The Bass Rock : its civil and ecclesiastic history / by the Rev. Thomas M'Crie, D. D. Geology, by Hugh Miller. Martyrology, by the Rev. James Anderson. Zoology and botany by Professor Fleming and Professor Balfour.

  • Thomas M'Crie
Date:
1848]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Bass Rock : its civil and ecclesiastic history / by the Rev. Thomas M'Crie, D. D. Geology, by Hugh Miller. Martyrology, by the Rev. James Anderson. Zoology and botany by Professor Fleming and Professor Balfour. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    [19] upon the struggle merely as the result of a mad at- tempt, on the one hand, to enforce Prelacy on an un- willing people, and of a bigoted adherence, on the other hand, to the Presbyterian polity, is to take, not only a superficial and unphilosophical, hut a most erro- neous view of the matter. Time, the contending parties may be ranged under the general distinction of Pre- latists and Presbyterians ; but in the prosecution of the crusade against the latter, there was a combination of the elements of evil, and an exhibition of the darkest and the meanest passions of our nature, seldom if ever equalled. Presbytery, no doubt, was never a favourite with our Scottish rulers, from the time that it began to assert the supremacy of Christ as the Head of the Church, and the consequent independence of the courts of his house. Yet it admits of being demonstrated, that it was not the government but the godliness of Presbytery, not the mere form of its polity but the fidelity of its moral discipline, that rendered it odious to those in power. It is said that James the Sixth never forgave the rough handling of his barons at the Raid of Ruthven, and more especially the speech of the Master of Glam is, when placing his foot at the door to prevent the egress of the weeping young mo- narch, he said, “ It is no matter of his tears: better that bairns should weep than bearded men/’ And there is good reason for thinking that he would sooner forget the rude shaking of his sleeve by Andrew Mel- ville, when he called him “God’s silly vassal,” than he would the faithful rebukes of the princely Robert Bruce, before whom he trembled as a naughty urchin under the rod of his teacher. That his dissolute grand- son, Charles Second, had his eye more on the unaccom- modating discipline of Presbytery, than on the plain-