their God by folemn covenants, that were binding upon them and their pofterity after them; fo in this moral duty, We, in our forefathers, followed the example, entering into a folemn covenant with him, which he many fignal ways countenanced,-attended with internal difplays of (his) power and glory. -To difparage these covenants is to caft dung upon our glory. I think it worfe than the breaking burning, and burying of them. To befpatter their reputation, and deny their obligation, is to render them odious to all generations *.-There is a fuperadded obligation lying on us by our covenants of gratitude and duty, which, though it bind us to nothing, but what we were authoritatively bound to before, yet it ftrengthens the obligation f When God hath manifested his covenant of grace to a people, receiving them to be his people, and they thereupon have entered into a covenant of duty with him, avouching him to be their God, and promifing thro' grace, fubjection to him, though it were four hundred, yea four thoufand years, it ftands; and they who fucceed are bound by the covenant.- A number of honest covenanters, when they avouched the Lord to be their God, and promifed obedience to him, did it in the faith of his avouching them to be his people, and trufting to his covenant of grace and promife, and not to their covenant, or engagement. We, in these lands, have devoted ourselves to the Lord, in which we were warranted by many fcripture precedents.Never was an action done more fedately and advisedly. The binding obligation of it upon us is plain. If we have the benefit of that religion to which our forefathers swore, we must be heirs of that oath they came under to the Moft High (as Levi paid tithes in his father's loins fo Ibid, p. 489. ↑ Ibid, Vol. II. p. 2242 we, in our forefathers, fwore to this covenant.) We are obliged to ftand to it, though it were ever fo many years after.-Being partakers of the benefit, we are bound to do that which they promised to do for it. If a parent bind his children, are not their feed and heirs bound by his promise as well as they were? What continual changes and confufions would there be in the world, if perfons themselves were only to be tied by there own perfonal bonds ?— How much more impiety is it for men, to deny that obligation by covenant to God, made by their forefathers in their name.- -Our folemn covenants, are one of the grounds of our claim to him,-and of his continuing his claim to us, who own these covenants. How will God avenge the violation of a lawful oath made with himself in this land?-Unless thefe profeffed Prefbyterians can now prove, that Prefbytery is finful, they must acknowledge that our national covenants are binding on us in this matter. If a covenant in things lawful be not binding, then no covenant ever was ОВЈЕСГ. І. Many things were wrong in the imposing and taking of these covenants; and their words are ill chofen, as to extirpate Popery, Prelacy, i. e. to kill Papifts and Prelatifts." ANSW. 1. Let us allow no malignant enemy or perjured violator of thefe covenants to be held a fufficient witnefs against them. Nor let us have the long ago refuted calumnies of fuch men revived their mere authority. upon 2. Though the covenant had had infirmities, * R. Erfkine's Works, Vol. II. p. 142, 224, 104. Comp. Hind let loofe, p. 514---521. Apol. Relat. p. 327---416. Difcourfe at the renewing of the covenants, 1688. M Ward's carneft contendings, p. 229---230, 266, Examinat. of 13, Bp. Leighton's Accomodation, English Minifters' Teftimonies to Solemn League, Covenanters' Plea, Crofton's tracts on covenant, &c. &c. even infirmities fufficient to have hindered the swear ing of it, as the Doctors of Aberdeen and Oxford pretended, was the cafe,--it may nevertheless bind when once it is fworn. Though its matter had been in part finful and felf-contradictory, it would bind to the part which was lawful.Though the authority which imposed it, had been infufficient, and the manner of impofing it improper, it would bind when once fworn. Zedekiah was in fome refpe& compelled to fwear allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar, whofe fovereignty over Judah was very difputable, yet his oath bound him, Ezek. xvii. 12-19. 2 Chron, xxxvi. 13-Though our covenanters' ends had been carnal, or even finful, the oath, as far as lawful in its matter, is binding, when once it is fworn. Without allowing these things as fixed principles, no oaths or covenants could be. any fecurities among mankind. 3. If Popery and Prelacy be plants which God hath not planted, why may we not, as lawfully, in our stations, endeavour to extirpate or root them out, as we may mortify the deeds of our body, that we may live? The one includes no more violence against men's perfons than the other, Rom. viii. 13. Do you imagine, that the covenanters fwore to cut their own throats, or tear out their own hearts, when they engaged to endeavour, in their station, to extirpate every thing contrary to the power of godliness, as in dwelling fin, vain thoughts, &c. which adhere to believers in this life, certainly are. OBJECT. II. "Many in England and Ireland never took the Solemn League, or took it in a sense confiftent with Prelacy or Independency." ANSW. 1. I do not expect that any hater of that covenant will ever be able to invalidate the proof which hath been giver of the number of the cove◄ nanters in both these kingdoms. 2. The covenanters declared " that an oath is to be taken in the plain fenfe of the words, without equivocation or mental refervation.-It cannot bind to fin; but in any thing not finful, being taken, it binds to performance, although to a man's own hurt *." All but Jefuits profefs the fame principle. And indeed if oaths, vows, or covenants bind not men, according to the plain meaning of their words, they become quite ufelefs. Men's prevarication therefore, in favours of Prelacy or Independency, cannot free them from the obligation of an oath, which ftrikes against both. 3. As the Scots ftood bound by their National Covenant to every duty contained in the Solemn League, long before the English had a thought of covenanting along with them, and did alfo fwear the Solemn League, no neglect or prevarication of either Englifh or Irish can free us from our obligation. It was neither to the English nor to the Irish, but chiefly to the faithful and unchangeable God of all grace, that our fathers bound themselves and their feed. The Affembly in their Letter to the council of London justly obferve, "It is not in the power of any human authority to abfolve you from adhering to this fo folemnly fworn League and Covenant." And in another letter, "The covenant hath been broken by many in both kingdoms.We do not doubt, but there are many feven thousands in England, who have retained their integrity in that business." And in their Warning 1648, "The violation of the cove nant by fome in England doth not fet us free from the obligation of it. No laws, nor authority on earth can abfolve us from fo folemn an obligation to the Moft High.- -We are not acquitted from the obligation of our folemn covenants because of the Confeffion of Faith, Chap. xxii. 4. troubles.In the worst of times, all thofe duties whereunto, by covenant, we oblige ourselves, do ftill lie upon us. -We have fworn, and we must perform it." And in their Warning 1649, “ Albeit the League and Covenant be defpifed by that prevailing party in England, yet the obligation of that covenant is perpetual; and all the duties contained therein are conftantly to be minded and prosecuted, by every one of us and our pofterity, according to their place and station." And in their Letter to brethren in England," Although there were none in the one kingdom, who did adhere to the covenant, yet were not the other kingdom, nor any person in either of them, abfolved from the bond thereof; fince in it, we have not only fworn by the Lord, but alfo covenanted with him. It is not the failing of one or more that can abfolve others from their duty or TIE to him. Befides, the duties therein contained being in themselves lawful, and the grounds of our FIE thereto moral, though others forget their duty, yet doth not their defection free us from that obligation which lies upon us by the covenants, in our places and ftations. The covenant being intended as one of the best means of ftedfaftness, it were ftrange to fay, that the backflidings of any fhould abfolve others from the TIE thereof, efpecially feeing our engagement therein is not only national, but perfonal.—All these kingdoms joining together to abolish that oath by law, could not difpenfe therewith, much lefs can any one of them, or any party in either do the fame.(They are) teftimonies which the Lord Christ hath entered as proteftations, to preferve his right in thefe ends. of the earth, long ago given unto him for his poffeffion, and of late confirmed by folemn covenant." OBJECT. III. "The influence of the Highland chiefs, and the grofs ignorance of the Scotch islands, |