, barons, ministers and commoners of all sorts! Ah, where is
that true courage and heroic resolution for religion and the liberties
of the nation that did once animate all ranks in the land! Alas, alas!
True Scots blood now runs cool in our veins! The cloud is now gone up in
a great measure from off our assemblies; because we have deserted and
relinquished the Lord's most noble cause and testimony, by a plain,
palpable and perpetual course of backsliding."--_The crown is fallen
from our head, wo unto us, for we have sinned._

For surely we may say of these our times (and with as much propriety)
what some of these worthies said of theirs, _Quam graviter ingemescerent
illi fortes viri qui ecclesiae Scoticanae pro libertate in acte
decertarunt, si nostram nunc ignaviam (ne quid gravius dicam)
conspicerent_, said Mr. Davidson in a letter to the general Assembly
1601, _i. e._ "How grievously would they bewail our stupenduous
slothfulness, could they but behold it, who of old thought no expence of
blood and treasure too much for the defence of the church of Scotland's
liberties."--Or to use the words of another[16] in the persecuting
period, "Were it possible that our reformers (and we may add our late
martyrs) who are entered in among the glorious choristers in the kingdom
of heaven, (singing their melodious songs on harps about the throne of
the Lamb) might have a furlough for a short time, to take a view of
their apostatizing children, what may we judge would be their
conceptions of these courses of defection, so far repugnant to the
platform laid down in that glorious work of reformation." For if
innocent Hamilton, godly and patient Wishart, apostolic Knox, eloquent
Rollock, worthy Davidson, the courageous Melvils, prophetic Welch,
majestic Bruce, great Henderson, renowned Gillespie, learned Binning,
pious Gray, laborious Durham, heavenly-minded Rutherford, the faithful
Guthries, diligent Blair, heart-melting Livingston, religious Welwood,
orthodox and practical Brown, zealous and stedfast Cameron,
honest-hearted Cargil, sympathizing M'Ward, persevering Blackadder, the
evangelical Traills, constant and pious Renwick, &c. "were filed off
from the assembly of the first-born, sent as commissioners to haste down
from the mount of God, to behold how quickly their offspring are gone
out of the way, piping and dancing after a golden calf: Ah! with what
vehemency would their spirits be affected, to see their laborious
structure a