. Its appearance in 1644
created a great sensation, and threw into the shade Buchanan's
_De Jure Regni apud Scotos_, which had hitherto held the field on
the popular side. The purpose and style of the book may be
gathered from the passage in the preface, wherein the writer
gives, as his reason for writing, the opinion that arbitrary
government had "over-swelled all banks of law, that it was now at
the highest float . . . that the naked truth was, that prelates, a
wild and pushing cattle to the lambs and flocks of Christ, had
made a hideous noise; the wheels of their chariot did run an
unequal pace with the bloodthirsty mind of the daughter of
Babel." The contention was, that all regal power sprang from the
suffrages of the people. "The king is subordinate to the
Parliament, not co-ordinate, for the constituent is above the
constituted." "What are kings but vassals to the State, who, if
they turn tyrants, fall from their right?" For the rest, a book
so crammed and stuffed with Biblical quotations as to be most
unreadable. And indeed, of all the features of that miserable
seventeenth century, surely nothing is more extraordinary than
this insatiate taste of men of all parties for Jewish precedents.
Never was the enslavement of the human mind to authority carried
to more absurd lengths with more lamentable results; never was
manifested a greater waste, or a greater wealth, of ability. For
that reason, though Rutherford may claim a place on our shelves,
he is little likely ever to be taken down from them. But may the
principles he contended for remain as undisturbed as his repose!

The year following the burning of these books the House of
Commons directed its vengeance against certain statutes passed by
the Republican government. On May 17th, 1661, a large majority
condemned the _Solemn League and Covenant_ to be burnt by the
hangman, the House of Lords concurring. All copies of it were
also to be taken down from all churches and public places.
Evelyn, seeing it burnt in several places in London on Monday
22nd, exclaims, "Oh! prodigious change!" The Irish Parliament
also condemned it to the flames, not only in Dublin, but in all
the towns of Ireland.

A few days later, May 27th, the House of Commons, unanimously and
with no petition to the King, condemned to be burnt as
"treasonable parchment writings":

1. "The Act for erecting a High Court of Justice for the trial of
Charles I."

2. "The Act declaring and constit