for the second offence, six months' imprisonment, or ten pounds; and for the third offence, to be banished to some of the American plantations for seven years, or pay one hundred pounds; and in case they returned, to suffer death without benefit of clergy. By virtue of this act, the jails were quickly filled with dissenting protestants, and the trade of an informer was very gainful. So great was the severity of these times, says Neal, that they were afraid to pray in their families, if above four of their acquaintance, who came only to visit them, were present; some families scrupled asking a blessing on their meat, if five strangers were at table.

But this was not all; to say nothing of the Test Act, in 1665, an act was brought into the House, to banish them from their friends (commonly called the Oxford Five Mile Act), by which all dissenting ministers, who would not take an oath, that it was not lawful, upon any pretence whatever, to take arms against the king, &c., were prohibited from coming within five miles of any city, town, corporate, or borough, or any place where they had exercised their ministry, and from teaching any school, on the penalty of forty pounds. Some few took the oath; others could not, and consequently suffered the penalty.

In 1663," the mouths of the high church pulpiteers were encouraged to open as loud as possible. One, in his sermon before the House of Commons, told them, that the nonconformists ought not to tolerated, but to be cured by vengeance. He urged them to set fire to the fagot, and to teach them by scourges or scorpions, and to open their eyes with gall."

Such were the dreadful consequences of this intolerant spirit, that it is supposed near eight thousand died in prison in the reign of Charles II. It is said, that Mr. Jeremiah White had carefully collected a list of those who had suffered between Charles II. and the revolution, which amounted to sixty thousand. The same persecutions were carried on in Scotland; and there, as well as in England, many, to avoid persecution, fled from their country.

But, notwithstanding all these dreadful and furious attacks upon the dissenters, they were not extirpated. Their very persecution was in their favour. The infamous characters of their informers and persecutors; their piety, and zeal, and fortitude, no doubt, had influence on considerate minds; and, indeed, they had additions from the established church, which "several clergymen in this reign deserted as a persecuting church, and took their lot among them." In addition to this, king James suddenly altered his measures, granted a universal toleration, and preferred dissenters to places of trust and profit, though it was evidently with a view to restore popery.

King William coming to the throne, the famous Toleration Act passed, by which they were exempted from suffering the penalties above mentioned, and permission was given them to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences. In the latter end of queen Anne's reign they began to be a little alarmed. An act of parliament passed, called the Occasional Conformity Bill, which prevented any person in office under the government from entering into a meeting-house. Another, called the Schism Bill, had actually obtained the royal assent, which suffered no dissenters to educate their own children, but required them. to be put into the hands of conformists; and which forbade all tutors and schoolmasters being present at any conventicle, or dissenting place of worship; but the very day this iniquitous act was to have taken place, the queen died, (August 1, 1714.)

His majesty king George I. being fully satisfied that these hardships were brought upon the dissenters for their steady adherence to the protestant succession in his illustrious house, against a tory and jacobite ministry, , who were paving the way for a popish pretender, procured the repeal of them in the fifth year of his reign; though a clause was left that forbade the mayor or other magistrate to go into any meeting for religious worship with the ensigns of his office.-Buck's Theological Dictionary.

77. SCOTCH COVENANTERS.

SCOTLAND is among the last civilized countries where the horrors of religious persecution raged to any great extent. In 1581 the general assembly of Scotland drew up a confession of faith, or national covenant, condemning the episcopal government under the name of hierarchy, which was signed by James I., and which he enjoined on all his subjects. It was again subscribed in 1590 and 1596. The subscription was renewed in 1638, and the subscribers engaged by oath to maintain religion in the same state as it was in 1580, reject all innovations introduced since that time. This oath, annexed to the confession of faith, received the name of Covenant, as those who subscribed it were called Covenanters.

During the storm of religious persecution which raged in Scotland, the Covenanters were hunted from crag to glen, throughout the highlands. "The story of their sufferings is almost incredible. Nothing can be more affecting than the measures they took to enjoy the privileges of religious worship. Watches were stationed from hill to hill-men so sunburnt and worn out, that they could be hardly distinguished from the heather of the mountains-who gave a note of alarm on the approach of danger, and the Covenanters had time to disperse, before the bloody swords gleamed in the retreats in which they worshipped. In the gloomy caverns and recesses, made by the awful hand that fashioned Scotland's mountain scenery, these martyrs, each one mourning some dear friend, who had been hunted down by the destroyers, met and heard the mysterious words of God, and sung such wild songs of devotion, that they might have been thought the chantings of the mountain spirits. As their sufferings increased, their sermons and devotional exercises approached nearer to the soul-chilling trumpetings of the ancient prophets, when they foresaw desolation coming out of the north like a whirlwind."