That the Reformation was a good and a glorious work, few will be such
slavish bigots as to deny. But the enemy came, by night, and sowed tares
among the wheat; or rather; the foul and rank soil, upon which the seed
was thrown, pushed forth, together with the rising crop, a plentiful
proportion of pestilential weeds. The morals of the reformed clergy were
severe; their learning was usually respectable, sometimes profound;
and their eloquence, though often coarse, was vehement, animated, and
popular. But they never could forget, that their rise had been achieved
by the degradation, if not the fall, of the crown; and hence, a body of
men, who, in most countries, have been attached to monarchy, were in
Scotland, for nearly two centuries, sometimes the avowed enemies, always
the ambitious rivals, of their prince. The disciples of Calvin could
scarcely avoid a tendency to democracy, and the republican form of
church government was sometimes hinted at, as no unfit model for the
state; at least, the kirkmen laboured to impress, upon their followers
and hearers, the fundamental principle, that the church should be solely
governed by those, unto whom God had given the spiritual sceptre. The
elder Melvine, in a conference with James VI., seized the monarch by the
sleeve, and, addressing him as _God's sillie vassal_, told him, "There
are two kings, and two kingdomes. There is Christ, and his kingdome, the
kirke; whose subject King James the sixth is, and of whose kingdome he
is not a king, nor a head, nor a lord, but a member; and they, whom
Christ hath called and commanded to watch ower his kirke, and govern his
spiritual kingdome, have sufficient authorise and power from him so to
do; which no christian king, no prince, should controul or discharge,
but fortifie and assist: otherwise they are not faithful subjects to
Christ."--_Calderwood_, p. 329. The delegated theocracy, thus sternly
claimed, was exercised with equal rigour. The offences in the king's
household fell under their unceremonious jurisdiction, and he was
formally reminded of his occasional neglect to say grace before and