HENDERSON,
ALEXANDER, one of the most eminent of the many eminent men whose names
are interwoven with the annals of Scotland at probably the most
interesting period of her history, (the middle of the17th century,) was
born about the year 1583. He is supposed to have been descended from the
Hendersons of Fordel, "a house," says Wodrow, "of good quality of Fife."
Of his early life there is little farther known than that he was
distinguished for his assiduity and progress in learning, in which he
greatly excelled all his school fellows. Having been sent to the
university of St Andrews to complete his studies, he there went through
the ordinary routine of learning, but with much more than ordinary
reputation, a circumstance sufficiently evinced by his having been made
master of arts, and soon after admitted regent or professor of
philosophy. As this appointment took place previous to the year 1611,
when he could not be more than eight and twenty years of age, it is
evident that Henderson was already considered a man of no common
attainments. The situation of professor of philosophy he held for
several years, discharging its duties with a zeal and ability which
acquired him much reputation.
It is not surprising to find, that
at this period of his life he was a strenuous advocate for the dominant
or Episcopal party in the church. His patrons hitherto were of that
party. He had long associated with men who entertained its principles,
and, unable to foresee the great changes which were about to take place
in the civil and religious polity of the kingdom, as well as that which
afterwards happened in his own private sentiments, he naturally enough,
while perfectly sincere in the opinions which he then entertained on
religious matters, conceived besides, that in the direction of these
opinions, and in that direction alone, lay the road to preferment.
Inspired by the ambition of a mind conscious of its powers, Henderson,
after the lapse of a few years, becoming impatient of the circumscribed
sphere to which a professorship of philosophy confined him, turned his
attention to divinity, as opening a wider field for the exercise of his
talents.
After preparing himself
for the ministerial calling, he was appointed to the church of Leuchars,
in Fife, through the patronage of archbishop Gladstanes. His
appointment, however, was exceedingly unpopular: all his talents and
learning could not reconcile his parishioners to a man introduced
amongst them by episcopal influence, and who was known to be himself of
that detested party. The consequence was, that on the day of his
ordination he was received with every mark of popular dislike. The
church doors were shut against him and carefully secured in the inside,
to prevent all possibility of admittance. Determined, however, in
despite of these very manifest tokens of public feeling, to perform the
ceremony of ordination, Henderson’s party entered the church by a
window, and proceeded with the business of the day.
Whatever were Mr
Henderson’s other merits, and these were certainly of no ordinary kind,
it is known that any extraordinary anxiety about the spiritual interests
of his parishioners was not amongst the number. At this period of his
life, in short, although not remarkable for the reverse, he seems to
have been but slightly impressed with the sacredness of his new calling,
and to have taken but little farther interest in matters of religion,
than abiding by the general principles in which he had been educated.
This conduct, however, and these sentiments were soon to undergo a
remarkable change, and that under circumstances in themselves not less
remarkable. Having learned that the celebrated Mr Bruce of Kinnaird was
to assist at a communion in the neighbourhood or Leuchars, Henderson,
desirous of hearing the preaching of a man who had long been conspicuous
as an opponent of the court measures, and whose fame for peculiar gifts
in matters of theology was widely spread, repaired to the church where
he was officiating. Not choosing, however, to be recognized, he sought
to conceal himself in a dark corner of the building. Bruce,
nevertheless, seems to have been aware of his presence; or, if not,
there was a singular coincidence in the applicability of the text which
he chose, to the remarkable circumstances which attended Henderson’s
induction to his charge. Be this as it may, the sermon which followed
made such a powerful impression upon him as effected an entire change in
his religious conduct and sentiments; and from being a careless and
indifferent pastor over his flock, and an upholder of a system odious in
the highest degree to the people, he became a watchful and earnest
minister, and a resolute champion in the cause of presbyterianism.
In three years after his
appointment to Leuchars parish, which took place some time previous to
the year 1615, Mr Henderson, though sedulous in the discharge of his
ministerial duties since the period of his conversion, made no public
appearance on the side of that party whose principles he had embraced.
The opportunity, however, which was all that was wanting for his making
such an appearance, at length presented itself. In August, 1618, the
celebrated Five articles of
Perth, which occasioned so much clamour in Scotland, from their
containing as many points of episcopal worship, which James was desirous
of thrusting on the people of that kingdom, having been carried by a
packed majority in an assembly held at Perth, Henderson stood among the
foremost of those who opposed, though unsuccessfully, the obnoxious
measure; and this too, in defiance of the king’s utmost wrath, with
which all who resisted the adoption of the Five articles were
threatened. "In case of your refusal," said the archbishop of St
Andrews, addressing the assembled clergymen, "the whole order and estate
of your church will be overthrown, some ministers will be banished,
others will be deprived of their stipends and office, and all will be
brought under the wrath of authority."
Not at all intimidated by
this insolent and indecent threat, Henderson with several of his
brethren courageously opposed the intended innovations. For this
resistance, to which was added a charge of composing and publishing a
book against the validity of the Perth assembly, he was with other two
ministers summoned in the month of August, 1619, to appear before the
court of High Commission in St Andrews. Obeying the summons, Henderson
and his brethren presented themselves before the bishops, when the
former conducted himself with such intrepidity, and discussed the
various matters charged against him and his colleagues with such talent
and force of reasoning, that his judges, though they eagerly sought it,
could gain no advantage over him, and were obliged to content themselves
with threatening, that if he again offended he should be more hardly
dealt with. With this intimation Henderson and his friends were
dismissed. From this period to the year 1637, he does not appear to have
meddled much with any transactions of a public character. During this
long period he lived retired, confining his exertions within the bounds
of his own parish, in which he found sufficient employment from a
careful and anxious discharge of his pastoral duties. Obscure and
sequestered, however, as the place of his ministry was, his fame as a
man of singular capacity, and as an eloquent and powerful debater, was
already abroad and widely known; and when the hour of trial came, those
talents were recollected, and their possessor called upon to employ them
in the behalf of his religion.
Before, however, resuming
the narrative of Mr Henderson’s public career, it may be necessary to
give a brief sketch of the circumstances which induced him to leave his
retirement and to mingle once more in the religious distractions of the
times. The unfortunate Charles I. inheriting all the religious as well
as political prejudices of his father James VI. had, upon the moment of
his accession to the throne, entertained the design of regulating church
worship in Scotland by the forms observed in that of England. In this
attempt he was only following out an idea of his father’s; but what the
one with more wisdom had little more than contemplated, the other
determined to execute. Unfortunately for Charles he found but too
zealous an abettor of his dangerous and injudicious designs in his
favourite counsellor in church affairs, Laud, archbishop of Canterbury.
Encouraged in the schemes of violence which he meditated against the
religious principles of Scotland, and urged on to their execution by
Laud, Charles, after a series of lesser inroads on the presbyterian mode
of worship in Scotland, finally, and with a rash hand fired the train
which he had prepared, and by which he set all Scotland in a blaze. This
was the imposition of the Liturgy or Service Book on the church of
Scotland. This celebrated book, which was principally composed by
Wedderburn, bishop of Dunblane, and Maxwell, bishop of Ross, and
afterwards revised by Laud, and Wren, bishop of Norwich, was grounded
upon the book of common prayer used in England, but contained, besides,
some parts of the catholic ritual, such as the benediction or
thanksgiving for departed saints, the use of the cross in baptism and of
the ring in the celebration of marriage, the consecration of water at
particular times by prayer, with many other ordinances of a similar
character. Most of these observances were introduced by Laud when
revising the original work. When the book was completed, the king gave
instructions to the archbishops and bishops regarding its introduction;
and immediately after issued a proclamation requiring his subjects, both
ecclesiastical and civil, to conform to the mode of worship which it
enjoined, concluding with an order that every parish should be furnished
with two copies, between the publication of the injunction and Easter.
The book itself, a large folio, was prefaced by a charge from the king,
denouncing as rebels all who refused it. To complete the measure of
Charles’s rashness on the subject of the service book, it was introduced
into Scotland without having been submitted to presbyteries, and without
the sanction of the General Assembly.
The consequence of the
introduction of the liturgy, aggravated as it was by the manner of its
introduction, was, as might have been expected, in the last degree
serious and important. The country rose nearly to a man against the
popish innovation. In Edinburgh the bishops who presided at the ceremony
of its first introduction were mobbed and maltreated: and the ministers
everywhere carefully prepared their congregations to resist the
obnoxious volume. The whole land, in short, was agitated by one violent
commotion, and the minds of men were roused into a state of feverish
excitement, which threatened the most serious results. It was at this
critical moment that Henderson came again upon the stage. In the same
predicament with other clergymen, Henderson was charged to purchase two
copies of the liturgy for the use of his parish within fifteen days,
under the pain of rebellion. On receiving the charge, Henderson
immediately proceeded to Edinburgh and presented a petition to the privy
council, representing that the service book had not received the
sanction of the General Assembly nor was authorized by any act of
parliament; that the church of Scotland was free and independent, and
ought not to be dictated to except through her own pastors, who were the
proper and the best judges of what was for her benefit; that the form of
worship received at the Reformation was still sanctioned by the
legislature and the supreme ecclesiastical judicatory, and could not be
invaded excepting by the same authority; that some of the ceremonies
enjoined by the book had occasioned great divisions, and were extremely
obnoxious to the people, who had been taught to hold them in abhorrence.
This bold statement Henderson concluded by soliciting a suspension of
the charge. What hope Henderson entertained that this supplication or
rather remonstrance would be formally listened to by the privy council,
cannot now be ascertained. There is no reason, however, to conclude,
that he possessed any secret intelligence regarding the real
dispositions of that body. The credit, therefore, must be awarded him of
having come forward on this perilous occasion trusting to the strength
of his cause alone, and fully prepared to meet the consequences,
whatever they might be, of the step which he had taken. The result was
more favourable than probably either Henderson or the country expected.
The council granted the suspension required, until the king’s further
pleasure should be known; but, for the remuneration of the king’s
printer, ordained by an express act, as the decision in Henderson’s case
was of course understood to apply to the whole kingdom, that each parish
should provide itself with two copies of the book, but without any
injunction to make use of them. The order for reading the liturgy was
also suspended, until new instructions on the subject should be received
from his majesty. The king’s answer, however, to the representations of
the privy council, at once overturned all hopes of concession in the
matter of the liturgy. Instead of giving way to the general feeling, he
repeated, in a still more peremptory manner than at first, his commands
that the service book should be read, and farther ordered that no burgh
should choose a magistrate which did not conform. This uncompromising
and decided conduct on the part of the king was met by a similar spirit
on the part of the people, and the path which Henderson had first taken
was soon crowded by the highest and mightiest in the land, all pushing
onward with the utmost eagerness and zeal to solicit the recall of the
obnoxious liturgy, and discovering on each repulse and on the appearance
of each successive obstacle to their wishes, a stronger and stronger
disposition to have recourse to violence to accomplish their object, if
supplication should fail. On the receipt of the king’s last
communication on the all-engrossing subject of the service book, the
nobility, barons, ministers, and representatives of boroughs, presented
a supplication to the privy council, intreating that the matter might be
again brought before the king. In this and in all other matters
connected with it, Henderson took a leading part: he suggested and
directed all the proceedings of the nonconformists; drew up their
memorials and petitions, and was, in short, at once the head and right
hand of his party, the deviser and executor of all their measures.
The result of this second
supplication to the king was as unsatisfactory as the first. The
infatuated monarch, urged on by Laud, and in some measure by erroneous
impressions regarding the real state of matters in Scotland, still
maintained his resolutions regarding the liturgy. He, however, now so
far acknowledged the appeals which had been made to him, as to have
recourse to evasion instead of direct opposition as at first, a course
at all times more dangerous than its opposite; inasmuch, as while it
exhibits all the hostility of the latter, it is entirely without its
candour, and is destitute of that manfulness and promptitude, which, if
it does not reconcile, is very apt to subdue.
In place of giving any
direct answer to the supplication of the nobility and barons, the king
instructed his privy council in Edinburgh to intimate to the people by
proclamation, that there should be nothing regarding church matters
treated of in the council for some time, and that, therefore, all
persons who had come to Edinburgh on that account, should repair to
their homes within twenty-four hours, on pain of being denounced rebels,
put to the horn, and all their movable goods being escheat to the
king. This proclamation was immediately followed by another, announcing
an intended removal of the court of session from Edinburgh to
Linlithgow, and this again by a third, calling in, for the purpose of
being burned, a pamphlet lately published against the service book.
These proclamations,
which but too plainly intimated that nothing would be conceded to
supplication, and that there was no hope of any change in the sentiments
of the king, instantly called forth the most decided expressions of
popular resentment and determination. The city was at this moment filled
with strangers—noblemen, gentlemen, clergymen, and commissioners from
the different parishes, besides immense numbers of persons of inferior
rank, whom curiosity or interest in the engrossing topic of the day, had
assembled in the metropolis from all parts of the country. The town,
thus surcharged, as it were, with inflammable matter, soon became a
scene of violence and insubordination. The leaders of the nonconformists
again met in the midst of the storm, and in defiance of the
proclamation, which enjoined their departure, proceeded to deliberate
upon the question of what was next to be done. The result was some
farther supplications and petitions to the privy council and to the
king. These, however, being still unsuccessful, were followed up some
months afterwards by a determination to appeal to the people, to unite
them in one common bond, and to make the cause at once and
unequivocally, the cause of the whole nation. The leaders resolved to
adopt a measure which should involve all in its results, be it for good
or for evil; by which, in short, not a leader or leaders, nor a party,
but an entire kingdom should stand or fall, by swearing before their God
to peril the alternative.
This measure was a
renewal of the national covenant of 1580 and 1581, adapted, by changes
and additions, to the existing circumstances. The remodeled document was
drawn up by Mr Henderson, with the assistance of the celebrated
Archibald Johnstone, an advocate, and was first exhibited for signature,
February 28th, 1638, in the Grey Friars’ church in Edinburgh, where an
immense multitude had assembled, for the purpose of hailing the sacred
document, and of testifying their zeal in the cause which it was
intended to support, by subscribing it. On this occasion
Henderson addressed the people with so much fervour and eloquence, that
their feelings, already excited, were wound up to the highest pitch, and
a degree of enthusiasm pervaded the multitude which sufficiently assured
their leaders of the popularity of their cause. The instrument itself,
which was now submitted for signature, was a roll of parchment four feet
long and three feet eight inches broad; yet such was the general zeal
for the covenant, that this immense sheet was in a short time so
crowded with names on both sides throughout its whole space, that there
was not room latterly for a single additional signature; even the margin
was scrawled over with subscriptions, and as the document filled up, the
subscribers were limited to the initial letters of their names. Copies
were now sent to different parts of the kingdom, and met every where,
excepting in three places to be afterwards named, with the same
enthusiastic reception which had marked its appearance in Edinburgh,
receiving thousands of signatures wherever it was exhibited. The three
excepted places were Glasgow, St Andrews, and Aberdeen. In the two
former, however, the feeling regarding the covenant amounted to little
more than indifference; but in the latter city it was absolutely
resisted. Anxious to have the voice of all Scotland with them, and
especially desirous that there should not be so important an exception
as Aberdeen, the leaders of the covenanters despatched several noblemen
and two clergymen, one of whom was Henderson, to that city, to attempt
to reclaim it; and this object, chiefly through the powerful eloquence
of the subject of this memoir, they accomplished to a very considerable
extent, obtaining no less than five hundred signatures, many of them of
the highest respectability, immediately after the close of a discourse
by Mr Henderson, in which he had urged the most irresistible arguments
for the subscribing of the covenant. Mr Henderson was now universally
acknowledged as the head of the nonconforming Scottish clergy. On his
moderation, firmness, and talent, they reposed their hopes; and to his
judgment they left, with implicit confidence, the guidance and direction
of their united efforts. Of this feeling towards him they were now about
to afford a remarkable proof. The king, though still without any
intention of yielding to the demands of the covenanters, having
consented that a General Assembly should be held, empowered his
commissioner, the marquis of Hamilton, to convoke it. On the second day
of the meeting of this celebrated assembly, which sat down at Glasgow on
the 21st November, 1638, Mr Henderson was chosen moderator, without one
single dissenting voice. To form a correct idea of the general esteem
for his amiable qualities, and the appreciation of his abilities which
this appointment implied, it is necessary to consider all the singular
and important circumstances connected with it -circumstances which
altogether rendered it one of the utmost delicacy, difficulty, and
hazard. He was, at a moment of the most formidable religious
distraction, called upon to preside over an assembly whose decisions
were either to allay or to promote that distraction; who were to discuss
points of serious difference between their sovereign and the nation; who
were to decide, in short, whether the nation was to proclaim open war
against their sovereign - a sovereign backed by a nation of much greater
power and larger population; an assembly by whose proceedings the
religious liberties of the kingdom were either to stand or fall, and
one, in consequence, on which the eyes of the whole people were fixed
with a gaze of the deepest and most intense interest. Important,
however, and responsible as the appointment was, Henderson was found
more than equal to it, for he conducted himself on this trying occasion
not only with a prudence and resolution which increased the respect and
admiration of his own party for his character and talents, but with a
forbearance and urbanity which secured him also the esteem of these who
were opposed to them. "We have now" said Henderson at the conclusion of
the eloquent and impassioned address which terminated the sittings of
the assembly, "we have now cast down the walls of Jericho; let him that
rebuildeth them beware of the curse Hiel of Bethelite:" a sentence which
comprised typically all that had been done and all that would be done in
the event of such an attempt being made. Episcopacy was overthrown, the
king’s authority put at defiance, and such an attitude of hostility to
the court assumed as fell short only of a declaration of open war.
Such was the accession of
popularity which Henderson’s conduct procured him on this occasion,
that, a day or two before the rising of the assembly, two supplications
were given in from two different places earnestly soliciting his
pastoral services, the one from St Andrews, the other from Edinburgh.
Henderson himself was extremely unwilling to obey either of these calls.
Strongly attached to Leuchars, the charge to which he had been first
appointed, and which he had now held for many years, he could not
reconcile himself to the idea of a removal, pleading in figurative but
highly expressive language, that "he was now too old a plant to take
root in another soil." The supplicants, however, with a flattering
perseverance pressed their suits, and after a strenuous contest between
the two parties who sought his ministry, he acquiesced in a removal to
Edinburgh; in favour of which the competition terminated by a majority
of seventy-five votes. He only stipulated, that when old age should
overtake him, he should be permitted to remove again to a country
charge. Soon after his removal to Edinburgh, he was promoted to be, what
was then called, first or king’s minister. This change, however, in no
way abated his zeal in the cause of the covenant; he still continued to
be the oracle of his party, and still stood with undisputed and
unrivaled influence at the head of the church as now once more reformed.
In the year after his
translation to Edinburgh (1639) he was one of the commissioners deputed
by the Scottish army, then encamped on Dunse Law, to treat with the
king, who, with his forces, had taken post at the Birks, a plain on the
English side of the Tweed, within three or four miles of Berwick. During
the whole of the various negotiations which took place at this critical
and interesting conjuncture, Henderson conducted himself with his usual
ability, and moreover with a prudence and candour which did not escape
the notice of the king. One of the well known results of these
conferences was the meeting in Edinburgh of the General Assembly in the
following month of August. On this occasion the earl of Traquair, who
was now his majesty’s commissioner, was extremely desirous that Mr
Henderson should be re-elected moderator, a sufficient proof of the
estimation in which he was held by men of all parties. The idea,
however, of a constant moderatorship was exceedingly unpopular, and
contrary to the constitution of the church; and the suggestion of
Traquair was overruled to the entire satisfaction of Mr Henderson
himself, who was one of the most strenuous opponents of the proposition.
As former moderator, however, he preached to the assembly, and towards
the close of his discourse, addressed the earl of Traquair—"We beseech
your grace," he said, "to see that Caesar have his own; but let him not
have what is due to God, by whom kings reign. God hath exalted your
grace unto many high places within these few years, and is still doing
so. Be thankful, and labour to exalt Christ’s throne. When the
Israelites came out of Egypt they gave all the silver and gold they had
carried thence for the building of the tabernacle; in like manner your
grace must employ all your parts and endowments for building up the
church of God in this land." He next addressed the members, urging them
to persevere in the good cause, but carefully inculcating prudence and
moderation in all their doings; for zeal, he said, without these, was
"like a ship that hath a full sail, but no rudder."
On the 31st of the same
mouth, (August,) Mr Henderson was called upon to preside, in his
clerical capacity, at the opening of the parliament, and on that
occasion delivered a most impressive discourse, in which he treated of
the duties and utility of governors with singular ability and judgment.
A proof still more
flattering, perhaps, than any he had yet received of the estimation in
which his character and talents were held, was afforded him in the
following year, (1640.) Previous to this period the college of Edinburgh
was without any presiding officer to regulate its affairs, these
receiving only such attention as might result from an annual visit of
the town council. As this was little more than a visit of ceremony, the
system of education, and almost every thing else connected with the
university, was in a most deplorable condition. To remedy these evils
the town council came to the resolution of having a rector appointed, to
be chosen annually, and whose duty it should be to direct all matters
connected with the college, to keep an eye on the conduct of the
principal and professors, and to superintend the education of the
students, and the disposal of the revenues.
To this honourable and
highly responsible office Mr Henderson was unanimously elected; an
appointment not more indicative of the general opinion entertained of
his moral qualities, than of his learning and abilities; for besides the
merely legislative duties which were connected with it, the rector, by
the constitution of the office, was to be invited by the preses at all
solemn meetings of the college, "to go before the rest in all public
disputes of philosophy and divinity."
Mr Henderson,
notwithstanding his other various and important avocations, discharged
the duties of this office with an attention, ability, and judgment,
which soon placed the university on a very different footing from what
it had hitherto been. He added to and improved its buildings and its
approaches, bestowed especial care on the education of candidates for
the ministry, instituted a professorship of oriental languages, a
department which had previously been greatly neglected, to the serious
injury, in particular, of the students of divinity, whose knowledge of
the Hebrew was left to be gleaned from one short weekly lecture on that
language; and, in short, he overlooked nothing which could contribute to
its interests and prosperity. His own personal influence, together with
the high respectability which his sagacious administration had procured
for the college, was so great, that the citizens of Edinburgh, with a
spirit of emulation which was very far from existing before, strove who
should most contribute to the accommodation of its members. The
consequence of these judicious and important services was, that Mr
Henderson was continued, by re-election, in the office of rector till
his death.
From these peaceful
pursuits Henderson was occasionally directed to take a share in
the renewed distractions of the times. The king having refused to ratify
some of the points agreed upon at the Birks, both parties again took up
arms: Charles denouncing the covenanters as rebels, marched towards
Scotland with an army; while the latter, with three or four and twenty
thousand men, penetrated into England. Some partial successes of the
Scottish army on this occasion, together with some defections in his
own, again brought the unfortunate monarch to pacificatory terms with
the covenanters. A conference was begun at Rippon, and afterwards, as
the king’s presence was required in London, transferred to that city.
The commissioners who were despatched thither by the covenanters to
conclude the conference, took with them several of the most popular of
the clergy, and amongst these was Mr Henderson, on whose talents they
relied for all the subsidiary efforts which were at once to bring the
conference to an issue satisfactory to themselves, and to impress the
English with a favourable opinion of their cause. Both of these objects
they accomplished, and that in no small measure by means of the
impressive eloquence and literary talents of Mr Henderson, who, besides
exerting himself in the pulpit and elsewhere in forwarding the views of
the commissioners by discourses and lectures, wrote also several able
tracts and papers which attracted much attention, and produced important
effects in favour of the cause which he had come to support.
During Mr Henderson’s
stay in London on this occasion, he had an interview with the king, by
whom he was graciously received. The conference was a private one, and
although on the part of Henderson it was sought specially for the
purpose of soliciting a favour for the university of Edinburgh, it is
not unlikely that it embraced objects of much greater interest. On his
return to Edinburgh in July, 1641, having been detained in London nine
months, he was again chosen moderator of the General Assembly, then
sitting at Edinburgh, and which had removed thither from St Andrews,
where it first met, for the greater conveniency of the nobles who were
attending parliament, and, a striking proof of his importance, that it
might at this critical period have the advantages of Mr Henderson’s
services as moderator.
On this occasion Mr
Henderson delivered to the assembly a letter from a number of ministers
in London, requesting the advice of their Scottish brethren on certain
points of church government. In some perplexity they had written, "That
almighty God having now of his infinite goodness raised up our hopes of
removing the yoke of episcopacy, (under which we have so long groaned,)
sundry other forms of church government are by sundry sorts of men
projected to be set up in the room thereof." Henderson was instructed to
reply to this letter. In his answer he expressed, in the name of the
assembly, the deep interest which they took in the state of what
they called, by a somewhat startling association of words, the kirk of
England, and earnestly urged a uniformity in church government
throughout Britain. Soon after this (14th August) the unfortunate
Charles arrived in Edinburgh. Foreseeing the approaching war between
himself and his English parliament, he had come down to Scotland with
the humiliating view of paying court to the headers of the presbyterian
body, and of following up, by personal condescensions, the concessions
by which he had already recovered, for the time at least, the favour of
that party; thus hoping to secure the aid of Scotland when he should be
assailed by his subjects at home;—the unhappy monarch’s situation thus
much resembling that of a bird closely pursued by a hawk, and which,
preferring a lesser to a greater evil, flies to man for protection. On
this occasion the king appointed Mr Henderson his chaplain, and by this
well judged proceeding at once gratified the people, whose favourite
preacher he had long been, and not improbably also gratified his own
predilection in his favour, resulting from Henderson’s temper and
moderation in those instances where they had been brought in contact.
Henderson constantly attended the king during the time of his residence
in Edinburgh, praying every morning and evening before him, and
preaching to him in the chapel royal at Holyrood house every Sunday, or
standing by his chair when another performed that duty. Henderson, who,
although of incorruptible integrity, and a zealous presbyterian, as the
share which he took in the struggles of that party sufficiently
witness, was yet a mild and humane man, could not help sympathizing with
the sorrows of his unfortunate sovereign. The religion of which he was
so eminent a professor, taught him to entertain charitable and
benevolent feelings toward all mankind, and his was not the disposition
to except an humbled and unhappy prince from this universal precept,
whatever were the faults which had placed him in these melancholy
circumstances, the mild and amiable disposition of the man, too, which
frequent interviews must have forced upon Henderson’s notice, must have
in some measure obliterated in his mind the errors of the monarch. It
was hard, then, that Henderson for this sympathy, for opening his heart
to the best feelings of humanity, for practising one of the first and
most amiable virtues which the Christian religion teaches and enjoins,
should have been, as he was, subjected to the most bitter calumnies of
his character and motives. These calumnies affected his pure and
generous nature deeply, and in the next assembly he entered into a long
and impassioned defence of those parts of his conduct which slander had
assailed. His appeal touched the hearts and excited the sympathy of his
brethren who assured him of their unshaken confidence in his integrity.
This assurance restored
the worthy divine to that cheerfulness of which the injurious reports
which had gone abroad regarding him had for some time deprived him. If
any thing were wanting to establish Henderson’s character for integrity
besides the public testimony of his brethren, it is to be found in the
opinion of one who widely differed from him regarding the measures of
the day, bearing witness that "his great honesty and unparalleled
abilities to serve this church and kingdom, did ever remain untainted."
In 1642, Mr Henderson
conducted the correspondence with England which now took place on the
subject of ecclesiastical reformation and union, and was soon after
desired to hold himself in readiness with certain other commissioners to
proceed to England, in the event of such a proceeding being necessary.
After some delay, occasioned by the open rupture which took place
between the king and the English parliament, Henderson, with the other
commissioners, set out for the sister kingdom. While there he used every
effort, but unfortunately to no purpose, to effect a reconciliation
between Charles and his English subjects; he proposed to the king to
send the queen to Scotland, with the view of exciting an interest in his
behalf. He even went to Oxford, where the king then was, to endeavour to
prevail upon him at a personal interview, to make some advances towards
a reconciliation, and at the same time to offer him the mediation of
Scotland. All his efforts, however, were unavailing; the king, in place
of acknowledging error, endeavoured to defend the justice of his cause,
and on better grounds expressed high indignation at the interference of
the Scots in the church reformation of England. Finding he could be of
no further service, Henderson, together with his colleagues, returned to
Edinburgh, where his conduct throughout the whole of this delicate
mission was pronounced by the General Assembly to have been "faithful
and wise." In 1643, he was once more chosen moderator of the General
Assembly under peculiar circumstances. This was the presence in that
body of the English commissioners sent down to Scotland by the
parliament of England, to solicit the aid and counsel of the former in
their present emergency. Mr Henderson, with several other commissioners,
was soon after sent up to London to attend the celebrated Westminster
assembly of divines, to represent in that assembly the church of
Scotland, and to procure its assent, with that of both houses of
parliament, to the solemn league and covenant, all of which important
duties, with the assistance of his colleagues, he discharged with his
usual ability and judgment. On this occasion he remained for three years
in London, during all which time he was unremittingly employed in
assisting the assembly in preparing the public formularies of the
religious union between the three kingdoms. In 1645, he was appointed to
assist the commissioners of the Scottish and English parliaments to
treat with the king at Uxbridge, and finally, was deputed to negotiate
with the latter when his fortunes had reached a crisis, at Newcastle.
Henderson arrived on his mission at Newcastle about the middle of May,
1646, and met with a cordial reception from his majesty. After some
discussion of religious subjects, it was agreed that the scruples of the
king should be treated of in a series of papers written alternately by
his majesty and Henderson. In the last of these papers, addressed by the
former to the latter, and all of which and on both sides were written
with great talent, the king at once expressing his high opinion of Mr
Henderson, and his determination to adhere to the sentiments which he
had all along entertained, says, "For instance, I think you the best
preacher in Newcastle, yet I believe you may err, and possibly a better
preacher may come, but till then must retain my opinion." Immediately
after this, Henderson, whose health was now much impaired, returned to
Edinburgh by sea, being unable to bear the fatigue of travelling by
land. The illness with which he was afflicted rapidly gained upon him,
and he at length expired on the 19th of August, in the 63rd
year of his age, and many days after his return from Newcastle. After
the death of this celebrated man, his memory was assailed by several
absurd and unfounded calumnies. It was alleged that he died of
mortification at his having been defeated in the controversy with the
king; others asserted that he had been converted by the latter, and that
on his death-bed he had expressed regret for the part he had acted, and
had renounced presbytery. All of these charges were completely refuted
by the General Assembly, who, taking a becoming and zealous interest in
the good name of their departed brother, established his innocence on
the testimony of several clergymen, and still more decisively by that of
the two who attended him on his death-bed, and who heard him in his last
moments pray earnestly for a "happy conclusion to the great and
wonderful work of Reformation." Henderson was interred in the Grayfriars’
church-yard, where a monument was erected to his memory by his nephew Mr
George Henderson. This monument, which was in the form of an obelisk,
with suitable inscriptions on its four sides, was, with others of the
leading covenanters, demolished at the Restoration, but was again
replaced at the Revolution.
This sketch of one of the
greatest divines that Scotland has produced, cannot be better concluded
than in the following estimate of his character by Dr Thomas M’Crie, who
had intended to add a life of Henderson to his lives of Knox and
Melville, but proceeded no further than the outline sketched in his
miscellaneous writings:—"Alexander Henderson was enriched with an
assemblage of endowments which have rarely met in one man. He possessed
talents which fitted him for judging and giving advice about the
political affairs of a nation, or even for taking an active share in the
management of them, had he not devoted himself to the immediate service
of the Church, and the study of ecclesiastical business. He was not more
distinguished by the abilities which he displayed in his public conduct,
than by the virtues which adorned his private character. Grave, yet
affable and polite; firm and independent, yet modest and condescending,
he commanded the respect, and conciliated the affection, of all who were
acquainted with him; and the more intimately his friends knew him, they
loved him the more. The power of religion he deeply felt, and he had
tasted the comforts of the gospel. Its Spirit, equally removed from the
coldness of the mere rationalist, and the irregular fervours of the
enthusiast, breathed in all his words and actions. The lose of liberty
was in him a pure and enlightened flame; he loved his native country,
but his patriotism was no narrow, illiberal passion; it opened to the
welfare of neighbouring nations, and of mankind in general. . . .
.Called forth by the irresistible cry of his dear country, when he found
her reduced to the utmost distress, by the oppression of ambitious
prelates, supported by an arbitrary court and corrupt statesmen, he came
from that retirement which was congenial to him, and entered upon the
bustle of public business, at a time of life when others think of
retiring from it. Though he sighed after his original solitude, and
suffered from the fatigues and anxiety to which he was subjected, yet he
did not relinquish his station, nor shrink from the difficult tasks
imposed upon him, until his feeble and shattered constitution sunk under
them, and he fell a martyr to the cause."
Alexander
Henderson
Churchman and Statesman by Sheriff Robert Low Orr, KC., M.A., LL.B.
(1919) (pdf) |