score, or three hundred and forty; another specifies, that "there were more than a hundred landed gentlemen, besides others of meaner degree;" while Sir Ralph Sadler says there were "a great many gentlemen, to the number of eighteen score, (or three hundred and sixty,) because they were all well minded to God's Word."

Mercifully, however, this dreadful proposal was by far too much so for the nerves of the king. Even after Hamilton's death, he had been haunted by dreams, and now he could not stand even the sight of the roll. As soon as it was laid before him he revolted, and with strong marks of disapprobation. It has been said, indeed, that before the rout at Solway moss, the measure was proposed a second time; but whether or not, for all the purposes of history this is of no moment. Once was quite sufficient, since that once has discovered a state of things which would never have been so distinctly known, or even conjectured. That already in Scotland, any change of opinion so very extensive as this had taken place, could not have been imagined from any other events yet recorded in history. Much more, indeed, has now been authenticated in the preceding pages, than has ever been before known; and allowing that the Word of God, like secret leaven, had been in silent operation since the year 1526, or nearly fourteen years, still, after all that we have yet read, a measure so very formidable in its range comes upon us with surprise, as almost incredible. Taking the very lowest number, such a roll would have more than satiated even Bonner of London with regard to all England.

Of course it would be a violation of all historical propriety, to represent all these proscribed, or marked men, as Christians, simply because they were opposed to the Cardinal's politics, principles, or procedure ; nor among them all, do we know of a single individual, either at that moment or ever afterwards, who understood the rights of conscience, or who, when in possession of power, would have refrained from persecution; nor is there much room left for our boasting over them, since too many such men exist even in our own day. But conceding all this, still we have before us one striking proof, that a great change had already taken place in Scotland on the public mind. Let the twofold object of the proposed persecution be only borne in mind. It was to seize on property, as well as destroy or expatriate certain impracticable men, who now stood in the way of the Cardinal and legate. But then below the rank of these men, as formerly hinted, there were others, and it should seem many others, throughout the country, less sophisticated, and more devout readers of the Sacred Volume, whose names, though not mentioned, were already recorded in another roll, on which the eyes of God not rarely look. Including the entire community, it is in reference to this very period, that Buchanan goes so far as to speak of many thousand men who did not hesitate to peruse the books of the Old

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and New Testament." Farther evidence, too, awaits us, whether in relation to men, or the Sacred Scriptures; but the more important question now is-How, or by what instrumentality, had this mighty change already been effected?

Seven years after the Scriptures of the New Testament in English had been first conveyed into Scotland, there had, indeed, been an able and well sustained controversy, though hitherto buried in oblivion, as to the right and duty of the people to read the Scriptures for themselves, and at home in their own dwellings; but there had been no ministry of the word, properly so called. One man, Forret, in a very limited district, for a short time had spoken out; but he was almost immediately silenced, and then burnt to ashes. There had been no son of thunder lifting up his voice, nor had any such means been employed as to account for this confessedly great change. Two or three men from England may come down afterwards, and make some impression; but we now speak of the past, and of what had been already effected. Putting the presumptive heir to the crown entirely out of view, as a weak and vacillating man, have so many round about him been so shaken in mind, as to involve themselves, by Beaton's casuistry, in the deadly sin of what he called heresy? Then, as far as the art of printing, or English books were concerned, nothing can be ascribed to either cause and of books imported from abroad, we find not upon record a single titlepage, save one. But that one has been proclaimed in open court, by Lauder, in 1538, as having been the great, nay, the only source of annoyance. He denounced it as heresy. "God forgive you," said Forret, "that ye should call the book of the Evangel of Jesus Christ heresy." But he insisted that it was, and that it was this which had occasioned "ALL the din and play in their Kirk," or throughout Scotland. Certainly it was intended, that posterity should observe this, and no event of the day has been more distinctly marked, if so much so.

The ministry of the word, though of Divine appointment, has again and again, throughout this history, been presented by God as entirely subordinate to his own word—the living voice of man, to the voice of the living God. In the scale of human depravity, or the profanation of divine things, besides the neglect or perversion of the ministry, there is a lower

depth, or greater sin. This had been shewn in Scotland as well as England, in the treatment of the Divine Record itself -in the wilful concealment of the Word of God-in the denial of it to the people-nay, in the denunciation of it by the profligate rulers of the darkness which reigned around them. This was the greatest of all crimes. The force of systematic depravity could no farther go. They had rejected the Word of Jehovah, and what wisdom was in them? The Sacred Scriptures, therefore, and more especially those of the New Testament, standing in the same relation to the Christian Church, which the law, when lost, did to the Jewish, and which, when found, became the means of its revival; so the Sacred Volume must now take precedence. We leave other nations to examine for themselves; but in the course pursued by Divine Providence towards this island entire, and by way of eminence, this fact is worthy of more reflection than it has ever obtained. The Word of the Lord, as an instrument in his own hands, and conveyed into the island in spite of all opposition, was to be first, and to be thus glorified. So it had happened in England, as already explained. But here, in the north, as well in the south, in Scotland as well as in England

ment.

Jehovah had resolved to show

What his own Sovereign Word could do.

And yet, after all that can be said, at this moment, what was now to be done? nay, what to be expected? We have come to December 1542. The King is dead, and Beaton has reached the highest point of his ambition. Before his sovereign was even laid in the grave at Holyrood, he has usurped the government; and look wherever the people might, every thing seemed to portend success in favour of such a moveWith regard to his own crafty brethren, he sits, like a sovereign Pontiff, over every one of them. The king has left for his heir only an infant, whose mother is favourable to all the intentions of Beaton. The presumptive heir to the crown, the Earl of Arran, is not merely a weak man, but he seems to be quite indisposed for action; while, in point of talent and activity, there is no other individual to be compared with the Cardinal and legate. As for the nobility at large, their power is broken; such of them as possessed any

authoritative influence are either dead, or in exile; and the best of them have been carried out of the way, from Solway Moss to London. The neighbouring powerful monarch, elated by his victory, threatens war; and it may be one of conquest or of extermination. In short, according to Buchanan, “the considerate foresaw a tempest overhanging Scotland, dark and gloomy beyond conception; for the king had not made a will, and left a girl, scarcely eight days old, as his heir."

From all these circumstances, it must have been quite impossible for any man to see before him a single day, or to foretell what awaited either himself or his country. The only certain thing was, that Beaton had resolved to be both "king and priest" for the time being; having, it is said, caused the will of the king to be proclaimed on Monday after his death, and this, it is understood, pointed to him as the future regent. But let what will take place, nothing shall prevent the progress of Divine truth; and, as in nature, the darkest hour precedes the day-break, so it may be even now.

REIGN OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS.

THE YEAR 1543, A MEMORABLE ONE-CRITICAL STATE OF THE GOVERNMENT-REMARKABLY SUDDEN CHANGE THE PRIMATE OF ST. ANDREWS, THOUGH A CARDINAL, IN PRISON-HIS CLERGY IN MOURNING, AND ALL THEIR CHURCHES CLOSED, WHEN PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED, AND BY A BILL AND PROCLAMATION THROUGHOUT SCOTLAND, SANCTIONED THE GENERAL PERUSAL OF THOSE SCRIPTURES, WHICH HAD BEEN READING IN SECRET FOR SIXTEEN YEARS-CONTRAST WITH ENGLAND AT THIS MOMENT-EXTENT TO WHICH THE SCRIPTURES HAD BEEN POSSESSED, AND THEREFORE PERUSED IN SCOTLAND-THE EARL OF ARRAN, THE GOVERNOR, VERY SOON ABJURES, AND FALLS UNDER THE POWER OF BEATON, NOW ENLARGED THE SINGULAR EXISTING POSITION OF ALL THE EUROPEAN SOVEREIGNS, WITH THE PONTIFF AND THE TURK INCLUDED MORE MARTYRDOMS BY HANGING, DROWNING, and the FLAMES -THE DEATH OF BEATON-PECULIARITY IN THE HISTORY OF THE BIBLE IN SCOTLAND.

HE year 1543 was a memorable period, and deserves to stand by itself, whether we allude to Scotland or England. In relation to both countries, it was a crisis; but as viewed in conjunction, we are furnished with matter

well worthy of notice, and in close connexion with the Sacred Scriptures. In Scotland, the opening of the year will discover how insignificant is the power of any human party, however ably led, when the moment arrives in which the Supreme Ruler begins to deal with it. Beaton we have just left, in great power, and fondly anticipating a higher place than Wolsey himself had ever reached. He may be allowed, for a few days, to dream of reigning over the kingdom, at the head of a regency, of which the Earls of Argyle, Huntly, and Murray, were to be chief men; and as for the presumptive heir to the crown, the Earl of Arran, he must be neutralized or overruled. If we can rely on the deliberate testimony of Arran himself, BEATON exhibited a will of the King, appointing him to be guardian of the infant Queen, as well as Regent, or Governor of the realm.

Henry VIII., his determined enemy, was now dreaming also, as well as Beaton, though in very different strain. The death of James V. instantaneously gave fresh impulse to his ambition. If possible, and immediately, he is to reign over Scotland. He is to get possession of Beaton, as well as the infant Queen Mary, who, as he now proposed, should in due time be married to his son Edward. Once awake, however, both the King and the Cardinal must, like other men, follow with the tide of events; but the question between them at this moment being one of time, the sequel will explain which of them gained his object. No sooner had Henry been informed of his nephew's death, than he sent for the Scotish lords and gentlemen, the prisoners from Solway, who, only a few days before, had been marched, as in disgrace, through London, and then they had been only upbraided. The King now sounded them, with a view to his intentions, when, without exception, they bowed to his terms, and without gainsaying! Henry exacted pledges, which they left behind them; and they engaged, that when Queen Mary came to be ten years of age, she should marry Prince Edward. On Friday the 29th of December, the prisoners were allowed to depart, and coming down by way of Darlington, they had reached home by Wednesday the 24th of January.1 Arran now found himself in circumstances to act with decision; and no

1 Gov. State Papers, vol. v., pp. 234, 242, notes.