cept one; and that was from an expression in the Athanasian Creed, which sounded like Tritheism; the Creed affirming each person by himself to be God and Lord. I ventured to as sure him, that the passage gave me no trouble, because I did not consider it as a metaphysical assertion, but as a plain reference to the words of the Scripture; which to each person of the Godhead, distinctly taken by himself, so far as that can be done, does certainly give the titles both of God and Lord*. In this, therefore, instead of depending on the Creed, we only depend, as that does, upon the words of the Scripture. With this he was satisfied, and allowed that such an intention in the Creed removed the difficulty.

The last considerable affair in which he concerned himself while Dean of Canterbury, was an application from the Bishops of the Episcopal Church of Scotland; three of whom, in the year 1789, came up to London, to petition Parliament for relief from the hard penalties under which they had long suffered. This they ventured to do, in consideration of the loyalty and

See John, xx. 28. Acts, v. 4. and xxviii. 5. and many other like passages.

and attachment they had lately professed toward the King and the Constitution.

It was my lot likewise not to be an unconcerned spectator in this business. Through an intimacy which had long subsisted between myself and a gentleman of great worth and learning in the county of Kent (the Reverend Nicholas Brett, of Spring-Grove) I became acquainted with the Bishop of Edinburgh, Dr. Abernethy Drummond of Hawthornden, and had frequently corresponded with him. As soon as he came to London with his colleagues on the business aforesaid, he wrote me word of his arrival, and explained the cause of the journey they had undertaken. Being myself of too inconsiderable a station to be of any immediate service to them in a matter of such importance, I thought it the most prudent step could take, to forward the letter to a great person who, with his usual goodness and discretion, undertook to be an advocate for them'; together with many other persons of high respectability; and their petition was at length brought to such an issue, as excited great thankfulness in the petitioners, though it did not exactly come up to the wishes they had formed at setting out.

I

There

There was no small difficulty in making some persons understand, who and what these poor petitioners were: and the case, notwithstanding all that has passed, may still be the same with many at this day. I therefore hope to be excused, if I enlarge a little in this place on their history and character, as they appeared, and were known to Dr. Horne; whose good opinion will be remembered as an honour, and may be of some use to them hereafter.

He had considered, that there is such a thing as a pure and primitive Constitution of the Church of Christ, when viewed apart from those outward appendages of worldly power, and worldly protection, which are sometimes mistaken, as if they were as essential to the being of the Church, as they are useful to its sustentation. The history of the Christian Church, in its early ages, is a proof of the contrary; when it underwent various hardships and sufferings from the fluctuating policy of earthly kingdoms. And the same happened to the Episcopal Church of Scotland, at the Revolution in 1688; when Episcopacy was abolished by the State, and the Presbyterian form of Church-Government establish

ed.

ed*. By this establishment the Bishops were deprived of their Jurisdiction, and of all right to the Temporalities of their Sees. But in this forlorn state they still continued to exist, and to exercise the spiritual functions of their episcopal character: by means of which, a regular succession of Bishops, and episcopally-ordained Clergymen, has been kept up in Scotland, under all the disadvantages arising from a suspicion of their being disaffected to the Crown, and attached to the interest of an exiled family. While attempts were making in behalf of that family, a variety of circumstances rendered it impossible for them to remove this suspicion, notwithstanding the many inconveniences and hardships to which it exposed them. All they could do was to conduct themselves in such a quiet manner, as might at length convince the Government, they had nothing to fear from a Scotch Episcopal Church, and consequently

that

It is notorious, that the violence of the adverse party against the Episcopal Church in Scotland began before the Government under King William was settled: when it could not be known by experience whether they would join with it or not. Before the Convention met, their Clergy were forcibly driven from their churches, and their possessions seized.

that there was no necessity for the execution of those severe laws, which on different occasions had been enacted against it.

At last the happy period came, which was to relieve them from this embarrassing situation. The wisdom and clemency of his present Majesty's Government encouraged them to hope, that an offer of their allegiance would not be rejected and, as soon as they could make that offer in a conscientious manner, they had the satisfaction to find by the King's answer to their address that it was graciously accepted in consequence of which, they could not but hope, that the British Legislature would take their case into consideration, and see the expediency of relieving both Clergy and Laity of the Episcopal Communion in Scotland from the penalties to which they were exposed in the exercise of their religion.

With this hope, three of their Bishops, as I have said, came to London in the year 1789; and, notwithstanding the ample recommendations they brought with them from their own country, they found it a work of time to make themselves

* Dr. John Skinner, Bishop of Aberdeen; Dr. Abernethy Drummond, Bishop of Edinburgh; and Dr. William Strachan, Bishop of Brechin.