God, and under the New Testament dispensation, and may be
lawfully taken and entered into by the Lord's people. That such oaths
and vows only are warrantable, as are lawful both for the matter and the
manner of them; and those that are so, when once engaged in, must not be
violated on any consideration, and that, because of the authority of the
awful name of God interposed in them. And further, they declare, that
the right of administering oaths is competent only to those vested with
such authority as is agreeable to the word of truth. As also, that it is
the incumbent duty of Christians, by solemn oath to bind themselves to
maintain and defend the persons of righteous rulers, in the lawful
exercise of their authority; and to such only, it is lawful to swear
oaths of allegiance and fidelity. And hereby, they disapprove the
principle of refusing allegiance to lawful authority. At the same time,
the Presbytery testify against, as above, all the oaths of allegiance in
being, to an Erastian Prelatical government. And further, they reject
and detest that sinful, idolatrous and superstitious form of swearing,
in laying the hand upon, and kissing the gospels, practiced by the
Prelatical churches of _England_ and _Ireland_, and even introduced into
_Scotland_, as a gross profanation of that holy ordinance, and contrary
to the scripture examples thereof. Hereby they also testify against all
sinful swearing, whereby the name of God, his titles, perfections, or
graces of his Holy Spirit, are profaned in ordinary discourse. As also,
the unnecessary oaths of customhouse, trade, &c., as a reiterated and
fearful profanation of the name of God. And moreover, they testify
against, and condemn that ungodly and superstitious oath, practiced by
that unhallowed club, called _Free Masons_: according to Deut. x, 20;
Exod. xx, 7; Neh. xiii, 25; Ezra x, 5; Deut. vi, 13; Matth. iv, 35, 36;
Ezek. xvii, 16, 17, 18, 19; Rev. x, 5, 6; Jer. iv, 2. and v, 2; Confess.
chap. 22.

Again, they testify and declare, that the work of solemn covenanting
with a God in Christ, is a duty warranted in the scriptures of the Old
and New Testament, and by the examples of the godly, agreeable thereto;
and that not only to individuals in particular, but to churches and
nations in general. Which covenants once entered into, and being for the
matter of them lawful, are most sacred, and therefore inviolably
binding; and what cannot be broken or transgressed, without manif