" saith the apostle.'
Again, '"Ye shall sit upon twelve thrones and judge"' (quoted Mr.
Pont), 'which is chiefly referred to the apostles, and consequently to
ministers.'

Things came to a head in 1596. The King asked the representatives of
the Kirk whether he might call home certain earls, banished for being
Catholics, if they 'satisfied the Kirk.' The answer was that he might
not. Knox had long before maintained that 'a prophet' might preach
treason (he is quite explicit), and that the prophet, and whoever
carried his preaching into practical effect, would be blameless. A
minister was accused, at this moment, of preaching libellously, and he
declined to be judged except by men of his own cloth. If they
acquitted him, as they were morally certain to do, what Court of
Appeal could reverse the decision of men who claimed to 'judge
angels'? A riot arose in Edinburgh, the King seized his opportunity,
he grasped his nettle, the municipal authorities backed him, and, in
effect, the claims of true ministers thenceforth gave little trouble
till the folly of Charles I. led to the rise of the Covenant. The
Sovereign had overshot his limits of power as wildly as ever the Kirk
had tried to do, and the result was that the Kirk, having now the
nobles and the people in arms on her side, was absolutely despotic
for about twelve years. Her final triumph was to resist the Estates in
Parliament, with success, and to lay Scotland open to the Cromwellian
conquest. What Plantagenets and Tudors could never do Noll effected,
he conquered Scotland, the Kirk having paralysed the State. The
preachers found that Cromwell was a perfect 'Malignant,' that he would
not suffer prophets to preach treason, nor even allow the General
Assembly to meet. Angels they might judge if they pleased, but not
Ironsides; excommunication and 'Kirk discipline' were discountenanced;
even witches were less frequently burned. The preachers, Cromwell
said, 'had done their do,' had shot their bolt.

At this time they split into two parties: the Extremists, calling
themselves 'the godly,' and the men of milder mood.

Charles II., at the Restoration, ought probably to have sided with the
milder party, some of whom were anxious to see their fierce brethren
banished to Orkney, out of the way. But Charles's motto was 'Never
again,' and by a pettifogging fraud he reintroduced bishops without
the hated liturgy. After years of risings and suppressions the
ministers were broug