people of Scotland, and, therefore, may be renewed:
yet, to renew the Solemn League with England and Ireland, as matters now
stand, is ridiculous and impossible."

_Ans_. This objection is partly answered before in the Sermons, [page
14,] and may be further cleared, if we consider, that the Solemn League
and Covenant may be taken under different respects, _either as a league
amongst men_ or _a covenant between God and men_: in the former sense,
as it notes a _league offensive and defensive_ made betwixt the
collective bodies of these kingdoms, it is certain it cannot be taken by
us, who are but a poor insignificant handful of people, far from any
authority, or influence in church or commonwealth; the collective and
representative body of the three kingdoms having basely abandoned their
covenant with God, and united in a sinful compact opposite thereto, so
that to make a league with England or Ireland in this sense, were to
enter into a sinful confederacy with apostate covenant breakers; but in
the latter acceptation, as it is a covenant with God, not as a witness
only, but also as a party contracting, there is no absurdity or
impossibility why Scotland, or any part thereof, may not renew it,
obliging themselves by a solemn vow to perform what they are bound to
antecedently by the law of God. And if it be considered as an
association, it respects those only who now do, or hereafter shall,
adhere unto it, whether here or in the other two kingdoms. Hence, the
words in the preamble of the Solemn League and Covenant, expressing the
several ranks and the extent of the Covenanters, were not read at the
renewing of it at Douglass, because we own ourselves to be under a
league with none but such as own the covenanted Reformation; these, and
these only, we heartily embrace as our colleagues, into the nearest and
dearest bonds of Christian union and fellowship, according to this
League and Covenant.

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,