peace of Rippon. After the first burst of the Irish rebellion of 1641, when the Presbyterians supplicated the General Assembly for a supply of ministers, Blair was one of those who went over. He soon returned, however, to his charge at St. Andrews. In autumn 1645, when the Scottish estates and General Assembly were obliged by the prevalence of the plague at Edinburgh to sit in St Andrews, Blair took a conspicuous part in the prosecution of Sir Robert Spottiswoode and other adherents of Montrose, who had been taken prisoners at Philiphaugh. Sir Robert, who had accompanied Montrose as a mere civilian, upon an embassage from the King, was sentenced, by a flagrant violation of the law, to be beheaded as a traitor. In reality this dignified and respectable person was sacrificed as an atonement for the exertions of his father, Archbishop Spottiswoode, to introduce Episcopacy. At this period, when toleration was sincerely looked upon as a fatal and deadly error, it was conceived, that to permit this person to escape would draw down the wrath of God upon the land. Blair, who entertained all these notions in the most earnest manner, was nevertheless anxious that an exertion should be made to turn Sir Robert from the errors of his faith, so that ho might at least die in the profession of the true religion. He therefore attended him in jail, and even at the scaffold, trying all his eloquence to work a conversion. Spottiswoode, who was one of the most learned and enlightened men of his age, appears to have looked upon these efforts in a different spirit from that in which they were made. He was provoked, upon the very scaffold, to reject the prayers of his pious monitor, in language far from courtly. Mr. Blair was equally unsuccessful with Captain Guthrie, son of the ex-bishop of Moray, who was soon after executed at the same place.
Blair was one of the Scottish divines appointed, in 1645, to reason the King out of his Episcopal prepossessions at Newcastle. The celebrated Cant, one of his co-adjutors in this task, having one day accused his Majesty of favouring Popery, Mr Blair interrupted him, and hinted that this was not a proper time or place for making such a charge. The unfortunate monarch, who certainly had a claim to this amount upon the gratitude of Blair, appeal's to have felt the kindness of the remark. At the death of Henderson, his Majesty appointed Blair to be his successor, as chaplain for Scotland. In this capacity, he had much intercourse with the King, who, one day, asked him if it was warrantable in prayer to determine a controversy. Blair, taking the hint, said, that in the prayer just finished, he did not think that he had determined any controversy. " Yes," said the King, " you determined the Pope to be Antichrist, which is a controversy among divines." Blair said he was sorry that this should be disputed by his Majesty; for certainly it was not so by his father. This remark showed great acuteness in the divine, for Charles, being a constant defender of the opinions of his father, whose authority he esteemed above that of all professional theologians, was totally unable to make any reply. The constancy of the King in his adherence to a church, which his coronation oath had obliged him to defend, rendered, as is well known, all the advices of the Scottish divines unavailing. After spending some months with his Majesty, in his captivity at Newcastle, Mr Blair returned to Scotland.
In 1648, when Cromwell came to Edinburgh for the first time, the Commission of the Church sent three divines, including Mr Blair, to treat with him for a uniformity of religion in England. The sectarian general, who looked upon the Scottish Presbytery as no better than English Episcopacy, but yet was anxious to conciliate the northern divines, entertained this legation with smooth speeches, and made many solemn appeals to God, as to the sincerity of his intentions. Blair, however, had perceived the real character of Cromwell, and thought it necessary to ask explicit answers to the three following categories:—I, What
