table, and hold assemblies with the pastors and doctors, for establishing good order and execution of discipline; and deacons, to distribute alms, and watch over the temporal interests of the church. The name bishop is declared to be of the same import as minister or pastor, and to imply no superior dignity. All the office-bearers are to be admitted by election and ordination, and none intruded into any office contrary to the will of the congregation to which they are appointed, nor are the pastors to be appointed to the charge of more than one flock. The ecclesiastical assemblies are those of the officebearers of one congregation, who manage its general concerns, now known by the name of the kirk session; those of a number of neighbouring congregations-the eldership or presbytery, whence the Scottish church has received its appellation, who inspect a number of adjoining congregations, in every thing relating to religion and manners, and has the power of ordaining and deposing ministers within its bounds; the provincial synod, as its name expresses, consists of all the presbyteries within its bounds, and takes cognizance of their proceedings; the general assembly, or general eldership of the whole churches in the realm, consists of such number of ecclesiastical persons, ministers, and elders, as shall be thought good by the same assembly, which acts as a court of appeal, and review in all cases which come before the inferior courts, and treats of every thing connected with the welfare of the national church. The patrimony of the church includes all donations from kings, princes, or those of inferior station, together with all legacies, endowments, buildings, annual rents, &c. which it is declared sacrilege either to alienate or convert, by unlawful means, to other than ecclesiastical purposes; and these are-the support of the ministers; of the elders and deacons as far as necessary; the relief of the poor, the sick, and the stranger; and the keeping in a proper state of repair the places of worship. Under the general denomination of clergy, are comprehended schoolmasters and teachers, for whose increase and encouragement the first assemblies of the church of Scotland always showed the most laudable anxiety.

To the order which should be adopted, a long list of abuses

to be reformed is subjoined. Fully aware of the mighty and mposing influence of titles with the multitude, they enumerate among these abuses, the retaining of all such as marked the dignities and secularities of the Romish clergy, abbots, priors, deans, archdeacons, and a long list of offices unknown until the darkest and most debased ages of Christianity; they stigmatize the unchristian association, in one person, of temporal peer and bishop of souls, and the still more baneful and unseemly exercise of criminal justice and the pastoral office, by the same individual; the plurality of livings is condemned, and patronages and presentations to benefices, whether by the prince or by any inferior person, which lead to intrusion, and are inconsistent with lawful election, and the assent of the people over whom the person is placed, are pronounced contrary to the practice of the apostolical and primitive kirk, and good order. Such is a very concise sketch of that form of ecclesiastical polity to which our ancestors were so much attached, and in support of which, some of the best blood of the country was shed.

Probably the most acute intellect would find it difficult to trace in the New Testament any precise model of church government. Perverse ingenuity had too frequently converted into a subject of strife, what the Divine Lawgiver left as a matter of forbearance; but there is a broad marked line of boundary, to distinguish between a true and a false method

It has been invidiously, but unfortunately in some cases justly remarked, that polemics do not usually combat with the same calmness as philosophers; that in their disputes they bring all their passions into play. The reason is obvious, polemics contend for their interests in time, and their stake in eternity; philosophers dispute about abstract principles, which have little influence on the present, and no certain reference to a future state of existence. In questions of such magnitude, there is to the theologian nothing trifling, his rule of obedience and belief is imperative, there is no great or small transgression. The wearing of a vestment consecrated to a false mode of worship is to him as serious an infringement of the divine command, as is eating meat offered to idols. Thus the primitive fathers of the Scottish church considered the subject, and this was the doctrine which they enforced upon their hearers, for they had not learned politely, or, as lukewarmness is now styled, charitably, to concede to that system of fraud and idolatry—the Papal superstition, the name of Christianity. They knew no difference between bending the

of worship, and it requires no great penetration to discover that lordly titles, and princely revenues, are diametrically opposite both to the spirit and letter of the Christian religion, a conviction which must have come with double efficience to those who had suffered under that worst of tyrannies-the junction of the ecclesiastical and civil power. The Scottish Reformers, and all their successors, who had participated in their wrongs, and inherited their spirit, naturally felt a strong repugnance to any assimilation-by a consecrated uniform, or an adaptation of the mass book-which might, in the most distant degree, betoken an affinity with the degrading superstition, and idolatrous inthralment they had just broken, and in their polity, carefully avoided every title, vesture, usage, or form, which in other cases might perhaps have been innocent or unimportant, but in their circumstances, could neither be deemed harmless nor safe.

When the book of polity was presented to the king, upon his assumption of the government, as both parties were then courting the favour of the church, his counsellors advised him to return a gracious answer, promising to concur with them in all things that might advance religion. At next parliament, however, its ratification was evaded, and when Morton regained full power, the assembly were desired to use their utmost endeavours to promote peace and obedience during the king's minority, but refer the full discussion of the polity till the next meeting of parliament, at which the king himself was to preside in person. Then, however, the legal ratification of the order of the kirk was still evaded, but the previous acts

knee to an image of an apostle Paul, or to one of the god Mercurius; nor could they distinguish between the profanity of offering prayer to a Saint Apollos, or to a Heathen Jupiter; and it was owing to this principle, which must never be lost sight of in reading Scottish history during the reign of the Stuarts, that we are to attribute the inflexible firmness with which our forefathers resisted the use of copes, and gowns, and sashes, and surplices, the rags of Rome," as they styled them, and the introduction of a liturgy, or, in the language of king James, the ill framed mass book, and the abhorrence with which they viewed a hierarchy, which acknowledging a temporal head, bore, in their opinion, too near a resemblance to the system of iniquity be neath which they had groaned, and which it had cost them so much to over

turn.

for securing the liberty of the true church were confirmed,* and others, agreeable to the ministers, enacted; to enforce the strict observance of the Sabbath; to oblige all respectable persons to have a Bible and Psalm Book in their houses; and to - prevent the alienation of youth from the established religion by a foreign education.

The day following Morton's execution, Arran reported to the king in council, what had been his own conduct with respect to the trial, and acknowledging that he had not only tampered with Morton's servants, but even proceeded to inflict torture on some of them, to obtain evidence against their master, prayed the approbation of his majesty and council for these proceedings, for which, he was afraid, he might afterward have been called to an account. This he easily obtained, and what ought to have been stamped with infamy, was acknowledged as good service to the state, by an express act of council. As if willing, however, to draw off attention from the atrocity of his public conduct, by the infamy of his private life, he nearly about this time, married the lady of the earl of March, whom he had debauched, while supported by the earl, and entertained at his table-before he could boast of a table of his own-and who had previously divorced her husband, for a reason which female delicacy would blush to name. His union with this woman, whose ambition was as insatiable as his own, had nearly occasioned his ruin.

In the month of August, the earl of Lennox was created duke, and on the same occasion, Arran was solemnly confirmed in his title of earl, which he had only worn by courtesy before. Imagining that he was now completely secure of the

The true church is thus defined: "The ministers of the blessed evangel of Jesus Christ, whom God of his mercy has now raised up amongst us, or hereafter shall raise, agreeing with them that now live in doctrine and administration of sacraments, and the people that prefer Christ as he is now offered, and communicate with the holy sacraments according to the Confession of Faith, be the true and holy kirk of Jesus Christ within this realm.-Vide Act, quoted by Cooke, vol, i. p. 301.

+Archbishop Spotswood describes her as a woman, “intolerable in all the imperfections incident to that sex," and another writer thus, “maistresse of all bawdrie and villanie then lady Marche, infected the air in his H. audience." MSS. Bibl. Jurid. quoted by Dr. M'Crie, in the Life of Melville.

king's affection, he began to feel the pangs of rivalry, and envying the precedence which he perceived Lennox enjoy, seized every occasion to affront him. This naturally occasion. ed retaliation, but their mutual resentments were kept within bounds, till the meeting of parliament, when a point of eti quette occasioned an open rupture. The chamberlain claimed, as his privilege, to arrange the introductions to the king, which Arran insisted belonged to his office, as captain of the guard. The duke, in consequence, withdrew from attending parliament, which so irritated the king, that next day he pro ceeded to Dalkeith, and took Lennox along with him, for bidding Arran to approach the court.* Such trifling, mon like the quarrels of children, than the rivalry of men, it woul be beneath the dignity of history to record, did we not stil see, that at courts, such even yet, are the mighty struggles o the great, and that on intrigues equally despicable among th favourites of monarchs, the fate of the most powerful nation too frequently depends.

While the dispute lasted, Arran and his lady, with impu dent, matchless hypocrisy, went regularly and devoutly t sermon and to prayers, pretending that religion alone was th cause of their difference with the court, and that they wer disliked merely on account of their attachment to the protes tant faith. But knowing that this was a farce which coul not last long, Arran employed the mediation of friends, mad the most humble submissions to the duke, to whom he resign ed the office of commander of the guard, and was again re ceived into favour.+

The nobility, who had rejoiced at the rupture between the two favourites, and had hoped to regain their proper influenc

*Spotswood, p. 315.

+ Vide character of lady Arran, Note, p. 53. Lennox, although more pol ished, appears to have been a worthy associate. In the MSS. quoted above, i is said, “The duke, in his own person fretted, and was enraged that he coul not be avenged on the ministers, who would not beare with his hypocrisie and adulterouse life, wherewith the land was polluted. He intended to pu hand on John Durie, at Dalkeith. In a French passion he rent his beard and thinking to strike the borde, strake himself in the theigh, crying, the devil for John Durie, which Monbrineo learned for the first lessoun in the Scottish language." MS. referred to before.