It was the mode of that age to make the pulpit the scene of news; and on every great event, the whole Scripture was ransacked by the clergy for passages applicable to the present occasion.

The first minister who preached before the king chose these words for his text: "And behold all the men of Israel came to the king, and said unto him, Why have our brethren, the men of Judah, stolen thee away, and have brought the king and his household, and all David's men with him, over Jordan?
And all the men of Judah answered the men of Israel, Because the king is near of kin to us; wherefore then be ye angry for this matter?
Have we eaten at all of the king's cost?
or hath he given us any gift?
And the men of Israel answered the men of Judah and said, We have ten parts in the king, and we have also more right in David than ye: why then did ye despise us, that our advice should not be first had in bringing back our king?
And the words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel."[*] But the king soon found, that the happiness chiefly of the allusion had tempted the preacher to employ this text, and that the covenanting zealots were nowise pacified towards him.

Another preacher, after reproaching him to his face with his misgovernment, ordered this psalm to be sung:-- "Why dost thou, tyrant, boast thyself, Thy wicked deeds to praise ?" The king stood up, and called for that psalm which begins with these words, "Have mercy, Lord, on me, I pray; For men would me devour." The good-natured audience, in pity to fallen majesty, showed for once greater deference to the king than to the minister, and sung the psalm which the former had called for.[**] Charles had very little reason to be pleased with his situation.

He not only found himself a prisoner, very strictly guarded: all his friends were kept at a distance; and no intercourse, either by letters or conversation, was allowed him with any one on whom he could depend, or who was suspected of any attachment towards him.

The Scottish generals would enter into no confidence with him; and still treated him with distant ceremony and feigned respect.