The arbitrary and irresponsible tribunals, which now sprung up all over Scotland, united the executive authority with the legislative, and exercised both functions at the same time. Declaring that certain acts ought not to be committed, they took the law into their own hands, and punished those who had committed them. According to the principles of this new jurisprudence, of which the clergy were the authors, it became a sin for any Scotchman to travel in a Catholic country.174 It was a sin for any Scotch innkeeper to admit a Catholic into his inn.175 It was a sin for any Scotch town to hold a market either on Saturday or on Monday, because both days were near Sunday.176 It was a sin for a Scotch woman to wait at a tavern ;177 it was a sin for her to live alone ;178 it was also

is no burden to an honest believer to acknowledge Christ's ministers, to obey their doctrine, and submit to their censures."

174 A man, named Alexander Laurie, was brought before the Kirk Session of Perth," and being inquired by the minister if, in his last being out of this country, he had been in Spain, answered that he was in Portugal, but was never present at mass, neither gave reverence to any procession, and that he was never demanded by any concerning his religion. The said Alexander being removed and censured, it was thought good by the (Kirk) Session that he should be admonished not to travel in these parts again, except that they were otherwise reformed in religion." Extracts from the Kirk-Session_Register of Perth, in The Spottiswoode Miscellany, vol. ii. p. 274. Still earlier, that is, in 1592, the clergy attempted to interfere even with commerce, “allegeing that the marchands could not mak vayage in Spayne without danger of thair sawlis, and tharefore willit thayme in the nayme of God to absteyne." The Historie of King James the Sext, p. 254.

175 See the case of Patrick Stewart, and Mr. Lawson's note upon it, in Lawson's Book of Perth, p. 238. In this instance, the "Roman Catholic gentleman" had been excommunicated, which made matters still worse.

176 The Presbytery of Edinburgh, "by their transcendent sole authority, discharged any market to be kept on Monday; the reason was, because it occasioned the travelling of men and horse the Lord's-day before, which prophaned the Sabbath." Presbytery Displayd, p. 10. In 1650, Saturday was also taken in by another ecclesiastical senate. "The Presbyterie doe appoint the severall brethren in burghes, to deale with such as have not changed ther Mondayes and Satterdayes mercats to other dayes of the weeke, that they may doe the same primo quoque tempore." Minutes of the Presbyteries of St. Andrews and Cupar, p. 53.

177 In 1650, "For the down-bearing of sin,' women were not allowed to act as waiters in taverns, but allenarly men-servands and boys.'" Chambers' Annals, vol. ii. p. 196. This order "wes red and publictlie intimat in all the kirkis of Edinburgh." Nicoll's Diary, p. 5.

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178 Forsameikle as dilatation being made, that Janet Watson holds an

a sin for her to live with unmarried sisters.179 It was a sin to go from one town to another on Sunday, however pressing the business might be.180 It was a sin to visit your friend on Sunday ;181 it was likewise sinful either to have your garden watered, 182 or your beard shaved.183 Such things were not to be tolerated in a Christian land. No one, on Sunday, should pay attention to his health, or think of his body at all. On that day, horse-exercise was sinful;184 so was walking in the fields, or in the meadows, or in the streets, or enjoying the fine weather by sitting house by herself where she may give occasion of slander, therefore Patrick Pitcairn, elder, is ordained to admonish her in the session's name, either to marry, or then pass to service, otherwise that she will not be suffered to dwell by herself." Kirk-Sesssion Records of Perth, in The Chronicle of Perth, p. 86.

179 Ordains the two sisters, Elspith and Janet Stewart, that they be not found in the house again with their sister, but every one of them shall go to service, or where they may be best entertained without slander, under the penalty of warding their persons and banishment of the town." Kirk-Session Register, in Lawson's Book of Perth, p. 169.

150 Compeirit William Kinneir, and confest his travelling on the Sabbath day, which he declairit was out of meer necessitie, haveing two watters to croce, and ane tempestuos day, quhilk moowit him to fear that he wold not get the watters crost, and so his credit might faill. He was sharpelie admonished; and promist newer to doe the lyke again." Selections from the Records of the Kirk-Session of Aberdeen, p. 136.

181 Compearit Thomas Gray, and confest that one Sunday in the morning, he went to Culter to visit a friend, and stayed thair all night. The sessioune warnit him, apud acta, to the next day, and appointed Patrick Gray, his master, to be cited to the next day, to give furder informatioune in the matter. (Sharply rebuked before the pulpit.)" Selections from the Records of the Kirk-Session of Aberdeen, p. 146.

"Com

182 It was reported that Margaret Brotherstone did water her kaill wpon the Sabbath day, and thairwpon was ordained to be cited." peired Margaret Brotherstone, and confessed her breach of Sabbath in watering of her kaill, and thairwpon ordained to give evidence in publick of her repentance the next Lord's day." Extracts from the Register of the KirkSession of Humbie, p. 42.

193 Even so late as the middle of the eighteenth century, "clergymen were sometimes libelled" "for shaving" on Sunday. Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. xvi. p. 34, Edinburgh, 1795. At an earlier period, no one might be shaved on that day. See The Spottiswoode Miscellany, vol. ii. p. 276; and Lawson's Book of Perth, pp. 224, 225.

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Compeired John Gordon of Avachie, and confessed that he had transgressed in travailing on the Sabbath day with horse, going for a milston. Referred to the session of Kinor for censure." Extracts from the Presbytery Book of Strathbogie, p. 236. See also the case mentioned in Letters from a Gentleman in the North of Scotland, vol. i. p. 172; "This riding on horseback of a Sunday was deemed a great scandal."

at the door of your own house. 185 To go to sleep on Sunday, before the duties of the day were over, was also sinful, and deserved church censure.186 Bathing, being pleasant as well as wholesome, was a particularly grievous offence; and no man could be allowed to swim on Sunday.187 It was, in fact, doubtful whether swimming was lawful for a Christian at any time, even on week-days, and it was certain that God had, on one occasion, shown His disapproval, by taking away the life of a boy while he was indulging in that carnal practice.188

That it was a sin to cleanse one's body, might, indeed, have been taken for granted; seeing that the Scotch clergy looked on all comforts as sinful in themselves, merely because they were comforts.189 The great

185 In 1647, the punishment was ordered of whoever was guilty of "sitting or walking idle upon the streetes and feildes" on Sunday. Selections from the Minutes of the Synod of Fife, p. 152. In 1742, "sitting idle at their doors" and "sitting about doors" was profane. Robe's Narratives of the Extraordinary Work of the Spirit of God, pp. 109, 110. In 1756, at Perth, stroll about the fields, or even to walk upon the inches, was looked upon as extremely sinful, and an intolerable violation of the fourth commandment." Penny's Traditions of Perth, p. 36.

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to

186 In 1656, "Cite Issobell Balfort, servand to William Gordone, tailyeor, beeing found sleeping at the Loche side on the Lord's day in tyme of sermon." Selections from the Records of the Kirk-Session of Aberdeen, p. 137. It was a sin even for children to feel tired of the interminable sermons which they were forced to hear. Halyburton, addressing the young people of his congregation, says, "Have not you been glad when the Lord's day was over; or, at least, when the preaching was done, that ye might get your liberty? Has it not been a burden to you, to sit so long in the church? Well, this is a great sin." See this noticeable passage, in Halyburton's Great Concern of Salvation, p. 100.

157 In 1719, the Presbytery of Edinburgh indignantly declares, "Yea, some have arrived at that height of impiety, as not to be ashamed of washing in waters, and swimming in rivers upon the holy Sabbath." Register of Presbytery of Edinburgh, 29th April 1719, in Arnot's History of Edinburgh, p. 204.

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189 So late as 1691, the Kirk-Session of Glasgow attempted to prevent all boys from swimming, whatever the day might be. But as the Church was then on the decline, it was necessary to appeal to the civil authority for help. What the result was, I have not been able to ascertain. There is, however, a curious notice, in Wodrow's Collections upon the Lives of Ministers, vol. ii. part ii. p. 77, stating that, on August 6th, 1691, the Session recommends it to the magistrates to think on some overtures for discharging boyes from swimming, in regard one was lately lost." I have met with other evidence respecting this; but I cannot remember the passages. 189 The Rev. James Fraser 66 says, The world is a dangerous thing and a great evil, and the comforts of it a hell." Select Biographies, vol. ii. p. 220. Compare Gray's Spiritual Warfare, p. 22.

object of life was, to be in a state of constant affliction.190 Whatever pleased the senses, was to be suspected.191 A Christian must beware of enjoying his dinner; for none but the ungodly relished their food.192 By a parity of reasoning, it was wrong for a man to wish to advance himself in life, or in any way to better his condition.193 Either to make money, or to save it, was unsuited to Christians; and even to possess much of it was objectionable, because it not only ministered to human pleasures, but encouraged those habits of foresight and of provision for the future, which are incompatible with complete resignation to the Divine will. To wish for more than was necessary to keep oneself alive, was a sin as well as a folly, and was a violation of the subjection we owe to God.194 That it was contrary to His desire,

190 "It is good to be continually afflicted here." Select Biographies, vol. ii. p. 220. Gray, advocating the same doctrine, sums up his remarks by a suggestion, that, "I think David had never so sweet a time as then, when he was pursued as a partridge by his son Absalom." Gray's Great and Precious Promises, p. 14.

191 Suspect that which pleaseth the senses." Abernethy's Physicke for the Soule, p. 63.

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192 Durham, in his long catalogue of sins, mentions as one, "the preparing of meat studiously, that is, when it is too riotously dressed, for pleasing men's carnal appetite and taste, or palate, by the fineness of it, and other curiosities of that kind." Durham's Law Unsealed, p. 333. See also p. 48, on "palate-pleasers ;" and Dickson's opinion of the rarest dishes and best meats.' Dickson's Explication of the Psalms, p. 84. According to another of the Scotch divines, whoever makes one good meal and has enough left for a second, is in imminent peril. "He that is full, and hath enough to make him fuller, will easily deny God, and be exalted against him his table shall be a snare to his body, and a snare to his soule." Abernethy's Physicke for the Soule, p. 421.

193 For, says Abernethy (Physicke for the Soule, p. 488), "men are loth to lend their eare to the Word, when they abound in prosperity." So, too, Hutcheson, in his Exposition of the Book of Job, p. 387: "Such is the weakness even of godly men, that they can hardly live in a prosperous condition, and not be overtaken with some security, carnal confidence, or other miscarriage."

194 See this theory worked out in Cockburn's Jacob's Vow, or Man's Felicity and Duty, pp. 71-75. He says, "And certainly to crave and be desirous of more than what is competent for the maintenance and support of our lives, is both inconsistent with that dependence and subjection we owe to God, and doth also bespeak a great deal of vanity, folly, and inconsiderateness." Boston, striking at the very foundation of that practice of providing for the future, which is the first and most important maxim in all civil wisdom, and which peculiarly distinguishes civilized nations from barbarians, asks his hearers, "Why should men rack their heads with cares how

was, moreover, evident, from the fact that He bestowed wealth liberally upon misers and covetous men; a remarkable circumstance, which, in the opinion of Scotch divines, proved that He was no lover of riches, otherwise He would not give them to such base and sordid persons.195

To be poor, dirty, and hungry, to pass through life in misery, and to leave it with fear, to be plagued with boils, and sores, and diseases of every kind, to be always sighing and groaning, to have the face streaming with tears and the chest heaving with sobs, in a word, to suffer constant affliction, and to be tormented in all possible ways; to undergo these things was deemed a proof of goodness, just as the contrary was a proof of evil. It mattered not what a man liked; the mere fact of his liking it, made it sinful. Whatever was natural, was wrong. The clergy deprived the people of their holidays, their amusements, their shows, their games, and their sports; they repressed every appearance of joy, they forbad all merriment, they stopped all festivities, they choked up every avenue by which pleasure could enter, and they spread over the country an universal

to provide for to-morrow, while they know not if they shall then need anything?" Boston's Human Nature in its Four-fold State, p. 300. Hutche son thinks that those who are guilty of such impious prudence, deserve to be starved. "When men are not content with food and rayment, but would still heap up more, it is just with God to leave them not so much as bread; and to suffer men to have an evil eye upon them, and to pluck at them, even so long as they have meat." Hutcheson's Exposition of the Book of Job, p. 296. Binning, going still further, threatens eternal ruin. "Ye may have things necessary here,-food and raiment; and if ye seek more, if ye will be rich, and will have superfluities, then ye shall fall into many temptations, suares, and hurtful lusts which shall drown you in perdition." Binning's Sermons, vol. iii. p. 355.

195 If God loved riches well, do ye think he would give them so liberally, and heap them up upon some base covetous wretches? Surely no." Binning's Sermons, vol. iii. p. 366. Gray, in his zeal against wealth, propounds another doctrine, which I do not remember to have seen elsewhere. He says, "All that the owner of riches hath, is, the seeing of them; which a man, who is a passer by, may likeways have, though he be not possessor of them." Gray's Spiritual Warfare, p. 128. I hope that the reader will not suspect me of having maliciously invented any of these passages. The books from which they are quoted, are, with only two or three exceptions, all in my library, and may be examined by persons who are curious in such

matters.