CHAP. A. D. 1756. with no temporal consequences. You may wish for the good CLXIII. of his soul to burn him as Calvin did Servetus; but you must be aware that, however desirable such a power may appear to the Church, you cannot touch a hair of his head, or even compel him against his will to do penance on the stool of repentance.* Are you sure that he may not be so hardened as to laugh at your anathemas, and even to rejoice in them as certainly increasing the circulation of his books and the spread of his opinions? If he is grave and sarcastic, may he not claim the right of private judgment for which your fathers have bled, and if you deny it to him, may he not call upon you to obey the mandates of the Roman Catholic Church, and again to keep company with that Lady of Babylon whom you hold in such abomination? But there is one other point, which being a lawyer, as well as a member of this venerable Assembly, I wish before I conclude to bring under your serious consideration; - where is your jurisdiction to proceed in this case? I admit your jurisdiction in spiritual matters over all the members of your church. But you assert that Mr. Hume is not even a Christian. Why are you to summon him before you more than any Jew or Mahometan who may happen to be travelling within your bounds? Your 'libel,' as we lawyers call it, is ex facie inept, irrelevant, and null, for it begins by alleging that the defender denies and disbelieves Christianity, and then it seeks to proceed against him and to punish him as a Christian. Your charge must be true or false. If it be false, it is to be rejected as contrary to truth and justice; and if it be true, the party charged is unfortunately one of those who in the language of the Bible are without' and consequently are not proper objects of Christian discipline. For these reasons I move that while all the members of the General Assembly have a just abhorrence of any doctrines or principles tending to infidelity or to the prejudice of our holy religion, yet they drop the * This form, being often occupied by young ladies who become mothers without being wives, and are rebuked from it in the face of the congregation, is usually called "the Cutty stool," but was formerly the place where all delinquents sat when rebuked before the congregation. overture anent Mr. David Hume, because it would not, in their judgment, minister to edification." " CHAP. CLXIII. A. D. 1756. Wedder Wedderburn was rather roughly handled by several clerical speakers who followed. They abstained from any insinua- Reply to tions against his own sincerity or orthodoxy, but maintained burn. "that Mr. Hume's writings were a fit subject for the animadversion of the supreme court of the Church, as they were directly subversive of all religion, natural and revealed. It was limiting the power of God to suppose that an erring mortal might not be brought to a right frame of mind through the instrumentality of the punishments and prayers of the Church, and, at any rate, the reformation of the peccant individual was less to be regarded than the safety of others. No views of expediency should interfere with the plain precepts contained both in the Old and New Testament for the correction, by the instrumentality of the Church, of heresy and schism, including most especially a denial of the being of a God, or of the mission of his Son Jesus Christ. It was by no means so clear that excommunication would be treated so lightly by Mr. Hume. He had hitherto seemed desirous of enjoying the worldly advantages of being considered a Christian, after having forfeited all title to the name: his writings henceforth would be shunned by all in any danger of being corrupted by them; and, above all, it was most desirable that a broad line of separation should be drawn between him and all who professed to be Christians; for it was lamentable to think that, at present, ordained clergymen of the Church of Scotland were in the daily habit of associating with him, to the great scandal of all real Christians.* The objection on the question of jurisdiction was a quibble, and would go to put an end to such prosecutions, in the worst cases; for in proportion as the crime against religion was great, the power to punish it would be taken away. Let a man utterly deny and revile the Holy Scriptures, and the learned elder for Dunfermline would tell you, 'You have no power to censure him, for he is not a Christian.' Mr. Hume, who had been received at his birth. into the Church of Christ, had never been formally excluded * This was chiefly aimed at Dr. Robertson. CHAP. from it, and had not only never renounced his baptism, but CLXIII. he continued to profess himself a Christian, and to talk of Christianity as our most holy religion."" A. D. 1756. Speech of Dr. Robertson. Prosecution of Hume dropped. Appearance of the tragedy of Douglas. Dr. Robertson (now fully established in the lead of the Church), according to his custom, concluded the debate with admirable tact and discretion; a great many ministers left the house to avoid the opprobrium of voting on either side; and on a division, the amendment to dismiss the overture was carried by a majority of 50 to 17. This alarm, joined to the bad success of his History on its first appearance, caused such disgust in the mind of Mr. Hume, that Wedderburn and his other friends had great difficulty in dissuading him from putting in execution the plan of for ever renouncing his country, changing his name, and spending the remainder of his days in a remote provincial town in France. He was soon freed from all apprehension of further disturbance on account of his opinions, by the penal visitations of the Church being directed against other objects. † A few months after the dissolution of the last General Assembly there was brought out on the stage at Edinburgh the tragedy of DOUGLAS, written by the reverend John Home, minister of Athelstonford,-which threw all Scotland into a ferment. The great majority of the inhabitants were intoxicated with delight; for, not contented with the just belief that this was a most beautiful poem, and admirably adapted to scenic representation, they asserted that it was by far the finest drama that had ever appeared in the English language; that Shakespeare was to be eclipsed, and that Corneille and * "Our most holy religion is founded on Faith, not on Reason."-Essay on Miracles. He had previously entertained the vain hope that his errors might be forgotten in the controversy then raging between the ancient and modern psalmody. Upon the maxim that "the Devil ought not to have all the good music," an attempt was now made to introduce into the service some of the best airs of a solemn character composed in modern times; but this was resisted as a dangerous innovation, and the faithful were as equally and as keenly divided upon it as upon the recent question of the Free Church. Not unfrequently, when the psalm had been "given out" and the singing was to begin, in contempt of the Precentor one half of the congregation would sing the appointed lines to an old tune, and the other to a new. But through the mediation of Dr. Blair, the church escaped this peril, and the threatened disruption did not take place. CLXIII. A. D. 1757. Scandal excited in the church. Racine were to be rivalled by a Scottish bard.* But great CHAP. scandal was caused by the behaviour of many of the clergy upon this occasion. Not only the author, but several of his reverend brethren having cures in the city and neighbourhood, were in the theatre on the first representation of the piece; and at the successive repetitions of it ministers and elders from distant parts of Scotland did not scruple to attend and applaud. The old presbyterians, like the English puritans, had severely reprobated all theatrical exhibitions, and had strictly forbidden them to the laity as well as to the clergy. Many, therefore, considered the passion for the stage with which the nation seemed suddenly struck as a delusion of Satan." † 66 Measures against the author and other in the At the approach of the next General Assembly, it was resolved that the most energetic measures should be taken to stay the plague. Mr. Home himself would not face the storm, and withdrew from the jurisdiction of the Kirk by clergymen resigning the living of Athelstonford. Two or three clergy- General men, who had been identified as being present at the theatre, Assembly. when brought before the Assembly acknowledged their offence - one of them urging in mitigation that "he had ensconced himself in a corner, and had hid his face with a handkerchief, to avoid scandal." They were let off with a severe reprimand from the Moderator. So far the proceedings were conducted with unanimity; but a very animated debate arose respecting measures for the future. It was proposed Proposed that the General Assembly should pass a new and stringent stage react against act against all members of the church, lay or clerical, who presentashould be present at any theatrical exhibition. According to the forms of proceeding, the preliminary question put was, "whether there should be an overture anent the stage?" Wedderburn, again representative for the burgh of Dun- Wedderfermline, took the negative side, and, according to Lord burn's Commissioner Adam, "made the best speech ever delivered this oc as he * It is curious that David Hume himself, from his dislike to the literature of the English, joined, or professed to join, in the general enthusiasm, affected to consider " Douglas " superior to " Macbeth," and the " Epigoniad equal to "Paradise Lost." † Scots Magazine, 1756-7, MS. Journal of Lord Commissioner Adam. tions. speech on casion. CLXIII. A. D. 1757. CHAP. by him in his native country."* Unfortunately the conclusion of it only is preserved to us: "Be contented with the laws which your wise and pious ancestors have handed down to you for the conservation of discipline and morals. Already have you driven from your body its brightest ornament, who might have continued to inculcate the precepts of the gospel from the pulpit, as well as embodying them in character and action. Is it, indeed, forbidden to show us the kingdom of heaven by a parable? In all the sermons produced by the united genius of the Church of Scotland, I challenge you to produce any thing more pure in morality, or more touching in eloquence, than the exclamation of Lady Randolph Thou first of virtues! let no mortal leave It was carried "that there should be an overture," by 120 to 54. An act was then proposed subjecting to ecclesiastical censures all members of the Church, male and female, lay and clerical, who should be present at any theatrical exhibition; but this being strongly opposed by Wedderburn, and even by Dr. Robertson, although, under a vow he had made to his father, he himself had never entered the door of a playhouse, was rejected, and the following act was passed, enMay 1757. titled in the Acts of the General Assembly, "Recommend *Lord Commissioner Adam's MS. Journal. This famous passage, how ever, of which the Scotch were so proud, was (probably for that reason) vilipended by Dr. Johnson, who, on its being quoted by old Mr. Sheridan, repeated with great emphasis the well-known description by Juvenal, of a man of inflexible virtue "Esto bonus miles, tutor bonus," &c.; adding, "and after this comes Johnny Home, with his earth gaping and his destruction crying. Pooh !" 1 † Preparatory to the meeting of this Assembly, Wedderburn had printed in the newspapers several songs and epigrams against the persecutors of Douglas and Carlyle, had published an ironical pamphlet under the title of " Reasons why the tragedy of Douglas should be burnt by the hands of the common hangman." It is confessed, however, by the author of the MAN OF FEELING, in his review of those times, that "the parodies and squibs in verse were, in 1 Boswell's Tour, 376. |