The Life and Times of John Livingston [pp. 428-450]

Joh t Livingston.
rious counts belie one another; and in religious debates we
sometimes see the same thing. For instance: our brethren
desire to alarm or shame us out of our old-fashioned modes of
argument drawn from revivals. Flirst: There are no revivals
of religion where new divinity is not preached; witness all
the congregations of old-school theologians; in none of them
are there awakenings; witness the lon, dearth in the churches
where ancient divinity has been resounding for two centuries.
This argument we have seen and heard. Secondly: There
have been revivals among those who are Presbyterians of the
old stamp; but then it took place under new divinity. Livingston preached the new divinity, without knowing it. Whitefield, the Tennents, Davies, preached the new divinity. This
argument we have also read and heard. These arguments neutralize one another, yet wve have seen them in different pages
of the same work.
Those are greatly in error who suppose the early Presbyterians of Scotland to have been mere contenders for orthodoxy
or discipline. Yet such is the error of many who assume the
Presbyterian name. Ignorant of the story of those eventful
times, they take up the floating falsehoods respecting our
fathers, which were put in motion by men who hated godliness wherever they saw it. With such persons, Knox is
thought of only as a tawny-bearded fanatic, and the second
generation of worthies as sticklers for mere order and mere
creeds, without any intimacy with that fresh fountain of spiritual health, which forsooth has been sealed up till now. We
shall try to show that specimens may be given of warm piety,
of successfull preaching. of remarkable conversions, and we shall
use as the basis of our remarks the name of John Livingston;
and as we wish to present this favoured preacher to the view
of our readers, we shall, by way of elucidation, dwell a little upon the character of some who preceded hinm; and first of
John Welsh, the son-in-law of Knox. Of this man an old
Scotsman, who had seen him, once said to an inquirer, " 0,
sir, he was a type of Christ:" an expression, as is observed
by the historian, more significant than proper. The gleanings
we make from his memoirs are such as these, and no modern
saints will contemn them: he gave himself wholly to ministerial exercises; he preached once every day; was unwearied in
his studies, having abridged Suarez in his old age; his preaching may be estimated by his extant sermons, which ought to
be republished. One of his hearers, himself afterwards a
voL. iv. No. III.-: 1I
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