The Covenanting Martyrs and the Revival of the Covenants!
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The Covenanting Martyrs and the Revival of the Covenants!
Quoting the “Reformed Presbyterian Catechism” by Wm. Roberts, page 151:
Q. Does not great guilt rest upon the British nation for its treatment of these covenants, and for the blood of the covenanters?
A. Yes. A fearful weight of guilt. It is a matter of history, that after the restoration of Charles II., who himself had solemnly sworn these vows, acts were passed denouncing as treasonable and rebellious all the proceedings of the second reformation, rescinding all the public securities given during that period, stigmatizing the covenants as unlawful oaths, absolving men from their obligation, and declaring all laws passed in their favor to be null and void. It is also a well known fact, that under royal authority, the covenants were publicly burned by the hands of the common hangman, at London, in 1661, at Linlithgow the year following, and afterwards at Edinburgh. It is painful to be obliged to record, that, at the revolution in 1688, which extinguished the fires of persecution (consuming the adherents of the covenants), and put an end to the tyrannous rule of the Stuarts, nothing whatever was done, either by church or state, to make reparation for these atrocious indignities – and the blood of the covenanters, which still stains the throne and nation. Now, when we consider that ‘one of the heaviest charges ever brought against the people of Israel was on this ground; “they kept not the covenant of the Lord, and refused to walk in his law. For their heart was not right with him, neither were they steadfast in his covenant” – and the solemn declaration of the prophet of old, “I have been very jealous for the Lord of hosts, because the children of Israel have broken thy covenant” – and God’s own complaint, “The house of Israel, and the house of Judah, have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers” – how does it become the inhabitants of that covenant breaking land to ponder these words of Jehovah, “If ye will not be reformed by me, but will walk contrary to me; then will I walk contrary to you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins; and I will bring a sword upon you that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant. Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land? What meaneth the heat of this great anger? Then shall men say, because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers.” Lev. 26:23-25; Deut. 29:24,25.
Q. May we not indulge the hope, that, in the goodness of our covenant God, and by the promised outpouring of his Holy Spirit, “the kingdoms of the world” at large, and the British empire in particular, will dedicate themselves to God in a covenant not to be forgotten – animated by the example of our covenant fathers exhibited in these memorable deeds?
A. Yes. We have the most cheering grounds for this blessed hope; for it is written, that the nations at large in the spirit of devoted loyalty, shall cry — “Come and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten”: and it cannot be well doubted, that the death-cry of the martyred Guthrie has been heard on high, and shall be verified – ‘The covenants, the covenants, shall yet be Scotland’s reviving.’
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