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can allay their fervor, and make the civil unionacquire a superiority above religious distinctions.But as the operations of this regimen are com-monly gradual, and at first imperceptible, vulgarpoliticians are apt, for that reason, to have re-course to more hasty and more dangerous remedies.It is observable too, that these non-conformistsin Scotland neither offered nor demanded toleration;but laid claim to an entire superiority, and tothe exercise of extreme rigor against their adver-saries. The covenant, which they idolized , wasa persecuting, as well as a seditious band of con-federacy; and the government, instead of treatingthem like madmen, who should be soothed, andflattered, and deceived into tranquillity, thoughtthemselves entitled to a rigid obedience, and weretoo apt, from a mistaken policy, to retaliate uponthe dissenters, who had erred from the spirit ofenthusiasm.

Amidst these disturbances, a new parliamentwas assembled at Edinburgh and Lauderdalewas sent down commissioner. The zealous presby-tcrians , who were the chief patrons of liberty,were too obnoxious to resist, with any success,the measures of government, and in parliamentthe tide still ran strongly in favor of monarchy.The commissioner had such influence as to g ettwo acts passed, which were of great consequenceto the ecclesiastical and civil liberties of the king-dom. By the one, it was declared, that th®

zs 19th of October, 1669,

T *

HAP.

LXVI.