ROBERT BRUGES SERMONS ON THE SACRAMENT &

DONE INTO ENGLISH -WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION- BY JOHN LAIDLAW, D.D. &

SERMONS ON THE SACEAMENT

ROBERT BRUCE OF KINNAIKIJ. From a Brooch belonging to Lady Thurlow.

ROBEKT BKUCE'S SERMONS ON THE SACRAMENT

DONE INTO ENGLISH WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION

BY

THE REV. JOHN LAIDLAW, M.A., D.D.

PROFESSOR OF TRROLOOY, NEW OOTLEGK, EDINBUBGH AUTHOR OF " BIBLE DOCTRINE OF MAN," ETC.

je&tnburgb an& Xonfcon

OLIPHANT, ANDERSON & FERRIER

MDOOOOI

:

PRINTED BY

TT7ENBULL AND SPEARS

EDIKBUKGH

PREFACE

THE " Sermons on the Sacrament," which have so long been classic in our Theology, were first published in 1590 in the Scottish tongue of their original delivery. Together with eleven other sermons of the Author, on various passages of Scripture, published in 1591, they were re- printed in our ordinary language (London 1617) under the rather meaningless title (not given by their author) " The Way to True Peace and Rest." These sixteen sermons were again reprinted in their original form, together with one other, in the Wodrow Society's Edition (1843) edited by Dr William Cunningham. The elder Dr Thomas M'Crie says, " they are curious as speci- mens of composition in the Scottish language within a few years of the time when it was generally laid aside by our writers," and the younger Thomas M'Crie adds that " even in this form, now become so obsolete as almost to act as a disguise, they have commanded much admira- tion." The time seems to have arrived when the " disguise " should be entirely removed. The

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PREFACE

rendering of 1617, as English, contemporary with the original, has been used as a basis for the present edition, but it has been freely altered, chiefly in the direction of following with much more closeness the Author's own forcible and vigorous style. It has to be remembered that these sermons were originally printed " as they were received from the Author's mouth." But he superintended their publication. These, together with the sermons added in 1591, appeared in the early years of his ministry, and during his long life (so far as we know) he published nothing more.

The doctrine of the Sacraments expounded in these discourses is that of the Reformed Church. That doctrine has never been better stated. The Author's formal standard was the Scottish Con- fession of 1560. But the possible exaggerations in Calvin's Sacramental ideas, just hinted at in that Confession, are avoided by Bruce. He had evidently taken his stand on the more generally accepted Reformed view which had already ap- peared in the Second Helvetic Confession (1566), in the XXXIX articles (1563), and which was yet to be more clearly stated, immediately after his time, in the Westminster Standards. He devotes more attention, than is usual now, to a refutation of the Romish ideas. But that was

PREFACE vii

necessary at the time. Otherwise the view he takes of the Sacrament is monumental and com- plete ; and is in clear and firm distinction from the looser and less guarded views which have crept into our Presbyterian Churches, presumably as a supposed protest against High Church ism.

It is worthy of notice that the English Bible from which the texts and some other citations in these sermons are taken is " The Geneva Bible " which for about eighty years was used in Scotland before the adoption of the Authorised Version of 1611 ; but several citations in the course of the Sermons are made freely, as if from memory. The portrait in the frontispiece is from a collection of Moderators' portraits in the Hall of Tolbooth Church, Edinburgh. The other is from an engraving in St Giles' Vestry, kindly granted by Dr Cameron Lees. The view of the old House of Kinnaird is from a photograph sent by the kindness of the present proprietor.

J. LAIDLAW.

NEW COLLEGE, EDINBURGH, November 1900.

CONTENTS

PAGE

PREFACE ....... vi-viii

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .... ix-lxxvi

DEDICATION ..... Ixxix-lxxxi

THE FIEST SEEMON

UPON THE/'SAC!RAMENTs}lN GENERAL ... 1

•.•i..*""^

THE SECOND SEEMON

UPON THEi~LoRD's SUPPER»IN PARTICULAR . . 42

THE THIED SEEMON

UPON THE LORD'S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR . . 81

THE FOUETH SEEMON UPON THE PREPARATION TO THE LORD'S SUPPER . 138

THE FIFTH AND- LAST SEEMON UPON THE PREPARATION TO THE LORD'S SUPPER 180

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

SOME outline of a life so distinguished as that of our author cannot be unacceptable. He was one of that group of eminent Scotsmen who, in immediate succession to Knox, defended the liberties and religion of the nation, strenuously resisted the encroachments of James and of the subsequent Stuart kings, and whose principles were ultimately triumphant in the Revolution of 1688. No one among them held so notable a place as Bruce in the affairs of the Court, the Nation, and the Church during the first twelve years of his public life. Throughout the remain- ing thirty years, he became the victim of ceaseless petty persecution which drove him from his official place — as minister of Edinburgh — but his personal worth and influence in Scotland continued and increased to the last day of his life.

Robert Bruce was the second son of Sir Alexander Bruce of Airth, Stirlingshire. " The family claimed the nearest descent of any of that name to the blood-royal." l He was born about

1 Hill Burton, "History of Scotland," vol. v., p. 340. Robert Bruce of Kinnaird was descended, in the seventh generation, from Edward do Bmya, the second son of Robert de Bruys of Clack- mannan. The Bnices of Clackmannan are usually held — though

I ix

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1554, brought up in letters, passed his course of philosophy in the University of St Andrews, and thereafter, furnished by his father, was sent to study civil law in France, as was at that time the custom ; where, as also in the Low Countries — at Louvain — he applied himself closely to these studies and to humanity, in which he was inferior to few in his day. When he returned from his travels and foreign studies he was directed to attend the Court and Lords of Session, and there had the management of his father's affairs together with the business of a good many other friends and acquaintances. His reputation for knowledge in law and practice, was so considerable that a design was formed by his father to make him one of the senators of the College of Justice. Accord- ing to the practice of the times, such a position had been secured for him by patent, and his father had provided him in the lands and barony of Kinnaird, near Larbert, which house he continued to possess all his days.1 The Court of Session was, then, like other parts of government in Scotland, in- complete and partially disordered. The Judges were too often court-partizans, and were individually

this is not quite certain — to have been descended from John de Bruys, fourth son of the competitor with Baliol for the crown, and therefore uncle of King Robert Bruce. Sir Alexander Bruce of Airth was granted, by James VI., a crown-charter to the lands which he inherited from an ancestor several generations back.

1 The old house of Kinnaird, of which a view is given on page xlix. was pulled down in 1897 and is now replaced by a modern mansion. The house deserves to be remembered as the residence not only of Robert Bruce, but also of James Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller, his lineal descendant.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH xi

under the pressure of men in power. Young Bruce was disinclined to a course of life which in- volved such inconveniences, and in no very long time determined to devote himself to the Church. His parents combated this resolution, and even threatened his inheritance. Bruce resigned his claim to the estate without a sigh, threw off the scarlet dress of a courtier, and returned to St Andrews, where he now commenced the study of theology. For a considerable period indeed pre- vious to this, a struggle had been going on within his own breast as to his choice of a profession. He found strong inclination to apply himself wholly to the study of divinity and of the Scriptures, and a great attraction to the society of those who were promoting the reformation of religion in the country. In the period just following the death of Knox, we can understand how keenly this desire would be fostered. His own account of the matter (only penned by him so late as the year 1624) comes in appropriately here :

" As touching my vocation to the ministry, I was first called to grace before I obeyed my calling to the ministry. He made me first a Christian before he made me a minister. I repugned long to this calling. Ten years, at the least, I never leaped on horseback, nor alighted, but with a re- pugning and justly accusing conscience. At last it pleased God, in the year 15«1, in the month of August, in the last night thereof, being in the place of Airth lying in a room, called the new loft chamber, in the very night while I lay, to

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smite me inwardly and judicially in my conscience and to present all my sins before me, in such sort that He omitted not a circumstance, but made my conscience to see time, place, and persons as vividly as in the hour I did them. He made the devil to accuse me so audibly that I heard his voice, as vividly as ever I heard anything, not being asleep but waking. So far as he spake true, my conscience bare him record, and testified against me very clearly. But when he came to be a false accuser and laid things to my charge which I had never done, then my conscience failed him and would not testify with him. But in those things which were true, my conscience condemned me and the condemner tormented me, and made me feel the wrath of God pressing me down, as it were, to the lowest hell. Yea, I was so fearfully and extremely tormented that I would have been content to have been cast into a cauldron of hot melted lead, to have had my soul relieved of that insupportable weight. Always so far as he spoke true, I confessed, restored God to His glory, and craved God's mercy for the merits of Christ ; yea appealed sore to His mercy purchased to me by the blood, death and passion of Christ. This Court of Justice holden upon my soul turned (of the bottomless mercy of God) to a Court of mercy to me, for that same night, 'ere the day dawned, or the sun rose, He restrained these furies and these outcries of my justly accusing conscience and enabled me to rise in the morning."1 He 1 Calderwood, iv. 636.

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goes on, in the same connection, to describe the opposition he had to encounter at home, on this change, " It was long before I got leave to go, my mother made me such impediment. My father at last condescended but my mother would not, until I had denuded my hands of some lands and casualties I was infefted in ; and that I did willingly, cast my clothes from me — my vain and glorious apparel — sent my horse to the fair, emptied my hands of all impediments and went to the New College."

Of his entrance there in divinity, James Melville tells us " He came to us at the beginning of that same winter at the end whereof Mr Andrew was put at, whom most lovingly and faithfully he assisted till his departure out of the country." After this he returned to the College and pro- secuted his studies with the greatest attention. He told James Melville, one day, walking in the fields with him, that he had been drawn perforce as it were to the study of divinity, and that by a mighty inward working which suffered him to get no rest, but when about this purpose ; adding, that " 'ere he cast himself again into that torment of conscience which was laid on him for resisting the call of God to the study of theology and to the ministry, he had rather go through a fire of brim- stone half-a-mile long." Though most assiduous in his studies, he seems to have been oppressed for a time with a shyness or reserve which pre- vented his making any public appearance. It was customary for the students of divinity of that

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College to read a chapter of the Scriptures, at their meals, and shortly to open it up. Before Bruce would take his turn with the rest of the scholars there, he desired that he might have some private re- hearsals, with two special companions. These were accordingly held, at first once a week, and after- wards thrice a week, in a large room in the College. There they handled a chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, and then of that to the Hebrews. But before they came any length in the latter, these two friends prevailed with Bruce to take the whole upon him. From this they drew him to the school, where the students had their private " exercises " before the masters. Then they induced him to take his course at table, and further, in the " morning exercise " upon the Sabbath, to which a multitude of the best people of the town resorted. About two years or more elapsed before Andrew Melville was restored to his place and work in the College. From this time Melville and Bruce preached along- side each other, to the delight and edification of their auditors. It soon became evident that a great aid to the pulpit of the times was being prepared in the ministry of the younger man.

At the Assembly of 1587 Andrew Melville was chosen moderator. He had of set purpose brought Bruce with him to Edinburgh. With difficulty he prevailed upon him to preach there. The charge was then vacant by the death of James Lawson, Knox's successor. The Commissioners proposed Bruce for pastor, and the Commissioners being removed, the whole Assembly voted with

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH xv

almost universal consent for this appointment. To account for this early prominence, as well as for other signs of confidence in him which im- mediately followed, we have . to remember that Bruce had now reached the age of thirty-three, which was older than usual for an entrant to the ministry. But his marked ability and standing were no doubt the real causes. On the call being submitted to him, he declared that he could not accept the charge simpliciter, although he would labour in that flock till the next Assembly, and if he found himself meet for the charge would continue ; if not, he should be free. His inclina- tion led him to prefer St Andrews to which he also had a call. His strong aversion to preach in presence of the King and the Court acted in the same direction ; and for a short while he trans- ferred himself to his university seat. However the people of Edinburgh were insistent, and soon sent commissioners to entreat for his return. " Loath was I to go," he writes. " They threatened me with authority, so I advised with my God and thought it meet to obey ; but not to take on fully the burden ; only to assay how the Jjord would bless my travails for a while." An Ex- traordinary General Assembly was convened at Edinburgh, February 6, 1588, upon the alarm the King and all ranks had conceived, as to the invasion from Spain by the well-known Armada ; and such was Bruce's reputation for wisdom and management that he was chosen moderator of this assembly, where he contributed not a little to the

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firmness and vigour of its measures against Popery and Papists. Upon the calling of another assembly in little more than six months, Bruce, as preced- ing moderator, gave the exhortation or sermon. This again raised the question of his appointment to the ministry of the city. The people of Edin- burgh repeated their desire that he would accept the ordinary charge. His answer was that he " could not presently accept of the said ordinary charge though he offered his labours, as before, till the next Assembly." These acceptances of the charge at Edinburgh, for a restricted period, renewed as they were again and again, no doubt led to the curious circumstance of which so much was made ten years later, that he never received formal ordination at the hands of the Presbytery till that time now named. He had the repeated call of the people. He had the repeated concur- rence of the General Assembly of the Church to take the pastoral charge, and their concurrence was cordially renewed in 1598, when all this was brought up again and punctiliously debated by the King himself. There was no intention on Bruce's part or that of anyone else to deviate from the reasonable and ordinary method of ordi- nation to the ministry by imposition of hands. The case was altogether exceptional and peculiar. An account of the manner in which he was led to discharge the duties proper to an ordained minister is thus given by John Livingstone, and as it became by-and-by a topic of dispute, may be here narrated. He had been "most earnestly

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH xvii

and unanimously called to be minister of Edin- burgh ; but for a while he only preached and could not be moved to take on the charge, till one of the ministers by advice of the rest en- trapped him. For that minister, one day giving the Communion, had desired Mr Robert Bruce, who was to preach in the afternoon, to sit by him ; and when he himself had served two or three tables, he removed out of the church, as being shortly to return, but sent in word to Mr Bruce with some of the elders that he would not return at that time ; and therefore Mr Robert behoved to serve the rest of the tables, or else the work must be given over ; and therefore when the eyes of the elders and of the whole people were upon him, and many also cried to him to serve the table now filled, he went on and administered the Communion to the rest, with such singular assistance and elevated affections among the people, as had not been seen in that place before. And for that cause he would not thereafter receive in the ordinary way the imposition of hands, see- ing before he had the material of it, to wit, the approbation of all the ministers, and had already celebrated the Communion, which was not by a new ordination to be made void."

Of his position and acceptance as minister of Edinburgh there is the amplest evidence. James Melville in his diary writes, " The ministry of Mr Robert Bruce was very profitable and mighty that year (1588), and divers years following most comfortable to the good and godly, and most

xviii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

fearful to the enemies." This kind of reputation he continued to hold not only during his whole ministry in Edinburgh, but long after in his years of exile. His labours were blessed to many. " Multitudes of all ranks," we read, during his preaching at Inverness, " would have crossed several ferries every day to hear him. They came both from Ross and Sutherland." Many signal instances of the effect of his ministry are given down to the closing years of his life. Re- ferring especially to the earlier years of his min- istry in the capital, M'Crie says, "The nobility respected him for his birth and connections ; his eminent gifts as a preacher gained him the affec- tions of the common people ; and those who could not love him stood in awe of his commanding talents, of his severe and incorruptible virtue."

It was at this point also that he had most remarkable favour with the young King. James had been contracted in marriage to Anne of Denmark, the second daughter of the king of that country. His marriage by proxy had already taken place, 20th August 1589. But the young Queen's little escort was driven by storm into one of the ports of Norway. The King suspecting some plot for delay, instantly started for Norway, to rescue his bride in person, and was married to her in November of this year in her own country. At his setting out from Scotland the King nomin- ated Bruce an extraordinary member of his Privy Council. The charge indeed appears to have been much wider and more general. "At the

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH xix

King's departure, he willed Mr Robert Bruce to be made acquaint with the affairs of the country and proceedings of the Council, reposing, as he professed, upon him and the rest of the ministry above all his nobles." Though Bruce abstained from any formal exercise of Privy Councillors!} ip, there was the fullest response, on his part, to the trust committed to him. The King certainly was not disappointed. The country was never in greater peace than during his absence ; whereas before, few months or weeks passed over without slaughter and bloodshed, there was little or none at all during his absence. Among other pictur- esque incidents at this time, the Earl of Bothwell, " an eccentric and half insane relation of the King's," l made a voluntary appearance in the kirk of Edinburgh, before the minister, and publicly repented of his licentious dissolute life and all his bye-past sins, and promised to turn out another man in time coming. The event is pre- served in memory by a sermon of Bruce's published on the occasion. " But," adds the historian, "it was a taking of God's name in vain, and a public mocking of himself and of the Lord's people." 2 He soon after broke out into greater extravagancies.

Owing to the severity of the season, the royal party spent the winter in Denmark, and did not return to Scotland till the beginning of the follow- ing summer. Three or four letters were written to Bruce during this period from the King himself,

1 Hill Burton, " History of Scotland," vol. v. 280.

2 Melville, "Diary," p. 277.

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breathing the utmost cordiality and confidence. One gives him the title of " trusty and well-beloved councillor." Another thanks him for the care he had of the peace of the country in the King's absence, acknowledging that he " was worthy of the quarter of his petite kingdom" ; another still says, " I think myself beholden while I live, and never to forget the same." Two or more letters came to Bruce from the same place, in the hand of Sir John Maitland, the Chancellor, afterwards Lord Thirlestane, thank- ing him with great sincerity for his many services to the country and to himself. This friendship was only broken by the Chancellor's death some five years later.

On the 1st of May 1590, the King, with his newly wedded bride, arrived in Leith Roads, and landed about 2 o'clock of the afternoon. The King repaired to the church to praise God. Bruce met him as he was about to enter, was kindly embraced by him and communed with him for a long time. On the 6th of May, the King and Queen came from Leith to the palace of Holyrood ; and on Sabbath the 17th, the Queen was crowned in the Abbey Church. Not- withstanding some little demur, this was thought not improper to the day and place ; because like marriage it was a " mixed action," and a solemn oath was passed mutually between the Prince and his subjects and from both to God. Bruce, Pont, Lindsay, Balcanquall, and the King's own ministers were appointed to be present at the coronation. After the court and the ladies were placed in their

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seats in the church, there were three sermons made, one in Latin, another in French, the third in English. After sermon Bruce and Craig made short orations to the Queen. She was then con- veyed to a cabinet within the church, where she was clothed in her royal robes and so returned to her own chair. Then the crown was set upon her head. The Lady Mar loosed her right arm which Bruce plentifully anointed, as also her forehead and her neck. Upon the Tuesday im- mediately following, the Queen made her public entry into Edinburgh with various and ample ceremony. She went into the church and sat in the east end, in the gallery, under a fair canopy of velvet. Bruce made the sermon, which being ended within half-an-hour the Queen was brought forth. Andrew Melville recited a Latin ode to the great admiration of the ambassadors, and which the King acknowledged as an honour to himself and to the country. When published, this poem (" Stephaniskion ") drew from Scaliger the well-known compliment to Melville, "Profecto nos talia non possumus " ; and Lipsius having read it said, " Revera Andreas Melvinus est serio doctus." Shortly after these events came Bruce's own marriage to Margaret Douglas, daughter of Douglas of Parkhead, a considerable baron, who, some years afterwards, rendered himself conspicuous by slay- ing with his own hand, James Stewart — Earl of Arran, once a favourite of King James, and an arch-enemy to the Presbyterian polity. At this time Bruce's own family became thoroughly re-

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conciled to him, and his original patrimony of Kinnaird was restored to him for good.

Up till now we have seen him in the fullest favour with the King, and for several years follow- ing his influence at Court was very considerable, and his hold on the people of Edinburgh really never relaxed. But we must next trace the process by which the King's favour was lost to him, and in consequence of which even his place and office were at length forfeited. During all this process Bruce never stands alone. He was eminently at the head of the ecclesiastical party whose views and desires he represented. But the royal displeasure at last so concentrated upon him that he may be said to have been its supreme victim. The earliest cause of alienation was a personal one. The King's opposition to the cause of the Church was not yet developed ; indeed, can hardly be said to have existed at all. In the General Assembly of August 1590, he had made his famous speech, extolling the Church of Scotland as " the sincerest Kirk in the world," and placing it for purity of doctrine and discipline even beyond the " Kirk of Geneva," and far beyond " our neighbour Kirk in England." But in a very short while, a personal alienation developed, on the ground of the plain and bold terms in which the Presbyterian ministers took it upon them to address their monarch especi- ally in their speeches to him from the pulpit The manner of our own time easily condemns their language and inclines us to take the side of the King. But the truth is, these ministers

ROBERT BRUCE OF KINNAIRD, Minister at Edinburgh, 1587.

From an Engraving on steel by J. Swan.

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were honestly trying to form the character of their young King and had not yet discovered that the task was hopeless. The feature which at first offended them in James, was a certain frivolity and inconsistency which would not take up any firm course, such as they could honestly approve. In the year 1591, after a visitation of ministers at Holyrood and at a time when some trafficking Papists were commanded to appear before the Council, the King was present at a sermon in the Little Kirk in which Bruce moved the question, " what could the great disobedi- ence of this land mean now, seeing some reverence had been borne to the King's shadow when he was absent ? " The preacher answered his own question :

" It meant a universal contempt of him. by his subjects ; therefore, ought the King to call upon God before he ate or drank that the Lord should give him a resolution to execute justice upon malefactors, although it should be to the hazard of his life." This is a pungent example of the kind of reproof often directed, at this time, by the ministers to their sover- eign. James soon gave them serious causes of displeasure. It was not only his underhand dealings with Jesuits. There followed his un- accountable leniency to his mad cousin, Bothwell. who made repeated attempts upon his person and his palace. After one of these, at Falkland, in June 1592, Bruce said from the pulpit, "Your Majesty hath had many admonitions . . . but

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

this last is sharper than any of the former. They pretend to come to seek justice for the last terrible murder, and how can you punish others when you are pursued yourself ? He desired His Majesty to humble himself before God and confess his negligence." The " terrible murder," here alluded to, was the putting to death, at Donibristle, in February of the same year, of the Earl of Moray, a son-in-law of the Good Regent, by the Earl of Huntly. James's unaccountable indifference about this vile trans- action, and his failure to bring anyone to justice because of it, greatly alienated the minds of the people of Scotland from their King. In the same year occurred the incident of " the Spanish blanks," a curious cause of alarm to the Reformers, chiefly from its mysterious nature. The docu- ments so designated were blank sheets, with a form of address to the King and subscribed by the Popish nobles — Huntly, Errol, and Angus, besides some minor emissaries. Orders were issued to the Popish lords to ward themselves. The King himself marched with a party to Aberdeen and they fled northwards, leaving their strongholds at his mercy. A long series of wars and negotiations followed, with petty bicker- ings between the King and the ministers, about what was called " the Act of Abolition," con- ceived by him for the protection of these Popish rebels from the sentence of excommunication. James had an idea that to conciliate the Romish members of his own aristocracy was one of the

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methods for opening to him the way to the English throne. It was one of his small attempts at kingcraft founded upon the notion, which he actually expounded to Bruce, that there existed in England a powerful Romish faction who would otherwise oppose his succession. The notion was mistaken, and the King was rebuked by Elizabeth herself for his want of Protestant firmness and straightforwardness. Now it was upon matters such as these that the plain speeches of the Presbyterian ministers were founded. However different from our modern manner, it is easy to see the justification of the line they took. There was no other organ of public expression, or of criticism, in things political except the pulpit of the Kirk. There was no public press. The nobles were constantly engaged in factions of their own and had no united mind on public affairs. The ministers of the Kirk were really the leaders of the Scottish nation and, however rude and unskilful, their remonstrances were honest.

In a similar way we must deal with the alleged disloyalty of the ministers. In a semi-jocular fashion James was wont to hint at such a thing, on the part of even Bruce himself. On the occasion of his return from a professional visi- tation of the East Country James is reported to have noted him from the windows of Holyrood, and to have exclaimed, with indignation and an oath, "Here comes Robert Bruce — I am sure he intends to be King, and declare himself heir to his namesake."

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Though recorded by an adversary,1 the story bears marks of truth, or at least pretty accurate reflection of that senseless buffoonery in which the royal wit often displayed itself. A more definite case was made out in the following fashion. Upon Friday, 8th December 1592, some of the ministers went down to the King to urge a proof of treason laid to the charge of Robert Bruce, James Gibson, Andrew Hunter, and others. The King would have had the matter passed over ; that is, when it came to the point, the King was well aware there was nothing in it. But upon the following Sabbath Bruce spoke out from his place. He said "the King was environed with liars, and he himself would suspend preaching till he was purged of that heinous accusation, that he and others had conspired to take the crown off the King's head and put it upon Both well." He insisted to know the individuals who had so slandered him to His Majesty. After some shift- ing James named the Master of Gray and one Tyrie a Papist as his informers. But on the day fixed for investigating the affair no one appeared to make good the charge. Gray having left the Court, sent word that he had given no such information against Bruce. He offered to fight any one (His Majesty excepted) who should affirm that he had defamed the minister. " Indeed," as M'Crie remarks, " there is not the slightest ground for calling in question the loyalty of the ministers of the Church, or their decided and steady attach-

1 Bp. Maxwell, " Issachar's Burden," 1646.

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ment to the person and government of James. Had the King ceased from favouring a faction, hostile equally to his crown and to the established religion, had he exerted a reasonable superinten- dence over the' administration of the State, and abstained from encroachments on the jurisdiction of the Church ; and, above all, had he maintained his word and promise inviolate he would have found the ministers disposed to give him all due satisfaction, and might have derived from them the most essential and efficient support. The submission which the nobility yielded to him was always partial and precarious. . . . The preachers were inclined to favour no faction in the State. . . . Had their jealousies not been awakened and kept alive by the misconduct of the King the lead- ing men among them possessed too much sense and were too well aware that the safety of the Church — including their own — depended upon the stability of his government, to indulge in or countenance any freedoms from the pulpit which tended to embarrass his administration, or to bring his person into contempt." l

Bruce, at the time he was using the greatest freedom in rebuking the Court, said, " It is our part to crave wisdom for the King ; because for as loose as he is, he is the greatest blessing that ever we shall see." And again, " Surely the only band temporal that holds up the commonwealth here, which is ruinous on all sides, and is like to fall down, stands upon that Prince. Though he be many ways 1 M'Crie, " Life of Melville " (edition 1856), p. 172.

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abused, out of question were he removed, I look to see confusion multiplied upon confusion."

There can be no doubt that the joint influence of the " doctrine and discipline of the Kirk pre- sented to James a powerful instrument, not pos- sessed by any of his predecessors, for suppressing the feuds of the nobility, purifying the administra- tion of justice, civilizing and reforming the morals of the people. Had he known how to avail him- self of this, his reign in Scotland might have been tranquil and happy." The strange delusion pos- sessing the minds of our historians is that the ministers of the Kirk were bent upon some pro- fessional or sectarian purpose instead of the welfare of the nation at large. If the eyes of these writers had been open to the facts of history they would have seen, what the event has demon- strated, that just as at an earlier stage, Holland and the more powerful of the Swiss Cantons had chosen that form of the Reformed faith, the Scottish nation adhered to the Presbyterian re- ligion— that the ministers were the real leaders of the Scottish people — that their purpose was patriotic, and their aim coincident with the triumph of civil and religious liberty.

Up to the point we have reached there had been no attack on the King's part upon the con- stitution of the Scottish Church. The tendency of progress was rather in the other direction. The General Assembly having met on 21st May 1592, for the second time chose Robert Bruce as their Moderator. The main things enacted in this

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Assembly were the annulling of the Acts of 1584 against the discipline of the Kirk ; the abolition of the Act of annexation ; and the restitution of the patrimony of the Kirk. In the Parliament which met immediately thereafter, the Presbyterian polity and discipline were established, and to these enactments the Church of Scotland has ever looked back as to the charter of her liberties. During the years succeeding, — 1593-5 — there was a general concurrence between the King and the Kirk, a time of prosperity for the Church and of partial peace for the kingdom. The only domestic events of note were the birth of Prince Henry, August 1594, and the death of Chancellor Maitland, 3rd October 1595. We read that "Robert Bruce, one of the leading ministers, rode at four o'clock of the morning to Thirlestane (near Lauder), to find the Chancellor full of penitence for neglected oppor- tunities, and imploring the prayers of the Kirk. He was sorely troubled in conscience with fears that his dealings between the King and Queen should come out."1 There had been some dispute the pre- vious year about the care of the young Prince.

In the beginning of the year 1596 Calder- wood writes : " This year is remarkable to the Kirk of Scotland both for the beginning and for the end of it. The Kirk of Scotland was now come to her perfection and the greatest purity that ever she attained, so that her beauty was admirable to foreign Kirks. The assemblies of the saints were never so glorious, nor profitable 1 Tytler, " History of Scotland," vol. iv. 238.

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to every one of the true members thereof, as in the beginning of this year. There was good appearance of further reformation of abuses and corruptions, and the appearance of a constant provision for all the parish kirks within the country." What he notes about the end of that same year is of a totally different character, and marks an unhappy departure which set in and continued for many years. The point of quarrel is very much the old one, viz., the resentment felt by the King at the liberties taken by the Scottish preachers in the pulpit. His vanity and self- conceit were deeply wounded by these attacks. They contrasted very keenly with the suavity which marked the representatives of a Court and Church where a maiden queen had sway, and he was rapidly approaching that episcopal leaning which afterwards condensed itself in his favourite maxim, "No Bishop, no King." The point from which the whole quarrel developed was the process raised by the King against Mr David Black. This minister of St Andrews had preached a sermon towards the close of the year 1596, in which he not only adverted on the threatened triumph of idolatry (i.e. Popery) at home, but raised his voice against the Prelacy which had established itself in the neighbour- ing kingdom. " As for His Highness, none knew better than he did of the meditated return of these Papist lords, and herein he was guilty of manifest treachery. Were not the Lords of Session miscreants and bribers, the nobility

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cormorants, and the Queen of Scotland one whom for fashion's sake they might pray for, but in whose time it was vain to hope for good ? "

For these injudicious remarks Black was at once summoned before the Privy Council. Now such a summons raised far deeper questions as to the liberty of the pulpit and the juris- diction of the Church. After careful consulta- tion with his brethren, Black declined the judicature of the Council, at least in the first instance, declaring that the Ecclesiastical Court must first judge whether or not he had trans- gressed his bounds ; that upon their so deciding, he would not decline to submit himself to the civil authority, and to undergo the judgment they should inflict upon him. Upon this point the whole Church sided with Black, and the firm, strong hand of Bruce can be traced in several of the public documents of the time. On one occa- sion it was Bruce himself who gave striking answer to a suggestion of compromise made by the King. " If it was Mr Black's particular," he said, " that was in question, His Majesty's offer was thankfully to be accepted ; but seeing it was the liberty of Christ's Gospel that was grievously wounded by the proclamation, and the preaching of the word by usurpation of the judicatory, it was a matter of such importance in the estimation of all the brethren that if the King had taken Mr Black's life, and a dozen of others with him, he could not have wounded the hearts of the brethren more, nor done such injury to the Lord Jesus."

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On this answer being given, a gentleman of the Chamber came the next morning to shew how much the King was moved ; that he had thought upon the matter all night, and requested that the preacher be calm that day. To this it was returned that " the brother who was to teach had God to answer, and his brethren's expectation, whom he could not offend for pleasuring all the kings of the earth." A very tender point had evidently been touched. It was only roughly debated at the time. But it was unquestionably one which perplexed that whole period, and led at last to the inevitable result. King James said no one could doubt that Black had exceeded his bounds. Probably no one but Black himself — if even he — did ever doubt it. But who was to call him to account ? Was it for the civil authority at once to step in ? If so, where was the liberty of the Word of God ? Were there not regular Church Courts whose province it was to deal in the first instance with such offenders ? That was the whole contention of the ministers. But the occasion was made one for carrying civil or royal jurisdiction into spiritual matters. Not- withstanding repeated declinature on the part of the ministers, the Privy Council at length decided against Black, found all the charges against him proved, and sentenced him to be confined beyond the North Water, until His Majesty resolved what further punishment should be inflicted on him. This is the first cut of the civil sword into the liberties of the Christian Church. The

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quarrel may be said to have raged, at intervals, for nearly a hundred years to come in Scotland. Stealthily and subtly, at first almost uncon- sciously, or, from lack of discernment, was the encroachment made by James, more openly by his successors, until this claim to rule the con- science and religion of the nation by civil and military force provoked the expulsion of the Stuart dynasty from the throne.

But this particular dispute we are now con- sidering was further embroiled by Court factions. The Octavians, as they were called, that is, the eight gentlemen appointed for the control of the royal finances, restricted the King from lavishing money upon his private favourites. Irritated at this, the latter, known at the time by the name of Cubiculars, or gentlemen of the bed-chamber, were desirous of driving these statesmen from their places; and to accomplish this object, they in- dustriously fomented the dissension between the King and the Church. They insinuated to the Octavians that the friends of the ministers were engaged in a plot against their lives. They, at the same time, privately assured the ministers that the Octavians were the advisers of the return of the Popish lords . . . and of the prosecution of Black ; that it was through their influence that the mind of the King was alienated from the Church, and that they intended nothing less than the overthrow of the Protestant religion.

The result of these plottings was the so-called tumult of seventeenth December (159G), which

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has been magnified into a daring and horrid re- bellion. On the morning of that day, information was conveyed to Bruce that the Earl of Huntly had been all night in the palace and that his friends and retainers were at hand waiting for orders to enter the Capital. This communication, which was partly true, excited the more alarm that a charge had just been given to twenty-four of the most zealous burghers to leave the city within six hours. This being the day of the weekly sermon the ministers agreed to call to- gether the barons and burgesses after public worship to advise what ought to be done, a practice for which the ministers had the authority of an express act of privy council. They met accordingly and deputed two persons from each of the estates to wait on the King, who happened then to be in the immediate neighbourhood, in conference with the Lords of Session in the Upper Tolbooth. Having obtained an audience Bruce told His Majesty that they were sent to lay before him the dangers which threatened religion. "What dangers see you?" said the King. Bruce men- tioned what they had been told as to Huntly. " What have you to do with that ? " said His Majesty, " and how durst you convene against my proclamation." "Dare," said the fierce Lord Lindsay, " we dare more than that, and will not suffer the truth to be overthrown and stand tamely by." Upon this the King retired to an inner apartment or retreated downstairs and com- manded the door to be shut upon them The

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Protestant barons and ministers returned to the Little Kirk, where meanwhile Cranstoun — a for- ward minister — had been reading to the people in the church certain Scripture passages — among others the story of Haman and Mordecai. Per- ceiving that their minds were somewhat moved, Bruce proposed that they should defer the con- sideration of their grievances and merely pledge themselves at present, for the defence of their religion. This proposal having been received with acclamation, he besought them as they regarded the credit of their cause, to be silent and quiet. At this moment an unknown person (supposed to have been an emissary of the Cubiculars) hastily entered the church and cried out, " Fy ! Fy ! save yourselves, the Papists are coming to massacre you. Bills and axes ! " and someone exclaimed, " The sword of the Lord and of Gideon." " These are not our weapons," cried Bruce, but panic had seized them. They rushed into the street, where they found a crowd already collected, and for a time all was confusion. The ministers imme- diately called in the aid of the magistrates, and by their joint persuasion the tumult was speedily quelled. Within less than an hour, not an offen- sive weapon, not the least symptom of riot were to be seen on the streets. The barons and ministers resumed their deliberations and sent to lay their requests before the King. His Majesty directed them to come to him in the afternoon, after which he walked down the public street to Holyrood attended by his courtiers, with as

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much quietness and security as he had ever experienced.

Such are the facts connected with this famous incident. " No tumult in the world," says Baillie, " was ever more harmless in its effects or more innocent in its causes, if you consider all those who did openly act therein." It was never seriously alleged that there was the most distant idea of touching the person of the King. No assault was made upon the meanest creature belonging to the Court ; no violence was offered to the person or the property of a single in- dividual. So far from partaking of the nature of a rebellion, the affair scarcely deserves the name of a riot. Unpremeditated in its origin and harmless in its effects, as the uproar in Edinburgh was, it offered a pretext which was eagerly laid hold of by the Court for com- mencing an attack on the government of the Church. It was comparatively easy to involve the ministers who were present on the occasion, in the odium attached to that crime. Nothing could be more congenial to the character of James than this piece of policy, which had a show of deep wisdom in the device and required a very slender portion of courage in the exe- cution. The King hastily quitted Edinburgh and the palace. As soon as he was gone, a proclamation was issued requiring all in public office to repair to him at Linlithgow. The ministers of Edinburgh with a certain number of the citizens were commanded to enter ward

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in the castle, and were summoned before the privy-council at Linlithgow. The tumult was declared to be " a cruel and barbarous attempt against His Majesty's royal person, his nobility and council, at the instigation of certain seditious ministers and barons." Events concurred ap- parently with the King in this policy. On the day that he left Edinburgh the barons who remained met and agreed to take upon them the mediation of the Church and its cause. At their desire Bruce wrote a letter to Lord Hamilton asking him to come and countenance them in the matter. The letter was altered, in such a manner, as to make it express approbation of the tumult and was so conveyed by Hamilton to the Court at Lin- lithgow. The Court did not dare to make any public use of this vitiated document, but it was privately circulated to blast the reputation of Bruce and his friends. In the beginning of January 1597 His Majesty with great pomp and in a warlike attitude returned to Edinburgh. It was ordained that the Courts of Justice should be removed and that no meeting of General Assembly, Synod, or Presbytery should hence- forth be held within the Capital A deputation from the Town Council waited on the King to implore forgiveness for a tumult which they had done everything in their power to suppress. Their supplication was rejected, and they heard nothing but denunciations of vengeance. They were told that the Borderers would be brought

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in upon them — that their city would be razed to the ground and sowed with salt, that a monument would be erected on the place where it stood to perpetuate the memory of such an execrable treason. The ministers advised by their friends withdrew and concealed themselves for a time. Bruce and Balcanquhal went into England. Balfour and Watson concealed them- selves in Fife. As soon as it was known that they had taken this step they were publicly denounced as rebels. The spirits of the Edinburgh magistrates and citizens were cowed by the pro- ceedings of the King ; and the magistrates offered to deliver up those who had fostered the so-called tumult. The King deemed that he had gone far enough for the present, and proceeded to reassure the trembling citizens.

Why so much was made by James and by those writers who take his side, of this trifling disturbance comes out very clearly in the events which follow, and is by no one made clearer than by Tytler, " The tumult committed by the citizens and the part acted in it by the clergy was a prodigious advantage to the monarch who quickly perceived it. He was well aware of the difficulty of dealing with the ministers as long as they confined themselves to their political attacks in the pulpit, and pleaded an indepen- dent jurisdiction; but the Bailies and citizens were unquestionably amenable to the authority of the Crown and the laws. They were, with scarcely a single exception, Protestants warmly

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attached to the Kirk and a principal element in its power. All this the King knew, and when he saw that he had them within his grasp, he determined they should feel the full weight of his resentment. . . . The sword was thus kept suspended over the heads of the un- happy magistrates and their capital ; and it was quite apparent that the King, having be- come convinced of his own strength, was deter- mined to defer the moment of mercy till he had accomplished some great purpose which now filled his mind. This was nothing less than the establishment of Episcopacy. The recent excesses of the more violent ministers had made the deepest impression upon the monarch ; and it was evident to him that if the principles of independent jurisdiction which they had not hesitated to adopt were preached and acted upon, there must ensue a per- petual collision between the ecclesiastical and civil authorities. He longed therefore to see (in the words of Spottiswood) ' a decent authority established in the Kirk, which should be con- sistent with the word of God, the custom of primitive times, and the laws of the realm,' and he believed that no fitter moment could occur to carry this great object than the present." l His first step was to summon a General Assembly of the Church to meet at Perth on the last of February 1597. A series of questions — pre- pared, it is said, before the Edinburgh tumults 'Tytler, " History of Scotland," vol. iv. p. 256.

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— were suggested for the consideration of synods and presbyteries implying a compromise on the debated topic of the jurisdictions. For the first time in the history of the Presbyterian Church, the composition of this assembly was cooked by the King's instructions. He did his part to keep Melville, Bruce and others of the leading lowland ministers from being members of it. He instructed his emissaries to scour the Highlands and other northern districts and secure as many as possible of the north- country ministers — more lukewarm Presbyterians and more devoted courtiers than their lowland brethren.

This assembly, which on the whole inclined to the royal view, was called an " extraordinary " one, and its validity was doubted. The King gained several points. It was agreed that no unusual conventions should be held amongst pastors without the royal consent, and that the acts of the privy council or the laws passed by the three estates should not be attacked or dis- cussed in the pulpit ; that in the principal towns of the realm no minister should be chosen with- out consent of the King and of the flock ; and that no man should by name be rebuked in the pulpit, unless he had fled from justice or were under sentence of excommunication.1

James's next step was to reconcile the Catholic lords to the Kirk, and here he was equally successful. The ceremony of their reconciliation

1 Spottiswoode, p. 441.

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to the Kirk and restoration to their estates, took place in the Old Kirk in Aberdeen, the 26th of June 1597. The repentant earls then received the Sacrament after the Presbyterian form, and solemnly swore to keep order in their wide and wild territories. This success encouraged James to go forward with his great ecclesiastical project. The question was raised of representing the Kirk in Parliament. To prepare for this, a commission was proposed of the wisest among the brethren. Fourteen were chosen, most of whom were known to be favourable to the views of the Court. The " King's led horse," as Calderwood styles this body, gave a specimen of their quality during the summer and soon laid their petition before Parliament for a share in its councils. Its re- quisition was in these words, "That the ministers, as representing the Church and third estate of the Kingdom, might be admitted to have a voice in Parliament." This application, made so artfully as to seem to come from the Kirk itself, was the first step towards restoring the order of bishops. A General Assembly was soon after convened in which the subject was solemnly argued in the King's presence. The object had been already wittily exposed and ridiculed by Davidson. " Busk him, busk him," said he, " as bonnily as ye can, and fetch him in as fairly as ye will, we ken him weel eneuch ; we see the horns of his mitre." In the assembly, just mentioned, it was keenly debated by James Melville, Davidson, Bruce, Carmichael and Aird and denounced in d

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the strongest language. James had tried every method of conciliation. He had extended his forgiveness to the ministers of Edinburgh for their part in the late tumult ; he restored their privileges and the comfort of his royal presence to the magistrates and citizens of the Capital, but in the end, this scheme of his was carried in the assembly only by a narrow majority of ten. And the final establishment of this modi- fied form of Episcopacy did not take place for more than twelve months after, in a General Assembly convened at Montrose, 28th March 1600.

Meanwhile, at least two severe passages at arms of a more personal nature took place be- tween Bruce and the King. The first of these has been already slightly alluded to. It had been determined, several years before, that the pastoral care, at Edinburgh, should be divided into eight several charges. Bruce as the principal minister of Edinburgh could of course not be passed over. The question was now (14th April 1598) put to him, in presence of the King, whether he was willing to accept a particular flock according to the Act of Assembly. He at once assented. Then it was suggested that he must have ordination in addition to the others, for this had in his case been omitted before. A prolonged and acrimonious contest here broke out on the King's part. It was characteristic of James's petty acuteness to go back now upon that old matter and make so much of it. It

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is difficult to conceive on what ground one so prominent and distinguished in the Church of Scotland as Bruce could have been assailed on the score of a technical informality, which had occurred at the very beginning of his ministry, in those somewhat unsettled times. The length and intricacy of the discussion, degenerating even to a personal wrangle on the King's part, seems now so grossly pedantic, as to recall Carlyle's suggestion that the ferule of a schoolmaster would have became James better than the sceptre of a monarch.1 Bruce explained that he was perfectly willing to accept " imposition of hands," in common with his brethren, in token of their admission to these particular cures, but that he could not submit to a special ordination which would have seemed to invalidate all his previous ministry. The Presbytery came frankly forward at this point (2nd May 1598) and declared Bruce "to be a lawful pastor of the Kirk of Edinburgh, having his calling of the General Assembly thereto." The " imposition of hands " was at length conferred (19th May). But it is only when we attend to the gradual and stealthy process the King's mind was now following, that we begin to perceive the significance of the inci- dent " Imposition of hands " had been regarded in the Scottish Church as a ceremony, somewhat indifferent, and not absolutely necessary. Now when the foundations of Episcopacy were being attempted to be laid, all this was changed. If 1 Carlyle's "Historical Sketches," p. 147 (1898).

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ordination to the ministry cannot be received without imposition of hands, and if possible by the hands of a bishop, it becomes plainer why the King and the Commissioners were so very stringent in the matter.

The other incident was, if possible, more grossly and peculiarly personal. It pertained to what the King chose to call Bruce's " pension." Bruce had a grant out of the Abbey of Arbroath of twenty- four chalders of victual, by a gift for his lifetime. On the 10th February of this year the King took it from him, without notice, and openly assisted Lord Hamilton's tenants in resisting Bruce's " charge." Bruce offered to pass from his gift if the King would keep it in his own hands, or bestow it in settling the stipends of the Church. But the King transferred it to Lord Hamilton, upon which Bruce went on with his process before the Lords of Session. Tytler's account of what followed is worthy of quotation as showing how that Court had already improved its position. " The subject of quarrel was a judgment pronounced by the Court in favour of the celebrated minister. . . . Bruce sued the Crown and obtained a decision in his favour. The monarch appealed, came to the court in person, pleaded his own cause with the utmost violence, and commanded the judges to give their vote against Mr Robert. The president, Seton, then rose : ' My liege/ said he, ' it is my part to speak first in this Court of which your Highness has made me head. You are our King ; we, your subjects bound and ready to obey you

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from the heart, and with all devotion to serve you with our lives and substance, but this is a matter of law, in which we are sworn to do justice accord- ing to our conscience and the statutes of the realm. Your Majesty may, indeed, command us to the con- trary, in which case I, and every honest man on this bench, will either vote according to conscience, or resign and not vote at all' Another of the judges, Lord Newbattle, spoke in the same strain and alluded to the imputation that they dared not do justice in that court to all classes. He said ' they would now deliver a unanimous opinion against the Crown.' For this brave and dignified conduct James was unprepared ; he proceeded to reason long and earnestly with the recusants, but persuasions, arguments, taunts, and threats were unavailing. The judges, with only two dissentient votes, pronounced their decision in favour of Bruce, and the mortified monarch flung out of Court ' muttering revenge and raging marvellously.' When the subservient temper of those times is considered, and we remember that Seton the President was a Roman Catholic, while Bruce was a chief leader of the Presbyterian ministers, it would be unjust to withhold our admiration from a judge and a court which had the courage thus fearlessly to assert the supremacy of the law." l How the matter ended can be easily foreseen. Oil the 18th January 1GOO Bruce resigned into the King's own hand a gift which was so reluctantly con- tinued and had been so frequently interfered with. 1 Tytler, "History of Scotlaud," iv. 270.

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But this brings us to the last and severest public trial which Bruce encountered with the King. At Perth, on 5th August 1600, occurred the fatal termination of the well-known Gowrie conspiracy. On August 6th, by ten o'clock in the forenoon, the Town Council of Edinburgh received a letter from the King giving them an account of his deliverance and commanding the ministers to return public thanks on his behalf. The ministers agreed, in general, but not to enter into particulars. On coming out they found the magistrates summoned to a Privy Council and a charge to themselves to attend. The Chancellor desired them to go to the church and praise God for the King's marvellous deliverance from so vile a treason. Bruce answered they were not certain of the treason, but they would go, and in general terms bless God for His Majesty's deliverance from great danger. While they were talking Mr David Lindsay arrived from Falkland, where he had heard the King tell the matter. It was thought best that Lindsay should speak, so the Council and the rest went with him to the Cross where Lind- say harangued ; where the people with uncovered heads praised God ; bells were rung, fires were kindled, and the like.

On Tuesday, August 12th, the King himself having arrived in Edinburgh summoned the minis- ters and asked why they had disobeyed him. Bruce answered that they did not disobey, but gave thanks to God, as they all did on the Sabbath after. The King questioned each of the ministers.

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In a little while they were called in again and sentence intimated that they were suspended from preaching under pain of death, and were charged to remove out of Edinburgh within forty- eight hours and not come within ten miles of it. This quarrel was speedily patched up, so far as the other ministers were concerned, but the difference between Bruce and the King continued unrecon- ciled.

Grounds for their hesitation are obvious enough. The young Earl of Gowrie had returned to his own country only a few months before, with the favour of England, and with special commendation to the Reformers from Beza with whom for a time he had sojourned when on the Continent. At first a strong suspicion was entertained in the country that the affair at Perth was rather a design of the King against the Gowries, than a conspiracy of the Gowries against the King. And the extreme haste, violence, and partizanship of James in the matter rather tended to confirm these suspicions. It was several years after, before all reasonable grounds of doubt were removed by the discovery of the letters of Logan of Restalrig l detailing this curious plot. Indeed, the facts by themselves carry their own evidence. The young Gowries had the deepest grounds for desiring personal revenge on the King, and would probably have liked to see a change of government, but their ideas were crude and fantastic and they fell in their own snare. " The theory that the whole was a plot of the 1 Still preserved in the Register House.

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Court to ruin the powerful house of Gowrie must be dismissed as beyond the range of sane con- clusions." l As the historian remarks, James was the last man in the world to render himself — an unarmed man — into the hands of his armed ad- versaries and out of this to bring himself by his own courage and dexterity to an end, the very opposite of what was expected. But how an affair so perplexed and mysterious in itself should also have afforded occasion for a final misunder- standing between Bruce and the King, for Bruce's extrusion from his Edinburgh charge, and for the commencement of an entirely new chapter in his history, viz., his course for the long remainder of his days, as a banished and outed minister, is at first sight far from obvious. Again and again Bruce declared that he believed and accepted the King's account of what took place at Perth, the more firmly and fully as years went on. But what he could not submit to was the King's demand that he should " preach " this, in its entire detail, from the pulpit. To bring into that place these public and political affairs was a flat contradiction of the policy of non-interference in such things, which the King himself had been so keen to enforce. In a letter to the King (October 1600), on the eve of his departure from the country, Bruce says, "I offer to God my most hearty thanks for all your Majesty's deliverances, from the cradle to this present hour ; but mainly for that deliverance which He granted to your Majesty in St Johnston 1 Hill Burton, "History of Scotland," v. 336.

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the fifth of August, far above all our deserts and Your Majesty's expectations."

It becomes plain, at length, that this Gowrie affair was used by the acuteness of the King as au occasion to accomplish a long cherished purpose. Perceiving the hold he had on Bruce, through a certain punctilious sense of honour, he urged it with tireless pertinacity, as a mode of reducing to silence this bold preacher ; and arresting perman- ently the opposition which he continued to offer to the King's ecclesiastical designs. He first passed sentence upon him of banishment to France, which was carried out by his departure for Dieppe, Nov. 2nd, 1600. He was recalled to his own country, through the intercession of Lord Mar, the next year. But instead of being set at liberty, or re- stored to Edinburgh, he was commanded to keep ward in his own house at Kinnaird, and was after- wards tossed up and down the country for a long succession of years. We begin to perceive that this was part of a general policy, relentlessly pur- sued by James, towards all the main opponents of his Church Schemes. Welch of Ayr was banished to France in 1606. Andrew Melville, the next, year, was thrown into the Tower, and four years later was exiled to the same country. The quieter and more subtle mode of deprivation was antici- pated upon Bruce, as one who had higher con- nections and interests in his own country.

But the truth is, as M'Crie says,1 " from the moment that Bruce was removed from Edinburgh, 1 " Life of Andrew Melville," p. 229 (Ediu., 1856).

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it was determined that he should never be allowed to return. He was tantalised for years with hopes of being restored to his place. The terms pro- posed to him were either such as it was known he would reject, or they were evaded and with- drawn when he was ready to accede to them. And he was afterwards persecuted till his death by the mean jealousy of the bishops, who set spies on his conduct, sent information to court against him, and procured orders to change the place of his confinement from time to time and to drag him from one corner of the kingdom to an- other. The whole treatment which this inde- pendent minister received was disgraceful to the government. Granting that he gave way to scrupulosity, that he required a degree of evi- dence as to the guilt of Gowrie, which was not necessary to justify the part he was required to take in announcing it, that there was a mixture of pride in his motives, and that he stood too much on the point of honour (conclusions that some will not be disposed to make), still the nice and high sense of integrity which he uniformly displayed, his great talents, and the eminent ser- vices which he had rendered to Church and State, not to speak of his birth and connections, ought to have secured him very different treatment. But the Court hated him for his fidelity and dreaded his influence in counteracting its favourite plans."

The second part of Bruce's career is worthy of some remembrance and record. During the earlier

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years of this dreary period the King allowed him a great many personal interviews and conferences. Indeed he rather seemed to court his concessions, and professed to allow his return to his pulpit upon conditions. One of these conferences took place at Craigmillar (Jan. 1602). There, answer- ing a written question of the King's, he said : " As to preaching, I never as yet had a calling of God to any place of that kind save to Edinburgh. Place me there, where God placed me, and I shall teach as faithful and wholesome doctrine to the honour of the magistrates as God shall give me grace. But to go through the country, and make pro- clamations here and there, it will be counted either a beastly fear or a beastly flattery, and in so doing I should not remove doubts neither, but raise greater, do no good to the cause but great harm ; for people look not to words but grounds." What influence this answer had upon the King, or whether it was ever presented by the commissioners, is not signified to us. But the King and the commissioners would willingly have had Bruce come greater lengths than he had free- dom to come ; therefore the King took unusual pains with him. Not that ever he designed to permit him to return to his charge.

At a second conference at Brechin (April 1602) Bruce said " he had offered to subscribe his resolu- tion which was a more lasting and constant testi- mony than any had yet given." At a third meeting in Perth (June 1602) they got nearer than at any other time to the original matter of con-

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troversy. " I give you leave to pose me," said the King, " upon the particulars." " Then first," said Bruce, " if it please Your Majesty, had you a purpose to slay my Lord ? " " As I shall answer to God," said the King, " I knew not that my Lord was slain, till I saw him in his last agony, and I was very sorry, yea, prayed from my heart for him." " What say you then of Mr Alexander, sir ? " said Bruce. " I grant," said the King, " I am art and part in Mr Alexander's slaughter, for it was in my own defence." " Why brought you him not to justice," said the other, " seeing you should have had God before your eyes ? " "I had neither God nor the devil, man ! before my eyes," answered the King, in some froth, "but my own defence. . . ." Further Bruce asked His Majesty, "If he had a purpose that day in the morning to slay Mr Alexander." The King answered, on his salvation, " That day, in the morning, he loved him as his brother." " Mr Robert signified that he was persuaded by the King's oaths that he was innocent of any pur- pose to slay them in the morning ; but since he confessed he had not God, nor justice before his eyes, was in a heat, and a mind of revenge, he could not be altogether innocent before God, and had great cause to repent and crave mercy for Christ's sake." Bruce signed this resolution at Perth 20th June 1602 : " I am resolved of His Majesty's innocency and of the guiltiness of the Earl of Gowrie and his brother, according as it is declared by Act of Parliament ; and therefore

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acknowledge the great mercy of God towards His Majesty, and to the whole kirk and country in His Majesty's deliverance." All the commissioners subscribed as witnesses, and the King granted him a warrant to travel where he pleased — save to Edinburgh and four miles about it.

The religious people of Edinburgh without exception were longing to have Bruce back to the town. In November 1602 two commis- sioners were sent to the Assembly at Holyrood House to desire the return of their minister. The Assembly received the proposal with applause ; but the King and the moderator alleged they had sundry things to propound before that could be granted. After this Assembly the King sends for Bruce to the Sciennes. Upon the last of Novem- ber, his own cousin, Beltrees, writes to him that he might preach next Sabbath, if he came up to the King's terms, removed all scruples from the people, and cleared His Majesty's innocence. Bruce, find- ing that only preaching in their terms would please the King and his commissioners, resolved to retire, and returned to his own house. It was given out that he had deserted his kirk, which he had full liberty to enter. Upon 30th December, the same year, Mr Hall and some people of Edinburgh came to his house to inquire of him, " why he entered not his calling." Bruce declared liberty was not granted him. Early the next year (1603) the King at a meeting of commissioners desired them to depose Bruce for disobedience. They answered that they " had no power to depose him." " Could they not

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remove him and declare his place vacant ? " This they said they could do, but the matter was put off, and other important events intervened. Calder- \vood tells us that Bruce's meditation during this time was " That if it were the Lord's good pleasure to exercise him with a new temptation, and pull the people and ministry from him, that it would please God, instead of prince, priest, or people's favours, to triple His Spirit upon him, and let him see in his heart His face brighter and brighter — a threefold measure of His favour, to supply his outward wants."

One glimpse of mutual personal amenities is permitted us upon the occasion of the King's leaving Scotland to take possession of the English throne. Queen Elizabeth died on the 24th of March 1603. On Sabbath, April 3rd, James took farewell of his people at the public service in St Giles, and on the 5th April set out on his month's triumphant journey to the English Court. On the morning of his departure Bruce was taken into the King's bed-chamber. With reverence he approached him, and said, " Sir, I have marked four things in this great work of your Majesty's advancement ; first, that God has placed you on three earthly thrones, without loss of credit to your holy religion, or of peace to your conscience ; next, without shedding a drop of your blood ; without any loss to the person of Your Majesty's subjects, and last of all, with the approval of that noble Queen and the affections of the whole council of England. This craves a twofold duty

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of Your Majesty, viz., that the glory and glare of these earthly things deceive you not; and that you extend Your Majesty's credit, and employ your whole care for the preservation of His own Kingdom." The King answered, " Mr Robert, by God's grace I shall not place my comfort or consolation in them, or in any earthly thing. As for the preservation of His Kingdom, if I would preserve my own life, I must study to preserve that." So Bruce took his leave and had as good a countenance of the King as ever he had in his life. And after the King had mounted his horse Bruce went to him again and was as well received as any subject of his rank in Scotland. The King's last words were (though Bruce says he did not hear them) : " Now all particulars are passed between me and you."

After the King's departure, Bruce had quiet- ness and rest for about a year. But thereafter troubles of a new kind began to gather round him, fostered no doubt by the favourers of the new schemes of Church-government in Scotland. Since it was now perceived to be hopeless to win him over to these schemes, he was marked as one of their most influential opponents, and measures were taken to allow him no more liberty of preaching, at least in the central parts of the country. In February 1605 the com- missioners of the General Assembly summoned him to appear to " see and hear " himself removed from his function in Edinburgh. He compeared in the company of a friend. Only himself got

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access. After long reasoning they removed him. He appealed from their sentence. They further inhibited him from preaching, but he took no notice of that part of the sentence. In the month of July the same year, Chancellor Seton sent for him to intimate that he had got a command from the King to discharge him from teaching. " He would not," he said, " go further at the time than request him to desist preaching for nine or ten days that he might get further instructions from the Court." Bruce considered this a requisition so trivial that he agreed to comply with it. But that night in his sleep his conscience awoke, " How durst you make such a promise ? " He confessed his fault and craved for mercy. But his trouble so increased as to cast his body into a fever and sickness. Yet in the morning it pleased God to relieve him and he resolved not to obey that injunction. As soon as he went home, he preached in the Woodside, and in the presence of Lord Elphin- stone and his lady in the garden where they were secluded with the pestilence. The next month he was charged to "ward" in Inverness within ten days ; and so began that course of banishment and wandering which he had to pursue for a great portion of his remaining years.

The allegations made in support of this sentence were, " his apprehending a most sinister distrust of the King's sincerity in the treason of Gowrie, his uttering his distrust in public and private meetings ; his entertaining a

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frequent resort of the ministry and people, and meddling with the affairs of the King and of the State; censuring the doings of ministers and there- by fostering factions and divisions in the Kirk, grudges and miscontents against the present government." The real cause of quarrel was of course behind all these.

His banishment to Inverness began on 27th August 1605, when he took instruments of his entry. He is said to have remained there four years.1 But, in point of fact, he continued for the most part there for eight years, till 1613. There he preached every Lord's Day forenoon and every Wednesday ; read and exhorted at prayers every evening. He had great success in that ministerial work. Many were converted and multitudes edified. All this work was carried on amid manifold annoyance and opposition. He was very hardly used by the magistrates, who made him as uneasy as they possibly could. The minister of the town also contended much with him, and every year was bringing him into new troubles ; indeed he was in hazard of his life by the malice some people bore against him. One day he was going through Fisher Street with two friends; some villains shot a gun at him, and the ball missed him by a few inches. The offender was afterwards found to be the old Lady Sutherland's officer's son. Being most un-

1 Calderwood says that Bnice entered Inverness and took in- strument* of his entry, 27th August 1605, "where he remained four years," yet he is still writing from Inverness, February 1613.

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easy there, at the desire of the magistrates of Aberdeen Bruce came to that town, venturing upon an old licence. But complaints being made against his preaching there, after he had stayed about a quarter of a year at Aberdeen he was charged to return to Inverness, where he continued till the beginning of the year 1613.1

In reference to this migration we have a letter of Bruce to the King, declaring that if there had been a " prescription or limitation of time," he had failed in passing the bounds of it ; that " he went not without sanction of the bishops " ; and asking that " his repairing to Aberdeen for his better health, and for the comfort of his wife and children, might stand with his majesty's favour." In that year he supplied the pulpit at Forres for some months upon the death of Mr John Strachan the minister. Any occasion to remove from Inverness was welcome to him. After his son's intercession at Court, he obtained licence to come and live at his own house at Kinnaird ; and preached there and in that neighbourhood for three years following (1613- 1616). The explanation of the discrepancy of dates is due to the manner in which the outed ministers were treated by the authorities. The case of Bruce was only one of many. Delay and procrastination were constantly practised upon them. We read in this same year (1613) a letter of Bruce to Sir James Semple, remonstrating with him that no notice of the King's pleasure

1 Wodrow, "Collections as to the Life of Bruce," p. 125.

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had been sent him. A proclamation of relief to banished ministers was made at the Cross of Edinburgh ; but George Johnstone, minister of Ancrum, and David Calderwood, minister of Crailing, got no notice of it for a long time afterwards. Mr Andrew Duncan, minister of Crail, suffered eight years' exile for attending the Assembly of Aberdeen, and only obtained liberty, upon a special petition, to return to his native country. This kind of petty persecution lasted through the years of Bruce's banishment. In a General Assembly called to meet at Edin- burgh, July 1606, " supplication was made for the banished brethren confined in the Highlands, for Mr Eobert Bruce, and for those detained in London." The nobility, at request of the Assem- bly, wrote to his majesty in favour of Bruce. At a subsequent Assembly, 1608, a motion was made to grant Melville, Bruce, Murray, and Row — banished and confined ministers — their wonted liberty. No notice appears to have been taken of these requests or motions.

At length there came a respite which in Bruce's case lasted for about eight or nine years, 1613- 1622. He was nominally confined to his house at Kinnaird ; but in reality his activity was very considerable. Indeed his enemies complained of this very thing. He supplied the pulpit at Stirling during a vacancy. He preached often at communions and with brethren of his acquaint- ance. He was therefore traduced for behaving himself like a " general bishop," and going from

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place to place. For this his adversaries had themselves to thank.

la this period occurred the incident which connects him — a leader in the First Reformation — with Alexander Henderson, the leader of the Second Reformation and (years afterwards) the Moderator of the famous Assembly of 1638. At the beginning of his ministry — which was probably about 1615 — Henderson belonged to the prevailing party in the Church. He was brought into his first charge at Leuchars by Gladstanes, the bishop of St Andrews, against the consent of the parish ; so that upon the day appointed for his admission, the people shut the church doors and his friends were obliged to break up a window and procure him entrance that way. A little after his settlement, having heard that Bruce was to be at a communion some distance from Leuchars and being very desirous to hear him preach, Henderson went to the place, where few knew him, and concealed himself in a dark corner of the church. Bruce came into the pulpit, and after a pause, according to his usual manner, which fixed Henderson's attention, he read with his wonted dignity and deliberation these words as his text : " Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheep- fold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber." These words so literally applicable to the manner in which he had entered on his ministry went " like drawn swords " to

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his inmost soul. He who wished to conceal himself from the eyes of men, felt that he was naked and opened before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. In short, this powerful preacher was by the divine blessing the means of Henderson's conversion. Ever after he retained a great affection for Bruce, whom he called his spiritual father.1 Why we date this incident so early, is that Henderson is known to have been a member of the Perth Assembly of 1618, and to have then voted against the so-called Perth Articles. All which is a presumption that, by that date, his views on the great question in the Church had under- gone a change.

The later years of Bruce's ministry, which we have now reached, undoubtedly place him in an intenser light. In the regard of the religious people of Scotland he was held in a manner " sainted." It may indeed be said that his chequered mode of life, his moving about from place to place, without any settled charge, pre- vented him from leaving on his country so deep a mark as his character and faculties were fitted to make. But the same facts have another side. The bitter trials which marked the last half of his life commended him all the more to the esteem of the like-minded. He was much con- sulted by those with whom he agreed on the policy of the Church. He was greatly trusted in regard to things still more deeply spiritual. 1 M'Crie, "Story of the Scottish Church," p. 152.

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He was much visited for purposes of consultation at his own house and elsewhere, and this went on until it attracted the notice and provoked the sneers of the King. So late as March 1622 the Council took it upon them to ask permission that he be allowed to remain at his own house till the winter season should be over — considering his age and infirmity — before he should be ban- ished, a second time, to Inverness. The King replied, blaming them for the delay, alleging that it was not for love of Bruce, "but to keep up a schism in the Kirk, and that he (the King) would not allow any more Popish pilgrimages to Kinnaird."

Some further persecutions were practised upon him just before his second exile. In March 1619 he had been charged by the ministers of Edin- burgh with preaching against them at Cramond when preaching upon false apostles. The Council commanded him to remove out of Stirling, and confined him to his own house at Kinnaird and a mile round it. In a little time he procured a warrant from the Council to remove to another house of his, at Monkland, not far from Glasgow. There he taught in the parish kirk for some time, till Bishop Law, grieved at the great resort of people to hear him, sent Mr Patrick Walkingshaw to signify to him that he must keep his own house, otherwise he would pass sentence of de- privation on him. It was one of the articles of the bishop's complaint against him that he kept private fasts in his house at Monkland. There

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were only two such, where Mr Robert Boyd of Trochrig, Principal of Glasgow University, and Robert Scott, minister of the parish, were present ; and the whole number of persons did not exceed twenty. In a little while he was obliged to leave his house. The bishop had tabled complaints against him in London, that he kept private fasts in his own house ; that when at communions he did not observe the Articles of Perth, but dis- pensed the sacrament in conformity with the prac- tice of the Reformed Kirk. A letter from the King was read in Council, Oct. 25th, 1620, requir- ing him to be cited before them and tried, and commanding them to ward him in Aberdeen if he did not obey the Acts of the Perth Assembly. When the letter was read Chancellor Seton said, " It was not their province now to judge of Kirk affairs ! The bishops have a High Commission of their own to try these things." Secretary Hamil- ton asked him if he would reason whether his majesty must be obeyed or not ? The Chancellor answered, he thought " they might reason whether they would be the bishops' hangmen or not." So the Council referred the business to the bishops.

The death of Brace's wife, following soon after this, he was spared for a little time.

The next year (1621) Parliament confirmed the Articles of Perth, and no little suffering followed to several ministers — Bruce could not miss his share. On the 29th of August a letter came from the King to the Council requiring them to cite Bruce before them for breaking tlic bounds

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of his confinement and coming to Edinburgh the time of the last parliament to move sedition. On 17th Sept. 1621 he compeared, and denied the seditious charge libelled against him. He com- plained, " though he had his majesty's own letters wherein he declared himself so much obliged to him for his services, that he thought the quarter of Scotland too little to give him for a recom- pense ; now, at the instigation of the bishops, he was exhausted in his living, estate, and person ; and nothing almost was left to him but his vital spirit and breath, which were apparently now sought. The King was not readier to seek these than he was to render them, and, providing his innocence were tried, he was ready to suffer." The Chancellor passed from the contempt and sedition in the libel, but insisted on his breach of confinement. Bruce desired his accuser and witnesses to be brought, and complained that no forms of law were kept with him. The Chancellor again requested him to answer whether he had broken his confinement. Bruce said, " My Lord, if you will pose me as a friend, not as a judge, I will answer truly. I went out of my confine, but driven to it by necessity. Since my wife's death I have had none to act for me. I wrote to the Secretary for a licence to come to Edinburgh, but had no answer. I had a matter of 20,000 merks in dependence, which needed my personal attendance. I came in very secretly. At the last parliament where his majesty was I was at Edinburgh much more openly, yet it was never

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imputed to me." The Chancellor confessed that if he had written to him for a licence to come, he could not have refused. Bruce was called in again, and a warrant delivered to him to ward his person in the Castle of Edinburgh. The bishops, though they were his accusers, absented themselves from the Council that day. He was detained in the Castle till January of the succeeding year.

He was then dismissed to his own house to remain till the 12th April 1622, after which he was to transport himself to Inverness and there remain during His Majesty's pleasure. Inter- cession was made for him by the Council, as we have seen, but without effect. He himself wrote a humble petition to the Lords of Privy Council, desiring that at his age he should be spared such a journey, and offering to spend the remainder of his days at his own house. This petition was equally in vain.

On April 18, 1622, he set out a second time to Inverness. It is probable that to this occasion belongs the incident related by one of his suc- cessors at Larbert, well vouched for and believed in the place. A considerable number of gentle- men, relations and acquaintances, some of them ministers, came to take leave of him, and some to accompany him part of the way. When the horses were all drawn up and he had taken his leave of them, and the whole company were mounting, his horse was brought out last. Just as he was setting his foot in the stirrup he stopped and stood, with his eyes fixed towards heaven, for

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nearly a quarter of an hour. The rest, mounting or mounted, rode softly on. None of the company apparently observed the incident ; but an intimate friend of his seeing him in that posture, stopped his horse and waited till Bruce joined him, which he did very cheerfully and they soon overtook the company. His friend took the freedom to ask him what he was doing when he seemed to be in a muse before taking horse. Bruce said he was receiving his commission and charge from his Master to go to Inverness. " And He gave it me Himself before I set foot in the stirrup. I go to sow a seed in Inverness that shall not be rooted out for many ages."

The outward circumstances of this second exile appear to have been almost as uncomfortable as the former one had been. He was so hardly used that he was forced to remove out of the place. He could not get convenient lodging, or at least keep it long. " The Lord Enzie vexed him with reproachful speeches against the ministers, and pretended to find treason in his doctrine. Mr John Gordon, minister at Strachan, stirred up this enemy against him, applying to himself something which Bruce had said in his preaching. Such was the opposition at Inverness that he was forced to remove to Chanonry, now called Fortrose, but the religious people at Inverness prevailed with him to return. When Lord Enzie went to Edinburgh he had peace and rest, but when he came home again, the battle was renewed. At last, a fashion of

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reconciliation was made by Lord Lovat's means." l Very different was the estimate formed of the results of this Inverness ministry, by those who could look back upon the past. Some of Bruce's converts were alive in 1684, when Mr Angus M'Bain, Episcopal minister at Inverness, had his mind enlightened and publicly owned himself sorry for his conformity, and testified to the singular effects of the martyr's ministry. In the diary of John Brand, minister of Bo'ness (June 1700) we read: "The memory of that man of God, Mr Robert Bruce, is sweet to this day in this place. In the days of King James he was confined in this town, where the Lord blessed his labours to the conversion of many brethren in the town and country round about, for multitudes of all ranks would have crossed ferries every day to hear him. They came both from Ross and Sutherland." A contemporary testimony is that of Robert Blair, afterwards minister of St Andrew's. In 1622 he writes : " I intended a journey to the North to visit the faithful servants of Christ who were confined there by the Prelatic High Com- mission. I found very sweet passages of Divine Providence all the time from day to day ; my spirit was much refreshed observing the Lord's guidance ; and when I arrived at the sufferers their company and conference was to me admirably refreshful, especially at Turriff, where Mr David Dickson was confined, and at Inverness where Mr Robert Bruce was now a second time confined.

1 Calderwood, vii. 566.

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That ancient heroic servant of Christ, considering how long a journey I had made from Glasgow to visit him — being estimated at one hundred and forty miles — did impart to me the memorable passages of his life from a large book, wherein was set down what hard and sore exercises his soul had met with, both before his entry to the ministry at Edinburgh and after, ... as also the strong consolations whereby the Lord had comforted him, among which two were most eminent, whereby he said, the Lord had strengthened him before he fell under the King's displeasure. Also therein were contained choice letters either written to him or written by him." l

Bruce continued at Inverness till September 1624, when he obtained licence to come south about his necessary domestic affairs. The con- ditions of his warrant from the Council were so strait that he was resolved to return North again, but he got his time prorogued till the winter was over. In March 1625 the King died, the severity against him was mitigated, and he was not urged to return to confinement. During the remainder of his life, he was permitted to live at his own house of Kinnaird. The parish of Larbert having neither stipend nor church fit to preach in, he repaired the church at his own charges and ful- filled all ministerial duties to the people. Multi- tudes came from all quarters to hear him. This pastorate he had supplied occasionally for many years previous. But it is worthy of remark, that 1 Blair's Autobiography, p. 39 (Wodrow).

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with all his many preachings throughout Scotland, and with his many shorter temporary supplyings of Forres, Stirling, Larbert and the like, he never renounced his claim upon his first charge. So late as the beginning of the year 1629 King Charles wrote a letter to the Council ordaining Bruce to be confined to his own house of Kinnaird and two miles about it. It was thought the ministers of Edinburgh were the procurers of this letter, because he had preached in sundry kirks near to the city and desired to have taught in Edinburgh itself. " For," said he, " I may avow that there is not now a lawful minister of Edin- burgh living except I ; for they have all entered in a corrupt way contrary to the good order of our kirk ; and I verily think that these ministers are greater enemies to the gospel of Christ than the bishops are."

The last public occasion on which we have any notice of him was at the well-known communion at Kirk of Shotts (1630), where there was a great gathering of Christians from all parts of Scotland. He bore a share in the preaching " with his wonted majesty and authority," and joined in the meetings for intercession and prayer, which were kept in that place, almost day and night, for four or five days.

Bruce had now reached an advanced age. He longed much for dissolution before it came. In 1627, according to Livingstone, he said, " I wonder how I am keeped so long here ; I have now lived two years in violence," meaning he was two years

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beyond the ordinary time of man's days — three score and ten. He had no pain or sickness almost to his death — nothing but age and in- firmity. Some of his last sayings have become " household words " among the religious people of our country. He was much visited in these last days by Christian friends and brethren. One of them asked him how matters stood betwixt God and his soul, under his frailty and bodily decays. " When 1 was a young man," said he, " I was diligent, and lived by faith in the Son of God ; but now I am old, and not able to do so much ; yet He condescends to feed me with lumps of sense." The last scene is well-known and truly characteristic. " In the morning he came to breakfast at his table. After he had eaten, as his use was, a single egg, he said to his daughter, ' I think I am yet hungry ; you may bring me another egg,' and instantly fell silent ; and after having mused a little he said, ' Hold, daughter, hold ; my Master calls me.' With these words his sight failed him ; he called for the Bible, but finding he was not able to read, ' Cast me up the eighth chapter of Romans, thirty-eighth verse,' much of which he repeated. 'For I am persuaded that neither life nor death shall be able to separate me from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus my Lord.' 'Now,' said he, ' is my finger upon these words ? ' They told him it was. Then he said, ' God be with you, my children, I have breakfasted with you; and shall sup with my Lord Jesus Christ 'his

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night ' ; and straight gave up the ghost, without one groan or shiver. Thus this great champion for the truth, and the crown and interest of his Master, who knew not what it was to be afraid of the face of man, was taken off the field as more than a conqueror, and had an abundant entrance administered to him into the everlasting kingdom of his Lord and Saviour." l He died 27th July 1631, and was buried in an aisle of the kirk of Larbert, built by himself. He was followed to the grave by an immense multitude of people of all ranks and classes, amounting in number to four or five thousand. His tombstone bears the inscription :

R. B., 1631. Christus in vita et morte lucrum?

The person of Bruce was tall and dignified ; his countenance majestic, and his appearance in the pulpit grave and expressive of much authority. " Though he was no Boanerges as to his voice, being of a slow and grave delivery, yet he spoke

1 Wodrow, 156 ; " Scot's Worthies," p. 150, ed. 1870.

2 Brace's posterity. He resigned the estate of Kinnaird to his son, Robert Bruce, and his wife, Margaret Menteith, 1623. He, again, resigned it to his eldest son Robert, December 30th, 1643. This son died of wounds received at the battle of Wor- cester, 1651. His brother Alexander succeeded to the estate in 1655. He married Margaret Elphinstone by whom he had no sons, but two daughters. The eldest of these married David Hay of Woodcockdale, Linlithgowshire, 1687. Their son, David Bruce, was the father of James Bruce — the Abyssinian traveller, who repaired, enlarged, and lived in Kinuaird. There being now no direct male descendant the property has changed hands.

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with so much weight that some of the most stout- hearted of his hearers were ordinarily made to tremble. . . . Whilst he was in his ministry at Edinburgh he shone as a great light throughout the whole land ; the power and efficacy of the Spirit accompanying most sensibly the word he preached. He was a terror to evil-doers. His carriage was with such majesty of countenance as forced fear and respect from the highest in the land." l Those who have given us any account of his preaching record how with much impres- siveness he carried his hearers back to first prin- ciples. When he came up to the pulpit, after being for some time silent, which was his usual way, he would say, " I think it is a great matter to believe that there is a God," telling the people that it was another thing to believe than they judged. But it was also known by those with whom he was familiar, what extraordinary con- firmations he had and what nearness he attained in his secret converse with God. Blair says the first time he heard him preach, the fame of so great a man caused him to expect something very extraordinary ; " but his whole sermon did press the truth of the soul's being immortal, and that it was a great thing to believe it. Some- what surprised why he dwelt so much upon so common and known a subject, he afterwards found that it was some other thing than appears at the first look, for which men may dispute, and toss as a notion of the schools, who never knew what 1 Fleming " Fulfilling of the Scriptures."

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it was to believe the truth thereof and that a seri- ous impression of it in the heart is something else than a swimming in the head of some ordinary speculations." l John Livingston, who was his hearer in the church of Larbert for a great part of the summer of 1627, says, "No man in his time spake with such evidence and power of the Spirit ; no man had so many seals of conversion ; yea, many of his hearers thought that no man since the apostles spake with such power. He had a notable faculty in searching deep in the Scriptures, and of making the most dark mysteries plain, but especially in dealing with every one's conscience. . . . He was both in public and private very short in prayer with others, but then every sentence was like a strong bolt shot up to heaven. I have heard him say he hath wearied when others were longsome in prayer, but being alone, he spent much time in prayer and wrestling. . . . When he preached at Larbert, he used after the first sermon on the Sabbath, when he had taken some little refreshment, to retire to a chamber in a house near the kirk. I heard one day that some noblemen being there, he staying long in the chamber, and they having far to ride after the afternoon's services, desired the bellman to go hearken at the door if there were any appearance of his coming. The bellman returned and said, ' I think he shall not come out the day at all, for I hear him always saying to another, that he will not nor cannot go except the other go with

1 Fleming, " Fulfilling of the Scriptures."

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him, and I hear not the other answer him a word at all." The foolish bellman understood not that he was dealing with God. He had a very majestic countenance, and whatever he spake in public or private, yea, when he read the Word, I thought it had such a force as I never discerned in any other man." l

Andrew Melville described him as " a hero adorned with every virtue, a constant confessor and almost martyr to the Lord Jesus." Calder- wood in his Preface to the " Altare Damas- cenum " says, " Robertus Brucius vir genere et virtute nobilis, maj estate vultus venerabilis, qui plura animarum millia Christo lucri fecit, cujus anima, si ullius mortalium, (absit verbo invidia), sedet in celestibus, ex ecclesia Edinburgena 23 ab hinc annis extrusus, et in hunc usque diem terris jactatus et undis. Anima mea cum anima tua Bruci, si ex aliena fide esset pendendum."

No life of Robert Bruce has ever been written. Wodrow has left us " Collections " or " prepara- tions" for such a work extracted mainly from Calderwood's " History of the Kirk of Scotland." Wodrow further professes to give in his Appendix Bruce's own account of the later parts of his life in several papers, but these papers are not to be found. Near the close of the " Collections " he says that what has been given is but a small part of what might have been preserved " had this account of his life been written fifty or sixty

1 Livingston, Characteristics, Wodrow Soc., " Select Bio- graphies," i. 306, 307.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Ixxv

years sooner." There are scattered notices of him in the remains of Row, Blair, Livingston and others. In the ordinary Histories of Scotland we find distinct and even conspicuous mention made of Bruce during the few years of his prominent public life as a courtier and minister in the pulpit of the Capital, but the later part of his life falls into oblivion. It is unlikely, though still not impossible, that further materials may be discovered. Meanwhile little more than such a sketch as is here given can be made out. It is not to be denied that the fragmentary and obscure nature of the record may have, in a sense, deepened the impression which Bruce left on the memory of his time. It is partly the gloom and disappointment of the times and his conduct under these which have helped to shed lustre on his name. A man of bold and comprehensive mind, of stern independence and stainless integrity he would, in any case, have secured the respect of his countrymen. Had he chosen to accommo- date himself, even in the slightest degree, to the contemporary spirit, he might have continued to stand high in royal favour and might have become in point of influence the first man of his age. But the greatness of his character as a Christian minis- ter and patriot shone brightest in adversity, and thus contributed most largely to secure those bless- ings of religious freedom and liberty of conscience which have come down to us. It is not only by his writings that he made his mark. These give ample proofs of an incisive and masterly

bcxvi BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

mind. But his earnest contendings, his patient personal sufferings, his unflinching protest main- tained to the last, against the course of declension that was forced upon the Church and country, have impressed both his own and subsequent ages. Let us remember that he passed away before the first fringe of the cloud was raised, though not before some rays of light had begun to struggle through. His time was that which one of his contemporaries has called " the declining age of the Kirk of Scotland." l But this brave man never lost heart nor hope, never doubted that a better day would come, and that the cause of truth and right would triumph. His name will ever be dear to his country as that of one of the Heroes of the Scottish Reformation.

1 James Melville's " Diary," p. 505.

SERMONS VPON THE SACRA- ment of the Lvrtfs Supper :

PKEACHED

IN THE KIRK OF EDIN-

B VR GH BE M. ROBER T BR VCE, MINISTER OF CHRISTES

Euangcl there ; at the time of the cele-

bration of the Supper, as they

were receaued from hifl

rriouth.

IOHN. vi. 54. 63.

Quhafaeuer ealeth my flcfh, and drinketh mj blood, bath ettnudl

life, and I will raife him rp at the lift dty . It U the Spirit that quikneth ; the flcfh profiteth nathing : the word*

that I fp«ake onto rou, are Spirited lift.

AT BDINBVBOB

PRINTED BY ROBERT WALDE-

grauet Printer to the Kings Majejlie.

Cum Priuilegio Regali.

To the

MOST HIGH, PUISSANT, AND CHRISTIAN PRINCE,

JAMES THE SIXTH, KING OF SCOTS,

GRACE AND PEACE FROM GOD THE FATHER, AND OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.

PLEASE YOUR MAJESTY, — I was not of mind, at the first, that this work should have come out in my time ; for the conscience of my own weakness testifies unto me that nothing worthy of light can proceed from such a one. Yet, notwithstanding, being overcome at the last by the instant suit of our Kirk and Session, I was content that their authority should command me in this. And if it shall please the Lord to bless it in such sort, that poor and simple ones may find either comfort or instruction in it, suppose learned ears find no con- tentment, I will think myself abundantly satisfied. For, seeing God has sanctified me in some measure to His work, it must be an argument of His ever- lasting blessing that if, while life lasteth, it may be employed always to the profit of His Kirk ; for who am I that should not employ His own graces to His own glory ? And I pray God that it may be found in that great day, that how mean that

Uxlx

Ixxx DEDICATION

ever they be, yet they were accompanied with this special grace, that they were well used. And suppose ye be a King, Sir, of this kingdom presently, and apparent of another, yet think with yourself that all your magnificence, honour, wealth, liberty, and all the rare gifts which God, of His mercy, has planted in you, cannot be otherwise well employed except they be employed to the defence of the truth, and of that pure and sincere discipline grounded thereupon, which, to your Majesty's great praise, and to our singular com- fort, has this long time, by your Majesty's autho- rity, been established in this country ; for this sort of doing shows that God has not only made you an heir to earthly kingdoms, but also has appointed you to be a fellow-heir with Jesus Christ, of that immortal kingdom and glorious Crown that cannot fade or fall away. And as your Majesty's life and liberty has hitherto been conjoined with the stand- ing and liberty of Jesus Christ's kingdom within your country, continue and stick by this liberty, and, no doubt, Jesus Christ shall stick by you. I will not fash your Majesty with many words ; only this I do your Majesty to wit, that I clothe not this work with your Majesty's name and authority for any worthiness that I thought to be in it — for it is rudely set out in sensible and homely terms, as it was received of my mouth, and as it pleased God for the time to give me it ; but I had this respect, that as it is the first thing that proceeds from me, so I thought meet to make it the first testimony of my thankfulness and sincere affection,

DEDICATION Ixxxi

as well to the truth of God as to your Majesty's service, whom, under God, I tender as mine own life, and would be glad that God would bless me with the influence that might advance your High- ness' name or estimation, both here in this present world and in the world to come. And, in the meantime, because I may not as I would, I shall do as I may, in my prayers continually remember your Royal person, together with the Queen your bed-fellow ; and crave continuance of your race, at the hands of the Almighty God, through the righteous merits of Jesus Christ ; under whose protection, for now and ever, I leave your Majesty. From Edinburgh, the 9th of December 1590.

Your Majesty's most humble and obedient subject,

MR ROBERT BRUCE,

Minister of Christ's Evangel.

9

SERMONS UPON THE SACRAMENT

THE FIRST SERMON

UPON THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL (Preached the first of February 1589)

For I have received of the Lord, that which I also have delivered unto you, to wit, that the Lord Jesus in the night when he was betrayed took Bread, &c. — 1 COR. xi. 23.

THERE is nothing in this world, nor out of the world, more to be craved and sought of every one of you, than to be conjoined, and once for all made one with the God of glory, Christ Jesus. This heavenly and celestial conjunction is procured and brought about by two special means ; It is brought about by means of the word and preach- ing of the Gospel ; and it is brought about by means of the sacraments, and ministration thereof. The word leads us to Christ by the ear ; the sacraments lead us to Christ by the eye : two senses, of all the rest, which God has chosen as most meet for this purpose, to instruct us and bring us to Christ. For that doctrine must be most effectual and moving which addresses and stirs up most of the outward senses : that doctrine which awakens not only the ear, but the eye, the taste, the feeling, and all the rest of the outward

4 I

2 THE FIRST SERMON

senses, must move the heart most, must be most effectual and piercing in the soul. But so it is, that this doctrine of the sacraments moves, stirs up and awakens most of the outward senses ; therefore it must be (if we come well prepared to it) most effectual to stir up the inward senses of the dull heart. But there is a thing that must ever be remembered ; there is no doctrine, neither of the simple word, nor yet of the sacraments, (if Christ abstract his Holy Spirit), that is able to move. Therefore, whenever you come to hear the doctrine, whether it be of the sacraments or of the simple word, crave of God that He would be present by his Holy Spirit, or otherwise all the doctrine in the earth will not avail you. Nevertheless this doctrine of the sacraments stirs up and awakens most of the outward senses, and there is no question therefore, but it is an effectual and potent instrument, to awaken, prepare, and stir up our hearts.

Then, to let you see what the word " sacra- ment " means, and to remove the ambiguity of it, it is certain and out of all question, that the most ancient Latin divines, did interpret the Greek word putfrfigiov, by the word " sacrament " ; and that they used the Greek word, not only to signify the whole action, — as the whole action of Baptism, and the whole action of the Lord's Supper ; but they used the word " Mystery," to signify whatsoever is dark and hid in itself, and not made familiar by the common use of men : as, after this manner, the Apostle calls the voca-

THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL 3

tion of the Gentiles a mystery.1 This con- junction which is begun here between us and Christ, is called a Mystery ; 2 and the Latin in- terpreters call it a Sacrament : and to be short, you will not find in the Book of God a word more frequent than the word Mystery. But as to the word Sacrament, whereby they translate the Greek word, we find not this word taken so largely by the same divines : neither is it taken so largely in any part of the Book of God. Never- theless the word " sacrament " is very ambiguous in itself, and there arise about the ambiguity of this word many controversies which are not yet ceased, nor will cease while the world lasts : whereas if they had kept the Apostle's words, and called them as the Apostle calls them, Signs and Seals ; all this controversy, strife and con- tention, had probably not fallen out. But where men will be wiser than God, and give names to things without warrant from God, upon the wit of man, which is mere folly, all this trouble falls out.

Well then, to come to the purpose ; the ancient divines took the word Sacrament, as we may perceive, in a fourfold manner. Sometimes they took it for the whole action, that is, for the whole ministry of the elements : sometimes they took it, not for the whole action, but for the outward things that are used in the action of Baptism and of the Supper; as they took it for the water and sprinkling of it ; for the bread and wine, 1 Ephes. iii. 9. a Ephes. v. 32.

4 THE FIRST SERMON

— breaking, distributing, and eating of these. Thirdly, again, they took it, not for the whole outward things that are used in the action, but only for the material and earthly things, the elements : as for bread and wine in the Supper, and water in Baptism. And after this sort, says Augustine, " the wicked eat the body of our Lord, concerning the sacrament only ; that is concerning the elements only." Last of all, they took it, not only for the elements, but for the things signified by the elements. And after this manner Irenaeus says, that a sacrament stands on two things : the one earthly, the other heavenly. The ancient divines then, taking the word after these sorts, no question, all these ways, took it rightly.

But leaving the ambiguity of the word, I take the word Sacrament, as it is taken and used this day in the Church of God, for a holy Sign and Seal that is annexed to the preached word of God, to seal up and confirm the truth contained in the same word : in such sort that I call not the seal separated from the word, a sacrament. For as there cannot be a Seal but that which is the seal of an evidence ; and if the seal be separated from the evidence it is not a seal, but simply what it is by nature, and no more. So there cannot be a sacrament except it be hung to the evidence of the word. Was it a common piece of bread ? It remains common bread, ex- cept it be joined to the evidence of the word. Therefore the word only cannot be a sacrament,

THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL 5

nor the element only; but word and element conjointly, must make a sacrament. And so Augustine said well, " Let the word come to the element, and so you shall have a sacrament." In such sort then, the word must come to the element : that is, the word preached distinctly, and all the parts of it opened up, must go before the hanging to of the sacrament ; and the sacra- ment as a seal must follow and be appended thereafter.

Thus I call a sacrament, the word and seal conjointly, the one appended to the other. It is without all controversy, and there is no debate about it, that all sacraments are signs : Now if a sacrament be a sign, as the sign is in a relation, in that category, (for so we must speak it :) so must the Sacrament be placed in that same category of relation. Now every relation again must stand, of necessity, between two things ; for one thing cannot be the correlative of itself: therefore in every sacrament that has a relation, there must be two things which two have ever a mutual respect the one to the other. Take away one of these two things from the sacrament, you lose the relation, and losing the relation, you lose the sacrament. Confound one of these two with the other ; make either a confusion or mix- ture of them, you lose the relation : and losing the relation, you lose the sacrament. Turn over the one into the other, so that the substance of the one escapes, and vanishes in the other ; you lose the relation, and so you lose the sacrament.

6 THE FIRST SERMON

Therefore as in every sacrament there is a relation, so to keep the relation, you must ever keep the two things severally in the sacrament.

Now for the better understanding and con- sideration of these two diverse things which are relative to one another, we shall keep this order, by God's grace. (1) First I shall let you see what is meant by a sign in the sacrament. (2) Next I shall let you understand what is meant by the thing signified. (3) Thirdly, how these two are coupled, by what power and virtue they are con- joined ; and from whence this power and virtue flows. (4) Fourthly, and last of all, I shall let you understand whether one and the selfsame instru- ment gives the sign and the thing signified, or not ; whether they be given in one action or two ; whether they be offered to one instrument or two ; or whether they be given, after one manner or two, to both the instruments. Mark these diversities ; the diverse manner of receiving, the diversity of the instruments, and the diversity of the givers : and ye shall find little difficulty in understanding the sacrament.

1. Now to begin at the signs, seeing all sacra- ments are signs, what call we the signs in the sacrament ? I call the signs in the sacrament whatsoever I perceive and take up by my outward senses, by mine eye especially. Now you see in this Sacrament, there are two sorts of things subject to the outward senses, and to the eye especially : you see the elements of Bread and Wine are subject to mine eye ; therefore they

THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL 7

must be signs. You see again, that the rites and ceremonies, whereby these elements are dis- tributed, broken, and given, are subject to mine eye also. Therefore I must make two sorts of signs; one sort of the Bread and Wine, and we call them elemental : another sort of the rites and ceremonies whereby these are distributed, broken, and given ; and we call them ceremonial. Be not deceived with the word " ceremony " ; think not that I call the breaking of the Bread, and drinking of the Wine, " ceremonies " ; think not that they are vain, as we use that word " cere- mony " for a vain thing, which has no grace nor profit following after it. No, although I call them "ceremonies," there is never a ceremony which Christ instituted in this Supper, but it is as essential as the Bread and Wine are, and you cannot leave out one jot of them, but you pervert the whole institution : for whatever Christ com- manded to be done, whatever he spake or did, in that whole action, it is essential and must be done.

The reason why I call them Signs is this : I call them not signs for the reason that men commonly call them signs, because they signify only ; as the bread signifies the body of Christ, and the wine signifies the blood of Christ : I call them not signs because they represent only ; but I call them signs, because they have the body and blood of Christ conjoined with them. Yea so truly is the body of Christ conjoined with that Bread, and the blood of Christ conjoined with

8 THE FIRST SERMON

that Wine, that as soon as thou receivest that Bread in thy mouth (if thou be a believing man or woman) so soon receivest thou the body of Christ in thy soul, and that by faith : and as soon as thou receivest that Wine in thy mouth, so soon receivest thou the blood of Christ in thy soul, and that by faith : In respect of this ex- hibition chiefly, that they are instruments to deliver and exhibit the things that they signify, and not in respect only of their representation, are they called signs. For if they did nothing but represent or signify a thing absent, then any picture or dead image should be a sacrament ; for there is no picture, — as, for example, the picture of the King, — but at the sight of the picture, the King will come in your mind, and it will signify unto you that that is the King's picture. So if the sign of the sacrament did no more, all pictures should be sacraments : but in respect that the sacrament exhibits and delivers the thing that it signifies, to the soul and heart, so soon as the sign is delivered to the mouth, for this cause, especially, it is called a sign. There is no picture of the King that will deliver the King unto you ; there is no other image that will exhibit the thing whereof it is the image ; therefore there is no image can be a sacrament. Thus, in respect the Lord hath appointed the sacraments, as hands to deliver and exhibit the thing signified, for this delivery and exhibition chiefly they are called signs. As the word of the Gospel is a mighty and potent instrument to

THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL 9

our everlasting salvation : so the Sacrament is a potent instrument appointed by God to deliver to us Christ Jesus, for our everlasting salvation. For this spiritual meat is dressed and served up to us in spiritual dishes : that is, in the ministry of the word, and in the ministry of the sacraments. And though this ministry be external, yet the Lord is said to deliver spiritual and heavenly things by these external things. Why ? Because He has appointed them as instru- ments whereby He will deliver his own Son to us. For this is certain, that none has power to deliver Christ Jesus to us, except God and his Holy Spirit : and therefore, to speak properly, there is none can deliver Christ but God by his own Spirit. He is delivered by the ministry of the Holy Spirit ; it is the Holy Spirit that seals Him up in our hearts, and confirms us more and more in Him : as the Apostle gives Him this style, 2 Cor. i. 22.

To speak properly, there is none has power to deliver Christ but God the Father or Himself. There is none has power to deliver the Mediator but His own Spirit : yet it has pleased God to use some instruments and means, whereby He will deliver Christ Jesus to us. Tfye means are these ; the ministry of the word, and the ministry of the sacraments ; and in respect He uses these as means to deliver Christ, they are said to deliver Him. But here you have to distinguish between the principal efficient deliverer, and the instru- mental efficient, which is the word and sacra-

10 THE FIRST SERMON

ments : keeping this distinction, both these are true ; God by his word, and God by his Spirit, delivers Christ Jesus to you. Therefore I say, I call them signs, because God has made them potent instruments to deliver that same thing which they signify.

2. Now I come to the thing signified, and I call the thing signified by the signs in the sacrament, that which Irenaeus, that old writer, calls the heavenly and spiritual thing: to wit, whole Christ with his whole gifts, benefits and graces, applied and given to my soul. Thus I call not the thing signified by the signs of Bread and Wine, — the benefits of Christ, — the graces of Christ, — or, the virtue that flows out of Christ only : but I call the thing signified, — together with the benefits and virtues flowing from Him, — the very substance of Christ Himself, from which this virtue doth flow. The substance with the virtues, gifts and graces that flow from the sub- stance, is the thing signified here. As for the virtue and graces that flow from Christ, it is not possible that thou canst be partaker of the virtue that flows from His substance, except thou be first partaker of the substance itself. For how is it possible that I can be partaker of the juice that flows out of any substance, except I be partaker of the substance itself first ? Is it possible that my stomach can be refreshed with that meat, the substance whereof never came into my mouth ? Is it possible my thirst can be slaked with that drink, which never passed

THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL 11

down my throat ? Is it possible that I can suck any virtue out of anything except I get the sub- stance first ? So it is impossible that I can get the juice and virtue that flow out of Christ except I get the substance, that is — Himself first. So I call not the thing signified, the grace and virtue that flow from Christ only ; nor Christ himself and his substance, without his virtue and graces ; but jointly the substance with the graces, — whole Christ, God and man, without separation of His natures, without distinction of His sub- stance from His graces.

This I call the thing signified by the signs in the Sacrament : for why ? if no more be signified by the Bread but the flesh and body of Christ only, and no more be signified by the Wine but the blood of Christ only, thou canst not say, that the body of Christ is Christ ; it is but a part of Christ : thou canst not say, that the blood of Christ is whole Christ ; it is but a part of Him : and a piece of thy Saviour saved thee not ; a part of thy Saviour wrought not the work of thy salva- tion : and so suppose thou get a piece of Him in the sacrament, that part will do thee no good. To the end therefore that this sacrament may nourish thee to life everlasting, thou must get in it thy whole Saviour, whole Christ, God and man, with his whole graces and benefits, without separa- tion of His substance from His graces, or of the one nature from the other. And how get I Him ? Not by my mouth. It is a vain thing to think that we will get God by our mouth : but we get

12 THE FIRST SERMON

Him by faitb. As He is a Spirit, so I eat Him by faith and belief in my soul ; not by the teeth of my mouth ; that is a vain thing. Be it, that thou mightest eat the flesh of Christ with thy teeth, this were a cruel manner of doing ; yet thou mayest not eat the God-head with thy teeth : this is a gross fashion of speaking. So if ever you get good of the Sacrament, you must get whole Christ ; and there is not an instrument whereby to lay hold of Him but by faith only : therefore come with a believing heart.

O ! but you will ask me, — and by appearance, the definition laid down of the thing signified gives a ground to it, — if the flesh of Christ and the blood of Christ be a part of the thing signi- fied, how can I call His flesh a spiritual thing, and Christ in respect of His flesh, a heavenly thing ? You will not say that the substance of Christ's flesh is spiritual, or that the substance of His blood is spiritual ; wherefore then call you it an heavenly and spiritual thing ? I will tell you ; — The flesh of Christ is called a spiritual thing, and Christ is called spiritual in respect of His flesh : not that His flesh is become a spirit ; or that the substance of His flesh is become spiritual. No ! it remains true flesh, and the substance of it is one, as it was in the womb of the Virgin. Nor is His flesh called spiritual, in respect it is glorified in the heavens at the right hand of the Father : be not deceived with that : for though

* O

it be glorified, yet it remains true flesh, that same flesh which He took out of the womb of the

THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL 13

Virgin. Neither is it spiritual, because thou seest it not in the Supper ; if thou wert where it is, thou mightest see it : but it is called spiritual iii respect of the spiritual ends where- unto it serves to my body and soul ; because the flesh and blood of Christ serves to nourish me, not to a temporal, but to a spiritual and heavenly life.

Now in respect this flesh is a spiritual food, serving me to a spiritual life, for this cause it is called a spiritual thing : if it nourish me as the flesh of beasts doth, but to a temporal life, it should be called but a temporal thing : but in respect it nourishes my soul, not to an earthly and temporal life, but to an heavenly, celestial, and spiritual end, in respect of this end, the flesh of Christ, and Christ in respect of His flesh, is called the spiritual thing in the Sacrament. It is also called the spiritual thing in the Sacrament, in respect of the spiritual instrument whereby it is received. The instrument whereby the flesh of Christ is received, is not a corporal instrument ; is not the teeth and mouth of the body, but it is spiritual, it is the mouth of the soul which is faith : and in respect the instrument is spiritual, therefore Christ who is received, is also called spiritual. In respect also that the manner of receiving is a heavenly, spiritual, and celestial manner ; not a natural nor external manner : in respect that the flesh of Christ which is given in the Sacrament, is received in a spiritual and secret manner, which is not seen by the eyes of

14 THE FIRST SERMON

men ; in all these respects I call Christ Jesus the heavenly and spiritual thing, which is signified by the signs in the Sacrament.

Now I say, in the end, the thing signified must be applied to us. What avails it me to see my medicine in a box, standing in an apothecary's shop ? What can it work toward me if it be not applied ? What avails it me to see my salva- tion afar off, if it be not applied to me ? There- fore it is not enough for us to see Christ, but He must be given us, or else He cannot work health and salvation in us. And as this salvation is given us, we must have a mouth to take it. What avails it me to see meat before me, except I have a mouth to take it ? So the thing signi- fied in the Sacrament, must be given us by God, by the three persons of the Trinity one God, by Christ Jesus, who must give Himself: and as He gives Himself, so must we have a mouth to take Him. Though He presents and offers Him- self, yet He can profit and avail none but those who have a mouth to receive Him. Thus you see what I call the thing signified : whole Christ, God and Man, without separation of His natures, with- out distinction of His substance from His graces, all applied to us and received by us.

Therefore I say, seeing we come to the Sacra- ment to be fed by His flesh, and refreshed by His blood, to be fed to an heavenly and spiritual life : and seeing there is no profit to be had at this table without some kind of preparation : there- fore let no man presume to come to this table,

THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL 15

except in some measure he be prepared. Some will be prepared in a greater measure than others; but let no man presume to go to it, except his heart be in some measure sanctified. Therefore my exhortation concerning the way, whereby every one of you ought to prepare yourselves that you may fit you the better to the table, is this ; There is not one of you that comes to the table of the Lord, who may bring before the Lord his integrity, justice, and uprightness : but whosoever goes to the table of the Lord, he ought to go with the acknowledging and confession of his misery : he ought to go with a sorrowful heart, for the sins wherein he has offended God ; he ought to go with a hatred of those sins : Not to protest that he is holy, just and upright ; but to protest, and confess, that he is miserable, and of all creatures the most miserable : and therefore he goes to that table to get support for his misery, to obtain mercy at the throne of Grace : to get remission and forgiveness of his sins, to get the gift of repentance, that more and more he may study to live uprightly, holily, and soberly in all time to come. Therefore except you have entered on this course, and have a purpose to continue in this course, to amend your past life, to repent you of your sins, and by the grace of God to live more uprightly and soberly than you have done ; for God's cause, go not to the table. For where there is not a purpose to do well and to repent, of necessity there must be a purpose to do ill : and whosoever comes to that table with a pur-

16 THE FIRST SERMON

pose to do ill, and without a purpose to repent, he comes to mock Christ, to scorn Him to His face, and to eat his own present condemnation. So let no man come to that table that has not in his heart a purpose to do better, that has not a heart to sorrow for his past sins, and thinks not his former folly and madness over-great. Let no man come to the table without this, under the pain of condemnation. But if you have in your heart a purpose to do better, though your former life has been dissolute and loose ; yet if you be touched in your hearts with any feeling or remorse for your past life, go not from the table, but come with a protestation of your misery and wretched- ness, and come with a heart to get grace. If with a dissolute life, (I mean not of open slanders) thou hast also a purpose not to amend, but to do worse, for God's sake abstain.

Thus far of the thing signified. Unto this general consideration there remain these things yet, to be made plain to you : First, how the signs and the thing signified are coupled together, — how they are conjoined. Next, it remains to be told you, how the sign is delivered and how the thing signified is delivered, and how both are received as they are delivered. This being done, I shall speak briefly of the other part of the Sacrament, which is the word. And last of all, we shall let you see what sort of faults they are that pervert the sacrament, and make it of no effect. And if time shall serve, I shall enter, in particular, upon this sacrament which we have in hand.

THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL 17

3. Then, to come back again. In the third place, it is to be considered, how the sign and the thing signified, are coupled : For about this conjunction all the debate stands ; all the strifes that we have with those who vary from the straight truth, turn upon the manner of this con- junction. Some will have them conjoined one way, and some after another way ; and men strive very bitterly about this matter, and continue so to strive, that through the bitterness of contention, they lose the truth. For when the heat of con- tention arises, and especially in disputation, they take no heed to the truth, but to the victory. If they may be victorious, though it were but by a multitude of words, they regard not even if they lose the truth. Read their works and books about this conjunction, and you will crave rather con- science than knowledge : yea if they had the quarter of conscience, that they have of knowledge, no question this controversy might be easily taken up : but men lacking conscience, and having know- ledge, an evil conscience perverts their knowledge, and draws them to an evil end.

To tell you now how these two are conjoined, it will be far easier for me, and easier for you to understand, to tell you first how they are not conjoined : for I shall make it very clear to you, by letting you see how they are not conjoined : but it is not possible to make it so clear by telling you the manner how they are conjoined. You may perceive clearly by your own eyes, that the sign and the thing signified are not locally

18 THE FIRST SERMON

conjoined : that is, they are not both in one place. You may perceive also by your outward senses, that the body of Christ, which is the thing signified, and the signs, are not conjoined corpor- ally ; their bodies touch not one another. You may perceive also that they are not visibly con- joined, they are not both subject to the outward eye. So it is easy to let you see how they are not conjoined. For if the sign and the thing signified were visibly and corporally conjoined, what need were there for us to have a sign ? To what end should the sign in the Sacrament serve us ? Is not the sign in the Sacrament appointed to lead me to Christ ? Is not the sign appointed to point out Christ to me ? If I saw Him present with mine own eye, as I do the Bread, what need had I of the Bread ? Therefore you may see clearly, that there is no such thing as a corporal, natural, or any such like physical conjunction between the sign and the thing signified. So I say, it is easy to let you see how they are not conjoined.

Now let us see how they are conjoined. We cannot crave here any other sort of conjunction than may stand and agree with the nature of the sacrament : for nothing can be conjoined with another, after any other sort, than the nature of it will suffer ; therefore there cannot be here any other sort of conjunction than the nature of the sacrament will suffer. Now the nature of the sacrament will allow a sacramental conjunction. 0, but that is as hard yet ; you are never the

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better for this ; but I shall make it clear, by God's grace. Every sacrament is a mystery ; there is not a sacrament but it contains a high and divine mystery. In respect then that a sacrament is a mystery, it follows, that a mystical, secret, and spiritual conjunction agrees well with the nature of the sacrament. Since the conjunction between us and Christ is full of mystery, as the Apostle lets us see, (Eph. v. 32) as it is a mystical and spiritual conjunction : so no doubt the conjunction between the sacrament and the thing signified in the sacrament, must be of the same nature ; mystical and spiritual. It is not possible to tell you by any ocular demonstra- tion, how Christ and we are conjoined. But whoever would understand that conjunction, his mind must be enlightened with an heavenly eye ; that as he has an eye in his head to see corporal things : so he must have in his mind and heart a heavenly eye to see this mystical conjunction ; a heavenly eye to take up this secret conjunction that is between the Son of God and us in the sacrament. So I need not to insist any longer : except you have this heavenly illumination, you can never understand your own conjunction with Christ, nor yet the conjunction between the sign and the thing signified in the sacrament.

But I keep to my ground. As the sacrament is a mystery ; so the conjunction that is in the sacrament, no doubt must be a mystical, secret and spiritual conjunction. Besides this, I will let you see by a general deduction, that in every

20 THE FIRST SERMON

sacrament are two things ; which two have a relation and mutual respect the one to the other : so that a relative conjunction agrees well with the nature of the sacrament. Then wilt thou ask what kind of conjunction it is ? I answer, the conjunction that agrees with their nature ; namely, a relative and a respective conjunction ; such a con- junction wherein the sign has a continual respect to the thing signified, and the thing signified to the sign.

Would you know, then, in a word the kind of conjunction that is between the sign and the thing signified ? I call it a secret and mystical conjunction, that stands in a mutual relation between the sign and the thing signified. There is another conjunction, besides the conjunction that is between Christ and us, that may make this conjunction betwixt the sign and the thing signified in the Sacrament more clear : and this is the conjunction which is between the word which you hear, and the thing signified by the same word. Mark what sort of conjunction there is between the word which you hear, and the thing signified which cometh into your mind ; the like conjunction is there between the sign that you see, and the thing signified in the sacrament. You may easily perceive that there is a conjunc- tion by the effect, although you cannot so well know the manner of conjunction. And why ? You hear not the word so soon spoken by me, but immediately the thing which my words signify, comes into your mind. If I speak of things past,

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of things to come, or of things that are never so far absent, I can no sooner speak to you of them in this language, but presently the thing signified comes into your mind ; no doubt because there is a conjunction between the word and the thing signified by the word. As for example : though Paris, be far distant from us ; yet if I speak of Paris, the word is no sooner spoken, but the City will come into your mind. If I speak of the King, although he be far distant from us, the word is no sooner spoken but the thing signified will come into your mind. So this coming of the thing signified into heart and mind, makes it plain to you, that there is a conjunction between the word and the thing signified by the word.

To tell you of this sort of conjunction is not so easy, because the thing signified is not present to the eye, as the word is to the ear. If everything signified were as present to your eye as the word is to the ear, it were easy to see the conjunction : but now seeing the conjunction is mystical, secret, and spiritual, therefore it is hard to make you understand it. Only observe what conjunction there is between the simple word and the thing signified by the word ; the same kind of conjunction is there between the sacrament and the thing signified by the sacrament : for the Sacrament is no other thing but a visible word. I call it a visible word. Why ? Because it conveys the signification of it, by the eye to the mind ; as this is an audible word, because it conveys the signification of it by the ear to the mind. In the sacrament so often

22 THE FIRST SERMON

as you look on it, you shall no sooner see the Bread with your eye, but the body of Christ shall come into your mind ; you shall no sooner see the Wine, but after the preaching and opening up of the parts of the sacrament, the blood of Christ shall come into your mind.

Now this conjunction between the sign and the thing signified in the sacrament, stands chiefly as you may perceive, in two things. First, in a relation between the sign and the thing signified ; which arises from a likeness and proportion betwixt these two : for if there were no proportion and analogy between the sign and the thing signified by the sign, there could not be a sacrament or a relation. So the first part of this conjunction stands in a relation, which arises from a certain similitude and likeness which the one has to the other. And this likeness may be easily perceived : for look how able the Bread is to nourish thy body to this life, earthly and temporal ; the flesh of Christ signified by the Bread, is as able to nourish both body and soul to life everlasting. So you may perceive some kind of proportion between the sign and the thing signified. The Second point of the conjunction stands in a continual and mutual con- curring of the one with the other ; in such sort that the sign and the thing signified are offered both together, received together at one time, and in one action ; the one outwardly, the other in- wardly, if so be that thou hast a mouth in thy soul, which is faith, to receive it. Thus the second point of conjunction stands in a joint

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offering, and in a joint receiving : and this I call a concurrence. Thus would you know what manner of conjunction is between the sign and the thing signified ? I say, it is a relative con- junction, a secret and a mystical conjunction, which stands in a mutual relation. There is no more to be observed here but this only, that while you conjoin these two, you be careful not to con- found them : beware that you turn not the one into the other, but keep each of them in his own integrity, without confusion or mixture of the one with the other ; and so you shall have the lawful conjunction that should be in the sacrament.

There is not a lesson that can be learned out of this, at the least that I can mark or gather, — except only the lesson of the kindness and good- ness of the everliving God, who has invented so many wonderful sorts of conjunction, and all to this purpose, that we might be conjoined ; to advance this great and mystical conjunction between the God of Glory and us : In the which conjunction, our weal, felicity, and happiness in this life, and in the life to come, do only stand : that He is so careful to conjoin Himself with His word and sacraments, that we, in His word and sacraments, might be conjoined with Him. If we were moved with the care and love of God expressed in these conjunctions, though it were never so little on our parts, assuredly we should never defraud ourselves of the fruit of that happy conjunction, nor bring it into such loathing and disdain as we do this day : for we by following

24 THE FIRST SERMON

and preferring our pleasures to Christ and His counsel, have made the stomachs of our souls so foul and ill-disposed, that either they receive Him not at all, or if He be received, He is not able to tarry. And why ? Because a foul stomach is not able to keep Him : for immediately we choke Him so, either with the lusts of the flesh, or with the cares of this world, that He is compelled to depart. And if Christ be not both eaten and digested, He can do us no good : and this digestion cannot be, where there is not a greedy appetite to the receiv- ing of Him ; for if thou be not hungry for Him, He is not ready for thee. And I am assured, if all the men in this country were examined by this rule, — that there were none that received Christ but he that has a stomach and is hungry for Him, I doubt that few should be found to receive Him. I fear that we have taken such a loathing and disdain of that heavenly food, that there is not such a thing as any kind of hunger or appetite for it in our souls.

And what is the cause of this ? I will tell you : Though we have renounced the corporal and gross idolatry wherein our fathers were plunged and drowned, and which men, in some parts, go about to erect still : yet, as the manners of this country, and the behaviour of every one of us testifies, there is not a man that has renounced that damnable idol that he has in his own soul, nor the invisible idolatry that he has in his own heart and mind. There is not a man but to that same idol wherewith he was conceived and

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born, and whereunto he addicted himself and was a slave before, but to that idol he gives his service yet. And therefore marvel not, when thou hast addicted thy service, set thy affection, and poured out thy heart upon that pleasure, idol, lust and mischief of thine own, marvel not if thou have no appetite to Christ nor to that heavenly food. When thou hast thy soul poured forth on some villainy and wickedness, and hast sent it far afield, how is it possible for thee to retire it or draw it home again, to employ it where thou shouldest, on Christ Jesus ? Then let every one in his own rank, take heed to his own domestic idol that lodges within his own heart, and strive to clear himself of it ; or otherwise you cannot see the face of Christ, nor be partakers of His kingdom.

There is not another lesson in Christianity but this : this is the first and the last lesson, — to shake off your lusts and affections piece by piece, and so piece by piece renounce thyself, that thou mayest embrace Christ. I grant there is greater progress in this point, in some than in others ; some less, some more profit in this : but except, in some measure, you cast off yourselves, and whatsoever in your own eyes you count most precious, to come by Christ, you are not worthy of Him. And this is very hard to be done : It is very easy for a man to speak it, to bid a man renounce his own idol, which I call his affections ; but it is not so soon done. Assuredly the stronger must come in to cast out these affections ; yea, a stronger than the devil

26 THE FIRST SERMON

must come in to drive out the devil who makes residence in the affection, or else he will remain there for ever. Therefore, there are not many that have renounced themselves ; and examine thine heart when thou wilt, if there be anything in the world thou lovest better than Christ : if thou be not content to leave father and mother, to leave wife and children, or whatsoever is dearest to thee in this world, for Christ, thou art not worthy of Him. If thou be not content to cast off whatever makes thee a stranger to Christ, thou art not worthy of Him.

Is this any small matter, — seeing there is no part nor power of our souls but is opposed to it, and repines against this heavenly conjunction ? Is this an easy thing, to cast off and renounce ourselves, that we may come to Christ ? There is no greater thing than this : It has not entered into every heart, to consider this ; for this work of a new creation is ten thousand times greater than the work of our first creation. And there- fore, it is most necessary that every man take heed to himself; for the devil is so crafty on this point, that he erects ever, one idol or other in our souls ; and sometimes under the show of virtue; which of all is most dangerous. And in every work that we take in hand, be it never so holy, he is at our right hand, and makes himself to have interest in it : and he contents himself not with this, under the show of virtue to deceive us ; but he is so watchful, that even in the best case, when you are best occupied

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in your most virtuous actions, he mixes them with sins, and so does all that lies in him to make you lose your profit, and lose your reward. For when you are best occupied he goes about to engender in you an opinion of yourselves, and so defraud God of His glory. Or, otherwise, in doing of good deeds he makes you so slack and negligent, that if you do them, you do them coldly, or so indiscreetly, that he makes you begin at the last first, and makes that which should be first, last ; and so, as Martha was, to be occupied and over-busy in those things which are not so necessary, as the things wherein Mary was occupied : for she should have preferred first the hearing of the word, to the preparing of Christ's supper. This is but to give you an insight, and to let you see that the devil is so crafty, that either he casts in a false conceit of ourselves, in doing any good turn, or else makes us do that last which should be first ; or then, makes us altogether so sluggish and so negligent, that we do the work of the Lord coldly : and so one way or other, he holds us ever in a continual business, so that we cannot be half watchful enough. For we have to do with principalities and powers, with spiritual wickednesses, which are above us, and within us also: 'for there is not that man that has corruption within him, but Satan is in him : we cannot therefore be half watchful or studious enough to cast out the devil, to renounce our- selves, and to submit us unto the obedience of Christ. Thus far concerning the conjunction.

28 THE FIRST SERMON

Now seeing that the sign and the thing signified are diverse, it remains to be considered how the sign is delivered, and how the thing signified is delivered ; and after what manner they are re- ceived. And therefore concerning this, you have these things to weigh. (1) First, to consider whether the sign and the thing signified, be delivered unto you by one man or not. (2) Secondly, to consider whether the sign and the thing signified, be delivered unto you in one action or not. (3) Thirdly, whether both these things be given by one instrument or not. (4) Fourthly, you are to consider whether the sign and the thing signified be offered and received after one manner or not. After you have con- sidered all these, you shall find in the end that the sign and the thing signified are not given by one person. You shall find next, that they are not given in one sort of action. Thirdly, you shall find that they are not both offered and given by one instrument. And fourthly, you shall find that they are not both given and received after one manner. So finding this diversity, you have this to do : mark the diversity of the offerers and givers : mark the diversity of the actions : mark, thirdly, the diversity of the in- struments : and fourthly, the diverse manner of receiving. Mark all these diligently, and you shall find little difficulty in understanding the Sacrament.

(1) And first to make it clear unto you, I say, that the sign and the thing signified by the sign,

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are not both given by one man ; and this you see plainly. As for the sign, — that Bread and that Wine, — you see yourselves, that the Minister offers unto you the sign, he gives you that Sacrament ; as that sign is an earthly and corporal thing, so it is an earthly and corporal man that gives it. Now the thing signified is of another nature : for it is a heavenly and spiritual thing. Therefore this heavenly thing is not given by an earthly man ; this incorruptible thing is not given by a natural and corruptible man. But Christ Jesus has locked up and reserved the ministry of this heavenly thing to Himself alone. Therefore there are two givers in this sacrament ; the Minister gives the earthly thing; Christ Jesus the Mediator, gives the heavenly thing in this sacrament. For Christ, in giving the earthly thing, will not use His own ministry immediately, nor the ministry of an angel, but only the ministry of an earthly man. And as for the dispensation of His own body and blood, He will not give it either to any heavenly creature, far less to an earthly man ; but He keeps this ministry to Himself; and He dis- penses His own body and blood, to whom and when He pleases. For why ? If any man in the world had power to give Christ's body and blood, no question, this man should have power to cleanse the heart and conscience, (for the blood of Christ has this power with it), and consequently should have power to forgive sins. Now, it is only God that may forgive sins ; and therefore it is not possible that the ministry of the heavenly thing can be in the

30 THE FIRST SERMON

power of any man. Example, we have in John the Baptist, (Matt. iii. 11), says he not, "The ministry that I have, is of the element. I am commanded to minister the element of water only : but as for the ministry of fire and of the Spirit, Christ hath reserved it unto Himself." Therefore look not to get the Spirit at man's hands, but at the hands of Christ Himself only. And without this inward ministry the outward ministry is not worth a straw. For my outward ministry, yea, though it were the ministry of an angel, and though Christ were present in the flesh to minister unto you these outward things ; except He conjoin the inward ministry of His Spirit therewith, it avails nothing. It may well make up an accusation and process against you, in the day of that general assembly ; but to your salvation it will never profit you. Therefore this ought you always to pray for, that the Lord would water your hearts by his Holy Spirit, as He waters your ears by the hearing of the word. Thus there are two offerers ; the Minister offers the sign, Christ Jesus offers Himself, — the thing signified. The three persons, one God, offers the Mediator, or the Mediator offers Himself, and that by the power and virtue of his own Spirit.

(2) As there are two offerers, two persons that offer and give the sacrament, and the thing signified by the sacrament : so these two are offered and given in two actions. Christ who is the heavenly thing is offered and given to you by an inward, secret, and spiritual action, which

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is not subject to the outward eye. The sign again, is offered and given in an outward action, after a corporal and visible manner.

(3) As there are two sorts of actions, so there are two sorts of instruments whereunto the sign and the thing signified are offered : for the thing signified, that is, Christ, is never offered to the mouth of my body : the blood of Christ, the flesh of Christ, whole Christ, or the Spirit of Christ, is not offered either in the word or in the sacrament to the mouth of my body. Let them find me that in any part of the Bible, that there is any other manner of receiving Christ than by faith, and let them have the victory. So there is not an instrument as I told you, neither hand nor mouth to take Christ, but faith only. As Christ who is the thing signified, is held by the hand and mouth of faith : so the sign which signifies Christ, is received by our own natural mouth and hand. You have a mouth in your heads, and in your bodies, as proper to lay hold of the sign, as faith is to lay hold of Christ. So the sign and the thing signified are offered and given, not to one instrument but to two ; the one to the mouth of the body, the other to the mouth of the soul.

(4) Now mark ; by what way these things are offered and given, by the same way they are received : as the sign is corporal and naturally offered to a corporal instrument, so is it received after a corporal and natural manner : for thou must take the Bread and Wine, either by thy hand or by thy mouth. The thing signified is

32 THE FIRST SERMON

not taken after a corporal manner, but after a secret and spiritual manner : and as it is offered so it is taken. There can be nothing clearer than this ; the one is taken after a natural manner, the other after a secret and spiritual manner. So in this last part, you have these things to mark, to distinguish between the out- ward action and the inward, between the sign and the thing signified, and to keep a proportion and analogy between the inward and the outward actions : you may surely persuade yourselves, that if you be faithful, Christ is as busy working inwardly in your soul, as the Minister is working outwardly toward your body : Look how busy the Minister is in breaking that Bread, in pour- ing out that Wine, in giving that Bread and Wine to thee ; as busy is Christ in breaking His own body unto thee, and in giving thee the juice of His own body after a spiritual and in- visible manner. So keep this distinction, and you may assure yourselves that by faith Christ is as well occupied towards your soul, to nourish it, as the Minister is outwardly towards your body. Keep this, and you have the whole Sacrament.

Then from this discourse and deduction you may learn a double matter, whereof the sacrament consists. It consists of two sorts of material ; that is, of an earthly matter, and of a heavenly matter : the sign and the thing signified. And as there is a double matter in the sacrament, so the sacra- ment must be handled after a double manner ; by an outward action, and an inward action.

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Keep the distinction in these things, between the sign and the thing signified, and you shall not easily slip in the understanding of the Sacrament.

This being said, concerning the general con- sideration of the elements, (for all this yet appertains to the elements) it remains that we speak somewhat concerning the Word, which I call the other part of the Sacrament. I mean and understand by the word, whereunto the elements are annexed, that thing which quickens, which supplies as it were a soul, and gives life to the whole action. For by the word and the appointment of Christ in the word, the Minister knows what is his part, the hearer knows what is his part, and every one is prepared — the Minister how he should deliver, and the hearer how he should receive. So the Institution of Christ is the quickening of the whole action : for all the action is warranted from the Institution set down in his word. In the Institution of Christ, there are two things chiefly to be considered : — a Com- mand, and a Promise. The Command is this, Where he says " Take, eat." The Command obliges and craves obedience. There is a Promise also in the Institution, and it is contained in these words, " This is my body." As the command craves obedience, so the promise craves belief. Therefore come not to the sacrament, except you bring both faith and obedience with you. If thou come not with a heart minded to obey Christ, at least more than thou wast wont to do,

34 THE FIRST SERMON

thou comest to thine own damnation. And if thou bringest a heart void of faith, thou comest to thine own damnation. So let every one that comes to the sacrament, bring with him a heart minded to do better ; that is, to obey and believe Christ better than he did in time past. Except you bring these two in some measure, come not to the sacrament : for whatever thou do, except it flow from faith, it can profit nothing. Thus far briefly concerning the Word.

Now it will be demanded, what need is there that these sacraments and seals should be annexed to the word ? Wherefore are they annexed, see- ing we get no more in the sacrament than we get in the word, and we get as much in the very simple word as we get in the sacrament ? Seeing then we get no new thing in the sacra- ment but the same thing which we get in the simple word, wherefore is the sacrament appointed to be hung to the word ? It is true certainly that we get no new thing in the sacrament ; we get no other thing in the sacrament than we get in the word : for what more wouldest thou crave than to get the Son of God, if thou get Him well ? Thy heart cannot wish nor imagine a greater gift than to have the Son of God, who is king of heaven and earth : therefore I say, what new thing wouldest thou have ? For if thou get Him, thou gettest all things with Him ; thy heart cannot imagine a new thing besides Him. Where- fore then is the sacrament appointed ? Not to get thee any new thing: I say, it is appointed

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(1) To get thee that same thing better, than thou hadst it in the word. The Sacrament is appointed that we may get better hold of Christ than we got in the word ; that we may possess Christ in our hearts and minds, more fully and largely than we did before by the simple word. That Christ might have a larger space to make resi- dence in our narrow hearts, than He could have by the hearing of the word ; and to possess Christ more fully is a better thing. For suppose Christ be one thing in Himself, yet the better hold thou hast of Him, thou art the surer of His promise. The sacraments are appointed that I might have Him more fully in my soul ; that I might have the bounds of it enlarged, that He may make the better residence in me. This no doubt is the cause wherefore these Seals are annexed to the evidence l of the simple word.

(2) They serve to this end also, to seal up and confirm the truth that is in the word, for as the office of the Seal hung to the evidence, is not to confirm any other truth than that which is in the evidence ; and though you believed the evidence before, yet by the seals you believe it better : even so the Sacrament assures me of no other truth, than is contained within the word : yet because it is a seal annexed to the word, it persuades me the better of the same : for the more the outward senses are awakened, the more

1 An "Evidence," in a sense familiar to Scotch lawyers, is strictly a "document" which not only asserts a claim, but proves it. — ED.

36 THE FIRST SERMON

is the inward heart and mind persuaded to believe.

Now the Sacrament awakens all the outward senses, as the eye, the hand, and all the rest ; and the outward senses being moved, no question, the Spirit of God concurring therewith, moves the heart the more. The sacraments are there- fore annexed to the word, to seal up the truth contained in the word, and to confirm it more and more in thy heart. The word is appointed to work belief; and the sacrament is appointed to confirm you in this belief. But except you feel the truth of this inwardly in your hearts, except you have your heart as ready as your mouth, think not that anything will avail you. All the seals in the world will not work, except the Spirit of God concur and seal the same truth in your hearts, which the Sacrament seals outwardly : Except He make clear the sight of thy mind inwardly, and work a feeling in thy heart, both word and sacrament shall lose their fruit and effect which they should have. All the Scriptures are full of this : the whole scriptures of God are but a slaying letter to you, except the Spirit of God concur to quicken inwardly. So your whole endeavour should be, to strive to feel Christ alive in your own hearts, that finding Him in your hearts and seeing Him in your minds, both word and sacraments may be effectual : If not, your souls remain dead, you are not translated from that death wherein you were conceived. There- fore all the study of Christians should be, when

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they see the sacraments and hear the word, to labour to find and feel in their hearts and minds, that which they hear and see ; and this I call to find Christ alive in your own souls. This cannot be except you sanctify His lodging : for if all the corners of thy soul remain a dunghill, Christ cannot dwell there : and so except you study a continual sanctification, and sever yourselves from every thing, that severs you from Christ, it is not possible that He can live or dwell in you.

This is a great lesson, and it is not possible to do this, except, as I have said, a stronger come in, and possess us, and make us to renounce ourselves. Thus, the seals had not been annexed to the word, except for our cause : for there is no necessity on God's part, that God should either swear, or confirm by seals, the thing that He has spoken : for His word is as good as any oath or seal. But the necessity comes of us : there is such a great weakness in us, that when He has sworn, and set His seal to His word, we are as near to belief as if He had never spoken a word. So to help our belief, our weakness and inability that is in us ; (for we are so unable by nature that we can believe nothing but that which is of ourselves ; and the more we lean unto ourselves ; the further we are from God ;) I say to help this wonderful weakness, whereby we are ready to mistrust God in every word ; He has annexed His sacraments ; and besides His sacraments, He swears the things that concern most our salvation ; as you heard in the Priesthood of Christ, (Psalm

38 THE FIRST SERMON

ex. 4) He will not speak only, but He swears, and that for our weakness and infirmity : but yet if He abstract the ministry of His Spirit, all these means will do us no good.

Now the last thing is, how the Sacrament is perverted ; and how we are defrauded of the fruit and effect thereof. Two sorts of faults pervert the sacrament, and defraud us of the profit and use thereof; and these faults are either in the form, or in the person. In form, if the essential form be spoiled, we get nothing : for when the sacra- ment is spoiled of the essential form, it is not a sacrament. There is an essential form in Baptism, and an essential form in the Supper, which if they be taken away, you lose the use of the sacrament. The essential form of Baptism is : " I baptize thee in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost." Leave out one of these three, or do it in the name of anyone of the Three Persons only, you lose the essential form of Baptism. In the Lord's Supper, if you leave out the least ceremony, you lose the essential form, and so it is not a sacrament. I speak of the essential form, in respect of the Papists, who keep the essential form in Baptism, though they have brought in trifles of their own, and mixed with it ; yet in respect they keep the substantial form, it is not necessary that they who were baptized under them, be rebaptized. If indeed the virtue of regeneration flowed from the person, it were something ; but in respect Christ has this to give to whom and when He pleases, the essential form

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being kept, it is not necessary that this sacrament be reiterated.

Now what are the faults in the person that pervert the sacrament ? The fault may be either in the person of the giver, or in the person of the receiver. (I speak not of those faults which are common to all, but of such faults as disable the person of the giver, to be a distributer of the Sacrament, and take the office from him.) So when the person of the giver is in this way disabled, no question, it is not a sacrament. Then again, in the person of the receiver, the fault may be ; if their children be not in the covenant, but out of it, they get not the sacra- ment. Indeed if the parents afterwards come to the covenant, the children (though they be gotten out of the covenant) may be received. Even so in the Lord's Supper, if a man be laden with any burden of sin, without any purpose to repent, he ought not to receive it. So then, if you come without a purpose to repent, you lose the use of the sacrament : it is only this purpose to repent, that makes me who receive the sacrament, to get the fruit and effect thereof; therefore everyone who goes to the sacrament, must look what purpose he has in his heart. Hast thou a pur- pose to shed blood, to continue in harlotry, or to commit any other vile sin that is in thy heart, and art not resolved to repent ? In shewing thee to be without repentance, thou shewest thyself to be without faith, and consequently thou comest to thy condemnation, and not to thy salvation :

40 THE FIRST SERMON

take heed, then, what your purpose is ; for if with a dissolute life, you have a dissolute purpose, you come to your condemnation.

I had thought to have entered particularly into the handling of this Sacrament ; but because the time is past, and some of you, I doubt not, are to communicate, only this : Eemember that you address not yourselves to that Table, except you find your hearts in some sort prepared. The first degree of preparation stands in contrition, in sorrowing for sin, in a feeling of your own sins, wherein you have offended so gracious a God. If you be able, as that woman was, by the tears of a contrite heart to wash the feet of Christ, humbly to kiss His feet, and to get hold of the feet of Christ; though you dare not presume so high as to get Him whole, you are in good case : but if thou want all these, and hast them not in some measure, thou lackest all the degrees of prepara- tion. Therefore let none come to this Table, except he have these in some measure. But where there is a displeasure for sin, a purpose to do better, and an earnest sobbing and sighing to get the thing that thou wantest ; in that soul where God hath placed this desire of Christ, it is the work of God's Spirit, and Christ will enter there. And therefore though that soul be far from the thing that he should be at, let him not refuse to go to the Lord's Table but let him go with a profession of his own infirmity and weak- ness, and with a desire of the thing that he wants. Everyone of you that finds himself this way

THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL 4i

disposed, let him go in God's name to the Lord's Table : and the Lord work this in every one of your hearts, that this ministry may be effectual in you at this time, and that in the righteous merits of Jesus Christ. To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour, praise and glory, both now and for ever. Amen.

THE SECOND SERMON

UPON THE LORD'S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR

(Preached the Sth of February 1589)

For I have received of the Lord, that which I also have delivered unto you : to wit, that the Lord Jesus in the night when he was betrayed, took Bread, etc. — 1 COR. xi. 23.

WE ended the consideration of the sacraments in general in our last exercise, well-beloved in Christ Jesus : now it remains that we proceed to the consideration of this Sacrament of the Lord's Supper in particular. And that you may the better attain to the knowledge and consideration of the great variety of matter that is contained in this Sacrament of the Supper, I shall endeavour as God shall give me grace, to set down certain things for the easier understanding of it. (1) First of all, I shall let you see what names are given to this sacrament in the Bible ; and I shall shew you some names that are given to this sacrament by the ancients. (2) Next I shall let you understand for what chief ends and respects this sacrament was instituted and appointed by Christ Jesus. (3) Thirdly, I shall come to the things that are contained in the sacrament ; how these things are coupled, how they are delivered, and how they are received. (4) And last of all, I shall

42

THE LORD S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 43

answer certain objections, which may be laid against this doctrine : and as God shall give me grace I shall refute them, and so end this present exercise.

1. Now we find sundry names given to the Sacrament of the Supper in the book of God ; and every name carries a special reason with it. We find this sacrament called "the body and blood" of Christ.1 This name is given it, no doubt, because it is a heavenly and spiritual nutriment ; it contains a nourishment of the soul, that is able to nourish and train up the soul to a life spiritual, to that life everlasting : for this cause it is called " the body and blood of Christ." It is also called " the Supper of the Lord " to put a difference betwixt it and a common supper : for this is the Lord's Supper, 2 a holy supper ; not a profane or common supper : a supper appointed for the increase of holiness, for the food of the soul in holiness, to feed the soul to life everlasting. Not a supper appointed for the belly ; for He had ended that supper that was appointed for the belly, ere ever He began this supper which was appointed for the soul. A " supper " no doubt having respect to the circum- stance of time, by reason it was instituted in that article of time when they used to sup. It is called also in the Bible, " the Table of the Lord." 8 It is not called the " Altar " of the Lord : but the apostle calls it a table to sit at ; not an altar to stand at : a table to take and receive at, not

1 1 Cor. xi. 27. » 1 Cor. xi. 20. J 1 Cor. x. 21.

44 THE SECOND SERMON

an altar to offer and present at. It is called also " the Communion " and participation " of the body and blood of Christ." l We have these names given to it, besides some others, in the Scriptures of God.

The ancients of the Latin and of the Greek Churches, gave it sundry names for sundry respects. They called it a " public action," and this was a very general name. Sometimes they called it a " thanksgiving." Sometimes they called it a "Banquet of Love"; sometimes they gave it one name and sometimes another. And at last in the declining estate of the Latin Church and in the falling estate of the Roman Church, this sacrament began to be perverted ; and with this decay there came in a perverse name, and they called it " the Mass." They trouble themselves much concerning the derivation of this name : sometimes they seek it from a Hebrew origin ; sometimes from a Greek ; and sometimes from a Latin origin : but it is plain, as the word sounds, that it is derived from the Latin ; 2 and it is a word which might have been tolerable when it was first instituted : for no doubt, the sacrament, at the first institution of this word, was not wholly

1 1 Cor. x. 16.

2 Evidently the Author holds the usual derivation of "Mass " to be the correct one. The words " lie missa est " were pronounced at the end of a service in the Church ; more particularly at the end of the service in which Catechumens and other non-com- municants took part (missa catechumenorum). After these had left, the service of the faithful began (missa fidelium). So the term "mass" was applied to that sacred rite from which all others than the faithful were excluded. In earlier ages the word

THE LORD S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 45

perverted; but now, in process of time, corrup- tion has prevailed so far, that it has turned the sacrament into a sacrifice ; and where we should take from the hand of God and Christ, they make us to give.

This is plain idolatry : and therefore whereas the word was tolerable before, now it ought not to be tolerated any way, it ought not to be suffered. And certainly, if we had eaten and drunk, as oft, the body and blood of Christ in our souls, as we have eaten that bread and drunk that wine, which are the signs of His body and blood, we should not have suffered this word of " the Mass," much less the action of it, to be so common in this Country. But in respect we have only played the counterfeit, and defrauded our souls of the body and blood of Christ, and taken only the outward sacrament ; therefore it is that our zeal decays, therefore it is that our knowledge and light decay : and for want of zeal, love and knowledge, the word of " the Mass " is become customary to you, and not only the word, but the very action. I shall not run out herein : I only tell you, what comes of the abuse of the hearing of the word, what judgments follow upon the abuse of the reception of the sacraments.

was applied to all services of prayer or praise, even to those where there was no Communion. The word, being afterwards applied to the service of the Sacrament, came to denote the very thing which at first it did not mean. The other farourite derivation of the word, by Tyndall and others, from the Hebrew misach, — a pension-giving, — because at the Sacrament men gave a portion for the sustentation of the poor, is plainly an after-thought.— ED.

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2. Now I come to the ends for which the Sacrament was appointed. This Sacrament was instituted in the signs of Bread and Wine ; and was appointed chiefly for this end, to represent our spiritual nutriment, the full and perfect nutriment of our souls : that as he who has Bread and Wine lacks nothing for the full nourishment of his body : so he, or that soul, which has the participation of the body and blood of Christ, lacks nothing of the full and perfect nourishment of the soul. To represent this full and perfect nourishment, the signs of Bread and Wine in the Sacrament were set down and instituted. The second end for which this Sacra- ment was instituted is this ; that we might testify to the world and to the princes of the world, who are enemies to our profession ; that we might openly avow and testify to them our Eeligion and our manner of worshipping, in the which we avow and worship Christ : and that we might also testify our love towards His members our brethren : this is the second end for which it was instituted. The third end wherefore it was instituted is this ; to serve for our special comfort and consolation, to serve as a sovereign medicine for all our spiritual diseases, as we find ourselves either ready to fall, or provoked to fall, by the devil, the flesh, or the world ; or, after that we have fallen and are put to flight by the devil, and would vain flee away from God ; God of His mercy, and of His infinite pity and bottom- less compassion has set up this sacrament, as a

THE LORD S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 47

sign on an high hill, whereby it may be seen on every side, far and near, to call all them again that have run shamefully away : and He clucks to them as a hen doth to her chickens, to gather them under the wings of His infinite mercy. The fourth end for which this sacrament was instituted is this, that in this action we might render to Him hearty thanks for His benefits, and that He has come down so familiarly to us, bowed the heavens as it were, and given us the body and blood of His own Son ; that we might render unto Him hearty thanks, and so sanctify His benefits to us : for this thanksgiving was also this Sacrament instituted. Thus far concerning the ends briefly.

3. Now I come to the things contained in this Sacrament. You see with your eyes there are corporal things, visible things, as the Bread and Wine. There are again, hid from the eye of your body, but present to the eye of your mind, spiritual things, heavenly and inward things : both these are in the sacrament.

The corporal, visible and outward things, are the things which are appointed to signify the spiritual, heavenly, and inward things. And why? Nothing without a reason. These corporal signs are appointed to signify the spiritual things, because we are corporal ; we are earthly bodies, we have our soul lodging within a carnal body, in a tabernacle of clay, a gross tabernacle, which cannot be awakened nor moved except by the things that are like itself. It cannot be induced

48 THE SECOND SERMON

to the consideration of heavenly things, except by gross, temporal, and corporal things. If we had been of the nature of the thing signified, that, as the thing signified is spiritual and heavenly, so we had been always spiritual and heavenly, we had not needed a corporal thing. Again, if the thing signified had been as we are, corporal, earthly, and visible, we had not needed a sign to lead us to consider it : But because the thing signified is spiritual, and we are corporal, therefore to bring us to the sight of these spiritual things, He uses corporeal means, and an outward sign. This is the reason why these corporal signs are appointed to signify the spiritual thing.

The spiritual thing in both the sacraments, is one and the self-same, — Christ Jesus, signified in both the sacraments : yet in diverse respects. He is the thing signified in Baptism, and He is the thing signified in the Supper. This Christ Jesus, in His blood chiefly, is the thing signified in the sacrament of Baptism : and why ? Be- cause that by His blood He washes away the filth of our souls ; because that by the virtue of His blood, He quickens us in our souls with a heavenly life : because that by the power of His blood He engrafts and incorporates us in His own body. For that sacrament is a testimony of the re- mission of our sins : that is, of the cleanness of our conscience, that our consciences by that blood are washed inwardly. It testifies also our new birth, that we are begotten spiritually to a heavenly life. It testifies further the joining of

THE LORD S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 49

us to the body of Christ. As it is a testimony, so it is a seal : it not only testifies, but seals it up in our hearts, and makes us in our hearts to feel the taste of that heavenly life begun in us, that we are translated from death, in which we were conceived and engrafted, into the body of Christ. Mark then : Christ in his blood, as He is the laver of our regeneration, is the thing signified in Baptism.

In this Sacrament of the Supper, again, this same Christ is the thing signified, in another respect ; to wit in this respect, that His body and blood serve to nourish my soul to life everlasting : for this Sacrament is no other thing than the image of our spiritual nutriment ; God testifying how our souls are fed and nourished to that heavenly life, by the figure of a corporal nourish- ment. So in diverse respects the same thing, that is, Christ Jesus, is signified in Baptism, and is signified in the Supper : In this Sacrament, the fruits of Christ's death whereof I spake, the virtue of his sacrifice, the virtue of his passion ; I call not these fruits and virtues only, the thing signified in the Sacrament of the Supper : but rather I call the thing signified, that substance and that person, out of which substance this virtue and these fruits do flow and proceed. I grant, and it is most certain, that by the lawful use and participation of the sacrament, thou art partaker of all these fruits : yet these fruits are not the first and chief thing, whereof thou art partaker in this sacrament ; but of necessity thou

50

must get another thing first. It is true that no man can be partaker of the substance of Christ, but the same soul must be also partaker of the fruits that flow from His substance : yet notwith- standing, thou must discern betwixt the substance and the fruits that flow from it, and thou must be partaker of the substance in the first place ; then in the next place, thou must be partaker of the fruits that flow from His substance. To make this clear ; in Baptism, the fruits are remission of our sins, mortification, the killing of sin, and the sealing of our adoption to life everlasting. The substance out of which these fruits do flow, is the blood of Christ. You must here, of necessity, discern between the blood, which is the substance ; and between remission of sins, washing and regeneration, which are the fruits which flow from this blood. Likewise in the Sacrament of the Supper, the fruits are, growth of faith, and increase in holiness. The thing signified is the substance ; that is, the body and blood of Christ is the substance, out of which this growth in faith and holiness proceeds.

Now see you not this ; That you must discern between the substance and the fruits, and must place the substance in the first place ? So that the substance of Christ ; that is, Christ Himself, is the thing signified in this sacrament. For your own experience will make this plain to you. Before your stomach be filled with any food, you must eat the substance of the food first : before you be filled with bread, you must eat the substance

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of the bread first ; before your thirst be quenched with any drink, you must of necessity drink the substance of the drink first. Even so, after this manner ; before the hunger of your soul be satis- fied, and the thirst thereof quenched, you must eat the flesh of Christ and drink His blood first, and that by faith. So consider the one by the other ; look to what use bread and wine serve to thy body, to the same use the body and blood of Christ serve to thy soul ; and He that appointed the one to serve for thy body, the same God appointed the other to serve for thy soul. As impossible as it is for thee, to be fed with that food that never cometh into thy mouth, or to recover health by those drugs which never were applied, so impossible is it for thee, to be fed by the body of Christ and to get thy health by the blood of Christ, except thou first eat His body and drink His blood. Thus you see, that the thing signified in the Lord's Supper, is not the fruits so much, as the body and blood, and Christ Jesus, the fountain and substance, from whom all these fruits do flow and proceed.

Therefore I say, suppose Christ who is the thing signified, remain always one and the same in both the sacraments : yet the signs whereby this one Christ is signified in the sacraments, are not one, nor of an equal number. For in Baptism the thing that representeth Christ is Water. In the Lord's Supper, the things that represent Christ, are Bread and Wine. Water is appointed to represent Christ in Baptism,

62 THE SECOND SERMON

because it is meetest to represent our washing with the blood of Christ : for what is fitter to wash with than water? So there is nothing meeter to wash the soul, than the blood of Christ. In this Sacrament he has appointed Bread and Wine : why ? Because there is nothing more meet to nourish the body than bread and wine ; so the Lord has not chosen these signs without a reason. As the signs in the sacraments are not always one, so the signs, in both, are not of one number: For in Baptism, we have but one ele- ment; in this Sacrament, we have two. Now what is the reason of this diversity, that the Lord in the one sacrament hath appointed two signs, and in the other but one sign ? I will shew you the reason. He hath appointed only one sign in Baptism, to wit, Water; because Water is sufficient, enough for the whole. If Water had not been sufficient to represent the thing signified, He would have appointed another sign : but in re- spect that Water does the turn, and represents fully the washing of our souls by the blood of Christ, what need then have we of any other sign ? Now in this Sacrament one sign will not suffice, but there must be two. And why ? Wine cannot be sufficient alone, neither can Bread be sufficient alone : for he that has Bread only, or Wine only, has not a perfect corporal nutriment ; therefore that they might represent and let us see a perfect nutriment, He has given us both Bread and Wine (for the perfect corporal nourishment consists in meat and drink) to repre-

THE LORD S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 53

sent the full and perfect nourishment of the soul. Mark how full and perfect a nourishment, he has to his body, that has store of Bread and Wine : so he that has Christ lacks nothing of a full and perfect nourishment for his soul. Thus you see the reason wherefore there are two signs appointed in this Sacrament, and only one sign in Baptism.

There remain yet concerning these signs, two things to be enquired. First, what power has that Bread in this Sacrament, to be a sign more than the bread which is used in common houses. Whence comes that power ? Next, if it have a power, how long endures and remains that power with the bread ? For the first, concerning the power which that bread has more than any other bread, I will tell you.

1. That Bread has a power given to it by Christ and by His institution ; by the which institution it is appointed to signify His body, to represent His body, and to deliver His body. That Bread has a power flowing from Christ and His institution, which other common bread has not : so that if any of you would ask, when the Minister in this action is breaking or distributing that Bread, pouring out and distributing that Wine ; if you would, I say, ask what sort of creatures those are ? This is the answer : They are holy things. You mu.st give this name to the signs and seals of the body and blood of Christ. That Bread of the Sacrament is a holy Bread ; and that Wine is an holy Wine : Why ? Because the blessed institution of Christ, has

54 THE SECOND SERMON

severed them from that use whereunto they served before, and has applied them to an holy use ; not to feed the body, but to feed the soul. Thus far concerning the power of that Bread : it has a power flowing from Christ and His institution.

2. Now the second thing is, how long this power continues with that Bread ; how long that Bread has this office. In a word, I say, this power continues with that Bread during the time of the action ; during the service of the Table. Look how long that action continues, and the service of the Table lasts, so long it continues holy Bread ; so long continues the power with that Bread : but look how soon the action is ended, so soon ends the holiness of it : look how soon the service of the Table is ended ; so soon that Bread becomes common bread again, and the holiness of it ceases. Therefore this power continues not for ever, but it continues only during the time of the action and service of the Table. Thus far concerning the elements. There is, besides the elements, another sort of sign in the sacrament : there is not a rite nor ceremony in the Sacrament of the Supper, but is a sign, and has its own spiritual signification with it : as namely, looking to the breaking of that Bread, it represents to thee the breaking of the body and blood of Christ. Not that His body was broken in bone or lith, but that it was broken with dolour, with anguish and distress of heart ; with the weight of the indignation and fury of

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God, that He sustained for our sins which He took upon him. Therefore the breaking is an essential ceremony : the pouring out of the wine also is an essential ceremony. For as you see clearly, that by the Wine is signified the blood of Christ, so by the pouring out of the Wine, is signified that His blood was severed from His flesh ; and the severing of those two makes death : for in blood is the life ; and consequently it testifies His death. The pour- ing out of the Wine, therefore, tells thee that He died for thee, that His blood was shed for thee ; so this is an essential ceremony which must not be left out. Likewise the distribution, giving and eating of that bread are essential ceremonies. And what does the eating testify to thee ? The applying of the body and blood of Christ to thy soul. So that there is none of these rites but have their own signification ; and there cannot one of them be left out, but you shall pervert the whole action. Thus far concerning the signs.

Now what profit can you make of all this dis- course ? Learn this lesson, and you shall make your profit of these things. In respect that every sign and ceremony has its own spiritual signifi- cation, so there is not a ceremony in this whole action that wants spiritual significance. Take this into consideration, and think with yourselves at that time, especially, when you are at the Lord's Table, and in the sight of that action. Look what thou seest the minister doing outwardly, whatever it be ; is he breaking that Bread ? Is he dealing that Bread ? Is he pouring out that Wine

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and distributing that Wine ? Think assuredly with thyself, that Christ is as busy doing all these things spiritually to thy soul. He is as busy giving to thee His own body with His own hand: He is as busy