THE HISTORY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN IRELAND, COMPRISING THE CIVIL HISTORY OF THE PROVINCE OF ULSTER, FROM THE ACCESSION OF JAMES THE FIRST: WITH A PRELIMINARY SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF THE REFORMED RELIGION IN IRELAND DURING THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY, AND AN APPENDIX CONSISTING OF ORIGINAL PAPERS. BY JAMES SEATON REID, D. D. M. R. I. A. MINISTER Of the presBYTERIAN CHURCH, CARRICKFERGUS. J Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase. For inquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers: shall not they teach thee, and tell thee, and utter words out of their heart VOL. II. BOOK OF JOB. WHITTAKER AND CO. LONDON; W. CURRY, JUN. AND CO. DUBLIN; AND H. GREER, BELFAST. MDCCCXXXVII. PREFACE. THIS SECOND Volume, compiled during the few intervals of leisure which could be gleaned from the laborious duties of the ministry, is at length presented to the public; but with considerable anxiety lest it should disappoint the expectations excited by the former one, the first edition of which has been long since exhausted. The civil and religious history of Ulster during the eventful period embraced in this volume, I have endeavoured to illustrate with fidelity and exactness ;-confining my attention exclusively to the affairs of this province, and exhibiting with the utmost care the various sources whence I derived the information which is now for the first time published. Though my researches were necessarily limited, through want both of sufficient time and of adequate pecuniary resources, I have succeeded in bringing to light many original documents connected with the civil and ecclesiastical affairs of the north of Ireland, hitherto buried in obscurity; while from the invaluable treasures of the British Museum and the Advocates' Library, I have been enabled to add considerably to the history of Ulster during the Civil war and the Protectorate, and to trace, more minutely than preceding writers had done, the rise and progress of that successful resistance to the arbitrary government of James the Second, by which the REVOLUTION was consummated on the plains of Ulster. To Sir William Betham, Knt. Foreign Secretary to the Royal Irish Academy; Sir Archibald Edmonstone, Bart. Kilsythe; Alexander Macdonnell, Esq. Dublin Castle; the Rev. John Lee, D.D. F.R.S.E. principal clerk to the general assembly of the Church of Scotland; David Laing, Esq. Edinburgh; George Matthews, Esq. Dublin; and the Rev. William Bruce, D.D. Belfast, my acknowledgments are due for favouring me with access to unpublished papers and with other important facilities in the prosecution of my inquiries. The superior manner in which this volume is printed, also calls for my thanks to the highly respectable gentlemen by whom it has been executed, who, like the illustrious printers of the olden time, are not less distinguished for their hereditary and well-sustained eminence in the walks of literature, than for their acknowledged superiority in the noble art which they practise. Owing to the press of new and interesting matter, which I was unwilling to withhold and unable to condense, this volume has so far exceeded the limits I had calculated on, that I have been reluctantly compelled to close the narrative a few months earlier than I had intended, and to withdraw several documents which I had selected for publication in the Appendix. The suppressed papers I have marked in the table of contents with an asterisk. To these volumes I purpose, if the Lord will,' to add a THIRD and concluding one, in which the narrative will be continued to the present time, and to which will be appended several authentic tables and other documents, exhibiting the statistics and existing position and circumstances of the PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN IRELAND. CARRICKFERGUS, February 28, 1837. |