I. The Auchinsaugh covenant ... II.

I. The

AUCHINSAUGH COVENANT,

WITH THE

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF SINS;

AND

ENGAGEMENT TO DUTIES.

II. Short Account

OF

OLD DISSENTERS.

IIL > EXPLANATION AND DEFENCE

OF

THE TERMS OF COMMUNION

OF THE

REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

REPRINTED BY ORDER OF SYNOD.

BELFAST:

PRINTED BY STUART & GREGG, GUARDIAN OFFICE, 108, HIGH-STREET.

MDCCCXXXV.

if 35

I.

THE

NATIONAL COVENANT,

AND

SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT;

WITH THE

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF SINS

AND

ENGAGEMENT TO DUTIES ;

AS THEY WERE

RENEWED AT AUCHINSAUGH, NEAR DOUGLAS, 24th JULY, 1712.

WITH ACCOMMODATION TO THE PRESENT TIMES.

COMPARED WITH THE FIRST EDITION, 171*2.

Psalm lxxvi. 11.—" Vow, and pay unto the Lord your God."

Isaiah xxiv. o._'« The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have- trans gressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant."

EzEKiF.t xvii. 18.--" Seeing he despised the oath by breaking the covenant, when, lo, he hud given his hand, and hath done all these things, he shall not escape."

Timothy ili. 3.—" Truce-breakers "— or Covenant-breakers,

Introduction

Covenanting with God is the most signal honour to which a people or nation can be exalted in this world ; but no nation, under the New Testament dispensation, seems to have been more eminently honoured in this respect than the kingdom of Scotland. So soon as our land emerged out of darkness, and attained the light of evangelical truth, our renowned ancestors, of all ranks, entered into various covenants, to maintain the true religion, betwixt 1557 and 1582, in opposition to all the idolatry and errors of the apostate church of Rome. The chief of these was the National Covenant of Scotland, which was subscribed by the king and his household in the year 1580, and by persons of all ranks, 1581.

After lordly Prelacy had gained the ascendency over the true Presbyterian religion about forty years, the Second Reformation commenced 1638, and gradually advanced until 1649 inclusive. During that memorable period, great things were done in our land, which we ought ever to keep in grateful remembrance. 1. The National Covenant was renewed, in which all the idolatrous rites of Popery are formally abjured, and by the subscription of it, the Five Articles of Perth, viz., kneeling at the Lord's Supper, private communion in that ordinance, private baptism, confirmation of children, and observation of holy days, the government of the kirk by bishops, and the civil places and power of kirkmen, are declared to be unlawful. 2. The Solemn League and Covenant of the three kingdoms, Scotland, England, and Ireland, was framed and sworn, in which our ancestors, for themselves and posterity, engaged to maintain the true reformed religion ; and to endeavour, by all lawful means, to eradicate Popery, Prelacy, superstition, heresy, schism, profaneness, and every thing contrary to sound doctrine and the power of godliness, as plants not planted by their heavenly Father. 3. The Westminster Confession of Faith, as approved, limited, and explained by the Act of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, 27th August, 1647, Sess. 23, and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms were composed, as a summary of evangelical doctrine, extracted from, and confirmed by, the Holy Scriptures. 4. Christ's alone supremacy over his church,

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set by his Father over his holy hill of Sion, and given by him to be Head over all things to the church, which is his body; together with her intrinsic right to call, adjourn, and dissolve her Assemblies at pleasure, whether the civil magistrate give his sanction or not, was expressly asserted by the church. 5. The Divine right of Presbyterian church government, as the only form revealed in the Word of God, in opposition to the idolatrous forms of Popery, the superstitious hierarchy of Prelacy, and the sectarian confusion of the different orders of Independency, was legally established according to Scripture rule. 6. Patronage, that great evil which robs the Christian people of the privilege of choosing those pastors who are to take the oversight of their precious and immortal souls, was legally abolished, and the church restored to that liberty wherewith Christ hath made his church and people free. 7. The Estates of Parliament also enacted, that all kings and princes who shall reign over this realm shall solemnly swear to observe and defend the true reformed religion, according to the Word of God; and by and attour the foresaid oath shall declare, by his solemn oath and seal, his allowance of the National Covenant and of the Solemn League and Covenant, and obligation to pursue the ends thereof in his station and calling. — Collection of Acts, p. 141.

These covenants (viz., the National Covenant and the Solemn League and Covenant,) constituted the formal marriage relation between Jehovah and the United Kingdoms, and were the condition of admission to office and privilege. On account of them we were called Hephzibah and Beulab, a land delighted in, and married to the Lord. While we were faithful to God, he was good and gracious to us, and allowed us eminent times of refreshing from his presence. But when we forsook him, he also foisook us, and gave us up to counsels of our own, and we have vainly wandered ever since. By admitting the enemies of reformation into places of power and trust — by the Public Resolutions — by submitting to the usurpation of Oliver Cromwell — and by the unhappy restoration of Charles II., without any security in favours of the true religion, our gold became dim — our most fine gold was changed. A bloody persecution commenced against the friends of the reformation, which raged with great violence twenty-eight years. Our solemn covenants were disregarded, their obligation denied, and the deeds themselves ignominiously burnt, in London, Edinburgh, and Linlithgow. By authority, the taking or the administering of them was declared to be sedition and treason ; and defending them by word or write was accounted criminal in law. All Acts made in their favours, or in favours of the work of reformation between 1638 and 1650, were rescinded, and such black oaths, bonds, tests,

INTRODUCTION.

iii and indulgences were imposed, as ensnared and polluted the consciences of all who accepted of, or agreed to them. About 18,000 Presbyterians are supposed to have suffered persecution in one form or another, by imprisonment, banishment, tortures and death, from 1660 to 1668. The principal heads of their sufferings may be reduced to three. 1. Refusing to renounce the covenants, and to declare it unlawful to enter into deeds of that kind without consent of the civil magistrate. 2. Denying the king's supremacy over the church, according to Act of Pari. 16, Nov. 1669, in which it is enacted, asserted, and declared — " That his Majesty hath the supreme authority and supremacy over all persons, and in all causes ecclesiastical, within this kingdom ; and that, by virtue thereof, the ordering and disposing of the external government and policy of the church doth properly belong to his majesty and his successors, as an inherent right to the crown," &c. 3. Refusing to acknowledge the authority of the Duke of York, as he was a professed Papist, an open enemy to the true religion, a tyrant over the liberties of the nation, and a violent persecutor of the faithful friends and followers of the Lamb. The pious Mr. James Ren wick was the last who sealed the church's testimony with his blood on a public scaffold, and triumphantly entered into the joy of his Lord.

The nation, weary of the tyranny and oppression of James VII., agreed to dismiss him from the throne, and to invite William and Mary, Prince and Princess of Orange, to come over and assume the reins of government in these kingdoms. At their accession, the nations did not improve the opportunity afforded them, to have church and state settled according to the Word of God, and to the reforming laws of the land ; but left the covenants and work of reformation buried under the infamous Act Recissory. Our renowned ancestors entered their public protestation against said settlement, both civil and ecclesiastic, at the market cross of Sanquhar, because the king was not a professor of the true religion ; — did not take the covenants, according to the established law of the nation ; — was engaged by his coronatiou oath to maintain Prelacy inviolable, to the latest posterity, contrary to the second commandment and Solemn League and Covenant ; — was vested with a sinful headship over the church, in being declared head over all persons and causes, civil and ecclesiastical ; — and established two forms of religion, as agreeable to the inclination of the people, though in direct opposition to one another, without any regard to the Holy Scriptures, as the alone rule of either; — because many of the constituent members of the Convention of Estates had an active hand in murdering the precious saints of God during the late persecution ; — and because the Parliament of Scotland read, iv

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judged, voted, and ratified the Westminster Confession of Faith for the whole Church of Scotland, without consulting with her, more or less on the subject, which was gross Erastianism. They also dissented from and protested against the ecclesiastical constitution, because the ministers who composed the first Assembly after the revolution were composed of the indulged and curates that had complied with the evils of the times, during the persecution : had taken some of the sinful oaths, bonds, tests, or indulgences, during that period ; and many of them grievously reproached the honest sufferers, so that they had no right to come near unto God to do the office of a priest unto him until they were cleansed, according to the purification of the sanctuary ; — they passed over the best time of our reformation and went back to 1592, when the church's attainments were not come to their greatest purity.

By thus overlooking the steps of reformation attained to, between the years 1638 and 1650, they violated the Divine precept — " Whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing," Phil. iii. 16. They submitted to new ministerial qualifications, viz., the oaths of allegiance and assurance, substituted and imposed in room of the covenants, under ecclesiastical pains and censures, as deprivation, suspension, and the like. Such qualifications, fixed and appointed by the civil magistrate for gospel ministers, as a condition of the exercise of their office, was injurious to the Headship of Christ, and to the intrinsic power of the church ; and was, in the very nature of it, downright Erastianism : and ministers tamely submitting to them, was a surrendering the church's rights to a foreign head, and discovered great want of fidelity to Sion's King. They allowed the king to call, adjourn, and dissolve their Assemblies at his pleasure, and sometimes without transacting any business at all ; and they complied with his command, to receive into their communion all the curates that would qualify according to law, without requiring any evidence pf repentance, or inflicting any censure upon them for their former corrupt and superstitious principles and practices.

However, all things considered, little better could be expected from the state of the nation at that time. The most religious and faithful ministers and people had either been put to death or banished during the persecution ; and it could not be thought that the Laodicean compliers with the backsliding courses of that period would be honoured to build up Sion's walls, and to settle her on her true Scriptural covenanted foundation. These were not the materials proper for erecting anew the ancient Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland. After the death of that faithful minister and martyr of Jesus Christ, Mr. James

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V

Renwick, the surviving friends of the cause for which he suffered, came to be unhappily divided in judgment among themselves.

As the sword of persecution was now sheathed, and external peace restored, it was natural to desire ease and quiet ; and those who should have been examples to the little flock of Christ, proved a snare to them. The truth of the prophet's declaration was verified — " The leaders of this people cause them to err." Their public teachers, Messrs. Shields, Linning, and Boyd, carried them down the stream of defection, and seduced them into a sinful compliance with the evils of the time. 1. They encouraged them to take up arms to guard the Convention of Estates, many of the members of which had their hands deeply imbrued in the blood of God's dear saints during the late persecution. 2. They enticed them to raise the Angus regiment, and to join in a military association with malignants to a covenanted work of reformation, contrary to their professed principles, and to the express prohibition of Scripture — " Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy." Many of them repented of this action afterwards, and blamed Mr. Shields to his face for leading them into it. 3. They advised them to address William and the Parliament concerning their grievances about religion, which many of them had scruples in doing, as they were suspicious that William's principles were not favourable to the covenants and work of reformation ; and the more faithful part were afraid, that petitioning the Parliament might be viewed as an acknowledgment of the members of it as the lawful representatives of the nation, while the greatest part of them were disqualified from holding such an office on account of the active hand which they had taken in persecuting the faithful followers of the Lamb, and in destroying, suppressing, and subverting the covenanted reformation, and had given no evidence of repentance for their sinful conduct therein. 4. They induced them to enter rashly into the renovation of the covenants at Lesmahago, without due time to consider on the importance of the work, and to seek sanctuary preparation for sanctuary service — to ponder seriously the sins confessed, and the duties to which they engaged, which many of themselves regretted afterwards. 5. They exhorted them to join with unfaithful complying ministers, under a pretence of entering a protestation and remonstrance, and receiving a right to testify against every thing which they judged wrong, though the constitution itself was settled on an unscriptural foundation. 6. They carried as many of them as they could along with themselves into the communion of the revolution church, and landed them in the quagmire of Eras ti an ism.

But the Lord still preserved a select few who did not defile their garments with these corruptions. Sir Robert Hamilton, vi

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in the first General Meeting which he attended, held at Douglas, 6th Nov. 1689, after his return from Holland, entered his protest against these and similar steps of defection and compliance; and, at a future meeting, refused to accept of a commission for drawing up a representation of grievances, and a protestation against defections, to be given in to a general meeting of ministers, and afterwards a General Assembly, in connexion with persons of such jarring opinions and practices : especially with Messrs. Shields, Linning, and Boyd, whom he considered as equally guilty, if not more so, than the complying ministers of the time. Sir Robert was justly held in estimation by the community of Old Dissenters.

He went over to Holland soon after the battle of Bothwell Bridge; and, during his residence there, proved of eminent service to the sufferers for the truth in Scotland. He acted as their commissioner, to represent their case, and solicit the sympathy of the church there : and, by his attention and fidelity, he prevailed with the Presbytery of Groningen to ordain the pious and faithful Mr. James Renwick a minister of the gospel, for the persecuted true Presbyterian Church of Christ in Scotland ; and afterwards, as their delegate to the Presbytery of Embden, he induced them to ordain Mr. Thomas Linning a minister of the gospel for the same church. Some time after his return to Scotland, when the three teachers foresaid had deserted the noble cause which they had formerly espoused, and, by their advice and example, had drawn many into a state of apostacy along with themselves, Sir Robert stepped in and lifted up the testimony, as Mr. Renwick left it, and was the honoured instrument in the Lord's hand of collecting, out of their dispersed state, such of the old -sufferers as had escaped the general contagion and defection, and united them together in praying societies, for their spiritual improvement — and in correspondent and general meetings for managing their public concerns. Never do piety and faithfulness appear to have been more eminent among Dissenters than during this period : their private religious exercises by themselves, with their families, and in their societies, were refreshing and comfortable ; — they had frequently days of fasting and humiliation, for mourning over their sins, and those of a guilty land ; and, on these days, they expressed an ardent desire after the public ordinances of religion, and were very earnest in their supplications that the Lord would prepare, qualify, and send a faithful gospel minister to break the bread of life to them, and to discover unto them the reason why this great blessing was withheld from them.

Sir Robert was apprehended and imprisoned in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, for having an hand in publishing the Sanquhar declaration ; and was called different times before the council,

INTRODUCTION.

vii but he declined them as competent judges, because they were not qualified according to the Word of God and our solemn covenants. He would make no acknowledgment whatever of any thing wrong in his conduct, nor make any promise or engagement to act differently from what he had done ; and he was so honest to his principles, that, before his liberation, he gave in a most faithful protestation and declinature to the Privy Council and Parliament of Scotland— sent a letter of the same import to Sir James Stuart, the advocate ; and, upon coming out of the tolbooth, he left another protestation in the hands of the keepers, against his unjust imprisonment ; and showing his firm adherence to the cause for which he had suffered, declaring, at the same time, that his outcoming was merely on account of his finding open doors, and desiring his protestation to be inserted in the ordinary register.

From his liberation to the time of his death, he contended earnestly for the faith once delivered unto the saints, and acted the part of a tender father and affectionate friend to the faithful few that continued witnessing for the truth ; and by his pious example and judicious counsel, he encouraged and exhorted them to attend seriously to the concerns of their souls, and to the genuine principles of the testimony which they held. After having maintained Christian communion with them for several years, and drawing near the conclusion of his life, he left a faithful testimony behind him to the cause and testimony of Christ, which is contained in the Christian's Conduct and in the

Scots Worthies. He died in peace, 21st October, 1701 Aged

51 years.

After the death of Sir Robert Hamilton, not many years intervened until God sent them that seasonable gift, the Rev. Mr. John M'Millan, minister of Balmaghie, who, from the time of his ordination, showed a strong attachment to the covenanted principles of the Reformed Church of Scotland. The treatment which he met with from the judicatories of the Revolution church, and a vindication of his character and conduct against numerous misrepresentations, may be seen in the Appendix to Thorburn's Vindicicz Magistrates, published 1773, and in the Short Account of Old Dissenters, 1806. Many severe things have been published against him of late years, about Balmaghie business, when very few know the circumstances and motives from which he acted. As the pastoral relation had been fixed between him and the people of the parish of Balmaghie, he seems to have been desirous that they should embrace reformation principles, and the majority were greatly attached to his ministry, stood firmly by him, and kept him in possession of the manse, kirk, and glebe, for many years, in opposition to the tyrannical Acts both of church and state. The grievances of which he comviii

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plained in the church, they considered as grievances also. When he received and accepted a call from the community of Old Dissenters, about the year 1707, he, at the earnest request of his old parishioners, continued with them for a number of years. He is blamed for sitting in session with Erastian elders. He did sit in session with the elders of his parish, who were not come to the clear light of separating from the Established Church altogether ; but they were far from approving of any thing like Erastianism in her, and he wished to give time for examining into principle. . Insinuations have been made that his great motive for continuing with that people, was his lusting after the stipends of Balmaghie. This calumny confutes itself; if he had been a man greedy of filthy lucre, he would never have given up his comfortable habitation, and the legal stipend in that parish, for any thing that Dissenters could give him ; and, if he would have withdrawn his paper of grievances, he might have enjoyed all the emoluments annexed to his official situation for life. No judicious reason could be assigned why he should have given up such a profitable living, except a real regard to the reformation cause, and holding the testimony of a good conscience. Much against the inclination of his adherents in Balmaghie, he left the parish altogether and came to Clydesdale about the year 1727, and spent the remainder of his life in dispensing Gospel ordinances in the community of Old Dissenters, to their edification and comfort.

Mr. M'Neil, preacher, joined with Mr. M'Millan about the year 1708. So soon as Old Dissenters were favoured with a Gospel minister and preacher to their satisfaction, they took into their consideration the obligation lying upon them, by virtue of our solemn covenants, to rescue them from the state of contempt and oblivion under which they had lien above fifty years. In their correspondent and general meetings they proposed setting about renewing them in a way suited to their circumstances ; and after spending many days in fasting, humiliation, and prayer, in their private societies, for light and direction, they agreed that this was a duty which God called for at their hands, as they were now the only people, that held the testimony of the martyrs, who suffered for their adherence to the covenanted cause. They then set about the necessary preparation, by encouraging one another to personal covenanting, and explaining the covenants, article by article, in every society; and the members were examined carefully, one by one, as to their knowledge of the contents of the deeds which they were to swear. On account of the great pains taken for the instruction of the people, by the more judicious members, by the elders, and by the minister and preacher whom they then had, it is probable that never any religious body of men entered into these

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ix solemn transactions, and sware the covenants, with more judgment; and the impressions of that work continued with many of them to their dying day.

Auchensaugh Deed has long deservedly held a distinguished place in the public profession of Old Dissenters. It contains the reasons which induced our ancestors, at that time, to enter upon the renovation of our solemn covenants, in a way adapted to their peculiar circumstances ; the manner of proceeding in the work; the seasonableness of it; the difficulties attending it; the encouragements to it; the vindication of it, as present duty ; and the obviating of objections raised against it, both as to substance and manner. The National and Solemn League and Covenant are next added, with marginal references, adapting certain clauses to the peculiar circumstances of the Covenanters at that time, with an explicit Declaration at the conclusion of them (in large print), that they only sware them in their private station, in their genuine sense, according to the explication and application thereof, in their present acknowledgment of the public sins and breaches of the same ; and in their engagement to duties contained therein, which did, in a special way, relate to their times, and were proper for their capacities therein. This acknowledgment, containing a particular enumeration of the sins, whereby each article of the Solemn League had been violated, with an application of the Holy Scriptures to said violation, and the engagement to duties, in opposition to said sins, are subjoined. By this deed our renowned ancestors brought themselves and their successors formally under the obligation of the covenants, which the nations had broken and ignominiously burnt; exemplified how a small minority ought to adhere to public covenants under apostacy; distinguished the substance of the covenants from their accidents; brought the covenants and the breach of them to Scriptural test, by adding suitable texts ; and specified those sins, national, ecclesiastical, and personal, which provoked God to plead a controversy with the whole land, and caused him to go to his place, to see if they would acknowledge their offences, and seek him early. They also engaged, in the strength of Divine grace, to perform covenanted duties, so far as competent to them in their different relations.

The approbation of this transaction was a condition of admission into the community of Old Dissenters, from the time that it was sworn; and, when the Reformed Presbytery was first constituted, 1743, it was formally established, and announced as a special term of communion, and continued so until the year 1800, when it was united with the article acknowledging the obligation of the covenants, National and Solemn League, upon posterity. Still it was retained as a condition of church fellow-

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ship, without the least motion to remove it from the terms altogether.

Jn stating the reasons why our church ought to retain this deed in cur terms of communion, it is not intended to ascribe any improper motives to, nor to cast any injurious reflections upon, those who wish to remove it from its present place, and to class it among the deeds of general reference. Charity obliges us to believe that they are acting according to their views. Nor is it meant to insinuate that our brethren do not agree to the same truths here stated, taken abstractly ; — but, considered in the character of witnesses for the covenanted cause and testimony of Jesus Christ, the friends of this work think that we ought to connect the great substance of that deed with our religious exercise at the Lord's Supper. And I fondly hope, that those who are acquainted with the earnest struggling, and faithful contending, which our forefathers had to get it carried through, and with the gracious discoveries of the Divine presence which attended it, will feel disposed to retain it for the following reasons : —

L As it was a signal attainment, and an eminent document of the church's faithfulness — a part of the faith once delivered to the saints ; and having received it into our public profession, as agreeable to the Scriptures, we ought to hold it fast without wavering, to contend earnestly for it — and, at a sacramental table, to be exercised about its contents, as it relates to the coming of Christ's kingdom and interest in the world.

2. As it brings us under formal obligation to perform our part of the solemn covenants, after the nation at large has violated them, and prevents us from partaking with them in their sin of apostacy. As the covenants were the condition of admission to privileges in the reformation church, so we by this deed recognize them as the condition of admission to privilege in our church still.

3. As it adapts the national deeds to the case of a minority desirous to be faithful to God, and conscientious in performing covenant-duties to a covenant-keeping God. However small our number, or however mean our situation in life, we may claim our marriage-relation by covenant to him, and avouch him, over the separated symbols of bread and wine, as our own God.

4. We receive the Lord's Supper, under the banner of a testimony displayed for truth, of which this deed is a part. As witnesses for Christ, we profess to be grieved for the afflictions of Joseph, and to lament over the breaches of covenant, which offend a holy God and cause him hide his face from his ordinances and people, so that it is not with them as in months past, when the candle of the Lord shined upon them. As we ought

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to have common friends and common enemies with Christ, we ought to oppose all backsliding courses which this deed instructs us to do.

5. In this holy ordinance, his own people, when admitted into gracious nearness with God, and enjoying comfortable fellowship with him, have an opportunity of pleading with him on account of the low state of Zion, and praying for a revival in her bondage, that he would return to our long desolations where he had his habitation in time past, and yet make his Jerusalem a praise in the earth ; and they plead, on the footing of his covenant with them, that he will be a covenant-keeping God.

6. In this ordinance, we are warranted to plead for covenantblessings, graciously annexed to covenant-keeping — Psal. xxv. 10, and ciii. 18; and to pray that God would remember his covenant made with our fathers, and yet return to these covenanted lands and take up his habitation as in the days of old.