Such are the names of the leading ministers of the French Protestant Church in the first part of the 17th century. And who, acquainted with their writings, or with the reputation connected with their names, can imagine, that Presbyterian Church government is unfavourable to literature and learning? It would be difficult to produce such names from among 700 or 800 ministers in any other communion of Christians, at the same period, or even now. And when the sad treatment to which they were subjected, during the whole course of their history, is taken into account, the result is the more wonderful. But, in making inquiries into the character and attainments of ministers of the Reformed Church of France, in its early days, I have been impressed even more with their devoted piety than their learning. Their death scenes seem often to have been very striking. Judging by these, one would have imagined that the men had spent all their lives in religious retirement, not that they were active and unwearied in the business of the church and the world. From such cases one may gather, either that active benevolence is more favourable to the growth of piety than leisure, or that a peculiar blessing rests upon those who devote themselves with zeal to the good of others. The apostles of our Lord exemplify a similar character-great activity in their public labours, with the deepest personal religion.

Before proceeding farther, we shall give a sketch of the contemporaneous history of the Church of Scotland; and then contemplate the Christian character of the Protestant Church of France, under different aspects, from 1598 to 1660,-blending some reference to the Church of Scotland in the same form.

CONTEMPORANEOUS HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND FROM 1592 TO 1660.

A REMARKABLE general correspondence may be traced, for a considerable period, between the history of the Church of Scotland and that of the Reformed Church of France. Both starting in the heart of Popish countries, they had a severe and protracted struggle to wage with the Church of Rome. Though the Reformation in France rose up very rapidly, yet the country, as a whole, was large, and the Protestants, numerous and influential as they might be, bore an inconsiderable proportion to the entire population, which remained Popish. Scotland, again, being a much smaller and less populous country, the Protestants not only soon became equal in numbers to their Roman Catholic brethren, but formed the great majority. The effect of this state of things was, that in the first thirty or forty years after the organization of the Protestant Church of France, she came into perpetual, and, in some sense, equal contests with the Popish Government and party. These constituted what are called the civil and religious wars of France, in which much property and a multitude of lives were lost. Treaties of peace were made, only in a few years to be broken. It was at the conclusion of the last of these that the horrible massacre of St Bartholomew-deliberately planned years before-was carried into execution. The object was, by cutting off the leading Protestants, to render subsequent wars and truces unnecessary. That was attempted by treachery, which had long failed in the open field of war. The Protestant Church came out of this dreadful persecution not a little weakened ; but her spirit and history had shown even enemies the necessity of some protective edict. Extermination was impossible. To attempt it, roused the sympathy and indignation of Europe. There was nothing, then, for it, but a recognised toleration; and this was supplied

by the edict of Nantes in 1596. In Scotland, again, owing to the great majority of the people becoming Protestant, there were no religious wars. There was, indeed, no small difficulty in dealing with the Government, which, in the hands of Mary, was Popish, and in the hands of Regents who succeeded her with two exceptions (Murray and Mar)-unprincipled and rapacious men; but her son, James VI., was a Protestant, and his reign was long. There were contests between the Church and the Crown in connection with church government and discipline; but these were very different from the pitched battles and bloodshed of France at the same period. And moreover, the Church, instead of being massacred by Papists, was successful in her struggles; and in 1592, stood forth a free independent Presbyterian Christian Church; and yet, at the same time, the only recognised and Established Church in Scotland. There was diversity, then, in the history of the two Churches, and yet there was resemblance: struggles with Popery, previous to organization -prosperity and success at that organization-protracted war and suffering after it—and again recognition and protection. There is an ebbing and flowing of the waters in both countries,-only in the one case, there is much more violence than in the other. The edict of Nantes, 1596, may be regarded as the charter of the Church of France; the act 1592, as the charter of the Church of Scotland. They were conceded at much the same period; -and here the resemblance between the respective histories becomes more complete. For a series of years, both Churches, generally speaking, prospered. Early in the 17th century, however, they began to suffer. In France, there were serious infractions of the edict, which issued in the overthrow of the Protestant stronghold of Rochelle in 1628. After this, there was comparative peace and freedom from persecution till about the 1660, when steps may be said to have been begun for the revocation of the edict of Nantes,-a revocation preceded and accompanied by unspeakable oppression and

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cruelty. Similar was the history of Scotland. There were serious invasions of the constitution of the Presbyterian Church as early as 1610; and these were continued and multiplied-often, indeed, defeated-onward to 1638. Then was there a period of victory and triumph, stretching to 1660, when a dreadful persecution, of scarcely inferior severity to any that France was called upon to endure, succeeded. In both countries, the active persecution lasted during much the same time. The grand difference was, that the Revolution of 1688 came to the rescue of the Scottish Church, and gave her thirty years of unexampled prosperity after; whereas, though there might be occasional relief and alleviation, there was no deliverance for the Protestant Church of France she had a century of suffering to bear, closed by a more dreadful revolution than almost any that ever broke upon the world before. In the latter part of last century, the Church of France lost no small share of her spiritual character as a Church of Christ. In the same period, the Church of Scotland became deteriorated in a similar manner. It would seem, then, that a general parallelism may be traced between the Church of France and the Church of Scotland in their respective histories. When there is peace in the one, there is peace in the other, when there is persecution in the one, there is persecution in the other. In spiritual declension or prosperity, there is likwise a general conformity. Does this not add to the interest of contemplating the two Protestant and Presbyterian Churches together? Let us then return and take a hasty glance at the Church of Scotland from 1592 to 1660.

We have noticed some of the fine features in the character of the Church, from her public recognition, in 1560, to 1592-a period of above thirty years. How high was her standard of duty, and how diligently she laboured for the salvation of souls. As has been already hinted, she had almost all along to wage a contest with the Crown and many of the aristocracy. They disliked her Presbyterian government and discipline. The one

imposed a check upon the despotic proceedings of the king, the other called the highest to impartial account when they offended. Attempts were made to introduce a modified Episcopacy, to get rid of these evils, as they were regarded, though really most important advantages; and also to afford an excuse for making over church property to needy or covetous members of the aristocracy. These attempts, though in the first instances partially, and for a season, successful, were now defeated, and days of lengthened prosperity seemed to stretch out before the Church. James VI., who now occupied the throne, was a Protestant, and a Calvinist, and professed Presbyterian, and had had repeated experience of the indomitable spirit of the Church and her ministers. He also fully sympathized with the Reformed Church of France: so much so, that he corresponded with her; and in 1614, sent a proposal for a general union among the Protestant Christians of Christendom. But with all this, he loved arbitrary power, and the free courts of a Presbyterian Church were more formidable barriers to it than even Parliament. In the absence of those means of influencing public opinion, such as the press-which are open to faithful men now,-the ministers felt it their duty from the pulpit to arraign what was wrong in public proceedings. The prospect, too, which the king had of succeeding to the English throne, and the desire to please his English subjects-members of a church having a different form of government from that to which he had been accustomed-all prompted him, in the course of a few years, to make repeated and vigorous efforts to introduce Episcopacy into the Church of Scotland, and to appropriate to the Crown much of the power which at present resided in the Church. Sensible that it was hopeless to attempt the change by external violence, in a country so united and attached to her Presbyterian Church, he adopted the more ensnaring policy of making the Church herself his instrument, and endeavoured to obtain one change after another-discontinuing his efforts in particular cases where he found the