Bishop of Aberdeen, and through him the Archbishop Sharpe also. Upon this, he was summoned to appear before the High Commission Court of their church; and on that occasion was enabled to bear a faithful testimony to the Truth of Christ, experiencing his promise to be fulfilled, Luke, xxi. 15, "I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay or resist;" for, even the Archbishop himself, who condescended to confer with Alexander Jaffray, could get no advantage in argument against him. Nevertheless, to satisfy these ministers, the sentence of the court was, that he should be confined to his own dwelling-house, and keep no meetings therein, nor go any where without the Bishop's licence, under the penalty of a fine of 600 merks, Scots money, which is £33. 15s. sterling: this sum they esteemed to be one fourth part of his yearly rents. To such an unjust sentence his answer was, that it was better to obey God than man:-and this obedience, afterward, cost him various sufferings.

Some readers may need to be reminded, that the Episcopal form of church-government was reestablished in Scotland in 1662, after an interruption of twenty-four years. Sharpe was made metropolitan. He is described by some writers to have been one of the most unprincipled men of the age in which he lived. And certainly, to go no further than the testimony of Bishop Burnet, this character of him is amply confirmed. With regard to the other bishops in general, and of Scougal in particular, that writer thus speaks, in his History. "I observed the deportment of our bishops was, in all points, so different from what became their function, that I had a more than ordinary zeal kindled within me upon it. They were not only furious against all that stood out against

them, but were very remiss in all the parts of their function. Some did not live within their diocese; and those who did, seemed to take no care of them: they showed no zeal against vice: the most eminently wicked in the county were their particular confidants: they took no pains to keep their clergy strictly to rules, and to their duty: on the contrary, there was a levity and a carnal way of living about them, that very much scandalized me. There was, indeed, one Scougal, Bishop of Aberdeen, that was a man of rare temper, great piety, and prudence: but I thought he was too much under Sharpe's conduct, and was at least too easy to him." Burnet's History, vol. i. p. 304. It was scarcely to be expected, that men of this stamp should be mild and temperate in the exercise of that secular and inordinate power, with which they were now invested. In fact, one of them," so great a man as Leighton," who had indeed accepted the bishopric of Dunblane, but with the single view of endeavouring to promote the harmony of the church of Christ, often declared, in Burnet's hearing, "that, in the whole progress of that affair, [the setting up of Episcopacy,] there appeared such gross characters of an angry Providence, that, how fully soever he was satisfied in his own mind as to Episcopacy itself, yet it seemed that God was against them; and that they were not like to be the men that should build up his church; so that the struggling about it, seemed to him, like a fighting against God."

CHAPTER II.

1664: ALEXANDER JAFFRAY WRITES A WORD OF EXHORTATION, ADDRESSED TO PROFESSORS.

ABOUT this time, George Keith published a few sheets addressed To those, who passed under the denomination of the Church of Scotland, especially to such as had once known a zealous profession, but had then greatly degenerated. On that occasion, Alexander Jaffray was induced to write a preface to this Address, entitled, "A Word of Exhortation," stated to be "from a lover of the true interest of those to whom it is directed," and signed by himself.

This faithful and feeling expostulation of our Diarist, shall here be transcribed nearly at full length. It conveys, in beautiful but true colours, the nature and ground of that spiritual testimony, which both he and his associates were eminently concerned to bear. There may also be plainly seen, in this paper, one evidence, in addition to those that have gone before, of that heavenly love, meekness, and charity, with which the soul of Alexander Jaffray was replenished to the end of his course.

Whatever be our views of the deficiencies apparent in the style of writing of this period, especially religious composition, and even of authors whose advantages were by no means small; yet, if we wish to reach beyond the surface of things, and to appreciate what is of truth and wisdom, we must patiently dig into the mine. We shall often feel ourselves amply repaid for our labour; in meeting with that richness.

and depth of thought, which, indeed, seemed to have occasionally carried some of these authors far beyond the niceties of diction. This remark may not be thought particularly applicable to the present instance; but it applies to many productions written by early members of the Society of Friends. They cared not to please the vain mind and corrupt taste in any; but their aim was to satisfy the longing soul, to reach the witness for God in every conscience; believing in the practical import of that saying of Solomon's, "The full soul loatheth an honey-comb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet." Prov. xxvii. 7.

JAFFRAY'S WORD OF EXHORTATION.

"How is it that ye do not yet discern this time? how long will ye shut out the discoveries of it, and thus provoke the Lord to shut you further out from beholding them? O fear, fear to be found any more in that guiltiness, which, if persisted in, may shut you out even for ever! And let none so look on themselves, as to suppose they are past this hazard, if they yet continue neglecting, opposing, and persecuting, or approving those who persecute, the growing light of this day, as it is come and coming forth, even with power and great glory.

Truly, Friends, think what ye will, the chief thing in the controversy that is betwixt God and you, is this;-your keeping up men's traditions in place of the true institutions of Christ, while he now so evidently comes forth to vindicate and restore themyour adhering to, and preferring the oldness of the letter to the newness of the Spirit; which first, indeed, had its glory, but is not comparable to this which excels. Think not, that such a case and state of things

as was in the primitive days, ended with those, who were so zealous for, and loath to part with, the law and the outward ministration thereof in the letter. Nay, Friends; consider seriously of it in the fear of the Lord; lay by your passion and prejudice, for it nearly concerns you; consider of it in soberness, and ye shall truly find it your very case at this day, as then it was theirs;-that same spirit acting now, as then, for the outward ministration, in opposition to the inward, and more heightened in its actings now than ever. O when shall that be dead to you, or ye to it, wherein ye have been so long held from beholding the glory of the Lord, as it comes forth in the work of this day! And how contrary to, and inconsistent with it, was that work, which by might and power ye were leading on; though ye had attained what ye proposed, in the furthest and highest extent of that Uniformity, which ye so endeavoured to have imposed upon all. Are ye not yet sensible of your mistakes and snares in these matters, so as to be made willing to glorify God, (as some of you have, it may be, ingeniously gratified men,) with a humble confession of your overreachings and other guiltiness, brought upon yourselves and the people of these nations?

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Many times hath it been in my heart thus to have spoken some few words unto you, as unto those whom I dearly love in the Lord, and to whom I stand by many bonds obliged, if in any service I could be useful. But, being somewhat sensible what I had to do in my own particular case, and not altogether unacquainted with the deceit of the busy enemy, who in this day lies so near, ready to draw out the mind to vent its own imaginations, and to speak of the things of God without his warrant; I have hitherto withheld, in expectation of a more fit occasion, which, on