George Paxton II.4
James Dodson
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SECT. IV.
OF THE SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT.
WHILE Scotland, refusing to be fettered by the authority of any mortal, pursued the reformation of religion with invincible ardour, England stopt short in the middle of her career, submitting to the imperious dictates of an earthly head. Elizabeth, though celebrated as the protectress of the reformed religion, ignorant or regardless of the rights of conscience, and despising the unaffected simplicity of the scriptures, rigorously imposed upon her subjects a mode of worship, which was subservient to her worldly grandeur and carnal policy. Her successors, James and Charles I. trode, though with unequal steps, the same path. The seeds of civil and religious liberty, which the Reformation had sown in the public mind, insensibly vegetated and sprung up; and the people grew daily more impatient of arbitrary power, either in religion or civil policy. Persuaded of their right, and conscious of their ability to judge for themselves, they began to bring every doctrine and precept, not excepting the mandates of the Monarch himself, to the test of reason and revelation. Charles, in whose reign this spirit exerted all its energy, had not penetration to discern the full tide of popular opinion setting directly against his lofty and uncontrollable prerogative, or wanted wisdom and greatness of mind to yield, with a good grace, what he could no longer retain. The English Parliament, supported by the great body of the people, were determined upon the total abolition of Prelacy, and the abridgment of the regal authority, which was become incompatible with the liberty of the nation; and Charles was no less determined to resist the slightest change in church or state. Both parties had recourse to arms; and both experienced a variety of success. In the year 1643, the Parliament, seeing their affairs on the verge of ruin, sent Commissioners to solicit the aid of the Scots. On the seventh of August they arrived at Leith, and presented to the Assembly, which was waiting to receive them, a Declaration from both houses of Parliament, expressing their resolution to reform religion in England; their desire that the Assembly would send some of their number to assist their Divines who were now sitting at Westminster; and their extreme need of assistance in their present deplorable condition.
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The Scots, exasperated at the insolent treatment which their Commissioners had received from Charles and his Court some time before, and fearing, if the liberties of England were crushed, that their own would speedily follow, gave the kindest reception to the delegates of the English Parliament. But, they would not agree to assist them, unless they consented to a religious union by solemn Covenant. The English Commissioners, urged by the necessity of their affairs, accepted the condition. A draught of the Solemn League and Covenant was presented to the three Committees, from the Parliament of Scotland, from the General Assembly, and from the English Parliament, and agreed to with perfect unanimity. When it was laid before the Assembly, and, after mature deliberation approven of, it is not easy to describe the affecting scene. Tears of pity, of joy, and of fervent piety, flowed from the eyes of the grave, the wise, and the aged members of that venerable body. They were transported at the prospect of the three kingdoms, where civil discord had raged for many years, and where horrid War continued to mark her progress with ruin and with blood, uniting at such a time, and in such a manner, under the Lord Jesus Christ as their common head; and declaring themselves his willing subjects. It was considered by all descriptions of men as a remarkable era; and by the serious and reflecting, who were not, in those days, the smaller number, it was accounted a day much to be remembered;—a day of the right hand of the Most High.
The Covenant, having received the sanction of the Assembly and Parliament, was taken, by their appointment, through the whole nation. At London, it was received with the same alacrity. The Divines at Westminster, and the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled, approved of it as soon as it was laid before them; and, in a few weeks after, solemnly swore and subscribed it with great joy and many tears. Their example was soon followed by the greater part of the kingdom; and about the same time by most of the Irish who embraced the cause of the English Parliament.
The zeal of our fathers for the Covenants, National and Solemn League, was joined with a proportionate concern for the purity of all the other institutions of Christ; for strictness of morals; for genuine liberty, civil and religious; and, in short, for all that is praise-worthy and amiable among mankind. This concern was manifested in the commendable acts of the General Assembly, and of the Parliament; in the due execution of the laws for the suppression of vice, and for the encouragement of virtue and religion; and in the godly and unblemished lives of the most zealous covenanters. Nor is this surprising;—a
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life of this kind is the very end of these solemn engagements; an end the most noble which a reasonable creature can entertain. The truth of this remark derives confirmation even from the reproachful epithets their enemies have commonly thought proper to give them. They have been called Puritans, because they professed to regard the pure word of God as the only rule of their conduct; Fanatics, for the fervency and frequency of their devotions; gloomy and morose, for the severity of their morals; and hypocrites, that while their enemies could find nothing to blame in their outward deportment, they might give full scope to fancy, in supposing them secretly guilty of whatever crimes they pleased*.
The Solemn League and Covenant is one of the most important and celebrated deeds in the history of mankind. Its design embraces whatever is great and precious;—the inestimable blessings of civil and religious freedom. Rejecting arbitrary forms of worship and idle ceremonies, it proposed the word of God as the only rule of faith and manners. It set bounds to the lawless will of one man, and placed the happiness of two mighty nations upon a foundation which should never be moved. It combined into one people those who had waged destructive war against each other from immemorial time; it bade them beat their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks, and learn war no more. Yet, this covenant, like every thing which strongly contradicts the corruptions of the human heart, is treated with virulent abuse. The objections which are brought to prove it an unlawful deed, are drawn either from the character and ruling principles of our ancestors, or from the articles of the Solemn League and Covenant itself.
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* Anderson’s Essays.