from which Mr. Mastertown was lately transported to Belfast. That people having called Mr. Macmaster, a very hopeful youth, and his trials being past, they supplicate the Presbytery that Mr. Mastertown, their late minister, might preside in the ordination, or, if that could not be granted, he being a member of another Presbytery, that a subscribing minister might preside, insinuating that they resolved against having a Nonsubscriber his ordaining their minister. The subscribing ministers, knowing the temper of that people, and foreseeing the confusion that might happen, were willing to comply with their desire; but the Non-subscribers violently opposed it. So when the proposal was laid aside, then the people supplicate that a subscribing minister should be appointed to preside, with which, after some resentment, the N.SS. complied; but they insisted that one of their number should be appointed to preach the sermon. Against this the people remonstrated very warmly, but the Presbytery, to keep peace among themselves, appointed one of the N.SS. to preach at the ordination, and reason with the people to make them easy. The people expressed a great dislike at the Presbytery's appointment, and told them they would not comply. The Presbytery, however, appointed the time of the ordination, and accordingly met at the time appointed; but, when they came, found the doors locked and the people all absent, but a few commissioners to attend the Presbytery. Nor had they suffered the edict to be served. In short, they produced a new supplication for Mr. Mastertown to be ordainer, and told the Presbytery they would allow no Non-subscribers to preach to them. The Presbytery was forced to comply, and the N.SS. having entered a protestation, went off in great disgust, and the ordination was again appointed that day three weeks. It was generally believed the N.SS. would absent themselves from the ordination, or, if present, enter a protestation. But they came to better temper, and gave no disturbIt was well it was no worse; for the people had consultations among themselves, and had well-nigh

ance.

resolved that no Non-subscribers should lay on hands on their minister; but we got them dissuaded with much to do."*

In 1729 the Synod sanctioned the removal of Mr. Macmaster from Connor to Usher's Quay, Dublin, which Mr. Gray, as stated in the previous chapter, had deserted, in order to return to Taboyn, and to found the congregation of St. Johnston.

Macmaster's first publication was a sermon on Christ's Nativity, which he preached on a Christmas Day, preparatory to the administration of the Lord's Supper to his congregation, and to which he prefixed an essay, with the design of showing that there is no historical evidence to prove that Christ was born on the 25th of December, and that the Lord is dishonoured by the manner in which the so-called anniversary of His birth is usually observed.

In 1739 he was called to fill the Moderator's chair in the Synod of Ulster. The Synod met that year at Dungannon, and had before it the case of Richard Aprichard, a licentiate of the Church, who held, it appears, rather lax views on the doctrines of grace. When resigning office the following year, he preached and afterwards published his Sermon, Liberty without Licentiousness. It is a very able discourse, evidently the product of a clear and sober judgment, and exhibiting metaphysical acumen of no mean order. He shows in it: 1. That there is a religious liberty to which we are called by the Gospel, that is, that every man in matters of conscience is to judge for himself and on his own responsibility; and under this head he lays down rules for using this liberty aright. 2. That there are bounds and limits within which this liberty ought to be restrained. Under this head he shows that reason is not to be the standard of faith; that to follow, however sincerely, an erroneous judgment will not justify us in the sight of God; that a blameless life will prove no excuse for doctrinal error; and that in religion we ought not to travel outside the circle of things which are

*Wodrow MSS. vol. xxi. No. 87.

revealed. 3.That when liberty passes beyond these limits it is abused, and becomes the occasion of sin. He ends. by giving some occasions for the proper exercise of Christian liberty. These are: Search the Scriptures; judge for yourselves, but do not consider yourselves innocent if you judge erroneously; profess the truth, and guard against the entrance of error; be concerned for the glory of Christ. This discourse is, in my opinion, the best reply that had yet appeared to Abernethy's sermon on Personal Persuasion, which had been published twenty years before.

Three years afterwards, Mr. Macmaster was called upon to preach the Funeral Sermon of his friend and neighbour, the Rev. John Alexander of Plunket Street (see ch. xlviii.). In this discourse, which was subsequently published, he considers, first, the representation of death given in the text, next how it shall be destroyed, and by whom, and then ends by making an application of the subject to the occasion. It is a sound Gospel discourse, creditable alike to the principles, judgment, and ability of the author.

What his private means were is not known, but being the minister of a wealthy congregation in the metropolis, he must have been in more easy circumstances than most of his brethren. At the Synod of 1745, we find him promising to pay twenty shillings a year to each of seven poor widows of deceased ministers, and to continue the benefaction annually during his or their lives. As yet the Widows' Fund Association had not been founded: the wives and children of deceased ministers were often left in poverty and distress, and there must have been more poor families than seven to whom such a benefaction would have been acceptable.

Mr. Macmaster died on the 27th February, 1754. Armstrong describes him as a man of considerable talents and of great zeal in his sacred duties. I have not been able to ascertain whether he left any descendants.*

* Minutes of Synod of Ulster : Macmaster's Sermons: Livingstone's Letters to Wodrow : Armstrong's Sketches.

REASON IS NOT THE RULE OF FAITH.

We must not make our own understanding or reason the standard of our faith, or a proper judge of every revealed truth. Our religion is a reasonable religion, yet it is not founded on the principles of human reason. Our faith is a rational persuasion, but 'tis only as founded on the Word of God, or the testimony of Him who cannot deceive. Reason is not our rule; it is only the discerner of it. The written law of God is the only rule of religion to Christians: and therefore, in judging of Divine truths, we must keep within the bounds of it. In the Bible we find all the necessary articles of our faith, and a plain and certain directory for our conduct. It contains the whole will of God as far as He has thought fit to reveal it. By this only rule, then, we are to judge of everything proposed to be believed, and of everything to be performed. The authority of God has made the Scripture the measure of our faith; to this law and testimony therefore we must go, and speak according to this Word.

But though it is the Scripture, and not reason, that is the standard of all revealed truth, yet is this entirely consistent with the liberty of every man's private judgment. It is reason that brings us to revelation, and satisfies us that it comes from God; consequently it leads us naturally into the belief of the doctrines of Christianity, and then modestly submits to them. There is a sweet harmony between reason and revelation; they are both Divine, and therefore cannot contradict each other: they both lead to the same end; they are both the voice of God, and therefore must be hearkened to with great attention. But still revelation is the rule according to which reason judges of all those religious doctrines which are proposed to our belief; and when it has impartially examined them, and finds the evidences and proofs of them to be full and sufficient, it then pronounces that they ought to be received. And here reason stops; not as superseded by the Scripture, but as taking the Scripture for its guide, and so declaring all the doctrines it finds therein to be of a Divine original and worthy to be believed, but all other to be false and spurious.

The short is this, that though reason ought to be employed in judging about revealed truths, yet we must not make it the supreme judge of supernatural verities; but, when a doctrine appears to be from God, we must acquiesce in it, and, though it be above our comprehension, we must believe it, because our reason finds it in the Word of God, which carries in it all the reasons of believing. It is the noblest exercise of reason to believe Him that cannot deceive us.-Liberty without Licentiousness, pp. 9-11.

PERSUASION CANNOT SET ASIDE ANTECEDENT OBLIGATION.

In cases of an indifferent nature, where we are at liberty to believe or not believe, to act or not to act, it is certain that what is not agreeable to the persuasion of our own mind is sin. But where there is a prior obligation upon us to believe and act, our persuasion can neither set aside such obligation, nor alter the nature of it. And this is the case in reference to all the Scripture truths, whether essential or unessential, the belief of which God requires of us. There arises an obligation from the authority of God and the perspicuity of the Scriptures to know and believe these things, antecedent to our persuasion concerning them. If, then, notwithstanding the sufficiency of all necessary assistance afforded us for discovering truth and duty, we through our own fault fall into errors, and judge evil to be good and good evil-whatever sinful necessity we bring ourselves under to do this, the former obligation to know and practise our duty retains its full force, and cannot be cancelled by an erroneous judgment. For instance; every man to whom the Scriptures are proposed, and has a capacity to make that use of his Bible which God intended, stands firmly obliged to believe Jesus to be the Eternal Son of God, and the Saviour of a lost world, and to depend on His satisfaction for salvation. And if any person (a Jew, e.g.) who enjoys the advantages just now mentioned will neither believe Jesus to be the true Messiah nor trust in Him for salvation, because, after all the pains he has taken to inform his judgment, he is firmly persuaded that Jesus of Nazareth is not the Son of God, and therefore he thinks it an heinous crime to believe in Him or to make Him the object of his worship now, I ask, will this person's erroneous judgment (even though he should be persuaded he was sincere in his inquiries) make void the antecedent obligation he was under to believe in Jesus, and to receive_Christianity as a Divine institution? Certainly it will not. It retains its full force, whatever his private judgment may be. And if it does retain its full force, he is bound by the authority and command of God to renounce his Judaism and to embrace the Christian religion. And if he does not, he sins against God, notwithstanding the good opinion he has of his own sincerity.-Liberty, &c., pp. 15–17.

CONSCIENCE NOT THE GUIDE OF LIFE.

But against all the reasoning under this head, it will be objected that it is every man's duty to obey his conscience. I answer: If our conscience be rightly informed and act under the direction of the Word of God, we are, in that case, bound to act according to our judgment. In reference to this all men are agreed. But the main point to be debated is, what obligation a man is under to act according to an erroneous judgment? And