day was pillowed on the soft bosom of English Prelacy.

THE DEATH OF JAMES.

The king survived this consummation of his crime against the Kirk—which he had eulogized as the sincerest Kirk of all the world, and over and over again pledged his word to God and man to defend—a little less than four years, a period of unrelenting tyranny. The people had long been growing restive under the despotism of the High Commission, as depending solely upon the will of the king, but now James elegantly wrote to Spotswood:

"The greatest matter the Puritans had to object against the Church government was that your proceedings were warranted by no law, which now by this last Parliament is cutted short, so that hereafter that rebellious, disobedient and seditious crew must either obey or resist God, their natural king and the law of the country. Lose no time to procure a settled obedience to GOD and to us. The sword is put into your hands; use it, and let it rust no longer." But Spotswood needed no such injunction to keep the sword from rusting. He loved to make and see it bright.

A similar epistle was sent to the privy council,

enjoining all officers of the state, on pain of dismission, to aid in turning the grindstone while the archbishop sharpened and furbished his sword. Very many of the burgesses, however, refused to act, and their places were filled with those who were more pliant.

While this storm of persecution was beating down upon the Church, incessant rains kept the grain from growing, and succeeding winter floods swept away farm-houses, bridges, cattle and men. Perth was surrounded with water. Famine followed and reduced many of the opulent to beggary. John Welsh, now fourteen years in exile, his health fast failing, his wife begged of James permission to breathe once more his native air. James asked:

"Whose daughter are you?"

"The daughter of John Knox!"

"Knox and Welsh! The devil never made a

match like that!"

"It's right like, sir; we never asked his advice." "What children did your father leave?"

"Three, and they were all lasses."

"God be thanked! Had they been lads, I had

never possessed my kingdom in peace." "But give him, sir, his native air!"

"Give him the devil!"

"Give that, sir, to your hungry courtiers!" "Well, he may return if he will submit to the bishops."

Lifting up her apron, she said, "I would rather keep his head here!”

So poor Welsh died in exile.

In the mean time the bishops hunted up every minister their keen scent could discover, and sought to constrain his subscription to the Perth articles, aiming thus to bend the adverse will of the people by the example of the venerated pastors; and, judging others by themselves, they doubted not that their opponents would quail before the newly-furbished sword. Met in High Commission, they summoned five godly notables before their bar. To the summons George Johnson, of Ancrum, sent this reply:

"If my age of seventy-three years, and my infirmities, a swelling in both my legs, a constant fever after travelling in the open air, with other miseries attendant on old age, may not hold me excused from coming to Edinburgh, I take me to God's mercy." This old man the kind bishops deprived and banished to Annandale.

David

Dickson, of Irvine, eminent for parts and piety, protected by an earl and pleaded for by his people,

was banished to Turriff, and all the rest were made to feel the keen edge of the prelatic sword. Finding the pastors too bold and true to bow, they tried their power upon the people, insisting especially on the kneeling at the communion, as the most visible acknowledgment of the authority of royal and prelatic tyranny; and many a scene of confusion and disgrace occurred in the house of God, and in the presence of the bread and wine, as the persecutors enforced and the people resisted what they regarded as a popish ceremony. A few yielded to gratify the dignitaries, but the greater part either abstained from the communion-table, resorted to altars where they could participate with New Testament simplicity.

But true Presbyterianism is not wont either to submit to ecclesiastical or secular tyranny, or long to smother its indignant protests. The dullest apprehensions could not choose but see that the assumed power of the prelates meant the death of all freedom. The nobility found that their constitutional rights were dreams in the eyes of those who now lorded it over God's heritage, and the muttering of coming thunder was heard among the cloudy masses of the people, and the sea began to swell under the force of a gathering storm. Nor

was any oil poured on the troubled waters by the king's proposal to marry the prince to a Spanish Romanist, nor by the royal favour to Papists to smooth the way for this abominable alliance.

Further force was added to the national discontent by the conduct of the king and his prelatic minions in the case of William Forbes, who, having been recently placed over one of the churches of Edinburgh on account of his anti-Presbyterian principles, was accused of uttering sentiments in favour of the papacy. The bishops, of course, sided with Forbes, who was proudly indignant that the people should venture to question his official acts or utterances. At the solicitation of the bishops a thundering mandate from the king bade a select number of the privy council to put the murmuring citizens on trial for their audacity, and one magistrate was imprisoned in the Castle of Blackness till he could pay a ruinous fine; and five other eminent citizens were imprisoned or banished to remote parts of the country.

The prelates, finding that they were only sowing dragons' teeth, begged now of the king relief from the "conventicles" to which the faithful ministers of the surrounding country resorted for purposes of prayer and consultation; and in answer to their