And all the nation are to be reputed guilty of it who depart from the doctrine and laudable constitutions delivered by Christ and his apostles, and adhered unto by the church of Scotland in her purest times of Reformation.  And if we consider schism under this notion, as we ought to do, then will we find that the greatest part of the land is guilty of it.  Few are firmly and constantly adhering to the attained Reformation; but many upon the left hand, have turned aside to compliance with Prelacy and Erastianism, and so have by their defection broken the church’s beauty and bands, order and union, in making a faction repugnant to her established order, and, censurable by all her standing acts, in bringing innovations in the government, and making a rent in the bowels of the church; by causing divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine of the church; whereby they have made themselves guilty of schism; and some have fallen into delusions and dotages upon the right hand, who, in seeking to be religious above what is commanded, have come short of the truth of religion, and made a faction repugnant to this covenant.  Some, being private persons, have pretended an immediate commission to preach the word, and administer the sacraments.  Others, being stumbled with the defection of the time, have turned aside to independency.  “Some upon slender and insufficient grounds, have and do separate both from faithful ministers and Christian societies and families, because of difference in judgment and incident debates, wherein the testimony of Christ is not much concerned; or because of personal offences easily removed, not observing the rules of Christ for removing of them, not having respect to his great commands of charity, forbearance, forgiving one another, or condescendency.  And among divided parties, which in our day have been long biting and devouring one another, there hath been too much both of sinful union and confederacy in terms prejudicial to truth; as our joinings in the Angus regiment, at the Revolution, and our guarding and supplicating that corrupt Convention of Estates, which consisted mostly of such as had been directly or indirectly guilty of the murder of the Lord’s people; and upon the other hand, there hath been too much of sinful heats, animosities, and jealousies, pride, passion, and prejudice, grieving the Spirit of the Lord, and eating out the power and life, and much hindering the holy practice and spiritual exercise of religion.”

We have been so far from endeavouring to extirpate profaneness, another evil engaged against in the covenant, and condemned in the Word of God.  Deut. xxix. 19; Job xxi. 14; Jer. xxiii. 15; Ezek. xxii. 26; Hos. iv. 1-3; Heb. vii. 15.