The Life of James Renwick by Thomas Houston

Author:Thomas Houston [Houston, Thomas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Literary, Historical, General
ISBN: 9783752361780
Google: _M_zDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
Published: 2020-07-28T03:28:40+00:00

FOOTNOTES:

1 [ Hist of Ch. of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 64]

2 [ Calvin and Geneva, vol. I., II.]

3 [ See Appendix—Note A.]

4 [ Dodds' "Fifty Years' Struggle," p. 275.]

5 [ See "Faithful Contendings."]

6 [ Dodds' "Fifty Years' Struggle," p. 275.]

APPENDIX.

Table of Contents

It has been common in some quarters of late, to speak of Renwick and his associates in testimony-bearing and suffering, as only contending against the unconstitutional and persecuting measures of the government of the Royal brothers—and to declare that, had they lived to witness the change of government which took place at the Revolution, they would have joyfully hailed it as the realization of their eager aspirations—and would have incorporated readily with the national society. Thus, Dodds in his "Fifty Years' Struggle of the Scottish Covenanters,"—while acknowledging the important services rendered to the cause of the Prince of Orange, by the bold and resolute position taken by the Cameronians, represents Renwick, as not only "the last martyr of the Covenanting struggle," but also as "the Proto-martyr of the Revolution." He adds, "Like the shepherd overwhelmed in the snow-storm, he perished within sight of the door. The door of deliverance was speedily opened, on the arrival of William, in November, 1688." And, again, speaking of Cameron, Renwick, and the stricter Covenanters, he says, "So far, the REVOLUTION SETTLEMENT—in the main adopting what was universal, and rejecting what was exclusive, or over-grasping in their views—was the consummation and triumph, civilly and politically, and to a large extent, ecclesiastically, of the FIFTY YEARS' STRUGGLE OF THE SCOTTISH COVENANTERS." These statements, though plausible, and such as seem likely to be readily embraced by those who have no relish for a full Covenanted testimony—or who desire to maintain fellowship with corrupt civil and ecclesiastical systems, are liable to one fundamental and unanswerable objection—they are wholly unsupported by historical evidence. All pains were taken by Cameron and Renwick, in preaching and in their dying testimonies, and by the United Societies in their published declarations, to show that they testified not merely against the usurpation and blasphemous supremacy of the last of the Stuarts—but likewise, principally, against all invasion of the Redeemer's royal prerogatives—and all departure from the scriptural attainments of the former happy Reformation. In nothing were they more decided than in testifying to the death, that the National Covenants were the oath of God, perpetually binding on all classes in the realm—"the marriage tie," which no power on earth could dissolve—that all departure from the principles of these federal deeds was sinful, and involved the land in the guilt of national apostacy and perjury—and that the authority of the Scripture was supreme in constituting the national society, in enacting and administering the laws, and in regulating the lives and official acts of the rulers.

The Revolution Settlement, in both its civil and ecclesiastical departments, instead of being the exemplification and carrying forward of the work of the Second Reformation—for the maintenance of which the Scottish martyrs shed their blood—was a deliberate abandonment of it, and was established in open opposition to its grand and distinguishing principles.

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