COVENANT 



giving effect to the covenant of redemption ; but 

 the term covenant of grace has long been almost 

 universally employed to include all that was com- 

 prehended under both terms. The Abrahamic 

 covenant is the covenant of grace as declared to 

 Abraham, in its particular relation to him and his 

 seed. God is represented in Scripture as sustaining 

 a covenant relation to his own people, to the Jews 

 under the Old Covenant, to believers in Christ 

 under the New ; and doctrinal theology consists 

 not a little in tracing out the nature of this relation, 

 and the consequences which How from it. As the 

 people of God collectively sustain a covenant 

 relation to him, so do believers individually ; and 

 it has not been an uncommon thing for pious 

 persons to endeavour to reduce to writing their 

 sense of this covenant obligation, under the notion 

 of a personal covenanting with God ; and of binding 

 themselves by a stronger obligation to what they 

 believed to be good and their duty. It has also 

 been common for men, from the earliest ages, to 

 enter into covenants with one another with more or 

 less of religious solemnity ; and this has in par- 

 ticular been done among those who have suffered 

 persecution, or have been engaged in contests con- 

 cerning matters of religion, for which the authority 

 of certain passages of the Old Testament is strongly 

 pleaded. Instances occur in the history of the 

 Waldenses, and of some of the Reformed churches, 

 particularly in Scotland. 



THE COVENANTS, known in Scottish history 

 and tradition, originated in the Reformation move- 

 ment of the 16th and 17th centuries. The first 

 Reformation, in 1560, was preceded by several 

 religious bonds among the Reformers themselves ; 

 but the work of reformation was crowned in botli 

 first and second periods by the whole nation en- 

 gaging in public religious covenanting. These 

 public national covenants are two in number the 

 National Covenant, and the Solemn League and 

 Covenant. 



The National Covenant, which is sometimes 

 called the ' Scots Confession ' and the ' Short Con- 

 fession,' to distinguish it from the more elaborate 

 Confession of Faith enacted and placed on the 

 statute-book by parliament in 1560, was drawn up 

 in 1580, at the command of James VI., by one of his 

 chaplains, John Craig (q.v.), to counteract attempts 

 which were being made by the Roman Catholics to 

 regain their lost hold of Scotland. It contains a 

 profession of adherence to the ' true Christian faith 

 and religion ' more particularly expressed in the 

 Confession of 1560, an explicit renunciation of the 

 tenets of popery, which are detailed at length, and 

 a pledge of obedience to the Presbyterian discipline 

 of the church as then established, and of allegiance 

 to the king in the defence of the gospel, all being 

 ratified by solemn oath. By the ordinance of the 

 king, the Privy-council, and the General Assembly, 

 this Covenant was sworn and subscribed by all 

 ranks and classes in 1581 ; renewed in 1590 in a 

 bond specially directed against the machinations of 

 the Holy League, which had in 1588 despatched the 

 Armada against the British Isles ; again renewed 

 in 1596, and still again in 1638. In the Jast-men- 

 tioned year it was renewed in a bond directed 

 against the attempts of Charles I. to enforce the 

 Laudian service-book and Episcopacy upon Scot- 

 land. The swearing and subscribing of the Cove- 

 nant throughout the country was inaugurated in 

 the Greyfriars' Churchyard at Edinburgh, on 28th 

 February ; numerous copies were then sent out over 

 the country, and of these many are still extant both 

 in private and public custody. In the library of 

 the Faculty of Advocates at Edinburgh alone, no 

 fewer than five parchment copies are preserved 

 with the original signatures of Rothes, Montrose, 

 Loudoun, and many others of the nobility, gentry, 



commissioners of counties and burghs, and minis- 

 ters. Only one of these, however, is connected 

 with the year 1638. At the meeting of the General 

 Assembly in Glasgow, on 21st November of that 

 year, the Covenant was ratified and appointed to 

 be again sworn, while in pursuance of the object of 

 the Covenant, the assembly deposed the Avhole of 

 the Episcopal hierarchy which had been established 

 by James VI. The other four copies of the Cove- 

 nant above referred to were subscribed in 1639. The 

 Covenant was further ratified by the parliament of 

 Charles I., held at Edinburgh, June 11, 1640; and 

 it was subscribed by Charles II. on his landing in 

 Scotland, at Speymouth, on June 23, 1650, and 

 again at his coronation at Scone, on January 1, 1651. 



The Solemn League and Covenant was in effect 

 an international treaty between Scotland and Eng- 

 land, for the object of securing the civil and 

 religious liberties of these kingdoms. In 1643 

 commissioners were sent by the parliament to Edin- 

 burgh to solicit the assistance of the Scots on the 

 basis of a treaty between the two kingdoms. To 

 this the Scots Convention of Estates and also the 

 General Assembly cordially assented, on condition 

 that the treaty was drawn up in the interests of 

 their religious as well as their civil liberties. Com- 

 mittees of both were appointed to meet with the 

 English commissioners, and the result of their 

 deliberations was the Solemn League and Covenant. 

 It is believed to have been largely the work of 

 Alexander Henderson. It was hailed by both the 

 representative bodies of the Scots with joyful una- 

 nimity, and sent to England for approbation, with 

 their warmest recommendations and assurances that 

 it would prove ' the most powerful means, by the 

 blessing of God, for settling and preserving the true 

 Protestant religion with perfect peace in all his 

 majesty's dominions, and propagating the same to 

 other nations, and for establishing his majesty's 

 throne to all ages.' It was received with almost 

 perfect unanimity by the English parliament and 

 the Westminster Assembly of Divines, both of 

 whom forthwith swore and subscribed it, and sent 

 copies over the kingdom, with their ordinance that 

 it should be subscribed and sworn by all. Zachary 

 Crofton gives a list of 793 ministers in twelve only 

 of the counties of England, the West Riding of 

 Yorkshire, and the city of London who subscribed 

 their adherence to the Covenant. As soon as 

 intimation of its acceptance by England was re- 

 ceived in Scotland, the Solemn League and Covenant 

 was enjoined to be sworn there by all ranks and 

 classes ; and being sent to Ireland was embraced 

 by the Protestants there with like eagerness and 

 satisfaction. 



The prime object of the Solemn League and 

 Covenant, as stated in the preamble thereof, was 

 ' the preservation of ourselves and our religion from 

 utter ruin and destruction,' and the Covenanters 

 pledged themselves, in their places and callings, to 

 endeavour the preservation of the reformed religion 

 in the Church of Scotland, and the reformation of 

 religion in England and Ireland, in the way of 

 securing a uniformity of religion in the three king- 

 doms, in doctrine, worship, discipline, and govern- 

 ment. There can be little doubt that Presby- 

 terianism was intended, as prelacy, which had just 

 been abolished by both English and Scottish parlia- 

 ments, was specially marked for extirpation along 

 with popery. The Covenanters also pledged them- 

 selves to ' preserve the rights and privileges of the 

 parliaments,' to ' defend the king's majestv's person 

 and authority in the preservation and defence of 

 the true religion and liberties of the kingdoms,' to 

 endeavour that the three kingdoms might ' remain 

 conjoined in a firm peace and union to all posterity,' 

 and finally, to evince a thorough and real refor- 

 mation of life both in public and in private. The 



