and Kingdome as Gods undoubted truth grounded only upon his written Word The other cause was for maintaining the Kings Majesty His Person and Estate the true worship of GOD and the Kings authority being so straitly joined as that they had the same Friends and common enemies and did stand and fall together And finally being convinced in our mindes and confessing with our mouthes that the present and succeeding generations in this Land are bound to keep the foresaid nationall Oath Subscription inviolable Wee Noblemen Barons Gentlemen Burgesses Ministers Commons under subscribing considering divers times before especially at this time the danger of the true reformed Religion of the Kings honour and of the publick peace of the Kingdome By the manifold innovations and evills generally conteined and particularly mentioned in our late supplications complaints and protestations Do hereby professe and before God his Angels and the World solemnly declare That with our whole hearts we agree resolve all the dayes of our life constantly to adhere unto and to defend the foresaid true Religion and forbearing the practice of all novations already introduced in the matters of the worship of GOD or approbation of the corruptions of the publicke Government of the Kirk or civil places and power of Kirk-men till they be tryed allowed in free assemblies and in Parliaments to labour by all meanes lawful to recover the purity and liberty of the Gospel as it was stablished and professed before the foresaid Novations and because after due examination we plainely perceave and undoubtedly believe that the Innovations and evils contained in our Supplications Complaints and Protestations have no warrant of the Word of God are contrary to the Articles of the Foresaid Confessions to the intention and meaning of the blessed reformers of Religion in this Land to the above written Acts of Parliament do sensibly tend to the re-establishing of the Popish Religion and Tyranny and to the subversion and ruine of the true Reformed Religion and of our Liberties Lawes and Estates We also declare that the Foresaid Confessions are to be interpreted and ought to be understood of the Foresaid novations and evils no lesse then if every one of them had been expressed in the Foresaid confessions and that we are obliged to detest abhorre them amongst other particular heads of Papistry abjured therein And therefore from the knowledge and consciences of our duety to God to our King and Countrey without any wordly respect or inducement so farre as humane infirmity will suffer wishing a further measure of the grace of God for this effect We promise and sweare by the Great Name of the Lord our GOD to continue in the Profession and Obedience of the Foresaid Religion That we shall defend the same and resist all these contrary errours and corruptions according to our vocation and to the uttermost of that power that GOD hath put in our hands all the dayes of our life and in like manner with the same heart we declare before GOD and Men That we have no intention nor desire to attempt any thing that may turne to the dishonour of GOD or to the diminution of the Kings greatnesse and authority But on the contrary we promise and sweare that we shall to the uttermost of our power with our meanes and lives stand to the defence of our dread Soveraigne the Kings Majesty his Person and Authority in the defence and preservation of the foresaid true Religion Liberties and Lawes of the Kingdome As also to the mutual defence and assistance every one of us of another in the same cause of maintaining the true Religion and his Majesty's Authority with our best counsel our bodies meanes and whole power against all sorts of persons whatsoever So that whatsoever shall be done to the least of us for that cause shall be taken as done to us all in genearal and to every one of us in particular And that we shall neither directly nor indirectly suffer our selves to be divided or withdrawn by whatsoever suggestion allurement or terrour from this blessed loyall Conjunction nor shall cast in any let or impediment that may stay or hinder any such resolution as by common consent shall be found to conduce for so good ends But on the contrary shall by all lawful meanes labour to further and promove the same and if any such dangerous divisive motion be made to us by Word or Writ We and every one of us shall either suppresse it or if need be shall incontinent make the same known that it may be timeously obviated neither do we fear the foul aspersions of rebellion combination or what else our adversaries from their craft and malice would put upon us seing what we do is so well warranted and ariseth from an unfeined desire to maintaine the true worship of God the Majesty of our King and peace of the Kingdome for the common happinesse of our selves and the posterity And because we cannot look for a blessing from God upon our proceedings except with our Profession and Subscription we joine such a life conversation as beseemeth Christians who have renewed their Covenant with God We therefore faithfully promise for our selves our followers and all other under us both in publick in our particular families and personal carriage to endeavour to keep our selves within the bounds of Christian liberty and to be good examples to others of all Godlinesse Sobernesse and Righteousnesse and of every duety we owe to God and Man And that this our Union and Conjunction may be observed without violation we call the living GOD the Searcher of our Hearts to witness who knoweth this to be our sincere Desire and unfained Resolution as we shall answere to JESUS CHRIST in the great day and under the pain of Gods everlasting wrath and of infamy and losse of all honour and respect in this World Most humbly beseeching the Lord to strengthen us by his holy Spirit for this end and to blesse our desires and proceedings with a happy successe that Religion and Righteousnesse may flourish in the Land to the glory of GOD the honour of King and peace and comfort of us all In witnesse whereof we have subscribed with our hands all the premisses c. The Article of this Covenant which was at the first Subscription referred to the determination of the General Assembly being determined and thereby the 5 Articles of Perth the Government of the Kirk by Bishops the Civill places and Power of Kirkment upon the reasons and grounds contained in the Acts of the General Assembly declared to be unlawful within this Kirk we subscribe according to the determination foresaid A Solemn League and Covenant For Reformation and Defence of Religion The Honour and Happiness of the King and the Peace and Safety of the three Kingdoms of Scotland England and Ireland WE Noblemen Barons Knights Gentlemen Citizens Burgesses Ministers of the Gospel and Commons of all sorts in the Kingdoms
here to enquire But considering the great affinity betwixt Papacy and Prelacy and the already authorized and practized Conformity of the one to the other not only in Government and Discipline whereby they have for the most part the same Ecclesiastical Courts and Officers But also in Worship whereby they have the same Liturgy for substance of Epistles Gospels Collects and Letany The same Ceremonies of Rising Standing to the East Bowing Kneeling Crossing c. the same superstitious fool-like Vestments The same observation of many dayes the same adorning of Churches and Chappels with Altars Books Candles Candlesticks Basins Images and Crucifix's on windows and the same Jesuitical sign upon their pulpit cloath And also in several points of Doctrine preached licensed and printed with many other things tedious to be enumerated Considering also the constitution of the Kingdoms which by Ignorance Atheisme disputing and oppugning of the Authority of the Holy Scriptures Error Superstition Profaneness Indifferency Formality and Hypocrisy in many are much more then formerly disposed to embrace whatsoever shall be authorized or indulged And considering the native tendency of the present Course of Backsliding which leadeth unto the great Whore the mother of all these abominations Nothing but gross wilfull or judicial Ignorance and estrangement from affairs can deny that there is too just ground of fear that ere long if the Lord do not prevent it Brittain may be again precipitated into the old gulf of Antichristianism And so much the rather because it is universally observed and notourly known that the number of professed Papists hath increased more within these six Years then it had for near sixty before the conviction whereof made some of the Prelates themselves say some Years hence that since the Year 1660. there were more thousands of avowed Papists in Scotland compute then what may and must be in England and Ireland then before that Year there were hundreds Whence this is and whether there be any positive Resolution to reintroduce Popery in these Lands I do not affirm but remit it to the consideration of the impartial Reader who understandeth the times and to Time it self a great searcher and discoverer of secrets to declare the genuine meaning and tendency of these things That the King should publish in print that the Papists had been faithful Subjects to him and his Father whilest others under pretence of Religion had involved the Kingdoms in blood Was that bloody Massacre in Ireland whereof they were the known and acknowledged Actors though perhaps not the only Authors such Faithful service That the execution of penal Statutes against Papists should be superseded whilst severe penal Statutes are dayly enacted and executed against Protestants really though not under that name and notion That so many known and open Idolatrous Masses should be connived at tollerated whilst both publick private meetings of Protestants for pure Worship are prohibited by Law and violently interrupted That so many known professed Papists Priests and Jesuites who do not publickly countenance the Prelatical Worship are permitted to live peaceably and enjoy all their Liberties whilst non-complying Protestants for simple Non-conformity to Prelacy are imprisoned fined confined scourged stigmatized and many otherwayes oppressed and persecuted in their Estates Consciences and Names That so many Papists especially in England should enjoy and be dayly advanced to the greatest places of publick Power and Trust not only as members of Parliament Council and Court but as State-Officers Lieutenants Sherifs Justices of Counties and Officers in Army whilst stedfast Protestants for simple non-perjuring are some of them not so much as permitted to sit in Parliament or any other Iudicatory others of them discourted disgraced disarmed imprisoned and proscribed and all of them who will not forswear declared incapable of publick Power or Trust in Church or Common-wealth That a house for Fathers or Friers is provided whilst many faithful Ministers are removed and chased from place to place without any certain habitation That there should be such universal Report so much Presumption of a Popish hand in burning of London which for number and strength of Protestant Inhabitants was the most considerable City in the World and bulwark against the Romish Religion and designes and yet as if men were affrayed to try the truth in that matter so little satisfying effectual course taken to try and punish the Authors and Actors and to repress their many other insolent misdemeanors whilst many thousands of innocent Protestants who never burnt either house or City for no other alleaged crime but their peaceable forbearance to bow to the Idol which the King hath setup are thrown into a furnace of fiery Triall seven times more heated then ever was known in the Christian World for such a Cause all things being considered It may seem strange to the Nations about and to the Generations following that the Church of Scotland which had been so faithful and chast should have suffered herself to be thus prostituted and that if she would not otherwayes after the manner of her Fathers contend for the Faith which she had receaved she did not cry to all the World by Declarations and Protestations as the Maid under the Law that she was forced And that of all the sons which she had brought forth there were so few either to take her by the hand and plead openly for her or to plead with her that she would put away her whoredoms This indeed is and ought to be for a lamentation But let none therefore conclude as some of the profane and perfidious Prelates measuring others after their own baseness and treachery had the impudence at first to misrepresent to the Rulers that all were or are consentient unto this horrid Apostacy for even at the beginning thereof if Synods which were then resolving to bear publick Witness for the then established Government of the Church and against the begun Defection and further progress thereof by the Re-introduction of Prelacy which was then designed had not been some of them by Proclamation prohibited to conveen and others of them violently interrupted and raised by Nobles who by Order of Parliament were present for that effect And if some of her Watchmen who were neither professedly driving on nor secretly breathing after Prelacy Prelatical promotion had not for Reasons best known to themselves too much courted and flattered the Powers by their own silence and withdrawing of their necessary and required concurrence in a publick joint Testimony there wanted not Faithfulness Zeal Courage Resolutions and some Endeavours in others to have emitted such Declarations as probably might have crushed the bold attempt of the Prelates in it's infancy and thereby have prevented much Sin and Suffering which hath ensued thereupon and certainly would have witnessed to all the World that the Church without against her consent was treacherously betrayed and violently forced Neither hath the Truth all along from that time till this wanted many testimonies
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 gainsayes the Word of the Evangel received and approved as the heads of the Confession of Faith professed in Parliament in the Yeare of God 1560. specified also in the first Parliament of King Iames 6. and ratified in this present Parliament more particularly do specify or that refuses the administration of the Holy Sacraments as they were then ministrated to be to members of the said Kirk within this Realme and true Religion presently professed so long as they keep themselves so divided from the society of Christs body And the subsequent Act. 69. Parl. 6. of K. Iames 6. declares That there is none other Face of Kirk nor other Face of Religion then was presently at that time by the Favour of GOD established within this Realme which therefore is ever stiled Gods true Religion Christs true Religion the true and Christian Religion and a perfect Religion Which by manifold acts of Parliament all within this realme are bound to subscribe the articles thereof the Confession of Faith to recant all doctrine errours repugnant to any of the said Articles Act. 4. 9. Parl. 1. Act. 45.46.47 Parl. 3. Act 71. Parl. 6. Act 106. Parl. 7. Act 24. Parl. 11. Act 123. Parl. 12. Act 194. and 197. Parl. 14. of K. Iames 6. And all Magistrats Sherifs c. on the one parte are ordained to search apprehend and punish all contraveeners For instance Act 5. Parl. 1. Act 104. Parl. 7. Act 25. Par. 11. K. Iames 6. And that notwithstanding of the Kings Majesty's licences on the contrary which are discharged declared to be of no force in so farre as they tend in any wayes to the prejudice hinder of the execution of the Acts of Parliament against Papists adversaries of true Religion Act. 106. Parl. 7. K. Iames 6. On the other part in the 47. Act. Parl. 3. K. Iames 6. It is declared and ordained seeing the cause of Gods true Religion and his highnes Authority are so joyned as the hurt of the one is common to both and that none shal be reputed as loyall and faithfull subjects to our Soveraigne 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 comming to maintaine our Souveraigne Lords Authority and at the uttermost of their power to fortify assist and maintaine the true Preachers and Professors of Christs Evangel against whatsoever enemies and gainestanders of the same and namely against all such of whatsoever nation estate or degree they be of that have joyned and bound themselves or have assisted or assists to set forward and execute the cruell decrees of Trent contrary to the Preachers and true Professors of the Word of God which is repeated word by word in the Article of Pacification at Perth the 23 of Februar 1572. approved by Parliament the last of Aprile 1573. Ratified in Parliament 1587. and related Act 123. Parl. 12. of K. Iames 6. with this addition that they are bound to resist all treasonable uproars and hostilities raised against the true Religion the Kings Majesty and the true Professors Like as all Liedges are bound to maintaine the King Majesty's Royal Person and Authority the Authority of Parliaments without the which neither any lawes or lawful judicatories can be established Act 130. Act. 131. Parl. 8. K. Iames 6. and the subjects Liberties who ought onely to live and be governed by the Kings lawes the common lawes of this Realme allanerly Act 48. Parl. 3. K. Iames the first Act. 79. Parl 6. K. Iames the 4. repeated in the Act 13 1. Parl. 8. K. Iames 6. Which if they be innovated or prejudged the commission anent the union of the two Kingdoms of Scotland and England which is the sole Act of the 17. Parl. of K. Iames 6. declares such confusion would ensue as this Realme could be no more a free Monarchy because by the fundamentall lawes ancient priviledges offices and liberties of this Kingdome not onely the Princely Authority of his Majesty's Royal discent hath been these many ages maintained but also the peoples security of their Lands livings rights offices liberties and dignities preserved and therefore for the preservatien of the said true Religion Lawes and Liberties of this Kingdome it is statute by the 8. Act Parl. 1. repeated in the 99. Act Parl. 7. Ratified in the 23. Act Parl. 11. and 114. Act Parl. 12. of K. Iames 6. and 4. Act of K. Charles That all Kings and Princes at their Coronation and reception of their Princely Authority shall make their faithfull promise by their solemne oath in the presence of the Eternal God that enduring the whole time of their lives they shall serve the same Eternal God to the uttermost of their power according as he hath required in his most Holy Word contained in the old and new Testament And according to the same Word shall maintain the true Religion of Christ Jesus the preaching of his Holy Word the due and right ministration of the Sacraments now receaved and preached within this Realme according to the Confession of Faith immediately preceeding and shall abolish and gainstand all false Religion contrary to the same and shall rule the people committed to their charge according to the will and command of God revealed in his foresaid Word and according to the laudable Lawes and Constitutions received in this Realme no wayes repugnant to the said will of the Eternall God and shall procure to the uttermost of their power to the Kirk of God and whole Christian people true and perfite peace in all time coming and that they shall be careful to root out of their Empire all Hereticks and enemies to the true worship of God who shall be convicted by the true Kirk of God of the foresaid crimes which was also observed by his Majesty at his Coronation in Edinburgh 1633. as maybe seene in the order of the Coronation In obedience to the Commandment of GOD conforme to the practice of the godly in former times and according to the laudable example of our Worthy and Religious Progenitors of many yet living amongst us which was warranted also by act of Councill commanding a general band to be made and subscribed by his Majesty's subjects of all ranks for two causes One was For defending the true Religion as it was then reformed and is expressed in the Confession of Faith abovewritten and a former large Confession established by sundry acts of lawful generall assemblies of Parliament unto which it hath relation set down in publick Catechismes and which had been for many years with a blessing from Heaven preached and professed in this Kirk
of Scotland England and Ireland by the providence of GOD living under one King and being of one reformed Religion Having before our eyes the glory of GOD and the advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the Honour and Happinesse of the Kings Majesty and his Posterity and the true publick Liberty Safety and Peace of the Kingdoms wherein every ones private condition is included And calling to minde the treacherous and bloody Plots Conspiracies Attempts and Practices of the Enemies of GOD against the true Religion and Professours thereof in all places especially in these three Kingdoms ever since the Reformation of Religion and how much their rage power and presumption are of late and at this time increased and exercised whereof the deplorable estate of the Church and Kingdom of Ireland the distressed estate of the Church Kingdom of England and the dangerous estate of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland are present and publick testimonies We have now at last after other means of Supplication Remonstrance Protestation and Suffering for the preservation of our selves and our Religion from utter ruine and destruction according to the commendable practice of these Kingdoms in former times and the example of GODS People in other Nations after mature deliberation resolved and determined to enter into a mutuall and solemn League and Covenant Wherein we all subscribe and each one of us for himself with our hands lifted up to the most high GOD do Swear 1. That we shall sincerely really and constantly through the grace of GOD endeavour in our several places and callings the preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Chuch of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government against our common Enemies The Reformation of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of GOD and the example of the best Reformed Churches And shall endeavour to bring the Churches of GOD in the three Kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and Uniformity in Religion Confession of Faith Form of Church-government Directory for Worship and Catechizing That we and our Posterity after us may as Brethren live in Faith and Love and the Lord may delight to dwell in the midst of us 2. That we shall in like manner without respect of persons endeavour the Extirpation of Popery Prelacy that is Church-government by Arch-bishops Bishops their Chancellours and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-deacons and all other Ecclesiasticall Officers depending on that Hierarchy Superstition Heresy Schism Prophanesse and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of Godliness Lest we partake in other mens sins and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues And that the Lord may be one and his Name one in the three Kingdoms 3. We shall with the same sincerity reality and constancy in our severall vocations endeavour with our estates and lives mutually to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of the Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdoms And to preserve and defend the Kings Majesty's Person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms That the world may bear witnesse with our consciences of our Loyalty and that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish his Majesty's just power and greatnesse 4. We shall also with all faithfulnesse endeavour the discovery of all such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evil instruments by hindering the Reformation of Religion dividing the King from his people or one of the Kingdoms from another or making any faction or parties amongst the people contrary to this League and Covenant That they may be broughr to publick triall and receive condigne punishment as the degree of their offences shall require or deserve or the supream Judicatories of both Kingdomes respectively or others having power from them for that effect shall judge convenient 5. And whereas the happinesse of a blessed Peace between these Kingdoms denyed in former times to our Progenitors is by the good Providence of GOD granted unto us and hath been lately concluded and settled by both Parliaments We shall each one of us according to our place and interest endeavour that they may remain conjoyned in a firme Peace and Union to all Posterity And that Justice may be done upon the willfull Opposers thereof in manner expressed in the precedent Article 6. We shall also according to our places and callings in this Common cause of Religion Liberty and Peace of the Kingdoms assist and defend all those that enter into this League and Covenant in the maintaining and pursuing thereof And shall not suffer our selves directly or indirectly by whatsoever combination perswasion or terrour to be divided and withdrawn from this blessed Union and conjunction whither to make defection to the contrary part or to give ourselves to a detestable indifferency or neutrality in this cause which so much concerneth the Glory of GOD the good of the Kingdoms and honour of the King But shall all the dayes of our lives zealously and constantly continue therein against all opposition and promote the same according to our power against all Lets and Impediments whatsoever And what we are not able our selves to suppresse or overcome we shall reveale and make known that it may be timely prevented or removed All which we shall do as in the sight of GOD. And because these Kingdoms are guilty of many sins and provocations against GOD and his Son Jesus Christ as is too manifest by our present distresses and dangers the fruits thereof We professe and declare before GOD and the world unfained desire to be humbled for our own sins and for the sins of these Kingdoms especially that we have not as we ought valued the inesteemable benefit of the Gospel that we have not laboured for the purity and power thereof and that we have not endeavoured to receive Christ in our hearts nor to walk worthy of him in our lives wich are the causes of other sins and transgressions so much abounding amongst us And our true and unfained purpose desire and endeavour for ourselves and all others under our power and charge both in publick and in private in all dutyes we owe to GOD and man to amend our lives and each one to go before another in the example of a real Reformation That the Lord may turn away his wrath and heavy indignation and establish these Churches and Kingdoms in truth and Peace And this Covenant we make in the presence of Almighty GOD the Searcher of all hearts with a true intention to peform the same As we shall answer at that great Day when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed Most humbly beseeching the Lord to strengthen us by his Holy Spirit for this end and to blesse our desires and proceedings with such successe as may be deliverance and safety to his people and encouragement to other Christian Churches
as this Apostacy arising from small beginnings by fair and smooth pretensions crafty insinuations Court-flatteries false calumnies and suggestions open and gross perjuries and violent dissorders according to the working of Sathan After great and long opposition by Conferences Warnings petitions faithful and constant Testimonies and sufferings of the Zealous Witnesses of our Lord both unto bonds banishment Sentences of Death against the again aspiring Prerogative and usurping Prelacy under it's shaddow did in the secret and holy Judgement of God chang the Glory of God and of our Lord Jesus into the Similitude and Image of the Roman Beast turning the Power of Godliness unto Formality his faithful Ministers into corrupt Hirelings the Power and Life of Preaching into Flattery and Vanity the Substance of Religion into empty and ridiculous Ceremonies the Beauty and Purity of the Ordinances into Superstitious Inventions of Kneeling Crossing Holy Dayes and the like the Beautiful and Powerful Government of Gods House for the Edification of Souls to a Lordly Dominion over Consciences and violent Persecution of mens persons And in a word the great End of the Glorious Gospel and it's Blessed Ministry even the salvation of poor sinners which is the pleasure of the Lord the fruit of the travel of His Soul the Joy of Heaven the Crown and Glory of the blessed Apostles and the End of all things and of the second Appearance of the Great God into an Empty Title and specious pretext for the fulfilling of mens lusts and pleasures the establishing of their Power and Tyranny and the ruine and exterminion of all such as opposed and mourned for all these Abominations Thus this Work and Kingdom of Darkness did advance apace and had almost attained unto it's full maturity of hurrying this poor Land and Nation headlong into that Gulf of Confusion Error and Superstition whereinto Popery did formerly involve us when it pleased the Lord according to His Great Mercy and faithfulness to remember His Covenant though we had fearfully forgotten it and in the midst of that growing darkness and those manifold Confusions to cause His Spirit to move and Light to arise upon this Land about the middle of the Year 1637. Which appearing in the former Power and Glory did from a very small and improbable beginning even the opposition of a few weak Women to the introducing and reading of that Carcase of formality the Service-Book then ready to be imposed proceed in such an Univerâ—al Vigorous Regular and Powerful method through the whole Land without the least mixture and ingredient of force and Violence but only by these most warrantable and inquestionable meanes of Petitioning Remonstrating Protesting and renewing their Covenant with God and amongst themselves that before the end of the Year 1638. the Work of God was revived with more Glory and Splendor then ever formerly it had attained We know that not only the Renewing of the Covenant especially with the enlargement explaining the same in order to the Novations in Worship and Corruptions in Government whereunto this Church had Apostatized and the bond of Mutual Defence thereto added but also their Protestings joynt Petitionings have been condemned as Seditious Rebellious But seing the same both from the clear Word of God the pure Light of Nature the Zealous and Valiant Practices of our first Reformers and the Lawes and Constitutions of the Realme are clearly warranted And by the Power and Presence of God were signally approved and by the supervenient Acts of the King Parliament and Generall Assembly so fully established and confirmed And seing that they only were and are condemned by such as either being the Children of the Devil filled with all subtilty and mischief and enemies of all Righteousness cease not to pervert the right Wayes of the Lord or by such who for advancement of their own Interests have sacrificed all Conscience and Reason to Ambition and Covetousnes or by such who in base and open flattery of the King and of the Powers and neither knowing nor regarding any other Interest or Concernment then that which dependeth on their Pleasure do set and serve the same in place of the most High Or lastly by such who never did nor do concern themselves in such enquiryes but affect a pretended Gallantry in Gallio's Indifferency therefore remitting such as are further desirous of satisfaction unto the debats Papers of these Times and especially unto the late large Apology we shall only mention the steps and progress of the Lords Work and our Engagements therein according to our first purpose In the beginning of the Year 1638. great multitudes of people consisting of all Ranks being awaked by the Arbitrary imposing of a Service-Book more corrupt in some things then that of England and the Book of Canons and the erecting and violent exercing of the High Commission-Court to the perverting of the Pure Worship of God the utter subverting of all regular Government and the confounding of all things Divine and Humane and the destroying of our Civil Liberties and conceaving the true cause of all the abounding Sin imminent calamities of these Times to be the violation of the National Covenant formerly thrice sworn in the Land they again most Solemnly with a very wonderful gracious mixture of Tears and joy renew the same almost in all parts of the Land with the addition above mentioned to forbear the practice and approbation of all Innovations in Worship or Corruptions in Government until the same should be lawfully determined and that other of Mutual Defence and Assistance in the prosecution of the ends of that Covenant against all sorts of persons whatsoever And in November the same Year the Generall Assembly at Glasgow determined anent the foresaid novations and corruptions disproving and rejecting under these heads the five Articles of Perth the Government of the Church by Bishops the erecting of Prelacy therein and all the Corruptions flowing therefrom whereby the Oath of the Covenant is clearly explained and purifyed In the Year 1639. the Prelats being routed run to Court 〈◊〉 up the King England and Irland with all their Friends and Popish partakers in Scotland against the faithful Covenanters as Rebellious and Seditious Persons But they having prepared for their own just Defence the Lord by His outstretched Arm and Power dispelling all these menacing clouds and imminent storms doth by a Pacification concluded reduce a fair calm The King therein aggreeing that an Assembly and Parliament shall be held and that all matters respectively shall be therein determined The Assembly sitting in August thereafter the Kings Commissioner being present and assenting doth ratify the conclusions of the last Assembly at Glasgow and the Commissioner and Secret Council subscribe the Covenant as it was then explained and at the Petition of the Assembly it is enacted to be again subscribed for the Fifth time by the Body of the whole Land But no Faith Honesty nor Honor binding the Prelats and a Court by
Cross of Jesus Christ choose rather to suffer Affliction with the People of God then to enjoy the pleasurs of sin for a season and account the Reproach of Christ greater riches then all the Treasure of the World Let my Death grieve none of you it will be more profitable and advantageous both for me and for you and for the Church of God and for Christs interest and honor then my life could have been I forgive all men the guilt of it and I desire you to do so also Pray for them that persecute you and bless them that curse you bless I say and curse not I die in the Faith of the Apostles and Primitive Christians Protestant Reformed Churches particularly of the Church of Scotland whereof I am a member and Minister I bear my witness and Testimony to the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government of the Church of Scotland by Kirk-Sessions Presbyteries Synods and Generall Assemblies Popery and Prelacy and all the trumpery of Service and Ceremonies that wait upon them I do abhor I do bear my witness unto the National Covanant of Scotland and Solemn League and Covenant betwixt the three Kingdoms of Scotland England and Ireland These Sacred Solemn Publick Oaths of God I believe can be loosed nor dispensed with by no Person or Party or Power upon earth but are still binding upon these Kingdoms and will be for ever hereafter and are ratifyed and sealed by the conversion of many thousand souls since our entering thereinto I bear my witness to the Protestation against the controverted Assemblies and the Publick Resolutions to the Testimonies given against the Sectaries against the course of Backsliding and Defection that is now on foot in the Land and all the branches and parts thereof under whatsoever name or notion or acted by whatsoever party or person And in the last place I bear my witness to the cross of Jesus Christ and that I never had cause nor have cause this day to repent because of any thing I have suffered or can now suffer for His Name I take God to record upon my soul I would not exchange this scaffold with the Palace or Mitre of the greatest prelate in Brittain Blessed be God who hath shewed mercy to such a wretch and hath revealed His Son in me and made me a Minister of the Everlasting Gospel and that He hath daigned in the midst of much contradiction from Sathan and the World to seal my Ministry upon the hearts of not a few of His People and especially in the station wherein I was last I mean the Congregation and Presbytery of Sterlin God forgive the poor empty Man that did there intrude upon my labors and hath made a prey of many poor souls and exposed others to reproach and oppression and a famine of the Word of the Lord. God forgive the misleaders of that part of the poor people who tempted them to reject their own Pastor and to admit of Intruders and the Father of mercies pity that poor Misled people And the Lord visit the Congregation and Presbytery of Sterlin once more with faithful Pastors and grant that the Work and People of God may be revived thorow all Britain and over all the World Jesus Christ is my Light and my Life my Righteousness my Strength and my Salvation He is all my Salvation and all my Desire Him O Him I do with all the strength of my soul commend unto you Blessed are they that are not offended in Him Blessed are they that Trust in Him Bless Him O my soul from henceforth even for ever Rejoyce rejoice all ye that love Him be patient and rejoice in tribulation Blessed are you and blessed shall you be for ever and ever Everlasting Righteousness and Eternal Salvation is yours All are yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods Remember me O Lord with the favour thow bearest to thy People O visit me with thy Salvation that I may see the good of thy chosen that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy Nation that I may glory with thy Inheritance Now let thy servant depart in peace since mine eyes have seen thy salvation JA. GUTRHIE The last Speech and Testimony of the LORD WARIST0N At his Death in Edinburgh July 22. 1663. Right Honourable much honoured and beloved Auditors and Spectators THat which I intended and prepared to have spoken at this time in this condition immediatly before my death if it should be so ordered that it should be my lot is not at present in my power having been taken from me But I hope the Lord shall preserve it to bear my Testimony more fully and clearly then now I can in this condition having my Memory much destroyed through much sore and long Sickness Melancholy and excessive drawing of my Blood Though I bless the Lord my God that notwithstanding of the forementioned distempers I am in some capacity to leave this short and weak Testimony I desire in the first place to confess my Sins so far as is proper to this Place and Case and to acknowledge Gods Mercies and to express my Repentance of the one and my Faith of the other through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ our gracious Redeemer and Mediator I confess that my Natural Temper or rather distemper hath been Hasty and Passionat and that in my Manner of going about and prosecuting of the best pieces of work and service to the Lord and to my Generation I have been subject to my excesses of Heat and thereby to some Precipitations which hath no doubt offended standers by and lookers on and hath exposed both Me and the Work to their mistakes whereby the beauty of that Work hath been obscured Neither have I in following of the Lord's work His Good Work been without my own Self-seeking which hath severall wayes vented is self to the offence of both God and Man and to the grief thereafter of my own Conscience and which hath often made me groan and cry out with the Apostle O miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death And to ly low in the dust mourning and lamenting over the same deprecating God's wrath and begging His tender Mercies to Pardon and His powerful Grace to cure all these evils I must withal confess that it doth not a litle trouble me and ly heavy upon my spirit and will bring me down with sorrow to the grave though I was not alone in this Offence but had the body of the Nation going before me and the Example of persons of all Ranks to insnare me That I suffered my self through the power of temptations and the too much fear anent the straits that my numerous Family might be brought into to be carried unto so great a length of Complyance in England with the late Usurpers which did much grieve the hearts of the Godly and made these that sought God ashamed and confounded for my sake and did give no small occasion to the
is not for evill doing that I now suffer although I be charged with Rebellion against the Kings Authority yet 1 declare before God and you all that in all this matter I never intended to wrong his Majestie 's just Power and greatness but for conscience sake did respect Authority as the Ordinance of God appointed for the punishment of evill doers and that I wish his Ma all welfare both in this life and the world to come and that it may be his happiness to consider his Obligations to God and Perform the same that so it may be well with him and his Posterity to many generations and I pray God make him a friend to His Cause and the truly Godly who own the same though falsly called Phanaticks or turbulent persons I declare I have such persuasion of the Interest of Religion Reformed and sworn unto in the Covenant that I dare venture not only to lay down my own life but if every hair of my head were a man they should all be put to venture for this cause I would not have the world to stumble at the Cause because of my death after this manner for I rejoyce greatly in it and I desire every good Christian as they tender their own souls that they would grip fast lay hold on and cleave to Jesus Christ and His way My coming out at this time I say was not against his Majesty but for the Covenant which is now troden under foot my intention was for the Cause of Christ I take God to witness it was nothing else I came out for and for that I am free to lay down my life I bless God I am much encouraged in this and not at all afraid to die for so good and clear a Cause and I hope He will bring me thorow all my difficulties in this dark shadow of death I hope I have the peace of a good conscience and have had some glimpses from Jesus Christ of His countenance and reconciled Face since I came into this prison for which I desire to bless His Name with all my soul heart and spirit And I rejoyce that He hes made use of me to suffer for His Cause And I think it too litle not only to lay down my body but if it were possible even my very soul at the stake for that Cause and for Jesus Christ my good and kind Master who hath loved me and given Himself for me I give the Lord thanks that I had some of His Presence since I came into this condition and again I say I am much encouraged and not afraid to die and bless Him that I die not as a murtherer or evill door or Rebel to Authority but for such a cause as this O that it were the happiness of my Nation of England once to subiect themselves unto the sweet yoke of Christs Reformed Government under which this Nation of Scotland hath enjoyed so much of the Power and life of the Gospel by a faithful Ministry according to the Covenant sworn by them both And now my dear Friends in Christ and fellow-Covenanters though I be a stranger in this Land being an English-man but trifted by providence in the prosecution of my calling to have my residence for a time here in Scotland which I look upon as a singulare evidence of God's special love to me though I be a stranger I say to many of you yet I must be bold as a dying friend to beseech you by the mercy of God and by your appearance before Jesus Christ when we shall have to do with none but Him as our Judge that ye be faithfull and stedfast in the Cause of God and Covenant which ye have sworn with hands lifted up to the most high God which no Power on earth can loose you from and that ye keep you from snares unto the contrary and not suffer your selves to fall into a detestable Neutrality and Indifferency in that Cause of God And especially that ye keep your selves free of any Engagements by word or write that may wrong your Oath of the Covenant I commit my Wife and Children to His care who careth for them that put their trust in Him before the Sons of men not doubting but they shall be eyed with goodwil and favor by the Godly after I am gone And now I render up my Spirit to Him who gave it me and for whose sake I now lay down my life To this God my Covenanted God be glory blessing and praise for now and ever Amen That this is my mind and Testimony which I leave behind me I witness by my ordinary subscription R. SHIELDS The Testimony of HUMPREY COLHOUNE At his Death in Edinburgh Decemb 22. 1666. Dear Friends and Spectators I am come here this Day to this Place to die this Death for crimes for which I thank God my Conscience doth not condemn me My crime as is alleaged is for Disloyalty against the King's Majesty Yet I thank God that my appearing lately with the Lord's People was from my sense of my obligation in the Covenant and the sense of the wrongs done in the Land and the crying oppressions committed therein This was the end of my appearing for the Lord against His enemies to bear witness against the same The which obligation of the Oath of God I judge that none on earth can loose the Conscience from I bless the Lord again and again I die for this Oath and Covenant And I thank God also that I have by the great mercy of the Almighty God in Christ Jesus obtained mercy and forgiveness for all my transgressions both against the first and second Table of the Law And that through that Ocean of grace which is in the Lord Jesus Christ I believe that I am justified and sanctified and believe now to be glorified with Him by that blessed blood of His which hath purchased this Salvation to me through faith in the same made application of according to the good Covenant of grace He hath performed this out of his vvonderfull and incomparable free-grace And this is my joy and exceeding great rejoycing and consolation and all my salvation for vvhich I am Grace's debtor throughout all Eternity I die vvith this my Testimony my adherence to the National Covenant to the Solemn League and Covenant to the Work of Reformation a great length carried on and now overthrown most sinfully by ungodly Men vvho have established their Apostacy by Law which no just Power on earth could ever do Also I adhere to the Presbyterial Government the Confession of Faith Cathechisms Larger and Shorter And to the Solemn Acknovvledgement of the Church of Scotland And Publick Testimonies thereof against the sins of the time This day I rejoyce that He hath counted me vvorthy to lay dovvn my life for Him as one that beareth vvitness against the breach of all the Sacred Oaths and Ties that were established in this Land yea by the just Laws both of God and Man which never could