IN a year when so many commemorations of outstanding ecclesiastical events have been held the Solemn League and Covenant should not be overlooked. This important document was accepted by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1643. Its purpose, with historical notes, is contained in its preamble as follows:—”The Solemn League and Covenant for Reformation and Defence of Religion, the Honour, and Happiness of the King, and the Peace and Safety of the Three Kingdoms of Scotland, England and Ireland; agreed upon by Commissioners from the Parliament and Assembly of Divines in England, with Commissioners of the Convention of Estates and General Assembly in Scotland: approved by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and by both Houses of Parliament and the Assembly of Divines in England, and taken and subscribed by them anno 1643; and thereafter, by the said authority, taken and subscribed by all ranks in Scotland and England the same year; and ratified by Act of the Parliament of Scotland, anno 1644. And again renewed in Scotland, with an Acknowledgment of Sins, and Engagement to Duties, by all ranks, anno 1648, and by Parliament, 1649; taken by King Charles II. at Spey, June 23rd, 1650; and at Scone, January 1st, 1651.”
Things were not going too well with the Parliament at the end of 1642 and the Parliament leaders turned their eyes to Scotland in the hope of arriving at some unified plan whereby the Parliament might present a united front to their opponents. Accordingly near the end of August, 1643, Sir Henry Vane with three other members of Parliament and Revs. Stephen Marshall (Presbyterian) and Philip Nye (Independent) came to Edinburgh. After interviews and discussions between these deputies and a Committee appointed by the General Assembly a document, drawn up by Henderson, was agreed upon and presented to the General Assembly on 17th August. Before it was read to the Assembly Henderson delivered an impressive speech in which he set forth its meaning. The Solemn League and Covenant, as it was henceforth to be known, was received “with the greatest applause that ever I saw anything, with so hearty affections, expressed in the tears of pity and joy, by very many grave, wise, and old men” says Robert Baillie. It was read a second time when the opinions of representative ministers and elders were taken. None opposed it except the King’s Commissioner and a minister named Erskine. In the afternoon the Scottish Convention of Estates passed it with the same unanimity and cordiality. The Assembly appointed a Committee of eight, which included Henderson, to repair to London to witness the Parliamentary ratification of the Covenant. A few changes were made and it was rapidly passed by the Assembly of Divines and by both Houses of Parliament. On Monday, 25th September, it was solemnly ratified in St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster, in presence of the Lords and Commons, the Scottish Commissioners, and the Assembly of Divines. Henderson in a weighty address showed how and why the states of Scotland had resolved to assist the Parliament of England in carrying out the ends and designs of the Covenant. It was then read aloud, solemnly sworn by all present and then signed. The Scottish Convention of Estates issued a proclamation calling all between the ages of 16 and 60 to be ready, armed, and provisioned for forty days, to march to an appointed meeting place. After the Covenant had been sworn in the High Kirk of Edinburgh, exhortations were given in every pulpit in Scotland and by the beginning of 1644 David Leslie, had an army of 20,000 men under him.
Throughout Scotland meetings were held at which the Solemn League and Covenant was sworn. The greatest enthusiasm prevailed and, if there was not the same warmth and religious zeal as in the subscribing of the National Covenant in 1638, there can be not doubt that Scotland was moved as it seldom has been in its chequered history. In the recently published Minutes of the Synod of Argyll,* 1639-1651, we have interesting glimpses of the taking of the Covenant in places which, in those days were not very accessible. Here is an extract: “Whereas the parishioners of the several kirks within the Presbytery of Skye did not yet subscribe the League and Covenant, the Assembly [Synod] ordains the said Presbytery to appoint a day of solemn humiliation throughout their bounds, making intimation thereof at the several kirks, and to require them to the subscribing of the League and Covenant according to the ordinance of the General Assembly there anent in all points, and that under the pain of deposition, if by their negligence the same be procrastinate” —1649. Prior to this in 1644 the Synod in giving certain instructions to this Presbytery write also to Macleod of Macleod and Sir James MacDonald to assist the Presbytery in maintaining discipline “and especially to move their vassals to subscribe the Covenant.”
* The Synod of Argyll at this date not only embraced Argyllshire but the western mainland of Inverness as far North as Glenelg, the islands of Arran and Bute, and the whole Inner and Outer Hebrides as far North as Lewis. The above volume is one of the publications of the Scottish History Society and edited by the late Mr. Duncan C. MacTavish, Castleton, Lochgilphead. Commissioners appointed by the Synod met at Durnort, 5th July, 1642, when some ministers and elders of the Skye Presbytery were asked if they had subscribed the Covenant (National) some answered they had not. The Covenant was read to them and those who had not as yet subscribed it did so.
When we turn to consider the terms of this famous document while one need not go the length of Dr. Hetherington yet it must be assigned a very high place as a document of first rate historical importance. It presents a vision of a master-mind in an endeavour to unite England, Scotland and Ireland on the basis of a common religion. It begins with these words: “We, Noblemen, Barons, Knights, Gentlemen, Citizens, Burgesses, Ministers of the Gospel, and Commons of all sorts in the kingdoms of Scotland, England and Ireland, by the providence of God living under one King, and being of one Reformed Religion, having before our eyes the glory of God and the advancement of the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the honour and happiness of the King’s Majesty and his posterity, and the true public liberty, safety and peace of the kingdoms, wherein every one’s private condition is included: And calling to mind the treacherous and bloody plots, conspiracies, attempts and practices of the enemies of God against the true religion and professors thereof in all places, especially in these three kingdoms, ever since the reformation of religion; and how much their rage, power, and presumption are of late, and, at this time, increased and exercised, whereof the deplorable state of the Church and Kingdom of England, and the dangerous state of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland, are present and public testimonies; we have now at last (after other means of supplication, remonstrance, protestation, and suffering), for the preservation of ourselves and our religion from utter ruin and destruction, according to the commendable practice of these kingdoms in former times, and the example of God’s people in other nations, after mature deliberation, resolved and determined to enter into a mutual and Solemn League and Covenant, wherein we all subscribe, and each one of us for himself, with our hands lifted up to the Most High God do swear.”
This statement is followed by six articles—the first of which is that all taking the Covenant swear that they will endeavour (1) the preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland, in doctrine, worship, discipline and government; (2) the reformation of religion in the kingdoms of England and Ireland, in doctrine, worship, discipline and government according to the Word of God; (3) the bringing of the Churches of the three kingdoms to conjunction and uniformity in religion, confession of faith, form of church government, directory for worship and catechising. The second article binds the persons taking the Covenant to endeavour to extirpate Popery, Prelacy, superstition, heresy, schism, profaneness, and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound doctrine and the power of godliness. In the concluding articles the note of civil liberty is sounded with a clear trumpet call, and further the subscribers of the Covenant bind themselves to stand by all those who have taken the Covenant on the above terms. The concluding part of the document is a solemn acknowledgment and confession of sin to God. Such in brief outline are some of the leading points in a document which, with the National Covenant, became the rallying cry of some of the finest of Scotland’s sons and daughters. For the principles set forth in these documents women and men, girls and boys laid down their lives and though, it looked like that their witness was in vain, the day at last dawned when the battle fought against crowned and mitred tyranny won the day and the religious and civil liberties which are ours to-day became the birth right of the people of our nation. The documents produced by the Westminster Assembly of Divines may be said to be a fruit of the uniformity in religion and church government desiderated by the Solemn League and Covenant. Though the vision of a united Church in the three kingdoms was never realised yet the Solemn League and Covenant was not an idle dream. Its advocates failed through want of realising the impossibility of welding together material of a very mixed nature. Cromwell though he took the Covenant, seemed to have a very indifferent view of it later on probably because the Presbyterians made so much of it. Montrose, who is lauded to the skies by a certain school of historians as a genius of the first order and a soldier of the foremost rank, though subscribing to the National Covenant refused to acknowledge the Solemn League and Covenant. He soon found himself against the Covenanter armies and though at first, successful, he finally was defeated at Culrain, Ross-shire, and after wandering in the West of Sutherland was captured, taken to Edinburgh, tried, and executed.
The Revolution Settlement ignored the Second Reformation and hence took no notice of the Covenants. The Society People (the Cameronians) advanced this as one of the reasons they could not enter the Revolution Church. There were many who joined the Church in 1688 who had sympathy with this witness hence when the Secession took place the Seceders proceeded to rectify this omission. Both the Reformed Presbyterian and the United Original Seceders the modern representatives of the aforementioned bodies hold as one of their distinctive principles the binding obligations of the Covenants. The Free Church of 1843 claiming to be the Church of Scotland free took over the Revolution Settlement but in 1851 they passed an Act in which the relation of the Church to the Second Reformation attainments is set forth. The Act is printed in full in the Authorised Standards of the Free Church. This Act deserves careful reading as it not only sets forth the relation of the Free Church to the Second Reformation attainments but also its relation to the Catechisms (Larger and Shorter), Directory for Public Worship and the Form of Church Government, etc. The following paragraph shows its attitude to the Solemn League and Covenant: “Thereafter, for the better prosecution of the work on hand, and in face of the manifest purpose of the King and his adherents to crush it altogether, this Church, by commissioners duly named by the General Assembly, took part in the Assembly of Divines which met at Westminster in 1643. And having in view the uniformity contemplated in the Solemn League and Covenant, she consented to adopt the Confession of Faith, Catechisms, Directory for Public Worship, and Form of Church Government, agreed upon by the said Assembly of Divines.” In 1910 our Synod issued a Declaration anent Reformation Attainments and the Church’s Relation Thereto in which occurs the following statement: “The Lord manifested His approval of the faithfulness of our fathers also by awakening the English Parliament, with a very numerous following, to a realization of the designs of the King and the Prelatic faction to overthrow the Reformed religion in Great Britain, so that they sent Commissioners to the Estates and General Assembly of the Scottish nation, craving their assistance. To this appeal the Presbyterians of Scotland listened and drafted the Solemn League and Covenant as the basis of mutual agreement. The direct purpose of the Solemn League and Covenant was to secure a basis upon which the Churches of Christ in Scotland, England, and Ireland might be united in the truth and might secure the ‘preservation of the Reformed religion in the Church of Scotland, the Reformation of religion in England and Ireland, and the extirpation of Popery and Prelacy’ . . . England proved untrue to her solemn oath and turned back to Episcopacy with results which proved very distressing to the Church of Scotland and the baneful fruits of which that nation reaps to the present day. Whether these documents be considered as an expression of the real face of the Apostolic Church as set forth in the New Testament, or as a masterpiece of the sagacity of our fathers in an honest effort to bring the British nation into unity with the truth, their guileless aim and wisdom are clearly seen and bear witness that they were moved by the Spirit of God.” (Free Presbyterian Magazine, xv. 149, 150, 292 and XIV. 284-287; see also History of Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, pp. 158-160. Both these deliverances, while making clear the hearty sympathy of the Free Church in 1851 and the Free Presbyterian Church in 1910 with the First and Second Reformation contentions, do not regard the Covenants as binding upon them.