The covenant being first renewed at Edinburgh, they provided next, that
it should also be renewed through the kingdom; and for this purpose,
copies thereof were sent with all convenient speed to the several
presbyteries, together with suitable exhortations, and instructions for
renewing of the same in every parish of their bounds; and by this means
it came to pass, through the good hand of their GOD upon them, that in a
little time almost every parish through Scotland did, with much
solemnity, cheerfulness and alacrity, renew the same, and publicly with
uplifted hand avouch the LORD to be their GOD. And as this solemn action
was everywhere accompanied with remarkable evidences of divine power and
presence in a plentiful effusion of a spirit of grace and supplication;
so the joy of the LORD herein became their strength, and greatly
increased the faith and hopes of all the church's real friends, that as
the LORD had begun, so he would also make an end, and carry on his work
to perfection, amid the terrible threatenings both of king and court;
his majesty being highly displeased that his authority was contemned,
and no concurrence of his royal pleasure sought in the renovation of the
Covenant: but their righteousness in this particular was brought forth
as the light, when the legality of this and their other proceedings was
afterward attested to the king by the ablest lawyers in the kingdom.
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