King James VI. continued his warfare against Presbyterianism until his
death. This occurred March 27, 1625. With advancing years he grew more
bitter, using every means to coerce the Covenanters and bring them into
submission. They stood as a wall of fire between him and his cherished
ambition to rule supreme over Church and State. He resolved to break
down that wall and quench that fire.

Covenanted Presbyterianism has always stood for liberty, conscience,
enlightenment, progress, and exalted manhood, resisting all tyrants and
oppressors. Presbyterianism recognizes as the crowning glory of man, his
relation to God, all men alike being subjects of His government and
accountable at His throne; all being under law to God and under law to
no man, except in the Lord. Presbyterianism honors every honest man as a
real king, clothed with innate majesty, crowned with native dignity, and
exalted far above the conventional office of earth's highest monarch.
Yet does Presbyterianism sustain all rightful rulers as ministers of
God, and enjoin upon all people submission in the Lord.

In the beginning of 1625, while the snow was yet mantling the mountains
in white, the symbol of moral purity and goodness, the king was grimly
planning to debase and corrupt the best people in his realms. He gave
orders to celebrate Easter with a Communion according to the Articles of
Perth, announcing a severe penalty against all who would not comply. The
decree was not enforced, for the Lord came suddenly to the unhappy
monarch, saying, "Thy soul is required of thee." Easter came with its
soft winds and opening buds, its singing brooks and flowery nooks, but
King James was not there; the Judge had called him, death had conquered
him, the grave had swallowed him; his miserable life was broken off
under sixty years of age; and after death, eternity; the long, long