The Life of James Renwick written by Thomas Houston
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The Life of
JAMES RENWICK
A historical sketch of his life,
labours and martyrdom and a
vindication of his character
and testimony.
_by Thomas Houston, D.D._
Originally this life was written as an introduction to "The Letters of
Renwick" Published by Alex. Gardner, Paisley, 1865.
Cover Picture: Execution of James Renwick, Edinburgh, 1688.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.
The prophet's message to Eli, "Wherefore the Lord God of Israel said
* * * THEM THAT HONOUR ME, I WILL HONOUR," (1 Sam. ii. 30,) declares a
fundamental law of the divine government, which the history alike of
individuals and of communities has illustrated in all by-past ages. The
works of many men of eminent talent and remarkable energy--admired in
their own day,--have speedily passed into oblivion, or have been
productive of few permanently salutary results. Despising God, "they
have been lightly esteemed." Those, on the other hand, who honoured God,
and were devoted to His service--however humble their talents or
position in society,--however contemned and persecuted by the
world--have been honoured of God. Their labours have been accepted to
advance His glory in the earth--their memories have continued long
fragrant, and their principles and character have furnished the most
valuable instruction and the brightest examples to future generations.
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. His faithful contendings and
arduous labours contributed not a little to subvert the throne of a
bigot and tyrant, and to achieve the nation's liberties. They served
also to secure the purity and independence of the Church, and to
transmit a legacy of imperishable principles to future times, when "the
handful of corn" upon the top of the mountains, "shall shake with fruit
like Lebanon." Scant and fragmentary as are the memorials of
Renwick--clothed in the most homely garb, and written with no artistic
skill, they have yet been the means of nurturing vital piety in many a
humble breast and household, in these and other countries, from the
martyr era, to our own day; and not a few of the most devoted ministers,
who have earnestly contended for precious truth, and been wise to win
souls to Christ, have received from the record of the labours and
sufferings and testimony of Renwick, some of their first solemn
impressions for good, and propelling motives to holy diligence and
self-devotion. 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.
Renwick's work in the Church is not yet fully accomplished, nor is the
influence of his name losing its attractive power. On the contrary,
there is evidence, increasing as it is cheering, that while the one is
drawing to it more earnest regard and willing workers, the other is
constantly becoming more powerful and widespread. 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. Occasionally, we yet find,
in the works of some popular writers, Renwick and his fellow-sufferers,
designated enthusiasts and fanatics, their principles misrepresented,
and some of their most heroic deeds held up to ridicule and scorn. Even
the brilliant Macaulay, while exposing to deserved condemnation their
cruel and heartless persecutors, and while depicting with graphic power
some of the incidents of the deaths of the Scottish martyrs, yet shews
his strong aversion to evangelical principle and godly practice, by
applying to the honest confessors the same opprobrious epithets. The age
in which the martyrs and their principles were kept entombed, by heaping
on them reproach and slander, is past, however, not to return again.
Their names are destined not to perish. 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.
Meanwhile, the resurrection of the _names_ of the confessors and martyrs
of a former age, is a sure indication of the resurrection of their
principles too. Through the evidence furnished by the faithful
contendings and devoted lives of men of sanctified wisdom and high-toned
piety, and the light reflected from the story of their sufferings and
triumphant deaths, we cannot doubt that numbers will be led to earnest
inquiry concerning the principles for which they testified in life, and
in confirmation of which they willingly laid down their lives, that they
might transmit the precious heritage to future generations. The result
will be a wider appreciation of the value and excellency of a
martyr-testimony; and in the period of promised light and enlargement,
the lifting up of a standard in many places, and by strong hands, in
behalf of the same great principles.
As prefatory to the memorials of the piety, wisdom, and devotedness of
the martyr Renwick, it appears desirable to present a brief sketch of
his personal history--to notice the particular time in which he
laboured, and the principles for which he contended,--his martyrdom,
character, and the distinct and honourable position assigned him in the
great work of maintaining and advancing the Redeemer's cause in the
earth.
RENWICK'S LIFE
James Renwick was the child of godly parents in humble life. His father,
Andrew Renwick, was a weaver, and his mother, Elizabeth Corson, is
especially mentioned, like the mother and grandmother of Timothy, or
like Monica, the mother of Augustine, as a woman of strong faith, and
eminently prayerful. As several of her children had died in infancy, she
earnestly sought that the Lord would give her a child, who would not
only be an heir of glory, but who might live to serve God in his
generation. Her prayer was heard and graciously answered. The son of her
vows was born at Moniaive, in the parish of Glencairn, Gallowayshire, on
the 15th of February, 1662. His father died before he reached the age of
fourteen, but not before he felt assured--probably from observing in the
boy remarkable indications of early piety--that, though his course on
earth would be short, the Lord would make singular use of him in his
service. The early training of this distinguished martyr was, in a great
measure, through the instrumentality of a devoted mother, who could
boast of no worldly affluence or accomplishments, but whose heart was
richly pervaded by the grace of the Spirit, and intensely concerned for
the Saviour's glory; and who, in times of great difficulty and great
trial, maintained unwavering confidence in the faithful word of promise.
If James Renwick was not "sanctified from the womb," there was clear
evidence afforded, that, in early childhood, he was the subject of
gracious motions of the Spirit. At two years of age, he was observed to
be aiming at secret prayer; and as his childhood advanced, he evinced
love to the ways of God, by reading and pondering the Scriptures,
delight in secret prayer, and by reverential regard to the authority of
his parents. Like Luther, and other eminent servants of God, Renwick was
trained for his life-work in the school of _temptation_; he experienced
painful mental conflicts, and the assaults of the tempter, at a very
early period. It is recorded that, at six years of age, he was conscious
of distressing doubts, in relation to the Divine existence and
perfections. These exercised and agitated his mind for a period of two
years. In answer to prayer, and by meditation on the power and goodness
of God, as seen in creation, he overcame the temptation, and attained to
internal composure and tranquillity. At a time of life considerably
subsequent, when he had reached mature youth, and had acquired extensive
acquaintance with Scriptural truth, a like temptation again assailed
him. He himself relates that he fell into deeper perplexity and distress
about these fundamental truths. Like the excellent Robert Bruce of the
First Reformation, he was strongly tempted to atheism. So powerful at
one time was the assault, that, being in the fields and looking to the
distant mountains, he exclaimed, "Were all these devouring furnaces of
burning brimstone, he would be content to go through them, if he could
thereby be assured of the existence of God." There was at length made
for him a way of escape from this severe temptation, and not only did he
attain to a full and joyful persuasion of God's existence, but to the
assurance of his personal interest in God as his covenant portion.
James Renwick was endowed with a vigorous reflective mind, and from his
childhood he was devoted to reading and study. Amidst considerable
difficulties, he commenced and prosecuted with ardour studies for the
ministry. There is ample evidence from his writings that his attainments
in learning were by no means superficial. Through the kindness of
friends raised up in providence, he was enabled to pursue classical
studies in Edinburgh, and while attending the University there, he
maintained himself till he had finished the undergraduate course, partly
by teaching and aiding others in their studies. When his scholarship
entitled him to a University degree, he refused to receive this honour,
because it was required at the time that students, on graduating, should
swear the oath of allegiance, which expressly owned the royal supremacy.
In company with two fellow-students, he sometime after received his
degree privately.
Continuing in Edinburgh to prosecute his studies, he was brought to
attend the private fellowship-meetings of the persecuted covenanters. He
met with the "outed" ministers, and was led to study, by the light of
the Divine word and the teaching of the Spirit, the exciting and deeply
important questions of the day. Thus did he become convinced of the
numerous defections from the principles and ends of the Covenanted
Reformation, of the majority of the ministers and Presbyterian people of
Scotland; and he was persuaded that the stricter Covenanters,--the
followers of Cargill and Cameron, and those associated in Societies, and
who frequented conventicles,--alone consistently carried out the grand
principles and aims of the national vows. At length, after much
searching of heart, and according to his words, testifying to his deep
conscientiousness, "with great grief, reluctance, and trembling of
soul," he became identified with the persecuted remnant. Soon after,
while yet only _nineteen years of age_, Renwick witnessed the martyrdom
of the venerable servant of Christ, Donald Cargill. He stood near the
scaffold, beheld his courageous and triumphant departure to glory, and
heard the clear and powerful last words, in which he nobly testified for
the crown-rights of the Redeemer, and against Erastian usurpation. "As
to the causes of my suffering," said the dying martyr, "the chief
is--not acknowledging the present Authority, as it is established in the
Supremacy and Explanatory Act. This is the magistracy I have resisted,
that which is invested with Christ's power. 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.
And it is but to cheat our consciences to acknowledge the _civil power_
alone, that it is of the essence of the crown; and seeing they are so
express, we ought to be plain; for otherwise, we deny our testimony and
consent that Christ be robbed of His glory."
These mighty utterances, so solemnly confirmed by the martyr's blood,
could not fail to make a deep impression on the heart of the youthful
Renwick. His purpose was fixed, and his resolution taken, to maintain
the same great principles; and reproach and persecution and death could
not turn him aside. His Christian decision had its reward. He declared
that he did not fully know what the gracious presence of God with His
people meant, till he joined the fellowship of the persecuted remnant. A
large measure of the spirit of the "faithful Cargill" rested on his
youthful successor; and when, some two years after, he entered on the
work of the ministry, it was justly said--"he took up the Covenanted
Banner as it fell from the hands of Cargill."
At the time that Renwick united with the Society People, they were
destitute of a public ministry. Cargill and Cameron had sealed their
testimony with their blood. The Churches were either filled with
Episcopal curates, or by time-serving Presbyterian ministers, who had
accepted the indulgence flowing from the royal supremacy. By an act of
Parliament passed in 1672 against "unlawful ordinations," the way to the
ministry was barred against all who could not accept Prelatical
ordination. The Societies, having organized a general correspondence,
earnestly desired a stated ministry, while they manifested the strictest
regard to scriptural order. Animated by a noble public spirit, they
selected James Renwick and two other young men, and sent them to
complete their studies for the ministry in Holland, then renowned for
its theological Seminaries, where deep sympathy was manifested for the
suffering Church of Scotland. He studied at the university of Groningen,
where some of the most distinguished theologians in Europe occupied
professorial Chairs. Studying in the spirit of entire devotedness, and
actuated by an earnest desire to return to Scotland, where there was
pressing need for faithful ministerial services, he made such
proficiency, that in a short time, he was fully qualified to receive
ordination. According to the usage of the Dutch Church, he was ordained
at Groningen, by a Classis or Presbytery of learned and godly ministers,
who evinced their catholic spirit by yielding to his request to allow
him to subscribe the standards of the Church of Scotland, instead of
their own formula. There was remarkable evidence of God's gracious
presence being enjoyed in the solemn service.--It has been appropriately
said, that as the conflicts of the German reformation were acted over by
Luther in his cloister, before he was called to his public work, so the
struggles of the covenanted cause in Scotland, were first engaged in by
Renwick in his retirement and solitary chamber in Groningen. There he
clearly foresaw the conflicts and trials that awaited him; and in near
communion with God, he yielded himself up as an entire self-sacrifice,
anticipating the blessed recompense of the reward. In the early Pagan
persecutions, the church was sometimes symbolically represented by an ox
with a plough on the one side, and an altar on the other, with the
inscription, "Ready for either"--prepared for work or slaughter. Such
was the spirit of Renwick, as he looked forward to the work that lay
before him in his native land. In a letter written from Holland at this
time, he says, "My longings and earnest desire to be in that land, and
with the pleasant remnant, are very great. I cannot tell what may be in
it, but I hope the Lord hath either some work to work, or else is minded
presently to call for a testimony at my hand. If He give me frame and
furniture, I desire to welcome either of them."
Renwick returned from Holland in the autumn of 1683. Escaping some
dangers at sea, he visited Dublin, where he bore a faithful testimony
against the silence of ministers in the public cause, and left behind
him a favourable impression on the minds of some of his Christian zeal
and devotedness. In September, 1683, he landed in Scotland, and on the
3d of November, he entered on his arduous work of preaching the Gospel
in the fields, and lifting up the standard of a covenanted testimony. He
preached on that day at Darmead in the parish of Cambusnethan. 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. His last sermon was preached at _Borrowstoness_, from Isaiah
liii. 1, on January 29th, 1688.
Though he ever testified boldly against the defections of the times,
especially the Indulgence, and insisted on disowning the papist James,
as not being a constitutional monarch, and on maintaining fully
Presbyterian order and discipline, and all the covenanted attainments,
his discourses were eminently evangelical. His darling themes were
salvation through Christ, and the great matters of practical godliness.
With wonderful enlargement and attractive sweetness, he unfolded the
covenant of grace--the matchless person and love of Christ--the finished
atonement, and its sufficiency for advancing the glory of the Godhead,
and for the complete salvation of elect sinners. Considering Renwick's
youth, being but _nineteen_ years of age when he entered on his great
work, he was endowed with singular qualifications as a preacher of the
gospel. These remarkably fitted him for the great work to which he was
called--promoting the Redeemer's glory, in awakening and converting
sinners, and in edifying and comforting the Church in a season of
suffering and trial. He was, moreover, gifted with personal talents,
natural and acquired, that rendered him an attractive and powerful
preacher of the gospel. His aspect was solemn and engaging. His personal
appearance, even when harassed by incessant labours and privations,
night wanderings and hair-breadth escapes from enemies, was sweet and
prepossessing. His manner in preaching was lucid and affecting. His
whole heart was thrown into his discourses. He often rose to the height
of the most moving eloquence; and with the constant reality of God's
presence and love, and the dread realities of persecution, and violent
death, and eternity, before him, he poured out his soul in such strains
of heavenly enlargement, that his hearers were melted, subdued, and
raised above the fear of death, and the terror of enemies.
The following account of Renwick's manner of preaching, and of the
impressions made on his hearers is taken from an unpublished MS. of
Ebenezer Nesbit, son of Captain Nesbit of Hardhill, and may be regarded
as descriptive of the way in which he proclaimed the gospel to the
"flock in the wilderness," during his brief but singularly efficient
ministry. Need we wonder, after reading this narrative, at the spiritual
effects of his preaching to thousands in his day, and at the precious
fruits that resulted from his labours long afterwards, and the sweet
savour of his name throughout subsequent times? "The latter end of this
year, I heard that great man of God, Mr. James Renwick, preach on Song
iii. 9, 10, when he treated greatly on the covenant of redemption agreed
on between God the Father and God the Son, in favour of the elect; as
also on the covenant of grace established with believers in Christ. Oh,
this was a great and sweet day of the gospel! for he handled and pressed
the privileges of the covenant of grace with seraphic enlargement, to
the great edification of the hearers. Sweet and charming were the offers
which he made of Christ to all sorts of sinners. There was one thing
that day that was very remarkable to me; for though it was rain from
morning to night, and so wet as if we had been drenched in water, yet
not one of us fell sick. And though there was a tent fixed for him, he
would not go into it, but stood without in the rain and preached; which
example had a great influence on the people to patience, when they saw
his sympathy with them. And though he was the only minister that kept
closest to his text, and had the best method for the judgment and
memory, of any that ever I heard; yet now, when he preached, the people
crowded close together, because of the rain, he digressed a little, and
said, with a pleasant, melting voice, 'My dear friends, be not disturbed
because of the rain. For to have a covenant-interest in Christ, the true
Solomon, and in the benefits of his blessed purchase, is well worth the
enduring of all temporal, elementary storms that can fall on us. And
this Solomon, who is here pointed at, endured a far other kind of storm
for his people--even a storm of unmixed wrath. And oh, what would poor
damned reprobates in hell give for this day's offer of sweet and lovely
Christ. And oh, how welcome would our suffering friends in prison and
banishment make this day's offer of Christ.' 'And, for my own part,'
said he, 'as the Lord will keep me, I shall bear my equal share in this
rain, in sympathy with you.' And he returned to his sweet Subject again,
and offered us grace and reconciliation with God, through Christ, by his
Spirit.
"Words would fail me to express my own frame, and the frame of many
others; only this I may say, we would have been glad to have endured any
kind of death, to have been home at the uninterrupted enjoyment of that
glorious Redeemer who was so livelily and clearly offered to us that
day.
"He was the only man that I ever knew that had an unstained integrity.
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; and yet none more meek, none more
humane and condescending. He was every way so rational, as well as
religious, that there was reason to think that the powers of his reason
were as much strengthened and sanctified as any man's I ever heard of.
When I speak of him as a Christian--none more meek, and yet none more
prudently bold against those who were bold to sin--none more frequent
and fervent in religions duties, such as prayer, converse, meditation,
self-examination, preaching, prefacing, lecturing, baptizing, and
catechising; none more methodical in teaching and instructing,
accompanied with a sweet, charming eloquence, in holding forth Christ,
as the only remedy for lost sinners; none more hated of the world, and
yet none more strengthened and upheld by the everlasting arms of
Jehovah, to be steadfast, and abound in the way of the Lord, to the
death; wherefore he might be justly called "Antipas," Christ's faithful
martyr. And as I lived then to know him to be so of a truth, so, by the
good hand of God, I yet live, thirty-six years after him, to testify
that no man upon just grounds had any thing to lay to his charge. When
all the critical and straitening circumstances of that period are well
considered, save that he was liable to natural and sinful infirmities,
as all men are when in this life, and yet he was as little guilty in
this way as any I ever knew or heard of, he was the liveliest and most
engaging preacher to close with Christ, of any I ever heard. His
converse was pious, prudent, and meek; his reasoning and debating was
the same, carrying almost with it full evidence of the truth of what he
asserted. And for steadfastness in the way of the Lord, few came his
length. He learned the truth and counted the cost, and so sealed it with
his blood. Of all men that ever I knew, I would be in the least danger
of committing a hyperbole when speaking in his commendation. And yet I
speak not this to praise men, but for the glory and honour of God in
Christ, who makes men to differ so much from others, and in some periods
of the Church more than others."