In Scotland, the Reformation was effectuated by dif ferent means. Here we are constrained to look, not to the ruler, but to the subject. In the country alluded to, the Reformation could not, with any measure of pro priety, be denominated a contest between the sovereign and the holy see, about the possession and the exercise of unlimited power : At the commencement of the changes, the civil and ecclesiastical authorities were not opposed. In this country, the Reformation took its rise from beginnings almost imperceptible. It was a poor man who achieved the mighty work in our native land. We hail the father of Scottish independence, the mag nanimous Knox ; at once the champion of truth and of liberty; stern, indeed, in his aspect, and fierce in his opposition, but stern only towards those whose iniquities he reproved, and fierce only when summoned by the mandate of heaven to arouse his courage, and to " wax valiant in fight." To his unwearied exertions, we owe our emancipation from an enslaving superstition, our successful system of education, the intelligence of our people, the discipline of our ecclesiastical polity, and whatever remains of genuine piety in the remoter pro vinces and sequestered vales of the country to which we belong. We venerate his injuired name, and re joice that a biographer has at length appeared, who has done justice to the character of the Scottish reformer, ;.nd, at the same time, has secured for his own perform ance an abiding place among the literature of the na 'Ion.
With the exception of the miraculous powers, the weapons used by Knox were the very same weapons those which were employed by the apostles in the early period of the church. It was chiefly by the " ing of the word" that the Scottish reformer accomplish ed the great work which he had undertaken. Though of an inferior stature, and of an appearance little en gaging, his eloquence was efficacious in the highest de gree. During the circuit of the country which he made soon after his return from the continent, he produced an extraordinary change upon the sentiments and feelings of the people. Multitudes from every quarter of the kingdom attended him, and eagerly listened, while he proposed and explained to them the doctrines of the Re formation. Every eye was fixed upon him, and every heart throbbed with emotion, as he prayed for deliver ance to the enslaved land. The mind sprang forward, rejoicing in its liberty, and the courage even of the fear ful arose. " Come out of her, my people," was the di vine command; and never was it pronounced in allusion to a church so gross and festering with corruption, and never, since the times of inspiration, was it pronounced with greater energy, or with more important results. No speech uttered even by Demosthenes himself, in all the mighty fierceness of his declamations, was ever follow ed by such effects as the sermons of Knox. \Vith the irresistible power of truth and of heaven, he took pos session of the understanding, and captivated the affec• tions. Undismayed by opposition, and not fearing the face of man, he overlooked all distinctions between the rich and the poor, the great and the humble ; and ad dressing them indiscriminately in the character of guilty and condemned creatures, he proclaimed to them, with apostolical energy, the " glad tidings" of pardon and of peace. The sinner trembled under the denunciation of punishment, and the desponding were comforted and established in their most holy faith.
It is to he regretted that the zeal excited by the dis courses of Knox could not uniformly be restrained with in the limits which he himself would have prescribed for it. The multitude, animated and inflamed by the eloquence of the reformer, and moved likewise, in a very considerable degree, by the imprudence of the Ca tholic party, proceeded, with ungovernable fury, to de stroy the objects and the monuments of the papal wor ship. The images, relics, and altars, were broken in
pieces ; some of the religious houses shared a similar fate ; the barriers were removed; the waters were out ; and in the overwhelming tide and fierceness of the inun dation, the superstitions of ancient times were swept away from the land. We are not aware that the destruc tion of the images and relics is to be lamented with ex traordinary sorrow; but antiquaries and architects have wept, and perhaps not without sufficient reason, over the fate of the monasteries. Let it be remembered, how ever, that when the machinery of superstition was bro ken, the superstition itself was annihilated. The doctrines of popery, considded as distinct from the authoritative enactments of the holy see, had no possession and no place in the public mind ; it was a system of external observances; and when the tools by which the work was carried on were destroyed, the work itself could no longer he performed. To remove the means of ini quity, is, in many instances, to put an end to its exis tence.
But it was not only on the minds of the people, that the eloquence of Knox produced its effects. Many of the nobility attached themselves to the cause of the Re formation. There is reason to believe, that a consider able number of these were aduated by a sincere regard for the interests of religion, and the welfare of their country. With others, the motives were of a mixed and doubtful nature ; and not a few appear to have adopted the new opinions, because the success of the Reforma tion afforded them the immediate prospect of seizing and appropriating the ample possessions of the church. The meetings of the Protestants, were attended by the great lords and their retainers, in arms. The Earls Marischal and Gleneairn were at once the disciples and protectors of Knox. A powerful party, variously com posed, existed in the country; and, by uniting them selves in a solemn COVENANT, for mutual support and defence, they at once ascertained their numbers, and concentrated their strength. The political events, so well known to every reader of Scottish history, facili tated the progress of the reformers. The inauspicious marriage of the young and beautiful queen, the murder of Darnley, the infamous conduct of the Earl of Both well, the zeal, the valour, and the prudence of Murray, all conspired with the labours of the preachers, and the increasing intelligence of the people; till at length the public voice became nearly uniform, and whenever the public voice becomes uniform or nearly uniform, the ex perience of ages will tell us, that it is neither to be trifled with, iror resisted. The parliament of the nation sup ported and confirmed the sentiments of the people. The Papacy was abolished; even the order of bishops was completely subverted ; and Presbyterianism, a system, the leading principle of which is, that every teacher of religion, shall employ himself in the work of instruction among the people committed to his care, was establish ed and acknowledged throughout the country. This wholesome system has ever since been fondly cherished by the Scottish nation; nor could all the efforts of the English covet in later times, a court professing a regard for Episcopacy indeed, but secretly and slavishly devoted to the cause or Rome, induce them to swerve, even in the slightest degree, from the doctrine and the institute of the great reformer of their church. More than twen ty years of cruel persecution, and of military apostleship, were tried in vain. Their attachment remained un broken; and Presbyterianism, continues to this clay the object of sacred estimation, in the eyes of the Scottish people.