Covenant (Lat. convenire, 'to come together'), a contract or agreement; a term much used by theologians, and in its ordinary signification, as well as in its theological use, nearly if not always exactly equivalent to the Hebrew berith of the Old Testament and the Greek diathḗkē of the New. Applied to relations established between God and men, the term covenant must be understood with a certain modification of the meaning which it bears when employed concerning the relations of men to one another, when two independent parties enter into a covenant, which they have equal right to make or to refuse to make; and is sometimes employed as equivalent to dispensation, and the Jewish dispensation is called the Old Covenant (or testament, by another translation of diathḗkē), in contradistinction to the Christian, which is called the New (see BIBLE). The 'Covenant' or 'Federal' system of theology was developed by Cocecius (q.v.). God, in his supremacy, is regarded as appointing certain conditions for his creatures, which they cannot but accept, yet their willing consent to these conditions gives to the relation established the nature of a covenant; and thus God is commonly said to have made two covenants with man—the first covenant, or covenant of works, with Adam, as the representative of the whole human race, promising life (with perfect happiness), upon condition of perfect obedience, whilst death was threatened as the penalty of transgression; the second covenant, or covenant of grace, being that on which depends the whole hope and salvation of man since the first covenant was broken, and in which life is freely offered to sinners, and they are simply required to believe in Jesus Christ that they may be saved. This covenant God is regarded as having made with Christ, as the representative of his people, and with them in him. The older theologians often speak of the covenant of redemption between God and Christ, employing the term covenant of grace rather to designate the whole dealings of God with men in giving effect to the covenant of redemption; but the term covenant of grace has long been almost universally employed to include all that was comprehended under both terms. The Abrahamic covenant is the covenant of grace as declared to Abraham, in its particular relation to him and his seed. God is represented in Scripture as sustaining a covenant relation to his own people, to the Jews under the Old Covenant, to believers in Christ under the New; and doctrinal theology consists not a little in tracing out the nature of this relation, and the consequences which flow from it. As the people of God collectively sustain a covenant relation to him, so do believers individually; and it has not been an uncommon thing for pious persons to endeavour to reduce to writing their sense of this covenant obligation, under the notion of a personal covenanting with God; and of binding themselves by a stronger obligation to what they believed to be good and their duty. It has also been common for men, from the earliest ages, to enter into covenants with one another with more or less of religious solemnity; and this has in particular been done among those who have suffered persecution, or have been engaged in contests concerning matters of religion, for which the authority of certain passages of the Old Testament is strongly pleaded. Instances occur in the history of the Waldenses, and of some of the Reformed churches, particularly in Scotland.
THE COVENANTS, known in Scottish history and tradition, originated in the Reformation movement of the 16th and 17th centuries. The first Reformation, in 1560, was preceded by several religious bonds among the Reformers themselves; but the work of reformation was crowned in both first and second periods by the whole nation engaging in public religious covenanting. These public national covenants are two in number—the National Covenant, and the Solemn League and Covenant.
The National Covenant, which is sometimes called the 'Scots Confession' and the 'Short Confession,' to distinguish it from the more elaborate Confession of Faith enacted and placed on the statute-book by parliament in 1560, was drawn up in 1580, at the command of James VI., by one of his chaplains, John Craig (q.v.), to counteract attempts which were being made by the Roman Catholics to regain their lost hold of Scotland. It contains a profession of adherence to the 'true Christian faith and religion' more particularly expressed in the Confession of 1560, an explicit renunciation of the tenets of popery, which are detailed at length, and a pledge of obedience to the Presbyterian discipline of the church as then established, and of allegiance to the king in the defence of the gospel, all being ratified by solemn oath. By the ordinance of the king, the Privy-council, and the General Assembly, this Covenant was sworn and subscribed by all ranks and classes in 1581; renewed in 1590 in a bond specially directed against the machinations of the Holy League, which had in 1588 despatched the Armada against the British Isles; again renewed in 1596, and still again in 1638. In the last-mentioned year it was renewed in a bond directed against the attempts of Charles I. to enforce the Laudian service-book and Episcopacy upon Scotland. The swearing and subscribing of the Covenant throughout the country was inaugurated in the Greyfriars' Churchyard at Edinburgh, on 28th February; numerous copies were then sent out over the country, and of these many are still extant both in private and public custody. In the library of the Faculty of Advocates at Edinburgh alone, no fewer than five parchment copies are preserved with the original signatures of Rothes, Montrose, Loudoun, and many others of the nobility, gentry, commissioners of counties and burghs, and ministers. Only one of these, however, is connected with the year 1638. At the meeting of the General Assembly in Glasgow, on 21st November of that year, the Covenant was ratified and appointed to be again sworn, while in pursuance of the object of the Covenant, the assembly deposed the whole of the Episcopal hierarchy which had been established by James VI. The other four copies of the Covenant above referred to were subscribed in 1639. The Covenant was further ratified by the parliament of Charles I., held at Edinburgh, June 11, 1640; and it was subscribed by Charles II. on his landing in Scotland, at Speymouth, on June 23, 1650, and again at his coronation at Scone, on January 1, 1651.
The Solemn League and Covenant was in effect an international treaty between Scotland and England, for the object of securing the civil and religious liberties of these kingdoms. In 1643 commissioners were sent by the parliament to Edinburgh to solicit the assistance of the Scots on the basis of a treaty between the two kingdoms. To this the Scots Convention of Estates and also the General Assembly cordially assented, on condition that the treaty was drawn up in the interests of their religious as well as their civil liberties. Committees of both were appointed to meet with the English commissioners, and the result of their deliberations was the Solemn League and Covenant. It is believed to have been largely the work of Alexander Henderson. It was hailed by both the representative bodies of the Scots with joyful unanimity, and sent to England for approbation, with their warmest recommendations and assurances that it would prove 'the most powerful means, by the blessing of God, for settling and preserving the true Protestant religion with perfect peace in all his majesty's dominions, and propagating the same to other nations, and for establishing his majesty's throne to all ages.' It was received with almost perfect unanimity by the English parliament and the Westminster Assembly of Divines, both of whom forthwith swore and subscribed it, and sent copies over the kingdom, with their ordinance that it should be subscribed and sworn by all. Zachary Crofton gives a list of 793 ministers in twelve only of the counties of England, the West Riding of Yorkshire, and the city of London who subscribed their adherence to the Covenant. As soon as intimation of its acceptance by England was received in Scotland, the Solemn League and Covenant was enjoined to be sworn there by all ranks and classes; and being sent to Ireland was embraced by the Protestants there with like eagerness and satisfaction.
The prime object of the Solemn League and Covenant, as stated in the preamble thereof, was 'the preservation of ourselves and our religion from utter ruin and destruction,' and the Covenanters pledged themselves, in their places and callings, to endeavour the preservation of the reformed religion in the Church of Scotland, and the reformation of religion in England and Ireland, in the way of securing a uniformity of religion in the three kingdoms, in doctrine, worship, discipline, and government. There can be little doubt that Presbyterianism was intended, as prelacy, which had just been abolished by both English and Scottish parliaments, was specially marked for extirpation along with popery. The Covenanters also pledged themselves to 'preserve the rights and privileges of the parliaments,' to 'defend the king's majesty's person and authority in the preservation and defence of the true religion and liberties of the kingdoms,' to endeavour that the three kingdoms might 'remain conjoined in a firm peace and union to all posterity,' and finally, to evince a thorough and real reformation of life both in public and in private. The
Solemn League and Covenant was renewed in Scotland in December 1648, and along with the National Covenant was sworn to and subscribed by Charles II. at Speymouth and Scone. In fighting for his succession against Cromwell, the Scots in 1650 enacted that the motto on all their colours and standards should be 'For Covenant, religion, king and kingdom,' and their watchword at the battle of Dunbar was 'The Covenant.' After the Restoration, parliament decreed that the Covenants were not obligatory on the lieges; in 1662 they were declared unlawful oaths, and all acts ratifying and approving them were annulled; in 1682 an oath was imposed specially renouncing the obligations of the Covenants, and in 1685 it was declared to be treason to take them.
During the period, however, between the Restoration and the Revolution, the Covenants were adhered to by many who, upon this account, were called COVENANTERS. They maintained that these Covenants, notwithstanding all acts of parliament to the contrary, were binding upon the nation, and great numbers of them suffered and died in this testimony. Their heroic resistance was justified by the Revolution of 1688, when the nation united in one final effort for the restoration of civil and religious freedom. The Covenants, however, found no place in the polity of the reconstructed Church of Scotland, and so far as it and the nation in general is concerned, they remain a dead letter. They are nevertheless printed along with the authorised standards of the church—viz. the Westminster Confession of Faith, and Catechisms, &c. But their continued obligation upon the entire nation remained a prominent principle of the Original Secession and Reformed Presbyterian churches, both of which have frequently renewed them from the Revolution down to the present day. See SCOTLAND, Vol. IX. p. 244; CAMERONIANS.