to lecture on the system of theology. His nephew, James Melville, accompanied him to St Andrews, and was admitted Professor of Oriental Languages, while John Robertson began to give instructions in Greek. The ability with which Melville went through his first course of lectures in his new situation is acknowledged by his greatest enemies, excited much interest, and caused him be attended, not only by the students, but also by some of the masters, of the other colleges. He had, however, to surmount a very formidable opposition before he could carry his designs fully into effect. Some of the teachers had lost their places, some had their salaries reduced, and some disliked the new regulations; but all of them ascribed their sufferings to the Principal, and acted towards him as if he had really been the author of them. And scarcely were their discontents allayed, when a new storm arose against him from the other colleges. He had exposed the errors contained in the works of Aristotle, and was himself, in consequence, exposed to "an outcry as violent as that of the craftsmen of Ephesus, when the Apostle preached against idolatry." But, by persevering steadily in what he deemed the path of duty, the keenest of his opponents were converted into his admirers and friends.

While assiduously employed in his academical labours, the innovations of the Court called his attention, along with that of many of the other ministers of religion, to the affairs of the church. Soon after James had assumed the reins of government, the house of Guise, deeming the opportunity favourable for recovering their influence in the counsels of this country, had deputed Esne Stewart, Lord d'Aubigné, as a fit instrument of this ambitious project. This person soon be came the favourite of the King, and was created Duke of Lennox and Lord High Chamberlain, and, by the exertion of his undue influence, he filled the Court with persons addicted to Popery, and of characters unworthy of access to the Royal ear. By them a design was formed of breaking with England, of forming an alliance with France, and of associating the name of Mary with that of her son in the government of the kingdom,—a scheme which, if it had succeeded, must have

exposed the civil liberty of the people and the Protestant religion, now established, to imminent peril. The arrival of several Jesuits and seminary priests increased the alarm which the changes in Court had already excited for the safety of the church. In the mean time, Lennox, whom the ministers had pointed out to their people as an emissary of the house of Guise, declared himself a convert to the Protestant doctrine; but the interception of letters from Rome, granting a dispensation to the Catholics to profess Protestantism for a time, if they secretly adhered to their ancient faith, roused the jealousy of the nation to such a pitch of inflammation against the duplicity of Rome, that it led to the memorable transaction of swearing the National Covenant. This bond was drawn up by John Craig, and consisted of a solemn and explicit abjuration of Popery. It was sworn and subscribed by the King and his househoid, and afterwards by all ranks in the kingdom. But the persons by whom the King was surrounded continued to instil into his mind the most pernicious notions of royal preroga tive, and of the danger to which its legitimate exercise was exposed by the government and ministers of the church. And the impressions which were thereby made on his heart led to the measures and promoted the troubles, which issued in the Revolution, which ultimately expelled the Stuarts from the throne of their ancestors.

Though the regulations made at Leith, recognizing Episcopacy, had been abrogated by the General Assembly, they were again revived on the Court on the death of Archbishop Boyd, and the vacant see confirmed on Robert Montgomery, minister of Stirling, a man of a weak and blemished character. The affair was brought before the Assembly in 1581, and Melville stood forward as his accuser, and presented a libel against him, consisting of fifteen articles. While the process was pending, Montgomery was ordered by the PrivyCouncil to be installed in the Bishoprick of Glasgow, and the church, instead of complying, pronounced against him the sentence of excommunication. The Court declared the sentence null and void,—the College of Glasgow was laid under a temporary interdict,-and the ministers of

Edinburgh were called before the Council to answer for their opposition. Melville preached against the proceedings of the Court, and the Assembly remonstrated against its interference in what related to the discipline of the church. A deputation, of which Melville was one, was appointed to carry the remonstrance to Perth, where the King then resided. The favourites, and especially Lennox and Arran, were highly indignant at what they termed the presumption of the churchmen; and, when the remonstrance had been read, Arran exclaimed, "Who dares subscribe these treasonable articles ?"-"We dare! said Melville, and instantly took the pen from the clerk, and subscribed." The courtier, bold as he was, felt abashed, and the commissioners were dismissed with soothing words. In all this procedure, the church, Dr M'Crie assures us, kept within the strict line of ecclesiastical business, that she was concerned in no confederacy, and excited no tumult.

But the conduct of the favourites at last exhausted the patience of the nobles, who entered into a combination to seize the person of the King, to compel Lennox to leave the kingdom, Arran to confine himself in one of his own houses, and themselves to assume the direction of public affairs. This enterprise is known in history by the name of the Raid of Ruthven, and the political changes thereby effected procured for the church a temporary calm. In the mean time, a vacancy in the parish of St Andrews involved Melville in a new contest. Archbishop Adamson preached occasionally only, and Melville and his nephew were prevailed upon to undertake the performance of the ministerial duties during the vacancy. The celebrated Robert Pont left his charge in Edinburgh to be minister of St Andrews, which was the place of his nativity; but, being unable to obtain a stipend, he left it after the lapse of a year, with the consent of the General Assembly. Melville had, therefore, again to officiate as the minister of the parish, and, as the pastoral functions had been but carelessly performed during the preceding incumbency, many abuses prevailed in the parish, which he was not backward to point out and reprove, a procedure which naturally

created him numerous enemies. The Provost one day left the church while Melville was preaching, muttering his dissatisfaction; placards were placed on the New College gate, threatening himself with personal violence, and his lodging with destruction. His friends were alarmed; but he continued firm, and summoned the Provost before the Presbytery for contempt of divine ordinances. This is a part of Melville's conduct which we can by no means approve. The Gospel commands its ministers "to preach the word; to be instant in season and out of season; to reprove, rebuke, and to exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine;" but it is equally authoritative in dissuading them from "doting about questions, and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railing, evil surmisings, and perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds." Now, we think the conduct of Melville was in direct opposition to this Apostolical precept, and also that, as a means of moral reformation among the people, it was extremely inexpedient, as his connection with the parish in the capacity of a minister was to be only of temporary duration. The illustration of the doctrines, and the inculcation of the duties, of religion, are alone, we think, incumbent on those who preach, without being invested with what is termed "the cure of souls." The conduct of both parties in this contest affords a striking proof of the turbulence of the times.

During this struggle the king was endeavouring to emancipate himself from what he deemed the thraldom of the Ruthven lords, and to revert to his former councillors; and having partially effected his design, Melville, who had become obnoxious to his ma jesty, was summoned before the council to answer for some liberties he had used with the king in a sermon, and would have been imprisoned in Blackness had he not fled to England. Dr M'Crie enters at great length into a defence of the procedure of the church, and the conduct of Melville on this occasion; and says, among many other things, that in those days the pulpit was the only organ through which public opinion could be expressed, as well as that the church courts were the only assemblies "entitled to the name of liberty or inde

pendence." The latter was, indeed, a valuable privilege; but we must condemn the former as a gross and dangerous perversion of the institution of public preaching; and we must also be allowed to say, that, in our opinion, Melville's respectability would have been much greater had he shown less proneness for its indulgence. Melville's flight to England enabled him to discover and to defeat the insidious schemes of Archbishop Adamson, who, contrary to his former professions, endeavoured "to prepossess the court of Elizabeth against the Scottish noblemen who had fled to England; and consulted with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London as to the overthrow of presbytery in his native country." On Adamson's return from England a parlialiament was held, which passed acts subversive of presbytery, and which led to the persecution of the ministers. The prospect of a civil war at last drove Arran from Scotland, and Melville, after an absence of twenty months, returned to his native country in the train of the banished noblemen.

His first attention, after his return, was the restoration of the liberties of the church, but this was no easy task, as his efforts for that end were not seconded, as he had expected, by those of the nobles. The Earl of Angus alone remained faithful to his promises. He spent the winter of 1586 in Glasgow, and in the following spring returned to St Andrews, and resumed his lectures, after an intermission of two years. Soon after this Adamson was excommunicated by the Synod of Fife; but he was relieved from the censure, and Melville was banished beyond the Tay, He was, however, soon recalled, and permitted to proceed with his academical labours. In 1587 he was moderator of the General Assembly, and a commissioner from the church to the parliament. In the following year he was active in rousing the nation to a sense of its danger from the threatened Spanish invasion; and in virtue of the powers vested in him as moderator, called an extraordinary meeting of the Assembly to consider the means of averting the danger suspended over the church and the commonwealth. The signal overthrow of the Armada saved them the necessity of carrying the measures

they had adopted into effect; but it did "not repress the fiery zeal of the Papists in Scotland."

About this time the variance which had long subsisted between the court and the church began to be removed. And Melville was so far taken into favour, that he was invited to be present at the queen's coronation, for which he composed his poem entitled Stephaniskion. And though the church was not long in possession of tranquillity till she was attacked by Dr Bancroft, in a sermon; yet, on the death of Adamson, presbytery was legally established. In 1590 Melville was elected Rector of the University, and had frequent occasion to exert his resolution and prudence in the exercise of that office; he acted at the same time as a ruling elder in the congregation of St Andrews.

The tranquillity between the church and the state proved but of short duration. Arran's attempt to reinstate himself in power was frustrated by the firmness of the ministers. A plot to procure the full toleration of Popery in Scotland, by the assistance of the King of Spain, was discovered. James showed himself favourable to the conspirators, and thereby excited the jealousy of the clergy. The rea son assigned by Dr M'Crie for the conduct of James in this affair is, that he was desirous to smooth the way to his accession to the English throne, by conciliating the Catholics of England. Before the ferment excited by this event was allayed, a surmise, evidently without foundation, obtained a wide circulation and more credit than it deserved, that the ministers, among whom were the Melvilles, abetted Bothwell in his rebellion, by secretly supplying him with money. In the Assembly held in May 1594 Melville was again placed in the mo derator's chair. At this Assembly the sentence pronounced against the Po pish lords by the synod of Fife was ratified, and all ministers and people were enjoined not to concur with Bothwell, or to engage in any other treasonable practices. Melville, be fore the Lords of Articles, urged the necessity of adopting strong measures against the Catholic lords now in open rebellion." It is, said he, observed, a

matter of great weight, to overthrow the estate of three so great men. I grant it is so ; but yet it is a greater

matter to overthrow three far greater, to wit, true religion, the quietness of the commonwealth, and the prosper ous estate of the king." He and his nephew were in the king's train when he went to oppose the rebels in the north, and were instrumental in disposing the king to adopt the decisive measures against them that caused them to quit the kingdom. The birth of a prince caused joy amid these con fusions, and the auspicious event was celebrated by Melville in an elegant Latin poem. In the year 1596 the church of Scotland renewed the Covenant,—a transaction which inspired pious feelings, and confirmed both the pastors and the people in their attachment to the Protestant doctrine and the Presbyterian government. But the return of the forfeited Lords to Scotland revived in the country the former alarm and trouble. Melville, as a commissioner of the General Assembly, attended a meeting of the Privy Council and the nobility at Falkland, to consider the offers made by Huntly; but the king would not suffer him to remain. Huntly's proposals were regarded as too favoura bly received, and a deputation was sent from the Assembly to the king to dissuade him from the measures advised by the council. His majesty testified the utmost reluctance to hear their address, when Melville seized him by the sleeve, and " calling him God's silly vassal," forced him to listen to a strain the most singular in point of freedom that ever saluted royal ears." He told him to remember he was not the head of the church; "that he was in his swaddling clothes when Christ Jesus reigned freely in this land;" and that it was not less his interest than it was his duty to permit the ministers of the church to assemble freely in the name of her rightful head, without let or hinderance from him, who was but one of her members; or his devilish council which sought her overthrow. During the delivery of this speech the king's passion subsided; and he assured his monitor that he would take care of the liberties of the church; but she "got only words and promise; her enemies got the deed and the effect." Demands were made from the ministers which could not be granted, and fully to intimate the intentions of the court, Black was sum

moned before the Privy Council to answer for some expressions used by him in a sermon. The ministers regarding the mode in which this prosecution was conducted as an infringement of their privileges, took a deep interest in its progress. They presented to the king a spirited address on the day of trial. Not gaining their object, they resorted to the improper mode too common in those days of expressing their dissatisfaction from the pulpit. By an order of council they were prohibited from using all familiar references in their sermons; and the commissioners of the Assembly were commanded to leave the capital. Soon after this a meeting of the barons and burgesses was held in one of the churches, at which a stranger exclaimed, "Fly, the Fapists are coming to massacre you." A tumultensued, which our author says was quite accidental and harmless, but which the court magnified into a deliberate design of perpetrating the most lawless violence and cruelty; and which was consequently followed by restrictive enactments of the severest description. Nothing but threatenings were breathed against the inhabitants of Edinburgh; and its ministers were under the necessity of concealing themselves.

The court by degrees discovered their determination of overturning the government of the church. Fif ty-five questions were drawn up by Secretary Lindsay; and a Convention of Estates, and a meeting of the General Assembly, were called at Perth to take them into consideration. The synod of Fife, aware of the intentions of the court, requested the king to defer the business till the regular meeting of the Assembly. The petition was rejected, and Sir Patrick Murray dispatched to the north to secure the ministers of that quarter. Melville was prevented from attending the convention, and learned its proceedings with concern, but without surprise; and was satisfied that nothing short of the overthrow of the Presbyterian constitution would satisfy the king. He, however, joined with some of his brethren in fixing a day for the ordinary meeting of the Assembly.

At a royal visitation of the University of St Andrews, many accusations were brought against Melville, and the visitors deprived him of his rec