tles and the unbelieving Jews was, Whether Jesus was the Christ, the promised Messiah, or not? On the determination of it, all other controversies between them, about the law, about the nature of Messiah's kingdom, and about the calling of the Gentiles, depended. Therefore, the leading article maintained by the Christians against the Jews was, That Jesus was the Son of God, the promised Redeemer. Thus it is said of Paul, immediately after his conversion, that he confounded the Jews who dwelt at Damascus, proving that Jesus, whom their rulers had condemned and crucified, was the very Christ. The great question between the witnesses of Jesus and Antichrist was, Whether the word of God, or the traditions and commandments of men, are the rule of our faith and practice? The man of sin, perceiving that he could not stand if he was tried by the former, did, with the fury of a roaring lion, at one time, and with the subtlety of a serpent, at another, fight for the latter; claiming an infallibility to himself, or to the councils of his creatures. Therefore, the testimony maintained by the Lord's remnant was, in substance, this, That, his word is our only guide, and is to be believed and obeyed, rather than any decrees or commandments of men.

At the Reformation the testimony maintained by the witnesses, in former times of darkness, was enlarged, more clearly stated for the truth of the gospel, and carried in it a more full and particular condemnation of the great apostacy. This appears in the confessions of the Reformed churches. These contain a testimony for the truth which former adversaries were not able to suppress, and which present and future adversaries will in vain fight against. No weapon that is formed against Zion shall prosper, and every tongue that riseth against her in judgment she shall condemn.

CHAPTER II.

Of the State of the Church of Scotland from the Reforma tion, 1560, to the year 1637.

THE church of Scotland, of which we are a branch, beside the testimony she maintained in common with the other churches of the Reformation, was called to testify, in a spe

cial manner, for this important truth, That the Lord Jesus is the only Head of the church; against the usurpation of civil powers, who claimed a right to make laws for it, and to hold it in subjection to their will. Soon after the Reformation, attempts were made to bring that church under the yoke of bondage to creatures of the magistrate, under the name of bishops. But such attempts were boldly resisted; and, though sometimes carried very far, did, for many years, fail of success.

The clouds, however, began to gather over that church toward the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century. James VI. of Scotland, succeeding, about that time, to the throne of England, North and South Britain, were so far united, as to live in peace under one supreme magistrate. But this event had a malignant influence on the church of Scotland. The kings of England have, since the Reformation, claimed a right of succeeding to the Pope in one of his names of blasphemy, viz. Head of the church. This strange prerogative was very pleasing to the prince already mentioned; he being very remarkable for vanity, weakness, and self-conceit. As the laws of England gave him a supreme power over the church in that kingdom, he imagined that he had a right to claim, and to exercise the same power over the church of Scotland. The design was to fashion the last of these churches according to the pattern of the first, whose external order and appearance was very like that of Rome, it having been most imperfectly reformed. By deceit, and by violence, and by a mixture of both, an Episcopacy was introduced into Scotland. Not, indeed, all at once. The power at first given to the bishops seemed very little; but it was, by degrees, increased till they became terrible. Those Popish ceremonies which the church of England had so zealously retained, were also imposed, according as the power of the bishops seemed able to force submission to them. After the accession of the next prince to the throne, viz. Charles I. who succeeded his father in 1625, matters became still worse. Charles not only pursued his father's measures in church and state; but more impatient of contradiction, and more resolute in making attempts against the rights and privileges of his people, he proceeded from violence to violence, till he turned Britain into a field of blood and confusion. Under him the bishops rose to be more formidable tyrants than ever before. If any man ventured to testify against their impositions, no sooner did the report reach

them, than the instruments of their vengeance were employ. ed to seize and punish him. In England, where their tyran ny was come to its maturity, the punishments they used were of the most cruel and barbarous kind, such as none but men of an infernal disposition would choose to inflict on any of their fellow creatures.

As the order and discipline of the church of Scotland was subverted by the prelates, so the doctrine of justification by free grace was opposed by them, both in England and Scotland. This was a part of that conformity to the church of Rome, which the leaders of the faction were studying; though their followers could not be quickly brought over from the Protestant faith, in a point justly reckoned of so great impor tance, so fully expressed in all the confessions of the Reformed churches, and so zealously defended by the divines who had written against the church of Rome. The system of doctrine at that time introduced into Britain, was then, and is still known by the name of Arminianism; but it is nothing materially different from the doctrine taught in the Popish church, concerning the important articles of election, redemption, effectual calling, and the perseverance of the saints. Both Papists and Arminians agree in subverting the free grace of God, and in ascribing to men that glory which is due to him alone. The corrupt doctrine which then began to spread in Britain, has been, like a plague, wasting the churches there ever since; and this country has caught the infection. But, through the goodness of God, a testimony has hitherto been maintained against it. He has given a banner to be displayed because of the truth; and it is our duty to stand by it.

The prelates, to clear the way for accomplishing their devices against the church, set themselves to destroy the remaining liberties of their country. They taught that unlimited obedience was due to their sovereign; that the privileges of the subjects flowed from his royal beneficence, and might be recalled at his pleasure. With them there was hardly any sin to be compared with that of those who opposed the unrighteous exactions of an arbitrary court. Their great reason for urging the doctrine of passive obedience, by which they flattered weak princes into measures which ruined them, was, that the sovereign, being invested with unlimited power, they, his creatures, might use it as they pleased. They hoped that men, tamed to an absolute subjection of their life and property to the prince, would more easily be

compelled to submit their consciences to such a spiritual lordship as these prelates had assumed to themselves.

During these days of trial, there was much fainting and yielding to temptation among the professors of religion in Scotland; and some not only changed with the times, but, as commonly happens in such cases, were very zealous to draw others along with them into apostacy. Yet a considerable number continued faithful in the cause of Christ, and testified, as the Lord gave them opportunity, against the prevailing iniquities of those times. Of these, some were banished, some were imprisoned, and some found protection at home, several men of rank and influence exerting themselves to save them from the fury of the prelates. The power of godliness and the spirit of prayer continued among this remnant; on account of which they were hated and scoffed at by the prelatic faction, who were generally careless and formal in their religious services, and many of them profane..

CHAPTER III.

Of the state of the Church of Scotland from 1637 to 1650.

THE greatest triumph of the enemies of Christ is commonly a presage of their immediate ruin. The prelates of England and Scotland, having devised a service book for the last of these kingdoms, not only as bad, but, in several articles, worse than that of England, seemed to have almost accomplished their designs; unless, as was with reason suspected, concerning some of them, they intended to reconcile the churches of Britain to that of Rome. But they were snared in the work of their hands: their new service-book proved their ruin. Though they readily obtained a royal proclamation, commanding it to be used in all particular congregations of the church of Scotland, under pain of rebellion; yet so much was it hated, that scarce ever did a nation more unanimously agree in any thing than the Scots did in rejecting it. It awakened an abhorrence of all the Popish and tyrannical principles of the bishops among all ranks of men, Many who had formerly submitted to them, would do so no more, when they saw to what point they were driving. The timorous, casting off their fears, appeared openly and resolutely in be

half of the Reformation cause, which they saw in imminent danger. The national covenant of Scotland, entered into in the year 1581, was renewed in a bond suited to the circumstances of the time of which we now speak; and this was done by all ranks in the land, with acknowledgments of their manifold breaches of it, and with professions of sorrow for their sin. Though the king, instigated by the prelates, laboured to hinder every thing which appeared like a reformation in Scotland, used fair speeches and threatenings by turns; yet he prevailed not. A general assembly of the ministers and elders having met at Glasgow, November, 1638, condemned the whole course of defection, which had taken place during the forty years preceding, censured the bishops, according to the crimes proved against them, declared episcopacy unlawful, it having no authority from the word of God, and having been found so pernicious to the interests of religion. They also restored Presbyterial government; which they declared to be according to the rule of God's word.

The king, who was resolved to bring his subjects to that unlimited subjection to his will in all things, civil and spiritual, which he and his creatures alleged was their duty, took up arms against the Scots. But, finding them better prepared for war than he expected, and seeing the English very backward to assist him in destroying the liberty of their neighbours, which they justly supposed would make way for completing their own slavery, he desisted from his purpose. He pursued, however, the same unhappy measures in England, as he had done in Scotland, till a civil war was raised in the former kingdom, which spread, like a conflagration, from one end of the island to the other, and raged, till king, lords, and commons, falling cach in their turn, a kind of military government succeeded.

The kindness of the Lord towards his church was remarkably displayed in the midst of these confusions. He caused the walls of his Jerusalem to be built, even in troublous times. Those in England who were standing up against a tyrannical prince, in defence of their just rights, (at the head of whom was the Parliament, the representatives of the nation) entreated the assistance of the Scots, which was granted. And the friends of religion and liberty, both in Britain and Ireland, entered into a Solemn League and Covenant; the design of which was to assist and encourage one another in maintaining and promoting the reformation, and in defending themselves against that tyranny, which threatened not