The Covenants And The Covenanters | Page 9

the Church yielded submission. Her
standards were assigned her before she met; her assemblies were
summoned and prorogued at the sovereign's pleasure; Presbyterianism
was established, not because it possessed a jus divinum but because the
people willed it; her government was controlled through the admission
into her ministry, by royal request, of many who had accepted
indulgences and were supporters of Prelacy. The whole period of the
Second Reformation was almost annihilated by the settlement of the

Church, not according to the periods, 1638 and 1643, but according to
1592. The Acts of the Assemblies of the Revolution Church never once
mention the Solemn League and Covenant. Ministers who pled for its
recognition exposed themselves to the censures of their brethren. An
attempt by the Church, soon after the Revolution to assert the
supremacy of Christ and the Church's independence under Him, issued
in the dissolution of the Assembly by the royal Commissioner. And this
departure of the Church and State at the Revolution was strikingly and
sadly endorsed when, at the Union with England, Scotland consented
that the Prelatic Establishment in England should be allowed to remain
"inviolable for ever." A few "stones had been gathered from the wreck
of the Reformation to be incorporated with the new structure, but the
venerable fabric itself was left in ruins."
Yes! the Revolution came but not the Reformation. The sword was
returned to its scabbard, but Church and State did not return to their
Covenant God. Into sympathy and fellowship with institutions founded
on principles subversive of those they had vowed to maintain, the
faithful followers of the Reformers and Martyrs could not enter. The
banner for Christ's Crown and Covenant had waved over the fields of
Scotland when the storms of persecution had raged most fiercely, and
how could they be justified in dropping it now when the God of Zion
was pleased to command a calm. The minority who thus preserved an
unbroken relationship with the pre-Revolution and Martyr period
continued to meet in "Societies" for sixteen years, when they were
joined by a minister--Rev. John M'Millan--who was driven out of the
Revolution Church because of his testimony for the whole Covenanted
Reformation. Some years afterwards, another minister espoused the
cause then represented by Mr. M'Millan and the United Societies, and
this union resulted in the constitution of the Reformed Presbytery. Two
years afterwards, in 1712, the members of the Reformed Presbyterian
Church engaged in the work of Covenant Renovation, at Auchensaugh,
near Douglas, in Lanarkshire. Since that time this Church has had an
unbroken history, excepting a disruption in 1863, when a majority
departed from her distinctive position.
But what is the bearing of Scotland's Covenanted Reformation of three

centuries ago, on the Scotland of the present times? Has it no
instruction for all times? Is the whole prolonged struggle, with all its
chequered scenes, but a panorama on which spectators may gaze with
but passing emotions? Is it all but a story with interest, however
thrilling, for the study of the antiquarian? If so then the whole
contendings of Reformers and Covenanters and Martyrs sink into
insignificance indeed; they have been assigned a magnitude far beyond
their desert. If the doctrines and principles for whose application in
Church and State they fought and suffered, were unscriptural, then let
an enlightened posterity bury with shame the story of their warfare. Or,
if they were of mere temporary importance, then the Covenanters merit
no higher admiration than that accorded to those who, like the
Armenians now in Turkey, cry out against the oppressions of the civil
power. But these doctrines and principles were brought from the Word
of God and possess imperishable excellency. Their glory was not
temporal; it is eternal. And they shall yet undergo a resurrection and
receive universally a joyous recognition.
The obligation of these national Covenants on the British nation still
has been oftentimes demonstrated by indisputable arguments. The
Word of God teaches in the most pointed manner this principle of
devolving Covenant obligation. The God of Israel threatened His
people with chastisement for breaking the Covenant He had made with
their fathers four hundred years before. The Covenanters themselves
bound their posterity to God by express words in their bonds. The
renovation of Covenants at various times proceeded on this principle.
In the time of persecution, the sufferers again and again declared that
they and others were bound by the vows of their fathers. "God hath laid
engagements upon Scotland," said Argyle on the scaffold, "we are tied
by Covenants to religion and Reformation; and it passeth the power of
all the magistrates under heaven to absolve from the oath of God." The
scriptural character of their contents infers the perpetual obligation of
these Covenants. All who accept the Scriptures as the Word of God,
must