SERMONS AND LIFE

OF

MR ROBERT BRUCE.

THE WODROW SOCIETY,

INSTITUTED MAY, 1841,

FOR THE PUBLICATION OF THE WORKS OF THE FATHERS AND EARLY

WRITERS OF THE REFORMED CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.

BY

THE REV. ROBERT BRUCE,

MINISTER OF EDINBURGH.

REPRINTED FROM THE ORIGINAL EDITION OF M.D.XC. AND M.D.XCI.

WITH

COLLECTIONS FOR HIS LIFE,

BY THE

REV. ROBERT WODROW,

MINISTER OF EASTWOOD.

NOW FIRST PRINTED FROM THE MANUSCRIPT IN THE LIBRARY OF
THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW.

EDITED BY THE

REV. WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM, D.D.

TRINITY COLLEGE CHURCH, EDINBURGH.

EDINBURGH:

PRINTED FOR THE WODROW SOCIETY.

M.DCCC.XLIII.

EDINBURGH PRINTING COMPANY, SOUTH ST DAVID STREET.

PREFACE.

ROBERT BRUCE, Minister of the Gospel at Edinburgh, was one of the most distinguished men whom Scotland has ever produced, and rendered invaluable services to his Church and country. His labours as a preacher of the Gospel were signally blessed to the salvation of souls; he took a prominent and influential part in the important contest which the Church of Scotland carried on against King James, in defence of her rights and liberties as a Church of Christ; and he was instrumental, more than any other man, in bringing about the passing of the Act of Parliament 1592, c. 116, which is to this day the great charter of the constitutional privileges of the Church of Scotland. Andrew Melville, his illustrious coadjutor in that great struggle in which they both suffered so much, describes him as a "hero adorned with every virtue, a constant confessor, and almost martyr of the Lord Jesus." Livingstone says, "Mr Robert Bruce I several times heard, and, in my opinion, never man spake with greater power since the Apostles' days."

Full materials for a history of Bruce's life have been preserved by Row, Calderwood, Blair, and Livingstone, all of whom were per