The Covenants And The Covenanters: Covenants, Sermons, and Documents of the Covenanted Reformation
Religion
The Covenants And The Covenanters: Covenants, Sermons, and Documents of the Covenanted Reformation
Covenanters -- Scotland -- History -- Sources; Presbyterian Church -- Scotland -- History -- Sources
Beloved, I hope that it will not be necessar for us to spend mickle time
with you in removing of scruples. Good things I know has over many
objections against them from the devil, the world, and our own ill
hearts. And I know some of them who are accounted the learnedst in the
land, have assayed their wits and used their pens to object against
this. But truly these who are judicious, they have confessed that they
have been greatly confirmed by that whilk they have objected; and the
reason of it was, because they who were the most learned assayed
themselves to see what they could say, and yet when all was done, they
had nothing to say that was worth the hearing.
For the first part of this Confession of faith, there is not a word
changed in it; and if so be that men had keeped that part of it free of
sinistrous glosses, and had applied it according to the meaning of those
who were the penners thereof, there needed not to have such a thing ado
as there is now; but because they have put sinistrous glosses upon it
now and misapplied it, therefore it behoved to be explained and applied
to the present time.
The first thing that ye swear to is, That with your whole hearts ye
agree and resolve, all the days of your life, constantly to adhere unto
and defend the true religion. There is no scruple here. 2. That ye
suspend and forbear the practice of all novations already introduced in
the matters of the worship of God, or approbation of the corruptions of
the public government of the kirk, or civil places and power of kirkmen,
till they be tried and allowed in free assemblies and in parliaments.
Now, I know there be some who make scruples here. How can we, say they,
bind ourselves to forbear the practice of that whilk Acts of Assembly
allows, and Acts of Parliament commands? _Ans._ We do not herein condemn
the Act as altogether unlawful, whatever our judgment be of it, but this
is all what we do. Because such ills has followed upon these novations,
therefore we think it meet now to forbear the practice of them till they
be tried by Assembly and Parliament.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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