The Presbyterians, a numerous and powerful party in
the English Parliament, had hitherto taken the lead in opposition to the
King; while the Independents and other sectaries, who afterwards, under
Cromwell, resumed the power of the sword, and overset the Presbyterian
model both in Scotland and England, were as yet contented to lurk under
the shelter of the wealthier and more powerful party. The prospect
of bringing to a uniformity the kingdoms of England and Scotland in
discipline and worship, seemed therefore as fair as it was desirable.

The celebrated Sir Henry Vane, one of the commissioners who negotiated
the alliance betwixt England and Scotland, saw the influence which this
bait had upon the spirits of those with whom he dealt; and although
himself a violent Independent, he contrived at once to gratify and
to elude the eager desires of the Presbyterians, by qualifying the
obligation to reform the Church of England, as a change to be executed
"according to the word of God, and the best reformed churches." Deceived
by their own eagerness, themselves entertaining no doubts on the JUS
DIVINUM of their own ecclesiastical establishments, and not holding
it possible such doubts could be adopted by others, the Convention
of Estates and the Kirk of Scotland conceived, that such expressions
necessarily inferred the establishment of Presbytery; nor were they
undeceived, until, when their help was no longer needful, the sectaries
gave them to understand, that the phrase might be as well applied to
Independency, or any other mode of worship, which those who were at the
head of affairs at the time might consider as agreeable "to the word
of God, and the practice of the reformed churches." Neither were the
outwitted Scottish less astonished to find, that the designs of the
English sectaries struck against the monarchial constitution of Britain,
it having been their intention to reduce the power of the King, but by
no means to abrogate the office. They fared, however, in this respect,
like rash physicians, who commence by over-physicking a patient, until
he is reduced to a state of weakness, from which cordials are afterwards
unable to recover him.

But these events were still in the womb of futurity. As yet the Scottish
Parliament held their engagement with England consistent with justice,
prudence, and piety, and their military undertaking seemed to succeed to
their very wish. The junction of the Scottish army with those of Fai