George Paxton II.2
James Dodson
SECT. II.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE NATIONAL COVENANT.
1. THE National Covenant was preceded by a regular and steady appearance for civil and religious liberty. The histories of that important period which have the least pretensions to impartiality, incontrovertibly prove that their proceedings were never dishonoured by tumult and confusion. Popular commotions there certainly were; but the Covenanters never offered to justify them, either to the King or their fellow subjects. Whenever a spirit of riot appeared, it was suppressed by the exertions of the magistrates and respectable part of the people; and exposed by the ministers from the pulpit. The Privy Council itself, after a strict inquiry into the tumult of the 23d July 1637, at reading the service-book in the churches of Edinburgh, fully exculpated, in their letter to the King, the great body of the citizens, and laid the blame upon the dregs of the people: “To call, as some do, a set of men, of whom the greater part were highly distinguished for rank, education, the love of God, and of their country, a tumultuous combination, while it is not shown that they acted contrary to the principles of equity; to call such a set of patriots by so reproachful an appellation, from the circumstance, merely, of their being in opposition to the King, is a base partiality which none will excuse, but those whose ignorance of the rights of mankind fits them to receive the slavish doctrines of passive obedience and non-resistance.”
2. Our renowned ancestors contended for the most important object. Civil and Religious Liberty, the birth-right of men, involving the dearest rights of human kind, and their sweetest consolations both in this world and in the next, and together with them the glory of God as their Maker and Redeemer;—these were their aim. If any
[Page 78]
thing deserves to be called important among men; if any thing should awake and inflame the strongest energies of the mind, it is this. But, they contended about modes of worship; and for this unpardonable crime, their well-earned reputation must die. And, for what else did Charles contend? They, in opposition to the will of only one man, insisted to judge for themselves in matters of religion; and he to establish his own sovereign pleasure, in opposition to the just rights and privileges of a whole nation. If they acted unreasonably; he much more. But, they contended for much more than modes of worship; they contended also for matters of faith, and for the established laws and liberties of their nation, which their enemies sought to bury in the same grave. To the profane world, it must be confessed, that the religious matters for which our fathers contended, never can appear important. To them, every thing is trifling, but animal gratification. But some there are who know, with the highest degree of certainty, that their true happiness lies in communion with that God who made and who redeemed them. They know that God’s word and ordinances are the means of that communion, without which it can neither be obtained nor preserved. We are not to wonder that persons of this persuasion, earnestly contend for the purity of divine ordinances. These are the wells of salvation which contain the water of life; the glass in which the glory of God is seen; the green pastures where the hungry feed, and the weary lie down: and can we wonder at their lively concern for the purity of these institutions? They behold a spiritual beauty and glory in the genuine appointments of Christ, to which the most ingenious devices of men can never attain. They are persuaded that the honour of their Lord’s name is deeply concerned in the manner of religious worship. To serve him by means which he has not appointed, is to offer him an indignity which the most pious intentions can never excuse, and which he is still as ready to punish as in the days of Nadab and Abihu. But, to them the honour of their Lord is dearer than all things. In fine, they know that one deviation from the rule of God’s word, however small, opens into the path which leads to total apostasy. These considerations led our excellent fathers to oppose, with all their might, the first appearances of unscriptural rites in the worship of God*.
3. Our ancestors regarded the duty of Public Covenanting as an ordinance of the Church. That the National Covenant was regarded as a religious ordinance, appears from the immediate end of it, the reformation of religion; from the writings of the Covenanters in defence of it, which always represent it as a covenant with God, and
_____
* Anderson’s Essays.
[Page 79]
not with man only; from its administration by ministers on the Lord’s day, or on days of solemn humiliation; but especially from the matter of it, in which the following particulars deserve our attention.
In the beginning we have these remarkable words, expressing, in the strongest manner, the profession which our fathers made of receiving the truth as it is in Jesus, with faith and love. “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 to God, and bringing salvation to man, which now is by the mercy of God, revealed to the world by the preaching of the blessed evangel;—to which we willingly agree, in our consciences, in all points, as to God’s undoubted truth and verity, grounded only upon his written word.”
“In the next place, our ancestors go on to specify the Popish errors which they solemnly renounced. In the present age, the common people do not understand many of the terms here used. But we are to consider, that church-members had occasion, at that time, to be much better versed in the Popish controversy, than they are now. It was only a few years before that they had themselves been practising the evils here abjured. Besides, they had been accustomed to hear their ministers laying open and refuting the errors of Popery almost every Lord’s day. The confessions of faith too, and the religious treatises written at that time were, for the most part, taken up in exposing the abominations of Popery. Even in our own times, professors can give some account of the manifold sectaries which at present infest the church. And may we not suppose our forefathers (while yet far from that indifference to the concerns of religion which hath seized on this generation) to have been much better acquainted with that which was almost the only species of false religion, against which they had then to contend.”
“Some think it strange, that our forefathers should have mentioned the decrees, made at Trent, in a bond which the common people were to subscribe. But it should be remembered that the council of Trent was then a reigning subject of conversation. We have reason to believe the Protestant ministers would give their people all the information about that council which was necessary for maintaining a Testimony against it. They would shew them that whatever the Popish party might pretend, or whatever some of the well-meaning bishops that attended it might look for, the real design of that council was for the ruin of the Protestant cause, and for the confirmation of the errors and
[Page 80]
abominations of Antichrist. Such a testimony was absolutely necessary at that time, in regard that the Papists were continually boasting of their pretended general council, comparing it with the most venerable councils of antiquity; insisting that its decrees ought to be held as binding upon all Christians; and charging the Protestants with inexcusable obstinacy, because they would not submit to those decrees. It was therefore, at that time a necessary branch of the testimony of Protestants, to abjure the authority of the council of Trent.”
Farther, that our ancestors meant that persons should take the National Covenant as church-members, is clear from the evangelical character which the Covenanters bear. They are persons “whose God is the Lord: they are not moved with any worldly respect, but are persuaded only in their conscience; through the knowledge and love of God’s true religion, imprinted in their hearts by the Holy Spirit.” It is only in the character of believers, or of those who partake of Christ and all his saving benefits, that we can give ourselves to the Lord in a covenant of duties; and surely it well becomes believers and partakers of Christ to use these words. At that time there were no disputes among Protestants about the nature of faith. They unanimously held, in opposition to the general doubtsome faith of the Papists, that it is an application of Christ and his benefits to ourselves in particular; among which benefits is the imprinting of the knowledge and love of the true religion by the Holy Spirit. It is true, carnal men could not consistently swear the National Covenant: nor can they consistently pray or receive the sacraments: for these, and indeed every ordinance of the church of Christ, must be observed in the way of depending on Christ as the Lord our righteousness and strength; a dependence to which natural men are absolute strangers. The truth is, if we are to reprobate a religious duty, only because a deceived heart will be so absurd as to draw false conclusions about the state of persons before God, from the profession that they necessarily make in such a duty, What would follow? For the beautiful system of Christian duties and ordinances, we would be presented with an universal blank.
The Covenanters promise to abide by this profession all the days of their lives, as they would not endanger “both soul and body in the day of God’s fearful judgment.” Some such imprecation is expressed or implied in all oaths. It is highly proper here, not that Covenanters were to entertain a slavish fear of hell; but because the ground they here profess to stand upon is the only ground of our salvation; because they might assure themselves that the Lord would enable them, according to his word, to perform their vows; and, lastly, because it ex-
[Page 81]
presses the desire and resolution to walk in the Lord’s way; with which honest covenanters ought to be animated*.
_____
* Anderson’s Essays.