The Gainsborough Covenant of the Separatists in 1602 (1606?) as recorded in Bradford's History:
[6] So many therefore of these professors as saw ye evill of these things, in thes parts and whose harts ye Lord had touched wth heavenly zeale for his trueth, they shooke of this yoake of antichristian bondage, and as ye Lords free people, joyned them selves (by a covenant of the Lord) into a Church estate, in ye fellowship of ye gospell, to walke in all his wayes, made known, or to be made known unto them, according to their best endeavours, whatsoever it should cost them, the Lord assisting them. |
[Champlin Burrage: The Church Covenant Idea. Its Origin and Its Development. Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1904. p. 55]