of every serious mind, while contemplating the pernicious influence of his example on the nation, and the righteous tribunal of God! CHAPTER IV. SCOTLAND UNDER CHARLES II. Restoration of episcopacy-Manner of its restoration-Sharp's character - New bishops - Leighton - Disapproves the pageantry of his colleagues - Patronage restored Ministers ejected Character of the new clergy PersecutionsLeighton resigns his bishopric - He is made archbishop of Glasgow - Resigns his archbishopric - His piety - Archbishop Sharp murdered: SCOTLAND was equally affected with England by the restoration of Charles II. That unprincipled prince was restored on his making a solemn oath, and signing a declaration to support the national church of Scotland. The same he afterwards promised, in a letter of September 1660, to the presbytery of Edinburgh*. Notwithstanding "the way for the subversion of presbytery was proposed by one of the most extraordinary and unprincipled statutes which was ever sanctioned by a legislative assembly-it was at length resolved, and resolved amidst the riot and debauchery which disgraced those to whom the king had entrusted the settlement of the nation, that all the parliaments held since the year 1640 should be declared null and void, thus rendering invalid those acts in confirmation of presbytery as the established religion, to which the late king had assented t." Honour and truth were sacrificed in the most flagitious manner by those also who were the agents in setting up episcopacy in Scotland: of these the chief was James Sharp, who, as Dr. Cook remarks, "had openly betrayed his trust—who had often acted with the vilest hypocrisy - who, during the usurpation, had bowed the knee to Cromwell, and abjured the family to which he now professed the most fervent loyalty." Bishop Burnet, who knew him, speaks of him as being without principle. Being a man of a restless spirit, he *Cook's History of the Church of Scotland, vol. iii, p. 229. obtained from the earl of Glencairn a recommendation to the court, as the only person capable to manage the design of setting up episcopacy in Scotland, on which he was received into great confidence. Yet as he had observed very carefully the success of Monk's solemn protestations against the king and for a commonwealth, it seems he was so pleased with the original that he resolved to copy after it, without letting himself be diverted from it by scruples: for he stuck neither at solemn protestations, both by word of mouth and by letters (of which I have seen inany proofs), nor at appeals to God of his sincerity in acting for the presbytery, both in prayers and on other occasions; joining with these many dreadful imprecations on himself if he did prevaricate. He was all the while maintained by the presbyterians as their agent, and continued to give them a constant account of the progress of his negotiation in their service, while he was indeed undermining it *." Sharp was the author of the king's letter to the presbytery of Edinburgh, designed to deceive the presbyterians: on which Burnet remarks, "It seemed, that Sharp thought it not enough to cheat the party himself, but would have the king share with him in the fraud. This was no honourable step to be made by a king, and to be contrived by a clergyman t." Episcopacy having been resolved for Scotland, and this being published in a proclamation from the king, "Sharp was ordered to find out proper men for that office. That care was left entirely to him, and the choice was generally bad. Fairfoul, designed for the see of Glasgow, was a pleasant and facetious man, insinuating and crafty. His life was scarcely free from scandal; and he was eminent in nothing that belonged to his own function: but he had passed his whole life long for one of the cunningest men in Scotland. Hamilton was a good-natured, but weak man. The fourth was Robert Leighton, then at London, on his return from Bath, where he had been for his health. He was accounted a saint from his youth up: a master both of Greek and He * Burnet's Life and Times, vol. i, p. 144, 145. + Ibid. p. 174. brew, and of the whole compass of theological learning, chiefly in the study of the Scriptures. But that which excelled all the rest was, he was possessed with the highest and noblest sense of divine things that I ever saw in any man *." Sir Elisha Leighton, his brother, had secured this honour for his relative: he being secretary to the duke of York. "He was a papist, having changed his religion to raise himself at court; yet he was a very immoral, vicious man; and that perhaps made him the more considered by the king, who loved him and trusted him to a high degree +.” Sharp opposed this nomination: but the four prelates were consecrated at Westminster Abbey, Dec. 16, 1661; and in April following they travelled to Scotland all in one coach. "Leighton told me," says Burnet, "he believed they were weary of him; for he was weary of them. But he, finding they intended to be received at Edinburgh with some pomp, left them at Morpeth, and came to Edinburgh a few days before them. The lord chancellor, with all the nobility and privy counsellors then at Edinburgh, went out, together with the magistracy of the city, and brought the bishops in, as in triumph ." On the 7th of May, "The two archbishops in the magnificent dress of their order, consecrated bishops for the different sees: the see of Edinburgh only being kept vacant, in the hope that Douglas, one of the most venerable and respected of the ministers, would be induced to accept of it, and to strengthen the new establishment by his talents and his virtues. On the following day, the second session of the parliament commenced. An act was immediately passed for the restitution of the ancient government of the church by archbishops and bishops; and being invited, they resumed their places in parliament, as one of the branches of the legislature §." Episcopacy was in this manner set up in Scotland; as Dr. Cook remarks, "by a mere act of the prerogative." The people were shocked by the manners of those who laid 66 p. 213-215. * Ibid. Ibid. 230, 231. the foundation of the new establishment.-The earl of Middleton and the courtiers who attended him openly indulged in the most brutal intemperance: they were impious and profane. With that infatuation which marked the whole of this ecclesiastical revolution, the choice of bishops was such as would have estranged every conscientious man from the church over which they presided *." 66 Patronage being restored with episcopacy, all the parochial clergy were required to take presentations from the patrons before Michaelemas, otherwise their churches were declared vacant. The proclamation was issued, "and above two hundred churches were shut up in one day; and above one hundred and fifty more were to be turned out for not obeying and submitting to the bishops' summons to their synodt." Sharp's perfidy and hypocrisy had created an unconquerable aversion in the people towards the new establishment; but "all this," says Burnet, was out of measure increased by the new incumbents, who were put in the place of the ejected preachers, and were generally very mean and despicable in all respects. They were the worst preachers I ever heard: they were ignorant to a reproach: and many of them were openly vicious. They were a disgrace to their orders, and the sacred functions; and were indeed the dregs and refuse of the northern parts. Those of them, who arose above contempt or scandal, were men of such violent tempers, that they were as much hated as the others were despised. This was the fatal beginning of restoring episcopacy in Scotland; of which I myself observed what was visible ‡.” Particularly to detail the proceedings of the prelates in their high commission courts, and by various statutes similar to those adopted in England, and enforced with an army, this volume would not be sufficient: but a brief sketch shall be given from the elegant pen of the author of "The Course of Time." Charles, advised by his English and Irish ministers, Clarendon and Ormond, and latterly by Lauderdale, secretary for Scotland, introduced the episcopal form of worship into Scotland. Patronage was renewed; and the clergy were * Ibid. p. 254-256. + Burnet's Life and Times, vol. i, p. 251. Ibid. p. 257, 258. required to procure a presentation from their patrons, and collation from their bishops, to acknowledge their authority, and the spiritual supremacy of the king. The clergy in the northern districts complied without hesitation; but their more pious and zealous brethren in the west, however willing they might be to submit to and support the civil authority of the king, rejected his spiritual supremacy, refused submission to the episcopalian judicatories, and preferred rather to suffer the extremity of persecution, than to sacrifice what they deemed the truth and their duty to God. The people were no less averse from this encroachment on their religious privileges, and resolved to imitate their pastors, whose engaging familiarity, and sanctity of manners, had gained them the esteem and love of their flocks. "But if they had determined to suffer rather than renounce the covenant and their beloved presbytery, the bishops, who had now got all power in Scotland into their hands, determined no less the destruction of both. Burnet, archbishop of Glasgow, and the apostate Sharp, primate of St. Andrew's, with a cruelty little becoming mitred heads, prepared to carry this into effect. Ambulatory courts were established, on the principles of the Inquisition, in which the bishops were the judges of those whom they wished to destroy. No regard was had to remonstrance, or entreaty, or even to evidence. To these courts the military were subordinate, and instructed to carry their resolutions, which were often formed in the midst of riot and drunkenness, into execution. By this procedure, three hundred and fifty clergymen were ejected from their livings in the severity of winter, and driven, with their families, to seek shelter among the peasants. The most ignorant and vicious of their northern brethren, who scrupled at no compliance, were thrust, by the strong hand of power, into their places. The ignorance and shameful lives of these apostates from the covenant, who were now metamorphosed into curates, disgusted the people on whom they had been forced. Their doctrines had none of that heavenly relish which suited the taste of those who had been formerly taught by the best and most affectionate of men. Their churches were deserted; and the people went into the mountains in |