290

HISTORY OP ENGLAND.

CHAP.

XIII.

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administered after the Scotch fashion. Argyle recited the- words slowly. The royal pair, holding up their hands towardsheaven, repeated after him till they came to the last clause.There William paused. That clause contained a promise thathe would root out all heretics and all enemies of the trueworship of God; and it was notorious that, in the opinion ofmany Scotchmen, not only all Roman Catholics, but all Pro-testant Episcopalians, all Independents, Baptists and Quakers,all Lutherans, nay all British Presbyterians who did not holdthemselves bound by the Solemn League and Covenant, wereenemies of the true worship of God.* The King had apprisedthe Commissioners that he could not take this part of the oathwithout a distinct and public explanation; and they had beenauthorised by the Convention to give such an explanation aswould satisfy him. “I will not,” he now said, “lay myselfunder any obligation to be a persecutor.” “Neither the wordsof this oath,” said one of the Commissioners, “ nor the laws ofScotland, lay any such obligation on your Majesty.” “In thatsense, then, I swear,” said William; “and I desire you all, my

* As it has lately been denied that the extreme Presbyterians enter-tained an unfavourable opinion of the Lutherans, I will give two decisiveproofs of the truth of what I have asserted in the text. In the book entitledFaithful Contendings Displayed is a report of what passed at the GeneralMeeting of the United Societies of Covenanters on the 24th of October 1688.The question was propounded whether there should be an association withthe Dutch. “It was concluded unanimously,” says the Clerk of the Socie-ties, “that we could not have an association with the Dutch in one body,nor come formally under their conduct, being such a promiscuous conjunc-tion of reformed Lutheran malignants and sectaries, to join with whomwere repugnant to the testimony of the Church of Scotland.” In the Pro-testation and Testimony drawn up on the 2nd of October 1707, the UnitedSocieties complain that the crown has been settled on “the Prince of Hano-ver, who has been bred and brought up in the Lutheran religion, which isnot only different from, but even in many things contrary unto that purityin doctrine, reformation, and religion, we in these nations had attainedunto, as is very well known.” They add: “The admitting such a personto reign over us is not only contrary to our solemn League and Covenant,but to the very word of God itself, Deut. xvii.”

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