The Scottish Sabbath was established in great majesty.

One "rag of Rome" was retained, clerical excommunication--the Sword of Church Discipline.

It was the cutting off from Christ of the excommunicated, who were handed over to the devil, and it was attended by civil penalties equivalent to universal boycotting, practical outlawry, and followed by hell fire: "which sentence, lawfully pronounced on earth, is ratified in heaven." The strength of the preachers lay in this terrible weapon, borrowed from the armoury of Rome.
Private morals were watched by the elders, and offenders were judged in kirk-sessions.

Witchcraft, Sabbath desecration, and sexual laxities were the most prominent and popular sins.

The mainstay of the system is the idea that the Bible is literally inspired; that the preachers are the perhaps inspired interpreters of the Bible, and that the country must imitate the old Hebrew persecution of "idolaters," that is, mainly Catholics.