their sins, however heinous, and though these sins are persevered in to their last breath. A system that makes God the author of sin, by denying free will in man, and asserting that men's actions are so predetermined, that they cannot be altered; and that the number of men and angels that are to be saved or condemned are so minutely fixed, that God himself can neither add to nor diminish their number! But this act itself is persecution; for instead of comprehending the episcopal clergy, as it was their pretence, it was as severe a test as could be worded in order to exclude them.

MOREOVER, the words of the act of parliament make it an act of uniformity in "worship, and which worship they must subscribe to observe, and declare that actually they do observe it." These are the words of the act, and the episcopal clergy were called upon to observe "that worship which, to the great scandal of all other protestant churches, hath thrown out that comprehensive prayer which Our Lord hath taught, and commanded us, when we pray, to say; with that religious hymn, so anciently enjoined and so constantly used in the church, to the honour of the Holy Trinity; rejecting also the apostolical creed in baptism, the great standard and summary of the christian faith, into which we are to be baptized, and admitting no other standard of our intercessions and prayers to Almighty God, no other forms of sound words, than the private conceptions of every pretender to be the mouth of a whole church assembly or congregation of God's people. And yet this is the uniformity of worship which they must subscribe to observe, and declare that actually they do observe it. And if in any ways they dissent from any of these, then they incur the penalties contained in the act. Is this a toleration? ... But as to the penalties, they must be suspended tam ab officio quam a benificio; that is, both from their offices and benefices. First, from their offices; and that is, 'not to exercise any part of their ministeral function in any parish within the kingdom.' And is not this a penal law? The penalty, methinks, is heavy enough, to be deprived of bread, which the benefice implies; but yet heavier to be deprived of the exercise of all those sacred offices of religion to which they were consecrated. But this is not all, nor doth this negative consummate the penalty of this law; for if they continue to exercise any part of their ministerial function without subscribing and declaring as aforesaid, then they must incur banishment, and be for ever exiled from their native country, and exposed to all the miseries of poverty and distress among strangers. If this be a

VOL. III.

4 G

toleration, they have it; and if these be not penal laws, where are they to be found?1"

"THE INCLINATIONS of the people" in the northern parts of the kingdom had still resisted the advances of presbytery, and it was found necessary to make an act "for the supply of the North," on account of "the many vacancies in this church by north the water of Tay, and the paucity of ministers in these parts." Sixteen ministers, being all that could be spared, were sent to itinerate in that large portion of the kingdom, which was then filled with the episcopal clergy, to whom the people steadily adhered, in order to introduce division and strife, and by these means to plant presbyterianism, "and to illumine those parts where prelatic darkness prevailed 2."

ON THE 17th of November, archbishop Tillotson was taken ill, while officiating in the chapel at Whitehall, of a fit of the dead palsy, and died on the 22d at Lambeth, in the 65th year of his age. Burnet preached his funeral sermon, and says, "he was not only the best preacher of the age, but seemed to have brought preaching to perfection; his sermons were so well heard and liked, and so much read, that all the nation proposed him as a pattern, and studied to copy after him." Both the king and the queen were much affected with his death, especially the latter, who seldom mentioned him without tears. Burnet says, "he died so poor, that if the king had not forgiven his first-fruits, his debts could not have been all paid: so generous and charitable was he, in a post out of which Sancroft had raised a great estate, which he left to his family." Malignity and mendacity are here most transparently blended. It is well known that Dr. Sancroft expended the revenues of his see in hospitality and charity, and died in great poverty; and left no other estate to his family than his father had left to himself-of about £50 per annum, in his native village. Dr. Tennison, bishop of Lincoln, was elevated to the see of Canterbury—a dull and covetous man, "a zealous party man, and the only divine in the church of England over whom the Roman Catholics had any advantage in king James's reign3." QUEEN MARY did not long survive her favourite archbishop Tillotson. She was taken ill of small-pox of the most malignant sort, and Dr. Ratcliffe had been both negligent and unskilful in the treatment of her malady. She died on the 28th

1 The Case of the Episcopal Clergy of Scotland truly represented. Folio, 1, 2. 2 Acts of Assembly, Act 4, Sess. 14.

3 Salmon's Chronology, ii. 273-Burnet's Own Times, and the Editor's Notes, iv. 243, 244.

December, in the thirty-third year of her age, and the sixth of her reign. She was attended in her last moments by archbishop Tennison, and received from him the blessed sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. The earl of Dartmouth, in a manuscript note to Burnet's Own Times, says, "the earl of Nottingham, who was much in her confidence, told me, he was very sure, if she outlived her husband, she would have done her utmost to have restored her father; but under such restrictions as should have prevented his ever making any attempts upon the religion or liberties of his country." Out of a long and exceedingly high character which this queen has received, I shall only select one paragraph:-" She was a perfect example of conjugal love, chastity, and obedience. She set her husband's will before her as the rule of her life; her admiration of him made her submission not only easy, but delightful; and it is remarkable, that when Dr. Tennison went to comfort the king, his majesty answered'that he could not but grieve, since he had lost a wife, who, in seventeen years, had never been guilty of an indiscretion.' To sum up all, she was a tender and respectful wife, a kind friend, a gentle mistress, a debonair queen, a good christian, and the best of women'."

1695. WHEN THE last Assembly rose, the commissioner appointed the next meeting to be on the first Thursday in April, but the king thought fit to adjourn it to the 11th of July, and again to the 20th of November; and it appears that the ministers were obliged to petition king William to call another Assembly. Sir James Stuart, the lord-advocate, writing to Carstares, says "I desire to know your thoughts, if it be advisable that they [the synod of Lothian] address the king for a new Assembly, to sit some time before August next, and the sooner the better; if it can stand with the conveniency of his majesty's affairs, it may be it will not be unacceptable to the king. You can judge of the obvious consequence of it. I know some who would be glad of it, although it should be but a very short session, if it were no more but to appoint a commission for the north, for taking in some of the best of the incumbents, in some places almost a whole presbytery: as, for example, that of Strathbogie, in Moray; in other places but three or four in a presbytery, as they can be had; that so there may be a more full representation of the national church in the next ensuing General Assembly." William,

1 The History of King William, vol. ii. 407-Burnet's Own Times, iv. 245-250.

however, did not suffer the Assembly to meet till the 17th of December1.

A SESSION of parliament was held, and the marquis of Tweeddale was sent down as the royal commissioner. After the royal letter had been read, in which the king regretted that public affairs prevented his presiding in this parliament in person, the marquis expatiated on his majesty's care and concern for their safety and welfare, and his firm purpose to maintain the presbyterian discipline. The earl of Annandale, who was president for this session, took notice of the fresh assurances they had of his majesty's firm resolution to maintain presbytery, and added, " he hoped the moderation and calmness that should at this time appear in all their proceedings, in church matters, would satisfy the world that this is the government most agreeable to the temper and inclination of this people, and most suitable for the interest and support of their king, the civil government and peace of this kingdom." A dutiful answer was voted to the king's letter, and an address of condolence on the death of queen Mary.

THE PERFIDIOUS and barbarous massacre of Glencoe had never been inquired into; but a precognition of it was or dered to be taken under the Great Seal. The course of this inquiry was excessively unfavourable to Dalrymple, the late secretary of state, as well as to the parties employed in the massacre. In his instructions, king William left a door open, upon their taking the oath of allegiance, for those who were unwilling to acknowledge his sovereignty; but the parliament found that Dalrymple's letters had exceeded the king's instructions. Bredalbane was committed to the castle, and the parliament requested the king to send the officers concerned in the massacre home from the army in the low countries for trial; and the censure of Dalrymple was referred to the king. But Burnet says, "the king seemed too remiss in inquiring into it," and notwithstanding the detestation that he expressed of the massacre, he inflicted no censure on Dalrymple, and instead of sending the officers home for punishment, they were protected and advanced in the service! Burnet says, "it appeared [from the report of the precognition] that a black design was laid, not only to cut off the men of Glencoe, but a great many more clans, reckoned to be in all above six thousand persons. So the parliament justified the king's instructions, but voted the execution in Glencoe to have been

A BARBAROUS MASSACRE, and that it was pushed on by the secretary of state's letters beyond the king's orders: upon which they voted an address to be made to the king, that he and others concerned in that matter might be proceeded against according to law1."

THREE of the ministers of the synod of Aberdeen, Messieurs Craven, minister of Newhills; Burnet, minister of Aberdeen; and Thomson, minister of Fintrie, who had protested against the commission of the last General Assembly, were called before the House, and examined. For this heinous offence, and their attachment to the episcopal church, their churches were declared to be vacant, and they were debarred from the exercise of their ministerial function, until they should qualify themselves by taking the oath of allegiance and subscribing the assurance. They were imprisoned in Edinburgh till they gave security not to go on the north side of the river Forth, under a penalty of £100 sterling 2." But Gilbert Ramsay, one of the ministers of the synod of Aberdeen, who had signed the protest also, having been called to the bar of the House, was dismissed without any censure, because he now disowned the protest, and took the oath of allegiance and the assurance3.

THE CHURCH had been exposed to the presbyterian persecution from the Revolution till this time; but the civil government, "not willing to have the remains of episcopacy quite rooted out, by an act received into its protection such of the clergy as would take the oaths then required, but confined them as to the exercise of ecclesiastical discipline within their own parishes; the far greater number of such as, till then, continued in possession of their churches within the diocese and shire of Aberdeen, embraced their peace on these conditions, and qualified themselves in terms of law. But this did not free them at all from the vexatious persecutions of their adversaries, who from time to time libelled [indicted] several of them, though they rarely found a plausible pretence to pass sentence." This is confirmed by Burnet, who says, this session an act passed in favour of such of the episcopal

2 Acta Parl. 18, p. 389.

3 Ibid. 423.

In

1 Own Times, iv. 281. A Representation of the State of the Church in North Britain, as to Episcopacy and Liturgy; and of the Sufferings of the orthodox and regular Clergy, from the Enemies to both. But more especially of the Episcopal Churches within the diocese and shire of Aberdeen. To which is prefixed, A DISQUISITION Concerning Ecclesiastical Censures, in causes civil and criminal, particularly in matters of Treason and Rebellion. With Original Papers and Attestations. 8vo. Lond. printed for W. and J. Innys, at the Princes Arms in St. Paul's Churchyard: and gold by James Bettenham, at the Crown in Paternoster Row, 1718. p. 17.