borne to those souls which he, in his own good time, has made ready to welcome them; that he will bind up, and heal, and own, these poor destitutes, amidst the gathered remnant of his heritage."-Vaughan, pp. 172, 173.

Jam satis! Mr. Vaughan does not condescend to argue, and we have little inclination to reason with mere dogmatists; we shall therefore turn to a few passages of a different stamp. When Mr. V. can persuade himself to keep clear of these hazardous speculations, and to confine himself to the points in discussion between the Pelagian, and the advocate of the doc trines of grace, he is, frequently, successful in putting an argument into a very brief and striking form.

"The Pelagians spoke more wisely than many who oppose them. They maintained the integrity of free will;' an absolute power of willing good. Free will is free will; and, if there be any thing of it in man, there is the whole of it."-Vaughan, p. 157.

In reference to the explanation, which refers the divine preference, as given to Jacob rather than Esau, to "temporal servitude," Mr. Vaughan pointedly asks,

"What is, in fact, gained by this distinction ? The principle is the same; "God of his sovereign will putting a difference.'-Just so it is, with respect to national and personal election. Yet some seem to think, that they have hooked a great fish, in discovering, that Great Britain may have been elected to hear the Gospel without any of her children having been elected to receive it!" -Vaughan, p. 301.

We are unwilling to pronounce judgment between the two translations; they are both good, and their general agreement is a guarantee of their fidelity. But we certainly consider many of Mr. Vaughan's notes subject to considerable exception, as broaching errors, from which the other volume is free.

Memoirs of Rev. John Blackader ; compiled chiefly from unpublished Manuscripts, and Memoirs of his Life and Ministry. Written by Himself, while prisoner in the Bass; with an Appendix, &c. &c. By Andrew Crichton. 12mo. price 8s.Edinburgh, 1823.

WHILE the pens of a M'Crie and a Cook, have so nobly recorded the doings and the sufferings of the great Champions of the Reformation in Scotland, and the rise and progress of their glorious cause, we are persuaded that many have risen from the perusal of these glowing pages with a feeling of deep regret, that so little is known of the minor coadjutors in that struggle for the best and dearest interests of mankind. Their names are, indeed, to be found on the leaf of the Ecclesiastical Annalist, and their deaths may there also be noticed-but the sorrowings and triumphings of their souls, as the banner of the covenant was beat down or sustained amid the dubious conflict-their perils by land and by sea, amid friends and and hope-their strong cries and foes-their out-breakings of faith

tears and all the traces of humanity in which we can so well sympathize, have long since passed away from the tablet of mortal memory, and dwell only in the vague tradition where forms and voices are daily growing more dim and undefined. Yet where shall we look for nobler examples of intrepid courage, exalted sentiment, unshaken constancy, undying faith -than in those men who purchased by their blood the liberty and faith of their descendants; and who will not join us in desiring to see their monuments reared broad and high, as beacons to guide and animate posterity to the latest ages? Sentiments such as these, we doubt not, actuated the

compiler of the present memoirs; and we are glad to perceive that his researches have been so successfully directed towards rescuing the memory of an eminent covenanter from unmerited oblivion. We have read the present little volume with deep interest, and we hasten to introduce the amiable subject thereof to our readers. Mr. Blackader was born in December, 1615; it was one of his slightest honours to be descended from an ancient Border family of considerable importance in the early periods of Scottish History. Of his childhood little is known; but he studied at Glasgow under Principal Strang, his maternal uncle. Of this Professor, and the education his nephew would receive under him, Mr. Crichton gives the following account.

"At the time of Mr. Blackader's

studies, polemical divinity was in high repute. It was customary to dispute theses, and argue controverted doctrines; a practice which gave the students great fluency and accuracy of speech; and it is, perhaps, owing to these early habits, that when driven to worship on the mountains, they delivered the oracles of truth with such effect, and often with little premeditation. These exercises occasioned them to unfold their intellectual treasures, to call forth into activity, and make an appropriate use of their knowledge. The hopes of the church were under the yoke of prelacy, were nurtured with the most jealous precautions against unsound doctrine. They were taught to defend, at all points, the Calvinistic tenets, to repel, with triumphant arguments, the continental heresies. For the field of controversy, the young theologian was trained to yield his weapons with skill and vigour. He had to enter the lists, sometimes against Arminians and the Belgium schismatics, or against Bellarmine, the sturdy and far-famed champion of popery. At these exhibitions, Principal Strang always gave his attendance. He would frequently descend into the arena to take a leading share in the debate, or renew the combat by supporting the orthodox opinion against a stronger adversary. For this task he was particularly well qualified. He had gained an early celebrity for logical talents, having signalised himself while a student at St. Andrew's, in a public disputation held

before King James 6th, when he visited that University, in 1617. He had, in his youth, a natural diffidence, which enhanced all his accomplishments; and on the above occasion, the palm of victory was awarded to him in the royal presence, by the unanimous voice of the

spectators, at a loss whether most to admire his ingenuous modesty, or his profound scholarship."

Under such auspices, Mr. Blackader completed his divinity studies; but the reign of Episcopacy prevented him from exercising his functions, as a Presbyterian minister, for many years. The Act of the Estates, in 1641, approved of and ratified by the late king, restored to Scotland her popular forms of church government, and in 1652, Mr. Blackader received a call to the parish of Troqueer, in Galloway, where he immediately commenced a rigid inspection of his parish, reforming with great success the evils which he found existing both in the church and among his parishioners.

"In addition to the duties of preaching, visiting, and catechising, he instituted societies or meetings for family prayer and Christian fellowship; that he might not grudge, or excite jealousies on this account, he previously made known his resolution, and intimated publicly to the congregation, that he would sequestrate a day, ilk fortnight, for communion and conference together, anent their spiritual case, and for initiating them in the exercise of prayer.' At these conferences he chose to preside himself, thinking his attendance necessary, at least until they should be bred to manage that duty aright, and with that decorum and godly prudence which the solemnity required.

"These pious exertions had the happiest effect on the morals of the parish. Scarcely two years had elapsed, when a visible reformation was accomplished in the suppression of vice and dissemination Household prayer, formerly little in use, became of religious knowledge. familiar and easy, even to those who, by their own confession, had been strangers to it."

The Restoration soon put a stop to the pious labours of Mr. Blackader, and his presbyterian brethren. The perfidious Charles was not long in breaking that faith, which

in the days of his distress he had so often pledged to his Scottish friends. With his dissolute court, the tide of corruption was introduced into the land'; religion and its friends became the theme of ridicule to the great, and of indifference to the poor, and where the force of example succeeded not in overturning the house of the godly, that of arms was frequently more effectual. The body of the people beheld the restoration of prelacy with deep but silent grief; while their ministers testified against the coming heresy with a zeal not unfrequently bordering pon rashness. Among these, none conducted themselves with greater firmness and intrepidity than the minister of Troqueer. Our limits will not permit us to detail the successive steps by which he and many others were driven from their pulpits. On the last Sabbath of October, 1662, Mr. Blackader preached his fare well sermon.

"This was a day of anxious expectation throughout the country, and made an impression on the minds of those who witnessed it never to be forgotten. Above three hundred and fifty parish churches were shut up; a desolation which chiefly overspread the west and the south, and converted the most religions portion of the kingdom into a moral wilderness."

The sermon was interrupted by the arrival of a military party from Dumfries, who took down the names of all present from the adjoining parishes; as the law had affixed a penalty of twenty shillings Scots on every person absent from his own church." Mr. Blackader, upon the appearance of the soldiers, retired into his manse, but when they were gone he came out, and finished his discourse. On the next Saturday he retired to Glencairn.

In his retirement, Mr. Blackader continued to visit, catechize, and exhort numbers in the adjoining districts, and that at the imminent risk of his life, from the violence

, of the military detachments stationed in the country. His zeal procured his denouncement in the Scots Conventicle Act, and on the 25th January, 1666, letters of council were directed against him, and some of his confederates, "for presuming to preach, pray, baptize, and perform other acts of the ministerial function." Sir James Turner intended to put the warrant in force against him, but he narrowly escaped falling into their hands, at this time, by a timely flight to Edinburgh, while his family was dispersed over the country, by the relentless malice of his enemies.

The defeat at the Pentland hills, reduced the Presbyterians to still greater straits; but under the succeeding milder administration of Tweeddale, and Sir R. Murray, they enjoyed some liberty, which Mr. Blackader improved, by engaging in a pretty extensive course of itinerant preaching. The fieldmeetings, however, excited the suspicions of the jealous government, who, in attempting to disperse them by the military, were frequently resisted by the congregations, who brought arms along with them to the place of worship, in order to repel any attacks that might be made upon them, while engaged in their religious services. On the 18th of June, 1670, Mr. Blackader ventured, at the entreaties of several gentlemen, to preach to a numerous armed conventicle, near Dunfermline, and several meetings of a similar kind took place throughout the kingdom, so that it was calculated that above sixteen thousand people were hearing field sermons in one day.

The bloody Lauderdale, enraged at these proceedings, had recourse to the most violent measures against the field-preachers, but in vain.

"The concourse of hearers became im

mense, when they could reckon with cer tainty on the means of protection; parish

churches were much deserted, and stood vacant for many years. Several curates abandoned their charge to join the field preachers, and after a formal recantation of their errors, were admitted as brethren. It is not to be supposed that in an assemblage of many thousands, every individual was actuated solely by a pure and exclusive devotion. Some had acquired, from long habit, a predilection for conventicles; others frequented them to shew their aversion at Episcopacy. Curiosity, the love of adventure, or the desire of retaliation, might intermingle with their better feelings. There were claims to attract a lively imagination in the wild and stupendous scenery of the places where they often met; and, perhaps, the bold and romantic might find a congenial enterprise in having the dangers of a Sabbath journey; but, in general, they were attended from an ardent and sincere wish to hear the words of eternal life, and to have the liberty of worshipping God according to the dictates of their own conscience; and it is undeniable, that they were accompanied with remarkable success, and many extraordinary conversions, especially at communions, which now (1677) began to be celebrated in the open fields."

Mr. Blackader, though worn out by exertion in the cause, was indefatigable in his attendance at these meetings. Though outlawed, and a thousand merks of fered for his apprehension, he seldom hesitated to appear in his ministerial capacities, whenever an opportunity was afforded him. Of his situation and conduct on these occasions, Mr. Crichton gives several interesting details, and we regret that our limits will not permit us to dwell upon them.

"The last of his public labours were in East Lothian, about ten days before he was apprehended. He preached on a

hill over against the Bass, and prayed for the prisoners. He had an invitation to Teiviotdale the following Sabbath, but was seized in his house at Edinburgh, the week previous.”

Being brought before the council, he maintained a bold confession, and was sentenced to be confined with the covenanting prisoners on the Bass, to the governor of which he was delivered on the 7th of April, 1681.

CONG. MAG. No. 70.

It would have afforded us much pleasure to have here gratified our readers with Mr. Crichton's admirable description of this stupendous rock, in the mouth of the Firth of Forth, which for many years was used as a place of confinement for persons suspected of disaffection towards Government; but we must hasten to the closing scene of Mr. Blackader's earthly career. After an imprisonment of four years, his constitution sunk under the privations he was exposed to. Repeated applications had been made to the privy council, for liberty to remove him to some place where he might enjoy a change of air, and the assistance of his family and physicians; but ere the objections which had been raised to this request were obviated, the subject thereof had exchanged his scene of suffering for the joys of heaven. "He died on the Bass, having nearly completed his se ventieth year, and was buried in the church-yard of North Berwick,

where a handsome tomb-stone still marks the grave of the Martyr."

The anec

Such is a brief outline of this amiable man's career. dotes of Scottish covenanting with which this little volume abounds, are extremely interesting. The style is neat and perspicuous; and we should be glad to see Mr. Crichton employ himself on the biography of some leading covenanter, with whom we are yet but imperfectly acquainted.

A specimen of Mr. Blackader's preaching, with some etymological and historical notes on the Bass, are contained in the Appendix. We are also presented with a view of the Bass-rock, from a drawing made in 1697, as a frontispiece, which, unless our memory greatly deceives us, conveys no adequate idea, either of what must have been the former, or is the present appearance of that stupendous

column.

3 Z