Act, Declaration, Testimony for the Whole of our Covenanted Reformation | Page 2

give them a nail in his holy place, and a wall in Judah
and Jerusalem, Ezra ix, 8, 9, they therefore again laid their
appointments upon some others to prepare a draft of _An Act,
Declaration, and Testimony_, &c., and which, under the favor of
Divine Providence, has at length been finished and laid before the
presbytery. We only need to observe further with reference to this, that
the long delay of what is now agreed upon did not proceed from any
design in the presbytery, of depriving either the people of their
particular inspection, or the generation, of any benefit that might be
obtained by a work of this nature, but partly from the fewness of their
number, and great extent of their charge, and partly from the great
distance of members' residence from each other, whereby they can
seldom have access to meet all together, for expediting this or any other
work of public concern they have in hand.
It is, therefore, with an eye to the Wonderful Counselor (when Zion's
faithful counselors are so few) for light and direction in the
management of this great and important work, that the presbytery have
resolved upon the publication hereof at this time, for the reasons which
follow:
1. Because this duty of bearing witness for truth, and declaring against
all error, and defection from it, and transmitting the same uncorrupted
to posterity, is expressly enjoined on the church by the Spirit of God in
the Scriptures of truth. _Psal._ lxxviii, 5: "For he hath established a
testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he
commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their
children." Isaiah xliii, 10: "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord."
_Matth._ x, 32: "Whosoever, therefore, shall confess me before men,
him will I also confess before my Father who is in heaven." John xv. 27:
"Ye also shall bear witness." Acts i, 8: "And ye shall be witnesses unto
me."
2. Because, in agreeableness to the above scripture warrant, it has been
the constant practice of the church in all ages, when in such capacity,
judicially to assert, and declare their approbation of the truths of the
everlasting gospel, and attainments of the church, joined with the

condemnation of all contrary error, as appears from their harmonious
confessions: and particularly, this has been the honorable practice of
the once famous church of Scotland, witness her excellent confessions,
covenants, &c., whose posterity we are, and, therefore, in duty bound to
homologate, and approve her scriptural form and order, by a judicial
asserting of her attainments, as saith the apostle, _Philip._ iii, 16:
"Nevertheless whereunto we have already attained, let us walk by the
same rule, let us mind the same thing." _Rev._ iii, 3: "Remember,
therefore, how thou has received, and heard, and hold fast, and repent."
3. That, notwithstanding many, both ministers and private Christians,
have been honored faithfully to publish their testimonies and
declarations, and to seal them with their blood, in opposition to the
growing defections in the land, being through the tyranny of the times
prevented from acting in any other capacity: yet never, since the
national overthrow of the glorious structure of reformation, has any
church judicatory; constituted purely on the footing of our covenanted
establishment, appeared in a judicial vindication of our Redeemer's
interest and injured rights.
4. The unspeakable loss sustained by the present generation, through
the want of a full and faithful declaration of the covenanted principles
of the church of Scotland, which they in the loins of their ancestors
were so solemnly engaged to maintain; whereby, as ignorance must be
increased, so prejudices are also gradually begotten in their winds
against the truth in the purity thereof. And this, through the many
mistaken notions at present prevailing among the different contending
parties of professors in these nations, concerning the distinct ordinances
of divine institution, viz., the ministry and magistracy, or ecclesiastical
and civil government; and, more especially, the presbytery reckon
themselves, and all professing their allegiance unto Christ and his cause,
obliged to maintain the testimony of our ancestors for the divine
institution and right constitution of civil government, according to the
law of God, as what they found to be, and still is, indispensably
necessary for the outward defense and preservation of righteousness
and true religion; and because the very foundation and ends of this
ordinance have been doctrinally subverted, and the generation taught
the most licentious principles concerning it, by a body of professed
witnesses among ourselves: and this they design to do, without (as they

are slanderously reported of by some) laying aside themselves, or
withdrawing others, from the study of internal and habitual or practical
holiness.
5. To wipe off the reproach of that odium cast upon the presbytery and