Page images
PDF
EPUB

THE POWER OF GODLINESS ESSENTIAL TO THE SUCCESSFUL MAINTENANCE OF THE

COVENANTED REFORMATION.

IN entering on the consideration of this subject, it may be necessary to state first what is meant by the power of godliness. As this phrase is used in the Sacred Oracles, it denotes the reverse of that lifeless observance of the outward forms of religion which is sometimes maintained by those who, in other parts of their conduct, show that their hearts are deeply alienated from God, and that they are yet under the power of sin. It denotes such strength of internal respect to God, as never fails to manifest itself in a holy, consistent practice. In other words, it is such a measure of sanctification of nature, wrought in the soul by the Holy Spirit, as displays its power in uniformity of respect to the will and glory of God; so that when this effect is wanting in the lives of men, it is evidence that they are not partakers of the power, whatever they may have of the form, of godliness. It is a supernatural power which possesses such energy in all who are partakers of it, as to exercise a most salutary influence on all the operations of the heart, and the whole deportment of the Christian. It includes an habitual, active improvement of the Lord Jesus Christ, in his priestly office, as the sole way of access to God and acceptance with him, and corresponding respect to his will as Supreme Lawgiver, and to his authority as King. It comprehends all the graces of the Spirit in some degree of exercise. Practical religion is the atmosphere which it breathes and the means of its nourishment, and it has lowliness of mind, and habitual contrition of heart, for its concomitants.

By the man who is partaker of the power of godliness, sin, in all its forms, is seen to be hateful. He dreads it, he loathes it, he cries earnestly for keeping from it, and he knows no little sins. Before it, self is cast down from the throne in the heart, and through it the glory of God rises to the highest place there. By it the heart is so enlarged, that the interests of the Church, and the good of men, in present and succeeding generations, become objects of deep solicitude to the believer, and his soul is so animated by zeal for the public cause of God on the earth, and the welfare of his people connected with this, that in the spirit of Moses and of Paul, his own personal interests are cast into the shade, by intense care about the good of the Church and of the nations, and of that nation, in particular, to which he belongs.

Such are some of the things by which those have been made and kept debtors to divine grace, who have been distinguished by the power of godliness. There are different degrees of attainment among those in whom this has been wrought; for in the bestowment of his gifts and grace, the Spirit exercises a holy sovereignty, distributing to every one severally in the measure that he willeth. In some, the lines of the portraiture which we have attempted to draw may stand forth with greater prominence than in others; and in some, the shades

E

of various features are fainter than in others; but they will be found combined in some degree, in all in whom true religion exists in power. And that this is essential to the cordial adoption and successful maintenance of the Covenanted Reformation, will be manifest when we advert to what that Reformation is in itself.

This will appear first, when we consider some of its leading principles. One of these is the acknowledgment of God's supremacy, to whose authority the most unreserved submission is to be yielded in all things, from the least to the greatest. Another is, that the Word of God is the one rule of faith and practice; subjection to which, as the Supreme Arbiter, is to be given by the Church, in all that relates to truth and duty, and to which she is to be conformed in her profession, A third great prinher government, and her whole administration. ciple is, that men are bound to set God before them, and take his Word for their guide and his will for their rule, in all departments of society, and regulate their conduct thereby in all stations, civil as well as ecclesiastical. According to this principle, the king as well as the subject, the prince not less than the peasant, is to act in the fear of God, and testify respect to his will in all things; yea, the former are under peculiar obligation to be patterns of every good work; for unto whomsoever much is given, of them also much shall be required. According to this principle, in the family as well as in the Church, in the court of justice as well as in the ecclesiastical assembly, in the Parliament and highest national councils as well as in the worshipping assemblies of the Church and her spiritual courts, there is to be one Supreme Lawgiver and King acknowledged, whose will is to be law, and whose glory is to be sought as the highest end. This will appear, in the second place, when we advert to the objects of the Reformation in carrying out, and applying these and other great principles.

The Reformers had not adopted these principles as theoretical maxims; they felt that they were under the highest obligation to act them out, and that it was only in so far as they did so, that they were warranted to expect the divine favour and countenance, either as a Church or as a nation.

The object sought, therefore, in the Covenanted Reformation was, first, to have all things in the Church remodelled according to the Divine Standard contained in the Scriptures. This was undoubtWhen the eyes of the leading actors in edly a glorious aim. this work were opened to see objects in a true light, they found almost all things in the so-called Church of Rome the very opposite of what the Word of God required her to be. They found her doctrine fearfully corrupted, so mixed with error and lying fables, that the people were left to feed as if on the husks that the swine do eat, instead of being furnished with the bread of life. They found the pure ordinance of the gospel supplanted by paganised forms of worship, gross idolatries, and debasing superstitions. They found the simple, divinely instituted government of the Christian Church, appointed by her Divine King, discarded, and a worldly hierarchy, animated by pride and tyranny, occupying its place. And they found

that the scriptural discipline of the house of God had been made to give place to an unhallowed system of traffic, and a manifold ritual of ceremonies and servitude, calculated not to promote the purity of the Church, but to engender a spirit of bondage, and fill the treasuries of the priesthood with the wealth of this world. And the great object of the Reformation was the cleansing of the Church from all these abominations, and the restoration of all things in her to conformity with the primitive standard appointed by Christ, and given to the Church in the apostolic age. The Reformation is, therefore, just what was done in restoring the Church in her doctrine, worship, discipline, and government, to conformity to the will of her glorious Head, as made known in the Scriptures.

The object of this was, secondly, the reformation of the nation, the rendering of her, as a civil institute, what the Bible requires that nations favoured with the light of special revelation should be. This was another part of the glory of the Covenanted Reformation, especially in Scotland. The Reformers found the nation, in its laws and administration, arrayed on the side of error and corruption, and in the attitude of deadly hostility to the cause of truth and righteousness. They found the nation and its rulers, under the influence of Popery, enslaved to the Man of Sin, and animated by a spirit of cruel tyranny, both in civil and religious matters, and thus in a condition which exposed it to the wrath of God, and tended to involve all classes in the deepest misery of every kind. It was, therefore, a noble and patriotic work, to seek to have all, in the civil constitution of the kingdom, that was hateful to Christ, inimical to truth and righteousness, and injurious to men, removed from it, and to have its laws and administration so formed as to harmonise with the will of God, to subserve the interests of the kingdom of Christ, and be consistent with the civil and religious liberties of men.

It was essential to civil and religious liberty, that the tyrannical and persecuting laws which Popery had succeeded in getting interwoven with the civil constitution should be abolished, and they were successful in getting these erased from the statute-book. It was essential to the spiritual well-being of the people, that they should be delivered from the errors and delusions of the antichristian system; and by the faithful preaching of the doctrines of the gospel, and a bold appeal to Scripture and reason against the corruptions of Popery, the Reformers were the honoured instruments, in the hand of God, of so enlightening the minds of the great majority of all ranks in the nation, that the national support and countenance were withdrawn from the idolatries and superstitions of Rome, and transferred to the Scriptural Protestant profession of faith, worship, and government, which was indisputably conformable, in a high degree, to the Word of God. And we think that this Reformation is such in its character, that it was only by men possessed of the power of godliness that such a Reformation could have been prosecuted, and only among a people, in some good degree imbued with this, that it could have been effected in the extent in which it was realised.

It may well fill us with astonishment that their success was so

great, when we think how difficult it is in these times, with all our boasted light, to reform the most palpable and gross abuses. How wonderful may it appear to us, in these days of bit by bit amendment, either in civil or ecclesiastical matters, that they were able to effect such a sweeping and thorough cleansing of the Church and nation. from the abominations of Popery, and introduce in its stead a platform of reformation, so Scriptural and broad, to form the future constitution of the Church and of the nation. This is a work, the accomplishment of which, in so brief a space of time, and in the face of so many obstacles, can only be accounted for by the signal divine countenance which the Reformers enjoyed, and the abundant measure in which the Spirit, at that time, accompanied the Word, with demonstration and power, to the hearts of men.

Thirdly, This will appear, when we consider the means adopted for consolidating the Reformation and securing its perpetuity.

One leading means adopted for this purpose, was that of solemn confederation and vows to God. So deeply were the Scottish Reformers, and people in general, imbued with hatred of the errors of Popery, and with a sense of the evil effects and dangerous character of that system of iniquity, that they not only renounced, but abjured them, that is, bound themselves, by oath and covenant, to God and one another, to put them away, and maintain a persevering opposition to them in all their branches; and such was the value which they put on their scriptural constitution in all its parts, that they brought themselves under corresponding obligations to God and one another, to hold it fast. In the National Covenant, not only was Popery, root and branch, nationally abjured, but the Protestant religion was avouched, by covenant and oath on the part of the nation, as its profession, as well as that of the Church, and the profession which it became bound, by oath to God, to maintain and defend. It is on this account that it is denominated the Covenanted Reformation,—that is, the Reformation "which the nation is permanently bound to promote and maintain, in consequence of having pledged its faith for this to God, by solemn covenant and oath." This National Covenant is such a document, in its matter and spirit, that the people who were prepared to enter into it with alacrity, behoved to be persons richly replenished with the spirit and grace of God. And this is equally true of the Solemn League, the object of which was the promotion of a thorough reformation in England and Ireland, corresponding to that which had been blessfully achieved in Scotland. Though most of our readers are familiar with that Deed, we cannot refrain from quoting one or two of its clauses, to show the noble and godlike spirit by which it was distinguished. In that remarkable Covenant and League, the parties entering into it declare,

"We all subscribe, and each of us for himself, with our hands lifted up to the Most High God, do swear

"I. That we shall sincerely, really, and constantly, through the grace of God, endeavour, in our several places and callings, the preservation of the true religion in Scotland, in doctrine, worship, discipline, and government, according to the Word of God, and the example of the best Reformed Churches.

"II. That we shall, in like manner, without respect of persons, endeavour the

extirpation of Popery, Prelacy, (that is Church Government by Archbishops, Bishops, Vice-Chancellors, Commissioners, Deans, and Chapters, Archdeans and other ecclesiastical officers, depending in that hierarchy,"-how specific as to Prelacy!) "superstition, heresy, schism, profaneness, and whatsoever shall be contrary to sound doctrine and the power of godliness, lest we partake in other men's sins, and thereby be in danger of receiving of their plagues, and that the Lord may be one, and his name one, in the three kingdoms.'

How noble the resolution thus solemnly formed! how enlarged the spirit by which it was dictated! and how honourable is the place which Scotland and the Scottish Reformation occupy in it!

Another class of means employed for this end was the measures adopted for preserving the Church pure both in doctrine and communion; and securing that none but such as were the true friends of the Reformation should be admitted to places of power and trust in the nation.

Special means were adopted that the ministers of religion should be sound in faith themselves, and faithful in declaring the whole counsel of God to their hearers, in the profession of faith required of them, and the vigilant inspection of them by the respective presbyteries with which they were connected. The terms of communion were also such as required that the members of the Church should not only make a good profession, but manifest the truth of this, in a walk and conversation becoming the gospel of Christ, while all who were guilty of conduct at variance with this, were solemnly dealt with about their sin, and the best means of bringing them to repentance and reformation, and of deterring others from evil, were employed. In some cases there might be, and no doubt was, an excess of rigour in the forms of discipline; but in substance, spirit, and aim, it was highly scriptural and salutary.

Again, the duties required of parents to children, of masters to servants, and the provision made for the instruction of the young, as well as the qualifications of the teachers of youth in schools and universities, were other means employed for the same high end.

In short, such is the nature and spirit of the Covenanted Reformation, that it is only in connection with the power of godliness that such a work could have originated-only by persons possessed of this that it could have been prosecuted, and only among a people distinguished by this, that it could have been established and carried out in practice. And as this is the conclusion to which a consideration of the Covenanted Reformation itself leads, we shall find, on examination, that this is largely confirmed by the light which history furnishes on this subject. In proof of this, we adduce now the following striking historical facts.

First, It was in connection with the power of godliness that the principles of the Reformation took root and sprung up in Scotland.

The Reformation, in general, was undeniably the effect of a great work of God on the understandings, hearts, and consciences of men. The Spirit fell down in copious showers wherever the truths of the gospel were published, and the effects of his descent which Christ predicted were extensively realised. Multitudes of all ranks and classes of men were mightily convinced of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment;-prejudices the most deeply rooted were dispelled before

« PreviousContinue »