"In order unto reformation and defence of religion within these three kingdoms, we shall never forget, how solemnly and cheerfully the Solemn League and Covenant was sworn with hands lifted up to the most high God.—We were, and are abundantly satisfied, that our Solemn League and Covenant of September 27, 1643, is not only warrantable for the matter of it and manner of entering into it, but also of such excellency and importance,—That it will be very hard in all points to parallel it; and, therefore, as we did sincerely swear this covenant with God, with all our heart, and with all our soul, much rejoicing at the oath with a true intention to perform it, and not for promoting any politic design; so we do believe and profess to the world that we still stand as firmly engaged to the real performance of it, and that it is not in the power of any person or persons on earth to dispense with it or absolve from it."
The harmonious consent of the Ministers of the county Palatine Lancaster with their Reverend Brethren the Ministers of the province of London. Head V.
"We shall never forget how solemn it (the Solemn League and Covenant) was sworn, and what rejoicing there was at the oath, sundry at the taking of it weeping for joy; and when the Covenant was thus taken, we thought with ourselves, that surely now the crown is set upon England's head: We judged the day of entering into this Covenant to be England's coronation-day, as it was the day of the gladness of our hearts."
Mr. Philip Nye's Exhortation at the taking of the Covenant, September 29th, 1649, p. 2.
"This Oath is such, and in the matter and consequence of it of such concernment, as I can truly say, it is worthy of us, yea, of all the kingdoms of the world; for it is swearing fealty and allegiance to Christ the King of kings, and giving up of all these kingdoms which are his inheritance, to be subdued more to his throne, and ruled more by his sceptre, upon whose shoulders the government is laid."
THE NATIONAL COVENANT, OR THE CONFESSION OF FAITH OF THE KIRK OF SCOTLAND;
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 1581; By Ordinance of the Lords of the Secret Council, and Acts of the General Assembly. Subscribed again by all sorts of persons in the year 1590, by a new Ordinance of Council, at the desire of the General Assembly, with a Band for the maintenance of the true religion, and the King's person: And subscribed in the year 1638, by the Noblemen, Barons, Gentlemen, Burgesses, Ministers and Commons, then under-subscribing; together with their resolution and promises for the causes after specified, to maintain the True Religion, and the King's Majesty, according to the Confession aforesaid and Acts of Parliament; And upon the supplication of the General Assembly to his Majesty's High Commissioner, and the Lords of his Majesty's honorable Privy Council. Subscribed again in the year 1639, by Ordinance of Council, and Acts of General Assembly, &c., &c. The Tenor whereof here followeth.
We all, and every one of us underwritten, 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 Word and Spirit 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, 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, and sometimes by the King's Majesty, and the 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 publickly confirmed by sundry Acts of Parliaments, and now of a long time have 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 own consciences, 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 tyrranous 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 offices 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 the 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, earning, 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 and approvers of that cruel and bloody bond, conjured against the Kirk of God.
And finally, we detest all his vain allegories, rites, signs, and traditions brought into 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 continued 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 consciences, minding thereby, first, under the external cloak of religion, to corrupt and subvert secretly God's true religion within the Kirk, and afterwards, when the 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.