me years ministers" of the
Established church.(22) It is singular enough, that in a memoir of that
unhappy man, Archbishop Sharp, which was published in his own lifetime,
and dedicated to himself, it is stated that Provost Jaffrey, who
afterwards became a Quaker, was known to declare that Sharp "was the first
man who had confirmed him in the way of Independency."(23)

Along with other circumstances, the disunion which prevailed throughout
the church, and the causes which gave rise to it, must have had a tendency
to mitigate the hostility with which the Protesting clergy regarded the
army of Cromwell in general, and the effect, at the same time, of
recommending them to him, and his adherents. The Protesters doubted the
sincerity of Charles. Though he had subscribed their covenant, they were
persuaded he had no real attachment to their church. They were of opinion,
that, were he once firmly seated on the throne, their civil and religious
liberties would be alike endangered. So far, therefore, could they
sympathize with the parliamentary general, and the soldiers whom he
commanded, in their opposition to their monarch. The Protesters drew off
from the army, which after the battle of Dunbar was embodied, with the
concurrence of the king, the parliament, and the commission of the church,
for the defence of the monarchy, and the liberation of Scotland. This army
was recruited with men of every description. Numerous commissions in it
were given to known malignants. The success of an army so constituted, the
Protestors thought, was to be dreaded rather than wished for. Binning and
others declared they could not even pray for its success.(24) Here was
another point, in regard to which they and the invading army must have
felt sympathy with one another, and which must have materially altered
their relative position, leading them to assume such an equivocal
attitude, that it must have been difficult, even for themselves, to
determine whether they were more the friends or the foes of each other.

Injustice, however, has been done to the Protesters, by representing them
to have been republicans. This was by no means their character as a body,
whatever may have been the opinions of individuals among them. One of the
most active and able of them, was the unfortunate Mr. James Guthrie,
minister of Stirling. Though he was executed after the Restoration, for
his conceived disloyalty, in opposition, it is believed, to the personal
wishes