former colleague, having removed from the congregation, the people, with advice of Knox, fixed upon Lawson, SubPrincipal of the College of Aberdeen; who, in due course, was installed as his colleague in the ministry. The in firmities of Knox were now rapidly increasing; and the melancholy tidings of the horrid massacre of the Protestants in Paris, saddened the remainder of his days. He publicly inveighed against the treacherous cruelty of the French King, and denounced the judgments of God against his house. Le Croc, the French Ambassador, complained; but the Regent decidedly refused to interfere.

In the beginning of November he was so weakened, as to be unable to pursue his ordinary practice of reading every day some chapters of the Old, and some of the New Testament, with a portion of the Psalms, the whole of which he was accustomed to peruse once a month. But he requested his wife and Richard Bannatyne, his servant, (or rather secretary,) to read to him every day while he lived, the xvii. of John, a chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, and the liii. of Isaiah. Desirous of meeting once more with the Elders and Deacons of his church, and David Lindsay, Minister of Leith, he sent for them, and addressed them to the following effect: "The time is approaching for which I have so often longed; when I shall be relieved of all my cares, and be with my Saviour Christ, for ever. I am not ignorant that many have blamed me for undue severity; but God knows, that I never in my heart, hated those whom I censured. I indeed hated their sins, and every thing in them that was contrary to God; but I laboured to win them to Christ. I feared not the faces of men, because the fear of God was before my eyes. And now, brethren, stand fast in the doctrine you have been taught; join not with the ungodly. And do you, my brother Lawson, fight the good fight, believing that against the Church so long as it holds

* In the course of one week, upwards of 20 great men, 120 gentlemen, and 100,000 of the Protestant commonalty in Paris and other parts of France were cruelly murdered. The streets of Paris, for some days, literally ran blood. The Pope held a jubilee!! and sung te deum laudemus," in Rome!! The Protestants were alarmed and mourned, as they saw the blow intended for the whole body. But the eye of Providence was awake, and the sword of justice soon overtook the principal actors in the tragedy; and the massacre in Paris papal has, in our own days, been awfully avenged by the massacres in Paris atheistical. Whether God have yet proclaimed peace to the descendants of the murderers, time will show.

forth the doctrines of truth, even the gates of hell shall never prevail."

Before going away he privately requested Lawson and Lindsay to carry a message from him to the Laird of Grange, who held out the Castle against the friends of the King. "I pray you," said he, " go to him, and tell him from me, that unless he forsake his present wicked course, neither that rock in which he confides, nor the carnal wisdom of that man, (Maitland,) whom he counts half a god, shall preserve him; but he shall be shamefully pulled out of that nest, and hung before the sun, except he be granted repentance. That man's soul is dear to me, and I would earnestly have him to be saved." Grange afterwards called to mind the words of Knox when fulfilled to the letter, and seemed to take comfort from the hope, that as the prediction had been verified, so would the prayer for his salvation be answered.

To the Earl of Morton, when visiting him, he said, "In God's name I charge you use his blessings aright, and better in time to come than in time past. If you do this, God will be with you and honour you; if you do not, he will deprive you of all these blessings, and your end will be shame and ignominy." The truth of these words was nine years afterwards acknowledged by Morton, at the time of his execution.

A religious lady desiring him to praise God for the good he had done, he interrupted her by saying, "tongue! tongue! lady! flesh of itself is too proud, and needs no incitement to self-conceit." He exhorted her to lay aside pride, and to be clothed with humility; and declared, that as for himself, he solely relied on the free mercy of God, manifested in Christ Jesus, whom he embraced as his wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.

Having ordered his coffin to be made, he continued much in prayer, often saying, Come, Lord Jesus, into thy hands I commend my spirit." Addressing those around him, he said, "Wait on the Lord with fear, and death will not be terrible." Being asked if he felt great pain, he replied, "I have no more pain than he who is already in heaven; and would be contented to lie here seven years, if such were the will of God." But in prayer, he thus addressed God, "Lord, thou knowest how intense my pains are; but I do not complain. Yea, Lord, if such be thy will concerning me, I would be content to bear these pains for many years together; only do thou

continue to enlighten my mind through Jesus Christ." In the evening he desired his wife to read the fifteenth chapter of 1 Cor. which being done, he said, "Is not that a comfortable chapter ?" Shortly after, lifting up his head, and pointing to heaven, he said, "Now, for the last, I commend my soul, and body, and spirit, into thy hand, O Lord!" He then said to his wife, "Go and read where I cast my first anchor," (viz. the xvii. chapter of John.) Afterwards he spent some time in apparent uneasiness, and was asked why he mourned and sighed so heavily in his sleep. I have been often," said he, "tempted by Satan to despair, but he could not prevail. Now he has tempted me to trust in myself, and to rejoice and glory in my labours; as if I should merit heaven by the faithful discharge of my duty. But I have expelled him with these passages of Scripture. What hast thou, that thou hast not received? Not I, but the grace of God in me. By the grace of God, I am that I am. Being vanquished he is gone away ashamed, and shall no more return. Thanks be to God who giveth me the victory! And now I am sure, that without pain of body, or distress of mind, I shall soon change this mortal and miserable life for that happy and immortal life that shall never end."

Family worship being performed, he was asked, if he heard the prayers. He emphatically replied, "Would to God that you and all men heard them as I have done." A little after, he added, “Now it is come." "Now, Sir,” said Richard Bannatyne, "recollect those comfortable promises which you have often shown to us, of our Saviour Jesus Christ; that we may know that you hear us, give us some sign." Upon this he lifted up his hand, and sighing twice, expired without a struggle. Surely the end of the righteous is peace! "Thus," saith Bannatyne, "departed this man of God, the light of Scotland, the comfort of the church, the mirror of godliness, the pattern and example of all true Ministers, in purity of life, soundness of doctrine, and boldness in reproving sin."

He was buried in the church-yard of St. Giles, on Wednesday, the 26th of November, 1572. His funeral was attended by Morton, now Regent, by the other lords that were in the city, and a vast multitude of all ranks, who lamented his death as a national calamity. When laid in the grave, Morton pronounced his character and eulogium in these memorable words, "There lies he who never feared the face of man."

261

SOCINIANISM LEADING TO DEISM.

Now, of the opinion of Dr. Priestly himself, that Socinianism was nearly akin to Deism, we happen to have on record a most remarkable instance. Some one had told him that Jefferson, late American President, was a Deist; 'Then,' replied Dr. Priestly, he cannot be far from us!"" -Orthodox Presbyterian, No. V. p. 148.

SIR,

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ORTHODOX PRESBYTERIAN.

ALLOW me to trespass for a short space on the pages of your valuable publication, while I attempt to illustrate the opinion of Dr. Priestly, expressed in the above quotation, and prove your position, "that Unitarian sentiments have a natural tendency to subside into Deism."

The memoirs and correspondence of Mr. Jefferson, edited by his grandson, have been recently published in 4 vols. 8vo.; and they have been noticed by most of the leading journals of the day in terms of high commendation. But while these impartial Christian critics have lauded his "patriotism and sound philosophy" to the skies, they have not uttered a sentence against the Anti-Christian principles of the man which deserve to be held up to public detestation. I am aware that Mr. Jefferson has acquired great popularity, both in Europe and America, as a patriot, a statesman, and a philosopher. From his meed of praise I mean not to detract; and the utility of this work, in some points of view, I wish not to question. But, at the same time, let it be understood that these volumes prove him not only to have been an unbeliever in divine revelation, but a scoffer of the very lowest class; and the gross impiety and profane ribaldry uttered in the following extracts, deserve to be held up to the abhorrence and detestation of every Christian mind.

That he was a Unitarian, we learn from the following passage in a letter to Dr. Waterhouse, written in 1822:"I trust there is not a young man now living in the United States, who will not die an Unitarian."

That he was a Humanitarian of the lowest class, and a Materialist, appears from the following passage in a letter to President Adams in 1822:-"But while this syllabus," he says, "is meant to place the character of Jesus in its true and high light, as no impostor himself, but a great reformer of the Hebrew code of religion, it is not to be understood that I am with him in all his doctrines. I, (viz. Mr. Jefferson,) am a Materialist; he, (viz. the Lord Jesus,.)

takes the side of spiritualism; he preaches the efficacy of repentance towards forgiveness of sin; I require a counterpoise of good works to redeem it," &c. &c. &c.

În a letter to Dr. Cooper, November 22d, 1822, he thus speaks of prayer meetings:-"In our Richmond, there is much fanaticism, but chiefly among the women. They have their night meetings and praying parties; where, attended by their priests, and sometimes by a henpecked husband, they pour forth the effusions of their love to Jesus, in terms as amatory and carnal as their modesty would permit them to use to a mere earthly lover."

In a letter to James Smith, written a short time afterwards, he says of the doctrine of the Trinity: "The hocus pocus phantasm of a God, like another Cerberns, with one body and three heads, had its birth and growth in the blood of thousands and thousands of martyrs."

In a letter to John Adams in 1823, he says:-"The day will come, when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his Father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva, in the brain of Jupiter." In a letter to William Short, written in 1822, he thus speaks of Christian Ministers and the Christian Sabbath :- "We have most unwisely committed to the hierophants of our particular superstition, the direction of public opinion, that lord of the universe. We have given them stated and privileged days to collect and catechise us, opportunities of delivering their oracles to the people in mass, and of moulding their minds as wax in the hollow of their hands." In his letter to President Adams, already referred to, after speaking of the "stupidity of some of the Evangelists" and early disciples of Christ, and the "roguery" of others, he says of Paul:— "Of this band of dupes and imposters, Paul was the great Coryphaeus, and first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus."

You will thus see, Mr. Editor, that Dr. Priestly was correct when he said of Jefferson, "he is not far from us." For if he was not at that time a Unitarian, we find him in these letters arrived at Unitarianism; and how far he was still from Deism is a question that will not be easily solved. In the opinion of the world he was an illustrious man. But, contrasting his celebrity with these extracts, we have a melancholy but striking illustration of Hervey's celebrated aphorism, "Though in his temporal concerns, and in the things relating to this world, a man may have sight keen as the eagle's; while, on the subjects of his ever