Robert Hamilton: First 'Reformed Presbyterian'

To Sir Robert Hamilton of Preston (1650-October 20/21, 1701) is credit given for the first recorded instance of the term "Reformed Presbyterian,"* which he wrote of himself in his dying declaration. He was:

• A leader of the Scottish Covenanters;
• A combatant at the Battle of Drumclog (June 22, 1679);
• A fugitive from English justice, who was exiled in Holland for many years for his Covenanter convictions;
• The man whose influence led to the Dutch Presbyterian ordination of James Renwick, the last Scottish Covenanter minister to be publicly executed; and he was
• An author of the 1679 Rutherglen Declaration and the 1692 Sanquhar Declaration.

John Howie, biographer of the Covenanters, devoted a chapter to the record of his life in his famous "Scots Worthies." His life indeed was the stuff of heroic adventure novels. Much maligned, ever zealous, hunted and on the run, willing to sacrifice lands and title, "with Moses he made that noble choice, rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season, and did esteem a stedfast adherence to the cause of Christ, (with all the reproaches that followed thereon) greater riches than all his brother's estate. For out of a true love to Jesus Christ, his covenanted cause, interest and people, he laid his worldly honour in the dust, continuing still a companion in the faith, patience, affliction and tribulation of that poor, mean and despised handful of the Lord's witnesses in these lands, who still owned and adhered unto the state of the Lord's covenanted cause in Scotland" (John Howie, Scots Worthies, p. 600).

When he finally returned to Scotland in 1689, he could not in good conscience accede to the Erastian Revolution Settlement. On account of his involvement in publishing the 1692 Sanquhar Declaration, he was arrested and spent some eight months in prison until he was released upon the magistrates' prerogative. After a life spent in the service of Christ's covenanted cause in Scotland, he left this world with a dying testimony in which he stated:

I die a true Protestant, and to my knowledge a reformed Presbyterian, in opposition to popery, prelacy, and malignancy, and whatever is contrary to truth, and the power of godliness, as well against flattering pretenders to unwarrantable zeal on the right hand, as against lukewarmness on the left; adhering with my soul to the holy sweet scriptures, which have often comforted me in the house of my pilgrimage, our confession of faith, our catechisms, the directory for worship, covenants, national and solemn league and covenant, acknowledgment of sins and engagement to duties, with the causes of God's wrath, and to all the faithful public testimonies given against defections of old or late, particularly these contained in the informatory vindication, and that against the toleration, and the two last declarations emitted since this fatal revolution, which testimonies I ever looked upon as a door of hope of the Lord's returning again to these poor backslidden lands.

And now, my dear friends, let nothing discourage you in that way. The Lord will maintain his own cause, and make it yet to triumph. The nearer to-day it may be the darker, but yet in the evening time it shall be light, and the farther distant ye keep from all the courses and interests of this generation, the greater will your peace and security be. O! labour to be in Christ, for him, and like him, much in reading of the holy scriptures, much in prayer and holy unity among yourselves. Be zealous and tender in keeping up your private fellowship for prayer and Christian conference, as also your public correspondences and general meetings, go to them and come from them as these intrusted, really concerned and weighted with Christ's precious controverted truths in Scotland, and labour still to take Christ along with you to all your meetings, and to behave yourselves as under his holy and all-seeing eye when at them, that ye may always return with a blessing from his rich hand. Now farewell, my dear Christian friends, the Lord send us a joyful meeting at his own right hand after time; which shall be the earnest desire, while in time, of your dying friend,

Sic subscribitur,R. HAMILTON.

Matthew Hutchison wrote concerning this testimony:

In such sentiments as these we find the true inner spirit, the real sustaining power of these faithful men. Religion was to them after all much more than a public testifying for the truth; it was a living and walking by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the joy of his holy fellowship upheld them in all their sorrows and trials. 'In Christ, for Him, like Him,' that was the sum of their testimony, that was their aim and their glory.

James Renwick himself once wrote the following witness to the legacy of Robert Hamilton:

But let the world say what it they will, I must say this, and I say it without vanity or flattery, that a little of Robert Hamilton's spirit in such a day as this is very much worth.

John Howie adds:

The faithful Mr. Renwick called him Mi pater, my father, and ever had a high esteem and regard for him, as the contents of most part of his letters bear: Yea, in the very last letter he wrote, he accosts him thus, 'If I had lived and been qualified for writing a book, and if it had been dedicated to any, you would have been the man; for I have loved you, and I have peace before God in that; and I bless his name that ever I have been acquainted with you, &c.'

* "He left a written testimony to the cause for which he had laboured and suffered, urging his brethren to unwavering steadfastness and watchfulness against defections. In this deed, we find for the first time that we have noticed, the combination of the words that afterwards became the designation of the church, "I die a true Protestant, and to my knowledge a Reformed Presbyterian." (Matthew Hutchison, The Reformed Presbyterian Church in Scotland: Its Origin and History, 1680-1876, p. 138)

"How We Got the Name Reformed Presbyterian
...
The first recorded use of the term was in 1701. In that year Robert Hamilton died. Among his last words were these: 'I die a true Protestant, and to my knowledge a Reformed Presbyterian.'" (Peter Lippincott, ed., Psalm Singing of the Covenanters, p. 19)

Why Study the History of the Scottish Covenanters?

F.F. Bruce, Foreword to J.D. Douglas, The Light in the North, pp. 7-8:

At first blush the inclusion of a whole volume on the Scottish Covenanters in a series covering two thousand years of Christian history may be put down to an excess of provincialism on someone's part. But the inclusion of this volume is due to something more than an exaggerated estimate of the importance of seventeenth-century Scotland in the on-going story of the Church in the world. Thucydides wrote the history of the Peloponnesian War not simply because of the part which it played in his own career, but also because in the record of this conflict, waged over a period of twenty-seven years between the leading states of the Greek world, he discerned principles and patters of action which tended to recur in the fortunes of men and nations. So, too, the story of the Scottish Covenanters, limited as it is in space and time, brings out in sharp outline a crucial issue which the Christian Church has had to face from its earliest days, and which is as acute today as ever it was. 

This issue is not the question whether episcopacy or presbytery is the more apostolic order. To this question there are more than two possible answers. The issue is that of the relation between Church and State. The highest authority that Christians recognize bids them "render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." But it is not easy to fix the limits of those things that are Caesar's, and less easy than ever when Caesar himself turns Christian. Extreme positions were taken up on either side in seventeenth-century Scotland, when the divine right of kings was opposed by the divine right of presbytery -- the divine right of presbytery, moreover, not only in the Scottish Kirk but in England and Ireland as well. The kindly, tolerant, hospitable English people have often been bewildered, and at times even exasperated, by the stiff-necked behaviour of the other nations that share with them the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, with their inordinate sense of history and their contempt for the suggestion of reasonable compromise when principles are at stake. Even where a national symbol like the Stone of Destiny is concerned, Scots know where they stand on the point of legal principle and call from time to time upon the sister nation to honour the Treaty of Northampton. But it was not national honour that was at stake in the seventeenth century, but the Crown Rights of the Redeemer -- the claim of Christ to be Master in His own house. On this principle an Aberdeen doctor will insist as strenously as the most zealous Protestor from the west lands. 

For, whatever may be thought about the interpretation which Andrew Melville and his followers put upon the doctrine of the Two Kingdoms, it is a fundamental Christian doctrine. On the one hand, there are still times when it must be emphasized that the civil ruler, as such, even when he is a Christian, has no authority in church councils beyond that of the humblest church member. On the other hand, the obedience which a Christian man, or the Christian community, owes to the civil ruler, even when the ruler is a Christian, is never absolute. There are times when it may be not merely a Christian right, but a Christian duty, to disobey the civil ruler: when his claims clash with the law of God, the Christian will say with the apostles: "We must obey God rather than men." Where men so conscious of their Christian right and duty as the Covenanters were confronted by men so blindly insistent on imposing their own will as the Stuarts, the resultant conflict revealed the issues involved with exceptional clarity.

450th Anniversary of the Scottish Reformation

O Lord, give me Scotland, or I die! -- John Knox

On August 17, 1560, the Scottish Parliament ratified a confession of faith that had only been prepared the week before but which was to change the course of Scottish history permanently. Authored by the Six Johns (John Knox, John Winram, John Spottiswoode, John Willock, John Douglas, and John Row), its 25 articles were read through twice, including its preface which calls on men to correct any false teaching contained therein by the word of God:

if any man will note in this our confession any article or sentence repugning to God's holy word, that it would please him of his gentleness, and for Christian charity's sake, to admonish us of the same in writing; and we, of our honour and fidelity, do promise unto him satisfaction from the mouth of God (that is, from his holy scriptures), or else reformation of that which he shall prove to be amiss.

John Knox gave an account of the matter (History of the Reformation in Scotland, Vol. 1, pp. 338f):

Our Confession was publicly read, first in audience of the Lords of Articles, and after in audience of the whole Parliament; where were present, not only such as professed Christ Jesus, but also a great number of the adversaries of our religion, such as the fore-named Bishops, and some others of the Temporal Estate, who were commanded in God's name to object, if they could, any thing against that doctrine. Some of our Ministers were present, standing upon their feet, ready to have answered, in case any would have defended the Papistry, and impugned our affirmatives: but while that no objection was made, there was a day appointed to voting in that and other heads. Our Confession was read, every article by itself, over again, as they were written in order, and the votes of every man were required accordingly. Of the Temporal Estate, only voted in the contrary the Earl of Atholl, the Lords Somerville and Borthwick; and yet for their dissenting they produced no better reason, but, "We will believe as our fathers believed." The Bishops (papistical, we man) spake nothing. The rest of the whole three Estates by their public votes affirmed the doctrine; and many, the rather, because that the Bishops would nor durst say nothing in the contrary.

Three dissented, but the Scots Confession of 1560 was adopted as an expression of the religion of the realm, marking the most significant victory of the Reformation to-date. A week later, on August 24, 1560, Parliament abolished both the mass and the jurisdiction of the Pope in Scotland. Mary, Queen of Scots, did not give royal consent to the Scots Confession, but in 1567 it received full legal recognition when it was reenacted by Parliament and confirmed by King James VI of Scotland (later King James I of England).

Thus, 450 years ago, the Reformed religion was professed by the Scottish nation. It is this anniversary which is worth noting today. John J. Murray has authored a book published by the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) called The Reformation 1560 - The Greatest Year in Scotland's History (2010), which is a helpful introduction to both the context and relevance of this history for today. He writes (pp. 5-6):

The year 2010 marks the 450th anniversary of the Scottish Reformation....

The situation prevailing in the Church and in the nation in 2010 is such as makes one wonder if the martyrs died in vain, if the labours of the Reformers were all for nothing. We are in a new age of darkness with the Gospel buried out of sight, not only by an unchanged Roman system, but by a Protestantism largely devoid of the authority of Scripture, the saving truths of the Gospel, and holiness of life. With the Church in such a weakened state, atheism, scepticism and secularism flourish. Scriptural illiteracy abounds. The moral structure has collapsed. Our culture is declining like some of the ancient civilisations. The liberties won for us at the Reformation are being eroded by government legislation.

As will be made clear in the following pages, the Reformation was first and foremost a mighty work of the Holy Spirit. Spiritual renewal lay at the heart of the transformation which took place. God had mercy on Scotland and delivered her from a dark night. As we face a similar situation today we need to humble ourselves before God and repent of our sins and the sins of the Church and nation. We need to cry to him to once again have mercy on our land. May the light which shone at the Reformation shine again and scatter the darkness of Romanism, unfaithful Protestantism and secularism from our land. ‘O send out thy light and thy truth’ (Psa 43:3).

Murray, in his concluding remarks, speaks of the need for spiritual renewal in Scotland and elsewhere today (pp. 57-58). Scotland's need is not unique to the land of John Knox.

We need men like Luther and Calvin and Knox who will speak that Word with boldness. These men took their stand against error and were prepared to put their lives at risk to do so. They did not shun controversy. Over a century ago C.H. Spurgeon said: 'We want John Knox back again. Do not talk to me of mild and gentle men, of soft manners and squeamish words; we want the fiery Knox, and even though his vehemence should "ding our pulpits into blads" it were well if he did but rouse our hearts to action.'

We need the Holy Spirit. The Reformation came about because, as John Knox said, 'God gave his Holy Spirit to simple men in great abundance.' God worked mightily in him and through him. John Knox caught the fire and it burned brightly for God and His cause. The cry that needs to go our from our heart today is 'Where is the God of John Knox?'

The Scots Confession itself concludes thus with a similar prayer:

Arise, O Lord, and let thy enemies be confounded: Let them flee from thy presence that hate thy godly name: Give thy servants strength to speak thy word in boldness; and let all nations cleave to thy true knowledge.

So be it.

Robert the Bruce and the Spider

According to legend, it was a spider, even more than Braveheart, who inspired Robert the Bruce to succeed in his battle for Scottish independence. As Sir Walter Scott tells the story in Tales of a Grandfather, pp. 27-28:

The news of the taking of Kildrummie, the captivity of his wife, and the execution of his brother, reached Bruce while he was residing in a miserable dwelling at Rachrin, and reduced him to the point of despair.

It was about this time [c. 1306-1307] that an incident took place, which, although it rests only on tradition in families of the name of Bruce, is rendered probable by the manners of the times. After receiving the last unpleasing intelligence from Scotland, Bruce was lying one morning on his wretched bed, and deliberating with himself whether he had not better resign all thoughts of again attempting to make good his right to the Scottish crown, and, dismissing his followers, transport himself and his brothers to the Holy Land, and spend the rest of his life fighting against the Saracens; by which he thought, perhaps, he might deserve the forgiveness of Heaven for the great sin of stabbing Comyn in the church in Dumfries. But then, on the other hand, he thought it would be both criminal and cowardly to give up his attempts to restore freedom to Scotland, while there yet remained the least chance of his being successful in an undertaking, which, rightly considered, was much more his duty than to drive the infidels out of Palestine, though the superstition of his age might think otherwise.

While he was divided betwixt these two reflections, and doubtful of what he should do, Bruce was looking upward to the roof of the cabin in which he lay; and his eye was attracted by a spider, which, hanging at the end of a long thread of its own spinning, was endeavouring, as is the fashion of that creature, to swing itself from one beam in the roof to another, for the purpose of fixing the line on which it meant to stretch its web. The insect made the attempt again and again without success; and at length Bruce counted that it had tried to carry its point six times, and been as often unable to do so. It came into his head that he himself fought just six battles against the English and their allies, and that the poor persevering spider was exactly in the same situation with himself, having made as many trials, and been as often disappointed in what it aimed at. “Now,” thought Bruce, “ as I have no means of knowing what is best to be done, I will be guided by the luck which shall attend this spider. If the insect shall make another effort to fix its thread, and shall be successful, I will venture a seventh time to try my fortune in Scotland; but if the spider shall fail I will go to the wars in Palestine, and never return to my native country more.”

While Bruce was forming this resolution, the spider made another exertion with all the force it could muster, and fairly succeeded in fastening its thread to the beam which it had so often in vain attempted to reach. Bruce, seeing the success of the spider, resolved to try his own fortune; and as he had never before gained a victory, so he never afterwards sustained any considerable check or defeat. I have often met with people of the name Bruce, so completely persuaded of the truth of this story, that they would not on any account kill a spider; because it was that insect which had shown the example of perseverance, and given a signal of good luck, to their great namesake.

Having determined to renew his efforts to obtain possession of Scotland, notwithstanding the smallness of the means which he had for accomplishing so great a purpose, the Bruce removed himself and his followers from Rachrin to the island of Arran, which lies in the mouth of the Clyde.

Of course, Bruce was crowned king of Scotland and went on to defeat King Edward II at the battle of Bannockburn in 1314. It is this story which is credited with giving rise to the saying, "If at first you don't succeed, try, and try again." But there is more to be said about the story. Although it has been told and retold many times, before Sir Walter Scott's attribution of this account to Robert the Bruce in 1827, the spider story was not associated directly with him, but rather with his associate, Sir James “The Black” Douglas, based on a work written by David Hume of Godscroft (1558-1629) in his The History of the House of Douglas, which was published posthumously in 1643. Hume wrote of Douglas:

I spied a spider clymbing by his webb to the height of an trie and at 12 several times I perceived his web broke, and the spider fel to the ground. But the 13 tyme he attempted and clambe up the tree.

with Douglas then telling Bruce:

My advise is to follow the example of the spider, to poush forward your Majestie's fortune once more, and hazard yet our persones the 13 tyme.

This appears to be the earliest account of the spider story, and although it shows how a spider inspired Bruce to win independence for Scotland, it portrays Douglas rather than Bruce as the one who saw the spider.

Hume himself is an interesting character: a Scottish historian, poet, and theologian, he also served as a pastor to a Huguenot congregation in Duras, France, from 1604 to 1614. His writings remain an important window into the history and controversies of his age.

Little did he know that the spider story, altered by Sir Walter Scott, would become his most famous legacy.

Egbert Watson Smith, The Creed of Presbyterians, p. 160, provides the most important moral of the story:

The control of the greater must include the control of the less, for not only are great things made up of little things, but history shows how the veriest trifles are continually proving the pivots on which momentous events revolve. The persistence of a spider nerved a despairing man to fresh exertions which shaped a nation's future. The God Who predestinated the course of Scottish history must have planned and presided over the movements of the tiny insect that saved Robert Bruce from despair.

Spokesmen for Christ

Robert Wodrow, Analecta, or Materials for a History of Remarkable Providences, Vol. 3, pp. 3-4:

I hear there was a certain merchant came from London to Saint Andrews in Fife, where he heard first the greatly and worthy Mr. [Robert] Blair preach. Next he heard the great [Samuel] Rutherford preach. Next Lord's day he came to Irwin and heard Mr. [David] Dickson preach. When he came back to London, his friends asked him what news he had from Scotland? He answered, he had very great and good news to tell them. They wondered much what they could be, for he was before that time a man altogether a stranger to true religion. He told them he heard one Mr. Blair preach, at Saint Andrews; and, describing his features, and the stature of his body, he said, 'That man shewed me the majesty of God,' which was Mr. Robert Blair's peculiar talent: Then added he, 'I afterward heard a little fair man preach,' (Mr. Rutherford,) 'and that man shewed me the loveliness of Christ: Then I came and heard, at Irwin, a well-favoured, proper old man, with a long beard,' (which was famous Mr. Dickson,) 'and that man shewed me all my heart!' -- for he was the most famed of any man in his time to speak of cases of conscience. And they say that Englishman became an excellent Christian. The whole General Assembly of the Church of Scotland could not have given a better character of these three men than that man gave.

The Covenanter Encyclopedia

Dane Love, author of Scottish Covenanter Stories: Tales From the Killing Times, which is a fascinating book, has recently published The Covenanter Encyclopedia, "one of the most comprehensive books ever published on the Covenanters, written by one of the leading authorities in the field." Read Iain Campbell's blog post about it here (HT: Wayne Sparkman). I look forward to reading this myself.

Scotland's Covenants

William M. Hetherington, Poems on Various Subjects (1851), pp. 85-90:

SCOTLAND’S COVENANTS (written in 1843)

I.
Heard ye the tidings dire,
Ye Scottish Christians true?
That Rome’s remorseless ire
Is forging chains for you?

That Spain’s Armada vast
Sweeps o’er the groaning waves,
On you those chains to cast,
And make you crouching slaves!

Unconquered land! awake!
In Covenant-strength combine!
To God your great vow make
For liberty divine!

’Tis done! Her soul is free!
Spain’s Jesuit hordes are fled!
Scotland, on grateful knee,
Adores her KING and HEAD!

II.
By king-craft and dark guile
Has Scotland been betrayed;
Proud prelates scornful smile
On her all prostrate laid.

Her spirit is not dead, –
Her Covenant not disowned; –
Yet shall her KING and HEAD
In His pledged land be throned.

Faith lives, and prayers arise, –
God hears her solemn vow;
That banner o’er the skies
Again is floating now!

Free is the Covenant-land, –
Yes, free! tho’ despots rage,
And with red ruthless hand
Fierce persecution wage.

To Heaven the martyr-cries
Ascend, “O Lord, how long!”
The crownless tyrant flies, –
For God, our Judge, is strong!

III.
Again dark clouds sunk o’er
The land; faith silent grew;
No hand aloft upbore
The Covenant-banner blue.

Unhallowed scorn grew bold, –
Proud strength to rend it tried:–
Not yet is Scotland cold, –
The assailant is defied!

Let the war-cry be given!
Let the loud trumpet ring!
Free to the winds of heaven
Our ancient banner fling!

Bold in Emmanuel’s cause,
Faith’s glorious fight we wage;
For CHRIST – His CROWN – and LAWS,
We dare the foe’s wild rage!

Where stood our martyred sires
We stand – the cause is one!
Not persecution’s fires
We fear – but God alone!

What tho’ for conscience’ sake
Homeless we journey forth,
Let us one temple make
Of God’s own heaven and earth!

All sufferings, Lord, we hail,
Rejoicing – when for Thee! –
Hark! shouts rise on the gale! –
And SCOTLAND’S CHURCH is FREE!

The Sword of William Wallace

When most people think of an object closely associated with Scotland's great patriot, they think of his famous sword. But his greatest treasure was in fact a sword of another kind (Eph. 6.17; Heb. 4.12). When Sir William Wallace was a boy, a Psalter was given to him, perhaps by his mother or uncle. It was his constant companion throughout his life and a solace to him in the midst of great hardships. When he was executed at the Elms at Smithfield on August 23, 1305, he requested that the very same Psalter, which had been taken away from him, be held in front of his face by a priest until he expired. He beheld the Psalter even after being disemboweled. The Psalter, which was among his earliest possessions, was also his very last earthly possession, and the last thing he saw as he left this world and entered the next. Like Augustine, who had the penitential psalms inscribed and posted on the walls around his deathbed, or our Lord Jesus, who quoted the psalms while hanging on the cross, the Psalter brought comfort to Scotland's greatest patriot, not only during his final hour on earth, but throughout his heroic life. An epitome of the Bible, the Psalter was, for William Wallace, the sword upon which he most depended.

In the words of his poetic biographer, Blind Harry the minstrel:

Wallace about him, from his childhood, kept,
Where'er he went, whether he walked or slept,
A psalter book, where he beseech'd a knight,
Lord Clifford, might be brought unto his sight.
Which done, he caus'd a priest upon the place,
To hold it open straight before his face,
On which he look'd, sometimes his eyes up cast,
Religiously unto his very last.

Closing a Door, Opening a Window Part 2

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. (John 10.1)

Following up the theme of closed doors and open windows, the story of Alexander Henderson's conversion, while already in the ministry, is a remarkable instance of John 10.1 applied literally.

Robert Fleming, The Fulfilling of the Scriptures, Vol. 1 (1671, 1801 ed.), pp. 366-367 (modernized spelling):

I shall here set down one passage of famous Mr. [Alexander] Henderson, who at his first entry to the ministry at Leuchars, was very Prelatic, and by the bishop of St. Andrews, brought in against the parish's consent, so that the day of his admission, the church doors being shut by the people, they were forced to break in by a window to get him entrance, but a little after this, upon the report of a communion where Mr. [Robert] Bruce was to help, he would needs from a longing he had to hear and see such a man, go secretly there; and placed himself in a dark part of the church where he might not be known, when Mr. Bruce was come to the pulpit, he did for a considerable time keep silence as his manner was, which did some way astonish Mr. Henderson, but much more when he heard the first words wherewith he began, which were there, He that cometh not in by the door, but climbeth up another way, the same is a thief and a robber; which did by the Lord's blessing at the very present take him by the heart, and had so great an impression on him, that it was the first mean[s] of his conversion.

The rest, as they say, is history. Alexander Henderson was not only, by the grace of God, given a new birth in Christ; he turned from prelacy to become the great defender of the perogatives of Christ's Crown and Covenant, and the civil and ecclesiastical liberties of Scotland.

The Country of the Camisards

The Cévennes of France are to the Camisards as the Highlands of Scotland are to the Covenanters -- final resting place for martyrs, whose remembrance flowers, like those poppies of Flanders Fields, grow and flourish on blood-soaked "rocky heather-filled hillsides."

Robert Louis Stevenson wrote one of first modern travelogues in 1879, titled Travels With a Donkey in the Cévennes. In that pioneering work, he toured the land where almost two centuries before French Camisards died for the cause of Christ under the persecution of dragoons sent by the 'Sun King,' Louis XIV, of 'The Man in the Iron Mask' fame.

Under the pen-name of W. P. Bannatyne, Stevenson wrote a poetic tribute to those heroic Camisards with whom he felt, like the Covenanters, a kinship, which he included in this book. 'How deep the corn,' indeed.

The Country Of The Camisards

We travelled in the print of olden wars;
Yet all the land was green;
And love we found, and peace,
Where fire and war had been.

They pass and smile, the children of the sword—
No more the sword they wield;
And O, how deep the corn
Along the battlefield!

--W. P. Bannatyne

Celebrate the 450th Anniversary of the Scottish Reformation in Scotland

The next International Covenanter Holiday Conference is scheduled to take place July 14-24, 2010 at Gartmore House, Scotland, in commemoration of the 450th anniversary of the Scottish Reformation of 1560. Make plans now to attend this special event. It is being hosted by the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland.

Prof. Robert McCollum of the Reformed Theological College, Belfast and pastor of the Lisburn RPCI congregation is the scheduled conference speaker. The conference theme is "Reformation and Revival in the Church Today." Watch for the Registration Forms to be released in early July 2009. In the meantime, feel free to direct any enquiries to the e-mail address below.

Covenanter International Holiday Conference 2010 Organising Committee (mail to: conference2010@talktalk.net)

Check the website for further details.

The Genius of Presbyterianism

Alexander Henderson, "the prime architect of the National Covenant (1638) and the Solemn League and Covenant (1643)" (Dictionary of Scottish Church History & Theology, p. 397), had a gift for words. In The Government and Order of the Church of Scotland (1641), he described the genius of Presbyterianism thus: "Here there is a superiority without tyranny...Here there is a parity without confusion and disorder...And...here there is a subjection without slavery....”

Here there is a superiority without tyranny for no Minister hath a Papal or Monarchical Jurisdiction over his own flock, far less over other Pastors and over all the Congregations or a large Diocese. Here there is a parity without confusion and disorder, for the Pastors are in order before the Elders, and the Elders before the Deacons; the Church is subordinate to the Presbytery, the Presbytery to the Synod, and the Synod to the National Assembly. One Pastor also hath priority before another for age, for zeal, for gifts, for his good deservings of the Church, each one honouring him whom God hath honoured, and as he beareth the image of God which was to be seen amongst the Apostles themselves. But none hath power or jurisdiction above others: even as in nature one eye hath not power over another, only the head hath power over all, even as Christ over his Church. The same may be seen in the Commonwealth, and in some of the offices of the Roman Church itself. And lastly, here there is a subjection without slavery, for the people are subject to the Pastors and Assemblies, yet there is no Assembly wherein every particular Church hath not interest and power; nor is there anything done but they are, if not actually, yet virtually called to consent unto it.

First Scottish Covenant

According to Thomas M'Crie the Elder, Life of John Knox in his Works, Vol. 1, p. 88 (1855 ed.), the first Scottish covenant was a bond, or solemn engagement, entered to in 1556 by John Knox, John Erksine of Dun (for whom this covenant derived its name) and other gentlemen from The Mearns, in which they covenanted to shun Popish idolatry and seek after the pure preaching of the gospel. Although the document that was signed is not extant (John Knox is the primary historical source of information about it), the 1556 Dun Covenant preceded the more well-known Edinburgh covenant of December 3, 1557 by one year.

Samuel Rutherford Scandal

A testimony to the grace of God, not unlike the experience of David in Psalm 51, in the life of Samuel Rutherford, that remarkable Scottish Covenanter.

Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. 17, p. 496 (1909 ed.):

He entered the university of Edinburgh in 1617, graduated in 1621, and in 1623 was appointed regent of humanity, having been recommended by the professors for 'his eminent abilities of mind and virtuous disposition.' The records of the two council of Edinburgh under 3 Feb. 1626 contain the following: 'Forasmuch as it being declared by the principal of the college that Mr. Samuel Rutherford, regent of humanity, has fallen in fornication with Eupham Hamilton, and has committed a great scandal in the college and...has since demitted his charge therein, therefore elects and nominates...commissioners...with power...to insist for depriving of the said Mr. Samuel, and being deprived for filling of the said place with a sufficient person.' Rutherford married the said Eupham, and his whole subsequent life was a reparation for the wrong he had done. According to his own statement, he had 'suffered the sun to be high in heaven' before he became seriously religious.

Joel R. Beeke & Randall J. Pederson, Meet the Puritans, p. 721, adds:

In 1623, Rutherford was chosen to serve as Professor of Humanity at Edinburgh, with responsibilities as a Latin tutor. Two years later, he was forced to resign after behaving inappropriately with a young woman named Euphame Hamilton, whom he subsequently married. God apparently used this incident to initiate or further his conversion. In a letter to Robert Stuart (1637), Rutherford wrote, “Ye have gotten a great advantage in the way of heaven, that ye have started to the gate in the morning. Like a fool, as I was, I suffered my sun to be high in the heaven, and near afternoon, before I ever took the gate by the end.”

Happy Birthday Robbie Burns!

January 25, 2009 marks the 250th birthday of Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns. While not a man with a godly reputation, he was a gifted writer. Earlier, I posted my favorite of his poems, The Cotter's Saturday Night. Now, as a further tribute to his memory, with a glass raised high (skipping the haggis), here are a few more lines worth recalling from his skilled hand.

The Solemn League and Covenant

The Solemn League and Covenant
Now brings a smile, now brings a tear;
But sacred Freedom, too, was theirs:
If thou'rt a slave, indulge thy sneer.

Epistle to James Tennant of Glenconner:

My shins, my lane, I there sit roastin’,
Perusing [John] Bunyan, [John] Brown [of Haddington], an’ [Thomas] Boston,

The Cotter's Saturday Night

One of my favorite poems is The Cotter's Saturday Night by Robert Burns, written in 1785, which I post here on a Saturday afternoon.

The Cotter's Saturday Night

Inscribed to R. Aiken, Esq., of Ayr.

Let not Ambition mock their useful toil,
Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;
Nor Grandeur hear, with a disdainful smile,
The short and simple annals of the Poor.
Gray

My lov'd, my honour'd, much respected friend!
No mercenary bard his homage pays;
With honest pride, I scorn each selfish end,
My dearest meed, a friend's esteem and praise:
To you I sing, in simple Scottish lays,
The lowly train in life's sequester'd scene,
The native feelings strong, the guileless ways,
What Aiken in a cottage would have been;
Ah! tho' his worth unknown, far happier there I ween!

November chill blaws loud wi' angry sugh;
The short'ning winter-day is near a close;
The miry beasts retreating frae the pleugh;
The black'ning trains o' craws to their repose:
The toil-worn Cotter frae his labour goes, -
This night his weekly moil is at an end,
Collects his spades, his mattocks, and his hoes,
Hoping the morn in ease and rest to spend,
And weary, o'er the moor, his course does hameward bend.

At length his lonely cot appears in view,
Beneath the shelter of an aged tree;
Th' expectant wee-things, toddlin, stacher through
To meet their dead, wi' flichterin noise and glee.
His wee bit ingle, blinkin bonilie,
His clean hearth-stane, his thrifty wifie's smile,
The lisping infant, prattling on his knee,
Does a' his weary kiaugh and care beguile,
And makes him quite forget his labour and his toil.

Belyve, the elder bairns come drapping in,
At service out, amang the farmers roun';
Some ca' the pleugh, some herd, some tentie rin
A cannie errand to a neibor town:
Their eldest hope, their Jenny, woman-grown,
In youthfu' bloom-love sparkling in her e'e-
Comes hame, perhaps to shew a braw new gown,
Or deposite her sair-won penny-fee,
To help her parents dear, if they in hardship be.

With joy unfeign'd, brothers and sisters meet,
And each for other's weelfare kindly speirs:
The social hours, swift-wing'd, unnotic'd fleet:
Each tells the uncos that he sees or hears.
The parents, partial, eye their hopeful years;
Anticipation forward points the view;
The mother, wi' her needle and her shears,
Gars auld claes look amaist as weel's the new;
The father mixes a' wi' admonition due.

Their master's and their mistress' command,
The younkers a' are warned to obey;
And mind their labours wi' an eydent hand,
And ne'er, tho' out o' sight, to jauk or play;
"And O! be sure to fear the Lord alway,
And mind your duty, duly, morn and night;
Lest in temptation's path ye gang astray,
Implore His counsel and assisting might:
They never sought in vain that sought the Lord aright."

But hark! a rap comes gently to the door;
Jenny, wha kens the meaning o' the same,
Tells how a neibor lad came o'er the moor,
To do some errands, and convoy her hame.
The wily mother sees the conscious flame
Sparkle in Jenny's e'e, and flush her cheek;
With heart-struck anxious care, enquires his name,
While Jenny hafflins is afraid to speak;
Weel-pleased the mother hears, it's nae wild, worthless rake.

Wi' kindly welcome, Jenny brings him ben;
A strappin youth, he takes the mother's eye;
Blythe Jenny sees the visit's no ill ta'en;
The father cracks of horses, pleughs, and kye.
The youngster's artless heart o'erflows wi' joy,
But blate an' laithfu', scarce can weel behave;
The mother, wi' a woman's wiles, can spy
What makes the youth sae bashfu' and sae grave,
Weel-pleas'd to think her bairn's respected like the lave.

O happy love! where love like this is found:
O heart-felt raptures! bliss beyond compare!
I've paced much this weary, mortal round,
And sage experience bids me this declare, -
"If Heaven a draught of heavenly pleasure spare-
One cordial in this melancholy vale,
'Tis when a youthful, loving, modest pair
In other'sarms, breathe out the tender tale,
Beneath the milk-white thorn that scents the evening gale."

Is there, in human form, that bears a heart,
A wretch! a villain! lost to love and truth!
That can, with studied, sly, ensnaring art,
Betray sweet Jenny's unsuspecting youth?
Curse on his perjur'd arts! dissembling smooth!
Are honour, virtue, conscience, all exil'd?
Is there no pity, no relenting ruth,
Points to the parents fondling o'er their child?
Then paints the ruin'd maid, and their distraction wild?

But now the supper crowns their simple board,
The halesome parritch, chief of Scotia's food;
The sowp their only hawkie does afford,
That, 'yont the hallan snugly chows her cood:
The dame brings forth, in complimental mood,
To grace the lad, her weel-hain'd kebbuck, fell;
And aft he's prest, and aft he ca's it guid:
The frugal wifie, garrulous, will tell
How t'was a towmond auld, sin' lint was i' the bell.

The cheerfu' supper done, wi' serious face,
They, round the ingle, form a circle wide;
The sire turns o'er, with patriarchal grace,
The big ha'bible, ance his father's pride:
His bonnet rev'rently is laid aside,
His lyar haffets wearing thin and bare;
Those strains that once did sweet in Zion glide,
He wales a portion with judicious care;
And "Let us worship God!" he says with solemn air.

They chant their artless notes in simple guise,
They tune their hearts, by far the noblest aim;
Perhaps Dundee's wild-warbling measures rise;
Or plaintive Martyrs, worthy of the name;
Or noble Elgin beets the heaven-ward flame;
The sweetest far of Scotia's holy lays:
Compar'd with these, Italian trills are tame;
The tickl'd ears no heart-felt raptures raise;
Nae unison hae they with our Creator's praise.

The priest-like father reads the sacred page,
How Abram was the friend of God on high;
Or Moses bade eternal warfare wage
With Amalek's ungracious progeny;
Or how the royal bard did groaning lie
Beneath the stroke of Heaven's avenging ire;
Or Job's pathetic plaint, and wailing cry;
Or rapt Isaiah's wild, seraphic fire;
Or other holy seers that tune the sacred lyre.

Perhaps the Christian volume is the theme,
How guiltless blood for guilty man was shed;
How He, who bore in Heaven the second name,
Had not on earth whereon to lay His head:
How His first followers and servants sped;
The precepts sage they wrote to many a land:
How he, who lone in Patmos banished,
Saw in the sun a mighty angel stand,
And heard great Bab'lon's doom pronounc'd by Heaven's command.

Then, kneeling down to Heaven's Eternal King,
The saint, the father, and the husband prays:
Hope "springs exulting on triumphant wing,"
That thus they all shall meet in future days,
There, ever bask in uncreated rays,
No more to sigh, or shed the bitter tear,
Together hymning their Creator's praise,
In such society, yet still more dear;
While circling Time moves round in an eternal sphere

Compar'd with this, how poor Religion's pride,
In all the pomp of method, and of art;
When men display to congregations wide

Devotion's ev'ry grace, except the heart!
The Power, incens'd, the pageant will desert,
The pompous strain, the sacerdotal stole;
But haply, in some cottage far apart,
May hear, well-pleas'd, the language of the soul;
And in His Book of Life the inmates poor enroll.

Then homeward all take off their sev'ral way;
The youngling cottagers retire to rest:
The parent-pair their secret homage pay,
And proffer up to Heaven the warm request,
That he who stills the raven's clam'rous nest,
And decks the lily fair in flow'ry pride,
Would, in the way His wisdom sees the best,
For them and for their little ones provide;
But chiefly, in their hearts with grace divine preside.

From scenes like these, old Scotia's grandeur springs,
That makes her lov'd at home, rever'd abroad:
Princes and lords are but the breath of kings,
"An honest man's the noblest work of God;"
And certes, in fair virtue's heavenly road,
The cottage leaves the palace far behind;
What is a lordling's pomp? a cumbrous load,
Disguising oft the wretch of human kind,
Studied in arts of hell, in wickedness refin'd!

O Scotia! my dear, my native soil!
For whom my warmest wish to Heaven is sent,
Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil
Be blest with health, and peace, and sweet content!
And O! may Heaven their simple lives prevent
From luxury's contagion, weak and vile!
Then howe'er crowns and coronets be rent,
A virtuous populace may rise the while,
And stand a wall of fire around their much-lov'd isle.

O Thou! who pour'd the patriotic tide,
That stream'd thro' Wallace's undaunted heart,
Who dar'd to nobly stem tyrannic pride,
Or nobly die, the second glorious part:
(The patriot's God peculiarly thou art,
His friend, inspirer, guardian, and reward!)
O never, never Scotia's realm desert;
But still the patriot, and the patriot-bard
In bright succession raise, her ornament and guard!