NOTES.

1.-Page 8.

The Historical Appendix at the above date will throw some light upon Mr Samuel Rutherford's statement; and, though we cannot tell to whom he specially alludes, it deserves to be mentioned, that about three hundred passengers, men, women, and children, sailed from the land of their fathers, May 11, 1629, and arrived at Neumkeak, or, as they called it, Salem, on the 24th June following. The confession of faith, or covenant, which they signed, displayed something of their temper." We covenant with our Lord, and one with another; we bind ourselves, in the presence of God, to walk together in all his ways, according as he is pleased to reveal himself to us, in his blessed word of truth, and do profess to walk as follows, through the power and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We avouch the Lord to be our God, and ourselves to be his people, in the truth and simplicity of our spirits. We give ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, and to the word of his grace, for the teaching, ruling, and sanctifying us, in matters of worship and conversation, resolving to reject all canons and constitutions of men in worship. We promise to walk with our brethren with all watchfulness and tenderness, avoiding jealousies, suspicions, backbitings, censurings, provokings, secret risings of spirit against them; but, in all offences, to follow the rule of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to bear and forbear, give and forgive, as he hath taught us. In public or private, we will willingly do nothing to the offence of the Church, but will be willing to take advice, for ourselves and ours, as occasion shall be presented. We will not in the congregation be forward, either to show our own gifts and parts in speaking, or scrupling, or in discovering the weaknesses or failings of our brethren; but attend our ordinary call thereunto, knowing how much the Lord may be dishonoured, and his gospel, and the

profession of it, slighted by our distempers and weaknesses in public. We bind ourselves to study the advancement of the gospel, in all truth and peace, both in regard of those that are within or without, no way slighting our sister Churches, but using their council as need shall be ; not laying a stumbling-block before any, no, not the Indians, whose good we desire to promote, and so to converse as we may avoid the very appearance of evil. We do hereby promise to carry ourselves in all lawful obedience to those that are over us in church or commonwealth, knowing how wellpleasing it will be to the Lord, that they should have encouragement in their places, by our not grieving their spirits by our irregularities. We resolve to approve ourselves to the Lord in our particular callings, shunning idleness as the bane of any state; nor will we deal hardly or oppressingly with any, wherein we are the Lord's stewards. Promising also, to the best of our ability, to teach our children and servants the knowledge of God, and of his will, that they may serve him also, and all his, not by any strength of our own, but by the Lord Jesus Christ, whose blood, we desire, may sprinkle this our covenant made in his name.' The winter carried off above one hundred of them; but they laid the foundation of the State of Massachuset in North America, and well would it have been if that, and all the other States, had still maintained in substance the covenant of their fathers and founders, who in old time dwelt on the other side of the great Atlantic.

2.-Page 20.

Mr Samuel Rutherford was born in the parish of Nisbet, now annexed to Crailing, about the year 1600; he entered the university of Edinburgh in 1617; he was settled at Anwoth, in the presbytery of Kirkcudbright, in 1627. In June 1630, he was deprived of his wife, after 13 months very severe illness. She had borne him two children, both of whom he lost while in London attending the Assembly of Divines at Westminster. In July 1636, he was banished from Anwoth, by Sydserf, bishop of Galloway, and ordered, before the 20th August, to confine himself to the town of Aberdeen till it should be the king's pleasure to release him. In February 1638, he returned secretly to Anwoth. In 1639, he was translated to St Andrews. On 19th August 1643, he was appointed one of the commissioners of the Church of Scotland to the Westminster Assembly, where Mr

Macward, minister of the Tron Church, Glasgow, acted as his amanuensis. The Assembly's first session occurred on the 1st July 1643. In 1649, he was appointed principal of the New College, or St Mary's, St Andrews, where he was formerly professor of divinity. He died 20th March 1661, in the 61st year of his age.

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Whoever has the smallest acquaintance with the character and abilities of the Rev. Richard Cecil, Rector of Bisley and Vicar of Chobham, Surrey, and minister of St John's Chapel, Bedford-row, London, must admit that he was fully able to appreciate the value of Mr Rutherford's letters, and that his commendation deserves the greatest attention. His father and grandfather were scarlet dyers to the East India Company; his mother was the only child of Mr Grosvenor, merchant, London, and brother to the Rev. Dr Grosvenor, author of the Mourner," &c. Mr Cecil was born in London, November 8, 1748. His mother was a truly pious Dissenter, as her family had been for generations past; his father had a lucrative business, and therefore he was sent to Queen's College, Oxford, and educated for the church. He was delicate in body, and troubled in mind, and therefore learned much in the school of affliction, which taught him to preach Jesus Christ, and him crucified. Distress, poverty, reproach, and infirmity, he said, were fine things to humble a high spirit, and teach the sufficiency of the grace of God. I may say," adds he, “ up from my youth have I been nursed in tears, for wherever I have been I have experienced some degree of unkind treatment and ingratitude.' Perhaps from this cause, aided by the grace of God, the very contemplation of oppression was intolerable to him. To use his own words, "There is nothing I abhor like cruelty and oppression. Tenderness and sympathy is not enough cultivated by any of us. There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart. No one is kind enough, gentle enough, forbearing, and forgiving enough." We find throughout our Lord's history the strongest traits of compassion. How much need have many in the ministry to take a lesson from Cecil. Often have we thought, if some with whom we have come too much in contact had seen and pondered these sentiments, we had suffered less, and been elsewhere.-" We may learn some features of our portrait from enemies; an enemy gives a hard feature, probably, but it is often a truer likeness than can be obtained from a friend.-If God would raise up heathen princes with the spirit of Peter the Great, or Kouli Khan,

and send them forth under the powerful influence of Christianity, to proselyte their subjects, we might expect the end to be accomplished, The Church of England is not fitted, in its present state, for a general church. Its secularity must be purged away.-Query, does not this apply, more or less, to all national churches?-It is said, Dr Owen advised a man who, under religious convictions, confessed to him a murder which he had perpetrated some years before, to surrender himself up to justice. The man did so, and was executed. I think Dr Owen erred in his advice.-What are the greatest minds, and the noblest projects of the world, compared with the Christian!-Take Mr Pitt for an instance, and contrast him with the most insignificant old woman in the Church of Christ.-The only wise thing recorded of Xerxes is his reflection on the sight of his army, that not one of his three millions would survive a hundred years. Let me ask every day what reference it has to the day of judgment, and cultivate a disposition to be reminded of that day.—When a man becomes a Christian, he is written upon, as it were, To be provided for !'-Say the strongest things you can with candour and kindness to a man's face, and make the best excuse you can for him, with truth and justice, behind his back.—It is by faith we contemplate unseen things. While the gay and busy are moving on their little molehills, full of anxiety, faith thus reaches beyond the world; it views death as at hand; it looks at heaven, and catches a glimpse of its glory; it looks at hell, and sees the torments of the condemned; it looks at judgment, and realizes that awful day; it looks at eternity, and says, 2 Cor. iv. 17, 18, How simply I can trust in man, and how little in God! How unreasonable is a pure act of faith in one like ourselves, if we cannot repose the same faith in God!" I have made these excerpts from the frequent sayings of a man whose countenance exhibits the almost perfect image of my father, and who, from the traits of character drawn faithfully by his wife, seems to have strongly resembled him in understanding and heart, as well as in countenance. He was born after his mother was fifty years old, and after an interval of ten years had elapsed since the birth of her preceding child. He died Aug. 15, 1810.

3.- Page 30.

Mary succeeded Edward VI. July 6, 1533. She well merited the title "Bloody." She executed Lady Jane Gray, who had been reluctantly proclaimed queen, Feb. 12, 1554,

and her husband, Guilford Dudley. Bishop Gardiner saved her sister, Elizabeth, Oct. 10, 1655. She burnt Latimer and Ridley. Cranmer recanted, but was finally burnt, March 21, 1556. In the space of four years, almost two hundred persons perished in the flames for religious opinions. Her reign was one continued scene of persecution and murder. She died Nov. 17, 1558, and was succeeded by Elizabeth.

4.- Page 32.

It may be useful to some to state generally how Presbytery and Episcopacy prevailed in Scotland. At the Reformation in 1560, the Presbyterian form of worship was legally established in Scotland. From 1572 to 1592, Episcopacy obtained the ascendancy. From 1592 to 1610, it reverted to Presbytery. From 1610 to 1638, Episcopacy held the ascendancy. In 1638, Presbytery was restored. In 1662, it became again Episcopalian, and continued so till the Revolution in 1688, when Presbytery was finally established, and has continued the form of church government.

5.-Page 39.

Graham of Claverhouse, who was created Viscount Dundee by James VII., came upon John Brown of Priesthill on May 1, 1685, (shortly after he had entertained in his house two nights young Mr Renwick,) and said to him, "Go to your prayers, for you shall immediately die.' He went to his prayers; but when he was praying that every covenanted blessing might be poured upon his wife and children, born and unborn, he was, while in the fervour of devotion, thrice interrupted by Graham. When he rose from his knees, he said to his wife, who was present, (with one child in her womb, another in her arms, and a third at her side,), "Now, Isabel, the day is come of which I told you when I first proposed marriage to you." Indeed, John," replied the heroic woman, "if it must be so, I can willingly part with you." "This," said the collected man, "is all I desire. I have no more to do but to die. I have long expected it." He then kissed his wife and his little boy, and lastly Janet, saying to her, "My sweet bairn, give your hand to God as your guide, and be your mother's comfort." He could add no more; a tide of tenderness overflowed his heart."No more!" vociferated Claverhouse. You six, there," counting past six soldiers, "shoot him instantly!" The fortitude, and serenity, and prayers of Brown had paralysed them. They

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