osed by the
Presbytery, shall be the terms of ministerial communion with this
Presbytery, and likewise of Christian communion, in admission of people
to sealing ordinances; secluding therefrom all opposers, contemners, and
slighters of the said renovation of our solemn covenants." By this act,
_Seceders_ have obliged their adherents to consent to their infamous
burial of our national covenants with the Lord, and reformation therein
sworn to, particularly as they were renewed, both 1638 and 1648. And
that they might further evince their resolution to bear down the
foresaid work, they afterward proceeded to subjoin unto their _formula_
of questions to be put to candidates before license, and to probationers
before ordination, the following questions, viz., "Are you satisfied
with, and do you propose to adhere unto, and maintain the principles
about the present civil government, which are declared and maintained in
the _Associate Presbytery's_ answers to Mr. _Nairn_, with their defense
thereunto subjoined?" Whereby, in opposition to the professed endeavors
for the revival of a covenanted reformation in the lands, they expressly
bind down all their intrants into the office of the ministry, to an
explicit acknowledgement of their anti-government scheme of principles
anent the ordinance of magistracy; and thereby to an acknowledging of
the lawfulness of a government, which themselves confess has not only
departed from, and neglected their duty of espousing and supporting the
covenanted principles of this church, but also opposed, contradicted and
overthrown the glorious reformation once established in these nations. A
government, under which, as they profess, the nations cannot be enriched
by the blessings of the gospel; and that, because it does not, in all
the appurtenances of its constitution and administration, run in
agreeableness to the word of God. By all which it appears that although
they refuse formally to swear any oaths of allegiance to the powers in
being; yet they do materially, and with great solemnity, engage
themselves to be true and faithful to a government, under which, and
while it stands, they are certain, if their concessions hold true, that
they shall never see the nations flourish, either in their temporal or
spiritual interests. It is only needful further to observe, that
_Seceders_ in the terms of their communion, by debarring from the table
of the Lord, all who impugn the lawfulness of a prelatic, Era