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ries, and for informing her ministers and students of their contents. Among express articles of discipline in 1601, we find the following:--"Richer churches and great lords are entreated to erect libraries for the benefit of their ministers and proposans," that is, candidates for the ministry. The same call is earnestly repeated six years later; and it is not only the churches which are addressed; the Protestant universities are exhorted to do their utmost to obtain a public library, and, in particular, the King of Spain's Bible in many languages, printed at Antwerp." This was in 1603, when books were scarce, and expensive, and when ministers were poor. It is interesting to see that a Polyglot Bible was the book, above all others, which the poor persecuted Protestant Churches of France wished to stand conspicuous in their university library. It showed at once their love of learning, and of the Scriptures, and so was not an inapt type of their true character at that early period.

It may not be unsuitable to inform our readers, that the fine spirit of knowledge, and the wise encouragement of theological learning, which marked the Protestant Church of France, was shared by the Church of Scotland in her early days, and manifested in a similar manner. I shall give a few illustrations:-Wodrow, in his MS. Collections of Lives of the Reformers, published by the Maitland Club in 1830, relates, in his account of Erskine of Dun, that, in 1574, the General Assembly sent commissioners to the Regent, informing him, that they understood, on good authority, that a French printer, of best renown next to Henry Stephens, had been banished, with his wife and family, from the kingdom, and would be glad to come to Scotland, and bring three thousand francs of books along with him, and would print whatever he was commanded by the Church; moreover, that not a book should be printed in France or Germany, but that it should be obtained by him, simply on the condition, that the General Assembly would insure him three hundred merks a year. It is added, the offer is "so comfortable to the kirk and country, that it ought not to be overseen"a plain indication of the literary taste of the Church, whether she were able to avail herself of the proposal or not. Some years before, the well known Robert Pont translated a Confession of Faith of the foreign Churches. It is called the latter Confession of Helvetia, and is subscribed by the Tigurines and the Protestants of Berne, Schaffhausen, Sangallia, Milan,

Vienes, Geneva, Savoy, Polonia, and Hungary. The Assembly highly approve of the work and order it to be printed. As we may be sure that the Church of Scotland would not have printed this work with her public sanction, unless her own sentiments had accorded with those of the foreign Churches, the fact of the publication is a proof of the harmony of the early Protestant Churches. The only parts which the Church of Scotland disapproved were those which recognised holidays-such as the nativity, circumcision, &c. Hence, she sometimes held the meeting of her Assembly on the 25th December (Christmas-day,) instead of observing it as a sacred day.

In 1598, Principal Sharp of Glasgow drew up Lessons on the catechism and heads of religion. This work the Assembly ordered to be printed, deeming it "necessary and profitable." Thus the Church indicated her concern for the instruction of the young, as well as for the literary improvement of her ministers. In four years after, she appointed six of her most learned men to revise Mr. John Howison's Work, in three volumes, against the Popish champion Bellarmine, and then to print it, thinking "it may be profitable to the Kirk of God." At a later day, (1642,) a Lord Scotstarvet, like the late Sir John Sinclair, seems to have endeavoured to get up a statistical account of Scotland. The minister of each parish was to furnish him with information. The Church countenanced the undertaking, and promised assistance. I find that the Synod of Fife, "considering the worthiness of the work tending to the honour of the nation," appointed the ministers within its bounds to fulfil the appointment of the General Assembly. This surely showed a patriotic as well as literary taste; and is the more wonderful, when it is remembered that, at this period, the Church was struggling in open war for the very lives of her members. Three years thereafter, in the height of the contest, we find the General Assembly recommending the Hebrew Grammar of Mr. John Row, the grandson of the Reformer. Every minister is exhorted to possess himself of a copy, in order to promote "the increase of the first language; so that the Church did not neglect even Oriental and Biblical literature, at the very time that she was raising troops and sending them forth for the defence of the civil and religious liberties of the nation. At a still later day, (1658,) it appears that the Presbytery of St. Andrews, having seen and considered a little book of Dr. Colvile's, lately put to press, they earnestly

request him to publish more of the same kind. It seems to have been a Latin disquisition on James iv. 5, and, of course was intended for the learned. Travelling no further back than the beginning of last century, we meet with perpetual recommendations of good books by the General Assembly. In 1708, a Mr. Semple, the minister of Liberton, is encouraged to write the History of the Church of Scotland, and all Presbyteries are enjoined to favour him with materials and assistance. About the same period, a sum of money is voted to a minister engaged in writing a Commentary on the Scriptures. The excellent works of Binning, a faithful minister of the Church, who died when a young man, were recommended by the Assembly of 1704, and sums of money were repeatedly voted to his family, out of respect to the father. Wodrow's History was not only recommended, but it appears that, in 1742, £30 were paid to the Rev. Mr. Wodrow, of Eastwood, for manuscripts. Directions were given to obtain the manuscript writings of the eminent Samuel Rutherford on Esther and Isaiah; and a Mr. Currie, minister of Kinglassie, was presented with £60 for his able Vindication of the Church. The works of Poole, at least his Annotations, Durham, Flavel, P. Gillespie on the Covenants, Spalding on the Sacraments, Blackwell's Methodus Evangelicus, &c., are all recommended. Nor was the re

commendation confined to books strictly theological. Other works, such as M'Colin's Dictionary, Sir Nicolas Trot on Oriental Learning, Maitland's History of Scotland, meet with the same encouragement. Nay, like the Protestant Church of France, steps were taken for every Presbytery enjoying the benefit of a library. This was strongly recommended in 1727; and it is well known, that in the beginning of that century, not fewer than one hundred libraries were sent down from London, chiefly for the use of the Highlands and Islands.

Most

It is remarkable how similar are the plans pursued by good men, in different countries and periods, in doing good, and that without any concert. It would seem, that the same evils suggest the same remedies; and doubtless all good men are under the guidance of one and the same good Spirit. of the facts to which I have referred, are passed over by civil or ecclesiastical historians, as too minute; but the real character of a Church may, like the real character of an individual, be better learned from the little minute proceedings of ordinary life, than from greater events, in which motives

are generally much more mixed. Though there were particular circumstances in the history both of France and Scotland, which demanded, on the part of their Churches, a special attention to the culture of knowledge and learning— though authors are not now so dependent on the recommendations, whether of individuals or corporate bodies, for their success, as they were of old-still there can be little question that a great deal might be done by the General Assembly and other Church courts, in aiding and encouraging well qualified men in the prosecution of particular studies, and in the defence of assailed truth, whether by public thanks, or rewards, or more substantial assistance;—and now that the influence of the press is so predominant, the call to such measures is the more urgent.

SECTION II.

THE CHURCHES OF FRANCE AND SCOTLAND SHOW LOVE FOR THE WORD OF GOD.

The period of history at present under consideration stretches from 1596 to 1660. This was the chief period during which the Protestant Church enjoyed the protection of the edict of Nantes, poor and imperfect as that protection often was. I am noticing the most interesting points in the character and proceedings of the Church throughout this era; and in the last section, referred to her strong love of theological and other knowledge, and anxiety to diffuse it, as evinced in her encouragement of the publication of good books, and collecting them into libraries.

We must now turn, for a little, to THE LOVE WHICH SHE SHOWED FOR THE Word of GOD. Already have we seen that the Reformers in France early discovered a strong partiality for the Scriptures. One of their first steps, four and twenty years before they were publicly organized into a Church, was to translate the Word of God into their native tongue; and after the dreadful massacre of St. Bartholomew, the Church encouraged the issuing of improved versions, both at Geneva and Rochelle; and, under God, she was very much indebted to the light thus diffused, for the measure of success with which she stood out the dreadful persecution to which she was subjected. When we look into the period of which I at present write, we find the same love for the Scriptures, and anxiety to spread abroad their blessed knowledge. It has been common, of late, for the advocates of the Church of Rome, feeling how odious is the position which

their Church has long occupied as the enemy of the Scriptures, now to turn round and appeal to the various translations which Roman Catholics made of the Word of God, in whole or in part, into many European languages, even before the era of the Reformation. It is certain that such translations were occasionally made, but how often did they consist of mere parts of the Scriptures, and in most expensive forms? How often were they a mere literary curiosity, or a Popish paraphrase? How frequently did the translator and the readers suffer for their pains? And how certainly were the body of the people always prevented, alike by their own inability to read, and the prohibition of the priest, from generally availing themselves of the Word of Life? Not a few were the copies which were ignominiously burned and destroyed. Far different were the spirit and conduct of the Protestant Churches. They were built upon the Bible, rejoiced in it, largely diffused it, and called upon all to read it, and regulate their faith and practice accordingly. Never did they shrink from the Scriptures, and far less destroy them as a noxious book. The Church of France, in 1603, complains of the scarcity and dearness of the Bibles printed at Geneva; and the General Assembly write to their brethren there, not to take amiss that they preferred the Bibles of Rochelle. So zealous were the French Protestants in the cause of Bible dissemination, that they appointed a standing printer and publisher; and, in the year referred to, " exhort him to hasten a new impression, and to vend it at as low a price as possible." And why? That the Word of God might be accessible to all, to the poor as well as the rich. What a contrast to an Italian Popish version of thirteen volumes, and a Spanish one of eighteen volumes! To make the new French version admit of easier reference, one of the ministers is requested to make "a good index" to it. There are few better signs of the religious improvement of Ireland, at the present day, than the strong demand for Bibles with references, even where a common copy is already possessed. In 1600, we read of the printer at Rochelle bringing out a new edition of the Bible in a lesser form, "and that might easily be carried any where in the pocket," and of lists being added of those texts which are most proper and pertinent for confirming the truth and confuting error. And eight years later, we read of a printer at Montauban publishing an octavo New Testament. In this last case, the errata were so numerous, that the Assembly, justly jealous for the honour of the Word of