These Covenants were prepared and subscribed in a spirit of

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[Illustration: THE GRASSMARKET, EDINBURGH.]

THE COVENANTS

AND

THE COVENANTERS

COVENANTS, SERMONS, AND DOCUMENTS

OF

THE COVENANTED REFORMATION.

_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS._

INTRODUCTION ON THE NATIONAL COVENANTS

BY

REV. JAMES KERR, D.D., GLASGOW

EDINBURGH:

R.W. HUNTER, GEORGE IV. BRIDGE.

THE COVENANTS AND THE COVENANTERS.

[Illustration]

PREFATORY NOTE.

The Covenants, Sermons, and Papers in this volume carry the readers back

to some of the brightest periods of Scottish history. They mark

important events in that great struggle by which these three kingdoms

were emancipated from the despotisms of Pope, Prince, and Prelate, and

an inheritance of liberty secured for these Islands of the Sea. The

whole achievements of the heroes of the battlefields are comprehended

under that phrase of Reformers and Martyrs, "The Covenanted Work of

Reformation." The attainments of those stirring times were bound

together by the Covenants, as by rings of gold.

The Sermons here were the product of the ripe thought of the main

actors in the various scenes--men of piety, learning, and renown.

Hence, the nature, objects, and benefits of personal and national

Covenanting are exhibited in a manner fitted to attract to that

ordinance the minds and hearts of men. The readers can well believe

the statement of Livingstone, who was present at several ceremonies of

covenant-renovation: "I never saw such motions from the Spirit of God. I

have seen more than a thousand persons all at once lifting up their

hands, and the tears falling down from their eyes." In the presence of

the defences of the Covenants as deeds, by these preachers, the baseless

aspersions of novelists and theologues fade out into oblivion.

True Christians must, as they ponder these productions, be convinced

that the Covenanters were men of intense faith and seraphic fervour, and

their own hearts will burn as they catch the heavenly flame. Members of

the Church of Christ will be stirred to nobler efforts for the Kingdom

of their Lord as they meditate on the heroism of those who were the

"chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof;" and they will behold with

wonder that "to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle that she

might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished

for a time and times and half a time, from the face of the serpent." And

Statesmen will discover how Princes, Parliaments, and Peoples united in

the hearty surrender of themselves to the Prince of the kings and

kingdoms of the earth; and will be aroused to promote that policy of

Christian Statesmanship which, illustrating the purpose and will of God,

the Father, shall liberate Parliaments and nations from the bonds of

false religions, and assert for them those liberties and honours which

spring from the enthronement of the Son of Man, as King of kings and

Lord of lords.

This volume of documents of olden times is sent out on a mission of

Revival of Religion, personal and national, in the present times. It

would do a noble work if it helped to humble classes and masses, and led

them to return as one man to that God in covenant from Whom all have

gone so far away. A national movement, in penitence and faith, for the

repeal of the Acts Rescissory and the recognition of the National

Covenants would be as life from the dead throughout the British Empire.

The people and rulers of these dominions shall yet behold the brilliancy

of the Redeemer's crowns; and shall, by universal consent, exalt Him who

rules in imperial majesty over the entire universe of God. For, "The

seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying,

The kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of

His Christ."

GLASGOW, _December, 1895_.

_ERRATA._

Page 29, line 8, instead of "1745," _read_ 1712.

Page 29, line 10, instead of "Crawfordjohn," _read_ Auchensaugh, near

Douglas.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

PREFATORY NOTE, 5

THE NATIONAL COVENANTS--_Introduction_, 11

THE NATIONAL COVENANT--

THE NATIONAL COVENANT, OR CONFESSION OF FAITH, 39

EXHORTATION TO LORDS OF COUNCIL, 52

SERMON AT ST. ANDREWS. By Alexander Henderson, 54

EXHORTATION AT INVERNESS. By Andrew Cant, 77

SERMON AT GLASGOW. By Andrew Cant, 83

SERMON AT EDINBURGH. By Andrew Cant, 109

THE SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT--

THE SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT, 131

ACT OF GENERAL ASSEMBLY, 136

EXHORTATION AT WESTMINSTER. By Philip Nye, 138

ADDRESS AT WESTMINSTER. By Alexander Henderson, 151

SERMON AT WESTMINSTER. By Thomas Coleman, 159

SERMON AT WESTMINSTER. By Joseph Caryl, 190

SERMON AT LONDON. By Thomas Case, 228

SERMON AT LONDON. By Thomas Case, 265

ORDINANCE OF THE LORDS AND COMMONS, 303

EXHORTATION BY THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY, 307

SERMON AT LONDON. By Edmund Calamy, 312

THE NATIONAL COVENANTS--

CORONATION SERMON AT SCONE. By Robert Douglas, 349

CHARLES II, TAKING THE COVENANTS, 386

THE ACTS RESCISSORY, 398

THE TORWOOD EXCOMMUNICATION, 408

ACT AGAINST CONVENTICLES, 412

THE SANQUHAR DECLARATION, 416

PROTESTATION AGAINST THE UNION, 419

SECESSION FROM THE REVOLUTION CHURCH, 434

_Illustrations._

THE GRASSMARKET, EDINBURGH, _Frontispiece_

GREYFRIARS CHURCH, EDINBURGH, 38

ST. MARGARETS AND THE ABBEY, WESTMINSTER, 130

THE NATIONAL COVENANTS

Every person who enters rightly into covenant with God is on the pathway

to gladness and honour. He comes into sympathy with Him who from

eternity made a covenant with His chosen. He gives joy to Him who loves

to see His people even touch the hem of His garments, or eagerly grasp

His Omnipotent hand. The Spirit of God on the heart of the believer

draws him into the firmest attachment to the Beloved. Under His gracious

influence, the bonds of prejudice against covenanting are as green withs

and the covenanter stands forth in liberty and in power. So also, when

the people of a kingdom together come into covenant with the Lord. In

the character of Israel as a covenanted people, there shines out a

special splendour. One of the most brilliant events in Judah's chequered

history is that in which, in the days of the good king Asa, "they

gathered themselves together to Jerusalem and entered into a covenant to

seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all

their soul; and all Judah rejoiced at the oath." More than any other

nation of modern times, the people of the British Isles resemble in

their covenant actings the people of Israel; and Scotland is the likest

to Judah. Certainly, Scotland's covenants with God were coronets on

Scotland's brow.

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, Scotland was a moral waste.

The Papacy, which had attained the zenith of its power on the

Continent, reigned in its supremacy throughout the land. In Europe,

indeed, there were some oases in the desolation, but here there were

"stretched out upon the kingdom the line of confusion and the stones of

emptiness." The chaos was as broad and deep as that of the Papal States

before the time of Victor Emanuel. By the presence of the Papacy, mind,

conscience, heart, were blasted; while ignorance, superstition,

iniquity, increased and prevailed. But the Lord that saw the affliction

of Israel in the land of the Pharaohs, was "the same yesterday"; and His

time of visitation was one of love. The first signs of the coming

deliverance were the martyr fires kindled to consume those who were

beginning to cry for liberty. The heroic efforts and successes of the

Reformers on the Continent, in the presence of Papal bulls and

inquisitions, were a trumpet call to independence to the people of this

priest-cursed land; and many responded right nobly, ready to stand amid

the faggots at the stake rather than bear the iron heel that bruised

them.

Those valiant men were led to bind themselves together in "bands," or

covenants, and together to God, in prosecution of their aims. At Dun, in

1556, they entered into a "Band" in which they vowed to "refuse all

society with idolatry." At Edinburgh, in 1557, they entered into "ane

Godlie Band," vowing that "we, by His grace, shall, with all diligence,

continually apply our whole power, substance, and our very lives to

maintain, set forward and establish the most blessed Word of God." At

Perth, in 1559, they entered into covenant "to put away all things that

dishonour His name, that God may be truly and purely worshipped." At

Edinburgh, in 1560, they entered into covenant "to procure, by all means

possible, that the truth of God's Word may have free passage within this

realm." And these covenants were soon followed by the Confession of

Faith prepared by Knox and five other Reformers, and acknowledged by the

three Estates as "wholesome and sound doctrine grounded upon the

infallible truth of God;" by an Act abolishing the "jurisdiction of the

bishop of Rome within this realme," and forbidding "title or right by

the said bishop of Rome or his sect to anything within this realme," and

by the first General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. Seven years

thereafter, 1569, the Parliament recognised, by specific Act, the

reformed Church of Scotland as "the only true and holy kirk of Jesus

Christ within this realm." The young Church of Scotland was based on the

Word of God, anti-papal, free, reformed, and covenanting, and in that

character acknowledged by the State. "At this time," writes D'Aubigne,

"the reformed church was recognised and established by the State--a

triumph similar to that of Christianity when under Constantine the

religion of the Crucified One ascended the throne of the Cæsars." In

spite of the vacillating policy of the King and Parliament, and their

repeated attempts to impose the order of bishops on the Church, the

reformation proceeded steadily, and a great advance was reached by the

National Covenant of 1580.

This National Covenant, or Second Confession of Faith, was prepared by

John Craig, minister of Holyrood House. Its original title was "Ane

Short and Generall Confession of the True Christiane Faith and

Religione, according to God's verde and Actis of our Perlamentis,

subscryved by the Kingis Majestie and his Household, with sindrie

otheris, to the glorie of God and good example of all men, att

Edinburghe, the 28 day of Januare, 1580, and 14 yeare of his Majestie's

reigne." The immediate occasion of this memorable transaction was the

discovery of a secret dispensation from the Pope consenting to the

profession of the reformed religion by Roman Catholics, but instructing

them to use all their influence in promotion of the "ancient faith."

Though the King was still in sympathy to some degree with the policy of

Rome against the "new faith," he could not dare to resist the

indignation of the people against Romish intrigues, and their demand for

a national bond as a means of defence. By the National Covenant, the

Covenanters declared their belief "in the true Christian faith and

religion, revealed by the blessed evangel, and received by the Kirk of

Scotland, as God's eternal truth and only ground of our Salvation;"

renounced "all kinds of Papistry," its authority, dogmas, rites and

decrees, and pledged themselves to maintain "the King's majesty, in the

defence of Christ, against all enemies within this realm or without." It

was signed by the King and the Privy Council and throughout the kingdom,

and was subscribed again in 1590 and 1596. "The Kirk of Scotland," wrote

Calderwood, "was now come to her perfection and the greatest puritie

that ever she attained unto, both in doctrine and discipline, so that

her beautie was admirable to forraine kirks. The assemblies of the

sancts were never so glorious." This period was the meridian of the

first Reformation.

But the time of Scotland's rest and joy was short indeed. Ere the

sixteenth century opened, the ecclesiastical edifice, raised by Knox,

the Melvilles and other reformers, was almost in ruins. The monarch had

been taught in his youth the doctrine of the divine right of kings, and

he was now determined to assert it. Both church and state must be laid

in the dust before his absolute will. Both had been delivered from a

popedom on the banks of the Tiber, now they will be confronted by a

popedom on the banks of the Thames; and the despotism of the Pope shall

be even exceeded by the despotism of the Prince. Scotland is now to be

the scene of a struggle with issues more momentous than any ever waged

on any field of battle. Shall civil and religious liberty be saved from

captivity by tyrants on the throne? Shall free assemblies and free

parliaments be extinguished in the land that has, by its people and its

Parliament, abolished the authority of Rome and taken its National

Covenant with God? For nearly a hundred years this conflict was destined

to continue till, at the Revolution Settlement, the divine right of

kings was banished the realm.

Kingcraft forthwith commenced its work of demolition and proceeded to

deliver its blows in rapid succession. Summoning to its aid Laud and

other sycophantic counsellors, it subtly resolved to lay its hand on the

very conscience of the church. Mitres were offered some of her more

prominent ministers, for Charles I. knew that Presbyterianism is the

friend of civil freedom, and that Prelacy in the Church will more

readily consent to despotism in the State. The "Black Acts" were passed

confirming the "king's royal power over all states and subjects within

this realm," discharging all assemblies held "without our Sovereign

Lord's special licence and commandment," and requiring ministers to

acknowledge the ecclesiastical superiority of bishops. The assembly was

induced to adopt a proposal for the appointment of a number of

commissioners to sit and vote in Parliament, become members of the Privy

Council, and Lords of Session; and such honours would not readily be

declined. Then came the Court of High Commission, instituted for the

purpose of compelling the "faithful" ministers to acknowledge the

bishops appointed by the king--a court called into existence by royal

proclamation, "a sort of English Inquisition," writes Dr. M'Crie,

"composed of prelates, noblemen, knights, and ministers, and possessing

the combined power of a civil and ecclesiastical tribunal." After this

came the Act giving full legal status to the "Anti-Christian hierarchy"

of Episcopacy in Scotland; the formal consecration of the first Scottish

prelates; the five articles of Perth; the Canons and Constitutions

Ecclesiastical--a complete code of laws for the Church issued without

any consultation with the representatives of the Church; an Act charging

all His Majesty's subjects to conform to the order of worship

prescribed by him, and the Semi-Popish Book of Common Prayer and

Administration of the Sacraments which was imposed upon all parishes and

ministers. By these and other measures, the sovereign impiously assumed

that spiritual power which belonged to Christ alone, as King and Head of

the Church. Here, in its worst form, was "the absolutism that had so

long threatened the extinction of their liberties; here was the heel of

despotism openly planted on the neck of their Church, and the crown

openly torn from the brow of Christ, her only King."

During all these years, the Reformers were resisting with courage the

assaults of the enemy. At times there were secessions from their ranks

when, under the bribes and threats of prince and prelate, some

ingloriously succumbed. But, as Renwick said later in the struggle, "the

loss of the men was not the loss of the cause." The champions of the

Reformation, led by Andrew Melville, feared not to arraign that monarch

who once told his bishops that "now he had put the sword into their

hands they should not let it rust." They tabled petitions, published

protests, obtained interviews, but all proved powerless to arrest the

career of those who were bent on the annihilation of the Church, and the

establishment on its ruins of the royal Supremacy. In one of their

protests, they call upon the Estates to "advance the building of the

house of God, remembering always that there is no absolute and undoubted

authority in the world excepting the sovereign authority of Christ the

King, to whom it belongeth as properly to rule the Kirk according to the

good pleasure of His own will, as it belongeth to Him to save the Kirk

by the merit of His own sufferings." The attempt to impose Laud's

liturgy gave opportunity for an outburst of the slumbering flame of

discontent. Janet Geddes flung a stool at the head of the officiating

Dean, and the tumult that ensued extended far and wide. A tablet,

recently erected to her memory in St. Giles, states that "she struck the

first blow in the great struggle for freedom of conscience." The

proclamation by the Council of the State, condemning all meetings

against the Episcopal Canons and Service Book, brought the Reformers

accessions from all parts of the kingdom. Could an oppressed people bear

the tyranny longer? But, will they take up arms and scatter carnage and

blood throughout the land? No, their weapons will not be carnal, but

mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. They will go to

the Covenant God of the kingdom, and they will stand before Him, saying,

"Thine are we, David, and on thy side, thou son of Jesse." Scotland will

renew her covenant with God.

The National Covenant of 1580 was produced. An addition was made, in two

parts. The part summarizing the Acts of Parliament, condemning the

papacy and ratifying the confessions of the Church, was drafted by

Warriston; that with special religious articles for the time was by

Henderson. The spot chosen for the solemnities of the first subscription

was the Churchyard of Greyfriars, Edinburgh. "The selection," writes the

historiographer-royal for Scotland, "showed a sound taste for the

picturesque. The graveyard in which their ancestors have been laid from

time immemorial stirs the hearts of men. The old Gothic Church of the

Friary was then existing; and landscape art in Edinburgh has by repeated

efforts established the opinion that from that spot we have the grandest

view of the precipices of the Castle and the national fortress crowning

them. It seemed a homage to that elevating influence of grand external

conditions which the actors in the scene were so vehemently

repudiating." In that memorable spot the Reformers gathered "the

legitimate charters" of their nation into one document and presented

them before heaven. Johnston unrolled the parchment in which these

Scottish charters were inscribed, and read them in a clear, calm voice.

"When he had finished, all was still as the grave. But the silence was

soon broken. An aged man of noble air was seen advancing. He came

forward slowly, and deep emotion was visible in his venerable features.

He took up the pen with a trembling hand and signed the document. A

general movement now took place. All the Presbyterians in the Church

pressed forward to the Covenant and subscribed their names. But this was

not enough; a whole nation was waiting. The immense parchment was

carried into the churchyard and spread out on a large tombstone to

receive on this expressive table the signature of the Church. Scotland

had never beheld a day like that." "This," says Henderson, "was the day

of the Lord's power, in which multitudes offered themselves most

willingly, like dewdrops of the morning. This was, indeed, the great day

of Israel, wherein the arm of the Lord was revealed--the day of the

Redeemer's strength, on which the princes of the people assembled to

swear their allegiance to the King of kings." Charles I. understood well

the force of that mighty movement when, on hearing of it, he said, "I

have no more power in Scotland than a Doge of Venice." The renewal of

that covenant, 28th February, 1638, was a thunderbolt against despotism

in Scotland, and the world over. "The chariots of God are twenty

thousand."

The covenant was transcribed into hundreds of copies, carried throughout

the country from north to south and east to west, and subscribed

everywhere. The spirit that thrilled the thousands filling and

overflowing Greyfriars Church and churchyard, spread with rapidity over

the whole land. It combined the "whole nation into one mighty phalanx of

incalculable energy." The last sparks of the King's fury burst out in

secret instructions to his followers to use all power against the

"refractory and seditious," and in a threat to send his army and fleet

to Scotland, but these soon died away. The "refractory and seditious"

king eventually surrendered to the Covenanters, abolished courts,

canons, liturgies, and articles, and consented to the calling of a

General Assembly. This was the first free General Assembly of the Church

of Scotland for the last forty two years. It was held in Glasgow, on

21st November, 1638; and its work in the overthrow of Prelacy and the

royal supremacy and in the re-assertion of the spiritual independence of

the Church, was one of the most signal successes in the still

progressing conflict of the second Reformation.

Meanwhile, Charles II. was endeavouring to secure the recognition of his

absolute monarchy in England. There also he rigorously demanded

submission to despotic claims. By abolishing Parliaments, annulling

charters, appointing the star chamber, he introduced a reign of terror.

In the room of those legislative bulwarks of liberty, which the nation

had constructed through the skill and experience of generations, a "grim

tyranny," writes Dr. Wylie, "reared its gaunt form, with the terrible

accompaniments of star chamber, pillory, and branding irons. It reminded

one of sunset in the tropics. There the luminary of the day goes down at

a plunge into the dark. So had the day of liberty in England gone down

at a stride into the night of tyranny." The oppressed people turned to

the Covenanters of Scotland for sympathy and counsel. The negotiations

resulted in the preparation of an international league in defence of

religion and liberty. Against the banner of the King they raised the

banner of the Covenant. Alexander Henderson drafted the new Bond. The

document breathed the spirit of the National Covenant of Greyfriars,

condemned the Papal and Prelatic system, pled for a constitutional

monarchy, and outlined a comprehensive programme for future efforts in

extending the principles of the Reformation. On September 25, 1643, it

was subscribed in St. Margarets Church, Westminster. The members of

Parliament in England and the Westminster Assembly of Divines stood with

uplifted hands, and, as article after article was read, they took this

Oath to God. The Commissioners from Scotland to the Westminster Assembly

united with the people of England in the solemnity of the day. Thus the

representatives of the two nations stood before the Lord. This was the

Solemn League and Covenant, "the noblest in its essential features,"

writes Hetherington, "of all that are recorded among the international

transactions of the world." The Parliament and Westminster Assembly

issued instructions for its subscription throughout the kingdom. The

classes and the masses in England, Scotland, and Ireland received it

with gladness. In the face of a despotism unexampled in the history of

these lands, high and low, rich and poor, bowed themselves as one before

the throne of God. "For at that time day by day there came to David to

help him, until it was a great host like the host of God." Through this

League and Covenant, the people of the British Isles were protected by

Omnipotence, and were as invincible against the despotic forces that

assailed them as were the white cliffs of their native shores against

the huge galleons of the invincible Armada.

"To Thine own people, with Thine arm,

Thou didst redemption bring;

To Jacob's sons and to the tribes

Of Joseph that do spring."

These Covenants were prepared and subscribed in a spirit of deep piety.

But for the sterling spirituality of the Reformers there would never

have been a Covenanted Reformation. The work of Covenanting is itself a

lofty spiritual exercise, and requires a people possessing much of the

Spirit of the living God. Every public act for the sake of Christ should

be the outcome of an impassioned devotion. The reading of even the scant

records of those times of Covenanting, telling of the prayers, and

tears, and love, and courage of those who gave themselves to God, is

fitted to inspire the coldest heart with noblest emotions. Their inward

piety made them men of power, and enabled them to bear down every

barrier to the kingdom of their Lord erected by the craft of prince and

priest. It is when Israel would call her Lord, Ishi, my Husband, that

"the names of Baalim would be taken out of her mouth and be remembered

no more." It was when the Christians of the Mearns had communion at "the

table of the Lord Jesus," ministered by Knox, that they "banded

themselves to the uttermost of their power to maintain the true

preaching of the Evangel of Christ." The historian, Burton, describes

the movement that resulted in the subscription of the National Covenant

as the fruit of "a great religious revival," and the Reformation as "the

great revival." And Kirkton says, "I verily believe there were more

souls converted to Christ in that short time than in any other season

since the Reformation." Their intense piety prepared the Covenanters for

the persecutions to follow and for crowns of martyrdom. In and around

their whole Covenanting procedure, there was the atmosphere of a

paradise of communion with God.

These Covenants exhibited the great ecclesiastical breadth of the

Covenanters. The enthronement of the Word of God over the Church was one

of the commanding objects of the Reformers. If only the Church would

hear and honour Christ, her King, speaking in that Word, then would she

be clothed with the sun, and have on her head a crown of twelve stars.

The Reformers resolutely set themselves to apply the Word to the Church,

in all her departments; she must be such an institution as her Lord had

instructed. The will of priest, and prince, and presbyter, and people,

must be set aside in the presence of the will of her sole Sovereign. The

works of demolition and reconstruction must go on together. Built

according to the design of her Lord, her bulwarks, and towers, and

palaces shall command the admiration of the world. The pattern was not

taken from Rome, nor "even from Geneva, but from the blessed Word of

God." No quarter shall be given to hierarchy of Pope or prelate in the

government of the Church, to the "commandments of men" in the doctrine

of the Church, or to unscriptural rites in the worship of the Church. So

great was their success that the Reformers could say that they "had

borrowed nothing from the border of Rome," and had "nothing that ever

flowed from the man of sin." Often the battle raged most fiercely round

the standard of the independence of the Church, but ever the Covenanters

emerged from the struggle victorious. Valorously did they maintain that

Christ ought to "bear the glory of ruling His own kingdom, the Church,"

and fearlessly they defied the monarchs in their invasions of Messiah's

rights. Besides, they were not satisfied with the attainment of a united

Church in their own kingdom alone. They were filled with the spirit of

the Saviour's prayer, "That they all may be one." In the present times,

those who publicly contend for the reunion of a "few scattered

fragments" of the Reformed Church are belauded as men of large hearts

and liberal aims. The Covenanters embodied in their Solemn League and

Covenant an engagement to "bring the Churches of God in the three

kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and uniformity;" and they also

subsequently included the Churches on the Continent in their efforts for

ecclesiastical union. For the purposes of these ecclesiastical unions,

the Westminster Assembly sat for five years in Westminster, after

signing the Solemn League, and framed a basis for union in the standards

they produced--which still testify that the members of that Assembly

were in advance of their times. Yes, the Covenanters were not narrow,

sectarian, bigoted; but large, liberal, Catholic.

These Covenants were deeds of lofty imperial significance. The

reformation of the Church, however complete, would have been a limited

Reformation. There are two powers ordained of God and both must be

reformed. The comprehensive aims of the Covenanters embraced both State

and Church. Their deeds were civil as well as ecclesiastical. A Church

thoroughly reformed and Christian in a State unreformed and

anti-Christian, would never have satisfied the Reformers. The State also

must be no longer a vassal of the Pope, it must be a servant of the

blessed and only Potentate. God in His word here also as in the Church

must be joyfully granted the exclusive supremacy. The Covenanters vowed

to defend the King in the defence and preservation of the reformed

religion. They secured the recognition of the Church by Parliament. The

members of Parliament themselves became Covenanters. In short,

Christianity pervaded and adorned the constitution and administration of

civil government in the United Kingdom. The Covenanters were convinced

that no power, except that provided by the Word of God, could possibly

resist the arbitrary claims of the monarchs, secure the safety of the

State, and promote civil liberty in the land. Religion in the realm of

citizenship is the very crown of any realm. In the face of the

despotisms of Pope and Monarch, it would not have been surprising had

the Covenanters invented and endeavoured to apply to the State the

modern theory of religious equality, which denies the right of the State

to even acknowledge the Prince of the kings of the earth. If ever they

dreamt of such a theory, their thought of the supremacy of Jesus would

make it vanish as a dream. Much less would they ever admit the

possibility of deliverance by the theory of a concurrent recognition of

all religions, as this would lower a nation to the position of

heathenism with its "gods many," and would soon involve the strongest

empire in disaster. Papalism in the State in the ascendancy, absolute

Monarchism in the State, Secularism in the State, Polytheism in the

State--these are four despotisms, and must be flung with detestation out

of all Christian lands. The State that is not on the side of Christ, and

Christ alone, is in antagonism to all the moral forces of the universe.

Its throne is against the throne of the Highest. The Scottish

Covenanters placed the crown of the State on the Head of its rightful

Monarch, and so lifted their kingdom to imperial grandeur.

There are some spots of this world that have secured undying memorials,

as they have been stages for the settlement of questions of momentous

importance in the destinies of nations. There is Marathon in Greece,

Waterloo in France, Sadowa in Austria, and Trafalgar on the sea, but

probably the scenes associated with these pale in glory in the presence

of Greyfriars and Westminster, where nations won unparalleled victories

in the surrender of themselves to their Covenant God. These two spots

were the earthly centres of spiritual movements of mighty magnitude, and

possess in the eyes of the God of Heaven and of the principalities about

His Throne a splendour not eclipsed by any that ever shone on a

battlefield. When the day of millennial glory comes, the people of the

new Era will not look to the Sadowas and the Sedans, but to such spots

as these where the greatest heroes of the pre-millennial times reflected

millennial light and anticipated millennial triumphs. For there, by an

army without sword or spear, the absolutism of Monarchies and the

tyranny of Hierarchies were scattered like chaff before the wind. As the

Covenanters entered into and rejoiced in their vows to God, the

Imperialism of King Jesus conquered the Imperialism which prince and

priest had been enforcing with rigour; and this Imperialism shall be in

the ascendancy yet the world over when the empires of earth shall crown

the Christ of God as King of the Church and King of nations.

But the Covenanters have scarce time to estimate and enjoy the benefits

of their conquests before a tempest burst forth suddenly and threatened

the destruction of all the attainments of the past. In a moment of

national infatuation the Stuart dynasty was restored to the throne, and

Charles II. instantly proceeded to set up once more the Dagon of the

Royal Supremacy and enforce its recognition by all his power. On two

occasions he had subscribed the Solemn League, and he had issued

instructions in its favour, professing warm admiration of both Covenants

and of the Reformation. But now the perjured monarch employed all his

craft and power to overthrow the whole Covenanted Reformation in Church

and State. Parliament, the slave of his behests, passed the Act of

Supremacy, giving legislative sanction to all the rights he claimed. The

Acts Rescissory followed, declaring the Covenants unlawful and seditious

deeds, and repealing all Parliamentary laws in their favour. Then came

the abolition of Presbyterianism, Indulgences, the restoration of

Prelacy, the appointment of High Commission Courts, the ejection of all

ministers who would not obey the royal mandates, and the erection of

scaffolds. The monarch seemed determined to extinguish every spark of

liberty in the kingdom. The reign of peace was supplanted by a reign of

terror. The Covenants were broken, burnt, buried, by public orders. The

Covenanters met to worship God in the moorlands and dells, setting a

watch for the dragoons of Claverhouse. Thousands upon thousands of the

noblest patriots were imprisoned, tortured, mangled, shot. At times

their indignation burst forth through arms, as at Rullion Green,

Drumclog, and Bothwell Bridge. Their most brilliant victories were on

the scaffold when they passed triumphantly to the crown; for there was

"a noble army" of martyrs, from Argyle the proto-martyr of the "Killing

times," down to the youthful Renwick, last of the white-robed throng.

The ruin wrought by Charles I. in England "we have likened," says Dr.

Wylie, "to a tropical sunset, where night follows day at a single

stride. But the fall of Scotland into the abyss of oppression and

suffering under Charles II. was like the disastrous eclipse of the sun

in his meridian height, bringing dismal night over the shuddering earth

at the hour of noon."

"The hills with the deep mournful music were ringing,

The curlew and plover in concert were singing;

But the melody died 'midst derision and laughter,

As the hosts of ungodly rushed on to the slaughter.

"When the righteous had fallen and the combat had ended,

A chariot of fire through the dark cloud descended;

The drivers were angels on horses of whiteness,

And its burning wheels turned on axles of brightness.

"On the arch of the rainbow the chariot is gliding;

Through the paths of the thunder the horsemen are riding;

Glide swiftly, bright spirits, the prize is before you,

A crown never fading, a kingdom of glory."

Throughout the long thirty years of persecution, the decimated

Covenanters still lived. The Banner for Christ's Crown and Covenant was

still waved by them through the blood-stained land. Oftentimes they

issued declarations and protests against the tyranny of their

oppressors, many of which concluded with those inspiriting words at the

close of the last of them, "Let King Jesus reign and all His enemies be

scattered." The most famous of these papers was the Sanquhar

Declaration. On the 22nd of June, 1680, twenty horsemen rode into the

burgh of Sanquhar, and at the market cross read their declaration, in

which they "disowned Charles Stuart that has been reigning (or rather

tyrannizing as we may say) on the throne of Britain these years bygone,

as having any right, title to, or interest in the said Crown of Scotland

for government, as forfeited several years since by his perjury and

breach of Covenant both to God and His Kirk, and usurpation of His Crown

and Royal Prerogatives therein." That courageous act of those twenty

patriots proclaimed the doom of the House of Stuart.

"Men called it rash, perhaps it was crime:

Their deed flashed out God's will, an hour before the time."

A few years afterwards, the nations of England and Scotland endorsed the

action of Richard Cameron and his compatriots. The blood of Guthrie, and

Cargill, and MacKail had cried for vengeance, and the God of the

Covenanters hurled the Stuart dynasty from the throne. "Alas! is it not

true?" writes Carlyle in his _Heroes_, "that many men in the van do

always, like Russian soldiers, march into the ditch of Schwiednitz, and

fill it up with their dead bodies, that the rear may pass over them

dry-shod, and gain the honour? How many earnest, rugged Cromwells,

Knoxes, poor peasant Covenanters, wrestling, battling for very life, in

rough, miry places, have to struggle and suffer and fall, greatly

censured, bemired, before a beautiful Revolution of eighty-eight can

step over them in official pumps and silk stockings, with universal

three-times-three!"

The stedfast followers of the Covenanters expected that, on the

cessation of the persecution, there would be the restoration of the

whole Covenanted Reformation in Church and State. But their just

expectations were doomed to bitter disappointment. Neither by Church nor

State was any proposal ever seriously entertained of renewing the

national Covenants with God, as at the commencement of the Second

Reformation. Instead, the Acts Rescissory were permitted to remain on

the Statute-book, and the Covenants to lie under the infamy to which the

King and the Royalists had consigned them. The State exerted an Erastian

control of the Church, and the Church yielded submission. Her standards

were assigned her before she met; her assemblies were summoned and

prorogued at the sovereign's pleasure; Presbyterianism was established,

not because it possessed a _jus divinum_ but because the people willed

it; her government was controlled through the admission into her

ministry, by royal request, of many who had accepted indulgences and

were supporters of Prelacy. The whole period of the Second Reformation

was almost annihilated by the settlement of the Church, not according to

the periods, 1638 and 1643, but according to 1592. The Acts of the

Assemblies of the Revolution Church never once mention the Solemn League

and Covenant. Ministers who pled for its recognition exposed themselves

to the censures of their brethren. An attempt by the Church, soon after

the Revolution to assert the supremacy of Christ and the Church's

independence under Him, issued in the dissolution of the Assembly by the

royal Commissioner. And this departure of the Church and State at the

Revolution was strikingly and sadly endorsed when, at the Union with

England, Scotland consented that the Prelatic Establishment in England

should be allowed to remain "inviolable for ever." A few "stones had

been gathered from the wreck of the Reformation to be incorporated with

the new structure, but the venerable fabric itself was left in ruins."

Yes! the Revolution came but not the Reformation. The sword was returned

to its scabbard, but Church and State did not return to their Covenant

God. Into sympathy and fellowship with institutions founded on

principles subversive of those they had vowed to maintain, the faithful

followers of the Reformers and Martyrs could not enter. The banner for

Christ's Crown and Covenant had waved over the fields of Scotland when

the storms of persecution had raged most fiercely, and how could they be

justified in dropping it now when the God of Zion was pleased to command

a calm. The minority who thus preserved an unbroken relationship with

the pre-Revolution and Martyr period continued to meet in "Societies"

for sixteen years, when they were joined by a minister--Rev. John

M'Millan--who was driven out of the Revolution Church because of his

testimony for the whole Covenanted Reformation. Some years afterwards,

another minister espoused the cause then represented by Mr. M'Millan and

the United Societies, and this union resulted in the constitution of the

Reformed Presbytery. Two years afterwards, in 1712, the members of the

Reformed Presbyterian Church engaged in the work of Covenant Renovation,

at Auchensaugh, near Douglas, in Lanarkshire. Since that time this

Church has had an unbroken history, excepting a disruption in 1863, when

a majority departed from her distinctive position.

But what is the bearing of Scotland's Covenanted Reformation of three

centuries ago, on the Scotland of the present times? Has it no

instruction for all times? Is the whole prolonged struggle, with all its

chequered scenes, but a panorama on which spectators may gaze with but

passing emotions? Is it all but a story with interest, however

thrilling, for the study of the antiquarian? If so then the whole

contendings of Reformers and Covenanters and Martyrs sink into

insignificance indeed; they have been assigned a magnitude far beyond

their desert. If the doctrines and principles for whose application in

Church and State they fought and suffered, were unscriptural, then let

an enlightened posterity bury with shame the story of their warfare. Or,

if they were of mere temporary importance, then the Covenanters merit no

higher admiration than that accorded to those who, like the Armenians

now in Turkey, cry out against the oppressions of the civil power. But

these doctrines and principles were brought from the Word of God and

possess imperishable excellency. Their glory was not temporal; it is

eternal. And they shall yet undergo a resurrection and receive

universally a joyous recognition.

The obligation of these national Covenants on the British nation still

has been oftentimes demonstrated by indisputable arguments. The Word of

God teaches in the most pointed manner this principle of devolving

Covenant obligation. The God of Israel threatened His people with

chastisement for breaking the Covenant He had made with their fathers

four hundred years before. The Covenanters themselves bound their

posterity to God by express words in their bonds. The renovation of

Covenants at various times proceeded on this principle. In the time of

persecution, the sufferers again and again declared that they and others

were bound by the vows of their fathers. "God hath laid engagements upon

Scotland," said Argyle on the scaffold, "we are tied by Covenants to

religion and Reformation; and it passeth the power of all the

magistrates under heaven to absolve from the oath of God." The

scriptural character of their contents infers the perpetual obligation

of these Covenants. All who accept the Scriptures as the Word of God,

must renounce the errors condemned by the Covenants and contend for the

truths those who subscribed them pledged themselves to maintain. No

Christian should ever dare to seek relief from the claims of Christ; it

is his honour to acknowledge and live and die for them. These deeds were

as national as any in the statute-book and therefore they are obligatory

still, for the nation in its corporate character is the same now as

three hundred years ago. Their perpetual obligation may be resisted, as

it often is, on the plea that a people have no right to bind posterity.

But should such a plea be declared valid, then society would be thrown

into the wildest disorder and temporal ruin would overtake millions.

Heirs could be justified in refusing to fulfil the instructions of

testators; young people could condemn the baptismal vows taken by

parents; governments and cabinets could tear up the treaties of their

predecessors; and the nation itself could repudiate the national debt.

Those who enter into the possession of valuable estates, secured for

them by the toil and struggles of ancestry, do not renounce their

estates because they themselves were not consulted in the execution of

the title deeds. These deeds of the Covenanters, and the heritage

secured by them, were obtained through the noblest sacrifices. They were

deeds presented before the Throne, and registered in the Court of

heaven, and those who repudiate them incur the risk of an awful

forfeiture.

The present conditions in Church and State throughout the British Isles,

force upon the minds of all who admire the Reformation the facts that

the doctrines and principles of those Reformations are even now ignored

and despised, and that the systems which were cast out by the whole

nation through their Covenants are now in power. The objects sought by

the Covenants have not yet been realized. In several sad respects, both

Church and State are in positions of acute antagonism to those great

catholic objects. An ecclesiastical supremacy in the British sovereign

rears its head over these Covenanted kingdoms; for, as Blackstone

writes, this supremacy is "an inherent right of the British Crown." The

"Anti-Christian" hierarchy of Prelacy is implanted in the national

constitution and sustained by the whole prestige of the realm. Under its

lordly bewitchery, Erastianism prevails in the Established Churches of

the kingdom. The Oath of Allegiance implicates all who take it in an

acknowledgment of the ecclesiastical supremacy of the sovereign as "by

law established," and this Oath must be taken by every member of

Parliament before he can sit and vote in the House, under a penalty of

five hundred pounds. The basis of qualification for membership in

Parliament has been so much altered in recent times that Roman

Catholics, atheists, and now idolaters are admitted--changes which have

been demanded by the vast majority of the non-established Churches, who

are pleading for the exclusion of religion from all State institutions.

The Papacy, through its various agencies, is in receipt of more than a

million and a quarter pounds annually from the national funds. A

wide-spread reaction in favour of the Romish religion is going forward,

and is being powerfully assisted by the Romanizing movement in the

Church of England, and the Ritualistic in the Presbyterian Churches

throughout the kingdom.