Series 5 > Religious Controversy in Scotland 1625-1639

[CALDERWOOD,] ‘MOTIVES AND CAUSES OF HUMILIATIOUN’ 135
some course wauld be taken for reformatioun.Wee wauld be more diligent in
our studies, that wee may be the more able to defend our professioun against all
obloquies and oppositioun, more faithfull and profitable to the people in our
callings, that in this point wee may make our adversaries ashamed, more spiritual!
in our conference and conversatioun amongst ourselves and with the people,
that both they and wee may be the more edefied; and particularlie we wauld
promise and vow to be more zealous and courageous in contending for the
faith, and labour to work the people to the lyke dispositioun, by making them
sensible of the intended mine of the Reformed refigioun and of the horrible
consequents therof.This would be done at all occasiouns both in private and in
our doctrine in publique, and namelie upon the dayes of humihatioun. Upon
the contrair wee wauld take diligent heede to ourselves and to the people, lest
we pleise ourselves in a forme of fasting and humihatioun and by our hardnes of
heart by our perfiinctorious deaHng with the Lord in our prayers and by our
secret infidehtie and continuance in our former wayes wee provock the Lord to
further displeasure against us.
Hopes and Incouragements
There is yet hop for us if wee could draw near to God: first, because of the
Lord’s gracious promises and constant deaHng with his people since the begin¬
ning, and very often with his people in this land when they have poured out
their hearts before him. Secondfie, because the Lord hath yet reserved a number
of all ranks and degrees for himself. And allthough the number were small, yet
wee neide not to be discouraged if the Lord be with us. In the provinciall assemblie
holden at DunfermUng 1596, David Fergusone discoursed how that onHe sex
preachers, wherof himself was one, went forward at the beginning without fear
or caire of the worlde, and by the Missing of God prevailed when there was no
stipend heard tell of, when authoritie both ecclesiastick and civile opposed them¬
selves, and scarcehe a man of note to take the mater in hand, etc.Thirdhe, because
the fight never shined more clearlie in any natioun since the dayes of the apos¬
tles, never did any natioun tye themselves to the trueth against corruptioun so
solemnlie and by so many bands, and yet no natioun in so short a tyme upon so
small tentatioun hath so farre and so presumptuouslie departed from their meas¬
ure of reformatioun. And therfore if wee wauld be silent in such a case the stones
must speake and be witnesses against us. Bot if wee will be faithfull witnesses
against the defectioun, the Lord shall be with us and shall arryse and shall re¬
venge the quarrell of his covenant.11 Since there is an apostasie, better that it be
Leviticus 26:25. See use of this language by William Struther, Christian Observations and Resolutions,
2 vols. (Edinburgh, 1628-9), i, 54; Samuel Rutherford, Fourteen Communion Sermons, ed. A.A. Bonar
(2nd edn., Glasgow, 1877), 42.