the one hand, and that unbending tyranny which presbytery has too often assumed on the other. In 1642, he received a call to the parish of West Calder, which he was not permitted to accept, though he seems to have been desirous of doing so. He was one of the commissioners from the general assembly of the church of Scotland to the Westminster assembly, where his services were acknowledged by all parties to have been of great importance. The other commissioners from the general assembly of the church of Scotland, were permitted to visit their native country by turns, and to report the progress which was made in the great work; but Rutherford never quitted his post till his mission was accomplished. His wife (for he married the second time after entering upon his charge at St Andrews,) and all his family, seem to have accompanied him. Two of his children, apparently all that he then had, died while he was in London. He had also along with him as his amanuensis, Mr Robert M'Ward, afterwards minister of the Tron church, Glasgow, and who was banished for nonconformity at the Restoration. Mr Rutherford exerted himself

to promote the common cause, not only in the assembly, but by means of the press, in a variety of publications, bearing the impress of great learning and research, combined with clear and comprehensive views of the subjects of which they treated. The first of these was the "Due right of Presbytery, or a Peaceable Plea for the Government of the Church of Scotland," a work of great erudition, and which called forth a reply from Mr Mather of New England; one of the best books that has yet been produced on that side of the question. The same year he published "Lex Rex," a most rational reply to a piece of insane loyalty emitted by John Maxwell, the excommunicated bishop of Ross. Next year, 1645, he published "The Trial and Triumph of Faith," an admirable treatise of practical divinity; and, in 1646, “The Divine Right of Church Government, in opposition to the Erastians." In 1647, he published another excellent piece of practical theology, "Christ dying and drawing Sinners," which was followed next year, though he had then returned to Scotland, by a "Survey of the Spiritual Antichrist," written against Saltmarsh, Dee, Town, Crisp, Eaton, and the other Antinomians of that day. In 1649, he published at London a "Free Disputation against pretended Liberty of Conscience," particularly directed against the Independents. All of these productions are highly honourable to the talents of the author, and place his industry and fertility of mind in a singularly favourable point of view. Rutherford, in returning to the former scene of his professorial and pastoral labours, must have felt agreeably relieved from the business and the bustle of a popular assembly, and hoped, probably, that now he might rest in his lot. Far otherwise, however, was the He was, in January, 1649, at the recommendation of the commission of the general assembly, appointed principal of the New college, of which he was already professor of divinity; and not long after, he was elevated to the rectorship of the university. An attempt had also been made, in the general assembly of 1649, to have him removed to the university of Edinburgh, which, Baillie says, "" was thought to be absurd, and so was laid aside." He had an invitation at the same time to the chair of divinity and Hebrew in the university of Hardewyrk in Holland, which he declined; and on the 20th of May, 1651, This aphe was elected to fill the divinity chair in the university of Utrecht. pointment was immediately transmitted to him by his brother, Mr James Rutherford, then an officer in the Dutch service, who, by the way fell into the power of an English cruiser, and was stripped of everything, and confined a prisoner in Leith, till he was, through the intervention of the States, set at liberty. As he had, in consequence of this disaster, nothing but a verbal invitation to offer, Rutherford refused to accept it. James Rutherford returned

case.

directly to Holland, and the magistrates of Utrecht, still hoping to succeed, sent him back with a formal invitation in the end of the same year. Rutherford seems now to have been in some degree of hesitation, and requested six months to advise upon the subject. At the end of this period, he wrote to the patrons of the college, thanking them for the high honour they had done him, but informing them, that he could not think of abandoning his own church in the perilous circumstances in which it then stood.

The whole of the subsequent life of Samuel Rutherford was one continued struggle with the open and concealed enemies of the church of Scotland. After the Restoration, when, though infirm in body, his spirit was still alive to the cause of religion, he recommended that some of the Protesters should be sent to the king, to give a true representation of the state of matters in the church, which he well knew would never be done by Sharpe, whom the Resolution party had employed, and in whom they had the most perfect confidence. When the Protesters applied to the Resolution party to join them in such a necessary duty, they refused to have any thing to do with their more zealous brethren; and when these met at Edinburgh to consult on the matter, they were dispersed by authority, their papers seized, and the principal persons among them imprisoned. This was the first act of the committee of estates after the Restoration; and it was composed of the same persons who had sworn to the covenant along with Charles ten years before. The next act of the committee, was an order for burning "Lex Rex," and punishing all who should afterwards be found in possession of a copy. The book was accordingly burnt, with every mark of indignity, at the cross of Edinburgh; a ceremony which Sharpe repeated in front of the new college, beneath Mr Rutherford's windows, in St Andrews. Rutherford was at the same time deprived of his situation in the college, his stipend confiscated, himself confined to his own house, and cited to appear before the ensuing parliament, on a charge of high treason. Before the meeting of parliament, however, he was beyond the reach of all his enemies. He had long been in bad health, and now the utter ruin that he saw coming on the church entirely broke his spirit. Sensible that he was dying, he published, on the 26th of February, 1661, a testimony to the Reformation in Great Britain and Ireland. This testimony occupies ten octavo pages, and is remarkably clear and particular. Of his last moments we can afford space only for a very brief account. He seemed to enjoy a singular rapture and elevation of spirit. "I shall shine," he said; "I shall see him as he is: I shall see him reign, and all his fair company with him, and I shall have my share. Mine eyes shall see my Redeemer; these very eyes of mine, and none for me. I disclaim," he remarked at the same time, "all that ever God made me will or do, and I look upon it as defiled or imperfect, as coming from me. But Christ is to me wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Of the schisms that had rent the church," he remarked, "those whom ye call Protesters are the witnesses of Jesus Christ. I hope never to depart from that cause, nor side with those of the opposite party, who have broken their covenant oftener than once or twice. But I believe the Lord will build Zion, and repair the waste places of Jacob. Oh to obtain mercy to wrestle with God, for their salvation!" To his only surviving child (a daughter) he said, "I have left you upon the Lord; it may be you will tell this to others, that the lines are fallen to me in pleasant places. I have got a goodly heritage. I bless the Lord that he gave me counsel." His last words were, Glory, glory dwelleth in Immanuel's land ;" and he expired on the morning of the 20th of March, 1661, in the sixty-first year of his age.

Mr Rutherford was unquestionably one of the most able, learned, and con

sistent presbyterians of his age; while in his Familiar Letters, published posthumously, he evinces a fervour of feeling and fancy, that, in other circumstances, and otherwise exerted, would have ranked him among the most successful cultivators of literature. Wodrow has observed, that those who knew him best, were at a loss which to admire, his sublime genius in the school, or his familiar condescensions in the pulpit, where he was one of the most moving and affectionate preachers in his time, or perhaps in any age of the church.

RYMER, THOMAS, of Ercildon, commonly called Thomas the Rhymer, and otherwise styled Thomas Learmont, was a distinguished person of the thirteenth century. So little is known respecting him, that even his name has become a matter of controversy. How the name of LEARMONT came to be given him, is not known; but in none of the early authorities do we find it; and although it has long been received as the bard's patronymic, it is now, by inquiring antiquaries, considered a misnomer. In a charter granted by his son and heir to the convent of Soltra, he is called Thomas Rymer de Erceldun. Robert de Brunne, Fordun, Barbour, and Winton, call him simply Thomas of Erceldoun, while Henry the minstrel calls him Thomas Rymer.

Erceldoune, cr, according to the modern corruption, Earlstown, is a small village on the right bank of the Leader water, in Berwickshire. At the western extremity of this village, stand, after a lapse of seven centuries, the ruins of the house which Thomas inhabited, called Rhymer's Tower; and in the front wall of the village church, there is a stone with this inscription on it :

Auld Rymer's race
Lies in this place.

The poet must have lived during nearly the whole of the thirteenth century. His romance of "Sir Tristram" is quoted by Gottfried of Strasburg, who flourished about 1230; and it is known he was alive, and in the zenith of his prophetic reputation, in 1286, at the death of Alexander III. He must have been dead, however, before 1299, as that is the date of the charter, in which his son calls himself Filius et hæres Thoma Rymour de Erceldon. Henry the minstrel makes him take a part in the adventures of Wallace, in 1296; so, if this authority is to be credited, he must have died between that year and 1299.

To this day, the name of Thomas the Rhymer is popularly known in Scotland as a prophet; and it is only by a late discovery of the MS. of a metrical romance called "Sir Tristram," that he has acquired a less exceptionable claim to remembrance. "The Prophecies of Thomas the Rhymer," were published, in Latin and English, at Edinburgh, in 1615, and have been repeatedly reprinted, copies of them being still to be found among the country people of Scotland. He is mentioned in his prophetic capacity by many of our early writers. Among the most noted of his predictions, is the following, regarding the death of Alexander III., which is thus narrated by Boece, as translated by Ballenden :"It is said, the day afore the kingis dethe, the erle of Marche demandit ane prophet namit Thomas Rhymour, otherwayis namit Ersiltoun, quhat wedder suld be on the morow. To quhome answerit this Thomas, that on the morow afore none, sall blow the gretist wynd that ever was hard afore in Scotland. On the morow, quhen it was neir noon the lift appering loane, but ony din or tempest, the erle send for this propheit, and reprevit hym that he prognosticat sic wynd to be, and nae apperance thairof. This Thomas maid litel answer, bot said, noun is not yet gane. And incontinent ane man came to the yet, schawing the king was slain. Than said the prophet, yone is the wynd that

sall blaw to the gret calamity and truble of all Scotland. Thomas wes ane man of gret admiration to the peple, and schaw sundry thingis as thay fell." The common sense translation of this story is, that Thomas presaged to the earl of March that the next day would be windy; the weather proved calm; but news arrived of the death of Alexander III., which gave an allegorical turn to the prediction, and saved the credit of the prophet.

Barbour, Winton, Henry the Minstrel, and others, all refer to the prophetic character of Thomas. In Barbour's Bruce, written about 1370, the bishop of St Andrews is introduced as saying, after Bruce had slain the Red Cumin :

I hop Thomas' prophecy

Off Hersildowne, werefyd be

In him; for swa our Lord halp me,

I haiff gret hop he schall be king,

And haiff this land all in leding.

Wintoun's words are these

Of this sycht quhilum spak Thomas
Of Erceldoune, that sayd in derne,

Bruce, ii. 86.

Thare suld meet stalwarty, stark, and sterne.

He sayd it in his prophecie,

But how he wist, it was ferly.

Henry the Minstrel represents him as saying, on being falsely told that Wallace

was dead :

"Forsuth, or he decess,

Mony thousand on feild sall mak thar end.
And Scotland thriss he sall bring to the pess;
So gud of hand agayne sall nevir be kend."

Wallace, B.. ii. ch. 3.

How far Rymer himself made pretensions to the character of a prophet, and how far the reputation has been conferred upon him by the people in his own time and since, it is impossible to determine. It is certain, however, that in almost every subsequent age, metrical productions came under public notice, and were attributed to him, though, it might be supposed, they were in general the mere coin of contemporary wits, applied to passing events. There are, nevertheless, a considerable number of rhymes and proverbial expressions, of an antique and primitive character, attributed to Thomas the Rhymer; and applicable to general circumstances of some of these we deem it by no means unlikely that they sprung from the source to which they are ascribed, being in some instances only such exertions of foresight, as a man of cultivated understanding might naturally make; and in others, dreamy vaticinations of evil, which never have been, and perhaps never will, be realized. Many of these may be found in the Border Minstrelsy, and in " Popular Rhymes of Scotland," and the "Picture of Scotland," compilations by the editor of the present dictionary. It may also be mentioned, as illustrative of the forceful character of this early and obscure genius, that he and his predictions are as well known in the Highlands and Hebrides as in our southern counties. The Cambrian and Caledonian Magazine, 1833, gives the two following Gaelic predictions, as imputed to him by the Highlanders :--

"Cuiridh fiacail nan caoraich an crann air an sparr."

The teeth of the sheep will lay the plough on the shelf.

"Bithidh muileann air gach alt, agus ath air gach cnoc; tombac aig na buachaillean, a's gruagaichean gun naire." i. e. There shall be a mill on every brook, a kiln on every height; herds shall use tobacco, and young women shall be without shame.

In the introduction to Robert de Brunne's Annals, written about 1238, Thomas of Erceldoune is commemorated as the author of the incomparable romance of Sir Tristrem. Gottfried of Strasburg, also, a German minstrel of the 13th century, already alluded to, says, that many of his profession told the tale of Sir Tristrem imperfectly and incorrectly; but that he derived his authority from "Thomas of Britannia, [evidently our Thomas,] master of the art of romance, who had read the history in British books, and knew the lives of all the lords of the land, and made them known to us." This work, of our poet was considered to be lost, till a copy of it was discovered among the Auchinleck MSS. belonging to the library of the faculty of advocates, Edinburgh, and published, with introduction and notes, by Sir Walter Scott. From the opening lines of this copy, viz.

I was at Erceldoune;

With Tomas spak y thare;
Ther herd y rede in roune,

Who Tristrem gat and bare, &c

a doubt has arisen whether it be the identical romance composed by Thomas of Erceldoune, which was preferred by his contemporaries to every minstrel tale of the time. But the celebrated editor very satisfactorily demonstrated, from the specific marks by which Robert de Brunne, a contemporary of Thomas, describes the work, that this must be the genuine Sir Tristrem, taken, probably, from the recitation of a minstrel who had heard and retained in his memory the words of Thomas. The date of the MS. does not seem to be much later than 1330, which makes an interval of about forty years between it and the author's time, a period in which some corruptions may have been introduced, but no material change in the formation of the language. Accordingly, the structure of the poem bears a peculiar character. The words are chiefly those of the fourteenth century; but the turn of phrase is, either from antiquity or the affectation of the time when it was written, close, nervous, and concise, even to obscurity. The stanza is very complicated, consisting of eleven lines, of which the 1st, 3d, 5th, and 7th rhyme together, as do the 2d, 4th, 6th, 8th, and 10th. A single stanza will serve to show its intricate and difficult strucThis one speaks of the education of Tristrem by Roland :

ture.