led in the court and among
the prelates, was of an opposite nature; and having some affinity to the
Romish worship, led them to mollify, as much as possible, these severe
prejudices, and to speak of the Catholics in more charitable language,
and with more reconciling expressions. From this foundation a panic
fear of Popery was easily raised; and every new ceremony or ornament
introduced into divine service, was part of that great mystery of
iniquity, which, from the encouragement of the king and the bishops, was
to overspread the nation.[*] The few innovations which James had made,
were considered as preparatives to this grand design; and the
further alterations attempted by Charles, were represented as a plain
declaration of his intentions. Through the whole course of this reign,
nothing had more fatal influence, in both kingdoms, than this groundless
apprehension, which with so much industry was propagated, and with so
much credulity was embraced, by all ranks of men.

* Burnet's Mem. p. 29, 30, 31.

Amidst these dangerous complaints and terrors of religious innovation,
the civil and ecclesiastical liberties of the nation were imagined, and
with some reason, not to be altogether free from invasion.

The establishment of the high commission by James, without any authority
of law, seemed a considerable encroachment of the crown, and erected
the most dangerous and arbitrary of all courts, by a method equally
dangerous and arbitrary. All the steps towards the settlement of
Episcopacy had indeed been taken with consent of parliament: the
articles of Perth were confirmed in 1621: in 1633, the king had obtained
a general ratification of every ecclesiastical establishment: but these
laws had less authority with the nation, as they were known to have
passed contrary to the sentiments even of those who voted for them,
and were in reality extorted by the authority and importunity of
the sovereign. The means, however, which both James and Charles had
employed, in order to influence the parliament, were entirely regular,
and no reasonable pretence had been afforded for representing these laws
as null or invalid.

But there prevailed among the greater part of the nation another
principle, of the most important and most dangerous nature; and which,
if admitted, destroyed entirely the validity of all such statutes. The
ecclesiastical authority was supposed totally independent of the civil;
and no act of parliament, nothing b