CHARLES I.

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as the only one, -which corresponded, in any chap.degree , to such a description : But that able lvi.politician had other views ; and while he em-ployed his great talents in over-reaching thepresbyterians , and secretly laughed at their sim-plicity, he bad blindly devoted himself to themaintenance of systems , still more absurd andmore dangerous.

In the English parliament there remained somemembers, who , though they had been induced,either by private ambition or by zeal for civilliberty, to concur with the majority, still re-tained an attachment to the hierarchy and to the ,ancient modes of worship. But in the presentdanger, which threatened their cause, all scrupleswere laid aside ; and the covenant, by whosemeans alone they could expect to obtain so con-siderable a reinforcement as the accession of theScottish nation, was received without opposition. Sept. »r.The parliament, therefore, having first subscribedit themselves, ordered it to be received by allwho lived under their authority.

Great were the rejoicings among the Scots,that they should be the happy instruments of ex-tending their mode of religion , and dissipatingthat profound darkness, in which the neighbouringnations were involved. The general assemblyapplauded this glorious imitation of the piety dis-played by their ancestors, who, they said, inthree different applications, during the reign ofElizabeth, had endeavoured to engage the English,by persuasion, to lay aside the use of the sur-

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