before Cocceius, however, the same doctrine had been taught among the Jews. Aben Ezra, in his commentary on the twelfth of Daniel, quotes Rabbi Saadias Gaon as declaring, that these who awake shall be (appointed) to everlasting life, and these who awake not shall be (doomed) to shame and everlasting contempt.' The words of Gaon himself are that this is the resuscitation of the dead of Israel, whose lot is to eternal life, and these who shall not awake are the forsakers of Jehovah,' &c. Upon this construction of the sentence, taken in a strict sense, seems to rest the doctrine taught by some of the rabbins, that the bodies of the wicked will not rise at all.

But we have dwelt unintentionally long upon an incidental point of exegesis, or rather of exegetical history, and must now take leave of Professor Bush's pamphlet, in the expectation of soon meeting him again. Before we close, however, let us say what we have often said before, that none of our professional scholars and interpreters of scripture, has the art of clothing his opinions, right or wrong, in more original and eloquent expressions, an advantage of no little worth when viewed in contrast with the meanness or inflation which so often neutralizes the effect of even greater learning and of sounder sense. Nor is the eloquence of which we speak a mere trick or artifice of language. It is the joint product of strong feeling and a cultivated taste, the one giving energy and life to the expression, while the other clothes it in habiliments, which nothing short of general cultivation and familiarity with classic models ever did or ever can put within an author's reach. For the exhibition of this talent there is not, of course, much scope in the few pages of the work before us; yet we cannot but be struck with the impressive tone in which the restoration of God's ancient people is here held up as an object of devout desire and we had almost said romantic expectation. "That land of hallowed memories is yet to receive again its ancient tenants, and to yield its teeming riches to the old age of the people whose infancy was nurtured on its maternal bosom. The tears of a profound and heart-stricken penitence are yet to mingle with the dews of Hermon in fertilizing its barren vales and its deserted hill-tops. The olive and the vine shall again spread their honours over the mountains once delectable, now desolate; the corn shall yet laugh in the valley where the prowling Bedouin pitches his transient tent, and joyous groups of children, the de

scendants of patriarch fathers, shall renew their evening sports in the streets of crowded cities, where now the ruinous heaps tell only of a grandeur that has passed away.' That these expectations may be realized, no lover of the scriptures can help wishing, be his judgment what it may. Whether the grounds for so believing are sufficient, is a question which we may again bring before our readers, at no very distant period, in connexion with some recent and interesting publications.

ART. IV.-History of the Church of Scotland, from the Introduction of Christianity to the period of the Disruption. By the Rev. W. M. Hetherington, A.M. Torphichen. Author of the Fulness of Time, History of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, &c. New York. Robert Carter. 1844.

WE avail ourselves of this very timely and acceptable republication, to lay before our readers a connected though imperfect sketch of a subject, which late events have rendered highly interesting, but of which comparatively little has been known. We mean the rise and progress of the Moderate party in the Church of Scotland. With the beginning and the end of Scottish Church History, American readers have had occasion to be pretty well acquainted. The leading events of the first and even of the second reformation, the persecutions under Charles II., and the movements which led to the late disruption, are even among us familiar matters of history. But over the intervening period a cloud has always seemed to hang, chiefly, no doubt, because the period was one of gradual decline or occasional stagnation, and therefore furnished few marked and striking incidents, to attract the attention of the world. Some particular acquaintance with this chapter of history is nevertheless necessary to a thorough understanding of the late events, and of the actual position of the two bodies claiming to be the national Church of Scotland.

It is well known that the late disruption was directly occasioned by a change of measures consequent upon a change of parties in the General Assembly, the orthodox or evangelical party having obtained a majority in 1837 over the

moderate party which had held it for several generations. This distinction of parties may be traced back very nearly to the Reformation. It is true, the Scottish Reformation was, above all others, radical and thorough. There never, perhaps, was a body of men more entirely united in principle and feeling, than those by whom it was effected. But it was done in defiance of authority, and in the face of a corrupted court. When at length the latter was compelled to yield, some, as in all like cases, took advantage of the times, and gave a hypocritical assent to the new doctrines. Many ungodly nobles complied so far as to secure a large share of the spoils of the church. As this could only be effected by retaining, in some degree, the form of the old hierarchy, a bait was thus held out to unprincipled churchmen. Men who were destitute of all sincere regard to the reformed discipline and doctrines, if not of all religious experience, became active and conspicuous in the church. This leaven would of course diffuse itself, and each successive generation saw a wider departure from the standard of the Reformation. When James I. deliberately planned the overthrow of Presbyterian institutions, he naturally sought and found his instruments in this class, who were never really Reformed or Presbyterian in spirit or opinion. When Charles I. pushed the attempt still further, this same class furnished the aspirants to ecclesiastical dignities under the new system. As the governing motive of these men was the hope of royal favour, their favourite policy was that of compliance with the royal will, and of great moderation in comparison with strict and uncompromising Presbyterians.

We are not aware that the name Moderate was ever arrogated by these men, or applied to them by others; but as a party they are clearly identical with the Moderates of after times. The constitution of the party was however materially modified in such a way as to strengthen it by weakening the other. The indulgences by which the persecutions under Charles II. were relaxed, introduced new divisions, and by tempting many real Presbyterians to accept the royal favour by an apparent sacrifice, at least, of Presbyterian principles, added character and numbers to the Moderate party already in existence. A further increase, but with a great deterioration in point of quality, arose from the obstinate determination of William III., at the revolution, to retain in the Church of Scotland those

curates or episcopal incumbents of the preceding reign, who were willing to conform to its polity and discipline. This large infusion of avowed episcopalians appears to be regarded by the Scottish writers as the true source of the Moderate party. But from the data which they furnish it seems clear that this infusion owed its strength to its elective combination with the lax presbyterianism and covert popery which had existed long before. However this may be, the fact is certain that from the Revolution of 1688, there were two well defined parties in the Scottish Church, one of which was Presbyterian only by accident and the force of circumstances, the other in principle and heart. It was the manifestation of the former spirit in the first Assembly after the Revolution (1690), that led the Cameronians to remain aloof, and resulted in the organization of the Reformed Presbytery.

The equality of parties in the church caused every thing to be done by compromise. Carstares, the leader of the Assembly, advised king William never to yield his prerogative in any thing, and never to identify himself with either party. The relative strength of the Moderates was increased by the refusal of the Cameronians to come into the establishment. The king not only insisted on retaining all prelatical conformists, but required that they should constitute one half of the Assembly's commission. At the same time, in various ways, he openly conceded to the church her independent spiritual jurisdiction.

The refusal of the Highland Clergy to conform, and the resistance of the Jacobite gentry to the settlement of Presbyterian ministers in their stead, occasioned the Act anent Intrusion upon Kirks, and the Rabbling Act of 1698. According to Fletcher of Saltoun, twenty-eight years of tyranny had flooded Scotland with a floating population of 200,000 paupers, who were used as tools in stirring up commotions by the Jacobites and other disaffected persons.

In 1707 the Union was completed, on the basis of the Act of Security, by which the Presbyterian constitution was placed beyond the reach of British legislation. The removal of the government to London brought the leading Scots more and more into contact with episcopacy, and lessened their attachment to their own church where it had existed. As the body of the people in Scotland were opposed to the union, those who favoured it, the ministers among the rest, lost the public confidence and a large part of their influence,

in consequence of which the ruling party became more and more accustomed to govern without regard to the judgment or wishes of the people. The act against schism, in 1708, served rather to widen than to heal existing breaches, and the opposition of the prelatical conformists to the Presbyterian party was increased by an act enforcing domiciliary visitation and instruction of the people.

In 1710, the High Church excitement produced by Sacheverel, and the accession of Harley and Bolingbroke to power, favoured the efforts of the Scottish Jacobites to embroil the church and government, a design which is avowed in the posthumous papers of Lockhart of Carnwath. The plan seems to have been to induce the parliament to violate the union, and thereby rouse the Presbyterians into open rebellion. About the same time doctrinal divisions began to show themselves. The pure or modified Arminianism, brought into Scotland with episcopacy, and afterwards by young men who had studied in Holland, had gained an ascendency over the Calvinism of the Reformation. A catechism on the covenants, published by Hamilton of Airth, to counteract the new divinity, was censured by the assembly, under the direction of Principals Stirling of Glasgow and Haddow of St. Andrews.

In 1711, the public use of the liturgy was revived in Scotland, contrary to law, by one Greenshields, who declined the jurisdiction of the church courts, and the case was ultimately decided in his favour by the House of Lords.

In 1712, the court party having been strengthened in that house by a creation of new peers, the act of toleration was passed, in which the oath of assurance was required of all who partook of its benefits, and the Jacobites succeeded in extending the requisition to the established ministers of Scotland; and as many of these refused to take it without qualification, because it seemed to recognise episcopacy, the Scotch episcopalians refused also, though they took advantage of the toleration. Another worse effect of this enactment, not distinctly mentioned, we believe, by Hetherington, but very clear from Wodrow's correspondence, was that while the church was occupied with this oath and with the question about fasts, the act restoring patronage, passed April 22, 1712, although protested against as inconsistent with the terms of the union, received comparatively slight attention. The Assembly continued, however, to instruct its commission yearly to petition for the repeal of this unconstitutional act, until 1784, when this form was discontinued. As the