forth his hand against us; and that though he would not for the world do that, he feared instruments might be found who would do it; and he added, that it would break his heart if our successful ministry in the north were interrupted. Our conference ending, he dismissed me very kindly, though I gave him no high titles; and when trouble came upon us, he proved our very good friend." Such was Ussher,-kind, candid, and courteous; not more singular in his day for his immense erudition, than for his tolerant spirit! Amidst the splendour with which his rank and learning have invested him, it is delightful to obtain such a familiar glance, as this passage presents, of his private life and sentiments. Nor is it less pleasing to meet, especially in the person of Ussher, with another illustration of this instructive maxim-that while sectarian bigotry is the offspring of pride and ignorance, true wisdom and genuine piety are ever characterized by candour and charity.

Blair was not disappointed in his application to the primate. He immediately interested himself in behalf of the suspended ministers. Fully convinced of their piety and Christian prudence, he wrote to Echlin to "relax his erroneous censure. This injunction was promptly obeyed; and Blair and Livingston were permitted to resume the exercise of their ministry among their beloved and affectionate people.

Their Scottish adversaries, however, did not desist from their opposition. Baffled in their endeavours to stir up the ecclesiastical authorities against these laborious and unpretending ministers of Christ; they next endeavoured to accomplish their object through the medium of the civil powers. But dreading that the Irish government might prove as forbearing and tolerant as the primate, they resolved to apply directly to the king himself, from whom, guided as he then was in religious matters by Laud, they expected a ready acquiescence in their persecuting purposes. Maxwell, accordingly, hurried to court, and there preferred the heaviest

charges of enthusiasm, turbulence, and disobedience to ecclesiastical authority, against the Scottish ministers in Ulster. He named in particular these four, Messrs. Blair, Livingston, Dunbar and Welsh, who having been censured for presumed non-conformity in Scotland, prior to their removal to Ireland, were peculiarly obnoxious to the prelatical party.

These accusations were readily entertained and acted on by Laud and his royal pupil. Letters were immediately despatched to the lords justices of Ireland, then at the head of the government, directing them to issue their orders to the bishop of Down and Connor, to try these alleged fanatical disturbers of the peace of his diocese; and, if found guilty of the charges preferred against them, to censure them accordingly. "But the bishop," says Blair, "knowing perfectly well that he would succumb in that accusation, did conceal his order, and went to work another way. He caused cite Mr. Livingston and myself, with Mr. Dunbar and Mr. Welsh before him, and urged us to conform and give our subscription to that effect. We answered, that there was then no law nor canon in that kingdom requiring this. Notwithstanding, he had the cruelty to depose us all four from the office of the holy ministry." The former two were silenced on the fourth of May 1632, and the latter two in the following week; and thus, for not yielding a conformity, from which they had been exempted when they entered on the ministry in Ireland, were these faithful men violently excluded from their offices, and thrown destitute on the world.

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Undismayed, however, by the difficulties with which they were now encompassed, and ardently desirous of being restored to the exercise of their beloved calling, they resolved to use every exertion in their power to procure the reversal of this unjust sentence. Application was again made," writes Blair," in our behalf to archbishop Ussher. us he could not interpose, because the two had an order from the king respecting us. had recourse to their lordships, they remitted us to the

But he told

lords justices

And when we

The brethren

king, from whom only remedy could be had. being thus shut up, they did weigh the expediency of an ap plication to court. On the one hand, we saw that the tide for conformity did run very high; and we knew likewise, that bishop Laud did not only rule but domineer in England. Yet, on the other hand, we knew we were innocent of the matter wherewith we were accused. We hoped likewise that several of the Scots nobility having been friendly to us, and the lord Alexander, eldest son to the secretary for Scottish affairs, (18) having been my scholar, that by this door we would find access to his Majesty, as the ordinance of God to the oppressed. And so I was persuaded, after frequent addresses to God for direction, to undertake a journey with a petition to the king, that we might be tried in the matter laid to our charge; and if found innocent, that we might be acquitted and restored to our flocks, committing the event of all to Him who overruleth the spirits of princes, and is a King over kings, and a Lord over lords and courtiers."

In pursuance of this design, Mr. Livingston retired to Scotland, where he obtained recommendatory letters to their friends at court from the marchioness of Hamilton, and from the earls of Eglinton, Linlithgow, and Wigton. These letters he transmitted to Mr. Blair; who, having also procured additional ones from his Irish friends, immediately set out to London on this hazardous but interesting mission. The circumstances of his journey will be best narrated in his own words. Having procured letters from several nobles

18 This secretary was William Alexander, first earl of Stirling, a poet as well as a statesman. He assisted James I. in preparing a metrical version of the book of Psalms, known by the name of the Royal Psalter. After the death of the fifth Earl of Stirling in the year 1739, the title remained dormant for a considerable period. It may not be inappropriate to add, that the title devolved on a minister of the Presbyterian church in Ireland; whose grandson has at length succeeded in establishing his claim, and is now recognised as the ninth earl of Stirling,

and gentry, both in Scotland and Ireland, to their friends at court on our behalf, I set out on my journey, leaving many holy persons wrestling with God for a comfortable issue. And indeed they were a praying people for whom I undertook this journey. At my house, two nights were spent every week at prayer, and though those who did bear chief burden therein were not above the rank of husbandmen, yet they abounded in the grace and spirit of prayer. Other places were not short of, but rather excelled in that duty; and even in congregations who yet enjoyed their own pastors, many prayers were put up on our account, as I learned at my return. After my first outset, I was suddenly afflicted with pain in my kidnies; and I cried earnestly to the Lord, that he would be pleased to spare me till I were better accommodated for such a trial; which petition was granted as soon as put up, and I went on my way rejoicing.

"When I reached Greenwich, where the court then lay, I had speedy recourse to the earl of Stirling, secretary; who promised, if my petition were sent him, to procure a despatch to my mind without expense. This he undertook the more readily, that the king being then on a progress for the hunting, he doubted not that his Majesty would be gone ere that petition were got ready. But I, supposing all the hazard lay in not getting it ready before the king set out, did bend up all the earnestness I could of prayer, with dexterity of endeavours; and getting the petition ready in due time, went with it to the secretary; and was so overjoyed in hopes of the issue, that I did literally exult and leap. But when the timorous man saw my forwardness, he, fearing bishop Laud more than God, did faint and break his promise.

"At this disappointment I was greatly dejected; and passing to a quiet place in Greenwich Park, poured out my complaint unto God; and after I had been thrice employed in that way, and in offering up myself and all my enjoyments to him for the sake of the gospel, my heaviness was removed, my prayer taken off my hand, and, as I conceived, my request granted.

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Accordingly I took courage, and found secretary Cook the mean of procuring a hearing from the king. This man being esteemed rigid for conformity, it was highly probable he would not be a happy instrument in any such matter. But the thoughts of the Lord are not as ours. The king having been then at the forest of Bewly, at a distance from the bishops, my petition was put into his hand, and met with a gracious answer. For the secretary having wrote the deliverance thereon, and addressed it to archbishop Usher, which the king reckoned improper; his majesty caused the secretary to direct it to Strafford, and with his own hand he did insert a clause which I durst not petition for, viz. ‹ That if the information made to him proved false, the informers should be punished.'- -And so having obtained my errand, I gave the secretary's clerks, three Jacobuses, himself taking nothing, and made all the haste I could back to London, and thence to Ireland.There I was received with great joy, especially when they heard that I had brought with me a just and favourable letter from the king's majesty. But they were much dejected, that he to whom it was directed, was yet in England, not like to come over in haste; and indeed he came not for almost a twelvemonth after this. Yet this was no great loss, but rather an advantage to us. For though this letter did not take off the sentence of deposition; yet, by putting the matter to a new trial, it did weaken the And therefore we went on teaching our people; only, for form's sake, I did not go up to the pulpit, but stood beside the precentor."

same.

By this means, were the suspended brethren enabled to resume the duties of the ministry, though still under considerable restrictions. These were laid so rigorously on Livingston, that he was obliged to leave the country altogether, and retire to Scotland; and although the other ministers were enabled to remain, they enjoyed little comfort or freedom. They were supported, however, by the hope that the arrival of the lord deputy Wentworth would put an