342 HISTORY OF GREAT BRlf AIN.

c H A I>. clergymen of signal authority’*. In this r.egO-ivr. ciation , the man chiefly trusted was Vane,H43. who, in eloquence, address, capacity, as wellas in art and dissimulation, was not surpassed byany one, even during that age, so famous forSolemn active talents. By his persuasion was framed atleaeiie and p^inhurgh, that '-OLEMH LEAGUE AND COVENANT;

which effaced all former protestations and vowstaken in both kingdoms ; and long maintainedits credit and authority. In this covenant, thesubscribers, besides engaging mutually to defendeach other against all opponents, bound them-selves to endeavour, without respect of persons,the extirpation of popery and prelacy, superstition,heresy, schism, and profaneness, to maintain theright*; and privileges of parliaments, together withthe king’s authority; and to discover and bringto justice all incendiaries and malignants ”.

The subscribers of the cotenant vowed also topreserve the reformed religion established in thechurch of Scotland : but by the artifice of Vaneno declaration more explicit was made with re-gard to England and Ireland, than that thesekingdoms should be reformed , according to theword of God and the example of the purestchurches. The Scottish zealots, when prelacywas abjured , deemed this expression quite freefrom ambiguity, and regarded their own model

Whitloke, p. 7;. Rush. vol, vi. p. 466. Claren-don, vol. ill. p. joo.

’* Rush. vol. vi. p. 478. Clarendon, vol. in. p. $7J.