M‘CRIE, Thomas, D.D., an eminent biographer and divine, was born at Dunse, in North Britain, in the month of November 1772. His parents belonged to the class of Seceders known in Scotland as Antiburghers, and he was educated with a view to the ministry in that persuasion. After passing through the ordinary course of education afforded in a country town, he came to Edinburgh, and enrolled himself as a student in the university, in the winter of 1788.^[1. Matriculation books of the University—At this time he wrote his name M ’ Crie; and in strict arrangement this article belonged to a former sheet. ] During that and the two following sessions he pursued the course of literary and philosophical study prescribed to students intending to devote themselves to the ministry; and in 1791, he entered the theological class at Whitburn, under the Rev. Archibald Bruce, the teacher or professor of divinity to the Associate Antiburgher Synod. As the attendance upon this course was only for a limited period each year, it was usual for the students, whose means were generally very scanty, to employ the intervals in teaching. In this way Mr M‘Crie, in the autumn of 1791, proceeded to Brechin, and opened a school in connection with the Associate Antiburgher congregation in that town; and he continued there, excepting the time annually required at Whitburn in the three following sessions (1792 to 1794) for completing the regular course of theological study.

Towards the end of 1795, Mr M‘Crie was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Kelso. In the beginning of the next year, he received a call from the Second associate congregation of Antiburghers in Edinburgh; and some scruples having been obviated by an act of the Associate [7:13:660]Synod, dated 3d May 1796, he was ordained to that charge on the 26th of that month.^[2. This congregation was constituted in 1791, and their meeting-house in the Potterrow was erected in 1792; but they enjoyed the advantage of a settled minister only when Mr M‘Crie was ordained. The sermon and address at his ordination, 26th May 1796, form part of a volume (pp. 164-202) of “Sermons preached on different occasions, by Robert Chalmers, minister of the Gospel at Haddington.” Edinburgh, 1798, 12mo, pp. 440. ] In this pastoral relationship he continued for upwards of ten years, evidently with the sincere attachment of his people.

At this period, Mr M‘Crie, by diligent and assiduous study, was acquiring that profound theological knowledge, and that fund of literary and ecclesiastical information, for which, in after life, he was so distinguished. The proceedings of the religious body with whom he was connected may also have had some effect in directing his pursuits towards subjects connected with the history, constitution, and polity of the reformed church. Yet, excepting a missionary sermon, which was published in 1797, at the special request of his congregation,^[3. “The Duty of Christian Societies towards each other, in relation to the measures for propagating the Gospel which at present engage the attention of the Religious World. A Sermon, preached in the Meeting-house, Potterrow, on occasion of a collection for promoting a Mission to Kentucky.” Edinburgh, 1797, 8vo, pp. 40. This sermon Mr M ς Crie afterwards had some wish to suppress, at least he regretted its publication, from having changed his views on some points which it embraced. ] we cannot trace back the commencement of his literary career farther than the year 1803, although some articles, of an earlier date, in a periodical work entitled “The Christian Magazine, or Evangelical Repository,” may have proceeded from his pen.^[4. This periodical work, in sixpenny numbers, was commenced in February 1797∙ In the number for April 1801 is a “Proposed Plan of a New Literary Society, to be named The Voluntary Society for Improvement in Ecclesiastical History and Biography;” and in September 1802, a translation of part of Smeton’s Life and Death of John Knox, from the Latin, 1579, both of which probably were contributions from Mr M ’ Crie. One of the editors, the Reverend George Whytock, Dalkeith, having died about the end of 1805, Mr M ς Crie became the sole editor of the volume for 1806; but a variety of circumstances led to its discontinuance, and a new series was commenced in January 1807, chiefly under the auspices of his brethren from whom he had separated, as stated above. ] To this magazine he contributed a series of articles, with the signature of Philistor (a lover of history), and these included, in 1803, “The History of the New Testament confirmed and illustrated by passages of Josephus, the Jewish historian;” “Memoir of Mr John Murray, minister of Dunfermline; “Sketch of the Progress of the Reformation in Spain, with an account of Spanish Protestant Martyrs ;” and “Illustrations of Scripture as to the grinding and parching of Corn.” In 1804, “Suppression of the Reformation in Spain, with a continuation of the Account of Spanish Protestant Martyrs ;” “Remarks on Matthew, xx. 25, 26 “On the Origin of the Taborites ;”

“Life of John Wickliffe ;” “Life of John Huss “Martyrdom of Jerome of Prague “Martyrs in Britain, from the time of Wickliffe to the Reformation and “Influence of the Opinions of Wickliffe upon the English Reformation, with additional notices of Martyrs.” In 1805, “The Life of Theodore Beza ;” and the “Life of Dr Andrew Rivet,” a Protestant divine in France. In 1806, “The Life of Patrick Hamilton, the Proto-Martyr of the Reformation in Scotland ;” “The Life of Francis Lambert of Avignon ;” “Account of Bugenhagen, a German Reformer ;” “The Life of Alexander Henderson, minister of Edinburgh, and one of the commissioners from the Church of Scotland to the Assembly of Divines at Westminster ;” and “Historical Notices respecting learned Scottish Divines in England and Foreign Parts, during the sixteenth century.”

We have been particular in enumerating the titles of the above articles, as they show very distinctly the peculiar bent of Mr M‘Crie’s mind, at this early period, towards subjects illustrative of the history and progress of the Reformation throughout Europe, and of the biography of eminent martyrs and reformers; in fact, containing the germs of most of his subsequent publications.

We have now arrived at a point in Mr M‘Crie’s history, which makes it necessary to advert to the proceedings of the Associate Synod. But to enter into such minute details as might render the subject sufficiently intelligible to a general reader, would not only occupy too much space, but might seem to be misplaced in this work. Yet it would be false delicacy, even in a sketch of his literary life like the present, to pass in silence the results of such proceedings; and the more so, as his conduct, in the painful situation in which he was placed, displayed no small degree of Christian resignation and fortitude, and evinced that he was sustained by a sense of duty and high-minded principle. Suffice it then to say, that Mr M‘Crie was one of five ministers^[5. The other members were, the Rev. Archibald Bruce, Whitburn; Rev. George Whytock, Dalkeith; Rev. James Aitken, Kirrymuir; and the Rev. James Hog, Kelso. Mr Whytock died in October 1805, nearly twelve months before the Synod proceeded to extremities. The other protestors were afterwards joined by the Rev. Robert Chalmers, Haddington. ] who felt themselves constrained to resist and protest against what they considered to be a spirit of innovation on the part of the Synod, while engaged in the révisai and enlargement of the Judicial Act and Testimony, which had hitherto served as the bond of ministerial and religious communion, in order, as it was expressed, to adapt it “more to the circumstances of the present time.” It need only be stated, that the chief points of difference related to the apparent abandonment by the Synod of some important principles of the Judicial Act and Testimony,—more especially the received doctrine on the connection between church and state, the power of the civil magistrate in matters of religion, and the lawfulness and perpetual obligation of our national covenants,—points which had hitherto been maintained by the members of Secession. In this révisai the Synod continued at their half-yearly meetings, until it was completed in April 1804, and published under the title of “Narrative and Testimony agreed upon and enacted by the General Associate Synod,” &c. This contained, first, “A Narrative of the State of Religion in Britain and Ireland, from the period of the Reformation to the present time,” including a history of the Secession Church, and a view “Of the progressive Defections of the Established Church of Scotland and, secondly, the Testimony, or Declaration, under several heads, of the doctrinal sentiments professed by the Associate Synod, along with a Formula, which should hereafter be “the term of admission for those who shall apply for joining in communion with us.”

The case of the four surviving protestors who had disclaimed the power of the Associate Synod, either to alter their original Testimony, or to impose new terms of communion for their body, was before the meeting of the Synod at Glasgow, at the end of August 1806, and, by a formal resolution, was postponed till the ensuing meeting in April next. It happened, however, that whilst the subject was under discussion, Mr M 4 Crie and other two of the protestors met at Whitburn to assist Mr Bruce upon a sacramental occasion; and these four, after serious deliberation, constituted themselves into a separate presbytery or jurisdiction. Information of this having reached Edinburgh, Mr M‘Crie was interrogated by some members of [7:13:661]his session, when he admitted the fact; immediately upon which a communication was transmitted to the Synod at Glasgow; and as it was considered that, “with regard to Mr M‘Crie, forbearance could no longer be tolerated,” it was moved, and a sentence passed (2d of September), deposing him from the office of the holy ministry.^[6. See “Letters on the late Transactions of the General Associate Synod at Glasgow,” in the New Series of the Christian Magazine, vol. i. pp. 24-35, G1-72. The anonymous writer of these Letters asserts that the Protestors had all along been treated by the Synod with great lenity and forbearance. ] The other protesting ministers were afterwards deposed in as peremptory a manner. It may be said that the Synod could not act otherwise in regard to their brethren who had set themselves in such direct opposition, by disclaiming the jurisdiction of that court. But, to say nothing of the precipitate manner of passing such a sentence, it was at least a harsh, if not unjustifiable proceeding, to subject to the summary punishment of deposition and excommunication, persons against whom calumny had never surmised the slightest charge, either as to moral conduct or error in doctrine; and while, by so doing, dissensions were raised in congregations, it was somewhat strange to find the very men who repudiated the doctrine of interference of the civil magistrate in matters of religion, calling in such aid to exclude from their own congregations ministers who had been regularly ordained, and who maintained all the obligations imposed upon them at ordination. Yet all this was done, according to Mr Bruce’s statement, “under high pretensions to lenity and moderation, of promoting universal liberty of conscience, and of greatly detesting and condemning all impositions and compulsion ;” and, as he elsewhere remarks, that “to dissolve a pastoral relation duly established, and while mutually acknowledged, by mere church authority, without relevant reasons, is as really oppression, and a robbing the people of their sacred privileges, as to intrude a minister upon a congregation without their consent, which was one of the chief and primary grounds of the Secession.”^[7. “A Review of the Proceedings of the General Associate Synod, and of some Presbyteries, in reference to the Ministers who protested against the imposition of a New Testimony,” &c.; by A. Bruce, minister in Whitburn, p. 405. Edinburgh, 1808, 8vo. ]

The Synod having appointed one of their number to proceed to Edinburgh, to intimate, on the next Sabbath (7th September), the sentence of Mr M‘Crie’s deposition, from his own pulpit, we must next briefly advert to the proceedings of his congregation. It appears that the leaven of the new-light doctrines had lately infected several of the leading members; yet, as it was found that the trustees and seatholders, both in point of number, and the amount paid for sittings, were nearly equal, the question arose, to whom the property of the meeting-house in the Potterrow belonged. Such disunion was the occasion of a tedious litigation in the Court of Session, during which time he was interdicted access to his pulpit on the afternoon of every Sabbath. The Court of Session having declined entering upon the question as to which party was chargeable with schism, at length pronounced a decision, 24th February 1809, in favour of the new-light members, as “forming a congregation of Christians in communion with, and subject to the ecclesiastical discipline of, a body of dissenting Protestants, calling themselves the Associate Presbytery and General Associate Synod of Antiburgher Seccders.”^[8. Faculty Decisions, 1808-1809, p. 221. ] After this, Mr M<Crie’s congregation assembled in the meeting-house in Carrubber’s Close, till their new chapel in Davie Street, Richmond Place, was erected, and in which he continued to officiate till the close of his life.

In the meanwhile, the small party of “Old-Light Antiburghers,” as the protestors were commonly called, assumed the name of the “Constitutional Associate Presbytery ;” and, finding themselves placed in such peculiar circumstances, and their sentiments and conduct liable to misrepresentation, they resolved to publish “a fuller statement and explanation of the principal heads of controversy between the Synod and them.” For this purpose, the task was devolved upon Mr M‘Crie, as clerk of the presbytery; and, from papers partly written and wholly revised by him, there appeared, in 1807, under his name, a “Statement of the Difference between the profession of the Reformed Church of Scotland, as adopted by Seceders, and the profession contained in the New Testimony and other Acts, lately adopted by the General Associate Synod; particularly on the power of Civil Magistrates respecting Religion, National Reformation, National Churches, and National Covenants. To which are added, Reasons by the Ministers who Protested against the above Acts of Synod, for constituting themselves into a separate Presbytery, with the deed of Constitution,” &c. 8vo, pp. 234. Although of a controversial nature, respecting differences which attracted no very great share of public notice at the time, this Statement is also applicable to discussions which have recently been much more widely agitated by the voluntary question; and it may be appealed to by the friends of the established church, as explaining and enforcing the true grounds of connection between the church and state, and as an able and elaborate argument of the obligation on civil rulers to make suitable provision for the religious interests of the community. Yet it was generally conceived that the protestors had displayed unnecessary zeal and obstinacy in stedfastly opposing the measures of the Synod, as if they had been contending for mere abstract theoretical points of no practical importance.

In the comparatively obscure and humble situation in which Mr M ’ Crie was now placed, he was enabled to devote his leisure hours to his favourite literary pursuits. His intention was to have published a life of Alexander Henderson, the eminent Scottish divine, of which a sketch had appeared in the Christian Magazine. In the view of giving an introductory account of the state of the reformed church, he found that the materials were amply sufficient for a separate work; and abandoning his original design, as one that might be resumed at some future time, he undertook a Life of John Knox, and in this form sought to illustrate the earlier history of the Protestant church in Scotland. The subject was felicitously chosen, not only as possessed of historical importance and of national interest, but as one which required, and which was capable of being placed in a new point of light. “The Life of John Knox, containing Illustrations of the History of the reformation in Scotland,” appeared in the beginning of 1812, in one volume 8vo, pp. 580. Such was the effect produced by this work, that although, even in Edinburgh, the author’s name was quite unknown in the literary circles, it placed him at once in the first rank of ecclesiastical biographers, and established his reputation as an historical writer, both at home and abroad. The character of the great reformer had hitherto been much calumniated and mistaken. Knox, indeed, was one of the most marked characters in Scottish history, admirably suited to the circumstances in which he was placed. He had, however, been too often represented as a fierce and sullen bigot, equally opposed to learning, liberal principles, and sound policy; coarse in manners, intolerant in conduct, and actuated by sordid and ambitious views. It remained to reverse the picture, and to show the reformer in a juster light; influenced by the purest and noblest principles; filled with apostolical zeal, and a total disregard of worldly rank and power; stern and uncompromising only [7:13:662]in the cause of truth, and in reproving vice and error; distinguished for profound learning and true piety; and with that incorruptible integrity and heroic courage required for carrying on the work of reformation. All this was accomplished in Mr M‘Crie’s work, which possessed the rare quality of uniting history with biography; and it was noticed in terms of high commendation in most of the leading journals of the time. As, in fact, the “Life of Knox” must be held to be the author’s principal production, we cannot resist the opportunity of giving a quotation from an article in the Edinburgh Review for July 1812, usually ascribed to the distinguished editor.

“How unfair, and how marvellously incorrect, these representations (of Knox’s character) are, may be learned from the book before us; a work which has afforded us more amusement and more instruction than any thing we ever read upon the subject; and which, independent of its theological merits, we do not hesitate to pronounce by far the best piece of history which has appeared since the commencement of our critical career. It is extremely accurate, learned, and concise, and at the same time very full of spirit and animation; exhibiting, as it appears to us, a rare union of the patient research and sober judgment which characterise the more laborious class of historians, with the boldness of thinking, and force of imagination, which is sometimes substituted in their place. It affords us very great pleasure to bear this public testimony to the merits of a writer who has been hitherto unknown, we believe, to the literary world, either of this or the neighbouring country; of whom, or of whose existence at least, though residing in the same city with ourselves, it never was our fortune to have heard till his volume was put into our hands; and who, in his first emergence from the humble obscurity in which he has pursued the studies and performed the duties of his profession, has presented the world with a work which may put so many of his contemporaries to the blush, for the big promises they have broken, and the vast opportunities they have neglected.”

Such a favourable award had the effect of directing attention to the work, and of calling for a new edition, which appeared in an enlarged and corrected form in 1813.^[9. The fifth edition, carefully revised by the author, and containing his last corrections, was published in 1831. This, as well as the second, third, and fourth editions, is in two volumes 8vo. ] In preparing this edition, the author not only made corrections, both as to style and matter, but, as the reformer’s name is so inseparably connected with the history of public events, he introduced greater detail of public transactions, tending to vindicate the proceedings of the early reformers, and to throw light on the character and motives of the other prominent actors of the time.

Before this edition was published, the Senatus of the University of Edinburgh, on the 3d of February 1813, conferred on Mr M*Crie the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity; a compliment alike deserved by the author of the Life of Knox, and honourable to his Alma Mater, our metropolitan university. This act was the more honourable, as it was one of the first instances of such a title having been conferred on a person, though holding the same professions, not strictly belonging to the established church.

Thus encouraged to pursue his literary career, the next subject in which Dr M‘Crie engaged was a Life of Andrew Melville, the able and intrepid assertor of Presbytery; which might serve as a continuation to his former work, by giving an account of ecclesiastical transactions in Scotland during the latter part of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth century. It was not till the end of 1819 that the work was published, in two volumes 8vo.^[10. The title is, “The Life of Andrew Melville; containing Illustrations of the Ecclesiastical and Literary History of Scotland during the latter part of the Sixteenth and beginning of the Seventeenth Century. With an Appendix, consisting of original pa, pers.” A second edition, revised, was published in 1824, also in 2 vols. 8vo. ] It presented the results of long-continued, minute, and discriminating research into the literary as well as the ecclesiastical history of the period. The exertions of Melville in behalf of our national church well merited the labours of such a biographer; and as he was successively at the head of two of our principal colleges, Glasgow and St Andrews, an opportunity was also afforded of entering fully into the state of education and the progress of literature at that time. Although in no respect less valuable and important, it was not so successful as its precursor; as, in fact, the mass of literary information it conveys was not of a kind to attract public regard and secure popularity. Melville’s influence in church courts far surpassed that of any of his contemporaries, but it was not so powerfully felt, like that of Knox, in public events. Yet his character is highly interesting, and stands out in bold relief, finely contrasted with the milder dispositions of his nephew James Melville (whose Diary presents so many minute and affectionate notices of his uncle, whilst his own letters, written in exile, breathe a kindred spirit of sympathy and love), as an elegant and accomplished scholar, a profound divine, kind and affectionate in all the private relations of life, and at the same time undaunted and uncompromising in asserting and vindicating the rights and liberties of the presbyterian party. The period to which Dr M‘Crie’s work relates is not less important, as it embraces the contests between the church and the court, the establishment on its present basis of the presbyterian polity, and its temporary overthrow after a long and arduous struggle.

Having in the life of Melville traced the progress of ecclesiastical affairs till near the close of the reign of James I., it was natural to think that Dr M‘Crie would have resumed his first intention, by publishing a Life of Alexander Henderson. But the state of his health, and the fear of engaging in such laborious and protracted researches as he had just terminated, deterred him from commencing, or at least induced him to postpone, such a task. Strong inducements, moreover, were held out to him, first to become the editor of a new edition of Wodrow’s History, and afterwards to write a new work on the same period, or a history of the religious persecutions in Scotland; but neither of these was undertaken, and he remained for a length of time undetermined in what work he should next engage. Besides Henderson’s life, he thought of Wickliffe and the precursors of Luther,—of Calvin,—and of a history of the progress of the Reformation throughout Europe. Various obstacles intervened to his successfully embarking in either of these undertakings, and therefore it is the more deeply to be regretted that any circumstances should have prevented him from pursuing his primary intention, which might for a time have happily limited his researches to his own country, and to events with which he was so conversant. We happen to know, that when Dr M‘Crie was urged to this, all his old predilections would revive, and he would admit his anxious desire to continue the period of his biographies to the Restoration. He would say, however, that a life of Henderson, who died in 1646, would leave such a work incomplete, and he should feel some difficulty in fixing on any person of sufficient importance, and whose principles and conduct he approved, to connect with Henderson for the subsequent events. As his own views led him to approve of the party named “Protestors,” he no doubt would, had he actually set about such a work, [7:13:663]have given the preference to James Guthrie, minister of Stirling, who suffered as a martyr for his principles upon the restoration of Charles II. Besides the advantage of thus presenting, in the form of biographical narrative, a continuous history of what has been called the Second, as well as of the First Reformation, it was a subject calculated to excite very general interest; and the whole tenor of Dr M‘Crie’s pursuits eminently fitted him to render it attractive. But it was destined to be left to other hands.^[11. A History of the Life and Times of Henderson has lately been published by the Rev. Dr Aiton, minister of Dolphington. ] We have only to express a wish, that in the publication of his miscellaneous writings, which have been announced, a conspicuous place may be assigned to his admirable sketch of Henderson’s life, which appeared in the Christian Magazine for 1806.

Whilst engaged in the life of Melville, Dr M 4 Crie became an occasional, if not a stated contributor, to the “Edinburgh Christian Instructor,” a well-known monthly publication, edited by the late Reverend Dr Andrew Thomson, with whom he continued on terms of cordial intimacy and friendship till the close of his highly useful career. He also lent occasional aid to other periodicals; but as we have no means of exactly ascertaining his communications,^[12. In the Edinburgh Review for April 1830, there is an article by Dr M ’ Crie, on the Memoirs of Sir James Turner, published for the members of the Bannatyne Club, from an original manuscript. ] we shall merely allude to one article in the Instructor which excited considerable attention at the time. This was a review, in 1817, of the first series of the “Tales of my Landlord,” which appeared in three successive numbers of that magazine, and contained an elaborate defence of the persecuted covenanters, who made such a noble struggle for civil as well as religious freedom, against the unprincipled and tyrannical measures of the government of Charles II., whilst it exposed the erroneous and exaggerated representation of their manners and principles given in the tale of “Old Mortality.” But the most singular circumstance connected with this review was, that Sir Walter Scott, who had not then stood forth as the acknowledged author of the Waverley Novels, was prevailed upon, by the editor of the “Quarterly Review,” to become the reviewer of his own work; and thus he took an opportunity, whilst vindicating the statements contained in his novel, tacitly to answer the article in the Instructor.

In February 1816, the Reverend Archibald Bruce, Antiburgher minister at Whitburn, who for upwards of thirty years had filled the office of professor of divinity, died full of years and honour, and Dr M‘Crie was naturally looked to as the fittest person in their body for his successor. The number of students was not considerable; but the duties of the professorship must have occupied much of his time during the ordinary terms of session. He commenced his lectures on the 1st of October 1817, with a suitable and feeling allusion to the loss the church at large had sustained by the death of his venerable friend and instructor. Two letters, written at the time of the funeral to a brother clergyman in the country, which have recently appeared,^[13. In a volume of “Sermons, by the late Rev. James Aitken, Minister of the Associate Congregation of Original Seceders, Kirrymuir. With a Memoir of the Author, and a number of his Letters.” Edin. 183G, 12mo, pp. 400-2. ] bear strong testimony of his esteem and reverence for the worth and talents of this learned and worthy divine, who was distinguished by a congeniality of mind and fondness of literary research. Dr M‘Crie filled the professor’s chair until 1827, when he resigned it in consequence of an event which may be adverted to in a few words. In 1820, a union of the two largest bodies of dissenters in Scotland took place, under the title of the “United Associate Synod of the Secession Church.” Several members of the Antiburgher Synod having protested against the basis of union, and declined participating in it, formed themselves into a separate court, still retaining the name of the “Associate (Antiburgher)

Synod.” From their similarity of sentiment and profession with the “Constitutional Associate Presbytery,” a proposal for re-uniting was afterwards brought forward, when Dr M‘Crie on the one side, and Professor Paxton on the other, were appointed to draw up the “Articles agreed upon, &c. with a view to Union,” and the “Overtures of a Testimony.” This union was effected in May 1827, under the designation of the “Associate Synod of Original Seceders ;” and it was on this occasion that Dr M<Crie resigned the divinity chair to the Rev. George (now Dr) Paxton, the learned author of “Illustrations of the Holy Scriptures.” The “Testimony” then published, as agreed upon by the Synod, it is understood was the composition, in the historical part, of Dr M‘Crie, and in the doctrinal part, of Dr Stevenson, Ayr. Here it may be remarked, that the Church of Scotland owes no ordinary debt of gratitude to the Original Seceders, for their constant adherence to the same principles, and even for their continued testimony against error in the administration of church affairs. As to Dr M‘Crie individually, although he saw no prospect of being able conscientiously to join the establishment, he was ever warmly attached to the church, and felt a deep interest in her prosperity. Such attachment is manifested in all his writings, and remained unimpaired till the day of his death. A few words on this head may be quoted from a sermon on the aspect of the times, delivered in May 1834. Addressing the members of his own congregation, he says, “After long examination, I am fully convinced that, by the good hand of God, you have been led, in respect of profession and communion, to take up your ground in the safe medium between the conflicting parties in the great controversy of the day, while you continue to testify against the corruptions of the churches established by law in our native land, and at the same time keep aloof from those who condemn all recognition of Christianity by public authority, and seek to withdraw the provision which has been made by the nation for religious purposes. I cannot (he adds) flatter you with the prospect of the speedy removal of those defects in the national settlement of religion, or those practical abuses in ecclesiastical administration, which the body we are connected with have so long condemned, and which have excluded us from fellowship with the national church in Scotland... Nothing on earth would give more joy to my heart, than to see sure and decided symptoms of reformation in the national church of Scotland...I would go seven times to the top of her highest mountain to look out for the harbinger of her relief, though each time I should have to return with the message, t There is nothing,’ provided at last I could hail the appearance of i the little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand,’ the sure prelude of the plentiful rain which shall refresh the weary inheritance, make her wilderness an Eden, and her desert as the garden of the Lord.”

But, to resume the series of Dr M‘Crie’s literary labours (of which the want of space will prevent us offering little more than a brief enumeration): In 1821 he published a little volume containing “Two Discourses on the Unity of the Church, her Divisions, and their removal. To which is subjoined, A short View of the plan of Religious Reformation originally adopted in the Secession.” 12mo, pp. 174.

This was followed in 1825 by a volume entitled “Memoirs of Mr William Veitch and George Bryson, written by themselves: with other narratives illustrative of the History of Scotland, from the Restoration to the Revolution: to which are added, Biographical Sketches and Notes, by Thomas M‘Crie, D. D.” 8vo, pp. 540. In the preface [7:13:664]the editor observes, “that, with a little more labour, a connected history of the period might have been produced; but I am persuaded that no account which I could draw up would present so graphic a picture of the men and measures of that time, as is exhibited in the following historical pieces.” These are indeed highly graphic and interesting, but the volume might be instanced as a proof of what Dr M‘Crie confesses, that the time and labour bestowed upon it would have gone far to produce an original work of greater importance. In reviewing this volume, the editor of the Edinburgh Christian Instructor sums up with saying, “in Dr M‘Crie we see all we could wish for in the historian of the presbyterian church; and if he would add to his former labours a history of that church from the beginning of Charles the First’s reign to the Revolution, we are sure the public would receive it with feelings of the highest satisfaction.”

This hint, however, was not taken, as the next subject of his investigation led to the publication, in 1827, of a “History of the Progress and Suppression of the Reformation in Italy in the Sixteenth Century, including a Sketch of the Reformation in the Grisons,” 8vo, pp. 434 (of which a second edition appeared in 1828). Also, in 1829, as a sequel to that work, a “History of the Progress and Suppression of the Reformation in Spain in the Sixteenth Century,” 8vo, pp. 424. These volumes undoubtedly form a valuable accession to the history of the Reformation throughout Europe, although the author laboured under great disadvantages in having but limited access to original sources of information, compared to what was within his reach in matters of our own ecclesiastical history; and it was felt, that they tended rather to excite a desire for information than fully to gratify it, and that the materials were not equal to the skill and industry displayed. It is clear that the state of public opinion had prepared the way for a reformation even in Italy, the stronghold of the Roman Catholic church, and the progress that great cause made was indeed remarkable and extensive; but nothing could withstand the systematic, unceasing, and exterminating measures employed to arrest the progress of reformed opinions; and the more so as these were not counteracted by any opposing interests of the civil and ecclesiastical authorities either in Spain or Italy, whilst the strength of the reformers, having no unity of purpose, was wasted by unhappy divisions among themselves. Both volumes, however, present very interesting and affecting particulars of the sufferings of those who were doomed to exile, imprisonment, or death, for religious liberty and for the truth.

Dr M‘Cric was at length induced to undertake a more arduous task, which had been looked for from his hand, and which he himself had long contemplated. This was a Life of John Calvin the reformer. To do justice to such a work, he considered a lengthened residence at Geneva, where the most importantoriginal documents are preserved, to be quite essential; but a due attention to his ordinary ministerial functions precluded him from the chance of ever being able to leave home for so long a period. The prospect of his son, Mr John M‘Crie, going abroad, and remaining several months at Geneva, in some measure obviated this difficulty, as he could not only trust to his accuracy in transcribing Calvin’s original letters, but, by regular communication, hope to obtain all the requisite information from other sources, and in as satisfactory a manner as if he himself were on the spot to direct such researches. His son accordingly set about the task most assiduously, and, with a zeal, knowledge, and perseverance worthy of all praise, transmitted such a mass of materials as could not have failed, in Dr M‘Crie’s hands, to have rendered his work one of the highest importance in ecclesiastical biography. He had in fact made considerable progress in writing the earlier portion, and was intently engaged upon it (in the midst of the constant interruptions to which he was subjected), at the time when all his earthly labours were brought unexpectedly to a close. It is understood that one of his sons has the intention, from the materials already collected, to complete a Life of Calvin; otherwise, even as a fragment, the portion actually written should not be withheld from the public.^[14. It may be noticed, that Dr M‘Crie, in May 1834, visited London to give his evidence before the Committee of the House of Commons on Church Patronage. His evidence forms part of the voluminous Report on that question, pp. 355-374, and 383-393. ]

Dr M‘Crie’s sedentary habits and application to study were not favourable to health, if he ever could be said to have been very robust. In the summer of 1835 he had been confined for a time through indisposition, but there was no apparent change to indicate the suddenness of his decease. In fact, a short absence in the country seemed to have re-established his health, and he was so far recovered, that, on Sabbath the 2d of August, he preached as usual, both in the forenoon and afternoon, and walked out on the following Tuesday to visit a neighbour; but on the afternoon of that day, about five o’clock, he was taken alarmingly ill, and between ten and eleven at night he fell into a stupor, from which medical aid failed in recovering him. In this state he remained till half-past twelve next forenoon (Wednesday the 5th of August), when he breathed his last. His death, thus unexpected, at a time when it was hoped his life might have been spared for several years of increasing usefulness, and when his mental faculties were in full vigour, could not fail to excite a very deep interest; and many appropriate expressions of public regard were called forth, both in the pulpit and through the press.^[15. See Blackwood’s Magazine, and Edinburgh Christian Instructor, for September 1835. In the latter are extracts from the Christian Herald, &c. There has also appeared an eloquent Sermon, “occasioned by the death, and preached to the congregation, of the late Rev. Thomas M ς Crie, D. D.” on September 6, 1835, by Robert Shaw, minister at Whitburn, 8vo, pp. 30. ] It happened that a meeting of the commission of the General Assembly was held on the day of the funeral (the 12th), and, on the motion of the Reverend Dr Cook of St Andrews, a deputation, consisting of the moderator and several of the leading members, attended, as a suitable mark of respect due from the church to which he had been so zealously and consistently attached, and for which he had done so much by his writings. He was interred in the New Greyfriars burying-ground.

Dr M ’ Crie was twice married. By his first wife (Mrs Janet Dickson), who died 1st June 1821, he left four sons and one daughter. His eldest son, Thomas, who has been for several years in the ministry, has recently been elected by the congregation as his father’s successor; and has also, upon Dr Paxton’s resignation, been appointed by the Synod professor of divinity. By his second wife (the daughter of his old friend and associate, the Reverend Robert Chalmers, Haddington), who survives him, he left no issue. A half-length portrait, from a picture by Mr Watson Gordon, S. A. to be engraved in mezzotinto, is in the course of publication, and cannot fail, as it is an admirable likeness, to be an acceptable memorial to his friends and admirers. A bust, also, by Alexander Ritchie, was in the last exhibition of the Scottish Academy. In this year (1836) a posthumous volume of “Sermons,” by Dr M‘Crie, edited by his son, has appeared, 8vo, pp. 393. A collection of his miscellaneous writings, with memoirs of his life by the Rev. Thomas M‘Crie, have likewise been announced for publication.

It is not necessary to enlarge upon Dr M‘Crie’s general character. In private life he was kind, affable, and free [7:13:665]from every thing like display or desire of notoriety; being remarkable for his cordiality of manners, cheerfulness of temper and conversation, and his unaffected simplicity. As a preacher, his style of address was rather unprepossessing, partly from want of action, and partly from his slow, monotonous, and somewhat constrained delivery, as if afraid to speak out in the natural tone of his voice. But any deficiency of artificial eloquence was amply compensated for by his profound and luminous expositions of Scripture, expressed in clear and energetic language; and his discourses were uniformly of a practical nature, and breathed a strain of great piety. In his literary character, by which he will be known in after times, it will be acknowledged that his mind was of no ordinary cast. With extensive erudition, and habits of indefatigable research, he combined sound judgment, and a singular acuteness and sagacity of intellect. Could he have remained satisfied with the researches of previous writers, he might have produced a greater number, and perhaps more popular works, but they would not have borne the peculiar impress resulting from his own minute, accurate, and extensive inquiries, and therefore there is no occasion for regret that he should have devoted much of his time in exploring the original sources of information. His learning was both profound and extensive, as he was not only skilled in what are called the learned languages, but was conversant with most of those of modern Europe. Still, with all his natural love of literary pursuits, he kept such employment in subservience to his duty as a diligent and faithful minister of Christ. For nearly forty years he laboured with the most affectionate solicitude for the spiritual interests of his flock, and much of his time was devoted to them in his week-day ministrations. It was chiefly a consideration of the paramount importance of such a charge, we imagine, that caused him to decline the prospect of a chair in the University of Edinburgh, when a vacancy occurred in the professorship of Church History. There is every reason also to believe, that had his life been spared a few months longer, the honorary office of Historiographer Royal for Scotland would have been conferred, unsolicited, upon him, as a public testimony due to him. To conclude, the fame of Dr M‘Crie as a literary writer has extended widely beyond the limits of his own country; and his name will probably be an object of greater regard in future times than even at present, though all his personal virtues are fresh in recollection. The profound research, the masculine vigour, and philosophic wisdom displayed in all his writings, added to the permanent interest of the subjects upon which the powers of his mind were usually employed, stamp them as works which will remain as landmarks in historical literature. (c. c. c.)