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The following Sermon, which is preceded by a Preface, is the third and last that was preached at St. Andrews. The place, date, occasion, and the initials of the preacher, are all given in the title prefixed. The Editor has in his possession an important extract from the Records of the Kirk Session of St. Andrews, bearing the same date as the Sermon, and having reference to the same communion in connection with which the Sermon was preached. This extract was kindly furnished by the Registrar-General in Edinburgh, under whose care the Records are, and is as follows: “Sonday, 21 Octob. 1638. Quhilk day the holie co’munion was celebrate with great solemnitie in the old fashion sitting. My old lady Marquess of Hamiltoun, My Lord Lyndesay, and sundrie uthers baronis Ladyes and gentlemen being present yrat. The bellis Rang at thrie horis to the mornyng Service. The Ministeris thereof wer Mr George Hamiltoun haid the prepara’un sermon, Mr Andrew Auchinlek the mornyng and Mr Alex. Hendersone the foirnoone service, and Mr David Forret the sermone of thanksgeving. The Magistreatis and cheiff off the Session attending the service the brodis basonis and Elementis.” In this extract are a number of things worthy of notice. Allusion is made to certain strangers being present—among others, the Dowager Marchioness of Hamilton and Lord Lindsay. The former was the mother of the Marquis of Hamilton, who figured this year so largely as King’s Commissioner. She was Anne, daughter of the seventh Earl of Glencairn, and manifested on this occasion the zeal for the Reformation cause which distinguished the ancestry from which she sprang, by going so far out of her way as to St. Andrews to be present at the celebration of this memorable communion. The other person mentioned is Lord Lindsay. He was one of the leaders of the covenanters, and sat as elder for Cupar at the Assemblies 1638 and 1639. To the presence of strangers Henderson makes special allusion. “It is true,” he says in the “Preface” which follows, “there are more here than your owne paroch.” The Minute informs us who some of these strangers were, and it is interesting to know the names of some who listened to the preacher on this occasion. It is more than probable that these strangers, some of them at least, besides being attracted to St. Andrews by this communion, came thither in pursuance of another object at the same time. The covenant, known by the name of the “King’s Covenant”, which was simply a reproduction of the covenant of 1580 and 1581, was, by royal proclamation dated September 9, 1638, commanded to be subscribed and sworn by all his Majesty’s subjects. The manifest design of this proclamation and covenant was to divide the covenanters, and it had been so far successful as to deceive even the Lord Advocate himself, Sir Thomas Hope, the legal adviser, and warm and sincere friend of the covenanters. This aim and drift of the king’s policy was distinctly seen by others more awake, and by Henderson in particular; and a protestation drawn up by Henderson, which is one of his ablest papers,1 was read at the same time as the royal proclamation, at the Market-cross of Edinburgh, and with the design of meeting and nullifying the proclamation. The clear and powerful reasoning of this paper had the effect of completely frustrating the measures of the court, much to the chagrin and mortification of the king, who called it a “damnable protestation.” The proclamation having been read in Edinburgh, the commissioners who were charged with urging the “King’s Covenant” went into all parts of the kingdom, seeking to gain the adhesion of the people to it. “The covenanters”, Stevenson says,2 “being aware of this divisive measure, sent out their deputies with a protestation, and with these they did also send an advertisement or advice to their confidents in all the parts of the country, desiring that with all possible diligence they should warn every presbytery and congregation within their bounds to abstain from subscribing the new confession, (i.e., the king’s covenant,) which they call a politic plot to divide them, and drown their covenant in oblivion; and that, wherever the proclamation for subscribing the king’s covenant should be published, they, accompanied with as many of their brethren-covenanters as could possibly be convened, should at the same time read the protestation against it.” Now, there can be little doubt that St. Andrews would be one of the very first places, after Edinburgh, in which the proclamation would be read; and it is every way probable that Lord Lindsay and the other strangers of whom Henderson speaks, had come to St. Andrews at this time for the purpose of reading the protestation in opposition to the proclamation, as was done at Aberdeen by the Master of Forbes and Lord Fraser, when the proclamation was read there by the Marquis of Huntly. This is rendered all the more probable by the fact that Henderson towards the close of the following sermon enters at length on a vindication of the course pursued by himself and others in rejecting the king’s covenant, and resolving to abide by their own. The reader will be struck with the clear and concise statement given by Henderson of the facts and merits of the case, and in particular with the one sentence in which what may be regarded as the very pith and essence of the protestation is embodied. “Yet can we not”, says the protestation, “after so necessary and so solemn a specification, return to the generall.” “It is a pitiful thing,” says Henderson in the following sermon, “that when we have given our oath and set our subscription to particulars, that we shall take ourselves to generalls again. This were a ruing that we had condemned the Service-book and the Book of Canons as smelling of Popery.”
The Minute also informs us who the preachers were on this occasion, besides Henderson. On the preparation-day (Saturday) the preacher was Mr George Hamilton. He was minister of Newburn, a small parish in Fife, and one of those who the year before went with Henderson to Edinburgh to supplicate the Privy Council in reference to the Service-book. On Sabbath morning Mr Andrew Auchinleck preached. He was minister of Largo, in Fife, a popular preacher, and a great favourite with the people of St. Andrews. He was afterwards called to St. Andrews, and his call was the occasion of great dispeace; so much so, that Samuel Rutherford, who was involved, was almost compelled to leave St. Andrews in consequence. This Auchinleck eventually conformed to Episcopacy. The third was Mr David Forret, who preached the thanksgiving sermon in the evening. He was formerly one of the masters of the Old College, St. Andrews, and afterwards minister at Kilconquhar, Fife. He was commissioner from St Andrew’s College to the Assembly 1638. In the preface and sermon which follow, allusion is made to all three services conducted by these ministers;—“whereof ye were hearing yesterday;” “as ye heard the day already;” “I will not go now to anticipate the doctrine of thanksgiving which is to be declared to you afternoon.”
It only remains to notice, in the close of this already too long note, the word “Sonday”, which occurs in the extract-minute of Session. The use of this word, and not Sabbath, shows that whoever wrote the minute must not quite have abandoned his Prelatical habits, the name Sunday being one in common use among the upholders of Prelacy, whilst that of Sabbath was as distinctive of the Reforming party.
There be many gracious and comfortable promises, which the Lord our God has made in his word unto his own people; but yet, nevertheless, we would think upon them advisedly, and look to them circumspectly; for he is nothing else but a vain and a presumptuous man, who applies any word which God has spoken to himself, which does not belong to him. For as many rich and plentiful promises as are contained in the Word of God, there is not one of them, nor the least syllable of them, that belongs to those who are proud in their own conceit, and are of yon Pharisaical disposition whereof ye were hearing yesterday: but all of them, and every one of them, does belong to these who are meek and humble. And therefore, as ye would wish to find that sweet and evangelical comfort which God presents to us in his word, see that ye fail not in this, to look in upon your own souls, and see if there be humility there,—if ye have confessed your sins to God, and so be reconciled to him: for without we have humility, there is no confession of sin; and without we confess our sins, there is no reconcilement nor pacification to be had for them. And without we have this main work of humility, all our holiness that we can have otherwise, it is but hypocrisy; for that great and main work of the salvation of our souls, it begins at this main work of humiliation: and so without we have humiliation in some measure, the work of our salvation is not so much as begun yet. Now, I am not at this time to enter in upon the secrets of your consciences, to ripe them up, what sins are there wherefore ye ought to be humbled. But this I am sure of, ye who have been going down to the depths of your own souls, has been trying yourselves impartially by this law of God, and judging yourselves thereby, I put no question but ye have found out many huge monsters of sin, wherefore ye will acknowledge ye ought to be humbled before God. Nevertheless, one thing I must say to you of this city, and I dare not be bold to go forward in this so holy an action, as this is that now we are about, unless I shall forewarn you of it.
And this is it; all of you had great need to humble yourselves before God for your departing from the purity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Ye parted over soon from it; and ye were over easily drawn away to follow these corruptions that men had brought in upon that pure religion which was once, by the mercy of God, professed into this land: and ye made but over little din for the taking the purity of religion from you. If so be that the privileges of your burgh had been in pursuing, to be taken from you; ay, if so be that it had been the best in all the land who had been in pursuit thereof, ye would have made another manner of din for that, than ye did when the purity of God’s worship and the means of your own salvation were taken from you; and, especially, this holy sacrament, by the which now ye look for a blessing from the Lord, it was most pitifully polluted. And when ye yourselves had parted away from the purity of God’s worship, and the means of your own salvation, it pleased the Lord notwithstanding to continue them in their purity in some congregations in the land, and near by about yourselves;3 yet, notwithstanding, there were but over few of you who did resort to these places where the means were in their purity, and according to God’s word; and did but over soon acquiesce and rest upon these means that ye had. I will not say that ye departed willingly from the purity of the means, but that ye did it against your heart; but this far I must say, that ye departed over soon from the commandment of God, and were over easily drawn after men’s inventions. Ay, there were some of you who went so far on in this course of defection that they began to mock and to taunt these who sought after the purity of the means where they were to be found: and this was such a high degree of persecution as ye could be guilty of. Ay, moreover, it came to that, that there were some amongst you who began to defend their course of defection whereinto they had gone on; yea, they began to glory in it; yea, they began at last to prefer it to the purity of the means that were in other parts of the land. This, I will assure you, it is a fearful guiltiness; and if so be that ye repent not yourselves thereof, humble yourselves before God for it, and turn away from it with your whole heart, and desire earnestly that the guiltiness thereof may be done away by the blood of Jesus Christ, we cannot look but whenever ye shall be assaulted again by some strong temptation, ye shall fall back into the same course of defection: and so your second estate, ay, I may say, your third estate, shall be worse than your former estate was. And, therefore, beloved, to the end that the promises of the sacrament may belong properly to you, repent of this your defection; repent for your neglect of the purity of the means in other parts; repent for your acquiescing upon that which ye had, for your mocking of those who sought after the purity of the means, and for your defending of your defection, and preferring it to the purity of religion. And withal, resolve with yourselves that for the world ye will not return to that course again, and so turn yourselves from the Lord: for if ye depart from the smallest point of God’s truth, ye depart from Christ. And if so be that ye will set yourselves to confess this and your other sins before the Lord, and humble yourselves before the Lord for them, and resolve, by God’s grace, to forsake all of them, but in special this course of defection, in all time to come, then I dare be bold to speak a word or two of comfort to you, in the name of the Lord. And ye have it, Hosea 11:5-9.
First, he says, “I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger against you.” Indeed, he says not that they shall be altogether free of his anger, so that they shall feel none of it; but they shall taste some of it; as a father does, in correcting his child whom he loves, for his amendment and further good afterward. So will the Lord correct them, and let them feel some of his anger; but he will not execute the fierceness of his anger against them. What is this, “That he will not execute the fierceness of his anger?” That is, he will not execute or pour out such an anger and wrath upon them as is spoken of in the former verse—such as he poured out on Sodom and Gomorrah. “I will not make thee as Admah, neither will I set thee as Zeboim.” These were two of these five cities, on the which that fiery shower fell from heaven and destroyed them, and all that was in them. As if he would say, I might execute my fiery wrath against you, and ye could not say but your sins deserved at my hand that it should be so. Beloved, it may be ye would think that we went too far on, if we should say that Saint Andrews deserved that the fiery wrath of God should be poured out upon it, for the sins that it is guilty of; yet, whenever your sins are rightly seen by you, and ye are humbled aright for them before God, then ye will see that your sins are greater than their sins were, because your light is greater and a more clear light than theirs was. And yet ye have departed from that light, and have gone on into a course of defection contrary to that light; and so why deserves not your judgment to be as great as theirs? And yet, nevertheless, albeit he might have done so to his people—poured out such a shower upon them as that was, to destroy them utterly; and yet he did it not. And what were the causes of that? This was one—“My heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.” As if he said, your heart is turned a little in you, and your repentance is begun to kindle of late within you, and ye have some spark of love within you to me; and it has proceeded first from myself: and, therefore, because it is so, there is a flame of love in Christ’s breast, and this is hotter nor the fierce fire of his wrath, and overcomes it; and therefore is it, that he does not execute the fierceness of his wrath. A second reason is—“I am God, and not man.” When man is greatly offended, he is unreconcilable—he cannot be gotten reconciled again; but for God, he is not so, but he is willing to be reconciled. It’s true, indeed, he is unreconcilable to his incorrigible enemies; but for his own people, he is reconcilable to them; and, therefore, does he not execute the fierceness of his wrath against them. A third reason wherefore he does not execute the fierceness of his wrath against them is, “I am the holy one in the midst of thee; and, therefore, I will not enter into the city, to destroy thee.” For if I should enter into the city to destroy thee, that were to destroy myself; for thou has entered in a covenant with me, and I have entered in a covenant again with thee; and, therefore, I will not destroy thee. If we have once sworn and subscribed a covenant truly with the Lord, he cannot destroy us.4 There was no mean so powerful to hold off the judgment and wrath of God that we deserved, and to procure mercy to us at his hands, as to enter in a covenant with him; for when we enter in a covenant with God, and he with us, then it binds God to dwell in the midst of us: and when he dwells among the midst of us, how can he destroy us? For to destroy us were to destroy himself. Now, is not that a sweet and comfortable promise, backed with strong reasons?
The second promise is, “They shall walk after the Lord; he shall roar like a lion.” And this roaring is not after a prey, to devour it, but like a lion roaring to cause her young ones to come to her. So the Lord shall make the gospel to shine to his people, and they shall walk after him. And then the old ones shall roar, and the young ones shall gather to them, as the young lions do when the old roar upon them: “Yea they shall tremble as doves, and the children shall tremble from the west.” And this promise, it is more fully set down in Isaiah 60:8, “Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?” Even as thick as the clouds flock together before rain, and as the doves flock to the rocks before a storm, so shall the children of God flock to him in the bright days of the gospel.
The third promise is, “I will place them into their houses.” That is, I will set myself down in the midst of my house, in the ordinances of my worship and service, and my people shall come there to worship me, and to speak to me; and when they come to seek me, I will be found of them, and will speak to them; when they speak to me in their prayers, I will hear them also. And when I am thus set down into mine own kirk and house, then they shall be placed peaceably and quietly into their own houses. This is a very heaven upon earth.
Beloved, I may say ye have had the proof of the truth of the first promise, that the Lord has not execute the fierceness of his wrath against you. He might have executed the fierceness of his wrath against you, and made you as Sodom; and none of you could have said that he did you any wrong when he had done so; yet he has not done so, but spared you: and all this is because of his merciful and pitiful nature, because he is God and not man, and so is reconcilable, and because he is the Holy One in the midst of you, and did once enter in covenant with you. And then does not this day and the last day that I was in this place,5 and many days since, testify that ye are returning to walk after the Lord? It is true there are more here than your own Paroch, yet are ye not flocking together as clouds before a shower, or as doves to the windows? And is it not the Lord who has put this in your heart to seek for this same occasion? Then has the Lord performed the first and the second promise to you, and shall he not perform the third also, if so be that ye will continue seeking him, as the people of God, that the Lord shall sit down in his own house, according to his ordinances? And when ye come there, ye shall hear him speaking to you in his word, and he shall hear you speaking to him again in your prayers; and shall answer you in his time, and shall place you into your houses, that ye may pray to him peaceably there. And when ye cannot prevail there, then come to the house of God, and join with the people of God; and then, no doubt, ye shall prevail And when ye would be instructed, would have grace increased, sin mortified, etc., then come to the house of God, and his word shall tell you clearly concerning all these. If there be a heaven upon earth this must be it, to see God set down into the midst of his own house, and when his people come there, he speaks to them, and he hears them when they speak to him, and shews them that he does so by his answering of them. And therefore if so be that ye would have these promises to belong to you, labour to be humbled before God, and cry for contrite and broken hearts for your sins; that so ye may know that these promises belongs to you; that the fierce wrath of the Lord may not seize upon you; and that ye may have liberty together in the house of God; and when ye come to his house ye may meet with himself there, and his son Jesus Christ. And let us now, in his name, draw near to the throne of grace; and beseech the Lord that he would hear us in these things, and in every other thing needful for us. And let us also crave a blessing from him, and the assistance of his Spirit to his word that is to be spoken to us at this time, and to all the rest of his ordinances.