unto his servants and people, and the long night season and thick clouds
of adversity under which his church labored, amid some day-sky, and
sun-blinks of prosperity, she at times enjoyed, to issue in the dawning
of a day of clearer light wherein the glorious SUN of Righteousness
shone in his meridian splendor, with greater brightness both in this and
the neighboring nations, than at his first arising therein, in a gospel
dispensation; whose benign influences caused the small grain of good
seed, sown by the skill of the Great Husbandman, to grow up to a
fruitful plant, the tender twig to spread itself into a noble vine, and
the little cloud, like a man's hand, to cover the whole hemisphere of
the visible church of Scotland, which long ago, as a church and nation,
had enlisted themselves under the LORD JESUS CHRIST, as their Royal
Prince; whose peaceful and righteous scepter being now also extended to
England and Ireland, they soon submitted themselves thereto, in a
religious association and union with Scotland in covenant engagements,
for reformation from prelacy, as well as Popery, which they had never
hitherto yielded to.

Upon this gracious return of divine favor, and discovery of Almighty
power manifested against the mighty agents for prelatical superstition,
both in church and state, when, from the paucity of those who appeared
in favor of truth, in the year 1637, small opposition unto its enemies
could be expected; yet their magnanimity in witness-bearing was so
followed by manifestations of the divine countenance and favor, that
both their number and courage daily increased. The National Covenant was
again, after mature deliberation, anent both the lawfulness, expediency
and seasonableness thereof, with great solemnity renewed in _March_,
1638, with the general concurrence of the ministry, noblemen, gentlemen,
and others, humbling themselves before the LORD for their former
defections and breach of covenant; though, at the same time, the court