The Covenants And The Covenanters Part 1

The Covenants And The Covenanters.

by Various.

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 emanc.i.p.ated 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 G.o.d. 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 n.o.bler efforts for the Kingdom of their Lord as they meditate on the heroism of those who were the "chariots of Israel and the hors.e.m.e.n 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, ill.u.s.trating the purpose and will of G.o.d, the Father, shall liberate Parliaments and nations from the bonds of false religions, and a.s.sert 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 doc.u.ments of olden times is sent out on a mission of Revival of Religion, personal and national, in the present times. It would do a n.o.ble work if it helped to humble cla.s.ses and ma.s.ses, and led them to return as one man to that G.o.d 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 G.o.d. 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_.

THE NATIONAL COVENANTS

Every person who enters rightly into covenant with G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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, superst.i.tion, 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 n.o.bly, ready to stand amid the f.a.ggots 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.dlie 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 G.o.d." At Perth, in 1559, they entered into covenant "to put away all things that dishonour His name, that G.o.d may be truly and purely worshipped." At Edinburgh, in 1560, they entered into covenant "to procure, by all means possible, that the truth of G.o.d's Word may have free pa.s.sage 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 G.o.d;" by an Act abolishing the "jurisdiction of the bishop of Rome within this realme," and forbidding "t.i.tle or right by the said bishop of Rome or his sect to anything within this realme," and by the first General a.s.sembly 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 G.o.d, 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 Caesars." 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 t.i.tle was "Ane Short and Generall Confession of the True Christiane Faith and Religione, according to G.o.d's verde and Actis of our Perlamentis, subscryved by the Kingis Majestie and his Household, with sindrie otheris, to the glorie of G.o.d 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 G.o.d'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 a.s.semblies 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 a.s.sert 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 a.s.semblies 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 G.o.d? 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 pa.s.sed confirming the "king's royal power over all states and subjects within this realm," discharging all a.s.semblies held "without our Sovereign Lord's special licence and commandment," and requiring ministers to acknowledge the ecclesiastical superiority of bishops. The a.s.sembly 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, inst.i.tuted 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, n.o.blemen, 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 Const.i.tutions 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 a.s.sumed 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 a.s.saults of the enemy. At times there were secessions from their ranks when, under the bribes and threats of prince and prelate, some ingloriously succ.u.mbed. 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 pet.i.tions, 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d to the pulling down of strongholds. They will go to the Covenant G.o.d 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 G.o.d.

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 doc.u.ment 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 n.o.ble 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 doc.u.ment. 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 mult.i.tudes 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 a.s.sembled 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 G.o.d 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 a.s.sembly. This was the first free General a.s.sembly 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-a.s.sertion 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 doc.u.ment breathed the spirit of the National Covenant of Greyfriars, condemned the Papal and Prelatic system, pled for a const.i.tutional 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 a.s.sembly of Divines stood with uplifted hands, and, as article after article was read, they took this Oath to G.o.d. The Commissioners from Scotland to the Westminster a.s.sembly 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 n.o.blest in its essential features,"

writes Hetherington, "of all that are recorded among the international transactions of the world." The Parliament and Westminster a.s.sembly issued instructions for its subscription throughout the kingdom. The cla.s.ses and the ma.s.ses 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 G.o.d. "For at that time day by day there came to David to help him, until it was a great host like the host of G.o.d." Through this League and Covenant, the people of the British Isles were protected by Omnipotence, and were as invincible against the despotic forces that a.s.sailed them as were the white cliffs of their native sh.o.r.es 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 G.o.d. Every public act for the sake of Christ should be the outcome of an impa.s.sioned 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 G.o.d, is fitted to inspire the coldest heart with n.o.blest 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 G.o.d.

These Covenants exhibited the great ecclesiastical breadth of the Covenanters. The enthronement of the Word of G.o.d 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 inst.i.tution 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 G.o.d." 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 G.o.d 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 a.s.sembly 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 a.s.sembly 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 G.o.d 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 va.s.sal of the Pope, it must be a servant of the blessed and only Potentate. G.o.d 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 const.i.tution and administration of civil government in the United Kingdom. The Covenanters were convinced that no power, except that provided by the Word of G.o.d, 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 "G.o.ds 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 a.s.sociated 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 G.o.d. These two spots were the earthly centres of spiritual movements of mighty magnitude, and possess in the eyes of the G.o.d of Heaven and of the princ.i.p.alities 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 antic.i.p.ated 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d 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, pa.s.sed 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 G.o.d in the moorlands and dells, setting a watch for the dragoons of Claverhouse. Thousands upon thousands of the n.o.blest 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 pa.s.sed triumphantly to the crown; for there was "a n.o.ble 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 unG.o.dly 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 hors.e.m.e.n 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 hors.e.m.e.n 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, t.i.tle 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d'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 G.o.d 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 pa.s.s 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 G.o.d, 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 a.s.signed her before she met; her a.s.semblies 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 a.s.semblies 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 a.s.sert the supremacy of Christ and the Church's independence under Him, issued in the dissolution of the a.s.sembly 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 G.o.d. Into sympathy and fellowship with inst.i.tutions 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 G.o.d 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 const.i.tution 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 pa.s.sing 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 a.s.signed 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d teaches in the most pointed manner this principle of devolving Covenant obligation. The G.o.d of Israel threatened His people with chastis.e.m.e.nt for breaking the Covenant He had made with their fathers four hundred years before. The Covenanters themselves bound their posterity to G.o.d 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. "G.o.d hath laid engagements upon Scotland," said Argyle on the scaffold, "we are tied by Covenants to religion and Reformation; and it pa.s.seth the power of all the magistrates under heaven to absolve from the oath of G.o.d." The scriptural character of their contents infers the perpetual obligation of these Covenants. All who accept the Scriptures as the Word of G.o.d, 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 t.i.tle deeds. These deeds of the Covenanters, and the heritage secured by them, were obtained through the n.o.blest 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 const.i.tution 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 inst.i.tutions.

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 a.s.sisted by the Romanizing movement in the Church of England, and the Ritualistic in the Presbyterian Churches throughout the kingdom.