accepted the indulgence flowing from the royal supremacy. By an act of
Parliament passed in 1672 against "unlawful ordinations," the way to the
ministry was barred against all who could not accept Prelatical
ordination. The Societies, having organized a general correspondence,
earnestly desired a stated ministry, while they manifested the strictest
regard to scriptural order. Animated by a noble public spirit, they
selected James Renwick and two other young men, and sent them to
complete their studies for the ministry in Holland, then renowned for
its theological Seminaries, where deep sympathy was manifested for the
suffering Church of Scotland. He studied at the university of Groningen,
where some of the most distinguished theologians in Europe occupied
professorial Chairs. Studying in the spirit of entire devotedness, and
actuated by an earnest desire to return to Scotland, where there was
pressing need for faithful ministerial services, he made such
proficiency, that in a short time, he was fully qualified to receive
ordination. According to the usage of the Dutch Church, he was ordained
at Groningen, by a Classis or Presbytery of learned and godly ministers,
who evinced their catholic spirit by yielding to his request to allow
him to subscribe the standards of the Church of Scotland, instead of
their own formula. There was remarkable evidence of God's gracious
presence being enjoyed in the solemn service.--It has been appropriately
said, that as the conflicts of the German reformation were acted over by
Luther in his cloister, before he was called to his public work, so the
struggles of the covenanted cause in Scotland, were first engaged in by
Renwick in his retirement and solitary chamber in Groningen. There he
clearly foresaw the conflicts and trials that awaited him; and in near
communion with God, he yielded himself up as an entire self-sacrifice,
anticipating the blessed recompense of the reward. In the early Pagan
persecutions, the church was sometimes symbolically represented by an ox
with a plough on the one side, and an altar on the other, with the