This is tape three of John Howey's Biographia Scoticana, or The Scots Worthies, the 1781 edition, narrated by Larry Berger. We continue our reading of The Life of James Stuart, Earl of Moray. The regent, being led into this design of the enemy, drew his army out of the town to observe which way they intended to pass. He had not above four thousand men. They discovered the Queen's army passing along the south side of the River Clyde. Moray commanded the foot to pass the bridge, and the horse to ford the river, and marched out to a small village called Langside upon the river cart. They took possession of a rising ground before the enemy could well discover their intention, and drew up in the order of battle. The earls of Morton, Semple, Hume, and Patrick Lindsay on the right, and the earls of Marr, Glencairn, Montaith, with the citizens of Glasgow, were on the left, and the musketeers were placed in the valley below. The Queen's army approaching, a very brisk but short engagement ensued. The Earl of Argyle, who was commander-in-chief of the Queen's troops, falling from his horse, they gave way, so that the Regent obtained a complete victory, but by his clement conduct there was very little blood spilt in the pursuit. The Queen, who all the while remained with some horse at about the distance of a mile from the place of action, seeing the rout, escaped and fled for England. and the Regent returned to Glasgow, where they returned thanks to God for their deliverance from Popery and Papists, who threatened to overturn the work of God among them. This battle was fought upon the 13th of May, 1568. After this, the Regent summoned the Parliament to meet at Edinburgh, which the Queen's party laboured to hinder with all their power. In the meantime, letters were received from the Queen of England requiring them to put off the meeting of Parliament until she was made acquainted with the whole matter. for she said she could not bear with the affront which her kinswoman said she had received from her subjects. The Parliament, however, assembled, and after much reasoning it was resolved to send commissioners to England to vindicate their conduct. But none consenting to undertake this business, the Regent resolved upon going himself, and accordingly chose three gentlemen, two ministers, two lawyers, and Mr. George Buchanan to accompany him. And with a guard of a hundred horse they set out and arrived at York, the appointed place of conference, on the 4th of October. After several meetings with the English Commissioners to little purpose, the Queen called the Regent up to London, that she might be better satisfied by personal conversation with him about the state of these affairs. But the same difficulty stood in his way here as at York. He refused to enter upon the accusation of his sister, the Queen of Scots, unless Elizabeth would engage to protect the King's party, provided the Queen was found guilty. But, while matters were thus remaining in suspense at London, Mary had stirred up a new commotion in Scotland by means of one James Balfour, so that the Regent found himself exceedingly embarrassed, and therefore resolved to bring the matter to a conclusion as soon as possible. After several interviews with the Queen and Council, in which the Regent and his party supported the ancient rites of their country, and wiped off the aspersions many had thrown on themselves, which Buchanan narrates at large, Book A decision was given in their favours, and the regent returned home loaded with honours by Elizabeth, and attended by the most illustrious of the English court, escorted by a strong guard to Berwick, and arrived at Edinburgh on the 2nd of February, where he was received with acclamations of joy, particularly by the friends of the true religion. During his administration many salutary laws in favour of civil and religious liberty were made, which rendered him more and more the object of popish malice. At last they resolved at all events to take his life. The many unsuccessful attempts formerly made only served to render them more bold and daring. Though the Queen was now at a distance, yet she found means to encourage her party, and perhaps the hope of delivering her at length gave strength to their resolution. One James Hamilton of Bothell Howe, nephew to the Archbishop of St. Andrews, incited by his uncle and others, undertakes to make away with the Regent when a convenient opportunity offered itself. He first lay in wait for him at Glasgow, and then at Stirling, but both failed him, after which he thought Linlithgow the most proper place for perpetrating that execrable deed. His uncle had a house near the Regent's, in which he concealed himself that he might be in readiness for the assassination. Of this design the Regent got intelligence likewise, but paid not that regard to the danger he was exposed to which he should, and would go no other way than that in which it was suspected the ambush was laid. He trusted to the fleetness of his horse in riding swiftly by the suspected place. But the great concourse of people who crowded together to see him stopped up the way. Accordingly, he was shot from a wooden balcony, the bullet entering a little below the navel, came out at the reins, and killed the horse of George Douglas behind him. The assassin escaped by a back door. The regent told his attendants that he was wounded and returned to his lodgings. It was at first thought the wound was not mortal, but his pain increasing, he began to think of death. Some about him told him that this was the fruit of his lenity in sparing so many notorious offenders, and among the rest his own murderer, but he replied, Your importunity shall not make me repent my clemency. Having settled his private affairs, he committed the care of the young king to the nobles there present. And without speaking a reproachful word of any, he departed this life on the 24th of January, 1570, according to Buchanan, 1571, but according to Spotswood, 1569. Thus fell the Earl of Moray, whom historians ordinarily call the good regent, after he had escaped so many dangers. He was certainly a worthy governor. Both Buchanan and Spotswood give him the following character. His death was lamented by all good men who loved him as the public father of his country. Even his enemies confessed his merit when dead. They admired his valor in war, his ready disposition for peace, his activity in business, in which he was commonly very successful. The divine favor seemed to shine on all his actions. He was very merciful to offenders and equitable in all his decisions. When the field did not call for his presence, he was busied in the administration of justice. by which means the poor were not oppressed, and the terms of lawsuits were shortened. His house was like a holy temple. After meals he caused a chapter of the Bible to be read, and asked the opinions of such learned men as were present upon it, not out of a vain curiosity, but from a desire to learn, and reduce to practice what it contained. In a word, he was both in his public and private life a pattern worthy of imitation. And happy would it be for us that our nobles were more disposed to walk in the paths which he trod. For, and how he ends in the words of Spotswood, above all his virtues, which were not a few, he shined in piety towards God, ordering himself and his family in such a sort as did more resemble a church than a court. For therein, besides the exercise of devotion which he never omitted, there was no wickedness to be seen, nay, not an unseemly or wanton word to be heard. a man truly good and worthy to be ranked amongst the best governors that this kingdom hath enjoyed, and therefore to this day honoured with the title of the Good Regent. THE LIFE OF MR. JOHN KNOX Mr. Knox was born in Gifford, near Haddington, in East Lothian, in the year 1505. His father was related to the ancient house of Ranferly. When he left the grammar school, he was sent to the University of St. Andrews to study under Mr. John Mayer, a man of considerable learning at that time, and had the degree of Master of Arts conferred upon him while very young. He excelled in philosophy and polemical divinity, and was admitted into church orders before the usual time appointed by the canons. Then, laying aside all unnecessary branches of learning, he betook himself to the reading of the ancients. particularly Augustine's and Jerome's works, with whom he was exceedingly pleased. He profited considerably by the preaching of Thomas Gilliam, a blackfriar of sound judgment and doctrine. His discourses led him to study the Holy Scriptures more closely, by which his spiritual knowledge was increased, and such a zeal for the interest of religion begotten in him as he became the chief instrument in accomplishing the Primitive Reformation. He was a disciple of Mr. George Wizard, as the reader has already seen in the account of his life, which procured him the hatred of the Popish clergy, who could not endure that light which discovered, that is, revealed or disclosed, their idolatrous darkness. After the death of Cardinal Beaton, he retired into the castle of St. Andrews, where he was confined for some time. But the castle being obliged to surrender to the French, he became their prisoner and was sent aboard the galleys. and he was a slave on the French galleys for nineteen months. From whence he made his escape about the year 1550, and went to England, where he preached for several years in Berwick, Newcastle, and London, with great applause. His fame at last reached the ears of King Edward VI, who offered him a bishopric, which he rejected as contrary to his principles. During his stay in England he was called before the council and required to answer the following questions. why he refused the benefits provided for him at London. Second, whether he thought that no Christian might serve in the ecclesiastical ministration according to the laws and rights of the realm of England. Third, if kneeling at the Lord's table was not indifferent. To the first he said that his conscience witnessed to him that he might profit more in some other place than in London. To the second, that many things needed reformation in the ministry of England, without which no minister did or could discharge his duty before God. For no minister in England had authority to separate the leprous from the whole, which was a chief part of his office, and that he refused no office which might in the least promote God's glory in the preaching of Christ's gospel. And to the third he replied that Christ's action was most perfect, that it was most safe to follow his example, and that kneeling was a human invention. The answer which he gave to this question occasioned a considerable deal of altercation betwixt the Council and him. There were present the bishops of Canterbury and Ely, the Lord Treasurer, the earls of Northampton, Shrewsbury, etc., the Lord Chamberlain, and the secretaries. After long reasoning with them, he was desired to take the matter into farther consideration, and so was dismissed. After the death of King Edward, he retired to Geneva, but soon left that place and went to Frankfurt upon the solicitation of the English congregation there. Their letter to him was dated September 24, 1554. While he was in this city, he wrote his admonition to England, and was soon involved in troubles because he opposed the English liturgy and refused to communicate, that is, celebrate the Lord's Supper, after the manor he had enjoined. Messrs. Isaac and Perry, supported by the English doctors, not only got him discharged to preach, but accused him before the magistrates of high treason against the Emperor's son Philip and the Queen of England, and to prove the charge they had recourse to the above-mentioned admonition, in which they alleged he had called the one little inferior to Nero, and the other more cruel than Jezebel. But the magistrates, perceiving the design of his accusers, and fearing lest he should some way or other fall into their hands, gave him secret information of his danger, and requested him to leave the city, for they could not save him if he should be demanded by the Queen of England in the Emperor's name. And having taken the hint, he returned to Geneva. Here he wrote an admonition to London, Newcastle, and Berwick, a letter to Mary, Dowager of Scotland, an appeal to the nobility, and an admonition to the commons of his own country, and his first blast of the trumpet, and so forth. He intended to have blown this trumpet three times if Mary's death had not prevented him. Understanding that an answer was to be given to his first blast, he deferred the publication of the second, till he saw what answer was necessary for the vindication of the first. While he was at Geneva, he contracted a close intimacy with Mr. John Calvin, with whom he consulted on every emergency. In the end of Harvest, 1554, he returned home upon the solicitation of some of the Scots' nobility, and began privately to instruct such as resorted to him in the true religion. among whom were the Laird of Dunn, David Forrest, and Elizabeth Adamson, spouse to James Barron, Burgess of Edinburgh. The idolatry of the Mass particularly occupied his attention, as he saw some remarkable for zeal and godliness drawn aside by it. Both in public and private he exposed its impiety and danger. His labour succeeded so far as to draw off some and alarm many others. In a conversation upon this subject at the Laird of Dunn's house, in presence of David Forrest, Mr. Robert Lockhart, John Willock, and William Maitland, Jr., of Lethington, he gave such satisfactory answers to all the objections which were started by the company, that Maitland ended the conversation, saying, I see very well that all our shifts will serve nothing before God, seeing they stand us in so small stead before men. From this time forward the Mass was very little respected. Mr. Knox continued a month at the Laird of Dunn's, preaching every day. The principal gentleman of that country resorted to his ministry. From thence he went to Calder, where the Earl of Argyle, then Lord Lorne, and Lord James, afterwards Earl of Moray, heard his doctrine and highly approved of it. During the winter he taught in Edinburgh, and in the beginning of the spring went to Kyle, where he preached in different places. The Earl of Glencairn sent for him to Finlaston. where, after sermon, he administered the Lord's Supper, and then returned to Calder. The people, being thus instructed, began to refuse all superstition and idolatry, and set themselves to the utmost of their power to support the true preaching of the gospel. This alarmed the inferior Popish clergy so much that they came from all quarters complaining to the bishops, whereupon Mr. Knox was summoned to appear in the Blackfriars Church of Edinburgh on the 15th of May following. which appointment he resolved to observe, and accordingly came to Edinburgh in company with the Laird of Dunn and several other gentlemen. But the diet did not hold, because the bishops were afraid to proceed further against him, so that, on the same day that he should have appeared before them, he preached to a greater audience in Edinburgh than ever he had done before. The Earl of Marshall, being desired by Lord Glencairn to hear Mr. Knox preach, complied and was so delighted with his doctrine that he immediately proposed that something should be done to draw the Queen Regent to hear him likewise. He made this proposal in a letter, which was delivered into her own hand by Glencairn. When she had read it, she gave it to Beaton, Archbishop of Glasgow, saying in ridicule, Please you, my lord, to read a paschal, that is, a homily or a sermon. About this time, 1555, he received a letter from the English congregation at Geneva, who were not in communion with the congregation of that name at Frankfurt, in which they beseech him, in the name of God, that as he was their chosen pastor, he would speedily come to them. In obedience to this call, he sent his wife and mother-in-law before him to deep, but by the importunity of some gentlemen, he was prevailed on to stay some time behind them in Scotland, which he spent in going about exhorting the several congregations in which he had preached. to be fervent in prayer, frequent in reading the Scriptures, and in mutual conferences till God should give them greater liberty. The Earl of Argyle was solicited to press Mr. Knox a stay in this country, but he could not succeed. Mr. Knox told them that, if they continued earnest in the profession of the faith, God would bless these small beginnings, but that he must for once go and visit that little flock which the wickedness of men had compelled him to leave. And being thus resolved, he went immediately to Geneva. As soon as he was gone, the bishops' cause summoned him to their tribunal, and for non-compearance they burnt him in effigy on the cross of Edinburgh, from which unjust sentence, when he heard of it, he appealed to the nobility and commons of Scotland. Upon the receipt of a letter dated March 10, 1556, subscribed by the earls of Glencairn, Erskine, Argyle and Moray, Mr. Knox resolved to return again into Scotland. Committing the care of his flock at Geneva to Mr. John Calvin, and coming to deep, he wrote from thence to Mrs. Anna Locke a declaration of his opinion of the English service-book, expressing himself thus, Our Captain Christ Jesus and Satan his adversary are now at open defiance, their banners are displayed and the trumpet is blown on both sides for assembling their armies. Our master calleth upon his own, and that with vehemency, that they may depart from Babylon, yea, he threateneth death and damnation to such as either in their forehead or right hand have the mark of the beast. And a portion of this mark are all these dregs of papistry which are left in your great book of England, that is, crossing in baptism, kneeling at the Lord's table, mumbling or singing of the litany, etc., etc., any one jot of which diabolical inventions will I never counsel any man to use, that is, practice, and so forth. He was detained in this place much longer than expectation, which obliged the Scots nobility to renew their solicitations, which he complied with, and arrived in Scotland on the 2nd of May, 1559, being then fifty-four years old. He preached first at Dundee, and afterwards at St. Johnston, with great success. About this time the Queen put some preachers to the horn, prohibiting all upon pain of rebellion to comfort, relieve, or assist them. which enraged the multitude to that degree that they would be restrained neither by the preachers nor magistrates from pulling down the images and other monuments of idolatry in St. Johnston, which, being told to the Queen, it so enraged her that she vowed to destroy man, woman, and child in that town and burn it to the ground. To execute this threat she caused her French army to march towards the place, but being informed that multitudes from the neighboring country were assembling in the town for the defense of its inhabitants, her impetuosity was checked. and she resolved to use stratagem where force could not avail her. Accordingly she sent the earls of Argyle and Moray to learn what was their design in such commotions. Mr. Knox, in the name of the rest, made answer that the present troubles ought to move the hearts of all the true servants of God and lovers of their country to consider what the end of such tyrannical measures would be by which the emissaries of Satan sought the destruction of all the friends of religion in the country. Therefore I most humbly require of you, my lords, to tell the Queen in my name that we whom she in her blind rage doth thus persecute are the servants of God, faithful and obedient subjects of this realm, and that the religion which she would maintain by fire and sword is not the true religion of Jesus Christ, but expressly contrary to the same, a superstitious device of men which I offer myself to prove against all who in Scotland maintain the contrary. freedom of debate being allowed, and the word of God being the judge. Tell her from me that her enterprise shall not succeed in the end, for she fights not against man only, but against the Eternal God," and so forth. Argyle and Moray promised to deliver this message, and Mr. Knox preached a sermon, exhorting them to constancy, adding, I am persuaded that this promise, meaning the promise she had made to do them no harm if they would leave the town peaceably, shall be no longer kept than the Queen and her Frenchmen can get the upper hand, which accordingly happened when she took possession of the town and put a garrison of French in it. This breach of promise disgusted the earls of Argyle and Moray to that degree that they forsook her and joined the congregation. Having assembled with the Laird of Don and others, they sent for Mr. Knox, who in his way to them preached, in Crail and in Anstruther, intending to preach next day at St. This design coming to the ears of the bishop, he raised a hundred spearmen and sent this message to the lords, that if John Knox offered to preach there, he should have a warm military reception. They, in their turn, forewarned Mr. Knox of his danger and dissuaded him from going. He made answer, God is my witness that I never preached Jesus Christ in contempt of any man, neither am I concerned about going thither. Though I would not willingly injure the worldly interest of any creature, I cannot in conscience delay preaching tomorrow if I am not detained by violence. As for fear of danger to my person, let no man be solicitous about that, for my life is in the hand of him whose glory I seek, and therefore I fear not their threats, so as to cease from doing my duty, when of his mercy God offereth the occasion. I desire the hand and weapon of no man to defend me. only I crave audience which, if denied to me here at this time, I must seek further where I may have it." The Lords were satisfied that he should fulfill his intention, which he did with such boldness and success, without any interruption, that the magistrates and people of the town, immediately after sermon, agreed to remove all monuments of idolatry, which they did with great expedition. After this, several skirmishes ensued between the Queen and Lords of the congregation. But at last the Queen sickened and died, and a general peace, which lasted for some time, was procured during which the commissioners of the Scots nobility, in the year 1560, were employed in settling ministers in different places. Mr. Knox was appointed to Edinburgh, where he continued until the day of his death. The same year the Scots Confession was compiled and agreed upon. and that the Church might be established upon a good foundation, a commission and charge was given to Mr. Knox and five others to draw up a form of government and discipline of the Church. When they had finished it, they presented it to the nobility, by whom it was afterwards ratified and approved of. But this progress, which was daily making in the Reformation, soon met with a severe check by the arrival of Queen Mary from France in August 1561. With her came potpourri and all manner of profanity. The mass was again publicly set up, at which the religious part of the nation were highly offended and none more than Mr. Knox, who ceased not to expose the evil and danger of it on every occasion, on which account the Queen and court were much exasperated. They called him before them and charged him as guilty of high treason. The Queen, being present, produced a letter, wrote by him, wherein it was alleged that he had convocated Her Majesty's legions against law. whereupon a long reasoning ensued between him and Secretary Lethington upon the contents of said letter, in which Mr. Knox gave such solid and bold answers in defense of himself and doctrine, that at last he was acquitted by the Lords of the Council, to the no small displeasure of the Queen and those of the Popish Party. Mr. Knox, in a conference with the Queen about this time, said, If princes exceed their bounds, they may be resisted even by power. For there is no greater honor and obedience to be paid to princes than God hath commanded to be given to father or mother. If children join together against their father, stricken with a frenzy, and seeking to slay his own children, apprehend him, take his sword or other weapons from him, bind his hands and put him in prison till his frenzy overpass, do they any wrong, or will God be offended with them for hindering their father from committing horrible murder? Even so, madam, if princes will murder the children of God their subjects Their blind zeal is but a mad frenzy. To take the sword from them, to bind them, and to cast them into prison till they be brought to a sober mind is not disobedience, but just obedience, because it agreeth with the word of God. The Queen, hearing this, stood for some time as one amazed, and changed countenance. No appearance was, at this time, of her imprisonment, which, as we've already seen, came thereafter. After the Queen's marriage with Henry, Earl of Darnley, a proclamation was made in 1565, signifying that for as much as certain rebels who, under the colour of religion, meaning those who opposed the measures of the court, intended nothing but the subversion of the Commonwealth, therefore they charged all manner of men, under pain of life, lands, and goods, to resort and meet their Majesties at Linlithgow on the 24th of August. Upon Sabbath the 19th, the king came to the high church of Edinburgh, where Mr. Knox preached from these words, O Lord our Lord, other lords besides thee have had the dominion over us, etc. In his sermon he took occasion to speak of wicked princes who, for the sins of a people, were sent as scourges upon them, and also said that God set in that room boys and women, and that God justly punished Ahab and his posterity, because he would not take order with the harlot Jezebel. These things enraged the king to a very high degree. Mr. Knox was immediately ordered before the council, who went thither attended by some of the most respectable citizens. When called in, the secretary signified that the king was much offended with some words in his sermons, as above mentioned, and ordered him to abstain from preaching for fifteen or twenty days, to which Mr. Knox answered that he had spoken nothing but according to his text. And if the church would command him either to speak or refrain from speaking, he would obey so far as the word of God would permit him. Nevertheless, for this and another sermon which he preached before the lords, in which he showed the bad consequence that would follow upon the queen's being married to a papist, he must be, by the queen's order, prohibited from preaching for a considerable time. It cannot be expected that we should enumerate all the indefatigable labours and pertinent speeches which, on sundry occasions, he made to the Queen, nor the opposition which he met with in promoting the work of Reformation. These will be found at large in the histories of these times. The Popish faction now found that it would be impossible to get their idolatry re-established while the Reformation was making such progress, and while Mr. Knox and his associates had such credit with the people. They therefore set other engines to work than these they had hitherto used. They spared no pains to blast his reputation by malicious calumnies, and even by making attempts upon his life. For one night, as he was sitting at the head of a table in his own house, with his back to the window, as was his custom, he was fired at from the other side of the street on purpose to kill him. The shot entered at the window, but he being near to the other side of the table, the assassin missed his mark The bullet struck the candlestick before him and made a hole in the foot of it. Thus was he that was with him stronger than they that were against him. Mr. Knox was an eminent wrestler with God in prayer, and like a prince prevailed. The Queen Regent herself gave him this testimony when, upon a particular occasion, she said she was more afraid of his prayers than of an army of ten thousand men. He was likewise warm and pathetic in his preaching. in which such prophetical expressions as dropped from him had the most remarkable accomplishment. As an instance of this, when he was confined in the castle of St. Andrews, he foretold both the manner of their surrender and their deliverance from the French galleys, and when the lords of the congregation were twice discomfited by the French army, he assured them in the meantime that the Lord would prosper the work of reformation. Again, when Queen Mary refused to come and hear sermon, He bid them tell her that she would yet be obliged to hear the word of God whether she would or not, which came to pass at her arraignment in England. At another time he thus addressed himself to her husband Henry, Lord Darnley, while in the king's seat in the high church of Edinburgh, Have you for the pleasure of that dainty dame cast the psalm book in the fire? The Lord shall strike both head and tail. Both king and queen died violent deaths. He likewise said, when the castle of Edinburgh held out for the Queen against the Regent, that the castle should spew out the captain, meaning the Laird of Grange, with shame, and that he should not come out at the gate, but over the wall, and that the tower called Davies Tower should run like a sand-glass, which was fulfilled a few years after, the same captain being obliged to come over the wall on a ladder with a staff in his hand and the said forework of the castle running down like a sand-brae. On the 24th of January, 1570, Mr. Knox being in the pulpit, a paper was put into his hands, among others, containing the names of the sick people to be prayed for. The paper contained these words, Take up the man whom you accounted another god. This alluded to the Earl of Moray, who was slain the day before. Having read it, he put it in his pocket without showing the least discomposure. After sermon he lamented the loss which both church and state had met with in the death of that worthy nobleman, meaning the regent, showing that God takes away good and wise rulers from a people in his wrath, and at last said, There is one in the company who maketh that horrible murder at which all good men have occasion to be sorrowful, the subject of his mirth. I tell him he shall die in a strange land where he shall not have a friend near him to hold up his head. One Mr. Thomas Maitland, being the author of that insulting speech, and hearing what Mr. Knox said, confessed the whole to his sister, the Lady Trebrown, but said that John Knox was raving to speak of he knew not whom. She replied with tears that none of Mr. Knox's threatenings fell to the ground. This gentleman afterwards went abroad and died in Italy on his way to Rome, having no men to assist him. Mr. Knox's popularity was now so well established that the malignant party, finding it impossible to alienate the hearts of the people from him, began now openly to work his destruction, fortifying the town and castle with their garrisons. They vented their malice against him by many furious threatenings. Upon which he was urged by his friends to leave Edinburgh for his own safety, which at last he did in May 1571, and went to St. Andrews, where the Earl of Morton, who was then regent, urged him to inaugurate the Archbishop of that sea. This he declined, with solemn protestations against it, and denounced an anathema on the giver and receiver. Though he was then very weak in body, he would not refrain from preaching, and was obliged to be supported by his servant Richard Vanentine in going to church. And when in the pulpit, he behoved to rest some time before he could proceed to preach, but before he ended his sermon he became so vigorous and active that he was like to have broken the pulpit to pieces. Here he continued till the end of August 1572, when the civil broils were a little abated, upon which, receiving a letter from Edinburgh, he returned to his flock. He was now much oppressed with the infirmities of old age and the extraordinary fatigues he had undergone. The death of the good regent, the Earl of Moray, had made deep impressions on him, but when he heard of the massacre of Paris and the murder of the good admirable Collini, these melancholy news almost deprived him of his life. how he describes the massacre of Paris. In the space of two or three days there were about 70,000 Protestants murdered in cold blood in Paris and other parts of France. This massacre was begun in the night of St. Bartholomew's Day in the reign of Charles IX of that kingdom. The King of Navarre, afterward Henry the Great, narrowly escaped on that occasion, for he was then at Paris, on account of the solemnization of his marriage with Charles's which marriage the Papists had contrived in order to draw as many Protestants into that city as possible, that they might have them in their power. See the account of this mournful event at large in Sully's Memoirs, Volume 1. Upon finding his dissolution approaching, he prevailed with the Council in Kirkcession of Edinburgh to concur with him in admitting one Mr. James Lawson as his successor, who was at that time Professor of Philosophy in the College of Aberdeen. He wrote a letter to Mr. Lawson, entreating him to accept of this charge, adding this post-script, Accelera me frater, Haliocui sero venies, that is, make haste, my brother, otherwise you will come too late, meaning that if he came not speedily, he would find him dead. Which words had this effect on Mr. Lawson, that he set out immediately, making all possible haste to Edinburgh? where, after he had preached twice to the full satisfaction of the people, the 9th of November was appointed for his admission unto that congregation. Mr. Knox, though then still weaker, preached upon that occasion with much power and with the greatest comfort to the hearers. In the close of his sermon he called God to witness that he had walked in a good conscience among them, not seeking to please men, nor serving his own nor other men's inclinations, but in all sincerity and truth preaching the gospel of Christ. Then, praising God who had given them one in his room, he exhorted them to stand fast in the faith they had received, and having prayed fervently for the divine blessing upon them and the increase of the Spirit upon their new pastor, he gave them his last farewell, with which the congregation were much affected. Being carried home, that same day he was confined to his bed, and on the thirteenth of the month he was so enfeebled that he was obliged to lay aside his ordinary reading of the Scripture The next day he would rise out of bed, being asked what he intended by getting out of bed. He replied that he would go to church, thinking that had been the Lord's Day. He told them that he had been all night meditating upon the resurrection of Christ, which he should have preached on in order after the death of Christ, which he had finished the Sabbath before. He had often desired of God that he would end his days in teaching and meditating upon that doctrine, which desire seems to have been granted to him. Upon Monday the seventeenth the elders and deacons being come to him, he said, The time is approaching for which I have long thirsted, wherein I shall be relieved and be free from all cares, and be with my Saviour for ever. And now God is my witness, whom I have served with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that I have taught nothing but the true and solid doctrines of the gospel, and that the end which I purposed in all my doctrine was to instruct the ignorant, to confirm the weak, to comfort the consciences of those that were humbled under the sense of their sins, and to denounce the threatenings of God's word against such as were rebellious. I am not ignorant that many have blamed me, and yet do blame, my too great rigor and severity. But God knoweth that in my heart I never hated the persons of those against whom I thundered God's judgments. I did only hate their sins, and labored according to my power to gain them to Christ. That I did forbear none of whatsoever condition I did it out of the fear of my God, who placed me in this function of the ministry, and I know will bring me to an account." Then he exhorted them to constancy, and entreated them never to join with the wicked, but rather to choose with David to flee to the mountains than to remain with such company. After this exhortation to the elders and deacons, he charged Mr. David Lindsay and Mr. James Lawson to take heed to feed the flock over which the Holy Ghost had made them overseers. To Mr. Lawson in particular he said, Fight the good fight, do the work of the Lord with courage and with a willing mind, and God from above bless you and the church whereof you have the charge, against which the gates of hell shall not prevail. Then by prayer he recommended the whole company present to the grace of God, and afterwards desired his wife, or Richard Benentine, to read the seventeenth chapter of John, a chapter of the Ephesians, and the thirty-third chapter of Isaiah daily, after he was unable to read himself. Sometimes he desired part of Mr. Calvin's sermons in French to be read to him. One time, when reading these sermons, they supposed him to be sleeping, and asked him if he heard what was read. He replied, I hear, I praise God, and understand far better. One day after this, Mr. David Lindsay, coming to see him, he said unto him, Well, brother, I thank God I have desired all this day to have had you, that I might send you to that man in the castle, the Laird of Grange. whom you know I have loved dearly. Go, I pray you, and tell him from me, in the name of God, that unless he leave that evil course wherein he is entered, neither shall that rock, meaning the castle of Edinburgh, which he then kept out against the king, afford him any help, nor the carnal wisdom of that man whom he counteth half a god, meaning young Lethington, but he shall be pulled out of that nest and brought down over the wall with shame, and his carcass shall be hung before the sun, so God hath assured me. When Mr. David delivered this message, the captain seemed to be much moved, but after a little conference with Lethington, he returned to Mr. Lindsay and dismissed him with a disdainful countenance and answer. When he reported this to Mr. Knox, he said, Well, I have been earnest with my God, and that is concerning that man. I am sorry that it should so befall his body, yet God assureth me there is mercy for his soul, but for the other, meaning Lethington, I have no warrant to say that it shall be well with him. The truth of this seemed to appear in a short time thereafter, for it was thought that Lethington poisoned himself to escape public punishment. He lay unburied in the steeple of Laith until his body was quite corrupted. But Sir William Kirkcaldy, of Grange, was, on the 3rd of August next, executed at the cross of Edinburgh. He caused Mr. Lindsay to repeat Mr. Knox's words concerning him a little before his execution. and was much comforted by them. He said to Mr. Lindsay, who accompanied him to the scaffold, I hope when men shall think I am gone, that is dead, I shall give a token of the assurance of God's mercy to my soul, according to the speech of that man of God. Accordingly, when he was cast over the ladder, with his face towards the east, when all present thought he was dead, he lifted up his hands, which were bound, and let them fall softly down again, as if praising God for his great mercy towards him. Another of Mr. Knox's visitors desired him to praise God for the good he had done. He answered, flesh of itself is too proud and needs nothing to puff it up, and protested that he had only laid claim to the free mercy of God in Christ among others. To the Earl of Morton, who was then about to receive the Regency, the Earl of Moray being dead, he was heard to say, My Lord, God hath given you many blessings, he hath given you high honor, birth, great riches, many good friends, and is now to prefer you to the government of the realm. In his name I charge you that you will use these blessings better in time to come than you have done in time past. In all your actions seek first the glory of God, the furtherance of his gospel, the maintenance of his church and ministry, and then be careful of the king to procure his good and the welfare of the kingdom. If you act thus, God will be with you. If otherwise, he shall deprive you of all these benefits and your end shall be shameful and ignominious." This threatening Morton, to his melancholy experience, confessed was literally accomplished. At his execution in June 1581, he called to mind Mr. Knox's words and acknowledged that in what he had said to him he had been a true prophet. Upon the Lord's Day, November 23rd, after he had lain for some time very quiet, he said, If any man be present, let him come and see the work of God. for he thought, as was supposed, then to have expired. His servant, having been sent for Mr. Johnston, writer, he burst forth into these words, I have been in meditation these two last nights upon the troubled Kirk of God, despised in the world but precious in his sight. I have called to God for her and commended her to Christ her head. I have been fighting against Satan, who is ever ready for the assault, and I have fought against spiritual wickednesses and have prevailed. I have been as it were in heaven, and have tasted of its joys." After sermon, several persons came to visit him. One asked him, upon perceiving his breathing shortened, if he had any pain. He answered, I have no more pain than he that is now in heaven, and am content, if it please God, to lie here seven years. Many times, when he was lying as if asleep, he was in meditation, and was heard to say, Lord, grant true pastors to thy church that purity of doctrine may be retained. Restore peace again to this commonwealth with godly rulers and magistrates. O serve the Lord in fear and death shall not be troublesome to you. Blessed is the death of those that have part in the death of Jesus. Come, Lord Jesus, sweet Jesus, into thy hand I commend my spirit. That night, Dr. Preston being come to him and was told by some of his constant attendants that he was often very uneasy in his sleep, the doctor asked him after he awoke how he did and what made him mourn so heavily in his sleep. He answered, In my lifetime I have been often assaulted by Satan, and many times he hath cast my sins in my teeth to bring me to despair. Yet God gave me strength to overcome his temptations. And now that subtle serpent who never ceases to tempt hath taken another course, and seeks to persuade me that all my labors in the ministry, and the fidelity I have showed in that service, have merited heaven and immortality. But blessed be God, that he hath brought to my mind that Scripture, what hast thou that thou hast not received, and, not I, but the grace of God which is in me, with which he hath gone away ashamed, and shall no more return. And now I am sure that my battle is at an end. and that I shall shortly, without pain of body or trouble of spirit, change this mortal and miserable life for that happy and immortal life that shall never have an end. Having, sometime before, given orders for making his coffin, he rose out of bed, November 24th, about ten o'clock, and put on his hose and doublet, and sat up about the space of half an hour, and then returned to bed again. Being asked by King and Clue if he had any pain, he answered, No pain. but such as, I trust, will soon put an end to this battle. Yea, I do not esteem that pain to me, which is the beginning of eternal joy." In the afternoon he caused his wife to read the fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians. When it was ended, he said, Is not that a comfortable chapter? A little after, I commend my soul, spirit, and body into thy hands, O Lord. About five o'clock at night he said to his wife, Go, read where I cast my first anchor. this was the seventeenth chapter of John, which she read, together with part of Calvin's sermons on the Ephesians. They then went to prayer, after which Dr. Preston asked him if he heard the prayer. He answered, Would to God that you and all men had heard it, as I have done. I praise God for that heavenly sound, adding, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. His servant, Richard Benentine, hearing him give a long sigh, said, Now, sir, the time you have long called to God for doth instantly come. and seeing all natural power fails, give us some sign that you live upon the comfortable promises which you have so often showed to us." At this speech he lifted up one of his hands, and immediately after, without any struggle, as one falling asleep, he departed this life about eleven o'clock at night. Finishing his Christian warfare, he entered into the joy of his Lord to receive a crown of righteousness prepared for him and such as him from before the foundation of the world. He was buried in the churchyard of St. Giles, now that square called the Parliament Close, upon Wednesday the 26th of November. His funeral was attended by the Earl of Morton, Regent, other Lords, and a great multitude of people of all ranks. When he was laid in the grave, the Earl of Morton said, There lies a man who in his life never feared the face of man, who hath been often threatened with dag and dagger, but hath ended his days in peace and honour. He was low in stature and of a weakly constitution, which made Mr. Thomas Smeaton, one of his contemporaries, say, I know not if ever God placed a more godly and great spirit in a body so little and frail. I am certain that there can scarcely be found another in whom more gifts of the Holy Ghost for the comfort of the Church of Scotland did shine. No one spared himself less, no one more diligent in the charge committed to him, and yet no one was more the object of the hatred of wicked men. and more vexed with the reproach of evil speakers, but this was so far from abating that it rather strengthened his courage and resolution in the ways of God. Beza calls him the great apostle of the Scots. His faithfulness in reproving sin in a manner that showed he was not to be awed by the fear of man made up the most remarkable part of his character, and the success wherewith the Lord blessed his labours was very singular and is enough to stop the mouth of every enemy against him. His works are an admonition to England, an application to the Scots nobility, and so forth, a letter to Mary, the Queen Regent, a history of the Reformation, a treatise on predestination, the first and second blasts of the trumpet, a sermon preached on August, 1565, on account of which he was for some time prohibited from preaching. He left also sundry manuscripts, sermons, tracts, etc., which have never been printed. and I would add that those that have been printed are all available from Stillwaters Revival Books, and many of them are free on the webpage for Stillwaters, www.swrb.com. The Life of Mr. George Buchanan George Buchanan was born in Lennoxshire, commonly called the Sheriffdom of Dumbarton, in Scotland, in a country town situated near the River or Water of Blayne in the year of our Lord 1506 about the beginning of February, of a family rather ancient than rich. His father died of the stone in the flower of his age, whilst his grandfather was yet alive, by whose extravagance the family, which was low before, was now almost reduced to the extremity of want. Yet such was the frugal care of his mother, Agnes Harriet, that she brought up five sons and three daughters to men's and women's estate. Of the five sons, George was one. His uncle, James Harriet, perceiving his promising ingenuity in their own country schools, took him from thence and sent him to Paris. There he applied himself to his studies, and especially to poetry, having partly a natural genius that way, and partly out of necessity, because it was the only method of study propounded to him in his youth. Before he had been there two years, his uncle died, and he himself fell dangerously sick, and being in extreme want, was forced to go home to his friends. After his return to Scotland he spent almost a year in taking care of his health. Then he went into the army with some French auxiliaries, newly arrived in Scotland, to learn the military art. But that expedition proving fruitless, and those forces being reduced by the deep snows of a very severe winter, he relapsed into such an illness as confined him all that season to his bed. Early in the spring he was sent to St. Andrews to hear the lectures of John Major, who, though very old, read logic, or rather sophistry, in that university. The summer after he accompanied him into France, and there he fell into the troubles of the Lutheran sect, which then began to increase. He struggled with the difficulties of fortune almost two years, and at last was admitted into the Barbaran College, where he was grammar professor almost three years. During that time, Gilbert Kennedy, Earl of Castles, one of the young Scottish nobles being in that country, was much taken with his ingenuity and acquaintance, so that he entertained him for five years and brought him back with him into Scotland. Afterwards, having a mind to return to Paris to his old studies, he was detained by the king and made tutor to James, his natural son. In the meantime, an elegy made by him at leisure times came into the hands of the Franciscans, wherein he writes that he was solicited in a dream by St. Francis to enter into his order. In this poem there were one or two passages that reflected on them very severely, which those ghostly fathers, notwithstanding their profession of meekness and humility, took more heinously than men, having obtained such a vogue for piety among the vulgar, ought to have done, upon so small an occasion of offence. But finding no just grounds for their unbounded fury, They attacked him upon the score of religion, which was their common way of terrifying those they did not wish well to. Thus, whilst they indulged their impotent malice, they made him, who was not well affected to them before, a greater enemy to their licentiousness, and rendered him more inclinable to the Lutheran cause. In the meantime, the king, with Magdalene his wife, came from France, not without the resentment of the priesthood, who were afraid that the royal lady, having been bred up under her aunt, the Queen of Navarre, should attempt some innovation in religion. But this fear soon vanished upon her death, which followed shortly after. Next there arose jealousies at court about some of the nobility who were thought to have conspired against the king, and in that matter the king being persuaded the Franciscans dealt in sincerely, he commanded Buchanan, who was then at court, though he was ignorant of the disgusts between him and that order, to write a satire upon them. He was loath to offend either of them, and therefore, though he made a poem, yet it was but short, and such as might admit of a doubtful interpretation, wherein he satisfied neither party, not the king, who would have had a sharp and stinging invective, nor the fathers neither, who looked on it as a capital offence to have anything said of them but what was honourable. So that receiving a second command to write more pungently against them, He began that miscellany which now bears the title of the Franciscan and gave it to the king. But shortly after being made acquainted by his friends at court that Cardinal Beaton sought his life and had offered the king a sum of money as a price for his head, he escaped out of prison and fled for England. And at this point Howie inserts a footnote from John Knox's history that says the following. In the midst of these evils he, the king, caused to put hands on that notable man, Mr. George Buchanan. But by the merciful providence of God he escaped the rage of those that sought his life, although with great difficulty, and remains alive to this day, the year 1566, to the glory of God, the great honor of this nation, and to the comfort of those who delight in learning and virtue. But there also things were at such an uncertainty, that the very same day, and almost with one and the same fire, the men of both factions, Protestants and Papists, were burnt, Henry VIII in his old age being more intent on his own security than the purity or reformation of religion. This uncertainty of affairs in England, seconded by his ancient acquaintance with the French, and the courtesy natural to them, drew him again into that kingdom. As soon as he came to Paris he found Cardinal Beaton, his utter enemy, ambassador there, so that, to withdraw himself from his fury at the invitation of Andrew Govian, he went to Bordeaux. There he taught three years in the schools, which were erected at the public cost. In that time he composed four tragedies, which were afterwards occasionally published. But that which he wrote first, called The Baptist, was printed last, and next, The Media of Euripides. He wrote them in compliance with the custom of the school, which was to have a play written once a year, that the acting of them might wean the French youth from allegories to which they had taken a false taste, and bring them back as much as possible to a just imitation of the ancients. This affair succeeding even almost beyond his hopes, he took more pains in compiling the other two tragedies, called Jephthah and Alcestis, because he thought they would fall under a severer scrutiny of the learned. And yet during this time he was not wholly free from trouble, being harassed with the menaces of the Cardinal on the one side, and of the Franciscans on the other. For the Cardinal had wrote letters to the Archbishop of Bordeaux to apprehend him, but providentially those letters fell into the hands of Buchanan's best friends. However, the death of the King of the Scots, and the plague, which then raged all over Aquitaine, dispelled that fear. In the interim an express came to Govian from the King of Portugal, But commanding him to return and bring with him some men, learned both in the Greek and Latin tongues, that they might read the liberal arts, and especially the principles of the Aristotelian philosophy, in those schools which he was then building with a great deal of care and expense. Buchanan, being addressed to, readily it consented to go for one. For, whereas he saw that all Europe besides was either actually in foreign or domestic wars, or just upon the point of being so, that one corner of the world was, in his opinion, likeliest to be free from tumults and combustions, and besides, his companions in that journey were such that they seemed rather his acquaintances and familiar friends than strangers or aliens to him. For many of them had been his intimates for several years, and are well known to the world by their learned works as Michaelaeus Grutius, Gaelimus Garentius, Jacobus Tevius, and Elias Venetus. This was the reason that he did not only make one of their society, but also persuaded a brother of his, called Patrick, to do the same. And truly the matter succeeded excellently well at first, till in the midst of the enterprise Andrew Govian was taken away by a sudden death, which proved mighty prejudicial to his companions. For after his decease, all their enemies endeavored first to ensnare them by treachery, and soon after ran violently upon them, as it were, with open mouth. and their agents and instruments being great enemies to the accused, they laid hold of three of them and hailed them to prison. Whence, after a long and loathsome confinement, they were called out to give in their answers, and after many bitter taunts were remanded to prison again, and yet no accuser did appear in court against them. As for Buchanan, they insulted most bitterly over him as being a stranger, and knowing also that he had very few friends in that country. who would either rejoice in his prosperity, sympathize with his grief, or revenge the wrongs offered to him. The crime laid to his charge was the poem he wrote against the Franciscans, which he himself, before he went from France, took care to get excused to the King of Portugal. Neither did his accusers perfectly know what it was, for he had given but one copy of it to the King of Scots, by whose command he wrote it. They farther objected, his eating of flesh and though there is not a man in all Spain but uses the same liberty. Besides, he had given some sly side-blows to the monks, which, however, nobody but a monk himself could well accept against. Moreover, they took it heinously ill that, in a certain familiar discourse with some young Portuguese gentlemen, upon mention made of the Eucharist, he should affirm that, in his judgment, Austin was more inclinable to the party condemned by the Church of Rome. The two other witnesses, as some years after it came to his knowledge, that is, John Tolpin, a Norman, and John Ferrarius, of sub-Alpine Liguria, had witness against him that they had heard from diverse credible persons that Buchanan was not orthodox as to the Roman faith and religion. But to return to the matter, after the inquisitors had wearied both themselves and him for almost half a year, at last that they might not seem to have causelessly vexed a man of some name and note in the They shut him up in a monastery for some months, there to be more exactly disciplined and instructed by the monks, who, to give them their due, though very ignorant in all matters of religion, were men otherwise neither bad in their morals nor rude in their behavior. This was the time he took to form the principal part of David's Psalms into Latin verse. At last he was set at liberty, and suing for a pass and accommodations from the crown to return into France, the king desired him to stay where he was and allotted him a little sum for daily necessaries and pocket expenses till some better provision might be made for his subsistence. But he, tired out with delay as being put off to no certain time, nor on any sure grounds of hope, and having got the opportunity of a passage in a ship then riding in the Bay of Lisbon, was carried over into England. He made no long stay in that country, though fair offers were made him there, for he saw that all things were in a hurry and combustion under a very young king. that is, Edward VI, the nobles at Variance one with another, and the minds of the commons yet in a ferment upon the account of their civil combustions. Whereupon he returned into France, about that time that the siege of Metz was raised. There he was in a manner compelled by his friends to write a poem concerning that siege, which he did, though somewhat unwillingly, because he was loath to interfere with several of his acquaintances, and especially with Malinus Sanghalesius, who had composed a learned and elegant poem on that same subject. From thence he was called over into Italy by Charles de Coff of Brescia, who then managed matters with very good success in the Gallic and Logistic countries about the Poe. He lived with him and his son Timoleon sometimes in Italy and sometimes in France the space of five years, till the year of 1560. the greatest part of which time he spent in the study of the Holy Scriptures that so he might be able to make a more exact judgment of the controversies in religion which employed the thoughts and took up all the time of most of the men of these days. It is true these disputes were silenced a little in Scotland when that kingdom was freed from the tyranny of the guises of France, so he returned thither and became a member of the Church of Scotland 1560. And how he puts in a footnote A little before his death he returned home from court to visit his friends, during which time King James sent him several messages and at last a very threatening letter to return in twenty days. But he, finding his death approaching, sent him back a letter of admonition relative to the government of his kingdom and well-being of his council, and at the end told him that he could run the hazard of his Majesty's displeasure without danger, for that, by the time limited, he would be where few kings or great men should be honoured to enter. at reading which it is said the king wept. Some of his writings in former times, being, as it were, redeemed from shipwreck, were by him collected and published. The rest, which were scattered up and down in the hands of his friends, he committed to the disposal of Providence. And I won't read the entire footnote that Howey inserts about his extant writings, but I will note that his treatise, De jure regni apud scatos, was condemned by Act of Parliament about two years after his death. which happened in Edinburgh on the 28th of September, 1582. After his return he professed, that is, served as Professor of Philosophy in St. Andrews, and in the year 1565 he was appointed tutor to King James VI of Scotland, and in 1568 went with the regent to the court of England, at which time and place he did no small honour to his country. Sir James Melville, in his memoirs, page 234, gives him the following character, He was a stoic philosopher who looked not far before him, too easy in his old age, somewhat revengeful against those who had offended him. But notwithstanding, a man of notable endowments, great learning, and an excellent Latin poet, he was much honored in foreign countries, pleasant in conversation, into which he happily introduced short moral maxims which his invention readily supplied him with upon any emergency. He was buried at Edinburgh in the common place, though worthy to have been laid in marble, as in his life pompous monuments he used to contemn and despise. The Life of Mr. Robert Rollock Mr. Rollock was descended from the ancient family of the Livingstons. He was born about the year 1555. His father, David Rollock, sent him to Stirling to be educated for the university under Thomas Buchanan. where his genius, modesty, and sweetness of temper soon procured to him the particular friendship of his master, which subsisted ever after. From this school he went to the University of St. Andrews, where he prosecuted his studies for four years, at the end of which his progress had been so great that he was chosen Professor of Philosophy, the duties of which office he discharged with applause for other four years, until, about the year 1583, he was invited by the magistrates of Edinburgh to a profession in their university, which was, not long before this time, founded by King James VI. He complied with their invitation at the earnest desire of Mr. James Lawson, who succeeded Mr. Knox. His reputation as a teacher soon drew a number of students to that college, which was soon afterwards much enlarged by being so conveniently situated in the capital of the kingdom. At first he had the principal weight of academical business laid upon him. But in process of time other professors were chosen from among the scholars which he educated, after which his chief employment was to exercise the office of principal by superintending the several classes, to observe the proficiency of the scholars, to compose such differences as would arise among them, and to keep everyone to his duty. Thus was the principality of that college in his time a useful institution, and not what it is now, little better than a mere sinecure. that is, an office or position that requires little or no work and that usually provides an income. Every morning he called the students together when he prayed among them, and one day in the week he explained some passage of Scripture to them, in the clothes of which he was frequently very warm in his exhortations, which wrought more reformation upon the students than all the laws which were made or discipline which was exercised besides. After the lecture was over, it was his custom to reprove such as had been guilty of any misdemeanor through the week. How has the gold become dim? How has the most fine gold changed? He was likewise very attentive to such as were advanced in their studies and attended the ministry. His care was productive of much good to the church. He was as diligent in his own studies as he was careful to promote those of others. Notwithstanding all this business in the university, he preached every Lord's Day in the church with such fervency and demonstration of the Spirit that he became the instrument of converting many to God. About this time he also wrote several commentaries on different passages of Scripture. His exposition of the Epistles to the Romans and Ephesians, coming into the hands of the learned Beza, he, Beza, wrote to a friend of his, telling him, that he had an incomparable treasure, which, for its judiciousness, brevity, and elegance of style, had few equals. He was chosen moderator to the assembly held at Dundee in the year 1597, wherein matters went not altogether in favours of Presbytery, but this cannot be imputed to him, although Calderwood, in his History, page 403, calls him a man simple in matters of the Church. He was one of those commissioned by the Assembly to wait on His Majesty about seating the churches of Edinburgh, but in the meantime he was sickened and was confined to his house. Afterwards, at the entreaty of his friends, he went to the country for the benefit of the air. At first he seemed as if growing better, but his distemper soon returned upon him with greater violence than before. This confined him to his bed. He committed his wife, for he had no children, to the care of his friends. He desired two noblemen who came to visit him to go to the king and entreat him in his name to take care of religion and preserve it to the end, and that he would esteem and comfort the pastors of the church. For the ministry of Christ, though low and base in the eyes of men, yet it should at length shine with great glory. When the ministers of Edinburgh came to him, he spoke of the sincerity of his intentions in everything done by him in discharge of the duties belonging to the office with which he had been vested. As night drew on, his distemper increased, and together therewith his religious fervour was likewise augmented. When the physicians were preparing some medicines, he said, Thou, Lord, wilt heal me, and then began praying for the pardon of his sins through Christ, and professed that he counted all things but dung for the cross of Christ. He prayed farther that he might have the presence of God in his departure, saying, Hitherto have I seen thee darkly, through the glass of thy word, O Lord, grant that I may have the eternal enjoyment of thy countenance, which I have so much desired and longed for, and then spoke of the resurrection and eternal life, after which he blessed and exhorted every one present, according as their respective circumstances required. The day following, when the magistrates of Edinburgh came to see him, He exhorted them to take care of the university, and nominated a successor to himself. He recommended his wife to them, declaring that he had not laid up one half penny of his stipend, and therefore hoped they would provide for her, to which request they assented and promised to see her comfortably supplied. After this he said, I bless God that I have all my senses entire, but my heart is in heaven, and Lord Jesus, why shouldst thou not have it? It has been my care all my life to dedicate it to thee. I pray thee, take it, that I may live with thee forever. Then, after a little sleep, he awakened, crying, Come, Lord Jesus, put an end to this miserable life. Haste, Lord, and tarry not. Christ hath redeemed me, not unto a frail and momentary life, but unto eternal life. Come, Lord Jesus, and give that life for which thou hast redeemed me. Some of the people present, bewailing their condition when he should be taken away, he said unto them, I have gone through all the degrees of this life, and am come to my end. Why should I go back again? Help me, O Lord, that I may go through this last degree with Thy assistance," and so forth. And when some told him that the next day was the Sabbath, he said, O Lord, shall I begin my eternal Sabbath from Thy Sabbath here? Next morning, feeling his death approaching, he sent for Mr. Balconquall, who in prayer with him desired the Lord, if he pleased, to spare his life for the good of the church. And he said, I am weary of this life. All my desire is that I may enjoy the celestial life that is hid with Christ in God. And a little after, haste, Lord, and do not tarry. I am weary both of nights and days. Come, Lord Jesus, that I may come to Thee. Break these eyestrings and give me others. I desire to be dissolved and to be with Thee. O Lord Jesus, thrust thy hand into my body, and take my soul to thyself. O my sweet Lord, let this soul of mine free, that it may enjoy her husband.' And when one of the bystanders said, Sir, let nothing trouble you, for now your Lord makes haste, he said, O welcome message, would to God my funeral might be tomorrow. And thus he continued in heavenly meditation and prayer, till he resigned up his spirit to God in the year 1598, or others say 1599. in the forty-fourth year of his age. His works are a commentary on some select psalms, on the prophecy of Daniel and the Gospel of John, with its harmony. He wrote also on the epistles to the Ephesians, Colossians, Thessalonians, and Galatians, an analysis of the epistles to the Romans and the Hebrews, with respect to effectual calling. The Life of Mr. John Craig Mr. John Craig was a man of considerable learning and singular abilities. He travelled abroad in his youth and was frequently delivered out of very great dangers by the kind interposition of a gracious providence, an instance of which we have while he was in Italy. Being obliged to fly out of that country on account of his regard for the Reformation, in order to avoid being apprehended, he was obliged to lurk in obscure places in the daytime and travel overnight. By this means any little money he had was soon exhausted, and being in the extremity of want, a dog brought a purse to him with some gold in it, by which he was supported until he escaped the danger of being taken. After his return home he was settled minister at Edinburgh, where he continued many years and met with many trials of his fortitude and fidelity. In the year 1567 the Earl of Bothell, having obtained a divorce from his lawful wife, as preparatory to his marriage with Queen Mary, she, that is, Mary, sent a letter to Mr. Craig, commanding him to publish the bans of matrimony betwixt her and Waffle. But the next Sabbath, having declared at length that he had received such a command, he added that he could not in conscience obey it, the marriage being altogether unlawful, and that he would declare to the parties, if present. He was immediately sent for by Bothel, unto whom he declared his reasons with great boldness, and the very next Lord's Day he told the people what he had said before the council, and took heaven and earth to witness that he detested that scandalous marriage, and that he had discharged his duty to the Lords, and so forth. Upon this he was again called before the council, and reproved by them as having exceeded the bounds of his calling. He boldly answered, The bounds of his commission was the word of God, right reason, and good laws, against which he had said nothing, and by all these offered to prove the said marriage scandalous, at which he was stopped and set out of the council. Thus Mr. Craig continued, not only a firm friend to the Reformation, but a bold opposer of every encroachment made upon the crown and dignity of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the year 1584, when an Act of Parliament was made that all ministers, masters of colleges, and so forth, should within forty-eight hours compare and subscribe the Act of Parliament concerning the King's power over all the states, spiritual and temporal, and submit themselves to the bishops, and so forth, upon which Mr. Craig, John Brand, and some others were called before the Council and interrogated, how he could be so bold as to controvert the late Act of Parliament Mr. Craig answered that they would find fault with anything repugnant to God's word, at which the Earl of Aran started up on his feet and said they were too pert, that he would shave their head, pare their nails, and cut their toes, and make them an example unto all who should disobey the King's command and his counsel's orders, and forthwith charged them to appear before the King at Falkland on the fourth of September following. Upon their appearance at Falkland they were again accused of transgressing the foresaid act of Parliament. and disobeying the Bishop's injunctions, when there arose some hot speeches betwixt Mr. Craig and the Bishop of St. Andrews, at which the Earl of Oran spoke again most outrageously against Mr. Craig, who coolly replied that there had been as great men set up higher that had been brought low. Oran returned, I shall make thee of a false friar, a true prophet, and sitting down on his knee he said, Now I am humbled. Nay, said Mr. Craig, mock the servants of God as thou wilt, God will not be mocked, but shall make thee find it in earnest, when thou shalt be cast down from the high horse of thy pride and humbled. This came to pass a few years after, when he was thrown off his horse with a spear by James Douglas of Parkhead, killed, and his corpse exposed to dogs and swine before it was buried. Mr. Craig was forthwith discharged to preach any more in Edinburgh, and the Bishop of St. Andrews was appointed to preach in his place. But as soon as he entered the great church of Edinburgh, that is, the bishop, the whole congregation, except a few court parasites, went out. It was not long before Mr. Craig was restored to his place in office. In the year 1591, when the Earl of Bothell and his accomplices, on the 27th of December, came to the King and Chancellor's chamber doors with fire, and to the Queen's with a hammer, in the palace of Holyroodhouse, with a design to seize the King and Chancellor, Mr. Craig, upon the 29th, preaching before the king upon the two brazen mountains in Zechariah, said, As the king had lightly regarded the many bloody shirts presented to him by his subjects craving justice, so God in his providence had made a noise of crying and forehammers to come to his own doors. The king would have the people to stay after sermon that he might purge himself, and said, If he had thought his hired servant, meaning Mr. Craig, who was his own minister, would have dealt in that manner with him, he should not have suffered him so long in his house. Mr. Craig, by reason of the throng, not hearing what he said, went away. In the year 1595, Mr. Craig, being quite worn out by his labours and the infirmities of age, the King's Commissioner presented some articles to the General Assembly, wherein, amongst other things, he craved, that in respect Mr. Craig is awaiting what hour God shall please to call him, and is unable to serve any longer, and His Majesty designing to place John Duncanson with the Prince Therefore His Highness desired an ordinance to be made, granting any two ministers he shall choose, which was accordingly done, and Mr. Craig died a short time after this. Mr. Craig will appear from these short memoirs to have been a man of uncommon resolution and activity. He was employed in the most part of the affairs of the Church during the reign of Queen Mary and in the beginning of that of her son. He compiled the National Covenant, also called the King's Covenant, which was first taken in 1581 and then thereafter on multiple occasions. Most especially was it incorporated into the National Covenant of 1638, which formed the official beginnings, as it were, of the Second Reformation in the British Isles. He compiled the National Covenant and a catechism, commonly called Craig's Catechism, which was first printed by order of the Assembly in the year 1591. THE LIFE OF MR. DAVID BLACK Mr. Black was for some time colleague to the worthy Mr. Andrew Melville, minister at St. Andrew's. He was remarkable for zeal and fidelity in the discharge of his duty as a minister, applying his doctrine closely against the corruptions of that age, prevailing either among the highest or lowest of the people, in consequence of which he was, in the year 1596, cited before the Council for some expressions uttered in a sermon alleged to strike against the Queen and Council. But as brethren in the ministry, thinking that by this method of procedure with him the spiritual government of the house of God was intended to be subverted, they resolved that Mr. Black should decline answering the King and Council, and that in the meantime the brethren should be preparing themselves to prove from the Holy Scriptures that the judgment of all doctrine in the first instance belonged to the pastors of the Church. Accordingly, Mr. Black, on the 18th of November, 1596, gave in a declinature to the Council to this effect, that he was able to defend all that he had said, yet, seeing his answering before them to that accusation might be prejudicial to the liberties of the Church, and would be taken for an acknowledgment of His Majesty's jurisdiction in matters merely spiritual, he was constrained to decline that judicatory. 1. Because the Lord Jesus Christ had given him his word for a rule, and that therefore he could not fall under the civil law, but insofar as, after trial, he should be found to have passed from his instructions, which trial only belonged to the prophets, and so forth. 2. The liberties of the Church and discipline presently exercised were confirmed by diverse acts of Parliament approved of by the Confession of Faith, that is, the King's Confession of 1581, and the office-bearers of the Church were now in the peaceable possession thereof, that the question of his preaching ought first, according to the grounds and practice foresaid, to be judged by the ecclesiastical senate as the competent judges thereof at the first instance. This declinature, with a letter sent by the different presbyteries were in a short time subscribed by between three and four hundred ministers, all assenting to and approving of it. The Commissioners of the General Assembly, then sitting in Edinburgh, knowing that the King was displeased at this proceeding, sent some of their number to speak with His Majesty, unto whom he answered that if Mr. Black would pass from his declinature, he would pass from the summons. But this they would not consent to do. upon which the King caused summon Mr. Black again on the 27th of November to the Council to be held on the 30th. This summons was given with sound of trumpet and open proclamation at the Cross of Edinburgh, and the same day the Commissioners of the Assembly were ordered to depart thence in twenty-four hours under pain of rebellion. Before the day of Mr. Black's second appearance before the Council, he prepared a still more explicit declinature, especially as it respected the King's supremacy, He is declaring that there are two jurisdictions in the realm, the one spiritual and the other civil, the one respecting the conscience and the other concerning external things, the one persuading by the spiritual word, the other compelling by the temporal sword, the one spiritually procuring the edification of the church, the other by justice procuring the peace and quiet of the commonwealth, which, being grounded in the light of nature, proceeds from God as He is Creator, and is so termed by the Apostle, 1 Peter chapter 2, but varying according to the constitution of men, the other, above nature, grounded upon the grace of redemption, proceeding immediately from the grace of Christ, only King and only Head of His Church, Ephesians 1 and Colossians 2. Therefore, insofar as he was one of the spiritual office-bearers, and had discharged his spiritual calling in some measure of grace and sincerity, he should not and could not lawfully be judged for preaching and applying the word of God by any civil power, he being an ambassador and messenger of the Lord Jesus, having his commission from the King of kings, and all his commission is set down and limited in the word of God, that cannot be extended or abridged by any mortal king or emperor, they being sheep, not pastors, and to be judged by the word of God, and not the judges thereof. A decree of counsel was passed against him, upon which his brethren of the Commission directed their doctrine against the Council. The King sent a message to the Commissioners signifying that he would rest satisfied with Mr. Black's simple declaration of the truth. But Mr. Bruce and the rest replied that if the affair concerned Mr. Black alone they should be content, but the liberty of Christ's kingdom had received such a wound by the proclamation of last Saturday that if Mr. Black's life and a dozen of others besides had been taken, it had not grieved the hearts of the godly so much, and that either these things behooved to be retracted, or they would oppose so long as they had breath. But, after a long process, no mitigation of the council's severity could be obtained, for Mr. Black was charged by a macer to enter his person in ward, on the north of the Tay, there to remain on his own expense during His Majesty's pleasure. And though he was, next year, restored back to his place in St. Andrews, yet he was not suffered to continue, for, about the month of July that same year, the king and council again proceeded against him, and he was removed to Angus, where he continued until the day of his death. He had always been a severe check on the negligent and unfaithful part of the clergy, but now they had found means to get free of him. After his removal to Angus he continued the exercise of his ministry, preaching daily unto such as resorted to him, with much success and an intimate communion with God until a few days before his death. In his last sickness the Christian temper of his mind was so much unproven by large measures of the Spirit that his conversation had a remarkable effect in humbling the hearts and comforting the souls of those who attended him, engaging them to take the easy yoke of Christ upon them. He found in his own soul also such a sensible taste of eternal joy that he was seized with a fervent desire to depart and to be with the Lord, longing to have the earthly house of this his tabernacle put off, that he might be admitted into the mansions of everlasting rest. In the midst of these earnest breathings after God, the Lord was wonderfully pleased to condescend to the importunity of his servant, to let him know that the time of his departure was near. upon which he took a solemn farewell of his family and flock with a discourse, as Mr. Melville says, that seemed to be spoken out of heaven concerning the misery and grief of this life and the inconceivable glory which is above. The night following, after supper, having read and prayed in his family with unusual continuance, strong crying and heavy groans, he went a little while to bed, and the next day, having called his people to the celebration of the Lord's supper, he went to And having brought the communion service near a close, he felt the approaches of death, and all discovered, or observed, a sudden change in his countenance, so that some ran to support him. But pressing to be at his knees, with his hands and eyes lifted up to heaven in the very act of devotion and adoration, as in a transport of joy, he was taken away with scarce any pain at all. Thus this holy man, who had so faithfully maintained the interest of Christ upon earth, breathed forth his soul in this extraordinary manner that it seemed rather like a translation than a real death.