his throne or tribunal from whence he issued out his terrible decrees; and twelve or fourteen sour ignorant enthusiasts, under the title of Elders, composed his council. If any, of what quality soever, had the assurance to disobey his orders, the dreadful sentence of excommunication was immediately thundered out against him, his goods and chattels confiscated and seized, and he himself being looked upon as actually in the possession of the devil, and irretrievably doomed to eternal perdition.”’ Introduction to
The Kirk-Session Register of Perth, in
The Spottiswoode Miscellany, vol. ii. pp. 229–230, Edinburgh, 1845. In regard to the perdition which the sentence of excommunication was supposed to involve, one of the most influential Scotch divines of that time merely expresses the prevailing notion, when he asserts, that whoever was excommunicated was thereby given up to Satan. ‘That he who is excommunicated may be truly said to be delivered to Sathan is undeniable.’
Gillespie's Aaron's Rod Blossoming, or the Divine Ordinance of Church Government Vindicated, 1646, 4to, p. 239. ‘Excommunication, which is a shutting out of a Church-member from the Church, whereby Sathan commeth to get dominion and power over him.’
Ibid. p. 297. ‘Sure I am an excommunicate person may truly be said to be delivered to Sathan.’ p. 424.
435
Clarendon, under the year 1640, emphatically says (History of the Rebellion, p. 67), ‘The preacher reprehended the husband, governed the wife, chastised the children, and insulted over the servants, in the houses of the greatest men.’ The theory was, that ‘ministers and elders must be submitted unto us as fathers.’ Shields' Enquiry into Church Communion, 2nd edit., Edinburgh, 1747, p. 66. In the middle of the seventeenth century, one of the most famous of the Scotch preachers openly asserted the right of his profession to interfere in family matters, on the ground that such was the custom in the time of Joshua. ‘The Ministers of God's house have not only the ministry of holy things, as Word and Sacraments, committed to their charge, but also the power of ecclesiastical government to take order with scandalous offences within the familie; both these are here promised to Joshua and the Priests.’ Hutchison's Exposition of the Minor Prophets, vol. iii. p. 72, London, 1654. In 1603, the Presbytery of Aberdeen took upon themselves to order that every master of a house should keep a rod, that his family, including his servants, might be beaten if they used improper language. ‘It is concludit that thair salbe in ewerie houss a palmar.’ Selections from the Records of the Kirk Session, Presbytery, and Synod of Aberdeen, printed for the Spalding Club, 4to, Aberdeen, 1846, p. 194. It also appears (p. 303) that, in 1674, the clergyman was expected to exercise supervision over all visitors to private houses; since he ought to be informed, ‘iff ther be anie persone receaved in the familie without testimoniall presented to the minister.’
436
In 1650, it was ordered, ‘That everie paroche be divydit in severall quarteris, and each elder his owne quarter, over which he is to have speciall inspectioun, and that everie elder visit his quarter once everie month at least, according to the act of the Generall Assemblie, 1649, and in thair visitatioun tak notice of all disorderlie walkeris, especiallie neglectouris of God's worship in thair families, sueareris, haunteris of aill houses, especiallie at vnseasonable tymes, and long sitteris thair, and drinkeris of healthis; and that he dilate these to the Sessioun.’ Selections from the Minutes of the Synod of Fife, printed for the Abbotsford Club, Edinburgh, 1837, 4to, p. 168. ‘The elders each one in his own quarter, for trying the manners of the people.’ The Government and Order of the Church of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1690, p. 14. This scarce little volume is reprinted from the edition of 1641. See the advertisement at the beginning.
437
In 1652, the Kirk-Session of Glasgow ‘brot boyes and servants before them, for breaking the Sabbath, and other faults. They had clandestine censors, and gave money to some for this end.’ Wodrow's Collections, vol. ii. part ii. p. 74, Glasgow, 1848, 4to.
438
‘It is thocht expedient that ane baillie with tua of the sessioun pas throw the towne everie Sabboth day, and nott sic as thay find absent fra the sermones ather afoir or efter none; and for that effect that thay pas and sersche sic houss as they think maist meit, and pas athort the streittis.’ Selections from the Records of the Kirk Session, Presbytery, and Synod of Aberdeen, p. 26. ‘To pas throw the towne to caus the people resort to the hering of the sermones.’ p. 59. ‘Ganging throw the towne on the ordinar preiching dayes in the weik, als weill as on the Saboth day, to caus the people resort to the sermones.’ p. 77. See also p. 94; and Wodrow's Collections, vol. ii. part ii. p. 37: ‘the Session allous the searchers to go into houses and apprehend absents from the kirk.’
439
‘Another peculiarity was the supervision wielded over the movements of people to such a degree that they could neither obtain lodging nor employment except by a licence from the Kirk-Session, or, by defying this police court, expose themselves to fine and imprisonment.’ Lawson's Book of Perth, p. xxxvii. Edinburgh, 1847.
440
In 1652, Sir Alexander Irvine indignantly writes, that the presbytery of Aberdeen, ‘when they had tried many wayes, bot in vaine, to mak probable this their vaine imaginatione, they, at lenthe, when all other meanes failed thame, by ane unparalelled barbaritie, enforced my serwandis to reweall upon oathe what they sawe, herd, or knewe done within my house, beyond which no Turkische inquisitione could pase.’ The Miscellany of the Spalding Club, vol. iii. p. 206, Aberdeen, 1846, 4to.
441
In 1656, a servant was ordered to be brought before the Kirk-Session of Aberdeen ‘for her rayleing againest Mr. Andrew Cant, minister, in saying that becaus the said Mr. Andrew spak againest Yuill, he spak lyke ane old fool.’ Selections from the Records of the Kirk Session, Presbytery, and Synod of Aberdeen, p. 138. In 1642, the Presbytery of Lanark had up a certain James Baillie, because he stated the extremely probable circumstance, ‘that two fooles mett togither, when the Minister and his sone mett togither.’ Selections from the Registers of the Presbytery of Lanark, printed for the Abbotsford Club, Edinburgh, 1839, 4to, p. 30.
442
In 1644, ‘If you dissent from them in a theological tenet, it is heresy.’ Presbytery Displayed, 1644, p. 39, reprinted London, 1663, 4to. In 1637, ‘If ye depart from what I taught you in a hair-breadth for fear or favour of men, or desire of ease in this world, I take heaven and earth to witness, that ill shall come upon you in end.’ Rutherford's Religious Letters, p. 116. In 1607, ‘Mr. William Cowper, Minister, complained upon Robert Keir that he had disdainfully spoken of his doctrine. The (Kirk) Session ordained him to be warned to the morrow.’ Lawson's Book of Perth, p. 247.
443
In 1619, a man was summoned before the Kirk-Session of Perth, because, among other things, he would not perform ‘that civil duty of salutation, as becomes him to his pastor;’ but ‘passed by him without using any kind of reverence.’ The Chronicle of Perth, Edinburgh, 1831, 4to, p. 80. The complaint was preferred by the minister himself. Indeed, the Scotch clergy took these things so much to heart, that they set up a theory to the effect that whoever showed them any disrespect, was prompted thereto by Satan. ‘It is Satan's great engine to draw men to contemne God and his word, under pretext of disrespect and prejudice against the Messengers only.’ … ‘It may let us see their guilt who despise most eminent ordinary Messengers.’ Hutcheson's Exposition of the Minor Prophets, vol. i. pp. 205, 233.
444
The General Assembly of Saint Andrews, in 1642, passed ‘an act against using ministers' names in any of the public papers, without their own consent.’ Stevenson's History of the Church of Scotland, p. 503.
445
‘Directions for a believer's walk, given by Christ's ministers from his word, are his own, and are accounted by him as if he did immediately speak them himself.’ Durham's Exposition of the Song of Solomon, p. 102. I quote from the Glasgow reprint of 1788. That my references may be easily verified, and any error, if error there be, detected, I mention that the exact edition used will, in every case, be found specified
