Thomas Houston

“ He was a lively and faithful minister of Christ and a worthy Christian, such as none who were acquaint with him could say any other but this, that he was a beloved Jedidiah of the Lord. I never knew a man more richly endowed with grace, more equal in his temper, more equal in his spiritual frame, and more equal in walk and conversation. When I speak of him as a man—none more lovely in features, none more prudent, none more brave and heroic in spirit ”

“ When the Scottish nation, forgetful of their sacred vows, tamely submitted to the tyranny of the royal brothers, and Presbyterian ministers remained silent under an infamous indulgence, it devolved upon a few despised and persecuted covenanters,—the Society people,—to lift up and hold aloft the torch of freedom; and by their faithful testimonies and declarations uttered in fields and on scaffolds, and more still, by their blood freely shed to confirm their righteous cause, to sow broadcast the principles of genuine liberty. ”

“ Our martyred forefathers we regard as worthy of high respect and imitation, for their deeply cherished dread of the growing influence of Popery, and for their determined resistance to its exclusive and extravagant claims. The system of Popery is the abnegation of all precious gospel truth; and is a complete politico-religious confederacy against the best interests of a Protestant nation. The boast of its abettors is that it is semper eadem—ever the same. Rome cannot reform herself from within, and she is incapable of reformation from external influences and agencies. ”

“ It is of use for trial—for all of you to try yourselves, and ponder in your hearts, and say, 'Oh, soul, whether art thou in the kingdom of heaven or not?' Oh, be exhorted to this, whatever be thy state, O man and woman. It is safe for thee to search thy state; if matters be right betwixt God and thy soul, it will be thy peace ”

“ Let any person compare the manner in which the later Scottish martyrs—Renwick and the Society people,—were spoken of in the histories, civil and ecclesiastical, emitted in these countries, forty or fifty years ago, with the altered tone of historians of a recent date, and he will see that posterity is beginning to do tardy justice to the memories of men of whom "the world was not worthy,"—- who were the noblest, most disinterested patriots of which their country could ever boast, and whose services to the cause of pure and undefined religion were invaluable. ”

“ In the close of his testimony, written in prison, the day before his execution, there are those sublime and affecting expressions, which were designed to be his last words from the scaffold—"Farewell, beloved sufferers, and followers of the Lamb. Farewell, Christian and comfortable mother and sisters. Farewell, sweet societies and desirable general meetings. Farewell! night wanderings in all seasons for Christ, and all sublunary things. Farewell! conflicts with a body of sin and death. Welcome, scaffold, for precious Christ. ”

“ From that time, till he closed his glorious career and won the martyr's crown, he preached with eminent fidelity and great power the glorious gospel of the grace of God. His public labours were continued for a period of nearly five years, and extended to many districts in the east, south, and west of Scotland. In remote glens, unfrequented moorlands, often in the night season, and amid storm and tempest, when the men of blood could not venture out of their lairs, to pursue the work of destruction, he displayed a standard for truth, and eagerly laboured to win souls to Christ. ”

“ As the story of Joseph in the Old Testament has been remarkably blessed, above other parts of the divine word, for promoting the conversion and early piety of the young, so the unadorned narrative of the life, labours, and death of the youthful Scottish martyr, has led not a few to prefer the cause and reproach of Christ to the world's favour—to imbibe his spirit, and to imitate him, in seeking ends the most important and glorious. ”

“ We are responsible, not for success, but for fidelity; and the promised reward will be a glorious recompense for all trial and suffering. "Be thou faithful unto the death, and I will give thee a crown of life." ”

“ Renwick was, furthermore, distinguished by a catholic, genial, loving spirit. This characteristic is not generally thought to have been prominent in the spirit of illustrious reformers and suffering confessors. Luther, Calvin, and Knox, have been represented as unsocial, morose fanatics, and gloomy bigots. Renwick has been branded as rigid and austere, and those who have embraced and faithfully maintained the same testimony have been exhibited as sectaries of the deepest dye. No representation could be more unjust, and none is more opposed to historic truth. ”

“ My heart bleeds for many sufferers in Scotland, who shall suffer everlasting torment in hell, because they will not receive and embrace Jesus Christ, this gracious and free Saviour, who is now in your offer. Oh, embrace Jesus Christ, otherwise, be ye who ye will, and do what ye will, God's justice shall pursue you, and He shall have war against you without cessation: there shall be no discharge in that war. The great warriors of the earth are all lying with their weapons broken under their heads ”

“ The testimony which Cargill and Cameron boldly proclaimed and sealed with their blood, was cordially espoused by Renwick, and faithfully maintained by him during the whole course of his public ministry. He was called, besides, to the great work of preaching a full and free Gospel, throughout many parts of his native country, to multitudes who were hungering for the bread of life, when through terror of oppressive rulers, or from seeking their favour, others shrunk from the performance of so important and hazardous a duty. ”

“ We reject the king and those associate with him in government from being our king and rulers, being no more bound to them. They have altered and destroyed the Lord's established religion,—overturned the fundamental and established laws of the kingdom—taken away altogether Christ's church government, and changed the civil government of this land, which was by a king and free parliament, into tyranny. ”

“ Many of the most eminent servants of Christ, like Luther and Renwick, sprung from the humbler ranks of society, and before they came forward to public usefulness, had to contend with great difficulties. Grace ennobled them. God often chooses "the weak things" of the world to "confound the mighty." His servants are raised from the dunghill to sit among princes. In heaven's heraldry, a man's rank is taken, not from hereditary titles, or possessions, but from grace renewing and sanctifying the heart, and a life of true devotedness to Christ and his service. ”

“ When the power of the persecutors was unable to put down the preaching of the gospel in the fields, and to crush the spirit of liberty in the breasts of multitudes of the people of Scotland, the Indulgence was a master contrivance of the arch-enemy to divide the Presbyterians, and to seduce them to abandon some of their fundamental principles, for the sake of outward advantages. ”

“ Of this we have a striking instance in JAMES RENWICK,—the last, and in various respects the most illustrious of the Scottish martyrs of the seventeenth century. Hated and persecuted in his own day, by the men in authority in Church and State—caluminated and reproached by ministers and others, who professed evangelical sentiments and affected piety—and his principles generally misrepresented and condemned even to our own day,—there is yet abundant evidence to show that the Master whom he faithfully served, and for whose cause he willingly surrendered his life, singularly owned and honoured him. ”

“ Above all, they should set themselves earnestly, prayerfully and perseveringly to diffuse the Bible and Gospel light in the dark parts of their native country, and among Romanists in other lands. By embracing fully and holding fast, in their practical application, the principles of the British Covenants, and by imbibing the spirit of covenanted martyrs—men like Renwick and the Cameronians, we will be prepared for the last conflict with Antichrist. The firm and faithful maintenance of a martyr-testimony will be a principal instrument of the victory of truth over the error and idolatry of Rome. ”

“ All genuine civil freedom is based on religious liberty. Calvinism, as is admitted even by many who are opposed to it as a doctrinal system, has been the irreconcileable foe of despotism all over the world;—by the heroic struggles, and cheerful sacrifices of its adherents, the battle of freedom has been fought, and its triumphs achieved in many lands. ”

“ Seeing that power taken from Christ, which is His glory, and made the essential of an earthly crown, it seemed to me as if one were wearing my husband's garments, after he had killed him. There is no distinction we can make, that can free the acknowledger from being a partaker of this sacrilegious robbing of God. ”

“ In our day, it should not be regarded as enough to profess in theory the doctrine of Christ's Headship, or merely to speak in commendation of a martyr-testimony. We should aim, as Renwick and his followers, at whatever inconvenience and hardship, to give it practical effect. The reason why these honoured confessors disowned the authority of Charles and his brother, was, not solely or chiefly, because of their tyranny or persecuting measures, but principally because the authority assumed was opposed to the exclusive royal prerogatives of the Redeemer. ”

“ For my part, I count him the best Christian that is most accurate in this searching and communing with his own heart; for if ye neglect this, ye may come to lose the sight of your interest in Christ, if ever ye had it. Do not satisfy yourselves with being near the kingdom of God, but go into it. For this end, break the bargain and peace with your lusts and idols; and make up your peace with God through Christ, our Peace-maker, and ye shall find great advantage in the exchange; for the wicked have peace, but with sin and sinful men, but the godly have peace with God. ”

“ God designs in his providence to honour them more and more, by bringing more clearly to light the great principles for which they contended unto blood, striving against sin. The era long predicted and desired is approaching, when the saints shall rise to reign with Christ on the earth, when the spirit which distinguished them shall be extensively revived, and the great principles of their testimony shall be triumphant. ”

“ We bind and oblige ourselves to defend ourselves and one another in our worshipping of God, in our natural, civil and divine rights and liberties, till we shall overcome, or send them down under debate to posterity—that they may begin where we end. ”

“ To the friends of evangelical truth, and the faithful witnesses for the Redeemer's royal prerogatives, the services of Renwick, at the crisis in which he exercised his public ministry, were invaluable. He was eminently the man for the time. Through the influence of the unhappy Indulgence, the strict Covenanters were reduced to what they style themselves in the "Informatory Vindication," a "wasted, suffering, anti-popish, anti-prelatic, anti-erastian, anti-sectarian remnant." By the death of Cargill and Cameron, they were left as "sheep without a shepherd,"—broken and scattered. ”

“ In proof of the catholic, unsectarian, Christian spirit of Renwick and his followers, the clear statements of the INFORMATORY VINDICATION, the work which most fully and clearly defines their position, may be referred to. After laying down an admirable platform of fellowship and discipline, the persecuted Covenanters declare in effect, "We are not a Church at present, and cannot act fully as an organized Church. We are a broken, persecuted remnant. Our societies are not a Church, but a temporary means of enjoying proper religious instruction and ordinances of worship. ”

“ He added this warning to the persecuting authorities, with the heroic resolve—"Let them take heed unto themselves; for though they should take us to scaffolds, and kill us in the fields, the Lord will yet raise up a party who will be avenged on them. We had rather die than live in the same country with them, and outlive the glory of God departing altogether from these lands." ”

“ His Christian wisdom is singularly conspicuous. Renwick was blamed in his own day by time-servers and backsliders as imprudent; and those who maintain the same testimony even in our times, are characterized as foolish, imprudent, and infatuated. Certainly, if wisdom consists only in securing present temporal gain—fleeting pleasure and the applause of the world, then Renwick and his followers have no claim to be considered wise. ”