Act, Declaration, Testimony for the Whole of our Covenanted Reformation | Page 5

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barbarous isle, causing the refulgent beams of gospel light to dissipate
the gross darkness that, covered the people, which prevailed so far
(according to very authentic historical accounts), that, about the
beginning of the third century, those of the highest dignity in the nation,
voluntarily enlisted themselves under the displayed banner of CHRIST,
the captain of salvation, and became nursing fathers and nursing
mothers to his church, employing their power to root out Pagan idolatry,
and bring their subjects under the peaceful scepter of the SON of GOD.
This plant of Christianity having once taken root, did, under all the
vicissitudes of divine providence, grow up unto a spreading vine, which
filled the land, and continued to flourish, without being pressed down
with the intolerable burden of prelatical or popish superstition: the
truths and institutions of the gospel being faithfully propagated and
maintained in their native purity and simplicity by the Culdees some
hundreds of years before ever that man of sin and son of perdition, by
the door of prelacy, stepped into the temple of God in Scotland. Those
early witnesses for CHRIST, having no other ambition but that of
advancing piety and the doctrines which were according to godliness,
were therefore called _Culdees_, that is, _Cultores Dei_, or worshipers
of God. The doctrine, worship, discipline, and government of the house
of GOD being thus established, continued for many years, taught and
exorcised, according to divine institution. But, in process of time, the
Church of CHRIST in this land came to be assaulted with the
corruptions of the see of Rome, by means of Palladius, the Pope's
missionary to the Britons, who made the first attempt to bring our
fathers' necks under the anti-christian yoke, which gradually increasing
by little and little, clouded the sunshine of prosperity the church then
enjoyed, till about the eleventh century, when the Romish fraternity
fully established themselves, by usurping a diocesan supremacy over

the house of God; after which a midnight darkness of popish error and
idolatry overwhelmed the nation, for near the space of five hundred
years. Yet, even in this very dark period, the LORD left not himself
altogether without some to bear witness for him, whose steadfastness in
defense of the truth, even unto death, vanquished the inhuman cruelty
of their savage enemies. The honor of the church's exalted Head being
still engaged to maintain the right of conquest he had obtained over this
remote isle, and raise up his work out of the ruins, under which it had
lain so long buried; he, about the beginning of the 15th century,
animated some valiant champions (Messrs. Hamilton, Wishart, and
others) with a spirit of truth and heroic courage, to contend against the
abominations of the Babylonish whore, whose labors, by the blessing
of Heaven, were rendered successful, to open the eyes of some to see,
and engage many others to inquire after, and espouse the truth as it is in
JESUS. These, not regarding the fear of man, nor the cruelty of their
enemies, but as good soldiers of JESUS CHRIST, enduring hardness,
chose, rather than desert their Master's cause, to offer their bodies to be
devoured by the tormenting flames, no more merciless than their
hellish persecutors; while in that fiery chariot, through the serial
regions, their souls ascended to the celestial country. And herein, also,
did GOD frustrate the expectation of that monster of iniquity, Cardinal
Beaton (whose memory let it for ever perish), and his wicked
accomplices, and turned their counsel into foolishness, who, by the
death of a few zealous contenders for the faith, intended the total
suppression of CHRIST'S truth for ever; but GOD having purposed the
contrary, made the effusion of their blood the occasion of rousing many
from the deep sleep of gross ignorance, by putting them to search into
the truth of those doctrines, which these martyrs sealed with their blood;
so that JESUS CHRIST, the only true light in the orb of the gospel,
began again to shine forth within this realm.
Upon this begun revival of reformation, the glory of the LORD went
remarkably before his people, and the GOD of Israel was their reward,
uniting the hearts, and strengthening the hands, both of noble and
ignoble, to a vigorous and active espousing of his gospel, and concerns
of his glory, in opposition to the tyranny of the lordly bishops,
persecuting rage, and masked treachery of the two bloody Marys, the

mother and daughter, who then successively governed, or rather
tyrannized, in Scotland. Their number, as well as their zealous spirit,
still increasing, they, for the more effectual management of this noble
enterprise, entered into covenants to advance that begun work of
reformation, and to defend the same and one another in the
maintenance thereof, against all opposition whatsoever. Several such