the purest times of the church. Scotland at that period was distracted by religious disputes, chiefly on points of ecclesiastical polity: episcopacy and presbytery contended against each other with unrelenting fury. Scougal was an episcopalian. He was convinced, both from Scripture and the general practice of the church during fifteen centuries, that, in framing a plan of church government, Hooker and Chilling worth were surer guides than Calvin and Knox; but the fierce spirit of controversy ill accorded with the devotional frame of his gentle and placid mind. He was a stranger to the odium theologicum. He had never, to use the language of the amiable Tillotson, drawn blood in controversy. Instead of wading through the mud of polemical theology, he delighted in books of practical piety; whose object was to renovate the heart, to regulate the temper, and to inculcate a conversation becoming the Gospel of Christ. "His mind," says Dr. Gairden, describing his religious character when a student, "being always composed to a religious temper, he even then made it his business, by the frequent reading of the most pious and useful books, and a happy conversation, sanctified by a constant devotion, and an unprejudiced mind, to frame to himself, amidst the various opinions and distractions of Christendom, right apprehensions of religion, and accordingly to suit his practice: so that even then, religion was the matter of his serious and impartial choice, and not merely the prejudice of custom and education." He viewed religion, not in the light of a cold speculative assent to the doctrines of Christianity, but as a vital principle wrought in the heart by the Holy Spirit, purifying the inward man, and operating by love; or, to use his own emphatical language, as the life of God in the soul of man.

After studying at the university four years, he commenced Master of

Arts, being nineteen years of age. Scarcely had he ceased to be a pupil when he became a teacher. He gave public lectures during the next term with distinguished ability, in the absence of one of the regents, and soon after had the honour of being appointed professor of philosophy. Dr. Gairden's account of his conduct, as an instructor of youth, is highly interesting. "He was careful so to behave himself in the exercises of that office, as to preserve his own conscience pure and void of offence, and to serve the interests of Christianity; training up the youth in such principles of learning and goodness as might make them most serviceable to church and state. He was careful not to drive on little designs, or to maintain factions and heats in the society, but studied always to compose them.

He always preserved his authority entire amongst the unruly youth, and would quickly compose their disorders and tumults, and yet gain their love and esteem. He was careful to instruct the youth in the most intelligible and useful principles of human knowledge; and it deserves to be remembered, that he was the first in this corner of the land (perhaps in the whole nation) who taught the youth that philosophy which has now (1678) the universal preference by all the knowing world. He looked upon it as the most proper for framing their judgments, and disposing them to conceive things aright; for taking them off from a disputing humour, and a vanity in hard words and distinctions, and in thinking they knew something when they knew nothing. He thought it served to enlarge their apprehensions of Almighty God, by considering the vastness of his works, and the admirable wisdom and goodness that appeared in the order of the world, and the wonderful contrivance even of the most minute creature; that it disposed them to consider the nature and worth of their immortal souls, and

of what small moment all the sensual pleasures of this lower world were; and that it inclined them to a more universal love and good-will towards all, and to meaner thoughts of themselves and their knowledge. He was very careful to train them up in the best and most useful principles of morality, and to guard them against the debauched principles of Leviathan*. And as he thus made human learning serviceable to the ends of religion; so he made it his great endeavour to have their minds inspired with this. On the Lord's days, in the evenings, he usually read some pious discourses to them, laying open the folly and heinousness of vice and impiety, and the excellency and advantage of religion and goodness, and such other considerations as might both instruct their minds and gain upon their tempers. And he failed not to deal with each of them apart in private. Those who were of bad inclinations, he studied to reform and amend; and in whom he saw any appearance of goodness, he was careful to encourage and cherish them. Thus he hath made appear, by his practice, that philosophy and religion are not enemies to one another, but that the sober and discreet use of our reason makes us more capable of the truths and graces of our religion."--Happy those colleges whose public instructors thus enter into the spirit of their important office; who guide their pupils through the paths of science to the temple of religious truth. Such, the writer of these pages recollects with veneration and gratitude, was the character of a Professor, who for many years filled the chair of moral philosophy, in the university of Glasgow, with distinguished honour, the late Dr. Reid; whose metaphysical acumen was unrivalled, whose scientific attainments were vast, whose taste in Belles Lettres was correct and refined, and whose

A book so called, written by the famous Mobbes,

praise it was to render philosophy and literature the handmaids of piety and virtue*.

Scougal sat in the chair of philosophy about four years, when he entered into holy orders, and, having resigned his professorship, was presented by his College, in 1678, to the living of Auchterless, in Aberdeenshire, where he resided only one year; during which he discharged the various duties of the pastoral care with a zeal and diligence worthy of the days of St. Chrysostom. The episcopal church of Scotland at that time used no liturgy: the difference between them and the presbyterians could not be called material, either in regard to doctrine or the forms of worship. The Confession of Faith, which had been drawn up by the first reformers of Scotland, in 1560, continued to be the received standard of doctrine to both parties upwards of fourscore years; and although this Confession was laid aside by the presbyterians in the reign of Charles the First, to make way for the Westminster Confession, no clergyman, who had subscribed the latter, would have scrupled subscription to the former. In regard to public worship, although no form had been appointed by episcopal authority, we are informed by a presbyter of the episcopal church in Scotland, in his Ecclesiastical History of that kingdom, that "many of the episcopal clergy compiled forms to be used by themselves in their particular congregation, with some petitions and collects taken out of the English book; and all of them uniformly concluded their prayers with the Lord's Prayer, and their singing with the Doxology, which the zealots of the other side decried as superstitious and formal. The two sacraments were administered by both mostly in the same manner, without kneeling at the one, or signing with the sign of the cross at the other; only in bap.

* This great and worthy man sat in Scov. gal's chair for several years.

tism, the episcopal clergy required the Apostle's Creed, and the presby terians, in general, the Westminster Confession. And then, with regard to discipline, the establishment had their kirk sessions, as the presbyterians have at present; they had their presbyteries, where some experienced minister, of the bishop's nomination, was moderator; and they had their diocesan synods, in which the bishop of the diocese in person, or one by his express appointment, presided." There was no marked line of distinction, then, between the two parties, as to articles of faith, ritual, or discipline. The grand bone of contention was the mode of church government. The grand question in debate was, whether the supreme and exclusive jurisdiction in ecclesiastical affairs,should be vested in a bishop, or a court of presbyters, each party arguing on the jure divino right. In those parts of Scot. land where the bishops and their clergy were devout and exemplary, there was a pretty general conformity to episcopacy; the strong hold of presbytery was in the western counties, where the ignorance and the profligacy of the episcopal clergy were notorious. Had the piety and moderation of the incom parable Leighton been more prevalent upon the Scots bench, and the spirit and temper of Scougal been more generally imbibed by the parochial clergy, the episcopal form of church government would, in all probability, have continued in Scotland at the period of the Revolution, although not squared by the model of the church of England, either in rites, ceremonies, or † judicatories.

Skinner's Ecclesiastical History of ScotJand, vol. ii. p. 468.

The following account of the discipline of the Church of Scotland, between the Restoration and the Revolution, is extracted from an authentic record, and will, no doubt, be gratifying to your readers:

"Every bishop hath under him an official or commissary, who is judge of the spiritual court within his diocese. Unto this court are referred matters of testaments, bastardy, divorce, tithes, perjury, &c. &c.; and many CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 125.

Scougal, during the short time he remained at Auchterless, was a most exemplary pattern of what a pa

civil cases. It sits in the months of November, December, January, February, June, and July. Of the several courts subordi

nate to the bishop's, wherein is exercised ecclesiastical discipline, the first and lowest is

called the Session: it consists of the chief and most grave men of the parish, who are termed Elders and Deacons. In this small court, whereof the minister is president, all fornicators, adulterers, blasphemers, swearers, profaners of the Lord's Day, &c., are con vened, and put to make public confession of their sins, and profession of their repentance, according to the degree or heinousness of

them.

"The deacon's office is to collect the money &c.: and that of the elder, is to be careful for the use of the poor, to delate delinquents, of the fabric of the church; to assist in the censuring of scandalous persons, and to wait on the minister at the celebration of the Lord's supper, &c. This court sitteth once a week. The next court is called the Presbytery, con sisting of twelve or twenty ministers, more or less, that sits once in two or three weeks. The moderator or president thereof is chosen by the bishop. In this court are discussed

appeals from session. Here are convened all those who refuse to submit to church disci

pline; and all such as apostatize to Popery. or Quakerism, who, if they remain obstinate,

are persecuted with the censures of the church. Here also all such as enter into holy orders are examined, and an account taken of their learning and other qualifications, in a course of many trials; as making homilies, sermons, and common places, which hold two or three months, and then they are returned to the bishop well qualified, who upon that proceeds to ordain them.

"A third court, whereof the bishop is president, is the Provincial Synod. In this court are discussed all appeals from presbyteries. From hence are issued warrants for visiting churches. Here also the lives of scandalous ministers are tried, who, if found guilty of crimes laid to their charge, are either deposed, suspended, or excommunicated. The provincial synod meets twice in the year; in April and October. The supreme ecclesiastical court is a national synod made up of bishops and deans, and two members from every presbytery, one of whom is of the bishop's nomination; and a commissioner from every university.

The calling of this synod is wholly in the Crown. Nothing is to be proposed but by 20

John xv. 8.-" Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples." AMID all the religions professed in the world, those alone who profess Chris tianity worship the true God aright, or are acquainted with the true way of salvation; there being "no name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved, but the name of Christ." We must, therefore, acknowledge it as a great bless ing to have had our lot cast where this religion is generally professed. But then we must take care that we do not satisfy ourselves with the bare profession, and thus lose all the benefits of the Gospel as too many have done. This religion, when first planted, and for three hundred years during which all the powers of this world were against it, flourished exceeding ly, and brought forth abundant fruit to the glory of God and the benefit of man. Those who then professed it were better men than the rest of the world. But when Christianity became the governing religion, men began to take it up only because it was in fashion; and though many, perhaps more than before, embraced it from right motives, yet the great bulk of those who professed it had probably no other design than that of conforming outwardly to the religion of the state. And so it is at the present day. We have cause to bless God that Christianity is not only professed in this kingdom, but established; that in our infancy we were admitted, by baptism, into Christ's church, and that we still profess ourselves to be members of it. But to each of us this privilege will be a blessing or not, according to the use we make of it, according as we live up to what we profess to be. This, however, few among us do.

We are either content to profess outwardly this true religion, in which alone there is salvation, under a vain idea that we shall be saved by this profession; or we become mere religious partizans, spending our zeal on matters that are wholly unessential, on the points that distin guish different sects and parties, til! we have none left for what is the main, substantial end of the religion of Jesus Christ, namely, truly to honour, serve, and glorify God, by doing what he has commanded us to do, and thus being his disciples, not by profession only, but in deed and in truth. This our blessed Saviour foresaw, and in the text has warned us against: "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples."

In the preceding verses our Lord instructs us, that all our power of doing good comes from him; and to illustrate this great truth, he compares himself to a vine, and those who profess his religion to so many branches grafted into that vine. "As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing." By bearing fruit, therefore, is plainly meant the doing such works, and exercising such tempers as are agree able to the profession of Christianity. Christ himself describes them in another place as "good works," whereby we may "glorify our Father which is in heaven;" John the Baptist, as "fruits meet for repentance;" and St. Paul, as the "fruits of righteousness," "the fruit of the Spirit." These expressions, which all mean the same thing, are explained by the Apostle as including

love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance," a list to which every kind of good work, whether it respects God or man, may be referred. And, in another place, he gives us an equally comprehensive view.