against Cromwell, and some of them actually joined that usurper, after having disgraced the use of arms by their cowardice or treachery.

But Cromwell, himself both knave and fanatic, well knew how to govern such characters. He instantly set bounds to the licence with which Churchmen had interfered in civil matters, and, to prevent any factious attempts to embarrass his government, he prohibited the meeting of general assemblies, exhorting the clergy to devote their time to the duties connected with their sacred functions. The gifted men in his army, indeed, gave way to the enthusiasm by which they were impelled, and preached in the fields and in the highways; but their general permitted them not to molest the people in their ordinary religious exercises, or to throw any obstacles in the way of the established clergy. The factious spirit, accordingly, which had so much troubled the state, now that it was prevented from being so mischievously employed, took a new direction; and the Church, says Dr. Cook, exhibited scenes of contest, of anarchy, and of insubordination, most disgraceful to the clergy, and most pernicious to the moral and spiritual improvement of the commu nity. We more particularly allude to the protesters or remon strants, who were all along bad subjects, and detestable hypocrites. With there the friends of Cromwell chiefly associated; and the latter finding them so violent in their opposition to the exiled monarch, laboured to throw into their hands the greater number of livings, in which, by means of the English judges and sequestrators, they very generally succeeded.

Of these protesters, as they afterwards made a very conspicu ous figure, and complained loudly of persecution, in the subse quent part of Charles's reign, it may not be unseasonable to exhibit the picture which Dr. Cook has drawn, and which, from the experience of our own Church, we are convinced is in no respect overcharged. "They paid little attention," he ob serves," to the representation of the calamities which their obstinacy would occasion, and they began to act in a manner, which shews how readily men can render religious principles subservient to the gratification of passions, which religion restrains or condemns. They appealed to the people, asserting that they were guided by the purest motives, and, with disinge nuity and hypocrisy much to be lamented, but which are too frequent in the history of the Church, arrogated to themselves the appellation of the godly, insinuating or affirming that all who opposed them were men of depraved principles, or not influenced by the spirit of the Gospel They collected numbers of ministers, elders, and private Christians in meetings, not recogmized by the Church, and after prayer by any disposed to offer

it, and a confession of sins, they discussed topics, upon which the established judicatories alone were competent to decide, and even blamed what those judicatories had sanctioned. In celebrating the Lord's supper, they departed from the decent mode which had been prescribed, and which required that the minis ter of each parish should dispense it; and assembling immense multitudes from contiguous parishes, they employed the most fervent of the clergy to deliver numerous sermons; they affected a gloominess of devotion which has often been identified with the homage due to a merciful Creator; they inflamed the prejudices and the enthusiastic zeal of those who listened to them; and they thus rendered an ordinance, graciously intended to be the bond of charity, instrumental in cherishing the worst dispositious, and in withdrawing their flocks from those pastors who still adhered to the Church. The manner in which they conducted divine worship was adapted to convey the idea that they were favoured with peculiar communications of the spirit: they even altered the natural tone of the human voice, that they might inspire religious, horror; and when they had thus made themselves to be regarded as the chosen servants of God, they declaimed against the sad defection and corruption of the judicatories of the Church."

The violence and folly of these fanatics, however, helped to pave the way, on the king's return, for the restoration of episCopacy in Scotland. It had been obvious, not only to Charles, but also to the country at large, that there could be neither peace nor security, while such men were permitted to mislead the people, and to preach rebellion under the cover of religious zeal. It is still doubtful, however, notwithstanding the decided measures which the king very soon adopted, whether his first intentions were to restore the ancient government of the Church, or to continue the Presbyterian polity; and it is to be lamented that he did not act with more consistency, on a subject of so much importance. He wrote to the presbytery of Edinburgh, in August, 1660, assuring them that he was resolved" to protect and preserve the government of the Church of Scotland, as it is settled by law, without violation, and to countenance in the due exercise of their functions, all such ministers who should behave themselves dutifully and peaceably, as became men of their calling." In the following month, however, he seems to have yielded to the advice of his courtiers, to change the ecclesiastical polity of that country; and he was already prepared to take a step the most arbitrary, perhaps, that marks his reigu. In January, 1661, there was passed, in his name, what has been called the Act Recissory, a statute, by which all the Parliaments held subsequent to the year 1640, were declared null and void,

thus

thus rendering invalid those acts in confirmation of presbytery, as the established religion, to which the late king had assented. Considerable opposition was manifested by the Presbyterian clergy, not only on the ground that the government had been guilty of a breach of promise towards them, but also because their Church had been subverted by an unconstitutional and tyrannical stretch of power, most alarming to their rights, as members of the community. In truth, the line of conduct which Charles followed, in re-establishing the apostolical form of ecclesiastical regimen in the north, was in some parts so precipitate, and in others so capricious, that he roused fears, and' inflamed prejudices, not immediately connected, in their origin," at least, with Church affairs, but which tended, in the sequel, to close at once the government of the Stuarts, and of a hierarchy in Scotland. He was unfortunate too in the choice of his instruments. Middleton, his commissioner and prime minister, was extremely profligate and dissipated, and Sharp, the new' primate, was viewed by his countrymen as an apostate and traitor; the former scandalizing the gloomy and rigid covenan ters, by the looseness of his manners, and the latter rousing their indignation, by an ostentatious splendour, which they could not help regarding as the price of his treachery.

Of the former Scottish bishops, as one only remained, it now became necessary to consecrate several new prelates. A commission for this purpose was accordingly issued to the Bishops of London and Worcester, and to some of the suffrages of Canterbury; and Sharp, Fairford, Hamilton and Leighton, received! in Westminster Abbey the episcopal character: On this occa-' sion, the English bishops not considering presbyterian' ordination as valid, insisted that Sharp and the other three should go through the inferior orders of the Diaconate and Priesthood; and although this condition had been dispensed with, in the case of Spottiswoode, in 1610, the prelates elect, were in this in stance, obliged to comply. They were, however, amply repaid for this submission, by being invested with a degree of authority, which bishops had not possessed in Scotland, since the times. of popery. In the reign of James, and of his son, the bishops were regarded only as permanent moderators, or presidents of the different ecclesiastical meetings; but now, Charles by tha sole exercise of his prerogative, introduced episcopacy in its fullest latitude, and gave to the first order of the clergy, the power of determining whether or not the other orders should meet at all, and of limiting, at pleasure, the extent of their jurisdiction. The thing might be right, but it was tyrannically done. It co operated with other measures, to identify episcopacy in the minds of the people, with arbitrary power in the sovereign and it is justly observed by Dr. Cook, that the government

government of the Church, by bishops, was not exhibited, at that time, in Scotland, as its sincere friends would have wished it to be beheld. If the case had been reversed, says he, if episcopacy had been the religion of the nation, and presbytery had been forced upon it as prelacy was, the presbyterian polity would have been equally obnoxious as the episcopal.

In a short time after the legal re-establishment of the Church, strong symptoms of popular disaffection began to shew them. selves. The Court of High Commission was accordingly organized with fresh power; and mounted soldiers were entrusted with the keeping of the peace, in the southern and western districts. The presbyterians flew to arms, and made haste to meet in the field, the enemies of Christ's crown and covenant, They were defeated near the Pentland hills, and ten of the ringleaders were condemned and executed together. At this period there were many instances of piece-meal and petty cruelty, perpetrated, it is thought, contrary to the king's wishes, and altogether unworthy of a great nation to permit, or of Christian ministers to superintend. Sharp is represented as having been particularly active, himself, at no distant date, a determined covenanter, and the only one of that factious body who had proposed to abjure the royal family of Stuart, during the second exile of Charles. It is admitted, that the covenanters were in a state of open and daring rebellion, and, further, that by the law of the land, they had forfeited their lives; it is admitted that they were dangerous subjects, inasmuch as their doctrines, both political and religious, were of the most extravagant and subversive tendency; but it is obvious, at the same time, that their minds were in that agitated and delirious condition, which uniformly follows rapid changes in the government of a country; a state of mind in which reason will not be listened to, and when no force ought to be applied, except such as will either completely awe or utterly exterminate. The ministers of Charles, the Second, in Scotland, acted more like Spanish inquisitors, than as the functionaries of a powerful monarch; and exhibited just severity enough to irritate, without vigour to suppress. Theirs was that weak and contemptible policy, which sheds. blood only to increase the number of crimes.

As might have been expected, lenient measures soon became necessary; the army was disbanded, and an indemnity was granted to all who had risen against the government, upon signing what was called bonds of peace, and promising obedience to the civil power. Nay, the king was advised to proceed even further than this, and to give permission to such of the ousted ministers as had lived peaceably and orderly in the places where they resided, to preach and exercise the other clerical functions,

in their former churches, provided these were vacant, or in such vacant parishes as might be assigned to them by the patrons: and moreover, that the restored ministers should constitute ses. sions and presbyteries, as had been done before the year 1638. This proceeding was quite characteristic of the government of Charles; an expedient in the train of a blunder, and one extreme to correct another, and the indulgence thus granted was altother incompatible with the support which was due to an Established Church. The effect produced by this unprecedented toleration, was not very considerable; a few of the ministers, indeed, conformed, and the people flocked to their churches, but finding that they neither preached politics, nor abused the government, the more violent of the hearers called them "kings curates," and "dumb dogs," and withdrew again to the field conventicle. Matters accordingly soon became worse than ever. New terrors were thundered forth, which it was impossible to inflict, and the covenanters again appeared in arms, to abide the chance of a battle. Monmouth, the unfortunate son of Charles, marched against the insurgents, speedily defeated them at Bothwell Bridge, and then hastened to London to secure an act of indemnity.

We have no pleasure in detailing the progress of mad fanaticism, on the one hand, and of petty, inefficient, vengeance on the other. Suffice it to say, that in 1684, the indulgence which had been given to some of the presbyterian ministers was withdrawn ; they were prohibited from preaching; they were required to grant bonds that they would not preach; and it was ordained that those who refused to do so, should be sent prisoners to Edinburgh castle, or be banished the kingdom. One sect, the Cameronians, were placed without the protection of law; a hue and cry was raised against them wherever they were discovered; the military were authorized, without either trial or proofs to wound and kill them; while, they in their turn, having formed the desperate resolution of working upon the fears of their enemies, affixed in the night to the doors of the parish churches, what they denominated their apologetical declaration, in which they abjured Charles Stuart as a merciless tyrant, and declared war against all who promoted his wicked and hellish designs. This aspect of public affairs, was very little varied when the king died in February, 1685, nor does any thing remarkable occur, under the new monarch, until the invasion of Argyle. A few suffered in consequence of that absurd attempt; but James having the welfare of the Catholics more at heart, than the claims of the Established Church, relaxed considerably in his violent measures against the Presbyterians. In his zeal to annul all penal statutes, that respected Papists, he fortunately ceased to remember