eligion, and this nation in particular to
give up the rights and privileges of Parliament, and kingdom, to the
will and lust of the English, and so to betray the interest both of
religion and civil liberty for unworthy by-ends; yet we purpose and
promise, that we shall always in our capacities bear witness against
these courses, and shall not by any means corroborate them, or encourage
and countenance the maintainers and abettors of them. And if ever the
Lord in his mercy shall be pleased to open a door of relief, and break
the cords of the ungodly, we shall not be wanting in all lawful and
suitable endeavors to promote, to our power, the recovery of that
liberty and freedom which we have lost, and to have those acts and
oaths, which impede Reformation, rescinded: and that all the righteous
laws, made in favor of the Covenanted Reformation, may be put in full
force, and duly executed.

We shall earnestly pray to God that he would give us able men, men of
truth, fearing God and hating covetousness, to bear charge over his
people, and that all places of power and trust in church, state, or
army, may consist of, and be filled with men of known good affection to
the cause of God, and of a Christian and blameless conversation; and
when it shall please the Lord to give us such magistrates and judges
supreme and subordinate, then we will, in the terms of the covenant,
yield allegiance to them, and loyally subject to their good government,
not from any by-end or sinistrous principle, but out of sincere
obedience to God's commandment; and shall willingly support and defend
them, with our estates and lives, in their persevering and defending the
true reformed Protestant religion, in doctrine, worship, discipline and
government, and suppressing all kinds of false religion in their
dominions, and in the administration of justice and punishment of
iniquity; but while the Lord, in his just displeasure for our sins,
withholds such from us, we intend to wait till he turn away his anger,
and not to stretch forth our hands to iniquity, in owning and
countenancing such as are not duly qualified; as, particularly, those
that are Popish or Prelatical in their professed principle and practice,
and by oaths engage themselves to maintain, and accordingly to defend,
the Prelatical form of church government, who oppose and encroach upon
the true government of Christ's house by their supremacy, and tolerate
Sectarian errors in their dominions, an