182

CHAP.

II.

HISTORY Off ENGLAKD,

prelatical church in Scotland. The design was disapproved byevery Scotchman whose judgment was entitled to respect.Some Scottish statesmen who were zealous for the King’s pre-rogative had been bred Presbyterians. Though little troubledwith scruples, they retained a preference for the religion oftheir childhood; and they well knew how strong a hold thatreligion had on the hearts of their countrymen. They re-monstrated strongly: but, when they found that they remon-strated in vain, they had not virtue enough to persist in anopposition which would have given offence to their master;and several of them stooped to the wickedness and baseness ofpersecuting what in their consciences they believed to be thepurest form of Christianity. The Scottish Parliament was soconstituted that it had scarcely ever offered any serious oppo-sition even to Kings much weaker than Charles then was.Episcopacy, therefore, was established by law. As to the formof worship, a large discretion was left to the clergy. In somechurches the English Liturgy was used. In others, the mi-nisters selected from that Liturgy such prayers and thanks-givings as were likely to be least offensive to the people. Butin general the doxology was sung at the close of public wor-ship, and the Apostles’ Creed was recited when baptism wasadministered. By the great body of the Scottish nation thenew Church was detested both as superstitious and as foreign;as tainted with the corruptions of Rome, and as a mark of thepredominance of England. There was, however, no generalinsurrection. The country was not what it had been twenty-two years before. Disastrous war and alien domination hadtamed the spirit of the people. The aristocracy, which washeld in great honour by the middle class and by the populace,had put itself at the head of the movement against Charles theFirst, but proved obsequious to Charles the Second. Fromthe English Puritans no aid was now to be expected. Theywere a feeble party, proscribed both by law and by public