every magistrate of any corporation within the kingdom, till lately, was required to make attestation of his Christian faith by that act of taking the sacrament in the Protestant form; which, while it is Christ's own test of discipleship, is, by a wonderful providence, at the same time the only act unto which a Papist may not for Jesuitical purposes conform. Either by this, or by express oaths of abjuration, was every member of this Christian kingdom, from the least even unto the greatest, required to renounce, abjure, detest, and abominate, that which God abominates. This negation, to begin with, was a noble thing: it was an unspeakable service unto the truth. The nation which did so gallantly and fearlessly cast down the gauntlet for the living God, must needs possess his favour; and in that nation his wisdom and his might would be set to make it beautiful and glorious.

The next thing which I observe in the constitution of this kingdom, worthy of all admiration, is the place given unto the church; which is the very place that it ought to occupy,established by the king, endowed with all needful support, and with all proper accommodations for the worship of God; but not interrupted or interfered with: yet overlooked in the administration of its government and the exercise of its discipline. It ought to be overlooked for this reason, that the power which established it hath always to be acknowledged as maintaining it in these its high immunities,

as observing whether it be fulfilling its offices to the kingdom; thereby teaching the church that it is established by the grace of the king upon a solemn covenant, unto which it is always bound to conform itself. The king is thus ever acknowledged to be the responsible person for the kingdom and all the lieges thereof. The church he taketh unto himself, in high allegiance unto Christ, and maketh her the nursing mother of his people. He acknowledgeth Christ as his head: and because Christ is head of the church, and worketh all things for the good of his church, so the king, acting under Christ, taketh order for the well-being of his church, and for the withstanding of all opposition thereto, and for the uprooting of all heresies therein. The Church of England hath for this named him head of the church. The Church of Scotland hath refused to him this title, upon the ground that he is but vicegerent for Christ in respect of lordship in general, and may not take unto himself the name of Christ, as head of the election: but, so far from abating his duties towards the church, methinks the Church of Scotland hath gone even greater lengths than the Church of England in this respect; as witness these extracts from her symbolical books: "We further confess and acknowledge, that such persons as are placed in authority are to be loved, honoured, feared, and holden in most reverent estimation, because they are the lieutenants of God, in whose sessions God himself

doth sit and judge, yea, even the judges and princes themselves, to whom by God is given the sword, to the praise and defence of good men, and to revenge and punish all open malefactors. Moreover, to kings, princes, rulers, and magistrates, we affirm, that chiefly and most principally the conservation and purgation of religion appertain: so that not only they are appointed for civil policy, but also for the maintenance of the true religion, and for suppressing of idolatry and superstition whatsoever.' (Scottish Confession, Art. xxiv.)-" The magistrate neither ought to preach, minister the sacraments, nor execute the censures of the kirk, nor yet prescribe how it should be done, but command the ministers to observe the rule commanded in the word, and punish the transgressors by civil means. The ministers exercise not the civil jurisdiction, but teach the magistrates how it should be exercised, according to the word."...." The civil power should command the spiritual to exercise, and to do their office, according to the word of God. The spiritual rulers should require the Christian magistrate to minister justice and punish vice, and to maintain the liberty and quietness of the kirk within their bounds." (Second Book of Discipline, chap. i.)-" Although all the members of the kirk be holden, every one in their vocation, and according thereto, to advance the kingdom of Jesus Christ so far as lieth in their power, yet chiefly Christian princes and other magis

trates are holden to do the same: for they are called in the Scripture nourishers of the kirk, forsomuch as by them it is, or at least ought to be, maintained, fostered, upholden, and defended against all that would procure the hurt thereof." ...." To make laws and constitutions agreeable to God's word, for advancement of the kirk and policy thereof; without usurping any thing that pertains not to the civil sword, but belongs to the offices that are merely ecclesiastical, as is the ministry of the word and sacraments, using ecclesiastical discipline, and the spiritual execution thereof, or any part of the power of the spiritual things which our Master gave to the Apostles, and to their true successors." (As above, chap. x.)-" The civil magistrate may not assume to himself the administration of the word and sacraments, or the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven; yet he hath authority, and it is his duty, to take order that unity and peace be preserved in the church; that the truth of God be kept pure and entire; that all blasphemies and heresies be suppressed, all corruptions and abuses in worship or discipline prevented or reformed, and all the ordinances of God duly stated, administered, and observed. For the better effecting whereof, he hath power to call synods, to be present at them, and to provide that whatsoever is transacted be according to the mind of God." (WestminsterConfession of Faith, chap. xxiii.)-These quotations serve to shew how much at one are the two

churches established in this kingdom, concerning the important relation of the church and state. And though they differed in the scale of worldly appearance in which they set forth the offices of the church, yet in respect to the number and relative bearings of these offices they differed not so very widely as is generally thought; a Scottish minister having secured to himself the dignity of a bishop with as much jealous care as an English Prelate; and a Scottish elder and deacon having, except in the liberty of preaching, parallel jurisdictions within the little diocese of a Scottish parish to those which a priest and deacon have within the larger diocese of an English bishoprick. In doctrine, also, the two churches harmonize with more exactness than any two other reformed churches whatsoever. In worship and in government, though the modes be different, there is the same endeavour to preserve the unity of the church, the equity of its discipline, the prevention of schism, the avoidance of secular interference, and the censorship of the clergy, which are things essential to be sought after and procured in the administration of the church. I speak, be it observed, of the Church of England before the virtual abolition of her two courts of convocation; for since that time her administration of government hath grown to be altogether out of joint.

Now, so far from grieving that there have been established, in the two parts of this island, two forms of ecclesiastical polity, the one aiming at