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MEMORIALS 
 
 OF 
 
 ALEXANDER MONCRIEFf, M.A 
 
 AND 
 
 JAMES FISHER, 
 
 rilHEES OF THE EXITED PBBSBTTEEIAN CHUECH. 
 
 DAVID YOUNG, D.D., PERTH, 
 
 JOHN^'BROWIJf, D.D., EDINBURGH, 
 
 PBOFESSOK OF EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY TO THE tTXITED P. CHURCH, 
 
 A. FULLARTON & CO.: 
 EDINBURGH, DUBLIN, AND LONDON. 
 
 1849. 
 
EDINBURGH: 
 
 FUlLAJiTON AKD MACNAB, PRINTERS, LEITII WALK 
 
MEMOIR 
 
 REV. ALEXANDER MONCRIEFF 
 
 OF ABERNETHY, 
 
 WITH A SELECTION EROM HIS WORKS. 
 
 BY DAVID YOMG, D.D. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The task attempted in the following pages has been both pleas- 
 ing and painful. Pleasing, because it drew attention to the 
 character and career of a man of God, to whom the Secession 
 Church in Scotland owes a debt of lasting gratitude ; and pain- 
 ful, because the materials, which were once so plentiful, are now 
 so scanty, and so ill authenticated. As memory served, I have 
 availed myself of conversations, in years gone by, with my late 
 venerable colleague, the Rev. Dr. Pringle, who was connected 
 by marriage with the Moncrieff family, and of other sources of 
 oral information, to which, through vicinity, I have long had 
 access. But my chief dependence has been on two articles in 
 the Christian Magazine for 1804, written, as is supposed, by the 
 Rev. Mr. Whytock, then of Dalkeith. In these articles extracts 
 are given from a Diarj- of Mr. MoncriefF's, which, if obtained, 
 might have added much to the details of the present narrative, 
 but which seems to be now irrecoverably lost. To original 
 documents, therefore, my access has been extremely limited; 
 although relatives of the family, and other friends, have done 
 what they could to supply the deficiency. In particular, Mrs. 
 Captain Moncrieff of Bamhill has kindly given me every facility 
 for examining such of the family papers, as might seem at all 
 to suit my purpose ; and to that estimable lady I present re- 
 spectful thanks. 
 
 In setting down a few of the statements, which are not, how- 
 ever, the most important, I feel myself in the predicament of 
 one Avho knows enough to convince him of their truth, while 
 yet he feels himself without the means of formally establishing 
 them to the conviction of others. " To eveiything there is a 
 time;" and as to the third of the Four Brethren, it must now 
 be admitted, however regretfully, that the time for doing justice 
 to his life had passed away before the deed was determined on. 
 
 For the reference to the minister of Scoonie, I am also in- 
 debted to the Christian Magazine : and for the account given 
 of the young Laird, to the Weekly Christian Teacher. These 
 may, perhaps, appear digressive; and had specific matter been 
 laore abundant, they might, perhaps, have been passed over. 
 
But as they both are possessed of intrinsic interest, and have 
 each a link which binds it to the subject, the balance fell, right 
 or wrong, in favour of insertion. 
 
 The specimens of Mr. MoncrieiF's authorship, which follow 
 the narrative, are selected on the principle of present utility, 
 and taken from his posthumous volumes as edited by his son. 
 The " Enquiry into the Rule and End or Moral Ac- 
 tions" is somewhat controversial, being a reply to the specula- 
 tions of Professor Campbell, on the subject to which it refers. 
 But as the errors of that individual, — the character of whose mind 
 seems to have been pravity rather than power — lie at the root 
 of all ungodliness, and may be found at this day, giving impulse 
 as well as disguise to some of the forms of living infidelity, 
 Moncrieff's antidote, although olden in attire, may still be re- 
 garded as a word in season. " Christ's Call to the Rising 
 Generation," although taking occasionally a wider range than 
 might now be taken on such a subject, is plain, pointed, and 
 richly evangelical, dealing closely with the youthful mind, and 
 plying it with those peculiar motives, which alone can prevail 
 in bringing it to Christ. 
 
 D. Young. 
 Perth, 22 May, 18:10. 
 
C .\ T E N T S. 
 
 Page 
 MEMOIR, . . . . ix 
 
 AN ENQUIRY INTO THE PRINCIPLE, RULE, AND 
 END OF MORAL ACTIONS. 
 
 Introductiox, .... 63 
 
 Section I. 
 
 Wherein it is made appear, that self-love is not, nor ought to 
 be, the leading principle of moral virtue 67 
 
 Section II. 
 
 Tliat self-interest or pleasure, is not the only standard by which 
 we are to judge of the \ii-tue of our own and others' actions; 
 and that actions are not to be called virtuous on account of their 
 correspondency to self-interest. 85 
 
 Section III. 
 
 That self-love, as it exerts itself in the desire of umversal un- 
 limited esteem, ought not to be made the commanding motive 
 to virtuous actions; nor is the obtaining the good-hking and 
 esteem of those beings, among whom we are mixed, to be our 
 main end in pursuing them. 99 
 
 Conclusion, .... 113 
 
 CHRIST'S CALL TO THE RISING GENERATION, 
 IN THREE SERMONS. 
 
 Sermon I. 
 
 Mark x. 14. — " But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, 
 and said unto them. Suffer the little children to come unto me, 
 and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God." . 121 
 
Sermon II. 
 
 Gen. xxviii. 10 — 13, 19. — " And Jacob went out from Beersheba, 
 and went toward Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place, 
 
 and tarried there all night, and lay down in that place to 
 
 sleep : and he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, 
 and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of 
 God ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood 
 above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy Father, 
 
 and the God of Isaac. And he called the name of that place 
 
 Bethel." 153 
 
 Sekmon III. 
 
 Gen. xxviii. 20, 21. — " And Jacob vowed a vow, saying. If God 
 
 will be with me, and keep me, then shall the Lord be my 
 
 God." Jer. iii. 4, 19. " Wilt thou not, from this time, cry unto 
 me, My Father, thou art the Guide of my youth? And I said. 
 Thou shalt call me, My Father, and shalt not turn away from 
 me." 167 
 
MEMOIR 
 
 REV. ALEXANDER MONCRIEFF. 
 
 The name of Alexander Moncrieff stands conspicuous 
 among the four, who, in 1733, began to be the found- 
 ers of the Secession Church in Scotland. He was born 
 in 1695, and, being the eldest son, inherited from his 
 father, who died when he was only about thirteen years 
 of age, the estate of Culfargie, in the parish of Aber- 
 nethy, Perthshire, with its commodious mansion-house, 
 pleasantly situated on the banks of the Earn. That 
 the branch of the Moncrieff family from which he 
 sprang, is of old standing among the gentry of Scot- 
 laud, is abundantly evinced by existing documents. 
 Their connection with Kintillo, an estate contiguous to 
 that of Culfargie, can be traced back to about the com- 
 mencement of the sixteenth century; and while some 
 of them did credit to their name in the civil or mili- 
 tary service of their country, not a few bore the higher 
 distinction of eminent piety, and unbending integrity. 
 Being early written fatherless, the heir of Culfargie 
 of whom we write was left to the care of his mother — 
 whose name was Margaret Mitchell, of the family of 
 Balbardie in Fife — a lady singularly qualified, by na- 
 ture and by grace, for the task which Providence had 
 reserved for her, and who lived to be rewarded for her 
 maternal solicitude in the piety and usefulness of her 
 
X MEMOIR OF THE 
 
 darling boy. It would appear that several of his 
 paternal relatives were very attentive to him during 
 his minority; and especially Mr. David Moncrieff of 
 Rhynd, his curator in law, to whom, after he came of 
 age, we find him making grateful acknowledgment, of 
 the considerate kindness, with which so much had been 
 deferred to his mother, in the management of his per- 
 son and affairs. In those days more than in ours, it 
 was common for the younger sons of landholding fami- 
 lies, to be educated for the Christian ministry, the 
 office of a clergyman, or even its emolument, being 
 regarded as an object of laudable ambition. But secu- 
 lar motives cannot, in fairness, be imputed to the sub- 
 ject of the present narrative. He was not a younger 
 son, but the heir of a good estate; and there is every 
 reason to believe, that, by the grace of God, his mo- 
 ther's judicious piety so wrought upon his mind, as to 
 beget in him a desire for the Christian ministry out of 
 love to Christ himself. 
 
 At what particular time this desire was formed, or 
 when expression was first given to it, we have not the 
 means of knowing: but we know that it was early 
 formed ; and there is reason to believe that, ultimately, 
 the history of a near relative of his own, who died 
 about seven years before he was born, and whose face, 
 of course, he never saw in the flesh, contributed more 
 than biography has penned, towards its formation. 
 That relative was the minister of Scoonie in Fife, his 
 paternal grandfather, after whom he was named — a 
 man of truly apostolic spirit — the companion and the 
 counterpart of the martyred Guthrie, whose fame is 
 enshrined in Scotland's piety — and a man the tale of 
 whose worth and woes, flowing softly from his mother's 
 lips, could scarcely fail to leave its impress on the mind 
 of young Culfargie. What has been said of this man 
 seems to commit us to say more; and although he was 
 not of the Secession Fathers, in the ordinary sense of the 
 
REV. ALEXANDER MONCRIEFF. XI 
 
 words, he was at one with these Fathers in principle; 
 the same spirit which sustained him was, forty years 
 after his death, inspiration to them; and an episode to 
 his memory, if such it must be called, while claimed by 
 the relationship which has just been referred to, seems 
 due to posterity ou higher grounds. 
 
 The Rev. Alexander Moncrieff of Scoonie, then, had 
 been minister of the parish which bears that name, 
 some time before the Restoration in 1660 : for, during 
 the sway of Oliver Cromwell, he was noted for his 
 attachment to the Stuarts, for which he received the 
 usual thanks of that detested race. But apart from 
 politics, which, then as now, were variously estimated, 
 he was a man of pre-eminent piety, ardent zeal for the 
 doctrines of grace, and high moral courage in the de- 
 fence of truth and righteousness. Instigated, as would 
 seem, by his faithfulness in reproving iniquity, a gen- 
 tleman of his parish conceived against him a deep and 
 inveterate prejudice. To gratify his malevolence, this 
 gentleman ventured so far as to bring him, by libel, 
 before the Synod of Fife, charged with an offence of 
 serious import, which we have not now the means of 
 specifying. The accuser was defeated; his minister 
 was fully and openly acquitted; and on the spot where 
 he hoped to be the ruin of the innocent, he was seized 
 with a violent distemper, which compelled him to has- 
 ten home. At home, however, there was no rest for 
 him; his conscience became his own accuser; the trou- 
 ble of his mind was far greater than the trouble of his 
 body; he cried earnestly for a sight of his minister 
 that he might confess the wrong, and ask forgiveness; 
 but his haughty lady forbade the interview, and he 
 died without obtaining it. Not long afterwards, the 
 lady herself fell under affliction; her conscience also 
 began to accuse her; the boon she so obstinately denied 
 to her husband she very earnestly asked for herself; 
 her minister hastened to pay her a visit; and in the 
 
Xll MEMOIR OF THE 
 
 anguish of her heart she made full confession of the 
 deeds of infamy done against him, by her and her de- 
 parted husband. Nor, as the record has it, did the mat- 
 ter end here. A young man who lived in the family in 
 the capacity of tutor, and had appeared as a witness for 
 the libel, was seized with remorse for the part he had 
 acted, and went to a subsequent meeting of Synod for 
 the purpose of retracting his testimony; — but as he was 
 prevented from effecting his purpose, his agony in- 
 creased till it overset his reason, and he died in a state 
 of insanity. 
 
 Such is a specimen of the world's enmity against the 
 heralds of the cross, and such the way in which The 
 Crucified himself is sometimes temble on their behalf. 
 But the troubles of the minister of Scoonie did not end 
 here. He was a burning and shining light, which the 
 spirit of darkness seemed determined to extinguish; 
 and what the malice of a local laird was too feeble to 
 accomplish, was sought and obtained through a higher 
 agency. 
 
 The Scottish Presbyterians of those days were, in 
 general, favourable to the house of Stuart. For their 
 loyalty, as they deemed it, they suffered during the 
 Protectorate; and no sooner was the perfidious Charles 
 restored to the throne, than he began to repay them 
 by persecution. Not long after the king's return, a 
 few of them, including the minister of Scoonie, met 
 privately to prepare an Address to him. In this Ad- 
 dress they paid him court in terms sufficiently lauda- 
 tory, denouncing the measures which led to the death 
 of his predecessor, and giving thanks to Almighty Grod, 
 for the counter-revolution which had just been effected. 
 But they ventured to remind the king, of the obliga- 
 tions under which he had come to the throne, with the 
 course he was in virtue of them expected to pursue; 
 and this was enough to kindle his ire. While their 
 Address was yet unfinished — a mere scroll of proposals 
 
REV. ALEXANDER MONCRIEFF. Xlll 
 
 — and while they were engaged in writing their breth- 
 ren, in various parts of the country, to meet for the 
 purpose of considering it, they were apprehended and 
 thrown into prison, first in the Castle of Edinburgh, 
 and then in their own houses, till the ensuing meeting 
 of Parliament, that is the Parliament of IGGl. Such 
 was the conduct of Charles, to men whose only fault 
 was a blind attachment to his family, and a disposition 
 to confide where no confidence was due. It fared with 
 them as it usually fares with men who put their re- 
 ligion into the keeping of princes, and look to Ccesar 
 when they should be looking to God. Release was 
 promised them, on the condition of confessing to the 
 crime of framing the Address; but as honest men they 
 could not confess to crime they had never committed, 
 and so the persecution grew hotter and hotter. 
 
 Soon after the Parliament assembled, an indictment 
 was produced against two of the party, namely, Alex- 
 ander Moncriefif of Scoonie, and James Guthrie of Stir- 
 ling, who was afterwards put to death. For Moncriefl' 
 great intercession was made; the reason of the nation 
 being not quite extinguished, although cowardice kept 
 it in bondage; and his standing in society might have 
 proved his safeguard, but for his inflexible adherence 
 to principle. The Earl of Athol, and others of note, 
 who knew well how the tide was flowing, assured his 
 lady that his life would be forfeited, if he continued to 
 show himself so unbending, and earnestly entreated her 
 to do her utmost, to elicit from him some concession; 
 but she proved herself a wife worthy of such a husband, 
 and so among posterity she shares in his renown. "You 
 all know," said she to beseeching friends, " that I am 
 happy in a good husband, that I have great aflfection 
 for him and for my children; yet I know him to be so 
 steadfast in his principles, that nobody needs to deal 
 with him on that head: and for my part, before I 
 would contribute any thing that would break his peace 
 
XIV MEMOIR OF THE 
 
 with his Master, I wouhl rather choose to receive his 
 head at the Cross."* 
 
 Failiug in these expedients, the assiduity of his 
 friends resorted to another, but with no better success. 
 According to the custom of these ignominious times, a 
 number of ladies of rank made a present of plate to 
 the Advocate's lady, hoping by this means to propitiate 
 his Lordship. But the present was rejected, more in 
 hate, there is reason to believe, than from a principle 
 of honour; for this same Advocate had but slender 
 claims to the credit of official integrity. During the 
 sittings of the Parliament for that year, Mr. Moncrieff 
 was repeatedly brought before it, and so teased with 
 questions and menaces, that but for the greatness of 
 his heart, and the grace of God which was in him, he 
 might have suffered many deaths in the prospect of 
 one. But he knew of another Judge, and had the ear 
 of another Advocate, to whom he calmly committed his 
 cause. " Prayer was made without ceasing, of the 
 church, unto God for him:" and when the decision 
 came forth, his bodily life was spared, but his official 
 life was taken away. Their lenity, as they called it, 
 was like themselves; it slew the minister, but spared 
 the man. He was declared incapable of any trust, 
 civil or ecclesiastical, and banished from his parish and 
 his flock. The trial was severe; to such a man, per- 
 haps, severer than death itself; for although he loved 
 and was loved, as a husband and a father, and was 
 much attached to his circle of friends, yet the preach- 
 ing of salvation through Jesus Christ was most of all 
 the delight of his heart. 
 
 This privilege, however, as hatred would have it, 
 was sternly denied to him, and, soon after, to many 
 others, in those days of rebuke and of blasphemy. In 
 
 * To see him beheaded at the common place of execution in 
 Edinburgh. 
 
REV. ALEXANDER MONCRIEFF. XV 
 
 1G64, when a report of liis preaching was carried to 
 his persecutors, he was condemned to seek a habitation, 
 twenty miles away from the seat of a bishop, and seven 
 from a royal borough. After a while, he retired to a 
 sequestered spot in the Highlands, and preached to 
 little groups of people as God gave him opportunity. 
 There it would appear that, for a time, he was com- 
 paratively free from molestation; but, being anxious 
 about the education of his children, and hoping that 
 the storm was somewhat abated, he ventured to seek 
 a residence in Perth, where his preaching again ex- 
 posed him to danger, and forced him to seek a lurking- 
 place, at a distance from all who were dear to him. 
 At length we find him with his family in Edinburgh, 
 where also he began to preach; for no fear of man 
 could restrain him from preaching; and by this time, 
 (1675,) being outlawed, or intercommuned as they 
 called it, his danger was greater than ever. But God 
 was with him; and his sojourn, in and about the capi- 
 tal, presents a very remarkable conjunction of untiring 
 malice, and merciful deliverance. On one occasion, a 
 captain and his party searched every dwelling in the 
 close where he lodged, except the one where he was 
 to be found, into which they never entered, although 
 its door was wide open. On another occasion, as he 
 went out to take a walk, near to the place of his con- 
 cealment he was met by a party sent to search for him. 
 As they passed, and set their eyes on him, one of them 
 remarked, " That may be the man we are in quest of; 
 for he looks like a minister;" to which it was replied, 
 " It cannot be he; for he knows his danger too well to 
 be found walking there." So they went on, accom- 
 plished their search, and returned without their victim. 
 On a third occasion, being informed that the soldiers 
 were on their way to apprehend him, he made no haste 
 to escape from them, till a friend urged him to do so; 
 when, with the utmost composure, and with no appear- 
 
XVI MEMOIR OF THE 
 
 aiice of haste, lie went out, took a short walk in the 
 street, and returned to his house, just as the soldiers 
 had left it. These are but specimens of his perils and 
 escapes; till at last his friends became so anxious about 
 him, that they entreated him to leave the country. 
 But this he resolutely declined, saying in terms of 
 confiding pleasantry, that he preferred to suffer where 
 he had sinned, and would endeavour to keep possession 
 of the house — the land of his nativity — till its Lord 
 should return to it. Nor is it unworthy of remark, 
 that in a modified sense he did so: for he lived till the 
 harvest of 1688, when the arm of the persecutor was 
 broken, and when He, who had preserved him from 
 the violence of man, caught up his spirit to the region 
 of blessedness, leaving his dust to sleep till the morn- 
 ing, where "the wicked cease from troubling," and 
 " where the weary are at rest." 
 
 The subject of this memoir, as already stated, was 
 the grandson of this distinguished man; and there is 
 little stretch of fancy in supposing, that the mantle 
 which fell from the one was, after the lapse of years, 
 taken up by the other. Principle and emotion have 
 their lines of descent, as well as races of men and wo- 
 men, and to the warm affinities of flesh and blood they 
 easily give the preference. Men die, but their thoughts 
 survive them; and back to the progenitor we are often 
 conducted, for the embryo of that which is developed 
 in his offspring. This is the way with moral evil, and 
 alas! for its devastations; but it is sometimes the way 
 with moral good, under the guidance of its compassionate 
 Author; and happy is the man whom God has hon- 
 oured to give an impulse in the right direction, which 
 lives after him in his children, and passes on with 
 augmenting force till it comes to settle in the ascend- 
 ant. In the high moral bearing of the minister of 
 Scoonie, we see the seeds of the Scottish Secession ; 
 and in the position taken by his grandson, with his 
 
REV. ALEXANDER MONCRIEFF. XV 11 
 
 honoured coadjutors, we see the Secession brought 
 forth. Nor are our musings arrested here ; for in the 
 history of the Secession, down to this day, we see 
 principles brought into action, by which a deep-seated 
 delusion is progressively exposed, and the deliverance 
 of the church from a desolating bondage effectively 
 promoted. 
 
 Leaving MoncriefT of Scoouie, and returning to the 
 boyhood of the more immediate subject of our narra- 
 tive, we find little to remark on his elementary educa- 
 tion. After passing through the grammar school at 
 Perth, and making there a creditable proficiency, he 
 went to the University of St. Andrews, where he 
 studied for four consecutive sessions, and took out the 
 degree of Master of Arts. He then entered the Divinity 
 Hall of the same University, where he studied for three 
 sessions under Professor Haddow, of whose talents, and 
 learning, and theological attainments, he makes re- 
 spectful mention. Of Professor Rymer also, who then, 
 it would appear, filled the chair of Moral Philosophy, 
 he speaks in terms of much respect. Apart, indeed, 
 from specific religion, and prior, perhaps, to its gov- 
 erning influence, he seems to have been one of those 
 ingenuous youths, who, thirsting for mental improve- 
 ment, are easily inspired with grateful esteem for those 
 who aid the pursuit of it; and from the little that we 
 know of this matter there seems ground to conclude, 
 that by the various Professors under whom he sat, his 
 frank and docile and studious habits were duly appre- 
 ciated. As an evidence of the ardour with which he 
 prosecuted study, we find that with the facilities fur- 
 nished at St. Andrews he did not rest satisfied. The 
 University of Leyden, in Holland, had in those days 
 a high reputation as a school of Christian theology, 
 earned for it by the just celebrity of John a Mark, and 
 his contemporary Wesselius : and it was no uncommon 
 thing for the more devoted of our Scottish students of 
 4 
 
XVm MEMOIR OF TUE 
 
 divinity to go there, that tliey might finish their course 
 under these illustrious masters. M 'Lauren, Fullarton, 
 Bruce, Ainslie, and others are recorded as specimens 
 of those who did so, and among the rest Alexander 
 Moncrieff. He left his country for Leyden in Sep- 
 tember 1716, when he could be no more than one 
 and twenty years of age; and so close was his ap- 
 plication to study there, that serious apprehensions 
 for his health were entertained by his friends at 
 home. Besides spending four or five hours of the day 
 in attending his several classes, he used to devote seven 
 or eight more to private reading and study ; and that 
 he was a successful as well as diligent student, we hap- 
 pen to have the testimony of Mark himself, who, in a 
 volume published by him at Amsterdam, in 1721, 
 classes him with the elite of his students for the above 
 year.* Among the few fragments which can now be 
 recovered, is a printed Thesis quite entire. On the 
 Future Subjection of the Son to the Father (1 Corin. 
 XV. 28), written in very creditable Latin, and consist- 
 ing of eight quarto pages, with propositions and corol- 
 laries appended, all after the manner of the schools. 
 As it is marked " Thesis vii." and begins without an 
 introduction, obviously supposing previous discussion, 
 it seems to have been one of a series, on various 
 branches of the same subject, and executed probably 
 by a selection of students of whom Moncrieff was one. 
 But taken by itself, it does honour to its author, and 
 speaks well for his early proficiency, both in logic and 
 sacred philology.f 
 
 * Referring to the exercises of that year, and recording the 
 " nomina Prestantissimorum Juvenum, qui, exercitationes has 
 publice defenderant," he inserts the name of "Alex. Moncrietf 
 Scoto Perth." 
 
 t This relic bears no date, and gives no hint as to the place 
 where it was printed ; but as it is inscribed, not only to the Rev. 
 William Moncrieff of Largo, David Moncrieff of Rhynd, his 
 paternal uncles, John Mitchell, Balbardie, his uncle' by the 
 
REV. ALEXANDER MOXCRIEFF. XIX 
 
 But while the youthful student from the first enjoyefl 
 the advantage of earthly masters, and was not slack in 
 availing himself of it, there was another education 
 going on of far more commanding interest, — an educa- 
 tion by which the heart of its subject, and all his men- 
 tal acquirements were seasoned progressively for thf 
 service of God in the gospel of his Son. Assiduous 
 domestic instruction, aided by the example of the 
 mother who imparted it, seems to have inspired the 
 future minister vv'ith an early reverence for religion; 
 although for a time, as he himself declares, he had no 
 desire for quite so much of it, as that which gave law 
 to his ancestor at Scoonie. That ancestor he could 
 admire, and perhaps was proud of bearing his name ; 
 but in early youth he was not prepared to take him a^s 
 his model. He could not think of disowning religion ; 
 but neither could he think of yielding himself up en- 
 tirely to its guidance. His early education restrained 
 him from the one, and his love of the world restrained 
 him from the other. Like many a youth in similar cir- 
 cumstances, he would fain have found a middle patli, 
 in which he might walk with God and with Mammon. 
 But he was shut up, and not permitted long to halt 
 between two such opinions. In the seventeenth year 
 of his age, he began to feel an engrossing concern about 
 the salvation of his soul; and so distressing were his 
 convictions, that many a time he uttered the cry, 
 "what must I do to be saved?" This state of mind 
 seems to have been produced, during the session of 
 college in 1711 and 12, but by what particular means 
 we are not informed, nor does it appear that anything, 
 beyond the ordinary course of religious observance, was 
 at that time accessible to him. 
 
 mother's side, James Haddow and Heniy Rymer. St. Andre^\s. 
 but also to Mark and Wesselius, and Thomas Hoog, pastor nt' 
 the Scottish Church, Rotterdam, there can be no doubt of its 
 being one of the fruits of his labour at Leyden. 
 
XX MEMOIR OF THE 
 
 After returning from college in May, he went on a 
 visit to his maternal uncle, the minister of Largo in 
 Fifeshire, from whose public instructions, and private 
 counsels, he seems to have derived great spiritual 
 benefit. But still his disquietude continued; and he 
 was led to special earnestness in prayer — an exercise 
 for which, as we may yet have occasion to show, he 
 was very remarkable, during the whole of his subse- 
 quent life. While at Largo, we are told, he often 
 made the church or the churchyard his oratory, where, 
 unknown to the eye or the ear of man, he wrestled for 
 relief, pouring out his confessions and supplications to 
 him who alone can send relief. He cried, and the Lord 
 heard him, guiding the workings of his troubled spirit, 
 and by an infusion of Christian hope, gradually mel- 
 lowing the bitterness of his contrition, even while its 
 intensity was scarcely abated. " At the communion 
 at Largo," he says, " I got more of a broken heart on 
 the Sabbath-day, than ever I found before — not in a 
 terrible, but in a sweet and pleasing manner, by many 
 degrees more than ever I had formerly experienced — 
 a day I ought never to forget. I hope my sorrow was 
 genuine and evangelical." This v/as in June 1712; 
 and it may be regarded as the turning point of his 
 spiritual history: for generally afterwards, although 
 with some relapses, his "joy of faith," not only re- 
 mained, but rose occasionally into rapture. " O what 
 I felt," says he farther on, " at the second sacrament I 
 participated of at the Khynd! I hope I got a real 
 manifestation, and an earnest of heaven. What thirst 
 for God, and love to Christ ! sweet church, sweet 
 churchyard of Largo ! where I have wrestled and seen 
 something of God, great, glorious, and soul-engaging ! 
 sweet halk^ at Forgan ! O it is good to be about 
 
 * A grassy foot-path between ridges, or small cultivated 
 fields. 
 
REV. ALEXANDER MON CRIEFF. XXI 
 
 HIS hand ! Many a temptation I had, many a struggle 
 with corruption, many a time was I foiled; but thanks 
 to God who giveth the victory." 
 
 Such is a specimen of the working of his mind, when 
 his aflfections were yet but young and fitful. He had 
 hoped that the night of sorrow was past, and a cloud- 
 less day begun to dawn; but like many a convert in 
 similar circumstances, and at his stage of the Christian 
 life, he had new trials to pass through, and new lessons 
 to learn from them. In the law of God after the in- 
 ward man he had now a supreme delight; and pleasing 
 was the thought that this delight would be permanent : 
 but he soon found that the other — the alien — law was 
 still in his members, warring against the law of his 
 mind, and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin 
 and death. About the time of his going to Ley den, and 
 for some time after he was there, his struggles with 
 inward corruption were many and severe, marring the 
 comfort he had previously enjoyed, and awakening the 
 apprehension, that after all he had seen and felt, he was 
 still in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity. But 
 all this was God's way of correcting his mistakes, ma- 
 turing his experience, and preparing him for future 
 usefulness, as a spiritual guide to others. " Out of the 
 eater came forth meat,^ — out of the strong came forth 
 sweetness ;" and he lived to be the riddle expounded. 
 
 Under this course of training, he was gradually led 
 to a juster estimate of sin in the heart — of its power — 
 of its malignity — of its infatuating tendency — and this 
 made him more skilful, as well as more direct, in im- 
 proving the gracious provisions of the gospel. In a 
 school of theology far more efi'ective than the soundest, 
 or the best of human prelections, he was taught that 
 the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately 
 wicked, that the work of sanctification makes progress 
 by vicissitude, that no power which is less than divine 
 can either commence it or carry it on, and that it is 
 
XXIV MEMOIR OF THE 
 
 at least, he prescribed rules to himself, which were 
 scarcely compatible with Christian liberty; while the 
 attempt to observe them, with its frequent shortcom- 
 ings, involved him in not a little perplexity. This 
 was a real error, although it is by no means a common 
 one, even with those who have Christ in their hearts; 
 and while it is condemned as an error, we are not 
 to forget, that it clearly bespeaks a tender conscience. 
 Still, feeling it to be an error, and beginning to gain 
 the mastery over it, we find our youthful Christian 
 saying, "■ I am tormented with things that are of no 
 moment, thinking that this word written, or that word 
 spoken is sin. This is a sad trouble to me. Lord 
 help me, and if it be thy will deliver me from it. 
 Whether it be that I have a devil thus daily molesting 
 me, or if it be something in my constitution, I am not 
 perfectly sure. If the devil have such power in trifles, 
 as to make a reasonable man doubt contrary to all 
 common sense, what power must he have, when per- 
 mitted, to make men doubt of the great truths of re- 
 ligion. Lord, pity me, and make me to place religion 
 where it truly is, and not in anything else; and if it 
 be thy will remove this trouble." 
 
 These last words suggest a darker shade of the evil 
 to which his extreme scrupulosity gave rise. That 
 scrupulosity was itself the fruit, not of true religion, 
 but of morbid sensibility; and the sensibility, being 
 morbid, naturally gave birth to the morbid idea, that 
 religion, as a whole, is but the fancy of a melancholy 
 mind. In short, on the principle that extremes meet, 
 and come in the long-run to support one another, its 
 tendency was to generate a species of scepticism. It 
 is not said that sceptical ideas rested on his mind, or 
 gained from him so much as a momentary acceptance ; 
 but they came up to his view; they hovered over him ; 
 they haunted him like a demon; and they cost him 
 not a little uneasiness, till, by the grace of God, he 
 
REV. ALEXANDER MONCRIEFF. XXV 
 
 cscapefl from them by such reasonings as the following: 
 '• I have experience of these two truths, that of man's 
 sin and misery, and that of the matchless and suitable 
 nature of the remedy" provided in the gospel; "and 
 am persuaded that the soul's exercise about them, in 
 conformity with the word of God, can be no delusion." 
 Again; "It is a hellish temptation, that religion is a 
 fancy. Is it a fancy to love Jesus Christ, to mourn 
 over sin, to fight with corruption, to storm heaven, to 
 take it by force ? No, no, it is deep delusion in spiri- 
 tual things that gives occasion to such a profane 
 dream," 
 
 About the time when these sentiments were penned, 
 or, it may be, a little before it, Mr. MoncriefF at the 
 prompting of his own sense of duty, and, so far as 
 appears, without the knowledge of any friend on earth, 
 entered into a personal covenant with God; a copy of 
 which happens to be preserved, written out with his 
 own hand, and regularly signed and dated, with re- 
 peated records of adherence to it at subsequent dates. 
 This interesting relic, so apt a memorial of his early 
 piety, it seems proper to insert; — simply premising, 
 that personal covenanting was much more common in 
 the days of our fathers, than it is in our days, — that it 
 is virtually exemplified in every instance, where a poor 
 perishing sinner really surrenders himself to Christ for 
 salvation, — that the "^formality of writing, date, and 
 signature, is by no means essential to it, and does not 
 in the least degree afiect its nature as a religious exer- 
 cise, — and that while the specimen before us, in a^ few 
 expressions, bears marks of juvenility, which the judi- 
 cious reader will know how to estimate, the writer 
 being then but seventeen years of age, it seems far 
 better to ofi'end the fastidious by giving it as it is, than 
 by the change of a single expression to interfere with 
 its entireness. 
 
 " I who am the chief of all sinners, and less than 
 
XXVI MEMOIR OF THE 
 
 the least of all his mercies, yet by the good provi- 
 dence of the blessed, gracious, and never enough to 
 be admired Jehovah, had not my lot casten amongst 
 Turks and Pagans, Heathens, or Papists, but in a place 
 where the light of the glorious gospel of Christ did 
 shine in the brightest meridian, and in greatest perfec- 
 tion, and where the calls of Christ to life and salvation 
 were most full and frequent: although alas! I have it 
 to mourn over, that they were too long to me a sound- 
 ing brass or a tinkling cymbal. Yet now, blessed be 
 God, and to his name be the praise, if my heart do not 
 deceive me, 
 
 " Firsts I can say, that I believe that there are three 
 persons in the Godhead, and yet only one God, so essen- 
 tially one, and personally three, that PIe has made 
 heaven and earth and all things, that he has created 
 them, and for his pleasure, they are and were created. 
 
 "2. I believe that Adam, being created in a 
 state of innocence, having ability to keep all God's 
 commandments, but not so confirmed in that state but 
 that he had a liberty of breaking them, and so being 
 left to the freedom of his own will, he fell together 
 with all his posterity that came from him in an ordinary 
 generation, the covenant being made with him and all 
 his posterity after him. 
 
 " 3. Man being in this fallen, undone, and miserable 
 condition, God's justice was irritate ; so that man lay 
 open and exposed to wrath and eternal punishment, to 
 all the miseries of this life, to death itself, and the pains 
 of hell forever. 
 
 "■ 4. That God, in his infinite wisdom, found out a 
 way to reclaim poor fallen miserable man, whereby he 
 manifested the glory of his name, as well as of liis jus- 
 tice, viz., the covenant with his Son, that he should 
 give him a certain number of fallen men, to be to him 
 an elect and peculiar people, upon these terms, that he 
 should take upon him the nature of man, and become 
 
REY. ALEXANDER MONCRIEFF. XXVll 
 
 in every thing like unto man, sin excepted, that lie 
 should live in the world, and underi,'o the miseries of 
 this life, and that he should at last ofi'er himself a sacri- 
 fice for his elect on the cross. So I believe that he did 
 come into the world, suffer many miseries and hardships 
 for his elect, and at length out of his wonderful love to 
 a certain number of poor rebel sinners, being priest 
 himself, willingly offered up himself a sacrifice on the 
 tree, and afterwards was exalted to glory, and there 
 makes intercession for his people. 
 
 " 5. That he is both a willing and an able Saviour, 
 to save all that come to God through him, and them 
 that come to him he will in no wise cast out. 
 
 '' G. I do believe that I, by nature, am far from 
 God, an enemy to God, and can never be brought nigh 
 to him, but only by blessed Jesus Christ. 
 
 " 7. 1 do renounce self, as being utterly unable to 
 help myself; and so I flee unto Jesus Christ, the blessed 
 city of refuge, that I may be clothed with the robes of 
 his righteousness, and that so being clothed, I may not 
 be found naked. 
 
 " 8. I do renounce all my sins, both original and 
 actual, with an endeavour after due hatred and sorrow 
 for them, as highly displeasing in the sight of a holy 
 God, and do resolve, through his strength, to run the 
 way of every commanded duty, and to mourn over 
 every thing wherein I come short; yea and to fight 
 against every known sin, that through his strength, no 
 sin hereafter, no known sin, shall be allowed or ap- 
 proved of, or have peaceable quarter in my heart or 
 affections, but shall endeavour to walk in the strait 
 and narrow way that leads to life everlasting. 
 
 " 9. I do, with uplifted hands, accept of Christ, in 
 sight and presence of the all-seeing God. I accept of 
 Christ in all his offices, and on his own terms, as 
 my Prophet, Priest, and King, as my all, my Lord, 
 my God, ray Saviour, and King; and am heartily 
 
XXVlll MEMOIR OF THE 
 
 content to be his subject, to be at his disposal every 
 way. 
 
 " 10. And here I do endeavour, through his strength, 
 to surrender myself, and give myself to him, in soul 
 and body, mind, heart, and affections, and to devote 
 myself to him alone and to his service. 
 
 " And finally, I do disclaim all- confidence in myself, 
 as to the performance of this covenant, knowing the 
 inconstancy and unfaithfulness of my heart, how apt it 
 is to turn aside like a deceitful bow ; and therefore I 
 lay the whole weight and stress of it upon him, who 
 works both to will, and to do, of his good pleasure; 
 humbly beseeching him, through Jesus Christ, gra- 
 ciously to accept of this offer, and mercifully to pardon 
 my sinful weakness, and infirmities, and favourably 
 grant his necessary assistance, that I may go on in the 
 strength of the Lord, making mention of his righteous- 
 ness, even of his only. In witness of the premisses, I 
 do subscribe the same with my hand as follows: 
 " Alexander Moncrieff. 
 
 At Culfargie 11 day of July 1712, afternoon, 
 towards or near night." 
 
 " But though, oh ! my soul, because I did not know 
 what days of tribulation I might meet with, what per- 
 secution, what I might meet with from Satan, or the 
 world, or an awakened conscience, or fears and terrors 
 at death, I thought convenient for thy satisfaction, and 
 that I might not be found guilty of burying the good- 
 ness of God in oblivion, or the tokens of his wonderful 
 condescending favour to lie in the grave of forgetful- 
 ness — to set down these things for the help of my 
 memory, and thy comfort, and having reason to think 
 that the Lord had graciously received the offer of my- 
 self, because of the discoveries he made to me of him- 
 self and drawing of my heart after him in my verbal 
 
REV. ALEXANDER MOXCRIEFF. XXIX 
 
 covenanting, and how he enlarged my heart and 
 strengthened me to wrestle with him. 
 
 " 2. Because after all, when I was last down in my 
 room that night, he made me such a discovery of him, 
 as made me long to be with himself in glory, and then 
 made me to acquiesce in his will, that I should remain 
 here upon the earth, if he should have any farther ser- 
 vice for me ; backed with an earnest desire, if I should 
 live (that) he would above all things make me for his 
 glory in my day and generation : yea and he made me 
 sing that song, and if I was not mistaken, put that song 
 in my mouth : 
 
 ' Whom have I in the heavens higli, 
 
 But thee, O Lord alone ? 
 And in the earth whom I desire 
 Besides thee there is none.' 
 
 To his name be glory forever. Amen." 
 
 "Being on the 15 October 1712, to renew mv 
 covenant, and to take upon me again the seals of the 
 covenant which I had broken, I thought it my duty to 
 renew my covenant with the Lord, as well as the seal. 
 So I acquiesce in all the articles of that covenant, and, 
 if my heart do not deceive me, am heartily well pleased 
 with the bargain, and resolve to be for him, and not 
 for another, and to adhere to blessed Him and his 
 truths. But withal disclaim myself, as being utterly 
 unwilling, unable, and insufficient for these things; 
 but I lay the whole weight of this, and the stress of 
 my salvation on blessed Jesus Christ. And besides 
 (and if he would help me to do it !) to go through 
 the wilderness leaning on the beloved. To his name 
 be glory forever. Amen. Subscribed the foresaid 15 
 October at Culfargie. 
 
 " Alexander Moncrieff." 
 
 " I adhere unto all the articles of the covenant, and 
 
XXX MEMOIR OF THE 
 
 renew it again the last Sabbath of July 1713, at Perth 
 before going to the sacrament. O that the Lord would 
 help me to perform all the articles of it with all my 
 endeavour ! that he may send me help from his 
 holy hill ! and be my Shepherd and my guide to lead 
 me in the road of righteousness, and give me strength; 
 for in him only is strength. To his name be glory. 
 " Alexander Moncrieff." 
 
 " I desire to adhere to the articles of the covenant, 
 and to renew it, and do subscribe to all the premisses, 
 looking to the Lord Jesus Christ for strength to per- 
 form ; which I pray he may grant me, and helj) me to 
 lean upon him for strength. So with resolutions to en- 
 deavour the performance of them through his strength, 
 (0 that he may help me) I subscribe 
 
 " Alexander Moncrieff." 
 
 Such is a specimen of the way in which the heir of 
 Culfargie thought and felt and schooled himself, at that 
 period of life when the heart is full of sublunary hope, 
 and easily fascinated by terrestrial pleasures, of which 
 he had the prospect of commanding more than an ordi- 
 nary share. It may be doubted whether the form 
 which his exercise assumed was the wisest or the best 
 for the progress of his piety. Of this there will pro- 
 bably be two opinions, even among judges the most 
 competent ; and as for the literature of what we have 
 quoted, it is not a subject for criticism. It was never 
 meant to be exposed to human praise or blame ; but 
 we see in it the undress of an earnest spirit, working 
 its way in the right direction, grappling with difficul- 
 ties which it felt to be formidable, and too much en- 
 grossed with spiritual realities, for caring to bestow a 
 thought on the drapery of expression. 
 
 In the midst of these personal exercises, and not re- 
 motely connected with them, the work of the Christian 
 
REV, ALEXANDER MONCRIEFP. XXXI 
 
 ministry, for wliicli he was preparing himself, was now 
 much in ]\Ioncrieft"s minii. He sought the honour of 
 this ministry, and he regarded it as a high honour — 
 far higher than any which could accrue to him from 
 his standing in civil society, respectable though it was 
 — but at the same time, he was awed by the magni- 
 tude of the office, afraid of its responsibilities, and 
 anxious that his call to it might be clear and satisfac- 
 tory. Of this we find him recording his impressions 
 in such terms as do him credit: — " I design to apply 
 myself, as closely as possible, to reading and study for 
 some years, in order to be a minister, if the Lord will. 
 I desire to give the Lord the offer of my service, 
 though I have nothing but sin and want. And if he 
 shall through Christ, accept of me, and give me all 
 furniture, Christ in the first place, and all necessary 
 gifts; making me a friend of the Bridegroom, and one 
 of the children of the family, and employ me as an 
 instrument for bringing in others; I think I will have 
 reason to praise him through all eternity." — " I hope 
 God is putting on my clothes, and fitting me out for 
 going in the quality of his ambassador, which is far 
 sweeter to me, than if he were to encircle my head 
 with an earthly crown, unless, by so doing, I could do 
 as much for his glory. I hope I have got some sweet 
 lessons from Christ. ! his teaching is sweet. I 
 would cry to God for more love to Christ, and to have 
 him enthroned in my heart." — " If thou call me to the 
 sweet ministry of thy dear Son, Lord direct and man- 
 age, in thy wisdom, as to the time, that it may not be 
 sooner or later than is for thy glory. Keep me from 
 a sinful hand or aim. Let me have thy glory always 
 in my eye, and give me thy presence. O God do it 
 or I cry that thou carry me not up hence." — " Do not 
 I long, Lord, if thou wilt give me thy own call and 
 be with me, to have the happiness of commending Christ 
 to others ? Oh ! commend him effectually to my own soul." 
 
XXXll MEMOIR OF THE 
 
 As his preparatory studies drew to a close these 
 pious breathings increased in their fervour. So when 
 ready to enter on his trials for licence, we find him 
 impressed with a truly awful view of the subject — so 
 awful that, were it realized, no hireling would ever be 
 found to obtrude himself on the flock of Christ. — " It 
 is a very weighty matter to be a minister. I can, 
 through divine aid, venture my own soul; since God 
 hath made it, I shall serve him with it; and I may be 
 severely punished if I refuse, when called to be a min- 
 ister, because of the difficulty or danger of the work. 
 But shall I risk other people's souls 1 If God in mercy 
 do not prevent it, I may be instrumental in damning, 
 instead of saving them. If I be a minister, I should 
 have skill of my business, as every man of his trade. 
 I should thoroughly know the disease of sin, and the 
 remedy, Christ. If I know not my business, I should 
 not meddle with it." 
 
 At the time when these last extracts were written, 
 or near to it — for exact dates cannot now be given — 
 their author began to share in that alarm about the 
 state of doctrine in the Church of Scotland, which had 
 previously been felt by the best of her ministers, 
 although no public measures had as yet been resorted 
 to, for probing the evil, or arresting its progress. In 
 the providence of God, it so happened, that the min- 
 isters with whom he was most intimate belonged to 
 the more evangelical class. Several of them, indeed, 
 were his own relatives; and as he was now a student 
 of divinity, considerably advanced in his curriculum, 
 they conversed of church matters freely in his presence ; 
 while he, as a matter of course, took interest in their 
 statements, and had his opinions modified by them. 
 It was in this state of mind that he went to Leyden, a 
 year or so before he was licensed; and while there his 
 opposition to the errors which were infecting the church 
 at home, instead of being diminished was deepened and 
 
REV. ALEXANDER MONCRIEFF. XXxiii 
 
 matured. He had the means of acquiring more accu- 
 rate and enlarged views of the doctrines of grace, than 
 had been furnished to him at St. Andrews, and of these 
 meanS he availed himself with great avidity. Com- 
 plaints, as is well known, were in 1715, laid before the 
 General Assembly against the errors of Professor Sim- 
 eon, which that Assembly, in its policy, refused to 
 entertain. This refusal, two years afterwards, the dis- 
 satisfaction being on the increase, constrained Mr. Web- 
 ster, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, to bring the 
 case of the suspected Professor, by formal libel, before the 
 Presbytery of Edinburgh, which libel came to be dis- 
 posed of by the Assembly in 1717, the year Mr. Mon- 
 crieff was at Leyden. A particular account of Sim- 
 son's errors, it were superfluous to insert here, as that 
 
 has been given already — and given to good purpose 
 
 in a previous part of the present series.* Suflice it to 
 say, that, from the first, they went to subvert the doc- 
 trine of Scripture, about the fallen condition of man, 
 and the means necessary for his restoration, while ulti- 
 mately they came to a flat denial of the true Divinity 
 of the Son of God. Mr. Moncrieff, as has been said, 
 was at Leyden when Mr. Webster's libel was before 
 the courts; but by correspondence with home, he made 
 himself acquainted with it; and knowing when the 
 Assembly was to meet, he set apart a portion of time 
 for special prayer to God in relation to it. Nor did 
 he content himself with this, but, busied as he was 
 with other studies, he wrote a pamphlet in defence of 
 the truth which Simson was charged with impugning, 
 in relation to which, there is reason to believe, he 
 obtained the advice of both Mark and Wesselius, who 
 shared with him in his deep concern for the purity and 
 peace of the Scottish Church. Indeed, it is hinted 
 
 * Historical Sketch of the Origin of the Secession Church 
 tJy the Hqv. Andrew Thomson, B, A., Edinburgh. 
 * C 
 
XXXIT MEMOIR OF THE 
 
 that during all the time of his sojourn at Leyden, this 
 affair " was little out of his mind;" so early did that 
 zeal for the truth of the gospel, which was so conspi- 
 cuous in his later days, begin to display itself. 
 
 We come now to that period of Mr. Moncrieff's life, 
 for which he had made such laborious preparation, both 
 devotional and academic — his entrance, namely, on the 
 Christian ministry. He returned from Holland in the 
 month of August 1717, soon after the meeting of the 
 Assembly referred to above; and not long after this — 
 probably in the beginning of 1718 — having passed the 
 ordinary trials, was licensed by the Presbytery of 
 Perth, as a preacher of the Church of Scotland. It so 
 happened that just about this time, his native parish 
 of Abernethy had become vacant, by the death of the 
 Rev. Mr. Dunning; and an application was made to 
 the Presbytery for the moderation of a call, with a 
 view to Mr. Moncrieff. Nor were the moderations of 
 those days so inane and illusory as they afterwards 
 became: for although the power of the patrons had 
 then been restored, yet it was exercised with a degree 
 of lenity, and did not practically outrage the freedom 
 of election, till some years afterward. The modera- 
 tion took place in April 1720, in the presence of three 
 members of the Presbytery; and the call was found to 
 be harmonious. It is not said to have been unanimous; 
 but as sixty-one heritors, and thirteen ciders appended 
 their names to it, while no active opposition is at all 
 hinted at, the approach to unanimity must have been 
 considerable. The ordination followed in September 
 of the same year; and Mr. Moncrieff of Methven, a 
 distant relative of the Culfargie family, preached and 
 presided on the occasion. It is said that, in giving 
 the charge, he exemplified great fidelity, in warning 
 his kinsman against the danger which might arise from 
 his connections in life, and exhorting him on no ac- 
 count to permit his position in society to become an 
 
RKV. ALEXANDER MONCRIEFF. XXXV 
 
 obstruction to his miuistry. This freedom proved dis- 
 pleasing to nearer relatives who were present ; but, 
 when the young minister heard of their displeasure, he 
 remonstrated with them, warmly defending the expres- 
 sions objected to, declaring that he regarded them as 
 just and seasonable, and avowing his determination, 
 through grace, to keep all that he possessed on earth, 
 in property or influence, subservient to the sacred 
 office with which God had invested him. 
 
 Before Mr. MoncriefF was ordained at Abernethy — 
 and .but a little before it — what is called the Marrow 
 controversy* had commenced in the Church of Scot- 
 land; and the course pursued in this niatter, as step 
 by step it was disclosed, gave a humiliating dis])lay of 
 ignorance or perverseness, on the part of the General 
 Assembly. In the book which gave rise to the con- 
 troversy, as in every extended composition of man, 
 there are expressions which admit of amendment; but 
 taken as a whole, and when permitted to be its own 
 interpreter, it is an admirable exposition of Christian 
 doctrine; while the relentless condemnation of it for 
 errors which it never taught, and for truths which its 
 censors could not appreciate, fixed on the leaders of 
 the Scottish Church a deep brand of infamy. The 
 contention became hot and hotter; distinct formation 
 was given to parties; and from v.hat has already been 
 said of the young minister of Abernethy, it is not difS- 
 cult to foresee on wliich side he would be found to 
 place himself. He was zealous for the doctrine which 
 the Assembly had condemned, although not one of the 
 twelve who are given to history under the honoured 
 name of " The Marrow-men ;" and one little incident 
 wliich casts doubt on his adherence to them is easily 
 explained. They framed a " Representation " against 
 
 * For an account of this controversy, see Historical Sketcli 
 ut supra. Page 13 and onwards. 
 
XXXVl MEMOIR OF THE 
 
 the Assembly's decision, and appended their names to 
 it, as a means of reviving the question at a subsequent 
 meeting ; and Mr. Boston complains that at a private 
 meeting held by them at Edinburgh during the sittings 
 of the Assembly in 1721, with a view to prepare for 
 introducing their cause, some brethren not of their 
 number were pleased to attend, and to give them not a 
 little trouble. Among these he mentions Mr. Warden, 
 and Mr. Moncrieflf of Abernethy, as making themselves 
 very active in proposing new methods of procedure, 
 besides " picking quarrels with the Eepresentation " 
 itself. There might be ground for this complaint — 
 very possibly there was ground for it, although it 
 seems rather peevishly made — without supposing dif- 
 ference of opinion about the doctrines at issue. It was 
 to be expected that the twelve, who, at not a little 
 risk of standing and emolument, had put themselves 
 forward to the front of the battle, would think it un- 
 seemly for those who had lagged behind, to come for- 
 ward now and involve them in disputation. But it 
 does not follow — it is not even insinuated by Boston 
 himself — that either Warden or Moucrieff were in any 
 degree disposed to defend or to palliate the Assembly's 
 decision. MoncriefF, indeed, was then but young ; the 
 spirit of his mind, it may well be supposed, was but 
 partially known to his senior brethren ; and his sug- 
 gestions about modes of procedure might fail to accord 
 with their riper judgment; but in all this there is no 
 room for suspecting his sincerity. Then, again, as to 
 his " picking quarrels " with the " Representation," it 
 does not appear that these were of damaging import ; 
 for some of his suggestions were ultimately adopted as 
 acknowledged improvements ; and who knows not that 
 in the Marrow itself, which Boston was so laudably 
 eager to vindicate, there are modes of expression which 
 have been regretted, by the most enlightened, and the 
 warmest of its friends? But if, at first, there was a 
 
EEV. ALEXANDER MONCRIEFF. XXXVU 
 
 doubt of MoncriefF as a Marrow-man — which it is not 
 evident there ever was — that doubt was soon dispelled; 
 for he very cordially went along with the twelve in 
 all their subsequent contendings, and soon gave evi- 
 dence not to be mistaken, that he was neither a new 
 nor reluctant convert to the cause they had so much 
 at heart. 
 
 The interest taken by Mr. Moncrieff, when a student 
 at Leyden, in the process against Professor Simson, has 
 already been noticed ; and not long after he entered on 
 his ministry, that unhappy individual was to him, as 
 well as to many others, the cause of renewed uneasi- 
 ness. As the more judicious had predicted, the As- 
 sembly's lenity in 1717, had been lost upon Simson. 
 It had been worse than lost ; for instead of restraining, 
 it encouraged him to go on in his course of reckless 
 speculation, till in 1726 a process was commenced 
 against him, for broadly and distinctly denying the 
 divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Mr. Moncrieff was 
 not a member of the Assembly which disposed of this 
 charge, but was present as an anxious listener ; and 
 when he saw the result to be merely suspension from 
 preaching or teaching the students, without any farther 
 mark of the church's disapprobation, his spirit was so 
 moved, that having obtained leave to speak, he charged 
 the Assembly with a very flagrant dereliction of duty. 
 Indeed there is reason to believe that this decision so 
 shook his confidence in the fidelity of the Assembly, as 
 in some degree at least, to prepare his mind for the 
 position which he subsequently assumed among the 
 leaders of the Secession. Nor was his the only mind 
 which these proceedings alienated. The godly through- 
 out the church were deeply aggrieved by them ; and 
 not a few were compelled to feel, that the specific doc- 
 trines of the cross were, in point of fact, but second- 
 ary matters to the prevailing party in the Church of 
 Scotland. 
 
XXXVlll MEMOIR OF TIIH 
 
 For about six years after this, or between 1726 and 
 1732, the name of Culfargie, as thoy generally called 
 him, seems to be little mixed up with public contend- 
 ings. These, so far as is now known, were to him 
 years of comparative quietness, although not of satis- 
 faction or hope of reform ; and we have reason to be- 
 lieve that he devoted them to the public and private 
 duties of his parish, in which he is said to have laboured 
 so assiduously as ta bring upon himself the infirmities 
 of a premature old age. Nor did he labour in vain ; 
 for as his people know his worth, and were, as a body, 
 greatly attached to him, so they listened to his instruc- 
 tions with a ready mind; although his strict fidelity in 
 watching for souls was offensive to some of the tempo- 
 rizing. There is an incident on record, which may 
 have occurred about this time or perhaps at a later 
 date, and which seems entitled to insertion here, partly 
 on account of its intrinsic interest, and partly as a 
 specimen of the way in which the man of whom we 
 write made proof of his ministry. 
 
 In his parish, there lived a wealthy young Laird^ 
 who in defiance of a pious education had forsaken the 
 God of his fathers, and struck out into a career of 
 headlong wickedness. He was an heritor of the par- 
 ish, and the representative of a distinguished family ; 
 and as such, had occupied a conspicuous place in the 
 house of God. This was now deserted; and he sought 
 by every means to shun the presence of his minister, 
 at home and abroad, as well as that of his associates in 
 the discipline of the church. Every one saw that the 
 young man was hastening on to ruin. His amiable 
 spouse was now neglected and broken-hearted. His 
 very children seemed to be forgotten ; and the fireside 
 scenes of his former days, so peaceful and so happy, 
 were lost sight of and forsaken for the haunts of drunk- 
 enness and impiety ; while his fine estate was melt- 
 iug away, as snow before the sun of summer, and pious 
 
REV. ALEXANJ>Ell MONCRIEFF. XXXI X 
 
 pai-euts presenting liis case to the minds of their rising 
 children, as a specimen of the misery which a life of 
 debauchery ever entails on its wretched victim. His 
 constitution, as a matter of course, was soon broken 
 down; disease began to prey upon him; his drunken 
 companions forsook him ; his conscience became his 
 accuser ; and by night and by day was he made afraid 
 by the terrors of the Almighty. The instructions of 
 his godly father, the tears of his tender-hearted mother, 
 the family prayers of other times, in which he had so 
 often been mentioned by name — all rushed on his re- 
 collection. The very words seemed vivid before him — 
 " good and merciful God, the God of our fathers, 
 remember in mercy our dear child ! O grant that the 
 grace of the good Spirit may be lodged deej) in his heart : 
 and may he stand up in our stead, when we shall sleep 
 in the silence of the grave ! " 
 
 The first softening of this profligate's heart, appeared 
 in a gush of tenderness towards his long-neglected wife 
 and dear little children. One day as they were all 
 hanging about him, he took his wife gently by the 
 hand, and said to her, weeping as he spoke ; " My 
 dear, can you forgive me the wrongs I have done 
 you ?" She could make no reply, but burst into tears; 
 and when her surprise at such words of tenderness, to 
 which she had been so long a stranger, had somewhat 
 subsided, she replied by kissing him, first on the one 
 cheek and then on the other, till her tears flowed down 
 upon his bosom; while the children, in their turn, 
 melted by the unwonted softness of their father's voice, 
 drew near and embraced him. " My dear," said his 
 wife, as she wept and witnessed his mental distress, 
 " shall we send for our worthy minister Culfargie?" 
 He gave a reluctant and dubious assent ; being evi- 
 dently overwhelmed at the idea of meeting with his 
 minister. She, however, ventured on her own 
 course, and despatched a servant to tell the min- 
 
Xl MEMOIR OF THE 
 
 ister that his presence was desired as speedily as 
 possible. 
 
 Culfargie lost no time in complying with the invita- 
 tion ; but ordering the servant who usually attended 
 him in his pastoral visitations to saddle a couple of 
 horses, he was sitting by the bed of the afflicted laird, 
 in the short space of forty minutes. There was a long 
 and distressing silence. None of the parties seemed 
 disposed to break it. The pastor, on his part, was 
 anxious to know the true state of the sufferer's mind. 
 He saw his agony, but had yet to learn how far it pro* 
 ceeded from the working of his conscience. At length, 
 he took the laird by the hand, and began to remind 
 him of those things which, if penitent, he would at 
 once admit, and which, if impenitent, he required the 
 more to have distinctly and faithfully rehearsed. He 
 told him of the good example which had been set before 
 him by his godly father, and of the religious instruc- 
 tions with which both his parents, as well as his min- 
 ister now addressing him, had plied him from his child- 
 hood upwards. On these things he dwelt with marked 
 particularity; and, "Oh! young man," said he, "what 
 a return have you made? We sowed wheat; but no- 
 thing has yet sprung up but tares — all tares! Thy 
 Maker and thy Redeemer called on thee, saying, 'Give 
 me thy heart.' Oh ! how tenderly this call was fol- 
 lowed up, by every means calculated to enforce it. 
 But thou didst turn away from God; and thou — thou 
 didst sin still more and more. Thou hast made thy 
 brow as brass, and thy neck as a sinew of iron ! Thou 
 wouldst not hear him that made thee. He stretched 
 out his hands to thee all the day long; but thou hast 
 dashed from thee the cup of mercy held out to thy 
 lips. Ah! sinful young man, laden with iniquity, thou 
 hast forsaken the Lord, thou hast provoked the Holy 
 One of Israel to anger, and now that anger is burning 
 hot against thee." 
 
REV. ALEXANDER MONORIEFP. xli 
 
 The pastor paused, for he was overcome with grief. 
 The anguish of the laird seemed now insupportable. 
 He groaned and sobbed out, " Wo is me, for I am un- 
 done, mine iniquity is ever before me. Against thee, 
 O God — against thee only — have I sinned, and in thy 
 sight done all these evils." On hearing these words, 
 the pastor rose abruptly, and casting a mournful look 
 on the sufferer, hurried out of the room, and rode 
 directly home. But when dismounting at his own 
 door, he told the servant, whose name was John, not 
 to unsaddle the horses, nor yet to retire to bed, but to 
 be ready, at a moment's notice to attend his call. 
 
 John afterwards stated that, according to orders, he 
 remained in the anti-chamber, quite in the dark as to 
 his master's intentions ; although, as the night ad- 
 vanced, he was enabled to understand them. Mr. 
 Moncrieff wished for a spot where he could enjoy com- 
 plete retirement in the exercise of prayer; and he knew 
 of no place for that purpose equal to his own study. 
 During the whole night, John overheard him wrestling 
 in prayer for the heart-stricken penitent. Distinctly 
 could he hear him, all prostrate on the floor, pleading 
 with strong crying and tears, for " the poor perishing 
 son of his ancient friend." " For thy Son's sake," he 
 heard him say, " for his dear sake who hung upon the 
 tree, thine own well-beloved Son's sake, O Lord have 
 mercy on this sin-sick soul ! Spirit of all grace ! O 
 life-giving Spirit! come, in thy love, revive and quicken 
 him: he is broken in the place of dragons: let the 
 bones which thou hast broken yet rejoice. bind up 
 that broken heart! Look on his disease and his pains, 
 and forgive him all his sins." 
 
 Such was the exercise of the night; and as the day 
 began to dawn, he summoned John to bring out the 
 horses, and setting off at full speed, he was again, in 
 forty minutes, in the sick man's chamber, wearing a 
 benignant smile. Like Jacob, he had been wrestling 
 
Xlii MEMOIB OF THB 
 
 with the Angel of the covenant, and felt something 
 like assurance that he had prevailed. " O Culfargie ! 
 come away," cried the distracted laird, the moment 
 his eyes fell on him; "my heart has been broken by 
 the terrors of your message: and how I have longed 
 these slow-moving hours past to see your face again! 
 (jrreat was my trouble after you left me; but when I 
 had tried, again and again, to call on the great de- 
 liverer, a ray of hope seemed to spring up, and it gave 
 me some relief. Oh, said I, there is, there is One who 
 is * mighty to save!' O God of my fathers! surely 
 thou wilt not leave me in my extreme necessity ! And 
 now sit down, Culfargie, and preach to me this Sa- 
 viour; and tell me if there be in the holy word, one 
 drop of comfort for this burning spirit of mine." 
 
 This was a joyful moment for Culfargie. He sat 
 down by the bed-side, secretly breathing out a prayer 
 for wisdom to speak a word in season to the heart- 
 broken man, whose wife and children were also present, 
 sharing in the solemn softness of the scene. " It was 
 an hour," said one present, " of thrilling joy to all." 
 Taking the laird by the hand, while tears of gladness 
 bedimmed his eye, Mr. MoncriefF proceeded, with more 
 than his wonted alacrity, to speak to him of the love 
 of God in Christ Jesus, and of Christ himself as God 
 and man our Eedeemer, and the head of the everlast- 
 ing covenant. He discoursed on the atonement of 
 Christ, its necessity, its reality, and its perfection; he 
 made a free and formal offer of Christ, to the eager and 
 anxious listener; and in the name of his Divine Mas- 
 ter, he called upon him, at once and without reserve, 
 to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ; declaring to him, 
 earnestly and officially, that in doing this he would be 
 accepted and saved. He next spoke of the Holy Spirit, 
 his divine person, his presence in the church, his work 
 of grace in the souls of men, creating in them a clean 
 heart, and renewing a right spirit within them; and he 
 
REV, ALEXANDER MONCRIEFP. xllll 
 
 concluded the whole with a fervent prayer for a gra- 
 cious out-pouring of this same Spirit on his young 
 friend, now coining up from the fearful pit, and Ironi 
 
 the miry clay. 
 
 When the prayer was ended, both of them for some 
 time wept in silence. All present were in tears. The 
 laird himself was the first to speak: he could no longer 
 conceal his emotion; and aided now by that Christian 
 knowledge which had been so painfully instilled into 
 his youthful mind, he opened his heart as follows:— 
 "0 Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Aiy 
 Saviour, here I lay down my guilt and worthlessness 
 at the foot of thy cross; and I accept thy blessed right- 
 eousness, as freely offered and given to me. My Divme 
 Teacher, thou blessed Spirit, teach a poor wandering 
 prodigal to come to thee, O my God, and to walk in 
 thy ways. Blessed and pitying Saviour, accept a poor 
 sinner, the vilest of the vile, who ventures, at thy bid- 
 din^, to come, in all his poverty and need, to the loot 
 of the cross. On thy atonement, and on that alone, 1 
 rely And, O Redeemer of poor perishing sinners, 
 may I venture to call thee my Redeemer? Then take 
 this heart; it is thine:-wash it in thy blood, my 
 Saviour; to thee I give it away; to thee, niy pod, 1 
 dedicate this body, this soul, and my all. Oh! what 
 a debtor to free grace. Thine I am, now and for ever- 
 more- for thou hast redeemed me, Lord God ot truth. 
 
 Such is, at least, an outline of this interesting narra- 
 tive; and by the account, the sequel was a happy one. 
 The laird recovered from his bodily affliction, and lived 
 to a good old age, giving clear and convincmg evidence, 
 that he was, in very deed, a prodigal reclaimed, ihe 
 wife found her husband again, and the children their 
 father; but first of all, and best of all, the God of sal- 
 vation in Jesus Christ found a monument of his mercy. 
 Nor need we doubt that this incident, apart irom its 
 exciting peculiarities, presents to our view a fair sample 
 
xliv MEMOIR OF THE 
 
 of the minister of Abernetliy's private ministrations. 
 To the rich, in the intercourse of civil society, he could 
 render the deference which was due; but, in the things 
 of God, he knew no man, so as to pamper his pride, or 
 palliate his iniquity. Being bent on the salvation of 
 all, he regarded all as on the same level, and pointed 
 the rich and poor alike, to one and the same narrow 
 gate, as the entrance into life. 
 
 It does not appear that Mr. Moncrieff had any thing 
 like a strong propensity for controversial discussion; 
 but while he was yet but young in the ministry, ne- 
 cessity was laid upon him, and he yielded to the 
 call of duty. The cloud which hung over the Church 
 of Scotland became every year more dark and lurid; 
 and an agitation again commenced, in which he was 
 to be found among the most active. In 1732, the 
 General Assembly chose to determine, that where a 
 patron should waive his right of presentation, the choice 
 of a minister to a vacant parish should be limited to 
 its heritors and elders; thus intercepting that liberty 
 of choice, which some, at least, of the more pliant 
 patrons still conceded to the communicants. The re- 
 sults of this decision are well known, and it were out 
 of place to dwell on them here, although a brief refer- 
 ence is indispensable to the continuity of our narrative. 
 Dissatisfaction with the decision was felt and expressed 
 over a large portion of the church; many Presbyteries, 
 as well as individuals, took vigorous measures against 
 it; prior grievances which had been partially forgotten, 
 were by means of it brought into quickened remem- 
 brance; and a movement began, for which they who 
 provoked it were far enough from being prepared. It 
 was in October of that same year, that Mr. Erskine, in 
 his far-famed sermon before the Synod of Perth and 
 Stirling, denounced the invasion of the people's rights, 
 with other misdoings of the ascendant party, in terms 
 too explicit to be mistaken or forgiven. And when 
 
REV. ALEXANDER MONCRIEFF. xlv 
 
 the Assembly proceeded to inflict upon liira the penalty 
 of his faithfulness, Mr. Moncriefi' was one of the tliree 
 who made his cause their own. He stood by Mr. 
 Erskine in the Synod at Perth; he stood by him in 
 the Assembly; ho stood by him before the Com- 
 mission in August and November ; and he had the 
 honour of being one of the four, who were cast out by 
 a sentence, which has branded the Assembly with in- 
 delible disgrace. Being laid under a suspension which 
 they knew to be unjust, they not only protested against 
 it, but declared themselves to be formally separated 
 from the judicatories of the Church of Scotland, and 
 continued in their respective parishes to minister to 
 their flocks. 
 
 This, as is well known, was the origin of the Seces- 
 sion — a step which could not be lightly taken by Mon- 
 criefi", or by his associates. And, although in his case 
 the loss of emolument was little to be regarded, there 
 were other considerations, which as a man of heart and 
 gentlemanly habitudes, he could not so easily get over. 
 It threw him out of the circle with which he had been 
 familiar, and made him an object of dislike and avoid- 
 ance where, heretofore, he had been courted and es- 
 teemed. But these were matters comparatively trivial, 
 when set up against the claims of conscience; and the 
 whole four felt them to be so. Their attachment to 
 the Church of Scotland was hereditary and sincere; 
 the fear of contracting the guilt of schism — a sin in 
 those days but dimly defined — was constantly before 
 their minds; they were leaving behind them a minority 
 of brethren, whose personal piety, and soundness in 
 the faith, they readily acknowledged; their views of 
 the utility of a State Church were difi'ereut from those 
 which have since prevailed; separation was then a rare 
 thing in the land, and in very bad repute; and, with 
 these things before their eyes, it seems impossible to 
 find a motive for their secession, short of a sense of 
 
xlvi MEMOIE OF THE 
 
 duty to God, deeply pondered, and prayerfully ma- 
 tured. That this was the case with Alexander Mon- 
 criefF, we have the most explicit evidence. It was no 
 easy matter for him to set at nought the authority of 
 his church. The step he had taken weighed so heavily 
 on his spirit, as to produce occasional misgivings. In 
 opening his mind to some of his parishioners, in whose 
 piety and intelligence he could confide, he urged them, 
 with great earnestness, to pray for direction to him; 
 and speaking to one of them of the sentence of sus- 
 pension, he said with tears in his eyes, " They say I 
 must speak no more in his name." The Commission 
 had forbidden him to preach that Christ whom he 
 loved so well, and this was more than his heart could 
 bear. 
 
 But since these points have been started, a little 
 more may be said about them. Had the Brethren 
 been in doubt as to the course they had taken, — had 
 subsequent reflection led them to suspect, that they 
 had been chargeable with rashness, — an opportunity of 
 retracing their steps was very seasonably furnished to 
 them. The Assembly, which met in 1734, began to 
 see the impolicy, although not the sinfulness, of the 
 deed done by their Commission; they found that the 
 people, in various parts of the church, were cleaving to 
 the suspended ministers, and blaming the conduct of 
 the Commission, in terms of unsparing severity; and 
 alarmed at this, they instructed the Synod of Perth 
 and Stirling, to restore the whole four to their respec- 
 tive charges, but not to record any opinion about the 
 legality or illegality of the decision they were directed 
 to cancel. This was odd enough; it was in effect a 
 plea of guilty; but whatever may be said of it in other 
 respects, it was an opening made for the suspended 
 brethren, which, in the opinion of many, was wide 
 enough to warrant their return, and which, in point of 
 fact, made some of themselves to hesitate for a little. 
 
EEV. ALEXANDER MONCRIEFP. xlvil 
 
 Instead of embracing the opening, however, tliey not 
 only kept tlieir ground, but took steps to fortify and 
 extend it, which led the Assembly formally to depose 
 them, and thus to aggravate the evil which it feared, 
 by giving a new and salutary impulse to the cause of 
 the Secession. 
 
 The effect of the deposition on Mr. Moncrieff's mind 
 was relieving rather than otherwise; it went far to 
 extinguish his lingering respect for the decisions of the 
 Assembly; and placed him in a position where he could 
 act, with more than his wonted freedom. Disregarding 
 the deposition he continued to preach in the parish 
 church as heretofore; and the secular authorities were 
 not in haste to take measures for his forcible ejection. 
 It is hinted that they shrunk from the odious task till 
 distinctly given to understand, that, unless they pro- 
 ceeded, complaints would be lodged, which might lead 
 to their own ejection from office. Being at last driven 
 from the church, he continued to preach in the church- 
 yard, till the building, which is still occupied by the 
 congregation, was ready for his reception. A consider- 
 able portion of the cost of this building, which is large, 
 substantial, and for its time, commodious, was contri- 
 buted by Mr. Moncrieff himself: and he took care to 
 secure to the congregation from his own estate, a num- 
 ber of acres of glebe land, to be theirs in perpetuity, 
 on the single condition of their continuing, as a reli- 
 gious body, to hold by the principles of the Secession. 
 As to the stipendiary emolument of the parish, there 
 is the most abundant evidence that he relinquished it 
 without a grudge; for, during the whole of his subse- 
 quent ministry, he never took a farthing from his con- 
 gregation, although their numbers and substance were 
 such, as to enable them to afford him a liberal support. 
 In this, however, his generosity is more to be admired 
 than his foresight. It did not occur to him that his 
 successors, although equally generous with himself, 
 
xlviii MEMOIR OF THE 
 
 might not be in circumstances to " wait at the altar" 
 without being " partakers with the altar," nor that to 
 exempt a Christian people from the duty of supporting 
 the ordinances of grace, tends, in all ordinary circum- 
 stances, not to promote but rather to hinder the right 
 formation of their Christian character. 
 
 After being about seventeen years in the ministry, 
 and ten of these in the Secession, or in February 1742, 
 Mr. Moncrieff was unanimously chosen by his brethren 
 to be their Professor of Divinity, as successor to the 
 venerated Wilson of Perth, whose death had occurred 
 about three months before; and there is reason to be- 
 lieve, that his early education, which had been both 
 liberal and diversified, and was now matured by pas- 
 toral experience, contributed not a little to sustain, or 
 to elevate, that tone of evangelical preaching, which 
 from the first had characterized the seceding ministers. 
 It is recorded of him by a very competent judge, who 
 wrote more than forty years ago, and may have been 
 one of his students, that he filled the chair of Divinity 
 " with great ability, zeal, and faithfulness. This," he 
 adds, " was manifested, in the character and usefulness 
 of a great number, who, in the course of twenty years, 
 were trained up by him for the work of the ministry, 
 some of whom are yet alive; but the greater part, 
 having served their generation, are fallen asleep." 
 
 Before he entered on this office, as well as after- 
 wards, he had taken a deep interest in the progress of 
 the Secession, exerting himself to the utmost of his 
 power, to meet the new demands for sermon, which 
 were every year increasing, and making journeys to 
 distant places, at not a little toil and expense. Nor 
 was he less active as a member of the Associate Pres- 
 bytery ; but went heartily along with his brethren in 
 all their corporate proceedings. It was by him and 
 Mr. Wilson that the first draught of the Extra-judicial 
 Testimony was prepared for consideration ; and in 
 
REV. ALEXANDER MONCRIEFF. xHx 
 
 framing the Act concerning the Doctrine of Grace, and 
 the Act for Renewing the Covenants, he took his full 
 share. By the first of these Acts, the Presbytery, at 
 once, adopted, defined, and vindicated the views of the 
 Marrow-men, and gave a new impulse to that free, and 
 full, and fervid strain of evangelical preaching, which 
 proved itself, in after years, so extensive a blessing to 
 the people of Scotland. Of the second we cannot speak 
 in terms so complacent ; but neither is there room for 
 indiscriminate censure. The National Covenant and 
 the Solemn League embodied an error which our fath- 
 ers could scarcely have been expected to detect. Nor 
 is there any reason to suppose that we would have 
 detected it, had we lived in their times, or been brought 
 up under their training. Looking back to Moses, and 
 in so far forgetting Christ, our earlier reformers re- 
 sorted, not merely to ecclesiastical, but to national 
 confederacy, as the likeliest means of securing the good 
 which the Commonwealth had attained, and averting 
 the danger which was still impending. They were the 
 godliest in the land who adopted this expedient ; its 
 enemies were, with few exceptions, the carnal and the 
 careless; defection from the Covenant and defection 
 from godliness v/ere, not only supposed, but positively 
 seen to go hand in hand ; and it was quite a matter of 
 course, that the Four Brethren, with those who succes- 
 sively adhered to them, honest as they were, and ear- 
 nest for God, would recur to the Covenant, as in their 
 judgment, a scriptural means, at once of excitement 
 and concentration. They did so, and we honom- them 
 in the deed ; for if we now know of a more excellent 
 way, it becomes us never to forget, that they were the 
 men who, under God, pointed our way to the mountain 
 top, from whence we have descried it; and as they 
 were true to their light, in the midst of obloquy and 
 privation, so from their tombs there comes a voice, 
 calling upon us to be true to ours. 
 * D 
 
1 MEMOIR OF THE 
 
 It was not long after the passing of tliese " Acts," 
 till the rising community, now so far extended as to 
 be arranged into three presbyteries, under what was 
 thereafter known as the Associate Synod, was broken 
 into two parties of nearly equal strength, by the well 
 known controversy about the lawfulness, or unlawful- 
 ness, of swearing certain burgess-oaths. Into the merits 
 of this controversy it were worse than superfluous to 
 enter here, as its olden records are still accessible to 
 those who choose to consult them, while a very judi- 
 cious and veritable account of it has been recently 
 given to the public^ Our task, however, requires us 
 to say, that Mr. Moncrieff took part in the contro- 
 versy, and seems to have been active in urging it on. 
 He was keenly opposed to the swearing of the oaths, 
 for reasons which he felt to be strong and convincing. 
 It would appear that he was even a leader among those 
 who were for making a testimony against them a con- 
 dition of ecclesiastical fellowship. Here, again, he was 
 right and he was wrong. He was right in doing hom- 
 age to his honest convictions, even by the sacrifice of 
 cherished friendship ; and we believe he was right in 
 the view which he took of the merits of the question 
 at issue. But he was wrong — decidedly wrong, and 
 so were all who followed him, especially as adherents 
 to the state-church principle, in taking measures which 
 compelled a separation from those who were cordially 
 at one with him on all the vital points for which they 
 had been hitherto contending. There was mutual 
 wrong in this matter; Christian equanimity was dis- 
 turbed ; controversy, as is often the case, degenerated 
 into strife ; the worst things about good men gained 
 their advantage, while the best were, for a time, held 
 in abeyance ; and so they parted asunder. The day 
 of this parting was a dark day to the yet infant Seces- 
 
 * Historical Sketches ut supra. 
 
REV. ALEXANDER MONCRIEFP. ll 
 
 eion — so dark that some have wished it were blotted 
 out of reraembrance. But the wish is vain, and though 
 it were not, there is more of sect than of wisdom in it. 
 Let history tell the tale of the " Breach," and tell it 
 fully out, as a warning to the United Presbyterian 
 Church in years that are yet to come. Nor let it be 
 forgotten that, deplorable as it was, and sulphureous 
 some of its odours, its collisions gave out some 
 sparks of light, which have led us on to a better un- 
 derstanding of the spiritual constitution of the Chris- 
 tian church. 
 
 Mr. Moncrieff's secession from the church of his 
 fathers, although marked by a deep conviction of duty, 
 did not induce him to look upon her with indifference 
 or contempt. His confidence in her was gone; but 
 his concern about her lingered and lamented. The 
 corruptions of her judicatories, and the erastian spirit, 
 which from year to year was enthroning itself in her 
 counsels, cost him many an hour of sorrow. By his 
 personal exertions, and in concert with his brethren, he 
 continued to expose those evils, and to point out their 
 disastrous tendency. But he never confounded them 
 with the civil constitution of the country, nor cherished 
 disaffection to the family of Hanover ; although, to 
 serve the purposes of spleen, surmises of this kind 
 were industriously circulated. Nay, so ardent was 
 his zeal against the Pretender, that, during the trou- 
 bles of 1745, he not only prayed for the reigning 
 monarch in the presence of the rebels, but refused to 
 pay with his own hand, or permit any to pay in his 
 name, the cess they were exacting in support of their 
 cause. " When some officers and a party were sent to 
 distrain, he dealt very faithfully with them, and avowed, 
 as the reason of his refusal, that he could not do any 
 thing that would have an appearance of acknowledging 
 their authority or might in any way promote their 
 cause. He laid before them, with great freedom, the 
 
lii MEMOIR OF THE 
 
 evil of the course they were engaged in, and warned 
 them against it. However, they proceeded in their 
 purpose, and not only took away his cattle and his 
 furniture, but carried off his eldest son to prison, and 
 threatened his life if rescue was attempted ; which they 
 were somewhat afraid of, knowing how much the peo- 
 ple of the place were exasperated at the treatment 
 given to the family. But none of their plunderings 
 or threatenings could induce Culfargie to any com- 
 pliance." 
 
 About four years after this, or in 1749, he had the 
 comfort of receiving this very son whom the rebels had 
 cast into prison, as his colleague in the charge of the 
 congregation. He continued, however, laboriously en- 
 gaged in all the parts of his ministry, in teaching the 
 students of divinity three months in the year, and in 
 giving a punctual and exemplary attendance on meet- 
 ings of Presbytery and Synod. By these labours, and 
 his close application to study, his constitution was 
 worn out, and the infirmities of old age were brought 
 on, at a period of life when many retain considerable 
 vigour. In the summer of 1761, his strength was 
 greatly exhausted ; and, though he still continued his 
 public ministrations, so far as his strength would ad- 
 mit, he considered his death to be at no great distance. 
 In August of that year he attended the funeral of the 
 Rev. Mr. Brown of Perth, and on coming into the room 
 where the mourners were assembling, he said to the 
 brethren present, " My brother has got the start of 
 me. It was a question whether he or I would be first 
 removed. The Lord has decided it. He knows who 
 are ripe." 
 
 This discovered his apprehension of the near ap- 
 proach of death ; and yet his desire for public useful- 
 ness continued unabated. About two weeks before his 
 death, he took a journey of forty miles, to prosecute 
 measures he had in view for supporting a weak con- 
 
REV. ALEXANDER MONCRIEFF. liii 
 
 gregatiou, which had recently become vacant. In two 
 or three Jays after his return, an end was put to his 
 labours. He died on the seventh of October, 17G1, in 
 the sixty-seventh year of his age, and forty-second of 
 his ministry. Twenty-four hours before his death, he 
 ceased to be able to speak so as to be heard or under- 
 stood; but during the last three hours, he was distinctly 
 heard breathing out praises to God. On the Sabbath 
 after his funeral, his son and successor addressed the 
 people on these very touching words, " His disciples 
 came, and took up the body, and buried it, and went 
 and told Jesus." Moncrieflf was indeed like the mar- 
 tyred Baptist, " a burning and a shining light." 
 
 In his domestic relations, this servant of Christ 
 seems to have been peculiarly happy. His first wife 
 — for he was twice married — was Miss Mary Clerk, 
 daughter of Sir John Clerk of Pennycuik, a lady of 
 amiable dispositions and decided piety ; which last he 
 regarded as a matter of primary importance in forming 
 a connection so intimate. There are fragments of his 
 handwriting still remaining, although now scarcely 
 legible, which in part show how solicitous he was that 
 his connections in life might tend to promote the eflB- 
 ciency of his ministry. For this he had presented 
 many an earnest prayer ; and in Miss Clerk he found 
 the answer of his prayers. She was spared with him, 
 however, for but a few years, during which she bore 
 him three children, namely, Matthew, his successor in 
 the ministry referred to above, and two daughters, who 
 died in their infancy. This marriage was consummated 
 on the 8th of March, 1722, and marked by an incident, 
 which tended to make it instructively memorable. Sir 
 John Clerk, who is said to have been a godly man, had 
 often remarked, in familiar conversation, that it would 
 be a very pleasant thing for a person to fall asleep at 
 night, and not to awake till he found himself in heaven. 
 That very pleasant thing was in reserve for himself. 
 
liv MEMOIR OF THE 
 
 On the night of the marriage, or the next after it, 
 while the young couple were still in his house, he re- 
 tired to his bedchamber at the usual hour. Some time 
 after Lady Clerk followed, and wondering, as she en- 
 tered the room, that she did not hear him breathe, took 
 the candle to look in his face, when she found him quite 
 dead, and lying as if in a pleasant sleep, with his head 
 pillowed on the palm of his hand. 
 
 Mr. Moncrieff's second wife was Miss Jane Lyon, 
 daughter of the Rev. William Lyon of Ogle, minister 
 of the parish of Airlie. This lady is also described as 
 a person of much Christian worth, whose sweetness of 
 temper and unaffected piety, proved a very special 
 blessing to her husband and family. She bore to him 
 fifteen children, eight of whom died in their infancy ; 
 and she survived him in widowhood for no less a pe- 
 riod than thirty years. On his own demise, he left be- 
 hind him seven children, three sons and four daughters. 
 Matthew, his heir, and colleague in the ministry, a man 
 of prompt and active habits, somewhat eccentric in his 
 cast of mind, and peculiarly effective as a pulpit orator, 
 survived him but a few years, having died in the month 
 of June 1767. William, his second son, was ordained 
 at Alloa in 1749 ; and, after his father's death, was 
 chosen to be his successor as Professor of Divinity, 
 which oflice he held till his own death in 1786. 
 
 The published works of Mr. Moncrieff are not nu- 
 merous. During his life, he occasionally published a 
 sermon, as well as a few short treatises, intended to 
 expose prevailing errors, against which he was ever on 
 the alert. A good many years after his death, these, 
 with some additions from his manuscript discourses, 
 were collected and published, in two duodecimo volumes, 
 by his son at Alloa, who has just been referred to. 
 These volumes, while they indicate a respectable share 
 of the scholarship of his times, and familiar acquaint- 
 ance with divinity as a system, are, upon the whole, 
 
REV. ALEXANDER MONCRIEFP. Ir 
 
 practical in their character, and exhibit throughout a 
 strong attachment to the doctrines of grace, as held 
 and vindicated by the Church of the Secession. Con- 
 cern for the advancement of vital godliness — a desiro 
 for the prosperity of his own church, chiefly as a nur- 
 sery of godliness — and an apprehension of terrible judg- 
 ments, coming upon the land for its abounding iniquity 
 — are three things which seem to have been constantly 
 pressing on his mind. They have prominence in 
 almost all his discourses ; and if, in some instances, 
 his fears were extreme, they never f^iil to indicate the 
 tenderness of his conscience, and a cordial self-devotion 
 to the cause of the Redeemer. 
 
 A fair portraiture of Mr. Moncrieff, as he lived and 
 moved among men on the earth, cannot now be given. 
 We know enough to awaken interest, but not enough 
 to meet its demands. Nor, indeed, would bare facts, al- 
 though we could certify them more extensively, be found 
 sufficient for the task. There was a raciness about the 
 living man, if waning tradition can be trusted, and a 
 peculiarity of minor feature, which would have required 
 an intimate contemporary, and that contemporary skilled 
 in limning, to bring them out with adequate effect. 
 He seems to have possessed a happy combination of 
 practical thinking, ardour of feeling, and promptitude 
 in action, which fitted him very peculiarly for the work 
 of his day ; and he rose to his eminence, less by the 
 strength of his intellect, than by the frank, open, and 
 manly sincerity which met the eyes of all who knew 
 him. What he judged to be right he set himself to 
 prosecute, with a zeal and determination not easily 
 checked ; and when opposition beset his path, espe- 
 cially from quarters unexpected, the restraints of mode- 
 ration were sometimes apt to be overlooked. His 
 promptitude withal made him a reprover where others 
 would scarcely have ventured on reproof; while the 
 sanctity of his character gave him a power, which even 
 
Ivi MEMOIR OF THE 
 
 the profane could not easily resist. It is talked of as a 
 specimen of what frequently occurred, that meeting a 
 country gentleman of his acquaintance, who had just 
 set out on a Sabbath-breaking excursion, he rebuked 
 him in terms more definite tlian smooth. The gen- 
 tleman took it amiss, and angrily put the question, 
 "Who gave you a right to impede my movements V To 
 which Mr. Moncriefi" replied, " You will learn that at 
 the day of judgment," and instantly walked off. The 
 words took effect. The gentleman, after pausing for a 
 little, gave up his amusement and returned to his 
 home. 
 
 He was the lion of the Four Brethren, as the more 
 calculating Wilson had jocularly called him — a man 
 whose spirit was so resolute and daring, that he was 
 much more likely to commit an imprudence than to 
 compromise his sense of duty. It is not denied that 
 his peculiar temperament, especially in the earlier part 
 of his life, occasionally betrayed him into fits of pas- 
 sion; but of this infirmity no one was more sensible 
 than himself. It led him out to constant watchfulness, 
 with many a self-abasing prayer; and it is said that, 
 in his riper years, his victory over it was all but com- 
 plete. The warmth of his heart, as a matter of course, 
 was poured into his manner of preaching, which is said 
 to have been fluent, animated, and striking, well fitted 
 to arrest attention, and to interest the heart in the 
 message from heaven. Although careful in his pre- 
 parations for the pulpit, he was not in the habit of 
 rigidly adhering to his notes, but took advantage of 
 what was suggested by the excitement of delivery. 
 Indeed, he seems to have been addicted to off-hand 
 remarks, both in the pulpit and out of it, some of which 
 are still rehearsed by the descendants of those who 
 knew him. It is told, for instance, that when he 
 preached at Perth on a certain occasion, in what is 
 still called the Glovers* Yard — the place where the 
 
REV. ALEXANDER MONCRIEFF. ivil 
 
 Seceders met for worship before a church was built for 
 them— and that when, after the concluding psalm was 
 sung he rose to pronounce the blessing, he looked for 
 a moment at the multitudes who had been listening to 
 him so eagerly, and joining so heartily in the song of 
 praise, and then addressed them thus:— "My friends 
 I shall teU you one thing before I dismiss you, and 
 that is, that if the thorns of the state were as sharp- 
 pointed as the thorns of the kirk, there are some of 
 you here to-day who would have been singing psalms 
 in heaven." i • , 
 
 The young of Mr. Moncrieffs flock were the objects 
 of his special care. In both his public and his private 
 addresses, he seldom forgot to have a word for them; 
 and, taught by his own experience the advantages of 
 early piety, he was anxious to see them brought to 
 Christ, while yet their hearts were tender, and their 
 hands comparatively unpractised in the works of the 
 flesh. We have already seen that his heart was free 
 from the love of "filthy lucre;" and that he merged 
 the country gentleman in the laborious Christian min- 
 ister was manifest to aU. The ordinary expedients for 
 improving his estate, and thereby increasing the wealth 
 of his family, received but little of his attention. When 
 a friend was pointing out to Matthew, his oldest son 
 and heir, certain improvements which were desirable, 
 and suggesting that, if his father would resort to them, 
 they would give to the whole estate, or to the portion 
 of it particularly referred to, quite a new appearance, 
 iMatthew replied with considerable emphasis, " ^ ew I 
 my father cares for nothing new except the new cove- 
 nant." 
 
 But the most remarkable feature of his character, 
 and that which armed him with most of his power, 
 was a deep-toned devotional spirit. All that has come 
 down to us respecting him, whether recorded or oral, 
 represents him as eminently a man of prayer. Every 
 
Iviii MEMOIR OF THE 
 
 tiling which presented the least dubiety, or gave him 
 unusual pain or pleasure, was with him an errand to 
 the throne of grace. " Be careful for nothing; but in 
 every thing, by prayer and supplication, with thanks- 
 giving, let your requests be made known unto God," 
 was remarkably the motto of his life: and he had his 
 reward; for, although his troubles were not few, yet in 
 the midst of them all, and upon the whole, " the peace 
 of God which passeth all understanding kept his heart 
 and mind, through Christ Jesus." Not only was it his 
 practice to engage in secret prayer three times every 
 day, " morning, evening, and at noon ;" but he was 
 observed to retire for this exercise, at other times, as 
 incident or inclination gave him the impulse. He 
 could not live without prayer; and when opportunity 
 of retirement was denied him, he had recourse to 
 ejaculation. Even when in company, it was no rare 
 thing for him to rise from his seat, and take a few 
 steps through the room, or to stand before the window, 
 as if looking out, that unobserved he might pour out 
 his heart before God. The story of the woman, who, 
 at one of these pauses, in the middle of a sermon, whis- 
 pered to the person beside her in the pew, " See ! Cul- 
 fargie is away to heaven, and has left us all sitting 
 here," is more likely than otherwise to be strictly true ; 
 and there is no lack of other anecdotes, the very exist- 
 ence of which, although they cannot now be formally 
 authenticated, may be regarded as characteristic, and 
 tend at once to illustrate and verify the statements 
 which have just been made. 
 
 Such was Alexander Moncrieff, a father and foun- 
 der of the Secession Church. He is not held up to 
 the view of posterity as a man of brilliant genius, nor 
 as possessed of extraordinary skill in science or litera- 
 ture, nor yet, as in every thing, above the influence of 
 prejudice or mistake. But let posterity be told, that 
 he was an honest man — a spiritually-minded man — a 
 
REV. ALEXANDER MONCRIEFF. llX 
 
 disinterested man — a man devoted to the service of 
 Christ — a Christian hero — a man veho, as much as any 
 of his Brethren, if not more than any one of them, 
 counted all things but loss for the excellency of the 
 knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord; — a man, in short, 
 who, taken altogether, was singularly qualified, in head 
 and in heart, by the God of nature and the God of 
 grace, for the position which was assigned to him. 
 Nor, in these days of comparative refinement, let it be 
 forgotten by our living ministers, that the specific 
 Christian virtues which, amidst some acknowledged 
 defects, shone so conspicuously in their father at Cul- 
 fargie, are absolutely indispensable to the continued 
 prosperity of the United Presbyterian Church. Some 
 other things may be dispensed with; but these can never 
 be dispensed with. Some other things may be polished 
 away; but these ought never to be polished away. 
 Talents, and learning, and administrative wisdom, and 
 tact in argument, and ornate address, have each its 
 measure of value, and let no man despise them. But 
 they are ever to be regarded as secondary things — as 
 accessaries rather than essentials — as the instrument 
 rather than the operator — as the body rather than the 
 soul of the true Christian ministry, — and unless they 
 be all seasoned with piety — a constantly cherished and 
 presiding piety, — a piety which takes its fire from the 
 cross, and is kept in glow by the efl5cacy of the cross 
 — the church may sink into dismal degeneracy, while 
 they are cultivated and loudly extolled. " Not by 
 might, nor by power; but by my Spirit, saith the 
 Lord." 
 
AN INQUIRY 
 
 IXTO THE 
 
 FRINCIPLE RULE, AND END 
 
 OF 
 
 MORAL ACTIONS; 
 
 THE SCHEME OF SELFISH L0\T:, LAID DOAVN BY 
 
 MR. ARCHIBALD CAJrPBELL, PROFESSOR OF ECCLESLA5TICAL 
 
 HISTORY IN ST. ANDREW'S, IN HIS ' INQUIRY INTO THE ORIGINAJ. OF 
 
 MORAL VIRTUE,' IS EXA3IINED, AND THE RECEIVED 
 
 DOCTRINE IS %TNDICATED. 
 
 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men 
 shall be lovers of their ovm selves, — heady, high-minded, lovers of 
 pleasures more tftan lovers of God. — 2 Tim. iii. 1, 2, 4. 
 
AN INQUIRY, ETC. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The present modish turn of religion looks as if we began 
 to think that we have no need of a Mediator, but that all 
 our concerns were to be managed with God, as an absolute 
 God, The religion of nature is the darling topic of our 
 age ; and the religion of Jesus is valued only for the sake 
 of that, and only so far as it carries on the Hght of nature, 
 and is a bare improvement of that light. All that is pe- 
 culiar to the Christian religion, and everything concerning 
 Christ that has not its apparent foundation in natural 
 light, or that goes beyond its principles, is waved, and 
 banished, and despised by too many. Even moral duties 
 themselves, which are essential to the very being of Chris- 
 tianity, are harangued upon, without any reference to 
 Christ ; are placed in his room, and urged upon principles 
 and with views ineffectual to secure their practice ; and 
 more suited to the sentiments and temper of a heathen, 
 than of those who take the whole of their religion from 
 Christ. 
 
 The sufficiency of the light of nature is warmly con- 
 tended for, even by those who do not profess to reject 
 revelation ; and most of the doctrines of Scripture have 
 been given up by some who yet declare that the Bible is 
 their religion. It is therefore necessary to stand up for 
 the honour of the great God, against those who set their 
 bewildered reason, and proud conceits, above the dictates 
 of infinite wisdom. 
 
64 PRINCIPLE, RULE; AND END 
 
 The reader may judge for himself how far Mr. Campbell 
 has adopted these modish principles: and that he may 
 have a view of the scheme of principles, which he has pro- 
 pagated with so much zeal and industry, I shall transcribe 
 the propositions he endeavours to confirm in his writings 
 lately published, in the terms in which he has thought fit 
 to express himself: and shall at present only take notice 
 of such propositions as express his sentiments concerning 
 what he calls natural religion. 
 
 In his discourse, proving that the apostles were no en- 
 thusiasts, and in his preface thereto prefixed, he lays down 
 the following principles: viz. That "the laws of nature 
 {i. e. natural religion) are, in themselves, a certain and 
 sufficient rule to direct rational minds to happiness;""'^ 
 and that " supernatural light is however necessary or fit to 
 give them sufficient information of the law of nature, in 
 its full compass and latitude, and of aU things that are 
 necessary to work upon their passions, in order to engage 
 them to observe it carefully." f That "our observing of 
 the law of nature, is the great mean or instrument of our 
 real and lasting felicity." J And that "men may very 
 weU, in a natural course and series of things, attain such 
 manifestations of the nature and excellencies of God, as 
 are necessary to engage them to love and admire him, 
 without any more immediate interposing of the Divinity, 
 than there is when a man opens his eyes, and beholds the 
 sun at noon-day, and feels an agreeable warmth spreading 
 itself through his whole body." § 
 
 He proceeds, in another |1 discourse, to give us a more 
 full account of his opinion ; in which he tells us, in the 
 first place, that he agrees with the author of Christianity 
 as old as the creation, in thinking, " that natural religion 
 stands on these natural principles, as its peculiar founda- 
 tions ; namely, that God is, and governs the world by his 
 providence ; that the soul is immortal ; and that all men, 
 
 * Preface, p. 6. f Ibid. j). 7. % Ibid. p. 6. 
 
 § Discourse, pp. 1, 2. |1 Oratio de vanitate luminis naturae. 
 
OF MORAL ACTIONS. 65 
 
 of whatsoever condition, shall be rewarded or punished in 
 the next life after this." * He adds, in the same place, 
 that " the law, or religion of nature, consists in those 
 duties, which, because they are founded on, and derived 
 from nature, we are obliged to pay to G od and men : all 
 which duties," he says, '' we are to perform to this end, 
 that w^e may recommend ourselves to God ; and that, hav- 
 ing spent our whole lives in a careful observance of them, 
 we may attain everlasting life with God in heaven." And, 
 in the following page, he gives it as his opinion, that " all 
 the welfare and happiness of rational minds is compre- 
 hended in the duties of natural religion." 
 
 In order to show, that while natural religion is a sujffi- 
 cient rule to direct mankind to happiness, yet revelation 
 \&Jit or lucesmry to give them sufficient information of the 
 law of nature, in its full compass and latitude, he attempts 
 to prove, " that men, by the mere light of nature, without 
 revelation or tradition, are not able to arrive at the know- 
 ledge of the being and existence of God, and of the im- 
 mortality of the soul."t 
 
 Since these discourses were sent abroad into the world, he 
 has published a new edition of his Enquiry into the origin of 
 moral virtue. In this treatise, he takes in all those natural 
 principles, upon which he asserts, in his former discourse, 
 that natural religion stands as the foundation of virtue ; 
 namely, that God is, and governs the world by his pro- 
 vidence : that the soul is immortal ; and that all men, of 
 whatsoever condition, shaU be rewarded or punished in 
 the life which is to come.* And from his supposed lead- 
 ing principle of self-love, he derives all acts of piety towards 
 God, or of justice and charity towards men.§ So that we 
 have here a complete system of natural religion, which 
 Mr. CampbeU has composed, by the assistance of revelation 
 or tradition ; and which he has declared, both in this, and 
 in his other performances, to be sufficient to entail upon 
 
 * Oratio de vanitate luminis naturae, pp. 4, 5. | Ibid. pp. 26. 27. 32. 
 X Enquir)' into the origin of moral virtue, pp. 63. 79. 
 § Ibid. pp. 111. 124. 
 
 4 E 
 
66 PRINCIPLE, RULE, AND END OF MORAI/ ACTIONS. 
 
 US, if duly observed, both real and lasting felicity, in re- 
 commending ourselves to the favour of God, and attaining 
 everlasting life with him in heaven. 
 
 I have formerly made some reflections on his first two 
 discourses ; and seeing he has, in a Christian society, and 
 though clothed with a sacred character, taken it upon 
 him to recommend to the world a visionary scheme of his 
 own, as sufficient, if practised, to entitle mankind to future 
 and lasting felicity ; it is necessary to examine his senti- 
 ments by the Scriptures of truth, the only test and in- 
 fallible standard of faith and manners. It were an un- 
 necessary labour to trace him in all the periods of such a 
 verbose discourse ; which, however, might be so managed, 
 as to expose every particular branch of his hypothesis to 
 the just resentment of every sober mind, were it worth 
 either the reader's while, or mine, to employ ourselves 
 in such a manner. I shall therefore confine myself to 
 these few things, as the subject of the following sections. 
 1. To show that self-love is not, nor ought to be, the lead- 
 ing principle of moral virtue. 2. That self-interest, or 
 pleasure, is not the only standard by which we can, and 
 should judge of the virtue of our own, and others' actions ; 
 or that actions are not to be called virtuous, on account 
 of their correspondency to self-interest. 3. That self-love, 
 as it exerts itself in the desire of universal unlimited 
 esteem, ought not to be the great commanding motive to 
 virtuous actions: nor is obtaining the good -liking and 
 esteem of those beings, among whom we are mixed, to be 
 our main end in pursuing them. This will be sufficient 
 to answer my design, which is to vindicate the truths of 
 God, against the principles laid down in his scheme of 
 selfish love. 
 
SECTION I. 
 
 WHEREIN IT IS MADE APPEAR, THAT SELF-LOVE IS NOT, XOJt 
 OUGHT TO BE, THE LEADING PRINCIPLE OF MORAL VIRTUE. 
 
 Our author tells us, " That it is very certain, that all men 
 have implanted in their nature a principle of self-love or 
 preservation, that irresistibly operates upon us in all in- 
 stances whatsoever ; and is the great cause, or the first 
 spring of all our several motions and actions, which way 
 soever they may happen to be directed :"* that " self-love 
 lies always at the bottom of every rational mind, and is 
 universally the first spring that awakes her powers, and 
 begins her motions, and carries her on to action." t He 
 adds, " When you apprehend the Deity under these ideas, 
 that promise you so much advantage, so as to refuse to 
 worship him, unless he presents himself thus favourably 
 inclined to your interest, and studious of your happiness ; 
 pray, what is the generous principle that determines you ? 
 I see nothing here that has the least semblance of your 
 being disinterested. Give me leave to say, this is a sufii- 
 cient demonstration to me ; and I suppose, to every body 
 else ; that, even in matters of devotion, you are absolutely 
 governed by self-interest." + And elsewhere,"§ he inserts 
 on the margin a citation from Arrian, in which he brings 
 him in, saying. That vjhen the gods ajypear to cross us, and 
 mar our self-interest, we throw dovni their image-houses, and 
 hum their temples: and he expressly says, in that place, 
 " that he owns every thing in that citation, as his princi- 
 ples." Having thus presented our Author's sentiments, 
 in this particular, in his own words, which he attempts to 
 
 * Enquiry into the oricrin of moral virtue, p. 4. f Ibid p. 101. 
 
 X Ibid. p. 460. § Ibid. dd. 454. 455. 
 
68 PRINCIPLE, RgLE, AND END 
 
 establish in his prolix performance, I shall next proceed 
 to fix the true state of the question. 
 
 As to which it may be noticed, that the question is not, 
 Whether self-interest be a motive of our obedience to God ; 
 or of moral virtue, as he calls it 1 This is owned on all 
 hands. God has implanted in us a principle of self-pre- 
 servation ; and we may laudably have a respect to the re- 
 compence of the reward. But the question is. Whether 
 self-love be the first spring, or leading principle of virtuous 
 actions 1 and, Whether self-interest be the highest motive 
 of our obedience to God ? Mr. Campbell holds the affirma- 
 tive, and I the negative, in the present question. 
 
 Here I must likewise observe, that though Mr. Camp- 
 bell begs his reader not to regard him as either Jew or 
 Christian, but as some heathen philosopher ; yet we must 
 in charity think, that the principles maintained in this 
 book are truly his sentiments ; and, in his opinion, agree- 
 able to all the principles of religion, whether natural or 
 revealed ; unless we are to suppose him to believe, and to 
 propagate, with a great deal of industry, " a scheme of 
 principles directly opposite to his Christian creed." 
 
 It is evident, from his Preface, that he recommends 
 moral philosophy as that which ought to be the main 
 study of a Christian divine, next to the holy Scriptures : 
 and pretends, that it is the great, and chief business of 
 ministers, to preach "^ it to their people. Nay, seeing he 
 has composed a system of this kind, and expresses a fond 
 concern for its being valued at a high rate by all who 
 shall peruse it ; we must conclude, that, in his opinion, it 
 is very proper for students to form themselves upon this 
 performance ; and to make it their main work, when they 
 shall happen to be invested with a sacred character, to 
 preach its morality to those under their pastoral charge. 
 All which, with what I have observed in the introduction, 
 gives sufficient ground to call it immediately to the bar 
 
 • Preface to bis Enquiry, pp. 22, 23. 
 
OP MORAL ACTIONS. 69 
 
 .igree to that infallible standard, let a judgment be formed 
 about it. 
 
 I begin, with endeavouring to show, in this section, 1. 
 That a pretence to make self-love, interest, and pleasure, 
 the first spring and principle of moral virtue, is condemned 
 by the Holy Scriptures, which set our obedience to God 
 upon a quite other foundation. 2. That this notion of the 
 first rise of moral virtue is contrary to the plainest prin- 
 ciples of reason. 3. That it has no manner of countenance 
 from the writings of the more judicious and thinking part 
 of the heathen philosophers, who have expressed quite 
 other sentiments upon this subject. 
 
 I. If we consult the sacred records upon this question, 
 we are assured from them, that the Holy Spirit doth renew 
 our natures by regenerating grace; and that this new 
 nature is the principle of all holy and spiritual actions : 
 which might be illustrated and confirmed at great length, 
 from John iii. 6. 2 Cor. v. 17. 2 Pet. i. 4. Jer. xxiv. 7. and 
 xxxi. 33. 
 
 Nay, what true virtue can we reasonably expect to find 
 among mankind, in their present circumstances of sin and 
 guilt ? If we pay a due regard to divine revelation, we 
 must believe that the apostle Paul gives a just character 
 of them, when he tells us, that they cannot please God ; 
 that they are alienated from the Author of their being, 
 through their blindness of mind, and enmity of heart ; and 
 are indisposed for living to his glory, as their end, and for 
 moving to the enjoyment of him, as the centre of their 
 happiness. From which it is very manifest, that whatever 
 external conformity the actions of men, in an unregenerate 
 state, may carry to the letter of the law ; and however 
 useful this conformity may be to themselves or to society ; 
 yet it can neither be acceptable to God, nor recommend 
 men to his favour ; as Mr. Campbell has confidently alleged 
 upon this argument See Rom. viii. 7, 8. Eph. iv. 18. 
 Prov. xxi. 17. 
 
 God himself has declared it to be his method of proceed- 
 ing with us in the new covenant, that he giveth us new 
 
70 PRINCIPLE, RULE, AND END 
 
 hearts, and writeth his laws in them : and that the effect 
 of this internal change is, our walking in his statutes, 
 and our keeping his judgments, and doing them, Ezek. 
 xxxvi. 26 : that is, we are led, in this way, to reform our 
 lives, and yield all holy obedience unto God. 
 
 We know, from the sacred oracles, that Adam, the first 
 man, was created in the image of God, before he had done 
 any good action, or was capable of performing it ; and we 
 are likewise assured, that mankind, in their present lapsed 
 state, are destitute of the image of God, which consists in 
 the rectitude of the whole soul, and in the powers and 
 abilities that were necessary for that obedience God re- 
 quired of them. This makes it certain, according to the 
 saying of our Lord and Saviour, that " A corrupt tree can- 
 not bring forth good fruit;" and that before men, in their 
 present state of sin and guilt, can perform actions accept- 
 able to God, a new principle of spiritual life must be in- 
 fused into their souls by the divine Spirit ; which, in the 
 nature of the thing, must be a principle and spring of 
 action of a very different kind from the corrupt self-love 
 of mankind in their present situation. 
 
 Though it can be demonstrated, that self-love neither 
 was, nor could have been the leading principle of moral 
 virtue, according to the original frame of human nature ; 
 yet it were idle to digress to a question that cannot be in 
 the field, as matters now stand. Mr. Campbell's system 
 of moral philosophy is composed for the benefit of man- 
 kind in their present circumstances ; and, as such recom- 
 mended by him to the students, to whom he says in the 
 plainest terms, * " That, by performing the duties of na- 
 tural religion, we are recommended to the favour of God ; 
 that, having spent our lives in the observance of them, we 
 may attain everlasting life with him in heaven : " and that, 
 " all the welfare and happiness of rational minds is com- 
 prehended in the duties of natural religion." These opi- 
 nions he delivers in his discourse, designed for the refuta- 
 
 * Orutio, &c. pp. 4, 5, 
 
OF MORAL ACTIONS. 71 
 
 tion of the deists, who contend for the sufficiency of natural 
 religion, in the present situation of mankind ! 
 
 I am not to canvass Mr. Campbell's sentiments as to this 
 article of the Christian creed, whether he believes man- 
 kind to be in a state of guilt and universal corruption or 
 not: it no way affects my argument. I have elsewhere 
 proved it from the Holy Scriptures,* that they are in a 
 state of entire depravation : and this, as has been there 
 observed, has been acknowledged by the wisest among the 
 heathen, and by the deists themselves. It being therefore 
 certain, that the self-love of mankind, in their present 
 circumstances, is corrupted and depraved ; it can with no 
 show of reason be pretended, that a vitious, inordinate 
 passion, can possibly be the first spring and principle of all 
 virtuous actions. 
 
 If Mr. Campbell pretend, that it is not a vitious self- 
 love, but self-love duly qualified, as having a chief regard 
 to God, as the head of human society, which is the prin- 
 ciple of moral virtue ; then he must acknowledge, that our 
 love is either virtuous or vitious, according as God is, or 
 is not, preferred to the creature ; which is the same, as to 
 say, that supreme love to God is the first principle of 
 moral virtue ; an opinion which I do not oppose. Or his 
 meaning must be that it is upon the account of our own 
 self-interest, and not for his divine excellency and autho- 
 rity, that a chief regard is to be had to the Most High ; 
 and then, according to him, the morality of the love pro- 
 ceeds from a higher regard to self-interest, than to God ; 
 and the infinite God is made a subordinate to self and self- 
 interest : which is the opinion I contend against, main- 
 taining that self-love, considered in this view, is a most 
 vitious and inordinate passion, and cannot possibly be the 
 principle of any virtuous action whatsoever. 
 
 But, to proceed : The morality which Mr. Campbell 
 would have the students of divinity instructed in, that, in 
 imitation of him, they may preach it in Christian congre- 
 
 * A renew and examination of Mr. Campbell's principles, &c. 
 
72 PRINCIPLE, RgLE, AND END 
 
 gations, being moral philosophy ; it must exhibit such a 
 kind of moral virtue, as bears no relation to Christ, or to 
 the grace and operations of the divine Spirit : for all are 
 agreed, that philosophy, or the bare light of nature, doth 
 not present moral virtue in this view: and, if he had 
 taken up moral virtue in this light, it cannot easily be 
 {accounted for, that in so large a treatise, he should not so 
 much as have once attempted to show the defects of philo- 
 sophical morality, or its difference from gospel obedience, 
 that students, as well as others, might not be led into per- 
 nicious m.istakes. 
 
 But Christian morality, in my opinion, has alone the 
 just claim to be preached in Christian congregations. It 
 proceeds from a regenerating work of the divine Spirit, 
 which is altogether unknown in philosophical morality : 
 and it is likewise the fruit of Christ's purchase and merit. 
 Hence our Lord says, " For their sakes I sanctify myself, 
 that they may be sanctified through the truth," John 
 xvii. 19. He prevails for the communication of it, by 
 liis intercession within the vail : " Sanctify them through 
 thy truth : thy word is truth," John xvii. 17. Thus 
 the gospel of Christ, with the moral law ingrafted into 
 it, is the rule and measure of our obedience, or holy 
 walking with God. The moral law, or the law of nature, 
 in its full compass and latitude, as it is contained in the 
 word, was the rule of original holiness and obedience : but 
 it is not the adequate rule of that holiness whereunto we 
 are restored by Christ. The law of nature^ in its greatest 
 latitude, cannot reveal Christ, nor those treasures of grace 
 which are in him, for enabling us, by daily communications 
 of light and life from him, to " perfect holiness in the fear 
 of God : " nor can it direct to faith in him, which is the 
 first spring of all virtuous actions ; and, as such, is cele- 
 brated by the apostle Paul, at great length, in the 11th 
 chapter of his epistle to the Hebrews. 
 
 The obedience that is accepted with God, is the obedi- 
 ence of faith, Rom. i. 5. Heb. xi. 6 : thence it springs ; and 
 therewith it is animated. Our Lord Jesus Christ affirms, 
 
OP MORAL ACTIONS. 73 
 
 that men are sanctified by the faith that is in him, Acts 
 xxvi. 18. From which it is plain, that there is no other 
 way to attain to that holiness, by which we are made meet 
 for the inheritance of the saints in light ; seeing it is by 
 faith our hearts are purified, and not otherwise ; and where 
 the heart is not purified, there can be no obedience accept- 
 able unto God, nor any fellowship with him. 
 
 It is the peculiar glory of Christian morality, or gospel 
 holiness, that it '' is our being conformed to the image of 
 the Son of God : For whom he did foreknow, he also did 
 predestinate, to be conformed to the image of his Son," 
 Rom. viii. 29. To this end, among others, is he set before 
 us by the gospel, in the holiness of his person, the glory of 
 his graces, and the beneficence and usefulness of his con- 
 versation in the world ; that we may imitate him, as the 
 great pattern and example of holiness. As it is a fool- 
 ish imagination, that the only end of his life and death, 
 was to exemplify and confirm his doctrine ; so to neglect 
 to consider him, as our example, or to refuse to imitate 
 him as such, is most vile and pernicious. And if Mr. 
 Campbell had paid a due regard to the Scriptures, which 
 alone give us a right notion of true morality ; had he kept 
 his eye upon the example of our Lord, that noble pattern 
 of exalted virtue, with that veneration which became him, 
 he had not amused the world with his imaginary scheme 
 of philosophical morality ; nor asserted it to be the great 
 and chief business of ministers to preach such a system to 
 their people. Nor yet would he have talked in the manner 
 he has done, of the noble sentiments, and heroical actions, 
 of heathen philosophers ; it being easy to show how dim 
 their light was, and that their fairest virtues were blended 
 with the foulest of vices. But we have a Saviour that is 
 full of grace and truth ; and certainly we had all the 
 greatest need of grace and truth. For whatever fond con- 
 ceits some entertain of the sufficiency of the religion of 
 nature, regarding the religion of Jesus Christ only for the 
 sake of it, or so far as it carries on the light of nature : 
 yet it is manifest, that the whole human race was miser- 
 
74 PRINCIPLE, RULE, AND END 
 
 ably fallen into the deadly darkness of iniquity and error ; 
 a darkness that did still increase upon them, and out of 
 which they never could be able to extricate themselves : for, 
 even " when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, 
 neither were thankful, but became vain in their imagina- 
 tions, and their foolish heart was darkened : and professing 
 themselves to be wise, they became fools," Rom. i. 21, 22. 
 This darkness had everywhere spread itself through the 
 earth ; as the apostle Paul does prove at length, in his 
 epistle to the Romans, and as the history of the gospel 
 plainly shows us. It is in Christ alone, that we have a 
 full provision made for our deliverance out of this wretched 
 state. 
 
 As to our author's celebrated heroes, Socrates and Plato, 
 what the apostle Paul has said of the heathens, in general, 
 held true of them ; " That God gave them up to unclean- 
 ness, through the lusts of their hearts, to dishonour their 
 own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of 
 God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature 
 more than the Creator, who is God, blessed for ever." 
 They who have considered the broad hints that are given 
 in their writings, of their being under the power of these 
 vile affections, must have less sense than charity, if they 
 can regard the apologies some have attempted to make for 
 them as of any value. What weight can be attached to 
 the sayings of men who, in practice, conformed to the 
 idolatry and superstition of the country in which they 
 lived ? An instance of this we have in Socrates ; who, 
 with his last breath, used this mean expression ; " Crito, 
 We are indebted a cock to -^sculapius ; offer it, and do 
 not forget." 
 
 But further, as Christian morality is the fruit of Christ's 
 purchase and intercession; and as his word is the rule 
 and measure of it, and his example its complete pattern : 
 so we are animated to pursue a course of virtuous 
 actions, by daily supplies of grace from Christ, " who is 
 given to be head over all things to the church ; which is 
 his body," Eph. i. 22. It hath been always granted, by 
 
OF MORAL ACTIONS. ^5 
 
 such as acknowledge the divine person of the Son of God, 
 that he is the head of his church; namely, that he is the 
 political head of it in a way of government, and the 
 spiritual head, as to vital influences of grace unto aU his 
 members. The church of Rome, indeed, cast some dis- 
 turbance on the former, by interposing another immediate 
 governing head between him and the cathoUc church : yet 
 they do not deny, but that the Lord Christ is in his own 
 person, the absolute supreme king and head o the church. 
 The latter is refused by the Socinians, and others who go 
 their way, because they deny his divine person. But by 
 aU others who profess the Christian rehgion, this hath 
 hitherto been acknowledged : and it is most evidently ex- 
 pressed in several places of scripture. The apostle Paul 
 in his epistle to the Ephesians, assures us, in the strongest 
 language, that as, in the natural body, there are supplies 
 of nourishment, and natural spirits communicated from 
 the head unto the members; so, from Christ, the head of 
 the church; which he is as God man, there is a supply ot 
 spiritual Ufe made unto every member of his mystical body. 
 He also says, that Christians, " Speaking the truth in love, 
 grow up unto him in all things, which is the head, even 
 Christ- from whom the whole body fitly joined together, 
 and compacted by that which every joint suppheth, accord- 
 incr to the effectual working, in the measure of every part, 
 maketh increase of the body, unto the edifying of itself m 
 love." See 1 Cor. xii. 12. Eph. iv. 15. Col. ii. 19. John 
 XV. and xiv. 19. Eph. iv. 15, 16. , . . 
 
 Our Lord Jesus Christ hath encouraged us to expect 
 and depend upon assistances of this kind, by his own gra- 
 cious word of promise, " Because I live, ye shall live also, 
 John xiv. 19. He is said to be " our life," Col. m. 3 ; and 
 we are said to " receive out of his fulness, and grace for 
 erace," John i. 15. To the same purpose the apostle ex- 
 presseth the matter, " I am crucified with Christ; never- 
 theless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in ^^5. .^^^ ;;^ 
 life which I now live in the flesh, I hve by the faith of the 
 Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me, Oai. 
 
76 PRINCIPLE, RULE, AND END 
 
 ii. 20. " I am crucified with Christ : " that is, as if he had 
 said, The death of Christ hath a mortifying influence upon 
 the corruptions of my heart and nature. Christ died to 
 expiate sin ; we die to sin when we mortify it : but adds 
 he, " Nevertheless I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in 
 me : and the life which I live in the flesh, I live by the 
 faith of the Son of God : " that is, I live a holy spiritual 
 life : yet I do not lead that life, considered in myself, and 
 what I am by nature ; for my motions as a Christian, are 
 not according to my natural propensions and inclinations, 
 but Christ, by his Spirit, liveth in me, having renewed and 
 changed my heart, and infused spiritual dispositions into 
 my soul ; so that I am enabled, by a principle of faith, 
 acting upon the Son of God, in his person, ofiices, and 
 mediation, to order my whole conversation, according to 
 the will of God, revealed in his word, 
 
 I shall not at present enlarge upon the relation which 
 Christian morality bears to the Divine Spirit, having given 
 some hints in what has been said, and treated, at some 
 length, of the necessity of regeneration in a former dis- 
 course. 
 
 Yet I cannot but observe, upon the whole, that the 
 philosophical morality, recommended by Mr. Campbell, is 
 something very foreign to the Scriptures of truth. Chris- 
 tian morality, as has been shown, bears a relation to Christ, 
 and the Divine Spirit : but philosophical morality can have 
 no such respect to these glorious persons of the adorable 
 Trinity, seeing the doctrines concerning their operations, 
 in the method of salvation, are peculiar to revealed religion ; 
 and are not in the least hinted at by our author, though 
 a Christian divine, in his whole scheme of moral philosophy. 
 Mr. Campbell's philosophical morality takes its rise from 
 his love to himself; but Christian morality proceeds from 
 the knowledge and love of God : his philosophical morality 
 springs from a corrupt and inordinate self-love; but 
 Christian morality proceeds from a new nature, and the 
 image of God restored in the soul of a lapsed creature, 
 by the Holy Spirit in regeneration, and from faith in the 
 
OP MORAL ACTIONS. 77 
 
 Son of God, as its first spring and principle. Seeing then 
 that the above propositions have been made evident, from 
 the word of God, it will be very manifest to every one that 
 pays a due regard to the sacred oracles, how silly a figure 
 this new philosophy does make, when it is viewed in scrip- 
 ture light ; and that it can never possibly answer the ends 
 proposed by its author of recommending men to the favour 
 of God, and entitling them to future and lasting felicity. 
 
 II. But, to proceed : Since Mr, Campbell enrols himself 
 among the high pretenders to reason in these days, it will 
 be fit to examine if this, his principle, be agreeable to the 
 common reason of mankind. 
 
 It is most agreeable, in my opinion, to all the principles 
 of sound reason, that rational creatures be animated in a 
 course of virtue, by the knowledge and love of the Deity, 
 the great Author of their being, as the ruling motive of aU 
 their actions. For it is very manifest, that the duty of 
 glorifying God, or celebrating his infinite perfections, is 
 founded in the nature of God, and the relation creatures 
 stand in to the Author of their being ; and that it is im- 
 possible, in the nature of the thing, that a reasonable 
 creature, remaining in a state of integrity, can fail to pro- 
 mote this great and noble end of its being and existence ; 
 because an holy and innocent creature cannot possibly 
 contemplate infinite wisdom, power, goodness, and holiness, 
 without supreme love and esteem, the most humble adora- 
 tion, and most accented praises. 
 
 Mr. Campbell has had the assurance to express himself 
 in a very extravagant manner, maintaining, '' That we may 
 refuse to worship God, unless he present himself favour- 
 ably inclined to our interest, and studious of our happi- 
 ness." Again he tells us, " That, by our happiness, he 
 understands future and lasting felicity, universal and im- 
 mortal fame and renown, and God's expressing his love 
 and esteem of us, in such instances, as are fully propor- 
 tionated to our natural principle of self-love."* 
 
 * Enquiry, &c. pp. 460. and Hi. 83. 8G. 94. Preface to his dis- 
 course, p. 6. 
 
78 PRINCIPLE, RULE, AND END 
 
 This bold assertion, that we are not oLliged to worship 
 God, that is, to esteem, love, or obey him, unless he con- 
 ferred upon us an immortal fame and renown, and a future 
 and lasting felicity, had need, I think, to have been well 
 established by solid arguments, when it was confidently 
 published to the world by its author : for, if he fail in the 
 proof of it, he may be found guilty, of what will be con- 
 structed, by all sober minds, to be a reproaching of his 
 Maker, in whose hands his breath is, and to whom he must 
 account for the whole of his conduct. For my part, I see 
 no shadow of proof, either for this, or his other opinions, 
 in all his wordy performance ; and therefore, till he pro- 
 duce a claim of right to future and lasting felicity, and to 
 universal and immortal fame and renown, that is not 
 founded in the free condescension, will, and good pleasure 
 of God, I cannot vindicate him from the charge of having, 
 in this particular, made sadly too free with the great 
 Author of his existence. 
 
 But, to set this matter in a true light, we may consider, 
 that our worshipping God is a necessary duty, founded upon 
 the precept and law of God, which is an emanation from 
 his holiness, wisdom, and dominion over his creatures: 
 whereas the eternal felicity of a dependent being, is a 
 privilege voluntarily bestowed, and hath its rise in divine 
 goodness or bounty, which is free in its egress. Whoso- 
 ever will consider the nature of God, and the necessary 
 condition of a creature, cannot, with reason, think, that 
 eternal life is, of itself, due from God, as a recompence to 
 him for his obedience. Who can think so great a reward 
 due, for the simple performance of the creature's duty ] 
 God owes nothing to the holiest creature. What he gives 
 is a present from his bounty ; not the reward of merit : 
 " for who hath first given unto him, and it shall be recom- 
 pensed to him again ? " What obligation could there be 
 from the creature, to confer a goodness on him, to this or 
 that degree, for this or that duration 1 If God had never 
 created man or angel, he had done them no wrong ; and if 
 he had taken away their being, after a time, when he had 
 
OP MOEAL ACTIONS. 79 
 
 answered his end, he had done them no injury.* For 
 what law obliged him to continue them in that being 
 wherein he had invested them, Init his mere good pleasure ? 
 
 Although it is owned, that, in all ages of the world, men 
 have had a strong hankering after immortality ; yet this 
 is only an evidence that God designed that they should 
 exist beyond the grave ; but not that they stood entitled 
 to future and lasting felicity, from the nature and relation 
 of things, independently of his own free purpose and will. 
 For the same power that gave them a being, could have 
 produced them, without any appetite of that nature and 
 kind. And though it was this appetite which gave Kfe and 
 spirit to all the reasonings of the philosophers on this sub- 
 ject, and was itself one of the best arguments of the soul's 
 immortality within their reach ; yet so conscious were 
 mankind, that a future and lasting state of felicity was a 
 privilege that depended on the divine will, favour, and 
 bounty, that Socrates himself, notwithstanding all the 
 arguments by which he endeavours to encourage his 
 hopes, speaks doubtfully about it in the very last moments 
 of his life ; as might be shown, from his own words, if I 
 could take the time to mark them down in this place. 
 
 It is true, we know, from revelation, that God will not 
 deprive any rational creature of its being and existence : 
 but can it be shown to be so inconsistent with his wisdom, 
 that he cannot do it if he will 1 Though he withdraw that 
 being he has given to some creatures, his power can raise 
 up others of the same, or nobler faculties, to answer the 
 ends of his glory. And none can prove, but that it might 
 have been agreeable to God's wisdom, in this manner, to 
 manifest his sovereignty over the works of his hands, if he 
 had thought fit to do so. It cannot be shown, that divine 
 goodness may not possibly stop short of an eternal reward 
 to an innoceat creature, and think a less reward sufficient : 
 and, though justice requires, that an innocent creature 
 shall not be punished, by being made miserable; yet it 
 
 * Mr. Boyle's Excellency of Theology, pp. 25, 26. 
 
80 PRINCIPLE, RULE, AND END 
 
 doth not require, that God shall be obliged to continue 
 that creature in unending existence. 
 
 Now, seeing it is very manifest, that the most innocent 
 creature cannot possibly produce a claim to everlasting 
 felicity, except what is founded upon, and must be resolved 
 into the pleasure, free-will, and bounty of God ; must it 
 not be an arrogant thing for those, whose foundation is 
 in the dust, to talk at this rate, that they would pay no 
 homage or worship to the great God, if he refused to 
 bestow upon them so great a reward? How visionary 
 must that scheme be, which strikes at the first principles of 
 reason, and cannot subsist one moment, but by banishing 
 from among men all due regard for the rights of the Deity ? 
 
 But, further, I hope Mr. Campbell will acknowledge, 
 that himself, and all other men, are now in a lapsed state. 
 If he refuse it, his writings will prove it : heathen philo- 
 sophers have acknowledged it ; and the deists themselves 
 have confessed it. But natural conscience must dictate 
 to every man, that sinful creatures, who are in a lapsed 
 state, have forfeited all title to happiness ; and are obnoxi- 
 ous to justice, for violating the law of God. This might 
 be confirmed, by a variety of proofs from pagan writers, 
 as well as illustrated from the principles of reason itself. 
 For however some may amuse themselves with the notion 
 of God's benevolence, yet this will yield little comfort to 
 the person who is convinced of sin. Justice being pro- 
 voked, right reason, if we attend to it, will convince us, 
 that it must be satisfied, the honour of God's law vindi- 
 cated, and his hatred at sin manifested, before goodness is 
 extended to the guilty. 
 
 It is farther to be remarked that, as the whole writings 
 of pagan philosophers, notwithstanding the assistances 
 some of them had from revelation, discover their absolute 
 ignorance of the way in which God was to be reconciled 
 unto sinners ; so this is a plain argument, among others, 
 that the restoring of lapsed man to the favour of God, and 
 to future and lasting felicity, had its rise from grace, or 
 the free will and purpose of God ; and that therefore God, 
 
OP MORAL ACTI0X3. 81 
 
 if he had thought meet so to do, might have left them 
 all to perish in their sins, without any prospect of felicity. 
 Will our author, then, take it upon him to say, that if 
 mercy had not interposed in the manner it did, mankind 
 had been loosed from all obligation to obey their Creator ? 
 that man, by his sin, had exempted himself from the govern- 
 ment of God ? that the law of God had lost its binding 
 power, because man, by his rebellion, had lost the prospect 
 of future and lasting felicity ? and that man, in these cir- 
 cumstances, might have laudably hated, reproached, and 
 blasphemed the Author of his being ? These are vile and 
 impious suppositions ; and the scheme, from which they 
 follow, must be absurd in itself, and subversive of all reli- 
 gion, whether natural or revealed. 
 
 III. Before I conclude this section, I must examine into 
 the sentiments of our author's celebrated writers. And, 
 if it be found that he has outdone his fellow-heathens upon 
 this argument, notwithstanding of his being a Christian 
 divine, I do not well know how he shall answer for it at 
 his next conversation with them. 
 
 The noblest sentiments^that I can observe to have been 
 delivered by heathen philosophers upon this subject, are 
 these of Pythagoras, Plato, and some others, * namely, 
 " That it is our end to be like God ; and that conformity 
 to God is the chief good." And Hierocles, cited by our 
 author, says. That " virtue being the image of God in a 
 rational soul, as every image must have a pattern for its 
 subsistence ; so, whatever is acquired as virtuous, must 
 refer to God, as our great pattern, in the acquisition of 
 virtue ; otherwise it is only an imposture, and can have 
 no value." 
 
 Now, if God be considered as our great pattern, and 
 
 virtue as his image and likeness in a rational soul, this 
 
 will give us the notion of quite another principle and end 
 
 ,of virtuous actions, than our self-love, interest, or pleasure : 
 
 for, if moral virtue is considered in this light, then God's 
 
 * Stanley's Lives, page 541. 
 
 / 
 
82 PRINCIPLE, RULE, AND END 
 
 love to himself, and to his creatures, is the great pattern 
 of our love to God, to ourselves, and to our feilow-nien. 
 As it proceeds from the infinite perfection of the Deity, 
 that he loves himself in a supreme manner, and that it is 
 his peculiar glory to do so ; so, on the other hand, it pro- 
 ceeds from the finite and limited perfection of his creature, 
 and its universal dependence on him, that it ought to love 
 God more than itself. God can love nothing above him- 
 self and his own glory ; because there is nothing so good 
 or so great, or so truly lovely, as himself. And, for the 
 same reason, his love to his creatures must be for his own 
 sake, or according as some resemblance of himself, the 
 great pattern and standard of beauty and perfection, ap- 
 pears in them. Thus, our love to God must be supreme, 
 and for his own sake ; that is, for his glorious excellencies 
 and perfections : and our love to ourselves, and our fellow- 
 men, must be on God's account, and as the rays of the 
 divine image do appear in them. 
 
 This I take to be a just sentiment, and the true notion 
 of moral virtue ; and I hope Mr. Cam.pbell will agree with 
 me, that we ought to love God for himself, and that in a 
 superlative manner ; that we ought to love our fellow-men 
 for God's sake : and that he will not adventure any more 
 either to say that he loves himself more than the great 
 God, or that he loves every thing else, only for his own 
 sake. 
 
 As this view of moral virtue is founded in the plain and 
 evident principles of reason ; so it follows, by a native and 
 immediate consequence from it, that the knowledge and 
 love of God must be the leading principle of all moral 
 actions : which is the doctrine I do herein maintain and 
 defend. 
 
 Nay more, seeing moral virtue consists in the imitation 
 of God, he that would live in the image of God, must im- 
 print upon his mind the most exalted idea, and the highest 
 esteem possible, of the holiness, the righteousness, the 
 moral perfection of the divine nature ; that in this way he 
 may awaken all the powers of his soul, to be formed to 
 
OF MORAL ACTIONS. 83 
 
 actions, worthy of the infinite Original; and can it be 
 possible, but that in so doing, self, and every created be- 
 ing, must sink infinitely low in the view of the man 
 employed in so noble an exercise? 
 
 We cannot possibly imitate this great pattern of exalted 
 virtue, without supreme love and admiration. The more 
 adoring thoughts we have of God, the more delightfully 
 we shall aspire to, and catch after any thing that may 
 promote the full draught of his image in our hearts. 
 When the soul is ravished with the contemplation of God's 
 holiness, goodness, justice, righteousness, and truth, it will 
 desire to be like him, more than to have its own being con- 
 tinued to it; and it will delight in its own existence, 
 chiefly in order to this heavenly and spiritual work. The 
 impressions of the nature of God upon it, and the imita- 
 tions of the nature of God by it, will be more desirable 
 than any other conceivable good. 
 
 Then if God himself be our pattern, he must, in order 
 to this, be our end. Every man's mind forms itself to a 
 likeness to that which it makes its chief end. The same 
 characters that are upon the thing aimed at, will be im- 
 printed upon the spirit of him that aims at it ; even as 
 the ambitious man thinks himself equal to the honour he 
 reaches after. Thus, when God and his glory are made our 
 end, we shall find a silent likeness pass in upon us ; and 
 the beauty of God will, by degrees, enter upon our souls. 
 
 As Plutarch saith, God is angry with those that imitate 
 his thunder or lightning, his works of majesty; but de- 
 lighted with those that imitate his \'irtue. They, how- 
 ever, who make self-love the spring, centre, and end of 
 all their actions, set themselves in the temple of God, and 
 lift up themselves above all that is called God : they con- 
 found and overthrow the Avhole order and nature of things ; 
 they daringly invade the awful regalia of heaven, and 
 react the part of that foul spirit, who, by such an impo- 
 tent attempt, became, of a holy angel, a ghastly apostate 
 devil. 
 
 I shall only farther observe, that our author has over- 
 
84 PRINCIPLE, RULE, AND END OF MORAL ACTIONS. 
 
 looked what Tully * has said on this subject, viz. " That 
 a due consideration of the heavenly bodies must lead every 
 thinking man to the knowledge of God ; that, from this 
 knowledge, springs piety, with which is connected justice, 
 and all the other virtues : " which is the same as if he had 
 said, that the knowledge and love of God is the first spring 
 of all virtuous actions. 
 
 I think Mr. Campbell cannot well make it out, that 
 Socrates was animated to pursue a course of virtue, from 
 the prospect of future and lasting felicity, unless his highest 
 motive to action had been something he was very uncertain 
 about ; as is evident from his words to his friends, a little 
 before his death : " I would have you know, said he, that I 
 have great hopes that I am now going into the company of 
 good men ; yet I would not be too peremptory and confident 
 concerning it."t " I am now about to leave this world, and 
 ye are still to continue in it ; which of us have the better 
 paii; allotted us, God only knows." % He talks much of 
 the writings of the heathen philosophers, but I am confi- 
 dent, that, when they are duly considered, it will be found 
 that none of them go half-way with him, except what may 
 be made of some expressions of the demure Stoics, and 
 the stupid system of the Epicureans. 
 
 Upon the whole, it has been shown, that a pretence to 
 make self-love, interest, and pleasure, the first spring and 
 principle of moral virtue, is condemned by the Holy Scrip- 
 tures, which set our obedience to God upon quite another 
 foundation: that this notion of the first rise of moral 
 virtue, is contrary to the plainest principles of reason; 
 and that it has no manner of countenance from the writ- 
 ings of the more judicious and thinking part of the heathen 
 philosophers, who have expressed quite other sentiments 
 upon this important subject. 
 
 * De natura Deorum, lib. 2. f Plato in Phaed. 
 
 J Plato in Apol. Socrat. 
 
SECTION II. 
 
 THAT SKLF-INTEREST OR PLEASURE, IS NOT THE ONLY STANDARD 
 BY WHICH WE ARE TO JUDGE OF THE VIRTUE OP OUR OWN 
 AND others' ACTIONS; AND THAT ACTIONS ARE NOT TO BE 
 CALLED VIRTUOrS ON ACCOUNT OF THELR CORRESPONDENCY 
 TO SELF-INTEREST. 
 
 Havinq considered what our author judges to be the first 
 spring or principle of moral virtue, I shall now inquire 
 into his sentiments concerning the rule or standard of 
 virtuous actions. As to which, he expresseth himself as 
 follows : " Since self-interest or pleasure is the only stan- 
 dard by which we can judge of the virtue, i. e. the value 
 or goodness, of any action whatsoever, I do not see how a 
 sense of virtue can be antecedent to ideas of advantage. 
 For my part, I know no one action of any intelligent 
 being, that can be called virtuous on any other account 
 than from its correspondency to self-interest, or its fitness 
 to promote the happiness of one's nature. Thus our actions 
 towards the Deity are called virtuous, because they are 
 suitable to his self-love ; — as, on the other hand, the actions 
 of the Deity towards us are called virtuous, because they are 
 adapted to the interests of human nature."* " If we will 
 consider all the several moral qualities that can be called 
 virtuous, we shall find, that we like and approve those qua- 
 lities, for no other reason, but for their being good to us ; 
 t. e. for the pleasure they give us, or for their gratifying 
 our self-love." t " The goodness of any action done by one 
 intelligent mind to another, from which it is denominated 
 moral virtue, immediately lies in the conformity it has to 
 
 * Enquiry into the origin of moral A-ii-tue, p. 389. 
 t Ibid. pp. 357, 358. 
 
86 PRINCIPLE, RULE, AND END 
 
 our self-love, while it concurs and co-operates with this 
 principle, in approving our being happy, and to secure and 
 promote our well-being." * " But what ideas must we have 
 of moral goodness ? Does this likewise lie, as well as the 
 other, in pleasure 1 or does it signify any thing else 1 I 
 confess ingenuously, that I neither have, nor can form any 
 other notion of it. And I conceive, that this sort of plea- 
 sure, or good, is called moral, because it springs from the 
 mores, the manners, or the affections and actions of in- 
 telligent beings, or rational agents, and to distinguish it 
 from that kind of pleasure or good, which we have from 
 inanimate or irrational creatures ; though it might be 
 called natural, with as good reason as any other sort of 
 pleasure or good whatsoever. One might subdivide natural 
 goodness into a great many particular sorts, which differ 
 fully as much from one another, as moral goodness can do 
 from every one of them. If custom would allow of it, 
 might not one talk of musical-goodness, picture-goodness, 
 landscape-goodness, &c., thereby understanding the plea- 
 sures which we have from music, pictures, landscapes, and 
 the Like ? And do not all these sorts of natural goodness 
 differ from one another, as much as moral goodness pos- 
 sibly can do ? "t Thus far Mr. CampbeU. 
 
 Before I consider if our author's opinion here be founded 
 upon the principles of sound reason, I shall first inquire 
 into its agreeableuess with the Holy Scriptures ; and from 
 them, I think, it will be abundantly evident, that self-in- 
 terest or pleasure is not the only standard by which we 
 are to judge of the virtue or goodness of actions; and 
 that the goodness of an action, from which it is deno- 
 minated 77ioral virtue, does not immediately lie in the con- 
 formity it has to our self-love, although it concurs with this 
 principle, or tends to secure and promote our happiness. 
 
 I. We are assured, from the word of God, that the 
 goodness of an action does immediately lie in the con- 
 
 * Enquiry into the origin of moral Aoitue, pp. 319, 320. 
 f Ibid. pp. 35-1, 355. 
 
OF MORAL ACTIONS. 87 
 
 forraity it has to the law of God, and his will therein de- 
 clared, and its being done from a respect to the authority 
 of God the Lawgiver. To this purpose, God is said, by 
 his word, and his law and will therein published, to have 
 " showed unto us what is good," Mic. vi. 7, 8, 9. and " to 
 dehght in our obeying his voice ; obedience to his will 
 being better than sacrifice ; and to hearken to him more 
 acceptable than the fat of lambs," 1 Sam. xv, 22. And 
 that the law of God, revealed in his word, is the adequate 
 and only standard by which the goodness of actions is to 
 be tried, appears, from his strictly requiring, that nothing 
 be added to it, or taken from it, Deut. iv. 2. and xiii. 32. 
 Prov. XXX. 6. Rev. xxii. 18. Nay it is certain, that as we are 
 to do only what is commanded, so whatever we do, we 
 are to do it because it is commanded, and from a respect 
 to the will and authority of God manifested in his word ; 
 otherwise it is no part of our obedience to God, nor will 
 be regarded by him as such. Hence it is said to be the 
 character of the righteous man, that he endeavours " to 
 keep God's statutes ; because he hath commanded him to 
 keep his precepts diligently," Psal. cxix. 4, 5. The great 
 God hath enjoined us to order our conversation according 
 to his word, Psal. cxix. 9 : he hath remitted us to the 
 " law and testimony," as the only standard of our conduct 
 or actions ; and he hath required us to take heed there- 
 to, " as unto a Kght that shineth in a dark place, till the 
 day dawn and the day star arise in our hearts," Is. viii. 20. 
 2 Pet. i. 19. It is affirmed of our Lord Jesus Chi'ist, who 
 has left us an example that we should follow his steps, 
 that " he pleased not himself," or consulted not his own 
 ease, Rom. xv. 3. but willingly exposed himself to all his 
 sufferings, in obedience to his Father's will ; and the 
 whole of his obedience, as Mediator, is described in the 
 glory and perfection of it, from its being performed in 
 obedience to the command of God : for, saith he, " Lo, I 
 come to do thy will, my God," Psal. xl. 7, 8. The judi- 
 cious Dr. Owen * has well observed, from the parallel 
 * Co.iunent. on Heb. s. 7. 
 
88 PRINCIPLE, RULE, AND END 
 
 text, " That the fundamental motive unto the Lord 
 Christ, in his undertaking the work of mediation, was 
 the will and glory of God." "We are obliged to honour 
 the law of God, not principally because of its usefulness 
 to us, or its suitableness to the order of the world, but for 
 its innate purity, as bearing on it an impression of the 
 holiness of God ; and he values no service unless this pro- 
 perty be found in it. " I will be sanctified in them that 
 come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified," 
 Lev. X. 3. Such is the principle of God's moral govern- 
 ment ; and seeing he formed the rational creature, to 
 manifest his holiness in that law, whereby he was to be 
 governed, we ought not to deprive him of that design of 
 his own glory. The law of God is called holy and fure^ 
 Psal. xix. 8. Rom. vii. 12. as it emanates from the pure 
 nature of the Lawgiver : and our lives are not expressive 
 of his holiness, when we do a thing in the matter of it 
 agreeable to the rule, if we do it not with a respect to the 
 purity of the Lawgiver beaming in it. For, if we do any 
 thing chiefly to serve a purpose of our own, we make not 
 the holiness and authority of God, discovered in the law, 
 our rule, but our own conveniency or happiness, which, 
 in that case, we put in the place of God, and make a god 
 to ourselves. It is very manifest, that if a man makes 
 himself, and his own interest and pleasure, the rule and 
 end of his actions, he prefers the creature to God, and 
 loves it supremely, contrary to the will of God. Thus he 
 invades God's right, refuseth to take God for his God, sets 
 up himself as his own governor, and afiects virtually an 
 equality with God, and independency on him ; which is 
 that daring crime of the devil, which made him a sinner 
 from the beginning. I might multiply Scripture texts to 
 illustrate this subject ; but having elsewhere made it ap- 
 pear, that the law of nature is insufficient to direct man- 
 kind to happiness, and that the Scriptures alone, in which 
 the law of God is revealed, are the infallible standard of 
 our duty, I shall not at present enlarge upon this part of 
 the argument. 
 
OF MORAL ACTIONS. 
 
 89 
 
 But, further, Mr. Campbell says, " That the goodness of 
 any action, from which it is denominated mond virtiie, lies 
 in the confonnity it has to our self-love ; and that there is 
 no difference betwixt natural goodness and moral good- 
 ness." But I hesitate not to affirm, that an action is not 
 denominated virtuous, from its conformity to our self-love, 
 but from the conformity it has to the law of God. We 
 are assured by the apostle Paul, that the remains of the 
 law of nature upon the minds of the Gentiles, who had not 
 the written law, were the standard by which they judged 
 of the virtue of their actions ; that the will of God, revealed 
 in his word, was the rule and measure, according to which 
 they, who had the advantage of revealed reUgion, were to 
 measure their actions ; and that the actions of both were 
 to be tried and judged, good or bad, at the judgment-seat 
 of Christ, according to their conformity unto, or disagree- 
 ment from the written word, or light of nature, Rom. ii. 
 12 13, 14. " For as many as have sinned without law 
 shaU also perish without law : and as many as have sinned 
 in the law shall be judged by the law ; (for not the hearers 
 of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law 
 shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not 
 the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, 
 these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves : 
 Avhich show the work of the law written in their hearts, 
 their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts 
 the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another ;) in 
 the day when God shaU judge the secrets of men by Jesus 
 Christ according to my gospel." 
 
 The scope of the apostle in this passage is to show, that 
 neither Jew nor Gentile can be justified by the works of 
 the law. And, to illustrate the argument, he lays down 
 what is requisite to justification, according to the tenor of 
 the covenant of works ; namely, to fulfil perfectly what- 
 ever is written in the law, or to persevere in a course of 
 perfect obedience. " For not the hearers of the law are 
 just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified." 
 Though Mr. Campbell, then, should suppose himself as in- 
 
90 PRINCIPLE, RULE, AND END 
 
 nocent as Adam was in his primitive state, he cannot 
 recommend himself to the favour of God, upon the foot- 
 ing of promoting his self-interest, but upon his entire 
 conformity, in heart and life, to the law of God, and his 
 subjection to the authority of God therein interposed. 
 And however his conscience may acquiesce in his acting 
 agreeably to his own interest, yet the heathens had, in this 
 particular, more noble sentiments ; for their consciences 
 accused or excused them, according as their actions were 
 agreeable or not " to the law of God written in their 
 hearts." By this law written in their hearts we must 
 understand the first principles of right reason, in a 
 due exercise of which, a thinking man must deduce 
 some of the first rules of veneration for the Deity, 
 and of equity to man. This law contained some faint 
 draught of the written law, and in so far instructed them 
 what to do and avoid, which is the great property of a 
 law ; and because it did so, they are said " to do, by na- 
 ture, the things contained in the law," and to be " a law 
 unto themselves :" that is, they had some remains of that 
 law in their hearts, which was inscribed, in full characters, 
 upon the mind of man, at his creation, and were directed 
 by it, in many instances, as to matters of moral right and 
 wrong. 
 
 As the terms in which sin is described in scripture, such 
 as r7>?7:Dn, Pt^S, ]'^2/, dvo/aiu, 'Troc^c/.^or,, rebellion and diso- 
 bedience, Is. i. 2. Rom. V. 19. discover the nature of it to 
 consist in its disagreement to the law of God, therein de- 
 clared ; so the apostle John expressly asserts, that sin is 
 " the transgression of the law," 1 John iii. 4. From which 
 it is very manifest, that the law of God is the great and 
 only standard of virtue, and that the virtue of our actions 
 does immediately lie, not in their conformity to our self- 
 love, but in their conformity to the law and will of God. 
 
 II. But, in proceeding to the second part of our inquiry, 
 namely, whether this opinion be founded upon the princi- 
 ples of reason ? we may observe, that to make self-interest 
 or pleasure the only standard of virtue, and to pretend 
 
OF MORAL ACTIONS. 91 
 
 tliat no action can be called virtuous, on any other account 
 than its correspondency to self-interest, is plainly to de- 
 stroy all virtue, and to make our own self-love the only 
 ground and reason of our owing any love to God, or to our 
 fellow-creatures. Can it be agreeable to the nature of 
 things to say, that reasonable creatures owe no esteem, 
 love, and subjectiun to God, for what he is in himself, but 
 only for what he does, to gratify their self-love 1 Nothing 
 but Deity can be the formal cause and foundation of divine 
 worship, which is an ascribing infinite perfection to the 
 object of worship, or giving expression to that love, trust, 
 and esteem, which is proper and peculiar to God : and there- 
 fore our love to God, and our universal subjection unto 
 hira, must, in the nature of the thing, be founded upon 
 what he is in himself, and not chiefly upon what he hath 
 done for us ; which is the fruit of his mere good pleasure. 
 None of our actions can be called virtuous, but so far as 
 they are done in obedience to him, and are agreeable to 
 his will : for, as it is highly reasonable, that an infinitely 
 perfect Being should prescribe a rule of action to his crea- 
 tures ; so they do not ace agreeably to the rational facul- 
 ties with which they are endowed, if their love to him is 
 not supreme : that is, if, in all instances, they do not ex- 
 press the sense they have of their dependence upon him, 
 and his authority over them as their great and only moral 
 governor. 
 
 Our author has the assurance to say, that the actions 
 of the Deity towards us are called virtuous, because they 
 are adapted to the interest of human nature. But I 
 thought that they had been holy, great, and good, because 
 agreeable to his own nature and will. All who acknow- 
 ledge the being and perfections of God, must own that he 
 is not regulated by any law, without or beside himself. 
 He is his own law and rule ; and all his actions whatsoever 
 are necessarily right, because agreeable to his own nature, 
 will, and perfections ; and it cannot be imagined, that he 
 is astricted to, and governed by, a rule inferior to himself. 
 Can Mr. Campbell deny that God is of " purer eyes than 
 
92 PRINCIPLEj RULE, AND END 
 
 to behold evil," or that "he hateth all the workers of 
 iniquity ? " Can he refuse it, that this is an holy, or, as 
 he iiTeverently styles it, a virtuous action ? Can he make 
 it appear that it is holy or virtuous, because it is adapted to 
 the interest of a sinful creature, and tends to promote its 
 happiness ? It must be acknowledged to be highly dishon- 
 ourable to the great God, when men pay no regard either 
 to reason or revelation, in talking of his ways, but imagine 
 him to be such an one as themselves, and make a visionary 
 hypothesis of their own, the measure and rule of their sen- 
 timents about him ! 
 
 The more we consider this scheme, the more clearly does 
 it appear, that, according to it, the creature's self-interest 
 is made the sole, the paramount law, the measure of right 
 and wrong, and God is confined to act by it, as much as 
 those he has created; which is just the same as to say, 
 that man is not accountable to his Creator, and that God has 
 no authority to prescribe such laws to his creatures, as shall 
 oblige them, dutifully, to acknowledge his sovereignty ovdr 
 them, or their entire dependence upon him. For, accord- 
 ing to this scheme, he can prescribe nothing unto them 
 but what their self-interest must direct them unto, although 
 they were in no way dependent on him, and although he 
 had no authority over them. So that every man is to be 
 his own judge, as to whether he has, or has not, answered 
 the end of his creation, by promoting his own happiness. 
 If he has failed of this, he bears the loss of his own bad 
 management ; but is not otherwise accountable to the 
 Most High for breaking his laws. Now what doth all this 
 amount to, but just to supposing the living God to be an 
 indolent Being, as Epicurus has represented him, not mind- 
 ing what they, who are the product of his hands, may do, 
 in contempt of his authority ! 
 
 There can be no doubt, that the duties prescribed to us 
 by God, when rightly performed, do tend to promote our 
 happiness. But to make that happiness the standard of 
 duty, and to say that the actions of the Deity towards us 
 are virtuous, because they are adapted to our interest, is 
 
OP MORAL ACTIONS. 93 
 
 to reproach the Author of our being. For, is he not blas- 
 phemed, when that which is pccuhar to hira is ascribed 
 to creatures ? And is not this done, when it is maintained, 
 that creatures are to act for themselves as their last end ; 
 or that their own interest and pleasure is the measure and 
 rule of their actions, and not the will and law of God? Is 
 not this to make creatures, or the interest and pleasure of 
 creatures, as absolutely the rule of their actions, as if there 
 was not a God to rule over them, as if they had received 
 nothing from him, and were no way accountable to him, 
 except in so far as they had done well for themselves in 
 promoting their own happiness i Mr. Campbell could not 
 bear it well, we see, from his preface to this edition of his 
 Inquiry, that Dr. Innes should have the praise of this fine 
 performance, as he took it to be ! and how shall the Author 
 of our being take it, if poor creatures like him arrogate to 
 themselves the praise of what they have received from him, 
 sacrificing to their own net, and burning incense to their 
 own drag ? Can they expect any thing less than that, as 
 God, by the prophet, has threatened, they shall lie down in 
 sorrow ? 
 
 Our author tells us, that God, and all other intelligent 
 beings, are universally governed by one common principle 
 of self-love. But can it be agreeable to reason itself, or to 
 the nature of things, to maintain, that creatures like us 
 have as good reason to love themselves for their own in- 
 trinsic goodness as God has to love himself on that 
 account ; or that they have as good a right to act univer- 
 sally, and only from love to themselves, as God has to act 
 only from love to himself? Nay, seeing, as has been shown, 
 and shall in the sequel be further illustrated, that it is the 
 peculiar and incommunicable glory of the great God, re- 
 sulting from the infinite perfection of his nature, to act 
 from supreme love to himself, and for himself, as his ulti- 
 mate e^d; must not an attempt to set this important 
 matter in a false light, and to invest poor creatures with 
 the prerogative of heaven, be most injurious unto the hon- 
 our of God, and the ready way to betray unthinking men 
 
94 PRINCIPLE, RULE, AND END 
 
 into mistakes, most destructive and pernicious to them- 
 selves ? 
 
 Mr. PuffendorfF, who may be allowed to have been as 
 good a judge of the common reason of mankind as the 
 high pretenders to reason in our times, says, " We call 
 that a good action which is conformable to the law, as an 
 ill one is that which is not conformable to it.""^ He adds 
 elsewhere, as follows : — " Since, to the goodness of an ac- 
 tion, it is not enough to do what the law enjoins, but to 
 do it also with such an intention as is agreeable to that 
 law ; an action cannot be deemed perfectly good, unless it 
 exactly, and in all its parts, answer the prescription ; and 
 unless the only motive that influenced the agent, was his 
 desire of paying the legislator a prompt and ready obedi- 
 ence." t He likewise tells us, " That God, by his right of 
 creation, has the power of prescribing bounds to that 
 liberty of will he has been pleased to indulge mankind;" J 
 and that, " seeing moral goodness and turpitude are alFec- 
 tions of human deeds, arising from their agreeableness or 
 disagreeableness to a rule or a law ; and since a law is the 
 command of a superior, it does not appear how we can 
 conceive any goodness and turpitude before all law, and 
 without the institution of some superior : and truly, as for 
 those who would establish an eternal rule, for the morality 
 of human actions, independent of a divine institution, the 
 result of their endeavours seems to us to be the joining 
 with God Almighty, some co-eval extrinsic principle, which 
 he was obliged to follow in assigning the forms and es- 
 sences of things." § Thus far this author. 
 
 But, to proceed: It has been shown elsewhere, || that 
 it is the first principle of the law of nature, that there is 
 a God, who governs all things. And it may, from the 
 same, and like arguments, be demonstrated to be the lead- 
 ing principle of natural religion, that as the dictates of 
 sound reason are so many laws, made known to us by God ; 
 
 * Puffendorff's Law of Xativre, &c., by Spavan, chap. 7. p. 8. 
 
 t Ibid. pp. 92, 93. X Ibid. p. 3. § Ibid. p. 20. 1| Review, &c. 
 
OP MORAL ACTIONS. 95 
 
 SO it is his will, that we walk according to these dictates ; 
 and that if wc walk contrary to them we violate his law, 
 and contemn his authority. From which it follows, that 
 the goodness of our actions lies in their conformity to the 
 law and will of God, and not in their conformity to our 
 self-love, pleasure, and advantage. 
 
 Indeed it is most certain, that however men may pay a 
 regard to some of the laws of nature, from a prospect of 
 their interest in so doing, as we follow a physician's pre- 
 scription for our health, who has no authority over us ; 
 yet they cannot observe them as laws, because every law 
 necessarily implies a superior ; or one that has, or has 
 usurped, the right to govern and direct his inferiors. 
 
 Our author, who magnifies the law of nature, and be- 
 stows such great encomiums upon it, must be of opinion, 
 either that this same law of nature doth subject mankind 
 to the authority of God, or that it doth not. If it doth 
 not, then, according to him, God has no authority over the 
 works of his hands ; and they are no m-ore accountable to 
 God, than if they were independent of him, and had re- 
 ceived neither existence nor preservation from him ; which 
 is an opinion so black, that I forbear to give it a name. 
 But if he acknowledge that mankind, by the law of nature, 
 are subjected to the authority of God, then it must be 
 owned, that it is God's authority only that makes the law 
 of nature to be a law, and that its binding force is not 
 from the fitness of what is prescribed by it, to promote 
 pleasure or self-interest, but from the authority of God 
 stamped upon it. Hence the nature of moral virtue must 
 lie, not in the fitness of the action to promote happiness, 
 but in its agreeableness to the will of God, declared in 
 his law. 
 
 Our author's scheme seems likewise to expose him to 
 the necessity of allowing some degree of moral virtue to 
 brutes. And, although there is no reason to doubt but 
 that brutes, as they are capable of being treated by us 
 either mercifully or cruelly, may be to us the ohjects either 
 of \irtue or vice ; yet, to maintain that they may be the 
 
96 PRINCIPLE, RULE, AND END 
 
 subjects of virtue, must be wild and extravagant. But if 
 the tendency of an action, to promote the happiness of the 
 agent, be the true notion of virtue, it were unreasonable 
 to refuse that brutes are virtuous ; seeing they manifestly 
 pursue their own pleasure or their own happiness, in a 
 great variety of actions, and do follow the instincts and 
 impulses of nature more steadily and regularly than men. 
 Nay, if a consciousness of the moral goodness of actions, in 
 their conformity to the divine law, be not required to con- 
 stitute these actions virtuous, what is there wanting to 
 the virtue of many a brute ? 
 
 What a moral agent primarily proposes, is to act reason- 
 ably, or according to the law of God, made known to him, 
 either by the word of God as among us Christians, or by 
 the principles of natural religion, as among such as are 
 not enlightened from above. But to act merely from an 
 impulse to what is pleasing, or a natural good, has always 
 been reckoned a leading principle only among agents which 
 are destitute of reason and reflection ; and therefore in- 
 capable to be moved from any other spring of action. So 
 that, to make pleasure of any kind the chief end of a moral 
 agent, must be as absurd as to make truth or virtue the 
 property of a being who is merely sentient. 
 
 Our author, to complete his scheme, has thought fit to 
 reject the distinction betwixt honum honestum, and ho- 
 num utile et jucmidmn, which has been maintained by some 
 of the most judicious of the heathen philosophers : and he 
 tells us frankly, that musical-goodness and landscape-good- 
 ness differ from one another, as much as moral goodness 
 possibly can do from either. Thus the morality of our 
 actions, according to him, has no relation to the law, will, 
 or authority of God ; but our interest or pleasure is the 
 rule and measure of all things ; there is no difference, in 
 his eyes, betwixt devotion-goodness and landscape-good- 
 ness ; our love to God, and our love to a fine house or gar- 
 den : and there is no difference betwixt the devotions and 
 services of the angelical tribe, and the goodness of Mr. 
 Campbell's action, in looking at, or riding on a fine horse. 
 
OF MOttAL ACTIOXS. 97 
 
 but just as Mr. Campbell's pleasure is greater or less in 
 degree than theirs ! 
 
 I suppose that no thinking man will judge it worth 
 while to enlarge in refuting such extravagant tenets. I 
 shall only tell our author, that, by resolving all obligations 
 into pleasure, and natural good, he has denied that virtue 
 is good in itself, and affirmed it to be no otherwise good, 
 than as it does us good. Whereas, it is certainly self- 
 amiable and self-worthy, and deserves our approbation and 
 choice. On the same ground, he has likewise denied, that 
 there can be any such thing as an intrinsic preferableness 
 of one action to another, more than of one colour to an- 
 other. Every agent well knows what actions please him, 
 and what displease him ; but in themselves, according to 
 this scheme, they are all equally valuable, or rather equally 
 worthless. 
 
 But however our author may amuse himself with these 
 speculations, it is a thing most certain, that the communi- 
 cation of natural good is by no means an essential ingre- 
 dient of moral rectitude. If no natural good, if the hap- 
 piness of no being whatever, could possibly be promoted 
 by piety, for instance, it would still be the duty of every 
 intelligent creature to reverence and worship the Deity : 
 for the supremacy and infinite perfection of such an object 
 makes this, in the highest degree, reasonable, even sup- 
 posing no advantage did or could redound from it to any 
 one whatever. 
 
 Is it to be imagined, that Mr. Campbell would take it 
 as a compliment from his friend, if that friend told him 
 that he esteemed him, and testified his esteem for him on 
 all occasions, for no better reason, than a suspicion or fear, 
 that, if he carried it otherwise towards him, this might, 
 some time or other, turn to his own disadvantage. For my 
 part, I think his friend, by such an address, would very 
 naturally be led to tell him, that he neither esteemed nor 
 regarded him at all. Let him therefore seriously consider 
 whether he has behaved himself suitably to the Author 
 of his being, when he has published to the world, that his 
 
98 PRINCIPLE, RCJLE, AND END OF MORAL ACTIONS. 
 
 leading motive for reverencing Him, is merely his own 
 profit, pleasure, and advantage ; and that the reason why 
 he abstains from blaspheming or reproaching him, is chiefly 
 the fear of bringing injury on himself. 
 
 Upon the whole, I think it is very manifest, from what 
 has been advanced, that our actions are called virtuous, 
 on account of their correspondency to the law and will of 
 God, or to the relation creatures stand in to the Author of 
 their being ; and not on account of their tendency to 
 gratify our self-love. 
 
SECTION III. 
 
 THAT SELF-LOVE, AS IT EXERTS ITSELF IX THE DESIRE OF UNI- 
 VERSAL IINLI3IITED ESTEEM, OUGHT NOT TO BE MADE TUB 
 COMMANDING MOTIVE TO VIRTUOUS ACTIONS; NOR IS THE OU- 
 TAINING THE GOOD-LIKING AND ESTEEM OF THOSE BEINfJS, 
 AMONG WHOM WE ARE MIXED, TO BE OUR MAIN END IN PUR- 
 SUING THEM, 
 
 Having made some reflections upon ]\rr. Campbell's senti- 
 ments, concerning the spring or principle, and the rule or 
 standard of virtuous actions; I shall now consider his 
 opinion, as to our great motive and main end, in pursuing 
 a course of virtue. On this point, he expresseth himself as 
 follows : " I hkewise hold, that self-love, as it exerts itself 
 in the desire of universal unlimited esteem, is the great 
 commanding motive that determines us to the pursuit of 
 such virtuous actions.* Every man being thus naturally 
 joined in society to all his own species, and to God him- 
 self, as the great Author of his being, our supreme Head 
 and kind Benefactor ; if his social appetite be not miser- 
 ably perverted, he cannot but necessarily seek for, and 
 desire the esteem and good liking of all mankind ; and 
 particularly of God, under whose government we all live.t 
 If we settle it, as our main purpose, to recommend our- 
 selves to the love, esteem, and commendation of God, and 
 of all mankind, through every stage of our eternal existence, 
 (which, if we follow nature, we cannot but do, as I have 
 already explained in my Enquiry,) every degree of esteem 
 we acquire here cannot but be exceedingly grateful ; and 
 the means that lift us up to this commendation (which 1 
 have likewise shown, in the foregoing Enquiry, to be the 
 
 * Enquiry, &c. pp. 257, 258. f Ibid. p. 72. 
 
100 PRINCIPLE, RULE, AND END 
 
 moral virtues) cannot but prove extremely agreeable * 
 Upon the whole, I will conclude, that the sole and universal 
 motive to virtuous actions is self-love, interest, or plea- 
 sure." t Thus far our author. 
 
 In order to fix the true state of the question, let it be 
 borne in mind that it is by no means denied that we may 
 have a respect to our own happiness : for God having made 
 man capable of enjoying himself, and having condescended, 
 at his creation, to encourage his obedience, by a promise 
 of future and lasting fehcity, which is renewed, through 
 Christ, in the gospel ; it can be no part of the Christian 
 scheme, that men are to be denied to their own happiness, 
 or made wilhng to forego it. But the question is, whether, 
 in obeying the law of God, we should be chiefly actuated 
 by a sense of the infinite perfection and authority of the 
 Lawgiver, and of our subjection to him. Or whether we 
 ought rather, though poor dependent creatures, principally 
 to act from love to ourselves, aiming at our own advantage, 
 pleasure, and honour, as the commanding motive to virtu- 
 ous actions, and our main end in pursuing them 1 The 
 first seems to me to be founded in the nature and relation 
 of things ; and the latter to be subversive of both. 
 
 Here I have the pleasure to observe, that I don't differ 
 in opinion from a reverend and learned body of men, who, 
 upon a certain occasion, delivered their sentiments on this 
 head, in the following terms : X That " men are bound to 
 make the glory of God their chief end, though yet they are 
 called herewith to pursue happiness." And " that by the 
 instinct of that new nature, the Lord endoweth all his 
 people with in regeneration, they are enabled, by the in- 
 fluence of grace, in some measure, and daily desire, more 
 and more, to serve God for himself, and his supereminent 
 excellencies, and not merely or chiefly for the prospect of 
 their own happiness." And " that it is agreeable, both to 
 their character and duty, to have a prevailing respect to 
 
 * Enquiry, &c. p. 273. f Ibid. p. 463. 
 
 t See State of the Process against Mr. Simson, p. 277. 
 
OF MORAL ACTIONS. 
 
 101 
 
 God's glory, as their ultimate end, and the chief motive of 
 their obedience." Thus far the reverend committee of the 
 Assembly of the Church of Scotland. 
 
 In treating this subject very briefly, I shall first make 
 it appear, from the scriptures of truth, that the glory of 
 God, and not our own fame and esteem, ought to be our main 
 end in pursuing virtuous actions. Secondly, I shall in- 
 quire, if it be agreeable to the principles of reason, to make 
 the desire of universal unlimited esteem the great com- 
 manding motive unto them. 
 
 I. As to the first, that the glory of God, and not our 
 own fame and esteem, ought to be our main end, in pur- 
 suing a course of virtue and obedience to God, appears, if 
 we consider, that our duty of worship and obedience is 
 primarily founded upon the infinite excellencies of God, or 
 upon what he is in himself. Thus, when God is about to 
 deliver a law to Israel, at Iloreb, he introduceth the whole 
 with this solemn preface, " I am the Lord Jehovah," i. e. the 
 only true God, the self-existent, eternal, infinitely perfect 
 and necessary Being. It is true, it is added, " Thy God," 
 that is, by creation, and a special covenant relation ; and 
 this is acknowledged to be a secondary and powerful mo- 
 tive to duty and obedience. But he fitly placeth himself, 
 in his nature, and infinite perfections, in the front, as the 
 primary foundation of all his commands, and of his people's 
 duty in obeying them : because we must first, in order, 
 view him, as infinitely perfect in himself, and an all-suffi- 
 cient Being, else he had never given creatures a being, or 
 well-being ; and because their duty of obedience is founded 
 in their relation to him, and dependence upon him : where- 
 as their happiness, in a state of future and lasting felicity, 
 proceeds, as I have shown above, from his free-will and 
 bounty. 
 
 To this purpose, the prophet Jeremiah assigns it, as the 
 great reason why we are to fear and worship God; be- 
 cause " there is none like unto him, and because he is 
 great, and his name great in might." Elsewhere we 
 are taught to glorify his name, because he only is holy, 
 
102 PPvINCIPLE, RULE, AND EXB 
 
 Jer. X. 6, 7. Rev. xv. 4. And the apostle Paul condemns 
 those who did service to them which by nature were no 
 gods, Gal. iv. 8 : intimating, that God's title to our worship 
 is primarily founded in his Godhead or in the infinite and 
 supereminent excellency of his nature. In a suitableness 
 to this, when the Lycaonians took Paul and Barnabas for 
 gods, they answered them, by telling them, not that they 
 " could not do much good unto them," which, in a minis- 
 terial way, they were abundantly qualified for, but that 
 they were weak, imperfect, dependent creatures, who had 
 not a divine nature, and so were not fit objects of religious 
 adoration. From which it is very manifest, that God's 
 title to our worship and service is primarily founded upon 
 what he is in himself, and not upon his bounty to us as 
 his creatures ; and his legislative authority over all de- 
 pendent, intelligent beings, stands upon the same founda- 
 tion. For though he has a right to prescribe laws to 
 those to whom he gave a being ; yet it was, in the first 
 place, owing to his being infinitely perfect, and infinitely 
 good in himself, that he gave a being to those who had 
 none before. 
 
 It is not merely because of what he hath done in a way 
 of bounty, but primarily, because he is in himself infinitely 
 perfect, that he is worthy of the highest adoration, and of 
 the most absolute subjection, that finite creatures are 
 capable of rendering to the Author of their being. From 
 all which, it is very manifest, that we are obliged, prin- 
 cipally, to love, fear, worship, and obey God, for " what he 
 is in himself," and not chiefiy from a prospect of our own 
 happiness, pleasure, and interest. 
 
 The apostle Paul confirms this doctrine, from that plain 
 topic, that God is the first Cause, and therefore he is the 
 unlimited End of all things. " For of him, and through 
 him, and to him are all things," Rom. xi, 36. " The nature 
 of God consists in this," says a learned author,* " that he 
 is the prime and original Cause of all things, as an inde- 
 
 * Pearson on the Creed, p. 23. 
 
OP MORAL ACTIONS. 103 
 
 pendent Being, upun which all things also depend ; and 
 likewise he is the ultimate End or final Cause of all." 
 Again Solomon toUs us, " That God made all things for 
 himself:" and it is plain he could have no other end than 
 himself, and his own glory, in so doing ; for there was no- 
 thing good or great, and truly lovely, but himself; and all 
 rational creatures, acting as such, cannot but make him, 
 and his glory, their ultimate end. For, seeing it is the 
 brightest ray of the divine image, that a created under- 
 standing should see and judge of things in God's light, and 
 entertain the same sentiments of them with him, whose 
 infinite knowledge makes it impossible he can fall into 
 any mistake ; it must therefore be the highest excellency 
 of the soul of man, to move to the same end with the 
 Author of his being. 
 
 It is very manifest, that self-love, in a supreme sense, 
 can only be the distinguishing character and peculiar glory 
 of the ever-blessed God, He can love nothing above him- 
 self, and his own glory, because there is nothing supremely 
 good or great, or lovely, but himself. It therefore flows 
 from his own infinite perfection, that he loves himself in 
 a supreme manner ; and it is his peculiar glory to do so. 
 Upon the other hand, for a finite creature to be actuated 
 chiefly by a principle of self-love, argues the greatest im- 
 perfection and depravity of nature. For, it is either to 
 say, that there is nothing greater or better than itself, and 
 what relates to itself, than which nothing can be more 
 blasphemous ; or, that a rational creature, acting as such, 
 may prefer a lesser good to a greater ; than which nothing 
 can be more absurd. 
 
 If it be pretended, that the creature's happiness is the 
 greatest good to itself, and that no rational creature can 
 love any thing but as good to itself; it is replied, that 
 while man's happiness is placed where it ought to be, in 
 the enjoyment of God, an infinite good, yet it may be con- 
 sidered, either as that by which a finite creature is made 
 happy, which is a finite, relative, precarious good, because 
 mutable in its nature, and finite in its subject; as is plain 
 
] 04 PRINCIPLE, RULE, AND END 
 
 in the case of the fallen angels : or, it may be considered 
 as that by which an infinite God is glorified, which is an 
 absolute infinite good. Now, if a man's happiness, though 
 in the enjoyment of God, be chiefly sought, that the man 
 himself may be happy therein, then it is himself that he 
 ultimately and chiefly seeks and not God : and if he ulti- 
 mately seek himself, though the noblest means, such as the 
 enjoyment of God, be made use of; yet they are only means 
 to the end, and loved chiefly for the sake of the end ; and 
 thus man is made his own ultimate end : and if he be his 
 own ultimate end, then he is his own god ; for a man can- 
 not esteem, love, or desire any thing beyond his ultimate 
 end : and what a man esteems, loves, and desires most, is 
 his god. But if a man chiefly desire his own happiness in 
 the enjoyment of God, that God may be glorified in him, 
 and by him, he thereby acknowledges God and his glory 
 to be his ultimate end ; which is the very thing we con- 
 tend for. 
 
 Whatever excels is worthy of esteem, suited to the de- 
 gree of its excellency. Now, God's excellency being infin- 
 itely superior to that of all creatures, they must sink 
 infinitely below him ; and if they act according to reason, 
 they must acknowledge his infinite perfection, their depen- 
 dence upon him, and their absolute subjection unto him. 
 It cannot be refused to be essential to the moral perfection 
 of a reasonable creature, to esteem and love that Being above 
 all things, who is above all things, in glory, excellency, and 
 every perfection ; and therefore every man, acting accord- 
 ing to the original frame of human nature, must have the 
 highest respect to the honour and glory of God, as his chief 
 and ultimate end. It is by no means asserted, that we are 
 obliged to a willingness to forego our own happiness ; which 
 is no constitutive part of a subordinate end : seeing all that 
 is required, is to love the ultimate end most, and the sub- 
 ordinate less, I hope those who make God's glory subor- 
 dinate to man's happiness, do not therefore say that they are 
 obliged, in some cases, willingly to give up with the glory of 
 God, for their own private interest. But to proceed, — 
 
OF MORAL ACTIONS. 105 
 
 Let U8 further consider, that man stands in a subordina- 
 tion to God in his being ; and therefore in a su1>ordination 
 to him as his last end. Hence the apostle directs us, that 
 " whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever we do, we should 
 do all to the glory of God," 1 Cor. x. 31. The rule is gen- 
 eral, not to be restrained to the eating of meat offered to 
 idols, of which the former discourse had been ; but extends 
 itself to whatever we do, that is, to all human actions 
 whatsoever. Elsewhere he tells us, " That we are not our 
 own, but are bought with a price, and therefore are 
 obliged to glorify God in our bodies and spirits, which are 
 his :" and it is highly agreeable to reason, that we, deriv- 
 ing our being from another by creation, and passing into 
 the right of another by redemption, should employ our de- 
 rived and borrowed all, for his honour and glory. 
 
 It was the end of our election and effectual calling, that 
 we should show forth the praises of him, who hath called 
 us out of darkness into his marvellous light, 1 Pet. ii. 9. ; 
 and it was one great design of the death of Christ, to re- 
 store man to his primitive allegiance ; for he died for us, 
 that we should not live to ourselves, but to him who died 
 for us, and rose again, 2 Cor. v. 15. This is plainly the 
 exercise of the spirits of just men made perfect, in the 
 regions of light and bliss above ; who are represented, in 
 scripture, as employing all their faculties in adoring him 
 that sits upon the throne, and the Lamb for ever and ever. 
 God here is All in all, the Centre and End of aU ; he is 
 infinitely lifted up above all: and his servants do serve 
 him, beholding his face, and eternally losing themselves in 
 love, wonder, and praise ! 
 
 It may be further observed, that if our own happiness 
 and self-interest be allowed to be the chief motive of our 
 glorifying God upon earth, then the chief motive of our 
 hatred against sin, and of our returning to God with a 
 penitential sorrow for it, cannot be the offence and dis- 
 honour done thereby to God, but the ruin which it brings 
 upon us ; and the chief motive to the love of God, by which 
 we most eminently glorify him, must be our own happi- 
 
106 PRINCIPLE, RULEj AND END 
 
 ness, or love to ourselves. But to assert these things, is, 
 at once, to contradict the whole scripture, and to over- 
 throw the plainest principles of natural religion. 
 
 Again, if self-love is acknowledged to be the leading 
 principle of action among dependent beings, then it will fol- 
 low, that there is such an unintelligible thing as a creature 
 made hy God, and yet not /or God and his glory, but for 
 itself, and for its own private interest, as its highest end ; 
 and that the creature is, in itself, its own ultimate happi- 
 ness, as well as its own ultimate end ; seeing no created 
 being, in a course of action, can arrive at a greater happi- 
 ness than the perfection of its own nature. 
 
 I have elsewhere* observed, that a respect to the glory 
 of God was the highest and noblest principle that moved 
 our Lord Jesus Christ to undertake and undergo his suf- 
 ferings ; and that a chief and primary regard to the honour 
 of God, as the ultimate end of his whole mediation, did 
 most conspicuously appear in the whole course of his obe- 
 dience, wherein he has left us a pattern, to be followed by 
 us, with veneration^ in the whole of our Christian course. 
 Therefore I shall not at present enlarge further upon this 
 branch of the argument ; but proceed to observe, that as 
 the apostle has given it as the black character of the worst 
 of men, that should be a plague to human society, and the 
 reproach of human nature, in the latter days, that they are 
 " lovers of their ownselves," and " lovers of pleasures more 
 than lovers of God," 2 Tim. iii. 1, 2, 4. ; so our Lord and 
 Saviour has made self-denial the distinguishing and neces- 
 sary character of all his disciples and followers : for, saith 
 he, " If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, 
 and take up his cross and follow me." Christ's disciples 
 must come after him ; that is, they must walk in the same 
 way that he walked in, and propose to themselves the 
 same high and ultimate end which he aimed at, the glory 
 of God. They must " deny themselves," and herein " come 
 after Christ ;" whose birth, life, and death, were all a con- 
 
 * Sermon on Jude, verse 3. 
 
OF MORAL ACTIONS. 107 
 
 tinucd act of self-deniul, Pliil. ii. 7, 8. They must deny 
 themselves absolutely: they must not admire their own 
 excellencies, nor gratify their own humours, nor seek their 
 own things ; and they must not lean to their own under- 
 standing, nor be their own end. 
 
 It is an excellent saying that Bernard hath upon the 
 nativity of Christ,* " What more detestable, what more 
 unworthy, or what deserves severer punishment," saith he, 
 " than for a poor man to magnify himself; after he hath 
 seen the great and high God so humble as to become a lit- 
 tle child ?" " And," adds he, " it is intolerable impudence 
 for a worm to swell with pride, after it hath seen Majesty 
 emptying itself." 
 
 Let us but consider how opposite a thing pride is to the 
 spirit of a Christian. Nothing certainly can be more so 
 to the Spirit of Christ. Our Saviour was lowly, meek, and 
 self-denying. He has assured us, " That he did not seek 
 his own will, but the will of him that sent him ;" the apos- 
 tle tells us, " That he pleased not himself;" and seeing he 
 was of a most humble and condescending spirit, seeking 
 not his own things, but ours, Phil. ii. 4, 5. doth it become 
 us to be proud, vain, and seltish ? 
 
 It likewise deserves our consideration, upon this part of 
 the argument, that, by our Lord's account, the love of 
 God is the first and great commandment, the summary of 
 all the commands of the first table of the moral law ; thus 
 telling us that we must love God with all our hearts, 
 strength, soul, and mind ; importing, that our love to him 
 must be supreme and singular, as well as sincere ; that, in 
 short, we must love him more than any thing else. Now 
 our Lord's saying that this is the first and great command- 
 ment, can bear no other meaning, but that obedience to it 
 is the spring of obedience to all the rest ; and that our 
 obedience to him is only acceptable when it flows from 
 love to God himself. And though we are allowed to love 
 ourselves, and to pursue happiness at the impulse of that 
 
 * Bernard Serm. 1st de Natiut. 
 
108 PRINCIPLE, RULE, AND END 
 
 love, yet how can it be otherwise in the nature of things, 
 but that we must love God better than ourselves, or any 
 thing else ; seeing he is Jehovah, a Being infinitely better 
 than we are, or any thing beside himself 1 We ought there- 
 fore to love God supremely ; and to love him chiefly for 
 himself, and not mainly with a view to our own happi- 
 ness. For to love God chiefly as good to us, is to love him 
 -".hiefly for ourselves, and so to love ourselves more than 
 God; than which nothing can be more impious or con- 
 tradictory to the principles of religion, whether natural or 
 revealed. 
 
 A celebrated author* says, " That we must first con- 
 ceive the object lovely and excellent in itself, before we 
 can wish it loving and kind to us. And let us consider," 
 adds he, " how much those that are conscious to their 
 having virtue enough in themselves to make them prize it 
 in others, are in love with Cato, Scipio, and those other 
 heroes, upon the bare knowledge of their virtues, although 
 from them they derive no present advantage." " Since 
 then," he goes on to say, " we pay such disinterested love 
 to some few, faint, and ill-refined virtues, that never did 
 profit us ; how much, on such a score, and at that rate, 
 should we love him, who so possesses all perfection, that 
 each of his perfections is infinite ? Though his benefits to 
 us did not entitle him to our love, his essence and perfec- 
 tions, the only source of those benefits, would give a right 
 to it ; and though we owed him nothing for what we are, 
 we yet should owe him love for what he is." 
 
 It may be easily demonstrated, that self-love, as it is to 
 be found among lapsed men, is most irregular and inordi- 
 nate. And can it be thought, that that inordinate passion 
 for fehcity, which at once seduced both angels and men 
 from their true happiness, by pride and folly, can justly be 
 esteemed the leading principle and chief motive of all moral 
 actions? Was not Adam obliged to love and obey his 
 Creator, even although he had made no promise to him of 
 
 * Mr. Boyle in his discourse of Serapliic Love. 
 
OF MORAL ACTIOITS. 109 
 
 future and eternal happiness, as the reward of his obe- 
 dience ? And, shall we imagine, that this is the genuine 
 fruit of God's gracious condescension, in promising and 
 conferring happiness on the creature, to make his love and 
 obedience become merely selfish and mercenary i 
 
 Love is the great tiling that God demands of us ; it is 
 therefore the great thing we should devote to him ; and 
 seeing good is the proper object of love, God being good 
 infinitely, originally, and eternally, must therefore be loved 
 in the first place ; nothing being loved beside him, but 
 what is loved for him : and it follows from this, that our 
 obedience must be animated with love to God, or a due 
 respect to his honour and glory, as its great governing 
 principle. 
 
 It is certain, indeed, that if we love God above all things, 
 as it has been shown we ought to do, we cannot possibly 
 fail to celebrate his infinite excellencies, or to give him 
 that glory which is due to his name ; and nothing will be 
 farther from our thoughts, than to make our own fame or 
 renown to rival it with him. 
 
 Upon the whole, I think it is very manifest, from the 
 holy scriptures, that the glory of God, and not our own 
 fame and esteem, ought to be our ruling motive in pursu- 
 ing virtuous actions. 
 
 II. I shall now proceed to inquire what reason has to 
 say upon this point ; and I think an ingenious writer has 
 set it in a true light when he expresseth himself in the 
 following terms :* — " It is usual for us, when we would 
 take ofi" from the fame and reputation of an action, to 
 ascribe it to vain-glory, and a desire of fame in the actor. 
 Nor is this common judgment and opinion of mankind ill 
 founded ; for certainly it denotes no great bravery of mind 
 to be worked up to any noble action by so selfish a motive, 
 and to do that out of a desire of fame, which we could not 
 be prompted to by a disinterested love to mankind, or by 
 a generous passion for the glory of him that made us. 
 
 * Spectator, vol. iv., numbers 255, 256. 
 
110 PRINCIPLE, RULE, AND END 
 
 " Fame is a thing difficult to be obtained by all, but 
 particularly by those who thirst after it ; since most men 
 have so much either of ill-nature or of wariness, as not to 
 gratify and soothe the vanity of the ambitious man : and 
 since this very thirst after fame naturally betrays him into 
 such indecencies as are a lessening to his reputation, and 
 is itself looked upon as a weakness in the greatest 
 characters. 
 
 " In the next place, fame is easily lost ; and as difficult 
 
 to be preserved as it was at first to be acquired. Plow 
 
 difficult is it to preserve a great name, when he that has 
 acquired it is obnoxious to such little weaknesses and 
 infirmities, as are no small diminution to it when disco- 
 vered! Were no dispositions in others to censure a 
 
 famous man, he would meet with no small trouble in keep- 
 ing up his reputation in all its height and splendour. 
 There must be always a noble train of actions to preserve 
 his fame in life and motion ; for, when it is once at a stand, 
 it naturally flags and languishes. 
 
 " Ambition raises a secret tumult in the soul ; it inflames 
 the mind, and puts it into a violent hurry of thought ; it 
 is still reaching after an empty imaginary good, that has 
 not in it the power to abate or satisfy it. — It may, indeed, 
 fill the mind for a while with a giddy kind of pleasure, but 
 it is such a pleasure as makes a man restless and uneasy 
 under it ; and which does not so much satisfy the present 
 thirst, as it excites fresh desires, and sets the soul on new 
 enterprises. 
 
 " Nor is fame only unsatisfying in itself, but the desire 
 of it lays open to many accidental troubles, which those 
 are free from who have no such a tender regard to it. 
 How often is the ambitious man cast down and disap- 
 pointed, if he receives no praise where he expected it? 
 Nay, how often is he mortified with the praises he re- 
 ceives, if they do not rise so high as he thinks they 
 ought: which they seldom do, unless increased by flat- 
 tery ; since few men have so good an opinion of us as we 
 have of ourselves ? " 
 
OP MORAL ACTIONS. 1 1 1 
 
 I hope the above reasoning will have its own force to 
 persuade Mr, Campbell, that the esteem of his fellow-men, 
 and of those beings among whom he is mixed, is a thing 
 l)y no means so valuable as he at first apprehended; and 
 that he will think of following a course of virtue for the 
 future, from a view to a higher end, and from a more 
 noble motive than self-love, interest, and pleasure. 
 
 Mr. Campbell tells us that " we are to settle it, as our 
 main purpose, to recommend ourselves to the love, and 
 esteem, and commendation of God; and that the moral 
 virtues are the means that lift us up to this commenda- 
 tion." But it is very manifest that mankind are in a 
 depraved state, and that they have offended God ; which 
 is proved, by the malignity of the wicked, by the sacrifices 
 which obtained in the Pagan world, and by the complaints 
 which heathen philosophers have made of the depravation 
 and wickedness of the ages themselves had fallen into. 
 'And, can it be pretended to be a principle of sound reason, 
 that the moral virtues, or the best actions of men in a sin- 
 ful state, can gain them the esteem and good-liking of God, 
 here or hereafter ? Nature's light will teach us, and 
 Plato, cited by the author,* referred to in the margin, has 
 owned it, that a holy and good God did not create man- 
 kind depraved and disordered in their faculties as they now 
 are. Their depravation and corruption is owing to them- 
 selves, and not to the Author of their being ; and hence 
 they must, in the nature of the thing, be justly obnoxious 
 to the divine displeasure, upon this account, and for all 
 the consequences of this depravation of their nature ; par- 
 ticularly for this, among others, that they can perform no 
 duty in such a manner as to please God. 
 
 It is very certain that no man, in a state of depravation, 
 can do any thing, with that love to God, or respect to his 
 authority, which the law doth require ; and therefore his 
 best actions cannot recommend him to the esteem of the 
 Author of his being. For, if he is supposed to do anything, 
 
 * Gales's Court of the Gentiles, part. 4, lib. L, cap. 4. 
 
112 PRINCIPLE, RgLB, AND END 
 
 every way as the law requires, he is not a depraved hut a 
 perfect creature ; and if he can do any thing as it ought 
 to be done, he may, by the same abihties, do every thing 
 as it ought to be done. But, as the best thing he can do, 
 coming short of the law and rule of action, is therefore 
 sinful : as the best actions of all men being thus imperfect 
 are sinful; as it is a vain imagination to pretend, that 
 they can render men acceptable to God, or gain his esteem 
 and good-liking ; so we cannot enough adore God, for the 
 revelation of Christ, and the hopes of being justified by his 
 merit, and sanctified by his Spirit. 
 
 Can it ever be thought that there is any excellency in 
 the most holy creatures, but what God himself has given 
 to them, and preserves in them 1 But if it all comes from 
 him, it is more his than theirs ; and all the praise of it is 
 due to him alone. And, as to us, who are lapsed creatures, 
 what can he see in us but sin or moral uncleanness, the 
 very object of his holy aversion? It were therefore the 
 most absurd thing in the world, for any created being, 
 whether fallen or unfallen, to make his own fame and 
 esteem the highest end of his actions ; seeing the pursuing 
 of such a course would be itself a fall ; as it is absolutely 
 inconsistent with a state of innocence to be chiefly in- 
 fluenced by it. 
 
 As to what our author says, about every man necessarily 
 desiring the esteem of all mankind, and passionately seek- 
 ing after the good opinion of those among whom he is 
 mixed ; I must beg him to tell me, if he, or any other man, 
 can reasonably desire any greater esteem, than his merit 
 entitles him unto 1 And let him tell me, at the same time, 
 what name that passion deserves, which can inspire a man 
 with the remotest thought, that his good qualities deserve 
 such respect from his fellow-men as makes that respect a 
 higher motive to virtue, than a respect to the authority 
 and glory of the great God, from whom he has received 
 life, and breath, and all things. 
 
 I conclude this argument with observing, That for a 
 man to make himself his own ultimate end, is to make 
 
OF MORAL ACTIONS. 
 
 113 
 
 liimsolf the object of his own supreme love, desire, and 
 esteem ; because nothing can be loved, desired, or esteemed, 
 above the ultimate end of a rational agent: and every 
 thing else, being only means to that end, must, in the na- 
 ture°of the thing, have only a secondary regard, and be- 
 loved for its sake. But for a creature to love and esteem 
 itself above all other beings, is at once to throw away all 
 regard to the Deity, and to renounce its dependence upun 
 him. For, it being certain, that religious worship essen- 
 tially includes in it, that the object be loved and esteemed 
 above all things ; it must follow, that self is the idol to be 
 worshipped, according to this scheme of principles ; and 
 that God is to be dethroned, and neither worshipped nor 
 acknowledged : or if acknowledged, only in so far as self 
 can serve a turn by it ; which, I think, cannot well be 
 allowed to be any kind of worship at all, unless Mr. Camp- 
 bell be delighted with the distinction of supreme and in- 
 ferior worship, and have the confidence to present the lat- 
 ter to his Maker. 
 
 Thus, I think, it has been made very evident, from tlie 
 sacred oracles, and from the principles of reason, that the 
 glory of God, and not our own self-love, interest, and plea- 
 sure ought to be our main and ultimate end as moral 
 agents ; and that our own fame and esteem ought not to 
 be the great commanding motive to virtuous actions. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 I 5IIGHT conclude, by making some general reflections upon 
 Mr. Campbell's treatise, and his preface thereto prefixed. 
 But, seeing this would lead me into much greater length 
 than I intend, I shall not enter upon them at present. 
 
 Only, I think, it might have been reasonably expected, 
 that our author would have advanced very strong argu- 
 ments, to support such a scheme of principles as he has 
 thought fit to send abroad into the world ; but if we search 
 his whole book, we can find none except the following, or 
 
114 PRINCIPLE, RULE, AND END 
 
 others of the like nature ; namely, that he cannot but be 
 governed by self-love, because he sees all the world besides 
 only animated by this principle. 
 
 But what although Mr. Campbell should find in himself, 
 and can appeal to the breasts of too many others, that a 
 silly vanity has the ascendancy over him; and that a re- 
 gard to the authority of God, and a respect to his glory, 
 has not that prevailing influence which it ought to have 
 upon the actions of men ? Will this say, that such dis- 
 order and confusion in men's breasts, belongs to the original 
 frame of human nature ? No more, I am sure, than Mr. 
 Campbell can prove, from a highway-man's being induced, 
 from his self-interest, to plunder the innocent traveller, 
 and afterwards cut his throat, that robbery and murder 
 belong to the original frame of human nature. 
 
 Of all things in the world depravity is the most univer- 
 sal. Every thinking man feels it in himself, and observes 
 it in others. But it were a weak way of reasoning to 
 argue thus : Vice is universal ; and all the world are, less 
 or more, under its influence : Ergo, vice belongs to the 
 original frame of human nature. I say, it were ex- 
 ceeding blunt to run away with the consequence, as sufii- 
 ciently proved, by a bare proposal of the argument ; or to 
 sound an imaginary triumph, in a harangue of three or 
 four hundred pages. However beautiful expressions, and 
 laboured periods, may be entertaining to a polite taste ; 
 yet I cannot, for my part, have any great value for a book, 
 however polished or prolix, whose reasoning proceeds upon 
 no better a foundation than petitio principiij et ignorantia 
 elenchi. 
 
 Neither can I think that mankind are exceedingly 
 obhged to Mr. Campbell's courtesy for representing them 
 as so many vain-glorious creatures; seeking fame, and 
 thirsting for renown, as the main end of all their actions. 
 For all that creatures have is derived from God's exuberant 
 goodness ; and therefore all the praise of it is due to him, 
 and not to themselves. Nothing truly valuable can be 
 found among lapsed creatures, but what is owing to grace 
 
OF MORAL ACTIONS. 115 
 
 in its rise, progress, and consummation ; which must for 
 ever exclude all boasting on our part, and induce him that 
 glorieth, to glory in the Lord. 
 
 I may appeal to the breast of every thinking man, if it 
 is not reasonable that rational creatures, deriving their 
 being from God, as the first Cause, should employ all their 
 faculties and powers to promote his glory as their last 
 end ? and, if it is not manifest, that their agreeing in one 
 last end necessarily unites them, as lines meeting in the 
 centre ; whereas making as many last ends as there are 
 rational creatures, leads to universal disorder and con- 
 fusion? I might farther ask with equal confidence, if 
 their pursuing the same high and ultimate end with the 
 Author of their being must not be worthy of their nature, 
 a branch of their conformity and likeness to God, and the 
 way to maintain union and intercourse with him ? Where- 
 as, to set up our own self-interest, pleasure, and esteem, 
 as our highest end, is either to say, that a man may at- 
 tempt to pass into an higher rank than that of created 
 beings ; or that he may act otherwise than a creature is, 
 in reason, obliged to do, from a consideration of its depen- 
 dence upon God, and of its own weak and limited perfec- 
 tions. 
 
 No doubt, we are to desire, and endeavour to maintain 
 our good name ; that we may be useful in the world, and 
 that God may be honoured by us : but to make this our 
 main end, and the highest and sole motive to action, and 
 thus to set it above the reverence which dependent beings 
 ought to have for the authority of the great God, is to 
 throw up all regard to rehgion, whether natural or revealed. 
 Such a vicious self-love ought by all means to be mortified. 
 To this purpose, our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ has 
 taught us to deny ourselves ; and an apostle has given a 
 check to this unreasonable passion, in these remarkable 
 words : " Now, if thou didst receive it, why dost thou 
 boast as if thou hadst not received it ? " 
 
 Ambition or vain -glory is most certainly a corrupt 
 thing; disposing us to boast and commend ourselves, and 
 
116 PllINCIPLE, RULE, AND END OF MORAL ACTIONS. 
 
 inordinately to seek after applause and esteem. The apos- 
 tles of Christ did vindicate their ministry, from this as 
 well as other vices, 1 Thess. ii. 6. and made ostentation 
 the characteristic of false teachers, 2 Cor. x. 12. Our 
 Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ reproved it as the sin of 
 the Scribes and Pharisees, that in their prayers, alms, 
 fasting, affected habits, and titles, they sought the praise 
 of men. And as the apostle Paul did not seek glory of 
 men, so did he forbid it to others. " Let us not be desir- 
 ous of vain-glory, provoking one another, envying one an- 
 other." It is clearly a sin directly opposite to humility, 
 unbecoming in man, highly dishonourable to God, and 
 contrary to the whole spirit of the gospel ; and though 
 some among the heathen took it for a virtue, as they did 
 likewise some of the foulest of vices, yet we have not so 
 learned Christ. 
 
 May " the same mind be in us, which also was in Christ 
 Jesus;" who being one God with the Father, and the Son 
 of the Father, by an eternal, necessary, and ineffable gen- 
 eration ; yet having, by his own voluntary condescension, 
 assumed our nature, " sought not his own glory, but the 
 glory of him that sent him," John viii. 50. and vii. 18. 
 Phil. ii. 5, 6, 7. And may the love of Christ constrain us 
 to a course of holy walking with God, because " we thus 
 judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead : and that 
 he died for all, that they which live, should not henceforth 
 live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, 
 and rose again," 2 Cor. v. 14, 15. 
 
CHPJST'S CiVLL TO THE PJSDsG GEXERATIOX, 
 
 CONSIDERED XSD APPIJED IX 
 
 THREE S E R M X S 
 
PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 HA^^NG been directed, in the course of my ministry, to preach 
 the gospel of Christ to you, from the texts prefixed to the follow- 
 ing sermons, I have taken this method, to lay the tniths then 
 delivered before you, and others who may read these discourses, 
 that you may deliberately consider the things which belong to 
 your peace, before they be hid from your eyes. In transcribing 
 ray notes, I have not closely adhered to the periods of the ser- 
 mons, as they were delivered in your hearing ; but have put the 
 substance of the discourses in such a form as I thought most 
 proper for edification to the private reader; while, in transcrib- 
 ing, I have enlarged upon several heads, and added others. 
 
 In these discourses, I have not entered upon the controversies 
 of the times, nor dwelt upon your duty to bear testimony to the 
 truths of Christ, to his kingly office, and all the other branches 
 of his covenanted cause and interest in this land; which is a 
 subject most useful and necessary to be handled in its o-v\ti pro- 
 per place: but considering that it is needful you have some 
 saving acquaintance with the Lord Jesus Christ, by faith of the 
 operation of God, in order to your being faithful witnesses for 
 Christ, and holding fast the word of his patience, I have there- 
 fore endeavoured, through the Lord's assistance, to lay the fol- 
 lowing plain and important truths before you, from the word of 
 God; and may the Holy Spirit breathe upon them, by his own 
 diWne influence, that, through his grace, you may be brought 
 to believe on the Son of God! And if you believe in him with 
 
120 PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 the heart, you have ground to expect that you shall be en- 
 abled, l)y grace, according to your circumstances, to confess him 
 ■with your mouth. 
 
 I hope you will strive together in your prayers to God, that 
 the truths here delivered, may be blessed to the glory of his 
 name, and the spiritual benefit of such as shall read and 
 ponder them in their hearts ; and that the promises made to 
 our highest Lord Immanuel, and to us in him, may be now 
 remarkably accomplished in the latter days, that " the isles shall 
 wait for his law;" that "in his name the Gentiles shall trust;" 
 and that "his name shall endure for ever;" aiad " upon his head 
 the crown shall floui'ish ! " 
 
SERMON I. 
 
 Mark x. 14. — " But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said 
 unto them, Suffer the httle children to come unto me, and forbid them 
 not : for of such is the kingdom of God." 
 
 We have here the welcome which Christ gave to some 
 little children that were brought unto him. In the pre- 
 ceding verse, it is said, " They brought young children to 
 him, that he should touch them ; and his disciples rebuked 
 those that brought them." We may suppose they were 
 their parents that brought them : others brought their 
 children to Christ, to be healed when they were sick ; but 
 these children were under no present malady, only they 
 who brought them to Christ desired a blessing for them. 
 They brought them to him, that he might touch them ; 
 it is elsewhere said, that he might lay his hands upon 
 them ; that is, that he might bestow a blessing upon them. 
 Thus Jacob put his hands upon the sons of Joseph, when 
 he blessed them. The disciples discouraged those that 
 brought them ; they thought it would bring a great trou- 
 })le to their ^Master, and therefore rebuked them. 
 
 But our Lord Jesus was much displeased with the con- 
 duct of the disciples, and encouraged the little children 
 to come unto him, and their parents in bringing them. 
 They who come to Christ themselves, should bring all 
 they have with them, and confidently expect a kindly 
 welcome. They who are blessed in Christ themselves, 
 should desire to have their children blessed in him ; and 
 should testify the love they have for their children, by 
 u concern about their souls, as well as the honour they 
 
122 Christ's call to the young. 
 
 desire to put upon the Lord Jesus, by devoting them 
 to his service. Yea we may present our children to 
 Christ, now in heaven, that he may touch their hearts 
 by his Spirit and grace. In this way we may act faith 
 upon the fulness and freedom of the grace of Christ, who 
 has promised to pour his Spirit upon our seed, and his 
 blessing upon our offspring. 
 
 The words contain a gracious call or invitation, di- 
 rected by Christ to the rising generation, and a direction 
 to all with reference thereto ; " Suffer the little children 
 to come unto me, and forbid them not." Here we 
 may notice, 1. The glorious Person speaking, and inviting 
 perishing souls to himself; " Jesus said unto them. Suffer 
 the little children to come unto me." Jesus said it, and 
 you may trust his word, little children ; Jesus, the Saviour 
 of the world ; Jesus, who saves his people from their sins, 
 has said it, that Httle children, such as you, are included 
 in his commission, to seek and to save that which was 
 lost. 2. We may observe the persons to whom this gospel 
 call is directed ; it is to you who are little children ; 
 " Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid 
 them not." Let nothing be done to hinder them, for they 
 shall be as welcome as any. Little children, as soon as 
 they are capable, ought to come to Christ ; to come with 
 their prayers and supplications to him, and to come to 
 receive the blessing from him. 3. We may notice, that 
 the call is laid down by Christ, in the most endearing 
 manner to the little children : when the disciples oppose 
 them, he takes their part, and gives them abundant en- 
 couragement ; " Suffer the little children to come unto 
 me, and forbid them not : for of such is the kingdom of 
 heaven." Little children have participated of Adam's 
 first sin, and of the malignant influences thereof; and 
 they are made welcome to partake of the grace of the 
 second Adam, and of that righteousness which reigns unto 
 eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. He takes it 
 ill that any should exclude those whom he has received, 
 or cast them out from the inheritance of the Lord ; and 
 
SERMON I. 123 
 
 he tells his disciples, that of such is the kingdom of heaven. 
 The children of believing parents belong externally to the 
 kingdom of heaven, or are memlx^rs of the visible church ; 
 and to them pertain the privileges of visible church- 
 membership, as among the Jews of old ; for the Lord 
 has said it, " I will be your God, and the God of your 
 seed;" and Acts ii. 39. it is said, "The promise is unto 
 you, and your children." 
 
 From these words, we may deduce the following doc- 
 trinal observation : 
 
 " That as the rising generation have the greatest need 
 of Christ, and of the grace of Christ ; so, whatever dis- 
 couragements they may meet with in coming to Christ, 
 yet they have abundant encouragement from himself, who 
 hath said it, " Suffer the little children to come unto me, 
 and forbid them not : for of such is the kingdom of heaven." 
 
 In discoursing on this doctrine, we shall endeavour, by 
 divine assistance, 
 
 I. To show that the rising generation have the greatest 
 need of Christ, and of the grace of Christ. 
 
 II. To speak of some of those discouragements that 
 young people may meet with in coming unto Christ. 
 
 III. To speak of the heavenly exercise the rising gen- 
 eration are called and invited unto, namely, to come to the 
 Lord Jesus in the way of faith, or belie\'ing on him 
 whom God hath sent. 
 
 IV. To give a hint at some of those encouragements 
 which the Lord Jesus hath given to the rising generation 
 to come unto him. And, 
 
 V. To make some application of the doctrine. 
 
 I. We proceed to the first thing proposed, namely. To 
 show that the rising generation have the greatest need of 
 Christ, and of the grace of Christ. 
 
 The youngest of you are sinners; a sinner needeth a 
 Saviour; and Christ is the only Saviour, for there is no 
 salvation in any other. 
 
 1. The youngest of you are guilty of Adam's first sin, 
 Rom. V. 12. " Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into 
 
124 Christ's call to the roui^fa. 
 
 the world, and death by sin ; and so death passed upon all 
 men, for that all have sinned:" or, as it may be rendered, 
 " in whom all have sinned." And Rom. v. 19. " For, as 
 by one man's disobedience many were made sinners ; so, 
 by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." 
 Thus you see, that you and all the posterity of Adam are 
 sinners, by the imputation of Adam's first sin ; even as all 
 the redeemed from among men are righteous, by the im- 
 putation of the righteousness of Christ, their Head and 
 Representative in the covenant of promise. In Adam all 
 mankind died, 1 Cor. xv. 22 ; because they all sinned in 
 him ; for " the wages of sin is death." Infants are born 
 under the power of spiritual death, and obnoxious to tem- 
 poral and eternal death. Death hath passed upon them, 
 and all mankind, for that they all have sinned, Rom. v. 12 ; 
 that is, they sinned in Adam ; for they could not sin in 
 their own persons, prior to their being born in sin, and 
 under the sentence of death, the proper desert of sin. 
 
 As mankind were made upright, and after God's image, 
 Eccl. vii. 29 ; so the covenant was made with mankind, 
 not merely with the first man, as one individual of the 
 species, but it was made with him, as the federal head and 
 representative of his posterity. His first sin therefore was 
 not merely the sin of one man, but the insurrection of the 
 whole human nature against God. It is true, the fallen 
 angels did every one of them act for themselves, and in- 
 volved themselves in sin and misery : but it doth not there- 
 fore follow, that we are free from Adam's first sin, because 
 we were not present to give a formal personal consent to 
 what was done. Shall we poor creatures take it upon us 
 to prescribe to God himself, that he cannot take one 
 method of transacting with angels, and another with man- 
 kind 1 It was a thing equal in itself, to deal with man- 
 kind in the way of a covenant and federal representation ; 
 and we may be assured it was the best method, seeing a 
 God of infinite wisdom and goodness transacted with us 
 in that manner. If Adam had stood, and his posterity 
 had thus in him been confirmed in a state of happiness. 
 
SERMON I. 125 
 
 the whole human race had applauded it, and praised God 
 fur it. It was therefore a transaction good tind equal in 
 itself; and if men of corrupt principles object against it, 
 they only discover the corruption of their hearts, by re- 
 plying against God ; and they may consider how unfit 
 they are to judge in a matter wherein they are so much 
 parties themselves, and with what veneration they ought 
 therefore to receive what God himself has revealed con- 
 cerning this matter in his word. Had all mankind been 
 in paradise, they could not have declined it, that God 
 should transact with them in the way of a federal repre- 
 sentation. None could have been more fit to have repre- 
 sented Adam's posterity than himself. Mankind had a 
 surer prospect of happiness by the good management of 
 one, the fittest of mankind to act for the rest, than if every 
 one had been left to act a part for himself; unless we sup- 
 pose that some of Adam's posterity would have been fitter 
 to act a good part for their own personal interest than 
 Adam was to act a wise part for his own sake, and for the 
 sake of all mankind his descendants. None of them could 
 have had better abilities than Adam ; and none of them 
 could have had such strong motives to exert them, as the 
 common parent of mankind, who, besides his personal in- 
 terest, was made the trustee and representative of his race 
 and posterity. 
 
 The youngest of you, yea, all mankind, are guilty of 
 Adam's first sin. The inspired writer, Eccl. vii. 29, giv- 
 ing an account of the origin of all the sin, misery, and 
 vanity, that now takes place among mankind, lodges the 
 fault and blame of all, not upon one man, but upon the 
 whole race of mankind : " Lo, this only have I found, that 
 God hath made man upright, but they have sought out 
 many inventions." God made man upright, not merely 
 one man, but he made mankind, the human nature up- 
 right, in the first original of it: and they (that is the 
 human race, as represented by the first man) made apos- 
 tasy from God, and sought out many inventions. Instead 
 of resting in what God had found for them, they sought to 
 
126 chkist's call to the young. 
 
 mend themselves ; and the law of their creation could not 
 hold them, but they would be at their own disposal, and 
 follow their own sentiments. To the same purpose God 
 saith to Israel, and in them to all mankind, " Israel, 
 thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thy help." And 
 how great and inexcusable was the sin of the human race ! 
 Man had an easy law to obey ; and as the moral law was 
 of undoubted excellency, so was the positive law likewise : 
 for it was for man's safety that he had one tree forbidden, 
 that he might know that he as the vassal held all of God 
 his superior ; so that when all the creatures were subject 
 to him, he might remember that he was still subject to 
 God. This forbidden tree was a memorial to him of his 
 mutable state, which was to be laid up by him for his 
 greater caution : for man was created with a free-will to 
 good, which the tree of life was an evidence of; but his 
 will was mutable to evil, and the forbidden tree was to 
 him a memorial thereof: it was in a manner a continual 
 watchword to him against evil. And the forbidden tree 
 taught Adam that his happiness did not lie in enjoying 
 creatures, for there was a want in paradise : it was there- 
 fore in effect the hand of all the creatures pointing man 
 away from themselves to God for happiness ; and it was 
 like unto a sign of emptiness, lifted up on the door of the 
 creation, with this inscription, " This is not your rest." 
 So that upon the whole man's ruin was most evidently 
 owing to himself; " Man being in honour continued not, 
 but became as the beasts that perish." 
 
 The youngest of you have the greatest ground to be 
 humbled before God for this, that you are guilty of Adam's 
 first sin. And if you look into your own hearts, ye will 
 see the features of the first Adam's face, the very linea- 
 ments of his first sin, in the complexion of your own souls. 
 His posterity are infected with his sinful curiosity (Gen. 
 iii. 6) ; they are more concerned to know new things than 
 to practise known truths. " Vain man would be wise, 
 though he be born like the wild ass's colt." They are 
 ready to hearken to the " instruction that causeth to err." 
 
SERMON I. 127 
 
 The eyes of their head often blind the eyes of their mind ; 
 and they are too much inclined to care for the body at the 
 expense of the soul. How much are we inclined, with 
 Adam, to Iiide our sin, or to extenuate it, and to transfer 
 the guilt of it upon others ? Seeing then that the sin of 
 the first Adam is imputed to you, you can no otherwise be 
 saved but l)y the imputation of Christ's righteousness, to 
 u e justification of life : and therefore every one of you has 
 the greatest need of Christ, and of the grace of Christ, even 
 of that grace which " reigns through righteousness unto 
 eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord." 
 
 2. The youngest of you have an infinite need of Christ ; 
 for you have lost the image of God, Rom. iii. 19. You 
 want that original righteousness which Adam had ; that 
 knowledge of God, of his law, and of his will ; that holiness 
 uf affections, and that conformity of will to the divine law, 
 which human nature was endowed with at its creation ; 
 and, having lost the image of God, you have thereby lost 
 your immortality, and are become subject to death. Man, 
 at his creation, was a freeholder of heaven ; but now, by 
 sin, you are enslaved to your corruptions. You have lost 
 that calm and serenity of conscience, which was the bless- 
 ing of man's primitive state ; and now you have an accus- 
 ing conscience, and a storm is raised in your breast. You 
 have lost that love to God and delight in him which Adam 
 had, and that filial dependence upon him as a God and 
 Father. You have lost all will and power to that which 
 is spiritually good ; and you are lost as to the very end of 
 your creation, which was to see God in all his works, to 
 gather in the revenue of his praise from all the inferior 
 creatures ; and to hand it up to him, and be the mouth 
 of this lower part of the creation, by worshipping and 
 praising God upon the earth, as the angels do in heaven. 
 
 The youngest of you, then, have an infinite need of 
 Christ, who restored that which he took not away, Psal. 
 Ixix, 4. He restored glory to God, and honour to his law ; 
 and he only can restore the image of God to man, and bring 
 man into favour with God. 
 
128 Christ's call to the young. 
 
 3. The youngest of you stand in the greatest need of 
 Christ ; for your natures are corrupted, and you are carnal 
 and altogether sinful. You are morally unclean, and your 
 natures are polluted, Job xiv. 4 : for " who can bring a 
 clean thing out of an unclean? no, not one." The 
 Psalmist doth acknowledge his original corruption, Psal. 
 li. 5. " Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my 
 mother conceive me :"* and our Lord hath determined it, 
 " That which is born of the flesh is flesh," John iii. 6. 
 Man, considered in his corrupted state, is here called flesh ; 
 because the unrenewed man is fleshly and carnal, even in 
 his most religious performances, and is carried out wholly 
 by the principle of flesh within him. In supernatural 
 mysteries he is blind and carnal, 1 Cor. ii. 14; so that 
 flesh and blood cannot reveal them to us, but the Father, 
 Matth. xvi. 17; and this fleshly mind doth move and oper- 
 ate powerfully in atheists and heretics. He is carnal in 
 his performances, because, when he doth them, it is not 
 from love to God, to exalt and honour him, but from love 
 to himself, to avoid some judgment or other. God takes 
 notice of the corruption of your nature. Gen. vi. 5. Psal. 
 xiv. 2, 3. and maketh it lie heavy upon the consciences 
 of his own people in their new birth ; and, while they are 
 in this life, they are exercised with a daily conflict with 
 it : you ought therefore to take notice of it, and be hum- 
 bled for it. Your mind is clouded, and filled with spiritual 
 darkness, Eph. v. 8. You see not the beauty and glory of 
 Christ nor the vileness of sin. That your understand- 
 ings are corrupted doth appear from the vanity of your 
 minds, from the swarms of vain thoughts which do lodge 
 within you ; and from your spiritual foUy, that you pre- 
 fer the worst things to the best ; that you prefer a crea- 
 ture to God, earth to heaven, the body to the soul ; and 
 that you mind only the present time, forgetting eternity, 
 and the world to come. 
 
 * See these texts explained and vindicated, in the review of Mr. 
 Campbell's principles. 
 
SERMON r. 120 
 
 Again, your will is corrupted in its powers, in so far that 
 it is not only weakened but disabled to duty. There is in 
 your will an averseness to good, and a proneness to evil, 
 Jer. xiii, last, IIos. ii. 7 ; and there is in your will an ob- 
 stinacy and contumacy against God, so that you are wilful 
 in an evil course, and refuse to be reclaimed, Jer. viii. 6. 
 Prov. viii. 30. Ezek. xviii. 31. Your will is corrupted and 
 perverse, in reference to your great and ultimate end ; for 
 the natural man seeks not God and his glory for his high- 
 est end, but himself, Psal. xiv. 2, 3. " They are all gone 
 aside." Thou art gone aside from God as thy rest, and as 
 thy last end. All things are from God, and therefore all 
 things ought to be directed to God, and to his glory ; but 
 turning aside from God to the idol of self, thou hast 
 usurped the throne of God, and hast gathered in the rents 
 of his crown to thyself. This is thy case whilst thou art 
 an unrenewed man ; thou art wholly enslaved to sin, and 
 canst do nothing but sin ; hence the natural man is com- 
 pared to an evil tree, that can bring forth nothing but evil 
 fruit. 
 
 Your memory is corrupted ; for you remember what you 
 ought to forget, and forget what you ought to remember ; 
 you forget God's word and his works ; you forget God's 
 mercies and rods ; you forget yourselves and your sins ; 
 you forget your convictions, and the working of God's 
 Spirit upon your hearts ; you forget God himself, his grace 
 and love manifested in Christ Jesus, Is. Ivii. 11, "Thou 
 hast not remembered me, nor laid it to thy heart :" and 
 therefore are you so propense to all manner of evil ; whereas 
 the remembrance of God would be an excellent antidote 
 against all sin. 
 
 Your conscience is defiled. Tit. i. 15. There is a darkness 
 and vail upon it ; whereas, if the candle of the Lord were 
 lighted, thou wouldest be amazed at thyself, and at thy 
 condition. Thy conscience by sin is become senseless and 
 stupid, hence it is called a " seared conscience :'' and if 
 conscience at some times endeavours to exert itself, it is 
 but weakly and faintly; conscience is too weak for cor- 
 * I 
 
130 Christ's call to the You^"G. 
 
 ruptions. Like Balaam, men will press forward to their 
 wickedness, though conscience stand like an angel with a 
 sword in his hand to stop the way. 
 
 Your affections are corrupted, in that they are placed 
 and fixed upon wrong objects ; they were given to men to 
 be wings to their souls in their motions after God, but now 
 they are become clogs and impediments to us in our ap- 
 proaches to God. So corrupted are your affections, that 
 they have usurped a dominion over your understanding, 
 so that you j udge as you affect, and not as matters are ; 
 hence you have drawn false conclusions about the state 
 and condition of your own soul, as if it were safe, when 
 you may well know that it is very bad. 
 
 You have ground to be humbled for your pollution by 
 original sin ; for original sin is the most diffusive sin ; 
 other sins are like particular sores, but this is the gan- 
 grene of the whole man ; the understanding, the will, and 
 the affections, are all defiled and infected with it : all other 
 sins are like the streams, but this is the fountain ; this is 
 the flaming furnace in the inward man, and your actual 
 sins, as so mony sparks of hell, do flash forth from that 
 burning lake within. Truly you are in a most deplo- 
 rable condition ; so that you are not capable to feel your 
 misery, nor to get out of it, or return to God, from whom 
 you have revolted, till sovereign grace interpose for your 
 relief. Know therefore the desperate wickedness of thy 
 heart, Jer. xvii. 9. Psal. xix. 13. A man's heart is like 
 Peter's great sheet. Acts xi. 6, which was full of four- 
 footed beasts, and creeping things, all unclean. Look in- 
 ward, and you will find that your sinful words and actions, 
 though very dishonouring to God in themselves, are yet 
 nothing to the sea of corruption within you, where you 
 cannot reach the bottom. And as you are children of 
 disobedience, so you are children of wrath, Eph, ii. 3, 
 " by nature children of wrath, even as others." You 
 are so by nature, that is, by original sin, which is now 
 natural to you ; by it you are " children of wrath," that is, 
 you are worthy of wrath, liable to it, and under it : wrath 
 
SERMON I. 131 
 
 is your heirship, and you are born to wrath, as you arc the 
 children of the tirst Adam. 
 
 We say, considered in yourselves, you are liable to the 
 wrath of God ; fur you have sinned and come short of the 
 glory of God ; and the Lord hath said it, " The soul that 
 sinneth, it shall die." And you have broken God's law : now, 
 thus saith the Lord, " Cursed is every one that continueth 
 not in all things written in the book of the law to do 
 them." Let us consider that wrath is gone as wide as 
 ever sin went. When angels sinned, wrath brake in upon 
 them as a flood, 2 Pet. ii. 4 ; and when Adam sinned, the 
 whole lump of mankind was leavened, and bound over to 
 the fiery oven of God's justice and wrath. All men 
 and women are under this wrath; the Gentiles, that 
 know not God, are under it, Rom. ii. 12 ; and you, who 
 are young ones, are under this same wrath of God ; you 
 were born under it, but will make yourselves twofold 
 more its children if you do not flee in to Jesus Christ, 
 who hath delivered us from the wrath to come. Nay, 
 there needeth not be a surer mark of your being under the 
 wrath of God, than that you never saw yourself to be under 
 it. Is. xxvii. 11. 2 Thess. i. 8. Hos. iv. 6. No outward pri- 
 vileges can exempt you from this sad condition ; though 
 you be descended of godly parents, and can say, " We have 
 Abraham to our father ;" and though you have been bap- 
 tized, and admitted to church privileges, yet are you 
 " children of wrath as well as others." There is wrath 
 upon your body, it is a piece of cursed clay ; and there is 
 wrath upon your soul, so that you can have no communion 
 with God while in a natural unconverted state, Psal. v. 5. 
 Eph. ii. 12. There is wrath upon all your enjoyments, 
 upon your basket and upon your store, Deut. xxviii. 17 ; 
 and you have no security for a moment from the wrath of 
 God coming on you to the uttermost. In a little, and 
 you know not how soon, death will be a dreadful messen- 
 ger unto you ; it will come armed with wrath, and put a 
 charge and summons in your hand, to bid an eternal fare- 
 well to all tilings in this world, to appear before the tri- 
 
132 Christ's call to the young. 
 
 bunal of God, and to go to another world, where you will 
 have no portion but a treasure of wrath for evermore. It 
 is in hell that the full floods of this wrath go over the pri- 
 soners for ever ; for it will be their sad and dreadful con- 
 dition to be separated from the presence of the Lord, and 
 to depart from Jesus Christ into everlasting fire, prepared 
 for the devil and his angels, where their worm will not die 
 and their fire shall never be quenched. Thus, by original 
 sin, as well as actual transgressions, you are children of 
 wrath ; and unless your nature be changed by the renew- 
 ing grace of God, you must lie to all eternity under this 
 load of divine wrath, and be " punished with everlasting 
 destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the 
 glory of his power." We might likewise tell you of your 
 personal sins ; your disobedience to your parents ; your 
 Sabbath- breaking ; your neglecting of secret prayer, morn- 
 ing or evening ; your lying and taking of the name of God 
 in vain ; for the sake of which things, the wrath of God 
 cometh upon the children of disobedience : and we might 
 likewise warn you of your perishing condition, by reason 
 of your sin of unbelief, and the need you have of the Spirit 
 of Christ " to convince you of sin, because you believe not 
 in the Lord Jesus Christ," John xvi. 8, 9. By this sin of 
 unbelief, Christ is despised and rejected by you ; and you 
 " see no form nor comeliness in him, why he should be 
 desired" by you, though he be truly the " desire of all na- 
 tions, and more excellent than all the mountains of prey." 
 You need not think to despise the love of the Father, the 
 blood of the Son of God, and the promises of the gospel at 
 an easy rate ; for, Mark xvi. 16, " He that belie veth, and 
 is baptized, shall be saved ; and he that believeth not shall 
 be damned." 
 
 IL But we proceed to the second thing proposed, viz., 
 To mention some of those discouragements that young 
 people may meet with in coming unto Christ. And, 
 
 1. Some of you who are of the rising generation may be 
 discouraged in coming unto Christ, from the temptations 
 of Satan leading you to delay this blessed work ; and se- 
 
8EEM0N I. 133 
 
 crctly suggesting this thought, That it is soon enough for 
 you to come to Christ. But you are called to come. " The 
 Master is come, and calleth for you" by name ; and if you 
 sit this call you may never get another. There are young 
 sprigs, as well as old logs, burning in the flames of hell ; 
 and there are graves in the churchyard j ust of your length. 
 Perhaps you are tempted to security : when the Lord vis- 
 ited you with the rod and affliction, you then poured out 
 a prayer, and came under many resolutions ; but, now that 
 the blast of trouble is over, you are following your old 
 course. Beware of despising the Lord's warnings: by 
 these very troubles Christ giveth so many knocks at the 
 door of thy young and sinful heart ; and after all the re- 
 fusals you have given him, he is still calling to you and 
 saying, " Behold, I stand at the door and knock ; if any 
 man open to me, I will come in and sup with him, and he 
 with me," Rev. iii. 20. Or, you are tempted to despair: 
 but consider that " Christ is able to save to the uttermost 
 all that come unto God through him ;" that the mercy of 
 God, in Christ Jesus, is great unto the heavens ; and that 
 he has proclaimed his name, " The Lord God merciful and 
 gracious, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin." Or 
 possibly you are tempted to think hardly of the Lord's 
 way, or of his yoke as burdensome and uneasy ; but know 
 it for a certain truth, that " Wisdom's ways are ways of 
 pleasantness, and all her paths are peace : " and though the 
 hearts of the children of Zion " may know their own bitter- 
 ness, yet a stranger doth not intermeddle with their joy." 
 
 2. Some of you may be discouraged in coming unto 
 Christ, by carnal friends and relations that endeavour to 
 turn you away from him : for the best that ever lived have 
 had trials of this sort ; but the Lord Jesus " giveth power 
 to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth 
 strength ; they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their 
 strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they 
 shall walk and not weary, they shall run and not faint." 
 
 3. You may perhaps be discouraged, from fears of falling 
 away in the time of trial : but trust in the Lord at all 
 
134 CHRIST S CALL TO THE YOUNG. 
 
 times, for " in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength :" 
 and thus you shall be among the preserved in Christ 
 Jesus ; you shall be kept by the power of God, through faith 
 unto salvation ; you shall be delivered from every evil work, 
 and preserved to his heavenly kingdom. The Lord hath said 
 it, and faithful is he who hath promised, Zech. x. 12, " I 
 will strengthen them in the Lord, and they shall walk up 
 and down in his name, saith the Lord." 
 
 4. Some of you may be discouraged, from a sense of your 
 own sinfulness and unworthiness : but it is sinners that 
 Christ came to save ; and " worthy is the Lamb who was 
 slain, and hath redeemed us to God by his blood, out of 
 every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation." The 
 voice of angels is heard round about the throne, saying, 
 with a loud voice, " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, 
 to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, 
 and honour, and glory, and blessing." And you are war- 
 ranted to trust his promise who hath said it, " Your 
 righteousness is of me, saith the Lord : and men shall be 
 blessed in him, and all nations shall call him blessed," 
 Psal. Ixxii. 17. Are any of you discouraged from the 
 greatness of your sin ? then know, that Christ is the great 
 God our Saviour, and that he hath proclaimed his name, 
 saying, " It is I that speak in righteousness, mighty to 
 save," Isa. Ixiii. 1, 2. Or are you discouraged from the 
 power of your corruptions 1 Then take encouragement 
 from his own word of promise, Rom. vi. 14, " Sin shall not 
 have dominion over you : for ye are not under the law, 
 but under grace." Again, Mic. vii. 19, " He will subdue our 
 iniquities ; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the midst 
 of the sea : thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the 
 mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn to our fathers 
 in the days of old." 
 
 IIL We proceed now, in the third place, to speak of the 
 heavenly exercise which the rising generation are called 
 and invited unto, viz. to come to the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 by believing on him whom God hath sent. 
 
 1. Then your coming to Christ supposeth, that there is 
 
SEUMON I. 135 
 
 a call directed to you from a Trinity of Persons in the 
 Godhead, inviting you to come, — to come to Jesus the Me- 
 diator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, 
 that speaketli better things than that of Abel. 1 John iii. 
 23. " And this is his commandment, that we should believe 
 on the name of his Son Jesus Christ." Matt. xi. 28, " Come 
 unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will 
 give you rest." Rev. xxii. 17, "And the Spirit and the 
 bride say, Come; and let him that heareth say, Come. 
 And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever wiillj let 
 him take the waters of life freely." 
 
 2. It supposeth that there is room in the love of God, 
 in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in God's cove- 
 nant of promise, for your welcome and reception, who are 
 the rising generation, Luke xiv. 22, " And yet there is 
 room." John vi. 37, " All that the Father giveth me, shall 
 come unto me, and him that cometh to me, I will in no- 
 wise cast out." 
 
 Young ones, you may be verily persuaded that Christ 
 calleth you by name, Prov. viii. 17, "I love them that 
 love me ; and those that seek me early shall find me." 
 Christ is a public blessing ; " for God so loved the world, 
 that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever be- 
 lie veth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." 
 " As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even 
 so was the Son of man lifted up ; that whosoever believeth 
 on him should not perish, but have eternal life." As all 
 the congregation of Israel had a good right and a warrant 
 from God to look to the serpent lifted up, and be healed ; 
 so all that hear the gospel, particularly you who are 
 the rising generation, have the call and command of God 
 to look unto Christ and be saved, who is the " salvation of 
 God to the ends of the earth." You have all access to this 
 Tree of life, which groweth in the midst of the paradise of 
 God, the " leaves w hereof are for the healing of the na- 
 tions;" and there is no cherubim nor flaming sword to 
 hinder your approach unto it. Take a view of the en- 
 couraging promises ; it is the voice of them all, Come, and 
 
136 Christ's call to the young. 
 
 welcome to Jesus Christ. Through the whole gospel, 
 Christ never once made an objection to any that came to 
 him with their sinfulness or unworthiness ; but all his 
 complaints are of their backwardness and unwillingness to 
 come to him, that they might have life, and have it more 
 abundantly, John v. 40. The vilest sinners that ever 
 were, when they came to him, were made welcome ; Ma- 
 nasseh, Mary Magdalene, and Paul, who had persecuted 
 the church of God. Consider, young ones, that it was the 
 great design of the covenant of grace, that sinners, 
 such as you are, might have a Saviour, Is. Ixi, 1, " The 
 Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath 
 anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek ; he hath 
 sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty 
 to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them 
 that are bound." Consider with what pleasure the Lord 
 Jesus undertook the work of your redemption, and with 
 what cheerfulness he went through that labour of love. 
 Psal. xl. 7, 8. he saith, " Lo, I come;" or "I hasten 
 to come : " and when he is come, he saith, " It is my meat 
 and drink to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish 
 the work which the Father gave me to do ;" viz. by pour- 
 ing out his soul unto death, and making it an offering for 
 sin, that we might receive forgiveness of sins, and inherit- 
 ance among them that are sanctified by faith in his blood. 
 Consider likewise, that it is the end of all the ordinances, 
 that you may come unto Christ and be saved ; for what 
 saith the word 1 but that through Jesus is preached unto 
 you the forgiveness of sins. What say ministers 1 " We 
 are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you 
 by us, we pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled unto 
 God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew 
 no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God 
 in him." And what saith the sacrament 1 " This is the 
 new testament in my blood, shed for the remission of sins 
 unto many ; drink ye all of it." Our Lord Jesus doth feed 
 in the gardens, and he gathers lilies. The day of the sin- 
 ner's closing with him, is the day of the gladness of his 
 
SERMON I. 137 
 
 heart. The hour, wherein the soul is determined to 
 come to Christ, is that very hour wherein he rejoiceth 
 in Spirit; and seeing the travail of his soul, is satis- 
 fied. Ilis forbearance with sinners, and the welcome 
 they get when they come, discover abundantly his good- 
 will towards men. He accepts of a weak mint and 
 essay at coming to him, even of a look, or the breath- 
 ing out of the desires of the soul after himself, as the de- 
 sire of all nations. He is most pressing and earnest in 
 bearing home th3 calls and offers of his grace. How long- 
 suffering is he, and with what patience doth he wait ? even 
 " till his head be filled with dew, and his locks with the 
 drops of the night." Our Lord Jesus is much weighted 
 with it, when sinners will not come to him ; it is accounted 
 by him an affronting him, and a treading the blood of the 
 covenant under foot : it drew tears from his eyes, and he 
 wept bitterly over Jerusalem, because, like many of you, 
 they knew not the things that belong to their peace. The 
 Father hath sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world ; 
 you may therefore trust him with your salvation; and 
 seeing you are sinners of Adam's house, you are therefore 
 warranted to intrust your souls with him, upon his own 
 call in the word ; for his name is called Jesus, " because 
 he saveth his people from their sins." Thus you see, that 
 you, who are the rising generation, are called to the 
 marriage-supper of the Lamb, and may expect a gracious 
 reception from the Lord Jesus Christ, who is come to seek 
 and to save that which was lost. 
 
 3. Your coming unto Christ implieth in it, that the 
 powerful efficacy of divine grace is exerted in renewing 
 you in the spirit of your minds, and making you willing 
 in the day of the Mediator's power, Psal. ex. 3, " Thy peo- 
 ple shall be willing in the day of thy power." And John 
 vi. 44, " No man can come unto me, except the Father 
 which sent me draw him." 
 
 4. Your coming unto Christ, implieth in it a conviction 
 of your sinful and lost condition, as you are children of the 
 lirst Adam ; that you are children of wrath, and that your 
 
138 Christ's call to the young. 
 
 iniquities do separate betwixt God and you ; that you are 
 fatherless and orphans ; that you cannot help yourselves 
 by your prayers, duties, or righteousness ; and that you can 
 have relief no otherwise but in him, in whom the father- 
 less do find mercy, Hos. xiv. 3. Although the Hght of the 
 Spirit of God in conviction is like unto the light of the 
 sun, making all things to appear as they really are ; yet 
 many see their sin and perishing condition only by dis- 
 course : but when the Spirit of God is bringing a soul to 
 Christ, he tixeth the vain mind of a sinner upon the due 
 consideration of sin in its nature, tendency, and end, John 
 xvi. 8, 9. He discovers to the soul the real greatness of 
 sin, by manifesting the real greatness of God against 
 whom it is committed, Hos. iv. 4. Isa. vi. 3 ; and by 
 giving realizing views of the justice of God, who will 
 by no means clear the guilty; of the infinite majesty 
 of God, Job xxxvii. 22 ; and of the holiness and purity of 
 God, who hateth all the workers of iniquity. Hence the 
 convinced sinner is pierced with perplexing grief, and is 
 made to despair of any deliverance by the law or the first 
 covenant, and is made to inquire into the way of relief, 
 ])y Christ in the gospel, and to pant after that salvation 
 that is in him, from present distress and future misery. 
 Acts ii. 37. 
 
 5. Your coming unto Christ, implieth in it that you see 
 him to be the great God your Saviour, or the Lord your 
 righteousness: and your believing on him, or receiving 
 him, as offered to you in the gospel, as your Redeemer. 
 In short, coming to him is just believing the report of the 
 gospel, that Christ is the Messiah, the mercy promised to 
 the fathers ; that he is the Saviour of the world ; that he is 
 the Christ, the Son of the living God ; and that he is given 
 of God to you in the gospel ; for this is God's record, " that 
 he hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son : 
 he that hath the Son hath life." God giveth his Son to 
 you, to be received by you, with a particular application 
 to your own soul's case and exigencies. Christ is exhi- 
 bited in the word, as the great propitiation, to be received 
 
SERMON I. 139 
 
 by you in particular upon the warrant of the free call, and 
 encouraging promise of the gospel. As conviction is par- 
 ticular, " Thou art the man," saith the Spirit ; so the ap- 
 plication of faith is particular, though it be sometimes 
 accompanied with but a small degree of sensible comfort, 
 Is. xlv. 24. 
 
 6. Your coming unto Christ implieth in it your being 
 espoused and betrothed to him, in a marriage covenant, as 
 the one husband raised from the dead. " Ye are become 
 dead to the law, by the body of Christ, that ye should be 
 married to another, even to him who is raised from the 
 dead," Rom. vii. 4. " And I will betroth thee unto me 
 for ever, yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteous- 
 ness, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies : I will even 
 betroth thee unto me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know 
 the Lord," Hos. ii. 19, 20. The soul going forth and be- 
 holding king Solomon with the crown upon his head in 
 the day of his espousals, cometh to the marriage of the 
 King's son, to be betrothed to him for ever ; and the soul's 
 motion to Christ is the fruit of God's promise of betroth- 
 ing souls to himself, in loving-kindness and in tender mer- 
 cies. You are thus, through grace, to come to and trust 
 in the Lord Jesus for your all of righteousness and 
 strength ; to devote yourselves to him ; to love the name 
 of the Lord, and to serve him ; to come with him from 
 Lebanon, to look to him from the top of Amana and Her- 
 mon, from the lions' dens, the mountains of the leopards ; 
 and to take him for your all of consolation, who is the 
 consolation of Israel. 
 
 IV. We proceed now, in the fourth place, to speak of 
 some of those encouragements which the Lord Jesus hath 
 given unto the rising generation to come unto him. And, 
 
 1. The full and ample call of Christ in the gospel, is most 
 encouraging to engage poor sinners to come unto Christ, 
 and particularly to encourage the rising generation to come 
 unto him ; " Suffer the little children to come unto me, 
 and forbid them not." The call is directed to all the sons 
 of men, and giveth them a good warrant to come, Prov. 
 
140 Christ's call to the young. 
 
 viii. 4, " To you I call, men ; and my voice is to the 
 sons of Adam." 
 
 2. The promise of grace and strength to enable you to 
 come is a noble encouragement to come to Jesus Christ, 
 
 Psal. xxii. 30, 31, " A seed shall serve him. They shall 
 
 come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people 
 that shall be born, and that he hath done this." And the 
 promise of welcome to all that come is most encouraging, 
 John vi. 37, " Him that cometh to me, I will in nowise 
 cast out :" or, as the word may be rendered. Him that is 
 a-coming unto me (him that is but essaying to come), I 
 will in nowise cast him out. 
 
 3. That God is most glorified by those that come to 
 Christ, is encouraging to come. He has condescended to 
 gather in to himself the revenue of his glory, from the sal- 
 vation of sinners by Christ Jesus, Eph. ii. 6, 7 ; and this is 
 a most comfortable encouragement, nay, sure warrant for 
 sinners to come to Christ ; seeing, in this method of salva- 
 tion by him, there is " glory to God in the highest, as well 
 as peace on earth, and good will towards men," Luke ii. 
 14, Well, that very moment you come to Christ, you put 
 the crown upon his head, and ascribe glory unto him ; and 
 his glory to all eternity shall be great in your salvation, 
 Psal. xxi. 25. That moment you fall in with God's great 
 and highest design of creating all things, and upholding 
 them to this very day, which is, that the burden of the praise 
 of Immanuel might be lifted up, and that to the ages to 
 come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace, in 
 his kindness toward you through Christ Jesus ; and you 
 put in your note in a concert with the angels and the re- 
 deemed from amongst men, in celebrating the grace of 
 Christ, and that salvation he hath wrought, with the glory 
 of God manifested therein : and that moment you come to 
 Christ, there is a shout of song among the angels of 
 God ; for " there is joy in heaven over one sinner that re- 
 penteth." 
 
 4. God the Father hath sent the Son to be the Saviour 
 of the world; John iv. 15, and this is a sure warrant, and 
 
SERMON I. 141 
 
 good encouragement for you to corae unto Christ, and to 
 believe on him as the Saviour of the world. This world 
 had been the very suburbs of hell, upon the entrance of 
 sin, if the Son of God had not been sent into it ; and God 
 had never received any thing more of a revenue of glory 
 from men on the earth, if the Son had not been sent to be 
 the Saviour of the world. But, behold, " the Word was 
 made flesh, and dwelt among us ;" and there is a shout 
 among the seraphims, that " the whole earth is full of his 
 glory," Is. vi. 3 ; for God had more glury from the obe- 
 dience of his eternal Son, than from the obedience of all 
 the hosts of angels since ever the world began. The Lord 
 Jesus is the great High Priest, taken from among men, 
 and ordained for men, in things pertaining to God ; in the 
 nature of man he finished this work of our redemption ; 
 and therefore every man that hears this everlasting gospel 
 is warranted to come unto him, and to trust in him with a 
 full confidence of faith, to obtain salvation by him, who is 
 the Saviour of the world. 
 
 5. It is encouraging to you to come to Jesus Christ, that 
 when poor sinners come unto him " he seeth the travail of 
 his soul and is satisfied," Is. liii. 11. He had sore travail 
 of soul, by the sword of justice awakening against him, 
 that it might be quiet as to you ; he had sore travail of 
 soul, by the hidings of his Father's face, and drinking of 
 the brook in the way, that torrent of vindictive wrath 
 which interposed betwixt you and the city of God. But, 
 so to speak, he reckons himself well rewarded, and is 
 satisfied, for all the sore travail of his soul, in the garden of 
 Gethsemane, in his agony, and upon the cross in Calvary, 
 in his being, through his whole life, a man of sorrows and 
 acquainted with grief; when he seeth the rising genera- 
 tion coming to him for life, for righteousness and strength ; 
 and seeth you coming to God, through him, as to your rest, 
 portion, and everlasting blessedness. 
 
 V. We now proceed to make some application of this 
 doctrine; and that, by addressing ourselves, 1. To the pre- 
 sent generation. 2. To the rising generation. 
 
142 Christ's call to the young. 
 
 (1.) Then, we would exhort you, who are the present 
 generation, to imitate the example laid before you in our 
 text, by bringing your children, and the rising generation, 
 to Jesus Christ, the Mediator of the new covenant. 
 
 In order to this, you should be concerned to have 
 some knowledge of Christ, and acquaintance with him 
 yourselves: like these parents here spoken of, you must 
 have some love to Christ, and an esteem of the grace of 
 Christ, and an expectation of a gracious reception from 
 him. The people here spoken of believed that Christ was 
 both able and willing to help them ; they came to Christ 
 themselves, and brought their children, their best things 
 with them, as an offering unto him. They had been with 
 liim, we may suppose, in some mount Tabor of mani- 
 festation, and found that it was good to be there ; and 
 therefore thought it was best to have their children there 
 likewise. Imitate their example in this, that they had 
 first a concern about their own souls, and then were deeply 
 concerned about the souls of their children ; and in that 
 they were persuaded it would be well with the souls of 
 their children if they were Christ's, and no way else. This 
 seems to have been their conviction, and therefore they de- 
 voted both themselves and their children to the Lord Jesus, 
 in whom alone the families of the earth shall be blessed. 
 
 Let this be your exercise, to bring your children to 
 Christ, that they may obtain " the blessing from the Lord, 
 and righteousness from the God of our salvation ;" for, by 
 nature, they are children of wrath, and under the curse. 
 Bring them to him for instruction, that they may be 
 all taught of the Lord ; and great shall be the blessed- 
 ness and peace of your children. Bring them to him for 
 redemption ; for he is a living Redeemer. Bring them to 
 him for quickening and spiritual life ; for they are dead in 
 trespasses and sins, and Christ is the resurrection and the 
 life. Bring them unto him, that their persons may be jus- 
 tified, and their natures sanctified ; for he is " made of God 
 unto us sanctification, and in him all the seed of Israel shall 
 be justified, and shall glory." 
 
SERMON I. 143 
 
 Consider the marks and chanxcters of such as may ex- 
 pect to succeed in bringing tlieir children to Christ. 1. 
 Such as make an acceptable ofTering of them to the Lord, 
 bring them to Christ, as the altar of acceptance, Is. Ivi. 7, 
 '• Their burnt-offorings and their sacrifices shall be accepted 
 on mine altar." 2. They are importunate with the Lord 
 for his grace and help ; they are humble and self-denied, 
 and after seeming repulses wait patiently on for an answer 
 of peace, Matt. xv. 22, 24, 25, 28, " And, behold, a woman 
 of Canaan cried unto him, saying. Have mercy on me, 
 Lord, thou Son of David ; my daughter is grievously vexed 
 with a devil : but he answered her not a word. Then 
 came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord help me : but 
 he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's 
 bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord, 
 yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their mas- 
 ter's table. Then Jesus answered, and said unto her, 
 woman, great is thy faith : be it unto thee even as thou 
 wilt." 3. They maintain honourable thoughts of Christ, 
 and they believe and trust to his word of grace and pro- 
 mise, John iv, 50, " Jesus saith unto him. Go thy way, thy 
 son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus 
 had spoken unto him, and he went his way : and himself 
 believed, and his whole house." 
 
 But it may be for a lamentation, that many of us, in- 
 stead of bringing our children to Christ, have provoked 
 the Lord to leave both us and them. 1. By stoutness of 
 heart, in not being humbled by the thought that both we 
 and our children have sinned in the first Adam, that we 
 have lost the image of God, and that our natures are uni- 
 versally corrupted. 2. By our ignorance of Christ; for, 
 had we attained to more acquaintance and communion 
 with him, we might have spoken of him as of a friend to our 
 children. 3. By our unbelief, rejecting many an ofier of 
 Christ, and distrusting the promise given to us and to our 
 children. Acts ii. 39. 4. By our carnality and worldly- 
 mindedness ; so that little of Christ was to be seen about 
 us, either in our words or actions : and by our formality 
 
144 Christ's call to the Youxa. 
 
 in our closets and family duties, Whereas had we been 
 spiritual and lively, we might have transmitted a savour 
 of Christ to our children, and to others about us. 
 
 But let the present generation be excited to this neces- 
 sary duty of bringing the rising generation to Christ, from 
 a consideration of the encouragements the Lord hath given 
 to them in his word. Consider, that as the promise is to 
 you and to your children, so those who have brought their 
 children to the Lord, have met with a gracious reception : 
 thus, when Hannah dedicated Samuel to the Lord, her 
 offering was accepted. Consider, the Lord has promised 
 to pour his Spirit upon your seed, and his blessing upon 
 your offspring. Is. xliv. 4, 5 ; and that he has said, Christ 
 shall have a seed to serve him, who shall cause his name 
 to be remembered to all generations, Psal. xxii. 30. and 
 xlv. 17. Consider also, that God hath promised to circum- 
 cise your hearts, and the hearts of your seed, to love the 
 Lord your God with all your heart, Deut. xxx. 6. In 
 bringing your children to the Lord, in the strength of 
 grace, fix your faith upon these his words of promise ; and, 
 in so doing, you may be assured of success in this duty 
 and exercise. 
 
 Again, if the present generation would bring the rising 
 generation to Christ, then they will be inclined, 1. To 
 come to Christ themselves, as to a " living Stone, disallowed 
 indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious," 1 Pet. ii. 
 4 ; to abase themselves under the mighty hand of God, 
 who " resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the hum- 
 ble:" to be grieved for their own sins, Psal. xxxviii. 18; 
 to be as doves in the valleys, every one mourning for his 
 iniquities : and to weep for the sins of the present genera- 
 tion, the profanity, atheism, lewdness, wantonness, drunk- 
 enness, and scoffing at religion, which prevails ; for the 
 public indignities done to the Lord Jesus, by all ranks, by 
 the courts of judgment, by the state's invading the rights 
 of the Redeemer's crown, and by church -judicatories, 
 their silent and sinful connivance at all the dishonours 
 done to the Lord of glory, and by intrusions made upon the 
 
8ERM0X I. 145 
 
 heritage of the Lord ; thus taking away the bread of Ufe 
 from the souls of the rising generation. Let your hearts 
 be deeply affected with the signs of the Lord's anger, and 
 with the apostasy of this generation. It is matter of deep 
 humiliation, that the false prophet and the unclean spirit 
 are passing uncontrolled through the land ; the grossest 
 of errors are spread in all corners, to the perdition and de- 
 struction of the souls of men ; the Supreme Deity of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ is opposed and denied ; the work of the 
 Spirit of God, in the conversion and sanctification of sinful 
 men, is assailed and subverted ; self-love is declared to be 
 the principle, rule, and standard of all religious actions, 
 and self-interest to be their main and ultimate end. If 
 these foundation-truths be buried, what shall become of 
 the rising generation, but that they will lay aside all 
 regajd to God and religion, and be drenched in mere 
 atheism and infidelity, to the dishonour of God, and to 
 their own eternal destruction ? What reason withal have 
 you to lament the neutrality of some that have in them 
 the root of the matter, and are, notwithstanding, con- 
 tinuing in a conjunction with those who have denied these 
 foundation-truths, and are associated with those that have 
 given up with Christ's Headship, and take their holding 
 of the powers of the earth ? It were easy to show that 
 such an association is most unwarrantable; as thereby 
 they partake of other men's sins, do not bring them to a 
 conviction of such enormities as are censurable by the 
 word of God, and thus suffer sin to lie upon them ; while, 
 in opposition to the rule of the word, they do not with- 
 draw, but continue in fellowship with the workers of ini- 
 quity. It is most manifest, that such a course as this 
 cannot possibly be a proper mean to assert and defend the 
 royalties of the Redeemer's crown, nor to maintain the 
 purity of doctrine, the government, worship, and discipline 
 of his house, or to transmit them faithfully to posterity ; 
 which church -officers and church -judicatories are most 
 sacredly bound to do, not only from the solemn oath of 
 God, in our Covenants, National and Solemn League, but 
 
146 Christ's call to the young. 
 
 by the very nature and duties of their office, by all the 
 rules laid down in God's holy word, and by all the ties of 
 nature ; that is, by humanity itself, and the love and regard 
 they ought naturally to have for their own posterity, the 
 rising generation. Eli's coldness and neutrality in the 
 matters of God, was severely punished in that good man ; 
 and it was in itself a dreadful judgment to the generation 
 wherein he lived, being an effectual bar in the way of re- 
 formation ; while the tribes of Israel being thereby har- 
 dened in their course of apostasy, were brought, as the 
 fruit of it, under most dreadful marks of the divine dis- 
 pleasure. 2. If you, who are the present generation, would 
 bring your children to Christ, then set apart some time 
 for secret fasting, and the prayer of faith for your chil- 
 dren. Job i. 5 ; and instruct them daily in the good ways 
 of the Lord, encouraging them in well-doing, and correct- 
 ing them for their faults. Talk with them when you sit 
 in your house and when you walk by the way, when you 
 lie down, and when you rise up, Deut. vi. 7. Talk with 
 them of their baptismal vows, and of their warrant to be- 
 lieve in the Lord Jesus, and of their duty to devote them- 
 selves to the Lord, as you have endeavoured, through 
 grace, to do it in their name. Talk with them of the love 
 of God, in sending his Son into the world, and of the love of 
 Christ, which passeth knowledge ; of their duty to love the 
 Lord, and of the promise of grace, to enable them to love 
 him, Deut. xxx. 6. Talk with them, and tell them of the 
 works of God for this land, in our glorious reformation, 
 and wonderful revolution ; " Walk about Zion, and go 
 round about her; tell the towers thereof; mark ye well 
 her bulwarks, consider her palaces, that ye may tell it to 
 the generation following : for this God is our God for ever 
 and ever; he will be our guide even unto death," Psal. 
 xlviii. 12, 13, 14. Talk with them, and tell them of the 
 solemn engagements these lands are under, to promote re- 
 formation, and to walk closely with God, by our Covenants, 
 National and Solemn League ; and tell them of our back- 
 slidings and defections from the Lord, and of the breaches 
 
SERMON I. 147 
 
 and violations of the vows of God, Talk with them of 
 God's wonderful appearances for us, and of their duty to 
 cleave to the Lord with purpose of heart. Tell them of 
 the ordinances, the pleasant palaces of Zion, where the 
 King is held in the galleries ; and of the promise of God, 
 which are her bulwarks. Let it be your exercise, " to 
 show to the generation to come, the praises of the Lord, 
 and his strength, and the wonderful works that he hath 
 done. For he estaV)lished a testimony in Jacob, and ap- 
 pointed a law in Israel, that you should make them known 
 to your children: that the generations to come might know 
 them ; who should arise and declare them to their children: 
 that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the 
 works of God, but keep his commandments," Psal. Ixxviii. 
 4, 5, G, 7. Talk with them of God's covenant of grace and 
 promise, which is his testimony established in Jacob, and 
 his law appointed in Israel. Talk with them of the com- 
 prehensive blessing and promise of this covenant, that 
 " this God is our God for ever and ever." Talk with them 
 of the absoluteness and freeness of this covenant ; and of 
 the righteousness of Christ, its only proper condition, 
 which being fulfilled, the rising generation, as well as 
 others, may warrantably put in a claim for all its blessings 
 in Christ's right, and for Christ's sake ; a claim that will 
 certainly be sustained in the court of heaven. And tell 
 them to give themselves up to God, who hath raised 
 Christ from the dead, and given him glory, that our faith 
 and hope might ])e in God. 
 
 We now proceed to conclude this discourse, by directing 
 a word to you who are the rising generation, in a use of 
 Examination and Consolation. 
 
 EXAiirs'ATIOX. 
 
 1. It is necessary that you examine and try yourselves, 
 whether or not you have as yet come to Jesus, the Media- 
 tor of the new covenant. 
 
 (1.) Then, is it your exercise, with young Josiah, 2 Chron. 
 
148 Christ's call to the young. 
 
 xxxiv. 3. to prepare your hearts to seek the Lord God of 
 your fathers 1 Early seekers of Christ shall not seek him 
 in vain; for those that seek him early shall find him, 
 Prov. viii. 17. Young seekers of the Lord have some in- 
 sight into the evil of sin, and they are tenderly aifected with 
 it ; young Josiah's heart was tender, and he wept before 
 the Lord, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 21, 27, 30 ; he wept not only for 
 his original sin, and his actual sins, but for the sins of the 
 land, and the people among whom he lived ; and is this 
 your exercise 1 The voice of prayer is heard among young 
 seekers ; they read the scriptures ; the word of the Lord 
 is precious to them ; and they devote themselves to the 
 Lord, to love the name of the Lord, and to serve him, 
 through the grace of Jesus Christ. Josiah, while he was 
 yet young, in the sixteenth year of his age, " made a cove- 
 nant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep 
 his testimonies with all his heart, and with all his soul," 
 2 Chron. xxxiv. 31. But, in order to your devoting your- 
 selves to the Lord in a covenant of duties, you must, by 
 faith, take hold of his covenant of promise ; seeing you 
 can no otherwise be accepted, but by the righteousness of 
 Christ, and no otherwise be assisted but by the grace of 
 Christ, which is exhibited to you in the promise of the 
 covenant. 
 
 (2.) Do you believe in the Son of God ? Have you got a 
 sight of the King in his beauty ; has your soul been made 
 to foUow hard after him ; are your desires drawn out to- 
 wards the " Desire of all nations 1 " Is Christ precious to 
 you, and " more than another beloved 1 for to those that 
 believe he is precious," 1 Pet. ii. 7. Do you account all 
 things but loss and dung to win Christ, and to be found 
 in him, not having your own righteousness, but that which 
 is by the faith of Christ ? Are you in him, as Noah was in 
 the ark, or as the manslayer was in the city of refuge ? 
 
 (3.) Have your hearts been made to burn with love to 
 the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you seen him to be the 
 chiefest among ten thousand, and altogether lovely ? Do 
 you love him, and breathe after fellowship with him, and 
 
SERMON I. 140 
 
 nearness to him, saying with the church, " Tell me, 
 thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, and where 
 thou makest thy flock to rest at noon ?" Song i. 7. Do you 
 so love him as to keep his commandments, and breathe after 
 holiness and conformity to him ? Do you love his ordi- 
 nances, and esteem a day in his courts better than a thou- 
 sand elsewhere, and delight in the place where his honour 
 dwelleth ? Do you love his people, and account them the 
 excellent ones of the earth, in whom is all your delight 1 
 Do you prefer Zion to your chiefest joy ; and are you af- 
 fected with the desolations of the sanctuary, and grieved 
 for the affliction of Joseph? Do you rejoice when Christ 
 is honoured ; and do the reproaches of those that reproach 
 him fall upon you 1 Is there nothing so humbling to you, 
 as that you have so little love to Christ ; nothing a greater 
 burden to you, than the weakness of your love to Christ ? 
 Is there nothing so comfortable to you as the promise of 
 the Spirit, to manifest the glory of Christ to your soul, 
 John xvi. 14; and to shed his love abroad in your hearts? 
 Then you are of the number uf those that love our Lord 
 Jesus Christ in sincerity, and of the little children of whom 
 is the kingdom of God. 
 
 EXHORTATION. 
 
 We now proceed to a word of Exhortation; and may the 
 Lord, by his Holy Spirit, persuade and determine you to 
 come to HIM, who is come in the name of the Lord to 
 save you, and who is come that you may have life, and 
 have it more abundantly. 
 
 1. We exhort you to believe in the Son of God; for this 
 is to come to Christ, and this is the work of God, to be- 
 lieve in him whom God hath sent. Believe the record of 
 God concerning his Son ; and " this is the record, that 
 God hath given to us eternal life ; and this life is in his 
 Son. He that hath the Son hath life," 1 John v. 11, 12. 
 You may well believe what God testifieth ; but God testi- 
 fieth that he hath given to you eternal life, and that this 
 
150 Christ's call to the young. 
 
 life is in his Son, as its Spring and Fountain : he testi- 
 fieth that he hath given to you his Son; and he that 
 hath the Son hath hfe. Faith has Christ, it has the 
 Son ; and faith only has him, because God has given him ; 
 for faith can have nothing but what God gives. God gives 
 Christ, and faith receiveth him, and hath him in posses- 
 sion : but he is given to many that do not receive him ; 
 and this is their unbelief, that they do not, and will not, 
 receive God's gift of Christ, and of life in him. For though 
 Christ be given in possession only to those that by faith 
 receive him, yet Christ, and life in him, is given unto all of 
 you that hear the gospel, in the offer and right to put in your 
 claim to Christ, and life in him as yours ; and every one of 
 you is warranted to receive him as yours, laying claim to 
 liim, and to all the blessings of his purchase, as your own, 
 in a way of grace. He is given of God to you, to be your 
 Kinsman-Redeemer, Job xix. 25. Is. ix. 6. He is given to 
 be a light to you that sit in darkness, in the region and 
 shadow of death ; to be a Ransomer, to proclaim the gos- 
 pel jubilee, and liberty to the captives. Is. Ixi. 1. He is 
 given to be a covenant to the people, Is. xlix. 8 ; to be the 
 new-covenant Head, the Surety and Trustee of the cove- 
 nant, and to dispense all the blessings of the covenant. 
 He is given to thee, man or woman, to be a Restorer of 
 paths to dwell in, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages ; 
 to be thy Head and Husband, to betroth thee unto him 
 for ever ; to be a leader to thee through all thy dark be- 
 wildered steps ; to be a Saviour to thee from all thy sins ; 
 to be a Physician to heal all thy plagues ; and to be the 
 Salvation of God to the ends of the earth. 
 
 What God hath said and recorded, you may, and ought 
 to believe : now God hath said, that he offereth and giveth 
 to you life, in Christ the Prince of life ; that he giveth to 
 you life, and Clirist the Fountain of life. He that believeth 
 not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not 
 the record that God gave of his Son, 1 John v. 10. Unbe- 
 lief doth consist in discrediting what God hath said. Now 
 the sin of unbelief is not your disbelieving that God giveth 
 
SERMON I. 151 
 
 Christ to the elect, or that he giveth Christ to others ; but 
 your not believing that God otiereth and giveth Christ to 
 you in particular, and that you have a warrant and right 
 to accept of him. Thus it was with the Jews ; the pro- 
 mise was to them and to their children. Acts ii. 30 ; but 
 they did not credit the word of salvation sent unto them, 
 but rejected the counsel of God against themselves. 
 When the brazen serpent was lifted up before all the 
 congregation of Israel ; if multitudes of them perished by 
 not looking up to the brazen serpent, it was not because 
 the remedy was not offered and given to them as well as 
 the rest of the congregation, but because they did not 
 look to it, nor credit God's word tliat a look would cure 
 them. 
 
 2. We exhort you to come to Jesus Christ, the Mediator 
 of the new covenant : and it is the voice of Christ to you 
 who are the rising generation ; '• Suffer the little children 
 to come unto me, and forbid them not ; for of such is the 
 kingdom of God." Our Lord commandeth you to be 
 called ; and we say to you, as it was said to the blind man, 
 Mark x, 49, '* Be of good comfort, rise, for he calleth thee." 
 He calleth for your hearts ; " My son, give me thy heart." 
 He calleth you to come into a marriage-relation to him, and 
 to sweet fellowship with him, upon the mountains of 
 myrrh, and the hills of frankincense, till the day break, 
 and the shadows flee away. He calleth you to come, with 
 all your sins, to be pardoned ; with all your plagues, to be 
 healed ; with all your wants, to be supplied ; and with all 
 your burdens, to be relieved. 
 
 As to you who are advanced in years, though it is in 
 youth that God ordinarily brings in to himself, yet he is 
 sovereign that way. sinner, if forty, if fifty years old, 
 we say, yet even now is the word of this salvation sent 
 unto you ; rise, for he this moment calleth you. Thus he 
 calleth some at the eleventh hour ; and thus Paul was 
 called when advanced in years, 1 Cor. xv. 8, " And last of 
 all, he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time." 
 
 And if you who are the rising generation, would be 
 
152 Christ's call to the young. 
 
 directed how to come, then come, depending on God's 
 word of promise for grace and strength to come ; for he 
 has said it, Psal. xxii. 31, " They shall come, and they 
 shall declare his righteousness." Come, looking unto 
 Jesus, the Author and Finisher of faith, Heb. xii. 2 ; and 
 say with the church, " Draw me, we will run after thee." 
 Come in a mourning frame, that you have been so long a- 
 coming, that you have been amongst the last to bring back 
 the King: and come rejoicing, that you are yet called and 
 invited to come ; for " Blessed are they who are called to 
 the marriage-supper of the Lamb." 
 
 Come then to him with all your hosannas, and praises 
 of faith. Matt. xxi. 15, 16 ; for out of the mouths of babes 
 and sucklings he has perfected praise. Come to him with 
 all your supplications and prayers of faith, to be perfumed 
 with his incense ; and come to him with the confidence of 
 faith. Come, and in coming to him, depend upon the Holy 
 Ghost, who is the Spirit of faith ; for it is the work of the 
 Spirit to glorify Christ, John xvi. 14. And when Jesus is 
 seen in his glory, then your souls will follow hard after him, 
 as the chariots of Amminadib ; and the language of your 
 hearts will be, " Behold, we come unto thee, for thou art 
 the Lord our God." 
 
(153) 
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 Gkn. xxviii. 10 — 13, 19. — " .^nd Jacob went out from Beersheba, and 
 went toward Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place, and tairied 
 
 there all night, and lay down in that place to sleep : and he 
 
 dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it 
 reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God ascending and 
 descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I 
 
 am the Lord God of Abraham thy Father, and the God of Isaac. 
 
 And he called the name of that place Bethel." 
 
 We may notice, from these words, and their connection in 
 this chapter, that Jacob had this vision in his youth, and 
 in the day of his distress, when he was in exile from his 
 father's house, and had fled from the face of Esau his 
 brother, who sought his life. 
 
 In the words, we may remark more particularly, 1. The 
 season of this manifestation ; it was when Jacob was go- 
 ing from Beersheba towards Ilaran, going from his native 
 country to a foreign land, in compliance with the call of 
 God's Providence. 2. The manner in which the manifesta- 
 tion was given ; it was in a night vision ; and this was 
 one of the ways in which God spake unto the fathers ; but 
 he hath now, in these last times, spoken unto us by his 
 own Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things. 3. 
 The manifestation itself: Behold, " a ladder set up on the 
 earth, and the top of it reached heaven." This ladder was 
 an emblem of Christ, who is " the way, the truth, and the 
 life," John xiv. 6. And the angels are said to ascend and 
 descend, as being, at his command, in the administration 
 of his kingdom, Heb. i. 14. John i. 51. And he saw " the 
 Lord standing above it;" God as in Christ reconciling the 
 
154 Christ's call to the young. 
 
 world to himself, proclaiming his covenant of promise, " I 
 am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of 
 Isaac." 4. The gracious and kindly impression this mani- 
 festation made upon Jacob ; he says, " This is none other 
 but the house of God, this is the gate of heaven. And he 
 called the name of the place Bethel." Bethel signifies the 
 house of God; though it was a solitary place, yet the divine 
 presence made it to Jacob the house of God, and the gate 
 of heaven. 
 
 From these words, we may deduce the following doc- 
 trinal observation : 
 
 " That the time of youth is a special season of Bethel 
 manifestations, wherein God doth manifest to the souls of 
 men the glory of Christ, and doth reveal himself, as a re- 
 conciled God in Chr.st, and condescends to show unto 
 them his holy covenant of promise." 
 
 In discoursing on this doctrine, we shall endeavour, by 
 divine assistance, 
 
 I. To offer a few remarks concerning these Bethel-mani- 
 festations, which the Lord frequently condescends to bless 
 the sons of men with in the days of their youth. 
 
 II. Speak a little of these manifestations, and show what 
 it is he doth manifest and reveal to the rising generation, 
 in the days of their youth. And, 
 
 III. Apply the doctrine. 
 
 I. We proceed to the first thing proposed, to offer a few 
 remarks concerning these Bethel - manifestations, which 
 the Lord frequently condescends to bless the sons of men 
 with in the days of their youth. And, 
 
 1. We remark, that there is a Bethel-manifestation of 
 Christ in his glory, in the morning of conversion, when 
 the soul is first visited with the day-spring from on high. 
 This was the privilege of Paul, in the day that he was 
 effectually called, Acts ix. compared with 1 Cor. xv. 8. 
 ^' And last of all, he was seen of me also, as of one born out 
 of due time." The day of his conversion was his birth- 
 day, wherein he was born from above. He was a man 
 advanced in years, who had long opposed the gospel, and 
 
SERMON II. 155 
 
 rejected the offers of grace ; and therefore he looks on him- 
 self as one born out of due time : yet it was a blessed time 
 to his soul, and the best day that ever ho saw ; it was to 
 him a day of manifestation, wherein he saw the holy One 
 and the Just, and heard the voice of his mouth. So is it, 
 in some measure, to all that are efiectually called. Though 
 every one cannot distinctly tell the day and time of his 
 first meeting with Christ ; yet every one of them has got 
 such a glimpse of the glory of Christ, as has drawn his 
 heart, his trust, and the desires of his soul, towards himself 
 2. "We remark, that the Lord's people have Bethel meet- 
 ings with Christ in the morning of a renewed manifesta- 
 tion, after they have been mourning without the sun, 
 and walking in darkness, having no light. They may be 
 said to attain such Bethel-manifestations, (1.) When he 
 manifests himself unto them in the glory of his person, in 
 his offices, and in the freeness and permanency of his love 
 and grace ; and in his comfortable relations, mediation, 
 and powerful intercession, John xiv. 21, " He that hath 
 my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth 
 me ; — and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." 
 (2.) When he looseth their bonds, and maketh them to walk 
 in the glorious Uberty of the sons of God, Psal. cxvi. 16 ; 
 hearing their prayers, and giving them gracious and com- 
 fortable returns : " In the day when I cried, thou an- 
 sweredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my 
 soul." Psal. cxvi. 1, 2, " T love the Lord, because he hath 
 heard my voice, my supplications : because he hath inclined 
 his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as 
 I live." (3.) When their souls are made, in a lively exer- 
 cise of faith, to feed upon his word ; when he speaketh 
 into their hearts, and converseth with them by his word, 
 and the motions of his Spirit upon their souls, Luke xxiv, 
 32, " And they said one to another. Did not our heart 
 burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and 
 while he opened to us the Scriptures ? " (4.) When they 
 attain, through grace, a nearness to God, Song i. 3, " The 
 King hath brought me into his chambers ; we will be glad, 
 
156 Christ's call to the young. 
 
 and rejoice in thee : we will remember thy love more than 
 wine : the upright love thee." Sometimes Christians have 
 attained a greater nearness to the Lord, than they thought 
 possible on the earth, and have been made to cry out, 
 " Hold, Lord, for I can hold no more, for I am an earthen 
 vessel;" because their old bottles were like to break to 
 shivers, with a fill of that new wine of fellowship and com- 
 munion with God. (5.) When they have had such mani- 
 festations, that he has drawn by the vail, and they have 
 seen the King in his beauty, and beheld the land that is 
 afar off; their graces having been excited, and drawn forth 
 into a lively exercise, by fresh influences of the Ploly Spirit ; 
 and the Beloved has come into his garden, to see the beds 
 of spices, and to gather lilies. (6.) When they have had 
 such intimations made unto them as, " Son, be of good 
 cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee ; " and " I have loved thee 
 with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness 
 have I drawn thee:" when, with power and evidence of 
 his Spirit, he saith " to them who are of a fearful heart, 
 Be strong, fear not;" and encourageth them with such a 
 word, " Fear not, I know that ye seek Jesus who was cru- 
 cified ; he is risen, as he said ; come, see the place where 
 the Lord lay." (7.) When he giveth new and unwonted 
 communications unto their souls ; when he giveth strength 
 to them in their weakness, and life to them in their dead- 
 ness ; when he giveth to them peace and pardon, and giveth 
 to them himself, which is more than all other blessings. Rev. 
 ii. 28, " And I will give him the morning star." He giveth 
 them sometimes grapes from Eshcol, the first-fruits of the 
 land of promise, a Pisgah-view of the land afar off, a fore- 
 taste of glory, some drops of that wine that goeth down 
 sweetly, making the lips of them that are asleep to speak. 
 So that, even here below, they are made to begin some 
 notes of the song of the redeemed ; and have such com- 
 munion and fellowship with God through Jesus Christ, 
 that it is to them the gate of heaven, the suburbs of glory. 
 3. We remark, that there are some means and ordinances 
 of God's appointment, wherein the followers of Christ are 
 
SERMON II. 1,j7 
 
 privileged with these manifestations. It is in the sanc- 
 tuary, in the attendance upon public ordinances, that they 
 see his power and his glory, Psal. Ixiii. 1, 2. It was in 
 hearing tlie gospel preached, that a great company of the 
 priests became obedient to the faith ; and it was by the 
 ministry of the word, that the Lord opened the heart of 
 Lydia, to attend to the things that were spoken. It is in 
 the field of meditation, that they get sometimes a refresh- 
 ing view of the glory of the Lord : " When I remember 
 thee upon my bed," saith the Psalmist, " my soul followeth 
 hard after thee." And it is in reading and searching the 
 Scriptures, that they behold the glory of Christ, 2 Cor. iii. 
 18. " Often," said an eminent saint, " have I seen the in- 
 visible God; and when I saw him, it was in his word." It 
 was in the duty of prayer. Gen. xxxii. 24, 30, that Jacob had 
 a most remarkable manifestation of the glory of Christ. He 
 wrestled with the Angel of the covenant till the breaking 
 of the day, " and he blessed him there : and Jacob called 
 the name of the place Peniel ; for I have seen God face to 
 face, and my life is preserved." 
 
 4. We remark, that there are some particular seasons 
 wherein the Lord condescends to give manifestations to 
 his disciples and followers ; such as, when they are lament- 
 ing after the Lord, and seeking him with a holy restless 
 activity, Song iii. 3, " I sought him whom my soul loveth. 
 
 It was but a little I passed from them, when I found 
 
 him whom my soul loveth : I held him, and would not let 
 him go." Or when humbled for their own sins, and the 
 sins of the land, which have provoked him to withdi-aw : 
 thus, when Daniel was exercised in this manner, it was 
 said to him, " Daniel, a man greatly beloved," Dan. ix. 
 23. Or when suffering for the cause and interest of Christ : 
 thus jMoses had a vision of Christ in a flame of fire out of 
 the midst of a bush, when he was bearing the reproach of 
 Christ at the back of the mount Horeb, and was there feed- 
 ing Jethro's-sheep : and John, when in the isle of Patmos, for 
 the testimony of Jesus, had the most refreshing manifesta- 
 tions of the glory of Christ, whose countenance is like the 
 
158 Christ's call to the young. 
 
 sun shining in his strength. Or when a person has difficult 
 work to undertake at the Lord's command : thus Moses 
 and Aaron had a manifestation of the glory of the Lord, 
 and could say, " The Lord God of the Hebrews hath met 
 with us." Or when a soul is tenderly affected with Christ's 
 absence, and is mourning because the Comforter is far 
 away, John xx. 11, 15, 16, "But Mary stood without at 
 
 the sepulchre weeping. Jesus saith unto her, "Woman, 
 
 why weepest thou 1 whom seekest thou ? She supposing 
 him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have 
 borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will 
 take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary ; she turned 
 herself, and said unto him, Rabboni, which is to say, Mas- 
 ter. Mary Magdalene came, and told the disciples that 
 she had seen the Lord." Or in times of affliction. So was 
 it with Jacob : he was destitute and afflicted, being an exile 
 from his father's house ; but he had a manifestation of the 
 glory of the Lord ; and " he called the name of the place 
 Bethel." 
 
 5. We remark, that frequently the most sensible and 
 comfortable manifestations are attained to in the days of 
 youth ; for not only to Jacob, but to Solomon also, did the 
 Lord appear in his youth, 1 Kings iii. 5, " In Gibeon the 
 Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night." 
 
 6. We remark, that sometimes these manifestations are 
 surprising. Jacob saith, " The Lord is in this place, and 
 I knew it not." They fill the heart with a holy awe and 
 reverence of God ; " How dreadful is this place ! " said 
 Jacob : and they bring along with them some sweet taste 
 of heart- warming, soul- refreshing communion with God; 
 " This is the house of God, this is the gate of heaven." 
 Christ is the gate by which the righteous enter in ; and a 
 meeting with him brings the soul to the suburbs of heaven. 
 
 7. We remark, that the memory of manifestations of 
 God in youth, remains with the saints through their pil- 
 grimage ; thus Jacob could not all his life forget the mani- 
 festations of God in his youth ; and the thoughts of them 
 were fresh and supporting to him on his deathbed, Gen. 
 
SERMON II, 1.59 
 
 xlviii. 3, " God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in Canaan, 
 and blessed me." And the Lord himself doth keep a 
 record of his gracious visits to souls in their youth : hence 
 it was that he said to Jacob, " I am the God of Bethel, 
 where thou anointedst the pillar, and vowedst the vow." 
 
 8. We remark, that frequently the Lord doth make use 
 of his rod in the days of youth. As we have formerly ob- 
 served, it was Jacob's case ; so, if it is thy case, reader, 
 then plead the promise of God's covenant ; " I will cause 
 you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the 
 bond of the covenant," Ezek. xx. 37. The design of the 
 rod is to bring you into the bond of the covenant ; and 
 the Lord himself hath undertaken to bring you, though 
 you are neither able nor willing to come of yourselves. 
 This bond of the covenant will not rot in the grave, for it 
 is an everlasting covenant ; and the blessings of this cove- 
 nant are free to needy sinners, such as you are : hence the 
 blessings of the covenant, for their freeness, are called 
 mercies, the " sure mercies of David." IVIercy, I am sure, 
 will answer thy case, be what it will : 0, then, trust a pro- 
 mising God, and put the work in his hand, who has said 
 it, " I will cause you to pass under the rod, and bring you 
 into the bond of the covenant." 
 
 n. We proceed, in the second place, to speak a little of 
 these manifestations, and to show what it is which God 
 doth manifest and reveal to the rising generation. And, 
 
 1. They get a manifestation of Jesus Christ, the ^Mediator 
 betwixt God and man. Jacob saw a ladder set up on the 
 earth, and the top of it reaching to heaven : this ladder 
 was an emblem of Christ, who is called, " The way, the 
 truth, and the life," John xiv. 6. And he is the Mediator 
 between God and man, through w4iom we approach unto 
 God. Christ the Son of God, like Jacob's ladder, was set 
 up on the earth, in his incarnation and birth at Bethlehem ; 
 and he reached heaven, in his Deity or divine nature. Thus, 
 when he was upon earth, he affirmed of himself that he 
 was likewise in heaven : " No man hath ascended to heaven, 
 but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man 
 
160 Christ's call to the young. 
 
 which is in heaven." The ladder, the foot of it upon the 
 earth, and the top of it in heaven at the same time, was 
 an emblem of Christ in his person, God-man, 1 Tim, iii. 16, 
 " Great is the mystery of godliness, God manifested in the 
 flesh, justified in the Spirit, preached to the Gentiles, be- 
 lieved on in the world, received up into glory." Heaven 
 and earth are brought together, through Christ's media- 
 tion ; and there is an union by him betwixt God and man, 
 an union of peace and reconciliation, an union of friend- 
 ship, and an union of end and design. By him also, there 
 is a blessed intercourse and communion betwixt heaven 
 and earth ; for, through him, by one Spirit, we have access 
 to the Father, and come to God, the Judge of all ; and, 
 through him, we believe in God, who raised him from the 
 dead, and gave him glory, that our faith and hope might 
 be in God. Through him, in short, we have boldness to 
 enter into the holiest of all, by the blood of Jesus, through 
 the new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, 
 by the vail of his flesh. This ladder is fixed fast in the 
 earth, in his satisfaction upon the cross, in his death and 
 deep humiUation ; and the top of it is fixed as fast in 
 heaven, in his ascension, exaltation, and intercession with- 
 in the vail. It is a way and a ladder for the inhabitants 
 of the earth : the foot of it is not set in hell, for the fallen 
 angels ; no, there is a great and an unpassable gulph be- 
 twixt heaven and that place of separation from God : but 
 the foot of it is set upon the earth, for the sons of men ; 
 and every man, young or old, who hears this everlasting 
 gospel, is invited, called, and warranted to come to God 
 through Christ, who is " the way, the truth, and the life." 
 There is no cherubim or flaming sword to obstruct your 
 access ; but " the Spirit and the bride say. Come ; and let 
 him that heareth say. Come ; and whosoever will, let him 
 come and take the water of life freely." 
 
 2. The Lord doth manifest and reveal himself to sinners 
 in the days of their youth, as he is a God in Christ, recon- 
 ciling the world unto himself. Jacob, in this vision which 
 he had in his youth, saw a ladder, an emblem of Christ in 
 
SERMON II. 
 
 161 
 
 his mediation; and he saw the Lord standing above it, 
 proclaiming his covenant of promise, saying, " I am the 
 God of Abraham thy lather." 
 
 God is seen, in Christ, in his ineffable glory, in the glory 
 of all his infinite perfections: he is the eternal, self-exist- 
 ent Being ; he is Jehovah, and his glory he will not give 
 to another. The glory of his infinite holiness and justice 
 is seen in Christ, " whom he hath set forth to be a propi- 
 tiation, through faith in his blood, to declare his righteous- 
 ness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him that 
 believeth in Jesus." 
 
 He is seen, in Christ, as a reconciled God, well pleased 
 for his righteousness' sake, Matth. iii. 17, " Lo, a voice from 
 heaven, saying. This is my beloved Son, in wliom I am well 
 pleased." God is well pleased with Christ, and with all 
 those who are in Christ ; and those who are in Christ are 
 well pleased with Christ, and well pleased with God, as he- 
 is in Christ: for God, as he is in Christ, is a reconciled 
 God ; yea, he is " in Christ reconciling the world to him- 
 self;" Willing, on Christ's account, to be reconciled to any 
 man of the world whatsoever wlio hears this gospel ; and 
 "beseeching sinners to be reconciled to him" through 
 Christ, 2 Cor. v. 19, 20. God is so well pleased with the 
 satisfaction of Christ, that he doth entreat and obtest sin- 
 ners to believe his love and good will to them, to stand no 
 more at a distance from him, but to take the benefit of 
 peace, of pardon, of grace and glory, for Christ's sake ; 
 and, upon the account of what he hath done, " who was 
 made sin for us, though he knew no sin, that we might be 
 made the righteousness of God in liim." 
 
 God is seen in Christ as a promising God : Gen. xxvni. 
 14, 15, " In thy seed shall all the families of the eartli 
 be' blessed:" and, "Behold I am with thee, and wiU keep 
 thee in all places whither thou goest." The divine pre- 
 sence is promised; preserving and persevering grace is 
 promised ; life is promised in all its fulness ; " he command- 
 eth the blessing out of Zion, even life for evermore." 
 God, as he is in Christ, is a giving God : " The land 
 
 4 L 
 
162 Christ's call to the young. 
 
 whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed," 
 Gen. xxviii. 13. The earthly Canaan was a type and figure 
 of heaven : the inheritance of the saints in light is given of 
 God, here in the earnest of it, and hereafter in the full 
 possession of it ; for he giveth grace and glory, Psal. Ixxxiv, 
 11 ; he giveth the new heart, Ezek. xxxvi. 26; a heart to 
 know the Lord, to love the name of the Lord, the heart of 
 flesh. In the first covenant, man was to give something 
 to God ; in the new covenant, God giveth all things to 
 sinful men, in a way of free and sovereign grace : he giv- 
 eth them to inherit all things ; he will be to them a 
 God : and he giveth to them the kingdom ; " Fear not, 
 little flock, it • is the Father's good pleasure to give you 
 the kingdom." 
 
 God, as he is in Christ, is a forgiving God ; he has pro- 
 claimed his name, " The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and 
 gracious, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin." He 
 is in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, and " not 
 imputing their trespasses unto them ;" because he " hath 
 made him sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be 
 made the righteousness of God in him," 2 Cor, v. 19, 21. 
 In Jesus, " we have redemption through his blood, the for- 
 giveness of sins." Through him, all manner of sin and 
 blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men ; and we receive the 
 forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among them that 
 are sanctified by faith that is in him. Through him, God 
 has promised to " be merciful to our unrighteousness, and 
 to remember our sins and iniquities no more." It is there- 
 fore a full and free indemnity, which God has published 
 through Christ in the gospel. 
 
 Again, God, as he is in Christ, is a God of love, 1 John 
 iv. 8, 16. He is not only loving, but he is love itself; and, 
 by the exercise of faith, you are to believe, realize, and be 
 persuaded of his love to your souls through Jesus Christ, 
 and for his sake alone, 1 John iv. 16, 10, " We have known, 
 and believed the love that God hath to us ; God is love. 
 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved 
 us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 
 
SERMON II. 103 
 
 This God is known and revealed in Christ, as our own 
 God; " God, even our God, shall bless us:" and '' he that 
 is our God, is the God of salvation." Have you seen God 
 as he is in Christ ? You can have no saving, nor any com- 
 fortable discovery of God to your sinful souls, but as he is 
 in Christ : out of Christ he is a consuming fire, God is 
 only known and revealed in Christ as love, as the portion 
 of his people : and if you have not seen him, as he is in 
 Christ, standing above Jacob's ladder, you have never yet 
 known him, nor seen him as he is. 
 
 3. God doth frequently manifest and reveal to sinners, 
 in the days of their youth, his holy covenant of promise. 
 Jacob, in his youth, saw this ladder, an emblem of Christ, 
 and Jeuovau standing above the ladder, proclaiming his 
 covenant of promise, saying, " I am the God of Abraham, 
 and of Isaac ;" and " I will be with thee, and will keep 
 thee." The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, 
 and he showeth them his covenant ; he showeth them the 
 freeness, the excellency, the stability of his covenant, and 
 the great and glorious blessings and privileges that are in 
 his covenant. 
 
 He showeth them that he himself is in the covenant ; 
 thus he said to Jacob, " I am the God of Abraham thy 
 father : I will be with thee, and will keep thee." Hence 
 the great promise of the covenant, " I will be your God, 
 and ye shall be my people," Zech. xiii. 9, " I will say, It is 
 my people ; and they shall say, The Lord is my God." God 
 has made over himself to you in the covenant, as your God 
 in Christ's right ; and as your God in a way of promise, to 
 be believed and relied on through Christ ; as your God in a 
 way of grace, and not in a way of merit or in a way of works. 
 Beware then that you reject not the counsel of God against 
 your own souls. 
 
 Christ is seen to be in the covenant, as the Mediator of 
 the covenant ; as the Testator of the covenant ; as the con- 
 tracting party upon man's side in the covenant ; as having 
 fulfilled the condition of the covenant in his everlasting 
 righteousness ; as having purchased all the blessings of the 
 
164 Christ's call to the youxg. 
 
 covenant; and as dispensing all the grace of the covenant 
 to needy destitute sinners of Adam's house. 
 
 The Holy Spirit of promise is seen to be in the covenant, 
 as your Teacher, Comforter, and Sanctifier ; and you are to 
 believe in the Holy Ghost, and trust him to quicken you 
 under your deadness, and to enlighten you under your 
 darkness ; and you are to depend upon him, to manifest 
 the glory of Christ to your souls, and to bring the words 
 of Christ to your remembrance, John xiv. 26. and xvi. 14. 
 
 The blessing is in the covenant, Gral. iii. 13, 14, " That 
 the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles, 
 through Jesus Christ." The blessing of a free-gifted righ- 
 teousness is in the covenant ; the everlasting righteousness 
 of Messiah the Prince, which reigneth to eternal life, 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord : the blessing of the pardon 
 and remission of sins is in the covenant ; together with the 
 blessing of fellowship with God in his ordinances here, and 
 the immediate enjoyment of him in heaven hereafter. 
 
 In short, the presence of God to be with you, is in the 
 covenant : thus he said to Jacob, " I will be with thee, and 
 will keep thee." His presence to be with you, in pros- 
 perity and adversity, in life and at death ; to be with you, 
 to comfort you in aU your tribulations ; to support you 
 under all your burdens ; to direct you in all your straits ; 
 to guide you with his counsel while here, and at death to 
 receive you to glory. The Lord's keeping and safe preser- 
 vation is in the covenant, to keep you from sin, from Sa- 
 tan's devices and temptations ; to preserve your souls, in 
 your going out and coming in, Psal. cxxi ; to deliver you 
 from every evil work ; and to preserve you to his heavenly 
 kingdom. 
 
 The faithfulness, power, and mercy of God are all in the 
 covenant, to secure the accomplishment of all he hath pro- 
 mised. Gen. xxviii. 15, " I will not leave thee till I have 
 done that which I have spoken to thee of." Heaven, and 
 the kingdom that cannot be moved, is in the covenant of 
 promise. Canaan was a type of heaven ; and God said to 
 Jacob, " The land on which thou liest will I give thee." 
 
8EUM0N rr. 1C5 
 
 Dcatli, the passage to heaven, is in the covenant ; " For all 
 things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or 
 the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things 
 to come ; all are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is 
 God's," 1 Cor. iii. 22, 23. 
 
 We proceed to apply the doctrine in a use of Examina- 
 tion and of Exhortation. 
 
 EXAMINATION. 
 
 1. They who have seen God as in Christ, and to whom 
 Jehovah hath revealed his holy covenant of promise, are 
 such as, through Christ, have " believed in God, who raised 
 him up from the dead, and gave him glory, that our faith 
 and hope might be in God," 1 Pet. i. 21. They trust to 
 the promise, and wait for the accomplishment of the pro- 
 mise, through many contrary-like appearances and trials 
 of their faith, because they judge him faithful who hath 
 promised ; and they plead the promise even in their dark 
 hours, with the eagerness of faith, Psal. cxix. 49, " Re- 
 mem})er the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast 
 caused me to hope." 
 
 2. They who have seen God as he is in Christ, have 
 avouched him for their God, Psal. xvi. 7, " my soul, 
 thou hast said to the Lord, thou art my Lord." They have 
 joined themselves to the Lord, to love the name of the 
 Lord, and to serve him. They have taken hold of God's 
 covenant of promise; and as they account it a faithful 
 saying, so they judge it worthy of all acceptation, " That 
 Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom they 
 are chief." 
 
 3. They cleave to the Lord with purpose of heart. Hav- 
 ing seen him who is invisible, seen the glory of the invisi- 
 ble God in the person of Christ, they " choose rather to 
 suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the 
 pleasures of sin for a season/' Ileb. xi. 25. 
 
166 Christ's call to the young. 
 
 EXHORTATION. 
 
 We conclude this discourse, exhorting you to believe, 
 and be persuaded of the promise of God, Heb. xi. 13, 
 " These all died in faith, not having received the promises " 
 in the accomplishment of them, but having seen them afar 
 off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and 
 confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the 
 earth," Believe the promise, as spoken to you, and trust to 
 it, as a ground of faith to your souls ; for it is a covenant of 
 promise ; and the promise is published to you, that it may be 
 credited, believed, and trusted to by you. The great promise 
 of the covenant is, " I will be your God, and ye shall be my 
 people:" and this promise is given to you; for " there are 
 given unto us exceeding great and precious promises." It 
 is given to be received by your faith and your trust in the 
 mercy, love, grace, and faithfulness of God, brought near 
 unto you, as the ground of your assured confidence. No- 
 thing is more free than a promise ; and the freeness of the 
 covenant is a great encouragement to you to believe and 
 trust in him who has given it. It is a covenant of grace, 
 which was made for the unworthy and ill-deserving, and 
 none else ; and therefore, though unworthy, thou art war- 
 ranted to trust to God's covenant of promise. 
 
( 167) 
 
 SERMON III, 
 
 Gen. xx\-iii. 20, 21. — " And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will 
 
 be with me, and keep me, then shall the Lord be my (jod." Jer. 
 
 iii. 4, 19. " Wilt thou not, from tliis time, cit unto me, My Father, 
 thou ai-t the Guide of my youth? And I said, fhou shalt call me, My 
 Father, and shalt not turn away from me." 
 
 In these words we may notice, 1. What was Jacob's exer- 
 cise in the days of his youth : he vowed a vow at Bethel, 
 saying, " If God will be with me," or, as it may be read, 
 seeing Jehovah will be with me, seeing he has promised to 
 be with me, and has revealed his covenant of promise unto 
 me, has made over himself to me in the covenant as my 
 God ; therefore this same Jehovah " shall be my God." I 
 trust to him, as a promising God, that he will be my God, 
 through Christ Jesus ; I depend on him as my God, and 
 devote myself to his ser%ice, worship, and obedience : 
 " Then the Lord shall be my God." This exercise of Jacob, 
 in the days of his youth, is recorded, as a pattern worthy 
 of your imitation, who are the rising generation. 
 
 2. In the other place of Scripture, Jer. iii. 4, we have 
 God's own warrant to take hold of his covenant of promise 
 in the days of our youth : " Wilt thou not, from this 
 time, cry unto me, My Father, thou art the Guide of my 
 youth?" 
 
 3. Here, then, we have an encouraging promise of 
 grace, to enable us to put in our claim to this wonderful 
 relation, in which God is pleased to stand to us in the new 
 covenant : " And I said, thou shalt call me, My Father, 
 and shalt not turn away from me." 
 
168 Christ's call to the young. 
 
 From these words, we may deduce the following doc- 
 trinal observation. 
 
 " That as the time of youth is an especial season of tak- 
 ing hold of God's covenant of promise ; so we ought to 
 depend upon God's promised grace, to enable us to come 
 personally into the bond of the covenant." 
 
 In discoursing on this doctrine, we shall endeavour, by 
 divine assistance, 
 
 I. To show, that as God, in the covenant, stands in the 
 relation of our God ; so we ought, in the application of 
 faith, to say, " The Lord shall be my God." 
 
 II. To speak a little of the import of these words, " Wilt 
 thou not, from this time, cry unto me, My Father, thou art 
 the Guide of my youth 1 " 
 
 III. To oifer a few remarks concerning the encouraging 
 promise of grace, to enable us to put in our claim to God, 
 as standing in the relation of a Father in Christ Jesus 
 unto us, who are fatherless, destitute sinners of Adam's 
 house. 
 
 IV. To apply the doctrine in a few inferences. 
 
 I. We proceed to the first thing proposed, namely, To 
 show, that as God in the covenant stands to us in the re- 
 lation of our God, so we ought, by the application of faith, 
 to say, " The Lord shall be my God." And this head shall 
 be considered in a few observations. 
 
 1. We may observe, that man, by the breach of the first 
 covenant, forfeited all right and claim to Jehovah, as his 
 God : but Christ, as the second Adam, in virtue of his ful- 
 filling the condition of the covenant of grace, by his ever- 
 lasting righteousness, acquired a new claim • and title to 
 this relation ; hence it is said of him, as the new-covenant 
 Head, Psal. Ixxxix. 26, " He shall cry unto me, Thou art 
 my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation." Sin 
 had made this world, which was like Eden, the garden of 
 the Lord, to become like the valley of the son of Hinnom, 
 a place of crying and howling ; and it had been eternally 
 so, if the Son of God had not appeared on our behalf, and 
 become the contracting party on man's side in the cove- 
 
SERMON III. lf)9 
 
 nant of grace : but behold, in this howling wilderness, a 
 cry is heard from the new-covenant Head, as a public per- 
 son, in the name of all his followers, " Thou art my God, 
 the Rock of my salvation." Hence his words to the dis- 
 ciples, " I ascend to my Father, and your Father, and to 
 my God, and your God." 
 
 2. We may observe, that the great and leading blessing 
 of the new covenant, is the promise of a saving relation 
 to God, as our God in Christ Jesus, Jer. xxxi. 33, " But 
 this is the covenant that I will make with the house of 
 
 Israel, after these days, saith the Lord, 1 will be their 
 
 God, and they shall be my people." I will be their God; 
 this is the soul's blessedness : an interest in God, as our 
 God, is the summary of all happiness ; it is heaven itself, 
 and the very heart and first glory of heaven. Rev. xxi. 7. 
 The Author of this relation is God himself; " I will be 
 their God, and they shall be my people." They shall be 
 an accepted people, through Christ, the new covenant 
 Head, accepted through his righteousness ; and they shall 
 be my people, a holy and sanctified people, through the 
 Spirit and grace of Christ, the Head of the redeemed from 
 among men. The Author of this relation is God himself ; 
 " I will be their God, and they shall be my people. I will 
 be," speaks grace, and " they shall be," imports the same. 
 And it being God who says, " I will be, and they shall be " 
 this makes it infallibly sure, and lays the most solid founda- 
 tion fur faith and hope. The ground of this grant of 
 grace, and the title to claim it, is God's covenant : " But 
 this is the covenant that I will make with the house of 
 Israel, I will be their God." The right shall be conveyed 
 to them in the way of a covenant, the covenant made with 
 Christ the second Adam, and representative of his seed, a 
 covenant that stands fast in his suretyship and satisfiiction ; 
 or upon the account of his doing and dying, " I will be 
 their God:" upon the account of what Christ has done, 
 which is the greatest of doings, the most noble and glorious 
 that possibly can be done ; I will do this ; I will do all I 
 can do, all that a God can do for them, " I will be their 
 
170 Christ's call to the young. 
 
 God." Man could do nothing for himself; hut " when we 
 were without strength, in due time Christ died for the 
 ungodly." When man could do nothing, then God did do 
 great things, the greatest things, things that angels and 
 men shall eternally wonder at ; for he made over himself 
 to man in the way of his covenant, that stands fast with 
 Christ : " This is the covenant that I will make with the 
 house of Israel, I will be their God, and they shall be my 
 people." 
 
 3. We observe that your privilege is great, in this, that 
 God is your God through Christ Jesus, Deut. xxxiii. 29, 
 26, 27, "Happy art thou, Israel, people saved by 
 the Lord : for there is none Kke the God of Jeshurun, who 
 rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency 
 on the sky ; the eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath 
 are the everlasting arms." You are happy, for God is 
 your God ; God the Father, is your Father to love you ; 
 God the Son, is your Redeemer to save you from your 
 sins ; God the Holy Ghost is your Teacher, your Comforter, 
 and Sanctifier. All God's perfections and attributes are 
 yours ; his mercy is yours, to pardon you ; his wisdom 
 is yours, to direct you; his power is yours, to protect 
 you ; his omniscience is yours, to watch over you ; his holi- 
 ness is yours, to sanctify you ; his goodness is yours, to 
 bestow all good things upon you; his omnipresence is 
 yours, to attend you, and solace you in all places and con- 
 ditions. In short, his eternity is the date of your happi- 
 ness ; his faithfulness is your security, insuring the accom- 
 plishment of all he has promised ; his justice is yours, to 
 punish your enemies ; and his all-sufficiency is yours, to 
 make you completely happy. His perfections, as made 
 over to you in Christ, are a suitable antidote to all the 
 evils which sin has brought upon you ; his wisdom cures 
 your ignorance, his grace your guilt, and his power your 
 weakness; his mercy is a remedy for your misery, his 
 faithfulness for your inconstancy, his holiness for your im- 
 purity, and his fulness supplieth all your wants. 
 
 Yes, seeing that God is your God, aU his promises are 
 
SERMON III. 171 
 
 yours, all his gifts and graces are yours, and all his crea- 
 tures are yours ; his creatures on earth are yours to sus- 
 tain you ; his angels are yours, to guard you and encamp 
 about you; this world is your sojourning place, and his 
 heavens are your country and inheritance. 
 
 It follows from all this that he will be your God, not for 
 days, months, or years, but every day, in every place, and 
 in every condition ; for he said, " I will never leave thee, 
 nor forsake thee." He will be your God in all the troubles 
 you meet with, and will support you ; he will be your God 
 at death, Psal. xlviii. 4; and when all earthly comforts fail 
 you, he will not fail you. He will be your God after you 
 are dead. Matt. xxii. 31, 32. That which was spoken to 
 Moses at the bush, was spoken for you as well as for him, 
 " I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the 
 God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead, but of the 
 living:" for the dead in Christ do live unto him, and with 
 him ; and therefore their bodies, which are rotting in the 
 grave, shall rise again; for he is the God of the whole 
 man, and the body is a part of the man. He will be your 
 God for ever in heaven, for of them who are there it is 
 said, '* God himself shall be with them, and be their God." 
 Happy art thou then, Israel, who — like unto thee ? a 
 people saved by the Lord ! 
 
 4. We observe, that you are not only warranted in a way 
 of faith, to apply this great promise of the covenant to your- 
 selves, but grace is promised to enable each of you, in a way 
 of believing, to say, " The Lord is my God." Thus Jacob, 
 in the exercise of faith, says in the text, " The Lord shall 
 be my God:" and this language of faith has been the dia- 
 lect of the church in all ages, Psal. xci. 2, " I will say of 
 the Lord, He is my Refuge ; my God, and in him I will 
 trust." The Lord saith in the promise, " I will be thy 
 God;" and faith, in applying the promise, saith, "The 
 Lord shall be my God : I will say of the Lord, he is my 
 God." I will say in a way of believing, what God has said 
 in a way of promise ; for the promise is given to be trusted 
 to, to be credited, to be believed. Every one that reads 
 
172 Christ's call to the young. 
 
 the promise, is warranted to believe it with application ; 
 for the promise is spoken to you by God, as much as it 
 was spoken to Judah, Jer. xxxi. 33, " I will be their God, 
 and they shall be my people." The Lord saith, " I will be 
 thy God," for Christ's sake ; and do you therefore say, with 
 assured confidence, " The Lord shall be my God," for 
 Christ's sake. The grace of the Holy Spirit is promised to 
 you, to enable you to say it, Zech. xiii. 9, " I will say. It is 
 my people ; and they shall say, The Lord is my God." I 
 will say, " It is my people," through Jesus Christ, and his 
 righteousness and satisfaction ; and they shall say, " The 
 Lord is my God," through Jesus Christ, and his right- 
 eousness and satisfaction. God cannot be the God of a 
 sinner, such as you are, otherwise than through Christ ; 
 and he will be the God of every sinner that puts in his 
 claim to him through Christ, and in his right. Are you 
 pleased with the great grant and promise of the covenant, 
 " God for your God ? " have your eyes been opened, to see 
 Christ in the glory of his person ? and has your heart been 
 made to acquiesce in the tenor of the covenant, the hold- 
 ing of grace, and through the righteousness of Jesus? 
 Then you have said it, " The Lord is my God;" and you 
 may know, for your comfort, " That this God is your God 
 for ever and ever, and will be your Guide even unto 
 death." 
 
 God giveth himself to you, in the promise, for your God. 
 Christ is a Prophet, to reveal God to you ; he is a Priest, 
 to bring you to God ; and he is a King, to keep you with 
 God : therefore trust to him, and depend upon him, as the 
 Mediator betwixt God and you. Just now God is willing 
 to be your God ; this is the season of mercy, to obtain God 
 for your God : and I can tell you, as certainly as God is in 
 heaven, that if you do not take him for your God, you 
 shall repent it to all eternity. 
 
 But can you not say, that, in some measure, this is your 
 exercise, through grace, to make choice of God for your 
 God, Psal. xvi. 2. and to give yourselves to the Lord, 1 
 Cor, viii. 4 ? Are you not in so far pleased with the con- 
 
SERMON III, I7:J 
 
 trlvance of salvation, })ecause it is so much calculated for 
 debasing self, and exalting free grace? 
 
 God giveth himself to you through Christ ; and seeing 
 this to be the case, it is your great business, in tli<' 
 strength of grace, to accept of him in Christ for your chief 
 end, to aim at his glory in all you do, 1 Cor. x. 31 ; to ac- 
 cept of liim as your chief happiness, the rest of your souls, 
 and the delight of your hearts, Psal. cxvi. 7 ; to take his 
 will and law for your rule, and to accept of him in Christ, 
 for your portion for ever. Lam. iii. 24. Surely it is your 
 part to devote yourselves to him, and to present yourselves 
 in soul and body a living sacrifice, acceptable through 
 Christ, the gospel-altar, Is. Ivi. 7. You are to live to him 
 who died for you, and rose again ; you are to obey what 
 he commands, in his strength ; you are to be ruled by his 
 laws ; you are to be disposed of by his providence : you 
 are to give all you have to him ; your soul, with all its 
 faculties and powers; your body, with all its members; 
 your understanding, to know him ; your will, to choose 
 him ; your heart, to love him ; your eyes, to read his word, 
 and behold his works; and your lips, to pray to him, to 
 bless him and to praise him. For you are not your own, 
 but bought with a price ; therefore glorify God in your 
 bodies and spirits, which are God's. Account not your 
 life dear to you, if he call you to witness for him, even to 
 resisting unto blood; but let it be your concern in all 
 things to live to his glory, for you are " a chosen genera- 
 tion, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, 
 that you might show forth the praises of him who hath 
 called you out of darkness into his marvellous light." 
 
 II. We proceed to speak a little of what is imported in 
 these words of the text, " Wilt thou not, from this time, cry 
 unto me. My Father, thou art the Guide of my youth T' 
 And, 
 
 1. These words do import, that a call and invitation is 
 directed from God, to you who are the rising generation, 
 to take hold of his covenant of promise: and thus saith 
 the Lord to you, and to every one of you in particular, 
 
174 Christ's call to the touno. 
 
 " Wilt thou not, from this time, cry unto me, My Father ? " 
 This is a message to you from God ; and the word of ex- 
 hortation speaketh unto you as unto children. 
 
 2. They import, that every one of you in particular must 
 personally take hold of the covenant. The faith of your 
 parents will not save you, nor give you an interest in the 
 covenant, unless you yourself believe on the Son of God. 
 " Wilt thou not," in particular, and by name and sur- 
 name, " cry unto me. My Father ? " 
 
 3. They import, that God publisheth an indemnity and 
 an act of grace, and is willing to pass by all your former 
 refusals of Christ, whether you are young or old : " Wilt 
 thou not, from this time, cry unto me. My Father 1 " What- 
 ever you have done in former times, behold now, even yet, 
 is the accepted time, the day of salvation ! " To day, if 
 you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the 
 provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness." 
 
 4. They import, that it is most acceptable to God, that 
 you, in particular, take hold of his covenant, and call him 
 Father in Christ's right, in Christ's name, and by the 
 assistance of the Spirit of Christ. You may speak it, yea, 
 cry it to God himself; and it will be melody sounding 
 sweetly in the court of heaven, and before a throne of 
 grace : " Wilt thou not, from this time, cry unto me, My 
 Father?" 
 
 5. They import, that the Lord himself answereth all 
 your objections against calling him your Father. There 
 can be no reason against it, but your own unbelief ; " Wilt 
 thou not, from this time, cry unto me. My Father ?" Your 
 father Adam, the head of the first covenant, died, and left 
 you and all his other children fatherless; but the Lord 
 speaketh an encouraging word to you in the new covenant ; 
 a call is directed to you who are fatherless, from him in 
 whom the fatherless do find mercy ; " Wilt thou not, from 
 this time, cry unto me, My Father ? " Here he declares, 
 that he is willing to stand in the relation of a Father in 
 Christ unto you, and directs you to claim him by this ten- 
 der appellation : and though you should object, that your 
 
SERMON II r. 175 
 
 trespasses are grown up unto the heavens, and your sins 
 are more than the hairs of your head ; yet he saith, as in 
 the context, " Though thou hast played the harlot with 
 many lovers, yet return unto me, saith the Lord. Wilt 
 thou not, from this time, cry unto me, :My Father ? " 
 
 6. They import, that the grounds of faith laid down in 
 the word, are stable and solid ; so that the chief of sinners, 
 who hear this everlasting gospel, may venture their souls' 
 salvation upon them, with assured confidence. They may 
 not only say it, and whisper it with a soft voice, but they 
 may cry it with a full breath, in the hearing of angels and 
 men, to the glory of God in their salvation, " Thou art my 
 Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation. Wilt thou 
 not, from this time, cry unto me, My Father ? " Faith, 
 when planted in the soul, and drawn forth into exercise, 
 with a sight of its object, is exerted with the greatest 
 freedom, and with the complacency of the whole soul ; for, 
 according to the strength of faith, the cry is raised, and 
 doth ring and echo through the whole man, " Thou art my 
 God, the Rock of my salvation." It belongs to faith, where 
 it is, not only to realize its object, but to believe with a 
 particular application to the man himself; so that oni/ 
 Father is its native cry. 
 
 7. They import, that youth doth need a guide. " Thou 
 art the Guide of my youth." Young men need a guide 
 to teach them how to cleanse their way, Psal. cxix. 9, 
 " By what means shall a young man cleanse his way ? By 
 taking heed thereto, according to thy word." The way of 
 your heart is a polluted way ; and you would acknowledge 
 it to be such, if you knew the plague of your own heart, 
 1 Kings viii. 38. Had you a spiritual and humbUng dis- 
 covery of the atheism, self-conceit, self- righteousness, 
 enmity, earthly-mindedness, vanity and blasphemy, with 
 which your hearts are defiled ; and did you see that your 
 hearts are deceitful above all things, and desperately 
 wicked ; you would be persuaded that you infinitely need 
 that God, by his word and Spirit, would come and cleanse 
 them. You need to have the way of your worship cleansed, 
 
17G Christ's call to the youNa. 
 
 to be guided of God, to worship him in spirit and in truth ; 
 and to have the way of your walk and conversation cleansed, 
 that your corruptions may be mortified, that you may be 
 kept from youthful lusts which war against the soul ; and 
 that you may have your " conversation in heaven, from 
 whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned 
 like unto his glorious body." Youth is exposed to many 
 temptations, especially in this sinful and corrupt day 
 wherein we live ; and you need to have God for the Guide 
 of your youth, that you be not led into temptation, but 
 delivered from all evil. And though you be young, yet 
 your dying-day may be at the door, and a journey just be- 
 fore you, through the dark mountains, through the dark 
 valley and shadow of death. You therefore greatly need 
 to have this God for your God for ever and ever, and to be 
 3'^our Guide even unto death ; that he may bring you to 
 that land, where the inhabitant shall not say I am sick, 
 and the people thereof are forgiven their iniquity. 
 
 8. They import, that you may have God for the Guide 
 of your youth, and may lay claim to him in that relation ; 
 "Wilt thou not" claim him in this character? Nothing 
 doth dishonour him more, nothing doth ofi'end him more, 
 than that you do not in particular, and for yourselves, put 
 in your claim upon him as your Father, and the Guide of 
 your youth. Can you have a better father than God ? or 
 can you have a better guide than a father 1 Your heavenly 
 Father has infinite wisdom, he is a God of infinite power, 
 his love to you is an infinite love ; and can you be in safer 
 keeping than just in his hand 1 
 
 Young man, it is the voice of God to thee, " Trust in 
 the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not to thine own 
 understanding ; in all thy ways acknowledge him, and ne 
 will direct thy paths." The Psalmist said it, and do you, 
 through grace, say it likewise, " God, thou art my trust 
 from my youth," Psal. Ixxi. 4, 5. 
 
 Depend on God in Christ, for teaching, Psal. Ixxi. 17, 
 " I have been taught by thee from my youth, and hitherto 
 
SERMON III. 177 
 
 I have declared thy works." how refreshing and in- 
 structing are the lessons he has taught his people in their 
 youth ! By one such lesson you will know more of God, 
 than by hearing and reading all the days of your life : to 
 hear and to read are means of his institution, but they 
 are ineffectual without the teaching of his Spirit. By 
 his teaching, you will be enabled to see, and seeing to 
 declare his wonders ; his wonders in the works of na- 
 ture, in the works of creation and providence ; the won- 
 ders of his grace, and of his love ; the wonders of his 
 mercy and goodness to your souls : " Come, hear, all ye 
 that fear God, and I will tell you what he hath done for 
 my soul." 
 
 His teaching will be effectual to bring you to Christ, 
 and to preserve you in Christ ; for every one that hath 
 heard, and learned of the Father, cometh to the Son : and 
 it will fit you for bearing his yoke in your youth, his yoke 
 of obedience, and his yoke of suffering, as he sees meet to 
 call you to it. " It is good for a man that he bear the 
 yoke in his youth." 
 
 III. We now proceed to offer a few remarks concerning the 
 encouraging promise of grace, to enable you to put in your 
 claim to God, as standing in the relation of a Father in 
 Christ unto you. 
 
 1. We remark, that adoption, or the privilege of son- 
 ship, is one of the blessings of the new covenant. In the 
 first covenant, Adam was the son of God by creation ; but 
 in the new covenant, we become the sons of God by re- 
 generation, by adoption, and by faith in Christ Jesus. The 
 eternal Son of God is become the Son of man, by his in- 
 carnation ; and through him, as the new-covenant Head, 
 the Head of the redeemed from among men, we have com- 
 munion with the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 as our God and Father, in his title and right. And may 
 we not, in a transport of holy wonder, cry out with the 
 apostle, 1 John iii. 1, " Behold what manner of love the 
 Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called 
 the sons of God ! " The Spirit of adoption, crying, " Abba 
 
178 Christ's call to the youno. 
 
 Father," is one of the blessings of this covenant of promise. 
 And it is an article of this new-covenant, that the prodigal 
 son shall see and be convinced of his lost estate in the first 
 covenant ; that his first father Adam died, and left his 
 children fatherless ; that we all sinned and died in him, as 
 a public person, and are therefore, considered in ourselves, 
 both destitute and without hope in the world, Psal. xlv. 
 10, " Hearken, daughter, and incline thine ear ; forgot 
 thine own people, and thy father's house." Thy father's 
 house, the first Adam's family, is a broken house ; there is 
 neither food nor clothing in it, nor any sanctuary in it, to 
 protect perishing sinful souls from the vindictive wrath of 
 God : but in Christ's Father's house there are many man- 
 sions, and a table is covered in it, to satiate every weary 
 soul, and to replenish every sorrowful soul. 
 
 2. We remark, that there is an almighty efficacy in the 
 grace of God, conveyed to the souls of men, through the 
 promise of the new covenant ; " Thou shalt call me. My 
 Father." Though God reveals himself as a Father in 
 Christ, yet not one soul would ever have cried to him, 
 had he not pledged his faithfulness for it in the promise ; 
 " Thou shalt call me. My Father." I, who am Jehovah, 
 have said it ; and what I have said, shall be accomplished : 
 I said it, who said, " Let there be light, and there was 
 light," when nothing but darkness covered the face of the 
 deep : I have said it, and therefore the unbelief and enmity 
 of thy heart, and all the snares of the world, and tempta- 
 tions of Satan combined against thy soul, shall not be able 
 to gainsay it : I have said it in a way of promise, and 
 therefore thou shalt say it in a way of faith and believing. 
 Thou shalt say it with the greatest freedom of choice and 
 election, with the truest kind of liberty, and with a jubilee 
 of delight running through thy whole soul. 
 
 3. We may remark, that it is only by the Spirit of the 
 Son, and in the right of the Son of God, the first-born from 
 among many brethren, that we can say unto God, " Thou 
 art my Father, thou art the Guide of mj youth," Gal. iv. 6, 
 
 4. We remark, that it is for the glory of God that we 
 
SERMON III. 179 
 
 call him, " My Father," in Christ's name, and in his right 
 and title. God did never put any thing in a promise, but 
 it was for his own honour and glory ; and he lias promised 
 it, thou shalt call me, " ISIy Father." But perhaps some 
 may say. Is this promise directed to me ? and is it for the 
 glory of God, that I in particular call him, " My Father?" 
 Yes, it is. The promise is absolute, without any condition 
 or limitation ; it is directed to all wlio hear this everlast- 
 ing gospel, and therefore it is directed to you, as well 
 as to others. You have a Bible put into your hands, 
 wherein this word of grace is recorded, and this is a full 
 warrant to you to believe it, and apply it to yourselves. 
 It is a word of grace directed to lost sinners, to those that 
 are fatherless ; and you cannot deny that you are one of 
 that sort and kind. It is then the will of God that you 
 call him, " My Father," in the name of Christ ; for it is 
 his will, that his promise be believed, and trusted unto. 
 Nothing will please him so well as that you say to him, " My 
 Father," in Christ Jesus ; and that you flee into the em- 
 braces of his love, through the Son of his love, Matt. iii. 
 17, *• This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased." 
 God is w^ell-pleased with Christ, and with all those that 
 are in Christ ; and those who are in Christ are well-pleased 
 with Christ, and they are well- pleased with God, as he is 
 in Christ : for God, as he is in Christ, is a reconciled God, 
 and a merciful Father, forgiving iniquity, transgression, 
 and sin ; and he " rests in his love." 
 
 5. We remark, that we may depend upon the pro- 
 mise of God for grace, to enable us to say to him, " My 
 Father." The promise looketh to you that cannot use 
 these words. Thou shalt be enabled to use them. This is 
 determined on ; and he is saying to you, it is not from any 
 good disposition in you, but from grace and love in me ; it 
 is not from any power in you, but from my faithfulness in 
 the promise, and from my almighty power to accomplish it, 
 that thou shalt be brought to say, " My Father." Heaven 
 itself, as it were, is wrapt up in this promise, " Thou shalt 
 say, My Father;" that is, thou shalt know me to be Jehovah, 
 
180 Christ's call to the young. 
 
 to be thy God in Christ ; thou shalt know my name as it is 
 in Christ, know my mercy, my love, and grace ; thou shalt 
 choose me for thy God and portion ; thou shalt trust in 
 me for grace and glory, for the upper and nether springs of 
 heavenly consolation. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, 
 honour and serve me with reverence and godly fear, as thy 
 " Father ; " thou shalt be circumcised to love me with all 
 thine heart ; thou shalt be enabled to depend upon me for 
 every thing thou dost need, from the shoe's latchet to the 
 great salvation ; and thou shalt come to me daily with all 
 thy wants and complaints, as a child to his father, able 
 and ready to help him ; for, " thou shalt call me. My 
 Father, and shalt not depart from me." Yea, thou shalt 
 live and die about my hand: and, waiting thus on the 
 Lord, " thou shalt renew thy strength, and mount up with 
 wings as eagles : thou shalt walk, and not weary, and thou 
 shalt run, and not faint." 
 
 IV. We now proceed to make some application of this 
 doctrine, and that in a use of Examination and Exhor- 
 tation. 
 
 EXAMINATION. 
 
 1. Those who have taken hold of God's covenant of pro- 
 mise, have seen themselves to be in a sinful and miserable 
 state, by the breach of the first covenant. You have seen 
 that the variance betwixt God and you is very great, and 
 that the quarrel is running very high: you have been 
 made to approve of, and rely upon God's method of salva- 
 tion; accounting it a faithful saying, and worthy of all 
 acceptation, that Christ came into the world to save sin- 
 ners, of whom you are chief. You have renounced all 
 other confidences, and you depend upon the mediation of 
 the Lord Jesus, in all your approaches to God ; you have 
 a daily correspondence with him, as appearing in the pre- 
 sence of God for us, coming to him with all your wants to 
 be supplied, with all your plagues to be healed, and with 
 all your sins to be pardoned. 
 
SERMON III. 181 
 
 2. They have a delihcrate complacency in the covenant 
 of promise. As we show ourselves the children of the first 
 Adam, by our natural bent to the covenant of works ; so 
 the believing soul has a liking and relish of the new cove- 
 nant proposed in the gospel, and saith of it, " It is all my 
 salvation, and all my desire," 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. 
 
 3. IIow do you like the way of holding in this covenant, 
 a holding of grace, and holding upon what Christ has 
 done ? Doth the grant and disposition of the new cove- 
 nant please you well, so that you delight to hold all in the 
 Redeemer's right, and to cry through him, " Thou art my 
 Father, the Rock of my salvation ? " How stand you 
 affected to the new-covenant Head ? Do you glory in him 
 only ? Is. xlv. last. And do you rejoice in Christ Jesus, 
 having no confidence in the flesh ? Phil. iii. 3. Do your 
 hearts sometimes burn with love to an unseen Saviour? 
 And is he to you the " Plant of renown, the Pearl of great 
 price, and more excellent than all the mountains of prey ? " 
 Do you look upon yourselves as bankrupt creatures ? and 
 are you well-pleased that he has all your stock in his 
 hand, or that in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom 
 and knowledge ? " They shall hang upon him all the glory 
 of his Father's house, and all the vessels of greater and 
 smaller quantity." The great end and design of the new 
 covenant, which is to glorify God, to honour Christ, and 
 to abase self, is relished with complacency by all the 
 spiritual seed of Abraham ; they see grace in it, mercy in 
 it, wisdom and love in it, and heaven dawning in it. There 
 is nothing in this covenant they would have out of it, and 
 there is nothing out of it they would have in it ; they re- 
 joice in it, " as well ordered in all things and sure." 
 
 4. The righteousness of Christ will be the only ground 
 of your confidence, Phil. iii. 7, 8 ; you wiU desire to be 
 found in him, having that righteousness which is by the 
 faith of Christ ; and this you will rejoice and glory in, that 
 his name is " The Lord our righteousness." The eternal 
 Son of God, in the covenant, consented to become man, 
 and to be the federal Head and Representative of an elect 
 
182 Christ's call to the Youxa. 
 
 worldj Is. xlii. 1. Psal, Ixxxix. 19. The breach between 
 God and man was greater than to be done away by one 
 travelling between parties at variance, to reconcile them 
 with bare words. There could be no covenant of peace 
 betwixt God and sinners, without reparation of damages 
 done to the honour of God through sin, and without hon- 
 ouring the law by an exact obedience ; and the Son of God 
 said, " Lo ! I come," Psal. xl. 7 ; I put myself in their 
 room and law-place, as the second Adam, to do both these, 
 in the obedience of my life, and in the sufferings of my 
 death. And let us here adore the condescension of the 
 Son of God in becoming man, a man of sorrows, and ac- 
 quainted with grief? He who is " over all, God blessed 
 for ever," condescended to be brought into the rank and 
 order of creatures, Rom. ix. 5. He condescended to take 
 unto him an inferior nature, the nature of man, and not 
 the nature of the angels, Heb. ii. 16. He assumed the 
 human nature after it was blasted by sin, and withered 
 with the curse ; for he took on him " the likeness of sinful 
 flesh," Rom. viii. 3 ; so that, though he was not a sinner, 
 yet he looked like one. By this assumption, his Deity was 
 vailed, and his glory eclipsed, Phil, ii, 6, 7 ; for he humbled 
 himself, and made himself of no reputation, that he might 
 glorify God upon the earth, and that in his righteousness 
 we might be exalted. 
 
 Thus did the eternal Son of God condescend to be the 
 Representative of an elect world, to transact in their 
 name. Is. xlii. 1. Psal. Ixxxix. 19. 1 Cor. xv. 47. The 
 holy One of God represented wretched sinners ; the Be- 
 loved of the Father represented the sinful company. 
 Hence the righteousness of Christ is not imputed to his 
 people in its effects only, (which is no proper imputation 
 at all,) so as their faith, repentance, and sincere obedience, 
 are therefore accepted, as their evangelical righteousness, 
 on which they are justified ; but Christ's righteousness is 
 imputed to them in itself, even as Adam's sin was imputed 
 to his posterity ; for Christ obeyed and suffered as a public 
 person, in the room and law-stead of his people ; even as 
 
SERMON rir. 183 
 
 Adam sinned as a public person, and his posterity sinned 
 in him, and fell with him, Rom. v. 12, 19. and viii. 3; so 
 that the covenant of grace is absolute, and not conditional 
 to us ; for, it being made with Christ as Representative, 
 the condition of it was laid upon him, and fulfilled by him, 
 in his everlasting righteousness. 
 
 EXHORTATION. 
 
 We now proceed to a use of Exhortation ; and would 
 solemnly exhort you, whether young or old, in the name 
 of the eternal God, and in the name of his Son Christ 
 Jesus our Lord, that you, and every one of you who shall 
 read these lines, do personally, and for yourselves, embrace 
 and take hold of God's covenant of promise. Take hold of 
 it as left to you : for there is a promise left you of enter- 
 ing into God's rest ; and beware lest you come short of it, 
 Ileb. iv. 1. It is given to you and to your children, to be 
 believed and trusted to, and applied by you, Acts ii. 39, 
 40; and this will be your condemnation, if you reject the 
 counsel of God against your own souls. 
 
 When the soul gets a saving discovery of God, as he is 
 in Christ, it is not one blessing that attends it, but a mul- 
 titude of blessings, even all the sure mercies of David. 
 '' Acquaint thyself now with God, and be at peace with 
 him, and thereby good shall come unto thee." You can- 
 not know God until you see him in Christ ; since he is 
 in Christ, you may now, without delay, acquaint yourself 
 with him : and if once you are acquainted with God, and 
 know him as he is in Christ, you cannot but be at peace 
 with him ; for there you will see him as he is, " reconciling 
 the world unto himself." You will see him to be love, 
 1 John iv. 10 ; seeing him to be love, you will love him, 
 who first loved you ; and, loving him, you will be at peace 
 with him, who is " the God of peace, who brought again 
 from the dead the Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the 
 sheep, by the blood of the everlasting covenant." The 
 very first sight you see of God, as he is in Christ, will draw 
 
184 Christ's call to the young. 
 
 your heart unto him with cords of love ; and that day will 
 be the day-spring from on high to your soul ; the day of your 
 espousals unto Christ, and of your conversion unto God. 
 This will be the day of God's working in your heart the 
 work of faith with power, and of his betrothing you unto 
 himself for ever, in faithfulness, and in righteousness, in 
 loving-kindness, and in tender mercies. 
 
 If the question be moved. What is it to take hold of the 
 covenant of promise? We answer. That the way to take 
 hold of the covenant, or the way to enter personally into 
 the covenant of grace, is to give yourselves up to Christ 
 the new-covenant Head by faith. This is the way, and 
 may a day of the Mediator's power accompany any small 
 endeavours that are made, to speak of the mystery of 
 faith, in the believing application of the promise of God's 
 covenant ! It will be matter of the most mournful lamen- 
 tation, if the ark of the covenant be opened unto you in 
 the gospel, and not one shelterless soul of Adam's family 
 flee into it for refuge. 
 
 It is only under the influence of the Holy Spirit that 
 you can personally come into the covenant, Is. xliv. 5. and 
 xlv. 24 ; and you come personally into it, by the following 
 steps: 1. Through the grace of the Divine Spirit, you are 
 convinced of sin, or made to see and believe that you are 
 lost, ruined, and undone in Adam, by his breaking the 
 first covenant, as a federal head and a public person, Rom. 
 v, 12, 19. 1 Cor, XV. 22. 2. That by nature you are wholly 
 corrupted, averse to good, and prone to evil. Gen. vi. 5. 
 
 3. That you are under the curse of the broken law, and 
 bound over to the avenging wrath of God, Gal. iii. 10. 
 
 4. That you are utterly unable to help yourselves out of 
 this gulf of sin and misery into which you are plunged, 
 Ezek. xvi. 4, 5, 6. 5. You are made to believe, that there 
 is a covenant of grace, for the relief of lost sinners, estab- 
 lished between God essentially considered, and the Lord 
 Jesus, as the Head of the redeemed from among men ; or, 
 between the Father, as representing the Deity, and his 
 eternal Son, as the second Adam, wherein the Lord Jesus 
 
SERMON III. 185 
 
 undertook to fulfil all righteousness as a public person, 
 and the Father contracted to bestow all blessings upon 
 that account ; and that this covenant of grace is a free 
 and an absulute covenant, and not conditional as to you ; 
 for, the covenant being made with Christ as Representa- 
 tive, the conditions of the covenant were laid upon him, 
 and fulfilled by him, in and by his holy birth, his righteous 
 life, and satisfactory death, Psal. Ixxxix. tliroughout. 6. 
 You are made to believe, that the covenant of grace, ful- 
 filled in the condition of it by Christ its Head, and cer- 
 tainly to be fulfilled in its promise, is, in Christ crucified, 
 really offered to you in particular in the gospel ; and that 
 you are called to the fellowship of it in hira : for, " To you 
 is the word of this salvation sent ;" and, " The promise is 
 to you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, 
 even as many as the Lord our God shall call," Acts ii. 39. 
 and xiii. 26. 7. You are made to beUeve on the name of 
 Christ crucified, offered and exhibited to you in particular, 
 as the Lord our righteousness, as the great High Priest of 
 our profession, who was ordained for men, who made re- 
 conciliation for the sins of the people, and who is now to 
 men the end of the law for righteousness. " To him give 
 all the prophets witness, that through his name, whoso- 
 ever believeth in his name, shall receive the remission of 
 sins." 8. You are made so to believe in him as to devote 
 yourselves unto him, and worship him, as the King of Zion, 
 and Governor among the nations. Hearken unto hira as 
 your Prophet ; and, in his strength, resign yourselves in 
 soul and body, and all you have, unto him, to be taught 
 by his word and Spirit, ruled by his laws, and disposed of 
 by his providence ; to be his disciples, his servants, his 
 followers. Is. xliv. 4, 5 ; renouncing, through his grace, all 
 other lords and lovers, Hos. xiv. 4, 5, 8 ; and relying on 
 him, to be rescued from sin and Satan, from the present 
 evil world, from death, hell, and the grave. You may trust 
 in him, as King in Zion for sanctification; for he is a 
 heart-conquering and a sin-subduing Lord : " Ho will sub- 
 due our iniquities, and will cast all our sins into the depths 
 
1 86 Christ's call to the young. 
 
 of the sea," Mic. vii. 19, 9. Through Christ, believe in 
 God, as your God and Father, in his title and right ; and 
 depend upon the Holj Ghost, as your Sanctifier, Comforter, 
 Teacher, and Remembrancer, 1 Cor. vi. 19. John xiv. 26. 
 and XV. 26, 27. 
 
 " To day if you will hear his voice, harden not your 
 hearts." The word of exhortation speaketh unto you as 
 unto children ; " My son, give me thy heart," Let no one 
 think that he is shut out. " The sons of the stranger, that 
 join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the 
 name of the Lord, to be his servants, every one that keep- 
 eth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my 
 covenant; even them will I bring to my holy mountain, 
 and make them joyful in my house of prayer : their burnt- 
 offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine 
 altar ; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for 
 all people," Is. Ivi. 6, 7. 
 
 (1.) Consider, that it has been the practice of all the 
 saints, in all ages, to come personally into the bond of the 
 covenant. Thomas saith, " Thou art my Lord, and my 
 God;" and the church doth put in her claim to the cove- 
 nant-relation, " The Lord is my portion, saith my soul ; 
 therefore will I hope in him," Lam. iii. 24. See also Psal. 
 xvi. 2. and Ixxiii. 25, 27. (2.) Consider it is a business no 
 other person can do for you ; if, by grace, you do not person- 
 ally come into the bond of the covenant for yourselves, you 
 cannot come at all. The parent cannot come for the child, 
 nor the husband for the wife, Jer, ix. 25. Matt. viii. 11, 
 12. Amos ix. 7. (3.) The call to come into the bond of the 
 covenant is personal, directed to every man who hears the 
 gospel ; " Unto you I call, men," Prov. viii. 4 ; and the 
 answer of faith to the call must therefore be personal ; 
 "■ When thou saidst. Seek ye my face, my heart said. Thy 
 face. Lord, will I seek. Surely shall one say, in the Lord 
 have I righteousness and strength," Psal. xxvii. 8. Is. xlv. 
 23. and xliv. 4. (4.) Consider, this is the season of coming 
 personally into the bond of the covenant ; it is the season 
 of youth with some of you, and " it is good to bear Christ's 
 
SERMoir in. 187 
 
 yoke in your youth." The Lord appeared to Solomon, at 
 Gibeon, in his youth ; aud Obadiah feared the Lord from 
 his youth. It is the voice of the Son of God to you, " I 
 love them that love me, and those that seek me early, shall 
 find me," Pro v. viii. 17. It is a time of backsliding and 
 defection with us all ; for we have forsaken the Lord God 
 of our fathers ; and therefore it is a season wherein we 
 ought to say, " I will go and return to my first husband ; 
 for then was it better with me than now : " and it is en- 
 couraging for us to think that the Lord, the God of Israel, 
 hateth putting away. It is withal a time of threatened 
 judgments, and therefore a proper season for taking hold 
 of God's covenant; for when the decree bringeth forth, 
 and the day of the Lord's controversy approacheth, there 
 will be no safety but in the ark of the covenant. 
 
 As for directions, I shall only say, 1. That you are to 
 take hold of the covenant of promise, in an humble and 
 confident dependence upon the grace and strength of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, without whom you can do nothing ; 
 depending upon a promising God, and upon the Holy Spirit 
 of promise, Is. xliv. 5. and xlv. 24. Ezek. xxxvi. 25, 26. 
 John XV. 4, 5. and i. 16. 2. You are to take hold of it 
 cordially ; " For wdth the heart man believeth unto righte- 
 ousness ; " and Psal. xvi. 2. the Psalmist saith, " my 
 soul, thou hast said unto Jehovah, Thou art my Lord." 
 3. You are to take hold of the covenant with judgment 
 and solid consideration, and not by a mere flash of afiec- 
 tion, Hos. ii. 19, " I will betroth thee unto me in judg- 
 ment." 4. You are to take hold of the covenant speedily, 
 and without delay ; for the Master is come, and calleth 
 for you ; and blessed are you who are called to the mar- 
 riage-supper of the Lamb. It is the voice of God to you 
 this very day ; " I will say. It is my people ; and they shall 
 say, The Lord is my God," Zcch. xiii. 9. Though you find 
 not that enlargement which you would wish to attain unto ; 
 yet, if your doubting and averseness be your burden, as 
 they are your sin, do you essay and endeavour to say it in 
 the strength of grace, though it should be with stammer- 
 
188 CHRIST S CALL TO THE YOUNG. 
 
 ing lips, " The Lord is my God." This was Jacob's lan- 
 guage at Bethel, in the day of his youth, and in the day of 
 his distress, when he fled from the face of Esau his brother, 
 " The Lord shall be my God." 
 
 I shall conclude with recommending it to you, to meditate 
 frequently upon the love of Christ, and upon the decease 
 which he accomplished at Jerusalem. 
 
 1. Meditate frequently upon the love of Christ as be- 
 trothing love. God, in the new covenant, has revealed 
 himself as a betrothing God. The Son of God has betrothed 
 and married our nature to himself in a personal union, and 
 we may therefore, with confidence, venture upon his grace 
 and good-will toward men. The Lord Jesus Christ has 
 promised to betroth sinners of Adam's house to himself 
 in a way of free and sovereign grace, Hos. ii. 19, 20, " I 
 will betroth thee unto me for ever ; yea, I will betroth thee 
 unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving- 
 kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto 
 me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord." The 
 great God in our nature Christ has taken his betrothing 
 love, and wrapped it up in a covenant of promise ; and in- 
 dorsed the promise to sinners, that the sinful sons of men 
 may trust it, and that all may feel they have a warrant to 
 claim it for salvation. 
 
 The persons betrothed are sinners of Adam's house ; the 
 glorious infinite person betrothing, is the great God our 
 Saviour: and it is a most blessed union which is thus 
 formed betwixt sinners and a Saviour ; betwixt dead sin- 
 ners, and him who is the resurrection and the life ; betwixt 
 blind benighted souls, and him who is the light of the 
 world; betwixt diseased, polluted sinners, and him who 
 loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood ; 
 betwixt guilty sinners, and him who is Jehovah our 
 righteousness, in whom God is to be found, reconciling the 
 world unto himself, not imputing unto men their tres- 
 passes. Hearken therefore, and consider it, ye children of 
 men; forget your father's house, the house of the first 
 Adam ; and forego all hold of the first covenant, (for that 
 
SERMON III. 189 
 
 covenant being lirokcn, the whole family is undone and 
 ruined,) and be espoused to the Lord Jesus, the Head of 
 the redeemed from among men ; " So shall the King greatly 
 desire your beauty," Psal. xlv. 10. 
 
 Consider the attractions of our Lord Jesus Christ. He 
 is fairer than the sons of men ; he is altogether lovely, 
 Psal. xlv. 1. Song v. 10, 16 ; his riches are unsearchable 
 riches of grace and of glory, Eph. iii. 8. Consider his dying 
 love, that he was slain, that he might redeem you to God 
 by his blood, that he might redeem you from this present 
 evil world, and redeem you from all iniquity, Rev. v. 9. Gal. 
 i. 3, 4. Tit. ii. 14. He is the Judge of the quick and the 
 dead, the Prince of the kings of the earth, the first-begot- 
 ten of the dead, who took upon him your dying clay that 
 he might give you a glorious immortality ; for when Christ, 
 who is your life, shall appear, ye shall also appear with 
 him in glory. 
 
 2. Meditate frequently upon the glorious decease which 
 Christ accomplished at Jerusalem, Luke ix. 30, 31, " And 
 behold there talked with him two men, which were Moses 
 and Elias, who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease 
 which he should accomplish at Jerusalem." 
 
 It is necessary, in your meditating upon such a theme, 
 that you be under the influence of the Spirit of glory. 
 Moses and Elias appeared in glory, and talked of his de- 
 cease ; they had a noon-tide of the light of glory, of the 
 Spirit of glory, upon them : and unless a twilight-glimpse 
 of that glory ])eam into your hearts, you will neither think 
 nor talk to purpose of a subject so stupendous. It is a 
 subject so sublime as to be spoken of for ever by saints 
 and angels. There will be use of speech in heaven ; there 
 will be a voice of tongues about the throne ; and their talk 
 will be of the decease which Christ accomplished at Jeru- 
 salem. 
 
 His decease was his death, his exit or departure. The 
 departure of Israel out of Egypt to Canaan, is called their 
 Exit or Exodus, the same word which is used here : and 
 his decease was like their departure, accompanied by u 
 
190 Christ's call to the young. 
 
 bloody attack upon him by all the hosts of hell. He went 
 through a Red-sea of suffering, and of vindictive wrath, 
 making peace by the blood of his cross. His decease was 
 the subject of discourse upon mount Tabor ; a subject that 
 was most delightful to our Lord himself, and most refresh- 
 ing to Moses and Elias : though they had come down 
 from the place of heaven, yet their bliss, their beatitude 
 was not impaired ; for they had the presence of Christ ; 
 and, appearing in glory, they talked of his decease, which 
 was at once the great theme of the inhabitants of the 
 upper house, and the fountain and spring of all their feli- 
 city. The highest style of language in heaven, is devoted 
 to the decease our Lord accomplished at Jerusalem. We 
 have no nice elaborate discourse that Moses and Elias 
 made upon the mount : no ; it was, in a few words, massy, 
 lofty, and sublime, " The decease he should accomplish at 
 Jerusalem ! " It was the burden of the song of the re- 
 deemed ; they brought this highest note down with them 
 to the earth : for when angels and saints about the throne 
 have enlarged their thoughts and contemplations, and 
 bended their faculties to the uttermost, and soared as high 
 as their heads can carry them, they are just obliged to 
 issue their song where they began : " how great, in- 
 eifable, and divine, is that mystery of godliness, God mani- 
 fested in the flesh, accomplishing his decease at Jeru- 
 salem ! " The glory of heaven just centres in the death he 
 accomplished at Jerusalem : we do not hear a word about 
 Moses and Elias, when they appeared in glory upon mount 
 Tabor, except that they talked of the " decease which was 
 accomplished at Jerusalem ! " 
 
 You are to meditate upon the glory of the person of 
 Christ, who accomplished his decease at Jerusalem. He 
 is Lord of all, the Lord of glory : " If the princes of this 
 world had known it, they would not have crucified the 
 Lord of glory." He is the Prince of the kings of the earth, 
 the Prince of life ; " But ye killed the Prince of life, whom 
 God hath raised from the dead," Acts iii. 16. He is the 
 King of glory, " the God of glory, who appeared to Abraham 
 
SERMON III. 191 
 
 when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran." 
 He is Jehovah, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of 
 Jacob, who spake to Moses, Exod. iii. from the burning- 
 bush at Horeb. He is, " Wonderful, Counsellor, the 
 mighty God, the everlasting Father," Is. ix. 6 ; and yet 
 his name is called Jesps, because " he saveth his people 
 from their sins." 
 
 You are to mediate upon the grounds and reasons of the 
 decease which he accomplished at Jerusalem. It was for 
 the glory of God in man's salvation, John xvii. 3, 4. It 
 was for the glory of the holiness, majesty, and justice of 
 God ; of the grace, mercy, and love of God : it was to 
 " finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to bring 
 in an everlasting righteousness, and to make reconciliation 
 for iniquity ; " that, in this way, God might be glorified in 
 man's salvation. 
 
 You are to meditate upon the nature and quality of the 
 decease which Christ accompUshed at Jerusalem. He ac- 
 compHshed it in a public capacity: he took our nature 
 into an intimate and personal union with himself, 1 Tim. 
 iii. 16. John i. 14; he substituted himself in our room and 
 law-place ; and so he suffered " bearing our sins in his own 
 body on the tree, giving his life a ransom for many." This 
 decease was early promised. Gen. iii. 15 ; it was testified 
 of by aU the prophets, it was expected and looked for by 
 all the Old- Testament saints ; it was seen by them afar off. 
 In his decease he did bear our griefs, our sins, our shame, 
 and our sorrows. It was an ignominious and a cursed 
 death, and yet a triumphant and a victorious death ; for 
 he " spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of 
 them openly on the cross, triumphing over them in it." 
 In addition to all this, it was a necessary death; " Ought 
 not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into 
 his glory ? " Yet more, it was an acceptable, a savoury 
 death ; " Walk in love, as Christ also loved us, and hath 
 given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for 
 a sweet-smelling savour," Eph. v. 2. 
 
 You are to meditate upon the pleasant fruits and effects 
 
192 Christ's call to the young. 
 
 of the decease which Christ accomplished at Jerusalem. 
 He has reconciled us to God by his death, and we have 
 boldness to enter into the holiest of all by the blood of 
 Jesus. The Lamb slain has opened the seven seals; he 
 has opened the gates of paradise, the fountain of Hfe, and 
 the treasures of grace ; he has opened up and revealed the 
 counsels and purposes of God's love that were hid in a 
 mystery ; and he has opened the understandings of men, 
 to see the wonders of his grace, mercy and love, in the 
 covenant of promise. To do all this he was worthy, for he 
 was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by his blood ; he 
 hath glorified God upon the earth, and finished the work 
 he gave him to do ; " he said. It is finished, and bowed his 
 head, and gave up the ghost." It was the purpose of the 
 wisdom and love of God, to gather his greatest revenue of 
 glory from the salvation of sinners of Adam's family, that 
 deserved to be in hell ; and what a wonderful theme 
 of meditation is it, that the cross and death of Jesus 
 Christ, should be the great mean of the glory of God in 
 man's salvation ! The most wonderful sight in heaven is, 
 " The Lamb in the midst of the throne, as if he had been 
 slain;" and the greatest homage and worship God ever 
 received, was in Golgotha, when Christ, though a Son, 
 humbled himself, and became obedient to death, even the 
 death of the cross ! 
 
 Yet again, you are to meditate upon that holy joy, that 
 wilhngness and cheerfulness, with which he accomplished 
 his decease at Jerusalem. This was the subject with which 
 he entertained Moses and Elias in mount Tabor. He re- 
 joiced in the habitable parts of the earth, and his delights 
 were with the sons of men. He said, " Lo, I come, a body 
 hast thou prepared me;" that is, a human nature, to 
 obey in, to sufler, and to die in, for the remission of the 
 sins of many. He spake of his decease all along ; he 
 preached it to Nicodemus, John iii. 14 ; he went to Jeru- 
 salem, with holy resolution, at the last passover ; " he went 
 all the way journeying to Jerusalem ;" he was the first in 
 the company ; he went to his decease, as to a triumph, ac- 
 
SERMON III. 103 
 
 conipanicd by the hosannas of the multitude: he longed 
 l.jr the last passover ; " with desire have I desired to eat 
 this passover with you, before I suller:" and he longed 
 for his bloody baptism ; " I have a baptism to be baptized 
 with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished ! " 
 He went singing to his work of suffering ; " he did sing 
 an hymn, and went out to the mount of Olives." But 
 what shall we say 1 for time would fail, and eternity itself 
 will be too short, to speak of his glory, and of the wonders 
 of his dying love, who accomplished his decease at Jeru- 
 salem. " Lo, these are parts of his ways ; and how small 
 a part of him is known or heard?" What can we think 1 
 or, what can we say ? but that our thoughts are swallowed 
 up, and that expression doth fail us, while we conten>plate 
 the infinite evil of sin, the inexorable justice of God, and 
 his infinite holiness, as all seen so clearly in him, who was 
 crucified on Calvary. Let us for ever adore the love of 
 Christ, which passeth knowledge : hoping through grace, 
 to spend eternity, in beholding the Lamb, " in the midst of 
 the throne." There may we all be found at last, wonder- 
 ing and praising with Moses and Elias, the prophets and 
 apostles, and martyrs of Jesus, and talking with them " of 
 the decease he accomplished at Jerusalem ! So shall we 
 be ever wnth the Lord." 
 
MEMORIALS 
 
 REV. JAMES FISHER, 
 
 illNISTKR OF THE ASSOCIATE CONGREGATION IN GLASGOW, PKOFESSOE OF DIVllilTT 
 
 TO THE ASSOCIATE (BURGHER) SYNOD, AND ONE OF THE FOUR LEADERS OF 
 
 THE SECESSION FROM THE ESTABLISHED CHL'RCH OF SCOTLAND, 
 
 IN A NARRATIVE OF IIIS LIFE 
 
 BY JOHN BROWN, D.D., 
 
 SENIOR MINISTER OF THE UNITED PRESBTTERIAN CONGREGATION, BROCGHTOJt- 
 
 PLACE, EDINBURGH, AND PROFESSOR OF EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY TO 
 
 THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH ; 
 
 AND A SELECTION FROM HIS WRITES'GS. 
 
 " In writing of lives all big words arc to be loft to those who dress up legends, 
 and make lives rather than ^crite them : the things themselves must praise the 
 person, otherwise all the good words that the writer bestows on him will only 
 show his owni great kindness to his memon,-, but will not persuade others: on 
 the contrarj% it will incline them to suspect his partiality, and make them look 
 on him as an author rather than a writer." — Burnet. 
 
PREFACE, 
 
 The following Memoir is the first .attempt to give a detailc<l 
 account of tlie life and character of Mr. Fisher; and, made at 
 the distance of three quarters of a century from his death, it is 
 necessarily meagre and in many respects imperfect. The writer 
 cannot accuse himself of want of interest in his work, or of 
 diligence in endeavouring to i)rocure materials for executing it ; 
 and he gratefully acknowledges the readiness with which his in- 
 quiries have been met in every quarter in which they have been 
 made. The defects of the narrative must be traced either to 
 scantiness of information, which in the circumstances is no way 
 wonderful, or to unskilfulness in making use of it — of which 
 none can be more sensible than the compiler himself. The 
 courteous reader, while he must regret the former, will, it is 
 hoped, forgive the latter. 
 
 Dr. Eraser's most judicious and interesting biographical 
 works in reference to the Erskine Brothers, and Dr. MacKer- 
 row's elaborate and most trustworthy History of the Secession 
 have been habitually consulted during the composition of the 
 sketch, and the great advantage derived from them is gratefullv 
 acknowledged. In almost every case, however, the original 
 documents which were before them have been anew examined. 
 The compiler finds himself under peculiar obligations to his 
 old and esteemed fellow-student and friend, the Kev. William 
 Fkaser of Alloa, for not only laying open to him the whole of 
 his venerated brother's MS. collections in reference to Mr. Fisher, 
 but at the expense of much labour furnishing transcripts of 
 many valuable documents from these short-hand collections. — 
 His best thanks also are due to the Very Rev. Principal Lee of 
 the University of Edinburgh, — the Kev. Dr. Reid, Professor 
 of Ecclesiastical History in the University of Glasgow, — the 
 Rev. Dr. Buist, Professor of Theology in the University of St. 
 Andrews, — the Rev. Dr. Young of Perth, — the Rev. Dr. 
 M'Kelvie of Balgedie,— the Rev. Dr. Auld, Ayr,— the Rev. IVfr. 
 Touch, Kinnoul, — the Rev. Mr. Nelson, Auchtergaven, — the 
 Rev. Mr. Henderson, Kinclaven, — the Rev Mr. Young of Kin- 
 claven, — the Rev. John Kidd, St. Andrews, — the Rev. James 
 Knox, Ayr, — and the Rev. William Bayne, Auchtergaven. The 
 Rev. George Jeffrey gave him the necessary information from 
 
lY TREFACE. 
 
 the Minutes of the Associate Presbytery of Glasgow; David 
 Anderson, Esq., submitted to his inspection the Minutes of the 
 Session of the Associate Congregation, Glasgow, from its con- 
 stitution in 1740 till Mr. Fisher's death in 1775 ; and his esteemed 
 relatives, Mr. Fisher's descendants, readily placed at his disposal 
 such documents as were in their possession. 
 
 It was at one time the writer's wish that a whole volume of 
 this series should be occupied by Mr. Fisher's life and writings: 
 but though abundance of materials, probably fit enough for pub- 
 lication, lies in Mr. Fisher's short-hand MS., there would be 
 considerable difficulty in deciphering these ; and the only MSS. 
 in long-hand, fit for the press, — two action sermons on Rev. xix. 
 9. and Psal. Ixxx. 17. and a Synod sermon on Isaiah xxi. 11, 
 12. — would, along with his published sermons, have made a dis- 
 proportionably thin volume. It has been resolved therefore to 
 confine Mr. Fisher's writings to the sermons published under his 
 own superintendence, and to connect his life and writings with 
 those of his fellow-labourer Mr. MoncrieflF. 
 
 There is a peculiar propriety in such a connection. Mon- 
 criefF and Fisher were early friends and zealous co-operators 
 in a common cause — the cause of truth and freedom. They 
 indeed differed, and "the contention was so sharp that they 
 parted asunder one from the other." They have long ago been 
 reconciled and reunited. The suspicion has often been thrown 
 out, even in print,* though without any evidence for the revolting 
 statement, that " the breach " was in some good measure to be 
 traced to private pique between these two good men. If it was 
 so, there was "grievous fault" somewhere; but that would but 
 afford an additional reason, why they, who side by side in heaven, 
 have for near a century been singing together "the new song" 
 in which there are no discords, should in this little book go down 
 to posterity side by side, teaching Christian truth in their writ- 
 ings and Christian holiness by their example. " Nunc in sinu 
 Veritatis, sese complectuntur, ubi nullas lites, nulla dissensio, sed 
 sola regnat eternum charitas." 
 
 J. B. 
 Busby, May 25th, 1849. 
 
 * Struthers' History of Scotland since the Union, voL ii., p. 552. 
 
TO TUE 
 
 SUIIVIYING GRANDCHILDREN 
 
 OP 
 
 THE REV. JAMES FISHER: 
 
 MRS. JANE CRDM, THORNLIEBANK, 
 
 HUMPHRY EWING MACLAE, ESQUIRE OF CATIIKIN, 
 
 MRS. MARGARET BUCHAN, BRAESIDE, WEST CANADA, 
 
 JAMES EWING, ESQUIRE OF 8TRATHLEVEN, 
 
 MRS. ELIZABETH HYDE, DUNOON, 
 
 AND RALPH WARDLAW, D.D., SS.T.P., GLASGOW ; 
 
 AND TO HIS OTHER DESCENDANTS, 
 
 THESE MEMORIALS ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED 
 
 BY THEIR KINSMAN, 
 
 TEE COilPHER. 
 1 Chkon. xxviii. 9; Psalm ciii. 17, 18. 
 
( vii ) 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF THE REV. 
 JAilES FISHER. 
 
 Cratter I. 
 
 1697—1722. 
 
 Parentage — The Rev. Thomas Fisher — Minister of Barr— Auch- 
 tergaven — Rh\-nd — His Death — His Family — Birth of his son 
 James — Education — License, 9 
 
 Chapi-er XL 
 
 1722—1740. 
 
 Call to Glenisla — Ordination at Kinclaven — Questions for Elders 
 — Marriage — !Mrs. Fisher — Public spirit — Representation to the 
 Assembly 1732 — Rejected — Ebenezer I>skine's Sermon at Kin- 
 claven — and Perth — 3Ir. Fisher's Protest and Complaint against 
 the Decision of the Sj-nod of Perth and Stirling, Oct. 1732 
 — His appearance at the Assembly, 1733 — Suspended by the 
 Commission, August 1733 — Separated from his Charge by 
 the Commission, Nov. 1733 — Chosen Clerk of the Associate 
 Presbytery at its constitution, Dec. 6, 1733 — Remarkable 
 Act of Assembly, 1731 — Reponed by the Svnod of Perth and 
 Stirling, July 1734 — Formal Accession of the Session of Kin- 
 claven to the Associate Presbjteiy — Communions at Kinclaven 
 — Libelled by the Commission, Isov. 1738 — Deposed by the 
 Assembly, 1740, 15 
 
 Chapter IIL 
 
 1740—1747. 
 
 Ejected from the Church and Manse of Kinclaven, 1741 — Call to 
 Glasgow — Admission to Glasgow — Introductoiy Sermon — Con- 
 troversy with the Rev. ;Mr. James Robe respecting the " Kilsj-th 
 and Cambuslang work" — Publications on that subject — Charac- 
 ter of them — RebelUon in 1745 — Thanksgi\ing Sermon, 1746 — 
 Burgess' Oath Controversy — The Breach, 1747, ... 37 
 
"!^iii 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter IV. 
 1747—1775. 
 
 Page 
 
 Mr. Fisher visits Ireland — Is requested by the Synod to prepare 
 for Theological Tuition — Synod Sermon, Isa. xxi. 11, 12 — 
 Publications on the Bm-gess' Oath Controversy — Character of 
 them — Explication of the Westminster Shorter Catechism — 
 Appointment to the Professorship, 1749 — Mode of Conducting 
 the Dix-inity Hall — Resignation of the Professorship — Obtains a 
 Colleague in the Ministry — Death of Mrs. Fisher — Death of Mr. 
 Fisher — Character — Family — Writings — Conclusion, . . 57 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. I. Marrow Doctrines, 83 
 
 No. II. Brief Notes respecting Mrs. Fisher, .... 85 
 No. III. Mr. Fisher's Register of the Divinity Hall, 1750—1763, 
 
 with Notes, 96 
 
 No. IV. Letters of Mr. Fisher, chiefly to Relatives, . . .116 
 
 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHER'S WRITINGS. 
 
 Sermon I. 
 
 The Inestimable V^vlue of Truth. 
 
 Prov. xxiii. 23.—" Buy the truth, and sell it not,'" . . 147 
 
 Sermon II. 
 
 The Matter of Gospel-Preaching — Christ Jesus 
 THE Lord. 
 
 2 Cor. iv. 5. — " For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus 
 the Lord, and ourselves yom- servants for Jesus' sake," . 185 
 
 Sermon III. 
 
 Christ the Sole and Wonderful Doer in the Work 
 of Man's Redemption. 
 
 Judges siii. 19. — " The angel did wondrously, and Manoah and 
 his wife looked on," 214 
 
 Sermon IV. 
 
 The Doors of the Heart summoned to Open to 
 the King of Glory. 
 
 PsAL. xxiv. 7. — " Lift up your heads, ye gates ; and be ye lift 
 up, ye everlasting doors; and the Kmg of glory shall come 
 in," 245 
 
MEMUKIALS 
 
 REV. JAMES FISHER 
 
 flarratibc of i)i& ilife. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 1697—1722. 
 
 Parentage — The Rev. Thomas Fisher — Minister of Barr — Auchterp^avea 
 — Khyiid — His death — His family — Birth of his son James — Education 
 — License. 
 
 James Fisher, the youngest of the four " Associate 
 Brethren" who were honoured to be the leaders in 
 that Secession from the Established Church of Scot- 
 land, which has already, directly and indirectly, pro- 
 duced effects so important and beneficial, and the in- 
 fluence of which is likely to reach to distant countries 
 and coming generations, was the son of the Rev. Tho- 
 mas Fisher and Mrs. Susanna Menzies his spouse. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Fisher was minister successively of 
 Barr, an extensive moorland parish in the south of 
 Ayrshire bordering on Galloway, and of Auchtergaven, 
 and Rhynd, in the county of Perth. We have not the 
 means of ascertaining the parentage of I\Ir. Thomas 
 Fisher, nor even the district of Scotland of which he 
 was a native. He probably was the first minister of 
 Barr after the revolution settlement, and not an Ayr- 
 shire man by birth. In April 1692 the parish of Barr 
 applied to the Presbytery of Ayr, requesting that they 
 would be pleased " to desire Mr. Thomas Fisher Ex- 
 
10 NAPtKATIYE OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 pectant," then a married man, for his marriage took 
 place Nov. 16th, 1691, " who in providence was within 
 the bounds, to come and preach to them." The Pres- 
 bytery "having seen his testimonials, complied with 
 their request — and desired Mr. F. to preach to them 
 as oft as he could, betwixt and the next meeting of 
 Presbytery, and then to preach before themselves." 
 Tlie result was, that the parishioners of Barr, in May 
 1692, signified to the Presbytery that they had a sub- 
 scribed call ready to give Mr. F.; and though he dis- 
 covered an unwillingness to accept of it, the Pres- 
 bytery prescribed him trials for ordination. With 
 difficulty, Mr. F.'s objections to settle at Barr were got 
 the better of, and his ordination took place on the 9th 
 of May, 1693, Mr. Matthew Baird presiding and preach- 
 ing on 2 Cor. v. 20. He appears to have experienced 
 difficulties of various kinds here; and at last, on the 
 7th Jan., 1697, he "gave in a supplication to the 
 Presbytery desiring an act of transportability'* from 
 the parish of Barr, by reason he finds himself prejudiced 
 in health from the air of that place, so that he is not 
 able to exercise his ministerial work, which is uneasy 
 to his mind." The Presbytery, after due examination, 
 and conference both with the minister and people, and 
 having got the statement of physicians " to show how 
 much they judge that the air where he liveth is hurt- 
 ful to him," on the 4th March, agreed, nem. con.^ to 
 grant his supplication, t A call was given him by the 
 parish of Auchtergaven in April 1698, and commis- 
 sioners appointed by the Presbytery of Perth to " agent 
 his transportation with the Presbytery of Ayr." In 
 this they of course found no difficulty, and on April 
 26th, 1698, he was admitted by the Presbytery of 
 Perth to the charge of the parish of Auchtergaven. 
 
 * Vide Pardovan, book i. tit. iii. 
 t Minutes of the Presbytery of Ayr. 
 
THE REV. JAMES FISHER. 11 
 
 In some points of view the change mu.st have been 
 an agreeable one, — from a bleak and thinly inhabited 
 region to the fertile and populons and romantic banks 
 of the Tay, — and j)robably too from a very liniiteil to 
 a somewhat more competent income. But it seems to 
 have had its drawbacks. In Barr j\Ir. Fisher, what- 
 ever difficulties he had to contend with, had to minister 
 to a people deeply interested in, and firmly attached 
 to, the doctrines and polity of the Presbyterian church, 
 for which many of their fathers had laid down their 
 lives, and not a few of themselves had been personal 
 sufferers.* In removing to Auchtergaven, he went to 
 a region where the body of the great landholders were 
 Jacobites in their politics and Prelatists in their re- 
 ligion, and where the principles of the Covenant had 
 never taken such extensive and deep root as in the 
 south-west of the island. 
 
 The result of this state of things appeared in Mr. 
 Fisher being constrained, in the course of little more 
 than a year, to bring his " Grievances" under the con- 
 sideration of the Presbytery. To his statement of 
 grievances the Parishioners gave answers, — but on 
 being called to give rejoinders to his replies, they 
 '' compeared not — neither sent any excuse." The Pres- 
 bytery were about, according to the practice of the 
 time, to " grant Mr. Fisher an act of transportability," 
 but finding that a call had come forth for him from the 
 parish of Khynd, they agreed to translate him. His 
 admission took place on the 6th of October, 1699, 
 under very favourable auspices; "the brethren of said 
 paroch and elders thereof present, in token of their 
 hearty concurrence and consent to the action, took 
 their minister by the hand."t In this delightful little 
 
 * In the hst of proclaimed fugitives, IGSi, in "Wodrow, there 
 are ten persons from the parish of Barr. 
 t Minutes of the Presbytery of Perth. 
 
12 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 parish on tlie banks of the Tay and the Earn, in the 
 immediate neighbourhood of " the Fair City," Mr. 
 Fisher laboured for more than twenty years. In the 
 Minutes of the Presbytery of Perth of date 26th April, 
 1721, there is this entry: "The reverend and worthy 
 Mr. Thomas Fisher, minister of the gospel at Rhind, 
 died upon the 24th day of March last."* 
 
 Mr. Fisher had a family of eleven children, seven 
 sons and four daughters. Six of these died in infancy. 
 Two daughters reached maturity, a third dying in 
 early youth. The only one of his sons who survived 
 liim was the subject of this narrative. Another son, 
 whose name was Samuel, died in the same year with 
 his father at the early age of 17. 
 
 James, who was the third child of his parents, was 
 born at Barr on the 23d January, 1G97, and was under 
 three years of age when his father settled at Rhynd. 
 From the immediate vicinity of Perth, it is all but cer- 
 tain that he received the elements of his classical edu- 
 cation — a more thorough one than could have been 
 obtained at many of the parish schools at that period — 
 at the grammar school of that city. That was not the 
 ordy advantage which he derived from his local posi- 
 tion. From the town of Perth being immediately 
 adjoining, much intercourse was likely to take place 
 between the families of the ministers, men of kin- 
 dred sentiments ; and it is probable that he there first 
 met with Ebenezer Erskine, with whom in after life he 
 was to become so closely connected by a variety of 
 bands. His vicinity to Abernethy too, likely led to 
 an early intimacy with the young laird of Culfargie, 
 who was nearly of his own age, and had devoted him- 
 self to the service of God in the gospel of his Son, and 
 
 * There was an attempt made, which all but succeeded, to 
 obtain as his successor Mr. Wilson of Perth, who was about this 
 time and afterwards mad-e very unhappy by the waywardness of 
 a colleague. 
 
THE REV. JAMES FISHER. 13 
 
 with whom he was to be so closely associated in tlie 
 most important events of his future life. 
 
 His literary and philosophical education seems to 
 have been very complete. He commenced his curricu- 
 lum in Glasgow in the Session 1712-13, under the 
 care of Professor Alexander Dunlop, a distinguished 
 Greek scholar, an<l author of the Greek Grammar long 
 taught in the Scottish Universities; and finished it in 
 St. Andrews in the Session 17L5-1G. He entered the 
 Divinity Hall in the University of Edinburgh, then 
 superintended by Mr. William Hamilton, in November 
 171G, and continued under his care for six Sessions.* 
 Among his fellow-students of the same year is to bo 
 found the name of Edmund Calamy, the son of the 
 '' honest chronicler" of nonconformist learning, worth, 
 and suffering. 
 
 On the death of his father in 1721, his mother 
 removed with her family, consisting then of her 
 son James and three daughters, from the manse of 
 Rhynd to Balcanquhal in the parish of Arngask, a 
 mansion-house belonging to the Balcanquhals of that 
 ilk, who rented it to Mrs. Fisher. The Marrow Con- 
 troversy at this time was agitating the church. Mr. 
 Fisher had been led to adopt the views of the defend- 
 ers of what were called the Marrow doctrines,t and 
 instead of attending the ministry of the incumbent of 
 Arngask, who was hostile to these views, observed 
 ordinances at Portmoak, the distinguished minister of 
 which was one of their most enlightened and fear- 
 less champions. The acquaintance which he pro- 
 bably had previously with ^Ir. Erskine then became 
 more intimate. He was a frequent visitor at the 
 manse, and the foundation was thus laid of an attach- 
 ment, which, as we shall by and by see, led to the 
 
 * MS. note-book of Professor Hamilton, in the hauds of the 
 Rev. Principal Lee. 
 
 t Vide Appendix, No, I. 
 
14 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE, &C. 
 
 ib rraatlon of a close relationship with the minister's 
 family. * 
 
 At a meeting of the Presbytery of Perth, 7th March, 
 1 722, it was " represented that Mr. James Fisher, son 
 to the late Rev. Mr. Thomas Fisher, has attended the 
 profession this six years bygone; and having had a 
 savoury account of him, from many of the brethren 
 that knew him, it was agreed that he be wrote to in 
 Edinburgh, to wait on the Presbytery this day 20 days 
 that they may commune with him anent entering on 
 trials." On the 29th of March, " the brethren com- 
 muned with him, and were very well satisfied," and 
 steps were taken to make the ordinary report to the 
 Synod. On the 11th April, "a testificate from the 
 Rev. William Hamilton, Professor of Divinity, Edin- 
 burgh, in Mr. Fisher's favour, was produced and sus- 
 tained," and his trials for license were entered on. On 
 the 21st of October, 1722, he was licensed to preach 
 the gospel, and immediately employed for some time in 
 supplying pulpits within the bounds of the Presbytery, f 
 
 * Information furnished by Dr. M'KeMe. 
 t Minutes of the Presbyteiy of Perth. 
 
(15) 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 1722—1710. 
 
 Call to Glenisla — Ordination at Kinclaven — Questions for Elders — Mar- 
 riage — Mrs. Fisher — Public spirit — Keprcseiitation to the Assembly 
 1732 — Kejected — Ebenezer Erskine's Sermon at Kinclaven — anil 
 Perth — Mr. Fisher's protest and complaint against the decision of the 
 Synod of Perth and Stirling, Oct. 1732 — His appearance at the As- 
 sembly, 1733 — Suspended by the Commission, Aug. 1733 — Separatt-d 
 from his charge by the Commission, Nov. 1733 — Chosen Clerk of the 
 Associate Presbyter}' at its constitution, Dec. 6, 1733 — Remarkable 
 act of Assembly, 1734 — Reponed by the S\niod of Perth and Stir- 
 ling, Jidy 1731- — Fonnal accession of the Session of Kinclaven to 
 the Associate Presbvtery — Communions at Kinclaven — Libelled by 
 the Commission, Nov. lf38 — Deposed by the Assembly, 1740. 
 
 The term of Mr. Fisher's probationership was not of 
 long duration. He appears speedily to have acquired 
 the reputation of a useful and acceptable preacher, — a 
 reputation which, being solidly founded, lasted for life. 
 His first call was to the parish of Glenisla, in Forfar- 
 shire, and he had delivered part of his trials for ordi- 
 nation there, when an unanimous call from the vacant 
 parish of Kinclaven, where the right of planting the 
 parish had fallen out of the Patron's into the Presby- 
 tery's hand, was brought out for him. The Presbytery 
 of Dunkeld having received a communication from the 
 Presbytery of jNIeigle, giving a very favourable account 
 of Mr. Fisher's conduct when in their bounds, certifying 
 that both his license and testimonials had been pro- 
 duced before them, an<l farther that the parts of trials 
 delivered before them had been approved, sustained the 
 call from Kinclaven to Mr. Fisher, concurred with it, 
 sustained the pieces of trial delivered before the Pres- 
 * 
 
16 NAREATIVE OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 bytery of Meigle, and appointed the other trials required 
 by the laws of the church. — These trials were delivered 
 by him on the 7th of December, 1725 — a lecture on Ps. 
 cxxi. and a popular sermon on Ps. cxxi. 2. He sustained 
 his thesis " de deitate Filii," explained the 19th Psalm 
 in Hebrew, read the Greek Testament " ad aperturam 
 libri," answered his catechetics and chronological ques- 
 tions on the last half of the 10th century, and was 
 approved. The call of the parish was put into his 
 hand, and the Presbytery agreed "tanquam jure devo- 
 luto" to give him their " call" to supply the legal place 
 of the presentation; and arrangements were made for 
 the ordination. 
 
 His ordination at Kinclaven, accordingly, took place 
 on the 23d of December, 1725. The Rev. Mr. Bowis 
 presided, and preached from 2 Tim. iv. 5. " But watch 
 thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an 
 Evangelist, give full proof of thy ministry." " The 
 questions appointed by acts of Assembly were proposed 
 to him in face of the congregation, and he having an- 
 swered them, and declared his willingness to take 
 charge of that congregation, and they having declared 
 their willingness to have him to be their minister, by 
 lifting up their hands as well as by their call formerly 
 given, he was, by solemn prayer and imposition of the 
 hands of the Presbytery, ordained, and the Moderator 
 and brethren gave him the right hand of fellowship."* 
 We have been thus minute, to show that Mr. Fisher, like 
 the rest of the Associate Brethren, had from the beginning 
 been a consistent advocate for the rights of the Christian 
 people, and came into court with clean hands. It has 
 been said that the words of the text of his ordination 
 sermon seem to have been " in his heart, bound for a sign 
 on his hand, and as frontlets between his eyes." He 
 commenced his ministry on the following Lord's day by 
 
 * Minutes of the Presbytery of Dunkeld. 
 
THE REV. JAMES FISHER. 17 
 
 preaching from Rom. xv. 30 — 32. " Now I beseech you, 
 brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the 
 love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in 
 your prayers to God for me; that I may be delivered 
 from them that do not believe, — that my service may 
 be accepted of the saints, — that I may come to you 
 with joy by the will of God, and may by you be re- 
 freshed." — He appears to have entered on his work 
 with a determination to " make full proof of his 
 ministry," and he did so. After a lapse of more than 
 a hundred and twenty years, the patriarchs of the dis- 
 trict bear testimony that their fathers were accustomed 
 to tell them how well prepared Mr. Fisher was always 
 for the pulpit, and how faithful in his private visitations.* 
 
 * Like the other Fathers of the Secession, Mr. Fisher seems 
 to have been through life very attentive to his pulpit prepara- 
 tions. No press of public business appears to have been allowed 
 to interfere with that. His beautifully written note books prove 
 this. Things cannot long continue in a healthy state in a reli- 
 gious body where preparation for the pulpit is made a secondary 
 object. — "Ministers are not set apart to their office to trifle away 
 six days of the week, and then to go to the pulpit with whatever 
 comes uppermost. Such extemporary performances, though for 
 a little they may please some, seldom do credit to God's ordi- 
 nances, or produce any lasting effects on the hearers." * It was 
 the practice at the Fresbyterial examinations to require the 
 minister to produce his note book, to show that he preached 
 catechetical doctrine, and was regular and careful in preparation 
 for the pulpit. A revival of the practice, gone into desuetude, 
 might perhaps be useful in some quarters. Mr. Fisher seems 
 to have been fond of apothegms and pointed sayings. A num- 
 ber of these, according to a practice not uncommon among the 
 ministers of that time, are found on the inside of the boards of 
 his note books. We give a specimen or two. 
 
 Si sapiens fore vis, sex scn'a quae tibi mando: 
 
 Quid loqueris, ad quem, de quo, cur, quomodo, quando. 
 
 Si tua pertingat, penetretque, Precatio coelum, 
 Corde sit ex puro, sit brevis atque frequens. 
 
 Quisquis amat, dictis, absentium rodere famam 
 Haac mensum vetitam Doverit esse sibL 
 
 * Dr. John Erskine. 
 
18 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 It is a proof of the just judgment lie Lad formed 
 of the vital importance of a godly active eldership to 
 the well-being of a Christian church, and of the inter- 
 est he took iu the progress of true religion among 
 his people, that not many months after his ordination 
 he laid the following questions before the Session to be 
 ])roposed to its members individually at regular periods. 
 '■' 1 . Do you worship God in your families, morning 
 and evening? 2. Do you visit the sick in your quar- 
 ters and pray with them? 3. Do you take notice of 
 the families in your quarter if they maintain and keep 
 up the worship of God? 4. Is there any scandal in 
 your quarter? 5. Do you exhort parents to put their 
 children to school? 6. Do you exhort and admonish 
 persons in private before you delate them before the 
 session, according to Christ's command and direction? 
 7. Do you instruct your children and families in the 
 knowledge of the principles of religion? 8. Do you 
 notice such persons and families as are in worldly 
 straits? 9. Are you faithful in admitting and debar- 
 ring, when the roll of the congregation is read before 
 the Session?"* 
 
 Mr. Fisher's diligent ministrations were so accep- 
 table that not long after his ordination the church was 
 found incapable of accommodating the congregation. 
 To meet this exigency a gallery was erected. On its 
 completion, " the Session taking into consideration that 
 the loft in the church was now finished, resolved to let 
 it out for the use of the poor of this parish, and that 
 the yearly rent which each person shall pay shall be 
 two shillings and sixpence Scots," i. e., twopence half- 
 penny in our money, f 
 
 In the year 1727 an event occurred which, to a very 
 great degree, gave colour to Mr. Fisher's future life, 
 and was, under God, the source of much of his useful- 
 
 * Session records of the Darish of Kincliiven. f Ihid. 
 
THE REV. JAMES FISHER. 19 
 
 ncss and happiness. We refer to his union in marriage 
 with Miss .Joan Erskiue, ehlest daughter of the llev. 
 Ebenezer Erskine, then of Portmoak, afterwards of 
 Stirling. This event took place at Portmoak on the 
 4th July, that year. The marriage ceremony was per- 
 formed by the Rev. Ralph Erskine, the bride being his 
 favourite niece, and the bridegroom a very highly 
 esteemed young friend and brother. Miss Erskiue 
 proved indeed "a help meet" for her husband, and in 
 receiving her " he obtained favour of the Lord." Her 
 piety, cheerfulness, prudence, and good temper made 
 her quite a pattern minister's wife. She relieved him 
 of, what he was ill iitted to bear, the burden of secular 
 aflfairs, and " his heart safely trusted in her." — It is 
 delightful to see the sacred fire of conjugal affection 
 burning brightly after the lapse of nearly half a cen- 
 tury of no ordinary trial, and diffusing so sweet a 
 radiance over the evening of life. — But Mrs. Fisher's 
 character deserves more attention than can be given it 
 here without interfering with the course of the narra- 
 tive, and shall form the subject of a brief notice in the 
 Appendix. * 
 
 While occupying the most of his time in the dis- 
 charge of his ministerial duties, Mr. Fisher early proved 
 that he was possessed of that true public spirit which 
 cannot allow a man to rest when he sees the great in- 
 terests of his country and of the church of Christ in 
 danger. He was one of the men who " cared not only 
 for his own things" but for "the things of Christ," — 
 " the things of others." He had witnessed with deep 
 regret and inward indignation equally the invasions of 
 the civil power, after the Union, on the ecclesiastical 
 liberties of Scotland, and the tame submission of the 
 ecclesiastical courts and the great body of the clergy 
 to these usurpations; and he had observed with, if 
 
 * Vide Appendix, No. 11. 
 
20 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 possible, deeper sorrow, the indications of a growing 
 carelessness in the church courts about purity of doctrine, 
 and a growing disposition to tamper with and disregard 
 the most sacred rights of the members of the church — 
 the Christian people as they were then termed. So 
 early as the year 1731, while yet a very young minis- 
 ter, we find him meeting with the Rev. William Wil- 
 son of Perth, George Gillespie of Strathmiglo, Robert 
 Laing of Newburgh, Laurence M'Intosh of Errol, and 
 Alexander Moncrieff of Abernethy, to consider what 
 measures it might be advisable and right to adopt in 
 reference to that crisis of ecclesiastical affairs, which, 
 to all who could discern the signs of the times, was seen 
 to be rapidly approaching.* 
 
 The result of this meeting was the drawing up a 
 representation to be presented to the next General As- 
 sembly, May 1732, to which, besides their own signa- 
 tures, they obtained those of 36 ministers of the highest 
 standing in the church, and 3 ruling elders, f 
 
 * Fraser. 
 
 t These names are worthy of all honour. Geo. Gillespie, Strath- 
 miglo; Geo. Freer, Letheudie; John Gibb, Cleish; James Ker, 
 Dun ; Peter Drummond, Crietf ; John Currie, Kinglassie ; Robert 
 Laing, Newburgh ; Robert Gray, Brechin ; Geo. Meek, Redgorton ; 
 Lau. M'Intosh, Errol ; Will. Wilson, Perth ; James Fisher, Kin- 
 claven; John Gow, Cargill; Thomas Nairn, Abbotshall; John 
 Row, Navar and Lethnot; Alex. Moncrieff, Abernethy; Thos. 
 Mair, Orwell; Robert Coventrie, Kilspindie; John M'Claren, 
 Edinburgh; John Bonar, Torphichen; Ralph Erskine, Dunferm- 
 line; John Wardlaw, there; James Farquhar, Nigg: Ebenezer 
 Erskine, Stirling; John Forbes, Deer; Gabriel Wilson, Maxton; 
 William Henderson, Dalgety; Thomas Thomson, Auchter- 
 muchty; Alex. Hamilton, Stirling; Charles Moor, there (father 
 of Dr. John Moore and grandfather of Sir John Moore) ; William 
 Hally, Muthil; David Stevenson, Glendovan; John Johnston, 
 Brechin; James Goodsir, Monikie; Andrew Elliot, Auchtertoul; 
 James Thomson, Burntisland; James Noble, Eckford; Geo. 
 Mair, Newdeer; John Cranston, Ancrum; James Innes, Mer- 
 ton; Henry Davidson, Galashiels; Walter Hart, Bunkill — Mi- 
 nisters. Alex. Swinton of Strathore, Thomas Trotter, William 
 
THE REV. JAMES FISHER. 21 
 
 lu clear, Jiguiiictl, uuiinpassioneil language, this 
 representation, complains " of encroachments by the 
 British legislature on the legal rights of the church, 
 acknowledged and secured by the Articles of Union 
 between the two kingdoms, and of the want of duo 
 resistance to these encroachments by the General As- 
 sembly; of the tolerance or inadcijuate censure of false 
 doctrine; of the interfering with the undeniable right 
 of Christian congregations to have the free choice of 
 their own pastors, and the disregard of that call and 
 consent which are necessary to found the pastoral rela- 
 tion; of the refusal to record reasons of dissent against 
 the determinations of church judicatories; of the un- 
 constitutional usurpations of the Commission of Assem- 
 bly; and of the neglect of proper measures to check 
 innovations in the method an.l strain of preaching, 
 very offensive to many of God's people." 
 
 This representation, with a corresponding petition, 
 was given in to the clerk of the Assembly, and read in 
 the Committee of Bills; but though couched in the 
 most unobjectionable terms, it w^as by them refused to 
 be transmitted to the Assembly. Against this decision, 
 the petitioners protested, and complained to the Assem- 
 bly, who contemptuously refused even to hear their 
 complaint. Nothing was left to these good men, but 
 to give in a solemn protestation against this most un- 
 constitutional and tyrannical procedure. This protest 
 deserves to be recorded here. " We, the undersub- 
 scribing ministers of this church, finding, to our great 
 grief, that our humble and dutiful representation anent 
 grievances, oliered to this General Assembly, is not 
 received, or allowed hearing therein, though craved 
 with all earnestness, and in the due and orderly w^ay, 
 find ourselves obliged, much against our inclination, 
 
 Walker — Elders. — Humble Repra^entation and Petition anent 
 Grievances of some Ministers and Elders, p. 14, 15. 4to. Ediu. 
 1732. 
 
99 
 
 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 and with all due deference to this venerable Assembly, 
 humbly to protest, in our own name and in the name 
 of all concurring in the said representation or adhering, 
 against the said deed, and for the preservation of the 
 just rights belonging to us as men, Christians, and 
 office-bearers of this church (by the light of nature, 
 word of God, constitutions of this church, claims of 
 right, laws of the land, and manifold approven prece- 
 dents since the Keformation to this day), to have repre- 
 sentations and petitions anent grievances, which are or 
 may be offered by ourselves or others to the General 
 Assembly, or other judicatories of this church received, 
 openly read and taken into serious consideration by the 
 said courts for redress; and that the church's continu- 
 ing still under the grievances specified in our representa- 
 tion, and others of like nature, shall be no wise charge- 
 able on us: And we humbly crave that this may be 
 recorded in the Assembly's register, and extracts allowed 
 to us for exoneration."* At the same time the As- 
 sembly treated with equal contempt a representation of 
 a similar kind subscribed by upwards of 1,700 persons 
 not ministers or elders drawn up without any previous 
 concert with the ministers. 
 
 The months that followed the meeting of that Assem- 
 bly were with Mr. Fisher and those who thought and 
 felt along with him, a season of deep and painful deli- 
 beration. His venerated friend and father, Ebenezer 
 Erskine, who had been Moderator of the Synod of 
 Perth and Stirling at their last meeting, had made up 
 his mind, when called in the ordinary course to preach 
 at its approaching meeting in October, at all hazards, 
 
 * This protest was signed by 14 of the petitioners who had 
 been appointed to act in the name of the rest. Dr. M'Kerrow 
 states that the names of all the Fathers of the Secession were 
 attached to this protest. In the copy penes me, Mr. Fisher's name 
 does not appear, probably from his not having been at the 
 Assembly. 
 
THE REV. JAMES FISIIEK. 23 
 
 to lift up liis voice, in defence of the injured and in- 
 t^ulted rights of his Master and brethren. He came to 
 Kinchiv(?n in the end of the week previously to the 
 meeting of the Synod, and preached there on Sabbath 
 the 8th of October, 1732. Tradition says, and there 
 is obvious i)robability in the report, that the sermon 
 delivered to the parishioners of Kinclaven was that 
 which was delivered before the Synod on the Tues- 
 day following, on Psal. cxviii. 22,— and adds, that the 
 impression made by that sermon on the people contri- 
 buted much to their abandoning the communion of the 
 ruling party in the Establishment, almost as one man, 
 in the course of a short period.* It is interesting to 
 reflect on the probable course of conversation between 
 the father and son-in-law, as they travelled together 
 that Monday along the Tay, from Kinclaven to Perth. 
 They no doubt felt their spirits stirred in them, and 
 their hearts must have been agitated by painful antici- 
 pations; but they clearly apprehended their duty, and 
 they were determined to perform it. They but indis- 
 tinctly saw the probable consequences of the step re- 
 solved on to themselves as individuals, and could have 
 no idea of the high results which, in reference to the 
 religion of their native land, hung on their being 
 faithful to their convictions of duty. But here, as in 
 many another step in their eventful journey, " they 
 went forth not knowing whither they went," but well 
 knowing who led them, and firmly trusting Him. 
 
 When the honest but measured utterance of disap- 
 probation of civil and ecclesiastical tyranny contained 
 in Mr. Erskine's Synod sermon had awakened the indig- 
 nation of their abettors, and become the subject of judi- 
 cial investigation, undeterred by a false delicacy which 
 might have shrunk from a course w^iich was sure to 
 be,° as in fact it was, ascribed to family attachment 
 
 * Communicated by the Rev. David Young, Kinclaven. 
 
24 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 rather than to regard to truth and justice, Mr. Fisher 
 took a decided part in defence of his venerable relative. 
 Though 2^revented from his near relationship to the 
 accused, from giving his vote in the question, as to 
 whether Mr. Erskine's expressions were censurable, and 
 consequently incapacitated from dissenting, as Messrs. 
 Wilson and Moncrieff did, from the Synod's sentence 
 finding them censurable, he availed himself of his con- 
 stitutional privilege of protesting and complaining to 
 the General Assembly. 
 
 At the meeting of the Assembly in May 1733, Mr. 
 Fisher appeared, but was not permitted to be heard in 
 support of his protest. The committee of bills refused 
 to transmit his reasons of protest, most presumptuously 
 pronouncing that he had " engyred" himself into the 
 process not for the vindication of the truth, but on ac- 
 count of his connexion with the delinquent, for the 
 purpose of endeavouring to screen him from deserved 
 punishment. 
 
 The Assembly approved of the sentence of the Synod 
 of Perth and Stirling, and appointed Mr. Erskine to be 
 rebuked and admonished at the bar. On the sentence 
 of the Assembly being implemented, Mr. Erskine offered 
 a solemn protestation, to which Mr. Fisher, along with 
 Messrs. Wilson and Moncrieff, presented a written de- 
 claration of adherence. That protestation the Assem- 
 bly refused to read, and it was thrown on the table 
 among other papers. Had it been allowed to lie there, 
 it is not improbable that the Secession would not have 
 taken place when it did. It was, however, casually 
 taken up and read by Mr. James Nasmith, minister of 
 Dalmeny, " a fiery man," as Mr. Gib calls him, " in the 
 corrupt measures of that time;" and, as his conduct in 
 this instance proved him, a man more forward than 
 wise. He had no sooner read it than he forced it oil 
 the attention of the Assembly as an insult which a 
 regard to their own honour and authority could not 
 
THE REV. JAMES FISHER. 25 
 
 allow to be overlooked. The reading of the paper and 
 its appendages produced the highest indignation through- 
 out the Assembly. Mr. Erskine and his friends were 
 closely dealt with, to induce them to withdraw their 
 papers: and on their steadily refusing, the Assembly 
 appointed them to appear before the Commission at 
 their meeting in Edinburgh in August, and then and 
 there to withdraw their papers and express their sor- 
 row for having presented them; and in case that they 
 did not comply with this requisition, the Commission 
 was empowered to suspend them from the exercise of 
 their ministry; and, should their sentence be disre- 
 garded, to proceed to higher censure at their meeting 
 in November. 
 
 At the meeting of the Commission in August, Mr. 
 Fisher with his associates firmly kept his ground. On 
 being called to the bar and asked if he was not sorry 
 for his conduct in adhering to the protestation given in 
 by the Rev. Ebenezer Erskine to the last General As- 
 sembly, he ctilmly and resolutely answered in these well 
 considered words, which have been preserved in the 
 Minutes of the Commission : " Although I sincerely 
 declare that I do not design, by the protestation given 
 in against the decision of the last Assembly, to impugn 
 the power and authority of the General Assembly to 
 censure any of the ministers and members of this church 
 upon just and relevant grounds, or the exercise of that 
 power and authority according to the word of God and 
 the known principles of this church; yet I am not sen- 
 sible of any just ground of oflfence I have given by my 
 conduct before the last Assembly, and therefore cannot 
 declare my sorrow for it, nor retract the said protesta- 
 tion ; but find it my duty to adhere thereunto, and to 
 the papers given in this day under form of instru- 
 ment." 
 
 With his " brethren and companions in tribulation, 
 and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ," Mr. 
 
26 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 Fislier was, in consequence of this refusal to retract his 
 protestation, suspended from the exercise of his min- 
 istry. On the suspension being intimated to him, 
 he, with his brethren, gave in a solemn protestation, 
 and under this protest they continued the discharge of 
 their ministerial functions. We find them meeting to- 
 gether at Kinclaven on Sept. 19th, along with Mr. 
 Ralph Erskine and Mr. John Gow of Cargill, who ap- 
 pears to have been an intimate friend of Mr. Fisher 
 having baptized some of his children, and "spending the 
 day in praying and seeking counsel of the Lord as to 
 what they were next to do." Part of next day was also 
 occupied in prayer and conference, and " the brethren 
 came to find that in their circumstances, it was fit they 
 should think, in case of their de]3osition next commis- 
 mission, to be ready before it to constitute themselves 
 into a Presbytery, and declare themselves not of the 
 communion of the Church, with certain reserves."* 
 
 At the meeting of the Commission in November 
 much displeasure was expressed at the disregard of the 
 sentence of suspension, and by the casting vote of the 
 Moderator, the Rev. Mr. Gowdie, it was resolved to 
 proceed to a higher censure; though not without a dis- 
 sent being entered by seven members of the Commission, 
 among whom we find the singularly pious Mr. Alexan- 
 der Wardrobe, first minister of Whitburn, the Lord 
 Grange and Colonel Erskine, the grandfather of the 
 venerable Dr. John Erskine of fragrant memory. The 
 relation between Mr. Fisher and his brethren and their 
 congregations was thus declared to be dissolved, and 
 they were pronounced no longer ministers of the 
 Church of Scotland. On this sentence being inti- 
 mated to them, they in a written paper which, after 
 reading, they left in the hands of the Clerk of the 
 Assembly, declared their adherence to their former 
 
 * Eraser's Life and Diary of Ralph Erskine, pp. 203, 204. 
 
THE REV. JAMES FISHER. 27 
 
 jirotestations ; — tlicir dctcrniliiation to persevere in 
 j)orforniing tlicir ministerial duties to their congrcf^a- 
 tions, with whom they held that their connexion con- 
 tinued unbroken; — their sense of injustice in being cast 
 out of communion with the Established Church of Scot- 
 land, to the doctrine, discipline, and government of 
 which they clung fast, — cast out on account of their 
 constitutional efforts to defend these; — their readiness 
 to hold communion with all who consistently adhered 
 to these; — and their secession from the prevailing 
 party in that Church, on the ground of a course of 
 defection, and especially of their suppression of minis- 
 terial freedom and faithfulness, and infliction of censures 
 on ministers for witnessing against their backslidings. 
 The lion-hearted Gabriel Wilson of Maxton protested 
 against the sentence, and declared " that as he should 
 find opportunity he would hold communion with his 
 dear brethren, as if no such sentence had been passed 
 against them." To this protest Ralph Erskine, Thomas 
 Mair, John i\Iaclaren, Edinburgh, John Currie, James 
 Wardlaw, and Thomas Nairn, adhered. 
 
 Mr. Fisher and his brethren left the Assembly as 
 the apostles did the Sanhedrim, " rejoicing that they 
 were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name ;" 
 and they retired to their respective homes, with the 
 understanding that they must soon meet to consult as 
 to what course they ought to adopt in their unprece- 
 dented circumstances, but without any fixed arrange- 
 ment as to time and place. It was finally arranged 
 that the meeting should take place at Gairney Bridge, 
 in the neighbourhood of Kinross, on the 5th day of 
 December. They accordingly met there, and after the 
 greater part of two days had been spent in solemn 
 prayer and serious deliberation by the Four Brethren, 
 who were cheered by the presence of two men of kin- 
 dred spirit, who ere long cast in their lot with them — 
 the Rev. Ralph Erskine of Dunfermline and Thomas 
 
28 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 Mair of Orwell — tliey saw their way clear to their 
 forming themselves into a Presbytery, under the de- 
 signation of The Associate Presbytery, "that they 
 might be capable of performing all the functions of 
 government to the congregations under their care; — 
 that they might have a clear claim to the promise of 
 the Master's presence, ' where two or three are met in 
 his name;' that their union with each other might be 
 consolidated; that they might afford a rallying point 
 to the true but timid friends of ecclesiastical purity 
 and freedom; and that they might be able more effec- 
 tually to resist ecclesiastical tyranny, and relieve those 
 who were its victims." "There was," says Ralph 
 Erskine, " I thought, much of the Lord with them, 
 and I found my heart frequently warmed and drawn 
 out in prayer with them."* Mr. Fisher was chosen 
 Clerk of the new judicatory, for which his distinct and 
 beautiful handwriting and accurate habits peculiarly 
 fitted him, and he continued for a number of years to 
 discharge this office, which, from the number of appli- 
 cations that soon poured in on the Presbytery, (not 
 fewer than seventy being made in 1737- 8,) was found 
 to be no sinecure. The first important deed of the 
 Associate Presbytery was the preparation and publica- 
 tion of " A Testimony for the Doctrine, Government, 
 and Discipline of the Church of Scotland;" — a calm, 
 well-reasoned statement of the grounds on which they 
 had acted, and were determined to continue to act. 
 This was the work of Mr. Wilson assisted by Mr. 
 Fisher, t 
 
 There was a considerable party in the Church, who, 
 though not prepared fully to justify, and still less to 
 
 * Fraser's Life and Diary of Ralph Erskine, p. 207. 
 
 t MS. note by Mr. Gib. Indeed Mr. Fisher seems to have 
 had a hand in almost all the public papers. Mr. Gib particu- 
 larly mentions the introduction to the declinature as written by 
 him. 
 
TnE REV. JAMES FISHER. 29 
 
 imitate, the conduct of the Four Brethren, yet deeply 
 regretted the arbitrary proceedings of the late A.^- 
 semblies and Commissions, and had become seriously 
 alarmed with regard to their probable consequences. 
 Great and successful exertions were made by this party 
 to secure members of their way of thinking for the 
 Assembly in 1734; and the ruling faction beginning 
 to see that they had by their violent measures created 
 dangers which they did not know well how to meet, 
 seem to have allowed their opponents to have a good 
 deal of their own will in the elections. The conse- 
 quence was one of the most extraordinary acts ever 
 emitted by an ecclesiastical body. " Tlie General As- 
 sembly," without application from any quarter, — "with- 
 out farther inquiry into the occasions or steps of pro- 
 ceeding of Messrs. Ebenezer Erskine, William Wilson, 
 Alexander IMoncriefF, and James Fisher, who had sepa- 
 rated from this Church and the judicatories thereof, 
 or of the several judicatories under whose consideration 
 their case had been, empowered the Synod of Perth 
 and Stirling to take the case of these Four Brethren 
 under their^ consideration, with full power to proceed 
 and do therein as they shall find most justifiable and 
 expedient for restoring the peace, and preserving the 
 authority of this Church, and restoring them^ to their 
 respective charges, without pronouncing any judgment 
 favourable or unfavourable, on the former proceedings 
 of the church judicatories in their cause." 
 
 The Synod of Perth and Stirling showed no back- 
 wardness in attempting to undo what had been the 
 unlooked-for result of their intemperate rashness. At 
 their meeting in July they followed up this remarkable 
 empowerment, by, at one sweep, removing, without appli- 
 cation from any'^of the Four Brethren, and without any 
 condition express or implied, the sentences pronounced 
 by the Commission in 1733, against them, restoring 
 them to ministerial communion and reponing them in 
 
30 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 their charges. They even went so far as to elect Mr. 
 Ebenezer Erskine to be their Moderator, and appointed 
 a deputation to wait on him to request him to occupy 
 the chair. 
 
 As the Associate Brethren were not to be terrified, 
 so they were not to be seduced from what they saw to 
 be the path of duty. They showed themselves equally 
 superior to flattery as to fear. Had they been vain 
 men, never perhaps had there been such an opportunity 
 of having vanity gratified.* But they were men of 
 " another spirit," and were determined to " follow the 
 Lord fully." They took the proposal into serious con- 
 sideration; but after thoughtful and prayerful delibera- 
 tion, they saw that no explicit condemnation of what 
 they held to be tyranny and injustice had been given, 
 no pledge to retrace the steps of defection, and to pro- 
 ceed in a course of remonstrance with the civil power 
 on its encroachments, and of internal reformation; and 
 that therefore it was clearly their duty to continue for 
 the present in that state of judicial separation from the 
 ruling party of the Church into which they had been 
 so wonderfully conducted ; and they assigned reasons 
 for the course they had resolved on, not more remark- 
 able for the soundness of their substance than for the 
 calmness of their manner. Subsequent events soon 
 made it plain to them and all considerate observers 
 that they had judged rightly. f 
 
 * This is admirably put by Dr. Harper in tlie following most 
 graphical sentence : — " A weak man might have been excused 
 if, in Mr. Erskine's circumstances, he had imagined himself 
 vaulting into the saddle while the Synod held the stirrup, and 
 with studied civilities attended him as he rode over rescinded 
 acts, and recanted charges to the Hall of the Assembly, amid 
 the abashed looks of humbled dignitaries, and the shoutings of 
 a triumphant people." — jifemoir of Ebenezer Erskine, p. 65. 
 
 t Even Sir Henry Moncrietf (in his Appendix to his Life of 
 Dr. Erskine, pp. 448, 449, 452) admits, that if the Seceders had 
 given way, and returned to the Church on this occasion, they 
 
THE REV. JAMES FISHEE. 31 
 
 The parishioners of Kinclavcn adhered almost witli- 
 out exception to their discardeJ minister. Instead of 
 abandoning his ministrations they clung closer to him 
 than ever. They had had " full proof of his ministry 
 and manner of life," and were persuaded that he and 
 his honoured associates had been " cast out by their 
 brethren," for their fidelity to the honour of their Mas- 
 ter and to the privileges of his people; and that they 
 were called on to bear testimony against the error and 
 tyranny which was permitted to prevail in the Estab- 
 lished Church. It was not till August 1735, that the 
 Associate Presbytery proceeded to exercise judicial 
 functions, so careful were they " to do nothing rashly ;" 
 and Kinclavcn and Abernethy seem to have had the 
 honour of being the first two congregations that, through 
 their sessions, formally acceded to the Presbytery. 
 
 The deed of accession, on the part of Kinclavcn, well 
 deserves a place here. *" Kinclavcn Manse, October 
 25th, 1736, — Which day and place the session met, 
 and after prayer by the minister, were present, (tc, &c., 
 tkc. The session taking into consideration the present 
 lamentable state of the Established Church of Scotland ; 
 that the General Assemblies thereof have restrained 
 ministerial faithfulness in preaching and the liberty of 
 protesting against their decisions, however unlawful, 
 and have ejected four ministers from their communion 
 for refusing to give up with these valuable rights of 
 the office-bearers of Ziou's King; that gross errors and 
 blasphemies have been vented by some members of the 
 Church, and yet no way duly censured or testified 
 against, when the cause of truth came before the su- 
 
 would have been disappointed. The prevailing party were not 
 overpowered; they were merely allowing their opponents to 
 do what they themselves could not do with a good grace, but 
 with a ivsolution to hold the reins as tight as ever. 
 
 * This interesting document has been already printed in Dr. 
 M'Kerrow's History, p. 173, 2d edition. 
 
32 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 preme judicatories, whereby that cause is left bleeding 
 in our streets; that as the heritage of God, for several 
 years past, has been oppressed by intrusions into the 
 ministry, the same continue still to be countenanced; 
 and likewise considering that the Established Church 
 have refused to make a fixithful acknowledgment, to 
 the glory of God, of our own iniquities, and the iniqui- 
 ties of our fathers; and the session having heard read 
 'the causes of God's wrath against this church and 
 land,' both in former and present times, drawn up by 
 the ministers associated together for the exercise of 
 government and discipline in a presbyterial capacity, 
 it was moved what should be the duty of this session 
 in the present juncture; whereupon one was desired 
 to pray, and after prayer and long reasoning upon the 
 said motion, the question was put: 'Take up the tes- 
 timony contained in the above-mentioned causes of the 
 Lord's wrath, and accede to the Presbytery of the 
 ministers associated for the exercise of church govern- 
 nient and discipline, or not?' It carried unanimously, 
 ' Take up the testimony, contained in the above men- 
 tioned causes of the Lord's wrath, in all the branches 
 of it; and they did, and hereby do, accede to the Pres- 
 bytery of the ministers associated for the exercise of 
 government and discipline; and upon a leet being made, 
 Thomas Watson was chosen to attend the meetings of 
 Presbytery for the ensuing half year." 
 
 It may be right to state here, though the fact, like 
 so many others in this Memoir, have no exclusive refer- 
 ence to Mr. Fisher's personal history, that in the close 
 of the year 1736, an able and most elaborate apologe- 
 tical narrative or historical defence of the course taken 
 by the Seceders, was published by the Associate Pres- 
 bytery, under the title of " An act, declaration, and 
 testitnony, for the doctrine, worship, discipline, and 
 government of the Church of Scotland." This docu- 
 ment is commonly known by the name of The Second 
 
THE REV. JAMES FISHER. 33 
 
 — or the Judicial Testimony. This, like the first Tcs- 
 tiinouy, was, in a ^reat degree, the joint work of 
 Messrs. Wilson and Fisher.* 
 
 In the course of this year we find that Mr. Fisher, with 
 the Erskine brothers and Messrs. Moncrictf and Mair, 
 assisted Mr. Bonar of Torpliichen in administering 
 the communion, and that, along with Mr. Wilson, he 
 visited by request the west of Scotland, where a con- 
 siderable interest had been excited by the events con- 
 nected with the Secession. By their ministrations and 
 conversations a very favourable impression was made 
 iu many quarters, and the foundation of a number 
 of congregations laid; among the rest that of the 
 large society in the city of Glasgow, of which Mr. 
 Fisher was ere long to become the minister. 
 
 Mr. Fisher's audience at Kinclaven, so far from 
 being diminished by what had taken place, was con- 
 siderably increased. Many from the parishes of Little 
 Dunkeld, Redgorton, Monedie, Caputh, Lethcndy, 
 Cluny, and Cargill, approving of the ground taken by 
 the Associate Brethren, placed themselves under his 
 ministry. On occasion of the administration of the 
 Lord's supper, great crowds of devout worshippers, not 
 only from the neighbourhood, but from the west of 
 Scotland, and even from Ireland, collected at Kincla- 
 ven. Hospitably as the people were disposed to enter- 
 tain the host of strangers which poured in on them on 
 such occasions, they were unable to accommodate them 
 all in their houses, or even in their barns. Some of 
 them were accustomed to spend the night in the parish 
 church, and others encamped in a neighbouring wood 
 called the Hill of Kinclaven. Tradition tells of Mr. 
 Ralph Erskine, when on one occasion assisting his 
 esteemed relative at the administration of the Lord's 
 supper, having gone early into the wood on the morn- 
 
 ♦ MS. note of Mr. Gib. 
 
34 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 ing of the Communion Sabbath, and on his return 
 saying to his brethren in the manse, " We are likely to 
 have a good day I think, for the birds are singing very 
 sweetly in the wood," referring to the sounds of prayer 
 and praise which he had heard from all quarters.* 
 The following notices from that good man's diary re- 
 specting Kinclaven communions are interesting: ^^ Sab- 
 bath, July 2d, 1738. I heard Mr. Fisher, in his action 
 sermon on that word ' It is finished.' His proofs that 
 the work was finished and inferences therefrom were 
 refreshing to me." '''Saturday/, Jul i/ 2 8tk, 1739. This 
 evening I had a public exercise before the Sacrament 
 at Kinclaven, and preached on Gal. ii. 20. On Sab- 
 bath I communicated at a table served by my brother, 
 and was quickened there by hearing that Christ was 
 alive, and that all the words on which he has caused 
 us to hope are more on his heart than ours. This was 
 a mean of quickening, and when I went alone, my 
 heart was poured out, by the outpouring of the Spirit 
 of Christ. I was strengthened in preaching at the 
 text upon the love of Christ being a giving love, and 
 strengthened in serving seven tables, especially the two 
 last except one; at which two, the communicants and 
 hearers seemed to be greatly moved, for there was some 
 remarkable breathing." " Monday, July 30. — This 
 morning being obliged, I studied and preached; though 
 unprepared I was helped in studying and preaching. — 
 I preached from a heart, as it were, full of Christ and 
 of desire to win souls to him. The Lord was with me 
 
 in the closet, and with me in the tent I 
 
 preached before my brother Ebenezer, and many went 
 away with the conviction that God was in the place." t 
 In the autumn of this year we find Mr. Fisher ac- 
 companying Ealph Erskine in visiting Dryburgh, 
 
 * MacKerrow, p. 833. 2d ed. 
 
 t Fraser's life and diary of the Rev. Ralph Erskine, p. 250, 2G0. 
 
THE REV. JAMES FISHER. 35 
 
 Ebenczer's birtli-place, and SliielficM, the possession of 
 their ancestors— Stichcll and Sir Robert Pringle, the 
 only titled adherent the Secession could boast of — 
 Maxton and its worthy minister Gabriel Wilson, and 
 taking a part in the ordination at Gateschaw of Mr. 
 Hunter, the eloquent first licentiate of the Associate 
 Presbytery. * 
 
 In August 1738, Mr. Fisher and Mr. Ealph Erskine 
 went to the south-west of Scotland, to preach among 
 Mr. Hepburn's people — the Cameronians, as they were 
 commonly called. Six or seven ministers heard them, 
 with whom they conversed afterwards, and " Mr. 
 Fisher," says Ralph Erskine in his diary, " sustained 
 a debate with them to great advantage." t 
 
 The General Assembly in 1738 perceiving that there 
 v/as no prospect of the return of the Scceders to the 
 church, except on the ground of a much more thorough 
 change in administration than they probably thought 
 either practicable or advisable, — and hoping perhaps to 
 deter persons from joining their fellowship, had proceed- 
 ed towards what, however consistent with ecclesiastical 
 law and usage, must be considered as a most wanton 
 desecration of a high censure, which ought never to be 
 pronounced but on men clearly proved guilty of dan- 
 gerous error or plain immorality. The Commission 
 which met in November, acting under their orders, put 
 a libel into the hand of Mr. Fisher and the other mem- 
 bers of the Associate Presbytery. As a body they 
 drew up a solemn declinature of the authority of the 
 Assembly, which their IModerator read before tlie As- 
 sembly at its meeting in 1739. Instead of proceeding, 
 as might have been expected, to the highest ecclesias- 
 tical clerical censure — the Assembly, for reasons not 
 difficult to divine, deferred it for a twelvemonth, and 
 
 * Fraser's life and diaiy of the Ptev. Ralph Erskine, p. 201, 2C2. 
 t Ibid. p. 275, 276. 
 
36 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE, &C. 
 
 then, as no symptoms of penitence or returning alle- 
 giance manifested themselves on the part of the Seced- 
 ing Ministers, at their meeting, 1740, they formally 
 deposed from the office of the ministry — men who, for 
 integrity, piety, and unspotted reputation had no supe- 
 riors in the land, and who, as to ministerial qualifica- 
 tion, stood on a level with the most respectable of their 
 brethren. This ecclesiastical thunderbolt was hurled 
 against the four brethren and the four associates who 
 had united themselves with them since their formation 
 of themselves into a Presbytery.* It was truly a 
 " telum imbelle." It came too late. It did not reach 
 its mark. It proved the importance of the Secession, 
 but did nothing to stay its course. 
 
 * The Kev. Messrs. Ralph Erskine of Dunfermline, Thomas 
 Mair of Orwell, Thomas Nairn of Abbotshall, and James 
 Thomson of Burntisland. 
 
(37) 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 1740—1747. 
 
 Ejected from the Church and Clause of Kindaven, 1741 — Call to 
 Glasgow — Admission to Glasgow — Introdiictoiy Sermon — Con- 
 troversy with the Rev. Mr. James Robe respecting the " Kilsyth and 
 Cambuslang work" — Publications on that subject — Character of 
 them — Rebellion in 174o — Thanksgivmg Sermon, 1746 — Burgess 
 Oath Controversy — The Breach, 1747. 
 
 When the minister appointed to intimate the sentence 
 of the Assembly came to Knclaven, he found, on 
 his arrival on the Lord's day morning, the church 
 already crowded, and the pulpit filled by its usual 
 occupant, and was obliged to perform the work as- 
 signed him, at the west end of the church, in the pre- 
 sence of two witnesses, specially summoned, to afford 
 valid evidence of the appointment of the Assembly 
 having been carried into execution. 
 
 Mr. Fisher's Presbytery seem, upon the whole, to 
 have acted with much kindly forbearance towards him. 
 On receiving the letter from the Commission of August 
 1733, recommending them to supply the pulpit of their 
 suspended brother, they " found that it would not be 
 for edification to supply that charge presently" — though 
 Mr. Adam Ferguson of Killin, father of the celebrated 
 Professor of the same name, for a reason which soon 
 became apparent, protested against this finding. They 
 appointed a committee to deal with Mr. Fisher, and it 
 was not till the 4th of December that they appointed 
 Mr. Man to repair to Kinclaven and intimate the Com- 
 mission's sentence — and though Mr. Man reported at 
 next meeting that he had fulfilled the appointment, they 
 still at successive meetings delayed appointing supplies. 
 
38 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 On tlie IStli June, 1734, a presentation to the vacant 
 kirk and parish made its appearance, addressed to 
 Mr. Adam Ferguson, but the Presbytery delayed the 
 whole affair till they were forbidden to proceed by the 
 Synod, which, in accordance with the appointment of 
 the Assembly, had removed the suspension. Even 
 after the deposition by the Assembly, while the Pres- 
 bytery appointed their officer to deliver a copy of the 
 Assembly's Act to the Session Clerk, to be communicat- 
 ed to the elders, they still delayed sending supply. At 
 last, when the heritors petitioned the Presbytery, on the 
 14th of October, to appoint Mr. James Bishop to preach 
 at Kinclaven, the Presbytery, but not till their next 
 meeting, complied with the request. On going there, 
 however, he could find no access. Mr. Bishop received 
 a presentation from the heritors on the 7th April, 1741, 
 and legal measures were ere long adopted to find him 
 entrance into the church and manse.* 
 
 Mr. Fisher continued to reside in the manse, and to 
 preach in the church of Kinclaven, till August 13th, 
 1741, when three ofiicers of the law intimated a decree 
 of execution formally passed, and gave Mr. Fisher a 
 charge thereupon to remove from kirk and manse 
 within forty-eight hours, under pain of forcible ejection 
 and other penalties. His last sermon, on Sabbath Aug. 
 9th, was from Rom. vii. 24, 25. On the 15th day of 
 that month, the same officers having been refused the 
 keys of the church, went in by the windows, put a 
 new lock on one of the doors, and iron plates over the 
 key holes. Thus deprived of the use of the church, 
 Mr. Fisher preached in a tent at Kinclaven braeside 
 during the short period he continued in that part of 
 the country.t Towards the end of this year Mr. 
 Fisher had an addition of twin children to his family, 
 
 * Minutes of the Pi'esbyteiy of Dunkeld. 
 t Information contained in a note in one of Mr. Fisher's 
 note books. 
 
THE REV. JAMES FISHER. 39 
 
 which we notice chiefly that we may clironicle here his 
 tribute to the memory of a dear " brother and compa- 
 nion in the kin<xdom and patience of Jesus Christ," as 
 recorded in his Family Register. " Our two children, 
 Margaret and James, were born in Perth, Saturday, 
 Oct. 31st, 1741, about three in the morning. They 
 were baptized next day, being Sabbath November 1st, 
 by Mr. William Wilson, minister at Perth, which was 
 the last piece of public ministerial work performed by 
 that eminent servant of Jesus Christ. He died Nov. 
 lUh, 1741."* 
 
 Among the societies of Christians in various quar- 
 ters of the country, who applied to the Associate 
 Presbytery to be placed in church order, and, by being 
 taken under their care, to be secured of the enjoyment 
 of ecclesiastical freedom, the dispensation of a pure gos- 
 pel,and the exercise of a M-holesome discipline,none, with 
 the exception perhaps of that in the metropolis, could 
 compare for importance with the association in the, 
 even then, wealthy and populous city of Glasgow. Its 
 site afforded an excellent central point from which to 
 operate on the west of Scotland, and its members were 
 considerably numerous, and many of them distinguished 
 for worldly as well as Christian respectability. This 
 society, when formed into a congregation, soon fixed 
 their eyes on Mr. Fisher, as from his comparative 
 youth, as well as from his pulpit talents and remark- 
 able amenity of manners, peculiarly fitted to fill a 
 sphere which was likely to become of much impor- 
 tance; and took constitutional measures to have their 
 wishes gratified. In the summer of 1740, Mr. Ebene- 
 zer Erskine presided in a moderation of a call in the 
 congregation of Glasgow, and Mr. Fisher was unani- 
 mously elected. Seventeen voted for ]Mr. Ralph Erskine, 
 but all these subscribed the call.f 
 
 * MS. in possession of Mrs. Crum, Thomliebank. 
 t Minutes of Associate Session of Glasgow. 
 
40 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 Translations were not in good odour with the better 
 part of the Scotch clergy and people in the beginning 
 of the eighteenth century, and considerable difficulties 
 were to be got over with the Presbytery, as well as 
 with Mr. Fisher and the people of Kinclaven. The 
 call was presented to the Presbytery at Abernethy on 
 the 17th June, and the conduct of the moderator ap- 
 proved of, but the question of sustaining the call was 
 deferred till a meeting at Stirling in October. " After 
 much reasoning" the call was sustained, the reasons of 
 trausjDortation sent to the " parish of Kinclaven," and 
 parties summoned to attend for their interest. A 
 conviction was lodged in Mr. Fisher's mind, that in 
 the whole circumstances of the case he had the call 
 of his Master to go to Glasgow. His affectionate 
 people were not only willing but desirous to retain 
 him, and employed every means in their power to 
 secure their object. Some of his brethren were de- 
 cidedly for his continuance, and it was not till July 
 22d, 1741, that the Presbytery agreed to his transla- 
 tion — a decision that occasioned deep and lasting regret 
 to his attached people. 
 
 For three years after Mr. Fisher left Kinclaven the 
 bereaved congregation worshipped God either in barns 
 or in the woods under the canopy of heaven. At last 
 they obtained the lease of the ground on which their 
 present church and manse stand, and it is said the 
 congregation of Glasgow gave them a donation of 
 twenty pounds, to assist them in the erection of these 
 buildings. 
 
 It is a striking fact, that after the lapse of nearly 
 110 years since Mr. Fisher left them, the great body 
 of the people in the neighbourhood still belong to the 
 relio'ious denomination of which he was one of the 
 founders. The recollections of the district, as to the 
 first Seceding minister, are highly favourable. They 
 epeak of his private amiableness and public usefulness, 
 
THE REV. JAMES FISHER. 41 
 
 of his fervent love of truth and freedom, of his con- 
 scientious diligence in professional duties, of his bein;L^ 
 the welcome guest of the great, and the kind friond of 
 the poor. His fine personal appearance is still talked 
 of, and Mr. Wilson's remark about him is proverbial 
 that "he had the foce of an eagle."* 
 
 It is one of the most painful trials in human life, 
 when a Christian minister, happy and useful in the 
 midst of a flock who have chosen him, and whom he 
 has chosen in the morning of his days when the afiections 
 are warm, is called to leave them for an obviously 
 wider sphere of professional usefulness. It is well 
 that such trials are comparatively of rare occurrence. 
 The pastoral tie is a very sacred one — and on both 
 sides it is best, when it is formed, that the feeling 
 should be, that it is likely to last for life. Things are 
 in a deplorable state in a religious body, when transla- 
 tion, and even repeated translation, is the rule, not the 
 rare exception. At the same time there are cases where 
 there can be no reasonable doubt that removal is the 
 path of duty, — however repugnant it may be to feeling; 
 and he who, in these cases, makes the sacrifice from a 
 regard to his Master and his cause, however the prin- 
 ciples on which he acts may be misunderstood by those 
 whom he dearly loves though he feels compelled to leave 
 them, and however painful may be the efiects of such 
 misunderstandings, may rejoice that there is One who 
 knows the whole matter, and that it is to Him he has to 
 give his account. He will not misconstrue his object nor 
 undervalue his sacrifice. Mr. Fisher's case was a very 
 clear one — yet he did not escape unkind remark from 
 those of whom better things might have been expected. 
 
 Mr. Fisher's induction to the charge of the congre- 
 gation in Glasgow, afterwards known as the Congre- 
 gation of Shuttle-street, and more lately of Greyfriars 
 
 * Information communicated by Mr. Young of Kinclaveu. 
 
42 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 — a congregation second to none — I believe I migLt 
 have safely said " facile princeps" among the congrega- 
 tions of the Secession for liberal support to Christian 
 Institutions, took place on October 8th, 1741, in the 
 open air, at Crossbill, in the neighbourhood of Glas- 
 gow, about a mile to the south in the parish of Cath- 
 cart, where they had been accustomed to worship, 
 and continued to do so till their church was built. On 
 that occasion the Rev. James Mair of West Linton, at 
 whose ordination Mr. Fisher had preached the year 
 preceding, commenced the services by a sermon on 1 
 Thess. V. 25. The Rev. Ebenezer Erskine, who pre- 
 sided, preached the admission sermon from Psal. cii. 
 17. and addressed the minister and congregation, and 
 the Rev. Ralph Erskine closed the solemn work by a 
 sermon on Acts vii. 34.* which is to be found among 
 his published works. 
 
 Mr. Fisher commenced his ministry in Glasgow by 
 preaching on the Sabbath immediately succeeding his 
 induction from 2 Cor. ii. 16. and 2 Cor. iii. 5. " Who 
 is sufficient for these things?" — " Our sufficiency is of 
 God." We have before us pretty full notes of this 
 sermon, taken by Mr. Henry Erskine, son of Ralph 
 Erskine, afterwards minister of Falkirk, then a student 
 of divinity. It appears to have been a plain, solid, 
 useful, appropriate, discourse. We give the conclud- 
 ing paragraph: "1. Is it so that ministers are utterly 
 insufficient of themselves, and that their sufficiency is 
 of God? Then ministers of all men in the world have 
 reason to be the most humble. Why should a man be 
 proud of that which he has received? Indeed if any 
 minister or Christian be proud, it is an evidence that 
 ' he knows nothing at all as he ought to know it.' 2. 
 People should beware of overvaluing the instruments, — 
 putting their ministers in Christ's room. ' Who is 
 
 * Minutes of the Associate Presbytery. 
 
THE REV. JAMES FISHER. 43 
 
 Paul, and who is A polios, but ministers,' or servants, 
 • by whom yc believed?' Overvaluing instruments i)ro- 
 vokes the Lord to withdraw his countenance, to blast 
 their labours, to give ' a miscarrying womb and dry 
 breasts.' 3. See the duty of people with rcsi)ect to 
 their minister. They should pray for him that he may 
 be furnished out of the all- sufficiency of God. Read 
 Rom. XV. 30—32; Eph. vi. 18, 19. 4. Ministers ought 
 to be trading much with God, in prayer and medita- 
 tion, believing the promises and searching the Scrip- 
 tures. Oh how dry, how melancholy, how wearisome 
 a work it is when ministers have no recourse to God, 
 but take all their help from men and the works of men! 
 .5. Be persuaded that there is enough for us all in our 
 God, — enough for ministers and enough for people. 
 This fountain is still overflowing; the waters of the 
 sanctuary are still as deep as ever. The river proceed- 
 ing out of the throne of God is a river that may be 
 swimmed in still. Be verily persuaded that all the 
 fulness of God is for you. Believe that all the fulness 
 which is in Christ as Mediator is ofifered to you. ' Look 
 unto me, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth.' 
 The table spread for you in this gospel is furnished 
 with nothing less than the all-sufficiency of God, and 
 therefore faU on, honour God by believing that ' Christ 
 is of God made to you wisdom, and righteousness, and 
 sanctification, and redemption,'— that he is your Sa- 
 viour as God gives him unto you in his word. And 
 if you were minting at this, you might the more expect 
 your minister to be furnished with the words of grace 
 suitable for 'nourishing you up to everlasting life.' "* 
 For more than a year Mr. Fisher preached and ad- 
 ministered ordinances in the open air, either at Crossbill 
 or in a yard off the Rotenrow, the property of which 
 the congregation had acc^uired, but which they after- 
 
 * MS. collections of the late Dr. Eraser. 
 
44 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 wards disposed of on procuring the more advantao-eous 
 site in Shuttle-street, on which they erected a large 
 and commodious place of worshij). The foundation of 
 this structure was laid March 1742, and, though not 
 finished, it was opened for worship on the first Sabbath 
 of November that year. 
 
 The solid, instructive character of Mr. Fisher's pulpit 
 instructions, clothed as they were in familiar perspicu- 
 ous language, and delivered in a lively and dignified 
 yet simple and natural manner, combined with his 
 diligent and affectionate private ministrations, soon 
 brought around him a very large congregation, which 
 continued, with one exception to be noticed in the 
 course of the narrative, unbroken for more than thirty 
 years. The size of the congregation may be judged of 
 from the fact, that at the administration of the Lord's 
 Supper there were usually 17 or 18 table services, and 
 that, though Mr. Fisher was brief in his public ser- 
 vices,"^ and not very tolerant of those who were other- 
 wise, the communion service, which commenced at 9 
 or 10 in the morning, did not close sometimes till be- 
 tween 9 and 10 in the evening, f 
 
 * Mr, James Erskine notices that on one occasion at Falkirk 
 he preached only a quarter of an hour, and the ordinary length 
 of his discourses does not seem to have exceeded 40 minutes or 
 three-quarters of an hour. The first Seceders were generally, 
 if not universally, short preachers: so was Mr. Boslon. 
 
 t Tlie congregation embraced not only the city of Glasgow 
 and parishes of Barony and Gorbals, but the parishes of Old 
 Monkland, Calder, Kirkintilloch, Rutherglen, Cambuslang, Car- 
 munnock, Cathcart, and Eastwood. Mearns, in which parish 
 the Seceders seem to liave been numerous and influential, very 
 soon became the seat of a sepai-ate congregation. — The follow- 
 ing abstract of the services at a Shuttle-street communion, tran- 
 scribed from one of Mr. Fisher's note-books, is not without its 
 interest. "Fast-day, Thursday June 18, 1761. Forenoon, Mr. 
 Archd. Hall, Psal. Ixviii. 18 ; Mr. Belfrage, Rom. viii. 1. After- 
 noon, Mr. Thomson from Ireland, Deut. xxxii. 6. Friday night, 
 Mr. Hall, Hos. xiv. 4. Saturday — Within, Mr. Belfrage, Gal. 
 V. 17; Mr. Smith, Song i. 4. Without, Mr. Thomson, Deut. 
 
THE REV. JAMES FISHER. 45 
 
 In the fir^t year of his ministry in Glasgow, com- 
 menced under very Aivourable omens, I\Ir. Fisher's at- 
 tention was unhappily distracted in, if not from, his 
 pastoral duties, by the very remarkable movements of 
 a religious nature which occurred at Cambuslang, Kil- 
 syth, and some otlier jdaces, under the occasional minis- 
 trations of that simple minded, warm-hearted, devoted 
 servant of Christ, the Rev. George Whitetield, then on 
 a visit to Scotland. At first sight it may seem strange 
 that Mr. Fisher and the other seceding ministers should 
 take so active, and especially so hostile, a part, in re- 
 ference to those measures with which, it may be thought, 
 they had very little to do. But whatever judgment 
 we may form of the wisdom or propriety of their in- 
 terference, it is not at all difficult to account for its 
 occurrence. It was not wanton fondness for strife that 
 led the Seceders into the fray. 
 
 The violent external commotions, amounting in many 
 cases to strong convulsions, which accompanied pro- 
 fessed conviction of sin, and sense of forgiveness, among 
 Mr. Whitefield's hearers, so different from the calm 
 though deep religious feeling that shrinks from all ex- 
 pression except to its immediate Object, and avoids 
 everything that can attract attention, which had long 
 constituted the leading feature of Scottish spiritual ex- 
 perience; and the supposed encouragement given to men 
 to seek within themselves, in their own imaginary ideas 
 and excited feelings, that ground of hope and that rule 
 of duty which the Scriptures lead a man to seek entirely 
 
 xxxii. 6; Mr. M-Cara, Lam. i. 10. Eveninj: exercise, Mr. Cock, 
 Psal. cxxx. .5. Sabbath, at the tent, Mr. Thomson, Mr. Smith, 
 Mr. Hall, Mr. Horn, :Mr. M^Cara, Mr. Belfrage, Mr. Cock, Mr. 
 Hall, Mr. Thomson. There were 18 tables. The service began 
 at half-past 9, a.m., and ended half-past 9, p.m. Monday— 
 Within, Mr. M'Cara, 2 Sam. vii. 19; Mr. Horn, 2 Cor. vn. 16. 
 Without, Mr. Hall, Mr. Cock." On another occasion, 1756, 
 when there were 17 tables, it is stated that there were 1,280 com- 
 municants. 
 
46 NARllATIYE OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 without himself, in t]ie work of Christ and the charac- 
 ter and will of God, were fitted to excite suspicions in 
 minds, which, though habitually and powerfully influ- 
 enced by divine truth, were but little disposed either to 
 mysticism or to enthusiasm;"^ and these suspicions had 
 certainly been strengthened by the invidious light, in 
 which those revivals of religion or outpourings of the 
 Holy Ghost were represented, by some very worthy 
 but in this respect not very wise persons, as evident 
 tokens of God's displeasure at the Seceders for aban- 
 doning a church, in connection with which he was 
 j^erforming such miracles of saving mercy. f 
 
 * That Mr. Fisher and his friends were really persuaded that 
 there was much delusion among the Cambuslang and Kilsyth con- 
 verts cannot be doubted — and that they had evidence that there 
 was some delusion among them can as little be doubted; and 
 though we must regret deeply their one-sided view of the whole 
 matter, and their rash all but entire condemnation of what by 
 its fruits proved that tliere was much in it from heaven as well 
 as something from men, yet we believe the honest object of their 
 contendings is that expressed in the words of Ralph Erskine: 
 " May this generation be preserved from an imaginary faith, re- 
 ligion, and conversion, which will neither unite them to the true 
 Christ, nor bring them to the true heaven, nor keep them out of 
 the true hell; and from the truth as it is in men's fancy and 
 imagination instead of ' the truth as it is in Jesus,' and in his 
 blessed word, ' the only rule to direct us how we may gloriiy 
 and enjoy God !' " That is a good wish for all men in all time. 
 It assuredly is not unseasonable in our own times. 
 
 t "The cry is raised, 'God is now remarkably owning the 
 ministers of the Established Church, notwithstanding all the 
 evils complained of: He is crowning their ministrations with 
 remarkable success : Nations are born in one day by their means: 
 There is no such countenance given to the Assemblies of the 
 Seceders : and therefore, the People ought to disown them, whom 
 God is disowning: God is now testifying that there was no 
 ground for seceding from the Established Church, when he is 
 holding fellowship with her in such a visible and open manner." " 
 — Fisher's Review of Robe's Preface, p. 47. It was shrewdly an- 
 swered by George Findlay, a plain Kilsyth Seceder, to these 
 statements — " Although I were persuaded, from the word of God, 
 that it is the saving work of the Spirit of the Lord, I would not 
 
THE REV. JAMES FISHER. 47 
 
 Among these the Rev. Mr. James Robe of Kilsytli 
 hehl a foremost place. In " a preface to a narrative of 
 the extraordinary vt^ork at Kilsyth and its neighbour- 
 hood, and in an address to the Brethren of the Asso- 
 ciate Presbytery anent their act for a public fast," this 
 good man had made statements which, to say the least, 
 seemed to require to be noticed by the Seceders, and 
 which Mr. Fisher, with his warm temper and public 
 spirit, was not likely to think it right to allow to pass 
 without animadversion. He accordingly published in 
 1742, *' A Review of Mr, Robe's Preface and Address," 
 which, though in no degree discreditable to the acute- 
 ness of his mind, the orthodoxy of his princii)les, or the 
 integrity of his character, does manifestly show how 
 very imperfect and one-sided a view he had taken of 
 the whole subject, and is far from having for its lead- 
 ing feature " the meekness of wisdom."* 
 
 see my warrant in the word to bury a Testimony for truth, and 
 return to the Establishment."— i6ic/!, p. Gl. Mr. Eisset complains 
 of "some ministers and elders, because of the extremes of the 
 Seceders, having given up with all their former contendings, and 
 invited, employed, and caressed a subverter of our goveni- 
 ment as it would seem, for this end — to break the Seceders." 
 — Bissefs Letter to a Gentleman in Edinburgh, pp. 4, 5. Edin., 
 1742. 
 
 * The following is a favourable specimen of Mr. Fisher's po- 
 lemic style. Mr. M'Culloch had said that he believed that 
 there were "Five hundred savingly brought home to God, not 
 including counterfeits and those who had nothing but a dread 
 of hell." On this statement Mr. Fisher remarks, "The reason 
 why a sober [minded] man will scarce venture to attest ' the 
 real conversion' of multitudes, is obvious. There are many 
 hypocrites in the visible cliurch, by whom all the outward evi- 
 dences of grace may be so exactly counterfeited, that the most 
 quicksighted Christian may mistake a hypocrite for a true be- 
 liever: for though believers may attain to an assurance of their 
 own particular interest in Christ, yet all the evidence we have 
 of the conversion of another being merely external, we may for 
 the above reason be liable to manifold mistakes; yet the inter- 
 nal distinguishing evidences are so plainly laid dowTi in the 
 word, that none examining themselves therebv under the influ- 
 
48 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 We can look back on these scenes witli minds un- 
 disturbed by prejudice and passion, and see in them 
 a remarkable display of the sovereignty and power 
 of divine grace rendering the clear impressive state- 
 ment of elementary gospel truth effectual to the con- 
 version of many sinners of very various descriptions, 
 who showed the true character of the change produced 
 by a long course of consistent Christian conduct; while 
 we equally clearly perceive, that there were accom- 
 
 ence of the Spirit of truth, but will come to disceni the real and 
 wide difference between hypocrisy" and saving grace. There is 
 no doubt but all the true lovers of Jesus would earnestly wish 
 that there were many thousands savingly converted, for every- 
 one that is here alleged ; but people are never in a more dan- 
 gerous condition than when they persuade themselves and are 
 strongly persuaded by others, that they are converted, if in the 
 meanwhile they are ' in the gall of bitterness' still: Yea, though 
 in the judgment of charity we thought them in a converted state, 
 yet the safest way would be to put them upon examining them- 
 selves ' whether they be in the faith.' Besides, I find the minis- 
 ters of Christ who have been honoured of the Lord to be most 
 instrumental in convincing and converting work have been most 
 denied as to their own instrumentality, that he who builds the 
 Temple of the Lord may bear all the glory. The Apostle Peter 
 was most successful of any we read of at one time. Acts ii. 21. 
 But does he send letters to all the countries around, to acquaint 
 them that such a day he had been instrumental in converting 
 three thousand? The Lord was pleased to send down a plenti- 
 ful rain of divine influences during the time of Mr. Livingstoun's 
 sermon at the Kirk of Shotts, but doth he proclaim it through all 
 the world that so many hundreds wei*e converted at that time 
 by his means ? Nay, he draws a modest vail over it in the his- 
 tory of his life." — Fisher's Review of Robe's Preface, pp. 7, 8. It 
 is however deplorable to find a man like Mr. Fisher sanction- 
 ing Mr. Bisset's (of Aberdeen) intemperate railing, — calling Mr. 
 Whitefield — a man of truly apostolic character — "a strolling 
 impostor and cheat." Tradition tells that this was at least one 
 point in which Mrs. Fisher did not harmonize in opinion and 
 feeling with him whom she loved to call lord. Mr. Fisher him- 
 self was accustomed to say, that had he been aware of the dis- 
 tinguished worth of Jonathan Edwards, he would have treated 
 him in his "Review" with much greater respect. — Eraser's 
 Diary of Ralph Erskine. 
 
THE KEV. JAMES FISHER. 49 
 
 panimcrits of this manifestntion, which owed their origin 
 to hmnan weakness and depravity, if not to a darker 
 spiritual influence. But when was there ever a re- 
 ligious movement, though giving upon the whole satis- 
 factory evidence of a divine origin, unattended by such 
 drawbacks? When did the great Sower of truth, the 
 Son of Man, disperse his good seed, where the enemy 
 did not accompany or speedily follow him with his 
 tares? 
 
 I am certainly not disposed to become Mr. Fisher's 
 advocate on this occasion ; but it is difficult for us, in 
 circumstances so diflerent, to make the due allowance 
 for the disturbing influences to which the minds of both 
 parties were exposed. The violence of the opposition, 
 raised to, what was on the part of !Mr. Fisher, the ex- 
 pression of conscientious however mistaken opinion, 
 may be estimated in some measure by the following 
 note, which I transcribe from the original MS., using a 
 little freedom with the orthography. The Latin gram- 
 mar is left untouched. — "Glasgow, 23d , 1743, 
 
 — Sir, — If you had spoken of Mr. Whitefield last Sun- 
 day, you would have been pulled out of the tent; and 
 if for the future you mention Whitefield or Cambus- 
 lang, both your house and tent shall be burnt; and 
 Sunday first if you speak one word against him, you 
 shall be pulled out of the tent. So take care what you 
 do. W. D. ' i\Iemento meo dicto.' Rev. Mr. Fisher." 
 
 It is to be hoped that Christians generally have now 
 learned more sufterance of diversity of individual opinion 
 and action on such subjects, and have come to the con- 
 clusion that when we see men casting out devils, though 
 not quite in the way which we think best fitted to ac- 
 complish the purpose, the fact that we cannot conscien- 
 tiously take a part with them by no means infers the 
 obligation, of our forbidding or endeavouring to pre- 
 vent them from attempting to do what v/e hold to be 
 a very desirable thing in what they think, though we 
 
50 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 do not, the most desirable way. There are devils 
 enough for us all to cast out, and it is a pity to waste 
 the time that should be devoted to casting them out, 
 to debates about the comparative minutise of our dif- 
 ferent ways of employing the divinely appointed means, 
 the preaching of the truth, for effecting the exorcism 
 which we all so much long for. 
 
 In the autumn of 1742, the Associate Presbytery 
 gave forth their " act concerning the doctrine of grace," 
 the joint production of Messrs. Ebenezer Erskine and 
 Moncrieff, containing a clear exhibition and an able 
 defence of all that is most characteristic in " the gospel 
 of the grace of God." And no one of the brethren could 
 more cordially concur in this much needed testimony 
 in behalf of the sovereign grace of God as the solo 
 source of man's salvation, — the work of Christ the sole 
 meritorious ground of this salvation, — and the free offer, 
 without exception, to mankind of this salvation, in all 
 its freeness and fulness, than Mr. Fisher. In every 
 one of his published sermons these doctrines are most 
 prominently brought forward, and to exhibit and de- 
 fend them is the great object of that explication of the 
 Shorter Catechism to the composition of which he after- 
 wards devoted so much time and attention. 
 
 In the close of the year 1743, Mr. Fisher took part 
 with his brethren of the Presbytery, on the 28th day 
 of December, at Stirling, when, with uplifted hands, they 
 renewed the National Covenant of Scotland, and the 
 Solemn League and Covenant of the three kingdoms, 
 in a manner agreeable to their present circumstances. 
 In doing so, they only acted out the principles which 
 in common with the great body of the pious members 
 of the Church of Scotland they held: and though we 
 more than doubt the propriety of the step they took, 
 and the truth of some of the principles on which it was 
 based, and see in much that followed a practical de- 
 monstration of the hazard of involving matters of hu- 
 
I THE REV. JAMES FISHER. 51 
 
 man history, and questions as to the propriety or im- 
 propriety of the conduct of individuals or bodies of 
 men, in matters of Christian profession and worshij), 
 we cannot but cordially honour their conscientious con- 
 sistency. 
 
 On March 13, 1744, Mr. Fisher presided at the 
 ordination of Mr. Henry Erskine, eldest son of Mr. 
 Ralph Erskine, to the charge of the Associate congre- 
 gation of Falkirk. The text of the ordination sermon 
 was 1 Cor. iv. 1, 2. 
 
 In the year 1745, when an insane and wicked at- 
 tempt was made to subvert the civil and religious 
 liberties of this country, by the restoration of the 
 Stuart dynasty to a throne most justly forfeited by the 
 perfidious violation of all its most important duties on 
 the part of its last occupants, Mr. Fisher in common 
 with all his Associate brethren, took an active part in 
 upholding the standard of liberty and law as raised in 
 defence of the Brunswick family. Following in the 
 steps of his venerable father-in-law, Ebenezer Erskine, 
 he exerted his influence over his numerous congrega- 
 tion to fill the ranks of those two battalions, of six 
 hundred men each, raised by the city of Glasgow, and 
 placed under the command of the Earl of Home; and 
 it is said that when they marched to Falkirk, where 
 through the mismanagement of the rash and shame- 
 lessly profane and profligate Hawley* so many of them 
 
 * That those epithets, strong as they are, are not misapplied, 
 will appear from the following anecdote, which, though not so 
 far as we know recorded, we have reason to think substantially 
 authentic. The Rev. Mr. Bisset of Aberdeen, a man holding 
 the views of the Seceders, and whose people after his death 
 joined the Secession, had publicly rebuked General Hawlcy for 
 profane language at an entertainment given to the Duke of Cum- 
 berland and his officers as they went North. The reproof was 
 resented, and the General said to the Commander-in-chief that 
 '* he would smoke the parson yet." On the return of the army 
 from CuUoden the Duke and his officers were again entertained 
 
52 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OP 
 
 mot with death or capture, Mr. Fisher went to that 
 town to encourage them to "play the men" in the 
 cause of their country. 
 
 In the autumn of 1746, we find Mr. Fisher along 
 with his congregation engaged in solemn thanksgiving, 
 by appointment of Synod, for deliverance from the 
 rebels. The sermon of that day, in pretty full notes 
 by Mr. James Erskine, son of Ralph Erskine, after- 
 wards one of the ministers of Stirling, and son-in-law 
 to Mr. Fisher, lies now before me. The text of the 
 whole day's services was Phil. iii. 3. " We rejoice in 
 Christ Jesus." It is a judicious, aifectionate gospel 
 sermon, with singularly little reference to its occasion, 
 or to public affairs generally. In this respect it re- 
 sembles Richard Baxter's Thanksgiving sermon for the 
 Restoration. They both " show the higher joys which 
 must animate joys for national deliverances, or they 
 will be but dead corrupted things." We give the con- 
 cluding paragraph : " Oh beware of resting on the re- 
 ceipt of temporal mercies. Many may have an abun- 
 dance of temporal mercies, for a season, without a 
 blessing. Beware of thinking, because God has been 
 pleased to bring about deliverance for us, at this day 
 and time, so as we now enjoy liberty, that this is an 
 evidence that the Lord is pleased. No. The Lord's 
 anger may be standing, for you will find that mercies 
 have been bestowed on those, against whom the Lord's 
 anger was kindled because of the abuse of mercies. How 
 many mercies did Israel get in the wilderness, and yet 
 
 by the magistrates of Aberdeen. Mr. Bisset was of course pre- 
 sent. Hawley, after dinner, proposed an indecent toast. Mr. 
 ilisset's glass stood untouched. " Don't you drink the toast, 
 Sir?" said the General. "No, Sir," replied Mr. Bisset, "I do 
 not drink the toast." " Pray tlien, Sir, what do you do with it?" 
 "Do with it! — I do with it as General Hawley did with the 
 Highlandei's atFalkii'k — I turn my back on it." The laugh was 
 against the General, and the Commander-in-chief said aloud to 
 him, " Smoke the parson now, Hawley !" 
 
I 
 
 , THE REV. JAMES FISHER. 53 
 
 the Lord was so angry that lie ' sware in his wrath 
 that they should not enter into his rest?' Beware of 
 thinking because God has quelled the rebellion, he is 
 well pleased with us. No. Remember that if you do 
 not turn to the Lord's hand, that has been smiting you, 
 and seek his f^ice, ' his anger is not turned away : his 
 hand is stretched out still.' If you are not thankful 
 for mercies, and do not evince your thankfulness, by 
 turning to him, with all your heart, the Lord may 
 come in his own time, and avenge his quarrel against 
 such a perfidious nation. We own indeed that it is 
 your duty to be thankful for temporal mercies ; but what 
 we say is, that you must not rest on them^ but ' rejoice 
 in Christ.' Now, in order to your rejoicing in him, 
 we would exhort you to take hold of him as he is held 
 out in the word as the Author of your salvation. Take 
 hold of him as your ' righteousness and strength.' It 
 is in the way of thus taking hold of him as oliered in 
 the word that you will come to rejoice in him as your 
 ALL IN all; and when you are brought to 'rejoice in 
 Christ Jesus,' then all the temporal mercies you meet 
 with will be sanctified to you, you will have them with 
 God's blessing upon them, and in the receipt of them, 
 you will be made to ' go from strength to strength, till 
 you appear before God in Zion.' " 
 
 The cause of the Secession continued to make steady 
 progress. In 1745 the number of congregations was 
 so increased that the division of the Associate Pres- 
 bytery into three separate Presbyteries and the con- 
 stitution of a Synod became advisable. Unhappily, 
 at the very first meeting of that Synod was intro- 
 duced an apple of discord in the question, " Whether 
 an oath required of burgesses in some of the boroughs 
 in Scotland, embracing a religious clause, declaring 
 the jurant's 'profession and allowance within his heart 
 of the true religion as presently professed within this 
 realm, and authorized by the laws thereof,' could be 
 
54 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 taken in consistency with tlieir testimony as Se- 
 ceders ?" 
 
 Mr. Fisher took a very decided part with those 
 who held that the Oath was, to say the least of it, a 
 safe one for Seceders, as, in their apprehension, it 
 merely homologated the profession contained in their 
 testimony to " the true religion,'' as contained in the 
 standard books of the Church of Scotland, which true 
 religion was, without question as a matter of fact, " pro- 
 fessed within the realm of Scotland, and authorized by 
 its laws," without signifying an approbation of every 
 thing in reference to the manner in which legal sanction 
 had, at the Revolution, or at other times, been given to 
 the true religion, and still less of the existing form of the 
 actual profession of that religion in the conduct of the 
 church courts, from which they had found it necessary 
 to secede. Mr. Fisher's own words are — " Every body 
 knows that I look upon the Burgess Oath as lawful, 
 though I am not for imposing my opinion in this mat- 
 ter on any as a term of communion with them."* 
 This was plainly a sentiment which a man might 
 hold with a good conscience: and equally plain is it, 
 that equally conscientious men might, and did, hold 
 that the oath implied a declaration of approbation 
 of the whole manner in which "the true religion" 
 was settled at and since the Revolution, and of the 
 particular laws by which that settlement was guaran- 
 teed," in which case, certainly, no enlightened Seceder 
 could take it with a safe conscience, nor indeed with- 
 out directly contradicting some important points in his 
 testimony. It seems strange to us that neither party 
 had the slightest objection to the oath on the ground 
 on which, now, it would be so generally condemned, — 
 the suspending civil privilege on religious profession. 
 
 It is not for us to give a decision in this question. 
 
 * Mr. Fisher's letter, p. 30. 
 
THE REV. JAMES FISHER. 55 
 
 The existence of sucli oaths is a striking: manifesta- 
 tion of the mischievous influence which the connexion 
 hetween church an<l state difluscs in all directions, 
 identifying it with the system which requires its mark 
 to be impressed on the forehead, or on the hand, to 
 secure peaceable intercourse in the secular atfairs of 
 life; and while we should rejoice that this particular 
 stumbling-block has been removed out of the way, 
 that this cause of strife and obstacle to union no longer 
 exists,* wo should earnestly pray and strenuously la- 
 bour that the master evil, of which this was one of the 
 most diminutive indications, may soon be destroyed by 
 the force of truth, so as to put an end to wider, fiercer 
 contentions, and prepare the way for much more ex- 
 tended and influential union. 
 
 It is matter of history that " the contention was so 
 sharp" between the equally honest parties who held 
 the above opinions " that they departed asunder one 
 from the other," after having, like Paul and Barnabas, 
 for a number of years, with united hantls and hearts, 
 prosecuted the work of their common Master with His 
 obvious benediction, and " with one heart and mouth 
 glorified God even the Father;" and though, like 
 these good men, they did come, ere long, to speak 
 
 * It would be improper to pass unnoticed the fact that a 
 grandson of Mr. Fisher, James Ewing, Esq., of Strathleven, 
 then occupying a high municipal situation in his native city, by 
 his exertions in the Town Council of Glasgow, and in the Con- 
 vention of the Scottish boroughs, was honoured to be princi- 
 pally influential in obtaining the suppression of the religious 
 clause in the burgess oaths in which it had a place, and thus 
 removing an important obstacle in the way of the comfortable 
 accomplishment of the union between the two great branches 
 of the Secession, a union happily followed up by a more exten- 
 sive one — that of the Relief and United Secession churches in 
 the United Presbyterian church. We rejoice to think the tide 
 of Christian sentiment and feeling flows stronger than ever 
 towards a much more extensive union still. Soon may the 
 prayer John xvii. 20 — 23 be completely answered! 
 
56 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE, (fec. 
 
 kindly and respectfully of each other, like them too 
 they ceased to " labour together in the work of God," 
 till they joined in his service where they never will be 
 disunited, " before the throne of God," and " in the 
 presence of the Lamb," This deplorable event took 
 place on April 9th, 1747, and led to the division of the 
 Synod, so lately formed, into two bodies, equally claim- 
 ing its name and rights. * 
 
 * " It becomes us to adoi-e the sovereignty of God, and to 
 confess his righteousness in permitting a spirit of contention and 
 division to enter so early, and to prevail so far in the Associate 
 Synod, and to bewail the evils which that spirit produced. It 
 diminished the legitimate influence of their excellent profes- 
 sion, ministrations and character; diverted the attention of their 
 people from the more important concerns of religion, and exhi- 
 bited an unholy example to the world. If such consequences 
 proved less injurious to the interests of religion than might have 
 been apprehended, or to a certain extent were counteracted by the 
 operation of causes of an opposite nature ; or have been balanced, 
 in a considerable degree, by beneficial results, somewhat remote, 
 which could not have been anticipated, we ascribe the glory to 
 God, who, in his infinite wisdom, brings good out of evil, and 
 overrules, for useful purposes, the" infirmities and mismanage- 
 ments of his servants." These are the "weighty words" of a 
 wise and good man, Dr. Stark, in the historical part of the 
 Testimony of the United Secession Church, and embody the 
 thoughts and feelings with which United Presbyterians should 
 always regard this, not one of the brightest, yet certainly one of 
 the most instructive, pages of their history. 
 
(07) 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 1747—1775. 
 
 Mr. Fisher visits Ireland— Is requested by the Synod to prepare for 
 Tiieolo-jioal tuition — Synod Sermon, Isa. xxi. 11, 12 — Publications on 
 the Bm-gess' Oath Controversy — Character of them — ExpUcation of 
 the Westminster Sliorter Catechism — Appointment to the Professor- 
 ship, 1749 — Mode of conducting the Di\nnity Hall— Resignation of the 
 Professorship— Obtains a Colleague in the Miiiistr}-— Death of Mrs. 
 Fisher— Death of Mr. Fisher— Character— Family— Writings— Con- 
 clusion. 
 
 Immediately after the breach, Mr. Fisher weat to 
 Ireland for a short time, probably for the purpose of 
 giving, what he and his party reckoned, a just account 
 of the late transactions, so deeply involving the inte- 
 rests of the Associate body, that the churches in that 
 country might be enabled to judge of the course 
 which they ought to follow. From a letter addressed 
 to a minister in Ireland, dated Glasgow, Jan. 18th, 
 1748, it would appear that when in that country he 
 had had communication with some ministers of the 
 General Synod of Ulster, who were dissatisfied with 
 the defections of that body, and had counselled them to 
 adopt a course similar to that which the Seceders had 
 followed in reference to the General Assembly of the 
 Church of Scotland. A course less decided seems to 
 have been determined on, which did not at all meet 
 Mr. Fisher's approbation, and in this letter he vindi- 
 cates himself from some misrepresentations. The letter, 
 equally creditable to Mr. Fisher's good sense, liberality, 
 and thorough integrity, will be found in the A])pcndix.* 
 
 ♦ Vide Appendix, No. IV. 3. 
 
58 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 At the first meeting of the Synod to which Mr. 
 Fisher belonged, (ordinarily termed the Burgher Synod,) 
 which took place at Stirling in June 1747, he was 
 chosen Moderator. Another and still more distinct 
 proof of the high estimation in which he was held by 
 his brethren, was given him on that occasion. In the 
 room of Mr. Moncrieff, who had seen it his duty to 
 take a prominent part in the controversy against the 
 religious clause in the Burgess oath, and at the division 
 went with the brethren who held his views, it was re- 
 commended to Mr. Fisher, whose (|ualificatious as a 
 scholar and divine were well known, to prepare him- 
 self for the work of theological tuition, while in the 
 meantime the students were committed to the care of 
 Mr. Ebenezer Erskine. 
 
 The Associate brethren had very soon seen the im- 
 portance of taking measures for training up qualified 
 young men to become candidates for the ministry. So 
 early as 1746, Mr. Wilson had been appointed Professor 
 of Divinity, and on his death Mr. Moncriefi" had been 
 chosen to fill the Theological chair. For some time, 
 from a fear, not without grounds, of the hazardous 
 sentiments taught in some of the Scottish universities 
 on moral subjects, they seem to have attempted to 
 obtain for their students the means of instruction in 
 Logic and Ethics, in Mental and Moral Philosophy, as 
 well as in Theology. Mr. David Wilson, afterwards 
 minister of the congregation in Bow-lane, London, (now 
 assembling in Oxendon chapel, Richard Baxter s,) the 
 laborious opponent of Sandeman, — Mr. John Mason, 
 afterwards Dr. Mason of New York, one of the found- 
 ers of the Associate Reformed Church, and the father 
 of the distinguished Dr. John Mason of the same city, 
 — Mr. Alexander Pirie, afterwards a Congregational 
 minister at Newburgh, author of one of the best de- 
 fences of infant baptism, and of many other works 
 more ingenious than judicious, — and Mr. John Heugh, 
 
THE REV. JAMES FISHER. 59 
 
 after^var<ls minister of Stirling, and father of the lato 
 lamented Dr. Heugh, — were .successively teachers of 
 Philoso})hy at Abernethy. The Seceders, however, 
 ultimately abandoned this project, and in this they 
 appear to have acte<l wisely, as it does not seem desir- 
 able that a church should undertake more than the 
 theological training of her candidates for the ministry, 
 requiring them to bring to the Theological Seminary as 
 thorough a literary and philosophical education as the 
 universities of the country can afford, and furnishing 
 them, there, with the means of counteracting any evil 
 induonces which that previous course of studies may 
 have brought to bear on them. 
 
 There is an obvious propriety in every church having 
 the entire control of the theological education of its 
 ministry. It cannot neglect this, nor intrust it to the 
 hands of strangers, without a grievous dereliction of 
 duty, as well as a shameful display of folly. But it is 
 very desirable, on many accounts, that the general educa- 
 tion of a country should be national, not sectarian, and 
 that all the youth, to whatever religious denomination 
 they may belong, should receive their elementary, and 
 literary, and scientific education at the same seminaries. 
 To secure this, however, these seminaries must them- 
 selves cease to be, what to a considerable extent they 
 now are, even in this country, sectarian in their con- 
 stitution and administration. 
 
 At the opening of the meeting of the Synod at 
 Dunfermline in Sept. 1747, Mr. Fisher, as ex-mode- 
 rator, delivered an ingenious, appropriate, and impres- 
 sive sermon on Isa. xxi. 11, 12. " Watchman, what of 
 the night? Watchman, what of the night? The 
 watchman said. The morning cometh as well as the 
 night: if ye will enquire, enquire ye; return, come." 
 As this sermon has never been published, and places in 
 a favourable point of view both Mr. Fisher's good sense 
 and good temper, we think it right to give a brief 
 
"60 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 abstract of it. The preaclier turns the attention of his 
 audience, First, to the character of a minister as a 
 watchman, — Secondly, to the question put to the 
 watchman, — and Thirdly, to the watchman's answer. 
 He shows, that the figurative representation of a 
 minister as a watchman, intimates that he occupies an 
 office of trust, — that there is danger from tlie enemy, 
 — that the power of discernment is necessary in the 
 minister, — that it is also requisite that he be awake 
 and attentive, — that it is his duty to look to the safety 
 of the whole at whatever hazard to himself, — and 
 finally, that he is bound to answer proper questions 
 that may be put to him. The question, repeated, 
 " What of the night?" implies that there is a present 
 night of calamity, — that there are several questions 
 that may be stated by exercised persons respecting 
 this night, — and that there is more than ordinary con- 
 cern on the sj)irit concerning the resolution of the ques- 
 tion. As symptoms of the night, he notices, the ab- 
 sence of the sun in the withdrawment of God's favour, 
 — and wandering, as in the night, in delusion and 
 error. As to questions which may be asked, he 
 mentions the following: What is the cause of the 
 night? What are the dangers of the night? What 
 is the language of the night? What are the songs 
 of the night? What is the duty of the night? What 
 is the time of night? What is the guard of the 
 night? What are the judgments of the night? The 
 doubling of the question intimates perplexity and 
 doubtfulness, — surprise and deep interest. As to the 
 answer, it is remarked, that after the darkest night of 
 calamity, a morning of deliverance will ensue; that 
 the more suddenly a night of spiritual calamity comes 
 on, it is a sign the morning will break the sooner; that 
 the darker the night has been, the more bright is likely 
 to be the morning; that there is some proportion be- 
 tween the weeping in the night and the joy in the 
 
THE REV. JAMES FISnER. 61 
 
 morning; that the season of the church'.s, or of indi- 
 vidual believer's, comfort, at any one time, in this 
 worUl, is but of short continuance; that however plea- 
 santly any morning of deliverance may shine, we may 
 lay our account that a night of tribulation is approach- 
 ing, and, in one word, that God's work of providence, 
 with regard to his church in general, and with regard 
 to believers in particular, is a chequered work, a suc- 
 cession of mornings and nights. 
 
 The concluding remarks are very good, and, consi- 
 dering the excited state of men's minds, fully as tem- 
 perate as might have been expected. " Are ministers 
 watchmen? Then let us who are ministers be diligent 
 in our office, let us ' take heed to ourselves and to the 
 riocks over which the Holy Ghost hath made us over- 
 seers: for we watch for their souls as those who must 
 give account.' As we are watchmen, our work is 
 laborious; but He 'sends none a warfare on their 
 own charges.' Therefore, in the confidence of his 
 assured presence — ' Lo I am with you always to the 
 end of the world,' — let us be ' instant in season and out 
 of season,' 2 Tim. iv. 2. As we are watchmen, we 
 are exposed to storms, bitter storms of calumny and 
 reproach; but 'let us endure hardship like good 
 soldiers of Jesus Christ;' let us follow the example of 
 the glorious head, who, when he was reviled, reviled 
 not again. And finally, ' Let our moderation be 
 known unto all men. The Lord is at hand?'" 
 
 Mr. Fisher published his views on the controversy 
 which had divided the Associate body in " A Review 
 of a pamphlet entitled a Serious Enquiry into the 
 Burgess Oaths of Edinburgh, Perth, and Glasgow, 
 wherein the most material arguments against the Bur- 
 gess Oath are impartially weighed and examined," 
 1748; and in "A Letter to the Burgesses and others 
 of his Congregation who had withdrawn from his Minis- 
 try, because he cannot condemn the Burgess Oath, as 
 
(j2 naerative of the life of 
 
 a ground of separation and excommunication, nor even 
 admit the sinfulness thereof to be a term of Ministe- 
 rial or Christian Communion. 1749." Of these tracts 
 it is enough to say, what, according to the aspect in 
 which it is viewed, may be considered either as a com- 
 2)liment or a censure, that as compositions, and mani- 
 festations of temper, they are among the least objec- 
 tionable of the numerous pamphlets of which that 
 unhappy controversy was so prolific. The whole con- 
 troversy affords an affecting illustration of the judi- 
 cious remark with which Mr. Fisher commences his 
 " Review." " Division among Christians, even such as 
 profess the same way, seldom fails to breed alienation 
 of affection among them, which frequently breaks forth 
 in judging, reproaching, and reviling one another, 
 whereby the success of the gospel is exceedingly mar- 
 red, the ends of a testimony for the declarative glory 
 of God, in a great measure frustrated, and the interest 
 of the kingdom of darkness mightily promoted, it being 
 the sport of hell to see the Church, militant against 
 herself, and the enemy becoming triumphant." 
 
 There is something touching in the following expos- 
 tulation with some of the hearers who had deserted 
 him. " As I am to give an account of the ministry 
 which I have received of the Lord, so you are to ac- 
 count for despising and rejecting the same. Let us 
 therefore reason the matter together calmly and in the 
 spirit of meekness. I ask you then, What error in 
 doctrine can you charge me with? What immorality 
 in practice? What principle or opinion have I es- 
 poused, which is in any way contrary to the word of 
 God, or our received standards? Since you cannot justly 
 charge me with any of all these, I ask you seriously, 
 How can you answer to God for dissolving the rela- 
 tion betwixt you and me, which was solemnly consti- 
 tuted by free and mutual consent, in the presence of 
 God, angels, and men, at Crossbill, near Glasgow, 
 
THE REV. JAMES FISHEE. G3 
 
 October Stli, 17-tl? Tell me, brethren, wLat was the 
 reason why you deserted my ministry, without first 
 speaking to myself anent such a momentous step? 
 You know very well that there was not one of you, 
 that ever came to me, to receive light or to be inform- 
 ed, before you had determined to withdraw, or had 
 actually withdrawn, from my ministry. Do not ima- 
 gine that I am courting you to be my hearers to make 
 a gain of you. The Lord hath hitherto helped me to 
 act such a part, that I am above that calumny."* 
 
 It is instructive and humbling to remark the striking 
 difference between the character, literary and moral, of 
 the publications called forth by the controversy be- 
 tween the original Seceders and the Established Church, 
 and of those produced by this unhappy strife among 
 themselves. We can scarcely believe them to be the work 
 of the same minds — the offspring of the same hearts. 
 The feeling produced by reading the first is esteem, 
 often rising to admiration, — that produced by reading 
 the second is deep regret, not unmixed with astonish- 
 ment and shame. It is not to be forgotten, however, 
 that it was this controversy that so fixed the minds of 
 the Seceders on the connexion between church and 
 state, as to lead them to see, to some extent, the evils 
 that were connected with it, whether necessarily or 
 accidentally, — and kept the subject before their minds, 
 till, in the course of a century, the overwhelming ma- 
 jority of them have been led to embrace the doctrine, 
 not merely of the entire distinctness of the church 
 and state, but of the impossibility of the two forms of 
 human society being allied or united without deep injury 
 to both. A pure, active church will make the work of 
 a civil government very easy, and a just civil govern- 
 ment will afibrd facilities for the church serving its own 
 purposes; but to gain these ends, the two societies must 
 
 * Letter from Mr. Fisher, pp. 4—6. 
 * R 
 
64 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 Le entirely distinct, even thougli they should be com- 
 posed of the same individuals. 
 
 It is delightful to find that amid the turbulence of 
 controversy, the important purposes of the solid edi- 
 fication of the churches committed to their care were by 
 no means neglected by the Associate ministers in their 
 synodical capacity. At the very first meeting of the 
 Associate (Burgher) Synod, Mr. Fisher, along with 
 Messrs. Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine, was appointed to 
 carry forward a wise and important plan, which had 
 been under the consideration of the Associate body in 
 its undivided state, — the preparation and publication 
 of an Exposition of that very remarkable composition, 
 the Westminster Assembly's Shorter Catechism, — a 
 work which probably contains, within the shortest 
 compass, the fullest and the clearest exposition of 
 Christian doctrine and law, that is to be found in any 
 language. It was intended that the materials for this 
 " magnum opus" should be furnished by the various 
 Presbyteries. The chief labour, however, in collecting 
 as well as arranging materials, fell on the honoured 
 Erskine Brothers, and their relative, Mr. Fisher. 
 
 At the next meeting of Synod, Mr. Ebenezer Erskine 
 reported that he had proceeded in preparing an expo- 
 sition, as far as the 25th Question, ' On the priesthood 
 of Christ;' but stated, at the same time, that the weight 
 of pastoral engagements, and his increasing infirmities, 
 would put it out of his power to prosecute the work. 
 The Synod requested him to complete his illustration 
 of "the offices of our Lord;" and the remaining part 
 of the Catechism was apportioned into three divisions, 
 for the illustration of one of which each of the Pres- 
 byteries of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Dunfermline was 
 appointed to furnish materials. It does not appear 
 that much was ever done by them in this; nor if there 
 had, is there any reason to think that the value of the 
 work ultimately produced, would have been increased. 
 
THE REV. JAMES FISHER. C-3 
 
 The first part, including Quest, i. to Quest, xxxviii., 
 after receiving the sanction of the Synod, was pub- 
 lished at Glasgow in a handsome octavo volume, irom 
 the press of Uric, celebrated for its beauty and accu- 
 racy, in the year 1753. It is preceded by a Preface, to 
 which are attached the initials E. E., J. F., Ebenezer 
 Erskine, James Fisher. In this preface it is stated, 
 that " the materials of the following Catechism, espe- 
 cially of what was designed for the second part, are 
 [had been] collected by several ministers; and it was 
 [had been] recommended to three of their number to 
 revise what should be done by so many hands, that 
 there might be uniformity of style and method, and 
 that repetitions might be prevented as much as possi- 
 ble. It has pleased the Lord to take home to himself 
 one of the three,* who assisted in composing and re- 
 vising of this first part; but ' though he be dead he yet 
 speaketh,' and will be spoken of, for his excellent works 
 which have already or may hereafter see the light, by 
 all who shall have any relish or taste for sound doctrine 
 and experimental godliness. Whatever loss the second 
 part of the Catechism may sustain by the removal of 
 such an able and skilful hand, the other two make not 
 the least doubt, but that the Lord would [will] carry on 
 this work, with as great or greater advantage, thou^^h 
 they were [should be] laid in the grave likewise." 
 
 The second part of the Catechism appeared in a 
 similar handsome volume, from the same press in 17C0. 
 In the preface, dated May 12, 17G0, and subscribed by 
 Mr. Fisher, it is remarked — ''Both these eminent 
 lights, the Rev. Messrs. Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine, 
 who assisted in composing and revising the first part 
 of this Catechism, are [were] some years ago removed 
 to the upper sanctuary, by death; the first soon after,t 
 
 * Mr. Ralph Erskine, who died Nov. 9, 1 752. 
 t Mr. Ebenezer Erskine died June 2d, iJoi. 
 
66 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 and the second a little before the publishing of it; so 
 that the charge of the second part was [has been], by 
 a renewed recommendation of my brethren, laid upon 
 me. They indeed promised to afford me materials, 
 which some of them did, and I made all the use of 
 them I could, as I did also of the amendments and 
 enlargements proposed by others; but as this perform- 
 ance, such as it is, was never judicially read and ap- 
 proved by any of our judicatories, (though several of 
 my brethren had opportunities to peruse the most part 
 of it, before the whole was cast off,) so any imperfec- 
 tions and weaknesses, that may be found therein, are 
 not to be imputed to the body of ministers, with whom 
 I am, in providence, connected, but to myself only. 
 As to mistakes in divinity, I dare not say there are 
 none, but I may be confident to affirm there were none 
 designed."* It was afterwards repeatedly carefully re- 
 vised by him, and the edition which may be considered 
 as that to which he put the finishing touch was pub- 
 lished at Edinburgh by Gray and Alston in 1772. 
 
 This work at once took a high place, and ever since 
 has been reckoned among the first, if not the first, of the 
 Explications of the Shorter Catechism, — a book, the 
 diminutive size and distinguished worth of which were 
 strikingly expressed in the title by which it was long 
 known in Scotland — " The Baw-bee Bible." It is 
 justly remarked by Dr. Mackerrow that " the Associate 
 Synod, in originating such a work, rendered essential 
 service not only to their own church, but to the reli- 
 gious world," and he does not bestow upon it exagge- 
 
 * The precise part which the two Erskines had in the prepa- 
 ration of this elaborate work, is thus stated by Dr. Eraser — 
 " The writer happens to possess the original materials for the 
 Catechism prepared in shorthand characters by both brothers. 
 Those written by Ebenezer extend from the viii. to the xxviii. 
 question; those by Ralph, from the Ixxvi. to the xcv." — Life 
 and Diary of Ebenezer Erskine, p. 494:, note. 
 
THE REV. JAMES FISHER. 
 
 rated praise wlicu he adds, " I know not if there be, 
 in the English language, a more nseful publication] 
 for conveying to the minds both of young and old, 
 clear and Scriptural views of the whole system of re- 
 vealed truth." The work sometimes goes under the 
 name of the Synod's Catechism, and sometimes under 
 that of Fisher's Catechism. It was long generally 
 used by the ministers of at least one of the divi- 
 sions of the Secession, as a manual for guiding their 
 congregational catechetical exercises, and also Exten- 
 sively employed by the members of that body for 
 domestic instruction. It has undergone many im- 
 pressions in this country, in Ireland, and in Ame- 
 rica, and is still a book in request. We trust that 
 the beautiful edition soon to be put forth as a part of 
 this series of publications, will greatly extend its cir- 
 culation, and increase its salutary influence throughout 
 the United Presbyterian Church. It has been highly 
 valued in other religious bodies. We have understood 
 that it was a favourite with the lute Dr. Colquhoun 
 and Robert Haldaue, Esq. 
 
 In giving these details in reference to this standard 
 work, we have in some measure infringed on the strict 
 chronological order of the memoir, but it was thought 
 best to present at once whatever information could°be 
 furnished, respecting what forms the most permanent 
 foundation of Mr. Fisher's reputation and usefulness 
 as a theological writer. We return to the thread of 
 our narrative. 
 
 After having occupied the Theological chair for two 
 years, Ur. Ebenezer Erskine found it necessary to re- 
 tire in consequence of increasing infirmities; and on 
 the 7th of September, 1749, Mr. Fisher received from 
 his brethren in Synod the highest mark of the esti- 
 mation in which his talents, acquirements, and char- 
 acter were held by them which they could bestow, by 
 being unanimously appointed successor to the vener- 
 
68 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 able Father of the Secession body. For fifteen years 
 Mr. Fisher occupied that most responsible situation, 
 with great credit to himself and advantage to the 
 religious denomination to which he belonged. We 
 have no means of giving a particular account of the 
 manner in which he conducted the Divinity Hall. 
 He seems to have read lectures on the great heads of 
 theological study, and to have prescribed and criti- 
 cised the course of exercises which with very little 
 variation has been accustomed to be, and we believe 
 still are, performed by students in the various theologi- 
 cal seminaries, connected with the different bodies of 
 Presbyterians in Scotland. The annual session lasted 
 for two months, and took place in the earlier part of 
 the year, — varying from February to April. We have 
 been fortunate enough to obtain Mr. Fisher's catalogue 
 of his students, with the list of their exercises and the 
 time when they were delivered, to which, with a few 
 notes on the more remarkable names occurring in the 
 catalogue, we have given a place in the Appendix.* 
 
 It appears that about the time of his grand climac- 
 teric Mr. Fisher had, as is so common, been visited by 
 an apparent breaking up of the constitution, but after 
 a considerable period of infirm health, he was again re- 
 stored to such a measure of strength as enabled him to 
 discharge for a number of years the duties of his two- 
 fold office, t 
 
 * Vide Appendix, No. III. 
 
 t " God hath in his holy and kind providence visited you, 
 dear Sir, with signal trials; but has there not been a double 
 mercy attending every single cross? Your kind and merciful 
 Father first gave, before he took away, and so his goodness pre- 
 vented his rod: and I trust your soul knoweth right well, that 
 your afflictions, personal and relative, now work for you a far 
 more exceeding and eternal weight of glory in another world, 
 and a great improvement of faith, love, and patience, those pre- 
 cious fruits of the Spirit, while you are at present in the body. 
 Our happiness consists in believing, obeying, and submitting to 
 
THE REV. JAMES FISHER. GO 
 
 In May 17G4, Mr. Fislicr resigned the Professorship 
 and wfis succeeded by the Reverend John Swanston of 
 Kinross, who, during the short period of the three 
 years which he occupied the chair, so discharged its 
 duties as to secure the entire aj)prol)ation of his breth- 
 ren and the warm atiection of his pupils, and to draw 
 forth deep regret at his being "■ cut oti' in the midst of 
 his years."* In the course of a few years (in July 
 17GG) Mr. Fisher, though relieved from the labours of 
 the Theological class, found the performance of the mul- 
 tifarious and onerous duties of one of the largest con- 
 gregations in the denomination in a way satisfactory 
 to himself t a task too severe for his advancing years 
 and deca3''ing energies, and intimated to the Session 
 his conviction of the desirableness, that now that he 
 was in his 70th year he should have a colleague to 
 assist him. Arrangements were made by the congre- 
 gation and Presbytery for gaining this object, and after 
 some disappointment and delay by uusucx;essful calls 
 
 the will of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ in all 
 things." — Letter from Rev. Archd. Hall to the Rev. Mr. Fisher. 
 Christian Monitor, vol. v. p. 88. 
 
 * An octavo volume of elaborate and judicious Sermons, edited 
 by Mr. Smith of Dunfermline, is tlie memorial of Mr. Swanston 
 as a Minister and Professor. He was the father of Mr. Andrew 
 Swanston, who, from conscientious conviction, left the church of 
 his fathers, joinino; in succession the Independents and the Bap- 
 tists. His two posthumous volumes of " Lectures and Sermons " are 
 characterized by excellencies of no common kind. HisTheolopcal 
 tutor, Mr. Brown of Haddington, with whom he was a favourite 
 as he was with all who knew him, on hearing of his death, said 
 to a friend, " Well, Andrew has got a church now which will 
 please him." The Kev. Dr. Peddje. whose talents for exposition 
 were so admirable, used to say tliat "it was Andrew Swanston 
 who first gave him an idea of what an exposition should be." 
 Dr. Lawson of Selkirk, who was his most intimate friend, once 
 said, "I do not believe there ever was so amiable a human being 
 as Andrew Swanston, except Jonathan the son of Saul." 
 
 t The number of communicants in April 17G9 was 1,200. — 
 Min. Sess. Shuttle-street Congregation. 
 
70 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 to Mr. Clunie of Dundee and Mr. Fletcher of Brldge- 
 of-Teith, these, much to Mr. Fisher's satisfaction, led 
 to the ordination of Mr. George Henderson, a young 
 man of excellent talents, amiable dispositions, and po- 
 lished manners, on August 22d, 1771. 
 
 Some time before this (in 1768) his daughter Mar- 
 garet had been married to Mr. Walter Ewing, after- 
 wards better known as Walter Ewing Maclae of Cath- 
 kin; and the domestic comfort of the venerable pair 
 in the manse was greatly increased by Mr. and Mrs. 
 Ewing taking up their abode with them. The satis- 
 faction of having got his congregation agreeably settled 
 with a young minister who showed him the most duti- 
 ful and affectionate respect, and was quite disposed to 
 " serve with him as a son in the gospel of Christ," was 
 sadly overcast by the sudden removal of his excellent 
 and valued wife, who had now been the companion of 
 his joys and griefs for more than forty-four years. On 
 Saturday, 30th of November, 1771, Mrs. Fisher, after 
 taking dinner in her ordinary health with the family, 
 was seized with cramp in the stomach, and died early 
 in the morning of the succeeding day — the day of the 
 Lord, Dec. 1st. It is easy to conceive, it is impossible 
 to describe, the effect which this event must have ha<l 
 on the mind and heart of a man of such tender and 
 ardent affections. But he had the faith and the hope 
 of the gospel to cast himself on ; and he knew, the sepa- 
 ration was to be short and the reunion eternal. What- 
 ever the kindness of relatives could do to alleviate his 
 sorrows he abundantly received; for, a singularly affec- 
 tionate man himself, he had the great happiness of 
 being connected in the closest bonds with persons of 
 similar temperament and character. Mr. Henderson 
 was all that a kind colleague could be, and, though 
 his youngest daughter, Anne, who was very fond of, 
 and very dear to, her aged father, was, in 1773, re- 
 moved from him by her marriage to Mr. William 
 
THE REV. JAMES FISHER. 71 
 
 Wardlaw, then of Dalkeith, Mr. and Mrs. Ewing, both 
 from their unfeigned piety and great aniiablene.ss of 
 character, were well fitted to "rock the cradle of de- 
 clining age," — 
 
 " With lenient art extend a father's breatli, 
 Make languor smile and smooth the bed of death, 
 Explore the thought, ex])lain the asking eye, 
 And keep awhile one parent from the sky." * 
 
 Nor were their dutiful cares unrewarded. Mr. Fisher 
 t;eems to have in a good degree recovered his spirits 
 and activity, and to have enjoyed a green old age. So 
 late as December 1774, we lind the Rev. Mr. Smith of 
 Dunfermline, in writing to Mr. Ewing, using the fol- 
 lowing terms: " My heart rejoices to hear of the sur- 
 prising stoutness of the honest old man our father. But 
 I hope God is not to put him off with length of days, 
 but that he is looking out for some better portion." f 
 
 The days, however, were now near at hand when 
 the last of " the Four Brethren" must "go the way of 
 all the earth," and rejoin his associates. From any 
 information we can glean, his death was the effect 
 rather of the gradual decay of nature, than of any 
 distinctly marked disease. We have no information 
 of his last hours, and we regret a loss which cannot 
 now be supplied. We should have liked to have seen 
 him go down into " the river over which there is no 
 bridge" like the other brethren, " strong in faith giv- 
 ing glory to God." We should have liked to have had 
 some "last words" from a man of so firm a mind, so warm 
 a heart. But as John Newton used to say, " You need 
 
 * Pope. 
 
 t "Our father preached last Sabbath, and I believe there 
 were not many in the meeting who did not hear him. I have 
 not known him better these several years, though his legs fail 
 hira greatlv and daily grow weaker." — Letter from Mr. Eainy to 
 Mr. n'ari!law,30th June, 177 L 
 
rJ NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 not tell me how the man died; tell me how he lived, 
 and I can tell you how he died." Such a life as we 
 have so imperfectly sketched could scarcely have any 
 end but one — "peace." On the 28th of September, 
 1775, in the 78th year of his age, and in the 50th year 
 of his ministry, full of years and of honours, James 
 Fisher, the youngest and the last surviving of the 
 Four Associates, who so nobly went to their Master 
 " without the camp bearing his reproach," and whom 
 he enabled to make so consistent, steady, and successful 
 a stand for Christian truth and liberty, was gathered to 
 his fathers.* 
 
 " He came to the grave in a full age, like as a shock 
 of corn Cometh in in his season." His death excited 
 general regret, not only in his own congregation and 
 throughout the religious body in the formation and 
 management of which he had taken so active a part, and 
 of which, since Ebenezer Erskine's death, he had been 
 looked up to as the Father, but throughout the city of 
 which he had been so long one of the most honoured 
 citizens and ministers. An aged man of more than 
 fourscore years was but yesterday telling of the testi- 
 mony given of respect to his memory by a general 
 cessation of business throughout the city during his 
 funeral, and of the crowds that followed his honoured 
 remains to their resting-place, in the New North bury- 
 ing-ground, where he was laid by the side of his faith- 
 ful spouse, the first occupant of that now populous 
 city of the dead. 
 
 From Mr. Fisher not having kept a diary, or from 
 its being lost, it is to be regretted that we have not the 
 
 * "My dear Brother, — Your favour I received with the afflict- 
 ing news of our worthy and dear father's death. He was auiiable 
 in his life and amiable in his death. ' Dear in God's sight is 
 the death of his saints.' His memory is dear to many." — Ex- 
 tract of a letter from Mr. John Gray to Mr. Walter Ewing. JSdin., 
 Sept. 2dth, 1775. 
 
THE REV. JAMES EISIIER 73 
 
 same means of hecomin*^ acfjiiaintcd with liis inner life 
 as we have with that of his as.sociates. But no care- 
 ful observer of the Icadinif facts of his history can have 
 any doubts as to tlie leading features of his character. 
 Clearness was the characteristic quality of his under- 
 standing, strict integrity of his conscience, and warm 
 affection of his heart. From unvarying tradition, as 
 well as from written memorials, Mr. Fisher appears to 
 have been, in no common degree, in all the relations of 
 life, estimable, amiable, and accomplished; a good scho- 
 lar, a well-bred man,* a sincere and devout Christian, 
 a well-read and accurate divine, an instructive impres- 
 sive preacher, a diligent and affectionate pastor, an able 
 and successful Theological tutor, a public-spirited citi- 
 zen, a steady and warm-hearted friend; in the general 
 intercourse of society remarkable for the amenity of his 
 manners, a great favourite of the young, and in the 
 bosom of his family an object of the most endeared 
 affection of all its members, t A few letters are in- 
 serted in the Appendix which will place some of these 
 traits in a more striking light than any description 
 could. His temper was warm, but under the control 
 of a sound judgment and Christian principle. It is a 
 characteristic trait given by Ralph Erskine in his Diary: 
 "Mr. Fisher had a communing in my room with my 
 colleague IMr. Wardlaw," (who was greatly dissatisfied 
 at the brethren leaving the Church,) "and put him to 
 silence, yet in a very calm way of reasoning." J 
 
 He was distingui.^hed for " opening his hand wide" 
 to the poor and needy. His income was never large. 
 
 * Tradition has preserved the followinfr anecdote. On some 
 one complaining to a minister tliat ]\Ir. Fisher liad treated hijn 
 in an ungentlemanly manner, he replied, "Don't repeat that. 
 Sir, for your own sake; nobody will believe you; Mr. Fisher 
 cannot do an unfrentleraanly thing." 
 
 t Appendix, No. IV. 
 
 i Fraser. 
 
74 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 his stipend amounting only to £100, and no salary be- 
 ing attached to the Professors chair; and he had a 
 numerous family; — yet he was liberal to the poor. 
 Tradition tells of its being necessary on the part of his 
 excellent wife to take care that there should not be 
 too much in his pockets when he went out on his visits 
 of mercy, as he was sure to return with them empty. 
 
 Of his personal appearance and habits comparatively 
 little information, in an authentic form, has outlived 
 the three-fourths of a century which have passed over 
 his grave. He was somewhat under the middle size, 
 well proportioned, — with a lively, affectionate, cheer- 
 ful countenance, like David, "ruddy, and withal comely 
 to look on," — easy and alert in all his movements, 
 — neat in his dress, and orderly and punctual in all 
 his affairs. He was an early riser, and an earlier 
 riser in winter than in summer. He was seldom in 
 bed after four during the winter months, and had his 
 fire prepared over night to be ready to light in the 
 morning — an office he always performed for himself. 
 His study, in which he spent much of his time, looked 
 into his little garden which was immediately behind 
 and a little to the south of the present Greyfriars' 
 Church, and beyond that, on a range of fields and 
 orchards unbroken by buildings, the beautiful prospect 
 terminating in the then verdant heights now covered 
 with palaces. That he was a diligent student, and 
 very conscientious in his preparations for the pulpit, is 
 evident from the shorthand MSS. which he has left 
 behind him. His published sermons seem just a fair 
 specimen of his ordinary preaching. He had a turn 
 for the management of business, and took a leading 
 part in the proceedings of church courts; and while a 
 very decided friend to the rights and liberties of the 
 Christian people, was a zealous upholder of the canon 
 which requires all things in the church to be done 
 " decently and in order." 
 
THE REV, JAMES FISHER. 75 
 
 He fifipcars to have lived on agreeable terms with 
 the pious ministers of the Establ.bhment, at lca.st in 
 his later years. We have seen a note to him from the 
 venerable Dr. Gillies, the friend and biographer of 
 Whiteficld, couched in terms not only of respect but 
 of cordial brotherly kindness. It is dritcd 13th Dec, 
 1771, long after the heats of the Cambuslang contro- 
 versy had cooled. 
 
 His venerable coadjutor in the labours by which the 
 foundations of his denomination were laid, Mr. Wilson, 
 when playfully comparing his three fellow-workmen 
 and himself with the component })arts of the strange 
 "■ living creature" spoken of by the prophet Ezekicl, 
 likened Mr. Fisher to the eagle, alluding probably to 
 his clear glancing eye and graceful bearing, as well as 
 to the perspicacity of his discernment and the force of 
 his character. " Our brother Mr. Erskine," he said, 
 " has the face of a man; our friend i\Ir. JMoncriefF has 
 the face of a lion; our neighbour Mr. Fisher has the 
 face of an eagle; and as for myself, I think you will 
 all allow that I may claim to be the ox, for the labo- 
 rious part of the business falls to my share."* 
 
 Mr. Andrew Swanston, after hearing him when far 
 advanced in life, remarked, that " As to sentiment, 
 composition, and delivery, he had not heard a supe- 
 rior preacher." The late venerable Alexander Shanks 
 of Jedburgh, who has been said to have been formed on 
 the model of the prophets Elijah and Isaiah, used to 
 speak warmly of his high qualifications, and especially 
 of the combined accuracy and fluency with which he 
 expressed himself, not only from the pulpit and chair 
 and in the church court, but on ordinary occasions. 
 
 The following hearty testimony of one of his stu- 
 dents, more than thirty years after he was laid in his 
 grave, is equally honourable to both parties : " The 
 
 * Ferrier's Life of Wilson, p. 3o7. 
 
76 
 
 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 Rev. James Fislier was in learning a scholar indeed; 
 he had the politeness of a gentleman and the gravity 
 and conduct of a divine. His discourses were full of 
 sound divinity, delivered in nervous short sentences. 
 He would not weaken his ideas by expanding them, 
 or give you over and over again the same sentiment in 
 other words in the same discourse. He could be con- 
 cise without obscurity. His discourses might with 
 great propriety have been printed as he preached them. 
 They were equally remote from pedantic bombast on 
 the one hand, and grovelling chitchat on the other. 
 He lived respected, and died in a good old age lamented. 
 Taking him all in all when shall I see his equal?"* 
 
 Mr. Fisher had fifteen children, most of whom, how- 
 ever, died in early childhood. How affecting is it to 
 hear the good old man of threescore years and ten say- 
 ing, " Of fifteen children we have now remaining only 
 four! It is however the Lord's doing, and therefore it 
 becomes us, like Aaron, to hold our peace, or with the 
 Psalmist, to put our hands on our mouths and be 
 silent !" 
 
 Of two sons who reached manhood, Ebenezer died in 
 the prime of life in a mercantile situation in 1767, at 
 New Bern, North Carolina; and Ralph, an accom- 
 plished and amiable man, who had been successful in 
 business, died at Belfast on his way home from Jamaica, 
 in 1792. 
 
 The daughters of the family who came of age in- 
 herited their parents' virtues. Jean married her rela- 
 tive, the Rev. James Erskine of Stirling — a most pro- 
 mising young minister — in 1754, whom, after a brief 
 season of happy union, she lost in 1761 only to find 
 again after a still briefer season of sorrowful separa- 
 
 * Kogers' Speech before the Associate Synod of Ireland, at 
 Cookstown, July 8th, 1808, pp. 30, 81. The author of this 
 Speech was the first Professor of Divinity to the Associate 
 Burgher Synod of Ireland. 
 
THE REV. JAMES FISHER. i I 
 
 tiori, by following him to the grave and to heaven, iu 
 1702.* 
 
 Alison was the fir^^t wife of the Rev. Rohert Camp- 
 bell of Stirling, one of the greatest pulpit orators ever 
 produced by the Secession, and the object of most cor- 
 dial aUcctiou to Mr. Fisher and his family ; — but she 
 died soon after her marriage. 
 
 Mary was united to Mr. John Gray, printer in 
 Edinburgh — a man of much Christian worth; but died 
 soon after the birth of her only child, Erskine, who 
 became the wife of the Rev. Ebenezer Brown of Inver- 
 keithing.t 
 
 * Mr. Erskine's note on the death of his son James, Mr. 
 Fisher's namesake, in his domestic rejrister, is affecting: "Yes- 
 terday, betwixt twelve and one, p.m., being Saturday, Nov. 15, 
 17G0, my dear dear sweet child Jamie was cut otF by the small 
 pox. If he had lived till the 1st of March he would" have been 
 three years of age. My heart and affection were much glued to 
 this child. There could not be a more pleasant one. The Lord 
 has dried up this .sweet stream. Oh that he may now lead my 
 dear wife and me up to himself the inexhaustible fountain! Oh 
 for right views of God in Christ! Alas, I have not yet won to 
 part with Jamie in my heart and affection." — Froser. 
 
 t A short time before her decease she requested that her in- 
 fant daughter, who had been sent to the country to be nursed, 
 should be brought to her. On the arrival of the child, she sat 
 up upon the bed, and having received the infant on her arms 
 from the hands of her husband, she as it were presented her as 
 an offering to God, and with solemn devotion and cordial affec- 
 tion pronounced on her the Old Testament benediction, "The 
 Lord bless thee and keep thee: the Lord make his face to shine 
 on thee: the Lord lift up his countenance on thee and give thee 
 peace." The offering, as after events proved, was an acceptable 
 one, and the blessing so solemnly invoked was richly communi- 
 cated. In this way Mrs. Gray parted with her infant babe. 
 She saw her no more. Soon after she died at the early age of 
 twenty-four, leaving behind her " a good report through faith." 
 "She died in faith," expressing her finn confidence in those 
 '• exceeding great and precious promises," — "being persuaded ol 
 them and embracing them," — " I am the Lord thy God ;" " When 
 thou passest through the waters I will be with thee; and through 
 the rivers they shall not overflow thee." — Chrktian Monitor, vol, 
 
78 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 Margaret was the accomplished and excellent wife of 
 Walter Ewing Maclae, Esq. of Cathkin, — around whose 
 hospitable board " the excellent ones of the earth" of 
 all denominations, the Balfours and Lawsons, and Greigs 
 and Peddies, and Dicks and Fullers, and M'Leans and 
 E wings, gone to the general assembly of the first-born, 
 with a few who still linger behind, were privileged to 
 congregate. 
 
 Anne, the youngest of the family, was the second 
 wife of William Wardlaw, Esq., of Glasgow, and the 
 mother of one of the most accomplished theologians, 
 elegant and impressive preachers, enlightened and active 
 philanthropists, and variedly and extensively useful 
 writers of our times, the Rev. Ralph Wardlaw. 
 
 The following is a complete list, so far as our in- 
 formation goes, of Mr. Fisher's publications. 
 
 1. The Inestimable Value of Divine Truth, considered in a 
 Sermon from Prov. xxiii. 23. "Buy the truth and sell it not." 
 Preached at Finwick, March 3d, 1738. 12rao., pp. 56. Edin. 
 1789. 
 
 2. Christ Jesus the Lord, considered as the inexhaustible 
 Matter of Gospel Preaching, in a Sermon at the Ordination of 
 the Kev. James JMair to be Minister of the Associate Congre- 
 gation at Linton, T^veedale, May 29th, 1746. 12mo., pp. 40. 
 Edin. 1741. 
 
 3. A Eeview of the Preface to a Narrative of the Extraordi- 
 nary Work at Kilsyth and other Congregations in the Neigh- 
 bourhood, written by the Rev. Mr. James Robe, Minister of 
 Kilsyth; wherein the nature of that extraordinary work, and 
 
 iii., for 1822, pp. 241, 242. — The lettei's in the Appendix, in re- 
 ference to Mrs. Gi'ay's last ilhiess, exhibit one of the most beau- 
 tiful pictures of Christian parental sohcitude we have ever con- 
 templated, and illustrate the exquisite propriety and beauty of 
 the Psalmist's comparison, "As a father pitieth his children." 
 The little motherless girl soon to lose her father too, so often 
 referred to in these letters, became, under the fostering care of 
 her two excellent aunts, Mi's. Ewing and Wardlaw, a most ac- 
 complished and amiable Christian woman. A memorial of 
 her worth is to be found in the Christian Monitor as above re- 
 ferred to. 
 
THE REV. JAMES FISHER. 7\) 
 
 tlie principles of the promoters of it, are discovered from tlio 
 said Preface and other jiapers hitely published; and likewise the 
 Address to the Brethren of the Associate Fresbytery anent their 
 late Act for a Public Fast, is considered. ]2mo., pp. 68. Glas- 
 jrow, 1742. 
 
 4. A Heview of a Pamphlet entitled 'A Senous Enquiry 
 into tlie Burgees Oaths of Edinburgh, Perth, and Glasgow;' 
 wherein the most material arguments against the Burgess Oath 
 are impartially weighed and examined. 12mo., pp. 120. Glas- 
 gow, 1747. 
 
 5. A Letter from Mr. Fisher to the Burgesses and others of 
 his Congregation, who have with'lrawn from his Ministry, be- 
 cause he cannot Condemn the Burgess Oath as a ground of 
 Separation and Excommunication; nor even admit the sinful- 
 ness thereof to be a term of Ministerial and Christian Commu- 
 nion. 12mo,, pp. 32. Glasgow, 1749. 
 
 G. A Vindication of Mr. Fisher's Private Missive, published 
 with an answer thereunto, by Mr. How; wherein the errors of 
 Mr. How's Discourse on Prayer are plainly detected, together 
 with an answer to his defence of Clandestine Marriages and 
 Private Ba})ti.sms. 8vo., pp. 24. Glasgow, 1751. 
 
 7. The Character of a Faithful Minister of Christ, being a 
 Sermon preached immediately after the ordination of Mr. James 
 Erskine as one of the Associate Ministers of the Gospel at 
 Stirling, Jan. 22, 1752. 12mo., pp. 18. Edin., 1752. 
 
 8. The Assembly's Shorter Catechism, explained by way of 
 Question and Answer; wherein it is essayed to bring forth the 
 truths of God contained in that excellent composure, more fully 
 than has been attempted in any one of the explicatoiy Cate- 
 chisms hitherto published; and, at the same time, as compen- 
 diously as the subject would allow; in tuo parts. I. Of what 
 man is to believe concerning God. II, Of the duty which God 
 requires of man. By some Ministers of the Gospel. Part I. 
 8vo., pp. 304. Glasgow, 1 753. 
 
 'J. Christ the Sole and Wonderful Doer in the Work of Man's 
 Redemption; an action Sermon preached immediately before 
 dispensing the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper in the Associate 
 Congregation, Glasgow, June 23d, 1745: to which is subjoined 
 The Doors of the Heart summoned to open to the King of 
 Glorv; an action Sermon preached Aug. 30, 1755. 12mo., pp. 
 36 and 32. Glasgow, 1755. 
 
 10. The Assembly's Shorter Catechism explained by way of 
 Question and Answer. Part II. 8vo., pp. 306. Glasgow, 17C0. 
 
 Mr. Fisher also wrote a Preface to " Sermons and 
 Discourses upon the most important and interesting 
 
 4 fl 
 
80 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF 
 
 subjects, by the late Rev. Mr. Ebenezer Erskine," in 
 four volumes, 8vo. Edin., 1761; and a Preface giving 
 a short account of the author to " The Sermons and 
 other Practical Works of the late Rev. Mr. Ralph 
 Erskine," in two vols., folio. Glasgow, 1764: and 
 also a short recommendatory Preface to " Two Cate- 
 chisms mutually connected, by John Brown, minister 
 of the gospel at Haddington." Edin., 1764. 
 
 It may be fairly doubted whether any of the found- 
 ers of the Church of the Secession has exerted a more 
 extended and abiding influence over that community, 
 than the subject of the preceding memoir. His Sermons, 
 though probably freer of faults than the numerous and 
 powerful discourses of his honoured relatives, the Erskine 
 brothers, were by no means, either in their matter or 
 manner, so impressive when delivered, and the few of 
 them which have been published have produced no such 
 effect as these have done; and as the Apologist and De- 
 fender of the Secession, though he stood next to, yet he 
 stood far behind Wilson, who was the sole author of the 
 admirable " Defence," and the principal workman in 
 fashioning both the Testimonies. But from the pecu- 
 liarities of his character, and from the position, both 
 local and official, which he occupied, his influence was 
 probably equal to that of any of them. The congre- 
 gation wdiich he collected, and to which he gave a 
 character, has, not only under the care of a Henderson, 
 a Pirie, a Dick, and a King, been a powerful agency 
 for good in many ways, but has been the parent, imme- 
 diately or remotely, of probably not less than thirty 
 congregations, some of them scarcely less numerous 
 and influential than itself. His filling the Divinity 
 chair during fourteen years, put the moulding of the 
 ministry of one branch of the Secession, in a great 
 measure, into his hands, at a most important period of 
 its history, as in the other branch of the Secession a 
 similar plastic influence w^as exerted by Mr. Moncrieft'; 
 
THE REV. JAMES P'lSIIER. 81 
 
 :ind wc trace tlie results of his example and instructions 
 iu the ministerial character and labourt of a M'Ewen, 
 and a Brown, and a Fatison, and a Kidston, and a 
 Coventry, and a Dick, and a Belfrage, and an Arnot, 
 and a IMoir, and a Hall, and a Shanks, and a Campbell, 
 and a Johnstone, and a Henderson, all men of superior 
 talent, and within their various spheres, of powerful 
 and most beneficial influence, — "men," as the son of 
 Sirach says, "honourable in their generations." It is, 
 however, probably chiefly through the medium of "■ The 
 Westminster Shorter Catechism Explained" that Mr. 
 Fisher has decidedly contributed to fix the character of 
 the theology of the church to which he belonged, — a 
 character which, in its substance, it is to be hoped that 
 church will long retain, uniting, as it does, in so high a 
 degree, the assertion of the sovereignty of God and the 
 responsibility of man, laying a deep foundation for the 
 unhampered jireaching of a complete gospel, — the clear 
 exhibition of a full and a free salvation for the guil- 
 tiest of the guilty, and the vilest of the vile, of the 
 race of man, — and proclaiming, at the same time, 
 the high claims and unrelaxing obligations of that law 
 of God, which is holy, just, and good, and exceeding 
 broad. 
 
 The name of Fisher lives but in his works and in 
 the grateful remembrance of the church, — his only 
 surviving son having died unmarried; but he has a 
 numerous and honoured posterity who, it is to be 
 hoped, will feel and discharge the obligations, as they 
 enjoy the advantages, and sustain the responsibilities, of 
 such an ancestry. There is an exceeding great and pre- 
 cious promise made to the descendants of distinguished 
 servants of God, if they walk in their steps, and " know 
 the God of their fathers, and serve him with a perfect 
 hand and a willing mind;" but there is a threatening 
 of corresponding weight denounced on them, if they 
 follow an opposite course, — "if they seek Him, he vrill 
 
82 NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE, &C. 
 
 be found of them; if they forsake Him, he will cast 
 them off for ever." 
 
 ' All flesh is grass, and all the loveliness thereof as 
 the flower of the grass; the grass withereth, and the 
 flower thereof falletli, but the word of the Lord en- 
 ilureth for ever." " As for man," the best, the greatest, 
 the most amiable, the most useful of men, "As for 
 man, his days are as grass, as a flower of the field so 
 he flourisheth; for the wind passeth over it and it is 
 gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more. 
 But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to ever- 
 lasting upon those that fear him, and his righteousness 
 to children's children, to such as keep his covenant, 
 and to those that remember his commandments to do 
 them." 
 
 " Remember them that have had the rule over you, 
 who have spoken to you the word of God: whose 
 faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. 
 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for 
 
 EVER." 
 
(83) 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 MARROW DOCTRINES. 
 
 The so-called "Marrow doctrines," reduced to their ele- 
 ments, seem to be these:— * That the gospel is a revelation 
 of the grace of God to man the sinner : That it exhibits, in 
 a divine testimony, the truth respecting Jesus Christ, the divine, 
 divinely appointed, all -accomplished Saviour, and the com- 
 plete salvation he has procured /or, and is ready to bestow on, 
 sinners of mankind: That it is the immediate duty of everv- 
 sinner to whom the gospel comes, to believe this testimony: 
 That in the belief of this testimony he cordially embraces this 
 Saviour as his own Saviour, and enjoys the blessings of this sal- 
 vation as his own: That the finished work of Christ is the sole 
 ground of the sinner's hope of pardon and salvation, and that 
 the truth respecting that finished work, contained in exceeding 
 great and precious promises, cannot be believed without, in the 
 measure in which it is believed, giving peace to the conscience, 
 confidence towards God, and the hope of eternal life: That this 
 faith of the gospel is productive of holiness as well as of hope, 
 and that there is no true holiness, no acceptable obedience any 
 more than solid hope, and genuine comfort, but what springs 
 from the gospel believed.' 
 
 These doctrines are equally removed from Neonomianism and 
 Antinomianism, from legalism and licentiousness. I am no ad- 
 vocate for what is peculiar in " the Marrow divines' " mode of 
 stating these truths. I think they may all be fully, clearly 
 stated, without a word about the "deed of gift and grant;" 
 " God being the covenant God, Christ being the Saviour, of the 
 uubelie\-ing sinner" "in the offer;" "the direct and the reflex 
 act of faith;" "the assurance of fiiith" and "the assurance of 
 sense," as indicative of two kinds of, or two sorts of evidence 
 for, the assured hope of personal salvation; — "appropriation 
 being of the essence of faith," &c. Much important truth is 
 
84 APPENDIX. 
 
 couched under these terms; but it may be doubted how far 
 they are fitted clearly to unfold it. I object on higher grounds 
 than those of mere taste to much of the phraseology of " The 
 Marrow of Modem Divinity," though what is most offensive in 
 it is borrowed from the Reformers, especially from Luther. I 
 could not express anything like an entire satisfaction with the 
 view that work gives of the rntionah of the divine economy of 
 salvation, nor with its tripartite division of the law of works, 
 the law of faith, and the law of Christ. 
 
 But I not only hold that the principles above stated are the 
 essential elements of a pure and a full gospel, — that the Marrow- 
 men did good service to the cause of truth and holiness, — and 
 that a clear exhibition of those principles is the most valuable 
 characteristic of what may be termed Secession theology, — but 
 that such books as "The Marrow of Modern Divinity," and 
 " Marshall's Gospel Mystery of Sanctification," while unduly ar- 
 tificial in tfieir form, exhibit the great principles stated above, 
 in a way well fitted to stir the mind of the reflecting student, 
 and if they but throw him back on the Bible, to which they 
 are constantly making their appeal, are likely, in a higher de- 
 gree than many works of higher pretensions, to lead into those 
 comprehensive, consistent views of the plan of salvation as em- 
 ])racing the conjoint attainment of an entire change of state and 
 thorough transformation of character, by the same means, both 
 procuring and instrumental, and of tl)e gospel as when believed 
 being equally the ministration of righteousness and the Spirit, of 
 justification and hope, and of sanctification and comfort, which 
 are of so much importance both to the right reg-ulation of indivi- 
 dual Christian inward exercise, and to the clear and satisfactory 
 exhibition of " the truth as it is Jesus," in all its fulness and 
 self-consistency, to others. 
 
 Those who wish to understand the whole subject would do 
 well to read The MarroAV of Modern Divinity, with Boston's 
 Notes, Boston's Memoirs, Brown's Gospel Truth, M'Crie's Ac- 
 count of the Controversy respecting the Marrow of Modern 
 Divinity — Christian Instructor, vol. xxx., p. 693, &c., M'Ker- 
 row's History of the Secession, Eraser's Lives of the Erskines, 
 Thomson's Historical Sketch, Dr. Harper's Life of Ebenezer 
 Erskine. He who carefully examines the subject will not thmk 
 Mr. Eisher has exaggerated the importance of this controversy 
 Avhen, in his biographical preface to Ralph Erskine's works, he 
 pronounces it "the most useful and beneficial to this church of 
 any other that has been broached since the beginning of this 
 century." — Vol. i. p. xi. 
 
BRIEF NOTES RESPECTING MRS. FISHER. 85 
 
 No. II. 
 BRIEF NOTES RESPECTING MRS. IISIIER. 
 
 Mrs. Fisher was the eldest daughter of Mr. Ebenezer Erskine 
 and Mrs. Alison Turpie, and was bom about the year 1706. 
 There are two or three rather intercstinfr notices of her in her 
 venerable father's diary. In August 1714, she, a girl of eight 
 years of age, when on a visit at Kirkcaldy, was seized with 
 "fever. Her father, but lately himself recovered from fever, 
 thus records his feelings : " I got word yesterday that my 
 daughter Jean is lying in a fever in Kirkcaldy. The Lord 
 be gracious when I desire to give her to the Lord, and, ac- 
 cording to his command, to bring her to him who, I hope, is 
 my God, and who will also, according to his promise, be the 
 God of my seed. Christ's condescension towards the noble- 
 man of Capernaum, who entreated him on behalf of his child 
 that was dying, furnished me with an argument on behalf of 
 my little daughter. He has a regard to the poor as well as the 
 rich and noble; and therefore I may go to him for my child 
 as well as this man did, for he is as willing and ready to help 
 now a5 he was then. This gave me encouragement to i)ray 
 that the Lord Jesus would heal her soul; tliat he would lay his 
 haTid on her and bless her; that he would break in upon her 
 heart and sanctify this affliction ; that if it were his will he would 
 spare her; and that if she died he would take her to himself. 
 Blessed be his name, who allows me to plead on her behalf, and 
 helps in some measure to believe that he will hear." The affec- 
 tionate parent's prayers were graciously heard, and in a few 
 weeks she was able to return to Fortmoak. On Sept. 22, when 
 she was returning with her pai'ents from Kirkcaldy, as she rode 
 near them before a servant on a small pony, the pony stum- 
 bled and fell, on the road between Kirkness and Portmoak, " so 
 that both the lad and the child tumbled over the ears of the 
 beast," and yet neither of them received the least hurt. " I 
 ascribe this," says the pious and affectionate father, "to my 
 great, glorious, and good God, who gives his angels charge over 
 me and mine, to keep us in all our ways. On coming home I 
 set up my ilbenezer." 
 
 After the death of his wife, in 1720, when Jean was a girl of 
 14, we find Mr. E. thus touchingly speaking both of mother and 
 daughter: "Most sweet and comfortable were her advices to 
 her dear children, particularly to Jeanie, who waited well and 
 dutifully on her during her long trouble and distress, which binds 
 my heart exceedingly to that child, especially because her mother 
 
8Q APPENDIX. 
 
 had a strong affection for her." — Fraser's Life and Diary of the 
 Rev. Ebenezer Erskine, pp. 280, 281, 15G, 157, 290. 
 
 Jeanie seems to have been a general favourite. She was the 
 object of peculiar affection on the parfof her kind-hearted uncle 
 Ralph. The following letter was written some time before her 
 marriage : — 
 
 " DtmfermUne, 3d Nov., 1726. 
 " Endeared Niece, 
 
 " This comes to let you know that I am veiy desirous 
 to understand your welfare, and know how your affairs are going, 
 or what length that important business is come which was the 
 subject of our communing here, and of my last line to you, and 
 wherein I am still of the same sentiments which I then expressed. 
 Hoping that your falling in with the call of Providence therein 
 in a cordial manner, may be a yielding to the will of the Lord 
 manifested in his providence and suitable to his word, and that 
 it may tend to his glory and your comfort and advantage every 
 way, which, if my heart deceives me not, I incline earuestly to 
 desire of the Lord in your behalf. . . . Wishing also, that you 
 may be under a gracious divine conduct, ordering your lot in 
 this world most advantageously, and maldng way for your happy 
 state in the other world, I rest . . ." 
 
 Her uncle gave still farther proof of his interest in her by 
 officiating at the marriage, and by the following excellent letter 
 sent to his niece some time afterwards : — 
 
 " Portmoah, 4th Jmiuary, 1728. 
 " My dear Niece Jeanie, 
 
 "I am sorry we have so seldom any communication 
 with you now that you ai*e situated in your married lot at 
 a little fartlier distance from us than formerly. Though at 
 the same time, notwithstanding that I hear seldom from you, 
 I am satisfied to think that in Providence you are privileged 
 with good company, and in comfortable circumstances outwardly, 
 in many respects even your external prosperity being what I 
 would ardently wish and desire, so far as is consistent with God's 
 glory and your good ; for an absolute exemption from all crosses 
 and trials in this world could not be contributive to either of 
 these ends, according to the ordinary stated method of Heaven, 
 especially towards the children of grace, and consequently is 
 not to be wished for. And therefore, though the Lord hath 
 mercifully provided and ordered matters, (I hope,) very commo- 
 diously for you in a suitableness to your station, and blessed you 
 with a kind husband, as well as a gospel minister, in one and 
 the same person, a competent living, a convenient dwelling- 
 
BUIEF NOTES RESrECTIXG MRS. FISHER. 87 
 
 place, and many comfortable accommodations, u-hich owjht to 
 take gratitude and thankfulness; yet. as I hope you will never 
 look upon any outward temporal enjoyments as your best and 
 rhief treasure', nor consc(iuently ^ive tln'in the room which glo- 
 rious Christ alone should have, so I shall wish you maybe helped 
 of {Trace to such a jovful and yet spiritual regular use of all out- 
 irard mercies and comforts as may be consistent with a readmcss 
 to be divorced from them, whenever the Lord shall show that 
 the time he gave them in loan to you is expired ;— for when Tro- 
 vidence savs in eftect of any worldly comforts we may enjoy, as 
 was said of the ass and her colt. Matt. xxi. 2, 8. ' The Lord 
 hath need of them,' then he expects that straightway we will 
 send them. While they are tied, and he sees them needful for 
 us. we are allowed thankfully and comfortably to use them ; but 
 when he seeks them to be loosed, and sees them needful for the 
 ends of his glor\' and our good to be surrendered to him, then 
 we ought, with humble submission and contentment, to part with 
 them at his call. I desire to hope that the divine blessing upon 
 the good example and excellent education that you was privi- 
 leged with in vour father's family all along, to which I charitably 
 presume that' saving and effectual divine teaching and instruc- 
 tion have been mercifully superadded, will make that deport- 
 ment which I have hinted at to be natural, easy, and pleasant 
 to you, or at least excite you to such an endeavour after it as 
 will be agreeable to those' that are about you, and adorning to 
 the Christian profession and gospel character, to which the more 
 conformed you are, the more will you show yourself a kind and 
 loving wife to your husband, a wise and virtuous housewife to 
 vour family, and a pattern of discretion and civility to all your 
 'neighbours, as well as a serious seeker of, and a faithful servant 
 to, the Lord your God, not only as he is your father's God, and 
 vour mother's God, which you have ground to say, but especially 
 'as he is the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glo- 
 rious object of our faith and love. If any good advices are de- 
 ducible from what is above said, I hope my former familiarity 
 with you as a friend and relative shall not make my present 
 liberty and freedom with vou as a Christian adviser the loss ac- 
 ceptable, but rather the more, since the foi-mer hath given me 
 the better opportunity for the latter. But, as I do not in the 
 least suspect your kindly accepting of the freedom I use this 
 wav, even though there were no such inducement thereto, so it 
 will' be always desirable and refreshful unto me to hear and 
 understand that, under the influence of heavenly instruction and 
 conduct, you arc helped to outdo the advice of your best friends 
 upon earth. I shall also be glad to hear that you enjoy the 
 fruits of God's common providence with his special blessing, 
 which alone makcth truly rich, and addcth no sorrow in the 
 
^^ APPEXDIX. 
 
 issue. After what I have here seriously delivered, I shall allow 
 the enclosed diversion from my daughter. My wife gives her 
 kind service to you and Mr. Fisher. I am, 
 
 Your very aflectionate Uncle, 
 
 And humble Servant, 
 
 Ralph Erskine." 
 
 Our readers will not be displeased to have an opportunity of 
 perusing the '• enclosed diversion," which certainly shows that 
 the first Seceders were not the morose generation they are often 
 supposed to have been. 
 
 " A letter written hy Margaret Erskine* daughter to the late Rev. 
 Ralph Erskine of Dunfermline, to her cousin, Mrs. Fisher of 
 Kinclaven. 
 
 " Dear Cousin, this may let you know 
 That I am well and wish you so. 
 Glad should I be, could I "hear tell 
 By word or writ, that you are well: 
 For now you're gone so far away, 
 A-fishing up the river Tay, 
 I know not if it be the Highlands, 
 Or north among the Pearl Islands ; 
 Be where it will, by land or sea, 
 You're in a manner dead to me. 
 For many long months in the year 
 No single word from you I hear. 
 By common post, nor common chance. 
 No more than if you were in France. 
 Nay, we have here, who dwell at Fortli, 
 So little converse Avith the North, 
 Perhaps it would not be in vain 
 For me to wish you were in Spain, 
 That I might hear when climates alter, 
 As oft from you as from Gibraltar. 
 
 But now, when we're so f:ir asunder, 
 I think it needs be no great wonder, 
 Though I in writing atthis time. 
 Would fain cheer up myself with rhyme; 
 While grieved to think I am bereft 
 Of you, dear Coz, e'er since you left 
 The good old loch and water Leven, 
 For these wild moors about Kinclaven. 
 I also thought some merry chat 
 When you're in such a place as that, 
 
 * Aftenvards mfe of Mr. John Newlands, Merchant, Glasgow. 
 
BRIEF NOTES RESPECTING MRS. FISHER. 89 
 
 To spoak of it without aspersion. 
 
 Would meet your need of some diversion. 
 
 I'ray. do not think that I am rude, 
 I would not be misunderstood; 
 I speak in case of your dejection, 
 And don't intend to cast reflection; 
 The thing at present in my view, 
 Is to divert myself and you; 
 To which I am the more inclined, 
 "While thinking you are now confined 
 Unto a spot that wants the vogue 
 Of old Dunfermline or Portmoak. 
 If herein I mistake, I beg 
 Excuse your little cousin Meg. 
 And ni take care, the next I send you, 
 If I hear tell that this otlend you. 
 
 I do not think your soil is such 
 That I need pity you too much. 
 For as I hear by common clatter 
 You Avant for neither wood nor water; 
 You have, they say, a goodly manse. 
 And that upon a pleasant stance; 
 You have a river at your hand, 
 A Fisiii.ii also at command; 
 You want not peats, as I am told. 
 To warm your feet in winter cold. 
 Only I hear you're scarce of coals, 
 And burn your peats among your sole?. 
 
 "Well, since you would needs be a wife. 
 So far without the bounds of Fife, 
 And trace the Fisher's hook when harliiig 
 Your feet so far from warm Dunfermline. 
 'Tis well bestowed upon you now% 
 That you want coals and chimneys too, 
 And burn your toes with Norland commons, 
 Because you left the lofty Lomonds. 
 
 But yet I hear you are not scant 
 Of other things that here we want. 
 Although you have not gentle lairds, 
 Nor good stone-dyke about your yards. 
 Nor deep coal pits, nor good' stone quarries, 
 Nor other Southland necessaries; 
 Yet you have many things, I hear, 
 Instead of our South country gear; 
 Instead of stone dykes, you have fail; 
 Instead of cotiee, you have kail ; 
 
90 APPENDIX. 
 
 Instead of spring- wells, yon have floods ; 
 Instead of orchards, yon have woods; 
 Instead of pastry, you have plants ; 
 Instead of music, Highland rants ; 
 Instead of pinners, you have plaids ; 
 Instead of coaches, you have sleds ; 
 Instead of gentles, you have jockeys; 
 Instead of ladies, you have luckies ; 
 Instead of meadows, you have moors ; 
 Instead of chimneys, you have floors ; 
 Instead of houses, you have huts; 
 Instead of apples, you have nuts ; 
 Which brings your promise to my mind. 
 And makes me think you are not kind ; 
 You said, (but now I find you're slack,) 
 That you would send me nuts to crack ; 
 Mind then, or else I'll say in anger. 
 That out of sight and out of languor 
 'Twas your neglect, for which I'm sorry, 
 Made this digression to my story. 
 
 But to return, — without more fash 
 I'll tell you what they fixrther clash ; 
 I am informed by country chat, 
 Instead of this thing, you have that; 
 Old ruined walls instead of castles ; 
 And huts instead of Dinnibirsels,* 
 Brown heather cowes instead of clavers ; 
 And bonnets blue instead of beavers ; 
 Well toasted snuff instead of musk ; 
 Plain dress instead of gentle busk; 
 In many things you thus excel 
 The people in the South that dwell. 
 The busk among your country lasses, 
 By far our gaudy garb surpasses. 
 Perhaps in practice I may err, 
 Yet in my judgment I prefer 
 Your good blue laces, hoods and loops, 
 To filthy flaring girds and hoops. 
 
 But over and above all this, 
 You have rare things that here we miss. 
 Your water doth attbrd you pearls 
 Such as are worn by Dukes and Earls; 
 And having store of pearl-fish, 
 You do not want the richest dish. 
 
 * Donnabirstle— the seal of the Earl of Moray in Fifeshu-e. 
 
BRIEF NOTES RESPECTING MRS. FISHER. 01 
 
 Yet witliont jesting, to be {rrave, 
 You want fur nothing that you have. 
 
 But wliile I mention all the rest, 
 I had almost forgot the best; 
 For you have also something else 
 That's rarer yet, as rumour tells 
 Hard by your kirks your woods have bells, 
 To conjure fairies down like spells; 
 For if 1 trust what people say, 
 The Pope of Rome did once a-day 
 Such bells with holy water sprinkle, 
 To banish bogles with a tinkle ; 
 As good as beads and Ave-Maries, 
 To fright and drive away the fairies. 
 I hear the bell by you possess'd 
 Was consecrated with the rest. 
 You therefore, having such a thing, 
 What have you more ado but ring, 
 Then off scours every hurtful elf. 
 That you may safe enjoy yourself. 
 
 Dear Cousin, it may well content you, 
 If all the word be true I've sent you.' 
 But lest my lines your patience weary. 
 Which hope to find or make you cheery, 
 I send my love to Mr. Fisher, 
 And rest your hearty welfare wisher, 
 
 Margaret Erskine. 
 
 Mrs. Fisher appears to have been a woman of superior mind, 
 affectionate heart, and pleasing manners, — distinguished for her 
 I)rudence and activity, and every way fitted to be a help-meet 
 for her husband as a Christian minister. Like her husband 
 she seems to have been formed for society, and evidence yet 
 exists of the fomiliar terras on which, when at Kinclaven, she 
 associated with the first families in the neighbourhood. 
 
 Mrs. Fisher had the melancholy satisfaction of watching the 
 last hours of her venerable father. " During the night," says 
 Dr. Fraser, '• on which he finished his earthly career, Mrs. Fisher 
 having come from Glasgow to visit her dying father, was sitting 
 in the apartment where he lay and engaged in reading: awaken- 
 ing from a slumber he said, ' What book is that, my dear, that 
 you are reading?' 'It is your sermon, father,' she replied, 'on 
 that text, 1 am the Lord thy God.' ' O woman,' said he then, 
 'that is the best sermon ever I preached.' The discourse had 
 proved very refreshing to himself as well as to many of his hear- 
 ers. A few minutes after that expression had fallen from his 
 
92 APPENDIX. 
 
 lips, he requested his daughter to bring the table and candle near 
 his bed; and having shut his eyes, laid his hand under his cheek, 
 he quietly breathed out his soul into the hands of the Lord his 
 God, who had redeemed him." 
 
 The following letters exhibit her character in a very amiable 
 light:— 
 
 TO MRS. SCOTT, GATESCHAW. 
 
 " Very dear Sister, 
 
 " This day I received yours. Your niece, Mrs, Erskine,* 
 is in all appearance dying of what is called a galloping con- 
 sumption. She is much in the same way her husband was. It 
 is but five weeks since we thought her in any danger, although 
 she has been very much sunk in spirit since Mr. Erskine's death. 
 She has had two doctors waiting upon her all along; but now I 
 find they have no hopes of her recovery, so that in all appear- 
 ance the next accounts you will have will be her death, for she 
 is now very low. We have need of your sympathy. The Lord 
 sees meet to break us with breach upon breach ; but who can 
 quarrel him for doing what he will with his own? Oh to have 
 that ' perfect love that casteth out fear,' and putteth a good 
 construction upon all his dealings towards us, and to say, ' Al- 
 though he slay us, yet we will trust in him.' But, alas! faith, 
 love, hope, anc' patience, are all weak; so that I cannot say to 
 this or the other mountain, 'Be ye removed.' It would be very 
 comfortable to all of us to see you in this place, for I am not 
 now able to come to see you. Our son Ralph is doing very 
 well in the merchant way. We had a letter from Eben about 
 ten days ago. He is very well. Mr. Fisher and the rest of the 
 family are well. Also our grandchild Ralph ; so that we have 
 i-eason to sing of mercy even in judgment. I am in haste, with 
 compliments to Mr, Scot and my nephews. 
 
 Your very affectionate Sister, 
 
 Jean Erskine. 
 
 " Glasgow, April the oQtli, 17G2." 
 
 TO MRS. GRAY, KEAR THE FOOT OF FOSTER'S W"i"ND, 
 EDINBURGH. 
 
 " Glasgow, 2\st Nov., 1764. 
 '• My very dear Mary, 
 
 " It is comfortable to your Papa and me to hear that 
 you now have your health better. I entreat you to take care of 
 
 * Mrs. Fisl-.er's eklest daug-hter. 
 
BRIEF NOTES RESPECTING MRS. FISHER. 93 
 
 yourself now, and do nothing tliat may cause you to lose it 
 again. Health is very precious, and we would give a great deal 
 sometimes for it when we cannot obtain it. Mr. Cami»l)ell will 
 acquaint you that Mr. Pagan died Friday last, and was buried 
 yesterday, to the great grief of that family. He was an honest- 
 hearted tine youth. J^ady William-wood died Sahhath last, and 
 is interred this day. She wanted several months of David Pa- 
 gan's age. To be sure, the language of these disjjensations of 
 Providence is, 'Be ye also ready.' Oh! Mary, this is a vain 
 world; much of the vanity of it have I seen; 1 have met with 
 disaj)pointments from every quarter where I wanted to turn my 
 eyes for rest. Tliey have, indeed, proved an Egyptian reed that 
 has pierced me when leaning on them. I would, therefore, now 
 fain be at saying, ' Return to thy rest, O my soul,' even to God as 
 in Christ, as thy only portion. And what a mercy is it, that 
 tliere is room in his covenant, even for backsliding children, and 
 for those that have played the harlot with many lovers ! 
 
 •• My kind love to Mr, Gray and Peggie, in which we all join. 
 My dear Mary, 
 
 Your affectionate Mamma, 
 
 Jeax Ekskixi:," 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 " Glasgow^ 12th Sfarch, 17C5, 
 
 "Mr VERY DEAR MaRY, 
 
 " I received yours, and rejoice to hear you are still 
 continuing better, ;My dear Ralph is now gone, and after all 
 that passed, it is now a great trial to me, as I scarcely expect 
 ever to see him again, and what adds to our grief, we have not 
 had a scrape of a pen from Eben for nigh these two years, so 
 that, after all my toil and labour, I am now bereaved of my two 
 sons. But I have reason to be dumb with silence, saying, 'It 
 is my own iniquities that correct me,' and not to complain too 
 much, so long as your Papa is spared with us. But I know not 
 what farther trials and bitter ingredients may yet be in my lot. 
 The swimming in your Papa's head returned to him last Satur- 
 day; he is in bed with it when I am writing you, but I would 
 fain hope it will not continue, 
 
 •'We all join in our endeared love to you, Mr. Gray, and 
 Peggie. 
 
 My dear, 
 Your very affectionate Mamma, 
 
 Jejls Erskine." 
 
94 APPENDIX. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 " My dear dear Mary, 
 
 "I am glad to hear you are no worse than when I 
 came from Edinburgh. I had a very sore heart to part with 
 you ; but I thought circumstances both in your family and my 
 own did not answer for my staying longer, especially as I thought 
 you somewhat better; but if I coidd divide my body as well as 
 my affections, there would still be a part of me with you: — but 
 it is our mercy that the Lord is a God far off as well as at hand. 
 May a gracious God be your support in the furnace of affliction, 
 and bring you out of it in due time ! I have sent a bit of cloth 
 for a frock to dear Erskine. 
 
 " Farewell, my dear Mary. Lord grant good accounts of yoixr 
 recovery. My kind love to you, Mr. Gray, and Miss Beugo, 
 to whom all of us stand greatly indebted. 
 My dear, 
 Your very affectionate sympathizing Mamma, 
 
 Jean Erskine. 
 Glasfjoio^ Sept. loth, 1766." 
 
 TO MRS. SCOTT, GATESIIAW. 
 
 " My dear Sister, 
 
 " I intended to have wrote you before this time, but I 
 have such a feebleness both of body and mind that every thing 
 is a burden to me. I received yours when at Stirling the 25th 
 of last month, that very day my dear Alie* was interred. She 
 
 died on the 22d . The death of my dear child cannot but 
 
 open my wound afresh in a very sensible manner, f I think my 
 name is like to be Marah. I came out to the world with a large 
 family, and I am afraid I shall return empty even before I go 
 to the grave. But what a mercy has it been to us who are the 
 parents, that although we survive the most of our children, we 
 have had great comfort in them both in life and at death. T 
 see you have heard what happened to our grandchild. % Poor 
 man! he was a great trial to his grandfather and me: but no- 
 body knows what sovereign grace may have done even in his 
 lastmoments. For all the children we have lost, I never saw Mr. 
 
 * Her daughter, Mrs. Campbell, 
 t Referring to the death of her daughter, Mrs. Erskine. 
 t He was lost at sea. This was Mr. James Erskine's only surviving 
 Fraser's Life of Raljih Erskine, p. 527. 
 
BRIEF NOTES EESPECTINO MRS. FISHER. 95 
 
 Fisher in the manner, as on receiving the news of Ralph's death ; 
 — he burst out into tears, which was very aflccting. Oh to hear 
 the language of these many rods, and tluit the Lord would show 
 me why he contendeth with me; for I cannot win yet to "re- 
 joice in tribulation ! " May God himself bring me to that frame 
 of mind I Mr. Fisher is turned very frail. Last year, for some 
 months about this time, he was so bad with a violent cough and 
 detluxion that no life was expected. He has been somewhat 
 better this season, but still he has a bad cough. The Lord is 
 pleased still to keep the rod over our head. Peggie is very hap- 
 pily married to a sober well-disposed young man in this place. 
 His name is Walter Ewing. This is somewhat comfortable to 
 us who are the parents, now in old age, amidst so many afflict- 
 ing providences. Dear Sister, it seems you think I have little 
 of the Christian that would cherish anger at any person, espe- 
 cially at a sister, for such a long time. I was indeed somewhat 
 fretted at your last letter to me, but I thought that answering 
 in the same way was but widening the ditierence, therefore I 
 forbore. I have got some other things to mind than petty quar- 
 rels. We are so many years nearer the eternal world, therefore 
 "let us w^alk in love" towards one another, as an evidence that 
 we are beloved of God. Farewell, my dear Sister. Make my 
 own and Mr. Fisher's compliments to Mr. Scott and your two 
 sons. 
 
 I am, my dear Sister, 
 
 Your affectionate and afflicted Sister, 
 Jean Erskixe. 
 " Glasgow, February QtJi, (apparently^ 1770." 
 
 Mrs. Fisher died December 1st, 1771. 
 
 On the taking down the Parish Church of Kinclaven, in order 
 to its being rebuilt, in tlie summer of 1848, a somewhat remark- 
 able discoveiy was made. The stair to the pulpit consisted of 
 a flight of stone steps. On removing the uppermost of these 
 steps, there was found engraved on its under-side, the following 
 singular inscription : — 
 
 MR. JAMES FISHER, 
 
 MINISTER AT KINCLAVEN, 
 
 1740. 
 
 BY HIS SPOUSE, JEAN ERSKINE. * 
 
 " THE DEAD IN CHRIST SHALL RISE FIRST." 
 
 Iiilunnation furnished by Rev. Mr. Young of Kinclaven. 
 T 
 
96 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 It is diflScult to say what induced Mrs. Fisher to place so singu- 
 lar a monument in such a situation. It probably refers to, 
 what she must have considered as, ' the ecclesiastical putting to 
 death' of her husband as a witness for Christ — his deposition by 
 the General Assembly, — and expresses her faith that such a 
 death would be followed by an eaiiy resurrection. It is a curi- 
 ous coincidence, that after being concealed for more than a 
 hundred years, this memorial of Mrs. Fisher's affection for her 
 husband, and faith in his Master, should come to light just 
 when an attempt to do tardy justice to Mr. Fisher's memory was 
 about to be made in this Memoir, and his literary remains about 
 to undergo a resurrection. 
 
 No. in. 
 
 MR. FISHER'S REGISTER OF THE DIVINITY HALL, 
 1750—1763, 
 
 WITH NOTES. 
 
 DISCOURSES PRESCRIBED TO THE STUDENTS, FEBRUARY 1750. 
 
 James Robertson, 
 
 David Fon-est, 
 
 James Erskine,f 
 
 Time 
 
 Exeg. An Redemptio Secundiim Impe- 
 trationem ejusdem sit Latitudinis cum 
 Applications? 
 
 Horn. 1 Cor. i. 30. " Who of God is 
 made unto us sanctification." 
 
 Exeg. An Alicui nisi Deo et Conscientise 
 Rationem Opinionum Nostrarum circa 
 Religionem, reddere teneamur, dum- 
 modo quiets in Civili Societate nosmet 
 gesserimus? 
 
 Hom. Isa. xxxiii. 6. " And wisdom and 
 knowledge shall be the stability of thy 
 times," 
 
 Exeg. An Sacrificia Lumini Naturali 
 Originem suam debeant? . . . 
 
 Hom. Mark ix. 24. "Lord, I believe; 
 help thou mine unbelief," .... 
 
 Lecture on Isa. 12th chap., .... 
 
 of Delivery. 
 
 Mai-ch 1. 
 March 8. 
 
 March 3. 
 
 March 15. 
 
 March 8. 
 
 March 1. 
 fThursd. 
 t April 19. 
 
 * Afterwards minister at Inverkeithing. He was a violent opponent of Mr. 
 Campbell's settlement at Stirling, and left the denomination before his death. 
 An accomit of his hfe was pnblished. 
 
 t Son of the Rev. Ralph Erskine, afterwards colleague to his uncle Ebenezer 
 in Stirling, and son-in-law to Mi'. Fislier. — Vide Fraser's Life and Diary of 
 Ral2Jh Erskine, pp. 524 — 527. 
 
MR. FISIIEKS REGISTER OF THE DIVINITY HALL. 
 
 John Brown,* 
 
 Daniel Cock, f 
 
 WilliamM 'Ewen , J 
 
 John Thomson, § 
 John Patison, || 
 
 97 
 
 Time ojDdivery. 
 
 Exog. An istiusmodi Adminicnla data 
 sint Ethnicis, guaj ex se ad aUquem 
 Gradum Notitiai salutaris ducant, 
 quamns Verbo Scripto dostituanturV March 17. 
 
 Horn. Gen. iii. 22. " And the Lord God 
 said, Behold the man is become like 
 one of us, to know good and evil," . March 22. 
 
 Exeg. An Theologia NatnraUs et Super- 
 natiiralis, Gradu tantummodo, aut 
 etiam Specie, difierant? .... March 1(». 
 
 Horn. John x\-. 3. "Now are ye clean 
 through the word which I have spoken 
 unto you," March 20. 
 
 Ex. Num Doctrinse Trinitatis et Deitatis 
 
 Christi sint Veritates Fundamen tales? March 15. 
 
 Horn. Jer. xvii. 12. " A glorious high 
 throne from the beginning is the place 
 of our sanctuary," March 29. 
 
 Exeg. An .Jus Dominii divini in Creaturas 
 
 rationales fundetur in Creatione? . March 22. 
 
 Hom. Matt. iii. 8. " Bring forth there 
 fore fioiits meet for repentance," . March 31. 
 
 Exeg. An Intentio promovendi aUorum 
 Fa?licitatem, sit Tessera Actionis Mo- 
 rahter bonaj? March 24. 
 
 Hom. Rev. xix. 13. " His name is called 
 The Word of God," March 31. 
 
 * Afterwards minister of Haddington, and successor to Mr. Swanston as 
 Professor of Di%inity, author of the Self- Interpreting Bible, the Dictionary of 
 the Bible, and many other works. It is intended that a new edition of his 
 Select Remains, which have been verj' popular and long out of print, shall fonn 
 a part of this series of publications. Mr. Brown commenced liis theological 
 studies under the superintendence of Ebenezcr Erskine. 
 
 t Afterwards minister of Crawfordsdyke, Greenock, and Synod Clerk. He 
 went to America. 
 
 X Aftenvards minister of Dundee — a man of fine genius and elegant taste. 
 He died young. His Sermon '' On the Matter and End of Gospel Preaching." 
 at the ordination of Mr. Dick, the father of the late Dr. Dick of Aberdeen, which 
 passed through several editions, is a first-rate discoiuse: and his work on the 
 Types, and his Essays, though posthumous, have great merit. Mr. M"Ewan 
 was also one of Ebenezer Erskine's students. The venerable Dr. Erskine speaks 
 of Mr. M'Ewen in the following terms : " Hervcy of the Church of England, 
 and M'Ewen of the Secession, are agreeable writers ; but to attempt their man- 
 ner is dangerous, without an imcommonly lively imagination, solid judgment, 
 and correct taste. Luxuriances of style, generally overlooked in original geni- 
 uses, appear ridiculous in their ser^-ile imitators." — Discourses, vol. i. p. 58. 
 
 § He settled for some time in Ireland, and then returning to Scotland was 
 for some time minister of Kirkintilloch. In consequence of losing his voice he 
 retired from the mmistry, but took an active part against the Synod in the Old 
 Light controversy in 1797-8, <fec. 
 
 II First Burgher minister in Edinbtu^h — a man highly esteemed among his 
 brethren. Tiie author of an able historical defence of the Secession in a pre 
 face to the first edition of MEwen"s Essays, addressed to John Earl of Glasgow 
 the Right Honourable Lord Commissioner. 
 
98 
 
 James Wylie,^ 
 
 Jolm Brakenridge, 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Time of Delivery. 
 Exeg. An ex Vocatione Discipuloruni 
 
 rudium et illiteratorum, Sequatm- tales 
 
 hodie ad Pra3dicationem Evangelii ad- 
 
 mittendos? 
 
 Horn. Hosea \di. 8. " Epliraim is a cake 
 
 not turned," 
 
 DISPUTATIONES MENSE IMARTIO, AN. 1750. 
 
 RESPONDENTES. 
 
 Jacob. Robertson, 
 David FoiTest, 
 Jacobus Ersldne, 
 Daniel Cock, 
 Gul. M'Ewen, 
 Joannes Brown, 
 Joann. Thomson, 
 Joannes Patison, 
 Jacobus Wylie, 
 
 OPPONENTES. 
 
 ("Daniel Cock, Gulielmus M'Ewen, 
 "1 Joannes Thomson, Joannes Patison, 
 f David Fon-est, Gulielmus M'Ewen, 
 (Jacobus Robertson, Jacobus Erskine, 
 
 >■ Jacobus Wyhe, Joannes Thomson, 
 
 (David Forrest, Joannes Patison, 
 (Jacobus Robertson, Jacobus Erskine, 
 . Daniel Cock, Gulielmus M'Ewen. 
 
 Tempus Bisput. 
 Die. 
 
 DISPUTATIONES, ANNO 1751. 
 
 RESPONDENTES. 
 
 OPPONENTES. 
 
 Gulielmus Gib, . Da^'id Fon-est, Jacobus Wyhe, 
 Joann. Anderson, . Guhelmus M'Ewen, Robertus Leny, 
 Guliel. Kidston,! . GuUelmus Gib, Joannes Anderson, 
 Robertus Leny, . Gulielmus Kidston, Gulielmus Knox, 
 Gulielmus I&iox, . Joannes Thomson, Gul. M'Ewen, 
 
 Temjyus DL^put, 
 Martii 8vo. 
 Martii 9no. 
 Martii loto. 
 Martii 16to. 
 Maiiii 22do. 
 
 DISCOURSES PRESCRIBED TO THE STUDENTS, 1751. 
 
 Feby. 26. 
 March 5. 
 
 Tim^ of Delivery. 
 
 Exercise and addition o)i 1 John v. 6. > 
 "This is he that came by water and>- 
 blood, even Jesus Christ," &c. . . ) 
 
 Lecture on Isa. Ixiii. from the beginiung 
 to the 6th verse, 
 
 Exercise and addition on 1 John v. 7."^ 
 " For there are three that bear re- > 
 cord in heaven," &c., ) 
 
 Lecture on Rom. v. from the ITtli verse 
 to the close of the chapter, . . . 
 
 Jolm Thomson, 
 
 John Patison, 
 
 Feby. 
 
 Feby. 
 Feby. 
 
 March 5. 
 
 * Afterwards minister of Scone. He was understood to be a good Hebrew 
 scholar. 
 
 t Afterwards minister of Stow, Twcedale — a man of a strong mind, and an 
 able, diligent, faithful minister. He stood high in the esteem of Mr. Brown of 
 Haddington and Dr. Lawson of SeDiu-k. He was the father of the venerable 
 William Kidston, D. D., Glasgow, now the Father of the United Presbyterian 
 Church. 
 
MR. fisher's register OF THE DIVINITY HALL. 99 
 
 William M'Ewen, 
 
 WiUiam Gib, 
 
 John Andci-son, 
 
 William Knox, 
 David Forrest, 
 
 James Wylie, 
 
 William Kidston, 
 Robert Leny, 
 
 Folm V. 8. > 
 bear wit- > 
 
 Exercise and addition on 1 John 
 " And there are three that 
 ness in earth," 
 
 Lecture on I*hil. ii. from the 6th to the 
 12th verse 
 
 Exeg. An Fides sit Conditio Foederis 
 Gratia;? 
 
 Popular Sermon on Isa. xlix. 3. " Thou 
 art my ser^'ant, Israel, in whom I 
 \vill be glorified," 
 
 Exeg. An pneter Scientiam Naturalem 
 et liberain detur in Deo Scientia quae- 
 dam Media? 
 
 Homily on 1 John v. 12. "He that hath 
 the Son hath life," 
 
 Exeg. An Deus sit omnipraesens Secun- 
 dum Essentiam? 
 
 Exercise and addition on 1 John v. 10. 
 " He that believeth on the Son of 
 God hath the witness in himself: He 
 that believeth not God hath made 
 him," &c. 
 
 Lecture on Col. iii. 1, 2, 3 and 4 verses. 
 
 Exercise and addition on I John v. 14. 
 " And this is the confidence that we 
 have in him, that if we ask any thing 
 according to his will he heareth us." 
 
 Lecture on Titus ii. 11, 12, 13 and 14 verses. 
 
 Exeg. An Justitia Vindicatiix sit Deo 
 NaturaUs? 
 
 Exeg. An Summum Bonum alicubi, nisi 
 in ipso Deo reconciliato, positum sit ? 
 
 7'i/ne of Deliver!/. 
 
 Feby. 
 Feby. 
 
 Feby. 15. 
 March 8. 
 
 March 29. 
 
 March 8. 
 
 March 2!). 
 
 Mai-ch 22. 
 
 DISCOURSES PRESCRIBED TO THE STUDENTS, 
 TO BE DELIVERED FEBRUARY 1752. 
 
 John Patison, 
 WilUara Gib, 
 
 John Anderson, 
 
 Pop. Serm. John iii. 34. " For God giveth 
 not the Spirit by measure unto him," 
 
 Exer. and add. John xv. 9. "As the Fa- 
 ther hath loved me so have I loved you ; 
 continue ye in my love," . . .' . 
 
 Lect. John x\'i. 12, 13, 14, 15. '* I have 
 yet many things to say unto you," &c. 
 
 Exer. and add. John x^-i. 7. "Neverthe- 
 less I tell you the truth, it is expedient 
 for vou that I go away," &c. . , . 
 
 Lect. Acts iii. 19, 20, 21, 22, 23. "Repent 
 ye, therefore, and be converted, that 
 your sins," &c., 
 
 Feby. 21. 
 
 Maixh 3. 
 Feby. 18. 
 
 Feby. 18. 
 
 Feby. 27. 
 
100 
 
 William Kidston, 
 
 Robert Leny, 
 
 Geo. Coventry,* 
 
 Jno.M'Alaw,Irel. 
 
 Da\'id Smith, f 
 Wm. Ronaldson, 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Time of Delivery. 
 
 Hom. Mat. v, 20. " For I say unto you, 
 that except your righteousness shall 
 exceed the righteousness of the scribes 
 and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter 
 into the kingdom of heaven," . . Feby. 
 
 Exer. and add. 2 Pet. i. 19. " We have 
 also a more sm-e word of prophecy, 
 whereunto ye do well that ye take 
 heed," &c., Feby. 27 
 
 Hom. 1 Cor. iii. 17. " If any man defile 
 the temple of God, him shall God de- 
 stroy ; for the temple of God is holy," 
 &c., Feby. 14. 
 
 Lect. 2 Cor. vi. 8, last clause, 9, 10. "As 
 deceivers, and yet tme ; as unknown," 
 &c., Feby. 21. 
 
 Hom. Mat. ix. 12. " When Jesus heard 
 that, he said unto them, they that be 
 whole," &c., Feby. 21. 
 
 Lect. Mat. vi. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. " After 
 this manner, therefore, pray ye: Our 
 Father," &c., March 6. 
 
 Exeg. An jus Regiminis civiHs, in Popuh 
 Majorum Electione, aut Successione 
 hereditaria, positum sit? ... . Feby. 
 
 Hom. Acts xvi. 31. " Beheve on the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved," March 
 
 Exeg. An Voluntas piimi Adami ante 
 Lapsum, ad Malum seque ac Bonum 
 libera fuerit? Feby. 14. 
 
 Hom. Luke xiii. 5. " Except ye repent, 
 
 ye shall all likewise perish," . . . March 6. 
 
 Exeg. An Anima Humana sit immateri- 
 
 alis? March 
 
 Hom. Rom. v. 1. " Being justified by 
 faith, we have peace with God thi'ough 
 our Lord Jesus Christ," .... March 
 
 DISPUTATIONES ANNO 1752. 
 
 Thesis Ima. Jus Regiminis Civihs in Populi Majorum Elec- 
 tione positum est. — Geo. Coventry, Respondens; Robertus 
 Leny et Joannes M'Alaw, Opponentes, Febr. 14. 
 
 Thesis 2da. Voluntas primi Adami ante Lapsum ad Bonum 
 tantummodo Ubera fait, quamvis fallibUis erat Adamus. 
 
 * Afterwards minister of Stichell, — a man of singular amiableness. Notices 
 of him are to be found in Dr. Hay and Belfrage's Memoirs of Dr. Waugh. He 
 was the father of the late Dr. Coventry, Professor of Agriculture in the Univer- 
 sity of Edinburgh, and one of his daughters was the wife of the late Dr. Dick 
 of Greyfriars' Church, Glasgow. 
 
 t Afterwards minister at St. Andrews, and then went to Nova Scotia. 
 
MR. fisher's register OF THE DIVINITY HALL. 101 
 
 Time of Delivery. 
 — Joannes M'Alaw, Respondens; Gul. Knox et Georgius 
 Coventry, Opponentes, Febr. 18. 
 
 Thosisotia. ^Vnima buinana est immatorialis. — Da\dd Smith, 
 
 Kcspoii Jens ; Joannes Patisou et Gal. Kidston, Opponentes, Martii 3. 
 
 Thesis 4ta. Philautia, sen Amor sui ipsius non est Princi- 
 pium Obedientiii' Mondis. — Respondens, Joannes Patison ; 
 Gnl. Gib et David Smith, Opponentes, Febr. 2i 
 
 Tho^is 5t:u Kulla dantm- Decreta Conditionata. — Gul. Gib, 
 Respmidens; Joannes Patison et Joannes Anderson, Op- 
 ponentes, Martii <j. 
 
 Thesis Gta. Prajdestinatio, a Conditione aliqua in Homine, 
 ante Dei Decretum prajvisa, est absolute mdependens. — 
 Respondens, Gul. Knox; Gul. Ronaldson, Opponens, . Martii 9. 
 
 DISCOURSES PRESCRIBED TO THE STUDENTS, 
 AND DELIVERED ANNO 1753. 
 
 John Anderson, 
 William Knox, 
 William Kidston, 
 Robert Lenj, 
 Geo. Coventry, 
 John M'Cala, 
 Wm. Ronaldson, 
 
 Da\nd Smith, 
 
 Lecture on ]\Iat. v. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 verses. 
 
 Exercise and addition on Rom. ^^. 5, . 
 
 Lecture Isa. Iv. 1, 2, 3, 4, .... 
 
 Pop. Sermon Isa. xlv. 22, .... 
 
 Lectmre on Luke ii. 8 — 15, .... 
 
 Exercise and addition on Mark ix. 24, 
 
 Exegesis. AnPoona' infemales sint etema;? 
 
 Exercise and addition on 1 Pet. v. 6, . 
 
 Lecture on Mat. v. 7 — 11, .... 
 
 Exercise and addition on 2 Pet. i. 21, . 
 
 Lecture on Psal. ex. 1, 2, 3, 4, . . . 
 
 Exercise and addition on James i. 6, . 
 
 Exegesis. An Jesus Christus, Filius Dei 
 appellatur, Secundum Natiu*am, aut 
 Secundum Officium ejus Mediatorium? 
 
 Lecture on Mat. xiii. 37 — 43, . . . 
 
 Exercise and addition on James iv. 8, 
 
 Exegesis. An Scriptm-aj Sacrje vera sint 
 divinaj et divinitus inspiratte ? . . 
 
 Homily on ^lat. vi. 21, 
 
 Feby. 19. 
 March 1. 
 Feby. 5. 
 I\Iarch 5. 
 March 12. 
 March 1. 
 Feby. 23. 
 March 6. 
 Jany. 25. 
 Feby. 5. 
 Jan. 19. 
 Feby. 23. 
 
 March 9. 
 Feby. 26. 
 Jan. 25. 
 
 Jan. 19. 
 Feby. 23. 
 
 DISPUTATIONES ANNO 1753. 
 
 Thesis 1. Scripturse Sacr?e vere sunt divina; et divinitus in- 
 spirata?. — Dav. Smith, Respondens; Joan. M'Cala et 
 Rob. Leny, Opponentes, Jan, 25. 
 
 Thesis 2. Poena; Infemales smit eternal. — Rob. Leny, Re- 
 spondens; Gul. Ronaldson, Opponens, Febr. 23. 
 
 Thesis 3. Jesus Christus est Deus necessario existens et in- 
 dependens. — Gul. Knox, Respondens ; Gul. Kidston et 
 Joan. Patison, Opponentes, Febr. 26. 
 
 Thesis 4. Jesus Christus, Filius Dei appellatur, Secundum 
 Natm-am, non Secimdum Officium ejus Mediatorium. — 
 Gul. Ronaldijon, Respondens; Joan. Anderson, Opponens, March 9. 
 
102 APPENDIX. 
 
 Time of Delivery. 
 
 Thesis 5. Gratia physice prasdeteiTninans, ad veram Conver- 
 sionem requiritm-. — Joa. M'Ala, Respondens; Gal. Knox 
 et Dav, Smitli, Opponentes, 
 
 Thesis 6. Justitia Christi Mediatoria e4 sola Foederis Gratiae 
 Conditio. — Gul. Kidston, Respondens ; Rol). Leny, Op- 
 ponens, 
 
 Thesis 7. Adamus primus, in ipsa Creatione, Justitia Origi- 
 nali oniatus fuit. — Rob. Leny, Respondens ; Joan. M'Cala, 
 Opponens, 
 
 Thesis 8. Anima Humana non est ex Traduce. — David 
 Smith, Respondens; Gul. Kidston, Opponens, . . . 
 
 Thesis 9. Nulla diitur Distinctio inter Episcopum et Presby- 
 terum Sei-mone et Doctrina laborantem. — David Smith, 
 Respondens; Gul. Knox, Opponens, 
 
 Thesis 10. Primum Adami Peccatum, omnibus ejus Posteris, 
 natm-aliter ab ipso oriundis, justissime imputatur. — Gul. 
 Ronaldson, Respondens; Joan. Anderson, Opponens, . 
 
 Febr. 26 
 
 March 
 
 March 9. 
 March 5. 
 
 March 6. 
 
 March 8. 
 
 DISCOURSES PRESCRIBED TO THE STUDENTS, 
 AND DELIVERED ANNO 1754. 
 
 John Anderson, 
 William Kidston, 
 Wm. Ronaldson, 
 Geo. Coventry, 
 David Smith, 
 John Beveridge,* 
 
 William Amot, f 
 
 Pop. Sermon on John xvii, 17. "Sanctify 
 them through thy trath ; thy word is 
 truth," 
 
 Pop. Sermon on Psal. Ixxii. 17, first 
 clause, " His name shall endm-e for 
 ever," 
 
 Pop. Sermon on Psal. Ixxxix. 28, last 
 clause, " ]\Iy covenant shall stand fast 
 with him," ........ 
 
 Pop. Sermon on Rom, iv. 20. " He stag- 
 gered not at the promise of God through 
 imbehef," «&c., 
 
 Exercise and add. on 1 Tim. iv. 10. "Who 
 is the Saviour of all men, specially of 
 those that believe," 
 
 Exegesis. An Mors et Satisfactio Christi, 
 ex Dei consilio, et Christi Voluntate, 
 omnium et singulorum Loco, facta sit : 
 An vero Electorum tantum? . . 
 
 Homily on 1 John v. 20. " This is the 
 true God, and eternal life," . . . 
 
 Exegesis. An Existentia Dei sit natu- 
 rahter, et per se Nota? 
 
 Febr. 23. 
 
 Mai\ 18- 
 
 Mar. 25. 
 
 Mar. 5. 
 
 Mar. 11. 
 
 Febr. 23. 
 
 Mar. 18. 
 
 Mar. 5. 
 
 * Afterwards minister at Falkirk. The father of the Rev. Henry Belfrage, 
 D. D., who was his colleague and successor. A most judicious divine and ex- 
 cellent man. The name is spelled Belfrage, in a subsequent page, which was 
 the orthography adopted by tlie tamily. 
 
 t Afterwards minister at Kennoway. Author of an elaborate volume of 
 Sermous, entitled " The Harmony of the Law and the Gospel" 
 
Mil. fisher's register of the DIVrNTTY HALL. 103 
 
 Tinie oj Delivery. 
 Horn. 2 Tim. iii. 16, first clause, "All 
 scripture is given by inspiration of 
 
 God," March 18. 
 
 William Aixlier, Exeg. An Revelatio necessaria sit ad 
 
 Salutcm? Mar. 11. 
 
 Exeg. An circa futiira contiiigentia et 
 libera, Deo conipetat Prajscientia coa- 
 jecturalis tautuui? 
 
 DISPUTATIONES ANNO 1754. 
 
 Feb. 23. 
 Mar. 5. 
 
 Mar. 11. 
 
 Mar. 
 
 Time ofDelicery. 
 
 Thesis Ima. !Mors et Satisfactio Cliristi, ex Dei ConsUio et 
 Chinsti Voluntate, non omnium et singulonim Loco, facta 
 est, sed Electonim tantum. — Joan. Beveridge, Respondcns ; 
 Gul. Coventry et Dav. Smith, Opponentcs, .... 
 
 llaesis 2da. Existentia Dei est Naturaliter et per se Nota. 
 — Gul. Arnot, Resp. ; Joan. Beveridge, Opponens, . . 
 
 Thesis 3tia, Revelatio necessaria est ad Salutem. — Gul. 
 Archer, Resp.; Gul. Aniot, Opponens, 
 
 Thesis 4ta. Quicquid factu et creditu necessariura est, per- 
 fects, et (quantum sufficit ad Salutem) perspicue, in Sacris 
 Scrip, continetur.— Joan. Anderson, Resp. ; Gul. Kidston, 
 Opponens, 
 
 Thesis 5ta. Tres sunt in Di^ina Essentia Personae, Pater, 
 FiHus, et Spiritus Sanctus, Proprietatibus incommunica- 
 bUibus inter se distinct*. — Gul. Kidston, Resp. ; Joan. 
 Anderson, Opponens, 
 
 Thesis 6ta. Objectum Pnedestinationis sunt omnes Homines, 
 quatenus in Adamo creati et lapsi, atque sic Morte etema 
 digni. — Geo. Coventry, Resp.; Dav. Smith, Opponens, 
 
 Thesis 7ma. Mundus non est etemus, sed conditus fuit in 
 Principio Mosaico. — Dav. Smith, Resp.; Geo. Coventry, 
 Opponens, 
 
 Thesis 8va. Imago Dei ad quam Homo ab Initio conditus 
 ftiit, non in solo Dominio consistebat, sed justitia Originahs 
 fuit potior et pra?cipua ejus Pars. — Joan. Beveridge, Resp. ; 
 Gul. Arnot, Opponens, 
 
 Thesis 9na. Si Adamus primus in Integritate originali per- 
 mansisset, nunquam moriturus fuisset. — Gul. Kidston, 
 Resp. ; Gul. Archer, Opponens, 
 
 Thesis lOma. Omne Peccatum est per se et Natura sua Mor- 
 tale, nullum vero vcniale. — Gul. Ronaldson, Resp. ; Joan. 
 Beveridge, Opponens, 
 
 Thesis lima. Agnoscendum est in Homine, praeter Actuales 
 Transgressiones, Peccatum quod a Theologis dicitur Origi- 
 nale. — Gul. Arnot, Resp. ; Gul. Ronaldson, Opponens, 
 
 Thesis 12ma. Peccatum potest esse Poena Peccati. 
 
 Mar. 15. 
 
 Mar. 8. 
 
 Mar. 12. 
 
 Mar. 19. 
 
 Mar. 21. 
 
 Mar. 25. 
 
 Mar. 22, 
 
104 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 DISCOURSES PRESCRIBED TO THE STUDENTS, 
 AND DELIVERED ANNO 1755. 
 
 Time of Delivery 
 Exeg. An Foedus Sinaiticum sit Foe- 
 
 dus operum aut Gratite? .... March 11. 
 Pop. Sei-m. Hebr. xii. 29. " For our God 
 
 is a consuming fire," March 12. 
 
 Lecture, Mat. xxii. 34 — 41. 
 
 Fop. Senn. Phil. iii. 12. " But I follow 
 
 after, if that I may apprehend," &c., 
 Exeg. An Polygamia et Concubinatus 
 
 Patriarchanim Vitio caruerit? . . 
 Exer. and add. 1 Tim. ii. 6. " Who gave 
 
 himself a ransom for all, to be," &c., March 11. 
 Exeg. An Lex Dei Natm-ahs, ut Deca- 
 
 logo exprimitur, et Scriptmis exponi- 
 
 tur, sit immutabihs et etema? 
 Exer. and add. 2 Pet. ii. 1. 
 Exeg. An bona opera pr^ecedant aut 
 
 sequantur justificatum? 
 Horn. Rev. i. 7. 
 Exeg. An quihbet in sua Religione ser- 
 
 vari possit? 
 Horn. Rev. xxii. 14. 
 
 William Kidston, 
 
 David Smith, 
 John Bever-idge, 
 
 Wilham Amot, 
 
 William Archer, 
 James Mitchel, 
 
 DISPUTATIONES, AimO 1755. 
 
 Proeter Theses Exegeticas, superioribus Qucestionibus comprehensas, 
 sequentes Disputationi subjiciebantur. 
 
 Thesis Ima. Dominium temporale non fandatur in Gratia. 
 
 — Gul. liidston, Defendens; Dav. Smith, Opponens. 
 Thesis 2da. Omne Peccatum est sua Natura mortiferam. — 
 
 Dav. Smith, Defendens; GiU. Kidston, Opponens. 
 Thesis 3tia. Remissa Culpa, remittitur Poena, — Joan. Bev- 
 
 eridge, Defendens; Gul. Archer, Opponens. 
 Thesis 4ta. Christi Victima sola ftdt expiatoria. — Gul. Archer, 
 
 Defendens; Joan. Beveridge, Opponens. 
 Thesis 5ta, Pronitas ad Malum non Suit ex Principiis Natm-£e 
 
 integi-ae. — Gul. Amot, Defendens ; Jac. Mitchel, Opponens. 
 Thesis 6ta. Ignorantia non excusat Peccatum. — Jac, 
 
 Mitchel, Defendens; Gul. Amot, Opponens. 
 
Mil. fisher's register of the divimty hall. 105 
 
 DISCOURSES prescribed TO THE STUDENTS, AND 
 DELIVERED MARCH AND APRIL, 1756. 
 
 I).wd Smith 
 John Beveiidge, 
 
 William Arnot, 
 WiUiam Arclier,* 
 James Mitchel, 
 John Bennet, 
 
 Archd. HaU,t 
 
 Andi-ew Moir, J 
 
 Time o/Deliven/ 
 
 Lect. on Lnke ix. 28, 29, 30, 31, . . 
 
 Pop. Sermon on Luke ix. 31. " \Mio ap- 
 peared in glory, and spake," «S:c., . 
 
 Lect. on Luke Lx. 32, 33, 34, 35, and 36, 
 
 Pop. Sermon on Luke ix. 35, 
 
 Lect. on Psal. xxiii, .... 
 
 Exer. and add. on 1 Pet. iii. 18, 
 
 Exer. and add. on 2 Pet. ii. 5, , 
 
 Lect. on Psal. xliii., .... 
 
 Exeg. An Demn credere imum essentia, 
 trinum Personis, Polytheismum, vel 
 Contradictioncm implicet? . . . 
 
 Hom. on Rom. i. 20, 
 
 Exeg. An ReHgiones I^Iysteria debeant 
 exigi ad Lmnen Rationis nostras cor- 
 ruptai, et ex illo suspendi? . . . 
 
 Hom. (Excused from it.) 
 
 Pop. Sermon on Rom. vii. 9. " I was 
 ahve w-ithout the law," &c., . . . 
 
 March 25. 
 
 March 30. 
 March 24. 
 March 29. 
 March 18. 
 March 30. 
 Mju-ch 18. 
 March 29. 
 
 April 8. 
 April 21. 
 
 April 8. 
 April 21. 
 
 DISPUTATIONES ANNO 1757. 
 
 Tims of Delivery. 
 Robertus Nicol, Defendens; Alexander Shanks, 
 
 Thesis Ima 
 
 Opponens. — Mimdus non est vel potuit esse ab stemo. 
 Thesis 2da. Virtutis et Vitii Discrimen non ex Sensu 
 
 Morali sed ex jure naturaU petendum est. — Jacobus Oli- 
 
 phant, Respondens; Alexr. Dick et Gul. Arnot, Oppo- 
 
 nentes, 
 
 Thesis 3tia. Mendacium non est sub ullo Praetextu licitum. 
 
 Robertus Campbel, Respondens; Jac. Mitchel et Joan. 
 
 BeLfrage, Opponentes, 
 
 Thesis 4ta. Omnis Notitia ex Sensibus non hauritur. — Joan. 
 
 Craig, Respondens ; Jac. Bennet et Rob. l?<icol, Opponentes, 
 
 Martii 25. 
 
 Martii 28. 
 
 Martii 28. 
 
 April 
 
 * Died May 11, 1756. 
 
 t Aftenvards minister first at Torphichen, and then at "Wells Street, Oxford 
 Road, London. A man before his age, distiiipniished for piety, and judicious- 
 ness. He was perhaps the first amonfr the Burjrhers, who apprehended dis- 
 tinctly the true relation of Church and State. His -nTitmg-s are numerous and 
 valuable; especially his " Gospel Worship," " Church Fellowship," "Humble 
 Attempt,"— a Defence of Presbyterj', and his posthumous Treatise on Faith. 
 
 X Aftenvards minister of Selkirk. One of the most popular preachers of his 
 time. He published a number of seniions, all of them highly creditable to him 
 as a scholar, a divine, and an orator. Father-in-law to Dr. Lawson, his suc- 
 cessor. 
 
106 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Time of Delivery. 
 Thesis 5ta. Hysteria Fidei ita sunt supra Eationem, nt tameu 
 
 non sunt contra illam. — Robertus Harper, Respoiidens ; 
 
 Joan. Bennet et The. Litstei-, Opponentes, .... April 21. 
 Thesis 6ta. Nulla absurda IMoses nurrat, vel indigna Fide. — 
 
 Alexi-. Shanks, Respondens; Joan. Johnston et Joan. 
 
 Low, Opponentes, April 4. 
 
 Thesis 7ma. Resurrectio Mortuorum et possibilis est, et 
 
 futura. — Joan Johnston, Respondens ; Ai'ch. Hall et 
 
 Robertus Harper, Opponentes, Apiil 
 
 Thesis 8va. Applicatio Redemptionis adaequatur ejus Im- 
 
 petratione, ut nee latior sit, nee angustior. — Alexr. Dick, 
 
 Respondens ; Joan. Belfrage et Dav. Erskine, Opponentes, 
 Thesis 9na. Animge non transeunt de Corpore in Coi-pus; 
 
 sed unicuique Homini sua Anuna est peculiaris. — Joan. 
 
 Low, Respondens; Jac. Oliphant et Rob. Campbel, Op- 
 ponentes, 
 
 Thesis lOma. Deum esse Spiritum incorporeum, et Scrip- 
 tura et Ratio luculenter docet. — 'Jac. Bennet, Respon- 
 dens ; Joan. Craig et Tho. Litster, Opponentes, . . . 
 
 Thesis lima. Dantiu" Tartara et Poenae infernales, in quibus 
 impii sunt aeterniim cniciandi. — Tho. Litster, Respon- 
 dens ; GuI. Arnot et Joan. Bennet, Opponentes, . . . 
 
 Apiil 21 
 
 April 19. 
 
 April 19. 
 
 DISCOURSES PRESCRIBED TO THE STUDENTS, ANNO 1757 
 
 Time of Delivet-y. 
 
 Pop. Scrm. James i. 17. "Every good 
 gift and every perfect gift is from 
 above, and cometh down from the 
 Father of lights, with whom there is 
 no variableness, neither shadow of 
 turning," April 
 
 Pop. Serm. Acts xix. 5, April 22. 
 
 Pop. Serm. Rom. iii. 27. " Where 
 
 boasting then?" March 21. 
 
 Pop. Serm. Mark 1. 15. " Repent ye, 
 
 and believe the gospel," .... March 16. 
 
 Pop. Serm. Luke xi. 21, 22, ... March 25. 
 
 Exer. and add. Heb. x. 38. " Now the 
 just shall live by faith; but if any 
 man draw back," &c., April 18. 
 
 Hom. Psal. xiv. 1. " The fool hath said 
 
 in his heart, There is no God," . . March 16. 
 
 Exer. and add. James i. 22, " But be 
 ye doers of the word, and not hearers 
 only, deceiving your ownselves," . March 29. 
 
 Alexr. Dick, 
 
 Dav. Smith, 
 James Mitchel, 
 
 John Belfrage, 
 
 William Arnot, 
 John Bennet, 
 
 Archd. Hall, 
 
 * Aftei-wards minister of Aberdeen. The father of the Rev. John Dick, D.D. 
 A man of excellent talents and primitive wortii. 
 
MR. fisher's register OF THE DIVINITY HALL. 107 
 
 James Ulii)liant,* 
 
 Robert Campbel, f 
 John Craig, Irel. 
 
 Ilobt. Harper, L-el. 
 
 Robert Xicol, J 
 Alexr. SlimLkj!,§ 
 
 John Johnstoun, 11 
 
 Kxofj. An tuqtis et honesti 
 
 Vitii l)iseriiiien, ex Sensu Morali, sen 
 nuro Honiinnm arbitrio; an vero ex 
 Jure Naturali, omnium conscientiis in- 
 sculpto, petenclum sit? .... 
 
 Honi. rsal. cxh-ii. 5, '' Of great power," 
 
 Exec;. An Mendacium, sub ullo Praj- 
 textn, licitum sit? 
 
 Horn. Psal. exlvii. 5, third clause, " His 
 understanding is infinite," . , . 
 
 Exog. An omnis Xotitia ex sensibus 
 hauriatur? 
 
 Horn. Gen. ii. 7. "And the Lord God 
 formed man out of the dust of the 
 ground," 
 
 Exeg. An ilysteria Fidei, ita sint supra 
 Rationem, ut tamen non sint contra 
 illam? 
 
 Hom. Heb. xi. 6, second clause, "He 
 that Cometh unto God must believe that 
 he is," 
 
 Exeg. An Mundus sit, vel potuerit esse 
 ab a'temo? 
 
 Hom. Psal. xc. 2, 
 
 Exeg. An ulla absurda Moses narret, 
 vel indigna Fide? 
 
 Hom. John v. 39, first clause, " Search 
 the scriptures," 
 
 Exeg, An Resurrectio Mortuorum sit 
 possibilis et futura? 
 
 Hom, 1 Cor, xv, 33. " Be not deceived, 
 evil communications corrupt good 
 manners," 
 
 T^me of Delivery 
 Virtutis et 
 
 March 28, 
 AprU 11. 
 
 March 28. 
 
 April 11. 
 
 April 7. 
 
 April 1. 
 
 April 21. 
 
 April 7. 
 
 March 25. 
 March 21. 
 
 April 4. 
 March 29. 
 April 4. 
 
 April 1. 
 
 * Afterwards minister of the Established Church, Dumharton. Author of 
 "Catechisms" which were considerably popular in their day. It is said Mr. 
 Fisher gave the profits of two Action Sermons, which he pubUshed in 1755, to 
 assist in Mr. Oliphant's education. 
 
 t Afterwards minister of Stirling'. Perhaps the most accomplished orator, 
 ever produced in the Secession, ilr. Fisher's son-in-law. Author of two ex- 
 cellent Semions. A notice of him is to be found in the Memoir of his son-in- 
 law. John Smart, D.D., his colleague and successor, by his grandson, John 
 Smart, D.D., Leith — i)refixcd to a volume of posthumous Sermons. 
 
 % Aftonvards minister of Kelso. 
 
 § Aftei-wards mhiister of Jedburgh, — distinguished for personal piety and 
 masculine eloquence. He pubhshed two volumes of Sermons in his hfetime, 
 one in 12mo. and another in 8vo. He also published a number of occasional 
 tracts. Two of them, connected with the political disturbances at the com- 
 mencement of the French Revolution, awakened a good deal of interest. A 
 posthumous volume of Sermons, with a short Memoir, was published by his 
 amiable colleague and successor, the Rev. Peter Young. He declined a pen- 
 sion when offen d by Government, and recommended the minister of the parish 
 to the notice of the Crown. 
 
 II Afterwards minister of Ecclefechan, then called the Congregation of An- 
 uaudale. A most venerable, judicious, uscfid minister. 
 
108 
 
 John Low,* 
 
 James Bennet, 
 Thos. Litster,f 
 Dav. Erskine, J 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Time of Delivery. 
 
 Exeg. An Animce transeant de Corpore 
 in Corpus ; an vero nnicuique Homini 
 sua Anima sit peculiaris? . . . April 21. 
 
 Horn. Acts x\-ii. 28, first clause, " For in 
 
 him we live, move, and have our bemg," April 8. 
 
 Exeg. An Deum esse Spiritum incorpo- 
 reum, et Scriptura, et Ratio luculenter 
 doceat? _. April 19. 
 
 Exeg. An dentur Tartara et Poenfe in- 
 feraales, in quibus impii sint sternum 
 cruciandi? April 19. 
 
 Pop. Serm. Eph. v. 7. " Be not ye 
 therefore partakers with them," . April 18. 
 
 DISCOURSES PRESCRIBED TO THE STUDENTS, ANNO 1758. 
 
 Arch. Hall, 
 
 James Ohphant, 
 Robert Campbel, 
 Alexr. Shanks, 
 John Johnston, 
 Robert Nicol, 
 
 Lect. Ezek. xxxvi. 25, 26, 27, 
 
 will I spiinkle clean water upon you," 
 &c., 
 
 Pop. Sermon 1 John iii. 2. " Beloved, 
 now are we the sons of God, and it 
 doth not yet appear," &c., . . . 
 
 Exer. and add. 2 Pet. iii. 7. " But the 
 heavens and the earth which are now, 
 by the same word are kept," &c., . 
 
 Exer. and add. 2 Pet. iii. 8. " But, be- 
 loved, be not ignorant of this one tiling, 
 that one day is with the Lord," &c., 
 
 Exer. and add. 2 Pet. iii. 10. " But the 
 day of the Lord will come as a thief 
 in the night," &c., 
 
 Exer. and add. 2 Pet. iii. 11. " Seeing 
 then that all these things shall be dis- 
 solved, Avhat manner," &c., . . . 
 
 Exer. and add. 2 Pet. iii. 9. " The Lord 
 is not slack concerning his promise, 
 (as some men count slackness,) but," 
 &c., 
 
 Time of Delivery 
 Then 
 
 Feby. 21. 
 
 Feby. 25. 
 
 March 3. 
 
 March 
 
 Feby. 21. 
 
 March 8. 
 
 March 
 
 * Afterwards minister of Biggar — a popular preacher and diligent minister. 
 
 t Afterwards minister of Dundee — successor of Mr. M'Ewen. He died young. 
 The Rev. Mr. Shii-ra of Kirkcaldy gives an account of his last days in his 
 " Deathbed Dialogue." 
 
 X Son of Ebenezer Erskine. He was a young man of most promising abili- 
 ties, and had distinguished himself at the University. But owing either to 
 over-application to the study of abstract science, or to the agitations produced 
 in a veiy sensitive mind by " the Cambuslang work," his nervous system was 
 permanently injured, and he was obliged to abandon his design to devote him- 
 self to the ministry. He edited a posthumous volume of his father's sermons. 
 
MR. fisher's register OF THE DIVINITY HALL. 109 
 
 John Low, 
 The. Litster, 
 Rich. Raramadge, 
 
 James Fletcher,* 
 
 Peter Watson, 
 
 John Chalmers, 
 
 John Betv, 
 
 Time 
 
 Exer. and add. 2 Pet. iii. 12. "Looking 
 tor, and hastino; nnto the coming of 
 the day of God," &c., 
 
 Horn. 1 John iii. 4. " Whosoever com- 
 niitteth sin transgresscth also the law, 
 for sin is a transgression," &c., . . 
 
 Exeg. An sola Honestas Moralis sufficiat 
 ad Salutem? 
 
 Hom. 1 John iii. 5, " And ye know that 
 he was manifested to taJce away onr 
 sins, and in him," &c., .... 
 
 Exeg. An Summmn Bonum in Animi 
 Dotibus, Mundanis Deliciis, an vero 
 aliunde quaerendiira sit? ... . 
 
 Hom. 1 Jonn iii. 8. " For this purpose 
 the Son of God was manifested," &c., 
 
 Exeg. An Voluntas Dei sit prima Jus- 
 titiae Regula ? (Did not deliver it.) 
 
 Hom. 1 John iii. 23. " And this is his 
 commandment, that we should believe 
 on the name of his Son," &c., . . 
 
 Exeg. An Jesus Nazarenus, quern Ju- 
 da;i per PUatum crucifixerunt, sit verus 
 ille Messias ? 
 
 Hom. 1 John iii. 8, first clause, " He 
 that committeth sin is of the de-vil, 
 for the de\-il sinneth from the begin- 
 ning." (Did not deliver it.) 
 
 Exeg. An Miracula quae patravit Moses, 
 non magica, sed vere divina fuerint? 
 (Did not deliver it.) 
 
 Hom. 1 John iii. 8, second clause, " For 
 this purpose the Son of God was mani- 
 fested, tJiat he might destroy," &c., 
 
 of Deliver!/. 
 
 March 25. 
 
 March 2.3. 
 March 18. 
 
 Feby. 25. 
 
 March 18. 
 March 25. 
 
 April 8. 
 March 25. 
 
 March 31. 
 
 DISPUTATIONES AXNO 1758. 
 
 Time of Delivery. 
 
 Tliesis Ima. Ad Thesin, Richardi Raramadge; Joan. Chal- 
 mers, Opponens, Mar. 18. 
 
 Thesis 2da. Ad Thesin, Joannis Chalmers; Rich. Rara- 
 madge, Opponens, Mar. 25. 
 
 Thesis 3tia. Ad Thesin, Jacobi Fletcher; Petrus Watson, 
 
 Opponens, Mar. 18. 
 
 Thesis 4ta. Ad Thesin, Petri Watson ; Jac. Fletcher, Op- 
 ponens. (Non disputarunt.) 
 
 * Afterwards minister at Copshawholm, Liddesdalc, Roxburghshire ; — a man 
 of singularly primitive manners. He imbibed Dr. Ridgley's A-iews respectijig 
 the Sonship of Christ, and spent the evening of his days in private Ufa 
 
110 APPENDIX. 
 
 H'lme of Delivery. 
 Thesis 5ta. Praedestinatio est absoluta, vel plane indepen- 
 
 dens a Conditione aliqua, ante Dei Decretum prcevisa. — 
 
 Arch. Hall, Respondens; Jac. Oliphant, Opponens, 
 Thesis 6ta. Prasdestinatio est immutabihs, ita nt Electi 
 
 nuUi deficere, nee Reprobi ulli servari queant. — Jacobus 
 
 Oliphant, Respondens ; Arch. Hall, Opponens, . . _ . 
 Thesis 7ma. Singiih Honmies ad suum Finem particulariter 
 
 pra?destmantm-. — Rob. Campbel, Resp.; Alexr. Shanks, 
 
 Opponens, _ • 
 
 Thesis 8va. Ahqui tantum, non omnes sunt electi. — 
 
 Alexr. Shanks, Resp. ; Rob. Campbel, Opponens, . _._ 
 Thesis 9na. Fideles, de sua Electione ad Gloriam, infallibih- 
 
 ter in hac Vita certiorari possunt. — Joan. Johnston, 
 
 Respondens; Rob. Nicol, Opponens, 
 
 Thesis lOma. Ethnici, Di\ana Revelatione destituti, Salvari 
 
 nequeunt. — Rob. Nicol, Resp. ; Joan. Johnston, Opponens, 
 Thesis lima. Potentia creandi nulli Creatura^ communica- 
 
 biUs est. — Joan. Low, Respondens; The. Litster, Oppo- 
 nens. (Non disputarunt.) 
 Thesis 12ma. Mundus in Principio Mosaico creatus fait. — 
 
 Tho. Litster, Respondens; Joan. Low, Opponens. (Non 
 
 disputarunt.) 
 Thesis IStia. Astrologia judiciaria, ex Usu Luminarium, 
 
 extrui nequit. — Joan. Bety, Respondens; Joan. CarHsle, 
 
 Opponens. (Non disputanuit.) 
 Thesis 14ta. Omnia, sine ulla Exceptione, Divinse Pro\dden- 
 
 tise subsunt. — Joan. Carlisle, Respondens; Joan. Bety, 
 
 Opponens. (Non disputarunt.) 
 
 Mar. 22. 
 
 Mar. 22. 
 
 Mar. 24. 
 Mar. 24. 
 
 Mar. 24. 
 Mar. 24. 
 
 DISCOURSES PRESCRIBED TO THE STUDENTS, 
 AND DELIVERED ANNO 1759. 
 
 James Oliphant, 
 Robert Campbel, 
 
 John Johnston, 
 John Low, 
 
 Tho. Litster, 
 Alexr. Shanks, 
 
 I'ime of Delivery. 
 
 In a family at Campbeltoun this year. 
 
 Lecture on John i. 29—34, .... March 16. 
 
 Pop. Sermon on John i. 34. " I saw and 
 bare recoi-d that this is the Son of 
 God." (Did not deliver it.) 
 
 Lecture on Hcb. xi. 7. to 10, ... March 17. 
 
 Pop. Serm. Heb. xi. 10. "He looked 
 for a city that hath foundations," &c., 
 
 Lecture on Heb. xi. 1 — 6, .... March 16. 
 
 Pop. Serm. on Heb. xi., first clause of 
 ver. 6. " But without faith it is im- 
 possible to please God," .... March 31. 
 
 Exer. and addition on 2 Pet. iii. 14. 
 "Wherefore, beloved, seeing jq look 
 for such things," &c., April 3. 
 
 Lecture on Philem. 1—22, .... Miuxh 8. 
 
 Pop. Serm. Rom. i. 17, March 12. 
 
MR. fisher's register OF THE DIVINITY HALL. Ill 
 
 Robert Nicol, 
 Peter Watson, 
 
 James Fletcher, 
 Thos. Edmuud, 
 
 Sarn. Kinloch,* 
 John Craijr, Irel. 
 
 Lecture on Prov. N-iii. 13 — 19, 
 
 Pop. Serai. 1 Pet. ii. 24, . . . . 
 
 Exer. and addition on 2 Pet. iii. 17, . 
 
 L:ist year's Exe;;t'sis. An Voluntas Dei 
 sit prima Justitia* Ref]!;ulaV . . . 
 
 Exer. and addition on 2 Pet. iii. 18, . 
 
 Exeg. An Moralitas Actionum fundetur 
 in S}inpatbia, aut in Benevolentia Uiii- 
 versali.'' 
 
 Hom. on Rom. ii. 14, 
 
 Exeg. An p]thnici, Divina Revelatione 
 destituti, Salvari cjueant? 
 
 Pop. SeiTii. Rom. nii. 4, .... 
 
 Exer. and addition on 2 Pet. iii. 13, . 
 
 Time of Delivery. 
 March 8. 
 March 12. 
 April o. 
 
 Marrh 21. 
 March 21. 
 
 March 19. 
 March 17. 
 
 March 31. 
 March 19. 
 
 DISPUTATIONES ANNO 1759. 
 
 Time of Delivery. 
 Sam. Kinloch et Petrus Wat- 
 
 Ad Tliesin, Thomas Edmund 
 
 son, Opponentes, 
 
 Ad Thesm, Petri Watson ; Jacobus Fletcher, Opponens, . 
 Ad Thesin, Samuelis Kinloch; Alexr. Shanks, Opponens. 
 
 (Non disputarunt.) 
 
 March 19. 
 March 22. 
 
 DISCOURSES PRESCRIBED TO THE STUDENTS, 
 AND DELIVERED ANNO 1760. 
 
 Time of Delivery. 
 
 Lecture on Mat. xxv. 1 — 6, . . . March 10. 
 
 Pop. Sei-m. on Mat. xxv. 6. "And at 
 midnight there was a cry made, Be- 
 hold the bridegroom," &c., . . . March 12. 
 
 Last year, Pop. Senn. on John i. 34. 
 
 Lectiire on Isa. 12th chap., . . . . March 11. 
 
 Pop. Senn. on Isa. xii. 3. "Therefore 
 
 with joy shall ye draw water," &c., March 20. 
 
 lecture on Mat. xxv. 7, 8, 9, 10, . . March 27. 
 
 Pop. Serm. on Matt. xxv. 10, la.st clause, April 3. 
 
 Lecture on Mat. xxv. 31, 32, 33, 34, . April 26. 
 
 Pop. Serm. on Mat. xxv. 34, ... April 1. 
 
 James Oliphant, 
 
 Robert Campbel, 
 John Low, 
 
 Thos. Litster, 
 James Fletcher, 
 
 * Afterwards went to America; — returned to this country, and was long 
 iniiiister of Paisley. His portly form and fondness for systematic divinity ob- 
 tained for him among his associates the appellation Doctor. On its being asked 
 at an acquaintance how he had got his title, it was replied, " By universal con- 
 sent — wliich is as good as the consent of a university." 
 4 U 
 
112 
 
 Tho. Edmund, 
 John Beaty, Irel. 
 
 Joseph Ker, Irel. 
 Jas. M'Alavv, Irel. 
 
 John Bennet, 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Til 
 Exer. and addition on 2 Pet. iii. 14, . 
 Exeg. An Miracula quse patra-\at Moses, 
 
 non magica, sed vere davina fuerint? 
 Exer. and addition on Rev. i. 18. " I am 
 he that Mveth and was dead, and be- 
 hold I am alive," &c., 
 
 Exeg. An Theologia NaturaUs sufficiens 
 
 sit ad Salutem? 
 
 Hom. on John iv. 24. " God is a Spirit," 
 Exeg. An Ratio Humana sit principium 
 
 et fundamentum Theologite? . . 
 Hom. on John iv. 24, second clause, 
 
 " And they that worship," &c., . . 
 Lecture on Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 24, 25, 26, 
 Pop. Serm. on 1 John iii. 1, ... 
 
 ! of Delivery. 
 March li. 
 
 March 10. 
 
 March 26. 
 
 March 19. 
 April 4. 
 
 March 11). 
 
 April 2. 
 
 April 7. 
 
 DISPUTATIONES. 
 
 Ad Thesin, Joannis Beaty; Thos. Edmund, Opponens, . 
 Ad Thesin, Josephi Ker; Jacobus M'Alaw, Opponens. (Non 
 
 disputarunt. 
 Ad Thesin, Jacobi M'Alaw; Joannes Beaty, Opponens. 
 
 (Non disputaiTiUt.) 
 
 Time of Delivery. 
 March 20. 
 
 DISCOURSES PRESCRIBED AND DELIVERED, ANNO 1761. 
 
 Robert Campbel, 
 Thos. Edmund, 
 
 James Fletcher, 
 
 Joseph Ker, 
 
 James Moir,* 
 
 Pop. Serm. on John i. 29. " Behold the 
 
 Lamb of God, that taketh away," &c. 
 Lecture on Dan. ix. 20 — 25, . . . 
 Pop. Sei-m. on Dan. ix. 24. " And bring 
 
 m everlasting righteousness," . . 
 Pop. Serm. on Heb. v. 9. " And being 
 
 made perfect, he became the author," 
 
 &c., 
 
 Lecture on Psal. xxiii., 
 
 Pop. Serm. on Psal. xxiii. 5, first clause, 
 
 " Thou preparest a table for me," &c., 
 Exeg. An Ethnici, Divina Revelatione 
 
 destituti, Salvari queant? . . . 
 Hom. Gen. i. 1. " In the beginning God 
 
 created the heaven and the earth," 
 
 Time of Delivery. 
 
 April 3. 
 March 23. 
 
 March 23. 
 
 March 27. 
 March 27. 
 
 March 23. 
 
 March 6. 
 
 April 3. 
 
 * Afterwards minister, first at Cumbernauld and then at Tarbolton. Author 
 of a number of publications on the controversy excited by Dr. M'Gill's Practical 
 Essay ou the Death of Christ, distin^shed for their ability. 
 
MR. fisher's register OF THE DIVINITY HALL. 113 
 
 DISCOURSES PRESCRIBED EN FEBRUARY, 1762. 
 
 7¥ffj<? 0/ Deliver!/. 
 At Monyquecl in Arran. Did not come 
 
 up this year, because his time with 
 
 the family ends with May ; and if he 
 
 came owr in the months i)f Febniary, 
 
 March, and Apiil, he woidd have that 
 
 time to mtJce up in Siunmer. 
 Exercise and addition on Jude ver. 21. 
 
 " Keep yourselves in the love of God," 
 Lecture on John iii. 16, 17. " God so 
 
 loved the world," &c., 
 
 Exer. and addition on Jude vcr. 24, 25. 
 
 " Now unto him that is able to keep 
 
 you from falUng," &c., .... 
 Exeg. An detiu: Theologia Naturalis? 
 Hom. John iii, 3. "Jesus answered and 
 
 said, Except a mem be born again," 
 
 &c., 
 
 Exegesis. An Dei Existentia sit Natu- 
 
 raliter et per se Nota? 
 
 Hom. John i. 1, last clause, " iVnd the 
 
 Word was God," 
 
 Exegesis. An Ethnici, Divina Revela- 
 
 tione destituti, Salvari queant? . . 
 Hom. Acts viii. 37, last clause, " I be- 
 lieve that Jesus Christ is the Son of 
 
 God," 
 
 Exegesis. An quilibet in sua Religione 
 
 Servari possit? 
 
 Hom. Luke xix. 13. " Occupy till I 
 
 come," 
 
 Exegesis. An Scriptura? Sacrae vere sint 
 
 Divina?, et DiAinitus inspirataa? 
 Hom. John vi. 48. "I am the bread of 
 
 life," 
 
 Tlios. Edmund, 
 
 J;is. M'.\law, Irel. 
 
 JaMies Moir, 
 •lol.n Mai-shal,* 
 
 Sam. Kennedy, 
 Ireland, 
 
 Jas. Waugh, from 
 Jedburgh, f 
 
 Geo. Wilson, 
 
 William Hall, + 
 
 March 10. 
 March 31. 
 
 Febv. 24. 
 March 9. 
 
 March 25. 
 Feby. 24. 
 March 10. 
 
 March 
 
 March 25. 
 March 15. 
 April 2. 
 March 15. 
 
 April 
 
 DISPUTATIONES ANNO 17fi2. 
 
 Ad Thesin, Joannis Marshal ; Jacobus Moir, Opponens, 
 Ad Thesin, Samuehs Kennedy ; Joannes Marshal, Opponens, 
 Ad Thf'sin, Jacobi Waugh ; Samuel Kennedy, Opponens, . 
 Ad ITiesin, Georgii Wilson ; Jacobus Waugh, Opponens, . 
 
 Time of Delivery. 
 
 March 9. 
 March 9. 
 Eod. Die. 
 Martii 13. 
 
 • AAerwards minister of Alnwick — a most saintly man. 
 
 t Afterwards minister of Sunderland, Durham. 
 
 X Afterwards minister of Bathgate. He died young. 
 
lU 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Ad Thesin, Gulielmi Hall ; Georgius Wilson, Opponens, 
 Poenge infemales sunt teternte. — Jacobus Moir, Defendens; 
 
 Jacobus M'Alaw, Opponens, 
 
 Mundus non est eternus, sed in principio Mosaico conditus 
 fuit. — Jacobus M'Alaw, Defendens; Gulielmus Hall, 
 Opponens, 
 
 Time of Delivery. 
 
 Mailii lo. 
 Eod. Die. 
 
 Eod. Die. 
 
 March 22J, 1762. — Five weeks after I was begun to teach came up 
 Mr. John Bennet, detained (as he said) by his aunt's indisposition 
 from coming up sooner. And Mr. George Thomson, Precentor to 
 Mr. Thomas Mair, who had been tlu-ee years attending Mr. Alex- 
 ander Moncrief as one of his Students, before the Antibm-gher 
 party proceeded against Mr. Thomas Mair; but ever since their 
 sentence of deposition against Mr. Mah, the said Mr. Thomson had 
 left them and cleaved to Mr. Thomas Mair's ministry, and teaches 
 a school at Milnathort. This Mr. Thomson was recommended to 
 me by Mr. Swanston. I prescribed to them the following Dis- 
 com-ses : — 
 
 Time of Delivery. 
 His Lecture on Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 24, 25, 
 26, prescribed in the year 1758, and 
 not yet deUvered. He delivered it this 
 
 year, _. 
 
 Pop. Sermon on Ezek. xxxvi. 27, first 
 clause, " I will put my Spirit within 
 you," 
 
 John Bennet, 
 
 George Thomson, 
 
 April 5. 
 
 April 2. 
 
 DISCOURSES PRESCRIBED TO THE STUDENTS, AND 
 TO BE DELIVERED ANNO 1763. 
 
 Time of Delivery. 
 Lecture on Psal. ex. 
 Pop. Sei-m. on Psal. ex. 4. " The Lord 
 
 hath sworn and will not repent, Thou," 
 
 &c. 
 Exer. and addition on Jude ver. 1. 
 
 " Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, 
 
 and brother of James," &c. 
 Exer. and addition on Jude ver. 3. 
 
 " Beloved, when I gave all diligence 
 
 to write unto you," &c. 
 Exer. and addition on Jude ver. 4. 
 
 " For there are certain men crept in 
 
 unawares," &c. 
 
 James Moir, 
 
 James Waugh, 
 Jolm Marshal, 
 Geo. Wilson, 
 
 * Afterwards minister of KUmany or Rathillet. He embraced Mr. Tliomas 
 Mair's views as to tiie atonement, left the denomination, joined the Old Light, 
 and published some Sermons and Tracts on prophetical and other topics. 
 
MR. fisher's register OF THE DIVINITY HALL. 115 
 
 William Hall, 
 Jolin Riddoch, 
 
 Thomas Dickson, 
 Irehuid, 
 
 John Rogers, Irel.f 
 
 Jos. Little, Irel. 
 John Henderson, J 
 
 Thomas Waiters, § 
 <ieo. Thomson, 
 
 Expr. and addition on Judo 
 
 " I will therefore put you in remem- 
 brance though you once," &c. 
 Exegesis. An Dei Existentia ex Solo 
 
 Lumine Natiu-ali cogiiosci possit? 
 Horn. Heb. xiii. 8. "Jesus Christ, the 
 
 same to-day, yesterday, and for ever." 
 Exegesis. An Ratio Homiuis Contro- 
 
 versianmi Judex sit? 
 Hom. John i. 1, last clause, "And the 
 
 Word was God." 
 Exegesis. An Revelatio necessaria sit 
 
 ad Salutem ? 
 Hom. Heb. xi. 6. " But without faith it 
 
 is impossible to please him." 
 Exegesis. An Anima Humana sit im- 
 
 materialis? 
 
 Exegisis. An Hysteria Fidei, ita sint 
 
 supra Rationem, ut tamen non sint 
 
 contra illam ? 
 Hom. 1 Tim. iii. 16, second clause, 
 
 " God was manifest in flesh." 
 Exegesis. An Jesus Nazarenus, quem 
 
 Judaei, per Pilatum crucifixerunt, sit 
 
 verus ille et promissus Messias? 
 Hom. on John iii. 27. " Jesus answered 
 
 and said, a man can receive nothing," 
 
 &e. 
 Lecture on Heb. x. 19 — 23. " Having 
 
 therefore, brethren, boldness to enter 
 
 into the hoUest," &c. 
 
 Time of Delivery. 
 ver. 5. 
 
 March 
 
 DISPUTATIONES. 
 
 Ad ITiesin, Joannis Riddoch ; Thomas Dickson, Opponens. 
 Ad Thesin, Thomas Dickson ; Joannes Riddoch, Opponens. 
 Ad Thesin, Joannis Rogers ; Josephus Little, Opponens. 
 Ad Thesin, Josephi Little ; Joannes Rogers, Opponens. 
 Ad Thesin, Joannis Henderson ; Thomas Watters, Opponens. 
 Ad Thesin, Thomae Watters; Joannes Henderson, Opponens. 
 
 * Afterwards minister at Coldstream. 
 
 t Afterwards Professor of Divinity to the Associate Burgher Sjmod of Ire- 
 land. 
 
 t Afterwards minister at Dunbar. A most venerable and amiable man. 
 Aiuhor of three excellent Discourses " on the Legal Temper." 
 
 § Afterwards minister of Alloa. 
 
 5^-^ The most of the names to which no note is appended are those of Irish 
 biudents, who returned and settled in tlieir native coimtrj-. 
 
116 APPENDIX. 
 
 January llth^ 1764. — As the Irish Students, who came over here, 
 had not access to attend their OAvn Presb3i;ery in Ireland ; accord- 
 ing to recommendation of last Synod, in case I was not to teach, 
 as I am not resolved to do this year, I prescribed to them the fol- 
 lowing Discourses. To — 
 
 Samuel Kennedy, 
 
 John Rogers, 
 Joseph Little, 
 
 Exercise and addition on Jude ver. 20. 
 Lectm^e on Rev. i. verses 4, 5, and 6. 
 Exercise and addition on Jude ver. 21. 
 Exercise and addition on Jude ver. 17. 
 
 No. IV. 
 
 LETTERS OF MR. FISHER, CHIEFLY TO RELATIVES. 
 
 The following letters, written at intervals during the space of 
 nearly half-a-century, with one exception relate entirely to do- 
 mestic events, and some of them singly may be thought but of 
 trivial importance and little interest. They have been inserted 
 as affording the most authentic and effectual means of delineat- 
 ing some of the most characteristic and pleasing features of the 
 distinguished subject of the preceding narrative; and as fitted 
 not merely to remove somewhat extensively prevalent mistakes 
 as to the sourly ascetic character of the first Seceders, but to 
 correct the wider and more important error, that that zeal for 
 religious truth, and strictness in religious duty by which they 
 were characterized, are seldom connected with the gentler chari- 
 ties of nature, or do not well comport with the courtesies of 
 polished society. 
 
 No. 1. TO MISTRESS JEAN ERSKINE* (Afterwards Mrs. Fisher). 
 
 " My Dearest, 
 
 " I have made you so many and so ingenuous assurances 
 of my most sincere affection and love to you, that it is almost 
 impossible for me to do it now in stronger terms, especially when 
 I have not the least suspicion that you think me a dissembler in 
 this matter. The flattering and deceiving part of mankind de- 
 light in flourishing speeches, embellished with all the art of 
 rhetoric; but where love is sincere, it is not words that are so 
 much to be noticed as the way and manner of expressing the 
 
 * Unmarried ladies in Scotland seem at this time to have been uniformly 
 addi-essed Mistress. In England Miss was comiiig into use. 
 
LETTERS OF MR. FISHER. 117 
 
 affection ; and it is always observable, that where love is strong- 
 est, tlicre is tlie peatest dithculty of expressinfj it in words, be- 
 cause in that case it is almost impossible to find language to 
 express the inward fondness of the mind. Thus I am sure it is 
 with myself. I am conscious that my love to you is most sin- 
 cere, and disinterested. I am conscious likewise that it is as 
 great as one creature can have to another, and yet I still find it 
 upon the increasing hand, and I cannot find words to express to 
 you the strength of my affection. And were I sure that I pos- 
 sess the same room in your affections that you do in mine, I 
 would think myself among the happiest men in the world as to 
 earthly comfort. But what encourages me in the meantime is, 
 that I would fain flatter myself with the thought that you have 
 no aversion to me, and that by this time you esteem me at least 
 above other men. But, my dearest, although I dare not ven- 
 ture to say further, yet this is not all that I would have even in 
 the meantime ; for whether I shall have the satisfaction to know 
 it beforehand or not, yet it would be no doubt my desire above 
 all earthly things that your affection to me were as great as 
 mine is to you. I had certainly satisfied my fondness in seeing 
 you at Dunfermline had not your peremptory, and I had almost 
 said cruel, command discharged me from doing so. Had I 
 thought that it was only from a principle of modesty that you 
 laid me under this restraint, I had ventured upon disobedience ; 
 but I took you to be so peremptory, that rather than disoblige 
 you I must deny myself the satisfaction of seeing you till you 
 come to Portmoak, where I hope you will allow me an agreeable 
 interview. I need not, my dearest, tell you what I am sure you 
 doubt not, that when I wish spiritual and temporal happiness to 
 myself; I wish it to you, and that all purchased blessings may 
 be conferred upon you in the same degree as I would desire for 
 myself. 
 
 Yours in the strictest bonds of affection and love while 
 
 James Fisher. 
 ''Aug. 25, 1726." 
 
 No. 2. TO THE REV. RALPH ERSKINE, DUNFERMLINE 
 
 " Glasgow^ 2ith March., 1743. 
 
 " Rev. and very dear Uncle, 
 
 "It pleased the Lord that my wife was safely delivered 
 of a son upon the 12th inst. So soon as he was born I named 
 him Ralph, and intimated that name when I presented liim for 
 baptism. My wife is now tolerably well recovered, which is 
 matter of thankfulness to the Lord, 'and the child is very well. 
 
118 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 at the nursing about half-a-mile from the to\vn. Your brother 
 came here on Tuesday the ir)th, preached and baptized the child 
 on the Thursday thereafter, which is our ordinary week-day 
 sermon. He preached lil^evvise on the Sabbath after, and is to 
 preach this day and Sabbath next, if the Lord will. . . . My 
 child that came lately to the world, though outwardly beautiful 
 and healthy, yet bears the image of the first Adam; but the 
 same grace that has defaced that image in the name-father is 
 sufficient for the name-son; there is still so much to the fore, 
 nothing yet diminished." 
 
 No. 3. EXTRACT OF A LETTER TO THE REV. MR. KING, DROMORE, 
 DATED GLASGOW, 18th Jan., 1748. 
 
 "Mr. a and you made me believe that you were to lay 
 
 a representation of grievances before the General Synod, and 
 among other things it was to be craved that a warning should 
 be emitted against Mr. Taylor's book," [Dr. John Taylor of Nor- 
 wich on Original Sin,] " and that notice should be taken of those 
 ministers who subscribed for the same, or at least of those who 
 cannot but be reputed to have propagated such an erroneous 
 
 book as Mr. H J , who subscribed for 32 copies. If 
 
 redress in these matters were refused, you were to make a stand 
 for truth. I wrote a long letter to Mr. A to be communi- 
 cated to you, wherein I moved that you might dra^v up a faith- 
 ful representation of grievances, — such as that several sitting 
 members of Synod have not subscribed the Confession of Faith, 
 — that there are many gross errors presently abounding, such as 
 the denying the imputation of Adam's first sin to his posterity, 
 the original corruption and depravation of our nature, the im- 
 putation of Christ's righteousness, &c., — that Taylor's book 
 against original sin, sapping the foundation of the whole doc- 
 trine of Christianity, is propagated in this kingdom, and that 
 some members of Synod have encouraged the reprinting and 
 propagating of the same ; and craving that the Synod would 
 condemn the above errors, and assert the opposite truths, and 
 emit a warning against Taylor's book, and censure such as 
 have propagated the same: and likewise craving, that, in or- 
 der to the preservation of the purity of doctrine contained in 
 the Westminster Confession of Faith, the formula of subscrib- 
 ing the same be amended, and that therein it be expressly 
 declared that I do not subscribe the said Confession merely 
 as a bond of peace, but as the confession of my faith — or 
 any other words to the above purpose answering the end of 
 preventing a muck subscription of the Confession : and if this 
 
LETTERS OF MR. FISHER. 119 
 
 representation and petition was either refused or delayed, I ad- 
 vised that vou shoukl have a protestation in readiness, wherein, 
 after an adherence to the above representation, you sliouhl de- 
 clare your secession from the said General Synod as no lawful 
 or rightly constituted court of Christ, in regard that they refuse 
 to assert the truths of Christ, and preserve and maintjun the 
 purity of doctrine in opposition to the errors raging at this day ; 
 and that it shall be lawful and warrantable for you to constitute 
 yourselves into a Presbytery, without any subordination to the 
 same Synod, in order to pro'secute the ends of testimony for the 
 puritv of the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government main- 
 tained in the Church of Scotland, and solemnly engaged to by 
 the three kingdoms. . . . Instead, however, of falling in with 
 what 1 advised, which at that time I hoped you would have 
 done, vou have huddled all up in what you call ' A Serious 
 Warning from the General Synod of Ulster,' which is indeed a 
 strange piece, and desen^es to be exposed as a grave-stone upon 
 truth. It is not so much as supposed [in it] that there is an 
 erroneous member in your whole Synod. The painful task of 
 libelling is put upon the people, although you cannot but know 
 how that will issue. The keenest edge of your warning is 
 against the Seceders, at whom you seem to be more oiFended by 
 far than with those of the New Light wa\' ; with whom you seem 
 plainlv to have put it up by adopting the principle, ' That our 
 sincere obedience to the moral law qualifies us for communion 
 with God here, and eternal life hereafter.' I appeal to yourself 
 if this is not the same upon the matter with what Mr. Colville 
 asserts in that scandalous sermon— I can call it no better— which 
 he preached on occasion of the death of Mr. Niven, p. 21, The 
 above assertion overturns the doctrine of original sin, the satis- 
 faction of Christ and his imputed righteousness, which you men- 
 tion in your "Warning. In my view, nothing can qualify for com- 
 munion with God here and eternal life hereafter but vital union 
 with the Lord Jesus by faith; and it is plain from Scripture, 
 and from our Confession, that that obedience which is not of 
 faith can never be acceptable to God, and consequently can 
 never qualify for communion with him here nor eternal life 
 hereafter, Heb. xi. 6; Conf. vi. 2, 3, 7. Though I had not, 
 therefore, freedom when I was in Ireland to preach in your 
 congregation, nor in Mr. H 's, because I then thought in- 
 genuously that you were coming forward to give a testimony for 
 truth at the ensuing Synod, yet now that I see that you have 
 upon the matter consented that all testimony for the truth be 
 buried, and that you are most keenly enraged against those 
 who desire to display a banner for the truth, were I in Ireland 
 again I would have all freedom to preach in your congregations, 
 if the people invited me. I am sorry that I have this to say, 
 
120 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 that those whom I looked upon to be the defenders of truth have 
 been the betrayers of it. Dear Sir, your Serious Warning is 
 but a mere sham and blind, and, I believe, will impose on but 
 few of the intelligent. I could earnestly wish that you and Mr. 
 
 A would yet bethink yourselves, and heartily espouse the 
 
 Lord's cause, for the vindication and defence of buried truth, 
 which I am sure you can never do in conjunction with the 
 General Synod, as matters are presently constituted. I offer 
 
 my kind service to Mr. A and his family, where I was so 
 
 kindly entertained. 
 
 I am, Sir, yours, &c., 
 
 James Fisher." 
 
 No. 4. TO MRS ALISON SCOTT AT GATESHALL. 
 
 " Glasgow, 21st Sept., 1756. 
 " Dear Sister, 
 
 " About two or three weeks ago, a letter came to hand 
 from Mr. Smith of Jedburgh, with the melancholy news of your 
 son Eben's death. I missed the opportunity of the carriers once 
 and again, by being out of town, which is the reason of not wi'iting 
 you sooner. Your sister and I were very sensibly aftected with 
 this sharp and afflicting dispensation of adorable Providence to- 
 wards you, which tended to revive in our memories trials of the 
 like nature we have often met with, particularly Jessy's death, 
 who was come a considerable length, as your dear child also 
 was. And thus we endeavoured to place ourselves in your cir- 
 cumstances, and to sympathize with you, as we could, as having 
 had frequent experience of the loss of such engaging and endear- 
 ing comforts. It gives me great pleasure to find by Mr. Smith's 
 line, that the Lord has been pleased remarkably to support you 
 under such a trying dispensation, and that divine coi'dials have 
 not been quite withheld. You know very well that he gives in- 
 finitely more than he takes away from us. "I will be thy God" 
 is infinitely more than all created comforts in one. While him- 
 self is to the fore, we cannot be said to be destitute or stript of 
 our all. If you are helped to a kindly submission to God's will 
 of Providence in this matter, and to justify him therein, as hav- 
 ing a sovereign and absolute disposure of you and yours, it may 
 be a token for good that the Lord will preserve your only sur- 
 viving child unto you, and likewise give you the comfort of both 
 in one. Although your trial be smart, it might still be smarter. 
 There is mercy mixed with the rod that you have some earthly 
 comforts still behind, and his mercies ought to be noted as well 
 as his judgments. "Whoso is wise, and will observe these 
 
LETTERS OF ME. FISHER. 121 
 
 thinjTs, even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the 
 Lord." I earnestly wish the Lord may c«^nitort you against 
 grief on every side. The more you think upon tlie great and 
 precious }>roniises, and what is contained in them, and the less 
 you pore and reHect ujion your departed child, the more will be 
 your inward j)eace and composure. 
 
 " My wife and I and daughters here have our kind respects 
 to you and Mr. Scott. . . Let us hear from you with the car- 
 riers from Jedburgh, and you shall not be long in getting a 
 return. I am, 
 
 Dear Sister, 
 Your very affectionate and sympathizing Brother and Sen-ant, 
 
 Jas. Fisher." 
 
 No. 5. TO THE SAME. 
 
 " Glasijow, April 14, 1758. 
 " Dear Sister, 
 
 " It is so long since I heard ft-om you that I am per- 
 suaded I wrote you last, and though at present I think so, yet I 
 have not scrupled to write you again. Your sister and I long 
 much to hear of your and your family's welfare. I was much 
 indisposed this last season Avith a swimming in my head; but 
 the Lord was pleased to order it in his adorable providence, that 
 though the trouble seized so violently on most of the week-days 
 that I was obliged to go to bed, yet I was never laid aside from 
 preaching by it on the Sabbaths save one afternoon. And now 
 the Lord has been pleased to remove it quite from me for a month 
 bygone, which hath not been the case near these two years past. 
 Idesire to bless the Lord that I have never felt any bad effect 
 of the sentences passed by our brethren upon us : and I have 
 often heard our dear friends your father, uncle, and cousin 
 Henr}^ Erskine, who I hope are now in glory, say the same. 
 
 " My wife and I and our daughters all of us join in our kindly 
 respects to Mr. Scott, to you, to William, and our sister Mary 
 Erskine, who we hear is with you. I am, 
 ;My dear Sister, 
 Your very affectionate Brother and Ser\'ant, 
 
 J.\JUES Fisher." 
 
 No. 6. TO THE SAME. 
 
 " Glasgow, Sept. 22, 1762. 
 " My dear Sister, 
 
 "Yours of the 21st of the last to my wife was 
 very acceptable. She wrote you by the carrier immediately 
 
122 APPENDIX. 
 
 after the death of our dear daughter Mrs. Erskine, and we were 
 sorry afterwards to find that the letter miscarried, and never 
 came to your hand. There is no sympathy like that which 
 flows from experience. You now know the heart of a parent in 
 the loss of one hopeful child — we of several ; and therefore ought 
 the more readily to bear one another's burdens. But not only 
 our children, but other valuable and useful friends are now re- 
 moved from us. Your father, your uncle, and his three sons, 
 all ministers, are gone off the stage of time never to appear on 
 it any more, and I will not readily be long behind them; for 
 though I be in tolerable health just now, yet by the course of 
 nature I cannot be far from my latter end, being entered on the 
 sixty-fifth year of my age since February last. 
 
 " Your niece, Alie, whom we thought once in a bad way, is 
 now quite recovered. She was much the better of being some 
 time with Mrs. Henderson at Airthry.* 
 
 " All this family have their endeared love to you, and to Mr. 
 Scott. I am glad to hear that your son "William at Dalkeith is 
 ^vell spoke of by every body, and that Eben is a thriving child. 
 I hope the Lord will add to their numbers. 
 Dear Sister, 
 Your very affectionate Brother, 
 
 James Fisher." 
 
 No. 7. TO MISS MARY ERSIONE. 
 
 " Glasgow, Nov. 10, 1762. 
 " Dear Mallt, 
 
 " Yesterday I received a letter from Mr. Shirra, with 
 the enclosed to you, which is sent you unopened; none here 
 would be so ungenerous as to open a letter of that kind : how- 
 ever he acquaints your mamma and me, that therein he makes 
 a proposal of marriage unto you, and earnestly wants our con- 
 currence. Both of us are well pleased with the proposal, if it is 
 agreeable to your mind, and think it every way more feasible 
 than the last motion that was lately made and rejected; so that 
 you have the concurrence of your parents in giving a modest 
 reception to this proposal, in case you see him before we see 
 you. Meanwhile we will lay no constraint upon you to do any 
 thing in the momentous step of marriage. All your sisters, and 
 your brothers likewise, concur in the motion. You may com- 
 municate this to your aunt, and see what she thinks of it. She 
 will readily write us her mind ; but it needs not be talked of to 
 
 * The salubrious nature of the springs there seems to have been known so 
 early as 17C2. 
 
LETTERS OF MR. FISHER. 123 
 
 any but amon^jst ourselves. All of us here have our kiuJ re- 
 spects to your auut and our love to yon. I am, 
 My dear Mally, 
 Your veiy uftcctionate Father, 
 
 James Fisheu." 
 
 No. 8. TO mSS ALI30N FISHER AND TO SIRS. GRAY.* 
 
 " Glasgow, Aug. loth, 17C3. 
 "My de.vr Alie, 
 
 "Your mamma and I have been pretty loneli.some thi.s 
 summer, — none of our daughters with us but Peggie.— If you 
 incline to stay two or three weeks longer, and to return by Stir- 
 ling, your mamma and I will not be against anything that will 
 tend to recreate you and confirm your health ; though we are 
 longing to see you. With our endeared love to you all three, 
 I am, 
 
 Your very affectionate Father, 
 
 James Fisher." 
 
 TO MRS. GRAY. 
 
 " My Dear Mally, 
 
 "Both your parents wish you and your husband all 
 the comfort and happiness of a married lot. We hope you are 
 married in the Lord, and in that case '' A little that a righteous 
 man," or woman, " hath is better than the riches of many wicked." 
 It is the blessing of the Lord only that maketh rich. — Study to 
 be obliging to your husband, as I am persuaded he is to you. 
 You are married for life, and the more constant and equal your 
 mutual love and affection to each other is, the more happy will 
 you be in one another's society. Your mamma and I have our 
 kindest love to Mr. Gray and you. I am, 
 
 Your ver\- affectionate Fathei*, 
 
 James Fisher." 
 
 TO BOTH MY DAUGHTERS. 
 
 I TRUST you do not neglect to fear the Lord, by praying to 
 him in secret at least morning and evening every day. I have 
 endeavoured to devote you to the Lord, and yourselves have 
 
 * Mary Fisher had been lately married to Mr. John Gray, Printer, Edin- 
 burgh ; and her sister, Alison, was on a visit to her. 
 
124 APPENEIX. 
 
 engaged once and again to be his at his table. Study, there- 
 fore, to have a conversation becoming the gospel in all wisdom 
 and prudence: — and the God of all grace be with you both." 
 
 No. 9. TO MR. JOHN GRAY. 
 
 " Glasgow, Dec. 26, 1764. 
 " Very dear Son, 
 
 " It gave us all here very great concern when we heard 
 by yours of Mary's illness. — I hope the Lord will give his bless- 
 ing to the means using for her i-ecovery. Tell Peggie that I 
 did not at all take ill what she wrote. Her mamma and I were 
 much diverted with the smartness of her reflections, only we 
 think that the proposal from such a deserving young man might 
 at least require some consideration. — I am very glad you are 
 tlirong in business, and that Mr. Brown's small Catechism sells 
 well. None of them are yet come to this place, though very 
 much wanted. The swelling of my feet is abating, and I hope 
 to be quite well in a few days. I preached the half of the day 
 last Sabbath, and hope to preach the whole Sabbath next. By 
 my confinement to the house for two weeks past, I have come 
 better speed on the Catechism. I am just now on the question 
 " What is efi'ectual calling? " I am, 
 
 Your affectionate Father, 
 
 James Fisher." 
 
 No. 10. TO MRS. GRAY. 
 
 " Glasgow, Jan. 10, 1766. 
 " My very dear Mally, 
 
 "Your mamma would gladly come to see you, but she 
 was so sick in the chaise the last time she came from Stirling 
 that she says that she doubts if ever she will venture abroad 
 again. She tells me she wrote you about taking care of your- 
 self; — an advice which I second and back with all the warmth 
 and earnestness that can warm the heart of a parent. Do not 
 give entertainment to slavish fears. I trust that the same divine 
 hand that has carried multitudes through will preserve you also, 
 and compass you about with songs of deliverance. I shall desire 
 not to forget you in secret. What our Lord said to Jairus I say 
 to you, " Be not afraid, only believe." Entrust yourself into his 
 kindly hand, and thei'e will be no fear of you. Your mamma 
 
LETTERS OF MR. FISHER. 125 
 
 and sisters join me in our endeared love to Mr. Gray and you. 
 I aiu, 
 
 My dear Child, 
 Your most atl'ectionate Father, 
 
 James Fisher. 
 
 " P. S. — Tell my dear Son, Mr. Gray, that I have sent the 
 two manuscripts of Mr. Brown's with Mr. Mowbray, according 
 to his desire." 
 
 No. 11. TO MR JOHN GRAY, PRINTER, IN JACKSON'S 
 CLOSE, EDINBURGH. 
 
 (Without date, but must lutve been towards the end of May 176(1. ) 
 
 " My very dear Son, 
 
 " It was very comfortable ncw.s to us all. and what we 
 much longed to hear by yours of the 2Gth, that Mary was safely 
 delivered of a daughter, and that she was in a hopeful way, 
 having got good rest, and being refreshed therewith. My wife 
 and I desire to join you in thankfulness to the Lord, for his 
 sparing and recovering mercy on this occasion. We ought not 
 to forget his benefits; and, whoever is so wise as to observe the 
 conduct of his Providence, especially as it is subservient to the 
 promise, even they shall see the love and kindness of the 
 Lord. 
 
 " I see by yours that the child's name is Erskine, which is no 
 doubt agreeable to us here who are the grand-parents. We 
 were somewhat diverted with your description of the child ; — 
 that she is a fine lively child, of such growth that the midwife 
 said she might haA^e made her appearance a month sooner, and 
 that she is very engaging. By ourselves, we easily saw how 
 much she had already attracted your affections. But we should 
 always remember that these (like all other time's-things) are 
 very uncertain pleasures. We have our endeared love to one 
 and all of you, and Mr. Campbell. Tell him that I expect from 
 him a particular account how you all are, and how Maiy con- 
 tinues to recover; if there is no remnant of trouble hanging 
 about Alie. and likewise concerning the affairs of the As.sembly, 
 of which I have as yet got no distinct account. I am, 
 
 Your ver}' affectionate Father, 
 
 Jami:s Flshek." 
 
126 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. 12. TO MRS. GRAY. 
 
 " Glasgow^ June 17, 176G. 
 " My dear Mally, 
 
 " As your mamma and I had you much on our minds 
 before your delivery, (and I hope at a throne of grace,) so we 
 have essayed to be thankful to God since your delivery, that 
 your recovery has been so comfortable and without any back- 
 setts that we heard of, and that our dear young grandchild 
 Erskina is in such a thriving way. These mercies are mattei"s 
 of much thankfulness to the Lord. And the more thankful we 
 are, the more humble we will be, considering that we are less 
 than the least of his favours. — We hear you have the nurse in 
 the house, which, though it may perhaps be somewhat more 
 expensive, yet it mil be by far a greater pleasure to have the 
 dear child continually under your own eye. I have written to 
 Alie about her coming home. Your mother and I join in our 
 endeared love to you and Mr. Gray, whom we expect to see 
 next week. I am, 
 
 Your very affectionate Father, 
 
 James Fishek." 
 
 No. 13. TO MR. JOHN GRAY. 
 
 » Glasgoio, Julj 28, 1766. 
 " My very dear Son, 
 
 " Nothing could give greater pleasure to my wife, two 
 daughters, and me, than the agreeable accounts by yours of 
 Thursday evening last of our dear Mary's being considerably 
 better. We are glad that little dear Erskine is so happily pro- 
 vided. — I hope you and we will concur in ascribing the glory of 
 your spouse's begun recovery to the Lord, and wait on him for 
 the perfecting of it. Let us hear by to-morrow's evening post 
 how matters continue with her. The post hour is now come. 
 Your very affectionate Father, 
 
 James Fisher." 
 
 No. 14. TO THE SAME. 
 
 " Glasgmo, July 31, 1766. 
 " My very dear Son, 
 
 " In consistency with a desire at submission to adorable 
 Providence so far as we can attain it, we cannot help being con- 
 cerned and uneasy about the long continuance of dear Mary's 
 
LETTERS OF MR. FISHER. 127 
 
 fv'verish ailment. WTiat gives us encouragement is the favour- 
 able opinion of her physicians, (if it be candid,) and the good 
 iiopes you entertain of her recovery. It gives us great pleasure 
 to hear that Miss Babby Beugo waits on our daughter, she being 
 such a sagacious girl. When Mary is somewhat better I will 
 write her. Our endeared love to you all. I am, 
 Your very atlecdonate Father, 
 
 Jajies Fisher." 
 
 No. 15. TO THE SA]VrE. 
 
 " Glasgow, August 6, 17G6. 
 " My vert dear Sox, 
 
 "I desire to join witli you in blessing the Lord for the 
 favourable turn he has mercifully pleased to give unto dear 
 Mary's ailment;— that the fever is mostly gone, and that she 
 had some better rest on the night of Monday last than she has 
 had since the trouble seized her. And our getting no letters 
 this day I take as a token for good that her recover}' is continu- 
 ing. I hope we shall all of us be enabled to ascribe the glory 
 of this and all our other mercies to the glorious Author of them. 
 — Although we flatter ourselves in the meantime about Mar}''s 
 recovery, we will be glad to be confirmed in a particular ac- 
 count of it by course of post. Our endeared love to you both. 
 I am, 
 
 Your very affectionate Father, 
 
 James Fisher." 
 
 No. 16. TO THE SXSm. 
 
 " Glasgow, Sept. 3, 1766. 
 
 " Very dear Son, 
 
 " Acquaint my wife that, by the mercy of God, all of 
 us here are in good health, and are glad to hear by yours 
 yesterday that she is so likewise, which tended to com.pose my 
 mind, which was formerly doubtful about that material circum- 
 stance. 
 
 " Our receiAnng no accounts by this day's post was interpreted, 
 by all that knew it, that dear Mary was rather in a more favour- 
 able way than on J^Ionday evening. I dou])t not that her phy- 
 sicians do all in their power for her relief; but, in the use of 
 lawful means, there must be a looking above them to the great 
 and sovereign Physician, who has the power of life and death 
 in his hand. She is in the Lord's hand, and none knows but 
 he may yet bring her back from the gates of death, and spare 
 
 * X 
 
128 APPENDIX. 
 
 her for a comfort to us all. It gives me great pleasure to find 
 her so agreeably exercised about her soul's state ; and yet even 
 that makes me more averse to quit grips. 
 
 " You may be sure I would strongly incline to see her, but it 
 is not possible for me to come and return in three or four days, 
 as I behoved to do, or let my people be vacant on a Sabbath, 
 which would not be for edification, as they have been in that 
 situation once and again this season already. It gives me much 
 satisfaction that my dear wife is with her, who can be of more 
 use to her every way than ten of me could be. Sure I am that 
 my sympathy at the throne of grace, such as it is, is not awant- 
 ing. 
 
 " I conclude with my endeared love to you all. I am anxious 
 lest my dear wife, out of love to our daughter, put herself to too 
 much fatigue. I am, 
 
 "Very dear and afflicted Son, 
 Your very much affected and sympathizing Father, 
 
 James Fisher." 
 
 No. 17. TO THE SAME. 
 
 " Glasgoio, 20th Sept., 1766. 
 " My very dear Son, 
 
 " To my great surprise my wife arrived here this even- 
 ing, betwixt 7 and 8, in good health, but much fatigued. I am 
 glad of the accounts she gives of dear Mary, that, though she 
 be still in great distress, there is, at least, a probability of her 
 recovery, that she has some appetite, and her pulse regular, 
 though quick. She is in the Lord's hands. I trust her soul is 
 bound up in the bundle of life with the living Head, and that 
 he will spare her to glorify him a while yet upon earth. 
 
 "It being Saturday night, and my studies on hand, I have 
 not time to insist. Only, by the first return of post, send us 
 word how our dear daughter is. She is much upon our heart. 
 Our endeared love to you and her, and Miss Babby Beugo, who 
 takes such a tender care of her. I am. 
 My dear Son, 
 Your very affectionate and sympathizing Father, 
 
 Jasies Fisher. 
 
 " P. S. — I was so confused with one thing or other when writ- 
 ing the above, that I forgot to mention my dear Annie ; but she 
 is seldom out of mind for all that. All of us here are in health. 
 We are all of us anxious to know if any favourable symptom 
 continue, and how far Mary's pulse is below 130, which was the 
 last number you mentioned." 
 
LETTERS OF MR. FISHER. 129 
 
 No. 18. TO THE SAME. 
 
 » Glasgow, Sept. 26, 17G6 
 " My very dear Son, 
 
 " Yours of the 24th I received in course. I am glad to 
 find thereby that upon tlie whole dear Mary is no worse than 
 when her mamma left her: that abstracting from her folly of 
 sitting up too long and fatiguing herself by walking too much 
 in the little room, whereby it seems she has not been quite so 
 well since, symptoms seem to continue as formerly. I hope 
 her pulse by this time is come below 120. Do not forget to in- 
 form me in your next of this and of other circumstances that 
 may have occurred either upon the favourable or disagreeable 
 side, because I desire to regulate myself at a throne of grace 
 according to your information about her. Mv wife is not quite 
 so well as she was before ;* but I hope the ettects of her fatigue, 
 and the anxiety she was in about her tedious journey, will soon 
 Avear olF. She bids you tell your spouse, that though the situa- 
 tion both of your family and ours required her return, and that 
 though absent as to bodily presence, yet a large portion of her 
 heart remained with her dear daughter in distress, whom she 
 cannot relieve, till the Lord himself condescend to do it in his 
 own time. 
 
 INIy dear Son, 
 Your very affectionate and sympathizing Father, 
 
 James Fisher.' 
 
 No. 19. MR. JOHN GRAY TO THE REV. JAilES FISHER. 
 
 '^Edinburgh, Oct. 3, 1766. 
 " Rev. and vert dear Father, 
 
 " The doctors have, I am afraid, but little hopes of her 
 [Mrs. Gray's] recover}'. As she does not seem to be mending 
 she cannot but be weaker. However it is wonderful to see her 
 in the way she is, considering the severity of her trouble and 
 the length thereof. She has need of patience, poor woman. 
 The Lord has laid a heavy rod on her. But we hope she will 
 iiot be left comfortless under it. She was inquiring when the 
 Synod is ; she expects to see you then. Two or three times she 
 has been talking of it. She said you would come to see her as 
 much as the Synod. Erskine is thriving very well. Our en- 
 deared love to Mrs. Fisher and you and all the family. I am. 
 Rev. and dear Father, 
 
 Your afflicted Son, 
 
 John Gray." 
 * Vide Letter 17. 
 
130 APPENDIX. 
 
 No, 20, TO MR. JOHN GRAY. 
 
 " Glasgow, Oct. 6, 1706, 
 " My very dear Son, 
 
 "The hopes I had conceived of the probability of my 
 dear datighter's recovery made me lay aside all thoughts of com- 
 ing to the ensuing Synod: travelling in any shape not being so 
 agreeable to me now as it was some years ago. But upon the 
 receipt of your last, wherein you tell me that two or three times 
 she had been talking of her expecting to see me at the Synod, 
 and particularly that she said that I would come to see her as 
 much as to attend the Synod, you may now acquaint her that 
 her mother, who was veiy loth to leave her, is fond I should 
 come in, (since it is her desire,) and that I should stay about 
 eight days with her if we are both spared. And you may assure 
 her, that if it wei'e not to wait on her for a little time under 
 such long continued distress, the Synod would not see me at 
 this time. I resolve, if the Lord will, to set off in one of our 
 Glasgow flys on the morning of Tuesday the 14th, because, after 
 preaching all day on Sabbath, I would be unfit for taking jour- 
 ney on Monday morning. Meanwhile let us hear this week how 
 she is. Our endeared love to you all, I am, 
 My dear Son, 
 Your very affectionate and sympathizing Eather, 
 
 James Fisher." 
 
 No. 21. TO THE SAME. 
 
 " Glasgmo, Oct. 24, 176(5, 
 " My very dear Son, 
 
 " I was yesterday in the Fly all day alone, and, except- 
 ing a little jolting to my body, I had otherwise as pleasant a 
 passage as ever I had in my lifetime for as much time. I ar- 
 rived at five o'clock in perfect health, and am noway fatigued 
 this day. I found all this family well, and gave them as true 
 and candid an account of dear Mary as I could. Let me know 
 if Mr. Moubray has heightened the vents, and how she continues 
 to be, if Dr. Rutherford has called, or any material circumstance 
 about her. Tell her I will write her next week. She will not 
 readily doubt our sympathy. Our sincere love to you, Miss 
 Babby, and Annie.* I am. 
 
 Your very affectionate and sympathizing Father, 
 
 James Fisher." 
 
 * Miss Aun Fisher, who was waiting on her sister. 
 
LETTERS OF MR. FISHER. 131 
 
 Ko. 22. TO THE SAME. 
 
 " Gl<h«f/ou.\ Nov. 18, 17GG. 
 " My vert dear Son, 
 
 *' Since the last accounts you cive of my dear daughter, 
 I have fiiven up all hopes of life in this world, thouj::h I make 
 no doubt of her title to eternal life in the world to come, secured 
 in virtue of her union with Ciirist, and the imputation of his 
 righteousness. In regard no letters came this day, (your last 
 being on the night of Saturday the 15th.) my wife and I were 
 fond to conclude that possibly there might be a change to the 
 better; but she having taken so many turns, we are afraid of 
 worse accounts. We are deeply concerned for her, and tenderly 
 sympathize with her, and were both of us this day regretting 
 that by reason of the distance, and other circumstances, we can- 
 not be with her in the time of her extremity; but we desire to 
 devolve her on his hand who is the everlasting Father and un- 
 changeable Friend, and who only can be a suitable help to her 
 in time of her need. Into his hands we desire to commit her 
 both soul and body, trusting that they are both his own, and 
 shall appear among His in the day he makes up his jewels. 
 My wife and I are uneasy about the breaking of the skin. It 
 will certainly be very painful and distracting to a dying person. 
 I could wish you to desire Dr. Macfarlane or Mr. Adie to ask 
 at Dr. Black,'who is now Professor of Chymistry in your Col- 
 lege, the name of the powder and ointment which he prescribed 
 for Mr. David Pagan. All of us sympathize with you, and have 
 you all fondly in remembrance. I am. 
 
 Your very aflectionate and sympathizing Father, 
 
 Ja3ies Fisher." 
 
 No. 23. TO THE SAME. 
 
 " Glasgow, Nov. 22, 1766, near to Three in the viorning. 
 
 " My very dear Sox, 
 
 "The bearer came about two o'clock this morning with 
 the afflicting account of dear Marj^'s death yesterday morning. 
 It is absolutely impossible, in a rational way, that 1 can come 
 in to her burial on Monday, after the fatigue of the Sabbath, 
 having none to preach for me. And though it were delayed till 
 Tuesday morning it would be the same thing as to the journey 
 on Monday: besides, I am to preach at Mr. Campbell's ordina- 
 tion at Stirling next week, and to go oti' iu a chaise for that 
 
132 APPENDIX. 
 
 place on Tuesday morning. Not being able to sit up long for 
 fear of incapacitating me for my studies through the day, I shall 
 write you in the beginning of the week at more length, I think 
 the burial should be on Monday at any hour that is customary 
 in the place. May the Lord himself comfort you and us against 
 grief on every side ! I am, 
 
 My dear Son, 
 Your very affectionate and afflicted Father, 
 
 James Fisher." 
 
 No 24. TO THE SAME. 
 
 " Glasgow, Nov. 24, 1766. 
 
 " My very dear Son, 
 
 " I doubt not but you are fully satisfied that my not 
 coming to Edinburgh this day to attend my dear daughter's 
 funeral flowed entirely from my inability at this period of life 
 to set off so early on a journey of such a distance after the 
 fatigue of preaching all day yesterday, though I had not had 
 Mr. Campbell's ordination to attend this week at Stirling on 
 Thursday, where I am appointed to conclude the work of the 
 day. 
 
 " You have lost a well-disposed and affectionate wife, and her 
 parents a fond and dutiful child. Under such a trying dispen- 
 sation to you and us, the discoveries she gave of an interest in 
 the Lord Jesus, and acquaintance with the vitals of religion, 
 may afford no small comfort both to you and us. The tender 
 care you have had of her, and the expense you have been at in 
 the use of all lawful means for preserving her life, will preserve 
 the same regard in this family towards you as if she were to the 
 fore. And no doubt but the remembrance of her will enhance 
 both your affection and ours to dear little Erskine, the only re- 
 mains of her she has left behind. Oh, what a pleasure is it 
 that our Lord Jesus liveth for evermore, and is the same to-day, 
 yesterday, and for ever — his righteousness and fulness invariably 
 the same ! It is but a short while till each of us go home our- 
 selves. I doubt not but in heaven the redeemed will know one 
 another. The disciples knowing Moses and Elias on the Mount 
 is some foundation for it. Let us mutually sympathize with 
 one another at a throne of grace, which is the best sympathy. 
 
 " There is a chaise come this evening from Stirling to take 
 Mr. Campbell and me there to-morrow, because the Presbytery 
 meets upon the Wednesday before the ordination. I design to 
 return on Tuesday next week. Meantime you may write my 
 wife by the return of the post how you, Annie, and Miss Beugo 
 
LETTERS OF MR. FISnER. 133 
 
 are, after this melancholy event, and how dear Erskine is thriv- 
 ing. Poor child! she will never know, but by dull report, that 
 ever she had a mamma, who was so excessively fond of her. 
 We have our endeared love to you all. I am. 
 My dear Son, 
 Your much afflicted and affected Father, 
 
 Jajmes Fisuer." 
 
 No. 25. TO THE SAME. 
 
 '* Glasgow, Dec. 8, 1766. 
 
 *' My very dear Son, 
 
 " I stayed in Stirling with Mr. Campbell the Sabbath 
 after his ordination and preached in the afternoon. He came 
 off with me for Glasgow on Tuesday last week, and preached to 
 a very throng auditory upon Thursday the 4th current, the day 
 appointed by our Synod for a Thanksgiving, and returned to 
 Stirling next day. We are all in perfect health at present. It 
 will no doubt be a melancholy time with you. And indeed a 
 moderate vent to natural affection, upon the loss of the nearest 
 friend a man can have on earth, is not only warrantable but 
 laudable; proWding always there be a due submission to the 
 sovereign will of adorable Providence. One thing may give 
 some comfort to you and to us, and that is, that I hope we have 
 no ground to sorrow as those who have no hope. The Lord 
 hath been pleased to take from us a valuable temporal blessing; 
 but to balance this, there are two things he will never take 
 away. First, his love — for wherever he pitches it, he will rest 
 in it; and then his special gifts of grace, particularly the un- 
 speakable gift of his Son Christ Jesus, and all the spiritual 
 blessings that go along with him. All these are absolutely 
 irrevocable. Since then there is infinitely more to the fore than 
 what is taken away, let us encourage ourselves in the Lord, who 
 has said, ' I am thy God,' — the word that was so sweet to our 
 now deceased Friend. 
 
 " Dear Son, you may be assured that the same regard and 
 affection in this' family "will be maintained towards you as when 
 your dear spouse was alive. The care and concern you exer- 
 cised about the dead will not be easily forgotten by the living. 
 If your business were not throng at present, we think it might 
 contribute to your health, after the late event of providence, to 
 take a ride to this place for a few days. Meantime let us hear 
 from you in course how you all are. Send word how dear little 
 Erskine is. All of us join in our endeared love to every one of 
 you. I am, My dear Son, 
 
 Your very affectionate and sympathizing Father, 
 
 James Fisher." 
 
134 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. 26. TO MISS AKNIE FISHEK, EDINBURGH. 
 
 " Glasgow^ Dec. 16, 176G. 
 
 " My dear Annie, 
 
 " Your sister's death, to which you were a witness, is a 
 loud call to prepare for the same event, by flying in to the Lord 
 Jesus, as the only hope set before you. Consider, my dear 
 child, that God has in the promise made a gift of him to you in 
 particular, as well as to others who hear the gospel, and nothing 
 will be a suitable preparation for death but a receiving him by 
 ftdth, or an appropriating him to yourself as the Lord your 
 righteousness. You have as good a title to him as any of 
 Adam's family ever had 
 
 " No doubt we would be fond enough to have you home, but 
 our sympathy with Mr. Gray is such, that, if you keep your 
 health, we are satisfied you stay with him for some time, espe- 
 cially as, it seems, Miss Babby JSeugo is gone. We were sorry 
 to hear you had got a little of a cold ; we hope it will wear off; 
 only be sure to take special care of yourself, by not going out in 
 surly, tempestuous weather, without necessity, in the winter 
 season. 
 
 " I hope and am persuaded, my dear Annie, that you don't 
 omit prayers to God moraing and evening, and reading a part 
 of the Scriptures, which contain the veiy food of your soul. 
 And, on the Sabbath evenings, read the Explication of the As- 
 sembly's Catechism. The last edition of it is published by 
 Messrs. Gray & Alston. It is far preferable to the former edi- 
 tions, and, after you have read it cai-efully, by examining your- 
 self upon the Index, you will know if you understand the most 
 material questions. 
 
 "Your mamma, Alie, Peggy, and I, and all of us, join in our 
 endeared love to you and your disconsolate Brother-in-law, Mr. 
 Gray, of whom we suppose that you take as good care as possible. 
 I am, 
 
 My dear Annie, 
 Your very affectionate Father, 
 
 Jajvies Fisher." 
 
 No. 27. TO MR. JOHN GRAY. 
 
 ''Glasgow, 5th Feb., 1767. 
 " Very dear Son, 
 
 " I desire to bless the Lord that my recovery continues. 
 The pain of my ankles and feet, which was very smarting when 
 you was here, is quite gone, only the swelling and feebleness 
 
LETTERS OF MR. FISHER. 135 
 
 remain, which I hope will be removed in the Lord's time if lie 
 has farther service for me. / lie went out yesterday in a chaise 
 with me about three miles from the town, at the doctor's direc- 
 tions, for abating the swelling, and we returned without lighting. 
 I think this day I am rather the better of it. Tell my dear 
 Annie that she needs be in no uneasiness about me, for I hope 
 in an ordinary way I will soon be as well as ever I was. I am, 
 My very dear Son, 
 
 Your most atlectionate Father, 
 
 Ja3I£S Fisher. 
 
 '• P. S. — Please offer my dutiful respects to Mr. Patison and 
 his family." 
 
 No. 28. TO MISS ANN FISHER. 
 " Glasgoic, l^th Feb., 1767, Seven o'clock at Night. 
 " My very dear Annie, 
 
 " Just now I received from Mr. Lang your brother Mr. 
 Gray's letter, wherein I find you are very anxious about me: 
 but I assure you, you have no reason ; for I am recovering more 
 and more strength every day. I know not if I will have time 
 to answer all the questions my son-in-law puts to me, the post- 
 hour being at eight. Only you may believe that I sleep well, 
 have a good appetite, can walk through the whole house up and 
 down stairs, and all without a staff — and sometimes walk round 
 my kirk. The swelling is a great deal less. I have this day 
 thrown off the flannels and put on my stockings. The pain is 
 quite gone two weeks ago. In a word, I am very well in my 
 health, and resolve to wait on our Presbytery, Avhich meets next 
 week. So that I hope this account will fully satisfy you. We 
 are glad to hear that dear Erskine has got two more teeth, and 
 that some others are coming forwards, and that Mr. Gray has 
 got a house in the La\vnmercat, well-aired and lighted, to the 
 South. The hour is now come, at least is near. Our endeared 
 love to you and JNIr. Gray. I am, 
 
 My dear Annie, 
 Your veiy affectionate loving Father, 
 
 James Fisher." 
 
 No. 29. TO MR. JOHN GRAY. 
 
 " Glasgow, bth March, 1767. 
 " My tery dear Son, 
 
 "I continue still in the mending way. My limbs are 
 not yet come to the small measure of strength and agility they 
 
136 APPENDIX. 
 
 had before I fell bad; but by the Lord's sparing goodness they 
 are advancing gradually towards it. My people thought that 
 my preaching for some time yet to come would mar the com- 
 pleting of my recovery, and therefore they addressed the Pres- 
 byteiy, who cheerfully granted me supply till their next meet- 
 ing, which is on the 7th of April, against which time I would 
 fain hope the Lord will enable me to the discharge of my min- 
 isterial office among my people, at least now and then. By 
 yours to Peggie, received yesterday, we were somewhat alarmed 
 about dear little Erskine. As we are very anxious about the 
 dear babe, be sure as soon as possible to send us word how she 
 is. My wife, Alie, and Peggie join me in our best wishes to 
 you and Annie and dear Erskine, of whom we will be very im- 
 patient to hear. I am, 
 
 My dear Son, 
 
 Your very aflfectionate Father, 
 
 James Fisher." 
 
 No. 30, TO THE SAME. 
 
 " Glasgow, 8th April, L767. 
 " My very dear Son, 
 
 " I preached that week-day you heard of, and was no 
 worse for it, I dare not but acknowledge the Lord's goodness 
 that I am daily recovering more strength, though by slow de- 
 grees, Mr. Donaldson's death was a vast loss not to this family 
 only, but to the whole congregation, for he was a most useful 
 man. I am. 
 
 Your very loving and affectionate Father, 
 
 James Fisher." 
 
 No. 31. TO THE SAME. 
 
 " Glasgoxo, 13th Oct., 1767. 
 " My very dear Son, 
 
 " It is now about two weeks since we heard from you. 
 We are anxious to know (Annie in particular) if you are in a 
 confirmed state of health, and if your bodily ailments are quite 
 removed. As to our soul maladies, you know whom to apply 
 to for a cure of them; and, oh! what matter of thankfulness 
 that he is a Physician always at hand, and heals infallibly and 
 at the same time freely! We want to know if dear Erskine 
 continues in entire health. That dear infant has too much 
 room in my heart. May the Lord preserve her to glorify him 
 on the earth. . . Our winter Sacrament here is to be, if the 
 
LETTERS OF MR. FISUER. 137 
 
 Lord will, upon the second Sabbath of November ensuing. If 
 yours is not on the same day, we would be glad to see you on 
 that occasion. 
 
 " Having the opportunity of Mr. Crombie, I have enclosed a 
 letter from Ralph, which I received about eight or ten days ago. 
 . . Mr. Campbell came on Wednesday, and went away with 
 Peggie after he had preached on Thursday. . . ." 
 
 No. 3*2. TO THE SAME. 
 
 " Glasgow^ 15ih Dec, 1767. 
 " My very dear Son, 
 
 " With a grieved heart, I acquaint you of the death of 
 my eldest son, Ebenezer, at New-Bern, in the province of North 
 Carolina, about the middle of August last. Of fifteen children 
 we have now remaining but four. It is, however, the Lord's 
 doing, and therefore it becomes us, like Aaron, to hold our 
 peace, or, with the Psalmist, to put our hands on our mouths, 
 and be silent. It was only yesterday I received the above 
 melancholy news from a gentleman in Mar}-land, in whose era- 
 ploy my son died. This, added to the many sore hearts of an- 
 other kind which my wife and I have had, cannot but be a great 
 affliction to us in our old age. . . Meantime, to balance the 
 above dark providences, I have got verj^ comfortable accounts 
 by a merchant of this place an-ived last week from Kingston in 
 Jamaica, that Ralph is both well and doing extremely well, and 
 is much beloved in the place. Thus the Lord mixes mercy 
 with judgment in his dispensations, and gives us occasion to 
 sing of both. We all cordially join in our endeared love to you 
 and dear little Erskine, and will be glad to know at your con- 
 veniency how you both are. I am, 
 
 Dear Son, 
 Your very aftectionate Father, 
 
 James Fisher." 
 
 No. 33. TO THE SAME. 
 
 " Glasgoio, loth March, 17G8. 
 "Very deak Son, 
 
 "I have wrote to Peggie to come home to Glasgow 
 upon the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday after your 
 Sacrament. You will see the reasons at large in her letter. 
 Annie's indisposition and Mrs. Fisher's tenderness are the sum 
 of them ; which I hope you will sustain as relevant. I am in- 
 formed your people have chosen several elders, but that neither 
 
138 APPENDIX. 
 
 Mr. Alexander Moubray nor you are among the number, and 
 that your partner, Mr. Alston, declines accepting. I think he is 
 wrong in so doing. He knows not what services he might do to 
 the Lord Jesus, in that office, more ways than one, — not only 
 in visiting the sick, but when chosen to represent the Session in 
 the judicatories. I am at present in tolerable health, but I find 
 the infirmities of age daily increasing on me, which are certainly 
 a loud call to prepare for death, or rather to be instant at a 
 throne of grace, that the Lord himself, whose work it is, would 
 make me meet for the eternal, uninterrupted enjoyment of him- 
 self. I think there is nothing now I so much desire. I am 
 glad to find that Mr. Patison is so well recovered. He has no 
 less than three ministers from this Presbytery at his Sacrament, 
 viz. Messrs. Belfrage, Moir, and Campbell. I wish earnestly 
 that the Lord himself may be remarkably present, both with 
 ministers and people. We rejoice to hear that dear little Erskine 
 is such a thriving child. May the Lord form her early for him- 
 self, that she may be honoured to glorify him on earth as well 
 as eternally above. We all join in our endeared love to you. 
 I am, 
 
 My dear Son, 
 Your very affectionate Father, 
 
 Jajmes Fisher." 
 
 No. 34. TO MRS. CAMPBELL. 
 
 " Glasgow^ May 27, 1768. 
 " My vert dear Alie, 
 
 " We are extremely glad to hear that you are in such 
 a healthy state. Be not afraid of what is before your hand ; for 
 a gracious and promising God has said, ' Call upon me in the 
 day of trouble, I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. 
 Fear not, for I am with thee ; be not dismayed, for I am thy 
 God : I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee ; yea, I will 
 uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.' 
 
 "Your mamma and Annie join me in our most tender regard 
 to you, 
 
 My dear Alie, 
 Your very affectionate Father, 
 
 Jajvies Fisher." 
 
 No. 35. TO MISS ANNIE FISHER, AT THE REV. MR, CAMPBELL'S, 
 STIRLING. 
 " My dear Annie, 
 
 " Your mamma, knowing your anxiety about your 
 parents, -was much vexed I did not write you last week; but my 
 
LETTERS OF MR. FISHER. 139 
 
 mind bcins? so much taken up about my studies for the Sa])bath, 
 it was iiivohmtarily omitted: however, I have the pleasure of 
 acquaintinjj; you now, that both of us, by the Lord's goodness, 
 are very well considering the growing infirmities of our advanced 
 years. — I preached yesterday forenoon and afternoon, and can- 
 not say I w;is much fatigued, only your mamma would have me 
 go to bed an hour sooner than ordinary, and I was very well 
 refreshed when I rose this morning. 
 
 "My dear child, as you have the opportunity of the Sacra- 
 ment of the Lord's Supper next Lord's day, let not the want of 
 present sensible comfort, or of such a lively frame as you would 
 desire to be in, — I say, let not your apprehension of the want of 
 these, or such a measure of them as you would wish, be any 
 impediment in the way of obeying the express command of our 
 blessed Lord, ' Do this in remembrance of me.' The words of 
 our Lord to ]\Iartha, John xi. 40, come presently into my mind, 
 ' Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldcst believe thou should- 
 est see the glory of God?' O seek to be content to be an eter- 
 nal recipient or receiver out of the inexhaustible fulness that is 
 in Christ. Be much in secret prayer, meditation, and self- 
 searching, and ' the God of all grace be with you.' 
 
 "Your mother and I join in our most endeared love to you 
 and your Brother-in-law. I am, 
 
 My dear Annie, 
 Your very affectionate Father, 
 
 J.\3iEs Fisher. 
 
 " Glasgow, Monday, Wth June, 1770." 
 
 No. 36. TO MR. JOHN GRAY. 
 
 " Glasgoir, 1st Oct., 1771. 
 
 " My vert dexr Son, 
 
 "The question you proposed to me in your last for 
 correction is in Part IL, p. 223, Quest. 13. From the judicious 
 hint you gave, I think the whole will run smoother, and be 
 more 'plain in the following manner:— 
 
 " Quest. 13. What may we learn from the necessity of Christ's 
 blessing, and of the Spirit's working, in order to the efiScacy of 
 the Sacraments? 
 
 " Ans. It teacheth ns, that our whole dependence for the 
 blessing — whether upon ourselves when we partake of the Sacra- 
 ment of the Supper, or upon our children when we are sponsors 
 for them in baptism — should be only on Christ alone, and the 
 saving influences and operations of his Spirit to accompany his 
 own institutions ; and therefore, our partaking of these solemn 
 
uo 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 ordinances, dispensed by some ministers to the slighting of them 
 as dispensed by others equally sound and faithful, though per- 
 haps, in our esteem, somewhat inferior in outward gifts, says, 
 upon the matter, that the efficacy of the Sacraments depends 
 somehow upon the administrator, and not upon the blessing of 
 Christ alone, quite contrary to mind of the Spirit of God, 1 Cor. 
 iii. 7. ' So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he 
 that watereth : but God that giveth the increase.' 
 
 " We were glad to hear you got both safely home on the 
 evening of the day you left us. With our joint best wishes to 
 you both, I am, 
 
 My dear Son, 
 
 Your very affectionate Father, 
 
 James Fisher." 
 
 No. 37. TO MISS ANN FISHER. 
 
 " Glasgow, Satvirday, 1st August, 1772. 
 
 " My very dear Ajjnie, 
 
 " Knowing your affectionate anxiety about your papa 
 and the rest of the family when absent from them, I thought it 
 my duty to write you a few lines by the Monday's runner from 
 this place to Edinburgh, which will reach you on Tuesday morn- 
 ing, (for I have no freedom to send a letter to the post-office on 
 Sabbath night,) to confirm your sister's account of our continued 
 welfare. Being to preach to-morrow, I have no time to insist ; 
 only I hope to hear that you have attended the solemnity at Dal- 
 keith, and joined there according to your resolution before you 
 left this place. You have been much upon my heart every day 
 since I saw you. I can freely say, I never forget you in my 
 prayers ; particularly that the ordinances you designed to attend 
 might be like full breasts to your soul from whence you might 
 drink in the sincere milk of the word freely and plentifully. I 
 told Mr. Campbell when here, that if Mr. Gray would come 
 along with you to Stirling on his way to Glasgow, you would 
 gladly wait on him and his spouse. My compliments to Miss 
 Pagan, the Miss Huttons, particularly Miss Sibby, my acquaint- 
 ance, &c. I will firmly expect you home on Thursday or Friday 
 next week at the farthest. The Lord be with you. I am, 
 My very dear Child, 
 
 Your very affectionate Father, 
 
 James Fisher." 
 
LETTERS OF MR. FISHER. 141 
 
 No. 38. TO MRS. WARDLAW, DALKEITH. 
 
 " My very dear Annie, 
 
 " I acknowledge the receipt of your kind letter, about 
 ten or twelve days after your arrival at Dalkeith, and at the same 
 time must confess I have been far too tardy in giving a return. 
 But I hope that my loving and affectionate daughter will not 
 impute this to the smallest abatement of my former regard an<l 
 esteem for her; but (which is the truth of the matter) to one of 
 the common infirmities of old age, namely, that it cannot with 
 pleasure move out of its ordinary circle, or deviate from the 
 course to which it has for some time been habituated. If my 
 fond daughter does not sustain the above as a relevant apology, 
 then I shall endeavour to make amends for the future by ^\Titing 
 as frequently as cii'cumstances will allow. To this I look upon 
 myself as the more .strictly bound, when I reflect upon the ten- 
 der and solicitous care you took of me, night and day, from the 
 death of your valuable mother to the day of your happy mar- 
 riage with such an agreeable husband ; concerning whom it 
 gives me great pleasure to observe, that you remark the kind- 
 ness of Providence in giving you one just to your mind; and I 
 believe I may venture to say for him that he thinks he has got 
 a wife of the same stamp, just to his mind likewise. If these 
 are the steady sentiments of both, you are a happy pair indeed ; 
 and I trust that this kind of happiness I speak of, namely mutual 
 love and esteem, shall continue while the present relation be- 
 tween you shall subsist. But O remember that death will dis- 
 solve it, as it does all earthly relations whatsoever; and there- 
 fore we should each of us ardently desire above all things to be 
 united to our glorious Redeemer, by having his finished right- 
 eousness imputed to us for our justification, and his Spirit of 
 holiness implanted in us for our sanctification, and then nothing 
 shall ever separate us from his love. — I suppose you have heard 
 of Jenny Donaldson's death. She was buried last Friday after- 
 noon. She was a ver\' kind and sympathizing girl. I went to 
 the house in a chair, but could not accompany the funeral. Mr. 
 Richardson was yesterday ordained at Crawfordsdyke. Mr. 
 Henderson began, Mr. Gilfillau preached the ordination sermon, 
 and Mr. Thomson concluded. Their house at Carsedyke not 
 having galleries did not near contain the people ; therefore, possi- 
 bly by Mr. Buchanan's means, they obtained the privilege of the 
 Kirk in Greenock, where the ordination was performed. All of 
 
142 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 us here join in our best wishes and cordial regard to each in 
 your family and all their connections. I am, 
 My very dear Annie, 
 Your very affectionate and loving Father, 
 
 James Fisher. 
 " Glasgow, 11th March, 1773. 
 
 "Your letter to me had no date, which was not of a piece 
 with your usual exactness." 
 
 No. 39. TO MR. AND MRS. WARDLAW, DALKEITH. 
 " Mr VERT DEAR SON AND DAUGHTER, 
 
 " Would my Annie be at the pains to acquire my short- 
 hand, whereof I have furnished her with a complete index, the 
 correspondence betwixt us would be vastly more frequent than 
 it is like to be, at least on my part— there being nothing more 
 irksome to me, at this period of life, than to be obliged to write 
 my sentiments in long-hand, after I have been for the most part 
 of my lifetime accustomed to the short. — Ever since the com- 
 mencement of my present connection with Dalkeith, I have con- 
 sidered the situation of my dear Annie as every way most com- 
 fortable. Besides a competency of the good things of this life, 
 a most fond and affectionate husband, a most careful and indus- 
 trious aunt, a most loving and obliging sister, and a diligent and 
 active brother, all under the same roof, and cordially conspiring 
 for promoting the interest and good of the whole, are circum- 
 stances wherein the temporal happiness of any family cannot 
 but in a great measure consist: and if to this is added a parti- 
 cipation of the special and saving blessings contained in the pro- 
 mises of the new covenant, I know nothing more can be desired 
 either with reference to this life or that which is to come. — My 
 dear children, you are privileged with a pure gospel ministry. 
 Your worthy pastor does not shun to declare unto you the whole 
 counsel of God, according to the measure of the gift of Christ 
 conferred on him ; therefore I pray you receive his message as 
 coming from the Master himself, as our Lord said concerning 
 his disciples, Matt. x. 40. 'He that receiveth you receiveth me;' 
 do all in your power to strengthen his hands and encourage his 
 heart in the Lord's work amongst you ; and know, for your en- 
 couragement, that every office of kindness you thus do unto 
 him, our Lord Jesus will one day reward as done to himself. 
 You have his o^vn word for it, Matt. xxv. 40. ' Verily I say unto 
 you, Inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of these 
 my brethren, ye have done it to me.' — I know that my dear son- 
 in-law has already been very useful in the Associate Congregation 
 
LETTERS OF MR. FISHER. 143 
 
 of Dalkeith as to the management of their secular affairs; hut I 
 wotilil fondly wish before I die to see liim still more serviceable, 
 both to them and to the church of Christ, by moving in a more 
 extensive sphere than ever hitherto he has done ; — I mean, bv 
 his not obstinately refusing to accept the office of the Eldershij) 
 when called thereunto. If the Lord has been pleased to bestow 
 upon him any measure of gifts and parts, whether natural or 
 acquired, (however small they may be in his own estimation,) I 
 would earnestly entreat that he don't venture to keep them laid 
 up in a napkin, but lay them out for his Master's use as Provi- 
 dence may give him an opportunity. — With very best wishes for 
 every one in the family and all their connections, I am, 
 My dear Son and Daughter, 
 
 Your fond atfectionate Father, 
 
 James Fisher. 
 " Glasgow, Sept. 2, 1773. 
 
 " Remember me kindly to Mr. Hutton, his spouse, and daugli- 
 ters." 
 
 No. 40. TO MRS. WARDLAW. 
 " Mr VERY DEAR AnNIE, 
 
 " Next unto the comfortable emanations of the divine 
 love to my own soul, there is nothing in this life can give me 
 more sensible pleasure than to hear of your and your dear hus- 
 band's welfare ; that both of you enjoy such a continued measure 
 of bodily health, as I also trust your souls are in a prosperous 
 way: for however valuable temporal mercies are in themselves, 
 spiritual ones are infinitely more so. We are but cumberers of 
 the ground, an insupportable burden to the earth that bears us, 
 if ve are not living a life of faith on the Sou of God, and re- 
 ceiving out of his fulness and grace for grace. I suppose my 
 ingenuity and candour will not be suspected when I say that, 
 from the bottom of my heart, I sincerely wish all manner of 
 happiness, both spiritual and temporal, to the whole of your 
 family, and all the relatives and connections of it; though no 
 doubt the ties of nature and blood cannot miss to warm my 
 affections to my very dear Annie, and to the fruit of her womb, 
 in a very peculiar manner, not so much because he bears my 
 name as because he is her son. But I hope he shall not long 
 continue to be your only son. I trust that both sisters and 
 brothers shall be added to him, all of whom the Lord shall form 
 for himself, to show forth his praise for a while here, and eter- 
 nally hereafter. This is my ardent request in your behalf, that 
 you may be the joyful mother of many children; and though 
 the Lord should take some of them from you in infancv or non- 
 4 Y 
 
144 APPENDIX. 
 
 age, or even in the prime of life, as was the case in each of these 
 respects with your mother and me ; yet what a comfort is it to 
 think of being the instruments of bringing one or more of the 
 Redeemer's children into the world, and nursing them up for 
 him? I make no doubt but it will be a part of the happiness of 
 the redeemed in heaven to see their near friends and relatives 
 possessed for ever of the same inconceivable glory with them- 
 selves. — With our most endeared love to one and all of you, 
 as if particularly named, I am, 
 
 My dear Annie, 
 Your very affectionate Father, 
 
 James Fisher. 
 " Glasgow, 20th May, 1774." 
 
 No. 41. TO MR. WILLIAM WARDLAW, MERCHANT IN DALKEITH. 
 
 " My very dear Son, 
 
 " I am sorry to acquaint you that all my four grand- 
 children are at present bad of the chincough — a distemper just 
 now raging among the young ones in this place. Our doctors 
 in this city are unanimously of opinion that a change of the air 
 is a very sovereign remedy against that violent ailment. 
 
 "It has happened in providence that old Mrs. Ewing, the 
 grandmother, out of her excessive care about her grandchild, 
 Humphry, (the same name with her deceased husband,) had taken 
 a country-house, for the summer season, upon Clyde side, about 
 a measured mile and a half below this town. After proper 
 remedies were administered to Jeanie and Peggie, (the first who 
 took it,) we sent them down with a maid to their grandmother, 
 of whose anxious care about them, both by night and day, we 
 were quite well assured. In about the space of two weeks the 
 trouble abated on these two ; but then it began with great vio- 
 lence upon my dear little Annie, who was at home on her 
 mother's breast. The trouble increasing, your sister, Ewing, 
 took her along with her to the grandmother's, who thinks her- 
 self happy to have them all about her. Wattie sleeps always 
 here, for he puts off and on my clothes very punctually, and 
 makes a short start in the evening of every day to see how his 
 wife and children do. Mary Erskine takes care of the house 
 and sleeps in the tent-bed beside me. It is a singular mercy, 
 that, though our children are in distress, there is no dangerous 
 symptom as yet appearing. The post-hour approaches. I must 
 break off by commending you all to God, and to the word of 
 his grace. I am, 
 
 My very dear Son, 
 
 Your very affectionate Father, 
 
 James Fisher. 
 
 " Glasgow, June 10, 1774. 
 
LETTERS OF MR. FISHER. 1 4,5 
 
 No. 42. TO MR. AND MRS. WARDLAW. 
 
 " My very dear Son axd Daughter, 
 
 '• No sooner than this verj- day before noon, wc re- 
 ceived both your melancholy letters at one and the same time 
 Ihe tirst, addressed to Mr. Ewing, acquainting us that you had 
 sent dear little Jamie with his maid to a careful hand in the 
 country within a little space of your town, -that his father 
 mother and Aunt Wardlaw saw him there on the Tuesday— 
 which I suppose was the 28th of the last— in pretty good health 
 and spirits; but taking a sudden feverish turn on the Wednesday 
 the JJth, you took him home again, and in vour letter directed 
 to me, received at the same time as the above, you write that 
 the fever increased intermixed with frequent and severe nen-ous 
 ms ot the convulsive kind, which soon reduced his delicate and 
 beautiful body to the dust of death, about half-an-hour past two 
 in the afternoon of Saturday. I never had the pleasure of see- 
 ing this dear infant in this life; but I hope to see him, and to 
 know him too, at the resuiTcction of the just, when the whole 
 ransomed multitude which no man can number shall surround 
 the throne of the Lamb, to each of whom, young and old, he 
 will say ' Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kincrdom 
 prepared for you before the foundation of the world.' . ! My 
 veiy dear Annie, I know you have veiy strong natural affec- 
 tions, and they cannot but be verv sensibly touched on this 
 mournful event. But remember that you have a very fond and 
 affectionate husband, who errs in his love to vou, still to the 
 fore, and another son upon your breasts. If therefore you 
 would have these preserved to you,— if you would not impair the 
 hea th and comfort of your dear husband, and endanger the 
 health o your surviving child,— if you would avoid these evils, 
 winch 1 know you deprecate,— moderate, I pray you, again I 
 say moderate your excessive gi-ief, and submit to the soverei^ 
 will of adorable Providence, who does all things well. I tri^st 
 brod will abundantly bless you both, and more than make up 
 the present loss by redoubled manifestations of himself to your 
 souls, as your own God and everlasting inheritance. Onlv be- 
 ware of repining at what he has done. Has not the Potter 
 power over the clay?— All of us join in our sympathy and best 
 wishes towards one and aU of your family. And I can freely 
 say that, such as they are, you are not forgotten in our daily 
 prayers. I am, ^ 
 
 My very dear Son and Daughter, 
 
 Your very aflFectionate Father, 
 
 ., ^, ,^ , Ja.mes Fisher. 
 
 Glasgow, Monday, April 3, 1775." 
 
ADDENDA. 
 
 The following extracts from " the Register of the Kirk-Ses- 
 sion of Kinclaven," will not be without their interest to some 
 readers : — 
 
 " Att the Kirk of Kinclaven, Dec. 23d, 1725. The which day 
 Mr. James Fisher was ordained minister of this parish of Kin- 
 claven ; and the Revd. Mr. Robert Bowis, minister of the gospel 
 att Rattray, presided in that action, who preached upon the 
 fi[f]th verse of the fom-th chapter of the Second Epistle to 
 Timothy."—" Collected two pounds Scots, £02 : 00 : 00." 
 
 "Kinclaven Kirk, 26th [Dec], 1725. Sermon here this day, 
 being the first Sabbath after our minister's ordination amongst 
 us, who preached on Romans v. chap. 30 and 32 verses. — Col- 
 lected for the poor eleven pence, £00 : 1 1 : 00." 
 
 " Kinclaven Kirk, Jan. 17, 1726. Collected for the poor five 
 pence. — This day the minister intimated his design of beginning 
 a course of visitation of families." 
 
 "Kirktown of Kinclaven, July 24th, 1726.—"* Unto 
 
 all this the Session agreed except William Kea, who for this 
 reason plainly told the Session he would never henceforth sitt 
 with them, and thereupon withdrew in a very indecent manner." 
 — " Given a student recommended by our Synod twelve pence, 
 £00 : 12 : 00." 
 
 " Kinclaven, June 12th, 1727. Sermon this day by Mr. Dow, 
 a probationer. The minister having gone to Kinco (Kincock) 
 this day in ye time of lecture by Mr. Dow, to see how the Sab- 
 bath was observed in that place, and finding severals upon the 
 town loan in companies, and reporting it to the Session, the 
 Session judge yt it will be sulficient at ye time for ye minister to 
 admonish them privately, over and above as he spoke to them 
 
 this day; but finding , one of the elders, upon the town 
 
 loan discoursing with another man ; the Session are of opinion 
 that his carnage, being an elder, may harden othei's in that sin, 
 resolve to take up that aff'air to consideration the first time he is 
 present." 
 
 The Rev. James Innes of Merton, whose name is appended to 
 " the Representation and Petition to the General Assembly 
 1 732," was father of the Rev. James Innes the patriarchal min- 
 ister of Gifford, and grandfather of my esteemed and beloved 
 friend, William Innes, D.D., who " hath good report of all men, 
 and of the truth itself." Psal. cii. 28. 
 
 * The preceding part of the Minute refers to the agreement as to the gallery, 
 the erection of which was made necessary by JMi-. Fisher's popiUarity, that the 
 sittings in it should be let at the yearly rent of 2s. 6d, Scots ('2.jd. sterling). 
 
MEMORIALS 
 
 REV. JAMES FISHER 
 
 Sclcrtiotts from fjis Wixitinq^* 
 
 SERMON I.* 
 
 THE INESTIMABLE VALUE OF TRUTH. 
 Prov. s,\iii. 23. — " Buy the truth, and sell it not." 
 
 This book of Proverbs contains a vast variety of short and 
 comprehensive precepts, of which this in our text is one, 
 " Buy the truth, and sell it not." In which words you 
 have, (1.) A notable bargain, and that is " truth." (2.) 
 The purchase of this bargain enjoined, " Buy the truth." 
 (3.) The persons who are called to make this purchase, 
 implied; and they are certainly all those who are privi- 
 leged with a revelation of God's mind and will in this 
 everlasting gospel. (4.) The high value we are to put 
 upon the bargain when bought, in these words, " Sell it 
 not ;" by no means quit with it again. As truth can never 
 be bought at too dear a rate, so it can never be sold at the 
 true value. God liimself is the great and sole proprietor 
 of this rich treasure ; it is of him we are commanded to 
 buy it, and to put such an high value upon the purchase, 
 as to refuse the greatest price that can be offered for the 
 disposure of it. According to this \iew of the words, I 
 deduce from them the following 
 
 * Preached on a day of solemn fasting appointed by the Associate 
 Presbytery, at Fin%vick, March 23, 1738. 
 
148 SELECTIONS FKOM MR. FISHER's WRITINGS. 
 
 Doctrine, — ' That it is the duty of all the hearers of 
 this gospel to purchase the truth at any rate, and by no 
 means, or for no price whatsoever, to part with it.' Prov. 
 viii. 11." Wisdom is better than rubies ; and all the things 
 that may be desired are not to be compared to it." Chap. 
 iv. 7. " Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wis- 
 dom : and with all thy getting get understanding." 
 
 In speaking upon this subject, I shall essay (as the Lord 
 shall give countenance) to observe the following order. 
 Inquire, (1.) What we are to understand by "the truth;" 
 (2.) What it is to "buy" the truth; (3.) Who they are 
 that "sell" the truth; and then, Deduce some inferences 
 for application of the doctrine. 
 
 I. I am to inquire what we are to understand by " the 
 truth." Truth is sometimes in Scripture put for Christ 
 himself; and sometimes for the whole revelation of his 
 will, whether with respect to the doctrine, worship, dis- 
 cipline or government of his house : in both which respects 
 we are to buy the truth, and not to sell it. 
 
 1st. I say, Truth is put for the Lord Christ himself, 
 John xiv. 6. " I am the truth." Here it may be inquired, 
 In what respect Christ is called the truth ? I answer. He 
 is the truth of all the types and shadows under the Old 
 Testament, John i. 17. " The law was given by Moses, but 
 grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." They all pointed 
 at him, and received their full accomplishment in him, 
 who is the end of , the law for righteousness. He is the 
 truth of all the Scripture-prophecies concerning the Mes- 
 siah ; for they were all literally fulfilled in him, Acts x. 43. 
 " To him gave all the prophets witness." He is the truth 
 of all the promises; for he is the sum and substance of 
 them, and they are all in him " yea and amen." He is 
 the truth of all the names that are given him in Scripture. 
 He is called Jesus, and accordingly has saved an innu- 
 merable company from their sins. Rev. vii. 9. He is called 
 Christ, the Messiali, or the Anointed ; for the " Spirit is 
 not given by measure unto him," John iii. 34. He is 
 called Immanuel, " God with us," Mat. i. 23; for he is not 
 
SER. I. — INESTIMABLE VALUE OF TRUTH. 149 
 
 only God on our side, Psal. xlvi. 7, but also, as the founda- 
 tion thereof, he is God in our nature, John i. 14. '* The 
 Word was made flesh." He is called the Wonderful, Isa. 
 ix. 6 ; for he is the wonder of angels and men. He is 
 called the Counsellor, and accordingly there are " hid in 
 him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." He is 
 called the IMiauTY God, and accordingly many are the 
 mighty works that he has done : he has " travelled in the 
 greatness of his strength, mighty to save." The legions of 
 the prince of darkness have been vanquished by his vic- 
 torious arm ; the unbelief, enmity, and other spiritual 
 wickednesses that are in the heart, have been made to 
 give way, upon his entrance into the soul in the day of 
 his power : he has ransomed from the power of the grave, 
 and has made death a plain passage for the redeemed from 
 among men to " go up to Zion, with songs of everlasting 
 joy upon their heads." Again, he is called the Everlast- 
 ing Father ; for many children has he begotten, nourished 
 up, and brought into glory, Heb. ii. 13. " Behold I and the 
 children which God hath given me." He is called the 
 Prince of Peace ; and accordingly he has " made peace 
 by the blood of his cross," Col. i. 20. And, to add no more 
 upon this head, he is called The Lord our Righteousness, 
 Jer. xxiii. 6 ; and accordingly he has " brought in an ever- 
 lasting righteousness," in virtue whereof we are " made 
 the righteousness of God in him." So that Christ is the 
 truth of all the names that are given him in Scripture. 
 But, moreover, he is the great recipient of all divine truth, 
 as Mediator, in order to his being the great means of con- 
 veying of it to the children of men, John i. 18. " No man 
 hath seen God at any time ; the only begotten Son, which 
 is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." 
 The words of mercy and salvation had never sounded in 
 the ears of lost sinners, had not God spoken them to us 
 through the channel of the blood of Immanuel ; for it is 
 in this way that " God hath spoken to us by his Son," 
 Heb. i. 2. Finally, Christ is the truth, in regard he " bears 
 witness to the truth ;" John xviii. 37. " To this end was I 
 
150 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHER's WRITINGS. 
 
 born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I 
 should bear witness unto the truth." And there are these 
 three great truths, among others, that he bears witness 
 unto : (1.) That all mankind have sinned and come short 
 of the glory of God ; and that they were utterly incapable 
 to help and relieve themselves. This he has witnessed, by 
 coming in our nature to " seek and to save that which was 
 lost." (2.) That the justice of God is satisfied, and an 
 honourable passage for mercy unto sinners opened in the 
 channel of his blood. To this he has witnessed by his re- 
 surrection from the dead, and sitting down at the right 
 hand of the Majesty on high. (3.) That as he is the gift 
 of God to sinners of all sorts, so " him that cometh unto 
 him he will in nowise cast out." This he witnesseth daily 
 in the dispensation of the gospel. These are a few reasons 
 why Christ is called The Truth; and indeed he is the 
 great truth, which we are called to " buy," as we shall 
 afterwards essay to make appear. 
 
 2c?^3/, By " the truth," we are to understand the whole 
 ,of the revelation of God's mind and will, contained in the 
 Scriptures of the Old and New Testament ; so the word 
 "truth" is frequently taken: 2 Cor. xiii. 8. "We can do 
 nothing against the truth, but for the truth ;" Gal. v. 7. 
 " Who did hinder you, that you should not obey the truth ?" 
 Titus i. 1. " And the acknowledging of the truth which is 
 after godliness." And we find the Scriptures frequently 
 called " the word of truth :" 2 Tim. ii, 15. " Study to show 
 thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not 
 to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth ;" James 
 i. 18. " Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth." 
 So that the truth which we are to buy, and not to sell, is 
 the whole of that truth revealed in the Holy Scriptures, 
 which we are to believe concerning God, and which relates 
 to the duties that God requires of man; which may be 
 comprised under the four general heads following. 
 
 1st, The truth concerning doctrine : or, all those truths 
 relating to the nature, perfections, and works of God, — 
 the creation of man in a state of innocency, — his fall into 
 
SEE. I. — INESTIMABLE VALUE OF TRUTH. 151 
 
 a state of sin and misery, — the way and manner of his 
 recovery and redemption through Jesus Christ, Immanuel, 
 God with us, — and his endless happiness or misery in the 
 life to come : Or all those truths concerning the breach 
 of the covenant of works by the first Adam, as a federal 
 head, — the fulfilment of it by Christ the second Adam, as 
 the representative of his elect seed, both as to the precept 
 and penalty of it ; in consequence whereof grace and glory, 
 and every good thing, is offered to mankind lost, in the 
 way of a covenant of grace, — which covenant is full, well- 
 ordered in all things and sure, and, with respect unto us, 
 absolutely free. In a word, all those truths concerning 
 the contrivance, purchase, application, and consummation 
 of the work of redemption, to the glory of God and the 
 salvation of the sinner; — a summary account of which 
 truths, agreeable to the Holy Scriptures, you have in our 
 excellent Confession of Faith, and Catechisms, Larger and 
 Shorter, which we earnestly recommend unto your serious 
 and deliberate perusal, that so you may be " perfectly 
 joined together in the same mind, and in the same judg- 
 ment," 1 Cor. i. 10. 
 
 Now, since I have mentioned our Confession of Faith, I 
 cannot but take this opportunity of warning you against 
 those who set themselves in opposition to all Confessions, 
 whether more openly or more slyly. Some, out of a pre- 
 tended regard to the Holy Scriptures, reject all public 
 standards, as if they were exalted to equal authority with 
 the Scriptures themselves ; others pour contempt upon 
 them, because they are designed to support supernatural 
 truth, in opposition to the various shapes in which error 
 and heresy has appeared in the world. But the plain rea- 
 son of all this outcry against Confessions is just this, that 
 Free-thinkers of all sorts cannot endure to have their wild 
 and extravagant notions circumscribed, and hemmed in, 
 by the pure doctrines of the word, brought together and 
 compared in a methodical chain of divine truth, which is 
 the very nature and design of Confessions. The Scriptures 
 are unquestionably the only perfect rule of faith and man- 
 
152 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHER's WRITINGS. 
 
 ners, containing not only a plain revelation of all those 
 truths necessary to be believed and practised in order to 
 salvation, but also a clear refutation of aU the errors that 
 ever have been or shall be broached in the world ; but then 
 these are so scattered through the volume of this holy 
 book, that the collecting and digesting of them, under 
 proper heads, is necessary for the edifying of the church of 
 Christ and convincing gainsayers ; and therefore Confes- 
 sions, which are nothing else but a collection of divine 
 truths, by comparing of one scripture with another, can- 
 not but be the eye-sore of men of corrupt minds, who 
 cannot endure to " come to the light" of God's word, " lest 
 their deeds " and principles " should be made manifest." 
 
 2o?^j/, There is the truth concerning the worship of God, 
 — that a God in Christ is the only object of a sinner's wor- 
 ship. Matt. iv. 10. " Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, 
 and him only shalt thou serve." That he is to be wor- 
 shipped, in the use of those ordinances which he has pre- 
 scribed in his word, as the only means of worship, — such 
 as prayer, Phil. iv. 6; reading and searching the Scrip- 
 tures, John V. 39 ; preaching and hearing of the word, 
 Rom. X. 14, 15, 17; singing of psalms, Eph. v. 18, 19; 
 administering and receiving the sacraments. Matt, xxviii. 
 19 ; 1 Cor. xi. 23 — 27 ; fasting, Luke v. 35 ; spiritual con- 
 ference and discourse, Mai. iii. 16 ; meditation, Psal. Ixxvii. 
 12 ; vowing and paying to the Lord, Psal. Ixxvi. 11. Lastly, 
 That the true worship of God, under the gospel, doth not 
 consist in outward rites and ceremonies, but is spiritual, 
 not only as to the matter but also as to the manner of it, 
 flowing from grace in the heart, or an inward reverential 
 esteem of, and trust in, that God whom we worship, John 
 iv. 23, 24, and consequently, that the bringing in of the 
 inventions of men into the worship of God, will be ac- 
 counted by him will- worship and superstition, Matt. xv. 9. 
 " In vain they do worship me, teaching the command- 
 ments of men." 
 
 Ttdly, There is the truth concerning the government and 
 discipline of the house of Christ, a short account whereof, 
 
SER, I. — INESTIMABLE VALUE OF TUUin. 153 
 
 from the Holy Scriptures, we shall lay before you ; it hav- 
 ing been that branch of truth which the Church of Scot- 
 land, ever since her reformation from popery, has mostly 
 suffered for. 
 
 I do not pretend to advance anything new upon this 
 subject, but only, in this reeling and shaking time, to 
 endeavour the confirmation of your faith in these Scrip- 
 ture-truths concerning the government and discipline of 
 the house of Christ, which have been largely handled by 
 others before me ; and this I shall essay in the following 
 chain of propositions, without enlarging much upon 
 them. 
 
 (1.) The Lord Jesus Christ, as Mediator, has all author- 
 ity and power in heaven and in earth, for the government 
 of his church, committed unto him from God the Father. 
 PsaL ii. 6. says Jehovah, " Yet have I set my King upon 
 my holy hill of Zion ;" John iii. 35. " The Father loveth 
 the Son, and hath given all things into his hand ;" " He 
 hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be 
 head over all things to the church," Eph. i. 22. And, in 
 consequence of this eternal grant and donation of the 
 mediatory kingdom from the Father, Christ the faithful 
 witness testifies of himself, Matt, xxviii. 18. " All power in 
 heaven and in earth is given unto me." So that the Lord 
 Christ, as Mediator, is the only first receptacle of all power 
 from the Father : John v. 22. " The Father— hath com- 
 mitted all judgment unto the Son;" and, consequently, he 
 is the sole root and fountain of all ecclesiastical power and 
 authority to his church : John xx. 21, 23. " As my Father 
 hath sent me, even so send I you ;" " Whose soever sins ye 
 remit, they are remitted ; and whose soever sins ye retain, 
 they are retained." 
 
 (2.) The Lord Jesus Christ, in virtue of the supreme 
 power with which he is invested as the alone Head of the 
 church, has committed the government of his church unto 
 church-officers of his own institution, as the immediate 
 receptacle of that ministerial power and authority by 
 which he would have his church governed in this world. 
 
154 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHEr's WRITINGS. 
 
 This proposition contains in it the following particular 
 truths. 
 
 That the Lord Christ has instituted and appointed officers 
 in his church, for the edification of his spiritual kingdom, 
 1 Cor. xii. 28. compared with Eph. iv. 11. 
 
 These officers were either extraordinary, whose office 
 was to cease with themselves ; or ordinary, standing and 
 perpetual. 
 
 The extraordinary officers were apostles, prophets, and 
 evangelists, Eph. iv. 11. And that their office expired 
 with themselves, is evident from the extraordinary quali- 
 fications with which they were endowed, which, in the 
 nature of the thing, could not be transmitted by them to 
 others ; such as, immediate mission, universal commission, 
 infallible inspiration, power of working miracles, and the like. 
 
 The ordinary standing officers appointed by the Lord 
 Christ in the church, unto the end of the world, are pas- 
 tors or teachers, Eph. iv. 11 ; ruling elders, 1 Tim. v. 17 ; 
 and deacons. Acts vi. 3, 5, 6. The divine institution of 
 these officers might be easily evinced from the texts just 
 now mentioned, and several other texts of Scripture. Rom. 
 xii. 6, 7, 8 ; 1 Cor. xii. 28. Hence it follows, 
 
 That the office of a diocesan bishop, or any superiority 
 in office whatsoever above a pastor or teaching presbyter, 
 is contrary to the word of God, Matt. xx. 25 — 29. " Jesus 
 — said. Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise 
 dominion over them, and they that are great exercise 
 authority upon them ; but it shall not be so among you. 
 But whosoever will be great among you, let him be your 
 minister ; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him 
 be your servant ; even as the Son of man came not to be 
 ministered unto, but to minister :" 1 Pet. v. 3. " Neither 
 as being lords over God's heritage." 
 
 The preaching of the word and the administration of the 
 sacraments is peculiar to the office of the pastor, Matt, 
 xxviii. 19, 20 ; Rom, x. 15. And this branch of the minis- 
 terial office every minister may exercise by himself, wher- 
 ever he has a lawful call. But, 
 
SER. I. — INESTIMABLE VALUE OF TRUTH. 155 
 
 The power of governing the church, is derived from the 
 Lord Jesus to the oflicers of his house (ministers and rul- 
 ing elders) met in his name, as the only receptacle thereof 
 under him : 2 Cor. x. 8. says the Apostle, " Though I should 
 boast somewhat more of our authority which the Lord hath 
 given us, for edification, and not for destruction, I should 
 not be ashamed." Here you may see that the Apostle 
 asserts an authority given unto him and other church- 
 officers from the Lord, which he calls '■'our authority given 
 unto us,^' including himself with other church-guides, which 
 are plainly distinguished from the body of the church, whose 
 edification was to be consulted in the exercise of that au- 
 thority, and not their destruction ; for, says he, ^\our autho- 
 rity is given for edification, and not for your destruction." 
 
 Besides, the " keys of the kingdom of heaven," or the 
 exercise of ecclesiastical power, was given by our Lord to 
 the apostles and their successors in ordinary office to the 
 end of the world. Matt. xvi. 19. " I give unto thee the 
 keys of the kingdom of heaven." What is here mentioned 
 as given unto Peter, is also given to the rest of the apos- 
 tles, Matt, xviii. 18. " Whatsoever you shall bind on earth 
 shall be bound in heaven." Opening and shutting are the 
 proper acts of keys ; and as the keys are the ordinances 
 wliich Christ has instituted to be dispensed in the church, 
 namely, the preaching of the word, and the administration 
 of seals and censures ; so, by the right use of these keys, 
 the gates of the church here, and of heaven hereafter, are 
 opened or shut to believers or unbelievers. And as the 
 Lord has committed the exercise of these keys to church- 
 officers only, (as is plain from the above texts,) it follows 
 that church-officers are the only receptacle of ecclesiastical 
 power under him. 
 
 From what I have said, concerning church-officers being 
 the only receptacle of church-power from the glorious 
 Head, two consequences unavoidably follow : 
 
 The first is, That the Lord Jesus has not committed 
 any spiritual power, formally ecclesiastical, or any exercise 
 thereof for the government of the church, to the civil 
 
156 SELECTIONS FROM MR. PISHER's WRITINGS. 
 
 magistrate, heathen or Christian, as the receptacle thereof 
 by virtue of his magisterial office ; and therefore, however 
 desirable the countenance of the civil magistrate may be, 
 or his presence in the judicatories of a constitute church, 
 yet it is evident from the word, that neither the presence 
 of the supreme magistrate, or any commissioned by him, 
 is essentially necessary to the validity of ecclesiastical 
 decisions and determinations, which depends allenarly 
 upon their being past in the name of Christ, agreeably to 
 his laws pubHshed in his word, and declarative thereof. 
 Matt, xxviii. 20 ; 1 Cor. v. 4. 
 
 Further, since the sole power of inflicting ecclesiastical 
 censures is lodged in the office-bearers of the church by 
 the glorious Head, it plainly foUows that it is incompe- 
 tent to the civil magistrate, and quite beyond the limits 
 of his office, either to execute the censures of the church 
 or to prescribe any rule how it should be done ; and there- 
 fore we cannot but regret it, as a sinful and unwarrantable 
 invasion upon the headship and sovereignty of Christ, that 
 the civil powers, in the late Act of ParKament, have taken 
 upon them, by their own authority allenarly, to declare 
 such ministers incapable of sitting and voting in ecclesi- 
 astical judicatories, who should not read the said Act, 
 according to the manner therein prescribed. And like- 
 wise, since a great many of the ministry have so sinfully 
 complied with, and some way or other yielded obedience 
 to, the authority of that Act, (as a crowning step of de- 
 fection,) we would be unfaithful to our trust if we did not 
 signify unto you that they ought to be testified against, 
 as having recognised the civil magistrate for their head, 
 and quit their holding of the Son of God, our Immanuel, 
 on whose shoulders the government of the church is laid. 
 
 The other consequence is, that as the civil magistrate is 
 not the first subject of spiritual power, so neither is this 
 spiritual power, for the government of the church, dele- 
 gated by the glorious Head to the multitude of beUevers, 
 or the community of the faithful. They are nowhere in 
 Scripture called church-rulers ; and therefore they cannot 
 
SER. I.— INESTIMABLE VALUE OF TRUTH. 157 
 
 be the first subject of church-government : upon the con- 
 trary, they are called the flock, and church-officers the 
 overseers set over them by the Holy Ghost, Acts xx. 28. 
 Yea, the community of the faithful are so far from being 
 the subject of church-government themselves, that they 
 are expressly charged by the word of God to know, hon- 
 our, obey, and submit to other governors set over them, 
 and distinct from themselves, 1 Thess. v. 12. " We beseech 
 you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, 
 and are over you in the Lord;" 1 Tim. v. 17. "Let the 
 elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, 
 especially they that labour in the word and doctrine ;" 
 Heb. xiii. 17. "Obey them that have the rule over you, 
 and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls." 
 So that it is church-officers only, and neither the civil 
 magistrate, nor the community of the faithful, that are 
 the first subject or receptacle of church-government from 
 the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 (3.) The key of discipline, or the power and authority 
 derived from the Lord Jesus for the government of his 
 church, is to be exercised, at his appointment, by church- 
 officers, two or more met together in his name, in a judi- 
 cative capacity. Matt. x\'iii. 20. " Where two or three are 
 gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of 
 them." 
 
 The judicatories appointed by the Lord Christ, under 
 the New Testament, are parochial sessions, presbyteries, 
 and synods provincial or national. ' 
 
 The divine right of these judicatories, in general, may 
 be evinced from Matt, xviii. 15 — 21 ; where our Lord 
 makes a gradation, from the lowest number of church- 
 officers warranted to assemble in his name, to the most 
 numerous synod or council. Whence it is plain, that 
 though one single person cannot, yet two or three, or any 
 larger number of officers, may assemble for acts of govern- 
 ment and discipline that may tend for the interest of that 
 spiritual society whereof they are members. It follows 
 also, that as two or three in one congregation may meet 
 
158 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHER's WRITINGS. 
 
 together, so the officers of several congregations may as- 
 semble in a presbytery, for the interest of that larger body ; 
 and they have Christ's warrant in the above text, and the 
 promise of his presence in so doing. Besides, there is in 
 the word a pattern of presbyterial government over divers 
 single congregations ; as may be seen from the account we 
 have in the New Testament of the churches of Jerusalem, 
 Antioch, Ephesus, and Corinth; in every one of which 
 large cities there were more congregations of Christians 
 than one, having their own proper officers, and all under 
 the government of one presbytery, for a rule to the church 
 in after-ages ; as has been cleared from Scripture, by many 
 eminent hands, particularly the famous Assembly of Divines 
 at Westminster, in their answers to the objections of some 
 Independent brethren against some of the propositions 
 concerning church-government agreed upon by that As- 
 sembly, and approven by this church, as a part of the in- 
 tended uniformity sworn to in the Solemn League and 
 Covenant. 
 
 Moreover, since the edification of the whole visible 
 church is the great end of church-government, the more 
 generally and extensively Christ's ordinance of government 
 is managed, the more complete provision is made for the 
 edification of the whole body of Christ : and therefore the 
 Lord Jesus, upon whose shoulders the government is laid, 
 has left unto his officers a warrant to meet in a synodical 
 or national assembly, in the pattern of that synodical meet- 
 ing at Jerusalem, recorded Acts chap, xv., where you will 
 see it evident that the constituent members of that synod, 
 together with the apostles and elders at Jerusalem, were 
 delegates from other churches, particularly the church of 
 Antioch, from which Paul and Barnabas, and certain others 
 with them, were sent, by the public authority of that 
 church. Acts xv. 2. And granting that commissioners from 
 the churches of Syria and Cilicia were not at Jerusalem, 
 (which yet I am apt to think they were, from the indorse- 
 ment of the decree to them as well as Antioch, ver. 23 ;) 
 yet, if but two presbyterial churches are warranted by 
 
SEIl. I, — INESTIMABLE VALCE OF TRUTH. loO 
 
 apostolical example to join in one synod, then l.y the same 
 warrant the representatives of as many more presbyteries 
 n.ay assemble in one synodical meeting as are necessary 
 lor determining matters of a common concern to them 
 all. 
 
 Further, that the members of this synod were only 
 church-ofticers, will appear from this one consideration— 
 that the question in debate in the church of Antioch was 
 relerred only to the decision of apostles and elders, Acts xv 
 2, who were unquestionably church-officers: so it was the 
 apostles and elders only that " came together for to con- 
 sider of this matter," ver. 6. And whereas brethren are 
 mentioned with the apostles and elders, ver. 23 • yet 
 these brethren cannot be the community of the faithful in 
 regard they could never be judges in this question,' to 
 whom It was not referred; for the question was referred to 
 church-officers only, as I have already said: and therefore 
 these brethren must be delegates or commissioners from 
 the several churches, who were concerned to have the 
 errors suppressed which were broached among them at 
 that time, concornmg the necessity of circumcision and the 
 observance of the law of Moses in order to salvation 
 
 I shaU only add upon this head, that the decree passed 
 by this synod was formally binding upon the churches of 
 Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia; as is plain from the tenor of 
 the decree itself, Acts xv. 28. - It seemed good to the Holy 
 C^host, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than 
 these necessary things." Whence it follows that the pres- 
 byterial churches of Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia were sub- 
 ordinate to the synod at Jerusalem; and, consequently 
 here is a pattern of the subordination of judicatories. Thus 
 1 nave endeavoured to evince the divine right of the iudi- 
 catones of the house of Christ. And, for your further 
 confirmation in what I have here only very briefly hinted 
 1 refer you to the Propositions concerning Church-govern- 
 ment which you have bound along with your Confession 
 ot i^aith, which I entreat you may read and consider, that 
 you may be guarded, in this shaking time, against the 
 
160 SELECTIONS FROM MK, FISHEr's WRITINGS. 
 
 danger of Prelacy upon the one hand, and of Independency 
 upon the other. But then, 
 
 (4.) The power and authority of ecclesiastical judica- 
 tories is not an absolute and magisterial, but only a 
 stewardly and ministerial power, expressly limited to the 
 observation of those things which the Lord Christ has 
 commanded in his word. Matt, xxviii. 20, " Teaching them 
 to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." 
 Plence it follows, that when any ecclesiastical judicatory 
 enacts any statute which is contrary to the word, or passes 
 any decision which is not founded thereupon, that such 
 statutes and decisions ought to be reputed by all the sub- 
 jects of Zion's King as null and void in themselves, as 
 wanting the stamp of his authority who is Zion's statute- 
 Diaker ; according to the marginal reading, Isa. xxxiii. 22. 
 
 Lastly^ As the great end of church-government, next to 
 the glory of God, is the edification of the church ; so, when 
 the discipline of the church is not faithfully and impar- 
 tially exercised, but on the contrary the erroneous toler- 
 ated, intruders countenanced, and such as have in their 
 practice given up with the headship and sovereignty of 
 Christ, excused and vindicated ; I say, when the discipline 
 of the church is not exercised upon such oifenders, (as is 
 the case at present,) it is a just provocation to the Lord 
 to leave the church. Thus we find the Lord passing a 
 very severe censure upon the churches of Pergaraos and 
 Thyatira, Rev. ii., for having the scandalous and erroneous 
 among them ; and their neglecting to purge them out, was 
 no doubt one of the reasons why the Lord has removed his 
 candlestick from among them to this day. These are a 
 few of the Scripture -truths concerning the government 
 and discipline of the house of Christ. 
 
 ^thly, There is the truth concerning Christian practice, 
 which includes the following particulars among a great 
 many others : (1.) The inviolable obligation of the holy 
 and righteous law of God, upon the regenerate as well as 
 the unregenerate ; but, in order to the yielding acceptable 
 obedience to the law of God, it is absolutely necessary that 
 
BER. I. — INESTIMABLE VALUE OF TUUTIf. 161 
 
 there be a vital union with the Lord Jesus Christ, John 
 XV. 4, 5. Hence it follows that Gospel obedience ought to 
 flow from a principle of faith, connecting the precept witli 
 the promise, " I will cause you to walk in my statutes, 
 and to keep my judgments and do them." And from a 
 principle of love to God, " If ye love me, keep my com- 
 mandments." (2.) That the law of God, or the revelation 
 of his will, is the only standard by which our actions are 
 to be tried, Isa. viii. 20. Hence it follows that the good- 
 ness of our actions is not to be judged by our extensive 
 benevolence upon the one hand, nor by any selfish con- 
 sideration upon the other. (3.) That our main purpose or 
 ultimate end, in all our actions, ought not to be the ad- 
 vancement of our own self-interest, but the glorifying of 
 God, or the manifesting of his glory : Rom. xiv. 7. " None 
 of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself;" 
 
 1 Pet. ii. 9. " Ye are a chosen generation that ye should 
 
 show forth the praises of him who hath called you ." 
 
 (4.) That the glorious excellencies and perfections of the 
 divine nature are the main ground of our love and obe- 
 dience, and not chiefly his benefits ; as is plain from the 
 first commandment, " Thou shalt have no other gods before 
 me." Hence it follows, that it is not our deUghting in 
 any virtuous or religious action that is the chief reason 
 and motive thereof; but because God, the great Lawgiver, 
 enjoins it, as tending to the manifestation of his own glo- 
 rious excellencies and perfections. These are a few truths 
 concerning Christian practice ; and it is matter of regret 
 that the supreme judicatory of this church have testified 
 so little zeal for these precious truths, which so nearly 
 concern the very life of sanctification, when they have as- 
 soilzied the impugner of them without the least censure. 
 Thus I have endeavoured to give you some view of the 
 "truth" which we are to "buy," and not to "sell." I 
 proceed now to the 
 
 II. Head of the method, and that was, To inquire what 
 it is to "buy" the truth, or, what is imported in the buy- 
 ing of it. 
 
162 SELECTIONS FROM MR, PISHEr's WRITINGS. 
 
 1 . To " buy " the truth, is to have some knowledge and 
 understanding of the truth. Men do not use to purchase 
 that which they know nothing about, — some knowledge of 
 a bargain is always necessary to the purchase of it : so 
 here, " to buy the truth" supposes some knowledge of it, 
 — that unto you it has been given in some measure " to 
 know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven ;" that the 
 Spirit has been taking the things of Christ and showing 
 them unto you. In a word, that as you have been search- 
 ing the Scriptures which testify of Christ, so he has been 
 expounding to you from all the Scriptures " the things 
 concerning himself ;" Psal. cxix. 104. " Through thy pre- 
 cepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false 
 way." Ignorance of the truth is the great reason why so 
 few are in quest of it at this day ; " Man knoweth not the 
 price thereof," Job xxviii. 13. 
 
 2. To "buy the truth" imports an high value and es- 
 teem for the truth. Men do not purchase that which they 
 undervalue and despise ; some value for, and esteem of, a 
 bargain is always supposed in the purchase of it: so to- 
 "buy the truth" imports a value for the truth, Psal. cxix. 
 72. " The law of thy mouth is better to me than thousands 
 of silver and gold." what an high value doth a behev- 
 ing soul put upon the truth ! such an high value, as to 
 make no account of all things in a world in comparison of 
 it, Phil. iii. 8. " Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but 
 loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus 
 my Lord." Well, sirs, try by this if you are purchasers of 
 the truth — what value are you putting upon Christ, who 
 is " the truth 1" Can you say as it is Psal. Ixxvi. 4. " Thou 
 art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of 
 prey?" What value do you put upon the borne-down 
 truths of Christ at this day 1 Can you say that the price 
 of truth rises with you the more it is undervalued by a 
 wicked world ? Thus it was with the Psalmist, Psal. cxix. 
 126 — 128. " They make void thy law. Therefore I love 
 thy commandments above gold : therefore I esteem thy 
 precepts concerning all things to be right." The mean- 
 
SER. I. — INESTIMABLE VALUE OF TRUTH. 1G3 
 
 ing is, the more contempt the wicked put upon truth, 
 the higher value he had for it : the wicked were endea- 
 vouring to make the *' law concerning all things to be 
 void;" therefore, for this very reason, he esteemed the 
 "law concerning all things to be right." For it must cer- 
 tainly be the truth which meets with opposition from the 
 world. 
 
 3. To " buy the truth " is to appropriate the truth, or 
 to make use of it as our own. Property necessarily follows 
 upon a purchase : so here, to buy the truth is to have pro- 
 priety in the truth ; and so it is the same thing with be- 
 lieving the truth, for it is of the nature of faith to appro- 
 priate its own object, John vi. 4. '' He that belioveth hath 
 everlasting life." Therefore we find that " being of the 
 truth," or belonging to the truth, is inseparably joined 
 with believing, or hearing of Christ's voice, John xviii. 37. 
 " Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice." 
 sirs, how wonderful is it that such a valuable thing as 
 truth should be the property of sinners ! Christ himself, 
 and consequently all the good things contained in the pro- 
 mise of a God that cannot lie, is that truth which is the pro- 
 perty of every one that believeth, 1 Cor. iii. at the close, 
 " All things are yours, and ye are Christ's." Try by this 
 if you have made a purchase of the truth — Are you mak- 
 ing use of Christ as your own, for " wisdom, righteousness, 
 sanctification, and redemption?" for so is he made over of 
 God, unto you, in the Gospel, 1 Cor. i. 30. Do you know 
 what it is to claim a right unto all the good things con- 
 tained in the promise and word of truth, upon the right 
 that Christ has to them, and as being "joint-heirs with 
 Christ," who is the " heir of all things ]" 
 
 4. To "buy the truth" imports a meditating or thinking 
 much upon the truth. Men's thoughts commonly run 
 upon their bargain or purchase that they have made : now, 
 as there is not another bargain so valuable as divine truth, 
 80 nothing ought to engross our thoughts so much as it, 
 Psal. cxix. 97. " how love I thy law ! it is my meditation 
 all the day." Sirs, if you have made a purchase of the 
 
164 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHER's WRITINGS. 
 
 truth, your meditation upon it will afford many sweet 
 thoughts unto you : Psal. civ. 34. in metre — 
 
 " Of him my meditation shall 
 Sweet thoughts to me afford." 
 
 You will have sweet thoughts of God, when you think 
 upon the glorious excellencies and perfections of his nature, 
 as they are all eminently displayed, and harmoniously agree 
 in the person of Christ, anent the salvation of the sinner. 
 Particularly, you will have sweet thoughts of the love and 
 mercy of God, when you think upon the costly channel of 
 blood in which it runs unto you ; you will have sweet 
 thoughts of the justice of God, when you think upon the 
 complete satisfaction that it has got by the obedience and 
 sufferings of the Son of God in your room ; sweet thoughts 
 of the truth and veracity of God, when you think upon 
 the execution of the threatening on the person of the 
 Surety. Again, you will have sweet thoughts of Christ, 
 when you think upon his person, offices, relations to us, 
 and the appearances he has made on our behalf; when you 
 think upon what he has done, is doing, and will do ; how 
 that he became man, and a man of sorrows ; that he hath 
 magnified the law, and brought in an everlasting righteous- 
 ness I that he hath spoiled principalities and powers, con- 
 firmed the New Testament by his death, and ever liveth 
 to see all the blessings or legacies thereof conferred upon 
 the heirs of glory. So that, if you have made a purchase 
 of the truth, your thoughts will run much upon that valu- 
 able bargain. 
 
 5. To " buy the truth" imports a rejoicing in the truth. 
 Men use to rejoice in a good bargain, and to boast of it : 
 so here, to "buy the truth" imports a rejoicing and a glory- 
 ing in it, Psal. cxix. 111. " Thy testimonies have I taken as 
 an heritage for ever; for they are the rejoicing of my 
 heart." Sirs, if you have bought the truth, you will re- 
 joice in the word of truth as your charter for eternal life ; 
 you will rejoice in the truth of a promising God, as your 
 security for the accomplishment of the promise. What- 
 
SEU. I. — INESTIMABLE VALUE OF TRUTH. 1G5 
 
 ever ground of sorrowing you may find within yourselves, 
 or abroad in the world, yet you will find ground of re- 
 joicing in Christ Jesus, as the all of your life, strength, 
 righteousness, and salvation. And, if you are rejoicing 
 and glorying only in his holy name, you will rejoice also 
 " if you are partakers of his sufferings, that, when his 
 glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceed- 
 ing joy," 1 Pet. iv. 13. 
 
 6. To "buy the truth" imports a maintaining of and 
 contending for it. Men are very diligent and careful in 
 maintaining and defending their properties : so here, to 
 "buy the truth" imports a contending for the truth, 
 Jude ver. 3. " Contend earnestly for the faith once de- 
 livered unto the saints." 
 
 This earnest contending includes in it the following par- 
 ticulars : 
 
 First, A weighty and important cause for which we are 
 to contend, even the whole of that " faith once delivered 
 to the saints," or the word of truth which is to be believed 
 to salvation. And, that this word of truth is worth the con- 
 tending for will appear, if you consider that the Author of 
 it is the " faithful and true witness," Rev. iii. 14 ; the in- 
 struments, or penmen of it, infallibly guided by the Holy 
 Ghost, 2 Pet. i. 21. " The holy men of God spoke as they 
 were moved by the Holy Ghost ;" the matter of it is ever- 
 lasting truth, which shall stand firm when heaven and 
 earth shall pass away ; the form of it is in conformity to 
 God himself — the power, purity, and truth of the word, is 
 in conformity to the power, holiness, and faithfulness of 
 God himself; the price of it is the blood of Christ ; the 
 benefits that redound to us by it are all those blessings we 
 have forfeited by sin, and are now purchased and regained 
 by the glorious Surety. So that it is a weighty cause we 
 are to contend for. 
 
 Again, contending for the truth supposes that there are 
 numerous and powerful adversaries to contend with, even 
 all the swarms of soul-ruining seducers, animated and set 
 on work by the god of this world ; for " we wrestle not 
 
166 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHER's WRITINGS. 
 
 with flesh and blood" only, "but with" flesh and blood 
 assisted by " principalities and powers, and the rulers of 
 the darkness of this world," Eph. vi. 12. And these erro- 
 neous seducers cannot want cunning, to colour over their 
 damnable heresies with smooth words and doubtful expres- 
 sions, when they have the old serpent for their teacher ; 
 nor can they want malice, dihgence, and activity, when 
 they are instigated and driven on by the destroyer, who 
 goes about seeking whom he may devour. 
 
 Further, this contending, in the purchasers of truth, 
 supposes that they have strength whereby to resist these 
 powerful adversaries. But now, their strength is not in 
 themselves, but in their glorious Head, who, in virtue of 
 their union with him, gives them continual supplies of 
 grace for resisting temptations, and going through the 
 difficulties and dangers that may be in their way, while 
 among the lions' dens and mountains of the leopards ; and, 
 in a word, for enabling them to "do all things through 
 Christ strengthening them," Phil. iv. 13. 
 
 Moreover, they that have bought the truth ought, in 
 their contending for it, to put forth this borrowed strength 
 against the enemy, in their several spheres and stations 
 wherein they are placed in the world. Magistrates, by 
 restraining heretics and seducers, as Hezekiah and Josiah 
 did ; ministers, by preaching the word of truth, by sound 
 doctrine convincing gainsayers, and censuring the scan- 
 dalous and erroneous, Titus i. 9, 11 ; Christians, of what- 
 ever station, by praying for the success of the word of 
 truth, "that it may have free course and be glorified," 
 2 Thess. iii. 1 ; and by confessing the truth, and suffering 
 for it when called thereto. 
 
 The way and manner in which the purchasers of the 
 truth ought to essay to put forth their borrowed strength 
 in contending for the faith is, (1.) Resolutely and coura- 
 geously, with purpose of heart cleaving to the Lord, Acts 
 xi. 2."i. (2.) Unanimously, " with one consent, and with 
 one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel," 
 Phil. i. 27. (3.) Impartially and universally, for every 
 
SER. r. — INESTIMABLE VALUE OF TRUTH. 167 
 
 truth, and against every error. (4.) Constantly and stead- 
 fastly, holding " fust the profession of our faith withf.ut 
 wavering," Ileb. x. 23. (5.) Humbly and meekly, under 
 a sense of our own inability to contend, and guarding 
 against our own spirits, eyeing singly the glory of God, 
 and depending upon his grace to be made sufficient for us, 
 and his strength to be made perfect in our weakness. So 
 much for the second thing proposed, What it is to " buy" 
 the truth. I proceed now to the 
 
 III. Head of the method ; and that was. To inquire who 
 they are that " sell" the truth. 
 
 You may take their character in the following particu- 
 lars ; and, wherein it is applicable to any, may the Spirit 
 of the Lord fasten saving conviction upon the soul. 
 
 1. They "sell" the truth who are "destitute of the 
 truth," as the expression is 1 Tim. vi. 5. Such as are void 
 of spiritual understanding, and never had their hearts 
 moulded and fashioned according to the truth ; whatever 
 natural or acquired parts they may have, yet they never 
 had the sa\dng and solid knowledge of the truth; and 
 therefore they cannot but part with it at a very cheap 
 rate. Such are all those who have " not received the love 
 of the truth, that they might be saved," 2 Thess. ii. 10. 
 Though they be the hearers of the word, yet they are not 
 the doers of it; and therefore, when tribulation attends 
 the profession of the truth, " by and by they are offended." 
 2. They "sell" the truth who turn from the truth. 
 The Apostle (to Titus, chap. i. 14.) discharges to "give 
 heed to the commandments of men who turn from the 
 truth." There are many who appear on the side of truth 
 when there is no hazard in professing of it, who yet change 
 sides when truth is universally run down. And, sirs, you 
 will always observe that they who turn from the truth 
 which they once professed, are the most bloody adversaries 
 that ever truth or the defenders of it had. The bishops 
 and their underlings, in the late persecuting times, at least 
 for some years after the Restoration, what were they but 
 apostate and perjured Presbyterians] and you aU know 
 
'368 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHER's WRITINGS. 
 
 with what rage and cruelty they defiled the whole land 
 with the blood of the Lord's witnesses, from which it is 
 not yet purged. And there are many living amongst us 
 at this day, who made some zealous appearances a few 
 years ago, both in the pulpit and judicatories, for the 
 covenanted principles of this church, against the current 
 of defection at that time, who now discover a great deal of 
 more warmth against those who are witnessing for the 
 same cause which they themselves once seemed to espouse, 
 and are turning the edge of their resentment with more 
 keenness against them, than they who never made such a 
 profession. 
 
 3. Erroneous persons "sell" the truth with a witness. 
 There are many, of whom it may be said at this day as it 
 was of Hymeneus and Philetus, 2 Tim. ii. 18., that "con- 
 cerning the truth they have erred." The flood of error 
 never swelled to such an height, in any period of this 
 church since her reformation from Popery, as at this day ; 
 and never was there so little zeal shown for truth, when 
 lying bleeding everywhere in our streets ; the sad and dis- 
 mal effects whereof are to be seen in every corner of the 
 land : — many calling in question the great truths of God, 
 and rejecting all the peculiar doctrines of the gospel, be- 
 cause they are not adapted, as they imagine, to their 
 rational taste ; many disputing themselves and others out 
 of the truth ; others mocking at truth and the professors 
 of it ; and the most part quite unconcerned to have the 
 truth conveyed and brought home with power upon their 
 own souls. 
 
 4. They "sell" the truth who resist the truth, — like 
 those mentioned 2 Tim. iii. 8. Truth has an evidencing 
 light going along with it, yet many repel the evidence. 
 Although their consciences be convinced with silencing 
 arguments on the side of truth, yet such is their enmity 
 and prejudice at the truth that they give a deaf ear to all 
 that is said in defence of it, or endeavour to shift the force 
 of argument by mere evasion. Yea, some are so blindly 
 wedded to a side, or give such implicit faith to their lead- 
 
8ER. I. — INESTIMABLE VALUE OF TRUTH. 1G9 
 
 ers, that, though a Testimony be published for truth and 
 against a current of defection, a sight of the title-page 
 thereof sufficeth them. And I am apt to believe, that the 
 open appearances of many against the truth of Reforma- 
 tion-principles at this day, is just in opposition to a few 
 ministers and professors through the land, whom the Lord, 
 in his adorable providence, has raised up to witness for 
 the truth, and against the defections both of former and 
 present times. But let not this surprise you, as if it were 
 some strange thing ; for you will always find that witness- 
 bearing for the truth is " tormenting to them that dwell 
 upon the earth," Rev. xi. 10. If there had been always a 
 compliance with the world, there could never have been any 
 persecution from it ; for the " world will love its own :" — 
 but the ground of all opposition and hatred from the 
 world, is a non-compliance with, and testifying against, 
 the principles, practices, and customs of it. Hence says 
 our Lord of himself, in opposition to the time-servers of 
 his day, John \ii. 7. " The world cannot hate you, but me 
 it hateth, because I testify of it that the works thereof 
 are evil." 
 
 5. They "sell" the truth who part with it for worldly 
 gain ; like Demas, of whom the Apostle says, 2 Tim. iv. 
 10. " He hath forsaken me, having loved this present 
 world." There are many who will comply with the times 
 rather than disoblige their superiors, or risk their worldly 
 advantages ; and how lamentable is it, that herein they 
 should have the example of so many of the present minis- 
 try, who, by their late sinful compliance, have so shame- 
 fully sold the truth concerning the Headship of Christ, 
 (which he witnessed for before Pontius Pilate,) for their 
 worldly incomes ! It is an heavy word which our Lord 
 has concerning such, Matt. x. 37. " He that loveth father 
 or mother, son or daughter," that is, the most valuable 
 thing in a present world, " more than me, is not worthy of 
 me." But, sirs, if there are any of you made willing by 
 grace to lay down your worldly all at Christ's feet, in de- 
 fence of his truth, there is an encouraging word to you, 
 
170 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHEr's WRITINGS. 
 
 Matt. xix. 29. " Every one who has forsaken houses, or 
 brethren, or sister, or father, or mother, or wife, or chil- 
 dren, or lands for my name's sake, shall receive an hun- 
 dred-fold, and shall inherit everlasting life." 
 
 6. As they "sell" the truth who part with it for worldly 
 gain, so they "sell" the truth who make a profession of 
 embracing it for worldly advantage, like those who fol- 
 lowed Christ for the loaves. It has been observed by 
 severals, that, at the Reformation from Popery, there were 
 many zealous against the abbacies more out of love to 
 their lands than hatred to their idolatry. But they who 
 do not embrace the truth merely for itself, and because of 
 its conformity to a God of truth, will easily part with it 
 when the profits and preferments of the world are not 
 upon its side. 
 
 7. They " sell " the truth who endeavour to conceal and 
 smother the truth ; like those who " deal deceitfully with 
 the word," as it is in the marginal reading, 2 Cor. ii. 17. 
 Now, they conceal the truth who cover former and present 
 sins, and refuse to acknowledge them to the glory of God ; 
 as is the practice of ministers and judicatories at this day. 
 They conceal the truth who do not give faithful warning 
 of the hazard that truth may be in from the enemies and 
 opposers of it. They conceal the truth who do all they 
 can to keep the people in ignorance about the evils of the 
 time ; like treacherous watchmen, who see the enemy ap- 
 proaching, yet allow the city of God to be surprised with- 
 out once giving notice of it. Again, they conceal the truth 
 who palliate their own sinful practices by a partial acknow- 
 ledgment of some part of truth ; like many of late, who in 
 words professed they owned the headship of Christ over 
 his church, and yet in their practice renounced the same. 
 But, sirs, they who are really upon truth's side, " have re- 
 nounced these hidden things of dishonesty, and are not 
 walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God de- 
 ceitfully, but, by manifestation of the truth, commending 
 themselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God," 
 2 Cor. iv. 2. 
 
8ER, I. — INESTIMABLE VALUE OF TRUTH. 1/ 1 
 
 8. They " sell " the truth who distinguish away the 
 truth. There are two distinctions which I would have 
 you to be aware of; — there are some who distinguish be- 
 tween greater and smaller truths. I will not say that 
 every truth is of equal importance to salvation ; but sure 
 I am that there is not a truth of God within the whole 
 Bible that is of such small consequence to a believer, but 
 that he would rather choose to give up with his life than 
 part with it. Again, some distinguish between contro- 
 verted and uncontro verted truths ; alleging that we ought 
 not to be tenacious about those things that have been 
 controverted among learned men. But, were we to cast 
 off all controverted truth, we should reject the whole 
 Bible ; for I know not that truth in it but has been con- 
 troverted by some of the learned. And, if you would have 
 it, the great reason why many use these distinctions, is 
 just that they may throw the doctrine concerning the 
 house of Christ among those lesser and controverted truths 
 about which men may safely differ. But it has been ob- 
 served, that they who have been easy about matters of 
 government have been as indifferent about matters of doc- 
 trine when they have come into their cast ; as is evident 
 from the little zeal that has been shown for the great 
 truths of God that have been controverted in our own day. 
 Hence it follows, 
 
 9. They "sell" the truth who are not valiant for the 
 truth ; like those mentioned Jer. ix. 3. of whom it is said, 
 that " they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth." 
 There are many who are mere cowards in the cause of 
 truth at this day : the enemy is bold and forward in op- 
 posing and bearing down the truth, and they shamefully 
 and pitifully give it up without the least stroke of sword. 
 The most part of those who were once thought well-affected 
 to the cause of truth are now standing by as neutral and 
 unconcerned spectators of the desolations of our Zion, or 
 at least sighing and going backward. Where is there a 
 standing testimony for truth among all the present judi- 
 catories at this day ? Yea, there are standing sentences 
 
172 SELECTION'S FROM MR. FISHEH's WRITINGS. 
 
 and decisions against a plain and faithful testimony, whe- 
 ther doctrinal or judicial. 
 
 This partiality in the judicatories, in turning the edge 
 of their sentences against those who are essaying to wit- 
 ness for the truth, and, upon the other hand, their omit- 
 ting and refusing to give any suitable testimony them- 
 selves, even when opportunities were put in their hands 
 for being valiant for the truth, has produced two fatal 
 consequences which will not be so easily remedied. 
 
 First, This neutrality in the judicatories, about the 
 truth both of the doctrine and government of the house of 
 Christ, has given latitude to that uncontrolled freedom 
 which is used with the great mysteries of godliness, by a 
 numerous set of preachers in this church, by whose ser- 
 mons one would scaroe know that they are Christians ; for 
 you will seldom or never hear from them one word about 
 the original corruption and depravation of man's nature, 
 by his fall in the first Adam, — of his incapacity to recover 
 himself, — nor of the necessity of a vital union with Christ, 
 as the foundation of our justification and of all acceptable 
 obedience : — these, and the like doctrines, so necessary to 
 the salvation of sinners, are quite dropped by many of 
 them ; whereby they that hear them are left to " perish 
 for lack of knowledge." 
 
 Another bad consequence that has followed upon the 
 sinful neglect of a timeous testifying for the truth ; and 
 that is, that Deism, or a disregard to the Holy Scriptures, 
 is now almost become universal, whether it be from a 
 principle of malice, or from mere ignorance, or a fond de- 
 sire to imitate one another. But so it is, that there are 
 few of those who imagine themselves to be raised above 
 the ordinary rank of men but who use intolerable freedom 
 with the Holy Scriptures, — some by denying them in bulk, 
 others by wresting them to their own destruction, and 
 others by passing profane jests upon them ; whereby they 
 verify what the Apostle Peter says, second Epistle iii. 3. 
 that " there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking 
 after their own lusts." Yea, to such an height of impiety 
 
SEIl. I. — INESTIMABLE VALUE OF TKUTII. 173 
 
 are we arrived at this day, that few or none are reckoned 
 men of sense but such as can with freedom expose religion 
 and the professors of it, however void they be of true and 
 solid learning. I shall only say of them as the Apostle 
 Jude has it, " They speak evil of the things which they 
 know not." These are some of the sad consequences of 
 omitting to be valiant for the truth ; but let us all con- 
 sider, that " whosoever shall be ashamed of Christ, and of 
 his words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him 
 also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in 
 the glory of his Father with the holy angels," Mark viii. 38. 
 
 I shall now essay to make improvement of what has 
 been said in the following Inferences. 
 
 Inference 1. Are all commanded to "buy" the truth? 
 then it follows that all are by nature destitute and void of 
 it ; a man needs not buy what is his own already, or what 
 he has a right to by birth. Our buying of any thing says 
 plainly that we have no previous property in it. "We have 
 lost and forfeited our possession of the truth in the first 
 Adam, who " changed the truth of God into a lie," and left 
 all his posterity to " inherit folly." All we have now by 
 inheritance, or can call our own, is wretchedness, misery, 
 poverty, blindness, and nakedness. Rev. iii. 17; and, till 
 we are convinced of this, it is impossible that we can have 
 the least thought of "buying" the blessings which are 
 suitable to us in these deplorable circumstances, though 
 they be presented to us in this everlasting gospel. 
 
 Inf. 2. Are all commanded to " buy" the truth ? then it 
 follows that truth is now exposed to sale, and that all have 
 free access to make the purchase. And herein shines the 
 infinite love of God to mankind sinners, although we have 
 justly forfeited all good, and deserve to have been miser- 
 able for ever, as well as the angels that fell, yet he hath 
 " so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son" to 
 purchase and regain, with vast advantage, what we had 
 irrecoverably lost in the first Adam, And the Son of God 
 having actually made the purchase at the price of his 
 blood, and in consequence thereof having full power and 
 
174 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHER's WRITINGS. 
 
 authority to dispense and give out all purchased good 
 among the children of men, hence doth he issue forth the 
 proclamation to sinners of all sorts, to come and " buy of 
 him gold tried in the fire that they may be rich, white 
 raiment that they may be clothed, and eye-salve that they 
 may see," Rev. iii, 18. Only you would notice, that, when 
 we are called to come and buy these inestimable blessings 
 at the hands of this great Proprietor, we have not any- 
 thing like an equivalent price to offer, as in the case of 
 contracts among men, where there is a just proportion 
 between the price and the purchase ; and therefore they 
 are offered freely, and we invited to buy " without money 
 and without price ;" Isa. Iv. 1. " Ho, every one that thirst- 
 eth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money ; 
 come ye, buy and eat, yea, come, buy wine and milk with- 
 out money and without price." 
 
 Inf. 3. Are we commanded at any rate to make a pur- 
 chase of the truth ? then it follows that it must be of in- 
 estimable value. Christ himself, and all the blessings of 
 his purchase, grace and glory, and every good thing, is 
 that truth which we are commanded to " buy ;" and con- 
 sequently the price of it is above "rubies, and all the" 
 worldly " things that can be desired are not to be com- 
 pared to it," Prov. viii. 11. Yea, it is of such a value that 
 our very life depends upon the purchase of it, Prov. iv. 13. 
 " Take fast hold of instruction, let her not go ; keep her, 
 for she is thy life." If you lose what is contained in the 
 word of truth, you lose infinitely more than your life is 
 worth ; for, " what will it profit a man, though he gain 
 the whole world, if he lose his own soul ? " If you get pos- 
 session of this valuable treasure, it will bear your charges 
 through all the hardships and difficulties of a present 
 world ; it will keep you alive and support you in the very 
 jaws of death, and last with you through eternity. If you 
 lose it, you are dead while you live ; and, though you had 
 the whole world in possession, you enjoy nothing but 
 vanity, an empty shadow, while you have no interest in 
 this " inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled, and 
 
SER. I.— INESTIMABLE VALQE OF TRCTII. 17,:; 
 
 which fadeth not away." Besides, the word of truth is of 
 such value, that there is no travelling heavenwards with- 
 out It. It IS that pillar of fire which is necessary to guide 
 U8 through the dark night of a present world into the land 
 of everlasting light and life. We have within us hearts 
 that are - deceitful above aU things and desperately 
 wicked, —without us, innumerable snares and dan^rers • 
 we have missed our way to eternal life in the first Adam' 
 and though we be in the high road to eternd ruin yet 
 8uch IS our pride and ignorance that we cannot be per- 
 suaded of It; and therefore, if the word of truth is not a 
 
 lamp to our feet and a light to our path," we can never 
 arrive at the rest that remains for the people of God 
 
 u , ;>^: J' '^ ^^^ ^"^^ ^^ ^"' ^* *h^ command of God, to 
 buy the truth, and for no price to part with it ? then 
 see the folly of the world, in putting such a low rate upon 
 this inestimable treasure; like those who were invited to 
 the marriage of the King's son, yet " made light of it, and 
 went their ways, one to his farm, and another to his mer- 
 chandise. Matt, xxii. 5 -preferring the things of a pre- 
 sent world to the greatest offer that could possibly be 
 made to them. There are some that put such a low /alu^ 
 tT.M ';^^\^^^,^^^ ^^ f^^ from buying it themselves, 
 that they do what they can to hinder others from makincr 
 the purchase; like those of whom our Lord speaks, Luke 
 XI. o2. Ye have taken away the key of knowledge- ye 
 entered not m yourselves, and them that were enterin<^ in 
 ye hindered.' They could not endure to see multitudes 
 foUowing Christ, and they used aU methods to prevent it 
 although the poor people were starved then (as they are 
 in many places amongst us at this day) with the dry and 
 insipid doctrines of these times; and therefore no wonder 
 that they traveUed abroad, to buy food to their souls, when 
 there was nothing but mere famine at home. There are 
 others who undervalue truth to such a degree that they will 
 not so much as frequent the market-place where it is to be 
 sold-I mean, the ordinances of the gospel; the least out- 
 ward inconvenience will keep them from attendance. But 
 2 a 
 
176 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHER's WRITINGS. 
 
 did they know the worth of what they are despising, 
 they would dig for it as for hid treasures, and reckon 
 nothing too dear for the necessary food of their perishing 
 souls. 
 
 Inf. 5. Are we commanded to " buy " the truth ? then 
 the question is, Have you, upon the warrant and command 
 of God, made a purchase of the truth ? and are you so well 
 satisfied with the bargain that you are resolved, through 
 grace, never to part with it again? Now, in order to 
 assist you in this inquiry, we shall put the following ques- 
 tions to your consciences, which we require you to con- 
 sider, and to try yourselves by, as in the sight of God to 
 whom we must make an account. Have you felt the power 
 of the truth upon your own hearts, subduing sin in you, 
 and making you loathe and abhor yourselves upon the ac- 
 count of it, as oiFensive to God, and framing your hearts 
 and lives into a conformity to the image of God, and 
 sweetly constraining you to all the duties of new obe- 
 dience ? Do you consult with the word of truth in all the 
 pinching straits and difficulties that occur to you while in 
 this valley of tears 1 When the world, or your own carnal 
 reason, suggest this or the other danger attending the 
 practice of duty, whether do you listen to their motions, 
 or are you determined by the word as your only counsellor, 
 with the psalmist, Psal. cxix. 24. " Thy testimonies are my 
 delight and my counsellors ? " Have you been convinced 
 that the word of truth is of such absolute necessity to you 
 that there is no living without it 1 Psal. xxvii. 13. " I had 
 fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the 
 Lord in the land of the living ;" Psal. cxix. 92. " Unless 
 thy law had been my delight, I should then have perished 
 in my affliction." Although the times wherein we live be 
 among the dear years of truth, when they that will buy it 
 and keep it must be at greater expense than ordinary ; 
 yet, are you convinced that it must be had cost what it 
 will ? Are you satisfied that your credit and reputation sink 
 in the defence of truth, — that you be reviled and reproached 
 for Christ's name's sake, — that everything that is valuable 
 
SER. I. — INESTIMABLE VALUE OF TRUTH. 177 
 
 to you in the world be at the Lord's sovereign disposure, — 
 and that you would rather part with your worldly all than 
 with one hoof of divine truth ? Are you walking in the 
 truth? Second Epistle of John vcr. 4. " I rejoiced greatly 
 that I found thy children walking in truth." Are you 
 walking in the light of truth, essaying to perform every 
 duty, from such principles, in such a manner, with such a 
 frame of heart, and aiming at such an end, as is required 
 in the word of truth? Are you subject to the power and 
 authority of the truth, content to be servants unto it, and 
 to be wholly ruled and guided by it ? Any of you that are 
 engaged in the cause of truth, I ask you, upon what grounds 
 and from what motives have you done it ? Was it because 
 you saw evidently a stamp of divine authority upon the 
 truth, and felt the inward operation of the Spirit, bearing 
 witness by and with the word in your hearts, and there- 
 fore could not endure to see the truth trampled upon as 
 mire in the streets without appearing as witnesses for it i 
 Have you engaged in the cause of truth out of love to the 
 person of Christ, who is "the truth?" and is this love to 
 Christ the spring of all your appearances for him ? Lastly, 
 Are you abounding in the knowledge of the truth ? If you 
 are possessed of the truth, your desires will be more and 
 more enlarged towards it, — you will never think that you 
 have enough of it, — you will " follow on to know the Lord," 
 Hos. vi. 3. Every new discovery of his glory will make 
 you cry more ardently, with Moses, for a fresh discovery 
 of it, " I beseech thee show me thy glory ;" and at the 
 same time you will be sensible of your own ignorance, and 
 ready to say with Agur, Prov. xxx. 2. " Surely I am more 
 brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of 
 a man." And in the same glass that you see the glory of 
 the Lord will you see your own vileness, Isa. vi. 5. Now, 
 by putting these or the like questions to your own con- 
 sciences, you may come to know whether you have bought 
 the truth or not. 
 
 The last use that I shall make of the doctrine shall be 
 of Exhortation, in two branches, answerable to the words 
 
178 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISUEll's WRITINGS. 
 
 of the text. (1.) Buy the truth. (2.) Beware of selling 
 it, or parting with it again. 
 
 1st Branch of the Exhortation, answerable to the com- 
 mand of God, is, " Buy the truth." Sirs, this everlasting 
 gospel is like a market, where all the necessaries and orna- 
 ments of life are exposed to sale ; Christ, and all the bless- 
 ings of his purchase, are set before you in the word, that 
 you may buy them, and make use of them as your own. 
 Only, for your better understanding of this, you must 
 know that "buying" here is " believing." Faith is vari- 
 ously expressed in Scripture, according to the several views 
 in which Christ the object of it is presented, and brought 
 near, in the word of grace. When Christ is held out as a 
 person of matchless comeliness and beauty, and as having 
 that comeliness in him for the adorning of us who have 
 " lien among the pots ;" then faith is a " looking" to him, 
 Isa. xlv. 22. " Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends 
 of the earth." When Christ is exhibited as the " unspeak- 
 able gift" of God to mankind lost, then faith is a " receiv- 
 ing" of him, John i. 12. "As many as received him, to 
 them gave he power to become the sons of God." And 
 here, when Christ is presented as the " best bargain " for 
 poor, miserable, wretched, blind, and naked creatures, faith 
 is a "buying" of him; — only you must conceive of this 
 buying in a suitableness to the bargain. The bargain is 
 inestimable, infinitely above all value ; and therefore this 
 buying, on our part, must exclude all price ; and so it 
 agrees with the nature of faith, which is a taking and re- 
 ceiving grace. So then, the meaning of the exhortation, 
 " Buy the truth," amounts just to this — ' Since the best 
 bargain that ever was is offered and presented unto you 
 for nought, take it, and make use of it as your own, giving 
 credit to all the testimony of God concerning it, without 
 wavering or doubting.' 
 
 Now, to engage you to this, consider that God has made 
 a free and gratuitous donation of his eternal Son, and all 
 salvation with him, in the dispensation of the gospel, and 
 requires sinners of all sorts to accept of the offer, without 
 
SER. I. — INESTIMABLE VALUE OF TRUTH. 17!) 
 
 doubting either of his ability or willingness to bestow all 
 the good contained in the promise. This is clear from 
 Rom. viii. 32. " lie that spared not his own Son, but de- 
 livered hiin up for us all, how sh;ill he not with him also 
 freely give us all things I " Where you see the person that 
 makes the grant is Jehovah, who was justly offended by 
 our sin, but now well-pleased for Christ's righteousness' 
 sake. The grant itself is Christ and all things with him. 
 The persons to whom the grant is made, are sinners of all 
 sorts to whom the gospel comes. It is not unto men as 
 they are elect, but unto men as such, that is, unto men as 
 they are sinners, Pro v. viii. 4. " Unto you, men, I call, 
 and my voice is unto the sons of men." then, be per- 
 suaded to take home this valuable treasure in the arms of 
 your faith ; — it will be life to the dead, light to the blind, 
 liberty to the captive, bread to the hungry, righteousness 
 to the guilty, strength to the weak, and all things to the 
 empty sinner. Sirs, you are just now in the market-place, 
 and there is here all imaginable variety of the most useful 
 and costly wares, all of them absolutely necessary for you ; 
 and we can assure you, in the name of the God of truth, 
 that you are heartily welcome to them all : " The Spirit 
 saith, Come ; and the Bride saith. Come ; and whosoever 
 will, let him come, and buy wine and milk without money 
 and without price." Oh, sirs, will you go empty away, when 
 the fulness of the Godhead is set before you ? The pro- 
 mise is endorsed to you, and therefore you have a right to 
 intermeddle with all the good that is contained in it ; Oh, 
 then, " be not faithless, but believing." The market-day 
 will draw to a close ere it be long ; it may be the last hour 
 of it with many of us who have hitherto been standing in 
 the market-place idle. You have now no time to lose, — 
 shortly may those things be hid from your eyes, — and we 
 have no warrant to allow you one moment to deliberate 
 upon this matter. Here is the command of God to every 
 one of you in particular, " Buy the truth ;" therefore, in- 
 stantly give obedience at your highest peril, especially 
 when there is no room for deliberation in this case. Should 
 
180 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHER's WRITINGS. 
 
 a starving man deliberate if he will take meat when it is 
 set before himi Should a prisoner deliberate if he will 
 go out of the prison-house when the doors are opened for 
 him ? Oh, then, without further delay, " buy the truth ;" 
 reach forth the hand of faith and take it, and the bargain 
 is made. Our Lord Christ is not standing upon terms 
 with you, he knows you have nothing ; and therefore he is 
 just now offering himself to you, and all that he is, and 
 has, for nought, in this market of free grace. The way to 
 be possessed of the rich commodities that are in it, is just 
 to take them all, and then you have them. Let not the 
 pride of your hearts deprive you of that which will make 
 you up through eternity. Let not unbelief fill you with 
 jealousies, as if these valuable goods were not ordained for 
 such guilty creatures as you ; for we can assure you from 
 the word, that Christ "came to seek and to save" only 
 " that which is lost ; he came not to call the righteous but 
 sinners unto repentance." Who is it that needs life but 
 the dead ? who need a righteousness but the guilty ? who 
 need eye-sight but the blind ? and who stands in need of 
 an indemnity but the condemned criminal? Therefore, 
 since Christ is a Saviour ordained for men in these miser- 
 able circumstances, come to him as you are, and " buy" 
 of him, or, which is the same thing, "take" from him 
 " wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption ;" 
 for there is enough in him to satisfy the need of every 
 thing that liveth. And, if you are thus determined to be- 
 lieve on the Son of God, you will see such a beauty and 
 excellency in him, and in the whole of the truth concern- 
 ing him, that you will account all things but loss in com- 
 parison of him, and the least point of divine truth worth 
 a thousand worlds. And this leads me to the 
 
 2d Branch of the Exhortation, namely, that you beware 
 of " selling" the truth, or parting with it. 
 
 This is a day wherein the truths of God go at a very low 
 rate ; many, who once professed to be Christ's disciples, 
 are going back and walking no more with him. The cares 
 of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, the loving the 
 
SER. I. — INESTIMABLE VALUE OF TRUTH. 181 
 
 praise of men more than the praise of God, together with 
 the outward dangers and disadvantages that attend a strict 
 profession of the truth, are among the sad and dismal 
 causes why so many part with it in this sinning and try- 
 ing time. But we would have you all to consider, that, 
 however low the price of truth may be at this day. yet 
 there is a time coming when the worth of it shall be fully 
 known. What would the greatest enemies and contemners 
 of truth give to be possessed of that which they now so much 
 despise, in the day " when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed 
 from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, to 
 take vengeance on them that knew not God, and obeyed 
 not the gospel '? " What will this world and all the plea- 
 sures of it avail, when " the heavens shall pass away with 
 a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent 
 heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall 
 be burnt up ? " The beauty and glory of truth shall then 
 shine forth in perfection ; and they who have bought it at 
 the highest rate will then find, to their sweet experience, 
 that they are the greatest gainers. then, beware of 
 parting with such a valuable treasure. And, in order to 
 guard you against it, I shall lay before you the following 
 
 Directions. — 1. Endeavour to get the knowledge of 
 " the truth as it is in Jesus." And, for this end, be much 
 employed in searching the Scriptures, and examining what 
 you read or hear with that unerring standard, as the Be- 
 reans did. Look to the great " Apostle and high-priest of 
 our profession, Christ Jesus," that he may teach you to 
 profit ; for he has " compassion on the ignorant, and on 
 them that are out of the way," and is commissioned of the 
 Father " to open the eyes of the blind," and is fully quali- 
 fied for this work, for all " the treasures of wisdom and 
 knowledge are hid in him." Essay to fasten upon the pro- 
 mise of God for the saving knowledge of the truth, Jer. 
 xxxi. 34. " They shall all know me, from the least of them 
 to the greatest of them." 
 
 2. Seek to be established in the truth, and particularly 
 in the " present truth," as the expression is 2 Pet. i. 12 ; 
 
182 SELECTIONS FKOM MR. FISHEr's WRITINGS. 
 
 that is, in the truths that are presently opposed and con- 
 troverted ; and you have the more need to seek to be estab- 
 lished in the truth, in regard of the cunning and subtilty 
 of seducers, who " with feigned words make merchandise 
 of souls," 2 Pet. ii. 3 ; or as it is Rom. xvi. 18. " By good 
 words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple," 
 — that is, such as mean well but want wisdom to discern 
 the cunning of those who mean ill, and therefore are easily 
 imposed upon by the " fair speeches of those who lie in 
 wait to deceive." Now, in order to your being established 
 in the present truth, see that you be well grounded in the 
 principles which you profess, that you may not be beguiled 
 as unstable souls, or be at the mercy of every wind of doc- 
 trine. Again, it will be very establishing in the truth to 
 get a view of it as having a stamp of divine authority upon 
 it, — to see it with a "Thus saith the Lord" upon the front 
 of it. Further, endeavour to keep your eye upon him who 
 is "the truth." You will deviate and turn aside that 
 moment you lose sight of him; therefore be much in 
 prayer, seeking to be stablished, strengthened, and settled 
 by the Lord himself. Lastly, Rest not till you feel the 
 efficacy of every truth you profess upon your own hearts. 
 
 3. See that you maintain a steadfast profession of the 
 truth, Heb. x. 23. " Hold fast the profession of your faith 
 without wavering." This is a wavering and shaking time 
 wherein we live, and they who once begin to stagger are 
 at the next door to apostasy. But to engage you to make 
 a steadfast profession of your faith, consider that truth is 
 that great trust which God has committed unto us, with a 
 strict and solemn charge to keep it against all that would 
 undermine or oppose it ; for which reason it is called the 
 " faith once delivered unto the saints." Since, therefore, 
 this is such a valuable trust which is committed unto us, 
 we ought to be faithful to our trust, in maintaining a 
 steadfast profession of the truth in this reeling time. And 
 in order to this, " receive the love of the truth." Love to 
 the truth will make you bear witness to it at all hazards, 
 though it should be at the expense of your name, reputa- 
 
SER. 1. — INESTIMABLE VALUE OF TRUTH. 183 
 
 tion, worldly interest, or even of your life itself. Labour 
 also to get your hearts inflamed with love to God himself, 
 who is the God of truth. David's love to Jonathan made 
 liim inquire for some of his race, to whom he might show 
 kindness for Jonathan's sake; so love to God will make 
 the soul inquisitive to know what is near and dear to God, 
 that, by showing kindness to it, he may express his love 
 to him : and nothing is dearer to him than his truth, for 
 it is one of the greatest mercies that can be bestowed upon 
 a people, Psal. cxlvii, 19, 20, " He showeth his word unto 
 Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel ; he hath 
 not dealt so with any nation." And dreadful are the pun- 
 ishments he inflicts upon the enemies of his truth, even all 
 the plagues that are written in the word of truth, Rev, 
 xxii. 18. 
 
 I shall conclude with a few properties of the truth, which 
 may be considered as motives to engage you to a steadfast 
 profession it. (1.) Truth is "pure," Psal. xix. 7; — not 
 only pure in itself, but also maketh the soul pure and holy 
 that embraceth it. (2.) Truth is a sure and lasting pos- 
 session ; it " endureth for ever," Psal. xix. 7 : — it has a 
 firm bottom, able to bear your weight. Sirs, cleave to the 
 truth, and it will abide with you, and go with you to pri- 
 son, banishment, yea, to death itself, and bear your charges 
 wherever you go upon its errand. (3.) Truth is " free," 
 John viii. 32. " You shall know the truth, and the truth 
 shall make you free." When once Christ and the soul are 
 brought together by the word of truth, then the day of 
 yt)ur redemption is come, a deliverance from your spiritual 
 bondage is accomplished. (4.) Truth is " victorious," — 
 the counsel of the Lord shall stand. The age of truth runs 
 parallel with God's eternity, — it shall live to see their heads 
 laid in the dust who were so busy in seeking to bury it, — yea, 
 it shall reign in peace with the suflTerers for it, when the 
 unrelenting oppressors thereof shall gnash their teeth with 
 never-ending pain for their opposition unto it. Witnesses 
 for truth may sometimes be few, but there shall always be 
 some ; and therefore, though persecutors may sometimes 
 
184 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHER S WRITINGS. 
 
 be permitted to get the present set of witnesses off the 
 stage, yet instantly will others start up in their room, 
 whom they did not think of before ; for " his name shall 
 endure for ever," and consequently there shall be a " seed 
 to serve him," who will make his " name to be remembered 
 in all generations." 
 
SERMON 11/ 
 
 Tin: MATTER OF GOSPEL PREACHING- 
 CHRIST JESUS THE LORD. 
 
 2 Cor. iv. 5. — " For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lor.l, 
 and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." 
 
 In this epistle the Apostle vindicates himself from the 
 calumnies and aspersions of the false teachers of those 
 times, not only in asserting the validity of his mission to 
 the holy ministry, which some of them seemed to question, 
 but also in affirming that he discharged his pastoral office 
 from a sincere regard to the real edification of lost sinners, 
 and not from any selfish view or carnal bias whatever, as 
 you may see in the words of our reading : " For we preach 
 not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord," Arc. 
 
 In which words you may notice, 1st, The duty of gospel 
 ministers, — it is to " preach" (" We preach"). The word 
 signifies, to proclaim or publish a thing with a loud and 
 audible voice, that all may hear, — in allusion to criers or 
 heralds who publish the edicts of magistrates. Ministers 
 indeed are, by their office, criers or heralds, not to proclaim 
 the edicts and commands of earthly princes, but to " lift 
 up their voice like a trumpet," in declaring " the whole 
 counsel of God." 2c//j/. You have the subject, or the mat- 
 ter of gospel-preaching, expressed negatively, — it is " not 
 ourselves, but" it is, or ought to be, "Christ Jesus the 
 Lord." Under these names, here given to the glorious 
 Redeemer, is comprehended the whole matter of gospel- 
 
 • Preached at the ordination of the Rev. James Mair at West Linton, 
 May 29, 1740. 
 
186 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHER's WRITINaS. 
 
 preaching. Christ signifies "Anointed," and under this 
 name are included all the doctrines relating to his eternal 
 designation and appointment to the office of Mediator, and 
 the unmeasarable communication of the Spirit to him, for 
 the discharge of his mediatory offices. Jesus signifies a 
 " Saviour," and under this name are contained all the doc- 
 trines relating to his wonderful incarnation, his exemplary 
 life, and meritorious death ; or all the truths that are com- 
 prehended under the impetration or purchase of our re- 
 demption, the honour of all the divine attributes manifested 
 thereby, together with the circumstances of the persons 
 whom he came to save. Again, the same glorious person 
 is to be preached as he is " the Lord," — which takes in all 
 the doctrines pertaining to his exaltation, his supreme 
 headship over his church, and the powerful application of 
 the redemption purchased by him; so that if we knew 
 what it were to preach " Christ Jesus the Lord," we would 
 find that under these three comprehensive words are con- 
 tained all the truths that we are commanded in Scripture 
 to believe concerning God, and all the duties which God 
 requires of man. ^dly. You have the laborious office of 
 the ministry described, in these words, " Ourselves your 
 servants for Jesus' sake." Ministers are " servants," which 
 imports faithfulness and diligent labour, — they are employed 
 in serving sinners of Adam's family ; says the Apostle here, 
 we are " your servants," — to serve you with all the bless- 
 ings of the new covenant, to spend and be spent in your 
 service. The names in Scripture given to ministers, sucli 
 as pastors, stewards, watchmen, labourers, all import a 
 service, excluding anything like domination, or " lording 
 it over God's heritage," — but including humility, industry, 
 fidelity, love, and helpfulness. Christ only hath domina- 
 tion and pre-eminence, all his office-bearers are but ser- 
 vants or ministers ; like the priests and Levites, they are 
 to "serve the Lord and his people" Israel, 2 Chron. xxxv. 3. 
 But then, they are servants for " Jesus' sake," — which 
 imports the great love that Christ has to lost sinners, and 
 that this love is shed abroad in the hearts of his faithful 
 
SEU. ir. — TUE MATTEll OF GOSPEL-PREAriirXO. 187 
 
 servants, who, upon that account, beseech sinners, in 
 '• Christ's stead, to be reconciled unto God." 
 
 Ilaving thus explained the words, I shall essay, as the 
 Lord shall assist, to discourse upon them suitably to the 
 occasion of our meeting, in the following order. I shall 
 speak, 1st. Of the Matter of gospel-preaching, as it is here 
 expressed in our text, both negatively and positively. 2(////. 
 Of the Manner in which Christ Jesus the Lord is to be 
 preached. 3c////, Of the Office of Gospel-ministers, as they 
 are servants, first of Christ, and then of sinners, for Jesus' 
 sake. And then, Deduce some Inferences for the Applica- 
 tion. 
 
 I, I am to essay to offer some thoughts upon the Matter 
 of gospel-preaching, as it is here expressed in our text, 
 both negatively and positively ; — it is not to be " ourselves," 
 but "Christ Jesus the Lord." And upon this Ilead I shall, 
 
 First, Speak of what is not to be the matter of our 
 preaching, — " We are 7iot to preach ourselves.'' 
 
 Self is the great rival that the Lord Jesus has in the 
 hearts of the children of men ; it not only prefers sinful 
 pleasures, and the lawful comforts of life, unto him, but 
 wants to share with him in our most solemn duties and 
 religious exercises. There is no need fur crying up this 
 idol of self, and exalting it above the authority of God in 
 his word, as is done at this day ; for I make no doubt to 
 affirm, that self-love is the leading principle of action to 
 all men in a natural state. It was self-love that made 
 Pharaoh oppress Israel, lest they should become too many 
 and strong for him ; — it was self-interest that made Jero- 
 boam set up the calves at Dan and Bethel, lest unity of 
 worship should reduce the ten tribes to the house of David 
 again ; — it w^as nothing but self-love that made Demetrius 
 and the craftsmen cry up Diana, and cry down the gospel 
 of Christ, Acts xix. 24, 27 : — so that self is the chief end 
 of every natural man; therefore, that which constitutes 
 the difference between a natural and a renewed man is 
 this — self is the end of the one, Christ is the end of the 
 other. The natural man studies nothing more than to 
 
188 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHER S WRITINGS. 
 
 gratify his self-love, — that is, love to himself is that which 
 moves him on to all the actions of life, whether natural or 
 moral ; his happiness is only in himself, and therefore he 
 must live to himself, and can have no higher end than to 
 gratify self one way or other. But the desire of the new 
 creature is to be denied to self, to be denied to sinful self 
 absolutely, without any reserve or exception ; to have the 
 ocean of corruption, and all the streams that flow from it, 
 quite dried up in the soul, crying with the Apostle, Rom. 
 vii. 24. " Who shall deliver me from the body of this 
 death ? " The believer desires also to be denied to natural 
 self conditionally, or upon supposition of a call in adorable 
 Providence ; that is, he desires, through grace, to part 
 with outward ease, reputation, houses, lands, wife, chil- 
 dren, yea, life itself, or whatever is dear to him in this 
 world, when it stands in opposition to, or m competition 
 with, the glory of the Redeemer and the interest of his 
 kingdom. Thus the Apostle Paul, Acts xxi. 13. "I am 
 ready, not to be bound only, but to die " at Jerusalem '' for 
 the name of the Lord Jesus." And then, as to religious 
 self, the belie v^er desires to be denied to all his duties and 
 graces, in point of righteousness or justification before 
 God, and to rely upon the righteousness of the Lord Christ 
 alone, as the sole ground of his pardon and acceptance in 
 the sight of God. In a word, as the believer's happiness 
 lies without himself, so he desires to aim at the glory of 
 God and of the Redeemer as his greatest and chief end ; 
 agreeable to this is the exhortation of the Apostle, 1 Cor. 
 X. 31. " Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever 
 ye do, do all to the glory of God ;" and, in order to this, 
 we find that it was one great end of the death of Christ to 
 take sinners off from self, — to rest only on a God in Christ 
 as the all of their happiness and salvation, 2 Cor. v. 15. 
 " He died for all, that they which live should not hence- 
 forth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for 
 them and rose again." As Adam's sin hath set up self in 
 opposition to the authority of God, so the death of Christ 
 hath put down self, and advanced God in the soul to his 
 
8ER. II. — THE MATTER OP GOSPEL-PREACHING. 18f) 
 
 right of being our chief end. Since, then, self is such a 
 beloved idol that men naturally want to exalt it above all 
 that is called Gud, to the ruin of their own souls, we ought 
 all of us carefully to beware of it, especially we that are 
 ministers, in delivering God's message to lost sinners, anent 
 their eternal salvation. The Apostle here disclaims it in 
 his own practice — " We preach not ourselves," says he ; 
 and so ought every minister of the gospel, through grace, 
 to endeavour to guard against self in the discharge of his 
 pastoral office. 
 
 In speaking therefore to what the Apostle here disclaims, 
 as the matter of his preaching, when he says, " We preach 
 not ourselves," it will be native to inquire. When ministers 
 inay be said to preach themselves ? 
 
 1. When they run unsent, and obtrude themselves upon 
 the Lord's heritage, not only without their consent, but 
 when they are actually testifying and reclaiming against 
 it ; and in this case, when people are willing to call a gos- 
 pel-minister to feed their souls, they who intrude upon 
 them can be said to act from no better principle than self- 
 interest ; the fleece, and not the flock, must certainly be 
 in their eye ; and therefore they practically declare that 
 their preaching is not for the edification of souls, but only 
 a mean in law to obtain a livelihood ; — of all such the Lord 
 says, Jer, xxiii. 21, 32. " I have not sent these prophets, 
 yet they ran ; I have not spoken unto them, yet they pro- 
 phesied: therefore they shall not profit this people at all." 
 But then, although intruders, who previous to, or without 
 regard to any call, accept of a presentation to a benefice, 
 do openly proclaim to the whole world that they make a 
 trade of preaching only for a livelihood ; yet it is possible 
 that others, who have a fair enough outward call to the 
 ministry, may have gain also chiefly in their view, there- 
 fore they will be looked upon, in the sight of God, to 
 " preach themselves," (whatever their call or character, in 
 the sight of the world, may otherwise be,) who preach for 
 filthy lucre's sake, or for their own private interest, like 
 the scribes and Pharisees, who, " for a pretence, made long 
 
190 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHEU's WRITIJfGS. 
 
 prayers, that they might devour widows' houses," making 
 gain of an outward show of godliness. Of all such it may 
 be said, as of the priests and prophets of Jerusalem, Micah 
 iii. 11. "The priests thereof teach for hire, the prophets 
 thereof divine for money; yet will they lean upon the 
 Lord, and say. Is not the Lord among us 1 No evil shall 
 come upon us." Now, as one self-seeker had very nigh 
 brought ruin upon the whole camp of Israel; so, when 
 there are a multitude of self-seekers in a church, you may 
 see what desolation they bring upon it, ver. 12. " Therefore 
 shall Zion, for your sake, be plowed as a field, and Jerusa- 
 lem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as 
 the high places of the forest." 
 
 2. Ministers " preach themselves," when they study the 
 applause of the people more than their souls' edification; 
 such are all those, who, either in composing or delivering 
 their sermons, have no higher aim than how to please 
 their audience, so as to get a name to themselves that they 
 preach well. This was far from the practice of the apos- 
 tles of our Lord, recorded in Scripture for the imitation of 
 their successors in ordinary office, 1 Thess. ii. 4. " But as 
 we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, 
 even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God which 
 trieth our hearts." 
 
 3. They preach "themselves" who vent the "deceits of 
 their own heart," as the expression is Jer. xxiii. 26 ; that 
 is, who industriously endeavour to deceive people into a 
 liking of, and compliance with, the inventions of their own 
 heart, however inconsistent with the pure word of God ; 
 whereby the hearts of the righteous are made sad, and the 
 hands of the wicked strengthened. Such are all those who 
 support absolute Church authority, by vindicating from 
 the pulpit or otherwise the several Acts and Decisions 
 which have been of late years passed by the present judi- 
 catories, like the statutes of Omri, — so manifestly in oppo- 
 sition to the laws and commandments of Zion's King, pub- 
 lished in his word. Such are those also who defend the 
 ceremonies of human invention introduced into the wor- 
 
SER. II. — THE MATTER OF GOSPEL-PREACHING. 191 
 
 ship of God ; and those likewise who cry up union with a 
 church as an essential branch of the Christian character, 
 although they cannot pretend to enforce that union from 
 the Scripture marks of the church of the living God, par- 
 ticularly that it is '• the pillar and ground of truth," 1 Tim. 
 iii. 15. Of all such it may he said, " In vain do you wor- 
 ship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." 
 Under this head may be included, as preaching " them- 
 selves," or the " deceits of their own heart," who, in their 
 sermons, inveigh severely against the injuries they look 
 upon as done to themselves, but can pass with little or no 
 notice the public injuries done to the cause and interest 
 of Christ. Such are all those who reflect upon the people 
 for lea\'ing their ministry, (notwithstanding of the just 
 grounds they may have for so doing,) as one of the great- 
 est grievances of the times, — although it is plain that 
 withdrawing is the only open testimony that the people 
 can give against backsliders who refuse to be reclaimed ; 
 and you will observe that there are many of them, at this 
 day, of the same spirit with Pashur the false prophet, who 
 smote Jeremiah, and " put him in the stocks," chap. xx. 2. 
 because he declared the whole counsel of God, and could 
 not fall in with, but testified against, the measures of the 
 false prophets of those times. 
 
 4. They preach "themselves" who study fine language 
 and oratory in their sermons more than sul)stantial matter, 
 — whose chief concern is about the propriety of the style, 
 without being solicitous whether they are understood by 
 the bulk of their hearers or not, providing only they please 
 a few whom they look upon to be men of taste ; and it is 
 to be lamented, that, for ordinary, in such sermons, the 
 peculiar doctrines of Christianity, upon which the faith of 
 poor sinners is terminated only for salvation, are industri- 
 ously kept out. This is preaching with the '• enticing 
 words of man's wisdom," quite contrary to the practice of 
 the apostles of our Lord, set down for the imitation of all 
 gospel-ministers, who did not " speak the wisdom of this 
 world, nor of the princes of this world that come to nought ; 
 ■i -2 B 
 
192 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHER S WRITINGS. 
 
 but the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wis- 
 dom which God ordained before the world unto our glory," 
 1 Cor. ii. 6, 7. 
 
 5. Ministers preach "themselves" when they handle the 
 word of God deceitfully, and give an uncertain sound, — 
 when they do not give faithful warning against the sins, 
 and for the duties of the times ; but study to please men 
 with jflattering words, and make their sermons tools for 
 advancing their own political ends, either in pleasing the 
 people or the leading party, as it makes most for their 
 worldly interest. 
 
 In a word, they "preach themselves" who, either in 
 studying or delivering their sermons, have not the glory 
 of God and the salvation of sinners at heart, — and who do 
 not endeavour in a way of looking to the Lord, and, as in 
 his sight, to search out that matter from the Holy Scrip- 
 tures, which they judge will be most suitable for the con- 
 version of sinners, and the edification of saints. Thus I 
 have showed, in some particulars, what is not to be the 
 matter of our preaching ; we are not to preach ourselves in 
 any of the above or like instances. 
 
 I proceed now to speak of the positive matter of gospel- 
 preaching, — what it is that we are to preach, or what ought 
 to be the sum and substance of all our sermons ; the text 
 says, it is " Christ Jesus the Lord." This is a comprehen- 
 sive subject indeed, — a subject that will furnish abundance 
 of matter for all our sermons while the world stands, and 
 for all the praises of the redeemed company from among 
 men through the ages of eternity. It is therefore but a 
 very few hints that we can give of this inexhaustible mat- 
 ter of gospel-preaching, " Christ Jesus the Lord." 
 
 In general, "Christ Jesus the Lord" is the sum and 
 substance of the whole Bible, John v. 39. " Search the 
 Scriptures," says he, " for they are they which testify of 
 me." He is the object of our faith and the foundation of 
 all Christian practice ; by him do we believe in God, and 
 without him we can do nothing. So that, to preach " Christ 
 Jesus the Lord," is to preach him "t the sum of all the 
 
SER. II. — THE MATTER OF GOSPEL-PREACniNQ. 19)5 
 
 promises, the fulfilment of all the types, and the accom- 
 plishment of all the prophecies in the Bible concerning the 
 Messiah. It is to make him the matter and substance of 
 our preaching. " I determined," says the Apostle, " not 
 to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him 
 crucified," 1 Cor. ii. 2. All the materials of gospel-preach- 
 ing have a manifest relation to Christ. Are we to preach 
 the duties of religion, or the doctrines relating to Christian 
 practice ? then we ought, at the same time, to show that 
 all the duties which God requires of man are to be done in 
 the strength of Christ—" I can do all things through Christ 
 which strengtheneth me," Phil. iv. 13. We should teach 
 that it is the love of Christ shed abroad in our hearts that 
 constraineth us unto all acceptable obedience—" He that 
 hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that 
 loveth me," John xiv. 21. When the duties of religion are 
 enforced and urged, it ought to be done in a connection 
 with the promise. There cannot be a more forcible motive 
 to obedience than to know and believe that a gracious 
 God has required nothing of us in point of duty but what 
 he has promised furniture and strength for the perform- 
 ance ; or, in other words, that the same duties required of 
 us in one place of the Bible, are to be found promised as 
 blessings in another, for it is " God that worketh in us 
 both to will and to do ;" hence he says, " I will cause 
 you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judg- 
 ments and do them," Ezek. xxxvi. 27. Are we to preach 
 the mysteries of the gospel 1 then we cannot do this but 
 with a relation to Christ, for all the mysteries to be believed 
 have Christ wrapped up in them—" These things are writ- 
 ten, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son 
 of God," John xx. 31. The peculiar doctrines of the gos- 
 pel, or the doctrines which are purely supernatural, and 
 distinguish the gospel from the law of nature, cannot be 
 preached but with a respect unto Christ, as is evident from 
 the comprehensive summary of them recorded 1 Tim. iii. 
 16. " Without controversy, great is the mystery of godli- 
 ness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, 
 
194 SELECTIONS PROM MR. FISHER's WRITINGS. 
 
 seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in 
 the world, received up into glory." Are we to preach the 
 promises of the gospel 1 then we ought, at the same time, 
 to show that all of them have their foundation and stability 
 in Christ ; " for all the promises of God in him are Yea, 
 and in him Amen," 2 Cor. i. 20. Are we to publish the 
 threatenings of the law, or " the wrath of God, which is 
 revealed from heaven, against all ungodliness and unright- 
 eousness of men?" then we ought, at the same time, to 
 lead sinners to Christ, who is the only sanctuary and refuge 
 from sin and wrath ; so that all the doctrines of faith are 
 to be preached with a relation to Christ. Again, are we 
 to encourage sinners to frequent a throne of grace, and to 
 tell them what they are to seek from a gracious God, who 
 " giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not 1 " then 
 we are, at the same time, to assure them, that whatever 
 promised blessing they shall ask in Christ's name, it shall 
 be given unto them, John xvi. 23. " Whatsoever you shall 
 ask the Father in my name, he will give it you." Are we 
 to preach the nature, ends, and uses of the sacraments of 
 the New Testament ? then we cannot do this without show- 
 ing that Baptism and the Lord's Supper are instituted 
 memorials of him who was sacrificed for us. So that, " to 
 preach Christ" is to make him the argument, matter, or 
 subject of our preaching; or to declare the whole counsel 
 of God, concerning the salvation of lost sinners, through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. But, more particularly. 
 
 We are to preach, that there was love in the heart of 
 God from eternity, towards a company of Adam's family, 
 when he foresaw, that, with the rest of mankind, they 
 would plunge themselves into a state of sin and misery, 
 and that they would be irrecoverably lost, for anything 
 they could do for their own relief, Jer. xxxi. 3. " I have 
 loved thee with an everlasting love ;" 1 John iv. 10. 
 " Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved 
 us." 
 
 That this amazing love, which is essential to God, might 
 be vented to mankind-sinners, in a consistency with the 
 
SER. II. — THE MATTER OF GOSI'EL-PREACIIINO. 195 
 
 honour of the other glorious attributes of the divine na- 
 ture, the Lord Christ, the second person of the adorable 
 Trinity, God every way equal with the Father and Holy 
 Ghost, engaged from eternity to be Mediator, to assume 
 our nature into personal union with himself, to obey the 
 law and suffer in our room, and to do and be everything 
 that was necessary for bringing " many sons and daughters 
 unto glory," Psal. xl. 7. " Then said I, Lo, I come." 
 
 We are to preach, that, in consequence of this transac- 
 tion, no sooner had man sinned than presently the eternal 
 purpose and scheme of salvation was discovered and re- 
 vealed, in the promise of the seed of the woman to bruise 
 the head of the serpent. Gen. iii. 15. The mercy and love 
 which was eternally in the bosom of God, did flow out in 
 a plenteous stream, upon miserable Adam and his pos- 
 terity, in the first promise ; for, while Justice is pronounc- 
 ing an irreversible sentence of damnation upon the fallen 
 angels, Mercy breaks immediately forth in the promise of 
 an incarnate Deity for the redemption of fallen man, and 
 that before one word of threatening was denounced against 
 him, — as is evident from Gen. iii. ; that so the sinner might 
 not be discouraged from closing with the promises in a 
 way of believing, whatever otherwise was the demerit of 
 sin, upon the breach of the first covenant. 
 
 Again, to "preach Christ" is to declare the spring and 
 origin of our sin and misery, — which is the fall of our first 
 parents from that state of happiness and glory in which 
 they were created, — whereby all mankind "have sinned 
 and come short of the glory of God," in regard the cove- 
 nant of works was made with and broken by the first 
 Adam, as the federal head and representative of all his 
 posterity, Rom, v. 12, " As by one man sin entered into 
 the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all men, 
 for that all have sinned." 
 
 Further, we are to teach from the word, that God has 
 not left all mankind to perish in a state of sin and misery, 
 into which they voluntarily plunged themselves, but, out 
 of his mere good pleasure, has chosen some to everlasting 
 
1.96 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHEr's WRITINGS. 
 
 life, whom he brings into a state of salvation by a covenant 
 of grace. We are to show that this covenant was made 
 with Christ, as the second Adam, and in him with all the 
 elect as his seed : Psal. Ixxxix. 3. " I have made a covenant 
 with my chosen." That all the good things necessary to 
 eternal life, or necessary to the being of a believer, are 
 freely and absolutely promised ; such as the new heart, 
 pardon of sin, perseverance, and the like : — " A new heart 
 will I give unto you ; I will forgive their iniquities ; I will 
 cause them to walk in my statutes; and" — which compre- 
 hends all — " I will be their God, they shall be my people." 
 And consequently we are to show that faith, which is the 
 gift of God, is only the instrumental means of receiving 
 and appropriating Christ and the benefits of his purchase, 
 but is no part of our j ustifying righteousness. It is only 
 the hand that receives that righteousness whereby we are 
 justified, — even the doing and dying of the Lord Jesus, 
 which is graciously imputed to us, and received by faith 
 alone, as our Catechism expresses it according to the 
 Scripture. So that we are to show that the help of per- 
 ishing sinners is laid on Christ, as the only ordinance of 
 God for their salvation ; for " there is no other name under 
 heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved," 
 Acts iv. 12; and that the Old as well as New Testament 
 saints were saved by faith in his blood. 
 
 Again, to " preach Christ Jesus the Lord," is to set him 
 forth as " God" made "manifest in the flesh ;" that he ac- 
 tually assumed our nature into personal union with him- 
 self, in virtue whereof the human nature subsists in the 
 second person of the Trinity, without the least composition 
 or confusion, both natures making but one person, in re- 
 gard the human nature never had any personal subsistence 
 of its own, but, from the first moment of its miraculous 
 formation by the Holy Ghost, it subsisted in union with 
 the second person of the Godhead ; and therefore, though 
 each nature retain its own essential properties, yet what- 
 ever Christ did and suffered, or continueth to do as Medi- 
 ator, is not to be considered as the act of this or that 
 
8ER. II. — THE MATTER OP GOSPEL-PREACHING. 197 
 
 nature only, but as the act and work of the whole person 
 of him who is both God and man; or, which is the same 
 thing, whatever he doth, as prophet, priest, and king of 
 his church, he performs it on account of the union of both 
 natures in him as Mediator, 
 
 Moreover, we are to preach that the Lord Jesus assumed 
 the human nature into personal union with the divine, 
 that he might be capable of performing the whole office of 
 a Mediator between God and man. That since God gra- 
 ciously purposed to show mercy to mankind-sinners, a com- 
 plete satisfaction in our nature and in our room, was abso- 
 lutely necessary for the vindication of the truth and vera- 
 city of God, interposed in the threatening of the law, and 
 for the satisfaction of vindictive justice, which is essential 
 to God, who is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and can- 
 not but punish sin wherever he finds it, either in the per- 
 son of the sinner or in the cautioner ; and, consequently, 
 though the law was relaxed as to the person suffering, in- 
 asmuch as God graciously accepted of a surety, yet neither 
 the law nor justice of God could dispense Math the penalty 
 which was denounced against the transgressor, and there- 
 fore Christ suffered the same thing that was threatened to 
 transgressors. It was not something else, which God ac- 
 cepted in lieu of the penalty of the law, that Christ suf- 
 fered, but the very penalty itself that was threatened 
 therein, — as appears from the translation of punishment 
 from the sinner to the surety, so often spoken of in Scrip- 
 ture. Rom. viii. 3. " God condemned sin in the flesh," that 
 is, in the human nature of Christ as assumed into the 
 divine ; and ver. 32. " He spared not his own Son, but de- 
 livered him up for us all." 2 Cor. v. 21. " He hath made 
 him to be sin for us ;" that is, our sins were imputed to 
 him, on account of which he was made an offering or a 
 sacrifice ; so that the whole punishment contained in the 
 curse or sanction of the law was undergone by Christ, who 
 was " made a curse for us." And if it is said that Christ 
 did not undergo eternal death, which is contained in the 
 threatening, it must be remembered that it is not essential 
 
198 SELECTIONS FROM Mil. FISHEll's WRITINGS. 
 
 to the punishment of the law that it be eternal, — the eter- 
 nity of punishment arises only from the infirmity of the 
 creature, who is not able at once to bear the whole punish- 
 ment of sin ; but Christ, who is God-Man, was able to bear 
 the whole load of divine wrath at once, and therefore the 
 extremity of the sufferings of such a glorious person was 
 in full compensation of that eternal death which we should 
 have undergone. I have insisted the more largely on this 
 head, because of the damnable error vented by many in 
 our day, as well as by the Socinians of old, namely, that 
 Christ is only an exemplary Saviour, and that his main 
 errand into the world was only to give us an example of 
 holiness and virtue, as they call it ; whereas there is no- 
 thing more plainly revealed in Scripture, than that the 
 Lord Jesus was made accountable and liable to justice for 
 the iniquities of an elect world, as if they had been his 
 own ; that, in their room or stead, he actually obeyed the 
 law which they brake in Adam, and suffered the whole 
 punishment which was due to their transgression. 
 
 We " preach Christ Jesus the Lord" when we show, for 
 the comfort of Adam's family, that " he has finished the 
 work which his Father gave him to do :" John xix. 30. 
 '•' He said. It is finished :" — and that his obedience unto 
 the death, because of the dignity of his person, being of 
 infinite value, must be a sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savour 
 unto God, and fully satisfactory to offended justice, as is 
 evident from his resurrection from the dead, his sitting 
 down on the right hand of the Majesty on high, the down- 
 pouring of his Spirit, and the efficacy of his word on the 
 hearers of the gospel. 
 
 Again, to " preach Christ," is to declare that, in conse- 
 quence of his finishing the great work of redemption, he is 
 " now made manifest, and, according to the commandment 
 of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the 
 obedience of faith," Rom. xvi. 26. So that there is nothing 
 now, either in law or justice, to hinder the greatest sinner 
 from receiving the " unspeakable gift" of God ; yea, on the 
 contrary, all that hear this gospel are called, commanded, 
 
SEP.. II. — THE MATTER OF GOSPEL-PREACIIIXG. 190 
 
 and beseeched to be reconciled unto God. "This is my 
 beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased ; hear ye him :" 
 '* Look unto nie, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth :" 
 " The Spirit saith, Come." But, at the same time, we 
 must show that the heart must be powerfully opened to 
 receive Christ as he is offered in the gospel : John vi. 44. 
 " No man can come unto me, except the Father, which 
 hath sent me, draw him." We should tell sinners that 
 they must be God's " workmanship, created in Christ Jesus 
 unto good works," — convinced of sin, righteousness, and 
 judgment, by the Spirit, "v,^ho taketh of the things of 
 Christ and showeth them unto us;" and that, when he 
 comes into the heart, he brings all grace along with him, 
 and carries on the work of sanctification there, till at 
 death there be not left in the soul any spot or wrinkle, or 
 any such thing. 
 
 To " preach Christ Jesus the Lord," is to set him forth 
 in all his offices unto which he is anointed and consecrated 
 from eternity. That he is the great Prophet or " Teacher 
 come from God," — an " Interpreter, one among a thou- 
 sand," who has the tongue of the learned, and speaketh as 
 never man spake. That he is the " high priest of our pro- 
 fession," who has offered up that wonderful and acceptable 
 sacrifice of " himself," whereby we have remission of sin, 
 access to the presence of God, and all the blessings of the 
 new covenant; and in virtue whereof it is that he maketh 
 continual intercession for us. That he is invested with 
 the office of a King, both for subduing, ruling, and defend- 
 ing his own people, and also for restraining and conquer- 
 ing all his and their enemies: Rev. xix. 16. " He hath on 
 his vesture and on his thigh a name written. King of 
 KINGS, AND Lord of lords." He is given to be Head over 
 all things to his church, to whom he is the only King, 
 Judge, and Lawgiver ; and therefore, when Christ is preached 
 as a King, his headship and sovereignty in and over his 
 church, as his free and independent kingdom, ought to be 
 plainly asserted, in opposition to all the invasions that 
 have been or are made upon it by civil or ecclesiastical 
 
200 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHER's WRITINGS. 
 
 powers. The government of his house ought to be vindi- 
 cated, and ministers should not give an uncertain sound, 
 but teli people, that, according to the Scriptures, the gov- 
 ernment of the church, in a due subordination of judica- 
 tories, such as kirk-sessions, presbyteries, and synods pro- 
 vincial and national, consisting of officers duly called to 
 their office, is the only government in the New Testament 
 whereby the Lord Christ would have his church governed 
 to the end of the world. 
 
 Again, to "preach Christ" is to proclaim all the rela- 
 tions wherein he stands to mankind-sinners ; that he is a 
 suitable Saviour, — who saves not only from the curse of 
 the law, from the tyranny of Satan, and from wrath, but 
 also from sin as the greatest of all evils ; his name is Jesus, 
 " for he shall save his people from their sins." We are to 
 preach him as a most sympathizing, familiar, and constant 
 friend, — as a skilful and successful physician, — as an affec- 
 tionate and everlasting husband, " I will betrothe thee 
 unto me for ever," — and as a wise, powerful, and unerring 
 guide, who leadeth his people in the way wherein they 
 should go. 
 
 Further, to "preach Christ" is to set him forth in all 
 the appearances that he has made on our behalf; — in his 
 wonderful birth, his exemplary life, his meritorious death, 
 his triumphant resurrection and ascension, and his awful 
 and majestic appearance at the last day; — for "every eye 
 shall see him, when he cometh in flaming fire against his 
 enemies, but to be glorified in his saints, and admired in 
 all them that believe," 2 Thess. i. 8, 10. 
 
 In a word, to "preach Christ Jesus the Lord," is to 
 preach him as " made of God unto us wisdom, righteous- 
 ness, sanctification, and redemption." To preach him as 
 our all, — the all of our life, righteousness, and strength, — 
 the all of our furniture for work or warfare, — the all of 
 our stock: — for "the Father loveth the Son, and hath 
 given all things into his hands ;" " In him dwelleth all the 
 fulness of the Godhead bodily," and we are " complete in 
 him." 
 
SER. II. THE MATTER OF GOSPEL-PREACIIIXa. 
 
 201 
 
 I may add, that to " preach Christ " is to " testify " against 
 all the errors, tenets, or opinions that are vented against 
 the doctrine, worship, discipline and government instituted 
 by him in his word ; and to this we are bound under a 
 very awful certification : Luke ix. 26. " Whosoever shall 
 be ashamed of me, and of my words, of him shall the Son 
 of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, 
 and in his Father's, and of the holy angels." Thus I have 
 hinted at some few things only that are contained in this 
 inexhaustible matter of gospel-preaching, " Christ Jesus 
 the Lord." I proceed to the 
 
 n. Head of the Method, which was to speak of the 
 Manner in which Christ Jesus the Lord, or the doctrines 
 relating to faith and practice, are to be preached. 
 
 1. We are to " preach Christ" jplahihj, so as to be under- 
 stood by our hearers, though they should be unlearned and 
 of weak capacities. W^e ought not, when dealing with 
 sinners in Christ's stead, to use the "enticing words of 
 men's wisdom," or make an ostentation of wit and human 
 eloquence, which may gratify the ears of some, and be 
 quite uninteUigible to others ; but we should essay to 
 preach Christ "in demonstration of the Spirit and of 
 power," 1 Cor. ii. 4 ; that is, we are to demonstrate, from 
 the word, man's lost state by nature, the way of his re- 
 covery and redemption by Jesus Christ, and the indis- 
 putable right and title that he has to the whole of this sal- 
 vation, brought near in the promise to mankind-sinners as 
 such ;— and this kind of demonstration will be powerful, 
 through God, to persuade sinners to embrace Christ, as he 
 is offe'red in the gospel. It is not by rational arguments, 
 but by a " manifestation of the truth," as it lies in the 
 word of God, that we will " commend ourselves to every 
 man's conscience in the sight of God," 2 Cor. iv. 2. It is 
 by a plain gospel-sermon that the secrets of men's hearts 
 are made manifest, and that they are so convinced as to 
 acknowledge that God is in such a preaching of a truth, 
 1 Cor. xiv. 24, 25. 
 2. We should "preach Christ Jesus the Lord" with s/>i- 
 
202 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHEr's WRITINGS. 
 
 ritual wisdom, — seasonably distributing milk to babes, and 
 stronger meat to those who are of a more advanced age, 
 or who are privileged with a larger measure of grace. 
 Herein lies the wisdom of the steward of God's household, 
 when he gives them their portion of meat in due season, 
 applying the Scriptures to the various circumstances of 
 the hearers. 
 
 3. "We are to "preach Christ" faithfully, not "daubing 
 with untempered mortar," nor dissembling or corrupting 
 the word of truth, but delivering the whole counsel of God, 
 and speaking his words, whether men will hear or forbear, 
 Ezek. ii. 7. 
 
 4. With spiritual authority, — as "ambassadors for Christ," 
 delivering his message in his name, charging sinners to 
 believe in Jesus, to turn from sin to God, and to hearken 
 to his voice, as they are to be answerable to him who will 
 call for an account of every word that they hear. 
 
 5. We are to " preach Christ" with the spirit of meehiess, 
 as being taught of him who is "meek and lowly in heart ;" 
 considering, in the first place, our own insufficiency for 
 these things, and the need that we have to take ourselves 
 the same instructions that we give from the word unto 
 others, and this will engage us to be " gentle among our 
 flock, even as a nurse cherisheth her children," 1 Thess. 
 ii. 7 ; " For the servant of the Lord must not strive, but 
 be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness 
 instructing those that oppose themselves," 2 Tim. ii. 24, 25. 
 
 6. We are to "preach Christ" boldly and courageously, — 
 declaring unto the house of Israel their transgression, and 
 to the house of Jacob their sin, not fearing the counte- 
 nances of any, whether great or small, lest we be con- 
 founded before them: Jer. i. 17. "Thou therefore speak 
 unto them all that I command thee : be not dismayed at 
 their faces, lest I confound thee," (or, as it is upon the 
 margin, " break to pieces,") " before them." Yet this 
 boldness should be without bitterness and indiscretion, 
 that, when we show our zeal against men's sins, we may, 
 at the same time, manifest our love to their persons, so as 
 
SER. II. — TJIE MATTER OP GOSPEL-PREACIIINO. 203 
 
 that their consciences may he convinced, that it is from 
 an ardent desire of salvation to their souls that we testify 
 freely against their sins. 
 
 Lastly, We should preach by our lives as well as by our 
 doctrine ; and thus show, by our holy and circumspect 
 walk and conversation, that we speak because we believe. 
 Ministers, who build up in their own practice any piece of 
 wickedness which, by their doctrine, they would seem to 
 destroy, make themselves notorious transgressors. Gal. ii. 
 18; and thereby give a strong handle to the enemies of 
 the Lord to blaspheme. 
 
 IIL Head of the Method w^as to speak of the office of 
 gospel-ministers as they are " servants," first of Christ, and 
 then of sinners for Jesus' sake. 
 
 1. Gospel-ministers are " servants of Christ," and it is 
 certainly their greatest honour to be employed as " ambas- 
 sadors of the Prince of the kings of the earth." Ministers 
 derive their power and commission to exercise their office 
 from the Lord Jesus, who is Lord and Master of the whole 
 church, hence called " ministers of Christ ;" 1 Cor, iv. 1. 
 "■ Let a man so account of us as ministers of C!irist, and 
 stewards of the mysteries of God." Now, as '' no man 
 taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of 
 God ;" so it is every minister's duty to be some way clear 
 anent his call to that sacred office, and by what means he 
 was engaged to be a servant of Christ in that station. 
 The mediate or ordinary call to the ministry is twofold, 
 inward and outward. 
 
 The inward call consists in a concurrence of those things 
 that may tend to encourage and give clearness to a man 
 to embrace the outward call when it shall offer in provi- 
 dence ; namely, an evidence of fit qualifications for such a 
 weighty work, such as experimental godliness, soundness 
 of doctrine, and aptness to teach. But now you must ob- 
 serve, that it is not the mere having of these gifts that 
 will be sufficient to clear a man's call to himself, but the 
 trial of them notified to him by those to whom the trial 
 of gifts is committed by the Lord Jesus, and an orderly 
 
204 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHER's WRITINGS. 
 
 authoritative mission following thereupon : hence you will 
 find the exercise of the gift, and the laying on of the hands 
 of the presbytery joined together, 1 Tim. iv. 14. So that 
 a man's own thoughts of himself are not the rule by which 
 he is to judge of his fitness or unfitness for the work of 
 the ministry, but the judgment of the presbytery, to whom 
 the trial of gifts is committed by the Lord Jesus. Again, 
 to the inward call there concurs a singleness of aim. It 
 may be very clearing to a man to undertake this oflice, if 
 he has the testimony of his conscience that it is the glory 
 of God, the edification of souls, and the gathering of them 
 to Christ, that he has in his eye, — especially if there goes 
 along with this an inward impulse, or motion of the Spirit 
 of God upon the heart, swaying and inclining the person 
 to undertake the office of the ministry, if the Lord, in his 
 providence, shall open a door. Only, to prevent mistakes 
 on this head, the persons I am speaking of ought carefully 
 to examine, whether this impulse, which sways them to 
 the office of the ministry beyond any other business of life, 
 flow from the Spirit of the Lord or their own spirits. To 
 know this, if the impulse is spiritual, or flows from the 
 Spirit of the Lord, it will have these three necessary pro- 
 perties, — it will be sanctifying, regular, and qualifying. I 
 say, if it is a spiritual impulse, it will be sanctifying and 
 humbling, attended with an inward desire of further con- 
 formity to God in holiness, both in heart and life, and low, 
 abasing thoughts of ourselves, as no way "sufficient for 
 these things." Again, it will be a regular impulse, inclin- 
 ing a person to enter into the office of the ministry, only 
 according to the rules laid down in the word, and not to 
 run unsent. And, lastly, if this impulse is from the Spirit 
 of the Lord, it will be a fitting and a qualifying impulse, 
 determining to the use of the means which lead to such 
 an end, such as reading, studying, praying, and the like ; 
 for the Spirit never divides the means from the end : hence, 
 when Paul exhorts Timothy to fulfil his ministry, he ex- 
 horts him, at the same time, to give himself to reading. 
 The outward call consists in the election or choice of the 
 
SER. II. — THE MATTER OF GOSPEL-PREACHING. 205 
 
 people, the trial of a man's qualifications by the presbytery, 
 their approbation of them, and authoritative mission, by 
 fasting, prayer, and imposition of hands; and where all 
 these concur, (especially if the person has the inward call 
 as above described,) it is the call of God ; — as is clear from 
 the instance of the elders of Ephesus, who had no other 
 call, and yet are owned to be set over the flock by the 
 Holy Ghost, Acts xx. 28. But then, 
 
 2. As ministers are '• servants of Christ," so they are the 
 servants of Adam's family for Jesus' sake, in being " in- 
 stant in season and out of season," beseeching and obtest- 
 ing them in Christ's stead to be reconciled unto God. And 
 that ministers may serve their Master faithfully, in serving 
 the necessities of the souls of sinners, we ought to conform 
 and apply our doctrine to the various cases of our hearers, 
 so as to awaken the secure, strengthen the weak, comfort 
 those that mourn, and convince gainsayers. Again, in 
 serving of sinners for Jesus' sake, we should " prepare the 
 way of the Lord," by removing all stumbling-blocks out of 
 the way, or rather, by declaring, from the word, that they 
 are already removed, — the law is magnified, justice is satis- 
 tied, God is reconciled, "all things are ready, therefore 
 come to the marriage." This is the great service in which 
 we ought to be employed about poor sinners, and every 
 faithful minister will rejoice when the bridegroom has ob- 
 tained the heart and hand of the bride. I proceed now, 
 from what has been said, to deduce the following 
 
 Inferences — 1. Hence see the necessity of preaching the 
 gospel ; says the Apostle here, " We preach Christ Jesus 
 the Lord," and elsewhere, " Wo is unto me if I preach not 
 the gospel." It is necessary, by the express command of 
 the Lord Jesus, the alone King and lawgiver in his church, 
 Matt, xxviii. 18, 19. " All power is given unto me, in hea- 
 ven and in earth ; go ye, therefore, and teach all nations." 
 And, in order to the perpetual discharge of this duty, the 
 Lord Christ not only " gave apostles, prophets, and evan- 
 gelists," as extraordinary and temporary oflficers, whose 
 office was to expire with themselves, but he also " gave 
 
206 SELECTIO^^S FROM Mil. FISHER S WRITINGS. 
 
 pastors," or teachers, to be standing officers in his church 
 unto the end of the world, •' for the perfecting of the saints, 
 for the work of the ministry, and for the edifying of the 
 body of Christ," Eph. iv. 11, 12. And for the faithful dis- 
 charge of this trust, as well as for the succession of a gos- 
 pel-ministry, there is a special order given to commit this 
 service unto " faithful men, who shall be able to teach 
 others also," 2 Tim. ii. 2. Again, the preaching of the 
 gospel is necessary, as an instituted means for the con- 
 version and salvation of sinners ; for " where there is no 
 vision the people perish." Although the preaching of the 
 gospel has not an intrinsic virtue in itself to effectuate 
 the salvation of sinners, — " for many are called, but few 
 are chosen," — yet, by the appointment of God, it is con- 
 stituted the great means of our reconciliation and salva- 
 tion — hence called "the word of this salvation;" and, by 
 the power of God going along with it, it is " mighty to the 
 pulling down of strongholds, turning from darkness to 
 light, and from the power of Satan to God." But then it 
 must be remembered, that it is the preaching of the gospel 
 by those who are orderly invested with an ecclesiastical 
 office that is the ordinary instituted means for the conver- 
 sion of sinners or the edification of saints ; for, although 
 private Christians may sometimes, in providence, be in- 
 strumental in the conversion or edification of their fellow- 
 creatures, — as in the instance of the Samaritans, who be- 
 lieved on Christ " for the saying of the woman, which 
 testified he told me all that ever I did," John iv. 39 ; yet 
 the ordinary means appointed of God, for gathering sinners 
 to Christ, is the preaching of the word by those who are 
 clothed with the pastoral office. The reason is, because 
 " faith Cometh by hearing. But how shall they hear with- 
 out a preacher'? and how shall they preach except they be 
 sent V Rom. x. 14, 15 ; — that is, unless they have an autho- 
 ritative mission, whereby the ministry is conferred, and men 
 authorized, as ambassadors of Christ, to preach the word 
 of reconciliation. Hence it follows, 
 
 2. That, in the church assembled, or in the meeting of 
 
SEU. II. — THE MATTER OF GOSPEL-PREACHIXG. 207 
 
 the Lord's people for public worship, none may warrant- 
 ably preach the word of God, in the name of Christ, but 
 such as have a divine calling unto that work. For, though 
 it is the duty of Christians to exhort and comfort one an- 
 other in a private capacity, for their mutual edification ; 
 yet none can with authority preach the word but such as 
 have the ordinary calling to the office of the ministry, — as 
 is plain from many places of Scripture, particularly lieh. 
 V. 4. " No man taketh this honour to himself, but he that 
 is called of God;" and the forecited Rom. x. 15. " IIow 
 shall they preach except they be sent?" Besides, there 
 are peculiar duties required of ministers which are not re- 
 quired of other Christians, whatever gifts of the Spirit they 
 may be endowed with, such as "feeding and taking the over- 
 sight of the flock, as they that must give account of souls," 
 Acts XX. 28 ; Heb. xiii. 17 ;— as ambassadors for Christ, they 
 are to "pray sinners, in Christ's stead, to be reconciled unto 
 God," 2 Cor. v. 20 ; as faithful and wise stewards, whom the 
 Lord hath made rulers over his household, they are to " give 
 them their portion of meat in due season," Luke xii. 42. 
 Therefore, you are to be aware of the dangerous opinion 
 of the sectarians and enthusiasts, who affirm that private 
 Christians, endowed with gifts, may preach in the name of 
 Christ although they bear no church-office. 
 
 3. Although ministers are the church's " servants for 
 Jesus' sake," yet they do not derive their ecclesiastical 
 power from the people, or from the community of the faith- 
 ful ; nor are they servants and deputies, who govern the 
 house of God by an authority derived from the multitude, 
 as the first and immediate subject of ecclesiastical power. 
 It is true, ministers are called the church's servants in our 
 text ; but then, it is not because they derive their power 
 from the people, — for in that case they would be the ser- 
 vants of men and not of God, — but because they are to 
 exercise their office as servants of Christ, for the good 
 and benefit of his church. There is notliing indeed more 
 plain in Scripture than that the power of choosing pastors 
 and other officers to a particular church belongs to all the 
 4 2 c 
 
208 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHER'S WRITINGS. 
 
 members of it, Acts i. 23 ; vi. 5 ; xiv. 23. But then, by 
 this election (which is no act of jurisdiction) church-mem- 
 bers do not confer the power of the keys on the pastors or 
 other officers chosen, but only nominate or design him or 
 them on whom the power of that office is to be conferred 
 by ecclesiastical ordination, — as is clear from Acts vi. 6 ; 
 where you will find, that, after the whole multitude had 
 chosen such and such persons, they set them before the 
 apostles, who " laid their hands on them," or ordained 
 them to their office by prayer; and herein the apostles 
 acted, not according to their extraordinary character, for, 
 in that case, there would have been no need to desire the 
 people to look out for fit persons from among themselves, 
 — the apostles could have done it by infallible inspiration, 
 had they acted as apostles ; but it is plain that they acted 
 as ordinary ministers of Christ in the whole of this matter. 
 It follows then, that as all church-officers are instituted by 
 the Lord Jesus, so the power belonging to them is imme- 
 diately derived from him; but the way and manner of 
 being installed into, or put in possession of any office of 
 the church, particularly the office of the ministry, or the 
 ordinary way of deriving the power and authority belong- 
 ing to the ministerial office from the Lord Jesus, is by the 
 authoritative mission, or ordination of the presbytery, unto 
 which the election or choice of the people is previously 
 necessary. The disjoining of these two, namely, the autho- 
 ritative mission and the choice of the people, which the 
 Spirit of God has so strictly united in Scripture, is at the 
 bottom of the dangerous mistake, which those of the In- 
 dependent way run into upon the one hand, — namely, in 
 placing the whole of the ecclesiastical vocation in the peo- 
 ple without the presbytery, — and those in the Estabhshed 
 church, on the other hand, who place the whole of the 
 ecclesiastical vocation in the judicatories of the church 
 without the people. 
 
 4. Is Christ Jesus the Lord the great subject of gospel- 
 preaching ? then let us, who are ministers, " determine not 
 to know any thing" among our hearers " save Jesus Christ 
 
SER. II. — THE MATTER OF GOSPEL-PREACDING. 209 
 
 and liim crucified," 1 Cor. ii. 2. Let us endeavour, as 
 stewards of the mysteries of God, to open the door of the 
 house of mercy as wide as to let in the greatest sinner, to 
 whom we shall have access to preach these glad tidings ; 
 let us endeavour to lead them to Christ, as the only refuge 
 to shelter them from sin and wrath, — as the only physician 
 who can heal them of all their diseases, — and as the only 
 magazine and storehouse from whence they are to be sup- 
 plied with grace, and glory, and every good thing. Let us 
 endeavour to point out Christ unto sinners, as made of 
 God unto them " wisdom " to instruct and teach them, 
 "righteousness" to justify them, "sanctification" to renew 
 and cleanse them, and " redemption" to save them; — in a 
 word, as the inexhaustible fountain of all grace here, and 
 eternal glory hereafter. Let us essay to preach " Christ 
 Jesus the Lord " both in our sermons and in our ministe- 
 rial and Christian walk. Let us beware of preaching " our- 
 selves," and setting up our own reason in the room of 
 divine revelation, and of preaching out of a vain ostenta- 
 tion of our own parts and abilities, whether natural or 
 acquired, and of studying to please men ; but let a tender 
 concern for the glory of God and the salvation of immortal 
 souls, animate us in the whole of our ministerial work. 
 Let us, out of love to Christ himself, put an high value 
 upon the souls of sinners, and spare no pains in preaching, 
 catechising, visiting, and conversing with them for their 
 instruction and edification. Let us remember that awful 
 charge which is given us, " before God and the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his ap- 
 pearing," — namely, that we " preach the word ; be instant 
 in season and out of season ; reprove, rebuke, exhort with 
 all long-suffering and doctrine," 2 Tim. iv. 1, 2 ; " and in 
 so doing, we shall both save ourselves and them that hear 
 us." Let us be "valiant for the truth" in this day of 
 darkness and treading down in our valley of vision, — the 
 more that the wicked are endeavouring to "make void" 
 the laws and ordinances of Christ. Let us love them the 
 more, and contend the more earnestly for them, as " good 
 
210 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHEr's WRITIJSQS. 
 
 soldiers of Christ." Let us set our faces like a flint against 
 the current of defection and apostasy of our day, and let 
 us not be afraid of all that men can do, for " the truth 
 shall make us free." Let us then go on in our preaching 
 and witnessing work in the strength of the Lord, leaning 
 upon his faithfulness in that promise, " My presence shall 
 go with you, and I will give you rest." 
 
 Lastly, Are ministers to "preach Christ Jesus the Lord ?" 
 then it is the indispensable duty of the hearers to believe 
 in him, and receive him as he is offered in the gospel. We 
 have been essaying to tell you what it is to "preach Christ," 
 and to lay before you some of those precious truths that 
 are contained and wrapped up under that glorious and 
 unfathomable name, " Christ Jesus the Lord ;" and now 
 we are come to require your cordial assent unto the gos- 
 pel-report concerning Christ, as the only ordinance of God 
 for your salvation, — there remains " no other sacrifice for 
 sin," " neither is there salvation in any other." Jehovah, 
 a gracious God, who gives being unto his words of promise, 
 is just now making a grant of his Son unto every one of 
 you in this company, as the all of our salvation, saying, 
 " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased ; hear 
 ye him." Sirs, will you refuse the matchless and " unspeak- 
 able gift " of God ? " God so loved the world that he gave 
 his only begotten Son." Will you stand it out against the 
 command of God, binding upon every one of you here pre- 
 sent ] " This is his commandment, that we should believe 
 on the name of his Son Jesus Christ," 1 John iv. 23. Will 
 ye " reject the counsel of God against yourselves ?" will you 
 "wrong your own souls" so far? sirs, think you no- 
 thing of it, that God condescends to be "your God?" that 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, Immanuel, makes over himself, his 
 person, offices, and all the fruits of his mediation to be 
 yours? that he condescends to be your Husband, to be- 
 trothe you to himself for ever, — your Shepherd to feed you, 
 your Leader and Commander to guide and protect you, 
 and your Saviour to redeem you both by price and power. 
 Thus saith the Lord Jesus unto every one of you, " Look 
 
SER. II. — THE MATTER OF GOSPEL-PREACHING. 211 
 
 unto me, and be ye saved." Behold, we set him before 
 you, and beseech you, in his stead, that ye be reconciled 
 unto God : — *' The Spirit and the Bride say. Come ; and 
 whosoever will, let him take the waters of life freely ;" 
 -vTid, " if you will not do so, behold you have sinned against 
 the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out." Your 
 sm, in neglecting this " great salvation," will find you out 
 in the day when " every eye shall see him, and they also 
 which pierced him, and shall wail because of him." 
 
 I conclude with a w^ord to you who are the members of 
 this Associate Congregation of Lintoun, Sirs, you have 
 called a minister in a witnessing way, as a company of 
 Seceders from the present judicatories, because of their 
 manifest apostasy from the covenanted reformation of this 
 church ; and w^e are now going about the solemn work of 
 ordaining a minister among you by prayer and imposition 
 of hands, as a presbytery constituted in the name of the 
 Lord Jesus, and associated together for the exercise of the 
 government and discipline of his house, according to his 
 word, and the Reformation-principles of this church founded 
 thereon, in opposition to the strong current of defection 
 and backsliding from the same at this day, and for the 
 help and relief of the Lord's oppressed heritage through the 
 land. As we are, on this day of fasting and humiliation, in 
 the name of the Lord Jesus, to ordain him to dispense the 
 bread of life amongst you, as a minister of Jesus Christ, 
 whom you have unanimously chosen and called, so see that 
 ye " receive with meekness the ingrafted word, which is 
 able to save your souls," James i. 21. Receive the gospel 
 from the mouth of your minister, as if God were speaking 
 to you by him, for he is an ambassador to you in Christ's 
 stead; therefore, with reverence and godly fear, entertain 
 the message which he brings you in his Master's name. 
 Pray much for your minister, if you would desire his labours 
 to be successful among you, Rom. xv. 30. Pray that he 
 may be abundantly furnished for his work, from him who 
 has " received gifts for men." Pray that the word, which 
 he delivers unto you, may come " in the demonstration of 
 
212 SELECTIONS FROJI MR. FISHER S WRITINGS. 
 
 the Spirit and of power,'' and that he may be directed to 
 speak a word in season to your particular cases. Beware 
 of listening to the reproaches of a wicked world, who will 
 endeavour, though most groundlessly, to calumniate and 
 defame your minister, for no other reason, at the bottom, 
 whatever way they may colour it, but because he is espous- 
 ing and defending the borne-down interest of Christ at 
 this day. Thus you know they treated the Lord's messen- 
 gers and witnesses of old, " Report, say they, and we will 
 report ;" therefore, see that you highly esteem your minis- 
 ter, and " love him for his work's sake," 1 Thess. v. 13. 
 Submit to the discipline which shall be exercised, accord- 
 ing to the word of God, by him, in conjunction with the 
 elders of this congregation ; Heb. xiii. 17. "Obey them that 
 have the rule over you, and submit yourselves." And as 
 your minister is to communicate to you in spirituals, so I 
 make no doubt but you see it to be your duty to communi- 
 cate to him in temporals ; Gal. vi. 6. " Let him that is taught 
 in the word communicate to him that teacheth in all good 
 things ;" for " so hath the Lord ordained, that they who 
 preach the gospel should live of the gospel," 1 Cor. ix. 14. 
 And since your great design in calling your minister, and 
 ours in ordaining him, is, that he may " preach Christ 
 Jesus the Lord," so see that ye account the Lord Jesus 
 Christ worthy of all acceptation ; and, in so doing, when 
 your minister comes to give an account of his stewardship, 
 he will be able to do it " with joy, and not with grief." 
 
 Finally, Since you are a witnessing congregation, as I 
 said, therefore see that you be rooted and grounded in the 
 faith, and " established in the present truth," — that you 
 " be not carried about with every wind of doctrine, and 
 the cunning artifices of them who lie in wait to deceive." 
 Sirs, this is a day wherein many, like Ephraim, are " faintly 
 turning back ;" and if you, or any of you, should fall away, 
 or turn cold and indifferent about the cause of Christ, 
 which you are now espousing, after such a solemn profes- 
 sion which you are this day making before many witnesses, 
 what handle will you give to the enemy to blaspheme? 
 
SER. II. — THE MATTER OF GOSPEL-PREACUINO. 213 
 
 and what unspeakable wrong will you bring upon your 
 own souls ? — for, " if any man draw back," saith the Lord, 
 " my soul shall have no pleasure in him." Oh, then, seek 
 to be found in the clifts of the Rock of ages, interested in 
 Christ by a vital union with him, and then there shall be 
 no fear of you, though the floods of tribulation should lift 
 up their voice and make a mighty noise ; — he that " sits 
 upon the floods" will "strengthen, stablish, and settle 
 you;" — "the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne 
 shall feed you, and lead you unto living fountains of waters, 
 and God shall wipe away all tears from your eyes." 
 
SERMON III.* 
 
 CHRIST THE SOLE AND WONDERFUL DOER IN THE 
 WORK OF MAN'S REDEMPTION. 
 
 Judges xiii. 19. — "The angel did wondi-ously; and Manoah and his 
 wife looked on." 
 
 These words give a compendious account of the wonderful 
 transaction of our redemption, together with our privilege 
 and duty thereanent: "The angel did wondrously; and 
 Manoah and his wife looked on." The Angel did all, — 
 and all that he did was wondrously done ; Manoah and his 
 wife were only spectators, — they looked on, and beheld 
 him doing the whole of the work. In the words you may 
 notice, 
 
 1. The great Doer : he is named in the text by way of 
 supplement, " The angel." Who this angel was may be 
 gathered from the word Jehovah, immediately before, in 
 the same verse : " Manoah took a kid, with a meat-offer- 
 ing, and offered it upon a rock unto the Lord ;" and the 
 words of our text, which follow, may be read, " And He," 
 viz. the Lord or Jehovah, "did wondrously;" — intimating 
 that the doer here is the living and true Grod. And like- 
 wise, who this angel was may be gathered from the verse 
 immediately preceding the text : " The angel of the Lord 
 said unto him. Why askest thou thus after my name, see- 
 ing it is secret 1 " or " wonderful ? " as on the margin. 
 Whereby it evidently appears that the angel, who did won- 
 drously, is the same angel whose name is "the Wonderful," 
 Isa. ix. 6. " Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given : 
 
 * An Action SeiTaon, preached at Glasgow, June 23, 1745. 
 
SER. III. — CHRIST THE SOLE DOER, ETC. 215 
 
 —his name shall be called Wonderful." So that the angel 
 here is certainly the Lord Jesus Christ, who is frequently, 
 in the scriptures of the Old Testament, called by this name. 
 Gen. xlviii. 10. says Jacob there to Joseph, concerning his 
 sons, " The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless 
 the lads." The Angel who is the redeemer from all evil, 
 can be no other but Christ himself,— whose name is Jesus, 
 " because he saves his people from their sins," which are 
 the greatest of all evils. You may see also Exod. xxiii. 20 ; 
 says the Lord there to Moses, " Behold, I send an Angel 
 before thee ;— beware of him, and obey his voice,— for my 
 name is in him :" which can be understood of no other but 
 Christ, in whom the name of God is essentially, and in 
 whom it is most eminently displayed. Again, he is called 
 " the angel of the Lord," Psal. xxxiv. 7. " The angel of the 
 Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and de- 
 livereth them :" and the angel, or " messenger of the cove- 
 nant," Mai. iii. 1. That by " the angel of the Lord," in 
 this chapter, we are to understand Christ, will appear, if 
 you consider the angel's command to Manoah, ver. 16. " If 
 thou wilt offer a burnt-offering, thou must offer it unto the 
 Lord;" — thereby giving Manoah to understand that the 
 angel who spake to him was truly and properly God : and 
 accordingly you see, in obedience to this command, ]Ma- 
 noah offers his burnt-offering unto the Lord, or Jehovah, 
 in the verse where our text is. And after what was done 
 so wondrously, ver, 20. it is said that Manoah knew that 
 the Angel of the Lord was indeed the li\'ing and true God ; 
 as may be gathered by comparing ver. 21. " Then Manoah 
 knew that he was an Angel of the Lord," with ver. 22. 
 " And :Manoah said unto his wife. We shall surely die, be- 
 cause we have seen God." Now, the reason why Christ is 
 called the Angel of the Lord is, because, that though he be 
 the Father's equal, yet, as Mediator, he condescended will- 
 ingly to be his Father's messenger, to be sent on the great 
 errand of glorifying God, in the salvation of an innumer- 
 able company of mankind lost. 
 
 2. In the words you have the manner of his doing — he 
 
216 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHER's WRITINGS, 
 
 " did wondrously ;" or, as the words are rendered by some, 
 '' He wrought wondrously in his doing." What he did is 
 matter of everlasting wonder. You have an account of 
 this wonderful work done by the Angel of the covenant in 
 the verse following the text : " For it came to pass, when 
 the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, that the 
 angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar." For 
 understanding hereof, you would know that the sacrifice 
 that was ofiered, on this occasion, was a " burnt-oflering," 
 ver. 16. " If thou wilt off"er a burnt-oflfering, thou must 
 offer it unto the Lord." This was one of the chief kind of 
 ofierings instituted among the Jews ; for, when this sort 
 of oflfering is mentioned, it is always said to be a " sweet 
 savour unto the Lord," Lev. i. 17. and many other places. 
 The beasts thus oflfered were to be slain, cut to pieces, and 
 wholly burnt upon the altar, — intimating, that though we 
 deserved to be consumed by the wrath of God, yet Christ, 
 as our Surety, was, " through the eternal Spirit, to offer 
 himself without spot to God;" and, in the meritorious 
 sacrifice of himself, to make atonement for sin, and endure 
 the whole of that wrath which would utterly have con- 
 sumed us. Again, the fire that was preserved on the altar, 
 both in the tabernacle and temple, whereby the burnt- 
 ofiering was consumed, came " first from heaven," — inti- 
 mating, that it was the love of God that was the spring of 
 our redemption ; for, " It pleased the Lord to bruise him ;" 
 " God spared not his own Son." And it is more than pro- 
 bable, that the fire which consumed this burnt-oflering, 
 which Manoah ofiered, was kindled by the Angel of the 
 Lord himself, even as he miraculously caused fire to rise 
 up out of the rock before ; whereof you read, chap. vi. 21. 
 " The angel of the Lord put forth the end of the stafi" that 
 was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened 
 cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock, and con- 
 sumed" them : — intimating, that it was out of his own free 
 love that he undertook this great work of our redemption ; 
 for, " his delights were with the sons of men." And, lastly, 
 it is observed, in the verse following the text, whereupon 
 
BEH. III. — CHRIST THE SOLE DOER, ETC. 217 
 
 we are now speaking, that " the angel ascended in the 
 flame of the altar:" — denoting the success of his expiatory 
 sacrifice; "when he had by himself purged our sins, he sat 
 down on the right hand of the ^lajesty on high." The 
 flame of the altar consumed the sacriUce that was upon it, 
 and yet his ascending in that flame plainly signified the 
 merit of his oblation, — that it was a sacrifice of a sweet- 
 smelling savour unto God ; for he suffered these things, 
 and then entered into his glory. 
 
 3. In the words you have the part that Manoah and his 
 wife acted with respect unto this wonderful work, — it is 
 said only, " that they looked on :" " The angel did won- 
 drously, and ]Manoah and his wife looked on," The Angel 
 did all in this wondrous work, — he was the only doer ; — 
 Manoah and his wife had no share in point of doing, they 
 only looked on and saw him do all himself. But though 
 Manoah and his wife only " looked on," yet they were not 
 mere idle spectators ; for they were filled with wonder and 
 reverence at this great sight, the true " bush burning and 
 not consumed ;" ver. 20. '•' Manoah and his wife looked on 
 it, and fell on their faces to the ground." And though 
 there was some mixture of unbelief in Manoah, arising 
 from a common opinion which then prevailed, that they 
 should die because they had seen God, ver. 22; yet his 
 faith was strengthened by his wife's telling him that the 
 wondrous doing of the Angel, which they had been wit- 
 nesses to, was no evidence at all of a killing but of a saving 
 God ; ver. 23. " His wife said unto him, If the Lord were 
 pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt- 
 oifering and a meat-offering at our hands ; neither would 
 he have showed us all these things :" — namely, all those 
 things that are imported in the Angel's doing wondrously ; 
 which certainly must imply faith, on their part, in the pro- 
 mised Messiah, thus exhibiting himself. 
 
 From the words thus explained, in connection with the 
 context, I deduce the following doctrine : — 
 
 Doctrine — ' That as the Lord Jesus Christ, the Angel 
 of the covenant, is the wonderful and only doer in the 
 
Ziii SELECTIONS FUOM MR. FISHERS WRITINGS. 
 
 great work of our redemption ; so it is the privilege and 
 duty of mankind sinners to look on. " The angel did won- 
 drously ; and Manoah and his wife looked on." ' 
 
 In speaking upon this subject, I shall essay, through 
 divine assistance, 
 
 I. To show that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only doer 
 in the great work of our redemption. 
 
 II. Inquire in what respects he did " wondrously." 
 
 III. Speak of the privilege and duty of " looking on," 
 and beholding the Angel of the Lord doing wondrously. 
 
 IV. Deduce some Inferences for the improvement. 
 
 I. I am to show — " That the Lord Jesus Christ is the 
 only doer in the great work of our redemption." This will 
 appear, 
 
 1. From the particular choice that the Father hath 
 made of him, as the only fit person for this great under- 
 taking ; Psal. Ixxxix. 19, 20. " I have laid help upon one 
 that is mighty ; I have exalted one chosen out of the peo- 
 ple. I have found David my servant; with my holy oil 
 have I anointed him." Isa. xlii. 1. "Behold my servant, 
 whom I uphold ; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth." 
 
 2. The solemn attestation from heaven, that is given 
 once and again unto his commission, to this great work, is 
 a proof that he is the only doer therein, 2 Pet. i. 17. " He 
 received from God the Father honour and glory, when there 
 came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is 
 my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased ;" " For him 
 hath God the Father sealed," John vi. 27. 
 
 .*! His own testimony, who is the faithful Witness, is a 
 sufficient evidence thereof; Isa. Ixiii. 5. " I looked, and 
 there was none to help ; and I wondered that there was 
 none to uphold : therefore mine own arm brought salva- 
 tion unto me." 
 
 4. That he is the only doer in the great work of re- 
 demption, may appear from the circumstances of sinners 
 of mankind, whom he had to redeem. They are described 
 to be in such circumstances, as to be out of all capacity to 
 do anything for themselves. They are said to be "without 
 
SEK. III. — CHRIST THE SOLE DOER, ETC. 219 
 
 strength," Rom. v. 6 ; to be as helpless as a child new-born, 
 Ezek. xvi. 6; yea, to be actually "dead," both in a spiritual 
 and legal sense, Eph. ii. 5. " You hath he quickened, who 
 were dead in trespasses and sins." 
 
 5. That Christ is the only doer in this great work, will 
 appear from the tenor of the covenant of grace, which was 
 made with him ; wherein he, as the Head and Surety, was 
 bound to pay the whole debt, owing by an elect world, in 
 virtue of a broken covenant of works ; for, " The Lord laid 
 on him the iniquities of us all." Accordingly he says him- 
 self, Matt. iii. 15. " It becometh us to fulfil all righteous- 
 ness." This he had engaged unto in the bond of service 
 which he gave unto his Father, and which was cheerfully 
 accepted of by him, Isa. xlix. 3. " Thou art my servant, 
 Israel, in whom I will be glorified." Agreeably to which, 
 he says, Psal. xl. 6. " Mine ears hast thou bored." Thus 
 you see that Christ is the only doer in the great work of 
 our redemption. 
 
 II. The second Head of the Method was to " Inquire in 
 what respects the Angel of the Lord did vjondrously in 
 this great work." 
 
 1. He " did wondrously" — in engaging, from eternity, to 
 answer all demands of law and justice in our room and 
 stead. When the plan of this work, in all that he had to 
 do and suffer, was laid before him, he cheerfully undertook 
 it ; then said he, " Lo, I come." Whereupon the love of 
 God, which gave rise to the whole, is expressed in terms 
 of the greatest delight and complacency, Jer. xxx. 21, 
 " Who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me 1 
 saith the Lord." 
 
 2. He "did wondrously" — in appointing, as Head of the 
 Cjiurch, that there should be a typical representation of 
 his substitution many ages before he was actually sacrificed 
 for us. Being the Head of the Old as well as the New 
 Testament church, he appointed in the Old Testament dis- 
 pensation that beasts should be slain in sacrifice, as a 
 standing pledge of his taking away sin, " in the fulness of 
 time," by the sacrifice of himself; and upon account of the 
 
220 SELECTIONS FROM MR. PISHER's WRITINGS. 
 
 early institution of sacrifices, as typical of his meritorious 
 oblation, it is that he is said to be " the Lamb slain from 
 the foundation of the world," Rev. xiii. 8. 
 
 3. " The Angel of the Lord did wondrously" — in the as- 
 sumption of our nature. God, in the person of the Son, 
 assumed the human nature into union with himself; or, 
 which is the same thing, the Son of God, being from eter- 
 nity a Divine person, the same self-existent and indepen- 
 dent God with the Father and the Holy Ghost, did, "in the 
 fulness of time," actually assume the human nature — a 
 true body and a reasonable soul — into union with his own 
 divine person, without permitting it to exist one moment 
 by itself. This assumption of our nature into his own 
 divine person, was the peculiar act of the Son personally 
 considered, Heb. ii. 14, 16. " Forasmuch as the children are 
 partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took 
 part of the same. — For verily he took not on him the nature 
 of angels ; but he took on him the seed of Abraham." And 
 hereupon the union of the two natures, of God and man, 
 is fixed in his glorious person, unalterably, for ever. Matt. 
 i. 23. He who was conceived and born of a virgin, is 
 " Immanuel, God with us ;" " God made manifest in the 
 fiesh :" — which could be no other way than by the union 
 of the two natures in the same person ; and yet this union 
 is such a one, that each nature retains its own essential 
 properties without the least composition or confusion. 
 The divine nature, in the person of the Son, is omniscient, 
 omnipotent, omnipresent, and possessed of all divine per- 
 fections; and continues to be so unchangeably for ever. 
 The human nature, in the same person, was born, yielded 
 obedience, died, and rose again ; yet it is the same person 
 that acts all these things : — and therefore it follows, that 
 whatever Christ did, or continues to do as Mediator, is to 
 be considered as the act or work of the person of him who 
 is God-man. Herein indeed it is that the " Angel of the 
 Lord did wondrously," even in assuming our nature to his 
 own divine person. This is the foundation upon which 
 the whole plan of our redemption is executed, and is the 
 
8ER. III. CHRIST THE SOLE DOER, ETC. 221 
 
 greatest wonder in heaven and earth, and the highest de- 
 monstration of infinite love; — that He, who "humbles 
 himself to behold things in heaven," should condescend 
 not only to behold things in this lower world, but to be 
 born in it, — and not only to be born, but to become a 
 " man of sorrows and acquainted with grief," — to be " de- 
 spised and rejected of men," — yea, to become a "curse, 
 that he might redeem us from the curse of the law." ^May 
 we not, then, join with the Apostle in saying, " Without 
 controversy great is the mystery of godliness 1 " And that 
 "the Angel of the Lord did wondrously" in this matter, 
 will further appear, if you consider that the human nature, 
 as it stands in his glorious person, is the channel in which 
 the "fulness of the Godhead" is conveyed and communi- 
 cated unto us ; " for in him dwelleth all the fulness of the 
 Godhead bodily;" that "out of his fulness all we might 
 receive, and grace for grace." 
 
 4. " The Angel of the Lord did wondrously "—in his obe- 
 dience to the law, which was violated and broken by all his 
 spiritual seed, in the first Adam, their head and represen- 
 tative in the covenant of works : — according to the tenor 
 of which covenant all things in the law were to be obeyed, 
 and that with the highest degree of perfection, and this 
 perfect obedience to be continued unto the end. In this 
 respect " the Angel of the Lord did wondrously ;" for, hav- 
 ing assumed a holy human nature into his divine person, 
 as you were hearing, he, as second Adam, and representa- 
 tive of all his spiritual seed, did yield obedience to the law 
 in all points, and that in the highest degree of perfection, 
 to the very end of the race that was set before him :— for, 
 he " became obedient unto the death," yea, " he magnified 
 the law, and made it honourable" by his obedience,— and 
 thus he recovered a title to eternal life, upon the footing 
 of perfect obedience, performed by himself as a public per- 
 son, for all his spiritual seed, who had " sinned and come 
 short of the glory of God." 
 
 5. He "did wondrously" in his sacrifice,— for he offered 
 "himself," Tit. ii. 14. "He gave himself for us." The 
 
222 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHER S "tt'RITINGS. 
 
 whole human nature, soul and body, was the sacrifice, — 
 the altar that sanctified the offering, and bore it up under 
 its sufferings, was his own divine nature, Heb. ix. 14. 
 "Through the eternal Spirit he offered himself without 
 spot unto God." This oblation, or offering, was the act of 
 the whole person, — as the divine nature bore up the human 
 in its sufferings, and offered it, so this offering was the 
 voluntary acting of all the faculties of his rational soul. 
 
 herein " did the Angel of the Lord most wondrously." 
 Although the matter of the sacrifice was the human nature, 
 yet the Priest who offered it was the person of Him who 
 is God-man, — and this was that which gave dignity and 
 efficacy to this wonderful oblation. He " did so won- 
 drously" that he fully satisfied the highest demands of 
 justice, Eph. v. 2. " He hath given himself for us, an offer- 
 ing and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet-smelling savour." 
 
 6. He " did wondrously " — in the way and manner of 
 his finishing the purchase of our redemption ; for he did 
 it in the way of " bowing his head and giving up the ghost." 
 And this he did most cheerfully : " The cup," says he, 
 " which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it ? 
 
 1 have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I 
 straitened till it be accomplished ! " — He did it most faith- 
 fully : he left no part of the work undone, — for before he 
 gave the finishing stroke in his death it is said, that he 
 knew "that all things were accomplished," John xix. 28. 
 — He did it most submissively, — in obedience to the com- 
 mandment which he received of his Father, John x. 18 ; 
 for " he was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a 
 sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his 
 mouth." 
 
 7. "The Angel of the Lord did wondrously" — in his 
 making an " end of sin," Dan. ix. 24. The human nature, 
 as it stands in every individual of Adam's family, had sin 
 charged upon it, and was defiled and deformed thereby, — 
 and the whole race would have gone on in sinning, and 
 bearing implacable enmity against God for ever, as well as 
 the angels that fell are now doing : — ^but the Angel of the 
 
SER. III. — CHRIST THE SOLE DOER, ETC. 223 
 
 Lord hath done wondrously, in putting an end to sinning, 
 in the human nature, as assumed l)y himself to his own 
 divine person ; whereby he not only presented the human 
 nature unto God " without sin, holy, harmless, and unde- 
 tiled," but therein likewise made atonement for our sins : 
 — and by virtue of this assumption of an holy human 
 nature, and his atoning sacrifice therein, it is that an in- 
 fallible security is given that there shall be an eternal 
 period put to sinning, in every one of his spiritual seed, 
 so soon as they enter the threshold of glory at death ; for 
 then " the former things shall pass away," — he will then 
 " present" all his members " to himself, a glorious church, 
 not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing ; but " per- 
 fectly " holy, and without blemish," Eph. v. 27. 
 
 8. He "did wondrously" — in the conquest he obtained 
 over all our spiritual enemies. He took the field alone, — 
 he set his face " Hke a flint," saying, " Who is mine adver- 
 sary ? Let him come near unto me." And accordingly, as 
 " the day of vengeance was in his heart," so '' he trode all 
 his adversaries in his anger, and trampled them in his 
 fury;" and, like briars and thorns, they were consumed 
 before him. He " foiled kings of great armies," and did it 
 in a way that was never heard tell of before — even by his 
 " death," Col. ii. 15. " Having spoiled principalities and 
 powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over 
 them in it," i. e., in his " cross ;" or, in " himself," as in the 
 margin. He hath wrested the keys of hell and of death 
 out of Satan's hand, and made a public show of them in 
 his own, as an evident token of his complete victory, say- 
 ing, " I have the keys of hell and of death," Rev. i. 18. 
 
 9. He "did wondrously" — in his resurrection; for he 
 rose again by his " own power," John ii. 19. " Destroy this 
 temple, and in three days I will raise it up ;" meaning 
 ' the temple of his body," ver. 21. which he himself would 
 raise up within that time. Never any rose, or shall rise, 
 by their own power but himself; and his doing so is ad- 
 duced as an argument that he is truly and properly God, 
 Rom. i. 4. " Declared to be the Son of God with powder, — 
 
 * 2i> 
 
224 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHER's WRITINGS. 
 
 by the resurrection from the dead." He did wondrouslj 
 also in his resurrection, inasmuch as he rose discharged of 
 all the debt of an elect world ; for, " he was delivered for 
 our offences, and was raised again for our justification," 
 Rom. iv. 25. 
 
 10. "The Angel of the Lord did wondrously" — in his 
 ascension; for he ascended "in the flame of the altar." 
 This is the particular instance mentioned in the context, 
 wherein the Angel did wondrously, as appears by compar- 
 ing the text with the words immediately following : " The 
 angel did wondrously; — For it came to pass, when the 
 flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the 
 angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar." His 
 ascending in the " flame " presupposed all the other won- 
 drous acts which we have named in the preceding Heads ; 
 — such as, his engagement from eternity, and his actual 
 incarnation and satisfaction in the " fulness of time :" — so 
 that this deed of the Angel, in ascending in the " flame of 
 the altar," was designed to give a compendious view, suit- 
 able to that dispensation, of the whole work of redemption, 
 which was in due time to be accomplished in and by the 
 person of the Messiah. More particularly, as the " sacri- 
 fice" on the altar was typical of the death of Christ, so his 
 " ascending in the flame of the altar " typified the merit 
 and success of his death. For the "flame" of the altar 
 was designed to represent the wrath of God, which might 
 justly have consumed all the children of men, as the burnt- 
 offerings were upon the altar; but his ascending in the 
 flame of the altar plainly signified, that the wrath of God, 
 which was to kindle upon him as the Surety, should be 
 endured wholly by him, — and, in consequence thereof, he 
 should ascend as the Forerunner for us within the vail, to 
 carry in the merit and efiicacy of his blood within the 
 upper sanctuary, and thus to prepare a place for us. 
 
 To what has been said, I shall only add, very briefly, 
 that as the Angel of the Lord hath done wondrously in 
 the purchase, so he doth wondrously in the application of 
 redemption, by his word and Spirit. He raises the dead 
 
SER. III. — CHRIST THE SOLE DOER, ETC. 225 
 
 into newness of life, — he calls the things that are not as 
 though they were, — he gives eye-sight to them that are 
 born blind, — he looses the bands of prisoners, — pulls down 
 the strongholds that are in the heart, — brings those that 
 are afar oil" near, — he cancels the hand-writing that was 
 against us, and contrary to us, — and makes those that have 
 lien among the pots to become beautiful by his comeUness 
 put upon them. — lie doth wondrously, in maintaining his 
 own work of grace in the soul, in the midst of all the cor- 
 ruption that is there, till he "bring forth judgment unto 
 victory." — He doth wondrously in his intercession ; for it 
 is his appearing, upon the merit of his sacrifice, in the pre- 
 sence of God for us, Ileb. ix. 24. It is just " his will" that 
 he himself, and all blessing, be ours, John xvii. 24. " Father, 
 I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me 
 where I am ; that they may behold my glory, which thou 
 hast given me." — The Angel of the Lord doth wondrously, 
 in gathering and preserving a church to himself upon 
 earth. He gathers his church by means contemptible in 
 the eye of the world ; for, by " the foolishness of preaching 
 he saves them that "believe." A word spoken with power 
 will make the stoutest heart to yield, when all the flatteries 
 and threatenings of the world cannot accomplish such an 
 end. As he gathers, so he preserves his church most won- 
 drously ; for, though they are but a " little flock," a " small 
 remnant," — yea, though they are, moreover, as the "lily 
 among the thorns," and as " sheep in the midst of wolves," 
 — yet he restrains and bridles the fury of the adversary, 
 so as the gates of hell cannot prevail either by power or 
 policy ; for a seed has, and " shall do service to him. His 
 name shall endure for ever." — And, to add no more upon 
 this Head, he will do wondrously when he " comes at the 
 last day, in the clouds of heaven, with power and great 
 giory ;" for then he will raise the dead, — sist them before 
 his judgment- seat, — make an eternal separation betwixt 
 the sheep and the goats, the wheat and the tares, — he will 
 sentence the wicked into everlasting fire, — and carry the 
 whole innumerable company of the redeemed from among 
 
226 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHER's WRITINGS. 
 
 men with him into heaven, and present them unto his 
 Father, saying, "Behold I, and the children whom thou 
 hast given me." And then he himself, who hath done so 
 wondrously, will continue to be the object of their eternal 
 praise and wonder, saying, " with a loud voice," as it is 
 Rev. V. 12. " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive 
 power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, 
 and glory, and blessing." — I now proceed to the 
 
 III. Plead in the Method, which was to — " Speak of the 
 privilege and duty of 'looking on,' or 'beholding' the 
 Angel of the Lord doing wondrously." Upon this point, I 
 shall briefly inquire, 
 
 First, What is imported in the priviUge of " looking on." 
 Secondly, What is the nature of this " on-looking," as it 
 is a duty. 
 
 First, What is imported in the privilege of " looking on." 
 1. It imports, that mankind sinners have a near concern 
 in all that was done so wondrously by the Angel of the 
 Lord ; all that he did and suiFered, in the executing of aU 
 his mediatorial offices, as Prophet, Priest, and King, was 
 for us. His very errand into the world was " to seek and 
 save that which was lost." All the gifts he hath received 
 are for us, — for he hath " received gifts for men." All that 
 ever he did so wondrously, as Mediator, he did it in a pub- 
 lic character, as representing his spiritual seed among men. 
 Thus, he assumed a holy human nature as the Head, and 
 therefore all the members are, in law-reckoning, born holy 
 in him, — he became obedient unto death, as their Head, 
 and therefore all their debt is paid in him, — he rose as 
 their Head, and therefore they are all discharged in him, — 
 for he was "raised again for our justification;" — he hath 
 ascended as their Head, and therefore they are set down 
 in heavenly places in him. Sirs, you have such a near 
 concern in all that the Angel of the Lord hath done so 
 wondrously, that he directs his call unto you only, sinners 
 of mankind, exclusive of the angels that fell, Prov. viii. 4. 
 " Unto you, men, I call ; and my voice is unto the sons 
 of men." 
 
SEK. III. — CHRIST THE SOLE DOER, ETC. 227 
 
 2. Though you have such a near concern, as hath been 
 just now said, yet your privilege of looking on and behold- 
 ing the Angei of the Lord doing wondrously, imports that 
 you are utterly unable and incapable to have any share in 
 this great work yourselves, either in point of doing or 
 suffering. You want the principle of perfect obedience, a 
 soul perfectly holy ; and, therefore, " who can bring a clean 
 thing out of an unclean ? " Since your nature is corrupted 
 your obedience cannot be perfect, either as to parts or de- 
 grees ; and therefore no obedience at all, in law-reckoning. 
 And as for suffering for sin, it must either be infinite in 
 value or endless in duration; — there can be no infinite 
 worth in the sufferings of finite creatures ; — and if their 
 sufferings are endless in duration, they must be miserable 
 for ever. So that your being privileged to " look on, and 
 behold the Angel of the Lord doing wondrously," says, that 
 you can have no share in that great work yourselves ; 
 " none of us can redeem our brother, or give unto God a 
 ransom for him." Hence it follows, 
 
 3. That the privilege of " looking on" imports, that the 
 whole work was entered upon and finished by the Angel of 
 the Lord himself. He is the only doer, as you were hear- 
 ing on the first Head, and he hath completely finished 
 what he undertook to do, as is clear by his own testimony, 
 John xvii. 4. " 1 have glorified thee on the earth : I have 
 finished the work which thou gavest me to do." 
 
 4. The privilege of "looking on" imports, that all that 
 the Angel of the Lord undertook to do, and hath done so 
 wondrously, for the redemption of mankind sinners, is " re- 
 vealed" and " manifested" to us in the word of the gospel. 
 " Looking on" supposes an object present : — what was in 
 the text present unto the senses of JNIanoah and his wife, 
 is to us more firmly and solidly present in the word of 
 faith ; for the word of prophecy, or the faithful word of a 
 God that cannot lie, is more sure and steadfast than any 
 sensible representation whatsoever, 2 Pet. i. 18, 19. "■ This 
 voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were 
 with him in the holy mount. We have also a more sure 
 
228 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHEr's WRITINGS. 
 
 word of prophecy ; whereunto ye do well that ye take 
 heed." — So much for the privilege of "looking on." I 
 shall, 
 
 Secondly/, Inquire what is the nature of this " on-looking," 
 as it is a duty. The nature of faith is frequently expressed 
 in Scripture under the notion of " looking" or "beholding," 
 Isa. xlv. 22. " LooJc unto me, and be ye saved, all ye ends 
 of the earth;" chap. Ixv. 1. " I said, Behold me, behold me, 
 unto a nation that was not called by my name." Now, 
 the metaphor of "looking on" or "beholding" is very fit 
 to express the nature of faith, on a twofold account ; both 
 because it includes a receiving of the object, and likewise 
 a firm persuasion about it. 
 
 1. "Looking on" necessarily includes a receiving of the 
 object. The eye of the body does nothing else with respect 
 unto the objects that are presented unto it but receive 
 them; and therefore "looking on" is very fit to express 
 the nature of faith, which is a receiving of what is pre- 
 sented, or brought near in the word of promise, John i. 12. 
 " As many as received him, to them gave he power," or 
 privilege, " to become the sons of God." The receiving 
 nature of faith plainly says that we have nothing of our 
 own, and at the same time that the whole unsearchable 
 riches of Christ are brought to our hand ; and therefore, 
 as faith receives all, it cannot but ascribe all the glory to 
 the Giver, and the freedom of his grace, Rom. iv. 16. " It 
 
 "is of faith, that it might be by grace." 
 
 2. "Looking on" includes in it a firm persuasion about 
 the object we behold. When we are looking upon a person 
 doing or suffering, we are firmly persuaded of what we see ; 
 so " looking on," or " beholding the Angel of the Lord do- 
 ing wondrously," — as all that he hath done concerns us, and 
 is revealed unto us, — must include a firm persuasion cor- 
 responding to that revelation. Now, what is here pre- 
 sented unto the eye of faith, in the word, is, that " the 
 Angel of the Lord hath done all" that you were hearing 
 above, and infinitely more than can be told, — and that he 
 hath done all these things " for you," — and therefore him- 
 
SER. III. — CnniST THE SOLE DOER, ETC, 229 
 
 self, his righteousness, and salvation is yours, in the grant 
 and oifer thereof; and consequently "looking on," or "be- 
 lieving," in this case, must be a persuasion that it is so, 
 upon the ground of God's faithfulness and veracity, speak- 
 ing in his own word : — the ground of the persuasion of faith 
 being infinitely more firm and solid than the ground of 
 any persuasion we can have arising from our senses, be- 
 cause it is the infallible testimony of a God that cannot 
 lie, whose word is as unchangeable as his being. There- 
 fore, when it is revealed to us that " God so loved the 
 world, as to give his only begotten Son, that whosoever 
 believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting 
 life," — the language of faith, corresponding hereunto, must 
 be, as in Acts xv. 11. "We believe that, through the grace 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved." Hence it 
 easily follows that this persuasion of faith must take in 
 the particular application and use-making of its object, 
 for all the intents and purposes for which he is exhibited 
 unto us, — for " wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and 
 redemption." 
 
 IV. I proceed now to deduce some Inferences for the 
 Application. 
 
 1. Hence see what is become of the covenant of works, 
 which was broken by the first Adam, and all his posterity 
 in him, — it is fulfilled by the Angel of the Lord, the second 
 Adam, in what he hath done so wondrously ; and the fulfil- 
 ment thereof by him, both as to the precept and penalty, 
 was the very condition of the covenant of grace, that was 
 made with him as the head of his spiritual seed. No work 
 nor deed of ours, no not faith itself, can be the entitling 
 condition of the covenant of grace. Our right and title 
 to eternal life can be founded on nothing else but Christ's 
 fulfilling all righteousness for us ; for he was " made sin 
 for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the right- 
 ousness of God in him." 
 
 2. Is the Angel of the Lord the only doer in the great 
 work of our redemption ? then hence see that all you, who 
 are convinced of your utter inability to do for yourselves. 
 
230 SELECTIOI^^S FROM MR. FISHER's WRITINGS. 
 
 have the best ground to lippen to him for relief, out of 
 the several straits and difficulties wherewith you may at 
 present be distressed. Why, the Angel of the Lord did 
 wondrously in the purchase of your redemption, and he 
 continues to do so likewise in the application thereof. 
 Whatever, then, be your present exercise or trial, rely 
 upon him as the only doer for you, and you shall have an 
 outgate. — Are you oppressed with a body of sin and death, 
 and with such a sense of heart-wandering, hardness, and 
 deadness that you know not what to do, and are afraid to 
 venture unto the Lord's table in such a dismal case ? Well, 
 depend upon the Angel of the Lord, as the only doer for you, 
 upon the ground of his own word, wherein he hath said, 
 " Sin shall not have dominion over you." He hath made 
 an end of sin that sin might be tinished in you at last. 
 Look to him for quickening and reviving, because he hath 
 said, " I am come that you might have life, and have it 
 more abundantly." Look to him for heart-melting, and 
 heart-loathing on the account of your sins, upon the ground 
 of that word, Ezek. xxxvi. 31. "Then shall ye remember 
 your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, 
 and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight, for your 
 iniquities, and for your abominations." 
 
 Again, are you convinced of the necessity of faith, with- 
 out which you cannot "look on and behold the Angel doing 
 wondrously 1 " and are you complaining of your blindness, 
 and acknowledging your utter impotency to open your 
 own eyes ? Well, here is the only doer for you, who hath 
 it in his commission to " open the eyes of the blind." 
 Trust to him, as the " author and finisher of faith," upon 
 the ground of this word, Zech. xii. 10. " They shall look 
 upon me whom they have pierced." 
 
 Further, is fellowship and communion with him, in his 
 own ordinances, the " one thing" you desire and seek after 
 on this great day of the feast ? and yet, in the meantime, 
 are ye complaining, as it is Job xxiii. 8, 9. " I go forward, 
 but he is not there ; and backward, but I cannot perceive 
 him : on the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot 
 
SER. III. — CHRIST TUE SOLE DOER, ETC. 231 
 
 behold him : he hideth himself on the right hand, that I 
 cannot see him I " Well, in this case, the only doer for 
 you is giving you this kindly challenge, which you have 
 Isa. xl. 27, 28. " Why sayest thou, Jacob, and speakest, 
 Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment 
 is passed over from my God ? Hast thou not known, hast 
 thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the 
 Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is 
 weary?" Therefore, trust that he will come according 
 to his promise, Exod. xx. 24, " In all places where I record 
 my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee." 
 — •• For a small moment have I forsaken thee ; but with 
 great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid 
 my face from thee for a moment ; but with everlasting 
 kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy 
 Redeemer," Isa. liv. 7, 8. 
 
 Are you complaining of woful backslidings and decays, 
 and afraid to come to the Lord's table lest he have no 
 pleasure in you on these accounts ? Well, there is ground 
 of hope in that word, Jer. iii. 22. " I will heal your back- 
 slidings." — " Thou hast played the harlot with many lovers ; 
 yet return again to me, saith the Lord," ver. 1. 
 
 Upon the whole : — since the Angel of the Lord does all, 
 put all your work in his hand, — your hearing, your pray- 
 ing, your praising, your communicating, and the whole of 
 your warfare, — put all in his hand that he may do it for 
 you ; for " it is God which worketh in you, both to will 
 and to do of his good pleasure." He is here present this 
 day demanding employment from every one of you, to do 
 all for you, and that freely, " without money and without 
 price ;" saying, as it is Luke xviii. 41. " What wilt thou 
 that I shall do unto thee 1 " Therefore, come to him with 
 all your sins, that they may be pardoned, because he hath 
 paid the ransom, — with all your wants, that they may be 
 supplied, because " it hath pleased the Father that in him 
 should all fulness dwell," — with all your petitions, that 
 they may be answered, because he hath said, John xiv. 14. 
 " Whatsoever you shall ask in my name, I will do it." 
 
232 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHEr's WRITINGS. 
 
 Come to him with all your doubts, that they may be solved, 
 because he hath the " tongue of the learned," and can 
 speak a " word in season to the weary." Come to him for 
 all you need ; for " the Father loveth the Son, and hath 
 given all things into his hand :" and he is " ascended far 
 above all heavens, that he might fill all things." 
 
 3. Hence see the ground of a sinner's justification before 
 God. Surely it is not " by works of righteousness which 
 we have done," — for " all our righteousnessos are as filthy 
 rags," — but upon what the i\.ngel hath done so wondrously, 
 both in respect of his perfect obedience to the law, and 
 also in respect of his enduring the wrath due to our sin. 
 This his meritorious doing and dying, or his perfect and 
 satisfactory obedience unto death, being imputed to us, is 
 the sole ground of our justification before God. It is not 
 any grace wrought in us, nor anything done by us, no not 
 the act of believing itself, or any act of obedience whatso- 
 ever, that is imputed to us for righteousness ; it is only 
 what the Angel of the Lord did so wondrously, in doing 
 and dying in our room, that is imputed to us for the whole 
 of our righteousness in the sight of God: " Being justified 
 freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in 
 Jesus Christ," Rom. iii. 24. We are all by nature in a 
 state of guilt and condemnation ; but, in the " day of 
 power," being united to him who hath done wondrously, 
 his whole righteousness becomes ours for our justification 
 before God, — his suffering being the ground of our pardon, 
 and his obedience the ground of our being accepted as 
 righteous in his sight. be persuaded to submit unto 
 this righteousness, which is wrought out by the Angel of 
 the Lord, in the holy human nature which he assumed to 
 his own divine person ! This is the only righteousness 
 that hath worth in it to counterbalance all accusations 
 from law or justice. It is the only righteousness that hath 
 been infinitely pleasing and acceptable to God ; for " the 
 Lord is well pleased for his righteousness' sake," Isa. xlii. 
 21. — the only righteousness that is everlasting, being a 
 robe that will never wax old, and never wear out, through 
 
SER. III. — CHRIST THE SOLE DOER, ETC. 233 
 
 eternity, — and it is the only righteousness in which we 
 may enter the lists with death, and stand in the presence 
 of God accepted for ever ; for we are " accepted in the 
 Beloved," Eph. i. 6. 
 
 4. Hence see the reason why believers are not under the 
 law, as a covenant, to be either justified or condemned 
 thereby ; — the reason is, the Angel of the Lord hath done 
 wondrously, in magnifying the law in their room. Hence 
 it is said of believers, Rom. vi. 14. that they "are not under 
 the law." They are not under the inecept of the law as a 
 covenant, requiring perfect obedience as a condition of life ; 
 because, in this respect, Christ, as a new-covenant Head, 
 hath given obedience thereunto in their stead, and thereby 
 fulfilled the condition they were bound to in the first 
 Adam, Rom. v. 19. '•' As by one man's disobedience many 
 were made sinners ; so by the obedience of one shall many 
 be made righteous." They are not under the threaten- 
 ing of the law as a covenant, binding over to death on 
 account of transgression, because Christ, as their Head, 
 hath paid the whole penalty ; for he hath " redeemed us 
 from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us :" and 
 therefore there can be " no condemnation to them that are 
 in Christ Jesus." So that the believer is " dead to the 
 law," in respect of justification, that he might " live unto 
 God," in respect of sanctification. Here is good news, the 
 law is fulfilled by Christ as a covenant, that it might be 
 put into our hands as a rule of duty ; and whatever is re- 
 quired of us by the law in point of duty, there is strength 
 and furniture secured in the promise for the performance 
 thereof, Ezek. xxxvi. 27. " I will cause you to walk in my 
 statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them." 
 You are not now required to do in order to live, — which 
 was the tenor of the first covenant ; but life is promised, 
 as the principle and foundation of all acceptable doing, Isa. 
 xxxviii. 19. " The living, the living, he shall praise thee." 
 
 5. Hence see the necessity of the satisfaction of Christ, 
 to answer all demands of law and justice. Since the Angel 
 of the Lord hath done so wondrously, there behoved to be 
 
234 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHEr's WRITINGS. 
 
 a necessity for his so doing. There was indeed no neces- 
 sity lying upon God to save fallen men more than the 
 fallen angels ; but since, out of his own free love and good 
 pleasure, he purposed the salvation of an innumerable com- 
 pany of mankind lost, it was necessary that this should be 
 done, in a consistency with the honour of all his attributes 
 and perfections, because his own glory is his highest end 
 in all that he doth. In order, therefore, that mercy might 
 have an honourable egress among sinners of mankind, it 
 was necessary that, since the threatening of the law was 
 founded in the very nature of God, his truth and veracity 
 therein should be preserved, — that his unspotted holiness 
 should be vindicated, — and that his impartial justice should 
 be satisfied in its highest demands. All this is obvious, if 
 you consider that these perfections are essential to the 
 nature of God, and therefore their honour and glory can- 
 not be dispensed with, — for God " cannot deny himself." 
 Now, this being the case, the Angel of the Lord, according 
 to his undertaking and engagement from eternity, hath 
 done wondrously, in making " mercy and truth to meet 
 together, righteousness and peace to kiss each other," in 
 himself, as God-man, fulfilling all righteousness in our room, 
 to the eternal glory of all the perfections of God, which 
 would otherwise have stood as so many insuperable moun- 
 tains in the way of the sinner's salvation. Accordingly, 
 you find that this necessity of a satisfaction, in order to 
 the venting of mercy in a consistency with the honour of 
 justice, is what our Lord himself asserts, Luke xxiv. 26. 
 " Ought not Christ to have sufiered these things, and to 
 enter into his glory 1 " 
 
 6. Hence see that there is no natural or necessary con- 
 nexion between our best moral doings and the favour of 
 God ; — this would be a disparagement to what the Angel 
 hath done so wondrously. He is the only doer in the great 
 work of our salvation ; the connexion is stated betwixt his 
 doing in our room, and obtaining eternal redemption for 
 us. The promise of life is made unto the perfect obedience 
 of the Surety ; and whenever this obedience is imputed to 
 
SER. III. — CURIST THE SOLE DOEK, ETC. 235 
 
 US, our title to eternal life is thereby secured ; for " the 
 gift of God is eternul life, through Jesus Christ our Lord," 
 Rom. vi. 23. 
 
 7. Hence see that there is no access for a sinner into 
 the presence of God but through a Mediator. Had not 
 the Angel done wondrously, in opening a "new and living 
 way" into the presence of God for us, by his obedience 
 unto death, the justice and holiness of God, like the cheru- 
 bim with a flaming sword, would otherwise have made 
 the way to pardon and life inaccessible. There is not the 
 least encouragement for a guilty sinner to come into the 
 presence of an absolute God, Isa. xxxiii. 14. " The sinners 
 in Zion are afraid ; fearfulness hath surprised the hypo- 
 crites :- who among us shall dwell with the devouring tire ? 
 who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" 
 And, therefore, to represent the Object of worship merely 
 as a Creator and Preserver, without any relation to Christ, 
 cannot but have a tendency to worm out the exercise of 
 prayer, and to be an effectual bar in the way of all trust 
 and confidence in God, which is grounded wholly on the 
 revelation of his grace and good-will through Christ, as the 
 only way of access unto him, John xiv. 6. " Jesus saith, — 
 1 am the way, and the truth, and the life : no man cometh 
 unto the Father but by me." So that it is the revelation 
 of redemption through the blood of Christ, even the for- 
 giveness of sins according to the riches of God's grace, that 
 is the strongest motive and encouragement for a guilty 
 sinner to come into the presence of an oflfended God, Psal. 
 cxxx. 4. " There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest 
 be feared." 
 
 8. Hence see that none of mankind were capable to rea- 
 son out to themselves the knowledge of the way of salva- 
 tion, which is necessary to their eternal happiness. U this 
 could be done, there had been no occasion for a revelation 
 of what the Angel of the Lord did so wondrously. For 
 the peculiar doctrines of Christianity, such as, that " God 
 was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of 
 angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the 
 
236 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISUER's WRITINGS. 
 
 world, received up into glory;" or, that the Son of God 
 should be incarnate, make satisfaction for sin, and be ex- 
 hibited unto a lost world for salvation, are truths of such 
 a transcendent nature that the mind of man could never 
 have had the remotest conception of them if they had not 
 been revealed : — and now that they are brought to light 
 by the gospel, there can be no salvation without the know- 
 ledge of them ; for " there is no other name under heaven, 
 given among men, whereby we must be saved," but that 
 of Jesus, — nor is there another way of " putting away sin 
 but by the sacrifice of himself," Ileb. ix. 26. Hence it 
 follows that the doctrine of the salvation of heathens, 
 while destitute of divine revelation, must be the very foun- 
 dation of Deism ; for it amounts to nothing less than this, 
 that mankind may be saved by the light of nature, without 
 any supernatural revelation, — quite contrary to Scripture, 
 which asserts, in plainest terms, that " where there is no 
 vision the people perish," Prov. xxix. 18 ; and contrary to 
 the doctrine of our Confession, which affirms, that " al- 
 though the light of nature, and the works of creation and 
 providence, do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and 
 power of God, as to leave men inexcusable ; yet they are 
 not sufficient to give that knowledge of God, and of his 
 will, which is necessary unto salvation." And the scrip- 
 tures adduced to prove this, are — 1 Cor. i. 21. " For after 
 that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew 
 not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to 
 save them that believe :" 1 Cor. ii. 13. " Which things also 
 we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, 
 but which the Holy Ghost teacheth ; comparing spiritual 
 things with spiritual :" Ver. 14. " But the natural man 
 receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God : for they are 
 foolishness unto him ; neither can he know them, because 
 they are spiritually discerned." 
 
 9. Hence see the nature of faith, — it is a firm persuasion, 
 founded upon a divine testimony, that the Angel of the 
 Lord hath done all in the great work of redemption ; that 
 he hath " finished the work which his Father gave him to 
 
8ER. III. — CHRIST TUE SOLE DOER, ETC. 237 
 
 do ;" and that he is " of God made unto us wisdom, right- 
 eousness, sanctitication, and redemption ;" and therefore 
 that it must be a receiving, and resting upon him alone 
 for salvation, as he is thus offered unto us in the gospel. 
 
 10. Hence see the true spring of gospel holiness, — it 
 flows from a "looking on" and "beholding" the Angel 
 of the Lord doing wondrously. Faith's discovery of him, 
 as doing and suffering all, cannot but beget in us self- 
 loathing and abhorrence on account of sin as laid on him, 
 Zech. xii. 10, " They shall look upon him whom they have 
 pierced, and they shall mourn for him :" and likewise a 
 desire of conformity to the law, as a rule, because he hath 
 fulfilled it as a covenant ; for " we all, with open face, be- 
 holding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed 
 into the same image." Thus it is by faith our hearts are 
 purified, Acts xv. 9 ; and this is so necessary, that " with- 
 out holiness no man shall see the Lord," Heb. xii. 14. 
 
 11. Is Christ the wonderful and only doer in the great 
 work of redemption ? and is it the privilege and duty of 
 mankind-sinners to "look on?" then this doctrine may 
 afford matter for several questions, which may be proposed 
 by way of trial, whereby we may form some judgment of 
 our spiritual state and condition ; and it is as necessary to 
 inquire into the circumstances of our souls after, as before, 
 a communion. 
 
 (1.) Are you convinced that you have violated the law 
 of God in the first Adam, and that you have justly incurred 
 the wrath of God, which is denounced upon the breach of 
 the first covenant ? Do you believe that you were repre- 
 sented in Adam when God made the covenant with him, 
 and in consequence of this federal representation, that his 
 first sin is justly imputed unto you for your condemnation, 
 and therefore that you not only want original righteous- 
 ness, but that your natures are wholly corrupted ? With- 
 out some uptaking of this deplorable state wherein you 
 are by nature, it is impossible you can see the least need 
 of the Angel's doing wondrously, in condescending to be 
 the Head of the new covenant, to fulfil the condition there- 
 
238 SELECTIONS FROM MR. PISIIER's WRITINGS. 
 
 of in point of doing and suffering, that this his perfect 
 righteousness might be imputed to you for your justifica- 
 tion and title to eternal life. No sooner are you made to 
 see the wonders of redeeming love, in the substitution of 
 Christ in your room, as the Head of the new creation, than 
 presently you are convinced of your miserable condition, 
 in standing related to the first Adam, — and that God is 
 righteous in imputing Adam's first sin unto you, — and that 
 he would also be righteous, though the threatening of the 
 law were put in execution against you, saying, as it is 
 Dan. ix. 7. " Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, 
 but unto us confusion of faces." 
 
 (2.) Have you got a discovery of the nature of sin, what 
 it really is ? If you are " looking on," and beholding the 
 Angel doing wondrously, you have certainly got some dis- 
 covery of the evil nature or malignity of sin — " For you 
 know that he was manifested to take away our sins," 1 John 
 iii. 5 ; and ver. 8. " For this purpose the Son of God was 
 manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." 
 Therefore, if you are looking upon the Angel doing won- 
 drously, you see that sin is that abominable thing which 
 God hates, because it is the very opposite of his holy nature, 
 and a transgression of his holy law. You see that it is so 
 exceeding sinful that the whole flood of infinite wrath 
 must be poured in upon the Son of God, as bearing it for 
 us, before a free pardon and indemnity can be issued forth, 
 in a consistency with the honour of justice; for " the Lord 
 God merciful and gracious," in " forgiving iniquity, trans- 
 gression, and sin," will do it in such a way as "by no means 
 to clear the guilty," without a full satisfaction to offended 
 justice, Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7. Again, in looking upon the 
 Angel of the Lord doing wondrously in being a propitiation 
 for sin, you have got a discovery of the evil of it, as it is 
 a practical blaspheming of all the divine attributes and 
 excellencies ; — that it is a calling in question the truth 
 and veracity of God, who " cannot lie," — an undervaluing 
 his manifold wisdom, — a slighting of his unspeakable good- 
 ness and infinite love, — a contempt of his impartial justice, 
 
SEU. III. — CHRIST THE SOLE DOER, ETC. 239 
 
 — and a despising of his just authority and ahiiighty power. 
 You have seen that sin is " wholly evil," — that there is 
 not the least good in it, — and therefore that any outward 
 trouble ought to be the object of our choice rather than 
 the least sin. 
 
 (3.) Have you been brought to see your own vileness 
 and deformity by reason of sin? If you are looking on 
 the Angel doing wondrously in taking away your sins, this 
 will be the effect of it, that you will loathe and abhor your- 
 selves in dust and ashes on account thereof, Job xlii. 5, G. 
 " Now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I abhor myself, and 
 repent in dust and ashes." Have you seen yourselves to 
 be wholly an unclean thing 1 — that from the head to the 
 foot there is no soundness in you ? — that there is nothing 
 but darkness in your understanding, enmity and rebellion 
 in your wills, disorder and carnality in your affections? 
 And did you ever know what it is to get a discovery of this 
 your vileness and deformity, not only in the glass of the 
 law, but in the glass of the glory of Christ, manifesting 
 himself to you in the word of the gospel ? 
 
 (4.) Are you looking upon the Angel of the Lord doing 
 wondrously ? then you are persuaded that you can do no- 
 thing for your own recovery out of that deplorable state 
 wherein you are plunged by your sin and apostasy from 
 God, — that you cannot answer the least demand of the 
 law with respect to that obedience which it requires, — and 
 though you could, yet that you cannot make atonement 
 for what is past, nor give unto God a sufficient ransom. 
 In looking on the Angel of the Lord " travelling in the 
 greatness of his strength, mighty to save," you see your 
 own utter weakness and inability to attempt any repara- 
 tion to God's law which you have violated, or to stand 
 before his offended justice ; and therefore wiU be well 
 pleased that the Lord hath laid your help " upon one that 
 is mighty," — that his hand hath been on the "man of his 
 right hand," whom he hath made strong for himself. 
 
 (o.) What is your exercise about the legal bias of your 
 hearts? If you are looking upon the Angel of the Lord 
 ^ 2 E 
 
240 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHER S WRITINGS. 
 
 doing wondrously, then this legal bias will be matter of 
 your deepest concern. You that are believers cannot but 
 be sensible of a strong inclination in your treacherous and 
 legal hearts to rest upon your duties, your graces, your 
 frames, or attainments, as some ground of your acceptance 
 before God ; but it will be matter of mourning unto you 
 that you should seek to rob him of any part of the whole 
 glory, or that anything in you should claim the least share 
 of it, — and therefore the language of your souls will be, 
 " Not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory." 
 — " Let him that builds the temple of the Lord bear all 
 the glory." 
 
 (6.) What estimate do you put upon your own do- 
 ings ? If you are looking upon the Angel doing won- 
 drously, you will think nothing of all that ever you did or 
 can do, — though you have perhaps got some enlargement, 
 at a time, in praying, praising, hearing, or communicating, 
 yet you have sometimes found it to be as the " morning 
 cloud, and the early dew," which soon goeth away. You 
 have found such a deal of unbelief, formality, and hypocrisy 
 cleaving to your best duties, that you have been made to 
 conclude you have nothing of your own whereof you can 
 boast, — that you have no good but what you have received, 
 — and therefore that, at best, you are but " unprofitable 
 servants." 
 
 (7.) What discoveries have been made to you by your 
 looking upon the Angel doing wondrously ? Have you 
 seen the infinite moral distance betwixt God and you re- 
 moved by his assuming your nature, and thereby a com- 
 munication established betwixt heaven and earth, in that 
 " new and living way which he hath consecrated for us 
 through the vail of his flesh ? " Have you seen your own 
 sin and guilt in his meritorious oblation, that the "just 
 sufiered for the unjust ?" Have you seen an " everlasting 
 righteousness" wrought out for you in his obedience unto 
 death? Have you got a view of the full and complete 
 discharge of all your sins in his resurrection from the 
 dead 1 Have you got a faith's sight of a place prepared 
 
SER. III. — CHRIST THE SOLE DOER, ETC. 241 
 
 for you l)y his ascension, since he hath said, " I go to pre- 
 pare a place for you ; and if I go and prepare a place for 
 you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that 
 where I am, there ye may be also ?" If you are looking 
 upon the Angel doing wondrously, you are discerning a 
 matchless glory in his person, — an unfathomahle breadth, 
 length, and depth in his love, — and an infinite worth in 
 all that he hath done, as " Immanuel, God with us." 
 
 (8.) What is the principle and end of all that you do ? If 
 you are looking upon the Angel doing wondrously, the 
 principle of all your actions will be faith in him and love 
 to him. You will have faith in him, depending on his 
 strength for assistance, and on his righteousness for ac- 
 ceptance in all that you do; and you will have love to 
 him, which will make his service sweet and pleasant unto 
 you, 1 John v. 3. " This is the love of God, that we keep 
 his commandments : and his commandments are not griev- 
 ous." His glory will be the great end you have in view : 
 — you will be ready to say, Let him increase though I 
 should decrease, — let him have in all things the pre-emi- 
 nence, — let him be honoured, though I should bo ever so 
 much debased and despised. In a word, you will study to 
 perform every duty, because he is thereby glorified ; and 
 to hate every sin, because he is thereby dishonoured, 
 
 (9.) How are you exercised when anything intervenes 
 betwixt you and the Angel that has done wondrously? 
 Surely, if you are " looking on," he will be so amiable and 
 lovely in your eyes, that everything that keeps him out of 
 your sight will be most troublesome unto you: — though 
 you are sensible of being easily diverted to other objects, 
 yet the desire of your souls will be, that you may be in 
 case to say with the Psalmist, " My heart is fixed, God, 
 my heart is fixed ; I will sing and give praise." And you 
 will long for the time when the day will break and the 
 shadows flee away. 
 
 12. Hath Christ, the Angel of the covenant, done won- 
 drously ? and is it your privilege to " look on ] " then let 
 us all be exhorted to turn aside and see this great sight. 
 
242 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHEr's WRITINGS. 
 
 As Moses said concerning the " bush burning and not con- 
 sumed," Exod. iii. 3 ; so let every one of us say, " I will 
 now turn aside, and see this great sight," namely, the 
 Angel doing wondrously. This is the greatest sight ever 
 the world saw or heard of, — the wonder of angels and men, 
 — the wonder of time and eternity, — that the eternal God, 
 in our nature, should ascend in the flame of the sacrifice 
 of himself; or that his death, in our room, should lay the 
 foundation of his glorious and triumphant ascension as 
 the Head of the whole mystical body. Well, then, what is 
 here said of JManoah and his wife that they really did, we 
 exhort you to do, and that is, to "look on" in a way of 
 believing. 
 
 And to encourage you to fall in with the exhortation, 
 the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ calls you to 
 look upon his only begotten Son, as the Angel that hath 
 done wondrously in your behalf, Isa. xlii. 1. " Behold my 
 servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul 
 delighteth." 
 
 Christ invites you to look on himself, in a way of believ- 
 ing, as the only doer in the great work of your redemption, 
 Isa. Ixv. 1. " I said. Behold me, behold me, unto a nation. 
 that was not called by my name." 
 
 He is lifted up on the pole of the everlasting gospel, for 
 this very end, that you may look on him as the performer 
 of all things for you ; for, " As Moses lifted up the serpent 
 in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted 
 up; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, 
 but have eternal life," John iii. 14, 15. Although your 
 right of access to salvation be founded allenarly in the free 
 gift and grant thereof unto you in the word, yet your 
 being actually interested therein, and possessed thereof, 
 must be in a way of " looking on," or believing : " Look 
 unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth," Isa. 
 xlv. 22. 
 
 Consider the present necessity of "looking on," or be- 
 lieving. It is now, — in a present life, or before death, that 
 Christ is to be believed on, — or never : " For there is no 
 
SER. III. CIliaST THE SOLE DOER, ETC. 
 
 24; 
 
 work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, 
 whither thou goest." " Behold, now is the accepted time ; 
 behold, now is the day of salvation." At death the state 
 is fixed irreversibly,— and none knows how soon God may 
 send that inexorable messenger to sist them before his 
 awful tribunal; therefore, "To-day if you will hear his 
 voice, harden not your hearts." The call to believe, or 
 " look on," is to a present duty,— there is the utmost dan- 
 ger in delaying a matter of such importance, whereupon 
 the happiness of your souls depends through eternity. 
 therefore, " Incline your ear ; hear, and your soul shall 
 live." 
 
 Christ, the Angel that did wondrously, is brought near 
 to you in the word, — you are welcome to " look on," and 
 appropriate all that you see to yourselves : " For the pro- 
 mise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are 
 afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." It 
 is unto you, as you are sinners, that " the word of this sal- 
 vation is sent ;" and " This is the command of God, that 
 you believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ." And 
 remember that there is no "escaping, if you neglect so 
 great salvation." 
 
 Consider how earnest and importunate Christ is with 
 you, that you " look on him," in a way of believing, to the 
 saving of your souls. He sends forth his ambassadors to 
 beseech you, in his stead, that you be reconciled to God. 
 He complains of your aversion to him, John v. 40. " Ye 
 will not come to me, that ye might have life." And he 
 laments your refusal, Luke xix. 42. " If thou hadst known, 
 even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong 
 unto thy peace ! but now they are hid from thine eyes." 
 
 Lastly, Consider that others have " looked on," and have 
 found the benefit thereof to their comfortable experience, 
 Psal. xxxiv. 5. " They looked to him and were hghtened, 
 and their faces were not ashamed." And as we exhort 
 you to the present exercise of "looking on," or believing, 
 so likewise to the constant and habitual exercise thereof 
 for the future, during your abode in the house of your pil- 
 
244 SELECTIONS PROM MR. FISHER's WRITINGS. 
 
 grimage. Study to " live by faith of the Son of God ;" for 
 it is promised, " The just shall live by faith." This is one 
 of the " good and perfect gifts which are from above, and 
 come down from the Father of lights, with whom is no 
 variableness, neither shadow of turning." Faith is one of 
 those gifts which are conferred without repentance ; for 
 he who is the author being also the finisher of faith, there 
 can be no cause for his withdrawing of it which would not 
 as well have hindered him from bestowing it at first ; nor 
 can there happen any after-un worthiness, in those whom 
 he hath once privileged with this grace, which he did not 
 foresee when he first wrought it in their souls. 
 
 In order to your living by faith on the Son of God, con- 
 sider that all the offices he executes, as Mediator, are purely 
 relative, bearing a relation to us, — he had never been 
 clothed with any of them had it not been on our account. 
 The offices of Christ are not like the attributes of God, — 
 the attributes of God are absolutely essential to the divine 
 nature, — God would have been infinite, eternal, unchange- 
 able, (fcc, although no creature had ever existed ; but Christ 
 could not have been Prophet, Priest, and King, if there 
 had not been sinners of mankind with relation to whom 
 these offices were to be executed ; so that they all bear a 
 relation to us, in the miserable circumstances wherein sin 
 hath plunged us, — and if you get a well-grounded persua- 
 sion that Christ your " passover is sacrificed " for you as a 
 Priest, it will be the more easy to believe that he will en- 
 lighten you as a Prophet, and sanctify you as a King. 
 
 To conclude, — we v/ould exhort you to evidence that it 
 is your habitual exercise to be "looking on" the Angel 
 doing wondrously, by your looking down with contempt 
 on time-things, when laid in the balance with those that 
 are eternal, — by being diligent in the practice of com- 
 manded duty, — by aspiring after nearer conformity to God 
 in holiness, — and longing for the full enjoyment of him in 
 heaven. And thus you will imitate the practice of Manoah 
 and his wife, of whom it is said in our text, that when 
 "the angel did wondrously, Manoah and his wife looked on." 
 
SERMON IV.* 
 
 THE DOORS OF THE HEART SUMMONED TO OPEN TO 
 THE KING OF GLORY. 
 
 PsAL. xxiv. 7. — " Lift up your heads, ye gates ; and be ye lift up, ye 
 everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in." 
 
 It is evident, from the title, that David was the penman 
 of the Spirit of God in this psalm ; — and it is generally 
 thought that it was composed upon the occasion of his 
 bringing up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom 
 unto the tabernacle which he had pitched for it in mount 
 Zion, 2 Sam. vi. 1 7 ; which, by the prophet Nathan, he 
 understood would be the place where Solomon's temple 
 should afterwards be built. Therefore, not doubting but 
 that this glorious work would be finished in due time, and 
 that the ark of God would be brought to its place therein, 
 he, beforehand, poetically addresses the gates and doors of 
 the temple, and gives them a solemn charge to give patent 
 access to this glorious symbol of the divine presence, and 
 eminent type of Christ, the Saviour and Surety of lost sin- 
 ners of mankind : " Lift up your heads, ye gates," (fee. 
 In these words you may notice, 
 
 1, The object addressed, — it is literally the " gates" and 
 "doors" of the temple, which David, by faith and the 
 spirit of prophecy, beheld as already built ; but typically 
 and spiritually it is the gates and doors of the heart, — the 
 temple typifying not only the human nature of Christ, but 
 likewise his church. Hence the members of the church 
 visible are called "the temple of God," 1 Cor. iii. 16. "Know 
 
 • An Action Sermon, preached at Glasgow, August 31, 1755. 
 
246 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHER's WRITINGS. 
 
 ye not that ye are the temple of God ?" And the 
 doors of this temple are fitly called "everlasting," — be- 
 cause the soul of man, being of an immortal nature, the 
 faculties thereof, which are its doors, cannot but be ever- 
 lasting. 
 
 2. You have the address itself, or the solemn charge he 
 gives to these gates and doors, — and that is, " to be lifted 
 up :" " Lift up your heads, ye gates :" — let your tops or 
 lintels be raised up on high, that the entrance may be the 
 more spacious and magnificent. Or, perhaps the lifting 
 up of the heads or tops of the gates may be spoken in 
 allusion to the iron-grates that are hung over the entry of 
 fortified places, and let down for debarring all access ; and 
 so may denote the strong bars wherewith the heart of man 
 is naturally fortified against Christ, and the way of salvation 
 through him: — let all these be knocked oif and give way. 
 And whereas the summons is doubled, — " Lift up your 
 heads, ye gates ;" and " be ye lifted up, ye everlasting 
 doors," — it signifies both the importance of the duty and 
 the peremptoriness of the charge. So that the amount of 
 the solemn call seems to be this : ' Let the doors of every 
 sinner's heart, to whom these presents shall come, be wide 
 opened by believing ; and every bar and obstacle be there- 
 by presently made to give place, that so there may be a 
 patent entrance for all the good that is wrapped up in the 
 promise.' 
 
 3. You have the ground and reason of this repeated 
 charge, or the motive enforcing such a solemn call, — it is 
 the promise that " the King of glory shall come in." This 
 King of glory is no other than Christ, who is called the 
 " Lord of glory," 1 Cor. ii. 8 ; where it is said, that " if the 
 princes of this world had known him, they would not have 
 crucified the Lord of glory." 
 
 Upon the words thus opened, I found the following 
 doctrine, namely, — 
 
 Doctrine, — ' That as there is a solemn charge given to 
 sinners of mankind, in the dispensation of the gospel, to 
 open or lift up the doors of their hearts to Christ, the King 
 
SER. IV. — TllE DOORS OF TUE UEART, ETC. 247 
 
 of glory, in a way of believing ; so it is secured, by pro- 
 mise, that he shall come in.' 
 
 The Method I propose to follow, through divine assist- 
 ance, shall be, to speak — 
 
 I. Of the solemn charge here given to sinners of man- 
 kind, to " lift up" or " open" the everlasting doors of their 
 hearts. 
 
 II. Of the "King of glory," in whose favours access to 
 the heart is demanded. 
 
 III. Of the promise of his in-coming to the hearts of 
 sinners. And, 
 
 IV. To apply the subject. 
 
 I. I return to the first of these,— namely, to speak of 
 the solemn charge here given unto sinners of mankind to 
 "lift up" or "open" the "everlasting doors" of their 
 hearts. Upon this head I shall essay, 
 
 First, To show that the heart of man is by nature 
 strongly fortified against Christ's entry into it. 
 
 Secondly, Inquire what are these "doors" of the heart, 
 which are summoned to open unto him. 
 
 Thirdly, What is meant by the " lifting up " or " open- 
 ing" of these doors ; and how they open. 
 
 First, We are to show, that the heart of man is by na- 
 ture strongly /or^{^€c/ against Christ's entry into it. This 
 is implied in the solemn charge here given, " Lift up your 
 heads, ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting 
 doors :" — which plainly says that they are naturally shut, 
 and strongly bolted against the entry of the Son of God 
 into them. I shall name a few of these bolts or bars 
 wherewith the heart is naturally fortified against Christ. 
 
 1. There is the bar of ignorance; for, till "the light of 
 the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus, 
 shine in our hearts," they will remain shut upon him,— it 
 being " the entrance only of his word that giveth light." 
 But so soon as he is taken up in the light of his own word, 
 presently the heart will open unto him in a way of believ- 
 ing ; Psal. ix. 10. " They that know thy name will put their 
 trust in thee." 
 
248 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHER's WRITINGS. 
 
 2. The heart of the sinner is fortified against Christ by 
 unbelief; which is a rejecting the record and testimony of 
 God concerning his eternal Son, — a treading him under 
 foot, and reckoning the blood of the covenant, wherewith 
 he was sanctified, an unholy thing. Therefore, since there 
 is salvation in no other, nor any " other name under hea- 
 ven, given among men, whereby we must be saved," it is 
 impossible he can have any entrance, till we account it " a 
 faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ 
 Jesus came into the world to save sinners," of whom each 
 of us have reason to reckon ourselves the " chief." 
 
 3. Legality is another strong bar upon the heart ; for, 
 while we go about to establish our own righteousness, we 
 will never submit ourselves unto the righteousness of God ; 
 while we remain wedded to the law, as a covenant, we will 
 never consent to be married to another, even to him who 
 is raised again from the dead. 
 
 4. The heart of the sinner is naturally bolted against 
 Christ with self-sujfficieiicij ; saying, with Laodicea, " I am 
 rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing." 
 And, indeed, while this is the case, we will never go 
 a-begging at Wisdom's door, or open to him whom the 
 Father hath loved, and " given all things into his hand," 
 that out of his fulness we might receive, " and grace for 
 grace." 
 
 5. Spiritual lethargy, or security, is another bar upon the 
 heart; for, while the sinner is fast asleep, under all the 
 alarms of word and providence, he cannot arise and open 
 to Christ, — neither will he be awakened till the Spirit of 
 God set home the law, in its spirituality and extent, upon 
 the conscience ; for, " by the law is the knowledge of sin." 
 
 6. Hopeless despair shuts the heart efiectually against 
 Christ ; for, when once a person apprehends that his sins 
 are so many, and so heinously aggravated, that there is no 
 mercy or forgiveness for him, he is ready to give loose 
 reins to corruption, and to say upon the matter, " There 
 is no hope ; I have loved strangers, and after them I will 
 go." In which case, the longer the person lives, his heart 
 
SER. IV. — THE DOORS OF THE HEART, ETC. 24!) 
 
 will still be the more hardened, unless a day of power 
 brings about a saving change. 
 
 7. Presumptuous conjideiice bolts the heart against Christ ; 
 for, while a person mistakes his convictions, the qualms of 
 his conscience, or the transient motions that may be, at a 
 time, upon his affections, for real grace, he will certainly 
 take ease and shelter to himself under these lying refut^es 
 till the hail sweep them away ; and then he will see that 
 a "deceived heart hath turned them aside." Thus you 
 see that the heart of man is by nature strongly fortified 
 against Clirist's entry into it. I go on to 
 
 The second particular upon this general Head, which was 
 to inquire, What are those " doors " which are summoned 
 to open to Christ Jesus the Lord. For understanding this, 
 you would know that there is here an allusion to the entry 
 of great houses ; as access to a great house is by outer and 
 inner gates, so there are outer and inner doors of the heart 
 l)y which it is accessible. The outer doors of the heart, 
 while the soul is united to the body, are the ear and the 
 eye. 
 
 1. There is the outer door of the hodily ear; which is an 
 organ framed for hearing the words of Christ, and the 
 summons given, in his name, by his sent servants, to open 
 the everlasting doors of the heart unto him, Isa. Iv. 3. 
 " Incline your ear, come unto me ; hear, and your souls 
 shall live." The ear is such an useful door to the heart 
 that faith is said to come by hearing, Rom. x. 17. " Faith 
 Cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." 
 
 2. The other outer door of the heart is the eije of the 
 body ; which is calculated for reading the Scriptures, which 
 testify so amply of Christ. Hence are they pronounced 
 blessed who read the word so as to feed on it by faith, 
 Rev. i. 3 " Blessed is he that readdh, and they that hear 
 the words of this prophecy, and keep the sayings which 
 are written therein." So that the outer doors of the heart 
 are the ear and the eye, — the one is summoned to listen, 
 and the other to read and search the record of God con- 
 cerning Christ. 
 
250 SELECTIONS FROM JIR. FISHER's WRITINGS. 
 
 But, then, as the heart hath those outer doors which we 
 have mentioned, it has inner ones also which are sum- 
 moned to " lift up" or " open" to the Son of God. These 
 inner doors are the faculties of the soul, which are princi- 
 pally two, the understanding and the will. When these 
 are lifted up, all the other powers of the soul fly open at 
 once. 
 
 1. There is the inner door of the understanding, which 
 is the leading faculty of the soul. This is naturally such 
 a dungeon of darkness, that it cannot receive the things of 
 the Spirit of God till the vail and covering that is upon it 
 be rent by the power of efficacious grace ; for, '' the god of 
 this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe 
 not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is 
 the image of God, should shine into them." But so soon 
 as the "day-spring" from on high visits the sinner, or 
 the "Sun of righteousness" arises upon him, then the 
 "shadows fly away," and "' an understanding is given to 
 know him who is the true God and eternal life " 1 John 
 V. 20. 
 
 2. There is the inner door of the Wi7^,— which, ever since 
 the fall, is bolted with opposition unto, and enmity against, 
 the will of God; for "the carnal mind is enmity against 
 God, and is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed 
 can be." Hence we find God's main complaint against 
 sinners lodged at the door of their will. Matt, xxiii. 37. 
 " Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered 
 thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens 
 under her wings, and ye woidd notT John v. 40. " Ye will 
 not come unto me, that ye might have life." Howbeit, in 
 a day of divine power, this iron-gate is made to give way, 
 Psalm ex. 3. " Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy 
 power." And thus, when these two inner doors of the 
 heart, the understanding and the will, are opened and 
 lifted up, the one by enlightening, the other by renewing 
 grace, all the other powers of the soul open of course. The 
 aiFections, following the enlightened mind and renewed 
 will, centre on him who is " altogether lovely." The con- 
 
SER. IV. — THE DOORS OF THE HEART, ETC. 2.31 
 
 science finds foiilt with and challenges every thing that is 
 offensive in his sight. And the memory loves to retain 
 him and his truths as the subject-matter of habitual medi- 
 tation. Thus you see what are the " doors" of the heart 
 which are summoned to open to Christ. 
 
 The third particular, on this Head, was to inquire what 
 is meant by the " lifting up" or " opening" of these doors, 
 and how they open. To the 
 
 l^-^. What is meant by the "lifting up" or "opening" 
 these doors? — I answer, that the charge here given unto 
 the gates to "lift up" their heads, and to the everlasting 
 doors to " be lifted up," is just the very same with the 
 command to " believe." It is a solemn charge laid upon 
 sinners of mankind to believe on the Son of God, as the 
 only way to the Father. As there can be no patent entry 
 to a house but by open doors, so there can be no other way 
 of giving reception to Christ but by believing on him ;— 
 hence "receiving" and "believing" are all one in Scripture, 
 John i. 12. " As many as received him, to them gave he 
 power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe 
 on his name." Christ comes to every man and woman's 
 door only in the word of divine revelation, and conse- 
 quently there can be no other way of receiving him but 
 by believing that word as the record of God ; for, as unbe- 
 lief is a shutting him out of the heart, so faith is an opening 
 thereof to take him in. And as nothing glorifies God so 
 much as believing, therefore God claims it as his own pecu- 
 liar work, John vi. 29. " This is the work of God, that ye 
 believe on him whom he hath sent." On the same account 
 is faith called " precious," 2 Pet, i. 1 ; because it unites 
 with precious Christ, and ties the marriage-knot which 
 shall never be loosed. So it is the pecuUar excellency of 
 the grace of faith, to open the doors of the heart to receive 
 in Christ Jesus the Lord. But then, 
 
 2(%. How do these doors open in believing ? 
 
 1. In believing, a beam of divine, supernatural light, 
 from the word, shines in upon the understanding, and 
 thereby this door presently opens to take in the knowledge 
 
252 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHER's WRITINGS. 
 
 of Christ, and of God in him, and of the whole of divine 
 revelation. For, it is when the " eyes of the understanding 
 are enlightened" that we "know what is the hope of his 
 calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance 
 in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his 
 power to US-ward who believe," Eph. i. 18, 19. This saving 
 illumination of the mind is the first work in the new crea- 
 tion, even as the making of light was the first particular 
 work in the old: — hence the "new man" is said to be 
 " renewed in knowledge, after the image of him that created 
 him," Col. iii. 10. 
 
 2. In believing, the Spirit having moulded the will, in 
 conformity to the will of God, it hereby opens to give a 
 cordial reception to Christ, as presented to the understand- 
 ing in the light of the word. The same Spirit, who power- 
 fully sways the understanding to assent to the record of 
 God as true, as powerfully inclines the will, at the same 
 time, to embrace it as good. The light of the gospel, dis- 
 covering Christ in the glory of his person, offices, and 
 mediation, is darted in upon the understanding ; and the 
 same light is, by a secret working of the Spirit, reflected 
 upon the will, whereby it is sweetly influenced to open to 
 him as altogether lovely. 
 
 3. In believing, the afiections get such a spiritual set, 
 that they may be justly said to open to Christ when they 
 can terminate nowhere solidly and permanently but on 
 himself, and God in him, as the object of our highest love, 
 desire, and esteem; so as to be in case to say with the 
 Psalmist, " Whom have I in heaven but thee 1 and there 
 is none upon earth that I desire besides thee." Or with 
 the church, Isa. xxvi. 8. " The desire of our soul is to thy 
 name, and to the remembrance of thee." Sirs, if the door 
 of your understanding hath been opened to know Christ, 
 and the door of your will to embrace him, your affections 
 cannot miss to be enamoured and captivated with him; 
 for spiritual light in the understanding will be always ac- 
 companied with some spiritual warmth upon the affections, 
 Luke xxiv. 32. " Did not our hearts burn within us, while 
 
SER IV. THE DOORS OF THE HEART, ETC. 253 
 
 ho talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us 
 the scriptures ?" 
 
 4. In believing, the conscience being purged from dead 
 works by the blood of Christ, may be said to open to him 
 when it can have no quiet or peace without some know- 
 ledge of a present interest in his love, as it was with the 
 Spouse ; she was restless till he returned with the wonted 
 evidences of his kindness, Song iii. at the beginning. 
 
 5. In believing, the memory being made a receptacle of 
 gospel truth, 1 Cor. xv. 2. may be said to open to Christ, 
 when it is ready, not only to take in and lay up fresh store 
 from the word, but likewise to bring forth and utter abun- 
 dantly what it remembers of his great goodness, according 
 to the promise, Psal. cxlv. 7. " They shall abundantly utter 
 the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy 
 righteousness." — Thus you see what is meant by " lifting 
 up" the doors of the heart, and hoiu they open to Christ in 
 believing. And so much for the first thing, namely, the 
 solemn charge here given to " open" or " lift up" the ever- 
 lasting doors of the heart. I now proceed to the 
 
 II. General Head of the Method, which was to speak of 
 the " King of glory," in whose favour access to the heart 
 is demanded. Upon this head, I shall, 
 
 First, Offer a few meditations concerning this glorious 
 King. 
 
 Secondl)/, Inquire why called the King of glory. 
 
 First, A few propositions concerning this glorious 
 King. 
 
 1. Our Lord Jesus is the alone King and Head of his 
 church, by his Father's ordination and appointment, from 
 eternity. The supreme rule which he exerciseth over all 
 the creatures as God, is natural and essential to him, as 
 being one in essence with the Father and Holy Ghost ; but 
 the sovereign power and authority, which he exerciseth in 
 and over his church as Mediator, is " given" unto him as 
 a reward of his purchase, Matt, xxviii. 18. " All power is 
 given unto me," says he, " in heaven and in earth." Hence 
 are so many royal titles assigned unto him ; such as "Prince 
 
254 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHER's WRITINGS. 
 
 of peace," " Captain of salvation," " Lord of glory," and 
 " King of kings." 
 
 2. The assumption of the human nature was necessary 
 to the execution of his office as a King ; for he could not 
 have mounted the throne as a King, if he had not first 
 offered up himself, in the human nature, as a Priest, Luke 
 xxiv. 26. " Ought not Christ to suffer these things, and to 
 enter into his glory 1 " — hence called "' a Priest upon his 
 throne," Zech. vi. 13 ; — intimating that the cross was the 
 way to the crown. 
 
 3. Although he exercised his kingly power, as Mediator, 
 ever after the first promise, yet the solemnity of his in- 
 stalment and investiture in the kingdom was not till his 
 ascension to the right hand of the Majesty on high, where- 
 by he was made both Lord and Christ ; " for to this end 
 Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be 
 Lord both of the dead and living," Rom. xiv. 9. 
 
 4. His kingdom is quite of another nature, and alto- 
 gether distinct, from the kingdoms of this world, — for it is 
 a spiritual kingdom : — " My kingdom," says he to Pilate, 
 '' is not of this world." Everything in his kingdom is 
 spiritual and heavenly, — the manner of the administration 
 thereof, is not by secular arms and outward force, but by 
 spiritual weapons only : " The weapons of our warfare are 
 not carnal, but mighty through God." His laws are spiri- 
 tual, reaching the inward as well as the outward man. 
 And the blessings which he distributes are chiefly of a 
 spiritual nature, — such as, the pardon of sin, fellowship 
 and communion with God, grace here, and glory hereafter. 
 
 5. He is a King of most singular and unparalleled quali- 
 fications : — for, (1.) He is a King of immeasurable wisdom 
 and knowledge, the treasures of both being hid in him, 
 Col. ii. 3. (2.) He is a King of irresistible power ; for, as 
 " all power is given unto him in heaven and in earth," so the 
 armies of both are at his command. (3.) He is a King of 
 unspotted holiness, being " the Holy One of Israel in the 
 midst of us." (4.) He is a King of unsearchable riches 
 and unbounded liberality ; for, as " riches and honour are 
 
SER. IV. — THE DOORS OF THE HEART, ETC. 255 
 
 with him," so he invites every one to whom he sends gos- 
 pel-Hglit to come and share oi" his fulness: Isa. Iv. 1. " II o, 
 every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he 
 that hath no money: come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, 
 buy wine and milk without money, and without price." 
 (o.) He is a King of untainted veracity, — for he is truth 
 itself, — and all " the promises are in him Yea and Amen." 
 (G.) lie is an eternal and immortal King. lie was dead, 
 indeed ; but because by his death he hnished the purchase 
 of our salvation, therefore " Behold he is alive for ever- 
 more," to see to the begun possession of it here, and the 
 full fruition of it hereafter. 
 
 The seco7id branch of this general Head was to inquire, 
 Why be is called the " King of glory ? " The expression 
 hath a pecuUar singularity in it ; for, though kings, in 
 some sense, may be said to be glorious, yet no other but 
 Christ himself was ever styled " the King of glory." He 
 is so called, 
 
 1. Because there is in the human nature, now exalted, 
 a bright manifestation of the glory of his divine person. 
 The union between the two natures was the same, in a 
 state of humiliation, that it is now in a state of exaltation ; 
 but the glory of the divine nature, which was veiled for a 
 while by the sinless infirmities and voluntary abasement 
 to which he submitted before his resurrection, did appear 
 again in all its former splendour, by the glorification of the 
 human nature, in its ascension to the right hand of the 
 throne of God, — which is the meaning of Christ's words to 
 his Father, John xvii. 5. " Glorify thou me with thine own 
 self with the glory which I had with thee before the world 
 was." 
 
 2. He is called " the King of glory," because the glory, 
 in which he was installed at his ascension, is unspeakably 
 great. For, as the human nature, in virtue of its union 
 with the Son of God, was capable of being filled with the 
 Spirit above all measure ; so, for the same reason, it is 
 capable of a glory inconceivably great, — as seems plainly 
 to be imported in the expression, Phil. ii. 9. " God also 
 
 * 2p 
 
256 SELECTIONS FKOM MR. FISHER S WRITINGS. 
 
 hath highly exalted him." The original word is, " super- 
 exalted" him; that is, exalted him above all the concep- 
 tion of angels or men. 
 
 3. He is called " the King of glory," because he is the 
 receptacle and storehouse of all glory ; " For the Father 
 loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand." 
 This will be acknowledged by all the inhabitants of the 
 upper sanctuary for ever and ever : Rev. v. 12. " Worthy 
 is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, 
 and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and 
 blessing." 
 
 4. He is called " the King of glory," because he is the 
 dispenser of all that glory which shall ever be let out 
 among the saints through eternity ; for he received gifts, 
 not for himself, but " for men," that he might bestow 
 them variously at his pleasure among sinners of mankind. 
 Accordingly, as he will give grace here, so he will give 
 glory hereafter, that on him may " hang all the glory of 
 his Father's house, from the vessels of cups even to all the 
 vessels of flagons." 
 
 5. " He is called " the King of glory," because there is 
 a refulgency or brightness of glory always shining out from 
 him. As the sun in the firmament diffuses and spreads 
 abroad its light freely, liberally, and continually ; so there 
 is a bountiful and perpetual emanation of glory from the 
 Sun of righteousness, and that both in this life and in that 
 which is to come. In this life, his glory shines mediately, 
 through the glass of the word, 2 Cor. iii. 18. " We all, with 
 open foce beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord." 
 And in the life to come, his glory shines immediately on 
 all the ransomed company, which is the very soul of their 
 glory for ever : — hence says he, John xvii. 22. " The glory 
 which thou gavest me I have given them ; that they may 
 be one, even as we are one." 
 
 6. He is called " the King of glory," because of the 
 badges of glory and sovereignty that are ascribed unto 
 him. He hath a throne of glory on which he sits, Matt. 
 XXV. 31. " When the Son of man shall come, and all his 
 
SEU. IV. THE DOORS OF THE HEART, ETC. 2a7 
 
 holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throm of 
 his glory." He has a sceptre of glory which he sways, and 
 this*' is no other than the glorious gospel, called the " rod 
 of his strength," Psal. ex. 2. lie has a glorious retinue ; 
 for " thousand thousands minister unto him, and ten thou- 
 sand times ten thousand stand before him." He has a 
 glorious robe, hence said to be "glorious in his apparel," 
 Isa. Ixiii. 1. And he has a glorious tribute and revenue 
 paid in to him ; for in him " shall all the seed of Israel be 
 justified, and shall glory."— Thus I have hinted, very im- 
 perfectly, at a few things only on this inexhaustible sub- 
 ject, concerning " the King of glory," in whose favours 
 access to the heart is demanded. I now proceed to the 
 
 III. Thing in the Method,— namely, The promise of his 
 in-coming to the hearts of sinners—" The King of glory 
 shall come inr Upon this Head I shall briefly essay these 
 two things : — 
 
 First, Inquire into the import of the promise, ihe 
 King of glory shall come in." 
 
 Secondly, :Mention a few of the great things he brings 
 alongst with him when he comes. 
 
 First, What is imported in this promise, " The King of 
 glory shall come in?"" 
 
 1. It imports, that this glorious person has himself re- 
 moved all legal bars and impediments that were in the 
 way of his access unto the soul. Sin made an infinite 
 moral distance betwixt God and us, and blocked up all 
 communication with heaven; but this he removed by his 
 obedience unto the death in our room,— whereby all the 
 demands that law and justice had against us were fully 
 answered, and nothing could any more be laid "to the 
 charge of God's elect." 
 
 2. " The King of glory shall come in,"— it imports, that, 
 next to the union of the two natures in the person of the 
 Son, there cannot be a greater wonder than that God in 
 our nature should take up his lodging in such hearts as 
 ours,— considering that he is " the blessed and only Po- 
 tentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords," and we 
 
258 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHER's WRITINGS. 
 
 "wretched, miserable, blind, and naked" sinners. To see 
 an earthly prince come and dwell with a beggar, would be 
 nothing at all in comparison of a God of unspotted holiness 
 dwelling with guilty and polluted souls. Surely we may 
 wonder that such a glorious person should ever condescend 
 to come under such pitiful and contemptible roofs as ours 
 are : each of us may well say with the centurion, Matt, 
 viii. 8. " Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come 
 under my roof." 
 
 3. It imports, that he is waiting and knocking at every 
 man and woman's door, just ready to enter upon the open- 
 ing ; Rev. iii. 20. " Behold, I stand at the door and hiock : 
 if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come 
 in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." ! 
 how near is he to us, when he is in the word of faith which 
 we preach, and which you are just now hearing ! 
 
 4. It imports the certainty of the thing — " Lift up your 
 heads, ye gates, and the King of glory shall come in :" — 
 there is no perad venture about it, he will surely "come in" 
 to the soul that opens to him in a way of believing ; John 
 xi. 40. " Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, 
 thou shouldest see the glory of God ? " For, though there 
 be no necessary connexion betwixt duties as performed by 
 us, and any saving benefit or blessing whatsoever ; yet, in 
 the order of the covenant, there is such a connexion 
 among the blessings themselves that one comes along with 
 another ; as here, Christ's in-coming to the soul is secured, 
 by promise, to accompany believing : " Be ye lift up, ye 
 everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in." 
 
 5. It imports, that in opening the heart to Christ by 
 believing, there commences the closest union between him 
 and the soul, so as that they presently coalesce into one 
 body, whereof he is the Head, and they the members that 
 are nourished by it. And as they coalesce in one body, 
 so likewise into one spirit ; for the same spirit that rests 
 on the Head animates every one of the members: "He 
 that is joined to the Lord is one spirit." 
 
 6. It imports, that, as a fruit of this union, there is an 
 
8ER. IV. — THE DOORS OP THE HEART, ETC. 259 
 
 interest and propriety in his person, and all that he hath. 
 An interest in his person, so as to have ground to say, 
 *' My beloved is mine, and I am his ;" and an interest in all 
 that he hath, — an interest in his righteousness, his fulness, 
 and the whole of his salvation. 
 
 7. It impUes the delight and satisfaction that Christ 
 will have in the soul that opens unto him. As his deUghts 
 were, from eternity, with the sons of men, so when he 
 comes into any of their souls in time, he says to them, as 
 it is Song vii. 6. " How fair and how pleasant art thou, 
 love, for delights I " For we read, that " the Lord taketh 
 pleasure in his people," Psal. cxlix. 4. 
 
 8. " The King of glory shall come in," — it implies that 
 his abode shall be continual. He will not come in as a 
 " stranger or way-faring man to tarry only for a night ;" 
 but he will come in as a constant residenter, saying of the 
 soul as he does of Zion, Psal. cxxxii. 14. " This is my rest 
 for ever: here will I dwell ; for I have desired it." 
 
 The second particular, upon this general Head, was to 
 mention a few of the great things he brings along with him 
 when he comes. And indeed they are so great that their 
 greatness is unutterable. For, 
 
 1. He brings God along with him ; and it cannot be 
 otherwise, seeing "God is in Christ." " He that hath seen 
 me," says Christ, " hath seen my Father also." This mu- 
 tual in-being of the Father, and the Son, and the believer 
 in each other, will remain an impenetrable mystery till the 
 last day declare it ; John xiv. 20. " At that day ye shall 
 know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in 
 you." 
 
 2. He brings the Spirit along with him, to receive of his 
 and " show it unto you." He brings the Spirit to " abide 
 with you for ever ;" to " bring all things to your remem- 
 brance," and to " guide you into all truth." 
 
 3. He brings all the glorious perfections of God along 
 with him, to be employed in and about the soul that opens 
 to him in a way of believing. The infinity of God, to be 
 the inexhaustible fund of our supply, — his eternity, to se- 
 
260 SELECTIONS FROM MR, FISHER's WRITINGS. 
 
 cure the perpetuity of our inheritance, — his unchangeable- 
 ness, to ascertain our perseverance notwithstanding of our 
 daily failings and infirmities, — his wisdom, to give us coun- 
 sel, — his power, to defend us, — his holiness, to conform us 
 to himself, — his justice, to acquit us, — his goodness, to 
 withhold nothing that is for our profit, — and his truth, 
 to " do as he hath said." 
 
 4. He brings all the promises of the covenant along with 
 him, and all the blessings that are contained in them. He 
 brings " gold tried in the fire," to enrich the poor, — "white 
 raiment," for clothing the naked, — and "eye-salve," for 
 enlightening the eyes of the blind. He brings life to 
 quicken the dead, liberty to the captive, and an ample 
 indemnity to the guilty sinner of all his transgressions, be 
 what they will. He brings strength to the weak, healing 
 to the diseased, and comfort to the mourner in Zion. In 
 a word, he brings "all things" along with him ; hence says 
 the apostle, 1 Cor. iii. 22. " All things are yours, and ye are 
 Christ's." — So much for the doctrinal part. I now pro- 
 ceed to make some 
 
 Application of what hath been said. And the First Use 
 shall be of Information, in two Inferences. 
 
 1. Hence see the excellency of the grace oi faith. Other 
 graces do virtuously, but faith excels them all ; for it hfts 
 up and throws open the doors of the heart to Christ, — it 
 unites with him, takes hold of his righteousness for pardon 
 and acceptance, and continually brings an empty hand to 
 receive out of his fulness. It is by faith we have peace 
 with God, — it purifies the heart, and sometimes "joy 
 unspeakable" is the fruit of it; hence says the Apostle 
 Peter, " Believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable." Faith 
 glories and triumphs only in Christ, — it sucks honey out 
 of every flower of the promise, and ventures boldly through 
 aU. dangers and difficulties in the strength that is in Christ 
 Jesus. In a word, it is the very thing that most glorifies 
 God, and is most pleasing unto him ; for, "without faith it 
 is impossible to please God," Heb. xi. 6. 
 
 2. Hence, on the other hand, see the malignant and soul- 
 
FER. IV. — TUE DOOUS OF THE HEART, ETC. 
 
 2(51 
 
 ruining nature of unhelief : for, as faith opens the door of 
 the heart unto Christ, unbelief shuts and keeps them fast 
 against him. It is the great mean whereby Satan keeps 
 possession of the soul ; for, it puts no value on the precious 
 promises, it despises the threatcnings, and gives a Hat re- 
 fusal to the command of God to believe on the name of his 
 Son Jesus Christ. then, " take heed, lest there be in 
 any of you an evil heart of unbelief,"— rejecting '• the coun- 
 sel of God against yourselves," " neglecting so great salva- 
 tion," and consequently bringing upon yourselves " swift 
 destruction." 
 
 The Second Use shall be of Examination. This is a 
 Communion-Sabbath with us in this congregation; and 
 the express command of God is, " Let a man examine him- 
 self, and so let him eat of this bread, and drink of this 
 cup." And as it is the duty of communicants, so Hkewise 
 of all others who hear the gospel, to " examine themselves 
 whether they be in the faith." Well, then, try whether, 
 in a way of believing, your hearts have ever been opened 
 unto " the King of glory ;" or, whether he hath actually 
 come in to them. 
 
 1. If your hearts have been opened to him by believing, 
 then, upon his very first entry, his rivals have been dis- 
 banded, and you have been made to say, with Ephraim, 
 "What have I to do any more with idols?" You desire 
 henceforth to give no more peaceable possession to sin as 
 formerly, but constantly endeavour to resist it, and to 
 wage a perpetual war with it ; and when you see you can- 
 not get rid of it, you will groan under the remains thereof, 
 saying, with Paul, " Who shaU deliver me from the body 
 of this death?" 
 
 2. If your hearts have been opened to Christ, you have 
 been made to fall a-wondering at the matchless glory and 
 exceUency of his person,— that none less than the " great 
 God is your Saviour,"— that He, who " thought it no rob- 
 bery to be equal with God," should take upon him " the 
 form of a servant, and become obedient unto death, even the 
 death of the cross," in your stead. When you see the two 
 
262 SELECTIONS PROM MR. FISHEr's WRITINGS. 
 
 natures of God and man met together in a personal union, 
 you will be ready to say, with amazement, " What hath 
 God wrought I " " Without controversy, great is the mys- 
 tery of godliness." 
 
 3. If " the King of glory " hath come in to your hearts, 
 the glory of his person has so darkened all created excel- 
 lency, that you account it "less than nothing and vanity" 
 when compared with him, — even as the stars quite dis- 
 appear when the sun arises in the firmament. If he hath 
 come in, he will be absolutely matchless and incomparable 
 in your eye ; so that you will be saying as it is Psal. Ixxiv. 
 6. " Thou art more glorious and excellent than aU the 
 mountains of prey." 
 
 4. If " the King of glory " hath come in, you have expe- 
 rienced somewhat of heart-melting grief and sorrow, aris- 
 ing from a discovery of the evil of sin, in what he suffered 
 on account of it in your room and stead ; Zech. xii. 10. 
 " They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and 
 they shall mourn for him." When you get a view of God 
 as pacified towards you, for all that you have done, you 
 will be so " confounded as never to open your mouth any 
 more, because of your shame," Ezek. xvi. 63. 
 
 5. If your hearts have been opened to "the King of 
 glory," in a way of believing, your affections of love, desire, 
 and esteem, will be strongly moving out towards him ; or, 
 at least, you will know sometimes what it is to be " sick 
 of love ;" that is, to have a soul-sickness, because you can- 
 not get him loved according to his worth. 
 
 6. If the everlasting doors of your hearts have been 
 opened to " the King of glory," then you will desire far- 
 ther acquaintance and intimacy with him, nearer confor- 
 mity and likeness unto him, and more and more liberal 
 communications from him, in whom " dwelleth all the ful- 
 ness of the Godhead bodily." It will be your desire to 
 speak to his praise, to run his errands, and to " cause his 
 name to be remembered in all generations." 
 
 The Third Use shall be of Exhortation. And our exhor- 
 tation to all and every one of you, without exception, is, in 
 
SER. IV. — THE BOORS OF THE HEART, ETC. 263 
 
 the words of our text, " Lift up your heads, ye gates ; 
 and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors :" — let the faculties 
 of your souls, wliich are the doors of your hearts, fly pre- 
 sently open, in a way of believing, to receive in " the King 
 of glory," who is just now ready, in the dispensation of 
 the word, to come in to each of your hearts. be per- 
 suaded to let him in to the innermost recesses or retire- 
 ments of your souls ! "We call you in his name, and beseech 
 you in his stead, that ye keep not shut doors upon him, on 
 such a day as this, when he is come, both in the word and 
 sacrament, demanding access in the most kindly manner, 
 and by the most endearing compellations, saying, " Open 
 to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled ; for my 
 head is filled with the dew, and my locks with the drops 
 of the night." 
 
 Now, because the Lord Jesus draws with the " cords of 
 a man," or deals with men and women as rational agents, 
 I shall present you with some Scripture arguments, or 
 motives, to engage you to lift up the everlasting doors of 
 your hearts unto " the King of glory," that he may come 
 in. Only, while we are essaying to persuade you from the 
 word, look up to himself, that he may " put in his hand by 
 the hole of the door," and make your bowels move for him, 
 — that he would make his own way, — and, by the display 
 of his glory and majesty, in the word, ride in prosperously 
 into your souls. Well, then, — 
 
 1. Consider what you and I are; and what sort of a 
 habitation our hearts have been, into which " the King of 
 glory" hath either come, or into which he is just now 
 offering to enter. Why, we are naturally " a generation of 
 vipers, rebellious children," loathsome creatures, separated 
 from God by reason of the leprosy of sin ; — we are under 
 the curse, and " twice dead," — dead in sin, and dead in 
 law. As for our hearts, they have been an habitation of 
 darkness, an habitation of lusts, and an "habitation of 
 devils, the hold of every foul spirit, and the cage of every 
 unclean and hateful bird," — as it is said of spiritual Baby- 
 lon, Rev. xviii. 2. then, be filled with wonder and 
 
264 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHER's WRITINGS. 
 
 amazement that ever such a glorious person should come, 
 in the word of his grace, and say to such desperately 
 wicked hearts as ours are — "Lift up your heads, ye 
 gates ; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors." 
 
 2. Consider what a wonderful revolution he will make 
 when he comes in. He will pull down " strongholds ; cast 
 down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth it- 
 self against the knowledge of God; and bring into cap- 
 tivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." He will 
 bind " the strong man," and overcome him, and take from 
 him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divide his 
 spoils. In a word, he will make " old things to pass away, 
 and all things to become new." 
 
 3. To engage you to open your hearts to him, consider 
 what he hath promised to be unto you when he comes in. 
 He hath promised that he " will be a Father to you," and 
 that "you shall be his sons and daughters," 2 Cor. iii. 18. 
 He hath promised that he will be a " husband," who will 
 betrothe you to himself for ever, Hos. ii. 19. He hath 
 promised that, as a Prophet, he will make you know the 
 " mysteries of the kingdom ;" as a Priest, he will offer up 
 your prayers and praises with acceptance, Isa. Ivi. 7. " Their 
 burnt-offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted on 
 mine altar ;" and as a King, will protect you in all your 
 liberties and privileges. He hath promised, that he will 
 be a counsellor to advise you in all your straits, and a 
 guide to lead you in the way you know not. 
 
 4. Consider how sib he is unto you who is bidding you 
 lift up and open the everlasting doors of your hearts 
 unto him. He is your near kinsman ; " bone of your bone, 
 and flesh of your flesh ;" for, because " the children were 
 partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took 
 part of the same." And he hath acted a kinsman's part 
 to the full, — ^he hath avenged your quarrel on Satan, who 
 ruined you, — and hath redeemed the forfeited inheritance, 
 and is now demanding you in marriage, saying, " Thy Maker 
 is thy husband." Should not this engage you to open unto 
 him? 
 
6ER. IV. — THE DOORS OF TUE lIEAKTj ETC. 2G5 
 
 6. Consider what an expensive journey he hath made, 
 in order to win to the doors of your liearts to demand 
 entrance into them. He hath travelled not only through 
 poverty and reproach, but through unspeakable sorrows 
 and griefs,— he hath travelled not only through the armies 
 of hell, and the territories of death and the grave, but 
 through desertion and tentation,— through the deep seas 
 of soul-trouble and anguish, and through the impassable 
 mountains of fiery avenging wrath,— yet, after all, to keep 
 the door shut upon him, how wicked and ungrateful is 
 it ! Could you find in your hearts to give the back of the 
 door to any of your friends or acquaintances, who would 
 come to visit you through much difficulty and danger? 
 Yet, how infinitely worse is it to refuse access unto him, 
 who "was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised 
 for our iniquities ;" and who " was made sin for us, though 
 he knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness 
 of God in him ! " 
 
 6. be persuaded to lift up the doors of your hearts, in 
 a way of believing, for "the King of glory" is fond to 
 come in ; yea, he is so fond to come in to your hearts, ill 
 as they are, that he stands, he knocks, he cries at your 
 doors. He is grieved when your hearts are hardened 
 against him, and most glad when they open unto him ; for, 
 the day of his entrance, being the " day of his espousals," 
 is therefore " the day of the gladness of his heart," Song 
 iii. 11. 
 
 7. Consider the dangerous consequences of keeping the 
 doors of your hearts shut upon him by unbelief. He will 
 be provoked to depart from you, and then woe will be unto 
 you in that case ; for all manner of spiritual plagues will 
 waste and consume you, — a plague of blindness, that you 
 shall not see what belongs to your peace,— a plague of 
 hardness, whereby neither word nor rod shall have any 
 good effect upon you, — a plague of barrenness, whereby no 
 fruit will be found on you from henceforth, — and a plague 
 of security, whereby you shall slumber and sleep on, till in 
 hell you lift up your eyes. 
 
266 
 
 SELECTIONS FROM MR. FISHER's WRITINGS. 
 
 8. Consider, that if you continue to keep the doors of 
 your hearts shut upon the " the King of glory," by your 
 unbelief, then Satan will continue to reign and rule over 
 you as his slaves and vassals,— and sad will be the servi- 
 tude and drudgery he will set you to: he will set you 
 a-feeding of your own swinish lusts,— your drunkenness per- 
 haps, or your uncleanness, your pride, your covetousness, 
 and the Hke : he wiU set you in a fool's paradise, where he 
 will make you dream that you are eating and drinking, 
 and stand in need of nothing ; but, behold ! when you 
 awaken, you will find, to your sad experience, when it is 
 past remedy, that your soul is empty. Meanwhile, he will 
 take care to make your bands strong ; and, in these very 
 bands, he wiU make you dance to his spring, till at length 
 your mirth and jollity end in "weeping, and wailing, and 
 gnashing of teeth." that you were wise, and considered 
 these things in time ! 
 
 9. Open the doors of your hearts by believing, and then 
 the moment that your souls shall leave your bodies at 
 death, they shall " immediately pass into the palace of the 
 King of glory," where they shall abide in the greatest hap- 
 piness and glory, till they be united to their respective 
 glorified bodies at the last day ; and then, soul and body, 
 shall be for ever with the Lord, unweariedly employed in 
 songs of everlasting joy, and sorrow and sighing shall fly 
 away ; for God himself " shall wipe away all tears from 
 their eyes." 
 
 But, my dear friends, why need I insist on arguments 
 with you, to persuade you to believe, or to open your hearts 
 to Christ ? The call and exhortation in our text bears its 
 own motive and argument along with it : " Lift up your 
 heads, ye gates ; and be ye Uft up, ye everlasting doors, 
 and the King of glory shall come in." This is enough, 
 " The King of glory shaU come in." This, I say, ought to 
 have influence with you all to open in a way of believing, 
 that " the King of glory shall come in." He " shall come 
 in" to beautify you with his salvation,— to justify you by 
 his righteousness,— to sanctify you by the inhabitation of 
 
BER. IV. — THE DOORS OF THE HEART, ETC. 2G7 
 
 his Spirit, — to be your God for ever and ever, and your 
 " guide even unto death," when you shall be beyond all 
 hazard and danger, the former things having then for ever 
 passed away. then, for the Lord's sake, and your own 
 soul's sake, hearken to the call of God in the text, — " Lift 
 up your heads, ye gates ; and be ye lift up, ye everlast- 
 ing doors, and the King of glory shall come in:" — then 
 you who are communicants shall have a comfortable com- 
 munion, and you who are spectators shall have reason to 
 say, with Jacob, " Surely God was in this place, and I 
 knew it not." 
 
 DISCOURSE Ox\ THE EVENING OF TBE SAME DAY, 
 
 AFTER THE TABLES. 
 
 In prosecuting the Application of the subject I was upon in the morning 
 a little further, I shall only, at this time, offer a few Observations on the 
 Manner in which " the King of glory" demands access to the hearts of 
 sinners of mankind; and then remove a few Objections against opening 
 unto him in a way of beUeving. A\'ith reference to the Manner in which 
 " the King of glory" demands access into the hearts of sinners, I may 
 observe, 
 
 1. That when he comes to the door of any man or woman's heart in 
 the word, it is "without obsen-ation" to any other than the particular 
 person wth whom he is deahng at the time. Every one here present, 
 who is awake, and whose mind is not wandering upon other objects, has 
 access to hear the external sound of the gospel equally ; but none knows 
 what the Spirit of God is doing with his word but the individual person 
 with whom he is at work, either in a way of connction, illumination, 
 consolation, or the like special influence. 
 
 2. I may observe, as was formerly hinted, that the Lord Jesus doubles 
 or repeats his demand for access into the hearts of poor sinners, as you 
 see tne words of the text expressly bear — " Lift up your heads, ye 
 gates; and be ye hft up, ye everlasting doors." He stands at the door 
 and knocks, as waiting to be gracious, and loath to take a denial ; — and 
 sui-ely the oftener the call is repeated, the more inexcusable will we be 
 if we refuse to hearken ; for, it \vill be more tolerable for those who never 
 heard the gospel, than for us who " neglect so great salvation." 
 
 3. Christ doth not demand access into tlie heart of every sinner after 
 the same manner, — so that his way vnth one cannot be the measure of 
 
268 SELECTIONS PROM MR. FISHEr's WRITINGS. 
 
 his dealing with another. He makes his demand for entrance into the 
 hearts of some in a milder, and into the hearts of others in a more 
 a^\'f^ll and terrible manner; as you may see in his difterent way with the 
 jailer and with Lydia. The " terrors of the Lord '' were let loose upon the 
 jailer, displaying the natm-e and desert of sin in such a clear and foraii- 
 dable light, that the poor man was presently brought to his wit's end, 
 and knew not what to do: " He sprang in, and came trembling, and fell 
 do\\Ti before Paul and Silas, — and said. Sirs, what must I do to be 
 saved?" Acts xv-i. 29, 30. \\liereas, upon the other hand, the heart of 
 Lydia was opened in a much softer and milder way. It would seem she 
 had not those prcAdous legal convictions, at least in such a degi-ee, as the 
 jailer had; for it is said, ver. 14. of the same chapter, that, in hearing 
 of the word, " the Lord opened her heart, that she attended unto the 
 things that were spoken of Paul." 
 
 4. It may be noticed on this head, that none can possibly be in a more 
 desperate condition, in this hfe, that when the Son of God ceases to demand 
 entrance into their hearts any more ; for, in this case, their rain is in- 
 e\'itable, — in regard they are judicially given up to their hearts' lusts, as 
 Israel was, Psal. Ixxxi. 11, 12, "My people would not hearken to my 
 voice ; and Israel would have none of me. So I gave them up to their 
 hearts' lusts, and they walked in their o-\vn counsels." Or — which is the 
 same thing — they are left entirely to themselves, which was the case 
 with Ephraim, Hos. iv. 17. " Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone." 
 For, when he calls and we refuse, and when he stretches out his hands 
 and no man regardeth, it is no wonder that he also " laugh at our 
 calamity, and mock when our fear cometh." 
 
 But now, because it is om* duty, who are ministers, to " prepare the 
 way of the people, to cast up the highway, and gather out the stones," 
 I shall therefore endeavour to remove some Objections, which unbelief 
 may be ready to make against opening the door of the heart unto Christ, 
 when he is demanding access, saying, " Lift up your heads, ye gates; 
 and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors." 
 
 1. Then, some may be ready to say, ' My conscience testifies I am 
 such a guilti/ sinner, and that my guilt hath such peculiar aggravations 
 attending it, that I cannot think that ever the King of glory will look 
 near the like of me.' 
 
 I answe7;—0xir Lord Jesus never yet refused to come in to a sinner, 
 merely on account of the greatness of his sin ; nay, on the contrary, he 
 invites and calls the guiltiest and greatest of sinners to open unto him, 
 saying, " Come now, let us reason together, though your sins be as scar- 
 let, they shall be as white as snow ; though they be red like crimson, 
 they shall he as wool." What were Manasseh, Mary Magdalen, Paul, 
 and others, but the greatest of sinners? Yet they obtained mercy, that 
 they might be a pattern to all after-sinners, not to despair of mercy on 
 account of the greatness of their sin. Yea, you should be so far from 
 this, that you should malce the greatness of your sin an argument and 
 motive for your opening to Christ, by whose righteousness only it can 
 be taken away; saying, with David, Psal. sxv. 11. "For thy name's 
 sake, Lord, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great." 
 
 2. If another object, ' I am no way prepai-ed for the reception of such 
 a glorious person ; I have no good quality in me fit for entertaining him, 
 and therefore he cannot be calhng such as I am, to open the door of my 
 
SER. IV. — THE DOORS OP THE HEART, ETC. 2G9 
 
 heart to him, till I have other di.spositions and qualifications than I have 
 at present.' 
 
 Ansirer. Tliis looks like the language of a proud legalist, — who 
 imagines he can prepare himself for the reception of "the King of glor)-," 
 as easily as he can prepare for the entertainment of a person of distinc- 
 tion among men. But, sirs, there is a va.'^t odds. We may make some 
 preparation for the entertainment of a follnw-creaturc, —we may cleanse 
 our houses, and have things in tolerable order,— but we can make no 
 preparation at all for the Jlrd reception of " the King of glory " into our 
 nearts. The more we study to sweep ourselves clean before his first in- 
 coming, we will leave the more nastiness beliind. The only way is, just 
 to let him in to our hearts as they are, that he may fit them to be a 
 habitation for himself; for it is he that must sanctify and_ cleanse us, — 
 it is he that must give us repentance and remission of sins ; and, in a 
 word, it is he who must work all our works in us. 
 
 3. If any of you say, ' I have experienced nothing of a law-work, and 
 therefore I cannot think he is calling me at present to open to him, till 
 the law once become my schoolmaster to lead me to Christ.' 
 
 Ansicer. So soon as you open to Christ by believing, the law obtains 
 its end, — the righteousness thereof is fulfilled in you, — and therefore do 
 not make the want of a law-work a bar in the way of your opening unto 
 him; but let the absolute need you stand in of him determine you to 
 give him entrance. For, remember, wliile you keep shut doors upon 
 " the King of gloiy," you are li\-ing in disobedience to the first and CTeat 
 commandment of the law, which is to " love the Lord our God with all 
 our heart, and with all our soul ;" and this you can never do without 
 believing, which is the root and spring of true love. 
 
 4. Says another, ' I have refused access to Christ so often, that I am 
 afraid he will never come in to me now.' 
 
 Ansicer. Though you have refused times without number, yet he still 
 waits to be gracious ; for says he, " I have spread out my hands all the 
 day long to a rebellious people." He is as ready to come in now as 
 ever; othenvise he would not make the call now sound in your eai-s, 
 " Lift up your heads, ye gates," &c. ; for, " though you have played 
 the harlot with many lovers, yet return again to me, saith the Lord." 
 
 5. Says another, ''l am quite dead, like the dry bones scattered about 
 the grave's mouth, and therefore he cannot be calling on me to open to 
 him.' 
 
 Ansicer. He commands us to prophesy unto the dry bones, and to 
 tell them, '' Thus saith the Lord God, Behold I will cause breath to enter 
 into you, and ye shall live;" " Therefore awake, thou that sleepest, and 
 arise" from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light;" 'Tor the hour 
 cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of 
 God ; and they that hear shall live." 
 
 6. Some perhaps may be saving, ' I am harassed with such dreadful 
 and uncommon temptations, that I fear "the King of glory" is so far 
 from seeking access to my heart, that I am quite given up to the power 
 of the enemy.' 
 
 Answer. It is not those, who are given up to the enemy's power, 
 whom he most harasses with his temptations; for when "the strong 
 man armed keeps the house, the goods are at peace." However, the 
 only way to get rid of your temptations, how horrid soever they may be, 
 
270 SELECTIONS FROM ME. FISHEr's WRITINGS. 
 
 is to open to -'the King of glory" by belie\ang. It is he only who can 
 " succoiu- them that are tempted;" for, " havdng himself been tempted 
 in all points like as we are, though without sin, he cannot but be touched 
 with the feeling of our infii-mities ; and therefore wiU either keep us from 
 being tempted to sin, or support and deliver us when we are tempted." 
 Be not afraid, then, only believe, and " the God of peace will bruise Satan 
 under your feet shortly." 
 
 0, sirs! whatever be your difficulties or objections against opening to 
 Christ, in a way of believing, yet he is making none at all against his 
 own incoming mto your hearts. Though you be sinners, he declares he 
 "came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." Though 
 you be graceless, yet is he "full of grace and trutk" Have you made 
 him " serve with your sins, and wearied him with your iniquities?" yet 
 even in that case, he says, " I, even I, am he that blotteth out your 
 transgi-essions for mine own sake, and will not remember your sin." 
 Have you gone on frowardly in the way of your own heart? yet he is 
 saying of you, as he did of Israel in the like case, " I have seen his ways, 
 and will heal him." Have you been making lies your refuge, and under 
 falsehood hiding yourselves? even in this case he declares, that he is the 
 "foundation laid in Zion for you ; and that the refuge of Hes shaU be swept 
 away." Have you " gone after your lovers, and forgotten me, saith the 
 Lord?" he answers himself, "Therefore, behold I wiU allure her, and 
 bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her." 
 
 EDINBURGH : 
 FULLAltrON AND MACNAB, PRINTEUS, LEITH WAl.K. 
 
Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 
 
 1 1012 01152 6623 
 
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