With regard to the sentiments contained in the work, I cannot but be aware, that while stating my own feelings and opinions, what I have written will not be equally agreeable to all. I have no wish to give unnecessary offence to any; but in my opinion, no person ought to attempt to write history, who has not both an honest desire to ascertain the truth, and sufficient courage to state it freely and impartially when ascertained. And it is perfectly impossible to write the History of the Church of Scotland, without relating events which cannot fail to excite strong moral indignation against the two systems by which that Church has, at different periods, been persecuted and oppressed. It has been my desire to abstain from unnecessary asperity of language, even when detailing acts of perfidy and cruelty, rarely equalled in the annals of persecution; not because I think that Scottish Prelacy has any peculiar claim to be leniently treated, but because the plain and simple statement of the truth will best display the spirit and character of that intolerant system. Painful, indeed, has been the task of tracing the course of worldly policy and ecclesiastical corruption and despotism, which prevailed throughout the last century and the beginning of the present; and most reluctantly have I felt myself constrained to record the deeds which were done in Scotland during the long reign of Moderatism. But it was felt to be an imperative duty to do so, both as required by historical fidelity, and as rendered peculiarly necessary by the present circumstances of the Church. It would be a very instructive chapter in the history of the errors which the spirit of the world has superinduced upon Christianity, to give a full view of the rise, progress, and complete developement of the system which has been called Moderatism. I have not, however, sought to do so, further than appeared absolutely necessary for the purpose of displaying so much of its real essence and character as might sufficiently prove, that the true Presbyterian Church of Scotland is not justly chargeable with the actions of a secular system, which had its origin in hostile elements, which gradually usurped, and long exercised over her the most cruel and oppressive tyranny, and whose whole procedure was one continuous endeavour to destroy her principles and subvert her constitution. To those Gentlemen who have kindly favoured me with the perusal of valuable books, to which I could not otherwise have easily obtained access, I take this opportunity of returning my grateful thanks. And I now lay my work before the public, in the hope, that what was undertaken solely from a strong conviction of duty to the Divine Head of the Church, to the Church of Scotland, and to my countrymen in general, may, through the blessing of God, be of some avail in removing ignorance and prejudice, correcting erroneous misrepresentations, and enabling the community to form an accurate conception of the real principles and character of the Church of Scotland. In preparing this edition of the History of the Church of Scotland, it has been thought expedient to continue the narrative of events till the Disruption which took place in May last, and resulted in the formation of what is now termed THE FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND,-in which are still preserved entire the constitutional principles, the unfettered freedom, the vital energy, the doctrinal purity, and the spiritual fervency, that have, in its best periods, always distinguished the testimony-bearing Church of our fathers. FREE MANSE, TORPHICHEN, W. M. H. HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. Introductory Remarks Statement of General Principles involved in all Church History-Divine Truth Man's Fallen Nature-Characteristic Principles of troduction of Christianity into Scotland--The Cul dees-Peculiarities of their System-Introduced into England-Augustine the Monk-He and his followers oppose the Culdees-They retire to Scotland-The Prelatic System of Rome introduced the Culdees at length overborne and suppressed-The leading Tenets of the Culdees-Progress of Popery-Its Wealth and Power--State of Scotland at the Com infused into the Social System-Opposition from different Churches-Of the Church of Scotland-In mencement of the Reformation. · influenced by religion, and impelling men frequently to act directly contrary to every thing which he would deem politic and expedient. Not only this class of motives, but the course of events also, will often be found to lie equally beyond his reach adequately to comprehend and explain. He will often find means and arrangements apparently the wisest and most sufficient, utterly fail of accomplishing the proposed end; while others, which seem ill advised and feeble, will be crowned with the most remarkable success. Frequently, therefore, must he content himself with recording the course of events, of which the impelling causes and controlling agencies are to him altogether unknown. Man as he is, in short, impelled by the passions and allured by the interests of his known and common nature, circumscribed, as he at present appears, within the limits of space and time, of his earthly pursuits and mortal life,-forms the object of the civil historian's important yet incomplete researches. THERE are certain general principles involved in all Church History, greatly more profound in their character and important in their consequences than those which appear in, or can be deduced from, the records of Civil History. The civil historian has to deal with man merely as the mortal inhabitant of this world; and, however deeply his philosophical knowledge of the human mind may enable him to penetrate into those undeclared motives by which sovereigns and states- But Church History has to deal with men are often influenced, and the affairs the deeds and characters of men in that of nations controlled, there is still one de-very department into which the civil hispartment, and that the mightiest of all, torian cannot enter. It views man as a into which it is not his province to enter. moral and spiritual being, fallen from his He may unravel the twisted intrigues of original condition of purity and happimere worldly policy; he may detect and ness, the slave of guilty passions, degraconfute the sophistries of worldly wisded by low and grovelling pursuits, and dom; but, except he be something more blinded by inveterate prejudices, yet cathan a philosophical historian, he will pable of recovery from his depraved and remain utterly unable to understand the miserable condition, and at present under meaning and the power of conscience, a dispensation divinely fitted to restore him to more than the purity and elevation from which he fell. He is seen, therefore, as constantly impelled by the one or the other of two contending influences, directly hostile to each other; the one, the influence of his fallen and corrupt nature, striving to perpetuate all its own evil tendencies, and to impede and pervert all the efforts of its opponent; the other, the influence of revealed religion, of Christianity, striving to expel corruption, remove prejudices, and heal the moral maladies of the soul, by the infusion of the new and sacred principles of eternal truth. Church History has, therefore, for its peculiar province, the infusion into the soul of fallen man of the sacred principles of divine revealed truth, -their influence in the social system, as they strive to pervade and mould it anew, -the opposition which they meet with from the inherent depravity of the heart, -the struggles of these contending influences of good and evil, of the world and religion, the convulsions occasionally thereby produced, and the changes which take place in the aspect and structure of society, as the one or the other from time to time obtains ascendency, puts forth its power, and exhibits its native character. It is thus evident that the history of the Church of any land is the history of the moral and spiritual life of that land; and that it clairns, as its own peculiar domain, that very region of moral and spiritual principles and motives into which the secular historian, as such, cannot even enter, and yet without some knowledge of which, much of what is most important in the history of every nation can never be understood and explained. In tracing the Church History of any country, we must expect to meet with much that we must both deplore and condemn. For although the principles which Christianity introduces into the soul of man, and thereby into the social system, are in themselves absolutely perfect, yet they are rarely perfectly received, and never have been perfectly developed. Divine truth does not, indeed, contract any portion of human error by entering into the mind of man; but the depraved and prejudiced human mind obtains in general only a partial reception and distorted view of its great prin ciples. The inevitable consequence is, that its genuine effects are very greatly impaired by the disturbing influence of human depravity and prejudice. Some of the most important religious principles are frequently obscured, because they have been either imperfectly understood, or are so opposed to the natural predilections of fallen man as to be disliked, and therefore perverted. They do indeed reappear from time to time, peculiar junctures, under the guiding of Divine Providence, call them forth; until their true character and value being thus forced upon the perception of the general mind, they are at length received, and opportunity thereby given for the similar process of developement to others, which had been equally neglected or opposed. This is the case, whether such principles have direct reference to the government, the doctrine, or the discipline of the Christian Church, as might easily be shown from the general records of Church History. There is also a necessary continuity of character, as of being, in the life and history of any Church; and that character can never be rightly understood, however familiar we may be with the details of its general history, unless we have a clear and true conception of those leading principles which have always formed the master element of its essential existence. By keeping them steadily in view, we shall be able to trace distinctly all the various changes and alternations of its course, marking and understanding not merely those external events which are manifest to the world, but those unseen influences which move, and mould, and animate the whole. Even in periods of comparative stagnation, when there seems to be a cessation of all active and vital impulses, the knowledge of what forms the essential characteristics of a national Church may enable us to detect the otherwise imperceptible progress of a deep and calm under-current, preparing for some new and mighty developement of silently-ripened energies, by which the whole structure of society may be convulsed, and constrained to assume a new aspect, more in conformity with the character of its inward moral and religious life. Every person who has paid much at tention to Church History must be aware | proved, and often has been proved, that that, of the great leading principles of the Episcopalian, or rather let us term it Christianity, some have been held in pe- now, and throughout this work, the Preculiar reverence, and defended with pe- latic form of church government, is one culiar determination, by one national of merely human invention; whilst the Church, and some by another; and from Presbyterian is of divine origin and authis has arisen in each that distinctive thority, and consequently is that which characteristic by which the various por- would of necessity be adopted and retions of the Church general maintain tained by any Church which held as its their individuality, notwithstanding their leading principle the sole headship and common resemblance. It would require kingly dominion of the Lord Jesus too wide a survey, and perhaps involve a Christ. But it is enough at present discussion too vague, to point out the dis- merely to have stated these general printinctive characteristics of the chief na- ciples, and suggested their application. tional Churches throughout the Christian If the candid reader will bear them in world; but there can be little difficulty mind during his perusal of the following in making specific mention of that great pages, he will soon be able to decide for Christian principle which the Church of himself respecting their truth and their Scotland has always striven to realize importance. and defend, namely, THAT THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IS THE ONLY HEAD AND The first introduction of Christianity KING OF THE CHURCH; whence it fol- into Scotland cannot, it appears, be now lows, by necessary consequence, THAT exactly ascertained. It would be in vain ITS GOVERNMENT IS DERIVED FROM HIM to refer to the legendary records of anALONE, AND IS DISTINCT FROM, AND NOT cient Scottish kings, given by some of SUBORDINATE IN ITS OWN PROVINCE TO, THE our historians, as furnishing authoritative CIVIL MAGISTRATE. The very remote- information respecting the events of a peness of Scotland from Rome, the seat first riod so far beyond the boundaries of our of imperial, and subsequently of ecclesi- nation's authentic annals. Perhaps the astical power, tended to allow for a time earliest indication that the light of Chrisa more free developement of that great tianity had begun to dawn upon the reprinciple, and of its legitimate conse-mote regions of Caledonia, that can at quences, than would have been possible all be depended upon, may be found in had it been more accessible to the influ- the words of Tertullian, who asserts, that ence of Roman supremacy. It might," those parts of Britain which were inacperhaps, be thought by some, that the Presbyterian form of church government, rather than the great principle of the sole Sovereignty of Christ, has been, and is, the characteristic tenet of the Church of Scotland. But it requires only a little deeper investigation, or profounder thought, to enable any impartial and unprejudiced person to see, that the great principle of Christ's sole Sovereignty must prohibit the Church which holds it from the adoption of any merely human inventions or arrangements in that form of government which He has given to the Church, his free spiritual kingdom, of which the Holy Scriptures contain the only authoritative enactment and declaration. It is not our purpose to enter here into the controversy respecting forms of church government, farther than merely to state our full conviction, that it can be cessible to the Romans had become subject to Christ." And although we are not to attach to the fervid language of a rhetorician the same degree of credit which we yield to the direct statements of a historian, yet, remembering the extreme rapidity with which Christianity was propagated throughout the Roman empire in the apostolic age, it is by no means improbable that it should have reached Britain, and even penetrated to the mountains of Caledonia, before the close of the second century. The violence of the persecutions which raged in every part of Rome's dominion's during the third century, may readily be supposed to have driven many of the Christians beyond the boundaries of the empire, and thus to have aided indirectly in the diffusion of the gospel, and especially to have promoted its introduction into the territories of unsubdued nations. Many of those persecuted Christians may then | ting to his own immediate neighbours as have found a refuge among the uncon- much instruction as he could impart, quered districts of Scotland and Ireland, or they could be persuaded to receive. where they would, of course, endeavour If any dependence may be placed upon to instruct the rude but not inhospitable natives in the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. the fabulous records of those ages, there were too many convulsions and semi-revolutions in both Scotland and Ireland, In what manner these early Christian caused by the contensions of rival races refugees commenced what may be termed and petty monarchies, to have permitted their missionary labours among the Scots the construction of any regular form of and Picts,—and whether, as some authors church government; so that for a conassert, the greater number of them re-siderable period, while Christianity was sorted to Ireland, and there assembling gradually pervading both countries, it themselves together, resumed the form of was doing so almost imperceptibly, primitive ecclesiastical government to through the exertions of individuals, which they had been accustomed,-are without system and without combination, questions into which it would be fruitless | farther than that invisible but strong harto inquire, it being now almost impossi- mony which is caused by identity of prinble to arrive at any certainty on these ciple and aim. In this manner Chrispoints. The records of those remote times are so obscure and contradictory, that they rather furnish material for conjecture, than data from which any satisfactory inferences may be drawn. There are, however, a few points on which all ancient records seem to agree. These, tion ceased, in consequence of the fall of therefore, we may assume as generally Paganism before the progress of Chrisadmitted facts, although party-writers tianity, and Rome began to be regarded have endeavoured to deduce from them as the central seat of ecclesiastical govthe most opposite conclusions; and while ernment, the Bishop of Rome very early we do not venture to claim for ourselves assumed a sort of supremacy over the absolute impartiality and freedom from whole Christian Church, and took it all biassing predilections, we shall do upon him to interfere with the arrangeour utmost to guard against the influence ments of the whole Christian world. To of prejudices,-to state nothing but what this, in all probability, we owe the visit we believe, after very careful investiga- of Palladius, about the object and consetion, to be the truth,—and to frame no quences of which so much fruitless coninferences but what seem to us to be nat-troversy has arisen. ural, direct, and inevitable. tianity might have been, and indeed "the According to the Archbishop Ussher, There is reason to believe, as has been Palladius was sent from Rome to already stated, that the knowledge of Scots believing on Christ," in the year Christianity was to some extent commu- 431, by Celestine, at that time Bishop of nicated to the people of Scotland and Ire- Rome, as their "first bishop," (primus and as early as towards the close of the episcopus).* Some writers assert, that second, and more especially during the by the word "Scots" we are to underthird, century of the Christian era, in the stand the Irish to be meant; and are furtimes of those fierce persecutions which, ther to learn, that Palladius was sent to while they were meant to exterminate, be Primate of Ireland! It is not neceswere actually overruled to promote the sary to waste space in the discussion of progress of the Christian religion. There assertions which contain their own refuis no reason, however, to think that those tation in their absurdity. Whatever else persecuted and banished Christians at- may have been among the secret objects tempted at that early period to construct of the Roman Bishop Celestine in the any distinct frame of ecclesiastical govern- mission of Palladius, it appears suffiThey seem rather to have dwelt ciently evident from the above-quoted ex ment. in comparatively isolated solitude, each Ussher, Primord., p. 801. See also Jamieson's His in his own retreat, and each communica-tory of the Culdees, pp. 7, 8. |