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the source of comfort to so many Christians, is as unwarrantable as the revival of an unsupported rumour against the character of Rutherford.

Without further dwelling on the deliberations of that Assembly, its "Confession of Faith" and Shorter Catechism, which have ever since remained in use in the Scottish Church, are sufficient monuments of the piety and talents of its members. Political affairs were now in a more unsettled state than ever. While the king was hardly pressed by the English and Scotch armies, Montrose had raised the Royalist banner and carried everything before him till his forces were dispersed by old Leslie. In 1645, a pacification would still have been possible. Had Charles only consented to take the solemn League and Covenant, and to abolish Episcopacy in Eng land, he would have reigned over a faithful Presbyterian people. Much to the satisfaction of the Republican Independents the king refused thus to violate his convictions. The Scotch would not allow him to cross the Border till he had taken the Covenant, all their claims were satisfied, and however we must deplore the act, there was no alternative left under the circumstances, but to deliver the unhappy monarch into the hands of his English subjects. What followed is too well known. The efforts of a small party in favour of Charles were utterly hopeless, and Montrose, who at a later period took the field, was made prisoner and hanged on a gallows 30 feet high. Still the Scottish people were loyal. A deputation waited upon Charles II. at Breda and offered him the crown, provided he became a Covenanter. The heartless prince would have promised any thing; he afterwards signed a document in which he condemned his father and blamed his mother; and now set sail for Scotland, and for some time conformed-sorely against his inclination to all that the strictest churchman could exact. But already the English army under Cromwell was advancing. The Scottish host was sadly thinned by being purged of all suspected of any "malignancy." Still Cromwell would undoubtedly have been defeated at Dunbar by Leslie, if the mad zeal of his followers had not driven him from his advantageous position. Everything was not yet lost. Charles II. fled northward, was crowned at Scone, and the strict rules of the General Assembly and Parliament as to recruiting were relaxed, to the sore vexation of a party in the Church, who assumed the name of Protesters. Another victory of Cromwell at Worcester-for the war had been transferred into England decided the fate of Charles, who fled to France. The rule of Cromwell was far from disastrous to Scotland, only that as he dissolved the English Parliament, so his soldiers cleared the General Assembly as the Moderator was in the act of calling the roll. On the 3rd September, 1658, the Protector died, and in less than two years the accession of Charles II. was hailed with enthusiastic delight both in his English and Scotch capitals. The work of reaction soon began. Once more the Presbyterian polity was overturned; the Covenanting Parliament now forbade the Covenant. Argyle died on the scaffold; he was followed by many other martyrs.

The change of political views was only equalled by that of manners. The King's Commissioner was a low drunken debauchee, and too many who formerly had pretended sanctity, followed his example. Matters went still further. The Covenants were declared treasonable, and all ministers ordained from 1649 were expelled from their parishes, unless instituted anew by their bishops. Three hundred preachers were thus in one day turned out of their homes for no other crime than their non-acknowledgment of the new clerical authority. It could scarcely be expected that the people would attend the ministrations of their successors, even had their characters been better than in most cases they were. But it was declared seditious for the outed ministers to preach, and non-attendance at the parish church was made a crime of almost equal magnitude. Even this was not all: a party of troopers, commanded by Sir James Turner, went to the suspected districts and executed a lynch law of their own. Then began those secret meetings, and that more open resistance which have made Covenanting times so famous in Scottish history. It is impossible for us to follow the course of these sad events by which a peaceful, religious, and loyal people was almost goaded to madness. It was truly a reign of terror. Conventicles, as they were called, were held in sequestered glens; surprises by dragoons, wholesale murders, execution or torture of ministers were the order of the day. The people retorted as they could; Sir James Turner and Archbishop Sharpe were murdered; the battle of Drumclog was gained, that of Bothwell Bridge lost; still these undaunted Presbyterians yielded not in any matter of conscience. A remarkable instance of their courage occurred in 1680. The Government seemed to relent for a little, but the more far-seeing and heroic of the Covenanters, who formed themselves into what have been since known as the Cameronians, trusted not the bait thrown out by a foresworn prince. A party of 21 men marched into Sanqubar, and affixed to the market cross a declaration in which they formally disowned Charles Stuart as their king.

The condition of the country was not improved under the reign of James VII. (II.) When still Duke of York he came to Scotland, and the compliant Parliament annulled in his favour the act which secured the Protestant succession to the throne. Still James passed in 1687 an act by which the laws against Nonconformists were abolished, and Presbyterians allowed to worship according to their own consciences provided they met not in the open air. The concession was in reality intended not for his Protestant subjects, but for his Popish co-religionists. But the measure of tyranny was full. Even the most ardent defenders of the "right divine" of kings and of passive obedience" could no longer brook the yoke of Popish and despotic persecution. On 5th November, 1688, William of Orange landed at Torbay, and "six weeks afterwards James was a fugitive, and the country free."

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However interesting the narrative which yet remains of the struggles and the doings in the Church of Scotland, our space and the

VOL. III.

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fear of somehow identifying ourselves with parties and controversies still pending, prevents our following it further. It is well known that the Episcopal party in Scotland remained attached to the Stuarts, while the Presbyterians ardently supported William and Mary, and afterwards the House of Hanover. In these circumstances, William could scarcely do otherwise than yield to the wishes of the people, and restore Presbytery, even had not one of his most trusted councillors been a Scottish minister-Carstares, a man whose sterling worth, ability, and moderation has scarcely been yet sufficiently recognised. The period which followed the restoration of Presbytery was increasingly one of religious decay. Perhaps it could scarcely have been otherwise, considering the troubles that had preceded the unsettled state of the Kirk, the difficulty of filling up all the vacant parishes, and especially the introduction of patronage, which was not unfrequently enforced at the point of the bayonet. It was this religious decline and the spiritual tyranny exercised upon the people by the intrusion of unacceptable presentees, and not any differences in doctrine or even Church Government, which caused the various secessions from the Church of Scotland, divided churchmen into "Moderates" and "Evangelicals," and ultimately led to the formation of the Free Church of Scotland. By these secessions the Establishment has lost not less in numbers than in influence throughout the country. At present it is considerably in the minority; the tendency of recent legislation has been to deprive it of its exclusive privileges, and though among its ministers there are not a few distinguished for piety, talent, and learning, its moral weight is small as compared with what it might have been. The liberality, the Evangelistic efforts, and the missionary operations are far outdistancing those of the State paid Church. Let us hope that by the Divine blessing, present and comparatively small differences may not be indefinitely kept up, and that-established or dis-established-Scotland may yet possess a great and united Presbyterian Church, able to cope with growing heathenism at home, and adequately to aid the spread of the Gospel abroad.

II.

THE LATE BISHOP WILSON.

IN the decease of this distinguished prelate, the Established Church of England has suffered no trifling loss. He was one of the foremost of that able band who have endeavoured in recent times to revive her spiritual life from the pure waters of the Gospel. Thoroughly attached to her institutions and heartily devoted to her interests, for more than fifty years he laboured in her service with unusual energy and zeal. Half this period he endeavoured, in England, to increase her converts, purify her communion, and enlarge her power for good. Half this period, he laboured as her chief pastor in India to organize her ecclesiastical system over that vastly-extended territory, to supply the lack of churches, to secure an adequate number of chaplains, to Christianise English society, and to consolidate her missions among the natives of the land. In spite of all deficiencies, so great was his influence and so blessed his labours in our eastern empire-he found the Church so weak and small, and left it so extended, consolidated, and flourishing-that it will be long before the memory of his efforts or even their most prominent results can pass away. A few pages devoted to an outline of labours, by which the cause of Christianity was greatly advanced, will not be unacceptable to our readers.*

The Memoir of Bishop Wilson referred to below has been prepared by his son-in-law and first chaplain, Mr. Bateman. It is, on the whole, an excellent book, supplying abundant materials for a full and clear exhibition of the bishop's life and labours. The larger portion of the work is drawn from the bishop's own voluminous papers, and consists of extracts from his diaries, his numerous letters (of which hundreds have been consulted), and his published sermons. The connecting links, from the biographer's own hand, are well written, exhibit great good sense, are very much to the point, and convey a great deal of useful information in a precise form. But though exceedingly interesting, the work is much too long; the extracts from journals and letters are too numerous, and containing, as they often do, similar sentiments and feelings recurring at different periods of the writer's history, add nothing to the knowledge already given of

"The Life of the Right Rev. Daniel Wilson, D.D., late Lord Bishop of Calcutta and Metropolitan of India." By the Rev. Josiah Bateman. 2 vols. Murray. 1860.

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his inner character and life. It is by no means a mere panegyric on the bishop's character and proceedings; at times distinct errors of judgment and conduct are freely acknowledged. But those who are well acquainted with the bishop's Indian history will find many doubtful proceedings omitted, others lightly passed over; and in others, bright colours laid on where darker shades would have been more appropriate; and to a considerable extent the "warts" of the living man removed from the portrait which professes to represent him faithfully. With these drawbacks, we can heartily commend the volumes to the attention of our readers. Daniel Wilson was born in Spitalfields in 1778, in one of the few godly families whose Christianity shone brightly in that age of infidelity and wickedness. Like many other men distinguished in the Church of God, he was blessed with a peculiarly excellent mother, whose instructions and prayers guided his youth, who was ever his confidant and adviser, and retained to the last his warmest affection and esteem. The family were early connected with Newton, Cecil, Scott, and other leaders of the evangelical clergy of the day, and young Wilson derived considerable help from their instructions and advice. For his early education, he was greatly indebted to the well-known John Eyre, of Hackney. With a view to his settlement in the silk trade, he was apprenticed to his uncle, William Wilson, an excellent, conscientious Christian, who was carrying on a most lucrative business in the City. Thrown among young men, Daniel Wilson showed himself clever, but wild, forward, and self-sufficient. He never doubted the sound doctrine in which he had been trained, but he loved it not, and did not obey it. A casual remark from one of his pious companions brought home the truth to his mind, and gave him deep and painful convictions of sin. It was long before he found peace in Christ; for eighteen months clouds and darkness hung over his soul; but the experience he obtained, the knowledge he acquired of the human heart, and the deep impressions made of the intense value of evangelical truth, proved of lasting value in the course of his future ministry. His conversion changed the current of his thoughts; business became distasteful, and he conceived an ardent desire to enter the ministry, and even to become a missionary to the heathen. In this desire he was supported by the advice of Cecil, Eyre, and Rowland Hill; and at length, after a few months of earnest preparation under the Rev. Josiah Pratt, he began his studies at St. Edmund's Hall, in Oxford. He worked very hard, was a most diligent student, made rapid progress, and attained a respectable scholarship. He could speak Latin fluently; and learned to write his journals in both Latin and French. He passed, with much credit, the various

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