Covenants and the Solemn League and Covenant, and to the formularies
prepared by the international Assembly at Westminster, the lovers of the
Covenanted Reformation would not have had these portentous conditions to
deplore to-day. Would their adherence to those deeds and documents have
done them any dishonour? And would it not be to the lasting honour of
their posterity now, if a movement were originated and carried through
to reproduce with all possible fulness the scenes of the past--another
Greyfriars, Edinburgh, and another St. Margarets, Westminster. But, even
apart from the historical aspect of the whole matter, the question may,
in the presence of these monstrous evils, be pressed upon the attention
and heart of all the people throughout the land? What ought to be done
to remove these evils and avert the disaster which their continuance
must entail? What ought the British subject, if a patriot, do, in the
face of evils which threaten the ruin of his kingdom? What ought the
Protestant to do, in the presence of a government and administration
which are daily advancing the court of Rome to power? What the
Presbyterian, who cannot take the Oath of Allegiance without committing
himself to the hierarchy of Prelacy? What the Christian, in the presence
of systems in imperial politics which have already dethroned Christ and
are hastening to expel Him from all national institutions? Is there no
means by which the Christian citizen can exonerate himself from
national sins, and free himself of all responsibility for national
calamity? Must he still exercise his right to vote and give his support
to governments which, in the hands of both political parties, are
augmenting rather than diminishing the existing evils? If the members of
one political party secede from that party, when changes they cannot
accept are welcomed to their programme, and henceforth refuse them their
support at the polling-booth, would it not be proper that men, sensible
of the utter inadequacy of the performances of both parties to meet the
evils under which the nation lies, should stand aloof from both
government and opposition? The leading Unionists in Ireland again and
again declared that they could not possibly enter into the proposed
Parliament under Home Rule which would be set up in Dublin, and their
declarations awakened universal sympathy. For reasons similar, should
not all Christian electors refuse to identify themselves with a
constitution and government which are based on principles subversive of
independence and liberty? Protests against existing evils are not
sufficient. Practical political dissent is imperatively demanded in the
interests of patriotism and Christianity. If even one-tenth of the
electors in the United Kingdom prepared a paper of grievances, setting
forth the present dishonours done to Christ nationally, and calling for
the abandonment of all that is unscriptural in the public policy, and
the adoption of what is scriptural and honouring to Christ, and
accompany this manifesto with a declaration that they cannot violate
their convictions by identifying themselves with the government till
reforms be conceded, would not such a movement touch the mind and heart
of the nation as no question in party politics has done for generations?
Their attitude of separation would carry extraordinary dignity and
power. And they could plead too that the evils of which they complained
were abjured by the nation universally, when the National Covenants
were taken in Scotland, England, and Ireland, and when Sovereigns and
Members of Parliament again subscribed them as a condition of the high
offices to which they were called. How could they loyally support a
Constitution now so opposite to the ancient Scriptural and Covenanted
Constitution of the realm? The Reformed Presbyterian Churches of
Scotland and Ireland are the only Churches within the British Dominions
that take this position of political dissent. Their fathers took it at
the Revolution settlement, and they have maintained it all through these
centuries till now; and they have done so not because they love the
nation less, but Christ more. If this position were assumed by larger
numbers throughout the land, who knoweth whether they would "not come to
the kingdom for such a time as this?" "Shall the throne of iniquity have
fellowship with Thee, that frameth mischief by a law?" "Wherefore, come
out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord."
"Hope thou not, then, earth's alliance,
Take thy stand behind the cross;
Fear, lest by unblest compliance,
Thou transmute thy gold to dross.
Stedfast in thy meek endurance,
Prophesy in sackcloth on;
Hast thou not the pledged assurance,
Kings one day shall kiss the Son."
The popular acceptance of these doctrines and principles by the State
and the Churches at present, would imply a vast mental upheaval--a vast
moral revolution. But the best hopes and wishes for the nation at large
are that it will come and come soon, and the present evils, however
great, must not be allowed to produce a pessimistic tone. Very hopeless
seemed the prospects before the first Reformation, but that Reformation
came. Very hopeless seemed the prospects before the second Reformation,
but that Reformation came. And however dark the prospects now before a
third Reformation, that Reformation shall come! The world is nearing the
last stage of its history, as pointed out by Daniel in the dream of the
monarch of Babylon, prior to the overwhelming and triumphant progress of
the stone-kingdom, cut out of the mountain. That immense image of
Nebuchadnezzar, in its gold and silver and brass and iron, represented
those four vast monarchies which, in their successive periods, swayed
the government of the world. But in the fact that the image was in the
form of a man, the spirit that actuated these four empires of earth is
strikingly emphasized--the spirit of the idolatry of humanity. They were
all embodiments of the man-will: Babels for the incarnation of
heaven-daring human aspirations, and so carried within even their
colossal proportions the elements of confusion and death. A similar lust
of humanity for supremacy characterises those Kingdoms, represented by
the ten toes of the image, into which the fourth Roman monarchy parted.
But soon now, therefore, must sound out the last blast of the seventh
trumpet, when the idolatry of humanity in earth's kingdoms shall fall,
and the spirit and will of Christ pervade and beautify all the
institutions, ecclesiastical and imperial, of the world. Yes, the
kingdom "not in hands" shall shatter yet all the usurped rights of the
world-powers. There shall be a glorious reversal of the disaster in
Eden. That old Adamic principle of a legislative sovereignty in man,
which has convulsed the nations for six thousand years, shall be utterly
renounced and crucified the world over. Ruin irreparable shall befall
the entire empire of Satan, who shall be chained in his lake, as the
pealing note of that trumpet of God shall swell over all the earth. The
throne of God and the Lamb shall be erected by public consent as the
unifying source and centre for people, churches, and empires. The whole
world of humanity shall be redeemed from sin and its curse, be animated
by one Spirit, and triumphant in one Lord.
May not the true Christian, then, as he thinks of the idolatrous form in
the dream of the monarch of Babylon, and looks in the watches of the
night for the dawn, when Christ Jesus his Lord shall be honoured
throughout the world, behold rising before his eyes in his dream another
colossal figure; and its head is gold, and its breasts and arms gold,
and its belly and thighs gold, and its legs and feet and toes gold; yea
all of it "is as the most fine gold;" and the head representing the
powers of the great American Continents; the breast and arms, Asia; the
belly and thighs, Africa; the legs and feet, Europe, and the toes the
Isles of the Sea--the British Isles with the rest. And the form of the
great earth-filling figure is that of Jesus of Nazareth, the Man of
Jehovah's right hand. And lo! "I saw heaven opened, and I heard as it
were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters,
and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord
God Omnipotent reigneth."
"Come, then, and, added to Thy many crowns,
Receive yet one, the crown of all the earth,
Thou who alone art worthy! It was Thine
By ancient covenant, ere nature's birth;
And Thou hast made it Thine by purchase since
And overpaid its value with Thy blood.
Thy saints proclaim Thee King! And in their hearts
Thy title is engraven with a pen
Dipp'd in the fountain of eternal love."
THE NATIONAL COVENANT
[Illustration: GREYFRIARS CHURCHYARD, EDINBURGH.]
THE NATIONAL COVENANT
OR,
THE CONFESSION OF FAITH.
_Subscribed at first by the King's Majesty and his household, in the
year of God 1580; thereafter by persons of all ranks in the year of God
1581, by Ordinance of the Lords of Secret Council, and Acts of the
General Assembly; subscribed again by all sorts of persons in the year
of God 1590. Secondly: And with Ordinance of the Lords of Secret
Council, and Acts of General Assembly, subscribed again by all sorts of
persons in the year of God 1590. Thirdly: And with Ordinance of Council,
at the desire of the General Assembly; with their general bond for
maintenance of the true religion, and of the Kings Majesty; and now
subscribed in the year of God 1638, by us, Noblemen, Baronets,
Gentlemen, Burgesses, Ministers, and Commons under subscribed; and,
together with a resolution and promise, for the causes after expressed,
to maintain the true, religion and King's Majesty, according to the
Confession aforesaid, and the Acts of Parliament, the so much of which
followeth:--_
We all and every one of us under-written, protest, That, after long and
due examination of our own consciences in matters of true and false
religion, we are now thoroughly resolved in the truth by the Spirit and
Word of God: and therefore we believe with our hearts, confess with our
mouths, subscribe with our hands, and constantly affirm, before God and
the whole world, that this only is the true Christian faith and
religion, pleasing God, and bringing salvation to man, which now is, by
the mercy of God, revealed to the world by the preaching of the blessed
evangel; and is received, believed, and defended by many and sundry
notable kirks and realms, but chiefly by the Kirk of Scotland, the
King's Majesty, and three estates of this realm, as God's eternal truth,
and only ground of our salvation; as more particularly is expressed in
the Confession of our Faith, established and publicly confirmed by
sundry Acts of Parliaments, and now of a long time hath been openly
professed by the King's Majesty, and whole body of this realm both in
burgh and land. To the which Confession and Form of Religion we
willingly agree in our conscience in all points, as unto God's undoubted
truth and verity, grounded only upon His written Word. And therefore we
abhor and detest all contrary religion and doctrine; but chiefly all
kind of Papistry in general and particular heads, even as they are now
damned and confuted by the Word of God and Kirk of Scotland. But, in
special, we detest and refuse the usurped authority of that Roman
Antichrist upon the Scriptures of God, upon the Kirk, the civil
magistrate, and consciences of men; all his tyrannous laws made upon
indifferent things against our Christian liberty; his erroneous doctrine
against the sufficiency of the written Word, the perfection of the law,
the office of Christ, and His blessed evangel; his corrupted doctrine
concerning original sin, our natural inability and rebellion to God's
law, our justification by faith only, our imperfect sanctification and
obedience to the law; the nature, number, and use of the holy
sacraments; his five bastard sacraments, with all his rites, ceremonies,
and false doctrine, added to the ministration of the true sacraments
without the word of God; his cruel judgment against infants departing
without the sacrament; his absolute necessity of baptism; his
blasphemous opinion of transubstantiation, or real presence of Christ's
body in the elements, and receiving of the same by the wicked, or bodies
of men; his dispensations with solemn oaths, perjuries, and degrees of
marriage forbidden in the Word; his cruelty against the innocent
divorced; his devilish mass; his blasphemous priesthood; his profane
sacrifice for sins of the dead and the quick; his canonization of men;
calling upon angels or saints departed, worshipping of imagery, relics,
and crosses; dedicating of kirks, altars, days; vows to creatures; his
purgatory, prayers for the dead; praying or speaking in a strange
language, with his processions, and blasphemous litany, and multitude of
advocates or mediators; his manifold orders, auricular confession; his
desperate and uncertain repentance; his general and doubtsome faith; his
satisfactions of men for their sins; his justification by works, _opus
operatum_, works of supererogation, merits, pardons, peregrinations, and
stations; his holy water, baptizing of bells, conjuring of spirits,
crossing, sayning, anointing, conjuring, hallowing of God's good
creatures, with the superstitious opinion joined therewith; his worldly
monarchy, and wicked hierarchy; his three solemn vows, with all his
shavellings of sundry sorts; his erroneous and bloody decrees made at
Trent, with all the subscribers or approvers of that cruel and bloody
band, conjured against the Kirk of God. And finally, we detest all his
vain allegories, rites, signs, and traditions brought in the Kirk,
without or against the word of God, and doctrine of this true reformed
Kirk; to the which we join ourselves willingly, in doctrine, faith,
religion, discipline, and use of the holy sacraments, as lively members
of the same in Christ our head: promising and swearing, by the great
name of the LORD our GOD, that we shall continue in the obedience of the
doctrine and discipline of this Kirk, and shall defend the same,
according to our vocation and power, all the days of our lives; under
the pains contained in the law, and danger both of body and soul in the
day of God's fearful judgment.
And seeing that many are stirred up by Satan, and that Roman Antichrist,
to promise, swear, subscribe, and for a time use the holy sacraments in
the Kirk deceitfully, against their own conscience; minding hereby,
first, under the external cloak of religion, to corrupt and subvert
secretly God's true religion within the Kirk; and afterward, when time
may serve, to become open enemies and persecutors of the same, under
vain hope of the Pope's dispensation, devised against the Word of God,
to his greater confusion, and their double condemnation in the day of
the Lord Jesus: we therefore, willing to take away all suspicion of
hypocrisy, and of such double dealing with God and His Kirk, protest,
and call the Searcher of all hearts for witness, that our minds and
hearts do fully agree with this our Confession, promise, oath, and
subscription: so that we are not moved with any worldly respect, but are
persuaded only in our conscience, through the knowledge and love of
God's true religion imprinted in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, as we
shall answer to Him in the day when the secrets of all hearts shall be
disclosed.
And because we perceive that the quietness and stability of our religion
and Kirk doth depend upon the safety and good behaviour of the King's
Majesty, as upon a comfortable instrument of God's mercy granted to this
country, for the maintaining of His Kirk and ministration of justice
amongst us; we protest and promise with our hearts, under the same oath,
hand-writ, and pains, that we shall defend His person and authority with
our goods, bodies, and lives, in the defence of Christ His evangel,
liberties of our country, ministration of justice, and punishment of
iniquity, against all enemies within this realm or without, as we desire
our God to be a strong and merciful defender to us in the day of our
death, and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; to whom, with the Father,
and the Holy Spirit, be all honour and glory eternally. _Amen._
Likeas many Acts of Parliament, not only in general do abrogate, annul,
and rescind all laws, statutes, acts, constitutions, canons civil or
municipal, with all other ordinances, and practique penalties
whatsoever, made in prejudice of the true religion, and professors
thereof; or of the true Kirk, discipline, jurisdiction, and freedom
thereof; or in favours of idolatry and superstition, or of the
Papistical kirk: As Act 3, Act 31, Parl. 1; Act 23, Parl. 11; Act 114,
Parl. 12, of King James VI. That Papistry and superstition may be
utterly suppressed, according to the intention of the Acts of
Parliament, repeated in the 5th Act, Parl. 20, King James VI. And to
that end they ordain all Papists and Priests to be punished with
manifold civil and ecclesiastical pains, as adversaries to God's true
religion preached, and by law established, within this realm, Act 24,
Parl. 11, King James VI.; as common enemies to all Christian government,
Act 18, Parl. 16, King James VI.; as rebellers and gainstanders of our
Sovereign Lord's authority, Act 47, Parl. 3, King James VI.; and as
idolaters, Act 104, Parl. 7, King James VI. But also in particular, by
and attour the Confession of Faith, do abolish and condemn the Pope's
authority and jurisdiction out of this land, and ordains the maintainers
thereof to be punished, Act 2, Parl. 1; Act 51, Parl. 3; Act 106, Parl.
7; Act 114, Parl. 12, King James VI.: do condemn the Pope's erroneous
doctrine, or any other erroneous doctrine repugnant to any of the
articles of the true and Christian religion, publicly preached, and by
law established in this realm; and ordains the spreaders and makers of
books or libels, or letters or writs of that nature to be punished, Act
46, Parl. 3; Act 106, Parl. 7; Act 24, Parl. 11, King James VI.: do
condemn all baptism conform to the Pope's kirk, and the idolatry of the
mass; and ordains all sayers, wilful hearers and concealers of the mass,
the maintainers and resetters of the priests, Jesuits, trafficking
Papists, to be punished without any exception or restriction, Act 5,
Parl. 1; Act 120, Parl. 12; Act 164, Parl. 13; Act 193, Parl. 14; Act 1,
Parl. 19; Act 5, Parl. 20, King James VI.: do condemn all erroneous
books and writs containing erroneous doctrine against the religion
presently professed, or containing superstitious rites and ceremonies
Papistical, whereby the people are greatly abused, and ordains the
home-bringers of them to be punished, Act 25, Parl. II, King James VI.:
do condemn the monuments and dregs of bygone idolatry, as going to
crosses, observing the festival days of saints, and such other
superstitious and Papistical rites, to the dishonour of God, contempt of
true religion, and fostering of great error among the people; and
ordains the users of them to be punished for the second fault, as
idolaters, Act 104, Parl. 7, King James VI.
Likeas many Acts of Parliament are conceived for maintenance of God's
true and Christian religion, and the purity thereof, in doctrine and
sacraments of the true Church of God, the liberty and freedom thereof,
in her national, synodal assemblies, presbyteries, sessions, policy,
discipline, and jurisdiction thereof; as that purity of religion, and
liberty of the Church was used, professed, exercised, preached, and
confessed, according to the reformation of religion in this realm: As
for instance, the 99th Act, Parl. 7; Act 25, Parl. 11; Act 114, Parl.
12; Act 160, Parl. 13, of King James VI., ratified by the 4th Act of
King Charles. So that the 6th Act, Parl. 1, and 68th Act, Parl. 6, of
King James VI., in the year of God 1579, declare the ministers of the
blessed evangel, whom God of His mercy had raised up, or hereafter
should raise, agreeing with them that then lived, in doctrine and
administration of the sacraments; and the people that professed Christ,
as He was then offered in the evangel, and doth communicate with the
holy sacraments (as in the reformed kirks of this realm they were
presently administrate) according to the Confession of Faith, to be the
true and holy kirk of Christ Jesus within this realm. And decerns and
declares all and sundry, who either gainsay the Word of the evangel
received and approved as the heads of the Confession of Faith, professed
in Parliament in the year of God 1560, specified also in the first
Parliament of King James VI., and ratified in this present Parliament,
more particularly do express; or that refuse the administration of the
holy sacraments as they were then ministrated--to be no members of the
said Kirk within this realm, and true religion presently professed, so
long as they keep themselves so divided from the society of Christ's
body. And the subsequent Act 69, Parl. 6, of King James VI., declares,
that there is no other face of kirk, nor other face of religion, than
was presently at that time by the favour of God established within this
realm: "Which therefore is ever styled God's true religion, Christ's
true religion, the true and Christian religion, and a perfect religion;"
which, by manifold Acts of Parliament, all within this realm are bound
to profess, to subscribe the articles thereof, the Confession of Faith,
to recant all doctrine and errors repugnant to any of the said articles,
Acts 4 and 9, Parl. 1; Acts 45, 46, 47, Parl. 3; Act 71, Parl. 6; Act
106, Parl. 7; Act 24, Parl. 11; Act 123, Parl. 12; Acts 194 and 197,
Parl. 14, of King James VI. And all magistrates, sheriffs, &c., on the
one part, are ordained to search, apprehend, and punish all
contraveners: For instance Act 5, Parl. 1; Act 104, Parl. 7; Act 25,
Parl. 11, King James VI.; and that notwithstanding of the King's
Majesty's licences on the contrary, which are discharged, and declared
to be of no force, in so far as they tend in any wise to the prejudice
and hinder of the execution of the Acts of Parliament against Papists
and adversaries of true religion, Act 106, Parl. 7, King James VI. On
the other part, in the 47th Act, Parl. 3, King James VI., it is declared
and ordained, Seeing the cause of God's true religion and his Highness's
authority are so joined, as the hurt of the one is common to both, that
none shall be reputed as loyal and faithful subjects to our Sovereign
Lord, or his authority, but be punishable as rebellers and gainstanders
of the same, who shall not give their confession and make their
profession of the said true religion: and that they who, after
defection, shall give the confession of their faith of new, they shall
promise to continue therein in time coming, to maintain our Sovereign
Lord's authority, and at the uttermost of their power to fortify,
assist, and maintain the true preachers and professors of Christ's
religion, against whatsoever enemies and gainstanders of the same; and
namely, against all such, of whatsoever nation, estate, or degree they
be of, that have joined or bound themselves, or have assisted, or
assist, to set forward and execute the cruel decrees of the Council of
Trent, contrary to the true preachers and professors of the word of God;
which is repeated, word by word, in the articles of pacification at
Perth, the 23rd of February, 1572; approved by Parliament the last of
April, 1573; ratified in Parliament 1587, and related Act 123, Parl. 12,
of King James VI.; with this addition, "That they are bound to resist
all treasonable uproars and hostilities raised against the true
religion, the King's Majesty, and the true professors."