Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-06-13
Adoption of the scotch Covenant.


''The other scene TO which will call attention
is the adoption of the national covenant. fall
national confessions of faith ever adopted-at
least in these realms-it is the one which, for
the time, awakened the widest and the deepest
enthusiasm. II was in the Grey Friars church
At Edinburgh that it was first received. on Feb
y, 16SS. The aged earl Of Sutherland was the
Brst TO sign his name. Then the whole cOngre-
CATION followed. Then ii was laid on the fat
gravestOne still preserved in the churchvard.
Men and women crowded TO add their names.
Some wept aloud, Others wrote their names in
their own blood; Others added after their names
till DEATH For hours they signed, till every
corner of the parchment was filled, and only
room left Tor their initials, and the shades Of
night alone checked the continual flow. From
GREY Frars churchyard it spread TO the whole of
Scotland. Gentlemen and noblemcn carried
copies OF ii IN their portmanteaus and pockets,
requiring and collecting subscriptions publicly
and privately. Women safe in church all day
and all night, from Friday till Sunday,
in order 10 receive the communion
with il. None dared 10 refuse their
names. The general panic, or the
general contagion, caught those whom we
should least expect. The chivalrOus Montrose,
the gay Charles H., the holy and enlightened
Leighton were constrained to follow in the uni
versal rush. From Scotland it spread to Eng
land, and there assumed the more portentOus
shape of the Solemn League and Covenant.
What had begun bv being an imprisoned, vet
not unreasonable, determination to defend the
rights of presbytery in Scotland, had now grown
into determination as imprisoned to enforce
it throughout the empire. The imperious die
tation of the church Of Scotland reached into
the heart of London. There, in ST. Margaret's
church, beneath the shadow of Westminster
Abbey, the covenant was read from the pulpit,
article by Article, in the presence of both houses
OF parliament and of the assembly of diyines
Every person in the congregation stood NJ, with
his right hand raised TO heaven and took the
pledge to observe it. One by one they signed
their names; and thence it was spread and en-
forced with all the penalties OF the law, and by
ali the pressure of enthusiasm in every county
in England. Hardly any ventured TO decline.
Forced explanations, mutual reservations,
here and there were expressed The voice
OF one Just and wise man, Richard
Baxter, was raised against this indis-
eliminate enforcement of so minute and terrible
a confession. But, ON the whole, it took its place
as the very first and chiefes creed o the church
of Great Britain. The vehemence with which
1t was first received, the tenacity with which it
still retains its hold on the Cameronian portion
OF the church of Scotland, is one of the most
signal proofs of the power OF Scot fish religion
to enkindlc the whole nation. Il dinna ken
what the covenant is said an Old Scottish dame,
even in our own day, but I'll maintain it,. TO
pass in silence over the sworn covenant was,
according TO rutherford, a denial of Christianity
itself. But on the other hand, the rapid sub
sidence of this enthusiasm, even ut the time; its
almost total disappearance now, even among
those who might be thought of the direct spirit.
ual lineage of those who imposed it, is Stnk-
ing example both to Scotland and all the world
OF the transitory nature of those outward eX-
pressions of party zeal, which at the II oment
seem all important There are documents of a
like sulphurous kind which still hold a certain
place, though they were not engeudered in so
imprisoned an atmosphere as the solemn league
and covenant But their original source is
IDENTICAL and their ultimate fate will doubtless
be the same Dean Stanley.