Biographia Scoticana (Scots Worthies) Part 39

P. 452. l. 7. for _Learmoril_ r. _Learmond_.

P. 499. l. 10. from the foot, for _Fullialen_ r. _Tullialen_.

P. 500. foot note, for _Stirleg_ r. _Stirling_.

P. 502. l. 17. for _first_ r. _farther_.

P. 603. foot note, last line, for _they_ r. _the king_.

FOOTNOTES

[1] Mr Renwick's life wrote by Mr s.h.i.+elds and published _anno_ 1724.

[2] Of these records belonging to the state carried away by Cromwel to secure our dependence on England, there were 85 hogsheads lost Dec. 18, 1660, in a s.h.i.+p belonging to Kirkaldy, as she was returning with them from London. And as for the church records and registers, a great many of them also (either through the confusion of the then civil wars, or falling into the hands of the prelates while prelacy prevailed in Scotland) are also a-missing. PREFACE to Stevenson's History.

[3] Mr Wodrow in history.

[4] Sure 'tis a serious thing to die; my soul What a strange moment must it be when near Thy journey's end, thou hast the gulph in view!

That awful gulph no mortal e'er repa.s.s'd, To tell what's doing on the other side.

The GRAVE, by Blair

[5] Mr Henry on 1 Cor. xi. 1.

[6] For confirmation of this, see the Edinburgh monthly review for February 1774.

[7] See the parliamentary chronicle, or G.o.d on the mount

[8] See act v. parl. 1640 act v. 1644. act xv. 1649.; acts of the general a.s.sembly, sess. 26. 1638. sess. 23. 1639. sess. 6. 1642. sess.

{illegible} 1647. sess. 31. 1648, &c.

[9] Act v. sess 1. parl. 1. James VII. See James VII. and William and Mary's acts of parliament abridged, p. 42.

[10] Such as Messrs Currie, Ferguson, and Smith of Newburn &c. who, in order to palliate and extenuate the evil of the present backsliding courses, seem to have left no stone unturned to expose or blacken the reforming period.

[11] See more anent patronage and our covenants in the notes, pag. 184 and 185.

[12] Although toleration principles be now espoused, boasted of and gloried in by many, yea by some from whom other things might be expected, yet it is contrary to scripture. See Gen. x.x.xv. 2. &c. Deut.

xiii. 6. Judg. ii. 2. Ezek. xliii. 8. Prov. xvii. 15. Zech. xiii. 2.

Rom. xiii. 6. Rev. ii. 14, &c. And how far the civil magistrate is to exert his power in punis.h.i.+ng heretics, I shall not at present determine, or whether the word _extirpate_ in our solemn league and covenant extends to the temporal or spiritual sword, only there are different sentiments and expositions, yet sure I am that according to the very nature of things that which is morally good (being a commanded duty) needs no toleration; and that which is morally evil no mortal on earth can lawfully grant an immunity unto: And betwixt these there is no medium in point of truth and duty. And it is observable, that where toleration or toleration principles prevail, real religion never prospers much; and besides all it is of woful consequence, for as in natural bodies antipathies of qualities cause destruction, so in bodies politic different religions, or ways of wors.h.i.+p in religion, cause many divisions and distractions, whereby the seamless coat of Christ is like to be torn in pieces, and this oftentimes terminates in the ruin of the whole. _For a kingdom, city or house divided against itself_ (saith Christ) _cannot stand._ And yet some will say, That toleration is a good thing, for by it people may live as good as they please. I answer, It is true, but they may also live as bad as they please, and that we have liberty and freedom to serve G.o.d in his own appointed way, we have him primarily to thank for it, as for all his other mercies and goodness toward us.

[13] Witness the Quebec act, establis.h.i.+ng popery in Canada, 1774.--The Catholic bills granting a toleration to Papists in England and Ireland, 1778, with the gloomy aspect that affairs bear to Scotland since that time.

[14] This doctrine of original sin is plainly evinced from scripture, canonical and apocryphal, Job xiv. 4. Psal. li. 5. Rom. v. 12. _etc._ 1 Cor xv. 21. John iii. 6. Apocrypha Eccles. xxv. {illegible}6; a.s.serted in our church standards, ill.u.s.trated and defended by many able divines (both ancient and modern) and by our British poets excellently described: Thus,

Adam, now ope thine eyes, and first behold Th' effects which thy original crime hath wrought In some, to spring from thee, who never touch'd Th' excepted tree, nor with the snake conspir'd, Nor sinn'd thy sin; yet from that sin derive Corruption to bring forth more violent deeds.

PARADISE LOST. Lib. ix.

Conceiv'd in sin, (O wretched state!) before we draw our breath: The first young pulse begins to beat iniquity and death.

Dr WATTS.

[15] However much these leading articles in the Arminian and Pelagian scheme be now taught and applauded yet sure they are G.o.d-dishonouring and soul-ruining tenets, contrary to scripture, G.o.d's covenant, and eversive of man's salvation. For,

(1.) They are contrary to scripture, which teaches us that we are no less dependant in working than in being, and no more capable to act from a principle of life of ourselves, than to exist. _The way of man is not in himself, neither is it in man that walketh to direct his steps. What hast thou, O man, but what thou hast received? How to perform that which is good I find not_, Jer. x. 23. 1 Cor. iv. 7. Rom. vii. 18. _So that a man can do nothing, except it be given him from above; and no man can come unto me except the Father draw him_, saith Christ, John iii, 27.

vi. 44. See Con. ch. ix. -- 3. Article of the church of England 10. And for good works, however far they may be acceptable to G.o.d in an approbative way (as being conformable to his command, and agreeable to the holiness of his nature) yet we are a.s.sured from his word that moral rect.i.tude in its very summit can never render one acceptable in his sight in a justifying way, _for by the works of the law shall no man be justified; not by works of righteousness that we have done_, &c. Rom.

iii. 28. Gal. ii. 16. t.i.t. iii 5. So though good works or gospel obedience, and true holiness be absolutely necessary unto salvation, (as being the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith in every believer) the greatest saint being the best moralist, yet there are no ways meritorious of man's salvation; no, this depends upon G.o.d's eternal purposes, Rom. ix. 11. Eph. i. 4.--We find it often said in scripture, that it shall be rendered to every man _according to his works_, Rom.

iii. 6. Rev. xxii. 12 &c. but never for their works; yea works (though otherwise materially good in themselves) in an unregenerate man become sinful before G.o.d, _for whatsoever is not of faith is sin_, Rom. xiv.

23. although the omitting of them be more dishonouring to him, Rom.

viii. 8. Psal. xxvi. 5. Matth. xxiii. 23. See Conf. chap. xvi. -- 2,3,7.--And so Luther, Calvin, Diodati, Beza, Perkins, Fisher, Flavel, Owen, Simson, Binning, d.i.c.kson, Gray, Rutherford, Durham, Gillespie, Guthrie, Renwick, Pool, Henry, Halyburton, Boston, Marshal and many others.

(2.) They are antipodes to reason, and strike eminently against the very nature of G.o.d's covenant, for according to the tenor of the covenant of works, nothing but perfect, personal and perpetual obedience can merit (if any thing in a degenerate creature may be so called) and can any reasonable man look his own conscience in the face and say, that he is the person that can perform this. Again, if we betake ourselves unto the covenant of grace, reason itself might blush and be ashamed once to suppose, that the blood of the immaculate Son of G.o.d stood in any need of an addition of man's imperfect works, in order to complete salvation.

See Catechising on the Heidelberg catechism on question lii. page 180.

Blackwall's _ratio sacra_, page 17, &c.

(3) They must be very dangerous, soul-ruining and Christ dishonouring errors, for it might be counted altogether superfluous for a person to come to a physician for a cure, while he is not in the least suspicious of being infected with any malady: So in like manner, can it be expected that any soul can cordially come (or be brought) to Christ, without a due sense of its infinite distance from G.o.d by nature? of the impossibility of making any suitable approaches to him? and of the utter disability to do any thing that may answer the law, holiness and righteousness of G.o.d therein, _etc._? _For they that be whole_ (at least think themselves so) _need not a physician_, saith Christ; _and I came, not to call the righteous_ (or such as think themselves so) _but sinners to repentance_, Mark ix. 12.

From hence observe, that whosoever intends to forsake his sin, in order to come to Christ, or effectually to correct vice, before he believes on him, must needs meet with a miserable disappointment, for _without faith it is impossible to please G.o.d_, Heb. xi. 6. and in the end sink himself into an immense and bottomless chaos of uncertainties, like one lopping the branches off a tree to kill the root; _no man cometh to the Father but by me, and without me ye can do nothing_, says Christ himself, John xiv. 6. xv. 5. The love of G.o.d being the _prima causa_, the obedience and meritorious righteousness of Christ the foundation, source and spring of man's salvation and all true happiness, _for by grace ye are saved_, Eph. 2. 8. And whosoever has been made rightly to know any thing of the depravity of his nature in a lapsed state, or experienced any thing of the free grace of a G.o.d in Christ, will be made to acknowledge this, _That it is G.o.d that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure_, Phil. ii. 13. And yet I know it is objected, That it is highly dishonouring to the Author of nature, to argue man to be such a mean and insufficient creature, and that it can never be supposed, that a gracious and merciful G.o.d would make such a number of intelligent beings to d.a.m.n them, or command a sinner to repent and come to Christ, and condemn him for not doing it, if it were not in his own power upon moral suasion to obey, &c. It is true indeed, that in comparison of the irrational insect and inanimate creation, man is a n.o.ble creature, both as to his formation, _I am wonderfully made_, Psal cx.x.xix. 14. and also in his intellectual parts, but much more in his primeval state and dignity, when all the faculties of the mind and powers of the soul stood entire, being endued not only with animal and intelligent, but also heavenly life, _Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels_, Psal. viii. 5. But then in what follows, these objecters seem, either inadvertently, or willingly, to have forgot, (1.) _That man in honour abideth not_, Psal. xlix. 12, (or as the Rabbins read, and some translate it, as Cartwright, Ainsworth, Leigh and Broughton) _Adam in honour abideth not one night_. Adam, by his disobedience, not only introduced a jarr into the whole creation, rendered his posterity decrepit and lame, but also lost all power to any spiritual good, the whole of his intellectual parts concreated with him being either corrupted, darkened, obliterated or lost. Indeed Dr Taylor would have us believe, that what Adam lost, and more, was restored to Noah, Gen. ix.

and that man's mental capacities are now the same as Adam's in innocence, saving so far as G.o.d sees fit to set any man above or below his standard, some are below Adam in rational endowments and some are above him, of the latter he thinks Sir Isaac Newton was one (doctrine of original sin, page 235. supplement, page 85.) The fallacy of which is so obvious and absurd that it deserves no observation, for every man to his dear bought experience may know, that man now una.s.sisted by all the dark remains of original, natural, moral and political knowledge he is master of, can acquire no certain knowledge of any part of his duty, as to moral good or evil, but by a gradation of labour, slow and multiplied deductions, and much less is he able to bind the strong man and cast him out. And yet all this is no way dishonouring to the great author of nature as to the works of his hands, for although he made man at first, he made him not originally a sinful man, so that it is our sin that is dishonouring to him. _Lo, this have I found out_, says the wisest of men, _that G.o.d at first made man upright, but he sought out many inventions_. (2.) That in a proper sense G.o.d neither made man to save nor to d.a.m.n him, but only for his pleasure and the manifestation of his own power and glory, Rev. iv. 11. Conf. chap. ii. -- 3. (3.) Although we have lost power to obey, yet he still retains his right to demand obedience, and nothing can be more suitable to the justice, wisdom and sovereignty of G.o.d, than to maintain his right to perfect obedience from man whom he originally endued with all power and abilities for what he commanded; neither is he any wise bound to restore that power again to man, which he by his disobedience lost. (4.) All mankind by the fall stand condemned by G.o.d's judicial act, _In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die_, Gen. ii. 17. And you'll say, a judge does a malefactor no injury in condemning him, when by the law he is found guilty of death, _and cursed is every one who confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them_, Deut. xxvii. 26.; and much less the supreme Judge of all, who can do nothing wrong to any, in condemning man, _for the wages of sin is death_, Rom. vi. 13. _and hath not the potter power over the clay_, &c.--And finally, if the first Adam's posterity be thus naturally endued with a power to do that which is spiritually good, pray what need was there for the second Adam to die to quicken his elect, Eph. ii. 1.; indeed we are commanded to repent and turn from our iniquities, _turn ye, turn ye, and live_, Ezek. x.x.xiii.

11. and ye _will not come unto me that ye might have life_, John v. 40.

But who, excepting a bold Arminian, will say, that these texts imply a natural power in man to turn, come or not as he pleases. If this were the case, the same Spirit of G.o.d would not have said elsewhere, _Draw me and we will run after thee; turn thou us, and we shall be turned_, Cant.

i. 4. Jer. x.x.xi. 18; _surely after I was turned, I repented_, ver. 19; it was not before I was turned I repented: No, this command and complaint only points out our duty, but the prayers and promises in the word shew us our ability for the performance thereof. And yet after all, proud ignorant man must needs be his own Saviour, and if G.o.d say not so too, Cain will be wroth and his countenance fall, Gen. iv. 5. _But let the potsherds strive with the potsherds of the earth; but we unto him that striveth with his Maker._

[16] Mr John d.i.c.kson in a letter while prisoner in the Ba.s.s.

[17] See Josephus _de bello Jud._ lib. v. and vi.; and of this destruction Eusebius lib. iii. chap. 6.; and the life of t.i.tus Vespasian.

[18]

Well may we tremble now! what manners reign?

But wherefore ask we? when a true reply Would shock too much. Kind heaven, avert events, Whose fatal nature might reply too plain!

---- Vengeance delay'd but gathers and ferments; More formidably blackens in the wind, Brews deeper draughts of unrelenting wrath, And higher charges the suspended storm.

Young's NIGHT THOUGHTS.

[19] Here Christ's crown rights not only became the word of their testimony, but also the very motto of their civil and military banners, insomuch as when that gallant Scots army lay at Dunce muir, (_anno_ 1639) each captain had his colours flying at his tent door, whereon was this inscription in letters of gold, CHRIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT.

Stevenson's History, Vol. II. p. 729.

[20] Here it neither can nor need be expected, that, in such a number of lives they could be all found alike precise in point of public testimony; yet I would fain expect, that what is here recorded of them might be somewhat equivalent to whatever blemishes they otherwise had, seeing their different sentiments are also recorded: Otherwise I presume it were hard to please all parties. For Mr Wodrow has been charged by some (and that not without some reason) that, in favours of some of his indulged _quondam_ brethren, in the last volume of his history, he has not only smothered some matters of fact relative to the more honest part of our sufferers, but even given the most faithful part of their contendings the epithets of unwarrantable heats, heights, flights, extravagancies, extremities, _etc._ [in his history, vol. II. p. 133, 298, 584.] Again, he and Mr Currie (in his essay on separation, p. 160, and 211) have blamed the publishers of the cloud of witnesses (but on very slender grounds) for corrupting, perverting and omitting some testimonies of our late sufferers, whom they say, came "not to the same length of principles with themselves, or those they had pickt out for that purpose." To avoid both rocks, all possible care has been here taken, and yet it must needs meet with its fate also, according to the various capacities, tempers and dispositions of the readers (and why not censure if blame-worthy?): Yet it is hoped that the honesty, labour and diligence used therein, will counterpoise all other reflections or exceptions.

[21] See collection of acts of parliament (said to be Andrew Stevenson's) preface to part II.

[22] Mr Rutherford, in a letter to the Earl of Ca.s.sils. See his letters, part I. epist. 23.

[23] Fuller in the preface to his lives in the holy state.