he whole, the Scottish hierarchy contained
as few objectionable points as any system of church-government in
Europe. Had it subsisted to the present day, although its doctrines
could not have been more pure, nor its morals more exemplary, than those
of the present kirk of Scotland, yet its degrees of promotion might have
afforded greater encouragement to learning, and objects of laudable
ambition to those, who might dedicate themselves to its service. But
the precipitate bigotry of the unfortunate Charles I. was a blow to
episcopacy in Scotland, from which it never perfectly recovered.

[Footnote A: Of this the Covenanters were so sensible, as to trace
(what they called) the Antichristian hierarchy, with its idolatry,
superstition, and human inventions, "to the prelacy of England, the
fountain whence all these Babylonish streams issue unto us."--See their
manifesto on entering England, in 1640.]

[Footnote B: Many of the preachers, who had been loudest in the cause of
presbytery, were induced to accept of bishoprics. Such was, for example,
William Cooper, who was created bishop of Galloway. This recreant Mass
John was a hypochondriac, and conceived his lower extremities to be
composed of glass; hence, on his court advancement, the following
epigram was composed:

_"Aureus heu! frugilem confregit malleus urnam."_]

[Footnote C: This part of the system was perfected in the reign of
Charles I.]

It has frequently happened, that the virtues of the individual, at least
their excess (if, indeed, there can be an excess in virtue), have been
fatal to the prince. Never was this more fully exemplified than in the
history of Charles I. His zeal for religion, his family affection, the
spirit with which he defended his supposed rights, while they do honour
to the man, were the fatal shelves upon which the monarchy was wrecked.
Impatient to accomplish the total revolution, which his father's
cautious timidity had left incomplete, Charles endeavoured at once to
introduce into Scotland the church-government, and to renew, in England,
the temporal domination, of his predecessor, Henry VIII. The furious
temper of the Scottish nation first took fire; and the brandished
footstool of a prostitute[A] gave the signal for civil dissension,
which ceased not till the church was buried under the ruins of the
constitution; till the nation had stooped to a military despotism; and
the monarch to the block of the executioner.

[Footnote A: