As we finish this series on the Covenanters this week, it would be good to acknowledge the benefits that came through this movement of the 17th century in Scotland. It is true that some people have given an almost angelic retelling of the story, which is a form of embellished hagiography. The Covenanters would be upset to be viewed in this way, as they saw themselves as frail human beings, prone to weakness and sin. Others have focused on the few dark stains on the canvas, such as the atrocity at Philiphaugh and the assassination of Archbishop James Sharpe by some extremists. The vast majority of Covenanters however, were ordinary Christians who sought to be obedient to Christ in often horrendous situations.
Let us look at a few of the ringleaders who were the special focus of the wrath of tyrant kings who labelled them as ‘fanatics’. It was these immovable Christians who stood for the very values in our British constitution, which later became accepted as pillars of our culture. Revd Samuel Rutherford, for example, wrote Lex Rex in 1644, in which he argued for what he called ‘a sweet mixture’ of a constitutional, or limited monarchy, combined with a House of Lords and House of Commons, with the voice of the majority of the people democratically represented, with all of this being based on a Christian understanding. It was this very model that was at first lauded by thinking people in Britain, but then was cast down as the work of an evil rebel, his books being burnt by the hangman.
Then there is Revd Donald Cargill, hunted like an animal for his crimes against the king, and falsely accused as ‘a declared Rebel and Traytor’. What did he stand for? Like all of the faithful Covenanters, he believed that we cannot make an oath before God and change our minds, just to avoid trials and persecution. The Scottish government itself had stood by the National Covenant of 1638 and the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643, but then reneged on their vow as it suited them later, giving total autocratic control to the kings. Cargill was a man ahead of his time. In 1680 he publicly read out an excommunication notice of King Charles II and his brother, the Duke of York (James VII later), for their crimes, before crowds at Torwood. He had wanted the clergy to have the guts to do this, but found himself alone. It was eight years later that the two nations of England and Scotland would drive James VII into exile in France because of his tyranny. Like other leading Covenanters, Cargill prophesied that the purifying of the Church of Scotland would lead to an eventual great Christian revival which would powerfully impact the world. It was the extraordinary Christian revival movement in Scotland in the 19th century which transformed our nation and many parts of the world.
Revd Richard Cameron, described as the ‘notorious ringleader of… that Wicked Crew’, stood like a rock for his faith against all odds. He publicly rejected Charles II as king, for perjury and breaking his oath before God and the people – a principle which John Major, George Buchanan and other great Scottish scholars had taught about tyrant kings during the Reformation period. For Cameron, Charles II had cast down the Magna Carta of the Presbyterian Church, and he stoutly declared to the church leaders, ‘You must either renounce Presbytery and your Covenants, otherwise you must own us in our declaration and Covenants.’
If we look at the following fruit of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, we will soon realise that the Covenanters have been vindicated in both the English Bill of Rights and Scottish Claim of Rights. Their legacy is: a constitutional monarchy; a free Presbyterian Church; a free Parliament; freedom to debate in Parliament; freedom to act in self-defence against tyranny; and the beginning of a human rights process that would inspire the American Bill of Rights (1789), which would inspire the United Nations Charter for Human Rights (1948).
When peace came to our troubled nation, the Estates of Scotland issued a declaration on 4 April 1689; it could have been one of Cargill’s or Cameron’s declarations, which were rooted in the Covenants. ‘The Estates of the Kingdom of Scotland,’ it said, ‘find and declare that King James the Seventh hath invaded the fundamental constitution of this kingdom, and altered it from a legal limited monarchy to an arbitrary despotic power, and hath exercised the same to the subversion of the Protestant religion and the violation of the laws and liberties of the nation, inverting all ends of government; whereby he hath forfeited the right to the Crown.’ It was not until 1690 that the Scottish government exonerated the Covenanters who had been branded as criminals; Revd Donald Cargill was among those honoured. Thus, the Covenanters had been vindicated.
‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it’ (John 1:5, NIV).
Image: Covenanters in a Glen, Alexander Carse, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.