The Covenants And The Covenanters / Covenants, Sermons, and Documents of the Covenanted Reformation

by Unknown

"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.

Had the two nations and their Churches adhered to their National 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.