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  • Writer's pictureDavid Gebbie

The Presbyterian’s Alphabet: C is for Covenants


The National Covenant of 1638 and the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643 are at the heart of what is called The Second Reformation. Out of that period come the books which define Presbyterian Principles and the Westminster Standards.


The National Covenant was compiled by Alexander Henderson and Archibald Johnston of Warriston, revised by the nobles Rothes, Loudoun, and Balmerino, and adjusted at a meeting of ministers. It is comprised of three sections: The Negative Confession of 1581; lists of relevant Acts of Parliament concerning the establishment of the Church of Scotland as Reformed in doctrine, worship, and government; and a band, or covenant, sworn before God. The band binds its signatories to uphold the 1581 Confession, to live lives consistent with a Christian profession, to honour the King and his constitutional authority, and to defend one another. Included in the band is a reference to the signatories having renewed their covenant with God. The covenant being renewed is the Negative Confession considered as a responsive covenant to the covenant of grace viewed in Knoxian terms.


The Solemn League and Covenant is a treaty made between the Parliaments of Scotland and England. Its terms were to bring about a uniformity of religion in doctrine, worship, and government in Scotland, England, and Ireland; to extirpate Popery and Prelacy, with all their accompanying superstition, from the Three Kingdoms; to maintain the prerogatives of the respective Parliaments and to defend the King’s person and authority within that context; to uncover all who would attempt to subvert the aims of the signatories; and to engage in the mutual defence of all who owned the Covenant.


The signing of the National Covenant in 1638 precipitated what is known as the Bishops Wars in which the Scots were able to bring Charles I to the negotiating table. These talks ended with the news of the 1641 Ulster Massacres which, in turn, began the series of events which led up to the English Civil War. At the beginning of the War, Parliamentary forces were at a disadvantage. So, there was a desire to engage Scottish help. At first, the Scots held off, hoping to act as intermediaries between King and Parliament. Once it became clear that Charles would not make any concessions to them, the Scots, entered the War in 1643 on the side of Parliament under the terms set in the Solemn League and Covenant. As the New Model Army and the Independent party in the English House of Commons grew in strength, the uniformity in religion, which was at the core of the Covenant, moved further and further away from becoming a reality. The execution of Charles I created divisions at several levels and eventually led to an English invasion of Scotland in 1650. During this occupation, Johnston of Warriston proposed a replacement for the Solemn League and Covenant which would better match the times. The proposal failed; the day for covenants was over. At the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Charles II successfully undid most of the attainments which the Covenanters had achieved. Yet, there remained a persecuted minority who would not conform and who struggled through the reigns of Charles and his brother James until the arrival of William of Orange and the Glorious Revolution in 1688. The Revolution Settlement restored the Church of Scotland to being Presbyterian in government, but it did not include the Covenants.


The Church at the Revolution regained many but not all the Second Reformation attainments. However, the failure of the Settlement to include the Covenants caused several people to separate. They renewed the Covenants in 1689 and in 1712 as a descending obligation; eventually, they became the Reformed Presbyterians. The matter of the Covenants did not come up again until the Secession of 1733 when in 1743 the Seceders renewed them in a limited sense. They swore to uphold the Negative Confession and accepted the Covenants as symbols of Second Reformation attainments which they believed that the Church of Scotland had lost. The denominations which owe their origins to the Disruption of 1843 never renewed the Covenants in any form, but always acknowledged them, again, as symbols of the Second Reformation’s attainments and what brought Scotland to the Westminster Assembly.

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