noxious to some of his laxer brethren, and having the power, they had the inclination to deprive him of his subsistence, and of his beautiful little flock; and all the reflection they would make upon it would be, that he deserved it. They would enjoy their manses, and glebes, and stipends, and their domestic comforts, without ever giving themselves any concern about the persecuted and banished minister of Wamphray. They are now all in that place where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest, and they shall all stand in their lot at the end of the days.

In the beginning of March 1663, on some day, at some hour, in some vessel, and from some port, he sailed, followed by the prayers of all his friends and acquaintances, who sighed and cried for the cruel bondage of the Church of Scotland. What were his thoughts when he stepped into the vessel-how he beheld the receding shores, whether, like Scotland's beautiful, but wilful Mary, he kept on the deck as long as he could see the rocky cliffs, and heath-clad hills of his native land-or, whether voluntarily, or by stress of weather, compulsatively he went below-whether the tear stood in his eye, or silently stole down his grief-worn countenance, certain we are, that his best wishes, and most ardent prayers would arise from the bosom of the mighty deep, for his scattered and peeled country. The church of Christ universal would have a share in his prayers, but the once highly reformed and solemnly covenanted, but now wasted Church of Scotland, would have his most fervent aspirations. Casting forward his eye beyond the reign of the sensual prince who now occupied the throne, and that of his bigotted brother, and even beyond the Stuart dynasty, he would see at a period he could not distinctly define, the Church emerging from the flood of waters which the serpent had cast upon her out of his mouth, and clothing his brightening view in the incomparable words of the Psalmist, methinks he would say, Psal. cii. 13. "Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion; for the time to favour her, yea, the set time is come. For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof. So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth, thy glory. When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory. He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer. This shall be written for the generation to come, and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord. For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the Lord behold the earth-to hear

the groaning of the prisoner, to loose those that are appointed to death, to declare the name of the Lord in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem, when the people are gathered together, and the kingdoms to serve the Lord." Thinking upon the voluptuous and vicious tyrant who had let loose the bloodhounds of clergy and laity to track and to destroy his people, he might vent his feelings, almost in the words of one who was a sufferer and a refugee also, for the testimony of Jesus." And thou, dreadful prince, whom I once honoured as my king, and whom I yet respect as a scourge in the hand of Almighty God, thou also shalt have a part in my good wishes; may God blot out of his book the injuries which thou hast done us; and while he rewards the sufferers, may he pardon those who exposed us to suffer! O, may God, who hath made thee to us, and to the whole Church, a minister of his judgments, make thee a dispenser of his favours, an administrator of his mercy."

Little sleep would seal his eyes, or slumber close his eyelids, till nature, exhausted, sunk to repose. He had one consolation, and it was invaluable. He had not brought himself into this outcast condition; he had not contravened the laws of church or state; he had wronged no man, he had corrupted no man, he had defrauded no man, he had coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel; his rejoicing would be this, the testimony of his conscience, that in simplicity, and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, he had had his conversation in the world. Though he had the testimony of a good conscience, yet still the heart would know its own bitterness. But what he thought, or how he felt, (since he has not recorded it, and it would not have been easily described,) must be left till the curtains of eternity be opened, and by the brink of the river, and under the shadow of the tree of life, he relate them, (if such recitals will enhance their felicity, for God has told his wanderings, and put his tears into his bottle, and written them in his book,) to those who, like him, have come out of great tribulation, and washed their robes, and made them white, in the blood of the Lamb. May he who writes, and those who read, mingle with them on that solemn and ecstatic convocation!

When his enemies got him banished, they thought they had gained their object, and accomplished all their desire. We think we see them chuckling over their success, and each boasting how well he had acted his part in the tragedy. Oh, when they were all met upon some festive occasion, when all

concern about their flocks were thrown to the winds, and they were joining in another cheer, if they expressed their folly then in a similar manner; if fear had come upon them, and trembling which made all their bones to shake; if a spirit had passed before their face, so that the hair of their flesh had stood up, Job iv.; if, at the same time, the fingers of a man's hand had come forth and written upon the wall, and they had seen the part of the hand that wrote; if their countenances had been instantly changed, and their thoughts had troubled them, so that the joints of their loins were loosed, and their knees smote one against another; if the writing that was written had been, "God has numbered the years of your incumbency, and finished them! your rectory, or vicarage, or parish, is to be given to another!" if a voice louder than thunder had, at the same instant called them to remember who they had treated with undue severity, and had reproached, persecuted, and banished;-had any thing approximating to this taken place, (and it would have been easily accomplished by the Omnipotent,) how would it have caused them to mix trembling with their mirth!

Were any messenger from the invisible world, at the midnight hour, to open the curtains of those who have exercised cruelty or severity, and impress upon the most blotted and crowded page of memory what could never be eradicatedBut such disclosures must not be made to ears of flesh and blood. If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither would they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.

He had fallen into their hands, by a trivial word or deed, and they had him completely in their power. They could pronounce what sentence they pleased, or pronounce none, (as he was of opinion they did, for he declares he never saw it,) but say they had come to a finding, that he was to be banished, and threaten that, if he did not banish himself, they would convey him to one of the islands connected with America. But did they know the result? They might think what a certain desperado uttered: "To men I can be answerable; and as for God, I'll take him into mine own hand."(5) Could they not recollect, that the righteous Lord loveth righteousness, and his countenance doth behold the upright. That the face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. They were not doing justly, nor loving mercy. They were not doing to him as they would have wished him to do to them. They were not even acting legally. Could archbishop Sharp not foresee that there would come a time of re

tribution? Middleton, who by this time had been superseded, Rothes, Lauderdale, Glencairn, George M'Kenzie, and others, might not believe the Bible, or believe in retributive justice, sometimes even here; but he must have believed it. He could not completely shake it off. He must have recollected the words of Jehoiada: "The Lord look upon it, and require it ;" and the words of Jehovah himself, "The innocent and righteous slay thou not, for I will not justify the wicked." Alas! he had a certain object to gain, which he never obtained, and if he had, death would have nevertheless ended his days, and then what pleasure would all his cruelties and murders, by implication, have given him on the bed of death, or at the bar of judgment? But these were days of darkness, of tyranny, of oppression, of persecution! Sharp was a renegado. He had denied the faith, and was worse than an infidel. He was an apostate bishop, nay, an archbishop. He sat in the identical place where the beast longest reigned, and most severely persecuted in Scotland. True, but Sharp was a Presbyterian, and one of the highest order; for they have orders, notwithstanding their nominal parity. He even thought himself sincere, perhaps, till the archiepiscopal mitre engrossed his imagination. This fledged in him the feathers of ambition. This made him wade remorseless through seas of blood. But would none of our ministers in the nineteenth century imitate his example? Have they all an equal aversion to Episcopacy as their fathers? Are they all men devoid of ambition, but the ambition of winning souls to Christ? Do none of them sigh after being made Doctors in Divinity, Principals, Professors, Chaplains to the King and Queen, Deans, Moderators of Assembly, &c.? Is there never any strife among them who shall be the greatest. But these degrees and places of emolument and honour, must be given to some? Certainly. We do not wish to see them lessened; but rather multiplied, but let them be given to the aged, the venerable, always to those whom the general voice will deem the most worthy. Are none of our Presbyters proud, lordly, tyrannical, severe, if not cruel? Do we always see them doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God? Do they always strive to approve themselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God? Do we see them giving themselves wholly to the work of the ministry? Do we see them acting in presbyteries, synods, and general assemblies, as if there were a window in their breast? Do men always see that they act for the glory of God and the good of their fellow-men,

so that every man must say their discussions are temperate, their spirits meek, their sentences just? Are there none that have complained justly, that do now complain justly, of their decisions? Can they on the evening of every day's work, approach perfect Holiness, and say, I have washed my hands in innocency? Have not only their intentions been always pure, but their actions been apparently just? Then we will have no more unfeeling persecuting Sharps, and no more unjustly suffering Browns.

CHAPTER II.

MR BROWN has informed us, that he left his father-land about the beginning of March 1663, and arrived at Holland on the 12th of that month. There, some knew of his sentence, and would be looking anxiously daily for his arrival. They could not meet him as the brethren did Paul at Apii-Forum, and the Three Taverns; but when he did land, they would give him a cordial welcome, and minister to him in many things, as Onesephorus did to Paul. "In how many ways, my brethren," says the late pious Dr M'Crie, “may we serve others, and contribute to their comfort, even though our means be slender and scanty. Nameless, countless, are the kindnesses performed by a zealous and vigilant benevolence, exerting itself in the spirit, and after the example of Him who presents us with blessings of goodness manifold. It is not the magnitude or costliness of gifts, that proves the goodness of the donor, or does most good to the recipient; it is their number, their repetition, their seasonableness, and the considerate and delicate manner in which they are conferred. The goodness of Heaven in nature and grace steals upon us, and its choicest blessings descend in drops so small, as not to be perceived, and with such gentleness as scarcely to be felt. Largesses may be bestowed in such a way as to chill the heart and lacerate the feelings, while small, and comparatively inconsiderable favours, drop like the rain, and distil like the dew, which refresh and saturate the earth. Such Mr Brown at this time, would find the attentions of some he had seen, and many he had never seen. His previous cogitations, we presume, would harmonise in some degree with the following of the Christian poet Cowper: