The Covenanters had little pity or sympathy for such as they considered to be willful enemies of the truth. To show relentings toward the enemies of God was to trifle with the eternal salvation of men. The idea that others might have perceived some different aspect of the truth was beyond their comprehension. They alone had the whole truth. They either had to obey God or the King. For them it was as simple as that. As with Tertullian they would have no truck with heresy or compromise.

What motivated them. Answer lies chiefly in their confidence of being the chosen of God. Covenanters conviction that their cause was right was illogically carried over to mean also that the course was right. In this they made a tragic mistake.

Odd lack of seemliness toward pious men of other parties. Saintly attributes were put down as weak and timid vacillations. Those who are not for them are against them. The one plea that can be made for Charles II is that what the extremists demanded were measures which Charles could not implement.

The horrible scruples felt by one section of the Covenanters against granting any quarter in the hour of victory may be traced to the mental habit of dividing mankind into servants of God and servants of the devil. No one is more dangerous than a man who is fighting for his religion. Religions and politics were necessarily bound up together. Their banner while it was inscribed for Christ's crown and covenant was equally an expression of their hatred to civil misrule.

Episcopacy was identified in their minds with the crudest variety of Erastianism and they would have none of it.

Their persistence against efforts of the State to extinguish their freedom of conscience was entirely justified. Necessarily brought a perilous margin between genuine suffering for conscience sake and a sheer bigotry which was far from the spirit of the Gospel.

The faults of the Covenanters were the faults natural to their own temperament and to the intense atmosphere in which they lived. They were goaded beyond endurance by the Government. The Democratic principles of the free world today reflect that teaching in regard to civil rights.