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CLOUD OF MTNESSES
"^
PRINTED BV m'faRLANE AND ERSKINE FOR
OLIPHANT, ANDERSON, & FERRIER.
ON HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO.
1 HE CaNONGATE ToLBOOTH, EoiXBURliU.
A
Cloud of Witnesses
FOR THE
ROYAL PREROGATIVES OF JESUS CHRIST;
BEING
THE LAST SPEECHES AND TESTIMONIES
OF THOSK
imO HAVE SUFFERED FOR THE TRUTH IN SCOTLAND, SINCE THE YEAR 1680.
Reprintedffom the Oriental Editions, with Explanatory and Historical Notes
BY THK.
REV. JOHN H. THOMSON.
EDLNBURGH AND LONDON: OLIPHANT, ANDERSON & FERRIER.
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6
CLOUD
O F
WITNESSES.
r 0 R THE
ROYAL PREROGATIVES
O F
JESUS CHRIST.
The Laft SPBBCHES and TESTIMONIES
of thofe who have lufFered for the TRUTH, in SCQTLSND^ fincetheYeari68o.
Together whb
An APPENDIX contain) hg the QueenVFerry Paper, Tor- wood Excomrnunication, a £ ELAJJON concemiv^ A4r^ R. Ca- meron, Mr, D. Cargil anA H- Hill ^ anii an- Account cj iho(e ta^a xvere Killed tvuh out FRO CESS of Law, and bam/bed io For* reign Lands: With a/bcn Fna? of fame of the OppreHlve EKa^ions,
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Cjpr €f<a. f, Eraianieiu Ppeiibus pMirum candid* EccleCi ; ntme fifti cftiDCmorc M»nynjtn pnrpoiea : IPloubm cmi ntc Rof* d<fuo(. <i«c LiUi.
Printed in the Year M.DCCX1V.
Fac- simile Title oj tlie First Edition.
2031755
CONTENTS.
THE INTRODUCTION,
PAGE
ix
THE PREFACE TO THE READER,
AN ENCOMIUM ON THE MARTYRS,
|
ALISON, ARCHIBALD, . |
. His Testimony, |
58 |
|
ALISON, ISABEL, . . . |
. Her Interrogations, |
117 |
|
»» ... |
. Her Testimony, |
126 |
|
BOIG, Mr JAMES, . . . |
. His Testimony, |
36 |
|
BRYCE, MATTHEW, . . |
. A Relation concerning him. |
446 |
|
CARGILL, Mr DONALD, |
Last Speech and Testimony, |
6 |
|
,, |
. Letter to Mr James Skene, |
II |
|
»» |
Letter to some friends, |
14 |
CLARK, ANDREW, . COCHRAN, JOHN, . . COCHRAN, WILLIAM, CUTHILL, WILLIAM,
DICK, Mr JOHN, . .
FARRIE, DAVID, . . FINLAY, JOHN, . . .
FORMAN, PATRICK, .
Letter to John Malcolm and
Archibald Alison, Letter to the Prisoners in the
Correction House, His Testimony, His Testimony, His Testimony, His Testimony,
A Relation concerning him.
His Testimony, His Testimony, His Testimony,
xlii
15
19 404 279 269 181
400
208 260
2<X)
IV
Contefits.
GAKNOCK, ROBERT GILRY, JOHN, . . GOUGER, WILLIAM, GRAHAM, JAMES, . GRAY, ROBERT, .
GUILLINE, ANDREW, HACKSTON, DAVID,
HARKNESS, THOMAS HARVIE, MARION,
HAY, LAWRENCE,
JACKSON, GEORGE, JOHNSTON, JAMES,
KEAGOW, WILLIAM,
LAUCHLANE, MARGARET LAWSON, JAMES, . .
MAIN, JOHN, . . . MALCOLM, JOHN, . . MARSHALL, EDWARD, MARTIN, GEORGE, . MILLER, CHRISTOPHER, MILLER, ROBERT, M'EWEN, SAMUEL, .
His Testimony,
A Relation concerning liim,
His Testimony,
His Testimony,
His Interrogations,
His Testimony,
His Testimony,
His Testimony, Letter to his Christian Friend X Letter to a Gentlewoman, Another Letter to his Christ
Friend N., . Letter to his Sister, His Testimony, Her Interrogations, Her Testimony, His Testimony,
His Testimony,
A Relation concerning him,
A Relation concerning him,
, A Relation conceniing her. His Testimony,
His Testimony, His Testimony, His Testimony, His Testimony, His Testimony, His Testimony, His Testimony, Letter to a Friend,
NICOL, JAMES, His Testimony,
NISBET, JAMES, .... His Testimony,
NISBET, JOHN (the younger). His InteiTOgations,
,, His Testimony,
NISBET, JOHN, A Relation concerning him
194 326
147 422 227 229 275
39 43 52
56
57
404
>35 139 160
410
337
414
440 406
329 68
447 321 147 429 404 405
388
365 290 291
455
Contents.
NISBET, JOHN, His Testimony,
PATON, CAPTAIN JOHN PITILLOCH, ANDREW, POLLOCK, ROBERT, . POTTER, JOHN, . .
RENWICK, Mr JAMES,
RICHMOND, JOHN, . ROBERTSON, JAMES,
ROBERTSON, THOMAS, RUSSELL, ALEXANDER,
SANGSTER, ROBERT, . SEMPLE, JOHN, . . .
SKENE, JAMES, ....
SMITH, JAMES,
SMITH, Mr WALTER, . STEWART, ARCHIBALD,
STODART, THOMAS, STUART, JAMES, . .
TACKET, ARTHUR, . THOMSON, WILLIAM,
WATT, JOHN, . . WHARRY, JOHN, .
His Testimony, His Testimony, His Testimony, His Testimony,
His Testimony, A Letter to his Christian Friend His Last Words upon the Scaf- fold, His Testimony, His Interrogations, His Testimony, His Testimony, A Relation concerning him.
His Testimony,
A Relation concerning him,
Letter to his Mother and Sister
His Interrogations,
Letter to Professors in the shire
of Aberdeen, Letter to his Friend N., Another Letter to his Friend N His Testimony, A Letter to his Father an
Mother, His Testimony and Last Words. His Testimony, A Letter to his Christian Ac
quaintance, . His Testimony, His Testimony,
His Testimony, His Testimony,
A Relation concerning him, A Letter to his Mother, Brother, and Sisters, .
PAGE
458
359 166
425 107
483 , 488
339 240 241
383 224
147 419 419
82
86 90
91 92
286
28
100
348 443 216
376
173
419 283
VI
Contents.
WILKIE, JAMES, . . WU.SON, JOHN, . .
WILSON, MARGARET, WINNING, JAMES, WOOD, ALEXANDER,
A Relation concerning him, His Answers before the Council, His Testimony, A Relation concerning her, A Relation concerning him. His Testimony,
PAGE 446
3" 440
337 406
THE APPENDIX—
A Relation concerning Mr Richard Cameron,
The Bond of Mutual Defence found at Airsmoss,
A Relation concerning Mr Donald Cargill,
The Torvvood Excommunication, .
A Relation concerni;ig Mr Henry Hall,
Abstract of the Queensferry Paper,
A List of the Banished,
A List of those killed in the Fields,
A Short Account of the Oppressive Exactions,
Epitaphs or Inscriptions,
495 500 501 507 511 513 518
532 557 562
ILLUSTRATIONS.
THE CANONGATE TOLBOOTH,
Fac-Simile Frontispiece of First Edition. Fa€-Si}nile Title of First Edition.
THE GREYFRIARS CHURCH, EDINBURGH, THE HIGH CHURCH OF GLASGOW — east View,
,, ,, west view,
CANONGATE TOLBOOTH — from the east,
THE CROSS, EDINBURGH,
UTRECHT, ....
QUEENSFERRY,
THE TOLBOOTH, EDINBURGH — SOUth front,
BOTHWELL BRIDGE,
THE HIGH CHURCH OF GLASGOW — SOUth vieW,
THE TOLBOOTH, EDINBURGH,
NETHERBOW PORT, EDINBURGH,
THE GRASSMARKET, EDINBURGH,
THE HIGH CHURCH, EDINBURGH,
OLD PARLIAMENT HOUSE, EDINBURGH,
TORWOOD CASTLE,
RICHARD Cameron's birthplace,
THE TOLBOOTH, GLASGOW, martyrs' MONUMENT, EDINBURGH, MONUMENT AT AIRSMOSS,
Frontispiece
ioface page I
4
5 i6
17
• 32
• 36 40
. 48 to face page 6 5 129
193
257 321
385 449
• 495 to face pages'^ 2)
• 563
• 572
Vlll
Illustrations.
FENWICK CHURCHYARD,
MONUMENT TO THE WIGTOWN MARTYRS AT STIRLING,
RULLION GREEN, PENTLAND HILLS,
MONUMENT AT RULLION GREEN,
CHURCHYARD, ST ANDREWS,
DUNOTTAR CASTLE, ....
MONUMENT TO THE WIGTOWN MARTYRS AT WKITOWN,
BLACKADEr's TOMBSTONE AT NORTH BERWICK,
PAGE
597 597 602 603 606 612
HE " Cloud of Witnesses," an edition of which we now present to the reader in a new and handsome setting, was originally published as a small quarto volume of 290 pages. Its title page, of which we give a fac-simile, contains the name neither of printer publisher, nor of compilers, but simply the year in which it was printed, viz., 1714. Considering the rude state of the art of printing in Scotland at that time, after the tyranny and oppression under which the land had groaned for so many years, when much of Scottish literature had to be printed in Holland, and was secretly brought over and cir- culated in the country, it may be considered a very creditable specimen of typography ; the title page being printed in two colours with a considerable amount of taste. There are, however, a goodly number of typographical errors in the text, which the compilers apologise for, at the close of the volume, in the following quaintly courteous sentence :- — " Good Reader, — There being several mis- takes of the press in this impression, too many to bear any reason- able apology ; it is hoped thy candour and ingenuity will pardon
A Cloud of Wi blesses.
the smaller, and thy pen amend the greater, which may mar or aher the sense : a list whereof follows."
The frontispiece, of which a fac-simile is also given, shows, in a still more remarkable degree, the low condition of the engraver's art in Scotland at that period, although in the next generation the future Sir Robert Strange learned in Edinburgh, under a Mr Cooper, the rudiments of an art, in which he was yet to rank among its greatest masters. But rude as it is, it has a power approaching to the sen- sational, and, no doubt, would lead many to read the book itself.
The second edition is said to have been published in 1725, but, while the first edition is not uncommon, this is one of the rarest of books. It is not in any of the public libraries, and even the recent discussions on the authenticity of the story of the Wigtown martyrs have not been successful in bringing a copy to public view. The third edition is an i8mo of 388 pages, and was published in 1730. It contains several additions to the matter of the first, such as the inscription on the grave of Margaret Wilson at Wigtown. The fourth edition was published in Glasgow in 1741, and is a i2mo of 408 pages. It gives for the first time the Testimonies of John Nisbet younger, John Nisbet of Hardhill, Robert Millar, Thomas Harkness, the letters of John Semple and Archibald Stewart, and the epitaph at RuUion Green. The fifth edition was published in Glasgow in 1 75 1, and is one of the most correct as well as the most beautifully printed of the early editions. It adds to the matter of former editions the testimony of John Finlay. Edition after edition followed the fifth in quick succession : the eighth edition was printed at Edinburgh in 1765; the tenth at Aberdeen in 1778; and in the same year (evidently in ignorance of the one issued from the banks of the Dee), another tenth edition was published at Glasgow. " A new edition" was printed in London in 1794, a fifteenth edition in Glasgow in 1814, and it has been given to the world in many different forms since.
So early as 1686, the Societies entertained the design of collecting and publishing the testimonies of the martyrs. In a letter (found in substance in the " Faithful Contendings," but here given verbatim from the original autograph) to Sir Robert Hamilton, dated March 7th, 1688, Michael Shields, writing in their name, says —
" It hath been our design and desire more than two years by-gone to collect an account of the sufferings of this poor despised remnant, with what the rest of the land have suffered, under the domineering
Introduction. xi
tyranny of the late deceased tyrant, and of the present usurper, to the
end the same might be printed and pubhshed This we
think a part of our generation work, and a duty laid upon us, as wc would desire to have the cause of Christ, which we own and suffer for, handed down and transmitted to our posterity, and not be guilty of robliing them of such a rich treasure as the fragrant and refreshing account of the sufferings of the martyrs, witnesses, and confessors of Christ in this age is, and will be to those who come after us."
Through a difference of opinion that arose between the Societies and the person who was to edit this proposed collection of the testi- monies of the martyrs, the publication did not take place, and it was not until some ten years after the Revolution that the proposal was again entertained.
The minutes, in manuscript, of the meetings of the General Societies, still in possession of the Reformed Presbyterian Synod, detail the steps taken for the publication of the " Cloud," as well as for the erection of stones over the graves of the martyrs. These minutes are —
"Conclusions of the General Meeting at Cravvfordjohn, April 21, 1697.
" That a true and exact account of all the persecutors within the several quarters ; of the remarkable judgments and deaths, or what hath befallen to their families or estates ; be made up and brought to the next general meeting.
"Crawfordjohn, ^/r// 5, 1699. " That all the respective Societies send an index of all the late martyrs' testi- monies, not in ' Naphtali, ' to the next general meeting.
"Crawfordjohn, Oct. 29, 1 701.
" First concluded, that all the correspondences provide and make ready stones as signs of honour to be set upon the graves of our late martyrs as soon as possible ; and all the names of the foresaid martyrs, with their speeches and testimonies, and by whom they were martyred or killed in house or fields, country or city, as far as possible to be brought to the next general meeting, in order for the epitaphs ; and likewise an account of those martyrs' carriage and behaviour in the time of their martyrdom.
" Secondly concluded, a review of the former conclusions concerning the remarkable judgments of the persecutors, and the diligence of the correspondences and Societies to be diligently brought to the next general meeting.
"Crawfordjohn, Oct. 21, 1710. " That an index of all the martyrs' testimonies that are not in ' Naphtali,' who were martyred in Scotland, be had from all quarters against the next general
xii A Cloud of Witnesses.
meeting; likewise an account of all the martyrs' names, that suffered in this kingdom.
" Crawfordjohn, rebruary 21, 1711. " The martyrs' testimonies were given into Mr Alexander Marshall and Hugh Clark their hands, to lie by them compared, and the correctest transcribed for the general meeting, and the copies to be returned to the several correspondences from whom they were collected, and the said persons were appointed to go to the [Rev.] Mr Linning [of Lesmahagow], and require a sight of the testimonies that he had from Mr Alexander Sliields, Ijclonging to the general meeting, and their diligence to be returned to the ne.xt general meeting.
"Crawfordjohn, Oct. 6, 1711. "The several correspondences were appointed to take a copy of the epitaphs engraven upon the martyrs' gravestones in their several bounds, to be brought to the next General meeting, and that they be inquisitive what account can be had of any remarkable instances of God's judgments upon persecutors in their several bounds, and to have an account as well warranted as can be.
"Crawfordjohn, June , 1713. " It is enjoined to the several correspondences to be careful to see what money may be advanced for printing the martyrs' testimonies, and an account, to be Ijrought from each, of the quota.s they think they can advance.
"Crawfordjohn, Oct. 26, 1713. "The several correspondences are appointed to take care to get a true list of the martyrs who were shot or otherwise killed without process of law, their names, abodes, time and place of their deaths, who killed them, and any other particulars about them, with a true duplicate of the elegies on all the gravestones, against the 1st of January, to be sent to Edinburgh."
These extracts show that the Societies liad been engaged in gathering the materials of the " Cloud of Witnesses " from at least 1697. Part of their first design, to notice wliat had befallen the per- secutors, they seem to have laid aside, and to have been satisfied with the account given by Alexander Shields in his " Short Memorial of Grievances."
Alexander Marshall and Hugh Clark, to whom tlie Testiinonies were to be given in, were prominent meml)ers of the Societies. Thirty years after the publication of the " Cloud," Alexander Mar- shall was licensed as a probationer by the Reformed Presbytery, and was soon afterwards ordained. He was the first probationer licensed by the Presbytery after its constitution in 1743. We are inclined to attribute the drawing up of the Appendix to him. Hugh Clark acted as clerk to the general meetings of the Societies in 17 14. After his
Introduction. xiii
death there was pubHshed a poem of thirty-two pages, entitled, "Medi- tations upon the love of Christ, in the redemption of elect sinners, written by the truly worthy, learned, and eminently religious Mr Hugh Clark, sometime before his death, which was on the 15th day of February 1724, and of his age the 36th year." Some of its lines are not without merit, and point him out to be the author of the "Encomium" following the Preface to the Reader in this volume, and possibly to have been concerned in writing the latter part of the Preface, and, it may be, some of the epitaphs on the gravestones of the martyrs. A paragraph taken at random from the " Medi- tations " will sufticiently show his powers :
"O saints who share His love, in Him be glad, Who loved you, ere you a being had ! Why should you doubt His love to you, because You cannot in yourself perceive the cause ? Tvvas not your worth of goodness could deserve That He at first from death should you preservCj Nor will your worthlessness, nor vileness make, Your loving Lord your souls again forsake. It was the goodness of His sovereign will Engaged him first, and will engage Him still, And since He loved you from eternity, Believe He '11 do the same eternally. Lay by your doubtings, then, ye saints, and raise Melodious songs to your Redeemer's praise."
Inanotetohis " Vindiciae Magistratus," Edinburgh, 1773, p. 152, the Rev. John Thorburn, minister of the Reformed Presbyterian congregation of Pentland from 1762 to 1788, says that "the Testi- monies were given to Messrs Marshall and Clark, to be copied out fair for the press, and to be sent to John M'Main, A.M., teacher of a grammar school at Liberton's Wyndfoot, Edinburgh, who, it is very probable, was the writer of the Preface ; or, at least, it behoved to be the work of one or other of these three."
John M'Main, by the freedom of some strictures he had made upon the ministers of the Established Church, so provoked the Presbytery of Edinburgh, that they summoned him to appear before them, 29th November 1721, to answer for presuming at his own hand to keep a school within the city of Edinburgh, without license or warrant given him from any in authority. M'Main published his answer to the summons, in which, as might be expected, he has the better of the Presbytery. In 1724 he published Alexander Shields' life of
xiv A Cloud of Witnesses.
James Renwick. In the preface he takes Wodrow to task for his not very favourable reflections on some of the martyrs whose testimonies are given in the " Cloud." In both the answer to the Presbytery and the preface to Renwick's life, there seem evident traces of the vigorous pen that wrote the Preface to the " Cloud," and it goes far to justify the probability of the opinion, that, to a large extent, it was his production. But, whoever drew it up, it is a comprehensive and masterly statement of the lawful and Scriptural character of the contendings of the martyrs, and is written with a calmness, an earnestness, and catholicity of tone, and a power of expression, that reflect the highest credit upon its authors.
The Preface makes it unnecessary that the aim of the " Cloud of Witnesses " should be here stated. It may be enough to say that the position taken up in these testimonies towards the govern- ment of the time, which has often been much excepted to, was simply an anticipation, by some years, of what the estates of the kingdom of Scotland at their meeting in the spring of 1689 found and declared, — " That king James the seventh being a professed Papist, did assume the regal power and acted as king without ever taking the oath required by law, and hath by the advice of evil and wicked counsellors invaded the fundamental constitution of the kingdom, and altered it from a legal limited monarchy to an arbitrary despotic power, and hath exercised the same, to the sub- version of the Protestant religion and the violation of the laws and liberties of the kingdom, inverting all the ends of government, where- by he hath forfeited the right to the crown, and the throne is become vacant ;" while the testimonies themselves were the voice of liberty, at a time when freedom was denied to the press, when the right of meeting in public was taken away, and when to utter an opinion different from the government was enough to expose to torture and death in its most cruel form. Hence the occasional sternness of the language in which they are clothed. The enemies of Hberty com- pelled the martyrs to cast aside honeyed words, and to express themselves in strong terms.
This edition has been reprinted from the first. Great pains have been taken to ensure correctness. When difiiculty has arisen, the fourth and fifth editions, which seem to have been printed with unusual care, have been referred to. No change, save in the spell- ing and manifest misprints, has been made in the text. Scotch or unusual words have been retained, and their signification given
Introduction. xv
within brackets. Notes — historical, where such were required to elucidate the text ; or biographical, when they could lend additional interest to the lives under review — have been added, wherever there seemed occasion for them. In some cases, these notes have been derived from the traditions of the localities where the martyrs lived or suffered; but mainly they have been drawn from the pamphlets of the period, and the writings of the Rev. Robert Wodrow, and Patrick Walker.
^^'odrow was minister of Eastwood, in Renfi-ewshire, and died in 1734, in the fifty-fifth year of his age, and thirty-first of his ministry. The first volume of his " History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland from 1660 to 1688" appeared in 1721, and the second in the following year. Its materials had been sent to him from all parts of the country, and he had been em- ployed for about eight years in their arrangement. The book was folio, and the subscription price two guineas, yet there were 650 subscribers. Although it has no graces of style, it was immediately successful, and by almost all parties was felt to be a great work. The Jacobites smarted under its statement of the tyranny and cruelty of their idols, and did their utmost to depreciate its value, but their labours were in vain. Its voluminous collection of facts illustrative of the sufferings of the Presbyterians under Charles II. and James II. might be parodied, but their truth could not be denied. A very different class from the Jacobites found fault with the " History." The Societies — the compilers of the "Cloud of Witnesses" — took exception to the manner in which he spoke of James Renwick and others for declining to take advantage of the Indulgence, or to associate with the indulged ministers. But they did not challenge its statements of facts. It was simply the historian's inferences or reflections that they called in question. Wodrow's father had accepted the Indulgence, and many of his friends were in the same position. These friend- ships manifestly biassed the historian's judgment.
Patrick Walker was a prisoner in Dunottar for some months, and when brought to Leith for further trial, made his escape from the Tolbooth. He took a prominent part in the Societies at the Revolu- tion on their presenting a statement of grievances to the government, but he soon afterwards withdrew from their association. When he published his " Some Remarkable Passages of the Life and Death of Mr John Semple, Mr John Welwood, Mr Richard Cameron, Mr Alexander Peden, Mr Donald Cargill, and Mr Walter Smith," in 1727
xvi A Cloud of Witnesses.
and 1728, he seems to have been a chapman, and to have had a house in Edinburgh " within Bristo Port, opposite the Society gate." His " Passages " are a curious farrago of matter ; but it is not difficult to l^ick out what must really have happened under his own eye, or that of trustworthy witnesses ; and these narratives are often of interest and value as corroborative of the "Cloud of Witnesses" and Wodrow.
Of the martyrs' graves w4iose inscriptions are given in the Ap- pendix, we have visited the greater number, and have been able to add to those contained in the first edition a goodly number of others, scattered about in various parts of the country. Of the original forty-six there is only one, that of Andrew M'Gill at the Gallows of Ayr, which we have been unable at this date to find. In visiting these graves it is impossible not to feel how much their present condition is due to a man whom the creative genius of Sir Walter Scott has immortalised — Robert Paterson, " Old Mortality." All over the south-west of Scotland his work is seen in the deeply graven letters, cut evidently by no hireling hand, but by a workman determined, that, so far as deep lettering would perpetuate the names of the witnesses for Christ's Crown and Covenant, until a generation should arise that would reverence their memory, it should be done by him. And he has succeeded. The indifterence characteristic of the end of last century, and the beginning of this, to the memory of the martyrs in Scotland has passed away.
Of all the martyrs' monuments or gravestones that we have visited, we have not found one (with the single exception of that at Magus Moor) but what is in excellent preservation, or in the course of being restored, or a new stone being placed alongside of that which had become illegible by age. On inquiry we have always learned that the inhabitants of the districts where they are, irrespective of denomina- tion, have vied with each other to keep them in proper repair. The graves themselves seem, with few exceptions, to have been undis- turbed, and they may be often detected by their being considerably lower than the surrounding ground, which has risen up by many in- terments since. This is nowhere more strikingly seen than in the Greyfriars Chiu-chyard in Edinburgh.
JOHN HENDERSON THOMSON.
Eaglesham, September 1871.
HRISTIAN READER, the glorious frame and contriv- ance of religion, revealed by the ever-blessed Jehovah in the face or person of Jesus Christ, for the recovery of lost mankind into a state of favour and reconcile- ment with Himself, is so excellently ordered in the counsels of Infinite Wisdom, and exactly adjusted to the real delight, contentment, and happiness of the rational world ; that it might justly be wondered why so many men in all ages, otherwise of good intellectuals, have not only had a secret disgust thereat themselves, but laboured to rob others of the comfort and benefit of it, and make the world a chaos of confusion by persecutions raised against it ; had not the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures laid open the hidden springs of this malice and enmity, which exerts itself in so many of the children of men.
^Ve are told in these Divinely inspired writings, that the first source of this opposition that the true religion meets with in the world, flows originally from Satan, that inveterate enemy of God's glory and man's hai)piness; who, having himself left his original state of obedience to, and enjoyment of God his creator, hath no other leiiamen of his mevitable miseries, but to draw the race of mankind into the like
xviii Preface to the Reader.
ruin, which is the only satisfaction that mahcious spirit is capable of. This restless adversary ])erceiving that, through the grace and love of God manifested in Christ, a great number of these whom he thought he had secured to his slavery are redeemed, and called by the Gospel out of that intolerable servitude into a glorious liberty, xnd secured by faith to salvation, labours, by two great engines, open force and secret fraud, to keep them in, or regain them to his obedience ; hence the sacred Scriptures describe him — both as a dragon for cruelty and a serpent for subtilty.
But because he either cannot, or thinks not fit, to do this visibly in person ; therefore he does it more invisibly, and so more success- fully, by his agents in whom he works, who, because of their un- reasonable unbelief, are called children of impersuasion. These he acts and animates, as it were so many machines, to endeavour by crafty seduction, or violent persecution, to draw or drive the followers of the Lamb from their subjection, obedience, and loyalty to the Captain of their salvation, that he may drown them in perdition and destruction. This is the latent origin of all persecution, the mint where all the other more visible causes of the bloody violence which the people of God meet withal, are struck and framed. This is the grand design to which they tend — to root out the obedience of faith out of the world, and deprive the Son of God of His rightful domi- nion over His subjects, whom He hath chosen, redeemed, and sanctified for Himself.
As this holds true of all the persecutions raised against the Church and truths of God, whether in the persons of the Jews or Christians, by whatever hands, Pagan or Anti-Christian, so it is eminently verified of the persecutions of the Church of Scotland, prosecuted by a profane, wicked generation of malignant Prelatists, during the reigns of the late King Charles H. and James VH. For, as the other persecutions were all levelled against some point of truth or other wherein the obedience of faith was concerned, re- specting either the existence and worship of the true God, or the person, natures, or offices of Jesus Christ, etc. ; so this persecution was directly bended against that office and authority of Jesus Christ, whereupon His formal claim to the obedience of His Church is founded, viz.. His headship over His Church. This was the peculiar depositum concredited to the Church of Christ in Scotland, and her distinguishing dignity, to have the royal supremacy of the King of Zion to defend against the kings of the earth ; who, not content with
Preface to the Reader. xix
tne princely authority of ruling the persons of their subjects, according to the laws of God and the realm, would needs usurp a blasphemous sacrilegious prerogative of ruling the Church and consciences of men in room of the Mediator, by what laws and statutes they pleased, and found most subservient to their lust, for advancement of Popery and arbitrary government.
]ESUS CHRIST, the only begotten of the Father, having re- ceived the Church of Scotland, as one of the utmost isles of the earth, for His possession, by solemn grant from Jehovah, was pleased, as to call her from the deplorable state of Pagan, and reform her from the ruinous condition of anti-Christian darkness, so to dignify her, in a peculiar manner, to contend and suffer for that truth, " that He is a King and Lawgiver to His Church ; " having power to institute her form of government, to give her laws, officers, and censures, whereby she should be governed ; and hath not left it ambulatory and uncertain, what government He will have in force for the ordering of His house, but hath expressly determined in His Word every necessary part thereof, and hath not put any power into the hands of any mortal, whether Pope, Prelate, prince, or potentate, as a vicarious head in His personal absence, whereby they may alter the form of government at their pleasure, and make what kind of officers, canons, and censures they please ; but all the power that this King hath left in His Church, concerning her government, is purely and properly ministerial, under the direction and regulation of His sovereign pleasure, revealed in His written Word.
This, this is the most radiant pearl in the Church of Scotland's garland ; that she hath been honoured valiantly to stand up for the headship and royal prerogative of her King and Husband, Jesus Christ, in all the periods of her Reformation. For no sooner had ^he thrown off the yoke of the Pope's pretended jurisdiction and authority, but presently, while she was labouring, by means of these censures which Christ had instituted, to root out the damnable heresies which that enemy had sown, all on a sudden King James VI., naturally ambitious, and instigated by interested and projecting coun- sellors, attempts a rape upon her chastity and loyalty to her Hu.sband and Lord, and by his royal order stops her freedom of sitting, voting, and acting in her Supreme Courts, imprisons some of her most zealous and faithful ministers, calls them before his Council, indicts them of treason and lese majesty for their making use of the freedom
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Christ had given them, and, after their declining his and his Council's usurped authority in spiritual matters, and so witnessing a good con- fession for the royal dignity of their Master, banishes them their native country \ See " Calderwood's History," from page 491, to page 536, and downward. [Wodrow Society Edition, vol. vi., p. 590.] Upon the same bottom of a pretended royal jurisdiction over the Church, he attempted, and in a great measure effected, the establish- ment of a Popish hierarchy and Romish ceremonies, by setting up Prelates, and bringing in the Perth articles, flattering some, and over- awing others of the ministry into a compliance therewith, persecuting the zealous and faithful contenders for Christ's headship, and the government of His Divine institution, with vexatious prosecutions before High Commission Courts, suspensions from their office, wanderings, confinements, etc.
And in like manner, Charles I., following his father's example and instructions, endeavoured, upon pretence of the same preroga- tive, to improve upon what his father had begun, and complete the Church's slavery, by obtruding upon her a liturgy and canons, formed a la mode d' Angleterre, collected out of the Romish mass-book and canon law, which put the faithful sons of the Church of Scotland to much wrestling and contending, partly by humble and submissive, yet zealous and faithful addresses, supplications, remonstrances, and re- presentations, partly by more bold and daring protestations and associations for mutual defence, even till they were forced to take arms for defence of religion and the liberties of their country. Which contendings for Christ's royal authority, and His Church's liberties, at length, by the blessing of God, issued in a glorious Work of Reformation through Britain and Ireland, wherein the Churches of Christ in these lands not only revived their former beautiful order, shining purity, and precious liberty, but also had several de- grees of new attainments in purity and uniformity of religion added thereto.
But the Church's sun of prosperity is soon at the tropic. Scarce was that spring-time well begim to blossom and bud, when, behold, a world of malignant vapours, arising out of the earth, clouded all her sky again, and turned her spring to a deplorable winter. Various heresies in England, growing Popery in Ireland, public resolutions for advancing malignants to places of power and trust in Scotland, like so many inundations breaking in upon the Church of Christ, laid all her pleasant things waste. And no sooner was Charles II.
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advanced to the exercise of the royal authority, but, drowning the sense of all sacred obligations with a glut of sensual pleasures, he authorised a malignant crew of statesmen to persecute and destroy the people of God for their adherence to the Covenants which him- self had entered into as the fundamental stipulation of government, and to that Reformation which he had sworn to maintain and practise, and for their bearing witness against the grand principle and founda- tion upon which he built his power of overthrowing religion, and setting up a new frame thereof in Britain, namely, the blasphemous headship of Ecclesiastical Supremacy.
Hence it is evident to a demonstration, that the grand state of the quarrel upon which the martyrs laid down their lives during the late tyrannical reigns, was really one and the same with that for which the zealous and faithful ministers suffered such hardships in the time of King James VI., and afterwards ; this being the precise founda- tion upon which all the other acts and oaths were built, which the enemies made a handle of to involve honest people into the crime of treason and rebelHon against the State, as it was then determined by their iniquitous laws. ^ For, as this was still the principal question put to them, " Owti ye the king's authority?" and the chief article of indictment if they either answered in the negative or kept silence, so it is evident that, by this question, they really meant not his civil authority only, but also his pretended claim to supreme headship over the Church.
For no sooner had he authorised a Parliament to meet at Edin- burgh, under the inspection of that malignant wretch, John Earl of Middleton, anno 1661, but that generation of enemies to the work of God, intending the utter ruining thereof, set up this Dagon of the Royal Prerogative, not only with respect to things civil, as " in the choice of his officers of State, counsellors and judges " (Act ii.), in " the calling and dissolving of Parliaments, and making laws " (Act iii.) in " the militia, and in making peace and war " (Act v.) ; which were great invasions upon the national liberties of the subjects ; but also in things sacred, "in making of leagues, and the conventions of the subjects" (Act iv.), wherein all the former work of Refor- mation is condemned, and the Covenants made for its defence are declared treasonable and rebellious actions against the royal preroga- tive ; and in consequence hereof, it is declared that the League and Covenant is not obhgatory upon this kingdom, nor doth infer any obligation on the subjects thereof, to meddle or interpose in any-
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thing concerning the rehgion and government of the Churches of England and Ireland ; and all the subjects are discharged "to renew the same, as they will answer at their highest peril" (Act vii.) ; and and in the oath of allegiance and acknowledgment of his majesty's royal prerogative (Act xi. of the said Parliament), all persons, of whatsoever trust, post, office, or employment, are obliged to swear, that they " acknowledge the king only supreme governor of this kingdom, over all persons and in all causes ;" and that they " do with all humble duty acknowledge his majesty's royal prerogative, in all the particulars, and in the manner aforementioned."
And to make the matter clearer, what they meant by the King's authority, in the preamble of the first Act of the second session of the same first Parliament, they assert, that " the ordering and disposal of the external government and policy of this Church doth properly belong unto his majesty, as an inherent right of the crown, by virtue of his royal prerogative and supremacy in causes ecclesiastical." And upon this bottom, he, with advice and consent of the estates of Parliament, sets up the Episcopal form of Church-government, the jurisdiction of bishops and archbishops over the inferior clergy, with their concomitant of patronages, and " doth rescind, cass, and annul all Acts of Parhament, by which the sole and only power and juris- diction within this Church doth stand in the Church, and in the general, provincial, and presbyterial Assemblies, and Kirk Sessions, and all Acts of Parliament or Council, which may be interpreted to have given any church power, jurisdiction or government, to the office-bearers of the Church their respective meetings, other than that which acknowledgeth a dependence upon, and subordination to, the sovereign power of the king as supreme." And in pursuance hereof, in the second Act of the foresaid session, entitled, "Act for pre- servation of his majesty's person, authority, and government," he doth, with the advice of his estates of Parliament, declare, "That the assembly kept at Glasgow in the year 1638, was in itself (after the same was by his majesty discharged, under the pain of treason), an unlawful and seditious meeting ;" and " that all these gatherings, convocations, peti- tions, protestations, and erecting and keeping of Council Tables, that were used in the beginning, and for carrying on of the late troubles (thus they call the work of Reformation) were unlawful and seditious ; and particularly that these oaths, whereof the one was commonly called the National Covenant, and the other a Solemn League and Covenant, were, and are in themselves unlawful oaths ;" and therefore declares
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their obligations void and null, and " annuls all acts or constitutions, ecclesiastic or civil, approving them."
Nor does it suffice them to rescind these covenants and other proceedings for carrying on the work of Reformation, as contrary to this royal prerogative of ecclesiastic supremacy, and to inhibit all persons to speak, write, or act anything in defence of the same, and against the said prerogative ; but likewise, in the fifth Act of the foresaid session, all persons in any place, office, or trust, are obliged to swear all the particulars contained in the foresaid Acts, in that most impious oath, commonly called the Declara- tion. And again, in the fifth Act of the third session of the foresaid Parliament, entitled " Act for the estabHshment and con- stitution of a National Synod," it is declared, that " the ordering and disposal of the external government of the Church, and the nomination of the persons by whose advice matters relating to the same are to be settled, doth belong to his majesty, as an inherent right of the crown, by virtue of his prerogative royal, and supreme authority in causes ecclesiastical." And in the first Act of the second Parliament, holden by that apostate, John Earl of Lauder- dale, entitled, " Act asserting his majesty's supremacy over all per- sons, and in all causes ecclesiastical," commonly called the Act Explanatory, it is expressly declared, " that his majesty hath the supreme authority and supremacy over all persons, and in all causes ecclesiastical within this kingdom ; and that, by virtue thereof, the ordering and disposal of the external government and policy of the church, doth properly belong to his majesty and his successors as an inherent right to the crown ; and that his majesty and his successors may settle, enact, and emit such constitutions, acts, and orders, con- cerning the administration of the external government of the church, and the persons employed in the same, and concerning all ecclesias- tical meetings, and matters to be proposed and determined therein, as they in their royal wisdom shall think fit."
ROM all which Acts, it plainly appears, that the true sense of that authority, which they would have their private thoughts about, was really, as the martyrs understood it, his ecclesi- astic supremacy, and that no less than a recognition hereof would serve their turn ; and though some of the martyrs offered a distinction between the two, professing to own his civil authority abstract from the ecclesiastical (as for instance, Mr John Dick), yet they were not
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absolved, because they would not own his authority in gross. And besides their including the supremacy over church matters into the formal notion of the king's authority, they could be pleased with no less, from any that they called before them, than an owning the whole acts and laws, and entire exercise and administration of things in Church and State, which was an implicit condemning of all the pre- ceding Reformation, and consenting to the persecution and murder of the saints who stood up for its defence.
It is true, indeed, these things were so impious and abominable, that, had they been proposed without mask, they would presently have begot an horror in the mind of any, who was not entirely lost to all conscience and goodness ; and therefore these children of the old serpent had so much of their father, that they made it their work to hide these horrid hooks with some specious baits, that they might tlie more easily entice simple people into that snare they had laid for them ; and (hence, knowing how much it is the effect of true religion to make men loyal, and that the Presbyterians were of all others the readiest to yield all lawful subjection to their rightful princes, they still made use of the specious title of authority as a blind to hide the ecclesiastical supremacy and bloody exercise of their government, from these whom they laboured to ensnare. They saw the supremacy they intended to fix in the king was such a " Monstrum horrendum, i7ifonne^ i?ige>is, Hecate atque Erebo ortuin,'' that, without some veil of this nature, no man would be so mad as to embrace it.
But when this would not do, but that still its ill-favoured face ap- peared through the vizor ; and all good men saw, that the authority which sought no other way to maintain itself, but by blood and rapine, was really degenerated into tyranny ; then they pretended to come some steps lower, and said, that they required no more at the hands of people, in order to dismiss them, but that they would at their desire pray for the king, in their prescribed form of words, viz., " God save the king," or that they would drink the king's good health. These were by them represented to be so very minute and easy things, and by a great many professors looked upon as so trivial and indifferent, that they were in the fair way either to ensnare, or with more opportunity to expose such as refused to the contempt of indifferent spectators, as being such scrupulous fools and brain-sick persons, as were trans- ported with an extravagant wild zeal without knowledge, who had rather have a hand in their own death, than do so small and indifferent a thing in order to prevent it. And hence not the perse-
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cutors only, but even a great many who professed presbyterian prin- ciples, stood not to call them murderers instead of martyrs.
But all this notwithstanding, it is certain they had nothing else before them, but to bring people to a tame submission and slavish compliance with the whole course of their Christ-dethroning and land-enslaving constitutions and administrations ; for they intended the same thing, by urging people to say " God save the king," as by the Oath of Allegiance, Declaration, or Test ; namely, an acknow- ledgment of that authority, wherewith they had vested him in the forementioned articles and others of like nature. Less than this could never ser/e their design, which was still the same, whatever alterations might appear to be in their way of prosecuting it.
For either these things were so insignificant and indifterent as they gave them out to be, and as others conceived of them ; or they were not. If we say the former, then what monsters of mankind were these persecutors, who pursued poor innocent people to death, and inflicted such cruel tortures upon them, for trifles and things of indifferency. This is, what themselves (I suppose) would never admit, to be reckoned a degree further lost to humanity than a Nero or Caligula, so as to torment and destroy men for sport. Nay, they still pre- tended that all these persecutions were made upon weighty and just causes. If then we say the latter, namely, that they were not so very inconsiderable things as some conceived ; wherein could the moment and weight of them consist, but in this, that they were an owning of the authority as it was contained in the laws, and what else was the scope of the most openly impious Oaths, Tests, and Bonds, but this ?
And besides, when any yielded this much, they were still urged further, till they had debauched them out of all conscience and integrity as much as themselves. The rest of the questions put to them, and made causes of their indictment, were all but so many branches from this root, and rivulets from this spring. The chief was that about defensive arms, which their laws had declared re- bellion ; which all the martyrs, without the least jar or discord, did steadfastly maintain as being a thing so very consonant, not only to the positive commands of God in His Word, but also to the very law of nature stamped on the heart, and to the laws and practices of all kingdoms, and undertaken upon so necessary grounds as the defence of the Gospel and lives of the innocent in consequence of their Covenant engagements ; which, however, these wicked persecutors had declared void and null, and the adhering
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to them capital ; yet all such as had any love for Ood and zeal for His cause believed to be perpetually obligatory upon them and the nation, and therefore adhered to them with a steadfastness and courage invincible, against the most bloody opposition. And it is observable, that, whatever any of the martyrs had not so much light in as others, or differed from others anenJ;, or was silent when inter- rogated upon it, yet they all agreed perfectly and were clear abun- dantly in owning, and bold, harmonious, and courageous in asserting the lawfulness, and avouching the obligatory force, of the Covenants.
ATIONAL COVENANTS were the means that God had constantly from the beginning of the Reformation made use of and blessed, to cement and strengthen His people in Scotland in their adherence to the truth. By means of these His church was as a strong city and incorporation, all prosecuting the same common cause of religion and liberty, so that by that common bond the injury offered to any one of her members was taken as done to all ; and beside the express command of the Word, this was a blessed tie and engagement to every one in their place and station to stand up for the purity of the doctrine, simplicity of the Avorship, beauty and order of the government and discip- line of Christ's house, and His royal supremacy over the same. And hence malignant and disaffected persons, perceiving that there was nothing so conducive to the advancement and preservation of national reformation as these mutual bonds and sacred Covenants, set themselves chiefly to destroy these, and in an ignominious manner burnt thean, declared them treasonable and seditious, made the owning of them criminal, and persecuted such as adhered to them ; and, on the other hand, God was pleased mightily to animate His suffering saints both with light and zeal in the defence of them against all the efforts of hellish violence.
AVherefore, when this alone was not like to effectuate their design, these persecutors betook themselves to another stratagem, and fell upon more mild but more successful measures of giving out in- demnities and indulgences, so restricted and limited, as the accepters should be gained to a peaceable compliance with and submission to their impious laws, and taken oft" from their zeal in maintaining the work of Reformation, and divided from their Covenanted brethren. By this means they weakened the remnant that had not complied with Prelacy, set them at variance one against another, allured the
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one to sit quietly still till they had made an end of their brethren, and in short, rent and almost quite ruined the poor Presbyterian Church of Scotland ; and hence, as the suffering remnant, which was by far the smaller part, were much opposed and reproached by these ministers and professors who accepted or made use of these pretended favours, so it became a necessary head of testimony to witness against the Indulgence, and acceptance thereof, or sinful connivance thereat. The particular disposition of this afluir is not consistent with the narrow limits of a preface. Wherefore the reader may see for his satisfaction therein, " The History of the Indulgence,' '• Informatory Vindication," " Hind let Loose," etc.
Afterwards, when the persecution became sore and violent against the remnant that refused these deceitful baits, and stood to their Covenanted religion and liberty, and that both by the open violence of the enemies, and false slanders and calumnies of pretended friends, they were obliged to emit several Declarations of their principles, and to defend themselves from these unjust slanders and calumnies ; which Declarations so soon as the persecutors got into their liands, thinking they had got a good handle therein for taking away the lives of all such as should adhere to them, (in regard that therein they had more explicitly and fully cast off the authority of the tyrant Charles 11. and specified the reasons why they could not own his authority), they never failed on all occasions to make that a part of their examinations. " Own ye the Sanquhar Declaration, the papers found at Queensferry ?" etc. And many were indicted upon their adherence to these Declarations and other papers. I conceive it is not necessary to swell this preface with a particular defence of these Declarations, that being so well done by themselves in the " In- formator}- Vindication," which the reader may have recourse to ; and as for the paper ibund upon Mr Hall of Haughhead, when he was murdered at Queensferry, the reader shall see it, with a short relation concerning that worthy gentleman's death, in the Appendix to this book.
Another question commonly put to sufferers was. Whether they owned the Excommunication at the Torwood ? which they did with much freedom ; as a necessary duty, and lawfully performed, so far as that broken state of the Church would permit, and upon most weighty and sufficient grounds. The form and order of which Excommuni- cation IS also added by way of Appendix to this book.
But their finest topic, wherein they insulted and glorified most,
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4
was the death of James Sharp, Archbishop of St Andrews, which they reckoned a cruel murder, and therefore hoped that, if the sufferers should approve of the same, they would have a colour to destroy them, as being men of assassinating and bloody principles, deserving to be exterminated out of any well-governed commonwealth ; and therefore it was still one of their questions — " Was the Bishop's death murder?" To which question some answered directly that it was a just and lawful execution of God's law upon him, for his per- jurious treachery and bloody cruelty ; others were silent, or refused to answer anything directly to the point, as, conceiving that it being no deed of theirs, they were not obliged by any law. Divine or human, to give their judgment thereupon, especially when they could not exactly know the circumstances of the matter of fact, and saw that the question was proposed with a design to ensnare them, or take away their life. Yet was their very silence or refusal to give their opinion made a cause of their indictment, and ground of their sentence, and some were put to torture to make them give their sentiments anent it. If any would be further satisfied on this head, let him see " Hind let Loose," head vi. page 633. [Edition 1744, page 646. — Ed.]
But however these murderers of the servants and people of God made use of such questions as these to entangle them, yet still the grand state of the quarrel was, " Whether Christ alone or King Charles should be owned as head and lawgiver to the Church ; and whether the Divine form of government and discipline which Christ had instituted should continue in her ; or if an usurper should have leave to mould it, as he pleased, and conform it to the pompous dress of the Romish whore ?"
And hence it is also evident, that the state of the sufferings before the engagement at Bothwell was really one and the same witli that which was after it (as to the main, though things came to be clearer after it), concerning the civil authority, when by that and many other instances it was made evident, that the pretended rulers were setting themselves directly to ruin the whole interests of the subjects, as well civil as sacred, and that it was in vain to be any longer in suspense, waiting for a satisfactory redress of grievances, or opportunity to represent the same.
So that the charge of rebellion, laid against them not only by our Episcopal passive-obedience men, but also by the Indulged and such as tread their steps, is a most groundless imputation ; for King
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Charles had violated all the conditions of government, and mani- festly degenerated into a tyrant, long before they rejected his authority ; and had refused all claim to the subjects' allegiance, upon the account of the contract which he entered into at his coronation, and had no other pretence to authority but hereditary right, and bloody force, with the consent of such profligate noblemen and gentlemen as sat in these packed and pretended Parliaments ; which could never, in law or reason, oblige the honest and faithful subjects of the kingdom to comply with these tyrannical courses, and submit to him, who had as really forfeited his right to be king of Britain, as did his brother afterwards by his abdication.
But it is no new thing for the followers of Christ to meet with this charge of rebellion. If a Jezebel wants a Naboth's vineyard, and he stands up for his property, she will not want sons of BeHal to bear witness that he " blasphemed God and the king." Do the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin intend to stop the building of Jerusalem, they '11 not want a Rehum the chancellor, and Shimshai the scribe to write, " That this city is a rebellious city, and hurtful unto kings and provinces, and that they have moved sedition within the same of old time." ^Vould Haman have all the Jews destroyed, because Mordecai will not honour him, this is the charge he lays against them, as most likely to effectuate his purpose, that " their laws are diverse from all people, neither keep they the king's laws." Have the presidents a purpose to be rid of Daniel, this is the engine, "that Daniel, which is of the children of the captivity of Judah, regardeth not thee, O king ! nor the decree that thou hast signed." Is a Tertullus to employ his eloquence against Paul, here's the artifice — " We have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among the Jews." Were the Romans desirous to have the Christians exter- minated out of the empire, what shift took they ? Why, truly this was it, " The Christians are rebellious and seditious ; they won't swear by the life of Caesar, nor adore his image !" and therefore Christiaiws ad Leones. If we look through the whole ecclesiastic his- tory, we shall scarce find a persecution raised, but this is an article of the charge. But it is no paradox, " the servant is not greater than his Lord;" even Christ himself was accused and condemned as an enemy to Caesar, and a mover of sedition. But I shall not enter into this argument ; the sufferers for Christ in Scotland have been frequently vindicated from the charge of rebellion by more learned pens, and yet still we have a generation of absurd men, who will not
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fail to renew it ; nor can the strength of argument silence them, while they have brow enough to return railing in the room of reason.
HE reader having thus briefly seen the causes upon which they laid down their lives, it were necessary to proceed to a short delineation, both of the cruelty of the persecutors in- flicting, and of the courage, patience, and cheerfulness of the martyrs suffering these severities ; but as for the former, what tongue can express, what pen can describe the barbarous cruelty and hellish rage of these sons of wickedness ? One might write a volume upon their cruelties, and after all fall short of drawing them to the life, or giving any just idea of them ; they were so extremely inhuman and brutish. At first they began with noblemen, gentlemen, and ministers, who had been eminent for the cause of God ; beheading some, and placing their heads on the ports \i.e., gateways] of Edinburgh, in token of the highest contempt ; banishing others, ejecting all from their charges, but such as would subject to Prelacy, and the blasphemous Supremacy ; and vitiating all the springs and seminaries of learning. Next, they fell to compel the common people to hear curates, by vast and exorbitant fines, extorted by troops of soldiers, plundering, quartering, beating, wounding, binding men like beasts ; chasing them away from their houses ; compelling them, though sick, to go to church ; consuming and wasting their provisions with dogs ; and promiscuously abusing, as well those that conformed, as them that refused ; and if any testi- fied their resentment at these vermin of ignorant and scandalous curates, or refused to give them their titles, they were imprisoned, scourged, stigmatised \i.e., branded with a hot iron], and banished to Barbadoes or other foreign parts. Any that were hearing their own ministers in private houses were seized, dragged to prisons, and close kept there in great hardship ; and that of every age and sex.
These were their tender mercies, and but the beginnings of sor- rows ; for, after the defeat at Pentland Hills, beside what were killed upon the spot, such as surrendered upon quarter and solemn parole to have their life, were, contrary to the law of nature and nations, treacherously and bloodily murdered, to the number of forty ; one of them, a much reverenced young minister [Hugh M'Kail] had his leg squeezed to pieces in the Boot, and was afterwards hanged, though he was not in the fight, but had only a sword about him. Soldiers were ordered to take free quarters in the country to ex- amine men by tortures ; to compel women and children to discover
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their husbands and fathers, by threatening death, wounding, stripping, torturing by fire-matches, etc. ; crowding into prisons so thick that they could scarce stand together, in cold, hunger, and nakedness ; and all this, because they would not or could not discover who were at that expedition. Likewise many ensnaring bonds, oaths, and tests were framed, and imposed with rigour and horrid severity ; people obliged to have passes declaring they had taken them, or swear before common soldiers, under pain of being presently shot dead. Severe laws were made against ministers that came to Edinburgh for shelter; they and their wives were searched for, by public search, crowded into prisons, and sent to foreign plantations to be sold as slaves. Dragoons were sent to pursue people that attended field- preachings, to search them out in mosses, moors, mountains and dens of the earth. Savage hosts of Highlanders were sent down to depopulate the western shires, to the number of ten or eleven thousand, who acted most outrageous barbarities, even almost to the laying some countries desolate.
After the overthrow of the Lord's people at Bothwell they doubled their severities ; issued out more soldiers, imposed cess, localities, and other new exactions, forced people to swear super inquirendis, and delate upon oath all that went to field-preachings ; they set up extraordinary circuit courts, enlarged their Porteous rolls, [i.e., lists of persons summoned to appear before the Justiciary Courts], pressed bonds of compearance to keep the peace, to attend the church, refrain from field-meetings, etc. ; examining country people upon several questions which they had no occasion to understand, concerning the death of King Charles L and the Archbishop of St Andrews, and condemning them to death for not answering ; quarter- ing some alive, cropping their ears, cutting off the hands of some, and then hanging them, cutting their bodies in pieces after they were dead, and fixing them upon poles in chains, and upon steeples and ports of cities, beating drums at their executions, that they might not be heard speak ; detaining others long in prison, laden with chains and fetters of iron, and exposed to greater tortures than death itself, and, after all, sent to be sold as slaves, to empty the prisons; exercis- ing all these bloody deaths and cruelties upon poor country people, which had no influence to do hurt to their government, though they had been willing ; yea, upon women of tender age, whom they hanged and drowned, for refusing their oaths and bonds, and resetting the Lord's suffering people.
xxxii Preface to the Reader.
It would be endless to enumerate all the barbarities exercised upon particular persons, only for a swatch [/.<?., specimen], take these in- flicted upon that excellent gentleman, David Hackston of Rathillet. He was taken out from the place of judgment to his execution, and his body, which was already wounded, was tortured while he was alive, by cutting off both his hands, which was done upon a high scaffold prepared for the purpose ; thereafter being drawn up by a pulley to the top of the high gallows by the rope which was about his nec4c, and suffered to fall down a considerable way upon the lower scaffold three times with his whole weight ; then he was fixed at the top of the gallows, and the executioner, with a big knife, cutting open his breast, pulled out his heart while he was yet alive (as appeared both by the body contracting itself, when it was pulled out, and by the violent motion of the heart when it dropped upon the scaffold), which the executioner, taking up upon the knife, showed to the people upon the several corners of the stage, crying, " Here is the heart of a traitor I" and then threw it in a fire prepared for the purpose upon the stage, together also with his other inward and noble parts ; and having quartered his body, fixed his head and hands on a port at Edin- burgh, and the other quarters at Leith, Cupar of Fife, and other places. Such was the size and proportion of their persecutions, while yet they pretended to bring them to the knowledge of assizes and colour of law.
But being now weary with these persecutions, accordmg to the tenor of their own laws, the Councillors, to rid themselves of this trouble, gave out an edict for killing them, wherever they might be found, immediately upon the spot, unless they would take the oaths, and show their pass (which they behoved to swear that it was not forged), and if they found any arms or ammunition upon them of any sort. By means of which edict, many were suddenly surprised and shot dead by the brutish and merciless soldiers, who were either peace- ably living at home, following their lawful employments, or wandering in mountains to hide themselves from their bloody enemies, not being allowed time to recommend their souls to God \ and the country was engaged by oath to raise the hue and cry against them, in order to deliver them up to the hands of these burriors [/.<'., executioners.] The chief contrivers and framers of this horrid murdering edict, were the Earl of Perth, chancellor, Duke of Queens- berry, Marquis of Athole, and, particularly, the Viscount of Tarbat, now Earl of Cromarty, who invented this murdering device, wherein
Pre/ ace to the Reader. xxxiii
yet ne carried so cunningly, that he procured the despatch of the Act to the king with such suddenness, that he found a way to shift his own subscribing it ; and though he wants power now to practise such bloody mischief, yet, it is evident, he has not repented thereof; but IS, as yet, a contriver of the present encroachments made upon the Established Church, by the late mischievous Acts of Parliament [;>., the Act of Toleration, requiring the taking of the Oath of Abjuration, the Act restoring Patronage, etc. — Ed.]
But I must not launch any further into the relation of these cruelties, the true history of which would commence into a volume. I own indeed, that a fuller narration of these things, with pertinent observa- tions thereupon, would have been proper enough for the intended work ; but, hoping that the Lord may yet raise up some of better abilities for such an undertaking, to set these sufferings in a true light, and give an impartial recital thereof, this short hint, together with some account of these cold blood murderers in the Appendix, may suffice at present.
ET us next view a little, with some attention and concern, with what undaunted courage, holy resolution, and greatness of mind, with what unshaken steadfastness and constancy, those worthy sufferers underwent all these bloody severities. Those disciples of Jesus had been so trained up in His school, and learned the great Christian doctrines of bearing the cross, mortifying the flesh, and contemning the world — they had been so thoroughly instructed by this great Master of assemblies, who teaches to profit, and leads the blind in a way they know not, to discern the exceeding preciousness of truth, and excellency of the knowledge of Christ — that they were made willing, yea, cheerfully willing, to forego riches, honours, pleasures, liberty, and life itself, when they came in competition with a steady adherence to the truth and honour of their lovely Lord. Love to Jesus Christ was the great spring which set all the wheels of their affections in motion, to do and suffer for Him whatever He called them to. Every one of them could say to their persecutors, what Chrysostom said to the Empress Eudoxia, who sent him a threatening message, " Nil nisi peccaiwn timeo," I fear nothing but sin. They saw so much of the evil of sin, and beauty of holiness, that they would rather undergo the severest of suffering than stain their consci- ences with the least sin, or lose the smallest filing of this fine gold of truth. Many of the things for which they suffered were reckoned
xxxiv Preface to the Reader.
small by the indifferent world, but to them they appeared in their just magnitude.
Tertullian, in his book, " De Corona Militis," tells us, that when a certain Christian soldier in the emperor's army refused to wear a crown of bays upon his head, as all the rest of the soldiers did upon a day sacred to one of the heathen idols, he was not only mocked by the infidels for his nicety, but even by many of the Christians ; conceiving it a folly that this one man, for such a small and indifferent thing, should endanger both himself and other Christians ; but Tertullian defends him, and says, " This soldier was more God's soldier, and more constant than the rest of his brethren, who presumed they might serve two Lords, and, for avoiding perse- cution, comply with the heathen in their superstitious rites." And when some Christians, who, like our Indulged people, would rather comply than endure the hazard, objected, " Where is it written in all the Word of God, that we should not wear bays upon our heads?" Tertullian answers, " Where is it written that we may do it ? We must look into the Scriptures to see what we may do ; and not think it enough that the Scripture doth not forbid directly this or that very particular."
They knew, with the same Tertullian, in the fore-cited book, " that the state of Christianity doth not admit the excuse of necessity. There is no necessity of sinning to them, to whom it is only necessary not to sin." And hence they would not so much as seem to call in question any of the truths of Christ ; when the enemies would have given them time to deliberate, and advise anent them, they were so confirmed in the present truth, that they answered their adversaries as Cyprian once did his, " In materia tarn justa non est deliberan- dum" \xi so just a cause there needs no deliberation. When they were urged with the example of other Presbyterians, ministers and professors, who had complied, and were far wiser and better than they ; this did not shake them, but rather heightened their zeal. As Chrysostom tell us, these two holy martyrs, Juventius and Maximus, when they were urged by their persecutors with this argument, " Do not ye see others of your rank do thus?" answered, "for this very reason we will manfully stand and offer ourselves as a sacrifice for the breach that they have made." So the sad defections of their brethren made them the more emulous to witness for Christ, when so many, Demas-like, had forsaken Him, having loved this present world.
These martyrs had such large discoveries of Christ's love,
Preface to tJie Reader. xxxv
especially under the cross, that their hardest trials were accounted light. As Stephen the protomartyr got the fullest view of Christ while before the council, so these had most Hvely sights of Him under their sharpest sufferings ; and hence they could not find in their heart to deny so kind a Master. As Polycarp, that holy minister of Christ at Smyrna,~answered the proconsul bidding him defy Christ and he should be discharged : " Fourscore and six years (said he) have I been His servant, yet all this time He hath not so much as once hurt me ; how then may I speak evil of my King and Sovereign who hath thus preserved me?" so they were under a lively sense of their vows and obhgations to Christ, personal and national, and therefore durst not, could not, deny His name, nor break His bonds, and cast away His cords, as the wicked had done. They were of the resolute disposition of Victorianus, who, being solicited by the Emperor to turn Arian, told him, "You may try all extremities, torture me, expose me to wild beasts, burn me to ashes ; I had rather suffer anything than falsify my promise made to Christ my Saviour in baptism." And as Christ had been very kind to them, so they trusted much to Him, and depended on Him for strengthening influence, being very sensible of their own weakness ; and they durst promise much on Christ's head ; they could say, as Vincentius to the tyrant Decius, " Rage, and do the utmost that the spirit of malignity can set you on work to do ; you shall see God's Spirit strengthen the tormented more than the devil can do the tormentors," And as Zuinglius to the Bishop of Constance, " Truth is a thing invincible, and cannot be resisted."
As they Avere well instructed in the necessity, so in the usefulness and benefit of the cross ; they knew that, as the church and nation had deserved to be chastened and punished of God, so it was far more eligible to be chastened by sore adversities, inflicted by a loving father, than by severe impunities of an incensed and just judge. They knew that the grief they suffered was medicinal, not penal ; the correction of a father, not the indignation of an enemy ; and that they needed such merciful files and furnaces of adversity to scour off the rust they had contracted in prosperity. Nay, they were not only content to undergo these fatherly corrections, but accounted it a singular kindness and condescension that what they deserved should be their punishment, was made their glory, crown, and honour ; that they, who had merited to be scattered into corners, and have their remembrance made to cease from among men, for their lightly
XXX vi Preface to the Reader.
prizing the precious and glorious Gospel, should be gathered into such a cloud of witnesses, and have their remembrance made ever- lasting as honoured martyrs for Christ and the defence of His Gospel ; that when they had provoked God by their sinful lusting after a malignant to be their king, they should be dignified to contend for the kingly prerogatives of such a glorious and good sovereign as the King of Kings. And as they had a good understanding in the doctrine of the cross, so likewise in the promise of the crown that is upon the back of the cross ; they had their eye at the recompense of reward, and therefore endured, because by faith they saw Him who is invisible. It was their looking unto Jesus, who endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, that made them bear all these reproaches, slanders, scoffs, and jeers, from enemies and pro- fessed friends, with such invincible patience.
HOU hast here, Christian reader, the dying speeches of some of these noble heroes, and, as the speeches of dying men are remarkable, the speeches of dying Christians more remark- able, how remarkable must the speeches of dying witnesses for Christ be ? It is reasonably expected that dying men, much more dying Christians, and most of all, dying martyrs, should speak best at last. They are immediately to give in their last account ; they are disin- terested from all the worldly views that use to darken our understand- ings and bias our affections, while living in health and prosperity ; they are upon the borders of eternity ; and, as the motions of nature are the stronger the nearer they are to the centre, so saints are most lively and heavenly when nearest heaven. Martyrs have a special promise " that it shall be given them in that hour what they shall speak." The last speeches of Christ's dying witnesses have extorted even from heathens acknowledgments to the honour of God ; " Voe fnagnus est Deus Christianormn" Truly great is the Christians' God 1 They have been made the means of conversion to many thousands of sinners ; as Justin Martyr testifies of himself, that the dying words of the Christians made him fall in love with the life of Christianity. ["Second Apology," chap. 12].
I own they are not bedecked with the embellishments of oratory and fine language ; who can expect that from people of so mean education ? But they are full of the language of heaven, which is many degrees more forcible than all our artificial rhetoric. One will find several mistakes in grammar, no doubt, in them ; but they were
Preface to the Reader. xxxvH
never intended for the reflections of critics, but for the instruction of Christians ; and their plain rude discourses may, through God's blessing, do more good to the latter, than the most elaborate com- posures can do to the former. They may serve both as a comfort and encouragement to sufferers, and as an instruction and example to saints. Herein, as in a glass, we may both see our blemishes, wherein we come short of them, and learn to dress ourselves with the like Christian ornaments of zeal, holiness, steadfastness, meekness, patience, humility, and other graces.
But, alas ! How can the best of us read these Testimonies, without blushing for our low attainments and small proficiency in the school of Christ ! How unlike are we to them ! how zealous were they for the honour of Christ ! How lukewarm are we of whatever profession or denomination ! How burning was their love to Him, His truths, ordinances and people ! How cold is ours ! How self- denied and crucified to the world were they ! How selfish and worldly are we ! How willing were they to part with all for Christ, and what an honour did they esteem it to suffer for Him, to be chained, whipped, haltered, staked, imprisoned, banished, wounded, killed for Him ! How unwilling are we to part with a very little for Him, much less to endure such hardships, and account them our glory ! Alas ! are we not ashamed of what they accounted their ornament, and account that our glory, which they looked upon as a disgrace ! How easy was it for them to choose the greatest sufferings rather than the least sin ! How hard is it for us not to choose the greatest sin, before the least suffering ! Oh that their Christian virtues could upbraid us out of our lethargy of supine security, — that their humility, meekness, and patience could shame us out of our pride, haughtiness, and impatience ! They were sympathising Christians, active for the glory of God and good of souls, diligent to have their evidences for heaven clear; and, having obtained assurance of God's love to their persons, and approbation of their cause, they went cheerfully on their way, fearless of men, who can only kill the body, and ready to die the most violent death at God's call. But, oh ! how little fellow-feeling is there now among Christians ; but instead thereof, bitterness, emulation, wrath, envy, contentions and divisions ! How little concern for the work and cause of Christ ! how dark are the most part, both as to their spiritual state, and their proper and pertinent duty ! And how much is the fear of man pre- vailing above zeal for the glory of God !
xxxviii Preface to the Reader.
KNOW it is objected by some, that they much wanted that virtue which is the greatest ornament of Christians, and truest character of martyrs, namely, a forgiving disposition ; because they lay their blood at the door of the principal contrivers and executors of their death, which the objectors suppose not to have been done by any of the former sufferers for Christ. But to this I oppone:
I. Granting, for argument's sake, that they had expressed them- selves with some more fervency on that head, than others formerly have done, and that this was a piece of their infirmity, it will not follow that we should presently admit the invidious inference, that therefore they were no martyrs for Christ ; for as neither the many gross failings of the Old Testament saints, nor the mistakes of the primitive Christians about the truths for which they suffered, could deprive either of the honour of saintship or martyrdom, so neither ought any infirmity of theirs to be improven against them for that end. Solomon tells us, that oppression makes a wise man mad ; and they met with it in the highest degree, and that not from the hands of Pagans, Turks, or Papists, but of those who had been their cove- nanted brethren by profession ; and when a holy self-resigned David had much ado to bear reproaches from the hand of one that had been his equal, guide, and acquaintance, with whom he had formerly sweet fellowship, it was not to be wondered, if they were put upon some vehemency of expression by their severe suff"erings from such hands ; and should rather be favourably constructed of.
" Si quid,
Intumuit pietas, si quid flagrantius actum est."
But, 2. More directly, I am bold to deny the charge ; for they everywhere distinguish betwixt the injuries done to them, considered simply in themselves, and the injuries done to Christ, and to His image in them. The former they declare they forgive as they desire forgiveness of God themselves ; the latter they leave to God's sove- reign disposal, withal wishing that God might give them repentance. Nor is the thing unprecedented ; for, beside the example of Jeremiah, who laid his innocent blood at the door of the princes, if they should take his life, there might be several more recent parallels adduced. It shall suffice to instance one of our own nation, imprisoned for bearing witness to the same truth, namely, worthy Mr John Welch, who, in his letter to Lady Fleming, hath these express words : "The
Preface to the Reader. xxxix
guilt of our blood shall lie upon bishops, councillors, and commis- sioners, who have stirred up our prince against us, and so upon the rest of our brethren, who either by silence approve, or by crying peace, peace, strengthen the arm of the wicked, that they cannot return, and in the meantime make the heart of the righteous sad. Next, upon all them that sat in council, and did not bear plain testi- mony of Jesus Christ and His truth, for which we suffer. And next, upon these that should have come and made open testimony of Christ faithfully, although it had been to the hazard of their lives. Finally, all those that counsel, command, consent, and allow, are guilty in the sight of God." Sure I am, this is as full as anything they have on this head, and proves that what they did was consistent with a Chris- tian and forgiving temper of spirit.
And as they went off the stage both with magnanimity and meek- ness, so it has been observed concerning many of their persecutors, that they departed this world with visible symptoms of God's wrath and judgments, especially with hell in their souls. I mean, the horror of an awakened conscience, under the sense of God's indigna- tion, than which there can be no greater torment in this life.
"Siculi non invenere tyranni
Tormentum majus. "
Well, these martyrs are now in heaven, in Abraham's warm bosom, enjoying the crown laid up for them, confirmed in an unchangeable state of rest and blessedness : we are yet in the stage of action and place of probation, we have our trials before us ; let us imitate the Cloud of Witnesses, and contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. We know not what storms are abiding us ; the Canaanite and the Perizzite are yet in the land. A restless Popish and Jacobite party, projecting a new revolution of affairs ; as sanguinary and cruel yet as ever, and retaining as much of the old malignity and enmity against the Covenanted work of Reformation as ever, only waiting an opportunity to exert it ; [the Jacobite insur rection in favour of the Pretender took place in 17 15 — the year after these words were written. — Ed.] ; and many things in the present as- pect of affairs portending, that they may be our scourge in the hand of our displeased Lord, for our misimproving mercies and deliverances, satisfying ourselves with our own things, not minding the things of Christ ; chiefly for our undervaluing the offers of the blessed Son of God in the Gospel, and visible breach of national obligations to be for Him and His cause. Seeing then such clouds are gathering, and
xl Preface to the Reader.
threatening a dismal tempest, let us arm ourselves with the same mind, to stand up for the truth upon all hazards, whether we be called of God to do, or to suffer, for the joint interest of true religion and national libert)' ; for these, like Hippocrates's twins, weep or laugh, live or die together. Righteousness exalteth a nation, said the wise Solomon ; and Theodosius the Emperor owned that the establishment of a Christian state depends chiefly upon piety towards God. On the other hand, civil liberty is an excellent bulwark to religion, without which its purity cannot long be preserved ; for, as the same Emperor said, " Miilta inter ecclesiam et rempiiblicam cognatio inter cedere solet ; ex se invicem pendent^ et utraque prosperis alterius successibiis incrementa sumit ;'' there is a great sibness [?>., close relationship], betwixt the Church and the Commonwealth ; they depend the one upon the other, and either is advanced by the prosperity and success of the other.
It is to be feared, that this time of ease and outward peace has so effeminated and softened our spirits, that we'll find it hard to face a storm \ we may complain with Eusebius, " Res nostrae niinia liber- tate in mollitiem et segnitiem degeTierarunt ;''^ too much liberty has made us soft and sluggish. The vigorous exercise of Christian discipline has been much intermitted, and therefore we have ground to expect severe correction from the hand of God. Cyprian observes, that this was the procuring cause of God's correcting the Church in his time : " Qtiia traditam nobis divinitus discip/inafu pax longa cor- ruperat,jacentem fidem, et pene dixerim dormientem, censura coelestis erexit;" because long peace had corrupted the divinely instituted discipline, therefore, there needed heavenly chastisement to awaken the faith of the Church, which was lying low, and almost fast asleep. All these dying witnesses assure us of judgments abiding this Church and nation, and our present condition seems to say, that we are the people that are to meet with them ; liow much need then had we of the Christian armour, the divine patiop/ia, which made these Chris- tians proof against all the fiery darts of Satan and the wicked ; and of the holy submission which made them bear the indignation of the Lord patiently, because they bad sinned against Him ?
^^AVING thus briefly ushered thee into the following sheets, Christian and candid reader, I shall detain thee no longer from perusing them, save only by the way to take notice of these few advertisements :
I. It is not pretended that here are all the Speeches and Testi-
Preface to the Reader. xli
monies of those that suffered in Scotland since the year 1680. For many of them, which no doubt are extant, have not come into the hands of the publishers of this collection, and some of them, that were in their hands, did so far coincide with others in matter and phrase, that they left them unpublished, with some remark upon them, to keep up the memory of these honourable sufferers ; being desirous that the book should not swell to such a bulk, as might make it less useful to country people, who have not much money to buy, nor leisure to read bulky volumes. And if encouragement be found in this attempt, there may more of them come to be published afterwards. Only this the collectors of these testimonies can say, that they have left out none which were in their hands, that they conceived might be for the benefit of the public, upon any sinistrous view or account. And if any shall find any alteration in any of them from their own manuscripts (except it be in the grammar, wherein they took some little freedom, where necessity required it), they are to impute it to the variety of copies, whereof they had several, and chose that which they conceived most genuine.
2. As for the Testimonies of the Banished, they being much the same as to all material points with these of the dying witnesses, they are omitted, and a list of their names added in the Appendix.
3. The Last Speeches of those who suffered on account of the Earl of Argyle's attempt, in the year 1685, are advisedly pretermitted, both because some of them are already published in a book entitled, " The Western Martyrology," and likewise because it is the opinion of the encouragers of this work, that their testimony was not so directly con- certed, according to the true state of the quarrel, for the Covenanted interest of the Church of Christ in Scotland, as it ought to have been ; though they intend not hereby to rob them of the glory of martyrdom for the Protestant religion. Nor can this be any prejudice to others, who may incline more fully to publish the transactions of these times.
May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who enabled His people to witness so good a confession for His truth and cause, make these dying speeches useful to animate all the lovers of the reformed religion, with the like Christian magnanimity and resolution, to stand up for its defence against a Popish, Prelatic, and Jacobitish faction, endeavouring its overthrow ! May He unite us in the way of truth and duty, to strive together for the valuable interests of our religion and liberty !
AN ENCOMIUM
FOLLOWING MARTYRS.
O ! here of faithful Witnesses a Cloud,
For Christ their King resisting unto blood, Lo ! here upon their Pisgah top they stand, Just on the confines of Emmanuel's Land : Leaving th' ungrateful world, longing to be Possess'd of blessed immortality. Lo ! here they stand, accosting cruel death With Christian braveness, to their latest breath -, The views they have of heav'n's eternal joys, So far eclipse all sublunary toys. Their souls are only charm'd with things above, Exulting in their sweet Redeemer's love. Lo ! here they stand, and will not quit the field, They'll die upon the spot, before they'll yield. Lo ! with what courage and brave resolution They bear the shock of bloody persecution. Hell's rage, Rome's fury, or the scorn of those Pretending friendship, though the worst of foes, Could never shake their steady loyalty To Zion's King, for whose supremacy
An Encommm. xliii
Over His Church thus boldly they contend,
And by His grace endure unto the end ;
Refusing e'er to make a base surrender
Of Christ's regalia to a vile pretender,
Who, swoU'n with more than Luciferian pride,
Could not in his own princely place abide,
But would usurp the sp'ritual pow'r and throne
By God JEHOVAH giv'n to Christ alone.
And having thus 'gainst heav'n display'd a banner.
The Covenant he swore in solemn manner
He broke and burnt ; Divine and human laws
Trod under foot ; and, to advance his cause,
Made bloody violence the only claim,
Whereby he wore the royal diadem :
Being serv'd with beasts devoid of human sense,
Much more of honour and of conscience ;
Who slew God's dearest saints in field and city,
'Gainst law and reason, without sense of pity \
Whose sharpest sufferings could not assuage,
Nor death itself allay their hellish rage ;
As if their bodies dead felt sense of pains.
Cut all in parts, they hung them up in chains ;
Heads, legs, and arms, they plac'd on every port
Of burghs, or other places of resort,
As standing trophies of their victory
O'er Divine truth and human liberty.
Well, have they kill'd, and ta'en possession too ?
Is this the utmost that their rage could do,
Only to send Christ's loving subjects home.
To their dear country where they long to come !
What matter where their dusty parts do ly,
Interr'd in earth, or lifted up on high.
While as their souls eternal anthems raise,
In sweet accents to their Redeemer's praise I
xliv
A Cloud of Witnesses.
And will not Zion's King regain His crown ? Throwing such vain aspiring mortals down Into that direful pit, from whence did flow These mists of pride which did enchant them so.
Come, then, behold these noble Witnesses
Adorn'd with holy zeal and faithfulness ;
Who like a Cloud do us environ round,
Viewing (as 'twere) what way we'll stand our ground.
Let's run our race with equal patience.
With eyes intent upon our recompense.
The Greyfriars Churchyard, Edinburgh.
Donald CargilL
ONALD CARGILL was the fourth mmister, in succession from the Reformation, of the Barony parish, Glasgow ; his predecessor being Zachary Boyd, the author of the quaint poem, the " Last Battle of the Soul," and a metrical version of the Psalms. He was a native of the parish of Rattray in Perthshire, and received his early education in Aberdeen. From school he went to the University of St Andrews, where he passed through the regular curriculum.
His father, a godly and religious gentleman, says Sir Robert Hamilton, in his " Relation of some Remarkable Passages in the Life of Mr Donald Cargill " (given in the Appendix to this volume), was desirous that he should study for the ministry ; but he declined, under the conviction that the responsibilities of the office were greater than he could bear. His father still continued to urge him, when he resolved to set apart a day for fasting, and prayer for Divine direc- tion. The result was, that he yielded to his father's wishes.
Professor James Wodrow, the father of the historian, was a fellow-student, and was very intimate with him. The Professor says that he was shy and reserved, and for a time was troubled with grievous temptations, which drove him to such despair that he at length determined to put an end to his miserable life. Under the horrible fury of those fiery darts, he went out once or twice to the river Clyde, with a dreadful resolution to drown himself; but somebody or other coming by him, always stayed his purpose.
A Cloiid of Witnesses.
The temptation still continued, and one day he was on the point of throwing himself into an old coal pit, when that word struck him in the mind, "Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven." It put new life into him. His fears and doubts vanished, and his faith acquired the confidence that so strikingly appears in his after life.
He became minister of the Barony parish in 1654. Little, how- ever, is known of him during his ministry, further than the general statement of Wodrow, that he was " a pious and zealous minister," and a "successful preacher of the Gospel." In 1662 he refused to keep the anniversary day of thanksgiving for the restoration of Charles II., and to accept a presentation from the archbishop of Glasgow ; and in November he was banished north of the Tay.
He was at the battle of Bothwell Bridge — June 22, 1679 — when he was severely wounded and taken prisoner, but was set free by his two captors when they found who he was. As soon as his wounds healed he went over to Holland ; but after a short residence there he returned to Scotland, and lived in retirement at Queensferry. The escape he here made when surprised by his enemies, through Haughhead's grappling with the governor of Blackness until he got safely away, is detailed in the Appendix, in the " Brief Relation," etc., of Henry Hall. After this deliverance he preached much in com- pany with Richard Cameron, until the fatal encounter at Airsmoss — July 22, 1680 — left him well-nigh alone.
In September, before a great assemblage at the Torwood, half way between Larbert and Stirling, he pronounced sentence of ex- communication upon Charles II., and the Dukes of York, Mon- mouth, Lauderdale, Rothes, Sir G. M'Kenzie, and Dalziel of Binns. The sentence itself is in the Appendix. The Government was now stirred up more than ever against him. On November 22, he was declared to be "one of the most seditious preachers," and "a villainous and fanatical conspirator," and a reward of 5000 merks offered to any one who should bring him in, dead or alive. In Decem- ber following he made a second narrow escape from the governor of Blackness. He spent the ne.xt three months in England, where, according to Patrick Walker, " the Lord blessed his labours in the ministry to the conviction and edification of many souls."
In April 1681 he came back to Scotland, and passed his few re- maining weeks in almost constant preaching. His last sermon was preached, July loth, at Dunsyre, a parish in Lanarkshire on the con- fines of Midlothian, and on the watershed between the east and west
Donald Cargill.
of Scotland. Next morning he was seized while in bed, and was immediately hurried on to Lanark, and thence to Glasgow ; on the 15th he was brought before the Council in Edinburgh, and again on the 19th. His "interrogatories" and "answers" on both occasions are in Wodrow's History. During his imprisonment Professor Wod- row visited him. After some conversation, he asked how he found matters with him ? Mr Cargill answered, " as to the main point, my interest in Christ, and the pardon of my sins, I have no doubts there ; neither have I been ever shaken since the Lord's condescen- sion to me in my extremity about twent}'-five years ago, which I communicated to you a little after; and no thanks to me, for the evidence was so clear that I could, never since, once doubt."
He was tried on the 26th, along with Walter Smith, James Boig, William Thomson, and ^V^illiam Cuthill, martyrs whose testimonies are also in this volume. According to Patrick Walker, in " Some Remarkable Passages in the Life and Death of that singular Exem- plary, holy in life, zealous and faithful unto the death, Mr Cargill," when he was first brought before the Council, "they were very fierce and furious against him, especially Chancellor Rothes." But, in the interval, Cargill's words at the examination, as well as the spectacle of Rothes, now in sore suffering upon his death-bed, [so remarkably in accordance with the martyr's answer to his threatenings : " My Lord Rothes, forbear to threaten me; for die what death I will, your eyes will not see it,"] had done much to allay their wrath ; and it was proposed, that " as he was old, and had done all the ill he would do, to let him go to the Bass and be prisoner there during life." It was put to the vote, but by the casting vote of the Earl of Argyle, who said, " Let him go to the gallows and die like a traitor," it was carried that he be hanged next day.
Argyle's vote afterwards troubled him. His premature rising in 1685 against the Government with which he had been so long asso- ciated, brought him few followers. One morning, after his landing, he was walking at the waterside very sad, when he was accosted by a Thomas Urquhart. " I am sorry to see your Lordship so melanchol}'." " How can I be otherwise ? " replied Argyle. " I see few coming to our assistance. I am persuaded I will be called Infatuate Argyle. But all does not trouble me so much as the unhappy, wicked vote I gave against that good man and minister, Mr Cargill ; and now I am persuaded I shall die a violent death in that same spot where he died," a persuasion unhappily soon verified. On the morning of his execu-
A Cloud of Wit7iesses.
THE HIGH CHURCH OF GLASGOW, FROM AN OLD PRINT — EAST VIEW.
tion, it is said that Argyle again spoke of the vote to some of his friends, and declared, " That above all things in his life, it lay heaviest upon him."
The sentence passed upon Cargill and his fellow-sufferers was executed July 27th, 1681. "The hangman hashed and hagged off all their heads with an axe. Mr Cargill's, Mr Smith's, and Mr Boig's heads were fixed upon the Netherbow Port ; William Cuthill's and William Thomson's upon the West Port."
Donald Cargill's dying testimony, and the four letters that follow it, are all of the same character — earnest and evangelical, and written in nervous English. M'Millan's " Collection of Letters," Edinburgh, 1764, contains two by Cargill. They are of the same nature as tnose in this volume. John Howie of Lochgoin, in his " Collection of Lectures and Sermons," etc., has given four lectures and seven sermons, from notes taken by hearers. But they are obviously im- perfect, and by no means do justice to Donald Cargill. One of them is said to be his last sermon. Patrick Walker gives the close of the same discourse, and in a form much superior to that of Howie, which indeed justifies Wodrow's commendation, as well as his own, of Donald Cargill as a preacher :
" I had the happiness to hear blest Mr Cargill preach his last
Donald Cargill.
THE HIGH CHURCH OF GLASGOW RESTORED — WEST VIEW.
public sermons (as I had several times before, for which, while I live, I desire to bless the Lord) in Duns) re-Common, betwixt Clydes- dale and Lothian, where he lectured upon the ist chapter of Jere- miah, and preached upon that soul-refreshing text, Isa. xxvi., two last N-erses, ' Come, my people, enter into your chambers,' etc. ^^^herein he was short, marrowy, and sententious, as his ordinary was in all his public sermons and prayers, with the greatest evidences of con- cernedness, exceeding all that ever I heard open a mouth, or saw open a Bible to preach the Gospel, with the greatest indignation at the unconcernedness of hearers. He preached from experience, and went to the experience of all that had any of the Lord's gracious dealing with their souls. It came from his heart, and went to the heart ; as I have heard some of our common hearers say, that he spake as never man spake, for his words went through them.
'•He insisted what kind of chambers these were of protection and safety, and exhorted us all earnestly to dwell in the clefts of the rock, to hide ourselves in the wounds of Christ, and to wrap ourselves in the believing application of the promises flowing there- from ; and to make our refuge under the shadow of His wings, until these sad calamities pass over, and the dove come back with the olive- leaf in her mouth. These were the last words of his last semion."
A Cloud of Witnesses.
The following testimony, and those of Walter Smith and James Boig, are given first, because of their importance, and the high character and influence of Donald Cargill. With David Hackston a chronological arrangement begins, which is strictly followed throughout the volume. — Ed.]
> ^♦^ <
HE LAST SPEECH AND TESTIMONY of the Rev. Mr Donald Cargill, sometime Minister of the Gospel in the Barony Parish of Glasgow, de- livered by him in Writing before his Execution at the Cross of Edinburgh, July 27, 1681: —
^v_- "This is the most joyful day that ever I saw in
^ my pilgrimage on earth. My joy is now begun, Avhich
I see shall never be interrupted. I see both my interest and His truth, and the sureness of the one, and the preciousness of the other. It is near thirty years since He made it sure ; and since that time, though there has fallen out much sin, yet I was never out of an assurance of mine interest, nor long out of sight of His presence. He has dandled me, and kept me lively, and never left me be- hind, though I was ofttimes turning back. Oh ! He has showed the wonderful preciousness of His grace, not only in the first re- ceiving thereof, but in renewed and multiplied pardons !
" I have been a man of great sins, but He has been a God of great mercies ; and now, through His mercies, I have a conscience as sound and quiet as if I had never sinned. It is long since I could have adventured on eternity, through God's mercy and Christ's merits ; but death remained somewhat terrible, and that now is taken away ; and now death is no more to me, but to cast myself into my husband's arms, and to lie down with Him. And however it be with me at the last, though I should be straitened by God or interrupted by men, yet all is sure, and shall be well. I have fol- lowed holiness, I have taught truth, and I have been most in the main things ; not that I thought the things concerning our times little, but that I thought none could do anything to purpose in God's great and public matters, till they were right in their conditions.
Donald C argil I.
"And O that all had taken this method ! for then there had been fewer apostacies. The religion of the land, and zeal for the land's engagements, are come to nothing but a supine, loathsome, and hateful formality; and there cannot be zeal, liveliness, and rightness, where people meet with persecution, and want heart-renovation. My soul trembles to think how little of regeneration there is amongst the ministers and professors of Scotland. O the ministers of Scotland, how have they betrayed Christ's interest and beguiled souls ! ' They have not entered in themselves, and them that were entering in, they hindered.' Tiiey have sold the things of Christ and liberties of His Church for a short and cursed quiet to themselves, which is now near an end ; and they are more one and at peace with God's enemies, after they have done all their mischiefs, nor [/>., than] they were at first when they had but put hand to them. And I much fear, that though there were but one minister on all the earth. He will make no more use of them ; but there will be a dreadful judgment upon themselves, and a long curse upon their posterity !
" As to our professors, my counsel to them is, that they would see well to their own regeneration, for the most part of them have that yet to do ; and yet, let never one think that he is in the right exercise of true religion, that has not a zeal to God's public glory. There is a small remnant in Scotland that my soul has had its greatest comfort on earth from. I wish your increase in holiness, number, love, reli- gion, and righteousness ; and wait you, and cease to contend with these men that are gone from us, for there is nothing that shall convince them but judgment. Satisfy your consciences, and go for- ward ; for the nearer you are to God, and the further from all others, whether stated \i.e., declared] enemies or lukewarm ministers and professors, it shall be the better.
" My preaching has occasioned persecution, but the want of it will, I fear, occasion worse. However, I have preached the truths of God to others, as it is written, ' I believed, and so I preached,' and I have not an ill conscience in preaching truth, whatever has followed ; and this day I am to seal with my blood all the truths that ever I preached ; and what is controverted of that which I have been professing, shall, ere long, be manifested by God's judgments in the consciences of men. I had a sweet calmness of spirit and great submission as to my taking, the providence of God was so eminent in it ; and I could not but think that God judged it necessary for His glory to bring me to such an end, seeing He
8 A Cloud of Witnesses.
loosed me from such a work. My soul would be exceedingly troubled anent the remnant, were it not that I think the time will be short. V/herefore, hold fast, for this is the way tliat is now persecuted.
" As to the cause of my suftering, the main is, ' Not acknowledging the present authority, as it is established in the Supremacy and Ex- planatory Act.' This is the magistracy that I have rejected, that was invested with Christ's power. And seeing that this power, taken from Christ, which is His glory, made the essential of the crown, I thought it was as if I had seen one wearing my husband's garments after he had killed him ; and seeing it is made the essential of the crown, there is no distinction we can make, that can free the conscience of the acknowledger from being a partaker of this sacrilegious robbing of God ; and it is but to cheat our consciences to acknowledge the civil power ; for it is not civil power only that is made of the essence of his crown. And seeing they are so express, we ought to be plain ; for otherwise it is to deny our testimony and consent to His robbery."
FTER Mr Cargill was come to the scaffold, standing with his back towards the ladder, he fixed his eyes upon the multitude, and desired their attention ; and after singing a part of the 1 1 8th Psalm, from the i6th verse to the close, he looked up to the windows on both sides of the scaffold with a smiling countenance, requesting the people to compose themselves and hear a few words that he had to say, which, said he, "I shall direct to three sorts of folk, and shall endeavour to be brief : "
^^ First, All you that are going on in persecuting the work and people of God, O beware for the Lord's sake, and refrain from such courses, as you would escape wrath eternally, which will be a torment far beyond what we are to endure by the hands of cniel and bloody murderers."
Upon this the drums were beaten, at which he smilingly said, '■ Now ye see we have not liberty to speak, or at least to speak what we would ; but God knoweth our hearts. But, O ye that are called ministers and professors in the Church of Scotland, who are wearied in waiting upon the Lord, and are turned out of His way, and run into a course of gross defection and backsliding, truly, for my part, I tremble to think what will become of you ; for either you shall be punished with sore affliction (I mean in your consciences, because of sin), or else you shall be tormented eternally without remedy, which
Donald Cargill.
shall be shortly, if mercy prevent it not \ which I pray God may be the mercy of all these to whom He has thoughts of peace. All ye that are the poor remnant, who fear sinning more than suffering, and are begging for His returning into Scotland, to wear His own crown and reign as King in Zion, in spite of all that will oppose Him, whether devils or men, I say to you that are thus waiting, wait on, and ye shall not be disappointed; for either your eyes shall see it, or else ye shall die in the faith of it, that He shall return, and ' if you suffer with Him, you shall also reign with Him,' which reign will be glorious and eternal.
" I come now to tell you for what I am brought here to die, and to give you an account of my faith, which I shall do as in the sight of the living (}od before whom I am shortly to stand. First, I declare I am a Christian, a Protestant, a Presbyterian in my judgment ; and whatever hath been said of me, I die testifying against Popery, Pre- lacy, Erastianism, and all manner of defection from the truth of God, and against all who make not the Scriptures, which are the Word of God, their rule, that so they may commend Christ and His way to strangers by a holy and Gospel conversation. I'he cause for which I am sentenced to die here this day, is my disowning of authority in the unlawful exercise thereof, when they, instead of ruling for God, are fighting against Him, and encroaching upon His prerogatives, by that woful supremacy which my soul abhors, and which I have testi- fied against since I was apprehended ; and now again I disown all supremacy over the consciences of men and liberties of Christ's Church."
Whereupon the drums were again beaten, and he kept silence a little, and then said : " Of this subject 1 shall say no more. Only I think the Lord's quarrel against this land is, because there has not been so much heart religion and soul exercise among either ministers or professors, as there seemed to be when the land owned Christ and His truth. I wish there were more true conversion, and then there would not be so much backsliding, and, for fear of suffering, living at ease, when there are so few to contend for Christ and His cause.
" Now for my own case, I bless the Lord that, for all that hath been said of me, my conscience doth not condemn me. I do not say I am free of sin, but I am at peace with God through a slain Mediator; and I believe that there is no salvation but only in Christ, And I abhor that superstitious way of worshipping of angels and saints contrary unto tlie Word of God ; as also I abhor the leaning
I o A Cloud of Witnesses.
to self-righteousness and Popish penances. I bless the Lord that these thirty years and more I have been at peace with God, and was never shaken loose of it ; and now I am as sure of my interest in Christ and peace with God as all within this Bible and the Spirit of God can make me ; and I am no more terrified at death, nor afraid of hell, because of sin, than if I had never had sin ; for all my sins are freely pardoned and washen thoroughly away, through the pre- cious blood and intercession of Jesus Christ. And I am fully per- suaded that this is His way for which I suffer ; and that He will return gloriously to Scotland, but it will be terrifying to many ; therefore I entreat you, be not discouraged at the way of Christ and the cause for which I am to lay down my life, and step into eternity, where my soul shall be as full of Him as it can desire to be.
" And now, this is the sweetest and most glorious day that ever my eyes did see. Now I entreat you, study to know and believe the Scriptures, which are the truths of God ; these I have preached, and do firmly believe them. Oh ! prepare for judgments, for they shall be sore and sudden. Enemies are now enraged against the way and people of God, but erelong they shall be enraged one against another to their own confusion."
At this the drums were beaten a third time, and being taken to the north side of the scaftbld, he stood a little during the space that one of the rest was singing ; and then being carried to the south side of the scaffold, he prayed. Thence he was brought to the east side of the scaffold, and there he said, " I entreat you prepare you presently for a stroke, for God will not sit with \i.e., disregard] all the wrongs done to Him, but will suddenly come and make inquisition for the blood that has been shed in Scotland."
Then he was commanded to go up the ladder, and as he set his foot on it, he said, " The Lord knows I go up this ladder with less fear and perturbation of mind than ever I entered the pulpit to preach."
And when he was up, he sat himself down, and said : " Now I am near to the getting of my crown, which shall be sure ; for I bless the Lord, and desire all of you to bless Him that He hath brought me here, and makes me triumph over devils, and men, and sin : they shall wound me no more. I forgive all men the wrongs they have done to me, and pray the Lord may forgive all the wrongs that any of the elect have done against Him. I pray that sufferers may be kept from sin, and helped to know their duty."
Donald Cargill.
1 1
Then having prayed a little within himself, he lifted up the napkin and said : " Farewell all relations and friends in Christ ; farewell acquaintances and all earthly enjoyments ; farewell reading and preaching, praying and believing, wanderings, reproaches, and sufferings. Welcome joy unspeakable and full of glory. Welcome Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ! into Thy hands I commit my spirit."
Then he prayed a little, and the executioner turned him over praying.
ECAUSE this dying testimony and last speech are but short, which was occasioned through want of time and the perse- cutors' severity, who took his larger testimony from him the day before he died, paper and ink being conveyed to him secretly by a cord through the window the night before his death, it is thought proper to subjoin these following letters of his, they being all of public concern, to give a more full discovery of the testimony which he held ; and particularly of his witnessing against the errors about that time broached by the infamous John Gib, as the letter written to the prisoners in the Correction House manifests.
LETTER from Mr Donald Cargill to Mr James Si^ENE, who suffered Martyrdom at Edinburgh. [A short notice of Mr Skene, with his last Testimony, will be found in its proper place. — Ed.]
" Dearest Friend, — There is now nothing upon earth that I am so concerned in, except the Lord's work, as in you and your fellows ; that you may either be cleanly brought off, or honourably and rightly carried through. He is begun in part to answer me ; though not in that which I most affected, yet in that which is best.
" My soul was refreshed to see any that had so far overcome the fear and torture of death, and were so far denied to the aflections of the flesh, as to give full liberty to the exoneration of conscience in the face of these bloody tyrants and vile apostates. And yet these, by our divines, must be acknowledged as magistrates ! which very heathens, endued with the light of nature, would abominate, and would think it as inconsistent with reason to admit to or continue in magis-
1 2 A CloiLcl of Witnesses.
tracy ; such perjured, bloody, dissolute, and flagitious men, as to make a wolf the keeper and feeder of the flock. Hut every step of their dealing with God, with the land, and with yourself and brethren, is a confirmation of your judgment anenl them, and suffi- cient ground of your detestation and rejection of them ; and it is the sin of the land, and of every person in it, that they have not gone along with you, and these S.g\\ in that action. But since they have not done that, they shall not now meet with the like honour, if ever they meet with it, till vengeance be poured out upon them ; and they and their king shall either be keeped together in wrath or divided in wrath, that they may be one another's destruction.
" But go on, vaHant champion ; you die not as a fool, though the apostate, unfaithful, and lukewarm ministers and professors of this generation think and say so. They shall live traitors, and most part of them die fools. I say, traitors ; as some men live upon the reward of treachery, for their quiet and liberty ; if it may be called a liberty, as it is redeemed with the betraying of the interest of Christ, and the blood of His people. But He Himself hath sealed your suffer- ings, and their thus saying condemns God, and His sealing condemns them. But neither regard their voices, nor fear ; for God will neither seal to folly nor iniquity. He then not only having sealed your sufferings, but your remission, go on to finish and perfect your testi- mony, not only against them, but against all that subject [z>., yield] to them, side with them, or are silent at them.
" And as for these men that will be our rulers, though they have nothing of worth or virtue in them ; I am persuaded of this, that none can appear before them and acknowledge them as they have now invested themselves ; standing on a foundation of perjury, which is an act recissory of their admission to the government, with Christ's crown on their head, and a sceptre of iniquity and a sword of perse- cution in their hand ; but must deny Christ. And in effect, the whole land generally hath denied Christ and desired a murderer ; and as for that unsavoury salt that lately appeared, acknowledged them, and was ashamed of this testimony, and in so doing gave the first vote to your condemnation, and proclaimed a lawfulness to the rest of assizers and murderers to follow in their condemnations, God shall require this, with his other doings, at his hands ; and I am somewhat afraid, if he be not suddenly made the subject of serious repentance, that he shall be made the subject of great vengeance." [The reference here is to the Rev. John Carstairs, minister of the Inner High Church,
Donald Cargill. i 3
Glasgow, from 1650 to 1662. In 1662 he declined to take the oath of allegiance without giving an explanation of the sense in wliich he thought it might be taken, and was imprisoned for several weeks until his health gave way. After the battle of Pentland, he went over to Holland, and preached in Rotterdam with great acceptance. In 1672 he returned to Scotland, when he was almost immediately summoned before the Council, but was set free on finding security for 2000 merks, />., ;^i20. When Skene was apprehended, some papers were found on him that brought Carstairs into trouble. He was summoned before the Council, says Wodrow, where " he owned the king's authority and that of his courts. With a great deal of seriousness he disclaimed the follies and principles Mr Skene and some others now advanced, and said he could not express his abominating their extremities with vehemency enough." Carstairs seemed to have lived in retirement. He edited several of the post- humous works of his former colleague, James Durham, and the one- volumed edition of Calderwood's History. His son was the well- known counsellor of William III., Principal Carstairs. — Ed.]
" But forgive and forget all these private injuries, aiid labour to go to eternity and death with a heart destitute of private revenges, and filled with zeal to God's glory ; and assign to Him the quarrel against His enemies, to be followed out by Himself in His own way against the indignities done to Him, and against the mocking perfidiousness, impieties, and lukewarmness of this generation.
" And for yourself, whatever there has been either of sin or duty, remember the one and forget the other, and betake yourself wholly to the mercy of God and the merit of Christ. Ye know in whom ye have believed, and the acceptableness of your believing, and the more fully you henceforth believe, the greater shall be His glory, and the greater your peace and safety.
" Farewell, dearest friend, never to see one another any more till at the right hand of Christ. Fear not ; and the God of mercies grant a full gale and a fair entry into His kingdom, which may carry sweetly and swiftly over the bar, that you find not the rub of death. Grace, mercy, and peace be with you.
" Yours in Christ,
"D. C."
14
A Clozid of Witnesses.
LETTER to some Friends before Mr Donald Cargill went Abroad.
i^^^j^^' " Dear Friends, — I cannot but be grieved to go
^/'/=\<fe_ from my native land, and especially from that part of it for whom and with whom I desired only to live ; yet the dreadful apprehensions I have of what is coming upon this land may help to make me submissive to this providence, though more bitter.
" You will have snares for a little, and then a deluge of judg- ments. I do not speak this to affright any, much less to rejoice over them, as if I were taken, and they left ; or were studying by these thoughts to alleviate my own lot of banishment ; though I am afraid that none shall bless themselves long upon the ac- count that they are left behind ; but my design is to have you making yourselves prepared for snares and judgments, that ye may have both the greatest readiness and the greatest shelters, for both shall be in one.
" Clear accompts, [/.<?., accounts] and put off the old ; for it is like, that what is to come will be both sudden and surprising, that it will not give you time for this. Beware of taking on new debt. I am afraid, that these things which many are looking on as favours are but come to bind men together in bundles for a fire.
" I am sure, if these things be embraced, there shall not be "long time given for using of them ; and this last of their favours and snares is sent to men, to show that they are that which otherwise they will not confess themselves to be. Tell all, that the shelter and benefit of this shall neither be great nor long, but the snare of it shall be great and prejudicial.
" And for myself, I think for the present He is calling me to another land ; but how long shall be my abode, or what employ- ment He has for me there, I know not, for I cannot think He is taking me there to live and lurk only.
" I rest,
"DONALD CARGILL."
Donald Cargill.
15
LETTER to John Malcolm and Archibald Alison, prisoners. \See Note prefixed to their testimonies in a later part of the volume. — Ed.J
" Dear Friends, — Death in Christ, and for Christ, is never much to be bemoaned, and less at this time than any other, when these that survive have nothing to live among but miseries, persecutions, snares, sor- rows, and sinning ; and where the only desirable sight, viz., Christ reigning in a free and flourishing Church, is wanting, and the greatly grieving and offensive object to devout souls, viz., devils and the worst of the wicked reigning and raging, is still before our eyes.
" And though we had greater things to leave and better times to live in, yet eternity does so far exceed and excel these things in their greatest perfection, that they who see and are sure (and we see, indeed, being made sure), will never let a tear fall, or a sigh go at the farewell, but would rather make a slip to get death nor [/.<?., than] to shun it ; if both were not equally detestable to them, upon the account of God's commandments, whom they neither dare nor are willing to offend, even to obtain Heaven itself. And there are none who are His, but they must see themselves infinitely advantaged in the exchange ; and accordingly hasten, if sin, the flesh, and want of assurance did not withstand. And there is no doubt but these must be weak and poor spirits, that are bewitched or enchanted either with the fruition or hopes of the world ; and as earth has nothing to hold a resolute and reconciled soul, so heaven wants nothing to draw it ; and to some, to live here has been always wearisome, since their peace was made, Christ's sweetness known, and their own weakness and unusefulness experienced. But now it becomes hate- fully loathsome ; since devils and the worst of men are become the head, and dreadful, by their stupendous permissions, loosings, and lengthenings in their reigning ; and friends are become uncomfort- able ; because they will neither Christianly bear and bide, nor rightly go forward to effectuate their o\vn delivery.
But for you there is nothing at this time (if you yourselves be sure with God, which I hope either you are or will be), which can make me bewail your death ; though the cause of it doth both in-
i6
A Cloud of Witnesses.
CANONGATE TOLBOOTH^ EDINBURGH.
crease my affection to you and indignation against these enemies. Yet for you, notwithstanding of the unjustness of the sentence, go not to eternity with indignation against them upon your own account, neither let the goodness of the cause ye sufter for found [/>., be the foundation of] your confidence in God and your hope of wellbeing ; for were the action never so good, and performed without the least fiiling (which is not incident to human infirmity), it could never be a cause of obtaining mercy, nor yet commend us to that grace from which we are to obtain it. There is nothing now which is yours, when you are pleading and petitioning for mercy, that must be remembered, but your sins, for in effect there is nothing else ours.
" Let your sins, then, be on your heart, as your sorrow ; which we must bewail before we be parted with them, as the captive her father; not because she was to leave him, but because she had been so long with him ; and let these mercies of God and merits of Christ be before your eyes as your hopes, and your winning to these as the only rock upon whicli we can be saved. If there be anything seen or looked to in ourselves but sin, we cannot expect remission and salvation allenarly \i.e., solely] through free grace, in which expectation only it can be obtained ; neither can we earnestly
Donald Car gill.
THE CROSS, EDINBURGH.
beg, till we see ourselves destitute of all that procures favour, and full of all that merits and hastens vengeance and wrath.
" And besides, it heightens the price of that precious blood, by which only we can have redemption from sin and wrath ; it being tlie only sufficient in itself, and only acceptable to the Father ; and so it must be, being the blessed and gracious device and result of infinite wisdom, which makes the eternal God to be admired in His graciousness and holiness ; having found out the way of His own pay- ment without our hurt ; and which makes all return to their own desires, and there to rest in an eternal complacency ; for this way returns to God His glory, to justice its satisfaction to disquieted consciences of men, frighted and awakened with the sight of sin and \\Tath, ease, peace and assurance ; and to the souls of men, fellowship witli God, and hope of eternal salvation. Now the righteousness of Christ being made sure to us, secures all this for us, and this truth is believed and apprehended by faith ; it being the hand by which we grip this rock ; and if it be true, it cannot but be strong, and we saved.
" Look well, then, to your faith, that it be a faith growing out of regeneration, and the new creature, and that it have Christ for its righteousness, hope, and rejoicmg, and be sealed by the Spirit of God.
A Cloud of Wit7iesses.
And what this sealing is, when it comes, it will abundantly show itself; and there can be no other full satisfaction to a soul than this. But seek till ye find, and, whatever ye find for the present, let your last act be to lay and leave yourselves on the righteousness of His Son, expecting life through His name, according to the promise of the Father.
" Dear friends, your work is great, and time short ; but this is a comfort, and the only comfort in your present condition, that you have a God infinite in mercy to deal with, who is ready at all times to for- give, but especially persons in your case, who have been jeoparding your lives upon the account of the Gospel ; whatever failings or infir- mities in you that action hath been accompanied with ; for it is the action itself which is the duty of this whole covenanted kingdom, and not the failing, for which you are brought to suffering. Seek not then the favours of men, by making your duty your sin ; but confess your failings to God, and look for His mercy through Jesus Christ, who has said, 'Whosoever loseth his life for my sake, shall keep it unto eternal life.' And though it will profit a reprobate nothing to die after this manner (for nothing can be profitable without love, which only is, or can be in a believer), yet it should be no disadvantage, but in a manner the best way of dying ; for it would take some from his days that he might have lived, and so prevent many sins that he would have committed, and so the sin is lessened that is the cause of eternal sufferings.
" And let not this discourage you, or lay you by [/>., overcome you], that the work is great, and the time short ; though this indeed should mind you of your sinful neglect, that you were not better pro- vided for such a short and peremptory summons, which you should always have expected. It also shows the greatness of the sin of these enemies, who not only take away unjustly your bodily life, but also shorten your time of preparation, and so do their utmost to deprive you of eternal life. Yet, I say, let not this either discourage or lay you by, for God can perfect great works in a short time ; and one of the greatest things that befall men shall be effectuate in the twinkling of an eye, which is one of the shortest. I assure you. He put the thief on the cross through all his desires ; conviction, conversion, justification, sanctification, etc., in short time ; and left nothing to bemoan, but that there did not remain time enough to glorify Him upon earth, who had done all these things for liim.
" Go on, then, and let your intent be seriousness. The great-
Donald Cargill. 1 9
ness of your sorrow, and the height of love, in a manner make a compensation for the shortness of time ; and go on, though ye yourselves have gone short way ; for where these things are, one hour will perform more than thousands where there were not either such enforcements or power ; and be persuaded in this, you have Him as much and more hastening than yourselves ; for you may know His motion by your own, they being both set forward by Him. And, dear friends, be not terrified at the manner of your death, which, to me, seems to be the easiest of all, where you come to it without pain, and in perfect judgment, and go through so speedily ; before the pain be felt, the glory is come ! But pray for a greater measure of His presence, which only can make a pass through the hardest things cheerful and pleasant.
" I bid you farewell, expecting, though our parting be sad, our gathering shall be joyful again. Only our great advantage in the case you are in is, to credit Him much ; for that is His glory, and engages Him to perform whatever ye have credited Him with. No more, but avow boldly to give a full testimony for His truths, as you desire to be avowed of Him. Grace, mercy, and peace be with you.
"DONALD CARGHX."
LETTER to the Prisoners in the Correction House of Edinburgh. [These prisoners were twenty-six women, followers of John Gib, of Borrowstounness, Cargill, when preaching at Darmead, heard that Gib and his followers were in the neighbourhood, and, sending for them, had a long conference with them as to their opinions. Its sum and substance, according to Patrick Walker, is contained in the following letter. Gib and about thirty adherents had forsaken their homes, and had taken up their abode in the moors, under the persuasion that they would thus be more free from all snares and sins. Their extravagances attracted the notice of the government, and in the spring of 1681, they were taken by a troop of dragoons, and carried to Edinburgh. Gib and three male associates were imprisoned in the Canongate Tolbooth, and the twenty-six women in the Correction House, usually filled with the loose and abandoned of the city. Gib and his male adherents gave in a statement of their opinions to the Council,
20 A Cloud of Witnesses.
which will be found in Wodrow ; and Donald Cargill seems to have come to the conclusion that they were so wedded to their errors as to be irreclaimable. Of the women he entertained better hopes, and hence sent them the following affectionate appeal. It says much for his kindness of heart, and for his patient and earnest desire to reclaim them. His efforts were not without success, for the greater part of them, according to Patrick Walker, came to their right mind after they had tasted the bitter fruits of these demented delusions. Gib himself was shortly after set at liberty, but in 1684 was again apprehended, and banished to America. After a life of much misery and wretchedness, he died in 1720. — Ed.]
" Dear Friends, — I think ye cannot but know that I am both concerned and afflicted with your condition, and I would have written sooner, and more, if I had not feared that you might have been jeal- ous, under your distempers, that I had been seducing you to follow me, and not God and truth.
" It had been my earnest and frequent prayer to God, as He Himself knows, to be led in all truth, and I judge I have been in this graciously answered ; but I desire none, if they themselves judge it not to be truth, to adhere to anything that I have either preached, wTitten, or done, to any hazard, much more to the loss of life.
" But I have been afflicted with your condition, and could not but be more, if God's great graciousness in this begun discovery, and your sincerity and singleness, gave me not hope that God's purpose is to turn this to the great mercy of His poor Church and yours, if ye mar it not; and yet the great sin, and pillar of Satan, that is in this snare, makes me tremble. It was God's mercy to you, that gave you such convictions ; that made you, at least some of you, once to part with these men. And it was undoubtedly your sin, that you continued not so ; but after convictions, did cast yourselves in new temptations ; for convictions ought to be tenderly guided, lest the Spirit be grieved, from whom they come ; but this second discovery, though it be with a sharper rebuke, as it makes God's mercy wonder- ful, so it shall render your perseverance in that course sinful and utterly inexcusable ; for God has broken the snare ; and it will be your great sin, if you go not out with great haste, joy, and thank- fulness, when God's wonderful discovery has made such a way for your delivery. For God, having now shown you the ringleaders and authors of these opinions to be persons of such abominations, calls
Donald Car gill. 2 1
you not only to deny credit to them, but also to make a serious search of their tenets ; which will, I know, by His grace, bring you undoubt- edly to see, that these things are contrary both to God's glory and truth, that they so much pretend to.
" And now, dear friends, I cannot be tender enough of you, who in your zeal and singleness have been misled. For though this did bewray a great simplicity and unwatchfulness, yet it did also betoken some zeal and tenderness ; that being beguiled, it was in things that were veiled and busked \i.e., adorned] with some pretence to God's glory, and public reformation. And on the other hand, I cannot have great enough abhorrence of the persons, who, knowing them- selves to be of such abominations, did give out themselves to be of such familiarity with God, and of so clear illumination, to make their delusions more passing with devout souls. Let nothing make you think this is malignity, or natural enmity against the power of Godli- ness, or progress in reformation, that is venting itself in me : For though I cannot win [/.<?., get] forward as I ought, yet I have rejoiced to see others go forward.
" And I am sure, there lies in this bed within you, a viper and a child. Satan, transforming himself into an angel of light, has put these two together, to make it passing with some, and to be spared of others who are of tenderness. But my soul's desire is, to kill the serpent and keep the child alive ; and God is calling you loudly to sever the good from the bad, that the wit of Satan's subtilty has mixed together, and to deliver yourselves speedily, as a roe from the hand of the hunter : and not only return, but bitterly mourn for your high provoking of God, in offering such foul sacri- fices to His glory, and sewing your old clouts upon that new gar- ment ; in your making the enemy more to despise that cause and company who are enough despised already, and discouraging those who were following and going forward with you in that which was right ; so that now, neither have they heart nor hand for the work, nor can they look out till God recover them again.
" There is much in the whole of this, that may, and does weight and overwhelm some spirits : but there is nothing in all their cogi- tations about it that they find comfortable ; unless it be, that He is cleared in afflicting us, and continuing to afflict, because there were such persons among us. I speak this but of some of you, and be- loved by us, though ignorantly ; and we wish that this be the last and great stop that was to be removed, before His coming to re-
A Cloud of Witnesses.
venge Himself, and reign. I would not say but by this also He showed His tenderness, of preserving integrity of doctrine, and sound reformation, and His purpose not to suffer errors and heresies to prosper.
" This I told you, when I met with you, that there were some things ye were owning which were highly approved of God ; such as, an inward heart-love and zeal to God's glory, which I perceived to be in some of you, so far as it can be perceived ; and setting up that before you, as your end, in pursuing it always as your work, and a forgetting of all other things in regard of it ; excepting only these things without which we cannot glorify Him ; as a workman that in- tends his work must mind his tools ; even our own salvation, and the salvation of all others, as if they were not things wherein He is greatly glorified ; for His glory is in righteousness and mercy, and in, and by these, is the salvation of man infallibly advanced, and to these it is inseparably connected.
" Next, I would advise you to set apart more, yea, much more of your time, for humiliation, fasting, and prayer, in such an exigence, when the judgments of God appear to be so near and so great ; so that it be done without sin ; for God cannot be glorified by sin, ' for if my lie hath more abounded to His glory, why am I judged as a sinner ?' I was against such as deny nature, and others their right dues ; for He that allows dues to others, allows them to be paid also. And we must be like prisoners, who are of great debt and honest hearts, who know they cannot pay every one their full sums, yet are resolved to give every one some, and to the greatest most, and to the rest accordingly. And as there cannot be a total abstinence from meat without self-murder, so there cannot be a total denying others their dues, such as the benevolence of husband to wife, and a total abstaining from work, without a transgression of God's command- ments and laws ; which can never be a glorifying of Him ; which the more impartially they are kept, the more He is glorified.
" Next, ways are allowed of Him, that ye may make yourselves free, so much as in you lies, of all the public defections, whatever may involve you in these, or contribute to their upholding, without either an overpowering force, or an indispensable necessity ; for I may buy meat and drink in necessity, whatever use the seller make of that money I give for my meat and drink.
" Next, He allows these particulars of reformation, such as change of the names of days, of weeks, of terms of the year, and such like.
Donald Cargill. 23
warranted by the word and example of the Christians in Scripture, that ha^'e been neglected before in our reformation ; so that there be not too much religion placed in these things, and other things more weighty, which undoubtedly have more moral righteousness in them, made little in regard of them ; but in these good things Satan will quickly (if it be not already), over-drive you in your progress, and leave you only to hug a spurious birth.
" But there are other things that ye maintained when I spoke with you (and the viper has more since appeared), as truths and parts of God's glory, that are utterly contrary to, and inconsistent with the glory of God. As first, laying aside of public preaching, some of them saying no less, nor [/>., than that] they had no missing of it; so that ye thought, ' Ye had reigned as kings without us, and would to God ye had reigned.' Your flourishing should have delighted, though we had not been the instruments and means thereof But, alas ! this your liberty, that you so much bragged of, would have lasted but a little while, and was among your other beguiles, and was nothing else but Satan stirring you about to giddiness, and raising of fantastic fumes to the tickling of the imagination, but leaving you altogether without renovation of heart, or progress in sanctification ; so that I cannot compare this your libert}'^ to anything else, but to an en- chanted fabric ; where the poor guests, only placed in imagination, imagine themselves to be in a pleasant place, and at royal entertain- ment ; but when God comes, and delusion evanisheth, they will find themselves cast in some remote wilderness, and left full of astonish- ment and fears.
" I told you, while I was with you, that the devil was sowing tares amongst your thin wheat ; but I was not long from you, exercised in thoughts about you, but I saw clearly there was sorcery in your busi- ness ; and now, I tell you, I fear sorcerers also. I know I have spoken this against my own life, if they get the power they desire ; but I am in a defiance of them, and I know also in a defence by Him who hath preserved, and I know will preserve me, till my work be finished. But if your liberty that you talked of had been true, it would at least have stayed till it had brought you to other thoughts, other works, and other comforts ; and it might have been easily dis- cerned not a true liberty, but a temptation that led you from public preaching, the great ordinance of God's glory and men's good ; as the apostle has that word, ' forbidding us to preach to the Gentiles ;' but especially to leave public ordinances at this time, when they are
24 A Cloud of Witnesses.
the only standards standing which shows Satan's victory against Christ's kingdom in Scotland not to be complete.
"Yet, dear friends, when you hear this, let not Satan cast you as far to the other side, for it is rare to see the most devout souls alto- gether out from under his delusions and temptations, as to make you believe that it is impossible to attain unto anything of certitude of truth, liberty, manifestations, and communion with God, if that which seemed to be so firm be delusions. But shall Satan have such power to make men believe lies, and shall not God go infinitely beyond him, in making men to see and believe truth ? There were many that thought themselves at the height of assurance, when under the greatest temptations — as Psalm Ixxiii,, 'Verily 1 have cleansed my hands in vain ; ' and yet they have a greater certainty when they come to see that there is no such unquietness of spirit under this, as they found in the former. And seeing it is so, rest not till ye attain that assurance of your own interest, and of His main truths, which is both above doubt and defect, that ye may be able to say, ' Now we believe, and are sure.'
" But m the next place, ye will join with none in public worship, but those who have infallible signs of regeneration. This seems fair, but it is both false and foul. False, because of its false foundation, viz., that the certainty of one's interest in Christ may be known by an- other. Whereas the Scripture says, ' That none knows it, but he that has it.' Foul also, for this disdain has pride in it, and pride is always foul ; and though there be a difference amongst men, and though we should have regard of repentance and brokenness of heart, yet those who have well fought and seen their own filthiness, will judge themselves the persons of any that should be thrust out of the assemblies of God's ]Deople, and that not only in regard of what they have been, but also in regard of what they daily are.
" Next, ye would have all to be prayed to eternal wrath, who have departed and made defection in this time. Alas ! we need not blow them away ; the great part is going fast enough that way ; but this, I am sure, is not to give God His glory, but to take from Him, and limit Him in His freedom and choice in the greatness of His pardon. It is remarkable that the angels, in their glor)^ to God, joined also with it good-will to men.
" Next, you have rejected the Psalms, with many other things, by a paper come from some of you; and I cannot see upon what account ; except it be, because it is man's work, in turning the Psalms out of
Dofiald Car gill. 25
prose into metre. Then ye must reject all the other Scriptures, because the translation of them is of man's work ; ye have not yet learned the original languages ; ye must betake yourselves altogether to the Spirit, and what a spirit will that be, that is not to be tried by the Scriptures ? I told some of you, when I last saw you, that ye were too litde led by the Scriptures, and too much by your own thoughts and suggestions ; which, indeed, opens a wide door to delu- sion, and alas ! lays yourselves open to Satan's temptations.
" As for the rest of your denying all your former covenants and declarations, this cannot be from God, they containing nothing but lawful and necessary duties ; and, suppose they did not contain and include a complete reformation, yet they did not exclude it ; so that still holding them, we might have passed on to more perfection, and they might be inviolable obligations with us.
"And next, your cutting off all that were not of your mind, and delivering them up to devils, was not justice and religion ; it being done neither in judgment nor righteousness, upon conviction of their crimes, but in unbridled rage and fury. But these things I cannot fully speak to now ; yet there is somewhat that I cannot pass, but must tell you, that I fear there shall remain some of the leaven within, which shall not only spoil an orthodox Protestant, but also a true, tender, and humble Christian, and give us nothing instead of it but a blown bladder ; for I am persuaded, if Satan should have the tutory but a while, he should bring it to this ; for it has been his way with some — first, to make them saint-like, and afterwards to settle them at atheism ; like a cunning fisher, running a fish upon an angle, who at last casts it on dry ground. God is my witness, my soul loves to see holiness, tenderness, and zeal in such a generation, where there is nothing but untenderness, unconcernedness, and lukewarmness ; and, by His grace, I shall ever cherish it.
"I desire you then, in the bowels of Christ, to retain your zeal; but see well to this, that it be for His glory. Indeed, the more ye are zealous, and the further ye go forward, so that the word of God direct your course, ye are the more pleasing to God, and shall be the dearer to us. And persuade yourselves, that though I cannot equal or go before, yet it is the sincere desire of my heart to follow such. And my soul wishes you well, though, it may be, 1 cannot here point nor lead you the way to well-being ; yet this I must say, that if I could lead you the way that He has led me, I should let you see eternal life, without these things that I am desiring you to relinquish.
26
4 Cloitd of Witnesses.
" Hold truth, glorify God, be zealous to have Him glorified ; but think not to desire the condemnation of any man, simply on that account, that they dare not come and continue where you are ; or that to put a bar by prayer between them and a return, is a glorifying of God. We glorify Him in this kind, when, as He Him- self desires, we acquiesce in His sentence when it is past, though we wrestle against it before it be known to us.
" I cannot bid you go forward in all, l)ut I desire you to go forward in that which is surer and better. And dear friends, let not the world have it to say, that when ye are become right, ye are become the less zealous ; only take the right object, and let your zeal grow. O let not your sufferings be stained with such wildness ; and think it not strange that ye have not such liberty in your return, as ye seemed to have before ; if you take the right way, and hold on, ye shall find it, in His time, greater, and better, and surer.
" I shall only add, that there must be an express disowning of your errors and evils, and an express owning of His truths ; whereof ye have been persuaded before now, but which now are either denied or doubted ; otherwise you will come to nothing of religion, or worse ; this will either state your sufferings right, or be a mean to obtain a cleanly liberty from God in His due time. Grace, mercy, and peace be with you. Amen !
"DONALD CARGILL."
Walter Smith.
ALTER SMITH was a devoted follower of Mr Donald Cargill ; he was taken at the same time, and suffered along with him. Patrick AValker has a life of him ; " A Short Account of the life and death of that truly pious and worthy minis- ter, Mr Walter Smith," etc. In substance, it is in John Howie's " Scots Wordiies." The work, " Steps of Defection," referred to in the following testimony, is given by Walker ; also, " Rules and
Walter Smith. 2 7
Directions anent private Christian Meetings ; " together with a letter written by him when he was studying at Utrecht, to Janet Fimerton, a singular Christian, of deep exercises, high attainments, and great experience in the serious exercise and solid practice of godliness. The letter is a very excellent one, and speaks much for Smith's piety and Christian knowledge.
Two books are specified in Walter Smith's testimony —
1. " The book which contains the Confession of Faith," etc. This is the volume that in Scotland usually bears the title of. the Confession of Faith, although it includes the Catechisms, the Covenants, the Direc- tory for Worship, and the Sum of Saving Knowledge. It is not known by what authority the Sum of Saving Knowledge has been put along with the others, for it has never been sanctioned by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. The " Causes of God's Wrath " seems to have been bound up in the same volume in Smith's time. Wodrow assigns its authorship to James Guthrie of Stirling, who suffered at Edinburgh, June ist, 1661. The first words of the full title fix its nature and date : " Some General Heads of the Causes why the Lord contends with the land, agreed upon, after seeking of the Lord, by the Commission of the General Assembly 1650, with the advice of divers ministers from several parts of the kingdom, met at Edinburgh 165 1." One of the steps of defection from the Covenant mentioned is, " The authorising of commissioners to close a treaty with the King for the investing him with the government, upon his subscribing such demands as were sent to him, after he had given many clear evidences of his disaffection and enmity to the work and people of God, and was continuing in the same." The " Causes" was condemned, along with Rutherford's " Lex Rex," in a proclamation by the Committee of Estates, dated September 19, i66o, and both were burnt, October 17 th, at Edinburgh, by the hand of the hangman. " No doubt," says Wodrow, " by order of the Com- mitee, though I do not observe any clause for this in the proclama- tion. It was much easier to burn those books than to answer the reasonings and facts in them." The " Causes" is now somewhat rare. It occupies eighty-five pages in Henderson's collection of tracts, entitled "Testimony-bearing Exemplified," i2mo, Paisley, 1791.
2. Shepard's " Sound Believer." Thomas Shepard was a native of Northampton ; but went out in 1635 to New England, and was speedily settled at Cambridge, where he was the chief means of erect-
A Cloud of Witnesses.
ing and endowing the well-known Harvard College, an institution that in this century has renounced the opinions of its founders, and become the chief seat of unitarian error. Shepard was an able and successful Gospel minister. His works, comprising twenty different publications, have been lately collected. He is best known on this side the Atlantic, by his " Parable of the Ten Virgins ; " and his " Sound Believer," a treatise on evangelical conversion ; both of which have been fre- quently reprinted in this country. — Ed.]
^^-•♦•--^
HE DYING TESTIMONY AND LAST WORDS of Mr Walter Smith, Student of Theology, who suffered at the Cross of Edinburgh, July 27, 1681 : —
" Dear Friends and Acquaintances, — As I desire, while in the body, to sympathise somewhat with you, in lamenting your various cases, and the case of the Church, whereof we are the sons and daughters ; so I must lay this request upon you, and leave it with you, that ye take some of your time, and set it apart particularly to solace your souls, in blessing and magnifying your God and my God, for the lot He hath decreed and chosen out for poor unworthy me, from eternity, in time, and to eternity ; in the immediate enjoyment of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, one God, incomprehensible and unchange- able in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth ; and that, because He hath made me a man and a Christian. And now I set to my seal to all His truths revealed in His word, and particularly these :
" First, That He is one God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. But alas ! who can think of Him ? who can hear of Him, or write of Him aright ? Oh ! He is God ! He is God !
" Secofid/y, That He made man perfect. And though we have destroyed and incapacitated ourselves to do anything that is right, while out of Christ, yet we are under the obligation of tlie whole law, which is the perfect rule of righteousness.
" Thirdly, That my Lord (yea, through free grace I can say, my Lord Jesus Christ), came to the world to save sinners. And,
Walter Sfiiit/i. 29
though I cannot say that I have been the greatest of sinners, yet I can say, that He hath covered, pardoned, prevented, and hid from the world, sins in me that have been heinous by many aggra- vations.
" Fourthly, That except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. My friends, this is the new birth, this is regeneration that 1 am speaking of, to which the great part, even of professors, I fear, Avill be found strangers.
" Fifthly, I set to my seal to the truth of that precious promise, Josh. i. 5, etc. ; repeated, Heb. xiii. 5 : ' For He hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee,' together with all the other pro- mises to that purpose ; and, I am sure, He hath carried me through divers conditions of life, many various and singular difficulties, and damping discouragements. But omitting these things, whereof the profane persecutors may as much boast as to the outward as any, He hath led me through the several steps of soul exercise, and the pangs of the new birth, into Himself This, this, my friends, is the cognisance and distinguishing character of a saint indeed ; and by this, and this only, we pass from death to life.
"And, as I adhere to the Confession of Faith and work of re- formation (as I shall afterwards speak to), so particularly, I set to my seal to these truths, in the xviii. chapter thereof, anent the assur- ance of grace and salvation. Alas ! the ignorance of this generation is great. My dear friends, I leave this as my last advice to you, make use of that book which contains the Confession of Faith, Catechisms, Sum of Saving Knowledge, Practical Use of Saving Knowledge, Directory for Worship, the Causes of God's Wrath, etc. And let none think this work below them ; for the spiritual enlighten- ing of the mind, which requires the literal with it, is the first work of the Spirit, after we first begin to come to ourselves, or rather to what we were in innocency, and ought to be by grace. But as to this, I do confidently refer you to Shepard's ' Sound Believer,' which, in my poor apprehension, is the soundest and surest ye can meet with.
" And Sixthly, I set to my seal to the Covenant of Grace, particu- larly that clause of it (Isa. lix. 21), ' As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord; my spirit that is upon thee,' etc. And here I leave my testimony against all atheists, speculative (if there be any such) and practical, and all mockers at godliness, all formalists and hypocrites, Quakers and enthusiasts, who either pretend to the Spirit, neglecting the word, or lean upon the word, neglecting the teaching of
30 A Cloud of Witnesses.
the Spirit. And what shall I more say, but by what of truth I have in experience seen, I am bold to believe what I have not seen ; His testimony is a ground sufticient, and there can be no deceit under it.
" And now I am to die a martyr; and I am as fully persuaded of my interest in Christ, and that He hath countenanced me in that for which I am to lay down my life, as I am of my being. And let the world and biassed professors say their pleasures, I am here in no de- lusion. I have the free and full exercise of reason and judgment ; I am free of passion and prejudice, and, excepting that I am yet in the body, I am free of Satan's fire and fury. I have no bitterness nor malice at any living, so that what I am owning and dying for, I am solidly and firmly persuaded to be truth and duty, according to my mean capacity. And this is the main point this day in controversy, upon which I was peremptorily questioned, and desired positively to answer, yea or nay, under the threatening of the Boots, viz.: Whether I owned the King's authority as presently established and exercised ; which I did positively disown, and denied allegiance to him, as he is invested with that supremacy proper to Christ Jesus only. And who knoweth not that at first he v/as constituted and crowned a covenanted King, and the subjects sworn in allegiance to him, as such, by the Solemn League and Covenant? This was the authority wherewith he was clothed ; and the exercise of it was to be for God, religion, and the good of the subjects. And is not all this, as to God and His people, overturned and perverted ? But secondly. The whole of this pleaded-for authority at present, is established on the ruin of the land's engagements to God, and to one another. But I say no more as to this. Consider things seriously, and ponder them deeply ; zeal for God is much gone. Look to it, and labour to re- cover it \ your peace shall be in it, as to duty ; though Christ's righteousness, I see, is the only sure foundation.
" I leave my testimony against malignancy, ungodliness, and pro- fanity, and whatsoever is contrary to sound doctrine, professed and owned by the reformed anti-erastian presbyterian party in Scotland, whereof I die a member and professor, being fully satisfied and con- tent with my lot. And as to my apprehending ; we were singularly delivered by Providence into the adversaries' hand, and, for what I could learn, were betrayed by none, nor were any accessory to our taking, more than we were ourselves ; and particularly let none blame the Lady St John's Kirk in this. [It was the lady St John's Kirk who persuaded Smith and Boig, against Cargill's judgment, to leave the
Walter Smith. 3 1
house where Cargill would have passed the night, and go to Coving- ton Mill, where all three were taken. Patrick Walker blames her very much. — Ed.] I have no time to give you an account of the Lord's kindness and tenderness to us, in restraining the adversaries' fury. For they began very brisk, by making us lie all night bound, and expressly refused to suffer us to worship God, or pray with one another, until we came to Linlithgow. But the Lord hasteneth to come. Beware of going back. Wait for Him. Be not anxious about what shall become of you, or the remnant. He is concerned ; His intercession is sufficient. Get Him set up, and kept up in His own room in your souls, and other things will be the more easily kept in theirs. Be tender of all who have the root of the matter, but beware of compliance with any, whether ministers, or professors, or adversaries.
" As to my judgment, insignificant as it is, I am necessitate to refer you to the draught of a paper which I drew at the desire of some societies in Clydesdale, entitled, ' Some Steps of Defection,' etc. Beware of a spirit of bitterness, peremptoriness, and ignorant zeal, which hath been the ruin of some, and will be the ruin of more, if mercy prevent not. I was withdrawn from by some, as having given offence to them by my protesting against their way in a particular, wherein I am sure as to the manner they were wrong \ and though they had been right, it was not a ground to have made such a sepa- ration from me, much less from those who joined with me. And if any division be longer kept up upon that account, they will find it a great iniquity, if rightly considered.
" I can get no more written, nor see I great need for it ; for the testimonies of martyrs are not your rule. Farewell.
"From the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, July 27, 1681. " Sic subscribitur,
" WALTER SMITH."
EING come to the scaffold, Walter Smith accosted the multi- tude to this purpose : " All ye beholders who are come here upon various designs, I entreat you, be not mistaken anent the cause of our suffering this day; for however ye may be misinformed, yet it is of verity that we are brought here upon the matters of our God ; because we testified against the supremacy, and would not consent to the setting of Christ's crown upon the head of him who had by usurpation aspired thereto, contrary to his former engagements."
I Cloud of IViiuesses.
Upon this they caused beat the drums, which obliged him a little to silence ; but, beckoning with his hand, he said, " I shall only say something to three particulars : Ax\^ Jirst, Anent that which some are apt to believe, that we are against authority ; but we detest that, and say that we own all the lawful exercise of authority ; and we hope there are none that are Christians who will allow us to own the un- lawful exercise, or rather tyranny of authority."
At this the drums were again beat, and so he sung a part of tlie 103d Psalm from the beginning, and prayed; which done, he turned his face to the Cross, and said, " I bless the Lord I am not sur- prised, neither terrified, with this death, or the manner of it. I confess the thoughts of death have been sometimes very terrible to me, when I have been reflecting upon my misspending of pre- cious time ; yea, sometimes the strength of temptation, and my own weakness, have made me herein to raze the very foundation of my interest; but my God builds faster than He permits the devil and my false heart to cast down. I have had some clouds even since I came to prison ; but blessed be (iod, these are all re- moved ; for my God hath said to my soul, ' Be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee.' And the faith of this makes me not to fear grim death, though it be called the king of terrors, yet it is not so to me ; for this that you think a cruel and sudden death, is but an inlet
Walter Smith. 33
to life, which shall be eternal. Let none be offended at Christ and His way, because of suffering ; for I can persuade you there is more of Christ's help, and supporting grace, and strength, in a suffering lot, than all that ever I heard of by the hearing of the ear. But now I am made to find it in my own experience ; and I can say, ' He is altogether lovely.'
" But a second thing that I promised to speak to is, that 1 detest and abhor all popery, prelacy, erastianisni, and all other steps of defection from the truths of God, and turning aside to the right and left hand. Also, I testify against all errors, as Quakerism, Ar- minianism, and all that is contrary to sound doctrine ; who walk not according to the Scriptures, and make not the Word and Spirit of God their rule to walk by. I have lived, and now am ready to die, a Christian, a Protestant, and a Presbyterian in my judgment ; there- fore let none hereafter say that we walk not by the Scriptures, for once Britain and Ireland, and especially Scotland, were deeply sworn to maintain what now they disown ; therefore beware of standing in the way of others, seeing ye will not go in yourselves.
" Thirdly, I exhort all you that are the poor remnant, to be serious in getting your interest cleared ; you that are in the dark with your case, take not flashes for conversion ; study a holy conversation. Be at more pains to know the Scriptures, and believe them. Be serious in prayer. Slight not time. Take Clnist in His own terms, and resolve to meet with trials, and that shortly. Slight not known duties : com- mit not known sins, whatever suffering ye may meet with for your cleaving to duty. Lippen [?>., trust] to God, and you will not be disappointed. Construct well of Him under all dispensations. Weary not of suffering. Lie not at ease in a day of Jacob's trouble.
" I have one word more to speak, to all that are going on in per- secuting the way and friends of Christ, and it is in the very words of our Lord ; remember, ' Whatever ye do to one of these little ones, ye do it unto Me.' I pray the Lord that He may open the eyes of all the elect, who are yet strangers to regeneration, and also convince such of them as are fallen from their first love.
" Now, my friends, I have this to say in my own vindication, that however I have been branded by some, and misconstrued by others, yet I can say in the sight of the Lord, before whom I am now to appear, that I am free of any public scandal ; I say I am free of drunkenness, I am free of whoredom, thefts, or murder ; therefore, let none say that we are murderers, or would kill any, but in self-
r
34 ^ Cloud of Witnesses.
defence, and in defence of the Gospel. I truly forgive all men the wrongs they have done to me, as I desire to be forgiven of the Lord ; but as for the wrongs done to a holy God, I leave these to Him who is the avenger of blood ; let Him do to them as He may be glorified. Now, I say no more, but pray that all who are in His way may be kept from sinning under suffering, and that every one may prepare for a storm, which I do verily believe is not far off."
Then stooping down, he saluted some friends, and said, " Fare- well all relations and acquaintances ; farewell all ye that are lovers of Christ and His righteous cause." And beckoning to the multi- tude, he said " Farewell also." And so he went up the ladder with the greatest discoveries of alacrity and magnanimity, and seating himself upon it, he said, " Now, this death of mine I fear not, for my sins are freely pardoned ; yea, and I shall sin no more, for I am made, through my God, to look hell, wrath, devils, and sin eternally out of countenance. Therefore, farewell all created enjoyments, pleasures, and delights : farewell sinning and suffering ; farewell praying and believing, and welcome heaven and singing. Welcome joy in the Holy Ghost ; welcome Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; into thy hands I commend my spirit."
When the executioner was about to untie his cravat, he thrust him away, and untied it himself, and, calling for his brother, threw it down, saying, " This is the last token you will get from me." After the napkin was drawn over his face he uncovered it again, and said, " I have one word more to say, and that is, to all that have any love to God, and His righteous cause, that they will set time apart, and sing a song of praise to the Lord for what He has done to my soul, and my soul says, to Him be praise." Then let- ting down the napkin, he prayed a little within himself, and the executioner doing his office, threw him over.
James Boig.
ITTLE is known of James Boig than that he was son to a Mr James Boig, merchant in P^dinburgh. His testimony is a well written document, in keeping with liis character as a student of theology. Wodrow records that "both he and Mr Smith died under much comfort, joy, and full assurance." The Sanquhar Declaration mentioned in his testimony was published by about twenty persons gathered together at Sanquhar, June 22, 1680, when Michael Cameron read it, and left a copy affixed to the Cross. It was the first public statement in which allegiance to Charles II. was renounced, because of the supremacy he claimed over the Church. It is appended to the Informatory Vindication, which contains an explanation and defence of this Declaration by Renwick. Wodrow, in his History, gives a kindly plea for its authors, written by " a very worthy Presbyterian minister lately got to the joy of the Lord." The Sanquhar Declaration roused the Government to fury. A counter proclamation was issued, declaring it to be " a most treasonable and unparallelled paper," and offering 5000 merks for Richard Cameron, 3000 merks for Douglas, Cargill, and Michael Cameron, and looo for each one of the traitors, dead or alive, to be instantly paid to their captors.
The Queensferry paper, referred to in this and several of the following testimonies, was said to have been found upon Henry Hall of Haughhead, June 3, 1680. It was unsubscribed, was evidently an imperfect draught, and was never, as whole, owned by the so- cieties. Hall was waiting for an opportunity to go over to Holland with it when he was captured. Though incomplete, it is yet an able document, and asserts in bold prominence a doctrine that must have been specially unpalatable to Charles II. and the debauchees asso- ciated with him — the absolute necessity of moral character in a ruler, be his office what it may. The paper is in Wodrow, and the tenor of it is given in the appendix to this work. — Ed.]
36
A Cloud of Witnesses.
QUKENSKEkRY.
HE LAST TESTIMONY of Mr James Boig, Student of Theology, who suffered at the Cross of Edinburgh, '/ July 27, 1 68 1, written in a letter to his brother : —
" Dear Brother, — I have not now time to write that Avhich I would ; but to satisfy your desire, and the desire of others, who are concerned in the cause and work of God, that is now at this time trampled upon, I have given out my indictment to a friend of yours, and now I shall give you an account of the enemies' prosecution thereof against us.
" My indictment did run upon three heads- — " I. That 1 had disowned the King's authority; " 2. That I said, the rising in arms at Bothwell Bridge was lawful, and upon the defence of truth ;
" 3. That I owned the Sanquhar Declaration in the whole heads and articles thereof And ha\^ing again owned this before the Jus- ticiary and Assizers [/>., the Jury], I held my peace, and spake no more, because I saw what was spoken by others was not regarded, either by our unjust judges or mocking auditors. All that our speak- ing did, was the exposing of us to the mockery of all present.
y antes Boig. 37
" But the reasons that were given in thus, for our defence in the first head were — That we could not own the authority, as now presently established, unless we should also own the Supremacy which the King hath usurped over the Church. By our doing of this, we should rob Christ of that which is His right ; and give that unto a man, which is due to no mortal. The reason is, because the Supremacy is declared in their Acts of Parliament to be essential to the crown ; and that which is essential to anything, is the same with the thing itself ; so that in owning the authority, we are of necessity obliged to justify them in their usurpation also. But there is another argument, which to me is valid, though I spoke it not before them, and it does not a little trouble me that I should have passed it. The Advocate, in his discourse to the assizers among other things, said, that we were over- turning these acts and laws which they, the assizers, had consented to, and were owning. Now, I suppose cheir consent to the present acts and laws was never formally required of them, but that which is taken for their consent is their simple silence, when these acts were made and published, and owning these Parliaments as their repre- sentatives ; so that 1 may clearly argue from this, that, even in their own sense, my owning of the present authority now established as lawful, and the present magistrates as my magistrates, is a giving my consent to the present acts and laws, and so consequently to the robbing of Christ of that which is His right.
" As to the second, it being but one particular fact, deduced from that principle of the lawfulness of self-defence, and this principle being as positively asserted by all of us, I look upon the principle to be as expressly sealed with our blood, as that particular fact of rising in arms at Bothwell Bridge is.
" As to the third, it being a deed consequential from the first, I looked upon them both to stand and fall together; and he that owneth the first, must of necessity own the last also.
" And as to that of declaring of war, I did always look upon it to be one and the same, though differently expressed, with that con- tained in the paper found at the Queensferry ; and that the mam design of it was to vindicate us before the world in our repelling unjust violence, and clearing us of these aspersions that were cast upon us, viz., the holding, as a principle, the lawfulness of private assassinations (which we disown), and murdering all those who are not of the same judgment with us.
" These are the truths which we are to seal Avith our blood, to-
38 A Cloud of Witnesses.
morrow, in the afternoon, at the Cross of Edinburgh. As to other particular actions, we decUned to answer positively to them, as that of the Archbishop [Sharp's] death. We told them that we could not be judges of other men's actions. As to the excommunication [at the Torwood], because we declined them, as not competent judges, to cognosce upon an ecclesiastic matter, they did not proceed upon it.
" And now, dear brother, you may see our quarrel clearly stated to be the same that Mr James Guthrie laid down his head for ; beside whose, mine and my other two friends' heads are to be set. There were many other things passed in private betwixt me and Mr William Paterson (sometime my regent, now Council Clerk), with some others who strongly assaulted me with their snares ; but now I hope I may say, that ' my soul hath escaped like a bird out of the snare of the fowler.'
" And as to your second desire, of knowing how it went with my soul. Many and strong have been the assaults of Satan since I came to prison ; but glory to God, who hath not been wanting to me in giving me assistance, yea, many times unsought \ and He is yet continuing, and I hope shall do to the end, to carry me above the fear of death, so that I am in as sweet a calm, as if I were going to be married to one dearly beloved. Alas I my cold heart is not able to answer His burning love j but what is wanting in me is, and shall be, made up in a Saviour complete and well furnished in all things, appointed of the Father for this end, to bring His straying children to their own home, whereof (I think I may adventure to say it) I am one, though feckless [/.<:., worthless].
" Now, I have no time to enlarge, else I would give you a more particular account of God's goodness and dealing with me \ but let this suffice, that I am once fairly on the way, and within the view of Immanuel's land, and in hopes to be received an inhabitant there within the space of twenty-six hours at most. Farewell all earthly comforts, farewell all worldly vanities, farewell all carnal desires ; welcome cross, welcome gallows, welcome Christ, welcome heaven and everlasting happiness.
" 1 have no more spare time. Grace, mercy, and peace be with you. Amen.
" From Edinburgh Tolbooth, July 27, 1681. " Sic stibscribitur,
"JAMES BOIG."
David Hackston.
AVID HACKSTON, of Rathillet, in the parish of Kihnany, Fifeshire, was a gentleman of good family. He was present at the death of Archbishop Sharp, but took no share in the matter. He was at Drumclog and Bothwell Bridge. John Howie has given him a merited place among the Scots Worthies.
His sentence is in " Wodrow." It is scarcely possible to con- ceive anything more savage and revolting. Burnet says of him, '• He was so low, by reason of his wounds, that it was thought he would die in the Question if tortured ; so he was, in a very summary way, condemned to have both his hands cut off, and then to be hanged. All this he suffered with a constancy that amazed all people ; he seemed to be all the while in an enthusiastical rapture, and insensible of what was done to him. When his hands were cut off, he asked, like one unconcerned, if his feet must be cut off likewise ; and he had so strong a heart, that, notwithstanding all the loss of blood by his wounds and the cutting off his hands, yet, when he was hanged up and his heart cut out, it continued to palpitate some time after it was on the hangman's knife, as some eye-witnesses assured me." Defoe and Patrick Walker give still more circum- stantial accounts of the cruelties perpetrated on him at his execution. —Ed.]
■ HE TESTIMONY of that valiant and worthy Gentle- man, David Hackston of Rathillet, who suffered at the Cross of Edinburgh, July 30, 1680 : —
His Interrogations and Answers before the Privy Council, Saturday, July 26, 1680.
I. Whether or not had you any hand in the murder- ing of the late Archbishop of St Andrews ? Answered, He was not obliged to answer that question, nor be his own accuser.
A Cloud of Wiiuesses.
TOLBOOTH OF EDINBURGH —bOUTH IKUXT — NOW KhMOVED
II. What he would declare as to the King's authority? Answered, The authority that disowns the interest of God, and states [/>., sets] itself in opposition to Jesus Christ, is no more to be owned ; but so it is, the King's authority is now such, therefore it ought not to be owned.
III. Whether the killing the Archbishop of St Andrews was murder, yea or not ? Answered, That he thought it no sin to despatch a bloody monster.
IV. If he owned the New Covenant, taken at the Queensferry, from ]\Ir Cargill, one of their preachers ? Answered, That he did own it in every particular thereof, and would fain see the man that in conscience and reason would debate the contrary.
V. If he were at liberty, and had the power to kill any of the King's council, and murder them as he did the Archbishop of St An- drews, whether he would do it, yea or not? Answered, That he had no spare time to answer such frivolous and childish questions.
The Chancellor told him, that if he were not more ingenuous in his answers, he would presently be tortured. He answered, " That is but a little addition to your former cruelties, and I have that comfort, that though you torture my wounded body, yet ye cannot reach my soul." The Chancellor urged him with several other questions, which
David Hackston. 4 1
he refused to answer. But, said he, " I would gladly speak a little, if I could have liberty ; " which was allowed him.
Then he said : " Ye know that youth is a folly, and I acknow- ledge that, in my younger \ ears, I was too much carried down with the spate [i.e., flood] of it ; but that inexhaustible fountain of the goodness and grace of God, which is free and great, hath reclaimed me, and, as a firebrand, hath plucked me out of the claws of Satan ; and now I stand here before you as a prisoner of Jesus Christ, for adhering to His cause and interest, which hath been sealed \vith the blood of many worthies, who have suffered in these lands, and have witnessed to the truths of Christ these few years bygone. And I do own all the testimonies given by them, and desire to put in my mite among theirs, and am not only willing to seal it with my blood, but also to seal it with the sharpest tortures that you can imagine."
Then, being interrogated by the Bishop of Edinburgh, what he would answer to that article of the Confession of Faith, that differ ence of religion doth not make void the Magistrate's right and autho- rity? He answered, that he would not answer any perjured Prelate. The Bishop replied, he was in the wrong to him, because he never took the Covenant, therefore he was not perjured, and so deserved not that name. But some of them asking him how he would answer that question, he answered, " That question was answered long ago, by the Solemn League and Covenant, which binds us only to maintain and defend the King in the defence of the true religion : but now the king having stated himself an enemy to religion, and all that will live religiously, therefore it is high time to shake oft' all obligation of allegiance to his authority."
These interrogations were all read to him in the face of the council, and he owned all. The next day he was arraigned before the council. They asked if he had any more to say. He answered, that which he had to say, was said already in every particular thereof, and, said he, " I will not only seal it with my blood, but with all the tortures you can imagine."
42 A Cloud of Witfiesses.
of the proceedings of the Privy Council, Edinburgh, July 29, 1680.
In presence of the Lords, Justiciary Clerk, and Commissioners of Justiciary, compeared David Hack- ston of Rathillet, and declines the King's Majesty's authority, the authority of the Commissioners of Justi- ciary as his judges, and absolutely refuses to sign this declaration, as being before persons who are not his judges. He refuses to answer concerning the murder of the late Archbishop of St Andrews, and says the causes of his declinement are, " because they have usurped the Supremacy over the Church, belonging alone to Jesus Christ, and have established idolatry, perjury, and other iniqui- ties ; and, in prosecuting their design in confirming themselves in this usurped right, have shed much innocent blood." Therefore the said David, adhering to Christ His rights and kingly office over the Church, declines them that are His open enemies and competitors for His crown and power as competent judges ; refuses, as formerly, to sign this his declaration, dated from his own mouth ; whereupon his Ma- jesty's Advocate takes instruments, and requires the Commissioners of Justiciary to sign the same in his presence as for him ; and his Majesty's Advocate takes instruments, that the said David has de- clined his Majesty's authority and the authority of his commissioners, and refused to deny the murder of the late Archbishop of St Andrews, and requires Mr John Vass, James Balfour, and the men of the court witnesses to the foresaid declaration. Sic suhscrihitu7% Sir Robert Maitland, James Foulis, David Baltour, David Falconer, Rodger Hodge.
PON Friday, July 30, being again brought before the council, it was asked of him if he had any other thing to say. He answered " That which I have said, I will seal it." Then they told him they had something to say to him, and commanded him to sit down and receive his sentence, which willingly he did ; but told them, they were all murderers, for all that power they had was derived from tyranny, and that these years bygone they have not only tyran- nised over the Church of God, but have also grinded the face of the
David Hackston. 43
poor, so that oppression, bloodshed, perjury, and many murders were to be found in their skirts. Upon which he was incontinent \i.e., instantly] carried away to the scaffold at the Market Cross of Edin- burgh, where he died with great torture inflicted upon his body, not being permitted to leave any testimony to the world ; except what is comprehended in these missives, directed to some of his Christian acquaintance from his prison in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, which are as follows :
OPY of a Letter written by David Hackston of Rathillet, to his Christian friend N. Dated from )j the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, July 25, 1680.
ir?'<s^"^ex " D'^^^ Acquaintance, — I know this late dispensa-
" (^'(V§2 ^^^^^ °^ Providence will occasion much sadness to you,
^^^ and other lovers of God's truth ; now in this day, Y when so few by their practice prove themselves to be
zealous for God, or lovers of His truth, but, instead of that growth in the graces of God's Spirit, and steadfastness which should be in Christians, have made defection from the truth, and are fallen from their first love, to the strengthening the hands of usurpers of the crown of Christ, in their unlawful encroachments on the privileges of the Son of God.
" Wherefore, I entreat you, and all others, as you would not offend God, and provoke Him to more anger, do not murmur, but bless and praise Him, and submit to Him in all humility; for if this be one of the steps to Zion's deliverance, and God's glory, why should not we praise Him for everything ? If we had the manner of our delivery at our carving, we would spill \i.c., mar] it. He is the wisdom of the Father, who sits at the helm, and orders all affairs. The faith of this should silence all suggestions from Satan, our own hearts, and misbelief.
" I desire you will discharge all that have love or affection to me, not to be sad on my account, but rather to rejoice on my behalf, that God hath so honoured me in all I have been trysted [/>., tried] with. For as He took me, when I was a slave to Satan and sin, and cast His love upon me, and plucked me as a brand out of the fire, and brought me into covenant with Him, to pro-
44 -^ Cloud of Witnesses.
mote and carry foi-^'ard His work without fear of what man could do unto me; and as He helped me to make the bargaui with Him in good terms ; which was a renouncing of my own strength, and a resolution to do all in His strength ; so now He hath been faithful in all things to me, and hath furnished me sufficiently for what He hath called me to, and hath passed by my many gross failings, and breaches of my conditions to Him, and hath done to me above what I could ask of Him.
" Oh ! that I could commend Him to all, and stir up all to fear, admire, and praise Him, and believe on Him ! But the lukewarm- ness and want of love to God, and indift'erency in Christ's matters (which, in His condescendency to His Church He hath reserved as His declarative glory), and neutrality in these things, are come to so great a height amongst professors, that I think God is laying stumbling-blocks before them, one after another ; that, when they are fallen Avhom He will have to fall. He may be glorified in His justice, by bringing that stroke of vengeance that seems to be hanging over these lands, because of their fearful idolatry, perjury, bloodshed, blasphemy, and other abominations which the whole land is this day guilty of.
" Think it not strange that I say all are guilty. There are none free, nor shall be reputed free in the sight of God, but mourners in Zion. Lord grant repentance and a spirit of mourning ! Brokenness and contrition of spirit are the only sacrifices well-pleasing unto God ; and I prove all guilty ; first, our representatives, and so we in them, established these sins in our national decrees, which we have homo- logated in owning them ever after, and much more have we homo- logated their sins, in contributing, one way or other, to the strengthen- ing of their hands against God ; as, alas ! but few be free of this, this day. Oh ! that preachers would preach repentance, and professors would exhort one another to mourn in secret, and together, because of sin ; and with their mourning would believe ; for these are ver)' consistent together.
" I find flesh and blood great enemies to faith, and friends, yea fosterers, 6i sinful fears. It is above nature to believe, especially when dispensations seem to contradict our faith. But if any had faith towards God concerning me, let not this brangle [/>., weaken] their faith, but rather strengthen it. There is nothing can contradict what God hath determined ; but over the belly of all opposition He will perfect His work in and by me, either to a remarkable deliver)',
David Hacks ton. 45
or through-bearing [/>., upholding] me as He sees most for His own glory.
" Wherefore, let us submit to His will, and lie before His throne in behalf of Zion and her children. And oh ! that ye yourselves would, and that ye would desire others that are faithful, to hold up my case to Zion's God, that He would glorify Himself in me ; and let your prayers be in faith. ' To him that believeth, all things are possible,' There are many feckless [/.c., worthless] misbelieving prayers, that jirevail not with God, because of unbelief 1 know these sufferings will be a great stumbling to many otherwise gracious ; but let it not be to you. I bless God it is not, as yet, so to me ; but rather the power, yea, the love of God to me ; for it was not altogether un- expected unto me.
" For (not to reflect upon any that have sealed that truth and cause, as we stated it, with their blood), I cannot deny but it was over the belly of conscience that 1 joined with some of our party; — [referring to the discussions and fatal divisions immediately previous to the battle of Bothwell Bridge. — Ed.] — for some of them had not their garments clean of their late defections, and there was too much of pride amongst us. Neither dare I allow that taking of satisfaction for practices, which are the homologating of the public sins, which we did about half-an-hour before our break ; which checked me exceedingly in the time. I think real sorrow would make men, like the prodigal, to think themselves not worthy to be employed in that work. Real evidences of reconciliation with God should be seen before admission to such an employment.
" Oh ! that all would take warning, by my reproof, not to venture to follow any man over conscience ! There were choice, godly men amongst us, but one Achan will make Israel to fall. I fear the want of faith among us, first and last, and all along our late business. I know many mouths will be opened against me, because of what I did before this business. But I dare not but speak it ; this is a stumbling- block laid to drive them to more sin ; and alas ! that I did not do more to purge us of every sin, especially known sin among us. These that abode within, and came not out with us, let them remem- ber Meroz' curse. I am afraid that God thinks them not free of our blood, for not joining to our help.
" And now, knowing ye will be anxious to know how it was then [at Airsmoss], and how it hath been since with me : First, we getting notice of a party out seeking us, sent two on Wednesday night late
46 A Cloud of Witnesses.
to know their motion, and lay on a muir side all night, and Thursday about ten hours [/>., ten o'clock], we went to take some meat ; and sent out other two, and desired them to consult with the first two, who had not come to us, but were lying down to sleej) ; who all four returned and told us, it was unnecessary to send any for intelligence, they having secured it.
'• Whereupon, after we had gotten some meat, we came to a piece of grass, and lay down, and presently we were all alarmed that they were upon us ; and so making ready, we saw them coming fast on, and that about three or four hours [z>., three or four o'clock] in the afternoon ; and each one resolving to fight, I rode off, to seek a strength [/>., a piece of rising or commanding ground] for our advantage, and being desired by a countrj^man to go into such a place for the best strength, I went, and they followed ; but, coming to it, I found we could go no further, and so running and drawing up quickly eight horse on the right hand with R. D[ick], and fifteen on the left with me, being no more ; the foot not being forty, and many of them ill armed in the midst ; I asked all if they were willing to fight, who all said yes, especially J[ames] G[ray].
" The enemy advanced fast, whom I took to be above an hundred and twelve, Avell armed and horsed ; who sent first about twenty dra- goons on foot to take the wind of us, which we seeing, sent a party on foot to meet them, and the rest of us advanced fast on the enemy, being a strong body of horse coming hard on us ; whereupon, when we were joined, our horse fired first, and wounded and killed some of them, both horse and foot. Our horse advanced to their faces, and we fired on each other, I being foremost after receiving their fire, and, finding the horse behind me broken, I then rode in amongst them, and went out at a side, without any wrong or wound. I was pursued by several, with whom I fought a good space ; sometimes they following me, and sometimes I following them.
" At length my horse bogged, and also the foremost of theirs, which was David Ramsay, one of my acquaintance. We both being on foot, fought it with small swords, without advantage to one another, but at length closing, I was stricken down with three on horseback behind me, and receiving three sore wounds on the head, and so falling, he saved my life, which I submitted to. They searched me, and carried me to their rear, and laid me down, where I bled much ; where were also brought several of their men sore wounded. They gave us all testimony of brave resolute men. What more of our men were killed,
David Hacks toil. 47
I did not see nor know, but, as they told me after, the field was theirs. [Nine were killed in all. The inscription on the monument erected where they fell is in the Appendix.] I was brought towards Douglas. They used me civilly, and brought me drink out of a house by the way. At Douglas, Janet Cleland was kind to me, and brought a chirurgeon [i.e., a surgeon] to me, who did but little to my wounds, only stanched the blood.
" Next morning I was brought to Lanark, and brought before Dalziel, Lord Ross, and some others, who asked many questions at me ; but I not satisfying them with answers, Dalziel did threaten to roast me, and carrying me to the tolbooth, caused me to be bound most barbarously, and cast me down ; where I lay till Saturday morn- ing, without any, except soldiers, admitted to speak to me, or look to my wounds, or give me any ease whatsoever. And next morning they brought me and John Pollock, and other two of us, two miles on foot, I being without shoes, where that party which had broken us at first re- ceived us. They were commanded by [Bruce of] Earlshall. We were horsed, civilly used by them on the way, and brought to Edinburgh, about four in the afternoon, and carried about the north side of the towTi to the foot of the Canongate, where the town magistrates were, who received us ; and setting me on a horse with my face backward, and the other three bound on a goad of iron, and Mr Cameron's head carried on a halbert before me, and another head in a sack, whose I knew not, on a lad's back, we were so carried up the street to the Parliament Close, where I was taken down, and the rest loosed. All was done by the hangman.
" I was carried up to the Council, and first put up into a room alone, where the Chancellor [the Duke of Rothes] came, and asked if I knew him. I answered yes. He, after some protestations of love, to which I answered nothing, went his way, and then I was brought in before the Council, where the Chancellor read a dittay [i.e., indictment] against me.
" First, anent the Archbishop's murder, to which I answered, I was obliged by no law, either of God or man, to answer to it, and neither to accuse myself nor reveal others, by vindicating myself, or any other way.
" The Advocate asked where I was the third day of May was a year ; to whom I answered, ' I am not bound to keep a memorial where I am or what I do every day.'
" The Chancellor asked if I thought it murder; to which I answered,
48
A Cloud of Witnesses.
I ( I HU LI 1 I Jb( I
though I was not bound to answer such cjuestions, yet I would not call it so, but rather say, it was no murder.
" The Advocate said, ' sir, you must be a great liar, to say you remember not where you were that day, it being so remarkable a day.' 1 replied, ' sir, you must be a far greater Har, to say I answered such a thing.'
" Whereupon the Chancellor replied, ' My Lord Advocate, he said only he was not bound to keep in memory every day's work.'
" The Chancellor asked if I adhered to Mr Cargill's papers, which they called the New Covenant, taken at the Queensferry ? I answered I would know what any would say against them.
" He asked if I owned the king's authority ? I told, though I was not bound to answer such questions, yet, being permitted to speak, I would say somewhat to that. And first, that there could be no lawful authority but what was of God ; and that no authority, stated [i.e., set up] in a direct opposition to God, could be of God, and that I knew of no authority nor judicatory this day in these nations but what were in a direct opposition to God, and so could neither be of God, nor lawful ; and that their fruits were kything [/>., manifesting] it, in that they were setting bougerers, murderers, sorcerers, and such others, at libert}' from justice, and employing them in their
David Hackston. 49
service, and made it their whole work to oppress, kill, and destroy the Lord's people.
" The Chancellor and all raged, and desired me to instance one of such so set at liberty and employed. I answered to that, though it were enough to instance any such, when I saw a judicatory to exe- cute justice, yet I would instance one, and I instanced a bougerer, liberated at the sheriff court of Fife, and afterwards employed in their service, at which the Chancellor raged, and said I behoved to be a liar ; but I offered to prove it.
" Bishop Paterson asked if ever Pilate and that judicatory, who were direct enemies to Christ, were disowned by Him as judges ? I answered that I would answer no perjured prelate in the nation. He answered that he could not be called perjured, because he never took that sacrilegious Covenant. I answered, that God would own that Covenant, when there were none of them to oppose it. They all cried that I was prophesying. I answered, I was not prophesying, but that I durst not doubt but God, who had such singular love to these lands as to bring them into Covenant in so peculiar a manner with Him, would let it be seen that His faithfulness was engaged to carry it through, in opposition to His enemies.
" Some asked what I answered to that article of the Confession of Faith, concerning the king ? I answered, it was cleared in these two Covenants. I'he Advocate asked, what I said of that article of the Covenant, wherein we are bound to maintain and defend the king? I desired Him to tell out the rest of it, which was in defence of religion, but not in the destruction of religion.
" The Chancellor threatened me mth the Boots, and other terrible things, and said that I should not have the benefit of a sudden death. To which I answered, it would be but an addition to their cruelties used against God's people before, and that I was there a prisoner of Christ, owning His truths against His open enemies ; and referred it to their OAvn Acts of Parliament and Council, to let their cruelty and opposition to God and His people be seen.
" After this, they called for a chirurgeon, and removed me to another room, where he dressed my wounds, in which time the Chancellor came and kindly asked, If ever I said to a shepherd, on the Mount- hill, that, if I thought they would not put me to an ignominious death, I would refer myself to the Chancellor ? I said. No. He said that a shepherd came to him and said so. I said, That he, or any other that said so to him, were liars. I was asked by some concern
50 A Cloud of Witnesses.
ing our strength ; to which I told how few we were, and how sur- prised by such a strong party, and, knowing with what cruel orders they came against us, were forced to fight.
" After dressing of my wounds, I was brought back to them, and these things, being written, were read over to me, to which I adhered ; and being asked if I would sign them, I said, Not. The Chancellor said. He would do it for me. Some one of them asked at the first time, concerning my being at some other business. To whom I answered. That though I was not obliged to answer to such ques- tions, yet I adhered to all that had been done in behalf of that cause against its enemies. After which, I was sent to the Tolbooth, and have met since with all manner of kindness, and want for nothing. My wounds are duly dressed, which, I fear, may prove deadly, they being all in the head. The rest of my body is safe.
" In all these trials, I bless the Lord, 1 was staid, unmoved ; no alteration of countenance in the least, nor impatience appeared. Some of them have come to me, and regretted that such a man as I should have been led away with Cameron. I answered. He was a faithful minister of Jesus Christ ; and as for me, I desired to be one of these despicable ones whom Christ choosed. They said. It was a Quaker-like answer. I told, It was the words of Christ and His apostles. Bishop Paterson's brother (unknown to me), had a long reasoning with me, but I think not to truth's disadvantage. He told me. That the whole Council observed, that I gave them not their due titles ; at which I smiled, and made no reply. He said, I was ill to the Bishop. I told that I asserted the truth. He said. That he never took the Covenant, and so could not be perjured. I answered, Prelacy itself was abjured by the whole nation. He told me. That the whole Council found I was a man of great parts, and also of good birth. I replied, For my birth, I was related to the best in the kingdom, which