notwithstanding the relentless persecution of the civil powers, the
eminent instruments whom God honoured for advancing the truth, all along
contended for the liberties of their country, and earnestly pleaded that
the duties of rulers and ruled should be clearly defined, and the rights
of the people settled on a constitutional basis. This was the plea of
the illustrious Knox, as is seen in his expostulations with the Queen
and nobles of Scotland, and in his intercourse with the statesmen of the
day--English and Scottish--and in his writings. The works of Buchanan,
Rutherford, and Gillespie, bear ample testimony to the enlarged views of
their authors in relation to the proper bounds of civil and
ecclesiastical authority, and to their fidelity to the cause of genuine
liberty. The same great principles were contended for by Alexander
Henderson, embodied in the scriptural attainments of the memorable
Second Reformation, and clearly enunciated in the Solemn League and
Covenant of the three kingdoms, in which the covenanters explicitly
bound themselves to support the king and parliament in "the maintenance
of the true reformed religion." When the Scottish nation, forgetful of
their sacred vows, tamely submitted to the tyranny of the royal
brothers, and Presbyterian ministers remained silent under an infamous
indulgence, it devolved upon a few despised and persecuted
covenanters,--the Society people,--to lift up and hold aloft the torch
of freedom; and by their faithful testimonies and declarations uttered
in fields and on scaffolds, and more still, by their blood freely shed
to confirm their righteous cause, to sow broadcast the principles of
genuine liberty. These, after lying buried in the earth for a time,
sprung up vigorously, and bore fruit, when the perfidious race of the
Stuarts was driven ignominiously from the throne; and, at the
Revolution, some of the fundamental truths for which the martyrs of the
covenant contended, became ascendant and triumphant.[3]