of old Mellvin, when grasping King James the Sixth's sleeve, he told him that in Scotland there were two kingdoms, that in which he was acknowledged monarch, and that in which kings and nobles were but God's silly vassals; and they were but too apt to assert the superiority of the last, which was visibly governed by the assembly of the kirk (that is, by themselves) in the name of their unseen and omnipotent Head. To disobey the king might be high treason, but to disobey the kirk, acting in the name of the Deity, was a yet deeper crime, and was to be feared as incurring the wrath which is fatal both to body and soul. The intolerant character of the Solemn League and Covenant corresponded with the writings of some of their more ardent divines. Some of these theologians (falling certainly into one of the very worst errors of the Roman church) went so far as to assert that men living papists and dying so, holding the complex body of their principles, cannot obtain salvation. The ruder class, as they termed the church of Rome the whore of Babylon, gave little better terms to that of England; and we find lacy called in their writings a grey-haired strumpet, mother and daughter of popery, having a skin and face as black as a blackamoor with perjury and defection.'

pre

But intolerant as these preachers were upon principle, and incompetent from their ignorance of the world, and of worldly policy, to the management of state affairs, the zeal of the Scottish people gave them a predominating influence in the management of the state subsequent to 1639. The total destruction of the hierarchy, and the re-establishment of the church on a model purely republican, was their first and most joyful labour. Proceeding now on the principle not merely of proper but of rigid presbytery, the lay-patrons were deprived of all right of presentation, and the power of calling to a cure was vested in the Kirk Sessions, or parochial meeting of the elders of the parish. The minister was the continual president or moderator of this body; and, in case of vacancy in the cure, a neighbouring clergyman was called in to supply the place. This privilege of free election completed the popular character of the church, but at the same time rendered the preachers too dependent upon popularity and the humours of their audience.

The kirk, thus reformed, had no occasion to regret the mystical union supposed to exist betwixt church and state by the intervention of the lords spiritual. The clergy had been so much the soul of the insurrection, which gave to Scotland a sort of temporary independence, that they both claimed and possessed the means of making their opinions heard aud received by all true followers of the Covenant. It could hardly be otherwise, for it was in their name and behalf, and by their influence, that the aristocracy of Scotland had once more proved too mighty for the crown. The

⚫ doctor's

doctor's chair' was not indeed 'stuck into the throne,' but was substituted in its stead; and the estates of Scotland had no influence in the government of that kingdom that was not shared and often obscured by that of the General Assemblies.

The possession of so much power had its usual effects on the weakness of humanity. Wodrow himself, after declaring, that the church, as reformed in 1639, was fair as the moon and terrible as an army with banners,' allows that, as it is difficult to carry a full cup steadily, there were errors even in that brilliant period; amongst which he justly reckons the fierce division of the presbyterians, in 1650, into Resolutioners and Remonstrators; the former being such as made common cause with the Royalists against Cromwell; the latter, those who refused to admit the support of the Malignants or Cavaliers, and shewed an early inclination to fraternize with the English sectaries. But the historian might have added the previous and more important blunder, that when Scotland was in a condition to have acted the important part of an armed mediator betwixt Charles and his parliament, the influence of the absurd and crusading idea of extending the reign of presbytery, induced her rulers to throw their whole weight into the scale of the latter, by which they missed the opportunity of bringing the civil war to a conclusion, and ultimately set fire to their own Diana in her Ephesian temple.

The reign of presbytery was at this period abridged by the course of events. The violence and arrogance of many of these men, who acted in the name of the Deity, and affected to be the immediate channels through which his will as well as his doctrines were intimated to the people, received a fearful castigation after the battles of Dunbar and Worcester, and subsequent subjugation of Scotland. The Independents met their texts with texts, but dissolved their General Assembly by the more expeditious argument of a military force. Lieutenant-colonel Cottrell, backed by a detachment of foot and horse, entered the assembly and demanded to know whether they sat by the authority of the parliament of the Commonwealth of England, of the English commander-in-chief, or of the Scottish judges. When the Moderators replied that they were an ecclesiastical synod-a spiritual court of Jesus Christ, who held their authority from heaven, the republican officer commanded them to begone, or they should be dragged from the room.

He led us,' says Baillie, (who shared in this calamitous expulsion,) through the whole streets a mile out of the town, encompassing us with foot companies of musqueteers, and horsemen without, all the people gazing and mourning as at the saddest spectacle they had ever seen. When he had led us a mile without the town, he then declared what further he had in commission, that we would not dare to meet any

VOL. XVIII. NO. XXXVI.

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more above three in number; and that against eight o'clock tomorrow we should depart the town, under pain of being guilty of breaking the public peace; and the day following, by sound of trumpet, we were commanded off the town, under the pain of present imprisonment. Thus our General Assembly, the glory and strength of our church upon earth, is by your soldiery crushed and trode under foot, without the least provocation from us, at this time, either in word or deed.'-Baillie's Letters, vol. ii. p. 370.

The same author gives several specimens of the mode in which the appointment of clergymen took place during the usurpation.— If named by the presbytery of the bounds, the minister who received the cure had to preach in the fields, without a stipend; those only who were appointed upon the call of the Remonstrants, or by the actual power of the sword, received any temporal advantage from their benefices.

In these circumstances, the Restoration was hailed by most of the presbyterians as a joyful event, which promised to relieve Scotland from the ignominious bondage of the English garrisons, and her national church from the degraded state of subjection to which she had been reduced. The call of the king to the throne was so unanimously uttered, that they possessed neither the time nor the means, perhaps not even the inclination, to arrange any precise stipulations for any particular form of church policy; and men's minds were at the time so weary of the disputes which had given rise to such unbounded misery, that it seemed to be left to the king, the church of Scotland lying in ruins, to chuse whether he would rebuild her bulwarks on the model of moderate episcopacy, which they displayed before 1639, or on the more republican system which was substituted at that period. Those who held neither episcopacy nor presbytery to be systems of divine derivation or positive ordinance, naturally inquired which was likely to promote the tranquillity and suit the temper of the people; and the point was accordingly keenly agitated in the council of Charles. Middleton, a gallant soldier, but a man of a rash overbearing temper and dissolute manners, assuming the high tone of a determined loyalist, exhorted the king to seize the opportunity of putting Scotland at rest for ever, by annulling the Solemn League and Covenant as an unlawful association, and re-establishing the order of bishops. Lauderdale, with equal professions of devotion to the king's interest, and with much ridicule of the formality of presbyterians, adroitly thrown in to gratify the king's humour, advised Charles to proceed more cautiously, and for the present to leave the presbyterian church government undisturbed, and suffer them for a longer space to enjoy their beloved Covenant. There were many, he said, of the first rank in Scotland who were still so wedded to this engagement, that they

would

would as soon renounce the four gospels; and some time and argument would, he contended, be necessary to bring them to another way of thinking. The former opinion prevailed, and Middleton received full powers to proceed in the introduction of episcopacy without delay.

The too-celebrated James Sharp, himself a leading presbyterian minister, entrusted with the cause of the presbyterian resolutioners or royalists, contributed not a little to this change, foreseeing his own aggrandizement as primate of Saint Andrews. Our ingenious editor has thrown some palliating colouring upon a character usually painted with the most detestable features. He has proved that, either from shame or compassion, his namesake occasionally interfered to prevent the severities directed against some of the remonstrant clergy, and that in his office of primate he was active in reproving the immorality even of his own most powerful friend. A letter to the High Commissioner Rothes, upon the licence of his conduct, (p. 213) is in a style of pastoral reproof well becoming a father of the church. But the great stain will always remain, that Sharp deserted and probably betrayed a cause which his brethren entrusted to him, and abused to his own purposes a mission which he ought not to have undertaken but with the determination of maintaining its principal object. Kirkton says that when Sharp returned from Scotland, he himself affecting no ambition for the prelacy, pressed the acceptance of the see of Saint Andrews upon Mr. Robert Douglas, one of his former colleagues. The stern presbyterian saw into his secret soul, and when he had given his own positive rejection, demanded of his former friend what he would do himself were the offer made to him. Sharp hesitated; I perceive,' said Douglas, you are clear-you will engage-you will be primate of Scotland: take it then,' he added, laying his hand on his shoulder, and take the curse of God along with it.' (p. 134.) The subject would suit a painter.

It cannot be denied that one main cause of this violent change had been the imprudent carriage and extreme zeal of the presbyterian teachers themselves. The severity with which they inflicted church penances, which in themselves have something allied to popery-the dominion which they assumed over the laity in all cases in which religion could be possibly alleged as a motive, or pretext, that is to say, in almost all cases whatever--and the sullen and fanatical affectation with which they condemned all pleasures, however innocent or indifferent, `had made the better classes generally weary of their yoke. A contemporary gives the following ludicrous account of the marriage betwixt Somerville of Drum (ancestor of Lord Somerville) and a daughter of Sir James Bannatyne, of Corehouse, forming but an unamiable picture of a festival

KK 2

meeting

meeting during the interregnum. There were, according to the historian of that noble house,

One marques, three earles, two lords, sexteine barones, and eight ministers, present at the solemnitie, but not one musitiane; they lyked yet better the bleetings of the calves of Dan and Bethell, the ministers, long-winded, and sometimes nonsensical graces, little to purpose, then all musical instruments of the sanctuarie, att so solemne ane occasione, which, if it be lawfull at all to have them, certanely it ought and should be upon a wedding-day, for divertisment to the guests, that innocent recreatione of musick and dancing being much more warrantable, and farre better exercise then drinking and smoakeing of tobacco, wherein these holy bretheren of the presbyterean [persuasion] for the most part imployed themselves, without any formall health or remembrance of their friends; a nod with their head, or a sigh, with the turning up of the whyte of the eye, served for the ceremoney.'-Memoirs of the Somervilles, vol. ii.

When we recollect when and by WHOм a miracle was wrought for the express purpose of continuing the innocent festivities usually attendant upon such a joyful occasion, we must hesitate to adopt a creed so sour as to condemn the ordinary expressions of innocent mirth and happiness.

As men rush readily from one extreme to another, the debauchery which followed the Restoration formed a strong and disgusting contrast to the affected and puritanic strictness of the preceding period. Kirkton has painted it in odious, yet, we fear, too just, colours.

'Our three commissioners, Middleton, Rothes, and Lauderdale, gave every one of them the parliament they governed a denomination (in the observation of the vulgar) from their own behaviour; and this parliament was called "the drinking parliament." The commissioner hade 501. English a-day allowed him, which he spent faithfully amongst his northern pantalons; and so great was the luxury, and so small was the care of his family, that when he filled his wine-cellars, his steward thought nothing to cast out full pipes to make way for others. Himself was sometimes so disordered, that when he hade appeared upon the throne in full parliament, the president, upon the whisper of the principal members, would be necessitate to adjourn. Then they made the church their stews; then you might have found chambers filled with naked men and naked women; and many, who lived under sober report formerly, turned harlots and drunkards; you may believe cursing, swearing, and blasphemy, were as common as prayer and worship was rare. Debauching was loyalty, gravity smelled of rebellion; every man that hade eyes perceived what spirit ruled among them; and among all the families in town, none grave greater scandal then Fletcher the advocate, where the vaste sums extorted from the innocent presbyterians in danger of criminal pursuit, were turned into crying scandals, unparallelled in the history of Scotland.'-pp. 114, 115.

The first step taken to restore episcopacy in Scotland was by an act of parliament rescinding, without distinction, all the statutes

passed