were appointed lay assessors to the Scottish ministers, Henderson, Gillespie, Rutherford, and Baillie, at the Westminster Assembly. The subject of this notice was then only twenty-seven years of age, and this single fact is enough to show the prominence of his position, his reputation for zeal in the cause of re friends of liberty and the nation. He took part in the business of the General Assemblies, and, looked at by short-sighted man, he might be decidedly reckoned among the valiant for the truth. in a proud conceit, and confidence of their own abilities, to discern what is true and what is false. 14. An ungodly ear, that can easily hear the reproach of holiness, and scorns at the servants and ways of Christ. 15. A neutral, indifferent ear, that heareth either good or evil, without much love or hatred, but with a dull and cold indifferency. 16. A dissem-ligion, and the extent of his influence among the bling, temporizing ear, which can complyingly hear one side speak for holiness, and the other speak against it, and suit itself to the company and discourse it meets with. 17. An uncharitable ear, which can willingly hear the censures, backbitings, slanders, revilings, that are used against others, yea, against the best. 18. An unnatural ear, which can easily and willingly hear the dishonour of their parents, or other near relations, if any carnal interest do but engage them against their honour. 19. A rebellious, disobedient ear, which hearkeneth not to the just commands of magistrates, parents, masters, and other governors, but hearkeneth with more pleasure to the words of seditious persons that dishonour them. 20. A filthy, unclean, and adulterous ear, which loveth to hear ribald speeches, and love-songs, and romances, and lascivious plays, and the talk of wanton lust and dalliance. 21. A selfprovoking ear, that hearkeneth after all that others say against them, which may kindle hatred, or dislike, or passion in them. 22. A busy, meddling ear, which loveth to hear of other men's faults, or matters which concern them not, and to hearken to tattlers, and carry-tales, and make-bates, and to have to do with evil reports. 23. A timorous, cowardly, unbelieving car, which trembleth at every threatening of man, though in a cause which is God's, and he hath promised to justify. 24. An idle ear, which can hearken to idle, time-wasting talk, and make the sins of tattlers your own. All these ways (and more) you are in danger of sinning by the ear, and becoming partakers in the sins of all whose sinful words you hear, and of turning into sin the words of God, and his servants, which are spoken for your good.— Baxter. ILLUSTRATIONS OF APOSTASY. THE DUKE OF LAUDERDALE, THE only other illustration of the effects of apostasy which we would submit in this series, is that of John, the second Earl, and only Duke of Lauderdale. He was born at Lethington, on the 24th day of May, in the year 1616. During the early period of his life he was a zealous friend of the Covenant, and took part with the leading men of his time, in forwarding the cause of pure and undefiled religion. He engaged with activity in the movements of the Covenanters, and in his own person submitted to their most strict and salutary laws. So prominent was the part which he acted, and so completely was his conduct in accordance with the sentiments of the ministers and nobles who were then struggling for religious freedom, that in the year 1643, he and Sir Archibald Johnston, afterwards Lord Warriston, and a martyr to the truth, Lord Maitland (such was Lauderdale's title at that, period) is known to have given regular attendance. and to have taken a deep interest in the proceedings of the Westminster Assembly. He was then zealous in the cause of religious reformation, and appeared at the time to be a thorough Presbyterian. The Solemn League and Covenant was approved of by both Houses of Parliament (30th August 1643), and the members, of the House of Commons, together with the Assembly of Divines, subscribed that deed with all the solemnity that religion could give to such a transaction. Alexander Henderson addressed them prior to their affixing their signatures, and amid all this solemnity, Maitland was ever forward, like Henderson himself, or Rutherford, or Baillie, to defend the principles, and proclaim his adherence to the cause for which his country was then so stedfastly contending. In order to estimate aright the character of Maitland, it should here be remembered that the Solemn League and Covenant, sworn in 1643, had for one of its objects the preservation of the Church of Scotland from those attempts to subvert her principles, which her enemies were strenuously making, by forcing upon her a creed and customs which she literally abhorred. Subscription to such a document, in such circumstances, implied no sinall measure of resolution; and when we think of the scenes that took place in the church-yard of the Greyfriars in Edinburgh, when that deed was so solemnly subscribed. ' even to blood, the adhibiting of a signature implies that the subscriber had caught somewhat of the national enthusiasm, and felt the magnitude of the nation's aims. But it is not from his public life alone that we learn the sentiments and views of Maitland during the earlier period of his history. In a letter addressed to him from Edinburgh (1660), the ministers of religion appeal to him as one who had concerned himself so much in the welfare of the Church, and so proved his interest by his letters, that the friends of truth "were exceedingly satisfied and refreshed." It is probable that by that time he had begun to lay the train, in conspiracy with Sharp, and Charles, which was to explode the institution for which so much blood had been shed and so many prayers offered. But Maitland had so long appeared zealous for the truth that those godly men had not yet begun to suspect they were betrayed, and trusted him as they had been wont to do, when, at a lower level than that of Secretary of State, he bad sworn the Covenant, and vowed to uphold the cause of religion in terms of that solemn deed. It will show the extent of his zeal, and the firmness of his adherence to the Covenant, to re ILLUSTRATIONS OF APOSTASY. 66 mark that, proud and ferocious as he was by nature, he at one period was obliged by his rigorous friends, to make a public confession of sin, in the church at Largs, for certain of his measures (1648), though it is supposed by some that he never forgot that indignity. Subsequently to that period, he was imprisoned as a Royalist for nine years in the Tower of London, and it is alleged that it was while he was a prisoner there that his views in religion were completely changed-a change whose extent may be understood from the following sentence of Baillie, written while the Scottish commissioners were in London at the Westminster | Assembly: "Thanks to God," he says, never colleagues had a greater harmony, for to this hour not the least difference, the smallest eyclist betwixt any of us, either State or Church commissioners, in anything, either public or private." The man whose instructive history we are sketching then appeared to be likeminded with Henderson, and Rutherford, and Johnston of Warriston. There was not, to man's eye, "the | least difference" between him and them. Nay, even at a later period (1661), when Sharp and some of his creatures were plotting the overthrow of the Church of Scotland as then established, Lauderdale for a time firmly opposed the proposal, as likely to prove injurious hoth to the king and the nation. But he was overborne; Sharp and the Earl of Middleton carried their purpose, and Scotland was soon soaked in blood. We have already seen that Sharp had utterly abandoned principle, and became a traitor to his Church and friends, during his residence in London. That cold-blooded and most selfish man had complied with the injunctions, and owned the government of Cromwell, had solemnly abjured the whole family of the Stuarts, as well as abandoned tenets which he once professed to hold with more than ordinary tenacity; and Lauderdale, though less guilty in some respects than Sharp, yet made as thorough shipwreck of his principles, and became, from a sworn and prominent friend of the Covenant, the ruthless persecutor of its honest adherents. He proceeded to Breda prior to | Charles' restoration, and, ranking as he did among those who were then reckoned "Malignants," was a party to the unprincipled proceedings which terminated in that monarch's return to his kingdom and his crown. Lauderdale was then made Secretary of State for Scotland, and not long thereafter entered on a career whose history might be traced in blood. But it was some time before he came to enjoy his unlimited power in Scotland; for Middleton, his rival, stood in his path to eminence in guilt as in office. That minion of Charles, however, prepared the way, by his excesses, for Lauderdale to indulge the full bent of a ruthless and brutalized nature when he came at last into power. During a procession through the west of Scotland, it is known that Middleton and his Council were rarely sober. It is stated by Kirkton that at Ayr "they even drank the devil's health at the Mercat Cross;" indeed, Middleton's whole deportment was ferocious and tyrannical. Yet such was the man whom a covenanted king raised up to rule, with somewhat of the authority of a viceroy, over the affairs of unhappy and distracted Scotland, and such a 559 state of things directly prepared the way, for all the atrocities of Lauderdale. Being a wit and an accomplished courtier, he at last succeeded in undermining Middleton, who was accused of high treason, and as Lauderdale had become the pander and privado of his sovereign's pleasures, his influence in an abandoned court soon became paramount. Middleton, the op- | pressor of Scotland, was sent to Tangier as a place of official exile, and there died of injuries received while in a state of intoxication. One of Lauderdale's first notorious atrocities was his conduct at the trial of Johnston of Warriston. After long exile and many escapes, that remarkable ⠀⠀ man was seized in France, and imprisoned there. He was transferred to the Tower of London, and thence] to Edinburgh, in the year 1663. During his trial, some voted for delay; and Lauderdale, who knew that he had something to fear if Johnston were spared, interfered with the vote, made an intemperate harangue to subservient judges, and, by his violent conduct, carried a sentence of death. Now let it be borne in mind that the judge and the criminal thus confronted had been the two lay assessors who had gone together from Scotland to the Assembly at Westminster. There they had taken sweet counsel together. They had deliberated, argued, and contended side by side for the truth; but the one, now broken by disease and¦| hardship, though unsullied in conscience, and consistent in principle, stands arraigned as a criminal, and is sentenced by the other to die. That other is the favourite of a profligate king, but an apostate, wearing title after title, won by the sacrifice of principle, and proudly exulting in his success-a success which makes him virtually the murderer of his friend. The man of conscience, integrity, and principle, is hurried to the scaffold. The hand that drags him is that of one formerly reckoned a Christian brother by the sufferer. But this was only the commencement of atrocities. Lauderdale became the willing instrument of the king in all his designs upon Scotland. With all diligence the Earl and his creatures proceeded to bind, imprison, exile, and put to death, all who would not submit to their measures; and with true sycophancy to Charles, the fountain of their oppressive power, they laud him, in one of their letters, for "his tender care of this his ancient kingdom." He abetted those infamous measures which were designed to smooth the way for introducing Popery when the Duke of York became king; and, in return for his wholesale abandonment of all that he had once reckoned sacred, and sworn to maintain, he is loaded with honours, created a duke (1672), and returned to Scotland to "punish conventicles, to harass ministers, gentlemen, and others." He met, indeed, with some checks or warnings; for in 1673, the House of Commons voted him a grievance to England, and unfit to be employed in any office there. Yet that was the man whom a perjured king delighted to honour, making him his representative or viceroy, for shedding the best blood of Scotland. The free people of England might address their king to "remove the duke from all his employments, and banish him as an obnoxious person from his majesty's councils for ever;" but he in a proud conceit, and confidence of their own abilities, to discern what is true and what is false. 14. An ungodly ear, that can easily hear the reproach of holiness, and scorns at the servants and ways of Christ. 15. A neutral, indifferent ear, that heareth either good or evil, without much love or hatred, but with a dull and cold indifferency. 16. A dissembling, temporizing ear, which can complyingly hear one side speak for holiness, and the other speak against it, and suit itself to the company and discourse it meets with. 17. An uncharitable ear, which can willingly hear the censures, backbitings, slanders, revilings, that are used against others, yea, against the best. 18. An unnatural ear, which can easily and willingly hear the dishonour of their parents, or other near relations, if any carnal interest do but engage them against their honour. 19. A rebellious, disobedient ear, which hearkeneth not to the just commands of magistrates, parents, masters, and other governors, but hearkeneth with more pleasure to the words of seditious persons that dishonour them. 20. A filthy, unclean, and adulterous ear, which loveth to hear ribald speeches, and love-songs, and romances, and lascivious plays, and the talk of wanton lust and dalliance. 21. A selfprovoking ear, that hearkeneth after all that others say against them, which may kindle hatred, or dislike, or passion in them. 22. A busy, meddling ear, which loveth to hear of other Laen's faults, or matters which concern them not, and to hearken to tattlers, and carry-tales, and make-bates, and to have to do with evil reports. 23. A timorous, cowardly, unbelieving ear, which trembleth at every threatening of man, though in a cause which is God's, and he hath promised to justify. 24. An idle ear, which can hearken to idle, time-wasting talk, and make the sins of tattlers your own. All these ways (and more) you are in danger of sinning by the ear, and becoming partakers in the sins of all whose sinful words you hear, and of turning into sin the words of God, and his servants, which are spoken for your good.— Baxter. ILLUSTRATIONS OF APOSTASY. THE DUKE OF LAUDERDALE. He THE only other illustration of the effects of apostasy which we would submit in this series, is that of John, the second Earl, and only Duke of Lauderdale. was born at Lethington, on the 24th day of May, in the year 1616. During the early period of his life he was a zealous friend of the Covenant, and took part with the leading men of his time, in forwarding the cause of pure and undefiled religion. He engaged with activity in the movements of the Covenanters, and in his own person submitted to their most strict and salutary laws. So prominent was the part which he acted, and so completely was his conduct in accordance with the sentiments of the ministers and nobles who were then struggling for religious freedom, that in the year 1643, he and Sir Archibald Johnston, afterwards Lord Warriston, and a martyr to the truth, were appointed lay assessors to the v Henderson, Gillespie, Rutherford, Westminster Assembly. The stjer was then only twenty-seven years ( single fact is enough to show the p position, his reputation for real in t ligion, and the extent of his ni friends of liberty and the nation the business of the General Asem at by short-sighted man, he reckoned among the valiant for the m Lord Maitland (such was Lestar period) is known to have given rega and to have taken a deep interes ot of the Westminster Assembly. He the cause of religious reformation, the time to be a thorough Press League and Covenant was approved: of Parliament (30th August 1613. of the House of Commons, togethe bly of Divines, subscribed that solemnity that religion could give action. Alexander Henderson addr to their affixing their signatures, solemnity, Maitland was ever forward himself, or Rutherford, or Baillig principles, and proclaim his adhere for which his country was then tending. In order to estimate arig of Maitland, it should here be rem Solemn League and Covenant, sw for one of its objects the preservati of Scotland from those attempts to ciples, which her enemies were stre by forcing upon her a creed and cu literally abhorred. Subscription tor in such circumstances, implied no s resolution; and when we think of the place in the church-yard of the Gr bargh, when that deed was so sole even to blood, the adhibiting of a gi that the subscriber had caught so national enthusiasm, and felt the nation's aims. But it is not from his public life learn the sentiments and views of the earlier period of his history. In a to him from Edinburgh (1660), the ligion appeal to him as one who had self so much in the welfare of the proved his interest by his letters, tha truth "were exceedingly satisfied and is probable that by that time he had train, in conspiracy with Sharp, and was to explode the institution for v blood had been shed and so many! But Maitland had so long appeared truth that those godly men had not yet pect they were betrayed, and trusted b been wont to do, when, at a lower leve Secretary of State, he had sworn the vowed to uphold the cause of religion ir solemn deed. It will show the extent the firmness of his adherence to the C was admirably fitted to harass his former friends, and all remonstrances were therefore set aside. Laing, in his History, says that "Lauderdale's passions were furious and ungovernable, unless when interest or ambition interposed; " and he was, therefore, adapted to any service that either a bigoted or an unprincipled master could prescribe. The king gave up Scotland to Lauderdale's management; and between a standing army at one time, the militia at another, the Highland host at a third, and torture from day to day, he acted as if he wished to bring it to pass that there should be no living witness of his apostasy-none but the God who looketh on the heart to know him. His brutality broke out on many occasions in a way as revolting as it was coarse. When the Highland host was about to be sent to Ayrshire, the gentlemen of the county, fearing its ferocity, ventured to remonstrate. Lauderdale "became furious, and at the Council table made bare his arms above his elbows, and swore by Jehovah he would make them comply." It was thought that he and his creatures wished to force on a rebellion, that they might seize on the forfeited estates of those who were chafed into selfdefence against such lawless severities. But instead of tracing in detail the bloody career of this able but abandoned man, we select a single instance, as illustrative of his life while he continued in power. It will be borne in mind that Lauderdale had again and again sworn to the Solemn League and Covenant, while we observe that James Mitchell, of whom we spoke in our notice of Sharp as having made an attempt on the archbishop's life, and long eluded the officers of justice, was at last taken and imprisoned. He was examined before the Council, and because he refused to criminate himself, he was ordered (January 1676) "to be put to the question and the torture." He refused again and again to confess, and his ruthless judges, pointing to the boots which lay on the table, told him that they would force him to confess. He declared, however, that he would never be his own accuser, and was remanded to prison. On a subsequent occasion he was again brought out "tied in a two-armed chair; and the boot brought. The executioner asked which of the legs he should take. The lords bade him take any of them. The executioner laid his left leg in the boot, which Mr. Mitchell lifted out, and said, 'Since the judges have not determined, take the best of the two, for I freely bestow it in the cause,' and laid his right leg in the engine." He was questioned, during the infliction of the torture-about thirty interrogatories were addressed to him. Nine strokes of the mallet were given, under the direction of the inquisitor that presided; and as the wedge thus driven into the boot compressed the limb to agony, the sufferer fainted away. He was remitted to prison in that mangled condition, eventually sent to the Bass, and detained there to be tried anew, and finally put to death. Such is a specimen of the mode in which Lauderdale and his creatures governed Scotland-a specimen, that is, of the malignant spirit that often actuates the man who abandons the cause he had once espoused against those who seek to maintain it. emitted a confession that he was the person who had But he passed away, and lo, he was not. He had long enjoyed the favour of Charles, but sank at last into neglect and contempt. The Duke of York's, administration in Scotland gradually weakened the influence of Lauderdale. Though he could crush the children of God, who had no help in man, he could' not cope with the heir presumptive to the British; throne. Having incurred the odium of the duke, Lauderdale was deprived of all his offices, and died in neglect at Tunbridge, on the 24th of August 1682. Such, then, is a glance at the life of another leading Apostate. His lines were cast in times calculated to test men's principles, and Lauderdale's were hollow, We have avoided all details, except such as tend to At one of his former examinations, Mitchell had show what manner of spirit he was of—first as a sword | |