made a proposal so cruel, that the Bishop was ashamed, and the Judges would return no answer." And when some of the said people, who were cited, appeared before them, they declined passing any sentence against them, or giving any countenance to the purposes of these professed ministers of the gospel, which they clearly saw to be malicious. SEE APPENDIX, N.

Immediately upon the convincement of the two individuals above mentioned, Alexander Skene and Thomas Mercer, at the joint solicitation of the four ministers of Aberdeen, a sub-synod, or; perhaps, more correctly speaking, a Synod was convened by the Bishop; which met soon after, and drawing up an address to the King's Council at Edinburgh, sent two of their number to present it; in which, they petitioned the Council, to take some effectual course to curb and rid the land of the Quakers, who were increasing among them. The deputies from the Synod expected to obtain some fresh order from the Council against the " Quakers," but met with fresh disappointment; the Council only referring them to a precedent Act of Parliament, which ordained, that all who withdrew from their parish church, be admonished by the preachers before two sufficient witnesses," and then, after an absence of three successive weeks, they be fined one eighth of their valued rents." Returning to Aberdeen, these deputies reported to the town Council, the issue of their application; upon hearing which, the provost or mayor made this remark, "What signifies all this? we had this before: take you care to do your own work, and we shall do ours." Two of them, George Meldrum and David Lyall, thereupon, immediately set about doing their part towards bringing the Act

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into force against this people; and were busily engaged in performing their monitory office from house to house, when, that same night, the King's Declaration of Indulgence to all Nonconformists, in 1672, reached Aberdeen, and put a stop to their proceedings at that time. This was accepted as a providential deliverance by the persons, whose ruin they sought.

The Declaration of Indulgence came very sea. sonably to prevent the execution of an Act of Council, which the preachers had prevailed upon the magistrates of Aberdeen to pass; by which they had resolved, "that no Quaker should be made a burgess or freeman of that city," and that "whosoever received a Quaker into his house, without leave of the magistrate, should be fined five shillings. And that if any person should let a house for Quakers, either to meel or dwell in, he should be fined five hundred merks Scots money, or £28. 2s. 6d. sterling.

About the same time, the people called Quakers in this kingdom received relief, in a case of conscience, in which they, in common with their brethren in other parts, were greatly exposed to suffering. It was the custom and legal practice of Scotland, in suing for a debt, where proof failed, to put the defendant to clear himself upon oath this exposed the Friends, who could not swear at all, to be made a prey, by ill-designing persons prosecuting them frequently for unjust claims. The Judges, perceiving the advantage this conscientious scruple gave their antagonists in such suits, and regarding the case with that equity which became their station, humanely determined, that in such cases a simple declaration of the truth should be accepted from that people: a favour they had not then obtained in England.

But, as they did not fail to admire that providen

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tial Goodness, through whose hand every blessing flows towards his children; so could they do no less, than notice the remarkable interposition of the same overruling power in another direction; either by unexpectedly baffling the designs of the persecutors, or by weakening their hands in various respects: sometimes, even constraining them to penitence, at other times, in an awful manner cutting short the lives of those, that still proceeded in their wickedness. Several instances are on record of this description; some as regards the persecuting preachers and magistrates of the day.-Among others, James Skene, who was generally known by the name of White James, to distinguish him from a very abusive and wicked man of the same name, called Black James, took great delight in inventing malicious slanders against Friends. On one occasion, whilst he was repeating some wicked verses, which he had composed, on purpose to defame a worthy and innocent person, he was in that instant, suddenly struck down, as one dead, and was for some time deprived of his senses. When he recovered, he acknowledged the just judgment of God upon him, confessed the offence he had committed against this innocent people, and gave proof of repentance by abstaining from such practices.Alexander Gordon, professedly a minister of the gospel, procured the imprisonment of George Keith for preaching the Truth in the grave-yard at Old Deer, and caused him, with another Friend, to be kept all night in a very filthy dungeon, called the Thieveshole, where there was no window, either for light or air; he was immediately after cut off by death in a sudden and surprising manner.-Nor should the case of Robert Petrie, provost or mayor of Aberdeen, be altogether omitted; who, at the furious instigations of his brother-in-law, John Menzies, and the other

stated preachers in Aberdeen, had been very violent against Friends; often breaking up their meetings, and causing them to be roughly dragged away to prison. This same magistrate, some years after, on account of some public transactions in the Convention of burroughs, in which he thought himself altogether innocent, was ordered to be imprisoned at Edinburgh, fined in a thousand pounds, and declared incapable of public office: but further, he was conveyed to Aberdeen, the scene of his unmerciful conduct, and there affronted by being himself imprisoned in the very same place, where he so often had had the persons of his worthy fellow-citizens cruelly detained. So sensibly, however, was his conscience touched by this act of providential retribution, that he very ingenuously confessed to some Friends, "How just is this upon me, for causing honest men to be so unjustly imprisoned, that I should be thus put into this same place myself! But I hope I shall never meddle with any of you again all my life."

Although much occasion remains for us all, in humility and fear, to look well to our own standing, rather than improperly to dive into the counsels of unsearchable Wisdom respecting others; yet surely, in regard to cases like these, we are bound with reverence to acknowledge the hand behind the scene, even that eternal Justice and Truth which has declared, "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them, shall have mercy. Happy is the man that feareth always: but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief." "He that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once." "He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." Prov. xxviii. and xxix.

CHAPTER V.

1669: DEATH OF MARGARET MÖLLESON-HER DAUGHTER BECOMES THE WIFE OF ROBERT BARCLAY-A MONTHLY AND A HALF-YEARLY MEETING ESTABLISHED AT URY-OBSERVATIONS ON CHURCH DISCIPLINE; AND ROBERT BARCLAY'S TREATISE ON THAT SUBJECT-1672: HIS DEEP EXERCISE RESPECTING THE INHABITANTS OF ABERDEEN-REMARKS ON THE ZEAL AND CARE OF FRIENDS IN SEVERAL RESPECTS.

THE preceding chapter closed with the exhibition of some dark and gloomy shades of human character. We have now to turn to a brighter scene:-and strong indeed is the contrast. Truly, "The way of the wicked is as darkness;" but we are about to contemplate the life and latter end of one whose path was as "the path of the just,"-and this is said to resemble "the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." Prov. iv. 18, 19.

On the 16th of the 10th month, 1669, a year or two earlier than the date of some of the last foregoing occurrences, the little company of Friends at Aberdeen, had to resign one of their earliest and most exemplary members to that state of rest and fruition beyond the grave, which can never more be interrupted by sin or sorrow. This individual, Margaret Molleson, it may be remembered, has been before named, as the wife of Gilbert Molleson, a magistrate. In her youth she was an inquirer after the best people, and joined herself in worship with the most strict and refined in profession then in that city. But, it having pleased God, who beheld her hungering desires after himself and his righteousness, to send some witnesses and