publicly proclaimed in Edinburgh, on the | as their declaration went, it stated the 11th day of April, 1689. A few sentences of this most important document must be engrossed in the body of this work, in vindication of the principles and conduct of the oppressed and persecuted Church of Scotland. It begins as follows :— "Whereas King James VII. being a professed Papist, did assume the regal power, and acted as king, without ever taking the oath required by law, whereby the king, at his accession to the government, is obliged to swear to maintain the Protestant religion, and to rule the people according to the laudable laws, and did, by the advice of wicked and evil counsellors, invade the fundamental constitution of this kingdom, and alter it from a legal limited monarchy to an arbitrary despotic power; and in a public proclamation asserted an absolute power to cass, annul, and disable all the laws, particularly the laws establishing the Protestant religion, and did exercise that power to the subversion of the Protestant religion, and to the violation of the laws and liberties of the kingdom." (Then follows an enumeration of the arbitrary acts, complained against, forming, in fact, a brief outline of the history of the persecuting period.) "Therefore, the estates of the kingdom of Scotland find and declare that King James VII. being a professed Papist, did assume, &c. (in the same terms as above,) WHEREBY HE HATH FORFEITED THE RIGHT TO THE CROWN, AND THE THRONE IS BE COME VACANT.” very same reasons for the tyrant's forfeiture of the crown which had been repeatedly stated by the followers of Cameron, Cargill and Renwick, and in defence of which these high-principled men had cheerfully laid down their lives. A short time previous to the issuing of the convention's Declaration and Claim of Right, a petition was laid before them, embodying the sentiments and requests of the maligned Cameronian Covenanters, in a strain at once of sublimity and pathos, such as rarely has been surpassed. "We prostrate ourselves, yet under the sorrowing smart of our still bleeding wounds, at your honours' feet, who have a call, a capacity, and, we hope, a heart to heal us; and we offer this our petition, conjuring your honours to hearken to us. By all the formerly felt, presently seen, and, for the future, feared effects and efforts of Popery and tyranny,-by the cry of the blood of our murdered brethren, by the sufferings of the banished freeborn subjects of this realm, now groaning in servitude, having been sold into slavery in the English plantations of America, by the miseries that many thousands forfeited, disinherited, harassed, and wasted houses have been reduced to,-by all the sufferings of a faithful people, for adhering to the ancient covenanted establishment of religion and liberty, and by all the arguments of justice, necessity, and mercy, that ever could join together, to begin communication among men of The reader will observe, that this de- wisdom, piety, and virtue,-humbly, beclaration of the Scottish convention of es- seeching, requesting, and craving of your tates is the same in spirit, and almost the honours, now when God hath given you same in words, as the declarations emitted this opportunity to act for His glory, the by the covenanted Presbyterians, on ac- good of the Church, of the nation, your count of which they were calumniated own honour, and the happiness of posand persecuted as rebels and traitors. | terity,-now when this kingdom, the The only essential difference between neighbouring, and all the nations of their declarations and that of the convention is, that the Covenanters took for their central and leading principle that which forms the essence of religious liberty, and at the same time renders absolute civil despotism impossible, namely, the sole sovereignty of Christ, as the only Head and King of his free spiritual kingdom, the Church. This the convention did not declare, in all probability they neither understood nor held it; but so far Europe, have their eyes upon you, expecting you will acquit yourselves like the representatives of a free nation, in redeeming it from slavery otherwise inevi table, that you will proceed without any delay to declare the wicked government dissolved, the crown and throne vacant, and James VII., whom we never owned, and resolved in conjunction with many thousands of our countrymen never to own, to have really forfeited, and rightly to be deprived of, all right and title he expenditure of levy-money, they raised a ever had, or ever could pretend to have regiment of eight hundred men, comhitherto, and to provide that it may never monly termed the Cameronian regiment, be in the power of any succeeding ruler commanded by the Earl of Angus, and to aspire unto or arise to such a capacity Lieutenant-Colonel Cleland; the latter of tyrannizing." (They then petition of whom had led a party of the insurthat the crown may be bestowed on gents both at Drumclog and Bothwell William, with such necessary provisions Bridge, and was afterwards killed in the as may secure liberty civil and religious, gallant and successful defence of Dunspecify the king's duty to profess and keld by that regiment against a far supepreserve the pure religion and the work rior force of Highlanders. Such, indeed, of reformation, and conclude thus:) was their loyalty and zeal, that they even "Upon such terms as these we render offered to raise two more regiments, if our allegiance to King William, and their services should be required, for the hope to give more pregnant proofs of our protection of the nation's liberties; a suffiloyalty to his majesty, in adverse as well cient proof that they were neither the as prosperous providences, than they narrow-minded fanatics, nor the miserahave done, or can do, who profess implicit subjection to absolute authority so long only as Providence preserves its grandeur."* ble handful, which their enemies and persecutors pretended, but in reality a powerful body of high-hearted and pa triotic men. abolished." Such were the earnest, free, and digni- It deserves to be remarked, that in the fied, loyal, and pious sentiments of men Claim of Right, which forms the basis of who had been slandered, reviled, and the Revolution Settlement, the convention persecuted for the space of twenty-eight did not rest satisfied with the rather amyears; and whose characters, principles, biguous mention of the Protestant reand memory, the greatest author of mo- ligion, but inserted a clause in the followdern times has vainly striven to blackening terms: "That Prelacy, and the and disgrace, his own reputation alone superiority of any office in the Church suffering from the malignant and abortive above Presbyters, is, and hath been, a attempt, through the fatal recoil which ig- great and insupportable grievance and norant and calumnious falsehood sustains, trouble to this nation, and contrary to the when it dares to encounter unsullied and inclinations of the generality of the peomajestic truth. Their loyalty and patriot-ple, ever since the Reformation, they ism were not confined to words. In the having been reformed from Popery by distressed state of the country, a civil war Presbyters, and, therefore, ought to be commencing, led on by the fierce and infuriated Dundee (Claverhouse), with few troops in the kingdom, and some of these disaffected to the new sovereign, and others almost undisciplined, the generous Covenanters stood forward in defence of their native land, and offered to raise a regiment for public service, stipulating only that the officers should be men of conscience, honour, and fidelity, and unstained by the persecuting proceedings of the late reigns, and that their service should be for the defence of the nation and the preservation of religion, in opposition to Popery, Prelacy, and tyranny. These terms were gladly accepted; and in one day, without beat of drum, or the The insertion of such a clause was imperatively necessary in order to satisfy the Presbyterians, who had at least as much reason to dread Prelacy as they had to dread Popery itself, having suffered from Prelacy a persecution unspeakably more intense than ever Popery had been in a condition to inflict. The Revolution Settlement was now as complete as the temporary expedient of a convention of estates could legally render it; and in order to confirm it in the amplest manner, without incurring the danger of intrigues and divisions, the king empowered them to pass an act converting the convention into a parliament, to meet formally on the 5th of June, and for despatch of business on the 17th of the same month, in which the Earl of Crawford was to preside, the And abroad, and availed themselves of its pro- Duke of Hamilton representing his ma- | When King James's last indulgence. jesty as commissioner. The general was issued, several of the exiled and inconfusion prevailing in the kingdom at tercommuned ministers returned from this time rendered the sitting of the parliament short, and comparatively unsatisfactory. Yet some important measures were carried and others proposed. On the 22d of July an act was passed "abolishing Prelacy, and all superiority of any office in the Church in this kingdom above Presbyters," and rescinding those acts of parliament passed in the reign of Charles II., by which Prelacy had been established. An "overture for settling church government in Scotland" was then laid before the parliament by the Duke of Hamilton, but was so ill received, that it was withdrawn. An act was prepared, and with some difficulty passed, excluding from places of public trust those persons who had either been ready instruments of tyranny and persecution in the former reigns, or had exerted themselves against the recent propitious changes which had rescued the nation from civil and religious despotism. But this the commissioner refused to ratify, and it was not again revived in any subsequent parliament. The dissensions in the parliament continued to run high, increased on the one hand by rumours of conspiracies among the adherents of James, who began to be termed Jacobites, and who were composed of Papists, Prelatists, and supporters of absolute power, whether of any religious creed, or of none; and on the other, by the disappointment of the Presbyterians, who had as yet experienced little return of gratitude from the king for having so greatly contributed to that Revolution which transferred to his brow the crown of three kingdoms. It was accordingly adjourned, and appointed to meet again early in the beginning of the following year. The difficulties to be encountered were both numerous and formidable. They had to meet the determined and deadly hostility of the defeated Prelatists throughout the kingdom; under which designation must be classed not only the few who favoured Prelacy on purely religious grounds, if any such there were, but also, and especially, all secular politicians, all ambitious or licentious men of the world, all Papists, and all who hated religion because they loved immorality. They had also to attempt the very difficult task of uniting all Presbyterians into Having thus traced a brief outline of one compact harmonious body, able both the main civil events which took place to confront their enemies, and to insure during the first year of the new reign, the respect and support of their friends. and while the nation was still tossing in But the greater part of the Presbyterian all the fitful uncertainties which charac- ministers in Scotland, at that juncture, terize a state of transition, it is necessary were those who had either partially conto direct our attention a little more closely formed to Prelacy, or had accepted of the to the actual condition of the Presbyterian indulgences which had from time to time Church, which was now struggling from been offered, and had repeatedly excited amidst the ruins in which it had been so such unhappy and pernicious divisions long overwhelmed and kept prostrate. | among them. These men conscious of their feeble-minded and faithless defec- was a statesman in the strictest sense of tions, were on that very account the more the term; and his mind was so engrossed ready to take offence at the slightest allu- with the great idea of maintaining the sion to their former conduct by their balance of power in Europe against the more consistent brethren. There was, gigantic strength of France, that every therefore, the utmost reason to dread the other thing occupied but a subordinate instantaneous rising of such internal dis- place and value in his thoughts. A comsensions as would prevent the possibility plete union between Scotland and Engof reuniting the Presbyterian body into land he regarded as of essential imporsuch a harmonious form as might enable tance, to enable him to meet the compact it to become again the Established Church might of the French monarchy; and of the nation. The danger of such a dis- though personally favourable to the Presastrous result was greatly increased by byterian form, yet seeing the improbatwo entirely opposite causes. On the one bility that he could persuade England to hand, those who were merely, or chiefly, accept of it, he was desirous to induce political Presbyterians, strongly urged Scotland to consent to a modified Episcoupon the ministers, that all mention of pacy. He did not regard any form of past defections, errors, and weaknesses church government as of divine authority; among their brethren should be most and therefore thought it practicable to incarefully avoided, so that offence might duce both kingdoms to abate somewhat neither be given nor received; on the of their distinctive peculiarities, and to other, the unyielding Covenanters, who meet and unite in some intermediate arhad not shrunk from the hottest of the rangement. For that reason he abstained conflict, whose firm and steady strength from a full recognition of Presbytery in had contributed greatly to the protection Scotland at first, waiting to try the effect of the convention, and by that means had of returning peace to produce unanimity; lent effectual aid to the assertors of free- and when he did consent to the establishdom, and who were doubtless somewhat ment of the Presbyterian Church in Scotelated to see so many of their boldest prin- land, he did so in terms which have been ciples in the course of being realized, thought to admit of a somewhat lax inthese high-minded and inflexible men terpretation, declaring it to be "agreeurged upon the whole Presbyterian body able to the Word of God," instead of the absolute necessity of making a full "grounded upon the infallible truth of acknowledgement of all past errors and God's Word," which was the form of defections, and of resting satisfied with expression used by Knox, at the first esnothing short of the revival of the Na- tablishment of the Presbyterian Church. tional Covenants, and the restoration of The same course of policy led him to the Church to the position she had occu- desire in Scotland itself a union of the pied in the year 1649. It was absolutely prelatic clergy of the two preceeding impossible that views so diametrically reigns and the restored Presbyterians; opposed to each other could both be though, how he could expect any degree adopted; and it was almost inevitable of cordiality to subsist between humbled that the wish and the endeavour to frame and fangless persecutors and their ressome compromise, or to take up some in- cued, yet wounded and still bleeding victermediate position, would plunge the tims, it is not easy to imagine. By Church into inextricable difficulties, and prosecuting this specious yet most baneperhaps also into serious errors. ful policy, dictated do doubt by that great deceiver of the world's sages and statesmen, expediency, William both alienated and so far paralyzed his Presbyterian friends, to whom chiefly he owed the British crown, left power in the hands of enemies and traitors, and excited those feelings of discontent in the minds of the one party, and turbulent anticipations of change and counter-revolution in the The peculiar character and views of King William, and the advice given to him by those in whom he reposed the greatest confidence, did not tend to diminish the difficulties of the Scottish Presbyterians. There is no reason to doubt that William was well aware of the value of true religion, and was himself considerably under its influence. But he other, by which his whole reign was rendered a scene of distraction and turmoil. Nor was it fortunate for either William or the Church of Scotland, that Carstares, whom he had made his private chaplain, and on whose advice he so much relied in the management of Scottish affairs, held opinions so congenial to those of his royal master. Carstares was unquestionably a man of great ability, and his resolution and fidelity had borne a severe trial on a former occasion But, though a sincere Presbyterian, he seems to have been so more from political than from religious considerations, and to have viewed a religious establishment more as an engine of state than as a Church of Christ. The great Presbyterian principle, that the Lord Jesus is the only Head and King in his Church, he does not seem to have understood or felt, at least neither his conduct nor any of his writings give any indication that it formed the ruling principle in his views of ecclesiastical polity. That he was a sincere friend to the Church of Scotland, is certain; but the defective nature of his own perception of its great principles not only prevented him from making any effort to obtain their free developement, but even led him to obstruct and thwart what it ought to have been the business of his life to promote. It was, therefore, morally impossible that Carstares should give to the king the wisest and the best advice with regard to the establishment of the Presbyterian Church, since he did not himself understand the very essence of the Presbyterian system of Church government. Some will think this a strange assertion, when employed respecting a man of such eminence as Carstares, and one to whom the Church of Scotland is in reality under deep obligations. Let them studiously compare the principles and conduct of Carstares with those of the great men who conducted the First and Second Reformations in Scotland, and they will be compelled to feel, whether they fully understand the cause or not, that in him they perceive but a cold reflected lunar light,-in them the life-giving power and fervour of direct sunshine. He was a Presbyterian greatly, if not chiefly, through the force of edu cation and habit, and by the convictions of human prudence and political sagacity; and therefore, he strove for the re-es tablishment of the Presbyterian Church as most likely to confirm his sovereign's throne, and most agreeable to the inclina tions of the people ;-they were Presbyterians by the grace of God and the indwelling power of divine truth within their souls; and, therefore, they strove for the establishment of a Presbyterian Church, as directly founded upon the Word of God, and therefore of divine institution and authority. Yet the errors of Carstares were those chiefly of omission to the extent to which his own defective views enabled him to reach, he had an accurate conception of the Presbyterian polity and discipline, and did his utmost to obtain its establishment, and to protect it in times of danger. Another point demands our observation. On the 13th of April a proclamation was issued by the convention of estates, against the owning of King James, and appointing public prayers for William and Mary, as king and queen of Scotland; with certification, that those who refused should be deprived of their benefices. This proclamation was disregarded by a great number of the prelatic clergy, who neither read it as required, prayed for William and Mary, nor kept a day of thanksgiving, subsequently ap pointed. They were, besides, discovered to be in close correspondence with the exiled king, and with Dundee, both giving him information and doing their utmost to furnish him with supplies of men and money. This was very different from any thing which the Presbyterians had done during any period of the persecution man of cution; and to have allowed it to pass unpunished would have been giving direct encouragement to a counter-revolution. The matter was therefore taken up by the privy council, during the interval between the convention and the parlia ment, and after the adjournment of the latter, and prosecutions were instituted against the delinquents. From the records of council it appears that, in all, two hun dred and two were publicly tried for disobeying the proclamation and maintaining direct intercourse with the armed supporters of James, twenty-three were acquitted, and one hundred and seventy |