defective, and unfaithful--part of the document couched in abstract,
evasive, and equivocal language. Also, we condemn and reject the
Pittsburgh Bond, as ambiguous, self-contradictory and treacherous--"a
snare on Mizpah." We abjure and testify against Popery, as delineated by
our ancestors in the National Covenant, together with the fictitious
dogma of the Immaculate Conception, and the blasphemous assumption by
the Pope of Jehovah's incommunicable prerogative of Infallibility. In
like manner we reject Prelacy, whether Erastian or Diocesan, as abjured
in the National Covenant and more explicitly in the Solemn League; while
in pity for the persons involved in these despotic systems, we will pray
and labor for the extirpation of these poisonous plants, and the
emancipation of their deluded admirers. We condemn and disown all
existing systems which involve the infidel element called Voluntaryism,
representing the divine ordinances of Church and State as mutually
inimical or in any way antagonistic, thus impeaching the wisdom of the
Almighty.

III. Believing that the Son of God has been, as Mediator appointed heir
of all things, and invested with universal dominion; that he reigns and
must reign till all his impenitent enemies be put under his feet: we
pledge ourselves in reliance on divine grace to continue our advocacy of
his claims upon the homage and willing obedience of individual and
social man, in the family, the church and the civil commonwealth. We
will maintain and urge his exclusive right to prescribe the faith and
order of the church by his royal authority. We promise to inculcate and
exemplify Presbyterian Church Government as alone of divine right and
unalterable.

Believing, moreover, that civil government, originating in the will of
God as Creator, has been placed by the Father under the authority of the
Mediator, and that the principal objects to be promoted by this divine
ordinance are the glory of its Author, the welfare of mankind, and the
prosperity of the church; we engage to endeavor the reformation of the
nations by testifying against all neglect or contempt of Messiah's
claims, or impious invasion of his rights by either rulers or subjects.
In joyful anticipation of the universal reign of righteousness and peace
on the earth, we will labor and pray for a gospel ministry and a
Scriptural magistracy; testifying against all corruptions of these or
substitutes for them. Persuaded of the adaptation and