convey. I can only refer to a few leading outlines of the history.

The Scottish people, wearied with the usurpation of Cromwell, and feeling themselves committed to the royal family by the covenant which they had sworn, and Charles II. having in the most solemn manner taken that engagement, and pledged himself, as they thought, to future justice, and honour his restoration, was welcomed with the most cordial and universal joy. A party of Anabaptists collected a large sum of money, and formed a plot against the life of the king-being opposed in principle to monarchy-but they were easily crushed, and all parties vied with each other in the demonstration of their attachment to the recovered prince. The Presbytery of St Andrews entered the following resolution in their books :-"The Presbytery being sensible of the great mercy of God towards these lands, in breaking the yoke of the usurper's tyranny and oppression off the neck of his people in these kingdoms, and restoring to us our rightful dread Sovereign, and his Majesty's lawful government, and being very willing to evidence and testify on every occasion their loyalty and cordial affection which they, with the people of God, have always borne towards his Majesty's person and government, and the person and government of his royal predecessor, hath appointed that every minister of this Presbytery shall, next Lord's day, warn the people to be assembled solemnly on the 29th of May, for hearing sermon, giving thanks to God for restoring, in great mercy, our king to his just right, and for praying for blessings to his person and government, and that he may be more and more fitted to be a blessed instrument for preserving and promoting the truth of religion in these lands; and withal, that they do prudently inform their several people that the observation of such days for commemoration of such a singular mercy, doth not impart holiness to the day, such as God himself hath put upon the Sabbath day, which none but God himself can put upon any day." This is an excellent appointment,

any

indicating at once enlightened loyalty and religion; and similar appointments seem to have been universal. The Presbytery of Cupar, thankful to the Lord for delivering the king without blood, in such an unexpected manner, resolve to hold a day, with as great thankfulness, joy, and gladness, “as can possibly be."

Surely a people so loyal, confiding, and religious, deserved well at a monarch's hand! They were not unreasonable or impracticable. But, alas! scarcely is Charles seated on the throne, before, like a thorough Papistwhich he truly was-he violated all his oaths, and proceeded, by the most violent means, to overthrow the Presbyterian Establishment which he had sworn to uphold. Ere the year was out, that Establishment might virtually be said to be at an end. In reading the history, one is struck with the rapidity of the change. The joy of the Restoration seems to have intoxicated and blinded the people. Surely the result shows the power which wicked men, at least for a season, may wield without restraint, and how necessary it is that the national patriotism be ever kept alive and enlightened. We are ready to ask, where are the men who, in the days of Charles I., were banded together as one man by their Solemn League, and who determined the fate of England? The answer is, very many of them had left this earthly scene of warfare, and their spirit was not fully inherited by their sons. Not a few of the gentry did not remain faithful like the ministers; and above all, there was no civil war, as before, to divide the forces of the king and country. Scotland had to bear the brunt of English power alone, and this was too heavy for her, especially after past and severe losses. Had it not been for these adverse circumstances, and the feeling of hopelessness which they created, there can be little doubt that there would have been the same resistance in the days of the son as of the father-against Charles II. as Charles I. The leading agents in the overthrow of the Church, and the persecution of its ministers and members, were, in point of character, worthy of the mission on which they were employed.

X

While they belonged to a party which boasted of its chivalry and honour, they were noted for the basest treachery and falsehood, and the meanest avarice,for practices of which the poorest Covenanter would have been ashamed. They gloried in wickedness and debauchery, impressively proclaiming what were the real grounds of their hatred to a Presbyterian Christian Church, whatever might be the ostensible. It may be safely said, that there is no hatred of the light so great, as that which proceeds from the consciousness that the deeds are evil, and cannot stand its scrutiny.

The steps taken for the destruction of the Church of Scotland, and with it, of evangelical religion, were as rapid and comprehensive as they were unprincipled and violent. The Scottish Parliament, which had been prepared to the hands of the king, met in the beginning of 1661, with Middleton, as royal commissioner, at its head. The first measure was an oath of allegiance, which involved the supremacy of the king in ecclesiastical as well as civil causes; in other words, which struck at the Headship of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the constitution of the Presbyterian Church. The next measure was the Act Rescissory, which at one blow cancelled all the excellent reformation legislation of the previous 20 years. The step which followed placed the external policy and government of the Church among the inherent rights of the Crown; and, as a very appropriate sequence, next moment created the bishops, and invested them with all their former privileges and jurisdictions. All the acts of the covenanted Reformation were next declared to be treasonable and rebellious; and shortly after, the Solemn League and Covenant, which at one time most of the members of Parliament had taken with hands uplifted to heaven, was condemned to be burnt by the common executioner. In short, measures were passed which involved the absolute authority of the king over both church and nation,-an authority which dethroned the Redeemer, and swallowed up all the rights of the subject. The reader will not wonder to learn, what is a

melancholy fact, that not a few of the members of Parliament who passed such acts were habitually intoxicated, and that the proceedings had again and again to be adjourned, owing to the gross drunkenness of the royal commissioner. When the poor Presbyterians assembled in their Church Courts to protest and petition against these arbitrary and most despotic measures, they were broken up and dispersed as rebellious and treasonable; and, by an act of Privy Council, passed when all the members were in a state of intoxication, between 300 and 400 ministers were driven out of their charges, and all the remainder were required to receive collation at the hands of the bishops. The madmen who made such enactments, judging of others by themselves, thought that no minister, when his living was at stake, would hesitate to sacrifice conscience to convenience; but they were remarkably deceived. The principle and self-denial of the Presbyterian ministers on this occasion are highly honourable. They manifested the same spirit as their brethren in England, 2000 of whom were ejected in a single day, for conscience' sake, at the same period; and in Ireland, where of 69 ejected in the province of Ulster, only 7 conformed to Prelacy. What a contrast was this to the conduct of the Episcopal clergy in the reign of Mary and her sister Elizabeth! Out of the 9415 who had been ministers under the popish and bloody Mary, only 203 refused to conform to the views and wishes of the Protestant Elizabeth. What a grievous absence must there have been of the high religious principle which animated the poor Presbyterians of Scotland; and yet there are men who have not praises ample enough for the one, nor censure and contempt keen enough for the other! I may just add, that the places of the ejected ministers were supplied by raw, ignorant-many of them immoral-young men from the Highlands,-men, of whom even Bishop Burnet says, "They were the worst preachers I ever heard: they were ignorant, and a reproach, and many of them openly vicious: they were a disgrace to their

orders and their sacred functions, and were indeed the dregs and refuse of the northern parts!" And these are included in the "apostolic succession," of which so many of the English Church now-a-days make a boast! Sir Walter Scott, whom no one will suspect of saying any thing harsh of Scottish Episcopacy, states in his History that a gentleman in the north regretted the ejection of the Presbyterian ministers, because it deprived the country of herd-boys. What a contrast to the able and faithful, and learned and beloved men who had been dispossessed, and of whom Burnet says, "They were related to the chief families in the country, either by blood or marriage, and had lived in so decent a manner, that the gentry paid great respect to them." It would have been strange if the people of Scotland had tamely put up with the substitution of the one for the other, and been contented with the curates. To this they could never agree. Accordingly they deserted the churches in thousands, flocking to their own ministers, now more endeared to them than ever. The effect of this again was to lead to enactments against holding conventicles,—that is, meetings for the public worship of God, which, being generally disregarded, the Government was at once brought into collision with the people; and wide spread and fierce persecution began.

I shall not sicken myself or the reader by entering on the bloody details of nearly 30 years of persecution which followed. I shall not speak of the different and successive inventions of cruelty-the courts of almost popish inquisition which were reared the letters of intercommuning-the quartering of lawless soldiers on the suspected the Highland host. I shall not speak of the fines, often amounting to oppressive sums, sometimes £2000, nay, £8000 sterling-of imprisonment— of confiscation-of the instruments of torture-of the forms of violent death-of perpetual banishment to foreign shores-above all, of multiplied oaths and tests to involve men of conscience in the guilt of perjury-to them worse than a capital execution of the deaths