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PREFACE
The substance of the following
Sketches was originally delivered in the form of Lectures; and the first portion
of them, embracing the period preceding the Restoration of Charles II., appeared
some time since in a popular Religious Periodical. The author having been
requested to publish the whole in a separate Volume, they now appear in a
somewhat altered form, and with considerable additions; thus presenting a
connected and concise history of the Church of Scotland from the Reformation to
the Revolution.
Having been composed chiefly for the benefit of the Young, with the view of
inducing them to take an interest in the Church of their fathers, and adapted to
a popular audience, without the most distant prospect of publication, these
Sketches will be found to differ, both in style and matter, from ordinary
historical writings. The circumstances now mentioned will account, not only for
the absence of polish in the composition, but for the frequent introduction into
the text of authorities which might otherwise have found a more appropriate
place in the margin. The popular and almost conversational tone thus imparted to
the narrative, it was found impossible to alter, without recasting the whole
into another mould, and constructing a new work. The object of the Volume is
rather to exhibit the more prominent and characteristic features of our Church
Histoiy, than to enter into details, or to develope the internal character of
the Church in her ecclesiastical acts and proceedings. To those who wish to make
themselves thoroughly acquainted with this part of the subject, the author begs
cordially to recommend the “ History of the Church of Scotland,” by his esteemed
friend the Bev. W. M. Hetherington, minister of Torphichen,—a work which
promises to supply, what has been long wanted, and much wished for, a complete
Histoiy, bearing the impress of genuine talent, and breathing the spirit of the
true Reformed and Covenanted Church of Scotland.
Though the volume has been unavoidably extended to a much larger size than was
originally anticipated, either by the author or his publisher, it has been
considered advisable, at the expense of swelling it still more, to insert in the
Appendix the Correspondence between the author and Mr Patrick F. Tytler, on the
alleged participation of John Knox in the conspiracy against Riccio.
To the high professions of impartiality, with which some historians have ushered
their productions into the world, the author does not aspire, and is not
disposed to attach much value; having seldom found such professions realized,
and being convinced that no writer of Church History who has any principles to
which he attaches importance, can describe the scenes and characters with which
these principles are identified, without imparting to the description more or
less of the colour of his own mind. The author candidly avows himself a
Presbyterian of the old school; and he has been at no pains to conceal his
sentiments. In support of the main facts of the history, which have been amply
authenticated in larger works, accessible to all, he considered it superfluous
to adduce authorities. But he has advanced no statement, the truth of which he
did not endeavour to ascertain by personal investigation; and, in disputed
cases, the authorities to which he refers will speak for themselves.
The leading facts of our ecclesiastical history, so far as is requisite to form
a candid and enlightened judgment on them, are placed beyond all dispute, having
been substantially admitted by respectable historians of all different creeds
and principles. The discrepancies which appear in their accounts, and which have
induced some to question the credibility of all history, consist chiefly in the
opposite interpretations which they put on the same facts, and the different
conclusions which they draw from the same events—interpretations and conclusions
which will vary, according to the author’s sentiments and prepossessions, and
vary with regard to the facts and events of the present day, as well as those of
the past.
Edinburgh, 12, 1841
Sketches of Scottish church history
Embracing the period from the Reformation to the Revolution by the Rev. Thomas
M'Crie (1846) (pdf) |
