Nay,
the obligation of the British covenants has been denied both openly and
frequently from the pulpit and the press; and even attempts have been
made, not seldom, by profane ridicule, to bring them into contempt. The
very duty of public, social covenanting, either in a National or
ecclesiastical capacity, has been often opposed in the polemic writings
of the ministers of this body, however often inculcated and exemplified
in the word of God. The moral nature of the duty taken in connection
with prophetic declarations, to be fulfilled only under the Christian
dispensation, demonstrates the permanency of this divine ordinance until
the end of the world.
3. This church set out with unsound views of church fellowship, as has
been already in part made appear. But when their position came to be
more pointedly defined, they made the novel distinction between _fixed_
and _occasional_ communion. The practical tendency of this unscriptural
experiment was necessarily to _catholic_ communion, which theory was
soon advocated by some of the most prominent of the ministry; and
accordingly eventuated in the merging of a large number of her ministry
and membership, in the communion of the General Assembly.
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