ECCLESIASTICAL COVENANTING : 
 
 A 
 
 S H IB EQ (© 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 SOME REMARKS ON THE EXPECTED UNION OF THE 
 ASSOCIATE AND GENERAL ASSOCIATE SYNODS. 
 
 BY 
 
 DAVID ROBERTSON, 
 
 MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL, KIL^MAUIIS. 
 
 KILMARNOCK ; 
 
 FHnted by Mathic and I/>chore, 
 
 SOLD BY OGLE, ALLARDICE AND THOMSON, AND DAVID BROWN, 
 EDINBURGH ; M. OGLE AND WILLIAM TURNBULL, 
 GLASGOW; J. STEWART AND R. MATHIE^ 
 KILMARNOCK. 
 
 1820 . 
 

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SERMON. 
 
 Psalm Ixxvi. 11. “ Vow and pay unto the Lord your God.*j 
 Psalm I. 14. “ Pay thy vows unto the most High.” 
 
 Isaiah Ivi. 6, 7. “ Also the sons of the stranger that join themselves 
 to the Lord, and take bold of my covenant, even them will I bring to my 
 holy mountain. 
 
 SOLOMON says “better that thoushouldst not vow, 
 tlian that thou shouldst vow and not pay.”* But 
 the same spirit that was in him commands us by the 
 mouth of Asaph to “ vow” as well as “ pay unto the 
 Lord our God.” We know that the dictates of the 
 Divine Spirit cannot be contradictory, and that 
 Scripture being all true is necessarily consistent in 
 all its parts. We are thus led to conclude that the 
 two passages already quoted, doHot speak of vows 
 of the same kind. And in Scripture there are ex« 
 amples of vows very different in their nature and ne- 
 cessity — of some which we are not enjoined to make. 
 
 ■* Ecc. y. 5. 
 
4 
 
 but which if made in a right spirit, and from proper 
 motives, may find acceptance with God as free will- 
 offerings, and which when made, the very nature of 
 a VOW’ obliges us to perform : and of others which 
 we are bound in duty to God to make and to pay, 
 and w’ithout which we can have no place among his 
 people. Of the former kind there are numerous in- 
 stances under the Old Testament. Though Hannah 
 
 O 
 
 prayed that she might have a man-child, she was un- 
 der no necessity of decliningto aducate him at home 
 in her husband’s house ; but she vowed a vow, pro- 
 mising, that she would give him to the Lord all the 
 days of his life, and that he should be educated be- 
 fore the Lord in Shiloh. The vow of Jephthah, and 
 the oath, vow, or curse (as it is called) of Saul that 
 he and all his people would abstain from food till 
 the evening of the day on which God a\ enged them 
 of their enemies, were of the same kind. The vow 
 of Ananias and Sapphira under the New Testament 
 to dedicate the whole price of their land to the sup- 
 port and prppagation of the gospel, and the prospe- 
 rity of the Church, is another. The Apostle said, 
 “ Whiles it remained was it not thine own ? and af- 
 ter it was sold, was itnot in thine own power ?”* And 
 the melan.clioly catastrophe which followed shewed 
 iliat it had been much better for them not to have 
 vowed such a vow, than after having made it, to at- 
 tempt eluding the payment. The heart rending con- 
 sequences which followed the observance of Jeph- 
 thah’s VOW’, w hici) were avoided only by the breach 
 of‘ Saul’s, and whiph f ollow ed the breach of that of 
 
 * Acts V. 4. 
 
.5 
 
 Aminias, shew that men should be v’ery cautious of 
 making vows which God has not expressly recpii- 
 red at their hands. — But there are vows which we 
 are commanded to make as w'ell as pay, in w hich the 
 saints rejoice, and which they count it a matter of 
 thanksgiving to have lying on them. “ Thy vows 
 are upon me O God : 1 w ill render praises unto 
 thee”*. These must be, not the sacrificing of an a- 
 nimal more than required by the law', nor the 
 abstaining from food, (especially when the taking of 
 it as in Saul’s case might have contributed to invi- 
 goration, increased activity, and perseverance in du- 
 ty) nor the consecration of a larger proportion of 
 our worldly substance than God requires to reli- 
 gious uses : but the taking hold of his covenant, 
 and giving ourselves to him, and our goods to the 
 support of his Institutions, and the relief of our ne- 
 cessitous brethren, in such proportion as his word 
 requires, in our circumstances. We are not to halt 
 between two opinions, but to vow to the mighty 
 God saying w’e will be for thee and not for another. 
 We cannot err when we follow his word in the mat- 
 ter of our vows ; and if our vow'ing can lay us un- 
 der additional obligations to what is right, and fur- 
 nish additional motives to what is (in itself) duty, so 
 much the better for us : his commandment is life 
 and we should consider everv new motive to dut\% 
 as an addition to our privileges, and thank God for 
 Iiaving led to exercise which brings them near and 
 retains them ever present in our minds. God re- 
 cognises them only as his saints “who have made 
 
 * Psalm Ivi. 12. 
 
G 
 
 a covenant with him by sacrifice/’* To this kind 
 of vowing we mean to confine your attention at pre- 
 sent. And shall consider, 
 
 I. The nature of such vows. 
 
 II. The matter of them, or the duties to which 
 they bind us. And 
 
 III. Mention some motives exciting you to pay 
 your vows. 
 
 I. We remark 1st, That God has graciously 
 condescended to receive some of the race of Adam 
 into a covenant relation to himself, or in other 
 words to give his people a covenant. That there is 
 a covenant subsisting between God and the church 
 all admit ; and also that this covenant is made and 
 ^proposed or given to the church by God; for it is 
 presumptuous and blasphemous to suppose that any 
 covenant made by man could be binding on God. 
 It would be derogatory from the dignity, and un- 
 becoming the glorious majesty of the Sovereign of 
 the Universe, to accede as a party to any stipula- 
 tions of a creature the work of his hands. The co- 
 venant of w'orks made with man in his original state 
 aiul with all reasonable creatures, was not framed 
 by the creatures, nor w as any article of it stipula- 
 ted tor by them hut wholly given in the form of a 
 law by God. And the covenant of Grace by which 
 we have deliverance from the guilt and punishment. 
 
 * I Win. 1. 5. 
 
7 
 
 and also from the power and practice of sin, by which 
 we see the scqient overcome, all the mournful ef- 
 fects of his fatal seduction removed, and an entrance 
 opened for us into a more abundant enjoyment of 
 life than that which our first parents forfeited by sin, 
 so far from being arranged or modified by the wis- 
 dom and prudence of the creature, was made in eter- 
 nity with him who came in the fulness of time, to 
 take away sin by the sacrifice of himself. The saints 
 are indeed brought by the Spirit to accede person- 
 ally to this covenant made with their surety, and 
 find every article deeply to concern their interest, 
 and the whole of it in their favour. But though it 
 is always in their hearts and often in their mouths, 
 we never hear them calling it a covenant which they 
 have made with God, but always]a covenant which 
 God hath made with them. “ Although my house 
 be not so with God ; yet he hath made with me an 
 everlasting covenant ordered in all thing and sure.”* 
 In the promise of the seed of the w^oman to bruise 
 the head of the serpent, this covenant was reveal- 
 ed to Adam soon after sin entered : it was afterward 
 confirmed with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, succes- 
 sively, and again with David, and in short with all 
 the saints w’hether in ancient times or in latter ages. 
 
 On this sure and broad basis have been erected 
 several particular and supplementary covenants 
 which God has given his church in the succession 
 of ages. Of these the Abrahamic, the Sinaitic and 
 the new or Christian covenants are examples. The 
 
 * 2 Sam. xxi'ii. 5, 
 
8 
 
 last two we are accustomed to call dispensations : 
 but in Scripture they are called the two covenants.* 
 As soon as the visible church Was erected into a 
 public, associated, organised body, she was not on- 
 ly under the covenant of grace, but had also the Si- 
 naitic covenant with all its peculiarities given her^ 
 In the writings of Jeremiah, God speaks to the Jews 
 in that age, of the covenant which he made with 
 their Fathers in the day that he took them by the 
 hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.f In 
 this covenant he gave a constitution with statutes 
 and ordinances to the churchi 
 
 And besides this, he speaks also in the same pas- 
 sage of making with the church in the days of the 
 Messiah, another, a new, and better, covenant. From 
 this the apostle justly reasons that in speaking of a- 
 nother as a new covenant, he maketh that old, and 
 concludes that what decayeth and vs^axeth old may 
 be expected to vanish away. He tells us also that 
 by the coming of Christ it was removed ; and a new* 
 covenant given the church, conveying to her a new 
 constitution, laws and ordinances. And he repeat- 
 edly congratulates his hearers on the happy change. 
 The old was a law of commandments in ordinances, 
 a yoke which neither they nor their fathers were a- 
 ble to bear, under which the church was in bondage 
 with her children; but the new is a better covenant, in 
 which the Son makes us free, and We are free indeed; 
 in which God says, I will be your God, ye shall be my 
 people, and without any burdensome yoke of cere- 
 
 • Gal. iv. 2t. ami Heb. viii. 13. f J®*"’ xxxi. 3?. 
 
9 
 
 monioiis ol)scrvances requires us to worship liim in 
 the few simple institutions which Christ hatli 
 commanded. And both partake so much of the na- 
 ture of a Testament that every one who takes tlie 
 benefit of their privileges, thereby places himself un- 
 der all their obliffatious. You cannot inherit the ffoods 
 of a testator without becoming bound to all the ob- 
 ligal ions originally lying on his estate, and to all 
 those which he has specified in the testament. 
 
 2. All right religious vowing or covenanting on 
 the part of men consists in openly taking hold of 
 that particular covenant or constitution under which 
 God has placed the church in their day. In covenan- 
 ting we promise nothing in our strength ; for we 
 take hold of God’s covenant as a whole, and not on- 
 ly engage to the duties which it enjoins, but also 
 claim and rely on the grace which it promises. The 
 covenanting of the Israelites in the wilderness con- 
 sisted not in any covenant of their making, (for to 
 such a covenant God would not, and could not have 
 acceded as a party,) but in receiving the covenant 
 which God there made with them. Their wordswere, 
 “ all that the Lord our God hath said will we do”*: 
 and in thus implicitly receiving the covenant pro- 
 mulged by him they “ avouched the Lord to be their 
 God.” And all the subsequent covenantings of God’s 
 people under the Old Testament viz. in the days of 
 Asa, in those of Josiah, and at their return from Ba- 
 bylon, were but so many instances in which they 
 confessed and lamented their apostasy, and again 
 
 * Exocl. xxvi. 7. 
 B 
 
10 
 
 took hold of the covenant made with their fathers 
 at Sinai. It could not be the making of a new' cove- 
 nant : it was but the renewal of an old friendship : 
 and this was done by the confession and submission 
 of the party by whose unfaithfulness the friendship 
 had been violated. The parties w ere the same ; and 
 there were no new articles introduced into the con- 
 tract. The church confessing her errors returned 
 to the plighted husband of her youth j and solemn- 
 ly declared that henceforth she would adhere to the 
 covenant which he made with her when he espous- 
 ed her in the wilderness. Could we suppose a new 
 covenant made betw'een God and the church at 
 those times, it would lead not only to the absurdity 
 that God became bound as a party to a covenant 
 framed by mortal men, but also to the conclusion 
 that the dispensation of grace and constitution of 
 the church were changed, or at least modified on 
 each of these occasions. But one who cannot err 
 tells that the dispensation remained the same, and 
 that the law continued at least until John, the shin- 
 ’ing harbinger of the Gospel day. To shew that the 
 Israelites in their covenanting only declared anew 
 their adherence to the Sinaitic covenant which they 
 admitted was still binding on them, we might only 
 have referred you to the pages of the sacred volume 
 in which these transactions are recorded. I'hey 
 read the book of the covenant which Moses wrote 
 and read to their fathers in the wilderness ; and 
 though the words in which they engaged to adhere 
 to it varied, (as might be expected on the different 
 occasions,) yet the substance of their engagement 
 every time amounted to the declaration of their fa- 
 
11 
 
 tilers, “all that the Lord our God hath spoken will 
 we do, and be obedient.” Thus it is said of Josiah, 
 “ the king went up into the house of the Lord and all 
 the men of Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusa- 
 lem with him, and the priests and the prophets, 
 and all the people, both small and great : and he 
 read in their ears all the words of fhe hook of the 
 covenant which had been found in the house of the 
 Lord, and the king stood by a pillar, and made a 
 covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, 
 and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies 
 and his statutes with all their heart, and all their 
 soul, to perform the words of this covenant tliat 
 were written in this fcoo/r and all the people stood to 
 the covenant.*” 
 
 And the covenanting of the first Christians (though 
 they were not all collected into one assembly, and 
 though in some other circumstances, it was not so 
 formally gone about, as that of the Israelites in the 
 wilderness,) consisted in receiving the new and bet- 
 ter covenant given to the church in their day, in tak- 
 ing the Lord to be their God, and “ giving their own 
 selves to the Lord”f as his people. And the co- 
 venanting of the Waldenses, and of the first refoF-. 
 mers from Popery in this and other countries, w'as 
 merely a renewed taking hold of the same covenant, 
 and of the ecclesiastical constitutions and laws W'hich 
 it promulges, in opposition to the apostasy and idol- 
 atiy, the tyrannical yoke and absurd ceremonies of 
 Rome. It w’as only the ingrafting of some branches 
 
 * 2. Kings xxiii. 2, 3. f 2. Cor. viii. 5. 
 
12 
 
 into the same tree fi om which they had for a time 
 been separated by the usurpation and violent pro- 
 cedure of the man of sin. It bore no analogy to the 
 covenanting of the ancient church in the wilderness ; 
 for that would lead to the unscriptural conclusion 
 that the Church has received a new constitution, and 
 been placed under a new dispensation every time 
 she has engaged in covenanting : but the exercise 
 and deeds of our ancestors on tliese occasions had 
 an exact correspondence with those of the Israelitsh 
 church in the days of Asa, Josiah and Nehemiah. 
 On these occasions the Israelilish church returned 
 from her apostasy and declared anew her adherence 
 to the covenant given her in the wilderness : and 
 on those mentioned in the history of the New Tes- 
 tament Church our forefathers returned, took hold 
 of the Covenantor Testament given to the church 
 in the days of the Apostles, and solemnly said 
 and swore that renouncing the errors and idolatry 
 of Rome thev would henceforth adhere to that alone 
 in doctrine, worship, discipline and government. 
 They saw and avowed that the covenant of which 
 they solemnly declared their approbation and to 
 which they vowed their subjection had a descending 
 obligation on the followers of Christ alway even to 
 the end of the world. 
 
 But if any of them omitted to declare their appro- 
 bation and esj)ousal of the whole constitution of this 
 covenant, in its laws as well as privileges, or if they 
 superadded any thing of their own, inconsistent 
 with its Divine constitution, they did amiss, and in 
 
13 
 
 so far their covenantin'^ was sinful, and could be 
 obli^vtory ueitlior on themselves nor tlieir posterity. 
 What Moses said of the old is ecpially true of the New 
 and better covenant, “ viz. you shall not add there- 
 to nor diminish from it.” Our taking hold of this 
 covenant binds us to tlic Lord as our God, to Christ 
 as our Saviour, and to one another as his followers 
 and members of his body. Men may make cove- 
 nants with one another about civil and even reli- 
 gious matters, (as for example the Holy League of 
 the Guises in France lor the destruction of all the 
 Kefbrmcd Churches) distinct from, or ever, incon- 
 sistent with the covenant which God has given the 
 Church. But there can be no covenanting in whicli 
 God is a party, or which can bind us to him except 
 that of receiving the covenant which he has made, 
 which he offers to us in the gospel, and which binds 
 all his jieople to one another by their common re- 
 lation to Christ their head. Nor ought we to bind 
 ourselves together by any tie which this covenant 
 does not recognise. But in taking hold of this, we 
 bind ourselves to be dutiful to God as our Heaven- 
 ly Father, and are confederated to the other mem- 
 bers of the family as our brethren.* 
 
 3. That therefore all true Christians are under 
 vows or covenant obligations to God. Without ta- 
 king hold of God’s covenant of Grace there can be 
 no true Christianity; and all who approach God in 
 in any other way are building on sand, and trusting 
 to I'efuges of lies. Of this co\ enant ratified and 
 
 * See .Note A. 
 
14 
 
 confirmed by the death of Christ all his saints take 
 hold by faith ; and in taking hold of it, and recei- 
 ving its spiritual privileges, they come under all the 
 obligations lying on them who are under law to 
 Christ. They become subject to the authority of 
 him as their head, and thus bound to the constitu- 
 tion and laws which he has given the church. 
 
 4. That all church members are openly and a- 
 vowedly under covenant obligations or vows to God. 
 All Christians are covenanters ; and if there are 
 Christians who are not church members, the only 
 difference betw'een them and those who are, is that 
 they act like a man among strangers who will not 
 tell W'hence he is, but is ashamed of his country, 
 and di 30 wns his countrymen, or like a soldier 
 who in the presence of an enemy throws away his 
 regimental badges, and denies his king and his ge- 
 neral: whereas the faithful Christian in joining 
 the visible church avows himself to have a citizen- 
 ship in heaven, to be a subject of the crucified Je- 
 sus, a soldier of Zion’s king. That they do so in 
 giving tiieir accession to the church,* in sittingdown 
 at the Lord’s table, or as parents in receiving bap- 
 tism, tlie seal that the Lord will be the God of their 
 children as well as of themselves, must be evident 
 to all who have considered the nature and import of 
 these ti ansactions. All who have made these vows 
 should be careful tO])erfonn them. They are bound 
 to nothing but what is required of all gospel hearers: 
 but their own declaration and promise confirm and 
 
 * See Jsoto D. 
 
15 
 
 strengthen the obligations, and furnish new motives 
 to their fulfilment. 
 
 5. That there are circumstances in which it is oiir 
 duty to confirm by oath our profession of adherence 
 to God’s covenant. It is the duty of all men to speak 
 the truth at all times ; but circumstances sometimes 
 occur in which it is moral duty to confirm their testi- 
 mony by an oath. “ An oath for confirmation is to 
 men an end of all strife.”* When, about some mat- 
 ter of importance there is strife between man and 
 man, one affirming and another denying, but neither 
 able to lead satisfactory proof of what he says, then 
 it is the duty of the judge to direct that a solemn 
 appeal be made to the Searcher of hearts, the God 
 of truth, and Avenger of flilsehood, by taking the 
 oath of one of the parties. And this terminates the 
 strife : there the matter ought to rest. And may 
 not circumstances occur in which it is a duty to 
 confirm our declaration of adherence to God’s co- 
 venant by an oath ? The covenant about which 
 we are to swear is not a trivial matter. God sware 
 to it. And as he could sw’ear by no greater he sware 
 by himself. To Abraham and to David he sware 
 that he would be faithful to what he promised in 
 this covenant. He sware by his own self-existence 
 “ as I live, saith the Lord,’’ by his faithfulness, “ 1 
 will not lie, “by hishoJiness,”and “ by his right hand 
 and his holy ann,” or his omnipotence, appealing to 
 these essential attributes of his nature, or pledging 
 them for the truth of what he had promised. And 
 
 * Hub. Ti. 16, 
 
16 
 
 can we decline to confirm by a solemn oath our ad- 
 herence to the same covenant when circumstances 
 require it? No, God’s saints have done it both to 
 the former and to the irew or better covenant. This 
 public swearing to our profession is what we gene- 
 rally mean when we s|>eak of covenanting. In 2 
 Chron. xv. 12. 14, we read that after Asa '“hatl put 
 away the abominable idols out of the land, he and the 
 people sware to the Lord, to seek the Lord God of 
 their fathers with all their heart, and with ail their 
 soul — and all Judah rejoiced at the oath.” The 
 same thing was done under Josiali, and at the re- 
 turn from Babylon. 
 
 Our fathers in this country also when they put 
 away Romish idolatry, swore in the National Co- 
 venant that they would observe the statutes and or- 
 dinances which were given to the church by Christ. 
 And they did the same in tlie Solemn Leag.tie and 
 Covenant when they renounced and abjuied pre- 
 lacy and the superstitious rites of England. The 
 first seceders also sware to the Lord in a bond suit- 
 ed to their circumstances when they forsook their 
 erronious doctrine, patronage, restraint on their mi- 
 nisterial freedom, lax communion and Erastianism, 
 prevalent in the Established Church of Scotland. 
 
 Now though it is a duty to confirm our testimony 
 by oath in civil matters, when circumstances render 
 it necessary, yet to do so at all times is a sin prohi- 
 bited in the third precept of the decalogue. And 
 though it is our duty when circumstances in pro- 
 
17 
 
 vitlence require it, to confirm oiir religious profes- 
 sion by oath, yet swearing about lliis may not l)e at 
 all times proper more than about other things. The 
 present 'lestimony of the General Associate Synod 
 speaks re})eatedly of the Heasnuahh uesa of this du- 
 ty, admittingthat it is not equally proper at all times. 
 And it would be very diliicult to particularise before 
 hand all the times and circumstances, when an oath 
 may be found requisite to confirm a man’s declara- 
 tion whether about his secular affairs or his religious 
 profession. Miich evidently depends on his previous 
 character and circumstances. Hut this ought al- 
 ways to be remembered, that although in religious 
 vowing we take hold of a covenant which binds us 
 to God as well as to our fellow-christians, yet 
 an oath can never be necessary or in any way ad- 
 vantageous to the former; for he sees the lieart, and 
 can have no additional assurance of our sincerity 
 by any deed of this kind : but our oath is necessary 
 to the latter in certain circumstances, and highly 
 useful in encouraging their hearts by removing all 
 suspicion of our falsehood, and assuring them of 
 our truth in professing adherence to the New and 
 better Testament. It is therefore eminently called 
 for when our previous circumstances or habits have 
 been such that they render our ])iesent profession 
 justly suspected. And if we look to Scripture or 
 the practice of the church, we will find that cove- 
 nairi^ing has always been j)ractised and eminently 
 blessed and useful when God’s people were return- 
 ing from apostasy, putting away idols which they 
 had long adored, and submitting anew to that co- 
 venant which they had long despised. Such a re- 
 
 C 
 
18 
 
 turning; and putting away of “ abominable idols’^ is 
 mentioned at all the times of covenantin'; recorded 
 under the Old Testament. And when Peter was 
 restored after denying his Lord, he not only made 
 a triple declaration of his love to the Saviour cor- 
 responding to his thrice repeated denial of him, but 
 made that declaration of love with a solemn appeal 
 to his l^ord himself, the Searcher of hearts, as know- 
 ing all things, an appeal therefore equivalent to an 
 oath. And such a return took place in Scotland 
 when the National Covenant, and when the Solemn 
 League were first sworn, and also (though we do 
 not say that it was from a society holding errors 
 and corruptions of such magnitude as those renoun- 
 ced on the former occasions) when the bond of the 
 first seceders was sworn. The practice of our fa- 
 thers then, and especially that of the Old Testa- 
 ment Church lead us to conclude, that this duty is 
 eminently seasonable, not so much when we see de- 
 fects in others to point out and deplore, as when we 
 ourselves are renouncing and deploring our own 
 errors, and returning to maintain God’s covenant 
 in greater purity. Were a number of Papists in a 
 body to profess to renounce the church of Rome as 
 Antichrist, and to espouse the true Reformed Re- 
 ligion in doctrine, worship, Presbyterian church go- 
 vernment and discipline, would not an oath be ne- 
 cessary to satisfy you that they wti c sincere ? and 
 was not this precisely the case with our relbrniilig 
 ancestors, whohad not long emerged from the smoke 
 of spiritual Sodom, when they bound themselves by 
 a solemn oath and vow not to return thither, but to 
 abide stedfastly in the true Christian failh and rcli- 
 
19 
 
 g'loii, revealed to the world by the preaching of the 
 blessed evangel ? 
 
 0. That the covenant which God made with the 
 church, and of which our fathers in these lands took 
 hold is binding on us. After the Israelites had o- 
 vercome Sihon king of Ilcshbon, and Og king of 
 Bashan, and were about to pass over Jordan, when 
 excepting Moses, Caleb, and Joshua, there was not 
 an individual among them who had been alive, or 
 at least who had been at the years of maturity, 
 when the covenant was given at Sinai; we find them 
 saying, “ The Lord our God made a covenant with 
 us in Horeb. The Lord made not this covenant 
 with our fathers, but with us, even with us who are 
 all of us here alive this day.”* Their posterity in 
 subsequent generations are charged with the breach 
 of this covenant ; and that is assigned as the rea- 
 son why the Lord delivered them into the hand of 
 the King of Assyria, who “ put them in Halah and 
 Habor by the river Gozan, and in the cities of the 
 Medes.”t The prophet Jeremiah charges them 
 with the same sin4 How frequently are the Is- 
 raelites charged in Scripture with transgressing 
 God’s covenant, or breaking the covenant made 
 with their fathers in Sinai? But are they once 
 blamed for neglecting or breaking the cov'enant of 
 Asa, Josiah, or Nehemiah. No, theirs was the same 
 covenant, or rather a returning to the same cove- 
 nant which had been made with their fathers in 
 Horeb. And this is the covenant which Scripture 
 
 * Dent. V. 2, 3. f 2 Kings xvii. 15. andxviii, 12. J Jer. xxxi. 32. 
 
20 
 
 teaches us had a descending obligation, and was 
 binding on the church till the New and better cove- 
 nant was given by Christ. 
 
 In like manner when we speak of the descending 
 obligation of the covenant of our fathers under the 
 New Testament, we should regard the Christians 
 in the Apostolic age as (eclesiastically) our fathers, 
 and look back to the new covenant made with the 
 church in their days, and which is and will be bin- 
 ding on the church alway to the end of the world. 
 Any subsequent covenanting of our intermediate 
 fathers is to be acknowledged by us onl)' in so far 
 as it was a return to, and taking hold of that cove- 
 nant. And this we tiiink was substantially done in 
 the covenanting of our ancestors according to the 
 flesh, in tliese lands. Some have indeed scrupled 
 much about the clause in the solemn League, pro- 
 mising to defend the rights and liberties of the 
 kingdoms, and the king’s person and authority. 13ut 
 Christ’s covenant recpures us to seek the good of 
 all men, and be subject to the higher powers ; and 
 though we would by no means justify every ex- 
 })rcssion on that subject used in the Solemn Ivcague, 
 yet w'c think that substantially it was only an en- 
 gagement in the st) ength of grace to perform the 
 duties which Christ recpiircd of them to those in 
 law’ful authority, as well as to their fellow' subjects. 
 In that deed thty made no new’ covenant which 
 could bind them or us to God, they only said that 
 they ihemselves would adhere to and would endeav- 
 our by instruction and a transmission of ordinances 
 in purity, to make tlieir posterity adhere to the new 
 
21 
 
 and better cov enant, wlilch independent of any deed 
 of man, w as biiuling on them and us, and all gospel 
 hearers. 
 
 7. Tliat fiom the engagements of our ancestors 
 vve are under an additional obligation to adhere to 
 God’s covenant. The privileges which they have 
 transmitted to us, and their example infer an obli- 
 gation. But we would rest this doctrine on the 
 simple principle, that though a man is hound to 
 what is right by the moral Law, yet he may be ad- 
 ditionally bound to it by his own promise and en- 
 gagement, and his violation of the Law greatly 
 aggravated by that consideration : that a society 
 civil or ecclesiastical is one complex person, bound 
 by its engagements even after the persons who 
 made them are removed : and therefore that in so 
 far as we and our ancestors can be supposed to con- 
 stitute the same ecclesiastical body their engage- 
 ment to adhere to, and observe Christ’s new cove- 
 nant, must be binding on us. 
 
 II. The matter of our vows or covenant engage- 
 ments. 
 
 These may be expressed in one word, viz. Chris- 
 tianity. In making or swearing them, men say that 
 they w ill not be unsteadfast or perfidious in God’s 
 covenant, but faithful persevering Christians. For 
 the farther illustration of this w^e remark; 
 
 1. They bind us to cleave to the Lord as our God, 
 and to Christ as our Saviour. When the Lord 
 
22 
 
 speaks of himself as a God to his people, he repre- 
 sents himself as the source of felicity, and the foun- 
 tain of every blessing to them. Therefore “ he is 
 not a God of the dead but of the living.” And in 
 taking him to be your God, you renounce as vain all 
 hopes of finding satisfaction to your souls in earth- 
 ly things, and say in the language of the Psalmist, 
 
 *' God is my portion for ever.”* If at'any time you 
 catch your minds going after vanity, or seeking a 
 portion in things that perish, you are bound to re- 
 prove yourselves and say “ return unto thy rest O 
 my soul.” You will account it your most noble 
 attainment, your greatest riches, and your highest 
 happiness, to be “ heirs of God.” You will claim 
 an interest in God as your inheritance and the por- 
 tion of your cup, in his wisdom for your guidance, 
 in his omnipotence for your defence, and in all his 
 attributes as engaged in your behalf. For in this 
 covenant he gives himself to you j “ I will be their 
 God.” 
 
 This covenant binds you also to cleave to Christ 
 as your Saviour. You can have no interest in God, 
 nor communion with him, but through the one Me- 
 diator between God and man, the Man Christ .Je- 
 sus. You must not only rely on his atonement for 
 acceptance with God, but also receive his doctrine 
 with the meekness of little children, and yield up 
 yourselves and all that is yours as his own proper- 
 ty, to the disposal of his all-w'ise providence, and as 
 willing servants, who will make it your business to 
 
 * Psalm Ixxiii. 26. 
 
23 
 
 fulfil whatever his pleasure is. It is a great mistake 
 to suppose that preaching the gospel is confined to 
 an exhibition of Christ in his priestly office; or 
 that he believes the gospel who relies in fancied se- 
 curity on the atonement of Christ, but gives no at- 
 tention, honour, or obedience, to him as a prophet 
 and king. That man is a deceiver of his own soul ; 
 and his religion is vain. You must not only receive 
 Clirist Jesus the Lord in his threefold office, but al- 
 so walk in him. God says if any man draw 
 back my soul shall have no pleasure in him. 
 That this continued attachment to the Lord 
 as our God, and to Christ as our Saviour, has 
 been considered by God’s people in every age 
 as an essential part of their obligations and vows 
 to God, appears from all the public deeds in which 
 they avowed their approbation of God’s covenant,, 
 and engaged themselves to adhere to it. At pre- 
 sent I shall quote that only which is used by the Se- 
 cession. The words are “ w e desire to take hold 
 with our whole heart of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the 
 only propitiation for our sins; of his word as our per- 
 fect and only rule of faith and practice, &c.; and of 
 his spirit as our only guide to lead us into all truth, 
 and to keep us in the way of God’s commandments.” 
 If any think that this does not avow in a manner 
 sufficiently explicit our subjection to the kingly pow- 
 er and authority of Christ, he has only to read the 
 clause which follows, “w^e shabby the grace of God 
 continue and abide in the profession, faith, and obe- 
 dience of the true Reformed religion, in doctrine, 
 worship, Presbyterian church government, and disci- 
 pline;” and he will find that a subjection to this au- 
 
24 . 
 
 thority, instead of being omitted, is the chief part of 
 that bond. And in all this there is nothing engaged 
 to, but what God h?th enjoined his people to ob- 
 serve alway to the end of the world. 
 
 2. They bind us to labour for the adv'ancement 
 ofknowdedge,in ourselves and others. Every church 
 judges some measure of knowledge as well as regular- 
 ity of practice necessary in those who are admitted 
 to full membership. Scripture also considers know- 
 ledge as a prerequisite to right covenanting : “ thou 
 shalt swear the Lord liveth in truth and in judge- 
 ment” as well as “ in righteousness.”* As the most 
 enlightened see but darkly while on earth, and as 
 knowledge is necessary to a performance of the du- 
 ties enjoined in God’s covenant, so in avowing our 
 adherence to it we bind ourselves to use all lawful 
 means for encreasing our knowledge. As God made 
 us reasonable beings, w'e must consecrate all our 
 faculties to him, and give him a reasonable service. 
 Ignorance is the mother of error and superstition. 
 And though all Christians have so much knowledge 
 as to entitle them to be called children of light, yet 
 we must not rest in the first principles, but go on 
 to the higher doctrines of the word of God ; W’e must 
 not use milk alway, but accustom ourselves to strong- 
 er food. We must seek to enlighten ourselves more 
 and more by studying the word of God, and so far as 
 our infiuence extends, so fiir as we can shine by hol- 
 ding forth the word of life, to advance the church 
 with which we are connected, and society in which 
 
 • Jerem. iv. 12. 
 
25 
 
 we live, to higher degrees of’ the Light of Life ; and 
 contribute our mite for sending the light into the 
 dark places of the earth, and converting the habita- 
 tions of cruelty into dwellings of the righteous, 
 where praises shall be heard to our God, and men 
 shall dwell together as brethren. 
 
 3. They bind us to maintain pure and entire, all 
 the ordinances of Divine worship. If we regard the 
 covenant of God as given to the church in her cor- 
 porate capacity, the maintaining and observ ing of 
 these ordinances will appear the chief, or at least 
 the most prominent obligation which it lays on her. 
 They are appended to the covenant as the seal of 
 Deity to the deed, to assure us that he ow-ns the 
 deed as his, and will make every word of promise 
 which it contains good in the experience of his peo- 
 ple. To all therefore w^ho rely on the covenant it- 
 self, these seals will be precious. Accordingly our 
 ancestors in the reforming and seceding periods did 
 not omit these when they returned and avowed their 
 adherence to God’s covenant. They considered 
 themselves as bound by it to observe all things 
 whatsoever Christ had commanded, and to trans- 
 mit them as a sacred trust to us and other genera- 
 tions of their posterity who were then unborn. E- 
 very one who has tasted the sweet consolations, or 
 experienced the high improvement which God’s 
 people derive from these ordinances, or who has 
 proper respect to the authority which instituted 
 them, must feel them dear to his heart, and gladly 
 contribute to their being maintained .in unsullied 
 purity till Christ come again. He will say, “ If I 
 
 D 
 
forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget 
 her cunning : if 1 do not remember thee let my 
 tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth ; if I prefer 
 not Jerusalem above my chief joy.*’* 
 
 4. They bind us to seek union with those who 
 entertain similar views of God’s covenant, and whose 
 practice also is near akin to our own. There is not 
 a more odious character among men, than that of 
 him who sows or perpetuates discord among bre- 
 thren. Christ says, “ a new commandment 1 give 
 unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved 
 you, that ye also love one another : by this shall all 
 men know that ye are my disciples, if ye love one 
 another.”t Accordingly the tirst Christians who 
 received the new covenant from the Lord, all re- 
 mained in one communion, though differing greatly 
 in their views of the ceremonial law, and in their 
 practice concerning its institutions. Accordingly 
 our ancestors in renouncing prelacy, and swearing 
 to God in the Solemn League, united with the En- 
 glish and Irish Presbyterians, w'ho at that (ime dif- 
 fered from them in many of their practices, and 
 forms, both in church government, (as the Classes and 
 Triers in England, were unlike the Presbyteries and 
 Assemblies in Scotland) and also in their modes of 
 public worship. Still these different bodies united 
 as brethren, held communion with one another by 
 an interchange of ministers and members, and join- 
 ed together in swearing the same solemn oath, tl>e 
 preamble of which was, We noblemen, &c., mi- 
 
 * Psahn cxxxvii. 5, 6. 
 
 Y John xiii. Sf, 
 
uisters of tlie gospel, and commons of all sorts, in 
 the kingdoms of Scotland, England, and Ireland — 
 being of one reformed religiout” and tlie first en- 
 gagement in which is, “ that we shall endeavour to 
 bring the churches of God in tiie thi'ee kingdoms 
 to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in reli- 
 gion, Confession of Failht form of church govern- 
 ment, directory for worship, and catechising.” They 
 found themselves “of one reformed religion,” uni- 
 ted in communion, and in swearing the Solemn 
 League, and in it engaged to draw up their “ Confes- 
 sionofFaith,” Form of Church Governmentand Di- 
 rectory for worship, afterwards. The Solemn League 
 was sworn by many of all ranks in the three king- 
 doms in 1645, the year in which tlie Westminster 
 Assembly met. It is true that that assembly con- 
 tinued sitting till the Confession of Faith, Cate- 
 chisms, Form of Church Government and Directo- 
 ry for Worship were finished, but that was not till 
 lG47» four years after all the Presbyterians in the 
 three kingdoms had sworn the Solemn League. It 
 is not our intention at present to justify or condemn • 
 the order of procedure which our fathers followed 
 in this matter. We only mention facts. But what 
 powers of discernment, or rather of perversion must 
 they have, who are continually repeating that an 
 union between tlie two gi eat branches of the Seces- 
 sion at present, would be a violation of that deed, 
 whose words and spirit shew that it was meant as a 
 bond of Union among all Presbyterians in Britain 
 and Ireland ? Indeed it was the only bond or Fa- 
 sts by which they were united for four years, before 
 the Confession of Faith was approved and enacted. 
 
28 
 
 The oath which separated the two bodies in the Se- 
 cession is now removed, and what but party spirit 
 can keep them asunder? All who oppose their un- 
 ion are violating both the letter and the spirit of 
 the public engagements of our ancestors. 
 
 In the bond used in the Secession, “ we promise 
 and swear to promote and advance this our covenan- 
 ted conjunction y (that is the same, covenanted in 
 the Solemn League,) and uniformity in Religion, 
 Confession of Faith &c. ; and to encourage and 
 strengthen one another’s hands in pursuing the 
 end and design of this our solemn oath and cove- 
 nant.” Let the public therefore look to the let- 
 ter and spirit of these engagements and judge whe- 
 ther they who favour or they who oppose the pre- 
 sently proposed union, can with the greater shew of 
 reason be accused of perjury or covenant violation. 
 Indeed all right covenanting among Christians ne- 
 cessarily binds them to seek union with one a- 
 nother, where it can be attained without a denial of 
 Christ. For the Testament that he gave the 
 Church lays this obligation upon us. In the Lord’s 
 Supper his people are all declared to be children of 
 the same family, one bread, and one body. And 
 the chief end in our swearing to it is to promote 
 union with our fellow Christians, by assuring them 
 of our sincerity and readiness to co-operate with 
 them in promoting the ends of the covenant. 
 
 5. You are bound to labour for bringing stran- 
 gers and enemies to submit to ('hrist, and join with 
 you in embracing his covenant. Every Christian 
 
29 
 
 prays that Christ’s kingdom may come, tliat liis 
 reign of grace may be extended, and the number of 
 his willing subjects increased. But you cannot pray 
 for any thing in faith, you cannot consistently pray 
 for it at all, unless you at the same time diligently 
 use all lawful means for its accomplishment. One 
 of the obligations of the covenant lying on the 
 church since the days of Christ is to see that the 
 gospel be preached in all the world, to every crea- 
 ture. Accordingly our Fathers in their covenan- 
 ting, specified England and Ireland, the countries 
 nearest them, and in which their energies were like- 
 ly to have the greatest effect ; as places in which they 
 would co-operate with the native Presbyterians, with 
 whom, as we saw they united on the basis of that 
 covenant, in promoting among all classes the pure 
 Presbyterian government, discipline, doctrine and 
 worship. And we are bound to seek the same end 
 by all means consistent with liberty of conscience, 
 not in England and Ireland only, but in all countries 
 of the earth. Let your conversation, your example 
 and all your influence be employed in disseminating 
 the truth, and extending the kingdom of our Savi- 
 our, till all kindreds of the earth submit, and do him 
 homage. 
 
 III. Some reasons exciting to pay your vows. 
 
 1. Remember the many obligations under which 
 we are to perform the duties to which we have en- 
 gaged. We are bound by our own vows and de- 
 clarations. None, not even the most sceptical, can 
 doubt the obligation of our own personal engage- 
 
30 
 
 ments. We have made them, in acceding to the 
 church, in sitting down at the Lord’s table, those 
 of us who are parents in receiving on our children 
 that seal of the covenant which confirms the pro- 
 mise, “ I will be the God of your seed,” and a few 
 of us in declaring our fixed adherence to the cove- 
 nant by a solemn oath. A breach of faith to our fel- 
 low men Is an iniquity to be punished by the judges, 
 but the same perfidy to the God of Truth must be 
 much more heinous and aggravated. None who 
 has opened his mouth to tlie Lord can with any 
 thing like faith or integrity go back. 
 
 But we are also bound by the deeds of our ances- 
 tors to be stedfast and faithful in the Covenant of 
 God. Some have attempted to prove this from the 
 covenant of Joshua and the Israelites in his day 
 with the Gibeonites, which was aknowledged to be 
 binding, and the infraction of it punished in an awe- 
 ful manner in succeeding generations. But that 
 was merely a man’s covenant, a covenant between 
 men about natural and civil matters : and we do not 
 see how it can have so strong a bearing as some have 
 supposed upon a religious ecclesiastical covenant 
 between man and his maker. And if some human 
 covenants about natural or civil matters are binding 
 on postcrit^s we could mention thousands of them, 
 and even some ordained by God, which bind none 
 but the individuals who make them. For instance, 
 none ever supposed that the marriage covenant be- 
 tween a man and his wife, could bind any other af- 
 ter he was gone to be a loving and faithful husband 
 to that woman. If any other become bouud to her 
 
31 
 
 it is by the dissolution and not the obligation of this, 
 and by the making of a new covenant. Therefore 
 the fact that one covenant is binding on posterity 
 furnishes no conclusive argument that another must 
 be so. But we have said already, that he who re- 
 ceives the benefits or privileges of a covenant, tl'.ere- 
 by puts himself under its obligations. And if our 
 ancestors transmitted privileges to us, might they not 
 convey obligations in connection with the privileges? 
 But the foundation on which this descending obliga- 
 tion of the vows of the church chiefly (if not exclu- 
 sively) rests is her unity and perpetuity. The Solemn 
 League and National Covenant were not the vows 
 of our ancestors individually, but of tlie church, the 
 ecclesiastical body of which they were members ; and 
 therefore are binding on us in so far as we and the 
 society which came under them are one. If the socie- 
 ty is one, the more frequently she declares her reso- 
 lution of being faithful to God, in keeping pure and 
 entire his worship, and the ordinances appointed in 
 his word, the more strongly is she bound ; and her 
 sin in neglecting tliese duties must be aggravated 
 by the breach of her repeated promises. 
 
 But let it never be forgotten, that we are bound 
 to tlie performance of these duties by obligations to 
 which all that results from our own engagements, or 
 those of our fathers, bear no more proportion than 
 ‘ die spiders most attenuated thread,* to chains of a- 
 damant, and in which they are merged and lost as a 
 drop of rain in the boundless ocean: we mean the in- 
 finite obligations resulting from the unlimited au- 
 thority of Jehovah. God hath spoken, and we as 
 
32 
 
 creatures are bound to obey. In scripture God does 
 not speak of the guilt of breaking his covenant as 
 consisting in violating our own engagements, or those 
 of our fathers, but as lying chiefly if not solely in 
 rebellion against his supreme authority. He does 
 not blame the Israelites for breaking the engage- 
 ments to the covenant made in the days of Asa and 
 Josiah, or even the promise of their fathers in the 
 wilderness “all that the Lord hath said will we do:”* 
 in this they were verily guilty ; but violation of hu- 
 man engagements was not to be compared with 
 the guilt of violating a covenant made and en- 
 joined on them by Divine authority. The former 
 obligation was absorbed in the latter. God calls it 
 the “covenant that 1 made with their fathers,” and 
 adds, “which, my covenant, they brake,” reminding 
 us that the evil of covenant violation, as of all other 
 sins, lies chiefly in its opposition to the Divine au- 
 thority. Like Adam they “ brake God’s covenant 
 by refusing to walk in his law.”f Of our negli- 
 gence of the duties prescribed in the New covenant 
 we may say to God, “ Against thee, thee only have 
 we sinned.”t 
 
 When we think of this, does it not seem idle to 
 dispute about the nature and the name of the obli- 
 gations lying on us from the deeds of our ances- 
 tors ? \V e are bound to the covenant of God by 
 his own authority : and it is scarcely conceivable 
 that any who disregards the authority of God, will 
 be restrained by the covenanting of his fathers. 
 
 * Exod. xxiv. 7. t I’salni Ixxviii, 10 . f See Note C. 
 
33 
 
 This would be something more strange than to strain 
 at a gnat and swallow a camel. The compaiatively 
 small influence which this obligation has on pi ac- 
 tice shews the futility of stirring up unchristian feel- 
 ings by disputing about the name by which it should 
 be called. We cannot help asserting that every reli- 
 gious tenet must be estimated by its practical in- 
 fluence in relieving the guilty by leading them to 
 Christ ; comforting the afflicted by the hopes of a 
 better and enduring portion in heaven; reviving the 
 lukewarm apathy of the indifferent, by infusing the 
 same mind that w'as also in Christ Jesus, who reso- 
 lutely drank the cup which the Father presented 
 him, and finished the work given to him to do ; and 
 exciting all classes to greater diligence in the cause 
 of God and Truth, by promoting that love to God 
 and his image, w'hich is the fulfilling of the law. 
 And a man may as well boast of the excellency of 
 bis orchard though it bear no fruit, as talk of the va- 
 lue of what he may call religious principles, w hile 
 (he admits) they have no influence on practice. 
 Remember then that you are bound by the infinite 
 authority of God,the highest of all obligations, to do 
 all the things of his covenant. He commands you 
 to receive and keep his covenant, to take him as 
 your God, and give yourselves to him as his people; 
 to repent, believe in his Son whom he has sent, and 
 observe all things whatsoever Christ hath comman- 
 ded you. 
 
 2. Remember the many valuable blessings and 
 privileges of the covenant. These are so connec- 
 ted w’ith its obligations and duties, that you cannot 
 
 E 
 
34 
 
 receive the former without becoming bound to the 
 Jatter, nor neglect the latter without renouncing the 
 former. If you know the privileges to be great and 
 the blessings manifold, your esteem of them, and 
 desire of enjoying the benefits and comforts 
 which they convey, must stir you up to diligence 
 in conforming to the obligations, and in discharging 
 the duties. You cannot put asunder what God 
 has joined. If you would have the Lord to be 
 your God, you must give yourselves to him as his 
 people. If you wish to sit dowm at the Lord’s Ta- 
 ble, you must preserve that external regularity of 
 practice, without which the elders of the church 
 could not admit you. If with the outward signs 
 at that table you wisli the thing signified, and would 
 indeed eat of the things wherewith the atonement 
 was made, you must come with faith, which is an 
 act of the human mind, as well as the gift of God. 
 If you wish the outward ordinances in purity, you 
 must join them w'lio are maintaining them in purity, 
 and contribute your own share to that end. If 
 you would see God you must seek to be pure in 
 heart. Holiness is that without which no man can 
 see the Lord. As the fire from heaven consumed 
 the victim on tk.e altar, so the full blaze of Divine 
 glory is a consuming fire to sinful man. AVe see 
 God only in proportion as our sin is taken away by 
 ihc Spirit of holiness ; and a fuller manilestation of 
 his glory would destroy us. When the chosen and 
 faithful Moses, wishing a visible manifestation of that 
 dread Being who had conversed w’ith him as fami- 
 liarly as a man speaking face to face with his friend, 
 said, “shew me I beseech thee thy glory,” he was tolJ 
 
35 
 
 tliathe knew not what he was asking; that no man li- 
 ving in tliis state of imperfection and sin could sus- 
 tain a full display of the Divine glory. “ No man 
 can see my face and live’’ was the reply ; only what 
 are called the hack parts of Deity w ere discovered 
 to Moses : and any thing farther he (as well as we) 
 had to learn from a testimony in words. “ He 
 said I will make all my goodness pass before thee, 
 and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before 
 thee : &c. And the Lord passed before him and 
 proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and 
 gracious, long suffering and abundant in good- 
 ness and truth : keeping mercy for thousands, for- 
 giving iniquity, and transgression, and sin ; and 
 that will by no means clear the guilty ; visiting the 
 iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon 
 the children’s children, unto the third and to the 
 fourth generation.”* When the saints shall not 
 have in, or about them, any thing that defileth, then 
 and not till then shall the immediate glory of God 
 and the Lamb be their light and the light of their 
 city. The sinner never can bear and far less enjoy 
 the splendour of Deity till his sin be taken away. 
 The conclusion is, that on earth the Christian’s en- 
 joyment of communion w ith God, generally bears a 
 proportion to his personal sanctification. We would 
 not be understood to mean that our personal holi- 
 ness is at all taken into account w hen our legal title 
 to acceptance with God is considered ; but it is you 
 see, absolutely neccessaiy to our enjoyment of fel- 
 lowship with him. Our claim to the inheritance 
 
 * Exodus xxxiii. iS. and sxxiv. 5; G. 
 
36 
 
 rests on our relation to Christ, for we are joint heirs 
 with him, but holiness is absolutely necessary to 
 meeten us for the actual possession. And to them 
 whose souls follow hard after God, is it possible to 
 suggest a stronger motive to “ follow holiness, with- 
 out which no man can see the Lord?” 
 
 If it were but a man’s testament you could not 
 take the benefit of its bequests without complying 
 with its obligations. And according to the tenor 
 of God’s covenant and the nature of things, you 
 cannot have happiness without holiness. You must 
 labour in the vineyard, if you expect the reward. 
 If you would attain the honour of the prize, you 
 must not decline the fatigues of the race. If you 
 wish to share the gloiy of the triumph, you must 
 not be unfaithful to your king, desert the Captain 
 of your salvation, or m any way shrink from the 
 painful conflict with sin in yourselves, or your bre- 
 thren ; but fight the good fight. From this sub- 
 ject we may see, 
 
 1st, In what sense covenanting is, and ought to 
 be a term of communion. 'I'he church requires e- 
 very member to avow his approbation of, aiKl ad- 
 herence to God’s covenant before his admission to 
 the Lord’s table : and bis appearance at the Lord’s 
 table is a practical and more solemn repetition of 
 the same declaration. And t-uis far (viz. as an a- 
 ^’owed taking hold of God’s covetiarit, by the obser- 
 vance of bis ordinances) covenanting is, and has 
 been a term of communion since God had a church 
 in the world. 
 
37 
 
 Anil wliat is callcil public covenanting, if ever it 
 were done without an oath, would be saying no 
 iuore to God, and giving no stronger assurance to 
 men, than what every churcli member had previous- 
 ly done in assuming and maintaining his'profession, 
 But there are circumstances which render it the im- 
 perious duty of every church member, openly to 
 confirm tlie sincerity of his profession a solemn 
 oath. And the question is, when in the judgment 
 of the church such circumstances have occurred in 
 providence, ought the performing of it to be a term 
 of communion ? When covenanting took place un- 
 der the Old Testament, the elders of the people, 
 their priests, rulers, and the body of the people in 
 general, were present and joined in the oath, but 
 we do not hear of them who were absent, (and there 
 were some) being required to swear the same oath, 
 or being excommunicated for their refusal. The 
 oath by the priests, nders, and majority, was consid- 
 ered as binding on the whole church ; and though 
 absent members were not required formally to 
 swear, they were required to observe the oath, in 
 maintaining the ordinances in purity. At the co- 
 venanting under Josiah we are told that “ the king 
 commanded all the people, saying, ** Keep the pas- 
 sover unto the Lord your God as it is written in the 
 book of this covenant.”* And in the reign of Asa 
 “ they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God 
 of their fathers with all their heart and with all their 
 soul ; that H'hoswver ttymild not seek the Lord 
 
 * 2. Kings xxxih. 21. 
 
3 § 
 
 Ood of Israel, should be put to death, whether 
 small or great, whether man or woman. And 
 they sware, Sec.*** It was a deed of the church, and 
 therefore binding on all her members in that and 
 every succeeding generation, till God himself abro- 
 gated the covenant to which they had sworn, by giv- 
 ing tliem a new and better one. 
 
 But our fathers in this country ordained “ all 
 the members of this kirk and kingdom,” to sub- 
 scribe the National Covenant “ under all ecclesias- 
 tical censure,” see Act of Assembly, 1639, as 
 prefixed to the National Covenant, in our com- 
 mon editions of the Westminster Confession of 
 Faith. 
 
 Perhaps their circumstances warranted this : but 
 in the same act they mention that the Lords of his 
 ^lajesty’s privy council, in compliance with their 
 supplication had ordained by act of council all his 
 Majesty’s lieges to subscribe the foresaid covenant. 
 The same act concludes with a supplication to his 
 Majesty’s high commissioner and the Estates of 
 Parliament to ratify the same by their authority, and , 
 enjoin it under all civil pains. This supplication 
 also was successful : and the act of Parliament ap- 
 pears on the next page ordaining and commanding 
 “ the said covenant to be subscribed by all his Ma- 
 jesty’s subjects of what rank and quality soever, un- 
 der all ci\ il pains.” Now we know that one striking 
 
 * 2. Cliron. XV. 12. 15. 
 
39 
 
 difference between the Sinaitic and tlie gospel cove- 
 nant is that in the former God gave his people a ci- 
 vil as well as ecclesiastical constitution, while the 
 latter establishes a kingdom wholly spiritual, not of 
 this world, and interfering with the political institu- 
 tions of the nations, only so far as to j)rohibit any 
 thing in them hostile to morality and religion. The 
 new covenant does not authorize that close con- 
 junction between church and state which was sanc- 
 tioned by the old : it recognises none as the sub- 
 jects of the Messiah, but a willing people, guarantees 
 liberty of conscience as the inalienable right of men, 
 and therefore teaches us that as every man should 
 be fully persuaded in his own mind, our ancestors 
 did wrong in enforcing their Religious bond on all 
 men by civil authority, and under all civil pains. In 
 this we praise them not. 
 
 Rut to come nearer our own times the first Se- 
 ceders bound themselves to God in a bond suited to 
 their circumstances : and that bond both before and 
 since the slight alterations made on it by the Gen- 
 eral Associate Synod in 1799, has been sworn by ma- 
 ny individuals in many of the Seceding Congrega- 
 tions. But none supposes that ever that bond was 
 enforced by civil authority; and we may safely af- 
 firm that the swearing of that bond never was re- 
 quired as a term of communion in the Secession, 
 or the refusal of it punished by c.xcommunication or 
 any other ecclesiastical censure. The act of the As- 
 sociate Presbytery in 174 f, which seems to bear hard 
 on nrglecfers and shifters of this duty was never 
 
40 
 
 id that sense acted upon.* And in times like the 
 present, and circiimstanccfi such ns those of'tlie Se- 
 cesion, there can be no doubt that »nuch must be 
 left to the consciences of individuals. To his own 
 master every man standpth or falleth : and in this 
 as well as in civil matters, it may sometimes be the 
 duty of one man, w’hen it is not that ofanother, to 
 confirm what he says by an oath. If a man is com- 
 pelled to take an oath, that must diminish all ground 
 of confidence in his keeping of it. A church making 
 the performing of this a term of communion, would 
 be like a secular society decreeing that because 
 an oat)) to confirm our w'ord is sometimes necessary, 
 every man who shall henceforth speak without swear- 
 ing, shall be hanged. The Secession has on many 
 occasions urged and excited but never compelled her 
 members to swear to their profession. Nor has she 
 ever been in circumstances which could at all have 
 warranted her to do so. And we hesitate much a- 
 bout making any thing a term of ministerial w’hich 
 is not a term of Christian communion, except being 
 * apt to teach,* and other things which are requi- 
 site to the peculiar duties of the ministerial office. 
 
 2d, That a man should be fully persuaded in bis 
 own mind ere he swear to God and man about his 
 religious profession. Solomon speaks of it as a snare 
 and a dangerous thing after vows to make enquiry. 
 And nothing can be more presumptuous than to vow 
 and swear about any thing of which w'e are uncer- 
 tain, and purpose still farther investigation. We 
 
 See Note. D. 
 
41 
 
 should finisli the enquiry and have our minds fully 
 persuaded, before we vow. But though a man be 
 fully persuaded at the time, yet the duties engaged 
 to in receiving God’s covenant being important, he 
 must necessarily enquire about their nature and the 
 manner of performing them, and as on this and o- 
 ther accounts he is bound in the vow itself to grow 
 in knowledtje as well as grace, it is not impossible 
 that he may change his mind. And in such a case 
 ^ we hesitate not to affirm that he is hound by his vow 
 
 to maintain God’s covenant according to his j)ie- 
 sent views of it, and not according to those which 
 he now sees to he mistaken. A\'ere he to j)ersist in 
 maintaining any thing which he now sees to he with- 
 out foundation in Scripture, it would he a direct vi- 
 i olation of his engagement to take the Scriptures of 
 
 theOld and New Testament as the word of God, the 
 only rule of faith and manners. Nothing can he 
 more preposterous, or more like ignorance and bi- 
 gotry, than for men to plead their ordination, sacra- 
 mental,or covenanting vows, as an argument against 
 enquiry and searching the Scriptures. Are they con- 
 scious that their tenets will not stand the test of en- 
 quiry ? Or do they think, that their vows to search 
 the Scriptures bind them to shut the sacred volume 
 forever, and exclude all additional light ? But one 
 great end in swearing to our profession is to assure 
 others of our sincerity in holding the particular views 
 of God’s covenant which it expresses ; and therefore 
 if we change from these views, it is incumbent on us 
 to make our change from them as public as the ori- 
 ginal declaration of our adherence to them. May 
 God grant us the grace and privileges, and enable 
 
 F 
 
4>2 
 
 us to fulfil the obligations and perform the duties 
 of his new and better covenant, which is established 
 on better promises and ordained in the hand of a 
 Mediator. Amen. 
 
NOTES 
 
 / 
 
 NOTE A. — page 31. 
 
 That an avowed adherence to God’s covenant, has been con- 
 sidered in every age as the substance of ccclessiastical covenanting 
 appears from the deeds themselves, or bonds entered into on these oc- 
 casions. 
 
 Thus in the bond used by the Waldenses, as published in Morland's 
 History, and again published in the Christian Magazine, for May 1816, 
 we find the following words, “ We promise by an oath, to continue all 
 in the profession of the true Christian Reformed Religion, which we 
 have to this day embraced, which Religion consisteth in the believing 
 in, and worshipping one only true God, and one only Head of the 
 Church, and Mediator between God and man, Christ Jesus ; and in 
 the only rule of believing and living well, which is contained in the ca- 
 nonical books of the Old and New Testaments, together with the two 
 sacraments instituted by our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, namely 
 Baptism and the Lord’s Supper ; promising according to the word, to 
 yield obedience to all exterior order and discipline already estabh’shed 
 among us ; and detesting all heresies and false doctrines which 
 are contrary to this word of God, contained in the books of the Old 
 and New Testaments.” 
 
 The substance of the National Covenant of Scotland, and also” of 
 the Solemn League, is known to be an engagement to the same duties. 
 They were thus understood by our reforming ancestors. When Mr. 
 
44 
 
 William Veitcli was asked by a committee of the council at Edinburgh, 
 1679, “ Have you taken the covenant ?” his answer was, “ I judge my- 
 self obliged to covenant myself away to God, and. frequently to renew 
 it.” The Judicial Testimony speaking of the Solemn League, says, 
 “ The matter of the covenant was all tlie precious things that are invol- 
 ved in pure religion, &c. ; duties obligatory upon every one antecedent- 
 ly to this oath and covenant.” And quotes the words of Mr. Philip 
 Nye, before the House of Commons in England, when they were a- 
 bout to swear the covenant, viz. “ This oath is is such as I can truly 
 say is v^•orthy of us, yea of all these kingdoms, yea of all the kingdoms 
 in the world : for it is a swearing fealty and allegiance to Christ the 
 King of kings, &c,” 
 
 The bond used in the Secession is also for substance a taking hold 
 of Clirist, of his covenant of promise, and of his word as our perfect 
 and only rule of faith and practice. And Secedcrs in general concur 
 iu the views of covenanting, which we have stated. Mr. Adam Gibb 
 says “ 'Hie covenant of Grace, which is made with, and stands fast in 
 Christ our glorious head, lays us under much further obligation to du- 
 ty and service, than the covenant of Works, even while it stood in the 
 first Adam. And our obligation to vow and pay our vows, to covenant 
 and perform, or keep our covenants of duty and service to Godin Christ, 
 is yet more strengthened and furthered by our being under a fuller and 
 clearer dispensation of the covenant of Grace, than these had who lived 
 under the Old Testament, the dark legal dispensation of this covenant 
 of Grace. How the obligation is strengthened, and what influence the co- 
 venant of Grace has upon our covenants of duty may appear in tlic fol- 
 lowing respects. The eighth of which is “ In respect of the auihority en- 
 joining obedience, and calling us to devote ourselves and our service to 
 the Lord. — While God is related to us as our God and Iledcemer, we 
 are laid under the strongest obligations to duty and obedience ; according 
 to the import of the jircface to the ten commandments.” Display, Vol. I. 
 jiages 217 and 219. I his .'Author indeed calls the deed of the Church 
 a covenant ; but he considers it as founded on the Covenant of Grace ; 
 and calls it a cot^cnnnl <^' duty, a covenant in which we avow and engage to 
 jierform our duty in adhering to the covenant of CJrace. And speaking 
 of covenanting in the same work (Vol. I. page 2.73) “it is in reality a pro- 
 per aiul sledlast adherence to the unerring rule of faith and manners.” 
 The following is the definition of public religious covenanting, in the 
 '1 estiniony enacted by the General Associate Svnod, 1604-. “ '1 hat 
 
 |Hiblic religious covenanting is the deed of a number of church mem- 
 
45 
 
 bers, ill wliich tliey jointly anti publicly profess, to renounce all hope of 
 life from the covenant of works ; to take hold of the covenant of grace, 
 and to devote thciusclvcs to the Lord ; and in the strength of promised 
 graee, engage faithfully to cleave to him, to hold fast his truths, to per- 
 form the various duties which they owe to God and man, in their res- 
 pective stations and relations, and to strengthen one another's hands in 
 the work of the Lord.” To quote the numerous host of writers on this 
 subject, who have appeared in the Secession, and whose views coincide 
 with what we have stated, would tire the patience of tlie reader. I shall 
 only mention a Sennon published by Dr. Young of Hawick, entitled. 
 The true Nature of Evangelical covenanting with God considered,” 
 the greater part of which is occupied in shewing that there can be no 
 covenant between God and his church, hut tliat which he himself has 
 made, and ratified by tlie sacrifice of Christ, and offered to us in tlie 
 gospel ; and that all covenanting on our part consists in an acceptance 
 of tliat covenant corresponding to the offer of it in the gospel. 
 
 NOTE B. — page 14. 
 
 In the Secession the Minister converses repeatedly with candidates 
 for admission, to ascertain their knowledge of the gospel io general, and 
 particularly of the public standards of the Associate body ; and enquires 
 of his own elders if there is nothing objectionable in the moral charac- 
 ter of the condidates, or (if they have lately come from a distance) de- 
 mands a certificate from the Minister or elders in their former place of 
 residence. If he finds them deficient in knowledge or objectionable in 
 point of character, they are kept back till the obstacle is removed. If 
 neither of these is the case, he declares, generally on the Fast-day before 
 the Sacrament, that he has found nothing objectionable to them, ei- 
 ther in point of knowledge or charac’ter, and asks if they believe in the 
 Scriptures, approve of the Confession of Faith and Testimony, will en- 
 deavour to show the holy tendency of the doctrines contained in them 
 in their practice, will submit to the authority of the Session, in sub- 
 ordination to the Presbetery and Synod, and endeavour according to their 
 ability and capacity, to be useful, as members of the congregation, in 
 contributing to its funds, and exhorting the other members of it as bre- 
 thren ? This declaration is made, and these questions put before the 
 Session, and in many places before the whole Congregation. The 
 candidates having given suitable answers to the questions, are then de- 
 clared members in full communion, admissible to all the privileges of 
 the church, and dismissed with an exhortation to stedfastness, progress. 
 
46 
 
 and perseverance in the religion of Jesus, of which they have made this 
 public profession. 
 
 The questions are substantially the same in all congregations. But 
 though we have a formula of questions, for the admission of Elders 
 and Ministers, yet for the preservation of uniformity, a formula of ques- 
 tions, such as the above, regularly sanctioned by our Judicatories, and 
 enjoined to be used in all congregations under their inspection, is still 
 a desideratum in the Secession, which, it is hoped, will be supplied at 
 the approaching Union. 
 
 NOTE C. — page 32. 
 
 The proposed Basis of the expected union eannot be quite correct 
 in saying, we are under the strongest obligations,” from what our reform- 
 ii^ ancestors did. Surely it was not meant to deny tliat the obligation 
 from the authority of God is stronger. 
 
 NOTE D. — page 40. 
 
 The following are the w ords of the act 1744, as published by Mr. 
 Gibb in his Display of the Secession Testimony. The Presbytery agree 
 that Covenanting “ shall be the the term of Ministerial communion with 
 this Presbytery ; and likewise of Christian communion in the admission 
 of people to scaling ordinances ; secluding therefrom all opposcrs, con- 
 temners, and slighters of the said renovation of our covenants. And 
 moreover as the Presbetery judge that much tenderness and lenity is to 
 be used with the weakest of Christ’s flock, who are lying open to light, 
 and minting to come forward in the said cause ; that they may not be, 
 at first instance, secluded from sealing ordinances : so they agree that all 
 such are to be secluded who after deliberate pains taken for their infor- 
 mation with all due meekness and patience, shall be found neglecters 
 and shifters of this important moral duty ; or not to be in the due use 
 of means for light and satisfaction thcrcancnt.” See Display, Vol. 1. 
 piige 252. 
 
 As to the first clause making covenanting, or the actual public swear- 
 ing of the bond a term of Ministerial communion, we know that dilfer- 
 ent intervals of many years each have occurred w hen the operation of 
 this was suspended, and many Students licensed to pscach and Ministers 
 ordained who had not sworn the bond ; and that at present, it has not 
 been in operation for at least five or six years. I have heard of no in- 
 
47 
 
 stance of covenanting or publicly swearing the bond since it was done 
 at Meams 1814 ; nor had it been done in any other Congregation for 
 some years before that. It would be improper and impossible for me 
 to mention the names of all who have been licensed and ordained with- 
 out having taken the bond. If in some cases a promise has been requir- 
 ed that the intrant to office would embrace the first opportunity of doing 
 so, still a promise is not actually swearing the bond, and they who res- 
 ted in that did not make covenanting a term of ministerial communion. 
 If we are not greatly misinformed there are some who have been minis- 
 ters and members of the (ieneral Associate SjTiod for upwards of twenty 
 years and have not yet publicly sworn the bond. 
 
 As to the latter part of the act which makes covenanting a term of 
 Christian communion, you will see that according to the last clause peo- 
 ple could be admitted and continued in communion if they said they 
 were in the use of means for light on the subject. So that in effect it 
 excludes them only who are opposers of the duty altogether. Mr. Gibb 
 subjoins a note at the bottom of the page in which he tells us that for 
 thirty years after this act was passed he had not known any of the people 
 kept back from sealing ordinances for not joining in covenanting work, 
 but that they had always been waited for till willingly offering themselves. 
 And if it was so for the first tliirty, we know that this act has never been 
 interpreted in succeeding years so as to make actu: l covenanting a term 
 of communion ; and that it has been superseded by other acts on that 
 subject which say nothing of secluding neglecters and shifters. 
 
 This shows that if both the large branches of the Secession at present 
 agree in asserting that public religious vowing or covenanting is a moral 
 duty to be performed when circumstances require, they ought not to 
 remain separate or delay the intended conjunction because they are not a- 
 greed in saying that our present circumstances in providence call for the 
 performance of it. All the members of the General Associate Synod are not 
 agreed in that. And to speak of making the performing of it a term of 
 communion, would be to make' a new term of communion in the Se- 
 cession, a term which would not only exclude many of those called Burgh- 
 ers, but also throw out at least three fourths of the Antiburghers. 
 

 
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