Page:A letter to the Right Hon. Chichester Fortescue, M.P. on the state of Ireland.djvu/66

 at that time to renounce Episcopacy: William the Third preferred it to the Presbyterian form of Church Government. Indeed, the Confession of Westminster had been a kind of symbol of the majority of the Republican party in the reign of Charles the First, and the Presbyterians had divided with the Independents the Church and the Universities during the Commonwealth.

These were strong motives with King William and his English councillors for refusing to abolish Episcopacy in Scotland in 1688. But the Scotch nation would take no denial. They made it one of the articles in their Declaration of Rights that prelacy and precedence in ecclesiastical offices were repugnant to the genius of a nation reformed by presbyters, and an insupportable grievance which ought to be abolished. William yielded, and Episcopacy was abolished. There is a passage in 'Hallam' upon this subject so characteristic and so instructive that I cannot refrain from quoting it:—

The main controversy between the Episcopal and Presbyterian Churches was one of historical inquiry, not perhaps capable of decisive solution; it was at least one as to which the bulk of mankind are absolutely incapable of forming a rational judgment for themselves; but mingled up as it had always been, and most of all in Scotland, with faction, with revolution, with power and emolument, with courage and devotion, and fear, and hate, and revenge, this dispute drew along with it the most glowing devotions of the heart, and the question became utterly out of the province of argument. It is very possible that episcopacy might be of apostolical institution; but for this institution houses had been