with Thy blood.
Thy saints proclaim Thee King! And in their hearts
Thy title is engraven with a pen
Dipp'd in the fountain of eternal love."

THE NATIONAL COVENANT

[Illustration: GREYFRIARS CHURCHYARD, EDINBURGH.]

THE NATIONAL COVENANT

OR,

THE CONFESSION OF FAITH.

_Subscribed at first by the King's Majesty and his household, in the
year of God 1580; thereafter by persons of all ranks in the year of God
1581, by Ordinance of the Lords of Secret Council, and Acts of the
General Assembly; subscribed again by all sorts of persons in the year
of God 1590. Secondly: And with Ordinance of the Lords of Secret
Council, and Acts of General Assembly, subscribed again by all sorts of
persons in the year of God 1590. Thirdly: And with Ordinance of Council,
at the desire of the General Assembly; with their general bond for
maintenance of the true religion, and of the Kings Majesty; and now
subscribed in the year of God 1638, by us, Noblemen, Baronets,
Gentlemen, Burgesses, Ministers, and Commons under subscribed; and,
together with a resolution and promise, for the causes after expressed,
to maintain the true, religion and King's Majesty, according to the
Confession aforesaid, and the Acts of Parliament, the so much of which
followeth:--_

We all and every one of us under-written, protest, That, after long and
due examination of our own consciences in matters of true and false
religion, we are now thoroughly resolved in the truth by the Spirit and
Word of God: and therefore we believe with our hearts, confess with our
mouths, subscribe with our hands, and constantly affirm, before God and
the whole world, that this only is the true Christian faith and
religion, pleasing God, and bringing salvation to man, which now is, by
the mercy of God, revealed to the world by the preaching of the blessed
evangel; and is received, believed, and defended by many and sundry
notable kirks and realms, but chiefly by the Kirk of Scotland, the
King's Majesty, and three estates of this realm, as God's eternal truth,
and only ground of our salvation; as more particularly is expressed in
the Confession of our Faith, established and publicly confirmed by
sundry Acts of Parliaments, and now of a long time hath been openly
professed by the King's Majesty, and whole body of this realm both in
burgh and land. To the which Confession and Form of Religion we
willingly agree in our conscience in all points, as unto God's u