As an illustration of the gross ignorance which then prevailed among the clergy, Buchanan informs us that in 1545, when severe laws were enacted against the reading of the New Testament, such was the blindness of the priests, that many of them, scandalized at the term New, maintained that it was a dangerous book lately written by Martin Luther, and cried out, they would have no New Testament, give them the Old one!* The following is still better. When Thomas Forret, usually called Dean Thomas or the Vicar of Dollar, was examined before the Bishop of Dunkeld on a charge of having ventured to preach from the gospel or epistle for the day, and "shown the mysteries of the Scripture to the people in their own language, so as to make the clergy detestable in their sight," the following conversation took place :-"My joy, dean Thomas," said the bishop, "I love you well, and, therefore, I must give you my counsel how you shall rule and guide yourself." "I thank your lordship heartily," replied the dean. "My joy, dean Thomas," continued the bishop, "I am informed that you preach the epistle or gospel every Sunday to your parishioners, and that you take not the cow nor the uppermost cloth from your parishioners, which thing is very prejudicial to the churchmen. My joy, it is too much to preach every Sunday; for in so doing you may make the people think that we should preach likewise. But it is enough for you, when you find any good epistle, or any good gospel, that setteth forth the rights of the holy church, to preach that, and let the rest be." "Truly, my lord," said the vicar, "I have read the New Testament and the Old, and all the epistles and gospels, and among them all I never could find any evil epistle or any evil gospel, but if your lordship will show me the good and the evil epistles and gospels, then I shall preach the good and omit the evil." "I thank God," replied the bishop with great veherence, "that I never knew what the Old and New Testament was! Therefore, dean Thomas, I will know nothing but my portuise and pontifical." From this saying there arose a proverb which was common in Scotland for many years after, applied to persons who were grossly ignorant:" Ye are like the bishop of Dunkeld, that kent neither new law nor auld." But the time had now arrived, in the all-wise providence of God, when the eyes of men were to be opened to the abominations of this mystery of iniquity. The Reformation, you are aware, commenced in Germany in 1517, when the heroic Martin Luther declared war against indulgences; but it was a considerable time after this before its blessed light reached the shores of Scotland. As we intend to confine ourselves to the history of the Reformation in our own country, we shall not enter into any general account of its rise and progress abroad. But there is one feature of this glorious work, which has been too much neglected by those who have written its history; and to which, as it characterised the Reformation in our own Buch. Hist. 291, Fol. Edit. land no less than in others, we cannot refrain from adverting-we mean the strictly religious character of its origin. Without denying that many who took a prominent part in promoting it, were actuated by worldly and selfish motives, and without overlooking the influence of secondary causes, which contributed to its advancement, such as the revival of learning, the invention of the art of printing, and the posture of political affairs in the countries where it was introduced,-it ought never to be forgotten, that the reformation of religion in the Church was the result of its revival in the souls of men. The first Reformers were, without exception, men of piety and prayer-men who had deeply studied the Bible and their own hearts; and it was by discovering in the Bible the true doctrines of salvation, which alone can purify the heart and pacify the conscience, that they were led first to see the corruptions of the Church of Rome, and then to seek their removal. The Reformation was the triumph of truth over error; and it was the preaching of the pure Gospel by the Reformers, and especially the great doctrine of justification by faith through the righteousness of Christ, that gave its deathblow to the Papal system. It is true, that had the Reformers not received the support of the civil power, in all human probability the infant Reformation would have been strangled at its birth, as it actually was in Spain and Italy, and the whole of Europe might have been yet lying under the dominion of antichrist. And it is a striking fact, that since the era of the Reformation, the Protestant religion has made little farther progress in Europe, and that those nations which refused to receive the Protestant religion continue Popish to this day; while in those that embraced it, Protestantism continues to flourish in proportion to the zeal with which it was welcomed, and the purity in which it was established. But though, in accomplishing his gracious designs, God employs earthly means, and makes use of events in the political world, it is not the less on this account the work of God. History is a record of the operations of Divine Providence; but it is also a record of human guilt and frailty, exhibited not only in the malicious opposition of the enemies of religion, but in the unworthy motives and mistaken policy of its professed friends. And the first lesson which the student of Church history requires to learn is to distinguish between these two things-to remember that the work may be of God, though the manner of working is of man; and not to confound the cause of truth and righteousness with the follies, the mistakes, and mismanagements of the instruments employed in advocating and advancing it. FALK, THE GERMAN PHILANTHROPIST. JOHN FALK was born at Dantzic, in 1768. He be longed to a family of the class of labourers, and seemed destined to pass an obscure life at his father's trade. But he showed such uncommon talents during his earliest years at school, that the municipal council of The youth replied to the old man's noble and touching words, only by a flood of tears; and then went to the University of Halle, treasuring up in his heart the memory of the blessings and exhortations which he had received. His powers of mind there received a rapid development, and he soon acquired the reputation of an eminent scholar. The most illustrious men of his age and country, Goethe, Herder, Schiller, Wieland, invited him to the little town of Weimar, the Athens of modern Germany, and esteemed him as a man worthy to be placed by their side. John Falk cultivated literature with success, not having yet found what is the true end of life, but endeavouring always to do what is becoming and good. Having become a husband and a father, he enjoyed uninterrupted domestic felicity, and saw promising children grow up around him. tenderest affections. The bloody battle of Leipsie, where the fortune of Napoleon fell beneath the blows of allied Europe, gave rise to an epidemic disease which spread through a great part of Germany. In some villages, more than sixty children lost their parents in a few days. In others the children died, leaving their fathers and mothers overwhelmed with grief. John Falk lost, in less than a month, four children, already grown up, on whom he had built the sweetest hopes of his old age. In vain he surrounded them with all that paternal solicitude could do. God, who had other views concerning him, took them in his arms to hide them in the tomb. While Falk was bearing his children to their last earthly abode, a crowd of orphans, covered with rags, pale, emaciated with hunger, with their eyes in tears, and their hands stretched out in supplication, beset the door of his mansion. "Oh!" said Falk, who had not forgotten the words of the old man of Dantzic, “ Here are the burgomaster and councillors of my native town, calling at my door in the shape of these poor children.' He opened his house to them all, day and night; he took them to his broken heart; he gave them food and clothing; and finally, with a few pious men, he formed an association, called "The Society of Friends in Need." This institution proposed to accomplish two distinct objects: first, it assisted the poor villagers, by giving them bread to eat, materials for rebuilding their burnt houses, seed to sow their fields, and money to purchase cattle; in the second place, it undertook to receive poor children, orphans, or foundlings, to procure for them a suitable education, and prepare them to gain an honest living. John Falk applied all his time and fortune to the ac complishment of this excellent work. He founded a House of Refuge and Education for Poor Children; and, with a holy zeal, he went himself through the streets and lancs, to find those who had lost their parents, or whose parents were unable to bring them up. Thus, one part of the evils of war was repaired; Germany, long laid waste and ravaged by dreadful calamities, began to hope for better days, and Christian charity wiped away the bitter tears that flowed from the eyes of forsaken infancy. One man alone undertook these great works, and he soon gathered numerous friends around his institution. The poor boy of Dantzic paid the debt to the unfortunate, which he contracted when he received the aid of his fellow-citizens. He was energetic and persevering in his work, because he relied upon the God of mercy; and he gave to the world another proof, that Christians are the true philanthropists; or rather, that they alone deserve that honourable name. ABRIDGED FROM BISHOP HORSLEY. SECOND SECTION. Meanwhile war extended its ravages in Germany, even to the shores of the Baltic. Napoleon, attended by his grand army, rolled his impetuous waves like an irresistible torrent, and left behind him countries laid waste, cities burned, hamlets covered with bloody ruins, heaps of dead, and a multitude of orphan children, who wandered hither and thither, without support, without refuge, and without bread. John Falk felt himself moved by such an amount of distress, and thought he heard the voice of God, commanding him to succour this afflicted people. He left, therefore, his peaceable and studious retreat; he gave up writing, ANALYSIS OF THE FORTY-FIFTH PSALM. that he might act, and, with a generous courage, threw himself into the midst of the fearful scenes of the war. General Coehorn, who appreciated the noble character of Falk, gave him the command of two companies of chosen men, with orders to re-establish order and safety in the villages. He went from place to place, repressing the excesses of the soldiery, arresting plunderers, protecting the peasants, enforcing the restitution of goods, and hastening wherever there were misfortunes to repair. It was an admirable sight, to see a man of real goodness take his place, without fear of death, amid the tumults of warlike passions, restraining the licentiousness of camps, half by persuasion and half by force, and taking all pains in his power to heal the wounds which his companions in arms had made! He was, so to speak, a guardian angel to the population of Germany,- -an angel who followed the demon of battle to allay his rage. But while John Falk was engaged in this lovely employment, a severe domestic affliction smote him in his HE proceeds to the second great period in the divine history of Christianity, the successful propagation of adversaries,-a work gradually accomplished, and octhe gospel, and our Lord's final victory over all his cupying the whole interval of time from his ascension, to the epoch, not yet arrived, of the fulness of the Gentiles coming in. From the commendation of the comeliness of the King's person, and the graciousness of his speech, the Psalmist, in the same figurative style, passes to the topic of his prowess as a warrior, under which character our Lord is perpetually described in the prophecies. The enemies he had to engage are the wicked passions of men, the devil in his wiles and machinations, and the persecuting powers of the world. The warfare is continued through the whole of the period I have mentioned; commencing upon our Lord's ascension, at which time he is represented, in the Revelations, as going forth upon a "white horse, with a crown upon his head and a bow in his hand, conquering and to conquer." The Psalmist, in imagery almost the same, accosts him as a warlike prince preparing to take the field, describes his weapons, and the magnificence of his armour, and promises him victory and universal dominion. 3. Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O Most Mighty! with thy glory and thy majesty." In the Hebrew language, the words glory and majesty are used in other places for splendid dress and for robes of state; and being things to be girt on, they must here denote some part of the warrior's dress. The whole verse might be intelligibly and yet faithfully rendered in these words : : "Warrior! gird thy sword upon thy thigh; Buckle on thy refulgent dazzling armour." The Psalmist goes on: 4. "Take aim, be prosperous, pursue, cient times was used to annoy the enemy at a distance, and particularly when put to flight. It comes whizzing through the air unseen; and, when it hits, so small is the wound, and so swift the passage of the weapon, that it is scarcely felt till it fixes its sharp point in the very heart. Now both these weapons, the sword and the arrow, are emblems of one and the same thing; which is no other than the Word of God, in its different effects and different manners of operation on the minds of men, represented under these two different images. The Word of God may be divided, indeed, into two parts, the word of reproof, commination, and terror; and the word of persuasion, promise, and hope. The first, the word of terror, is the sword girt upon Messiah's thigh; the second, the word of persuasion, is the arrow shot from his bow. For the sense of the first metaphor, we have the authority of the sacred writers themselves. "The sword of the Spirit," says St. Paul to the Ephesians, "is the word of God." And in the Epistle to the Hebrews, the full signification of the figure is opened, and the propriety of the application shown. "For the Word of God," says the inspired author, "is quick and powerful, (rather, lively and energetic,) and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing to the parting of soul and spirit, and to the joints and marrow." The comparison of the word of promise to the arrow is more easily understood; being more familiar, and analogous to those figures of speech, In these last words, the Saviour is represented un- which run through all languages, by which, whatever der the image of a great champion in the field, who is makes a quick and smart impression on the moral feelprompted by his own courage, and a reliance on his ings is represented under the image of a pointed missile own strength and skill, to attempt what might seem weapon, -as when we speak of " the thrilling darts of impracticable, and at last achieves what seems a won-harmony," or "the shafts of eloquence." The Psalmder to himself. Such great things he will be able to ist speaks of these arrows of God's word as sticking in effect; for In the cause of truth, humility, and righteousness." that is, take aim with thy bow and arrow at the enemy; be prosperous or successful in the aim taken; | ride on in pursuit of the flying foe, in the cause of religious truth, evangelical humility, and righteousness. "And thy right hand shall teach thee terrible [wonderful] things." 5. "Thine arrows are very sharp In the heart of the king's enemies ; Insomuch that peoples fall under thee." The war in which the Psalmist represents the Saviour as engaged, is very different from the wars which the princes of this world wage with one another: it is not for the destruction of the lives of men, but for the preservation of their souls. It may happen, indeed, that the struggles of Christianity with the adverse faction may kindle actual war between the secular powers, taking part on the one side or on the other. This our Lord himself foretold. Suppose ye," he said, "that I am come to give peace on earth? I came not to send peace, but a sword." Such wars, however, are not within the view of this prophecy. This prophetic text of the Psalmist relates only to that spiritual war which Christ wages with the enemies of man for man's deliverance, to the war arising from that enmity which was originally put between the seed of the serpent and the woman's seed. The offensive weapons in this war of charity, according to the Psalmist, are of two sorts,-a sword and arrows. The common military sword is a heavy massive weapon, for close engagement: wielded by a strong and skilful arm, it stabs and cuts, opens dreadful gashes where it falls, severs limbs, lops the head, or cleaves the body. The arrow is a light missile weapon, which in any cost. "the hearts of the King's enemies." Such, no doubt, were many of those Jews who were pricked to the heart by St. Peter's first sermon on the day of PenteAnd by the joint effect of these two weapons, the sword and the arrow, the word of terror and the word of persuasion, "peoples," says the Psalmist,— that is, whole kingdoms and nations in a mass," shall fall under thee,"-shall forsake their ancient superstitions, renounce their idols, and submit themselves to Christ. So much for the offensive weapons, the sword and the arrows. But the defensive armour demands our attention; for it has its use, no doubt, in the Messiah's war. His person, you will remember, is clad, in the third verse, "with refulgent dazzling armour." This may be understood of whatever is admirable and amiable in the external form and appearance of the Christian religion. 66 It yet remains to be explained what is meant, in the Psalmist's detail of the Messiah's war, by those wonders" which " his own right hand was to show him." "Thy own right hand shall show thee wonders;" but, instead of "terrible," we find in some of the oldest English Bibles the better-chosen word "wonderful." Now the "wonderful things" which Messiah's "own right hand" showed him, I take to be the overthrow of the Pagan superstition, in the Roman empire and other great kingdoms of the world, by the mere preaching of the Gospel, seconded by the exemplary lives and the miracles of the first preachers, and by their patient endurance of imprisonment, torture, and death, for the sake of Christ. These were the "wonderful things" effected by Christ's right hand; and in these this part of the Psalmist's prophecy has received its accomplishment. If his expressions went of necessity to "terrible things," or were determined to that meaning by the context, insomuch that the inspired author could be understood to speak, not of things simply wonderful, but wonderful in the particular way of being frightful, an allusion, in that case, might easily be supposed to what is indeed the explicit subject of many other prophecies, the terrible things to be achieved by the Messiah's own right hand, in the destruction of antichrist and the slaughter of his armies, in the latter ages. But as terrible things are not of necessity included in the import of his words, which goes not necessarily farther than "wonderful,”—and as he mentions those wonderful things before the thread of his prophecy is brought down to the second advent, the season of those exploits of terror,-it becomes us to be cautious how we force a sense upon the Psalmist's words which might not be intended by him, or rather by the inspiring Spirit. It will be safer to rest in those wonderful things which actually came to pass within the period he is yet upon, and were undoubtedly brought about by Messiah's power, as the true accomplishment of this part of the prophecy. The war of this period of the prophecy is finished: The battles have been fought, and the victory is gained. The Psalmist in the two next verses, the sixth and seventh, exhibits the King seated on the throne of his mediatorial kingdom, and governing with perfect justice. He addresses him as God, whose throne is everlasting, and sceptre straight; as a monarch whose heart is set upon righteousness, whose antipathy is wickedness. 6. “Thy throne, O God! is for ever and ever ; A straight sceptre is the sceptre of thy royalty, 7. "Thou hast loved righteousness and hated wickedness; Therefore God hath anointed thee, thy own God, With the oil of gladness above thy fellows." Of no throne but God's can it be affirmed with truth that it is for ever and ever; of no king but of God and of his Christ can it be said that he loves righteousness with a perfect love, and hates wickedness with a perfect hate; of no sceptre but the sceptre of God and of his Christ, that it is a straight sceptre. The sceptre has been from the earliest ages a badge of royalty; and the straightness, ascribed by the Psalmist to Messiah's sceptre, is to be understood of the invariable justice of the administration of his government. The throne of God, whether we understand it of God's natural dominion over the whole creation or, more particularly, of his providential government of the moral world, or, in a still more restricted sense, of Christ's mediatorial kingdom, is everlasting; and the government, both in the will of the Governor and in the execution, is invariably good and just. But the kingdom of the God-man is in this place intended. This is evident from what is said in the seventh verse: *God, even thine own God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows;" i. e., God hath advanced thee to a state of bliss and glory above all those whom thou hast vouchsafed to call thy fellows. It is said, too, that the love of righteousness and hatred of wickedness is the cause that God hath so anointed him, who yet, in the sixth verse, is himself addressed as God. It is manifest that these things can be said only of that person in whom the Godhead and the manhood are united,-in whom the human nature is the subject of the unction, and the elevation to the mediatorial kingdom is the reward of the Man Jesus; for Christ, being in his divine nature equal with the Father, is incapable of any exaltation. Thus, the unction with the oil of gladness, and the elevation above his fellows, characterise the manhood; and the perpetual stability of the throne, and the unsullied justice of the government, declare the Godhead. It is therefore with the greatest propriety that this text is applied to Christ, in the epistle to the Hebrews, and made an argument of his divinity; not by any forced accommodation of words which in the mind of the author related to another subject, but according to the true intent and purpose of the Psalmist, and the literal sense and only consistent exposition of his words. THE PROTESTANT CHURCH OF FRANCE, DURING THE REIGN OF LOUIS XV. PART L-FROM 1714 TO 1755. THE next period in the history of the French Protestant Church, to which I must direct the attention of the reader, is the period embraced by the reign of Louis XV., stretching from 1714 to 1774, being a space of sixty years. In the present paper I can come down only to 1755. It might have been hoped, that the miserable condition of the country at the death of Louis XIV. would have mitigated the spirit of persecution; and certainly there was a little relaxation under the Regent the Duke of Orleans, who, though personally a wretched profligate, saw the impolicy of violence, and repeatedly expressed himself in favourable terms towards the Protestants; but any gleam of sunshine was soon overcast, In 1724, Louis XV. issued a long declaration, embracing nearly twenty articles, and, if possible, breathing a spirit of more fiery persecution than had hitherto been manifested. He complains of the decrees of former years having beeu but coldly and remissly executed, especially in the provinces which had been afflicted with the plague; as if the judgments of God were not enough, and it was necessary to add to them the violence of man. The articles of his edict are most sanguinary. Any one, on any pretence whatever, publicly professing the reformed faith, was, if a man, to be sent to the galleys for life; if a woman, to be shorn, and confined as long as the judges thought proper. In both cases, there was a complete confiscation of property. the reader may have some idea what the French galleys were, one of the most frequent punishments to which the Protestants were abandoned, I subjoin an account of them from a little work entitled, The French Convert,' published shortly after the revocation of the edict of Nantes. It must have passed through many editions, as that which I possess is the sixteenth. It is entitled, That 'A true Relation of the happy Conversion of a Noble French Lady from the errors and superstitions of Popery to the Reformed Religion, by means of a Protestant gardener, her servant; wherein is shown, her great and unparalleled sufferings on the account of her said conversion; as also her wonderful deliverance from two assassins hired by a Popish priest to murder her; and of her miraculous preservation in a wood for two years, and how she was at last providentially found by her husband, who, together with her parents, and many others, were brought over to the embracing of the true religion. The story might be pronounced a romance, the events are so singular, had not the truth of them been solemnly attested. The picture which it indirectly presents of the profligacy, and treachery, and violence of Popery, is most appalling. The following is the account of the galleys of which we have heard much, and will continue to hear more: "Some they condemn to the galleys, where they are coupled commonly with the vilest miscreants condemned thither for the most flagitious crimes, whose fearful eaths and execrations are continually wounding their pious ears: there are generally five of them placed upon every form, fettered with a heavy chain, about ten or twelve feet long: they shave their heads from time to time, to show they are slaves, and are not allowed to wear their hats or periwigs: they have only beans, and nothing else, for their food, with about fourteen ounces of coarse bread a-day, and no wine at all. They are devoured by vermin, and forced to lie upon one another as hogs in a sty; and every day threatened and tormented by friars and priests, who, not being able to convince them by reason, think to do it by severity. He declared also, that when he was delivered, the number of those chained to the galleys for the sake of religion was about three hundred and seventy, who glorified God in their sufferings, with an unparalleled courage and constancy." To return to the articles of 1724. All those among the Protestants who dared to preach were immediately to be put to death. The public preaching of the Gospel is the great instrument in the hands of the Spirit | of God, of conversion and sanctification; and so it is the instrument against which, in all persecutions, Satan lifts up the most terrible power. The children of Protestant parents were ordered, under a heavy penalty, to be baptized by the Popish priest within twenty-four hours after birth. This, by one of the fictions of the Church of Rome, so brings them under the Popish yoke, that they may be compelled like deserters from an army, if they attempt afterwards to withdraw from her allegiance. All Protestant parents sending their children out of the country for education, were liable to a fine of six thousand livres. In self-defence, the Popish party were obliged to provide schoolmasters and schoolmistresses; not from any love for the arts of reading and writing, but that the Protestant children might be regularly carried to the Roman Catholic festivals. They were required to attend the schools, and repeat the catechismis, till they were fourteen years of age; "and from fourteen to twenty, attend the instructions on Sundays and holidays." There could be little danger of Protestant leanings after such a training. Then those attending sick Protestants, such as surgeons and nurses, were required, under heavy penalties, immediately to send for the Popish priest. If the sick refused the sacraments at his hands, and recovered, they were doomed to perpetual banishment, and the loss of one-half of their property; if they died, their memory was publicly arraigned and dishonoured. "No physicians, surgeons, apothecaries, or midwives, no book. sellers, or printers, may, or shall, be admitted to exercise their art and profession, in any place within our realm, without producing a" (Popish) "certificate." Various similar persecuting enactments were passed, in regard to Protestant marriages; but of these we shall have occasion to speak more fully afterwards. Such was the dread persecution of Louis XV.; and what was the character of the Protestants at this time? Were they unsound in the faith? Were they disaffected subjects of the State? It would be difficult to producc direct evidence, perhaps, of the precise religious condition of a Church which was scattered and trodden down, whose ministers were not allowed to publish any works, nor suffered to meet for the administration of discipline. These things were most adverse, not only to their Christian character, but to the proof of it; but if patient endurance under protracted trial, and the most stedfast loyalty, furnish evidence of soundness in the faith, then the Protestants of France gave. ample proof of their Christianity. Popish assertions that they had become Socinian in their religious views are entitled to little weight. Of course, some were much more spirit ual than others; but this is no more than what is to be met with in all Churches, and in all conditions of Churches. There may have been a French translation of the Bible by Le Céne, one of the French refugees, Socinian in its tendency; but we have no evidence that he was a Protestant minister, and though he were, this would be most inadequate ground on which to fasten any general charge of Socinianism against a Christian Church. Moreover, it was not circulated in France. The submission and loyalty of the Protestants were remarkable. Indeed, nothing can be more striking than the contrast between the way the people treated their Sovereign, and the way in which he treated them. Repeatedly did Roman Catholic criminals confined in the same prisons with the persecuted Protestants seek, but seek in vain, to enlist them in a conspiracy, which, if successful, would have released both. One case is mentioned, where they not only solemnly protested against a horrible conspiracy, but gave information of it, and so saved the lives of a captain and his garrison. On another occasion, in May 1705, they refused to stir out of their cells, when Roman Catholics of some condition had destroyed the governor of the castle, mastered the guards, made their escape, and left the doors open. At a later day, in 1744, when they were allowed to hold a National Synod in the deserts of Lower Languedoc-a privilege which, so far as I can learn, had not been enjoyed for more than half a century—what did they resolve upon? Did they denounce their oppressors, and proclaim rebellion against the State? No; they commanded that a fast should be kept in all the Reformed Churches of the kingdom, "for the preservation of his Majesty's sacred person, the success of his arms, a cessation of war, and the deliverance of the Church." Ministers are ordered to preach at least one sermon a-year on the duty of submission to civil authority. When news arrived, during the sitting of the Synod, of the illness of the king, they all fell upon their knees, and made a fervent prayer to God for his 66 |