 | Lyrical Poems |  |
A SONG OF SCOTTISH HEROES.
The title of this song suggests to me the propriety of stating, in a few short sentences, the grounds on which, as a philosophical student of history—for no one will suspect me of partizanship—I am convinced that the Covenanters, who have been so liberally abused by all sorts of fashionable writers, are the only true heroes of the Scottish history of the seventeenth century; and that all attempts to put the Cavaliers in their place must issue in ridiculous discomfiture.
(1.) It is quite certain, according to the New Testament and the practice of the first centuries, that the Church of Christ does not mean the clerical order, but it means emphatically and prominently the Christian people, the assembly, the congregation, the body of the faithful.
(2.) The Christian people, as such, have an inherent, divine, and inalienable right to act in religious matters according to the free verdict of their conscience, and not to be coerced into creeds or forms of worship by any extrinsic power, clerical or secular.
(3.) Any distinct association of human beings, composing what we call a nation, and professing Christianity, is entitled to follow the conscience of the majority in making a national confession of faith, and to resist dictation in this matter, whether from priests or politicians, who, in so far as they attempt to debauch the free national conscience, are usurpers, and ought to be cast down.
(4.) The Scottish people did, by many very manifest and indubitable acts, declare and profess their faith in Presbytery as the most scriptural form of church government, according to the best of their insight; and this their declaration was formally confirmed by the Act of Parliament 1560.
(5.) Notwithstanding this public and constitutional declaration, King James VI., Kings Charles I. and II., and James II., did, in a most false and treacherous way, form a conspiracy to rob the Scottish people of this their freely chosen faith; and did, during a period of more than one hundred years, proceed to the execution of this conspiracy in a series of public acts, characterised by falsehood, fraud, force, and cruelty of the most atrocious description.
(6.) That for these acts resistance to the government of these kings, so far from being criminal, was to be regarded as the highest heroism; and to the men who practised this heroism, in days of gross selfishness and cowardice, the Scottish people owe their independence, and all that is manly and worthy of admiration in their character.
(7.) The Scottish Cavaliers, whatever might have been the personal virtues of some of them, or the brilliant qualities of others, were, as a body, engaged in the cause of falsehood, injustice, tyranny, and oppression, and therefore are justly regarded by all true Scotsmen with hatred, and by all philosophical thinkers with pity or contempt.
(8.) The principles for which the Covenanters fought and bled, are the very principles which were established by the Revolution of 1688, and which lie at the bottom of the whole political constitution and social philosophy of Britain at the present hour.
(9.) Any offensive peculiarities of doctrine or manners exhibited by individual Presbyterians, are no more to be made a ground of reproach against the whole body, than the licentiousness and corruption of the Court of Charles II. are to be set down to the accountof the whole body of the Cavaliers who supported him.
(10.) Those who are fond to object to the Covenanters that they were intolerant, ought to bear in mind that toleration in matters of state-religion is an innovation only of yesterday, unknown alike to Plato, the greatest philosopher of ancient times, and to Calvin, one of the greatest theologians of modern times. Besides, toleration, which is a very pretty phrase in times of peace, can have no meaning in times of war. Soldiers do not tolerate one another; they cut one another's throats. So, in times of religious warfare, there can be no toleration, so long as the struggle lasts. We are learning to tolerate Popery only now; and even now not altogether. If the Covenanters were intolerant in those days of a life and death struggle, so were the Episcopalians; only the Covenanters, so long as they remained on Scottish ground, were in the right, and the Episcopalians in the wrong. If a man uses violence in word or deed, it is by no means a matter of indifference of what cause he is the champion, and whether he stands in a defensive or an aggressive position. To be over-zealous in a good cause may often be pardonable; while even a little zeal in the service of falsehood, fraud, and force, is a great sin.
Of the land of the mountain, the rock, and the glen,
And the heroes who bled for the old Scottish cause,
When the Southron insulted our kirk and our laws;
Though frosty wits may sneer at home, and Cockneys pour abuse!
With the fire of Robert Burns, and the faith of stout John Knox,
We'll be more than a match for the smooth English folks!
Every rock tells a tale of the brave Scottish men,
When he swindled our freedom, and tramped on our laws.
But he lost it, believe me, by judgment divine,
When he came, a crowned traitor, to pick wicked flaws
In the Covenant, the bond of our old Scottish cause.
Who preached on the mountains, and prayed in the glen,
When the weak shuffling Charles, who swore false to the cause,
Sent his troopers to tramp on the old Scottish laws!
There are fools who will frown, when this bumper I quaff;
Stood firm, when the Stuart down trampled our laws.
They pined in black dungeons, were drowned in the sea;
But their blood was the cement that soldered our laws,
When they bled for their faith in the old Scottish cause.
Cargill and Cameron, Guthrie, M'Kail;
Their fame shall be sounded with deathless applause,
Who fought, bled, and died for our kirk and our laws!
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