The Life of James Renwick | Page 4

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