,t ft. »«»%■«, ^ 
 
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 Shelf. 
 
 BR A5 .H36 v. 18 
 Hamilton, Thomas, 18A2-1925 
 History of the Irish 
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HANDBOOKS 
 
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 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
 BY REV. THOMAS HAMILTON, D.D. 
 
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HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Irish Presbyterian Church. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. THOMAS ^HAMILTON, D.D, 
 
 BELFAST. 
 
 ^econtj Stiitton. 
 
 EDINBURGH: 
 T. &^ T. CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In writing this handbook I have had two objects in view. 
 First, I wished to do what in me lay to make Irish Presby- 
 terians thoroughly acquainted with their own history. It is 
 neither creditable nor advantageous that so many of us know 
 far more about the past life of other Churches than of our own 
 
 are better acquainted with the olden ecclesiastical history of 
 
 Scotland or England, or even Germany, than of Ireland — and 
 can tell more of Knox and Melville, of Bothwell Brig and the 
 Pentlands, of Latimer and Cranmer, and Luther and Calvin, 
 than of St. Patrick and Edward Brice and Robert Blair, of 
 'The Eagle Wing' and 'The Black Oath,' of the Sixmilewater 
 Awakening and the persecutions in the days of the Charleses 
 and Anne. Knowledge must prepare the way before loyalty 
 can reign. We cannot be expected to take that interest in, 
 or have that love for, the Church of our fathers which we 
 ought — we cannot clearly comprehend either her position or 
 her rights in this land, unless we know something of her origin, 
 her contendings, her sufferings, her whole past experience. If 
 this book helps in any measure to spread among Irish Presby- 
 terians a knowledge of the history of their Church, — a history 
 of which it is a shame and a loss to be ignorant,— it will have 
 
vm PREFACE. 
 
 accomplished the first object for which it was penned. I have 
 had another aim in preparing it. Recent poHtical events have 
 called public attention very prominently to Ireland, and largely to 
 the North of Ireland, where Presbyterian ism was planted in the 
 beginning of the seventeenth century, and where still its great 
 strength lies. It is well at such a time to see to it that the 
 circumstances and needs of the people are properly understood, 
 that they are read not in the deceptive glare of a passing 
 excitement, but by the calm, clear light of the torch of history. 
 It is especially important, not only to Irish Protestantism but to 
 all Irish interests, that the position and the past of Ulster should 
 be accurately discerned and read. If this handbook helps at all 
 towards the attainment of these desirable, indeed necessary, 
 ends, its second raison d'etre will have been most gratifyingly 
 vindicated. 
 
 Dr. Reid's History of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland^ with 
 its continuation by Dr. Killen, has no doubt served both pur- 
 poses to some extent already. We have no more admirable history 
 of any Church. Mr. Froude has well said that it is 'the very 
 best book which has ever been written on these matters.' It is 
 only when one has had occasion, as I have had, to study it 
 minutely, to compare it with the authorities on which it is based, 
 and with other histories which run side by side with it, that the 
 patient research, the arduous toil, the accuracy, the fidelity, the 
 soundness of judgment to which almost every page of that 
 splendid work bears witness, can be fully appreciated or 
 appraised. But evidently this great work is too large and too 
 expensive to be circulated as widely as the history of the 
 Irish Presbyterian Church ought to be. A three-volume book 
 can never be expected to penetrate to the farmhouses and 
 cottages of the country-side, or to the artisans' dwellings in the 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 city, still less to be read by the young generation which is 
 attending Bible Class and Sabbath School. It is not even 
 every wealthy merchant or country gentleman that will study, as 
 it deserves to be studied, a work so large. The existence 
 of a compact and concise handbook on the subject will at 
 all events render ignorance, if not impossible, at least inexcus- 
 able, and may have the happy effect of so whetting the appetite 
 of the reader that he will not be satisfied until he has feasted on 
 the rich fare provided by the first and best historians of the Irish 
 Presbyterian Church. Many things also have happened during 
 the nearly twenty years which have passed since the last (and 
 best) edition of this Presbyterian classic was published, not to 
 speak of the more than fifty which have elapsed since the 
 first appearance of its first volume. Valuable State papers 
 have been given to the public, other historians have re -sifted 
 Reid and Killen's materials, re-weighed their conclusions, and 
 thrown fresh light on many transactions with which they deal, 
 while important events have occurred, some of them so lately as 
 this present year, which deserve a more permanent record than 
 they can obtain in the columns of a newspaper. Besides, it will 
 be noticed that the present work carries back our ecclesiastical 
 story further into the past than Dr. Reid has done, so that both 
 at beginning and end it covers a larger ground. 
 
 To Reid obligations will be found in many cases acknowledged 
 throughout the work. But much more is due to him than could 
 be acknowledged. Besides other indebtednesses which are 
 owned in the proper place, it is only right also to mention here 
 the large general help derived from President Killen's Ecclesias- 
 tical History ofIrela?id, Dr. Witherow's Derry and Enniskilleit^ 
 and The Boyne and Aghrim^ and valuable hints obtained from 
 the late Dr. Croskery, not only through the medium of various 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 productions of his pen, but in personal intercourse. From the 
 Rev. T. Y. Killen, D.D.,^ and the Rev. Alexander Gordon 
 of Belfast, the Rev. C. H. Irwin, M.A., Bray, and the Rev. 
 J. Armstrong, Plymouth, not a few helpful kindnesses were also 
 received. 
 
 I trust that the handbook may be found to have set in a clear 
 light, and before many eyes, one of the noblest histories which 
 the Church of Christ has to tell, that its perusal may bind Irish 
 Presbyterians in firmer allegiance to their grand old Church, 
 and lead many besides Irish Presbyterians better to understand 
 and appreciate our past history and our present position. 
 
 Bkookvale House, 
 Belfast, October, 1886. 
 
 1 While the first edition of this work was passing through the press. Dr. 
 Killen was suddenly cut down on October 21st, 1886. He was born in Bally- 
 mena on October 30th, 1826, entered Belfast College in 1842, was licensed by 
 the Presbytery of Carrickfergus in 1848, and laboured successively as a mis- 
 sionary at Camlin, and as pastor of the congregations of 3rd Ramelton, 
 Ballykelly. and Duncairn, Belfast, with great fidelity. 
 
 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 The fact that within three months after the first appearance of 
 this httle book the preparation of a Second Edition had to be set 
 about, sufficiently demonstrates the need which was felt for some 
 such manual of our Irish Presbyterian Church history. The work 
 has now been carefully revised throughout ; typographical and 
 other errors have been corrected ; some additions have been made, 
 and an Index has been appended which will facilitate consultation. 
 In this improved form it is hoped that the handbook will be found 
 better fitted than ever to serve the ends for which it was written. 
 
 Brookvale House, 
 Belfast, Aprils 1887. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I.— (Pp. 1-4) 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 Early History of Ireland-Who are the real Irish ?-Treland the first Scot- 
 land, and the first Scotchmen Irishmen— Introduction of Chnstiamty— 
 The Scoto-Irish Church. 
 
 CHAPTER II.— (Pp. 5-14.) 
 
 ST. PATRICK. 
 
 Difficulty of ascertaining the Facts about him— His Birthplace-Shepherd 
 Life near Ballymena— His Conversion— His Strange Dream— His Theo- 
 loev— The 'Creed of St. Patrick'— Was he the First Primate?— His 
 Church Polity not Prelatic— Where is ' The Church of Ireland now?— 
 Patrick's Character. 
 
 CHAPTER III.— (Pp. 15-22.) 
 
 FROM THE BIRTH OF COLUMBA TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Birth of Columba— The Voyage to lona— Life in the Monastery— 'The 
 Apostle of the Northern Picts '—His Last Sabbath— The Early Irish 
 Monastic System— Bangor Abbey— Columbanus— Gallus—Kihan—Fn- 
 dohn— Rome gains the upper hand— The Synod of Rathbreasail— The 
 Synod of Kells— Diocesan Episcopacy established— Ireland granted by 
 Pope Adrian IV. to Henry II.— Vices of the Bishops— Deplorable State of 
 the Church. 
 
 CHAPTER IV.— (Pp. 23-27.) 
 
 FROM THE DAWN OF THE REFORMATION TO THE 
 PLANTATION OF ULSTER. 
 
 The Reformation— Causes of its Failure in Ireland— Reign of Edward VI.— 
 Bale, Bishop of Ossory— Romanism re-established by Queen Mary- 
 
XU CONTENTS. 
 
 Persecutions ordered — Cole's Ludicrous Mishap — Mary's Death — Pro- 
 testantism re-established — How the Bishops trimmed their Sails — State 
 of Ireland in Elizabeth's Reign — Spenser's Description — Rebellion quelled 
 — Establishment of Trinity College, Dublin. 
 
 CHAPTER v.— (Pp. 28-41.) 
 
 THE PLANTATION OF ULSTER AND THE PIONEERS OF 
 IRISH PRESBYTERIANISM. 
 
 The Flight of the Earls— The Plantation— The New Settlers— Effects of the 
 Plantation — State of Affairs in Scotland — Prelacy reimposed — Laud's 
 Tyranny — Janet Geddes's Stool — The National Covenant — The Second 
 Reformation— The Fathers of the Irish Presbyterian Church — Edward 
 Brice — The Articles of Religion of 1615 — The Early Presbyterian 
 Ministers enjoy the Tithes — Hubbard of Carrickfergus — Glendinning — 
 John Ridge of Antrim — Robert Blair of Bangor — James Hamilton of 
 Ballywalter — Robert Cunningham of Holywood — Josias Welsh of Temple- 
 patrick — Andrew Stewart of Donegore — George Dunbar of Ballymena and 
 Larne — John Livingstone of Killinchy — Summary. 
 
 CHAPTER VL— (Pp. 42-55.) 
 
 BLESSING WITHIN. TROUBLE WITHOUT. 
 
 The Sixmilewater Revival — Glendinning — Remarkable Scenes — The Antrim 
 Monthly Meeting — The Beginning of Sorrows — The Friar's Challenge 
 — Sectaries — A Champion of Arminianism — Public Discussion — Persecu- 
 tion of the Ministers — Blair's Sermon before the Primate — Blair and 
 Livingstone suspended by Bishop Echlin — Four of the Ministers deposed 
 — Blair's Journey to London — Wentworth appointed Lord Deputy — 
 Severe Persecutions — The Presbyterians resolve to go to America — Their 
 Plan thwarted — A Lull in the Storm — The Last Communion in Bangor 
 — Ministers silenced — Miserable Death of Echlin — A Remarkable 
 Meeting in Belfast — Five more Ministers silenced — Cunningham's Noble 
 Speech — Death of Brice — ' The Eagle Wing ' — An Ill-Starred Voyage — 
 The Persecution grows hotter — 'The Black Oath '— Terrible Sufferings 
 of the Presbyterians — Case of Mr. Henry Stewart — Proposed Banishment 
 of the Presbyterians from Ulster — Death of Strafford. 
 
 CHAPTER VIL— (Pp. 56-63.) 
 
 1641 AND ITS ISSUES. 
 
 The Rebellion of 1641- Its Designs— Ulster a Sea of Blood— Appalling 
 Sufferings of the Protestants — The Numbers that perislicd — The Rebel- 
 lion a Romish Movement — The Massacre at Island Magee — Strange 
 Fictions of Romish Writers — Arrival of Scottish Troops at Carrickfergus 
 —The First Presbytery — Its Members — New Congregations erected. 
 
CONTENTS. Xiii 
 
 CHAPTER VIII.— (Pp. 64-73.) 
 
 THE TIMES OF THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 Affairs in England — The Long Parliament — Ussher's Plan of Reconciliation 
 — Prelacy abolished by Parliament — The Westminster Assembly — The 
 Solemn League and Covenant — Governors sent by the Parliament to 
 Ulster — Execution of Charles 1. — Views of the Irish Presbyterians — 
 The Belfast ' Representation ' and Milton's Reply — Cromwell's Irish 
 Campaign — How Irish Presbyterians fared under Cromwell — Proposal to 
 banish them to Munster — The Tide turns — They are endowed — Growth 
 of the Church — Death of Cromwell. 
 
 CHAPTER IX.— (Pp. 74-83.) 
 
 UNDER CHARLES II. 
 
 Irish Presbyterians help to bring Charles back — Persecution recommences— 
 Jeremy 'J'aylor's Severities — Ejection of 1661 — Blood's Plot — More Perse- 
 cutions by the Bishops — Meetings in Glens and Farmhouses — Presby- 
 terianism mocked in a Dublin Theatre — The Regium Donum granted — 
 John Howe at Antrim — Francis Makemie sails to America and organizes 
 the First American Presbytery — The Tennents and ' Log College.' 
 
 CHAPTER X.— (Pp. 84-108.) 
 
 UNDER JAMES AND WILLIAM. 
 
 James II. ascends the Throne — His Efforts to Romanize the Country — The 
 Comber Letter — Shutting of the Gates of Deny — The Apprentice Boys 
 and Bishop Hopkins — Expected Massacre in Ulster — ' Lying Dick ' — 
 Lundy sent to Derry — The ' Break of Dromore ' — The Siege of Derry — 
 Walker not the Governor — Terrible Sufferings in the Maiden City — 
 Rosen's Atrocities — ' No Surrender ' — Kirke's Squadron — The Relief of 
 Derry — The Defence largely a Presbyterian Exploit — Enniskillen's 
 Gallant Stand— Rev. Robert Kelso—' The Break of Belleek '- Battle of 
 Belturbet — Battle of Lisnaskea — Battle of Nevilonbutler — William III. — 
 His Presbyterianism — His Calvinism — His Broad Protestantism — Schom- 
 berg lands at Groomsport — His Campaign — King William arrives at 
 Carrickfergus — Regium Donum granted at Hillsborough — Battle of the 
 Boyne — Vacillation of the EpiscopaHans — Renewed Persecution of the 
 Presbyterians — Mr. Ambrose imprisoned — Attempts of the Bishops to 
 have the Regium Donufn withdrawTi — Scandalous State of the Episcopal 
 Church — Case of Rev. John M 'Bride of Belfast — Of Rev. William Biggar 
 of Limerick — The Episcopalians seek to deprive Presbyterian Ministers 
 of the Right to solemnize Marriages. 
 
 CHAPTER XL— (Pp. 109-115.) 
 
 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. 
 
 The ' Schools of Philosophy '—The Test Act— Its Effects— Determined Efforts 
 to stamp out Presbyterianism — The Belturbet Case — The Nonjuring 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 Controversy — Establishment of the ' General Fund ' — ' A Sample of Jet- 
 Black Prelatic Calumny ' — Kirkpatrick's ' Presbyterian Loyalty ' — Death 
 of Anne — The ' Toleration Act ' passed. 
 
 CHAPTER XII.— (Pp. 1 16-122.) 
 
 THE ' NEW LIGHT.' 
 
 • The Belfast Society' — Rev. John Abernethy's Sermon — The ' Pacific Act ' — 
 Case of Rev. Samuel Halliday of Belfast — 'Subscribers' and 'Non- 
 Subscribers ' — Establishment of Rosemary Street Church — A War of- 
 Pamphlets — Case of Rev. Thomas Nevin — The Presbytery of Antrim 
 separated from the Synod of Ulster. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII.— (Pp. 123-128.) 
 
 THE SECEDERS. 
 
 Rise of the Secession in Scotland — Ebenezer Erskine — Establishment of Lyle- 
 hill Congregation — Ordination of Rev. Isaac Patton — Other early 
 Secession Congregations — The ' Burghers ' and ' Antiburghers ' — Opposi- 
 tion of the Synod of Ulster — The IBallyrashane Discussion — \M-iat the 
 Seceders did for Ireland. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV.— (Pp. 129-135.) 
 
 A TIME OF DEADNESS. 
 
 Character of the i8th Century — Subscription to the Confession of Faith falls 
 into Abeyance in Ireland — Professors Simson and Leechman — Francis 
 Hutcheson — Decadence of the Synod of Ulster — Counteracting Influences 
 — The Seceders — First Irish Associate Presbytery — Rev. Thomas Clark 
 — The Covenanters — Sad State of the Episcopal Church — Large Emigra- 
 tion to America — Its Causes and Effects — Amelioration of the Condition 
 of Irish Presbyterians — Repeal of the Test Act — Validity of Presbyterian 
 Marriages declared — Increase of Regium Donum. 
 
 CHAPTER XV.— (Pp. 136-145.) 
 
 FROM THE RISE OF THE VOLUNTEERS TO Tllii 
 LEGISLATIVE UNION. 
 
 The Volunteers — The Dungannon Meeting — Grattan's Parliament — The Re- 
 bellion of 1798 — Battle of Antrim — Battle of Ballynahinch — The Insurrec- 
 tion in the South of Ireland — Father Murphy of Boolavogue — Vinegar 
 Hill — Scullabogue Barn — Opposition of the Presbyterians to the Rebellion 
 — The Legislative Union — Another Increase oi Retyium Donnm. 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 CHAPTER XVL— (Pp. 146-158.) 
 
 THE EVANGELICAL REVIVAL. 
 
 Signs of returning Life — Visit of the Rev. Dr. Waugh of London — The Bel- 
 fast Academical Institution — Dr. Cooke — His Early Life — Ministry at 
 Duneane — At Donegore — At Killyleagh — Beginning of the Arian Con- 
 troversy — The Chase after Smetliurst — Ministers called upon to declare 
 themselves — Dr. Stewart — Dr. Montgomery — Debate on the ' Theological 
 Committee' — The 'Remonstrance' — The Lurgan Meeting — Mont- 
 gomery's Speech — Cooke's Reply — Secession of the Arians — After 
 History of the Two Bodies — Subscription to the Confession of Faith 
 made absolute — Church Extension in Belfast — Dr. Edgar — Dr. Morgan. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII.— (Pp. 159-162.) 
 
 WORK AND WARFARE. 
 
 Rise of the Temperance Movement — Drinking Habits in the Beginning of the 
 Century — Visit to Ireland of Rev. Joseph Penny — Dr. Edgar commences 
 a Temperance Crusade — His Letter in the Belfast Newsletter — The First 
 Temperance Society in Europe — The Ulster Temperance Society — Total 
 Abstinence Movement — The National Education Controversy — Dr. 
 Carlile — Dr. Stewart's ' Model Application ' — The General Assembly and 
 the Board. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII.— (Pp. 163-173.) 
 
 THE UNION OF THE SYNODS, AND AFTER. 
 
 Union of the Synod of Ulster and Secession Synod — The Students' Prayer 
 Meeting — Scene at the Union — Personnel of the First General Assembly 
 — Establishment of the Foreign Mission — Previous Missionary Enter- 
 prises of the Presbyterian Bodies — Establishment of the Jewish Mission 
 — Of the Colonial Mission — Of the Continental Mission — Of the Mission 
 to Soldiers and Sailors — The Bicentenary of Irish Presbyterianism — The 
 College Controversy — Foundation of the Queen's Colleges — Mrs. Magee's 
 Bequests — Assembly's College, Belfast — Magee College, Londonderry — 
 ' The Presbyterian Theological Faculty, Ireland.' 
 
 CHAPTER XIX.— (Pp. 174-178.) 
 
 PRESBYTERIANISM OUTSIDE ULSTER. 
 
 In Dublin — Rev. Walter Travers — Trinity College — John Owen and Stephen 
 Charnock — Wood Street Congregation — Cook Street — New Row — Plun- 
 ket Street — Capel Street — Early Seceding Congregations in Dublin — 
 Boyse — Iredell — Leland — Clonmel and other Southern Congregations 
 — Causes of the Decline of many of them — The Synod of Munster — 
 The Famine — Dr. Edgar's Action — Estabhshment of the Connaught 
 Schools — Results of the Famine. 
 
XVI CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XX.— (Pp. 179-187.) 
 
 THE LAST THIRTY YEARS. 
 
 The Church and Manse Fund — Rev. David Hamilton's Labours — The Revival 
 of 1859 — Strange Scenes — Its Results — Foundation of the Sabbath School 
 Society — Of the Presbyterian Orphan Society — Of the Society for the 
 Orphans of Ministers — The ' Irish Church Act ' — The Special Assembly 
 of 1870 — The Lay Conference — The Commutation and Sustentation 
 Funds — Death of Dr. Cooke — The Instrumental Music Controversy — 
 The Settlement of 1886 — Renewal of Intercourse with the Church of 
 Scotland — The General Assembly and Mr. Gladstone's 'Home Rule' 
 Bill. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI.— (Pp. 188-192.) 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Review of the Church's History — What Presbyterianism has done for Ireland 
 — Ulster changed — Its Agriculture — Manufactures — Prosperity — Kohl's 
 Testimony — Statistics of Pauperism and Crime — Presbyterianism a 
 Moderating Force in the Land — Distinctively Religious Blessings which 
 Ireland owes to it — Present Condition and Future Prospects of the 
 Church. 
 
HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 When one begins to inquire into the early history of Ireland, 
 ecclesiastical or civil, it very soon becomes painfully evident that 
 it is only in a glass darkly that we can see it. The native 
 annalists give us indeed plenty of history, but it is such a con- 
 fused farrago of myth and legend and fable, that it is almost 
 impossible to pierce down through it to any solid rock-bed of 
 fact. They profess to tell us, with the utmost circumstantiality, 
 all about the affairs of the country from the days of Noah. 
 What can one make out of such history .? They give us a con- 
 fused account of successive invasions and colonizations by Fir- 
 Bolgs (who are said to have come over from Greece), and Tuatha 
 de Danaan (whose native country we are told was Scandinavia), 
 and Milesians from Spain. It is not easy to say how far the 
 stories of these incursions are fact and how far fiction, or 
 whether there is substantial substratum of fact in them at all. 
 This much, however, seems clear beyond doubt, that the present 
 inhabitants of all the four provinces of Ireland are the descend- 
 ants of successive bodies of invaders, who from time to time 
 
 A 
 
2 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 subjugated or dispossessed the original denizens of the country, 
 so that to speak now of an indigenous population, in any proper 
 sense of the term, is an entire mistake. Those who boast that 
 they are 'the real Irish' are in reality as much strangers and 
 aliens in the land as are the descendants of the Scottish and 
 English colonists. The men of Ulster have just as much, or as 
 little, right to call themselves Irishmen as the men of Munster. 
 If the people of Antrim or Down are not Irish, neither are the 
 people of Tipperary or Galway. It is well to remember this 
 fact in the face of present-day agitations. Whether, however, 
 any solid importance is to be attached to this talk about 
 nationality, in the strict sense of the term, will appear more 
 than doubtful to any one who asks himself what country of the 
 present day is in the hands of its original owners. Certainly 
 not England, on which Saxons, Danes, and Normans swept 
 down, the one after the other, in invading hosts, leaving little or 
 no trace now of the natives who were there before them. And 
 most certainly not Ireland. 
 
 The Romans, who subdued the neighbouring island of Britain, 
 and have left so many traces of their presence there, did not 
 cross over to Ireland. Agricola was petitioned by one of the 
 native chiefs to do so, and apparently had some thought of com- 
 plying with the request, but did not.^ The Romans knew some- 
 thing of the country, however, calling it Hibernia, or Juverna. 
 It was also known by the name of Scotia, or Scotland. It was 
 not till the tenth century that the present Scotland was called 
 Scotia,^ being distinguished from Ireland then as Scotia Minor, 
 while the latter was called Scotia Major. Hence the curious 
 fact, which sounds like an Irishism, that Ireland was the first 
 Scotland, and the first Scotchmen were Irishmen. In this 
 fact, and in the frequent intercourse between the two countries, 
 
 1 'That virgin island on which proconsul never set foot.' — Montalembert, 
 Les Moines d' Occident, ii. 387. 
 
 2 • Scotia prior to the tenth century was Ireland, and Ireland alone.' — Skene, 
 Celtic Scotland. 
 
THE SCOTO-IRISH CHURCH. 3 
 
 not always or usually a friendly intercourse, we have the beginning 
 of those close relations between Ireland and Scotland, which at 
 subsequent periods were so materially to influence the destinies of 
 both countries. 
 
 It is more germane to our present purpose, however, to glance 
 at the religious than at the ethnological history of these early 
 periods. At the time when we get our first distinct glimpse of 
 Ireland, Druidism was its prevailing religion — Druidism, with 
 its sacred yew, and rowan, and hawthorn. But the light of 
 Christianity seems to have reached the island at a very early 
 period of the Christian era. Eminent authorities have come to 
 the conclusion that the Scoto-Irish Church is the oldest of all the 
 Protestant Churches represented in modern Christendom. We 
 are accustomed to regard the Waldenses as the most ancient 
 among existing representatives of the faith. But it is asserted by 
 acute and trustworthy investigators that our own Church is much 
 older. It is a common habit to regard Ireland as having been at 
 all tinies far behind alike in religious and in material progress, 
 and to have owed all she has, that is worth having, to the crumbs 
 which fell from her neighbours' tables. Some of the foremost 
 modern Celtic scholars and investigators,^ however, assure us 
 that so far from Ireland having been behind other nations in 
 starting on the Christian race, her Christianity is the oldest that 
 is known. Not much certainty can be reached regarding the 
 exact time or mode of its beginning amongst us. In the third 
 century, however, the Annals of the Four Masters tell us that 
 Cormac, the chief king of Ireland, provoked the wrath of the 
 Druids by turning from them ' to the adoration of God.' ' In the 
 fourth century, an Irishman, Coelestius, the companion of the 
 celebrated Pelagius, was a by no means inconspicuous figure in 
 the controversies of the day ; and early in the fifth century we 
 read in a chronicle of the period of *the Irish believing in 
 Christ.' ^ There was evidently, therefore, at a very early period 
 
 1 M'Lauchlan, Early Scottish Church. 
 
 * Annals of the Four Masters. * Prosper's Chronicon, 
 
4 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 a Strong Christian movement in Ireland, resulting in the organi- 
 zation of a Church, and it is the opinion of the learned Ussher 
 that this comparatively pure form of Christianity survived in the 
 country, running as it were underground, like some of our Irish 
 streams, even when Romish corruption was most rampant, until 
 the beginning of the seventeenth century, when the organization 
 of the Presbyterian Church, according to its present model, took 
 place.^ If this be so, then Irish Presbyterians can trace their 
 ecclesiastical lineage far back indeed, linking themselves on to 
 the simple-minded, uncorrupted believers of an age long before 
 Rome had appeared on the scene to blight our fair isle with her 
 withering influence. 
 
 1 Ussher, Discourse on the Religion anciently professed by the Irish. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 ST. PATRICK. 
 
 One figure which stands out prominently in the otherwise 
 obscure early annals of Ireland is that of St. Patrick. His 
 history has been so interlarded with legend and myth that it is 
 no easy task to separate the truth from the fiction. Such absurd 
 stories have been told of him that sober investigators have been 
 tempted to question his very existence, and to set down the 
 accounts of his hfe as entirely fabulous.^ There can be no 
 doubt, however, not only of his existence, but of his having 
 exercised a most potent influence over the religious history of 
 the Green Isle. Fortunately we possess two works which he 
 wrote, the authenticity of which is acknowledged by scholars. 
 These are his Confessmt and his Letter to the Christians? 
 So long as we keep to these works we are on firm ground : the 
 moment we diverge from them we find ourselves floundering 
 amid a mass of tradition, like some unfortunate traveller who 
 has unwittingly stepped aside from a causeway into the bog 
 which it traverses. From them we gather that his father was a 
 deacon, the son of Potitus, a priest. His family, he says, was a 
 respectable one, a statement which is evidently true, not only 
 from the ecclesiastical position of his father and grandfather, but 
 from the fact that the former, besides being a deacon, was a 
 Roman magistrate {decurio). As to the birthplace of Patrick 
 there has been almost as much controversy as about that of 
 
 ' Ledwich, Antiquities of Ireland. 
 
 2 Confessio Sancti Patricii de vita et conversatione sua. Book of Armagh, 
 22-25. Epistola Sancti Patricii ad Christianas Corotici tyrattni subditos, 
 
 6 
 
6 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 Homer. Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, and France all 
 contend for the honour of his nativity. What he says about it 
 himself in his Confession is that his father was of a village 
 called Bonavem Taberniae, and had a farm or small property 
 there, and that it was from this place that he (Patrick) was 
 carried captive. There are two difficulties here. First, he does 
 not tell us where this Bonavem Taberniae was ; and second, he 
 does not expressly tell us that he was born there. His statement 
 is that his father was of that place, and that he himself was 
 carried captive from it. Afterwards, however, in the Confession^ 
 he speaks of his parents living in Britain, and calls it his 
 • country.' ^ There seems therefore no reason to doubt that his 
 birthplace was there, and that the patron saint of Ireland was 
 in reality a Scotsman. There is a place called Kil-patrick {i.e. 
 the Church of Patrick), situated near Dumbarton, in the Firth of 
 Clyde, which is not unlikely to have been the spot where the 
 great missionary first saw the light. 
 
 But if not the land of his birth, Ireland was certainly his 
 adopted country. This came about as follows: — At the age 
 of sixteen he was taken captive by one of the roving bands 
 of freebooters who in those unsettled and lawless times infested 
 the British coasts. In company with other prisoners he was 
 carried across the Channel to the North of Ireland and sold as 
 a slave. Whereabouts on the coast he was landed we do not 
 know, but ultimately he was taken inland, and set to herd cattle 
 close by where the rugged mountain Slemish looks down on the 
 fertile valley of the Braid. Here, where now the well-cultivated 
 fields of one of the most prosperous districts of County Antrim 
 stretch to the river-side, with at intervals a bleach -green or a 
 manufactory preparing the famous Irish linen far the market, with 
 the tall mill chimney-stalks and the church towers of the thriving 
 
 » He says he had been desirous to go 'in Britannias . . . quasi ad patriam 
 ct parentes ; non id solum, sed etiam usque ad Gallias,' — words which seem 
 to exclude entirely the idea that he was a native of any part of Gaul, 
 Brilanniae is the well-known appellation of Roman Britain. 
 
ST. PATRICK. 7 
 
 town of Ballymena rising into the air close by, the young slave lad 
 daily drove his master's cattle and sheep to and from the pasture 
 ground. Wherever he was born, the Ballymena district can 
 undoubtedly claim that the bare feet of the poor slave boy, who 
 was afterwards to win for himself an imperishable renown as one 
 of Ireland's best benefactors, walked through its fields, climbed 
 the steep sides of Slemish, and from its summit doubtless many 
 a time gazed wistfully across the sea to where on the horizon he 
 could dimly descry the hills of his native Scotland. 
 
 God often transmutes our afflictions into benefits. He did 
 so with Patrick. His captivity was the means of bringing 
 him the greatest blessing which can come to any man — the 
 conversion of his soul. He had been piously brought up, but 
 like too many had neglected the lessons of his father's house. 
 He says of himself : ' I knew not the true God, and I was carried 
 in captivity into Ireland . . . and there the Lord opened the 
 sense of my unbelief, that even though late I should remember 
 my sins, and be converted with my whole heart unto the Lord 
 my God." If, then, he was born in Scotland, there can be 
 no doubt he was 'born again' in Ireland. He became very 
 prayerful, often rising in the night to commune with God in the 
 woods and among the hills. 
 
 ' Cold mountains and the midnight airs 
 Witnessed the awful fervour of his prayers. 
 
 Neither snow, frost, nor rain could keep him back from this 
 loved employment. ' I felt no evil,' he says ; * neither was 
 there any laziness in me, because, as I now see, the Spirit was 
 burning within me.'^ After six years of slavery he escaped from 
 his master, and, making his way to the coast, procured a passage 
 on board a boat, and after enduring many hardships, was able 
 again to rejoin his parents in Scotland. It must have been 
 a happy day when they clasped to their hearts once more their 
 long lost boy, with the traces of the hardships of his slave 
 1 Confession. 2 ii)id. 
 
8 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 life on his weather-beaten face, but with that new light burning 
 there, of which he had known nothing when he was stolen from 
 them, the possession of which more than made amends for the 
 sorrows and privations he had endured at the hands of the Irish 
 slave-drivers. 
 
 But he was not to be long in his father's house. He had seen 
 the darkness of Ireland, and he hungered to give it some of his 
 light. A remarkable dream which he had decided him. In 
 the dead of night he saw a man coming to him as if from 
 Ireland, whose name was Victoricius, 'bearing innumerable 
 letters. And he gave me one of them, and I read the beginning 
 of it, which contained the words, " The Voice of the Irish." And 
 while I was repeating the beginning of the letter, I imagined 
 that I heard in my mind the voice of those who were near the 
 wood of Foclut,^ which is near the Western Sea. And thus they 
 cried — " We entreat thee, holy youth, to come and walk hence- 
 forth among us.'"^ Finally, he made up his mind to return as a 
 missionary to Ireland, and the entire remainder of his days 
 seems to have been spent in its service. He appears to have 
 journeyed on evangelistic tours through the whole country. 
 His name is preserved in the nomenclature of many places 
 both in the north and south of Ireland, such as Temple-Patrick, 
 Croagh-Patrick, Sea-Patrick, Down-Patrick, Leck-Patrick, and 
 Inch-Patrick. The beautiful story of his preaching before the 
 King of Meath at Tara, and illustrating the mysterious doctrine 
 of the Trinity by the three-leaved shamrock, is well known, and 
 probably true. There can be no doubt that he was one of the 
 best benefactors of Ireland that she ever saw. ' I am greatly 
 a debtor to God,' he says in the Confession^ 'who hath vouch- 
 safed me such great grace that many people by my means should 
 be born again to God, and that clergy should be ordained 
 everywhere for them.'^ But he adds with beautiful humility — 
 * I pray those who believe and fear God, whosoever may 
 
 ^ Supposed to be Tirawley, County Mayo. 
 2 Confessio7t. J bid. 
 
ST. PATRICK S THEOLOGY. 9 
 
 condescend to look into or receive this writing, which Patrick 
 the sinner, though unlearned, wrote in Ireland, if I have done 
 or established any little thing according to God's will, that no 
 man ever say that my ignorance did it, but think and let it 
 verily be believed that it was the gift of God.'^ 
 
 The dates of St. Patrick's career are rather uncertain. The 
 best authorities, however, have come to the conclusion that his 
 death took place on the 17th March, now kept as 'Patrick's 
 Day,' either in the year 465 or 493. He is said to have been buried 
 at Downpatrick. His grave is shown there, and is regarded with 
 great veneration by the superstitious. 
 
 It is important for many reasons to know what were the exact 
 doctrines which Patrick believed and preached. Various sects 
 claim the authority of his name for their tenets. Roman Catholics 
 constantly speak of him as one of themselves. They call 
 chapels by his name, and place his statue above the entrance 
 doors, attired in full ecclesiastical costume, with a great mitre on 
 the head and a formidable crozier in the hand — articles of dress 
 which the simple, busy missionary in all probability never either 
 saw or wore. At all events, nothing is clearer than that Patrick's 
 theology was as different from Popery as day from night. Romish 
 writers have asserted that he came to Ireland as an emissary 
 of the Pope. It is quite plain, however, that he was nothing of 
 the kind, and that all statements to this effect are to be set down 
 among the many myths, for the propagation of which the Church 
 of Rome has earned a bad pre-eminence. In his Confession he 
 tells us with considerable particularity the circumstances under 
 which he came to Ireland ; but he has not a word to say about 
 either Rome or the Pope — an omission which would be simply 
 inconceivable if he had been an emissary of the Pontiff. All 
 contemporary documents are equally silent on this pretended 
 Romish mission.'* Not one of them gives the slightest hint of it. 
 
 ^ Confession. 
 
 2 Cf. The Life and Doctrine of St. Patrick, by W. D Killen, D.D., 
 President of Assembly's College, Belfast. 
 
10 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 The success of Patrick's labours makes this silence all the more 
 significant. If Rome could have taken credit for what Patrick 
 did, her history plainly tells us that she undoubtedly would. All 
 Christendom would have rung with the praises of the great papal 
 legate, and of the Pope himself for planning his mission. But 
 there is nothing of all this in the history of the time. Many 
 letters of Leo I., who was Pope from 440-461, are still in exist- 
 ence, but not one of them mentions Patrick's enterprise. 
 Moreover, he himself never appeals to any papal commission 
 when his authority is impugned. There cannot be a shadow of a 
 doubt, therefore, that the whole story of the Romish origin of his 
 labours is a pure fiction. Besides, Patrick's teaching was very 
 far removed indeed from Romanism. Romanism glorifies the 
 Virgin Mary. There is no trace of Mariolatry in any of Patrick's 
 writings. The Church of Rome puts our blessed Lord into a very 
 subordinate place. With Patrick, Christ is all in all. The Bible 
 receives but little honour from Rome. Patrick knew it well 
 himself, and looked to it as the supreme standard of truth. In 
 fact, if we make a list of the distinctive tenets of Romanism, and 
 a similar list of the doctrines which Patrick believed and taught, 
 and place the two over against each other, their dissidence will 
 be found simply startling. As to clerical celibacy, his own father 
 and grandfather were ecclesiastics, yet both were married, and 
 we find Patrick himself appointing married men to office in the 
 Church. Auricular confession, a cardinal pillar of Romanism, he 
 never once mentions. We find no trace of his anointing the dying 
 to prepare them for another world, no glorification of the Mass, 
 no mention of Purgatory in his writings. The impudence of any 
 attempt to make out Patrick to have been a Romanist is only 
 equalled by its futility. His whole spirit and teaching and aims 
 were not only not Rome's, but were as different from hers as 
 possible. 
 
 One passage from the Confession contains such a clear ex- 
 plication of Patrick's theology in his own words that we quote it 
 entire. It will give a better idea not only of his beliefs, but of his 
 
'creed of ST. PATRICK.' II 
 
 spirit, than any words of ours. After speaking of his capture at 
 Bonavem Taberniae, he says, * I am not able, nor would it be right, 
 to be silent on such great benefits and such great grace as [God] 
 hath vouchsafed unto me in the land of my captivity, for this is 
 our recompense, that after we have been corrected and brought to 
 know God, we should exalt and confess His wondrous works 
 before every nation which is under the whole heaven : that there 
 is none other God, nor ever was, nor shall be hereafter, except 
 God the Father, unbegotten, without beginning, from whom is all 
 beginning, upholding all things, as we have said : and His Son, 
 Jesus Christ, whom we acknowledge to have been always with 
 the Father before the beginning of the world, spiritually with the 
 Father, in an ineffable manner begotten before all beginning : and 
 by Him were made things visible and invisible ; and being made 
 man, and having overcome death. He was received into heaven 
 unto the Father. And the Father hath given unto Him all power, 
 above every name, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and 
 things under the earth, that every tongue should confess that 
 Jesus Christ is Lord and God. Whom we believe and we look 
 for His coming, who is soon about to be the Judge of quick and 
 dead, who will render unto every man according to his works, and 
 hath poured into us abundantly the gift of the Holy Ghost and 
 the pledge of immortality, who maketh the faithful and obedient 
 to become the sons of God the Father and joint heirs with 
 Christ. Whom we confess and worship, one God in the Trinity 
 of the sacred Name. For He Himself hath said by the prophet, 
 " Call upon me in the day of thy tribulation and I will deliver thee, 
 and thou shalt magnify me." ' ^ 
 
 This simple, Scriptural ' Creed of St. Patrick,' as it has been 
 called, is as remarkable for what it does not contain as for what 
 it does. There is not the faintest Romish tinge about it. It is 
 the devout expression of the beliefs of a soul which draws its 
 inspiration fresh from the well-springs of Holy Scripture. It is 
 undeniably and conspicuously Protestant (if the anachronism of 
 1 Confession. Book of Afjfiagh, fol. 22. 
 
12 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 the term used in such a connection may be pardoned). It is 
 distinctly Trinitarian, and thoroughly evangelical. 
 
 Some Episcopalians claim Patrick and the Church of which he 
 was the leading spirit as lending countenance to their system. One 
 of the grounds on which the more exclusive among them claim the 
 title of ' The Church of Ireland' is that they are the representatives 
 and successors of the primitive Irish Church, of which Patrick 
 was the leading figure. But the claim is entirely untenable. For 
 example, they represent Patrick as the first primate, whereas it 
 is well known among scholars that neither in Patrick's day, nor 
 for hundreds of years afterwards, was there any such personage 
 as either an archbishop or bishop of Armagh. Scholarly episcopal 
 writers acknowledge this.^ To represent the Church of Patrick's 
 day as prelatic in its organization is equally incorrect. Diocesan 
 Episcopacy gives to a few bishops the oversight of a whole 
 country. But Patrick's system seems to have been to give every 
 congregation a bishop of its own. One statement represents him 
 as erecting in Ireland 365 churches and appointing 365 bishops, 
 one bishop for each church. Another increases these numbers, 
 but preserves the same relative proportions, making the number 
 of churches 700, with 700 bishops. In both cases the double 
 principle of a bishop for each church and a church for each 
 bishop is recognised. But this is the polity of Presbyterianism, not 
 of Episcopacy, and, what is more important, is the polity of the 
 New Testament, which recognises no higher ecclesiastical order 
 among the ordinary office-bearers of the Church than that of the 
 teaching elder, who, with the ruling elder, is the only bishop 
 known to it.^ The Church of Ireland of Patrick's day, and for 
 many a long year afterwards,^ was certainly, therefore, not a 
 prelatic Church, and for a prelatic Church to claim to be its suc- 
 
 1 Cf. King's Memoir introductory to the Early History of Armagh^ 
 Preface, Armagh 1854 ; and Todd's St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland, p. 
 172. 
 
 2 Cf. Acts XX. 17, 28. 
 
 ' ' Tliere seems to have been a bishop in every village.* — Goldwin Smith, 
 Irish History and Irish Character, p. 33. 
 
ST. Patrick's church. 13 
 
 cesser and representative on account of being prelatic is surely 
 to betray a strange ignorance of facts. With the overthrow 
 of this position the claim to be the ' Church of Ireland,' which 
 is built upon it, — a title the use of which wise and moderate 
 Episcopahans themselves deprecate, — must also fall to the 
 ground. 
 
 It is surely a little childish to be over-anxious for the shelter of 
 the authority and prestige of Patrick. He was most godly, earnest, 
 and laborious, but he was only, after all, a poor unlettered man, 
 who spent his youth not in study, but in tending cattle on the 
 sides of Slemish, and along the banks of the Braid Water. 
 The age in which he lived was not an enlightened or learned 
 age. He enjoyed none of the advantages or opportunities for 
 arriving at truth which we possess. He himself tells us that he 
 hesitated about writing his Confession^ because, he says, ' I have 
 not read like others, who have been well imbued with sacred 
 learning.' It is surely, therefore, rather senseless to be over- 
 earnest in the effort to secure the sanction of the authority and 
 example of this humble man for our opinions or our Churches. 
 We have the Bible to guide us, and better means by far of 
 ascertaining its meaning than poor Patrick ever enjoyed. It is 
 the Church which conforms to the pattern laid down there, and 
 not the Church which corresponds most nearly to the Church of 
 St. Patrick, which is the true apostolic Church. The authority 
 or example of a Paul or a Peter is worth ten thousand times 
 more than those of all the saints in the Romish calendar. If, 
 however, any stress is to be laid upon Patrick's teaching, or 
 upon the Church organization which he set up, it is plain that 
 neither Romanism nor Protestant Episcopacy can claim the 
 benefit of either. The simple, scriptural character of the 
 Presbyterian Church, with its absence of either primates or 
 diocesan bishops, with its minister for every congregation and 
 the Holy Scriptures for its supreme law, and with no rites or 
 ceremonies allowed save such as are authorized in the Word of 
 God, approaches far more nearly to the spirit and genius of 
 
14 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 Patrick, and of the Church for which he lived and laboured, 
 than either of them, or than any other Church of the present day. 
 Patrick would have been remarkable in any age, but he was 
 certainly a marvellous man for his times and environments. 
 In reading his life and works one cannot but be impressed by 
 his prayerfulness, his humility, his strong belief in a guiding 
 and overruling Providence, his deep and accurate knowledge of 
 the Bible, his firm grasp of the doctrines of grace, his stedfast 
 faith, his love to Christ, his devotion to His service, and his fine 
 evangelistic spirit. He was by no means free from faults, but he 
 was certainly one of the noblest characters and greatest bene- 
 factors not only that Ireland has ever seen, but that all history 
 can produce. ' He was a good man, full of faith and of the Holy 
 Ghost ; and much people was added unto the Lord.' When he 
 had served his generation by the will of God, and fallen on sleep, 
 he left Ireland a very different country from what he found it. 
 Druidism had received its death-blow, and in the short space of 
 one lifetime Christianity had been established on a firm basis. 
 
CHAPTER IIL 
 
 FROM THE BIRTH OF COLUMBA TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 After the death of Patrick various corruptions gradually 
 came into Irish Christianity. Darkness crept over the land. 
 But there arose from time to time lights in the gloom. One 
 of the most celebrated of these was the ever- to -be -remem- 
 bered Columba, or Columbkille, as he is sometimes called. 
 Columba was a native of the County Donegal, one of whose 
 v/ildest and most romantic glens is called, after him, Glen- 
 Col umbkille. He was born in the year 521 at Gartan,^ in the 
 shadow of the wild Derryveagh mountains, from behind which 
 Errigal shoots its towering cone to the sky. Entering the 
 Church, he soon rose to a position of conspicuous eminence and 
 influence. Becoming, however, involved in some of the contro- 
 versies of that turbulent time, he determined to leave Ireland. 
 The hand of Providence, which so often makes the wrath ot 
 man to praise Him, was in his departure. As Patrick was 
 brought from Scotland to become *The Apostle of Ireland,' 
 Columba was to be sent from Ireland to Scotland to become 
 ' The Apostle of the Northern Picts ; ' and as we in Ireland 
 must ever hold ourselves indebted to the great Scottish mission- 
 ary for what he did for our country, so Scotsmen can never 
 forget that it is to this illustrious Irishman that unquestionably 
 is due the first evangelization of great part of North Britain. 
 Thus to some extent we repaid the debt which we owed our 
 neighbours across the Channel. 
 
 St. Patrick had lain almost a hundred years in his grave 
 
 ^ Life of Columba, by Adamnan, edited by Reeves, 1875. 
 
 15 
 
l6 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 when Columba,^ along with twelve companions, sailed from 
 Ireland across the Channel. We can picture the little company 
 to ourselves, embarking in their skin -boats, and steering forth 
 to seek a place which should be at once a quiet retreat for them- 
 selves and a convenient centre of missionary effort. Conspicuous 
 among the exiles is the tall, commanding figure of Columba 
 himself, with his eagle eye and noble bearing. By his orders 
 the boats sail towards Scotland. By and by we see them 
 coasting along its islands. Finally they drop anchor in the 
 pellucidly green waters of a lovely bay of lona. They land, and 
 soon rude huts of w^ood and wattles are built to serve as 'cells;' 
 for Columba had devoted himself to the monasticism already 
 becoming prevalent. A plain church of similar materials is 
 raised. Cattle are procured, and turned out to graze on the 
 short clovery grass, sweet with thyme, which the sandy soil of 
 the island still grows .^ Some of the brethren attend to them, 
 others to the raising of crops of oats and barley on the sheltered 
 slopes of the hills. The Sound, still famous for its flounders,* 
 supplies the refectory with fish in abundance. Columba, assisted 
 by the most competent of the brethren, devotes himself to his 
 favourite task of transcribing the Scriptures. Often, too, the 
 sails of the leathern boats are seen hoisted to bear the mis- 
 sionary, Bible in hand, to preach to the inhabitants of some of 
 the neighbouring isles or of the mainland itself ; for one of the 
 advantages of lona was that while an island, and thus affording 
 to the little company a delightful security and seclusion, cut off 
 as it is by a blue ribbon of sea, six miles broad, from the nearest 
 shore, it lay so close to it that it was easy to proceed on periodi- 
 cal evangelistic tours. To the marvellous success of these tours 
 history bears ample testimony. So, between the labours of his 
 cell, where the midnight lamp, fed by oil obtained from the 
 bodies of seals, such as still bask in the sun on the rocks of the 
 island, threw its rays on the pages of the holy volume which he 
 
 * The date usually given is 563. 
 ' Cf. lona, by tlie Duke of Argyll. 
 
THE DEATH OF COLUMBA. I 7 
 
 was never weary of transcribing, and the labours of the mission 
 journey among the barbarous inhabitants of the mainland, to 
 whom his commanding figure and persuasive voice soon became 
 familiar and dear, the days passed quickly and quietly away. 
 At length old age overtook him, and the weight of nearly four- 
 score years bent the form, once so splendidly erect, to the 
 ground. The saint had a presentiment that death was coming, 
 and the story of how it came is one of the most pathetic things 
 in history. A June sun was lighting up the waters of the 
 Sound, and the distant Paps of Jura, and the low, dark island 
 of Staffa nearer at hand, and the hills of Morven, with their 
 brightest colours. It was a Saturday, and as Columba looked 
 out upon the magnificent panorama he said, 'This day is in 
 the sacred volume called the Sabbath, which meaneth rest, and 
 to-day is verily a Sabbath for me, as it is the last with me of 
 this present toilsome life, on which, after my wearisome labours, 
 I come to enjoy my Sabbath.' Staff in hand, he ascended a 
 little knoll, and gave the island and his brethren his blessing. 
 This done, he returned to his cell and resumed his loved work 
 of transcribing the Bible. He had reached the thirty-founh 
 Psalm, and he wrote on till he came to the tenth verse : ' They 
 that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.' Then he 
 felt that his work was done. ' Here I must stop,' he said ; 
 'let Baithune write the rest.'^ He went to the little church 
 for evening service, and then, returning to his cell, lay down on 
 the stone floor, with his head on his stone pillow. Here he 
 reposed till the bell rang for service next morning. Then he 
 rose and proceeded again to the church. But when the others 
 had reached it after him they found the old man lying dead. So 
 on Sabbath morning, the 9th June 597, the venerable Columba 
 entered into the Sabbath of eternity. 
 
 The monastic system in Columba's day had not yet degenerated 
 into the loathsome thing which it subsequently became. In 
 those wild times there were many things to induce contem- 
 
 1 Adamnan's Columba, by Reeves. 
 B 
 
1 8 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 plative men, who desired to devote themselves to study and 
 Christian work, to retire into some secluded place, where, undis- 
 turbed by the din of tribal wars, they could pursue their quiet 
 labours together and in peace. The Irish and Scottish monas- 
 teries, such as Columba founded, became also schools for the 
 education of the people — the only schools of the time. They were 
 specially colleges for the training of young men for the Church. 
 They developed into centres of missionary activity, and they were 
 the only places where the Scriptures were transcribed, and where 
 copies of them could be obtained. In Bangor, County Down, was a 
 famous example of such a monastery. Comghall, said to have been 
 a native of Magheramorne, near Larne, was its founder, and we are 
 told that he had at one time no fewer than 3000 monks under his 
 jurisdiction.^ The title, ' Isle of Saints,' by which Ireland was 
 known in the seventh century, was largely given because of the 
 multiplication of these mingled seats of religion and learning over 
 the country. Columba's monastery at lona was modelled aftei 
 the Irish pattern. The life led in it was a busy, simple, quiet, 
 useful life. But a system like this, which involves the violation 
 of natural laws and derives no authority from Scripture, has in 
 it elements of corruption which are sure sooner or later to lead 
 to that terrible relaxation of morals which, an eminent Roman 
 Catholic writer says, ' the religious orders, by a mysterious and 
 terrible judgment of God, have never been able to resist.' ^ The 
 monastic cell soon became a very different thing from what it was 
 in Columba's day. 
 
 Ireland during these early centuries left its impress upon more 
 countries than Scotland. The gospel which it had received, it 
 freely gave to many lands besides. Missionaries from its shores 
 travelled not only to Britain, but to France, to Germany, to 
 Switzerland, and Italy. Ireland became the missionary nation of 
 ih.t Y^^x'iod par excelle^ice. Her Christian sons 'saw in incessant 
 visions a world known and unknown to be conquered for 
 
 1 Lanigan, Ecclesiastical Hisfory of Ireland, ii. 62, 67. 
 ^ Montalenibert, Lcs Moines d' Occident, iv. 78. 
 
ROMISH CORRUPTIONS. 1 9 
 
 Christ.'^ Columbanus, towards the end of the sixth century, settled 
 in France, establishing in Burgundy a monastery similar to that 
 of lona, which attained great celebrity. Gallus, one of his dis- 
 ciples, became a well-known evangelist in Switzerland, where 
 the canton of St. Gall still perpetuates his name. Kilian, or 
 Killen, laboured in a similar manner in Wurzburg in the seventh 
 century, and ' Fridolin the traveller ' in another part of Germany, 
 both with large results. Irishmen have reason to be proud of the 
 labours and successes of these enterprising and eminent fellow- 
 countrymen of theirs. 
 
 Meanwhile, however, Romish corruptions had been gradually 
 stealing in. For a long time Irish ecclesiastics boldly opposed 
 the extravagant claims of the Pope, so that for centuries the 
 Christianity of Ireland was purer than that of any other nation in 
 Christendom. But, little by little, the pure stream of her early 
 religion, such as we see it in the time of Patrick, became corrupted, 
 until it was lost in a foul and foetid quagmire, reeking with filth. 
 One need not dwell on these times of defection. Still, successive 
 Popes had trouble in bringing the Irish Church into entire con- 
 formity to the Romish ideal. In mo a memorable synod was 
 held, with Gillebert, the Pope's legate, as its president. This 
 assembly is known as the Synod of Rathbreasail, and the whole 
 country was placed by it under the government of twenty-three 
 bishops and two archbishops.- But for long this arrangement 
 had little respect paid to it. More than forty years after the 
 synod, its decisions were still not universally carried out. Many 
 ' parochial bishoprics ' still existed. Another legate, Cardinal 
 Paparo, was therefore now sent over from Rome. Another synod 
 was summoned and met at Kells in County Meath under his 
 presidency. The island was again divided into dioceses, this 
 time the number being thirty-eight. We find a proof of the con- 
 tinued existence of parochial or village bishoprics, in a resolution 
 of this synod, which enacted that, ' on the death of village bishops 
 
 1 Montalembert, Les Moines cC Occident, ii. 597. 
 ' Lanigan, Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, 
 
20 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 . . . there should be chosen to succeed in their stead, arch- 
 presbyters to be appointed by the diocesans, who should super- 
 intend the clergy and laity in their respective districts.' ^ The 
 primitive non-prelatic arrangements of the Church evidently 
 died hard. Rome was determined that her iron rule should 
 supersede them ; but the task was not an easy one. The Synod 
 of Kells was convened because the decrees of the Synod of 
 Rathbreasail had not been carried out ; but its own decrees were 
 very imperfectly obeyed. Rome, however, has many weapons in 
 her armoury. If one fails, she is seldom at a loss for another. 
 She was bent upon the entire subjugation of Ireland to her rule, 
 and she shrank from no means of attaining her end. Adrian IV. 
 became Pope. He was an Enghshman, the only English- 
 man who has ever ruled in the Vatican, his real name being 
 Nicholas Breakspear. He knew that Heniy II. of England was 
 anxious to add Ireland to his dominions, and so in 1155 he issued 
 a bull, which is at once the ' stumbling-block and the despair ' of 
 Romish historians, telling the king that ' His Holiness held it 
 right that for extending the borders of the Church, restraining the 
 progress of vice, for the correction of manners, the planting of 
 virtue, and the increase of the Christian religion, you enter that 
 island and execute therein whatever shall pertain to the honour 
 of God and the welfare of the land, and that the people of that 
 land receive you honourably, and reverence you as their lord, the 
 rights of their Churches still remaining sacred and inviolate, 
 and,' the prudent Pope, with a keen eye to the monetary 
 profits of the transaction, is careful to add, ' saving to St. Peter 
 the annual pension of one penny' (equal, it is said, to at least 
 two shillings and sixpence of our present money) * from every 
 house.' ^ In this audacious and high-handed style was Ireland 
 handed bodily over to England. Irish Roman Catholics should 
 bear carefully in mind that it is to the Pope of Rome they owe 
 
 ^ Wilkins, Co7icilia, i. 547. 
 
 - For the full text of this famous bull, see Cambrensis Eversus, Kelly's 
 edition, ii. 410-414. 
 
THE ENGLISH CONQUEST. 21 
 
 their subjugation to Britain, of which they complain so much. 
 Being the infallible Head of an infallible Church, surely he did 
 not err. How strange that it is the Irish Roman Catholics, 
 headed by their own priests and bishops, who, with the sanction 
 of the present Pope, rebel against the action of Pope Adrian IV., 
 and are bent upon taking from England a possession with which 
 the see of Rome gifted her ! 
 
 It was some time before Henry was able to take possession of 
 the kingdom which had thus been so haughtily handed over to him. 
 But at length, in 1171, he landed at Waterford and proceeded to 
 assume the sovereignty of Ireland, which he was able without 
 much difficulty to do, and thence dates the period of the English 
 connection. 
 
 From the English occupation to the Reformation the country 
 was in no very prosperous state. The strict English authority was 
 limited to ' the Pale,' which varied from time to time in extent, 
 and the rest of the land was largely left to its own devices. 
 The people were oppressed rather than governed, and they 
 groaned besides under the exactions and the vices of the Romish 
 bishops and priests, who now, under the fostering wing of England, 
 rode rough-shod over them. The rapacity of these men was 
 only equalled by their licentiousness. It is a shame even to speak 
 of the things which were 'done of them in secret.' The monasteries 
 became dens of the foulest vice. The bishops set an example 
 of open immorality, and the subordinate clergy were not slow to 
 follow their lead. The Bible almost entirely disappeared from 
 the land, and in its place the grossest and most degrading super- 
 stition became rampant. Simony prevailed everywhere. The 
 Popes themselves, who successively ruled over the spiritual affairs 
 of the country from Rome, were frequently perfect monsters of 
 iniquity, and it is not surprising if the stream did not rise above 
 the level of its fountain. The sole object of the bishops seems to 
 have been their own enjoyment and aggrandizement. To think 
 of them as ministers of religion is impossible, when we read of 
 one besieging a brother bishop in his own cathedral, loading him 
 
22 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 with chains, and immuring him in a dungeon from which he 
 barely escaped with his life, — of another who earned for himself 
 the significant nicknames of 'Burn-Bill' and 'Scorch-Villain,' 
 from his having burned all his tenants' title-deeds, of which he 
 had fraudulently got possession, and of a third starving to death 
 six persons whose property he had got into his hands. We can 
 see for ourselves that a sad change had indeed come over 
 Ireland since the days of good St. Patrick. The land, temporally 
 and spiritually alike, was in a state of the most deplorable misery 
 when the era of the Reformation arrived, bringing hope of better 
 things — a hope, however, which was too long of being fully 
 realized, owing to circumstances hereafter to be described. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FROM THE DAWN OF THE REFORMATION TO THE 
 PLANTATION OF ULSTER. 
 
 The first step towards accepting the Reformation in Ireland was 
 taken in May 1537, when the Irish Parhament threw off the autho- 
 rity of the Pope and declared the King supreme head on earth of the 
 Church of Ireland. But the change was little more than a change of 
 authority. No reformation worthy of the name can be propagated 
 by mere royal proclamations or Acts of Parliament, and it was the 
 misfortune of Ireland, not only at the era of the Reformation, but 
 for centuries after, that no wise efforts were made to win the 
 people over to Protestantism. It came to them weighted by the 
 fact that it was the religion of conquerors, who oppressed them 
 by penal laws, and in many other ways manifested their hatred 
 and contempt for them. A creed so presented was, indeed, 
 heavily handicapped. But, in spite of this disadvantage, had wise 
 measures been adopted for instructing the Irish people in Scrip- 
 ture truth, the religious history of the country would doubtless 
 have soon received a very different tinge. Ireland suffers to this 
 day from the mistakes made at the time of the introduction of 
 the reformed religion. The same Parliament which established 
 Protestantism re-enacted in all their stringency several of the 
 penal laws against the native Irish. Marriage and fosterage 
 with them were forbidden under the severest penalties, and it 
 was ordered that no ecclesiastical preferment was to be conferred 
 on any one who did not speak English, except in case, after 
 repeated proclamations in the nearest market town, no person so 
 qualified could be found. ^ Not a very likely way surely to com- 
 mend Protestantism to the people ! It need not be wondered at, 
 
 1 Irish Statutes, 28th of Henry VIII. cap. 15. 
 23 
 
24 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 therefore, that the Reformation scarcely made any progress in 
 Ireland in Henry's day. The reign of his son and successor, 
 Edward VI., was too short to allow of any great advance. One 
 excellent appointment he made, that of the godly Bale (1495-1563) 
 to the bishopric of Ossory, which, if it had been followed up by 
 the preferment of men of like spirit to the other sees, and the 
 appointment of like-minded clergymen to the various parishes, 
 would have done incalculable good. Mary, however, succeeded 
 Edward VI., and the Christian work which had been begun was 
 stopped. Romanism resumed its ascendancy, and the perse- 
 cuting spirit both of the queen and her Church are sufficiently 
 indicated by the instructions which she issued to her Irish Lord 
 Deputy and Council — instructions which are worth noting for 
 many reasons. They were required, ' by their example and all good 
 means possible, to advance the honour of God and the Catholic 
 faith, to set forth the honour and dignity of the Pope's Holiness 
 and the See Apostolic of Rome, and from time to time to be ready 
 with their aid and secular force, at the request of all spiritual 
 ministers and ordinaries, to punish and repress all heretics and 
 Lollards, and their damnable sects, opinions, and errors.'^ There 
 is no uncertain sound about these instructions. An Act of the 
 Irish Parliament, which was passed in June 1556, breathes the 
 same spirit, declaring that 'all persons, preaching or teaching, 
 or evidently suspected of preaching or teaching, against the 
 Catholic Faith' might be arrested by the bishop of the diocese, 
 and, on their refusal to abjure, delivered to the secular arm, and 
 ' burnt for the terror of others.' ^ 
 
 A curious story is told of the miscarriage of one of Mary's 
 projects for the persecution of Irish Protestants. In October 
 1558 she despatched Dr. Cole, Dean of St Paul's, to Dublin, 
 with orders to the Lord Deputy vigorously to put down Pro- 
 testantism in Ireland. When he had reached Chester on his 
 way, he showed his commission with great exultation to the 
 mayor, and boasted loudly of the end which was about to be put 
 1 Richard Cox, History of Ireland, 303. - Irish Statutes, 9th of Mary. 
 
IN ELIZABETHS REIGN. 25 
 
 to the heretics across the Channel. The woman of the house 
 ■where he stayed hearing of these boasts, and having some Pro- 
 testant friends in Dublin, in whose safety she was of course 
 interested, determined to baulk the envoy's designs. So, watching 
 her opportunity, she quietly removed the royal commission out 
 of the box in which her guest carried it, and put in its place a 
 pack of cards. Cole, ignorant of the trick which had been played 
 upon him, proceeded on his journey, and in due time arrived in 
 Dublin. A meeting of the Privy Council was convened to receive 
 him. The Lord Deputy presided, and the royal messenger 
 explained at length Her Majesty's wishes, concluding by handing 
 to the Secretary the box in which had been deposited the queen's 
 Avarrant. What was his astonishment and dismay when, on 
 being opened, there was seen, not the formidable document which 
 was expected, but the pack of cards, with the knave of clubs 
 uppermost ! The Lord Deputy, entering into the humour of the 
 incident, exclaimed : ' Let us have a new commission, and we 
 will shuffle the cards in the meantime.' Cole hastened back to 
 London, by no means in an enviable frame of mind, we may be 
 sure. The new commission was obtained ; but before her orders 
 could be carried into effect, the bloody queen was called to her 
 account. So narrowly did Irish Protestants at this period escape 
 the horrors of Smithfield. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth now ascended the throne, and Protestantism 
 was established once more. It could not, however, but have a 
 very evil influence on the Irish mind to see this religious vacilla- 
 tion on the part of the rulers — first, Romanism overturned and 
 Protestantism established ; then Protestantism put down and 
 Romanism restored ; and now the tables turned again. But from 
 such indecision Ireland has suffered on more occasions than this. 
 The instructive spectacle which was now witnessed of bishops 
 who had been zealous Romanists under Mary, changing their 
 religion with the change of the times, and becoming as zealous 
 Protestants under Elizabeth, was not calculated to impress the 
 Irish with any very high opinion of the men sent over to be their 
 
26 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 spiritual instructors. The Irish primate, Curwin, was among 
 those who thus trimmed their sails to suit the prevailing wind. 
 ' In the time of Henry VIII. he . . . defended the supremacy of 
 the crown and vindicated Heme's marriage with Anne Boleyn. 
 When the pious Frith was in prison for denying purgatory and 
 transubstantiation, Curwin preached against him in the royal 
 presence, and thus stimulated the king to sign the death-warrant 
 for his martyrdom. The primate now made another evolution . , . 
 and superintended the establishment of Protestantism.' ^ Is it 
 not a marvel to find Irish Episcopalians glorying in such a man 
 as one of the precious links of the apostolical succession ? 
 
 Ireland continued in a wretched state during most of the reign 
 of Elizabeth. Civil war disturbed and desolated the kingdom, 
 one Irish chief after another having risen in rebellion against the 
 English power. This disturbed condition of affairs, joined to the 
 neglect of their duty by the clergy, left the land a prey to misery 
 and ignorance and superstition. The poet Spenser, who in the 
 latter years of Elizabeth's reign was quietly penning his Faerie 
 Queene in Kilcolman Castle, undisturbed by the din which raged 
 around him, gives a melancholy account of the state of matters. 
 * Not one amongst an hundred,' he says, * knoweth any ground 
 of religion, or any article of his faith ; ' while of the clergy he 
 adds, ' Ye may find gross simony, greedy covetousness, fleshly 
 incontinence, careless sloth, and generally all disordered life in 
 the common clergyman — they neither read Scriptures, nor preach 
 to the people, nor administer the Communion. But Baptism they 
 do, for they christen, yet after the Popish fashion.' Of the 
 bishops he says :. ' In the remoter dioceses they do not at all 
 bestow the benefices which are in their own donation upon any, 
 but keep them in their own hands, and set their own servants and 
 horse boys to take up their tithes and fruits.' ^ No wonder the 
 Reformation did not make much progress under such a regime. 
 It would have been a miracle if it had done so. 
 
 ' Killen, Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, i. 373. 
 ' Spenser's State 0/ /re/and, Dublin, 1763, 129. 
 
TRIXITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN. 2^ 
 
 Two things, however, were done in Elizabeth's reign which 
 prepared the way for the coming of better times. The first 
 of these was the complete overthrow of rebellion all over the 
 country. While it was disturbed by intestine war, while property 
 was insecure and pillage frequent, not much progress or pro- 
 sperity could be expected. Before Elizabeth died, in March 1603, 
 the last rebel against her authority had either been destroyed or 
 had given in his submission. The second was the erection of 
 Trinity College, Dublin, which became the seat of the first 
 university ever established in Ireland. It was built on the site of 
 the old monastery of All-Hallows, on a piece of ground called 
 Hoggin Green, then described as 'near Dublin,' though the 
 college is now almost in the heart of the city. The foundation 
 stone was laid on March 13, 1592, and it was noted, as a curious 
 and auspicious circumstance, that during the whole of the time 
 of building not a shower of rain fell by day to interfere with the 
 work. On January 9, 1594, the first students were admitted, 
 one of the earliest enrolled being a youth destined to attain 
 no mean celebrity, — James Ussher, afterwards Archbishop of 
 Armagh. It deserves to be noted that the first regular Provost 
 was a Presbyterian clergyman, the Rev. Walter Travers, and two 
 of the first Fellows, James Fullarton and James Hamilton, were 
 of the same creed. The former was afterwards knighted, and the 
 latter was subsequently raised to the peerage under the title of 
 Lord Claneboy, and became the founder of the noble family of 
 which the Earl of Dufferin is now the representative. Presby- 
 terians thus occupy a very important and distinguished position 
 in the early history of Trinity College,^ and there is no reason 
 why, under the liberal regime of the present day, they should not 
 do so again. 
 
 1 Of late years the constitution of the university, which had become almost 
 entirely an Episcopal seminary, has been greatly improved. Catechetical 
 lectures are now delivered in the college under the authority of the Board to 
 the Presbyterian students by some of the Presbyterian ministers of Dublin, 
 and these lectures rank as of the same academic value with the Episcopalian 
 catechetical lectures. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE PLANTATION OF ULSTER AND THE PIONEERS OF IRISH 
 PRESBYTERIAN ISM. 
 
 One September day in the year 1607, a small vessel of the old- 
 fashioned type of nav^al architecture which prevailed two hundred 
 and fifty years ago might have been seen working its way out 
 of the wildly beautiful Lough Swilly, on the north-western coast 
 of Ireland. Sailing cautiously along, with the lofty Slieve 
 Snaght towering to the sky from out the wilds of Innishowen 
 on the right, and the other Donegal mountains frowning down 
 on the left, she at length leaves the calm waters of the pictur- 
 esque lough behind, and finds herself on the rougher surface of 
 the open sea. On her deck, as she rounds the point, may be 
 discerned the figures of two gentlemen, who ever and anon, as the 
 little vessel leaves Ireland farther and farther behind, cast many 
 a regretful look at the mist-crowned hills and the woods beginning 
 to assume their ruddy autumn tints, and the rolling corn-fields, 
 already yellow for the reaping hook. These were O'Neill, 
 Earl of Tyrone, and O'Donnell, Earl of Tyrconnel. For long 
 they had been the leading spirits of Irish disaffection. Fol- 
 lowed by thousands of devoted followers, they had faced the 
 soldiers of Queen Elizabeth on many a battle-field. Now, their 
 power broken, and all their plots disconcerted, they leave Ireland 
 for ever, to seek an asylum on the Continent. From the day of 
 their departure may be said to date a new era of Irish history. 
 Since their downfall all Irish rebellions have been foredoomed 
 to failure from their very inception. As the ship which carried 
 them from our shores disappeared on the horizon, the prospects 
 of independence for Ireland vanished f^r ever. 
 
*THE PLANTATION.* 29 
 
 The flight of the two fugitive earls, and the overthrow of the 
 other rebel leaders who had long kept the north of Ireland in 
 constant turmoil, placed at the disposal of the Government vast 
 tracts of land, now forfeited to the Crown. The way was thus 
 open for the carrying out on a large scale of a project which had 
 been often contemplated, and sometimes actually attempted, 
 but without success, the project of establishing in Ulster bodies 
 of Scotch and English settlers, who would at once be valu- 
 able inhabitants, developing the resources of the country by 
 their industry and enterprise, as the natives had failed to do, 
 and who would, at the same time, faithfully guard * the back 
 door of the kingdom,' as Ireland was then and might still right- 
 fully be styled. This Plantation of Ulster, as the enterprise was 
 named, marks one of the most important eras in the history of 
 Ulster and Ireland, and especially of the Irish Presbyterian 
 Church. 
 
 The project was carried out in the following manner: — The 
 forfeited lands, having been carefully surveyed, were divided into 
 proportions of 1000, 1500, and 2000 acres each, and these tracts 
 of country were granted to approved settlers on certain condi- 
 tions. 'The occupiers of the largest proportions were bound 
 within four years to build a castle and bawn {i.e. a walled 
 enclosure, usually with towers at the angles ; within it was placed 
 the house or castle, and it was sufficient to secure the inmates 
 and their cattle from the incursions of the marauding Irish), 
 and to plant on their estates forty-eight able men, eighteen 
 years old and upwards, of English or Scottish descent. Those 
 of the second class were obliged to build within two years a 
 strong stone or brick house and bawn ; and those of the third 
 class a bawn ; while both were bound to plant a proportionable 
 number of British families on their possessions, and to have their 
 houses furnished with a sufficiency of arms.' ^ 
 
 It may interest many in these days of land agitation to know 
 that the yearly rent fixed for the land thus granted was at the 
 1 Reid, History of the Presbyteria7i Church i7i Ireland, i. 81. 
 
30 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTLRIAN CHURCH. 
 
 rate of *six shillings and eightpcnce for every threescore English 
 acres,' or a fraction more than a penny per acre, — less than that, 
 indeed, for a quantity of forest and bog was thrown in, in each 
 case, without charge.^ As much timber as was required for 
 building was also allowed free of charge.^ 
 
 The chief agent of the Government in the carrying out of this 
 great plan was Sir Arthur Chichester, ancestor of the noble 
 family of Donegal. He was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland 
 in 1605. Most of the nobility of the north of Ireland date the 
 acquisition of their Irish estates from this Plantation, and the 
 ancestors of very many of the people came over from Scotland 
 or England under their auspices. The corporation of the 
 city of London obtained, among the rest, a grant of nearly 
 the whole of the present county of Londonderry, then called 
 the county of Coleraine, on condition of their building and 
 fortifying the towns of Londonderry and Coleraine, and otherwise 
 expending ;^20,ooo on the property, and complying with various 
 other conditions. 
 
 Soon the sound of the axes of many settlers rang through the 
 forests of Ulster, and of their crowbars and hammers in the 
 quarries, as they felled trees and hewed out stone for the erection 
 of homesteads. Castles, houses, and bawns rose quickly all over 
 the country.^ The fields presented scenes of busy labour such as 
 they had long been strangers to. Cattle browsed peacefully on 
 the rich pasture lands, herds of swine fattened in the woods, 
 while plough and harrow and spade transformed what had been 
 a waste into such fields as the new inhabitants had left behind 
 them across the Channel. They needed to be men of stout 
 heart and watchful eye, as well as skilful and industrious hand. 
 In the long nights of winter the howling of packs of hungry 
 
 * ' Collection of such orders and conditions as are to be observed by the 
 undertakers,' printed in Harris's Hibernica, 123-130. 
 
 2 Hill's Plantation in Ulster, 82. 
 
 3 Pynnar in his Survey of 1615 tells us that at that time there had been 
 erected 107 castles with bawns, 19 castles without bawns, 42 bawns without 
 castles or houses, and 1897 dwelling-houses of stone and timber. 
 
EFFECTS OF THE PLANTATION. 3I 
 
 wolves'^ around his dwelling admonished the settler of the need of 
 bawn and well-barred gate, while the saffron-dyed garment of a 
 wood-kerne, gleaming in the distance among the trees, or an 
 arrow flying from his bow of tough native yew, often told the new- 
 comers that they were in an enemy's country. But they bravely 
 held their ground. Clusters of houses, destined to be the germs 
 of important towns, rose quickly under the hands of mason and 
 carpenter, each with its earthen rampart or its stone wall for pro- 
 tection against the enemy. Londonderry grew up on the Foyle, 
 and Coleraine at the mouth of the Bann. A few thatched houses, 
 with a humble Presbyterian Church amongst them, formed them- 
 selves into Ballymena in the heart of the County Antrim. 
 Carrickfergus had already crouched for four hundred years 
 behind the shelter of its castle, and a church and castle, with a 
 few fishermen's cabins, also marked the site where Belfast, the 
 town of the Lagan ford, was destined to develop into the chief 
 commercial town of Ireland, with a busy population of nearly a 
 quarter of a million of inhabitants. But both towns received a 
 great accession of strength and influence from the Plantation, 
 while in County Down such places as Newtownards, Bangor, 
 Donaghadee, and Killyleagh owe their existence to the same 
 potent factor. 
 
 The Plantation altered the whole history of the north of Ire- 
 land. To it may largely be attributed the fact that Ulster, which 
 has fewer natural advantages than either Munster, Leinster, or 
 Connaught, is the most prosperous, the most industrious, the 
 most law-abiding, and the most loyal part of all Ireland. The 
 difference between Scotland and Spain, or between the Pro- 
 testant and Romish cantons of Switzerland, is not greater or 
 more apparent than that between Ulster and its sister provinces. 
 
 ^ We find many proofs of how troublesome and numerous wolves were in 
 Ireland in the seventeenth century. In 1662, Sir John Ponsonby reported to 
 the Irish House of Commons from the Committee of Grievances that a bill 
 should be brought in to encourage the killing of wolves and foxes. Wolves 
 were not extinct in the country until the year 1710. Tlie last is said to have 
 been killed at Wolfliill, near Belfast. 
 
32 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 With a bleaker climate and a less fertile soil, it is richer and 
 more peaceful by far than they. The traveller from the south 
 can see from the windows of his railway carriage the change as 
 he enters Ulster, and the Government returns show what a vast 
 difference there is in crime and in the cost of maintaining order 
 in the one province as compared with the others. If Ulster is 
 still what Irish writers described it long ago to be, ' the thumb 
 in the hand which is able to grip and to hold against the four 
 fingers,' Leinster, Munster, Connaught, and Meath, she owes it 
 to the influx of the Scotch Presbyterians and English Puritans 
 who settled on her soil at the Plantation. Up to the time of their 
 coming, the northern province was just like the others, as turbu- 
 lent, as difficult to govern, as unprosperous. They stamped a 
 new character upon it, which it has retained to this day. 
 England would soon know the difference if she had not, helping 
 her to govern Ireland, ' the vertebral column of Ulster, giving it 
 at once its strength and uprightness.' 
 
 A very large number of the new settlers were from Scotland. 
 James I. being himself a Scotchman, many of his countrymen 
 naturally obtained from him concessions of land. Besides, 
 the north of Ireland lying so close to the 'Land o' Cakes,' that 
 on a bright summer day the tourist, standing on Fair Head, 
 within view of the Giant's Causeway, might almost fancy that he 
 could throw a stone across to the Mull of Cantyre, which lies 
 opposite,^ with its snowy farmhouses and green fields gleaming 
 in the sun, it is easy to understand how so many of the settlers 
 came from Ayrshire and Wigtownshire, and the neighbouring 
 Scottish counties.^ A cheap farm was as great an attraction 
 then as it is now. Adventurous spirits, whose finances had run 
 low, were glad of the opportunity of a chance in a new country, 
 new, yet within sight of the old. Besides, as the early years of 
 the seventeenth century rolled on, the state of affairs in Scotland 
 
 1 The distarxc between the two points is less than 20 miles. 
 
 2 The names which prevail in these counties prevail also to this day in the 
 north of Ireland. 
 
AFFAIRS IN SCOTLAND. 33 
 
 grew more and more uncomfortable for those who wished to 
 enjoy the simple forms, the mingled freedom and order, and the 
 pure doctrines, of Presbyterianism. Many were glad to escape 
 to a land which promised them rest and immunity from persecu- 
 tion. Ulster was for a time what America afterwards became, 
 the refuge of the oppressed. So it came about that in those 
 years so many of the old, clumsy vessels of the period were seen 
 crossing the Channel to the North of Ireland, each with it£i 
 group of settlers aboard, sometimes individuals, sometimes whole 
 families with all their household * plenishing ' along with them, 
 and, in their pockets, what spare cash could be realized by the 
 sale of unnecessary or unportable property. Those old-fashioned 
 boats carried the fortunes of Ulster. 
 
 To understand the after history of this scion from the Scottish 
 tree which was thus transplanted to Ireland, we must know some- 
 thing of the history of the parent stock. Presbyterianism had, aftei 
 a long struggle with Romanism, and after the shedding of much 
 precious martyr blood, been established under the leadership of 
 the *man who never feared the face of clay,' the brave John 
 Knox (i 505-1 572), who, trained for the Romish priesthood, and 
 actually ordained to that office, was brought to see the horrible 
 unscripturalness of Popery, and became its most implacable foe. 
 The foundations of a free and well-ordered Presbyterian Church 
 were laid so broad and deep that Scotland has ever since 
 remained Presbyterian to the core. In 1560 the first General 
 Assembly met. But Knox had not long been dead when 
 James VI. (of Scotland) began to show signs of a wish to 
 reintroduce the Prelacy which had been got rid of along with 
 the other incidents of Romanism. In the early part of his 
 reign, James had indeed expressed a great love for Presby- 
 terianism. At a well - remembered meeting of the General 
 Assembly, he made a speech in which he praised God that ' he 
 was born in such a time as the time of the light of the gospel, 
 and to be king in the sincerest Kirk in the world. The Kirk of 
 Geneva,' said he, 'keepeth Pasch and Yule ij-e. Easter and 
 
 c 
 
34 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 Christmas). What have they for them ? They have no institu- 
 tion {i.e. no Scripture warrant). As for our neighbour Kirk in 
 England, it is an ill-said Mass in English, wanting nothing but 
 the liftings {i.e. the elevations of the host). I charge you, my 
 good people, ministers, doctors, nobles, gentlemen and barons, to 
 stand to your purity, and I, forsooth, so long as I brook my life 
 and crown, shall maintain the same against all deadly.' A brave 
 speech this ! But Scottish Presbyterianism was soon to learn 
 that it must not put its trust in princes — no matter how bravely 
 they speak. James began by and by to interfere in the affairs 
 of the Church. 'But,' said Andrew Melville, 'your Majesty, 
 there are two kings and two kingdoms in Scotland. There is 
 King James, the head of this commonwealth, and there is Christ 
 Jesus, the King of the Church, whose subject James the Sixth is, 
 and of whose kingdom he is not a king, nor a lord, nor a head, 
 but a member. We will yield to you your place, and give you 
 all due obedience. But again, I say you are not the Head of the 
 Church.' It was a noble remonstrance. James felt it keenly, 
 and evidently made up his mind that if he was to get his will, he 
 must have a more manageable and obsequious kind of Church 
 than those stiff-necked Presbyterians. Accordingly, Prelacy was 
 stealthily introduced, his idea being that he could rule the 
 bishops, and the bishops would rule the ministers. In 1603 he 
 succeeded to the English throne by the death of Elizabeth, and 
 the threat which not long after his accession he uttered against 
 the Puritans boded ill for the liberties of the Scottish Church. 
 ' I'll make them conform,' he said, ' or I'll harry them out of the 
 land.' Scotland was deprived of the free right of holding General 
 Assembhes. Andrew Melville, who had spoken so plainly of 
 the respective rights of King James and King Jesus, was com- 
 mitted to the Tower, where he lay four long years, and, in the 
 end, a full-fledged Prelacy was imposed upon Scotland, notwith- 
 standing all the king's fair speeches. The well-known Five 
 Articles of Perth were passed, intended to conform the practice 
 of the Church of Scotland to that of its English sister. So 
 
JANET GEDDES AND HER STOOL. 35 
 
 matters went on, till in 1625 James died and Charles I. succeeded 
 him. Under the advice and influence of Archbishop Laud, he 
 determined to push things to a still further extreme. Knox's 
 Liturgy had hitherto been in use, for neither Knox nor Calvin 
 had any objection to a liturgy per se. Laud determined to 
 introduce one of his own compilation, which was simply an 
 amended edition of the Romish Missal. The much-enduring 
 people could bear the gradual filching away of their liberties and 
 their religion no longer. When the ' Dean of Edinburgh,' clad 
 in his surplice, began to read the new Service-Book in St. Giles's 
 Church, a poor apple-woman, Janet Geddes by name, lifted the 
 three-legged stool on which she sat, and crying out — ' Fause 
 loon ! dost thou say Mass at my lug?' flung it at the affrighted 
 man's head. He fled from the church in terror, and a great 
 tumult began. The people were ripe for resistance, and they 
 rose against their oppressors. As sometimes among the Alps a 
 single word has ere now brought, thundering down the mountain 
 side, a tremendous avalanche, which had hung there so delicately 
 poised that the slightest vibration of the air has sufficed to hurl 
 it on the valleys and villages below, so the one act of that poor 
 old apple-woman brought down upon the infatuated oppressors 
 of Scotland the people's terrible vengeance. Quick measures 
 were taken to carry out the work which old Janet had begun. 
 The National Covenant, originally drawn up in 1580, which 
 bound all who subscribed it to adhere to and defend at all 
 hazards the doctrine and discipline of the Church of Scotland, 
 was renewed on ist March, 1638, all ranks — nobles, ministers, and 
 people — signing it with the greatest enthusiasm. In November 
 of the same year the famous Glasgow Assembly met, with 
 Alexander Henderson in the Moderator's chair. It formally 
 abolished the Episcopal form of Church government, which had 
 been so unwarrantably imposed, removed the bishops from their 
 offices, declared the Five Articles of Perth null and void, and 
 condemned the Service-Book which had been attempted to be 
 introduced, the IModerator ending his closing address with the 
 
36 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 famous words, — 'We have now cast down the walls of Jericho. 
 Let him that rebuildeth them beware of the curse of Hiel the 
 Bethelite,' — words which should evermore ring in the ears of all 
 who would give up, at the bidding of any man, or for any price, 
 dearly bought privileges for which our fathers had to contend 
 so long and suffer so much. 
 
 It was during the time that these events were transpiring in 
 Scotland that the Plantation of Ulster was going on, and it can 
 easily be understood how Scotchmen, weary of the strife which 
 then raged in their native land, would gladly turn their eyes 
 across the Channel to the haven of refuge which was thus opened 
 up to them. God has His own strange ways of accomplishing His 
 purposes. It would not be correct to say that Presbyterianism 
 in Ireland dates from the Plantation. As we have already seen, 
 the first regular Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, in the reign 
 of Queen Elizabeth, was a Presbyterian, as were also two of 
 its first Fellows, and, if our investigation of the history of Ireland 
 at a very much earlier date is correct, a Church order, charac- 
 terized by much of the simplicity and freedom of Presbyterianism, 
 and certainly much more essentially Presbyterian than Popish or 
 Prelatic, existed here in times still earlier. It is from the early 
 years of the seventeenth century, however, that the present organi- 
 zation of the Irish Presbyterian Church dates, and hence a deep 
 interest must always attach to the history of those years, and to 
 the lives and labours of the men who were honoured during them 
 to be the pioneers of the good cause. The first of these in point 
 of time was Edward Brice, who in 1613^ began to exercise his 
 ministry in Broadisland, a quiet rural district lying between 
 Carrickfergus and Larne. Brice had been for many years 
 minister of Drymen, in Stirlingshire.^ But having signalized 
 
 1 ' Presbyterianism entered Ulster almost as soon as Episcopacy, for 
 tliough the Irish Reformation dates formally from 1537, it had not touched 
 the northern province till 1605.' — Croskery, Irish Presbyterianism, p. 9. 
 
 2 Mr. Brice, or Bryce, as he is called in the Scottish records, was bom 
 about the year 1569 at Airth, in Stirlingshire, on the borders of the Firth of 
 Forth. He is said to have been a younger son of Bruce, the laird of Airth, 
 
EDWARD ERICE. 37 
 
 liimself by his opposition to the introduction of Prelacy into the 
 Church in Scotland, he had been obliged to fly the kingdom, and 
 was led by various reasons to cross to Ireland. His coming here 
 was sanctioned by the then Bishop of Down, Echlin, as was that 
 of several others of the early Presbyterian ministers. Echlin 
 appointed him prebendary of Kilroot, and Brice was recognised 
 as minister of the parish, preached in the church, and enjoyed 
 the tithes, though all the while he was a Presbyterian, conducted 
 service according to the Presbyterian fashion, and continued to 
 preach the doctrine which he had taught across the Channel. 
 He had left Scotland for his hatred to even a modified Prelacy, 
 and it was not likely that in Ireland he would accept it in its 
 undiluted form. 
 
 The fact is, the Irish Established Church was at this time 
 in a wonderfully comprehensive mood. James Ussher, its 
 Primate, had been taught in his youth by a Presbyterian 
 tutor, and had studied in a college with a Presbyterian 
 
 and the names Brice and Bruce seem to be interchangeable, for we find that 
 in this present century the hneal descendant of Edward Brice changed by 
 royal licence his name from Brice to Bruce. Brice entered Edinburgh 
 College about 1589, and, among other professors, studied under Charles 
 Ferme (or Fairholm). He was laureated on 12th. August, 1593, and it is 
 stated that he became a regent in the University. In 1595 he entered the 
 Church, becoming minister of the next parish to that in which he was born, 
 Bothkennar, which is said to have this peculiarity, that ' not a stone is to be 
 found in the whole of it of the size of a peppercorn' {New Statistical Account 
 of Scotland), Here he officiated for nearly seven years. In 1602 he received 
 translation to a larger sphere, the parish of Drymen, also in Stirlingshire, 
 where he laboured for upwards of eleven years. It was while minister here 
 that, in 1607, he signalized himself by his vigorous opposition to the introduc- 
 tion of a disguised Prelacy in the shape of the appointment of the Archbishop 
 of Glasgow as constant Moderator of Synod. Finally, he was deposed by 
 Spotswood and the Presbytery of Glasgow on 29th December, 1613, on a 
 serious charge. He then fled to Ireland, and commenced his ministry in 
 Broadisland, or * Braidenisland,' as it is called in the old records, preaching 
 alternately, it is said, at Templecorran and Ballykeel in Island Magee. 
 Pennies are still in existence bearing the name of his eldest son Robert, who 
 amassed a considerable fortune at Castle Chester, then a place of some 
 importance as a mail packet station. Vide Scott's Fasti Eccl. Scot, and 
 The Dictionary of National Biography, 1886. 
 
38 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 Provost at its head. He was a godly man, with little or no 
 sectarian bigotry about him. As its standard, the Church 
 adopted in 161 5 the 'Articles of Religion, agreed upon by the 
 Archbishops and Bishops, and the rest of the Clergy.'^ These 
 reveal to us its temper and character. They are thoroughly evan- 
 gelical, very moderate, and their theology distinctly Calvinistic. 
 It is especially to be noted that they make no mention of the 
 three orders of bishops, priests, and deacons which are so dear to 
 Episcopalians. They ignore also the necessity for episcopal 
 ordination, and by implication concede the validity of ordination 
 by presbyters. They disclaim the observance of Lent as a 
 religious fast, and they claim no authority for decreeing rites and 
 ceremonies.^ On this comprehensive foundation the Irish 
 Church was then formally settled. Its terms of communion were 
 limited only in respect of doctrine, a subject on which there 
 existed almost universal conformity all through the three 
 kingdoms.^ The Irish Episcopal Church has changed since 
 those days — changed not for the better. But it can easily be 
 understood how Brice and the other Presbyterian ministers 
 who came over at this time to Ulster occupied the parish 
 churches of such a body, received the tithes, and were recog- 
 nised by the bishops of the dioceses in which they respectively 
 laboured as the parochial clergy, all the time that they were 
 not prelatically ordained, conducted service after the simple 
 scriptural fashion to which they had been accustomed in their 
 own country, preached a thoroughly Calvinistic theology, and 
 were, as they had been before, Presbyterian ministers. They 
 could do and be all this with a perfectly good conscience 
 
 1 Vide Killen's Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, i. 525. 
 
 2 It is an interesting fact that the Westminster Confession of Faith is 
 largely based upon these Irish Articles of 1615, and owes much to them. 
 Cf. Mitchell's Westminster Assembly, p. 372, and Schaffs Creeds of 
 Chi-istendom, i. p. 761. The Irish Presbyterian ministers of the beginning 
 of the seventeenth century had thus substantially the same doctrinal standard 
 as their successors at the close of the nineteenth. 
 
 ^ Reid, History of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, i. 95. 
 
THE FATHERS OF IRISH PRESBYTERIANISM. 39 
 
 in a Church whose standards were the ' Articles of Rehgion * 
 of 1 61 5. 
 
 Brice's ministry at Broadisland was a very zealous one. ' In 
 all his preaching he insisted most on the life of Christ in the 
 heart, and the light of His Word and Spirit on the mind, that 
 being his own continual exercise.' ^ 
 
 Another of the early ministers was Mr. Hubbard, who 
 became minister of Carrickfergus about 1621. He was an 
 Englishman, having been minister of a nonconforming congrega- 
 tion at Southwark, London. Persecution, however, drove him 
 to Ireland ; and it says much for the acceptance with which he 
 had ministered to his people, and for their attachment both to 
 him and to principle, that they resolved to accompany him en 
 masse in his exile. The men of those days were ready to submit 
 to inconveniences and sacrifices for the sake of religion, with 
 which, alas ! these modern times are not so familiar. Hubbard is 
 described by Blair as 'an able, gracious man.' He was not 
 spared long to the infant Church, having died in the beginning of 
 1623 ; and when he was taken from them, his congregation quietly 
 went back again to London. Shortly after his death we find 
 James Glendinning ministering in Carrickfergus, and at the 
 same time occupying the position of incumbent of the parish of 
 Carnmoney. He was a man of considerable pulpit power, but 
 eccentric, as will hereafter appear. In 161 9, John Ridge became 
 minister of Antrim. He, like Hubbard, was an Englishman who 
 had been obliged to flee from his native country on account of 
 Episcopal intolerance. Blair describes him as 'the judicious 
 and gracious minister of Antrim.' 
 
 Robert Blair was, however, probably the ablest of this goodly 
 band of early Presbyterian ministers. He had been a' professor 
 in Glasgow College, but his opposition to the Prelacy which was 
 then being foisted alike on the Church and the universities, 
 
 * Livingstone's Life, p. 78. Edinburgh 1854. It is an interesting fact 
 that the Rev. W. D, Killen, D.D., President and Professor of Ecclesiastical 
 History in Assembly's College, Belfast, is a lineal descendant of Brice, 
 
40 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 obliged him, too, to leave the kingdom. He came to Ireland in 
 1623, and became minister of Bangor, after carefully and candidly 
 explaining beforehand that ' he could not submit to the use of the 
 English liturgy nor Episcopal government.'^ Blair was a man 
 of eminent piety and scholarship, and a preacher of rare ability. 
 He was particularly noted for his prayerfulness, often spending 
 whole nights on his knees. James Hamilton, a nephew of Lord 
 Claneboy, was another of these pioneers of Ulster Presby terianism. 
 In 1625 he became minister of Ballywalter, where he laboured 
 with great assiduity. In 161 5, Robert Cunningham was settled 
 in Holywood. 'To my discerning,' says Livingstone, 'he was 
 the one man who most resembled the meekness of Jesus Christ 
 in all his carriage that ever I saw."* 
 
 Josias Welsh, son of the celebrated John Welsh of Ayr, and 
 grandson of John Knox, was settled first at Oldstone, and after- 
 wards at Templepatrick. The country peopled called him ' The 
 Cock of the Conscience,' from the extraordinary searching and 
 awakening character of his preaching. Andrew Stewart, whom 
 Livingstone describes as 'very straight in the cause of God,' 
 settled in Donegore in 1627. George Dunbar, who had been 
 minister of Ayr, and had been twice ejected for his resolute 
 attachment to Presbyterianism, and was for a long time im- 
 prisoned at Blackness, officiated successively at Carrickfergus 
 (after the removal of Glendinning), at Ballymena, and at Larne. 
 Last to be mentioned, but far from least, was John Livingstone, 
 who had been silenced in Scotland for his opposition to Prelacy. 
 In 1630 he received a unanimous call from the parish of Kil- 
 linchy, which he accepted, and here he proved himself one of 
 the most faithful and notable of those early ministers. 
 
 These men may be called the fathers of the Irish Presbyterian 
 Church, and they are fathers of whom any children may well 
 
 ' Blair's Life. The celebrated Dr. Hugh Blair of Edinburgh, the author 
 of the well-known Lectures on Rhetoric, was the great-grandson of Robert 
 Blair. 
 
 * Livingstone's Life, Blair was born at Irvine in 1593, 
 
CHARACTER OF THE EARLY MINISTERS. 41 
 
 be proud. They were all men of deep-seated principle. They 
 had suffered and were ready to suffer again, rather than coun- 
 tenance a form of Church government of which in conscience 
 they could not approve. They were men well fitted to have 
 their names standing at the head of the clergy-roll of a Church 
 which has always insisted on an educated ministry, being almost 
 all graduates of one of the universities of the day, and more 
 than one professors. Several of them had noble blood flowing 
 in their veins, James Hamilton being a nephew of Lord 
 Claneboy, Livingstone a great-grandson of Lord Livingstone, and 
 Josias Welsh great-grandson of Lord Ochiltree. Above all, they 
 were men of intense earnestness, burning with a love of souls, 
 and largely baptized with the Holy Spirit. It is not remarkable 
 that the labours of such pastors were so signally blessed. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 BLESSING WITHIN, TROUBLE WITHOUT. 
 
 Through a rich valley of the County Antrim runs the river 
 Sixmilewater. Taking its rise in the mountains above the town 
 of Larne, it flows through green meadows and fertile corn-fields, 
 past Ballynure, and Ballyclare, and Templepatrick, finally falling 
 into Lough Neagh at Antrim. This stream will long be associated 
 in the ecclesiastical history of the North of Ireland with a remark- 
 able religious awakening which took place in the country adjoining, 
 shortly after the settlement of the early Presbyterian ministers. 
 The history of this movement is not a little curious. Among the 
 names which we have mentioned occurs that of the Rev. James 
 Glendinning, minister at Carrickfergus. He was a good man, 
 but evidently not possessed of very superior gifts, for Blair, who 
 used sometimes to cross the Lough from Bangor, and thus 
 became acquainted with him, advised him to leave Carrick- 
 fergus, then the leading town of the North of Ireland, and retire 
 into a country charge, as better suited to his capacities. He 
 took the advice and went to Oldstone, not far from Antrim. * He 
 was,' says a narrative of the period, ' a man who would never 
 have been chosen by a wise assembly of ministers, nor sent to 
 begin a reformation in this land, for he was little better than 
 distracted, yea, afterwards, did actually distract Yet this was 
 the Lord's choice to begin the admirable work of God, which I 
 mention on purpose, that all men may see how the glory is only 
 the Lord's in making a holy nation in this profane land, 
 and that it was "not by might, nor by power, nor by man's 
 wisdom, but by my Spirit, says the Lord." ... At Oldstone, God 
 made use of him to awaken the consciences of a lewd and 
 
 42 
 
THE ANTRIM ' MONTHLY MEETING.' 43 
 
 secure people thereabouts. . . . Seeing the great lewdness and 
 ungodly sinfulness of the people, he preached to them nothing 
 but law, wrath, and the terrors of God for sin. And in very deed 
 for this only was he fitted, for hardly could he preach any other 
 thing. But, behold the success ! For the hearers, finding them- 
 selves condemned by the mouth of God speaking in His Word, 
 fell into such anxiety and terror of conscience that they looked 
 on themselves as altogether lost and damned, as those of old, 
 who said, " Men and brethren, what shall we do to be saved ?'' 
 And this work appeared not in one single person or two, but 
 multitudes were brought to understand their way, and to cry out, 
 "What shall we do.^" I have seen them myself stricken and 
 swoon with the Word ; yea, a dozen in one day carried out of 
 doors as dead, so marvellous was the power of God smiting their 
 hearts for sin, condemning and killing. . . . And this spread 
 through the country to admiration, so that, in a manner, as 
 many as came to hear the Word of God went away slain with the 
 words of His mouth. . . . For a short time this work lasted as a 
 sort of disease for which there was no cure, the poor people lying 
 under the spirit of bondage, and the poor man who was the 
 instrument of it, not being sent, it seems, to preach gospel so 
 much as law, they lay for a time in the most deplorable condition, 
 slain for their sin, and knew of no remedy.' ^ 
 
 The neighbouring ministers, hearing of this movement, came to 
 Mr. Glendinning's help. Some of them were as well fitted to 
 heal as he was to wound. One method which they adopted for the 
 needed instruction of the people and the carrying on of the work 
 which had begun, was the establishment of what soon became a 
 famous and much blessed institution, the Antrim Monthly Meet- 
 ing. This was held on the first Friday in each month, and no 
 doubt, to some extent, served in those times, before there was 
 
 1 Stewart's History of the Church of Ireland after the Scots were naturalised. 
 Killen's edition. Belfast 1866. Many readers will notice the curious cor- 
 respondence of this movement in certain features with the Ulster revival of 
 1859. 
 
44 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 any regular Presbytery, the purposes of a consultative Church 
 court, as well as of a reh'gious service. The ministers seem all 
 to have attended. Glendinning himself came, until ' he was 
 smitten with a number of erroneous and enthusiastic opinions, 
 and embracing one error after another,' ended by setting out 'on 
 a visit to the Seven Churches of Asia.' Ridge, the minister of 
 Antrim, would be always present. Welsh, of Templepatrick, was 
 also close at hand, and could conveniently attend. Dunbar came 
 over from Larne, where a good work similar to that at Oldstone 
 broke out and issued in much blessing. Blair crossed the Lough 
 from Bangor, and Cunningham, Livingstone, and Hamilton came 
 also over from County Down. Sir Hugh Clotworthy,the godly Pres- 
 byterian ancestor of the Massareene family, entertained all most 
 hospitably in Antrim Castle. In summer they had four sermons, 
 and in winter three, each day of meeting, and such was the general 
 thirst for the Word, that crowds flocked to hear from all quarters. 
 The movement was thus not only fostered, but spread, and 
 resulted in the conversion of many, and in a general elevation 
 of the standard of religion all over the country. It was, indeed, 
 what a contemporary writer quaintly calls it, — 'a bright and hot 
 sun-blink of the gospel.' ^ 
 
 The sky was soon to be overcast, however. As is usually the 
 case at any such time, sectaries, more anxious to bring grist to 
 their own denominational mill than to promote the salvation of 
 souls, gathered about the Sixmilevvater. First came the Roman- 
 ists. Two friars challenged the ministers to maintain their 
 doctrines in a public discussion. There was no hesitation about 
 accepting the invitation. Blair and Welsh stepped forward to 
 take up the glove. But when the two champions of Presbyterian- 
 ism appeared on the appointed day, lo ! no friars were to be found, 
 and though they waited long for them, still they came not. The 
 preliminary conferences had shown their reverences what manner 
 of men they had to deal with, and they thought it better to fly 
 than to face a conflict in which they felt they would be defeated 
 ' Fleming's Fulfilling of the Scripiure, i. 400. 
 
THE BEGINNING OF PERSECUTIONS. 45 
 
 They were doubtless right. Next came a body of ' Separatists ' 
 from London, who would not join in the meetings conducted by 
 the ministers, but held little gatherings of their own and tried to 
 draw away the people after them. It is curious how history 
 repeats itself. The very same tactics, which were thus tried two 
 hundred and fifty years ago, have often since perplexed Irish 
 Presbyterian ministers working for the Master during times of 
 awakening. The efforts of these men, however, were as 
 unsuccessful as those of the friars. After them a propagator of 
 Arminianism appeared on the scene, one Mr. Freeman. With 
 great self-confidence he undertook to confute the whole body of 
 the ministers on the tenets of Calvinism. Blair met him, how- 
 ever, in a public discussion with such effect that on the second 
 day he fled in confusion, so evidently discomfited that the 
 gentleman who had patronized him publicly renounced his 
 fellowship in presence of the Meeting, after which, we learn, he 
 was ' deserted of the people who formerly admired him, turned 
 very solitary, and at last fell into mischievous practices.' ^ 
 
 But there was one form of opposition with which these faithful 
 servants of God could not so easily cope. They were well able 
 to defend the truth against all gainsayers. But against the 
 strong arm of persecution they had no defence save God. The 
 northern bishops now began to endeavour to put them down. 
 They seem to have discovered that their Presbyterianism was 
 too staunch and too deeply rooted to be easily won over to 
 Episcopacy, as they had perhaps hoped at one time it might be. 
 Echlin, bishop of Down, was the first to lay snares for them. 
 He directed Blair to preach at one of the Primate's triennial 
 Visitations, hoping to entangle him. He obeyed, and one cannot 
 but admire the courage and the fidelity to principle which the 
 brave minister displayed in the sermon which he prepared and 
 preached on the occasion before assembled bishops and clergy. 
 It was a strong Presbyterian discourse, which left it in no one's 
 power to say that he taught in private what he was ashamed 
 
 ' Adair's Narrative, p. 31. 
 
46 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 publicly to avow or defend. Taking as his text 2 Cor. iv. i, he 
 showed that ' Christ our Lord had instituted no bishops but 
 presbyters or ministers, and proved this first from the Holy 
 Scriptures, next from the testimonies of the more pure among the 
 ancient fathers and divines, and lastly, from the testimonies of 
 the more moderate divines, both over sea and in England, not 
 forgetting to rank the learned Dr. Ussher, their Primate, among 
 the chief.' 1 It speaks well for the moderation of Ussher that 
 no harm came to the brave preacher for this sermon. This and 
 other plans for entangling the ministers having failed, Echlin 
 determined to proceed to extremities in another way, and accord- 
 ingly, in September 1631, he formally suspended Blair and 
 Livingstone from the ministry. Ussher, however, on being 
 appealed to, interposed, and Echlin was obliged to remove the 
 suspension. Disappointed at this, the enemies of Presbyterian- 
 ism carried the matter to London, where the intolerant Laud was 
 now supreme in matters ecclesiastical, and through his influence 
 orders were issued to Echlin by the Irish Government directing 
 him to bring Blair, Livingstone, Welsh, and Dunbar to trial. 
 Accordingly he summoned them before him, and on their refusal 
 to give up their Presbyterianism and conform to Episcopacy, he 
 deposed them all from the office of the ministry in 1632. Ussher 
 was powerless in this case, the order for trial having come from 
 the King. To the King, therefore, Blair determined to appeal. 
 A journey from Bangor to London was a serious undertaking 
 in those days, but he made up his mind to face it, rather than 
 give up his beloved work of preaching Christ. So he set out, 
 his people agreeing to spend two nights every week in united 
 prayer for him during his absence. His appeal was so far 
 successful that the King issued an order to Wentworth, then 
 Lord Deputy of Ireland, to have the matter tried over again. 
 
 1 Blair's Life. The reader will scarcely require to be reminded that 
 modern Church of England divines, like Lightfoot and Hatch, have them- 
 selves abandoned as hopeless the attempt to found Prelacy on a Scriptural 
 basis. 
 
MORE PERSECUTION. 47 
 
 Encouraged by this, Blair returned to Bangor, and all four 
 ministers recommenced their preaching; 'only,' says Blair, 
 'for form's sake I did not go up to the pulpit, but stood beside 
 the precentor.' Wentworth did not come over to undertake the 
 government of Ireland till July, 1633. No one who knows any- 
 thing of the character of this haughty and bigoted man would 
 expect that he would do much for the restoration of the deposed 
 ministers. Blair waited on him in Dublin, but Wentworth said 
 he knew the King's mind on the matter as well as Blair, and 
 'reviled the Church of Scotland, and upbraided me,' says Blair, 
 'bidding me come to my right wits, and then I should be 
 regarded.* The outlook for the Presbyterians of Ulster was 
 now dark in the extreme. With Charles I. in London and Laud 
 at his ear, and the crafty and cruel Wentworth in Dublin Castle, 
 there seemed little hope of their being able to enjoy their 
 religion any longer in peace. So much was this felt, that they 
 began to turn their eyes wistfully across the Atlantic in search of 
 an asylum from their persecutors, where they could, without 
 molestation, 
 
 * Worship God in simple form, 
 As Presbyterians do.' 
 
 Livingstone and another gentleman were accordingly com- 
 missioned to sail to America and select a place for a settlement. 
 On this errand they proceeded to London, and thence to Ply- 
 mouth. But one circumstance after another deterred them from 
 fulfilling their mission, and they came back. It would have been 
 a sad calamity, not only for Ulster, but for the whole kingdom, if 
 Presbyterianism had been rooted out of Ireland in this way, and 
 the bishops left in supreme power. God had 'some better thing' 
 in store for us. The ministers and their people must brave 
 the tempest. They must 'through much tribulation' enter the 
 kingdom. 
 
 A shght lull in the storm now came. Wentworth had designs 
 in the interest of his royal master ior which he required the 
 
48 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 support of the entire kingdom, and therefore when, in May, 1634, 
 Lord Castlestuart, an Irish Presbyterian nobleman, interceded 
 for the restoration of the four deposed ministers, he yielded so 
 far as to instruct Echlin to remove his sentence for six months. 
 Echlin promptly obeyed the Viceroy's order, and reponed the 
 four ministers for the stipulated period. The joy of their con- 
 gregations was intense, and, as Blair tells us, * the people made 
 more progress in the ways of God than ever before.'^ But their 
 rejoicing was shortlived. Bramhall, bishop of Derry, remon- 
 strated with Wentworth on the impropriety of his allowing 
 Presbyterian ministers to preach in the kingdom, and in Novem- 
 ber their six months' freedom was taken from them, and 
 so, writes Blair, 'all hopes of further liberty being cut off, we 
 closed with celebrating the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and 
 solemnly delivered up our people to the great Bishop of Souls, 
 from whom we had received our charge.'^ The scene in Bangor 
 at that last Communion must have been most affecting. Pastor 
 and people were about to be severed, perhaps for ever. A 
 tyrannical hand had closed the preacher's mouth. Welsh of 
 Templepatrick, and Stewart of Donegore, were, happily for them, 
 called away at this period from their troubles to their reward, 
 the latter, on his deathbed, foreseeing the sorrows which were 
 fast coming on the Church and his own loved parish, saying — 
 * Woe to thee, Donegore, for the nettles and the long grass shall 
 be in greater plenty in thee than ever were people to hear the 
 Word of God !' Echlin, the weak but bigoted instrument in this 
 suppression of the truth, soon after died also. His deathbed was 
 miserable. When the doctor asked him what ailed him, *he was 
 long silent, and with great difficulty uttered the words — " It is my 
 conscience, man;" to which the doctor answered, "I have no 
 cure for that." ' ^ It is not to be wondered at that it should have 
 been said in the country that * God did smite the bishop for 
 suppressing of Christ's ministers.' 
 
 Echlin died in 1634, and was succeeded in the following yerx 
 1 Blair's Life^ p. 82. > Ibid, p. 82. • Ibid. p. 84. 
 
MEMORABLE MEETING IN BELFAST. 49 
 
 by another Scotchman, Henry Leslie, who was scarcely conse- 
 crated till he too took up the role of persecutor. He first laid 
 hands on Livingstone and deposed him from the ministry, so that 
 all that he and Blair and the other brethren could do, was to go 
 among their people by stealth to encourage them to hold fast. 
 The ' bright and hot sun-blink of the gospel ' was gone, and in its 
 stead a dark, dreary night now settled down upon Ulster. 
 
 On Thursday, nth August, 1636, a remarkable gathering was 
 held in the old parish church of Belfast, which stood, surrounded 
 by a graveyard, at the foot of High Street, on the site of the 
 present St. George's. The building was filled with a large and 
 deeply interested assemblage, comprising many of the nobility, 
 gentry, and clergy of the town and neighbourhood. At two 
 o'clock the Bishop of Down came in. He had preached a violent 
 sermon the day before in support of Episcopacy, and now he had 
 summoned five Presbyterian ministers before him to answer for 
 their refusal to accept it. The scene, as described to us by 
 histories of the period, reminds one of similar episodes in the life 
 of Luther, when he was called before diets and other imposing 
 assemblies for his Protestantism, or of the still earlier times, when 
 apostles themselves were brought before councils and governors 
 to answer for teaching and preaching in the name of Jesus. 
 The five godly men, the venerable Brice, the pious Ridge, the 
 Christ-like Cunningham, the prayerful Calvert, and the noble and 
 learned Hamilton, are called forward to give an account of them- 
 selves. There is a lengthened conference, Hamilton at the 
 request of his brethren acting as spokesman, and explaining 
 respectfully but firmly why they cannot accept Episcopacy. The 
 conference is too long in the opinion of the Bishop of Derry, 
 who is present to assist his brother prelate in his godly work, and 
 who at length persuades him to cut the proceedings short. The 
 meeting is abruptly adjourned, to assemble again on the following 
 day. At nine on that summer morning, as the sunlight streams 
 into the old church, the bishops are once more in their seats, and 
 once more the five brave, downtrodden servants of Christ axe 
 
 D 
 
50 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 brought before them. All eyes look on with the deepest interest 
 as, after more appeals on the part of Leslie, he calls upon them 
 to hear their sentence — one of ' perpetual silence within this 
 diocese.' As Cunningham heard it, he uttered the following 
 memorable words in his own meek, gentle style : ' I have now 
 lived these twenty years amongst you in this kingdom, serving 
 the Lord in His holy ministry, and thought so to have spent the 
 rest of my days, which cannot be very long, for my body is very 
 crazed, in the same employment. My doctrine and life for that 
 time are known to most who are here present. I appeal to all their 
 consciences if they can say anything against me in either of them. 
 Yea, I ever kept me close to the commission of my Lord. But 
 now I am required to receive impositions upon my ministry which 
 are against my conscience. I rather lay down my ministry at the 
 feet of my Lord and Saviour Christ, of whom I did receive it, 
 than to live with an evil conscience in the free liberty of it.' It is 
 no wonder that as these brave and solemn words were uttered, 
 the sounds of weeping and sobbing were heard all over the 
 church. It was a scene at which angels might have wept. But 
 the bishop would hear no more. Abruptly rising, he took his 
 departure, and the five godly servants of Jesus passed out into 
 the High Street of Belfast, grieving that they were to be permitted 
 to preach no more the Gospel which they loved, but, who can 
 doubt, also rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer 
 persecution for the name of their Lord? The Presbyterian 
 Church of Ireland has good reason to be proud of those men, and 
 of the story of that day. One of the five did not long survive the 
 sad scene. The venerable Brice went back to his congregation 
 heartbroken that he was to be allowed no more to break among 
 them the bread of life, and before the year was out he was dead. 
 
 The scene now shifts to the shore of Belfast Lough, beside 
 where the little village of Groomsport, with its rock-bound 
 harbour, and its beach of firm, yellow sand, looks across at the 
 grim old castle of Carrickfergus. Here there might have been 
 seen building in 1636 a small vessel, though larger than any 
 
THE 'EAGLE WING.' 5 1 
 
 required for the ordinary occupations of the inhabitants. The 
 continued persecutions to which the Presbyterians were being 
 subjected had forced upon their attention again the project of 
 leaving Ireland altogether, and seeking in the New World a 
 refuge from their oppressors, as Miles Standish and his com- 
 panions had sought and found it some fifteen or sixteen years 
 before. Accordingly, they set about constructing a ship of about 
 150 tons burden, to carry them across the Atlantic. It was a 
 perilous venture. But what else could they do ? A hundred and 
 forty of them therefore made up their minds to face the dangers of 
 the deep in this small craft, and all the dangers and uncertainties 
 of a new and as yet unsettled land, rather than live any longer in a 
 country which denied them peace. In hope of a speedy passage, 
 they named the ship the Eagle Whig. At length she was com- 
 pleted and provisioned, and, when all was ready, on 9th September, 
 1 636, the little company got on board, and, watched by many anxious 
 and tearful eyes, the Eagle ^FzVz^ weighed her anchor, rounded the 
 Gobbins, and bore out for the open sea. Contrary winds ere long 
 drove her into Loch Ryan ; but at length she set sail once more, 
 and by and by these new pilgrim fathers found themselves clear 
 of Ireland, and steering due west for New England. A fair wind 
 carried them a thousand or twelve hundred miles on their way. 
 But then came fearful weather, which made sad havoc of the little 
 Eagle Wing. Their rudder broke ; their sails were torn by the 
 furious gales; heavy seas came sweeping in over the round-house, 
 and poured down into the cabin below. A leak was sprung which 
 took hard work at the pumps to deal with, and at length the 
 captain declared that it was impossible to face the storm any 
 longer. The ship was put about. In miserable plight they 
 headed back again for Ireland, and by the 3rd November, 1636, 
 they were at anchor again in Carrickfergus Bay, gathering that it 
 was not the Lord's will that they should go to America. For the 
 failure of this second attempt at escape from their troubles, as 
 of the previous project in the same direction, Ireland has reason 
 to be profoundly thankful to Him who maketh the winds His 
 
52 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 messengers, and ruleth the raging of the sea. It would have been 
 worse for the whole country, but especially for Ulster, had our 
 fathers succeeded in their enterprise. 
 
 Blair, Livingstone, and several others of the silenced ministers, 
 disappointed in their hope of reaching America, now sought refuge 
 in Scotland ; and having to their great joy got rid of the pastors, 
 Wentworth and the bishops turned their persecutions upon the 
 people. A commission was issued by the Lord Deputy, author- 
 izing the Bishop of Down summarily to arrest and to imprison 
 during pleasure the Presbyterians in his diocese. This nefarious 
 document was not allowed to remain a dead letter. Numbers of 
 peaceable people were committed to jail, like common felons, for 
 the sole offence of being Presbyterians, and numbers more were 
 forced to fly to Scotland. A Court of High Commission was set 
 up in Dublin, which inflicted cruel hardships on the poor people. 
 No sex, no rank, was spared. Mrs. Pont, a minister's wife, was 
 thrown into prison at the instance of the Bishop of Raphoe, and 
 kept there for almost three years. Lady Clotworthy was ordered 
 to appear before the Court to answer for her Presbyterianism. 
 Bramhall, bishop of Derry, committed a minister in his diocese 
 to jail 'for his lewd praying for the success of Scotland in the 
 maintenance of religion.' Sir Robert Adair, a zealous Presby- 
 terian, ancestor of the well-known family on whose property 
 Ballymena stands,] was indicted for treason, his property con- 
 fiscated, and he himself obliged to fly to Scotland. Certainly, if 
 Presbyterianism was not entirely stamped out in Ulster at this 
 period, it was not for want of the most strenuous and cruel efforts 
 that the Episcopalians could make. Had our brave forefathers 
 not been so wedded by conscience and affection to their pure, 
 Scriptural faith, and firmly determined to hold by it at all costs, 
 not a vestige of it would have been left in the land. 
 
 In their fury the dominant party now resolved upon the 
 adoption of a new weapon, more illegal and more terrible than 
 any which had yet been tried. This was an oath, popularly 
 called the Black Oath, which all Presbyterians were to be 
 
'the black oath.' 53 
 
 obliged to take, or suffer 'the uttermost and most severe punish- 
 ments which may be inflicted.' According to this oath they 
 were required not only to swear allegiance to King Charles, but 
 to swear also that they would never at any time oppose anything 
 he might be pleased to command, and further, that they would 
 renounce and abjure all covenants, such as the National Cove- 
 nant, which had been the means of saving Presbyterianism in 
 Scotland. All above the age of sixteen were to swear this 
 *upon the Holy Evangelists ;' and that none might escape, the 
 Episcopal ministers and churchwardens were required to make 
 a return of all the Presbyterians resident in each parish, that 
 every individual among them might be made amenable. 
 
 Great numbers of the people refused to take such an oath. 
 They were quite prepared to swear allegiance to the King, not- 
 withstanding all that they had suffered under him. But to 
 promise that, no matter what he might command, they would 
 never oppose him, and to renounce the covenants which had 
 proved such safeguards and helps to the maintenance of true 
 religion, they felt they dared not, and they determined to 
 refuse, and abide the consequences. Those consequences Went- 
 worth and his ready tools, the bishops, were not slow to visit 
 on them to the very utmost. The details of the cruelties 
 which they inflicted are not merely harrowing — they are sicken- 
 ing. One's blood begins to boil as one reads of them, and 
 thinks that they were inflicted on our fathers for the sole crime 
 of being Presbyterians. Respectable men were, on their refusal 
 to perjure themselves by taking the Black Oath, bound together 
 with chains and thrown into dismal dungeons. Pursuivants 
 from Dublin travelled up and down Ulster, arresting and 
 imprisoning. The most exorbitant penalties were inflicted. 
 Mr. Henry Stewart, a gentleman of large property, his wife 
 and two daughters, and a servant named James Gray, on re 
 fusing to take the oath, were arrested by a sergeant-at-arms, 
 carried up to Dublin, and committed to jail. On loth Sep- 
 tember, 1639, they were brought before the Star Chamber, 'a 
 
54 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 court in which the substance as well as the forms of law and 
 justice were equally despised,' ^ and in which several of the 
 bishops sat. They were all pronounced guilty of high treason. 
 Mr. Stewart explained that he had no objection whatever to 
 swear allegiance to the King, but as he conceived the latter 
 part of the oath bound all who took it to yield him ecclesias- 
 tical obedience in regard to whatever he would be pleased to 
 enjoin, he dared not in conscience enter into such an engage- 
 ment. Wentworth assured him that he was perfectly right in 
 his interpretation of the oath, that it was intended to bind the 
 Presbyterians to conform to every doctrine and rite which were 
 either then enjoined or might thereafter be enjoined, by royal 
 authority, and that he would prosecute all who refused to take 
 it *to the blood,' and drive them 'root and branch' out of the 
 kingdom. The sentence of the Court was then pronounced. 
 Mr. Stewart was fined in ;^5ooo, Mrs. Stewart in ;^5ooo more, 
 their two daughters in ;!^20oo each, and Gray, the servant, also 
 in ;,r20oo, making ;^ 16,000 altogether. To crown all, they were 
 to lie in jail in Dublin until the last farthing of these monstrous 
 impositions should be paid ! 
 
 But. bad as all this was, it is as nothing when compared 
 with other atrocities which were indulged in, to compel sub- 
 mission to this monstrous oath. Respectable women, far 
 advanced in pregnancy, were forced to travel long distances to 
 appear before the Commissioners. If they hesitated to attend, 
 or refused to swear, they were treated in the most cruel manner, 
 notwithstanding their condition. The woods in some parts of 
 the country were thronged with crowds of defenceless females who 
 had fled thither to escape the persecutors who had no mercy 
 on either sex or age. In other places they sought refuge in 
 mountain caves, while numbers fled from the country altogether, 
 leaving their houses and farms to go to ruin. In his deter- 
 mination to extirpate Presbyterianism 'root and branch' out of 
 the land, Wentworth even meditated a more daring measure 
 
 1 Reid, L 259. 
 
A VILLANOUS PROJECT. 55 
 
 than any yet adopted — no less than the banishment of every 
 Presbyterian from Ulster. He actually drew up a plan for 
 this purpose. Ships were to be provided at the public expense 
 to carry the hated Presbyterians away, and, under severe 
 penalties, every one of them was to be obliged to depart within 
 a prescribed period. That such a villanous project should ever 
 have been entertained may well astonish us. The fact that it 
 was planned, and arrangements made for carrrying it out, shows 
 the hatred with which the Lord Deputy and the bishops re- 
 garded the faith of our forefathers. Fortunately, not only for 
 Presbyterianism but for Ireland, Wentworth's sun was now 
 about to set. The eyes of the nation were opened to the folly 
 of the course he had been too long allowed to pursue. The 
 famous Long Parliament met. Wentworth, who had been 
 created Earl of Strafford by Charles L, was impeached for his 
 misdeeds. He was tried, found guilty, and beheaded on Tower 
 Hill on the 12th of May, 1641, and so ignominiously ended the 
 areer of this clever but unscrupulous and cruel man. It is no 
 wonder that his memory holds among Irish Presbyterians that 
 bad pre-eminence which Claverhouse and Dalzell gained for 
 themselves in Scotland. It says much for the truth and vitality 
 of Presbyterianism, that all the combined efforts of himself and 
 his myrmidons could not destroy it out of the land, and it says 
 much too for the fidelity and conscientiousness of Ulster-men, 
 that his utmost cruelties could not make them swerve from 
 their allegiance to their creed. The three arch-persecutors of 
 the period, Charles I., Wentworth, and Laud, all lost their 
 heads by the axe. Laud died by the hand of the public execu- 
 tioner in January, 1645, ^.nd Charles in January, 1649. 
 
CHAPTER VI r. 
 
 1641 AND ITS ISSUES. 
 
 Scarcely had Ulster been delivered from the tyranny of 
 Strafford when another fiery trial swept over her— the terrible 
 rebellion of 1641. The objects of this outbreak were the extinc- 
 tion of British power in Ireland, the restoration of the forfeited 
 estates to the descendants of their former owners, the utter 
 extirpation of Protestantism, and the establishment of Romanism 
 in its place. The rebellion broke out with all the suddenness and 
 fury of a tornado on Saturday, 23rd October, 1641. Part of the 
 programme was the seizure of Dublin Castle ; but fortunately it 
 was saved through the vigilance and energy of a Presbyterian 
 elder. Captain Owen O'Connolly, who obtained private informa- 
 tion of the intended attempt, and communicated it to the Lords 
 Justices, in time to save the Castle and capital. The force of the 
 insurrection spent itself on Ulster, and here the havoc which it 
 wrought was appalling. No one was prepared for it, and the 
 Protestants, being almost defenceless, were in many cases 
 butchered like sheep. Led on by Sir Phelim O'Neill, the 
 insurgents seized upon castle after castle, and town after town, 
 frequently ruthlessly massacreing all the inhabitants. Dun- 
 gannon, Newry, Monaghan, Dromore, and many other places 
 were thus seized. Fortunately Enniskillen was secured by Sir 
 William Cole, who also supplied information which saved Derry 
 and Newton-limavady. Coleraine too received timely warning, 
 and was not only saved, but proved a welcome haven of refuge to 
 many terror-stricken Protestants. Carrickfergus, Lisburn, and 
 
SICKENING ATROCITIES. 57 
 
 Belfast also remained untaken. But outside these places, 
 Ulster became a veritable field of blood. Far and wide over 
 the country the eye beheld towns and villages, the dwelling 
 of the Protestant clergyman and the farmhouse of the Pro- 
 testant husbandman, all in flames. Behind hedges and ditches 
 droves of Protestants, stripped absolutely naked, crouched 
 for shelter, the husband trying in vain to shield his trembling 
 wife, and the mother her wretched children, from the fury of 
 pitiless assassins, and the biting cold of one of the severest 
 winters that could be remembered. The river Blackwater in 
 Tyrone is said to have run red with the blood of murdered 
 Protestants. 
 
 These atrocities do not depend upon hearsay. Thirty-two 
 volumes of sworn depositions still exist in the library of Trinity 
 College, Dublin, to attest the reality of the horrors of the awful 
 time. It is sickening to read them, and the worst cannot be set 
 down in print. We can tell of the infants whose brains were 
 dashed out against walls before their helpless and horrified 
 mothers' faces ; of others who were flung into boiling pots, or 
 tossed into ditches to the pigs ; of poor Protestants whose eyes 
 were gouged out of their heads, their hands cut off, or their ears, 
 in fiendish savagery ; of many who were actually buried alive ; of 
 women, first stripped naked, then ripped up with knives ; of men 
 from whose bodies the rebels cut slices of flesh, and then roasted 
 their victims alive ; of 300 Protestants, men, women, and children, 
 at Loughgall, stripped naked and driven into the church, the 
 doors locked, and fierce men, liker wolves or tigers than human 
 beings, let loose upon them daily, to kill and outrage as they 
 pleased; of women broiled on hot gridirons, and men 'hanged 
 twice or thrice till half dead,' then let down and butchered ; of 
 196 Protestants drowned at Portadown Bridge in one day, and 
 1000 said to have been killed there altogether in the same 
 manner; of the special cruelties reserved for the Protestant 
 ministers, to whom ordinary deaths were in many cases denied 
 as too good j of iome hanged, then dismembered and their heads 
 
58 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 cut off, and pieces of their own bodies thrust into their mouths in 
 mockery ; of thirty of them massacred in one district, of one 
 hanged at his own church door, another thrown into Lough 
 Neagh and drowned, and a third, the Rev. Thomas Murray of 
 Killyleagh, who was actually crucified, in blasphemous mockery of 
 the awful tragedy of Calvary, between two other Protestant gentle- 
 men, his two sons killed, and actually cut to pieces before their 
 mother's eyes, then her own body frightfully mutilated, and her 
 tongue cut half out. One can tell these things, though it is a sicken- 
 ing tale. But worse remains, over which a veil must be thrown ; 
 things for which a parallel can only be found in the foul deeds 
 which made Cawnpore and Lucknow infamous in the days of 
 the Indian mutiny.'' In addition to those actually killed, multi- 
 tudes perished of cold and hunger in the fields, and of sickness 
 brought on by the privations to which they were exposed. The 
 numbers of dead bodies which lay unburied tainted the air. A 
 pestilential fever broke out, of which multitudes died. In 
 Coleraine 6000 persons are said to have fallen victims to it, so that 
 the living, unable to give the dead proper burial, 'laid the carcases 
 in great ranks, into vast and wide holes, laying them so close and 
 thick as if they had packed up herrings together.' ^ Carrickfergus, 
 Belfast, and Lisburn also suffered awfully from this plague. The 
 estimates of the total numbers that perished, either directly by the 
 hands of the rebels or by the diseases which followed, vary con- 
 siderably, as we might expect. Some of the highest authorities 
 assert that several hundreds of thousands lost their lives by the 
 swords of the Romanists alone. It is certain that the carnage 
 was appalling. What it would have been had that patriotic Presby- 
 terian elder not saved Dublin Castle we can only guess. As it 
 was, the country received a blow from which it took long to recover. 
 
 1 Cf. Ireland in the Seventeenth Century, or the Irish Massacres of 1641, their 
 Causes and Results, Illustrated by Extracts from the Unpublished S'ate 
 Papers. By M. Hickson. 2 vols. London 1884. Every effort has been 
 made by Romish writers to disprove the terrible and most damaging revela- 
 tions made in these volumes, but utterly in vain. 
 
 2 Temple, History of the Irish Rebellion, p. 138. 
 
HORRORS OF 164T. 59 
 
 The abominable and infamous cruelties of this rebellion lie as 
 a terrible blot on the Romish Church. From the beginning it 
 was a Romish rebellion. Sir Phelim O'Neill declared that 'he 
 would never leave off the work he had begun till Mass should be 
 sung or said in every church in Ireland, and that a Protestant 
 should not live in Ireland, be he of what nation he would.' ^ The 
 priests joined in planning it, and were among the foremost in 
 urging it to the utmost extreme. ' At a meeting in the Abbey of 
 Multifarnham, in Westmeath, held about a fortnight before the 
 commencement of hostilities, some of the clergy present recom- 
 mended a general massacre as the safest and most effectual 
 method of putting down Protestant ascendancy. > . . Evor 
 M'Mahon, Roman Catholic bishop of Down and Connor, 
 prompted Sir PheHm O'Neill to the commission of some of his 
 most revolting atrocities. The Roman Catholic clergy of all 
 grades appear ever and anon upon the stage during the worst 
 scenes of this dismal tragedy.' ^ A Romish bishop was the brain 
 of the whole enterprise. The priests commonly anointed the 
 rebels before sending them to their murderous work, assuring 
 them that if they chanced to be killed they would escape purga- 
 tory and go immediately to heaven.^ They told their people that 
 'the Protestants were worse than dogs, they were devils, and 
 served the devil, and the killing of them was a meritorious act.'* 
 The massacre of 1641 was really an Irish St. Bartholomew, only 
 more terrible and inhuman, and it is no wonder that, though 
 more than 200 years have passed since the scenes we have 
 described, their memory has left behind in Ulster a dread, 
 amounting almost to terror, of being ever again placed in the 
 power of Rome. 
 
 It is not to be wondered at that the cold-blooded massacre of 
 
 1 Lodge, V. 114. 
 
 2 Killen, Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, ii. 40, 41. 
 
 3 A True and Credible Relation of t lie Massacre of the English Protestants 
 in Ireland. London, 1642. 
 
 ^ Froude, The English in Ireland, i. 108. 
 
6o HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 SO many Protestants should have deeply incensed their co- 
 religionists. They would not have been men if they had not 
 been moved by the awful tales of fiendish cruelty perpetrated on 
 their unoffending fellow-subjects, many of them women and 
 children, which were flying through the country. On one occasion 
 their natural resentment led some of them into a terrible reprisal. 
 In January, 1642, Allister M'Donnell, with a band of blood- 
 thirsty followers, had committed a series of outrages in the 
 North. They had murdered a number of Protestants in their 
 beds at Kilrea. They had waylaid and massacred seventy or 
 eighty old men, women, and children on the public road near 
 Ballintoy. It is not remarkable that the news of these butcheries 
 aroused extreme anger, and that a number of men determined 
 on showing the Romanists that they were engaged in a game 
 at which two could play. On Sabbath, 9th January, 1642, 
 they met in the little village of Ballycarry, and, being joined 
 by some soldiers from the neighbouring garrison of Carrick- 
 fergus, proceeded to the peninsula of Island Magee close by 
 and put to death some thirty or so of the Roman Catholic 
 inhabitants. 'The island' has since been inhabited entirely by 
 Protestants.^ 
 
 Scotland, which had so often befriended Ireland, again came 
 opportunely to her assistance at this hour of need. Ten thousand 
 men were voted by her Parliament for the relief of the country. 
 In February, 1642, Major-General Monro was sent over to 
 Carrickfergus with the first contingent of these, — an event which 
 proved of even greater importance in the ecclesiastical than it did 
 in the civil history of the country. Carrickfergus was during all 
 
 1 As an illustration of the strange shifts to which Romish writers have been 
 driven in order to extenuate the atrocities perpetrated by their co-religionists, 
 it is worthy of remark that some of them actually allege this outrage, committed 
 in January, 1642, as the cause of the insurrection which broke out, as we have 
 seen, in October, 1641 ! No one, however, who is familiar with Romish ways 
 or Romish literature will be astonished at such delightful fidelity to historical 
 accuracy. The story that 3000 Roman Catholics were driven by the Protes- 
 tants over the cliffs at the Gobbins is another illustration of their talent 
 for invention. It is a pure fabrication. 
 
THE FIRST PRESBYTERY. 6 1 
 
 the spring of that year the scene of unwonted bustle. Ships were 
 continually arriving in the harbour and disembarking regiment 
 after regiment of Scottish soldiers, who made the streets alive as 
 they marched to the old Castle to take up their quarters. Along 
 with most of the regiments might be seen their chaplains, grave 
 and godly Presbyterian ministers, sent with the men to look 
 after their spiritual concerns, and it is to a number of these that 
 we owe the first proper organization of the Presbyterian Church 
 in Ireland. 
 
 When the army had made some progress in the pacification 
 of the country, and had settled down in Carrickfergus, after 
 effectually breaking the power of the rebels, these chaplains 
 set about establishing a proper ecclesiastical discipline among 
 the troops. First of all, they erected a Session in each regi- 
 ment, composed of such officers as were most distinguished 
 for piety. When four such Sessions had been constituted, 
 they found themselves in a position to hold a meeting of the 
 court next in order, and accordingly, on loth June, 1642 — a 
 memorable day — the first regular Presbytery ever held in Ireland 
 met. It was composed of five ministers and four ruling elders. 
 The names of the ministers are worth preserving. They were 
 the Rev. Hugh Cunningham, who remained in this country after 
 the departure of his regiment, and settled at Ray, County Donegal ; 
 Rev. Thomas Peebles, who also stayed behind and became 
 minister of the united parishes of Dundonald and Holywood ; 
 Rev. John Baird, who was subsequently installed in Dervock ; 
 Rev. John Scott and Rev. John Aird, both of whom seem to have 
 afterwards returned to Scotland. All of these were regimental 
 chaplains. Two others, the Rev. James Simpson and the 
 celebrated Rev. John Livingstone, were absent on duty elsewhere. 
 Mr. Baird preached on the occasion from Ps. li. 18, — * Do 
 good in Thy good pleasure unto Zion ; build Thou the walls of 
 Jerusalem.' A moderator and clerk were appointed according to 
 the customary presbyterial order, and various arrangements made 
 for the further establishment of the Presbyterian cause. The 
 
62 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 Presbytery resolved to meet, for a time at all events, weekly, 
 each meeting to be opened with a sermon. Those nine men 
 probably had little thought of what were to be the ultimate and 
 far-reaching issues of their meeting on that June day. The grain 
 of seed which they sowed has, indeed, grown into a great 
 tree. 
 
 The Presbytery soon found ample work to do. Applications 
 for ministers came in from the neighbouring parishes (for the 
 recent rebellion had almost swept religion clean out of the land), 
 * upon which the Presbytery moved that there should be elder- 
 ships erected with the consent of the congregations, and that by 
 their help a present supply might be procured, and in due time 
 ministers settled among them.' ^ This was accordingly soon after 
 reported to have been done in Ballymena, Antrim, Cairncastle, 
 Templepatrick, Carrickfergus, Larne, and Belfast,^ in County 
 Antrim, and in Ballywalter, Portaferry, Newtownards, Don- 
 aghadee, Killyleagh, Comber, Holywood, and Bangor, in Down. 
 Petitions were sent to the General Assembly of the Church of 
 Scotland asking for more ministers. There was no super- 
 abundance of pastors, however, in Scotland, and all that the 
 Assembly therefore could do, was to commission six of its best 
 ministers to go over temporarily to Ireland. Blair and Hamilton 
 were the first of these brethren to arrive, and their counsel and 
 labours did no little to encourage and build up the Church on a 
 firm foundation. At several subsequent Assemblies, this course 
 of sending over several ministers to preach in Ireland for three 
 months each was followed. In this way and others the Church 
 of Scotland proved herself a nursing mother to the infant 
 organization. Several years of busy, quiet work followed. 
 The havoc wrought by the rebellion had left the land almost 
 desolate. But in a remarkably short time prosperity seemed to 
 return to both Church and country. The people who had fled 
 returned to their farms. The parish churches were soon filled 
 
 1 Adair's Narrative. 
 
 * The date of the erection of the first Session in Belfast is July, 1644, 
 
THE CHURCH HAS PEACE. 63 
 
 on Sabbaths with hearty and earnest congregations, who sang 
 their psalms and offered their prayers in the simple Presbyterian 
 fashion, and to whom godly Presbyterian ministers preached 
 sermons full of Christ. * So the Church . . . had peace, being 
 edified, and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of 
 the Holy Ghost was multiplied.' ^ 
 
 J- Acts l\. 31, R. V. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE TIMES OF THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 While the events of which we have spoken in the previous 
 chapter were transpiring, affairs in England had taken a strange 
 turn. Charles I. had come to an open rupture with the Parlia- 
 ment, and hostihties had broken out, which, before they ended, 
 were to stain English soil with some of the best English blood. 
 One of the first things which the Long Parliament, as it 
 afterwards came to be called, determined to do, was to over- 
 throw the power of the bishops and to establish some more 
 Scriptural and popular form of Church government. One plan 
 for effecting this end deserves to be noticed here, both on account 
 of its own historic interest, and because its author was that 
 distinguished Irishman whom we have already on several 
 occasions had occasion to mention, the godly and learned 
 Archbishop Ussher. He proposed to unite Presbyterians and 
 Episcopalians on the basis of the following four propositions : — 
 I. The incumbent with the churchwardens and sidesmen to 
 exercise discipline in each parish, to present refractory offenders 
 to the next Monthly Synod, and in the meantime to debar them 
 from the Lord's Table. 2. Monthly Synods to be held of all the 
 incumbents within certain districts corresponding to the rural 
 deaneries ; in these a suffragan or rural dean to preside ; the 
 majority to decide and to be empowered to censure errors of 
 doctrine appearing within their districts, with liberty to appeal to 
 the Diocesan Synod. 3. Diocesan Synods to be held once or 
 twice in the year, consisting of all the suffragans in the diocese, 
 with a select number of the incumbents out of each rural 
 
THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY. 65 
 
 deanery, the bishop or superintendent, * call him whether you 
 will,' to be moderator, and the majority to decide. 4. The 
 Provincial Synod to consist of all the bishops and suffragans, 
 with representatives chosen by the clergy of each diocese within 
 the province, the primate to be moderator, and both the primates 
 and Provincial Synods to constitute a National Council to meet 
 every third year, wherein all appeals from inferior synods might 
 be received, all their acts examined, and all ecclesiastical consti- 
 tutions which concern the state of the Church of the whole 
 nation established.^ Different minds will take different views 
 of this attempt at union. But none can fail to admire and 
 appreciate the motives which suggested its conception, or to wish 
 that some feasible plan could have been formulated long since 
 for the union of the disjecta membra of British Protestantism. 
 The Parliament, however, was not just then in the mood for 
 compromises. It had had enough of Prelacy. First, the bishops 
 were deprived of their seats in the Legislature ; next, a manifesto, 
 agreed to by both Lords and Commons, declared that Church 
 government by archbishops, bishops, etc., 'is evil, and justly 
 offensive, and burdensome to the kingdom, a great impediment 
 to reformation, and very prejudicial to the civil government, and 
 that we are resolved the same shall be taken away.' Making 
 good their words by deeds, both Houses next passed a bill * for the 
 utter abolishing and taking away of Prelacy.' This was in January, 
 1643. In June of the same year they issued an ordinance sum- 
 moning the celebrated 'Westminster Assembly of Divines' to 
 consult as to the ' settling such a government in the Church as 
 may be agreeable to God's Holy Word, and to bring it into 
 nearer agreement with the Church of Scotland and other 
 reformed Churches abroad.' Of this Assembly this is not the 
 place to speak at length. It is worthy of notice, however, 
 that it was the most really Catholic council which the world 
 ever saw. Episcopalians,^ Presbyterians, and Independents 
 
 ^ Abridged by Reid, i. 400. 
 
 ■ • The Assembly was designed to include among its members adherents of 
 
 £ 
 
66 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 sat side by side in that Jerusalem Chamber at Westminster 
 Abbey, which has been the scene of so many memorable 
 meetings. England, Scotland, and Ireland were all repre- 
 sented in it. It had both clerical members and lay assessors, 
 among them some of the most learned men of the day, — 
 men whose names have become famous in history. The Presby- 
 terian Churches, therefore, which hold by the Westminster 
 Confession of Faith and the Shorter and Larger Catechisms, 
 enjoy the singular distinction of having as their standards 
 symbols formulated not by a Presbyterian Assembly, but by 
 divines of all the Protestant Churches.^ The Directory of 
 Public Worship, drawn up by this body, was established in 
 England in 1645, ^.nd the use of the Book of Common Prayer 
 abolished throughout the country. Church government by Sessions, 
 Presbyteries, and General Assemblies being ordained. 
 
 Another important event in the history of this period was the 
 passing of the celebrated * Solemn League and Covenant,' which 
 was agreed upon between England and Scotland in 1643. This 
 covenant pledged all who signed it to six heads. i. 'The 
 preservation of the Reformed religion in the Church of Scot- 
 land;' 'the reformation of religion in the kingdoms of England 
 and Ireland, in doctrine, worship, discipline, and government, 
 according to the Word of God and the example of the best 
 Reformed Churches;' and the bringing of the three kingdoms to 
 'the nearest conjunction and uniformity in religion. Confession 
 of Faith, form of church government, Directory for Worship, 
 and catechizing.' 2. 'The extirpation of Popery, Prelacy,' and 
 ' whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound doctrine 
 and the power of godliness.' 3. The preservation of 'the rights 
 and privileges of the Parliaments, and the liberties of the 
 
 all the chief parties among English Protestants, with the exception of that of 
 Archbishop Laud. . . . Almost all the clerical members named upon it were 
 in Episcopalian orders.' — Mitchell's Westminster Assembly, 116. 
 
 * No wonder Her Excellency, the Countess of Aberdeen, said in distributing 
 prizes to the Sabbath-school scholars of the Dublin Presbytery on a recent 
 occasion — ' We are all proud of our Catechism.' 
 
THE COVENANT. 67 
 
 kingdoms,' and the preservation and defence of ' the King's 
 Majesty's person and authority, and the preservation and defence 
 of the true reh'gion and hberties of the kingdoms.' 4. The ' dis- 
 covery of such as have been or shall be incendiaries, malignants, or 
 evil instruments, by hindering the reformation of religion, dividing 
 the King from his people, or one of the kingdoms from the other.' 
 5. The maintenance of peace between the kingdoms. 6. The 
 assistance and defence of all who should enter into the League 
 and Covenant. This instrument was immediately sent over to 
 Ireland, and not a little of the persecution of after years was 
 suffered for the taking of it. Ministers came from Scotland in 
 April 1644 to administer it over all Ulster, and during the 
 next few months gatherings of the people were being held 
 to hear it read, and to subscribe it. In that time of 
 danger and uncertainty, both to Church and State, men felt 
 the need of some means of banding themselves together in 
 support of their liberties and their faith, and so 'the Covenant 
 was taken in all places with great affection.'^ Remarkable scenes 
 were witnessed at the taking of it. From Carrrickfergus the 
 ministers charged with its administration went to Belfast, Comber, 
 Newtownards, Bangor, and then to Ballymena, Coleraine, Derry, 
 Letterkenny, Ray, and Enniskillen. In the light of the narra- 
 tives of the period we seem to see them riding briskly along from 
 place to place, with a guard of cavalry escorting them, preaching 
 to large and deeply interested audiences, now in the parish 
 church, now in the street, explaining the Covenant, and calhng 
 on the people to take it with uplifted hands. Their mission, 
 accomplished the desired results. The Covenant ' ascertained 
 and united the friends of civil and religious liberty, and inspired 
 them with fresh confidence in the arduous struggle in which they 
 were engaged. It diffused extensively through the province a 
 strong feehng of attachment to the Presbyterian cause. It opened 
 the way for the introduction of the Presbyterian Church into 
 districts where it had been previously opposed, and facilitated its 
 1 Adair's Narrative, 103. 
 
6S HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 re-establishmcnt in places where it had been violently over- 
 thrown. But what was of still higher moment, the Covenant 
 revived the cause of true religion and piety, which had lamentably 
 declined under the iron sway of the prelates and amidst the 
 distractions and discouragements of intestine war. From this 
 period may be dated the commencement of the second Reforma- 
 tion with which this province has been favoured — a reformation 
 discernible not only in the rapid increase of churches and of 
 faithful and zealous ministers, but still more unequivocally mani- 
 fested in the improving manners and habits of society, and in 
 the growing attention of the people to religious duties and 
 ordinances.' ^ 
 
 In October, 1645, the Parliament, now supreme in England, 
 sent over three 'governors of the province of Ulster' to take 
 charge of affairs in the North of Ireland. These gentlemen 
 recognised the Presbytery, sat in it, and encouraged and counte- 
 nanced its proceedings. The commander of the forces usually sat 
 with them, as did others of the officers. The parochial tithes were 
 given to the ministers, who were thus fully recognised again as 
 the State Church. They had much to do at this time. They 
 were few in number, and there were many places asking for 
 religious ordinances. But by dint of careful and energetic 
 organization and unsparing labour, they managed to meet all 
 the demands made upon them, establishing Sessions in the 
 several parishes, supplying them with preaching, and fostering 
 them as far as in their power. The Church gradually grew in 
 strength, until in the beginning of 1647 there were nearly thirty 
 ordained ministers permanently settled in Ulster, in addition to 
 the chaplains of the Scottish regiments, which still garrisoned 
 the province. 
 
 1 Rcid, i. 456. Readers of Burns's poetry will remember his spirited lines, 
 as true as they are spirited — 
 
 ' The Solemn League and Covenant 
 
 Cost Scotland blood, cost Scotland tears ; 
 But it sealed Freedom's sacred cause ; 
 If Ihou'rt a slave, indulge thy sneers.* 
 
EXECUTION OF CHARLES I. 69 
 
 The unhappy Charles, after several battles, was seized by the 
 Parliamentary army, who demanded that he should be brought 
 to justice as the ' capital cause ' of all the evils which had befallen 
 the kingdom. The Presbyterians both in Ireland and England 
 were entirely opposed to the violent course into which events 
 now shaped themselves. In the House of Commons the Presby- 
 terian members condemned the seizure of the King as uncon- 
 stitutional. After a sitting which lasted a long winter night, till 
 five o'clock next morning, a resolution was carried, by a majority 
 of 46 in a House of over 200 members, to the effect that 
 negotiations should be continued between the Parliament and 
 the King. But this was not to be. The day after, a detachment 
 of soldiers, horse and foot, is placed in Palace Yard and West- 
 minster Hall. In the colonel's hand is a list of members, who, 
 as they come in, are seized and carried off. Forty-one are so 
 treated this day. Next day many more are arrested, sent to the 
 Tower or anywhere out of the way.^ Thus took place the famous 
 * Pride's Purge.' What remained of the Parliament, (historically 
 known as the Rump), now cleared of that intelligent and staunch 
 Presbyterian element, which has always been troublesome to 
 tyrants on the one hand and to mobs on the other, continued 
 to sit and act as if it had been a fully and legally constituted 
 legislative chamber. Charles was now arraigned, tried, and 
 found guilty, and on 30th January, 1649, beheaded at Whitehall. 
 The Presbyterians of Ireland joined with their co-religionists in 
 England in condemning and protesting against this act. They 
 did not hesitate to denounce it in plain terms as a murder. They 
 had no belief, indeed, in the absurd doctrine of the divine right 
 of kings, nor in the equally absurd principle of passive obedience. 
 Episcopalian bishops might preach that the execution of Charles 
 was a more criminal act than the crucifixion of Jesus Christ ! ^ The 
 
 ^ Carlyle's Cromwell, i. 99, 
 
 2 See The Martyrdom of King Charles ; or, his Conformity with Christ in 
 his Sufferings, a sermon by Henry Leslie, bishop of Down and Connor, 
 preached in June, 1649. 
 
70 HISTORY OF THE IRISH TRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 Presbyterians talked no such impious nonsense. They protested 
 against the deed, 'not upon the ground of the servile figment 
 that a king is above law and not amenable to justice ; . . . but 
 when the nation, by its legal governors and representatives, the 
 Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled, had freed itself 
 from the yoke of despotism attempted to be imposed upon it, 
 and was able to dictate satisfactory terms of peace and ensure 
 their observance, they conceived it to be a monstrous violation 
 of all liberty and law, and a more arbitrary and dangerous exercise 
 of power than any which could be laid to the charge of the King, 
 for an armed force to expel with violence out of the House of 
 Commons the majority of its members, — to abolish the House of 
 Lords by the mere right of the sword, — and then to execute the 
 King and wholly alter the frame of the Government, in opposition 
 to the overwhelming majority of the nation, who beheld with 
 amazement, but were unable to resist, these tyrannical acts of a 
 military usurpation.' ^ 
 
 The Presbytery which met at Belfast on 15th February, 1649, 
 drew up a ' Representation,' which they ordered to be read from 
 every pulpit, in which they condemned the execution of the King 
 in the strongest terms. The ability of this document, and the 
 importance attached to it, may be inferred from the fact that 
 no less a personage than John Milton was commissioned by 
 the Council of State to answer it. He did so in a paper in 
 which, with a strange ferocity and scurrility, which sit ill on the 
 author of Paradise Lost, he denounces the ' devilish malice, 
 impudence, and falsehood' of the remonstrance sent up from 
 Belfast, which he calls ' a barbarous nook of Ireland.' But the 
 Presbytery, with a loyalty to the principles of constitutional 
 government, which was all the more admirable because it was so 
 disinterested (they had received no favours from Charles, and 
 were running the risk of suffering under the hands of the Parlia- 
 ment by opposing their proceedings), continued to protest against 
 the conduct of the party whom they denounced as usurpers. 
 
 * Rcid, ii. 87. 
 
'the engagement.' " 71 
 
 It is not surprising, therefore, that the Parliamentarians, who 
 soon became all-powerful, treated them with scant favour. 
 
 Oliver Cromwell by and by appeared upon the scene. On 
 15th August, 1649, he landed at Dublin, and in one short but 
 tremendously vigorous campaign, the memory of the severities of 
 which still lingers in the traditions of the country, he put down 
 the Royalist and rebel forces, descending upon them like the 
 hammer of Thor. Drogheda, or Tredah as it was then called, was 
 taken by storm.* Dundalk was speedily occupied. Newry 
 surrendered to Colonel Venables. Belfast followed suit after a 
 three days' siege. Carrickfergus held out longer, but was finally 
 also taken. In the end the power of the Royalists and the 
 confederate Irish was completely broken, and Cromwell, who 
 after the victory of Worcester, when Charles II. fled from the 
 kingdom to the Continent, was left complete master of the 
 situation, in the enjoyment of almost unbounded power and 
 popularity, expelled the Parliament, dispersed the Council of 
 State, and finally was proclaimed Lord Protector, becoming 
 undisputed master of both England and Ireland. 
 
 The known sympathy of the Irish Presbyterians with the royal 
 cause, and their disapproval of the measures adopted by the 
 Parliamentary party, exposed them now to serious trouble. An 
 oath, called ' The Engagement,' binding all v^rho took it to 
 'renounce the pretended title of Charles Stuart and the whole 
 line of the late King Charles, and every other person as a single 
 person pretending to the government,' and binding them also to 
 be true and faithful to the Commonwealth against any king or 
 other person, was ordered to be taken. The Irish Presbyterian 
 ministers refused to take it, being conscientiously persuaded that 
 Charles II. was lawful king, and his father's execution a 
 murder. Whatever our opinion of their rightness or wrongness, 
 
 ' Romish writers speak of the severities inflicted on the garrison of 
 Drogheda as specimens of the ill-treatment wliich the Irish have always 
 received from the English. The fact is that the garrison consisted in good 
 part of Englishmen. See Ludlow's Me?noirs, i. 301, and Carlyle's Cromwell, 
 iL 163. 
 
72 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 we cannot but admire the firmness with which these plain, sober 
 men took their stand upon principle, and prepared themselves to 
 bear the consequences. 
 
 These consequences were in many cases very severe. The 
 ministers were summoned before the governors — soldiers were 
 sent to their churches to overawe them — they had their houses 
 surrounded by dragoons, and were arrested and thrown into jail. 
 Some fled to the woods, or hid themselves in other places where 
 they could find concealment, or escaped to Scotland — anything 
 but do what in conscience they felt to be wrong. In the end 
 they were ordered to leave th-e kingdom. It was a trying time. 
 Only six or seven of them dared to remain in Ireland, and these 
 disguised as farmers or peasants. Sometimes a congregation 
 would be seen, or the sound of their voices heard, as they sang 
 their psalms, and listened to some outed minister, in a field or 
 secluded mountain glen, by the light of the stars or the moon. 
 Baptist and Independent ministers were brought over by the 
 Government from England to occupy the various pulpits. 
 Finally, unable altogether to silence the Presbyterian clergy, and 
 angry at the influence which they exercised over their people, a 
 plan was devised which it was hoped would efifectually rid Ulster 
 of them. This was no less than to banish all the leading Presby- 
 terians of Antrim and Down, ministers and people alike, to 
 Munster. A proclamation was issued, containing a list of them, 
 and ordering them within a specified time, and under severe 
 penalties, to remove to the counties of Kilkenny, Tipperary, and 
 Waterford.^ Fortunately for Ulster this atrocious project mis- 
 carried. Had it succeeded, the history of part of Munster might 
 have been different from what unfortunately it has been. But 
 the development of the North of Ireland, which owes so much to 
 the Presbyterians, would have been brought to a stand, and its 
 history altogether altered. Once more, however. Providence 
 interposed, as He had done several times before, to prevent 
 their being rooted out of the country. 
 
 ^ This list ca.n be seen in ReiJ, ii. 552. 
 
CROMWELL'S TREATMENT OF THE PRESBYTERLANS. 73 
 
 Cromwell, when he felt the reins of power securely in his 
 hands, changed the order of things in Ireland. He saw that the 
 Presbyterians, though they and he did not agree on many points, 
 were peaceable, well-disposed people, not likely to give him much 
 trouble. So the persecutions ceased, and not only ceased, but 
 all their ministers who applied for it were granted a State endow- 
 ment, and this without any conditions being imposed, or any 
 limitations put upon them in the exercise of their ministry. 
 This endowment was not, if possible, to be below a hundred 
 pounds per annum, which Reid reckons to have been equivalent 
 to ^1000 a year now.^ Thus encouraged, the Presbyterian 
 Church recovered its strength. Its one Presbytery increased to 
 five. Parts of the country which had hitherto been unoccupied 
 were taken in charge. Congregations multiplied, and ministers 
 increased in nunibers until there were soon some eighty con- 
 gregations and seventy pastors, all under the government of a 
 General Synod, which was now established, and which met for 
 deliberation four times every year. These were halcyon days for 
 our forefathers. 
 
 But Ohver Cromwell died in 1658, on what he considered his 
 'lucky day,' the 3rd September. After a short period, during 
 which his eldest son, Richard, tried to succeed him in the protec- 
 torate, and succeeded only in affording another illustration of 
 the truth that genius is not necessarily hereditary, the eyes of the 
 nation turned again to the son of the late King. 
 
 ' Dr. Kiilen thinks this estimate much too high. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 UNDER CHARLES II. 
 
 In the negotiations which were opened with the exiled son of 
 Charles I., with a view to his being called to the throne, Irish 
 Presbyterians took a conspicuous part, for they conscientiously 
 regarded him as the rightful sovereign. A Convention was called 
 meanwhile in Dublin to settle affairs, which chose the Rev. Samuel 
 Cox, a Dublin Presbyterian minister, to be its chaplain. The 
 Presbyterian clergy were now permitted to receive formal induc- 
 tion into the parish churches, and were allowed once more the 
 tithes of each parish for their support, as they had been long ago, 
 while the Baptists were degraded and deprived of their salaries. 
 But this change was not to last long. Charles came to the 
 throne amid general rejoicing. But his professions of regard 
 for Presbyterianism were soon forgotten. Prelacy was re-estab- 
 lished. Bishops were appointed to the Irish dioceses, among the 
 rest Jeremy Taylor to that of Down and Connor, and the poor 
 Presbyterians who had suffered so much for the King, and taken 
 the lead in bringing him to his father's throne, now, as the Duke 
 of Ormond truly expressed it, had to suffer under him, and that 
 with no small severity. Meetings of Presbytery were prohibited. 
 Troops of cavalry were sent to scatter them where any attempt to 
 hold them was heard of. The streets of Ballymena rang with the 
 clatter of dragoons sent to break up a meeting of Synod. More- 
 over, the Presbyterian clergy must either submit to the Prayer- 
 Book and swallow Prelacy, or be turned houseless and homeless 
 on the world. Jeremy Taylor specially distinguished himself in 
 this persecution. The author of a book on The Liberty of 
 
 74 
 
THE EJECTIONS OF 1 66 1. 75 
 
 Prophesying^ he displayed his love of the liberty he had written 
 about by harassing his Presbyterian brethren to the utmost, 
 and making life a burden to them ; for it need hardly be said 
 they refused to buy their liberty at the cost of principle. Taylor 
 had no mercy. In a single day he declared thirty-six of their 
 churches vacant. Curates were sent to take their places ; and if 
 any attempted to go to their loved pulpits, violent hands were laid 
 upon them, and they were pulled down. Other prelates followed 
 suit. The ministers were not only ejected from their parishes, 
 but deposed from the ministry, and forbidden under heavy 
 penalties to preach. Presbyterians may remember with some 
 pardonable pride, and with deep thankfulness to God, that of 
 all the clergymen who at that time constituted the Synod, only 
 seven purchased immunity from persecution by giving up their 
 principles. Sixty-one calmly made their choice to suffer rather 
 than sacrifice the truth. In the persecution for conscience' sake 
 which now swept over the three kingdoms, Irish Presbyterianism 
 led the van. These sixty-one ministers were ejected from their 
 benefices in 1661, whereas the similar ejections in' England and 
 Scotland did not take place till the following year. So they bade 
 adieu to the pulpits and the churches where they had so long 
 broken the bread of life, — sorrowfully closed their manse doors 
 behind them, and with wives and children Svent out not 
 knowing whither they went,' — and were henceforth in their 
 poverty and distress watched as if they had been so many thieves 
 lest they should say a word for Christ. ^ 
 
 Many of the congregations of the present day can boast of 
 having had their ministers in this glorious ejection for conscience' 
 
 1 These ejections were not in all cases effected without opposition. The 
 spirit of Janet Geddes extended to Ireland- At Comber, where the minister 
 was ejected and an Episcopal successor appointed, a number of women 
 pulled him from the pulpit and tore his surplice to ribbons. One of them, 
 when tried for the offence at next Downpatrick Assizes, confesied what she 
 had done without much apparent compunction, saying, ' These are the hands 
 that pu'd the white siark ower his held.' yi'Cx&Qxy''s Presbyteiian Minisiers 
 of Killyleagh, 142. 
 
76 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 sake — among the rest Bangor, and Newtownards, and Portaferry, 
 and Comber, and Castlereagh, and Killinchy, and Saintfield, and 
 Dromore, and Rathfriland, and Magherally, in Down ; and 
 Belfast, and Carnmoney, and Ballycarry, and Larne, and Done- 
 gore, and Connor, and Ballymena, and Broughshane, and Bally- 
 money, in Antrim ; and Dungannon, and Minterburn, and Brigh, 
 in the then Presbytery of Tyrone ; and Strabane, and Glender- 
 mot, and Letterkenny, and Omagh, and Ballykelly, and Aghadoey, 
 and Raphoe, and Ray, and Ramelton, in Route and Lagan. It 
 was not the first time nor the last time at which Irish Presby- 
 terian ministers have shown their readiness to make sacrifices 
 for the cause of God and truth.. We may well thank God to-day 
 that they faced their trials and scorned the temptations of 
 worldly preferment and aggrandizement which were freely held out 
 to them, preferring to ' suffer affliction with the people of God' 
 raiher than barter conscience and truth for gain and worldly ease. 
 Had they not stood firm, where would be the Presbyterianism of 
 Ireland to-day ? And what would its Protestantism be like .'* 
 
 An untoward event which now occurred threatened to bring 
 the Presbyterians into further trouble. In December, 1662, a 
 serious conspiracy against the Government was formed in 
 Dublin. The plot seems to have had its origin among 
 some of the old Irish Cromwellians. Their leader was one 
 Thomas Blood, who had been an officer in the army, and 
 was brother-in-law to the Rev. Mr. Lecky, a Presbyterian 
 minister in Dublin. These two, after long consultation, resolved 
 to endeavour to get the powerful assistance of the Presbyterians, 
 and with this purpose they came to the North. They made but 
 little way with them, however. Ulster Presbyterians are not of 
 a rebellious turn. They have borne patiently where men of 
 another disposition would have risen in arms. But the fact of 
 their having been approached by Blood and Lecky was sufficient 
 in those perilous times to throw suspicion on them, even though 
 only one or two of their number gave any heed to the overtures 
 wiih which they were plied. As usual in Irish conspiracies, there 
 
blood's plot. 77" 
 
 was an informer among Blood's associates, who kept the Govern- 
 ment fully posted up in all their proceedings, and on the 22nd 
 May, 1663, the day on which they had arranged to attack Dublin 
 Castle and seize the Lord- Lieutenant, several of the leaders were 
 arrested and thrown into prison. Blood made his escape. The 
 papers which were discovered showed that there had been corre- 
 spondence with some of the Presbyterian ministers, and several 
 of them were arrested and imprisoned. Seven were shut up in 
 Carlingford Castle, where they suffered much privation. Others 
 were imprisoned elsewhere. Ultimately, many of them were 
 obliged to go to Scotland — all on account of ' a plot which they 
 knew nothing of. ' ^ By and by, however, they went quietly back 
 to their old parishes, one by one, and resumed their pastoral 
 work among their people. 
 
 In some places, however, the bishops took up again the scourge 
 of persecution. Thus Bishop Leslie of Raphoe first excommuni- 
 cated and then imprisoned four Presbyterian ministers, the Revs. 
 John Hart of Taughboyne, Thomas Drummond of Ramelton, 
 William Semple of Letterkenny, and Adam White of Fannet. It 
 may seem astonishing to this age, but it is nevertheless true, that 
 for six years these men were kept in confinement at Lifford on his 
 warrant, for the solitary crime of being Presbyterian ministers I 
 In like manner, the Rev. Thomas Kennedy of Carland was 
 imprisoned in Dungannon by the Primate for nonconformity.^ 
 
 1 Adair's Narrative, 281. 
 
 2 A curious story is told in connection with his imprisonment. His faithful 
 wife daily visited the jail, and, being forbidden permission to see him, left 
 food and other supplies for his use in charge of the jaibr. It comforted 
 her greatly to think that, though deprived of his liberty, he was kept so 
 well supplied. On his release, however, she discovered that the perfidious 
 jail?r^ in addition to treating his prisoner with great harshness, had appro- 
 priated all her presents to himself. Years passed, and one day a wretched 
 beggar came to the minister's door. What was Mrs. Kennedy's astonish- 
 ment when she recognised in him her husband's cruel and faithless jailer! He, 
 too, recognised the woman he had wronged, and quailed before her, not 
 knowing what revenge for his conduct she would take, now that she had 
 him in her power. She left him and ran upstairs, he not knowing what 
 was about to happen, and tremljling as he saw her reappear with some- 
 
78 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 But, notwithstanding these persecutions, the Church throve. 
 The ministers were shut out from their pulpits. But many a 
 friendly farmer gladly gave his barn ; and where there was 
 no roof to shelter them, was there not the open field to stand 
 in, and the blue sky to cover them? They had some solemn 
 gatherings at this trying period. At times they ventured in 
 defiance of the bishops to observe the Lord's Supper together. 
 With fear and trembling, the poor persecuted people gathered 
 from farm-house and cottage under the shelter of night to the 
 appointed rendezvous, and, with sentinels warily posted to tell 
 them of the approach of the enemy, they broke the Bread and 
 drank of the Cup which told them of the Saviour whom they 
 loved.^ Gradually gathering courage, they began about the year 
 1668 to build humble places of worship. The rude plainness 
 of many of the older Presbyterian churches of Ireland, and the 
 obscure backward sites which they occupy, are easily accounted 
 for when we remember the untoward circumstances of the times. 
 It was not that our forefathers were lacking in taste, or had any 
 love for ugliness or meanness. But necessity was laid upon 
 them, and they could only do the best that was in their power. 
 
 There were several reasons why they were allowed now to 
 raise their heads again for a little. It had been found that the 
 suspicions of their loyalty were quite unfounded. Hence, 
 though the bishops were as anxious as ever to annoy them, the 
 Government grew less and less wiUing to assist these worthies in 
 their persecuting work. Thus Boyle, who succeeded Jeremy 
 Taylor as bishop of Down in 1667, summoned twelve Presby- 
 terian ministers to appear before him to answer for their non- 
 conformity. It was his intention to excommunicate them, and 
 likely to proceed to still severer measures, such as his brother 
 
 thing in her hand. It was a large dishful of meal which she poured into the 
 beggar's wallet, quietly saying, ' This is my way of revenge. ' ( Vide Witherow's 
 Presbyterian Memorials, i. 281.) Garland had at least one woman in it in 
 those days who I'.new the way to heap coals of fire on an enemy's head. 
 
 ' By an Act passed in 1665, any Presbyterian minister who admini tcred 
 the Lord's Supper was liable to a penalty of ;^ioo. 
 
SCENE IN THE DUBLIN THEATRE. 79 
 
 prelates had frequently adopted. But the threatened ministers 
 found a friend in their straits, as on many other occasions, in Sir 
 Arthur Forbes, the ancestor of the Granard family. Through 
 his representations in high quarters the persecution fell through, 
 and other persecutions which Boyle had intended, in case this 
 succeeded, were prevented. God had His hand over His suffering 
 servants, and did not suffer them to be tried ' above that they 
 were able.' The feeling towards them may be judged, however, 
 from the following incident: — A fine new theatre had recently 
 been erected in Smock Alley, Dublin, a building ' unto which,' 
 says Adair's Narrative^ * the bishops contributed largely.' It 
 was thought that the Dubliners would be vastly entertained in 
 the Christmas holidays if a play were put on the boards ridiculing 
 the Presbyterians. So, on 26th December 1670, a great audience 
 assembled to see the drama of The Noncotifo7'i7iist acted. A 
 poor minister is represented, — a humble man who dares to keep 
 a conscience, — and uproarious is the fun among the audience 
 as he is held up to scorn, and at last brought to the stocks. 
 It was quite a piece that the right reverend bishops, who had 
 contributed so freely to the erection of the theatre, and the clergy 
 under their supervision, who sat among the ladies and gentlemen 
 of the audience, would be sure to appreciate and enjoy. The 
 lesson of it they would hope would be learned all over the 
 country. But, lo ! just as the merriment is at its height, a great 
 crash echoes through the building. The topmost gallery, crowded 
 with spectators, has fallen. Its weight coming on the gallery 
 underneath, brings it also to the ground, and there, amid broken 
 beams and choking dust, the lords and ladies and fine gentlemen 
 and clergy, who had come to mock at their Presbyterian brethren, 
 are mixed up in one horrid undistinguishable mass of destruction. 
 A fearful scene ensued. In the end, corpse after corpse was 
 dragged out of those terrible ruins, and not a few who escaped 
 with life bore to the grave the marks of that unfortunate day 
 when they held up to mockery the Presbyterian ministers. 
 
 It is not a little remarkable that the endowment which after- 
 
So HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 wards became so well known under the name of the * Regium 
 Donum' dates from the troublous days of which we now speak, 
 and was first granted by a man apparently so unlikely to favour 
 Presbyterianism, or any kind of earnest religion, as Charles II. 
 Its bestowal was due in no small measure to that staunch friend 
 of the Church, Sir Arthur Forbes. Being in London in 1672, he 
 had a conference with the King ; one result of which was a grant 
 of ;^i2oo per annum. When the state of the treasury came to be 
 exactly ascertained, it was found that only ^600 were available, 
 and the grant was accordingly made at that amount.^ This 
 was the origin of the endowment which the Irish Presbyterian 
 Church enjoyed from this time onward, with the exception of 
 some intervals, until the passing of the 'Irish Church Act' in 
 1869. 
 
 About this period the Irish Presbyterian Church had the 
 advantage for a time of the presence and ministry of the 
 celebrated John Howe, whose Living Temple and Blessedness 
 of the Righteous are among our noblest Christian classics. He 
 came to Ireland in 1671 as chaplain to Lord Massareene, and 
 for five years he lived with him at Antrim Castle. We picture 
 him to ourselves wandering along the shores of Lough Neagh, 
 and through the bosky woods from which one of the mysterious 
 round towers still rises above the trees, as when he lived close by. 
 While here he sat with the Presbytery, and regularly preached 
 weekly in the parish church by special favour. One of his best 
 books, that on Delighti7ig 171 Cod, was published during his resi- 
 dence at Antrim. With the sanction of the Presbyterian Cliurch 
 he also taught in what may be called the Presbyterian College of 
 the period. For, in conjunction with the Rev. Thomas Gowan, 
 minister of Antrim, he instructed students at that place in 
 theology and philosophy, — doubtless a most valuable service at 
 a time when there was no other means in Ireland of training 
 candidates for the Presb\terian ministry than such a 'school of 
 philosophy.' 
 
 ^ Kitkpatrick's Presbyterian Loyalty, 384. 
 
FRANCIS MAKEMIE. 8 1 
 
 Persecution still blazed out, however, at fitful intervals against 
 the little flock. The people were bound by law to attend the 
 Episcopal Church, and the records of the period tell us of 
 multitudes of them summoned before the bishops' courts for their 
 non-attendance, and subjected to such heavy fines as entirely to 
 exhaust their means. Spies watched ministers and people, ever 
 ready to give information of their proceedings. About the year 
 1684 we find the little liberty which the bishops had been 
 forced to give to them withdrawn, their churches forcibly closed, 
 and their preaching again prohibited. For two years they 
 had to worship once more in barns and secluded glens, and all 
 who were faithful to conscience were oppressed with ruinous and 
 repeated fines for the crime of not using the Prayer-Book. Very 
 strange it seems to us, that a Church whose clergy had been 
 endowed by the King, in token of his appreciation of their 
 sufferings and services, should be so treated. But in the con- 
 fusion of the times so it was. 
 
 An event, little noticed at the time, occurred now, which was 
 destined to bear splendid fruit in after days. The largest, and in 
 many respects the most powerful Presbyterian Churches in the 
 world, are those of the United States of America. They number 
 in all at the present day nearly 14,000 congregations. ^ The 
 Irish Presbyterian Church has the high honour of having given 
 them the founder of their first Presbytery. The name of the Rev. 
 Francis Makemie deserves to be held in constant remembrance 
 for this service, by which, as the Church of Scotland became the 
 mother of the Irish Presbyterian Church in the beginning of the 
 seventeenth century, the Irish Presbyterian Church, in her turn, 
 when the course of empire westward took its way, became in 
 some sort the mother of the Church of the United States. 
 Makemie was a Donegal man, having been born in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Ramelton. He was licensed by the Lagan Presbytery 
 in 168 1, and appears to have proceeded to America shortly after. 
 He settled in eastern Virginia, where he died in 1708. If he 
 
 ' Proceedi?igs of Third General Council. Appendix, p. 30. 
 
 F 
 
82 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERtAN CHURCH. 
 
 hoped by emigrating to escape theprelatic persecution which was 
 raging at home, he was disappointed, as we find him imprisoned 
 in New York in January 1707 for preaching without the permission 
 of the Episcopahan governor ; nor was he released until he had 
 paid costs amounting to upwards of ;!^8o.^ Makemie was by no 
 means the first Presbyterian minister whom Ireland gave to 
 America. In 1668 we find ' a young man from Ireland who hath 
 already had good success in his work,' ^ but whose name we do 
 not know, labouring in Maryland. During the troublous times 
 from 1670 to 1680, many families emigrated to America from the 
 North of Ireland, most of whom settled in Maryland and Virginia, 
 and these seem to have looked to the Presbytery of Lagan for 
 ministers. The Rev. William Trail, minister of Lifford in that 
 Presbytery, and also its clerk, went to Maryland about 1682, and 
 officiated there for some years. Makemie also went first to 
 Maryland, and thence to Virginia. The Rev. Josias Makie, a St. 
 Johnston man, went out about 1690. In Delaware, the pioneer 
 Presbyterian minister was the Rev. Samuel Davis, who seems 
 also to have been an Irishman.^ Before the close, therefore, of 
 the seventeenth century, in three of the present States, Maryland, 
 Virginia, and Delaware, Irish Presbyterian ministers were at 
 work. It was in the spring of 1706 that Makemie organized the 
 first American Presbytery — the Presbytery of Philadelphia. It 
 consisted of seven ministers, of whom two others besides Makemie 
 were Irishmen, Davis, already mentioned, and John Hampton, a 
 Burt man, who came out in 1705. Subsequently, four other 
 Irishmen became members of it, making seven in all. In 17 16 a 
 remarkable North of Ireland Presbyterian arrived on American 
 soil, William Tennent, destined to become the * father of Presby- 
 terian colleges in America.' * Webster says of him — ' To William 
 Tennent, above all others, is owing the prosperity and enlarge- 
 
 1 Note by Rev. Dr. Killen in Reid, ii. 342. 
 
 2 Letter from Matthew Hill, Maryland, to Richard Baxter, written in 1669, 
 in Rriggs's American Pi'esbyieriani^ifi. Appendix, p. 42. 
 
 3 Briggs, 124. * Briggs, 187. 
 
THE LOG COLLEGE. 83 
 
 ment of the Presbyterian Church.'^ His famous Log College at 
 Neshaminy, which to Whitfield seemed to resemble one of the 
 schools of the prophets more than any seminary that he had 
 ever seen, did mighty service to the cause of religion in America. 
 The Synod of Ulster gave it its imprimatur in 1754, and Irish 
 Presbyterians sent ^^500 to its help.^ In 17 18, Mr. M'Gregor, 
 minister of Aghadoey, went out with a number of his people 
 to New Hampshire, and founded a city, which they called, in 
 patriotic recollection of the county they had left, Londonderry. 
 It is a pleasant memory to us, and no small honour, that we 
 were enabled to take so prominent a part in laying the founda- 
 tions of a Presbyterianism which has become so potent for good 
 as that of the United States. 
 
 1 Webster's History of tlie Presbyterian Church in America, p. 367. 
 * Davies's Journal in Foote's Sketches of Virginia^ pp. 267, 275. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 UNDER JAMES AND WILLIAM. 
 
 Charles II. died in 1685, and the ill-starred reign of his brother 
 James II. began. The sceptre was not long in his hand until he 
 made it manifest that he intended to make Romanism the national 
 religion. In Ireland the steps which he took for this purpose 
 were as decided as they were undisguised. Tyrconnel, a zealous 
 Romanist, who was commonly called by the sufficiently descrip- 
 tive sobriquet of * Lying Dick Talbot/ was installed in supreme 
 authority, and soon showed that if James was zealous for Rome, 
 so was he. Protestant judges were superseded by Romanists. 
 Romanists were thrust into the Privy Council, into the municipal 
 corporations, into the magistracy. The Irish army was Romanized 
 to the utmost, Protestant officers and soldiers ousted, and their 
 places filled with Romanists, while the chaplaincies were given to 
 priests. One Romanist was made Lord Chancellor, another 
 Attorney- General. The high offices about the Court and in the 
 Executive were in like manner given to Romanists. High 
 Sheriffs of the same persuasion were appointed. Without doubt 
 the complete ascendancy of Romanism was aimed at, and would 
 have been accomplished, had not Providence in His own strange 
 way frustrated a design which would have turned the whole of 
 both Ireland and England into an appanage of the Pope. The 
 events, by means of which this came about, form one of the most 
 stirring and instructive epochs in our national history. 
 
 One December day, in 1688, a letter was seen lying in the street 
 of the quiet little County Down village of Comber, within a few 
 miles of Belfast. It was picked up by a passer-by, and seen to be 
 
 81 
 
SHUTTING THE GATES OF DERRY. 85 
 
 addressed to the Earl of Mount- Alexander, who lived in the 
 neighbourhood.^ When opened by the Earl it was found to be 
 anonymous, and evidently the work of some illiterate person, the 
 grammar and composition being execrable. Its purport was to 
 warn Lord Mount- Alexander that a general massacre of Protes- 
 tants had been planned for the 9th December, six days from tlie 
 date of the letter, and to bid him take measures for his own safety 
 and that of his friends. Copies of this mysterious missive were 
 soon sent hither and thither through the country, and in the 
 excited state of public feeling they produced the utmost alarm. 
 Among other places, the news reached Derry on the morning of 
 the 7th December, and, by a curious coincidence, on the same 
 morning came a letter from Limavady announcing that a regi- 
 ment of Roman Catholics, recently raised by Lord Antrim, had 
 arrived there the previous day on their way to the Maiden City, 
 where they might be expected at once. The two communica- 
 tions, arriving simultaneously, produced the deepest excitement. 
 Soon groups of the inhabitants were seen standing about the 
 Derry streets discussing them. The 9th of December was now 
 but two days off, and it was believed that Antrim's regiment of 
 Redshanks was coming to take its part in the general massacre. 
 The ferment in the little city was intense. Business was all but 
 suspended, and the whole talk was of the impending attack. 
 While the situation was being discussed, word came that the van- 
 guard of the expected regiment was already in sight, and, looking 
 from the walls across the Foyle, several companies of it were to be 
 seen over at the Waterside. Already some were crossing the ferry, 
 and two of the officers were at the gates, demanding admittance 
 for the troops in King James's name. What was to be done ? 
 Alderman Tomkins, the Mayor's deputy, was in a quandary. He 
 consulted the Rev. James Gordon, Presbyterian minister of Glen- 
 dermot, who was in the city (Derry Presbyterian Church hap- 
 pened to be vacant at the time). * Shut the gates and keep them 
 out,' was the short and bold advice which he received. But the 
 ' This title became extinct in 1757. 
 
S6 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 Episcopalian bishop, Ezekiel Hopkins by name, strongly dis- 
 approved of such a step. They were King James's troops, and 
 King James ought to be obeyed. He was 'the anointed of the 
 Lord,' and subjects should under all circumstances submit to 
 their sovereign. The Alderman was quite nonplussed amid this 
 contradictory advice. But there are times when aldermen and 
 bishops, and all such importances, if they choose to oppose them- 
 selves to common sense, must be quietly left standing in their 
 dignity, while others, who, though they may have no titles to their 
 names, have got the gift of mother wit, act. Five minutes will 
 settle the matter now one way or other, for the Redshanks are by 
 this time within sixty yards of the Ferryquay Gate. Fortunately 
 for Derry, for us all, the wise advice of the Presbyterian minister 
 was taken. Eight or nine young men, apprentices of the city, 
 ran to the gate, at which the measured tread of the advancing 
 troops could already be heard. In a trice they had raised the 
 drawbridge, shut the gate, and locked it, leaving the astonished 
 Redshanks to stand outside in wonderment at their boldness, and 
 Bishop Ezekiel Hopkins to go to his palace astonished too, and in 
 sore dudgeon at the disrespect shown to his reverend authority, 
 — the authority of the consecrated bishop, and to his royal master 
 King James. 
 
 But Antrim's men are still at the gate, and showing no disposition 
 to retire. They must be got out of that. 'Bring a great gun this 
 way ! ' cries James Morrison, one of the citizens, loud enough for the 
 Redshanks to hear. The hint is enough. In the twinkling of an 
 eye the whole party are seen scampering down the hill, scattered 
 by the bare mention of a shot. It is a race who will reach the ferry 
 first, to be out of the reach of those determined Derry men. 
 
 No reader will grudge the little space required here for 
 a record of the names of the thirteen Apprentice Boys (for 
 three or four joined the eight or nine who actually closed the 
 Ferryquay Gate, and assisted in securing the others). They 
 deserve to be held in honour by all Ulster men, by all Irishmen, 
 the world over. They were — Henry Campsie, William Crook- 
 
THE 'prentice BOYS. 87 
 
 sTianKS, Robert Sherrard, Daniel Sherrard, Alexander Irwin, 
 James Steward, Robert Morrison, Alexander Cunningham, 
 Samuel Hunt, James Spike, John Cunningham, William Cairns, 
 and Samuel Harvey. No wonder their memory is cherished in 
 the Maiden City, and far beyond it. It should be specially 
 cherished by all Presbyterians. For these young men who saved 
 the city that day were almost all, perhaps all, Presbyterians, and 
 more than one Presbyterian minister has been proud to be able 
 to trace his ancestry to a Derry 'Prentice Boy. 
 
 But the Bishop has not yet got over his horror at the temerity 
 of these Presbyterian lads. So he comes down to the Diamond 
 and makes a speech, descanting on the enormity of what has been 
 done, and on the want of reverence for * the Lord's anointed ' of 
 which the 'Prentice Boys have been guilty. The people, however, 
 are in no mood for hearing him. * My Lord,' cries young Irwin out 
 of the crowd, * your doctrines are doubtless very good, but just 
 at present we can't hear you out.' Alderman Tomkins sides with 
 the Bishop, and tries to get the brave deed undone. Fortunately 
 in vain. The gates are kept closed. The Apprentice Boys mount 
 guard upon them. They arm themselves from the magazine. 
 Next day Bishop Ezekiel finds he has been long enough in Derry. 
 Remarkable to relate, the city was able to get on without him. 
 
 It was on a Friday that Derry thus took up her determined 
 attitude. The following Sabbath was the date named in the 
 Comber letter for the massacre of the Protestants, and we may 
 imagine the dread with which its approach was awaited all over 
 Ulster. But the day passed without the expected scene of blood. 
 The warning of the Comber letter proved happily false. But, 
 whatever had been the purpose of its author, it had the effect of 
 closing the gates of Derry. 
 
 'Lying Dick' was furious when he heard of the behaviour of 
 the Derry men. As his manner was, he wreaked his vengeance 
 on his wig, flinging it in a passion into the fire. He gave imme- 
 diate orders that Lord Mountjoy and Colonel Lundy (whose 
 name was destined to be bracketed with that of Bishop Hopkins 
 
88 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 in an evil fame) should go down with troops and occupy the re- 
 fractory city. But one thing Derry had made up its mind about, 
 — it would allow no Papist, on any pretext whatever, to enter 
 its gates. Lundy was an Episcopalian, however, and he was 
 admitted as governor, with two companies of Protestant soldiers. 
 But the citizens took good care to keep up at the same time their 
 own six companies of guards, which they had formed immediately 
 after the closing of the gates, and to keep up also a sharp look- 
 out on matters in general, and the new governor in particular. 
 Meanwhile James II. has fled from England. The news of the 
 landing of William of Orange at Torbay, of his triumphal march 
 to London, and of his being already in occupation of St. James's 
 Palace, has travelled slowly over to Ireland. Sides must defi- 
 nitely be taken, and taken at once, for James is coming up to 
 Ulster with an army. Lieutenant-General Hamilton is in the 
 North alrehdy, and the Protestants have not been able to make 
 good their stand against him. At 'The Break of Dromore' the Wil- 
 liamites, headed by Sir Arthur Rawdon, have fled before superior 
 numbers. Hillsborough Castle has fallen and been plundered. 
 The same fate has overtaken Lisburn and Antrim. The Pro- 
 testant troops, under Rawdon and Baker, have been obliged to 
 fall back on Coleraine. Here, protected by a mud wall and a 
 ditch on three sides, with the Bann defending the fourth, Hamil- 
 ton's forces are gallantly repulsed. But a line of defence, some 
 thirty miles in length, was too much for the comparatively few 
 Protestant troops to hold, and it soon became necessary to 
 evacuate Coleraine. So, on Sabbath, April 7th, the whole Pro- 
 testant forces marched out of it across the mountains to Uerry, 
 burning up all supplies which might be useful to the enemy as 
 they went along, and thus it came to pass in the end that almost 
 the whole Protestantism of the North of Ireland concentrated 
 itself on that little city on the banks of the Foyle. Derry was 
 the last hope of Irish Protestantism. Its fate was to be settled 
 behind those old grey walls. If Derry can hold out — well. If 
 she falls — woe, woe, woe to Ulster and the kingdom 1 
 
lundy's treachery. 89 
 
 Lundy, the Governor, who had now charge of the city, was 
 one of the falsest of men. He professed fealty to William, while 
 he did his utmost for James. He was a Protestant Episcopalian, 
 yet all the while the best friend of the Romanists. It would 
 take long to rehearse the story of his conduct, his pretences 
 of activity, his secret plottings, his base and dishonourable tem- 
 porizing. After having induced every Ulster garrison to retire 
 upon Derry, until the whole contest between William and James, 
 between Protestantism and Popery, between constitutional liberty 
 and tyrannical oppression, was staked upon its fate, he suddenly 
 discovered that Derry was untenable, and advised its surrender. 
 Through his influence the principal gentry who had come in 
 took their departure, and the English officers who had been sent 
 over with troops for the assistance of the city sailed away back 
 with them to England. Fortunately the governor's falsehoods 
 were found out by the citizens. When King James was already 
 in person before the gates, and Lundy's whole efforts were 
 directed towards a surrender, the spirit of the people rose again 
 to the occasion. As, before, they had turned deaf ears to the 
 aldermanic and episcopal counsels which would fain have pre- 
 vented them closing the gates, so now they refused to open them 
 at the bidding of the Governor or any one else, and the last that 
 was seen of Lundy in Derry was when, one evening, disguised as 
 a private soldier, with a load of matchwood on his back, he slunk 
 along the streets in the gloaming, got down to the river, and 
 embarking, stole away from a city, the intelligent, determined 
 spirit of whose inhabitants had proved more than a match for 
 his cowardly plots, as it had for the pusillanimity of its bishop 
 and Alderman Tomkins. To this day the memory and the name 
 of Lundy are execrated in Derry, as well they may be. 
 
 Lundy being got rid of, the question was who should be ap- 
 pointed to fill his place. Captain Adam Murray, a Presbyterian 
 elder, and a singularly brave man, who had taken the lead in 
 opposing Lundy's traitorous machinations, would have been 
 rapturously chosen. But he declined the honour, and at a 
 
90 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 council of the officers Major Baker was elected, and held 
 office till his death. The Rev. George Walker, rector of 
 Donoughmore, and also, it would appear, incumbent of Lissan, 
 and perhaps of a third parish,^ was at the same time appointed 
 assistant governor, and placed in charge of the provisions. 
 Walker managed, when the siege was over, to take all the honour 
 and glory of the defence of the city to himself. He represented 
 himself as the Governor, ignored everybody else, and trumpeted 
 his own praises so persistently and skilfully, that not a few people 
 to this day regard him as the real hero of the siege. He was 
 nothing of the kind, however. From the glimpses which we get 
 of him in the diaries of the period, he seems to have been a 
 small-minded and pompous old man, intolerably vain and egotis- 
 tical, bigoted, fonder of his glass than he should have been, not 
 above altering a letter or official document when it suited his 
 purpose, and rather economical of truth. He was not even 
 regarded with the most implicit confidence by the garrison. On 
 one occasion a number of charges were brought against him, in 
 the prosecution of which over a hundred officers, some of them, 
 like Murray, men of the highest position and reputation in the city, 
 were agreed. He was accused of planning the surrender of the 
 city, and even of embezzling the stores. It is not fair to the 
 memories of the brave men who did the real work at Derry, to 
 allow him to clothe himself in the glory which really belongs to 
 them. He had charge of the stores, oversaw the weighing and 
 serving out of the bread and meat to the garrison. But with the 
 military proceedings he had simply nothing to do, and he was 
 certainly not the Governor. It does not appear that he ever 
 commanded in so much as a skirmish.'^ Major Baker held com- 
 mand till he died, and after him Colonel Mitchelburn. Walker 
 was never anything but assistant in charge of the stores. 
 
 ^ Ulster Journal of ArchcBology, ii. 132. 
 
 2 He talks, in his account of tlie siege, of his military exploits. But no 
 one was aware of them but himself. ' As to the enemy, he was a man of 
 peace all the time, and was guilty of shedding no other blood to stain his 
 coat but that of the grape.' — Invisible ChamJ>ion, 8. 
 
HORRORS OF THE SIEGE OF DERRY. 9 1 
 
 The city was now closely invested without,^ and the strictest 
 arrangements were maintained within. Every man had his 
 post, and his clear instructions as to his duty. Walls and 
 bastions were carefully manned. Two cannon were planted 
 on the top of the Cathedral tower. There were cannon at 
 the gates and cannon in the Diamond. The street pavements 
 were torn up, and the stones piled along the walls, for use 
 against the enemy. Soon James's cannonade opens furious 
 and heavy. Shells, large and small, are thrown in in 
 multitudes. Roofs and walls of houses come crashing down on 
 the tenants. Graves in the Cathedral burying-ground are torn 
 up, and corpses thrown out of them, sometimes even over the 
 surrounding wall. People are killed as they pass along the 
 streets. The worst was that the garrison could not return this 
 fire in kind, having neither mortars nor bombs. But they annoyed 
 and seriously injured the enemy by repeated sallies, in which 
 conspicuous daring was shown. Murray was a leading spirit in 
 these onsets. In one of them he slew the French general 
 Maumont with his own hand. Murray, indeed, was the real 
 hero of the siege. 
 
 As the weeks rolled on, the scanty supplies of food in the city 
 began to run alarmingly low. The garrison was reduced to 
 shorter and shorter allowance, and by and by famine, with its 
 usual concomitant, disease, began to work even sadder havoc 
 in the city than the bombs and cannon-balls of the besiegers. 
 Everything that could be eaten was seized on with avidity. 
 Dogs, lean, skinny, half-starved horses, cats, rats, mice, and 
 tallow were consumed, and even sold at high prices. Yet, 
 terrible as the suffering was, — the fire of the enemy dealing con- 
 stant destruction, and sickness and starvation daily thinning the 
 ranks, and reducing the living to walking skeletons, — there was no 
 thought of surrender. The very word was forbidden to be uttered, 
 under penalty of death. The ammunition began to fail, and brick- 
 bats, coated with lead, had to be used for cannon-balls. But no 
 1 The siege proper commenced on i8th April, 1689. 
 
92 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 straits would induce the Derry men to entertain the thought of 
 capitulation. That was one thing they had sternly and deter- 
 minedly made up their minds about. 
 
 In June, General Rosen was sent by James, who was growing 
 impatient, to take the command, and push forward the siege with 
 greater vigour. His name will be for ever associated with an act 
 of horrible barbarity, of which only a fierce savage could have 
 been guilty. Infuriated at the refusal of the garrison to yield, he 
 ordered a message to be shot into the city in an empty shell, 
 informing the Derry men that if they did not open the gates 
 within twenty-four hours, he would gather all the Protestants on 
 whom he could lay hands in the surrounding country, sparing 
 neither age nor sex, and drive them under the walls, leaving them 
 there to die in sight of their friends. It was a terrible threat, 
 well calculated to stagger brave men. No great wonder if it 
 had proved unendurable. But the answer was a stem refusal. 
 Perhaps there was some lingering thought that cruel and relent- 
 less as Rosen was known to be, he would yet not carry out his 
 proposal in all its force. If this idea was entertained, the 
 Derry men were soon undeceived. One Monday evening they 
 descried from the walls a motley crowd advancing towards them, 
 with a gang of soldiery behind, driving them on. It was a piteous 
 sight to see the aged patriarch tottering wearily along on his staff 
 • — the mother with her infant in her arms — and to hear the cries 
 of the poor children, as hungry, and tired, and terrified, they 
 clung to their parents ; and still more piteous to watch them as 
 darkness fell, lying on the bare ground without shelter, and to 
 hear their cries all through the night. Next morning a still 
 larger crowd of a similar kind appeared, until altogether some 
 twelve hundred hapless people were massed together round the 
 beleaguered city. What made the sight more trying, was the fact 
 thatjlooking down from his guard-post, the soldier could recognise 
 in that throng the face of his own aged mother or father, or his 
 sister, or his wife. It was an awful trial ; but, melting as the 
 sight was, it did not move the men of Derry from their stern 
 
Rosen's cruelty. ■ 93 
 
 watchword of ' No Surrender ! ' And to the honour of their 
 friends be it told, from that miserable crowd itself went up a cry 
 to the garrison on the walls, begging them not to be moved, out of 
 pity for them, to yield. So those nights and days went on — the 
 starving Protestant garrison within, their starving mothers, and 
 wives, and sisters, and children without, and the cruel enemy all 
 round. But still no man suggested surrender. 
 
 What did the Derry men do ? They raised the biggest gallows 
 they could build on one of the bastions, in full view of the Romish 
 army, and told some twenty prisoners whom they had captured to 
 prepare for death. The prisoners ask leave to write to Rosen, 
 and a letter goes out signed by five of them in the name of all, 
 begging the general not to have them put to a criminal's death. 
 The determination of the garrison wins the day. The cruel 
 stratagem, which would have disgraced a Turk, is abandoned. 
 The poor people are allowed to go home ; and when the last of 
 them is seen safely on the way, the gallows comes down from the 
 Double Bastion. It had done its work well, though not a victim 
 had swung from it. 
 
 So the siege went on, matters growing worse and worse in the 
 city, hunger raging fiercely, and hunger and loathsome food 
 together producing terrible sickness and many deaths. ' Oh, 
 none will believe,' says John Hunter of Maghera, who served 
 during the siege, *but those who have found it by experience, 
 what some poor creatures suffered in that siege. ... I was so 
 weak from hunger that I fell under my musket one morning as I 
 was going to the walls, yet God gave me strength to continue all 
 night at my post there, and enabled me to act the part of a 
 soldier, as if I had been as strong as ever I was. Yet my face 
 was blackened with hunger. I was so hard put to it by reason 
 of the want of food, that I had hardly any heart to speak or walk ; 
 and yet when the enemy was coming, as many a time they did, to 
 storm the walls, then I found as if my former strength returned to 
 me. I am sure it was the Lord that kept the city, and none else, 
 for there were many of us that could scarcely stand on our feet 
 
94 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 before the enemy attacked the walls, who, when they were 
 assaulting the out-trenches, ran out against them most nimbly 
 and with great courage. Indeed it was never the poor starved 
 men that were in Derry that kept it, but the mighty God of Jacob, 
 to whom be praise for ever and ever ! ' ^ 
 
 All this time ships loaded with ammunition, with meal, and 
 beef, and biscuit had been lying for weeks down Lough Foyle, 
 sent from England for the relief of the garrison. From the tower 
 of the Cathedral their tall masts were plainly visible. But the 
 command of this relief expedition had been entrusted to a man, 
 Major-General Kirke, who, whether from lack of pluck or lack of 
 will, was evidently wholly unfit for his charge. There he lay 
 with his cargoes of provisions and war material, watching the 
 daily signals of distress which were made to him, but all the time 
 making no earnest effort to reach the quay. True, there were 
 difficulties in the way. At Culmore, where the Lough narrows so 
 that a man on one shore can easily hail a friend on the other, 
 stood a fort of which the Jacobites had gained possession, and 
 any ship which sought to make her way up to Derry must face the 
 fire of its guns. Besides, the besiegers, determined to bar all 
 communication with the city, had stretched a formidable boom, 
 constructed of great beams of wood, fastened together with chains, 
 and cables twelve inches thick, across the river. But these 
 obstacles, formidable though they were, were not insurmountable, 
 as the sequel showed, and it is a soldier's business to expect to 
 meet difficulties, and, at least, do his best to overcome them. 
 Kirke did nothing. There he lay with his ships full of food week 
 after week for seven weeks, which must have seemed to the Derry 
 men like the seven years of famine in Egypt, while they starved 
 and died, till the living were scarcely able to bury the dead. At 
 length the same intrepid Presbyterian clergyman who had given 
 the advice to shut the gates in the faces of the Redshanks, the 
 
 ^ Graham's Ireland Preset-ved, p. 365, quoted in Witherow's Derry and 
 Enniskillcn, p. 158. Tlie Rev. James Hunter, 3rd Coleraine, was great- 
 grandson of this John Hunter. 
 
THE RELIEF OF DERRY. 95 
 
 Pev. James Gordon of Glendermot, got somehow on board 
 Kirke's squadron, had an interview with him, and gave him very 
 plainly a piece of his mind on the delay which had taken place. 
 Whether it was the influence of this remonstrance, or the reception 
 of more peremptory instructions from England that now moved 
 him, at all events orders were at length given that the passage of 
 the river should be attempted. It should have been done weeks 
 before. 
 
 It is a Sabbath day, and the July sun shines on the waters of 
 lovely Lough Foyle, as four ships are seen detaching themselves 
 from Kirke's flotilla. One, the Dartmouth^ is a frigate, com- 
 manded by Captain Leake, who has sailed round from Carrick- 
 fergus along the Antrim coast, to assist in this enterprise. The other 
 three are provision-ships — the Motmtjoy, of Derry, commanded 
 by Captain Micaiah Browning ; the Phcenix, of Coleraine, with 
 Captain Andrew Douglas in charge of her ; and the J erusalcm^ 
 Captain Reynell. On they move till they are abreast of the fort at 
 Culmore, which no sooner sees the business they are at than it 
 opens fire. Leake sails the Dartinoiith between the fort and 
 the provision-ships, receiving all the fire, and returning it with 
 interest. While fort and frigate are battering away at each other, 
 the Mountjoy and the Phoenix (the third vessel having orders not 
 to move forward until the others are seen to have got a clear 
 passage) are taking full advantage of the rising tide, and sailing 
 on. But soon the wind dies away into a calm, and all along 
 the shore on both sides of the river the enemy swarm down thick 
 as bees. They bring their batteries to bear upon the ships. They 
 rake them with a determined fire of musketry. The air of the 
 Sabbath evening resounds with the hoarse shouts of the Jacobites, 
 with the roar of cannon, and the rattle of small arms. Still the 
 ships hold gallantly on. Now the Mounfjoy, which leads the 
 way, is approaching the boom. She strikes it, but, recoiling from 
 the blow, runs fast aground. The whole shore from bank to bank 
 now re-echoes to the wild cheering of the Jacobites. Volley on 
 volley is fired into the stranded ship, and, sure of making her their 
 
96 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 own, they rush to board her. But she is not theirs yet. Captain 
 Browning orders all the ship's guns on the land side to be 
 simultaneously discharged. By the recoil of this broadside she 
 is thrust out into deep water, and floats again. Meanwhile a 
 picked crew on board a small boat have been hewing at the 
 boom with hatchet and hammer. The Moimtjoy makes for it 
 again. This time she crashes clean through it as through a wall 
 of paper. Her brave captain at this moment falls dead on deck, 
 shot through the head. But slacking no speed, she sails on, and 
 the Phoenix coming close in her wake, the two ships are soon 
 in full sail for Derry quay. By ten o'clock they are moored, 
 and it is not long till a liberal ration is served out to every 
 one. Brave Derry is at last saved. James's army quickly took 
 in the whole situation. On Thursday, ist August, they were in 
 full retreat. The siege was over, after having lasted a hundred 
 and five days.^ 
 
 We have lingered somewhat long over the story of this 
 memorable siege, because, though so often told, it occupies such 
 a unique position in the history of Ulster that its people never 
 weary of hearing it, — because the accounts which are periodically 
 given of it are not always distinguished by their fidelity to 
 historical accuracy, — and because the defence of Derry was very 
 largely a Presbyterian exploit. It was a Presbyterian minister, 
 as we have seen, who counselled the shutting of the gates, and 
 the same spirited man who urged Kirke to relieve the garrison. 
 Most if not all of the Apprentice Boys were Presbyterians. 
 Episcopalians and Presbyterians united in the defence. But the 
 vast majority of those who stood behind the walls were Presby- 
 terians. Murray, to whose prowess and determination it owed 
 so much, was a Presbyterian. 'Among the superior officers 
 of the garrison the Episcopalians and Presbyterians were nearly 
 equal; among the inferior officers the latter were in the majority; 
 but among the ordinary soldiers they were more than ten to 
 
 ^ For a detailed account of the siege, see Witherow's Derry and 
 Enniskillen, 
 
PRESBYTERIANISM DURING THE SIEGE. 97 
 
 one.'^ It is not the least of the honours which Irish Presbyterians 
 can justly claim — that it was they that bore the brunt of the 
 siege which saved Derry and Ireland for King William, and in 
 the end saved much more than either Derry or Ireland for 
 Protestantism and freedom. There were eight Presbyterian 
 ministers in Derry during the investment of the city. Presby- 
 terians and Episcopalians both used the Cathedral for worship, 
 the latter in the morning, the former in the afternoon, * besides 
 two or three other meetings in other parts of the city.' ^ A quaint 
 old poem of the period says — 
 
 ' The Church and Kirke did jointly preach and pray 
 In St. Columba's Church most lovingly, 
 Where Dr. Walker, to their great content, 
 Preached stoutly 'gainst a Popish Government. 
 Master Mackenzie ^ preached on the same theme, 
 And taught the army to fear God's great name. 
 The Reverend Rowat^ did confirm us still, 
 Preaching submission to God's holy will. 
 He hkevvise prophesied our relief, 
 When it surpassed all human belief. 
 The same was taught by learned Mr. Crooks ; ' 
 And Master Hamilton 3 showed it from his books. 
 Then Mills, * a ruling elder, spoke the same 
 Of our relief, six weeks before it came. 
 From sunrising to sunsetting they taught. 
 While we against the enemy bravely fought." ^ 
 
 It is a pity that this beautiful harmony, which might have been 
 the precursor of a united Irish Protestantism, disappeared with 
 the raising of the siege, that the Episcopalians recommenced 
 at the first opportunity their malevolent persecutions of theii 
 co-religionists, and so handed down to us the legacy, not only 
 
 *■ Witherow, 255. Mackenzie, in his Narrative of the Siege, reckons the 
 Presbyterian soldiers as fifteen to one. 
 
 2 Mackenzie. 
 
 ^ Presbyterian clergymen. 
 
 * William John Foster, Esq., J. P., Derry, is a lineal descendant of this 
 worthy elder, 
 
 5 Londerias, iii, 5. 
 
 Q 
 
98 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 of a divided Protestantism, but of embittered memories and 
 wounded feelings. They had a grand opportunity, but they 
 threw it away.^ 
 
 Enniskillen's gallant stand against the Jacobite troops on its 
 island home in Lough Erne must not be passed over in silence. 
 The conditions there were different from those in Derry. It had 
 no walls, as Derry had, nothing save the Erne to defend it, and 
 there was no siege, properly so called, at Enniskillen. The 
 tactics pursued by its garrison were to prevent the possibility of 
 a siege by continual raids on every considerable body of the 
 enemy of which they heard as being in their vicinity. In these 
 sallies they were uniformly successful. Nothing seems to have 
 been able to withstand their sudden and determined onslaughts. 
 As one result, the town was kept well supplied with provisions by 
 the booty which was brought in. The chronicles of the period 
 tell of thousands of cows and sheep captured in some of these 
 fierce sallies ; and so, while the Derry men were prolonging a 
 miserable existence on tallow and dead dogs and cats, the Ennis- 
 killeners had more food than they knew what to do with. We 
 read of good milch cows sold on their streets at the time of their 
 worst troubles for eighteen pence, and dry cows for sixpence each. 
 In other respects there was a considerable similarity between the 
 circumstances of the two defences. It was the Comber letter 
 which first alarmed Enniskillen, as it did the people of Derry. A 
 copy of it reached the former town on the 7th December, the day 
 on which the gates of the northern fortress were closed by the 
 Apprentice Boys, and, four days after, they received the news that 
 two companies of Romish soldiers were coming to take up 
 quarters among them. They resolved to refuse them admittance, 
 set carpenters speedily to work to complete a drawbridge, ex- 
 pelled every Roman Catholic from the town, in a word, made up 
 
 1 It ought to be mentioned that the glory of the defence of Derry cannot 
 be monopolized by Derry men. Within the walls were men from Antrim, and 
 Down, and Armagh, and Monaghan, and Tyrone, and Donegal, who had 
 fled thither, and joined in making a stand against the common foe. 
 
AT ENNISKILLEN. 99 
 
 their minds to hold Enniskillen, at all odds, for Protestantism. In 
 Enniskillen, as in Derry, a Presbyterian clergyman was foremost 
 in encouraging the people to stand boldly against the common 
 enemy — the Rev. Robert Kelso, minister of the town. Not only 
 did he urge them to defend the place against the emissaries of 
 Tyrconnel, but he himself took up arms and marched at the head 
 of the inhabitants who enrolled themselves in the garrison. Yet 
 it seemed a mad resolve to face the Government and the troops 
 of James with eighty men, twenty guns, and ten pounds of 
 powder — the entire strength which Enniskillen could muster,^ 
 Nevertheless they resolved to do it. The Romish troops came 
 on. It was the Sabbath day, and most of the people were at 
 church. But on the tidings of the approach of Tyrconnel's men, 
 out they sallied, and the first sight of them struck terror into the 
 intended garrison, who turned tail and fled, officers and all, to 
 Maguiresbridge, eight miles away. The first step was thus taken, 
 and Enniskillen, now committed to resistance, took proper mea- 
 sures for maintaining its position. Gustavus Hamilton was chosen 
 Governor. The townsmen were organized into two companies of 
 foot, one of which consisted mostly of sturdy Presbyterians. It 
 would take long to tell of the brave conduct of this little island 
 garrison, of their vigorous sallies all over the surrounding country, 
 wherever they heard of the enemy appearing in force — sallies 
 which they seem to have thoroughly enjoyed — of the ' Break of 
 Belleek,' in which Colonel Lloyd and a party of his men chased 
 the troops of James and relieved the Protestant garrison of Bally- 
 shannon ; of the raid, under the same brave commander, into 
 Cavan and Meath, in which they swept the whole country before 
 them, penetrated to within thirty miles of Dublin, and returned 
 without the loss of a man, bringing with them an enormous booty ; 
 of their attempt to relieve Derry, which, however, proved a task 
 too great for such a comparative handful of men, though it is hard 
 to say what might have been its result had Lloyd been the leader 
 on this occasion as before ; of the ' Battle of Belturbet,' in which 
 ' Witherow's De?-ry and Enniskillen, 177. 
 
100 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 they routed Brigadier Sutherland and his forces, and carried back 
 to Enniskillen some twenty tons of provisions, besides many 
 prisoners and a good store of ammunition ; of the * Battle of 
 Lisnaskea,' in which, about nine o'clock one July morning, they 
 charged through a bog on Colonel Anthony Hamilton and his 
 forces, and chased the whole of them like sheep through Lis- 
 naskea and a mile beyond it; and of the 'Battle of Newtonbutler/ 
 in which, on the same day, to the watchword of 'No Popery,' they 
 routed General Macarthy and his men, and, hunting all night 
 through bush and bog, left by morning scarce a foot soldier out of 
 3000 alive or uncaptured. This day of double triumph closed 
 their brilliant record. It was the 31st July, 1689, the day on 
 which James's army fled from before those frowning walls from 
 which the voice of ' Roaring Meg ' and her noisy sisters had 
 thundered their 'No Surrender.' Scouts brought the Ennis- 
 killeners the news of the clouds of dust which they had seen at 
 Castle-caulfield, within three miles of Dungannon, marking the 
 march of the Duke of Berwick's rearguard. So, almost simul- 
 taneously, the two northern strongholds of Protestantism finished 
 their memorable campaigns. 
 
 While matters had thus been progressing in Ireland, the 
 Revolution had been quickly and successfully accomplished in 
 England. On 1 8th December, 1688, James had finally left London, 
 and amid as profuse a display of orange ribbons as marks an 
 Ulster Twelfth of July, William had entered St. James's Palace. 
 As he subsequently figures conspicuously in Presbyterian history, 
 it may be well to say a word or two of him here. By his mother 
 he was grandson of Charles I., and by his father great-grandson 
 of ihat noble specimen of a man, William the Silent, 'the first 
 prince in Europe who avowed and practised those principles of 
 toleration which lie at the foundation of all religious freedom.' 
 His wife, Mary, was a daughter of James II. King William was 
 a Presbyterian. He was brought up in that faith in Holland, and 
 taught by it in those Scriptural principles which, once imbibed, 
 are sure to keep any man, prince or peasant, right, so long as he 
 
KING WILLTAM. 101 
 
 holds by them.^ It is a curious fact that the two kings who have 
 done most to make Ulster what it is, James I., to whom we owe 
 the Plantation, and William III., from whose reign we date the 
 foundation of our civil and religious liberties, were both born and 
 brought up in the Presbyterian fold. 
 
 William was also a strong Calvinist. 'The tenet of predestina- 
 tion was the keystone of his religion. He often declared that if he 
 were to abandon that tenet, he must abandon with it all belief in a 
 superintending Providence, and must become a mere Epicurean.'* 
 It was largely owing to his hearty Calvinism that 'through a life 
 which was one long disease,' with a sickly body, asthmatic and 
 consumptive, tortured by headaches and racked by coughs, and 
 living in the midst of constant peril, his spirit never sank, and he 
 was able fearlessly to pursue whatever he saw to be the path of 
 duty. 
 
 William was a stout Protestant, but nothing of a bigot. He 
 did his best to have such changes effected in the polity and ritual 
 of the Church of England that Nonconformists might be included 
 within its pale. Episcopal narrowness defeated this favourite 
 project of his, which, if it had succeeded, would have put an 
 entirely different face on the subsequent ecclesiastical history of 
 both England and Ireland. Scotland owes to him the establish- 
 ment of her Presbyterianism on the basis of the ' Revolution 
 Settlement.' There w^re no more attempts to force Prelacy on 
 her after he came to the throne. 
 
 Popular idols do not always deserve the adulation which they 
 receive. But King William III. was unquestionably one of the 
 noblest men that ever wore a crown. 
 
 One June day, in 1690, Belfast Lough presented such a stirring 
 sight as plainly told that something unusual was in the wind. 
 From the Gobbins on one side and Donaghadee on the other, 
 
 ^ ' He had been heard to utter an ominous growl when he first saw in his 
 wife's private chapel an altar decked after the Anglican fashion.' — Macaulay, 
 Jlistory of England, chap. xi. 
 
 ^ Ibid. ii. 3. 
 
102 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 right up to Carrickfergus, the waters were covered with ships. 
 Nearly 700 vessels lay at anchor on them — the largest fleet that 
 they have ever borne. They had come to escort King William 
 to Ireland. Schomberg, his favourite general, had come over 
 the preceding year with an army and prepared the way, and now 
 the King himself was about to enter on an Irish campaign. On 
 Saturday, 14th June, he landed amid great enthusiasm from the 
 yacht Mary at Carrickfergus, where the stone on which he first 
 set his foot still forms part of a flight of steps leading down to the 
 water. From Carrickfergus he rode towards Belfast, accom- 
 panied by his suite and a great crowd. At Whitehouse he was 
 met by Schomberg's carriage, * drawn by black Barbary horses,' 
 which had driven from Belfast along the strand to meet him. 
 At the north gate of Belfast ^ (which stood near where now Royal 
 Avenue intersects North Street) he was received by the Sovereign 
 (Captain Robert Lcathes) and burgesses and a great crowd of 
 the populace, who rent the air with their acclamations. After the 
 usual formalities, he was conducted to the Castle,'^ then tenanted 
 by Sir William Franklin, second husband of the Countess of 
 Donegal. That night all the streets were illuminated. The red 
 glare of bonfires gleamed from the surrounding hills, and cannon 
 thundered from point to point, telling of the arrival of the King. 
 He remained in Belfast five nights. On the Sabbath he went to 
 church. On Monday he was waited upon by a deputation of 
 Presbyterian ministers, who presented hini with a loyal address 
 of welcome. The deputation was headed by the Rev. Patrick 
 Adair, minister of Belfast, Rev. Archibald Hamilton, Armagh, 
 and Rev. William Adair, Ballyeaston. On Thursday he left 
 Belfast and passed on by Lisburn to Hillsborough, where he 
 issued his celebrated order to Christopher Carleton, Collector of 
 Customs at Belfast, authorizing him to pay £1200 per annum to 
 the clergy of the Presbyterian Church, being assured, as he said, 
 
 1 Belfast was then surrounded by ramparts, with regular gates. 
 ' It stood on the ground now occupied by Castle Market and the surround- 
 ing buildings. 
 
BATTLE OF THE BOYNE. 103 
 
 *of their constant labour to unite the hearts of others in zeal and 
 loyalty towards us.' This may perhaps be taken as the real com- 
 mencement of the Regiiim Domini, the previous grant of Charles 
 II., already mentioned, having been irregularly paid, and latterly 
 stopped altogether. From Hillsborough he joined the army then 
 encamped beside Lough-brickland, and numbering about 36,000 
 men. On the 25th June he marched with these troops to Newry. 
 On the 27th they were beyond Dundalk, for the King said he had 
 not come to Ireland to let the grass grow under his feet. On the 
 29th they passed Ardee, and on the 30th they reached the banks 
 of the famous Boyne, where the next day was to be fought the 
 battle which more than any other is remembered in Ireland to 
 this hour. By six o'clock on that memorable Tuesday morning, 
 the 1st July, the troops were in motion, every man wearing a 
 green sprig in his cap, the soldiers of James putting a bit of 
 white paper in theirs. We need not rehearse the oft-told story 
 of the famous fight which raged all through that long summer's 
 day. Both sides fought with signal bravery. But nothing could 
 withstand the disciplined valour of William's troops. The day 
 became his, though with the loss of Schomberg and many 
 another, old George Walker of Derry (who had just been pro- 
 moted to the bishopric of that place) among the rest. The King, 
 when told that he was killed, showed his opinion of the man by 
 asking what business he had to be there. James fled to Dublin, 
 and as soon as he could to France. He felt that the war was 
 virtually over ; and he was right, for though it lingered on all 
 through the following winter, the ultimate triumph of William's 
 army was secured by the victory at the Boyne. 
 
 The success of William was rather an awkward circumstance 
 for the Episcopalians. When he reached Dublin they sent a 
 deputation to him, acknowledging him as their king, and fer- 
 vently praying 'for the consummation of the good work' which 
 he had undertaken.^ Yet a few months before, with the same 
 prelate, Bishop Dopping of Meath, at their head, they had 
 ' Appendix to Leslie's Afznver to King, 29, quoted by Raid. 
 
104 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 appeared in just the same manner before King Jarnes, and 
 presented him with an address, in which they expressed their 
 * resolution to continue firm' in their loyalty to him.^ A more 
 wretched spectacle of inanity and contemptible time-serving was 
 never presented than those bishops and clergy now exhibited. 
 The glorious doctrines of passive obedience and of the divine 
 right of kings, to which poor Ezekiel Hopkins was so faithful at 
 Derry, and to which his brethren on the bench still clung, made 
 fools of them. But they knew well how to trim their sails so as 
 to suit the wind. ' While James's power was in the ascendant 
 in Dublin, they prayed for King James and his reputed son, 
 the Prince of Wales, for confusion on all his enemies, William 
 included, and for deliverance from the heinous sin of rebellion. 
 Bishop Dopping and the metropolitan clergy had so prayed on 
 the last Sunday of June ; but on that day week, when William's 
 forces had removed from among them their rightful sovereign, 
 whom they were never to forsake or oppose, they at once adopted 
 the new collects in use in England, praying for King William as 
 their lawful king, whom they had a few days before denounced 
 as a usurper, and imploring the divine blessing on the very same 
 enterprise which they had just been reprobating as an unnatural 
 rebellion. In Ulster these fluctuations in the public prayers of 
 the Established Church were still more numerous ; for, as one of 
 themselves afterwards stated, the Episcopalian clergy in many 
 parts of Ulster, according as the adherents of James or William 
 obtained the ascendancy, had been " four times in one year 
 praying forward and backward, point blank contradictor}' to one 
 another." '« 
 
 It might have been thought that the loyalty of Presbyterians 
 had now been so well and so often proved, and that the services 
 which they had recently rendered at Derry, Enniskillen, and 
 elsewhere, had been so conspicuous and valuable that the least 
 they could expect would be liberty to live, and exercise their 
 
 1 Appendix to Leslie's Auswer to Kin^, a3. 
 ' Reid, ii. 409. 
 
EPISCOPALIAN INTOLERANCE. I05 
 
 religion according to their conscience. But it was far otherwise. 
 The treatment they received now at the hands of the Episco- 
 palians forms a most melancholy chapter in the religious history 
 of Ireland. It has left behind it bitter memories of wrong not 
 easily to be erased, and is largely responsible for the want of 
 cordial union which exists to this day, to a greater or less extent, 
 between these two great branches of Protestantism, a want of 
 union which would be sad anywhere, but which in a country like 
 Ireland is simply ruinous. 
 
 In March, 1692, the Presbytery had sent a probationer 
 named Ambrose to officiate at Hillsborough. But the Epis- 
 copal incumbent, who was also chancellor of the diocese 
 and an archdeacon, Lemuel Matthews by name, swore an 
 information against him for having had the temerity to con- 
 duct worship without the aid of the Book of Common Prayer, 
 procured a warrant, and actually had him committed to prison 
 for the atrocious crime of which he had been guilty 1 In 
 October of the same year the bishops succeeded in obtaining 
 a vote of the Irish House of Lords' * Committee for Religion,' 
 providing that there should be no toleration conceded to Presby- 
 terians or others in Ireland, unless the English Test Act were 
 brought into force here, forbidding any one to hold any public 
 office whatever who did not become a communicant in the 
 Episcopal Church. At their instigation the Lord-Lieutenant 
 was induced to recommend to King William the enaction of the 
 Test. But, as might have been expected, the wise and tolerant 
 monarch refused to sanction any proceeding of the kind. If the 
 bishops, instead of persecuting their neighbours, had looked a 
 little more diligently into their own ecclesiastical affairs, they 
 would have found quite enough to occupy their time. The 
 morale of the Episcopal Church at this period seems to have 
 been frightful, if one may judge from the testimony of the 
 official records. Thus, in 1693, a memorial to the Lord-Lieu- 
 tenant called attention to the scandalous state of matters in the 
 diocese of Down and Connor, and a Royal Commission was 
 
I06 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 sent down to investigate it. The results of this visitation speak 
 for themselves. The bishop, Hackett, was deposed for selling 
 the livings and preferments, and ' for many other crimes.' The 
 archdeacon of Down, our friend Lemuel Matthews, who was so 
 scandalized by a Presbyterian presuming to officiate without the 
 Trayer-Book, was deprived of his archdeaconry, and suspended 
 from his other offices, for enormous neglect of duty, and ' other 
 things acted and committed by him.' The Dean of Connor, 
 Ward, was dismissed from his deanery for adultery. The pre- 
 bendary of Kilroot, Milne, was convicted of intemperance and 
 incontinence ; and so on with a melancholy list. A nice body 
 of dignitaries these, not only to preside over the affairs of a 
 Church of Christ, but to hinder true and faithful ministers of 
 God from preaching the gospel in the district cursed by their 
 presence ! 
 
 Irish Presbyterians at this period enjoyed no legal toleration. 
 Had the law as it stood been rigidly enforced, their worship and 
 discipline might have been completely put down. Such were the 
 thanks they received for their heroic defence of the kingdom. 
 King William, true to his principles, wished the fullest protection 
 extended to them by law ; but all he was able to do was to pre- 
 vent the scandalous statutes which still existed from being carried 
 out. The Irish bishops determined to keep the Presbyterians 
 down, and at every attempt to relieve them from the opprobrious 
 position in which they were placed, these worthies were found 
 insisting that instead of their circumstances being improved, the 
 whips with which they had been hitherto chastised should be 
 changed into scorpions. In the Irish House of Lords there 
 ■were sometimes twenty-one bishops present in a House of forty- 
 three members,! so that it can easily be seen how they were able 
 to make their influence felt. In other ways they did their utmost 
 to harass the Presbyterians. Thus, in 1698, the Rev. John 
 M'Bride, minister at Belfast, was summoned to Dublin, on the 
 
 1 This was the case on September 24, 1695, when the House rejected the 
 • heads of .1 bill for ease to the Dissenters.' 
 
PERSECUTIONS BY THE EPISCOPALIANS. I07 
 
 complaint of Walkington, the bishop of Down and Connor, for a 
 sermon which he had preached before the annual meeting of 
 the Synod of Ulster, in which he had asserted the right of 
 Church Courts to meet without the authority of the civil magis- 
 trate. He was also charged with calling himself, on the title- 
 page of the sermon, 'minister of Belfast,' and the meeting a 
 
 * provincial synod.' The bishops failed to do the good man any 
 harm, the Lords Justices dismissing the complaint. But the 
 failure was not for want of perseverance on the part of his right 
 reverend lordship to press his case. In Cookstown, the rector 
 actually had the Presbyterian church pulled down in the year 
 1 701 1 Fortunately there was connected with it one of those 
 
 * honourable women,' of whom Irish Presbyterianism has had 
 ' not a few ' in the course of its history— Mrs. Stewart of Killy- 
 moon. At once she set about building a new church at her own 
 expense for the outed people, planting it within the walls of her 
 own demesne, where she thought the intolerant rector would 
 scarcely venture to interfere with it ; and so energetically did she 
 do the work, that the building was ready for occupation in three 
 weeks ! 
 
 Away in the West of Ireland, Episcopacy manifested the same 
 intolerant spirit as in Ulster. In the year of the complaint 
 against Mr. M'Bride, the Rev. William Biggar, minister at 
 Limerick, having gone to Galway occasionally to minister to 
 some Presbyterian families which had settled there, was arrested, 
 carried before the Mayor, and thrown into jail for his action, 
 and the Lords Justices were petitioned to prohibit the establish- 
 ment of a Presbyterian congregation in Galway. Strangely as it 
 may sound in our ears, they actually did direct that no Presby- 
 terian minister should for the present preach in Galway.^ They 
 had the letter of the law on their side in issuing this prohibition, 
 for, as we have said, the Presbyterians were without legal 
 toleration. 
 
 1 The prohibition must soon have been either disregarded or removed, for 
 in 1700 there was a Presbyterian congregation in Galway with a minister. 
 
Io8 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 The Episcopalians also sought to deprive Presbyterian ministers 
 of the right to solemnize marriage. They did not hesitate to 
 stigmatize marriages celebrated by them as invalid, to apply the 
 most insulting terms to the persons so united in wedlock, and to 
 their children, and they summoned the ministers before the 
 ecclesiastical courts for exercising the right to unite their people 
 in wedlock. King William did his utmost to put a stop to 
 such proceedings. But the power of a constitutional sovereign 
 is limited, and William could not do all that he wished. In 
 March, 1702, he died, and the Presbyterians lost the best friend 
 whom they had ever had on the British throne. No wonder they 
 venerate his name and memory to this day. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. 
 
 William was hardly cold in his grave when King, bishop of 
 Derry, wrote to London urging that the Regium Donum should 
 be stopped, or if continued, so managed 'as to be an instrument 
 of division and jealousy ' among Presbyterians.^ A noble and 
 high-minded suggestion truly ! A change was now accordingly 
 made in the distribution of this grant, the Lord-Lieutenant being 
 empowered to keep it in his own hands, and give or withhold it 
 as he pleased. 
 
 Notwithstanding all the troubles in the midst of which she was 
 called to walk, the Presbyterian Church prospered marvellously.' 
 She seems to have contained the only real salt of true religion in 
 the land, and God blessed her accordingly. In 1702 the Presby- 
 teries had grown to nine — viz. Belfast, Down, Antrim, Coleraine, 
 Armagh, Tyrone (sometimes called Cookstown), Monaghan (or 
 Stonebridge), Derry, and Convoy. These were superintended by 
 
 1 King's MS. Correspondence. 
 
 * The Rev. Richard Choppin, Dublin, writing from Derry to a friend in 
 17 12, speaks of the large Presbyterian congregations of the north-west :^ 
 ' In a little country place, where few would hardly expect to see the face of a 
 Christian, you shall have on the Lord's day an auditory of 600 to 700 people. 
 Most of the ministers of whom I have inquired concerning the numbers of 
 their people have told me that they have upon their Ust 1000 examinable 
 persons, and some 1500, some 1800, while at the same time the Established 
 minister has not above six or seven, and not above three or four persons to 
 attend the service of the Church. Since I have made these observations, I 
 cease to wonder at the jealousy and rage of the clergy in these parts, and of 
 all that they can influence. For the truth is, they make a very contemptible 
 figure.' Quoted by Witherow, Presbyterian Memorials, i. 326, 
 
 109 
 
no HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 three sub-Synods — viz. those of Belfast, Monaghan, and Lrigan^ 
 and all were under the jurisdiction of the General Synod, which 
 met annually in the first week of June. These various Courts 
 were most sedulous in attending to the interests of the Church. 
 Special attention was paid to the superintendence of students. 
 We have already mentioned the ' School of Philosophy ' for their 
 training at Antrim. There was another at Killyleagh, superin- 
 tended by the Rev. James jM'Alpine ; and in 1709 the Synod 
 granted ^10 per annum to the Rev. Fulk White, ^ minister 
 of Broughshane, ' to encourage him in teaching Hebrew.' But 
 many of the Irish students went for their education to Glasgow, 
 and some to Edinburgh and St. Andrews. In 1698 it had been 
 enacted that no young man should be licensed without signing the 
 Westminster Confession of Faith. Nor was this a mere form. 
 The orthodoxy of the Church was strenuously guarded. In 1703 
 the Rev. Thomas Emlyn, minister of Wood Street, Dublin, was 
 deposed for Arianism' — the first indication of the appearance of 
 that baleful heresy which was afterwards to cause such trouble. 
 
 The year 1704 is memorable in the history of Irish 
 Presbyterianism as that in which the iniquitous Test Act 
 was introduced into Ireland. It had long been eagerly 
 longed for by the bishops, and now it came. By this law it 
 was enacted that all persons holding any public appointment 
 whatever must take the Communion in an Episcopal Church 
 within three months after their appointment, or lose their 
 ofiice. Viewed in itself, a more monstrous law could 
 scarcely be conceived. But towards the Irish Presbyterians 
 — who had served the State so long and well in many an 
 hour of trial — it was especially unjust and insulting. It 
 was hoped, doubtless, that this infamous Act would gain 
 many of them to Episcopacy ; that rather than lose their 
 
 1 Ancestor of the Whites of White Hall. 
 
 * As an illustration of the temper of the times, it may be mentioned that 
 he was indicted by Government for blasphemy, and imprisoned for two 
 jrears. 
 
THE INIQUITIES OF THE TEST ACT. Ill 
 
 position, or their hopes of preferment, they would conform. 
 If tlie enemies of Presbyterianism thought so, they soon 
 found their mistake. Our forefathers had a staunch attach- 
 ment to their Church, for which we cannot too highly venerate 
 them, and, to their honour be it told, very few of them were led 
 to turn their backs upon her by this law. Their behaviour at 
 this trying juncture, when expediency whispered temptation in 
 every ear, and when loss and degradation threatened them as the 
 penalties of fidelity, is a standing lesson for all time to us their 
 children. In Derry, of the 12 aldermen, 10 were Presbyterians, 
 and they were turned out of office. Of the 24 burgesses, 14 were 
 Presbyterians, and were expelled. This in a city which some of 
 these very men had contributed to preserve by their services 
 and sufferings to the British Crown ! In Belfast, of 13 burgesses, 
 9 were Presbyterians, and forfeited their seats. So it was over the 
 country. The Presbyterian magistrate was put off the bench, the 
 Presbyterian postmaster or postmistress out of the post office, the 
 Presbyterian town councillor out of the corporation. No wonder 
 Daniel Defoe lashed with his powerful pen an age which could 
 lend itself to such infamous proceedings.^ But, outrageous as 
 this Act and the proceedings connected with it were, all the 
 influence that the Presbyterians could employ, and all the peti- 
 tions that they could send forward, were powerless to obtain 
 them redress. They had once again to 
 
 * Know how sublime a thing it is 
 To suffer and be strong,' 
 
 During the entire reign of Queen Anne, Irish Presbyterians 
 were down-trodden beneath the feet of Episcopacy. It is 
 sickening to read of the intolerance and hatred which bishops 
 and clergy alike manifested towards them. They had no legal 
 toleration, and every attempt to give it to them was frustrated. 
 They were excluded from all public offices, down to the very 
 humblest. Their pittance of Regium Dofium was incessantly 
 
 1 Vide The Parallel ; or. Persecution of Protestants the shortest Way t^ 
 prevent the Grozvth of Popery in Ireland. London, 1704. 
 
1 12 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 inveighed against by the bishops, and the Government urged to 
 take it from them, which was actually done before the close of 
 the reign. It was made penal for a Presbyterian even to teach a 
 school. Landlords were induced to refuse them as tenants on 
 their estates, or, if accepted, to charge them higher rents than their 
 neighbours of other denominations ; and the bishops, in leasing 
 Church lands, inserted clauses prohibiting under severe penalties 
 the erection on them of Presbyterian churches, or the letting of 
 any farm to a Presbyterian tenant. The press was employed 
 to circulate pamphlets, bitter with scurrilous abuse of them. 
 Jonathan Swift, dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin, and Tisdall, vicar 
 of Belfast, were specially prominent and vigorous in this wicked 
 warfare. Not content with such measures, wherever a favourable 
 opportunity presented itself, the law was appealed to, to prevent 
 Presbyterian worship. Thus, in 1708, the Rev. James Fleming, 
 minister at Lurgan, who had been sent by the Synod to officiate 
 to the Presbyterians at Drogheda, was summoned at the instiga- 
 tion of the rector of the town, and informed that if he persisted 
 in preaching there, the law would be put in execution against 
 him. Undismayed by this threat, he appeared in the pulpit on 
 the following Sabbath, and the rector, true to his word, had him 
 summoned again, along with three of the congregation, and 
 bound over to stand trial at next assizes, where a true bill was 
 found against them. The Rev. William Biggar, now loosed from 
 his charge at Limerick, next came to take up the supply of 
 Drogheda, The rector, well upon the watch, had him arrested 
 and committed to jail for three months. The Lords Justices, how- 
 ever, interfered to protect these godly men from the malignant 
 persecutions of their enemies. Mr. Biggar was ordered to be set 
 at liberty after an incarceration of six weeks' duration, and the 
 prosecution of Mr. Fleming was directed to be withdrawn. But 
 it was not the fault of the rector that his intended victims thus 
 escaped, nor the fault of the Episcopalians if the Presbyterian 
 Church was not completely stamped out of the province. At 
 Belturbet, proceedings equally high-handed and scandalous were 
 
THE NONJURING CONTROVERSY. II3 
 
 taken. In 1709 the Presbyterian inhabitants of this town set 
 about the erection of a church, and the Presbytery of the 
 bounds met to confer with them on the matter. But a number of 
 EpiscopaHan ministers, accompanied by several justices of the 
 peace, assembled at the place, and as soon as the Presbytery 
 had entered on business, had them arrested, and informations 
 laid against them on the monstrous charge of holding an unlawful 
 and riotous assembly. Notwithstanding the absurdity of the 
 charge, a true bill was found against them at next Cavan 
 Assizes, and, to pacify their persecutors, they had to promise 
 not to build the proposed church within a mile of Belturbet, and 
 ' resolve never to give any uneasiness to the town on that account.' 
 In other places matters even went further. In the towns of 
 Antrim, Downpatrick, and Rathfriland, the dominant party 
 actually had the doors of the Presbyterian churches nailed up, so 
 that no service could be held in them. Swift did the same with 
 the Presbyterian church at Summerhill. Such was the state of 
 matters all through the reign of Queen Anne. 
 
 A source of trouble which also affected a few of the body was 
 the Nonjuring Controversy. There were some ministers who 
 refused to take the oath of abjuration, not because they had the 
 smallest sympathy with the cause of the Pretender, but from 
 scruples as to the phraseology of the oath. Three of these, the 
 Rev. Messrs. M'Bride ^ of Belfast, M'Cracken of Lisburn, and 
 Riddel, had warrants issued against them, and were compelled 
 several times to leave the country. In 17 13, Mr. M'Cracken was 
 arrested and sent to Carrickfergus jail. At the next assizes he 
 was fined in ^500, and ordered to be imprisoned for six months, 
 and then to take the oath. Pie was thus kept in confinement for 
 nearly two years and a half altogether. 
 
 Notwithstanding all this harsh treatment, in spite of the want 
 
 1 A portrait of Mr. M' Bride hangs in the session-room of the First 
 I'nitarian Church, Belfast, with the mark stiil visible of a sword-cut through 
 the 'bands,' where a soldier, on the occasion of one of the searches for him, 
 enraged at not being able to find his prey, thrust his sword through the 
 picture, then hanging in the manse. 
 
 11 
 
114 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 even of legal permission to be in the country at all, Presby- 
 terianism not only held its ground, but made steady progress. In 
 1 710 the Synod of Ulster formed a plan for the preaching of the 
 Gospel to the Irish-speaking Romanists in their own tongue. 
 Seven ministers and three probationers ^ were at this time able 
 to preach in Irish, and arrangements were made for providing 
 Bibles, Catechisms, and copies of the Confession of Faith, in that 
 language. Another important movement was the establishment 
 of the 'General Fund' in the same year 'for the support of 
 religion in and about Dublin and the South of Ireland.' By 
 means of it many congregations were established in that part of 
 the country, and a beginning made towards the transformation of 
 the Synod of Ulster into the Presbyterian Church of Ireland. 
 Some notable literary ventures also, which were now given to the 
 press, prove to us that among the ministers of that day were men 
 of no small ability. Two of these works, called forth by the 
 misrepresentations of the Episcopalian party, deserve especial 
 mention. The first bore the vigorous title, A Sample of Jet-black 
 Prelatic Calum7iy^ i?t answer to a Pamphlet called * A Sample of 
 True-blue Prcsbyteria7i Loyalty^ ^ by the Rev. John M 'Bride of 
 Belfast. This work is not, however, so well known as another, 
 An Historical Essay upon the Loyalty of Presbyteria?is in Great 
 Britain and Ireland f'om the Reformation to this Present 
 Year, 17 13. This was written by the Rev. James Kirkpatrick, 
 although his name for obvious reasons does not appear on the 
 title-page. He had been minister at Templepatrick, whence 
 he was translated to Belfast to be colleague to Mr. M'Bride in 
 the ministry of the First Congregation. When, in 1708, that 
 congregation was divided by the Synod, and a portion of the 
 people erected into the Second Congregation, he became their 
 first minister, and this work of his, under its popular title of 
 
 ^ One of these Irish -speaking probationers was the Rev. Patrick Plunket, 
 who subsequently became minister of Glasslough. He was ancestor of Lord 
 Plunket, archbisliop of Dublin. 
 
 2 It was published in Glasgow in 1713. Pp. 218. 
 
DEATH OF QUEEN ANNE. II5 
 
 Kiikpatrick's Presbyterian Loyalty ^ soon became, and is still, 
 widely known. 
 
 On the ist August, 17 14, Anne died — the very day, as Providence 
 would have it, on which the Schism Act, which would have rendered 
 the position of Irish Presbyterians still more intolerable than it 
 had been, was to come into operation. George I. ascended the 
 throne, and under his sway their position much improved. The 
 Regium Donum, the withdrawal of which the malevolence of the 
 bishops had secured, was restored, and in 17 18 increased by an 
 additional grant of ;^8oo per annum. In the following year a 
 Toleration Act was passed, notwithstanding the strenuous opposi- 
 tion of the majority of the bishops, exempting our forefathers 
 from the penalties to which they had hitherto been legally liable 
 for the celebration of their worship. All their eflforts to obtain 
 a repeal of the Test Act, however, were unavailing. Even a Bill 
 exempting them from penalties for serving in the militia without 
 communicating in the Episcopal Church, was opposed by the 
 prelatists, although, to the honour of our Presbyterian forefathers 
 be it told, when the North of Ireland was threatened by the 
 Pretender, they stood forward nobly in defence of king and 
 kingdom, notwithstanding the legal penalties which they incurred 
 in so doing. 
 
 The Synod now contained eleven Presbyteries and one 
 hundred and forty congregations ; and not only was there this 
 gratifying increase in numbers, but a spirit of deep religious 
 earnestness pervaded the body, which, had it continued, augured 
 well for the future of both the Church and the country. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE 'new light.' 
 
 In the beginning of the eighteenth century a cloud appeared on 
 the Church's sky, which, though apparently no bigger than a 
 man's hand, was destined in the end to breed much mischief. 
 Hitherto the Synod's troubles had all come from without. Her 
 own ministers and people had stood firmly and compactly 
 together, one in doctrine, as in polity and worship. This happy 
 condition of things was now to be changed, and changed in a 
 very simple way. 
 
 In 1705 a number of young clergymen in the neighbourhood of 
 Belfast formed themselves into a clerical club, for the discussion 
 of theological and other topics. The leading spirit among them 
 was a clever young * son of the manse,' a conspicuously able 
 and cultured man, the Rev. John Abernethy of Antrim.^ He 
 associated with himself such men as the Rev. William Taylor of 
 Randalstown, Rev. Alexander Brown of Donegore, the Rev, 
 James Kirkpatrick of Templepatrick (afterwards of Belfast), the 
 Rev. Thomas Orr of Comber, the Rev. Alexander Colvillc, 
 some probationers, theological students, and a few laymen. 
 They called their club * The Belfast Society,' and ultimately it 
 became a most influential body. Unfortunately, its influence was 
 by no means for good. Strange views were propounded at the 
 
 1 Mr. Abernethy was a son of the Rev. John Abernethy, succcssivrly 
 minister of Brigh, Moneymorc, and Coleraine, Nvhei'e he died in 1703. He 
 was born in 1680, and ordained in Antrim in 1703, the year of his father's 
 death. In 1730 he became minister of Wood Street, Dublin. He published 
 a large treatise, entitled, Discou?-ses on the Being and Attributes of God. The 
 celebrated London surgeon, .Abernethy, was his grandson. 
 
 no 
 
THE 'new light.* 117 
 
 meetings — views which had never hitherto been broached by any 
 minister of the Synod of Ulster, such as that sincerity was the 
 great test of a man's reh'gious condition ; that erroneous opinions 
 were only hurtful when wilful ; that it was unwise to place too much 
 stress on positive enunciations of doctrine, and that subscription 
 to creeds or confessions should not be required by the Church. 
 At each meeting of the society a sermon was preached. On 
 Wednesday, 9th December, 17 19, it fell to Mr. Abernethy to 
 discharge this duty. The title of the sermon (which was sub- 
 sequently published). Religious Obedience founded on Personal 
 Persuasion, will give a sufficient idea of the nature of the views 
 inculcated by the preacher, views which gradually came to be 
 known as 'New Light,' a designation not yet forgotten in the North 
 of Ireland. This sermon was the first note of a sad controversy 
 which raged for seven long years, partly in Church Courts and 
 partly through the press,^ and which agitated almost every 
 congregation within the bounds of the Church. To meet the 
 emergency which thus arose, the Synod in 1720 passed what 
 became known as The Pacific Act, a measure intended, as its 
 title indicates, to reconcile the contending parties. On the one 
 hand, it declared that the Synod firmly adhered to the West- 
 minster Confession of Faith and Catechisms, and enjoined these 
 to "be observed. But, on the other hand, it enacted that 'if any 
 person called on to subscribe shall scruple any phrase or phrases 
 in the Confession, he shall have leave to use his own expressions, 
 which the Presbytery shall accept of, providing they judge such 
 a person sound in the faith, and that such expressions are con- 
 sistent with the substance of the doctrine.' This Act was 
 undoubtedly passed with the best intentions ; but in the first place 
 it was not firmly carried out, for immediately after its being made 
 law, a signal violation of it was permitted ; and secondly, like 
 most compromises, it failed in the end to give satisfaction to 
 anybody, and was found to be only the means of opening a 
 
 1 More than fifty publications of various sizes were issued in connection 
 with it 
 
IlS HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CIirRCII. 
 
 ■wider door for the admission into the Church of men holding the 
 most erroneous views. The Act was passed at the meeting of 
 the Synod in June, 1720. On the 28th of July following, the 
 installation of the Rev. Samuel Halliday,^ a member of the 
 Belfast Society, in the old congregation of Belfast took place. 
 He refused altogether to subscribe the Confession of Faith in any 
 form, tendering instead a declaration of his own. The majority 
 of the Presbytery approved of this declaration as satisfactory, 
 and in defiance of the protest of four members, the installation 
 was proceeded with. No small alarm was naturally aroused 
 among the orthodox members of the Church by this proceeding, 
 and all eyes looked anxiously to see what action the superior 
 Courts would take in the case. The sub-Synod of Belfast 
 assembled in January, 1721. It was noted at the time as a 
 significant circumstance that Mr. Halliday found it convenient to 
 be in England at the time of its sittings. A very animated debate 
 took place regarding the conduct of the Presbytery. The discus- 
 sion began on Tuesday, and was continued until four o'clock A.M. 
 on Friday morning. In the end the members of the Presbytery 
 who had proceeded with the installation were publicly rebuked. 
 But th-e deep-seated nature of the mischief which had already 
 begun was proved by the fact that they as publicly informed 
 the Synod that ' their conscience would not allow them to sub- 
 scribe the Confession nor submit to the Act of the Synod.' Yet 
 no steps were taken to bring them to the bar for this declaration. 
 The sub-Synod over, Mr. Halliday was soon back in Belfast, and 
 the members of Presbytery who had protested against his installa- 
 tion now called upon him to subscribe the Confession. But he 
 resolutely refused, and the majority, who sympathized with him in 
 the position he had taken up, managed hastily to adjourn the 
 meeting without any formal decision on the matter being arrived 
 at. The annual meeting of the General Synod now came on, 
 amid general uneasiness. A very large attendance of the 
 members indicated the anxiety felt for the safety of the Church. 
 1 Or Hollyday, as he himself spelt the name. 
 
THE CASE OF REV. S. HALLIDAY. II9 
 
 The ruling elders especially mustered in great force, there being a 
 hundred of them present,^ and a hundred and twenty ministers. 
 Seventeen memorials were presented from as many sessions, 
 asking that ' all the members of the Synod, and all inferior judica- 
 tories of the Church, may be obliged to subscribe the Westminster 
 Confession of Faith as the confession of their faith.' It would 
 have been well if the Court had adopted the firm course thus 
 urged. But again a temporizing spirit manifested itself. To 
 allay the suspicions which had become prevalent regarding the 
 orthodoxy of its ministers, the Synod declared its belief in ' the 
 essential deity of the Son of God.' But the members of the Bel- 
 fast Society refused to support this declaration, not, they said, 
 * because they disbelieved the article of Christ's supreme deity 
 . . . but because they are against all authoritative human dec\- 
 sions as tests of orthodoxy.' The Synod further resolved, in 
 order to dispel the alarm felt throughout the Church, not to 
 enjoin but to permit all members of the Court who were willing, 
 to subscribe the Confession. The Belfast Society argued strenu- 
 ously against even this voluntary subscription, but it was carried 
 against them by an overwhelming majority, and almost all the 
 members in attendance affixed their signatures. Hence originated 
 the names Subscribers and Non-Subscribers, by which the two 
 parties began now to be known. 
 
 The case of Mr. Halliday also came before this eventful Synod. 
 Strange to say, although, on being asked, he still refused to sub- 
 scribe the Confession, the consideration of his case was quietly 
 allowed to drop, and the law, made a solitary year before, to 
 be trampled on. Discreditable as this action of the Court 
 undoubtedly was, it led to one important result. A number of 
 the members of the First Congregation of Belfast were so deeply 
 dissatisfied with Mr. Halliday, and so unwilling to sit under hib 
 ministry, that they asked the Synod to erect them into a separate 
 
 1 A hundred years later the ruling elders rendered similar good service by 
 their large attendance at the Synod when the question of subscription was 
 again agitating the Church. 
 
120 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 charge. Mr. Halliday opposed the application, and was joined 
 in his opposition by Mr. Kirkpatrick, the minister of the Second 
 Congregation. But in the end, after a hard struggle, the prayer 
 of the memorialists was granted. In August, 1721, a Third Con- 
 gregation — that now known as Rosemary Street — was erected by 
 the Belfast Presbytery, and its organizers set about the building 
 of a new church.^ 
 
 Into the war of words and pamphlets into which the subscrip- 
 tion controversy resolved itself, it is not necessary to enter here 
 at length. At each successive meeting of the Synod the question 
 came up again in one form or another. Lengthened and some- 
 times acrimonious debates took place. Public meetings, attended 
 at times by crowded audiences, discussed the question at issue, 
 and the Belfast press was kept busy by the issue of controversial 
 pamphlets. On the orthodox side the leading men who spoke or 
 wrote were the Rev. John Malcome, Dunmurry ; Rev. Gilbert 
 Kennedy, TuUylish or Donacloney ; Rev. Matthew Clerk, 
 Boveedy or Kilrea ; Rev. Charles Mastertown,- Connor, afterwards 
 of Belfast ; Rev. John Hutcheson,^ Armagh ; and Colonel Upton, 
 Templepatrick ; while on that of the Non-Subscribers were Rev. 
 John Abernethy, Antrim; Rev. Samuel Halliday, First Belfast ; 
 Rev. James Kirkpatrick, Second Belfast ; Rev. Thomas Nevin, 
 
 ^ Large part of the subscriptions for building the church were obtained 
 in Scotland, Mr. Samuel Smith, a Belfast merchant, one of the elders, 
 having gone over there on several occasions for the purpose of soliciting aid. 
 Among others, the Magistrates and Town Council of Glasgow sanctioned a 
 collection in the city churches for the object. The Synod of Glasgow and 
 Ayr ordered a similar collection in their bounds. In return for this kindly 
 and seasonable aid, three pews in the gallery of the new building were set 
 apart for the use of strangers from Scotland visiting Belfast. The Rev. 
 Charles Mastertown of Connor was installed as the first minister in February, 
 1723. Mr. Mastertown's farewell sermon to the people of Connor, from 
 Acts XX. 32, was ' published by Eliza Vance, Bridge Street, Belfast, 1753.' 
 
 2 An excellent treatise on The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity, by Mr. 
 Mastertown, has been several times republished. 
 
 ^ Mr. Hutcheson was father of the famous Dr. Francis Hutcheson, 
 Professor of Moral Philosophy in Glasgow. 
 
 It was during the erection of a new church in .^rmafrh for Mr. Hutche=?oa 
 
THE PRESBYTERY OF ANTRIM. 121 
 
 Downpatrick ; Rev. John Elder, Aghadoey ; and Dr. Victor 
 Ferguson, Belfast. During the course of the debates the Rev. 
 Thomas Nevin was brought to trial for having, as was reported, 
 said on a certain occasion that it was no blasphemy to say that 
 Christ is not God. The case against him broke down, but the 
 Synod having required of him an immediate declaration of his 
 belief in the Supreme Deity of Christ, and he having refused to 
 comply with this demand, on the usual ground of the Non- 
 Subscribers, that such declarations were wrong, adding that his 
 refusal did not proceed from disbelief in the doctrine, it was 
 carried that the Synod should hold no further ministerial com- 
 munion with him — a peculiar and awkward sentence, inasmuch 
 as he was neither deposed, nor suspended, from the ministry, nor 
 disjoined from his congregation. It is not to be wondered at that 
 it led to confusion and disorder. The Synod of 1725, for the 
 purpose of putting an end to the collisions which were now of 
 frequent occurrence between Subscribers and Non-Subscribers, 
 adopted the expedient of separating all the non-subscribing 
 ministers from the Presbyteries with which they were connected, 
 and putting them into one — the Presbytery of Antrim, ' which 
 expedient,' the resolution on the subject says, 'is to be continued 
 until the God of peace shall mercifully remove the present mis- 
 
 that the well-known humorous incident, in wliich Dean Swift figures, occurred. 
 The new building was partly built with stones taken from the ancient church 
 and monastery of St. Peter and St. Paul, which had stood near. Swift, hap- 
 pening to pass by during the operations, found the masons busily smoothing 
 a number of the carved stones, wliich had been adorned with cherubim and 
 other figures, ' See,' said he, ' how these fanatical Puritans are chiselling the 
 Popery out of the very stones.' (It might have been better for some otiier 
 bodies if the Popery had been a little more completely ' chiselled ' out of 
 them.) ' Pray,' said the Dean to a sawyer who was busy cutting timber, 
 'how much do you earn per day?' ' Fifteenpence, please yocr reverence,' 
 ' Fifteenpence ! ' he replied ; * why, I can get a better sawyer in Dublin for 
 tenpence.' ' And I,' said the workman, * can produce a parson who preaches 
 better sermons than the Dean of St. Patrick's though he is only paid ^40 a 
 year and the Dean receives ^1^700.' It is creditable to Swift's good nature, 
 thai, so far from being angry at the man's plainness of speech, he was so 
 pleased witli his icady wit that he gave him half-a-crown. 
 
122 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 understandings.' It was evident, however, that some more de- 
 cisive step must be taken before peace could be restored to the 
 Church. The various temporizing resolutions that had been passed 
 on the question at issue had by no means settled it. Accordingly, 
 at the Synod of 1726, held in Dungannon (where for half a century 
 the annual meetings were held about this period), an overture was 
 passed, largely by the votes of the ruling elders, refusing to hold 
 communion with the Non-Subscribers any longer in Church 
 Courts, So this seven years' conflict was terminated by the 
 members of the Presbytery of Antrim being separated from the 
 Synod. It was a very partial separation, however. They were 
 still at liberty to preach, if invited, in the Synod's pulpits, and 
 administer ordinances to the Synod's members. It was merely in 
 the Church Courts that they were declared incompetent to sit, 
 while even here any ministers who secretly held their views, of 
 whom there were not a few, were allowed to remain as an evil 
 leaven to imbue their brethren insidiously with their opinions, and 
 to produce in the sequel further trouble. Thus was consummated 
 the first exclusion of the Non-Subscribers from the Synod of 
 Ulster, which was destined to be followed, about a hundred years 
 later, by another more complete and more significant, and on a 
 larger scale. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE SECEDERS. 
 
 While the ' New Light ' was working to the detriment of Irish 
 Presbyterianism, a counteractive was being prepared by the 
 King of the Church in His own mysterious way. This was the 
 introduction into Ireland of the body called Seceders. To under- 
 stand their appearance in Ulster at this juncture, we must glance 
 again for a moment at Scotland, which had given Ireland in 1642 
 the first Presbytery of the Synod of Ulster, and now, about a 
 hundred years afterwards, gave her, as a new gift, the first 
 Seceders. 
 
 In 1707 the union between England and Scotland took place. 
 Before this union was consented to north of the Tweed, stringent 
 provisions were insisted on and secured, safeguarding the rights 
 and liberties of the Church of Scotland. It was enacted that the 
 Confession of Faith and the Presbyterian form of church govern- 
 ment were * to continue without any alteration to the people of 
 this land in all succeeding generations.' But only five years had 
 passed till a most serious change was made in the ecclesiastical 
 arrangements of the country by the passing of an Act of Parlia- 
 ment reimposing lay patronage on the Church, — an Act which, 
 for a century and a half, was to breed controversy and mis- 
 chief. For some years it seems to have lain a dead letter on 
 the statute-book. But moderatism by and by began to shed 
 its chilling influence over Scotland, and this law chimed in so 
 well with its well-known spirit that in the end it came about that 
 ministers began to be imposed upon vacant congregations against 
 
 123 
 
124 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 the will of the people, and where Presbyteries refused to have 
 any share in giving effect to unpopular presentations, the General 
 Assembly superseded them by 'Riding Commissions,' composed 
 of men who had no scruples in the matter, and the obnoxious 
 s:ttlements were effected. The first case of such an intrusion 
 of a minister into a parish against the will of the people took 
 place in 1725, and from this time onward case after case occurred, 
 and the General Assembly would listen to no remonstrance and 
 give no redress. Matters came to a crisis in 1732. In that year 
 the famous Ebenezer Erskine preached a sermon before the Synod 
 of Stirling, in which he emphasized the need for reform in the 
 Church. For this he was called to account, and, in the end, first 
 suspended and then deprived of his congregation. Three other 
 ministers united with him in protesting against this high-handed 
 proceeding, — viz. Messrs. Fisher of Kinclaven, Moncrieff of 
 Abernethy, and Wilson of Perth, — but all three were served in 
 the same manner. The four then formally withdrew from the 
 jurisdiction of the Church of Scotland, and; constituting them- 
 selves into ' The Associate Presbytery,' formed the nucleus of 
 that dissent which is now embodied in the United Presbyterian 
 Church. 
 
 While it was the question of patronage that was thus the 
 immediate cause of this secession, there was much more than 
 patronage involved in the movement. The Seceders were men 
 deeply imbued with a love of sound evangelical doctrine, and with 
 a burning desire for the spread of true religion, as opposed to the 
 cold moderatism which was now in the ascendant. To this 
 is largely to be attributed the success which attended their 
 labours. 
 
 The state of things in several parts of Ulster was now such as 
 to require the infusion of just such a curative element as the 
 Seceders were fitted to supply. Laxity of doctrine and of practice 
 were creeping all too quickly into the Synod. The infection of 
 Scottish moderatism had appeared in it, and for this malady it 
 was fitting that Scotland should supply the remedy. The first 
 
LYLEHILL. 125^ 
 
 planting of Scccdeiism in Ireland was not, however, directly due 
 to the prevalence of unsoundness in the faith. Lylehill, in County 
 Antrim, within three or four miles of Templepatrick, has the 
 distinguished honour of having been the first spot in Ireland 
 where it took root. It is a quiet rural district, lying high behind 
 the mountains which guard Belfast on the west, and is still the 
 abode of a staunch Presbyterianism worthy of the antecedents of 
 the place. At the time we speak of, the people of Lylehill belonged 
 to the congregation of Templepatrick, whose minister, the Rev. 
 William Livingstone, was a sound and energetic pastor, and 
 whose session had as one of its elders the excellent Colonel 
 Upton of Castle Upton (ancestor of the Templetown family), 
 who manfully opposed in the Synod the insidious efforts of the 
 Belfast Society to weaken the defences of orthodoxy. It could 
 not therefore have been on the ground of dissatisfaction with the 
 soundness of either minister or session that the Lylehill people 
 sought the erection of a new congregation. Several other causes 
 for their action are mentioned, among the rest their distance from 
 the church in Templepatrick.^ Whatever were the reasons, how- 
 ever, which actuated them, in 1741 they applied to be taken 
 under the care of the Associate Presbytery in Scotland. More 
 than one memorial on the subject was sent to that body, and in 
 August 1742, Messrs, John Gibson^ and Samuel Henderson went 
 over to them as commissioners from Lylehill, 'earnestly requesting 
 supply of sermon.' After several temporary supplies, the Rev. 
 Isaac Patton, a licentiate of the Associate Presbytery of Dunferm- 
 line (for the original Presbytery had already grown into three, 
 which were united under the care of 'The Associate Synod'), 
 
 ' A dispute about a farm in Rickamore, which, on the expiration of a lease, 
 Colonel Upton gave either to Mr. Livingstone or his son, is alleged as one of 
 the causes. 
 
 2 This John Gibson married the daugliler of his brother commissioner, 
 Samuel Henderson, and among their great-grandcliildrcn were the late Rev, 
 John Barnett, D.D., Moncymorc, and the late James Gibson, Esq., Q.C., 
 County Court Judge of Donegal, and one of the most faithful ruling elders 
 that the Irish Presbyterian Church ever had. 
 
126 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 described as * a little, active, sharp-eyed man,' was finally ordained 
 over them on 9th July, 1746. A humble church vi^as soon erected 
 for the accommodation of the people, and so, within sixteen or 
 seventeen miles, as the crow flies, from the spot where Edward 
 Brice, in 161 3, planted the standard of Presbyterianism, originated 
 the cause of the Secession in Ireland, — a cause which was to 
 exercise so useful an influence in the province during a separate 
 existence of a hundred years, and finally to merge its life, along 
 with the Synod of Ulster, in the united General Assembly of the 
 Presbyterian Church, where to this day its influence lives, and 
 the power of its principles is felt. 
 
 Some of the people of Lisbum who were dissatisfied with the 
 state of matters there had applied to the Associate Presbytery 
 for supplies before those of Lylehill, their application dating from 
 1736, and Mr. Patton, though ordained at Lylehill, had also 
 charge for a time of the Seceding interest in Lisburn, and in 
 Belfast as well — a pretty large parish for a single minister I But 
 labourers were then scarce, and the Associate Synod had so 
 much to do in Scotland, that it could afl"ord no more than the one 
 man to Ireland. By and by, however, as the cause in Scotland 
 progressed, larger aid was forthcoming, and congregation after 
 congregation sprang up on this side the Channel. Among those 
 earliest organized may be mentioned Markethill, Ballyrashane, 
 Roseyards, Boardmills, Moira, Ray, Ballyroney, Newtown-Lima- 
 vady, Ballibay, Bangor, Armagh, Aghadoey, Ballykelly, Balteagh, 
 Dunboe, Kilraughts, Ballymoney, and Derrykeighan. 
 
 The Seceders had their own troubles. The body had not 
 long been organized in Scotland until it was rent in twain by 
 a controversy as to the lawfulness of its members taking a certain 
 oath required to be sworn by those who were elected to serve in 
 town councils in several Scottish burghs. This oath pledged 
 the swearer to the maintenance of 'the true religion presently 
 professed within this realm, and authorized by the laws thereof,' 
 which one party affirmed meant the Protestant religion, the oath 
 having, they said, been framed to prevent Romanists from being 
 
'burghers' and 'anti-burghers.' 127 
 
 elected as burgesses ; while another held that it involved the 
 recognition of patronage and the other abuses of the Church of 
 Scotland as by law established. The controversy ended in 1747 
 in the rending of the Secession into two Synods, the one popularly 
 known as the Burghers, who defended the taking of the oath, 
 the other, consisting of those who objected to it, being named the 
 Anti-Burghers. Though Ireland had no concern in the world 
 with this oath, the Seceders here must needs take sides also. 
 So Mr. Patton and the Lylehill congregation joined the Anti- 
 Burghers, others sided with the Burghers, and thus, almost at 
 the very inception of its history, Secederism began to present a 
 divided front to its enemies. Its ministers met also, as might be 
 expected, with opposition from members of the Synod of Ulster, 
 who naturally did not relish their intrusion upon what they had 
 come to regard as their own private preserves. Pamphlets were 
 written against the newcomers, sermons preached, and on one 
 occasion a set discussion between two champions of the rival 
 denominations created no small excitement. The scene of this 
 debate was the quiet, rural district of Ballyrashane, between 
 Coleraine and the Giant's Causeway, whose snug and snowy 
 farm-houses and well-tilled fields are still the abodes of as fine a 
 body of Presbyterian people as could anywhere be found. Here, 
 on a platform erected in the open air, the Rev. Robert Higin- 
 botham, minister at Coleraine, and Mr. John Swanston, a 
 probationer of the Secession, hammered at each other during the 
 length of a summer day, in the presence of a prodigious assembly 
 of people, both combatants, as usual,, claiming the victory. This 
 mode of settling controversies was evidently in favour in those 
 days, as we read of similar discussions being held at Aghadoey, 
 Clontibret, and other places. In spite of all opposition, however, 
 the cause of the Seceders throve. It is quite certain that it did 
 Ireland good service. We owe to it such men as the three 
 Edgars, — Samuel of Ballynahinch, whose academy, long before 
 Boards of Intermediate Education were dreamt of, sent to 
 college youths well grounded in classics and mathematics, 
 
128 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 some of whom afterwards rose to great eminence,^ and Samuel 
 of Armagh, author of The Variations of Romanism, and John of 
 Belfast, to whose enlightened Christian philanthropy Ireland 
 owes so much; — Robert Wilson, author of one of the best 
 extant treatises on Infant Baptism; the Rogerses of Cahans, 
 and Glascar, and elsewhere ; the Rentouls, and many others. 
 Better still, it gave Ulster, in a time of need, a leaven of gospel 
 truth and vital godliness, the traces of which can be seen to this 
 day. 
 
 1 Sec a little work by Rev. W. J. Patton, Dromara, entitled, Three Bally- 
 nahinch Boys, in which he traces the careers of three men taught at this 
 school, — Professor James Thomson, author of many valuable educational 
 ■works, and father of Sir William Thomson of Glasgow ; the Rev, David 
 Hamilton of Belfast, whose godliness and high scr\-ices to the Church of his 
 fathers liave been so often spoken of; and Dr. John Edgar, mentioned 
 above. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 A TIME OF DEADNESS. 
 
 The latter part of the eighteenth century enjoys an evil 
 reputation in the annals of religion. All over Europe it was 
 a time of looseness of thought and coldness of heart. In France, 
 it was the age of Diderot and the Encydopedie. In Scotland, 
 the moderatism represented by Robertson and Jupiter Carlyle 
 was in the ascendant. In England, Deism and deadness 
 prevailed ; and the Church over here in Ireland did not escape 
 the prevalent infection. The Westminster Confession of Faith 
 began to be thrust more and more into the background. The 
 practice of requiring subscription to it from licentiates and 
 ministers fell into abeyance. Most of the Synod's theological 
 students received their education at Glasgow College, and here 
 the prevailing influences were all on the side of moderatism, or 
 something worse. Professor Simson, who occupied the chair of 
 Divinity in Glasgow for several years, was a man deeply imbued 
 with the prevailing spirit. Dr. Leechman, who afterwards filled 
 the same chair, is believed to have been at heart an Arian. And 
 in another chair v.hich, though not strictly theological, deals with 
 questions so closely allied with religion that it is not easy to 
 be right in it if they are wrongly solved, the chair of Moral 
 Philosophy, a brilliant young Irishman was delivering lectures 
 which crowded his class-room with students from all the three 
 kingdoms, such was the beauty of his theories and the fascinating 
 eloquence with which he expounded them. This was the famous 
 Francis Hutcheson, the son of an excellent and godly father, the 
 Rev. John Hutcheson, Presbyterian minister of Armagh. But, 
 
 I 
 
130 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 though the lectures were eloquent and all the more popular 
 because, discarding the custom of the day, Dr. Hutcheson 
 addressed his students in English instead of Latin, and though 
 his theories were very beautiful, he taught a philosophy which 
 sapped the foundations of evangelical religion, and which was 
 the more dangerous because of the glitter which his beautiful 
 speculations and eloquent Irish tongue threw around it. With 
 such professors poisoning, at its fountainhead, the stream of the 
 ministry, it is not to be wondered at that the pulpits of the 
 Synod of Ulster began to give a very uncertain sound on the 
 great verities of the faith, and in some cases to ignore them 
 altogether. Little by little the orthodox band, which had turned 
 a stern face towards non-subscription, waned and dwindled away ; 
 and as the old heads disappeared, and a new generation arose 
 trained under Hutcheson and Simson or Leechman, the former 
 majority sank into a minority which was powerless against the 
 rising tide of error, until in the end 'New Light' principles 
 gained a complete ascendancy. Life seemed now to leave the 
 Synod almost entirely. There was none of that * outward pro- 
 pagation ' of the faith which is as essential to the life of a Church 
 as 'inward preservation.' The erection of new congregations 
 was discouraged, no matter how urgent the necessity for them. 
 Friendly overtures were made to the Non-subscribers who had 
 been excluded from fellowship in a more strenuous age. The 
 gold had indeed become dim since the days when Blair, and 
 Brice, and Livingstone preached Christ in the towns and villages 
 of Down and Antrim, or since at a later date godly men had 
 refused to sit in the same Synod with those whose fidelity to 
 Bible truth they doubted. 
 
 The Seceders were for some time a happy counteracting 
 influence to the evils which thus sprang up. When the Synod of 
 Ulster refused to permit the erection of a new congregation in a 
 district where it was needed, it very frequently happened that the 
 sister Church took the disappointed appHcants under its care. In 
 many places also where ministers were starving their people by 
 
PROGRESS OF THE SECEDERS. I31 
 
 giving them the cold stone of morahty in p'ace of the bread of 
 the gospel, the Seceders were at hand to feed them. On the 
 I2th April, 1750, the first Irish Associate Presbytery met at 
 Arkilly, near Newtown-limavady. It consisted of three ministers, 
 the Rev. Messrs. Patton of Lylehill, Arrott of Markethill, and 
 Stewart of Drumachose. On 24th July, 1751, the first Irish 
 Burgher Presbytery was constituted in *Wm. M'Kinley's field' 
 at Ballybay, as it is described with fond minuteness in the old 
 Session-book of the congregation of Cahans (to the pastoral 
 charge of which Mr. Thomas Clark had on the same spot been 
 ordained the previous day, — a man who was to become one of the 
 most eminent of the fathers of the Secession, and whose tall and 
 gaunt figure stands out prominently before us, as he rode rapidly 
 about from place to place through the country, with his Highland 
 bonnet and his homely attire, the zeal of the Lord eating him 
 up). This Presbytery also consisted of three members, the Rev. 
 Messrs. Black, Boardmills ; Mayn^ of Bally roney, and Clark. 
 When the Burgher Presbyteries had grown to three, viz. Derry, 
 Monaghan, and Down, containing in all twenty ministers, they 
 formed a Burgher Synod, which met fc/ the first time at 
 iVIonaghan on 20th October, 1779. When the Presbyteries of 
 the Antiburghers numbered four, viz. Belfast, Markethill, Derry, 
 and Templepatrick and Ahoghill, with seventeen congregations, 
 they formed an Antiburgher Synod, which met for the first time 
 in Belfast on the third Tuesday of August, 1788. These old 
 distinctions, which once meant a good deal, are now almost 
 forgotten. The Reformed Presbyterians, or Covenanters, as they 
 are popularly called, may here be mentioned. Their first Presby- 
 tery in Scotland, consisting originally of two ministers and some 
 ruling elders, dates from 1743. In 1752 two missionaries of the 
 body appeared in the North of Ireland, and preached for some 
 time. But their first Irish minister was not ordained until 1761, 
 
 I Mr. Mayn was grandfather of the Rev. Thomas Mayne Reid, long senior 
 Clerk of the General Assembly, and great-grandfather of Captain Mayne 
 Reid, the novelist. 
 
132 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 when the Rev. Matthew Lynd, a native of Larne, was inducted 
 into the pastorate at Vow, near Rasharkin. Their first Presbytery 
 was organized in 1792. 
 
 The state of the Episcopal Church at this period was very bad. 
 * There was not one active minister in every county who preached 
 evangelical doctrine, and scarcely one bishop could be named 
 who laboured to promote the spiritual interests of his diocese. 
 The Primate, Dr. George Stone, a man of great talents and 
 unbounded ambition, was completely immersed in politics, and 
 according to the testimony of a respectable historian who was 
 a member of his own communion, was so bent on the maintenance 
 of his party, that he sacrificed religion and morality in the most 
 abominable manner that he might gain and confinn adherents. 
 Several of the inferior clergy held Arian sentiments, and at 
 least one dignitary, who wore an Irish mitre for nearly thirty 
 years, was an avowed and zealous Unitarian.'^ Almost the 
 entire Protestantism of Ireland was thus at this period honey- 
 combed with error. It was indeed a dark night in our religious 
 history. 
 
 About this time began that full tide of emigration to the 
 Western World, which was destined to produce such marked 
 cfft cts both on Ireland and on America. We have already 
 noticed the fact that the Rev. Francis Makemie, a licentiate 
 of the Lagan Presbjtery, went to America about the year 
 1681 ; and from that time onward we find Ulstermen leaving 
 their native province for the New World in larger or smaller 
 numbers. But about the year 1729 this tide of emigration began 
 to set with a persistency and a force towards the other side 
 of the Atlantic which, considering the tediousness and hardships 
 of the voyage in those days, and the uncertain prospects presented 
 to the new settlers, cannot but be looked upon as remarkable. 
 Year after year, from the second quarter of the eighteenth 
 century, it is estimated that twelve thousand people annually 
 sailed for America from the North of Ireland — an astonishing 
 ^ KiUen -continuation of Reid, ill. 302. 
 
LARGE EMIGRATION TO AMERICA. 1 33 
 
 number, considering the population of Ulster at the period. 
 Such was the drain, indeed, that it was computed that in 1773 
 and the five preceding years the North of Ireland lost by emigra- 
 tion to America 'one-fourth of its trading cash, and the like 
 proportion of the manufacturing people.' ^ The large body of 
 those who thus left the country were Presbyterians. Many causes 
 combined to send them away. One of these was an intolerant 
 landlordism. Bishops, as we have already seen, in leasing their 
 lands, bound up the lessees under heavy penalties to permit the 
 erection of no Presbyterian Church upon the property, and the 
 residence of no Presbyterian tenant within its bounds. Episco- 
 palian landlords followed the unchristian and intolerant example 
 set by their 'right reverend fathers in God,' refusing either to let 
 land on any terms to a Presbyterian, or if given at all, charging 
 him a higher rent than his neighbours. The falling in of leases 
 was a favourable opportunity with them for thus venting their 
 miserable spleen on their unfortunate tenants who had the 
 boldness to keep consciences of their own. It was hard to bear 
 all this. But Presbyterians have always been a long-suffering 
 race, very slow to wrath ; and besides, what redress had they ? 
 To add to their troubles, some most unfavourable seasons reduced 
 many of them to abject poverty, and so they began to pour out of 
 the country across the ocean in their thousands. By a strange 
 Nemesis, the nation which denied them the means of earning an 
 honest livelihood within its borders was sorely punished for 
 casting them out, for these sturdy Irish Presbyterians, who thus 
 sailed from Belfast, and Carrickfergus, and Derry to America in 
 the eighteenth century, were the main instruments in wresting 
 that country from the rule of Britain.^ Indeed it was a colony 
 of Ulstermen in Mecklenburg County that first proclaimed the 
 doctrine of American Independence, before Charles Tho^nson of 
 
 • Historical Collections relative to the Town of Belfast, 114. 
 
 2 ' Most of the early successes in America were immediately owing to the 
 vigorous exertions and prowess of the Irish emigrants, chiefly from the north, 
 who bore arms in that cause.'— Plowden, Historical Review, i. 458. 
 
134 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 Maryland, and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, reduced it to writing 
 in Philadelphia. ' We can name twelve Ulster to one English 
 general around Washington. The ministers of the gospel in 
 whom he most confided during the great revolutionary struggle 
 were John Rodgers, James Caldwell, Alexander M'Whorter, 
 George Duffield, and Patrick Allison, all sons of Ulstermen.' ^ 
 But if this transfusion of Ulster blood in the eighteenth century 
 into America wrested it from Britain, it gave to it a strength 
 and a religiousness it has never since lost, and which have helped 
 largely to make it the great land it has become. 
 
 Towards the close of the eighteenth century the social status 
 and political privileges of Irish Presbyterians were largely 
 improved. At its beginning, as we have seen, they did not 
 even enjoy a legal toleration. Even so late as 1745, when the 
 Pretender raised the standard of rebellion in Scotland, and when 
 Ulster Presbyterians, true to their traditional loyalty, published 
 a 'Declaration,' dated 24th August, 1745, announcing their deter- 
 mination, *at the hazard of their lives and fortunes, to oppose 
 all attempts against His Majesty's person and Government,' they 
 petitioned in vain to be relieved of the odious Test Act ; and 
 even when they enrolled themselves in the militia for the defence 
 of the kingdom, which they might have well excused themselves 
 from doing, seeing that by accepting commissions therein, with- 
 out being communicants in an Episcopal Church, they exposed 
 themselves to the penalties of the Act, all that was done to 
 relieve them was the passing of an Act of Indemnity, saving them 
 for the time from these penalties. In 1780, however, when 
 George III. had been twenty years on the throne, this most 
 monstrous and iniquitous measure was at length repealed, after 
 having galled the most loyal subjects of the Crown for nearly 
 eighty years, and done no good, but much evil, to the cause it was 
 meant to serve. Two years afterwards, Presbyterians obtained 
 yet another boon of no small importance. For years their 
 ministers had been subjected to prosecution and annoyance for 
 * Professor Croskery in Presbyterian Churchman for 18S1, p. 155. 
 
WRONGS REDRESSED. 1 35 
 
 celebrating mrrriage between members of their congregations. 
 Bishops and rectors seemed to take a delight in showing their 
 power over them in this matter, and many were the fines and 
 great the suffering endured owing to it. In 1782, however, an 
 Act was passed, notwithstanding the strong opposition of the 
 bishops (thirteen of whom caused their protest against it to be 
 entered on the journals of the Irish House of Lords), declaring 
 the perfect validity of all such marriages, and thus a wearisome 
 controversy which had been a source of great distress came to an 
 end. The Regium Donujn also was twice increased about this 
 time, ^1000 per annum having been added to it in 1784, and 
 ^5000 per annum in 1792. The Seceders, who had previously 
 enjoyed no State endowment, were granted £^qo per annum in 
 1784, largely through the influence of the Earl of Hillsborough, 
 ancestor of the Marquises of Downshire, and they received a 
 proportionate share of the increase of ^5000 above mentioned. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 FROM THE RISE OF THE VOLUNTEERS TO THE LEGISLATIVE 
 
 UNION. 
 
 When the war with America broke out, followed by that with 
 F'rance, and when all the British troops that could be spared were 
 required to meet these formidable antagonists, Ulster, left almost 
 destitute of military protection, and with French men-of-war 
 hovering about her coasts, was obliged to take measures for her 
 own defence. These assumed the shape of a Volunteer movement, 
 which rapidly became immensely popular. Belfast took the lead 
 in it, two companies having been enrolled here on Patrick's Day, 
 1778, with the Rev. James Bryson,^ one of the Presbyterian 
 ministers of the town, as their chaplain. Thousands of Protes- 
 tants, (no others were allowed at first to be members,) enrolled 
 themselves in the various corps. Clergymen exchanged the sober 
 black for the military scarlet, and in some cases so far forgot 
 themselves as to appear at the Presbytery or Synod, or even in 
 the pulpit, in regimentals. Reviews were held amid great enthu- 
 siasm, and by and by meetings for the discussion of political 
 grievances began to take place among the members. The people 
 came thus to feel their power, and Government came to feel it 
 too. Demands made in the name of 100,000 armed men can 
 never be lightly treated, but at a time like the closing quarter of 
 the last century, when there were not 5000 regular troops in all 
 
 * He was at this time minister of the Second Congregation. In 1792 he 
 became the first minister of Donegal! Street Presbyterian Church, now 
 demolished. 
 
THE DUNGANNON MEETING. 1 37 
 
 Ireland, they could not easily be refused. Such demands weie 
 made by the Volunteers at their meetings. One such meeting 
 lives in history. It was held on 15th February, 1782, in Dun- 
 gannon. The quiet old borough must have worn an unwontedly 
 gay and stirring appearance that day, as delegate after delegate 
 alighted from mail coach and post-chaise, or dismounted from 
 horseback, and all made their way in full military attire to the 
 Episcopal Church, where, with a strange sense of the fitness of 
 things, the meeting was held. There v/ere 143 corps repre- 
 sented. The large body of those present were Presbyterians, as 
 indeed the large body of the Volunteers throughout the province 
 were. Resolutions in favour of the independence of the Irish Par- 
 liament were passed amid immense enthusiasm, the Rev. Robert 
 Black, D.D., a leading Presbyterian minister, being one of the 
 chief speakers, and making a deep impression by his eloquence, 
 as he usually did.^ The Dungannon resolutions were re-echoed at 
 similar meetings held throughout the country, and, before many 
 months had elapsed, the demand for the independence of the Irish 
 Parliament, so loudly made, had to be conceded, and for eighteen 
 years the country was enabled to try the experiment of a certain 
 kind of Home Rule. If any one wishes to know how the experi- 
 ment succeeded, he has only to read the history of the country 
 during that period to see for himself that it was a failure. The 
 splendid Parliament Plouse in College Green no doubt echoed to 
 the eloquence of a race of orators of whom Ireland may well be 
 proud. Few public speakers like Grattan, and Flood, and Curran 
 have ever graced any assembly in the world, and there was a 
 galaxy of such men in the Irish Parliament of that time. But it 
 was a hopelessly corrupt body, and refused to reform itself. Of 
 the 300 members in the House of Commons only 72 were returned 
 
 1 Dr. Black was for long the leader of the Synod of Ulster. He is said to 
 have been a man of remarkable eloquence. He was born in 1752, was 
 ordained in Dromore, County Down, in 1777, installed in Derry in 1784, 
 and elected agent for Re^ium Donum in 1788. Unhappily his mind gave 
 way, and in December 1817 he threw himself into the Foyle from the parapet 
 of DeiTy Bridge, and was drowned. 
 
o 
 
 S HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 by the free choice of the people. Rotten boroughs, and pocket 
 boroughs, and boroughs without any inhabitants, were the rule. 
 Belfast had a population of 15,000 at the time. Thirteen persons, 
 only five of whom were residents, elected its two members. Other 
 places were even worse off. The venality of the Parliament is 
 sufficiently proved by the history of the means by which its inde- 
 pendence was bought from it, and, if we are to judge a tree by its 
 fruits, the state of the country during those eighteen years, going 
 as it did from bad to worse, until its miseries culminated in the 
 terrible outbreak of 1798, sufficiently proves that such a Parlia- 
 ment is not a possession which Ireland need be anxious again to 
 enjoy. ^ 
 
 The Volunteers had another still larger meeting in 1783. Again 
 the place of assembly was Dungannon, this time, however, the 
 Presbyterian Church, instead of the Episcopal, receiving the 
 delegates. The representatives of 272 companies were present. 
 Parliamentary independence having been achieved, a loud de- 
 mand for Parliamentary reform went up from this meeting, to 
 emphasize which a National Convention was summoned to 
 assemble in Dublin, composed of delegates from every county in 
 Ireland. The Convention accordingly met amid extraordinary 
 excitement, but nothing came of it, and the Volunteer movement, 
 which thus began to grow troublesome, came to an end in 1793. 
 It had served its generation, and it was as well that it should fall 
 on sleep. 
 
 Disaffection had now for years been growing in Ireland. The 
 example and the success of the American colonies in shaking off 
 the British yoke and establishing a Republic, and the example 
 still nearer home of the French Revolution, lent it courage and 
 hope, while the Volunteer movement, which had shown the people 
 their strength, which had put arms into their hands, and taught 
 them how to use them, suggested the means of carrying out its 
 designs. The 'Society of United Irishmen' was formed, and 
 soon, all over the country, the ramifications of a deep-laid and 
 1 Grattan's Parliament was exclusively composed of Protestants. 
 
THE REBELLION OF I 798. 1 39 
 
 dangerous conspiracy were spread. Secret meetings were held. 
 Each parish, townland, barony, county, was organized. Efforts 
 were made to corrupt the military, efforts which in not a few cases 
 were successful. The smithies were busy forging pikeheads, and 
 the farmers' daughters making cockades. The leading spirits of 
 the movement, such as Theobald Wolfe Tone, Thomas Russel, 
 and Lord Edward Fitzgerald, met frequently to organize and 
 arrange details, and, we must not forget to add, to indulge in 
 deep potations of Irish whisky. One such meeting (where no 
 drink, for a wonder, is mentioned) lives in popular tradition. 
 Tone, Russel, and others ascended the Cave Hill, near Belfast, 
 on a May day in 1795, and, standing on M'Art's Fort, its highest 
 point, swore with hands uplifted to heaven that they would never 
 rest till Ireland was free. In June, 1798, the insurrection broke 
 out. In Ulster it was confined to the three counties of Antrim, 
 Down, and Derry, and even t'.iere it was foredoomed to failure 
 from the first. The marvel is that the crowds of farmers and 
 labourers who assembled at Roughfort, and on Donegore Hill, 
 and at Saintfield, and Ballynahinch, did not themselves see the 
 ludicrous hopelessness of an enterprise whose supporters were a 
 motley crowd of untrained ploughmen, many of them with reap- 
 ing-hooks or scythes tied to poles as their only weapons, a bag of 
 oaten cakes their simple commissariat, and their confidence in 
 their own cause so tremulous, that when in the act of assembling, 
 the distant sound of horses' feet, as a few farmers trotted home 
 from a fair, was sufficient to send a whole regiment of them to 
 the right-about, in full belief that the dragoons were upon them. 
 The British power in Ireland was not very likely to be overthrown 
 by such foes. In the North, therefore, the whole movement ended 
 in a miserable fiasco. Men gathered, in some cases to the num- 
 ber of several thousands, at appointed rallying places, marched 
 with drums beating and flags (such as they were) flying, along the 
 country roads. In Ballymena and Larne and Randalstown 
 there were brisk encounters with the King's troops. At Antrim 
 the fight assumed some dimensions. Henry Joy M'Cracken, 
 
140 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 with a courage and bravery worthy of a better cause, led the 
 insurgents, and there was sharp firing in the street, and from 
 behind Lord Massereene's garden wall. Lord O'Neill met his 
 death there that day. But a few troops of cavalry and yeomanry 
 sufficed to bring the business to an end, and poor M'Cracken, 
 after hiding in the rugged recesses of Slemish, along with some 
 followers, for several days, was finally taken, and his head impaled 
 on Belfast Market House.^ A more formidable encounter took 
 place at Ballynahinch, the only one in the North which deserves 
 the name of battle. Here the rebels, under Henry Munroe, were 
 drawn up on Ednavady Hill, and courageously stood their ground 
 for some time. But the Battle of Ballynahinch ended, like 
 all the other encounters with the rebels, in their complete defeat. 
 A day or two sufficed to put down in the North of Ireland fhe 
 whole rising, which had been looked forward to as certain to 
 realize the dream of Irish independence, which had been plottv'd 
 for years, and on which many misguided men had staked their 
 all. 
 
 In the south of the island the insurrection assumed much more 
 formidable dimensions, and was not crushed before much blood 
 had been shed. It assumed here the form of a religious war. 
 Romanism was for the time in the ascendant, and in a delirium 
 of fierce joy feasted gluttonously on Protestant blood. The fury 
 of the outbreak culminated in County Wexford. Under the 
 leadership of a Romish priest. Father Murphy of Boolavogue, 
 the most horrid atrocities were here perpetrated. They began on 
 a Sabbath morning. A Protestant clergyman named Burrows 
 was brutally murdered. His son was mortally wounded, and 
 when seven of his parishioners had been also despatched, his poor 
 wife was left sitting on the lawn among the bleeding bodies, 
 beside her dead husband and her dying boy, with her home in 
 flames behind her. Similar brutalities day after day marked 
 
 ' The Market House stood on the site at the corner of High Street and 
 Corn Market, now occupied by the establishment of Messrs. Forster 
 Green & Co. 
 
HORRORS OF VINEGAR HILL AND SCULLABOGUE. 141 
 
 the path of this bloodthirsty ecclesiastic. He hounded on his 
 followers to deeds at which humanity blushes. A camp was 
 formed at Vinegar Hill, and its record is simply sickening. A 
 windmill stood on the top of the hill and a barn at the foot. The 
 country was scoured for miles round, and all the Protestants on 
 whom hands could be laid brought in, and crowded into these 
 buildings. From the windmill they were. brought out in batches 
 to be piked. The windmill was kept filled from the barn, and the 
 barn from the surrounding country, and so every day, like tigers 
 which had tasted blood and could not be satisfied, Father 
 Murphy and the horde of other Romish ruffians whom he had 
 collected, feasted on the slaughter of Protestants, while, to give the 
 proceedings the solemn sanction of Mother Church, twenty priests 
 said mass at regular intervals in different parts of the camp, and 
 a great tub of holy water was daily blessed, that the murderers 
 might sprinkle themselves with it and go to their work feeling 
 that they had the blessing of the Church in their pious work.^ 
 It would take too long to tell here all the other horrors of that 
 awful time in the South of Ireland, the fearful scenes which were 
 enacted at Enniscorthy, and in the town of Wexford, and else- 
 where. One place lives in infamy in the memories of many, the 
 biin of Scullabogue. Into this 184 Protestants, chiefly old men, 
 women, and children, were driven at the pike's point. By and by, 
 in obedience to an order for their massacre signed by a priest, 
 tliey were brought out one by one and shot or piked, while their 
 murderers actually licked up the blood which ran from their 
 wounds. This mode of despatching their victims, however, did 
 not prove rapid enough. So the doors of the barn were nailed 
 up, and a burning faggot applied to the thatch roof. Soon the 
 whole building was in a blaze, and the ruffians yelled with joy as 
 the shrieks and cries of the hapless people within rose to heaven 
 
 1 It is surely no wonder that Irish Protestants dread the establishment of 
 any Romish ascendancy in the country, when they know that on every single 
 occasion since the Reformation, at which Popery has gained the upper hand 
 in Ireland, it has persecuted to the death. 
 
142 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 amid the crackling of the flames. It is still remembered how, 
 when one little child tried to crawl out beneath the door from the 
 burning barn, a pike was stuck into its flesh as coolly as a farmer 
 would put his fork into a sheaf of corn, and it was tossed back 
 into the fire ! ^ 
 
 As might have been expected, the outbreak received no 
 countenance from either the Synod of Ulster or the Secession 
 Synod. Both acted throughout the trying crisis with the loyalty 
 for which Irish Presbyterianism has always been famous, and 
 of which we have seen example after example as we have 
 traced its story. Individuals connected with both no doubt 
 sided with the rebels. Several ministers of the former Synod 
 were deeply implicated. The Rev. James Porter of Greyabbey, an 
 Arian, was tried by court-martial at Newtownards, and executed 
 close to his own church on 2nd July, 1798. He was the only 
 minister of the body who suffered capital punishment. The 
 Rev. William Steel Dickson, D.D., of Portaferry,^ also one of 
 the New Light party, was arrested and kept in confinement for 
 three years at Fort George, in Scotland. The Rev. Sinclair 
 Kelburn ^ of Belfast, the Rev. Samuel Barber of Rathfriland, and 
 the Rev. John Smyth of Kilrea, were also imprisoned for longer 
 or shorter periods, and the Rev. James Simpson of Newtownards, 
 
 1 Froude's English in Ireland. 
 
 2 Dr. Dickson was a man of remarkable ability. Had he devoted him- 
 self to the duties of his calling, instead of being led away by the pursuit 
 of politics and the carrying out of visionary schemes, he would undoubtedly 
 have risen to great eminence in the Synod. He was born near Temple- 
 patrick, educated at Glasgow, licensed in 1767, ordained in Ballyhalbert 
 (now Glastry) in 1771, and in the same year, as he tells us himself, ' became 
 a husband and a farmer.' In 1780 he was installed in Portaferry, where he 
 was minister at the time of the rebellion. After his liberation he became 
 minister of Keady ; but Government refused him the Kegium Donum, and 
 in 1815 he resigned the congregation and lived in Belfast, supported by the 
 kindness of friends. He died there on 27th December, 1824. He was the 
 author of several works, the best known of which is A Narrative of ike 
 Confinement and Exile of IV. S. Dickson, D.D. 
 
 ^ Mr. Kelburn was the immediate predecessor of Dr. Hanna in Rosemary 
 Street Presbyterian Church. He published several sermons. 
 
PRESBYTERIANS AND THE REBELLION. 1 43 
 
 Rev. John Glendy of Maghera,^ and the Rev. Thomas L. Birch 
 of Saintfield, who were also implicated, left the country, and 
 went to America. But, in all, only eight ministers of the Synod 
 of Ulster, out of a total of about two hundred, were convicted 
 of complicity in the rebellion, and at its first meeting, held 
 immediately after the suppression of the outbreak, the court 
 emphatically condemned the movement, and enjoined the several 
 Presbyteries, 'under penalty of severe censure,' to 'institute a 
 solemn inquiry' into the conduct of any ministers or licentiates 
 charged with * seditious and treasonable practices.' At the same 
 time it adopted an earnest address to the people under its care, 
 remonstrating with those who had been ' led into open outrage 
 and rebellion,' and urging all to loyalty and a peaceable 
 demeanour. This address was ordered to be read from every 
 pulpit, and as ' the contribution of the members of the body 
 towards the defence of the kingdom,' the sum of ;/^5oo was 
 voted to the Government. Of the Seceders, not a single minister 
 seems even to have been accused of treason. On the contrary, 
 one, the Rev. Francis Pringle, Gilnahirk, resigned his charge 
 owing to the discomfort which he suffered on account of his 
 opposition to members of his congregation who sympathized 
 with the views of the United Irishmen, and other ministers, who 
 remained, found themselves very unpleasantly situated from the 
 same cause. Most of the leading spirits in the movement were 
 Episcopalians, and the first person convicted of carrying on a 
 treasonable correspondence with France, and condemned to be 
 hanged, was a minister of that body, the Rev. William Jackson. 
 But it would be as unfair to charge the Episcopalians with the 
 guilt of the rebellion as it would be to fasten it on the Presby- 
 terians, or to accuse Trinity College, Dublin, of sympathy with 
 it, because individual fellows and scholars were implicated. 
 
 No sooner had the insurrection been quelled than the project 
 of a legislative union between Great Britain and Ireland was urged 
 
 1 The Rev. Dr. Cooke was baptized by Mr. Glendy, and brought up 
 under his ministry for a time. 
 
144 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 forward. It is unnecessary here to rehearse the various means 
 employed to bring this union about. Suffice it to say, the 
 measure, after fierce debates, and an agitation which convulsed 
 the entire country, was at length carried, and from ist January 
 1801 the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland has 
 been under the rule of one Imperial Parliament. If this were the 
 place to treat of the advantages which have flowed to Ireland 
 from this union, it might easily be shown that it has conduced 
 immensely to the prosperity of the country in every way, and 
 that its repeal, or the passing of any measure which would have 
 the effect of weakening the connection between the two countries, 
 could only issue in disaster to both. 
 
 In 1803 the Regiuin Do7ium^ which had been so long 
 enjoyed by the Synod of Ulster, was increased by a very large 
 amount. Up to this time each minister had only received about 
 £yi per annum from this source. Now the 186 congregations 
 of the Synod and the Presbytery of Antrim were divided into 
 three classes, containing sixty-two each, the classification being 
 made according to the size and importance of the congregations, 
 the largest being put in the first class, the ministers in which 
 were to receive £100 per annum, those of the second class ;i{^75, 
 those of the third £^0, all Irish currency. The Synod strongly 
 objected to this system of classification, but their objections were 
 overruled. The Seceders did not share in the increase, and 
 they strenuously denounced the principle of classification on 
 which the grant was now made, at the same time urging their 
 claims strongly for an augmented endowment. In 1809 their 
 request was granted, but, to their great chagrin, on the same 
 principle of classification, only with this difference, that their 
 ministers were to be paid on a lower scale than those of the other 
 body, the three classes receiving respectively only /70, £%o^ 
 and ^40 per congregation per annum. Both bodies, however, 
 accepted the grant, with the exception of one minister, the Rev. 
 James Bryce of Killaig, near Coleraine. who remained firm in his 
 opposition, and seceding from his brethren, became the founder 
 
REGIUM DONUM ARRANGEMENTS. 1 45 
 
 of a separate Presbytery, now the United Presbyterian Presby- 
 tery of Ireland.^ In 1838, we may here mention, the principle 
 of classification was done away with. The Regium Donum was 
 in that year equalized, each minister, both of the Synod of Ulster 
 and the Secession Synod, receiving ;^75 per annum, Irish. At 
 this figure the endowment continued till it was abolished by the 
 Irish Church Act in 1869. 
 
 1 Mr. Bryce was a Scotchman, having been bom at Airdrie in 1767. The 
 Rev. Dr. Bryce of Belfast is one of his sons, and James Bryce, Esq., M.P., 
 author of The Holy Roman EmJ>iret his grandson. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE EVANGELICAL REVIVAL. ' 
 
 With the commencement of the nineteenth century a notable 
 change in the religious condition of the Synod of Ulster began 
 to manifest itself. Signs of returning life and earnestness ap- 
 peared, which gave intense joy to those ministers who had not 
 ceased to maintain a faithful testimony amid general defection, 
 and who had long waited and prayed for the coming of such a 
 time. In 1810 a case came before the Synod which brought the 
 undoubted fact of the existence of Arianism within its bounds 
 formally before it. A minister, during the hearing of an appeal 
 which he had brought, boldly acknowledged himself an Arian. 
 No proceedings were taken against him for the avowal; but it is 
 worthy of notice, as indicating a spirit of dissatisfaction with 
 the toleration of error, that a protest against the conduct of the 
 Synod in the matter was entered on the minutes, and signed by 
 seventeen ministers.^ Another sign of reviving vigour was the re- 
 
 1 The names of these protesters were James Elder, James Brown, Richard 
 Dill, Samuel Dill, John Hall, Solomon Brown, Charles Kennedy, William 
 Wright, Thomas Greer, W. D. H. M'Ewen, Richard Dill, jun., James 
 Marshall, James Goudy, James Horner, Samuel Hanna, John Thomson, 
 and Joseph Harrison. James Elder, whose name heads this list, was 
 minister of Finvoy. His evangelical fervour earned for him the sobriquet 
 of • The Gun of the Gospel' The three Dills belonged to a family which has 
 given a large number of notable ministers to the Irish Presbyterian Church. 
 Solomon Brown was minister of Castledawson, brother of the late Rev. 
 John Brown, D.D., Aghadoey, and father of Dr. Samuel Browne, the well- 
 known Belfast surgeon. Thomas Greer, minister of Dunboe, was father of 
 the late Mr, S. M. Greer, Q.C., Recorder of Derry, and of the late Rev. 
 Thomas Greer of Anahilt. James Goudy of Ballywalter was father of the 
 late Rev. Dr. Goudy of Strabane. James Horner was colleague of Rev. 
 
 14t> 
 
THE BELFAST ACADEMICAL INSTITUTION. 147 
 
 appearance of a missionary spirit. In 18 12 the well-known Rev. 
 Dr. Waugh of London appeared before the Synod at Cooks- 
 town, to plead the cause of the London Missionary Society. 
 Several of the leading ministers objected to his being heard, and 
 actually denounced the idea of attempting to convert the heathen 
 as absurd and visionary. But other members as strenuously 
 supported his application, and he obtained leave to speak and 
 produced such an impression by his address that tears glistened 
 in the eyes of his auditors, and the pulpits of the Synod were 
 freely placed at his disposal for the advocacy of the cause which 
 lay so near his heart. It is surely instructive to note that 
 three - quarters of a century ago the idea of missions was 
 scoffed at among us as a wild dream, and their advocate only 
 granted a hearing through the earnest intervention of a few 
 good men. 
 
 An event occurred about this time in Belfast which was des- 
 tined to be fraught with important issues to the cause of Irish 
 Presbyterianism. This was the opening of the Academical 
 Institution, founded by a number of public-spirited men, and 
 opened in 181 5 as a college, with a Government endowment of 
 ^1500 per annum. ^ Both the Synod of Ulster and the Seceders 
 agreed, at the solicitation of the Managers of the Institution, 
 to recognise the new college, and to receive its ' General Certifi- 
 cate' as equivalent to a university degree. The Synod of 
 Ulster also appointed the Rev. Samuel (afterwards Dr.) Hanna 
 as its Professor of Divinity and Church History,^ to lecture in 
 
 Dr. M'Dowell in Mary's Abbey, Dublin, and a man of kindred spirit. 
 Samuel Hanna was the Rev. Dr. Hanna of Rosemary Street, Belfast ; and 
 John Thomson was the venerable minister of Carnmoney. 
 
 1 There was also from the fiist a school department, which still continues. 
 The collegiate department was closed on the opening of Queen's College, 
 Belfast, in 1849. 
 
 ^ The Rev. Samuel Hanna, D.D., was one of the ministers most in- 
 timately concerned in the evangelical revival in the Synod of Ulster. He 
 was born at Kellswater, near Ballymena, in 1771, ordained minister of 
 Drumbo in 1795, and translated to Rosemary Street, Belfast, in 1799. He 
 died in 1852. The late Rev. William Hanna, D.D., LL.D., son-in-law and 
 
148 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 the Institution to its theological students, — a significant appoint- 
 ment, Dr. Hanna being a strenuously orthodox and excellent 
 minister. The Burgher Synod also appointed a professor 
 to instruct its candidates for the ministry — the Rev. Samuel 
 (afterwards Dr.) Edgar of Ballynahinch, and from this time 
 forward the tide of Irish student life, which had used to set 
 strongly towards Glasgow at the beginning of each winter, 
 began to flow instead to Belfast. This connection of the Pres- 
 byterian Church with the Institution was destined to be the cause 
 of no small amount of irritation and contention. Arianism 
 became dominant in the management of the new seminar)', 
 and no small part of the Arian controversy in the Synod of 
 Ulster arose out of the relations between that body and the 
 Belfast College. 
 
 There was now being trained, unnoticed by the world, in a 
 secluded spot among the Derry mountains, a man destined in 
 the Providence of God to be the means of freeing the Synod 
 of Ulster from the trouble of Arianism. This was the afterwards 
 illustrious Henry Cooke, a man whose name and fame will last 
 as long as the Presbyterian Church endures, or Protestantism 
 exists in Ireland. He was born on nth May, 1788, at a place 
 called Grillagh, near Maghera, in the county of Derry. His 
 faLher was a plain, honest, hard-working farmer, who had for his 
 second wife a godly woman, of great strength of character and 
 natural mental capacity, a Howie, of the same stock as the author 
 of The Scots Worthies. His school days, spent in the thatched 
 cabins which then did duty for school-houses in Ireland, with 
 stones or black oak sticks from some neighbouring bog for 
 seats, and a great fire, to which every boy contributed a daily 
 turf, smoking in the middle of the floor, were soon over, and at 
 the age of fourteen he entered Glasgow College. His course here 
 
 biographer of Dr. Chalmers, colleague of Dr. Guthrie in Free St. John's, 
 Edinburgh, and author of The Last Day of our Lords Passion and five 
 other volumes, forming together a complete life of our Lord upon the 
 earth, was one of his sons. 
 
PR. COOKE AND THE ARIANS. I49 
 
 finished, in 1808 he was ©rdained as assistant minister of Dun- 
 eane, near Randalstown, where his entire income amounted to 
 £2^ a year, Irish currency. In 181 1 he accepted a call from 
 Donegore, and here he continued for seven years honestly dis- 
 charging the duties of his ministry, and at the same time setting 
 himself to systematic and thorough study of the theological 
 questions of the day. His fame as a pulpit orator of rare power 
 soon spread far and wide, and in 181 8 he accepted a call to 
 Killyleagh. He had been about three years here when a Rev. 
 J. Smethurst was brought over from England to the North of 
 Ireland by the New Light party to infuse life into their cause, 
 which was evidently fast waning before the rising evangelical 
 spirit of the time. In the course of an itinerant preaching tour 
 he made his appearance in Killyleagh. Cooke attended his 
 meeting, and, when he had done, invited the whole assemblage, 
 Smethurst included, to his church the following Sunday, where 
 he pledged himself to refute every dogma which the commis- 
 sioned advocate of Arianism had propounded. Sunday came, 
 and a tremendous crowd thronged the edifice. Cooke, according 
 to promise, took up the Arian arguments, and tore them to 
 shreds. He then announced his intention of following Smethurst 
 from town to town, and from village to village, wherever he 
 should go, and refuting his unscriptural heresies as soon as they 
 -were uttered. A chase more exciting than any fox-hunt ensued. 
 From district to district Cooke pursued the apostle of Arianism, 
 until the leaders of the party perceived that his mission was 
 doing their cause far more harm than good, and he fled back 
 to England. We do not hear of him revisiting Ireland on a 
 similar mission. The Arian controversy was now begun in 
 earnest,^ and for seven years every annual meeting of the Synod 
 of Ulster saw Cooke determinedly battling for the truth. In 
 
 ' Dr. Cooke himself stated that the first time that he felt alarm for the 
 situation of the Synod. was 'on listening to an Arian prayer from the pulpit 
 of Dr. Hanna's Church many years a.go.'S/eec A at Academical Institution 
 in 1 84 1. 
 
150 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 1S22 the court met at Nevvry, and he brought under its notice 
 the influence which Arianism was exerting in the Belfast 
 Academical Institution. But he stood almost alone. His 
 brethren were not yet prepared to follow his lead, and, to add 
 to his embarrassment, the very elements seemed against him. 
 As he spoke, a terrific thunderstorm burst over the town and 
 almost drowned his voice. It was a scene which would have 
 disconcerted less able orators. * I seem,' he said, ' this day to 
 stand alone. Yet I am not alone. Men may draw back in fear, 
 but God and truth are with me.' Ere long his brethren found 
 that he was right. 
 
 In the same year the Rev. Dr. Bruce published a volume of 
 sermons which created no little noise. The character of their 
 theology may be guessed from the name of the author, who was 
 long one of the Arian leaders in Belfast. Belonging as he did 
 to the Presbytery of Antrim, the Synod had no jurisdiction over 
 him, and could take no cognizance of his book. But as in the 
 preface of the volume he stated that Arianism was making 
 extensive though silent progress in the body, it publicly contra- 
 dicted him, as it was bound to do in the interests of truth, for 
 New Light principles, instead of advancing, were gradually and 
 surely on the decline. In 1824 Cooke was elected Moderator of 
 the Synod. In this capacity it fell to his lot to give evidence 
 before a Royal Commission on the state of education in Ireland. 
 Some statements which he made here regarding Arianism gave 
 deep offence to its abettors, and round them battle after battle 
 raged in the Synod and in the columns of the public press. 
 The controversy approached a climax in 1S27. In that year the 
 Synod met in Strabane, with the Rev. J. Seaton Reid (afterwards 
 D.D.), Carrickfergus, author of the well-known History of the 
 Presbyterian Church in Ireland, as Moderator. Two important 
 discussions took place on the burning question of the day. The 
 Clerk of the Synod, the Rev. Wm. Porter, Newtown-limavady, 
 had declared himself an Arian before the Royal Commission on 
 education, and it was now moved by the Rev. Robert Magill 
 
MINISTERS CALLED ON TO DECLARE THEMSELVES. 151 
 
 of Antrim,^ that in consequence of this avowal he should no 
 longer be continued in the clerkship. A long and fiery debate 
 took place on this motion. It was the evening of the second 
 day before it terminated. An amendment, drafted by Dr. Stewart 
 of Broughshane, was then carried, highly disapproving of Mr. 
 Porter's evidence, yet, as his removal from the clerkship on this 
 ground 'might be construed into persecution for the sake of 
 opinion,' declining to take that step. Cooke approved of neither 
 motion nor amendment. They were mere half measures, and 
 he felt that the Synod should purge itself completely, not of the 
 presence of an Arian clerk, but of the whole taint of Arianism 
 which clung to it. He accordingly moved that the members 
 of the Synod should be called upon to declare whether or not 
 they believed the answer to the sixth question of the Shorter 
 Catechism, viz., ' There are three persons in the Godhead, the 
 Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost ; and these three are one 
 God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.' A 
 debate took place on this motion, which is admitted to have 
 been one of the finest displays of oratory which ever took 
 place in the Synod. It began on a Thursday, and lasted during 
 the following Friday and Saturday. Every one felt that the 
 marrow of the question had now been reached, and the leaders 
 on both sides put forth all their energies. Cooke delivered 
 one of his most splendid speeches. Stewart, who all through 
 the controversy rendered noble service, proved himself a most 
 skilful lieutenant. He was unquestionably one of the most gifted 
 of the many eminent men whom the Irish Presbyterian Church 
 has produced. In acute logical power, and cool, cogent argumen- 
 tative ability, he was a perfect master. He could dissect an 
 opponent's argument with the skill and impassiveness of an 
 anatomist. Unlike Cooke, he was not an orator, nor were there 
 about him any graces either of person or manner to render what 
 
 ^ Mr. Magill was one of tlie most popular preachers of his day, and a 
 man of great warmth of heart. He was also a poet of no mean ability. 
 He died in 1836, after a brief ministry of less than sixteen years. 
 
152 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 he said attractive. But, notwithstanding these deficiences, few 
 antagonists had any chance against him in debate.^ His speech 
 on this occasion was one of his best efforts. It was * calm, cold, 
 and as usual brief. But every sentence told.' ^ On the Arian side, 
 in this as in all the debates, Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Montgomery 
 was the champion. He was minister at Dunmurry, a small 
 village close to Belfast, and at the same time head master of 
 the English Department in the Academical Institution. He was 
 a man of remarkable power, a ready debater, and a speaker 
 of singular eloquence.^ On this occasion he made one of his 
 most brilliant speeches. But Cooke and Stewart completely 
 demolished his arguments. The motion was carried by an 
 overwhelming majority. No more solemn scene was ever 
 enacted in all the history of the Synod than that old church 
 in Strabane then witnessed. The building was crowded with 
 a deeply interested audience, and, as the roll was called, and 
 each member stood up in answer to his name and declared 
 whether he believed the doctrine of the Trinity or not, the 
 excitement was intense. Of those present, 117 ministers and 
 eighteen elders declared their belief in the doctrine. Only 
 
 * Dr. Stewart was bom in April 1783, at Tullybane, in the parish of 
 Clough, County Antrim. In 1803 he matriculated in Glasgow College, 
 where he was a fellow-student of Cooke. At the close of his curriculum 
 he was licensed by the Presbytery of Connor, and next year was called to 
 Broughshane. Here the poll for him was taken on a Sabbath, and the 
 voting did not terminate till ten o'clock on the night of the sacred day. 
 This is the last Sabbath poll on record. He was ordained in 1809, and 
 continued minister of the parish till his death in 1852. 
 
 2 Life and Times of Dr. Cooke, by J. L. Porter, D.D., LL.D., p. 107. 
 
 3 Dr. Montgomery was born at a place called Boltnaconnell, in the parish 
 of Killead, on i6th January, 1788. In his boyhood he had for one of his 
 teachers the Rev. Isaac Patton, the first Seceding minister who settled in 
 Ireland, and he often spoke of the lessons he learned from him 'in his little 
 old parlour, where he sat for upwards of fifty years.' He entered Glasgow 
 College in 1804, was hcensed by the Templepatrick Presbytery in 1809, and 
 in the same year was ordained minister of Dunmurry— the charge which he 
 held till his death. In 1817 he was appointed head master of the English 
 Department in the Royal Academical Institution, Belfast, an office the 
 duties of which he discharged for many years. 
 
THE ARIANS BEATEN. 153 
 
 two ministers indicated their disbelief, and eight declined to 
 answer. At the Synod of next year, which met at Cookstown, 
 those who had been absent from the Strabane meeting were 
 called upon to declare themselves, with the result that thirty- 
 eight more ministers and fifty-nine elders declared their belief 
 in the doctrine, four ministers and fourteen elders their disbelief, 
 one minister withdrew, three ministers and two elders did not 
 answer to their names, and two elders protested against the 
 question altogether^ 
 
 At this Cookstown Synod of 1828, of which the Rev. Pairick 
 White*-* was Moderator, Cooke proceeded a stage further. He 
 brought forward a series of overtures providing for the establish- 
 ment of a committee for the examination of all candidates for the 
 ministry, with a view to the exclusion from the office of all 
 persons holding Arian or other unsound sentiments. Another 
 tremendous debate took place on these, distinguished as before 
 by fierce encounters between Cooke and Montgomery. The 
 overtures were carried by a sweeping majority, 99 ministers and 
 40 elders voting in their favour, and only 40 ministers and 17 
 elders against them. 
 
 Victory had now unmistakably seated herself on the banners of 
 Cooke. The Arians saw that they were beaten, and the question 
 with them was what they were to do. If they remained in the 
 Synod, it was evident that they must submit to a process of 
 gradual extinction, for the establishment of the new Theological 
 Committee rendered it impossible for any addition to be made to 
 their numbers. Accordingly they held a meeting for consultation 
 in Belfast on i6th October, 1828. Here they drew up a ' Remon- 
 strance,' intended to be laid on the table of the Synod, protesting 
 against its recent action. This was soon pubhshed in the news- 
 papers, and in pamphlet form, and circulated over the country, 
 
 ^ Rcid, iii. 449. 
 
 ^ Mr. White was the excellent minister of Bailieborough. He died in 
 1862, leaving behind him several sons who have risen to eminence in the 
 Church. 
 
154 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 All through the winter and spring the excitement on the subject 
 continued. Scarcely anything else occupied the attention of the 
 Presbyterian public. All eyes were directed to the next meeting 
 of Synod, for it was evident that matters could not remain much 
 longer as they were. The Court met in Lurgan, with the Rev. 
 Robert Park of Ballymoney ^ as Moderator. It was evident from 
 the very commencement of the proceedings that great issues were 
 pending. There had recently been elected as Professor of IMoral 
 Philosophy in the Belfast Institution a Mr, Ferrie, who was 
 strongly suspected of holding Socinian views, and this further 
 indication of the predominance of Arian influence in a seminary 
 where the larger number r{ the candidates for the ministry of the 
 Presbyterian Church received their training, could not pass un- 
 noticed.^ Mr. Cooke brought forward the subject of the election, 
 and moved a series of resolutions. The Arian leader had come 
 up fully prepared for this, and fully prepared also to make a final 
 and, as he hoped, crushing attack on his opponent. He had gone 
 carefully into the history of many past years, ransacking blue- 
 books and volumes of minutes for material wherewith to confound 
 him. In his hand, as he rose out of the pew in which he had 
 taken his seat, and stepped out in front of the pulpit, he held the 
 ponderous report of the * Commission on Education' containing 
 Cooke's evidence. Amid loud plaudits he began his speech. In 
 a short time he proceeded to assail Cooke, who sat in a pew close 
 by, with terrific vehemence. 'His face put on a sallow paleness,'^ 
 and his voice became deeper, as with mingled sarcasm and invec- 
 tive he launched out into a tremendous philippic against the 
 
 1 Mr. Park was ordained in Ballymoney in 1817. He succeeded Dr. 
 Raid in the clerkship of the Synod of Ulster, and at the Union became one 
 of the clerks of the General Assembly. He died in 1876. He was one of 
 tlie godliest and most faithful men whom the Irish Presbyterian Church has 
 ever had in her ministry. John Park, Esq., D. I>it., Professor of Logic and 
 Metaphysics in Queen's College, Belfast, is one of his sons. 
 
 2 Cf. Minutes of an Inqjury respecting the Moral Philosophy Class. Belfast, 
 1835. 
 
 • Life of Dr. Montgomery, by his son-in-law, Rev. J. A. Crozier, Newry. 
 
MEETING OF COOKE AND MONTGOMERY. 1 55 
 
 orthodox leader, contrasting his statements with regard to the 
 case of Mr. Ferrie with his sworn evidence before the Education 
 Commission, and maintaining that the one flatly contradicted the 
 other. As he insisted on his successive points, he raised the 
 heavy blue-book in his hand and waved it in the face of the 
 Synod, exclaiming — ' This, remember, is his sworn testimony, — 
 sworn upon the holy Evangelists ! ' When he had in this manner 
 inveighed against Cooke, with looks, gestures, and words almost 
 appalling, until the only person in the great audience who seemed 
 unmoved was the object of his denunciations, he changed his tone 
 with the consummate skill of the practised orator, and, in a voice 
 tremulous with emotion, contrasted the scene of bitter conflict 
 in which they \>ere now engaged with the peace of heaven, 
 until every hearer was melted into admiration. When he sat 
 down, after holding his audience almost spell-bound for nearly 
 three hours, an adjournment of half-an-hour followed. On the 
 resumption of business, Cooke took the floor to reply to his 
 assailant. It was no easy task. In fact, many of his friends 
 trembled for him. They did not see how it was possible to meet 
 the terrible charges which had been hurled at him. But he had 
 not been long on his feet until their apprehensions on his behalf 
 were completely dissipated. The dense audience listened with 
 mingled astonishment and admiration as, to use his own im- 
 passioned language, he ' dashed to atoms the vile accusation,' as 
 he * smote and shivered the atrocious calumny with the talisman 
 of truth.' It would be impossible to describe the speech. Com- 
 petent judges who heard it pronounce it one of the most marvel- 
 lous displays of eloquence to which they ever listened. Although, 
 unlike his antagonist, he had had no time for preparation, and 
 was called upon without warning to reply to grave charges 
 founded on evidence given more than four years before, he not 
 only completely vindicated himself, but, what was even more 
 important, gave the death-blow to the cause of Arianism in the 
 Synod. Montgomery's speech had been the last desperate effort 
 of a failing cause. It was a splendid effort. But it was a failure 
 
156 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 SO far as results were concerned. The Arians themselves felt that 
 all was lost. Their last card was played, and they were beaten 
 men. 
 
 A special Synod was held at Cookstown in the following 
 August. The Arians absented themselves, with the exception of 
 the Clerk, Rev. William Porter, who in their name formally laid 
 their ' Remonstrance ' on the table, together with an * Address 
 which they had adopted. All that remained now was to arrange 
 the terms of separation. These were soon agreed upon, and 
 seventeen ministers left the Synod and formed themselves into a 
 separate body, taking the name * Remonstrant Synod,' and the 
 Synod of Ulster was at last finally free from the taint of an 
 unscriptural and God-dishonouring heresy. 
 
 The after histories of the separatists and the Church which they 
 left are instructive. The Arian cause, left to itself, steadily 
 declined, until as a system it is now practically moribund in 
 Ireland. On the other hand, the Synod of Ulster, when the 
 poison of Arianism was extruded from it, put on new life and 
 vigour. The blessing of heaven seemed to attend all its movements. 
 In ten years it had grown more than during the whole previous 
 century. New and tasteful churches took the place of old and 
 dilapidated buildings all over the country.^ Better still, a spiritual 
 life manifested itself, which was as gratifying as it was real. The 
 modern prosperity of Irish Presbyterianism dates from the Arian 
 separation, and, it may safely be added, would never have been 
 attained had that happy event not taken place. 
 
 To complete here the history of the Arian controversy and its 
 results, it maybe mentioned that in 1835, on the motion of the 
 Rev. John (afterwards Dr.) Brown of Aghadoey,^ the Synod 
 agreed to an overture making absolute subscription to the West- 
 minster Confession of Faith requisite on the part of all wishing to 
 
 ' During the ten years ending with 1837 there was expended on diurch 
 building ^^107, 000 by 170 of the congregations. 
 
 '^ Dr. Brown was ordained in Aghadoey in 18 13. He died in 1873. He 
 was for long one of the most prominent figures in the Synod of Ulster, and 
 sJtcrwards in the General Assembly, 
 
RESULTS OF THE ARIAN SEPARATION. 1 57 
 
 become licentiates, elders, or ministers. In 1836 this overture 
 was finally confirmed, and the law ever since has been unqualified 
 subscription. 
 
 Nowhere did the happy effects of the deliverance from Arianism 
 appear more conspicuously than in Belfast. When the contro- 
 versies on the subject began there were just two orthodox con- 
 gregations connected with the Synod of Ulster in the town — 
 Rosemary Street, founded, as we have seen, in 1721, and Donegall 
 Street, founded in 1792 by a secession from the 2nd Congregation. 
 Besides these there was one Secession church in Berry Street. In 
 1820, the Rev. John Edgar was ordained by the Seceding Presby- 
 tery of Down to the pastoral charge of another infant congrega- 
 tion, which met in a hired room in Commercial Court, off Done- 
 gall Street. By the energy of its young minister, a small church 
 was built in Alfred Place, and opened for worship in 1821, exactly 
 a hundred years after the erection of Rosemary Street. The 
 feeble cause steadily grew, and became a centre of life and light 
 in the town, under the energetic care of its pastor.^ In 1828 the 
 Rev. James Morgan^ was installed as pastor of the newly-erected 
 
 1 He was the son of the Rev. Samuel Edgar, D.D., Ballynahinch. He 
 was bom in 1798 at Ballykine, near that town, and received his collegiate 
 education in Glasgow. In 1826 he succeeded his father as Professor ot 
 Theology to the Secession Synod, and on the formation of the General 
 Assembly in 1840 he became one of its professors. He died in DubUn in 
 1866. A memoir of him by the Rev. Dr. Killen has been published. 
 
 * He was bom at Cookstown on 15th June, 1799. His father, a 
 bleacher there, was an Episcopalian, but left the then Established Church 
 and lived and died a Presbyterian. His son James entered Glasgow College 
 in his fifteenth year. Under God, he ascribed his conversion, which he dated 
 from the year 18 15, to the conversation and influence of an elder brother. He 
 was licensed to preach in 1820, and in the same year was ordained as minister 
 of Carlow, where he continued five years. His next charge was Lisbura, 
 where he was assistant and successor to the Rev. Andrew Craig, who had 
 long been minister there. The congregation here was greatly blessed under 
 him. In 1828 he was called to undertake the charge of the newly-erected con- 
 gregation of Fisherwick Place, Belfast. The blessings which resulted from 
 liii ministry here it would be difficult to exaggerate. Fisherwick Place became 
 the model congregation of the Church, and its minister the model pastor. 
 Dr. Morgan's work in the eause of church extension, in the establishment and 
 
158 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 congregation of Fisherwick Place, commencing thus a ministry 
 in Belfast which was to prove of singular advantage to the town 
 as well as to the whole Church. In 1829, Dr. Cooke was called 
 from Killyleagh to occupy a new church expressly erected for him 
 in May Street, a most important event, not for Belfast alone, but 
 for all Ulster. From this date the erection of places of worship 
 has kept pace well with the gradual increase in the population, so 
 that there are now in the town thirty-one Presbyterian churches 
 under the jurisdiction of the General Assembly, as compared with 
 the three which were all it possessed at the beginning of the 
 century. 
 
 working of the Foreign Mission, and on behalf of temperance, can only be 
 properly appreciated by those who are able to compare the state of things 
 sixty years ago with what we have now. He died in 1873. Some of his 
 published works enjoyed a very extensive circulation, among others a treatise 
 on The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit^ a Commentary on the First 
 Epistle of John, and an excellent work on The Lord's Supper, His son, the 
 Rev. Thomas Morgan, is minister of Rostrevor. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 WORK AND WARFARE. 
 
 The year 1829 saw the birth in Ireland of a movement which 
 has been productive of untold good, not only to her, but to the 
 other two kingdoms. From that year dates the Temperance 
 Reformation. The use of whisky was at this time almost uni- 
 versal, and seemed to be rapidly growing. During the ten years 
 ending with 1829, the consumption of intoxicating liquors in the 
 three kingdoms doubled. The bottle was everywhere — on the 
 dinner table and the supper table, at the wedding and the wake, 
 at the baptism and the funeral, produced as regularly as the Bible 
 when the minister called to visit a parishioner, kept in the vestry 
 of nearly every church, and applied to before service or after it, 
 or both. In a word, it was supposed to be an absolute necessary 
 of life — as necessary as the staff of life itself. Ministers and 
 people alike drank. The elders drank. Everybody drank. Yet 
 for long no adequate effort was made to put a stop to the terrible 
 evil. 
 
 Dr. Edgar had his attention turned to the matter on this 
 wise. In the summer of 1829 the Rev. Joseph Penny, a young 
 Irish Presbyterian clergyman who had emigrated to the United 
 States from Drumlee, paid a visit to his native country. Among 
 others he called upon Dr. Edgar, and told him of the temperance 
 societies which had been established in America. His hearer 
 saw the thing at once, and with him to see was to act. Opening 
 his parlour window, he emptied out the remains of a gallon of 
 
 lu3 
 
l6o HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 whisky which had been bought for household consumption,^ and 
 from that hour threw himself with characteristic ardour into the 
 temperance movement. It was not, it is to be observed, total 
 abstinence that he advocated. The temperance pledge of those 
 days merely bound one to abstinence * from all distilled liquors.' 
 A letter from his pen, advocating the new departure, appeared in 
 the Belfast Newsletter on 14th August, 1829. Some who read 
 it thought it the work of a madman — so monstrous did the 
 proposal to abstain altogether from whisky seem. To do without 
 bread would not have appeared much more ridiculous. But the 
 letter was read, among others, by the Rev. G. W. Carr, New 
 Ross, who called upon Dr. Edgar shortly after, and on August 
 20th, by his influence, the first temperance society ever established 
 in Europe was organized in New Ross. On the 24th September of 
 the same year a few ministers met in a room at the old Tract 
 Depository in Waring Street, Belfast, and founded the Ulster 
 Temperance Society. The first three names subscribed to the 
 pledge taken that day were those of James Morgan, Thomas 
 Hincks, then a curate in Belfast, afterwards archdeacon of 
 Connor, and John Edgar. The last of the three was the apostle 
 of the movement. Letters and publications of all kinds advo- 
 cating it flowed from his pen — sermons and speeches in multitudes 
 from his lips. Meeting after meeting was arranged, and society 
 after society organized, until an idea, which at first was ridiculed 
 as chimerical, took deep root in the land, and to-day we see the 
 development and fruit of it in the temperance sentiment which 
 is so widely diffused, in the temperance legislation which has 
 been obtained, and in the alteration in our drinking customs 
 which has been brought about, — blessings great in themselves, 
 and certain to be followed in the near future by others still 
 more signal.* 
 
 1 Memoir 0/ Dr. Edgar, by W. D. Killen, D.D., p. 28. 
 * The progress of the temperance cause in the General Assembly has been 
 veiy marked. Five-sixths of the ministers, and nearly all the theological 
 . «itu(ieTits, are total abstainers. 
 
THE TEiMPERANCE REFORMATION. l6l 
 
 The original basis on which the Temperance Reformation 
 was established was, ere very many years had passed, found 
 to be altogether too narrow and too artificial. A pledge which 
 only forbade a man to drink whisky, and left him at liberty to 
 satisfy his craving for liquor with port, sherry, and champagne, 
 porter, ale, cider, or any other intoxicating drink which was 
 not a product of distillation, failed to satisfy the logical con- 
 victions of its own advocates, and was soon seen to be an 
 instrument altogether too weak to overcome the intemperance 
 of the age. Hence, while Dr. Edgar and others continued 
 to cling conservatively to the old pledge of abstinence from 
 distilled liquors only, the principle of total abstinence from 
 intoxicating drinks of all kinds ere long came to the front, 
 and it has been almost exclusively under its banner that the 
 modern Temperance Reformation has been prosecuted, and its 
 victories won in the Irish Presbyterian Church and elsewhere. 
 On July 4th, 1850, fifteen ministers united in forming the 
 ' Temperance Association in connection with the General 
 Assembly,' whose pledge is one of total abstinence from all 
 intoxicating liquors as beverages. The membership has grown 
 year by year, until now five-sixths of the clergy have subscribed 
 that pledge. The number is still increasing, almost all the 
 theological students being total abstainers. The entire Assembly 
 in 1876 urged the adoption of the practice of total abstinence 
 on all the people under its care. Such has been the gratifying 
 progress of this great and much needed work, which began in 
 1829. 
 
 Two years after the commencement of the Temperance Refor- 
 
 mition an important step was taken in the direction of dealing 
 
 with the ignorance which, dense as night, overspread a large 
 
 part of Ireland. In October, 1831, Mr. Stanley, Chief Secretary 
 
 for Ireland (afterwards Earl of Derby), announced the intention 
 
 of Government to establish a system of National Education for 
 
 Ireland. Some of the original provisions of the scheme thus 
 
 announced met with the utmost disfavour from a large portion 
 
 L 
 
1 62 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 of the Protestant public. The Rev. James Carhle,^ one of the 
 ministers of Mary's Abbey Presbyterian Church, Dublin, was 
 appointed a commissioner for the administration of the new 
 scheme, and ultimately became Resident Commissioner, a 
 position in which he rendered essential service to the cause 
 of education. But the Synod of Ulster in general was entirely 
 opposed to certain features of the system. Much negotiation 
 and discussion ensued. Year after year the Synod was occupied 
 with it in one form or another, and outside the Synod the country 
 was convulsed with the controversy. Nor was it until January, 
 1840, that the question was set finally at rest by the concession 
 to the Church of such modifications of the scheme as enabled 
 her to avail herself of its provisions. The Rev. Dr. Stewart of 
 Broughshane had the honour of sending up to the Commissioners 
 the 'model application' for aid to one of his schools, from 
 the granting of which may be dated the formal connection of the 
 Presbyterian Church with the Board. The General Assembly 
 has now (1886) 742 national schools in connection with its con- 
 gregations, and has been the best friend of the system of ' united 
 secular and separate religious instruction' in Ireland. The 
 system has been sadly ' tinkered ' of late years in the interests 
 of an unholy Roman CathoHc ascendancy, so that it is difficult 
 to recognise in it the features of the scheme of half a century 
 ago. But withal it has been a great blessing to the country. 
 
 1 Dr. Carlile was born in Paisley, in 1784, of the same Dumfriesshire 
 stock from which Thomas Carlyle sprang. For some time he pursued a 
 business career in the estabHshment of an uncle in London, but strong 
 rehgious impressions, largely due to the ministry of Rowland Hill, changed 
 the current of his thoughts, and he resolved to enter the ministry. After the 
 usual course of study, he was licensed, and in 1813 received a call to be 
 colleague of Dr. M'Dowell and Dr. Horner in Mary's Abbey, Dublin, and 
 thenceforth his life was devoted to Ireland. His mission work in Birr, which 
 he gave up residence in Dublin to prosecute, was singularly blessed. He 
 died in 1854. We owe to his pen several of the best of the Irish National 
 school-books. He was also the author of several valuable theological works. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE UNION OF THE SYNODS, AND AFTER. 
 
 One of the happiest events in the modern history of Irish Pres- 
 byterianism occurred in the year 1840. It had for some time 
 been clear that there was no good reason for the Synod of Ulster 
 and the Secession Synod dwelling apart. Both subscribed the 
 same Confession of Faith, held by the same polity, and main- 
 tained the same form of worship. The idea of a union between 
 the two began therefore to be mooted among the theological 
 students who were in attendance at the Institution. At one of 
 their prayer-meetings in 1839, the Rev. John Coulter (afterwards 
 Dr. Coulter ^) of Gilnahirk gave an address strongly urging the 
 advisabihty of such a step. Memorials praying that it should 
 be taken into earnest consideration, were sent by the students 
 to the next meetings of both Synods. Similar memorials were 
 sent up from various congregations, and from a large public 
 meeting held in Belfast. The question was evidently ripe for 
 settlement, and negotiations were at once entered upon, which 
 progressed so rapidly and satisfactorily that all necessary pre- 
 liminaries were settled within one year, and on Friday, loth 
 July, 1840, the two Synods proceeded to the consummation of 
 the union. Belfast has seen few days of such intense interest, 
 and the Irish Presbyterian Church none of such importance. 
 The streets of the town were densely crowded that morning, in 
 expectation of the event. The Synod of Ulster sat in May 
 Street Church, and the Secession Synod in Linen Hall Street, 
 
 * Dr. Coulter was one of the worthiest ministers of the Secession. He was 
 Moderator of the General Assembly in 1851. He died in 1877. 
 
 163 
 
164 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 At eleven o'clock the doors of the two churches opened, and a 
 procession of clergymen and elders emerged from each. In 
 front of the members of the Synod of Ulster was seen the 
 figure of the venerable Rev. James Elder of Finvoy, its Mode- 
 rator, with his snow-white hair and saintly look ; while at the 
 head of the members of the sister court walked one of the fathers 
 of the Secession, the aged and deeply-respected Rev. John Rogers 
 of Glascar.^ The interest grew as the two bodies coalesced, and 
 the two Moderators walked side by side, followed by the long 
 black-coated procession, along Donegall Square and Donegal] 
 Place, until Rosemary Street Church was reached. Here an 
 immense congregation had assembled. The two Moderator? 
 proceeded to the pulpit together. One gave out the 133rd Psalm, 
 which was sung with deep feeling, the tears standing in many 
 eyes as they saw those who were brethren come now to dwell 
 together in unity. The other Moderator then read the 17th 
 chapter of John, and, prayer having been offered, the Rev. Dr. 
 Reid, Clerk of the Synod of Ulster, twice read over the Act of 
 Union, which had been previously agreed upon by both Synods. 
 The question was then put to the House whether this Act was 
 ratified. All rose, and with uplifted right hand expressed their 
 solemn approval of it. The Rev. Dr. Hanna was then unani- 
 mously chosen Moderator of the first General Assembly of 
 the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, and the court was fully 
 constituted. 
 
 Let us look round Rosemary Street Church and note the chief 
 actors in the scene of that morning, for it will live in history as 
 one of the red-letter days in the annals of Irish Presbyterianism. 
 There in the Moderator's chair is the venerable Dr. Hanna, 
 at whose feet successive generations of Belfast citizens have sat 
 Sabbath after Sabbath for nearly half a cen*ury. At the Clerk's 
 table, beside him, are seated the learned Dr. Seaton Reid, the 
 
 1 Mr. Rogers was son of the venerable Rev, John Rogers of Cahans, and 
 father of the late Rev. James Rogers of Glascar, who left two sons in the 
 ministry of the Irish Presbyterian Church. 
 
THE UNION OF THE SYNODS. 165 
 
 historian of the Church,^ and Mayne Reid of Drumgooland, 
 whose name is to be perpetuated in a son, the idol of boys for 
 his tales of adventure. On the platform, too, are three well- 
 known clergymen of the mother Church of Scotland, sent to 
 congratulate the daughter on the auspicious event of the day, 
 — the venerable Patrick Macfarlane of Greenock, who within 
 three years is to give up the richest living north of the Tweed 
 for conscience' sake ; James Begg, the sturdy champion of 
 Presbyterianism, and opponent of innovations ; and the seraphic 
 M'Cheyne, with the accustomed heavenly look upon a face that 
 is all too soon for the world to be hid in the coffin. Glancing 
 over the pews we see not far from the pulpit the majestic head 
 of Cooke, now just in his prime ; and the less conspicuous 
 form of the saintly and sagacious Morgan ; and burly, brusque, 
 warm-hearted John Edgar. Near these is the godly and devoted 
 David Hamilton, already fired through his inmost soul with a 
 consuming desire for the salvation of the house of Israel, which 
 ere long is to find embodiment in the Jewish Mission. The 
 mild, hazel eyes of the scholarly Professor Wilson look on 
 
 ^ Dr. Reid was born in the eventful year 1798, at Lurgan, where his 
 father, Mr. Forrest Reid, kept one of the best grammar schools of the day. 
 Seventeen children were born to this excellent man, of whom the future 
 historian was the sixteenth. He entered Glasgow College in 18 13, was 
 licensed by the Presbytery of Letterkenny (of which his brother, Rev. 
 Edward Reid of Ramelton, was then a member) in 1818, and was 
 ordained in Donegore in 18 19. Here, at the age of twenty-three or twenty- 
 four, he conceived the idea of writing the history of the Irish Presbyterian 
 Church. It was not, however, till after his translation to Carrickfergus, 
 which took place in 1823, that the project took shape. In 1834 the first 
 volume was published. The second appeared in June, 1837, and in the 
 following month the author was appointed by the Synod of Ulster its Pro- 
 fessor of Ecclesiastical History. Already in 1830 he had been chosen 
 Clerk to that body. In 18 41 he was appointed by the Crown Professor of 
 Ecclesiastical and Civil History in Glasgow University. The third and last 
 volume of his great work was little more than half finished when death bade 
 the busy fingers lay down the pen. He died at the seat of Lord Mackenzie, 
 near Edinburgh, in 185 1. The unfinished history was admirably completed 
 by his successor in the chair of Ecclesiastical History in Belfast College, the 
 Rev. W, D. Killen, D.D. 
 
1 66 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 interestedly at the scene from underneath his fine forehead ; and 
 yonder is the eloquent Josias Wilson, who is soon to exchange 
 the church at the end of the town (Towns-end Street) for a 
 London charge. These from Belfast. From the country, notable 
 men too — the courtly and polished Henry of Armagh, the son 
 and grandson of a clergyman, destined in after years to be first 
 president of the northern Queen's College ; and the eloquent 
 young Henry Jackson Dobbin of Ballymena, also a son of the 
 manse ; and Coulter of Gilnahirk, one of the best types of the 
 excellent Secession pastor. There are Dills there, John of Carn- 
 money, and Richard of Ballykelly, Samuel of Donoughmore, and 
 Samuel of Hillsborough, the last by and by to be in Bally m^ena, 
 and in the end in a college, not yet thought of, on the banks of the 
 Foyle. Rogerses, father and son, come from Glascar. Yonder 
 are Edgar of Armagh, author of The Variations of Roma7iism; 
 and Stewart of Broughshane, Qoq)s£s fidus Achates^ the fame 
 of whose three days' contest with Father M'Auley of Ballymena 
 has not yet died ; the scholarly Barnett of Moneymore and the 
 metaphysical Molyneaux of Larne ; James Elder of Finvoy, 
 currently known as 'The Gun of the Gospel,' and Johnston, the 
 savour of whose ministrations and 'gallery meetings' is not yet 
 dead in Tullylish, and who is to leave a son behind him, when 
 he passes away, who is to be known all over Ireland as the 
 orphan's friend. Derry has sent up to take part in the solemn 
 scene the urbane William M'Clure, the senior of an eminent 
 brother not yet come to the front, but destined by and by to do 
 good service in Parhament, and James Denham, the father of 
 his people and the stalwart defender of his Church's polity in 
 the Plea of Presbytery. But the time would fail to tell of 
 all the noteworthy men there that day — of the venerable White 
 of Bailieborough, prolific ancestor of pastors ; and Brown of 
 Aghadoey, the stout defender of unconditional subscription to 
 the Confession of Faith ; and Huston of Macosquin, the 
 staunch presbyter and the faithful minister ; the eccentric 
 David M'Kee of Anaghlone, oddest but most original of men ; 
 
PERSONNEL OF THE FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 167 
 
 and the cultured and busy John Weir of Newry, and the aged 
 Horner of Dublin, and the earnest and scholarly Bleckley of 
 Monaghan, and Park, the beloved pastor of Bally money, who is 
 by and by to succeed Reid in the Clerkship, and be a familiar 
 figure in the Assembly for another generation. One grieves to 
 think that these are all gone. Among the elders, too, are men 
 not to be passed over in silence. Thomas Sinclair is there 
 from Fishervvick Place, the bearer of an honoured name, and 
 the owner of a great heart, both destined to live on in a son 
 like-minded. Counsellor Gibson sits as the elder from Rose- 
 mary Street, and Counsellor Greer from Dunboe — two men whose 
 legal knowledge and public influence were at the service of the 
 Church of their fathers long before and long after. D. K. 
 Clarke has come up from Kilmore, which owed the building of its 
 church to him, as the whole Church is to owe him many another 
 help before he has fallen on sleep. Altogether it was surely a 
 remarkable gathering, — in it men of truest genius, orators able 
 by the spell of their eloquence to move men as by a magician's 
 wand, thinkers of no mean order, authors of books which yet 
 live and are not likely to die, wise and far-seeing educationists, 
 faithful pastors, busy philanthropists, founders of great benevolent 
 enterprises which for years have gone on blessing the world 
 while they have been turning to dust, Christian merchants who 
 struck a new keynote of Christian beneficence at which the old- 
 fashioned held up their hands in astonishment, and Christian 
 lawyers whose delight it was to make the law a handmaid to 
 the gospel. A notable assemblage truly ! How solemn the 
 thought that all the worthies we have named — all, all are 
 gone to the narrow house of their rest, and that of the others 
 who joined with them that July day in Belfast in consummating 
 the Union, but a handful are left I ^ 
 
 * The congregations of the Synod of Ulster numbered 292 at the Union, 
 and those of the Secession 141, so that 433 congregations in all were by 
 the Act of Union placed under the jurisdiction of the General Assembly. 333 
 ministers and 135 elders attended this first meeting. 
 
1 68 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 Almost the first act of the newly-constituted Assembly was the 
 establishment of a Foreign Mission, and the designation of two 
 brethren to proceed in connection with it to India, the Rev. 
 James (afterwards Dr.) Glasgow, minister of Castledawson, and 
 the Rev. Alexander Kerr, of Portadown. Thus was initiated a 
 work which has since been greatly extended and greatly blessed.^ 
 It was not the beginning of Irish Presbyterian missionary enter- 
 prise. Long before, both Synods had given no obscure indica- 
 tions of their anxiety to propagate the faith. So far back as 
 the eighteenth century the Synod of Ulster had taken steps to 
 have the gospel preached in Irish to the Irish-speaking popula- 
 tion.2 In 1710, *The General Fund,' intended to diffuse the 
 gospel through the South of Ireland, was established, a scheme 
 which for many years played an important part in establishing 
 and sustaining Presbyterian congregations in that part of the 
 country. In 1798, 'The Evangelical Society' was organized 
 for the purpose of carrying on a system of itinerant preaching 
 throughout the North of Ireland. Its chief supporters were 
 Seceders.^ In 1826, 'The Synod of Ulster Home Missionary 
 
 * Dr. Morgan, the first convener of this scheme, was succeeded in the 
 office by the Rev. WiUiam Fleming Stevenson, afterwards D.D., Dublin, 
 under whom it made great progress. He was a native of Strabane, where 
 he was born in 1832. In 1856, after the usual college course, taken partly 
 in Edinburgh and partly in Germany, he was licensed by the Presbytery of 
 Strabane, and shortly afterwards became an agent of the Belfast Town 
 Mission. In i860 he was ordained by the Presbytery of Dublin as first 
 minister of Rathgar, a suburb of the city of Dublin, where he was the means 
 of establishing a most flourishing congregation, of which he remained the 
 beloved minister till his death on September i6th, 1886. Dr. Stevenson was 
 chaplain to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland during the viceroyalty of the 
 Earl of Aberdeen — being the first Presbyterian clergyman who ever held 
 that office. His book. Praying and Working, has attained widespread 
 popularity, and his unquenchable enthusiasm in the cause of foreign missions, 
 for the advancement of which he undertook, in 1877, amission tour round the 
 world, made him known and honoured throughout the whole of evangelical 
 Christendom. He was Moderator of the General Assembly in 1881. His 
 wife was a daughter of the late Mr. John Sinclair, The Grove, Belfast. 
 
 2 Atite, p. 114. 
 
 • The Rev. George Hamilton, Armagh, father of the late Sir James 
 Hamillon, Belfast, was its secretary 
 
MISSION WORK. 169 
 
 Society ' was established, but seems never to have possessed 
 much vitality, and, after a brief existence of only three years, 
 is no more heard of. In 1830, 'The Presbyterian Missionary 
 Society ' was formed, which attained considerable vigour, and 
 commanded a large amount of support, its receipts having 
 reached ^1200 per annum in 1836. The Seceders, in addition 
 to their efforts in connection with the EvangeHcal Society, in 
 1 81 8, immediately after the union of the Burghers and Anti- 
 burghers, organized a Home Mission, and established preaching- 
 stations in many places where Presbyterianism had hitherto 
 been almost unknown. 
 
 All these efforts and plans show that the duty of sending the 
 gospel to those without was clearly realized from an early period, 
 and that, if greater efforts were not made by Irish Presbyterian- 
 ism, the will at all events to make them was not wanting. No 
 attempt at Foreign Mission work had indeed been made by either 
 Synod. But Foreign Missions can scarcely be said to have had 
 an existence anywhere a ctnturyago. Now, both bodies being 
 joined together, the first foreign missionaries ever designated by 
 any Church in Ireland were set apart to labour in India. It was 
 surely a good keynote to strike on that eventful day ! 
 
 The tide of missionary fervour now began to flow with uncom- 
 mon strength. One new mission had been established, but one 
 was not felt to be enough. The Home field had been provided 
 for. So had the Foreign. But there had been no recognition yet of 
 the claims of the Jews. This, however, was not long to be. The 
 General Assembly of 1841 had two memorials presented to it, pray- 
 ing for the establishment of a mission to them. One of these was 
 from the Presbytery of Belfast ; the other came from the laity of 
 the same town, and had so many signatures attached to it, that, 
 when unrolled, it was found to reach completely round Rosemary 
 Street Church. The result was the establishment of the Jewish 
 Mission, with the Rev. David Hamilton as honorary secretary.^ 
 
 1 The Irish Presbyterian people showed their cordial approbation of tliis 
 action of their supreme Court, by sending in ^^954 as their first offering 
 
lyo HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 In 1846 another scheme was organized — the Colonial Mission, 
 intended, as its name indicates, to be the means of caring for the 
 multitudes of our countrymen who are scattered abroad in the 
 various colonies of the Empire. Of this the Rev. Wm. M'Clure 
 of Derry was the first secretary. From the same year we find 
 the Assembly interesting itself in the affairs of the Waldenses 
 and other Continental Churches. The Continental Mission was 
 ultimately established to take charge of this field, with the Rev. 
 Professor Gibson as secretary. A Mission to Soldiers and 
 Sailors was the last to be set on foot, with the Rev. Robert Black 
 as first convener. The Church has thus fully taken her stand 
 as a missionary Church, and has had not a few tokens that the 
 Lord of the harvest has acknowledged her labours. 
 
 To return, however, to the history of the times succeeding the 
 Union, — the loth June, 1842, was the two hundredth anniversary 
 of the establishment of the first Irish Presbytery. Dr. Cooke, who 
 was then Moderator, by appointment of the Assembly proceeded 
 on the bicentenary day to Carrickfergus, and preached a sermon 
 from the words in the 51st Psalm, from which the Rev. John 
 Baird had preached on the same day in 1642. It was a most 
 solemn and interesting occasion. As a memorial of the good- 
 ness of God to the Church during those two centuries, a Bi- 
 centenary Fund was established, which was so heartily supported 
 that ;!{^ 14,000 were contributed to it, a sum which was expended 
 for the benefit of the cause of Presbyterianism in the South and 
 West of Ireland. 
 
 The connection of the Synod of Ulster with the Belfast Insti- 
 tution had been attended by unpleasant friction almost from the 
 beginning. Although largely erected by means of money con- 
 tributed by Trinitarians,^ the Arian party had managed to 
 obtain a predominant influence in its affairs, and during the dis- 
 
 on behalf of Israel. See Faithful unto Death, a Memoir of the Rev. David 
 Hamilton, by his Son, p. 75. 
 
 1 It is stated on good authority that of the ;^22,ooo expended on the build- 
 ings, £\-j,Qoo were contributed by Trinitarians. 
 
A NEW COLLEGE PROJECTED. 171 
 
 cussions which eventuated in their separation from the Synod 
 of Ulster, they managed to make that influence very uncomfort- 
 ably felt. Again and again the Synod and the Board of Managers 
 came into collision, and more than one of the debates, during the 
 Arian controversies, hinged on some new phase of this conflict. 
 From the class of one professor, Mr Ferrie, the Synod withdrew 
 its students altogether, and in the whole seminary there was a 
 want of confidence which was continually breeding irritation. 
 Shortly after the Union, the relations between the two became 
 intolerable, and the General Assembly, at a special meeting held 
 in Cookstown in 1 844, resolved on the erection of a college of its 
 own. In a short time a sum of ;^3ooo was subscribed for the 
 purpose, and a beginning having thus been made, Government 
 was applied to for the endowment of certain additional chairs 
 necessary for such a seminary. In 1845, however, the reply came 
 that Government ' would not endow any denominational college 
 in Ireland.'^ In the same year a Bill for the establishment of 
 three Queen's Colleges in Belfast, Cork, and Galway, was intro' 
 duced into Parliament by Sir Robert Peel, and speedily became 
 law, and the idea now began to prevail that the best plan for the 
 General Assembly would be to take advantage of one or all of the 
 new seminaries for the literary and scientific training of its can- 
 didates for the ministry, and to confine its own operations to 
 the provision of a theological college for their education in sacred 
 subjects. An event which happened in 1846 gave matters, how- 
 ever, a new turn. At the Assembly of that year the Rev. Richard 
 Dill of Dubhn announced that Mrs. Magee, widow of the Rev. 
 William Magee, Presbyterian minister of Lurgan, had just died 
 in Dublin, and had left to the Irish Presbyterian Church sums 
 amounting in all to about ^6o,ooo, ;i^2o,ooo of this being for the 
 erection and endowment of a college. This splendid legacy 
 seemed to have come just in the nick of time. But it soon appeared 
 that there were difficulties connected with its use. The trustees 
 of Mrs. Magee's will maintained that the money must be used for 
 ' Minutes of the General Assembly, i. 413. 
 
172 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 the erection of a college affording a literary and scientific as well 
 as a theological education ; while, on the other hand, there were 
 many who held that, inasmuch as the Queen's Colleges would now 
 fully and admirably supply this literary and scientific training, 
 it would be better to devote the money to the building and 
 maintenance of a thoroughly efficient theological seminary. 
 Ultimately the view of the trustees, who were left large powers 
 by the will, prevailed, and the result was the erection of two 
 colleges — Magee College, Londonderry, a splendid building with 
 seven endowed chairs, affording a full training alike in secular 
 and sacred subjects, and now affiliated with the Royal University, 
 so that its alumni are able to proceed to the various degrees ; 
 and the Assembly's College, Belfast, one of the finest and most 
 completely equipped edifices in the kingdom, with six chairs. 
 The latter was formally opened in 1853 by the celebrated Merle 
 D'Aubigne of Geneva, the historian of the Reformation. Dr. Cooke 
 was appointed its first president. Of late years it has received a 
 number of splendid benefactions, one, the gift of a sum of ^10,000, 
 for the completion of the college buildings, from an anonymous 
 donor, since discovered to have been the late Mr. Adam S. Find- 
 later of Dublin, which was the means of raising nearly ^11,000 
 more for the College Endowment Fund.^ Magee College was 
 opened in 1865. The Rev. Richard Dill bequeathed a large sum to 
 it, and many others gave it gifts or legacies. The Irish Society 
 has also befriended it, and of late a suite of fine residences 
 for the professors has been erected by the liberality of friends of 
 
 1 Five gentlemen gave £1000 each to this fund, viz. Sir James P. Corry, 
 Bart., Belfast; Mr. A. S. Findlater, Kingstown; Mr. Charles Wilson, 
 Cheltenham ; Mr. William Todd, Dublin, and Mr. Henry Campbell, Belfasu 
 Mrs. Gamble, widow of the Rev. Henry Gamble, Presbyterian minister ot 
 Cloughey, County Down, has also been a munificent benefactress to the 
 college. 'The Gamble Library,' on which she expended ^^1500 in memory 
 of her husband, is one of her gifts. A fine suite of chambers for the resi- 
 dence of students has also been erected as a memorial to the late Professor 
 Gibson, and scholarships and prizes have been founded to the value of about 
 ,^400 per annum. 
 
'the PRESBYTERIAN THEOLOGICAL FACULTY. 1 73 
 
 the college.^ In 1881 the theological professors of these two 
 colleges were incorporated by Royal Charter as 'The Presby- 
 terian Theological Faculty, Ireland,' and empowered to grant 
 degrees in divinity. What a change in the entire educational 
 apparatus of the Church since Gowan started his humble ' school 
 of philosophy' at Antrim, for the education of candidates for 
 the ministry in the seventeenth century ! 
 
 1 Magee College has recently lost one of its ablest and best known pro- 
 fessors, the Rev. Thomas Croskery, D.D. He was born at Carrowdore, a 
 village in County Down, on May 26th, 1830. Brought up a Unitarian, he 
 discovered the unscripturalness of Unitarianism after entering Belfast College, 
 and severed his connection with the body. He was licensed by the Presby- 
 tery of Down in 1851, but did not receive ordination until i860, when he was 
 settled in Creggan, spending the interval in travel and in literary work in 
 connection with the Belfast newspaper press. In 1863 he was translated to 
 Clonakilty, and again in 1866 to Waterside Church, Londonderry. In 1875 
 he was appointed Professor of Logic in Magee College, and in 1879 trans- 
 ferred to the chair of Theology, which he held till his death on October 3rd, 
 1886. He was a frequent contributor to the Edinbia-gh Review and other 
 leading organs of public opinion, and was alf^o the author of a very able 
 volume, entitled Plyinouth Brefhienismy a A'c/atalion of its Principles and 
 Docirinej^ and of oUier works. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 PRESBYTERIANISM OUTSIDE ULSTER. 
 
 Our history has hitherto been the history almost entirely of the 
 Synod of Ulster and the Secession. But outside both bodies, in 
 the southern portion of the island, there were from an early 
 period a number of Presbyterian congregations of great influence. 
 Presbyterianism made its appearance in Dublin at a pretty 
 remote date. The Rev. Walter Travers, first regular Provost 
 of Trinity College, appointed in 1594, was a Presbyterian minister. 
 So was his successor in that high office, the Rev. Henry Alvey, 
 who also became the first Vice-Chancellor of the University. Its 
 first two elected Fellows — James Hamilton, afterwards Lord 
 Claneboy, and James Fullerton — were also Presbyterians. So 
 that here, from the reign of Elizabeth, was a little knot of 
 Presbyterians settled in Dublin, and we cannot doubt that they 
 established a Presbyterian service for their own worship, and for 
 any that chose to unite with them. From this we may probably 
 date the advent of Presbyterianism to the South of Ireland, — a 
 period, it will be observed, anterior to the date of its appearance 
 in Ulster. During the time of the Commonwealth, Independents 
 and Baptists were the favoured sects in Ireland as elsewhere, 
 and it is an interesting fact that during that period Dublin en- 
 joyed the benefit of the ministrations of two of the most eminent 
 of the Puritan divines — John Owen and Stephen Charnock. 
 The former came to the metropolis in 1647, and in 1649 we find 
 him still there, preaching to a congregation in Wood Street, 
 which subsequently became one of the regular Presbyterian 
 churches of the city. During the Protectorate many officers anU 
 
THE OLD DUBLIN CONGREGATIONS. 175 
 
 soldiers of Cromwell's army, and others from England, settled in 
 the South, and by degrees little Dissenting congregations sprang 
 up here and there owing to this cause. In the last quarter of 
 the seventeenth century we find five Presbyterian congregations in 
 Dublin, viz. Wood Street, Cook Street, New Row, Plunket Street, 
 and Capel Street. The first three of these seem to have been 
 mainly composed of English Presbyterians, the last two of Scotch 
 and North of Ireland people. Dublin being the seat of the Irish 
 Court, and the meeting-place of the Irish Parliament, some of 
 these congregations attained to great conspicuousness and pro- 
 sperity. The people of Wood Street, for example, must have been 
 a wealthy body, for we find that when the ' General Fund ' was 
 established in 1710 they contributed £(>7S^ of the £7^10 originally 
 raised for it. In 1738 we find a congregation in Stafford Street, 
 an offshoot from Capel Street.' By and by, when Secederism 
 appeared in Ireland, two congregations, the one of Burghers and 
 the other of Antiburghers, sprang up in the city. We find 
 them located in obscure lanes.^ Some of these Dublin churches 
 had from time to time ministers of no mean celebrity, men like 
 Joseph Boyse, author of the Vmdicicz Calvinisticce ; Francis 
 Iredell, who, along with Adair of Ballyeaston, presented the 
 address of the Presbyterians to Schomberg when he arrived in 
 Ireland ; and John Leland, whose works on the Christian evi- 
 dences prove the possession of a mind of conspicuous acuteness, 
 and are still valuable. These old Dublin ministers had not a few 
 notable people among the members of their congregations. Lord 
 Ferrard and his family, Lady Donegal, and the Countess of Ennis- 
 killen, sat in New Row in the end of the eighteenth century. The 
 Granard family were connected with Capel Street, and others of 
 the congregations were also attended by persons of high rank. 
 
 ^ In 1762, Stafford Street united with Wood Street, and by and by the 
 united congregation built a new church in Strand Street. 
 
 2 Union Chapel, Lower Abbey Street, derived its name from the fact of two 
 congregations of Seceders, one of Burghers and the other of Antiburghers, 
 having united to form its congregation. The congregation in Plunket Street, 
 of which Rev. S. G. Morrison was minister, also joined itself to this charge. 
 
176 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 Over the South were not a few Presbyterian churches. That at 
 Clonmel dates from 1673. It was at one time one of the most 
 influential congregations in all Munster. The chief families of 
 the neighbourhood, the Bagwells, Hutchisons, Moores, Ryalls, 
 were all Presbyterians, and belonged to it. Cork congregation 
 must have been nearly as old. We know, at all events, that it 
 had had thirteen successive ministers prior to the year 17 10. 
 Limerick probably dates from the reign of James I. or Charles I., 
 Waterford from 1673, Summerhill from 1660, Fethard from 1655, 
 and the united congregation of Sligo and Moywater (now Killala) 
 from 1695. Besides these and other congregations which are 
 still in existence, there were not a few which have quite dis- 
 appeared, and of which one fails to recognise even the names as 
 possessing any ecclesiastical significance. Such, e.o^., were Augh- 
 macart and Ballybrittas, in Queen's County, which in the early 
 part of last century were very considerable congregations, and 
 had large landed properties connected with them, held for a 
 peppercorn each per annum. The congregations disappeared, 
 and the lands were lost to the Church. Again, at Portarlington, 
 Mountrath, Cullohill, The Leap, Rahul, and Edenderry there 
 were congregations, all with landed property, held at nominal 
 rents, belonging to them. But both congregations and property 
 have vanished.^ Sir Arthur Langford was connected with the 
 congregation of Summerhill, near which he had his country seat, 
 and on which he bestowed many benefactions. Various causes 
 combined to weaken the Presbyterian cause in the South, and in 
 many cases to eradicate it altogether. One of these was the 
 insidious spread of Arianism, with its usual deadening influence. 
 Not being connected with the Synod of Ulster, the evangelical 
 light which in the darkest days of defection continued to shine, 
 hov/ever dimly, in the North, failed to be kept burning in the 
 congregations of the South, and so error had its own way among 
 them, with disastrous results. Then the rebellion of 1798, the 
 
 * See History of Presbyterian Congregations in Ireland, by W. D, 
 Killen, D.D. 1886. 
 
THE CHURCH IN THE SOUTH AND WEST. ' 1 77 
 
 full fury of which was felt in the South, and whose course was 
 marked by the massacre of Protestants and the destruction of 
 their property, was most destructive to them. The southern 
 cono-regations grouped themselves for mutual advantage inta 
 what was called the Southern Association.^ In 1809 a Synod of 
 Munster was formed by the union of the Southern Presbytery 
 of Dublin with the Presbytery of Munster. But, Arianism 
 spreading here unchecked, the disastrous results we have men- 
 tioned ensued. By and by, with the incoming of the evangelical 
 revival, the orthodox ministers of the Synod withdrew, and the 
 present Presbytery of Munster was established, which in 1854 
 joined the General Assembly. One cannot contemplate the 
 losses which our Church has sustained in the South without 
 a pang of regret. Many of them, it is true, have been repaired. 
 Within the last fifty years the Presbyterian Church has made 
 most gratifying progress both in the South and West. She has 
 not only ^ repaired the waste places, the desolations of many 
 generations,' but has broken much new ground. She is no longer 
 the Synod of Ulster, but the Presbyterian Church of Ireland, 
 having flourishing congregations from Derry to Cork, and from 
 Limerick to Dublin. But the losses which were caused through 
 neglect and error can never be retrieved. 
 
 In 1846 a sad calamity fell on Ireland, which was destined to 
 have the most marked influence on its future. This was the 
 terrible potato blight. No more appalling calamity could have 
 befallen the country. On the produce of their potato fields 
 millions had to live. The produce being gone, those milHons 
 were face to face with starvation. 
 
 There was one noble-minded Presbyterian clergyman who 
 came to the help of the people in this crisis with an alacrity 
 and a helpfulness which can never be forgotten. This was Dr. 
 
 1 In 1708, it is to be noted, Queen Anne granted ;,^8oo per annum to the 
 southern congregations,— a- grant usually known as the ' English Bounty,' 
 inasmuch as it was remitted direct from London to the Irish Treasury,— and 
 this sum was increased from time to time. 
 
 M 
 
178 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 Edgar. In September, 1846, he was in Connaught on an evan- 
 gelistic tour. As he drove through the country, the sight of the 
 blackened fields, and the starving peasantry, and the hopeless, 
 blank looks of despair on the faces of the people, went to his 
 heart. On the spot he penned an appeal to the people of Ulster 
 on behalf of their perishing fellow-countrymen. That letter 
 awoke a sympathetic response in the northern breast. Thousands 
 of pounds were contributed in answer to it and the other stirring 
 appeals written by the same facile pen, all of which were wisely 
 and well expended under Dr. Edgar's care. But he did more 
 than this. With the fine eye of a true patriot, he saw a way of 
 turning this fearful calamity into a means of permanent good. 
 He found Connaught suffering from a worse famine than the 
 loss of bread— a famine of the Word of God. One Bible, 
 given by an English sportsman to a Connaught peasant a 
 short time before his visit, had wrought a religious revolution 
 in Connaught.^ Man after man had been led by it out of 
 Popery. Dr. Edgar now established the Connaught Irish 
 schools,— nor only Irish schools, but by and by English schools, 
 taught by pious teachers, and thoroughly imbued with Scriptural 
 instruction ; then Industrial schools, where useful works were 
 taught. Churches were built, with neat manses beside them, and 
 men of God, like the Rev. Robert Allen, and others of a similar 
 spirit who still live, to labour in them. The result is seen to-day 
 in the fact that 40,000 children have passed through the Con- 
 naught schools, all taught in the Scriptures, many of them with 
 blessed results — an Orphanage and Refuge Home in Ballina 
 have sheltered numbers of destitute Roman Catholic children 
 and others fleeing from persecution, and the Connaught Presby- 
 tery has more than doubled the number of its congregations. 
 The famine was a terrible evil, but it left more than one good 
 result behind it. 
 
 1 KWXcns Memoir of D?: Edgar. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE LAST THIRTY YEARS. 
 
 About thirty years ago the first steps were taken in an enter- 
 prise to which the Irish Presbyterian Church owes no small 
 measure of its stability. At that time little more than one 
 in twenty of the congregations possessed manses, and very 
 many of the churches were unworthy of the holy purposes for 
 which they were used. The Assembly therefore resolved on 
 the estabhshment of a Church and Manse Fund. The Rev. 
 David Hamilton, Belfast, was put at the head of this scheme, 
 and the amount of labour which he bestowed on it was almost 
 incredible.^ The original idea was to raise £$ooo, £1000 to 
 be spent in aiding the erection of churches, and ;^4ooo in 
 helping to build manses. But when, on an August day in 1853, 
 a meeting of Belfast merchants was held to make arrangements 
 for opening a subscription list for the new fund, the late Mr. 
 John Sinclair, one of two brothers who did more during their 
 lives than any others that could be named to raise the standard 
 of giving in the Irish Presbyterian Church, proposed that instead 
 
 * The Rev. David Hamilton was born in 1805, near Ballynahinch, and 
 received his education from before he was seven years old at Dr. Edgar's well- 
 known academy there. In 1821 he entered the old Belfast College, and 
 in 1827 was licensed by the Presbytery of Dromore. In 1829 he was 
 ordained in Connor as assistant and successor to the venerable Rev. Henry 
 Henry, one of the most faithful ministers in the Synod of Ulster. In 1840 
 he was called to Belfast to become the first minister of the newly - built 
 church in York Street. Here he toiled with a zeal and devotion which are 
 not yet forgotten, till a fever, caught in the discharge of pastoral duty, 
 terminated his too brief career in January, i860. See a memoir of him by 
 the present writer. 
 
 179 
 
l8o HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 of ;({^Sooo, they should raise ^25,000, promising that in case his 
 suggestion was adopted he and his brother (the late Mr. Thomas 
 Sinclair of Hopefield) would subscribe ;^iooo.^ The proposition 
 was startling. But it was accepted, supported as it was by such 
 an offer. Other large subscriptions were promised, small ones 
 too. The Church took the matter up with wonderful heart. In 
 one day £3700 was contributed by seventeen individuals in 
 Belfast. Soon it was announced that the same town had pro- 
 mised more than a third of the whole amount proposed to be 
 raised. In the country also ' the people had a mind to work,* 
 and, in the sequel, nearly ;^3 5,000 were subscribed, to the 
 astonishment of the General Assembly itself. This fund did 
 more than any other effort which had ever been made to show 
 the Irish Presbyterian Church wherein its great strength lay. 
 Hitherto, when any enterprise was to be undertaken involv- 
 ing large expenditure, the mode of accomplishing it which 
 most readily suggested itself had been an application to Govern- 
 ment. In 1846 the Assembly had knocked at the door of a 
 British Ministry for aid in this very business of erecting manses, 
 and had been refused. Now it did the work itself, with the 
 great gain not only of the rich offering, by which the people 
 proved that they were to be trusted, but with the still greater 
 gain of the learning of a lesson of self-help which after events, 
 
 1 Mr. John Sinclair died in 1856, at the early age of forty-seven. The 
 Presbyterian Church at Conlig was built almost entirely at his expense, 
 and after his death the beautiful Sinclair Seamen's Church in Belfast 
 was erected as a memorial of him. One of his sons, Mr. W. P. Sinclair, 
 sat in the House of Commons as a representative of Antrim, his native 
 county, in 1885, and in 1886 was elected Member of Parliament for the 
 Falkirk Burghs. Mr. Thomas Sinclair died in London in 1867. It may 
 safely be said that the Irish Presbyterian Church has never had a son 
 whose name is more imperishably interwoven with her history. His 
 givings to the cause of Christ were incessant, and his labours, as a Sabbath- 
 school teacher and superintendent, as a ruling elder, on committees of the 
 Church, and in many other spheres, were unwearied. Duncairn Church 
 (with its manse and school-house) owes its origin to hira, and much more 
 than its origin. In his son and namesake the virtues of the father are well 
 continued into a second generation. 
 
 ] 
 
THE REVIVAL OF 1 85 9. 181 
 
 coming in the near future, were destined to utilize. This fund 
 was the means of raising ecclesiastical buildings over the 
 country to the value of over ;^ioo,ooo.^ 
 
 While the Church was thus firmly rooting herself in the land, 
 a remarkable work of grace broke out. In 1859 its first signs 
 appeared, and all through that year the most remarkable 
 scenes were witnessed all over the province of Ulster. Be- 
 ginning at a little prayer - meeting in the parish of Connor, it 
 soon overspread that district, extended thence to Ballymena, 
 Ahoghill, Belfast, into County Down, and away through Tyrone 
 and Derry. The earnestness with regard to religion was 
 intense. The churches were crowded, not only on the Sabbath, 
 but in many cases every night during the week, — crowded with 
 most earnest congregations, who literally hung upon the simplest 
 preaching or exposition of the gospel, and could with difficulty 
 be got to leave the place of meeting. Multitudes were deeply 
 convicted of sin. While a meeting was proceeding, perhaps in 
 the midst of a sermon, a piercing shriek would be heard, and 
 immediately it would be found that some one had fallen down, 
 ' stricken.' Soon cry after cry of agony would be heard ringing 
 through the church, until in some cases several scores would 
 have been carried out, and stretched in some adjoining room, or 
 on the ' green ' outside. Here the affected person would lie 
 in a state of semi - unconsciousness, strangely convulsed, and 
 
 1 Congregations were only helped when they were able to show that they 
 themselves had made a proper effort. It may be mentioned here that a 
 second Church and Manse Fund, which included also provisions for the 
 erection of school-houses and for the extinction of congregational debts, was 
 started in 1861, with the Rev. Dr. Edgar as convener, followed subsequently 
 by the Rev. Lowry E. Berkeley, one of the ablest and most energetic 
 ministers of the Church, To this fund over ;/^20,ooo were subscribed. 
 Again, in 1875, a third fund was established through the influence of the 
 Rev. Dr. Porter, Moderator for that year, which aimed at assisting congre- 
 gations still unprovided with manses to obtain them through the help of the 
 Glebe Loan Acts. Several thousands of pounds were given to it. One 
 happy result of these repeated building schemes is that there are now 
 only some 150 congregations in the whole Church unprovided with manses 
 for their ministers. 
 
1 82 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 evidently in deep agony. By and by, cries of distress for 
 sin would be uttered in agonizing tones, prayers of peculiar 
 fervency would burst forth, and often, as minister or elder or 
 godly layman conversed and prayed beside the penitent, peace 
 would come into the distracted soul, and the man or woman 
 would go home rejoicing. These strange manifestations were 
 not exhibited in every instance. With very many there were 
 no wild cries, no prostrations, nothing but an ordinary work of 
 grace, only intensely earnest and concentrated.^ But, whatever 
 the form which it took, the movement was attended with the 
 most blessed results. No doubt evils were mixed up with it, 
 as they will always be mixed up with all things that are good 
 on earth. But that over the province there was an unwonted 
 outpouring of the Holy Ghost, with the result that multi- 
 tudes were deeply convinced of sin, multitudes converted, 
 and that, wherever the movement appeared, a change came 
 over the entire face of society, the lapse of years has only 
 made clearer than it was at the time. Not a few who still 
 live look back with gratitude to that year as the date of their 
 spiritual birth, and many who are now in glory spoke of 
 it to the last as the beginning of all their joys. We have 
 had several times of refreshing since 1859, but none altogether 
 like it. 
 
 Two societies, which have proved of signal advantage to the 
 Church, date their origin from shortly after this period. The 
 first of these is ' The Sabbath - School Society for Ireland in 
 connection with the Presbyterian Church,' 2 which was organized 
 in 1862 for the purpose of fostering Sabbath schools in connection 
 with the General Assembly, and supplying them with books, 
 periodicals, and other requisites, and which has had a most 
 
 ^ See The Year of Grace, a History of the Ulster Revival of i^^g, by the 
 Rev. Professor Gibson, D.D., and The Ulster Revival and its Physiological 
 Accidents, by Rev. James M'Cosh, D.D. 
 
 'The Rev. WiUiam Johnston, D.D., Belfast, has the high honour of 
 having originated this admirable society. 
 
THE 'IRISH CHURCH ACT ' PASSED. 183 
 
 prosperous and useful career. It has now in connection with it 
 over 1000 Sabbath schools, with nearly 10,000 teachers, and an 
 average attendance of nearly 80,000 children. Its issue of 
 books, catechisms, periodicals, etc., amounts to nearly 700,000 
 per annum. The other, which is even more popular — is ' The 
 Presbyterian Orphan Society.' On the 22nd May, 1866, its 
 inaugural meeting was held in Linen Hall Street Church, 
 Belfast. The Rev. Dr. Johnston was appointed its first secre- 
 tary, and to his indefatigable exertions its great success is largely- 
 due. The Society has usually on its roll every year nearly 
 3000 orphan or fatherless children, and enjoys an income 
 of about ;!^ 1 0,000 per annum from all sources. A third bene- 
 volent scheme, established in 1873, is *The Society for the 
 Orphans of Ministers,' whose name sufficiently indicates its 
 scope. The Rev. Dr. Johnston is also its chief moving spirit. 
 In a very quiet fashion it has done untold good since its 
 establishment. 
 
 An event occurred in 1869 which many feared would inflict 
 the severest blow upon the Irish Presbyterian Church which sh6 
 had ever sustained. In that year the Irish Church Act was 
 passed, disestablishing Episcopacy, and depriving the Presbyterian 
 Church of the endowment which she had enjoyed for almost two 
 centuries. This was a trial calculated to test to the utmost her 
 spirit and strength. Fortunately, it was met in a manner which 
 not only did honour to the Church, and saved her from dreaded 
 disaster, but conferred upon her lasting advantages. The Act 
 allowed all recipients of the Regiuni Domim either to continue 
 to draw it during life, or to commute it for a lump sum to be paid 
 at once, and it was permissible that this commutation might be 
 effected by each individual minister in his own private interest, 
 had the Church so decided. A special meeting of the General 
 Assembly was called in January, 1870, to consider the critical 
 position of affairs. It was a memorable meeting, and throughout 
 the country was looked forward to with great anxiety. If the 
 ministers chose to retain their endowments for life, or to commute 
 
1 84 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 them in their own interest (one or other of which courses many 
 advised them to adopt on the ground that they could not afford 
 to subject themselves and their families to the risks inseparable 
 from any other line of action), a very serious loss would be sus- 
 tained, and the Church of the future would be left to face 
 financial difficulties such as she had never encountered, and such 
 as in a poor country like Ireland it would be very hard for her 
 to surmount. The clergy had the matter entirely in their own 
 hands, and no one could have much blamed them — poor and 
 almost entirely dependent on the Regiuin Doniwi as many of 
 them were — had they hesitated to give up the sure income, on 
 which they knew they could depend, for an entire uncertainty. 
 The anxieties of the Church were, however, soon set at rest. 
 With only five dissentient voices the ministers of the General 
 Assembly resolved to subordinate all other considerations to the 
 welfare of the Church, and to commute their ' Bounty ' in her 
 interest.^ The Presbyterian clergy of Ireland thus cast into 
 the treasury as a free-will offering a sum of ;^587,735, which 
 remains as an endowment fund to the Church for all time, and 
 yields an annual interest of somewhere about ^25,000. This was 
 certainly one of the noblest offerings ever laid upon the altar of 
 God by the clergy of any body. Meanwhile a ' Lay Conference ' 
 had been held in Belfast in September, 1869, to which all the 
 congregations had been requested to send representatives, that 
 the laity might consider what was their duty in the solemn and 
 critical circumstances which had arisen. This was probably 
 the most notable gathering of Irish Presbyterian laymen ever 
 
 \ The Rev. Richard Smyth, D.D. , Derry, was moderator of the General 
 Assembly during this eventful year, and rendered signal service to the Church, 
 which was acknowledged by his re-election to office a second year. He was 
 born near Dervock in 1826, ordained in 1855 at Westport, translated to First 
 Derry in 1857, and appointed a professor in Magee College in 1865. In 
 1874 he was elected one of the members of Parliament for Cotmty Derry, 
 but his career in the Legislature, though brilliant, was but brief, as he died 
 in December, 1878, after a short illness, at the residence of Samuel Lawther, 
 Esq., J. P., Belfast. 
 
THE LAY CONFERENCE OF 1 869. 1 85 
 
 held. The Church was represented from Derry to Cork, and 
 from Dublin to SHgo. Mr. John Lytle of Belfast was chairman, 
 and among the delegates were such men as Mr. John Young 
 of Galgorm Castle, Mr. (afterwards Sir) Thomas M'Clure of 
 Belmont, Mr. (afterwards Sir) James P. Corry of Belfast, Mr. 
 Wm. Kirk, M.P., of Keady, Mr. Thos. Sinclair of Belfast, Mr. 
 Wm. Young of Fenaghy, and Mr. James Sharman Crawford of 
 Crossgar. This meeting expressed its earnest desire that the 
 clergy should commute in the interest of the Church, and urged 
 the advisability of the immediate establishment of a Sustentation 
 Fund, to supplement the interest derivable from the Commutation 
 Fund to be thus provided, the gentlemen present pledging 
 themselves to use their best efforts to raise a fund of at least 
 ;^30,ooo a year. A deputation from this Lay Conference 
 appeared before the Assembly, and pressed these views upon 
 it. The Sustentation Fund was thus established, and although, 
 owing to various reasons, it has never yet realized all the 
 wishes or expectations of its founders, it has steadily held 
 on its way in a manner which half a century ago would 
 have been pronounced impossible. Its receipts usually average 
 nearly ^25,000 per annum. The Commutation Fund yields 
 about the same amount, making a total annual sum of about 
 ;^5o,ooo, as against ;^39,ooo, which was the amount of the Regiicm 
 Domun in the year before the passing of the Irish Church Act. 
 At the same time the stipends throughout the Church have 
 steadily risen from ^^38,000 per annum, the figure at which 
 they stood in 1870, to nearly ^48,000 in 1886.^ Too much grati- 
 tude cannot be felt for the manner in which the Church 
 weathered this storm, which seemed at one time to menace her 
 so alarmingly. 
 
 Just before disendowment, with all its attendant changes, fell 
 upon the Church, Dr. Cooke, its trusted leader for half a century, 
 quietly passed away. He died on 13th December, 1868, and was 
 
 ^ The Rev, T. Y, Killen, D.D., was for many years the indefatigable 
 Convener of this Scheme. Alas ! abiit ad plures. 
 
l86 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 honoured by the town of Belfast with a public funeral, the largest, 
 and in many respects the most remarkable, ever seen on its 
 streets. A fine bronze statue of him has since been erected in 
 College Square. 
 
 Of late' years the peace of the Church was somewhat disturbed 
 by a controversy regarding the lawfulness of the use of instru- 
 mental music in public worship. This question first came before 
 the General Assembly in 1868 in connection with the employment 
 of a harmonium in Enniskillen Church, and at almost every 
 subsequent meeting of the Supreme Court the subject was brought 
 forward for eighteen years. Debate after debate took place, 
 sometimes in circumstances of much excitement. Indeed, at one 
 time so intense had the feeling on the subject become, that it 
 was feared by some that it would ultimately rend the Church 
 asunder. The press lent its aid to the platform for the discussion 
 of the point at issue, both publications and debates evincing 
 conspicuous ability. The leading men who employed voice 
 or pen on the side of the lawfulness of an instrumental aid in 
 worship were — the Rev. President Killen, D.D., Rev. Professor 
 Wallace, Rev. Dr. Watts, Rev. Dr. Morell, Rev. John Mac- 
 naughtan,^ Mr. Thomas Sinclair, J. P., Rev. Dr. W^ilson 
 (Cookstown), Rev. Robt. Ross ; while against its use were such 
 men as the Rev. Archibald Robinson, Rev. Dr. Petticrew, Rev. 
 Dr. Brown, Rev. Dr. Corkey, Rev. Dr. Robb, Rev. Dr. Crawford, 
 and Rev. George Magill. The controversy dragged its slow 
 length along, until, at the Assembly of 1886, a settlement was 
 happily arrived at, according to which it was agreed, that 'having 
 regard to the peculiar circumstances of the country and the 
 Church,' all discussion on the subject should cease for five 
 years, a committee, consisting of men who considered the u^e 
 
 1 Mr. Macnaughtan was one of the most eloquent preachers and ablest 
 ecclesiasiics of his day. He came to Rosemary Street, Belfast, from Paisley, 
 where he was minister of the Free High Church, in 1849. and soon rose to 
 occupy a very prominent position in the Church Courts. He died, greatly 
 lamented, in 1884, aiter a ministry altogether extending to nearly fiiiy-hve 
 years. 
 
MR. Gladstone's home rule bill. 187 
 
 of instrumental music allowable, being appointed to use their 
 utmost influence meanwhile to induce all congregations using 
 instruments to give them up. In case their efforts should prove 
 unsuccessful, it was provided that at the end of three years 
 the discussion on the subject might be re-opened. General 
 thankfulness was felt that peace was at last proclaimed on this 
 question, never, it is hoped, to be seriously disturbed again. 
 
 The same year which witnessed this happy solution of the 
 instrumental music question was further distinguished by the 
 renewal of intercourse between the Irish Presbyterian Church 
 and the Church of Scotland, after an interval of forty-three years. 
 That Church, the Free Church, and the United Presbyterian 
 Church are now all in communion with the Irish Presbyterian 
 Church, and she with them. Another less pleasant circumstance 
 w^ill cause 1886 to be long remembered. Mr. Gladstone's 
 * Government of Ireland Bill,' providing for the establishment 
 of a separate Parliament for this country, was then introduced 
 into the House of Commons, and caused widespread alarm 
 among the loyal population. On the first announcement of the 
 intention to propose such a measure, a special meeting of the 
 General Assembly was called, at which resolutions were unani- 
 mously passed, deprecating 'in the strongest manner, as disastrous 
 to the best interests of the country, a separate Parliament for 
 Ireland, ... or any legislation tending to imperil the Legislative 
 Union between Great Britain and Ireland, or to interfere with 
 the unity and the supremacy of the Imperial Parliament.' At 
 the ordinary meeting of Assembly in the following June these 
 resolutions were reaffirmed. The unanimity and earnestness 
 with which all attempts to weaken the connection between this 
 country and Great Britain, or to establish Home Rule in 
 Ireland in any shape, were thus condemned in the General 
 Assembly, are all the more noteworthy, as they were but the 
 reflection of an almost equal unanimity in the membership of 
 the Church. The defeat of Mr. Gladstone's Bill on the 7lh 
 June, 1886, was hailed with deep satisfaction. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 We have now briefly told the story of the Irish Presbyterian 
 Church from her infant days of feebleness up to her present era 
 of strength and stability. We have seen how faithfully, in the 
 earlier times of her history, she maintained her testimony to the 
 truth in the face of opposition and persecution, and how she 
 throve in spite of all efforts to crush her ; how despotic monarchs, 
 and intolerant Parliaments, and bigoted prelates, in turn planted 
 the iron heel of oppression on her neck, but how, though they 
 wounded her sorely, they could neither destroy her nor turn her 
 away from her fidelity to the truth ; how her ministers were driven 
 out of church and manse ; how they were imprisoned or forced 
 to fly beyond the seas from the fury of persecution ; how they 
 had to face hostile Lord Deputies, and Privy Councils, and Courts 
 of High Commission; how at one time they were threatened, 
 and held up to obloquy, and treated as the offscouring of the 
 earth, and at another offered bribes and rewards if they would 
 forsake their Church ; but how, rising superior to all temptations, 
 they could neither be concussed nor cajoled to forsake what 
 they believed to be the truth ; how, when, instead of opposition 
 from without, the Church had to battle with insidious error 
 within, the same stern and unflinching allegiance to the truth 
 was maintained — how the battle for it was fought and the victory 
 gained ; how thus, like some snowy -winged barque which we 
 see glancing white in the sunlight on a smooth summer sea, but 
 which by and by is shrouded in fog under a leaden sky, which 
 anon, when the air has cleared, cleaves her way merrily along 
 
WHAT HAS PRESBYTERIANISM DONE FOR IRELAND? 1 89 
 
 again, her sails filled with a favouring breeze, but to-morrow, 
 in sore distress, is tossed up and down like a plaything on the 
 angry main, swept from stem to stern by furious seas, her sails 
 torn to shreds by tempests, and her crew at their wits' end, till 
 she seems a hopeless wreck, but which, when the gale has spent 
 its force, refitted by willing hands, again sets forward on her 
 voyage, nothing daunted by the perils through which she has 
 had to cleave her way, and once more we behold her speeding 
 on her way, with nought but an occasional gust of wind, or at 
 times a hissing, white- crested billow, passing under her keel 
 and for a little perturbing her course, to remind her of the 
 perils through which she has passed — so the Presbyterian 
 Church of Ireland, after facing the storms and dangers of 
 centuries, now speeds on her way, with the light of heaven 
 shining on her, and the peace of God keeping her, and we cry to 
 her and say — 
 
 ' In spite of rock and tempest's roar, 
 In spite of false lights on the shore, 
 Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea ! 
 Our hearts and hopes are all with thee — 
 Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, 
 Our faith triumphant o'er our fears^ 
 Are all with thee — are all with thee 1 ' 
 
 If the question be asked, What has Presbyterianism done for 
 the country? there can be no difficulty in giving an answer. It 
 has changed Ulster, where its chief seat has always been, from a 
 waste, shaggy with forests and dangerous with wild beasts, into 
 the garden of Ireland. Its manufactures it owes largely to its 
 Presbyterianism. The spinning of flax and the weaving of linen 
 were brought from Scotland by the early colonists,^ and little 
 more than half a century ago Andrew Mulholland, a Belfast Pres- 
 byterian millowner, by the introduction of the use of steam-power 
 into these trades, laid the foundations of that world-renowned 
 manufacture whose tall chimney-stalks rise into the air on all 
 sides in Belfast. There is no denying that to its Presbyterianism 
 
 1 Montgomery AfSS, 
 
190 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 Ulster largely owes its prosperity, which all strangers notice. 
 Forty years ago, the German traveller. Kohl, tells us he seemed 
 to himself to have entered a new world as he came from Leinster 
 into Ulster, and to-day the difference is as conspicuous as ever. 
 Ulster pays 46 per cent, of the entire Income-Tax paid in Ireland 
 under Schedule D. It is a stranger to the chronic starvation 
 which the ' hated Saxon ' is periodically called upon to reheve 
 in other parts of Ireland ; and all over the country, wherever 
 you find Presbyterians, you find thrift and industry and peace. 
 Irish workhouses contain a pauper population of 48,991 Roman 
 Cathohcs, 4781 Episcopalians, but only 1995 Presbyterians 
 are within their walls.i There is usually a garrison of nearly 
 30,000 troops in Ireland. Only 3000 of these are usually 
 quartered in Ulster. The strength of the Royal Irish Con- 
 stabulary is over 12,000 men. Of these, in order to preserve 
 the peace and protect fife and property, there are required in 
 Cork 24 policemen for every 10,000 inhabitants ; in Kilkenny, 
 36; Westmeath, 45 ; Kerry, 32; Galway, 46 ; in Down, only 11 ; 
 Antrim, 11; Armagh, 11 ; Derry, 11; and Tyrone, 12. These 
 figures tell their own tale. If we turn to the statistics of 
 crime, we find them pointing a similar moral. In Irish jails there 
 were confined on 31st March 1885, 35,218 prisoners. Of these 
 29,766 were Romanists, 3690 Episcopalians, only 1762 Presby- 
 terians. Along with all this, Presbyterianism has proved itself a 
 most powerful moderating force in the social hfe of the country. 
 It has been the advocate of popular rights, but not of com- 
 munism ; of liberty, but never of licence. It has been the best 
 friend both of landlord and tenant, for it has held the scales even 
 between the two. It has firmly stood up for the rights of the 
 sovereign, but it has as determinedly insisted on the rights of the 
 subject.- The value of such an element in a state of society so 
 
 1 These are the figur-es for 1885. According to the Census of i88i, the 
 perc<:iiiages of the pauperism of the country were as follows :— Romanism 
 had 877 per cent.; Episcopacy, 8 ; Presbyterianism, 3'6. 
 
 2 Unc evil of which the Irith Presbyterian Church has had loudly to com- 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 191 
 
 Strangely complicated as that which exists in Ireland, only those 
 who have had experience of its good effects can properly estimate. 
 But the distinctively religious blessings which Ireland owes to 
 it are still more noticeable. It has powerfully contributed to 
 the maintenance of a pure Protestantism in Ireland. Of all 
 the Churches of the Reformation, that of Scotland came out 
 cleanest from Rome at the Reformation, and of all the branches 
 of that Presbyterian family there is none which more conserva- 
 tively clings to Bible truth, or has a sterner hatred of the errors 
 of Romanism, than the Irish sister. Her influence has helped 
 to spread a Protestant atmosphere all round. She has been 
 one of the best strongholds of Evangelicalism in the land. A 
 pure gospel sounds out from all her pulpits. Brice and Blair 
 and their companions in the seventeenth century regarded it 
 as their main business to lift up Christ among the people, and 
 the same ruling thought was never more conspicuous than it is 
 
 plain is the unfair treatment which she receives in the matter of public 
 appointments. Although religious equality is the theory in Ireland, the 
 following statistics, taken from the excellent Presbyterian Map of Ireland, 
 published in 1886, which the Church owes to the thoughtfulness and enter- 
 prise of the Rev. J. W. Whigham, Ballinasloe, Moderator of the General 
 Assembly in 1885-86, show that it is far from being the practice : — 
 
 Irish Peerage, 
 
 Irish Privy Council, 
 
 Lieutenants of Counties, 
 
 Judges, 
 
 County Court Judges, 
 
 Resident Magistrates, 
 
 Inspectors-General of Constabulary, . . . . 
 
 County Inspectors of Constabulary, . . . . 
 
 District Inspectors of Constabulary, . . . . 
 
 Royal University Senators, ...... 
 
 Intermediate Education Commissioners, 
 
 National Education Commissioners, . . . . 
 
 Do. Secretaries and Heads of Departments, 
 Board of Works, Commissioners, etc., . . . . 
 
 r.ocal Government Board, Members, Secretaries, etc., 
 Superintendents of Lunatic Asylums, . . . . 
 
 Land Commissioners, Chief, 
 
 Land Commissioners, Asbistant, 
 
 Roman 
 
 Episco- 
 
 Presby- 
 
 Catholics. 
 
 palians. 
 
 terians. 
 
 13 
 
 174 
 
 
 9 
 
 36 
 
 .. 
 
 3 
 
 29 
 
 I 
 
 5 
 
 II 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 14 
 
 2 
 
 25 
 
 53 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 4 
 
 
 9 
 
 30 
 
 .. 
 
 37 
 
 188 
 
 5 
 
 17 
 
 9 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 
 3 
 
 18 
 
 .. 
 
 5 
 
 16 
 
 
 5 
 
 19 
 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 
192 HISTORY OF THE IRISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 among their ecclesiastical successors in these closing years of 
 the nineteenth century. 
 
 The Church was never more heartily united than at present. 
 She has a life and a vigour about her which augur well 
 for her future. The old dead days of dry pulpit routine and 
 pew somnolence are all but extinct. There is a fervour in 
 the prayers of the sanctuary, and a heartiness in its songs of 
 praise, which are at once the evidences of life and a powerful 
 means of further developing life. There are higher ideals of 
 Christianity among us. An earnest evangelistic spirit yearns 
 over the lost sheep, and exhausts every means which a sancti- 
 fied Christian ingenuity can suggest to bring them into the 
 fold. All over the Church the missionary spirit never rose so 
 high as it has done within the last few years. The evangeliza- 
 tion of the world is now seen to be the grand duty of the 
 Bride of Christ. Altogether, the present condition of the Church 
 may well inspire the deepest gratitude and the brightest hope. 
 She has done much not unworthy of such a Church. But there 
 are yet greater things in store for her, if, looking around with 
 a large eye, and recognising the breadth and grandeur of the 
 mission which lies at her door, she braces herself earnestly to 
 her work in the strength of God. ' The isles shall wait for His 
 law,' and among them it may confidently be said of Ireland, 
 in a higher and holier meaning than the words of one of her 
 own poets were intended to convey, — 
 
 * Though slavery's cloud o'er thy morning hath hung, 
 The full noon of freedom shall beam round thee yet,' 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Abernethy, Rev. John, ii6. 
 Adair, Rev. Patrick, 102, 
 
 Rev, William, 102. 
 
 Sir Robert, 52. 
 
 Aghadoey, 76, 83, 121, 126, 156. 
 
 Ahoghill, 131, 181. 
 
 Aird, Rev. John, 61. 
 
 Allen, Rev. Robert, 178. 
 
 Alvey, Rev. Henry, 174. 
 
 Ambrose, Mr., 105. 
 
 America, 47, 51, 133. 
 
 Anaghlone, 166. 
 
 Anahilt, 151. 
 
 Anne, Queen, iii, 177 note. 
 
 Antiburghers, 127. 
 
 Antrim, 43, 44, 62, 80, 89, 113, 116, 
 
 139. 151- 
 
 Presbytery of, 109, 121. 
 
 Arian Controversy, 146. 
 
 Armagh, 102, 109, 120, 126, 128, 
 
 166. 
 Arrott of Markethill, 131. 
 ' Articles of Religion,' 38. 
 Assembly, First General, in Scotland, 
 
 33. 
 First General, in Ireland, 
 
 164. 
 
 Glasgow, 35. 
 
 Westminster, 65. 
 
 Associate Presbytery, 124, 131. 
 
 Synod, 125. 
 
 Association, Southern, 177. 
 Aughmacart, 176. 
 
 Baird, Rev. John, 61. 
 Baker, Major, 90. 
 Bale, Bishop, 24. 
 Ballintoy, 60. 
 Ballvbay, 126. 
 
 Ballybrittas, 176. 
 
 Ballycarry, 60, 76. 
 
 Ballyeaston, 102. 
 
 Ballykelly, 76, 126. 
 
 Ballymena, .31, 40, 62, 74, 76, 139, 
 
 181. 
 Ballymoney, 76, 126. 
 Ballynahinch, 140, 179 note. 
 Ballyrashane, 126. 
 Ballyroney, 126, 131. 
 Ballywalter, 40, 62. 
 Balteagh, 126. 
 
 Bangor, 18, 31, 40, 62, 76, 126. 
 Barber, Rev. Samuel, 142. 
 Belfast, 31, 49, 62, 70, 76, 102, 109, 
 
 III. 114. 
 
 Society, 116. 
 
 Belleek, 99. 
 
 Belturbet, 99. 
 
 Berkeley, Rev. L, E. , 181 note. 
 
 Bigger, Rev. William, 107. 
 
 Birch, Rev. T. L., 143. 
 
 Black Oath, 53. 
 
 Black, Rev. Robert, D.D., 137 and 
 
 note. 
 
 of Boardmills, 131. 
 
 Blair, Rev. Hugh, D.D., 40 note. 
 Rev. Robert, 39, 45, 46, 47, 
 
 62. 
 Blood's Plot, 'je. 
 Boardmills, 126, 131. 
 Bovedy, 120. 
 
 Boyne, Battle of the, 103. 
 Boyse, Rev. Joseph, 175. 
 Bramhall, Bishop, 48, 52. 
 Brice, Rev. Edward, 36 and note^ 40, 
 
 SO. 
 Brigh, "j^, 116. 
 Broughshane, no, 1^2 note. 
 
 N 
 
194 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Brown, Rev. James, 146. 
 
 Rev. John, D.D., 146, 156 
 
 note. 
 
 Rev, N. M., D.D., 186. 
 
 Rev. Solomon, 146. 
 
 Bruce, Rev. Dr., 150. 
 Bryce, Rev. James, 144. 
 Bryson, Rev. James, 136. 
 Burghers, 127. 
 Burt, 82. 
 
 Cahans, 128, 131. 
 
 Cairncastle, 62. 
 
 Calvert, Rev. Mr., 49. 
 
 Campbell, Mr. Henry, 172 note. 
 
 Garland, 76. 
 
 Carlile, Rev. James, D.D., 162 and 
 
 note. 
 Carlingford, 77. 
 Carlow, 157. 
 Carnmoney, 76, 147. 
 Carr, Rev. G. W., 160. 
 Carrickfergus, 61, 102, 170. 
 Carrowdore, 173 note. 
 Castlereagh, 76. 
 Castlestuart, Lord, 48. 
 Charles I., 35, 55, 64, 69. 
 Charles II., 74. 
 Gharnock, Stephen, 174. 
 Chichester, Sir Arthur, 30. 
 Choppin, Rev. R., xog note. 
 Claneboy, Lord, 27. 
 Clarke, D. K., 167. 
 Clerk, Rev. M., 120. 
 Clonakilty, 173 note. 
 Clonmel, 176. 
 Clough, 152 ?iote, 
 Gloughey, 172 note. 
 Coelestius, 3. 
 Cole, Dr., 24. 
 
 Goleraine, 30, 89, 109, 127. 
 Colleges, Assembly's, 172. 
 
 Queen's, 171. 
 
 Columba, 15. 
 
 Golumbanus, 19. 
 
 Colville, Rev. Alexander, 116. 
 
 Comber, 75, 84, 116. 
 
 Commonwealth, Times of the, 64. 
 
 Conlig, 180 note. 
 
 Connaught Presbytery, 178. 
 
 Schools, 178. 
 
 Connor, 76, 120, 179 note. 
 
 Cooke, Rev. Henry, D.D,, LL.D., 
 
 148, 149, 152, 153, 154, 158, 185. 
 Cookstown, 107, 109, 153, 156, 157 
 
 note. 
 
 Cork, Congregation of, 176. 
 Corkey, Rev. Joseph, LL.D., 186. 
 Gorry, Sir James P., Bart., 172, 185. 
 Coulter, Rev. John, D.D., 163, 166. 
 Covenant, National, 35. 
 
 Solemn League and, 66. 
 
 Covenanters, The, 131. 
 Cox, Rev. Samuel, 74. 
 Crawford, James S., M.P,, 185. 
 
 Rev. J. D., D.D., 186. 
 
 Creggan, 173 note. 
 
 Cromwell in Ireland, 71. 
 
 his treatment of Presby- 
 
 terianism, 73, 
 Crookes, Rev. Wilham, 97. 
 Croskery, Rev. Thomas, D.D., 173 
 
 note. 
 CuUohill, 176. 
 Cunningham, Rev. Hugh, 61. 
 
 Rev. Robert, 40. 
 
 Curwin, Primate, 26. 
 
 Davis, Rev. Samuel, 82. 
 Denham, Rev. James, D.D., 170. 
 Derry, 30, 85, 109, iii, 137, 170, 173. 
 Dickson, Rev. William Steel, D.D., 
 
 142. 
 Dills, The, 146, 166. 
 Dobbin, Rev. H. J., D.D,, 166. 
 Donacloney, 120. 
 Donaghadee, 31, 62. 
 Donegore, 48, 76, 116, 139, 149, 
 
 165. 
 Downpatrick, 113, 120. 
 Drogheda, 71. 
 Dromore, 56, 76, 88. 
 Drumachose, 131. 
 Drumlee, 158. 
 
 Drummond, Rev. Thomas, 77. 
 Dublin, 79, no, 116, 147, 162, 174 
 
 177. 
 Dunbar, Rev. George, 46. 
 Dunboe, 126, 146. 
 Dundalk, 71. 
 Duneane, 149. 
 
 Dungannon, 56, 76, 122, 137, 138. 
 Dunmurry, 120. 
 
 'Eagle Wing, The,' 50, 51. 
 Echlin, Bishop, 37, 45, 48. 
 Edenderry, 176. 
 
 Edgar, Rev. John, D.D., 127, 157, 
 160, 178, i8r. 
 
 Rev. Samuel, D.D., 127, 148. 
 
 Rev. Samuel, Armagh, 128. 
 
 I'xlucation, National, 161. 
 
 J 
 
INDEX. 
 
 195 
 
 Edward VL, 24. 
 Ejections, The, of 1661, 75. 
 Elder, Rev. James, 146, 164. 
 
 Rev. John, 121. 
 
 Elizabeth's reign, 25. 
 Emlyn, Rev. Thomas, no 
 ' Engagement, The,' 71. 
 Enniskillen, 56, 98. 
 Erskine, Rev. Ebenezer, 124. 
 
 Famine, Irish, 177. 
 
 Fannet, tj. 
 
 Ferguson, Dr. Victor, 121. 
 
 Ferrie, Professor, 154. 
 
 Fethard, 176. 
 
 Findlater, Mr. A. S., 172 note. 
 
 Finvoy, 146. 
 
 Fisher of Kinclaven, 124. 
 
 Fitzgerald, Lord Edward, 139. 
 
 Fleming, Rev. James, 112. 
 
 Forbes, Sir Arthur, 79, 80. 
 
 Foreign Mission, 168. 
 
 Franklin, Sir William, 102. 
 
 Fridolin, the Traveller, 19. 
 
 FuUarton, Sir James, 27. 
 
 Gallus, 19. 
 Gal way, 107. 
 Gamble, Rev. Henry, 172 note. 
 
 Mrs., 172 note. 
 
 Geddes, Janet, 35. 
 
 General Fund, 114. 
 
 George I., 115. 
 
 Gibson, Mr. James, Q.C., 125 note. 
 
 Mr. John, 125. 
 
 Rev. Professor, D.D., ij2, note. 
 
 Gillebert, Cardinal, 19. 
 
 Gilnahirk, 143, 163. 
 
 Gladstone's Home Rule Bill, 187. 
 
 Glascar, 128, 164. 
 
 Glasgow, Rev. James, D.D., i68. 
 
 Glasslough, 114. 
 
 Glastry, 142. 
 
 Glendermot, 76, 85. 
 
 Glendy, Rev. John, 143. 
 
 Gordon, Rev. James, 85, 95. 
 
 Goudy, Rev. A. P., D.D., 146 ftote. 
 
 Rev. James, 146. 
 
 Gowan, Rev. Thomas, 80. 
 
 Grattan, Henry, 137. 
 
 Greer, Mr. S. M., Q.C., 146. 
 
 Rev. Thomas, 146. 
 
 Greyabbey, 142. 
 
 Hall, Rev. John, 146. 
 Halliday, Rev. Samuel, 118. 
 
 Hamilton, Rev. Archibald, 102. 
 
 Rev. David, 128, 169, 179. 
 
 Rev. George, 168. 
 
 Rev. James, 27, 40, 41, 49, 62. 
 
 Rev. John, 97. 
 
 Sir James, 27. 
 
 Sir James, of Belfast, 168 note. 
 
 Colonel Anthony, 100. 
 
 Lieutenant-General, 88. 
 
 Hampton, Rev. John, 82. 
 
 Hanna, Rev. Samuel, D.D., 146, 147, 
 
 164. 
 Rev. William, D.D., LL.D., 147 
 
 7iote. 
 Harrison, Rev. Joseph, 146. 
 Hart, Rev. John, 77. 
 Henderson, Rev. Alexander, 35. 
 
 Mr. Samuel, 125. 
 
 Henry U., 20. 
 
 Henrv, Rev. Henry, 179 note. 
 
 Rev. P. S., D.D., 166. 
 
 Higinbotham, Rev. Robert, 127. 
 Hillsborough, 102, 105, 166. 
 Hincks, Archdeacon, 160. 
 Holy wood, 40, 61. 
 Hopkins, Bishop Ezekiel, 86. 
 Horner, Rev. James, D.D. , 146. 
 Howe, Rev. John, 80. 
 Hubbard, Rev. Mr., 39. 
 Huston, Rev. Clark, D.D., 170. 
 Hutcheson, Rev. John, 120. 
 Dr. Francis, 120, note. 
 
 Indemnity, Act of, 134. 
 Institution, Belfast Academical, 147, 
 
 170. 
 Instrumental Music Controversy, 186, 
 lona, 16. 
 
 Iredell, Rev. Francis, 175. 
 ' Irish Church Act,' 183. 
 Irish, Preaching in, 114. 
 Island Magee, 37, 60. 
 
 James I., 32, 33. 
 
 James II., 84. 
 
 Johnston, Rev. John, D.D. , 166. 
 
 Rev. William, D.D., 183. 
 
 Keady, 142. 
 
 Kelburn, Rev. Sinclair, 142. 
 Kells, Synod of, 19. 
 Kelso, Rev. Robert, 99. 
 Kennedy, Rev. Charles, 146. 
 
 Rev. Gilbert, 120. 
 
 Rev. Thomas, 77. 
 
 Kerr, Rev. Alexander, 168. 
 
iqS 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 T. Y., D.D., \-. 7iotc, 
 
 9- 
 
 Kilian, 19. 
 Killaig, 144. 
 Killala, 176. 
 Killead, 152 
 Killen, Rev 
 
 185. 
 Rev. W. D., D.D., viii 
 
 165, 186. 
 Killinchy, 40, 76, 
 Killyleagh, 31, 58, 62, no, 149. 
 Kilmore, 167. 
 Kilraughts, 126. 
 Kilrea, 60, 120, 142. 
 Kirk, William, M.P., 185. 
 Kirkpatrick, Rev. Jas., 114, 116, 120. 
 Knox, John, 33, 35. 
 
 Langford, Sir Arthur, 176, 
 
 Larne, 40, 62, 76, 139, 166. 
 
 l.aud, Archbishop, 35, 55. 
 
 Lay Conference, 184, 
 
 Leathes, Capt. Robert, 102. 
 
 Lecky, Rev. Mr., 76. 
 
 Leechman, Professor, 129. 
 
 Leland, Rev. John, 175. 
 
 Leslie, Bishop, 49, 69, 77. 
 
 Letterkenny, 76, ^t. 
 
 Limavady, 150. 
 
 Limerick, 107, 176. 
 
 Lisburn, 56, 58, 89, 113, 126, 157. 
 
 Lisnaskea, 100. 
 
 Livingstone, Rev. John, 40, 41, 46, 
 
 47. 6i. 
 
 Rev. William, 125. 
 
 Loughgall, 57. 
 
 Lundy, Governor, 87. 
 
 Lurgan, 112, 154, 165, i7i- 
 
 Lylehill, 125. 
 
 Lynd, Rev. Matthew, 132. 
 
 Lytle, Mr. John, 185. 
 
 M 'Alpine, Rev. James, no. 
 
 M 'Bride, Rev. John, 106, 113, 114. 
 
 M'Clure, Sir Thomas, 185. 
 
 Rev. Wilham, 166, 170. 
 
 M'Cracken, Rev. Mr., 113. 
 IM'Dowell, Rev. Benjn., D.D., 147. 
 IsI'Ewen, Rev. W. D. H., 146. 
 M'Gregor, Rev. Mr., 83. 
 M'Kee, Rev. David, 166. 
 Mackenzie, Rev. John, 97. 
 Macnaughian, Rev. John, 186. 
 Macosquin, 166. 
 Magee, Rev. William, 171. 
 
 Mrs., 171. 
 
 ■ College, 172. 
 
 Maghera, 93, 143, 148. 
 
 Magherally, 76. 
 
 Magill, Rev. George, 186. 
 
 Rev. Robert, 151. 
 
 Makemie, Rev. Francis, 81.. 132. 
 
 Makie, Rev. Josias, 82. 
 
 Malcom, Rev. John, 120. 
 
 Manse Fund. 179. 
 
 Markethill, 126, 131. 
 
 Marriage Controversy, 108, 135. 
 
 Marshall, Rev. James, 146. 
 
 Mary, Queen, 25. 
 
 Mastertown, Rev. Charles, 12c nute. 
 
 Matthews, Rev. Lemuel, 105. 
 
 Mayn, Rev. Thomas, 131. 
 
 Melville, Andrew, 34. 
 
 Milton, John, 70. 
 
 Minterburn, 76. 
 
 Missionaries, Early Irish, 18. 
 
 Missions of Synod of Ulster, 168, 169, 
 
 of Secession Synod, 169. 
 
 of General Assembly, 168, 169; 
 
 170. 
 Mitchelburn, Colonel, 90. 
 Moira, 126. 
 
 Molyneauc, Rev. H. W., D.U,, 166. 
 Monaghan, 56, 109, no, 131, 167. 
 Moneymore, 116. 
 Monro, Major-General, 60. 
 Montgomery, Rev. Henry, LL.D., 
 
 152, 155- 
 Morell, Rev. Charles L., D.D., 186. 
 Morgan, Rev. James, D.D., 157, 160, 
 
 168. 
 
 Rev. Thomas, 158. 
 
 Mount-Alexander, Earl of, 85. 
 Mountrath, 176. 
 MulhoUand, Andrew, 189. 
 IMultifarnham Abbey, 59. 
 Munster Presbytery, 177. 
 Murphy, Father, of Boolavogue, 140. 
 Murray, Adam, 89. 
 Rev. Thomas, 58. 
 
 Nevin, Rev. Thomas, 120. 
 New Light, The, 116. 
 New Ross, 160. 
 Newry, 71, 150, 167. 
 Newtonbutler, 100. 
 Newtownards, 31, 56, 62, 142. 
 Nonjuring Controversy, The, 113. 
 Non-Subscribers, The, 119. 
 
 O'CoNNOLLY, Owen, 56. 
 O'Donnell, Earl of Tyrconnel, 28. 
 O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, 28. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 T97 
 
 O'Neill, Lord, 140. 
 
 Sir Phelini, 56, 59. 
 
 Oldstone, 42. 
 
 Omagh, 76. 
 
 Orphan Society, The, 182. 
 
 Orr, Rev. Thomas, 116. 
 
 Owen, Rev. John, 174. 
 
 ' Pacific Act, The,' 117. 
 
 Paparo, Cardinal, 19, 
 
 Park, Rev. Robert, 154. 
 
 Patrick, Saint, 5. 
 
 Patton, Rev. Isaac, 125, 131, 152 
 
 note. 
 Peebles, Rev. Thomas, 61. 
 Penny, Rev. Joseph, 159. 
 Perth, Articles of, 34, 35. 
 Petticrew, Rev. Francis, D. Lit., 186. 
 Plantation of Ulster, The, 28, 29. 
 Plunket, Rev. Patrick, 114. 
 
 Lord, 114. 
 
 Portadown, 57. 
 Portaferry, 62, 142. 
 Portarlington, 176. 
 Porter, Rev. James, 142. 
 
 Rev. J. L., D.D., LL.D,, 181. 
 
 Rev. William, 150. 
 
 Potitus, 5. 
 
 ' Presbyterian Loyalty, Kirkpatrick's,' 
 
 114. 
 ' Presbyterian Theological Faculty, ' 
 
 Presbyterianism, What it has done for 
 
 Ireland, 189. 
 Presbytery, The First, 61. 
 ' Presbytery, The Plea of, ' 166. 
 ' Pride's Purge,' 69. 
 Pringle, Rev. Francis, 143. 
 
 Rahul, 176. 
 
 Ramelton, 76, 'jj, 81, 165, 185. 
 
 Randalstown, 116. 
 
 Raphoe, 76. 
 
 Rasharkin, 132. 
 
 Rathbreasail, Synod of, 19. 
 
 Rathfriland, 76, 113, 142. 
 
 Ray, 76, 126. 
 
 Rebellion of 1641, 56. 
 
 • of 1798, 139. 
 
 Reformation in Ireland, 22. 
 
 ' Regium Donum,' The, 80, 102, 109, 
 
 135, 144, 183. 
 Reid, Rev. Edward, 165. 
 Rev. J. Seaton, D.D., viii. , 150, 
 
 165. 
 Rev, Thomas M. , 131. 
 
 ' Remonstrance, The,' 153. 
 Remonstrant Synod, The, 156. 
 Rentouls, The, 128. 
 ' Representation, The,' 70. 
 Revival at Sixmilewater, 42. 
 
 of 1859, 181. 
 
 Rickamore, 125. 
 Ridge, Rev. John, 39, 44, 49. 
 Robb, Rev. J. G., D.D., 186. 
 Robinson, Rev. Archibald, 186. 
 Rogers, Rev. James, 164 note. 
 
 Rev. John, 164 7iote. 
 
 Rosemary Street Church, Belfast, 120. 
 
 Rosen, Marshal, 92. 
 
 Roseyards, 126. 
 
 Ross, Rev. Robert, 186. 
 
 Rostrevor, 158. 
 
 Rowat, Rev. John, 97. 
 
 Russel, Thomas, 139. 
 
 Sabbath School Societv, The, 
 
 182. 
 Saintfield, 76, 139, 143. 
 St. Johnston, 82, 
 ' Sample of Jet - black PrcUitic 
 
 Calumny,' 114. 
 Schomberg, Duke, 102. 
 Scotia, 2. 
 
 Scott, Rev. John, 61. 
 ScuUabogue, 141. 
 Seceders, The, 123, 130, 135. 
 Semple, Rev. Wilham, 77. 
 Simpson, Rev. James, 61, 142. 
 Simson, Professor, 129. 
 Sinclair, Mr. John, 180. 
 
 Mr. Thomas, 167, 180. 
 
 Mr. Thomas, jun., 185, 186. 
 
 Mr. William P., 180. 
 
 Sixmilewater Awakening, The, 42. 
 
 Sligo, 176. 
 
 Smethurst, Rev. John, 149, 
 
 Smith, Mr. Samuel, 120. 
 
 Smyth, Rev. John, 142, 
 
 Rev. Richard, D.D., M.P., 184 
 
 note. 
 Solemn League and Covenant, The, 
 
 66. 
 Spenser, Edmund, 26. 
 Stevenson, Rev. W. F., D.D,, i63 
 
 note. 
 Stewart of Drumachose, 131. 
 
 Rev. Andrew, 40, 48. 
 
 Rev. Robert, D.D., 151, 152. 
 
 Mr. Henry, 53. 
 
 Stone, Primate, 132. 
 Stonebridge, 109, 
 
198 
 
 /NDEX- 
 
 Strabanc, 76, 146, 150, 168. 
 ' Subscribers, The,' 119. 
 Sumnierhill, 113, 176. 
 Sustentation Fund, The, 185. 
 Swanston, John, 127. 
 Swift, Dean, 112, 121. 
 
 Taughboyne, tj. 
 Taylor, Bishop Jeremy, 75. 
 
 Rev. William, 116. 
 
 Temperance Reformation, The, 159. 
 Templepatrick, 40, 62, 114, 125, 
 
 142. 
 Tennent, Rev. William, 82. 
 Test Act, The, no, 134. 
 Theological Committee, The, 153. 
 Thomson, Professor James, 128 note. 
 
 Sir William, 128 7iote, 
 
 Rev. John, 146, 147 ?iote. 
 
 Tithes enjoyed by the Presbyterians, 
 
 The, 38, 74. 
 Todd, Mr, William, 172 note. 
 Toleration Act, The, 115. 
 Tomkins, Alderman, 85. 
 Tone, Theobald Wolfe, 139. 
 Trail, Rev. William, 82. 
 Travers, Rev. Walter, 27, 174. 
 Trinity College, Dublin, 27. 
 TuUylish, 120, 166. 
 Tyi-Qonnel, 84. 
 
 Union of the Synods, I'he, 163. 
 Upton, Colonel, 120. 
 
 Ussher, Archbishop, 4, 27, 37, 46, 
 64. 
 
 Vinegar Hill, 141. 
 Volunteers, The, 136. 
 Vow, 132, 
 
 Walker, Rev, George, 90, 103. 
 
 Wallace, Rev. Professor, 186. 
 
 Water ford, 176. 
 
 Watts, Rev. Robert, D.D,, 186. 
 
 Waugh, Rev. Dr., 147. 
 
 Weir, Rev. John, D.D,, 167. 
 
 Welsh, Rev. Josias, 40, 46, 48. 
 
 Wentworth, 47, 55. 
 
 Westminster Confession of Faith, 
 
 The, 38, e^. 
 Westport, 184. 
 
 Whigham, Rev, J. W., 191 note. 
 White, Rev. Adam, tj. 
 
 Rev. Fulk, no. 
 
 Rev. Patrick, 153. 
 
 Whitehouse, 102, 108, 
 William III,, 100, 
 Wilson, of Perth, 124. 
 
 Rev, H. B., D,D,, 186. 
 
 Rev. Josias, 166. 
 
 Rev. Robert, D.D., 128, 165. 
 
 Mr. Charles, 172 note. 
 
 Wolves in Ireland, 31 note. 
 
 Young, Right Hon. John, 185. 
 Mr. William, 185. 
 
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