licly, contrition for their sinful compliance, and thus purge themselves of its iniquity. Many conferences were held with them on the subject, to induce them to forego pressing this condition on their weaker brethren, who now saw their error and were willing, most heartily willing, to aid in carrying through the good work in which they were engaged, but with little result; only three of these ministers were persuaded by their arguments, and even of these, their people refused to follow them, but adhered to those who faithfully held by their beloved bond of union, the Solemn League and Covenant which their fathers had framed; and preferred forming a synod of their own, which they afterwards did, under the name of "the Reformed Presbytery."

When the most vehement and certainly most consistent of the ministers thus withdrew, there was no impediment in the way of receiving the others, and even some of the Prelatists who expressed a willingness to conform to Presbytery; against the admission of the latter many strenuously objected, but more considered that there were cogent reasons why the comprehension should be as wide as was safely practicable. Some of these reasons were cogent, but one, at least, should not have been deferred to as it was, viz, the King's wish. The country, indeed, was in an unsettled state, Prelatists, Papists, and advocates for despotic power were known to be in active correspondence with James, the dethroned King; the parishes where curates were settled, were clamorous, those in which conforming Presbyterian ministers officiated were restless, and, above all, William was exceedingly desirous that as many ministers as possible should be comprehended in the initiatory proceedings. This last reason was one which should have had little weight in such a matter, yet, by the dexterous management of Carstairs, (a Presbyterian minister of great abilities, and of singular sagacity as a politician, who was William's principal adviser in all affairs relating to the Church of Scotland), was made of primary importance; and to meet his views, even the most zealous of the reconstructing ministers were disposed to make concessions.

In this spirit both of these classes were admitted, and rations made for the holding of a General Assembly.

prepa

In 1690 the Scottish Parliament met, and acts were passed abolishing Prelacy; establishing Presbytery; ejecting those curates, of whose parishes the ejected Presbyterian ministers were still alive; rescinding the act of supremacy; repealing all acts in favor of Prelacy; and all private acts whatever, which bore upon Presbyterians. In the same year, after a lapse of nearly forty years, the General Assembly met; when it was soon made manifest that a temporizing policy would prevail; for, of the consistent ministers, there were little over sixty, of the Covenanters or Cameronians only three, while of those who had shown the flexibility of their principles, there were nearly double the number of the others put together. "Accordingly, from the very hour when it met, the assembly was laid under an almost fatal necessity of entering into a compromise, and keeping in comparative abeyance what its wisest and best members knew to be the great and essential principles of the true Presbyterian Church." "It was the duty of the Church to take care that none of her inherent principles should be overborne, and fall into abeyance at such a juncture. She could not of herself repeal any act of Parliament; and her appropriate attitude was that of calmly and respectfully, but firmly, stating her own principles and powers, and leaving it to the State to rescind those despotic and unchristian enactments which impeded their free exercise. Where that was not obtained, it was her duty to remonstrate and petition; and if still unsuccessful, then to enter such declarations and protests as should reserve her rights till a more propitious period might arrive, when they could be reasserted and obtained. Instead of this, yielding to the force of external circumstances and internal dissensions, she abstained from the bold and free statement of those great principles which, at the same time, she continued to hold; seeking a temporary peace by a weak suppression or concealment of what she thought it inexpedient to avow, yet could not abandon. Though the acts of Parliament made no mention of the Second Reformation (1638) and the National Covenants, it was the direct duty of the Church to

have declared her adherence to both; and though the State had still refused to recognize them, the Church would, by this avowal, have at least escaped from being justly exposed to the charge of having submitted to a violation of her own sacred Covenants. In the same spirit of compromise, the Church showed herself but too ready to comply with the King's pernicious policy of including as many as possible of the prelatic clergy within the national establishment. This was begun by the first General Assembly and continued for several succeeding years, though not to the full extent wished by William, till a very considerable number, of those men, whose hands had been deeply dyed in the guilt of persecution, were received into the bosom of that Church which they had so long striven utterly to destroy. It was absolutely impossible that such men could become true Presbyterians; and the very alacrity with which they signed the Confession of faith, only proved the more clearly that they were void of either faith or honor. Their admission into the Presbyterian Church of Scotland was the most fatal event which ever occurred in the strange eventful history of that Church. It infused a baneful poison into her very heart, whence, ere long, flowed forth a lethal stream, corrupting and paralyzing her whole frame. It sowed the noxious seed which gradually sprang up, and expanded into the deadly upas-tree of 'Moderatism,' shedding a mortal blight over the whole of her once fair and fruitful vineyard, till it withered into a lifeless wilderness."*

Though the evil was thus introduced, the repealing the law of patronage, and vesting the appointment of ministers to vacant parishes in the "Heritors and Elders being Protestants," subject to the approval of the people, prevented its rapid spread; but when William's act of 1690 was itself repealed in 1712, and patronage was restored in all its force, the people were deprived of all voice whatever in the choice of their pastor; the mischief had free course, and in comparatively few years was paramount in all the church courts, and gradually infected the people themselves.

*

Hetherington's History of the Church of Scotland, pp. 182-3.

It was when this process of declension was steadily progressing, that in 1722 Alexander Carlyle was born; his father was minister of Preston Pans, a village nine miles east from Edinburgh. "He was of a moderate understanding," says his son, "of ordinary learning and accomplishments for the times, for he was born in 1690; of a warm, open, and benevolent temper; most faithful and diligent in the duties of his office; and an orthodox and popular orator." Alexander learned to read very early, for when six years of age he tells us that, being excluded from the church by a crowd of hearers, and seeing a dozen of old women sitting on a step where they could hear nothing of what was being preached in the church, he proposed to read some portion of the Bible to them; "to which they agreed," he says, "and set me on a tombstone, where I read very audibly to a congregationwhich increased to about a score-the whole of the Song of Solomon."

In his thirteenth year he was sent to college at Edinburgh, where he remained for four sessions, and afterwards returned to it and entered as a student of theology. It was at this time he formed several of those friendships which were matured in after life: Dr. Hugh Blair, Principal Robertson, Dr. Witherspoon-who afterward figured in our Revolution—and others who rose to eminence. In 1743 he went to Glasgow to prosecute his theological course-how early his peculiarly liberal ideas began to develop themselves, we learn from this entry: "In the second week I was in Glasgow I went to the dancing assembly with some of my acquaintance," &c. "I was admitted a member of two clubs, one entirely literary, which was held in the porter's lodge at the college, and where we criticised books and wrote abridgments of them, with critical essays, and to this society we submitted the discourses which we were to deliver in the Divinity Hall in our turns, when we were appointed by the Professor. The other club met in McDugald's tavern, near the Cross, weekly, and admitted a number of young gentlemen who were not intended for the study of theology." . . . "Here we drank a little punch after our beefsteak and pancakes," &c. The following lets us peep

into society, and hear what were the topics on which the lady of the Divinity Professor entertained the students on their visits weekly at a conversazione: "Professor Leechman devoted one evening each week, from five to eight, to conversation with his students, who assembled on Fridays, about six or seven together, and were received first in the Professor's library. But Dr. Leechman was not able to carry on common conversation, and when he spoke at all, it was a short lecture. It was, therefore, a very dull meeting, and everybody longed to be called into tea with Mrs. Leechman, whose talent being different from that of her husband, she was able to maintain a continued conversation on plays, novels, poetry, and the fashions." Young Carlyle's liberal" turn of thought was greatly fostered by the prelections of Dr. Leechman. "What Dr. Leechman wanted in the talent for conversation, was fully compensated by his ability as a professor, for in that he shone with great lustre. It was owing to Hutcheson and him that a new school was formed in the western provinces of Scotland, where the clergy till that period were narrow and bigoted and had never ventured to range in their mind beyond the bounds of strict orthodoxy. For, though neither of these professors taught any heresy, yet they opened and enlarged the minds of the students, which soon gave them a turn for free inquiry; the result of which was, candor and liberality of sentiment." "Hutcheson was a great admirer of Shaftsbury, and adopted much of his writings in his lectures; and to recommend him more to his students, was at great pains in private to prove that the noble moralist was no enemy to the Christian religion; but that all appearances of that kind, which are very numerous in his books, flowed only from an excess of generous indignation against the fanatics of Charles First's reign. Leechman and he were supposed both to lean to Socinianism."

Having finished his theological course, Carlyle returned home, and, at his father's request, made a tour of visits among the ministers of the Presbytery of the bounds, that they might examine him with a view to his being accepted as a probationer,

* Professor of Moral Philosophy.