or that purpose. It consisted of the same violent
renunciation of Popery above mentioned; which, though the king did not
approve of it, he thought it safest to adopt, in order to remove all the
suspicions entertained against him. As the Covenanters, in their bond
of mutual defence against all opposition, had been careful not to
except the king, Charles had formed a bond, which was annexed to
this renunciation, and which expressed the duty and loyalty of the
subscribers to his majesty.[*] But the Covenanters, perceiving that this
new covenant was only meant to weaken and divide them, received it with
the utmost scorn and detestation. And without delay they proceeded
to model the future assembly, from which such great achievments were
expected.[**]

The genius of that religion which prevailed in Scotland, and which every
day was secretly gaining ground in England, was far front inculcating
deference and submission to the ecclesiastics, merely as such; or
rather, by nourishing in every individual the highest raptures and
ecstasies of devotion, it consecrated, in a manner, every individual,
and in his own eyes bestowed a character on him much superior to what
forms and ceremonious institutions could alone confer. The clergy of
Scotland, though such tumult was excited about religious worship and
discipline, were both poor and in small numbers; nor are they in general
to be considered, at least in the beginning, as the ringleaders of the
sedition which was raised on their account. On the contrary, the
laity, apprehending, from several instances which occurred, a spirit of
moderation in that order, resolved to domineer entirely in the assembly
which was summoned, and to hurry on the ecclesiastics by the same
furious zeal with which they were themselves transported.[***]

* King's Decl. p. 140, etc.

** Rush. vol. ii. p. 772.

*** King's Decl. p. 188, 189. Rush. voL ii. p. 761.

It had been usual, before the establishment of prelacy, for each
presbytery to send to the assembly, besides two or three ministers,
one lay commissioner;[*] and, as all the boroughs and universities sent
likewise commissioners, the lay members in that ecclesiastical court
nearly equalled the ecclesiastics. Not only this institution, which
James, apprehensive of zeal in the laity, had abolished, was now revived
by the Covenanters; they also introduced an innovation, which served
still further to reduce the clergy to subjection. By an