our religious privileges and our political liberties ;
should they ever, Avith ferocious resentment, proclaim a new "campaign of
judicial murders" against us, for no other crimes than avowing the scrip-
tural opinions we entertain, and rejecting the episcopal hierarchy, which
our consciences, judging according to revelation, disapprove; should they
ever, at the instigation of " ermined and mitred sycophants," pursue
with the sword the once hated presbyterians, until the solitudes of our
country shall again resound with the praises of numerous conventicles,
the streets of the capital again flow with the blood of martyred saints,
and the groans of an oppressed people again reach the ears of some
foreign deliverer, — we should account ourselves unworthy the name we
bear, the cause we profess, and the precious legacy of social privileges
won back to us by the struggles of our honoured sires, did we not
use every means of coiistitutwnal resistance. But, while we are, by the
kindness of divine providence, in very different circumstances, we are
sincerely inclined, and firmly resolved, to pursue a different course.
While we enjoy the exercise of our religion in our churches without any
sinful restrictions, the protection of our property, our liberty, and our
lives, the impartial administration of justice, and many other privileges
which none can appreciate so highly as those whose minds have been
familiar, from infancy, with the story of our ancestors' numerous priva-
tions, we trust, we shall feel gratitude for the superior regimen under

* Life of Licut.-Col. J. Blackadder, pp. 41, 43.

Vindication of I he Reformed Preshyterian Church. 7

which we are permitted to live^ and yield subjection to the just laws un-
der the operation of which we have, happily, been brought. Let no one
then, overlooking our respective circumstances, argue that we must be
the disturbers of the public tranquillity and the enemies of social order,
because we are the avowed successors of the more zealous covenanters,
who suffered, and bled, and died, during the disastrous years that pre-
ceded the revolution. Such a mode of arguing respecting our political
designs, and actions, and motives, has been countenanced too long by
many, and has brought on our very name a measure of political odiupi
which, I am sure, no part of our procedure, and no principle of our
creed, does, in the slightest degree, warrant.

A second cause is the freedom with which our church has, in all ages,
testified in various forms, against the evils qf the government, evc?i since
the revolution. It is no doubt true, no other party in this country hailed
that event with livelier joy, embraced its immediate advantages with
warmer gratitude, or contributed greater exertions on the momentous
emergency,* to put down the enemies of the new government, who, in
the north, clung around the fallen standard of the deposed king, and, .un-
der the torn banners of despotism crimsoned with the blood of martyred
thousands, followed the orders of the intrepid but unprincipled Dundee.
They rejoiced in the stop that was thus put to their own severe suffer-
ings, which had now continued during twenty-eight years, in caves and
dens, in prisons and in fortresses, in foreign countries as well as on their
native muirs. They rejoiced in the expulsion of a race of kings who
had, with characteristic ingratitude, rewarded their generous services with
a series of intolerable oppressions, evinced, during several reigns, greater
capacity for the lowest buffoonery and the coarsest licentiousness, than
for advancing the true interests of the aircient kingdoms subjected to
their sway, and proved, by their public acts, that they would never rest
till they had re-established the whole system of popery, at whatever ex-
pense to the lives of protestants. They rejoiced too in the recognition,
by the three kingdoms, of a number of the political principles for Avhich
they had borne such sufferings, in the adoption of various measures cal-
culated to promote the prosperity, the independence, and the honour of
their country, and especially in the permission granted them, unaccom-
panied with any sinful conditions, to worship, in any form which their
own judgments had conceived agreeable to the Scriptures. But, while
they cordially rejoiced in the great deliverance that was now accom-
plished, in its immediate results and future benefits, they did not give
■way to blind admiration. They did not express unqualified approbation
of the new Settlement, though glorious in many particulars, or vow the
implicit subjectioir promised by some others who never intended to give
it, or join in the boisterous applauses which rose from the lips of many
who proved, by their overt acts a few years afterwards, that their hearts
were, even now, after the royal fugitive. t They reserved to them-
selves the right of condemning, in various ways, and on proper occa-^
sions, any false principles admitted into the constitution, any unjust
measures that might be adopted by the new rulers, and any palpable
neglect of the great duties they owed to the community over which they

• Proofs of this will be given in a subsequent part of this article.

f " Struck with astonishment and consternation, he abandoned a throne wJiich he
had neither policy to fill nor courage to defend; leaving to his successor a victory wiili-
out blood and a crown whhout a competitor." P. 5S, Life of Lieutenant-Colonel i3]iick-
adder.

8 Vindicalion of the Reformed Presbyterian Church.

were placed by the signal interposition of divine providence. Accord-
ingly, this right they began to exercise very soon after the Revolution,
by pointing out, in written declarations,* those evils which, they con-
ceived, the government had committed ; nor have they ceased, at any
future period, to exhibit, in appropriate testimonies, their joint disap-
probation of those things, in the management of the national atFairs which
they believed to be inconsistent with the word of God, the inalienable
privileges of the Christian church, and the genuine interests of civil so-
ciety.

But is \tfair, on the part of any, to infer from this practice, pursued
by our Church since her commencement, that we must, therefore, be ene-
mies to the righteous laws, or to the virtuous acts, of the government ?
No inference ever drawn by the most illogical head, or the most un-
principled heart, could be more illegitimate. Am I an enemy to an
erring friend, because I honestly tell him the truth, clearly describe
the improprieties of which he has been guilty, faithfully exhibit the
pernicious consequences to which they must lead, and earnestly warn
him to return to the paths of piety and virtue, from which his evil pas-
sions have seduced him, and in which alone he can recover either true
tranquillity of mind or genuine respectability of character ? Will he him-
self, after "he shall have reflected on the kindness of my intentions, the
soundness of my counsels, and the importance of his own reformation as
the ultimate end to which my anxious efforts are wholly directed, ex-
clude me from the number of his best friends ? No surely. No more
then ought that section of the Church which condemns most explicitly
the public evils of the government, denounces most faithfully the threat-
ened judgments of heaven, and pleads most strenuously for the speedy
abolition of those legalized evils which have exposed our land to evi-
dent tokens of the divine displeasure, to be accounted hostile to the ex-
cellent principles of the constitution, t]iQJusl measures of the minis-
try, or the real interests of the country. On the contrary, in propor-
tion to the fidelity with which it exposes the existence, the criminality,
and the hurtfulness of these evils, and endeavours to rouse the nations
from their present insensibility, to the exercises of genuine repentance
and necessary reform, in the same proportion is it contributing, in its
own sphere, 'however narrow, to avert dreaded calamities, to procure the
exercise of divine forbearance towards our country, and to draw down
public blessings, never attainable, either by the policy of irreligious
statesmen, or by the courage of immoral warriors. t

* From August 1692 to October 1707, they emitted four declarations. Considering
that they were deprived of the assistance of ministers till 1706, when the Rev. John

Macmillan became their pastor, and that they were smarting under the bitter remem.
brance of unmerited sufferings, the authors of which, instead of having been legally pu-
nished for their crimes, were admitted to important offices in the church, the army, and
the government, it would not have been surprising had they expressed themselves in very
strong language respecting their rulers. After, however, a repeated perusal of these do-
cuments, with a determination to mark every thing that might appear exceptionable, I
must say, they have uttered their sentiments with atemperancc which could scarcely have
been expected in their irritating circumstances, and with a propriety which shows the
lnudable care with which their minds had been improved by early education, and en-
riched by subsequent reflection. Well might Bishop Burnet feel surprised at the supe-
rior intelligence which their fathers displayed during the persecution, and which, con-
trasted with the ignorance of the generality of the curates who had supplanted their be.
loved teachers, was to them exceedingly creditable.

f For illustration of the principle, that nations best promote their prosperity, their

'Vindication of the R.J'ormcd Prcsbi/terian Church. 9

Do an)- .of our opponents allege that, we should, this day, have been
higher in public estimation, had we never emitted a single declaration
of our sentiments respecting the evils oi government ? I am not disposed
to question the truth of their allegation. But 1 would ludc them, would
we have been higher in the estimation of our Ifodeemer? Would a
temporizing policy like that which they recommend, have been creditable
to us. either as the inhabitants of a free country, or as the friends of
revealed truth ? Would that popular applause, which might have been
secured by a base neutrality or a timid silence, regarding the honours of
the Saviour, and the liberties of the church, have been either soothing
to our consciences in the .season of calm reflection, or consolatory to our
feelings in the hour of linal dissolution ? Too long, I fear, have many
ministers of Jesus been slumbering at their posts, respecting the public
interests of religion and morality,* instead of " going forth to him without
the camp bearing his reproach." Too long, I fear, have many been court-
ing the smiles of their civil superiors, by unworthy compliances, rather
than seeking the approbation of their Divine Master, by uncompromising
fidelity. Too long, I fear, have they been excluding from the pulpit
the politics, + which, they must see, form a part of the Bible, lest they
should offend the political prejudices of their hearers, bring into suspi-
cion their own boasted loyalty, or mar their promotion to richer livings.
While the prexs, even in the hands of men not governed by the princi-
ples of religion, has done much for the removal of stupid prejudices,
and antiquated abuses, favourable only to absolute government ; the
piiJpit has been, generally speaking, either silent on those grand princi-
ples in revelation which promote the rational liberties and the political
improvement of mankind, or active in supporting established evils by
courtly orations and servile prayers. It is high time for the ambassadors
of Jesus (not to interfere in the disputes of worldly politicians, or solve
the problems of political science, but) to expound the great principles
of political morality that are clearjy inculcated in the Bible, :{: to de-
mand from kingdoms and empires, submission to the laws of the reign-
ing Mediator, and, emulatiiag the approved example of ancient teachers,
to " bear his name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of
Israel."§

honour, their safety, and their influence, by obedience to tlie Divine taill, the reader may
consult Dr. Romeyn's Sermons, i — iii. Dr. Dwight, Sermons Ci;iii, cxiv. Dr. Duwar,
Discourse x. and particularly the historical parts of the Old Testament.

* " True politics I look on as a part of moral philosophy, which is nothing but the
art of conducting men right in society, and supporting a community among its neigh-
bours."— Locke.

f " To preach such sermons (political) is unquestionably the right, and, in certain cases,
as unquestionably the duty, of every minister of the gospel." Dwight, vol. iv. 129.

\ " It is surprising that any person of sense should deem a subject introduced in the
Scriptures for the instruction of mankind unfit for the pulpit. It seems to convey a very
unjust reflection on the Spirit of God, but, we doubt, it implies no slight censure on the
conduct of preachers. It is the unconimonness of a subject, often, which leads people to
think it unsuitable; and, if preschers gave that variety to their instruction which the
word of God furnishes, there is no scriptural topic against which hearers would entertain
a prejudice." The Christian Repository, vol. ii. 101.

§ " To us it has often been a matter of regret that religion, as taught by all sects,
has been kept at such a distance from enlarged and comprehensive views of the duties
which man owes to socict>/....We think it a reproach to them (many ministers) and their
system, that they did not sow a single idea in the minds of the people which could teach
them to see through the tinsel of false glory, to detest tyranny, to respect their own rights,
and to love justice between nation and nation, as well as betwien man and man. They
c

10 Vindication of the liejhrmcd Pi-ei-bi/lerinn Church.

Or, do any insinuate thatj in thus testifying against what appear to
us evils in the government, our designs are not good? We repel the un-
generous insinuation, as utterly groundless. For the purity of our mo-
tives, we appeal to //»?< to whose all- seeing eye our inmost thoughts
are intimately known, and at whose impartial tribunal our deepest feel-
ings will be completely exposed. We can say, honestly, we have never
been actuated by factious views, by impatience under legal restraints,
by the mere desire of political changes, or by resentment at not sharing
in those civil offices, emoluments, and distinctions, from which we are
excluded by legal disabilities. We feel conscious we have had in view,
— the exoneration of our consciences, — the admonition of our fellow-
men, — the removal from the governm.ent of those things which have long
been reckoned, by the purest patriots, its greatest blemishes, — the su-
premacy of the revealed law over the maxims of human wisdom in all
public affairs, civil, judicial, and ecclesiastical, — .and the honour of our
blessed Lord, to whom the subjection of all nations, in their public cha-
racter, and of all rulers, in their official capacity, has been so clearly
promised, and so authoritatively enjoined. In short, for the perfect
justification of our motives, may we not appeal to the candid judgment
of those of our countrymen to whom we are known, Avhether we have
not been exemplary, at all times, in discriminating submission, in peace-
able behaviour, in virtuous efforts for the preservation of our national li-
berties, whenever they have been threatened with danger, and in pecu-
niary sacrifices for raising our country, already the admiration of most
free states, to those heights of purity, piety, and order, that shall render
lier still more worthy of that admiration ?

A third cause of the suspicion in irhicli we are held, with regard to
civil goiiernment, is the miifairncss of several writers who have appeared
against its, at different times, in the Secession. Scarcely had this re-
spectable denomination separated themselves from the judicatories of the
national church, Avhen they commenced, against us, a series of attacks,
which has been continued ever since, at short intervals, till about tvvelve
years ago, when the war which had been waged, with undue keenness,
on both sides, was succeeded by a truce, of which there has been no open
rupture. Had they been satisfied with condemning oxir real opiniotis
only, and endeavouring to refute them by true statements and fair argu-
Dients, we would not have blamed them, since we have always invited
the freest discussion of the several questions that have so long divided
the two denominations. But justice compels me to say, that several of
them have ventured, in regular succession, — whether from ignorance,
inadvertence, or design, I will not say,— frsf, to produce false repre-
sentations of our political principles, feelings, and intentions, and then
to heap upon us all the odium which should certainly have been our
due, had these slanderous fabrications been correct. One document af-
firms* concerning our party, that " they had gone into the dangerous
extreme of impugning the present civil authority over these nations,
and subjection thereunto in lawful commands," without explicitly de-
claring, that they impugned the present constitution no farther than it

have, on the contrary, with a few exceptions, flattered power themselves, .ind instilled
those slavish maxims into the minds of the people, which have made them traitors to
their own best interests, and fit tools in the hands of profligate rulers, to spread ruin and
slaughter over the world. Such was not the spirit of John Knox."
• Aiswers to the Kcv. ]Mr. Nairnc, p. 291.

Vindicalion of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. 11

seemed, in their judgment, opposed to the revealed will of heaven, nnd
to the solemn engagements under which the nations had been brought.
Another pamphlet* declares, " they are men of no candour, probitj', or
truth, — whose mouths are tilled with virulent speeches and scurrilous
language, — stated open enemies to reason, common sense, and divine
revelation, and set to proclaim war, even against the Bible itself, — as
men of shameless sophistry and uncommon ignorance," — whose •' senti-
ments about magistracy are just a mine of absurd unscriptural imagina-
tions." A third publication, f from the same school, asserts, "They
maintain that our magistracy ought not to be supported, ought not to be
prayed for, but ranked with those plagues which God sends upon a sin-
ful people ; nor can it be any sin to resist such, to endeavour to overturn
such usurpation. They do now publicly avow such principles as do ne-
cessarily unhinge magistracy, yea, all the common relations which unite
mankind in civil society." A fourth production, J worse even than most
of its predecessors, impudently avers, they " are men of bloody prin-
ciples ; if they had a king in their own way, he would delight to glut
himself in the blood of recusants. They have arms, yea, an armoury
by them,§ to use and improve in case of a confusion in the land ; a door
was opened by them for the pretender to mount the throne." A fifth
pamphlet|| asks with an air of confident triumph, *■' Are the reformed
presbyterians walking in the steps of the great Teacher come from God ?
No, indeed ; their refusing obedience to the present civil government
in things lawful, is a direct contradiction to the supreme authority and
unblemished practice of the Son of God. According to them, the sense
of the text, " render unto Cesar the thing that are Cesar's," is render un-
to him a hallar and a gallows!' A sixth document, H sanctioaed by
official authority, declares, without restricting the meaning within due
limits, " they hold that all the civil rulers, whether supreme or subordi-
nate, in Britain and Ireland, for more than a century past; have been
unlawful, and that it was sinful either to acknowledge, obey, or pray for
them." Nor did the publication of such unfair representations terminate
with the last century. So recently as the year 1817, a periodical work,**
supported chieily, if not entirely, by individuals of that party, announced
that while " many of the reformed presbyterians were," (" early in the
reign of Queen Anne,") " truly religious persons who retained the man-
ners and opinions which distinguished the preceding period, others of
them were men of restless and violent tempers, mho repeatedly engaged
in the plots of the Jacobites for the restoration of the Stuart family to the

* Goodlet's Vindication of the Associate Synod. See Humble Attempt, <S:c. p. 3.

f Thomson's Presbyterian Covenanter. See Vrndicis Alagistratus, &c. pp. 208, 21?,

6.

% TurnbuU's Review of the Anti-Government Scheme. See Newton's Voice to Se-
ceders, pp. 12, 62.

§ " An armoury by them" ! ! He should just have added that, they have also pow-
der magazines sufficient to blow up Edinburgh, a fleet large enough to sweep the royal
navy from the ocean, and an army ready to lay waste the country with fire and sword ;
and that they had fixed the gloomy month of November following for beginning their bar-
barous operations, by an indiscriminate massacre of all the scccdern in the Mersc. This
would have been a morceau for hungry credulity to swallow and rancorous bigotry to
boast of.

II Fletclier's Scripture Loyalist, See Answers by the Rev. W. Steven, pp. 96, 9?,
101.

^ A Narrative of the State of Religion, by the General Associate Synod, p. 8S.

*" The Christian Kepository, vol, ii. 451.

i2 Vindicalion of the Rcjonncd Fresbijlerian Church.

throne* Their conduct might have afforded plausible grounds for the
general prosecution of all who held their peculiar doctrines ; hnt, under a
mild administration, which left them undisturbed, they soon became per-
fectly harmless."

• Than this no accusation more injurious to our political credit, or more inconsistent
■with historic truth, could have possibly been conceived. liecoided in a religious maga-
zine that obtained considerable circulation during several years, and published with the
implied sanction of the excellent editor whose own writings are distinguished for great accu-
racy, candour and liberality, it requires particular animadversion that is by no means
due to the senseless ebullitions by which it is preceded.

1. Any attempt to bring back the Stuarts was contrart/ to their avowed political opi-
nions. They held that the first magistrate of this reformed land ought to be a protestant
presbyterian, a professor of the true religion, possessed of the various qualifications pre-
.scribed in the Sacred Scriptures, and recognised in the public covenants. These opinions
had been indelibly impressed on their minds, by their familiar acquaintance with their
Bibles, by numerous discourses from their pastors, and by various publications that were
extorted from divines and lawyers, during the tempests of persecution. Was it at all
likely, then, that they would concur in any " plots" for the restoration of " the titular
Prince of Wales, who was a catholic, bred up in the court of France, inheriting all the
extravagant claims, and probably the arbitrary sentiments of his father,"* and who, on
his acquiring the crown, instead of promoting the public views of the rigid covenanters,
as a reward for their friendly services, would have, as they were well aware, surrounded
his throne with exiled Jacobites, and filled the pulpits with ejected curates ?

2. Such an attempt was ftnlidden hy their painful recollections. But a very few years
had rolled away since they had suffered the greatest hardships and the severest cruelties,
all the ravages of military violence and all the pains of legal oppression, at the hands of
these very Stuarts. Was, it at all likely then that they, with childish fickleness, with
glaring fatuity, would wish their return, — that men who had endured such accumulated
sufi'erings, under popish rulers prior to the Revolution, who had disowned their autho-
rity several years sooner than the majority in this kingdom, who had received the in-
telligence of their flight from our shores with transports of joy and gratitude, and who
had done so much to consolidate the new dynasty, under which they were permitted to
enjoy many privileges to which they had long been entire strangers, — was it likely, I
ask, that they would, either early in the reign of Queen Anne, or at any other period,
countenance any measures for the purpose of bringing over to their country a Popish suc-
cessor ? I cannot imagine any thing more improbable. As well might it be alleged
that Daniel, after he had escaped from the den of lions by miraculous interposition, so-
licited his enemies to have him again thrown back; or that the three Hebrew confes-
sors, after they had been delivered unhurt from the " burning fiery furnace" urged
their accusers to procure a fresh order from Nebuchadnezzar to have them again flung
into the flames.

3. Such an attempt "was contradicted hy their own forcible declaration. " We pro-.
test," they say in 1707, " ^Ve protest against and disown the pretended Prince of Wales,
from having any just right to rule or govern these nations, or to be admitted to the go-
vernment thereof. And whereas, (as is reported,) we are maliciously aspersed by those
who profess themselves of the Presbyterian persuasion, especially the Laodicean preachers,
that we would be accessory to the advancement of him whom they call the pretended
Prince of Wales to the throne of Britain, therefore, to let all concerned le fully assured of
the coiUrary, we protest and testify against all such so principled to rule in these lands,
because we look upon all such to be standing in a stated opposition to God and our cove-
nanted work of reformation. "-j-

4. The charge in question is not once insinuated hy any of our Scottish historions that
I have seen. I have examined, with some degree of care, all that has been written against
the Keformed Presbyterians, usually nick-named Caineronians, by Hume, Laing, Heron,
Sir Walter Scott in the Second Series of " Stories taken from Scottish History," and
some others, and certainly these writers have not been reluctant to bestow upon them a
variety of opprobrious terms, to charge them with factious designs which they never en-
tertained, and to impute bad motives, when they could not deny that they had pei formed

* Tales of a Grandfather, Second Series, vol. iii. 2')0.

I Protestation against the Union with England, published on the 2d October 1707.
See Infoimatory Vindication, 271.

I'indicatioti of the Keformed Presbt/ierian Church. 13

Such, Sir, I am sorry to say> are a very few of the monstrous misre-
presentations, which have been fabricated at different times, in the bo-
som of another church, entitled, on various accounts, to our best wishes,
obtruded upon the notice of the country, in numerous publications, most
of which should have died with those who gave them birth, and circu-
lated in many places, with an officious assiduity that has never been
practised in acknowledging, on fitting occasions, any good qualities they
allow us to possess. Is it wonderful that such unfavourable accounts,
sanctioned with the approbation of respectable ministers, applauded to the
skies by the eulogies of unsuspecting partizans, and not contradicted, in
many cases, by ourselves, till the very worst suspicions might have been
excited against us, in many quarters whither the truth, concerning us,
has not yet been conveyed, should have strengthened the previous im-
pression in the country, of our hostility to government? Assuredly, had
not our practice proved the falsity of the charges that were thus so reck-
lessly preferred, — had not the uniform subordination and proverbial so-
briety of our people, convinced the minds of impartial observers, that
they were very different from the representations given in these print-
ed statements, — had not their habitual refraining from all illegal associ-
ations, and all tumultuous meetings, in times of political agitation, satis-
fied the local authorities, under whose eye they lived, that iheij would
never countenance any disturbances in the country, whatever might be
the conduct of many olhers who had loyalty on their lips, and rebellion
in their hearts, — in short, had not the exemplary propriety of their con-
duct, even in seasons that drove multitudes of their fellow-men to poli-
tical violence, proved a sufficient antidote to the venom that was circulat-
ing through so many channels, we must assuredly have been the objects
of greater jealousy than has ever been felt regarding us by our present
rulers, and the victims of severer restraints than they have been accus-
tomed to impose, even on their most turbulent subjects.

It is gratifying to think, that such scurrilous eiiusions as those now
under review, have ceased, for several years, under a printed form, in
the Secession ; though the injurious impressions produced by them on
the public mind, remain still, to a certain extent ; just as the furious
torrents of the last storm have passed onwards to the ocean in which

meritorious actions. But to this charge, which has been brought forward in the Repo-
sitory, they mai^e not the slightest allusion. Had they found any evidence for it in the
authorities from which they compiled their respective histories, it is certain they would
have assigned it a conspicuous place in the roll of bitter revilings which they have penned
against the party. Their perfect silence furnishes an ample refutation.

Since writing these remarks I have ascertained from the writer in the Repository, that
" the statement was made on the authority of a manuscript history of the Secession by
the late Mr. Brown of Haddington." Mow that he would record this accusation with-
out having evidence which appeared to him satisfactory, is not, for one moment, to be sup-
posed. We oiirxeli-es would repel, with indignation, the very insinuation against that
venerable father, whose great excellence we have always esteemed, whose judicious writ-
ings we highly value, and whose scriptural illustrations, occasionally introduced, of some
of our peculiar views, we have often perused with pleasure. Still, like many other good
men, he was fallible ; and, if he made the statement merely on the oral tradition which
had been handed down from the beginning of the eighth century, and which was " a
malicious aspersion" invented by persons of the established Church who hated the un-
compromising Dissenters,* we are bound to reject it, even at the very moment we feel
the greatest respect for his judgment, the fullest conlidence in his integrity, and tlie warm-
est veneraiion for his memory.

* Informaiory Vindication, 211.

1 1 Vindication of the liejonncd Preifp/terian Church.

they liave totally disappeared, while the distressing ravages they have
occasioned, present themselves along the whole tract over which they
have swept. Whether, however, the misrepresentation of our peculiar
opinions, and the vilification of our judicial proceedings, bij oral com-
munication, have ceased everywhere among that party, admits, I suspect,
of strong doubt. That there are many, very many, in it, who, while
they dislike our political views, possess too much integrity to deliber-
ately mirepresent them, and who, while they even applaud their own
body in no measured terms, are candid enough to acknowledge in ours,
the prevalence of piety, moral worth, and political order, I well know,
both from personal observation, and from credible testimony. But if
there be others, however few, among the laity or the clergy, who can
still txilk, in convenient quarters, about our " bloody principles," our
"^ dangerous designs,'' our "violent tempers," our "anti-government
schemes," — who, instead of accepting our reiterated declarations, made
in perfect sincerity, that we do not entertain in our bosoms such evils,
continue to give their calumnies the greatest currency possible, through
the various channels over which the V have influence, — who, instead of
practising toward us the charity to which they advance such superior
claims, scruple not to revile our tenets, either among the lower orders,
many of whom have credulity enough to receive, with implicit trust,
their grossest misrepresentations, or among the higher ranks, some of
whom cherish that political jealousy that prompts them to embrace, with
eagerness, their vilest insinuations, — who, instead of drawing a correct
picture of our political creed, that others may condemn or approve, ac-
cording to their ow?i judgment, persist in furnishing a studied carica-
ture, calculated to call forth against us the bitterest reproaches v.'hich
they themselves know our political views do not deserve, — if there be
any of this description, under any cloak whatever, is it possible for us
to reflect, either on such baseness with an indignation too burning, or on
such meanness with a contempt too supercilious ? Such despicable
slanderers, — resembling, in this respect, those reptiles which display
malignity, cunning, and cowardice in their.very lowest forms, and never
creep forth from their lurking places, except when they are protected
by thick darkness, and sure of a safe reti-eat, — must be acting a part
exceedingly inconsistent with genuine liberality, true courage, and
" godly sincerity," exceedingly painful to the men of pure and candid
and honourable minds, with whom they are connected, and exceedingly
ungenerous towards that humble communion upon which they are so la-
vish of the most unmerited abuse. Rather, indeed, would we encounter
the open antagonists of the last century, rude, and vulgar, and scurrilous
though they sometimes were, than meet those secret enemies who throw
their poisoned shafts only under cover of the darkness with which thev
are careful always to surround themselves, and assail by insidious ma-
noeuvres an injured community which they have not the courage, the
candour, and the justice to meet in honourable combat. " If scandal is
to be secret, it is the crime of a coward j if it is to become known, it is
tlie crime of a madman."*

I must add, to the causes already specified, of our unpopularity on
the subject of government, a fourth, — the gross misstatements respecting
us, that abound in the principal writings yet produced on Scottish affairs,
opinions, customs, and manners. The love of truth is a noble passion,

• St. Lambert, Tome ii. p. 251.

7

V'mdicnllon of the Reformed Prcsbyleriaii Church. 15

which all writers should cultivate and maintain with the greatest care,
in wliatever branch of literature they choose to toil. It is unworthy-
such men, whether their genius be brilliant, or their talents be moderate,
to neglect any sources from which they may ascertain the truth ; to
grudge any personal labours that may clear away misrepresentations ; or
to sacrifice authenticated facts at the shrine of those vulgar passions, and
those sordid interests, which it is disgraceful, even in literary hirelings,
to worship. With unceasing fidelity they should strive to expel from
their minds those prejudices which they have imbibed; to resist those
passions which mislead the judgment ; to forget the secular results sus-
pended on the execution of their projected lucubrations ; to despise the
fame that no other price can purchase but the defamation of the illus-
trious dead, and the slander of the virtuous living, — and never, on any
account, to put down on their pages, any one statement which they may
wish to erase, when, from their death-bed, they shall look back on their
errors detected by the rigid scrutiny of future inquirers, or when, before
the judgment-seat, they shall survey their misrepresentations placed in
the clearest light, by the omniscient Judge.

Now, have all the writers who have animadverted on the sufferings,
the opinions, and the character of the Covenanters manifested suck an ar-
dent love of truth ? That some have, to a very considerable extent, I
readily grant, and gratefully rejoice. It is refreshing to see the rigorous
fidelity with which VVodrow* compares his original authorities, studies
his ample compilations, and pronounces his own judicious reflections.
It is gratifying to see the occasional candour with which Burnetf ac-
knowledges the decided superiority of the Presbyterians in intelligence,
piety, and moral excellence ; and confesses the despicable condition in
which the mass of the Episcopalian clergy continued, in respect of igno-
rance, irreligion, indolence, and immorality. It is spirit-stirring to sui--
vey the manly independence with which M'Crie:|: rescues the memory of
Scotland's best patriots from the reproaches of ungrateful posterity ;
vindicates the virtuous struggles by which they stemmed the tide of
unrelenting oppression, and rouses our moral feelings at the contempla-
tion of heroic virtues, and the repulsion of heinous crimes. Nor is it
less delightful to listen to the pious bard § whose mind the purest in-
spirations had enriched, celebrating "the virtuous race to godliness de-
vote," " their constancy in torture and in death," their firm resistance
to " a tyrant and a bigot's bloody laws," their brave endurance of the
winter's fiercest blasts, || and persecution's bitterest storms, that they
might hear in any solitudes " the word of God, by Cameron thundered,
or by Renwick poured in gentle stream." But, excepting these, and a
few other works, that have lately issued from the press, *![ it is mortify-

• History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland.
■f History of his Own Times.

I I/ife of John Knox, — Life of Andrew Melville, — Memoirs of Veitch and Brypon.
§ The Sabbatli, and Other Poems, by James Grahame. pp. 12 — 15. See Notes pp.
139—118.

II "No more

The assembled people dared, in face of day.
To worship God, or even at the dead
Of night, save when the wintry storm raved fierce.
And thunder-peals compelled the men of blood
To couch within their dens."' GnAiiA:\rE.

% Such as the historical novel, entitled Ringan Gilhaize, by Gait, 3 volumes ; The
History of Scotland, by Aikman, vols, iii and iv.

16 Vindication of the Reformed Presbijterian Church.

ing to find the greater number of any literary merit, filled with the
grossest misrepresentations concerning the original Covenanters and
their proper successors. I might refer to Hume,* who has loaded them
with indiscriminate abuse, by calling them bigots, fanatics, and rebels,
and polluted his elegant pages with many of those foul slanders that
were fabricated by servile courtiers during the reigrts of the Stuarts,
and circulated with great activity during many years afterwards, by the
discontented Jacobites. I might refer to Laing,t who, while he has
described with lively feelings of indignation the inhuman sufferings and
the atrocious massacres with which they were visited, has heaped
upon them many opprobrious terms, which vv^ere originally applied by
avowed tories, and justly incurred the censure passed by the poet on
that other historian, who

1 " execrates, indeed.

The tyranny that doomed them to the fire,

Lut gives the glorious sufferers little praise."

1 might refer to one of the earliest novels| of Sir Walter Scott, of
which the undue partiality shown to the leading persecutors, the
groundless charges preferred against the suffering Presbyterians, and the
vile aspersions cast on the glorious privileges for which they struggled,
have been so ably, so accurately, and so fully demonstrated by a
learned contributor.§ I might refer to a second effusion || from
the same prolific mind, in Avhich he evinces similar aversion to the
Covenanters, though somewhat subdued, mistakes their ardent piety
for rancorous bigotry, confounds their laudable hatred of oppres-
sion with factious turbulence under regular government, and alto-
gether draws such a picture of their public proceedings as makes
them more to be derided for their alleged weaknesses, than applaud-
ed for their patriotic exertions. I might refer to his little volumes
of historical tales lately published,^ tales in which, — though it is truly
gratifying to see his splendid genius gradually bursting the trammels of
political toryism, and gradually associating with itself an exalted pas-
sion worthy of such high companionship, the love of liberty, — it is still
mortifying to find no adequate measure of justice awarded the purest
patriots under the greatest troubles our country has ever endured, and
the liberal principles, from the partial adoption of which she has reap-
ed her unrivalled blessings. I might refer to the popular writings of
Chambers,** who, with the graphic descriptions he has given, in his flow-
ing style, of Scottish scenery, antiquities, manners, and revolutions, has
mingled a considerable quantity of venom against the Covenanters of all
periods, reiterated many terms of vituperation which he should rather
have placed among the relics of the Jacobite.';, and manifested a political
spirit by no means friendly to the dearest rights and the noblest privi-
leges of a free country. 1 might refer to a celebrated monthly Magazine,f f
in which, only afew years since, several very incorrect articles were insert-
ed respecting some of our earliest ministers and religious festivals, had the
extraordinary circulation which that periodical has obtained in several

* History of Enfiland, vols. vi. vii. viii.
f History of Scotland, vols. i. ii.
^ Tales of my Lamilord.

§ See Review of these Tales in the Christian Instructor for 1817.
II Second Series of Tales of IMy Landlord.
^ Tales of a Grandfather, Second Series.

** The Picture of Scotland ; History of the Rebellions in Scotland under the Viscount
Dundee and the Earl of Mar in 1689 and 1715.
ff Blackwood's.

Vindication of I he Reformed Presbyterian Church. 17

countries, must have proved very injurious to the credit of our Church
among those readers who have never sought information from purer
sources, and completely showed that the writer was not afraid to sacri-
fice the dictates of impartial justice to his love of mere humour, for the
amusement of frivolous readers. I might refer to various other publi-
cations that have been conceived in the same spirit of hostility to the
principles and the proceedings of the Covenanters, devoured with eager-
ness by many minds to which naked truth presents no charms, and even
still, recommended by the beauties of style, and the sallies of wit, and the
corruscations of eloquence, are diffusing their pernicious poison through
a thousand channels, along which the stream of authentic history and
accurate delineation is not allowed to flow.

No doubt it may be alleged that, such scurrilous attacks as have been
made in these publications, have, in some cases, done good, by provok-
ing further inquiry into the principles, actions, and sufferings of the
original Covenanters. I grant this with pleasure. I rejoice that there
is a benevolent Power in heaven who extracts real good from seeming
evil, — that there are faithful men on earth whom assaults on the charac-
ter of their pious ancestors, rouse to more vigorous defences than have
formerly been produced. It is to the misrepresentations that originated
with curates, and cavaliers, military executioners, and hired spies, that
we are indebted for the Informalory Vindication, in which the united
Societies defend their principles with manly intrepidity, great clear-
ness, and singular moderation. It is to the gross attack that was made,
a few years since, on the Covenanters by our celebrated novelist, that
we owe one of the most triumphant vindications that have been written
in modern times,* — a vindication which, in point of historical research,
irresistible argument, and masculine eloquence, deserves a place on the
same shelf to which the applauded memoirs of Knox and Melville,
Veitch and Bryson, have been justly elevated. But how few have had
the patience, the candour, the justice, to study such defences with the
care they deserve, compared with the multitudes who have read the
works in which the unprovoked attacks have been made ! How difficult
is it to induce those who learn their history from fictitious writings and
their politics from servile histories, — as certain authors have been said to
draw their poetry from intellect and their science from imagination, —
to assert tiie rights of thinking beings, to reject the errors which future in-
quiries have exploded, and to adopt only those conclusions to which either
sound reasoning or incontrovertible evidence leads ! Such persons will
sigh over the silliest productions with which our circulating libraries
are stuffed till they are literally worn to tatters, and rehearse with un-
swerving fidelity the impious exclamations and the sickening senti-
ments with which they abound, till we have heard them the thousandth
time, rather than read one instructive volume in history, or biography, or
literature, or the useful arts. With pitiable infatuation they entertain
their minds upon chaff, while the wheat provided in rich abundance
lies neglected, — endanger their mental constitution by taking poison
while the appropriate antidote furnished by skilful hands is rejected
with stubborn indifference or with sovereign contempt.

Hence it is, I conceive, that such publications as those which have
'been mentioned, are a principal cause of that injurious suspicion which

" The Review of the First Series of Tales of My Landlord, published, first in the
Instructor for 1817, and afterwards in a separate form in 1824.

Xi

18 Vindication of the Reformed Presbyterian Church.

occupies^the public mind respecting the Reformed Presbyterians. So
long as the bulk of our reading population surrender their minds to the
guidance of the incorrect writers that have been named, prefer " the
lively sarcasms, brilliant explanations, and artful remarks" with which
they have interspersed their works, and consider every attempt at de-
fence, rather as an effort of petty cavilling and unreasonable austerity,
than a vindication due to injured worth, and calumniated truth, so long-
must our reforming ancestors be looked back upon, with mingled feel-
ings of aversion, pity, and scorn. But shall such be always their doom ?
We are fully persuaded it shall not. We do not despair of seeing, at a
future period, a glorious reaction, accelerated even by the bitter re-
proaches which were, perhaps, meant to ruin theirjmemory for ever. We
do not despair of seeing many, even of the present generation, bitterly
regretting the pleasure with which they have read the grossest abuse on
their names, and the ignorance that has so long prevented them from
feeling the enlightened admiration due to their exertions. We do not
despair of seeing some of these gifted revilers living till they shall sin-
cerely lament the ungenerous abuse they have poured upon their cha-
racter, and, like the penitent Rochester,'^ eagerly wish that some parts of
their writings, had never been produced to vitiate the public taste, ri-
dicule serious religion, and injure political freedom : Or, should iheif
iinish their career, without expressing their sorrow for the evil they have
done in these respects, we doubt not others will yet arise, gifted with
equal genius, governed by purer emotions, and devoted to a Muse that
" disdains the servile strain of fashion's quire," who will esteem it their
noblest avocation to " celebrate their unambitious names" in living song,
and picture bright their heroic virtues " on history's honest page, to
latest times."

Yes — though the sceptic's tongue ileride
These martyrs who for conscience died, —
Though modern history Wight their fame,
And sneering courtiers hoot the name
Gf men who dared alone be free,
Amidst a nation's slavery, —
Vet long for them the poet's lyre
Shall wake its notes of heavenly fire ;
Their names shall nerve the patriot's hanil.
Upraised to save a sinking land ;
And piety shall learn to burn
With holier transports o'er their urn."-|-

* This celebrated nobleman was endowed with brilliant talents. " His poetry," says
Hume, " discovers such energy of style, and such poignancy of satire, as give ground
to imagine, what so fine a genius, had he fallen in a mote happy age, and followed bet-
ter models, was capable of producing."^ But what were his reflections upon his hurt-
ful publications, when, with altered views, he looked back on them from the bed of
death ? " He gave," says Dr. Olinthus Gregory, " numerous proofs of the depth of
his repentance : amongst which his earnest desire to check and diminish the evil effects
of h\s former writings, and too uniform example, deserve particular recollection," §

\ Epistle to R. S, inserted in the Poetic Mirror for 1816, and said to have been
written by Sir Walter Scott. Such an unqualified eulogy from Ms pen, may strike some
with surprise, on account of its contrariety to the spirit of his other writings ; but con-
tradictions of this sort, are not uncommon in the works even of the principal tory

I History, vol. viii. 336. § Letters, vol. ii. 151.

Fiiidication of the Ikformed Presbyterian Church. 19

Having thus adverted to what seem to me the chief causes o^ tliat sus-
picion into which our church has been brought respecting civil govern-
ment, I now proceed to demonstrate, by the abundant evidence in my
power, the groundlessness of the principal charges that have been pre-
ferred against her on this delicate subject. These charges, it is mortify-
ing to find, are not often stated in a tangible shape, either in printed
publications, spoken harangues, or private conversation. They exist,
generally, in the form of vague insinuations, which their authors never
put themselves to the trouble of explaining, and sometimes in that of
undefined suspicions, of which they are unable to give any intelligible ac-
count. Having their minds so beclouded, they do not know on what
particular point of our political creed they should make their attack, nor
what particular part of our political conduct they should arraign before
the bar of public opinion. Accordingly, they attack us on all sides in
those verbal hostilities'-which they wage" with our party, and convey the
unfavourable impression, that there is scarcely one thing in the whole
circle of politics in which our views are tenable. On this account, 1 ana
compelled to enter on a much longer line of defence than my wishes
would, in other circumstances, have dictated, and to bring forward a
variety of arguments, illustrations, and authorities, which might have
been spared, had our assailants occupied less ground. The aggression,
however, has been on their part ; we appear only on the defensive ; and
it were certainly a hard matter if those in rightful possession of the ci-
tadel, secured by the heroic struggles of their ancestors, and furnished
with the noblest privileges of religion, were not allowed to direct the
ample means of defence placed at their disposal to any quarter whatever
pn which attacks are made.

1. An injurious surmise, sometimes whispered against us, especially
in the ears of those who have not had opportunities of learning our real
views, is, that we are enemies to monarchical government. Such a sur-
mise was circulated with great activity against our persecuted fathers
shortly before the Revolution, who accordingly were reproached with
republicanism ; * and there is reason to apprehend, their avowed succes-
sors, in the present day, have not always escaped this hurtful suspicion.
Such a suspicion, in this country, where the peculiar institutions of mo-
narchy have long existed, the present distinctions of rank have long pre-
vailed, and the slightest tendency of opinion towards democratic equal-
ity awakens a host of bitter antipathies, must naturally expose ns, in

writers. Hume, for example, has scarcely allowed the opprobrious na.mes fanatics, reMs,
incendiaries, traitors, bestowed on the covenanters, to dry on his paper, when he adds, " they^
alarmed with such tyranny, from which no man could deem himself safe, began to think of
leaving the country, — were justifiable in their resistance to the king, &c. (Consult
vol. viii. 172, 173, &c.) Chambers, too, though lie applies to them, with the utmost
facility, all possible terms of reproach, is compelled at times to award them considerable
praise. Does he not prabe them indirectly, when he speaks, of "appreciating thp
infinite advantages which have accrued to Britain from the deposition of this race of
kings," the Stuarts? and especially when he adds, " the inhabitants of Scotland (le
luudably inspired with feelings of the utmost admiration and reverence for the pious m\n
who contributed to bring about that glorious event in their own country." (History of
the Rebellions, pp. 25, 1.52, 153.) Such testimonies to the laudaUc proceedings of our
ancestors, drawn from tories by the pure force of truth, in opposition to their political
partialities, are doubly valuable ; and more than neutralise all the special pleadings anfl
fulsome compliments which they have produced in defence of arbitrary governmenf:.
• Aikman's History ot Scotland, voi. iv. 484.

20 Vmdicalion of the Reformed Vreshijlerian Church.

the estimation of our countrynien, to considerable odium. I would re-
spectfully request, however, that they suspend their judgment in this
case till they shall have examined the evidence of our innocence, and
withhold their reproach till they shall have discovered the prevalence
of republican notions in some other body than ours.

It is a truth, Sir, as you will readily suppose, that the comparative
excellencies of the several forms of civil government present a question
on which our church has never indulged any formal discussion, or deli-
vered any judicial decision. We are all left, surely with the greatest
propriety, to form what opinions we choose on this debateable subject,
according to the intimations of Sacred Scripture and the lessons of prac-
tical experience. Accordingly, in whatever country our church has ob-
tained a footing, she inculcates dutiful submission, and enjoys ample pro-
tection, whatever be the form of the government. In the United States
of America, where she has organized, during the last fifty years, about
sixty congregations, over most of which well-educated pastors preside, it
is more than probable her members, generally, will have yielded to the
influence of national peculiarities, and imbibed the spirit of republican
institutions. Indeed it is matter of history, that some of her ministers
have manifested their preference for a " representative democracy," by-
some eloquent orations on the subject, * and obtained applause in the
highest quarter for their patriotic efforts in vindicating the injured,
rights of American citizens, t In this country, however, having our
judgments modified by early prejudices, by political associations, by par-
ticular influences from which even the most independent minds are not
wholly exempted, and by numerous advantages which have been de-
rived from monarchy during past ages, it is certain that we are all par-
tial to that form, founded on correct principles, and bounded with cer-
tain limitations.

It is worthy of recollection, that our covenanting ancestors — whose
political views we profess to hold— often displayed even a chivalrous
affection for their kings. When the republican regimen was adopted
in England, after the execution of the flrst Charles, and the numerous
sectaries in that country were crouching under the energetic admi-
nistration of the first Protector, who were iheij in Scotland, that
most firmly clung around the monarchy, though despoiled of its
head — proclaimed, with the usual formalities, the lineal successor,
though he was then in a foreign country — and made the greatest sa-
crifices with the utmost promptitude, to have him, on proper con-
ditions, raised to the throne of his fathers ? They were none other than
the party who have noAv been named — a party whose eagerness, to have

* Scriptural View, &c. by Alexander BI'Leod, D.D. of New York.

f There is one species of political equality they have accomplished, for which they de-
ferve unniingled praise. In the year 1800, their supreme ecclesiastical court passed an
act requiring members who held any of their fellow-men in slavery to restore them to
their just rights, otherwise they could not be retained in full communion. " This pro-
duced an additional evidence of the force of Christian principle. It triumphed over
self-interest ; and, in several parts of the United States, have men sacrificed on the altar
of religion, the property which the civil law gave them in their fellow-men- There is
not a slaveholder now in the communion of the Reformed Presbytery." — Prefate to a
Discourse on " Negro Slavery," preached in 1802, by Dr. M'Leod.

" The presbysery required of their connexions a general emancipation. No slavehold-
er is since admiUed to their communion." — Sketches of Ecclesiastical History, p. 128.

Vindication of the Ixe/'ormed Picshyierian Church. 21

the monarchy perpetuated in the person of their young prince, has sub-
jected them to the sneers of some of their warmest admirers — a party
whose persevering struggles, to retain for him these northern domi-
nions, showed very clearly the dislike they entertained to democracy
with its concomitant evils— a party whose feverish anxiety to obtain
from him the greatest securities he could give for the preservation of
the civil constitution, previously established, demonstrated the inextin-
guishable regard they had for monarchy with its various benefits — a
party, in short, who never shrunk from conflict with the victorious arms
of Cromwell till they Avere routed by superior numbers at VVorcester,
and even then " never surrendered their religious or political principles,
even when they submitted to physical force.* '' Was it fair, was it not
drawing largely on the credulity of mankind in their cotemporaries, to
represent such men, who have been justly called " the best friends of
the monarchy, the constitutional supporters of the throne," as turbulent
democrats, and fierce republicans ?

Let me recall, to the minds of your readers, the favourable ac-
count which Hume has given of their proceedings during this period.
" Though invited," he states, " by the English Parliament to model
their government into a republican form, they resolved still to ad-
here to monarchy, which had ever prevailed in their country, and
which, by the express terms of their covenant, they had engaged to
defend. They considered, besides, that as the property of the king-
dom lay mostly in the hands of great families, it would be difficult
to establish a commonwealth, or without some chief magistrate in-
vested with royal authority, to preserve peace or justice in the com-
munity. The execution, therefore, of the king, against which they had
always protested, having occasioned a vacancy of the throne, they imme-
diately proclaimed his son and successor, Charles II. ; but upon condi-
tion ' of his good behaviour and strict observance of the covenant, and
his entertaining no other persons about him, but such as were godly
men, and faithful to that obligation.' "t

•' The opinion of the Scottish nation," says another historian, " was
ever monarchical, and in all their disputes about liberty, they never
once suggested the possibility of a republic ; their covenants in the
most solemn manner, recognised the principle, and the people, although
they discarded the YtexsondX jus divinum of a king, had never denied the
divine authority of kingly government, when exercised according to the
word of God and the constitution of the country. Had the Scots, at
this moment possessed the power, there can be little doubt but that
they would immediately have declared vA^ar against the republicans ; but
the exhausted state of the country forbade any such attempt, and the
only alternative that remained, was to proclaim the son of the unfor-
tunate monarch king in his stead. Standing in the most delicate and
trying situation possible, the Scottish covenanters displayed a magna-
nimous affection for the race of their hereditary monarchs, which had
been meritorious had it not been so wretchedly misplaced.":};

Even after they were driven by the pressure of continued sufferings
and the prospect of future oppressions, to disown the authority of

* Aikman, vol. iv. 445.

-|- History of England, vol. viii. pp. 159, ICO.

X Aikmau's History of Scotland^ vol. iv. p. 361, 362.

22 rindicatio7i of' the Reformed Prcihi/terian Church.

Charles II., and his successor, they did not relinc^uish their attachment to
the monarchy. Had they entirely discarded a system under which they
had endured every s|)ecies of cruelty, barbarous and refined, speedy and
protracted — had they wholly uprooted that tree from which they had
reaped only the bitterest fruits, during many long years, instead of re-
posing in security under its shade, their conduct could scarcely have
excited our surprise. But they were too intelligent, too judicious, too
discriminating, to confound an institution which they had always con-
ceived to be good in itself, with the temporary abuses that were result-
ing from the misrule of wicked administrators. Their minds were for-
tified against that wretched logic which leads many, in modern times, to
declaim against various institutions sanctioned by divine approbation,
and conducive to human happiness, merely on account of the practical
evils to which they have been prostituted by the ignorance, or the folly,
or the depravity of man. While they denounce the administration of
affairs in those terms which justice warranted, patriotism prompted, and
posterity have approved, they carefully avow their continued affection
for monarchical institutions, so far as these have been limited by the pre-
cepts of revelation and the solemn engagements of the nation. Do they
not, in their declaration emitted at Rutherglen,* admit that it is the
usurpation of supremacy over the church, the subversion of various fun-
damental laws, and various other gross abuses of which they could
not obtain any redress, that moved them to disown the government ?
Do they not, in that published at Sanquhar t state, that though they
" reject Charles Stuart, who has forfeited the crown several years since,
by his perjury, breach of covenant, usurpation in church matters, and
tyranny in matters civil ;" yet they are " for government and gover-
nors, such as the word of God and the covenants allow ?" Do they not,
in their next manifesto, emitted at Lanark, J — a manifesto in which they
draw an affecting picture of their increasing sufferings, and make a
forcible appeal to the public, on the necessity they conceived themselves
under of prosecuting the vigorous resistance they had commenced — ex-
pressly declare, " We ought always to acknowledge government and
governors as ordained by God, in so far as they rule and govern accord-
ing to the rules set down by him in his word, and constitutive laws of
the nation. Is it any wonder that true Scotsmen, though we have been,
always, and even to extremity sometimes, loi/alto our Icings, should, af-
ter twenty years' tyranny, break out at last, as we have done, and put
in practice that power which God and nature hath given us, and we
have reserved to ourselves, as our engagements with our princes, have
been always conditional ?" In one word, do not the authors they pro-
duced, during the persecution, vindicate the propriety of the kingly of-
fice, and the advantages of limited monarchy, in the same volumes ||
which expose, with such force, the evils of arbitrary government, and
the inconveniences of universal democracy, as might be made evident
by numerous extracts } In short, no accusation could be more groundless

• May 29, 1679. f June 22, 1680.

ll: January 12, 1682.

II Sucli as Lex Rex, by Samuel Rutherford, professor of divinity in St. Andrews ;
A pologctical Relation, hy Mr. Brown, minister of .Wamphray ; NaphtuH, by IMr.
James Stirling of Paisley ; Jui Populi Vindkaium, by Sir James Stuart of (iood-
trecs, Lord Advocate, after the i-evolution.

Vifidication oj the Reformed Preshyicrian Church, 23

than the " universal representation given of them as republicans, by
their adversaries ; and *hey found themselves called upon to declare
their adherence to the monarchical system of government acknowledged
by the covenants, while they disavowed Charles Stuart, as their lawful
sovereign, — although descended ' as far as they knew' from their an-
cient kings."*

2. Equally unjust and ungenerous is it to insinuate that we are
enemies to the genuine principles of the present constitution. Though
we cannot bestow unviingled applause, we can honestly declare, the
more we compare this system with what it might have been, under a
different race of princes, we see the greater reason to hold it in grateful
remembrance. How degraded must our country have been, had the
Stuarts been permitted to persevere in exterminating her purest pa-
triots, overturning her noblest institutions, converting her churches
into dens of licensed robbers, her colleges into monkish cloisters, and
her palaces into military fortresses ! How wretched were our ex-
ternal situations, how dwarfed our mental energies, how few our
social privileges, and how gloomv our future prospects beyond that
horizon which terminates all our earthly troubles, had our lot been cast
under any one of the antiquated despotisms that degrade, demoralize,
harass, and plunder, our unfortunate fellow-men in most of the conti-
nental kingdoms ! Assuredly, we owe to God a debt of gratitude we
can never fully discharge, and to the memory of our patriotic fathers,
during a succession of centuries prior to the revolution, a tribute of
veneration we can never adequately pay, for the superior political in-
stitutions under which it has been our happiness during several ages to
live, and from \^hich we are permitted to derive, at the present moment,
many distinguished blessings. Well may we rejoice in such constitutional
principles as the following — " that the legislative power belongs to par-
liament alone," instead of being yielded to the mere will of the prince,
as in almost ail the other states of Europe ; that representation ex-
tending, in certain proportions, to all classes of the people, is an essen-
tial element of the constitution ; that no taxes can be imposed on any
order of the subjects without the consent of their legal representatives ;
that the country cannot be burdened v/ith a standing army in time of
peace, without the concurrence of the imperial parliament ; that the
king cannot, of his own absolute will, dispense with the laws passed
during preceding reigns, without incurring deposition ; that resistance —
that ultimate resource of an oppressed people — has been sanctioned by
the conduct of the three kingdoms at the revolution, as a privilege of
British subjects ; that the liberty of the press — that mighty instrument
of universal good — has been established under no greater restraint than
that authors shall be responsible for whatever they write contrary to
law. Of these vital principles of the constitution, established by long
practice, on a basis not likely ever to be shaken, we may justly be
proud ; nor should we value less highly, the private liberty of indivi-
duals, the perfect security of property, the impartial administration of
justice,t and that grand axiom declared a few years since, by Lord

* Aikman, vol. iv. p. 584.

f Such as are desirous of knowing the good principles of the British Constitution,
while they lament its manifold evils, may consult " The Constitution of England," by
J. L. Dc Lolme. To increase our gratitude, too, for the superior blessings we en-

21< Vindication of the Reformed Preshi/fcrian Church.

Mansfield, in a solemn decision promoted greatly by the philanthropic
exertions of Granville Sharpe, that persons, though they are slaves in
other countries, the mo7nent they arrive on British ground, that moment
theij are entitled to British liberty, — an axiom that justly entitles our
country to the poet's praise " slaves cannot breathe in England," and
justifies the orator's splendid peroration, which I cannot help quoting:
" I speak in the spirit of the British latv, which makes liberty com-
mensurate with, and inseparable from, British soil ; which proclaims,
even to the stranger and sojourner, the moment he sets his foot on
British earth, that the ground on which he treads is holy, and conse-
crated by the genius of universal freedom. No matter in what language
his doom may have been pronounced ; no matter what complexion in-
compatible with freedom, an Indian or an African sun may have burnt
upon him ; no matter in what disastrous battle his liberty mav have
been cloven down ; no matter with what solemnities he may have been
devoted upon the altar of slavery: the first moment he touches the sa-
cred soil of Britain, the altar and the idol sink together in the dust ;
his soul walks abroad in her own majesty ; his body swells beyond the
measure of his chains that burst from around him, and he stands re-
deemed, regenerated, and disenthralled by the irresistible genius of
Universal Freedom." *

It is no doubt true, we have declared in various writings, our disap-
probation of what appear to us evils in the present constitution, even
while we admire its distinguished excellencies. We have said, that
the total disregard which it implies of divine revelation which unfolds
the fundamental principles of political morality, and constitutes the true
basis of civil legislation, is a capital defect. We have said that, so far
as it does not inculcate national subjection to the authority of the
reigning Mediator, and secure the subordination of all political interests
to the promotion of true religion, so far must it fail in accomplishing
the real welfare of the community. We have said, more particularly,
that the supremacy granted the king over the internal affairs of the
church, as an inherent right of the crown, — that the ratification of ec-
clesiastical forms obviously inconsistent with the Scriptures, even though
they coincide with the wishes of the people, — that the presentation to
vacant parishes of candidates who have not been chosen by the unbiass-
ed suffrages of the Christian people, — that the admission to civil offices
of men who possess not the religious and moral qualifications Avhich re-
velation peremptorily requires, — we have said, we still say, and while
the Bible remains our perfect standard in politics no less than in reli-
gion, we will conthmt to say, that these appear to us glaring evils in the
present constitution, — foul blemishes in the statute book. But what
then ? Will any be so uncandid as to designate us enemies to the
many just principles incorporated with the constitution, merely because
we have condemned the unscriptural deeds that have, so unwisely, so
sinfully, and so perseveringly, been associated with them ? Surely to
utter the injurious insinuation, even to indulge the ungenerous thought,

joy under the present government, even while we testify against its immoral acts, we
should often recollect the dreadful sufferings our ancestors endured under their despotic
rulers, and, occasionally, survey the abject vassalage to which large communities of our
fellow-men in Catholic countries are still doomed by their tyrannical masters ; — as the
Italians, the Portuguese, the Spaniards.

* Edinburgh lleview Lxxxin. p. 173, 17t.
7

Vindication of the RcJ'ormed Presbijlerian Church. 25

were most unkind, most illiberal, most unjust. Such, indeed, is the
nature of our moral constitution, that we are disposed to regard, even
with ardent affection, the very object whose faults we perceive with the
greatest readiness, expose with the greatest freedom, and would remove
with the utmost expedition. He who regrets most bitterly the defects
of the mansion he has erected for his accommodation, points them out
most clearly, with an accurate eye, to the superintending architect, and
suggests most fully the requisite improvements for bringing it to as
high a state of symmetry, elegance, and splendour, as human art can ac-
complish, he surely displays the deepest interest in his dwelling, and
the greatest solicitude about the domestic advantages for which it was
originally built. So is it with the enlightened, benevolent, conscientious
citizen. If, with judgment, he exposes the defects of the political fabric
which his ancestors, in the infancy of the human mind, have erected, —
if, with zeal, he urges the political builders to supply, as speedily as
possible, those defects that now impair its actual usefulness, — and if,
with success, he demonstrates how much more beautiful the whole
structure would become, in the eyes of adequate judges, and how much
greater happiness it would yield to the millions reposing within its ca-
pacious halls, were it completed, according to the perfect model drawn
by the pencil of inspiration in the sacred volume, — he, I maintain,
evinces the purest, the warmest, the noblest affection for our applauded
constitution, — an affection inexpressibly more rational, healthy, and vi-
gorous than that of those indiscriviinaling loyalists, who profess they
cannot see, in the present system, any evils that require correction, —
those polilical worshippers who daily prostrate their minds before the
golden image, without ever allowing themselves to question the divinity
of the idol, — tliuse grovelling sycophants who are ever fruitful in extra-
vagant eulogies and unlimited professions as the easy price of any power,
emolument, and honour that may prove gratifying to their ambition,
avarice, and vanity. Such persons, let them be laymen or ministers,
churchmen or dissenters, nobles or commons, are the very worst of all
domestic enemies to our boasted constitution, inasmuch as they do what
they can, by their injudicious applauses, to perpetuate those very evils
that now so much obscure the lustre of its brightest excellencies, cir-
cumscribe the enjoyment of its noblest privileges, and hinder the in-
crease of its truest friends and purest supporters.

To eontirm still farther these views, and enrich the pages in which
they are recorded, allow me to quote a most appropriate passage from
an enlightened politician, an acute metaphysician, and an accomplished
writer, who was snatched away, a few years since, from those select
circles which he graced by his amiable manners, and captivated by his
instructive eloquence. " He is not a true lover of the society to which
he belongs," says Dr. Thomas Brown, " nor faithful to those duties
which relate to it, who contents himself Avith admiring the laws which
he might amend, and who, far from wishing to amend them, regards
perhaps, or professes to regard, every project of reformation, not as a
proposal Avhich is to be cautiously weighed, but as a sort of insult to
the dignity of the whole system, which is to be rejected with wrath,
and treated almost as a subject of penal censure. This blind admira-
tion is not patriotism, or, if it be patriotism, it is only that easy form of
it which the most corrupt may assume, without any diminution of their
own political profligacy. He who does not feel, in his whole heart, the

26 Vindication of the Reformed Presbyterian Church.

excellence of a wise and virtuous system of polity, is indeed unworthy
of living under its protection. But he who does feel its excellence will
be the swiftest to discern every improvement that can be added to it.
The very nature of affection is to render us quick to imagine something,
which may make still Idler what is good ; and though he who ad-
mires least a system may innovate most extensirely, there can be no
question that the most continued tendency to innovate in some slight de-
gree is in him who admires most, upon the whole, what he therefore
wishes most evidently to improve."

" If such be, as I cannot but think, the tendency of affection, the
loud and haughty patriotism of those who profess to see in any of the
systems of human policy, — which as human, must share, in some de-
gree, the general frailty of humanity, — no evil, which can require to be
remedied, and even no good which can, by any means, be rendered still
more ample in extension or degree, seems to me, for this very reason,
suspicious ; — at least as suspicious as the loud and angry patriotism of
those who profess to see in the whole system nothing which is not a fit
subject of total and instant alteration. If they loved truly what they
praise so highly, they would not praise it less indeed, but they would
wish, at least, to see it still more worthy of praise ; there would be a
quickness, therefore, to discover what would make it more worthy ; and,
though they might he fearful of innovating, they would yet have many
wishes of innovating, which nothing but the value of the subject of ex-
periment, as too noble to be put in peril, could operate to suppress."*

3. It is equally unjust to represent us as enemies to the measures of
every administration. No doubt, were the utimingled approbation, and
the uncondiiional support of any measures, fixed as the true tests of
political friendship, no administration could find any friends within the
pale of our church. We have long been accustomed to compare politi-
cal transactions, so far as they have been brought fully before our minds,
with the Bible — our system of politics, and to award approbation pro-
portionate only to the degree in which they have approximated this su-
preme, perfect, and immutable standard. Our magnanimous fathers,
in the seventeenth century, acted in this way Avith their usual fidelity,
even when the avowal of sound opinions, on various topics, which were
obnoxious to the Privy Council, subjected them to outward privations
and corporeal sufferings, never exceeded even in ages of papal perse-
cution. It were, then, disgraceful in us, who live in happier times, and
behold such bright models, to surrender the right of private judgment,
even on political opinions, to our superiors, and bestow, without the
smallest examination, unqualified applause on any acts, however doubt-
ful their moral character, which they have performed. We have in the
Bible an infallible rule, — " a perfect law," — to which both we and
they owe unceasing obedience in our respective relations, — from which
we and they are never warranted, in any case to swerve, out of re-
spect to the maxims of political expediency, — by which we and they shall
be judged according to our works, at the general resurrection, by the
exalted Redeemer ; and, according to this law, we feel ourselves equal-
ly disposed as bound, to estimate the character of whatever measures
they adopt, either in their domestic or foreign policy, and to measure the

* JLfCtiue. on the Philosophy of the Human Mind. Vol. iv. 386, 397, 388.

Vindicalion of the Reformed Presbyteriaji Church. 27

degree of approbation to which they are entitled from a Christian com-
munity.

Now, will any venture to allege that this thinking for themselves on
political matters, according to this supreme standard, must render our
people turbulent citizens, disaffected subjects? Such an allegation,
under whatever pretext made, were most irrational, unjust, absurd.
The same habit of discrimination that makes them quick in detecting
the errors into which administration falls, renders them equally quick
in discovering the virtuous measures which it pursues. If, at any time,
they find a good deal fitted to awaken their indignation, their astonish-
ment and alarm, their scriptural intelligence teaches them to regulate
these dangerous passions, to adopt only constitutional remedies, and to
shun, as they would a neighbourhood infested with the plague, or a vil-
lage visited with the eruptions of a volcano, the haunts of those turbu-
lent spirits whose ignorance, irreligion, and licentiousness, render them
pliable tools in the hands of unprincipled demagogues. Besides, the
growing disposition which they cherish, rather to applaud the good ac-
tions of others, than to censure their occasional faults, and rather to
manifest gratitude for the numerous blessings they enjoy, than betray
murmuring under the comparatively few evils they endure, leads them,
by a very natural process, rather to rejoice in the important advantages
they are deriving from government, than to repine under the partial
evils they are suffering. Such is the laudable course which they, guid-
ed by intelligence, principle, and patriotism, desire to pursue ; and
though they can animadvert on the practical evils of the kingdom, with
greater freedom perhaps than some other parties use, and charge the ex-
isting rulers with those public sins, from which, at the bar of revelation,
they cannot plead exemption, with a fidelity similar to that which pre-
vailed in the ages of the ancient prophets and Scottish reformers, yet
are they so convinced of the preponderating blessings they enjoy, under
the present regime, Avith all its imperfections — of the great advantages
that accrue to society from due subordination, — and of the sacred obli-
gations under which they are brought, " to lead a quiet and peaceable
life, in all godliness and honesty," that they habitually shun all violent
proceedings, all disorderly practices, and all seditious meetings — much
more so, unquestionably, than those swaggering loyalists who, having no
fixed principles, no moral convictions, and no political standard, can ap-
plaud any measures, however questionable their morality, panegyrize
any administration, however unconstitutional the policy they are pur-
suing, and, in short, follow with crouching servility, any course, good,
bad, or indifferent, that seems, in their little minds, consonant to their
selfish passions, and conducive to their secular interests.

Let not, however, this public avowal of a declaration dictated, — not
by presumptuous vanity, but, — by the painful consciousness that the
church to which I belong, suffers unmerited reproach, rest on mv au-
thority alone — the authority of an interested party, and, therefore, an
incompetent judge. I appeal to other sources of appropriate evidence.
I appeal to our public deportment, ever since the revolution, in times
even of political convulsion and mercantile distress. I appeal to the
observation of our fellow citizens, who cannot say that they ever knew
us entering into political clubs formed for revolutionary purposes, or
countenancing tumultuous meetings held for unconstitutional objects.
I appeal to the experience of our local magistracy, who will publicly

28 Vindication of the Reformed Presli/terian Church.

attest, what some of them have affirmed oftener than once in private,
that, whatever our political principles are, our political practice has
always been exemplary, so far as it has come under their notice, and has
never augmented the disagreeable business occasioned them on the
bench, by many others whose professions of loyalty have been peculiar-
ly loud, frequent, and ostentatious. I appeal to the candid ministers of
other churches, who will not hesitate to declare, that, whatever freedom
we use in testifying against the sins of the land, they have never wit-
nessed, in our conduct, any resistance to the civil authorities, — any vio-
lation of the public peace — or any concurrence with those political so-
cieties* which have been formed, on many occasions, in different districts
of the kingdom, for purposes deemed seditious or treasonable. I am
perfectly willing that the credit of our people for dutiful submission to
the laws, preservation of the public tranquillity, and exemplification of
social order according to the word of God, should thus be determined by
the unbiased voice of impartial spfectators altogether irrespective of our
own private statements and public declarations.

It is no doubt true, that we have repeatedly testified, in the most
public manner, against the practical evils of the government, — particu-
larly those which aflect the interests of true religion and rational liber-
ty. Nor do we feel ourselves warranted to retract any of the judicial
declarations which we have formerly emitted, or to recede from the
scriptural ground on which we have hitherto stood in all the firmness of
conscious rectitude. After repeated consideration, we still think go-
vernment guilty in giving such countenance to popery, a system that
lies under the severest denunciation of heaven-j- — in granting it a legal
provision in the provinces of Canada,| — in upholding its great supports
in the principal nations of the continent, — in admitting its avowed ad-
herents to political offices in this country for which they are not quali-

* Upwards of thirty years ago, when various societies for political reform arose in
this country, out of the French revolution, the supreme court of our church passed
an act, warning the people under their inspection, against having any connexion with
them, lest they might be led into the adoption of theoretical principles which are
erroneous, and of practical measures which are injurious, flow peaceful was their
demeanour during that stormy period, may be learnt from the testimony of impartial
GOtemporaries, and from the concessions of candid historians, as well as from the
statements of various writers among themselves. " They dare challenge their
most virulent and spiteful adversaries," said an able advocate in 1793, " to produce
a single instance wherein they were found with multitude or tumult, in a disorderly
way, having any behaviour tending thereunto, at any time. In the late popular
commotions, — although there was nothing in them that could be called seditious,
as the people of every civil state have surely a right to be heard in their own cause,
yet — because of the too general and promiscuous nature and tendency of their prin-
ciples and procedure, none of the reformed presbytery were found at the head, or
making any part, of those bodies of people called societies of reform. No body of
their people were found taking any part in these commotions, nor even an indivi-
dual with their allowance and approbation. As their principles have no tendency
to contusion, but to peace and order, so they have all along led peaceable and or-
derly lives, endeavouring to maintain a conversation, void of offence toward God
and toward man ; and would desire to be found waiting in the exercise of prayer,
faith and patience, until the Lord's time to favour Zion come." Answers to
Twelve Queries, by llev. William Steven, p. 7
•j- 2 Thess. ii, 7, 8. Rev. xviii. six.

I See the "Act for regulating the Government of Quebec," and "Free Thoughts on
the Toleration of Popery," pp. 13, 14.
7

Vindication of the Rifontied Presbyterian Church. 29

fied according to the obvious requisitions of revelation,* — and in voting
sucli large sums from the treasury to its chief colleges, from which are
issuing every year noxious swarms of professed Jesuits.t We still
think government guilty in supporting the gross evils that exist in the
united church of England and Ireland; in perpetuating the undeniable
corruptions that have crept into the Scottish church, such as the law of
jjatronage ; in tolerating the monstrous evils to which they are acces-
sory in our Indian territories, such as Suttees; in prolonging the atro-
cious system of slavery in our numerous colonies, without using efficient
exertions for its gradual mitigation and ultimate extinction ; and in
protecting a variety of pernicious abuses, against which just complaints
have been often preferred, in the constitution of our courts, colleges,
and corporations. But, upon what principle are we to be accounted
enemies to the government, because we have the honesty to tell them
what we, on good grounds, conceive to be undeniable truth ? Rather,
ought we not to be accounted their truest friends, because we wish the
abolition of those moral evils, from which they derive no real honour or
genuine happiness ? And should not those be accounted their greatest
foes who, while they address them in the language of unmingled adula-
tion, can grumble forth their discontents in secret societies, private co-
teries, and clandestine correspondence?

Should it still be alleged, that we have never voted any loyal ad-
dresses to government during all the time we have existed, I frankly
acknowledge the fact, and candidly think it no disgrace. We have pre-
ferred showing our submission to the laws, and our attachment to the
country, rather by our actions than by our words. We have never been
conscious of any secret misgivings in our minds respecting our reasonable
loyalty, and therefore have never proceeded to the throne with verbal
professions, intended to lull asleep any rising suspicions in the breast
of the king. JVe have never entertained in our bosoms any hostile de-
signs against the authority of our civil rulers, and therefore have never
needed to conceal them by a cloak of extravagant allegiance, which
some have, at different times, found it convenient to wear, lie have
never been guilty of the inconsistency into which several denominations
of Christians have fallen, of first laying it down as a settled axiom, from
which none must dissent, that churches have nothing to do with politics,
and then voting flattering addresses, filled with the very worst politics
that ever insulted the common sense of a Christian country. l\ c have
never cringed at the feet of our sovereign with servile effusions, which
must have offended his superior mind ; or danced attendance at his
levees, with officious servility, which must have disgusted honourable
courtiers ; or striven to ingratiate ourselves into the favour of his prin-
cipal secretaries, by voting them complimentary addresses expressing
political sentiments we did not hold, and promising public services we
did not mean to render, should our temporal interests dictate a different
course. We have done none of these things ; but will any man say,
that our submission has been the less steady, our patriotism the less

• Exodus xviii. 21, 22. 2 Sam. xxiii. 1 — 4, and many other passages.

f Their college at JMaynooth, which was established by Act of Parliament in 1795,
received at first from government L. 40,000, and, on a principle of false expediency, ob-
tains from the same cource, every year, for the support of its professors, L.SOOO. This
statement is founded on an extract, from an Irish author, inserted in the Protestant,
vol. iii. 351 ; hut were the parliamentary statement of their pecuniary votes before me,
1 could easily show that the yearly grant is somewhere about L.9800.

30 Vindication of the Reformed Preabtjterian Church.

pure, and our sacrifices for the public weal the less liberal, on that ac-
count ? I again refer him to the best of all umpires, in a question of
this kind, our j)racfical deportment — our practical deportment, especially
in seasons of strong political excitement, and under grievances of a
highly irritating character.

I could say much, Sir, on the insincerity of that noisy loyalty which
has sometimes assumed such extravagant pretensions, and uttered such
ludicrous offers. It may be laid down as an indisputable maxim, that
whoever makes great professions on any subject, evinces a consciousness
that the substantial oualities themselves are either grossly defective or
totally wanting. See you an individual boasting of his prayers, his fast-
ings, and his other devotions, and displaying his piety in sanctimonious
looks, affected tones, and visible m.ortifications, you may, generally, with-
out any breach of charity, pronounce him a hypocrite. See you a dema-
gogue declaiming with vehemence on the wrongs of his country, the op-
pressions of her rulers, and the numerous improvements he would intro-
duce in managing the public affairs, had the monarch only penetration
enough to discern his superior merit, and only patriotism enough to call
hi7n to public office, you will generally find him a tyrant in the domestic
circle, exacting blind submission to his orders, trampling on the rights
of his nearest connexions, and crushing all resistance by the fury of his
ungovernable passions. See you a medical practitioner puffing his nos-
trums in all the possible channels through which he can reach the
public mind, relating the marvellous cures which they have effected on
the patients whose maladies had baffled for years the whole faculty, and
proclaiming that their singular virtue can, in the very worst cases, en-
sure success never attainable by the combined skill of the most accom-
plished graduates, you at once class his advertisements with impudent
pretences, and himself with unprincipled empirics. In like manner,
see you a public body vaunting of their distinguished devotion to the
prince, their unqualified admiration of the ministry, the high plea-
sure they would feel in advancing the service of his majesty with their
lives and fortunes, and the unqualified honour they should receive,
were they allowed only once, during an age, to draw their swords,
you may rest assured that the patriotic principles themselves are not
in due proportion to the extravagant pretensions, — that the ster-
ling gold falls far short of the dazzling tinsel, — that the destruc-
tiveness of the fire against an enemy in the day of actual trial, would
by no means correspond with the brightness of the flash. The pro-
fligate " supporter of a system, for which he cares only as it ministers
to his vices, may see, perhaps, some more tempting promise of wealth
and power in a rebellion against that very authority, the slightest at-
tempt to ameliorate which he has been accustomed to represent as a spe-
cies of treason. The ignorant, who fall on their knees to-day, merely
because something is passing which is very magnificent, and before
which other knees are bent or bending, may to-morrow, when other
arms are lifted in tumultuous rebellion, join their arms to the tumult
and the dreadful fury of the day. It is only in the bosom of the wise
and good, as I have said, that any security of obedience is to be found."*

4. Not less unjust and unkind is it to represent us as enemies to our
country. That we should love the land that gave us birth — the land
on whose romantic scenes and venerable antiquities we have looked from

* Brown's Lectures, vol. iv. 370,

Findication of the Reformed Preshyterian Church. 31

our earliest years — in whose elementary schools Ave received our chief
lessons in useful education — in whose churches we have drunk the pure
water of life fresh from the living fountain of inspiration — the land un-
der whose government we have enjoyed, in security, our property, per-
sonal liberty, and select friends — in whose venerable universities some
of us have conversed with the illustrious dead, and listened to the
learned living — in whose cities benevolence has reared her noblest
institutions, reflecting on their citizens far higher honour than
even the splendours of their boasted architecture, and the beauties of
their surrounding scenery — in whose bleakest solitudes, the fervent de-
votions and persevering struggles of our " fathers' grandsires" have left
behind indelible traces that speak to our piety and our patriotism, in
language that thrills the soul with hallowed emotions we could never
feel in any other land — that we should love such a land is not more na-
tural than laudable. If the natives of the Polar regions love their moun-
tains, and enjoy their storms — if, notwithstanding their numerous priva-
tions, thev cling to the arid soil on which they have trod from infancv,
to the wild scenery from which they have seldom lifted their eyes, ex-
cept to gaze on the starry heavens, and to the wretched hovels, rude im-
plements, and gross superstitions, which have been consecrated in their
minds by a venerable antiquity, much more ought we, surely, breathing
a more temperate climate, enjoying a more advanced civilization, and
possessing the distinguished advantages of religion, laws, trade, com-
merce, science and literature, to cultivate a strong attachment to our
country, so pre-eminently distinguished above all others, and raise un-
ceasing thankfulness to " God who has not dealt so with any nation."

Have the party in question, then, manifested, by appropriate fruits,
this noble passion ? It must be admitted, no doubt, they have never
displayed that easy form of it which consists in empty declamation
against her enemies, in vaunting professions of regard for her welfare,
and in mere offers of personal service and pecuniary sacrifice when there
is no prospect of their ever being required, and no intention of their ever
being given. These are delusive appearances of patriotism, which the
most profligate demagogues may assume, without any diminution of their
political profligacy — exhibit in political assemblies with such seeminc
earnestness as shall impose on the credulous judgment of large multi-
tudes— and even maintain, through a series of years, till they shall
have secured some earthly prize, for which they were base enough to
act the part of political hypocrites. Assuredly, other manifestations
of patriotism are necessary to convince intelligent rulers and shrewd
observers, that the genuine principle has an abiding seat in our
mittds, and procure ourselves that confidence, esteem, and gratitude
that are justly due to those whose hearts are under its ennobling influ-
ence. Of these manifestations permit me to mention a few of the
more prominent.

All Christians will admit that, the cultivatiGii of personal piety is an
imjiortant element of true patriotism. Infidels, both speculative and
practical, cannot possibly be such pure, and disinterested, and devoted
patriots, as a genuine believer. Though they may contribute to their
country's service intellectual powers of the highest order, public labours
of great value, and pecuniary sacrifices of considerable amount, — though
they may, if statesmen, wear out their lives in vindicating her dearest
rights by the fruits of their arduous studies, and if warri3»*s, shed their
blood in defending her social institutions by the exertions of their mill-

32 Vindication of ihe Reformed Presbyierian Church.

tary bravery, it is impossible they can equal him in the purity of his
benevolent expression, the expansion of his public spirit, the prevalence
of his importunate intercessions, and the elevation of that virtuous mag-
nanimity with which he can, in the hour of national trial, subordinate
his private interests to the public good. He has learned, from the pre-
cepts, the examples, the very genius of revelation, to " deny himself,"
to love his neighbours with that affection which he expects from them
in similar circumstances, and to seek, by all the good offices in his power,
the Well-being of the political society of which he finds himself, during
his brief sojourn on earth, an humble member. While he cultivates re-
ligious affections, performs devotional duties, and prefers the unmingled
pleasures which await the soul in its highest state and brightest abode,
he cherishes an inextinguishable regard for the best interests of his pre-
sent country, the preservation of her temporal blessings, the promotion
of her commercial prosperity, and the happiness of her future genera-
tions. Is he not, indeed, the firmest of all bulwarks established for her
defence in seasons of imminent peril, the salt that preserves from cor-
ruption and dissolution the national body with which he is incorporated,
the chosen favourite of heaven, for whose sake many calamities are
averted, and many blessings are bestowed ? So far, then, as our party
have been cultivating the spirit which their religion breathes, and prac-
tising the devotional duties and social virtues it inculcates, thus far
have they, in the noblest form, been adding to the moral strength of
their beloved land, and the prosperity of her greatest interests.

The practice of correct morals is another thing equally conducive to
ihe real welfare of a country. No man of vicious habits, however ex-
alted his rank, princely his fortune, powerful his infiuence, splendid his
talents, can be justly accounted a true patriot. " I would lay it down
as an axiom," says a judicious moralist, " that a bad man cannot be a
patriot. A man of no private virtue must want principle, and a man
who wants principle cannot be actuated by pure motives. He cannot
entertain so liberal and exalted an aft'ection as a rational and disinte-
rested love of his country. J repeat, therefore, it will be necessary to
convince ourselves that a bad husband, a bad father, a profligate and an
unprincipled man, cannot deserve the name of a patriot, unless it is
given him, as it may indeed in the present age, by way of derision. If
a peer of the realm is found to be in constant opposition to the measures
of a ministry, it is easy to know the causes and the extent of his pa-
triotism, for a minister cannot always be wrong. The truth is, the
peer is of a conceited and turbulent spirit, yet unemployed by his
king. He lusts after power, and hopes to acquire it by force, since it
cannot be obtained by gentler means. He will even patronise rebel-
lion, and diffuse discontent throughout a kingdom, to injure a few in-
dividuals whose riches he covets, and whose honours he views with an
envious eye. Though he should sign a hundred protests in a session,
and daily eructate his invectives against the most respectable men, we
will not be misled ; for his patriotism is passion, his perseverance ava-
rice, and the same tongue which is ready to revile his king and embroil
his country, is usually as prone to blaspheme his God. When they
whom the constitution has appointed the hereditary guardians of the
laws, and liberties, and religion of their country, become the patrons of
lawless licentiousness, and the scoffers at every thing sacred, why hesi-
tate their countrymen to strip the coronet from their heads, and to
trample on their honour ? Tear off their ermine and that star which

{^indication of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. S3

belies their breast, for the meanest of their menials who performs his
humble duties in his humble station, is far nobler than they."* These
remarks being admitted, it follows, that in proportion to our practice of
pure morals, our performance of social duties, and even our ridiculed
abstinence from fashionable amusements, pleasures, and luxuries, which
usually enervate while they refine, and demoralise while they embel-
lish, in the same proportion are we contributing, in our humble sphere,
to advance the best interests of our country, to stem the tide of moral
profligacy which has swept away the foundations of government in
many other lands, and to swell the amount of national virtue which will
prove a moral bulwark more valuable in the season of public danger
than either the prowess of our boasted fleets, or the valour of our vete-
ran armies.

Another thing which powerfully contributes to the welfare of a coun-
try, is the conscientiousness with which the inferior orders perform their
respective duties. Splendid examples of patriotism must, no doubt, be
sought in the higher ranks, among those whose birth, opulence, heredi-
tary influence, and oflicial power, under the direction of genuine bene-
volence and public spirit, enable them to accomplish an amount of good
utterly unequalled by any thing that takes place in the lower walks of
life. But surely the very humblest members of society, who conscien-
tiously fulfil the several duties which they owe to the state, and dili-
gently prosecute the civil callings they have undertaken, are proving
themselves, with equal truth, though in a smaller measure, the real be-
nefactors of their country. " Why," asks an elegant author, " why hath
God instituted amongst us such a gradation of rank, such a variety of
conditions ? And why hath he created us mutually dependent upon one
another ? Why but

" That each may fill the circle niark'd by heav'ri."

Why, but to teach us that the happiness and comfort of civilized life do
not depend upon this or that individual, on this or that condition, on this
or that circumstance, but are the production of a reciprocity of services,
and of innumerable combinations ? Why, but to instruct us that, as
the animal system feels an equal necessity for the limbs and head, so the
frame of society has the same occasion for the labours of the hand, as
for the operations of the brain ; that the field and the shop are as essen-
tial spheres of usefulness, as the closet and the cabinet ; that the poor
are as necessary to the rich, as the rich to the poor ; and that the hus-
bandman who tills the ground, the carpenter who carves the wood, and
the miner who digs in the bowels of the earth, render services as essen-
tial, if not as important, to the community of which they are members,
as the magistrate who executes justice, the minister who inculcates vir-
tue, or the physician who practises the art of healing. In the great
bodv corporate of human society, strength of hands is as much wanted
as vigour of mind ; promptness of execution as fertility of invention :
and the meanest oflices in which the lowest ranks of men can be engag-
ed, are as requisite to the maintenance of civil order and the preserva-
tion of social harmony, as the highest offices of church or state can be,
though filled by men of political wisdom and unimpeachable integrity."
I What, then, though most of our people belong to the lower classes of
the coalmunity ? If they are active in the secular avocations to which

• Essays Moral and Literary by Vicesimus Knox, M.A. vol. i. pp. 40, 41, 42. Sec
also pp. 52, 57.

F

34 Vindication of the Reformed Presbyterian Church.

they Iiave been called, and devoted to the relative duties which they
owe to others around them, they ought to be enrolled among the genu-
ine friends and actual benefactors of their country.

Nor should we forget the prodigious benefits a country derives, as to
wealth, population, power, and happiness, from the vigorous prosecution
of trade, commerce, and the useful arts. " He is justly counted a bene-
factor to his nation," says Dr. Brown, " Avho has been able to open to
its industry, new fields of sup])ly, and to open to the products of its in-
dustry, new distant markets of commercial demands. He, too, is a be-
nefactor to the community who plans and obtains the execution of the
various public works, that facilitate the intercourse of district with dis-
trict, or give more safety to navigation, or embellish a land with its best
ornaments, — the institutions of charity or instruction. In accomplish-
ing, or contributing our aid to accomplish, these valuable ends, Ave per-
form a part of the duty which we are considering, — the duty of aug-
menting, to the best of our ability, the sum of national happiness."*
Now, to whom are modern countries principally indebted for these im-
portant public benefits ? I know I only echo the voice of European
history during these three centuries that have passed away since the
dawn of the Reformation, when I declare that thcj/ owe them chiefly, if
not, in some cases, exclusively, to the friends of true religion, rational
liberty, and popular rights. Look you to France ; " it has always been
to its protestant subjects that that country has been indebted for its
manufactures and commerce,"t not merely during the reign of Louis
XIV., when their immense wealth, as well as their religious heresy,
tempted him to drive them, by persecution, from his dominions, that
he might seize upon their property, but during every subsequent age,
when the freedom of human tiiought has developed itself in important
inventions and commercial activity. Look you to Switzerland ; there
those cities that are governed on the liberal principles of protestantism
are advancing every year in intelligence, trade, opulence, and popula-
tion, while those that have submitted to the withering influence of po-
pery,—as Constance, — exhibit the most painful contrast, the princi-
pal streets grown over with grass, the finest buildings decaying, and
the once flourishinij commerce reduced to the wretched traffic of relics.^
Look you to the United States of America; there " the most orderlv,
moral, and intelligent community in the world at that time," (the lat-
ter part of the seventeenth century,) " the first body of men who went
out with the rational view of gaining their bread by honest industry, in
its usual forms, were the Puritans" from England, — enterprising colon-
ists, who, though they " occupied an indifferent soil, destitute of the
precious metals, ham surpassed twenty fold in wealth and power their
rivals."\\ Look you to England; we are told that the '• Puritans were
animated by views large, and generous, and noble ; that to their preva-
lence and success the nation owes its liberty, perhaps, its learning, its
industry, commerce, and naval power,"§ — that she " owes a consider-
able share of her eminence, in several important branches of trade, to
religious foreigners,^ whose liberal opinions, provoking persecution in

• Lectures, vol. iv. .S85.

-|- Dewar's Discourses, 288.

f Coxe's Sketches, quoted by fllackray in his " Essay on the Effect of the Reforma-
tion on Civil Society in Europe." pp. 100, 101.

II Scotsman, 12tli December 1829. See also Cooper's " Notions of the Americans,"
vol. i. 120-146.

§ Hume; if Dewar, 288.

Vindication of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. 35

t.heir own lands, induced tliem to settle in ours," — and that " it has been
found, by a recent and accurate investigation, that her chief manufac-
tures still continue to be conducted, either by religious persons, or by
those who are the descendants of such persons."* Look you to Ireland ;
we are further informed, that, " it was the covenanters expelled from
Scotland by the profligate ministers of profligate tyrants, who began
the linen-trade of that country ; and this trade was greatly extended by
the ample accession of talent and industry introduced to that coun-
try by those Avhom the revocation of the edict of Nantes sent
into exile."t Or look you to our own part of the island ? to what
are we indebted for the public works, parochial schools, agricultural im-
provements, domestic trades, and foreign commerce, that give it such
pre-eminent distinction, but to the exertions of enlightened protestants,
or rather to the spirit of invention, enterprize, and activity that has
been generated in their bosoms by the liberty of private judgment, and
the security of actual property, they have enjoyed ever since the revolu-
tion ? Now, from this induction of facts, the conclusion I am warranted
to draw is, that, so far as our people have imbibed the enterprising spi-
rit produced in all Protestant countries by the reformation, and have
persevered in diligent application to the several branches of industry in
Avhich they have been engaged, thus Jar have they been contributing,
in their humble sphere, to the national wealth — ^just as the smallest ri-
vulet, joining in its descent other rivulets, helps to form the majestic
river that rolls along the plains beneath, diffusing fertility, health and
joy, over its verdant banks, and bearing the richest products of other
climes to the crowded cities past which it flows.

The manifestations of patriotism hitherto mentioned, are manifesta-.
tious which our people have given in common with the thousands of
ChriSjtians, both in the national church and other classes of Protestant
dissenters. But there are two other manifestations peculiar to themselves,
which it were singular injustice to pass over in total silence, and which,
can be related nearly in the laudatory terms which writers in other
churches have been constrained to record.

The first of these is the brave resistance which they opposed to the
" gigatitic encroachments of despotism" for several years prior to the re-
volution. I readily grant, many sufferings should be endured, many re-
monstrances presented, and many strenuous endeavours to improve their
political condition made, before a people are warranted to reject by de-
claration, and oppose by force, even such a government. A revolution
is always a dreadful experiment, — " the very last resource ;" and never,
until all other practicable means of removing political grievances have
been tried in vain, are they justified in hazarding such a crisis. But,
when idl these means have been used with prudence, energy,^ and per-
severance, without procuring any relief — when the afflicting tyranny
continues, with remorseless cruelty, to trample down the rights, the pri-
vileges, and lives of an unoffending nation — when " the prospect of the

• Dewar, 288, 289.

•)- " A considerable stimulus was given to the English silk manufacture by tlie revo-
cation of the edict of Nantes in 1685. Louis XIV. drove, by that intolerant and dis-
graceful measure, several hundred thousands of his most industrious subjects, to seek an
asylum in foreign countries ; of whom, it is supposed, about 50,000 came to -England.
Such of these refugees as had been engaged in the silk manufacture, several branches of
which were then in a comparatively advanced state in France, established themselves in
Spitta! fields, which has continued, ever since, the principal seat of the British silk xaa,-
nut'act\xie".^£diniurghJlcvkw, vol- Ixxxv, p. 77.

36 Vindication of the Reformed Presbyterian Church.

future appears as bad as the experience of the past/'* and when there
is a rational probability of securing, by persevering struggles and pru-
dent counsels, not only the removal of present despotism, but the erec-
tion of a happier system, then does it become morally right to avail them-
selves of that last resonrce.\ Such was the conduct of our oppressed ances-
tors during upwards of eight years before the exclusion of the Stuarts
from the throne. Perceiving clearly, from the debased character of these
princes, the flagitious counsels of their ministerial hirelings, and the
crouching servility with which the majority were succumbing under
every new encroachment on their rights, laws, and parliaments, that
there was before them the dismal prospect of still severer cruelties, and
still greater infringements than any they had yet suffered, unless open
resistance rvere offered, they " had the integrity and the boldness to re-
sist with arms, the gigantic encroachments of despotism — to assert in
the face of every danger their rights as Christians and as freemen. They
did not openly announce their revolt from government, until they were
provoked and exasperated to a degree of madness, by its oppressive ex-
actions, and brutal inhumanities. The law, by placing their lives and
properties at the mercy of every ruffian soldier, or every hireling in-
former, had laid them as it were, under an absolute necessity of entering
into leagues and compacts for their mutual security. Their example
served to keep alive a wholesome spirit of resistance in the nation. It
was the hidden leaven that fermented the mass of public opinion.
Amidst the solitude of caves and deserts, they fanned the feeble spark
of opposition, and cherished, on their lonely altars in the wilderness, the
vestal fires of expiring liberty ; unconscious, perhaps, that the flame was
so soon to burst forth, and wrap, not only the British isles, but the con-
tinent of Europe in the general conflagration." J Are these the men
upon whom this generation should be taught to pour out their ridicule,
— ^men who sacrificed their private interests for the sake of those social
liberties which the majority were tamely surrendering — men who hur-
ried, with noble daring, to the vessel of the state, shattered by the storms
of persecution, and sinking in the " great waters" into which she had
been brought by unprincipled " rowers," while multitudes, with unen-
vied pusillanimity, were content to remain on the shores, regarding chief-
ly their own personal safety, and their own private advantages, and re-
fusing the least efficient help till they saw the fury of the storm ex-
hausted, and the clouds of the political horizon spent, upon the heads of
others }

I'he other distinguished proof of patriotism, to which I have alluded, is
the distinguished part they acted at the revolution. Important as were
their previous sufl^erings in preparing this kingdom for that grand
crisis, and precious as were the seeds of liberty they scattered over the
vallies and mountains from which succeeding generations have reaped
such an ample harvest, it is now, generally, admitted, that their ser-
vices 071 this occasion eclipsed even the splendour of their former achiev-
ments. " They are," says an episcopalian clergyman, " of longer stand-
ing, as a distinct body, than any denomination of presbyterians who

* Burke.

-f On this delicate but legitimate subject of discussion, consult Brown, vol. iv. p. 366—
382 — D wight, vol. iv. 149— 15:5 De liolme, 308— 318.

I Life of Lieutenant-Colonel Blackader, 37, 38. 43, 44. See two other testimonies
in their favour, quoted in a former communication, inserted in the Christian Instructor
for September 1829, p. C42, 643.

P'indicaliou of the Pefdnned Preshyterian Church. 37

liave separated from the established church. They, in fact, never be-
longed to the present establishment, but are the only existing one of
that multitude of sects that started up during the troubles in Bri-
tain, in the middle of the seventeenth century. The present esta-
blishment, however, owe them a debt of gratitude, for their services at
the revolution. A memorial of their activity and zeal on that occasion
still exists in the 2Gth regiment of foot, which was first raised from their
body, and still bears the name of Cameronians."* " '1 he part they
acted at the revolution," says another living author, " while it wiped
off reproaches from their past conduct, extorted approbation even from
their enemies. Their general political principles were recognised by
the whole kingdom. Many commended their zeal, their sincerity, and
consistency, who had shrunk with irresolution from the same dangers,
and were then anxious to bury the memory of their delinquencies in
silence and forgetfulness. The language they emploved in their me-
morial to King William for redress of grievances, and their activity in
his service, show that they could be peaceable subjects as well as fac-
tious rebels, that they could bow with submission to the sceptre when
swayed by proper hands, for the good of the people and the prosperity
of religion. We find those turbulent subverters of thrones and autho-
rities, not only acquiescing, without a murmur, in the restoration of
magistracy and limited monarchy, but cheerfully expending their lives
and fortunes in their support. That their professions of loyalty might
not evaporate in idle words, they stood forth in arms, to realize their de-
clarations, the moment their interposition could be of service. As they
had been eminent for their sufferings under tyranny, they were not less
conspicuous as the first to take the field in the war of emancipation.
" In order," they declare in their memorial, " to make good our inten-
tions, we modelled ourselves into companies, that we might be in readi-
ness to offer our assistance. This we did offer, and had the honour
done us to be accepted. We were admitted to guard and defend the
Honourable Meeting of Estates, against all attempts of the Duke of
Gordon, Viscount Dundee, and other enemies. Thereafter, understand-
ing that the government required the raising of forces, for its defence
against intestine insurrections and foreign invasions of the late King
James and his accomplices, upon this occasion, we were the first that
offered to raise a regiment for his majesty's service, and, accordingly
did make up the Earl of Angus's regiment of 800 men, all in one day,
without beat of drum, or expense of levy-money, having first concerted
with Lieutenant-Colonel Cleland, such conditions and provisions as we
thought necessary for clearing our conscience, and securing our liberty
and safety." Nor did their activity relax, after they had secured the
confidence, approbation, and even admiration of the new government.
" Their activity was pre-eminent, and their general conduct marked
with a forbearance surpassing expectation. When the rumour spread
that the Irish catholics had commenced a general massacre, and burnt
the town of Kirkcudbright, they ran to their arms ; but finding no ene-
my to oppose, they turned their weapons against the images and idola-
tries of popery. They afterwards distributed themselves in several par-
ties along the borders, to cut off the enemy's sources of information, by
preventing all strangers, without passes, to enter or leave the kingdom.
A considerable body of them were stationed as a regular guard, on the
castle-hill, to intercept intelligence and provision for the garrison, and

• The Religious World Displayed, by Robert Adam, M. A. vol. ii. 3.

S8 Vindication of the Reformed Presbyterian Church.

otliers were employed in digging trenches preparatory to the siege/'
Afterwards, at Dunkeld, " a company of seven or eight hundred raw
volunteers, who had never seen a pitched battle, and had scarcely been
three months in the service, repulsed and defeated an army of 50U0 dis-
ciplined Highlanders," under General Canon.* " This engagement gave
lise to a great deal of surmise and discourse. The regiment was every-
where commended for their bravery and intrepid conduct. Their un-
paralleled courage was the subject of universal admiration. It so inti-
midated the rebels, that they never attempted to appear in any great
body afterwards, or attempted to disturb the peace of the country. The
terror of their name served to keep the country in awe ; for a body of
Highlanders, having come to plunder about Montrose, as soon as the
Cameronians showed themselves, lied with precipitation without daring
to stand or offer the least resistance."t

5. Not less uncandid is the charge, frequently stated in books^ and
i;isinuated in conversation, that we hold persecuting principles. So ut-
terly groundless is this charge, we allow, in the fullest sense for which
any Ciiristian can plead, the right of private Jndgtnent on religious opin-.
ions. We consider this one of the greatest rights ever granted to man
by his gracious Creator, — a noble privilege, worth all the blood, and
treasure^ and eloquence, that have been expended, in past ages, in vari-
ous lands, for its recovery from the iron grasp of despotism, spiritual
and political. It is, indeed, the grand foundation on which thf, whole
fabric of protestantism, in its doctrines, and laws, civil institutions, and
ecclesiastic privileges, has been erected. Remove this, and the magni-
ficent structure, reared by the hands, and cemented with the blood, of
our intrepid fathers, in these countries, would be magnificent no more.
Remove this, and the Reformed churches, that now rejoice, so justly, in
tlie precious liberties they possess, and the unrestricted inquiries they
prosecute, would become little papacies, trampling on the imprescripti-
ble rights, and disregarding the deliberate convictions, of others who
hiid exercised only the privilege of thinking for themselves, in religion,
or morals, or politics. Hence, our churcii strenuously contends, that
no authority whatever, residing either in individuals, in councils, or ca-
binets, has any warrant, under any pretext, to dictate to others, the;
creed they are to adopt, or the mode of worship to which they should

'* Even Chambers, referring to this brilliant affair, is constrained to record the follow-
ing concessions : '* It was soon to appear that their spirit, however compounded, was to
make them perform one of the most unexceptionably brilliant military exploits which
©ccurred throughout the whole of the war. They made a most desperate resistance.
I'rom the tops of the walls which enclosed ihem, they tired furiously and incessantly up-
en the clustering muhitudes which came forward. They maintained a close and effec-
tive fire from Dunkeld iiouse, the leaden roof of which they fused down into slugs
during the engagement. At length when the skirmish had continued four hours, the
ilighlanders, having failed in their supplies of ammunition, judged it advisable to re-
tire from the town. Quitting the scene with the most acuie sensations of disappoint-
ment, they ran off' towards the hills, leaving, it is said, nearly 300 of their body killed
en the spot, while the enemy had lost only two ofHcers, and lifteen private men. Their
feelings were not a little embittered as they were retiring, when they saw the Came-
lonians flourish their colours triumphantly within their fort, at the same time beating
their drums, and hurling after them phrases of contempt and defiance. Their officers
attempted, after they regained the hills, to make them come back and renew the assault ;
but iliey answered that, however willing to tight against men, they begged to be excused
firom lighting any more with devils." History of the Rebellions in Ibcotland, 121, 124),
126.

f Life of Lieutenant-Colonel Blackader, 44, 45, 48, 49, CO, 61, 81>, 100, 105, 106.
See Fai.tliful Contendjngs, 304 413.

P'indication of the Reformed- Presbylerian Church SQ

conform. Such dictation, in our judgment, were an insolent usurpation
of a right which belongs to themselves, by an irrevocable grant from
heaven, — an unprincij)led invasion of a sacred province, which even the
feet of royal strangers cannot touch without polluting, — an impious sub-
stitution of human power in the room of that supreme Ruler, who alone
is " the author and linisher of our faith,"* — who " only is Lord of the
conscience which he has left free from the doctrines and commandments
of men in matters of faith and worship."t

No doubt, we maintain that every man, in exercising this natural right,
should yield unreserved subjection to the authority of divine revelation.
Upon no account is any one warranted to exert his mind, apart from that
perfect standard, on theological topics, — to follow the feeble glimmering
of the light of nature, instead of the full blaze of revelation that shines
around him. However cultivated his mind, however copious his intel-
lectual acquirements, and however well qualified to explore the inter-
esting regions of natural science, with the lamp of genius, and the light
of observation, he has no right to elevate his fallible judgment above the
unerring mind of the Deity, or to prefer the crude notions suggested by
natural reason, to the certain truths developed in the oracles of inspira-
tion. Accordingly, we uniformly teach, that his conscience, though
free from human interference, and exempted from civil jurisdiction,
continues under the absolute control of Deity, owes scrupulous subjec-
tion to his Spirit, and is accountable to his tribunal for whatever opin-
ions it adopts in the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures. Now, will
any man, who possesses the smallest portion of penetration, candour,
and honesty, aver that this is a persecuting principle } Would it not
be more correct to admit, that this is a most salutary restriction impos-
ed on our erring minds, to keep them from the adoption of fatal errors
on the most important subjects, and to confine them within the fixed li-
mits of that province in which alone they can employ their powers, with
propriety, in the pursuit of religious, moral, and political truth ?

When, therefore, we state, in any of our writings, that no man, liv-
ing in a country blessed with revelation, has a right to worship God ac-
cording to his conscience, our language muiit be understood in the re-
stricted sense that has now been explained. We do not mean that
civil rulers have any authority to restrain him in the exercise of his pri-
vate judgment, — to call him to account for the religious opinions he
holds, — or to inflict on him positive penalties for any speculative here-
sies into which he may have fallen. We mean merely that God has
set bounds to private judgment which he cannot pass, without the
greatest presumption, — prescribed certain doctrines in revelation which
he cannot reject, without incurring divine displeasure, — and " appoint-
ed a day" on which he must answer to the Supreme Judge for all the
acts of his understanding, and all the articles of his belief, no less than
for the emotions of his heart, the words of his tongue, and the actions
of his life. Indeed, a claim to think, as he pleases, without any respect
to the authority of the Bible, is a claim not more presumptuous towards
the " P'ather of our Spirits," than productive of the most pernicious er-
rors and licentious rites that have ever disgraced any part of our fallen
species. W^here is there a single absurdity in belief, however monstrous,
or a single abuse in worship, however degrading, for which this unre-
stricted liberty of conscience is not pleaded, at the present moment, by de-
luded thousands ? Ask yon emaciated fanatic, who has vowed to exer-
cise his austerities in the unpeopled desert, or the solitary cave, who

• Heb. xii. 2. t Confession, chap. ^, wc. 2.

40 Findkation of the Reformed Presbyterian Church.

boasts of the numerous penances, and frequent ablutions, to which be
subjects bis body, and who expects heaven as the reward of these irra-
tional services, so degrading to himself, and so disgusting to others, —
ask him, what prompts him to such foolish observances, he will answer,
his conscience. Ask that expiring Hindoo, who has been carried, at
bis own request, within water-mark of the Ganges, who is afflicting his
frame with all the sufferings the remains of his strength can inflict, and
■who imagines that his soul will be washed from all its impurities by the
approaching waves that shall produce the suffocation of his body, — ask
him why he submits to such suicidal practices, he will at once reply, his
conscience. Or ask that priestly procession issuing from the gates of
the Inquisition amid the deafening sounds of music, conducting an
avowed heretic to the stake, around which the flames shall soon rage with
a fierceness equalled only by the phrenzy of his ghostly murderers, and
rojoicing in his near destruction for no other offence than that of having
exercised, with commendable freedom, the judgment which his Maker
had given him, — ask them, why they are thus putting him to death, they
Avill unblushingly reply, their conscience. And thus is the sacred autho-
rity of conscience— the moral deputy of God in the human bosom — al-
leged as an excuse for the perpetration of crimes, at the very thought
of which humanity shudders, and for the maintenance of absurdities, on
the very mention of which common sense blushes. Away with that li-
centious use of conscience which the Deity has never sanctioned, and
revelation does not tolerate ; and let revelation itself, henceforth, be pre-
ferred as the supreme standard to which all the dictates of private con-
science should be conformable, — " as a more sure word of prophecy,
whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth
in a dark place."*

Is it alleged against us, that we hold the opinion, that civil govern-
ment in every country should employ its power, its resources, and in-
fluence in favour of the true religion ? I admit the truth of the allega-
tion. We do hold, on .scnp/wrrtl evidences, which have always proved
to our minds quite irresistible, this important doctrine, however obnoxi-
ous to many dissenters in modern times. We cannot erase from our
hearts the conviction that this is a truth, taught in the strongest terms
in the sacred volume, and entitled, therefore, to our cordial assent and
zealous support, whatever abuses may have, in past ages, arisen from the
undue interference of temporal rulers in the affairs of national churches.
When we reflect on the importance of genuine religion to the moral wel-
fare of civil society, on the approved examples of pious magistrates
among the Hebrews, who used their office in supporting revealed reli-
gion, on the express precepts obligatory under the Christian economy,
by which civil rulers are commanded to perform various duties on be-
half of the church, and on the numerous predictions in which it is clear-
ly promised they shall employ their authority, their riches and their
rank, in testifying their cordial subjection to the Redeemer, and their
warm devotion to the church, — when we reflect on these and similar
considerations,-h we are unable to repress the unwavering conviction that
arises in our minds, that they, if they act according to the evident requi-
sitions of the Bible, have a great deal more to do Jbr religion than is as-

• 2 Pet. i. 19.

•}• One of the ablest discussions of this subject I have met with, is contained in a small
volume that deserves to be more generally known — " Statement, &c. by Dr. I^l'Crier
See pp. 109-154. Much scriptural illustration is also furnished by another excellent
seceder, venerable for his piety, his worth, and his years — the Kev. John Brown of
Haddington— in his "Letters," &c.

Vindication of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. 41-

signed them by infidel politicians, and a number of too liberal dissenters.
But while we hold this doctrine, explained in a proper manner, and
bounded with certain limitations, we are equally decided in condemn-
ing persecution, not only for religious opinions, but for opinions on any-
other subject whatever. Any attempt to suppress speculative errors, or
propagate revealed doctrines, by compulsory measures, we would view
with mingled feelings of regret, indignation, and alarm. A more fright-
ful spectacle could not possibly present itself to our sight, than that
of a magistrate marching through his territories with the Bible in one
hand, and the sword in the other, prosecuting a sanguinary crusade
against every class of opinions that differs from his own, and making all
whose minds refuse assent to the strength of his arguments, tremble at
the infliction of his punishment. However anxious we are to see reve-
lation diffused over all countries, received by all ranks, exalted to its
rightful supremacy over all minds, and imparting its spiritual blessings,
no less than its temporal benefits, to all the tribes of our perishing fel-
low-men, we will not consent to the use of any other than spiritual wea-
pons in this sacred warfare — argiimenl, eloquence, and prayer. Let these
weapons be wielded, with an energy inspired by the very excellence of
our cause, — let irulh have an open lield where her opponents cannot take
any undue advantage, — let the minds on which we would operate ex-
pand under improved systems of education, and sounder modes of think-
ing,— let the objections of infidelity and scepticism and vice be subjected
to the freest examination, and sifted with a minute scrutiny before
which they must vanish into air, and the result will be answerable to
our wishes without the aid either of military force or civil coercion.
'•' Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh ; for the
weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty, through God, to the
pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high
thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing
into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."*

Is it further alleged against us, that our predecessors, before the revo-
lution, maintained the propriety of punishing with death all classes who
diftered from them in religious matters ? I deny the allegation. It is
utterly unfounded, having no support either from their avowed writings,
or from their actual conduct. That they were exceedingly anxious for
the universal prevalence over these countries of the scriptural creed to
which they themselves maintained promised adherence, and for the total
abolition of those unscriptural systems which were not more opposed to.
the solemn engagements of the kingdom, than they were hurtful to the
best interests of civil and ecclesiastic society, is most readily granted,
and forms, surely, matter rather of unmingled eulogy than of severe re-
prehension. But that they avowed the propriety of inflicting death on
uU others who dittered from them on account of their opinions, is a base
slander, which their uniform practice repels, and their acknowledged
writings refute. In a powerful document, published in lti84.,t
they expressly declare, " that our mind may be the more clearly under-
stood, and for preventing further mistakes anent our purposes, we do
hereby jointly and unanimously testify, and declare that, as we utterly
detest and abhor that hellish principle of killing all who differ in judgt.
ment or persuasion from us, it having no bottom on the word of God or
right reason ; so we look upon it as a duty binding upwn us, to publisl^

* 2 Cor. X. 3, 4, 5.

•}- Admonitory Vindication, inserted in the Informatory Vindication, p. 186, ,

G

42 FindicaLion of the Reformed Presbj/terian Church.

openly to tlie world, that we are firmly and really purposed not to in-
jure or offend any whomsoever, but to pursue the ends of our covenants,
in standing to the defence of our glorious work of reformation, and of
our own lives." Some time afterwards, in a larger publication, they use
still stronger language,* " We positively disown as horrid murder, the
killing of any, because of a different persuasion and opinion from us ;
albeit, some have invidiously cast this odious calumny upon us."

Or is the ignorant reproach thrown out against us that, our fathers
immediately after the revolution, blamed the lenity of the new govern-
nient to a multitude of the episcopalians who had been very active in
supporting the abolished despotism ? I admit the truth of the state-
ment, without conceding that they deserve censure. I would ask, upon
rrhat ground did they condemn such lenity in the new sovereign they
had done so much to establish on his throne, or, in other words, the re-
fusal to visit the numerous individuals in cpiestion with adequate pu-
nishment ? Not because they had avowed different inews in religion —
er preferred the episcopal hierarchy that was now abrogated — or pub-
lished such extravagant notions regarding the prerogatives of the crown
as justly exposed them to the derision of all independent minds — but,
sim})ly, because they had been guilty of crimes against the liberties, the
goods, and the lives of thousands, for which they had never been called
to any account ; and, because, according to the principles of national
justice, and even the provisions of the existing constitution, they deserv-
ed various punishments. Do they not avow this as their motive at a
*' General Meeting," held the 18th of July I68.Q? "Upon the conside-
ration that there had been much precious blood of the Lord's people
shed in this land, in the time of the late persecution ; and now a door
being opened, in holy providence, whereby access was given, and some
hopes of getting justice executed on the murderers, they concluded it
was their duty to seek, and cry for justice on the murderers of their
brethren, and that the parliament should be petitioned for the same."f
Do not the regiment, J in the petition they addressed, at the same time,
to the Parliament, avow precisely the same views ? Being," say they,
" to march to the Highlands, further from all access to your honours,
and nearer the enemy, with whom we look for daily conflicts, none of us
knowing who may first enter into eternity, we request that we, and our
brethren in the country, be admitted to represent our grievances sus-
tained these years bygone, under the late tyranny, and impeach, ac-
cording to course of law and justice, the instruments and executioners
of that bloody cruelty exercised on us and on our brethren, especially
such notorious criminals as have without, and against, all colour of law,
without any trial or sentence, murdered many honest and innocent per-
sons, whose blood cries for vengeance, and he to whom it belongs craves
it of your Honours to execute it; as being the only way revealed in his
word, whereby the land may be cleansed from the blood shed therein." §
Now, looking at these extracts from their own minutes, will any man
have the effrontery to say that it was a spirit of persecution that govern-
ed them ? Was it not the love of justice, — the impartial execution of
which has ever been found indispensable to the stability of kingdoms
and the satisfaction of all virtuous men, — that dictated their speeches,

* Infonuatory Vindication, p. 68. f Faithful Contendings, p. 407.

^ I mean tlie regiment that was raised by the party, at the revolution, without any ex-
pense to government, and that performed such important services in crushing the adher-
ents of the exiled king — Sec Instructor for May, 315, 316.

§ Faithful Contendings, p. 409.

Vindication of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. 43

their resolutions, their petitions ? Surely if, in these happier days in
which oicr lot has been cast, the voice of public indignation calls aloud
for vengeance on the single murderer wlio has lifted his arm against a
single fellow, and is echoed back by the prompt proceedings of our she-
riffs, our juries, and our judges, was it right that a band of murderers,
whose hands were yet reeking with the blood of unoffending thousands,
should have been screened, on any principle of expediencv, from the
justice their crimes had provoked, either by the royal orders under which
they had acted, by the coronets which some of them had so foully dis-
graced, or by the sacred robes in which others had impiously dared to
officiate, while they were abetting the blackest offences?* Listen to
the judicious remarks of an author in the national church, from whom I
have already borrowed some imj)ortant extracts.

" In making this latter request — that the more notorious of their
late persecutors might be legally impeached and punished — they were
not actuated by any vindictive desire of shedding blood. They con-
sidered themselves as called upon to demand justice on their oppressors ;
and that, without being guilty of any criminal intentions, thev might
pray the vengeance of government to overtake those, who, though not
arraigned before any human tribunal, were condemned to the punish-
ment of murderers, by the laws of God and the justice of all nations.
They were provoked and scandalized to see them, not only indemnified,
but continued in authority, and crowded into the ranks of the army ; for
many, they alleged, had sought a sanctuary under the royal standard,
not from any love to the cause, but to screen themselves from the conse-
quences of their past crimes. These sentiments of the Camcron'ians were
certainly just. The extreme leniency of William in not calling to some
account the authors of the cruelties and extortions of the preceding reign,
is unparalleled in the history of revolutions, and may be said to have
left a political stain on his administration. Perhaps it may be attri-
buted, more to the unexpected difficulties with which the government
had at first to contend, than to any extraordinary clemency or culpable
indifference in the crown ; but assuredly, the abettors of tyranny, who,
by their flagitious counsels, had brought church and state to the brink
of ruin, ought to have felt the weight of his resentment. It would have
been no trespass against the rules of equity had mercy been meted out
to them according to their own measure. This was only what the wrongs
of the nation and the injured honour of the laws demanded. The blood
of Russel and of Sidney required expiation ; the oppressions of Lauder-
dale called aloud for retribution ; the atrocities of Dalzell and Claver-
house demanded investigation and redress ; the tears of many widows
and orphans, — the blood of martyrs that perished on fields and scaffolds,-—
the miseries of those who languished in banishment or slavery in foreign
plantations — should have prevailed Avith the government to make some
retaliatory sacrifices to the public justice of the country."t

6 The only other accusation which I shall at present wait to repel,
is, the unfounded reproach, that we nerer pray for the civil rulers.
*' That prayers for civil rulers is a duty, was never denied," said Mr.
Steven, long since, " so far as I know, either by the Reformed Presby-
tery or their followers. If they are any more contracted in their prayers,

* «' I may repeat the remark I have once and again made, that a great part of the
persecution and informations against suffering presbyterians, came from the episcopal
clergy, who, upon all occasions, laid themselves out to get notice of the wanderers, antl
to hound out the soldiers upon them." — Wodroxv, vol. ii. 135, 2M,

f Life of Lieutenant-Colonel Blackader, p. 87, 88.

44 Vindicaii07i of the Reformed Presbyterian Church.

and do not express themselves with zeal for the coming of the Redeem-
er's kingdom, and with Christian benevolence and generosity, pleading
for grace to their fellow-men, of all ranks and degrees, high or low,
prince or peasant, kings or subjects, tb^ noble or the ignoble, and for
them that wear crowns or that walk on crutches, equal to seceders, let
them that hear both judge. And if they cannot, in conscience, submit
to prescribed forms by human authority, or habitually repeat dry parades
of royal epithets, or express themselves with such formality about
the present complex Erastian constitution, partly spiritual, partly tem-
poral, partly civil, partly ecclesiastic, as some others do, they might
charitably be excused, especially by those who, upon matters of con-
science, as they profess, have been obliged to step out of the national
establishment." *

Many excellent persons — neither incurable bigots to episcopacy, nor
servile supporters of arbitrary power — have thought that our pious an-
cestors, prior to the revolution, were too scrupulous when they refused
to say, at the bidding of their civil superiors, God save the king. With-
out due consideration of the grounds on which the refusal was made,
they argue, " Why should they have provoked such atrocious cruelties,
and incurred such violent deaths, when they could have averted both
by the simple utterance of these few words ?" No doubt the utterance
of these iaw words with the lips was a very simple matter, viewed as a
j)hysical act. It requires but a slight exertion of the vocal organs dur-
ing little more than a single second ; but these organs, like all the other
members of the body, have been put under the direction of the mind,
which, of course, lies under a moral obligation to regulate them in the
exercise of their peculiar functions, and is responsible to God for all the
Words they utter during this introductory state. The tongue is a mere
material instrument, having no consciousness whatever either of virtue
or vice in its movements, and loses, the moment that the vital spark
flies, all capacity either of happiness or of suffering, till the general re-
surrection. But the mind is a rational substance, endowed with moral
feeling, bound to keep under due control all the bodily organs, and ac-
countable for all the physical actions they perform. The individual
who, by a single stroke of his arm, plunges the dagger into the breast of
his victim, and takes away life, cannot repel the charge of guilt, nor ar-
rest the course of justice, on the ground that the stroke was a very
simple affair. It is the vuirderous intent that forms the essence of his
crime, the reason of his punishment, and the sting of those bitter re-
flections and dreadful forebodings that afflict his mind. In like manner,
the person who would, by any words, however few, express approbation
of a system that deserves, from all virtuous men, unmingled abhorrence,
and desire prosperity to a murderer, who has associated with himself, in
a o-uilty confederacy, other murderers, that they might offer to his insa-
tiable vengeance whole hecatombs of human victims, would certainly com-
mit a moral offence, worthy of severe reprehension from his own mind,
and of sharp reproaches from all around him.

It is worse than puerile to allege, that the condition on which they
mi"ht have saved their lives — saying, God save the /zH^—was the easiest
possible. This reminds me of the celebrated argument for suicide, that
it is no great matter in man diverting the current of his blood from its
usual channel into another somewhat different. The daring invasion of

* Answers to Twelve Queries, 14, 15, 16.

Vindication of the Reformed Presbi/terian Church. 45

a divine right, the voluntary destruction of his own life, and the abrupt
introduction of his soul, charged with a foul offence, of which he has no
opportunity of repenting, into the immediate presence of his Judge, are
circumstances of no moment, according to the bearing of this sophistical
and superficial argument. With equal impropriety is it alleged, that
the mere utterance of the prayer in question was an exceedingly simple
matter. If this included unqualified submission to the king, now guilty
of political offences for which he was soon afterwards deposed, — if it
" imported an owning his person and government, and the laws and
present actings," * as the administration themselves acknowledged, — if
it implied a desire for the Divine blessing on measures by which the
best laws of the constitution were overturned, and the noblest privileges
of religion were trampled in the dust, — how was it possible for men of
piety, integrity, and patriotism to repeat, in any situation, even this
brief prayer, when it was the appointed symbol of feelings they could
not entertain, and the prescribed vehicle of desires they durst not
. breathe ?

Permit me, Sir, with a little more particularity, to plead on behalf of
our conscientious fathers, whose motives in this matter have been so
grossly misrepresented by our chief historians, and so egregiously mis-
understood by inconsiderate readers. There ore various seii.scA- in which
they could have uttered this prayer. 1st, Had the object proposed been
his personal salration, his enjoyment of spiritual blessings in time, and
his acquisition of unmingled pleasures in eternity, there were none
among their numerous cotemporaries who would have presented it v/ith
deeper fervour, truer sincerity, or greater frequency. Accordingly, even
Hume acknowledges, that, when " their lives were offered them if they
would say God save the king, they would only agree to pray for his re-
pentance." f Wodrow, too, introduces a correspondent, who declares,
" I do not remember that ever I conversed with one of the sufferers,
and I talked with most or all who suffered until August 1685, who
scrupled to pray for the king in their own terms, viz. /or repentance and
.sulvalion to his soul."X And were tlic?/ not his best friends in so doing ?
Surely to supplicate the fountain of mercy for his penitence and his
pardon, his spiritual improvement and his immortal welfare, was to seek
for him the choicest blessings and the purest pleasures he could enjoy
on earth, and that everlasting kingdom and unfading crown he might
realize in heaven, whilst the flattering parasites who offered only the
prescribed form, looked no higher than the earthly crown of which his
head was speedily stripped, and the temporal kingdom from which he
was suddenly driven, an unhonoured and unpitied fugitive. Or, 2d,
Had it been meant for the preservation of his natural life till he should
repent of his crimes, obtain reconciliation to offended Deity, and make
some reparation to the country which had suffered so many injuries from
his past misrule, they would not have refused the benevolent desire.
They were in the habit, both at their religious meetings, and on the
scaffold, when persecution raised them to this honour, of praying for
their enemies, in this sense ; and it is not likely they would overlook him
from whose positive orders or culpable negligence all their sufferings pro-
ceeded. To think of such a fellow creature, burdened with crime, and pol-
luted with vice, the patron of unbridled licentiousness in his court, the
instigator of unparalleled cruelties in his kingdom, and the usurper of the

• Wodrow, vol. ii. 340. f Vol. viii. HO. J Vol. ii. 138.

46 Findkation of the Reformed Presbyterian Church.

inalienable prerogatives of the Redeemer, passing, in a state of impeni-
tence, into the presence of his Judge, to receive the bitter fruits of his
previous misdeeds, and to sinkin to the miserable society of accursed
spirits, was enough to awaken their deepest commiseration, bury the
remembrance of their past wrongs, and prompt them to incessant suppli-
cations for his effectual conversion by sovereign grace and his gratuitous
forgiveness by divine mercy, before he might enter into an awful eter-

But it is certain, this prayer was not meant in either of these senses,
by the court that imposed it on the Presbyterians in this country. Sucli
a court, I suspect, rioting in impure pleasures, low buffooneries, and
selfish intrigues contrived without wisdom and executed without
vigour, were not likely to trouble themselves about the religious inter-
ests of their chief. Theirs were " those days never to be recalled with-
out a blush, the days of servitude without loyalty, and sensuality with-
out love, of dwarfish talents and gigantic vices, the paradise of cold
hearts and narrow minds, the golden age of the coward, the bigot, and
the slave. The king cringed to his rival that he might trample on his
people, sunk into a viceroy of France, and pocketed, with complacent
infamy, her degrading insults, and her more degrading gold. The ca-
resses of harlots and the jests of buffoons, regulated the measures of a
government which had just ability enough to deceive, and just religion
enough to persecute."* No, it was imposed as a tesl\ of absolute sub-
mission to the existing government, — of unqualified approbation even of
its very worst usurpations, among which the supremacy of the king over
the church vvas notorious. The mere utterance of it, either on the
scaffold or at the stake, was always regarded in this light by the pub-
lic executioners of the law, and became a ground on which they were
authorised to grant the prisoners their lives. Henceforth such persons
were ranked among the approving subjects, the willing supporters, the
warm friends of the government, Avhose proceedings they had before
loudly condemned, and whose head they had before publicly disowned.
This was an equivocal honour of which the consistent presbyterians in
question were not, by any means ambitious, — a degrading attitude before
the eyes of the whole kingdom, in which they were not, in the slightest
degree, desirous of appearing. Rather would they incur the greatest
perils, by refusing their approbation of a government which deserved, in
their judgment, universal abhorrence, and by Avithholding unconditional
submission from a prince who had forfeited, several years before, the title
he once had to their affectionate allegiance. Rather would they retain
the silent approval of their own minds, under the severest sufferings that
might be inflicted on their bodies, and possess the unclouded prospect of
incorruptible pleasures beyond the skies amid the greatest depredations
that might be committed on their properties ; just as the Hebrew wor-
thies, whose names have been inserted in a record more honourable than
the registers of heralds, " took joyfully the spoiling of their goods,
knowing in themselves that they had in heaven a better and an endur-
ing substance."

Almost all the friends of rational freedom have now admitted, that

* Edin. Rev. 84, 337.

t Wodrow, vol. ii. 138, 2G7, 340. Hume, vol. viii. 1T4. Laing, vol. ii. 102.

+ Heb. X. 34.

Vindicai'wn of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. 4-7

the king was, at that time, pursuing a series of tyrannical measures that
merited unmingled reprobation, — that he was at the head of " a flagitious
combination of ministerial hirelings conspired to erect the babel of des-
potism upon the ruins of the beautiful fabric of law." Even Hume is
constrained, by the force of evidence, to admit that the strict " Presby-
terians were rendered frantic by oppression before they renounced alle-
giance to Charles Stuart, whom they called, as they for their parts had
some reason to esteem him, a tyrant," and that " any condition seemed
preferable to their living in their native country, which, by the preva-
lence oi" persecution and violence, was become as insecure to them, as a
den of robbers."* Now, was it possible for men who had the smallest
claim to piety or virtue, to feel cordial approbation of such a despo-
tic government, or to desire the divine blessing on the prosecution of
such oppressive measures ? Was it possible to otter the prescribed pray-
er, in the exact sense in which it was understood, at the time, by all
parties, without being accessory to the crimes committed by the admi-
nistration ?f Were even the most absurd tory in existence carried off
to a " den of robbers," notwithstanding his vigorous resistance, and de-
prived of his purse, his clothes, and personal liberty, notwithstanding
his urgent remonstrances, could he, with the approbation of his own mind,
acknowledge the leader of the banditti as his lawful superior, and own
his " present actings" as proper measures ? Such a school in a very few
weeks, I apprehend, would effectually rare him of that blind submission
which he requires to any arbitrary rule exercised by any unprincipled
rulers, and might impressively teach him that virtuous citizens, resid-
ing in a country which has become as insecure to them as " a den of
robbers," may, with the greatest propriety, refuse prayer for their leader
even though he happened to wear a crown and inhabit a palace.

Upon such grounds as these may our calumniated forefathers be both
defended against those who charge them with indulging unreasonable
scruples,! and applauded for the pure conscientiousness and peculiar

*Vol. viii. 173.

•f " As to their refusing to pray for the king, some of them scrupled tiie terms God,
save as bidding him God speed in his persecution, and as a term demanded of, and dic-
tated to them for that purpose." Wod. vol. ii. 138,

I The following passage, written with characteristic judiciousness, derives additional
value from the very name of the writer, William .Macgavin, Esquire, author of The
Protestant. " In the present state and circumstances of this kingdom, it is not easy
■with some persons to perceive the force of the causes which induced our persecuted fore-
fathers to refuse obedience to this commsLnd, pray fur kings. One tiling, however, is
very evident from their history, that they refused obedience not to divine, but only to
arbitrary human authority, and when it was considered a test of their compliance with
what was sinful. It is probable that the apostle Paul himself would have refused to
pray for Nero as emperor, had he been commanded to do so at the point of the sword,
as a test of his acknowledging him as head of the church. He would have prayed, like
Stephen, for his enemies and murderers, but certainly he would not have acknowledg-
ed, nor would he have done any thing that so much as seemed to acknowledge the eccle-
siastical supremacy of the emperor. JSow this is the plain fact of the case with regard
to our fathers in the reign of Charles II. Praying for the king was enforced at the
point of the bayonet, and compliance was understood by both parties to be a renouncing
of a fundamental ptinciple of the Scottish Reformation, which incurred the guilt of both
hypocrisy and perjury. Charles was not content with being acknowledged head of the
state. He would be head of the church too ; and James, his successor, would have re-
signed the headship of both to the Pope. But with their convictions, they could not
even pray for Charles as head of the state without gross hypocrisy, for they believed that
by his violation of his solenm engagements to the nation, he had forfeited all right to the
soveieignty. This, it raii&t be allowed, is « delicate question, and one at all times of

48 Vindication of the Reformed Presbyterian Church.

consistency with which they acted in this very matter. Indeed, it is
perfectly astonishing that any who know that " prayer is an offering up
ef our desires unto God for things agreeable to his will," should have
blamed them for refusing to ask from Him prosperity to a growing
course of perfidy and oppression, robbery and murder. That fawning
courtiers, cringing flatterers, all, in short, who consider religion as a
political invention subjected to the absolute control of the prince, who
prostitute the solemnities of religion to the prejudices, the pleasures,
and the pageantries of the court, and who regard the ministers of reli-
gion as mere hirelings, useful only in cajoling the people into un-
questioning submission to all laws however unjust, and in support of
the propriety of all political measures by any administration, however
corrupt, — that such should condemn them for the refusal of the loyal
prayers on behalf of the worst rulers that ever appeared in this countrv,
need not excite our surprise. But that Christians, who feel with what
reverence we should approach the Deity in all our prayers, with what
regard to his will we should crave all our blessings, and with what fidelity
we should obey him rather than man, should blame this refusal in the
circumstances in which it was made, does awaken at once our astonish-
ment and our regret, and make us sigh for that period when all Chris-
tians, unbiassed by political prejudices, and governed by scriptural prin-
ciples, shall agree not only in vindicating, but in revering the memory,
of those holy, devout, and disinterested men, who " through faith and
patience are inheriting the promises."

But the question may still be proposed, " Do you of the present day
pray for our civil rulers ?" To this question my answer is, in some
senses we do, in other senses we do not. Believing that prayer for
civil rulers is a religious duty of the highest importance, a distinguish-
ed privilege, from the right observance of which precious benefits may
accrue to themselves, their subjects, and even their allies, and per-
suaded also that its right observance depends on having our minds ac-.
curately informed; our desires correctly regulated, and our petitions ju-
diciously accommodated to existing circumstances, we are anxious to
perform this service in a rational form, dictated by the revealed will of
heaven, and subservient to the best interests of the several parties for
whom it has been appointed.

Accordingly, our prayers for our civil rulers, while they do not imply
our approbation of any sinful conditions on which they have acquired
office, of any unsound principles retained in the constitution which they
administer, or of any immoral acts in the policy which they pursue, are
made as discriminating;, particular, and explicit as possible. These se-
veral qualities are, I hold, essential to the formation of every rational
prayer, — of every acceptable supplication. Suppose, for example, I am

difficult application ; but if the worthy men, whose conduct is the subject of this note,
were wrong either in the conception or application of the principle, their error was adopted
into practice by the whole nation a few years after, and this is now universally approved
by Protestants of all denominations. The fact is, the strict Covenanters saw the cloven
loot of Popery and arbitrary power in the administration of Charles II. almost from the
beginning, and still more in that of his brother James. They refused to submit to it, or
to come under any oath that should bind tlieni to an approbation of Popery and tyranny,
or even to utter a word in their prayers that could imply such a thmg. Surely these
were, at least, honest men, and they were more noble than those of their countrymen,
•who, after having made many compliances, and sworn many oaths to the reigning family,
felt themselves compelled to throw them off. " Is not the gleaning of the grapes of
Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiczer ?" Life of John Brown, pp. IG, 17.

8

Vindication of the Reformed Presbyterian Chtirck. 49

invited to pray with a particular patient afflicted with temporary illness,
or approaching his final dissolution. Would it be enough to run over
any series of vague petitions that might most readily occur, without the
smallest reference to the present state of his mind, and the peculiar cir-
cumstances of his condition ? Would it not be indispensable to the
right discharge of this very important A.uiY,Jirst, to ascertain, as far as
prudent inquiry can discover, his peculiar situation, mental and corpo-
real, and then to offer special addresses adapted to his case at the throne
of grace on his behalf. If, on the one hand, there are painful evidences
drawn from his general behaviour, that his mind has received no genu-
ine impressions of religion, the spiritual blessings I must first implore
for him are regeneration, illumination, pardon, and the other initial
blessings of salvation. If, on the other hand, gratifying proofs present
themselves that his soul has undergone a gracious change, and obtained
the initial blessings, my object must be to seek for him advancement in
the ways of God, comfort under the ills of life, increased devotion to
the duties of religion, should providence restore him to his usual health,
and a peaceful entrance into heaven, should his Saviour prolong the pre-
sent affliction to his dying hour. Now, with equal discrimination, par-
ticularity, and explicitness, should we accommodate our prayers for our
rulers, to the state of their private character, and of their public pro-
cedure. If their lives, even after due allowance for the temptations
arising from rank, office, and opulence, has been made, furnish palp-
able evidences of irreligion, profligacy in private conduct, and corrup-
tion in official proceedings, what more appropriate blessings can we
seek for them than genuine repentance, a lasting conviction of the sins
to which they have hitherto been addicted, a speedy restoration to the
Christian virtues which they have never cultivated in the high stations
to which they have been raised, and immediate turning to the Lord, un-
der whose superintendance alone they can enjoy either private happiness
or public usefulness ? Or if their deportment affords delightful proofs
that they have imbibed the spirit of genuine piety, and are obeying the
impulses of pure patriotism, — that they are " able men, such as fear
God, men of truth, hating covetousness, provided out of all the peo-
ple,"*— that they are endowed with an ordinary measure of those par-
ticular qualifications which revelation has expressly required in the ma-
gistrates of every evangelised country, and against which no Christian
will ever speak with derisive levity, who does not wish either the sanity
of his understanding or the piety of his heart brought into suspicion, —
then ought we to implore a very diff'erent order of blessings for them, —
progress in their spiritual graces, consolation under their respective trials,
prosperity in their official duties, success to their counsels in the cabi-
net, and their deliberations in the senate, the gradual prostration before
them of all the passions and prejudices that have hitherto retarded the
march of sound government, and the ultimate triumph, under their au-
spices, of those great moral principles, from the faithful execution of
which alone states can derive a lasting prosperity, and statesmen an im-
mortal renown.

I have said, there are several senses in which we do not off"er prayer
for our present rulers. These I shall now state, with the same parti-
cularity I shall afterwards observe, in mentioning the various senses in
which we do pray for them.

* Exod. xviii. 21.
H

50 Vimlicalion oflhe Reformed Presbyterian Church.

First, we do not pray for civil rulers in such a manner as to admit
the validity of the claim they have assumed, to dictate to national
churches, the prayers that ministers shall, present on their behalf. Such
a claim they may, no doubt, support, by quoting a number of crown
lawyers, wliose interpretations have, in past ages, been usually favour-
able to the royal prerogatives, and a multitude of servile divines, whose
opinions on such subjects have generally been accommodated to the
wishes of their temporal master. It is a claim, however, for which they
cannot bring any argument from the Bible which has, very obviously, pla-
ced the church under thesupremacy of the Redeemer, to the entire exclu-
sion of civil magistrates, and committed the regulation of her devotional
services to her spiritual courts, uncontrolled by any temporal jurisdiction.
It is a claim which our intrepid ancestors resisted with undaunted firm-
ness, during many years of bloody persecution, against which they fought
■with those spiritual weapons their Master had given them in requisite
abundance — argument, learning, and eloquence, and to which they would
not submit, even though they were promised, as the reward of their sub-
mission, perfect exemption from all the sufferings to wliich they were ex-
posed. It is a claim which an intelligent minority in the General Assem- '
bly of the national church have firmly resisted on various occasions since
she was founded, and never, with more learning, argument, and spirit,
than a few years since, when " an order of his Majesty in Council, di-
recting the necessary alterations to be made in the prayers for the Royal
Family, so far as relates to Scotland," was made the subject of formal
discussion in that ecclesiastical court.* It is, in short, a claim which all
good men should oppose by all constitutional means in their power ; be-
cause it encroaches on the inherent liberties of the church, secularizes
the highest offices of devotion, fosters a spirit of crouching servility in
ministers, licentiates, and people, and may prove a prolific source of in-
numerable troubles to the country, of which we cannot witness a more
powerful example than that which was furnished during the last perse-
cution. On these and similar grounds, we cannot acknowledge this
unscriptural claim of the present king — this inherent privilege of the
British crown ; nor can we pray for him in such a form as to make others
believe that we have surrendered to our rulers a right of the church,
which the Mediator has bequeathed in her imperishable charter, and our
ancestors have redeemed by their invaluable struggles.

Nor, in the second place, do we pray for our rulers in such a way as
implies our approbation of the whole government. There are, no doubt,
many princi])les in the present constitution, and many measures in every
successive administration, of which we cordially approve, and for which
we should be truly grateful. Still there is so much to blame in the con-
duct of our rulers, when tried by the test of revelation, — they betray
such indifference, if not enmity occasionally, to those political statutes
that have been addressed to them, in this sacred record, by the supreme
Lawgiver, — they sacrifice at times, with so little scruple, the dictates of
sound principle to the suggestions of political expediency, — they
contribute, whenever the alleged balance of power requires, so
much to the support of papal thrones, which have shed, in past ages,
the blood of innumerable Protestants, and which still uphold the
very worst parts of that pernicious superstition, — they squander such
immense sums from the treasury on useless sinecurists, and unneces-

* Christian InstructOT, vol. xix. 368— 39fi.

Vindication of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. 51

sary appendages, while thousands of industrious citizens are without
the means of adequate subsistence, and thousands of ignorant chil-
dren cannot reach the benefit?of elementary education, — they perpe-
tuate such gross abuses in the Episcopal hierarchy, by the frequent
union of its parochial livings, the unequal distribution of its ample
revenues, and the defective state of its peculiar courts, — and they
set such an injurious example before the country, of irreligion, espe-
cially by transacting public business in their othces on Sabbath, when-
ever expediency dictates,* by allowing military reviews during those
hours not deemed canonical by the church, though sacred in the
sight of God, and by spending it often iu rural pleasures and fes-
tive entertainments, instead of attending on the ordinances of re-
ligion in the house of God,t — they are so guilty of these and simi-
lar sins, too notorious to be denied, that vve cannot olfer unqualified
prayers for them without becoming partakers of their evil deeds. We
would tremble to express approbation of any practices upon which God
looks down necessarily with unmixed abhorrence, or toseek support to any
systems which he has promised ultimately to " consume with the spirit
of his mouth, and destroy with the brightness of his coming.":j: We must,
therefore, discriminate, distinguish, particularize. Nor let any one insi-
nuate, that this discrimination in our prayers seems very indecorous to-
wards the personage who occupies the throne. We will yield to none in
rational respect for any moral excellence he possesses, or enlightened ap-

* The practice of deciding every moral question on the principle of expediency, ap-
pears to me one of tho worst features of a government having access to the light of reve-
lation. J3y disregarding the distinctions between right and wrong, the moral sentiments
of the mind, and the fixed principles of the Bible, it introduces a new criterion, which will
tolerate any wickedness, provided the results are beneficial. " The fashion of reducing
every moral question to a calculation of expedience, is," says Hall, " a most important
innovation. A callous indifference to all moral distinctions is an almost inseparable ef-
fect of the familiar application of this theory. Crimes and virtues are equally candidates
for approbation ; nor must the heart betray the least preference, which would be to pre-
judge ihe cause, but must maintain a sacred neutrality, till expedience^ whose hand never
trembles in the midst of the greatest horrors, has weighed in her impartial balance their
consequences and effects. 1 cannot help expressing my apprehension that this desecra-
tion of virtue, this incessant dominion of physical over moral ideas, of ideas of expedience
over those of right, having already dethroned religion, and displaced virtue from her an-
cient basis, will, if it is suffered to proceed, ere long shake the foundation of states, and
endanger the existence of the civilized world." — Sentiments proper to the present Crisis,
pp. 49-51.

•{• However much irreligious politicians may be disposed to treat with derision such
views, it is capable of the fullest demonstration, that the habitual profanation of the Sab-
bath in a country is one of the chief causes that provoke public judgments from heaven,
— that this sin, when exemplified by the highest rulers of the state to so notorious a
height, rapidly spreads through all the inferior orders ; nor do I hesitate to say, that
this national offence, with the moral evils that have followed in its train, is a principal
occasion of those physical troubles with which God is, at this moment, punishing our
guilty land. Were the same spirit that animated the Scottish reformers, who rebuked
with becoming fidelity the vices of their haughtiest sovereigns, or that governed the He-
brew prophets, who reproved, even with greater boldness, the iniquities of their proudest
" monarchs, to enter into the chaplains and clergymen resident in the capital — the grand
fountain from which so many noxious streams fiow over the whole country, — they could
not pass over in silence sucii a flagrant iiiiquity in the conduct of our present rulei-s,
from the lowest subaltern up to the chief magistrate. Will the reader, who has patience
to read these pages, have the goodness, before he passes a judgment on this note, to look
into the following past^agcs of his Bible ? Nehem. xiii. 11, 15—22 ; Isaiah Iviii. 13, 14;
Jeremiah xvii. 19 — 27.
\ 2 Thes. ii 8.

5^ Fmdication of' the Reformed Presbyterian Church.

probation of any virtuous measures he Ranctions. We can hear, with
pleasure, of his dignified manners, his elegant acquirements, his private
charities, his princely donations to benevolent institutions, his manly in-
dependence, by which he can frown from his presence cringing syco-
phants who would raise themselves into royal favour on the ruins of
superior men. We can appreciate, with gratitude, the protection
thrown around our lives, our liberties, and our property, the defence of
our national independence against the violence of foreign aggression and
intestine dissension, — the endeavours to open up new channels through
which all the fruits of national industry, capital, and genius may flow to
the ends of the earth,— the occasional sympathies extended to the exiled
patriots whom the jealousy of their own governments has forced to seek a
temporary refuge on our shores, — and the generous efforts employed, in
golden moments, to assist weaker states either in recovering the political
rights of which they have been deprived by their powerful neighbours,
or in defending their social privileges against the attacks of those whom
they are unable, with all their internal resources, successfully to oppose.
All such things we can reflect upon with gratitude, satisfaction, and
pride, yet when we apply the high test of political morality inculcated
in the word of God, we detect in every department of the administra-
tion which we are competent to examine, a variety of evils that cannot
fail to afflict our minds with grief, alarm, and shame, and on which we
dare not, as we value the peace of our own minds, the prosperity of our
country, and the approbation of our Redeemer, implore the divine bless-
ing.^

Nor do we pray for our rulers in the express words of any of the for-
mularies that have been prescribed by royal authority. Without a single
exception, all these formularies that I have been able to procure before
writing these remarks, appear in some respects exceedingly meagre, inap-
propriate, and defective. Even the Collects used in the Church of England,
though distinguished for the piety of their sentiments, the beauty of
their diction, and the simplicity of their structure, want several things
which revelation makes essential to prayer, and contain other things
which are utterly irreconcilable with the intrinsic rights of the Chris-
tian church. That formula, too, which was sent down from Whitehall
a few years ago, for the ministers and preachers of the Scottish church,
and which was so successfully opposed by an intrepid minority on grounds
so constitutional, appears to me as objectionable as almost any other that
has proceeded from the same source. We object to all these formularies
on the following grounds, — 1st, Because it is our decided conviction,
that no political council on earth has any authority to prescribe the
prayers that ministers shall offer for civil rulers. This seems to us one
of those interferences with the devotional duties of religion, and the in-
alienable privileges of the church, which it is an act of the purest virtue
to resist, by scriptural argument, by patient suffering, and by every other
constitutional method. Rather than submit to this interference, several
hundreds of faithful ministers, soon after the Restoration, willingly gave
up their churches, endured great privations, and when the storm of per-
secution grew loud, fled, some to the sequestered dells of their native
land, and some to the quiet asylum offered in foreign countries. It
was ungrateful, undutiful, pusillanimous, in any of their privileged
successors, to surrender the important right of expressing their prayers
according to their own judgment, and to submit to the degrada-
tion of import'mg their loyal prayers from the south, even though they

Vindication of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. 53

have been written by archiepiscopal hands in obedience to royal orders.
2. We object to these formularies, because the very utterance of them
involves approbation of the headship assumed by the king over the
church. This dangerous usurpation is implied in the single word,
" Sacred," prefixed to the imposing name, " Majesty." Did that word
mean merely either that he has been set apart, by the national will, to
the regal office, or that there are special securities protecting him from
external violence, it might, without any impropriety, be tolerated. But
it expresses, in this connexion, a very different idea, to which we cannot
for a single moment assent, and of which we cannot, in the slightest de-
gree, approve. It expresses his supremacy over all ecclesiastical matters.
" Our lawyers," says Pinkerton, " pronounce that the king of England
unites in his person the dignity of chief magistrate with the sanctity of
a priest, and the title of Sacred Majesty appears to have commenced
when he assumed the function of head of the church." Now we will not,
we cannot, adopt language expressive of an infringement on our spiritual
liberties so abhorrent to our best feelings, and of homage which no tem-
poral sovereign has any right in equity to demand, — homage which is
due exclusively to that " blessed potentate" who has been made, by di-
vine appointment, the head over all things to the church, and which we
dare not give to any mortal, however elevated the rank which he occu-
pies, or powerful the sceptre which he wields. 3. We object to these
formularies, because they are exceedingly defective. According to theo-
logical writers, who have drawn their divinity from the word of God
rather than from the volume of nature, confession forms an essential
and important branch of prayer. Indeed our pravers should be cri-
minally deficient, if we did not enter into a particular confession of our
sins, by which the divine displeasure has been provoked, and our highest
interests have been injured. But where, in all the loyal prayers that
have emanated from the Privy Council, is there the moslfMistant ap-
proach to confession ? One might imagine, judging frojjflthem alone,
that our kings, our princes, our judges, and our senators, are beings of
a different race from the human, of immaculate innocence in private
life, of unimpeachable rectitude in official business, of spotless virtue,
approaching, if not equalling, that of those bright spirits who have
" never fallen." Not a single word occurs implying that they have a7iii
sins of which particular confession should be made, and on account of
which pardoning mercy should be implored. Now we cannot approve
of this false delicacy. VVe are fully persuaded, on scriptural grounds,
(which the reader will find referred to at the foot -of the page*) that a
considerable part of every prayer offered for our civil rulers ought to be
confession of their sins, with due particularity as well as with becoming
prudence. Forgetting, in the presence of God, the factitious distinc-
tions of rank, we should remember them in the humbling character of
fellow-sinners ; and, anxious chiefly about the everlasting welfare of
their souls, bear them on our minds before that throne in heaven from
which even they must look for mercy, and grace, and peace.

Though, however, we refuse prayer for our civil rulers, in those senses
that have now been mentioned, we must say, for ourselves, that we are
not altogether unmindful of this duty. In various forms, regulated ac-
cording to the discretion of individuals and the complexion of the times,

* Ezra ix. 5 — 7 ; Nehemiali ix. 32—35 ; Daniel ix. 5—8.

54 Vindication of the Reformed Preshylerian Church.

we do "offer up our desires to God" on their behalf " for things agree-
able to his will, in the name of Christ."

We desire their spiritual welfare. Penetrating the dazzling splen-
dours with which they are continually surrounded, and forgetting the
extravagant epithets by which they are usually distinguished, we regard
them, in prayer, as fellow-mortals. We are concerned for their scrip-
tural illumination, their religious improvement, their future happiness,
— their cordial subjection to the reign of free grace during their brief
residence on earth, and their immediate exaltation at death to an ever-
lasting kingdom in the heavens. Nor is there, in our view, a single or-
der of men in the country who have a stronger claim on our Christian
sympathy and our earnest prayers. When we think on the number of
their official duties, the importance of the national affairs over which
they preside, and the magnitude of the peculiar difficulties with which
they have to contend, — when we reflect on the powerful hindrances to
religious liimig that arise from their rank, their riches, and their em-
ployments, and the painful distractions they must often suffer, from the
bustle of public business, the balancing of conflicting interests, and the
arrangement of hostile parties, — when we figure them to ourselves tot-
tering on the summits of society, amid the political storms that blow
upon them from all quarters undiminished by any intervening barrier,
and whirling round the vortex of fashionable amusements, in which cus-
tom, that imperious mistress, almost compels them to mingle, — ought
not our hearts to feel an unusual degree of compassion for them in their
dangerous circumstances, and send up peculiarly ardent desires for grace
to help them in time of need ? " I exhort, therefore," says Paul, " that
Jirslof all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be
made for all men ; for kings, and for all that are in authority ; for this
is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who will have
all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth."*

We desire that their official proceedings mai/ be overruledyfor the ad-
vancement of the public good. That the good of the whole community
over which they have been called to preside, is the great end of civil go-
vernment, almost all will now readily admit. Do not the dictates of
reason and the precepts of revelation equally prove, that this divine in-
stitution has been appointed in the exercise of infinite benevolence, and
is to be administered for the promotion of the general happiness ? Who
that has any respect for himself Vv'ill demfr; at this period of the nine-
teenth century, that the millions scattered over these countries have
been created only for the pleasure of a few, who are not naturally better
than themselves, excepting a few " dangling courtiers," who still sigh
after the sweets of absolute power, and utter the soft nothings that fa-
shion has rendered familiar to royal ears ? Happily this monstrous
dogma — this contemptible absurdity, has been consigned, at least in tliis
country, to eternal oblivion ; and speedily may all the other political ab-
surdities that were brought forth during the dark ages, pass, unhonoured
with a tear, into the same grave. Happily the great truth has at length
gone forth to the remotest shores of our land, that government has been
instituted for the benefit of the people, from whom its revenues are ex-
acted, and that all its officers, from the poorest clerk up to the monarch
himself, fulfil their duties only Avhen they are concentrating their sepa-
rate efforts on this one object. Such, accordingly, is a leading object for

* 2 Timothy ii. 1, 2, 3, 4.

Vindication of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. 55

which we offer prayers on their behalf. That the country, under its oc-
casional sufferings, may enjoy much order, prosperity, and happiness,—
that the inhabitants of all ranks " may lead a quiet and peaceable life,
in all godliness and honesty," — that the various vices and crimes that
stain our annals may be purged away by the diffusion of religion and the
progress of education, — that the kingdom may become a great school,
from which well educated men may go forth into other countries with
all our civilization, improvements, and good tidings, and a spacious nur-
sery from which myriads, trained under the superintendence of their
heavenly father, may ascend to all the glories, and pleasures, and em-
ployments of heaven, — these are among the chief objects of our public
prayers offered up, every Sabbath, by our assembled congregations.
What need have all to study variety, fulness, appropriateness, in their
prayers that God would " balance the counsels and overrule the ope-
rations"* of the king. Always to repeat the same prayer on his behalf,
whatever be his condition, whether in health or in sickness, dreading
danger from the violence of political faction, or reposing in tranquil se-
curity on the affections of his peaceable subjects, is not less absurd than
would be the practice of his physicians who, whatever might be the
complaint of the royal patient, whether a dislocated shoulder or a frac-
tured limb, a cataract on the eye, or an obstruction in the ear, should
have, at all times, one unvarying reinedy.

In performing this service, we wish to have our minds governed by a
religious spirit, rather than to pay an " adulatory complime?it." We
would not, it is true, withhold from the chief magistrate any expression
of respect that is due to him, though we may suspect that he is defi-
cient in several important qualities which should be conspicuous in his
character. We would cheerfully pay him all those offices of external
respect which are due to those invested with high stations, — offices which
mankind usually pay, without any very nice analysis of the obligations
upon which they rest, which it is of very great importance to social or-
der and public tranquillity, that they should pay, without any unrea-
sonable scruples, and which even the purest followers of the Saviour may
offer without the dereliction of any just principle, or the sacrifice of any
moral duty ; just as the three Hebrew youths in Babylon, during the
captivity, were courteous to the king in a very eminent degree, even at
the same moment that they resisted, with noble intrepidity, his arbi-
trary orders, and braved, with heroic fortitude, his ferocious threats.
But we would choose a proper place for showing our respect. We would
not convert the pulpit into a stage, on which our devotion to the sove-
reign might be displayed before the eyes of religious worshippers, or
prayer into a mere channel, through which we may pour forth our loyal
sentiments into the ears of perishing sinners. We would not insult our
Maker to his face, by such solemn mockery, that we might give an oc-
casional compliment to a feeble mortal ; nor degrade the ministry we
have received from our Lord, that Ave might acquire an extraordinary
reputation for loyalty by the multiplication of royal epithets, and the
weekly repetition of fulsome panegyrics. We would remember in whose
presence we stand, and to whose tribunal we are accountable, when we
•' take upon us to speak unto the Lord." Impressed with his spiritual
presence and glorious majesty, — recollecting that he '' is a discerner of
the thoughts and intents of the heart," — and fully aware that no religi-

* See a " Sermon on Civil Government," by James \l. Wilson, D. D. flfinister of
the lleformed Frcsbyterian Cluucb, Coldenham, p. ?7 — 30.

56 Vindication of the Reformed Presbyterian Church.

Otis service ciin prove either profitable to our own minds or consonant to
the will of God, unless our hearts are engaged, we would always per-
form that exercise, with those pure sentiments, and those benevolent
desires, of which we should not feel ashamed were they laid bare before
the eyes of the whole world. We know who has said, " God is a spi-
rit, and they that worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth."
" Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with
their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and
their fear towards me is taught by the precept of men, therefore, be-
hold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work amongst this people, even
a marvellous work and a wonder ; for the wisdom of their wise men shall
perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid."*

We study also to have our prayers for civil rulers as comprehensive as
revelation requires. No doubt, when, besides offering adorations, thanks-
givings, and petitions on their behalf, we proceed to co7ifess their sinsy
our conduct may appear to some, unused to such ministerial freedom,
highly indecorous. It may be accounted an impertinent allusion to the
vices of private life, or a disloyal reliection on the delinquencies com-
mitted in their official procedure. We cannot, however, change our plan,
without being chargeable with a culpable omission. If we must offer
prayers for those who are in authority over us, we must confess, with
cordial sorrow, the sins with which they are, evidently, chargeable, and,
thus, deprecate the national calamities which these sins, more than any
other class of iniquities, have provoked from heaven. Have we not the
highest authority for this mode of acting ? Nehemiah, in a public pray-
er, exclaims — " Now, our God, let not all the trouble seem little before
thee that hath come upon us, on our ki?igs, on our princes, and on our
priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all thy people,
since the time of the kings of Assyria unto this day. Howbeit, thou
art just in all that is brought upon us ; for thou hast done right, but we
have done wickedly ; neither have our kings, our princes, our priests,
nor our fathers kept thy law, nor hearkened unto thy commandments
and thy testimonies, wherewith thou didst testify against them. —
For thej/ have not served thee in their kingdom, and in thy great good-
ness that thou gavest them, and in the large and fat land which thou
gavest before them, neither turned they from their wicked works. "t
Daniel, in the same duty, introduces the following striking confession.
" O Lord, we have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done
wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and
from thy judgments. Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the
prophets, who spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fa-
thers, and to all the people of the land. O Lord, to us belongeth con-
fusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because
we have sinned against thee."t David, too, has set an approved exam-
ple on this subject. " The ki7igs of the earth set themselves, and the
rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his anointed,
saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords
from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have
them in derision ; thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, thou shalt
dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel

I shall only add, that it is our habitual study to regulate our prayers

* John iv. 2i. Isaiah xxix. 13, 14.
f Chap. ix. 32, 33, 31, 35. f Chap. ix. 4, 5, C, 8.

Psalm ii. 2, 3, 4, 9. '

Vindication of llie Reformed Preshyleiian Church. 57

for civil rulers by the promises of Scripture concernitig them. All reli-
gious readers will admit, that only those things which have been pro-
mised in the sacred Scriptures, either in express words, or by obvious
implication, are legitimate objects of prayer. Such things as have not
been promised in some form, or are not agreeable to the revealed will of
God, it were the grossest presumption to ask. What then are the bless-
ings promised respecting civil rulers under the Christian dispensation ?
— for these are the important objects for which our fervent prayers
should ascend, rather than any others which our own minds, so easily
blinded by prejudice and misled by passion, may recommend. Why, it is
promised, that they shall be men of truth, piety, virtue, and great benevo-
lence,* that they shall yield a voluntary subjection to the Redeemer in
their official no less than in their private character,+— -that they will adopt
the Bible as the supreme standard of their procedure in all affairs poli-
tical, judicial, and ecclesiastical,! — that they will promote the interests
of true religion by the faithful application of their power, resources, and
influence,§ — that they will prefer the piety, virtue, and happiness of
their people to all the luxuries, and pleasures, and splendours they
themselves can enjoy, — that they will overturn, by rational means, the
whole fabric of antichristianism in its various branches and civil sup-
portsjl — that they will substitute in the room of the political systems
that have derived their existence from " the dragon," that which has
been furnished by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, — that, in short,
they will esteem themselves most highly honoured when they, with their
crowns on their heads and their sceptres in their hands, shall be most
diligently employed in the duties of patriot kings, and the devotion of
genuine believers. These are some of the great events which have been
clearly promised in connexion with temporal rulers, which shall certain-
ly be realized to their fullest extent, and for which importunate suppli-
cations should ascend up every Sabbath from all the pulpits of our pri-
vileged land ; and never shall the churches, until they shall agree to
implore, with one mind, these distinguished blessings, act a part worthy
the important position which they occupy in this country, commensurate
with the peculiar obligations under which they have been brought by
their unparalleled privileges, and productive of those purifying influ-
ences which flowing from them, as the typical water issued from the
ancient sanctuary, should carry their potent virtue to all departments of
the state, and to all ranks of the community.

When I commenced this article — an article which has been writ-
ten entirely on my own responsibility — my intention was to have
added to the two parts a third, which would have contained a brief
exposition of our peculiar views on magistracy, and of the principal
grounds upon which we support them. The discussion of this part,
however, must be deferred to some future occasion, when perhaps I may
be induced to bestow on it a few hours saved from professional duties ;
though I have too much distrust in my own resolutions about matters of
this sort, to hazard at present any specific promise.

R. E.

E. January 12, 1830.

* Exodus xviii. 21, 26 ; 2. Samuel xxiii. 2, 4; Prov. xvi. 12, 31, 4.
f Psalm ii. 10, 11, 12; Ivii, 11 ; Prov. viii. 15 ; Rev, i. 5.
t Deut xvii. 18, 19, 20; Psalm cxxxviii. 4, 5; Isaiah lii. 15.
§ Psalm Ixviii. 29, 30; Ixxii. 10; Isaiah xlix. 23; Ix. 3, 11, 12, 16, 17; Kev.
21,24.
II llev. xvii. 16.

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