A Review Article by Roy Middleton
Charles Jackson is a minister of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in the USA. This book is the result of his doctoral studies at the University of Leicester, under the supervision of Professor John Coffey. Dr Coffey’s doctorate was on the life and work of the Scottish Covenanter, Samuel Rutherford.2
The book under review is a full-scale academic biography of Alexander Henderson (1583-1646), the Covenanter and senior colleague of Samuel Rutherford and the other Scottish Commissioners at the Westminster Assembly. As Charles Jackson points out, his biography is the first such work since that of Robert Low Orr in 1919 and, before that, the one of John Aiton, the Church of Scotland minister of Dolphinton, in 1836.3 An up-to-date biography of Henderson, utilising the results of the extensive historical research that has taken place in the last 175 years, is long overdue. This is especially the case since Archibald Johnston of Wariston’s Diary was not available to Aiton and the full Minutes of the Westminster Assembly were not available to Sheriff Orr.
Alexander Henderson is one of the towering figures that God raised up in the Scottish Church, and this modern biography ably and carefully sets out what he was able to achieve by God’s grace. After the introductory chapter, which details the present state of scholarship on the life of Henderson, Dr Jackson has six thematic chapters that outline Henderson’s career.
The first chapter details his early life and preparation for the ministry. He was born in Creich in Fife and studied at St Andrews University under Andrew Melville. Following his University course he courted the favour of the Archbishop of St Andrews, who was the patron of the parish of Leuchars, who presented him to the living. It was, however, a staunchly anti-episcopal parish and as Henderson at that time was a supporter of Prelacy, the doors were locked to prevent him entering. With the help of friends, Henderson broke a window and climbed into the church in spite of the opposition.
This episode of being intruded into the charge against the wishes of his parishioners led to a turning point in Henderson’s life, when he subsequently went to hear the famous Robert Bruce preach. His text was John 10:1: “He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber”. This sermon was for Henderson both the day of salvation and the catalyst for a change in his doctrine of the Church; he would abandon Prelacy and become a staunch Presbyterian. The subsequent chapters are headed: The Covenanter, The Preacher, The Presbyterian, The Pamphleteer, and The Westminster Assembly.
In a review article it is only possible to highlight a few of the matters dealt with in these chapters. The section on Henderson the Covenanter focuses on his commitment to the Regulative Principle. Among the requirements of the English service book was the assertion that it was necessary to kneel whilst receiving the elements at the Lord’s Supper. This Henderson regarded as idolatry. He led the opposition to the “Popish-English-Scottish Mass-Service book”4 and, along with Archibald Johnston, was co-author of the National Covenant, which was signed throughout Scotland in gatherings that resembled a religious revival. Both the author’s lengthy chapter on Henderson the Covenanter and his discussion of the relationship between national covenanting and Reformed covenant theology are most instructive.
The third chapter, on Henderson the preacher, breaks a measure of new ground in Henderson studies. It is a detailed account of his preaching based on his extant sermons and covers such subjects as divine calling, authority in preaching, the style and substance of his preaching and evangelical faithfulness, along with a section on “a theology of godly listening”. Dr Jackson concludes that some of Henderson’s extant sermons are clearly from a series of expositions that he preached during the time he was a minister at Leuchars. Henderson advocated careful preparation of sermons. Dr Jackson observes that, for Henderson, belief in the inspiration and authority of the Bible meant that a minister had to be careful how he crafted his sermons. He believed that shaping the text of Scripture into a meaningful sermon required concentrated effort and care. He encouraged presbyteries to nurture a preacher’s abilities in these areas. In consequence, presbyteries organised monthly meetings when theological topics were discussed and vindicated against adversaries. It was expected that ministers would thoroughly prepare themselves in order to take part (see p 107).
The chapter on Henderson the Presbyterian deals at length with the historic Glasgow Assembly of 1638 of which he was the Moderator. What this Assembly achieved, in Dr Jackson’s words, “was the ‘root and branch’ extirpation of episcopal ecclesiology and anything they alleged to be foreign or contrary to the Reformation” (p 153). It was at this Assembly that eight bishops were excommunicated and the remaining six were deposed. Henderson preached a sermon from Psalm 110:1 that so encapsulated the Covenanters’ stance that it was published the same year. Its title in part was The Bishops Doom. Although it is not cited in this book, Henderson, after pronouncing the apostolic benediction, dismissed the Assembly with these memorable words, “We have now cast down the walls of Jericho; let him that rebuildeth them beware of the curse of Hiel the Bethelite” (see Jos 6:26, 1 Ki 16:34).
The fifth chapter deals with Henderson’s role as both author and editor of Covenanter pamphlets. This is a chapter in which the author has been able to utilise some of the extensive research that has taken place in recent years, in order to enhance our understanding of Henderson’s role in the Covenanters’ struggle. When war became inevitable, Henderson and his fellow Covenanter began crafting pamphlets or propaganda documents to urge support for their cause. These pamphlets were circulated all over Europe but most importantly in England. Dr Jackson cites a recent thesis that argues, “The Covenanter pamphlets triggered or unleashed a pamphlet onslaught in all directions that in terms of quantity, changed the history of pamphlets and pamphleteering”.5
Henderson’s purpose in producing these pamphlets was to influence and even pacify the English army. Dr Jackson observes, “When the Covenanter army invaded England it brought not only cannons and muskets but also pamphlets full of information that would, it was hoped, undermine support for the king’s policies” (p 175). Henderson led the Covenanter movement into a self-conscious commitment to the important concept, that ideas play a crucial role for all people in every station in life. Henderson both wrote pamphlets and, possibly more significantly, edited the work done by others. John Leslie, the Earl of Rothes, one of the leaders of the Covenanter, indicated that they were so dependent on Henderson’s drafting and editing skills that they made certain he had the final say, not just on pamphlets, but also on official letters of correspondence that they used in their cause. According to Rothes, Henderson’s editing gave the documents a “smoother” and more “amenable” tone.6
The final main chapter deals with Henderson’s role at the Westminster Assembly where he was the most senior of the five ministerial commissioners sent by the Scottish Church. Several useful essays have been written in recent years on the role of the Scottish commissioners at the Assembly.7 In this review we mention just two matters regarding Henderson that Dr Jackson has highlighted. The first was his ability to maintain a public image of diplomacy and calmness. This was why some of the staunchest critics of the Scottish commissioners distinguished between the Scots in general and Henderson, who they considered to be a minister of an “apostolic spirit” (p 236).
A second matter highlighted in this book is that Henderson was the main author of The Directory for Public Worship of God. Robert Baillie asserted, “Mr Henderson has drawn it up, by way of a practical directory, so calmly, that we trust to get it past the Assembly the next week without much debate”.8 Under Henderson’s influence, the Directory reflected his commitment to genuine and honourable compromise. The Scots and the English Independents differed on many things and Henderson was privately exasperated by their delaying tactics.
One area of disagreement was over the frequency and manner of communion. Robert Baillie considered the Independents’ practice of weekly communion to be irreverent.9 Without forcing a change of principles on either party, Henderson crafted the Directory to include specific relief for differences over the frequency of communion with the words, “How often, may be considered and determined by the ministers and other church-governors of each congregation, as they shall find most convenient for the comfort and edification of the people committed to their charge”.10 Charles Jackson observes, “This section has all the marks of authentic compromise on differences of practice without compromising on theological principles, and this was where Henderson was at his best” (p 247).
The reviewer finds it rather surprising that in what was originally a doctoral thesis there are a number of errors in the otherwise-useful Selected Bibliography. Some of the mistakes that we have noticed are as follows: The editor of the first volume of Archibald Johnston of Wariston’s Diary was George Morison Paul, not David Hay Fleming; Fleming edited the second volume. The David Laing edition of John Knox’s Works is in six volumes, not five. The series of books edited by J Ligon Duncan, The Westminster Confession into the 21st Century is in three volumes, not four, and The Story of the Scottish Church was not written by Thomas M’Crie (1772-1835), the author of the Life of John Knox, but by his son Thomas M’Crie Jr (1797-1875). These errors are not misprints in this book but are repeated from the thesis itself.
Whilst we recommend this volume by Charles Jackson, readers should be aware that it is an academic biography. In addition, it is not a replacement for the biographies of either John Aiton or Sheriff Orr, or the excellent sketch of Henderson’s life by Thomas M’Crie,11 all of which have a more detailed historical narrative. The thematic volume under review supplements and updates the older works, which are now happily available again in print-on-demand editions. Presbyterians world-wide, but especially those in Scotland, should be interested in the life of this outstanding servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. For those who have never read a biography of Henderson the reviewer would recommend they begin with the 40-page booklet written by the editor of the Free Presbyterian Magazine and published by the Scottish Reformation Society in its “Scots Worthies Series”.12
1A review of Riots, Revolutions and the Scottish Covenanters: The Work of Alexander Henderson, by L Charles Jackson, Reformation Heritage Books, hardback, 311 pp, £20.00, obtainable from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom.
2Coffey’s doctoral work was published in 1997 by Cambridge University Press as Politics, Religion and the British Revolutions: The Mind of Samuel Rutherford. Coffey also wrote the entry on Alexander Henderson in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
3John Aiton, The Life and Times of Alexander Henderson, Edinburgh, 1836; Sheriff Robert Low Orr, Alexander Henderson: Churchman and Statesman, London, 1919.
4This is the long designation given the service book by the Covenanter and historian, John Row (1568-1646) in his History of the Kirk of Scotland from the year 1558 to August 1637, Wodrow Society, 1842, p 398.
5Quoted from Joseph Black, Pamphlet Wars, University of Toronto, 1996, p 249.
6Quoted from John Earl of Rothes, A Relation of the Proceedings concerning the affairs of the Kirk of Scotland from August 1637 to July 1638, The Bannatyne Club, 1830, p 162.
7See Iain H Murray, “The Scots at the Westminster Assembly: With special reference to the dispute on Church Government and its aftermath”, Banner of Truth Magazine, August-September 1994, pp 6-40; Chad B Van Dixhoorn, “Scottish influence on the Westminster Assembly: A Study of the Synod’s Summoning Ordinance and the Solemn League and Covenant”, Records of the Scottish Church History Society, vol 37, pp 55-88; W D J Mackay, “Scotland at the Westminster Assembly”, in J Ligon Duncan (ed), The Westminster Confession into the 21st Century, Fearn, 2003, pp 213-245; Christopher Caldwell and Guy M Richards, Introductory Essays to Sermons preached before the English Houses of Parliament by the Scottish Commissioners to the Westminster Assembly of Divines 1643-1645, Naphtali Press, 2011, pp xii-lxx. See also the recently-printed 1976 University of Pittsburgh thesis of Wayne R Spear, Covenanted Uniformity: The Influence of the Scottish Commissioners upon the Ecclesiology of the Westminster Assembly, Reformation Heritage Books, 2013.
8Robert Baillie, Letters and Journals, Edinburgh, 1841, vol 2, p 250.
9In a public letter Baillie observes, “The Independents way of celebration, seems to be very irreverent. They have the communion every Sabbath, without any preparation before or thanksgiving after; little examination of the people; their very prayers and doctrine before the sacrament uses not to be directed to the use of the sacrament. They have after the blessing, a short discourse, and two short graces over the elements, which are distribute and participate in silence, without exhortation, reading or singing. And all is ended with a Psalm, without prayer.” Letters and Journals, Edinburgh, vol 2, pp 148-149.
10“The Directory for the Public Worship of God”, in The Westminster Confession of Faith, Free Presbyterian Publications, 1962, p 384.
11Thomas M’Crie’s sketch of Henderson’s life is in the Miscellaneous Writings, chiefly Historical, of Thomas M’Crie, edited by his son, Edinburgh, 1841, pp 1-87, and is reprinted in Lives of Alexander Henderson and James Guthrie, Edinburgh, 1846, pp 1-68. Regrettably this reprint omits M’Crie’s informative and valuable footnotes.
12Kenneth D Macleod, Alexander Henderson, Edinburgh, 2014, obtainable from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom.