Covenanter History

Alexander Henderson, one of the leading figures in the killing times of Covenanter Scotland during the reign of Charles 1 was to write:

‘I began to remember how men who love to live obscurely and in the Shadow are brought forth to light, to the view and talking of the world; how men that love Soliloquies and Contemplations are brought upon debates and controversies, and generally how men are brought to act the things which they never dreamed of before…: the words of the prophet, Jeremiah come to my remembrance, “0 LORD, I Know that the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.”

Very much in the manner of Calvin, he had intended a life of quiet retirement, studying in the quiet place of Leuchars. But God had other plans for this great man of God, just as Calvin’s plans for himself of quiet retirment were also dashed. I don’t know about you, but i had planned for my life anything other than it is. If anyone had toldl me even 15 years ago, I would come to the straits I have and live out the rest of my days, alone in such chronic ill-health I’d have busted a gut laughing. Yet, the best laid plans of mice and men. If you’re life has gone completely other to your dreams or hopes or plans, just as mne has, then we can see this is a common theme throughout history with Christians God raised up for a particularl purpose. John Knox is another one, he had no plans to be a preacher, and tried to resist the call just as Calvin did when Farrel threatened him with a curse. But Henderson, Calvin, Knox and others, all lived out their lives, in total opposition to the way they had aspired to, yet all lived and died to the glory of God and were greatly used by him. The below is a quote from Marcus Loane’s book, “Maker’s of puritan history,” describing the last days of Henderson, after he had been mightily used by God in the Covenanter wars of Scotland.

Henderson’s health broke down in the midst of this*crises; it was the end result of the mental anxiety and severe fatigue which he had borne over the years. His health had been precarious ever since 1641 when he had sought release from his public duties; it had quickly become worse since 1645 when illness and melancholy had much reduced his strength. His great plan for uniform government of the church in the three kingdoms had failed, and the last and “hardest passage” in his life’s work was to end in disappointment. These things preyed on his mind and increased his weakness.

On 7th August Ballie wrote from London to say that “Mr.. Henderson is dying most of heartbreak at Newcastle.” The rapid progress of complex ailments forced him to give up the controversy with Charles, and he sailed from Newcastle to Leith. On 11 August he arrived in Edinburgh, and two days later, Ballie wrote to him in farewell: “His Spirit strengthen and comfort and encourage you to the end.. I rest in my hearty love and reverence toward you.”

He had known that his work was done when he sailed for Scotland, but weariness and depression now passed away as clouds before the sun. He had returned as from exile, although it was to die, and he was cheered at the very sight of his home country. His friends found him very frail and reduced in strength, but he was full of joy at the prospect of a better landing and a brighter welcome on the shore of Heaven. “I am near the end of my race, hasting home,” he told Sir. James Stewart, “and there was never a school-boy more desirous to have the play than I am to have leave of this world.” John Livingstone paid him several visits, and found him in great peace of mind. It was 19th August, 1646 and he was no more than sixty three years old when he was seized with the last bout of fever. Sir. James Stewart and one other friend were standing at the foot of his bed when he opened his eyes and glanced upward: his eyes sparkled like diamonds as if he saw the Son of man at the right hand of God. It was with that shining look of wonder in his eyes that he died, mercifully taken from the evils at hand.

Puritan History Maker's Marcus Loane

So near the hearts of the persecuted wanderers was the headship of Christ, that it was practically blazoned upon their banners, interwoven with their dying testimonies, and afterwards inscribed upon their grey-grave-stones, erected in the solitary wild to mark the hallowed spot where they fell. The very country was laid under martial law, and soldiers received a running commission to shoot these cowering or fleeing sufferers like the wild fowl of heaven. Thus Scotland was turned into a hunting field, while worthless curates, mitred bishops, crouching minions, and political bigots were hounding on a ruffian soldiery to the game of blood. There were still, however, some to struggle and suffer, rather than acknowledge either a profligate or a papist as the head of their church, or accept of that as a favour which they were entitled to demand as a right. At last Heaven smiledupon the hallowed struggles of these noble heroes of the covenant. Their piety and patriotism, their principle and privations, their constancy in torture and in death, made a deep impression upon the public mind, excited extensive sympathy, and a secret feeling of resistance. At last the grasping popish usurper of the supremacy over a protestant church was hurled from the throne.

A respite came in the memorable Revolution of 1688. The old men, however, who had seen or heard of the glory of the first national temple, wept when they beheld that of the new erection so far inferior. The genuine representatives of the martyrs stood sighing and moaning without, wrestling and praying, unheeded and unheard, beside the torn banners of the covenant, bewailing the tarnished lustre of Christ’s crown in Scotland and the continued usurpation of it in England. As the hoary-headed Jew stood leading over the top of his staff, and praying in the valley of Jehoshaphat that the Lord would return to Jerusalem, the city of his fathers sepulchers, and render it a meet habitation for the advent of Messiah the prince; so they stood weeping, and praying as they wept, that the Redeemer would again return, and wear his crown, in its untarnish.ed lustre, in the l and of their father’s blood. [The Headship of Christ over His Church and her Independant Jurisdiction by James Ferguson]

The persecuted children, Scotia foiled
A tyrant’s and a bigot’s bloody laws:
There, leaning on his spear (one of the array
Whose gleam in former days had scathed the rose
On England’s banner, and had powerless struck
The infatuate monarch and his wavering host),
The lyart veteran heard the Word of God
By Cameron thundered, or by Renwick poured
In gentle stream: then rose the song, the loud
Acclaim of praise: the wheeling plover ceas’d
Her plaint; the solitary place was glad;
And on the distant cairns the watcher’s ear
Caught doubtfully at times the breeze-borne note.
But years more gloomy followed; and no more
The assembled people dared, in face of day
To worship God, or even at the dead
Of night, save when the wintry storm raved fierce,
And thunder-peals compell’d the men of blood
To couch within their dens; then dauntlessly
The scattere’d few would meet, in some deep dell
By rocks o’er-canopied, to hear the voice,
Their faithful pastor’s voice: he by the gleam
Of sheeted lightening, op’d the sacred book,
And words of comfort spake–over their souls
His accents soothing came,–as to her young
The heath-fowl’s plumes, hen at the close of eve,
She gathers in, mournful, her brood, despers’d
By murderous sport, and o’er the remnant spreads
Fondly her wings; close nestling ‘neath the breast,
They, cherish’d, cower amid the purple blooms. [James Grahame]

Oh how I long to see that noble spirit above, alive again and filling Christ’s church–where no cost is too great, and Christ is all in all.