your comfort in Jesus Christ.

THE NATIONAL COVENANT:

EXHORTATION AT INVERNESS.

_BY ANDREW CANT._[3]

Long ago our gracious God was pleased to visit this nation with the
light of His glorious Gospel, by planting a vineyard in, and making His
glory to arise upon Scotland. A wonder! that so great a God should shine
on so base a soil! Nature hath been a stepmother to us in comparison of
those who live under a hotter climate, as in a land like Goshen, or a
garden like Eden. But the Lord looks not as man: His grace is most free,
whereby it often pleaseth Him to compense what is wanting in nature:
whence upon Scotland (a dark obscure island, inferior to many) the Lord
did arise, and discovered the tops of the mountains with such a clear
light, that in God's gracious dispensation, it is inferior to none. How
far other nations outstripped her in naturals, as far did she out-go
them in spirituals. Her pomp less, her purity more: they had more of
antichrist than she, she more of Christ than they: in their reformation
something of the beast was reserved; in ours, not so much as a hoof.
When the Lord's ark was set up among them, Dagon fell, and his neck
brake, yet his stump was left; but with us, stump and all was cast into
the brook Kidron. Hence king James his doxology in face of parliament,
thanking God who made him king in such a kirk that was far beyond
England (they having but an ill-said mass in English) yea, beyond Geneva
itself; for holy-days (one of the beast's marks) are in part there
retained, which (said he) to day are with us quite abolished. Thus to a
people sitting in darkness, and in the shadow of death, light is sprung
up. Thus, in a manner, the stone that the builders refused is become the
head of the corner. The Lord's Anointed (to whom the ends of the earth
were given for a possession and inheritance) came and took up house
amongst us, strongly established on two pillars, Jachin and Boaz, and
well ordered with the staves of beauty and bands, and borrowing nothing
from the border of Rome. Her foundation, walls, doors, and windows were
all adorned with carbuncles, sapphires, emeralds, chrysolites, and
precious stones out of the Lord's own treasure. God Himself sat with His
beauty and ornaments therein, so that it was the praise and admiration
of the whole earth. Strangers and home-bred persons wondered. Such was
the glory, perfection, order, and unity of this house, that the altar of
Damascus could