As the revolt of the ten tribes from the true religion and covenant of the Lord their God, hindered not the godly of Judah, nor the small party that joined in the sincere worship of God, out of Ephraim and Manasseh, to renew their covenant under the auspicious reigns of Asa, Hezekiah, Josiah; Nor did the horrid apostacy of the Sectarian party in England impede our ancestors to renew this Solemn League and Covenant in Scotland, Anno, 1649.  So neither can the defection of the generality of the three kingdoms, which is to be bewailed, if possible, with tears of blood, hinder us from testifying our adherence to the covenant, or invalidate what we have done therein.

Object. 4.  “Albeit the action should be granted to be for the main, lawful and right, yet it was most unseasonable to undertake it at such a time, when the parliament and ministry is composed of a set of men that evidence no good affection to the present established church in Scotland, who will be ready to interpret the action of a few immoderately and unseasonably zealous people, as the deed of the whole Presbyterians in Scotland, and to make a handle thereof against them, to impose upon them some new burdens; or to take such measures as will effectually put a stop to the more general renovation thereof throughout the land.”

In answer to this objection, we shall only desire the gentlemen that made it to remember, That now for the space of 24 years they have been crying, the time is not come wherein we should set about covenant-renewing; one while they have pretended that the time was not seasonable, because such as were in authority were friends to the church; and it would look like a suspecting of their integrity, to enter into covenant for defence and reformation of religion, as if they would not show themselves active enough for these ends, and prove an irritation to them to turn enemies to Presbyterian government; it would cause them to think the Presbyterians to be a people of indiscreet and ungovernable zeal, and so disgust them at the establishment.  Another, while they excuse themselves from this duty, because these in authority are unfriendly to the Presbyterian establishment, they must walk cautiously now and manage prudently, lest they give any umbrage to Jacobites and Episcopalians to represent them ill at court, and so occasion the overthrow of the great security founded in the Union Treaty.  Formerly they needed not renew the covenant, because religion was not in danger; now they dare not attempt to do it because it is; they must wait till a well-affected parliament and good counsellors set it out of danger again, and then they will not need to covenant for its safety.  These shifts are too shrewd discoveries of neutrality in this cause.  It is to be feared that the godly have too long been hoodwinked with such frivolous pretexts; and it is high time for every one that has the low case of the work of God in the land at heart, to be awakened to renew their covenant with God and keep the same.  The motives and calls to the work above mentioned will sufficiently, we hope, demonstrate the seasonableness of it.  But if there was a defect as to the seasonableness, it was not because it was so soon set about, but because it was no sooner.