Judge as I desire Salvation and do expect eternall Salvation and happiness from Him from my Birth to my Scaffold I am free from any accession by my Knowledge concerning Counsel or any other way to his late Ma. death And I pray the Lord preserve his present Maj. and to pour his best blessings on his Person and Government and the Lord give him good and faithful councellors Turn-about to his Friends he said Many Christians may stumble at this and my Friends may be discontented But when things are rightly considered my freinds have no Discredit of Me nor Christians no Stumbling block but rather an Encouragement The last Speech and Testimony of M R JAMES GUTHRIE Minister of the Gospel at Sterlin at his Death at Edinburgh Jun. 1. 1661. which a day or two before his Death he wrot and left with some of his Friends sealed and attested under his own hand MEn and Brethren I fear many of yow become hither to gaze rather then to be edified by the carriage and last words of a dying man But if any have an hear to hear as I hope some of this great confluence have I desire your audience to a few words I am come hither to lay down this earthly Tabernacle and mortal flesh of mine and I bless God through His Grace I do it willingly and not by constraint I say I suffer willingly If I had been so minded I might have made a diversion and not been a Prisoner But being conscious to my Self of nothing worthy of Death or of Bonds I would not stain my Innocency with the suspicion of guiltiness by my withdrawing neither have I wanted opportunities and advantages to escape since I was Prisoner not by the fault of my keepers God knoweth but otherwise But neither for this had I Light or Liberty left I should reflect upon the Lord's Name and offend the Generation of the Righteous And if some men have not been mistaken or dealt deceatfully in telling me so I might have avoided not only the severity of the Sentence but also had much favor and countenance by complying with the courses of the time But I durst not redeem my Life with the loss of my Integrity God knoweth I durst not and that since I was Prisoner He hath so holden me by the hand that he never suffered me to bring it in debate in my inward thoughts much less to propone or hearken to any overture of that kind I did judge it better to Suffer then to Sin And therefore I am come hither to lay down my life this day And I bless God I die not as a Fool Not that I have any thing wherein to glory in my self I acknowledge that I am a Sinner yea one of the greatest and vilest that hes owned a profession of Religion and one of the most unworthy that hes Preached the Gospel my corruptions have been strong and many and have made me a sinner in all things yea even in following my duty And therefore Righteousness have I none of mine own all is vile But I do beleeve that Jesus Christ came into the World to save sinners whereof I am Chief Through Faith in his Righteousness and Blood have I obtained Mercy and through Him and Him alone have I the hope of a blessed conquest and Victory over Sin and Sathan and Hell and Death and that I shall attain unto the Resurrection of the Just and be made Partaker of Eternal Life I know in whom I have beleeved and that He is able to keep than which I have committed unto Him against that day I have Preached Salvation through His Name and as I have preached so do I Beleeve and do commend the Riches of His Free-grace and Faith in His Name unto yow all as the only way whereby ye can be saved And as I bless the Lord that I die not as a fool so also that I die not for Evil-doing Not a few of yow may happily judge that I suffer as a Thief or as a Murtherer or as an evil Doer or as an Bussy body in other mens matters It was the lot of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and hath been of many of His Precious Servants and People to suffer by the World as evil Doers as my soul scareth not at it but desireth to rejoice in being brought into Conformity with my Blessed Head and so blessed a Company in this thing so do I desire and Pray that I may be to none of yow to day upon this account a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence Blessed is he that shall not be offended at Jesus Christ and his poor servants and members because of their being condemned as evil doers by the World God is my record that in these things for which Sentence of Death hath passed against me I have a good Conscience I bless God they are not matters of Complyance with Sectaries or Designes or Practices against His Majest Person or Government or the Person or Government of His Royal Father My heart I bless God is conscious unto no Disloalty Nay Loyal I have been and I commend it unto you to be Loyal and obedient in the Lord. True Piety is the foundation of True Loyalty A wicked man may be a flatterer and a Time-server but he will never be a Loyal Subject But to return to my purpose the matters for which I am condemned are matters belonging to my Calling and Function as a Minister of the Gospel such as the Discovery and Reproving of Sin The pressing the holding fast of the Oath of God in the Covenant and preserving and carrying on the Work of Religion and Reformation according thereto And Denying to acknowledge the Civil Magistrat as the Proper Competent Iudge in causes Ecclesiastical That in all these things which God so ordering by His gracious Providence are the grounds of my Inditement and Death I have a good Conscience as having walked therein according to the Light and Rule of God's Word and as did become a Minister of the Gospel I do also bless the Lord that I do not die as one not desired I know that by not a few I neither have been nor am desired It hath been my lot to have been a man of Contention and Sorrow But it is my comfort that for my own things I have not contended but for the things of Jesus Christ for what relateth to His Interest and Work and the well being of His People In order to the preserving and promoting of these I did Protest against and stood in Opposition unto these late Assemblies at St Andrewes Dundee and Edinburgh and the Publick Resolutions for bringing the Malignant Party into the Judicatories and Armies of this Kingdom conceaving the same contrary to the Word of God and to our Solemn Covenants and Engagements and to be an inlet to Defection and to the Ruine and destruction of the Work of God And it is now manifest to many consciences that I have not been therein
answere for itself if according to the Patience Learning Justice of many thow do not Refute and condemn before thow know it or brandish big words as he who upon a Coronation-day offereth duell to all who question the Kings Right when he knoweth that for Major Vis none dare appear in the contrary But in the passing take a word of the National Covenant the Solemn League and Covenant and Solemn Acknowledgment of Sins and Engagement unto Duties that at one view thow may'st see Scotlands Engagements and Breaches the Faithfulness of many flood of Sin and Suffering that hath overflowed the Land Here is the Terminus a Quo and ad Quem of our Backsliding whereof though the most skilled Artist cannot pourtray to the life the whole body the form is so monstruous Complexion so strange he may well darkly represent some Lineaments of fingers and toes that the reader may know Ex ungue leonâ—m yet the Author hath nervously asserted the Truth and drawn matters of Fact with such True Collours that he can only be accused for a Picture fairer then the live-face of many Persons Actions To winde up all be not discouraged upon the one hand nor insult upon the other by the Death of many Mighty men of God Co-workers and Eye witnesses of his Work within these few years past and the stripling-stature of many survivers who have not attained unto the dayes of the years of the life of their Fathers and being but of yesterday can know little of the Lords ancient kindness to the Land except what thâ—ir Fathers have told them For as he hath reserved a numerous remnant of Holy Learned and Faithful men a rich cluster wherein there is a blessing and we have reason to bless Him who gave not our Church dry breasts a miscarrying womb so he can make the barren bear seven become a Joyful mother of many Children and as he hath work for them will raise up both Shepherds and Principal men It is true alas there is grown up a most degenerat Off-spring of all Qualities some whereof and not the meanest being as profane as Machiavel who teacheth Rulers to keep promise and Oath no longer then with pretended advantage they can break and that it is a prejudice to be Really Religious but not so honest as He who notwithstanding affirmeth a Necessity of Seeming to be Religious which they are not accompt no man to be a Man who by Whoring Swearing Drinking Spending all or more then they have do not class themselves into their new Profane Orders become as Cartesian in their Religion by Atheistical doubtings disputings about God the Holy Scripturs Heaven Hell c. as others are in their Philosophy But here is an Advantage that by Discovery and distinguishing betwixt the precious and the vile the Lord hath made this Defection contribut more to the Facility as well as Necessity of a future Purgation of the Church then all her Judicatures could ever effectuat without it And further as he hath frustrated many chief Authors and Promotters thereof of their Hopes and Designs and called Nobles Prelats and others to an accompt before they well tasted the expected sweetness or were warm in their Places or Promotions So though Herod Pilat may aggrie against the Innocent yet where men are like Samsons foxes only tied together by the tail of common Corrupt Principles whilst their heads of Self Interest and designs look different wayes what such a Position Conjunction and Aspect prognosticateth let Scripture Reason and Experience be consulted and they will tell Let us not in the meantime mistake Gods Work Wayes Doings nor Intentions neither be envyous at evil doers nor yet be Curious nor Anxious about futuritions much less limit the Holy one to Means Method or Time but bear the Indignation of the Lord because we have sinned till he plead our cause waiting upon him who is a God of Judgment and waiteth that he may be gracious and in patience possess our souls for though we do not he knoweth his own thoughts toward us it may be they are thoughts of peace and not of evil to give an expected end and that when he hath ripen'd Deliverance he will bring us forth to the Light we shall behold his Righteousness It is a crime of the highest nature with our Rulers to complain or supplicat for redress Others are either of deaf ears or feeble hands and cannot help and seeing we can do no more for the Cause and Covenant of God for our Mother-Church the Land Ourselves Our Brethren Posterity let us open our cause to him who tryeth the Righteous O Lord Hear O Lord Forgive O Lord hearken and do Defer not for thine own sake O my God For thy City and thy People are called by thy Name AMEN The Testimony of M R JAMES WOOD Minister of the Gospel and Professor of Theology in the University of S. Andrewes for Presbyterial Government I MR JAMES WOOD being now shortly by appearance to render up my Spirit to the Lord find my self obliged to leave a word behind me for my just Vindication before the World It hath been said of me that I have in word at least reseiled from my wonted Zeal for Presbyterial Government expressing my self concerning it as if it were a matter not to be accounted of that no man should trouble himself in the matter practice thereof It is true being under sicknes I have some times said I was taken up with weightier matters then any external ordinance and what wonder I said so being under such wrestling anâ—nt my interest in Iesus Christ which is a matter of for greater concernment Surely any Christian in this Church that knows me will judge there is a wrong done to me For since the day that the Lord convinced my heart which was by a strong hand that it was the Ordinance of God appointed by Iesus Christ for governing ordering his visible Church I never had the least change of thoughts concerning the necessity of it nor of the necessity of the use of it And now I declare before God the World that I account so of it still And that however there be some more precious ordinances yet that this is so precious that a true Christian is obliged to lay down his life for the profession thereof if the Lord shall see it meet to put him to the tryal And for my self if I were to live I would account it my glory to seal this word of my testimony with my blood Of this my declaration I take God Angels and Men to be my witnesses and have subscribed thiâ— presents with my hand the 2 of March 1664. about 7 hours afternoon before Mr William Tullidaf and Mr John Carstairs my Brother in Law and John Pitcarn writer hereof M R JAMES WOOD. AS the Matter of this Testimony is very considerable especially from so Great a man as Mr Wood was So the occasion
Engagements whereby this whole Nation is perpetually joyned unto the Lord and also ever animat yow to Do or Suffer for the Lords great Name and these precious important concernments as He requireth lest if ye either faint in your mindes or give up your selves to the delusion of some carnal distinction quiting the founder for the safer part against the explicit Testimony or implicit inclination of your own Consciences which later if sincerely aiming at the glory of God and in nothing repugnant to His holy Word is no otherwise to be regarded in times of temptation then as that promised secret leading of the blind in the way they know not you not only lose your Crown but provoke the Lord to cause all the Churches know by your plagues that He it is who searcheth the reins hearts But unto these few names in Scotland that have appeared zealous for God have not forgotten His Covenant in these declining times all these who favour their Righteous Cause The Lord who liveth was dead and is alive for evermore Amen knoweth your works tribulation poverty but yow are rich and also the blasphemy of them which say they are Christians are not but are the synagogue of Antichrist Fear none of these things which yow do or shall suffer your afflictions are but for Triall and may be Short be Faithful unto the death and ye shall have the Crown of life And as ye love God the Father of our Lord Jesus who gave His only and eternall delight unto the death for us Sinners as ye love our Lord Jesus Christ who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood as ye love the Holy Spirit of Grace who breatheth all this love into our hearts and comforteth and sealeth us unto the day of redemption as ye love the blessed Gospel in the light whereof all this love is revealed and God therein mainly glorified as ye love the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood as ye love for your own souls and for your posterity eternal life as ye love poor Scotland and it's deliverance from the dreadful and imminent wrath of God and as you love the preservation of all Interests either Spiritual Temporal or Eternal Adhere stedfastly to the holy Covenants that Sacred and Firm Bond and Engagement unto all duties of Religion and Righteousness our blessed sealed Charter of all the Lord's blessings and ordinances especially of that great Ordinance of the Ministry and Government of the Lord's house which He himself hath appointed the hedge of all other Ordinances and the great and most effectual mean of the Gospel's establishment and advancement For as it is only the holy zeal of God inspired and animated by the fervent love of our Lord Jesus and the fear of the Lord 's great Name and the regard of His sacred Oath that can make you of quick understanding in these perillous times for the discovering of both duties and dangers and strengthen you with all might either for Doing or Suffering that you may endure unto the end so you may be assured that if the Lord's thoughts toward Scotland be thoughts of peace and not of evil to give us an expected end as we have great ground and perswasion of hope it shall be upon the broken plank of this despised Covenant that this tossed and ship-wrackt Church shall be preserved in midst of all these fluctuations and at length attain to it's desired haven of Peace and Truth Yea though this Apostacy and persecution should prevail to wear out the saints of the most High and the Lord because of the overspreading of abomination should determine and bring upon us utter desolation yet shall this your faithfulness be your Peace joy and Victory Let all therefore that desire to be found faithful look unto Jesus and his joy that with Him enduring the cross and despising the shame we may neither faint nor be weary but in end be partakers of his Victory Throne and Crown Thus we have seen and declared the great Work of God in this Land from the first times of our Reformation unto this day we have also teen our manifold provocations whereby we have often Turned Tempted and Provoked the most High and all these judgements Temptations and Discoveries wherewith by the space of now more then an Hundred years he hath corrected and exercised us and we are at length arrived unto and have considered the present state and posture of our affairs Wherein though 1. the extremity of Apostacy exceeding all that any age can parallel and aggreageable by all the circumstances of most clear and glorious Manifestations most solemn and sacred Engagements most sudden and causeless backsliding and most national daring and violent defection that any Church can be charged with 2. The extremity of Persecution and Violence which considering either the Actors once ring-leaders now Apostats from the same Holy Covenant which they persecut or the Manner by Hostile and Military Force without so much as regarding their own Lawes which they pretend for warrant or the cruelty and excess whereby mens lives are imbittered making them prefer Death to the slaveries and insolencies which they sustain Are not to be instanced in any Christian Church 3. The extremity of Sin and profanity and of the enemies boasting and blasphemy whose mouths are set against the Heavens and all the spite of their tongues and indignation of their hearts against the holy Covenant and tenderness of conscience over which and all their followers they wickedly insult and rejoyce And 4. the extremity of mens fainting and deserting so Good a Cause Which in their hearts they secretly own and approve but dare not avow yea are ready to deny for fear of the Adversaries Though we say these extremities undenyably apparent in our present condition do sadly denounce unto this Land the worst and most woful of all extremities even utter forsaking and desolation and that the End is come yet notwithstanding all these hopeless and desperat appearances it is the Lord who causeth light to shine out of darkness and saith in the evening it shall be light who saith unto dry bones live and calleth his People out of their graves who even calleth things that are not as though they were in whom all the seekers of His face ought to rejoyce and joy in the God of their salvation Therefore although that over and above all these menacing evils the power and pride of the Enemy should yet more prevail even many degrees above all the appearances of Human Hope or Help all Neighbouring Nations should not only give them the leisure and conveniency but with all their might conspire and concurre with our enemies to intend their persecution strengthen their Apostacy yet are the Lord 's Faithful not only partakers of that River the streams whereof make glad the City of God though surrounded with the siege of of Nations Batteries of mountains and
owned it and stood to it but did account themselves so much the more obliged to their own Preservation and esteemed the same so much the more endeared to them that the seâ—ing forth of the Glory of God in the maintainance of the blessed Gospel and the propagation and continuance thereof seemed so necessarily to depend thereon which endeavours they did also further extend in the bowels and bonds of brotherly affection in Christ Jesus unto the same duty of defence Assistence to all his members And in effect if their Principles and Practices be well considered it will appear that as when God called them to suffering they loved not their lives unto Death that they might witness a good confession so when they attained to any Probability of Acting they thought themselves indispensibly obliged upon their uttermost hazard to defend the Gospel which they had receaved and to suppress all Superstition and Idolatry contrary therto although the motive of Self-defence had not been conjoined And it will also appear that the Necessity of Convocations and Combinations though not only without but even against Authority Yet being in order to such necessary and just Ends did suffiriently warrand them befor God and all men from the breach of any Law or Act then standing against the same wherewith they might have been charged For verification hereof though the whole course of our Reformation be an unquestionable evidence yet let the instance of their first Appearance be observed wherein both the Motives Actors and all other circumstances do more clearly and beyond all cavillation hold out that only the Love and Zeal of God in the same Spirit in which they had so constantly suffered did stir them up from the pure and vive sense of their indispensible duty and certaine Priviledge against all opposition whatsomever to own and set themselves for the Defence of the Gospel and the true Ministers thereof The passage is thus In or about the Year 1555 the Queen by the instigation of the Prelats perceaving the increase of the Protestants and fearing some inward distraction during the wars then with England if Shee should fall upon a more rigorous and general course did cause all the Preachers to be summoned whereupon the body and generality of the whole Protestants resolved to keep the Dyet But the Bishops apprehending the hazard did procure that they should be commanded instantly to the borders Nevertheless God had so provided that upon the same day the West-land Quarter returned from it which consisting of many faithful men so soon as they understood the matter they repaired to the Queen and plainly in the hearing of the Prelates did charge them with the cruel device intended and certified Her ' of their resolution both to oppose it and defend their Brethren to their uttermost and ceased not until that She was moved to discharge the citation Thereafter in the Year 1557. they entered into a Covenant of constant mutual Defence of the Gospel their Ministers and themselves against all their adversaries in these words VVe perceiving how Sathan in his members the Antichrists of our time cruelly do rage seeking to overthrow and destroy the Gospel of Christ and his Congregation ought according to our bounden duty to strive in our Masters Cause even unto the death being certaine of the Victorie in him The which our duty being well considered VVe do promise before the Majesty of God and his Congregation That we by his grace shal with all diligence continually apply our whole power substance and our very lives to maintain set forward and establish the most blessed VVord of God and his Congregation And shall labour according to our power to have faithfull Ministers truly and purely to minister Christs Gospel and Sacraments to his people VVe shal maintain them nourish them and defend them the whole Congregation of Christ and every Member thereof according to our whole powers and waging of our lives against Sathan and all wicked power that doth intend Tyrranny or trouble against the foresaid Congregation Vnto the which holy VVord and Congregation we de joyne us and so do forsake and renounce the Congregation of Sathan with all the superstitious abomination and idolatry thereof And moreover shall declare our selves manifest enemies therto by this our faithful promise before God testified to this Congregation by our Subscription at these Presents At Edinburgh the third Day of December Anno 1557. God called to witness Like as in the Year 1559. being again necessitated to assemble for and stand to the defence of the Gospel and themselves at Perth they renewed and enlarged the same engagement according to the good hand and Spirit of God upon his Servants in these words At Perth the last day of May the Year of God 1559. Yeares the Congregations of the VVest Countrey with the Congregations of Fife Perth Dundie Angus Merns and Monross being conveened in the town of Perth in the Name of Iesus Christ for setting forth of his glory understanding nothing more necessary for the same then to keep a constant amity unity and fellowship together according as they are commanded by God are confederate and become bounden and obliged in the presence of God to concurre assist together in doing all things required of God in his Scripture that may be to his glory And at their whole powers to destroy and put away all things that doth dishonour to his name so that God may be truly and purely worshipped And in case that any trouble be intended aganst the said Congregation or any part or member thereof the whole Congregation shall concurre assist and conveen together to the defence of the same Congregation or person troubled And shall not spare Labours goods Substance Bodies and Lives in maintaining the liberty of the whole Congregation and every member thereof against whatsoever person shall intend the said trouble for cause of Religion or any other cause depending thereupon or lay to their charge under pretence thereof although it happen to be coloured with any other outward cause And again in the Moneth of August the same Year after having sustained and valiantly resisted a second assault both of the wicked Prelats and of their other violent adversaries by a third band Oath they added a further caution to their former engagements to the effect that in so just and holy a cause they might never by force or fraud be thereafter fainted or divided And lastly in April Anno 15â—0 they ingaged themselves in a fourth bond in these words VVe whose names are underwritten have promised and oblidged our selves faithfully in the presence of God and by these presents do promise that we together in Generall and every one of us in special by himself with our bodies goods and friends and all that we can doe shall set forward the Reformation of Religion according to Gods VVord and procure by all means possible that the Truth of Gods VVord my haue free passage within this realme with
ordained Neither can this inference appear unwarranted or hard unto any who will impartially consider that though the same qualification doth in the like maner affect and define all duties whatsoever which we owe either to God or our Countrey yet it were most absurd thence to infer that if these more eminently intrusted should either turn directly Apostates and enemies to the Christian Faith or adversaries and destroyers of the Common-wealth the people of an inferior degree might not step forward to occupy the places and assert the Interests which these wicked men had so traiterously forfaulted and deserted All which must necessarily be granted if it be but rightly considered that as Order and the Observance thereof is only a mean subordinate to and intended for the Glory of God and the good of the people so must all the Regulation and Determination thereof be only admitted in so far as it is Conducible and no wayes to render it Destructive or Repugnant to these great Ends of its appointment From all which we clearly conclude that thir words in the Covenant of Places and Callings are no more Restrictive in the cases above mentioned then a General 's command to his souldiours entering in battel being thus qualifyed doth impede the necessity of Succession in case of the vacancy of any charge either through death or desertion requisit for the obtaining of the proposed end of Victory but that they are in effect specially the antecedent and subjoined words sincerely really and constantly all the dayes of our life being considered rather Exegetick and Ampliative 8. That whatsoever Laws Covenants and Engagements were standing and binding unto us before this late fearful Apostacy and Defection they are still in the sight of God and in the Consciences of all that fear His Name and mind his Glory the rather more strong and obligeing then in the least infringed or dissolved It being impossible that such Sacred Oaths so solemnly sworn unto the most High and such Righteous Laws by vertue thereof statuted and enacted for the carrying on and establishment of the Work of God thereby intended should be Ambulatory and Mutable at the pleasure of men specially of such who without regard of God Conscience Honor or Honesty have in the very pride and power of Wickedness not only broken the Lords bands casten away His cords and violently under the pretext of abused Authority overturned his whole Work but done despite against the same both by ignominious Burning and Blaspheming of the Lords holy Covenant And this Position Rescissory we oppose unto their great Act Rescissory and to all Acts and practices of the like nature antecedent thereto or dependent thereupon Being fully perswaded that though now they appear unequally ballanced yet the Lord shall declare from heaven His Righteousness and laugh at His enemies Acts and Devises and have them all in derision 9. That though we do heartily approve their 〈◊〉 veneration and just esteem of lawfull Authority the great and excellent Ordinance of God who to prevent all prejudice that it may incur and inconvenience that may ensue thereon do so far transmit this respect to the person therewith vested as to hold for a Maxime but indeed equally against Religion Reason and Experience that the King doeth no wrong And though we are perswaded that the true rise and cause of the sin and calamity under which we lye is from the malice perjury flattery and violence of that Antichristian spirit ruling in the apostat Prelates and therefore would willingly cloath our selves even in the sight of man with that ample Allowance and full Authority whereby the King did once approve the holy Covenant and countenance the Lords Work as if the same did yet stand as it ought not retracted or repeal'd Yet seing our late Parliament by their second Act Session second have reprobated and discharged all pretences of Authority in this kind notwithstanding that the same hath been and may be most necessary in many cases for the preserving of the Kingdom salving of State-inconveniences we do therefore rather subsist on the former grounds and turn our complaint and prayer unto God who is the great King over all looking for His appearance and waiting for His salvation 10. That the Glory of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ the Defence and Maintenance of the blessed Gospel and it 's precious Ministry and Ordinances are Duties Concernments infinitly more important then the defence and preservation of our Lives Liberties and the Common-wealth against the most barbarous and horrid violences and injuries that can be imagined Like-as the violation and destruction of all these is so evidently designed and wickedly practised by this late and present Apostacy that a clearer ground and cause of Self-defence and Reformation cannot possibly be supposed so that to condescend to answer the peevish clamours of these Neutral and careless men who say what needeth all this noise for the extrinsick and arbitrary forms of Government and modes of VVorship both with and without which Religion and Righteousness have equally flourished and prospered where to shut our eyes from beholding the Glory and Grace of God that in this Land hath so visibly appeared in and been advanced by this great Ordinance of PRESBYTERY by Himself for that end appointed and also from the observing of these deludges of Profanity Wickedness Superstition and Violence which the Devill by his great engine of PRELACY hath alwayes and in all Churches caused and procured 11. That as such was the State Condition and Engagements of this Church and Kingdom at the time of the King's return and before the re-erecting of this Prelacy that all and every one of the Nation were most strictly obliged sincerely really and constantly to have resisted and opposed this wicked Defection to the last drop of their blood so the sinfull complyance of many and wofull fainting and withdrawing of others might indeed incapacitat such as remain faithful from the best but neither could nor can dis-engage them from their utmost endeavours From these grounds and what hath been formerly represented the argument of the Indictment of Treason above-mentioned viz. That all Convocations and Risings in Arms or Subjects entering in Leagues without or against the Kings Authority are treasonable But such was the late Rising and renewing of the Covenant Therefore c. May be easily and clearly answered that all such Risings and entering into Leagues as are not warranded and commanded by the Superior Law and Authority of God who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords which by our own express Acts and Statutes are acknowledged and are not founded upon the Fundamental Right and necessarily intended for the preservation of Religion and Righteousness the great and principal End of all Laws and Governments according whereunto our Laws have also by posterior Statutes been expresly interpreted are indeed treasonable But such the late Rising was not but on the contrary was more clearly approven by these grounds then
ye shal surely bring innocent blood upon your selves and upon this city and upon the inhabitant thereof the most innocent amongst us will find himself more concerned to repent of his own then censure others for their accession The serious thoughts whereof may and ought justly to cause us tremble left our Manasseh-like sin in shedding of innocent blood provoke the Lord to wrath in such a measure as he will not pardon But when we do reflect upon the rage cruelty and barbarity that have ensued the things that we have mentioned may justly appear to be but the Beginnings of evills For first immediatly after the Conflict the Arch-prelat procureth a proclamation to be emitted Prohibiting the resett and concealment of or correspondence with any of these poor men that had escaped or had been accessary unto the late Rising and ordaining all to pursue them as the worst of Traitors under the pain of being accounted guilty of the same Rebellion In which Proclamation after the Arch-Bishop had impudently and absurdly laboured that several persons against whom not so much as any delation or ground of suspicion could be alleaged should contrary to all reason be insert he at length prevailed that about 57 Gentlemen Ministers and others alleaged more eminently guilty should be therein by Name expressed Certainly if it be considered that neither Reason nor Prudence do advise to seek Security only in Revenge but rather by an attemperation of Clemency in cases of this nature to bring things to a composure we must conclude that such courses are only the product of blind prelatick-fury 2. After the first executions at Edinbugh the Commissioner and Lieutenant General march unto the West and there having condemned and executed several persons as we have before mentioned the Lieutenant General staying behind taketh up his Quarter at Kilmarnock and there and from thence doth practise and issue forth such orders of cruelty as the barbarity thereof may very probably render the Narration suspected For. 1. The Countrey is burthened with such Localities of Corn and Straw for Troop-horses more then double the number of these that were amongst them that to redeem themselves from the drudgery they not only are content to quite the prices which the troopers ought to pay but also to pay in to them such summs of Money as upon computation will equalize the valued rent of the Shire 2. Notwithstanding of all the Excise Fines and Taxations imposed and leavyed for the maintenance of these Forces yet upon pretence of want of moneys and Pay the souldiours are shortly thereafter permitted to take free Quarter and consequently are licensed to all the abuses that either rapine or cruelty may suggest 3. Dalzel at and by his own hand hath privately in his own chamber and Quarters not only by words menaced such as after publick examination upon the account of Intelligence had been acquitted but also really by fire and sword threatening to kill out-right or rost and burn alive such who being groundlessly questioned had upon the first examination declared all they knew examined men by tortures 4. Such persons as he happeneth to apprehend whether upon the suspicion of their having been with these that rose in Arms or having reset such after the Conflict are there-upon ordinarly stript naked to their shirts and breeches and thrust into Prisons in cold hunger nakedness and sometimes in extreme straitness As in Kilmarnock into dark and obscure little holes which being destined for one man or two and not capacious of more though standing upright then ten or twelve they are so pinched that not one of them can possibly so much as relieve himself of the continual pain of standing by suffering his body to sink unto the ground and unto all the former miseries have that of their own dung and excrements superadded so that the poor men would often chuse death rather then life Amongst which cruelties and rigors that practised upon a petty Heritor in or about the Parish of Vchilery deserveth to be remembered Who being apprehended upon a groundless suspition of reset of Traitors as they tearm them was brought to Kilmarnock-Tolbooth where being an old man full of obstructions he was so suffocated with the smoak there occasioned by a coal-fire wanting a chimney-vent that often-times a day the souldiours have in derision carried him out as dead and after a litle recovery by reason of the free Aire with cruell scorn ignominiously returned him unto his prison Which Barbarity they still continued until by extremity of such usage he is reduced to such weakness as there is litle hope of life 5. There is one Act so far beyond and without all shew and pretence of Humanity and Justice as scarce any preface or Testimony is sufficient to perswade the belief of it which is thus Dalzel having ordered a party to Newmills to seise and apprehend one Finlaw living peacably in his own house and they about the time of Dalzel's return from Air returning and bringng with them the prisoner he instantly calleth him to his chamber and examineth him privately without so much as any one witness present whether or not he was with the Rebels at Lanerk the man in answer declareth that he was there when they came to the place but upon the account of his own private affairs The General asketh in the nixt place whom he knew to have been there amongst them and because the man by declaring his ignorance appeared unwilling to discover any he instantly calleth the Lieutenant of the Guard and giveth orders to carry the poor man to the Gallows and there to shoot him dead The man being thus hurryed away when he is brought to the place of execution questioneth the Lieutenant if the General was serious in what he had ordered whereunto the Lieutenant replyeth that he knew nothing to the contrary the poor man declaring his innocency obtesteth him both upon the grounds of Humanity and Christianity that he would at least obtain him a reprival for that night that he might prepare for Death and Eternity and with some importunity prevaileth to move him to return to Dalzel for a grant of the licence desired but the Lieut. General in place of relenting doth most severely threaten the Lieutenant himself telling him that he would teach him to obey his orders precisely without pleading for mitigation whereupon the Lieutenant returning to the place immediately ordereth the poor man to be shot who was instantly stript naked and left dead upon the ground A fact so Barbarous and Cruell and in effect so plain a Murder being destitute of the least shaddow of either Ordinary or Martial Law to colour it that the horror thereof may justly render it incredible 6. As this last Act is such as barbarity it self would condemn so it s well known that this man Dalzel was therefore brought from Musco where it was supposed he had learned to comply with that Arbitrary Tyranny and to exercise that Barbarous Cruelty which there
Cross of Jesus Christ choose rather to suffer Affliction with the People of God then to enjoy the pleasurs of sin for a season and account the Reproach of Christ greater riches then all the Treasure of the World Let my Death grieve none of you it will be more profitable and advantageous both for me and for you and for the Church of God and for Christs interest and honor then my life could have been I forgive all men the guilt of it and I desire you to do so also Pray for them that persecute you and bless them that curse you bless I say and curse not I die in the Faith of the Apostles and Primitive Christians Protestant Reformed Churches particularly of the Church of Scotland whereof I am a member and Minister I bear my witness and Testimony to the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government of the Church of Scotland by Kirk-Sessions Presbyteries Synods and Generall Assemblies Popery and Prelacy and all the trumpery of Service and Ceremonies that wait upon them I do abhor I do bear my witness unto the National Covanant of Scotland and Solemn League and Covenant betwixt the three Kingdoms of Scotland England and Ireland These Sacred Solemn Publick Oaths of God I believe can be loosed nor dispensed with by no Person or Party or Power upon earth but are still binding upon these Kingdoms and will be for ever hereafter and are ratifyed and sealed by the conversion of many thousand souls since our entering thereinto I bear my witness to the Protestation against the controverted Assemblies and the Publick Resolutions to the Testimonies given against the Sectaries against the course of Backsliding and Defection that is now on foot in the Land and all the branches and parts thereof under whatsoever name or notion or acted by whatsoever party or person And in the last place I bear my witness to the cross of Jesus Christ and that I never had cause nor have cause this day to repent because of any thing I have suffered or can now suffer for His Name I take God to record upon my soul I would not exchange this scaffold with the Palace or Mitre of the greatest prelate in Brittain Blessed be God who hath shewed mercy to such a wretch and hath revealed His Son in me and made me a Minister of the Everlasting Gospel and that He hath daigned in the midst of much contradiction from Sathan and the World to seal my Ministry upon the hearts of not a few of His People and especially in the station wherein I was last I mean the Congregation and Presbytery of Sterlin God forgive the poor empty Man that did there intrude upon my labors and hath made a prey of many poor souls and exposed others to reproach and oppression and a famine of the Word of the Lord. God forgive the misleaders of that part of the poor people who tempted them to reject their own Pastor and to admit of Intruders and the Father of mercies pity that poor Misled people And the Lord visit the Congregation and Presbytery of Sterlin once more with faithful Pastors and grant that the Work and People of God may be revived thorow all Britain and over all the World Jesus Christ is my Light and my Life my Righteousness my Strength and my Salvation He is all my Salvation and all my Desire Him O Him I do with all the strength of my soul commend unto you Blessed are they that are not offended in Him Blessed are they that Trust in Him Bless Him O my soul from henceforth even for ever Rejoyce rejoice all ye that love Him be patient and rejoice in tribulation Blessed are you and blessed shall you be for ever and ever Everlasting Righteousness and Eternal Salvation is yours All are yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods Remember me O Lord with the favour thow bearest to thy People O visit me with thy Salvation that I may see the good of thy chosen that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy Nation that I may glory with thy Inheritance Now let thy servant depart in peace since mine eyes have seen thy salvation JA. GUTRHIE The last Speech and Testimony of the LORD WARIST0N At his Death in Edinburgh July 22. 1663. Right Honourable much honoured and beloved Auditors and Spectators THat which I intended and prepared to have spoken at this time in this condition immediatly before my death if it should be so ordered that it should be my lot is not at present in my power having been taken from me But I hope the Lord shall preserve it to bear my Testimony more fully and clearly then now I can in this condition having my Memory much destroyed through much sore and long Sickness Melancholy and excessive drawing of my Blood Though I bless the Lord my God that notwithstanding of the forementioned distempers I am in some capacity to leave this short and weak Testimony I desire in the first place to confess my Sins so far as is proper to this Place and Case and to acknowledge Gods Mercies and to express my Repentance of the one and my Faith of the other through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ our gracious Redeemer and Mediator I confess that my Natural Temper or rather distemper hath been Hasty and Passionat and that in my Manner of going about and prosecuting of the best pieces of work and service to the Lord and to my Generation I have been subject to my excesses of Heat and thereby to some Precipitations which hath no doubt offended standers by and lookers on and hath exposed both Me and the Work to their mistakes whereby the beauty of that Work hath been obscured Neither have I in following of the Lord's work His Good Work been without my own Self-seeking which hath severall wayes vented is self to the offence of both God and Man and to the grief thereafter of my own Conscience and which hath often made me groan and cry out with the Apostle O miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death And to ly low in the dust mourning and lamenting over the same deprecating God's wrath and begging His tender Mercies to Pardon and His powerful Grace to cure all these evils I must withal confess that it doth not a litle trouble me and ly heavy upon my spirit and will bring me down with sorrow to the grave though I was not alone in this Offence but had the body of the Nation going before me and the Example of persons of all Ranks to insnare me That I suffered my self through the power of temptations and the too much fear anent the straits that my numerous Family might be brought into to be carried unto so great a length of Complyance in England with the late Usurpers which did much grieve the hearts of the Godly and made these that sought God ashamed and confounded for my sake and did give no small occasion to the
of GEORGE CRAWFORD Yeoman who died at Edinburgh Decemb. 14. 1666 SEing I am to die after this manner I lay before yow this Testimony which I avow before God and leave behind me to the World That which moved me to come along with these men was their persuasion and my desire to help them which with a safe conscience I could not well refuse who being tyrannically opprest by the Prelats and their dependants and upholders and seing no other way was left to be taken took up Armes for their own defence And if this be Rebellion I leave it to the great God the supream Judge to decern For in my weak judgement I found it warrantable from the Word of God and without prejudice of the King's Authority whom I pray God to direct and guide in the right wayes of the Lord and to make him prosper therein so that he may be surely set in his Kingdom having Him whom no enemy can resist to defend him seeing there was nothing intended by us against his or any others just and lawful Authority But that which was my principall and chief design was giving my poor assistance to the rooting out of Prelats Prelacy and all such as are come into God's vine-yard without the Master's commission these Hirelings who came not in at the true door Iesus Christ but have climbed up some other way as thieves and robbers whose voice the sheep know not All which is too sadly confirmed by the dreadfull and horrid sins that are risen in the Land and the curses and plagues that have followed thereupon that so by taking away these the abuses which proceed from them and the sad consequences which follow their standing falling with them the Covenant of God might be re-established and true Pastors that were silenced might be set at liberty their mouths opened and they themselves put to the keeping of their flocks and all other such persons who were banished or any other vvay under suffering relieved And I do adhere to the vvay of Church-Government svvorn to in the Covenant vvhich I think and assert to be conform to God's Word vvhich vvith His Spirit directing is the only Patern and judge in all controversies and hovvever our endeavours at this time have not been successful it is of the Lord vvho vvill come in his own time for He can do as well with few as vvith many but it is like the cup of the Adversaries is not full And who knoweth but the Lord God of hosts vvill hiss for the bee of Egypt and the fly of Assyria vvho vvill be more cruel and blood-thirsty then vve vvere to avenge the quarrel of His ovvn People and to make vvay for the establishing of His ovvn Cause I say no more but as I vvas vvilling to hazard my life for this Cause so I am ready to lay it down at my Master's feet seing He calls for it And I pray the Almighty to send His Spirit of Consolation promised by His Son to His ovvn people to strengthen them and bear them through till the appointed time of the Lord 's coming with Deliverance for He will come for His own Cause and for His peoples sake and will not tarry The last Speech and Testimony of M R HEW M C KAILE Preacher of the Gospel and Probationer for the Ministry at his death in Edinburgh Decemb. 22. 1666. BEing by a great surprisal of Providence thus staged before the World in a matter of so universall concernment to all that fear God and desire to be stedfast in his Covenant I could not forbear to leave behind me this standing Testimony concerning the Occasion and Uses thereof for the Glory of God for the Vindication of my Profession from the aspersions cast thereon by Men and the Edification of these by my death to whom I had devoted my Life in the work of the Ministery I have esteemed the Government of this Church by Presbytery to be among the chief of the Ordinances of Jesus Christ which by his blood he hes purchased and ascended up on high to bestovv as a gift upon it as being the very Gospell-Ministery in it's Simplicity and Purity from the Inventions of Men and so the Mean by which other Ordinances are administred and the most fundamental Truths made effectual in the hearts of his People and therefore that it ought with that same carefulness to be contended for Experience both of the having and wanting of it hath given it this Epistle of Commendation so as it may be both known and read of all men Which is also true of the solemne Engagements of the Nation thereto by the Nationall Covenant and Solemn League and Covenant which I have esteemed in their Rise Renewing pregnant performances of that promise Isaiah 44.5 where it is evident that where Church Reformations come to any maturity they arrive at this degree of saying I am the Lords subscribing with the hand unto the Lord. So was it in the dayes of the Reforming Kings of Iudah and after the Restauration from the Captivity in the dayes of Nehemiah This same promise did the Lord Jesus make Yea Amen to us when he redeemed us from spirituall Babilon which is so much the greater evidence that these were the very Motions of Gods Spirit in our first Reformers that they were expressly designed against the greatest motions of the Spirit of Darkness in Antichrist and his supposts and against the greatest confirmations that ever these Abominations attained by the decrees of the Council of Trent and that bloody Bond called the Holy League And therefore whatever indignity is done unto these Covenants I do esteeme to be no less then doing despite unto the spirit of Grace in his most eminent Exerting of himself but especially Declaring against the same as flowing from a Spirit of Sedition and Rebellion to be a Sin of the same nature with theirs who ascribed Christ his casting out of Devils to Beelzebub and that with this aggravation that these Scribes and Pharisees came never the length of prefessing Christ and submiting themselves to Him and his wayes Buâ— we are condemned to death upon the account of this Covenant for adhereing to the dueties therein sworn to by such as once did as much themselves as we have done and some of them more then some of us Which considerations have moved me to great feares of Gods wrath against the Land according to the curse that we are bound under if we should break that Covenant in the fear of it many times to pour out my soul before the Lord as soon as I heard of a Party up in Armes in behalf of the Covenant all other door being shut whereby the redress of the manifest violations of it might be obtained and these by manifest unheard of violence obtruded upon others to go along with them being bound by that Covenant against detestable Indifferency and Neutrality in this matter to esteem every injury done to any ingaged in
have been repealed lawfully as this wicked Generation hath done Dear Friends I hope ye will stand fast in this Obligation and in the Solemn Oaths and Ties ye are under and all the body of the Land also will be stedfast in the same upon the greatest hazard ye can meet with And that ye will study perfect holiness and nearness with God which will help to keep you straight in this day of Persecution and sharp Triall that is now raging in this Land I bless the Lord I die not a fool though some men have thought so of me by their speeches to me since my imprisonment neither durst I ever be the man to buy my liberty at such a dear rate as Perjury and to shake off these blessed bonds I did vvillingly come under And I thank God I never yet to this moment rued or repented it And sure I am it is better for me to suffer the vvorst of deaths then to preserve my life by breaking the Oaths of God I also give my Testimony against Prelacy and that vvicked Hierarchy novv established in this Land as that vvhich the Church of Christ could never bear until this day it being such a grand Enemy to the purity of the Gospel and povver of Godliness yea a yoke vvhich the Church of God groaneth under I have no more to say but commends all you the lovers of our Lord Jesus Christ to God Himself and to the good vvord of His grace vvhich is able to build you up untill the day of His appearance and to give you all an inheritance with them that are sanctified through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ And subscribes my self an expectant and apparent heir of the grace of Christ HUMPREY COLHOUN The Testimony of JOHN WILSON Who suffered at Edinburgh Decemb. 22. 1666. Good People and Spectators I Am here condemned to die upon alleaged Rebellion against the King and his Authority which God knoweth I never intended For in my judgement a man's endeavouring to extirpate perjured Prelates and abjured Prelacy according as he is bound by Oath in a sworn Covenant may very well stand with a man's Loyalty to King and Countrey for I am sure the King and his Subjects may be happy yea more happy in the extirpation of Prelates and Prelacy then in their standing Yea the Throne shall never be established in peace until that wicked plant be plucked up by the roots which hath so much wasted and made desolate the Lord's Vineyard For my part I pray that the Lord may bless our King with blessings from Heaven and make him a friend to the Interests of Christ as the best way for the standing of his Throne to many generations And I pray for all that are in Authority under his Majesty that the Lord may not lay to their charge the innocent blood of His Saints which they have shed But the ground of my sentence is truly the renewing of the Covenant with my God and labouring to defend the same according to my Oath And this I profess is and was my duty and by the grace of God will not quite it And in token hereof I am here before you all to lay down my life in defence of the same and require you all to be witnesses to this my Testimony I do declare I am not ashamed but count it my glory I do likewise declare this before you all in the sight of God the Judge of all hearts that since the day I did first swear and subscribe this Covenant for Reformation it hath been sweet unto me for I am persuaded in my Conscience of the warrantableness thereof I did swear the Covenant four times and the last time at Lanerk which was the sweetest time to me of them all For with my whole soul I renewed it and gave up both my soul and body to Him to be at His disposal which I trust in God I shall never rue Hearty praise and thanks be to the blessed God that ever it pleased Him to give unto this poor Church that mercy to enter in Covenant with Himself that He might be unto us a Covenanted God the richest mercy that can be bestowed on men I have lived a Presbyterian in my judgement according as I have sworn and judge it to be the only way that God hath appointed in His word for the Government of His Church on earth for under that Government the power and practice of Religion hath greatly flourished and many a soul hes been converted to the Lord and found sweet fellowship with Him in His Ordinances by the Ministry of His honest and and lawfully called Servants And blessed be the day that ever I heard a faithfull sent Minister preach the Gospell I do declare before heaven and earth that my whole designe in this Rising in Armes was only against abjured Prelacy and Prelaetes the great Oppressors of God's Interests and cruell persecuters of His People both in their consciences and bodies and I judge their Government and why not to be conforme to the Word of God in the Holy Scriptures I might cite many Scriptures to this purpose but I shall only name two Luke 22.26 but ye shall not be so but he that is greatest among you let him be as the yonger and be that is chief as he that doth serve And 1 Pet. 5.3 neither as being Lords over God's heritage c. Yea it may be seen from sad experience that under their Government the power of Godliness hath decayed and avowed profanity and Popery it self hath increased both to the dishonor of the holy Lord and the great grief of the hearts of the Godly I am so persuaded of tne truth of the Covenant and of the error of their way and that Jesus Christ is the only King and Lord over His own House and besides Him there is none else for He will not give His glory to another I am so persuaded of these things that I dare seal the truth thereof with my blood and am come hither for the same end without any fear or amazement yea if every hair of mine head were a man I would have ventured all according to the Covenant which I made with my God And although I be a poor polluted sinner and my house not so with God as it became yet hath He made with me an everlasting Covenant well ordered in all things and sure and this is all my Salvation and all my desire And I hope the Lord will soon tread down all His enemies with shame and the enemies of His Covenant also Therefore let all that love the Lord Jesus Christ and His Truth and Covenant take comfort and courage notwithstanding of all that which is come to pass And let them not be ashamed to adhere thereunto whatsoever sufferings they meet with therein for He will make up that loss in Himself and avenge the wrongs done to Himself them in His own due time I assure you Christ is a good Master to serve if ye
knew Him rightly His cross it is sweet easy to the believer for He maketh death to be life and bringeth light out of darkness I desire to follow the blessed Captain of my salvation through well and wo. I beseech you my dear Friends whom now I am to part with that ye stand to the defence of all the truths of God and of His Word that ye receive the Lord Christ as He hath offered Himself therein ye who have not closed with Him And that he who hath closed with Him abide in Him by a lively faith and love bringing forth fruits that you may put credit on your profession and keep off every thing that may shame your glorious and blessed Master before this evill and adulterous generation And I give you all warning and deâ—ort you heartily as ye love your own souls and as ye will answer to Him who shall judge the quick and dead that ye stand fast in all the duties ye are sworn unto in the National and in the Solemn League and Covenant both towards God your King and one another And that ye beware of snares in taking of any Oaths or Declarations contrary in the least to the Oath of God in these Covenants I leave my wife and little children upon Jesus Christ my Lord who are now to be made a widow and fatherless for His sake trusting He will care for them And I recommend them to the counsell and kindness of His people under Him I can forgive the wrong done to me in taking away my life for this Cause and wish God to be merciful to these that have condemned me or have had any hand in my death But blessed be God that brought and hath kept me on His side of this Cause and honoured me to be a publick witness for Him and His blessed Truth and Cause for which I shall praise Him in the World to come whether I now go yea I will praise Him on the borders of Death Eternity To His blessed Name Father Son and Holy Ghost be praise for now and ever So saith your dying friend for Christ JOHN WILSON A true Relation of the Sufferings and Death of M R HEW M c KAIL. Preacher of the Gospel M R Hew M c Kail having passed and improven the vertuous means of his Education at the University of Edinburgh and with his Uncle Mr Hew Mc Kail Minister there in whose family he did reside to the satisfaction and good hope of all in the Winter 1661. upon the very turne of this sad Catastrophe offers himself to Tryall being 20 years old before the Presbytery of Edinburgh in order to the work of the Ministery and being by them amply approven and licensed and having preached at several times with the great benefit and applause of all his hearers he did preach his last publick Sermon in Edinburgh in the Great Church thereof upon the Sabbath immediatly preceeding that 8 of September 1662. the day affixed by the then Parliament for the removal of the Ministers of Edinburgh His text was Song 1.7 In this Sermon taking occasion to speak of the great and many persecutions to which the Church of God hath been and is obnoxious and amplifying the Point from the Persons and Powers who have been instrumental therein he said that the Church and People of God had been persecuted both by a Pharaoh upon the Throne a Haman in the State and a Iudas in the Church and falling to inlarge the several wayes and manner of the Persecutions of these men the issue thereof the cases of Haman and Iudas appeared in the conviction of his Adversaries to have such a near resemblance to the state and condition of the then Rulers of State and Church that though he did make no Application yet he was reputed to be guilty thereof Whereupon within a few dayes thereafter there was a Party of Horsemen sent to the Place where he then lived near to Edinburgh for to seise his Person and make him Prisoner But upon almost no more then a moments advertisement he escapes out of his bed and shifting only to another chamber was miraculously preserved from the Search then used though most diligent and accurate For this cause he being necessitated to leave that Place retired home-ward to his Fathers house where having lurked a while and thereafter as occasions call'd him spent the four years that have since interveen'd in several places and with much uncertainty Yet during all this space to the certain knowledge and sweet remembrance of all that conversed with him he was most seriously exercised in the Study of Piety and true Knowledge wherein as he greatly advanced above all his equalls so at length he became most eminent and exemplary While he is thus living and employed at his Fathers house the late Troubles arising in the West fall out and the newes thereof having alarmed him with the rest of that Countrey upon the 18. of Nov. last being the Sabbath for such motives and upon such considerations as he himself doth fully afterward declare he joined himself to those who rose in these parts for the assisting of that poor afflicted Party as in their consciences by their Covenant they thought themselves indispensably obliged When and where he joined with them or what was his part or endeavours amongst them needs not to be remembered Only this is certain that being of a thin body and tender constitution he was so disabled and weakened with the toil and fatigue of continual marching and tempestuous weather particularly at Air where he lay a considerable time as if he had been dead by reason of fainting that he could no longer endure it Whereupon on Tuesday Novemb. 27. he was necessitated to part from them in the morning near to the New Bridge upon Cramond water And in his way towards Libberton Parish about twelve of the clock passing through Bread's Craigs he was taken without resistance having only a small ordinary sword by such of the Countreymen as were then sent out to view the fields in which passage it is very observable that his escape formerly mentioned was not more miraculous then his present taking was fatal for it is without question had he but retained and observed the least of that advertency and caution wherein at other times he was known to be both ready very happy he might without either hazard or trouble have escaped this inconvenience but God who gave him the full experience of his turning all things unto the good of them that love Him did thus by his simplicity and folly prepare the way for His own Glory and His servants joy and Victory Being brought to Edinburgh and first to the Towns Council-house in their search for letters he was immediatly stript and there being none found committed prisoner to the Tolbuith Upon the Wedensday being the 28 of November by order from the Secret Council he was brought before the Earle of Dumfreis Lord Sinclar Sir Robert Manray
VVorld had been but fevv so his VVords at that time should not be many He spoke to the People the speech and Testimony vvhich he had before vvritten and subscribed Having done speaking to the People who heard him with great attention he sung a part of the 31 Psal and then prayed with such povver and fervency as forced many to vveep bitterly Having ended he gives his cloak and hat from him And vvhen he turnned himself and took hold of the Ladder to go up he said vvith an audible voice I care no more to go up this Ladder and over it then if I were going home to my Fathers House And as he went up hearing a great noise amongst the People he called dovvn to his fellovv-sufferers saying Friends and Fellow-sufferers be not affraid every step of this Ladder is a degree nearer Heaven Then having seated himself thereon he said I do partly believe that the Nobles Counsellors and Rulers of the Land would have used some mitigation of this punishment had they not been instigated by the Prelates so our blood lyes principally at the Prelats door But this is my comfort now that I know my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the Earth and though after my skin worms destroy this Body yet in my flesh shall I see God vvhom I shall see for my self and mine Eyes shall behold pointing to his eyes and not another though my reins be consumed in me And novv I do vvillingly lay dovvn my life for the Truth and Cause of God the Covenants and VVork of Reformation vvhich vvere once counted the Glory of this Nation And it is for endeavouring to defend this and to extirpate that bitter root of Prelacy that I embrace this rope the Executioner putting the rope about his ncek Then hearing the People weep he said Your vvork is not to vveep but to pray that vve may be honourably born through and blessed be the Lord that supports me Novv as I have been beholden to the prayers and kindness of many since my imprisonment and sentence So I hope you vvill not be vvanting to me novv in this last step of my journey that I may vvitness a good Confession And that you may knovv the ground of my encouragement in this VVork and vvhat my hope is I vvill read to you the last Chapter of the Bible And having read it he said Here you see the Glory that is to be revealed upon me a pure river of vvater of life and so forth read the place vvhere the Throne of God is and the Lamb is in it vvhere his Servants serve Him and see His face and His Name is in their foreheads and the Lord God giveth them light and they shall reign for ever and ever and here you see my access to my Glory and revvard Let him that is a thirst come and vvhosoever vvill let him take of the vvater of life freely And here you see also my vvelcome the Spirit and the Bride say Come Then he said I have one vvord more to say to my Friends looking dovvn to the Scaffold vvhere are you You need neither lament me nor be ashamed of me in this condition for I may make use of that expression of Christs I go to your Father and my Father to your God and my God to your King and my King to the blessed Apostles and Martyrs and to the City of the Living God the heavenly Ierusalem to an innumerable company of Angels to the General Assembly and Church of the First-born and to God the Iudge of all and to the Spirits of just men made perfect and to Iesus the Mediator of the new Covenant And so I bid you all farevvell For God vvill be more comfortable to you then I could be And he vvill also novv be more refreshing to me then you can be farevvel farevvel in the Lord. Then the Napkin being put on his face he prayed a space vvithin himself after vvhich he put up the cloath from his face vvith his ovvn hand and said he had one vvord more to say and that vvas to shevv them the comfort he had in his Death saying I hope you perceaved no alteration or discouragement in my countenance and carriage and as it may be your vvonder so I profess it is a vvonder to my self and I vvill tell yovv the reason of it Besides the justness of my Cause this is my comfort vvhich vvas said of Lazarus vvhen he dyed that the Angels did carry his soul into Abraham's Bosom so that as there is a great solemnity here of a confluence of People a Scaffold a Gallovvs and People looking out at vvindovvs so is there greater more solemn preparation in Heaven of Angels to carry my soul to Christ's bosom Again this is my comfort that it is to come in Christ's hands and He vvill present it blameless and faultless to the Father and then shall I be ever vvith the Lord. And novv I leave of to speak any more to creatures and turn my speech to thee O Lord and novv I begin my entercourse vvith God vvhich shall never be broken off Farewel Father and Mother Friends and Relations Farevvel the VVorld and all Delights Farevvell meat and drink Farevvel Sun Moon and Stars VVelcome God and Father VVelcome svveet Lord Iesus the Mediator of the nevv Covenant VVelcome blessed Spirit of Grace and God of all consolation VVelcome Glory VVelcome Eternal Life VVelcome Death Then he desired the Executioner not to turn him over untill he should put over his ovvn shoulders himself vvhich after praying a little vvithin himself he did saying O Lord into thy hands I commit my Spirit for thou hast redeemed my Soul Lord God of truth Thus in the 26 Year of his age he died as he lived in the Lord. FINIS Some Instances of the Sufferings of Galloway and Ntthisdale BEcause in the former Deduction mention is made of a Paper containing some of the Sufferings of Galloway and Nithisdale it is not inconvenient for more Particular Information to subjoyn a few instances out of the same Paper And first at three several inroads which the Souldiers have made into that Countrey in the Years 1663 1665 and 1666. they exacted from the People there for adhereing to their old faithful Ministers and not submitting to the Ministry of those whom the Prelates violently obtruded upon them the Summes of Money underwritten viz. Â Lib. S. d. From 49 Families in the Parish of Carsphairn 4864 17 0 From 43 Families in the Parish of Dalray 9577 16 8 From 49 Families in Balmaclelland 6430 10 0 From 9 Families in Balmacghie 425 11 8 From 2 or 3 Families in Tungland 166 12 0 From some poor Persons in Tuynham 81 4 0 From 20 Families in Borg 2026 17 4 From 9 poor Families in Girton 525 10 4 From some poor Families in Anwith 733 6 4 From 34 inconsiderable Families in Kirkpatrick-Durham 2235 6 0 From some few Fam. in Kirkmabrek