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    terians as well as to Episcopalians : their opinions and their character are now weighed in a more equal balance . Francis Wodrow , another of the professor ' s nephews , was made prisoner at Both well engagement , * and perished in the ship * ' which was wilfull y lost with the prisoners in Orkney , 1679 / ' It is observable that Hume speaks of these state-victims as ' « unfortunately perishing in the voyage . " f Among many valuable remarks taken from Professor Wodrow ' s diary , we meet with the following :

    " Regular reformation by the magistrate is liable to many more defects than popular reformation , by mobs , ( as some call them , ) as appears by comparing England with Scotland , and generally through the history of all the Reformed churches . " The same aphorism , if we may so call it , occurs afterward , but in Latin , which has been thus translated :

    "A reformation regularly commenced by the magistrate often labours under many defects , and is only a half reformation ; such , for instance , as that of England . In like manner , the present reformation of the church and universities of Scotland , so far as conducted by the people , was complete ; but no sooner had it become regular , than it was converted into a half reformation . "—Pp . 108 , 111 .

    It will be fair to hear the late Bishop of Worcester on the other side . Dr . Hurd $ considers it to have been an advantage of the reformation from Popery that it was not carried on with , us in a precipitate tumultuary manner , as it was , for the most part , on the continent ; on the other hand , it advanced , under the eye of the magistrate , by slow degrees , nay , it was , more than once , checked and kept back by him . ' *

    No reformation in religion can be so desirable as that which the deliberate and tranquil expression of the public mind effects . This is what Professor Wodrow styles " popular reformation . " Magistrates and mobs are alike bad reformers . The work of reformation is beyond their province and capacity . But for the excesses and outrages which have often accompanied the changes of national religion , they are principally answerable , whose fro ward retention of corruptions ana abuses occasions the turbulence of innovation . §

    We next copy Professor Wodrow ' s advice to his second son , who had recently been licensed as a preacher : " I mind after I was licensed , my father gave me his advice to write all I delivered , and for some years to keep close by my papers . He said it was the safest way , and would bring me to a habit of diligent study , and noticing well Qvery thing I delivered to God ' s people from his word , which was ^ a matter of the last importance to me and others . This I have obeyed , and I fear am too much tied down by custom to my papers . "—Pp . 169 , 170 .

    The counsel was excellent . By obeying it , Mr . Robert Wodrow became , as we learn from Dr . Burns , || at once a most judicious and a most popular preacher : and it was his own humility that dictated his fear of being the slave of his notes .

    • P . JO . t Hist , of England , Vol . VIU . 116 . ( 1793 . ) j Sermons at Lincoln ' s Inn , Vol . I . No . xiii . § Bacon ' s Essays , No . xxiv . \\ Memoir , &c , p . iv .

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    406 Life of Professor Wodrow .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1829, page 406, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2573/page/38/