Protestantism in Scotland - James Aitken Wylie

duty the higher sanctions of vows and oaths. In
doing so they invest the cause of patriotism with
the sacred, Less of religion. This was what the
Scots did on this occasion, which is one of the
great events of their history.
From the Grampian chain, which shut out the
Popish north, to the Tweed, which parts on the
south their country from England, the nation
assembled in the metropolis, one sentiment
animating the whole mighty multitude, and moving
them all towards one object, and that object the
highest and holiest conceivable. For, great and
sacred as liberty is, liberty in this case was but the
means to an end still loftier and more sacred,
namely the pure service of the Eternal King. This
added unspeakable solemnity to the transaction.
God was not merely a witness, as in other oaths.
He was a party. On the one side was the Scottish
nation; on the other was the Sovereign of heaven
and earth: the mortal entered into a covenant with
the Eternal: the finite allied itself with the Infinite.
So did the Scots regard it.
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