TO THE

SERMONS ON STEDFAST ADHERENCE,
Which were Published after the Author's Death.

THE subjects treated upon in these sermons, have been always

esteemed, by well grounded Christians, to have the greatest influence both upon our duty and comfort.

The promises of God are the matter of our faith, and ground of cur hope. Faith in these precious promises, is that grace which conveys to us our interest in them, and draws forth the strength and sweetness of them.

An honest open profession of that faith, not only in words, or instituted solemnities of public worship, but in all holy conversation and godliness, is the distinguishing mark of the churches of Christ in the world.

And a steady adherence to that profession, in times of temptation and great backsliding, is the believer's unquestionable duty, interest, and honour.

These great points, of spiritual and practical religion, you have, here opened and urged, with that plainness, gravity, and good judgment, by which the late Reverend Mr TRAILL has been well known in his former evangelical discourses. If any thing here shall seem less correct, it will easily be imputed to the usual disadvantages of posthumous productions.

But surely great candour and tenderness will be thought due to such orphans, as are turned out into the world, destitute of those improvements which they might have received from the care and cultivation of their worthy parents, if they had not been by death deprived of them.

In compliance with some of the author's particular friends, who were desirous to have these sermons made public, we would recommend them to the perusal of all such as are desirous to live more by faith upon the promises of God, and to be just and true to their holy profession. That the God of all grace would make them effectual to tinse good purposes, is the earnest prayer of

Their servants for Jesus' sake

WILL. TONGue.

JOHN NISBET.

MATT. CLARK.

AN ACCOUNT

OF THE

LIFE AND CHARACTER

OF

THE AUTHOR.

THE Rev. Mr ROBERT TRAILL was descended of an ancient family, that had been in possession of the estate of Biebo, in Fife, from the time of Walter Traill, archbishop of St Andrews, 1385, who purchased it, and gave it to his nephew. Robert Traill, son of James Trail!, and father of our author, was minister first of Ely, in the east of Fife, afterwards of the Gray-friars church in Edinburgh, and was much distinguished for his fidelity and zeal in discharging the duties of his function. He married Jean Annan, of the family of Auchterallan, by whom he had three sons and three daughters; William, who died minister of Borthwick; Robert, the author of the following sermons; James, lieutenant of the garrison in Stirling castle; Helen, married to Mr Thomas Paterson, minister of Borthwick; Agnes, married to Sir James Stewartof Goodtrees, Lord Advocate of Scotland; and Margaret, married to James Scot of Bristo, writer in Edinburgh. At the Restoration, Mr Traill, with other ministers, was prosecuted before the Scotch council, and, in consequence of their sentence, was imprisoned seven months in Edinburgh, and banished from the realm. His answers to his libel do hint much honour, as a man and a Christian. From these, and some of his private letters still extant, he appears to have been a judicious and holy servant of our Lord Jesus Christ **.

In the conclusion of his libel, he says to the Scottish Parliament, I must, in all humility, beg leave to intreat your Lordships, that you seriously consider what you do with poor ministers, who have been so long kept, not only from their liberty of preaching the gospel, but of hearing it; that so many congre gations are laid desolate for so long a time, and many poor souls have put up their regrets on their death-bed, for their being deprived of a word of comfort

He afterwards returned to Scotland, and died during the time of the persecution; we have seen nothing of his in print, but a letter to his wife and children, from Holland.

His son Robert, the subject of this Memoir, was born at Ely, May 1642. After the usual course of education at home, he was sent to the university of Edinburgh, where he recommended himself to the several professors, by his capacity and diligent application to his studies. Having determined to devote himself to the work of the ministry, he pursued the study of divinity with great ardour for several years. He was intimate with the Rev. William Guthrie of Finwick, and several others of the Presbyterian ministers; and was present when Mr James Guthrie suffered death for his adherence to the peculiar principles of the Scottish church. His father being banished, had taken refuge in Holland; the family he left behind him were in great straits; in this situation our author had no settled residence. In 1666, he was obliged to Jurk for some time, together with his mother and elder brother, because some copies of a book, entitled, An Apologetic Relation, &c. which the privy council had ordered to be publicly burnt, were found in Mrs Traill's house. At that time the Presbyterians in Scotland were treated with great severity, and the privy council, in the execution of cruel laws that had been enacted by the legislature, at the instigation of the bishops,

from their ministers in the hour of their greatest need. The Lord give you wisdom in all things, and pour out upon you the spirit of your high and weighty employment of understanding, and of the fear of the Lord; that your government may be blessed for this land and kirk; that you may live long and happily; that your memory may be sweet and fragrant when you are gone; that you may leave your name for a blessing to the Lord's people; that your houses and families may stand long, and flourish to the years of many generations; that you may have solid peace and heart-joy in the hour of the breaking of your heart strings, when pale death will sit on your eye-lids, and when man must go to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets. for what man is he that liveth and shall not see death ; or can he deliver himself from the power of the grave? No, assuredly, for even those to whom he saith, Ye are gods, must die as men, seeing it is appointed for all men once to die, and after death is the judgment, and after judgment an endless eternity. Let me therefore exhort your Lordships, in the words of a great king, a great warrior also, and a holy prophet. "Be wise, and be instructed, ye judges of the earth, "serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice before him with trembling. Kiss the "Son lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way; when his wrath is kindled "but a little, then blessed will all those, and those only, be, who put their "trust in him."

2

was continually harrassing them by their tyrannical edicts, enjoining conformity to the established prelatical church, under most unreasonable civil pains and penalties, and enforcing their arbitrary and intolerant decrees by the terror of military quarter and execution. These harsh and unjustifiable methods provoked many of that oppressed and unhappy people; and inflamed their spirits to that degree, that they took up arms, and advanced the length of Pentland-hills, near Edinburgh, where they were totally defeated and dispersed in an engagement with the king's forces. Our author was suspected of being among those that were in arms; and a prociamation was issued by the council for apprehending him, which obliged him to retire to Holland, to his father, where he arrived in the beginning of the year 1667. Here he continued to study divinity, and assisted Nethenus, professor of divinity in the university of Utrecht, in the republication of Rutherford's Examination of Arminianism. In the preface to his edition of that book, Nethenus speaks of Mr Robert Traill as a pious, prudent, learned, and industrious young man. Coming over to Britain in 1670, he was ordained to the ministry by some Presbyterian clergymen in London. Being in Edinburgh 1677, he preached privately. Here, in the month of July, he was apprehended and brought before the privy council. To them, he acknowledged he had kept house-conventicles; being interrogate, if he had preached at field-conventicles, he referred that to proof, and declined to answer, it being criminal by law; upon which he was ordered by the council to purge himself, by oath, of preaching or hearing at them. This he peremptorily refused, as what, in justice, he could not be obliged to do in his own cause. He owned he had conversed with Mr John Welsh, on the English border. He was on these accounts sent to the Bass. Here he enjoyed the company of Messrs. Frazer of Brae, Peden, and others, confined for their attachment to the testimony of Jesus. From this prison he was relieved, by order of government, in the month of October the same year. Afterwards he returned to England, and preached in a meeting-house at Cranbrook, a small town in Kent. From this he removed to London, where for many years he was pastor to a Scottish congrega

ion, there he laboured faithfully and successfully, perform ng the duties of his ministry, both on Sabbaths and in a lecture on week days; he modestly details his experience in the following words :-I have no name to come to God in but Christ. My own name is abominable to myself, and deservedly hateful in heaven. No other name is given under heaven, but that of Jesus Christ, in which a sinner may safely approach unto God. Since the Father is well pleased with this name, and the Son commands me to ask in it, and the Holy Ghost hath brought this name to me, and made it as ointment poured forth, Song i. 3. and since its savour hath reached my soul, I will try to lift it up as incense to perfume the altar and throne above; since all that ever come in this name are made welcome, I will come also, having no plea but Christ's name, no covering but his borrowed and gifted robe of righteousness. I need nothing, I will ask nothing, but what his blood hath bought (and all that, I will ask); I will expect answers of peace and acceptance only in that blessed beloved--beloved of the Father, both as his Son and our Saviour, and beloved of all that ever saw but a little of his grace and glory.

In 1691, upon the republication of Dr Crisp's works, a flood of legal doctrine seemed to break in among the Dissent→ ing ministers and others in London-a sort of medium between Calvinism and Arminianism was proposed, and the doctrines of grace, as explained by the Reformers, were branded as Antinomianism *. In this controversy, Dr Chauncy, Messrs. Thomas Cole, Nathaniel Mather, Thomas Goodwin, ounger, and others, with much ability defended the doctrines of the Gospel; among these Mr Traill appeared with much lustre, as a well informed and evangelical divine. In his sermons preached about that time, particularly on Gal. ii. 21. he clearly illu cidates the doctrines of grace; and in a letter to a country minister (afterwards published,) he plainly discovers his sentiments and spirit, and throws much light on the controverted subjects. The late celebrated Hervey says of this letter,

Almost the same controversy agitated in our own church, some years after, about the Marrow of Modern Divinity.