erty. He had displeased Dr. Beaumont by his
seditious and impertinent behaviour, and the inhabitants withdrew their
children from his school; but as his means of living decreased, his
opinion of his own deserts enlarged; he mistook the cravings of want for
spiritual illumination, and so perplexed his mind by reading the
scurrilous libels of the day, as to be firmly persuaded that the King
was the Devil's bairn, and Archbishop Laud the personal antichrist. A
description of church ceremonies thrilled him with horror, and in every
prosecution of a contumacious minister his ardent fancy saw a revival of
the flames of Smithfield, while his confused notions of right and
justice convinced him, that if the arm of the spirit failed, that of the
flesh must be exerted, to throw down these strong holds. He had long
believed himself equal to Dr. Beaumont in learning, and fancied that the
unction of gifts and graces, with which he was favoured, gave him a
decided preference over man's ordination. He continued to attend the
church, but not in the capacity of an humble learner. By coming late, he
avoided the zeal-quenching liturgy, which, as it avowedly retained
ancient prayers, he considered as Babylonish and idolatrous, and he
exercised his Christian liberty of choosing his religion by listening to
the sermon, with a design of cavilling at the preacher, whom he soon
found to be a mere legal teacher, descanting on the doctrine of works
exploded by the new covenant.

Morgan had less zeal than Davies, and more foresight. Though equally
anxious to pull down and destroy, he was not so certain that the
fragments would re-edify themselves into a habitable fabric; and as he
liked the comforts he enjoyed in the present state of things, he was not
inclined to lay the foundation of a republic, till he was certain of
getting a good apartment in it himself. He saw that the aspect of the
times forboded extraordinary changes; but as he could not divine which
of the numerous sects that opposed the church would acquire the
ascendancy, he left his religion to future contingences. He found Davies
an able assistant, and therefore determined to keep him hungry and
discontented, in order to make him the more active in recommending the
sovereign panacea, that was to cure all the national disorders. This
recipe was no other than the covenant promulgated in Scotland, and which
was called "a golden girdle to tie themselves to Heaven, a joining and
glueing the