lly binding, We, in our private station only,
swear and subscribe in their genuine sense, conform to the Explication
and Application thereof, in our present Acknowledgment of the public
Sins and Breaches of the same, and Engagement to the Duties contained
therein, which do in a special way relate to the present times, and are
proper for our capacities therein.

* * * * *

_A SOLEMN ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF PUBLIC SINS, AND BREACHES OF THE NATIONAL
COVENANT AND SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT_.

We all and every one of us--being _by the good hand of our God upon us_,
now, after a long and due deliberation, determined to testify to the
world, for the glory of God, and the exoneration of our consciences, in
the matter of our duty, our adherance to the whole of our attained
Reformation, by renewing these our vows and Covenant-engagements with
God, and knowing that it is a necessary preparative for the right
performance of that so great and solemn a duty, that we be duly sensible
of, and deeply humbled for the many heinous breaches thereof, which
these nations, and we ourselves in particular are guilty of; do
therefore, with that measure of sorrow and repentance which God of his
mercy shall be pleased to grant us, desire to acknowledge and confess
our own sins and violations of these vows, and the sins and
transgressions of our fathers; to which we have also an example left us
by the _Cloud of witnesses, which through faith and patience have
inherited the promises_, ever since the Lord had a visible national
church upon earth, and more especially by our progenitors in this
nation; as, for instance, in the year 1596, "Wherein the General
Assembly, and all the kirk judicatories, with the concurrence of many of
the nobility, gentry and burgesses, did with many tears acknowledge the
breach of the National Covenant, and engaged themselves into a
reformation, even as our predecessors, and theirs, had done in the
General Assembly and Convention of Estates in the year 1567." As also
the more recent practice of the godly renewing the National Covenant,
and acknowledging the breaches of it, both before they obtained the
concurrence of civil authority, in the year 1638, and again, by
authority, in the year 1639. And that noble precedent of that _National
Solemn acknowledgment of Public Sins and Breaches of the Solemn League
and Covenant, and Solemn Engagement to all the duties contained
therein_, (which we are h