Part 32 (1/2)

There are some few of Mr. Peden's sermons in print, especially two preached at Glenluce _anno_ 1682. the one from Matth. xxi. 38. and the other from Luke xxiv. 21.; which prophetical sermons, though in a homely stile, are of a most zealous and spiritual strain; now re-printed in a late collection of sermons. As for those papers handed about under Mr.

Peden's name, anent Mr. James Renwick and his followers, they are, with good reason, looked upon as altogether spurious.

_The Life of Mr. JOHN BLACKADDER._

Mr. John Blackadder was a lineal descendent, and the only representative of the house of Tullialen. After he had undergone his courses of cla.s.sical learning, he was ordained minister of the gospel at Traquair near Dumfries, where he continued faithfully to discharge the trust committed unto his charge, until he was with many others of his faithful brethren thrust out by that act commonly called, the drunken act of Glasgow, in the year 1662.--At that time, a party came from Dumfries to seize him; but he was gone out of the way. But his wife and children (to whom the soldiers were extremely rude) were forced to retire to Barndennoch in Glencairn parish. But there he and his numerous family[227] met with further troubles: for in the year 1665, a party of Sir James Turner's men came in quest of him; but happily he and his wife were at Edinburgh. However with great fury and terrible oaths and execrations in the middle of the night they turned out the children from their beds, caused one of them to hold the candle till they searched his book and papers, and took what they lifted. They stabbed the beds with their swords, and threatened to roast the children on the fire, and caused one of them to run near half a mile in a dark night in his s.h.i.+rt.

After this he went and preached in the fields, where he had numerous meetings, particularly at the hill of Beeth in Fife in the year 1670. He had been before this, by the council's letter, put to the horn; and after this, came west about the year 1675, and preached in the parish of Kilbride and other places. The same year being in the Cow-hill in Mr.

Livingston parish, he went out in the evening (being in the month of August) unto a retired place. When he came in again, he seemed somewhat melancholy. Being asked by some friends, what was the reason? He said he was afraid of a contagious mist that should go through the land in many places that night, which might have sad effects, and death to follow; and as a mean he desired them to keep doors and windows as close as possible, and notice where it stood thickest and longest: which they did; which was upon a little town called the Craigs, wherein was but a few families; and within four months after that, thirty corpses went out of that place: great dearth and scarcity followed for three years s.p.a.ce after. Mr. Blackadder was in his judgment against the indulgence, and preached sometimes with Mr. John d.i.c.kson, they being both of one sentiment. He continued under several hards.h.i.+ps until the year 1678, that he went over to Mr. M'Ward in Holland. Having continued sometime there, and then returned home, he was about Edinburgh in the time of Bothwel[228]; and, after that, was of no small use to the prisoners in dissuading them from taking the bond, and other compliances; which he did by letters.

After he had endured a series of hards.h.i.+ps, and surmounted a number of difficulties, he came to discharge his last public work at a moor side, at the new house in the parish of Livingston, March 28th, 1681. He lectured upon Micah iv. chapter from the 9th verse, where he a.s.serted, ”That the nearer the delivery, our pains and showers would come thicker and sorer upon us; and that we had been in the fields; but ere we were delivered, we would go down to Babylon; that either popery would overspread the land, or else would be at the breaking in upon us, like an inundation of water.” He preached upon 1 Thess. iii. 3. And, amongst other things desired people to take good heed what ministers they heard, and what advice they followed: and, praying, he said, he was as clear and willing to hold up the blest standard of the gospel, as ever, and blessed the Lord he was free of every bond and imposition; and said, ”The Lord rebuke, give repentance and forgiveness to these ministers who persuaded the poor prisoners to take the bond; for their peris.h.i.+ng at sea was more shaking to him than some thousands of them that had been slain in the fields.” He went to Edinburgh, and being got notice of by major Johnston, he was by him apprehended upon the 6th of April following, and brought first to general Dalziel, then to the guard, and then before a committee of council, consisting of the chancellor, general, advocate, and bishop Paterson. The chancellor asked, if he had excommunicated the king, or was at Torwood? He answered, he was not there these four years. Chan. But do ye approve of what was done there?

Answ. I am not free to declare my inward sentiments of things and persons; and therefore I humbly beg to be excused[229]: You may form a libel against me, and I shall endeavour to answer it as I can. Chan. But we hear you keep conventicles since the indemnity. Answ. I am a minister of the gospel, though unworthy, and under the strictest obligation to exercise my ministry as I shall be answerable at the great day. I did and do full count it my duty to exercise my ministry as I am called thereunto. Chan. But you have preached in the fields, that is to say, on moors and hill sides. I shall not ask you, if ye have preached in houses, though there is no liberty even for that. Answ. I place no case of conscience, nor make any difference between preaching in houses and in the fields, but as it may best serve the conveniency of the hearers; nor know I any restriction as to either in the word. My commission reaches to houses and fields, within and without doors. Chan. We doubt, you know and have seen the laws discharging such preaching. Answ. I have, and I am sorry that ever any laws were made against preaching the gospel. Chan. Not against the gospel, but against preaching rebellion--The chancellor asked, if he kept conventicles in Fife? which he did not deny.--He was carried to the guard. The council sat in the afternoon; but he was not again called before them; but without a farther hearing, was sentenced to go to the Ba.s.s. Accordingly, April 7th, he was carried thither, when on the way, at Fisher's-row there happened to be a gathering of people, the captain, apprehending it might be for his rescue, told Mr. Blackadder, if they attempted any thing of this kind, he would instantly shoot him through the head: He told the captain he knew nothing of any such design.

He continued there, till the end of this year 1685, when he contracted a rheumatism from the air of the place. A motion was made for his liberation on bail on this account; but it never took effect; and so he entered into the joy of his Lord about the beginning of the year 1686 and as the interest of Christ always lay near his heart through his life, so amongst his last words he said, ”The Lord would yet arise, and defend his own cause in spite of all his enemies.” Thus died Mr. John Blackadder, a pious man, and a powerful preacher. There are several well vouched instances of the Lord's countenancing his ministry, while in the fields, and of the remarkable success of his sermons, (which were not so low and flat but the pious learned might admire them, nor so learned but the plainest capacity might understand them). In a word, he was possessed of many singular virtues. His going through so many eminent dangers with such undaunted courage, was remarkable, and his love to G.o.d and his church exemplary.

I have only seen two of his many pathetick sermons, which are very extensive upon the sufferings of Christ from Isa. liii. 11. _He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied_, &c--The reader will find them in a small collection of sermons lately published.

_The Life of Mr. JAMES RENWICK._

Mr. James Renwick was born in the parish of Glencairn in Nithsdale, Feb.

15, 1662. His parents though not rich, yet were exemplary for piety. His father Andrew Renwick (a weaver to trade) and his mother Elizabeth Corsan, had several children before Mr. James, who died young; for which when his mother was pouring forth her motherly grief, her husband used to comfort her with declaring, that he was well satisfied to have children, whether they lived or died, young or old, providing they might be heirs of glory. But with this she could not attain to be satisfied, but had it for her exercise to seek a child from the Lord, that might not only be an heir of glory, but might live to serve him in his generation: whereupon when Mr James was born, she took it as an answer of prayer, and reputed herself under manifold engagements to dedicate him to the Lord, who satisfied her with very early evidences of his accepting that return of his own gift, and confirmed the same with very remarkable appearances of his gracious dealings with the child. For, by the time he was two years of age, he was observed to be aiming at prayer even in the cradle and about it, wherewith his mother conceived such expectations and hopes, that the Lord would be with him, and do good by him, &c. so that all the reproaches he sustained, difficulties and dangers that afterwards he underwent, to his dying day, never moved her in the least, from the confidence that the Lord would carry him through, and off the stage in some honourable way for his own glory. His father also, before his death, (which was Feb. 1, 1679.) obtained the same persuasion, that his time in the world would be but short, but that the Lord would make some eminent use of him.

After he had learned to read the Bible, about 6 years old, the Lord gave him some sproutings of gracious preparations, training him in his way, exercising him with doubts and debates above childish apprehension, about the Maker of all things, how all things were made, and for what end; and with strange suppositions of so many invisible worlds above and beneath, with which he was transported into a train of musing, and continued in this exercise for about the s.p.a.ce of two years, until he, by prayer and meditation on the history of the creation, came to a thorough belief that G.o.d made all things, and that all which he made was very good. And yet after he came to more maturity, he relapsed to a deeper labyrinth of darkness about these foundation truths, and was so a.s.saulted with temptations of atheism, that being in the fields and looking to the mountains, he said, ”If these were all devouring furnaces of burning brimstone, he would be content to go through them all, if so be he could be a.s.sured there was a G.o.d.” Out of which he emerged through grace into the sweet serenity of a settled persuasion of the being of a G.o.d, and of his interest in him.

From his younger years he made much conscience of obeying his parents, whose order (if they had spoken of putting him to any trade) he would no way decline, yet his inclination was constant for his book, until providence propitiously furnished him with means of greater proficiency at Edinburgh, by many, who were so enamoured of his hopeful disposition, that they earnestly promoted his education; and when he was ready for the university, they encouraged him in attending gentlemen's sons for the improvement of their studies and his own both; which consorting of youths, as it is usually accompanied with various temptations to youthful vanity, so it inticed him, with others, to spend too much of his time in gaming and recreations. Then it was, for no other part of his time can be instanced, when some, who knew him not (for these were only his traducers), took occasion from this extravagance, to reproach him with profanity and flagitiousness, which his nature ever abhorred, and disdained the very suspicion thereof. When his time at the college drew near an end, he demonstrated such a tenderness of offending G.o.d, &c. that, upon his refusal of the oath of allegiance then tendered, he was denied his share of the public solemnity of laureation with the rest of the candidates; but received it privately at Edinburgh. After which he continued his studies, attending on the then private and persecuted meetings for gospel-ordinances for a time.

But upon a deplorable discovery of the unfaithfulness of the generality, even of non-conformist ministers, he was again for some time plunged in the deeps of darkness; doubting what should be the end of such backsliding courses, until, upon a more inquisitive search after such ministers as were freest from these defections, he found more light, and his knowledge of the iniquity of these courses was augmented and his zeal increased. And being more confirmed, when he beheld how signally the faithful ministers were owned of the Lord, and carried off the stage with great stedfastness, faith and patience, especially after the death of that faithful minister and martyr, Mr. Donald Cargil (at whose execution he was present July 27, 1681.), he was so commoved, that he determined to embark with these witnesses in that cause for which they suffered: and he was afterward so strengthened and established in that resolution, getting instruction about these things in and from the word, so sealed with a strong hand upon his soul, that all the temptations, tribulations, oppositions and contradictions he met with from all hands to the day of his death, could never shake his mind to the least doubt concerning them.

Accordingly in this persuasion, upon grounds of scripture and reason, &c. in Oct. 1681, he came to a meeting with some of these faithful witnesses of Christ, and conferring about the testimonies of some other martyrs lately executed (which he was very earnest always to gather and keep on record), he refreshed them greatly by a discourse shewing how much he was grieved and offended with those who heard the curates, pleaded for cess-paying, and defended the owning of the tyrant's authority, &c. and how sad it was to him that none were giving a formal testimony against these things; and in the end, added, ”That he would think it a great ease to his mind, to know and be engaged with a remnant that would singly prosecute and propagate the testimony against the corruptions of the times to the succeeding generations, and would desire nothing more than to be helped to be serviceable to them.”

At his very first coming amongst them, he could not but be taken notice of; for, while some were speaking of removing of the bodies of the martyrs lately executed at the Gallowlee, Mr. Renwick was very forward to promote it, and active to a.s.sist therein, and when the serious and sincere seekers of G.o.d who were interspersed up and down the land, and adhered to the testimony, as Messrs. Cameron and Cargil left it, towards the end of that year 1681, began to settle a correspondence in general, for preserving union, understanding one another's minds, and preventing declensions to right or left hand extremes. In the first of which (the duke of York holding a parliament at Edinburgh), they agreed upon emitting that declaration published at Lanerk Jan. 12, 1682, wherein Mr.

Renwick was employed proclaiming it, but had no hand in the penning thereof, otherwise it might have been more considerately worded than what it was; for, though he approved of the matter of it, yet he always acknowledged there were some expressions therein somewhat unadvised.

After publis.h.i.+ng this declaration, the next general meeting, finding themselves reproached and informed against both at home and abroad in foreign churches (as if they had fallen from the principles of the church of Scotland), thought it expedient to send the laird of Earlstoun to the United Provinces to vindicate themselves from these reproaches, and to crave that sympathy which they could not obtain from their own countrymen. Which at length, thro' mercy, proved so encouraging to them, that a door was opened to provide for a succession of faithful ministers, by sending some to be fitted for the work of the ministry there. Accordingly Mr. Renwick, with some others, went thither. His comrades were ready and sailed before, which made him impatiently haste to follow. Yet, at his departure, to a comrade, he affirmed, ”Though they were gone before him, as they did not depart together, so he saw something should fall out, which should obstruct their coming home together also.” Which was verified by the falling off of Mr. Flint (however forward at that time) unto a contrary course of defection.

When he went over, he was settled at the university of Groningen, where he plied his studies so hard, and with such proficiency, that (upon the necessities of his friends in Scotland longing for his labours, and his own ardent desire to be at the work) in a short time he was ready for ordination.--To precipitate which, his dear friend Mr. Robert Hamilton, (who merited so much of those who reaped the benefit of Mr. Renwick's labours afterward) applied to one Mr. Brakel, a G.o.dly Dutch minister, who was much delighted at first with the motion, and advised it should be done at Embden; but this could not be obtained, because the princ.i.p.al man there who was to have the management of the affair was in his judgment Cocceian, &c. Whereupon Mr. Hamilton solicited the cla.s.ses of Groningen to undertake it; which they willingly promised to do; and calling for the testimonial of Mr. Renwick and the rest who went over at that time, Mr. Renwick's was produced (being providentially in readiness when the others were a-wanting) and though in a rude dress, was sustained. The cla.s.ses being conveened, they were called in and had an open harangue, wherein open testimony was given against all the forms and corruptions of their church: whereat they were so far from being offended, that after a solemn and serious consideration of their cause, they declared it was the Lord's cause, and cost what it would, though all the kings of the earth were against it, they would go through with it. They all three should have pa.s.sed together, but upon some discontents arising, the other two were r.e.t.a.r.ded. It was the custom of the place, that every one that pa.s.ses, must pay twenty guilders for the use of the church, but they jointly declared that they would be at all the charges themselves.

But the next difficulty was, that being told it was impossible for any to pa.s.s without subscribing their catechism, &c. and observing that their forms and corruptions are therein justified, Mr. Renwick resolutely answered, He would do no such thing, being engaged by solemn covenant to the contrary. This was like to spoil all, but at length they condescended that he subscribe the confession and catechism of the church of Scotland, a practice never before heard of in that land; which was accepted. The day of ordination being come, Mr. Renwick was called in a very respectful way. After spending some time in prayer, the examination began, which lasted from ten in the morning, to two o'clock in the afternoon. Then

His friends, who were attending in the church, were called in (amongst whom was his honoured friend Mr. Hamilton, and another elder of the church of Scotland[230]), to be witness to the laying on of the hands; which, after the exhortation, they performed with prayer, the whole meeting melting in tears; and thereafter he had a discourse to the cla.s.ses. With this solemnity the cla.s.ses were so much affected, that at dinner (to which he and his friends were invited) the preses declared the great satisfaction all the brethren had in Mr. Renwick, that they thought the whole time he was before them, he was so filled with the Spirit of G.o.d, that his face seemed to s.h.i.+ne, and that they had never seen nor found so much of the Lord's Spirit accompanying any work as that, &c. But no sooner were these difficulties over, than others of a more disagreeable aspect began to arise, which if they had appeared but one day sooner might have stopped the ordination, at least for a time.

But the very next day, Mr. Brakel told them, That a formed libel was coming from the Scottish ministers at Rotterdam, containing heavy accusations against the poor society people in Scotland, &c. which they behoved either to vindicate, or else the ordination must be stopped, but this being too late as to Mr. Renwick, it came to nothing at last.

After his ordination, he had a most longing desire to improve his talent for the poor persecuted people in Scotland, who were his brethren; and having received large testimonials of his ordination and learning (particularly in the Hebrew and Greek tongue) from the cla.s.ses, and finding a s.h.i.+p ready to sail, he embarked at the Brill; but waiting some days upon a wind, he was so discouraged by some profane pa.s.sengers pressing the king's health, &c. that he was forced to leave that vessel, and take another bound for Ireland. A sea storm compelled them to put in to Rye harbour in England, about the time when there was so much noise of the Rye-house plot, which created him no small danger; but, after many perils at sea, he arrived safe at Dublin, where he had many conflicts with the ministers there, anent their defections and indifference; and yet in such a gaining and gospel-way, that he left convictions on their spirits of his being a pious and zealous youth, which procured him a speedy pa.s.sage to Scotland. In which pa.s.sage he had considerable dangers and a prospect of more, as not knowing how or where he should come to land, all ports being then so strictly observed, and the skipper refusing to let him go till his name be given up. But yet at last he was prevailed on to give him a cast to the sh.o.r.e, where he began his weary and uncertain wanderings (which continued with him till he was apprehended) thro an unknown wilderness, amongst unknown people, it being some time before he could meet with any of the societies.

In Sept. 1683, he commenced his ministerial work in Scotland, taking up the testimony of the standard of Christ, where it was fixed, and had fallen at the removal of the former witnesses Messrs. Cameron and Cargil, which in the strength of his Master he undertook to prosecute and maintain against opposition from all hands, which seemed insupportable to sense and reason.

In the midst of which difficulties, he was received by a poor persecuted people, who had lost all that worldly enjoyment they had, for the sake of the gospel. His first public meeting was in a moss at Darmead, where for their information and his own vindication, he thought it expedient not only to let them know how he was called to the ministry, and what he adhered to, but besides to unbosom himself about the then puzzling questions of the time, particularly concerning ministers, defections, &c.--shewing, whom he could not join with, and his reasons for so doing; and in the end told them, on what grounds he stood, and resolved to stand upon; which he resolved (the Lord a.s.sisting him) to seal with his blood.