It is not generally known that the Altare Damascenum is an enlargement, in Latin, of a work which Mr Calder wood wrote in English, and published in 1621, under the title of The Altar of Damascus, islc. This work, indeed, i3 extremely rare. The copy of it which we have seen, is in the possession of a gentleman in Edinburgh, and is the only one which we know to exist. It concludes with noticing a rumour spread by bishop Spottiswood, that Mr Calderwood had turned 13rownist ; nhicdt runo.ur it denies in strong language, and with bitter reflections upon the bishop. " if either Spotswood," says Mr Caldcrwood, " or his supposed author, persist in their calumny, after this declaration, I shall try if there be any blond in their foreheads." A curious attempt was made in the year 162•, to bring • Calderwood into disrepute, and probably through him to lessen the popularity of his ecclesiastical system.
? Calderwood had been long sick, and as no accounts of him were received for a considerable time, people ge nerally concluded that he was dead. Taking advantage of this belief, one Patrick Scott, a gentleman near Falk land, who had wasted all his patrimony in dissipation, and was ready to serve the court in ally thing for a reward, took it upon him to write and publish a recantation, in the name of Mr Calderwood. It is asserted by Mr Cal derwood himself, upon what authority he does not say, that the king furnished Scott with the matter, which he put into the pretended recantation. One is almost tempt ed to believe this meanness of a king, who had already been guilty of measures as despicable, and who could scarcely desire any thing more earnestly, than the dis grace and defeat of the Presbyterians. What followed, however, was still more criminal, though not more suc cessful. When it was discovered that Mr Calderwood was alive and disclaimed the recantation, the infamous Scott, whether instigated by the king or not, cannot be known, went over to Holland, and sought for the inno cent object of his vengeance, with an intention to assas sinate him. in this diabolical purpose, however, he fail ed; for Mr Calderwood had, in the mean time, pi\ ately returned to his native country.
'Mr Calderwood was the author of several works be sides those which we have mentioned, on the transactions and controversies of the time'.. Of these. we cannot pretend to give a complete list; but the following may be considered as the greatest part of them The Speech of the Kirk to her beloved Children ; the Confutar:on cf Dr Mitchelson's Reasons for Kneeling ; The Course of Conformity; An Epistle to a Christian Broth r ; A Dis pute against Communicating where there was Kneeling, confusion of Gestures and Actions ; The Anti:tiecis tween the Pastor and the Prelate ; A Defence of the Ar guments against Kneeling at the Sacrament ; Queries con cerning the State of the Church of Scotland ; An Exhor tation of the particular Kirks of Christ in Scotland, to their Sister Kirk in Edinburgh ; De Regimine Ecelesice Scoticane brevis Rclatio, or Hieronymi Philadelphi De Regi mine Scoticante Ecelesice Enistola ; Ejusdem Irindicice contra Calumnias Joh. SIzotswoodi ; The Solution of Dr
Resolutus's Resolutions of Queries and Exhortations. Several of these works were printed in Holland ; and when they were about to be imported into Scotland, a proclamation was made at the cross of Edinburgh, bear ing, that certain persons were attempting to bring into the kingdom a number of seditious and treasonable books, and commanding all ships coining from the low coun tries to be carefully and diligently searched, that the said books might be examined and condemned. This at tempt, however, to accomplish by violence what could not be so easily obtained by argument, fortunately did not succeed ; for Mr Calderwood's books were safely landed some days before the vessel containing them could be searched.
Mr Calderwood employed himself with great diligence and success in collecting and digesting, according to the order of time, all the memorials which could be pro cured relating to the ecclesiastical affairs of Scotland, from the beginning of the Reformation down to the death of King James VI. We are told by Baillie, that a great part of a session of the assembly in 16.18 was spent in encouraging Mr Calderwood to perfect his church his tory, and that they agreed to give him out of their funds no less than 8001. Scots yearly, to enable him to proceed with it. This valuable work is still in manuscript. There are four copies of it. One of them is in the college-li brary of Glasgow ; another is in the advocate's library of Edinburgh ; a third is in the possession of General Cal derwood Durham of Largo, who is the representative both of the family of Mr Calderwood, and that of the pious Mr James Durham, minister of Glasgow ; and the fourth belongs to the General Assembly of the Church of Scot land, to whom it was presented by Mr Wodrow, having been carefully transcribed from the original manuscript under his own eye.