to 1833. of the 1782 refus ing to set aside the call 1688 in the assembly of 1782, the very era of triumphant modera- CHAP. IV. tism, that "the moderation of a call in the settlement of Resolution ministers is agreeable to the immemorial and constitutional Assembly practice of this church, and ought to be continued." What could be a stronger or more conclusive evidence of the standing which the constitution of the church of Scotland recognized, as the inherent right of her congregations? Even the ruthless hand of moderatism, in the day of its greatest strength, durst not venture to tear that element which was just the principle of non-intrusion, out of the framework of the constitution. And there accordingly it remained-long derided and practically disowned; but destined to rise again out of the dust, and to resume, in more The dead form auspicious times, its rightful place and power. was destined to live again. record its It has been already noticed, that "a steady and uniform support of the law of patronage" is certified, and with abundant reason, by the friends of Dr. Robertson, to have been the first point in his ecclesiastical management. Will it be believed that, in constant company with a system in which everything was sacrificed to this idol of moderatism, -the peace of families-the integrity of the church-the interests of religion, the general assembly continued, under The moderate Assembly his leadership, annually to "empower and direct" its com- continues to mission "to make application to the king and parliament annual profor redress of the grievance of patronage, in case a favour- patronage! able opportunity for so doing shall occur during the subsistence of this commission!" The fact that this was done serves, indeed, as Sir Henry Moncrieff remarks, to "demonstrate how deeply rooted the original ideas of the church had been" but what shall be said or thought of those who annually perpetrated this piece of shameless hypocrisy. Had their yearly instruction to the commission been followed up with even so much as one single effort to get rid of the test against moderate in the cause CHAP. IV. law of patronage, charity might have clung to the idea that 1688 perchance their rigorous enforcement of that law was dis- to 1833. tressing to themselves, and resulted only from what they believed to be the cruel necessity of their position. But in the extent to which they enforced it, there is the clearest evidence that they were under the pressure of no legal necessity whatever. It was the consonance of the system of patronage with their own secular taste, and the substantial rewards, in the shape of church-livings, which it showered upon their party, that commended it to their favour, and called forth in its behalf that almost fanatical zeal with which they supported it. It was an affair of quid pro quo. They toiled hard for the patrons, and even the most distinguished leaders of moderatism were not ashamed to clamour Secret of the importunately for the due acknowledgment. "It is of the party's zeal very greatest importance," wrote Dr. Blair, "that these of patron offices (referring to certain ecclesiastical preferments in the gift of the crown) should be bestowed upon moderate clergymen. * Dr. Robertson, I know, has writ to Sir Alex. Gilmour, and Mr. Dempster, representing that unless the ministry choose to bestow these marks of their countenance upon such clergymen as are friends to law and government, he for his part will entirely withdraw from all sort of church business and management." The loyalty of moderatism, loud and flaming as it was, could not stand the sight of favours going past its own door. Like the mercenaries of the subject. the preceding century, it was ready to mutiny if there was any stoppage of the pay. And though it talked of law and government, as concerned in the enforcement of patronage, the same document lets out the secret that the strength of this rigid patronage lay, not in the law, but in the party who made use of it. "If they," the letter continues-that is, any belonging to the evangelical party, "should be the age. Dr. Blair's letters on * 1688 men, faction will be understood to be supported from above, CHAP. IV. to, and it is vain to think of supporting the cause of patronage 1833. any longer in the country.' scepticism prevalent among the clergy. Threatened attack on No wonder that under the system and the influences now described, religion in the national church should have fallen into a deep decline. Not merely vital godliness, but even the form of sound words was disappearing from very many of its pulpits. So extensively had heretical doctrine and a Heresy and sceptical spirit spread among the clergy, that the purpose become was deliberately entertained to get rid of the confession of faith as the grand hinderance to the free-thinking that was abroad. Dr. Robertson's sudden, unexpected, and for a long time unexplained retirement from the management of church affairs, while yet in the vigour of life, is now known to have been chiefly attributable to that cause. He was not prepared for so desperate a plunge as a large body of his friends and supporters were urging on. It was in 1781 he resigned the leadership of the party, but the strength of his conviction that the perilous proposal which scared him from his position would still be pressed, may be judged of from the fact, that he privately counselled Sir Henry Moncrieff to study the question, as one which he and the evangelical party would soon have to face. Moderatism, grown wanton and reckless in the consciousness of its now complete ascendency, was in danger of becoming "overmuch wicked." The retirement of their sagacious and accomplished leader could not fail to check the rashness, if it did not rebuke the unprincipled wickedness, of those zealots of the party whose nefarious scheme had filled him with so much alarm,—and the projected attack on the confession of faith fell to the ground. Darkness and deadness, however, still continued to spread * Memorials of Mr. Oswald of Dunnikier.-Rev. H. Moncrieff's Letter to Lord Melbourne, pp. 107, 103. the Confes and Robert sion of Faith, son's alarm. CHAP. IV. among the moderate clergy,-and through them, to a large 1683 extent, among the people also of the national church. So to 1833. long before as the year 1744, the well-known Dr. John Erskine, whose praise is in all the churches of Christ, had occasion, in his correspondence with Warburton, the learned Warburton's author of the Divine Legation of Moses, to characterize the letter to the theology of modera tism. Erskine on spirit and tendencies of moderate theology and preaching, ment. moderate general de clension of religion and morals. Hid close in the green-room, some clergymen lay; And this downward course of things continued with unabat- Principal Hill the counsels of the church. His successor in the leadership the succes sor of Robertson as the moderate leader. of the moderate party was Principal Hill of St. Andrews, a * Merle D'Aubigné-Recollections, &c. Hill's characsketched by ter as himself. 1683 ledgment. In this respect he was immeasurably ahead of CHAP. IV. the great body of his party; although, after all, the diffe1833. rence between them was rather speculative than practical. His more orthodox beliefs were too little under the influence of an evangelic spirit to come forth in any tangible form against prevailing errors. If he did not create the current, he at least floated unresistingly along with it. He had nothing in him of that sterner stuff, whether of constitutional firmness and honesty, or of deep religious conviction, of which reformers are made. In a letter to his mother, written from London at an early period of his career, he has himself sketched the features which distinguished him through life. "I am sure," said he, "I am pliable enough: more than I think sometimes quite right. I can laugh or be grave, talk nonsense, or politics, or philosophy, just as it suits my company, and can submit to any mortification to suit those with whom I converse. I cannot flatter: but I can listen with attention, and seemed pleased with everything that anybody says. By arts like these, which have, perhaps, a little meanness in them, but are so convenient that one does not choose to lay them aside, I have had the good luck to be a favourite in most places."* These arts and accomplishments did not lose their reward. They secured for him an accumulation of posts and places, lucrative and honorary, which, in a plain presbyterian church, are not often or easily gathered up by one pair of hands. A minister of St. Andrews-a professor of theology in one of its colleges—the principal of its university—a king's chaplain—a dean of the chapel royal-and dean of the order of the thistle ;-behold the successor of Robertson. The mantle of the moderate leadership had many good things in its skirts. The patrons were not unmindful of Dr. Cook's Life of Hill, p. 25. ! |