and representing even the laity to a far larger extent than the Scottish Parliament, it exercised throughout the seventeenth century a commanding influence in all the affairs of the kingdom. The objects for which it contended were the same as those of the early English Puritans; but its victory was more complete than theirs. At the Revolution settlement, it appeared that both the civil and religious liberties of Scotland were vindicated. In the Treaty of Union, which speedily followed, the constitution of the Church of Scotland was carefully guarded. The Act of Supremacy was confined to the southern part of the island, and no provision was made for the introduction of patronage into Scotland. In possession of a spiritual independence never claimed by the sister Establishment, and with the rights of the Christian people intact, the Kirk of Knox and Melville, the Kirk of the Westminster Confession and the Solemn League and Covenant,—the old, indomitable Kirk of Scotland,—rested from her labors.
All this was to Hugh Miller a faith deliberately ratified by his intellect, and enshrined with dearest and most exalting associations in his heart of hearts. Patriotism and affectionate reverence—the feeling with which an Englishman regards the Long Parliament, and the feeling with which a Jew of old regarded the Temple on Mount Moriah—were combined in the emotions with which he contemplated his Church. To stand in spirit by the side of her great men; to follow her with compassionate or exulting sympathy from reverse to reverse, from triumph to triumph; to draw his breath deep in unutterable execration at thought of the apos-
