222

ORIGINAL STANDARDS OF THE CHURCH.

gold, which he evidently intended, had time permitted, to carry out through the less obscure chronicles of the Reformation, occupies the first part of the book. But the real preface, to which attaches all the human and individual interest always conveyed by Irving's prefaces, contains an examination of those ancient documents, in which he who had already been denounced as a heretic, and who was on the eve of being cast out from his church for departing from the rules of the Church of Scotland-enthusiastically adopts the primary standards of that very Church of Scotland as the confession of his faith, and admiringly sets forth the beauty and perfectness of those entirely national statements of belief. I do not know if Irving was the first to fall back with a sensation of relief and expansion from the cruel logic of the Westminster Confession to the earlier Scottish creed, -the simple, manful, uncontroversial declaration of the faith that was in them, which the first Reformers gave, and which, I believe, many of their present descendants would gladly and thankfully see replaced instead of the elaborate production of the Westminster Puritans; but it was he who introduced them anew to the notice of his brethren. In the present condition of the Scotch Church, palpitating silently with what seems a new and different life, the restoration of these old authorities to the supreme place would, I am assured, give space and breathing-room to many wistful souls.

"I prefer beyond all measure," says Irving, "the labours of our Reformers, which took so many years to complete them; and grieve exceedingly that they should have been virtually supplanted and buried out of sight by the act of one General Assembly in a factious time convened. . . . .

THE WESTMINSTER CONFESSION.

223

While I say I lament this other instance of Scottish haste, I am far from disavowing the Westminster Confession, to which I have set my hand, or even disallowing it as an excellent composition upon the whole. But for many reasons I greatly postpone it to our original standards. . . . The truth is that the Church of Scotland was working with head and hand to proselytise or to beat England into the Presbyterian form of church government, and therefore adopted these books of the English Presbyterians, thinking there could be no unity without uniformity, a cruel mistake which was woefully retaliated upon them in the reigns of the Second Charles and the Second James. It is not with any particular expressions or doctrines of the Westminster Confession that I find fault, but with the general structure of it. It is really an imposition upon a man's conscience to ask him to subscribe such a minute document; it is also a call upon his previous knowledge of ecclesiastical controversy, which very few can honestly answer; and being digested on a systematic principle, it is rather an exact code of doctrine than the declaration of a person's faith in a personal God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. I find it to be a great snare to tender consciencesa great trial to honest men-insomuch that, as a pastor, I have often been greatly perplexed to reconcile men, both elders and preachers, to the subscription of it. They seem to feel that it is rather an instrument for catching dishonest, than a rule for guiding honest people; that it presupposeth men knavish, and prepareth gyves upon their legs, and shackles for their hands. . . . In one word, there is a great deal too much of it for rightly serving the ends of a confession. . . . There is no use for hard-fasting men at such a rate, although it be very necessary to exhibit a distinct standard of faith for them to rally under."

...

Holding such opinions, Irving, almost hopeless for the recovery of his mother-Church, which appeared to him to have denied the faith, presented to her once more her old forgotten standards, and "this the native and proper Confession of our Church," to show her from what

224 RECALLS THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND TO HERSELF.

height she had fallen. Had he been prudent, he might have found some better way of deprecating the censures that threatened him; but he was not prudent. He came forward boldly, not to correct his own views by her present light, but to recall her to the venerable past, the early Reformation glory, her true individual national standing-ground before she had begun to borrow doctrine or authority from other communities. At this very moment, when, on the brink of excommunication, and accused of every kind of ecclesiastical irregularity, he once more fervently proclaimed himself truly loyal, and his assailants the heretics and deniers of the faith. Forlorn, with his friends and brethren dropping off from him, and all the ties of his life breaking in pieces, shortly to be left among a new community which had no filial relationship to Scotland or her Church, he planted again this old national Reformation standard beneath which he was ready to live or to die, and under that antique emblazonry prepared to fight his last battle. It was the neglected, forgotten banner of the Church which assailed him that waved over his martyr head, as he sadly lifted his arms to defend himself against those who sadly took up their weapons against him. But the Church did not pause to recognise her own ancient symbols; took no notice, indeed, of the sorrowful, indignant offering by which her grieved but loving son sought to recall her to herself. I am not aware whether the publication degree of attention from any portion of the public. Few people were so much interested as Irving was, in proving that, whatever might be her temporary errors, the foundation of the Church of Scotland was sound, and her ancient heart pure. His

attracted any special

66

PAPERS IN THE MORNING WATCH.”

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new followers endured the solemn reading of those antiquated articles, which were associated to them with no sacred recollections, and smiled aside at his national fervour. His old adherents were too deeply engaged in the more exciting interest of the present conflict to observe this pathetic re-assertion of orthodox faith.

Throughout the year the Morning Watch carried on, without intermission, the two great controversies in which Irving was engaged. Papers on the Humanity of our Lord, which, by over-exposition and explanation, confuse and profane the question, appeared in every number, along with inquiries into the new spiritual gifts, some of which bear the mark of Irving's own hand-and accounts of miraculous cures, so detailed and minute that it is difficult not to think of the parallel cases cited by Professor Holloway and other vendors of miraculous universal medicine. Irving's series upon Old Testament Prophecies fulfilled in the New, runs through the entire volume; where, too, there appears now and then a human, personal glimpse of him in the affectionate testimony of a friend; as, for example, when the Morning Watch, taking part, for some wonderful occasion, with the Record, begs its adherents to support that paper, irrespective of "its conduct on another subject." "We exhort all such to overlook the trespass against a brother, dear as he deservedly is to all who know him," says the prophetical journal, confident that nobody can mistake whom it means, and speaking with a warmth of personal feeling unknown to the abstract dignity of the Press. "There is no breast on earth more ready to pardon than he who has most reason to complain, or who would more regret that

personal feelings towards him should impede the promulgation of such sentiments as those of which we have shown the Record to be now the advocate. Such

a reference to an individual, assumed to be so entirely well known and held in such affectionate regard by an audience considerable enough to keep a quarterly review afloat, is, perhaps, unique in literature.

were over now.

As the days darkened, and the end of the year approached, matters became more and more hopeless in the little world of Regent Square, where still the daily matins gathered crowds of curious worshippers, and where, at almost every service, the voices of the prophets were heard, filling up the pauses which the preacher had appointed for the purpose, and crowding with an excited and miscellaneous auditory the church which was to have been a national rallying point and centre of Christian influence. Such hopes The inspired circle which surrounded Irving was not of the nation which gave his church its name; those who were of that race were deserting him day by day. It was no longer to a national influence, but to a remnant saved from all nations, a peculiar people, that his earnest eyes were turned. The trustees of the church, to whom he had addressed his letter concerning the new order of worship, continued, while firmly opposed to that novel system, to hope that something might yet be done by reason and argument to change his mind. They met again in December, and had a solemn conference with Irving, who was accompanied by Mr. Cardale (a gentleman whose wife and sister were both among the gifted persons) as his legal adviser, and by Mr. Mackenzie, the only one of his