byterians and their brethren of Scotland a century afterwards. The same writer, speaking of a later day in the French struggle, when the German Elector Palatine sent seven thousand troops to their aid, and it was necessary to raise the large sum of one hundred thousand crowns, says, "The Prince (Conde) and Coligny, however, contributed their plate and jewels, and their example, and the exhortations of the ministers, who always accompanied the march, prevailed so greatly, that every officer and man made some personal sacrifice, and even the meanest horse-boy and camp follower in the host emulously threw in his mite to the general fund." Thirty thousand crowns were in this way speedily raised in the Protestant army.

But while I thus vindicate the Churches of France and Scotland from the severe censures of Dr. Pusey and others, and believe that their circumstances were so extreme as to warrant resistance, and that their resistance was not rebellion but duty, I have again to repeat, that I do not feel called upon to justify all their proceedings, not a few of which were doubtful, some decidedly wrong; and I have again to repeat, that obedience to civil authority is so high and imperative a Christian duty, and resistance to it so rarely warrantable, that it is not a theme of desirable discussion, but should be left among those difficult and urgent cases to be decided on when the dread emergency occurs in that peculiar light of circumstances which cannot be imagined in theory, but which the providence of God usually supplies for the guidance of his own faithful people.

CHAPTER V.

FROM 1685 TO 1715.

HAVING described the awful preparations for the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes-the terrible revocation itself-I must now describe the consequences of that measure. It was to be expected that so horrible a deed would be attended with disastrous results. Even the chief actors in the revocation were ashamed of it, and attempted to deny it; but the excessive eulogies of Louis' partisans frequently betray the truth. They laud the king almost into a demigod. But why? Be

cause of his great services to the Popish Church. And what are these? The rooting out of heresy-in other words, the destruction of the Reformed Church. Thus is the disgraceful truth, which men would fain hide, incidentally discovered. Besides, in addition to all other testimonies, there are six volumes of documents still extant, consisting of the reports, &c., to the Government, of those who were leading actors in the oppression and slaughter of the saints of God; and one of the accounts consists of the enormous sum of five hundred and thirty-six thousand six hundred and forty livres for books for the use of the pretended converts who had been driven by persecution into outward conformity to the Church of Rome. Even a Roman Catholic, the Duke de St. Simon, could say, "The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, without the least pretext or necessity, depopulated one-fourth of the kingdom, ruined trade in all its branches, placed it (the country) so long under the public avowed pillage of the dragoons, and authorized torments and executions, in which thousands of innocent persons of both sexes perished." But we must enter a little more into detail.

While the Protestant pastors were all driven from their country under the heaviest penalty, their people were not allowed to leave it except at the risk of severe punishment. So much, however, had they now lost, and so much did they now suffer, that France became embittered to them, and their great anxiety and effort were to emigrate to other lands. This was the course which, perhaps, nearly one-half of the whole Protestant population pursued, though almost incredible were the hardships which they encountered in accomplishing it. So early as 1681, four years before the edict was actually revoked, Mr. Quick, then minister of the English church at Middleburgh, recollected having been credibly informed that five hundred families of French merchants had left their native country, and settled in Amsterdam; and that fifty families had, in the course of two months, taken up their abode at Hamburgh. The whole population thus removing probably amounted to between fourteen and fifteen thousand souls. They were the families of merchants, too, indicating a measure of wealth and respectability; and if so many betook themselves to two commercial cities, it cannot be doubted that many more removed to other quarters.

But it was after the revocation that the people fled in prodigious numbers. The succeeding month, we read in a letter from Geneva, that some time previously not a day passed

in which that town did not receive and supply from thirty to ninety persons of all ages and conditions, and of both sexes; thus, in two short months, probably becoming the asylum of five thousand poor French refugees. In one morning, the inhabitants saw at their gates five hundred carts laden with household goods, and followed by an innumerable multitude of persons, who went and came from all quarters. The writer beautifully adds, "The country of Vaux is filled in every quarter with French fugitives. Within these three weeks there have been reckoned seventeen thousand five hundred persons that have passed into Lausanne." "Zurich wrote admirable letters to Berne and Geneva, desiring them to send of those poor people unto them, and that they would receive them as their own natural brethren, into their country, into their houses, yea, and into their very hearts." I subjoin, in a few sentences, a picture of the melancholy condition of the poor fugitives, from the same important document:

"Women and maids came to us in the habits of men, children in coffers packed up as clothes, others without any other precaution at all than in their cradles tied about their parents' necks; some passing this, others that way, all stopping either at the gates or churches of the city, with cries and tears of joy and sorrow mingled together; some demanding, where are our fathers and mothers? others, where are our wives and children?-not knowing where to find them, not having learnt any news of them from the time they departed from their houses. In short, every one was so affected with these miserable objects, that it was impossible to refrain from weeping. Some had no sooner passed the first barricado, but prostrating themselves, upon their knees, sung a psalm of thanksgiving for their happy deliverance; though, poor creatures, they had not wherewithal to get themselves a meal's meat, and might have gone to bed that night supperless, had not the Lord, of his great goodness, extraordinarily provided for them. Thus we spent two months, every day affording us new adventures, fresh and eminent examples of self-denial, and that divers ways.

"No longer than yesterday, in despite of all guards at the several passes, and dangers of the galleys, there arrived hither no less than fifty persons. A tall chairman, who had been a lacquey, as he was coming from his house, espying Monsieur de Cambiaques passing over the bridge, immediately stopped, and embraced him in his livery coat. Four young

ladies of Grenoble, disguised in men's apparel, after they had lodged four or five days in the forests and mountains, without any other provision than a little bread, having travelled only by night, came hither but a few hours ago in this their gallant equipage. Should I write you all the stories I know, we should never have done."

We have the following interesting testimony to the same purpose from Burnet, who was at that time sojourning in Switzerland. He says, in his "History of his own Times," "I was all the winter at Geneva, where we had constantly fresh stories brought us of the miseries of those who were suffering in France. Refugees were coming over every day, poor and naked, and half starved, before they got thither; and that small state was under great apprehension of being swallowed up, having no strength of their own." In a letter from Zurich, he has a still more ample statement, highly honourable to the Presbyterian Church of Switzerland: "There is one thing," says he, "for which the Switzers, in particular those of Berne, cannot be enough commended. They have, ever since the persecution first begun in France, opened a sanctuary to such as have retired thither, in so generous and Christian a manner, that it deserves all the honourable remembrances that can be made of it. Such ministers and others that were at first condemned in France for the affair of the Cevennes, have not only found a kind reception here, but all the support that could be expected, and indeed much more than in reason might have been expected; for they have assigned the French ministers five crowns a month, if they were unmarried, and have increased it to such as had wives and children-so that some had above ten crowns a month pension. They dispersed them all over the Pays de Vaud, but the greatest number resided at Lausanne and Veray. In order to the supporting of this charge, the charities of Zurich, the other neighbouring Protestant States, were brought thither. Not only the Protestant Cantons, but the Grisons, and some small States that are under the protection of the Cantons, such as Neuchatel, St. Gall, and some others, have sent in their charities to Berne, who dispense them with great discretion, and bear what further charge this relief brings upon them; and in this last total and deplorable dispersion of those churches, the whole country has been animated with such a spirit of charity and compassion, that every man's house and purse has been open to the refugees that have passed thither in such numbers, that

sometimes there have been two thousand in Lausanne alone, and of these there were at one time nearly two hundred ministers; and they all met with a kindness and free-heartedness that looked more like somewhat of the primitive age revived, than the degeneracy of the age in which we live."

Nor was the kindness of foreign Protestants limited to the sufferers who emigrated and came among them in nakedness and want. They did not forget the prisoners in the dungeons and galleys of France. Accordingly, we find that letters of sympathy were written, liberal contributions made, and earnest intercessions employed with the French Government, through their ambassadors, in behalf of the suffering saints of God. Very frequently such applications as the last not only failed, but were the occasion of greater severity to the persecuted. It was alleged that they were holding correspondence with enemies, and plotting against the French kingdom. Hence the captives were sometimes constrained to beg their friends not to interfere for them, as it added to, instead of diminishing, their sufferings. Alluding to Switzerland, it may be mentioned, that M. Escher, burgomaster of Zurich, and his family, were particularly kind to the excellent Lefebvre and his fellow-captives. We insert the following beautiful Christian letter of the Swiss magistrate, addressed to them in their loathsome dungeon:

"MY DEAR BRETHREN,-I should be the most ungrateful of men, if, after the expressions of love and esteem with which many of your letters are filled for me, the most hum. ble of your friends, and one so undeserving of your regard, I could be at all insensible to your affectionate remembrance. I should have endeavoured, some time ago, to acknowledge the kind attention you have shown me; but I have waited, in the hope of having some good news to tell you. I have laboured to obtain your deliverance. I have made use of my friends; and last week, being on a journey to Soleure, I repeated my earnest entreaties to Mons. Amelot, the ambassador. But as I can get no positive answer, and am always sent away with the recommendation to make myself easy, for the business will be settled sooner than I may expect; and as, to my great regret, the hopes I had till this time conceived are frustrated, I can no longer remain silent.

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Accept my most humble thanks, my dear brethren, for your kind remembrance of a person who is, indeed, a sharer of your sorrows, your sufferings, and your afflictions; who