ON 28th February, 1638,* three hundred years ago, an event took place in Greyfriars Church, Edinburgh, which was to stir the serious-minded people of Scotland to the very depth of their being and which was destined to leave an impression on the minds and hearts of Scottish people which years of the cruellest persecution could not obliterate. This was the signing of the National Covenant. The Covenant consisted of three parts and is to be distinguished from the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643. On the 22nd February the Four Tables, i.e. the Commissioners appointed by the Covenanters to look after their interests and so-called because the four sections—(1) nobles, (2) county gentlemen, (3) ministers, (4) representatives of burghs—sat separately at four tables, requested Johnston of Wariston and Alexander Henderson to prepare a Covenant suitable to the circumstances. After an all-night, sitting on Tuesday, 27th February, Johnston and Henderson had the final draft ready. It was revised at Rothes, Loudon and Balmerino and also by the barons and ministers. The first part of the Covenant is a repetition of the King’s Confession of 1580-1. The second part was drawn up by Johnston of Wariston and specified all the Acts of Parliament suppressing Popery and establishing the Protestant religion in Scotland. The third is generally credited to Alexander
*The date that is usually given is the 1st of March but Dr. Hay Fleming has shown from contemporary sources that the true date is 28th February. He also rejects the traditional story of the signing of the Covenant in Greyfriars Churchyard.
Henderson; it declared, that while its subscribers kept inviolable the former national oath, they had resolved also “to defend the foresaid true religion, and forbearing the practice of all novations already introduced” until these had been tried by the proper tribunal—the General Assembly. “We also declare,” says the new bond, “that the foresaid Confessions are to be interpreted and ought to be understood of the foresaid novations and evils, no less than if every one of them had been expressed in the foresaid Confessions; and that we are obliged to detest and abhor them, amongst other particular heads of Papistry abjurated therein.”* The aim of the Covenants is set forth in noble words: “And, therefore, from the knowledge and conscience of our duty to God, to our King and country, without any worldly respect or inducement, as far as human infirmity will suffer, wishing a further measure of the grace of God for this effect, we promise and swear by the great name of the Lord our God to continue in the profession and obedience of the said religion, and that we shall defend the same and resist all those contrary errors and corruptions, according to our vocation, and to the utmost part that power which God hath put in our hands all the days of our life.”
It may be asked what was the reason which led the leaders of the people to take this important step? The answer is to be found in Charles’ infatuated policy to force on the Scottish people a religion which pointed in the direction of Rome. Under the evil influence of Laud Charles pursued a course which was to involve himself and the northern kingdom in a death and life struggle. The slumbering fires broke out intensely when the attempt was made in Edinburgh on 23rd July, 1637, by Dean Hannay to read the new Prayer Book. The people were now in open revolt against the new order of things. This state of things and the King’s determination to pursue his worse than stupid
*The National Covenant is found in almost all the editions of the Confession.
policy led to the presentation of the National Petition* to the Scottish Privy Council on 18th October, 1637. Other events followed in quick succession until it was decided as stated above that the opponents of Charles’ policy should band themselves together in a covenant.
On 23rd February the Covenant was read and subscribed by the nobility and gentry in Greyfriars Church. On the Thursday, 1st March, the ministers and commissioners of burghs signed it in the Tailors’ Hall. The people of Edinburgh signed it on Friday and Saturday in the College Kirk, i.e. Trinity College Kirk at the foot of Leith Wynd. The signing of the Covenant evoked extraordinary religious enthusiasm and from some of the accounts which have come down to us there seems to have been a real religious awakening. Johnston of Wariston tells of a scene in Edinburgh on the 8th April when the congregation, noblemen and commoners, with uplifted hands swore by the name of the living God to abide by the Covenant. “The Spirit of the Lord,” he says, “so filled the sanctuary, warmed the affections, melted the hearts, dissolved the eyes of all the people, men and women, poor and noble, as for a long time they stood still with their hands up unto the Lord, until Mr. Henry [Rollock] after he recovered himself, scarcely able to speak, after a short exhortation to thankfulness and fruitfulness, closed all up in a heavenly prayer and praise.” John Livingstone, of Kirk of Shots fame, says in his Autobiography: “I was present at Lanark and at several other parishes when, on a Sabbath, after the forenoon sermon, the Covenant was read and sworn, and may truly say that in all my life, except one day in the church of Shots, I never saw such motions from the Spirit of God; all the people generally and most willingly concurring, where I have seen above 1,000 persons all at once lifting up their hands and the tears dropping from their eyes” (Select Biographies, i. 160—Woudrow Society). Such testimonies might be multiplied but we must
*This petition will be found in vol. xxx., p. 168, of the Magazine. See note, p. 197.
refrain, meantime, from mentioning more as we are desirous of calling attention to proceedings of Covenant subscription in the North.
James little knew when he banished Robert Bruce to Inverness that he was taking a sure means of spreading gospel truth where it was much needed. During his banishment there the Earl of Sutherland, his wife, and mother were confined at Inverness “during the King’s pleasure.” Sutherland had Roman Catholic leanings. The Dowager Countess belonged to the house of Huntly and lived and died a Roman Catholic but the Countess, who was a kinswoman of Bruce being of the family of Elphinstone, came under the influence of Bruce’s gracious ministry and it is interesting to note that her son Earl John was one of the prominent Covenanting noblemen. Another fruit of Bruce’s ministry at Inverness was Alexander Munro, the first Protestant minister of Durness and described as “teacher in Strathnaver.” He translated passages of the Scripture into Gaelic poetry and taught the rude people by this method and no doubt his influence accounts for the fact that the Reay Country and its leading men were sympathetic to the Covenant. In the Diary of John Brand, minister of Bo’ness there is the following entry: “The memory of that man of God, Mr. Robert Bruce, is sweet to this day in this place [Inverness]. He, in the days of King James, was confined to this town, where the Lord blessed his labours to the conversion of many brethren in the town and country about; for the multitudes of all ranks would have crossed many ferries every Lord’s Day to hear him; yea, they came both from Ross and Sutherland; the memory of the just is blessed” (Autobiography and Life of Robert Blair, pp. 39, 40). No doubt the sympathies of the leading families in Ross-shire—the Munroes and the Rosses—were nurtured by contact with Bruce’s ministry in Inverness. Bruce preached also, at times, in the surrounding districts. Whether we are attributing too much to Robert Bruce’s influence or not there can be no doubt that when the Covenant struggle began that those districts which, more or less, came under his influence were strongly on the Covenanter side.
After the drawing up of the Covenant the Covenanters lost no time in presenting it in different districts to be signed. With this end in view a Commission consisting of the Earl of Sutherland, Lord Lovat, the Master of Berridale (son of the Earl of Caithness), the Lairds of Grant, Balnagown and others were appointed. These Commissioners issued letters to the leading men in the North (Macdonald’s Covenanters in Moray and Ross, p. 13). The accounts of the subscription of the Covenant in the North are embodied in Rothes’ Relation and may be quoted. On the 25th April the Covenant was signed at Inverness. “It was profest by all, that it was the joyfulest day that ever they saw, or ever was seen in the North; and it was marked as a special mark of God’s goodness towards these parts, that so many different clans and names, among whom was nothing before but hot hostility and blood, were met together in one place for such a good cause, and in so peaceable a manner, as that nothing was to be seen and heard but mutual embracements, with hearty praise to God for so happy a union.” We have also an account from the same source of how the Covenant was subscribed at Fortrose (the Chanonry of Ross) on 6th May: “The Covenant was read out, and the heads thereof declared; and so the people went on and subscribed. Every honest man in the town that could subscribe did so; others, that could not, gave power to a notary to do it for them; which being ended, the heads were again repeated, and after an exhortation to constancy, every man and woman in the kirk holding up their hands, the oath was solemnly taken, and the action concluded with the blessing.” We need not enter more fully on this subject as it will be presented to the Synod at greater length than we can enter on here and our readers will have an opportunity of reading the paper presented to that Court later on.
Whatever little differences may be amongst God’s people, they will be sure to cleave close together in prison and in heaven.
—William Tiptaft.