Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 2.djvu/91

, which was called to consider the means of defence against the Spanish Armada, he was chosen Moderator. A charge was preferred to this court against a preacher named Gibson, who had uttered disrespectful language in his pulpit regarding king James. The accused party was charged to appear, and, failing to do so, was suspended for contumacy. There can be no doubt that the church was most reluctant to proceed to such an extremity with one of its members on A court charge; and its readiness to do so can only be accounted for as necessitated in some measure by the avowed constitution of the church itself, which repeatedly set forth that it did not claim an exemption for its members from ordinary law, but only desired that an impeached individual should first be tried by his brethren. Accordingly we find the conscience of the Moderator immediately accusing him in a strange way for having yielded a brother to lay vengeance; for, on that night, he thought he heard a voice saying to him, in the Latin language, 'Why hast thou been present at the condemnation of my servant?' When the destruction of the Spanish Armada was known in Scotland, Brace preached two thanksgiving sermons, which were published in 1591, and display a strength of sentiment and language fully sufficient to vindicate the contemporary reputation of the author to posterity.

Master Robert Bruce, as he was styled in compliance with the common fashion of the time, figured conspicuously in the turbulent proceedings which, for some years after this period, characterised the ecclesiastical history of Scotland. By king James he seems to have been regarded with a mixture of respect, jealousy, and fear, the result of his powerful abilities, his uncompromising hostility to undue regal power, and the freedom with which he censured the follies and vices of the court. It was by no means in contradiction to these feelings that, when James sailed for Denmark in 1589, to bring home his queen, he raised Master Robert to the Privy Council, and invested him with a non-commissioned power of supervision over the behaviour of the people during his absence; telling him, at the same time, that he had more confidence in him and the other ministers of Edinburgh, than in the whole of his nobles. The king knew well enough that if he did not secure the exertions of the clergy on the side of the government during his absence, they would certainly act against it As might have been expected from the influence of the clergy, the usual disorders of the realm ceased entirely during the supremacy of this system of theocracy; and the chief honour of course fell upon Bruce. The turbulent Earl of Both well, who was the nominal head of the government, proposed, during James's absence, to make a public repentance for a life of juvenile profligacy. The strange scene, which exhibited the first man in the kingdom humbled for sin before an ordinary Christian congregation, took place on the 9th of November in the High Church, On this occasion Bruce preached a sermon from 2 Tim., chap, ii., verses 2226, which was printed among others in 1591, and abounds in good sense, and in pointed and elegant language. When the sermon was ended, the Earl of Bothwell upon his knees confessed his dissolute and licentious life, and with tears in his eyes uttered the following words—'I wald to God, that I might mak sic a repentance as mine heart craveth; and I desire you all to pray for it.' But it was the repentance of Esau, and soon effaced by greater enormities.

On the return of king James with his queen, in May, 1590, Bruce received the cordial thanks of his Majesty for his zeal in composing differences during his absence, and his care in tutoring the people to behave decently before the queen and her Danish attendants. He was also honoured with the duty of placing the