écrned, it only proclaims the free exercise of the Protestant religion as the inalienable privilege of those who subscribed it, and their determination to assert that right; and it is not true, as asserted by MR. DALLAS and HUME, that it breathes in any part the language of rebellion: nor can that provision which followed it be called by so harsh a name, which merely or dained," that prayers in the vulgar tongue should be used “in the Churches, and that the interpretation of the Scrip"tures should be practised in private houses, till God should "move the Prince to grant public preaching by faithful and

"true Ministers."

The case was, that the religion of two Popish Queens rendered it necessary in the first place for persons to pray in Latin. The Scotch, who are great lovers of common sense, thought (as the English did also), that there was something very repugnant to Scripture and reason in such an imposition on the conscience being enforced by royal authority; and therefore chose to assert their right, as men, and Christians, to worship God in a language which they understood: and in the next place, it having been ordained by the same authority that no interpretation of Scripture should take place in public except by the Popish Clergy, whom the people of Scotland considered as ministers of a corrupt and idolatrous

tends in a considerable degree to weaken the authority of this document, upon the ground of internal evidence :-" The Act of depriva"tion" (says Robertson)," and a Letter from the Lords of the Congre"gation to the Queen Regent, are still extant; they discover not only "that masculine and undaunted spirit, natural to men capable of so "bold a resolution; but are remarkable for a precision and vigour of "expression, which we are surprised to meet with in an age so unpo"lished. The same observation may be made with respect to the other "public papers of that period: the ignorance or bad taste of an age 66 may render the compositions of authors by profession obscure, or "affected, or absurd; but the language of business is nearly the same "at all times; and wherever men think clearly, and are thoroughly "interested, they express themselves with perspicuity and force.”— Robertson's Scotland, vol. i. book ii. p. 416, 16th Edition of his works.

religion, they determined to absent themselves from public worship, until a more pure and faithful exposition of Scripture could be obtained..

Such is the amount of their rebellion, as set forth by HUME and MR. DALLAS: they might, indeed have gone further, and shewn that acts of direct hostility against Popery, its ministers and its mummery, followed this public declaration; but to what does all this argument tend? It only proves that the people of Scotland and England have had sufficient wisdom and vigour to maintain the palpable and manifest right of serving God, according to the dictates of their own consciences; a right which no Church but the Church of Rome would deny, and no reasoners except the secret or avowed friends of that Church would dispute.

With regard to the charge of "king-killing" which Mr. DALLAS places to the account of the Scotch Reformers, and represents to arise from their " zeal for proselytism," he does not even attempt to produce a single instance of this crime; but quotes HUME largely, for the purpose of shewing that KNOX, the great instrument and promoter of the Reformation in Scotland, used violent and threatening language to MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS, from which we are to infer, if we please, that KNOX and his colleagues were Regicides.

A slight sketch of Knox's history may not perhaps be unacceptable.

When Popery was the established religion in Scotland, this eminent man (who had been one of the chaplains of King Edward VI.) narrowly escaped with his life from Cardinal Beaton, the Archbishop of Glasgow, and Bishop Hamilton; and he was afterwards cited before Bishop Tonstall, for preaching against the mass: he was compelled to quit England by the persecution of Protestants, which arose on Queen MARY'S accession to the throne. Returning however to Scotland in 1559, just as a public prosecution was carrying on against the Protestants, who were about to be tried at Stirling (through the treachery of the Queen Regent, who had promised them

her protection), he did not hesitate to join their ranks, and share their dangers. He preached publicly against the idolatrous religion of the Church of Rome, and the corrupt lives of its Clergy. By the most bold and intrepid conduct, he exposed the abuses of Popery, and animated the nation against it, promoting the Reformation by every means in his power, in which he spared no labour, and dreaded no danger. He corresponded with CECIL the able and faithful minister of QUEEN ELIZABETH, and by that means was chiefly instrumental in establishing those negotiations between "the Congregation," and the English, which terminated in the march of an English army into Scotland, under the orders of QUEEN ELIZABETH, to assist the Protestants, and to protect them against the persecutions of the Popish Queen Regent. This army being joined by almost all the principal men of Scotland, proceeded with such vigour and success that they obliged the French forces, who had been the principal support of the Queen Regent's tyranny, to evacuate the kingdom, and thus restored the Parliament to its former independence. Of that body, a great majority had embraced the Protestant Religion; and, encouraged by the ardour and number of their friends, they improved every opportunity which occurred of overthrowing the whole fabric of Popery. They sanctioned the Confession of Faith submitted to them by KNOX, and the other reformed ministers. They abolished the jurisdiction of the Ecclesiastical Courts (those main wheels in the engine of Papal domination), and transferred the causes to the cognizance of the civil courts; and they prohibited the exercise of religious worship according to the rites of the Romish Church.

On the death of the Queen Regent, MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS arrived from France, and immediately established the Popish service in her own chapel, which by her protection and countenance was much frequented: KNOX opposed this, as he did the other evidences given by MARY of her attachment to the Romish cause. An act of the Queen's Privy Council having been proclaimed at Edinburgh, immediately after MARY'S

arrival, forbidding any disturbance to be given to the Mass, under pain of death, Knox openly declared against it in his sermon on the following Sunday: when MARY married a Papist, he preached another sermon expressing his abhorrence of such an alliance; and when her Popish husband went to hear him preach, he took occasion to speak of " the government "of wicked princes, who for the sins of the people are sent "as tyrants and scourges to plague them; and among other << things he said that God sets over them, for their offences and ingratitude, boys and women." Such plain and honest dealing as this was not likely to be very palatable to a Popish court, and he was silenced. By no means deterred however, he went on in private with the great work of the Reformation, and was one of the most active and successful instruments in eventually delivering Scotland from Papal corruption, regal tyranny, and priestly domination. He lived to preach against the awful massacre of the Protestants in Paris, on St. Bartholomew's day, and desired that the French Ambassador might be informed that he had done so. He died the 24th of November, 1572, and was interred at Edinburgh, several Lords attending his funeral, and particularly the EARL OF MORTON, who was on that day chosen Regent of Scotland, and who, as soon as he was laid in his grave, exclaimed, "There lies one who never feared the face of man; who has "been often threatened with dirk and dagger, but yet has ❝ended his days in peace and honour; for he had God's pro❝vidence watching over him in a special manner whenever his "life was sought."-(See Cook's History of the Reformation in Scotland, and McCrie's Life of Knox.)

The absolute necessity of a Reformation in Scotland will best appear from the luminous and powerful observations of PROFESSOR ROBERTSON (in his History of Scotland) upon the state of Popery in that country, at the period when KNOX appeared:

"The Reformation is one of the greatest events in the

history of mankind, and, in whatever point of light we view "it, is instructive and interesting.

"The revival of learning in the fifteenth and sixteenth "centuries roused the world from that lethargy in which it "had been sunk for many ages. The human mind felt its "own strength, broke the fetters of authority by which it had "been so long restrained, and venturing to move in a larger sphere, pushed its inquiries into every subject with great "boldness and surprising success.

"No sooner did mankind recover the capacity of exer"cising their reason, than religion was one of the first objects "which drew their attention. Long before Luther published " his famous Theses, which shook the Papal throne, science "and philosophy had laid open, to many of the Italians, the "imposture and absurdity of the established superstition. "That subtle and refined people, satisfied with enjoying those "discoveries in secret, were little disposed to assume the dan66 gerous character of reformers, and concluded the knowledge "of truth to be the prerogative of the wise, while vulgar "minds must be overawed and governed by popular errors. "But, animated with a more noble and disinterested zeal, the "German theologian boldly erected the standard of truth, and upheld it with an unconquerable intrepidity, which merits "the admiration and gratitude of all succeeding ages. The "occasion of Luther's being first disgusted with the tenets of "the Romish Church, and how, from a small rupture, the ❝quarrel widened into an irreparable breach, is known to "every one who has been the least conversant in history. "From the heart of Germany his opinions spread, with asto"nishing rapidity, all over Europe; and, wherever they "came, endangered or overturned the ancient but ill-founded "system. The vigilance and address of the court of Rome, co-operating with the power and bigotry of the Austrian 66 family, suppressed these notions on their first appearance, in "the southern kingdoms of Europe. But the fierce spirit of

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