more prone to proclaim something excellent within themselves than with self-abasement to de. clare the perfections of the Godhead. In their acts of worship they have little fear. We are astonished at their composure when we reflect upon the characteristic of religion given in the gospel. Godly fear, my brethren, is always becoming the Christian. It is not only an ingredient in those emotions which accompany conversion, but an abiding principle during life. It is so important a part of the temper of the saints, that it is frequently put, for the whole of religion. It is cultivated with attention by every judicious Christian; and its exercises are salutary concomitants of all their services. Christians fear God as the sovereign Disposer of all events, who overrules every circumstance which can affect us either with profit or loss, grief or joy. They fear him, as infinitely jealous of his own glory. They fear him, as of purer eyes than to be. hold iniquity. Yes, brethren, when we approach his sanctuary, let us remember his majesty, and his purity, and let us walk circumspectly, lest we offend in word or in deed. Let us fear God and keep his commandments. "For to them that fear his name, shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings." Arguments of mercy are employed to excite you to the worship of God according to this text, "To worship God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear." "Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in his commandments." Argu. ments of terror are employed also in the same service. "For our God is a consuming fire." Christians, from the excellency of their religion, are urged to diligence in its practical duties. Sinners, from the excellency of the system of grace, are urged to seek a personal interest in it. This is what we have been endea. voring to explain to our readers. And we are prepared to appeal to themselves for the truth of this great principle. The Christian system is worthy of our faith and of our services. Compare it with every other system, and its superiority is manifest. Human science, the arts, and the occupations of life are indeed useful. There is no necessity of denying this. Religion does not prohibit but recommend attention to them. They minister to the wants of the body, and to the conveniences of life. They decoy an idle hour; they give exercise to the mental faculties; they render those who duly cultivate them more useful and agreeable companions. Business multiplies the means of human subsistance, literature exalts the character, amusement reanimates genius and unbends its strings. But however great the variety of these advantages, all the actual profit they yield consists in their tendency to diminish our misery and increase our hap. piness. All their value consists in the opposition they make to the power of sin. Alas! how little then their real value! how feeble that opposition! the strug gles of expiring nature against an incurable disease! Universal experience proclaims, "Nothing without religion can deliver from wo or introduce to bliss." The arm of industry fails the ear of pleasure becomes deaf to its music the fire of the philosopher expires and the hero and the sta. tesman, are lodged in the dark and silent cell. The fashion of this world passeth away. The world itself shall end. But religion is immortal. Godliness hath great gain. Godliness is profitable unto all things. It has the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. It sanctifies the passions; it purifies the conscience; it bestows upon the saints inward peace. It renders them considerate in prosperity. It cheers them in the hour of adversity; and it gives unto them this song in the house of their pil. grimage, "Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Amen. was ordained a priest of the church of Rome, before the canonical age. After his ordination, he continued to pursue his theological studies; and in reading the works of the primitive fathers, especially those of Jerome and Augustine, was surprised to find how widely their doctrines differed from the ordinary teaching of the priests of the church of Rome. Discovering, also, how constantly these fathers appealed to the authority of Scripture, he was led to commence a careful examination of the Bible. About 1535, he commenced the study of the Scriptures, (for previous to the Reformation, the reading of the scriptures was, in Scotland, pronounced heresy, and they were almost as much unknown to the priests as to the people,) and for about seven years he continued to pursue his investigations; receiving, from time to time, such accessions of light, as at last, in 1542, enabled him, under the LIFE OF JOHN KNOX, preaching of Thomas Gwilliam, "The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance."-PSAL. cxii. 6. JOHN KNOX was born in 1505, at Gifford, in East Lothian. He entered the University of Glasgow in 1522, and being a person of superior literary attainments, *We have been induced, by the request of several subscribers, to furnish a brief sketch of the Life of Knox. To abridge, and yet preserve perspicuity, we have found no easy task. We trust, however, we shall be able to present to our readers a faithful, though a condensed record of the Life of this "Scottish Worthy." To those who can have access to the book, we earnestly recommend the Lite of Knox, by Dr. M'Crie. There is also a respectable abridgment, by the "Author of the Life of Calvin," published by Oliphant, Edinburgh. a converted friar, to emerge from all his former darkness and prejudices, and openly and fearlessly to profess himself a protes to death at St. Andrews, in 1516. -This event was soon followed by the death of Cardinal Beaton, and the seizure of the castle of St. Andrews. that you refuse not this holy vo- Great efforts have been made to show that John Knox undertook the ministry at the call of his hearers without having, at any time, been ordained to the sacred office. The high toned prelates affirmed this, in order to set aside the ministry of the Scottish reformer as invalid; and disorderly lay-preachers claim the fact as their own apology. Knox, at this time, resided at Langniddry, as tutor to the families of two protestant gentlemen. Here he was accustomed to catechise and explain the scriptures to his pupils, in the chapel whose remains still bear the name of "John Knox's Kirk." His manner of teaching soon be. came known to the successor of the cardinal, and such a perse. cution was soon raised against him, as made him resolve to fly to Germany, where the Reformation was now gaining ground. The parents of his pupils, reluctant to part with him, induced him to alter his purpose, and repair with their sons to the castle of St. Andrews, where he might remain free from the persecution of his enemies. Many persecuted protestants had, in the mean time, taken advantage of His works are before us: they testify to his the same asylum, and had elected as chaplain, John Rough. The chaplain, as well as the gar. rison, earnestly desiring Knox to undertake the work of the ministry, he absolutely refused, declaring, "he would not run where God had not sent him." The design, however, of compelling him to undertake the work of the ministry, was not laid aside. After consulting with his congregation, the chaplain preached on the election and duty of ministers; and, at the close of his discourse, addressed Knox in the following words :"In the name of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ, I charge you It is, however, unimportant in the esteem of the Christian churches whether there be a written detail handed down to our day or not, of the ordination of this distinguished man. valuable ministry. It is not necessary that we should have a detailed account of the induction to the office of ministers-men who lived nearer our own time, in order to profit by their labors. How shali proof be given to the illiterate, of the ordination of Drs. Twisse, Edwards, Livingston, or Rogers? There is, for those who read, ample proof of the ordination of John Knox, from Beza and Spotteswood, protestants, Winget and Burne, papists, although he did not exercise his ministry for some years before he accepted the invitation of the protestants, at St. Andrews. He was recognized in his lifetime by the fathers of the church of England, as a public functionary. He was chaplain to Edward VI. He was recognized by the churches of the continent, and the chief men in France, Switzerland, Holland, and Germany; and of the church of Scotland he is one of the fathers the chief instrument of the reformation. It is not to be concealed that he was a protestant minister, associated with ministers who had also protested against the antichristian superstition and tyranny of the church in which they were born, baptized, and ordained. Many priests, friars, and abbots, yea, bishops and cardinals, became protestants in France and Germany as well as in the British Isles. The first Scottish protestant ecclesiastics were Knox and Rough were accordingly summoned before a convention of the popish clergy. Of nine charges, the six following are the chief: They were accused of affirming-1. That no mortal man can be head of the church. 2. The Pope is an antichrist. 3. The sacraments ought to be administered as they were instituted by Jesus Christ. 4. The mass is idolatry. 5. There is no purgatory. 6. Prayer for the dead is vain, and to the dead is idolatry. The trial terminated in the total discomfiture of the Romanists: for Knox and truth were two irresistible opponents. And, in a short space of time, after his acquittal, so mightily did his labors pros. per, that the whole city professed the reformed faith, by partaking of the Lord's Supper, after the simple form in which it was instituted by Christ, and upon which it was afterwards modeled at the settlement of the Reformation. In July, 1547, the castle of St. Andrews was besieged by a French fleet, and surrendered after a vigorous resistance. Knox, with others, was carried to France; and, contrary to the faith of the treaty of surrender, was confined on board the galleys for nineteen months. While thus confined, every effort was made to induce him and his fellow-prisoners to countenance the clergymen of the establishment who aban doned its impure communion and organized the reformed church in that kingdom. Pat vicar: Beveridge and Kylee were friars: rick Hamilton was an abbot: Thos. Forrest a Simpson, Henry Forrest, Gourley, and Russel, were all, as well as John Knox himself, in orders. It is but a foolish figment that Calvin and Knox are monuments of irregularity in practicing the gospel ministry. Romish superstitions. An example, in Knox's own words, deserves to be recorded: A painted Lady, says he, (a picture of the Virgin,) was brought in to be kissed; and, amongst others, was presented to one of the Scots. men there chained. He gently said, 'Trouble me not; such a jewel is accursed; and therefore I will not touch it.' The officers said, 'Thou shalt handle it;' and they violently thrust it in his face; and put it betwixt his hands. He, seeing the extremity, took the idol, and cast it into the river, saying, 'Let our Lady now save herself; she is light enough-let her learn to swim."" In 1549, Knox was liberated, and immediatety repaired to Eng. land. By the protector Somerset, and archbishop Cranmer, strenuous friends of the Reformation, he was cordially received, and by an order in council was sent to preach at Berwick. For his faithful testimony against the imaginary sacrifice of the mass, he was, in April, 1550, summoned before Tonstal, bishop of Durham; but he defended himself with such strength of argument as all his adversaries were unable to gainsay or resist, and he was permitted to continue his ministry without farther molestation. About the end of the next year, he was appointed one of the chaplains to the pious young king, Edward the VI. with a salary of forty pounds a year. This office of king's chaplain gave him a kind of missionary license through the kingdom; an office which he filled with his accustomed energy and success. And such was the true Christian libc rality of those days, that though preaching, under the license of a church governed by prelates, and having a public liturgy, he, a presbyterian, was yet permitted to occupy her pulpits, and employ extemporary prayer. At this period, the council presented him to the rich living of All-Hallows, in London. From conscientious scruples, he declined the offer. By the king he was afterwards intreated to accept a bishoprick; but, for similar reasons, declined this offer likewise. In 1553, Mary, of bloody memory, ascended the throne. At this time Knox appears to have left London, and preached the gospel through various parts of the kingdom. He was an inde. fatigable itinerant; blaming himself when he staid long in one place, of forgetting the perishing souls that, in other places, were hungering for the bread of life. He continued, with great labor and at great risk, to prosecute his labors, till about the end of 1554; when, the persecution growing hotter than ever, he, at the intreaty of his friends, crossed the channel to Dieppe, in France. Thence he passed to Geneva, in Switzerland, and was hospitably received by Calvin. But after resting there a short time, he received a call to become pastor of the English refugee protestants settled at Frankfort. The services of the English congregations, at Frank. fort, had been celebrated in the church of the native protestants. The English, according to agree. ment, as well as to the habits of Knox himself, had adopted the forms of worship practiced by the protestants of the continent. But a Dr. Cox having arrived from England, he immediately adopted the English liturgy, and proceeded to eject Knox from the possession of the church. Not succeeding in the design, he proceeded to accuse Knox of high treason against the emperor Charles the V. This alledged treason consisted of words uttered many years ago in condemnation of the proposed marriage of Mary of England, with Philip, the son of Charles. The futility of the charge was apparent at the time. Still it had the effect of inducing the authorities in Frankfort to recommend his removal, lest they should fall under the displeasure of the emperor. Since the banishment of Knox from Scotland, in 1547, till his departure from Frankfort, in 1555, the reformation has been making slow, yet certain progress in Scotland. It is strange to say, yet it is true, that God advanced the reformation by the instrumentality of its enemies. Mary of Guise, the Queen Dowager of Scotland, courted and protected the protestants, (whom she secretly hated,) in order to obtain their influence in her elevation to the regency, during the minority and absence of Mary Queen of Scots. The persecution, under Mary of England, filled Scotland with the banished protestants: men devoted, zeal. ous, and ardent in the cause of the gospel, for which, like the apostles, "they had suffered the loss of all things." Informed of these favorable circumstances, and receiving thera as a call from |