Assembly, many of which were competent and laudable; but there was
one by which, without imputing any sinfulness to church patronage, or
proposing to abolish it, they merely sought to appropriate the exercise
of it to the Assembly itself. The King, in the great abundance of his
concessions, had agreed to exercise the royal church-patronage, by
bestowing presentations on some one in a leet of six to be named by the
Presbyteries within whose bounds vacancies should occur; and, founding
on this concession, the Assembly 1642 issued instructions to all the
Presbyteries, in the first instance, to transmit these leets through
the Synods to the Assembly, in order that its fiat might be given in
the selection of presentees. Such were the views of the covenanted
Assemblies on this subject. Yet much as they desired to possess this
troublesome privilege, they did not prize it so highly as to sacrifice
their clerical interests in its acquisition; for when Argyle offered
to renounce all his patronages into the hands of the Church, provided
they would relinquish all claims to augmentations of stipends in his
parishes, the proposal was rejected.
It is impossible to doubt that, in all these unexampled proceedings,
the Covenanters meant to intimate to the King their intentions to
make common cause with their fellow-sympathizers in England; for they
knew full well—and, if we are to give them credit for sincerity, they
had declared their acquiescence in the stipulation—that the King had
conceded Presbytery in Scotland upon the clear understanding that his
doing so should not imply any intermeddling with Episcopacy in England;
and his well known principles on that score, and uniform adherence to
them, left no reason to expect that he would ever consent to this, save
on the compulsitor of sheer force. Their proposals to that effect,
therefore, were tantamount to a declaration that they would co-operate
with the English agitators in forcing their favourite form of Church
Government upon him and England; and it is to be regretted that an
interference with the internal affairs of England—which was so entirely
beyond the legitimate sphere of the Scottish Estates, and which
ultimately led to the most calamitous consequences—was pressed with
such inflexible pertinacity.[296]
Amidst all these longings after “unity and uniformity in both
kingdoms,” however, in which these zealous men indulged, it is
important to ascertain the state of feeling among themselves, after the
time that they had obtained the ratification by the King and Estates
in Scotland of all their Acts of Assembly, &c. We shall not take the
accounts of Guthrie, Burnet, or other hostile chroniclers, nor the
statements of more modern writers, whether Whig or Tory—for we cannot
quite adopt all the views either of Mr Hume or Mr Malcolm Laing, the
latter of whom informs us that the “pure and unmixed flame of liberty”
which burned in the hearts of the Covenanters, “was fed and, at length,
gradually contaminated by the spirit of _religion_,” and that “the
limits of moderation and prudence were overstept by intolerant zeal—the
_distinguished attribute of an Established Church_.”[297] We prefer the
homely testimony of Baillie; and to those who, in our own times, talk
of the period immediately subsequent to 1638, as “the golden age” of
the Kirk, we commend the following passages for study:—
In one of his letters to his cousin Spang, referring to the doings of
the Parliament 1641, he says—
“Good Mr Henderson all the time was very silent, and under
misconstruction with the chief of his old friends, as if he had been
too sparing of his Majesty in these dangerous occasions, and that
in his sermons some sentences did fall from him prejudicial to the
States proceedings.”—(Vol. i., p. 334.) “There was a committee of our
Estates appointed to attend the Parliament of England, not so much
for the perfecting of our treaty, as to keep good correspondence in
so needful a tyme. None of the former Commissioners were employed but
Sir Arch. Johnston and Sir John Smith; for the most of all the rest
were fallen in the countrys dislike, complying too much with the King.
Certainly Dumfermline, Waughton, Sheriff of Teviotdale, Riccarton,
Clerk of Dundee, tint all credit with the States.”—(P. 335.) He gives
a sketch of the state of England thus:—“That country is in a most
pitiful condition; no corner of it free from the evils of a civil war.
Every shire, every city, many families divided in this quarrel; much
blood and unusual spoil made by both where they prevail.”—(P. 355) “Our
heartburnings increase, and with them our dangers.”—“We fear the two
part of our nobility, and many of our gentry.”—(P. 355.) “The affairs
of this Isle go as a ship exceedingly tossed in a dangerous sea.”—(P.
364.) And, referring to ecclesiastic matters, (p. 362,) he says—“The
matter of our _novations_ is worse than before.”—“The letter I procured
to some of our Presbyteries was made use of, as I wrote to you, in
our Provincial at Irvine. This did much exasperate the brethren who
were patrons of that way, so that immediately Mr Gabriel Maxwell,
by the consent of some others, did write, in five sheets of paper,
a full treatise, in a very bitter and arrogant strain, against the
three nocent ceremonies—_Pater Noster_, _Gloria Patriæ_, and kneeling
in the pulpit—by a great rabble of arguments, both particular and
general, which go far beyond these three particulars questioned, the
unlawfulness of our church practice;” and then he proceeds with details
of those polemics, which he winds up (p. 363) by saying, “I am doing
all I can to set all instruments on work for the quenching of that
fire.”
Such was the state of excitement in Scotland during the year 1642,
while the civil war was raging in England. The Parliament of the
latter having passed an ordinance for settling the militia in such
hands as they should think fit, the King, on the 11th of June,
issued his commissions of array; and, after hostilities had actually
commenced, set up the royal standard at Nottingham, on the 22d of
August, with great pomp and circumstance. We have already noticed the
brotherly correspondence betwixt the Assembly of 1642 and the English
Parliament; and the letter communicated a response through Maitland
to the Commission of Assembly, on the 21st of September, for which
it was “glad and blessed God.” Its purport was to the effect that
they purposed calling an Assembly of learned and godly divines; and
to insure co-operation in the war both of the pen and of swords,
that reply intimated that Prelacy “is evil, and justly offensive and
burdensome to the kingdome—a great impediment to reformation and the
growth of religion—very prejudicial to the state and government of
the kingdom—and that the same should be taken away.” But, with wary
caution, they abstained from pledging themselves to the establishment
of Presbytery.
The King, knowing full well that the Parliamentary leaders desired only
the assistance of the Scotch to demolish the English hierarchy, wrote a
letter to the Scotch Council (26th August) expressive of his anxiety to
adopt all necessary reformation in the English Church, but assuring it
that the Parliament had no intention to adopt Presbytery.
The Scotch Conservators, whom the Chancellor had appointed to meet,
assembled on the 22d of September; and efforts were made, by Hamilton
and others, to awaken a feeling of loyalty to the King, whose arms in
various conflicts had been successful. An answer was sent, in which
it was requested that the Queen, who was on the Continent, should
return to Britain and exert her good offices as a mediatrix; and they
pledged themselves that, should that mediation fail of success, they
would support the throne. This declaration was signed by the most
popular leaders—among others by Alexander Henderson. This favourable
disposition was, however, soon counteracted; for the great body of the
clergy, who had a morbid antipathy to Prelacy and a horror of Popery,
(even in soldiers, whom the King had employed,) took the alarm, and the
pulpits resounded with declamations on “the Kirk in danger,” which once
more filled the populace with alarms. The English Parliament, whose
military operations had hitherto been unpropitious in this conjuncture,
sent down a Declaration to the people of Scotland, expatiating on
the dangers to which religion was exposed, and entreating cordial
support—(7th November;) and the King, apprehensive of the effects
which might follow, sent a counter Declaration to the Council, which
was convened on the 20th of December, to consider both Declarations.
A struggle ensued. Argyle, who, for some time past, had been on
amicable terms with Hamilton, broke off to the alarmists and joined the
clerical party, insisting that both declarations should be published,
or neither. This was resisted, on the ground that it was putting the
English Parliament on a level with their own King, whose address it
was their duty, as his Council, to communicate to his Scotch subjects;
while, as regarded the Parliament’s Declaration, it was beyond their
province to recognise or act upon it. From that moment, the chief men
in the kingdom were openly divided into two parties in Scotland—the one
for the King, and the other for the Parliament of England.
Whenever it was known that the Council had resolved to publish only
the King’s Declaration, a new agitation arose, headed and excited
by the clergy; and great multitudes of the alarmists resorted to
Edinburgh in the beginning of January 1643. On the 6th of that month,
a petition was got up, thus enforced, and presented to the Council,
craving that the Parliament’s Declaration should also be published,
and that the publication of the King’s should not be held to imply
approval; and similar petitions were sent in from all quarters of the
country. In order to counteract these movements, Traquair, and many
of the most eminent nobility, and others, put in a “Cross Petition,”
requesting the Council to take no steps prejudicial to the rights
and privileges of the Crown, to keep in view the distinction betwixt
civil and ecclesiastical power, and to avoid giving any pledges to
the English Parliament, which might put the peace and religion of
Scotland in jeopardy. This Cross Petition, though apparently most
unexceptionable, and founded on sound constitutional principles, was
not to the taste of the excited clergy, who not only refused to join
in it, but exclaimed against “detestable neutrality,” and threatened
all who signed it with eternal damnation. The Commission of the former
Assembly, directing the popular torrent and swelling its force by their
authority, transmitted a declaration against the Cross Petition to all
Presbyteries, ordering it to be read from all pulpits, and enforced by
the ministers. Overborne by these wide-spread clamours, the Council
at length yielded, gave an evasive answer to the Cross Petition, and
appointed Commissioners to mediate betwixt the King and his English
Parliament—including in the number Mr Henderson and other clergymen.
These Commissioners were instructed to desire from the King, uniformity
of religion—that all Papists should be removed from his service—that he
himself should renounce Episcopacy—and that a Parliament in Scotland
should be called.
The exasperation thus created was increased by a feud betwixt Hamilton
and Loudoun, about certain leases of teinds enjoyed by the latter; and
the ferment excited by all these means was extreme.
These Commissioners went to Oxford immediately afterwards, (February,)
when the first proposition submitted to the King was contained in a
petition from the Commission of Assembly against Prelacy and Popery.
Though enforced by the private advice of Loudoun, that the King’s
acquiescence on this point would insure him the support of the Scotch
nation, he refused to yield, and soon after published a formal
answer to the application. Failing in this, the Commissioners urged
their mediation, and that a Parliament in Scotland should be called,
although, by an express act in 1641, the meeting of that Parliament
was, with consent of all parties, postponed till 1644. The King
declined to accede to either of these demands; and the Commissioners,
after being refused permission to go to London, returned to Scotland,
chagrined with the failure of their mission, and the coldness of their
reception at the King’s Court.
The Scotch agitators, however, were not to be thus baulked in
their designs. Having a complete ascendancy in all the executive
departments—in the Council—in the Committee of Conservators—in
the Commission for public burdens—a meeting of these three bodies
was convened on the 10th of May 1643, at the instigation of the
Assembly’s Standing Commission. It was then proposed that, in
consequence of the warlike position on the English frontier, it was
necessary to put the Border in a state of defence, and that for this
purpose a Convention of the Estates should be called without the King’s
previous sanction. This was opposed by Hamilton, the Lord Advocate, and
others; but all legal objections were overborne, and the convention was
summoned by the Chancellor for the 22d of June; an apology having, in
the meantime, been sent to the King for this unwonted proceeding.
The meeting of the Convention was heralded through the country by a
fast and political sermons. In order to quiet the scruples of many
honest and loyal Presbyterians, a scheme was devised for this purpose,
by getting up a Remonstrance from the Assembly’s Commission, setting
forth the danger of the Church and nation. This Remonstrance pressed
the Convention to make common cause with their English brethren; and
although it did not expressly mention the employment of an armed
force for the purpose, it was clearly implied that this, as on former
occasions, should be the mode of supporting religion; with this
difference, however, that, in 1639 and 1640, this had been done in
their own national quarrel, whereas now it would be an intervention
in the affairs of a foreign country. The Convention thus prompted and
cheered on to the crusade by multitudes who had thronged to Edinburgh,
resolved to arm the nation, and ordered troops forthwith to be levied.
Before the deliberations of the Convention terminated, a messenger
from the English Parliament arrived, and, with the characteristic
policy of the times, intimated from it, that, in conformity with the
communications to and from the last General Assembly, an Assembly of
Divines was about to be convened at Westminster, for regulating the
worship and polity to be introduced into the Church of England, and
uniformity to be established in these matters in both Kingdoms.[298]
These were the preliminaries to the meeting of the General Assembly on
the 2d of August 1643; and to the Acts of that Assembly we now refer
for a full developement of the spirit which emanated from that body.
The incidents of a political nature, and the sequences which followed
it, will form the subject of our next introductory chapter.
In the foregoing pages, we have endeavoured to trace, with an unbiassed
hand, a faithful picture of the ecclesiastical state of Scotland during
a period of six eventful years. In the progress of the scenes which we
have attempted feebly to delineate, we have marked the career of the
Covenanters from the earlier virtuous and patriotic resistance which
they made to lawless and arbitrary power on the part of the monarch,
in which our honest judgment and our cordial sympathies were completely
on their side.
We have now reached a new epoch in their history, which is of a
more equivocal character, and which has been the subject of much
controversy. On this ground, therefore, we deem it our duty to abstain
from all remark or reflection, as altogether unsuited to the nature
of our undertaking—leaving the documentary evidence which we present
to make its own impressions on the reader’s mind. We shall thus avoid
entangling ourselves in the mazes of party prejudice and contention
in reference to “THE SOLEMNE LEAGUE AND COVENANT,”[299] without
compromising our own views of the history of that period; and for this
course we see abundant reason, when we consider some recent events in
the movements of our Northern Church, which have produced a degree of
excitement that is but little calculated to ensure a dispassionate
consideration of the troubles in other times. Henceforward, therefore,
our Introductory Notes shall be limited to a Chronological Index of
events connected with the proceedings of the Church, in which it shall
be our study to avoid everything that can by possibility disturb the
nerves of the most fastidious partisans of any class of opinions.
THE PRINCIPALL ACTS
OF THE GENERALL ASSEMBLY, CONVEENED AT
EDINBURGH, AUGUST 2, 1643.
Sess. I. August 2, 1643.
_The King’s Letter to the Generall Assembly, presented by His
Majesties Commissioner, Sir Thomas Hope of Craighall, Knight, His
Majesties Advocate._
CHARLES R.
Trustie and wel-beloved, We greet you well. The time now approaching
for the holding of the General Assembly of Our Kirk of Scotland, and We
having appointed Sir Thomas Hope, Our Advocate, to be our Commissioner
there, We thought good to present him there with these Our Letters, and
to take this occasion to minde you of the duty which you owe to Us your
Soveraigne, and to the peace of that Our Native Kingdome. How far We
have lately extended Our grace and favour towards satisfaction of your
humble desires, there is not any amongst you but may well remember:
And therefore in this conjuncture of Our affairs, it is but reasonable
that We expect from you such moderation in the dutifull proceedings
of this Assembly, as may concurre with Our Princely inclinations and
desires, to preserve that Kirk and that our Kingdom in peace; having
wel observed that alterations in points of Religion, are often the
inlets to civill dissentions, and the hazard, if not overthrow of
both Kirk and Kingdomes. Therefore of Our great affection and speciall
tendernesse to your peace (who, of all Our Dominions, are yet happie
therein to the envy of others) We conjure and require you in the fear
of God, and obedience of Us his Vicegerent, that your endeavours and
consultations tend onely to preserve peace and quietnesse among you.
And so We bid you farewell. Given at our Court at Oxford, the 22 day of
July, 1643.
To our right trusty and welbeloved Counsellour, Sir Thomas Hope,
Knight, Our Advocate Generall, and Our Commissioner at the Generall
Assembly of the Kirk in Our Kingdome of Scotland, and to the rest of
the said Assembly now conveened.
Sess. II. August 3, 1643.
_Overtures anent Bills, References, and Appeales._
I. That all Bills whatsoever of particular concernment, whereunto all
parties having interest are not cited, should be rejected.
II. That all Bills be first presented to the inferiour Judicatories
of the Kirk, who may competently consider of them, and from them be
orderly and _gradatim_ brought to the Assembly, according to the order
prescribed for Appellations in the Assembly of Edinburgh, 1639, in the
24 Sess. August 30.
III. That the said Act of Assembly 1639, anent Appellations, be also
extended to References.
IV. In Appellations and References of particular concernment, if all
parties having interest, have been present in the inferiour Judicatorie
when the Appeal and Reference was made, then there is no necessitie
of citation. But in case of their absence, citation of parties is so
necessar, that if it be wanting, Appellations and References should not
be received.
V. That conform to former Acts of Assemblies, Appellations _post
sententiam_ be made within ten dayes after the sentence, and otherwise
not to be respected.
The Assembly ordaines thir Overtures to be given to the severall
Committees for their direction.
Sess. III. August 4, 1643.
_Act for election of Professours to be Commissioners to Assemblies by
Presbyteries._
The Assembly thinks, if Professours of Divinitie in Universities be
Ministers, that they may be chosen Commissioners to the Generall
Assembly, either by the Presbyterie as Ministers, or by the Universitie
as Professours of Divinitie.
Sess. IV. August 5, 1643.
_The Petition of the distressed Professours in Ireland for Ministers._
To the reverend and honourable Moderatour and remanent Members of the
Generall Assembly of Scotland, conveened at Edinburgh, Aug. 1643, The
humble Petition of the distressed Christians in the North of Ireland,
_Humbly sheweth,_
That whereas you were pleased the last year to take notice of our
Petition, and conceived so favourable an act in our behalf, from our
hearts we blesse the Lord God of our fathers, who put such a thing
as this in your heart, to begin in any sort to beautifie the house
of the Lord amongst us: doubtlesse you have brought upon your selves
the blessing of them who consider the poor; the Lord will certainly
deliver you in the time of trouble. We trust no distance of place,
no length of time, no pressure of affliction, yea, nor smiling of
prosperity, shall delete out of our thankfull memories the humble
acknowledgement of your so motherly care, in drawing out your breasts,
yea, your souls to satisfie the hungrie; although we have been beaten
with the sword, bitten with famine, our own wickednes correcting us,
our back-slidings reproving us, yet we have not so farre forgotten
the Lords ancient love, but that our hearts were brought to a little
reviving in the midst of our bondage, by the Ministery of these, who
at your direction made a short visit amongst us. We know you did not
conceive it expedient at that time, to loose any for full settling
here, till the waters of the bloudy inundation were somewhat abated,
and probability might be of some comfortable abode, which we through
the Lords revenging hand, pursuing our enemies, and the vigilancie of
your victorious Army, is in a great measure attained unto. Whatsoever
might have detained some of these whom ye directed to us, whose stay
made our expectation prove abortive, we shall ascribe it to our own
abuse of such treasure, and want of spirituall hunger, occasioned
justly through the want of food; And yet that same dis-appointment,
together with your faithfull promise of inlarging your indebted
bountie, which is put upon record in all our hearts; hath made us
conceive the seed of a lively expectation, that you will now no more
put your bountie, and the means of our life, into the hazard of such
frustrations, but will once for all, bestow an ample and enduring
blessing. And of this we are so much the more confident, because our
former suit was not denyed, but delayed: only we fear, if a new delay
be procured, till all things be fully settled, that the observing of
winde and clouds, shall hinder both sowing and reaping. And in the mean
time, the Prelates and their Faction may step in and invest themselves
of their old tyrannie over our consciences, who if they once shall see
us possessed of our own Inheritance, those Canaanites dare not offer
to thrust us out. By all appearance, if the Jesuites had any hope to
finde welcome amongst us, they had provided us fully ere now with their
poysoned plants. Our hearts abhorre the checking or suspecting of your
proceedings, yet it is lawfull to learn sometime from our enemie: But
in this you have begun before, not only to do, but also to be forward
a year ago, and thereby have ingaged your selves to perfect your own
beginnings, and bring us out of our orphan condition. We are fallen in
your lap, this ruine must be under your hand; you cannot pretend want
of bread or cloathing, you must be healers: We have chosen you Curators
to your little young sister that wants breasts; there is none in earth
to take her out of your hand, for we will not, nor cannot hide it from
your Honours and Wisedomes, that we want bread, and must not only, as
before, have a bit for our present need, but also seed to sow the Land.