The National Covenant (1638); or, Confession of Faith (of the Kirk of Scotland)
The National Covenant, a Scottish Presbyterian document,
was primarily authored by John Craig (1580), Alexander Henderson and Archibald
Johnstone of Wariston (1638). Craig drafted the first section (also known as
the King's Confession); Johnston (a Covenanter, lawyer, Scottish representative
at the Westminster Assembly, and later a martyr for the cause of Christ)
produced the the second section, demonstrating the legal establishment of the
Reformation in Scotland; and Henderson made application to the present
time in the third section.
This covenant was composed in opposition to the
"policies of Charles I. Written in the context of the riots resulting from the
imposition of 'Laud's Liturgy' in 1637 and the King's refusal to receive the
petitions of supplicants for redress, the National Covenant was an appeal... to
defend the true Reformed religion, and to decline the recent innovations in
worship decreed by the King." (Dictionary of Scottish Church History, p. 620).
Furthermore, it was "an assertion by the Kirk of freedom from royal or
state control, a personal oath of allegiance to Jesus Christ, the only Head of
the Church, the King of kings, and a dedication of life to him. It stemmed
directly from God's covenant of grace, was in the succession of those earlier
bonds the Scots had made with God for his people's defence and deliverance, and
represented a call in the Pauline sense to 'conduct themselves a citizens.'"
This covenant (and the Solemn League and Covenant described below) are
still binding on all true Presbyterians (because the one true church is viewed
by a God as one moral person throughout history) and the hearty and steadfast
renewal of these faithful documents would constitute a mighty means toward
modern reformation, seeing that much of the contemporary church and all modern
states have set themselves "against the Lord, and against his anointed" (Ps.
2:2); excepting, maybe, the African state of Zambia, which seems to be
presently reforming, but not yet covenanted to the Lord.
If you want to
understand Presbyterianism these two covenant documents (the National and the
Solemn League and Covenant) offer as much light as any others we know of. They
are inextricably linked to the Westminster standards, historical testimony and
the covenanted reformation. Some still believe that they will once again be
renewed on an international basis near the beginning of the millennium, in
preparation for the days when the "earth shall be full of the knowledge of the
Lord, as the waters cover the sea" (Isa. 11:9). With this sentiment we
wholeheartedly concur!)
The Solemn League and Covenant by Alexander
Henderson and others (Mid seventeenth-century reprint of the covenant between
England, Scotland, Ireland and the LORD Jesus Christ.
The Westminster
Divines, the national parliaments, the national "Presbyterian/Puritan" churches
and [most of] the people of the British Isles swore to uphold this covenant -
some signing it with their own blood. William M. Hetherington, in his History
of the Westminster Assembly of Divines [p. 134], calls The Solemn League and
Covenant, "the wisest, the sublimest, and the most sacred document ever framed
by uninspired men." It was certainly a long way ahead of its time and it
continues to bind the moral person [civil and ecclesiastical] in all those
nations which descended from the civil and ecclesiatical constitutions which
bound the original covenanters.
Some, even today, still regard the Solemn
League and Covenant as a foretaste of the millennial blessings that will
encompass the Earth in the future. "Yea, all kings shall fall down before him:
all nations shall serve him" [Ps. 72:11].) And it shall come to pass in the
last days, that the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established in the
top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations
shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up
to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will
teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go
forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And he shall judge
among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their
swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not
lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of
Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD [Isa. 2:2-5]).