isdiction of the prelates, and
all controlling power over the presbyters.[**] And by such gradual
innovations, the king flattered himself that he should quietly introduce
episcopal authority: but as his final scope was fully seen from the
beginning, every new advance gave fresh occasion of discontent, and
aggravated, instead of softening, the abhorrence entertained against the
prelacy.

* 1598.

** 1606.

What rendered the king's aim more apparent, were the endeavors which, at
the same time, he used to introduce into Scotland some of the ceremonies
of the church of England: the rest, it was easily foreseen, would
soon follow. The fire of devotion, excited by novelty, and inflamed by
opposition, had so possessed the minds of the Scottish reformers, that
all rites and ornaments, and even order of worship, were disdainfully
rejected as useless burdens; retarding the imagination in its rapturous
ecstasies, and cramping the operations of that divine spirit by
which they supposed themselves to be animated. A mode of worship
was established, the most naked and most simple imaginable; one that
borrowed nothing from the senses, but reposed itself entirely on the
contemplation of that divine essence which discovers itself to the
understanding only. This species of devotion, so worthy of the Supreme
Being, but so little suitable to human frailty, was observed to occasion
great disturbances in the breast, and in many respects to confound all
rational principles of conduct and behavior. The mind, straining for
these extraordinary raptures, reaching them by short glances, sinking
again under its own weakness, rejecting all exterior aid of pomp and
ceremony, was so occupied in this inward life, that It fled from every
intercourse of society, and from every cheerful amusement which could
soften or humanize the character. It was obvious to all discerning eyes,
and had not escaped the king's, that, by the prevalence of fanaticism,
a gloomy and sullen disposition established itself among the people;
a spirit obstinate and dangerous; independent and disorderly; animated
equally with a contempt of authority, and a hatred to every other mode
of religion, particularly to the Catholic. In order to mellow these
humors, James endeavored to infuse a small tincture of ceremony into the
national worship, and to introduce such rites as might, in some degree,
occupy the mind, and please the senses, without departing too far from
that si