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When Col. William Stevens wrote to the Presbytery of Laggan in Scotland in 1680 requesting that a godly pastor be sent to minister to the faithful on the Eastern Shore, that call was answered first by William Traill (1640-1714), and soon after, by Francis Makemie. While Makemie is known to history as the “Father of American Presbyterianism” for his pioneer ministry and labors to establish the first Presbytery in America, William Traill is far less known than he should be today. He was the brother of Robert Traill, the famous Scottish Covenanter, and served as clerk and as a Moderator of the Laggan Presbytery. Robert addressed his noted letter on Justification to his older brother, William. Both Robert and William, as well as their father, suffered persecution; William, having been imprisoned for preaching in Ireland, came to America after his release from prison in 1682, where he ministered to the people of Rehoboth, Maryland, possibly serving as their first pastor, until his return to Scotland in 1690.
Today we consider an extract from some spiritual counsel written by William Traill for a private lady in 1708, which was abridged and republished in 1841 under the title “Necessary and Excellent Advice About Some Duties.”
Follow Christ, by taking up the cross that he has appointed for you , and by faith lean upon him for strength and succour, to bear you up under its burden from day to day. Observe your daily deficiencies and short-comings, and press forward that you may know more of the spirit, life, and power of every duty. Keep constant watch against your easily-besetting sins, and take heed that, by a sudden surprisal, they do not prevail against you. Particularly inquire whether you are not tempted to unbelief, and calling in question almost every truth — whether you are not sinfully jealous of the love of God to your soul, after the multiplied evidences of his care — whether affected diffidence, impatient haste, rash and uncharitable censures of others, are not found in your heart— whether you regard the proper season for every duty, and daily labour to “redeem the time" — whether in circumstances of difficulty you ask yourself, what would my Lord and Saviour have done in this case? and do likewise whether you mind his own blessed rule, “Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you , do ye even so to them .” Learn to remember your latter end, “to die daily" — adventure upon nothing but what appears to be your duty, both lawful and seasonable, and such as you would adventure upon, if you had but a day to live.
Read the rest of his spiritual counsel here, and take note of this remarkable pioneer Presbyterian who helped pave the way for the planting of the Presbyterian Church in America. More about Traill can be found in L.P. Bowen’s The Days of Makemie (1885) and Makemie and Rehoboth (1912); J.W. McIlvain, Early Presbyterianism in Maryland (1890); C.A. Briggs, American Presbyterianism (1885); Alfred Nevin, History of the Presbytery of Philadelphia (1888); among other records of pioneer Presbyterianism in America.
HT: Matthew Vogan
