The Life of James Renwick | Page 3

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,