AS    EXHIBITIONS   OF   THE    EXISTING    FAITH        213

emphatic  adherence   to   the   old   Confession   in   this
General  Confession  of  Faith  there  are  in  it,  as  printed
in  collections  of  Confessions  and  Subordinate  Standards
of  Churches,  additions  made  from  time  to  time  at  what
were  regarded  as  crises  in  the  affairs  of  Church  and
State. And  so,  in  the  explanatory  statement  prefixed
to  modern  reprints  of  the  document  it  is  described  as
1  subscribed  by  Barons,  Nobles,  Gentlemen,  Burgesses,
Ministers,  and  Commons,  in  the  year  1638,  with  a
general  bond  for  the  maintaining  of  the  true  Christian
religion,  and  the  Kings  person ;  and  together  with  a
resolution  and  promise,  for  the  cause  after  expressed,  to
maintain  the  true  religion,  and  the  King's  Majesty,
according    to    the   foresaid    Confession   and    acts    of
Parliament/     In  its  primary  form  this  Confession  of
Faith  and  National  Covenant,  as  subscribed  'by  the
King's  Majesty  (James  VI.)  and  his  Household,'  ends
with  a  prayer  that  God  would  be  to  the  subscribers  a
strong  and  merciful  defender  in  the  day  of  death  and
coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  with  the  doxology,
1  to  whom,  with  the  Father  and  the  Holy  Spirit  be  all
honour  and  glory  eternally. Amen.'     In  its  final  form,
as  ■  subscribed  by  King  Charles  II. at  Spey,  June  23,
1650,  and  Scoon,  January  1,  1651,'  the  same  Con-
fession winds  up  with  a  solemn  invocation — '  We  call
the  Living  God,  the  Teacher  of  our  hearts,  to
witness,  who  knoweth  this  to  be  our  sincere  desire
and  unfeigned  resolution,  as  we  shall  answer  to  Jesus
Christ  in  the  great  clay,  and  under  pain  of  God's
everlasting   wrath,    and    of  infamy  and   loss   of  all


214       READJUSTMENTS   OF   SCOTTISH   CONFESSIONS

honour  and  respect  in  this  world :  most  humbly
beseeching  the  Lord  to  strengthen  us  by  His  Holy
Spirit  for  this  end,  and  to  bless  our  desires  and  pro-
ceedings with  a  happy  success ;  that  religion  and
righteousness  may  flourish  in  the  land,  to  the  glory  of
God,  the  honour  of  our  King,  and  peace  and  comfort
of  us  all/

It  was  pointed  out  in  the  opening  lecture  that  the
Aberdeen  Confession  of  1616  is  a  Calvinistic  symbol
having  merit  and  excellences  of  its  own  which  have
not  received  a  due  meed  of  recognition. 