sapproved by every Scotchman whose judgment
was entitled to respect. Some Scottish statesmen who were zealous
for the King's prerogative had been bred Presbyterians. Though little
troubled with scruples, they retained a preference for the religion of
their childhood; and they well knew how strong a hold that religion had
on the hearts of their countrymen. They remonstrated strongly: but, when
they found that they remonstrated in vain, they had not virtue enough to
persist in an opposition which would have given offence to their
master; and several of them stooped to the wickedness and baseness of
persecuting what in their consciences they believed to be the purest
form of Christianity. The Scottish Parliament was so constituted that
it had scarcely ever offered any serious opposition even to Kings much
weaker than Charles then was. Episcopacy, therefore, was established
by law. As to the form of worship, a large discretion was left to the
clergy. In some churches the English Liturgy was used. In others, the
ministers selected from that Liturgy such prayers and thanksgivings
as were likely to be least offensive to the people. But in general the
doxology was sung at the close of public worship; and the Apostles'
Creed was recited when baptism was administered. By the great body of
the Scottish nation the new Church was detested both as superstitious
and as foreign; as tainted with the corruptions of Rome, and as a
mark of the predominance of England. There was, however, no general
insurrection. The country was not what it had been twenty-two years
before. Disastrous war and alien domination had tamed the spirit of the
people. The aristocracy, which was held in great honour by the middle
class and by the populace, had put itself at the head of the movement
against Charles the First, but proved obsequious to Charles the Second.
From the English Puritans no aid was now to be expected. They were a
feeble party, proscribed both by law and by public opinion. The bulk
of the Scottish nation, therefore, sullenly submitted, and, with many
misgivings of conscience, attended the ministrations of the Episcopal
clergy, or of Presbyterian divines who had consented to accept from the
government a half toleration, known by the name of the Indulgence.
But there were, particularly in the western lowlands, many fierce and
resolute men who held that the obligation to observe the Covenant was
paramount to the obligation to obey the magistrate.