UNIVERSITY OF CAL1F0BN1A. SAN D^^^ 3 1822 007552656 -r«*,'r)r OP 0/EGO UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO L^ 3 1822 00755 2656 Central University Library University of California, San Diego Note: This item is subject to recall after two weeks. UCSD '^^^^ ^^® ^ JliM 0?^j^ ^^^' 1992 "^'-vcoiURy LOAN NiAY B M'h 0139(1/91) UCSDLib. Al3 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS THE HASTIE LECTURES FOR 1906-1909 BY THE SAME AUTHOR LIFE OF DR. GEORGE MATHESON Crown 8vo, cloth, 7s. 6d. London : HODDER AND STOUGHTON THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS A NOTABLE GROUP OF SCOTTISH THEOLOGIANS OF THE FIRST EPISCOPAL PERIOD, 161O-1638 AND THE BEARING OF THEIR TEACHING ON SOME QUESTIONS OF THE PRESENT TIME ( s d5 MACMILLAN, M.A., D.D. MINISTER OF KELVINHAUGH PARISH, GLASGOW AUTHOR OF THE " LIFE OF DR. GEORGE MATHESON " ETC. HODDER AND STOUGHTON LONDON MCMIX TO MY WIFE PREFACE Shortly after Professor Hastie's death, in 1903, a movement was set on foot for the purpose of perpetuating his memory in Glas- gow University, and particularly in connection with the subject of Theology, of which he was so great a master. A considerable sum was speedily subscribed, and it was decided that the memorial should take the form of a Lectureship. The Trustees did me the honour of giving me the first appointment, and in the spring of this year I delivered, under the Hastie Foundation, a course of Lec- tures on the 'Aberdeen Doctors," a subject suggested to me by Dr. Hastie himself. As no formal biography of Dr. Hastie has appeared, I thought it would not be out of place to make his remarkable career the subject of the Introductory Lecture; and as the question of Union between the chief Churches in the country is so much in the air at the present moment, I thought it right to make this the theme of my last Lecture. This of course viii THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS I could do in perfect keeping with my subject, for it was a question on which the Doctors themselves gave a pronouncement, not of course in its present aspect, but as it forced itself upon them in their day. I have put into Appendices information which could not find a suitable place in the Lectures themselves. The biographical and historical matter which they contain will, I hope, be of some service to any who may wish to prosecute the matter further. I wish to express my indebtedness to Mr. J. B. Douglas, M.A., for his assistance in the preparation of the volume, and to my friend Mr. WilHam Wallace, LL.D., for many helpful suggestions. CONTENTS I Introductory : Professor Hastie . PAGE I II The " Doctors " . . 35 Ill Church Government . . 64 IV Doctrine .... • 93 Worship . . . - . 123 VI Church Union .... 150 VII Union in our Day .... 181 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS PAGE Appendix I. List of Works by Dr. Hastie . . . 223 II. Bishop Patrick Forbes' Works III. The Aberdeen Doctors IV. Dr. George Garden V. The General Demands VI. Proceedings against Dr John Forbes 226 227 265 266 272 VII Proceedings against Sib- bald 279 Til. John Durie 293 IX. The Closing Years of Dr. John Forbes 298 X. Dr. Forbes in Exile 303 XI. Certain Personal Charac- teristics OF Forbes and OF THE Manners of the Times in which he lived 315 I INTRODUCTORY PROFESSOR HASTIE It was in the spring of 1884 that I first met Professor Hastie/ I had shortly before been appointed to his native parish of Wanlock- head, Dumfriesshire, and had naturally heard much of the great scholar from my parishioners, who were his warm admirers and friends. Indeed, previous to this I had formed a kind of ecclesiastical relation to- wards him, for he was one of my predecessors in the assistantship of Galashiels Parish Church, and he had left an impression there which quickened my already strong desire to see him. By this time, however, his name had extended far beyond the confines of the places with which he had been speci- ally connected ; for the great controversy which had emerged in Calcutta as to the management of the Church's enterprises there had caused his personality to be ^ Bom at Wanlockhead, Dumfriesshire, 7th July 1842; died at Edinburgh, 31st August 1903. I 2 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS widely known, and to be a source of profound interest to the Christian Church everywhere. My first ghmpse of him was in the Parish Church on the first Sunday morning after his arrival from Calcutta. He did not sit in the family pew, but, as I afterwards found was almost his invariable custom, he entered the church shortly after the service had begun and sHpped into the first vacant seat, and quietly screened himself, as far as possible, from all observers. I shall never forget the impression which his appear- ance made upon me. He was then in the very prime of a strong and vigorous man- hood, more robust in appearance and even darker in features than those who knew him afterwards remember him to have been. But what struck me especially was his great head, like the head of Jove, well-shaped, power-compelling, capable, as one instinct- ively felt, of acquiring all knowledge, and controlling it with perfect ease and mastery. One can well imagine the trepidation of the young preacher that Sunday morning, but any misgivings or fears which he may have entertained were quite uncalled for, because never, as he afterwards learned, was there a more kindly or sympathetic hearer than Dr. Hastie. Seldom did a word of unfavourable criticism pass his lips, and INTRODUCTORY: PROFESSOR IIASTIE 3 no one was more generous than he in hearty appreciation, even of efforts which the most tolerant nature might find it hard to praise. The friendship then formed remained un- broken. On my side, it deepened into ad- miration and devotion ; and on his, it was forbearing, helpful, and loyal to the end. Dumfriesshire has been the breeder of great men, and it has furnished a number of the Chairs in our Scottish Universities with distinguished professors. To mention no others, while Dr. Hastie filled the Chair of Divinity in (ilasgow University, he had as his colleague another native of Dumfriesshire, Dr. Stewart, who is still happily with us, the Nestor of the professorial staff, and one of the two men, I crave this opportunity of gratefully testifying, who inspired my student mind ; and in the sister faculty, in Edinburgh University, there were other two Dumfriesians, the amiable and devout Dr. Charteris, whose recent loss the Church is still mourning, and the eminent Dr. Flint, ** the only other Scottish theologian," as Principal Story said, "with whom Dr. Hastie may be compared." ^ The little village of Wanlockhead would seem on the first blush to be the last place to which one would look for the rearing of a man hke Dr. Hastie. Until a few years ago 1 Saint Andrew, 22iid October 1903, 4 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS it was one of the most inaccessible districts in Scotland. Lying midway between the valleys of the Clyde and the Nith, high up among the Lowther Hills, it seemed secure from everything except the storms and snows of winter. No intellectual light, one would think, could gleam through its deep recesses or penetrate its gloom. But it is from such places that some of the world's greatest men have sprung. Like Luther's birthplace, it is a mining village. In the olden days the Scottish kings found their gold there, and at a later date, when lead was discovered, a company was formed to work the ore, and so the foundations of the little village were laid. In due course there grew up a race of peasantry, in physique, in intelligence, and in piety, second to none in Scotland. Shut out from the world, the natives of Wanlockhead, in place of revert- ing, through mental sluggishness or indiffer- ence, to any original type, stimulated each other to good works ; established one of the first libraries in Scotland, still a flourishing institution, stocked it with the very best books their scanty means could afford, and spent the winter evenings in reading and in discussing what they read. What mattered it though the mist enveloped their mountain village, and the snow, feet deep, protected them for months from any friendly intrusion, INTRODUCTORY: PROFESSOR HASTIE 5 they were happy in the higher interests which filled their minds and shaped their destinies. Wanlockhead, hke many of the parishes in Scotland of a past age, then possessed a school- master to whom sufficient praise cannot be given for inspiring his pupils with intellectual ambitions and supplying the rudiments of a classical education. His name was John M 'Arthur. He was afterwards promoted to New Monkland, and became president of the Educational Institute for Scotland. In order to perfect his own linguistic accomplishments, he occasionally took trips to the Continent, and, on one occasion, returned, to the surprise of the villagers and no doubt to the delight of his pupils, with a young French girl, in order that, by conversation with her, his scholars might acquire a thorough knowledge, with a perfect accent, of the French language. It is said that, being profoundly impressed with the abiUty of Dr. Hastie and his two brothers, he called one evening on their father, who was one of the managers of the mines, and said : '' Mr. Hastie, you will never surely make miners of these boys of yours ? they are far too clever for that ; send them to the professions." The result was that William studied for the Church and his brothers for the Law ; and the success of all three more than justified the anticipa- 6 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS tions of their early teacher. The great affection which Dr. Hastie cherished for his native village and inhabitants remained con- stant to the end. While a student and during the early days of his ministerial life, and even after he returned from India and became Professor in Glasgow University, he took every opportunity of revisiting it. For several years before his death his family had left the village and his old home was broken up, but often on a Saturday some miner would suddenly meet him on one of the high hills that overlook the village, gazing down with loving eyes upon the place of his birth. Or he might be seen walking to the Enterkin, a few miles off, and journeying down that famous Pass, returning by the Dalveen and home again, refreshed in mind and spirit, for his un- wearied labours. It has sometimes occurred to me that his theological bent took upon it the impress of these mountain solitudes. The theology of Calvin in its stern unbending recognition of the sovereignty of God is alleged to be due to the natural environment where it origin- ated. The great mountains of Switzerland with their awe-inspiring solemnity are held responsible for the austerity of the Cal- vinistic Faith. Be that as it may, the wdld and grand scenery of the Lowthers, amid INTRODUCTORY: PROFESSOR HASTIE 7 which Dr. Hastie's youth was reared, pro- foundly impressed him and had not a httle to do with producing that reverence of spirit and the upward look which largely shaped his theology, his character, and career. It was ever a constant fear with him that the trend of modern civilisation, with its lighter thought and frivolous pleasures, would affect the sobriety of his native village ; and in one of the earliest of his sonnets, his affection and his fears are thus expressed : — " Oft have I vexed myself with jealous fears Lest thou should grow unfaithful to old Love, And shifting changes of the fickle years Should thee from thy deep steadfastness remove. When I have seen how Time's destroying Hand Hath slacked the cement of our common clay, And loosed the knitted strength of social band To bid dividing selfishness bear sway — Then have I trembled lest the Age's show Might with its empty glitter lure thine eye ; But now, consoled, again thy heart I know Beating with all its warm quick sympathy. O take it then for deepest Love that I Can think no change in thee although I die ! " ^ It was in the autumn of 1859 that Dr. Hastie matriculated as a student of Edin- burgh University. He was then in his seventeenth year. The interval between leaving school and entering the University he employed in schoolmastering, dividing his time between teaching his scholars at ^ La Vita Mia, p. i . 8 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS Enterkinfoot and receiving additional in- struction in the classics from the parish minister of Durisdeer. His career as a student has become a tradition in the Uni- versity. He was the most brilliant man of his time.^ His chief strength lay in philo- sophy and theology. He did not hurry through his course, although he might well have been tempted to do so, for there was no Mr. Carnegie in those days, and a student had to pay his own fees and support himself as best he could, which in Dr. Hastie's case was rendered absolutely necessary, for his parents had not the means to maintain him and his two brothers at College. It was not till 1869 that he graduated in Divinity, but those ten long years of his studentship had been turned to the fullest account. Even then he was regarded by his companions as a living encyclopedia, ready, as he always was, to freely impart the treasures of his knowledge to his friends. It is interesting to note that he attended for some time, in 1870, the prelections of Principal Caird, who was then Professor of Divinity in Glasgow University, and listened with a thrill of admiration to his first opening 1 Professor Taylor, Dean of the Faculty of Divinity of Edin- burgh University, in presenting Dr. Hastie for the degree of D.D., 13th April 1894, in the course of a high eulogium, said : " Few of the alumni of the University during its history of over three hundred years can have had a more distinguished record." INTRODUCTORY: PROFESSOR HASTIE 9 lecture in the new Divinity Hall on Gilmore- hill ; he afterwards declared that it was to Caird he owed " the deepest theological impulse of his life/* and that he seemed to him " to have realised the ideal of a modern theologian more completely than any other theologian he had known." It was at this time that Dr. Hastie began those visits to the Continent which he re- peated, again and again, during the remainder of his life. He had been led to the study of the great philosophers and theologians who, during the first half of the nineteenth century, had drawn the eyes of Europe once more towards Germany. His teachers in Edinburgh had not broken away, either in philosophy or theology, from the traditional methods of their predecessors. Dr. Hastie, as he once told me, had, on his own account, read in the original, during his student days, the great masterpieces of the ancient and the modern world. It was then that he acquired his profound knowledge of the systems of Plato and Aristotle and of Kant and Hegel. He also made rapid inroads on the theological field which had been broken up by Schleiermacher and his successors ; and, determined to know at first hand all that could be learned of the new theology, he studied at the leading Universities of Germany, Holland, and Switzerland, and 10 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS made himself a thorough master of the subject which he was afterwards to teach in Glasgow University with such distinction. Indeed, there is no one in recent years, with the exception of Thomas Davidson,^ to whom the title of the "wandering scholar" can be so aptly applied as to Dr. Hastie. Hardly a year passed but he went from one continental University to another, entering the classroom of some distinguished pro- fessor, and on coming out not unfrequently remarking : " No, there is nothing to be learned here " ; and then taking the first train he would visit another University until he found some professor who could give him, at least, a new point of view. Had the custom existed, which prevailed in the sixteenth and even in the seventeenth century, when the language common to all academic lecturers was Latin, and when a graduate of one University was free for ap- pointment to a Chair in another, at home or abroad. Dr. Hastie's great merits, which were appreciated more highly on the Con- tinent than at home, might have speedily secured him a professorship in a foreign University, and he would thus have revived the great traditions of George Buchanan, Andrew Melville, and John Cameron, the two last among his most distinguished pre- 1 See Life, by Professor Knight. INTRODUCTORY: PROFESSOR HASTIE ii decessors, as teachers of theology in Glasgow University. It seems somewhat extraordinary that for ten long years, from the date of his gradu- ating in Divinity to his appointment as Principal of the General Assembly's Institu- tion in Calcutta, no place could be found for this man, who, as a scholar and a teacher, had no equal of his own age in Scotland. Had even the custom of privat docenten ^ prevailed, we can conceive him lecturing on any of the subjects taught in the faculty of Divinity, and drawing round him an enthu- siastic band of students, but even that was denied him. All that his Church could give him was an assistantship here and an assist- antship there; all that his Alma Mater could do for him was to ask him to relieve one of her professors, it did not matter very much which, of his lectures for a winter session, or to fill an interregnum until an appoint- ment was made. Old Edinburgh students still speak with enthusiasm of Dr. Hastie's appearances and work on those occasions. He was modest and he was loyal, but now and again he was compelled, by the exi- gencies of the hour, to break away from the Lectures he was reading, and to give ^ An earnest effort is being made at the present time by the General Council of Glasgow University to have this system introduced into the Scottish Universities. 12 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS some of his own. The admiration of his hearers at such times knew no bounds, and one of them, writing with chastened sorrow a few days after his death, thus recalls those times : ** Across the years I see him now, as he appeared to us who sat at his feet. He came in with an alert, active step, from the anteroom and took his position at the desk. Immediately he produced a small piece of manuscript, it was the prayer for the day ; and what a prayer ! expressed in the choicest and most reverent and devotional language. This prayer was one which the student did not listen to with careless in- difference, but one in which the devotional feelings of a master were powerfully ex- pressed, and in which he could with the utmost reverence join." It was in 1878 that the call came to him to go to India to be Principal of the General Assembly's Institution and College in Cal- cutta. It may in a word be said that it was not the position that he had hoped for. He expected, and he had every right to expect, a University Chair at home. But the Church required for the post in Calcutta the very best man available, and pressure was brought to bear upon him, from every side, to accept the appointment. He hesi- tated. It would seem as if he had a fore- sight of the troubles that were to await him INTRODUCTORY: PROFESSOR HASTIE 13 there ; his choice was in very truth to prove the crisis of his hfe. He was at the time acting as assistant to Dr. Gloag in Galashiels, helping him in his parish work, but aiding him chiefly in the revision of an important book that he was publishing on the Pauline Epistles. The parishioners of Galashiels were much impressed at the time by a series of sermons which Dr. Hastie preached upon Moses ; particularly on that moment in his life when he had to decide the vital question, whether he would respond to the call of God and become the leader of the Israelites in their fight for liberty, or remain in Egypt and follow the life of a cultured scholar. These sermons indicated the mental travail through which he was passing. But at last his choice was made, and in 1879 he sailed for India. Some may think that his hesitation arose from an uncertainty of belief, originating in his intimate knowledge of the so-called rationalistic philosophy and theology which dominated the schools of Germany. This, however, was not the case. Dr. Hastie, like every earnest man who thinks deeply on religion and who has made himself ac- quainted with everything that can be said for or against it, had passed through the depths. But he never lost his hold on the fundamental truths of Christianity or turned 14 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS his back upon the early pieties of youth. He was blessed with parents who were deeply religious ; his mother being a woman of rare character, strong in mind and pure in spirit, and his father having a glow of im- agination in his nature which shone forth occasionally in music if not in verse. ^ The son was a true child of such parents, and his great wealth of learning and his unique mental capacity only widened and deepened his innate devoutness of spirit and illuminated his early faith. Nor could he free himself of the religious traditions of his native village. It was the centre of that Covenant- ing enthusiasm which more than anything else in Scottish history still fires the blood of the people and causes them to cherish the strong convictions and unfaltering faith which secured freedom of worship. In learning and devoutness of spirit, in purity and unselfishness of character, and strength of will, no more ideal educationalist and missionary for the Church's work in Calcutta could have been found than William Hastie. He threw himself into his work in his new position with all the ardour of which his nature was capable, and he speedily raised the College to the foremost place among 1 Dr. Hastie's father composed several Psalm tunes, one of which, "Glendyne," is still frequently sung in the Parish Church of Wanlockhead. INTRODUCTORY: PROFESSOR HASTIE 15 all the colleges of the Bengal Presidency, while it was the largest attended of any in India, a position that it had not held since the days of Dr. Duff. He signalised his twofold work, as missionary and professor, by publishing a translation of Christlieb's History of Protestant Missions to the Heathen, and a text-book on philosophy, the subject which he himself taught. Both books are characterised by his usual thoroughness and scholarly fulness of detail. But the work which brought him at a bound into pro- minence and made him a public character, not only in Calcutta but throughout India, was that on Hindu Idolatry and English Enlightenment. This book originally ap- peared as a series of letters, six in number, to the Statesman, the leading newspaper in Calcutta, and when published it comprised not only his own communications but the replies of learned Hindus and others who took part in the controversy. These letters were thrown off during brief intervals snatched from his more serious work, and considering their length, the knowledge which they display, their freshness, power,eloquence, literary finish, and urbanity of spirit, they seem to me not only striking productions in themselves, but, all things considered, one of the best pieces of work that he ever accomplished. 1 6 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS The occasion which gave rise to them was a requiem service in celebration of one of the leading ladies of India, and the point of his attack was, as he expressed it, '' the problem of the relation of our English edu- cation and civilisation to the traditional idolatry and, more particularly, the question of the moral and personal responsibility of the educated and enlightened heads of the Hindu community for its continued countenance and perpetuation." ^ In other words, were enlightened Hindus, who did not believe in idolatry, justified in counten- ancing and participating in it, as they did in the great Hindu ceremony which called forth the letters, and should Christian mis- sionaries reason with them on the subject or hold their peace ? In acting as he did, Dr. Hastie departed from the traditional method of missionary enterprise in India, so far as the educational institution, of which he was the head, was concerned. It was long supposed that the way of dealing with Hindu idolatry was what he terms the " indirect method, whose chief elements are secular education and liberal legislation." But he declared himself to be an advocate of the " direct method of dealing with the cause of all the social deterioration and retardation of India, as being at once more ip. 8. INTRODUCTORY: PROFESSOR HASTIE 17 philosophical and more practical." ^ Re- cent events afford ample justification of Dr. Hastie's position. The secular edu- cation which the Christian Churches have been giving to the young Hindus^ divorced, as it has been, from an application of Christian principles to the prevailing idolatry, scepticism, and agnosticism, has ended, so far, not in the social regeneration of India, but in rebellion and sedition. Dr. Hastie's action called forth, at the time, severe criticism both at home and abroad ; he was a disturber of the peace, a man who had come to Calcutta to turn its religious and social world upside down. No doubt he was, and so were Paul and Silas. The great apostle to the Gentiles did not wink at the idolatry which he saw at Athens, on the contrary it formed the subject and occasion for his great speech on Mars Hill. Dr. Hastie read into the heart of that speech : it formed the basis of his letters on Hindu idolatry. He appealed to the fundamental and universal truths of morality, history, and experience. He reasoned the question out on the common ground of philosophy and psychology, and his arguments were couched in terms of moderation and animated by a spirit of brotherly love. It demanded great courage on the part of the author to strike 1 p. 69. 2 1 8 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS out in this new direction, but courage was one of his leading moral qualities. He clearly saw that the social salvation of India depended upon the abolition of idolatry, whether practised or countenanced, and the substitution in the minds of the people of true conceptions of God, and of man and his destiny. Had he accomplished no more than this his life would not have been in vain. It was about this time that those troubles began in one branch of the Church's Mission in Calcutta, which brought about the great crisis in Dr. Hastie's life. If I do not enter into the matter now, it is not because I have the slightest doubt in my own mind of Dr. Hastie's purity of motive and single- ness of purpose with regard to the whole business ; but simply from lack of time, and because a discussion of the subject is not germane to my present object. Suffice it to say, that his subsequent career was a triumphant vindication of his conduct. If he was called upon in Calcutta to be '* an accuser of the brethern," he was but follow- ing in the footsteps of the great and good of all ages. The path of the Reformer is not strewn with roses, and he suffered, as all must needs suffer, who give their lives as a ransom for truth and righteousness. Most men would have sunk under the misfortunes that now followed him, but in INTRODUCTORY: PROFESSOR HASTIE 19 bearing as in doing he was an exceptional man. On coming home he advocated his case in the General Assembly in a speech which, for power and eloquence and sus- tained interest, has perhaps never been equalled. He did not win his case, but his cause triumphed. The forces against which he contended could not be overthrown ; but time, the great vindicator of righteousness, has lent its purifying aid, and the Church and the wider public now admit that a great injustice was done to a noble character, who happily lived long enough to see the recoil of enlightened opinion, and to enjoy the increased confidence of friends and the warm admiration of succeeding generations of students. The next ten years of Dr. Hastie's life were verily passed in the wilderness. Once again he was thrown adrift with no safe anchorage. Again and again did he apply for a University Chair, the only post suited for him, and time after time did he fail. The ban of the Church was upon him. He had not been cast from its midst as a heretic like Edward Irving or John M'Leod Camp- bell, and no dark spot stained the purity of his life. From all the storm and stress of that troubled time he emerged without reproach. He had differed from a committee in Edin- burgh in his method of reforming India 20 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS and freeing the Church's own Mission of alleged grave irregularities ; that was all. The majority of men in such circum- stances would have been tempted to shake the dust off their feet and turn their back upon the institution which had thus treated them. But Dr. Hastie resisted any such temptation, his faith was too strong and deep to be shattered by the injustice of others. It was not the Church of Christ that had erred, it was only an earthly representa- tion of it. That earthly representation re- quired purifying, so he remained within its borders, and his unfailing patience, his strong faith, and his everlasting hope have perhaps done more to purify the Church and to restore men's confidence in it than any- thing that has happened during the present generation. He never for one moment amidst all his trials and sufferings lost his trust in God as the sovereign King and Dis- penser of eternal justice. It was during this period that he trans- lated some twenty volumes dealing with theology, philosophy, and law, from German, Italian, and French. These books were the productions of men who were regarded as authorities in their various departments. Their works, in short, were classics in the sub- jects with which they deal. If I mention them somewhat in detail, it is because they afford INTRODUCTORY: PROFESSOR HASTIE 21 an indication at once of Dr. Hastie's wide range of intellectual sympathy and his in- timate knowledge of the languages of modern Europe and the works of its lead- ing thinkers. One is not surprised at him turning with interest to such theological works as Lichten- berger's History of German Theology in the Nineteenth Century, Piinger's History of the Philosophy of Religion, Luthardt's History of Christian Ethics, Krause's Ideal of Humanity, and Pfleiderer's Gifford Lectures on the Philosophy and Development of Religion, or even to Kant's Principles of Politics and his Philosophy of Law ; all of which he translated; but when he is found dealing, with equal knowledge, with a series of books on jurisprudence, such as Lioy's Philosophy of Right, and Brunner's Sources of the Law of England, one, to say the least, is astonished that a man who was primarily a theologian, should find so profound an interest in such subjects. But Dr. Hastie, during this period, took a full course in Law in Edinburgh University, probably with a passing outlook to the Scottish Bar, and he taught for a session the class of Public Law. His mind, with all its philosophic sweep, imaginative glow, and religious fervour, was eminently exact and scientific, and it found keen satisfaction in dealing with those per- 22 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS manent principles which underHe juris- prudence and regulate the law of nations. This comes out very prominently in a work which he undertook while he was professor in Glasgow. It was Kant's Cosmogony, and it is chiefly remarkable for the lengthened and brilliant introduction with which he prefaced his translation. But he had his lighter moods, and threw off, at brief intervals, renderings of Hegel's Philosophy of Art, Schleiermacher's Christmas Eve, and Hymns and Thoughts on Religion, by Novalis. Dr. Hastie's friends repeatedly tried to dissuade him from devoting so much of his time and talents to the work of translation, which could have been done by less gifted men. They held that he would have been much better employed in writing original works of his own. But such kindly advisers and well-wishers forgot the circumstances in which he was placed. He had to earn his daily bread, and though offers of aid came from devoted and wealthy admirers, these he steadily refused. He was too in- dependent even to take assistance from his family. His wants were few, they were those of a scholar, and by such work as he engaged in, he supplied them, main- tained his independence and satisfied his own intellectual interests. He used to say INTRODUCTORY: PROFESSOR HASTIE 23 to me that, apart from such considerations, he was doing a greater service to students by translating the masterpieces of continental thinkers than by writing any works of his own. He was quite sincere in this opinion, but the introductions which he wrote to the volumes he translated belied it ; for they are held on all hands to be masterly and, according to the most competent of judges, Professor Flint, they are, in certain instances, superior to the works themselves. No finer piece of introductory writing, it seems to me, exists, than that which he prefixed to Kant's Cosmogony. It would in itself form a considerable volume, and as a specimen of what such introductions ought to be, it cannot be too highly com- mended. The dawn, however, was soon to break. The Chair of Divinity in Glasgow University had become vacant by the retirement of Professor Dickson, and one of the few men deemed worthy of succeeding so eminent a scholar was held on all hands to be Dr. Hastie. It was felt that his last chance had almost come, and his friends trembled to think of the result. Would he receive the appointment or would he not ? That was the question on which they believed his fate now depended. There was no doubt in the minds of any one capable of judging 24 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS of his supreme fitness for the post. He stood head and shoulders above any possible candi- date. But the cloud of distrust raised by the controversy that was forced upon him, though beginning to break, still hung over him, and prejudiced minds that otherwise might be friendly. But there were two men in the Church of Scotland who always stood aloof from ecclesiastical strife, and who for loftiness of thought and singleness of purpose had no peers or rivals — Professor Flint and Principal Caird. It was they who secured Dr. Hastie for Glasgow University. It is impossible to do justice to Professor Flint's absolute devotion, unswerving loyalty and unwearied efforts on behalf of his friend, during those long years ; and one of the sweetest satis- factions of his honoured life must be, that his chivalrous championship in the end prevailed. Every one knows the patient and conscientious care with which Principal Caird entered into the merits of candi- dates for Chairs in Glasgow University ; and in this particular instance, seeing the Pro- fessorship was one which he himself had filled and adorned, the appointment was practically left in his hands ; and he recommended to the Court the name of Professor Hastie. Those who had followed the career of INTRODUCTORY: PROFESSOR HASTIE 25 Dr. Hastie up to this point felt that a great load had been taken off their minds, and that the Church had been saved, even in spite of itself, from perpetuating an un- pardonable wrong. He entered upon his work with a deep sense of its importance, and a humble estimate of his own ability for performing it, rightly. Indeed, the re- action was so great, that he was in danger of a nervous collapse. He felt himself to be all unworthy of his task, and was almost on the point of resigning. He was, how- ever, encouraged to hold on, by the strong sympathy of his colleagues, and particularly by the advice of Principal Caird, who greatly cheered him by saying that he also, when first appointed to the Chair of Divinity, had thoughts of resigning, in face of what seemed, at the time, to be the insuperable difficulties of his position. With the first and second sessions well over. Dr. Hastie settled down to his work, and, long before his death, he had completely mastered the situation, and won the confidence and ad- miration of his students. Those who studied under Dr. Hastie still speak with delight, and gratitude, of the way in which he unfolded to them the great sys- tems of theology, and established in the minds of not a few, their lost or shattered faith. It is impossible for young men m these days to 2 6 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS pass through the classes that lead up to their studies in theology, to read the books that are continually issuing from the press, and that deal with religion from an agnostic standpoint, without having their traditional beliefs shaken if not shattered. The very intellectual atmosphere which they breathe IS impregnated with doubt. It was, accord- ingly, with not a little surprise that they dis- covered in Dr. Hastie a man who was able to hold his own with any living exponent of philosophy, and one, besides, who not only had faith, but who was able to give a very good reason for the faith that was in him. They found him taking up, one after another, views and systems which were supposed to be subversive of Christian belief. These he would analyse and criticise, and, after pointing out their historical re- lation in the development of thought, he would state their limitations and defects, and when the process was done, he would, as one student graphically expressed it, " label them, put them on the shelf, and pass on to others." Some of his students who had excelled in the philosophical classes, and who, as a consequence were tempted to look down with some contempt upon theology, were speedily disillusioned. They found in him one who knew philosophy quite as well as any to whom they had been wont INTRODUCTORY: PROFESSOR HASTIE 27 to listen. This at once gained their respect, and led them to take, as from the hand of a master, the theological teaching which it was his duty and pleasure to impart. He spoke as a rule from a few notes ; it was a dull day when he read his lectures, but when he relied upon his marvellous power of extemporary speech his class was all ani- mation and interest. He had remarkable sympathy with the student mind, and there was no more welcome guest than he at their social gatherings. On such occasions he would pour forth story after story, chiefly of his own student experiences in Germany. There was no occasion for him to enforce discipline in his class. The relation between him and his students was that of master and disciples. It was ever his habit to praise and not to censure ; and it was delightful to hear him speak of his colleagues in the Divinity Faculty. He appreciated and even envied the special gifts of each, and he gladly transferred to Principal Story the loyalty that fell to his predecessor, Principal Caird. It is of importance to learn the nature and character of the teaching which Dr. Hastie was in the habit of imparting to his students. All that can be done in the present connection is to briefly mention his point of view. This will be found in two works by him, the one published by himself ; the other, 2 8 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS which he left in manuscript, appearing the year after his death. The first consists of three lectures delivered in Glasgow University, one of them being his Inaugural Address. This volume appeared in 1899 under the title of Theology as Science, and its present Position and Prospects in the Reformed Church. The second was his Croall Lecture on the Theology of the Reformed Chiirch in its Funda- mental Principles. It was delivered in 1892. Both volumes are practically on the same subject, and may be regarded as, and were indeed intended by Dr. Hastie to be, a public statement of his theological position. He set forth in these books a reasoned presenta- tion of the Christian Religion, in view of the intellectual and spiritual needs of the times. In them is to be found his answer to the doubts and questionings of the present day. They are to be regarded, in short, as a re- statement of Christian theology in the light of modern progress and demands. He gave these books to the world as his philosophy of Religion. Many attempts of this kind have been made within recent years, and, for our purpose and by way of contrast, it may be sufficient to mention two, the one being Lux Mundi, a series of essays by Anglican Churchmen, and the other on the Evolution of Religion, by the late Dr. Edward Caird. Both these INTRODUCTORY: PROFESSOR HASTIE 29 books start with the idea of the Divine Immanence ; the first taking its stand on the Christian Incarnation, the second on the idea that the only incarnation admissible is one that takes place alike in the world of nature and of humanity. In working out their views the authors of Lux Mundi would satisfy the spiritual wants of the modern world by pointing to the Anglican Church and its Sacraments, as the visible embodi- ment of this divine Immanence ; and the master of Balliol would ask men to look into their own souls, where this idea is to be found, after the long process of the evolution of religion, through the great natural religions to Christianity, in which it has been finally realised. These, it seems to me, are fairly good specimens of what may be called objec- tive and subjective attempts at the recon- struction of religion, in view of the spiritual needs of the present day. Dr. Hastie's theology had a different starting - point ; he began with the idea of God, and he believed it to be the aim of theology to elaborate a knowledge of God that would be thoroughly scientific. Upon a true conception of God he firmly believed depended the solution of all the difiiculties that beset the minds of men in these days. In taking up this standpoint, he put himself at once in line with the theology of the 30 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS Reformed Church, and he held it to be his high- est vocation to interpret and to elucidate that theology, to clear it of the many misconcep- tions that had grown up regarding it, and to relate it to all knowledge, whether of nature, of science, of history or experience. He believed that it was more capable than any other view of religion,whether theological or philosophical, of giving unity to the life and thought of man, and of making clear to his intelligence the manifoldness of nature, and the seeming irrationality and incon- sistency of human experience. He held it to be the only theology with which, to use his own words, " We can face with hope of complete conquest, all the spiritual dangers and terrors of our time — Atheism, Agnosticism, Materialism, Pantheism, Pessimism, Nihil- ism ; but deep enough, and large enough, and divine enough, rightly understood, to con- front them and do battle with them all, in vindication of the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of the World, and of the Justice and Love of the Divine Personality." ^ Time does not permit me to show how Dr. Hastie works out this idea in detail. It may be sufficient to say that he had come to it after travelling mentally over the whole world of thought, and examining and assimi- lating all that had ever been said on the ^ Theology as Science, p. 98. INTRODUCTORY: PROFESSOR HASTIE 31 subject by the greatest writers and thinkers in ancient and modern times. His was not a behef, simply handed down to him by tradition ; it was the thought-out conviction of many an anxious hour, and he enforced it with all the wealth of learning, of which the most scholarly mind is capable. He did more : he enshrined it in a sonnet on " God," published first of all in a volume issued for private circulation, entitled La Vita Mia, and he thought this sonnet worthy of a place in the last volume ever published by him. We have in it the quintessence of his philo- sophy and theology. " I searched in Self to find Life's secret Power, The silent Purpose in the Maze of things, But traced in vain the failing, fruitless Springs Of Feeling, Thought, and Will — Man's natal Dower. I viewed Society from my lone Watch Tower, And marked the Glory, Power, and Gi^ace it brings ; And saw that Wit, and Wealth, and Fame take wings. Earth's brightest Genius glowing but an Hour. I turned to God, and Light flashed forth on All ; I found in Chaos Order, Life in Death, Deep Love in Strife, Sweet Joy in parting Breath ; A Mystery woven through Earth's tangled Ball ; The meanest things in Human Life sublime ; Each Moment's Birth, Eternal Thought in Time ! " ^ But his work was now nearly done, and, as if with a half presentiment of this, he pressed into the last year of his life an amount of labour greater than that which marked any previous year. Before the »p. 36. 32 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS Session closed he published the Festival of Spring from the Divan of Jeldleddln, the Persian Poet, with a long and brilliant In- troduction, and a Translation into English verse of Fifty of the Poet's Gazels. In his Introduction he falls foul of Fitzgerald's Omar Khayyam, and condemns its sceptical worldliness. Dr. Hastie was a trained verse- maker, and he excelled in the Sonnet. This was not by any means his first attempt ; after his return from Calcutta he had pub- lished the volume just referred to. La Vita Mia, A Sonnet Chain. He had also trans- lated into English verse The Spiritual Songs of Novalis, and The Vision of God by Riickert. And in the autumn of this same year he wrote and published his last book, Oban Sonnets, which may be regarded as his Swan Song. They were inspired during a week- end visit spent at the house of his friend Mr. Thomas M'Kie, now also gone to his rest, in the '* Aphrodite of our Western Shore." There is a joyousness, a grace and charm, about these sonnets, that reveal the tenderness of his heart, and the culture of his mind, more than in anything ever written by him. They will long be read by the friends of the poet and admirers of Oban. Hardly had the last review of this volume appeared when the news was announced of the author's death. Suddenly, as by a INTRODUCTORY: PROFESSOR HASTIE 33 chariot of fire, he was snatched away from our hearts and eyes. It is impossible, in the one or two sentences that the Hmits of my time permit, to give any laboured or formal estimate of Dr. Hastie's life and work. Speaking for myself, let me say that he was one of the greatest men it has been my lot to be in close relations with during my pilgrimage in this world. Great in mind, greater in heart. He had the strength of a man and the tenderness of a woman. He had the learning of the ages and the sim- plicity of a child. He was truly a man of sorrows ; he had tasted of the bitterness of life, but his spirit was never soured. He has taught us by his writings, but his life will teach us more. It will, I believe, remain as an inspiring force in the Scottish Church for many years to come. If all were told, it would make strong men weep ; but silence, silence ! And in bringing to a close the all-too-im- perfect sketch of his career which I have thus attempted, what better can I do than quote and apply to himself the words which he addressed to his students on Principal Caird, shortly after his revered teacher's death. " We are told that when the great master of German thought, whom he held in the highest regard, was suddenly snatched away 3 34 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS from his powerful work, his sorrowing dis- ciples gathered round his grave, and, amid their tears, vowed to be faithful to his high teaching and example. To-day, we may also well resolve to keep before us in affection- ate memory the example of our own great teacher, and his holy enthusiasm for all that is highest, and noblest, and divinest, in Truth and in Life. While we continue to prosecute our task with that independence which he cultivated so bravely in himself, and encouraged so generously in others, we shall best show our appreciation of him, and our gratitude for all he has done, by striving to live and work like him, and to keep his ideal fresh and living amongst us, in all the love that he has kindled in our hearts, and with what, above all, we have caught from him at the highest — a renewed hope for humanity and a deepened faith in God." ' ^ Theology as Science, p. 30. Appendix I. II THE "DOCTORS " It was during one of the many interesting conversations that I had with the late Pro- fessor Hastie that the subject of the following lectures was suggested to me. One day, now many years ago, while we were walking together on the Lowthers, he asked me if I was ac- quainted with the writings of the Aberdeen Doctors, and I was compelled to confess that I had only a casual knowledge of them. What he told me about them then, stirred my curiosity, and shortly afterwards, seeing the works of Dr. John Forbes, the greatest of them, advertised in a bookseller's cata- logue, I procured the two large volumes, which together run into some twelve hundred pages, double columned, and all written in Latin. The subject, it must be confessed, did not, on the first blush, seem especially inviting, but after one or two prolonged examinations its rare possibilities and appropriateness to present - day contro- 36 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS versies unfolded themselves, and having made a fuller acquaintance with the period and with the writings of the theo- logians who adorned it, nothing, it seemed to me, could be more suitable for a course of lectures delivered in connection with the theological faculty of a Scottish University. It has always been a source of regret to me, which must be shared by every one, that Professor Hastie did not deal with the subject himself. He knew it so well, and his capacity was so great, that, had he taken it up seriously, the result must have been a brilhant chapter in Scottish Theology. It is possible, however, that, while he was full of admiration for the men and their writings, he may not have been quite in sympathy with their views. His conception of the Reformed Theology differed in many respects from theirs. He would have been bound to have controverted their opinions on Church government, doctrine, and worship. But this would not have detracted from the interest of his work, indeed it would have given it a special zest and flavour. Nor can there be any doubt that he contemplated doing something of the kind, for Professor Flint once remarked that Dr. Hastie had thought of it as the subject of his Croall Lecture, and the Edinburgh professor went THE "DOCTORS" 37 the length of hinting that it might have formed a better theme than the one which he actually selected. Every one will readly recognise the loss to a profound knowledge of one important period of Scottish Theology, which has thus been sustained by Dr. Hastie's choice, and it is as a pious tribute to his memory that I shall attempt to do, in a halting and imperfect manner, what he would have so brilliantly accom- plished. It will sound strange that a minister of the Church of Scotland who hadpassed through the usual curriculum in the Divinity Hall, should have only had a casual knowledge of a group of theologians who are held by competent judges to be second to none in the Scottish Church. Indeed, one of them, Dr. John Forbes of Corse, is regarded as the greatest theologian that our country has produced. But I grew somewhat less ashamed of my comparative ignorance when I discovered that I did not stand alone, but that the vast majority of the clergy of the Scottish Church were in the same position. Does this not suggest the thought that, while students of Divinity are necessarily instructed in systems of theology and the history of doctrine as a whole, some little time should be spared for informing them of the progress of thought, in the highest of all subjects, that has taken place in their 38 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS own country ? If the Scottish Church is regarded as pecuharly national, as embody- ing in a very marked way the spirit and characteristics of the people, Scottish Theology surely is no less national, and it is impossible to understand it without tracing its history and various movements, as these are repre- sented by its leading exponents, from the Reformation downwards. Dr. Hastie felt strongly on this point ; it was a note which he sounded in his Inaugural Address as Pro- fessor of Divinity in this University.^ To a large extent it inspired his Croall Lecture and his teaching while a professor here. And the direction which he thus gave to the study of Theology, in this University, one is glad to think, is being successfully prose- cuted.^ The history of the Church in Scot- land has centred far too exclusively in ecclesi- astical controversy. Questions of Church government, of spiritual independence and confessional orthodoxy, have absorbed far too much of the country's time and thought. It would help greatly to a right understanding of our position, and it would steady our views and enlarge our outlook, if we knew in an historical form the progress and development of our national theology, both in itself and in ^ Theology as Science, pp. 104, 105. * Professor Reid, Dr. Hastie's successor in the Chair of Divinity in Glasgow University, chose as the subject of his Inaugural Lecture, A Scottish School of Theology. THE "DOCTORS" 39 relation to kindred movements in England and on the Continent.^ The intellectual life of Scotland, on its theological side at least, centred, during the first episcopal period, in Aberdeen. That famous city and University have, in pro- portion to their size, produced perhaps more distinguished men than any other part of Scotland. This is an opinion which Aber- donians themselves, I believe, secretly enter- tain, and no one, however intense his local patriotism may be, should grudge it to them. Nor can there be any doubt that the Uni- versity of Aberdeen has played an important part in developing the innate mental qualities of its sons, and one can well understand the admiration and affection which they enter- tain for it. There are three men whose names are intimately connected with Aberdeen Uni- versity ; they were all bishops of the diocese and Chancellors of the University. They were Bishop Elphinstone, Bishop Dunbar, and Bishop Patrick Forbes.- The first two were Roman Catholics, and the second was an Episcopalian. Elphinstone was the ^ This has, to a certain extent, been done ; vide Dr. Adam Milroy's account of " The Doctrine of the Church," in Principal Story's The Church of Scotland, Past and Present, vol. iv. * The names of Elphinstone, Dunbar, and Forbes form the "apostolic succession of its history" (Rait, The Universities of Aberdeen, p. 124). 40 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS founder, and Patrick Forbes is affectionately regarded as the second founder, of the Uni- versity. It was in 1618 that Forbes was consecrated Bishop of Aberdeen, and he is held, even by strong Presbyterians, to have been one of the ablest Bishops and also one of the best men that Scotland has ever had.^ He was, to begin with, a Presbyterian, and studied in Glasgow under his kinsman Andrew Melville. He accompanied him to St. Andrews, and was associated with him in his work there. He subsequently married, and resided in the neighbourhood of Montrose, but on the death of his father he retired to the ancestral estate of Corse, in the south of Aberdeenshire. He had not, by this time, taken orders in the Church, but, owing to the scarcity of clergy and to many parishes being without a stated pastor, Forbes was induced to instruct and edify the people of his own and neighbouring parishes, by preaching to them on the Lord's Day. He was well qualified to do this, by piety, character, and ^ James Melville speaks of him as " guid, godly, and kynd Patrick Forbes of Cors," and Wodrow passes several enco- miums upon him (Rait, The Universities of Aberdeen, -p. 123). A biography of the Bishop is prefixed to the edition of the Funeral Sermons and other Memorials which appeared after his death, by Mr. Charles Farquhar Shand. It forms one of the publications of the Spottiswoode Society, and contains much valuable in- formation regarding not only the Bishop himself, but also the Aberdeen Doctors with whom he was so closely associated. The work is from the Original Edition of 1635, and appeared in 1845. THE "DOCTORS" 41 learning, and at last, in 1612, at the ripe age of forty-seven, he yielded to the solicitations of the Church and was ordained to the parish of Keith. The vigour and success with which he discharged the duties of his episcopate are cordially recognised on all hands. The Church in those days was in a most unsatisfactory condition ; empty pulpits and incapable ministers were to be found in many parishes of his diocese. He set himself at once to make good these defects, and as a necessary preliminary the training school for the proper supply of clergy had to be put in order ; this was the University of Aberdeen. When Forbes took up the duties of his chancellor- ship he found the University, both with regard to its finances and teaching staff, in a very disorganised condition. This unfortu- nately is the tale that has to be told of all the Scottish Universities for the first, and even for the second, century of their existence. They were indeed, for many days, struggling institutions, and they sometimes sank so low as to be almost at the vanishing point. Commission after commission was appointed to inquire into their affairs, and the recom- mendations of the inspecting bodies proved, not unfrequently, dead letters. Especially after the Reformation, when the medieval system of University government was broken 42 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS up and when seats of learning were becoming more national, the Scottish Universities were frequently put into the melting-pot and cast into moulds after the pattern of the governing body of the time being, in State and Church. We read, for instance, of three schemes of reform that appeared during the first generation of the Reformed Church : those of John Knox, George Buchanan, and Andrew Melville.^ University commissions and schemes and ordinances have not been unheard of in our own day, and it would seem as if the time of the travail and anguish of our poor Scottish Universities is not yet passed. The new Bishop was a strong man with a wide outlook, and he determined to exercise his powers as Chancellor to the utmost, and to put the University on a proper footing. Fortunately for him he was not hampered by commissioners or committees, by University Court or Senate, by ordinances or even by the General Assembly. He could act on his own initiative, and he took full advantage of his position. How Chancellors and Principals of Scottish Universities in our days must envy the freedom of action possessed by Bishop Forbes ! And, strange to say, it is on the other 1 A very good account of these schemes and of the nature of University Education in Scotland immediately subsequent to the Reformation will be found in Professor Hume Brown's George Buchanan, p. 226 et seq. See also the author's George Buchanan : A Biography , p. 164 et seq. THE "DOCTORS" 43 side of the Atlantic, in the most democratic country in the world, that we find the Presidents or Principals of Universities en- dowed with the most autocratic power. In America and in Canada the heads of Colleges are less trammelled than here, and who knows but a wave of influence from the new world may reach our shores and revive the condition of matters which existed in the first Episcopal period in Scotland, and gave his great chance to Patrick Forbes ? The University of Aberdeen, like the medieval Universities generally, existed primarily for the training of the clergy, and, although Forbes was sufficiently liberal- minded to develop its educational resources in other directions, he set himself to revive the teaching of theology which for some time had been sadly neglected. By his own bounty and that of the clergy of his diocese he endowed the Chair of Divinity, which had fallen into disuse, in King's College, and subsequently rendered a similar service to Marischal College. Eminent men were ap- pointed to both Chairs. He insisted upon able students, when they had finished their Arts Course, becoming Regents, and taking their due share in teaching the junior students, while they themselves attended the classes in theology. After six years of this training, these students were appointed to vacant 44 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS charges. He thus, in a few years, not only- put new heart into the University, co- ordinated its various faculties, filled its Chairs with the best men available, developed its teaching, strengthened its endowments, and added to and improved its buildings, but he also filled the pulpits of his diocese with ministers trained under his own eye, of approved piety and sound learning, and ready to be taken back to the University, to occupy its vacant Chairs. He also made it a point to have in the chief churches in Aberdeen, men of light and leading, who would lend lustre to the pulpits of the Uni- versity city, and who would give a tone and character to the Church as a whole .^ It therefore causes no surprise to a student of the period to find in Aberdeen, both in University and in city, during the episcopate of Patrick Forbes, a body of men who, for ability, learning, and piety, were second to none in Scotland. The divines who formed this distinguished group were at the time, and have ever since been, known as the " Aberdeen Doctors." It was Forbes who revived the designation by which they are honoured.^ Degrees in theology had fallen into disuse during the severe rule of Mel- villian Presbytery. It was a mark of popery, ^ Burnet's Life of Bishop Bedell, Preface. * Garden, Vita Jo. Forb., vol. ii. p. 28. Appendix II. THE "DOCTORS'' 45 or of worldly pride, to assume the title of Bachelor of Divinity or Doctor of Divinity, and Dr. John Forbes, the Bishop's son, felt called upon, in his Irenicimi, to justify, in a moderate but strenuous way, the law- fulness of these Academic distinctions/ The wisdom of the Chancellor in thus honouring and encouraging men who, by their ability and learning, gave distinction to the Univer- sity and the Church, requires no justification in these days. The Aberdeen Doctors were six in number, and include those who put their names to the famous Demands, Replyes, and Duplyes which were made to the Commissioners of the General Assembly who, in 1638, visited the city on behalf of the Covenant. Three of them were professors in the University of Aberdeen, namely. Dr. John Forbes, Dr. Robert Baron, and Dr. William Leslie, and the other three. Dr. James Sibbald, Dr. Alexander Scroggie, and Dr. Alexander Ross, were ministers in the city. All of them were eminent for their scholarship, ability, piety, and devotion to duty. Dr. Robert Baron was a younger son of the family of Kinnaird in Fifeshire. He was educated at St. Andrews, where he is said to have attracted, by his early proficiency in learning, the notice of King James vi. ^ Lib. ii. cap. xi. p. 458 seq. 46 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS He succeeded Bishop Patrick Forbes as minister of Keith. In 1624 he was appointed one of the clergy of the city of Aberdeen, and was nominated the first Professor of Theology in Marischal College, on the institu- tion of that Chair in 1625. Some time before his death he had been elected to fill the See of Orkney, but was never consecrated. " Baron," says Dr. Garden, in his life of Dr. John Forbes, " had the most lucid of intellects, and was endowed with a singular facihty for clearing up obscurities and unravelling difficulties. He himself having distinct con- ceptions, he made it easy for others to under- stand them. In scholastic theology he was most learned." Dr. WiUiam Leslie studied at King's College, Aberdeen, and was in 1617 chosen one of its Regents. He became its Sub-Principal in 1623, and about 1630 he was preferred to the Principalship. He was a distinguished Orient- alist, and some of his poems, in Latin and Greek, are still extant. He wrote notes and commentaries on the Classics, but they have perished. Dr. Garden has preserved, in his life of Dr. John Forbes, a learned fragment by Leslie, on the writings of Cassiodorus. Dr. James Sibbald was born in the Mearns ; he was educated in Marischal College, where he was afterwards Professor of Philosophy. This position he resigned in 1625, when he THE "DOCTORS'' 47 became minister of St. Nicholas Church, Aberdeen. BaiUie testifies that he was held there " in great fame/' and Garden declares him to have been a man of " conspicuous humility, piety, and erudition." Dr. Alexander Scroggie was minister in Old Aberdeen. He, like most of the others, owed his promotion to Bishop Forbes. He was a man of singular prudence, and of con- siderable learning. Dr. Alexander Ross was minister of New Aberdeen. " He was," says Spalding, " a learned divine, well beloved of his flock and people while he was in life, and, after he was dead, heavily regretted." But the greatest of the group was, un- doubtedly. Dr. John Forbes, second son and heir of Bishop Patrick Forbes. He was a man of European reputation, and his most important work, which at the time broke fresh ground, has never been superseded. His contemporaries speak of him with en- thusiastic admiration. A later generation held him and his writings in the highest respect ; and Baur, who lived within measur- able distance of our own day, refers to his Instructiones Historico-Theologicce de Doctrina Christiana, or his " Doctrine of the Catholic Church, Historically Considered," as one of the two most important treatises on the History of Doctrine in the seventeenth century. He 48 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS was a man of vast and accurate learning, of great simplicity and piety of character, of untiring industry and unbounded charity. While a lover of peace, he was a greater lover of truth, and in the end he sacrificed his position, his home, and his country, rather than wound his conscience, or yield up his convictions. He was educated at Aberdeen and on the Continent, where he studied at the University of Heidelberg, and afterwards at Sedan and other Universities. He was ordained in the Presbyterian form in 1619, at Middleburg, where his uncle was a minister. He returned to his native land a thorough master of the Greek and Hebrew languages, and an accompHshed theologian. Shortly after his arrival he was appointed Professor of Divinity in King's College, Aberdeen, where he prosecuted his work with singular distinction and success.^ To this list there ought, perhaps, to be added, the names of Bishop Patrick Forbes, of whom we have already spoken, and of two other Doctors of Aberdeen who co- operated more or less with those already mentioned: — Dr. WilHam Forbes and Dr. WilHam Guild. The latter merits scant treat- ment at our hands. He was one of those who signed the General Demands made by the Aberdeen Doctors to the Commissioners, 1 Vita Jo. Forb., p. 19 seq. THE "DOCTORS" 49 though not the RepHes and Duplies which followed, but he very quickly deserted his friends and trimmed his sails to catch the popular breeze. He succeeded where he ought to have failed. Preferment, un- worthily secured, awaited him, but he was held in very little respect in his own day, and since then something approaching to oppro- brium attaches to his memory. It is different with regard to Dr. William Forbes. He was distantly related to the family of Bishop Patrick Forbes, and shared its genius. He was born in Aberdeen in 1585, and became a proficient scholar at a very early age. While quite a youth he taught Logic in Marischal College. This office he resigned in order to prosecute his theological studies abroad. He travelled for many years on the Continent, visiting Germany, Poland, and Holland, and studying at the Universities of Helmstadt, Heidelberg, and Leyden. On his return home he passed through Oxford, where he was offered a Professorship in Hebrew. At the age of twenty-five he came back to his native city, whose freedom was immediately conferred upon him. He sub- sequently became the minister of Alford, and after a short interval one of the ministers of Aberdeen. In 1618 he was nominated Principal of Marischal College. He was induced to become one of the ministers of 4 50 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS Edinburgh, but neither its air nor its theo- logical atmosphere suited him and he returned to Aberdeen. In 1634 he was nominated as the first Bishop of Edinburgh, but he only enjoyed his new dignity a few months. He published nothing during his life, but of his scholarship and ability there can be no question. His piety was of a rare order, and his views, which gave much offence to many at the time, are, in the light of subsequent thought and progress, worthy of consideration. Twenty-four years after his death, Thomas Sydserf, Bishop of Galloway, published Forbes' Consider ationes Modestce et PacificcB, which has since been translated and published in the Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology.^ Dr. Garden," in his life of Forbes, gives an interesting sketch of the Aberdeen Doctors, while they prosecuted their studies and dis- charged their duties as professors and ministers in Aberdeen. ^ They would seem to have had but one end in view, the acquisi- tion and dissemination of knowledge. They stirred up each other to fresh exertions and to the instruction of their students. Between them there was perfect concord and true friendship, and it was a pleasure to see them working in harmony and dragging the same yoke. Though the same students were under each, there was no jealousy among them, and 1 Appendix III. * Fi7a, p. 27. ^ Appendix IV. THE "DOCTORS" 51 their common aim was to aid the intelhgence of their pupils and to bring them mutual help. They anticipated one of the most recent changes in the Scottish Universities, the three term session, because, he remarks, " throughout three terms of the year they taught theology, making for themselves that duty ; not three monthly as is now the custom, so that they might have a holdiay for the rest of the year." He then proceeds to tell in what spirit they did their work. " Not in a per- functory way by presenting to students some Belgian or Genevese system, or in making such commentaries as philosophers used to do on Aristotle, but by their own learned dis- courses, with full references to the literature on the subject, the}^ instructed them in the knowledge of the Scripture and doctrine, and shaped their minds to the loftier duties of the Church. They also constantly consulted in their lectures the learning of the ancients, and so became examples to posterity. Cer- tainly," he concludes, ''no school of that age rejoiced in theologians more distinguished for learning and piety." But the labour and solitude of study WTre occasionally relieved, sometimes by intellectual diversion, and not infrequently by physical recreation. An instance of the former is found in the Letters of Samuel Rutherford. He was, in 1637, quartered in 52 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS Aberdeen ; sent there because of his ecclesi- astical refractoriness, and perhaps also in the hope that the teaching of the Aberdeen Doctors would leaven his theology. But Rutherford's spirits, like his piety, were irrepressible, and he carried with him into the north his missionary zeal. He accordingly entered into controversy with his would-be teachers, particularly with Dr. Baron, with whom he had a pitched battle, about Armini- anism and the Ceremonies. Rutherford had no doubt in his own mind, though others had, as to who was victor in these contentions ; for, he naively remarks, " three yokings laid him by, and I have not been troubled with him since." ^ But a more pleasant way of relieving the strain of work was not unknown to the learned divines. Forbes, for instance, who was of small stature, with a countenance somewhat dark in colour, had no seat in his study, but always read standing, or wrote leaning on the table. He often used to walk about the meadows occupied with divine meditation. Sometimes for the relaxation of his mind he would play at golf in the fields (in Campis pila clavaria ludebat), but when he heard the sound of the bell calling to public prayers in church, forthwith, giving up the game, he hastened to the temple, ^Rutherford's Letters, 3rd edition, pp. 48, 180, 221. THE "DOCTORS'' 53 not as a matter of form, but out of true devotion.^ In this way did these learned men combine work with social intercourse and necessary relaxation, and prosecute their labours, more or less, independently of the ecclesiastical strife that was raging in different parts of the country, and which was, before long, to knock at their own doors, and break up their round table of theological learning and fellowship. Like most men of a similar type, who receive their inspiration from study and reflection, they pursued a course which was not followed by either of the two contending parties in the Church ; a course to which the Church has been tending more and more since their day, and which points, to my thinking, in the direction where a solution of the difficulties in the way of union, if not of uniformity, of the different Churches in the land will be found. The significance of the teaching of the Aberdeen Doctors on the pressing ques- tions of theological thought and Church polity for the present time is genuine and fundamental. In order to understand this, a brief outline must be given of the position of parties at the time in which they lived, and of the course of events which led up to the crisis that accentuated their position and teaching. 1 Vita, p, 70. 54 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS They were for the time submerged ; but the truths which they represented and fought for survived and leavened the subsequent course of ecclesiastical history in Scotland. The Reformation in this, as in other coun- tries, left many questions unsettled^ The powerful character and intense convictions of Knox cast the Scottish Church into a mould from which it has never emerged. The master mind of the Reformer shaped its destiny. But within the compass of his own lifetime, and in view of the circum- stances of the hour, he could not do more than indicate certain leading lines with regard to some important questions. It has of course been alleged that the Reformation settled matters of belief and of Church govern- ment far too quickly, and much too definitely. This may be true as regards the essentials ; but questions were bound to crop up, which could not be altogether foreseen, and it was from the opposing attitude taken up in Scotland by contending parties on these questions that the troubles which afflicted the Scottish Church for so many years sprung. The struggle which brought the champions of opposing sides to the front also produced the party represented by the Aberdeen ^ S chaff, The Creeds of Christendom, vol. i. p. 684: " But no particular form of Church government or worship is laid down in the Confession (1560) as binding, and freedom is allowed in ceremonies." THE "DOCTORS'' 55 Doctors, which was a party of moderation, and which endeavoured to go beneath the differences, and to unite the opposing factions in a true unity. This it did, not by shutting its eyes to the difficulties that produced contention, but by going beneath them and seeing the true ground of their origin and at the same time of their reconciUation. Knox was not long in his grave when the question of Church and State arose in Scot- land. The flexible condition in which he had left it broke up and hardened down into two opposing schools, the one repre- sented by Andrew Melville, and the other by King James. Melville was not content with the Church's independence ; he would invade the province of the State. James was not satisfied with the autonomy of the State, he would tyrannise over the Church. Hence, the struggle which lasted for a century had its origin in the extreme and false positions taken up by both parties. The same tendency is found in the quarrel that arose over Presbytery and Episcopacy. The champions of each beHeved that they had divine right on their side. Between a man like Samuel Rutherford and a man like Arch- bishop Laud there could, on this question, be no reconciUation. In the ecclesiastical ex- termination of the one or of the other lay the only chance of peace. 56 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS We see the same opposition springing up over Doctrine. The Calvinism of Knox and the Scottish Confession had become the ultra-Calvinism of Boyd and the Synod of Dort, and the spirit of freedom breathed by Arminius was beginning to animate many. On the question of Scripture a like opposi- tion very soon manifested itself. Did the very words of Scripture, interpreted by party or personal predilection settle every- thing for all time, or should equal value not be attached to the testimony of the Fathers and the decrees of Councils ? So with regard to Ceremonies. Was everything that was not directly sanctioned by Scripture unlawful, and was the primitive worship of the Apostolic Church to govern the order and form of worshp for all time ; or was the practice of what was known as Anglo- Catholicism of equal weight ? One can see at a glance the sharp division that was thus drawn by different parties in the Church on these leading questions. They did not arise immediately with the Reforma- tion, they took some time to assert them- selves, and the uncompromising attitude adopted by the contending factions led to incessant strife, and to scandal and schism. Each party fought for its own hand, and the victory fell to the one side or the other. But in this way lay neither progress nor THE "DOCTORS" 57 peace. Had truer and wiser counsels not prevailed, the Church, which was being rent in twain, would have been wrecked altogether, but fortunately a third party arose which practically cried, " A plague on both your houses. The truth rests with neither of you ; we will show you a better way." ^ This party was less heard of than those which were creating the storm. The names of its leaders may, to the vast majority of Church- men, be altogether unknown, but upon them the salvation of the Church depended, and it is surely time that their memory was being revived, and their work adjudged and ap- preciated. They were a silent leaven that was leavening the whole lump, and, at the present moment, the Scottish Church in its sore need is turning to them and their suc- cessors for light and leading ; and I believe that it is by their spirit, if not by their definite views on the questions which have been touched and are crying for settlement, that a true solution will be found. One cannot fail to be impressed by the obscurantism and even the Philistinism ^ Vita, p. 12: " Quidam ex una parte plurimos scrupulos populo suggerebant, quasi res a Synodo decretae assent in se impise, superstitiosse, idololatricae, et Antichristianae ; atque ita multos in odium et detractionem Fratrum, et separationem a propriis Pastoribus trahebant ; alii non minori zelo omnes ad obedientiam debitam Ecclesiae et Regni decretis in hac re praestandam vi et imperio cogi volebant. Alii vero tempera- mentum in omnibus hisce externis desiderabant." 58 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS of the opposing parties in these disputes; they would seem to be impervious to ideas, and they contend against each other with a fury that is blind. But the party repre- sented by the Aberdeen Doctors was pos- sessed of ideas. Its members, we would say in our day, were men of culture, and this term, to be truly applicable, must be shorn of its secular significance, for they were men of the sincerest piety as well. Their liberal tendencies had their origin in the movement which is associated with the name of Arminius. The theological centre in Europe had by their day shifted from Switzer- land to Holland. At Leyden and not at Geneva was now to be found the school of thought in theological matters. All the Aberdeen Doctors had drunk deeply of the stream which flowed from that source. There was not one of them but who was affected by the liberalising spirit which emanated from the teaching of Arminius. Not every one of them accepted his views in their en- tirety. If asked, they would profess them- selves to be Calvinists ; that is to say, they accepted the leading features of that system without binding themselves to its details. Of course it may be said that such an admis- sion proves that they were not Calvinists. Logically, perhaps, they were not, but^the best men's creed can seldom be logically THE "DOCTORS" 59 expounded, and it is possible for a man to accept the teaching of Paul on certain por- tions of the Calvinistic theology, without following out to its ultimate conclusions the logic of Calvin. The point to emphasise is that the Aberdeen Doctors had freed themselves from the influence of the confessional theology, which was narrowing down into a vain and barren scholasticism. They broke away from the " Thou Shalt " and the '' Thou shalt not " of systems, and symbols, and formulas, and they claimed the privilege, which the Reformers themselves had taught to be the inalienable right of every one, of inquiring for themselves and testing even the Word of God by its spirit. The orthodox of their day tested Scripture by confessions of faith and theo- logical dogma, that is, the Word of God having been once interpreted by a certain body of fallible men was to be a closed book for ever, and subsequent generations of thoughtful Christians were, silently and without remonstrance, to accept the inter- pretation put upon it by others. The Pro- testant Church thus took away with the one hand what it had given with the other, and placed itself on a par with the Church of Rome. But the Aberdeen Doctors would not be thus bound, and their freedom saved them from siding with either of the two 6o THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS parties who were fiercely warring with each other. They took up the questions that were the source of strife in an independent fashion, brought the hght of thought, of reason, of history, and of free inquiry, to bear upon them, and came to conclusions which were naturally displeasing to both parties, but which were much nearer to the truth. But while the Aberdeen Doctors thus put into a reasoned form, strengthened by all the aids of learning and scholarship, the moderate, liberalising, and truly national and con- stitutional views on the important questions raised, views which have really been the salvation of the Church in Scotland, they were not without their predecessors. The names of three distinguished Churchmen, imbued with a similar broad-minded and tolerant spirit, will at once occur to students of Scottish history. These were John Craig, Erskine of Dun, and David Lindsay. Craig, it will be remembered, opposed the Act of Assembly which prohibited praying for Queen Mary. But he was no courtly time-server, for he maintained, against Maitland, that princes who failed to keep faith with their subjects may justly be deposed. And yet again, because his reason commended it, he not only took the lead in subscribing the " Black Acts," but declared that kings, even THE "DOCTORS" 6l bad kings, are responsible to God alone. Erskine of Dun was in many respects the ideal Scotsman of his time. He was " fervent in spirit, dilligent in business, serving the Lord " : soldier, courtier, student, statesman, superintendent, all in one. Queen Mary- liked him best of all the Scottish Reformers, and when it was suggested that one of them should reason with her, she asked for Erskine, referring to him as a '' mild and sweet-natured man, with true honesty and uprightness." His views on Presbytery and Episcopacy were not of the high-flying and divine right order. He was quite willing to accept either. His counsels at all times made for moderation and peace. It was David Lindsay, then minister of Leith, who carried Knox's dying message of doom to Kirkcaldy of Grange. It was with reluctance that he obeyed, for he " thought the message hard." He was subsequently made a bishop, and was con- secrated with the other bishops in 1610. His influence with the Court was considerable. He accepted Presbytery, but preferred Epis- copacy, chiefly because it seemed to him to be less revolutionary and made more for civil peace. ^ And it must be admitted that during the period which is covered by these lectures, and while the Episcopal form of Church govern- 1 Law Mathieson, Religion and Politics in Scotland. 62 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS ment was in the ascendant, the spirit of tolerance prevailed. It may be that the king acted in a high-handed and harsh manner towards some of those who opposed him. Some were warded,while others were banished. But no charge of persecution or of tyranny can be laid against the Church itself. Numerous Acts were passed making changes in the government and worship of the Church, which were far from pleasing to many of the ministers. But absolute conformity was not insisted upon, and though it was quite well known that the Acts of Assembly on these points were dead letters in numerous parishes, the questions involved were not regarded as so fundamental and serious as to warrant deposition, or even censure. This tolerance may have had not a little to do with the theological activity manifested both by Presbyterians and Episcopalians. Certainly no similar period in the history of the Scottish Church produced abler or more learned divines. The remarkable resemblance between the group of theologians, whose position and views we are considering, and a similar body of men, almost their contemporaries in England, must have occurred to some of you. This group, with others of a kindred spirit who did not technically belong to it, has been dealt with in a singularly full and able way by the late THE "DOCTORS" 63 Principal Tulloch in his well-known volumes on Rational Theology and Christian Philo- sophy in England in the Seventeenth Century} If Dr. Hastie, as he once intended, had taken up the subject which I am attempting to deal with, and written a book on it, or made it the theme of a course of lectures, we should have had a companion volume to Dr. Tulloch' s that would have been a credit to Scottish Theology. If one were writing a book, the proper method of treatment, perhaps, would be to take up each of the Aberdeen Doctors in turn, or the more important of them, and after a biographical sketch give his views on the question or questions which chiefly interested him, and on which he may have written. But this method is scarcely suitable for a course of lectures, so I shall in what follows arrange my material under the follow- ing divisions : Church Government, Doctrine and Worship, concluding with the subject of Union ; stating the attitude of the Aberdeen Doctors on these questions, and showing at the same time the appropriateness of the discussion for our day, and the significance of their solution for the leaders of thought among us. 1 See also a book published last year — 1908 — by Edward Augustus George of New York on Seventeenth Century Men of Latitude. Ill CHURCH GOVERNMENT As indicated in my last lecture, the round table of theological learning and scholarship that flourished in Aberdeen was on the eve of being broken up. Events had been mov- ing rapidly south of the Tay and Forth, and the scene in St. Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh, over the introduction of the Book of Common Prayer, commonly known as Laud's Liturgy, on the 23rd of July 1637, gave the signal for the revolt of the Scottish Church and people against the policy of King Charles and his advisers. The course of ecclesiastical events in Scotland up to this point from the Reformation is so well known, that it is unnecessary for me, in the present connection, to do more than refer to it. It is impossible, of course, to get every one to agree on the subject. Partisanship still prevails, although it is not of the pronounced kind that existed in the days of which we are speaking. It is not my object to advocate the one side or the other in the disputes that had now 64 CHURCH GOVERNMENT 65 come to a crisis, but to make plain, as far as possible, the position of the Aberdeen Doctors, and to see in their attitude that spirit of moderation and reconciliation which, at the time, though seemingly unavailing, has more and more prevailed. It is such a spirit that is being called out of the depths at the present time, and for the successful working of which many good men are praying. To one, reflecting upon what took place in Scotland during the first century and a half of the existence of the Reformed Church, it would seem as if the varying course of its history, was like a game of see-saw. First one side is in the ascendant and then another. To-day it is Andrew Melville, to-morrow it is King James ; at one moment it is Presby- tery, the next it is Episcopacy. In the first part of the seventeenth century, when the Aberdeen Doctors flourished, Episcopacy was in the ascendant, and it seemed as if it were going to remain. But the Stuart Kings, especially Charles i., ignorant of, or blind to, the history of ecclesiastical affairs in Scotland, were determined to have uni- formity, in all things, between the Anglican and Scottish Churches, and, of his own accord, with the approval of some and disapproval of others of the Scottish Bishops, Charles had a Book of Canons and a Liturgy framed, and, foisting them upon the Church, commanded 5 66 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS their use. It was a foolish action, which any high-spirited people would have resented, and, as any one might have foreseen, it resulted in the disturbance in St. Giles', and the subsequent revolt of many of the people. It might appear, at the time, as if this were but one more act in the game of see-saw between Presbytery and Episcopacy, but it was a good deal more ; and no one of King Charles' defenders at the present day is foolhardy enough to justify his action, just as even the most true-blue Presbyterian would hesitate to defend the conduct of Andrew Melville, when that militant cham- pion of the supposed privileges of the Church would preach sedition in the pulpit, and deny the right of the State to close his mouth, or to punish him for his misconduct. If progress is through antagonism, if truth is the offspring of opposing factions, and of the clash of conflicting opinions, then the Scottish Church ought to be, as King James himself declared, " the purest Kirk in Christendom," and the most fully developed. The speed with which those who were afterwards to be known as the Covenanters took action, at this supreme moment, shows that the outburst in St. Giles' was not alto- gether accidental. It was only the spark which showed that the fire was already there. In any case, almost immediately, Committees, CHURCH GOVERNMENT 67 or Tables, as they were called, were formed, and a document drawn up, ever after so well known as the National Covenant, in which the Covenanters swore by the great name of the Lord their God, that they would continue faithful to the doctrine and dis- cipline of the Church against all errors and corruption ; that they would be loyal to His Majesty in defence of the laws, and true to one another. Some of the more moderate of the ministers were alarmed by the tenor of the Covenant, by its apparent condemna- tion of the form of Church government, and the ceremonies to which they had vowed obedience, and its sanction of armed resist- ance to the Royal authority.^ This was particularly felt among the more learned and thoughtful of the community. While the Covenant was being largely and enthusi- astically signed by the common people, who identified Prelacy with Popery, and by the nobility, who saw in the creation of Bishops a disgorgement on their part of the Bishop's lands, which they had ac- quired by a method of conveyancing that would scarcely stand close inspection, the University of Glasgow was somewhat luke- warm, and certain of its professors refused to sign the Covenant ; while the Universities of St. Andrews and Aberdeen went farther, and ' Grub, Ecd. Hist., ii. p. 405. 68 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS condemned it. Among the number of those who thus disapproved of the Covenant were, of course, the Aberdeen Doctors. Aberdeen and the North were never very favourable to the Presbyterian system. Indeed, several parts of Scotland, as one can see from the number of Roman Catholics that are still to be found in them, were never really reformed, and while Aberdeen was not one of them, it had never been so extreme in its Protestant zeal as other counties of Scotland, nearer the ecclesiastical centre, in Edinburgh. The powerful influence of the Marquis of Huntly, who was more Roman Catholic than Protestant, may have con- tributed largely to this ; and when Episco- pacy was again introduced, the Aberdonians took to it much more kindly than the majority of their countrymen. The statesman-like rule of Bishop Patrick Forbes, supported as it was by the learning and piety of the Professors in the University, had established Episcopacy in the minds and hearts of the people. Accordingly, one is not surprised to find that the Covenanters, who were carrying all before them in many of the other districts of Scotland, found little or no support in Aberdeen, and, determined that this stubborn county and city should be no exception, the Tables resolved to send special Commissioners north, to bring the less en- CHURCH GOVERNMENT 69 thusiastic citizens of Bon- Accord to reason. It was well known that the men who had first of all to be persuaded into signing the Covenant were the Aberdeen Doctors. If they could be won, the rest of the people were sure to follow ; so among the Com- missioners were to be found the leading men in the Covenanting party. The Earl of Montrose, Lord Cupar, the Master of Forbes, and Sir Thomas Burnett of Leyes repre- sented the nobility ; and Alexander Henderson, David Dickson, and Andrew Cant, the ministry. This was a great occasion for Aberdeen, and the Magistrates, according to the hospit- able custom of the burgh, determined to give them a friendly welcome. Certain of their number were deputed to wait upon the Commissioners, on their arrival, and offer them the courtesy of the town, or the cup of Bon-Accord, being a collation of wine and other refreshments. The kindly invitation was refused, unless the Covenant was first subscribed, and the Magistrates, offended at the discourteous rejection of their hospit- ality, ordered the refreshments, which they had prepared, to be distributed among the poor. The Commissioners made a somewhat unpropitious start, but worse awaited them ; for, ** no sooner," says the parson of Rothie- may, " were they alighted from their horses, 70 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS but the Doctors, and Divinity professors, and ministers of Aberdeen, who before had loud advertisements of their progress, did presently send unto the ministers some Queries con- cerning the Covenant, professing withal, that if they could satisfy their doubts, they would not refuse to join in Covenant with them, and protested that they wished the flourishing of religion as much as any, and that the reason that they had sent them that paper, was that it might be known to their brethren, that if hitherto they had not found themselves inclined to enter into Covenant with them, they, and all men, might know that it was not without weighty causes, which concerned their consciences, in all which they both desired and were willing to be resolved." There and then began the famous paper warfare between the Doctors and the three ministers representing the Covenant. The whole correspondence was published almost immediately under the title of General Demands concerning the Late Covenant. It was widely circulated, and created much interest. The author of the History of Scots Affairs, who, with Spalding, gives a long and graphic account of all the proceedings, is in no doubt as to with whom the victory lay, " for," he remarks, " there is no question but the three Covenanter ministers were ill-matched, for their abilities, with the most part of these CHURCH GOVERNMENT 71 Aberdeen Doctors, and it was impar con- gressus A chilli." ^ The rapidity with which the Doctors' " Demands," fourteen in all, were prepared, and the Answers of the ministers written, a day only intervening, shows that the con- troversiahsts were not new to the task, but had the subject well thought out. Indeed, Forbes and Henderson in particular had been over the ground before, for the latter had a hand in preparing the Covenant, and the former, on its appearance, had written his Peaceable Warning to the Subjects in Scot- land, for the purpose of forming a com- promise, if possible, between the contending parties, and of avoiding the strife that was threatening to break up both the unity of the Church and the constitution of the kingdom.^ It was a well-meant effort, but failed in its purpose, just as his Irenicum, published after the introduction of the Perth Articles iSee Gordon's Scots Affairs, vol. i. pp. 82-96; Spalding, vol. i. pp. 91-100; and Vita Jo. Forb., pp. 35, 40. 2 The author has in his Diary recorded the reasons which induced him to print that warning which at the request of my Lord Marquis of Huntly " I wrot, and for which my countrymen, Covenanters, have threatened me with all those evills." " I, considering that it became me not to strive for words whereat they took exception, and which they did interpret as reproach- full against them, although my constant intention was lovingly to warne them, I resolved with the advyss of some brethern to publish that warning in print, removing out of it all hastie words, and craving pardon for anything that was amiss, thus to declare to all men my Christian and peaceable disposition" (Diary, fol. 59)- 72 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS into the Church, and with a similar object, also failed. It fell to him, as it does not unfre- quently to mediators, to please neither party; in any case he certainly did not find favour with the Covenanters, who attacked both his books, although he had been at great pains to remove from them any expression that might give offence. Immediately after the Answers of the ministers to the Demands of the Doctors were received. Replies were sent in, which again evoked fresh Answers from the ministers. This did not end the wordy warfare, for the Doctors penned a new series which they called " Duplyes," and as the ministers had, by this time, left the city, without making many converts to the Covenant, they were sent after them, and, if the last word in a con- troversy is a mark of victory, the Doctors certainly had it.^ The points in the discussion were, to a cer- tain extent, technical ; some of them no doubt raised important questions in jurisprudence. With these we have in this connection very little to do, but when the Doctors pointed out that the Confession which they were now asked to sign was, in a large measure, the Negative Confession of 1580, and that by subscribing it they would be practically abjuring the Confession of the Church, which was that of 1567, putting themselves outwith 1 Appendix V. CHURCH GOVERNMENT 73 the communion of other Reformed Churches, condemning rites which in the sincerity of their hearts they held to be lawful, we must admit they had good grounds for hesitating and, indeed, for refusing to sign the Covenant ; otherwise they would wound their consciences by being false to their convictions and beliefs. The Covenant, in short, would overturn the government of the Church as it then existed, its form of worship, and its doctrines.^ And the Aberdeen Doctors, especially John Forbes, who was their leader and representative, could no more accept it than they could justify the extreme views of the Anglo-Catholics who, under the encouragement of Laud, were begin- ning to make their presence felt in the Church. The triumph of the Doctors, however, was short lived. The Covenanters soon took forcible possession of Aberdeen, and the band of learned divines that had been formed and fostered by Bishop Patrick Forbes was broken up, and its members scattered over the country. After the Glasgow Assembly in 1638, when Episcopacy was overthrown and the Covenant was made binding upon all the ministers of the Church, the Aberdeen Doctors fared badly. Baron had died in the interval, but the rest were deposed. Baillie," and others of the Covenanters, speak 1 A Peaceable Warning, p. 19. 2 Letters and Journals, i. p. 248. 74 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS with warm admiration and even affection of Baron, and especially of John Forbes. They felt that the Laird of Corse was the greatest man among them, if greatness con- sists in character, ability, scholarship, and piety. Some of them would have saved him if they could, and they sent him to St. Andrews to receive enlightenment at the hands of Samuel Rutherford. This was something like asking Timothy to instruct Paul. He was brought before the Synod at Aberdeen, and was found free of Popery and Arminian- ism,^ and was ordered to appear in Edinburgh to hear the decision. Dr. Garden, in his life of Forbes, suggests that, the decision being deposition, the Covenanters shirked the re- sponsibility and odium of pronouncing it in Aberdeen, where Forbes was so highly respected. They dragged him, an old man, to Edinburgh, which in those days, even for an active person, was no light journey, to hear his doom pronounced.^ It is at once pathetic and edifying to read Forbes's diary, in which he tells of his travail during these years of suffering. The humility of the man and his trust in God, in the midst of all his troubles, are not the least remarkable features in his exemplary and distinguished Hfe. When he was asked to declare that Epis- 1 Appendix VI. 2 |/j^^ Jq_ Forb., p. 49. CHURCH GOVERNMENT 75 copacy was unlawful, he could not and he did not. Where is the Presbyterian, who, if the same question were asked of him in our day, would answer otherwise ? Forbes, in his misfortune, had the consolation of the scholar. He intended to retire to Aberdeen, in order that, being in close proximity to the University Library, he might prosecute his studies, and prepare the great work on which he was engaged, for the press. But he had calculated without his host ; he failed to remember that, in conveying the house in which he resided to the University, as the resi- dence of the Professor of Divinity in King's College, he failed to secure his own liferent. It never occurred to him, at the time, that he would be ousted from his own residence as well as from his professorship, but that is what happened. The Covenanters knew no mercy, and poor Forbes was sent adrift. This last indignity and misfortune he bore with equanimity, but even a greater was still to follow. When the Solemn League and Covenant was agreed upon, a few years afterwards, he was ordered to sign it on pain of banishment. His conscience prevented him from signing ; he had accordingly to leave his country, and he sought refuge in Holland, where he remained for two years, finishing and publishing his book on Catholic Doctrine. He was then permitted to return home, and ye THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS he retired to his family seat of Corse, spending the two remaining years of his Hfe in medita- tion and the pious offices of a deep and devout soul. He asked permission, before his death, for his remains to be buried beside those of his wife in Old Machar Cathedral, where his father also rested, but this the Covenanters also denied him, and he was buried in the churchyard of Leochel, where no monument has been erected to mark the last resting-place of one who was one of the greatest theo- logians that the Church of Scotland has produced.^ The Aberdeen Doctors found it impossible to sign the National Covenant, in which Episcopacy was abjured as unlawful, and they gave very good grounds for their refusal. The Confession of Faith of 1560, which was mainly the work of John Knox, and which was afterwards ratified by Parliament in 1567, assuredly did not ask them to do anything of the kind.^ Episcopacy was one of those questions which were left open, and, as recent ecclesiastical history has shown, " open questions " have a trick of proving very awkward when the interests involved come up for final settlement. It can- not be said that Knox thought Episcopacy 1 Vita Jo. Forb., 70 seq. 2 See General Demands and Peaceable Warning. CHURCH GOVERNMENT tj to be unlawful ; he served as a minister for some time in England under that form of government, and he refused a Bishopric, not because he thought the office was con- trary to the Word of God, or to the practice of the primitive and Catholic Church, but because, as he remarks, " of troubles to come." Nor did he believe in what is popu- larly known as Presbyterian parity, in the equality of all men, and especially of ministers, which some would have us regard as a sacred heritage from the Reformer him- self, for he introduced Superintendents into the Church, to whom were delegated special powers and duties, and the supervision of the ministers and flocks of their district or diocese.^ Indeed, before his death, he saw the Concordat of Leith, and the intro- duction of Bishops into the Church. He did protest, not against the creation of Episcopacy, but against the first holder of the office, because he thought him un- worthy of it.^ It is said that Knox accepted the new proposal because he thought it might help in getting better stipends for the clergy, just as Morton, and those who were acting with him, held that it would preserve the balance of the three estates in Parliament, and so prevent the breaking 1 First Book of Discipline, chap. vi. 2 Calderwood's History, 1572. 78 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS up of the Constitution.^ This of course may be true, but the point of importance is, that Knox raised no objections to the office per se. Then came Andrew Melville, and with his Greek Testament proved that Presbyters were before Bishops in the Apostolic Church, and, acting on this idea, he gradually got the Church in 1580 committed to the accept- ance of Presbytery ; " but, not content with the triumph which he had obtained, he declared his belief in the divine right of Presbytery. This was the beginning of troubles to come. In the Churches of the Reformation period no such claim was ever thought of. None of the Reformers declared that either Episcopacy or Presbytery, or any other form of Church government, was of divine right. They introduced the kind that seemed most expedient and suitable in the particular circumstances of the Church and nation. Accordingly, between all the Reformed Churches there was inter-com- munion, and the orders of the one were accepted, without demur, by the others. But, with the announcement of the divine right of Presbytery in Scotland by Melville, and by the Puritans in England, came a chal- lenge from Bancroft, the future Archbishop 1 Cunningham, Church History, i. p. 344. '^ Calderwood, vol. iii. pp. 463-73 ; Book of the Universal Kirk, p. 193. CHURCH GOVERNMENT 79 of Canterbury, who promulgated the theory of the divine right of Episcopacy/ A gulf was now made, which gradually in- creased in depth and width, and if we, in the present day, are to bridge it, it can only be by going back to the point at which it started. Melville began to carry things with a high hand, and if his theory of the Church as a theocracy, with its appendix of spiritual independence, had been realised, the future history of Scotland would certainly have been different ; whether or no it would have been better is a doubtful point. James supported Episcopacy, in the first instance, in self- protection, and latterly, no doubt, because he saw that under such rule, as he conceived and enforced it, his position as an absolute monarch would be very much stronger- Still, though he packed Assemblies, brow- beat some ministers, and banished others, he acted on the whole with a semblance, at least, of legality, and got the Assembly to pass and the Parliament to ratify all his actions. This should not be forgotten in considering the strife that arose between the Covenanters and the Aberdeen Doctors over Episcopacy and the ceremonies. The rejectors of both, one would think, would find it hard to prove them ^ Extracts of this sermon are to be found in the Wodrow Miscellany, i. pp. 477-96. 8o THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS unlawful, either in relation to the laws of the country or the broad meaning of the Word of God. Nor should one forget the kind of Epis- copacy that found a home in Scotland during this period. It was what might be termed Anglo-Presbyterianism. The courts of the Church, which had sprung up under its earlier form of government, still continued in full force. Kirk-Sessions, Presbyteries, Synods, and General Assemblies met and dissolved, enforced discipline, and made and unmade ecclesiastical law. The Bishops, hke other ministers, were subject to the supreme Court of the Church ; they acted as permanent Moderators, ordained ministers with the help of the Presbytery, and had the oversight of their dioceses. They were very far indeed from being lords over Christ's heritage.^ But a certain number of them, and these the younger men, began to assert that theory of Episcopacy which was finding favour among the High Church party across the border, and whose head and front was Archbishop Laud. Doctor Leslie, Rector of St. Faith's, within Laud's own diocese in London ; William Forbes, anti-Presbyterian to the utmost, who had drafted the first, and most obnoxious, of the five articles ; Sydserf, a bitter enemy 1 See Stevenson, The Preshyterie Booke of Kirkcaldic, Intro,* duction. CHURCH GOVERNMENT 8i to sincere professors ; Wedderburn, the special confidant of Laud, and a prebendary in the Cathedral of Wells ; Whiteford, another divine of the same stamp — these were all made Bishops, and the last four, the leaders of the Canterburian faction, conducted themselves with a violence and a lack of temper of which Sydserf, who survived the Restoration, is said to have made ample acknowledgment in his old age.^ These men went to as great extremes on the Episcopal side as Melville and his friends did on the Presbyterian, and the irreconcilability of their attitude was made manifest when Maxwell, who was made a Bishop by Charles, about the same time as those just mentioned, asserted the Divine right of Episcopacy. Fast upon this came the Book of Canons and the Liturgy, which were forced upon the Church by the Bishops at the command of the King, without the sanction of Assembly or Parliament. This was indeed an uprooting of the constitution and practice of the Church, as it existed under the moderate rule of Archbishop Spottis- wood and Bishop Patrick Forbes, as well as under the purely Presbyterian system which had, for a short time previously, prevailed. Now it is at this point that the Aberdeen Doctors intervened and endeavoured to guide the Church in a middle course, which would ^ Law Mathieson, Religion and Politics in Scotland. 6 82 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS have preserved its truly national character and the best features both of Presbytery and Episcopacy. Every national Church, worthy of the name, must represent the leading elements in the life of the people. If the Re- formation accomplished one thing, for which we ought to be thankful, above almost every other, it was that it broke up the Roman Catholic Church, which imposed its ideal of uniformity, mainly an Italian one, on all the Churches of Christendom, irrespective of the countries in which they existed. When the power of the Papacy was broken, nation- alities began to assert themselves, and the free life of the people to develop. The pent-up energies of countries that had been crushed and kept silent for centuries, burst forth, and expressed themselves in ther own special manner. Scotland was no exception \ indeed, the national characteristics of our country are generally regarded as of a very pronounced nature, and these characteristics are found in our most representative men. John Knox himself has stamped his individuality, not only upon the great event which he guided, but upon the life of the people and the course of Scottish history as a whole. And yet, on the other hand, Knox was the offspring of Scottish parentage, and his character was moulded by the genius of his race. The very fact of his country responding so heartily to CHURCH GOVERNMENT 83 his religious and political views shows that he was their representative, bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh. Now, if there is one thing more than another which can be said to be the national note of Scotland, it is what may be termed its love of representative government, both in Church and in State. It has never since the Reforma- tion tolerated the dominance of any one man or body of men, call them an oligarchy or hierarchy ; it has always insisted upon free institutions, and has fought for them to the death. Both the High Presbyterian and the Anglo-Catholic would have robbed it of these ; the former by his theo- cratic pretentions, and the latter by his belief in, and advocacy of, bureaucracy. It should not be forgotten that the nation repudiated the one as well as the other. When the High Presbyterian party were, in the early days of James's reign, carrying all before them, and imposing their theocratic ideas on the State, and consequently on the people, it was the people themselves who checkmated them and supported James. When in turn the Church, in the time of Charles, led by the Anglo-Catholics, would have imposed upon the people the tyranny of a group of Bishops with the King as their head, and have practic- ally abolished the free expression of opinion, the nation again interposed, and would have 84 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS none of it. The claim first made for inde- pendent rule, on the part of a certain group of bishops, is sometimes declared to be sacer- dotalism ; it is nothing of the kind. The *' sacer " is a priest, and a priest is a servant, one who is willing to sacrifice his life. What was aimed at was a bureaucracy, a very different thing, a conclave of men whose claims were as absurd as their rule was tyrannical. This the national spirit of Scotland resented, and overthrew in the Revolution of 1638.^ It will thus be seen that the two parties that came into conflict at this period have both practically vanished from Scottish Church history. It may be true that now and again the still, small voice of each may be heard, lifting itself plaintively up for recognition, but in vain ; there is no response. The party which has prevailed and remains is that of the Aberdeen Doctors. It may be that the form of Church government which they favoured has passed away, but its essen- tial features remain ; it is the party of true constitutionalism, of moderation, the one that really expresses the national spirit, and which embodies the leading characteristics of the Scottish people. The views of the Doctors on the subject may be gathered from various sources, » Masterman. The Rights and Responsibilities of National Churches, p. 37. CHURCH GOVERNMENT 85 but the most authoritative pronouncement is that of Dr. John Forbes, who on this, as on the other leading questions, may be taken as their representative. In a work pubhshed by him in Aberdeen in 1629, to which reference has already been made, and about which we shall hear more when dealing with the subject of a subsequent lecture, he among other matters discusses very fully the question of Episcopacy. This work he issued under the title of Irenicum Amatorihus Veritatis et Pads in E celesta Seoticana. In it, as the title shows, he appeals to the un- prejudiced section of his countrymen, to those in the Church who were more in love with truth and peace than with the triumph of either of the contending parties. Un- fortunately, as the sequel showed, they were a minority. Like his other efforts in this direction, it aimed at producing harmony by appealing, not to the prejudices of one section or another, but to Scripture, to the testimony of Catholic antiquity, to the Reformed Church, and to right reason. These surely formed a broad enough basis, and one far enough removed from the misunderstandings and misrepresentations of the hour, on which to build up the truth and to join the warring factions in friendly unity. His book was sug- gested by the contention and strife which 86 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS arose over the introduction of the Perth Articles into the Church, and while it deals chiefly with the questions which the Articles themselves raise, it also handles the broader question of Episcopacy and Presbytery. The great argument advanced by those who were opposed to Episcopacy was that it was human, or ecclesiastical, and not Divine, and that it should accordingly be rooted out of the Church. That is an argu- ment from which we have departed in our day, not only so far as it relates to one form of Church government, but almost to every other. It may well be that believers in Presbytery can claim priority for the form which they favour, but it is generally ad- mitted that so far as the Church of the Apostles is concerned, all that can be found in the way of government is the germ or germs : the Church itself as it grew and developed, evolving a form or forms best suited to its spirit, and adapted for carrying out its work, as a Divine institution in the world. It is enough for us to believe in the Church itself and its ministry as of Divine appointment, without contending for more than the case merits, or indeed requires. To those who argued against Episcopacy, on the ground just stated, Forbes pointed out that much was constituted by ecclesiastical CHURCH GOVERNMENT 87 authority, which it was not expedient to be held lightly by those who sat under it. Hence it by no means followed that this government must be despised, although it was introduced by ecclesiastical authority. No one in the Early Church, except Arius and Jerome, disputed that Bishops, by Divine authority, presided over Presbyters. Among the first Reformers, such as Calvin and Zanchy, this polity was recognised as lawful, pious, Chris- tian, and not contrary to the Word of God, but in conformity with it, and useful and necessary. Forbes then comes nearer home, and appeals to the position of the Scottish Church itself, as this is found, in the First Book of Discipline, which represents mainly the views of John Knox himself. He refers especially to the section which relates to the election of Superintendents, and their func- tion and power, and says that the opinion is clear that Knox's views on this subject were at one with those he had already quoted. He then takes up the question of what at a later date — later, I mean, than the Reforma- tion — came to be known in the Scottish Church as Presbyterian Parity ; and he maintains that on the Divine right theory of the ministry, disparity of ministers was not repugnant to such a theory, but was found to agree with it. For example, he says it was necessary that by Divine authority there should be a 88 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS president over any gathering of clergy, and that he should not be removed from his office, or resign, except through fault or infirmity ; and because this president was called a Bishop, and the others were pleased with the title of Presbyters, it was not done contrary to Divine law, but, agreeable to Divine law, it was introduced by ecclesiastical authority, and by the oecumenical. Apostolic, and per- petual use of all ages. Therefore, he con- cludes, it remains that the cries and disturbances of the mob regarding this nomenclature is most insane. Forbes then turns to the other side of the question, and speaks with even greater emphasis in favour of those who would do away with the kind of Bishop that bulked so largely in the popular imagination of the Scottish people. He would have none of your proud, tyrannical, arrogant, worldly, and slothful prelates, who flourished during the Roman supremacy in Scotland, and the remembrance of whom still lingered in the minds of the people. There can be no doubt that it was the scandals and evils associated with the rule of the old hierarchy that made the people of Scotland so hostile to the very name of Bishop, and they fancied that, in the mitre of the innocent prelate which John Forbes would recommend, they saw the horns of the Popish beast, and all the mis- CHURCH GOVERNMENT 89 nile of those dark days. Forbes detested, as whole-heartedly as they, the pretence and arrogance of the old order, and he set himself with equal force and reason to argue against the claims of the Anglo-Catholics, who were now beginning to appear in the Scottish Church, and to whom, as weak or willing tools in the hands of Charles and his advisers, we owe the introduction of the Liturgy which played such havoc in the national Church. Forbes held that the president, call him Bishop, Superintendent, or any name you please, should be as a brother, and subject himself to censure. That he ought to preside with all humility, and without pride or com- pulsion. That it was of Divine right that nothing of importance should be carried through without the consent of assembled presbyters ; that by Divine ordinance he should remain a presbyter, and should be kept to the discharge of the Presbyterian office.^ If Forbes's book was displeasing to the Highflying Presbyterian, it was no less objec- tionable to the High Anglican. Moderate men on both sides, lovers of truth and peace, agreed with him, and those who held views contrary to his could only answer them with abuse. Human nature then was pretty much as it is now, for Forbes' biographer tells us that those who wished that the rights ^ Vita Jo. Forb., p. 15 ; Irenicum, p. 409 seq. 90 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS of Episcopacy should be stretched to their utmost Hmits, and who looked to its glory and splendour rather than to the pastoral office, received certain of his propositions neither with pleasure nor enthusiasm. We are far removed now from those times with their heat and strife. We see things in a truer light, and many, I feel certain, fully sympathise with the position of Forbes, if they do not altogether agree with it. And even more with him when in his reflection in his Diary on his trial by the Covenanters, and probable deposition, he says : " Con- cerning what is stated in the Covenant regard- ing Episcopacy, I dissent from my brethren, and although Episcopacy, which I regard as lawful, and according to the Word of God, does not overthrow Presbytery ; and although in churches which are ruled by presbyters there be no Bishop, still this does not destroy the nature of the Church, nor abohsh the validity of Orders and Juris- diction ; and although my opinion concerning these domestic dissentions agrees with the judgment of Catholic Antiquity and the Reformed Churches ; and since it was known to my brethren that I had been placed in this position by God through the Church, and that I had proved faithful to my charge and the Reformed rehgion ; I do not see how, with due reverence towards God, it is safe for my CHURCH GOVERNMENT 91 brethren to expel me, or to place any terror in my path, in following the duty demanded of me by God." There is something pathetic in this appeal of one who was the greatest theologian in the Church, and one of the purest spirits that ever adorned its ministry, to his brethren, that they should not expel him for holding views which every one in our day regard as in no way contrary to the Word of God, or to the teaching and practice of the Church of the earliest times, or of the Reformation. Forbes was quite prepared to accept service in the Presbyterian Church as now restored, as he was in the Episcopal Church that had just been abolished. Although he had a prefer- ence for the one form of ecclesiastical govern- ment over the other, it was only a preference, and he believed that both were quite in keeping with the teaching of Scripture and the mind of the Apostles. He would have gone on quite willingly discharging the duties of his office, as Professor of Divinity in King's College, in the Presbyterian Church, as now restored. He would have held communion with its members, as he actually did, and preached in its pulpits, but this was denied him. The validity of the orders and the right of jurisdiction of the one Church he held to be as sound and lawful as of the other, and he would leave it to the wisdom of the 92 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS Church itself, which, with its ministry, he regarded as of Divine appointment, to choose between the two forms of Church government, which, acting under the guidance of Almighty God, it believed to be most expedient and best suited in the circumstances. Is there not something very germane to the present condition of Churches and ecclesi- astical parties in our country in this attitude of Dr. John Forbes ? Not only his spirit but his views seem to me to point in the direction which good men in all churches should follow, in striving to bring harmony and unity, not only between the separate sections of Presbyterianism, but also between the two great Communions which were at strife in his day, and between whom a better under- standing would now seem to exist. It is not principle but prejudice that stands in the way.^ 1 Stevenson, Preshyterie Booke of Kirkcaldie, p. viii. : " It is curious to us with our modern notions of Episcopacy to find an Episcopal Church governed and regulated almost entirely according to Presbyterian principles. There were Kirk-Sessions, Presbyteries, Synods, and Assemblies, with Bishops and Arch- bishops. . . . The fact is a curious one and shows that the Church was Presbyterian though nominally EpiscopaUan. It is much to be regretted that this compromise between Episco- pacy and Presbyterianism was not continued, as it would have rendered the Church more effective and more perfectly organised : it would indeed have realised as near as possible the Church that John Knox endeavoured to establish — bishops being in place of his superintendents. But for the unwise policy of Charles and his advisers it seems very probable that such a Church would have met with the acceptance of the people, and would have been established upon a lasting foundation." IV DOCTRINE The mediating influence of the school of thought represented by the Aberdeen Doctors is seen in the discussions that arose on questions of doctrine as well as on those pertaining to Church government. Here again the Reformation left certain points unsettled, or at all events the spirit of free inquiry, which is the prerogative of Pro- testantism, asserted itself during the time of which we are speaking, as it did at an earlier, and as it has done at a later, period. Pro- testantism of course arose, in the first instance, as its name signifies, in protest against the government, doctrine, and worship of the Roman Church ; but it cannot live on mere protest ; it must have freedom of thought, and the power of development within itself. This, however, was not altogether understood by the first Reformers, nor is it universally admitted even yet. Indeed, when the Con- fessions of the Protestant Churches were put into shape, they, in the view of their authors, 94 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS were quite as binding upon the minds of their members as the dogmas of the Roman Church upon its adherents, and it would seem as if the main duty of the magistrate, or civil power, was to see that the terms of the Confession were enforced, by compulsion if necessary. Tolerance, as we conceive it, was not under- stood in those days, and the Scottish Church was certainly no exception to the rule which guided the other Protestant Churches in this matter/ Indeed, it was less tolerant than some, and never for a moment doubted that it could be mistaken. But the spirit which it had called up from the deep could not remain quiescent or silent. It was bound sooner or later to bestir itself, and to speak out. If, according to the teaching of Protestantism, no power has the right to intervene between the soul and God, and if every man is entitled to test truth in the light of Scripture, as interpreted by the Spirit, then it follows that freedom of religious thought is a privilege and a duty, which no Church or Confession should unduly hamper or bind. Well, it must be admitted that the Scottish Confession of 1560 gave considerable room for freedom of thought on some of the most important doctrines of the Christian Faith, much more freedom than the West- minister Confession which superseded it. It ^ The Scottish Confession of Faith, 1560, chap. xxiv. DOCTRINE 95 came, as Edward Irving said, *' from the hearts of laborious workmen all the day long busy with the preaching of truth," and who had neither the time nor the inclination to put it into the iron cast form which char- acterises the present symbol of the Scottish Church. There is accordingly a flexibility in the old Scottish Confession, not necessarily an ambiguity, which, while it may not invite, as its Preface does, objections or suggestions, permits a certain independence in the working out of details. Shall we say that in doctrine, as in Church government, everything had not been thought out, and that on purpose or by necessity the spirit of Protestantism was to be allowed its inalienable right to interpret and to develop Christian truth ? ^ In any case, two tendencies began to mani- fest themselves. The first in the direction of a more rigorous conception of the Calvinistic theology, on which the Confession of the Scottish Church was based ; and the second in the direction of freedom from certain of its premisses and the conclusions logically drawn from them. Scotland did not stand alone with regard to these two movements. 1 Tytler, History of Scotland, iii. p. 129, ed. of 1872, observes : " It is worthy of remark that in these ho);; mysteries of our faith this Confession drawn up by the primitive Scotch Re- formers keeps in some points at a greater distance from the rationalizing of ultra - Protestantism than the Articles of Edward." 96 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS It acted in line more or less with the other Reformed Churches, and this twofold tendency, seeing it was so general, must have been inherent in Protestantism itself, and in the circumstances which conditioned its progress at the first. One can see at a glance the necessity for the hardening process, as it may be termed, whichbegan soon after the Reforma- tion. A Church, as an institution, cannot hold its own against the world, or even exist, without a definite code or symbol, which is binding on all its members. And the Churches of the Reformation felt the special need of this in view of the enemy, which was the Church of Rome. They had no outward organisations, such as it had, no tradition, no hierarchy ; all that they had were their Confessions ; these, accordingly, which were sneered at as paper Popes, must be made as distinct and binding as possible. Hence arose that logical development in the Reformed Churches, of the Calvinistic theology, which very soon in the hands of certain of its inter- preters passed into a barren scholasticism, a system which is purely intellectual, without having any very close relation to man's spiritual or practical life. This phase finds ample illustration in the literature of the period.^ On the purely theological side the leading exponent was 1 Story, The Church of Scotland, iv. p. 208. DOCTRINE 97 Robert Boyd of Trochrigg, who for some years discharged the duties of Principal and Professor of Divinity in the University of Glasgow. His teaching is found in the com- mentary which he wrote on the Epistle to the Ephesians. In elaborate dissertations on the chief points of the Calvinistic theology he states his views, which are elucidated and supported by all the learning of the times, and by mental qualities of the highest order. The more rigid form which Calvinism was now taking is clearly shown in Boyd's work. It can also be seen in the new Con- fession of Faith, which was submitted to, and approved by, the General Assembly which met in Aberdeen in 1616. It was never adopted by the Church, and its chief importance lies in the light which it throws on the doctrinal teaching of the times. Accord- ing to Dr. Milroy/ there is in this Confession " an advance along the whole line, and it is an advance in strict Calvinistic orthodoxy. Opinions which could have been freely held under the Scottish Confession could not have been maintained under that of Aberdeen. The decrees of God are absolute and from all eternity. ' Before the foundation of the world, God, according to the good pleasure of His will, did predestinate and elect in Christ, some men and angels unto eternal ^ The Church of Scotland, p. 199. 7 98 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS felicity, and others He did appoint for eternal condemnation to the praise and glory of His justice.' There is not only election men- tioned, but its counterpart, reprobation, and reprobation is not merely a passing over of some, but an absolute appointment to eternal condemnation. Redemption is particular, limited to the elect alone, who in time are redeemed and restored, not of themselves, or of their works, but only of the mercy of God through faith in Jesus Christ." There should not be much regret that this Con- fession was dropped, but it remains, adds Dr. Milroy, "as an old neglected stone pillar, on which there can still be read, inscribed in clear characters, the faith then professed ; and is an unimpeachable witness to the significant fact that, though the govern- ment of the Church had been changed from Presbytery to Episcopacy, the Faith of the Church changed only in the direction of a narrower and stricter orthodoxy." This opinion, however, requires to be modified by the fact, which Dr. Milroy himself mentions, that the Confession was largely designed by King James to promote the closer union of the Scottish with the Enghsh Church, and as the latter was at the time strongly Calvinistic, the doctrinal bond of union must necessarily be made to conform. DOCTRINE 99 If the tendency just indicated towards a more definite and logical statement of the doctrinal position of the Church arose, more or less, from the necessity of making its forces compact and its bulwarks strong against the Church of Rome, other weapons were at hand for protecting it against the attacks that were being made, and it was in the forging and using of these weapons that the Aberdeen Doctors chiefly interested themselves. They were not, as we shall see, Calvinists of the strict and orthodox sort. The method which they employed for proving the doctrinal stability of the Scottish Church differed from that of Boyd and the framers of the Aberdeen Confession. They met the arguments of the Roman theologians with arguments of their own, and wrote books in defence of the Reformed theology. Bishop Patrick Forbes himself was active in this field, and he published a work, entitled A Defence of the Lawful Calling of the Ministers of Reformed Churches against the Cavillations of Romanists. Some of the more important of Baron's works had a similar object in view,^ and the criticisms penned by Dr. William ^ Dispntatio de Authoritate S. Scriptures, sen de Formali Objecto Fidei. This was assailed by George Turnbull, a learned member of the Society of Jesus, who was repUed to by Baron. " How much/' says Sir Thomas Urquhart, " the Protestant faith oweth to Doctor Robert Baron for his learned treatises (against Turnbull, the Jesuite), I leave to be judged by those who have perused them " {Tracts, p. 122). 100 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS Forbes on the margins of his copy of Bellarmine's works were thought so highly of, particularly by Baron, as to be carefully preserved by him for future use and publica- tion ; but the volumes went amissing, and have never been recovered. But the most notable champion of the doctrines of the Reformed Church was Dr. John Forbes. All over Protestant Europe, emissaries of the Roman Church were to be found spread- ing its tenets, trying to make converts, and casting discredit upon the teaching and belief of the Reformed Church. The Re- formation was not yet a century old, and it was hoped that its work might still be undone, and that its misguided children might again be gathered within the folds of the Mother Church. Scotland did not escape the atten- tion ^ of these emissaries. Their great argu- ment was that the whole of antiquity stood on their side and was opposed to the doctrines of the Reformers, and for that end they brought forward many opinions from the Fathers which favoured the Roman doctrine. Hence some of the more simple were induced to 1 See Forbes-Leith's Narratives and Catholic Tractates of the Sixteenth Century, edited by Law, Introduction. Spottiswood, speaking of the year 1580, says : " In St. Andrews Mr. Nicol Burne, Professor of Philosophy in St. Leonard's College, made open apostasie from the truth ; as Mr. Archibald and John Hamilton, regents in the New College, had (not long before) done" (fol. ed., p. 308). DOCTRINE loi leave the Reformed Communion, believing that Catholic antiquity stood by the other side. But others rejected all antiquity, as if it were contrary to Holy Scripture. The Romanists accordingly boasted that if the Reformed religion were proved to be new it could be condemned as false. We thus see that the issue raised was clear, and sharp, and definite. The Roman Church had found its champion in Bellarmine, and it is not too much to say that the Reformed Church, of Scotland at least, found its cham- pion in John Forbes. The weakness of the popular Protestant position is found in its rejection of the whole of Catholic antiquity, and in resting its arguments on Scripture alone. This, it may be said, has been the weakness of popular Protestantism all along, for it involves the disadvantage of abandoning all historical continuity. The Church of the Reforma- tion was linked on to the Church of the Apostles, but the space which intervened between the Apostles and Reformers was passed over. The Church was thus not an historical development, but a new creation quickened into life by the Divine Word. It will accordingly be seen that the advantage, so far as choice of ground was concerned, lay with the Roman Church, and the Bishop and clergy of Aberdeen, realising their respon- 102 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS sibility, founded the Chair of Divinity in King's College for the express purpose of appointing a professor, who should combat the views of the Roman Church, and prove that the doctrines of the Reformed Church were no upstart novelties, but had their basis in Scripture and in Catholic antiquity, and were the only true development of Christian thought.^ The man chosen for this work was Dr. John Forbes, and no better man could have been found. He instituted the study of Historical Theology in Scotland. He took up each doctrine of the Church, showed its sure basis in Scripture, and then traced its develop- ment from century to century. Brooding over this work with the greatest diligence, he unfolded the Fathers and councils. Not trusting to the quotations of others, he con- sulted the authors themselves, and faithfully presented to the students of theology the historical movement of religion through each age. He thus proved that if the charge of novelty is to be levelled against any Church it must be against that of Rome, and that the Reformed Church was the only valid successor of the Church of the Apostles and the Fathers. The results of these years of study Forbes afterwards incorporated in his great work on the Doctrines of the Catholic 1 Vita Jo. Forb., p. 8. DOCTRINE 103 Church Historically Considered} It was pub- lished in Amsterdam in 1644, and remains one of the greatest monuments of theological learning, candour, fairness, and force of argu- ment of that or any other age. It requires no forced interpretation to see the bearing of Dr. John Forbes' teaching on present-day movements in the Scottish Church. There is, to begin with, a deeper appreciation of the doctrine of the historical continuity of the Church than there used to be. The old extreme conception of Protest- antism as a severance of Christian thought and life from the Church Catholic has now been largely abandoned. And while Scrip- ture, as the foundation of the Church, has lost none of its value, the long-neglected truth, upon which Forbes so strongly and rightly insists, that the Reformed Church is a develop- ment of the Apostolic and Early Church, is being more clearly seen and cordially ad- 1 Instructiones Historico - Theologicae, de Doctrina Chris- tiana, et vario rerum stata, ortisque erroribus et controversiis. jam inde a temporibiis Apostolicis, ad tempora usque seculi-decimi- septimi priora. Prece et studio Johannis Forbesii a Corse, Presbyteri et SS. Theologies Doctor is, ejusdem Professoris in Academia Aberdoniensi. Editio Nova, ad ipsius Auctoris castigationes emendata, plurimisque ejusdem additionibus baud mediocriter aucta. Amstelsedami, Apud Henricum Wetstenium ; ut et Rodolphum et Gerhardum Wetstenios, H.FF. CIo lo CC II. Such is the full title of this work in Forbes' Opera Omnia, edited by Dr. George Garden in two volumes. It is from this edition that all my references have been made. 104 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS mitted. It was in this sense that the Aberdeen Doctors arrogated to the different branches of the Protestant Church the term Cathohc, and, in the conception which they thus claimed, and which is again being revived, we find the Scottish Church to be a Hving branch, and not a detached twig, of the Church Cathohc, and a guarantee of that unity of spirit which is being more fully recognised in our day. But the second tendency to which I referred now began to make its appearance. It was bound to do so. It was in the direction of freedom from the trammels of the dogmatic and confessional theology of the times. The very fact that the Protestant Church was thrown back upon itself, and had to vindicate its position against the criticisms of its op- ponents, necessarily quickened the spirit of free inquiry which was inherent in it. The question of authority was fundamental. The grounds on which it based its validity had to be examined and vindicated afresh, whether Scriptural, or doctrinal, or confes- sional. It is thus seen that, however much inclined the Reformers and their successors might be to bind together in a solid body the members of the Protestant Church by adher- ence to a series of beliefs carefully formulated and put into symbolical forms, there was to be no finality. The very weapon with which DOCTRINE 105 Protestantism had pierced the Roman Church was now about to be turned against itself. While this movement was more or less general all over Protestant Europe, its centre was to be found in Holland. Like every other new departure, which may, in its develop- ment, involve many features and phases, it began with the discussion of a single point. It started with a repudiation of the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination. This doctrine, like many others of Protestant theology, was borrowed from Augustine, who in turn was indebted for it to St. Paul, but in the hands of the two great Doctors of the ancient and Reformed Churches the doctrine was put into a metaphysical mould, and in its later developments was carried out with a logical rigour which compelled men who had warmth of love in larger measure than coldness of intellect, to turn away from it with some- thing like horror. Paul was far from putting the doctrine in the repellent shape which it afterwards assumed, and although by the laws of formal logic the Augustinian, and especially the Calvinian, conception of it may be irrefutable, still formal logic is a very poor instrument by which to measure the religious consciousness. In any case so thought certain members of the Reformed Church in Holland, and their protest having been taken up by Arminius, the revolt spread io6 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS over Western Europe, touched our shores, and found sympathisers in various parts of the country, particularly in Aberdeen and among its learned Doctors. It is not necessary for our purpose to enter into the controversy with any fulness of detail. It will be sufficient to state in a word the diverging Hne of thought between the two systems. " The Divine decree, to which human salvation is to be attributed, was, according to Calvin's conception, abso- lute and irresistible. It imphed a Divine partition of the human race into saved and into not saved, originating in the pure will and determination of God. The decisive- ness of the decree was quite as real on the negative as on the positive side ; the repro- bate, as they were called, were as definitely marked out as the saved. The whole drama of the moral world, in short, in its antagon- ism of good and evil, hung on the absolute fiat of an Almighty WiU." ' Against this Arminius protested ; he would exclude from the sphere of the Divine determinism the origin of evil, or, in other words, the event ot the Fan, and he brought prominently forward the free activity of the human will as a co-determinent in the work of salvation. " In defining the character and measure of this CO - determination, the Calvinists 1 Tulloch, Rational Theology and Christian Philosophy, i. p. i6. DOCTRINE 107 accused Arminius of virtually denying Divine grace, and transferring the work of salva- tion from God to man. To this Arminius replied, that Calvinists converted the Divine will into mere fate, and so made God the author of sin." Such, in broad outlines, were the points of difference, but these speedily multipHed, and in the disputes which followed there was much shedding of ink and losing of temper. All the same, one vital result followed. The spirit of free inquiry, of independent thought, of the duty of private judgment, all inherent in Protestantism, were again asserted ; and an impetus was given to theological reflection and progress, from which can be traced the first beginnings of Biblical research and scholarship within the Church, and of philo- sophical thought without it, Among the first in Scotland to sound the note of this new departure was John Cameron, who took Boyd's place in 1622 as Professor of Theology in Glasgow University. He was admitted on all hands to be one of the most learned men of his time, and he came to his work in Glasgow after a lengthened training both as student and teacher in some of the most important schools of learning on the Continent. He only remained a year in Glasgow, but even within that short period he did enough to quicken the interest io8 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS of many in the pressing theological problems of the day. The most important of his positions is perhaps the one he held with regard to authority in religion, and his exposition of the Word of God in this re- lation is both powerful and suggestive. He also attacked Calvinism more or less on the lines of Arminius, with a certain differentia- tion which, in the hands of his pupil Amy- rauld, established a school of his own/ In the following century his views were adopted by Richard Baxter, and were widely known and strongly condemned in Scotland under the name of Baxterianism. The Aberdeen Doctors, as we have said, shared in this movement. It was a breaking up of the Calvinian scholasticism into which the Church was fast drifting. The freedom of the will, the nature of predestination, of God's foreknowledge, the scope of Christ's atonement, the character of election, the possibihty of reprobation, were only some of the subjects discussed. Even the relation between faith and works again cropped up, so too did the subject of authority, of rites and ceremonies, of orders. Church govern- ment, and of Church union. In fact, the whole circle of theological encyclopaedia, as then known and understood, came in for dis- cussion, and champions of both sides entered ^ Cameronis Opera, p. 529. DOCTRINE 109 the field in large numbers, and displayed an ability, scholarship, and subtlety which have never been surpassed in this country. It was a time of great intellectual awakening on the subject of religion, the one which at the time was of supreme interest to the public. The spirit of free inquiry, however, was soon to be crushed; the Covenanting Assembly of 1638 effectually put an end to the new movement. Every minister and professor suspected of heresy was tried, and any divergence from the strictest Calvinism was a sufficient reason for deposition. The Aber- deen Doctors, who took a leading part in the discussion of every important question that then interested the Church, and who were among the advanced guard in the new move- ment, were among the first to be tried and to be deposed. The chief question, of course, was the one which centred in Predestination, and here again, as in that of Church government, which was discussed in the last lecture, there were two extreme positions maintained. There was, of course, the strictly Calvinistic, but there was also the ultra- Arminian. With regard to the first, sufficient has already been said ; it was represented by the vast majority of those who led the Church towards the settlement which ended in the Westminster Confession of 1645, and which effectively no THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS damped the spirit of liberty, of free inquiry, and of theological progress in the Scottish Church for two hundred years. The second party was necessarily in a very small minority, and the fact of this need not be regretted. They were represented, for example, by a man like John Crighton, a professed Arminian, and Popish champion, and a cousin of Baillie the Covenanter. One is not surprised that " he was the first minister deposed by the Assembly of 1638. His heresies were numer- ous. He was said to have advocated con- fession and prayers for the dead ; to have described the English Liturgy as so excellent and perfect that man nor angel could make a better ; to have taught that both Papists and Protestants went to heaven though they entered by different gates ; and that to sit at Communion was to ' sit with God cheek by joule.' His Arminianism, or rather the liberal theology denounced as such, was quite as apparent, and was still more forcibly expressed. He taught that Christ died for all — for Judas and Peter ; that it was possible for us to fulfil the law ; that, in spite of Christ's prediction, Peter might have con- tained his tongue within his teeth and not denied Christ ; and that the difference between Papists and Protestants, Calvinists and Lutherans, Arminians and Gonnarians, Conformists and Nonconformists, was but DOCTRINE 1 1 1 a mouthful of moonshine ; and if Churchmen were peaceably set they might be easily reconciled. Predestination he denounced with noble vehemence as a doctrine rashly devised, hatched in hell, and worthy to be de- leted out of God's Word. Whoever mentions, says he, election or reprobation before the foundation of the world, mentions a damnable doctrine." ^ Such extreme views were bound to defeat themselves, and their only value and interest consist in their showing how great was the reaction that had set in. The Aberdeen Doctors, true to their spirit and to the policy which guided them in most of their efforts, took up a moderate position, and endeavoured to mediate between the extreme sections. This at the time was no easy task ; it was, as some even yet think, an impossible one, and their attempt was in any case prejudiced by the fact that the Anglo- Catholics, both in the Scottish and English Churches, with whom they were supposed to be in sympathy, were for the most part Arminians of a rather pronounced type. The leading exponent among the Doctors of the theological movement which was agitating the Church was Baron. He had written on the subject, and, as has already been mentioned, he engaged in a public dispute ^ Law Mathieson, Politics and Religion in Scotland, i. p. 331. 112 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS with Samuel Rutherford over the main questions at issue. It might be thought that the Covenanters, seeing he was dead, would have allowed his memory to rest in peace ; but that was not their way. They caused the house of his widow to be invaded, and any papers he might have left to be secured and brought before them for examina- tion. This, on the first blush, might seem altogether unnecessary, for his published works bore ample testimony to his views. They also subjected Dr. Sibbald to a similar inquiry. His papers too were seized, and he bitterly complained that they regarded, as evidence against him, fragments of thought, quotations from books which he had read, and hurried notes which he had made for probable lectures. He was pilloried as an Arminian, and as a semi-Papist, because he defended Lent, the consecration of Churches, and the use of clerical dress. Nor was he regarded as sound on the question of Divine justice and punish- ment, and the relation between faith and works.^ Dr. Garden, in his life of John Forbes, says that the manuscript of the discussion between Baron and Rutherford was in existence in his day. I have not, so far, been able to 1 Vila Jo. Forb., p. 54 seq. Appendix VII. Spalding, Hisi. of Troub., i. p. 234. DOCTRINE 113 trace it, but in any case there is sufficient authority for the points in dispute between them and for the position taken up by each. In the pubhc disputation that took place, Baron maintained, first, that God pre- destined the wicked to Hell because he fore- saw their wicked works ; and, second, that Christ died for all men. Rutherford vehe- mently maintained, on the contrary, that God "predestined the wicked to hell, not because He foresaw their wicked works, but by His own absolute decree, and that Christ died not for all men, but for the elect only." ^ Baron's teaching was similar to that of Cameron : "the will of man was free, there was no necessity for acting in this manner or in that imposed on man's will by God, either by an eternal decree or by subjecting it to the influence of an irresistible motive. The will being free, the actions were also free ; God did indeed predestinate some to ever- lasting life, and others He left to perish, but this predestination was not absolute and arbitrary, but proceeded from His fore- knowledge of the faith and repentance of some, and of the voluntary unbelief and impenitence of others." The atonement also was universal. Christ had died for all men, and therefore all men might become reconciled to God in Christ, pro- ' Milroy, Lee Lecture, p. 13. 8 114 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS vided only they believed the Gospel and repented.^ It is worthy of remark that the com- mission appointed by the Covenanters to inquire into the teaching of Dr. John Forbes acquitted him of Arminianism. I do not know if they were altogether justified in doing this, but their action points to two things. It indicates their desire to secure his con- tinued services for the Church. There is no doubt whatever about their lothness to part with him. They stretched any toleration of which they were capable, in his case, to the breaking-point. If he had just signed the National Covenant they would have acquitted him of everything, but this he could not do, for he knew that in signing it he would have charged himself with everything. Their action indicates also that his Arminianism must have been of a very mild type, and this is really the case. He was not carried away by the new movement in theology, just as he was not over-persuaded by the fresh departure in Church government, or in the practice of ceremonies which marked the Church of his time. On this as on every 1 A very good account is given in Garden's Vita Jo. Forb. of Baron's position on this subject, pp. 22, 23 and chiefly in his exposition of a Tract left by Baron in manuscript and still preserved in the Library of King's College, entitled Sepienarius Sacer de Principiis et Causis Fidei CatholiccB. DOCTRINE 115 other question he manifested that sobriety of judgment which comes from a thorough knowledge of the subject, and from the possession of a calm, unprejudiced, and evenly balanced mind. The one point in the Calvinian theology at which he emphatically drew the line, was the predestination of man by God to evil. He differed widely from the current theology on the question of repro- bation ; he thought it horrible blasphemy that God should be held to damn, from all eternity, a certain section of the human race ; otherwise he regarded himself as an Augus- tinian.^ We are far removed from these old struggles. The questions which agitated the Church in the time of the Aberdeen Doctors, and which were so gravely and learnedly, and not unfrequently hotly, discussed, have ceased to interest us in the same keen manner as they did them. The theological compass has veered round and points in other directions ; and yet to thinking men, whether they be Protestants or Roman Catholics, Churchmen or Secularists, Believers or Agnostics, the fundamental problem which so engrossed the minds of the leading men of that age remains a fundamental problem still, and will continue to do so for all time. It should not be overlooked that however much the ' Vila Jo. Forb., p. 27. ii6 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS Calvinist and the Arminian differed, they were practically agreed on one point. Neither of them denied the absolute sovereignty of Almighty God, and man's moral relation to and dependence upon Him. There was no question as to whether God had the power to issue decrees which some might regard as horrible. The question in dispute was, whether such decrees were in keeping with the character of God as he had been revealed to man, in all the depth and tenderness of his Fatherhood by Jesus Christ. It is being admitted now, although it was not under- stood then, that certain of the problems raised by Calvinism, although capable of being drawn out to a clear and definite conclusion by formal logic, are, in their issue, repellent to the Christian conscious- ness, and, in themselves, transcend human reason. This, however, does not cause us, just as it did not compel John Forbes, to repudiate Calvinism, or to fail to see in it the only conception of theology which gives a rational view of God, man, and the world. Indeed, whether we care to admit it or no, the common belief of our own Church, and of almost every other Church, is Calvinist in essence and Arminian in detail. The essence, of course, is the vital thing. It has been behef in God, as the supreme sovereign and judge, as the one being with whom man DOCTRINE 117 has to do, that has revolutionised the modern world and made Protestantism the great spiritual force in regenerating mankind. When the Church begins to lose hold of this belief, it will cease to be a force in the world- When man repudiates his relation to God as a moral being, conduct will lose its spring. Yet the Arminian element, or, as we should regard it, the softening, Hberating, and broadening features of the movement, which began to affect Christian thought at the time with which our lectures deal, is not without its value. It encourages inquiry, gives the hope of progress, inculcates charity, and diverts the thoughts of men from the vague discussion of transcendental and insoluble problems, to the plain path of duty, and to the intrinsic value in the sight of God and man, of practical conduct and the homely virtues. In these, after all, as flowing from man's moral relations to God, is true religion to be found. This natural reaction towards the practical side of Christian thought and life, is fully illustrated in the writings of the Aberdeen Doctors. The absorbing interest of the time in those transcendental questions which are associated with hyper-Calvinism were drawing the minds of men away from the plain path of duty and the practical virtues, with which conduct is concerned. At all events the ii8 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS ethical element in the Christian religion was receiving but scant justice. It was to a fresh, and necessary, reconsideration of this important question that the Aberdeen Doctors drew the attention of their contemporaries, and, strange to say, it was brought as a charge against them. The matter first of all came up over their view of the relation between faith and works. Dr. John Forbes, Doctor Baron, and Dr. Sibbald, along with Dr. Wilham Forbes, were all equally implicated in this supposed heresy. Dr. John Forbes puts his position thus : " Good works are the works of the creature, through the working in him of the Creator." These, he thinks, are predestined, but the wicked deeds of the same creature, inasmuch as they are only his, and proceed not from the will of God, " may be said to be foreknown, but not predestined by God." ^ The sentence which, in this connection, is of importance, is the one in which he says that " good works are the works of the creature through the working in him by the Creator." Baron adopted a similar view, and so did Sibbald, who was accused of regarding almsgiving as merito- rious ; in other words, of maintaining that man deserves some credit for good conduct and charity. Dr. William Forbes was held to be even a greater sinner on this question, ^ Instr. Hist. TheoL, i. 8. c, xiv. § 4 and 5. DOCTRINE 119 for he maintained that man was justified not by being accepted as righteous, but by being made righteous.^ This teaching raised at tlie time a storm of opposition, but is it not the case that in our day it is received with greater favour ? That a man is justified not by a righteousness imputed to him, but by a righteousness wrought in him, is cer- tainly not Calvinistic doctrine, but in the form in which it has been moulded by John MTeod Campbell, and others, it is frequently taught in Scottish pulpits and certainly does not excite the strong feelings of indignation which it did in Forbes' day. The important point, however, in all these discussions, is that there was a party in the Church anxious to lead the minds of men away from a scholastic theology, which ended in a fruitless controversy on theories that are still held to be very much in the air, to the bed-rock of the Christian religion, which is found in human conduct as the result of a profound belief in God as the moral Governor and Father of all. This tendency is further seen in two important works written by Dr. John Forbes, the one of which deals with Christian Ethics, and the other with the Pastoral Office. It is surely very 1 Baillie's account of the proceedings of the General Assembly at Aberdeen in 1640 in his Large Supplement of the Canter- burian Self-Conviction. I20 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS significant that in the days of which we are speaking, which are associated in our minds with endless debates and divisions on ques- tions of Church government, doctrine, and ceremonies, important books should be written by a leading scholar and thinker in the Scottish Church on subjects that are so matter of fact as conduct and duty on the part both of the people and of ministers. This can hardly be regarded as a sign of the times, nevertheless it is a prophecy of what was to happen in the more or less distant future. The war of parties raged till after the Revolution Settlement, but after that the Church settled down, and it was the spirit and practice of Dr. John Forbes that governed it until the Disruption, and, if I mistake not, it is his teaching that is again coming to the front and will prevail over the difficulties that are now facing us. Forbes took as the subject of his lectures on Ethical Theology the Decalogue,^ and he discusses the great moral problems raised by each of the ten commandments in the most thorough manner. He first of all gives an exposition of the precept with which he is dealing, traces the development of the various controversies regarding it, and gives an explanation of the cases of con- 1 Theologies Moralis Libri Decern in quibus Pracepta Deca- logi exponuntiir. DOCTRINE 1 2 1 science that may be involved. Here again he follows the historical method, the surest, most informing, and illuminating. He shows great freedom and independence in handling the various questions which arise. In dis- cussing the fourth commandment, for in- stance, he proves himself to have been fully abreast of the times, and to have anticipated the broader interpretation of its meaning which is current in our day. In his other work, just referred to, that on the Pastoral Office,^ we find the same practical tendency. He laboured that his students should have a due sense of the great weight and responsibility of their vocation, and he thought that no one should undertake the duties of the pastorate unless called by God. He deals with the question of ordination, vocation, and residence, and is careful to guard the future ministers of the Church against the assumption of duties outwith their province. His counsels are full of wisdom, and his prelections must not only have afforded guidance to his hearers, but have also inspired them with a high sense of their calling. Enough, I think, has been said to show the sane, and truly national course, adopted by the Aberdeen Doctors, on the doctrinal discussions of their day. Their aim all ^ De Cura et Residentia Pasiorali. 122 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS through was to get at the truth, as far as possible from the party feehngs and pre- judices that affected most of those who took part in the current disputes. If in the end their theology took the form of practice, it ought surely to be put to their credit. This was the common ground on which all could meet. Christian morality is not a matter for dispute, and it is based, as every one admits, on Christian theology. If men then be agreed upon the one, they cannot differ very widely, or seriously, upon the other. It may be true that in the course of time the practical teaching of the moderate party, represented by the Doctors, failed in religious fervour. But there is nothing good but which, through over-exaggeration, may manifest defects. But so far as the Doctors themselves were concerned, their teaching and their life were evenly balanced. No one can accuse them of lack of fervour ; their piety was rare even for their day. Nor did they fail in theological knowledge or grasp. The practical result of their thought must accordingly have been full of matter and imbued with a truly religious spirit. It is towards this happy combination that the steps of all the Churches are being directed in our day, and it is fortunate that they are not without bright examples from the past to light and guide them. V WORSHIP Attention was drawn at the close of the last lecture to the attempt on the part of the Aberdeen Doctors to lead the mind of the Church away from the doctrinal discus- sions, which were for the most part incon- clusive, to those practical matters upon which Christian conduct and character de- pend. In other words, they tried to bring into prominence the objective side of religion, and to give it its due place in the thought and life of the Church. It is a similar attitude that we find them taking up on the question of ceremony or ritual, with which we have now to deal. Once more they endeavoured to mediate between the two movements, which came to a head in their day, and their efforts, however fruitless at the time, have not been without their influence. The balance which they tried to form between the views of the two contend- ing parties is being now more evenly ad- justed, when the form of religion is seen 124 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS to be, in a way, as essential as the matter and the outward no less indispensible than the inward, in the worship and service of the Church. This, of course, was not so well under- stood at the Reformation. The objective side of religion had, during the supremacy of the Roman Church, grown to such abnormal proportions as to obscure, if not almost to destroy, the subjective. External authority, outward form, ceremonies, ritual, the adornment and embellishment of churches with images and statuary, the burning of incense, clerical vestments, and numerous other accretions, had gradually gathered round the simple services of the Apostolic Church, and encouraged the belief that in them true religion vvas to be found. It was against these, and the superstitious feel- ings which they engendered, that the Re- formers protested. They wished with all their heart to sweep them away, or at all events so to reduce them as to prevent wor- shippers from believing that by these ex- ternal forms man's spiritual nature could be satisfied. It was to reform the Church of these and suchlike abuses that they banded themselves together and risked limb and life in the enterprise. While this is generally true of the motives which animated the Reformers as a whole. WORSHIP 125 it is particularly true of those who founded that branch of the Protestant Church to which we belong. Zwingli/ in particular, sounded the note of " No idolatry," for he regarded much of the worship of the Roman Church as no better than the Pagan rites of ancient Greece and Rome. Indeed, he knew, as we have all since learned, that many of the practices of the medieval Church had been adopted from heathen idolatry. They were accepted as weak compromises, as a concession to the heathens, who from time to time were admitted into the Christian Church. These practices, in the course of years, became so associated with the religion of Christ, as to be regarded as part and parcel of it ; nay more, their value was so exaggerated as to obscure altogether the essence of the Christian religion, which is inward and spiritual. The enlightenment of the mind, the purification of the soul, and the uplifting of the spirit, which come from the direct contact of man's nature with God's, through true and simple worship, was altogether lost sight of, by the magnifying of the objective side of religion, and by the unlimited indulgence in ritual and cere- monial practices, which the Reformers held to be no better than Pagan idolatry. Indeed, they went farther, and directly attributed ^ Hastie, Theology of the Reformed Church, p. 34. 126 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS to this idolatry many of the corruptions which were sapping the Ufe of the Church, and hastening its destruction. It was natural, of course, that in the strong attitude which the Reformers thus took up, and in their almost violent protests against the abuses which they condemned, they should be tempted to go to the other extreme and to over-emphasise the subjective element in religion.^ And this is really what hap- pened, at least in the case of some of them, and the disputes which have agitated the Scottish Church since their day on the question, originated in the over-exaggeration of the subjective in relation to the objective side of religion, of the matter in opposition to the form, of preaching as distinct from worship, and of instruction apart from cere- mony. Ever since there has been a con- tinuous struggle to adjust the two sides. That struggle came to a head at the time of the Aberdeen Doctors, when King Charles attempted to foist an alien liturgy on the Scottish Church. The opposing schools of thought came then into as violent collision as they did at the Reformation, and the attempt of the Doctors to mediate between the two, to hold the balance between them, to prove the necessity of form as well as spirit in religion, though ineffective, was at 1 Caird, The Evolution of Religion, ii. p. 303. WORSHIP 127 the time courageous and laudable, and is not without its significance now. There were two tangible causes which produced that struggle. The one was the extreme attitude of Knox towards the worship of the Roman Church, and the other was the action of King Charles in attempting to force upon the Church a service book that was displeasing to it. Every one, of course, knows of Knox's violent attacks upon the ceremonies of the Roman Church. These attacks were again and again repeated, from the day on which he preached his first sermon in St. Andrews until the close of his life.^ They were repeated in England, on the Continent, and on his retuTi to Scotland with almost growing vehemence. His watch- word as a Reformer was, *' No idolatry," and while far from standing alone in sounding this battle-cry, it is unquestionable that he gave it forth with a louder peal than any of his brother Reformers. He did not go the length, as some of his followers did, of advocating the disuse of a liturgy altogether. The Church of the second Reformation out- Knoxed Knox in this matter, and we, who are now without an authorised service book, can hardly call ourselves his spiritual children. He had to make a compromise with the Roman Church on the question of worship, * Works of John Knox (edited by David Laing), iii. p. 47. 128 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS and on the question of doctrine as well, as indeed had all the Reformers ; for however much they inveighed against both, it cannot be admitted that their Prayer Books, their Books of Discipline, their Canons, Rubrics, and Confessions of Faith are to be found in the shape in which they put them, in the Bible. They could not altogether break away from Catholic antiquity ; the dead Church's hand still governed them. It cannot, however, be denied that Knox's hatred and fear of Roman ceremonial, in which he saw Pagan idolatry and the greatest danger to the purity of the Reformed Church, infected the Scottish people, sank deeply into their natures, and has been a main factor in the development of the Church's policy, doctrine, and worship from then till now. While Knox's Liturgy, or Book of Common Order,^ gives considerable liberty in the conduct of worship, the Reformation was not many years old until the Church, through its General Assembly, put its ban upon certain religious customs practised, not only by the Roman Church, but in the several branches of the Protestant Church as well. There was nothing in Knox's Liturgy about vestments, attitudes, and visible ceremonials xn general ; these were left to be determined by usage. Nor did it give any regulation 1 Sprott, The Book of Common Order, p. xxi. WORSHIP 129 with regard to the conduct of services in celebration of the great Christian festivals ; in fact it takes no recognition of them whatsoever. While there was difference of usage among the Churches which cast off the Roman yoke with regard to these festivals, most of them observed them. The Church of Scotland was soon to prove the exception. In 1566 it was asked to give its approval of the second Helvetic Confession, as had been done by other Reformed Churches. This Confession contained the following passage : ''If Churches, in right of their Christian liberty, commemorate religiously our Lord's Nativity, Circumcision, Passion, and Resurrection, with his Ascension into Heaven, and the Descending of the Holy Ghost upon the disciples, we highly approve thereof. But Feasts instituted in honour of men or angels we approve not." The answer was : " This Assembly would not allow the days dedicate to Christ — the Circumcision, the Nativity, Passion, Resurrection, Ascen- sion, and Pentecost days, but took exception against that part of the Confession." This indicates the official mind of the Church. By its decision it put a barrier between itself and the other Churches of the Reformed Faith. Still in different parts of the country these festivals continued to be observed, because they were an inheritance from the 9 130 THE ABERDEExN DOCTORS ancient Church, and because the other Churches of the Reformation practised them. The Assembly, however, was determined to put them down, from fear of encouraging superstition, and the first step was thus taken in that narrowing and hardening process with relation to the Church's worship, which we observed in our last lecture, occurred with regard to its creed, and both for the same reason, dread of Popery. Another sign of the times which points in the same direction is to be found in the office of the reader. He came into existence chiefly because of the dearth of ministers, and he read the prayers in Churches where there was no stated pastor. But even after parishes were filled up with incumbents his office still continued. He conducted the first part of the service, which was the devotional, from the Prayer Book. After he was done, the minister entered the church, mounted the pulpit, and preached the sermon. This part of the service immediately began to be regarded as by far the most important. This was encouraged by the teaching of the Liturgy itself, and the subordinate place that was now given to worship caused preaching to be looked upon as the main, if not the sole element in the Sunday service.^ 1 Leishman, The Riiual of the Church (Story, Church of Scot- land). V. 356. 362. WORSHIP 1 3 1 It may be impossible for us to appreciate fully the reason which led Knox and his immediate successors to guide the policy of the Church, with regard to its worship, in the direction now indicated. They probably felt that unless they took a very straight and narrow course the evils which had sprung up through excessive ceremonial, and what they called " creature worship," in the Roman Church, might still be perpetuated. Anything, they thought, would be better than that. They were inspired by the same hatred which animated the old Hebrew prophets, of everything that defileth or maketh a lie in the worship of Jehovah, and their every effort was to remove any obstacle that might stand between the soul and God, and to quicken in the soul itself a spirit of devotion that required no external aid. Still, the question may be asked if the Scottish Church has not paid too dearly for its sacrifice, and does it follow that because a thing is abused, that thing is wrong ? Because the Roman Church carried to extremes the objective element in religion, are we to condemn that element altogether and to deny its use ? Is everything that is not inward and of the spirit sinful ? Is every- thing that is outward and external wrong ? Is what appeals to the senses wicked ? If an answer in the affirmative be given to 132 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS these questions, we divide the world and create a duaUsm which it is the express object of the Christian religion to destroy. If form without spirit is meaningless, so spirit without form is vague and vain. A reaction was bound to set in, but it came from a quarter that defeated its own object. If the Church had been left to itself, it is not at all unlikely that the objective side of religion might in due course have received the countenance to which it is entitled, and worship have taken its place in the life and services of the Church. Knox's Liturgy was there, and it continued to be used until the Covenanters, in their violent opposition to what is called Laud's Liturgy,^ imposed by Royal fiat upon the Church in 1637, caused it to abjure all liturgies and to pave the way for the Presbyterians from Ireland and the Brownists from England to reduce to the lowest level, and even to dis- credit, decency and order in the conduct of worship. All that the Revolution Settle- ment gave us was the Directory of Public Worship, prepared by the Westminster Assembly. It is a guide but nothing more. But the reaction did not come from the Church itself, it came from the King, first from King James and then from his son ' See The Book of Common Prayer, commonly known as Laud's Liturgy, edited by Professor Cooper, Introduction. WORSHIP 133 King Charles. It was not thus a natural development that might have come in time, for we cannot conceive that the Scottish Church would have been so untrue to its origin or would have endangered its com- munion with the other Churches of the Reformation as to abjure ceremonies which would have made it singular in the eyes of all. But the chance was not given to it. King James, in his eager haste to bring about conformity between the Anglican and Scottish Churches, managed by means of packed Assembhes to have the famous Perth Articles adopted.^ He had also in hand the preparation of a new liturgj^, but this he wisely dropped. His son. King Charles i., with still greater eagerness, foisted, on his own authority, a Book of Canons and his notorious Liturgy upon the Church, which saw in both the symbols of Popery and made that the ostensible ground for rejecting them.^ The " auld enemy" of the Scottish Church, hatred to which had been inspired by Knox, and duly fostered by his successors, was still dreaded by the Scottish people, and this dread was encouraged by the clergy and nobility for purposes of their own. They did not wish the interference of ^ Book of the Universal Kirk, 1146. 2 Reid, The Historic Significance of Episcopacy in Scotland, p. 21. 134 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS the Monarch, and kindled the popular opposi- tion by methods which they knew would be most effective. This action on the part of father and son, King James and King Charles, was the second tangible cause of the struggle which agitated the Church, on the question of ritual, and it was during the time of the Aberdeen Doctors that the two parties, the party of Knox and the party of the King, came into violent collision. There is no question, of course, on whose side the majority lay. The result that followed shows this. The popular vote was cast in favour of the Covenanters. The landed gentry whose interests were threatened by the establishment of Episcopacy, sided with the common people, whose prejudices were wounded by the threatened changes in the form of worship, and the coalition thus formed and led by the ministers, who resented the interference of the King in matters which belonged to the Church, finally triumphed. Still it must not be for- gotten that the advocates of the proposed changes were influential. They were as keen on the introduction of the new order as those who were afterwards known as Covenanters were in their opposition to it. The strife accordingly was bitter and prolonged, his- torical perspective was lost sight of, and everything had to give way, both reason and good feeling, in face of the blind fury WORSHIP 135 that prevailed. It was at this point that the Aberdeen Doctors stepped in and endeavoured to throw the light of knowledge, of judgment, and of truth upon the subject in dispute. In relation to what has now been said, the statement of the views of the Doctors, which I am about to give, may seem unwarrant- ably brief. All that I can do in the present relation is just to indicate it. It was the dispeace which followed the adoption, by the Perth Assembly in 1618, of the Five Articles, which King James desired to impose upon the Church, that drew from Dr. John Forbes his views on rites and ceremonies in general, and the relation which the Scottish Church should adopt towards them, in particular. These views were incorporated in his well-known work the Irenicum, written with the express purpose of bringing about peace in the troubled Church. The five Articles are as follows : — 1. That the Communion should be received kneeling. 2. That in cases of necessity the Communion might be administered in private houses. 3. That in cases of necessity Baptism might be administered in private houses. 4. That children on reaching eight years of age should be confirmed by the Bishop. 5. That Christmas, Good Friday, Easter 136 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS Monday, Ascension Day, and Whitsunday should be observed as Holy Days. One, at this time of day, may find it hard to appreciate the strife which the intro- duction of these Articles engendered. Three of them have now been practically adopted by the Church, namely. Private Baptism, Private Communion, and the Celebration of Holy Days ; the second and third per- haps more sparingly than the first. The Church objected to Private Baptism and to Private Communion, chiefly on the ground that, at their celebration, there would be no preaching. The rite accordingly would tend to be regarded in a superstitious way, as possessing in itself a supernatural efficacy. In opposing the celebration of the Christian Festivals, the Church took up the position of historical continuity. It had never adopted them although the other Churches of the Reformation had. Confirmation was objected to on the ground that the parochial bishop had as much right to administer it as the diocesan, but the real battle took place on the Article which imposed kneeling at the Communion. This was held as gross idolatry, a worshipping of the sacred ele- ments, almost a revival of the Mass. Knox had resolutely set his face against it, and the Church shared his views. It may accordingly be of interest to hear WORSHIP 137 Dr. John Forbes' opinion on the subject. He opposed those who would force it upon an unwilUng Church, but he equally re- pudiated the contention of those who de- clared it to be unlawful. With regard to the charge that kneeling at Communion is idolatrous, since it is a religious adoration in presence of the creature, he replied that this is not true, unless it can be shown that adoration in presence of creature, or object, is a religious adoration of creature or object itself, which is not the case, as can be shown from the worship before the Altar of the Lord, the Ark of the Covenant, and the Temple at Jerusalem ; the adoration of God with the raising of the eyes and hands to heaven ; falling on the knee at public penitence ; and religious adoration at the ordination of ministers, when the minister to be ordained receives with bended knee the imposition of hands and the sacred volume. He main- tained that the bread is not placed so that it may be adored, or that adoration may be made before it so that the bread may be the object of worship, but that the humble kneeling itself may be the token of devotion and reverence towards God, when He confers the most precious gifts on us. The example of Christ and the Apostles is brought forward. He shows that no 138 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS express mention is made of the posture in which the disciples accepted from the hands of the Lord the sacred elements. No special posture was essential ; that neither at its institution nor afterwards in Scripture is it ever appointed. That there were many cir- cumstances in the first celebration which were essential neither to the Sacrament nor its institution, nor laid down by the necessary practice of the Church. Those things only are necessary which arise from the Divine institution of the Sacrament. The necessary circumstances of time, place, mode, are natural necessities, bat do not bind to a certain kind of posture.^ He also held that the Commemoration of the Anniver- saries of Holy Days, such as Christmas and Easter, are lawful. These, he remarks, have been observed from the earliest times by the whole Church. It is not the day that is commemorated, but the spiritual blessings which are associated with it. These it would be possible to celebrate on any day, but uniformity is advisable in the inter- ests of the people. No superstition is attached to the day, or any sanctity, but the practice tends to the worship of God, to whom we owe the blessing it indicates, and to the discipline of Christian life. He argues much in the same way with regard to the 'Quotes Baron with approval. Irenicum, p. 395. WORSHIP 139 other Articles, and says that they must not be done away with because of the abuse of the Papists any more than Marriage, Confession, or the Holy Communion. Any good custom can be corrupted, but its cor- ruption should not blind us to its goodness. He then takes up the following general position with regard to worship, ceremonies, and ritual : that everything that makes for peace and edification are moral necessities ; also what makes for decency and order ; and that everything against peace and edi- fication and every unseemly posture or neglect of order must be excluded ; that rites in themselves are indifferent, and may be omitted or replaced, just as order, decorum, peace, charity, and edification may dictate. And with regard to the particular Articles in dispute, he held that the dignity and freedom of the Scottish Church demanded their introduction : its dignity, so that the objective side of religion might receive its due share of recognition, and the services of the Church be prevented from falling into disrepute through unseemliness and slovenliness ; and its freedom, so that it might assert its right and liberty to arrange its order of worship, and to omit or introduce such rites and ceremonies, as it felt justified in doing, for the edification of its members.^ ^ Vita Jo. Forb., p. 13. Irenicum, in loco. I40 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS Such, in brief outline, were the views of Dr. John Forbes, which were shared, more or less fully, by the rest of the Aberdeen Doctors, and it seems to me that in them may be found a line of policy for the guidance of the Church on this question ; for, as every one knows, guidance is sorely needed. Some forty years ago the question of what was popularly known as improved Church services, or, as I would prefer to call it, a renewed recognition of the objective side of rehgion, began to interest the Church. The move- ment was headed by Dr. Robert Lee, who fell a victim to the cause. The war of parties in Presbytery and Assembly is still fresh in the minds of many, and the move- ment which he so bravely and ably cham- pioned has made undoubted progress. Still, fresh cases of dispute continually crop up, and what painfully strikes one, in the at- tempted settlement of them, is the lack of a guiding principle. If I am not misinformed, the Assembly of the Church, not many years ago, gave a decision on a case of this kind mainly on the representation of a wealthy member, who happened to be stand- ing for the constituency where the dispute occurred. He declared that unless the so- called innovations were put down, popular feeling would be so roused against the Church and himself, that he would be in danger WORSHIP 141 of being defeated. The Church decided against the so-called innovations, and the candidate was defeated all the same. Well, it is nothing short of a scandal that the Church of Scotland should determine im- portant questions of this kind in such a loose and haphazard way. In order to receive right guidance one has to go back to the period between the Reformation and the Aberdeen Doctors ; for, after the abolition of Episcopacy in 1638 until our own time, the worship of the Church presents an arid waste ; in any case it is separated so radic- ally from the Church's own teaching and practice, as laid down during the time when it was uninfluenced by outside agents or movements, that no authoritative guidance can therein be found. The Assembly may have passed certain Acts, and the Church may or may not have respected them, but it seems to me that it is to the earlier period we must look for light to guide us.^ Now, in the views of the Aberdeen Doctors, which were moulded, partly by the regu- lations and forms laid down by the Church itself, and partly by the practice of the early Church and of the other Churches of the Reformation, we find certain principles 1 A very good sketch of the Liturgical Revival of this last hundred years is given in Sprott's Introduction to the Encho- logion, 1890. 142 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS which the Church of our time ought seriously to consider in handhng the controversies that may arise on rehgious worship. The fact that such controversies do keep recurring must be accepted as a sign that the Church is not satisfied with the meagre means hither- to afforded for the satisfaction of one side of Christian thought and feeUng. Indeed, tliese means are far poorer that the Church of Knox suppHed, and, knowing as we do the reasons which actuated him in cutting down all formal worship to the very lowest, we ought to hesitate in withholding from the people their just heritage and rights. Knox, as we have seen, was actuated by fear of Popery ; that we can understand. But the Reformed Church of Scotland is now some three and a half centuries old, and that fear surely ought to be non- existent. He had good reason for acting as he did, but that reason has passed away, therefore any revival of forms of worship which even he allowed, and of others which are freely used by other Reformed Churches that can lay claim to as great a purity as our own, ought not to be denied to our people. The Aberdeen Doctors rightly pointed out that the New Testament is not a Book of Common Order. It does not lay down forms of service ; it refrains from stating regulations for every detail of worship. It WORSHIP 143 inculcates principles, and leaves it to the wisdom of the Church, acting under the guid- ance of the Holy Spirit, to determine special questions for itself. In this, as in everything else, there may be a development. Fresh needs, special circumstances, new conditions, may call for revision, omission, or addition, in the ceremonies and worship of the Church ; but all such departures ought to be made on the understanding that no absolute auth- ority should be claimed for human appoint- ments, however expedient and seemly, and that the Church should never make any- thing imperative which has not the authority of Scripture. The Aberdeen Doctors accordingly would not divide the Church on such questions ; schism did not take place in their day. This happy practice was left to later times. The unity and authority of the Church were not scouted as they have since been. Such matters ought to be considered and debated in a calm and reasonable manner, and when opinion became fully ripe would be the time to decide them. No body of men respected th^^ peace of the Church so profoundly as the Aberdeen Doctors, and Dr. John Forbes in particular deplored the strife that, what was meant to make for the edification of the Church, engendered. And it was just this very edification of 144 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS the Church that he and they who thought with him had so much at heart. They naturally regretted that much which tended towards the development of worship and towards the building up of the Christian thought and life of the people was being lost sight of, and that what remained was in imminent danger of vanishing through the troubles that had arisen. They could not approve of the method by which the King endeavoured to force upon the Church a Service Book, though they might not dis- approve of the Service Book itself. For their part, if the Church refused to accept the proposed innovation, they would have been content to bow to its decision and remain within it as loyal members. They brought their knowledge and their ability to bear upon the questions at issue, and en- deavoured to prove the lawfulness and the utiUty of what was proposed and introduced. But they would be no schismatics, nor would they disturb the peace of the Church by intellectual brawUng. Unfortunately the King and those who sided with him roused the worst features of the Scottish character, and the strife and contention which then began, and have since continued, have blinded the Church to the real question at issue, and by centring its mind on the arid cen- turies that have intervened since the Glasgow WORSHIP 145 Assembly of 1638, in place of the preceding period, have filled it with misknowledge and prejudice, and made it all the more difficult for those who are desirous of doing full justice to the objective side of religion, to carry out the necessary reforms, chiefly by way of reviving the past. For it should not be forgotten that the members of the Church have certain rights in this connection. The minister may preach as he pleases, and the hearers may accept or reject at their will. It is different with the service. That is as much their part as his, indeed it is their part chiefly, for the prayers are supposed to be the prayers of the congregation, and the various acts of worship are the expressions of their feel- ings and aspirations. If the clergyman con- ducts the service after a fashion which may be approved of by himself only, introducing or omitting what may please himself, how can the service be called that of the con- gregation, and how can they participate in the worship which may not be theirs ? With- out some stated order — in short, without a liturgy which has been the growth of the devout feeling and is the expression of the mind of the Church — there can be no guar- antee of a congregational service in the true sense of the word. Knox, like the other Reformers, was wise enough to see this. 10 146 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS The Aberdeen Doctors strongly shared his opinion, and would have liked the Church to develop its worship so as to bring it into line with other Reformed Churches, and to give as full expression as possible to the spirit of devotion, and to balance the sub- jective by a recognition of the objective element in religion. It may of course be said that worship, thus practised, is apt to become formal. So is any kind of worship. Unless there be a worshipful spirit in the minister and people, it matters not very much whether the service be conducted on the lines and in the words laid down by the Church, or according to the liturgist's own sweet will, the service will be cold and barren. But if there be devout feelings in the hearts both of minister and congregation, the service, in whatever form it may be rendered, will express them. For my part, while adhering to Knox's ar- rangement that sufficient scope be given for free prayer, and that the rubrics should, in cases where no absolute authority can be claimed, give permission for independent action, I believe that a Book of Common Order, which contains the pious aspirations of past ages and has been the vehicle for the expres- sion of the devotions of the Church for genera- tions, ought of itself to inspire both minister and people with the spirit of true worship. WORSHIP 147 It may be interesting to note the views of representative men on the questions which have been discussed in this lecture. Let me select two recent pronouncements, one by an Anglican and the other by a Presbyterian. Professor Masterman, in his Hulsean Lecture on the " Rights and Re- sponsibilities of National Churches/' referring to the question of ceremonies in a National Church/ says : " I would plead for the widest possible scope for experiment in the cere- monial of the National Churchy for the frank abandonment of any attempt at a cast iron system of legally enforced uniformity. With it must go, too, the arbitrary power of the clergy to modify and expand local uses in accordance with the supposed ceremonial of the Catholic Church. The experience of the Colonial Churches has shown conclusively that the Christian laity, when entrusted with real power, are a strong safeguard against rash or ill-considered changes in the customs and ceremonial of the Church. But experi- ment and adaptation are only possible to a body that has an organic character. And it is this organic character that a National Church is best fitted to secure and retain. For the life of the Church is grafted on the foundation of the organic life of the nation." ^ 1 Cambridge : At the University Press, 1908. 2 P. 62. 148 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS Principal Pollok, in his singularly able book on Practical Theology,^ speaking on behalf of the Presbyterian Church on the subject of free, as compared to liturgical, prayer^ says : " The real question is, which method best promotes spirituality in the worshippers ? Whenever it can be proved that either promotes religion more than the other, then the question is for us settled. The advocates of free prayer often claim for their system a superior spirituality. But it must be admitted that some of Paley's objections cannot be easily answered. What is generally the mental attitude of a con- gregation during a prayer which they have never heard before ? Are they for the most part a praying Assembly ? We may suppose them to be in a prepared and devout frame, but does their mental attitude ever rise above a meditation ? Is it not often curiosity mingled with criticism ? The pre- scribed prayer obviates all this, for the voice is the voice of the Church, and when the worshipper really tries to worship, the exercise is not intellectual but devotional. The worshipper is neither a hearer merely, nor a critic, nor can he complain of surprises. The channel for his thoughts has been pro- vided, and he is a devout worshipper just to that degree in which he allows his thoughts 1 Blackwood, 1907. WORSHIP 149 and feelings to flow into it. There is much," he adds, "to be said in favour of having some manual of devotion that would unite the hearts of God's people in worship and so bind all parts of the Church together in a unity expressed as well as professed. Churches are united in love and in brother- hood, not by confessions which are seldom read, but by devotions which are often repeated, wherein the feelings are drawn out and the souls of the whole people are directed to eternal things." ^ It is very significant that the Anglican pleads for freedom in ceremonial and the Presbyterian for uniformity in worship, and their views, seeing they are those of representative men, must be accepted as hopeful signs of the times. 1 p. 248. VI CHURCH UNION A QUESTION Upon which the Aberdeen Doctors were invited to give their opinion was as to the union of the Lutheran and Reformed Churches. The subject was one of more than academic interest. Attempts more or less serious were made to bring about such a union, and although they came to naught, certain principles emerged in the course of discussion which are still vital and which are bound to be considered in the more modern movements that are absorbing the attention of the leaders of religious thought throughout Christendom. The divided state of the Church of Christ in our day is held by many to be a scandal and a cause of offence. To a superficial observer the truth of this will at once be apparent, but a deeper thinker may find in the differences which naturally call for comment only a passing effervescence, or in any case but a signpost directing the mind to the unity of Spirit which underlies them. ISO CHURCH UNION 151 In the opinion of some, outward uniformity can be purchased at too great a price. Churches, hke persons, have their own individ- uahty, which calls for respect. Any solution of the question will have to keep this in view, and the ideal to be aimed at, after all, ought perhaps to be, not so much uniformity as unity in difference, and it was in this direction that the opinion of the Doctors pointed. They advocated harmony and con- cord even where absolute consent, on the part of the different Churches with regard to particular doctrines, could not be attained. The man who first raised this question in a serious form was Arminius. He raised it not directly but indirectly ; it emerged from his attitude towards Christian doctrine in general. He revived the spirit of Pro- testantism, which was in danger of being again enveloped in a cloud of theories or buried under dogmatic systems. A new scholasticism was fast springing up, and the opinions of the Reformers and the Doctors of the Church, coupled with the more formal statements of Christian doctrine embodied in the confessions of the Protestant Churches, were beginning to bind the thoughts of men and to crush the spirit of free inquiry.^ It would almost seem as if the children of the * Preface to Confession of Remonstrants, Opera Episcopii, ii. pars sec, p. 71. 152 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS new religion were about to regard the symbols of their faith in much the same way as the Roman Catholics viewed the decrees of their councils and the dogmas of their Church. A new Doctrine of Infalli- bility, in short, was springing up in the Protestant Churches, and was threatening to take the place of the old doctrine which it had been the task of the Reformation to destroy. Too much praise accordingly cannot be bestowed upon Arminius and his followers for drawing the attention of thinking men to this new danger. It is a work, however, which every age would seem to have to accomphsh for itself. In the course of time, doctrines, which were vital to the Church of the day, have a tendency to harden ; they lose their spring. They receive a reverence which is due to their age and not to their efhcacy or Uving relation to the heart of the time. They in due course have also to be overthrown, otherwise religious thought would stagnate or, at its best, be purely formal. Truth itself cannot change, but it requires to be restated in view of the intellectual and spiritual needs of the day. The method which Arminius adopted proved at the time to be most effective. His critique of the doctrines of Calvinism went to the root of the question, and when devel- CHURCH UNION 153 oped was seen to apply, not only to the special case in hand, but to the other Churches of Protestantism and to the Roman Catholic Church as well. He drew a dis- tinction between what was fundamental and not fundamental in Christian doctrine. ^ A searching criticism very soon showed how few in number were the doctrines that ought to be regarded as fundamental in com- parison with those that were non-funda- mental. The latter were the creation of the different Churches, the former the truths of Scripture and particularly the teaching of Christ and His apostles. It was accord- ingly pointed out that it was only such truths and teaching that ought to be made the basis of Christian life and communion. It was upon them only that any Church should be founded. Everything else was but the accretions of human thought, and however valuable they might be in themselves ought not to be made the ground of Christian fellowship. They were, in short, non-funda- mental, and as such had no inevitable place in the body of Divine truth. One can see at a glance how searching this distinction can be. It sweeps away at once much for which the Churches have always contended and upon which they have insisted as a ground for communion. ^ opera Episcopii, p. 72. 154 THE ABEllDF.EN DOCTORS It reduces the body of Christian behef to very moderate compass, and would be content to accept the Apostles' (reed, or some such document, as the sum and substance of re- ligious faith. Much of what is found in the symbols of the Protestant Churches and in the decrees and dogmas of the Roman Church would at once go overboard, and what would be left would be the original documents of the early Church and the simple teaching of the Bible. If the critique of the school of Arminius was thus destructive, it was only so, however, in the first instance. It had a constructive side as well, and it is this aspect of it that chiefly concerns us. If the creeds of Christendom could be thus reduced to one or other of the earliest symbols of the faith, why should the Church of Christ be so divided ? It was frankly admitted on all hands that there was little or no divergence of opinion among them upon such symbols or upon the teaching of Christ or His apostles. What divided them were opinions which they themselves had developed into dogmas regarding the truths of Scripture, but such views were clearly non-fundamental so far as Christian communion was concerned, therefore they ought to be dropped or be held in easy tolerance. What ought to be seized hold of and held fast in all the CHURCH UNION 155 Churches were the essential truths of Christianity ; they were fundamental, and upon them the different branches of the Church of Christ were bound to be agreed. It accordingly can be seen at a glance that, whether it be in human nature or no, to act upon such views there can be no real dispute about the sanity of the views themselves. It is one thing, of course, for Churches as for individuals, to apprehend the truth, but it is a very different thing to act upon it and to practise it. A living thought, how- ever, once it finds expression can never really die, and the distinction which Arminius thus pointed out, although it may seem to have been inoperative during the centuries that have elapsed since his day, is once more coming to the front, and is found to be as vital as ever. The man to whom we are indebted for a formulated statement on the pai't of the Doctors of their views and position on the question of union, was John Durie,^ a Scots- man, who was born at Edinburgh in 1596. He bore a well-known name in the Church, and he is not to be identified with another John Durie, who was notorious for his preaching against the Court and inveighing generally against the abuses of the times. This is the John who, on his return to Edinburgh after a brief banish- ' Appeiulix VIII. 156 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS ment, was escorted up the High Street by an enthusiastic crowd of Protestants, singing with all their might the 124th Psalm, in four parts, thus showing not only their attachment to their minister but their skill in Psalmody. Our John was the fourth son of Robert Durie, one of those who attended as a member the General Assembly at Aberdeen in 1605 and which was prohibited by the King. He along with certain others repudiated the jurisdiction of His Majesty, and persisted in holding the Assembly. For this, he along with five others was tried by the Privy Council, and, being found guilty, was banished from the kingdom. He proceeded to Holland, and was admitted Minister to the Scotch Church at Ley den, where his son John received his early education, studying after- wards for the ministry at Sedan, where his cousin Andrew Melville was a professor. Durie conceived in his early manhood a scheme for the uniting of the two great branches of the Prestestant Church, the Lutheran and the Reformed, which occupied his whole interests during his long life, for he did not die until 1680, being then in his eighty-fourth year. Durie was one of those men whose life was governed by a single idea, which in the end became a ruling passion and absorbed all his energies. He travelled through most CHURCH UNION 157 of the countries of Western Europe, especially those where the Reformation had taken a foothold. In pursuit of his scheme he interviewed kings, leading statesmen, arch- bishops, and bishops ; approached General Assemblies and various ecclesiastical bodies. He formulated terms of union, secured the adherence of opposing factions and sects, and ever and again seemed to be on the eve of attaining his object, but something untoward always happened and his all but accomplished plan fell like a pack of cards about his ears. Pamphlet after pamphlet in Latin and in English issued from his pen, and speeches were made and sermons preached by him in support of his cause, but all in vain. One cannot help admiring the per- sistency and indomitable courage of the man ; nothing seemed to cool his ardour ; he was the first apostle of union in modern times, and his efforts, however futile, deserve greater recognition than they have as yet received. Among those whom he wished to consult, and whose opinions he deemed of import- ance, were the Aberdeen Doctors. He applied to Archbishop Spottiswood, who approached the Doctors on his behalf, and they, taking the matter in hand, gave it the most serious consideration, and in a long letter to the Archbishop, which is incorporated by Dr. 158 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS John Forbes in his Instructiones TheologiccB^ they gave a formulated statement of their position, showing how the two great branches of the Protestant Church might be reconciled and a working union accomplished. The scheme which Durie', aided though he was by the Aberdeen Doctors and many other leaders of theological thought, endea- voured to carry out was much more difficult than may appear to us at first sight, for at that time the cleavage between the Lutheran and Reformed Churches was both sharp and deep. The bitter quarrels that raged between these two great ecclesiastical bodies must have been fresh in the minds of many who were still living. The strife began about a hundred years previously at the celebrated Colloquy of Marburg, in 1529, when Luther '* proceeded with such unreason- able obstinancy and passion, even refusing to give the right hand of fellowship to Zwingli, who pleaded for it with tears in his eyes, although he could not yield an iota of the principle upon which he stood." ^ The differences between the two Churches would seem to have increased, and long and bitter controversies arose over such topics as Pre- destination, the extent of the Atonement, the application of Grace, and the Person of ^ Lib. xiv. c. 7. 2 Hastie, The Theology of the Reformed Chun 'i, p. 40. CHURCH UNION 159 Christ. Indeed, so keen became the strife, that one Lutheran theologian asserted it was better to hold communion with Papists than with Calvinists. Another, in language more forcible than laudable, maintained that the damned CalvinJBtic heretics had 99 points in common with the Arians, and 666 theses in common with the Turks. Even the Elector Augustus exclaimed that if there was a Calvinistic vein in his body he wished that the Devil would pluck it out. It may be true that both Churches arose from the same polemic ; they took their rise in a protest against the corruptions of the Church of Rome. But while Luther attacked the Roman doctrine of works which he regarded as a Judaic corruption of primi- tive Christianity, setting against it the true doctrine of righteousness by faith, Zwingli aimed his polemic against the pagan practice of image worship and other idolatrous cus- toms, which in the course of centuries had perverted the pure worship of the early Church. It can be seen how these two different starting - points would lead the followers of both Luther and Zwingli if not in opposite, yet in divergent directions, and in a short time, when each Church had to formulate its conception of Christian doctrine, differences arose which speedily developed and called for a reconciliation, which for l6o THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS the time being seemed quite impossible. The main controversy arose on the views which the Lutheran and Reformed Churches held as to the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Sacrament of the Supper. While Luther repudiated the medieval dogma of Transubstantiation, he yet held that the body of Christ was present in, with, and under the sensible bread, and was even masticated by the communicant, which theory he expressed in his dogma of Consubstantiation. Zwingli, on the other hand, emphatically rejected every form of the doctrine of a bodily presence as incon- ceivable and even monstrous, regarding the bread and wine in the supper as always in themselves only bread and wine, yet as symbols, or significant memorials, of the broken body and shed blood.^ It was to the fundamental distinction between the two Churches on this doctrine that the Aber- deen Doctors directed their attention, and endeavoured to show how with regard to it a union between them might be possible. The other points of disagreement they for the most part let alone or touched upon them slightly. Following the line of thought laid down by Arminius, they emphasised the distinction that exists between what is fundamental and 1 The Theology of the Reformed Church, p. 43. CHURCH UNION i6i non-fundamental in Christian doctrine, and, elaborating this distinction as it affected the views of the two Churches regarding the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, they at- tempted to show how upon what was funda- mental in it they agreed, and suggested at the same time that upon what was non- fundamental in it, and which was not essen- tial, they should agree to differ. A summary of their views is given by Dr. Garden in his life of Dr. John Forbes, and as it briefly and clearly states their position I think it advisable to give it : ^— " Just as Forbes cultivated a mutual agreement and charity with his colleagues, so each of them, inasmuch as he was peace- fully disposed, was anxious to promote peace and concord among them all. He was exceedingly grieved at the quarrels and hatreds between the different sects of Christendom and also of the Reformers' hatreds which had burst out into flame especially between the Lutherans and the Calvinists ; and willingly seized the oppor- tunity offered of showing his brotherly feel- ing towards the Lutherans as well as his vehement desire of peace and concord. John Durie, a Scotsman, as formerly mentioned, striving with great effort to promote this union, and for that object travelling through ^ Vita, p. 28. Instruct, histor. Theol., lib. xiv. c. 7. II 1 62 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS England, France, Germany, Switzerland and Denmark, as a promoter of peace, and care- fully gathering everywhere from each side the wishes and opinions of learned men, concerning the fostering of peace and union, among others, addresses the Aber- deen Doctors concerning this matter, with the approval of the most Reverend Arch- bishop Spotswood, Primate of the Scottish Church, who wrote to them on the same subject. " The opportunity having then been given them, the reverend theologians of Aberdeen, in a learned and Christian letter to the Primate Spotswood, inserted by the author in the Instnictio histor. Theol., book xiv. chap, vii., express their opinions clearly and charitably. They take for granted that there is a difference between consent and concord ; inasmuch as the latter consists in charity, peace and the common use of sacred rights, the former in the agreement of opinions ; which is to be wished for in all things rather than to be hoped for in this life, in which we only know in part and prophesy in part. Nevertheless even with an imperfect * consent ' of opinions, there can be a true ' concord.' Moreover they show from the writings of the Lutherans themselves, what kind of disagreement it is which does not prevent Christian fellowship, inasmuch CHURCH UNION 163 as one kind of disagreement is fundamental in faith itself, another, less important, in connexion with faith, which latter does not break up the spiritual brotherhood. Funda- mental error in religion, according to them, is one which is directly and immediately repugnant to some fundamental and primary article of the Catholic and saving faith, in some head of doctrine which is necessary to be known and believed by everybody, ever since the preaching of the Gospel by the Apostles, in order to obtain everlasting salvation. " This necessary knowledge of fundamental doctrine they understand as not perfect nor equal in everybody, but of such a kind and so great as to keep the foundation as regards the substance of the doctrine. Nor is the way of salvation more difficult for us than it was for the primitive ages of the Christian Church. For no decrees of the Churches, after the time of the Apostles, can bring about that any fundamental point should come to light for later ages which did not exist before. The yoke imposed by Christ Himself is easy, nor is it right for men to render it difficult by their own harshness, A distinction must be made, they warn us, between the primary heads of Christian doctrine and secondary questions concerning them which are not only ignored without 1 64 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS risk of losing one's salvation, but are even denied, provided that the foundation is kept and the sad evil of schism avoided. And since a practical fundamental error is worse than an error which is theoretical or a practical error which is not fundamental, they show how much worse is the state of that Church which is so puffed up with the splendour of its own golden superstructure that, neglecting charity, laying aside even- mindedness, treading under foot the law of Christ, arrogantly despises the neighbour Churches of Christ, orthodox in fundamentals, and willing to foster peace with it, on account of certain growths of false opinions which have been built on to the foundation, charges them with heresy and contemptu- ously rejects them ; than is the state of those Churches which, retaining their foundations, although they be inferior in knowledge and weak in faith, nevertheless are strong in their invincible charity. " Consent (agreement) in the fundamentals of the Catholic and saving faith, they define, (as do the Lutherans themselves) as agree- ment indeed in those heads of Christian doctrine which are necessary to be known and believed by all the faithful for obtaining eternal salvation in Christ and without a belief in which no one shall be saved. And it is among those whose agreement is of such CHURCH UNION 165 a nature as this, although they may differ in secondary matters, that the Lutherans recog- nise the propriety of fostering among them- selves ecclesiastical peace. The Aberdeen Doctors show that the agreement between the Lutherans and the other Evangelical Churches is of such a nature : and that, although they are rather too coarsely in- structed, nevertheless to themselves, dwell- ing far away from the tumult of that fatal strife, that is the thing of which they are most convinced when they consider the doctrine and arguments of both sides, carefully and sincerely, in the sight of God : and that a lawful synod, whether of the Church universal or of all the Reformed Churches, would pronounce no otherwise. " In the next place, as to the fundamental point to be retained in the doctrine con- cerning the Lord's Supper, those points are fully sufficient concerning which there is agreement between the Lutherans and the other Evangelical Churches when they ex- amined the thirty-one agreements concern- ing this matter. And in examining them they say that it is not their meaning that all those points on which they are agreed should be held as fundamental heads of the Christian Doctrine : but that this alone had been their purpose, viz. : — that it should be manifest to all fair judges, that a Christian 1 66 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS holding to those points alone concerning this sacrament, with regard to which there is agreement among all the Evangelical Churches, should be enabled to approach the Lord's Table worthily and fruitfully : while he may either be ignorant of or may not believe any of the other questions which are disputed concerning this mystery of the statements which are put forward, concerning the corporal presence and the mastication. They say that all the Evan- gelical Churches teach that there is shown to the faithful, under sacred symbols, a com- munion of the body and blood of the Lord, not fictitious or shadowy, but real and sub- stantial : and that it is not in imagination only, or in the understanding, that the believ- ing guests partake of the body and blood of Christ, but that they, indeed, feed on Him for the sustenance of eternal life (Calvin, Book IV. Instit.j chaps. 17 and 19). That spiritual life is poured into us by the incom- prehensible virtue of the Spirit out of the substance of the flesh of Christ, That in reality they feed on the flesh and blood of Christ (Calvin, Book concerning the true participation in the body and blood of Christ in the holy supper, § Venio nunc ad Gallicus) . And they show from their public confessions that this is the common doctrine of these Churches. So that there is no real con- CHURCH UNION 167 troversy among them but only a nominal one concerning the real and true substantial eating and presence. " When they had shown at sufficient length that there was lawful and necessary harmony, notwithstanding disagreement in certain par- ticulars concerning the Eucharist, they add only a few words concerning the remain- ing controversies. And concerning Pre- destination and Grace and Free Will and the other questions relating to that controversy, if after the Holy Scriptures, in the judg- ment of the African and Galhcan Councils, in which the Pelagian heresy and its offshoots were rejected ; and in that of Augustine, Prosper and Fulgentius and of those Roman Pontiffs who agree with them and who lived in the time of Augustine and his disciples, and in that of the blessed Luther who fol- lowed Augustine ; if in the judgment and agreement of all these it is firmly estabUshed, the Church, they say, will be free from taint of fundamental error. They say that they themselves know that certain heads of the Augustinian Doctrine concerning this argu- ment are rejected by some of the Lutheran Doctors, and that Luther himself even seems to have spoken somewhat harshly : let them enjoy, they say, through us their own opinion, provided that they allow Augustine and Luther and the other Christians who agree 1 68 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS with them, to be free from fundamental error ; and let them quietly and peacefully restrain their sentiments. *' After his return to Holmia in Sweden, Durie, writing to Forbes, shows how pleased he was with this letter and how opportunely presented, whilst a Convention of Clergy was being held in that place and for the sake of procuring that agreement it had been resolved, by the command of the supreme magistrate, that it should be pubUcly dis- cussed ; where, after a friendly discussion, it seemed that nothing was wanting, except a fundamental confession of faith, by means of which there might shine forth a saving harmony of sects on points hitherto regarded as controversial, and that he himself had presented the letter in name of the Rev. Archbishop of St. Andrews and of the Faculty of Theology, to be carefully con- sidered by them. He says that it is scarcely ever possible to do away with the mis- fortune of disagreements in matters of faith or of theological knowledge, unless a clear distinction be made, and if not with exact- ness at least somehow, between fundamentals and non-fundamentals. Protestants in their disputes with the Roman Church are always in the habit of speaking of the distinction between fundamentals and non-fundamentals, although they do not sufficiently provide for CHURCH UNION 169 a legitimate distinction between these. The Roman Church, building a superstructure of Catholic faith on its own infallibility, wishes everything to be considered as funda- mental and necessary to be believed which she herself has placed among the articles of faith. Protestants also extending the Con- fessions of their faith into very many articles beyond the primitive symbols, and demand- ing explicit belief in them, slam the door on Christian unity and concord. Future ages will perceive the madness of this." The position of the Doctors, as thus stated, is sufficiently clear, and requires no special elucidation ; it is quite in keeping with the principles laid down by the school of Arminius, and accepted, as the Doctors them- selves state, by the theologians of the Luther- an Church. It may be interesting to note the distinction which they draw between consent and concord, or, in other words, between agreement of opinion and charity with regard to those points upon which agreement is unattainable. They advocate tolerance on what is non-fundamental. On this basis they would brush aside as of second- ary importance the vain superstructure which the different Churches have reared on primitive Christian truth. They would allow them to hold by it, but would not insist on it being imposed upon those who 170 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS did not regard it as vital. Their definition of the fundamental truths of the Catholic Church is interesting. Consent in the funda- mentals of the CathoUc and saving faith they define as " agreement indeed in those heads of Christian doctrine which are necessary to be known and believed by all the faithful for obtaining eternal salvation in Christ, and without a belief in which no one shall be saved." It is of importance to notice that they do not specially name what those heads of doctrine are, and the question may be asked if there might not be a possibilit}'- of the different Churches disputing as to what these may be. If the matter were pushed to extremes, the irreducible minimum on which every one would agree might be very small indeed. It requires only a glance, however, at the elaborate discussion, on the part of the Doctors, on the points of agreement that might be possible between the Lutheran and Reformed Churches on the Lord's Supper, to understand the failure of John Durie in bringing about the union, which he had so much at heart, and for the accomplishment of which he toiled so incessantly. One is somewhat startled to find that there are thirty-one points, according to the Doctors, on which agreement is possible, and it is left to one's imagination to conceive the number CHURCH UNION 171 on which difference of opinion is to be allowed. If, on this subject alone, although it must be admitted to have been the most important, there were so many points of possible disagreement, what hope could there be of union when other doctrines had to be considered on which differences of opinion were notorious ? But, passing away from the vague outlook which is thus suggested, it is of interest to note the views of the Doctors on the doctrine of the Lord's Supper. It must be admitted that they are of a higher nature than those which have generally prevailed in the Scottish Church. They say that " all the Evangelical Churches teach that there is shown to the faithful, under sacred symbols, a communion of the body and blood of the Lord, not fictitious or shadowy, but real and substantial, and that it is not in imagination only, or in the under- standing, that the believing guests partake of the body and blood of Christ, but that they indeed feed on Him for the sustenance of eternal life." And they quote Calvin in support of their view. They also hold that " spiritual life is poured into us by the incomprehensible virtue of the Spirit, out of the substance of the flesh of Christ, that in reality they feed on the flesh and blood of Christ." May it not here be asked if the Doctors, 172 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS for the sake of union, are not yielding too much ? Granted that the Scottish Church may have fallen somewhat from the teaching of the first Reformers on the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper , it may be safely questioned if any of our theologians or symbols ever went so far in a Lutheran direction as the Aberdeen theologians were prepared to go, in the hope of bringing about an ecclesiastical peace. In this respect, however, they fell far short of one of their own contemporaries. Dr. William Forbes, the first Bishop of Edinburgh. He was for a time, while Principal of Marischal College and minister in Aberdeen, one of their own colleagues, although he was not one of the " Doctors." He left Aberdeen before Dr. John Forbes and his friends banded themselves together for theological and ecclesiastical defence. Nor was he quite of their school ; he was at one with them in their desire for promoting peace and union, but he went farther than they were prepared to go, for he would embrace in the united Church, which he wished to see reconstructed, not only the several branches of the Protestant Church, but the Roman Church as well. Like the Doctors, he would eliminate the articles of belief on which men differed, and was prepared to recommend as a common symbol the Con- fessions of Faith found in the New Testament CHURCH UNION 173 and the Apostles' Creed in its earliest form. Like many in our day, he recommended co- operation among the different Churches, and their members, in good works. ** Life rather than doctrine was to be the basis of union. A saying often uttered by him was, ' Pauca credenda, multa agenda ' — Few are the articles of the Christian faith ; many are the duties of the Christian life." Dr. Milroy thus summarises his position : " ist. In those cases in which there are elements of truth common to all, let those common elements be recognised. 2nd. In those cases in which articles have been added to those common elements, let those articles be tolerated in the Church as private opinion, but let them not be inserted in the common creed. 3rd. In those cases in which practices — probably of apostolic, certainly of early Christian origin — have been surrendered by modern Protestants, let such practices be freely allowed, though not made compulsory." ^ The points on which he differed, in his scheme for union, from the Aberdeen Doctors, who followed more closely the lines laid down by the school of Arminius are of some importance. Dr. John Forbes and his colleagues were prepared to go back to primitive Christianity, and so it may be said was Dr. William Forbes, but it only requires 1 Milroy, Lee Lecture, p. 24. 174 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS a glance at his Consider ationes Modestce et PacificcB, a work published after his death, to see how far he was prepared to go in making concessions, not only to Lutherans, but to Roman Catholics as well. A hint of such a process is given by the Doctors them- selves in their treatment of the doctrine of the Lord's vSupper. But Dr. William Forbes went much farther, with regard not only to that doctrine but to some others also which could not possibly be viewed as fundamental. One, it must be admitted, cannot help admiring the skill with which he states his case. He was the worthy precursor of those who in our day have tried to reconcile, among other subjects of supposed conflict, Science and Religion. The manner in which he takes up the doctrine of Justification, for instance, already referred to, and shows the way in which the views of the Roman Church and Protestantism can be reconciled, is both plausible and suggestive. But, not content with attempting a recon- ciliation on this doctrine and that of the Lord's Supper, which are vital and funda- mental to all the Churches, he takes up other doctrines which the Reformed Churches had practically repudiated, such as Purgatory, Praying for the Dead,^ the Intercession and Invocation of Angels and Saints, and attempts ' Ccnsid. Mod., ii. pp. 138-40. CHURCH UNION 175 to prove that these doctrines when rightly looked into are found to be Scriptural and true, not in the Romanist, but in a much deeper sense. But as an ounce of practice is worth a ton of theory, it may be interesting to note the way in which the Aberdeen Doctors carried out what they preached. We have ample testimony on this point with regard to one of them at least, for the biographer of Dr. John Forbes informs us of his practice after he was expelled from his chair and deposed from the ministry of the Church.^ On finding the Presbyterian form of Church government adopted and set up by the nation, Forbes did not cut himself off from the communion of the Church, but as a private individual remained in close con- nection with it. His conduct in this respect was quite in keeping with his views, for while he held the Episcopal form to be better in the circumstances than the Presbyterian, he did not connect it with any divine right theory, but considered that either should be adopted according to expediency. He bowed to the will of the nation for the time being, and kept up a friendly relation with ministers and members of the Church. As his biographer remarks, he bore his dis- missal with a calm and gentle mind, [he ^ Vila, p. 59. Appendix IX, 176 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS never returned his enemies evil for evil, but with kindliness and true Christian char- acter he always commended them to God in his prayers, as may be seen from his Diary. He handed over his own house for the use of his successors in that Chair of Theology so as to be residence for them in the future. He made no schism or separation from them, but joined with them in public worship, listened to the Presbyterian sermon, observed all the public fasts instituted by the Synod, always when the occasion arose took part in the Holy Communion when they administered it, and ever3rwhere by his shining example showed what was the duty of a good man in such a distracted state of the Church, and from his Spiritual Exercises it is clear how anxiously he used every opportunity to pro- mote in his own heart a consciousness of devotion and love to God. Dr. Garden also points out a fact worth noting, that what was true of Dr. John Forbes in particular was more or less true of the nation as a whole. ^ It would seem that churchmen generally accepted the rule of the victorious party much in the same way as the country submits at the present time to the Government of the day irre- spective of its political opinions. For he remarks that men's minds had not been * Vita, 71. CHURCH UNION 177 mutually exasperated to that degree of hatred and spite against each other on account of difference of opinion concerning ecclesiastical rule to which they afterwards reached. For formerly, when Episcopacy was established in Scotland, the Presbyterian joined the Episcopalian in holy matters and did not build a separate church and altar, so in like manner when the Presby- terian rule was established in Scotland the Episcopalians did not depart from communion with them. And again, on the restoration of Charles ii., when Episcopacy was reintroduced, Presbyterian ministers and laity continued in the same communion with them, nor did they found a separate sect until the year 1666, about which time the Presbyterian ministers throughout the whole kingdom suddenly made a disruption from the churches, and taught the people to do the same. Forbes, as mentioned in the previous lecture, was compelled to leave the quiet retreat which he had secured for himself in Aberdeen, having chosen his old University town for the access which it gave him to the public libraries. He was busy at the time putting the finishing touches to his great work on the History of Christian Doctrine^ and was naturally desirous of having at hand the material that would enable him 12 178 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS to prosecute and complete his task. But the appearance of the Solemn League and Covenant disturbed his peace, for he had to sign it or to undergo ecclesiastical cen- sure and leave the country. He preferred exile, and on the 5th of April 1644 he left his native land and made sail for Belgium. It is again of interest to observe the way in which he regarded the different Com- munions of the Protestant Church which he found on the Continent and his relations towards them.^ There as at home he made no difference. He was received by them into full communion and took full advantage of the liberty granted. Let us again quote his biographer.- He wandered through the whole Belgian Confederacy, and frequently preached at the request of the pastors in the churches of Englishmen and Scotsmen, to the very great consolation and edification of the people, who wondered what kind of a church the Scottish Church was, if it ejected from the college of its pastors so reverend a man. While in Holland he stayed in Amsterdam and occupied himself there in editing his great work, which he declined to publish unless with the approval of the most famous theologians of the academies in the Belgian Confederacy, and they willingly ' Vita, 72. * Appendix X. CHURCH UNION 179 gave their approval to the edition of this work. It is generally held that the life of a good man is of more value than his writings, how- ever distinguished. There can be no dispute about the position accorded to the works of Dr. John Forbes. They rank with the very best of their day and still form an out- standing landmark in the progress of theology. But his practice in relation to the particular subject under consideration ought to receive its full meaning, and its lesson to the different churches of Protestant Europe at the present day is surely not without deep significance. He failed in bringing about peace between the contending parties in his own Church in Scotland. Nor did he succeed in uniting the Reformed and Lutheran Churches in one outward organisation. But he did some- thing that was perhaps far better, he in his own person bridged these external distinc- tions ; to him they were of no real signi- ficance. He found himself in communion with every true Church of Christ wherever his lot was cast, and every true Church of Christ was glad to welcome into its member- ship so great and good and learned a man. Indeed, the lesson which he taught can also be learned from the Churches themselves, for they put no barriers in the way of those who happened to be of another communion. i8o THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS The mere form of Chm-ch government did not count for much in their lives, why should it count so much now ? Is it not folly on the part of the Churches to talk of union so long as any of them erect such barriers, or so long as ministers and members of certain Churches refuse to hold Christian fellowship with or even to enter the churches of those who happen to belong to ecclesias- tical bodies that have a different polity. The first thing to be done surely is to revive the spirit and practice of the age of John Forbes, or even of an earlier time, when free com- munion between the different Churches of the Reformed Faith was the common practice. When that is done, the outward union, which after all may not be of prime importance, may follow.^ ^ Appendix XL VII UNION IN OUR DAY When one compares the basis proposed for union in the seventeenth century with that which is suggested in our day^ the problem presented to our fathers would seem to have been much simpler. The question which they had to settle was one of doctrine. Were an agreement come to by the different Churches on the subject of creed, reconcilia- tion, it was thought, would speedily follow. The problem has, however, become compli- cated in the course of centuries, and fresh points of difference have sprung up. In addition to the difficulty of creed, w^e have to find reconciliation on such topics as Church government, worship, ceremonies, and the relation of Church and State. In fact, some of these are proving quite as troublesome as the question of creed ; in any case they are bulking more in the public mind, and this may be a sign not so much of agreement as of indifference ; or it may point to a basis of union which transcends mere intel- i8i 1 82 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS lectual assent to particular doctrines. If so, it must be accepted as a hopeful omen, for it indicates a higher and truer conception of religion, and is a tribute to the position of the Aberdeen Doctors, who looked for concord through faith in the essentials of Christianity — to a unity of spirit, in short, rather than to a hard and fast uniformity, as the result of an agreement of opinion on doctrines that are neither fundamental nor essential to salvation. And one is more assured of this when it is noted that the movement in our day on the subject of Christian doctrine is on the lines laid down by the Aberdeen Doctors. Their position of course was influenced, partly by the desire for union and partly by the conviction that what they called the super- structure reared by the Churches on the foundation of primitive Christian belief ought to be regarded with easy tolerance. It must be admitted that the movement in our day is similarly influenced. Certain of the Churches have passed Declaratory Acts, explaining the sense in which they accept particular doctrines, and the Church of Scot- land, unable, or unwilling, to free itself ab- solutely from the Westminster Confession of Faith has received liberty to frame a new formula of subscription, and it is very significant that the one approved of at the last UNION IN OUR DAY 183 General Assembly — 1909 — follows the lead of the Aberdeen Doctors. A belief in the fundamental doctrines of Christianity is practically all that is to be demanded of the ministers of the Church/ John Durie and those who co-operated with him failed in their object; they could not get the two great Communions that they wished to unite to agree on the question of doctrine. The first Apostle of Union, as Durie may well be called, showed a true instinct in selecting the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper as that on which differences should first be settled. Not only was it a doctrine on which the two Churches chiefly, and even violently, disagreed, but it was the one which of all others ought to be the bond of union. In no other act of worship can Christian fellowship be more clearly seen than in the common feast, in the holy service of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Here, if anywhere, surely, all differences should vanish, and the spirit of unity and peace between the different Churches of Christendom prevail. But one has only to glance at the letter which Durie's appeal elicited from the Aberdeen Doctors to see that this great act of Christian worship, 1 " I hereby subscribe the Confession of Faith, declaring that I accept it as the Confession of this Church, and that I beUeve the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith contained therein." This has to pass the Barrier Act. 1 84 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS in which the element of a common faith ought to unite the members, was lowered into a dispute about innumerable doctrines in rela- tion to it, about which an agreement of opinion could not possibly be found. The Doctors tried to point this out, as best they could, and would have lifted the whole matter into the higher region of a common faith. Tolerance was their great watch- word ; they knew that salvation did not depend upon a true opinion, but upon a spiritual apprehension of the truth in\o1ved. To this higher region they would invite those who find it impossible to come to an in- tellectual agreement on many points of doctrine, and their own practice, particu- larly that of Dr. John Forbes, proved that it was not a height which was unattainable. They would not make differences of opinion a cause for schism, or for the breaking up of the National Church; they agreed with those who held that '' community of rehgious life is all the more necessary, because unity of rehgious opinion is impossible. They solved the religious problem, therefore, not by giving it up, and saying, since men cannot agree about religion let them separate, and each party keep its own principles, and set up its own worship, but by pushing the problem to its legiti- mate conclusion, and drawing out the UNION IN OUR DAY 185 essential distinction between dogma and religion." ^ The soundness of their position is further seen when the question is considered : Is it possible, even for the sake of union, among members of the Christian Church, as well as among the Churches themselves, practically to wipe out nineteen centuries of theological thought and progress ? Is there not such a thing as a development of Christian doctrine ? Does not the theory of the Church itself imply that the spirit of God has been working in it during the long period from the apostles' time to ours, and leading it into the path of progress ? Growth in belief, as in grace, in the Church, as in the individual, is a truth which is generally accepted in our day. How then, it may be asked, can the Churches, even in the interests of ecclesiastical peace, stultify their own spiritual vitality and deny their theo- logical development ? By doing so they would be committing an ecclesiastical felo de se, and cutting themselves adrift from the modern world. Even supposing they agreed upon the Apostles' Creed, or some such primitive document, no one could contend that the Churches of our day hold the doctrines therein stated in the same sense as their ^ Tulloch, Rational Theology, ii. p. 460. 1 86 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS original framers. Even the articles of belief that are found in the New Testament are not accepted by us in exactly the same way as they were by the disciples and the apostles. It might be possible to single out a certain number of doctrines and call them funda- mental, but it would not for a moment be affirmed that the interpretation put upon them by the primitive Church is the same as that imposed upon them by us. Indeed, the writings of Dr. William Forbes and the views of the Aberdeen Doctors themselves, on such a subject as the Lord's Supper, show the progress that had been made in theological thought up to their day. Bishop WilHam Forbes' book is an interesting case in point. We have only to consider the way in which he reads his own thoughts into such doctrines as Purgatory, and Praying for the Dead, to see the difference of his interpreta- tion, not only from that of the Roman Church, but of the Protestant Church as well ; and it would be impossible to imagine that the Early Church held the views which he promulgated and defended. It must be cordially admitted that the way in which he reads into them a wider and deeper meaning, and one which even those who reject the doctrines themselves cannot help admiring, is very convincing ; but this only goes to prove that, however plausible it may be to look for UNION IN OUR DAY 187 a basis of union in the Confessions of the New Testament or any of the earliest creeds, it is impossible for us to view their teaching in the light in which it was first accepted. We are therefore driven back to the position of the Aberdeen Doctors, who looked for union, not in theological opinion or dogma, but in faith in a personal Redeemer. Christian theology is a development from such a simple faith, but it is not essential to Christian communion. It is often the cause of a narrow sectarianism and bitter dissent. In the larger and purer region of personal faith can true Catholicity alone be found. A common faith, therefore, rather than a common creed, was the ideal that they kept before them, and it is also the ideal that the Churches which are considering the question of union should cherish. It does not, of course, follow that their distinctive testimonies should be thrown over. The historical documents which mark the stages in their theological growth could be pre- served, but the spirit in which they should be interpreted ought to be the one that animated the Aberdeen Doctors. Nothing, accordingly, would be lost. Comprehension and not compromise should be the watch- word. There would, we are told, be little difficulty I 88 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS on the question of doctrine on the part of the Presbyterian and Episcopahan Churches, between whom a union is being talked of in these days.^ This movement has, indeed, been in the air for many years, and it has received a special impetus from the con- ferences that have been proceeding regarding it, in Australia. Its centre hitherto has been Scotland, where so many religious and ecclesiastical questions have been fought out, and it has come back to that country again, chiefly through the finding of the recent Lambeth Conference on the subject. It must be admitted that the chief movers in the matter hitherto have been the Episcopalians, but within recent years a party, not very large, but active, has grown up in the Church of Scotland, that favours the idea. But in the meantime the vast bulk of Presbyterian opinion is indifferent if not hostile. Presby- terianism has worked well in Scotland. It has, so to speak, become established, and very good reasons would have to be shown why the Scottish Church should disown it. The Scottish Church, however, has an open mind on the subject. It believes, for one thing, that its system of government is Scriptural ; it even goes the length of ' A very good sketch of the steps taken towards union since the Disruption wall be found in an article by Professor Cooper in The Church Quarterly for April 1909. UNION IN OUR DAY 189 maintaining that it is the one which first commended itself to the Apostohc and Early Church, and that Episcopacy was a later development. It believes in its orders, in the inclusion of the laity in the government of the Church, and in the priesthood of all its members. In its various courts it sees the safeguard at once of its freedom and its discipline. But, looking at the whole question, the Scottish Church is quite prepared to say : If you show us a better system we are quite prepared to consider it. If a different form of Church govern- ment, which can claim equal authority, can be proved to suit the needs of the Church and the country, we are quite ready to examine it, and, if the nation so desires, to accept it. I do not think that for the sake of union merely, which may only be sentimental, the Scottish Church would, for a moment, dream of giving up or even modifying, to any serious extent, its long- cherished Presbyterianism. The only argu- ment that could have weight would be the fact that, by so doing, the cause of Christ in the land would be better served. It is interesting to turn away for a moment from what one conceives to be the mind of the Scottish Church on the subject, to the attitude that is taken up by the Anglican Church. That attitude, from the time of 190 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS Laud to recent years, has been one which no self-respecting Presbyterian could for a moment contemplate with anything but a hostile spirit, for the position of the Anglican Church unchurched Presbyterianism. Its ministers were no ministers at all, nor were its people Church members. These views, of course, followed from the conception which it formed of what is calls the " Historic Episcopate." A Church which has not Bishops who can lay claim to apostolical succession, is no Church at all. It is not surprising that the Presbyterian Churches have hitherto refused to seriously negotiate for union with a Communion that held such views. They, in the opinion of many, could, with stronger reasons, set against the " His- toric Episcopate " their own " Historic Presbyterate " ; their form of Church govern- ment and orders go back to an earlier date, but their conception of the Church is a much more Catholic one, and they are quite prepared to comprehend within its com- munion all Christian bodies that have the " notes of a true kirk." Recent events, however, we are told, have considerably modified this exclusive position of the Anglican Church. The condition of ecclesiastical life in the Colonies and in America is having a leavening influence on its views, and it was through pressure brought UNION IN OUR DAY 191 to bear upon it from these quarters that the Lambeth Conference framed its dehverance on the terms on which union might be possible with Presbyterian Churches. Doubt, how- ever, may be entertained if these views have been substantially modified after all, and the contention of many that it is absorption rather than union which the sister Com- munion across the border aims at, is not without warrant. For example, the resolu- tions which the Conference came to " im- plicitly contain the assumption that the * Historic Episcopate,' as that is understood by the Anglican Church, is an essential feature of the Church. That without the Episcopate there can be no true Church, and without episcopal ordination no true ministry." Now, if that be a deduction that can be legitimately drawn from these resolu- tions, it is difficult to see where any modifica- tion of the well-known views of the Anglican Church comes in. And that this deduction is far from being unwarranted may further be seen from the fact that a " period of transition " is contemplated in which, pre- sumably, the ministers of the Presbyterian Church who did not accept re-ordination could exercise some of the functions of the ministry in an Episcopal Church, and the period of transition would only be passed, and the union fully accomplished, when the 192 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS race of non-episcopally ordained ministers had died out.^ It will thus be seen that the Anglican Church requires a considerable amount of leavening before the Scottish Church can meet with it, on equal terms, to discuss the question of union. When it is prepared to view the question of Church government with an open mind, and frankly to consider what system would be best for the Christian people of England, apart altogether from any Divine right theory, invented, as is well known, by one of its own Bishops for polemical purposes ; when it is wilhng to place other Communions on the same Christian platform as its own, and to discuss the whole subject in a broad and liberal spirit, then, but not till then, will the time have arrived for join- ing together two of the great Protestant bodies which divide the English-speaking world." As a token of such a spirit, let the English Church throw open its pulpits to the ministers of the Presbyterian Church ; let it accept, without re-ordination, the fully qualified clergy of the Scottish Church ; let the members of that Church be freely admitted to its Communion Table ; let it be prepared to consider the advisability of giving the 1 See The British Weekly for 13th August 190S, where, in an article by Dr. Meiklejohn, this is distinctly stated. ^Conference of Bishops of the Anglican Communion, hold en at Lambeth Palace, 1908. UNION IN OUR DAY 193 laity a share in its government, of establish- ing various Church courts, and of causing the Bishop to be subject to the discipline of the Church, and under its control like the rest of his brethren. Then, but not till then, will be the time to consider the pre- cedents of 1610, or any other precedents, by which the Presbyterianism of Scotland and of the world can be transformed into Episcopacy. Nor have we, in all these contentions, gone beyond the position which existed in Scotland during the first Episcopate of 1610-38, or the views and practice of the Aberdeen Doctors. These, in relation to the present subject, have been discussed by us at such length as to require no further expansion or elucidation. Dr. John Forbes and his colleagues were, in this matter, quite content to submit to the national will ; they were ready to serve in a Presbyterian or Episcopal Church, as Episcopacy was understood and existed in their day in Scotland. It, in fact, was more Presbyterian than Episcopal. They preferred Episcopacy on the ground that they thought it a better system of Church government. And, considering the state of the Church in Scotland at the time, one need not be surprised at this. Bishop Patrick Forbes' biography is a record of the work which was demanded of all who had the 13 194 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS interests of the Church at heart. ^ That work practically consisted in re-establishing Chris- tianity in many of the parishes of the country. There were numerous charges without pastors. The ministry was in a disorganised state, and there was grave danger of many districts falling into a condition of semi -heathenism. The ecclesiastical situation demanded a government which could best be carried out by Bishops, and Patrick Forbes himself was an illustrious example of how the work could be done. One accordingly can understand how, in vast countries like Australia and Canada, where the planting and organisa- tion of churches require personal initiation and supervision, even Churches which are thoroughly Presbyterian in principle might, as a matter of expediency, be willing to accept a modified Episcopacy. This indeed has been distinctly admitted by the leader of the Presbyterian Church of Australia,- and the Canadian Church, some years ago, in view of the great work that lay before it in the Far West, set apart one of its ministers with the functions of^ a Superintendent,^ to organise its forces, and to plant churches there. The union of Protestantism in these vast dominions is regarded by many to be ' Bishop Forbes' Funeralls, p. Ixxv. ^ Dr. Meiklejohn, in British Weekly, 13th August 1908. 2 Dr. James Robertson. See Life, by Ralph Connor. UNION IN OUR DAY 195 essential if it is to hold its own against the Roman Catholic Church, and this applies to India as well. In these countries, where there are no endowments for religion, great difficulty is experienced in supporting the ministry in poor and sparsely populated districts, and it is felt that, if the resources of the Protestant Churches were united, headway could be made. The Roman Catholic system makes it equal to almost any situation, and, its strength not being im- paired by division, it is seen establishing itself even in localities where the prevailing spirit is Protestant. It was probably similar reasons which induced Knox to originate the order of Superintendents in the Reformed Church of Scotland. He had the same difficulties to cope with, and he found that only by personal supervision could the principles of the new faith be conserved and established. He had to win Scotland from Roman Catholicism, and the well-known religious and ecclesiastical circumstances of the country, at the time, called for the special means which he adopted. In all this, however, there is nothing similar to what is understood by Diocesan Episcopacy. No theory of the '' Historic Episcopate " was set up by Knox, nor is it, for a moment, entertained by the Pres- byterian Churches of Australia, Canada, or 196 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS India. The truth is, between the conception of the Church and its ministry as held by Episcopahans and that favoured by Pres- byterians, there is a great gulf fixed. The bureaucratic idea, with its accompanying sacerdotalism, which prevails in the Anglican Church, is utterly alien to the spirit of Presbyterianism. It is this which forms the great dividing line between the two. The Church of Scotland and the Church of England are at one in holding by national religion ; not so much in theory as in fact. In creed they may not be so far apart ; they differ in worship, but that difficulty might be overcome ; but so long as their concep- tion of the Church and its ministry is radic- ally different, it would be idle to talk of an incorporated union. One must sympathise with those who aim at such a consummation, but it is not by reducing the outworks that such an end can be reached ; the inward principles that move both Churches and colour their whole life must first of all be reconciled. In the time of the Aberdeen Doctors these principles were only beginning to declare themselves. During the early years of the Reformed religion inter-com- munion between the different Churches of Protestant Europe was common. The differ- ences soon began to declare themselves which caused estrangement and division, and the UNION IN OUR DAY 197 hopeful sign of our times is that the leaders of thought in all the Churches are beginning to experience qualms of conscience as to whether the causes which separate them are real and vital, or only the expression, after all, of half-truths. Besides, large movements, outside the Churches and which they cannot control, are beginning to force their hands and to direct them into a fresh study of the root principles of the Christian Church itself. There must be a considerable searching of heart before the end for which many are earnestly labouring can be realised. If a union, such as has now been discussed, is to come, it will be by means of forces which do not in the meantime appear on the surface. We have now to turn to another move- ment which is generally admitted to be much more hopeful, that is, the union between the Church of Scotland and the United Free Church. It would be quite beyond my purpose to go back upon ancient history or to refer to matters which have no bearing on the question, as it presents itself to serious- minded men, in our day. A knowledge of the history of both Churches is, of course, absolutely necessary for a right understanding of the subject, but the situation as it appears at the moment is what chiefly concerns us here. By resolutions of the Assemblies of the two Churches, come to at their meetings in 198 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS May, 1909, committees were appointed to confer on the subject, and, so far as the con- ferences that will take place are concerned, the committees are unrestricted. They will have a free hand. The results of their labours, however, will only be presented in the form of reports which the two Churches may accept, modify, or reject, as they please. It is of importance, however, to note the causes which have led up to this move- ment ; to consider whether they are artificial or real, and to inquire into the force that may be in them or behind them. A number of arguments have been adduced which have become the commonplaces of those who are most forward in the matter. Scrip- ture is referred to. Our Lord's prayer for unity is put in the forefront, but this prayer, it should be observed, is for unity and not for uniformity, and either, as is well known, can exist without the other. It is also main- tained that the present ecclesiastical con- dition in Scotland is a scandal ; two Churches, it is alleged, are in wasteful competition with each other, when they ought to be united and working hand in hand for the good of the country. Indeed, the strongest argu- ment of all is this same good of the country. It is affirmed that if the two Churches, which are practically one in most things, would combine their forces, drunkenness would UNION IN OUR DAY 199 cease, immorality would vanish away, lapsing would be unheard of, the Churches would be full to overcrowding, irreligion would be banished from the land, and a new age would dawn.^ Now, a little reflection should cause a man to hesitate in promulgating such views and raising such hopes. Without for a moment discounting the good that might follow from such a union, it requires only a very super- ficial knowledge of the history of the Christian Church to know how vain such hopes may be. The Church was one and united, not only in Scotland, but throughout Western Europe, immediately before the Reformation, and yet, at no time in its history, w^as it known to be so corrupt. It was practically one in England before the great Wesleyan Secession, and at no time since the Refor- mation was it held to be so dead. It was also one in Scotland before the Disruption, and at no period in its existence was it be- lived to be so cold and lifeless. The teaching of history does not favour the arguments of those who thus plead for union. Indeed, they are both positively and negatively at fault, for the undivided Churches of those days were also tyrannical and arrogant, and w^ho knows but under similar conditions history might repeat itself ? If we were told 1 Dr. Norman MacLeod : speech in General Assembly, 1908. 200 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS that a new spirit prevailed, that the Churches were possessed with a Divine afflatus, that power from on high did visit them, and that they were more or less unconscious instru- ments in a Higher Hand which was guiding them into union ; we would be prepared to bow before such a power and to accept its leading. There are those, with a purer vision, who declare that such signs are visible ; we can only pray and hope that they see clearly ; but in the meantime it may not be amiss to point to one or two causes which have been influencing both Churches, and forcing them to consider the question of union. These causes have not been much referred to, but to a shrewd and worldly observer they will be more apparent than the deeper and more spiritual reasons on which union may ulti- mately depend. There can be no doubt, for one thing, that the financial position of the United Free Church is full of anxiety and alarm. ^ Ever since the union of the two bodies that com- pose it, there has been a marked and steady falHng off in the contributions of its members towards the fund upon which the stipends of its ministers depend. Hardly a Pres- bytery meeting takes place without the alarm ^ See Proceedings and Debates of the General Assembly of U.F. Church for 1909, p. 269. UNION IN OUR DAY 201 being sounded, and the discussion on the subject at last Assembly emphasised the seriousness of the situation. Should minis- ters not receive a living wage the Church is bound to suffer ; and, at no distant date, unless matters improve very considerably, what prevails in America will find a parallel in this country ; there will be churches with empty pulpits. Well, it is nothing to the discredit of the United Free Church if it is found looking towards a union with the Church of Scotland with its endowments as a solution of the difficulty. If the struggle to maintain ordinances in districts where one church would be sufficient is found impossible, why should the unnecessary church not be closed and its resources trans- ferred to the one that remains ? Everybody would say that such a policy shows not only a Christian spirit, but sound common- sense. Nor is the Church of Scotland without its fears. It never knows when the swing of the pendulum will point to a disestablish- ment crusade. At any moment the political situation might play into the hands of those who are unfriendly to all Churches, and especially to national Churches. And even the Dissenters themselves as a counsel of despair might be tempted to join in the attack, and bring about the ruin of the 202 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS Established Church. It is not therefore surprising, with such possibiUties before it, that the Church of Scotland should make friends with its enemies before it is too late. In a pohcy of this kind a man of the world would see common-sense and a practical spirit which would approve itself to all sober-minded men. There may be nothing heroic in it. We do not say, for a moment, that it has even crossed the minds of the ecclesiastics, who are most forward in this movement, nor do we imagine that the action of the leaders of the United Free Church is seriously influenced by the financial con- dition around them. Still, these facts, which are visible to the ordinary observer, may form the subconsciousness of those who are guiding both Churches in this matter. It is best, we think, to face the facts and to make no attempt to palm off any pious frauds upon ourselves or others. No good can come from a union which is not entered into with perfect honesty on both sides, and with a clear admission of the true reasons. But even such reasons as have now been given — both those which have been put forward by the leaders themselves, and those that appear cogent to the ordinary observer— are not sufficient grounds, even for so great an object, if the positions which either of the two contracting parties have UNION IN OUR DAY 203 fought for and still cherish are greatly affected or grossly violated. God Himself, we believe, does not act against a man's conscience, and we repudiate the idea that the conscience of Churches, any more than that of individuals, should be tampered with by unworthy considerations. Now what are the positions, or principles, as they are more frequently called, for which the two Churches contend ? These, we have it authoritatively stated on both sides, are two in number. National Religion and Spiritual Independence/ After many years of warfare the two Churches have come at last to an agreement. Many of the prin- ciples, real or imaginary, about which there has been contention and strife, have vanished into air, thin air, and now, at last, the same platform is occupied, and the only point, but a very important one, that remains, is : whether there is an agreement as to the meaning which is attached to these two positions. Do they really lend them- selves to different meanings, or, when they are rightly viewed, will it be found they can have only one significance ? This is the question, it seems to me, upon which the result hangs, and it is to a brief discussion of it that I shall now devote myself. In coming to a right understanding regard- ^ Dr. Mair, The Scottish Churches, p. i. 204 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS ing questions of this kind, the best plan is to see how they evolve themselves in history. One should find out the facts or data that may afford guidance. It is useless to begin the discussion in the air, and reason about abstractions. This is a method, we confess, to which the theological mind is prone, and it is one that appeals very strongly to Scotsmen. It is this failing of the national temperament which is responsible for many of the ecclesiastical troubles of past times. A sacred meaning would seem to be attached to the word " principle." Whenever this term is mentioned, Scotsmen somehow refuse to reason about it. It is accepted, and there is an end to it. Now, principle is a very ambiguous term; it may mean a uni- versal truth, but not infrequently it only stands for an individual opinion. In the present connection it is better not to attach too serious an importance to it. Let us, therefore, turn our minds away from National Religion as a theory or a principle, to National Religion as a fact. What then do we find when we limit our view to this aspect of it ? We discover that the thing itself existed long before men began to reflect upon it or to devise any theories or form any principles regarding it. Take any of the national Churches of Christen- dom. Consider, more particularly, the one UNION IN OUR DAY 205 with which we are especially familiar, the Church of Scotland, and what do we find ? We see it from very small beginnings, in the sixth century, winning its way into the national life, and growing up unconsciously, as it were, and gradually forming a part of it. In the course of centuries it became strong, and was accepted by the nation as the expression of their religious beliefs, and established in their hearts and in the con- stitution of the country as the Church of the land. We cannot lay our hand on any particular act by which the country formally recognised it as the national Church ; it simply grew, and became consolidated just as the other elements in the corporate life of the nation. Nor was the Church singular in this respect. The same thing took place with our civil constitution, and this is what is meant when we say that the constitution of the nation is an unwritten one. Other countries, like America, may have paper ones. That nation met through its representatives, and formally framed a Constitution and wrote it down on paper. This cannot be said of ours. We may have theories of the State, we may advocate principles with regard to it, but as a matter of fact it simply grew. One step after another was taken until what now exists was evolved. Here, then, we have the two great aspects 2o6 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS of the national life gradually growing up side by side. They are not the national life, but simply aspects of it. The nation is greater than, and behind, both Church and State, and they are simply expressions of it ; the one in the civil, and the other in the religious sphere. As, then, it would be absurd to say that the nation at any particular moment selected out of a number of com- peting ones the special form of civil govern- ment which is our glory and our pride, it would be equally absurd to say that it singled out the Church of Scotland from a variety of ecclesiastical bodies that were bidding for its favour, and declared, '' This is the one that we prefer." Nothing of the kind took place. The contention that the national Church was selected out of many, and that it unjustly received special privileges, is a fiction, about which the less that is now said the better. The Church was national, not because of any act at any past time on the part of the State, but because it was the nation in one of its aspects.^ Even when we come to the Reformation and the Revolution Settlement, we do not find a new Church being set up, but the old one reformed. The Reformation itself was a long process. It did not take place in a ^ Freeman, Disestablishment and Disendowtnent : What are they ? p. 29. ., . UNION IN OUR DAY 207 moment, as some would think. Like every other change it came to a head, and that head was reached in Scotland when the nation expressed its approval of the reforms that were advocated by Knox and his friends. It never occurred to them that they were setting up a new Church. It is true that the changes which took place received parliamentary sanction, but that is a very different thing from any formal act on the part of the nation disestablishing the old Church and establishing the new. What resulted from the long, and even violent, process was the Church of Scotland, reformed. Indeed, it was at this time that the Church became truly national. The Reformation was an awakening of the different countries of Western Europe to self - consciousness. The Roman Catholic Church had imposed a type, uniform and in the main Italian, upon the different nations which ecclesiastically owned its government. The Church of Scotland, like the Church of England, was ruled from Rome ; but with the Reforma- tion nationalities began to assert themselves, and one of the first things they did was to throw off the Roman yoke, and make their respective Churches the expression of their own particular religious temperament,^ ^ Masterman, The Rights and Responsibilities of National Churches, p. 2 et seq. 208 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS so that if the Church of Scotland was national before the Reformation it was much so after it. It was then that it became the embodi- ment of the deepest beliefs of the whole people. Much the same thing took place at the Revolution Settlement. The type of Church government which the nation favoured had been violently shattered by the three Stuart kings. In 1690 that type was re- storedj and, as always happens, when what is lost and is much cherished is found again, a strong reaction takes place ; so the national Church of Scotland under the Revolution Settlement became more confirmed than ever in its doctrine, government, and worship. Now there has not in all this been a word said about the principle of National Religion. As a matter of history, that principle has evolved from the fact, and not the fact from the principle. We do not say that there is no such thing as the principle of National Religion, but we attach very little importance to it compared to the thing itself. There is very little heard about this principle in countries where there are no national Churches, and if there never had been a national Church in Scotland very little would be heard about it now. The Scottish nation did not begin by declaring, " Christ is Head of the nation as well as of the Church, we must therefore have a national Church UNION IN OUR DAY 209 in which this is embodied." The national Church first arose, and because of that we now speak of the principle. It seems to me, then, that if the two Churches are agreed on the question of National Religion, the sense in which it has now been expounded is the only sense in which it can exist and be accepted. The Church is the nation in its religious aspect, just as the State is the nation in its civil aspect. The nation itself is behind both, and this is what is meant by the King being head of the English Church as well as the English State ; he represents the nation which is above both Church and State. This also is what is meant by the Lord High Commissioner being present at the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. He does not represent the State : that is a huge blunder. He represents the King who represents the nation which is above them all. It will be observed that we have not in this discussion used the expression the Estab- lished Church, and yet the late Mr. Freeman,^ when debating practically the same points as they are illustrated by the history and constitution of the Church of England, uses no other term. He never speaks of National Religion, either in theory or in fact, nor does he even use the phrase the national Church ' Disestablishment and Disendowmeni. 14 210 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS or the Church of England ; it is always and invariably the Established Church. The meaning of this is plain. To the mind of Mr. Freeman the terms are practically syn- onymous, because they all are but different expressions for the same thing. It never entered into his mind that there could be National Religion without an Established Church, for the thing had never existed. Principal Tulloch heldt he same views, for while he admits that it is possible to conceive of National Religion as a principle or a theory, he never knew of its existence independent of an Established Church.^ If, then, the Church of Scotland goes into this conference with the question of Establishment as an open question, it must also go into it with the question of National Religion as an open question ; and again, if the United Free Church goes into the conference holding by National Religion it must also go into it holding by the Established Church. The two things are inseparable, and what God has joined together man should not put asunder. It is from this point of view that a sound criticism may be passed on Professor Flint's declaration that there is no principle of Establishment. In two lectures delivered by ^ National Religion in Theory and Fact, St. Giles' Lecture, 1886. UNION IN OUR DAY 211 him in 1882 on the " Duties of the People of Scotland to the Church of Scotland," he adduced very strong reasons for the con- tinued existence of the Established Church, and expressed his belief that the only course for the other Presbyterian Churches in the land, in view of their past history and accepted principles, was to seek to join it. They might wish to have certain modifica- tions made on the relations that existed between the two aspects of the national life, the ecclesiastical and the civil, but there was no good ground why they should seek its overthrow. His lectures are a strong plea for peace and union with the Established Church. But at the very close of his last lecture he would seem to contradict much of what he had previously said, by declaring that, while there was a principle of National Religion there was no principle of Establish- ment. That Establishment was simply the application of a principle.^ A pronounce- ment of this kind, coming from a man like Professor Flint, had a disconcerting effect ; it staggered good churchmen, and it was eagerly laid hold of by Dissenters. Respect for Professor Flint's name may have kept any one from controverting his views. It may be a bold thing to do so now, and even an un- gracious thing, especially by one who, like ^ On Theological, Biblical, and other Subjects, p. 455. 212 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS the present writer, has the profoundest reverence for his character, his abihty, and his work. But a casual perusal of Dr. Flint's lectures shows that he did not discuss the question in its historical aspects. He treated it chiefly on the ground of principle, and from his point of view the conclusion which he came to may be legitimate. Mr. Freeman, on the other hand, treats the matter as a student of history, and it is only in this form that the subject can be properly handled. If, according to Professor Flint's conception, the principle of National Religion had first of all taken shape in the mind of the country, and if after serious consideration and deliberation a choice had been made from a number of competing Churches, of a particular one, and the nation then declared, " We shall make this the national Church, but we must in the first instance determine the conditions on which we shall establish it"; it might then be said that Establishment was no principle, but simply the application of one. But this never happened, and it never can happen in Scotland until the Established Church is formally disestablished by the nation, and the nation makes choice of a new Church for the purpose of establishing it as the national Church of the land. Unless some of the leaders of the Church of Scotland be re- UNION IN OUR DAY 313 strained the first thing may happen/ but the second thing would not hkely take place until the Greek Kalends. It accordingly follows that in looking at the question as an historical fact, the only way in which it can be regarded, Establishment is as much a principle as National Religion. To separate the two may be possible in thought, but impossible in reality. I come now to the second of the two terms of union on which the Churches, we are told, are agreed, that of Spiritual Inde- pendence. Here, again, there has been much speaking and writing, of an abstract and theoretical kind. The subject has been ele- vated to the rank of a principle, and there are those who would seem ready to sacrifice everything for what has never existed in this commonplace world of ours, and for what, so far as the present conditions of human life remain, can never be realised. This, of course, we say with regard to the principle of Absolute Spiritual Independence. The thing itself, however, so far as it is practicable, has existed and still exists. The substance, after all, is the main thing, and it may be worth our while to consider in what it consists. Let me once more adopt the historical ^ This is Dr. A. Taylor Innes's opinion of Dr. Mair's proposals ; see British Weekly, Ji\i February 1907. 214 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS method, the only one that can be relied on in a discussion of this kind. The Church of Scotland declares that it possesses Spiritual Independence. If so, it is of im- portance to discover its nature. Only in this way can the subject be properly under- stood. The Church of Scotland, we have seen, gradually grew up side by side with the State. They formed the two main aspects of the national life. There was, to begin with, no definite relations between them, but as time went on their mutual spheres had to be defined and their relations formally stated. For many centuries this process has been going on, and there is no reason to imagine that it has come to an end. As the national life develops, new conditions may spring up, which will demand a fresh rearrangement, and we are told that this is what is taking place at the present moment. But, for many centuries past, their mutual spheres have been defined, and while united as parts of the national life, each has its own particular functions and independence duly recognised ; and, within their own spheres, each acts without interference on the part of the other. To the State naturally belongs the control over what is material. It has jurisdiction over all property, and the tenure on which pro- perty is held. To the Church pertains con- UNION IN OUR DAY 215 trol over all that is spiritual ; its inde- pendence is recognised, and the jurisdiction of its courts is as free, and their decisions as valid and final, as those of the State. No interference with its freedom, according to the present relations between it and the civil authority, is possible. The Church thus has co-ordinate jurisdiction with the State, and so possesses Spiritual Independence. If it desires to make any alteration in its rela- tion to the State, or to change the condition on which its jurisdiction depends, it must appeal to the nation through Parliament to receive sanction. This is what happened when power was given to it in 1905 to frame a new Formula of Subscription to the Con- fession of Faith. In asking for this sanction the Church did not feel that it was in bond- age, but simply showed respect to the con- ditions on which it is made secure in its privileges, its independence, its property, and its rights. Now is this the sense in which the United Free Church regards what it terms the principle of Spiritual Independence ? The Church of Scotland maintains that it pos- sesses it as a fact. Does the United Free Church admit this, or is there a different kind of Spiritual Independence with which it alone will be satisfied ? Unless its views have considerably altered within recent 2i6 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS years, I fear that it does not see eye to eye with the Church of Scotland on this question. Still, if one can read the signs of the times, the leaders of this Church would seem to be coming round to the Church of Scotland's position. Recent well-known events, and the logic of facts, are proving too much for them, and, like sensible men, they are perceiving that the only Spiritual Freedom possible is the one which the Church of Scotland has for many genera- tions enjoyed. It is absolutely useless at this time of day, with the great practical question of union facing the two Churches, to begin discussing abstract principles. The question which should be answered is. What does history teach ? How do the facts stand ? What really is possible under the circumstances ? It has taken the Scottish nation hundreds of years to thrash out the subject in a practical way. We have the facts before us, and are these facts to be ignored ? Is the teaching of centuries to be thrown aside for some vague principle which has never been realised, and never can ? According to the theory of Spiritual Inde- pendence which the Free Churches in Scot- land used to favour, the State is a secular institution, and therefore for a Church to recognise its relations to it would be sinful. UNION IN OUR DAY 217 Who holds that opinion now ? The Scottish nation is a Christian nation. It has given its expression to its reHgious beliefs through the Established Church. The State is only another aspect of the national life, and if it is purely secular, then the Church must be secular too and so must the nation itself. There is no escape from this conclusion if this theory of the State be maintained. But no Presbyterian in Scotland holds it. Christ came, and the central idea of His teaching was not the Church, but a Kingdom ; and any kingdom that accepts Him as its Head is as holy in its civil actions as in its ecclesiastical. There can thus be no dividing of the world into two — no creating a dualism which is as false as it is pernicious ; and the Church of Scotland feels that it is as much justified in defining its relations to the State as it is in discussing terms of union with the United Free Church. It regards the one as sacred as the other. To suppose that ** Christ should have the hom- age of the United Free Church Assembly, but ought not to receive that of the Parlia- ment of Great Britain ; to conceive of Him only as a Moderator of Ecclesiastical Courts, and not as Lord of lords and King of kings, is an inadequate and dishonouring view of His position in the universe." ^ Is ^ Flint, On Theological, Biblical, and other Subjects, p. 413. 2i8 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS a Scottish Presbyterian under the lordship of Christ only when he is engaged in his private devotions or worshipping in church ? Is he not under the lordship of Christ when discharging his secular duties and taking part as a citizen in the civil and political affairs of the nation ? To believe otherwise would be to transform him into a veritable Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The country has witnessed a striking illustration, lately, of what may happen to a Church which refuses to recognise its relations to the State, and by mutual arrange- ment to safeguard its property and its interests. It had to be taught the painful lesson that Spiritual Freedom on such terms is im- possible. Nor need the United Free Church think that the Act of Parliament which bestowed upon it its share of the property of the old Free Church has given it liberty to deal with its constitution as a scratch majority may at any time determine. It is exactly now in the same position as it was before that Act was passed ; and if it wants to be secured in its property, it can only be by an arrangement with the State such as the Church of Scotland has so long enjoyed. I do not for a moment see why it should not do this. It would then possess Spiritual Independence in the only way in which it can be realised ; and thus the two UNION IN OUR DAY 219 Churches would come to an agreement, for they would both possess what hitherto be- longed to one of them, and all false views would vanish through the realisation of the thing itself. " The Church of Scotland," says Dr. Flint, " in virtue of being the Established Church, has more spiritual in- dependence than any other Church in Scot- land. The Free Church, for example, is under the control of the civil courts of this country, both as regards doctrine and dis- cipline. Any person who deems that he has been unconstitutionally dealt with by the Free Church can bring either her creed or her procedure under the review and control of the civil magistrate. From this sub- jection there is no possible escape. A hun- dred successive disruptions, although they might allow of a hundred changes of her constitution, would not take her a step nearer towards freedom. She can only find deliverance from what she has often called Erastian dependence on the civil courts, by having jurisdiction, within proper limits, duly secured to her own courts by statute law. So long as she does not attain this, she lies, although it may be unwittingly, in ' the house of Erastian bondage.' Ought she to be content to remain there ? I think not ? I think she should wish to breathe the larger and freer ether into which she can 220 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS rise only through establishment on proper conditions. Establishment, instead of neces- sarily involving what is called Erastianism, is the only way to sure immunity from it." ^ These words were spoken in 1882, long before the Union between the Free and United Presbyterian Churches was seriously thought of. The prophecy contained in them was fulfilled to the very letter; and I have no doubt that, should similar circum- stances arise, it would be again fulfilled. In what has now been said no reference has been made to a number of questions which used to bulk largely in any discussion that arose on Church questions in Scotland. I have confined myself entirely to the points of agreement, and the question which the conferring Churches have to decide is, whether the fact of National Religion and the fact of Spiritual Independence are to form the basis of union, or doctrinaire views on these two facts. I do not pretend to have reconciled the views with the facts, and the result of the labours of the joint committee on this somewhat difficult pro- blem will be watched with interest. What guidance can we get from the Aber- deen Doctors on the questions now discussed ? I am afraid that we shall appeal to them in vain, for they never had to face the problem ' On Theological, Biblical, and Other Subjects, p. 430. UNION IN OUR DAY 221 in the form in which it now presents itself. They never dreamed of a National Church that was not also estabhshed, nor of Spiritual Independence apart from the Estabhshed Church. If their teaching on these topics is to be accepted, the position of the Church of Scotland, as it now exists, would have to be maintained. But there is one gleam of light. The question of Spiritual Independence did interest them and their contemporaries. The relation between Church and State was subjected to a violent process in their day, but the process took place within and not outside the Estabhshment. Here then is a platform on which the two Churches may confer if not unite. The relations between the Estabhshed Church and the State may not, as yet, have reached finahty ; indeed, no one in the Church of Scotland pretends that they have. Let the United Free Church, accord- ingly, come with suggestions, and the Church of Scotland is bound to consider them. Indeed, if the Free Church section of the United Church be true to its own history and its Claim of Right, this is what it is bound to do. Of course there are those who hold that two strong, healthy Churches, working side by side i^n a friendly spirit, would render better service tu the country than one Church, and those who think thus, it must be admitted, 222 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS have history on their side. The present desire for union may have much in it that is purely sentimental, and the good results of such a union, should it be accomplished, may be largely imaginary. It is not the divisions of the Churches after all, but their quarrels, that cause scandal ; and it is at this point that the teaching and practice of the Aber- deen Doctors come in with redoubled force. Let the Churches of our day breathe the broad spirit of charit\^ which animated Dr. John Forbes and his friends ; let them live in brotherly amity and hold fellowship with each other ; let them look outside their own narrow limits to the larger Church of Christ that lies beyond ; let them, in short, remember that it was a Divine Kingdom which Jesus came to found, and then their differences will sink into insignificance, and they will strive, not against, but with each other, in establishing that Kingdom throughout all the world. APPENDIX I LIST OF WORKS BY DR. HASTIE The Reality of Romanism : A Survey and an Elucidation. By J. Frohschammer. Translated from the German. 1878. The Elements of Philosophy. Part First : The Nature and Problems of Philosophy. 1881. The Examples of the Past as Guides to the Young Anglo-Indian : An Address delivered to the Pupils of La Martiniere, Calcutta, on Founder's Day, 13th September 1882. 1882. Protestant Missions to the Heathen. By Dr. Th. Christlieb. Translated with additions and appendices. 1882. Hindu Idolatry and English Enlightenment : Six Letters addressed to Educated Hindus, con- taining a Practical Discussion of Hinduism. 1883. The Philosophy of Art : An Introduction to the Scientific Study of ^Esthetics. By Hegel and C. L. Michelet. Translated 1886. History of the Christian Philosophy of Religion from the Reformation to Kant. By Bernhard Piinger. Translated from the German. With Preface by Professor Flint, D.D., LL.D. 1887. The Philosophy of Law : An Exposition of the Fundamental Principles of Jurisprudence as 2 24 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS the Science of Right. By Immanuel Kant. Translated fron the German. 1887. Outlines of the Science of Jurisprudence : An Introduction to the Systematic Study of Law. Translated and edited from the Juristic Encyclopaedias of Richter, Friedlander, and Ahrens. 1887. The Sources of the Law of England : An Introduc- tion to the Study of English Law. By H. Brunner, Professor in the University of Berlin. Translated from the German. 1888. Hymns and Thoughts on Rehgion. By Novalis. With a Biographical Sketch. Translated and edited. 1888. History of German Theology in the Nineteenth Century. By F. Lichtenberger, Dean of the Faculty of Protestant Theology at Paris. Translated and edited. 1889. History of Christian Ethics. By Dr. Chr. Ernst Luthardt. Translated from the German. 1889. Christmas Eve : A Dialogue on the Celebration of Christmas. By Schleiermacher. Translated. 1890. The Philosophy of Right with Special Reference to the Principles and Development of Law. By Diodato Lioy, Professor in the University of Naples. Translated from the ItaHan. In two Volumes. 1891. Kant's Principles of PoHtics, including his Essay on Perpetual Peace. Edited and translated. 1891. Philosophy and Development of Religion : Being the Gifford Lectures DeHvered before the University of Edinburgh, 1894. By Otto APPENDIX I 225 Pfleiderer, D.D. Translated, In two Volumes. 1904. La Vita Mia : A Sonnet Chain. In Links of Life and Thought. 1896. Outlines of the Philosophy of Right. By Diodato Lioy. Translated. 1897. The Vision of God : As represented in Riickert's Fragments. Rendered in English Rhyme. 1898. Theology as Science and its Present Position and Prospects in the Reformed Church. 1899. Kant's Cosmogony. Edited and translated. 1900. The Ideal of Humanity and Universal Federation. By K. C. F. Krause. A Contribution to Social Philosophy. Edited in Enghsh. 1900. A New Discussion of Romanism : i. The Rock of Peter. By J. Frohschammer. Translated and edited. 1901. The Festival of Spring from the Divan of Jelaleddin. Rendered in English Gazels after Riickert's Versions with an Introduction and Criticism of the Rubaiyat of Omar Kha5^am. 1903. The Glory of Nature in the Land of Lorn. (Oban Sonnets.) 1903. The Theology of the Reformed Church in its Funda- mental Principles. (The Croall Lecture for 1892.) 1904. Outlines of Pastoral Theology for Young Ministers and Students. Translated and edited. 1904. 15 APPENDIX II BISHOP PATRICK FORBES' WORKS The Works published by Bishop Forbes were the following : — A Commentary upon the Apocalypse ; A Treatise on the Validity of the Vocation of the Clergy in the Reformed Church ; A Letter to a Roman Recusant on the same Subject ; A Tract on the Origin of the Romish Apostacy and the Antiquity of the Doctrines of the Reformed Churches ; and Eubulus, a Dialogue between a Protestant and a Romanist. A second edition of the Commentary on the Apocalypse, to which the other shorter Treatises, except Eubulus, are appended, appeared in 1614. Dr. John Forbes, the Bishop's son, during his exile from his native country, published at Amster- dam in 1646 a Latin translation of the second edition of the Commentary and those lesser Treatises. The last work which Bishop Forbes published appeared in the year 1627. It is an answer to "A Rugged Romish Rhyme," bitterly inveighing against the Reformed Church. The Bishop's producton is in the form of a " Dialogue" (Bishop Forbes' Funeralls, -p. xcviii. seq.). 2Z6 APPENDIX III THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS [I AM indebted for the following biographical notices of the " Doctors " to the Editors of Bishop Forbes' Funeralls, Gordon's Scots Affairs, and Spald- ing's Troubles, to Irving's Lives of Scottish Writers, and Wodrow.] DR. JOHN FORBES Dr. John Forbes of Corse, the well-known son of Bishop Patrick Forbes, by his wife Lucretia, daughter of David Spens of Wormiston in Fifeshire, was perhaps the most learned theologian whom Scotland has produced. (B. Forbes' Funeralls.) During the unhappy " Troubles " of the seven- teenth century, the city of Aberdeen may not inappropriately be said to have been the Oxford of Scotland, whether we regard the attachment of the great body of the citizens to the Royal party, or the learning and abilities of the eminent persons who, by the provident care of Bishop Patrick Forbes, were found, at the breaking out of the Civil War, occupying its pulpits and academic chairs. The effect of their Episcopal teaching was not evanescent. In later times, when an attempt was made by the Civil Power to blot that Church from the face of Scotland, — deserted and forsaken by 228 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS her members in many parts of the country, and particularly by those of the higher classes, — she found her chief stay and support, till the pressure of penal legislation was lightened, among the humble peasantry of Aberdeenshire. Those famous Divines of the seventeenth century, " the Aberdeen Doctors," who made so remarkable and powerful a stand in argument against the Covenanters, have been celebrated by Clarendon {Hist, of Rebell. Oxford, 1826, vol. i. p. 145), and Burnet {Life of Bishop Bedell, Preface), and the excellence of their characters, and the eminence of their abilities and erudition admitted by writers of all parties {Funeralls of Bishop Forbes, p. 6). The following account of the arrival of Covenant- ing Commissioners in Aberdeen in 1638, and of their reception there, is contained in the History of Scots Affairs from M.DC.XXXVII. to M.DC.XLL, by James Gordon, Parson of Rothie- may, published by the Spalding Club, and edited with great care and ability. Its author has been thus described : " Though a firm loyalist, and perhaps favourable to a moderate Episcopacy, he was hostile to the Liturgy and the Book of Canons, as well on account of their matter, as on account of the way in which they were introduced" (Preface). The work is a valuable contribution to the historical hterature of Scotland : — " I must now leave the Commissioner (Marquess of Hamilton) upon his journey towards Greenwitch, wher the King was at that tyme, and for a whyle remove the stage to the northe of Scottland, wher the most considerable opposition for learning and armes that the Covenant was lycke to meete with, stood as yet unbrocken. For how soone APPENDIX III 229 Hamiltoune was gone for England, with Cove- nanters, who knew how much it concerned them to cleare the coast in thes places by appoyntment from the Tables, sent towards Aberdeen a select number for to invite such of the ministry and gentrye in to the Covenant, who either by Huntlyes authority or example, or by the Doctors of Aber- deenes means wer withheeld. Thes of greatest note who went about that expedition, wer James Grahame, Earle of Montrosse, and Arthur Erskin of Scottish Craig, brother to the Earle of Marre ; Lord Couper ; Alexander, Master of Forbesse ; Sir Robert Graham, Morfey ; Sir Thomas Burnett, Leyes. Of the ministry, wer sent Mr. Alexander Henderson, minister (then) at Lewchars in Fife ; Mr. David Dickson, minister at Irving, in the west ; and Mr. Andrew Cant, minister at Pettshgo, in Buchan, in the shyre of Aberdeene ; Mr. James Guthry, afterwards minister at Strivling : Who came (with others good-willers to the worke) to Aberdeen upon Frydaye, July twentieth (1638), in the afternoon. But no sooner wer they alighted from their horses but the doctors, and divinitye professors, and ministers of Aberdeen, (who befor had lowde advertishments of ther progresse), did presently send unto the ministers some Queries concerning the Covenant, professing withall that if they could satisfee their doubtes, they would not refoose to jo3me in Covenant with them, and protested that they wishd the floorishing of relligion as much as anye, and that the reason whye they had sent them that paper was that it might be knowne to ther bretherne that, if hithertoo they had not founde themselves inclynde to enter in Covenant with them, they and all men might know that it was 2 30 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS not without weightye causes, which concerned their consciences in all, which they both desyred and wer willing to be resolved. They who sent them the challendge wer, Dr. Johne Forbesse of Corse, doctor and professor of divinitye in Aberdeen ; Dr. Alexander Scrogye, minister at Old Aberdeen ; Dr. William Leslye, principall of the King's Colledge of Old Aberdeene, and professor of divinitye ; Dr. Robert Barron, minister at Aberdeene and professour of divinitye in the Marischall College of New Aberdeene ; Dr. James Sibbald, minister at New Aberdeene ; Dr. Alexander Rosse, minister at New Aberdeene. True it is, that Dr. William Guild, minister at Aberdeen, did lyckewayes sub- scrybe the Queeres with the rest ; but he fell off and subscrybed the Covenant, alone of all the rest, befor ever the disput came the lenth of a replye ; therefor he is not to be added upon anye just accompt. Ther is no questione but the three Covenanter ministers were ill matched for ther abilityes with the maist pairt of thes Aberdeene doctors, and it was impar congressus Achilli ; yet did they not declyne the challendge, and ther for returned unto them ane ansuer in wrytte to-morrow after ther arryvall, Saturdaye, July twenty-first. Nor needed the ansuer they sent to the doctors any long tyme to consult upon it, for it was but a kynde of declinator of the dispute and a smoothing of matters, and something worse then silence. Nor wer they come to Aberdeen with ane intention to dispute it with ther pennes ; the bussnesse was to trye whom they could fetche to ther partye by allurments and pairtly by that terrible argument ah incommodo, which moves many to swallow downe thinges contrare to knowledge and con- APPENDIX III 231 science. Yet ther rethoricke drew off non but Dr. Guild, a man of little learning in comparison of most of the rest, and some others who wer inclynd ther waye befor ther comming. Or, if they gott ane acessione of other prosehttes, they were some poor mechanickes or of the faeminine gender ; yet, all putt together, not able for to macke anything lycke a pairtye ther." — Vol. i. pp. 82, 83. Among these learned divines the name of Dr. John Forbes of Corse has ever been conspicuous. Dr. George Garden, in the Dedication to Queen Anne of the folio edition of Dr. Forbes' works, published by the Wetsteins at Amsterdam in 1702-3, informs us that he stood at the head of the Doctors. The head, however, in this literary conflict has been claimed for various of the other combatants on the same side. Dr. Baron has been placed by the indefatigable Chalmers " at their head " {Caledonia, vol. i. p. 884), thus confirming the words of Middleton (Appendix to Archbishop Spottiswoode's History, p. 29), that Dr. Baron " bare the greatest share of that famous debate, anno 1638, between the Doctours of Aberdene and the Covenanters." It is to be remarked, however, that in Mr. Maidment's Cata- logues of Scottish Writers (Edinburgh, 1833, p. 131), we find a statement in a letter from Bishop Sage to Bishop Gillan in these terms : " The demands, replys, and duplys of the Doctors of Aberdeen, as I was informed when there, though subscribed by six, were all formed and digested by Dr. Seely (a provincialism for Lesley), Principal of the Old Town College." The fair inference from all this would seem to be, that these were the three leading members of the learned confraternity, to either of whom it is impossible to assign the first place. 25 2 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS Dr. John Forbes of Corse was bom on the 2nd of May 1593, and by the death of an older brother in 1625, became the heir of the family. After leaNlng school, he studied in King's College, Aberdeen, and subsequently at Heidelberg and other foreign seminaries. He returned to Scotland in 1619 an accomplished scholar and theologian, and remark- able for his sincere and fervent piety. The same year he was, with universal approbation, appointed Professor of Divinity in King's College, Aberdeen, the duties of which he discharged with great ap- plause. He took part in the discussions which followed the adoption into the Church of the Five Articles of Perth, and published in defence of these r^ulations his I rente um, addressed to " the lovers of peace and truth in the Church of Scotland.' In the discomfiture of the Ro\'al party aiT^r the famous Glasgow Assembly of 1638, when the Bi?hops were " exammimucated " and "deposed," he of course shared (Bishop Forbes' Funeralis, p. 9). The Covenanters were anxious to join to their party a man of Forbes* character and erudition. The proceedings set on foot, for the purpose of depriving him of his chair, were not summar}-, but failing at last to satisfy the dominant party, he was ejected. " He had purchased two houses," says Dr. Irving, a Presbyterian writer, " adjoining to the Collie, and had assigned one of them to the Professor of Divinity, and the other to the Cantor, a person on the foundation. In the deed of convey- ance he neglected to reserve to h im self a hferent of the Professor's house ; nor can it be mentioned without regret and indignation, that he was obhged to vacate it for his successor in office " {Lives of Scottish Writers, Edin., 8vo, 1839, vol. ii. p. 50). APPENT)IX m 233 Still refusing to subscribe the Covenant, he was forced into exUe. He passed a few years in Holland, and was allowed to return to Scotland in 1646. He died in 1648 at his country house of Corse, and W2.5 buried in the churchyard of Leochel, having been some time before his death refused j>enni55ion by the Presbytery of Aberdeen to have Ms bones laid beside those of his father and wife in the Cathedral Church. No monument marks his place of sepulture. " His Diary, or, as he himself entitles it, * Spiritual Exercises,' in his own handwriting, is still preserved at Fintry House, the residence of Sir John Forbes of Craigievar, who now represents the family of Corse. It extends from the 3rd of Febnian^ 1624 to the close of 1647, and contains many interesting particulars of private history, outlines of sermons, expositions of passages of Scripture, meditations, and prayers, all characteristic of the sound learning and habitual piety of its author. It was included in Dr. Garden's edition of his works but in a Latin dress, which much impairs, in many cases, its highly impressive phrase- ology " {New StatisHcal Account of ScoUand, Leockd, and Cushnie, p. 1118). By his wife Soete Roosboom (Sweet Rosetree), a native of Holland, he had nine children. He was survived by only one of them, a son, who, in the words of Dr. Garden in his copious life of Forbes, prefixed to the edition of his Works above mentioned, was " pmdiorum haud vera entdi- tionis et wirtutum luzr^^' the heir of his father's property, but not of his learning and virtues {ViUi R. V. J oh. Forhesii a Corse, § ex.). He was named George, and married a daughter of Kennedy of Kermuck, an ancient famih' (now extinct), in which the office of Constable of Aberdeen was hereditary. 2 34 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS This title of Constable of Aberdeen was retained by them till the end of the sixteenth century. George Forbes and his wife had issue, (Lumsden's Genealogy of the Family of Forbes, with continuationsjnverness, 8vo, 1819, p. 22.) The principal works of Forbes are : Theologice Moralis Lihri decern in quibus PrcBcepta Decologi exponuntuY, et varice circa Dei legem et specialia ejusdem Prcecepta Controversial dissolvuntur, et casus conscienticB explicantur ; his Irenicum already mentioned ; Liber de Cura et residentia Pastorali ; Instructiones Historico-TheologiccB , characterised by Bishop Burnet as " a work which, if he had finished it, and had been suffered to enjoy the privacies of his retirement and study to give us the second volume, had been the greatest treasure of theological learning that perhaps the world has yet seen " {The Life of William Bedell, D.D., Bishop of Kilmore in Ireland, London, 1685, 8vo, Preface E). He also wrote a work entitled A Peaceable Warning to the Subjects in Scotland : Given in the Yeare of God 1638, Aberdene, Imprinted by Edw. Raban, the Yeare above written. DR. ROBERT BARON Robert Baron was a younger son of the family of Kinnaird in Fifeshire [Vita R. V. Joh. Forbesii a Corse, § xlii., prefixed to the Amsterdam folio edition of Forbes' Works, 1702-3 ; Sibbald's Hist, of Fife and Kinross, London, 8vo, 1803, p. 427, App.), and a brother of Dr.JohnBaron,Principal of St.Salvador's College, St. Andrews, who did not show the same perseverance and consistency in resisting the Cove- APPENDIX III 235 nant all along manifested by his brother (Gordon's Hist, of Scots Affairs, published by the Spalding Club, Aberdeen, MDCCCXLI. v. ii. p. 5 ; Baillie's Letters and Journals, Edin. MDCCCXLI. v. ii. p. g8). The learned Professor of Divinity at Aberdeen was educated at St. Andrews, " where, as we learn from an anecdote preserved by Clementius, his early proficiency in learning attracted the notice of King James vi. : De ipso Authore ej usque vita et excessu plura fortasse alias trademus, si necessaria subsidia suppeditentur. Lubet interim hie attexere, quod a B.M. Parente meo notatum comperio, dum in An- dreapolitana Academia studiorum causa versaretur. Narrat ergo in Pugillaribus suis, nostrum hunc Baronium imberbem adhuc et admodum juvenem. Anno CI3 I3 CXVII coram Rege Jacoho, et frequentissimo Auditorum coetu, summa ingenii ac judicii dexteritate Disputationem sustinuisse de materia miscelli generis, maxime Politica. Regem inter hasc vultu in Baronium defixo, singularem attentionem atque admirationem prae se tulisse. Tandem in verba erupisse, Baronium interrogasse ut sibi vellet exhibere demonstrationem certae cujasdam Theseos, (quae fuerit, non possum scire) ; qua ab Adolescente accepta, palam et ilium et illam laudavit, pluraque in eandem rem adjecit, omnia Latino sermone ; admirantibus cunctis, tum singu- larem Maximi Regis affectum et benevolentiam, tum ipsius Adolescentis miram jam ilia aetate sagacitatem ac promptitudinem " (Note by editors of Gordon's Scots Affairs, v. iii. p. 236). " After having for a short time professed Philosophy at St. Andrews, on the advancement of Patrick Forbes of Corse to the See of Aberdeen in i6i8,Baronsucceeded him in the cure of the parish of Keith, in the district 2 36 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS of Strathisla, in Banffshire, where he appears to have married, as his lady is described in a passage in Gordon's Scots Affairs, as having been " borne " in Strathisla. In 1624 he was appointed one of the clergy of the city of Aberdeen, and was nominated the first Professor of Theology in Marischal College, on the institution of that chair in 1625 " {Vita R. V. Joh. Forbesii a Corse, § xlii. ; Kennedy's Annals of Aberdeen, v. ii. p. 119). Having taken a very prominent part in the con- troversy against the leaders of the Covenant, as already mentioned, he only escaped formal expul- sion from his chair, if not danger to his hfe, by voluntary exile. He fled to Berwick, and died there in the month of August 1639 (Spalding's History of the Troubles in Scotland, Bannatyne Club edition, Edin. MDCCCXXVni. vol. i. pp. 105, 106, 107). Baron some time before his death had been elected to fill the See of Orkney, but was never consecrated (Keith's Catalogue of Scottish Bishops, Bishop Russel's edition, Edin. 1824, p. 227). His decease is thus with commendable feeling alluded to by the restless and conceited but acute and energetic Principal Baillie : "My heart was only sore for good Dr. Barron ; after he had been in London printing a treatise for the King's authoritie in Church affairs, I suspect too much to his country's prejudice, he returned heavilie diseased of his gravell ; he lay not long at Berwick till he died. Some convulsions he had, wherein the violent opening of his mouth, with his own hand or teeth, his tongue was somewhat hurt ; of this symtome very caseable, more din was made by our people than I could have wished of so meeke and learned a person " [Letters and Journals, Edin. MDCCCXLI. vol. i. p. 221). APPENDIX III 237 Baron is described by Bishop Sydserf in the preface to the " Consider ationes Modestce et Pacificce " of William Forbes, first Bishop of Edinburgh {suh fine), as " vir in omni Scholastica Theologia, et omni literatura versatissimus,'^ and as he died before the rancour of political and religious animosity rose to its height, writers of aU parties have united in praise of his virtues and learning. A number of these testimonies are collected in a copious biographical note by the editors of Gordon's Scots Affairs, vol. iii. p. 235, where a list of his writings, both printed and in manuscript, will be found (Bishop Forbes' Funeralls, p. 28). Arthur Johnston, the celebrated Latin poet, addressed various of his pieces to him, and in the following well-turned epigram has celebrated his praises and those of William Forbes, Bishop of Edinburgh : " De Gulielmo Forbesio et Roberto Baronio, Theologis Abredonensibus " : — " Nil quod Forbesio, Christi dum pascit ovile Nil quod Baronio comparet, orbis habet. Eloquio sunt ambo pares ; discrimen in uno est, Quo lubet, hie mentes pellicit, ille rapit." (Eppigrammata AberdonicB, 1632, p. 14.) The same poet has two epigrams on Baron's dis- cussion with George Turnbull, a learned Jesuit. We subjoin the latter of the two : " De DiatribaRoberti Baronii D. Theologi adversus TrumbuUium " ; — " En sacra Baronius movet et Trumbullius arma, Pene sub Icariis natus uterque rotis, Ambo Sacerdotes, divinae Palladis ambo Artibus et calami dexteritate pares. Hoc discrimen hiibes : magno molimine causam, Hie agit Ausonii Prsesulis, ille Dei." (^Ibid. p. 13.) 238 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS The following notices relating to Dr. Baron, and very characteristic of the excited state of religious feeling in Scotland after the well-known Glasgow Assembly of 1638, in which the Bishops were " ex- communicated," are interesting : — Baillie writes to Spang in September 1640 : " Our Assemblie at Aberdeen was kept with great peace. We found great averseness in the hearts of manie from our course albeit little in countenance . . . Poor Baroun, otherways ane ornament of our Nation, we found has been much in multis the Canterburian way ; great knavery and inter- course with his Grace (Archbishop Laud) we found among them, and yet all was hid from us that they could " {Letters and Journals, Edin. MDCCCXLI. V. i. p. 248). The Parson of Rothiemay tells us when narrating the proceedings of the same Assembly at Aberdeen : " Dr. Robert Barron was deade the yeare befor, yet somewhat must be done concerning him. They thought him not orthodoxe in some of his tenents ; therfor, such of his papers as wer unprinted they must see them, and they must be censurd and purgd. His widdow had reteered to the Strayla, wher she was borne ; therfor order was sent to (General) Monroe with all expeditione, for to searche the place wher she stayd, and send her- selfe, and such papers of her husbands as she had besyde her (if ther should be any founde), to Aberdeen under a sure gward. This was readily obeyd by Monroe, who made the gentlwoman prisoner at the Assemblyes instance, and sent her, and all such papers as could be founde besyde her, under a safe convoy to Aberdeen ; whither she was no sooner come but she must delyver the APPENDIX III 239 key of her husband's hbrarye, that it might be searched , for . manuscripts and letters. Some letters wer founde wryttne by the Bishopp of Rosse, concerning the printing of the Booke of Canons, and a timber piece of tailly du pierre, whereupon was cut the Kings armes, to be printed into the frontispeece of that booke. Thes letters wer publickly reade in that Assemblye, as if they had imported something very extraordinar ; but ther was none present to ansuer for them. Only the printer, Edward Raban, ane Englishman, was calld upon ; but because they could not formally challendge him for printing the Bishopps canons, therfor it was objected that he had manked ane common prayer in a new editione of the psalm booke, which some yeares befor he had printed in a large octavo. It was a forme of ane evning prayer, whence he had tackne of the conclusione for want of paper, it being the closure of the last sheete of the booke. Ther wer other coppyes of that prayer readde, and they wold needs have the printer confesse that he had throwne away all that clause out of designe, or by warrant of some of the ministers of Aberdeen. The printer pro- tested solemnly that what he did was of himself, and was done for want of paper ; and simply that if they wer offended, he craved them humble pardone ; that he could instance that, except in that coppy, he had never omitted to print the con- clusione of that evning prayer in any other editione of the psalmes in meeter, and should never omitte it againe. So, after a rebooke for his rashnesse in curtailing a prayer, he gott licence to be gone, without furder censure."— Gordon's Scots Affairs, vol. iii. pp. 235-239. 240 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS At theV Restoration, the merits of Baron were not forgotten : two hundred pounds were pre- sented by Parhament to his " rehct and children." {Acts of Pari, of Scotland, Edin. folio. MDCCCXXX., vol. vii. App. p. 78. — E.) The following is as complete a list of Dr. Baron's writings as can be furnished : — 1. Philosophiae Theologiae Ancillans, hoc est, Pia et sobria explicatio Quccstionum Philosophicarum in Disputationibus Theologicis subinde occur- rentium. Avctore Roberto Baronio, Philo- sophise Prof essore, in illustri Collegio S. Salvatoris. Andreapoli, Excudit Eduardus Rabanus, Uni- versitatis Typographus, 1621. Cum Privilegio. 8vo. Oxonise, 1641. 8vo. Amstelodami, 1649. i2mo. " Et," says Antonius Clementius, " in Belgio saepius, in 12." — The first part of the work is dedicated to the Archbishop of St. Andrews ; the second to Alexander Gladstane, Archdeacon of St. Andrews ; and the third to Sir John Scot of Scotstarvet. Prefixed to the volume are two commendatory poems ; the one addressed : " Dr. R. Baronio, quondam discipulo suo," and subscribed, " H. Danskinus, amoeniorum literarum professor Andreap ; " the other signed " Jacobus Gle^ius, humaniorum literarum professor Taoduni. ' Henry Danskin is one of the Contributors to the Delitise Poetarum Scotorum. 2. Disputatio de Authoritate S. Scripturae, seu de Formali Objecto Fidei. Abredoniae, 1627, 4to. This treatise, says Dr. Garden, " ediderat Baronius cum S.S. Theologiae Doctor renunciatus est." Vita Johannis Forbesii, § xHii. It was APPENDIX III 241 assailed by George Turnbull, a learned member of the Society of Jesus, and professor of theology at Pont-a-Mousson, in a work published at Rheims, in 1628, with the title of De Imaginario Circulo Pontificio, contra Baronium. 3. Ad Georgii Turnbulli Tetragonismum Pseudo- graphum Apodixis Catholica, sive Apologia pro Disputatione de Formali Objecto Fidei. Abredoniae, 1631, 8vo. This work is dedicated to Bishop Patrick Forbes, and commendatory verses by Dr. Arthur Johnstone and Dr. William Johnstone are prefixed to it. Turnbull pub- lished in reply, Sententia Juris in Calumni- atorrem contra Baronium. Reims, 1632. " How much," says Sir Thomas Urquhart, " the Protestant faith oweth to Doctor Robert Baron for his learned treatises (against Turn- bull the Jesuite), de objecto formali fidei, I leave to be judged by those that have perused them." Tracts, p. 122. Arthur Johnstone has two copies of verses, " De diatriba Roberti Baronii D. Theologi ad versus Trumbullium." Art. Jonstoni, Poemata, p. 376. 4. Disputatio Theologica, De vero discrimine peccati mortalis et venialis deque impossibilitate implendi legem Dei ob quotidianam peccatorum venialium incursionem. Cui Annexa est Ap- pendix de possibilitate prsestandi legem con- sideratam secundum eirecKeLav Evangelicam. Authore Roberto Baronio, Ecclesiaste Abre- donensi, S.S. Theologia Doctore, et ejusdem in Academia Marescallana Professore. Abredoniae, Excudebat Edwardus Rabanus, 1633, 8vo. Amstelodami, 1649, i2mo. This treatise is dedicated by the author to Sir Paul Menzies of 16 242 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS Kynmundie, the Provost, and to the other magistrates and the Town Council of Aberdeen, It was printed at their charge ; the expense, it appears, amounting to nearly one hundred and eleven pounds Scots, of which twenty-one pounds were paid for the paper, " sevyn rym coft from Robert Cruickshank," Aberdeen Council Re- gister, vol. lii. p. 115, and the City Treasurer's Accounts for 1633. The work called forth an answer from William Chalmers or Camerarius, a member of the Society of Jesus. 5. A sermon, Preached at the Funerall of the R.R. Father in God, Patricke Forbes, Late Lord Bishop of Aberdene, in the Cathedrall Church of that Dioces, the 9 of Aprill 1635, by Robert Baron, Doctor and Professor of Divinitie, and one of the ministers of God's Word in the Burgh of Aberdene. This is printed in Bishop Forbes' Funeralls, pp. 1-58. 6. Rob. Baronii, Theologi ac Philosophi celeberrimi, Metaphysica Generalis. Accedunt nunc primum quae supererant ex Parte Speciali. Omnia ad UsumTheologiae accommodata . Opus Postumum Ex museo Antonii Clementii Ziriztei. Londini, Ex Officina J. Redmayne, n. d., i2mo. The preface is dated from Ziriczee in Zealand, the fifteenth of February, 1657, and the work was doubtless published in that year. Dr. Irving refers to an edition in 8vo. published in Ley den also in 1657. And a third, in i2mo., appeared at London in the following year, bearing this imprint : Londini, Ez Officina R. Danielis et vaeneunt apud Th. Robinson et Ri Davis Bibhopolas Oxonienses. 1658. Dr. Watt in his Bihliotheca Britannica, enumerates a fourth APPENDIX III 243 edition, at Cambridge, in 1685. 8vo. There is preserved in a volume of tracts, in the Hbrary of The Marischall College (N. 5, 10) a fragment consisting of sixteen pages in small quarto, evidently printed by Edward Raban, and, so far as can be determined from internal evidence, written by Dr. Baron. It is entitled — 7. An Epitaph or Consolatorie Epistle, upon the death of the sayd young man ; Written to his mother, by M. R. B., Preacher of the Evangel. The works which Baron left behind him in manu- script seem to have been numerous. The following are enumerated by Dr. Garden : — 8. Disputationes Theologicas de Triplici Hominis Statu. This is preserved in the library of The King's College, and extends to two hundred and twelve pages. 9. Isagoge ad saniorem doctrinam de Praedestina- tione et de Articulis annexis. 10. Tractatus de Antecedaneis seu Dispositionibus prseviis ad Justificationem, deque vero dis- crimine Vocationis et Sanctificationis. 11. Disputationes quredem Theologicae : la. De regula Fidei principali. (This is preserved in the library of The King's College.) II a. De visibili et ordinario Controversiarum ludice. Ill a. De monarchia, Suprematu, et ludiciaria Infallibiltate Pontificis Romani. IV a. De Ecclesia Christi in terris militante. The con- tents of this last tract, which the author left unfinished, are more particularly indicated by Garden, Vita Johannis Forbesii, § xliii. 12. Septenarius Sacer de Principiis et Causis Fidei Catholicae. This is preserved in the library of 244 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS The King's College, and extends to one hundred and twenty-six pages. Besides these, Charteris (who calls him " very learned in the scholastick theology, and deservedly judged to be inferior to none of the Protestants in that kind of learning ") attributes to Baron other two works : " De Scientia Media " and " Disputatio de Universalitate Mortis Christi, contra Rheter- fortem." Maidment's Catalogues of Scottish Writers, p. 23. But these are, perhaps, merely parts of some of the treatises enumerated by Garden. The latter work was directed against the well-known Samuel Rutherford, who, in his letters from Aberdeen, makes several allusions to his controversy with Baron : " Dr. Barron hath often disputed with me, especially about Arminian controversies, and for the Ceremonies : three yokings laid him by ; and I have not been troubled with him since : now he hath appointed a dispute before witnesses. . , . I am openly preached against in the pulpits, in my hearing, and tempted with Disputations by the Doctors, (especially by Dr. Baron in ceremoniall and arminian controversies, for all are corrupt here)." Mr. Rutherford' s Letters. The Third Edition. Now divided in three Parts, pp. 48, 180, 221. Printed in the year 1675. 8vo. 13. Consilium Philosophicum. This occurs in an imperfect list of Baron's works prefixed to the edition of his Metaphysica Gcncralis, which appeared in London in 1658. The same catalogue mentions, among the printed works of Baron, " Metaphysica Generahs, cum Re- liquiis Partis Specialis,in 8," alluding apparently to some less perfect edition of the Metaphysica APPENDIX III 245 Generalis than that to which the hst was pre- fixed. Arthur Johnstone has addressed more than one of his poems to Dr. Baron : " Ad D. Robertum Baronium Theologum de obitu fiHoH " (A. Jonstoni, Poemata, p. 182), and " Ad Robertum Baronium " (Id. p. 308). DR. SIBBALD Dr. Sibbald was a son of the respectable family of Sibbald of Kier in the County of Kincardine. He was educated at Marischal College, Aberdeen, in which University he was nominated a Regent in 1619. (Kennedy's Annals of Aberdeen, vol. ii. p. 118.) He was appointed one of the Clergy of the City in 1625, and faithfully and zealously discharged the duties of his cure till he was obliged to fly from Scotland in 1638. He returned next year, and we are told by Spalding " he was wiell- come, entered to his ministrie in Aberdein, and served ther for a whyle." He was ejected by the Presbyterian Assembly held at Aberdeen in 1640. Principal BaiUie writes : "Dr. Sibbald in manie points of doctrine was found verie corrupt ; for the which we deposit him, and ordained him with- out quick satisfaction to be processed. This man was there of great fame ; it was laid on poor me to be all their examiner, and moderator to their process." [Letters and Journals, Bannatyne Club Edition, Edinburgh, MDCCCXLIL, vol. i. p. 248.) The Parson of Rothiemay has left us the follow- ing account of Dr. Sibbald's expulsion and character : " To Dr. James Sibbald it was objected befor the 246 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS Assembly that he had preached poynts of Armin- ianisme pubhckly in the pulpitt of New Aberdeen ; that speacking to one who was doing pennance upon the stoole of repentaunce, he had saide that if he had improved the grace givne him from God, he needed not to have fallne in that sinne, etc. Some of his private conferences to this purpose was objected. His accuser was Mr. Sam well Ruther- foord who, in former tymes, had been his hearer at such tymes as Mr. Samwell was confyned in Aberdeene ; finally that he refoosed to subscrybe the Covenant. His maine fault was, that he had opposed it, having had a hand in the Aberdeens querees ; that ruind him, though least objected. He spoke for himselfe, and deneyed Mr. Samwell's accusation ; but it was bootlesse, for, by vote of the Assembly, he was deposed, and he and Dr. Scroggye (if my memory faile not) ordered to be processed, if they subscrybe not the Covenant ; which seems to me to have been the cause why not long after he fiedd to Ireland, and ther was placed minister at Dublin till his deathe. As for his Arminianisme objected to him, it was strainge they should accuse him for preaching that way, befor theye had condemned it in Glasgow Assembly, 1638 ; for after that, they could lay nothing of it to his charge ; nor did I ever heare him tainted with it, except so farr as Mr. Samwell Rutherfoord objected it ther, yet but — testis singularis. It wiU not be affirmed by his very enemyes, but that Dr. James Sibbald was ane eloquent and painefuU preacher, a man godly, and grave, and modest, not tainted with any vice unbeseeming a minister, to whom nothing could in reason be objected, if you call not his ante-covenanting a cryme." APPENDIX III 247 (Gordon's Hist, of Scots Affairs, 1637-1641, pub- lished by the Bannatyne Club, Aberdeen, MDCCCXLI., vol. hi. pp. 228-230.) Sibbald fell a victim to the plague raging in Dublin during his assiduous and unremitting attention to the infected. His name appears among those of the Clergy of Dublin who sub- scribed a declaration in favour of the Liturgy in 1647. (Bishop Mant's History of the Church in Ireland, vol. i. p. 591.) He left a volume of posthumous sermons, published at Aberdeen in 1658. At the Restoration, two hundred pounds were voted by Parliament to the relict and children of Dr. Sibbald. {Acts of the Parliament of Scotland, folio, Edin. MDCCCXX., vol. vii, App. p. 78.) [Vita R. V. Joh. Forbesi a Corse, § 47, by Dr. Garden, prefixed to the Amsterdam edition of 1702-3, of Dr. Forbes, whole works ; Note by editors to Gordon's Scots Affairs, ad loc. cit.) He was one of the contributors to Bishop Patrick Forbes' Funeralls. 248 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS DR. SCROGGIE Dr. Scroggie owed his preferment in the Cathedral of Aberdeen to the discriminating favour of Bishop Patrick Forbes, who advanced him in 1621, from the charge of the parochial cure of Drumoak in the neighbourhood. As rector of this parish, and a member of the Chapter of Aberdeen, he will be found subscribing some of the official documents connected with the induction of Bishop Forbes to the See of Aberdeen in 1618. (Bishop Forbes' Funeralls, p. 79.) The Parson of Rothiemay gives us the following account of his deposition by the Committee of the Covenanting Assembly sitting at Aberdeen in 1640 : " Dr. Alexander Scroggye his parishioners wer examined concern- ing his lyfe and his calling. It was objected unto him that he preached long upon one texte, that he was cold in his doctrine, and edifyd not his parishioners ; finally, that he refoosed to subscrybe the Covenant, evne then, though accused ; and with little ceremony he was sentenced and deposed from his ministrye by the voice of the Assemblye, August fyrst. He could have gott qwarter for all his other faultes ; but his joyning in the queeres was unpardonable in ther eyes, who herein wer party as weall as judges to him and all the rest. I must vindicate him from the other aspersions ; To my knowledge, he was a man sober, grave, and painefuU in his calling ; his insisting upon a text longe was never yet made, nor could be matter of accusatione to any, if the text wer materiall and the discourse pertinent, and not tautologicall, which his observes ever wer ; and for his cold APPENDIX III 249 delyvery, his age might excuse it, it being long since observed that — " Intererit multum, Davusne loquatur, an heros ; Maturusne senex, an adhuc florente juventa Fervidus." For he was then of great age, which might weall have excused other omissions or escapes in his discipHne which were impertinently objected, and, at f arrest, could have pleaded only for a colleague to him, considering his numerouse and vast parosh, not to be paralelled in thes places, as extending not onlye over Old Aberdeen, but to the very portes of New Aberdeen, and a great pairt of the countrey neerest Aberdeene." (Gordon's 5 ots Affairs, vol. iii. p. 226-227.) Baillie, in his account of the same Assembly, describes Scroggie as " ane old man, not verie corrupt, yet perverse in the Covenant and Service Book." [Letters and Jour- nals, Edinburgh, MDCCCXLL, vol. i. p. 248.) The following remarks regarding Dr. Scroggie, and his gradual submission to the Covenant, appear in the pages of the garrulous contemporary narrator Spalding, who, it would seem, was in the habit of attending divine service in the cathedral where he officiated. This may account for his very frequent notices of Dr. Scroggie, which are further interesting on account of the various curious circumstances characteristic of the times to which they refer (Bishop Forbes' Funeralls, p. 80) : " Doctor Scrogie gave the communion, upon YeuU (Christmas) day (1638), in Old Aberdein, notwithstanding the same was forbidden by the Assemblie acts." [History of the Troubles, Bannatyne Club edition, Edinburgh, MDCCCXXVIIL, vol. i. p. 85.) "Upon Sunday 250 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS the seventh of Aprile (1639), devotion be stranger ministers throw all the pulpits of New Aberdein, seeing their own ministers were fled and gone. The Nobles and others filled the churches. After sermon, intimation was made of the sentence of excommunica- tion pronounced be Mr. Alexander Hendersone, moderator of the Assembly, against the Archbishops of St. Andrews and Glasgow, the Bishops of Edin- burgh, Aberdein, Galloway, Ross, Dumblain, Brechine, charging all men not to hear their preach- ing nor bear them company, under paines of censure of the kirk. Mr. Patrick Leslie minister at Skeyne (Doctor Scroggie being fled and obscure) preached this samen Sunday in the Old toun, and made the like intimation out of the pulpit of the same sentence" {Ihid. p. 116). "Wednesday the 19th of Aprile (1639) ane solemne fast was keeped throw New Aberdein, but none in Old Aberdein, for Dr. Scroggie durst not be sein. Both before and afternoon, there was preaching and prayers. Mr. Robert Douglas minister at Kirkcaldie preached before noon. After sermon he read out the covenant, and caused all the haill tonne's people conveined, who had not yet subscrived, to stand up before him in the kirk, both man and woman ; and the men subscrived this covenant. Thereafter, both man and woman was urged to swear be their uplifted hands to God, that they did subscrive and swear this covenant willingly, freely, and from their hearts, and not for any fear or dread that should happen. Syne the kirk scailled and dissolved. But the Lord knows, how thir tonne's people were brought under perjurie for plaine fear, and not from a willing mind, by tyranny and oppression of thir covenanters, who compelled them to swear and subscrive, suppose they knew it APPENDIX III 251 was against their hearts" {lUd. pp. 116, 117). " Upon the first day of December (1639), being Sunday, Doctor Scroggie celebrated the communion in Old Aberdein. He, in his sermon, begane now to exhort the people to obey the ordinances of the kirk, with much such matter. AUwayes, the people received the samen sitting (Doctor Forbes took it after the samen manner), and no kneiling was there, as was wont to be. The minister gave it to two or three nearest him, then ilk ane took his own com- munion bread out of the bassen, and in like manner the minister gave the cup to the two nearest him, syne ilk ane gave the cup to his neighbour. Strange to see such alterations ! One year giveing the com- munion to the people kneiling, by vertue of ane act of parliament founded upon Perth articles ; and that self same ministers to give the communion after another manner, sitting, at the command of the General Assembly, unwarranted by the king " {Ihid. p. 179). " Sunday the 7th of June (1640), Doctor Scroggie preached in Old Aberdein, and celebrat the communion ; but there was scarce 4 burds of communicants, in respect of thir troubles " [Ihid. p. 210). " Ye heard before, how sundrie ministers were summoned be ordinance to compear before ane committee holden at Aberdein the 7th of July. Well, this committee was holden, wher Mr. John Forbes, parsone of Auchterless, was simpliciter deprived ; Mr. John Ross, minister at Brass, Mr. Richard Maitland, minister at Aberchirder, Mr. Alexander Strachan, minister at the Chappell of Garioch, Doctor Sibbald, one of the ministers at Aberdein, Mr. Andrew Logie, parson of Rayne, with some others, were all suspended frae preaching till the third day of the nixt general assembly. Doctor 252 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS Forbes of Corss, and Doctor Scroggie, were both attending, yet none of them at this time was called, except Doctor Scroggie, he was with the rest also suspended " {Ihid. p. 224). " Doctor Scroggie is accused for not subscriveing the covenant ; besydes, for concealing of adulteries within his parish and some fornications, abstracting of the beidmen's rents in Old Aberdein, with some other particulars maliciously given up against him ; and whereupon Mr. Thomas Sandilands, commissar (his extreme enemy), Mr. Thomas Lillie, and Thomas Mercer were brought in as witnesses, after Doctor Scroggie's answer to ilk article was first wrytten ; But shortlie upon the first day of August, be this committee was he deposed and simpUciter deprived, and preached no more at Old Aberdein nor elsewhere " [Ihid. p. 233). " Sunday, being Whytsunday and 13th of June, Mr. William Strachan gave the communion in Old Aberdein, as before, the second time. Doctor Scroggie, notwithstanding he was forbidden out of pulpit to come to the table, as he had not subscrived the covenant, took his communion ; whilk bred some fear to the minister, doubtfull to refuise him the communion or to give it ; but no impediment was made to him, and so he received it " {Ibid. pp. 326, 327). " Wednesday the 23rd of June (1641), Doctor Scroggie, ane old reverend preached at this kirk, is now, sore against his will, compelled to quitt his dwelling house in Old Aberdein, and yeards pleasantly planted for the most part be himselfe ; so he removes this day his wife, bairnes, haill familie, insight plenishing, goods and gear furth and from the samen, and delivers the keys to Mr. William Strachan, that he may enter, alse- weill to the bigging as to the pulpite. Himselfe APPENDIX III 253 transported all to Ballogie, and took ane chamber for his comeing and goieng in New Aberdein. Thus is this wise, famous, learned man handled in his old age. Allwayes, it is said, the said Mr. William Strachan payed him for his planting 400 merks before he gatt entress " {Ihid. p. 328). " To this Assembly (1641), doctor Alexander Scroggie (after he is deposed, put frae his kirk and house, and spulzied of his goods) gives now in ane supplication (notwithstanding of his wryteing with the rest of the Aberdein's doctors against the covenant) offering to swear and subscrive the samen, whilk he had refuised before, and to doe what farder it should please the brethrein to injoine him. The Assembly heard glaidly his supplication, and referred him to the committee of the kirk at Edinburgh, ordaining him to go ther and give them full content, whilk he promised to doe, and whilk he did at leisure " [Ihid. p. 333). " Doctor Scroggie came not to this Provinciall Assembly, as was ordered befor by the committee of the kirk at Edinburgh, but stayed in Edinburgh, and writt his excuse ; but the moderator and bretherin accepted not thereof pleasantly. Allwayes, he wrought so, that he had gifted to him, out of Ross, eight chalders victuall dureing his lifetime, since his kirk was taken frae him. Mr. Alexander Innes, minister at Rothemay,his goodsone, and deposed frae his kirk, also Mr. Alexander Scroggie his sone deposed frae his regencie, as ye have heard before, ilk ane of them had gotten some pension frae the king" [Ihid. p. 345). " Thuirsday 26 May (1642), the presbitrie of Abirdene changes thair presbiter day of weiklie meiting fra Thuirsday to Tuysday. It was first changeit fra Fryday to Thuirsday, and now fra Thuirsday to Tuysday ; 2 54 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS sic changes now goes. Doctor Scroggie comperis befoir this presbitrie, and produces, wnder his owne hand, his owne recantatioun." Dr. Scroggie survived till 1659, when he died at Rathven, in Banffshire, in the ninety-fifth year of his age (Gordon's Scots Affairs, vol. iii. p. 22, note). The elder of his two sons, Alexander, was a Professor in King's College, Aberdeen (Kennedy's Annals of Aberdeen, vol. ii. p. 405). He was deposed from his chair, as we have already seen from Spalding's Narrative, in 1639. The younger was named William. The same author tells us : " Tuysday 20 September (1642), Mr. Alexander Scrogie, younger, exercisit heir in Old Abirdene, befoir the presbitrie, veray learnedlie, to his gryte commendatioun. He wes referrit to be minister at Forgelyn, albeit deposit frae his regencie of the Colledge of Old Abirdene, as ye may sie befoir. Mr. Wilham Scrogie, his brother, thairefter exercised lykuaies lernedlie." (Spalding's History of the Troubles in Scotland, vol. ii. p. 82.) Alexander appears to have been appointed first minister of the cathedral church of Aberdeen in- 1659 (Kennedy's Annals of Aberdeen, vol. ii. p. 352) ; and William was ultimately advanced to the See of Argyl in 1666. He died in 1675. " He was buried in the churchyard of Dumbarton, and his executors erected a handsome monument over his grave, adorned with his arms and an inscription " (Keith's Catalogueof Scottish Bishops, Bishop Russell's edition, Edin. 1824, p. 291). See note by editors of Gordon's Scots Affairs above referred to. This " Funerall Speach " (one of the sermons in Bishop Forbes' Funeralls) is the only writing of Dr. Scroggie known to exist. APPENDIX III 255 DR. ROSS Dr. Ross was one of the " Doctors " who pro- pounded to the Covenanters the celebrated queries, and was prevented by sickness from flying with the other Royalists and Churchmen from Aberdeen in 1639. " He was the son of James Rosse, minister at Strachan in the Mearns, afterwards in the parish church of St. Nicholas in Aberdeen. He himself was, in 163 1, translated from the parochial cure of Insch in The Garioch, to the chapel of St. Clement, in Futtie, near Aberdeen ; and was, in 1636, pre- ferred to St. Nicholas' Church in Aberdeen. * He was,' says Spalding, ' a learned divyne, weill beloved of his flock and people whyle he was in life, and after he was dead, heaviely regretted ' " [Hist, of Troub., vol. i. p. 167). He has been sometimes confounded with another divine of the same name, Alexander Ross, chaplain in ordinary to King Charles the First, and master of the Free School of Southampton, a voluminous writer, who is now perhaps most generally known from the lines of Butler— " There was an ancient sage philosopher That had read Alexander Ross over, And swore the world, as he cou'd prove, Was made of fighting and of love." Hudihvas, part i. cant. ii. v. 1-4. (Gordon's Scots Affairs, printed for the Spalding Club, Aberdeen, MDCCCXLI. vol. iii. p. 209 note.) A ludicrous instance of this mistake occurs in Dr. Sheriff's Life of Guild. That biographer with much 2 56 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS solemnity thus rebukes Butler for attacking the worthy clergyman of Aberdeen : " The attack could not possibly be more indelicate, or more personal, I had almost said more malicious. What- ever were the faults of Dr. Ross as a writer, he was respectable as a man ! " {Life of Guild, p. 39 ; Book of Bon Accord, or a Guide to the City of Aberdeen, small 8vo, Aberdeen, MDCCCXXXIX.— an admirable performance, equally remarkable for learning, taste, and spirit). At the Restora- tion, Parliament acknowledged his merits by granting the sum of one hundred and fifty pounds to his relict and children [Acts of Par- liament of Scotland, Edin. folio, 1820, vol. iii. App. p. 78). He also contributed a sermon to Bishop Forbes' Funeralls. DR. LESLIE For the greater portion of the folk ./ing Notices of the amiable and accomphshed Dr. Wilham Leslie, Principal of King's College, Aberdeen — I am indebted to the accurate Editors of Gordon's Scots Affairs (vol. iii. p. 231 note) : — " Dr. William Leshe was a descendant of the house of Kininvie, according to Dr. Garden, or of the family of Crichie, according to Bishop Keith, He studied at the King's College and University, and was in 1617 chosen one of its regents. He became its Sub-Principal in 1623 ; and about 1630 was preferred to be its Principal. ' Ye heard befor,' says Spalding, ' how Doctor Lesshe, principall of the Colledge of Old Aberdein, Doctor Sibbald, APPENDIX III 257 minister in Aberdein, and diverse others went to Berwick to the king. They came home with the town's commissioners in August. This Doctor Sibbald was wiellcome, entered to his ministrie in Aberdein, and served ther for a whyle ; but Doctor WiUiam LessHe being before deposed, took himself to ane quiet chamber within the College, lived soberly in the toun upon his own charges, beheld patiently Doctor William Guild occupy his place thereafter, and the changes in thir difficult times. He was ane singular learned man, who could never be moved to swear and subscrive our Covenant, saying he would not hurt his conscience for worldly means. He was never heard to speak immodestly against the Covenant nor procedure of thir times, but suffered all things with great patience, attending God's will ; none more fitt for learning, to his charge in the CoUedge, and therwith godly and grave. It is said the King gave him some money at Berwick, wherupon he lived for a short whyle ; and it is true he had no great means to the fore (left) of his own, at this time ' [Hist, of Troub., vol. i. p. 172). ' Therafter, doctor Lesslie rendered the haill keyes of this colledge, librarie, and all whilk he had, to doctor Guild, wherewith he shortly pos- sessed himself. Doctor Lesslie was tollerat to keep ane chamber within the colledge to himself, wherin to ly and to study ; but bought his meat throw the Old Toun wher he pleased, with great modestie, resolveing with patience to abyde God's good will without murmuration or appearance of discontent, wher or in whatsoever societie he happened to be ' {Ibid. p. 329). His deposition from the office of Principal is thus animadverted 17 258 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS upon by the Parson of Rothiemay : ' To Doctor William Lesly was objected, that he was lazie, and neglective in his charge, and they strove to brande him with personall escapes of drunknesse ; and, finally, that he wold not subscryve the Cove- nant, etc., for which he was deposed, as the rest wer. I must pleade for him as for the rest, wherin I shall speacke truthe. His lazinesse might be imputed to his reteerd monasticke way of living, being naturally melancolian, and a man of great reading, a painefull student, who delyted in nothing else but to sitte in his studye, and spend dayes and nights at his booke, which kynde of lyfe is opposite to a practical! way of living. He never marryd in his lyfe time, but lived solitary ; and if some- tymes to refresh himself, his freends took him from his bookes to converse with them, it ought not to have been objected to him as drunknesse, he being knowne to have been sober and abstemiouse above his accusers. He was a man grave and austere, and exemplar. The Universitye was happy in havinge such a light as he, who was eminent in all the sciences, above the most of his age. He had studyed a full Encyclopedia ; and it may be ques- tioned whither he excelld most in divinity, humanity, or the languages, he being (of course) professor of the Hebrew and Divinitye. And it was ther unhappinesse to wante him ; for since that tyme he was never paralleled by any Principall who succeeded him. For some years therafter he lived private, in the house of the Marquesse of Huntlye, who was a freend to learning and learned men, and had him in great esteeme and honour. After Huntly was engadged in the warre. Dr. Lesly reteered to his kinnesman, Alexander Douglasse of APPENDIX III 259 Spynye, a gentleman who entertained him till his death, which fell not out till after the Englishes were maisters of Scotland. He dyed of a cancer, whiche physitions know proceedes from melancoli- ouse bloode. Pittye it was that he left not mor behynde him of his learned workes ; but the reason was, his naturall bashefullnesse, who had so small opinion of his owne knowledge, that he could scarce ever be gottne drawne for to speacke in publicke.' * Hie est ille cujus eruditio omne genus, et sacra et exotica, omnibus qui eum norunt mage nota est, quam sibi. Hie est ille, qui si se aut nosset (quae est ejus modestia, et de se existi- matio exilis) aut nosse vellet, singulari ornamento nobis esse posset, ut jam plane magno est. Hie est ille denique qui etsi omnia non sciat, neque enim hoc mortalis est, pauca tamen ignorat ' {A. Strachani Panegyric. Inaug. in Aut. Acad., Aberd. p. 38). Sir Thomas Urquhart writes : * To the conversation of Dr. William Lesly (who is one of the most profound and universal scholars now living), his friends and acquaintance of any literature are very much beholding, but to any books of his emission nothing at all ; whereat every one that knoweth him, wondreth exceedingly ; and truly so they may ; for though scripturiency be a fault in feeble pens, and that Socrates, the most learned man of his time, set forth no works ; yet can none of these two reasons excuse his not evulging somewhat to the public view, because he is known to have an able pen, whose draughts would grace the paper with impressions of inestim- able worth ; nor is the example of Socrates able to apologize for him, unless he had such disciples as Plato and Aristotle, who, having reposited in 26o THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS their braines the scientifick treasures of their masters' knowledge, did afterwards (in their own works) communicate them to the utiUty of future generations ; yet that this Caledonian Socrates (though willing) could not of late have been able to dispose of his talents, did proceed from the merci- less dealings of some wicked Anites, Lycons, and Melits of the Covenant ; the cruelty of whose perverse zeal will keep the effects of his vertue still at under, till by the perswasion of some honest Lysias, the authority of the land be pleased to reseat him into his former condition, \vith all the encouragements that ought to attend so prime a man' [Tracts, p. 123). Dr. Garden describes him as ' Vir egregie literatus, in hnguis Orientalibus versatissimus, in Latina et Graeca Poeta eximius, cujus varia in utraque scripta adhuc exstant poemata. Eruditione pohtiori insignis, cui omnes Authores Classici probe noti ac familiares erant, in quoseruditasconscripsit notas acemendationes, quae, cum Vir eximius iniquitate temporum varie jactatus fuerit, inter ciderunt. Praelectiones habuit Theo- logicas antiquas quarum quaedam exstant ' [Vita JohannisForbesii, §1). ' The many high encomiums,' says Dr. Irving, ' bestowed on Dr. William Lesley, must excite our deepest regret that he should have bequeathed so small a portion of his know- ledge to posterity. Although he was regarded as a profound and universal scholar, he never courted the fame of authorship ' {Lives of the Scottish Poets, vol. i. p. 136, Edin. 1814). Dr. Garden has pre- served in his hfe of Dr. John Forbes (h.) a learned fragment by Leshe on the writings of Cassiodorus, ' Scriptorum Cassiodori accuratior Nomenclatura.' " According to Bishop Keith [Catal. of Scot. APPENDIX III 261 Bish., p. 309), Dr. William Leslie V was the brother of John Leslie, Bishop successively of the Isles, of Raphoe, and of Clogher, father of the excellent and learned Charles Leslie, the author of A Short and Easy Method with the Deists, and many other admirable works. He printed some Latin verses in Bishop Forbes' Funeralls. DR. GUILD William Guild, Doctor of Divinity, was the son of Matthew Guild, a citizen and burgess of Aberdeen, and by trade an armourer. The elder Guild figures in the records of the city as a sturdy opponent of the new system of things attempted to be introduced at the religious revolution in Scotland in the six- teenth century, when the general legislature, as well as the local magistrates of the country, began to inter- fere with the games and amusements of the people, for the purpose of suppressing those demonstra- tions of mirth and festivity which formerly had not only been allowed, but encouraged and regulated by those in authority. Although Guild was a party to the celebrated queries propounded by the " Aberdeen Doctors " to the Commissioners of the Covenant on their arrival in Aberdeen in July 1638, he was one of the first of the inhabitants of any note who subscribed that famous " Band." This, however, he did not do in unqualified terms. The following conditions were insisted upon by him and by the Rev. Robert Reid, then minister of Banchory-Teman : " That we acknowledge not, nor yet condemn, the Articles 262 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS of^Perth to be unlawfull or heads of Popery ; but only promise (for the peace of the Church, and other reasons) to forbear the practice thereof, for a time. 2do, That we condemn no Episcopall Government, secludeing the personall abuse thereof. 3tio, That we still retaine, and shall retaine, all loyall and dewtifull subjection and obedience unto our dread Soveraigne the King's Majestic. And, that in this sense, and no otherwayes, we have put our hands to the aforesaid Covenant " (Spalding's Hist, of Troubles, Bannatyne Club edition, vol. i. p. 58). Although, from the terms of his restricted signature to the Covenant, it might be supposed that he was at this period a supporter of Episcopacy, he was a member of the Glasgow Assembly in 1638, which subverted the Scottish Hierarchy, and at a subse- quent period he subscribed the Covenant without restriction or limitation. On the expulsion by the Covenanters of Dr. William Leslie, the amiable and learned Principal of King's College, the claims of Guild were preferred over those of his competitor, the well-known Robert Bailhe. From this situation he was deposed, it is said, through the jealousy and dislike of the fervent and enthusiastic Mr. Andrew Cant (Gordon's Scots Affairs, vol. i. p. 88 ; vol. iii. p. 286), but it would appear that he was not actually displaced till the visitation of Cromwell's military Commissioners in 165 1. Dr. Guild died at Aberdeen in 1657. By his last will he founded three bursaries in the Marischal College, and bestowed various other charitable bequests. Guild wrote various works, principally theological, but none of any great merit. A long list of these will be found in Mr. Maidment's Catalogues of Scottish Writers, Edin. 8vo, 1833, p. 36. As may be APPENDIX III 263 supposed, he was no favourite with his contemporary townsman Spalding. This decided, but in general fair and candid Churchman, for once seems to have allowed his feelings to get the better of his calmer reason. He has certainly pressed too hard upon Guild (Bishop Forbes' Funeralls, pp. 93, 95, 96). DR. WILLIAM FORBES Dr. William Forbes was born at Aberdeen in 1585. His father was of the family of Corsindae, and his mother was sister of an eminent physician. Dr. James Cargill. He was educated in the Marischal College, and resided for some time at several of the continental universities, and at Oxford. He was successively minister at Alford, at Monymusk, and at Aberdeen ; and, in 1618, was appointed Principal of the Marischal College. He was subsequently, for some time, one of the ministers of Edinburgh ; but his zeal for Episcopacy and liturgical observances rendered him unpopular among the inhabitants of the capital. He therefore gladly accepted an in- vitation to resume his former office as one of the ministers of Aberdeen, where his principles were more in accordance with those of his flock. When Charles i. visited Edinburgh, in 1633, Dr. Forbes preached before him. The King was so pleased that he declared the preacher to be worthy having a bishopric created for him. This circumstance, no doubt, along with his acknowledged ability and uprightness, led to his nomination as first Bishop of Edinburgh — on the creation of that see. He was consecrated in February 1634, but did not long 264 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS survive his promotion. He died on the nth April following, and was interred in the cathedral of St. Giles, where a monument was erected to his memory, with an inscription, a copy of which will be found in Maitland's History of Edinburgh, p. 184. A brief memoir of Dr. Forbes was prefixed to his Considerationes, Modestae et Pacificae ; and a more extended biography of him may be found in Dr. Irving's Lives of Scottish Writers, vol. ii. pp. i-io. An engraving from a contemporary portrait of the learned prelate is given in Pinkerton's Iconographia Scotica, Lond. 1797. Besides the posthumous work just mentioned, T^ he wrote Animadversions on the Works of Cardinal Bellarmin. These, after his death, came into the possession of Dr. Baron, who intended to prepare them for the press ; but they disappeared during the subsequent troubles, and have not since been discovered. Sir Thomas Urquhart, who says that he was " so able a scholar that since the days of Scotus Subtilis, there was never any that professed either divinity or philosophy in Scotland, that, in either of these faculties did parallel him," adds, that " he left manuscripts of great learning behind him, which, as I am informed, were bought at a good rate by Doctor Laud (late Arch- bishop of Canterbury) " (Sir T. Urquhart's Tracts, p. 133). Writers of almost every class have united in acknowledging the learning and piety of Dr. William Forbes. These manuscripts were subse- quently printed and translated under the title of Considerationes, Modestae et Pacificae in 2 vols,, with a life by Bishop Sydserf . APPENDIX IV DR. GEORGE GARDEN Garden, George (1649-1733), Scottish divine, a younger son of Alexander Garden, minister of Forgue, in Aberdeenshire, and Isobell Middleton, was bom at Forgue, and educated at King's College, Aberdeen, where in 1673, at the age of twenty-four, he was already a regent or professor. In 1677 he was ordained by Bishop Scougall and appointed to succeed his father in the church of Forgue, the bishop's son, Henry Scougall, preaching at his induction. Two years later, Garden was promoted to Old Machar (the church of which was the Cathedral of Aberdeen). In June 1678 he preached in the chapel of King's College the funeral sermon on his friend, the admirable Henry Scougall. It is printed in many editions of Scougall's works, and throws light on the ideas of ministerial duty entertained among the clergy of the " Second Episcopacy " (1662-1690). In 1683, Garden, already a D.D., became one of the ministers of St. Nicholas, the town parish of Aberdeen, where he continued till he was " laid aside " by the Privy Council in 1692 for " not praying for their majesties " William and Mary. The Commission of the General Assembly of 1700 had him before them in connection with An Apology for M. Antonia Bourignon (1699, ^^o) attributed to him. Garden, 265 266 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS who issued translations of several of Madame Bourignon's works with prefaces of his own, refused to disavow the authorship, asserted that " the said Apology as to the bulk of the book did represent the great end of Christianity, which is to bring us back to the love of God and charity ; and further declared that the essentials of Christianity are set down in the said book and that the accessories contained therein are not contrary thereto ; " where- upon the Commission suspended him from the office of the ministry and cited him to the Assembly of 1701. He did not appear, and the Assembly deposed him, and "prohibited him from exercising the ministry or any part thereof in all time coming." Garden paid no great regard to the sentence, and continued to officiate as before to the members of his former congregation who adhered to Episcopacy. In 1703 he dedicated to Queen Anne, in terms of fervent loyalty to her, but with outspoken censure of the new Presbyterian establishment, his magnificent edition of the works of Dr. John Forbes (1593-1648) [Joannes Forbesii a Corse Opera Omnia), which was published at Amsterdam. Though he had refused to take the oaths to William and Mary, Garden had never approved the arbitrary policy of James 11. ; he accepted the conditions of the Toleration Act (1712), and when after the Peace of Utrecht the Episcopal clergy of Aberdeen drew up an Address of Congratulation to the Queen, he and his brother James were chosen to present it. Introduced by the Earl of Mar, then Secretary of State for Scotland, they were received with marked graciousness, and poured into Her Majesty's not unwilling ear (along with their thanks for the freedom they now enjoyed " not only in their exercise of the pastoral care over APPENDIX IV 267 a willing people, but also in their use of the liturgy of the Church of England " — then a new thing among the Scotch Episcopalians) their complaints of the persecutions they had lately suffered, and their entreaties for a further measure of relief. The Queen's death made Garden and his brother] acobites again ; the insurrection of 1715 restored George for a brief period to the pulpit of St. Nicholas, and the brothers were among those who presented to the Pretender at Earl Marischal's house at Fetteresso, Kincardineshire, the Address of the Episcopal clergy of Aberdeen. On the suppression of the rising. Garden was thrown into prison. He managed shortly afterwards to escape to the Continent, but returned to Aberdeen before 1720, when he was talked of for election as their bishop by the Aberdeen clergy. The support he had given to Bourigninianism was held by the Scottish bishops, and by Lockhart, the agent of the exiled prince, sufficient to disqualify him for such promotion. He died on 31st January 1733 (Scott's Fasti has wrongly 1723). It illustrates the spread of " high church " doctrine since the revolution among the Scottish Episcopalians that he was called in his epitaph " Sacerdos." He had fairly earned the praise awarded him of being " literis et pietate insignis." Besides his great edition of Forbes, he was the author of the Queries and Protestation of the Scots Episcopal Clergy given in to the Committee of the General Assembly at Aberdeen June 1694, 4to, London, 1694 ; The Case of the Episcopal Clergy, pts. i and 2, 4to, Edinburgh, 1703 ; and he is probably the George Garden of Aberdeen who contributed to the Philosophical Transactions of 1677 and 1693. His Bourignianism, says Grub doubtfully, was probably due to sheer weariness of 268 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS the controversies wherewith his country had been so long distracted ; moreover, his friend Henry Scougall had been in the habit of going to France as well as to Flanders for spiritual improvement. They may be called the Scottish Quietists. Garden's sermon preached at Scougall' s funeral was printed first in 1726. He is buried in the churchyard of Old Machar {Did. of Nat. Biog.). APPENDIX V THE GENERAL DEMANDS General Demands concerning the late Covenant : Propounded by the Ministers and Professors of Divinity in Aberdene to some reverend Brethren, who came thither to recommend the late Covenant to them, and to those who are committed to their charge : Together with the Answeres of those reverend Brethren to the said Demands : As also the Replyes of the foresayd Ministers and Professors to their Answeres. Aberdene. Reprinted by John Forbes, Anno Dom. 1662. Some copies of the same edition have a different title-page and the date 1663 (see Irving's Lives of Scottish Writers, vol. ii. p. 49 ; and Gordon's Scots Affairs, vol. i. p. 97 note). The papers by the Doctors are sub- scribed by John Forbes, Alexander Scragie, William Leslie, Robert Baron, James Sibbald, and Alexander Ross. The Answers to the Demands of the reverend Doctors are subscribed by Alexander Henderson, David Dickson, and Andrew Cant. The second paper by the Brethern bears the signatures only of Henderson and Dickson. A brief abstract of the fourteen demands is given by Dr. Grub [Hist., vol. iii. p. 14) : — " The doctors^'asked. What warrant there was for requiring subscription to the Covenant and enforcing 269 270 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS a particular interpretation of the Negative Con- fession, since the Commissioners were not sent by the King or his Council, or a national Synod, or any other lawful judicatory ? Whether they ought to subscribe the Covenant, when all Covenants of mutual defence by force of arms nmong the King's subjects, without his consent, were expressly forbidden by the parhament of 1585 ? Whether even if acts of parhament might be contravened in extreme cases, such a case had now arisen ? By whom was the Negative Confession to be inter- preted ? Whether they would subscribe the Negative Confession with a good conscience, seeing that, as interpreted by the framers of the Covenant, it made a perpetual law concerning external rites of the Church which God had not made ? Whether it was fit to subscribe an interpretation in matters of faith which was opposed to the judgment of many eminent Reformed divines, and to that of the ancient Church ? Whether it was agreeable to charity and piety, to require them to abjure those rites as Popish, which in the sincerity of their hearts they had hitherto practised as lawful and laudable ? Whether it was fit to swear to defend the King's person and authority only under limi- tations ? Whether they could swear to maintain the King's authority, and at the same time swear' disobedience to those articles which were author- ised by his standing laws ? Whether they ought to swear to a Covenant which took away all hopes of a free assembly and parliament by making persons to swear beforehand to adhere to one side of the question ? Whether full satisfaction would be given by their subscribing the National Con- fession ratified by parliament in 1567, which they APPENDIX V 271 were ready to do ? Whether the outrages sustained against all form of law by those of their brethren, in the holy ministry, who continued in obedience to the laws of the Church and Kingdom, were allowed by the Commissioners, and if not, why the actors had not been censured ? Whether they could subscribe the Covenant without the scandal of dissenting from other Reformed Churches, and from Antiquity, and also the scandal of perjury in regard to those who at their admission to the ministry had sworn obedience to the Articles of Perth and to their Ordinary ? And, lastly, seeing they had all these scruples, and they were assured of the lawfulness of the Articles of Perth and of the lawfulness and venerable antiquity of Episcopal Government, how could they, with a safe conscience, allow those to preach in their pulpits, who came professedly to withdraw their people from that which in the inmost thought of their souls they embraced as lawful, and from obedience to their gracious and pious sovereign, whose late proclama- tion had given them entire satisfaction ? " In their answers the Covenanting ministers adopted a tone for the most part moderate and conciliatory. They drew a distinction between innovatives sought to be introduced, such as the Service Book, Canons and High Commission, which were specially abjured as points of Popery, and those already introduced, like Episcopacy and the Perth Articles, of which the practice was only to be forborne till their lawfulness was tried by a free General^ Assembly . ' ' APPENDIX VI PROCEEDINGS AGAINST DR. JOHN FORBES (Diary of Dr. Forbes, fol. 143-4.) Vpon the 28th day of Julie, 1640, began the generall assemblie, which was holden in the colledge kirk of New Aberdene, and that day they kept a fast and hade sermons in that kirk. The morning sermon was preached by Mr. David Dicksone (who hade bene moderator of the last generall assemblie at Edinbrngh), vpone theise words of the apostle : " For I determined not to know any thing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified." A pastor ought to speake and doe determinatly, and not vnadvysedly, and lay aside other things that are hinderances, as enticing words of man's wisdome, vaine glorie, worldly distractions, &c. To know Christ signifieth hier so to know him, that we also loue him, and beeliue in him, and by experimentall knowledge be acquainted with him ; and especially to know him crucified for our redemption : This is life eternall, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. — John xvii. 3. And the apostle saith, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conform- APPENDIX VI 273 able vnto his death. — PhiHp iii. 10 ; also to know nothing but Christ crucified, is to professe nothing, to teach nothing, to glorie in nothing but Christ crucified, to seeke not our owne glory, but the glory of him that sent vs. For we preach not our selues, but Christ the Lord, and our selues your servants for Jesus sake. — 2 Cor. iv. 5. I did keepe the fast that day with the assemblie, and I cryed vpon God both their and elsewhere, and I found joyful comfort, praised be the Lord. Amen. Vpon the 29th of Julie, I remained an hearer in the assemblie all that session, and about the end of the session, my name, with the names of some others who hade beene charged, being called, I answered, and offered to come neerer to the moderator ; but I was stayed, and bidden attend the assemblie euery day, and to remaine without the assemblie house, which I promised to obey. Vpon the 30th day of Julie, 1640, in the morning early, revolving what hade passed yesterday, I found that in my words before the assembly, there were some which I should rather not haue spoken, and that I hade omitted some words which hade been very convenient to be spoken ; and fearing lest any offence haue arisen thereby in the mynds of any brethren, and fearing desertion, I prayed and wept vnto God for mercy, and that he would remeid and remoue all offences given by me to any, or taken by any at me, that day or at any tyme, and to be with my heart and with my mouth, and to grant me mercy and grace in his sight, and convenient mercy and favour in the eyes of all with whome I haue to doe ; and I was comforted in God : to him be glorie for euer. Amen. 18 2 74 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS p-.Vpon the 31st day of Julie, 1640, I repeted the same petitions to God, and I was comforted. Upon the first of August, 1640, I compeared before the committee of the generall assembhe, and being questioned vpon many things, I found God's mercifull presence so euidently with me, as not- withstanding of my scruples concerning the couenant, and of my wreittings, yet they were pleased with me. Also they tooke in good part my answeris to other questions vpon the 4th and 5th dayes of the same moneth. Now, all the dayes of the generall assemblie, I prayed euery day with groans and teares vnto God to be with me, and give me a com- fortable outgett and a blessed event, and to forgiue all my sinnes ; and the Lord heard me ; praised be the Lord. Vpon the 5th day of August, 1640, I was called, and I compeared before the generall assembhe, and the moderator therof Mr. Andro Ramsay said to me, in name and in presence of the whole assemblie, that the generall assembhe hath found me ingenuous and orthodoxe, and nather Papist nor Arminian, and as for my different judgement concerning the couenant, they should intimate their will vnto (me) the next morning. When I heard this, I answered and thanked God, and thanked this venerable assemblie for this testimonie of me, and I promised to set my self to give them all contentment sincerely, so farre as my conscience would permitt, Vpon the 6th day of August, 1640, being called, I compeared againe before the generall assemblie, and the moderator therof did give me againe publikly, in name of the assemblie, that same testimonie of ingenuitie and orthodoxie which they had giuen me the preceeding day, and declared APPENDIX VI 275 vnto me that it is the will of the assemblie that I take journey and goe to Edinbrugh, some dayes after the assemblie, and there conferre with the brethren of that presbyterie anent the couenant. I acknowledged this to be a fauour done vnto me, and promised to obey, requesting with all, that whether after conference we agreed or not, they would continow their loue toward me vpon my good bearing, and I promised to heare and consider sincerly and vnpartially all the reasouns that should be represented vnto me, and that no wilfulness or hardnesse of heart, nor honour or dishonour, nor any other respect worldly shall hinder me from embracing and professing that which I shall find to be true. I shall pray to God, and I trust in his grace. And when I desired them to continow their louing affection to me, they answered me kyndly that I might referre that to them of the committee to be at Edinbrugh, and that I might expect fauourable vsage, so farre as might consist with the publike good of the kirk of Scotland, which they must preferre to any priuat man. I answered it is very good reasoun. And this I was dismissed with loue and vnanimous good lyking of the whole generall assemblie, and of all the members thereof, both of laitie and of the clergie. And I came from them rejoycing and praising God, who hath hade mercy vpon me, and hath giuen me this louing fauour of the generall assemblie, and hath made my freinds to re Joyce and praise God with me, and for me and myne enemies he hath made to be at peace with me, and to become my freinds, and he hath confounded my spirituall enemies, and hath made all the beholders of this great mercy of God toward me to admire and magnifie thewonderfull 276 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS prouidence of God, and his most excellent louing kyndnesse and the trueth of his saluation to all them that trust in his mercy and call upon his name. LE — Elohe — Israel, Blessed be the Lord for he hath shewed me his marvellous kindness in a strong citie. After this, that same day, I being alone in the field, and meditating on all theise things, I fell doune vpon my face and praised God with teares of joy. He hath deliuered my soule in peace from the battell that was against me ; for there were many with me. O Lord, thou hast pleaded the cause of my soule, for the Lord hath dealt bounti- fully with thee. What shall I render vnto the Lord for all his benefits towards me ? O Lord, my goodness extendeth not to thee. O Lord, sanctifie my whole spirit, and soule, and body, wholly vnto thy selfe. Thy vowes are upon me, O God. I will render praises vnto thee, for thou hast deliuered my soule from death. Wilt thou not deliuer my feete from falling ? that I may walke before God in the light of the lining. Lord, lead me, preserue and bless me in this intended journey to Edin- brugh, and bring me home againe in peace with a good conscience. This I asked fervently with teares, and the Lord graciously heard my prayer, assuring me that he will goe with me, and bring me againe in peace, and he will shew me his salua- tion, so that I shall finish my course with joy, and depart in peace in the sight of his saluation. I was heirby exceedingly comforted in the Lord my God, against the feare of this journey to Edin- brugh, and of my weaknesse, and of the assaults attending me their, and against the feare of death. Blessed be the name of the Lord for euer and euer. Amen. APPENDIX VI 277 DR. FORBES' ANSWER TO THE SYNOD— 1642 My answere to the tuo reverend brethren, Mr. Robert Reid and Mr. WilHam Strachan, which were sent to me from the provincial! sjmode of Aberdene, the 19th day of October, 1642. I doe indeed remain e in my former judgement concerning theise our domestike differences, but, seeing the brethren doe know that I am sound and orthodoxe in all the controversees against papists, and socinians, and arminians, and anabaptists, and other sectaries, conforme to the doctrine con- tained in our nationall confession, and in the harmonic of confessions, and my judgement con- cerning our domestike differences is neither hereti- call norschismaticall,and I doe possesse it peaceably; knowing that theise differences are not a sufficient cause wherefore to make separation or perturbation ; I submit myself e to the present government, and doe practise as is appoynted ; neither in this is my practise contrarie to my judgment, seing that which I practise may lawfully be done, and, conse- quently, the publike peace requiring it now of me, I ought to doe so ; although concerning the nature of episcopacy, and the necessitie or vnlawfulnesse of some other things contained in the covenant, I differ in judgment from my brethren, modestly and peaceably ; and that episcopacie, which I think lawfull and agreable to God's Word is not destructiue of the presbyterie, nor inconsistent therwith ; and in those churches which are governed 278 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS only communi presbyterorum consilio, the want of such a bishop, with them is indeed, in my opinion, an economicall defect, but it is not an essentiall defect, it neither taketh away the true nature of a church, neither doeth it make void or invaHde the ordination and jurisdiction therof ; and my judgement, concerning theise our domestike differ- ences, agreeth with the judgement both of cathohke antiquitie, and of the reformed churches, and the most famous and most approved doctors therof ; and, seeing my brethren know that I was placed in this station by an evident divine calling, by the voice of the church, and God hath bene with me therin ; neither doe I desert my station, nor alienat my affection from it, but am willing to continue in the service, for advancing the re- formed religion ; I doe not conceiue how it can be saife for my brethren, toward God, to put me from my station, or to hinder or discourage me in the performance of this worke, which God hath com- mitted vnto me, and wherin he doeth mercifullie blesse me. Therefore in all theise considerations, I expect that they will encourage me, euen as I am to goe in this service, and not remove me from it, which, if they doe, I meane, if they remoue me from this station, wherin God hath placed me, (albeit) I can not approue that their doeing, yet I am resolued to endure it patiently. — {Diary, fol. 174.) APPENDIX VII PROCEEDINGS AGAINST SIBBALD {Vita Joh. Forb., pp. 54-58.) § xci. Sibbald's Criticisms on certain Articles of his Accusation. I HAVE in my possession a certain paper in Sibbald's own handwriting containing certain observations on this lawsuit, of which I shall here give a brief summary. I. As regards his own papers, he says, " Out of my own plundered papers they seize an opportunity of accusing me concerning certain articles, and before I distinctly knew what they were, I answered that these papers could not be brought as evidence against me, since some of them were short summaries of works read by me which I had wTitten out that I might use them either in refuting or approving of them ; others were collections from commentaries on other books which I had written out as material for meditations in composing lectures, so that I might be able either to approve or reject them in accordance with reason after a proper examination ; and all were private, not public, and not intended for the public use, but for my own private use only." 279 2 So THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS § xcii. His Opinion concerning the Forty Days' Fast. For greater satisfaction Sibbald considers several articles of the accusation, and says what he thinks of them. He thinks it is impossible to deny that the forty days' fast is lawful, and he shows that the opinion of those who approve of this fast, as it was observed by the pure primitive Church, agrees with the unanimous opinion of Antiquity, even of learned Protestant theologians. As a proof of this he brings evidence from Zanchius, Doctors Field and Andrews, and Pieter Molanaeno, and he concludes with this question, viz. : Whether those who do not approve of this fast, disapprove of all fasts ? if they do not, why do they reject this rather than any other, especially seeing it is so ancient and instituted for serious reasons ? but if they do not approve of any fixed fasts (which is their doctrine and practice), how shall they avoid the charge of Acrius, who, according to Epiphanius, said there is no reason for instituting a fast, all these things are peculiar to the Jews, and are brought under a certain yoke of slavery, for no law is imposed on the just man, but only that of parricide and matricide and that kind of law ; for if I shall decide to fast at all, on any day that pleases me, I shall fast of my own accord, with my liberty untouched. Hence is it, says Epiphanius, that those people rather aim at fasting on Sunday ; but on the fourth and sixth holiday they take food, not from any law, but of their own will, as those who have been introduced assert. Moreover, on those very days of Easter which we are wont to celebrate by sleeping on the ground, preserving our chastity, and afflicting the body as well as by using APPENDIX VII 281 dry foods, praying, watching, vigils and fasting, .and other most wholesome tortures of the body, they on the contrary are wont to feast until dawn and swollen with meat and wine, to laugh at, ridicule, and hold in scorn those who spend that week of Easter in most holy religious exercises. § xciiL Concerning Expiation of Sin by Almsgiving. To another article adduced from his papers, viz. that sin is expiated by alms, he replies that he never either in public or in private had said that sin was expiated by alms, but had recommended them so far only as being exceedingly pleasing and accept- able to God when duly made ; and if any such opinion be found in his papers, it had merely been written out, and as it seems to him, this may be from the writings of Fr. White Orthodox, &c. Besides, if he has said in so many words, that sin was in a certain sense purged by alms, what more had he asserted than what is distinctly handed down in Scripture. See Proverbs xvi. 6. § xciv. Concerning the Dedication and Sanctity of Churches. To other two articles concerning the dedication and sanctity of churches, he answers, that he thought that churches may and ought to be con- secrated to prayer and thanksgivings, in token of their separation from profane and common use, and of their being set apart for sacred and pious exercises. 2. He says that places so consecrated are more sacred than common houses ; that he was not so absurd as to think that there was any sanctity in them such as to be endowed with reason, but only that which can belong to places and times ; and what 282 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS sanctity can belong to them no one can call in question who believes Holy Scripture, since it is clear from it that there are holy days, and that the earth can be holy (Ex. iii. 5 ; Acts vii. 33 ; John V. 15 ; Lev. xxvii. 28 ; i Tim. iv. 5). Who dares to say that the elements of bread and wine are not more sacred after consecration than common bread and wine ? But this peculiar degree of sanctity they have because they have been destined and consecrated by the most holy and religious use : in the same manner, though not in the same degree, churches are holy since they are set apart and destined for sacred use, and by prayers and thanksgivings consecrated to that end. If the mere destination of a thing to sacred use renders it holy, and if prayers and thanks- givings make that on a certain degree holy which is destined only for common use, as is our ordinary food, it is foreign to all reason to aihrm that churches are not in the same category. 3. There is a sin called sacrilege (Paul, Rom. ii. 22). One of the most distinct kinds of sacrilege is the violation and spoliation of churches and their gifts. 4. He shows that it was the practice of the old church, as is clear from ancient writers and learned Protestant theologians, so that in the time of Sibbald these distinguished men could not have been received into the Scottish Church. § xcv. Concerning the Afflictions of the Good, and whether they can be called Punishment, and may be said to proceed from the Justice of God. Sibbald says that there was another article adduced from his papers concerning the afflictions of the good, viz. as to whether they may be said APPENDIX VII 283 to be punishments, and to proceed from the justice of God. His opinion is that they may truly be called punishments, and for the following reasons : (i) Because in them all things necessarily required for punishment are found, viz. they have regard to fault as the source and original spring from which they flow, for death and all its consequent miseries entered through it (Rom., Gen.) Be- sides Scripture expressly teaches that the most beloved servants of God were afllicted on account of their own sin. The second thing required for punishment is that they should suffer and suffer much through it. Third, that it is opposed to their natural inclination. (2) The iniquities of those from whom God does not withdraw His compassion are visited with the rod. (3) Scripture asserts that they are judged by God (i Cor. ii. 32), and that judgment shall begin at the house of God (i Pet. iv. 17). Accordingly, if the afflictions of the just come from God they are His judgments, and if He judges them when He afflicts them, hence it is clear that they are punishments and come from the justice of God, which two things are inseparably connected. Wlien it is said that afflictions are only a medium for curing the soul from past diseases and preserving it from future ones, and that God does not in them intend ven- geance or the satisfaction of His justice, but the spiritual and eternal good of the afflicted ones and of those who see their afflictions, Sibbald answers that it is true that these afflictions are like medicine, and that the afflicting God is like a physician, but not only so. The physician has no right of owner- ship in his patient, but God, as our Supreme Lord and Judge, has an absolute and supreme right of 284 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS ownership in us, and He uses it in afflicting us, but only in the way in which a father acts who chastises his son for his fault. And as the chastise- ment of a father does not cease to be punishment because it has the healing virtue of preserving from sin, so is it with the rod with which God chastises his children. So, in like manner, the divine inten- tion of promoting the good of the afflicted and of the others who see them, by no means takes away the nature of punishment from their afflictions ; just as among men a judge condemns a culprit, perhaps to be beaten or sent to prison, in order that he may become better in future, and that others may take warning to themselves to abstain from a similar offence. Granted that afflictions are nothing more than paternal chastisements, yet it does not follow from that that they are not punish- ments ; nay, rather the contrary, even chastisements are a kind of punishment. Nothing else, however, can be inferred from it except that they are not that kind of punishment which is inflicted for the sake of vengeance alone. As to the saying that the sins of the Saints are pardoned, and that therefore they cannot after- wards be punished for them — since it seems incon- sistent that a sin should be remitted and that the man can nevertheless be punished on account of it — Sibbald answers : The Remission of Sin by God and His reconciliation with the sinner has, he says, great and blessed results. In this way the full punishment of sin, which in justice suits it, is taken away ; in this way we get possession of His grace, and have right to all its beneficent effects, namely, the full freedom which we shall at the right time acquire from all the ills which we suffer here. APPENDIX VII 285 Grace also is bestowed, whereby our afflictions may be sanctified, and may minister to our spiritual and eternal good. Yet he reserves to Himself the point of chastising us, even as a father his son, for our present and future good, and to manifest His own justice and holiness. Is there anything in this repugnant to divine justice and goodness ? Says the Apostle, There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ, but he does not say that there is nothing wanting of condemnation. Our theo- logians hold that the original wickedness in the Saints is really sin. And there is no one who does not sin. It is plain, therefore, that the punishments of the Saints are temporal, and are not inconsistent with the justice of God, nor do they derogate from His kindness in pardoning or from the worthi- ness of our justification. So far are we from having a just cause of quarrel thence, that in our affliction we are bound to recognise the justice of God (Ps. cxix. 137), to adore His wisdom, to wonder at His goodness, who has rescued us from so great evils, and will free us from all evils in His good time, which must be patiently waited for by us. Next he shows that these afflictions come not from His justice only and solely, nor are they altogether penal, but from justice so tempered with mercy that they scarcely deserve to be called punishments, if they are compared with our sins and their deserved punishments ; if the reason by which He is moved to afflict us be considered by His love, not less rather more than His compassion ; if they are considered with respect to the effects set before Him and produced by God, such as the mortification of our innate corruption, the sense of sin and the means of avoiding it, the exercise of the gifts of God begun 2 86 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS in us, and their proof ; the greater conformity to the Hkeness of His Son, how they themselves are a source of eternal joy and happiness. Sibbald concludes by showing the difference between his doctrine and the papistical one. § xcvi. Concerning the Difference of the Will of God Antecedent and Consequent. In the next place Sibbald treats of the destination of the will of God into antecedent and consequent ; and having shown that the distinction was in use among the Fathers, both scholastic and modern, he observes that the antecedent will can mean either the bare and simple leaning towards something which considered in itself is good, and in that sense may be ascribed to God as much as to the holiness and salvation of all rational creatures. For salvation, both of men and angels, considered in itself, he says, is desirable, regarding in its own nature the glory of God and the usefulness of men and angels who are made in the image of God. It is therefore in itself an object in the highest degree conformable to the divine pleasure, which is itself goodness and love and cannot refuse to have pleasure in any good thing, especially its own glory and likeness. 2. The antecedent will, he says, can mean not only a simple wish, but also the act which, by way of following it up, aims at its object ; for which reason he who has this will gives, or is prepared to give, that which is sufficient to accomplish the thing wished for ; and this will is either absolute and effective ; and so the will by which God has decided to call men is antecedent, since it arises from nothing in ourselves, and can come about without any foreseeing of the determining of the human APPENDIX VII 287 will, proceeding from the divine goodness alone ; and this will is effective ; for whomsoever God has decided to call, those He calls, and in the manner in which He has decided, or (2) this will may be conditioned ; as when any one having this will, wishes such and such things to be done, but not absolutely, nor without all limitation, but so far as foresight demands, which is suificient for him who so wishes, so when this will is ascribed to God as regards the holiness and salvation of those who perish, it includes, formally or virtually, this condi- tion, that He will accomplish it, if man does not place any obstacle in the way, that He, to that end, will do those things which are agreeable to His providence, and will in no way obstruct them. Then he goes on to inquire whether there be such will in God, and having considered the arguments adduced against it, and the answers to them, which he recounts at great length, he further discusses whether such a will be in God and how far it may be ascribed to Him. And in the first place, he says, that antecedent will of holiness and salvation appears to be in God in respect of all men considered in Adam ; seeing that in him He gave them not only a nature capable of eternal happiness, but also that justice by which all may be saved. 2. If it be considered in respect to fallen man, it is not clear that it is in God as regards all men, since innumerable men (he says), so far as we perceive, are deprived of the necessary and sufficient means of salvation. 3. It seems to be in God so far as regards all who are in the Church to whom sufficient means are offered. 4. He says that he by no means approves the 288 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS doctrine of the Arminians, who assert that God loves the elect more than others by His consequent will, although He loves all equally by His antecedent will. 5, He does not approve the doctrine of those who assert that God by His antecedent will has willed the condemnation of the greater part of the human race, and that, before the foreseeing of any sin in them. He recognises that there is nothing in a man on account of which God has ordained some to life, others being passed over. He says that he, with Scripture, attributes to the decree of the Divine Will that it is always just though hidden. But if there be a discussion concerning positive reproba- tion, which is the divine decree of punishment, he says that it is in accordance with the consequent wHl of God, and presupposes the foreseeing of sin not as it were the cause of the will but as it were the reason of the thing willed. He shows : (i) that the Synod of Dordrecht was of the same opinion, and that that is manifest from its own canons and those of the Theologians, and especially those of Britain. (2) The most learned of the Scholastics (were of the same opinion). (3) The Fathers (Augustine) . (4) That all the ways of God are mercy and justice. Since, therefore, the ordaining of certain men to eternal death is not a work of mercy, it must be an act of justice, and thus supposes the foreknowledge of sin. In regard to its being said that the punishment of sin is pleasing to God, and therefore it seems as if He had wished it by His antecedent will, no less than the salvation of man ; he answers, that the salvation of man is in itself pleasing to God, although we regard it not at all from the part of mankind, and in like manner it is an object in conformity with the antecedent will APPENDIX VII 289 of God because the thing is bound to be desirable in itself. But as to the punishment of man con- sidered simply and in itself, it is not pleasing to God, except so far as it is a just punishment of sin (Jer. iii. 33 ; A^tg. Confess, i. 3, C. 2). 6. He says that he cannot understand how it can be said that God wills sin either by His antecedent or consequent will ; he says. He permits it only and ordains it when permitted. Ancien*^^ Councils have banned the opposite doctrine (Arausican Council and Council of Valentin), It also clearly appears to be contrary to Scripture (Ps. v. 4 ; Hab. i. 13), and to the infinite holiness of God revealed in it, to which nothing appears to be more repugnant than to will wicked and sinful acts, and to predetermine to them, since some of them are in themselves bad, from which acts wickedness cannot be separ- ated by any circumstance of efficient or final cause, and which, therefore, are prohibited because they are bad, and do not become bad on account of the prohibition alone, — as hatred of God, blasphemy, perjury, lying. If it were otherwise, and these acts could be purged of evil by the will and efficacy of God, then it would follow that God could have commanded such and prohibited their contraries. This is conceded by some. (If God had com- manded both angels and men very differently, nay the very opposite of that which He does in fact command. He would be no less than He now is the divine Jehova some one asserts.) In this way God could enjoin on angels and men hatred of Himself and prohibit the love of Himself, which, says Sibbald, appears to me in the highest degree absurd. In such a case the hatred of God would be a good thing, and the love of Him a bad 19 290 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS thing. (2) It would follow from this that God could deny Himself, which blasphemy is opposed to Holy Scripture (2 Tim. ii.). For God is essenti- ally the love of Himself and conformity with right reason, and the hatred of Him is really and positively opposed to the love of Him and to right reason. (3) To take an example in lying : if the doing of this were not in itself bad, then God could will this act, far be blasphemy from the word. But (i) Holy Writ contradicts it (Heb. 6), which says it is impossible for God to lie. (2) It contradicts the truth and faithfulness which are essential in Him. (3) If it were possible either for Him to speak what is opposed to the truth, and to move and predetermine others to it, the foundation of our faith should be overturned. For our faith is founded on the infallible truth of God, which can neither deceive nor be deceived. If it be said that God is not bound by law, like us, and that His will is a law to itself, and therefore that everything is either good or bad according as He Himself wishes it to be so or not ; he answers that although God has no superior, yet His own intrinsic, natural, and essential rightness and good- ness are a law which is in essence His own goodness or virtue itself ; or, which is the same thing. He has for a law to Himself the dictates of His own wisdom concerning what is good and true, joined with the natural love of Himself ; by force of which it is necessary that He love Himself as if He were the highest truth and goodness, and therefore it is impossible that He should wish to hold that creature in hatred, or to despise him, or should predetermine him his real and positive acts of hatred and contempt of Himself, for in this way He APPENDIX VII 291 would act contrary to the love of Himself and to the dictates of His own wisdom, which dictate is, that, since it is the highest good to be loved by all, He should be held in hatred by none. (See August.) In the next place, he observes that those who assert that God wills bad actions and predetermines men to them, confess that they cannot conceive in what way God can be willing thus. (See Twiss, bk. 2, viii. 323. Moreover, says Twiss, I do not blush to confess, although I never doubted the holy nature of God, as most foreign to every charge of wickedness, that, nevertheless, this kept me long in suspense, namely, what was the true reason, what was the method of the divine working, whereby it happens that He mingles in every action as it were the most efficacious cause, yet beyond all contagion of error, on this side of the just suspicion of fault ? And whether to this day we have a sufficient explanation of everything, God only knows.) Finally, he concludes with the moderation which, he thinks, ought to be deservedly noted, of the Church of Lyons, in the article concerning God wishing all to be saved. " May there be therefore among us," they say, " also concerning this matter, such good caution and moderation, so far that due honour may be paid to the Holy Fathers, and in whatsoever manner any one may acquiesce in those meanings which have been laid down by them concerning this sentence, let us not judge him to be a heretick ; but rather let us avoid the evil of contention, by which, even in the matter of peace- ful and ecclesiastical meanings, he who would like to be contentious, is able to make out that to be heretical which he finds signified. Therefore in such matters let us restrain ourselves with a whole- 292 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS some moderation, so that we may neither be bold to despise things nor attempt to affirm them as if necessary, always keeping in mind that Apostolic sentence : If, however, any one appears to be contentious, neither have we any such habit nor the Church of God. Let us read therefore in a peaceful frame of mind, and so far as the Lord gives, let us understand the dogmas of ecclesiastics, nor let us take part in fighting with some doctors against others ; because both they themselves have been abounding in peace in their own meaning, one in one way and one in another, waiting faithfully and humbly, for what the Apostle promises, saying : * And if you are at all wise in other respects, this also will He reveal to you.' For he who does not express his meaning calmly and peacefully, but forthwith rises up in contention, dissension, and quarrels, even if he have not the heretical INTENTION OR SENSE, CERTAINLY HAS THE HERETICAL MIND : And if even those good men who framed this definition wished to preserve the moderation of their piety, they would have done better to pass this matter over in silence, and have allowed to each his opinion concerning it according to his own faith and authority which he should think most to be recognised, and the quarrel between them of such a long and pernicious contention, being finished, the peace and unity of the Church of Christ would be restored." So far the Church of Lyons. A wholesome and truly Christian warning, and if the Rulers and Pastors of the Christian world would obey it uni- versally and seriously, there would not be so many contentions and quarrels in the Church of God. APPENDIX VIII JOHN DURIE John Durie (1596-1680), Protestant divine, fourth son of Robert Durie, was born at Edinburgh in 1596. He was educated for the ministry at Sedan, under his cousin Andrew Melville, and at Leyden where his father had settled. In 1624 he came to Oxford. In 1628 he was minister to the English Company of Merchants, at Elbing, West Prussia, then in the hands of Gustavus Adolphus. In 1630, the factory failing, he returned to England, on the advice of the English Ambassador, Sir Thomas Roe, who met him at Elbing, and who favoured his plan of negotiation with the Reformed and Lutheran Churches. He received some support from Arch- bishop Abbot and Bishops Bedell and Hall. With letters from them he visited Gustavus Adolphus. Gustavus showed sympathy, and promised him letters to the Protestant princes of Germany. He attended the Courts and Churches, the State Assemblies and Synods of Hesse, Hanau, the Wetteran, and Leipzig in 163 1, and of Heilebron (where an evangelical league was formed), Frankfort, and Holland in 1632. Gustavus fell at Lutzen. Oxenstiern refused " formal " sanction to Durie 's scheme for a General Assembly of the Evangelical Churches. 293 294 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS At the end of 1633, being heavily in debt {Cat. State Papers, Dom. Ser. 1633-34), he returned to England, and in 1634 was ordained priest with a license of non-residence. He was made one of the King's chaplains, and preferred to a small living in Lincolnshire which cost him more for a curate than he received. The same year he attended the Great Frankfort Assembly. The Transylvanian States sent him counsel and advice, and having the creden- tials of Archbishops Laud and Ussher, Bishops Hall, Morton, and Davenant, and twenty English doctors of divinity, he published his Declarations of English Divines, along with his Latin treatise, SententicB de Pacis rationibus Evangelicis. Though he was sup- ported at Frankfort by Roe, he obtained only a general acknowledgment of his services, and the defeat of the Swedes at Nordhngen put an end to the meeting. After a short sojourn in England, he started in July 1635 for the Continent, and laboured for a year in the Netherlands. In June 1636 he went to Sweden, whither he had been invited by Matthia, chaplain to Gustavus Adolphus, and pro- pounded his views to the Lutherans at Stockholm and Upsala. For two years he carried on a voluminous correspondence with Hamburg and the Free Cities. His Swedish negotiations failed. Queen Christina ordered him out of the kingdom in February 1637-38. Although ill in bed, he vowed never to slacken his efforts for religious unity. In 1639 he visited Denmark without success, and afterwards went to Brunswick, Hildersheim, and Zelle, where the reigning Dukes countenanced his views, and a treaty of alliance between all the Brunswick and Liineburg churches was planned with the aid of Cahxtus. Early in 1640 he held meetings at Oldenburg and Hainault, APPENDIX VIII 295 and again at Hamburg and the Free Cities, but tlie joint views of himself and CaHxtus were strongly opposed. He now passed through North and South Holland, sent memorials and letters throughout France and Switzerland, and at length arrived in England in 1640-41. Durie attached himself to the Royalists, and accepted office at the Hague as chaplain and tutor to Mary, Princess of Orange. In 1642-43 he resigned this " uncomfortable position," and became minister to the Merchant Adventurers at Rotterdam. He was summoned to attend the Assembly of divines, and after two years' delay he returned to London, arriv- ing in November 1645. He was one of those who drew up the Westminster Confession and Catechisms. He remained in England until 1654, continuing his negotiations throughout Europe for Christian unity. In 1645 he preached before Parhament "Israel's Call to Moab out of Babylon," published in 1646. The Parhament granted him a sum of money equivalent to the value of his offices, but he declares he never received a penny. He was married about April 1645 to an Irish lady, an aunt of Lady Ranelagh, who had taken great interest in his Christian work. The lady's estate was worth £400 a year. No rents for a long time were forthcoming, yet she provided a garrison for Parliament " against the rebels " in Ireland. In 1650, Durie was appointed library-keeper, under Whitelocke, of the books, medals, and manu- scripts of St. James's, and had lodgings there. To carry out his second plan of negotiations, Durie left England in April 1654. He now had the appro- bation of Cromwell and the assistance of the English universities. Labouring through the Low Countries and part of High Germany, he reached Switzerland 2 96 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS and presented Cromwell's letters to the assembled divines at Aargaii, and his scheme was well enter- tained. He then visited the churches of the reformed cantons, passed on to Frankfort-on-the-Maine, Weimar, Gotha, Brunswick, Hesse, Hanau, Nassau, Hainault, and the Netherlands, and was favourably received at S3mods and meetings in all these states from 1654 to 1656-57. He made Amsterdam his headquarters until the latter year. His acceptance of the new ecclesiastical system in England under the Commonwealth brought on him many reproaches. He now limited his ground to unity of opinion on the Apostles' Creed, Ten Commandments, and Lord's Prayer, but being neglected and acrimoniously attacked, chiefly by Lutherans, he was compelled to seek rest in England, whither he returned early in 1656-57. At the Restoration (1660) he endeavoured to renew his work through Lord-Chancellor Hyde and the Duke of Manchester. His letter to the King in vindication of his action under the Common- wealth was unanswered, and Bishop Juxon declined an interview. In 1661-62 he proceeded to Cassel, where the landgrave of Hesse favoured his plans. The landgrave's widow after her husband's death in 1663 continued to favour Durie, and assigned him comfortable quarters at Cassel. From 1663 to 1668 Durie disputed in South Germany, Switzerland, and Alsace. In the latter year the great elector rejected all his plans, and although he continued to travel from his home at Cassel to all parts of Germany and back until 1674, his labour was in vain. " The only fruit," he says, " which I have reaped by all my toils is that I see the miserable condition of Christianity, and that I have no other comfort than the testimony of my conscience." APPENDIX Vm 297 His life was an incessant round of journeyings, colloquies, correspondence, and publication. He died at Cassel, 26th September 1680. His only child, a daughter, married to Henry Oldenburgh, succeeded to an estate of her father's in the marshes of Kent, valued at £60 a year. — Did. of Nat. Biog. APPENDIX IX THE CLOSING YEARS OF DR. JOHN FORBES [Vit. J oh. Forb., p. 70.] § xcvii. The Equanimity with which Forbes bore his Dismissal. But to return to our Forbes, he bore his dismissal with an equal and gentle mind, he never returned his enemies evil for evil, but with kindliness and true Christian charity, he always commended them to God in his prayers, as may be seen in his spiritual exercises. He handed over his own house for the use of his successors in that Chair of Theology, so as to be a residence for them in the future. He made no schism or separation from them, but joined with them in public worship, listened to the Presbyterian sermons, observed all the public fasts instituted by the Synods, always, when the occasion arose, took part in the Holy Communion when they administered it, and everywhere, by his shining example, showed what was the duty of a good man in such a distracted state of the Church, and from his Spiritual Exercises it is clear how anxiously he used every opportunity to promote in his own heart, to true conscientiousness, the 298 APPENDIX IX 299 devotion and love of God. It is to be noted also, that men's minds had not been mutually exasperated to that degree of hatred and spite against each other on account of the difference in opinion con- cerning ecclesiastical rule, to which they afterwards reached. For formerly, when Episcopacy was established in Scotland, the Presbyterians joined the Episcopalians in holy matters, and did not build a separate church and altar ; so in like manner, when the Presbyterian rule was established in Scotland, the Episcopalians did not depart from communion with them, and again, when, on the restoration of Charles 11. Episcopacy was restored, Presbyterians and Ministers and Laity continued in the same communion with them, nor did they found a separate sect until the year 1666, about which time the Presbyterian ministers throughout the whole kingdom suddenly made a disruption from the public churches, and teaching the people to do the same, they made separate meeting-places, in order that in this way they might keep that sect distinct ; and now the other party in turn, and as it seems to them for a better reason, does the same thing ; and to what a degree of confusion and of all evil works this spirit of envy and contention will at length drive us, God only knows. § xcviii. Forbes Relies on the Purity of his own Heart. John Forbes remained at home in a private capacity, giving himself up wholly to the purifica- tion of his own heart, to continual prayer, and to communing with God, striving to be a cause of offence to none, living at peace with everybody so far as in him lay, so that his true goodness and 300 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS humility extorted the admiration of his enemies themselves and gained him peace and quietness. One day when some of the Presbyterian brethren were talking about him, one of them said that Forbes was a good man, another of them, of no great judgment, answered that he was a morally good man. (And even this is a rare kind of bird on earth.) Nay, answered the first, he is more than a moral man. This was one of Forbes' three antagonists in the dispute concerning the National Covenant, at that time Minister of Aberdeen, having greater authority, both over Presbyters and people, than any other Bishop there had ever exercised, as indeed is the custom in that Hier- archy. But when the flames of discord and com- motion burst forth in Britain with greater heat, and when new oaths were imposed, the refusers of which were persecuted by the Covenanters as though they were enemies to their Religion and country, he was at length compelled for a short while to withdraw from his native country. § cviii. Forbes Sets out for Holland. But I return to our author Forbes, whom, along with his father. Bishop Forbes, Archbishop Spots- wood held in high respect. Forbes would have liked to remain at Aberdeen, where, having been granted access to the public libraries, he would have finished the rest of the much-needed books of his Historical - Theological Instructions. But this favour could not be obtained, for besides the National Covenant, he was required to sign the Solemn League and Covenant also, otherwise to undergo the penalty of ecclesiastical censure or to APPENDIX IX 301 leave the country. This last alternative Forbes chose, and on 5th April 1644 he left his native land and made sail for Belgium, and on the loth of the same month he touched Campvere. From here he wandered through the whole Belgic Confederacy, and frequently preached, at the request of the pastors, in the churches of Englishmen and Scotsmen, to the very great consolation and edification of the people, who wondered what kind of a church the Scottish church was, if it ejected from the college of its pastors so reverend a man. While in Holland he stayed mostly at Amsterdam, and occupied himself there in editing his Historico-Theological Instructions, which he declined to publish unless with the approval of the most famous Theologians of the Academies of the Belgian Confederacy, and they willingly gave their approval to the edition of his work. In his diary Forbes mentions and praises (giving thanks to God) the singular candour and kindness of John Ger. Vossius, who thought fit to adorn the edition of this work by his testimony, although in the 28th and 29th chapters of the 8th Book of this work he had read certain opinions opposed to those which he had himself written in his Pelagian history. Among innumerable kindnesses of divine providence and protection, the following is memor- able : On Friday (says Forbes) in the evening (25th June) while I was being carried in a skiff so as to get on board the passenger vessel plying from Amsterdam to Swartsluis, God bestowed on me this singular kindness of a gracious protection and release, blessed be His name for ever. The ship's anchor fell on the top of me, nevertheless I was uninjured, not killed, nor wounded, nor hurt, praise be to God, Amen and Amen. 302 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS § cix. His Return to his Native Land, and Death. After staying more than two years in Holland he returned to Scotland, and setting sail from Verea on the 8th July 1646 he reached the port of Aberdeen on the 14th of that month, and lest the Ministers and Presbyterian party should harbour any suspicions concerning him, he at once retired to his country estate of Corse, giving his best thanks to God who had preserved him unhurt both going and returning, and inasmuch as he had found his house in peace and safety, where he passed the remainder of his life, in preparation for death, and he piously fell asleep in the Lord 29th April 1648, and he was buried in the cemetery of his own parish, without any funeral pomp or monument. Concerning his last illness and death, I can say nothing, since I have seen no memorial of it. His diary was continued only to the end of the year 1647. APPENDIX X DR. FORBES IN EXILE Vpon Fryyday, at euen, being the 5th day of April, anno 1644, I and my sonne George, and Mr. William Keyth, being embarked in the ship of John Andersone of Torrie, we lowsed from the roade of Aberdene, and, according to the good hand of our God vpon us, we arrived safely ay Camphere, vpon Weddensday, the tenth of the same April, at ten houres before noone. And vpon the next Lords day, it being the 14th day of the same April, I being desired by Mr. Grybius, preachour to the English church in Middelburg, and by Mr. Spang, pastor of the Scottish church in Camphere, I preached in the English church in Middelburg, vpon Rom, 8. 31, 32. — Blessed be God for His most comfortable mercies in Christ Jesus. Hallelujah. Vpon the 28th day of April, old stile, which was the 8th of May, new stile, it being the Lords day, I preached in the English church in Amsterdame, vpon John 6. 27, being desired by Mr. Julius Haring, pastor of the same church. Vpon the M day of May, being the Lords day, I preached in the Enghsh church in Vtrecht, vpon Psal. 119, vers. 132, being desired by Mr. Harris, pastor of the said church. 304 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS Vpon Weddnesday, the ^ of May, being desired by Mr. Julius Haring, I preached again in the EngUsh church in Amsterdame, vpon Matt. ii. 28. Vpon the 26th of May, old stile, being desired by Mr. Spang, I preached again in Middelburg, vpon Matth. 11. 29, Mr. Grybius being absent. Blessed be God for ever. Amen. Vpon the -f^ day of Junij, in Ledyen, Doctor Spanheimius, professor of divinitie, preached in the French tongue, in the French church their, vpon theise words of our Saviour, For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles he gathered to- gether — Matt. 24. 28. Theise words he did expone learnedly and plainly, pertinently and powerfully applying them to the celebration of the holy communion, which also he did celebrat after sermon ; and I did also communicate with them at the Lords table, and I found sweet presence and strong consolation in Christ my Saviour, to whom be glory for ever. Amen. And in that same church, afternoone, the ordinarie minister of that French congregation did preach vpon psalme 103, vers, I, 2, 3, 4, 5, — Blesse the Lord, my soule, &c. I blesse God for this blessed occasion, and for all His great mercies. Hallelujah. Amen. Vpon Weddensday, at evening, the yr day of Junij, as I was goeing in a boat toward the passadge ship for Swartsluyse, from Amsterdame, I hade from God this great preservation and deliverance, blessed be His holy name for ever and ever ; an ancore of a ship did fall vpon me, and yet I was saved, and not killed, nor wounded, nor bruised. Praised be God. Amen and amen. Againe, vpon Frydday at euen, the tt day of Junie, at Groeningen, as I was stepping vp to an APPENDIX X 305 high bed, the stoole tumbled, and I did fall vpon an hard fioore, and was saved from hurt. Praised be the Lord for ever. Amen. Vpon the 23rd of Junie, old stile, it being the 3rd day of Julie, new stile, and being the Lord's day, I heard at Amsterdame before noone, in the Zuyder kirk, one of the pastors of Amsterdame preaching vnto the congregation of Hollanders their assembled. His sermon was learned and pious, and very comfortable. His text was, Waut de Sone des Menschen is glekomen oin te soeken ende saligh to maken dat vertoren was — that is. For the Sonne of Man is come to seeke and to save thai which was lost — Luc. 19, 10. And, after sermon, the holy communion was celebrated, where I did also communicat at the Lord's table with that congregation, and I was comforted not a little. I found the Lord's gracious presence with me, preparing and inviting me, and leading me to His holy table, and their reviving and strengthening my soule with that heavenly food which endureth vnto everlasting life. I renewed my vowes, and cryed for grace, and was greatly comforted, and my soule praised the Lord, and I doe praise Him with all my heart, and I will, by His grace, loue and praise His holy name, while I haue any being. Hallelujah. Vpon that same day, after noone, in that same kirk, preached another of the ordinarie pastors of Amsterdame, vpone Act 2. 38, 39 and vpon the 72, 73 and 74 questions of their ordinarie catechisme, concerning baptisme. And therafter, in another kirk, vpon the same day, I heard a thrid sermon, plainly and powerfully preached, by another ordinarie preacher of Amsterdame, vpon theise words : Ende niet vele dagen daer na de 20 306 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS jongste sone alles by een vergadert hebbende is wech gereyst in eeen verre (gelegen) landt, ende heest aldaer syn goet door ghebracht levende overdadighlick ; that is : And not many dayes after, the yonger sonne gathered all together, and tooke his journey into a farre countrey, and their wasted his substance with riotous living — Luke 15. 13. I thank the Lord for theise and other blessed occasions of His service, and for His manifold mercies toward me, and toward all and euery one of his children. Hallelujah. Vpon the 4^th day of Julie, it being the Lord's day, I preached in the English church at Amster- dame, vpon Matth. 11. 29, being desired by Mr. Thomas Paget, one of the ordinarie pastors of that church. Vpon the x^th day of August, 1644, it being the Lord's day, I received the holy communion in the French church from Monsieur Hotton, one of the ordinarie pastors of the French congregation at Amsterdame, who also preached upon Psalme 133. 3 : and again, afternoone, in that same con- gregation, I heard another minister preach also in French, vpon Rom. 12. i. I was much comforted in God my Saviour. Glory to the Father, and to the Sonne, and to the Holy Ghost, for ever. Amen. Vpon the -^fth day of August, it being the Lord's day, being desired, I preached in the English church at Delft, two sermons, vpon Esai 12. i : And in that day thou shalt say, Lord, I will praise thee ; though thou wast angry with me (or, for thou was angrie with me) , thyne anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me. Vpon Weddensday, the 28th of August, old stile, being the seventh of September, new stile, being APPENDIX X 307 desired, I preached in Amsterdame upon theise words in the two last verses of the 80th Psalm — Quicken vs and we shall call upon thy name. Turn vs again, Lord of Hosts, cause thy face to shyne, and we shall be saved. Within not many dayes after this, I went againe to Groeningen, where my sonne and his pedagogue Mr. William Keyth were ; and their finding my sonne somewhat seekly, and having occasion of fair weather, and perceiuing my sonne to be somewhat sad, I tooke him and his pedagogue abroad, and we made a progresse of travelling gently and pleasantly through Ommeland and through Friseland, and did let him see theise townes in Freisland, Lewardine, and Franekir, with the academie therin, and Harhng, remaining a good while in euery one of them : and we travelled also through another towne in Friesland, called Bolswart, and saw other places a good way off ; and upon the seuenth day we returned to Groeningen in peace, being all of vs in good health, praised be God for it, and for restor- ing my child from that siknesse which they reported to have been heavier before I came. I stayed with them the space of neare three moneths, and having provided their accomodation in all things against the approaching winter, I recommended them to the grace of God, and leaving them in good health and cheerefulnesse, and in a comfortable course of good learning, I took journay from Groeningen, vpon Weddensday, the 30th day of October, old stile, and, by the mercy of God, I arrived safely at Amsterdame, vpon Saturday, the 2nd of November, old stile, which was the 12th of November, new stile. Blessed be God. Because of the printing of my booke, entitled 308 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS Instructiones historico-theologicae , I tooke course to stay at Amsterdame this winter, and entered into a butch merchant's house, where I found the companie good,rehgious, and civile; but the chamber where I abode, altho large and well furnished, yet obscure and somwehat cold ; whereupon I told them that I found not such accomodation in respect of the chamber as my studies doe require, and besought them to think well of my removall to some other house, wherein I might find a more convenient chamber, which they did not oppose ; and thereupon I made condition with another, where was a meeter chamber, altho at a dearer rate ; and while, as I am staying to fulfill a weeke with the aforesaid good companie, they sett them- selues by all meanes to remede any thing displeas- ing to me ; and some freinds also told me that they might happily take it in evill part as a breach on my part, and a disreputation put vpon them, and their house, if I should so soone leave them ; and, on the other part, I hade promised to the other people to come to them. The consideration of this difhcultie did much trouble me, for I saw my self sore straited with an appearing necessitie of sinning; and giving of offence, which way of the two I should choyse, which was vnto me more bitter then death. Therefore, being in a grievous agonie, I confessed my sinnes vnto God, and this sinfull precipitating of my self into this fearfulle difiicultie. I cryed with teares vnto my God, to whome all things are possible, and the Lord heard me, and hade mercy vpon me, and moved the hearts of that good com- panie with whome I was, to declare vnto me, that howsoever they would be glad of my companie, yet they acknowledged that the chamber was incon- APPENDIX X 309 venient for me, and therefore they consented to my remoovell with freindschip and goodwill, neither did they conceiue offence therat, and were rather displeased at the incommodiousenesse of that house, which was vnto themselues but an hyred house, and said that they mynded to seeke out for themselues also a better lodging house ; and I came with peace of conscience and kyndnesse of both parties vnto the other more commodious lodging. My soule doth blesse the Lord my God and Saviour, and I will, by His grace, blesse His holy name while I haue any being, who hath knowen my soule in adversities, and hath disappoynted the machinations and expectation of my spirituall enemies, and hath drawen me out of the great waters of tenation and trouble, wherewith I was compassed, and hath kept me from sinning against Him, and from giving offence, and in love to my soule He hath cast all my sinnes behind His back, and hath deliuered me out of the mouth of the Lion. And I trust in the mercy of the Lord my God, that He shall deliver me from euery euill worke, and will preserve me vnto His heavenly kingdome ; to whome be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Upon i|th day of December, 1644, at Amster- dame, Mr. Julius Haring and Mr Thomas Paget, the two ordinarie pastors of the English Con- gregation, did preach and celebrat the holy com- munion, and I came with others to the Lord's table, and their I receiued the holy communion, with a very sweet and sensible presence of the Lord my God and Saviour with me, renewing to me His former comforts, and adding therto, in such sort, as when I came from the table, and did betake myself to a privat devotion in thanks- 310 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS giving to God, my heart and my soule rejoyced greatly in the Lord, and myne eyes did cast out tears, proceeding from spiritual joy, and love, and peace. I prayed for confirmation, and continu- ance of His grace with me, and for performance of my vowes, that the Lord would work in me the performance, and blesse His church in our King's dominions and elsewhere, and make me to be com- forted of God my Heavenly Father in Jerusalem all my dayes, as he that is comforted of his mother, and that I might have this assured token that Christ abideth in me, and I in Him, even my fruit- fulness in Him, in bringing forth much fruit. For He sayeth. He that abideth in Me, and I in Him, the same hringeth forth much fruit. I prayed also for my child, George, and others his deare children, and I was greatly comforted. Praised be the Lord. The forsaid pastors preached powerfully and comfortably, Mr. Haring before noone, vpon Act 2, 23 : Him being deliuered by the deter minat counsel and fore-knowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands crucified and slain ; and Mr. Paget afternoone, vpon John i. 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, insisting most vpon that testimonie of John Baptist concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, vers. 29 : Be- hold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sinne of the world. My soule blesseth God for theise blessed occasions of His service and means of grace, accompanied with His effectuall and plentifull bless- ing, and with good hope, through grace, that good- nesse and mercy shall follow me and my child, with others beloved of God, all the dayes of our life, and that we shall abide in the house of the Lord for ever. Glory to the Father, and to the Sonne, and to the Holy Ghost, exalted aboue all APPENDIX X 311 blessing and praise, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen. Vpon the ^thdayof December, 1644, being desired byMr. Julius Haring, I preached in the English church at Amsterdame, vpon theise words of our Saviour : And ye shall find rest vnto your soules. For my yoke is easie and my burden is light. — Matth. xi. 29, 30. The Lord did mercifully comfort me and my hearers. Praised be God. Amen. Vpon the 22nd day of December, 1644, old stile, (it being the first day of Januarie, 1645, new stile), Mr. Haring being yet hindered by sikenesse, and having desired me to preach for him, I preached in the Enghsh church againe in Amsterdame, vpon Ephes. iii. 14, 15, 16, and the Lord was graciously with me, and with my hearers. All praise and glorie to his holy name for ever and ever. Amen. Vpon the 25th day of December, 1644, old stile, (it being the 4th of January, 1645, new stile) having been desired by Mr. Haring and Mr. Paget, it being the ordinarie monethly fasting day for England, I preached at Amsterdame, vpon Luke xviii., the first seven verses, with a part of the eight verse. Glory to God for evermore. Amen. Anno Domini, 1645. Vpon the first day of Januarie, old stile, 1645, (it being Weddensday, and the eleuenth day, new stile,) the great and magnifick temple, called the new kirk in Amsterdame, was burnt vp by f5nre, and therupon men doubting how this came to passe, there was in mens mynds a feare of some insurrec- tion and confusion, the people closed their windowes, and the burgers, by pubHk order, went to armes 312 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS vntill the affright was over, and course taken for preserving the citie in peace and safety. Blessed be God who hath spared vs and comforted vs. Vpon Thursday, the xV^h of Januarie, that learned man Gerardus Joannes Vossius, having red and considered the 26th and 29th chapters of the eight booke of my Historico-theologicall In- structions, consented to the printing therof. I praise the Lord who heard me, and hath moved the heart of that learned man to consent hierto, altho it be contrarie to some things wreitten formerly by him in his Historia Pelagiana. Blessed be God, the mightie God of Jacob, el elohe Israel. Vpon the |4nd day of Januarie, it being the Lords day, and I having beene earnestly desired by Mr. Julius Haring, yet sick, to preach for him, I preached in the English church in Amsterdame, vpon theise words of the Apostle Paul, to he strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. Ephes. iii. 16, 17. The Lord was graciously with me, and made me also partaker of theise comfortable blessings. Glory to the Father, and to the Sonne, and to the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever. Amen. Vpon the ?,fth day of August, 1645, at Amster- dame, in the English church, I did participat the holy sacrament of the Lords Supper, with very great spirituall comfort and sweet presence of God my Saviour, to whom be glorie for ever more. Amen. Vpon the 3rd day of September, new stile, I did very comfortably receiue the holy communion with the French or Wallon congregation in Middel- burg, 1645. APPENDIX X 313 Vpon the 28th day of September, old stile, 1645, I did, with great comfort, receiue the holy com- munion with the Dutch Gelder congregation in Arnhem, where my sonne also and his pedagogue, Mr. William Keyth, did lykewayse communicate. Blessed be God. Vpon the 5th day of October, old stile, 1645, I did againe receiue the holy communion with the Dutch Gelder congregation in Arnhem, and the Lord did greatly comfort me, and strengthen me in his grace, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whome, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour, glory, and prayse, and thanks- giving, and blessing, and dominion, for evermore. Amen. Vpon the 21st day of June, old stile, 1646, being earnestly desired, I preached in the English church in Amsterdame, vpon psal. Ixxxix. vers. 15, 16. Vpon the 24th day of Junie, old stile, 1646, it being Weddensday, there was a publik solemne fast and humiliation throughout all the united provinces of the Netherlands, praying for a blessed seccess to their army ; and I being that day in the Hage, did keepe the fast with the French church their, where I hard Mr. Andrew Rivetus preaching in French, vpon the 58th chap, of Esai. vers. 5, 6, 7, 8. Vpon the 28th day of Junie, old stil, 1646, I and my sonne George, and Mr, William Keyth, did hear Mr. Colvius, minister of the French Church in Dort, preaching in French, vpon Hebr. xii. 14 ; and we did, at that same tyme, receiue the holy sacrament of the Lord's supper with that French congregation, with great comfort. Praised be God. 314 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS Vpon the 5th day of July, old stil, 1646, being earnestly desired, I preached in the English Church in Middelburg, upon Micah vii. 7. Vpon the eighth day of July, old stil, it being Weddensday, we embarked, I and my sonne George, and Mr. William Keyth, at Camphere, and ther- after, vpon the next following Tuysday, the 14th of July, anno 1646, we arrived and landed safely at Aberdene, by the good hand of our God vpon us. Glory to the Father, and to the Sonne, and to the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever. Amen. Hallelujah. Vpon the second day of September, 1646, I came to Corse with my sonne and Mr. William Keyth, and found my tabernacle in peace, through the great mercy of our God in Christ Jesus our Saviour, to whome be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Hallelujah. Vpon the 4th day of October, and again vpon the first day of November, was kept a publik fast and humiliation, at both which dayes I kept with the congregation at Lochell, and was much comforted. Praised be the Lord. Vpon the 20th day of October, 1646, I sent my sonne George from Corse to the coUedge of Old Aberdene ; and I praise God for this occasion of his farther education, without engagement of his conscience or myne to any oath or subscription in these matters, now controverted among Pro- testant brethren in Scotland. Lord, thou wilt order peace for us, for thou hast wrought all our works for us. Blessed be God. (Dr. Forbes' Diary MS., fol. 176-79.) APPENDIX XI CERTAIN PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF FORBES, AND OF THE MANNERS OF THE TIMES IN WHICH HE LIVED [Vita J oh. Forb., pp. 70-2.] He was of small stature, and his countenance somewhat dark in colour. He married an honour- able lady, a Belgian, from Middelburg in Zeland, called Dulcie Rosa Arbor, who died in' the year 1640, a little before the expulsion of her husband by the Covenanters. He had nine children by her, of whom only one, George, survived his father, the heir of his lands but not of his learning and virtues, although that had been the dearest wish of his father's heart. He had no seat in his study, but always read standing, or wrote leaning on the table. He often used to walk about the meadows occupied with divine meditation. Sometimes, for the relaxation of his mind, he would play at {pila clavaria) golf, in the fields, but when he heard the sound of the bells calling to pubhc prayers in church, forthwith giving up the game he hastened to the temple, not as a matter of form but out of true devotion ; and in his Diary it may be seen that many of his divine contemplations were given to him on the occasion of the reading of the Holy Scriptures at stated hours daily in the temple. 31S 3i6 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS Even to the last he persisted in a pious aversion from the methods which the brethren used in pro- mulgating their National League and Covenant. He was in the habit of saying that these covenants would not last longer than while they were sus- tained by the carnal arm. Moreover, he bade a friend say to a certain generous person, master of an ample fortune, but not a Covenanter, that he would like him to have the belief in him when dying, that he himself refused to subscribe and swear to those covenants, although he might gain as his reward his ample fortune. Indeed, he had seen such startling effects of these covenants, such deceitful arts on the part of the Covenanters, such frightful violation of every law (although before the last act of the tragedy he had been removed by the divine mercy from this theatre of strife), that it may well appear strange to no one, if so sincere and candid a soul, so great a lover of the true and the good, recoiled with horror from the spirit in which the Covenanters worked. He had seen those who, when they had bitterly complained of the neighbouring English Church, as if it wished to force its own rules and ecclesiastical ceremonies on them, afterwards striving utterly to overthrow the constitution of the same Church, and to introduce into it by force of arms their o\vn discipline and rule : those who formerly used to complain of the constraint of scrupulous and religious persons, afterwards doing their utmost to force others, by extreme terrors and punishments, ecclesiastical and civil, to accommodate themselves to their constitu- tions and to swear to their solemn covenants, though their own conscience rebelled against it : Those who used to cry out against Bishops, as it were, lording it over the clergy, now lording it with a APPENDIX XI 317 shameful tyranny over everybody and their National Synods, both clergy and people (Synods whose decrees not even a third part of the clergy and people really approved) : Those 'who in former times had railed against the King for violating the kingly rights of Christ, inasmuch as he had ordered certain ministers, as if charged with treason, to be cited before the King's Council, on account of words spoken from the pulpits ; the ministers, when the charge was read to them, refusing to recognise the Judge, inasmuch as they were on the business of their Lord, and therefore could only plead their cause in the first instance before His Spiritual Courts, now usurping so great authority in the civil affairs of the Kingdom as not to allow the ordinances of the Kingdom to be of any effect, if they themselves were not in the first instance consulted and gave their consent : Those who in the beginning boasted that they took up arms only in self-defence against the King : at length, after all their demands, both as regards the Church and the Kingdom, had been conceded, attacking the King in his other Kingdom and allying themselves with the rebellious subjects of that Kingdom against him by a solemn oath : Those who had bound themselves by an oath to protect the person of the Royal Majesty, at length wickedly handing him over, after he had entrusted himself to their care, into the hands of his enemies, under the pretext that he had refused to be bound by the Covenant : protesting in the Synod against the new Scottish Expedition into England, under- taken by the decree of their own Parliament, for the purpose of restoring the King so basely captured, to liberty and dignity : forcing the Nobles and those generous persons who had undertaken it to undergo public repentance in sackcloth : and declaiming 3i8 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS to the people from their pulpits that the mighty King was, as it were, an enemy to the cause of God (as they were blasphemously wont to say) : Those who boasted that they were Ministers of the Prince of Peace, who said that He had come not to destroy souls but to save them ; none the less thirsting for blood : demanding from the laws of the kingdom justice {i.e. capital punish- ment) against the captive malignants {i.e. those who had supported the Royal cause), and giving them solemn thanks when the scafiolds smoked with the blood of the Nobles and gentlemen of the kingdom : Those who had raved against the Roman Church, as the state of Antichrist and the Babylonian whore ; nevertheless transcribing her most pernicious dogmas and acts : Those who had inveighed against the Hierarchy of the Roman Church, now raising the most absolute Hierarchy which had ever existed in a Republic : Those who had condemned the doctrine of the Mohammedans concerning Religion propagated by the sword, doing the same thing : Those who persisted in holding fast to their National Synods, though the King prohibited them on account of the confusion and turmoil excited by them in the Kingdom, urging as a pre- text the divine right and prerogative of the Royal authority of Christ : nevertheless, when Cromwell dissolved their National Synod, and prevented it by threats from again assembling, yielding obedience, and not daring again to assert this Royal pre- rogative of Christ : Surely these things do not become a Christian, much less those who call them- selves ambassadors of Jesus Christ, since they are so entirely foreign to the life and spirit of His own Divine Gospel, If the question were asked of them, whether Jesus Christ Himself, if He were APPENDIX XI 319 on earth, would do such things, such as forcing men to enter into covenants against certain ecclesi- astical rites, by urging them to keep the same covenant by force of arms against their own Supreme Magistrate, and that they should hand him over to his enemies if he refused to sign the same and entrusted himself to their good faith, and should demand capital punishment against his supporters ? I scarcely think that they would go to such a pitch of insolence as to affirm that. Christ wished His enemies to be received neither with calumnies, nor punishments, nor any kind of force, but with pity, prayer, kindness, a laying down of His own life for them : whereby He de- fined the one characteristic of those who are His : so far from constraining any one, that He opens the door as widely as possible, for going away if they wish, even to His Apostles ; you too wish to depart. These terrible deeds of the Covenanters, alleging as a pretext the cause of God and Religion, should be recalled to memory, for this reason that our present age may be warned not to allow itself to be led aside by such impostures. Since even at this day there are not wanting some who extol the above mentioned covenants even to the stars, and openly assert that we are bound by those covenants from the force of the oath of our ancestors (or of the majority), and are anxious that our necks should be again subjected to the yoke of all of them: moreover, also in a pamphlet recently brought out, entitled The Hind let Loose, the most wicked crimes, namely the murder perpetrated on Charles the First, and the slaughter by assassins of James Sharp, Primate of all Scotland and Archbishop of St. Andrews, are boasted of as though they were heroic deeds, and their murderers as though they 320 THE ABERDEEN DOCTORS were pillars of their native land ; nevertheless the Presbyterian Synod, which, in matters of less moment, is accustomed to raise so great a dust, during the last ten years in which it has yearly met, laid no blame on this pamphlet, or him whom (received by them into the Order of Ministers) common rumour held to be the author, nor did they condemn them with any ecclesiastical censure. Would that the experience of such grave evils under which the whole Christian world groaned for so many generations, while Christians, split into so many parties, keep watch now here, and now there, on account, accidentals, accessories, surround- ings, externals, speculations, opinions, systems, rites, particular forms of ecclesiastical discipline and rule ; meanwhile driving away the mutual love of one's neighbour, without which the love of God cannot exist, and so showing the whole of their religion to be vain, by which blind and diabolic zeal mutual hate and insult are in turn generated : a false and dangerous presumption of the favour of God and of the conversion of the soul towards Him, and, in most cases, a plain apostacy from all religion, as vain and false. Would that, I say, this calamitous experience throughout the whole Christian world, might at last, and henceforward, open the eyes of ecclesiastics, so that they may be moved to follow the true aim of the Gospel, the true love of God and of one's neighbour, not in word, but in deed, in the spirit and gentleness of Jesus Christ. Printed by Morrison & Gib-. Limited, Edinburgh. UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIbHAHY rab' AA 000 815 947 7