In the south of the island the religion of the state was the religion of the people, and had a strength altogether independent of the strength derived from the support of the government.

The sincere conformists were far more numerous than the Papists and the Protestant Dissenters taken together.

The Established Church of Scotland was the Church of a small minority.

The majority of the lowland population was firmly attached to the Presbyterian discipline.

Prelacy was abhorred by the great body of Scottish Protestants, both as an unscriptural and as a foreign institution.